 Good morning everyone. It's so good to be back with your batch and I really appreciate the fact that each one of you has Pursued learning the word of God and now you are in your third year and we are doing book studies And I'm sure this is going to be a very enriching experience for each of us And I really hope that this will be the Beginning of in-depth study. So whatever we learn in the third year let that be a Foundation for continuous study of the books throughout no matter What you do after your graduation? So let's pray and We will begin. I just want to request somebody from the batch here to lead in prayer Yeah, anyone can Please lead We come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this day. We thank you for this Class that you have given us Jesus. We thank you for this new academic You brought this year you called us you chose this and the God who has begun the good work Continued it until today Jesus and you will do it until you come back. I give this whole class into your hands I give all my classmates. I cover them in the blood of Jesus and God I declare your wisdom over each one of us here Right now Lord as we listen to the classes help us to open our mind and heart Help us to open our spiritual eyes and spiritual earth so that we can understand the deepest truth in the Bible Jesus We thank you. We give Nancy and we bless her With good health with good knowledge and guidance. They give you all the glory and honor in Jesus name. We pray Amen. Thank you, Jeffina Let's begin with the book of Acts as We start off. I just want to remind us that we will be studying from The Bible so I am using the nkj version of the Bible. So whenever we read You may find that that's the version that's been used in class so you can refer to the Bibles to read through the book and in addition to this We can use commentaries. The one that I Will be using is the blue letter Bible from David Guzik so enduring word is is another you know website that he has so enduring word Blue letter Bibles you could use both of these as well today We will begin with an introduction to the book of Acts So when we think about the book of Acts, what comes to your mind? I'm sure all of us have read the book at least once so What are the first few thoughts that come to our mind when we consider the book of Acts? Okay, Holy Spirit the day of Pentecost the day of Pentecost remember is as a second volume of St. Luke or of Luke the physician Okay, the second volume of Luke the physician. That's true Okay, St. Paul's transformation Wow each of these teams is so You know, it seems like that is the theme of the book and you can write so much about each one of them That's great. Thank you, Rosalie Anything else that comes to your mind? Working on science and wonders and growth of the church Wow, yeah, that's true also so rapid growth of growth of the church At the manifestation of science and wonders like never before That that again is something Wonderful that happens after the Gospels. Yes, all of these are unique anything else that you want to add to this list fulfillment of Jesus promise and the all the activities of the early church Uh, uh, uh, could you come again, please? I couldn't hear you very well fulfillment of Jesus promise on the days of Pentecost Okay, so the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus Which happened on the day of Pentecost? Yes and anything different From what has been listed out so far Yeah, Angelic intervention whenever was needed like in case of Peter and when he was in prison and the church read Even in case of Paul and Salis Yes So angelic intervention That's nice. So, uh, all these layers exist to the story that unfolds in the book of acts If we keep looking at the book of acts, we can look at several other themes. We can look at how the gospel began to spread From the Jews to the Gentiles to the ends of the earth. We can see how Lives of people were transformed. We can see the birth of the church. We can see the evolution of church governance and structure In the book of acts, that's sort of an initiation of that and then, you know, it begins to take shape As you read the other epistles in the new testament, we can understand how people faced persecution You know during the book of acts, we've already listed out the mighty works of the Holy Spirit So the the working of signs wonders miracles And when we study about the way the Holy Spirit work, we can get Uh We can get a good understanding of the prophetic as well Or in other words, how God speaks to his people and how he directed the steps of the people throughout the book of acts So these are Even though we've listed out quite a few happenings and quite a few important aspects of the book of acts, you know, the list is not complete. We can keep going on and the book of acts In in many ways is It is very exciting. Okay Yes, all the other books of the bible are exciting, but this is in a different way It's almost like you're you're watching a story unfold. You're watching the promises of Jesus unfold in the lives of the believers and the apostles and How that is just the beginning for what the world is going to see Uh, you know, all that begins in the book of acts now Let's look at a little bit of the background of the book of acts in this first session That's what I'm going to deal with and as I've already stated. I have not posted any notes for this course You can kindly refer to The bible itself as well as some commentaries the one of the primary ones that I will be using is the Enduring word by David Cousin. So There are if if we need to sum up what the book of acts is