 Ma'am unmute your microphone. Good morning everyone. Welcome to the session on Christian History and Messions. I hope I'm audible. Is it clear? Yes ma'am, your order is ready. Okay, great. So let's begin the session on journey through the book of Acts. Today we will be covering the second chapter from the book, Revival's Visitation and Moves of God. So request one of y'all to please start the class with a word of prayer. Yes, Jeffyda, please go ahead. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this beautiful day and God we surrender ourselves. We give our mind and heart to you. Help us to listen to everything Pastor Diana teaches. We bless our Pastor Diana and I bless every student and I praise each one of us in your hands. Lead us and guide us, help us to understand that we are Holy Spirit. We welcome you as we read each and every word as we go through the chapters that our mind keeps getting larger about you God. We pray that everything else in your hands give us the good network that we need and take care of all our needs. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Jeffyda. So last class we studied about the Revival's, you know, the introduction to the Revival's, what happens with the Revival. And we also studied on the quest, the urge that one should have for the Revival to be birthed. So today we're going to study on the second chapter where we're going to see how the early church was birthed, how the Holy Spirit moved through the early church from the Book of Acts. So the Book of Acts records approximately 40 years of such presentation and the move of God. And we see the outpouring of God's Spirit in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. So what happened today? There was a supernatural power of God ministered to that 120 disciples, believers were gathered in that power. So the outpouring of the Spirit became a habitation of God. God month that community of believers then see the fire spread from Jerusalem across Asia Minor into Europe and all the way to the capital, the world which was Rome in those days. So we see that the Book of Acts records a various instant of the move of the Holy Spirit. So we will go chapter by chapter so that we can cover every instance like this. So the very start of it in Acts chapter 1 verse 14, we see that the Book of Acts opens by the Lord's Ascension, falling with 120 disciples spent 10 days being in one court and in continuous prayer. So what happened? What was the outcome of that prayer? What was the outcome of that prayer? In Acts 2 we see there was a rushing wind and they encountered the power of the Holy Spirit. Each one, you know, they felt like the tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit came upon them, the tongues of fire. So when there is one court and one mind, you see there is an outpouring of Spirit. So two points we can take from this. They were one court, they were unity, they were one and heart and mind, but they were connected. Second, there was a continuity and a collective prayer. So these are the two ingredients that we can take to the birth of the Divine. You see the outpouring of the Spirit, they had a purpose, purpose to empower the disciples who were there in that upper. And later these disciples were simple men and women who were filled with fear, who were filled with fear, who did not have the knowledge of God, were now old. They now had the knowledge of God, they now have the courage of God to go and witness about Jesus Christ and they went forth and they witnessed to the ends of the earth. So there was a supernatural phenomenon that took place in that city where the city had, generally the city was about one lakh residents residing there. But then due to the feast of Passover and the feast of first fruit, they were about five lakh people visiting Jerusalem. And here you see the right time the Spirit has witnessed among these disciples and here these disciples are old and courageous. And speaking up, we see where Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and each minister to them and in one day there were 3,000 people received Jesus as an audience. And they all were amazed and they all were marveled about the way the disciples were preaching and sharing the work, the knowledge that they carried with them. The power through which they demonstrated people were amazed and perplexed. And the same time others were walking and what was happening there. Those who believed, those who believed witnessed the power of God in everything. So the Holy Spirit moves among the believers, those who believe will encounter God. Those who believe will witness the power of the Holy Spirit. With that we will move on to Acts chapter 2. What happened? Yes, there was a sound of rushing mighty wind and we see the tongues of fire and the disciples ministered in other languages. The disciples ministered and the people who heard them, heard them in their own languages. All this was supernatural phenomena that could happen only by the power of the Holy Spirit. So there is an important lesson here that we could learn from here is the outpouring of the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will do, has He desires in each outpouring. It may not be the same each and every time that there is a revival or when there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But then the Lord desires to minister to the set of people how He wishes