 Hi, how are you doing? Good morning ma'am. Good morning, good morning, yeah. What are you doing well? I am doing well now, but I caught a cold. Oh, oh, okay, oh right now is it? Oh, okay, okay, okay. I am getting it fine today. Oh, okay, yeah, good to know that. Yeah, we could begin with prayer, Prince, maybe I'll pray and I can pray to the class and for you as well. Hopefully our other friends will also join the call soon. All right, yeah, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank Him. Praise the Father, we thank you that we are in your hands, Lord, you are carrying us forward. Father God, we commit our lives into your hands and Lord, especially Lord, this class, Father, we pray that you will, Lord bless every word, Lord, and Father, the truth of your kingdom, Lord, will touch our hearts and Father, we pray that our lives will be transformed, Lord, by the power of your word. Father, today we ask for your blessing on every listener, Lord, every student and Lord, those who are just tuning in, Lord, even to hear and just simply listen, Father, God, I pray that you will bless them. Lord, pray for Prince, Lord, command healing over his body in the name of Jesus. I pray in Jesus' name, Lord, that he will be set free from this discomfort, Lord, that he has. We declare complete healing in wholeness from this cold and Lord, all the symptoms that he's having. Thank you once again, Lord, for your faithfulness. Thank you for your touching. Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. No problem. Yeah. We have the others also joining. So we can get started where we stopped at the last class. Let's go back to Acts, Book of Acts. I think we were chapter 20 where we have seen how Paul has gone about his third missionary journey where a lot of time that he spent was in Ephesus and he trained up the people there but because of the opposition, once again he could not continue staying there but he had to step out of Ephesus and he saw how he went to the regions of Macedonia. I showed you the map over there. He went to the Macedonian region and then again he came back. So now what is happening is he is traveling towards Jerusalem and we saw that he is meeting different people along the way. So we said, okay just let me admit everyone. Yeah. So we said that he traveled by regions where he met people even in a place like Tyre where he did not actually go and plant that church but by that time there were so many believers in different places that it was amazing. Even though the opposition stopped he found believers so the gospel was spreading in such a powerful way. So let me just once again quickly show you the map. I think it always helps of the third missionary journey and then we can start talking some more about what Paul was engaged in. Yeah. I hope you're able to see it everyone. Is it, are you able to view it? So there goes the missionary journey, the upper regions. Remember though the places are not mentioned you have the upper regions referring to the earlier places where Paul had gone and then we saw how he went to Ephesus, did his ministry there and then you know when opposition rose he went to the Macedonian regions. So he makes his journey there and then he kind of comes back here and remember we are talking about places like Militesanon. So he goes to all of these regions and then he is traveling back. So he comes to Tyre where he meets some of people and from there you know he comes to Caesarea. Caesarea is the place where earlier we had mentioned of Philip you know traveling in these regions looks like Philip settled in Caesarea and we see that he has four daughters who are prophetesses or you know who move in the prophetic and then you know we see that he finally goes to Jerusalem to meet with the elders of the church. So this would be the third missionary journey and the timing as you can see here is 53 to 58 AD so roughly the longest one compared to the other missionary journeys. So there are different timelines everywhere that you Google you will find you know some places it says three and a half years some places it says four years. So the exact time duration of the missionary journey is people you know don't quite agree on it that okay it was exactly you know so much of time but what I'll do is as I've been telling us that I will be posting a timeline and I've shared with us earlier as well. So you could just go by those timelines okay let me probably you can see the screen here so if you can see the screen the third missionary journey okay so we see third missionary journey 53 to 58 okay great. So even what we are saying is the same thing it's over four years so over four years is what we have in mind so just keep that in mind. So the first missionary journey we are saying two years second missionary journey three years and the third missionary journey would be over four years. So the third missionary journey is the longest one so let me again quickly show you the map because whenever we talk about you know place names you mustn't get confused so through here he came Miletus okay there's a mention of Tyre then now there'll be a mention of Caesarea and then finally Jerusalem okay so I think this gives you enough clarity to understand the passage that we are touching upon. Okay so yeah so we saw that he goes through Macedonia he picks up some of the co-workers there so there were mention of you know quite a few names we saw it also tells us that Paul was somebody who was good at relationships and he knew that he must bring in a lot of people to serve in the kingdom work only one person serving you know that could not really cause an expansion of the kingdom many people are required to see the gospel taken to many regions and for the discipling of a lot of people so in that sense we are saying that we want to understand Paul as well right not just the book of Acts but also the life of Apostle Paul so Paul comes across as a team player okay Paul comes across as a kingdom builder okay now he comes to Troyes over there we saw how you know he was ministering and he took the opportunity to share a lot of things on his heart to such an extent that he was preaching through the night he was preaching through the night and unfortunately one of the people that by the name of Eutychus he in his sleep he fell and that person you know he was brought dead but then Paul went and ministered to him he rose up so from there he goes to Miletus and then over there he invites the believers from at the elders from Ephesus and he saw the the pastoral heart of Paul where he really strengthens that he gives them insights about the church know how to take care of the church how to protect the church even from those who may arise you know against the truth of God's word then later he goes on a journey he makes the ship journey