all about we could make one statement and that statement is that The acts That are being talked about Are the acts of the holy spirit? through his people So the book of acts is about The acts of the holy spirit through god's people The acts of the holy spirit We would see them manifesting through the ministry of the apostles as well as Ordinary believers and so many things take place in the book of acts. So when we say acts Uh acts of who? Some places it says acts of the uh apostles. So all we just say the book of acts Acts or the actions of the holy spirit through god's people is what is captured in this book of acts So we see a lot of ministry happening We see a lot of You know fulfillment Of the promises that god has made in the old testament as well as the promises that Jesus made while he was ministering here on So ministry is taking place throughout the book of acts in a way the book of acts is a connector or The bridge between the gospels and the epistles If we did not have the book of acts if we just had the gospels We would learn about the life of jesus his death burial resurrection and suddenly we would move on to um The epistles the letters written by paul. We would move on to the letters written by other apostles and A very significant portion of history Uh among the early believers would would be missing Because we wouldn't understand Who this man paul is we wouldn't understand. You know, what exactly happened? Uh after the resurrection of jesus, we wouldn't understand Uh, who all these you know new people are you you suddenly begin to see leaders like timothy tightest silas Who are all these people and we would also um Not understand how These believers started manifesting the power of cotton If you take for example the book of corinthians where paul talks about the Manifestation of the gifts of the spirit. We wouldn't have a clue how that happened suddenly after the resurrection of jesus So the book of acts has a lot of content that gives us context for what is to come later So as we read the epistles We can connect to individuals and churches and uh the The way things unfolded to the formation of those churches and you know, who were the people involved? What could have been certain issues in those churches so on and so forth and uh, we can sort of create a timeline And look at the new testament Like a story even because you know, you you have some context to all that is coming up later So between the epistles And the gospels the book of acts forms a bridge and it is really important for us to understand Now when we look at the book of acts, uh, we also see that it was The timeline when when uh these happenings took place It happened somewhere around 33 ad that's when you That those are the events that are recorded from 33 ad all the way till about 62 ad The incidents are recorded within the book of acts now we may ask the question who wrote this book The book of acts any idea Here anyone wants to take a guess About who is the author of this book? Luke Okay, that's true. Okay, you got it. Uh, you know, uh in your first guess So luke is the author of the book of acts and luke is Every writer of the books of the bible is quite unique uh, when we consider luke he is uh You know a very special individual for various reasons one particular reason is that he was traveling with paul when for, you know, some parts of The incidents that are recorded in the book of acts and A luke is also somebody who who knew the life of jesus very well When you Read a little bit more about luke We get the picture that he was a physician. He was uh, gentile. He was uh, A systematic meticulous Historian He was also a christian teacher. He was a believer whatever he wrote in the book of luke And in the book of acts leads us to faith in the lord jesus christ So we can see the perspective of luke as he writes the book of acts Whenever we read this book, you know, we uh may appreciate Now how systematically how, um, you know, how detailed the content is and uh, how luke has filtered out certain things that Don't which are not required in the letter, but he he's kind of Given the story of focus. So that is why I said it's it's almost like reading a story, uh, you know unfolding So he's written it in a very beautiful way because he was a learned individual and he carried the kills to tell a story And the book of acts was addressed to an individual called as Theophilus now theophilus we will see his name in acts chapter one It's likely that theophilus was a god fearing influencer Theophilus could have been in the government offices and The a possibility is that luke wrote The book of acts as a defense letter for paul So when you start reading the book of acts We will see that it begins with the birth of the early church on the day of pentecost and As you go ahead this personality paul appears in the picture Uh, he does a lot of ministry But that's the season of persecution so at some point he is uh taken away by the Roman authorities and he's been tried When we come till you know chapter 28 We'll notice that paul is engaging in defending himself because the roman authorities want to prove him guilty So we will read the defense that paul gives people in various levels of governance It's likely that luke wanted to help paul and to Take up paul's case. He has written elaborately about the birth of the church, but he's also written elaborately about paul The reason is he may have wanted to give this letter to the roman authorities to prove That paul was innocent that paul was not doing anything You know ungodly or he was not doing anything against the law of the