This week we will be looking at the Seven Churches described in chapters two and three of the book which is popularly referred to as “Revelations”, probably because it’s full title is to long, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ according to John” for our modern tongues to bother with.

Before we move in to this week section, it would be good to ask ourselves a question and that is “What is the purpose of the church?” Is the purpose of the church to grow big buildings and big budgets? Obviously it is not, but if we ask that a different way the answer might not be so obvious. Is the purpose of the church to help the needy? Is the purpose of the church to be a political action committee? Is the purpose of the church to grow disciples?

Last week we when we left the new Christians they had just seen their leaders chastised by the Jewish Supreme Court and were singing and praising God for it. They asked God for courage to carry on doing what they were for Him, and they had no intention of following the orders of the court to stop preaching. The New Testament church at this point is strong, unified and pure. This is especially hammered home by verse Acts 4:32.

In our last lesson Peter finished up his first public sermon, and three thousand people were saved. This group of three thousand then becomes the very first local Christian church body. In today’s section we will follow them through the beginnings of a regular church and see how they handled some of the very same situations we still face today as the Christian church.

Last week we completed our first study in the Gospel according to John. We now turn our attention to the next book in the Bible, the book we call “Acts”. It is here we will learn about formation of the Church and creation of some of the customs we use today in our churches…A