The Ascension of Jesus

 

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on May 22nd 2022  by Christy Thomas via zoom. For the audio & video please click here.  To listen to the worship please click here.

The Ascension of Jesus 

  

Intro:

We all know about Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost. The great events in history and Christian history. But there is one event most Christians know little about. Probably the most neglected event it the life of Christ. The Ascension of Jesus.

It has been marked every year for 2000 years as being 40 days after Easter, but what exactly is the Ascension of Jesus and how should it change our lives?

 

In Luke 24:50

⁵⁰ When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. ⁵² Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³ And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

 

... returned to Jerusalem with great joy, continually in the temple praising God

The response of the disciples to the ascension was worship joy and continual praise

 

early church hymn noted the ascension

1 Tim 3: ¹⁶ Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:

He appeared in the flesh,    was vindicated by the Spirit,^[d]was seen by angels,    was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,    was taken up in glory.

It is unthinkable to think about the crucifixion without the resurrection. Similarly, it is unthinkable to think about the resurrection without the ascension. It deserves to be ranked among the great events in the life of our Lord.

Rarely do we think about his leaving.

We celebrate his arrival - Christmas

We celebrate his death - Good Friday and resurrection - Easter

What about his ascension.

When Jesus told his disciples that he was going to go away they were sorrowful and sad. They did not want him to go.

Jn 14:1 Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Jn 16:6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief.  But I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

After accomplishing our redemption Jesus was received back into heaven.

The final diving stamp of affirmation and approval upon his ministry.

1. Marked the completion of his earthly work

Jn 4:34 ³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Jn 17:4 ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jn 19:30 It is finished

 

Jesus knew He had finished the work and He was ready to go back to the glory He knew

with the Father.

 

2. It is his restoration to full glory

Jn 17:5⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Phil 2 He humbled himself

end of humiliation and suffering to glory

 

3. His exaltation and coronation

 

Mark 16:19 ⁹ After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. ²⁰ Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

ill. ascend to the throne of England throne room at Buckingham Palace

Phil 2:9

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

    and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹ and every tongue acknowledges that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

Ruler over all things  and head of the church

Eph 1:20-23

he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

 

the defeat of Satan and demons

4. Sending of the Holy Spirit

Jn 16:7 ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

 

Disciples had Christ with them

we have the HS in us

 

 

5. Beginning of his preparation of a place for us on our arrival

6 days of beautiful creation

2000 years of work wow!!!

to dwell in heavenly glory

John 14:1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God^[a]; believe also in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

6. Responsibility of evangelism is passed on to us

3 years of ministry - Jesus did most of the ministry

Mt 28:19-20 ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

7. Marks the start of his high priestly ministry

Heb 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,^[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Heb 7:25 ²⁵ Therefore he is able to save completely^[a] those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them.

8. Stands ready to return

To take us with him

To punish those who do not believe

Acts 1:11 ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

2 Thess 1: 7

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed. This includes you because you believed our testimony to you

Our Response

1. No matter what is happening in the world or in our lives remember - Jesus is on the throne
2. He is interceding for us
3. He has defeated Satan
4. He had entrusted the kingdom to you and to me
5. He needs to advance it by our lives and by proclaiming the gospel and doing good
6. One day we will be with him to enjoy what no eye has seen or ear has heard what God has prepared for those who
7. ⁹ However, as it is written: 1 Cor 2:9
8. “What no eye has seen,    what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”^[b]—    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

 

 

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on May 22nd 2022  by Christy Thomas via zoom. For the audio & video please click here.  To listen to the worship please click here.

Obedience Leads To An Encounter

As a church, we are a few weeks before Pentecost.  We are in a season of meditating on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus! Last time we were served wonderfully by Sunder who spoke on Peter. This morning let us look at Mary Magdalene.

Matthew 28: 1-9 (He is Risen) Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone [a]from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” 8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciple’s word.
The Women Worship the Risen Lord 9 And [b]as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
 
Let’s begin by looking at who Mary Magdalene is? 

In Luk 8:1 After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out;

This brief description of Mary Magdalene comes after the story in Lk 7, where a sinful woman anoints Jesus with an alabaster jar of perfume and wipes his legs with her tears. Jesus defends her action by reminding the Pharisees, that he who is forgiven much will love much, and he who is forgiven little loves little.

Mary Magdalene's love for the Man who cast out seven demons from her was so much that all the four gospels mention her name along with a few other women, who were present with Jesus during his crucifixion and on the day when He rose from the dead.

These women were not just present at His crucifixion as spectators but were ministering to Him. Mk 15: 40 There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, 41 who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.

