 Hello everyone. Shalom, welcome to class. Hope all of you had a good weekend, a good refreshing weekend, but the needed rest. Yes, no. All of you had a good weekend. Jeffina says yes. What about the other? Yes, ma'am. Sorry Zealotoli, I couldn't hear you. Yeah, good morning. Yeah, I had a good weekend. Good weekend. Okay. Can you just speak something Zealotoli so I can just check my hello. Hello. Can you say hello again? Hello. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yes. This is fine. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Zealotoli. Okay, let's begin the class. Can one of you please lead us in prayer, please? Anyone? Anyone who would like to lead us in prayer? Okay. Jeffina will lead us in prayer. I'll have to. Yes. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to another name of Jesus. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the class we are about to have. God, you're an awesome God. The gospel of you, the wisdom of you, and how we have created, how we have chosen, is called, is how you've saved us. It's beyond imagination, Jesus. God, as we are learning about you, help us to open our mind and heart and listen to the words so that we can live as your children down here on this earth. And we can proclaim this good news. For God, so love the world that he gave his only son for us with the great wisdom and knowledge and be with us and guide us. Help us to have good wife air connection throughout the session and I give all my classmates into your hands. Help us to understand the deepest truths of the Bible that your Holy Spirit guide us. We give you all the glory and honor Jesus. Amen. Thank you, Jeffina. Last week, the two classes that we had, we looked at the introduction to Paul's episode two, The Church at Rome. And today we look at chapter one. I hope you'll have the time to read chapter one. Did you all read chapter one? Okay. If not, what we can do now is, you know, we can quickly read it. So can couple of you read a few verses, please. And then we'll move on. Can we begin quickly so that we don't have, we don't waste any time. So can you please read at least five or six verses and then we can move on to another person. Romans chapter one. Anyone would like to read Romans chapter one verses one to five? Greetings. Romans. Yes, go ahead, Lubega. We'll have you read the first six verses and then we'll have Rosalind read the other six verses. Greetings. For a born servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets and the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of a seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are the cold, are the cold of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lubega. Even as we hear different people read, I just like y'all to, you know, just focus your thoughts on the reading, the verses, and we'll just share after this if something has just, you know, some word just leapt out of scripture for us. You receive some Ramah word, you know, some truths that, you know, we heard in the past but then reading these verses today, you know, got brought it back to our memories or you listen to some sermon or you preach Romans chapter one and you can just share something that can encourage all of us. Okay, so we can keep that in the back of our minds even as we are reading. We'll move on verses six to verse 12. So can I ask Roaston to read, please? Among whom you also are the cold of Jesus Christ, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Desire to visit Rome. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, you, for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without seizing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Making request, if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. And still which verse now? Oh, to verse 12. That is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Rosalind. So we'll stop here at 12, then maybe you know verse 12 and we'll you know have this time about to finish these verses and we will read the verses 13 to maybe verse 32 on Friday when we look at it. So anything that really struck you, anything that really came alive to you from verses 1 to 12, something God touched your heart, something that was reiterated, some truth, something that just left out a scripture for you and you were reading anything anyone likes to share? Yes. Can you hear Jeffina? Can you hear Jeffina speak? It's a coin. Oh, it's a coin. I hope it's fine. I like verse 12 where it says that is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. I remember reading this verse like maybe two years ago when I started reading the Bible and I was really focusing on this verse for some time after reading like how a faith of someone else can actually comfort us when we have the people who are faith around us. That's a different kind of vibe. That's a different kind of friendship. After reading this verse, I kind of left a lot of friendships behind, kind of chased after some friendships which can actually build my faith and even until today's time, I still focus on being wise about whom I choose to be talk or whom I actually spend my time with because I think that's very important and even Paul, someone who is we think like was great revelation, he says I want to be comforted by your faith. So no matter of the revelation, no matter how much we look, we all go through the times where we need that comfort and as we are growing in faith, I think it's very important to have those people around us who can lift us up when we are down. So that's this is one of my favorite verse of all time. Thank you so much, Evina. Anyone else likes to share anything from verses one to verse 12 of Romans chapter one? Hello Ma, good morning Ma. Hi, yes, Abu Bakr. Yes, so I want to talk just to comment on verse two and three. The way the Bible says that wish your promise are followed by its perfect in the Holy Scriptures, concerning the Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of a seed of David and my comment