 How about Kannan? I haven't heard your voice also in a long time. How are you doing? I am fine. Am I audible? Yeah, yeah, very much, very much. Go ahead Kannan. Thank you. For the Lord, I thank you for the time of the Lord, Lord, for this opportunity, Lord. Lord, I pray for His searching and all of us, Lord, I pray for the Hansi members, Shenpin, and give her a good knowledge, knowledge to the teachers, and also give us a good understanding from their word. Lord, I thank everybody to join on time, Lord. Now, until the end, usually our whole spirit should give us a good guidance, Lord. Lord, I thank you for this wonderful day, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray for the Lord. Thank you. Thank you, Kannan. It was good to have you pray. Thank you for opening out this time, right, through prayer. And how are things in your place? How is the COVID situation? Yeah, normal only. Okay, getting better, isn't it? Yeah, yes. Okay. Yeah, everybody getting vaccinated. Yeah, that's really important. I also... Okay, you finished both? No, no, no, first one. First one, okay. Minus coming October. October, okay. Good, good, good. Yeah, thanks, thanks, Kannan. I hope the others also can get the vaccines. It's really helpful. In fact, I got mine two days ago, but this is my second dose. So, my God's grace, both dark as of now. Hopefully that will be helpful. Okay, so fine, let's proceed. Yeah, so we are starting from the book of Acts, and in the last class we talked about Anadayas and Sapphira. Initially, right, when we saw that the church was birthed, the Holy Spirit was poured out, everything was so exciting. It felt like, wow, revival is here, the church is meeting often, people are sharing their things, and the Holy Spirit is performing wonderful miracles among the people. And it seemed like this setting is so perfect. Nothing can go wrong in this setting, okay. So, we saw external challenges. So, initially, in Acts 3, when Peter and John step out and the minister to the laymen, they laid hands on them and they interrogate them, they threaten them. So, it's an external challenge. So, in the midst of an external challenge, the attitude of the churches to be bold. So, they pray and they say, Lord, let more miracles, let more of the supernatural be done through our lives. So, that kind of a bold attitude the people of God carry. And they all cry out to God, so they are in one accord and they continue strongly before the Lord. Then, while things are still kind of perfect and there's only external challenges, suddenly we read about Anameas and Sapphira. The church is doing so well. We understand that spiritually, there are a lot of wonders, miracles which are being done through the hands of the apostles. At the same time, you know, you find that the people in the church, unfortunately this couple, they did not have the right heart attitude towards God and they did not even fear God and they went to the extent of lying to the Holy Spirit and they thought that they would never be found out. But we said that when there is the greater glory of God, you know, sins also are exposed faster. So, in this case, their sin of misappropriating money, funds was found out and Peter, through the Holy Spirit, recognizes it and the moment he issues a rape, both of them die. And what would you expect to happen when somebody in the church is experiencing this kind of an immediate judgment? We would think that people will not come back to church. Because they might be afraid, oh, what is going on? We should never come back into this environment. But we believe that the church only became stronger and more and more people actually were added to the church. So, that's where we were. And we saw that, you know, a lot of miracles and all were happening through the church and the apostles and people were being added. So, when there is righteousness in the house of God, when there is the right judgment of God in the house of God, what can we expect? We can expect the Spirit of God to work powerful and people to be touched. So, it's a time of great glory. We can put it like that. Great glory because miracles, signs, wonders, the gifts of the Spirit. We can see how Peter, through the gifts of the Spirit, he was able to recognize that the unity of the church, the growth of the church, so much of the work of God. So, what is glory? Glory is the nature of God being revealed. So, the nature of God, the greatness of God is being revealed through the church. And we also read that among the people, there was great fear, oh, who are these people? Seemed something different from the regular traditional Jewish communities that they knew. They knew these are the followers of Jesus and something powerful was happening in their midst. That there was great respect. Great respect, great glory, great judgment. We saw that also. So, so many dynamics within the church. This time around, it's not just the external trouble, but internally, people with wrong attitudes that are judged by God. So, internally also, there are challenges. Now, I was just talking to one of us and asking, are you going to be a pastor? So, there is an aspiration to be a pastor. So, I am sure, you know, different ones of us here, we want to serve in different capacities. And we might want the church to be perfect, isn't it? So, external problems, yes, we can handle. What about internal challenges? We don't want internal challenges. And in a growing church, in a church where there is the glory of God, we really don't want, even the thought of having issues doesn't seem holy. But this is the practical side of things. Wherever there are people, there will be problems. Not as a prophecy, but just, you know, or let me put it this way, wherever there is growth, people are experiencing growth naturally, there will be challenges, because they are going through those stages. So, even the book of Acts, you know, things seem to start out so perfect that you notice external issues. Now, one interval issue we have seen, Ananas and Sapphira. And after that happens, praise God, nothing stopped the church, but the church is still growing, growing to the extent that once again they are brought under trial. Why? Because you find that the authorities were insecure. They felt threatened by this thriving church. And as the apostles stand before the authorities, this time around, how is it that the authorities are going to deal with them? Initially, they severely threatened them and