 Okay, good morning. Yeah, welcome. I see your messages on the chat doing well. Thank you. How are you doing? Let's commit this class to the Lord. We will begin with the word of prayer and I want to request Anybody in the class, please go ahead and lead us in a word of prayer The book of God's neighbor after spirit and help us to understand and go deeper into your chest and words of God. I pray for Pastor Nancy to be able to give her strength of good health and movement because healing over her body from top of her head to the bottom of her feet and I thank you so much God for all of my classmates that they were growing wisdom and knowledge to understand more of what Pastor Nancy is about to teach for those who may grasp everything God that you understand and know who you are and how you use the household son of God. Thank you so much for the good work and you need to pray. Thank you. Thank you Asha for leading in prayer. We will continue from when we had stopped in the last class. We had talked about Peter and John ministering to the lame man at the gate beautiful and we saw how they ministered in the name of Jesus and with the authority in the name of Jesus and such an amazing miracle took place that a man who was lame for 40 years from his birth was able to walk. So that's where we had stopped so we will pick up from there but before I go any further I just wanted to hear from us if there are portions from acts one to three that have touched you anything that you know has made an impact on you if you could share we will hear from a couple of people and then you know continue with acts three I'll begin with verse 11 okay so anything from acts one to acts three so far that has made an impact and you feel okay I've really been touched by this feel free to share even if it's now something simple or small that's okay that's okay yeah go ahead go ahead go so for in acts chapter two when you were explaining like when we read in acts I like that the church they were like in one accord and there was an entity that really stood out to me because like the first believers they were like in complete unity and it is like others feared them and like but still they they were like yeah hungry to see the man in the station of God and the others could see the fruit of them and like when we are in unity we can do more things and others will also see that and that's actually like portraying chooses to others like yeah that's what I like thank you thank you for sharing we've really seen that feature unity in the church and it's so powerful and very encouraging so that that's true anything else that has stood out for us yes do we yes Louie go ahead you you are on mute we can't hear you okay while we wait for Louie's comment uh anyone else wants to go please do you have about asha asha what do you think my favorite was that how like when that okay actually you're on mute now when the Pentagon was having this revival prayer time and then help God and then to use them like like for to speak different languages and on how the gospel state among the other people and I um the thing and fire me was like no matter what God will just give us the ability to have the strength to speak even though if you don't understand there thanks God will give us yes yeah yeah no I got your point basically you're saying that you know God works through us even in a moment where we may be caught under us we are not prepared for you know a response or a ministry God's power in us is available and God is so faithful you know to work through us in the lives of other people so yeah that's that's true thank you for sharing that Louie are you able to share all right still not able to hear you so maybe later you can you can just jump right in and you know give us your thoughts so I'm going to go ahead with our content here we stopped at the place where we said that the lame man was so happy he was jumping leaping and we were also able to look at you know video which brought to life what what we read in this in this passage so today we will proceed from there and see what happens you know for us as people who are studying this this whole incident we feel that at this point all the onlookers should be convinced about Jesus Christ his deity the resurrection power that he had and the credibility of the believers or the disciples but we will see that that wasn't the case even a notable miracle like this did not convince the onlookers especially the authorities about who Jesus was and who the disciples were so from verse 11 we see that the lame man is with Peter and John so it says now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's greatly amazed and I showed a picture to us showing the temple area and the the portion where the Solomon's porch was so it was a space you know where they could walk around and there were many people who would come to pray at those designated times for the Jews so there was a great crowd which was present there and at that time this man who was healed look at his response he held on to Peter and John it's a way of saying that he acknowledged that God had done a wonder in his life and not just that he had done it through Peter and John so he was not willing to let go of them he was not one of those people who got their miracles and you know just left but he was holding on to them and at an occasion like this you know when a miracle has taken place we would think that Peter and John will stop with that and you know move forward into their next assignment but not so they were aware that this was a place where people had gathered for prayer so what happens next is we read of another sermon of Peter so Peter does not lose an occasion to preach the gospel so it's really amazing you know it just shows how they made use of every opportunity and particularly gatherings where there were people who did not know about Jesus so verse 12 we see so when Peter saw it he responded to the people again you know earlier we had seen that Peter felt responsible to give an explanation for this phenomenon of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and even now he feels responsible people need to know how this miracle has taken place so he begins to speak to the people and he addresses them because he was primarily in the compound where the Jews had gathered he says men of Israel why do you marvel at this or why look so intently at us as though by our power or godliness we had made this man to walk so you see how sincere they were to what they believed so at a time like this when a miracle has taken place okay miracle has taken place and