to minister. So we cannot put God in our books and ask God to minister just like that. But then the Holy Spirit desires to minister to people in their own way. But we see the purpose of our study in the book of Acts. We can divide that into three sections. The first section we see that the first eight years highlights the outpouring of the Spirit through the community. And we need to understand what it looked like in a church, in a community of believers how this revival was birthed in the first eight years. After that, next 10 years we see how one community, how a community can spark this revival and raise up several other communities. And we can learn how this revival fire sparked and spread through other communities or other believers in this small church. The third, we see that next 20 years it provides an insight into the life of man. One encounter. For all who had one encounter with God, how He became the carrier of that revival fire. And what we can learn from this, how each of us can be that carrier of that revival fire in our time, in our place with the Lord has called us to be. So let's look into the first eight years. The first eight years can be from AD 30 to AD 38 where the church was birthed. So we see that in Acts chapter, it covers Acts chapter 2 to Acts chapter 8. These first eight years are covered from Acts chapter 2 to Acts chapter 8. Where we witness the Holy Spirit was poured out on 120 believers on the day of Mentecost. See the work of the Spirit that ministered through Peter was able to save 3,000 people with the very first sermon that Peter preached. And from then on, we see that many community of believers were added on to the church. We see that in the book of Acts where it says, Lord added many people to church. Well, Lord registered to them and added many believers to church. And in that response, we also see later, there was a lame man from birth who were healed. And this very incident stirred another 4,000 people to be added on to the church. There were many people who continued to serve. So what we see here is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, many people were saved. And the work of the Spirit continued very powerfully among the people believed. And what was the fruit, what was the outcome of this outpour of the Holy Spirit among this community of people in Jerusalem? Let's look at the impact that the Holy Spirit had among these communities. The very first is many souls were saved and brought and added into the kingdom of God. So when we, if somebody says there's a revival or even if we are experiencing the revival, we need to see the fruit of the Spirit are these things happening. That which happened in the early days of the early days, the early church, is it happening now? Are they souls being added? Are people being convicted of this sin? And are they being saved and added to the kingdom of God? Second, we need to see, is there a steadfast teaching, fellowship, sharing and prayer in the house of God? We need to see other people in the community have a great fear or a reverence to God. And if this is happening, we know that the Spirit of the Lord is moving among that community. So this is what happened in the early church, there was a great fear, great reverence towards God. And the disciples just did not minister to people by the word, but then they also demonstrated the power of God through signs, wonders and miracles. And there was a great grace upon the people which affected the whole city. We also see the boldness that these disciples had to carry and minister towards people. And at the same time, they also faced persecution from the other religious leaders. But what we see is that did not stop the disciples from ministering to the people. The community just went on sharing the word unselflessly. They were so selfless that they went on sharing the word. There was a great unity. They prayed together. They were one God, one heart and one mind. They influenced the people to spread the word of God from one place to the other. They carried the word of God out of Jerusalem. And they all ministered with signs and wonders. When they were oppressed by the other people, you see they experienced the angelic visitation bringing deliverance and instruction to the disciples. We also see there was peaceful and there was wisdom been resolved during the disputes and problems. Because they all seek the Holy Spirit to come and minister to them. And there were people being raised up in faith and wisdom and power to create signs and wonders among the community of people. And there were also leaders being raised. So in eight years, we see they raised disciples who could carry this revival fire through the Word and Spirit across other cities. Across Judea, Samaria, Galilee, just as it was mentioned in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. You shall be my witness in Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Yes, this is what happened. We see how the disciples carried from one place to the other. There were the gospel of God. Jesus was shared among the believers. And they saw God's divine intervention affecting the people in high places. Just like how Philip ministered to the Ethiopian eunuch. And how God by his divine nature ministered to Saul of Tarsus. And just that one encounter of Saul changed his life and it became the carrier of the Word from one place to the other throughout