he sails across and you know he comes to tire over there some of the believers disciples whom he needs they tell him the prophetic word they also receive the impression from God that if Paul moves towards Jerusalem then he will be in trouble but he listens to the word but he does not really heed to the word because he knows that though there is suffering this is what God had intended for him so he needs to actually go through the suffering you know if that is what it means to serve God so you can see the commitment of Paul knowing that there are difficulties he journeys forward then he comes to a place called Caesarea and he said you know that Philip is there at this point Philip is known as an evangelist the last we heard about Philip was as a volunteer in the church of Jerusalem so now Philip is ministry and he has virgin daughters who are who prophesied but then at that time the notable prophet Agrabus also comes by now this you know Agrabus gave a very significant prophecy earlier about the famine in Jerusalem which led the people of God to gather support for the church but this time around Agrabus you know he takes a belt he ties his own hands and feet and he says that says the Holy Spirit in verse 11 of chapter 21 he says that says the Holy Spirit so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the gentile so basically he say that by a prophetic act you know sometimes you can act out the prophetic word you don't really have to say that says the Lord this is called as prophetic some people say it's like a drama where you are in a very dramatized way he takes and he binds himself and he shows that you know Paul is going to go through that so he's saying that you know there are difficulties that await Paul when he goes to Jerusalem so did God already reveal to Paul of the problems yes but you know you find that though Paul knew he his heart was he said the will of the Lord be done okay even if there are difficulties in this journey that God's will be done in my life and that is the commitment that Paul held on to so you know we can learn from Paul you're understanding about his passion we're understanding about the you know the way he worked as an apostle he had lots of people that he interacted with lots of people he worked together with as a pastor church planter he did not abandon the people who he had brought to the faith but he gave them sufficient inputs so that they can carry on God's work he gave them good oversight okay and you also see because somewhere we might feel that Paul is a very task oriented mission oriented individual who is who is devoid of emotions he probably doesn't relate to people at an emotional level but that is not true because you find that Paul is when he interacts with the efficient elders they hug and they display that affection for one another so he has established beautiful relationships that are genuine it's not just like a working relationship and even over here when he is told by Agrabus and in Phillips house that you are going to be killed Paul something terrible is going to happen to you there and not necessarily the prophecy doesn't say that he will be killed in Jerusalem but troubles await you you know he says in verse 13 what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus so at an emotional level he is able to connect with people and this is genuine beautiful relationships that he shares even with the co-workers in the gospel let's move forward so now verse 15 after those days we are told that he packed up his stuff and he moved towards Jerusalem and he once again from Caesarea he went with he went with again you see that us we so whenever you read that in the book of Acts we can understand what Luke is involved in because he's the writer of this book and he's also part of the journey and at this time they brought with them a person called Nesim of Cyprus who is known as an early disciple so early disciple simply means you know somebody who has been in the faith for many many years through Paul's missionary journeys we saw it was roughly about a decade isn't it but even before that much before that when the early church had started from Acts 2 to Acts 8 was roughly about you know eight years then later on you know the next five years or so we saw about Paul's encounter and all of those things we begin to read till Paul is encouraged to go on his missionary journey so we're talking like eight plus five how much is that but 13 years 13 years before the first missionary journey of Paul actually starts off so 13 years then you add to that about five years of his first two missionary journeys it's 18 years 18 years and then about four years of Paul's final missionary journey so 22 years since the early church began and it was functioning so two decades over two decades so when you say Nesim one of the early disciples we have this understanding that he is probably from two decades you know he is a believer roughly about that much time so one of those believers also they met so isn't it beautiful on the missionary journey they're finding some new disciples they're finding some early disciples so it gives us a picture that the region had been impacted by the gospel so that is effective ministry they are able to share the gospel and people are part of the kingdom that is how the Apostles and the believers of the early church actually ministered so finally he comes to Jerusalem I showed you in the map he's moving towards Jerusalem he comes there and it says the brethren received us gladly so the term used for the fellowship is brethren so the people of God receive them gladly and after that he goes up to James and all the elders who were present so James we know that he has been the pastor of the Jerusalem church for all these for many many years so he goes up it's a way of honoring the leaders a way of honoring the elders so once they meet the usual practice was to update the the team in Jerusalem about whatever had happened on the missionary journeys so he tells them that he lets them know and particularly about what God had done among the gentiles that was revealed to the 2d Apostles there and when people heard it look at this this is the beauty of the kingdom of God you know God may be doing something through me and when I share it with you you're very delighted about it it's not that you know one is jealous of the other hey how come God is doing such a mighty work through your life and I in my life I don't see any of this happening so it's not it's not that that way of contending and competing with one another but people are actually rejoicing oh you see Paul here who is coming back with great stories of accomplishing God's purpose and what do the elders actually do chapter 21 and verse 20 when they heard it they glorified the Lord and they said to him you see brother