people around have also noticed that this man was lame but he's able to walk it would have been rather easy for Peter and John to take all the credit and and you know establish themselves as we are those ministers who work miracles we are those ministers through whom God does healings so you know look at us follow us so they could have promoted self over the power of God or the person of Christ but they were sincere to their faith in Jesus so they asked them this question why are you looking at us as a we did this miracle you know it wasn't us who did this miracle man you know he goes out verse 13 the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the god of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go but you denied the holy one and the just and asked for a murder to be granted to you I'm just going to read a couple of verses and then summarize and share it and he says and killed the prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know yes the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you also he clarifies that it wasn't us but what was it in verse 16 he says faith in his name and how did he minister the healing to this lame man he says what we have we give you in the name of Jesus so the authority of the name of Jesus and he states that this man had faith in the name of Jesus so the power of the name of Jesus faith in the name of Jesus has what has made this man strong okay and he also says that faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all so faith in this person called Jesus Christ how does he introduce Jesus to the people now we have to recognize once again that sharing the gospel in moments like this was not easy because Peter and John were aware that they could run into trouble the same people who had put Jesus on trial can put Peter and John on trial as well but they were bold enough they were bold enough and you know they they state the facts quite clearly directly and unashamedly they say the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the god of our fathers and they say glorify his servant Jesus so notice they are connecting the god of the Jews to Jesus which was you know actually the the matter of contention okay they were willing to agree that Jesus was a teacher and Jesus was a leader in his own right and things like that but it was when Jesus called the father god as his father they said oh he's blaspheming when Jesus said I am before Abraham was I am so he's claiming deity he's claiming sonship you know to the father or the god in whom they believe that that was blasphemy for them but Peter and John had the boldness to quite directly state that this god whom you worship Jesus is his servant or he is his minister and he also states that whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate so again it looks like it's more of an accusatory message but we will see that that was not the point of Peter Peter was saying that even though there was something that was intended by the people you know God is a God who can work good out of any evil just like the testimony of Joseph when he said that you know you intended to his brothers his siblings he said you intended these things for evil but God has brought something good out of it so the people intended evil for Jesus wanting to persecute him and to kill him but he says you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate he's just stating facts when he was determined to let him go but you denied again he calls Jesus he said the servant of this mighty God he also says holy one and just okay and asked for a murderer to be granted to you so he is giving Jesus that that status as the son of God and you know how amazing because what Peter is saying he uses the next term he said servant he said holy one just and now he says the prince of life isn't it an irony that the people were trying to kill who was a prince over life itself but they didn't realize that but here is Peter telling them you know what foolishness that you could even think of killing the one who is the author of life the prince of life and so he says God was with this Jesus and God himself raised from the dead of which we are witnesses so Peter is simply saying look you are witnesses of this miracle and what I'm saying is what I have seen what I have experienced so he's saying that I am a witness I'm not stating some vital logical facts here but I have witnessed what Jesus went through and how God raised from the dead and you know in a way you too are witnesses of what has actually happened in the recent past so he explained to them exactly how this man recovered you know from his from his disability now moving on verse 17 he says yet now brethren I know that you did it in ignorance so notice he's not trying to preach a message that accuses people or puts people down that was not the heart or the intention of what he was trying to say what is he saying now he's saying you did it in ignorance sometimes when you go to the people and you convey it's your sin it's your fault it's your mistake that really is not helpful though Peter stated some facts here he is you know clarifying once again he says I know why you did it no you did it in ignorance you were not aware of who Jesus was as did your rulers so there is compassion in what Peter is saying he's saying I'm not blaming you either am I blaming the authorities over you but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that the Christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled so he says God has accomplished his purpose nonetheless no matter what came against the purposes of God so what should the people do okay even in his first sermon there was a response you know which was intended from the people and rightly the people responded to Peter and said what should we do they were cut to the heart okay and they said what should we do the conviction of the Holy Spirit came upon them even in this case Peter you know says I don't know whether they asked him before he could state this but you know he goes on and tells them anyhow repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord so to the listeners the Jews who are gathered in Solomon's porch he says this is my instruction to you repent to repent in simple words you know those those Greek words there if you look at them what Peter was telling the people is he was saying you need to make a u-turn you may have lived your life in a certain way but God is calling you for a change in your lifestyle so repent he says or turn away from those old ways that you walked in and be converted converted again is a turnaround