the Mediterranean. How we became the carrier of the gospel. After that, we see the next 10 years. How this revival, this revival fire, how it spread. So in eight years in Jerusalem it spread in the nearby cities like Judea, Samaria, Galilee. And now the next 10 years, how this revival fire will be carried out of Jerusalem. What happened? There was extreme persecution in Jerusalem. The disciples had to scatter. Had to scatter. Now what happened? When there was a persecution, did they stop ministering? Did they stop sharing the word? No, it was just like God stirred that revival and telling them now it's time for y'all to go out. Go to the ends of the earth. So this resulted in the disciples carrying the revival fire and spreading out wild. So the community of disciples were raised and they all carried the same spirit, the same DNA, which was ministered to them at the Church of Jerusalem. Now these communities were experiencing a mighty, mighty war of the Holy Spirit that they could not keep it for themselves. But then they moved out sharing the word. So in 1838 we see that's all encountered the Lord. Probably he was about 29 to 33 years old. And Paul went, what did he do? When he encountered the Lord, he was strengthened by the disciples in the new church and then he went out ministering to other places. He went out places like, you know, the northwest of Jerusalem, which was located in the, towards the highway of Egypt and Syria. And these churches also are thriving and experiencing the supernatural power of God by then. And we also see what happened. There was a divine intervention as God spoke through a vision to a Roman centurion. And this opened the door of gospel to the Gentiles. And we see Peter, Lord ministering to Peter to carry the gospel and go to the Roman centurion house and pray, share the word and baptize them. So here Peter is witnessing how the Holy Spirit is ministering to the Gentiles as well. So now the door for the Gentiles has been opened by the Spirit himself. Till then Peter and the other disciples were only ministering to the Jews. But now the gospel has been shared to the Gentiles by the Lord himself. So more leaders were raised up in Jerusalem church like Barnabas, Silas and Agabus. And Barnabas was sent to take care of the church at Antioch, which is also, we see that the church grew in Antioch powerfully and they were the first people who were called as Christians at Antioch. And later we see how the ministry grew and the churches were birthed in Jerusalem and other places. And we learned several lessons from this, from the church in Jerusalem. And the church in Jerusalem grew in Word and in Spirit and they raised many believers and leaders. And they believed God to open new doors of opportunity for them to share the gospel in the unreached areas. But as they believed and prayed, they witnessed, they did experience the divine intervention of God. You know how God intervened and stopped Saul and Saul's life was changed through that. And then we also see when Peter was in the prison, when the community of believers prayed, we see how God sent an angel to deliver Peter from the prison. And there were new leaders been raised and you know through them the church was strengthened and they ministered to the other places. We also see Luke who is the author of the book of Acts was most likely a Greek who lived in the city of Antioch in Syria. Luke by profession, he was a physician. The scripture was silent. The scripture does not tell us like when, where and how Luke was saved or he came to faith in Lord Jesus Christ. But then this is what it says that Luke was with Paul. Luke was with the other disciples. Because many instances in the book of Luke he writes we that he was with Peter he was with. So the next 20 years, we can look into the next 20 years. That is 8048 to 8068. Now what happens initial first eight years, we saw how the Holy Spirit moved among the disciples in the city of Jerusalem and ministered to the nearest cities like Judea, Samaria and Galilee. And next 10 years we see how the church was birthed in Antioch and other places and how they grew stronger in word and in spirit and they all moved in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and there were various leaders been raised by now like Paul, Silas and Agibus. Now we are moving to the next phase. That is the next 20 years. So in next 20 years we get to, that is from Acts chapter 13 to Acts chapter 28. So when we study the second part of 10 years we also see how the Holy Spirit opened the door for the Gentiles to be ministered. Okay. So now with that we are moving on to Acts chapter 13 to Acts chapter 28 where we get to know about Paul. Just the one encounter what Paul had on the road of Damascus, how it changed his life and how this, the fire of revival has been birthed in him and how he becomes the carrier of what we are going to see from this chapter. So the rest of this Acts, that is from Acts chapter 13 to Acts chapter 28 focuses on the journey and ministry of the Apostle Paul how he spreads the Gospel around the Mediterranean Sea and into the different parts of Europe. Let's look into the key points of his early life. As we just said, Paul was converted on the road of Damascus and he was about 29 to 33 years approximately and Paul immediately started preaching. As he spent time with the Apostles and leaders he learned he started