 Okay, so welcome once again and we will be studying from the Book of Acts in this semester and as I told you already, we are going to have an overview of the Book of Acts today. So we will begin there but before we get into our study of the book, can we have a word of prayer? So anyone, could you please lead and open out this time with a word of prayer please? Anybody? Yes, yes Kiran. Please go ahead. Father God, we come before you through on Father God once again, Father God, I am just submitting to your hand Father God and I say, Ma'am, every student, Father God, give us wisdom and knowledge and understanding. Thank you Kiran for leading in prayer, we couldn't hear you for a bit but that's alright, thank you so much for praying for God's wisdom and leading. So as we begin the Book of Acts, I wanted to hear from you what your picture is about the Book of Acts. I am sure many of us have read it, maybe you have read it many times. So you can tell me what you think about the Book of Acts, what do you think is there in the Book of Acts? Let's go ahead, you can unmute yourself and share the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit, great, excellent, yeah, you see that throughout the Book of Acts. Anything else? Yes Ma'am, after Jesus went to heaven, Jesus gave to some revelation to Paul and Paul described to every and through the Holy Spirit Paul described to what God spoke to Paul and Paul wrote that book. Okay, okay, yeah, thanks for sharing Kiran, thanks for sharing, we will discuss all these things in detail as we go further. Yes, thank you Kiran, anyone else, maybe one more person can share your opinion of the Book of Acts. Encounter with Jesus. Encounter with Jesus, okay, yes, very interesting, encounter with Jesus, alright, alright, okay, okay, thanks Manu, thank you for putting that across, alright. So what we will do now is we will try to have an overview and when we say overview, it's a high level understanding of the Book of Acts and we will see, you know, what are some of the key themes that emerge in the Book of Acts. There are many details which we will look at in each class as we go further but today it's like, you know, a high level view. So, as we start this out, okay, some differences that you would find in the Book of Acts as compared to the Gospels. In the Gospels, you have an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus. So you have the birth of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, you have his ministry recorded, you have his teachings recorded there and you also have the trial, right, that Jesus was put through and the fact that he was killed, he was buried, he rose from the dead. So that much you see in the Gospels and yes, in some of the writings, you find that there is a continuation of this risen, there is the risen Christ and what he, the message that he brings as well, right. So that is seen in the Gospels. So you see the Lord Jesus walking about in the Gospels. Now if we begin reading from Acts chapter 1, you will have the resurrected Christ, okay, in the Book of Acts as well. So you will have, you will read about the Lord Jesus speaking to the disciples and then you will find the ascension of the Lord Jesus in the first chapter of the Book of Acts. But from then on, we do not see Jesus, by that what I mean is here on the earth, right. We do not see the resurrected Jesus on the face of the earth anymore. Yes, we do have Jesus speaking to people and appearing later in the Book of Acts but primarily from heaven, okay. So that is one difference that you observe. So when we look at the Trinity, you also have the Holy Spirit, isn't it? So you find a work of the Holy Spirit described in greater detail in the Book of Acts. Now if you recall, you know, in the Gospels, Jesus tells his, you know, he is resurrected, he breeds on his disciples and they are born again, right. And then he tells them to wait, you tarry, tarry meaning wait and until you receive the power from on high. And then that power from on high refers to the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and then the Book of Acts begins to unfold. So this is a difference, you know, in the Gospels you have the Lord Jesus walking the earth but in the Book of Acts, only in the first chapter you have the resurrected Christ who is ministering to his disciples but then on it's mostly about the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles that you observe, okay. So that is something for us to understand and also another nice thing that you observe is you have the teachings of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels. If you recall, we generally refer to Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 where Jesus said that I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So he had indicated that the church would be a very powerful entity here on the face of the earth. Now, we don't necessarily mean, you know, powerful in the worldly sense but powerful with spiritual influence, right. So he says I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So, you know, through our prayer, through our release of the power of God into people's lives, through our ministry, you know, the church releases that glory of God and makes an impact and the teachings which are in the form of you could say the seed, right, whatever Jesus said this is going to happen, this is how the church is going to be. I give you the keys of the kingdom. You find that in the book of ads, the believers are actually walking in those things, you know, those seed's take root. So we will study how the church is birthed and how the church grows and how the church begins to make an impact on their region and then begins to spread out to other parts of the world as well. So the teachings of the Lord Jesus and his indication of the church being a powerful entity in the gospels is actually seen, you know, in a practical way in the book of acts as the believers begin to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit. Now