 Okay, good morning and welcome. We continue in the exciting study of the Book of Acts. We pray and then we'll get into our session for today. I just request someone from the class to please go ahead and lead us in a word of prayer. Shall we pray? Father, in the mighty name of Jesus. Then turn our coffee. Do you want to say thank you for this moment? Thank you for giving us opportunity to be in your presence. Thank you because we are faithful. Thank you for your lecturers. Thank you for lecturing our students. We see what they're doing in the name of Jesus. Lord, we commit this lecture to everyone. Father, uphold us and sustain us and let your spirit dwell in us. Give us all the strength of your word day by day in the name of Jesus. Father, we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. So, you know, so far we've seen a couple of things happening in the church of Jerusalem. We said that the first 10 years was a time when the church in Jerusalem became stronger. Once the baptism of the Holy Spirit was done, like from the Book of Acts chapter 2, the believers were now beginning to be added to the church. And we also saw how the disciples who were waiting for this baptism in the Holy Spirit became really firebrand Christians. And they went around sharing the gospel, moving in signs, wonders and miracles. And we saw how persecution also affected the church. But in the midst of these things, the church remained a strong and a very, very powerful unit. So now from Acts chapter 6, we see the governance of the church begin to change. We saw certain needs emerging in the church of Jerusalem and then, you know, the emergence of the volunteers. Thus far, all the primary responsibilities were those of the apostles. But now we have volunteers in the church, men of God who are enlisted in Acts chapter 6, who were those with good testimony and filled with the Holy Spirit, people of faith who start to serve in the church. And then we went on and we saw that in the period of persecution, somebody like Stephen, again, he has the same qualifications of the volunteers that I just stated. But beyond that, his conviction for his faith, his conviction to stand up for the Lord Jesus and to preach Jesus when he is cornered by, you know, several, several opposers. That's something very exemplary and something to really honor and praise. And Stephen gives us a very good example for man of faith. Unfortunately, we saw that Stephen was martyred and it was a brutal, you know, killing that he underwent. And in this whole scenario, we noticed that there was a name that was mentioned to us by Luke and that is Saul. We saw how Saul was the one who was seemingly leading this group of opposers who killed Stephen. Now we must also recognize that what happened to Stephen, probably that may have happened to others as well. We don't know. But then the situation was so serious and that's what Luke wants to bring to our attention. Now we went on to Acts chapter eight and again, there is a description of persecution and how Saul was leading that persecution without any mercy. He was not concerned about the gender of the person or, you know, whether they were, they were at home because it says he went, they even went to the homes and dragged people out. So literally without any mercy, people were being persecuted for their faith. But in such a time, we also see the spread of the gospel. We also see that people in the Church of Jerusalem, right now, Philip, who is a volunteer, we see him moving out of Jerusalem and going to a place called as Samaria, where he, not only does he preach the word but with signs, wonders and miracles. Now we saw that once people start to believe in Samaria, another important thing that takes place is the discipling of these believers. Because Peter and John from the Church of Jerusalem, they set out to come to Samaria so that they can help the believers. Now what is the help required for the believers? They need to be moved on to the next level or the next important thing, the next truth that must be taught to them. And so Peter and John come and they minister the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Now we know that when they laid hands to minister the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Simon the sorcerer, he observed something amazing. First of all, he had given his life to Christ. But then, you know, when he saw the infilling of the Holy Spirit and people probably, he noticed them moving in the gift of tongues. So he asked Peter and he said that, hey, can I have this gift for an amount of money? And Peter rebukes him and he says that your heart is not right. Repent before God. Let's hope that God forgives you. So that's where we actually stopped. So there are a lot of things going on. We will notice that in the next 10 years, the first initial years is about a decade and we've seen whatever transpired. We saw that the church has now grown to, you know, several thousand people. We have leaders in the church. We have volunteers in the church. Persecution is going on. But now from Acts chapter 8 to Acts chapter 30 is the period of the next 10 years or the next decade. Roughly, we can estimate it from AD 38 to AD 47. And what we will see in these next five chapters or so is the way the gospel is spreading in the surrounding region. So till Acts chapter 7, it was all about the church of Jerusalem. Now it's moving on to the neighboring places. We've already seen the name of Samaria in Acts chapter 8. And then, you know, we will see other names listed out later as well. So what can we expect, you know, the believers to do in these upcoming five chapters? We'll see that they go and they carry the revival fires. We know that what happened in the initial years of the church was nothing less than a revival. So that same revival, they carry it to other parts, you know, wherever they go. But the beauty of what we are going to learn is we notice that the same DNA or in other words, the same kind of fervor for God, the same kind of desire for the power of God, the same kind of earnestness to preach the gospel, the same kind of interest to build the church, things like that, they carry that same fire. So it's nothing less than what was happening in the church of Jerusalem. And so that is an encouragement for us today