sometimes this word conversion it confuses people it suggests as if you know the people are being asked to change their religion people are being asked to you know leave their culture but that's not what this term means he if you look up the the Greek word there it basically means turn around turn around make a change you know to the things of God so that's what it means so leave behind your old ways you're putting it in a gist leave behind your old ways and begin to follow God okay because this Jesus was really sent by God and he is the Messiah so he says turn around and if you do that what are you going to receive out of it your sins will be blotted out or we know that you know in the package of salvation God has promised us forgiveness of our sins and that is what he's bringing to the people here he's sharing the gospel what is the gospel about it's about Jesus who he really is what he has done what that brings to us and the Peter is giving the people the message now he's saying look if you believe in this Jesus your sins will be forgiven you will experience times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord or you know the fellowship with God encounters with God the you know the experience of dwelling with God that will be a part of your life and you know he says and that he may send Jesus who was preached to you before whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began here's another promise he said you will receive forgiveness you will have times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord he's also promising them that a lot of these prophetic words released by you know men of God in earlier times which include the restoration of the state of Israel you know and that was something that was very dear to the Jews and it continues to be so those very little things that God has promised in his word he says times of restoration of all things so the world will see the unfolding you know of these matters as well and the fact that Jews also will come to faith in Christ Jesus and then the second coming of Christ will take place and again to to gain their attention further what Peter does is he preaches to them in their own context in their own language so now he brings up the name of another notable person earlier who was it that he spoke of it was David now he says Moses Moses Moses was respected by the Jews and so they as soon as you use David Moses you had their attention so he's saying Moses truly said to the fathers the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren him you shall hear in all things whatever he says to you so now Moses was a great prophet for the Jews and Peter had the courage to say that Moses talked about the prophet and you know who that prophet is it is the Lord Jesus Christ so you see all these titles all these descriptions of the Lord Jesus servant of your gods the God of the Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob and he says the holy one the just one the prince of life and now he goes on to say he is the very prophet that Moses had introduced to you earlier on and it's a and he says verse 23 and it shall be that every soul who will hear who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people yes and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow as many as have spoken have also foretold these days you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to Abraham and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed so he's trying to make the connect here he's saying the prophets we respect spoke of this Jesus and you know who this Jesus is Jesus is Abraham's seed so Abraham if you remember the God had promised him that he would have a son and that the descendants of Abraham through them all the nations are going to be blessed because there was promised a seed of Abraham who will be a blessing to the nations who is that seed so who is that person that God had promised to Abraham and his lineage of course the Lord Jesus Christ so now everything that Peter was saying to explain the miracle came back to the person of Christ and salvation which he had offered but it was not you know a lesson a theory lesson a lesson in history you know or good journalism okay i'm telling you all these facts this is what happened no this was to draw their attention to the gospel this all of what Peter was saying was good news to the people what is the good news jesus came for you jesus prayed for your sins he offers you forgiveness you know times of refreshing will come to you in his presence if you believe in him so it though it sounds like a very you know philosophical way of talking what Peter was really doing was he was bringing each one of them a personal message and he was telling them what you have seen happen to this man this lame man you know there's a greater miracle that God offers to each of us which is salvation so i'm explaining to you that through the power in the name of Jesus and by faith in that name this man was healed but there's something to offer each one of you and that is salvation through Jesus Christ and you know you see how there was that whole passion to bring the message at any given occasion they did not box themselves up that okay today is sunday today we are going to church after church we'll have outreach okay that's how it works no you could just say that hey they were they were going to the marketplace they were going to you know the mall they were going somewhere and when something happened and it was a suitable occasion for them to share this message of Jesus and tell people that it's a personal message for you and God looks for a response repent be converted or make a turnaround because salvation is yours just the way Jesus preached he said repent for the kingdom of God is here the kingdom of God has come so Peter was bringing the same message to the people so verse 25 i'll just start from there you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to Abraham and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed to you first God having raised up his servant Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities so again he says it's a very personal message Jesus though he is you know deity the way I have explained to you what is this message about he was sent first for you because you are people of the covenant why is he saying first to you because we understand that God had promised that Jesus and his you know his power his works his promises where first for the people of the covenant that is the Jews but from the book of Acts we will see that this message really begins to