another difference that you observe is in the book of ads, Jesus is that leader or master who is speaking to his disciples and, you know, they follow along wherever he goes and they try to do whatever he teaches them to do. But you still notice that they were not as brave, okay, and they did not have a sense of purpose, you know, to the extent which they needed to fulfill their apostolic callings. So at the death, when Jesus is being tried, you find great apostles like Peter showing their cowardice, Peter runs away or Peter denies Christ and he just wants to preserve himself. However, in the book of acts, there is a very great transformation that you observe in the lives of these disciples. They become so bold, they become so bold and they are not afraid of anything, anyone, but they go forward with that sense of purpose and they know the mandate which God has given them. So, you know, you see here some differences from the gospels to the book of acts and why does this happen in the lives of the disciples? We can consider what Jesus said, right? He said, you tarry until you receive the Holy Spirit and then once they receive the Holy Spirit, they had this kind of boldness upon them and, you know, they did an amazing, amazing work. So the book of acts is called as the Acts of the Apostles, okay, also because the work of God was done through the apostles. Now, there are a lot of people who just use the term acts and then though the apostles did the work, it is said that these were actually the acts of the Holy Spirit. Yes, these were the acts of the Holy Spirit, but through the apostles. So acts of the Holy Spirit, acts of the apostles and you see a very big difference in the way the apostles live out their lives in the book of acts after the baptism in the Holy Spirit, okay. So another difference that I just want to bring to our attention is the way people respond to persecution. So in the gospels, disciples once again don't look very strong and confident to face opposition, but in the book of acts, you will find opposition in many places because the disciples try to take new territory for the sake of the gospel, but the persecution never stops them, okay. So we will see that persecution doesn't stop them in different places. God gives them the wisdom to escape the persecution and in some places where they have to undergo persecution, they always come out stronger and that shows us that what is meant, the fire which is meant to destroy actually becomes the fuel of the church and the church begins to spread far and wide and you see that the disciples and you know the 12 disciples of the Lord Jesus actually 11 because Judas betrayed him, but those who continued with the mandate of the gospel, you know they in many ways are so strong as they face persecution. So this is also something that you observe the way they responded to persecution in the gospels. It's very different from the way they face it in the book of acts. So just some of the changes that I want you to understand first and then we will continue, right, looking at many other things from the book of acts. So now let's see a little bit about the background of the book of acts. The time when the Lord Jesus was crucified, we would say that it's somewhere around 33 AD and immediately after that because once the Lord Jesus was resurrected from the dead, I told you accept the one, you have the resurrected Christ and he ascends into heaven and then you have the disciples and not just the disciples, but you have other faithful followers of Christ with the disciples, all of them waiting in Jerusalem. So you have 120 people in the upper room and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit takes place. So they are waiting and it's in a matter of days, right? In a matter of days that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happens and then the ministry of Peter unfolding and then eventually many other people come into the scene and the Gospel is spreading far and wide. So 33 AD is when we would trace back the events of the book of acts. You could extend that as you observe what the events that are unfolding. You could say that till about 62 AD, the events are covered in the book of acts. So 33 to 62 AD, so the time span over which the book of acts took place or the events of acts took place is about 30 years. So it is 30 years. Now when we read it, we might not really look at it that way, but it was actually 30 years, 30 years of time that went by as these events unfolded. Now, who is the person who wrote the book of acts? Anybody wants to take a guess? Luke? Yes, you're right. Yes, Luke. Luke is the author of the book of acts. Now, Luke wrote this book and he is a physician as many of us already know, but he's also a historian. He's also historian and like a teacher because when you read the way he brings out these accounts, he is well read. He makes good connections, good associations. He talks about events very clearly. He describes the social setting, the social setting of the times. He describes the geography. He describes the status of the people, so many things. Very, very well read and very well informed. So that's the kind of individual that Luke is and he is the one who has written the book of acts and as you read it, the writings of Luke, you would understand that he actually says that, I'm writing to you Theophilus. Theophilus seems to be a good person during the times of Luke who also supposedly had authority, some form of governmental authority. Now, there are people who say that the book of Luke and the book of acts are in continuation. So Luke did not necessarily write two separate books. Now, we have it as two books in the Bible, but historians say that it was probably written as one big narration and then it was cut into two parts. One as the book of Luke and then the other one as the acts of the apostles. Now, also there are people historians who say that the narration that Luke has of the book of acts, it may actually be a legal document. So he didn't