there is Jesus was just fulfilling the Old Testament process as a descendant of Jesus Christ, that rule forever. So he called his name Messiah there. So that is my comment there. So consider we all the things that I've mentioned about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament was fulfilled from the Old Testament and Paul opposed to Paul make mention of each and that two verses that seem to be the descendant of David and the rule forever and is our Messiah. Thank you. Thank you for sharing Abu Bakr and it's good to hear your voice again. Yes, anyone else likes to share? I just want to read Romans chapter one verse one is this. Paul a born servant of Jesus Christ go to being opposed to separated to the gospel of God. We like I'm just seeing all how Paul he's a mighty man of God, but he the way he humble himself and address to the people that he's a servant of God. And I'm just reminded that as a minister of God it's more important it's more important than who we are in Christ than our designation because what I notice in the ministry is that you know like people run for the position the name but as a believer and the true servant of God Paul such a great amazing example that we need we need to be humble and we need to serve God with all of our heart. Yes, so true. Thank you, Zealotoli. Anyone else likes to share? Okay, if no one else wants to share we'll thank you for those of you who shared this lady uplifting and encouraging. Thank you. We look we study Romans chapter one in detail. Okay, so if you look at most of the New Testament letters we see an opening introduction where we have from whom this letter is and then who is it addressing to or who is this letter being written to so who is the audience that is being addressed to the letter and then an introduction of the subject of the letter or the reason for why this letter is being written so we see this in almost every New Testament letter there is an opening introduction there is you know addressing the audience and then an introduction of the subject of the letter or the reason why the letter is being written. Now in verse one Paul says Paul a born servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God so look at how Paul is introducing himself you know most believers at the churches at room haven't met Paul except for Aquila and Priscilla and maybe a few others you know but Paul introduces himself as a born servant and he is borrowing this from the Old Testament you know what do we understand about born servant from the Old Testament a born servant is someone who's subject to the master to whom they work for and every seventh year or the year of Jubilee which is the 50th year a born servant was free to go but if someone chooses to stay with their master or they like their master very much their master has been very nice to them treated them well is taken care of their family then you know the born servant will make a choice to stay with their master for the rest of their life it's their own choice they willingly would like to stay with their master for the rest of their life and be a servant to their master for the rest of their life okay so a born servant willingly subjects himself to the master he decides to stay with the master and in that case you know they put a ring in the ear of that born servant to show that hey this is a born servant who for the rest of his life has chosen to live as a born servant or a slave of his master or here is one who chooses to submit himself to his master for the rest of his life and he chooses to take this mark of a born servant in his life now a born servant is something that Paul chose you know for himself and he says that this is what I chose for myself but there is also something that God has given to me okay so he says God has called him to be an apostle yes he chooses to be a born servant someone who's willingly making the has taken the or made the choice to you know submit or surrender to Jesus's lordship for the rest of his life that is something that he has made a personal choice and then he says that you know there is something that God has also given me and that is to be an apostle okay so who is an apostle what is the meaning of an apostle what does an apostle mean an apostle basically means someone who's sent out a sent one okay so Paul is saying that he has been sent to represent Christ Paul is saying that Christ is sending me to represent his kingdom yes thank you Lubega sent one okay so Paul is saying here that you know he's separated to the gospel of God now before I just continue I like to just say that you know some of these things that I'm saying is not there in your notes so you can follow through in your notes and if you want to make your own notes you are welcome to do so okay and he says that he's been separated to the gospel of God in Paul's writings you will find these words you know which are very very important he called he says born servant he says he's being called and he says he's being separated so in most of Paul's writings you will find these words born servant being called and being separated so Paul really saw himself as someone who separated which means someone who set aside for the gospel of God the word separated we must understand in the context of Paul for Paul to be separated is a very very big thing okay does not use these words very likely or simply but when he me when he says separated it means something very big or something very important for him because in the first 30 years of his life you know Paul was trained in Judaism in Philippians chapter 3 he says you know I was a Pharisee of Pharisee which means that you know he was the most eminent student of an upcoming Pharisee and his whole life and his whole identity was in that fact that he was a Pharisee and that he was an eminent student of an upcoming Pharisee and yet he says that he has given up all of this and he's come out to proclaim a different message and that was something really big something that was very