1.      Mary Magdalene was ministering to Jesus.
The word ministering is taken from the Greek word- diakonos, and is both a noun and a verb.  Since it is a verb, there is a call to action in it! The word means to denote "any subordinate acting under another's direction;" So, if we have to minister to Jesus, then that would mean we come under His direction!
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus ministered to Jesus by parting off a substantial amount of their wealth to ensure that Jesus was sealed in a tomb where no one else was laid, which was present in a garden. It helped accomplish so many of God's plans:

A.     Jesus was born of a virgin, and He was laid in a virgin tomb. So, this ensured that when He would be raised to life, there would be no doubt whose body it was that was resurrected!
B.     Man’s fall came about in a garden, so Man’s redemption also came forth from an empty tomb in a garden!
Only wealthy people Like Joseph of Arimathea could afford a virgin tomb. They were willing to part of their wealth to serve God’s needs. So, Like Mary Magdalene and the other men and women who ministered to Jesus, let us each challenge ourselves to minister to the various needs of the church.

Jn 13: 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 Jn 3: 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
When we operate out of a heart of love under the direction of Jesus, we truly become His ministers!

When my wife Esther gave birth to our son Jason, it was during the first month of lockdown. Post-delivery Manesh, Shoma and the JoJo’s hosted us for 2 weeks, during a time when people were hesitant to host people. That is a demonstration of love at work! To remind you all of the situations during the first lockdown, when we decided to come back to our house after 2 weeks, our own society officer opposed our entry saying we were coming back from the hospital and it was unsafe.
By the way, haven’t we all at Word of Grace ministered to either by prayer, food or just some good companionship? So, in the first point, we saw how we can minister to Jesus.

2.     Mary Magdalene rose early in the morning to rush to the tomb with the other women.
Jesus was Mary Magdalene and the other women’s first priority. They rushed to the tomb in the hope of embalming Him. They got there even before the disciples. Because she was forgiven and healed much, she loved much to make Him her first priority. That in a way describes how God loves us:

Rom 8: 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Rom 5: 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God values us so much that He sent Jesus to die in our place so that we could be reconciled to Him.

So how do we respond to His great love for us? By putting Him first in our relationships, talents, time and finances. Are we as passionate about Him as we were when we first came to faith? We each have the opportunity to demonstrate that He is first in our lives by coming first for set-up and clear up when we open to meet physically in June! Let us endeavour to be the first to register and attend the remaining In-Depth Discipleship Training organised by the church.

Mt 6: 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Lk 9: 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Another wonderful example from Mary Magdalene was that she went with fellow believers. This is so consistent with what the Bible teaches us about being in the company of believers:

Heb 10: 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

We need one another, especially in times of trouble and need. Towards the end of April this year, I felt my heart was overwhelmed with the cares of the world. During our last Micro GYM in April, I was so blessed by what Sushil shared when he reminded us that we needed to fix our eyes on Jesus completely-not one eye on Jesus and another elsewhere looking for a solution. I would not have found this course correction if I had decided to be alone!
Around March 2020, I got so dejected in my faith journey that I stopped reading the Bible and having my quiet times in the morning. This went on for a year! When WoG church started the discipleship training, Esther and I were not even interested in joining, had it not been for a personal call and encouragement from Colin. The discipleship training got me back on track. So, you see, we need each other. We all have busy lives, let us not neglect to be in fellowship. In our hot pursuit of a dream job, a car or a house, let us never neglect our spiritual growth.  We have so many Micro GYM happening at different time slots on different days, can we seek God and join one?
Thus far, we saw how we can minister to Jesus and how we can make Him first in our lives.

3.      Mary Magdalene and the other women focused on Jesus and not on the obstacle

Mary Magdalene and the other women rose early in the morning to rush to the tomb so they could embalm his body. Their focus was Jesus, without discarding the fact that they had obstacles to surmount. They had three obstacles-a physical obstacles, human authority and human power. But none of these was an obstacle for our resurrected Jesus! Praise God.
Material obstacles don’t stand before a resurrected Jesus. Like we saw last Sunday, all mountains that we are waiting for God to remove will be cast into the sea. Let such a faith arise among us to see the material obstacles we are facing falling before the resurrected Jesus! Your material obstacles may be a lack of finances, maybe you don’t have a personal means of travel or chronic illness.  Human authority doesn’t stand before a resurrected Jesus.  You may have received a negative word from any human authority-your doctor, lawyer, parents, teachers, friends, colleagues, loved ones, etc. But remember, His words can outweigh them all! And finally, no human strength can overpower us. You may fear the reaction of your loved ones if they discover you are attending church and are in love with Jesus. He will deliver us from them all!
Okay, so we have seen how to minister to Jesus, make Him our first priority and focus on Him rather than our obstacles!

4.      Obedience leads to an encounter with Jesus

After overcoming all these obstacles, Mary Magdalene and the other women are greeted by angels and finally, Mary Magdalene encounters Jesus Himself.

Mat 28: 5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” 8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciple’s word.9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So, they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

The Bible says that when they encountered the resurrected Jesus, they held Him by the feet and worshipped Him. What an amazing description and picture of worship. It is such a privilege for each of us to belong to a church that worships the Lord in spirit and in truth. We have so many such opportunities as well here through the Living Room on Thursdays and the Sunday morning worship. Unless we have a heart change like Mary Magdalene and the other women, we will worship the wrong things. So, I encourage us to surrender our hearts in glad submission to the Lord.