because when we, you know, take the passion that we have and the, you know, that fire that we have experienced in God, what happens is you kind of ignite the same kind of fire wherever you go. So we see that in the book of Acts. And similarly, today we can expect that whatever we are receiving, whatever we are learning, whatever God is doing in our lives, that's something we can carry and we can give it out wherever the Lord needs us. And so we notice in the book of Acts that as a revival fire spread out, there were believing communities, there were communities that came alive with the truth of God, that came alive with the power of God. And that's what we expect today when we talk about church planting, that's what we want. The fire of revival moves from place to place and then you don't just have one minister who is carrying the revival fire, but you have an entire community that's carrying the revival fire. And that's how, you know, it's supposed to be. And that's something that we can dream about and say, God, you know, we want to see communities that are so passionate for you in our times and days as well. So what else are we going to see in these next five chapters? We've already heard the name of Saul that, you know, he was such a devout Jew that he went against anything that stood up, you know, as a threat to his faith. So he was persecuting the followers of the Lord Jesus and that's as much as we learned about him. But as we go to chapter nine, there's going to be quite an elaborate description of how he encounters the presence of God and, you know, how Jesus speaks to him and how this man Saul, you know, we later on call him Paul, you know, both were his names, but then for some reason the other name was called later. So people know him by that name Paul, you know, once he has an encounter with God. So that's something that we learn about. And then eventually we'll see how Paul in association with the church of Jerusalem, you know, he is instrumental. Along with some of the other leaders to really build up a church called as the church of Antioch, Antioch of Syria. So we'll talk about that church and the speciality of that church. And then eventually, you know, we will see how by Acts chapter 13, God will specify that he wants Paul and Barnabas for a certain kind of a ministry, which obviously we know is the ministry of, you know, like a missionary kind of a role that God wants Paul to have and even Barnabas. And so in Acts chapter 13, God makes that very clear and then we will start to talk about the missionary journeys of Paul. So the encounter that Paul had with Jesus took place somewhere around AD 38. So that's a little bit about what we are going to see in the next five chapters. So let's go back in and begin to see what we have here in the passage. So Acts 8, we've already seen Christ being preached in Samaria, then the profession of the sorcerers faith. We've seen that and we've seen how Simon has something wrong in his heart and he's being rebuked for that. And now we will start to read about the life of Philip, who is another one of the volunteers and what exactly Philip does. I know we probably read a little bit already, but let's start again from Acts chapter 8 and verse 26. That's the place where we will begin. So I want to request somebody from our class to go ahead and read this portion. You can reach up 26 and go on till the end. You could just go on till the end. Then we'll see what we can learn from this. Acts chapter 8 verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Rise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he rose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a knuck of great authority under the Candence, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and sitting in this chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then a spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, We understand what you're reading. And he said, How can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to be slaughtered and as a lamb before his it's sure is silent. So he opened not its mouth. In his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth? So the inner answered Philip and said, I ask you whom the prophet say this of himself or of some other man. Then Philip opened his mouth and begin and beginning at the scripture preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water and the inner said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart you may. And he said and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. So he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the unit went down into the water and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so that the index often no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azodas and passing through. He preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Okay, thank you Jatina. Thank you for that. So we are seeing here that from Samaria, Philip receives an instruction. We can say that similar to Stephen, Philip was also a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit, who was so sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit. It's obviously the spirit of God who gave Stephen the wisdom to speak the way he did earlier. And in this case, in this entire chapter of chapter 8, we see that Philip is led by God so beautifully, so powerfully. He went to Samaria and as the mighty works of God were done, there was great joy in Samaria. We talked about that. So an entire region was impacted by the ministry of one man and that is such an encouragement for us. Now God leads him from that place to another place. So that again he can go and he can speak about salvation and the Lord Jesus to another person. But notice how Philip is being led to places where people seem to have their hearts yearning to hear the truth. So when he went to Samaria, it was so amazing and efficient, successful. Now being led by the Spirit, he comes to another region. So he receives the instruction, arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So a specific place is given to Philip. How does he recognize? We are told that Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. So these are all ways by which the prophetic word is given to us or the communication of God comes to us. So right now it's an