 Alright, so yes welcome once again everybody and hope you were able to read through the book of acts a couple of chapters as at least and the introduction in the last week. I hope that it helps you to understand the book of acts even better we have touched on various aspects of the book of acts and how it is a demonstration of the power and the glory of God through the people of God and it's just the beginning there are no indications that what God started in the early church he has stopped today so we can receive our inspiration and we can also trust the Holy Spirit to empower us and equip us in the same manner so that we are able to live for the Lord. So we will continue now that we have an introduction we will begin with chapter 1 today so if you have with you your Bibles then I will ask you to turn to acts chapter 1 and we will go chapter by chapter we also know that this course we will look at passages verse by verse okay so verse by verse you know even even though it says like that what we'll do is we will we may not read you know every verse but we will we will get the essence of what the scriptures are saying in that passage okay so let's do this today because we are getting started eventually as we go forward I think it'll be good that you read up scriptures and come but then since this is the beginning it'll be good for us to quickly read through chapter one and then we will come back and explain what chapter one actually means so there are about yeah 26 verses 26 verses how many of us here okay we can read maybe five five verses at a time and that way we could maybe five or six of us can complete the whole chapter yeah can we begin reading please anybody any person just start off and then the next person pick up so if you can do that fast we can get into the explanation of this chapter please Tom is not able to hear you ah yes yes one oh please go ahead the former account please go ahead I made the former account I made a few fillers of all that she just began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he threw the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father which he said you have heard from me from for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now yes thank you Manu the next person can read another five verses please when the Apostles meet together with Jesus they ask him God will do at this time give the kingdom right to Jesus say to them the times and occasions are set by the Father's own authority and it isn't for you to know when they will be but when the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit comes upon you you will be filled with power and you will be witness for me in Jerusalem in all the Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth the saying this he was taken up to heaven as they watched him and loud hide him from inside they still had their eyes fixed on sky as he went away when two men traced and white suddenly stood beside them and said Carolians why are you standing there looking up at the sky this cheese who was taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven yes thank you thank you and I think someone else tried to read but you know you weren't heard so yeah please go ahead yeah prince you can read yeah any other person yeah prince please read you're on mute prince can't hear you oh that was me I am okay okay sorry yeah please you can read yeah okay from love and right who also said men of Karili why do you stand facing up into heaven the same Jesus who was taken up from the from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him and when they entered they went up into the bedroom where they were staying Peter James John and Andrew Philip and Thomas and Simon the zealot and Judas these are continued one accord in prayer and and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the temple all together the number of names and say by the mouth of David I think we have some more verses to go right yeah we have some of us to go yes yes Dave please go ahead oh Prince yeah go ahead and in those days it is to a prompt exchange right yes yes brother in this picture had to be okay a prince unable to hear you actually the seems to be spoken before by the mouth of David sorry Prince I think network seems to be slow no yeah looks like so sorry about interrupting you there I'll just request another person to quickly go ahead and read yeah quickly go ahead and read okay yes thank you from verse 16 and said brothers and brothers and said brothers the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus he was one of her numb number and shared in this ministry with the reward he got for his wickedness Judas brought a field there he fell headlong his body burst open and all his interest and spilt out everyone in Jerusalem heard about this so they called that field in the language a cat llama that is filled of blood for say Peter it is written in the book of Sam's may his may his place be deserted but there be no one to dwell in it and may another take his place of leadership yes that why don't you read the rest of it also we can just quickly complete it okay yeah therefore it is necessary to choose one of them one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us for one of this must become a witness with us of his resurrection so they proposed two men Joseph called Bursa Bursa boss also known as justice and Matthias then they prayed Lord you know everyone's heart show us which of these two you have chosen so take over this apostolic ministry the Judas left to go where he belongs then they cast lots and the Lord fell to Matthias so he was added to the 11 Apostles yes thank you thank you so that for completing that and everyone else who who read no problem Prince sometimes it happens the network you know it's not fast enough so that's okay that's alright but thank you for trying to read today we will get into chapter one and we will look at all the things that actually took place so you know it's more like a story for us because we are watching different things taking place in the lives of believers who I could say disciples of Jesus not just the 12 Apostles but there were others who are followers of the Lord Jesus and they were all together okay so let's see what exactly is happening with these people now as we start off in Acts chapter one you know we have to remember that it begins