 Good morning, good morning, Vinayesh. Good morning and welcome everybody. Good to have all of you on the call. We'll pray, we'll get started. So I'd like to request somebody to please go ahead and pray please. Continue to ask for God's wisdom as we study about the local church. Anyone? Yes, let's pray. Thank you. We thank you so much for the time like this one. Starting about the local church, if you're a Pontant or Lord, we know what the local church means. That heart, that local body of your biggest bride. So the local church as your bride, the local church as a group of people, the local church as a place where you are putting your gospel that even the gates of hell not prevail against it. We are here, O Lord. Here we are, we are in your arms that you will hold us, your guide us, you will keep us, you will strengthen us, and you will even give us the ability to learn so that we will be able to serve you for the church and be able to do the life that pleases you. Thank you Charles for leading us in that word of prayer. So we will continue from where we had stopped in the last class. We were talking about the local church. We were talking about the importance of the local church both in the natural as well as in the spiritual realm. And we said that it is important to belong to a local church. We can be believers, very much part of the body of Christ. However, belonging to a local church is where we are able to fulfill our role, we are able to mature, we are able to experience God together with other believers. So we talked about all of these things. And today I will review the next portion that we also touched on the purpose. We talked about the mission of the local church, how we are here to fulfill the great commission that the Lord Jesus has given us. And the message which we are supposed to preach is the gospel, un-compromised gospel. And we talked about the fact that the word that we preach, it must have the truth of God's word without really leaving it on one side of the truth. Because that is possible, right? We might focus or overemphasize on one thing and miss out on the other thing. So Paul, when he was speaking to the Ephesian church, he said that the whole council or the wholesome word of God, balanced word of God must be taught to the believers so that they can live out of the Christian life notoriously. So he said that that would be the message, the gospel as well as the whole council of God's word. And talking about the method that we use to reach out to the people. We said that our methods have to be pure, that we must not use deceptive methods. We must not be offensive to the people. The gospel messaging itself is offensive sometimes, but we don't add additional offense to the message. Yet we preach the gospel without any compromise. And then the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit is very important because that is the manner in which the Lord Jesus demonstrated his ministry. So we talked about all these things and finally we said that the ministry that we engage in, it has to be strategic and relevant. Because unless it is strategic and relevant, people of certain type or certain generation, they may not be able to only receive from the way ministry was done earlier. So we will see as we go through the local church, we will see how it is important for us to adapt and grow. Of course, we've already said without compromising on the true gospel of the Lord Jesus. So just a little more on this aspect of doing ministry without giving offense. I thought I would add another example over here. I gave a simple example last time, but a few more things about doing ministry in a pure way without giving offense. What I would like to say is even when we preach the gospel in a country like India, where you have people of various religions, people who believe in different philosophies. It's very easy for us to say things in a way that immediately offends a person who comes from a different faith. Yet when we look at the ministry of the apostles in the book of Acts, like in general, you would notice that they are careful not to offend the people. They are also careful to keep the law of the land as far as possible. So the same thing applies to us. Of course, we are here to uphold the word of God. We are here to uphold what the Bible says and we are here to worship God. But if things occur like the times of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel and Shadrach Meshach and Abhatego, they demonstrated their allegiance to their God. They worshipped God and they did not compromise their worship. So that's not what we are asking to compromise. But without giving offense to the people, it's possible to continue to do the ministry. Without putting down another group of like somebody else who believes differently from you, there's no need to put them down in order to prove our point. So without giving offense and pure ways of doing ministry. Here in our notes, the passage also added how Paul, when he had to send a gift to the Church of Jerusalem, which was going through fabric. You know, he does it very, very carefully. The collection of the money and the sending of the money. He makes sure that he's not the one who is keeping the Mati Matrim. And at the same time, when the money is being sent, he makes sure that the people who are responsible to carry the amount are trustworthy men who have a good reputation for their character among the people. So why does Paul do it this way? He does it this way because he does not want anyone to point a finger on him or the people who are actually dealing