write it to describe what was going on in his times. Now, if you look at the Gospels, it seems like that it's an eyewitness account, whatever they saw, they wrote it down. So Enso said this, Jesus did this, they wrote those things down. The book of Luke is like that but when you read the book of acts, it also kind of throws light on the fact that it was the Holy Spirit who was doing this powerful work after the ascension of Jesus and through his people and the fact that whatever work was being done through the people of God, it was not a threat to the Roman government. Maybe historians say that Luke would have written this account for the defense of Paul to say that Paul has been transformed by the living God and the ministry of Paul, it is a ministry that comes from God himself, the very God that the Jews worship and also the fact that Paul is not a threat. In fact, he is a law abiding and a law upholding citizen. So when Paul was in trial, maybe Luke wrote all this to submit it as a document to the authorities to defend Paul when he was in trial. So a lot of historians take that view and feel that this writing was actually a legal document. As we continue on in the book of acts, there are many things that we will observe. So I will try and take you through these portions one by one. Firstly, you would see that there are different people, different people whom you will meet from chapter 1 all the way till chapter 28. So the prominent person in chapter 2 is Peter. In fact, even in chapter 1 is Peter because he takes on leadership over the disciples almost automatically. If you observe the personality of Peter, even when Jesus was there, he would speak, he would be the first one to speak. So he was somebody who had that ability to take charge, immediately take charge. So in that way, he continues to take charge from Acts chapter 1 and then Acts chapter 2 after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you observe him rising up and speaking his first sermon, which had a very powerful impact and 3000 people were saved on that first day itself. So you find different people in the book of acts. Then you would find John in the ministry, along with Peter serving together. Then eventually you find Philip in the book of Acts chapter 8 where Philip goes to Samaria and he does the work of the ministry. Then eventually you find this government official also known as Saul, very familiar as Saul. But we look at his transformation on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9 and Saul is transformed into Paul and it begins in Acts 9. Then again we read about the ministry of Peter continuing and then eventually Paul emerges once again on the scene and then you have Barnabas, who is a part of the ministry and they continue to take the gospel out to different parts of the world and then mostly the description is that of Paul. So in our study here, we will go through the book of acts but in the end, we will touch upon the missionary journeys of Paul, the life of Apostle Paul and also his missionary journeys because a large part of the book contains description of the life of Apostle Paul. So Apostle Paul is probably one of the main people with great emphasis in the book of acts. So these are all the people that you would find ministering in the book of acts. Now as we continue on, we see that the book of acts makes all of these people as witnesses. The key scripture, the key scripture many of us will agree is Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Can somebody read that scripture please? Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Dave. So the transformation in the lives of the people took place because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and what did they become? They became witnesses. They became witnesses. So what Jesus said in the Gospels when he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You find that happening through the witnesses who have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and they are so powerful. So it's almost like when you look at the book of acts, has anybody seen forest fire? At least on TV news, you've seen forest fire? Yes or no? Okay, yes you have. So I like to imagine it like that. It's like a forest fire. The baptism in the Holy Spirit took place and after that you can see the fire just spreading. And when you look at forest, when you consider forest fire, it's not easy to put it out. And now I remember a couple of years ago you had that forest fire in Australia and the government just struggled to put it off. They ultimately started praying for rain because that would be the only way to put off the fire. So even in the book of acts, you find different people, governmental authorities, influential people trying to stop the work that was being done through the church but the work just keeps spreading. And in this verse, we saw that Jesus said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now that's like the forest fire, right? So moving out from Jerusalem where they were all the way to the ends of the earth. So I just want to show you a picture right now. This is a map of these places that were mentioned. Okay. I'm just going to show my entire screen and then move to that picture. So kindly bear with me. Okay. I hope you can see the picture, everyone. Can you? Yeah, we can now. