 So before the break we were looking at 2 Timothy chapter 4, the last few verses we are looking at verse 19 where Paul tells Timothy to greet Aquila and Priscilla and I mentioned about all the good work that Aquila and Priscilla have done and are doing and how they have been good companions and co-workers and friends of Paul. So Paul remembers them and he tells Timothy to greet them. He also tells Timothy to greet Onesophorus. Does Paul mention Onesophorus before? Yes, no. Do you remember that Paul mentions about Onesophorus? Does he do that before in his letter? You can at least type. Yes, once he does. Thank you, Kannan. Paul mentions about Onesophorus in the same second letter of Timothy in chapter 1 verse 16 and Paul mentions there that Onesophorus served Paul both at Ephesus and at Rome. When Onesophorus comes to Rome, he searches, he looks for Paul and he finds him and we know that he works alongside with Paul and he serves Paul and so Paul is also reminded of Onesophorus, thankful for all that he has done and sends his greetings. It's another lesson that we can learn here from the life of Paul is that different people who journey along with us at different points in time in our life, people who have helped us, people who have taught us, people who have mentored us, people who have encouraged, strengthened us, built alongside us, built and given into the work that God has done. God has assigned for us. They have been part of it and we learn that we need to be thankful and grateful to them. Appreciate them for what they have done. Maybe just call them and thank them. Just send a thank you card or note, a text message, whatever. Good to just be reminded of people who have journeyed along with us, blessed us or mentored us and taught us to just thank them. In verse 20, Paul says, it has to stayed in current, but trophimus I have left in militis sick. And here it's very strange to see that Paul is making the statement that trophimus he left in militis sick. That means, you know, Paul would have prayed for him, you know, like he's prayed for others. And we've seen Paul doing amazing miracles, science miracles and wonders through God has done it through Paul's life. But here we see that, you know, he would have prayed for trophimus, but trophimus, you know, did not get well. He was, he was left sick in militis. And, but he acknowledges that, you know, he had to leave one of his fellow workers sick. But we see that in spite of God using Paul mightily for healing and deliverance in the lives of many people, yet there is one person that he could not minister healing to and that is trophimus. So when we read this, you know, how do we respond to this? Okay. Yes, we know that Paul ministered in the same way that you and I minister we ministered and even Jesus ministered. When Jesus was on the earth he was fully human. And he ministered or he did every all the science miracles and wonders through the power of the Holy Spirit. And he did it in the name of Jesus. And he gave this authority to the 12 and then to the 70 and to all of us as his believers as his church to do greater works and he has done greater science miracles and wonders. And we do it through the power of the Holy Spirit and we do it in the name of Jesus. But we do not know and Paul also did it in the same way. He did it to the power of the Holy Spirit name of Jesus. We do not know what sickness trophimus was going through. What was the duration? What was the outcome? But irrespective of all of that and irrespective of the fact that Paul prayed for may have paid for him and he wouldn't have got well should not change our theology. He should not change the way we look at God or what we think about God or his nature and his attributes. We know that God is Jehovah Rafa. He is God our healer. He has healed people in the past. He will heal them even today. He will heal them in the future. He's the same God, same yesterday today and forever nothing changes about his nature, his attributes or who he is. So we don't change our theology around God. He is a God who will heal. It also does not change what God has asked us to do in terms of what he has commissioned us to do. God Jesus told us that we need to go and heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, cleanse lepers. You know, and that is something that he's asked us to do and is something that we continue doing. We will not always see success like Paul also acknowledged that he was not successful in this area, but it should not change our theology. It does not change the commission that God has given. We only press in. We press more for more of God's anointing for more of his favor, for more of his works to be released in and through our lives. And we continue to do what God has asked us to do. We just continue to pray and ask God for more of him. Of course, when we don't receive, we pray for healing for people and we don't see healing happen. It should not be times when we change our theology or our thinking, thinking that, okay, it was a very difficult sickness. Maybe it's last days or