witnessing, he started sharing his conversion story among the other believers at the synagogues of Damascus for a short time and then we see that Paul goes into Arabia which at that time was part of the Nebatian kingdom with the purpose of preaching to the Gentiles. We get to read that in the book of Galatians chapter 1. Then we see Paul returned to Damascus for the rest of the three year period he continued to stay with the disciples to be strengthened by the word and spirit with them and also at the same time share his testimony and preach the good news at the synagogues there. And later we see how the Jews and the other agents of Arratus the ruler of Nebatian kingdom in Arabia attempt to find about Paul and arrest them because he is being the spread of this Christian the new religion they called them. So Paul with the help of other believers escapes from Damascus and he travels to Jerusalem and he stays there for 15 days. Now what happened? What happens in Jerusalem? In Jerusalem we see that Barnabas he meets Barnabas and Barnabas introduces Paul to the other apostles who are there and in this season Paul stays with Peter for 15 days and he learns much more from the disciples who witness Jesus who spend their time with Jesus and during his stay in Jerusalem Paul spoke boldly in the name of the Lord and he engaged in debates with the Christian that is the Hellenistic Jews and when the disciples because this was spreading as Paul was very bold and he witnessed with all his power and might with what he had experienced the power of God and this was creating a much more impact for people to receive Jesus as the Lord and Saviour and the spread of Christianity was increasing in the city of Jerusalem and then the disciples get to know the plot that was plotted against Paul so they quickly you know they quickly make some arrangement to escape Paul from that place through a ship and send him to Tarsus which is hometown of now there is a silent period of Paul's life maybe 6 to 10 years he goes to Tarsus and he remains silent the scripture does not record what happened to Paul in this 10 years but we believe that he would have spent more time over and in spirit through which he got the revelation to write one third of the New Testament so what happens later the church in Antioch grows the church in Antioch is growing and when Barclifers was ministering to the church in Antioch as a church was growing he realizes that he needs an assistant to serve in the church at Antioch which is in Syria now there are two Antioch one is in Syria and one is in the other place Visedia okay Visedia I'll come across it later that please okay so now we're talking about Antioch of Syria where Barnabas is ministering so Barnabas suddenly is been remembered about Paul now who reminds him definitely the Lord reminds Barnabas about Paul and now Paul goes all the way to Tarsus he finds Paul and brings him to Antioch saying that I need your help come let's serve together now Paul and Barnabas serves at the church of Antioch for over a year together now we see Paul's life from different perspective he's a leader he's an opposite now we look at Paul being the carrier the more of God's spirit a carrier of the revival so what we learn from his life and ministry is what that you and I can you and I can carry it in our life we can experience the same more of God in our life when we seek God earnestly with the urge of being the carrier of his spirit so we see that Paul could not contend himself and stay just at Antioch but Paul comes up with this right here saying Barnabas come let's spread the word come let's go on a missionary journey across the Mediterranean and share the gospel plant churches so they go on the first missionary journey approximately the date is recorded as AD 44 to AD 46 so in book of Acts we see that Acts chapter 13 to Acts chapter 14 verse 28 it's been recorded about Paul's first missionary journey from Antioch in Syria the New Testament is been carried from Antioch in Syria and Antioch of the city here okay so what happens it is been referred in Acts chapter 13 that Antioch in Syria is called as the home church where most of the three missionary journeys have been started from the home church of Antioch in Syria so they go to different places from one place to the other and share the gospel so they go to the you know they go Paul and Barnabas they go to Rome and to Alexandria they go to some of the royal places and minister to them and now in Antioch we see just not Jewish people residing there there were other community of people who had influenced on Antioch like Jewish, Greek, Roman, Arabian and Persian so what happened the ancient Antioch which is now a Turkish city located located in Turkey has been influenced by these two leaders to the leadership team that raised up Antioch church you know to raise them with the word spirit and with demonstration of the Holy Spirit experienced the power of God in them so there were five leaders from this Antioch church were raised they were named as prophet and teachers of Antioch who are they? Barnabas Simeon called Nica Lucius of Cyrene Manny who had been raised with Herod Saul who is known as so their names were though they were from different social culture and ethnic background but they were creative leaders if you see the background Barnabas was a Levite from Cyprus and he was trained and raised up as a leader in the