huge something really important for him so in Philippians chapter 3 he says everything I gained I consider it a loss I consider it as rubbish for one reason that I gain Christ okay so the word separated for Paul was a very big thing he says I'm separated and called out and set aside for the gospel of God now this phrase gospel of God look at how Paul refers to the gospel how he shares about it in many different contexts in the book of Romans itself in Romans chapter 1 verse 1 he says the gospel of God in chapter 15 verse 16 he also uses the same phrase gospel of God in Romans chapter 1 verse 9 he says gospel of his son in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and chapter 15 verses 19 and 29 he says gospel of Christ in Romans chapter 2 verse 16 and Romans chapter 16 verse 25 he says my gospel so Paul refers to the gospel as my gospel and he makes it very personal because he's received this message by direct revelation and in Romans chapter 10 verse 15 he says this we mentioned the gospel as the gospel of peace so the gospel basically we know is what comes to your mind when you think of gospel the good news yes you know the good news but Paul understands it in a very comprehensive way in our minds the gospel is what we share with sinners and you know with others as a way for them to receive salvation but for Paul it was the message okay everything started here or everything started in the gospel it's the gospel or the message of God or the message of Jesus and it's the gospel or message of what he is preaching and it's the gospel or message that brings peace in the lives of people so for Paul he understands this word gospel in a very comprehensive way for him it is the message everything starts from here it's the gospel or message of God it's the gospel or message of Jesus it's the gospel or message of what he is preaching and it's a gospel or message that brings peace in the lives of people also if you look at your notes there are other titles connected to the gospel we see the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew chapter 4 verse 23 we read about the gospel of Jesus Christ in Mark chapter 1 verse 1 gospel of the grace of God in Acts chapter 20 verse 24 gospel of the glory of Christ in Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4 and the gospel for the uncircumcised or the gospel for the circumcised which we read in Galatians chapter 2 verse 7 now what does Paul say about this gospel he says it's the message for which he was separated which he is preaching which is the gospel of his son his gospel and he's preaching the gospel of peace which was promised through the prophets okay so he's saying you know when I just mentioned all of what he the term that uses of the gospel of God in Romans just putting that all of together he says this gospel is the message for which he was separated which he is preaching which is the gospel of the son of God and this was a gospel that is given to him so it is his gospel he received that by revelation and he's preaching the gospel of peace which was promised through the prophets okay so Romans chapter 1 verse 2 we see he says which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures okay so he says hey this gospel was there in the Old Testament it was proclaimed by the prophets in the Old Testament and the message Paul is preaching is a message of the good news which was promised through the prophets it was already proclaimed through the prophets in the Old Testament okay and notice how and what he mentions about the Old Testament scripture he calls it as how does he refer it to us how does he refer to the Old Testament as he refers it to as the holy scriptures okay so by referring to the Old Testament as holy scriptures we see that the regard that Paul has for the Old Testament scriptures okay in the Old Testament the Old Testament the prophets were promising the good news that was coming and that is the coming of Jesus and we see here in verse Paul's understanding that the gospel we are preaching is not something new it is something already spoken in the Old Testament and we see Paul's heart for the Old Testament when he refers it to as the holy scriptures okay in Romans chapter 1 verses 3 to 4 he goes on to say that concerning his son Jesus Christ our lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of god with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead okay so gospel is Paul is saying is about Jesus Christ and in relation to Jesus Christ Paul is mentioning two things here in the natural according to the flesh Paul is saying that Jesus came as a descendant of David okay so this was important because it was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies the Old Testament prophecies were talking of the root of David the offspring of David and they were pointing to someone who would come in the line of David and so Jesus is that you know he's saying hey Jesus is that offspring the seed of David okay but this was according to the flesh but who is he truly who is this Jesus truly he was the son of god or he is the son of god and how did how do we know that because he came with power in the spirit of holiness and he was raised from the dead so that's what he says in verse 4 he came with power according to the spirit of holiness and he was raised from the dead okay now who is the spirit of holiness who's referred to here as a spirit of holiness yes the holy spirit the holy spirit is referred here to as a spirit of holiness okay so we need to think of the holy spirit as a spirit of holiness okay so when we use the phrase holy spirit you know sometimes we use the phrase holy spirit like someone's name okay holy spirit is just another name that we commonly use that we call anyone else we meet in our everyday lives so the whole meaning of this name holy spirit is lost because we just use it as a common name as we call anyone else's name but for us holy spirit can just mean you know can just be a name but it's actually this or it can