For thousands of years Christians have gathered around the world once a week to remember and celebrate Jesus together. However, is what we call “church” what it was intended to be?

This movement that we have been swept up in began with a handful of people who were not terribly sure of what they were doing. In fact, they were mostly unsure and confused in their nature.But by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit empowered them to establish and lead a revolutionary vision creating witnesses of the love and grace of Jesus that has continued even to this day. We are here today because of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES through the Holy Spirit just weeks after Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

This study of the book of Acts should bring us back to purpose of the church and the power of the Holy Spirit.

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With the first group of Christians growing and still worshipping God in His temple, Peter & John encounter a lame man asking for mercy gifts but Luke shows us that the man's greatest need was not a mercy gift - or even physical healing - it was the mercy seat, the very presence of God in Jesus. The same is true for every human. Our greatest need is not a mercy gift to make this life palatable - it is the presence of God in Jesus to save our souls.