it's way advanced stages. Nothing can be done about it or the person is sinful or this and that. We can come to our own conclusions. No, we don't do those things when we don't see healing happen for the people that we're praying to. It should get us to go into a secret place with God and there battle it out with God, asking God what should we have done that was right? How should we have approached it? What should we do better next time? Asking for more of his anointing, his leading and we learn through failures. Failures is not something that we sit back and say, okay, we'll never pray for anyone else or it's not God's will to use me for healing. I'm not going to be a healing evangelist. God will use me in other different areas. No, God will use you, but it's important for us to always go back to God and always ask him what we have not done right, what we should have done, how we should have approached it better, and how should we approach it better next time? What should we do? And we learn, we learn more about God, his ways, his ways of doing things and we grow more in him and we become more effective ministers. And verses 21 and 22, he says, Paul to Timothy, you know, do your best to come before winter. And then he talks about a few people who send their greetings. He says, Eubulus greets you as well as pudins, Linus, Claudia and all the brethren. And then he, you know, he tells Timothy that the Lord Jesus Christ be with you with your spirit and grace be with you. Amen. Okay. So that is how he ends his letter. This is the last letter he writes before he's martyred. So the key takeaway was a second Timothy chapter four was two where it says preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exalt with all long suffering and teaching. Persevere, be patient, okay, and persevere when you minister to people. So that is the end of second Timothy. Any questions, any comments you'll want to make, no questions, no thoughts, anything that you want to share, anything that has really impacted your life, or has ministered to you. It's like a rena word that came upon, you know, just came powerfully. As you studied second Timothy, anyone wants to share just four of you in the class, but it's okay. And if you want to share from this letter of Paul to Timothy second letter, what has impacted you has blessed your heart, or all of you in class. Okay. And today what we discussed, especially about the documents, people love to hear the message called prosperity message and things which good to hear, especially when we observe today's generation. People love to hear those kind of things only they don't want the strong word of God, corrections and all. So, somewhere, we were in the days, we have to stick on to the word of God, strong doctrines, that reminds me to stand in the doctrine, the word of God truth. Thank you, Thomas. Thank you for sharing. Anyone else? Anything that you learned from second Timothy? Anything that has spoken to your heart? Okay, if none of you want to share, we'll just discuss or decide when we'll have a test for second Timothy. Any date you would like to suggest is 18th or 16th March fine. March 16. Is that okay? Okay, so that says yes, Dave says fine. Okay. Okay, then we'll have it on the 16th of March. Okay. We'll move on to Titus, the book of Titus, Paul's letter to Titus. We looked at first Timothy and we studied second Timothy and second Timothy. Now we look at Paul's letter to Titus. Paul's epistles to Titus and Timothy have generally been called as the pastoral epistles, but they were originally regarded as personal letters alongside filaments because they were addressed to individuals. But though Paul addressed them to individuals like Timothy, Titus, and filaments, it also guides people in matters concerning pastoral care of the church. So basically, Timothy and Titus, the letters that Paul writes, he guides them in matters concerning the pastoral care of the church. And these books are not just limited or these letters are not just limited to personal and private communication, but were also to be read out to the congregation. So they were also somewhat official in character and hence, you know, they're called as pastoral epistles because it has to do a lot about pastoral care, personal responsibilities, how to take care of the church and how to lead the people, different aspects of church matters. And these books are pastoral in nature because they give directions, how to deal with the false teachers, how to establish the leadership in the local church and how to encourage godliness. Okay, so because he talks about all of these aspects, it's called as the pastoral epistles. Now, who wrote this letter to Titus? Or who wrote the book of Titus? Perhaps it's a book in the Bible, but it's basically a letter. Yes, it's Paul. You know, we can surely say it's Paul and Paul is the author because the letter itself, you know, mentions that it has been written by Paul just like, you know, first and second Timothy mentions that it shows us that Paul is writing that letter to Timothy, as well as