 Alright. So the recording has begun. We will pray and we will get right into today's session. Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord, for this opportunity to study Your Word. Father, thank You for enlightening us, O God. Father, through the knowledge of Your Word. Father, as we delve deeper into the book of Acts, we pray that, Lord, we would be able to receive everything, Lord, that You want to speak to us by Your Holy Spirit. Father, we commit ourselves into Your hands. We pray that You will guide and lead, O God, this entire time. Father, we also ask Your blessings upon each one of us, Lord, all the students, all the listeners and their families. O God, we pray that, Lord, all of us will experience Your glory in a tangible and in a fresh way, Lord. Thank You, once again, in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So, yeah, so happy and delighted that each of you has rejoined this class. You completed your second year and here you are in your third year. And I'm sure you must be enjoying all the different classes that you're having. It's a really rich year, so to speak, every year is. But, you know, this particular year you will be studying from so many books of the Bible, first by verse. So that's a wonderful opportunity and I really encourage you to make complete use of it. And, you know, strengthen your faith and also establish you in God's word. So today, in this course, we are going to look at Acts of the Apostles. I hope you have had a look at the overview of this course. If yes, you could let me know. I had posted the course overview in the Classwork page. Please have a look. Basically, it talks about what we will be using to study this course. We will go with the Bible and generally, you know, when I quote, I quote from the NKJV version. And primarily, we will use a commentary called as Enduring Word written by David Kozik. So you could also refer to this commentary for, you know, some of the insights that I would be sharing during this class. So at the moment, I'm not giving you any notes. We'll see. Like if there are specific subjects where notes may be required, then I would post the notes before the class. Okay. So as far as the assessments are concerned, there are two assessments that you will have one mid semester assessment and a final assessment. And please make sure that you attempt these assessments and also are able to get passing marks and, you know, not just passing marks, but really good marks in your assignments. Okay. Anything else? Any other questions before we start going into the content? Yes, Pastor. I think you asked how we are all doing. Yes. I don't know how you are doing. What are some of the things that have happened over the last, you know, six months or three or four months that we have last met you. Yes. Oh, thanks, Christopher. Thank you for checking about me. Well, yeah. The last three ones have flown by quite quick. I've been, you know, more occupied with the North Church, the church where I serve as an associate pastor. So more engaged with the activities of the North Church because, you know, I recall it wasn't happening. So then it gave us that much more time. So, yeah, that was one area that I was focusing on quite a bit. And apart from that, many other things that are happening in church, as you are aware, we are restarting our mission strips. So across India, that is, this would be for the APC Bangalore congregation. We have just put out those, the list of the mission trips and, you know, working on coordinating these outreaches. And one very exciting thing that recently happened is we had time together with all our outreach pastors from India. So they had come down to Bangalore, they as well as their families. And, you know, we got to spend three days, all the Bangalore pastors and all the outreach pastors and their families. So it was truly a refreshing and a strengthening time. So this, as far as work is concerned, yeah, otherwise all fine, you know, personally doing well. Thank you so much, Christopher for asking. Yes. And of course, you know, we've been preparing for the Bible College and very excited, very excited about this semester and the year. It'll be a year for you and, you know, as in the semester, the next would make a year, the third year for all of you. So I'm excited as faculty, but I'm excited for you as students. So may the Lord strengthen you as you study his word. Okay, so coming to the subject of Acts of the Apostles, before we delve deep into this book of the Bible, I just wanted your opinion. Like when you think of acts, what is it that comes to you first? Hi, Pastor, I have a one, I think about power, the Holy Spirit. I think about that, that comes up the top of my head. Yeah, so that's why I think about fire, power, the Holy Spirit. Wow, thank you, Disha, fire, power, Holy Spirit. And Subhaji has mentioned in the chat, signs and wonders, of course. Say, I can see your hand raised. Yes, for me, I'll see the book of Acts as the Holy Spirit walking through ordinary men to do extraordinary things. Amen. That's right. So the work of the Holy Spirit through ordinary men doing extraordinary works. Kishan, please go ahead. Yes, for me, ma'am, encouragement and boldness. That's nice. Thank you for sharing that. Louis, what would you like to add? I think I want to question why it was called the Acts of the Apostles. Why not the Acts of the Church? Because basically as I started at the upper room, it was just that the records pointed more to what the apostles did. In hindsight, you hear people like Philip, other people that were highlighted. So maybe if we just question that a bit in the class, I'll come to the conclusion why it was called basically the Acts of the Apostles. So it's what you are saying, it's more of a question, isn't it? Maybe a question, but just on the inside, we've come to accept it as the Acts of the Apostles, but if you read it in context, they highlighted the things the apostles did. They also highlighted that they went to their own company. So that means they had their own groups where they had micro fellowships. So