with the finances. So this shows us that intentionally he was doing the right thing, but he was also careful to maintain that before the people and show that the way in which he was going about doing things was the right way. So you see that extra carefulness in the way ministry was done. So I had missed out this example in the last class. I thought I would add it so that we would be mindful of the way ministry was done even by people in God's word. So that encourages us to be careful and be led by the Holy Spirit, not give offense. But at the same time be relevant. So a couple of points about being relevant. I think the classic example is the versions of the Bible. Now I don't want to discuss about the accuracy because we all know that some of the versions which are more like a paraphrasing version, they are not accurate. To the exact meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek word. So that we already know. However, sometimes when you read a passion translation or a message translation, you kind of get the essence of what is being said. So there is a usefulness not to interpret the word accurately and all we would use a different translation for that. But you know it's understood. So if I read a Psalm in the passion translation that talks about devotion to God and dedication to God and waiting upon the Lord. That might strike a chord in the hearts of the people of our generation because they understand that kind of English in comparison to if I read it in King James version. So being relevant is just to adapt an easier approach or an easier structure that will help people receive what we are saying. But again it definitely does not mean that we compromise on the gospel or we compromise on the whole council of God's word or we compromise on our identity or anything like that. So being relevant is important. Being relevant to the different age groups, being relevant to the experiences of people that they are going through, being relevant to the kind of communication that can affect them. For example recently, I think it was Easter when one of the young people in our church, they did what it's called, speaking the word, basically they do this narration and it was just so beautiful. And I'm sure a lot of young people particularly would have related to the way that the trial of Jesus and the death, the resurrection of Christ was narrated by that person, spoken word, that's what it's called. So I mean it's just a relevant way of reaching out to the hearts of the people. So I'm giving you some examples. So there's nothing wrong with new methods, there's nothing wrong with how we're doing Bible college online. So new methods, modern methods, nothing wrong with it but we just have to make sure that they are not impinging on the other very, very crucial things that we are here to safeguard. So that's a little more about the mission, the message and the methods that the church needs to use to reach out to the people. So if you continue to have any questions on this, I think we can answer it and then we can move on to the next chapter here which is about the government and the structure of the local church. Any thoughts about the mission, method, message? Yes. Yes, sir. But sir, there's some audio. Is it better? Yeah, it's better. Yes, please go ahead. Thank you. Thank you. On the method, I mean the mission and the message definitely will have, I mean I see that as the constant factors, the message and the mission does not change. The methods are the ones that change. That's the one that is evolving as we see. So I think for me, the distinction of, like for example, I think, so I don't want the mission and the message to be compromised but to make that distinction, for example, say, you know, if I looked at the crowd or people in general now versus when, versus like 100, 200 years back. So, you know, now everyone has basic education. There is more, there's more scope or I think the culture is evolving in a way that knowledge is abound, you know, Google answers everything. And people already have a perception, they have an opinion, you know, when they try to engage with people versus 100, 200 years back where not everything but in a way people seem to have an opinion about certain things, especially abstract kind of things, you know, normally people take a stand versus 100, 200 years back where people are not educated, information was not abound. So, you know, when you come and when you say something, people understand and want to follow. I guess the point that I'm trying to make is one of the methods that I see evolving is is more like a discussion method of searching, like earlier it was one-sided, like, you know, there was, we call it a sage on the stage, you know, which is, you know, imagine a tree and then under the tree you have the knowledge person and around him sits the disciples and the knowledge person says everything and the disciples just take all the words in them. But now it's more like people want to participate in a discussion, they want to voice out their opinions. So that, I see that coming in as an evolution or that being the new form of preaching, so it's the person, I mean, the more, I mean, unless you are a really gifted orator, I think more and more people would prefer to participate in discussions and learn through discussions. So, while I'm looking at that as an attractive method where, you know, you let people voice out their opinions and talk and share and discuss, but then at the same time I'm reminded, Second Peter, I think that Peter says the message is not for personal interpretation, but