with the resurrected Christ okay I told you that the Lord Jesus died and then he rose from the dead and Acts chapter one is a place where you see the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and the book of Acts we have talked about all the things that take place in this book we can also consider this book as a bridge because after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead if there was no book of Acts I mean think about it you would suddenly go to the epistles of Paul and then in Peter and John all these people and you would wonder what happened you know we were reading about Jesus so far and now there is a new person here Paul who is he how did he come into the picture what is the background about him so you know God in that way is so gracious to us he has given us this book in the middle it's called the Acts where we read about how the church took the teachings of Jesus how the church was empowered by the Holy Spirit and they did the work which they were called to do and as they were doing that you know how the church was birthed how the church grew how did these significant names in the church begin to appear people like Paul the Apostle and you know the person like Timothy where did they all come from so acts gives us a good background about the rest of the New Testament scripture as well so it's a nice bridge that you have in between the Gospels and the epistles so it begins by remember I told us that Luke is the person who has authored this book and he has written this book somewhere you know towards maybe after 60 62 63 AD around around that time because it has it has the accounts of incidents that took place from the time of the Lord Jesus ascending to the time when Paul was imprisoned so this is also like an eyewitness account you know or maybe he hasn't seen everything that has taken place but contemporary like during his times these events have taken place and there are other extra biblical writings as well that confirm these incidents that have taken place okay so Luke is writing about all these things now you notice in the first verse itself he says the former account I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach so he is telling us who is who he is writing this not a letter but an account a report to so he's writing to Theophilus and Theophilus according to historians seems to be someone who believes in God because the name Theo is God the term Phyllis is somebody who loves God so it's likely that Theophilus is a believer and it's likely that Theophilus is interested in knowing the works of Jesus and the works of the believers now it is also possible according to historians I mean they say that Theophilus could have been an official as well because maybe Luke wrote this account to give it to him to provide some evidence of Paul's innocence okay so you know how in the courts we have the lawyers arguing a case so now that Paul is in prison maybe Luke tried writing a case report so that Paul can be released from his imprisonment and Theophilus could have been an official influential person in the government and Luke wanted wanted to hand this off to him so it's possible you know all these are the possibilities and what historians suggest so and he says that he is writing to Theophilus of everything that Jesus notice he talks about the ministry of Jesus not just in terms of his teaching but also in terms of what Jesus did so that is it encourages us in our ministry we're not just supposed to talk we're not just supposed to share the word but we're supposed to live the life we're supposed to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and Luke points us to that that Jesus both did and taught okay and the former account is the book of Luke which he is referring to so some historians they point out and say maybe Luke wrote his gospel first and he wrote acts in continuation to it but those days you know they would prefer to keep the the scrolls to a certain size and a certain weight otherwise they have to carry right if somebody writes a lot then it would be very heavy for for that script to be carried here and there so maybe Luke wrote it in two batches one account former account which is the account of the life of Jesus and the latter account which is the account of what the the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit are inspired and directed the people of God to do so that's how this book actually begins and Luke is careful to point out these things now one more thing we have to remember is that the book starts in Acts chapter 1 but by the time we reach Acts chapter 28 we are talking about a span of 30 years roughly 30 years so we should not forget that right so it's 30 roughly 30 years that we are going to cover in these 28 chapters and Luke is writing about all the significant things that happened in the church in these 30 years okay so continuing from verse 1 now he goes on to share that Jesus until the day that he was taken up into heaven he did certain things so what are what are all these things that he did we are told that until the day in which he was taken up after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the Apostles whom he had chosen so here are certain tasks that Jesus is undertaking before his ascension one is that he is giving commandments to the Apostles how is he giving commandments again even the resurrected crisis ministering through the Holy Spirit so we see that there is a very important role the Holy Spirit plays in the life of the believer because you notice even Jesus dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit in his physical body as well as in his resurrected body to do the work of the ministry so how much more should we depend on the help and the support of the Holy Spirit so through the Holy Spirit what did Jesus do he gave some commands to the chosen Apostles now we know earlier in the Gospels we have seen 12 Apostles okay they are also known as the Apostles of the Lamb or you know these are these are the Apostles who the Lord Jesus chose to to be under his wings right but later on we know that many other Apostles also rose up they did the work of the Gospel you have people like Paul you know that there's mention of other Apostles in scripture but these 12 people are the ones whom the Lord Jesus instructed he presented himself alive to to them and you know