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Yes. So remember verse, Acts 1 verse 8, what did Jesus say? You shall be my witnesses in where? Where? Jerusalem. Can you see Jerusalem? Yes. Okay. Great. Then Judea, okay. So Judea is the region you know close to Jerusalem. So Judea, Samaria, right? So it's almost like concentric circles. You're covering larger parts of communities and regions as you go forward. So you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now obviously in the 30 years when the Book of Acts, the events took place, you didn't see them going to you know every part of the world like every continent. That didn't happen but you know whatever is covered in those 30 years, it's very clear that the gospel was spreading far and wide and very, very quickly. So the ends of the earth as far as the Book of Acts is concerned is this boundary over here, right? So there are different places mentioned here and we will look at each one of them as we go ahead. So you have the region of Galatia. You have cities, very, very important cities that we will talk about soon. There's Colosse, Ephesus, then you know the region, Macedonia, you have cities like Thessalonica, Philippi, Corinth and eventually when Paul is tried, he is asked or he needs to go to Rome. So he makes the journey to Rome where he is finally tried. This is the extent of the geographical extent of the Book of Acts and just the way Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 talks about the people of God becoming witnesses, you observe this spread going forward from Jerusalem, impacting Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Now again in this overview, we also see here Acts chapter 1 to Acts chapter 5, a lot of events that take place are all in the city of Jerusalem. Now we will study that when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit happened, the disciples along with other followers were in the upper room and this upper room is in Jerusalem, the temple. So they had actually come to Jerusalem for worship and many people from different parts had come to the city of Jerusalem for worship and the church is birthed at that time and then different things happen as far as the growth of the church is concerned. So Acts chapter 1 to Acts chapter 5 mostly like you will hear about Jerusalem and then the next region, remember I told you about Philip going to Samaria and all that. So you see the next region which is Judea and Samaria from Acts chapter 6 to Acts chapter 9 and then of course in Acts chapter 10 to Acts chapter 28. Further from Samaria there will be many missionary journeys that Paul will undertake and then he will come and be part of some of these cities that are shown here in the map. So this is how the geographical spread looks of the events of the Book of Acts. So I want to pause for a moment and just want to check if you are all doing okay or you are finding it like oh man this is too much ma'am we can't handle it right now. So are you comfortable, any thoughts, any comments, any questions at this point please? Ma'am actually I didn't understand Acts 1 to 5. Okay so Acts 1 to 5, thank you for that question. All I'm saying is we will see many things happening when we go through those chapters. All of those events are taking place in Jerusalem that's the only point which I made right. So the geographical spread initially what did I talk about? I talked about the people there are different people whom you will learn about in the Book of Acts. Then the second thing I mentioned is the places okay. As per Acts 1 you see many things happening in Jerusalem first and then it spreads like the forest fire I told you isn't it? So Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. So is that okay Manu? Does it make sense? Okay great yes thank you. Yes thank you everyone. Then we will proceed ahead and we will see what else we can cover today. So we've understood you know the geography of the Book of Acts. Now when we see the kind of communities that are one for the Lord Jesus you notice that Jesus was ministering mainly to the Jews okay. If you remember that incident when the Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus and asks him to heal her demon possessed child. Jesus says the children's bread cannot be given to the dogs okay. So what was he actually saying? Basically he was pointing out that there is a law okay and according to the old covenant all the promises all the blessings of God belong to the Jews and Jesus came as a minister of that covenant initially right and when he was still walking the earth you know he was primarily ministering to the Jews. So he could not take that blessing and give it to the other communities is what he was saying but you know through faith and she trusted him and she had faith in God and she says even the dogs can even the dogs can have the crumbs. You know Jesus was so amazed by her faith and the rule that existed the law that he would only minister to the Jews because of her faith you know he even ministered to a Gentile right but that was the foretaste of what was going to happen later in the Book of Acts. Even in the Book of Acts when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the people they are primarily Jews from different regions okay and the ministry continues among the Jews for a long time. It's only in Acts chapter 10 that you know you notice Peter is being sent to the Gentiles and for them it was a forbidden thing like they would never go and interact with the Gentiles but remember Acts 1-8 what did Jesus tell them that you will be witnesses to many regions and many communities. So now you also observed that the Gospel is going out from the Jews to the Gentiles right. So that is what the Lord Jesus came to do in the Gospel we usually say that scripture you know it says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son God so loved the world okay the world includes many communities and in the Book of Acts you see that spread happening. So no longer was the Gospel limited to the Jews but it moved to the Gentiles by the direction of God by the direction of the Holy Spirit. So in Acts 10 you know we will we will also see how Peter was hesitating he did not actually want to go and minister to a Gentile but the Holy Spirit speaks to him and says when people come to take you don't say anything you just go right. So God confirms that to his heart and says that whatever work of redemption the Lord Jesus has done on the cross it is not limited to one community one sect right of people but it is meant for everybody every human being on the face of the earth. So in the Book of Acts you see that spread happening. So initially it's only the Jewish