Titus because it's mentioned in the letter. Now, who is Titus? Do any of you have any information or idea about who Titus is? Was he a Jew or a Gentile? Was Titus a Jew or a Gentile? No responses. Okay, Titus was a Greek speaking Gentile believer. He was probably converted by Paul either in Antioch that is in Syria today in 43 or 44 AD, or he might have been, you know, converted during Paul's first missionary journey when Paul was in Pamphylia or Galatia, that is 47 or 48 AD. Okay, we see that Paul takes Titus with him to attend the Council of Jerusalem, and he asked the leaders in Jerusalem to take the decision or, you know, not to require Titus to be circumcised because he is a Gentile believer. So he requests the Council at Jerusalem to, you know, not to make it a requisite that Titus be circumcised, but even though he's not circumcised, he's a Gentile to allow him to minister the word of God. And we read this in Acts chapter 15 verses 1 to 21, and we see that the Council of leaders of Jerusalem and at Jerusalem agreed with Paul, and they did not insist that Titus should be circumcised. In Titus chapter 1 verse 4, Paul describes Titus as a true son. Okay, so just looking at this, we can gather a little information about his relationship, character, personality of Titus from what Paul writes about him in his epistles, not much is known about him in person, but we basically receive some information about Titus of what Paul writes about him in his various epistles. So in this very letter, on this very book of Titus, Paul calls Titus as a true son in our common faith. So just like Timothy, you know, Titus also was a son, a true son in the faith. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 13, we see that Paul mentions Titus as a genuine brother to the Apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 23, you know, Titus was a partner and fellow, is mentioned there as a partner and fellow worker with Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 18, you know, Paul talks about Titus as somebody who walked in the same spirit as him. Okay, so Titus walked in the same spirit as Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 18, again, the same verse says that, you know, Titus walked in the same steps as Paul, that means in the same manner of life. Here was Titus who just loved Paul, saw his work, his ministry, the way God is using him, saw Paul's life, and he was just imitating him, just copying him, the way he was ministering, the way he was living his life. And Paul says that he walked in the same steps as Paul and the same manner of life. And Titus chapter 2 verse 7, you know, we see that it mentions that therefore Titus could be a pattern to other believers. Okay, why could he be a pattern to other believers because he just copied Paul, the way he ministered, the way he lived, the way he served God, where he honored God. He just imbibed that he just made it part of his lifestyle, he just lived the way the same way. And we see that Titus could now come to a position where he could be a pattern to other believers. Okay, Titus was one of Paul's closest and most trusted co-workers. And we know this, or we have evidence to this because of the fact that Paul sent him to the troubled churches first at Corinth and Crete. Okay, we know Corinth was going through a lot of, you know, doctrinal problems, structure of the church and the way they were exercising their gifts, the gifts of the spirit. So Paul writes two letters to the church at Corinth and he sends, Paul sends Titus there to, you know, to oversee the churches there, to work out things, to minister there. So these two difficult places, Corinth and Crete, you know, he sends Titus. So after Titus helped Paul at Ephesus during his third missionary journey, he was sent from there to Corinth and Paul sent along with Titus the first letter to the Corinthians. We read about this in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 18. Now after assisting the believers there in Corinth in doing what he had to do, what Paul had commanded him, charged him, told him to do, we see that Titus took news of the church at Corinth to Paul when Paul was at Philippi. We read this in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 6 and 7. Okay, and then we see that from there Paul writes based on all that he's heard from Titus. He writes his second letter to the church at Corinth that the second Corinthians, he writes it from Philippi and he, you know, he sends it along with Titus. Okay, so Titus again takes the second letter to the church at Corinth from Philippi. Okay, we also see that Titus helped collecting some money from the church at Corinth for the poor saints at Jerusalem. We read about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, chapter 7, verses 5 and 6 and chapter 8, verse 6. Okay, after Paul was released from his house arrest in Rome in 6280 that is his first imprisonment, his first house arrest, Titus travels with Paul to Crete and we read in Titus chapter 1 verse 5 that Titus and Paul worked together in Crete, spreading