that is something they were looking forward to because they had put their trust in the Lord Jesus and he overcame death right he overcame death and that is something that transformed their lives because here is the Messiah there's only the Messiah who can overcome death who has never sinned in the book of Hebrews when we study about the life of Jesus you know we read that he was tempted in every way yet without sin so no wonder you know he was he rose from the dead again by the power of the Spirit we are told that he rose from the dead and he presented himself to these disciples of him to instruct them to give them some direction and when he was alive you know during these these days on the earth as the resurrected Christ there are many infallible proofs right like he suffered and that was something that that people noticed but also during his time of walking the earth you know he presented himself and he spoke about the kingdom and he ministered in a powerful way and several people you know we see in other writings that several people actually saw and heard what the Lord Jesus did then he was seen for 40 days it says okay so 40 days from the time of his resurrection he is is noticed okay so you would realize okay time is passing by and when Jesus was tried that was the time of Passover so you know those of us who are interested in the Jewish calendar those of us who are interested in the Jewish festivals you can look at the timeline so Passover was the time when when you know Jesus went through all the persecution the opposition the the beatings and you know that that mistreatment and finally the crucifixion on the cross and then on the third day he rises again and the 40 days after that no he has presented himself to people several people saw him and you know he ministered especially to his own disciples okay and what was he ministering you know you notice here in verse 3 he was ministering the things pertaining to the kingdom of God so that's very fascinating for us about the kingdom of God I mean the resurrected Christ knows that very soon he will leave the earthly ministry so obviously he would talk about things which are important for us isn't it so we notice that he is talking about the kingdom of God so there are truths about the kingdom of God that the church needs to know there are truths about the kingdom of God you know which which God wanted to open up he wanted to open up those treasures to his people so God was ministering to them about these teachings now why did Luke mention it you know one of the reasons why Luke could have mentioned it is also to assure that you know this is the teaching that the Lord Jesus actually brought because otherwise what happens you know it's possible given the kind of speculation that people make these days people would have said oh the resurrected Christ thought about you know some new fancy teaching or the resurrected Christ thought about something weird people can come up with all kinds of things but Luke was careful enough to mention what the Lord Jesus taught so notice all this is historical okay it's not mythology meaning it's not things that someone has made up but this is a historical account and that's why even as I began teaching us today I said that there are there is extra biblical literature to kind of affirm whatever has been written in the gospels in the in the book of acts so on and so forth so we know that this is what the Lord Jesus was up to in his resurrected body so he was teaching his people now isn't that also beautiful that you know this is what Jesus chose to do in his last few days here on the earth that is to be with those who believe him and to continue to instruct them now Jesus knew that though he is not going to be here on the earth it is these people who will carry on the work of God the same way that he was empowered by the Holy Spirit they too would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue this great and wonderful work so what happens after he has spoken to the disciples after he has ministered to those who believe in him from verse four we see that he commands them okay to wait in Jerusalem okay why why is he telling them to wait in Jerusalem remember I told you about the Jewish calendar 40 days have gone by so what are we expecting what are we expecting very soon we're expecting the festival of Pentecost okay and Pentecost was usually celebrated in the city of Jerusalem and Jews from many different parts of you could say the world would travel they would come to the city the holy city of Jerusalem and they would celebrate Pentecost over there so that is the reason he is telling them he commands them to stay in Jerusalem now why why is he commanding them to stay in Jerusalem no he says wait for the promise of the father okay and we notice that it's not a suggestion it is a commandment he commands them you wait in Jerusalem so if the Lord Jesus is commanding them to wait obviously they are going to receive something without which they cannot continue the work that he is handing them so what is this thing that they needed to wait for we notice in that same verse he says the promise of the father which he said you have heard from me for truly for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now so he is asking them to wait for something which is very important what is that very important thing he calls it the promise of the father okay and he also goes back to the fact that during his ministry people had only seen water baptism which was to notify that people have repented from their sins towards God okay so water baptism is was common until then but he's saying that these believers will be baptized with the Holy Spirit so you understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the father right it is connected here it is connected here and Jesus is talking about the same thing which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the father later on in Acts chapter 2 you know you we will see the prophecy of Joel where Joel Joel mentioned that you know this is going to happen and it actually happened so Jesus is asking the believer to wait for the empowering of the Holy Spirit now you know the last class I gave you one grand introduction about you know acts being that forest fire acts being that revival fire you know and acts being that that book of the Bible that inspires