angel, right? So sometimes any angel can come and speak to us about what God wants us to do. Now we've seen this in the Bible, in the case of Mary. Gabriel came to Mary and spoke to her and told her what is going to happen. So Philip receives an instruction and that instruction is go to a certain place. Now what did Philip do? So when we receive an instruction from God, the right thing is to follow through. So he goes, we see in verse 27, so he arose and went and over there, there is a person and it says a man of Ethiopia. What was this man doing? Later on we find that he came to worship in Jerusalem. Maybe he was a proselytus, somebody who is given to other faiths but who decides to follow Judaism. So as a proselytus he had come to worship in Jerusalem. Now this Ethiopian, we are also told a little bit more about this person. But he was a Yonak of great authority. So for whatever reason, he's a Yonak but the important point to note here is he has great authority. Or in our present day terms he must have been a government official of very high rank and somehow God led Philip to a high ranking official. We are told that he was under the Candice, the queen of the Ethiopian. So Candice may be a term used to describe a certain form of royalty or certain form of position in the palace. So he was under the Iraqi or the king or the queen. And we notice that he also had charge of the treasury. So we can foresee that something strategic is going to happen. Now does Philip know, how much information did Philip have? We have so much information about this Ethiopian Yonak. But how much information do you think Philip had when God told him to go there? Anyone? Nothing. Absolutely, yeah nothing. Because what did God tell him? Just arise and go down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he arose and went. So the point I want to make is that there are times in our lives where we want to do everything before we are willing to obey God. But the instruction of God or the message of God, it will come as per what God wants to communicate. So thank God for Philip because he did not keep questioning God and say God but who is going to be there? What am I supposed to do? He just whatever word he received, he knew, okay fine this is all God wants to tell me in this moment. The important thing that I have to do is to just act on it. And so you see in verse 27, so he arose and went. What an obedient man. And he has no clue that he is going to meet a person of great influence. This person has the access to the treasury of Ethiopia. So what was God's plan at this time to take the gospel to Africa? You understand? It's huge. What God is planning in the spiritual is so amazing. But I don't know why God did not communicate that to Philip. He just said you get up, you go here. He said okay but obedience is what matters. And you know without his knowledge, Philip was instrumental to take the gospel to a person of influence who would then go on to Africa. And you know the gospel had the opportunity to spread there. So what do we see now? So this person was Philip ended up you know meeting this particular person and what was this person doing? This person after worship was returning sitting in a chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah. Now there is another instruction that Philip receives. So he goes down to Gaza and here's this man. But the other instruction is go near and overtake the chariot. So again you see how the Holy Spirit speaks to his people. It's just a short sentence go overtake the chariot. Nothing more than that because we are reading Luke's account we know what's going on but Philip has no clue. First go to Gaza, second overtake the chariot. What would we do like if you're on the road and you're on your bike and the car says overtake that car and you're like what God am I hearing you right should I even do it? Okay but Philip, a man of obedience, it says next so Philip ran to him. He was just acting on the instructions of the Holy Spirit and this is how we need to be led in our lives. Here from God and when God speaks take that next step. We see Philip doing that in his ministry. So he ran up to this man and when he ran up to this man something was happening. He heard him reading the prophet Isaiah but he realized okay maybe the reason I'm here is to explain what this actually means and so he asked this person an Ethiopian you now do you understand what you're reading and the Ethiopian says how can I understand unless somebody guides me and then Philip goes ahead he sits down with him and he starts to read he describes the humiliation that the Messiah will go through and then he kind of brings this connection he says the prophet was actually talking about Jesus Christ and so he preaches the Lord Jesus to this Ethiopian Younup and in verse 35 it says Philip opened his mouth and beginning at the scripture preaches to him then what happens after that okay. We see in the next verse that the Younup is willing to be baptized just after he hears about Jesus. So we know that obviously he has accepted Christ isn't it when Philip preached he has accepted Christ and in the very next moment when they find some water he's willing to be baptized and you know Philip is likely the person who actually baptized it and you know we see that after that again the God continues to speak to him so in verse 38 we notice the baptism of this Younup takes place okay Philip is the one who has baptized the Younup and in verse 39 again one of the works of the Holy Spirit so what I'm trying to highlight here is the ministry of the Holy Spirit or the direction of the Holy Spirit and the way the Holy Spirit is working in Philip's life is something to for us to desire so notice what it says about verse 39 again Philip has to go okay but how does he go this time earlier we are not told how he actually went but we he went in the normal way but this time around we are told that the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away how would you like that you know God wanted you to go to a place to ministry and you were sitting in like like I'm sitting in Bible college and the next minute I'm not here right in front of the camera and I just go someplace to do the ministry or you know something like that happens to you but the early church lived in all