The first church

Think about the groups you belong to: a team, a friendship group, a group chat, a class, an online community, a family. Some of them feel like you really belong. Others are just people who happen to be in the same place.

What's the difference between a crowd and a community? A crowd is people in the same place. A community is people who belong to each other. At the end of Acts 2, about 3,000 people became followers of Jesus in a single day. Imagine you're Peter. What do you do with them on Monday? This lesson looks at what kind of community they became, and why.

What you'll learn

• The four things the first Christians devoted themselves to
• Where their surprising generosity came from
• What makes a church community healthy, then and now, including where the first church got it wrong

Four devotions

Luke sums up the life of the first church in one sentence. It's this lesson's key verse:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42)

Notice the word devoted. There's a big difference between "going to church" and being devoted to something. Devotion means it's a priority, not an extra.

Read on through Acts 2:43–47 and look at what happened: a sense of awe, generosity to anyone in need, meeting every day in the temple courts and in each other's homes, glad and sincere hearts, praise to God, and the goodwill of the people around them. And every day, new people joined. Who added them? Verse 47 says it was the Lord. The church grew because God was at work, not because of a clever marketing plan.

One heart and soul

A couple of chapters later, Luke gives another snapshot:

"The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned. With great power the apostles continued to give their testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And abundant grace was upon them all." (Acts 4:32–33)

Why were they so generous? Verse 33 gives the reason. The apostles kept telling everyone that Jesus had risen, and God's grace was powerfully at work among them. Their generosity flowed from grace, not from a rule. People who knew they had been given everything by Jesus found it natural to give to each other.

Verse 34 adds that there were no needy people among them. Long before, God had told Israel that there should be no poor among them (Deuteronomy 15:4). Here, God's people are finally living the way he always intended.

One man stands out: Barnabas. He was a Levite from Cyprus, and the apostles gave him a nickname meaning "son of encouragement". He sold a field and gave the money to the apostles to share. Keep an eye on him. He'll stand up for Saul when no one else trusts him, and later he'll be sent out with Saul as a missionary.

Hard questions

Wasn't this just communism? No. Nobody was forced. People still owned homes and hosted meetings in them (Acts 2:46; 12:12), and Peter told Ananias that his property was his to keep (5:4). The sharing was voluntary and driven by love, not by a government or an ideology. They sold things as needs came up.

Should every church do exactly this today? Acts describes what happened; not every detail is a command. But generosity to people in need is taught all through the New Testament (2 Corinthians 8:7–9; 1 John 3:17). Christians differ on how best to apply it.

Was the first church perfect? Not at all. Ananias and Sapphira lied about their gift so they would look generous (Acts 5:1–11). Their sin wasn't failing to give everything; it was lying to God to look good. It's a confronting story, and it shows God takes honesty seriously, especially among his people. It doesn't mean God strikes down everyone who makes a mistake. Later, Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked when food was shared out, and the church listened and fixed it (Acts 6:1–7). The church was made of real, flawed people.

What did outsiders think? People around them thought highly of them (Acts 2:47; 5:13). Centuries later, the Roman emperor Julian, who opposed Christianity, complained that Christians looked after poor non-Christians as well as their own.

Key words

• Devoted: committed to something as a real priority, keeping at it.
• Fellowship (koinonia): sharing life together as partners, not just being in the same room.
• Breaking of bread: sharing meals, including the Lord's Supper, which remembers Jesus' death.
• Generosity: freely giving what you have to meet other people's needs.
• Barnabas: an early believer known as the "son of encouragement".

How this points to Jesus

The first church wasn't impressive because of its buildings or its band. It was impressive because people who had been forgiven started treating each other like family. Everything in Acts 2 and 4 flows from the risen Jesus: they learned his teaching, remembered his death, prayed in his name and shared what they had because of his grace.

Think about it

Take it further

Imagine you've been asked to start a new youth group or student group based on Acts 2:42–47. What would you do every week? How would you make sure no one is left out or in need? What would make outsiders say, "Those people really care about each other"? Pick one of those ideas and try it in a group you're already part of this week.

A prayer you can pray if you want to:

Lord Jesus, thank you that you rose from the dead and that your grace changed the first Christians so much. Make our school and our churches places where people learn about you, share life, remember you and pray, and where no one is left out. Amen.

Your worksheet helps you unpack the four devotions, build a profile of Barnabas, and plan a group based on the first church.