so the danger of allowing people to get into a discussion mode versus not allowing room for personal interpretation. So these are things that I'm, yeah. Yes, thank you. Thanks, Samuel. Yes, I do understand that it seems like there is more scope for people to discuss in the more contemporary methods incorporated in church today. And it seems like it's an evolution. And I mean, I am not saying that it's not evolving and it's like earlier you just had the clergy and the lady, the clergy would tell you what to do, the lady would just do that. So yes, there was an element of people being told what to do. But now there are more participative methods, so to speak. However, I don't know if it's an evolution, Samuel. And I'll tell you why because today the next chapter that we are going to look at is about the emergence of church government structure about, you know, about the emergence of leadership and how it happened in the early church. And you would notice that there has always been a participatory element. Okay. So even in church decision making, there was that participative interactive element. And yeah, so my take is that it has existed in the church. But I agree with you that it seems like there is greater opportunity for interaction today. Okay. So I think I will leave it at that and then we could maybe pick up on the same discussion later. But yeah, thank you for bringing up that point. So on this note, we will proceed with chapter three here and it is on page 16. It talks about the government and the structure of the local church. Okay. So, so far we have understood that the Lord Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. And we know that the kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven where you have the rule and reign, the dominion of God without any interference of sin or Satan. And God wanted that same rule and reign established here on the earth. And we've talked about the fact that the church is that entity that God wanted as the representative of the kingdom of heaven. And the church is meant to carry out and implement the purposes of God, the kingdom of God here on me. And so God called us to go ahead and fulfill the good mission. And we see that happening in the book of Acts. We see, you know, from the birth of the church, how they went about the different regions proclaiming the gospel, establishing local churches, strengthening local churches, governing local churches, right? And again, as believers where maturing in those local churches, the word kept going out. And today, you know, we know that the gospel has gone out to so many communities across the world and there's so many generations. And we are carrying on the work of God which started, you know, through those 12 apostles and actually the 120 people in the upper room. So how did the church, you know, develop its government? How did it develop its structure? And how did it continue to do the work in those days? And that's what we are going to look at, you know, briefly today. So when you look at the first local church, okay, so first thing we have to realize is that it is a progression. It's a slow, I don't know, you can call it improvement, but you would see new confidence to the structure being added from time to time. So it is a progression of the government that we are going to observe. So the very first time when the church was termed as born is on the day of Pentecost. So the day of Pentecost, we know these 120 people had gathered and they were melting upon the Lord for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit was poured out, Peter stands up and he preaches his first sermon. And on that first day, you hear that 3,000 people in a spot, they accept Christ and they are baptized on the same day. So you just had 120 people in the church, right? Now you have 3,120 people in one day in the church, right? So this is how the church was actually born. Now that you have so many people in the church, how are you going to take care of the church? Or we use the term government or governing the people, right? You have to take care of the administration, you have to take care of leadership, how to ensure that you disciple these people and help them to mature in the Lord. All these questions arise. So the first local church was born in this manner and we would also say that it was the church of Jerusalem and that's how it is termed in the New Testament. Because there was probably only one group or a community. Initially they didn't have a lot of local churches in Jerusalem. There was only one church and the leaders of this church were obviously the apostles. They are termed as the apostles of the land because later on in the New Testament as you study about the 5-fold ministry offices, we will understand that the apostolic has greater dimensions to it. So apostles, just to define that word apostle, the functioning of an apostle, there are so many elements of confidence to that. So these early apostles are termed as the apostles of the land. And this church of Jerusalem was established around 30 AD. And that's how this church began. And talking about the leadership of the church, I already told you Peter stood up and made the first speech or the sermon. And many incidents we find that Peter took on responsibility quite naturally. Maybe that was the grace of God given to him. And among the apostles, he was heard and they followed what he was saying. So Peter seems to be that first person if you want to call him a pastor or leader of the church. So he was that first person. But later on we know that James became the overseer of