just mean that you know holy spirit for us means the spirit of God or one of the persons of the Trinity or the Godhead a title that comes very easily for us in our minds but when we turn around and say the spirit of holiness it actually you know it causes us to pause you know so when I talk of holy spirit I'm not just talking about some person I'm not just talking about the spirit of God you know not just talking about one person in the Trinity the Godhead but I'm actually you know talking of the holy spirit I'm talking about him as a spirit of holiness okay not only is he holy but his presence is also holy okay not only is he holy but his presence is holiness he's a spirit of holiness so when we do church you know there is a sense of holiness or sometimes there is no sense of holiness or there is no sense of awe of God because we speak so much of the holy spirit which is welcoming in our midst and sometimes we do it with the least sense of holiness we just say welcome holy spirit we welcome you in this place we speak so much about the power of the holy spirit the anointing of the holy spirit but most often we do this with the least sense of holiness you know there needs to be a sense of consecration a sense of holiness when we talk about the holy spirit because we're saying spirit of holiness come you know even as we invite him we need to be mindful that you know we are inviting the holy spirit who is holy or welcoming into we are welcoming his move into our midst welcoming the spirit of holiness to move among us and the spirit of holiness to work among us so there should be a greater sense of reverence a greater sense of awe and a greater sense of consecration in our own lives and in our midst okay now that was just a side thought about the holy spirit but the main thought here is that Jesus Christ was proclaimed announced and revealed as the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead okay so the two things here that we need to you know focus our thought on is that the Son of God with power and the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead okay so both of these actually point out that Jesus is the Son of God okay so what are the two things that point out that Jesus is the Son of God that he's a Son of God with power and the Son of God by resurrection from the dead verse five through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name so Paul is saying here through Christ we have received grace and apostleship okay a side note is you know there is grace and there is apostleship now apostleship has to do with commission okay it's the work or it's the mission that God gives us and what is grace apostleship has to do with commission has to do the work the mission that God has given us what is grace grace is free gift what is grace anyone okay the grace that God gives us to fulfill that commission the work the mission thank you jeffina anyone else what is grace it's one minute Paul we'll hear Rosalind and then we'll hear you Paul yes go ahead Rosalind grace is unmerited favor which we received when we got to fulfill his call this mission upon our life okay to fulfill the call and the mission that he has entrusted to us thank you Rosalind yes Paul yeah more or less the same I was saying grace is undeserved favor okay thank you Paul so here grace is God's empowering over our life to do the commission or to fulfill the commission the work the mission that God has given to us okay thank you it's unmerited blessing yes so this is a common way Paul talks about his ministry he says through Christ we have received grace and apostleship okay so what is the commission we are given we are given the commission to bring according to this verse what is the commission we are given each of us are given what is the commission that we are given verse five to make disciples of all nations okay what is the commission we are given here according to verse five so that it's written here so you can make people obedient to the face yes thank you so here it says that you know we've given this commission to bring people in obedience to the faith in Jesus Christ in all the world okay so the work we are doing or the work we have or the work we have from God the grace we have from God is you know to make people come to and in obedience to the faith in Jesus Christ in all the world okay so the work that we are already doing the work that we have the work that was given to us from God the grace that we have to do this work from God what is that work it is to make people come to and in obedience to the faith in Jesus Christ in all the world okay so Paul uses the phrase in obedience to the faith in other places as well we see this phrase in Romans chapter 15 verse 18 he says you know Paul says when he talks about making Gentiles obedient to the faith through science wonders and miracles he also talks about obedience to the faith in Romans chapter 16 verse 26 where he refers here to people coming to the obedience to the faith okay so coming to the faith is coming to the place of obedience okay obedience to the faith is not emphasized when we say you know come to faith in Jesus Christ and you will be saved from your sin or come to faith in Jesus Christ and you will be blessed or come to faith in Jesus Christ and you will be healed or come to faith in Jesus Christ and you will be free now obedience to faith is not emphasized when we say all of these lines but Paul is looking at it as obedience to the faith he's saying coming to obedience is when you come to a place of surrender when you come to a place of surrender and submission it is when we come to a place of giving up our own freedom you know to obey giving up our own freedom and come to a place where we come to a place where we are obeying Christ this is something we need to make clear when we preach the gospel okay when we come to the faith in Jesus you're coming to a place of obedience to Christ it is saying Lord you know I'm following you and you alone for the rest of my life