go out to touch many other communities many other people groups and you know outside of the so-called covenant people alone okay so that's the way in which you know Peter presented this message to the Jews here so let's continue from here we go on to Acts chapter 4 okay so just another quick thing that I want us to notice here is you see the healing of this man was so noticeable that Peter even had to give an explanation to the outlookers it wasn't you know ambiguous or it wasn't unclear it wasn't you know unstable where it seems like he was getting healed and you know after a couple of hours we are not sure was he just you know what did something happen in a moment and then you don't you no longer see the evidence of that healing so you know whatever I just shared that was not the nature of the healing that took place okay it was supernatural it was so evident to the people that Peter needed to give an explanation so the point I want to make is you know when God works his healing his deliverance his provision though anything else God we can't box him up the way God works whenever it is the intervention of God it's so real it's so you know amazing that we don't really have to cover up for God and you know make it look like ah yeah God let me help you I can try and make it look perfect for you Peter never had to do that it was so obvious in front of the people that Peter thought okay now that they have seen what God can do and it's so real before them let me go ahead and tell them how this happened okay so that is the way God works we don't have to you know be advocates in that sense for God's supernatural work it speaks for itself you know it's it's quite out there and here we are so clear it was not it was not you know a moment of excitement that passed away so no no God's work God's miraculous works God's supernatural works are very real and it was in front of the people to observe you know and wonder and you know he appears that how is this possible nobody can do this how did this happen so it was that real okay so I just want to encourage us that we see all of this in the book of Acts and God did it God did it then and nothing in scripture tells us that he has stopped doing it he hasn't so can he do noticeable miracles can he perform healings today and can it be as real as this man at the gate beautiful yes very much God can do these things and the world the onlookers stand amazed now let's see what other responses we notice as I said earlier we expect that people will be amazed and immediately put their trust in God you know when they see a supernatural work of God but similar to what happened when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place in the upper room some said oh these people are praising God but some were mocking and saying they are drunk so there's generally two kinds of responses one of accepting what God is doing but the other of ridiculing what God is doing so even in this case you know we have similar responses people are not that easy to accept the work of God so Acts chapter 4 now as they spoke to the people the priests the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them came upon them is like you know forcefully just stopping this meeting and taking charge okay and saying Peter stop whatever you're doing right now just stop it you know we we have to stop this meeting that's going on so they just come upon them who are these people so they are the guardians and they are the authorities you know responsible for the temple so when there's commotion when there seems to be you know something that is going outside their agenda outside of their program they have to take charge that's what they did so scripture says Acts 4 verse 2 being greatly disturbed okay so it's the second kind of reaction where like Acts 2 mockingly they said these people are drunk being greatly disturbed how unfortunate a notable miracle is there for you to see nothing has changed that man is still walking around why is it so hard to accept the miracle of God? Hardness the hardness of their hearts you could also say maybe ignorance which is why Peter thought it was appropriate to preach every occasion he got so it could have been hardness of their hearts it could have been ignorance you know and these things kept them from believing in Jesus after seeing the miracle so they were greatly disturbed what were they disturbed at they were disturbed at the miracle that took place but they were more disturbed that Peter was teaching the people and he preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead so that was a greater problem you're explaining the miracle that may still be okay but you're talking about this person Jesus Christ we have a problem with that and the Sadducees we are aware they don't believe in the resurrection of the dead so they are more like you know the natural things we can accept but stop talking about supernatural things stop talking about you know resurrection of the dead such events don't take place in real life so they were from that school of thought and that is why they were disturbed primarily by the teaching and the preaching about Jesus and him raising from the dead in being supernatural and all of that and it says and they laid hands on them so they came upon them they laid hands on them opposition persecution that's how you know we we see it in our times today so Peter and John were being opposed for what they were doing for Jesus and we see the authorities because obviously they have the authority so immediately so they laid hands on them is basically they captured them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening so the legal system of their times was such that they wouldn't have trials in the evenings so they thought okay if we leave these men outside they are going to continue speaking about this man Jesus and we don't know how many people might start believing in this Jesus so the safe thing to do is let's put them under custody tomorrow is a working day we'll deal with them okay and another I don't know whether they thought about it this way but they could have also had this thought who knows the lame man might tomorrow he might stop walking and if that happens great you know we have a lot more evidence that these people are fake you know they're doing some magic tricks in the temple we can get rid of them so with this kind of a perspective they tried to shut off Peter and John put them in custody and the next day came and it came to pass on the next day so the working day has begun the interrogation has started next day they gather others