people till about Acts chapter 10 but in Acts chapter 10 the Gospel the Cornelius and his household they are the first family of Gentiles who accept the Gospel and they are also baptized in the Holy Spirit and God shows that he accepts all communities right and in those times the Gentiles were considered you know very very low by the Jews but think about this the Gospel became a portion for the Gentiles as well and the Holy Spirit did not in fact when Peter was speaking we read that the Holy Spirit was actually poured out on them. So the Gospel moves from the Jews to the Gentiles and then you know there are different cities that I showed you all those cities and you know the various groups of people who lived there they all received the Gospel and this spread you know you see this spread happening through believers apostles who step out. So initially in the Church of Jerusalem you have the work of God happening and you find that they don't stay put there and say wow this is amazing you know we are experiencing the supernatural part of God so let's all be happy over here but you see these believers and you know the apostles as well stepping out and they go to different regions to have people hear what the Lord Jesus has done for them and you know offer the the plan of redemption to them and say do you accept this and then you have regions and regions of people who commit their lives to the Lord Jesus as well and they also become witnesses for this Gospel. So this is the next thing we observe that the Gospel is spreading from community to community and it is touching very many communities. You can only imagine when it says the ends of the earth right to impact the ends of the earth that includes many many communities and at least this started in the book of Acts this spread started in the book of Acts. Okay now some of the other things that we will see in the book of Acts is the fact that the Lord Jesus is preached as the Messiah. There are wonderful sermons you have Peter sermons you have Paul speaking about how he got saved how he was transformed on the road to Damascus but in all of these sermons in all of these messages one of the central things that you will observe is that they are proclaiming the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. They talk about the death resurrection you know death burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus is that central message in whatever they say and then you would also notice that they court Old Testament scriptures quite a bit and why do they court Old Testament scriptures because as Jews first of all they were well aware of the scriptures and they wanted to proclaim the fulfillment of the prophetic word of the Old Testament. So you will see many many references where Peter says you know this is that the prophecy of Joel is now being fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You will find Paul also court lot of things from the Old Testament. So basically they are saying Jesus is the Messiah and look you know Jews look at this the the one that you were waiting for he has already come and we are actually his witnesses and why do you oppose us right? So Jesus is the central message and you find several quotations of the Old Testament. Now in the book of Acts you would also see references to certain teachings the apostles teachings what are the apostles teachings they are basically you know whatever the Jews believed in and the teachings of Jesus because the apostles lived with Jesus. So whatever they had learned the apostles from the Jewish scriptures and the teachings of Jesus they would pass on to the rest of the people who joined the church. So you have the apostles teachings. What are the some of the other teachings that that you see in the book of Acts? The teaching of the kingdom of God even when the resurrected Christ ministers to the disciples before his ascension a theme that he liked to talk on was the kingdom of God. So he taught them many things about the kingdom of God and you know you see that the grace of God right you understand the grace of God in the book of Acts because the gospel is now going out to the so-called restricted and you know low communities that the Jews considered at that point. So these are all some of the themes that you would see in the book of Acts and you know you would also see very many supernatural works of God. So what I'll do is at this point I will pause we only have five minutes so we'll make some time to maybe you know have your thoughts and then I'll come back and I will continue from where I stopped. So any thoughts at this point any comments from you yeah I hope you're getting an overview right of the book. Yes okay okay great great so so far is there anything that has touched you? The thing is when you said wild fire that's like book of Acts when the Holy Spirit came and the first preaching only 3000 people got saved and we can see the entire book the revival the gospel is spreading like a wild fire that's really whenever I go through the book of Acts the fire of revival is rekindled in our hearts and we want to prove that moment in our generation to multitudes come to the saving knowledge of Christ. That's a wonderful book to study again and again see the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes yes yes definitely definitely thank you thank you Thomas thank you for sharing your thoughts so anything else that has touched you it'll be good to know. So since Thomas mentioned here revival the term revival many a time the book of Acts is also termed as church in revival okay so the church which was on fire for God and spreading the fire of revival so the book of Acts can be considered as a church in revival as well okay so yes so these are some of the key things in the book of Acts and we will stop now we will come back in about 10 minutes and we will continue with a little more introduction on the book of Acts okay so please feel free to stop and take a break and we will get back together soon thank you