and you know that is what we are coming into that is where we are coming to and yes there will be healing there will be blessing there will be forgiveness when we come to faith in Jesus Christ but we are coming to faith is coming to obedience to Christ okay so that is what I like to actually focus in on here is coming to faith is basically coming to faith in Jesus Christ it's saying God I come to a place where I'm totally obedient to you totally surrendering my life submitting my the rest of my life to you alone and when we come to that place yes you know we come to a place where there is healing there is blessing there's forgiveness of sin and there is freedom okay so coming to faith is coming to obedience in Christ Jesus verse six among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ Paul is saying believers God has given us this call has given us this commission to preach his good news among all the nations and you are also part of that and you are also called of Jesus and you've also been brought to a place of obedience to the faith so that is what he's meaning when he's writing this in verse six okay so basically in verses one to six we see who Paul was Paul says it's a born servant of Jesus Christ you know he's called by God to be an apostle and he's also called to be separated what is he proclaiming he's proclaiming a message that was already proclaimed by the prophets in the Old Testament which is the holy scriptures and it's a message about Jesus Christ who was declared to be the son of God with power and by the resurrection of the holy spirit and Paul is saying that he is doing this by the grace and commission that God has given him and what is his objective his objective is what he mentions in in verse five where he's saying his objective is to bring people in all the nations to be obedient to the faith okay so that was verses one to six anyone has any questions any thoughts anything that you like to share okay if there are no questions and there's nothing that anyone wants to comment or say we'll move on to verse seven can one of you please read verse seven please anyone to all who are in Rome beloved of God call to the saints grace to you and please from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ amen thank you Rosalind now Paul goes on to mention why he's writing to the Romans or why he's writing the church at Rome it's always interesting in Paul's letter to see how he looks at the people of God okay what is the view of the church or believers very interesting to see that in his letters you know how does he look at the people of God here he calls them saints and what else beloved yes thank you Rosalind thank you jeffine as beloved of God called to be saints okay so as beloved of God Paul is saying you are deeply loved by God or you are special to God you are and he says you are also called to be holy once okay that is the way he looks at the church or that is the way he looks at the people of God okay so some of us you know who serve a church or minister at church or you know we are evangelists pastors you know how do we perceive believers in the church how do we see them how do we speak of them you know we can learn here from Paul that he chooses to see them as beloved people and also those who are called to be holy so not just sorry not just you know those of us who are pastors or those of us who are serving in church or ministers but all of us even as we are part of the church you know how do we look at people how do we see fellow believers you know Paul we can learn from him he chooses he chooses to see you know believers in the churches as beloved people and those who are called to be holy okay and then he says grace and peace grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ it's like you know he's just giving them some good wishes some well wishes okay verse eight one can one of you please read verse eight please anyone first first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world amen thank you so Paul goes on to talk of how he prays for the believers uh at Rome he says first he offers a prayer of thanksgiving he's thankful what is he thankful for their faith yes because their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world and I mentioned in my class on Friday why is he talking about the faith of the church at Rome yes because thank you jeffina they were persecuted and you know in spite of their severe persecution that they were going through they held on to their faith in Jesus Christ and so Paul has heard and continues to hear of their faith in the midst of persecution and he's thanking God for their strong faith that they have even in the time of difficult peace and tribulations and persecution okay and what else did he thank God for okay look at verse nine he says for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son that without seizing I make mention of you always in my prayers okay and so Paul says you know I'm praying for you always and he's saying hey this is not something that I'm just writing because I just want to make you feel happy but I'm writing to you that I've always praying for you and God is my witness okay and what I want to point out is verse nine what I want to point out in verse nine is the phrase whom I serve with my spirit okay whom I serve with my spirit now when we serve God we think of serving God as a physical work right you know we think that you know hey I'm going to preach here so I have to dress like this I have to behave like this I have to do this I have to act like this you know and all of this is yes it's important you know the way we dress the way we present ourselves the way we act the way we do things all of this is important but here Paul is you know making a point here he's saying we need to serve God with our spirit interesting right he's saying I'm not just serving God with my body you know first I am serving God with my spirit okay so the question we need to ask ourselves is what is the condition of my spirit man