 Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining on today's call. Unfortunately, we are not able to have a video recorded because of a couple of internet issues. But we will still go ahead with the class. So there will be an audio recording. And please do follow along with the notes that have been provided. I'll just begin with the word of prayer. Father, we thank and praise you Lord for this day. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to go deeper in your word. Lord, we pray that you will equip us Lord by your Holy Spirit. And Lord, help us Lord Jesus to understand everything that we are going to discuss today. Lord, we pray God for every technical hindrance to be removed in the name of Jesus. Father, we ask for your blessings. Oh God, upon each one of us, the faculty and Lord, the families of everyone. We commit everything into your hands. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we've been talking about the apostolic and how God still continues to appoint people in the office of an apostle. As we have seen, there is an incredible amount of responsibility which is upon the office of an apostle. On all the offices there is. But as we have understood, there are so many very critical things that are expected of the apostolic. And so when it comes to anyone who has been called into that office of an apostle, God puts them through or God takes them through a season of preparation. So that's what we are going to look at today. We will study from the life of Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul's life has been discussed in many different courses. And this may not be so new for us, but still we can look at it in a little bit of a detail. So let's go ahead to chapter 3 here, which talks about the shaping of an apostle. So as we've been saying, when it comes to anything that God calls us to do, there is a preparation. So God is not in a hurry. He wants us to be thoroughly equipped for the work of the ministry. And we often say that the greater the call, the greater the preparation. Why? Why is it so? The greater the call, the greater the preparation. What do we have to prepare? Spiritual preparation, character preparation, leadership, equipping ourselves with the leadership skills, maturity, obedience, great. So these are all the aspects. Now one can have a call to be an apostle or a prophet or anything, but it takes time to be thoroughly shaped in all the aspects that we all said. We said maturity, character, skills, all these aspects one would need to grow. And so God takes us through a journey. Here we have seen the progression for a person who is being groomed into an apostle. There's what is called as commissioning. Commissioning simply means God confirming that there is a call and sending us out. That is the meaning of commissioning. So very specifically apostolic commissioning. Apostolic commissioning is to be sent out as an apostle, right? Then they need to equip themselves in the apostolic grace. So that is the ability. Grace is nothing but the ability to do that work, that apostolic work. So apostolic grace. Then of course the person functions or does the work of the ministry. That is apostolic ministry and it is usually when the work is done that we can actually call them an apostle. So I know we had questions about, you know, can we call so and so an apostle is this person an apostle. It all depends on the ministry which is demonstrated through their lives that it becomes easier for one to identify whether somebody is an apostle or not. So it begins with apostolic commissioning. Commissioning can happen when, you know, like the call of God. Is it possible for someone to know that they are an apostle before they journey with God like as a believer? Paul, in fact, when he got saved those initial chapters like Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter 10, over there itself God is revealing to Ananias. God is telling him, look this man, he's going to stand before kings. I'm calling him as an apostle to the Gentiles. So God made it very clear in the beginning. So is it possible for any of us to know our call? Even if we are part of the 5-4 ministry offices, yes, we can. Yes, in certain situations people don't know their call and then slowly they find out both are possible. In the case of Paul, he knew this is what he was meant to do. So what age do you think he got saved? What was his age? Above 30, 33. In the notes it is then 33. But it's encouraging to know that somebody who is, you know, at that age can start their journey with the Lord. Otherwise we always feel that one has to be very young. Only then God can help them, prepare them for the work of the ministry, but not true. What about Moses? 40, so much of hope for all of us. But don't wait, okay? Just because 30, 40, don't think, okay, I still have time, that's not the point. But even if we are, you know, 30, 40, whatever else, I've heard of people who got born again quite late in life, but they were serving God even then at that age. So any age God calls us, we can serve Him. So Paul was 33 years when he had an encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. Now it was not like once he was called, he didn't serve God. See the way we as people would feel is now that Paul got saved and he has to do all the work of the ministry, why delay? Let him just start serving. And Paul tried doing that. In fact, the Bible says for three years in the area surrounding Damascus, Arabia. He went and he started doing the ministry. He went to the synagogues to preach the Lord Jesus and, you know, he was doing the work. But what was the problem? People were not ready to accept. The reason is that he was a persecutor. Everybody knew that. So people wondered whether he is putting up an act to deceive and then probably, you know, he will persecute. So there was no trust factor as far as Paul was concerned. And so those three years were very difficult. And when the opposers found out, they in fact wanted to kill him. So what happened is Paul leaves the region. He goes to Jerusalem only for 15 days. Now people may argue and say, who mentored Paul? You know, who spent time with him and equipped him and all. But in the case of Paul, we don't see, at least in terms of time, we don't see him, you know, sitting with the apostles and getting mentored, so to speak. I'm sure they would have mentored him. They would have guided him but not by keeping him with them. Only 15 days he was in Jerusalem and then he goes to the regions of Tarsus, Cilicia, Syria. So he's from that place, Paul of Tarsus. So he just went back to his region and over there, he spent 13 years. 