land. So The book of acts while it is meant to um impart faith To the listener or the reader It is a defense brief written by luke And that is why he wrote it to this man called theophilus I already told us that he would have been an influencer or he must have been a government official So luke was trying to get this letter to theophilus So that paul somehow can be released and you know that paul might Be let go and continue his ministry So at the time When paul was undergoing his trial Nero is is the ruler at that time and we will talk about this later. It was an incredible Time of persecution that believers had to face So everyone was was doing their best to serve god doing their best to Love the community of believers around them Now I've already said that since luke is the writer of the book So he is aware of the life of jesus. We know that he wrote his initial Uh piece of the book of luke where he talks about the life of jesus now the book of acts People say that uh mostly luke has written it in continuation Okay, so he first wrote the book of luke about the life of jesus and then he continued writing with the book of acts In some parts of the book of acts suddenly the language will change where luke is also part of paul's journey So he would make statements like and we did this we uh went together So there we can recognize that luke is also part of the journey in other portions of the book of acts You will notice that he's just narrating from wherever he is So he'll talk about the story as a person who heard about it from someone All right, uh now The reason why we also say that this is a continuation is because when we start reading the book of acts We will see that luke will start With the life of jesus So he talks about the death burial resurrection of jesus in his uh, you know gospel letter in his gospel writing and now He begins in acts chapter one by saying something like uh, it's all about All about all that jesus began to do and to teach uncle the gay He was taken up to heaven. So what's happening after resurrection? You know, he'll talk about the ascension and then continue into the birth of the church. So it's a continuation That's the reason people say that he wrote luke first and then he just continued into writing the book of acts Uh, some people also say that it is the second volume The first volume is luke the book of luke the second volume is the book of acts Then when we look at the literal style in which the book of acts was written, uh, it was written in the greek translation The greek translation of the old testament was known as the septuagent. So in that same literal style The book of acts has been written So what are some of the Uh, themes that you see in the book of acts we've already listed out quite a few now. Let me let me Uh, go repeat some of them again and go over a couple of new ones Firstly we see the work of the holy spirit in the book of acts So primarily how the holy spirit was poured upon the people And how the holy spirit worked through the people is what we see Secondly we would see that, uh, initially Some personalities are being spoken of more and then you have new uh people You know appearing in in the book of acts So initial focus is more on the 12 apostles Initial focus is more on peter who emerges as a leader And later on the focus is more on the ministry of apostle paul But one thing that we have to bear in mind is that the stories would overlap because you know It was during the same timeline that all these personalities existed So even though, uh, later on we will read more about paul It's not like peter was not continuing to serve the lord or or anything like that. It's just that the uh, the Focus has shifted to the life of paul. So the the events, uh, the stories are all Somewhere overlapping connected, uh, and must not be looked at as separate Then coming to the geographical outline The wonderful verse that we all talk about from the book of acts is acts chapter one inverse eight Where jesus said you shall receive power and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, judia, samaria and to the ends of the earth So notice there that there is a progression where god wanted to Remind his people That the gospel is for the nations. It's not just for the jews. It began with the jews, but It was meant to go out into the world So even in that statement, you can see how it moves out Jerusalem, judia, samaria and to the ends of the earth We see that statement and as the, uh lives of people Are being spoken of in the book of acts slowly we start to see Regions being named. So the day of pentecost uh, and uh, uh pouring of the spirit the thriving church All of that happened in jerusalem But later on at chapter eight, you will find that there is a man philip who will go and do ministry in samaria So remember that's what jesus said jerusalem, judia, samaria and to the ends of the earth So samaria is being spoken of over there Most of peter's work happened in the region of judia Then later you have cities, uh, uh, such as antioc being named, you know, uh, and later you will see how paul will want to go into, um Asia he will want to go into europe, uh, and the region of asia minor is covered in the Travels of paul. So some of us may look at the book of acts and say hey, where is the ends of the earth? Jesus said judia samaria and the ends of the earth, but all of this is unfolding within the region but Acts chapter 28 Sort of ends abruptly Okay, so, uh Many theologians also say that The book has not really ended therefore And jesus said Jerusalem judia samaria the ends of the earth It's like the holy