these supernatural experiences and the Bible tells us that these things can't happen today okay but thank God for Philip who followed the leading of the Holy Spirit excuse me and so then what happens we see that he goes on and he preaches in all the cities still he came to Caesarea so what can you say about the type of ministry of Philip we have the five point ministry gifts right and is there any particular ministry gift that you can attribute to Philip yeah that's true supernatural ministry but in the five point ministry gifts we can say evangelist isn't it he just went from new place to new place and then he talks about Jesus so an evangelistic ministry but we still don't see him being called as an evangelist okay so he's just started out and Luke never terms him as the evangelist yet because he's just being led by the spirit of God so even this is an important learning for us that when we are serving God we really need to wait for a title it's all about obedience titles will come eventually when people see that God is working through our lives in a certain way people also will be able to tell oh there is this prophetic gift on the person or they are so apostolic or they are such a good teacher so eventually people will notice you may be termed with the title but serving God is not so much about titles and we see that in the life of Philip he was not worried about what his title was and Luke never says evangelist Philip we just see his ministry was obedient whatever God told him to do at that point in his life he kept doing it and he went on to the next thing so that's again something so beautiful that we can learn from Philip just be obedient do what God calls you to do and don't worry so much about the title the title will come when we fulfill the function so I'll pause here before we get into act chapter 9 but any thoughts or any comments from you maybe about the life of Philip so I believe it's very supernatural and sometimes I just wonder how it was and how it actually happened it's like some meditations that we do maybe fast forward with the stuffs that's how he goes to the next place and that's really awesome and I just feel like the surrender and the obedience that he has must be the ultimate reason behind it none of the things of this life is hindering him that's one thing I feel it's more focused on preaching the gospel and that's what I believe so because sometimes I mean there's a life that we need to carry on sometimes we focus on that but when we look into the early church the priority was the gospel in everything that they do and I'm just asking God let that be my priority too sometimes as we go through life that fire they have that desire they have I believe that should overwhelm in us so that we can do whatever God asks us to do so that's one thing I like and I also liked in verse 35 but somewhere it says he's beginning in that scripture he started preaching so that revelation is good Philip didn't have to go through something else to start about Jesus I wonder which verse it says yeah in verse 35 in 35 then Philip open his mouth beginning at this scripture it's like touching him right at the point I believe so what he was reading and that might be the work of the Holy Spirit behind everything even he was reading the right scripture but I still believe that sometimes we have to touch people right at where they are in need of right what because not everyone requires the gospel in the same way I believe that's why we have youth ministry children ministry because we have to touch them right at their point if we are if I look back into my life even I've heard gospel for all my life but then only when it touches right at the point where I am in that's when I got saved that made me believe more than Jesus so the revelation is also so big I believe that in the early church they know where to preach how to preach that's that's awesome they have a clear picture when they have to be a little more arrogant they are arrogant and when they have to be silent when they have to shut their mouth they are silent in that places and I think that's that's how maybe that's how Holy Spirit leases he tells us exactly what to do so yeah that's one thing that stood out for me when I when I saw that beginning in that scripture he started about Jesus to say yes thank you thank you for sharing your thoughts and Rosalind says Philip is very sensitive to the Holy Spirit true that also stands out for us she adds we too should have a relationship with the Holy Spirit in such a way that we don't miss the call of God and things that God wants to do through us to bless others keeping destruction away and out of our lives thank you okay sure Rosalind correct to be so sensitive and responsive to God is important for us to walk in what God wants us to do and as I pointed out earlier the instructions that God may give us they seem very small but in the kingdom of God some of those things can be so strategic like when the church is beginning to grow in the early you know the first century and Philip is just traveling here and there one with one sentence two sentences he is led to a man who will take the gospel to an entire continent and that's the beginning of the spread of the gospel in that particular continent of Africa so it is important as Rosalind is pointing out to just the obedient to God even if it's a small instruction because in God's perspective when we obey that small command it might make the difference to a continent full of people we don't know and so you know that is something to really think about and finally one more thing that I will quickly point out about Philip is both in Samaria and the Ethiopian you know it says rejoicing there was great joy in the land and then the Ethiopian you know went back rejoicing so when we are led by God in such a timely way he went to both these places and people were receptive they accepted the truth and what did that produce in the lives of the people they received the gospel rejoicing so the Ethiopian you know he seems so devout we don't know for how many years he was searching for the Messiah but that was the moment just that moment when Philip comes and says okay you know what are you reading do you understand what you are reading okay he sits down with it and he begins to explain but maybe the