13 years. For anyone like us, we might wonder that it's, we might think that it's a waste of time. See, three years he tried in Arabia, Damascus, waste, according to us. 13 years. He could have been launched into ministry by then. Unfortunately, he was not ready. And so, God let him be. And, you know, as we calculate all these years, after Paul being born again, it is said that at least 17 years, he was not a noted minister of God. Did Paul do the work of the ministry for 17 years? What do you think? He did it. He did it. Wherever he was, the Bible says that he was preaching, proclaiming, clarifying people's doubts. So he was functioning in the capacities of a teacher and a minister of God. But he was not recognized for 17 years. And after 17 years is when we come to Acts chapter 11, where who brought Paul to do the ministry? You know, correct, Barnabas. So we said in the beginning when Paul got saved and he went to Jerusalem, even the apostles were not ready to accept him. But thank God for people like Barnabas. Barnabas is known as a son of encouragement. So according to his personality and his calling, it was nice that Barnabas was a man who said, hey, let's give him a chance. You know, let's give him an opportunity. And so in Acts chapter 11, Barnabas was the one who went, who brought Paul and said, Paul, you now work with me. Let's work together. And so the ministry of Paul in a notable way starts in the church of Antioch. Over there, he functions as a teacher. So for these 17 years, 17 years from where to where, Acts chapter 9 to Acts chapter 11, it's only two chapters, but it is 17 years, right? In between, Paul is still doing the work of the ministry and what we can assume is there would have been all this development in terms of knowledge about God, in terms of developing a life as a disciple, in terms of his prayer life being equipped. You know, Paul is the one who writes about tongues, right? To the Corinthians. Now, he would have learnt all this. Paul is the one who writes about the Communion. And in fact, when he writes about the Communion, he says, I received this by revelation. So just think about it. His journey was not like the disciples because many, a lot of what the disciples received, they received it from that being passed on. But Paul, there's a little uniqueness to his development. God even gave him revelation of matters. In fact, Peter, in one portion, he says, I'm not like Paul. Paul is very, you know, like learned. And, you know, he is a very well-versed man when it comes to these things. But Peter says, I'm so simple, like in writing and all because he was just a fisherman. So the manner in which Paul got developed is quite different. And the reason is God put him through that school, if you may want to call it school or training or preparation. So 17 years for Apostle Paul, God had a great call for him after the 17 years. So how old must have he have been by then? 50, around 50. Okay, so 17 years got saved at 33. He's already 50 now. What ministry can he do? That's how we might think. But the actual very strong work from Acts 13. In Acts 13, we see that as the leaders of the Antioch Church were praying, the Holy Spirit speaks to them and says, set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the ministry that I have assigned for them. And then they start travelling and they start moving into the region of, you know, Galatia. And from there they move on, you know, Macedonia, so many different places and they do the work of the ministry. So it's actually starting somewhere around the age when Paul is about 50. And then we see the rest of his life. He is ministering for again. People say he died somewhere around the age of 66, 67 around there. So another 16 years. But those 16 years of ministry were so powerful, isn't it? He went to so many cities, raised up so many churches. He raised up so many leaders, even people like Timothy. So when Paul was gone, Timothy was appointed but well trained by Paul. And it is said that Timothy took care of the church for a couple of decades, you know. So he prepared leaders like that. Paul. Now all this would not have been possible unless Paul was prepared to step into that calling that God had for him. And God took him through that preparation. So the point is, see, even when it comes to our life calling, there is a season of preparation. And if you're calling, called into something like the office of an apostle, let's be sure that God is going to do a thorough preparation. And is preparation easy? Why? What are the struggles to be in the season of preparation? So much of pruning. Okay. Pruning. True. What is like the tough part of the season of preparation? Waiting. Yeah, I think waiting is the hardest for all of us. We want God to move like that. But waiting is where we get exhausted. But yeah, God is not in a hurry for sure. So we should also not be in a hurry. And we find that especially when God has a powerful call on someone's life, we say the preparation happens in obscurity. Meaning, when