they left them. This time they put them in the prison, but look at the supernatural intervention of God. See, this also is something for us to encourage us. What is that? So, these people are being fought. Do you see God's help last time through the authorities themselves? I don't know what Peter and John were thinking. They must have thought, oh, it's over. We might get killed today, but thank God they were released. This time an angel came and opened up the prison. So, God is working for them. God is working with them. So, when we are serving God, what can we expect? We can expect God's help, isn't it? So, it is only God who will protect us, guide us and lead us. Same way, these apostles had God's help. The angel came and opened the prison. They are so strong in serving and following God that the instruction of the angel was, go back to the temple. Continue to preach the gospel. So, they boldly go back and that is the place from where we are caught again. We find that again there is a trial and the authorities are thinking what to do with these people. So, let's go back to our text here. We were at, let's go back to that verse. I think I started sharing a little bit about Gemalayan. Oh yeah, we also saw in the Glory of God we saw how Peter's shadow was also considered to heal people. So, people were coming from all over the place. So, the church is really flourishing and thriving. There is angelic visitations. If you want to look at it that way also. So, there is great glory in the church. Okay, fine. So, now we will start off from verse 20. Yeah, let's again start from verse 24. It will help us. So, when the high priest, the captain of the temple, the chief priest heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. So, the authorities are threatened by it. And one came and told them, look the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. And the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence. So, you see even the politicians of their times, these you could call them as politicians, they wanted the approval of the people. So, that's why they were so careful. See, if they wanted, they could have immediately killed the apostles. Okay, but they don't want to get into the bad books of the people. That is why they are doing things in a very, very, you know, sort of a cautious way. Okay, and that's what we are observing here. So, they went again, brought them and they had brought them before the council. High priest asked, didn't we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Okay, and I told you earlier that this name of Jesus was problematic for the authorities. How problematic that they did not even mention. So, they could have just said, didn't we warn you last time not to preach in the name of Jesus but see the way Luke records it. Luke is saying that they just said, we warned you not to teach in that, in this name. So, not even the mention of the name of Jesus. Now, and look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. But in a way, you know, even though this is supposed to be part of interrogation and threatening, it's actually a compliment. You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Just think about it. In our times, it's so much easier. We have all the social media and technology to put out the message. But in those times, you know, initially they started out as 120 people, then 3,000 people were added. And the city of Jerusalem, seems like the word and the message were spreading super fast. How is it possible without technology? You could only refer back to the passion which they carried, right? And the power of the Holy Spirit which they had. Through that, they were able to take the message far and wide and even the authorities are saying, your doctrine is spread all across Jerusalem. So it's a great thing. You know, that's what they wanted and that was actually happening. So it's a compliment. Now, standing before the authorities, this is for the second time. The second time Peter is standing. And you see here, Peter and the other apostles, we expect them to be cared. We expect them to respond with fear. But what is their answer? We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior. So notice every opportunity that Peter has. Whether he's standing in front of the people, after the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he preached to those who had gathered. After the healing or the miraculous recovery of the lame man Peter preached. He's standing in front of the authorities. He's actually preaching. Preaching what the message of the gospel. What is the message of the gospel? The Lord Jesus, right? The sin of mankind. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The forgiveness of sins. So you notice even in this opportunity standing in front of the council, what is he doing? He is proclaiming about Jesus. Yes, who begins by saying that you murdered Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. But he says God has exalted him right at his right hand to be prince and savior. So what does that tell you? He's proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. Savior, right? The anointed one. The one who will save Israel. And then he says to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. So he's actually preaching the gospel. Now who knows somebody from one of the one of the people in that group might respond to this message. I don't know until today whether they did or they did not. But every opportunity by the early church was taken to proclaim the gospel. So that shows us what a passion, what a passion they are carrying everywhere without fear. They are obeying God and they are preaching the gospel and they are bold enough. Remember we said, witness means what like martyrs. Martyrs is to be bold enough to die. So they are saying and be our witnesses. We are witnesses to these things and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. So they are talking about the work of God and they are trying to bring the attention to the authorities that whatever we are doing, we know that you're blaming us but he brings in Holy Spirit. He says this is God. And that's what we want to let you know. Jesus is Messiah and this is God that you are dealing with. So then the authorities hear this. Obviously they understood what they are trying to say because just now on the same basis that Jesus was claiming to be, what was the accusation against him? King of the Jews. Or like the ruler. Again