all of us because such was the supernatural demonstration of God's glory however if it is not if it was not for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the apostles and the believers would have done nothing they would not have been able to accomplish anything no wonder the Lord Jesus tells them to wait a few days from now 40 days already over okay right so some more days remaining for the Festival of Pentecost during Pentecost the Holy Spirit will be poured out and he tells them be careful not even to do any ministry nothing till that time you please wait only after you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit okay you will be fit enough to do the work of God so what does it speak to us today the baptism in the Holy Spirit is so important for the believer without that you would not have the Book of Acts as inspirational as we are talking about you know it being none of that would exist without receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit so we cannot expect to do great things for God without the baptism in the Holy Spirit now the flip side of that is because the disciples receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit we saw the remaining 20 you know seven chapters unfold powerful mighty leading of the Holy Spirit in the same way we can expect the leading of the Holy Spirit the works of the Holy Spirit through our lives when we receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit but subtract that from our Christian experience no we are not saying that we cannot live for God because even at this point the disciples were very much following Jesus very much living for God but there is something about the empowering of the Holy Spirit which can help us to walk in the supernatural they experience that through the baptism in the Holy Spirit and even for us today as we look ahead we must be you know if we have received it wonderful if we have not received it the way Jesus told them you wait you wait for it in Jerusalem our hearts need to be hungry for the baptism in the Holy Spirit okay let's move forward from there I hope you are doing okay is it too fast too slow yeah can I get a response okay good good good everybody's fine great great wonderful okay let's let's move forward okay we were at verse 6 here and I was saying that so he asked them to wait so when they had come together right now remember this is the last few interactions which the believers have with Jesus so he's telling them important things but they also want to ask important things from him so though he's mentioning about the Holy Spirit their question is very different what are they asking Jesus he's they are saying Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel now these disciples were aware that scripture promises the physical restoration of the nation of Israel okay and Jesus in his teaching and preaching and also shared with them that he is the one who has instituted the new covenant okay so based on what he said based on what scriptures say now there are passages in the book of Jeremiah and the book of Ezekiel that talk about the restoration of Israel they knew that this resurrected Christ is not going to be with them because he's telling them you know you wait because you will be empowered and all that so they knew they had a work ahead of them but they thought they'd probably do this work in a perfect world okay a perfect nation where everything is restored so they're asking Jesus Lord when when is this you know so tell us now are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel what is the answer that Jesus gives them no he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has put in his own authority okay so he is going back to the subject of the Holy Spirit so even in our walk with the Lord you know sometimes we have questions which we think are important and we are asking him okay God this is the important time and you are telling me something important let me also ask you something important right but in this case Jesus knew yes that question is quite legitimate because as a believer you know you would expect the Messiah to restore the kingdom however you know Jesus knew that he must direct their hearts and minds to things that he feels they need to know okay not the things that they think they need to know so he actually does not give them an answer to that question he kind of you know sidelines it and he says look there are certain things there are some seasons times and seasons only the father knows okay what he's going to do about it so basically he's saying that we will not understand everything and there are certain things which God knows which he doesn't think is necessary for us to know okay and some of the theologians they also share their view that maybe Jesus did not want to tell them that the the nation of Israel will be restored after you know 2000 years even now we know 1948 is when Israel became a nation like officially but 2000 years Jesus maybe he didn't want to mention that to the disciples at that point because they would not have had what it takes to understand it you know and they also might have felt discouraged if Jesus said the question was are you going to restore the nation of Israel right now if Jesus had answered that question and said no I'm not going to restore it is going to take 2000 years the disciples would have been so discouraged oh no we thought you are the Messiah and you are telling us 2000 years have to go by before we see this fulfilled so excuse me maybe he didn't want them to get discouraged right so you see God also knows what is required to be spoken to his people so we could be asking him a lot of questions but the Holy Spirit directs us now God directs us to the things which are necessary for us to know okay so at this point Jesus felt it's what the question you're asking it's not necessary for you to know the answer to that question but let me tell you what you what is necessary for you okay and then he proceeds with that one scripture now you could say that this is the key scripture of Acts chapter 1 but it is also the key scripture of the book of Acts itself what is it he says but bring your attention to what I'm telling you forget about restoration of the nation of Israel I'll do it I know when to do it father knows leave that discussion for later leave it to me okay the