the church of Jerusalem while Peter stepped out on his missionary role ministering to different religions. So this is how the leadership of the early church looked. So this is like the structure and the government of the Jerusalem church. Now you had only the apostles initially and their leadership over. I told you 3,000 people but later you read that there were more people who accepted Christ. The church of Jerusalem was growing and thriving. There was a lot of persecution and eventually the people went and they were dispersed in many regions. And we study in the word of God that some of them planted churches wherever they went. So in that manner you started having local churches in other places. But initially it was only the church of Jerusalem which is also the city-wide church. So in the leadership you only hear about apostles. You hear about Peter, then you hear about Peter and John going and ministering somewhere. You hear about James who becomes the leader of the church later. So the apostles are at a certain level of leadership. Now moving forward, what we see is the apostles are providing spiritual ministry but you can imagine having 3,000 people. Now if you ask a pastor, any pastor, with a congregation of let's say 50 people they will tell you that it's hard enough to take care of the flock to ensure that they are spiritually fair, to ensure that they are encouraged in the Lord and continue to mature them in God's word. So having a number like 3,000 and then additionally thousands were added how do you think 12 people will be able to manage so many people in the congregation? So in Acts chapter 6 we see that there was a need for volunteers in the church. And this passage is given here in our notes itself and I think it will be worthwhile to read. It's on page number 17, Acts 6 verses 1 to 6. So one of us can please read it, it will be good and then I will go ahead and explain what it says. Can I read the pastor? Yes, yes please Charles, you can read, thank you. Acts chapter 16, 1 to 6. Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying there was a complaint against the Hebrews and the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Excuse me. Then the teller saw the multitude of the disciples and said, it's not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation a man full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And the same pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit and Philip and Prochorus, Paul, Taimon, Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid hands on them. Amen. Yes, thank you. Thank you Charles. So that was from Acts chapter 6 and here we observed like a practical challenge. So they had a lot of people and we know that the early church also had to take care of the people in Jerusalem because a lot of people who had come to Jerusalem during Pentecost they were not from Jerusalem. So people used to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival and once they heard the Gospel people responded and they stayed back. They continued in Jerusalem. It's obvious they did not have their belongings, they did not have sufficient resources. So the early church used to help out and take care of people as well. So in this process you notice that you know there were the Greek speaking Jews and the Hebrew speaking Jews. So there was a complaint from the Hebrew speaking Jews, against the Hebrew speaking Jews that they were not taking care of the Greek speaking widows. So when this complaint came the apostles needed to do something. They needed to respond to the conflict or the problem that was going on. So the solution that they came up with is how about we select some volunteers and over here they choose 7 men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom who they may appoint over this business. So they select 7 responsible and you see the characteristics required for serving food. So they are looking for people of good report which is good testimony. People who are filled with the Holy Spirit. They are full of wisdom and those who can take responsibility. So this is the kind of requirement for people to distribute food. And we know the list of names here who were chosen. There was Philip, Prochorus, Nikonon, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas and all these people Stephen were chosen for this work. So here we understand that the early church realized that they would need help in the church. Because for the functioning of the church, yes there is the spiritual ministry but there is also this aspect of help and administration. So they chose these people to help and appointed volunteers and it was a good decision obviously because the issue was taken care of. So the 7 men did the food distribution for the Greek speaking widows and obviously people would have been happy and the matter was sorted out. So we know that it is introduced in this place but obviously this is how they would have taken care of other logistical administrative issues in the church. So what is this new category which has emerged? This is a category of helps. And a helper from the Greek word diaconos and you would find this word diaconos repeated in other places of the New Testament. This is somebody who is able to help. It means diaconos means helper or it means servant or attended. And the Bible tells us that there is the grace of God given in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 28 we see many graces that are given to people. So what the grace which is given to people is helps and administration. So the church, early church chose, the Greek term