Charles Spurgeon says it this way- “Saints running in the way of obedience are likely to be met by Jesus. Some Christians travel to heaven so slowly that they are overtaken by follies or by faults, by slumber or by Satan; but he who is Christ’s running footman shall meet his Master while he is speeding on his way.” (x2)

Rm 12: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Jn 14: 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

How they obeyed quickly and fearfully. We all want to live a blessed life, right? The Bible does promise us so many blessings which we wish we could experience all at the same time! There are some extravagant blessings contained in the Bible in Deuteronomy 28:1-13 like God setting us high above all nations, of us being blessed in our country and city, our children and jobs being blessed, blessings when we step in and out, our enemies being defeated and running away from us in seven ways! But all this comes in response to obedience. And that’s where we need God to change our hearts. It is a battle between our will and doing His will. A battle I am often struggling with myself.
Like Mary Magdalene and the other women let us seek God’s strength to obey His word quickly and fearfully.

An Invitation of grace:

Mt 28: 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” 

Through the angels, the women received a message from Jesus which they had to deliver to the disciples. We can look at this as Jesus sending out an invitation to his disciples to come and meet Him. We can learn 2 things from this grace-filled invitation-

i. His invitations are filled with grace. The disciples had completely failed Jesus. He had every right to be done with them, but in grace, He extended this kind invitation to them.
ii. When Jesus invites us, He remembers them, fulfils His invitation and wants to reveal Himself to us. He goes before us to the appointed place and waits there for us to present Himself to us! That my friends is love.

He extends that same invitation to us today. We may find ourselves like the disciples to have deserted Him, or we may have been carried away by the cares of this world or by our career/financial ambitions, or have become weary of out Christian walk, or may find ourselves battling secret addictions, or struggling to change our thought patterns and behaviours, struggling financially, our family or relationships may be falling apart, we may be walking around wearing a happy mask but crumbling inwardly, whatever. Today, He is holding out the same invitation to each of us to come and meet Him.
Let us surrender our hearts to Him in obedience.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on May 1st 2022  by Sunder via zoom. For the audio & video please click here.  To listen to the worship please click here.

Jesus Reinstates Peter

 John 21:14- 19

Peter is a wonderful character full of twists and turns. Before we jump into the passage for today, let’s trace some highlights of the story of Peter.

The story of Peter and some highlights:

§  Calling of Simon: Luke 5 Jesus says to Peter go deep and cast your net. He gets a large catch. After this miracle, Jesus says, Come follow me! And he goes along

§  Peter walks on water:
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
Matthew 14:28 NIV

§  Revelation of Christ and renamed to Peter:
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
Matthew 16:15-17 NIV

§  Peter rebukes Jesus!
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Matthew 16:22-23 NIV

§  The transfiguration!
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Matthew 17:4 NIV

§  The temple tax story:
Collectors of temple tax asked Peter, his response, Yes he does
Matthew 17:24

§  How many times to forgive?
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-22 NIV

§  Warning and prayer for Simon:
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Luke 22:31-32 NIV

§  Jesus predicts Peter's denial:
Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
Matthew 26:33 NIV

 

I.          Verse for reading and summarize: John 21:1-19  

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

3 key takeaway from this story

1. He is waiting for you on the shore

When Jesus was not there, Peter went away back to his old ways. Life was a struggle, toil, hard work with little gain. Many of us have drifted away, are toiling hard, naked(spirituality). The Bible says put on your armor of God. But He is waiting for you. Turn back to Him, today and He will care for you and refresh your soul. Turn your boat back to Him. Jesus is waiting for you. 

2. Listen to His voice

Jesus gives Peter a specific instruction, to cast your net on the right side of the boat. Peter found huge catch near the shore, where Jesus was.

Cast your net in His presence. Stay close to Him, be connected to Him and His people.

Do not isolate yourself today, do not let your heart be harden! It is important that we have a person time with Jesus.

3. He is calling you today, by name

Jesus repeated the same thing thrice to Peter! He called him Simon. Peter turned back and became Simon, so Jesus addresses him by that name.

Jesus gave him a different calling, role in the Kingdom and he never turned back.

He is calling you by name.

Listen and respond, how Simon Peter did!

He's giving you a new name, reminding you (some of you) of your calling. He is instilling a new calling (or reminding someone of the existing one). Jesus gave him a role of a shepherd in the kingdom. For some of us he is going to remind us of our calling. It is not a co-incidence that we’ve been learning about the gifts of the spirit. He is calling us and reminding us of our calling. He has called you to be a part of the kingdom. Our purpose on earth is to live for the kingdom. 

Conclusion:
Come follow me(Jesus)!
Peter was the first one Jesus asked to follow and when he had turned back, He said again, "Come follow me"

He cares for you, he's always with you! Hear his call and follow him

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” - John 10:27-28 NIV

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.