they are saying prince and savior. So as they are proclaiming Jesus as the Lord and Savior the authorities are offended and it says they are furious. They are very angry. Earlier they thought, let's not get blood on our hands. Recently that man Jesus died. So once again getting into killing the disciples of Jesus won't be a good thing. However, they were so furious. It says they plotted to kill them. So now the trouble from outside is bubbling and tripling. Why do you think, God is doing a great work in the church? We don't expect anything to go wrong. And I'm not saying expect things to go wrong when things are going right in the kingdom. But you see we live in a fallen world. And even when we preach the gospel no matter how how sensitively we preach the gospel Paul wrote about it. He said that the message itself can be an offence to the people. And in this case, the authorities are so offended that they finally decide, the thing we have to do is to get rid of we got rid of Jesus. Let's just get rid of these disciples. And you can just imagine how difficult it must have been for the early church to have the authorities threaten them for the truth which they are experiencing. It's difficult isn't it? That you have to be a witness in such an opposing environment. But praise God for the power of the Holy Spirit the baptism of the Holy Spirit that enable them to be witnesses even during this kind of a time. Now moving on. We saw there was a Pharisee by the name of Gamalier. Now we must also understand that the council or the authorities wear a combination. Like you had the chief priest different different capacities of authorities who had come together. So Pharisees and they would have also had some Sadducees and others in the group then. But one of them was very well respected by the name of Gamalier. He was a teacher of the law and held it high respect by all people. So because he was so well respected his words were he didn't do. And he commanded them to put the apostles outside for a while. So what's happening? We usually have like a huddle when you're having your football match when the game is not going so well or you have break time. The people the players will come they'll have this huddle and they'll discuss. So in that way Gamalier says lead those apostles aside come let's discuss what to do about these people. It's getting out of hand now and they're having this discussion. But see this how God works even through you could say unbelieving authority. What is Gamalier saying? Obviously he's not somebody who has accepted Christ and all but he's saying men of Israel take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. Okay. And then he points to a man called Feudas. Historically this person was somebody like a leader among the people who had a lot of influence. So what he did is he like you know he led the people 400 people joined him 400 men joined him. And he was slain and all who obeyed him were scattered. And they came to nothing. So basically he's saying there was another person who created such a lot of trouble in this city. But what happened to him ultimately there were 400 people who followed him but we were able to take care of that situation. Isn't it? Obviously he was killed now the people who followed him were nowhere after he was killed. So after this man another person, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of census and drew many away many people away from him but what happened to him? He also finished and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you keep away from these men and let them alone. What is the decision which is coming from an unbelieving leader? He is saying don't worry lot of people rise up but what happens to each one of them sooner or later they die, their followers are nowhere to be seen so don't worry about these people also because if this is a work of man which was what happened to theaters which was what happened to Judas of Galilee it's not a big deal same thing will happen to these people they will be nowhere in some days he says if it is a work of man what will happen? If it is a work of man it will come to nothing but notice what Gamalian says the last part of verse 39 he says but if it is God because these disciples were claiming and they were saying Jesus, God, Holy Spirit so they were bringing God into the picture and Gamalian wonders is it possible that this can be a work of God so he says if it is man's work like all the others they will punch but if this is a work of God then what will happen he says guys I don't think we can handle it if it is God so he says of God you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against God so you see the openness in the heart of a scholarly man you would wonder is it even possible that an unbelieving person can say something like this but you know God is at work isn't it? so when the apostles of God in such a difficult position through one of the main leaders God is at work and with such clarity he says don't fight God if it is God neither you nor I nor anybody can do anything about what is happening in Jerusalem so maybe Gamalian I don't know maybe he also felt that it could be God's work we have no clue right? this is what was happening in Jerusalem people were all in a state of chaos who is this Jesus why are his disciples like this why is everyone following Jesus how are these miracles happening in whose name oh they found out these people are doing it in the name of Jesus and earlier Peter and John said that in the name of Jesus right rise up and walk so authorities are saying please don't use that name something about that name of Jesus but think about it what a witness what a witness the church of Jerusalem is to the city of Jerusalem that the doctrines spread so fast and even the greatest scholar of the times he is saying if it is God's work you cannot stop what God is doing so that is the manner in which the work is going on in Jerusalem now let's move forward here so what what did the authorities do they agreed with him and when they call the apostles once again like earlier and away from the apostles to discuss all this now when the apostles have come back they decide okay we need to still threaten them so this time the apostles were beaten okay see it's going from back to worse earlier it was verbally threatening this time physically and we know that the kind of cases that used to exist under the Roman Empire then it was not something very simple here