is diaconos but we know in English we say diacon. Who is a diacon? A diacon is a person who serves in church and mainly in the area of helps, in the area of administration and this is not to say that they don't have spiritual ministry. Because if you study a little more about the people who were listed for serving of food you have names like Stephen who later became, he was martyr and great miracles were done through his life. So he was engaged in spiritual ministry but he was also engaged in, just if you may call it and nothing is non spiritual but just for our understanding he was engaged in more practical kind of ministry as well. And Philip is another name. Philip also was chosen to serve the tables but you read about him, he was the one later ministering in Samaria and ministering to that Ethiopian eunuch. So diacons are volunteers, they serve in various capacities. They can also serve in spiritual ministry to the people of the church. Diacons are not just limited to men, they can also be women. And we see this in Romans 16 because as mentioned of a lady called Phoebe, Phoebe our sister who is a servant of the church in Sanctria. So a servant, that's what servant there is actually diacons. So she was a deaconess or she was sort of administrative oversight over the church that met in her house so there can be women who are deaconesses as well. So this category, this category of helps emerged and they are the ones who are termed as deacons in scripture. And I know that today in the contemporary use of that word deacons, it may mean other things but in the scripture it started as those who help, those who serve, those who minister in the practical areas of the church. And we can be sure that the practice of choosing deacons existed for a very long time because when Paul wrote to Timothy, he wrote and he said, when you choose deacons, this is the criteria that you must use. So the church in Ephesus was being instructed to have deacons but deacons who had a certain character, certain heart, certain commitment to the ministry. So deacons were very much a part of the New Testament church and they continue to be a part of our churches today. So we don't call volunteers as deacons. We don't call them as deacons anymore, at least not in our church but we use the term volunteers and obviously there are helps and administration in various capacities. You have people who help with the Sunday service, you have people who help with the ashram, you have people who help with the stage setup, you have people who help with the media. And these are all areas, different graces which are given to people and they are volunteers, they are serving in a practical way but the current understanding would be they are volunteers and in the Bible you find that deacons were chosen and they were selected very carefully and some of them had notable spiritual ministry as well. So that is the introduction of deacons. If you have any questions just please feel free to interject because I know you might want some clarity on the subject. So anyway moving forward, we observe that a lot of new churches were established in various parts once people got scattered. So you read of new churches in Samaria which was initiated by Philip in Acts chapter 8. Then you read about other churches in the region of Judea, Galilee, Liddha in Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 11 introduces a very interesting and a key church which is the church of Antioch. And this church, I will tell you why this church is important a little later on but you see the emergence of new churches and the fact that this leadership style which was there in the Jerusalem church, obviously if there is a church established there is a community of people and there are the spiritual needs as well as the practical needs. So the understanding is that as new churches started getting planted and they emerged this government structure would have been applicable across different churches with the selection of deacons having leaders in the church who would direct the affairs of the church so on and so forth. Now before we go any further, a very crucial point that I want to make is see why we are studying the government and the structure of the early church it's not to say that every church of today has to follow the same pattern that the early church used, not at all because churches are free to be led by the Holy Spirit and choose a structure which is suitable for them. So we are just trying to understand what happened in the early church and this will give us some direction when we some of us are going to be pastors some of us maybe not pastors but contributing to the life of the church even if in capacity but all of us can understand that God wants a good structure for every local church and this structure is not hard and fast it has to be the way it was in the church of Jerusalem that is not at all the point that we are making with this study. So having said that we can move on. Now we will look at other categories of leadership that started emerging in the church so so far we have seen the apostles of the land, we have seen the deacons and in Acts chapter 11 I told you that is the church of Antioch that we talk about while talking about the church of Antioch you know we see in Acts 11 that the elders of the church of Jerusalem decided to send I mean there were elders in the church of Jerusalem now the term elders means that apart from the 12 apostles there were others so what are some of the names one could be Barnabas Barnabas is also one of the elders of the early church Saul who