 Good morning and welcome. Let's begin today's class with a word of prayer. I want to request one of our students to kindly lead in prayer. So, please feel free and anyone can volunteer. Can I pray? Yes please, Charles. Let's pray and believe even further we come before you this morning to say thank you that you have allowed us to move the whole month of August. We are now in the month of September. Lord, thank you. We thank you that you have continued to teach us. Lord, how we wish that we will learn your ways. Learn your ways so that we shall be able to experience your deeds. Lord, through these studies that we'll be able to understand the way you do things so that we'll be able to follow you. And we pray for our lecture that you will also give an action of the word of the Holy Spirit that should use the right vocabulary and that we will be able to learn. We pray for the internet and also the gadgets that they will have the necessary charges and even the internet will be stable and will not lose anything. And for those that have not yet joined that they will be able to join so that we shall learn together when Jesus and Emma will pray and believe and rejoice. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. So in the last class we had started with Acts chapter 6 and we talked about a particular situation in the family, the early church family where the Greek-speaking Jews and the Hebrew-speaking Jews, you know, they had a conflict when it came to the feeding of the Greek widows and that was a time when the leaders of the church, they swung into action and they decided that they will use the power of delegation. So they picked seven volunteers, the requirement even for the volunteers who ministered. Now if we look at some translations in Acts chapter 6 verse 1, it says daily distribution and then in verse 4 you would see that, you know, they used the term ministry. They themselves, for the sake of ministering the word, they need to come in themselves to prayer and so on. But when you look at the daily distribution and the word ministry which is used for the apostles themselves, it's the same word, you know, it's from the root, like it's from the word diaconess. So one more thing that I just wanted us to remember is though one is more of an act of service, which is distribution, the other is more of working with the word and, you know, ministering directly to people in a spiritual way. You see that both are ministry, both are services and obviously both are services up to God. So again, you know, for us there's a big lesson to learn there that when we serve God, nothing is too small or nothing is too great. So we could be in spiritual ministry, God honors that, we could be in some sort of an administrative role, God still honors that. So ministry is ministry and we should look at it in that way. So yes, we saw that seven men that chose it, we don't read too much about these men. Of course, we, you know, later on read about people like Phillip, what they did, Stephen and what he did, but about everyone obviously as I told us when we started studying the Book of Acts, it does not give us a complete comprehensive picture of everything that happened, all the churches that were planted, all the influential or the impacting believers of the early church times. But it picks up for us primarily the works of the apostles, some, you know, some highlighted churches and the focus later on will be more on the ministry of Paul. And as we, you know, also said that it's possible that Paul had the focus in most of the writing of the Book of Acts because this would have been written as a defense brief during his trial. Okay, so we saw some good nice names over here, seven of them who were picked for food distribution. And this also tells us that whenever there are challenges in the church family, we must resolve it with the wisdom of God. And that's what our apostles here did. And because of the right kind of a solution, the ministry continued. But when we don't do that, when we don't try to find a godly solution, a small issue can become a big issue and sometimes those matters are the ones that end up dividing the church or causing offence in the church family. But this is beautiful to see that a matter such as food distribution was resolved so beautifully. Verse 7 said that God's word was spread and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and the great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. So this was the matter in which the work of God kept moving on. Now we will read a little bit more about a person called Stephen. What we know about Stephen is that he was one of those volunteers. So obviously he was a man filled with wisdom, he was full of the Holy Spirit and he had a good testimony. Those are the kind of people who were picked for volunteerism. That much we know about Stephen. What else can we learn about Stephen? So from verse 8 it says, Stephen full of faith and power did create wonders and signs among the people. This again gives us this understanding that when we look at the church, sometimes we want to put all the onus on the pastors, leaders, the 5-fold ministry offices and we expect God to do mighty signs and wonders only through their lives. It's as if to say that God will not or cannot do miracles through the hands of believers. So somewhere we've got this mentality but as you look at what the Bible says, here is a volunteer and the kind of work which he was engaged in was not directly, at least not what we don't see that in the passages of the book of Acts. Stephen was