quest of an entire lifetime was met on that particular day but the result rejoicing in the lives of people when we take the gospel out and you know maybe another insight is see God wants us to take the gospel to everyone we obviously saw him earlier taking it out to the regular people in Samaria but now there is a person of influence so as we go ahead in the book of Acts we notice that every strata of society people in business you know people in the prison people men women so just talk about it every sector very intelligent people like you know Athens city of Athens so business people the city of Corinth was known for all Ephesus particularly you know was known for all their business activities but the gospel impacts everyone it doesn't matter what walk of life people come from but because we are created in the image of God and each one of us is in need of salvation the gospel is the type of gospel and effective in the life of every single human being that is also something that we notice okay so I'll just go back to the chat here Rosalind says like God told me to go to a certain place to do prayer work but I did not obey because of my laziness and fear but I learned it a hard way thank God for his mercy okay thank you for sharing Rosalind I know like even in our lives sometimes we just regret not having a listen to God but hopefully we'll become more sensitive to know his voice accurately and then act on it so any other comments before we jump to Acts chapter 9 alright so if we are through then we shall now start to talk about Apostle Paul eventually he'll be Apostle Paul but right now he is the persecutor Saul who was introduced to us and this is around 3880 and we will see what exactly happens to him on a road called as on the road to Damascus so let's begin to read from verse 1 here we could read till verse 9 please then Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way whether men or women he might bring them bound to Jerusalem as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you Lord then the Lord said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting it is hard for you to kick against the goats so he trembling and astonished said Lord what do you want me to do then the Lord said to him arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do and the men who journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no one then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were open he saw no one but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he was and he was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank Amen thank you Rosalind so we see the encounter that Saul had something that we can observe about his convictions is that he felt that whatever he was doing he was doing it right and so we see that he intentionally planned to persecute those who followed Jesus we are told that he went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so meaning he officially was going place to place to persecute the believers and now what's happening he is going in search of if he found any who were of the way one more thing for us to notice is that the believers the collective name of the believers till now they are not really referred to as Christians you find their names as Christians we have seen such as believers, you know disciples and all that earlier but he who believes but now a collective talk to refer to those who are following Christ is the way so what was Saul doing he was trying to find people who are part of the way what is this way maybe you know they were talking about the way for salvation the way to live your life so it was a new manner of living life and a new faith that people found and so maybe that's why they called it the way or a manner of life and Paul was against the people who were part of the way again the scriptures say whether men or women showing how brutal he was that he might bring them bow to Jerusalem so he was on an agenda that is why he went to Damascus now what happens as he is going to Damascus he hears a voice with a sentence it says Saul Saul why are you persecuting me now we know that whenever we hear a word being repeated twice that is expressing deep emotion of some sort so God is just trying to say like Martha you are worried and troubled about many things even at that time Jesus used her name twice okay so because he was in his heart just wanting to convince her to put her trust in the Lord and even now Saul he looks at Saul and he is like Saul Saul with deep emotion why are you persecuting what does it say anyone why are you persecuting me okay that's another very important thing you remember when Stephen was martyred we saw Jesus stand up it says right and I told all of us stand up is like a symbol of honour Jesus we know he is seated at the right hand of the Father but standing up is a symbol of appreciating someone for their work or their labour so for the persecuted church what is God's heart you see the martyrs Stephen saw Christ stand up which means God honoured the martyr Jesus honoured the martyr and now again we see when who is being persecuted we saw the people of the way right the other ones were being persecuted but what is the voice from heaven saying what is Jesus saying to Saul Saul why are you persecuting me so that shows us how God feels about persecution we may think that God has forgotten God is not mindful I'm the only one who has to go through the kind of persecution we go through maybe somebody says something maximum right about us and we don't like it oh look at you you are such a holy Joe but think about people in the book of Acts literally physically they are being hurt and they are being bound taken into prisons but in the midst of all that one thing that we can know is when we experience the pain of persecution who feels it Jesus feels it that's why he's telling Saul you know what you're not persecuting these people you are persecuting me why are you persecuting me wow it's like a parent standing up for their kids isn't it you feel that anger behind that statement where deep emotion God from heaven is speaking to Paul Saul and saying Saul Saul why are you persecuting me okay so let's stop here we'll take a 10 minute break and we'll come back so much more to learn about Paul's encounter okay see you all in 10 minutes thank you