point is you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses to me in Jerusalem in all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth so he's bringing the focus lights you know if you know about skits and dramas that take place and you know stage lights you have the focus on one person who is the main character and the main thing that is unfolding over there but if you change the spotlight to you know someone else the attention goes to that person so in the same way God is shifting the spotlight and he's saying the important thing for you to understand is that you need power I need power okay to do the work of God you know why are we still here if we are saved we are here on the earth because God wants us to take the gospel to the nations right the Great Commission going to all the world and preach the gospel making disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit Matthew 28 so we are here to continue to declare the gospel we are here to continue to preach the kingdom of God and so Jesus knows that the spotlight should be on us receiving the empowering to do it that's the reason the disciples were still here on the earth and Jesus is going back to heaven but he knows that these people will continue the work and the answer which they need is how to get the empowering to fulfill this work right and that is why he says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses where will you be my witnesses you know it's like we use the term concentric circles okay so by that you mean you know there is there is an inner circle and outer circle and it just keeps expanding like the ripples in in water you throw a stone in a lake what do you see you see ripples right it just expands keeps going to the next ripple and the next ripple so on and so forth so that's what Jesus is saying you shall be my witnesses in all of Judea Samaria you know and to the ends of the earth so the the power of who God is it's going to be known everywhere starting from where you are to the ends of the earth okay and the term witnesses there right witnesses in the Greek language this word witness it's a martyrs martyrs okay martyrs means martyr so is Jesus saying that you're all going to die no that's not what he's saying but he's saying the kind of testimony that you will bear for my sake you know it's like a complete testimony as if you were a martyr you know a martyr is willing to die martyr for the nation a soldier who's on the front lines you ask a committed soldier he's proud to die for the nation so that's a witness right for the nation so that that kind of a commitment that kind of a testimony you know you bear for whoever whoever or whichever nation or whatever cause you have pledged allegiance to so he's saying that you will be a powerful strong determined testimony for me but to be that testimony what do you need you know the emphasis is on the outpouring the baptism of the Holy Spirit now Jesus knows without that it's not possible you know just with the teachings okay they already had the teachings of Jesus and about the kingdom of God do you think they could just go and preach no Jesus knew that he also ministered through the power of the Holy Spirit why because he was fully man he was fully human so he could not have had any you know so-called supernatural experiences or you know he never carried the glory of heaven with him he was just a plain simple man like you and me on the earth so whatever Jesus did was by the power of the Holy Spirit same way we saw in this passage the resurrected Christ how did he minister to the disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit right so he needed the Holy Spirit to do the work which God called him to do so he understood that every believer also needs the Holy Spirit to do the work of the kingdom right and that is why he's saying your mind is on all kinds of subjects you want to know so many different answers nothing wrong with it but let me bring your attention to what is very very important and that is you need the empowering of the Holy Spirit if you receive the empowering of the Holy Spirit you shall be my martyrs witnesses everywhere everywhere you will be my determined witnesses right and that is what the Lord Jesus wanted to make of the disciples now I need not tell you about each one of them right they all had their own issues you had James and John sons of thunder so you know they seem to be people who probably had a bad temper you know they quickly attacked somebody who came against Jesus you have a Peter who is denying Christ you have a John who's always talking about I am his favorite I am his favorite you know so everyone had their own issues now these kind of people how are they going to bear witness for Christ but by the empowering of the Holy Spirit it's possible for any and every believer no matter what their personality is what their background is you know Jesus could have said oh these 12 people what are they going to do you know I can't depend on them I couldn't depend on them when I was alive he could have said that but he knew that whoever they were whatever weaknesses they carried yet right by the empowering of the Holy Spirit these are the people who will become powerful for the gospel and they will take the gospel to the ends of the earth he knew what is going to make the difference the baptism in the Holy Spirit so he's telling them please wait don't do anything till you receive that empowering and when you receive that empowering you know whatever I'm telling you it'll happen the fire will spread far and wide okay so I'm noticing that it's already 950 today the intention was to complete chapter 1 and chapter 2 but it seems like we are going a little slow in our pace but that's okay because I really want us to have a good background we can always pick up pace you know here and there so don't worry too much about the portions but just soak in what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now and speaking to me right now just receive that and we'll continue from where we stop right now we'll come back in 10 minutes and we will continue so how's it going everyone are you getting something out of this are you enjoying okay that's awesome that's awesome great alright praise God great great okay fine class let's take a small break 10 minutes and we'll be back to continue see you soon thank you