into distributing food which is more helps in nature. But even then what do we need about Stephen? Full of faith and power did create wonders and signs among the people. So in our language we can put it as an ordinary volunteer of the church is moving in signs, wonders and miracles. So that really helps us see that all believers in the church can also walk in the supernatural. Just the way Jesus said in John 14-12, He said, you shall do greater works than these. That blessing is for every believer, Mark 16. And these signs will follow those who believe they will speak in our buttocks where they will lay out in sick and they will be healed. They will cast out demons of the supernatural will be done by whom. Those who believe which refers to all believers and not necessarily only the leaders of pastors. So Stephen, ordinary believer as he is, he is still moving in wonders and signs among the people. Then verse 9, then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freedmen. It enlists the groups that Silenians, Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia disputing with Stephen. So obviously Stephen is a man full of faith and wisdom. So you have some of the opposing learned men of his times asking him questions. So it does not only say asking questions but disputing with Stephen. So maybe they raised points of attention to prove Stephen wrong, to prove his faith wrong. And they wanted to bring an accusation on Stephen just the way we have seen earlier. They tried to get Peter into trouble, John into trouble and all the apostles also got into trouble. Similarly, it seems like persecution was beginning to take place. Earlier we saw great grace was upon the church, people feared the church, people feared the leaders of the church. So they were accepting of what God was doing among his believers. However, at the same time there also seems to be a rising opposition. We saw as far as the leaders or the council is concerned, initially they want and they let go of the apostles. But what if we read last, we read that in Acts 4, we read that they plotted to kill the apostles. So it's very clear that persecution is beginning to rise, opposition is beginning to rise. So it also looks like synagogue of the freedmen. So we understand this is a lot of growth. They would have thought about the implications of letting the church folk thrive. Oh, if these people grow, they will spread the message of Jesus everywhere. It's a false teaching, everyone will begin to follow them. Then what about the existing authorities? What about the traditions of Judaism? So these are all questions in their minds. And maybe some of them genuinely were seeking God and they wanted to find out answers to the questions which they had. So they all came together and they thought, okay, come on, let's debate this out. Let's dispute these things with the so-called believers. And who did they catch for these discussions? A volunteer in the church, Stephen, not even the pastors or the apostles of the time when they got a volunteer. Now, let's see how Stephen responds to the questions which he has asked in verse 11. Okay, verse 10, it says, And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. So isn't that amazing? We can credit an apostle maybe as, oh, okay, this person is anointed for the five-fold ministry offices and filled with the spirit of God. So they are able to give right answers to the questions which are asked. After all, here is a volunteer in the church. But what does the Bible say about this particular volunteer? They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. That's the beauty of being filled with the holy spirits. Obviously, Stephen was a man as we've seen earlier, full of the spirit, full of faith and power. Very little written about Stephen in the Bible, but even if little was written about you and me, we would be happy if the Bible said full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith and power, full of wisdom. So that is the testimony of this man called Stephen. So even the learned people could not stand his wisdom. Verse 11, then they secretly induced men to say, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. So when the right method doesn't work, which is to dispute and prove Stephen wrong, what did these set of people from the synagogue think of doing? Use the wrong method. That is to lie about Stephen's stand and his conviction and to just put some blame on him, which is not true. So what did they say? They said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. Things like this can obviously instigate the Jews. Why? Moses, we have seen earlier, he was a respected prophet of the Jews. No Jew will take this, you know, sitting down. They will want to oppose and fight against a person who puts down their prophets of Moses. And they also say that he is blaspheming God. Obviously, if they did not spend Jesus, Jesus also, what was the blame? He said, look, he calls him father and he tries to speak of his equality with God. These were blasphemous statements as far as the Jews were concerned, which is why they began to oppose Jesus. Now, what's happening? The same kind of treatment. Remember, Jesus had mentioned this. He said, if they don't spare the master, will they spare the disciples? If the master goes through this, will not the disciples go through the same treatment? And so it's happening once again. Stephen is being accused of false statements. So they say that he has spoken blasphemously against Moses and God. Verse 12, what did they do? They stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes and they came upon him, seized him and brought him to the council. So obviously they needed a reason to get him in their custody so that they could interrogate him further. And they were so angry, this time around, we will see that Stephen was sort of stuck. But how did they get hold of Stephen with the line? Because with the right kind of arguments, with the right kind of questions, they were not at all able to sort of get something, a hold on Stephen because his wisdom by the Holy Spirit was just so incredible. So all these lies. And you will notice from now that those who are in a position of leadership or those who are influential, from time to time we will read about stirring up the people. So it's like what we see maybe in our times now where mobs can be stirred up against a certain person or an ideology or we are familiar with such things happening. So that is what these learning men followed. They stirred up the people against Stephen. They seized him and brought him to the council. And was 13. They also set up false witnesses who said this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. So as if it was not enough to accuse him of already a lie which is he spoke blasphemously about Moses. He spoke blasphemously about God. What do they do now? Raise up false witnesses. So if you just want to sum up what's going on, all of this is like corruption. And it is not pleasant at all. So now they have false witnesses and they're adding to the charges against Stephen. What are these charges? The charges are this man spoke blasphemous words against this holy place. This holy place obviously Jerusalem we know that the temple of God was established and people used to go to the temple according to the Jewish practices set times to worship God. And the way they wouldn't stand blasphemy against Moses and God they definitely would not stand blasphemy against their holy place of worship. And they add another point they say against the law also. This man is speaking against the law. So four things that supposedly Stephen was speaking against was 14. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. So we just don't know if Stephen put things in this manner put across his ideas in this manner or they just read in between the lines read between the lines and accused him of all these things. So verse 14 we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and see destroy this place this is something Jesus also said which had offended the Jews. So what's happening? They have memory of the words of Jesus and they know that his followers have the same beliefs. So they are just connecting. It's all half and half. Jesus said this temple will be destroyed I will raise it up in three days. So he was speaking in a figurative manner. In language we use figure of speech, isn't it? It does not literally mean that the temple will be broken and raised up in three days. But what Jesus was saying was that his body which will be destroyed through death will be raised up in three days. So that is what Jesus meant. Now these people are using half of what Jesus said and making it something completely different. They say Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place as if Stephen said that and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. So where are these ideas coming from? We have no clue. One thing is clear. They wanted something to trap Stephen and here they have it. They stirred up the people. They have raised up false witnesses. They somehow seized him. Put him in front of the council and they just want to get rid of Stephen. Because they are not able to do anything else through the right ways. So verse 15 and all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the in-face of an angel. So isn't that beautiful? Even when we talked about the Apostles who stood before the council Peter and John they had the people who were against God's people saw that these were unlearned men, these were untrained men. But how is it that they carry this incredible amount of wisdom? Similarly, when they saw Stephen in front of them what Luke is saying is they knew deep within that there was a divine grace upon this person. And so his face shown as the face of an angel. Luke does not describe it in further detail. We don't know whether this shy was just a sense of peace and tranquility which he carried or whether there was really a divine glow on his face which topped off a heavenly glory. We don't know. But there was something divine about Stephen in the midst of trial. And that is the beauty of the way God carries you even through difficult times. So let's see what happens in Acts chapter 7. So now entirely the passage of Acts 7 is dedicated to what Stephen had to say and what is done to Stephen at the end of his defense. We could call it a defense because he will try to share his views to tear down the accusations that have been made about him. So I think I will pause here for a bit just to check if you are all doing fine and if you have any questions or comments something that you feel is being ministered to or God is speaking to you about right now. Yes, go. Please go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes. So I have this question in verse 15 it says that his face became an L.T. translation his face became as bright as an angel. Right. So like how would they know the face of an angel? Is it like is it like an inner knowing from the spirit or like they've seen it and they are justifying to it? Yeah. Good question. When we talk about the Jews we know that they