Barnabas had brought into the tea is also one of the elders of the church of Jerusalem now these two elders were actually sent to the church of Antioch so they were sent there to minister but you see these new names Barnabas Saul there is also a prophet by the name of Agabas so together with the apostles there are these elders whom you note in the church of Jerusalem and this practice seems to carry on in the way the early church work because later on as Paul and Barnabas go to different regions planting churches they always go back to those new churches after a while and they try to select elders they try to put elders in positions of leadership so that the people are well taken care of so this term elders also emerges in the New Testament so the elders are appointed the elders are appointed over local bodies what is appointment over local bodies today we use a term like ordain are you an ordained pastor are you an ordained presbyter the term ordain again comes from a Greek word called kerotonio it simply means to elect to office so the apostles elders themselves people like Barnabas and Saul when they planted churches they elected to office some of the good I am just using the term good spiritual people to oversee the congregation but of course Paul writes to Timothy on the characteristics of the kind of people who must be appointed so elders were definitely appointed and it was important otherwise the church would not have any direction and this was a biblical practice to appoint elders now what is the meaning of elder you would notice that people who were appointed by the early leaders they were spiritually mature people obviously to lead the church you needed them to be spiritually mature but it's possible that they were also older in age in their times they would trust somebody who is older in age so they would have selected such people and so somebody who is senior spiritually and in terms of age was called as an elder so the Greek elder is from the word presbyteros that is where we get this word presbyter and you know presbyterian church you would have heard of so presbyter is an elder and they would appoint people who were mature over churches so you are seeing different categories of leadership slowly emerging and the intention of having leaders at various levels was to provide direction to the church to protect the church against wrong doctrines and it was not just a natural appointing of leadership but we know that it was definitely by the direction of the Holy Spirit that the early church did this so they began establishing leadership over local churches so far we have seen the apostles we have talked about deacons and we have seen the emergence of elders now let's move forward and we will slowly begin to see team ministry emerging and that's why Samuel when we brought up that point I said that it may not really be an evolution because you see that in the early church so in Acts chapter 15 there is an issue that needs to be dealt with and this issue is brought by Paul from the church of Antioch he brings this matter they bring it to the elders in the church of Jerusalem and when the matter needs to be discussed in Acts 15 you notice that there is an entire council for what? to make a decision to come up with what is it that must be done so let me tell you the issue was about genitals who were getting saved but when genitals were getting saved they were taught to be circumcised so obviously it's the Jews who by tradition were circumcised but the preaching in the Christian circle was that if you are a Gentile and now you are born again you must get circumcised so it was a Jewish tradition which was being imposed on the Gentiles and that was a matter of contention and Paul brought it to the leaders in Jerusalem and said how is it fair that the Gentiles are being asked to be circumcised so this matter needed to be addressed and in Acts 15 there is an entire council that sits together so when you talk about the council it would have had the apostles in it for sure it would have had elders already Paul is part of it there could have been so many other elders who are a part of it and we don't know how big this council was but it was actually a group which discussed the matter and they came up with this conclusion that a declaration needs to be made a declaration or a decree it has to be made people need to be informed what to do so finally they conclude the discussion and they say if you are a Gentile then you actually don't need to get circumcised because we have received salvation through faith so imposing Jewish traditions or non-Jewish people is not the gospel like the Bible doesn't say that however there are a couple of practical instructions that the council gives the Gentiles things like you must live a holy lifestyle they were given to worship some sort of worship of other gods and all that so they give them instructions that you must not partake of the blood of strangled animals and such practical instructions but they preserve the truth which is salvation by faith through grace and by faith and that is the manner in which the Jerusalem council makes a decision so there is a participatory process which is followed and ultimately the decision is spoken by James who is the then leader of the church I just noticed that we have reached the end of our session timing here so we will stop right now let's pause we will have a little break we will come back if you have any questions we can begin the questions and we will continue with this topic and I really hope you are enjoying it it is an interesting subject thank you