Jerusalem church and if you see Simeon was nicknamed as Nica or Black it is unclear whether he was an African or he just had a dark skin color but he was a Jewish see Lucius is from Cyrene and Cyrene and he was probably a Gentile believer was part of the Cyrene from a Jerusalem where the the Gospel was first preached in Jerusalem he encountered Lord in that meeting and he was later raised to be the leader and later we see Manian which means a comforter was brought up by Herod the Tetrack Herod we read in the Gospel like he must have been raised in the royal courts but later he encountered the he was encountered by the Lord through the Gospel that was shared in Jerusalem so he later was raised as a leader from a royal and of course about Saul we know that he had an encounter on the road to Damascus and how Lord raised him and later we see that how he was raised as a leader to the Gentiles and we see among these five leaders we see more about Paul's work how the Lord moved through Paul so when we see that we see the first missionary journey which took about two years where Paul and Barnabas journeyed together and they covered about 1200 miles Paul Barnabas and also John Mark joined them who was Barnabas's nephew who joined them and they set from Antioch of Syria to different places they covered Seleucia, Salmos you can go through those names in the book Cyprus and we see pathos and each and every place where they went and minister you see they minister to them the word they share the Gospel of Christ they also share demonstrated the power of God many were healed and you see people thrived in number to hear the word of God so what happened the places where they went and minister to like Seleucia, Cyprus and pathos they were quite very far places from Antioch of Syria now when they were at pathos and they were at pathos John Mark was along with them he saw this journey was too hard that he could take it maybe he had different kind of fear so we see that once again so we see that John Mark goes back home he leaves Paul and Barnabas and he gets back home then this does not stop Paul from doing what God has called him to do he continues to journey with Barnabas from pathos to Perga then they travel on land about 100 miles to Antioch and we have a record of Paul's message at Antioch where many believed the gospel and then what happened the Jews who did not believe raised a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out from Perga now we see Paul and Barnabas again travel from that place to 60 miles E which was the capital city of Lyconia so in this city again many believed many believed they came to the knowledge of Christ but what happened and as many believed there was a triple man from birth he was healed and this led again to another burst of people encountering God so people the Jews who did not believe at the sedia and other places they formed a gang and they came back on him and came against Paul and Barnabas so we see that in Acts chapter 14 literally they attacked Paul by throwing stone on him and dragged him out of the city considering him to be dead they were very good in stoning so they know when a person dies they know so they consider Paul is dead and they drag him out of the city and they left him there so what happens we see in Acts chapter 14 down may be 20 or 21 we see that disciples gathered around him over the night that's it that was much more but we know what would the disciples do gathering around them they would have just prayed what happened next morning the person over stoned to death gets up continues his journey goes along with Barnabas to Derby to minister to them he goes again another 20 miles by land and then he ministers the gospel to them nothing can stop Paul from sharing the gospel no change no stoning a person to death and after ministering at Derby he decides to go back to the earlier places because of persecution they left that place in a hurry so now they decide Paul and Barnabas let's go back to the places where we minister to and then we will strengthen the believers appoint leaders so that the work that has been started can continue to grow so Paul and Barnabas decides again to go back on their journey till and till they visit every place every place where they plant a church and they raise leaders there and later we see how Paul writes to each one to each church a letter enquiring of their growth in Christ so we see Paul and this team been ministered by the power of the Holy Spirit well understood and how the gospel of Jesus Christ was spread towards other places around the Mediterranean so after the first missionary journey they stayed Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch for about 3 years and then we see the council at Jerusalem in AD 49 and we here we see a new entry of a leader the young man called Titus who was nurtured who was ministered Paul ministered to him he was nurtured he was nurtured by Paul and then he grew and here in the book of Titus chapter 1 verse 4 we see that Paul addresses Titus as his son in the Lord so we have no record in the New Testament at what instant when where and how Paul led Titus to the Lord but then here we see he's been nurtured by Paul so what we haven't record is Titus was with Paul Barnabas in the Antioch of Syria and at the end of the first missionary journey we see that Titus was also part of the Jerusalem council and to look at the background