each of us need to ask that question for ourselves what is the condition of my spirit man you know I'm called to serve God I'm called to build his kingdom you know but what is the condition of my spirit you know serving God is a work of your spirit the ministry work is spiritual work which the spirit is the Holy Spirit is doing in us so it's important the Holy Spirit works in and through you know our spirit we are building the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God what what dimension of the kingdom of God are we in now at present you'll remember I'll tell you about the kingdom of God what dimension of the kingdom of God are we in presently the kingdom of God that two parts the spiritual dimension and the natural dimension so which dimension are we in presently the spiritual dimension okay because the kingdom of God is where the kingdom of God is in heaven no the kingdom of God has been inaugurated by Jesus here on the earth the kingdom of God is in us okay the kingdom of God is in us and we are going to see the natural dimension of the kingdom of God when Jesus is going to come and personally rule the thousand year millennium rule but as of now we are you know in the spiritual dimension the kingdom of God so we are born again in our spirit man the spirit of God works in and through us and in and through us you know the power of God is released and translated in and through us to minister to people outside in the natural realm in the physical realm so it's you know serving God is a work of your spirit the ministry work is a spiritual work which you know the Holy Spirit works in and through us spirit man and it's released through us out of us to other people so it's important that you know we keep our spirit man in good shape and we keep our spirit man strong in the word strong in worship strong in prayer okay so part of the spiritual work he says is I'm praying for those he wants to go and minister and serve so Paul is saying part of the spiritual work that he's doing is that he's praying for those who he wants to go and minister to and serve okay so another important thing that we can learn here today is you know although the work of the spirit is a physical you know we think of it as a physical work it's more spiritual because we're living a spiritual dimension the kingdom of God the work of God is released in and through our spirit man from here it's released out so it's important that you know we keep our spirit man in good shape and strong okay verse 10 he says making requests if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you okay so he says making requests if by any means the kjv version says making requests if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you okay so what a part of what the Paul is basically praying is he's saying that hey I want to come to you I want to meet all of you and I want to serve you but even as he's praying you know here's what actually happened okay we know that Paul was accused by the Jews in Jerusalem we read about this in Acts chapter 22 he was apprehended by the Romans and then he was sent to Cisterna where he was escorted by 200 Roman soldiers 70 horsemen 200 spearmen we read this in Acts chapter 23 verse 23 and then we see that Paul was held as a prisoner for two years in Cisterna and from there Paul appeals to Caesar we read this in Acts chapter 25 verse 11 and 12 and then Paul was sent to Rome which was a very rough journey you know they were stranded at sea for 14 days ended up in a shipwreck and landed at Malta and we know that Paul got bit by a viper there but he experienced no harm we read this in Acts chapter 28 verses 1 to 6 and then after another three months of sailing he finally arrived at Rome we read this in Acts chapter 28 verse 14 but when he came to Rome he was not a free man like he was a he was a prisoner but a good thing was that he was not you know he was under house arrest so you know believers from Rome came and met him even before you know he actually reached home we reached Rome we read this in Acts chapter 28 verse 15 and 16 and Paul spent two full years in Rome under house arrest and you know even though he was not free to go around but under house arrest gave him some kind of freedom to minister to all who came to him we read this in Acts chapter 28 verse 30 and 31 and the believers were surely blessed and the church was strengthened so it was literally about three years after this letter was written that Paul actually went to Rome and but he went there as a listener after a very very difficult journey but Paul was able to spend two full years at Rome and impart into the life of the church at Rome okay so just before we close a lesson to learn for us here is sometimes you know the journey itself can be very difficult can be very challenging can be filled with hardships and turmoils but for us fulfilling the will of God you know that is a blessing that is success success is not defined by the comfort or by the ease of the journey but by fulfilling the purpose therefore Paul it was not at all easy okay his journey was not comfortable but he you know experienced success because he went to Rome and he was able to fulfill the purpose for which he went there he was able to minister to people even as he was in under house arrest so a beautiful thing that we can learn here is even as some of you are journeying in your christian life in your christian walk things can be challenging things can be difficult but you know stay on because the success is not determined by the comfort of our journey but by fulfilling the plan and purpose and God will give us the grace and enable us empower us enable us and strengthen us give us the favor we need to fulfill what he has called us to okay we stop here anyone has any questions look at verse 11 onwards the end of the chapter on friday any questions okay there are no questions thank you all for joining class have a blessed day and a blessed week ahead and i will see you on friday thank you everyone