it just said beaten but obviously they would have been beaten badly and again they were commanded you should never speak in the name of Jesus and they let them go if we threaten them in this way maybe they will stop from complaining the gospel now the apostles move away right and earlier when they were threatened what was their reaction when they were threatened do you recall what was their heart attitude when they threatened last time the number we were not afraid yeah the word of the Lord rather than the leaders correct and what did they pray for they went into all their brethren and they all prayed together what did they pray for just recall little bit I told you they all prayed together for something very good boldness isn't it so they prayed for boldness so when persecution happens and we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we are doing the right thing when they are doing the right thing what can we expect we can expect to carry the same right attitude in the midst of persecution so the early church demonstrated boldness earlier this time around let's see what they are saying so they are saying the verse is they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing okay earlier boldness this time rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name okay so can you imagine can you imagine going through persecution and thinking okay I did the right thing but I got punished but wow what a privilege that I could go through shame I could go through suffering right for the name of Jesus how many of us would have the have to do that we might come back complaining God why did this happen to me I am serving you faithfully how can these you know the authorities question us we are preaching in the name which is above empty of the name so complain we can complain we can feel sad we can feel disappointed, discouraged so many negative emotions can go through us but look at the early church the apostles it says they came back rejoicing rejoicing right that they were counted worthy to go through sufferings wow it's incredible it's incredible how they could have that kind of attitude and then they continue with their work so once you are threatened what do you do you try to be safe but not these people you find them it says and daily in the temple authorities would have been like what is this we threatened you we beat you and what are you doing again daily in the temple it says and in every house work is not stopping they are continuing to pray continuing to worship continuing to glorify God everywhere so they had these two settings where they would meet so the early church they had them you could say maybe the larger group met at the temple but apart from that they also met house to house something like a cell group setting so they found their own you know what works for them that setting and they had that structure and they would meet very often it says daily and it says they did not see teaching Jesus as God Christ not that they wanted to disobey the authorities but they made themselves clear they said look you only tell us should we listen to you or should we listen to God so because the authorities were saying something which was against what God wanted for them they did not obey the authorities but we also know it's the same Bible that encourages us to honor our authorities and to keep the law given by the authorities as well so by default that's what we do but when we are forced to go against God that's when we have to stand up for what is right now let's continue so I told you about external pressures that are happening in the church and internal challenges as well so we will read about another internal challenge this time in Acts chapter 6 so Acts chapter 6 I think this is familiar because we have dealt with this in a couple of other courses so we are looking at the emergence of the church we are looking at the emergence of church structure in this particular chapter and we are seeing how the leaders of the church are dealing meticulously with every aspect of the church so what do we see here so basically in this chapter we notice that the church is growing it's multiplying and as a part of the church you have a group of people like the Jews who are Hebrew speaking and you have the Greek speaking Jews who are known as Hellenists now there are two communities basically both are Jewish communities but one is from a certain culture the other is from another culture so cultural practices could be different and you know the language obviously the Hebrew speaking, Greek speaking so what happens it says in those days when the number of the disciples is multiplying so it's a positive time for the church it's not at all a negative time it's growing it's thriving in that time there is a difficulty within the church okay so encouragement for the pastors and the ministers if you know you are seeing great glory of God God's work is going on beautifully but there are some challenges here and there don't get discouraged it is normal it's part of the growing up process same thing happens in the midst of the multiplication two communities there is an issue what is that there was a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution so couple of things that we can see about the church here now we don't know whether really one set of widows were neglected or not but it seems like the Greek speaking Jews felt this way okay and if you go little more into the details of it it's possible that the Hebrews speaking Jews who were more authentic you know who were more the people who followed all the the rituals and the customs of the Jewish culture they probably were more like the righteous than thou kind of people because they were better off than the Greeks people they had Greek culture so you know the Hebrews might have looked at them like a little lower who are these people kind of a big so in the midst of these differences we really don't know if the Hebrews treated the Greeks badly but it's the Greeks felt that their widows were not receiving food and you see the church it's a growing church, it's a multiplying church but it's also quite an organized church because you see a rhythm you see a structure, you see some good administration earlier also we saw that the materials were distributed according to the needs of the people in the church so do the apostles take care of the people well definitely it looks like that because just because the numbers are big when the numbers are big