Lesson 1 - Introduction

Our discussion will enter the world of Jesus and the first Christians, from the time of the apostles to the end of the first century. What was the Jewish expectation of a coming Messiah? Can we connect the Jewish world of the Old Testament to the Christian church? How did believers handle opposition from Jewish and Roman authorities in the first century? How did believers experience their life together in the early church? Today we will learn how the first believers established the foundations of the growing church, even before the New Testament was written and collected. And we will consider the confessors and martyrs who persevered through persecutions under Emperors Nero and Domitian that took the lives of most of the apostles and many believers. Please join us as we learn how our life in Christ in the 21st century connects us to the first Christ followers 2,000 years ago.