are familiar with angels because even their father Abraham he had encounters with angels isn't it? So this whole description of angels and how they are they would have learned it it would have been passed on to them verbally in the form of stories so that is why they are familiar so when they saw a certain sense of peace and a glow on the face of Stephen they immediately connected it to something divine and therefore they just said that it seems like an angel. So does that help somewhere? Yeah faster. I want to question like that's for the Jews for us would we know like if that like in our present time now if a person's face is glowing like that can we have that inner knowing that it is like from God like something like that? Yes So for us I think we can when we do recognize that someone's face is shining obviously the Jews we could say that they had immense experience with Moses' face shining all those things so they knew what this was supposed to be. I think for us it's more of hearing from the Holy Spirit it's more of us getting the confirmation from the Holy Spirit so we would go by what we see in scripture I think it's a romance 8 and verse 16 the spirit bears witness with our spirit. Okay yeah that's right so or in other words the spirit itself testifies with our spirit the scripture says so then if something is divine the Holy Spirit will confirm that to us so when we see someone not just someone's face glowing but you know something divine going on somewhere deep within for a believer we know it's hard to sometimes we can explain it sometimes we can't but there is that inner knowing where the Holy Spirit bears witness is that okay? Yes Faisal thank you okay great that's nice anything else class I know the last two sessions were quite continuous like an express train so I hardly stopped so if you had anything to talk about this would be a good time so it seems like you're all thinking about what you're hearing that's fine also so let's proceed step to seven so we said now Stephen has been brought before the council and he will be interrogated so how is he going to answer so far the spirit of wisdom was at work in him how is he going to give a defense for himself okay he has been accused of what he's been accused of blaspheming against Moses against God against the holy place against the law so what is Stephen going to say you know to one is defend himself and also proclaim the truth so we've seen so far that everyone who had an opportunity to speak before audiences did it to proclaim Christ did it to speak the truth so you will notice that in what Stephen speaks that is going to be defense but also you know some work of the kingdom he will definitely tear down the so called traditional ideas which the Jews carry which now have been changed because of the Lord Jesus Christ and you know Jesus said that you cannot bore no work of God in the old character so new wine cannot be poured into old wineskin so the Jews with their old traditions cannot continue to pursue and seek God and Stephen is quite vocal about these things so there is going to be defense but there's also going to be truth spoken and we will see how Stephen really takes this up so this entire chapter is about Stephen speaking up and one more thing is there will be you know some names from the Old Testament occurrences from the Old Testament so you don't have to get it confused or derailed by all the details they're just trying to get the essence of what he's trying to say so let's start at 7 and verse 1 says that the high priest said are these things so so at least 4 main points are being said about you Stephen is that so and verse 2 and he said so he starts off his explanation and it's a rather long explanation he says brethren and fathers so what is he doing just like Peter just like him establishing a connect with the audience brethren and fathers so he is from that Jewish culture and he establishes a familiarity he establishes a connection so that the listeners are you know they are accepting of what Stephen wants to say so he doesn't begin with saying enemies that's not the way he says come on I'm one of you brothers and he's also respectful towards the council which is why he says fathers so the people who are you know established in their own right the people who hold positions of authority he addresses them with respect he says brethren and fathers listen the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham so what is he saying look he is talking as one of them again our father Abraham you know this God you are familiar so your God is my God the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran and said to him get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you so basically what he's saying is remember he's been accused about the holy place that you know he said something about the holy place like don't reveal the holy place don't worship this place something blasphemous about the place of worship of the Jews but he's helping these Jews get a new perspective that it's not about the physical place remember Jesus also gave a new perspective to that Samaritan woman when she said our father's worship on that mountain where do you worship where do your people worship but Jesus brought about a new thought in her mind and that thought was it's not where do you worship but how do you worship with spirit and truth similarly that's what Stephen is saying here he's saying so worried about the place but can you imagine much before this place existed and you know where before the significant people that we associate