the gospel, establishing churches but Paul had to leave Crete and he could not just leave there because he knows that there was a lot more work to be done with the church. The church needed a lot of help, support and so he leaves Titus there at Crete to continue the work. Okay, in this letter that Paul writes he summoned Titus to rejoin Paul at Nicopolis and we see that either Artemias or Taikikus, you know, would have come and taken over the work at Crete so that Titus could join Paul at Nicopolis. And we read about this in Titus chapter 3 verse 12 and so assuming that they would have taken over responsibility at Crete when Titus was at Nicopolis and Paul would have, you know, commissioned him or given him a job to do or work to do or an evangelistic mission to a place called Dalmatia and later tradition tells us that, you know, Titus returned back to Crete and he was described as a bishop there until his old age. That is what we learn from tradition that after he finished whatever work that Paul had for him, you know, he goes back to Crete and he later on becomes the bishop of the church at Crete until his old age. Okay, so let's look at Crete. Now Crete is one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Cretan people or the people at Crete had acquired a very disgraceful bad reputation in the Roman world. They did not have a very good reputation. They had a very bad reputation. And, you know, Paul in his letter to Titus or in this book of Titus, he mentioned, so he quotes one of the poets, the Cretan poets, Epimandus in Titus chapter 1 verse 12 and Epimandus who is from Crete, he writes about his own people. He says Cretans are always liars, evil beast and lazy glutton. Okay, so this is the image that Cretans had and the people living in Crete also knew that, you know, the people in Crete were liars. Always liars, this poet says evil beast and lazy glutton. And Paul is quoting this poet Epimandus in his letter to Titus. Okay, we read this in chapter 1 verse 12. Now, how did the Gospel reach Crete? Probably they are saying that on the day of Pentecost, the Passover, you know, when the disciples had where filled with the Holy Spirit, the 120 of them, and we see that Peter gives his first message. And because of the strong mighty hurricane wind that came, the sound of that hurricane wind that came, many people who had come all from all over the world to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, they heard the noise in the upper room, they gathered there. And they saw each one of them, you know, speaking in different tongues, but in languages that each one of them had come from and they understood because they said they were praising God. And we know that Peter preached the message and 3000 were saved. And so, you know, some of them who had come from Crete, probably, you know, these Jews who had come from Crete were converted. When Peter preached and they went back to Crete and they planted churches. So we see that in Crete, some of these Jews were promoting false doctrines as well. We know that in 1st Timothy and 2nd Timothy, also Paul mentions about this Jewish fables myths. And they were making and also the some Old Testament rituals like circumcision, and they were making it very difficult for the believers, the Gentile believers by opposing them by saying that, you know, talking all of these myths and fables which they need to know, and also, you know, be circumcised. And there was a problem and hence we see that, you know, Paul feels the necessity to leave Titus back there at Crete. Now what is the date this letter was written. It was probably written between 63 and 66 AD after Paul left Titus at Crete. And he went on to Macedonia, where he most likely would have written to Titus in response from a letter that he received from Titus, or maybe he received a report from Crete. So he's writing the letter to encourage Titus and also to talk about some church matters and to instruct him and guide him. So Paul wrote this to Titus instructing him to put into order all the remaining matters which was left undone in the churches at Crete. And Paul wrote this letter because he knew that two other workers, Zinnis and Apollos, who are mentioned in Titus chapter 3 verse 13, were going to Crete and hence Paul thought he could send this letter with them and also, you know, inform or instruct Titus the remaining matters of the church that he had to deal with, he had to take note of and that he had to do. So that is the introduction to Titus, all about Titus and Crete and why Paul writes this letter. Any questions, comments, any doubts? Okay, nothing. Okay, if there's nothing, then we will not begin chapter 1. We'll do this next Wednesday. Okay. So we'll look at Titus chapter 1 next Wednesday. Just to confirm again that test or the second assessment for on second Timothy, the whole of second Timothy is on March 16, which is a Wednesday. Okay. Okay. Thank you all for joining class. Have a blessed day ahead and take care. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mom. Thank you, Thomas.