spirit is continuing his work through all of us So the ends of the earth is happening Whatever was possible during the time of the early church Those regions were covered but god continues to Uh, show his glory to the ends of the earth So in that sense, whatever jesus promised is happening It only began in the book of acts, but it is happening right now And that's one way of looking at it we also see that The faith or the gospel moved from the jews to the gentiles Peter John when we look at all these apostles many of them They're jews and they thought that Whatever jesus came to do was only for them but We see how god was leading these apostles to take a step of faith And minister to other communities Acts chapter 10 is a wonderful example where god sends Peter He's so hesitant to go to the gentiles But god sends him to the house of conelius and you see how beautifully conelius his Family his friends they accept the gospel and even the holy spirit is poured out upon them when they receive And they believe and receive in what the lord jesus has done. So that is sort of the beginning Of god moving his leaders to minister to the gentiles And then we see that you know, there was no Jew or gentile when paul goes out to preach he preaches first to the jews And when they are not receptive to the gospel message he starts to even preach to the gentiles And primarily to god called paul to the gentiles when paul gives his defense Even at that time we will see that he will talk to some Jewish leaders, but he will also talk to some gentile leaders. So there's no distinction What god began to do is to take the gospel out to every community every region that is god's heart to Make the gospel available the work the redeeming work of the cross is for everyone god so loved the world That he gave his only begotten son right so What jesus has done has to reach the entire world and that starts to happen through The ministry in the booker through the leaders or the believers in the booker acts and paul and his missionary journey I already said how You know paul travels through europe asia minor and he ministers to gentiles and jews So that is another theme that we can look at when we continue to study the book of acts We would see Many teachings as well right we would we would see Peter standing up and preaching we would see paul ministering And you know paul In his defense paul talking about the gospel and the work of the lord jesus christ So in this manner there are many teachings as well that we can pick up from the book of acts And in the book of acts there is a defense about the lord jesus christ Peter john paul they all will Talk about how jesus is the messiah and connect back to scriptures in the old testament and you know a state To the jews or the listeners that whatever was prophesied Is now coming to pass So the fulfillment of old testament prophecies is also something that we See spoken of in the book of acts a few other themes that we can understand From the book of acts is also There there will be some thoughts about you know what the kingdom of god is like right jesus talked about it in the gospels But we see how the church is formed and the church belongs To the kingdom of god and how the church really begins to function So that picture of what the kingdom of god looks like The glorious kingdom of god with power Manifesting with signs and wonders We we get a picture of that in the book of acts We also get a picture of the grace of god how i said that People from various communities are touched you would find that people who are against god Are saved by grace paul being a classic example So the grace of god you get a picture of the grace of god and how god really touches The lives of people so all of these things are seen in the book of acts And if we just keep you know talking about Very many things we can say we find personal transformation stories of personal transformation here We find stories of you know The fire of god the power of god the holy spirit we Find are so much spoken of about places different places communities And of course, you know a lot of focus on the life of apostle paul So is there anything more that you may want to add from your knowledge To whatever has been shared so far Okay, so uh, yeah, I think we've kind of covered almost everything that needs to be covered uh in the book of acts so We can start to read acts chapter one So if you have your Bibles open what we will do right now, we'll just go through acts chapter one We can read the entire passage to begin with and When we come back after the break we can start to explain what The passage really means so who would like to read acts one The full chapter one. Yes acts chapter one In my former book theophilus I wrote about all that jesus began to do And to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven After giving instructions through the holy spirit to the apostles he had chosen After his suffering he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of god On one occasion while he was eating with them. He gave them this command Do not leave jerusalem but wait for the gift my father promised Which you have heard which you have heard me speak about For john baptized with water But in a few days you will be baptized with the holy spirit Then they gathered around him and asked him Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to israel? He said to them it is not for you to know the times or dates the father has set by his own authority But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes on you And you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and