in that sense, we could call it the Acts of the Church. Because basically the apostles were a part of the Church. When Paul writes, he says, with the Church at this place, in this person's house would really shoot the Church. So they were just that combination of both the apostles and the Church at large. The one that was captured was the Church that was pray. Sure, sure. Thank you, Louis. I think I like that. Yes, yes. So I got the essence of what you're saying. So you're saying that it's beyond just the Acts of the Apostles, but there are others who are involved, who are not apostles, and the Holy Spirit worked through them as well, which is why it could have probably been called the Acts of the Church. Now, we will see that it could be called so many other names. Wonderful that Kennedy has mentioned here, the birthing of the Church. Yes, of course, it could have been called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit worked through people's lives. So yes, it could have been called so many of those different names. But anyway, it has been named the Acts of the Apostles. So I'll quickly give a turn to everyone who's raised their hands. But I request us to keep it very brief, please. Yes, success. Do you want to say something? Okay, I'm not too sure if he's able to hear me. All right, let's just move on to Christopher. Christopher, what would you like to say? Yeah, I'd just like to say that it's actually quite similar to what the other students have mentioned. But I think the key words that come to mind is personal transformation that has taken place, where even though the apostles and other people who actually spent time with Jesus, they still sort of had a lot of doubts. They did not have that sense of living with the Holy Spirit. And because of the Holy Spirit, they were transformed. And that's where I think it makes such a big difference, particularly in the early days of the Church. Yes, true. Thank you, Christopher. Thank you for sharing those thoughts. Good morning. Yes, success. Good morning. Did you have something to share as well? You are talking about the Book of Acts of Apostles. Yes. To me, the Book of Apostles is the Book of Demonstration of Power of God. If we look at the Book of Acts chapter 12, it proves to all the people in the world that God is involved in the life of those who are genuinely seeking. There's a place I love very well that these people, when Peter put hand on the fire, people think the fire is going to bomb, but it proved to them the demonstration of power of God. And that's what every Christian should look onto. Thank you. Thank you. Success, the demonstration of God's mighty power. We have a few more comments here in the chat section. Rose says, Jesus turning over the mission to his followers and start a worldwide spread of the gospel from there on. Also, the demonstration of signs and wonders as the Lord backs up the truth of the gospel, making the unbelievers believe. That's very true. Ashalani miracles and about the witnesses and also how God uses the Apostles and also the good news of Jesus Christ being spread. Abhishek shares, people are turning towards Jesus by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so the book of Acts is, you know, I could just play out the word acts. It's action packed. So there's so much happening here. There's personal transformation and somebody mentioned there's the power, the fire, the authority of the church, the birth of the church, the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of the believers, the widespread mission of the church being accomplished and people turning to the Lord, which is most exciting about the book of Acts. So in this first session, my intention is to just give us a little bit of background or an overview of the book of Acts. And then, you know, we will begin with chapter one. We will try and go over the, you know, the book chapter by chapter and verse by verse as much as possible. And the plan is to ideally try and fit in two chapters in a week. But some portions, you know, I might go a little faster and some portions might take a little longer. But, you know, by the time we finish the book of Acts, we will be able to complete the 28th chapter. So the book of Acts, as many of you have already pointed out, it's more of the acts of the Holy Spirit through God's people, God's people including the apostles as well as the believers. So the work of the Holy Spirit, you could say through the church. Then the book of Acts is the manifestation of God's power that has been handed over to the church. Now we know when Jesus finally completed his mandate here on the earth, he gave us the great commission and he asked us to go and make disciples of all nations. And the great commission began to be fulfilled through the book of Acts or at least that's where we see it unfold. So the ministry that Jesus gave the believers is actually unfolding in the book of Acts. Alright, now the beautiful thing about the book of Acts is that it is like a bridge between the Gospels and the Ephesus. So just think with me, if we had just the Gospels, no book of Acts and then we start off with the book of Romans, there will be so many questions unanswered. We would be wondering who is this Paul and why is he writing to the Romans and how does he know about the Lord Jesus and what is the authority that he carries. And we would have absolutely no idea about how the seed shifted from the Lord Jesus walking with his disciples here on the earth, going through his fiery trial and what happened after that? How is it that you have people like Paul on the scene now? So the book of Acts really is a bridge between the Gospels and the Ephesus. The book of Acts extends over a period of 30 years, so 3 decades. We are going to cover 28 chapters in about 3 months but the time span that we are going to study through is actually spaced over 30 years. So God birthed the church on the day of Pentecost and so many things began to take place over those 30 years. There were many churches, many leaders raised up and so God's work was accomplished in a 