along with them as if it was not enough to have the priests and the captain and the Sadducees now you have rulers elders scribes okay as well as Anna's the high priest Kaifas John Alexander and as many as where the family of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem doesn't it sound funny who are Peter and John at the end of the day they're just some you know regular folk they are some ordinary men they are Galileans and they they're not very you know educated and we'll see a statement later that is made about Peter and John how can these people who don't really have a great standing in society be a threat that that there is a an interrogation process that's taking place and who's gathered every who's who every you know mighty person with any level of influence they're all there two question Peter and John Peter come on he's a fisherman why are you so afraid what is what is the threat here to the authorities after all these are ordinary men but we'll find out okay we'll find out what the issue is they we've seen earlier in the prior verses that this Jesus Christ who these men are preaching about then maybe even the miracle is okay but you are talking about Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was the very person that these same authorities had tried you know convicted crucified and now the followers of this man are making it even more difficult they have started preaching in his name and they're saying miracle has taken place in his name so that is the reason you know this is a very great threat to the authorities and they they make time for this interrogation process so they all show up they all gather for seven and when they had set them in the midst they asked by what power or by what name have you done this so what's the problem Jesus the name of Jesus is what was their problem and you know we've heard stories of opposition we've heard stories of persecution but things like this happened and we wonder you know why a small gathering why why is that a problem why is a miracle a problem but we know that the kingdom we proclaim no it's not about and this could just tell us see we are not against flesh and blood we are not against our own people even when Peter preached you know earlier you saw how though it sounded like he was accusing the people you know you crucified him you did this you picked the robber over the man Jesus but he said you did it in your ignorance so the gospel is always a gospel of compassion and love and grace and mercy of God and it wants to drop people even these rulers who had gathered God was not against them isn't it but it's a spiritual battle so we know that the God of this world or the small G it's not the capital G God but the God of this world is fighting the message of Christ and which is why you know you find that this name of Jesus is a post it's a spiritual battle we're not fighting flesh and blood but against principalities powers you know rulers of wickedness in the high places so these demonic forces are what instigate people and then you have people here or not opposing the message of the gospel and that's what was happening here and so these authorities are questioning them quite directly I'm saying by what power or by what name have you done this what name have you done this to give us an answer okay so the best way to give an answer at a time like this when you know Peter is facing all the you know like the officials of his place Jerusalem is is again a great city you have such a such a recognized panel in front of you it it will cause a man like Peter to become very nervous right so God in his grace knew that the best way for Peter to answer is by being filled with the Holy Spirit and that's what the scripture says verse 8 then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit in his own wisdom in his own capacity I don't think Peter would have been able to face these authorities so what did God do God filled him with the Holy Spirit and Peter even in Acts 2 Peter filled with the Holy Spirit gave that beautiful first sermon again Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders of Israel he's addressing the questioners if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man by what means he has been made well let it be no to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead by him this man stands here before you so you see how God gives him the wisdom first wisdom second boldness what is the wisdom he's saying isn't this laughable if I had robbed treasury or if I had hurt a person or if I was caught for something you know that um is harmful I can understand that you gather a panel like this and question me in his wisdom or through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit he's saying there was a man who couldn't walk for 40 years from his birth today he's walking don't you know that it is a good deed and has been done in the life of this he says helpless man I did something good I ministered in Jesus name and obviously earlier he said it wasn't me it was God why do you look at me it was God so he gave God the credit but this miracle has happened overall it's a good deed and somebody need has been helped so he's saying I can't believe you're questioning me about this and secondly boldness because what did Peter do earlier he denied Jesus you you were with this man Jesus he says no no no I don't know Jesus at all and he just ran away from the sea but look at the boldness by the power of the Holy Spirit he's not ashamed he's telling them directly he's saying okay you want to know by whose name I'll tell you by whose name he says Jesus Christ of Nazareth and in the last class I told you it's a way of identifying this Jesus because there could have been a lot of people by the name of Jesus so Jesus Christ who's the Savior where was he from he's from Nazareth so they knew exactly who was being spoken of and again he says you crucified whom God raised from the dead by him this man stands here before you all again the last point I'll make before we take a break the healing or the miracle did not disappear Peter is pointing to the notable work of God which was evident before their eyes and he's saying this man stands here before you hold that's the way God works when God works his work is done well okay and uh you know in this case we know that they were able to see and witness this lame man now walking all right so let's go for a break now and we shall come back in 10 minutes and continue from here I didn't give you a moment to pause and ask questions but we can do that then we come back so see you soon thank you