in all judia and samaria And to the ends of the earth After he said this he was taken up before their very eyes And the cloud hid him from their sight They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going When suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them Men of galilee they said why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same jesus who has been taken from you into heaven Will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven Then the apostles returned to jerusalem from the hill called the mount of olives A Sabbath day's walk from the city When they arrived they went upstairs to the room where they were staying Those present were peter john james and andrew phillip and thomas bartholomew and matthew James son of alphas and simon the zealot and judas son of james They all joined together constantly in prayer along with the women and mary the mother of jesus And with his brothers In those days peter stood up among the believers A group numbering about 120 and said brothers and sisters The scripture had to be fulfilled in which the holy spirit spoke along Long ago through david concerning judas Who served as guide for those who arrested jesus? He was one of our number and shared in our ministry With the payment he received for his wickedness Judas bought a field there. He fell headlong His body burst open and all his intestines spilled out Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this So they called that field in their language A keldama that is field of blood For said peter it is written in the book of psalms May his place be deserted let there be no one to dwell in it And may another take his place of leadership Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us The whole time the lord jesus was living among us Beginning from john's baptism to the time when jesus was taken up from us For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection So they nominated two men joseph called bar sabas Also known as justice and matthias Then they prayed lord, you know everyone's heart Show us which of these two you have chosen To take over this apostolic ministry Which judas left to go where he belongs Then they cast lords and the lord fell to matthias So he was added to the 11 apostles Amen Thank you. Thank you That was quite a long passage, but you know you Went over that so I really appreciate it. Now coming back to Act chapter one we've already You know talked about theophilus here whose name is mentioned. So Let's you know begin right there. We'll have to talk about him again because Luke starts with the introduction to the second The Edition or the second volume of his writing when he says the former account What is the former account? We said that he had already written the book of Luke. So that's what it is the former account I made oh theophilus Theophilus being the ruler the believing ruler. So theophilus The name is a greek name and theo is god phyllis is god loving so even in the name it shows that he was probably a believer who loved god and Luke was trying to get some help for paul So he found this believer a ruler and and he wanted to give the defense to him so that in Some way the paul could be Released and paul could be set free. So he says oh theophilus Of all that jesus began both to do and eat So he's referring to the Book of Luke where he's saying that He had covered the life of jesus now notice it says jesus began both to do and teach So when we think about the ministry of the lord jesus, there are two aspects One is the teaching aspect, but the other is the demonstration aspect which we must not forget When we study the life of jesus, we want to imbibe the way he did ministry. So how did jesus do ministry? Luke is saying What jesus began both to do and Teach so there are teachings of jesus we refer to you know the servant on the mount We refer to all the parables we refer to The teaching on the kingdom of god we refer to the teaching about heaven and hell So a lot of teaching is there in the life of jesus part When we look at the way he reached out to people in their situations and circumstances There is a combination of both the teaching as well as the doing So when we serve god today Uh, we must pray and say lord help me to teach but help me to also impact with the power of god Help me to demonstrate The the works of the kingdom. What are the works of the kingdom? We know all the good works of the kingdom where life transformation happens through our ministry or healing stake place Um, there's a miracle stake place in people's lives breakthroughs happen Uh, and in this manner, there are many things that happen in the lives of people when jesus was ministry That's what uh, luke is talking about so how was the ministry of jesus the ministry of jesus was what he both did and Thought what he began to do and to teach and that is how we must also do our ministry Okay, uh, let's continue from there now. He says until the day in which he was taken up So he's talking about the ascension of our lord jesus christ So jesus after he was resurrected a few things will will be uh, you know talked about it And then he's very clearly pointing out that jesus is now ascended into heaven So when we read books like he bruce, uh, you have a reference to the lord jesus and his current ministry As the high priest in the real tabernacle of heaven So jesus is seated up in heaven And he is at the right hand of the father. What is his primary ministry now intercession or you know, he is It's not so much that jesus is praying for us But it is more like he's already done his intercession on the