with this place began to follow God the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham so where did he appear to Abraham was it in this place or where did he appear Abraham did have an encounter with God but that was not so much about the place where he was so the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham and when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran and said to him get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you so where before the promised land Abraham had an encounter with God so God is beyond your promised land where you are worshiping him okay so he's talking like that we'll see where he's going with all of this verse 4 so about Abraham then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran and from there when his father was dead he moved him to this land in which you now dwell okay so God encountered Abraham in another land and then gave him a call Abraham may be hesitantly followed God some people say that because what did God tell Abraham leave your father's house come out from among them so God called Abraham out but still you notice that he lived in Haran and he lived with his father till his father was dead okay so it wasn't like Abraham courageously jumped out right away leaving his father's house and moving to the promised land but anyway Abraham made his own journey he came to Haran there his father died then he moved him to this land in which you now dwell so eventually Abraham came to the land where God was pointing him verse 5 and God gave him no inheritance in it not even enough to set his foot on but even when Abraham had no child he promised to give it to him for a possession and to his descendants after him he will read further but God spoke in this way that his descendants would dwell in the foreign land and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them 400 years and the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge said God and after that they shall come out and serve me in this place then he gave him the covenant of circumcision and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the 8th day and Isaac begot Jacob and Jacob begot the 12th patron so basically he is talking about the journey of Abraham the promise of Abraham and he say how God promised him a land but obviously we also understand that it was a journey which he had to make with his descendants so while he was alive yes he did not in the sense that we think okay Abraham we won't possess the entire land the way it happened but he came and we know that once he was gone his descendants also went into captivity and God had told that they would go under captivity under the Egyptians and then God again brought Abraham's descendants out of that bondage so he is kind of narrating the story the point he you would notice later he is making see God was with these people all alone God was with these people and the human cry about this place where he worshipped you know God us worshipping God and God encountering us it can be beyond a so called physical place okay that the Jews hold so dear to them so that is the new perspective which Stephen was trying to bring about so he narrates this history about Abraham and his descendants and now God promised him Isaac how you know they went into the descendants went into bondage they came out of the bondage how God made a promise with Abraham and as a symbol of the covenant which he had with Abraham he also asked him to circumcise Isaac and Abraham obeyed him and then he carries on from there he begins to talk about other men of God so he says Isaac we got Jacob we got the 12 patriarchs so he is beginning to talk about the story of Israel okay who are these patriarchs what is patriarchs patriarchs is a term used for the men of history you know religious history that the Jews honored so you had people like Abraham Isaac, Jacob they are all termed as patriarchs give us nine and the patriarchs became envious patriarchs becoming envious sold Joseph into Egypt but God was with him so again he is beginning to narrate and somehow he is talking about Joseph now and Joseph who was now in that period now those 400 years of slavery that we talk about so all that is going to unfold but who is one very prominent person that period sort of unfolds that is Joseph but he says look God was with Joseph so that is fine so God was with Abraham Abraham encountered God and God was also with Joseph in verse 10 he says and delivered him out of all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house so where is all this happening all this is happening in Egypt Joseph is making his journey with God in Egypt so the presence of God is with Joseph where in Egypt not in this your place of worship so verse 11 now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and came in and our fathers found no sustenance but when Jacob heard that there was great in Egypt he sent out our fathers first and the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him 75 people so Jacob went down to Egypt and he died he and our fathers and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamur the father of Shechem so he is going into these details but the key thing he is saying is look God was with all these people and God was journey with them so it was not necessarily about a particular place but at this point I also want to remind us when you look at the Pharisees you look at the Sadducees you look at all those people of the synagogues where learned from you the Hebrew scriptures Stephen he may not have come from that line of learning