no one is watching, right? Nobody even knows that person exists. Nobody even knows that person has all these capabilities. And then think about Paul. I don't know if he wondered or he was a very strong man in faith. I have no clue. But if at all he wondered, he may have thought, God, why did you call me? Nobody is listening to my teaching. Here I am, you know. I'm struggling and you said I'm going to be an apostle. When am I going to be an apostle to the Gentiles? So we may have all these questions, right? But that is obscurity. Meaning nobody knows and we don't have a platform. We say no to the IT or in front of people. But it is in that time that a lot of building up happens. And we must allow God to do that. But what is a tendency? Our tendency is we want to launch out. You know, we're ready to jump. That's how we are all wired. But we must avoid that in God's time. God will, you know, sort of open the door or God will orchestrate the situations in the right way. And then we'll have those opportunities where we can step in and we can see how God has prepared us for this time and we are able to serve Him. Okay. So that's about the preparation of an apostle. And in the case of an apostle, surely it's a tough, tough journey because there's so much to do. And so one has to be geared to doing it. And there'll be a lot in terms of, you know, learning the word, working with people, having the right heart attitude that God really has to take us through that journey. Sure. So if that's clear, we can move on to the next chapter here, which is the function and characteristic of the present day apostolic. But if there are any points of discussion, we can always discuss about preparation. Yeah, that's quite clear. So let's move on. So the function and characteristic of present day apostolic. So present day apostolic or any day apostolic, we know that the main features remain the same. Of course, with time and the availability of resources, the things we do can be slightly different. Like how they traveled in the earlier times, it's different from how we do it today. Right, how we communicate today, how we reach out to the world today. We can be sitting in one place and reaching out to the world. That's a possibility today. I wonder if Paul lived today, you know, how his ministry would have looked because in whatever they had back then, they were so dynamic, isn't it? So the key or the core elements are the same. But depending on the resources available in any generation, we can see that the expansion looks different of the apostolic. So let's go ahead and see some of these features. Firstly, we are saying that apostles or the apostolic, when we say apostles, it's referring to a person who is in the office. But when we say the apostolic, it's like that umbrella term. We said the prophetic, which all believers can come under. So the apostolic is, all believers can be apostolic to a certain degree. So apostles pioneer for the extension of the kingdom. They are extending the kingdom in different zones. Either they are physical, geographical zones or they are spiritual, you know, like other spheres in life, in society, in culture. So let's first look at a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 28. This is a very key passage. So I would request one of us to read it also. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 28. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28. And God has appointed these in the church. Apostles, second prophets and third teachers. After that, miracles and gifts of failings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Okay, great. So it says God has appointed in the church. This is similar to another passage. What is that passage? We discussed so many times. Ephesians 4 verses 11 to 13. There it talks about five-fold ministry offices. Here there's a mixture of the five-fold as well as grace gift of ministry. So it talks about healing. Then it talks about administration, right? Okay. So it's not necessarily talking only about five-fold ministry offices. But let's look at the language. Nikhil, could you please read it again slowly? And God has appointed these in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers. After that miracles, then gifts of failings, helps, administration, varieties of tongues. Okay, thank you. So it says God has appointed first apostles. So how do we understand this? Any thoughts? First apostles. Then what does that mean? Okay, pioneer. Okay, so does it mean that there is an hierarchy? Meaning one is above the other. Apostles are above the prophets. And prophets are above the teachers. Is that how we... Okay, yes. For our understanding, right? So when we function, something may work first. Let's say the stimulus of the brain or the nerves. But it doesn't mean that, you know, brain is the first and every other organist's heart is the second, nothing like that. So similar, very similar. Even though the language says first apostles, we must take it as it means first in terms of time. Sri Radha said pioneer. What do pioneers do? They are the first ones to start something new. So it's like that. First meaning, not in a hierarchy, but first in time. First in order or rank. Again this has to do more like pioneering. That the apostle will go make way and as they build up things slowly, the work of the teacher, the pastor, the prophet and all will come. So that's how we understand. So when we understand it rightly, the application will be right. We will trust or we will hope for the apostle to invade new territory and then the others will come and do their work. But if we don't understand this correctly, then what happens is in terms of giving, you know, like it happens right in Christian circles, like respect, they say no, you should respect the apostle the most and all the others come below. Because