90 fashion over 30 years. So the time would be from somewhere around 33 A.D. which is roughly around the time when the Lord Jesus was crucified to about 62, 63 A.D. That's the duration of the book of Acts and this book was written a little later, a little after 62 A.D. and I'll share with you why this book could have been written. So any guesses about who the writer of the book of Acts is? Luke. Okay, excellent. So all of you have 100 points on that correct answer. So Luke is the writer of the book of Acts. A little bit about Luke. Luke, he was a physician. He was a gentile and in the way he wrote an account of the life of Jesus, it helps us see that he is somewhat a historian with all the detailed information that had compiled about the life of Jesus. He's also a Christian teacher, we could say, simply because whatever he wrote, it instilled faith in the Godhead, the Lord Jesus and his works, his teachings, but also the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Father. So he was a Christian teacher is also what we could say. So here's the one who has written this book and we would see that the styles of writing both these books is somewhat similar. He is giving an account of the life of Jesus initially and then he gives an account of what unfolds after the ascension on Jesus. Now Luke wrote this book to a man called Theophilus. So you would see that very early on in the book of Acts. Let me quickly read that verse for us. So at chapter one verse one, it says, The former account I made or Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. So he's writing to an individual called Theophilus and Bible scholars say that Theophilus was probably a man with influence, a man who carried some kind of governmental responsibility. Why was Luke writing to this person? Reason one could be that Theophilus was a believer and Luke wanted him to grow in his faith. So that is why Luke was writing to him. Second reason could be that this governmental authority that Theophilus carried might mean that he had a role to play in the trial of Paul. So I told us that this book was written somewhere around 62-63 AD. So that was the time when Apostle Paul was undergoing a trial and he was soon to be taken before Nero and tried for all the accusations against him. So it's likely that Luke was writing up a defense to prove that Paul is actually innocent. So he might have wanted to first explain about the life of Jesus and then go on to write about how Apostle Paul came to know the Lord Jesus and all the ministry which Apostle Paul did and to just point out to the governing authorities that he did nothing against the law of the land. So that might be another reason why Luke was writing to Theophilus. Now there are people who say that the book of Luke and the book of Acts were sort of in continuation. So when Luke wrote it out on a scroll, it was almost like the scroll of Luke, the book of Luke was followed by the scroll of the book of Acts. So it was probably written in that manner and it was written as a defense for Paul. So this is the second reason. The third reason why the book of Acts was written, people consider this individual Theophilus and say Theophilus, if you translate that term, that word, Theophilus is God and Phyllis refers to lover, lover of God. So it was very symbolic. So Luke was writing to people who loved God and giving a very detailed account of the life of Jesus and the unfolding of God's work in the early church. So these are some of the reasons why this book was written. So success, I can see your hand raised. Did you have a question or did I miss something? So we'll carry on. So now we have an idea about when the book was written, why it could have been written and who it was written to. So Luke, as he begins the book of Acts, he starts with this statement in verse 2. He says, about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven. So Luke is building that bridge. After the death of Jesus, his resurrection, we read about that in the Gospels. Now after the resurrection, what happened? He says about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven. So he also is talking about everything that Jesus did during that period of him spending time with his disciples here on the earth before he goes up into heaven to be with the Father. And from then on, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which is spoken of in Acts chapter 2, which we refer to as the birth of the early church. And then the entire work of the Holy Spirit begins to unfold. Now let's continue to see what else do we find in the book of Acts. So we have an idea now about how this book came to be. Now what are some of the very significant themes that we would find in the book of Acts? So in this book, we would see the work of the Holy Spirit initially through the Apostles. And in the latter portion of the book, it would be more of the work of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul. So the Apostles of the Lord Jesus are the ones that you see early on in the book but later on it's more through the life of Jesus. And then some portions in between you have an overlap of the Apostles of Jesus as well as Paul then. We see here the moving of the Gospel from Jerusalem to various parts of the region at that time. Okay. Yes, Sir Shri Kumar, you wanted to say something. Thank you, Pastor. I just have one question. I have one question. As you were saying that if you read the book of Acts, so we can see the work of the Apostle Paul. And also with very few incidents we can also see Peter and John and also few other names is highlighted there. So I just want to know that why the Acts is not recorded in the Acts like other disciples like Thomas was there and other disciples was there which is not mentioned. Even Matthias whose name was picked up by the lot in the book of Acts when we read. So even though they were used by God but why the Luke has not mentioned their ministries. Is it a specific reason? I just want to know. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Shri Kumar. Very good question there. So why aren't other Apostles mentioned? Why aren't other leaders, volunteers of the church mentioned? And in fact I was going to say this and I probably will say it again. Other churches are also not mentioned. You have some churches that have the focus like the Church of Jerusalem, the Church of Antioch and then the churches that Paul planted across the region. But we also are aware as we go through the book of Acts that there were many other thriving churches in the region. They are also not mentioned. Now why? Question is why? So I feel there could be two reasons. One as I already told us that this book of Acts was probably written as a defence brief to be given to the officials who were in charge of Paul's trial. So Luke had a focus and that is why you see that initially he is talking about everybody and then it's about Paul, Paul, Paul. Paul said this, Paul did this and more about Paul. So that is why. Second reason is historians say that the books of the Bible, even if you consider the Gospels and the Epistles, they have a certain length. And Acts could be one of the longer books compared to the other New Testament books. It seems like they all limited their writing to the length of the scrolls because it was very difficult to carry heavy scrolls. We know that in those times that's the way they would write and transfer, transmit information. So probably they, Luke would have had to think what should I pick, what should I, and he had to make a decision. So while there are many, many such, you know, a lot of other churches and leaders, he just focused on what we have in the book of Acts. And again, we know that it's by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the canon of scripture has come together. So we go by this as the word of God, which has, you know, scriptural authority. Every other reading that we find it could be a historical report, it could be a cultural, geographical report. We could look at that as extra biblical information. So I hope that helps Shri Kumar. Any other follow-up questions? Thank you, Pastor. Okay, right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes, Naidhi. Thank you, Pastor. Following Brother Shri Kumar's question, is it possible we can add a third theory that says in the beginning, he wrote about other disciples because he was in contact with churches of Jerusalem and other disciples. And then when Paul came into the church to start preaching, he traveled with Paul. That's why he had Paul's information and he didn't have other disciples' information. Possible. Yeah. Thank you, Maggie. Possible because we know that he was, Luke was a travel companion to Apostle Paul. So obviously he had more information about Paul as compared to other people. So, yeah. So that also could be one of the reasons. Okay. Great. So it's really good. You know, this is how we are trying to paint a picture and learn and get a background of the book of Acts. And I was saying, you know, in talking about the themes in the book of Acts, I said that initially, the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles is what is put forward. And in the latter part, it's more about the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul. And then, you know, I said that the book of Acts, geographically, you see the great commission or the pattern of the great commission unfolding through the book of Acts. We know that Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations. So here, as you go from chapter one all the way to chapter 20, you would see that initially a lot of ministry happens in the Church of Jerusalem. And then eventually, ministry is happening in places like Judea, Samaria, and later on, as you see from Acts 13 onwards, when you have Paul in the picture, Barnabas in the picture, the ministry is taken out to regions in Asia Minor and modern day Europe. So as Acts one way it says, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Of course, they did not reach the ends of the earth, but it was kind of the beginning of taking the word out, taking the gospel out to people who have never heard it. So geographically, we see that the extension of the Kingdom of God or the Church was happening in the book of Acts. So that is also something that we could look at. So I have a small table here which I have taken from, I have the reference as well. I will quickly share the screen with us. Some more things for us to note. Okay, I hope you can all see this. Yeah, and as I just stated, the Great Commission is being fulfilled through God's people. And Acts 1-8, what Jesus promised us, disciples is seen in the book of Acts. And here you would see some of the major personalities who are involved in the work of the gospel in each of these phases. And the regions where the gospel reaches and also the communities that it touches. So initially it's Peter and John who are doing their ministry in Jerusalem and the ethnic group that they witness to is the Jews. And later, it's Greek-speaking Jews, you have people like Philip and Stephen who minister. The regions would be Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea, the audience, the Jews, Samaritans and the Ethiopian Unab. Later you have Paul and Peter who come on scene. The regions that they cover are Damascus, Judea, Antioch, Jerusalem and Asia. You have the audience as Jews, God fearing Gentiles and also other communities, pagans. Paul, the missionary, Europe and Asia minor, the audience being Gentiles and Jews. Paul as a prisoner, very interesting, even when he is a prisoner, ministry is happening through his life. And God's word over his life that he would stand before kings, that he would stand before people of influence that is still taking place when Paul is a prisoner. So he ministers in Judea, in Jerusalem, Caesarea and Rome, Rome being one of the very important cities at that time. God helped Paul take the Gospel even to the influential leaders there. So he is able to minister to the Gentile rulers, the Gentiles and the Jews. So you see how there are different people involved in different parts of the region and they are reaching out to various