Titus was a native of Greece and he was a Gentile by birth and he was residing at Antioch of Syria and he served along with Paul at Antioch this is the information that we could gather from the New Testament and we talk about the Jerusalem council now what was this council all about which took place in AD 49 anyone from the class what was the main reason for this council of gathering there were some crucial issues been addressed there but those yes it was all about some of the cultures of the Jews especially circumcision circumcision and some foods so there were some issues between the Jews and the Gentiles whether a person to be accepted into Christian nation to circumcise and about some kosher foods so that was the major reason about what was supposed to be discussed at Jerusalem thank you so the main reason of this Jerusalem council at AD 49 was now we have believers we have believers Jews as the believers and they were also Gentiles added to the church when there were two believers coming together Jews wanted even the Gentile believers to be circumcised and follow the Jewish customs in order to be saved for which Paul was not for it so now there was a kind of dispute among or confusion among the believers so they all gathered for a council at Jerusalem now with the leaders under the leadership of who was the leader for this leader for the church in Jerusalem during this period anyone from the class James was the leader of the Jerusalem church so under his leadership there was this council prepared and gathered together and we see other disciples also been there so they all seek the Holy Spirit to give them a proper solution so that will be the peace for everyone and we see that Paul and Barnabas along with the other leaders discuss these kind of dispute between the Jews and the Gentile believers and when they all prayed seek the Holy Spirit for the right council and they all brought their own instances like how the Holy Spirit ministered to the Centurion and even the Titus was not from a Greek background he was also a leader there when they seek the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit ministered to them and he gave them a right kind of council he said people have been accepted even without the circumcision you don't have to follow the same culture and you know the other customs in order to be saved so in Acts 15 verse 28 we see that this seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us so whatever the council decided about the circumcision and not all the Gentiles had to be circumcised or you know or we need or it's not the Gentiles need to follow the Jewish in order to be saved when there was a decision made there was peace there was peace among all the leaders among all the believers in the council so this was the decision that brought great rejoice among the Gentile believers through this council and this council was another breakthrough for the revival to spread among other places and carry the good news to the other Gentiles without any hurting so before we move on to the second missionary journey we can stop here and ask the class to share how the Lord has been ministering to you or what are the new things that the Lord has taught you from the book of Acts as we study and move on you can take this time of 5 minutes to share your learning among others so that all of us can learn and journey together over to class I really loved the missions of Paul like how he was restless like he keeps working moving to places he did everything that he can for God and that really inspired me a lot and while you were preaching the class the Holy Spirit does as he desires and that touched my heart a lot so that inspires me to do whatever I can for God right now and just surrender to His will even though sometimes we are like I want to try something for God and do something for God and then sometimes we put all these efforts on ourselves we keep believing on ourselves but that should not be like that even though we have a great desire to for God and surrender to His will and His desire and we are inspired as we are learning about revival and that ignites if I need to do great things for God Amen, thank you Jeffy now is there anyone who would like to share your learning your understanding or any any insights from the book of Acts that you would like to share with the class okay as I don't see anyone to raise hand okay let's end the session with a word of prayer Dear God, we thank you that you are in midst of us you are leading us and your guiding us by the power of the Holy Spirit Lord even as we journey through the book of Acts we pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to the disciples we pray that the same Holy Spirit will move among us and minister to us to our hearts Lord let this change let this fire the fire that carries revival be birthed in us let this fire stir us up Lord so that first it will impact us so that we can impact others in our place, in our city, in our nation Lord let this cry be in us Lord as we read in Psalms 85 last paper father Lord help us to be the carrier of your revival fire revive us Lord so that we can be revived thank you Lord thank you Holy Spirit that you are ministering to each of us Lord week after week we pray and we seek you for more of you impossible in Jesus name we pray thank you so much for joining in today's session see y'all in the next class God bless thank you