cross by you know dying for our sins paying the price for our sins and setting us free and He is representing that work of intercession up in heaven So we must remember this luke is pointing out. Where is jesus now? Where is jesus in the book of acts? Well, jesus is Not there in the book of acts because the person Of jesus or the second person of the god at the trinity Now goes up into heaven and he will start talking about the We use the term you know third person of the trinity the holy spirit, but it's not an hierarchy It's not that you know the father is first and jesus is second the holy spirit is third It's not like that but just to uh to sort of denote the The manner in which each one is talked about in the word of god We just say you know the father the second person The lord jesus and the holy spirit, but they are co-equal. So luke has given us a clear picture that Jesus the son of god now ascends up into heaven So he says until the day in which he was taken up He makes it very very clear about the ascension of the lord jesus After he through the holy spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen So he's talking about the interaction of jesus with the leaders the Apostles and all that he instructed them to do so when jesus was with the Apostles or the disciples at that point you were calling them disciples. What did jesus do jesus? Ventured them how We've seen everything that he did everything that he taught both right So they had listened to many teachings from jesus But at the same time they had seen the life of jesus and they could live out You know what jesus had demonstrated through his own life. So he prepared these apostles Who he had chosen he had given them commands and it is also said through the holy spirit So we know that there is this You know help or support that each person of the godhead gives to the other So the ministry of jesus supported by the holy spirit through the holy spirit He gave commands to the apostles who were chosen To whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs So we see in scripture that the lord jesus made himself visible To the Disciples so that they know that he has risen from the dead jesus dying On the cross was very real to the disciples and we know it's a historical record because All these writers Matthew mark luke John they talk about these are all separate individuals We also have extra biblical literature that proves that the trial the death the burial of jesus was a historic event Now in addition to these events. There is another event That is being spoken of which is the resurrection of the lord jesus Now jesus wanted the disciples to witness All of these they saw him die, but they also saw him Come alive He appeared to them in the resurrected body and he uh continued to be with them after his Resurrections what uh, you know 40 days he was with The people he was with the disciples and they again heard him. They again Lived with him and experienced him and they were very clear that you know jesus Was alive and it was the same jesus. So There are infallible proofs Luke writes what are all these infallible proofs so for 14 days There are many things that took place as jesus was with the people it is uh noted in first school since 15 and verse 6 You know, we we are told that about 500 brethren at once Paul writes about this 500 brethren or people they saw jesus Or they saw the resurrected jesus. So it's not that only the disciples are talking about the resurrected jesus There were other people who have witnessed the resurrected christ and so if 500 people saw jesus and he was uh among them for 40 days There would have been so many things that he said and did which was proof enough for them to know that yes This jesus has risen from the dead Did he really died? Uh, was he really nailed to the cross? Well, uh, you you remember the time when thomas was doubtful and he said, okay Tell me I want to know lord. Is it really you and he showed him the wound that he had in his hand to prove that Look, hey, it's me. I died, but I am alive now I am risen in the midst of all of you So in this way jesus gave witness to uh, you know, his Resurrected self and infallible proofs many infallible proofs. So many things have happened That may not necessarily be have been recorded for us Uh in you know, the the letters here, but uh, many things have taken place as people witness the resurrected christ okay, so I I think I'll just stop here and then we will continue later. So so far we've seen luke's continuation He's writing to theophilus. He's talking about the resurrected christ. He's talking about how jesus presented himself alive Uh, and and uh, you know for 40 days He was with the people and he was talking it also states here towards the end Of verse three that he was speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god So again another big lesson for us. Look at the teaching of jesus before he died He was talking about the kingdom of god after he came alive. He hasn't changed his teaching Isn't it? So jesus is focused on the same Teaching yes, there was uh, you know depth Maybe depth is added to what has already been spoken of but jesus does not deviate from the whole message Of the kingdom of god. So uh, unless it was important for jesus think about this only 40 days. He's with the people Uh, he can talk about anything that's important to him. What is important to him the kingdom of god? So he spoke to them pertaining to the things of the kingdom of god Okay, so all right class. Let's go in for a break. We will come back and we will continue in the book of facts Thank you so much