men but his desire for God has caused him to study the word what was given to the people during his days the scriptures which were available he seems very familiar nobody can preach with details like this unless they have been reading the scriptures when we talked about the early church what did we say they spent time in the apostles doctrine they dedicated themselves to the apostles doctrine so Stephen one of the believers in the church do you see how well he has been disciple how beautifully he knows the scriptures he probably read the Greek version of the early scriptures it's called the Septuagint so that's where some people debate about the number of people in Jacob's family the relatives it is supposed to be 70 if you total it in the Hebrew but the Septuagint it puts it at 75 so it's likely that he was reading the Greek version of the scriptures but whatever said and done as a child of God there is so much to learn from Stephen he's standing before a council he knows that these people know probably better than him the history that he has just narrated but for us as believers he just tells us that he knew his Bible he knew his scriptures he knew the gospels how many believers do we have like Stephen if asked a question we can say okay wait let me tell you this is what Paul said in Corinthians so this is what Jesus said in the book of John and this is how the whole thing unfolded do you see the details here Stephen read the scriptures and he knew the scriptures enough to share and talk about it so what a beautiful believer and you know he's not yet a leader and nobody's calling him a leader yet somebody who's like an ordinary believer is so familiar with the scriptures and that is an inspiration for us okay so we can move forward for 17 but when the time of the promised truth near which God had swore to Abraham so this is about the promised land so at the time of the promised truth near which God had swore to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till another king was who did not know Joseph this man dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed of forefathers making them expose their babies so that they might not learn and this time Moses was born and was well pleasing to God and he was brought up in his father's house for 3 months but when he was set out Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son and Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds so giving a little bit more of history we covered Abraham Joseph I was talking about Moses and how the whole the whole story unfolded of the possession of the promise that God made to Abraham of the promised land so now Moses comes into the picture so God raised up another man to fulfill that promise verse 23 now when he was 40 years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel so stuff more about the life of Moses so obviously for 40 years Moses is growing up in wisdom he is growing up in his learning in Egypt till such time though he knows that he is a Jew and God has a destiny for him something for his people but where is Moses growing up he is growing up in Egypt how is he growing up he is growing up as somebody else's son he is growing up as the son of Pharaoh's daughter but his real destiny for the kingdom that is not yet unfolding so now when he is 40 years old that is the point where sometimes even in our lives though we have an idea like okay God has something for me to do but it is in that Cairo's moment the right time that clarity comes into our spirit and we know exactly oh great this is what I need to do for the kingdom of God so when he was 40 years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel so finally he is like okay this is what I got to do I have to visit my brothers who are outside of the palace so verse 24 and seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian for verse 25 for he suppose that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand but they did not understand okay so what this is showing us is that when Moses understood his purpose he tried to do something about that purpose on his own and he thought that others also will understand but that was not the case he tried doing it in his own strength he tried doing it in his own wisdom and the hearts of the people were not prepared so when we get clarity about what God wants us to do that may or may not be the right time to do it so that's the lesson we learn the moment Moses knew what he wanted to do what did he do he just jumped into it and when he saw one of the Jews being oppressed he went and murdered and he thought that the other Jews will be supportive of him that was not the case was 25 for he suppose that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand but they did not understand so knowing what God wants us to do and doing it right we really have to see God to do it at the right time and just because we know if we shouldn't jump into things so what we'll do is we'll break at this point we'll take a 10 minutes break even though all this sounds heavy I want you to appreciate the knowledge of Stephen so I know that we're not going into all the small details but there's incredible you can gain just from reading the details that Stephen has mentioned but then we won't do that we read too much into what he's saying the essence of what he was saying is God has kept his promise God has walked with his people even outside of your so called holy place that will make such a big human cry so let's end here for the session come back in 10 minutes and continue from where we stopped thank you