the scripture says first apostle, but that is wrong application. First simply means first in time, first in order or importance. And that word first is the Greek word called as proton. Proton, it's also like in science we see that term. But then to talk about the apostolic, a lot of people use that term like proton, proton believers simply means apostolic. They try to use that term proton to kind of relate with the apostolic. Proton simply means first in time like a pioneer. Okay, so we've understood the apostolic will be first in time. So what exactly in terms of first, what can we expect from the apostle or the apostolic? Yeah, foundations. Foundations of the truth of God's word? Yes, but we also said that doctors are already laid. So there's no question of setting the foundation anymore. Then what foundation or what pioneering? Yeah, so we would say like new revelation. Okay, but that doesn't mean the truth is changing. It just means the depth of the truth is increasing. Understood? So we cannot bring anything new adding to the doctrine, adding to what has been revealed. However, there can be a deeper revelation. When we say revelation it's like deeper, something deeper, something that we've not seen so far. For example, let's take the teaching on tongues. So if we go back to some of the old times and we listen to the sermons, there will be some revelation about how to practice speaking in tongues. How does it help the believer? But if you look at some of the books that are written today, they have taken a lot of content from earlier, but there's also additional or deeper truth, which people have come to understand over years, decades. Same thing for healing. If you go back to the writings of some of the early ministers of God who are moving in healing and deliverance they have some understanding. But if you study it all and look at some of the books that are there today, right? You find there's deeper revelation there may even be some we call it new, but it's not like new as in it's not there in scripture that's not the meaning. We can say new truth or new revelation but it's like looking at something in a way that you've never seen before but it already exists. So that is the work of the Apostolic. Something new. And we say movements. Some of the movements around the world like church planting movement. There was a time when you wouldn't see that very often but now we live in a time where you have churches that are planting many churches it's a movement. It's common in a lot of church settings. It's common. People understand that okay it's not just about my church but the kingdom of God planting churches. It's a movement or movement like the supernatural. Functioning in the supernatural releasing a prophetic word and there are many churches globally if you see they're like that. It's nothing new anymore people have learned those things people have grown in those things people are established in that truth and you know but somebody started it. When it started it wasn't easy like if you go back to things like the prophetic or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. How to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of the old old-time teachings like even like Vinyard if you go back to churches and groups like that at that point they were teaching basics like okay God can put an impression in our hearts so but when you listen there know a lot they sound like basics. They're talking about the basics but today we have so much more because we've built on it but those days those people had to actually push through pioneer it was not easy when you were teaching such things they would have had to face a lot of opposition so it's like that. So you find that the apostolic will come with that truth. New revelation and there will be a breaking of ground meaning somebody has to start it somebody has to start talking about it somebody has to start practicing it that is what the apostolic is all about and yeah so that's one of the functions and we already discussed entering new territory so then we see that in the apostolic we would try to see look for places where the gospel has not gone before and then go there and when it comes to the apostolic with its pioneering ability the apostle is also meant to lead from the front. Lead from the front means being in the forefront of a movement okay? Being in the forefront or it's not like generally in the apostolic they don't do things like okay yeah it's happening and we are a part of it it's not so subtle. You'll find that the apostles are driving it literally in front making it happen and you know taking it forward so these are some of the features so three things new revelation, new truth second new territory, third is leading from the front so these are the features of the apostolic so when we see someone in that function or a church functioning like that we would say oh it's apostolic okay it's apostolic or such and such a person is an apostle so that's the basic feature but we will build more on other aspects yeah sure okay then let's just close with a word of prayer and I will request one of us to pray please heavenly father lord we thank you for this time lord father we thank you for this time of learning that you have given us a lord father thank you for teaching us new things and for all the good insights and all the new things that we have learned lord we give you thanks lord whatever we have learned lord father help us to bring it into a practical knowledge more than a head knowledge lord father you equip us with your word and help us to recognize the feelings the giftings that you have given us a lord father and help us to build on it to establish your kingdom we give you glory and honor in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you thank you we will meet again in the next class