communities. And this is but a start or a beginning of what God was doing through his people. So we have seen that now. We also, as I said earlier, that there are so many other churches that have not been talked about, so many other men who live in God who have not been talked about. So there are, I mean, it's not included in the Book of Acts, but here is the understanding that a lot more was taking place in these three decades, not just what has been shared with us in the Book of Acts. So that is also something you and I need to bear in mind the way Jesus promised that the believers who are baptized in the Holy Spirit that they would be his witnesses, we know that there were believers who went out and who planted the different churches. So Antioch is one of them. When you study about the Church of Antioch, we do not know who that individual was or who those group of individuals were who planted that church. So it was just some believer, some unnamed, unknown believer who planted the Church of Antioch. And similarly, there would have been so many other churches that were planted. So this period, the 30 years, we need to understand that so much was taking place through the Holy Spirit and the lives of the believers. So the Book of Acts, though it's not mentioned, it's understood that it is definitely a mighty work of God which was unfolding through the early church. Now the Book of Acts is also the work of the early church, the ministry of the early church as we see it. But one additional thing that I want to tell us is that it hasn't stopped. When you read the last chapter of the Book of Acts, which is chapter 28, the ending is very abrupt. Now again, there is much talk about why the ending is abrupt. Paul was in Rome and we don't really know what his trial before Nero looked like. The book ends before that but then many Christians say that it has this abrupt ending but it's probably God telling us that the work of the Holy Spirit through his people has not ended. So you and I today are a continuation of the Book of Acts because what did God introduce himself as? He said, I am the great I am. He is not the great I was. So even today God is at work and God is at work through us and you would find different ministries named as Acts 29. It's simply to signify what God is doing today and the Holy Spirit is still here with us and he is the same Holy Spirit who worked through his apostles and believers in the times of the Book of Acts and he continues to work through us and so the Book of Acts has actually not been completed. The Acts of the believers, the Acts of the church, the Acts of the Holy Spirit which are unfolding here on the face of the earth. So this is like a quick overview with some highlights that we see in the Book of Acts. Now if you just want to look at it from go over the chapters, the Book of Acts and say what exactly was happening. You would find that from chapter one till about chapter eight, it's more of the church of Jerusalem and many of the people from the church of Jerusalem that you would see ministry Peter, John, Philip, Stephen. So these are all the men of God who you see there. But from Acts chapter nine, you have a dramatic entry of a persecutor who is transformed into a child of God and he has a call of God on his life and he is the Apostle Paul. So then you read more about the Apostle Paul from chapter nine onwards. But then there is a little bit of an overlap of the ministry of Peter over there and then you would also read a little bit about the church of Antioch. And eventually when we come to Acts chapter 13, that is the place where you see the Holy Spirit asking Paul and Barnabas to be called particularly for more of a missionary role. And so Paul and Barnabas are sent on their missionary journeys and from then on you see the three missionary journeys of Apostle Paul unfold. So throughout till about the 28th chapter, we just go over the missionary journeys of Apostle Paul. We also see how he plants different churches, how he oversees different churches, how he raises up leaders, how he is accused by the Romans and how he finally is moving from one court to the other and he is being taken up into higher courts till he is brought to Rome where he needs to face Nero and give a defence for himself. So this is how the chapters look and the story, if you will, is seen in all these 20th chapters. So I will pause for a moment. Would you have any questions or any comments to add to what I have just shared? Please feel free to unmute and talk. So if you don't have anything to say, I will quickly share another way of looking at the Book of Acts. So there are layers and layers. You can look at it in so many different ways because so much is happening here. So I will quickly share the screen here. So I just talked about all the 28 chapters and what takes place. This is another way of describing these 28 chapters. So from chapter 1 till chapter 2, the preparation of the Christian mission, then chapter 2 to chapter 8, the mission in Jerusalem, chapter 8 and 9, the mission in Judea and Samaria, chapter 10 to chapter 15, the inauguration of the Gentile mission. So you see there's a shift, right? There's a shift where the gospel is now going beyond the Jewish community. So the Gentile mission begins to unfold and from chapter midway of chapter 15, when the Council of Jerusalem meets, you see more of the mission to the ends of the earth. So the mission of Paul to the ends of the earth. So this is another way of describing what takes place from chapter 1 to chapter 28. And I'm sure you can come up with so many other themes that you find in the Book of Acts. So as you research, you will find people describe it differently each time. But that is the beauty of the Book of Acts. So at this point, let's go ahead and take a break. 10 minutes, we will come back and we will begin with studying chapter 1 of the Book of Acts. All the online students, I request you to don't get off the call. You can simply unmute yourselves and put your camera off and just rejoin the call after 10 minutes. So we will meet at 10 a.m. Thank you.