sometimes it's hard to keep account of your believers who is this person what are their what is their spiritual journey like what are their needs because the church is so huge but look at the apostles here they had some order so it seems like they were taking care of everybody's needs here the widows they were being fed and it says daily daily distribution obviously if you are not organized then where is the question of daily distribution okay and notice there are two different communities today do we have communities different communities in our churches yeah we have different communities are all communities you know the kind that will get along well with other communities not necessarily so it's nothing unique what we are facing the early church also faced it and it could be a perceived issue or it could be a real issue like we are not we don't know but when a complaint like this comes to he could say what a small problem why do you want to bring up all these problems look at the miracles that are taking place you know we just went and met the authorities and came right so we went to like for example if you are in Bangalore something even like I just went to Vithamsodha and came what are you talking about giving food to the widows let's not deal with small matters okay but that's not what the apostles do they seem to be very sensitive to the needs of the people whom God has entrusted to them so when the issue comes up they don't neglect it what do you see it says that well summon the multitude of disciples and said so they called they called the disciples and said look we want a solution for this problem we are not right that one community feels neglected in the food like their widows are being neglected in the food distribution so there has to be a solution what solution are they looking for so they say that we are quite busy right now what were they busy with the word of God so primarily the apostles now they are focusing more on the spiritual ministry aspect okay now it's not that they should not do the the service kind of activities in the church it's not like that but they were more focused on the spiritual ministry by this time and they said that come on now we cannot leave this because this also is a responsibility and then go and serve right so let's find a solution for this and that would be to identify other people who can help with the food distribution so we know what they did they chose seven men and not just any seven men look at the qualification scriptures say good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom right they appointed over what over food distribution now you might think apostles have chosen volunteers today we call people like this who serve you know in different capacities volunteers so volunteers were chosen but what is the need to find people of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom to do what serve food but it was important in the early church the testimony of the one who serves in church right was very important for that sake for a regular task you still find the apostles finding people who are strong spiritually right having a good example in the community and they were given this role and said come on now why don't you take care of distribution of food to the widows and they committed themselves it says to prayer and ministry of the world so there are you know a set of volunteers who will do this food distribution the important thing to notice is that the apostles were keen to resolve issues in the church and again for pastors, leaders it's very important see somebody might come up with an issue and we might think it's not at all important why should I even deal with it but to deal wisely with the matter early is good otherwise what happens you know that small issue it might become a bigger bigger bigger issue and create more division people may come and worship but you know in their hearts that problem is there see I told pastor he never listened to me right he never resolved this problem so we don't want to let those things fester if we by the power of the Holy Spirit we can be sensitive to the needs of the people to the challenges that they are facing and then you know walk it out in a good way it actually helps the growth of the church okay so that's what we see the early church leaders doing here so wisely they came up with the idea of choosing 7 people then they told this to all the disciples and you notice it says it pleased the whole multitude so the church also liked the idea they said oh great if we choose a volunteers I'm sure they will serve food equally to the Greek speaking and the Hebrew speaking Jewish widows now in that list who were the people 7 men who were chosen there was one called Stephen he was also a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit there was Phyllis Prochorus, Nikonon, Timon Parminus, Nicolas right and these were the people who were said to do this duty now once these volunteers are chosen these apostles what did they do they prayed and they laid hands on and laid hand is a way of sort of you know blessing them commissioning them to do the task which they are anointed to do so the work is handed over so these are this is the emergence of deacons to the church deacons it's nothing but they are ministers and ministers referring to service so they are not the people at this point who are serving in spiritual ministry but physical you know physical logistics administration kind of things they are taking charge of but even when they are doing you know administration and all that you notice that they were actually quite spiritual people because full of faith good reputation full of the Holy Spirit full of wisdom these are all descriptions of people who are strong spiritually as well so people were chosen to distribute the food in the early church so I think I will stop at this point we will come back and we will pick up from this portion Acts chapter 6 and I hope it's helpful are your understanding is it good are you able to take back something that you can practice and apply in your life okay nice nice great great wonderful so yes do meditate do meditate on these things think about these things you know it's very practical actually the early church so as you serve God I am sure you can definitely apply these principles this way of working so at this point let's take a break we will come back together and we will continue from the next verse so see you in 10 minutes class thank you