how many millions of Jews that are who have believed and they are all zealous for the law so you know they hear they are happy about it and they are presenting their point so now they start sharing about an issue okay which they have come across they are saying there are lots of Jews whom they know and these Jews are you know zealous for for the law but then among the Jews there was a news or thinking that fall because his ministry was more towards the Gentiles now that he is no longer honoring the Jews or honoring the traditions of the Jews so let me just read it for you so I'll continue from where I stopped so this is what the elders of Jerusalem tell Paul verse 21 but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to persuade Moses saying that they are not to circumcise their children not to work according to the customs what then the assembly must certainly meet for they will hear that you have come therefore do what we tell you we have four men who have taken about take them and be purified with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law okay so no I read it for you so that you very clearly know what what was the issue that the elders brought up and what is the solution to the issue okay so here what I'm saying is the Jews who are believing they had a misconception about fall that he was disregarding the law of Moses or the law of the Jews so though he was doing good work you know this misconception would have kept fall in the bad light in their minds so the elders did not want that to happen they wanted people to understand that Paul is his ministry among the Gentiles but he is very much for the Jews as well so they give him the solution they tell him how about you follow one of the Jewish traditions or one of the Jewish rituals so there are four men among them who obviously if they needed to go and shave their heads in the temple so they told Paul why don't you take these people and why don't you go to the temple and you know if you pay for them if you pay for them first of all you are going to the temple to honor God which is a very Jewish way of doing things and you providing for these people to complete their vow will also say that you know you are for the Jews you are for the law and the tradition of the Jews so basically it's not that even the elders wanted to keep you know all these traditions because already in Acts 15 we have seen the conclusion that they have come to apart from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ they made it very clear that these traditions don't mean anything towards salvation but Paul as well as the elders of Jerusalem they are trying to keep the traditions so that the Jewish believers are appeased or the Jewish believers don't take offense I hope you're understanding what I'm saying so it is of importance you know the the the how can I say it's it's not even the support of the Jewish believers but you know all believers to have that peace and the leadership to not disturb the faith of the people in any way you see how sensitive the leaders are regarding the faith of all the communities whether it is the Gentiles you know earlier they were sensitive about the Gentiles don't put an extra burden on them that's what Jane said by adding all these new rules for the Gentiles to follow now look at their sensitivity towards the Jews the Jews are feeling that you know the one that we back up in missions which is Paul he is against the Jewish laws now that is a misconception we should not have that misconception among the Jews so we are going to you know give him this idea as of to uphold the Jewish traditions and then the people will be at peace so that is the whole context of this and they give Paul this idea yeah so now Paul he also upholds what the elders they tell him so Paul took the men and the very next day he goes to the temple to be purified to be purified and then you know having done what what needed to be done traditionally there was no all these steps to follow to enter the temple so he did all that and he entered the temple okay to sort of complete complete those days of purification and he made an offering for each of them yeah now after this after seven days were almost ended we are told there that Jews from Asia okay seeing him in the temple so now these Jews are not believing Jews these were Jews who had observed him in Ephesus okay and they knew about Paul they knew that this man had come to preach something different from the you know the the the traditional message which they knew from Moses so they had an idea that something about this man is is not correct so these Jews who are not believers they recognized okay Paul and obviously once they recognize and they saw it in the temple they would have they would have come to the conclusion that this man is here to create chaos so what they do is they start to stir up the whole crowd and remember in almost every city this was the issue which they had they would you know make a big scene about Paul and have Paul's accusation about him even in Ephesus we saw that how the ministry was effective and there were people who were affected financially even you know because of that remember we said Dimetrius he came and he had lost his business of making money out of idols making idols so you know he wanted Paul to be arrested but then he saw how the authorities came and they intervened and they said why don't why doesn't Dimetrius go to the court because if the chaos was created in that city you know obviously the Roman government would come take charge and they might lose their positions so with that in mind they kind of try to hush the whole situation and through Paul out of the city so these Jews would have been part of the ones who created trouble for Paul in Ephesus again they are creating trouble here so they they stir up the crowd meaning lie to the crowd tell them all kinds of things against Paul and the whole mob is rising against him and then the next thing we see here is laid hands on him so the crowd is becoming unruly okay and they are trying to punish Paul in the temple and the people are crying out you know that this man is teaching is teaching everywhere against the people and the law meaning the Jewish people and you know he's defiling he's defiling the temple now he he was also accused in this case of bringing in Greeks into the temple now we should also understand that the Jews were quite particular about the rules of entering the temple and they had seen with Paul this person called Trafimus who is an Ephesian okay now we don't we don't know that this Trafimus entered the temple but the accusation of these Jews from Asia was that Paul has brought Greeks inside the temple so all kinds of accusations against Paul because they they really want to you know create trouble for him and they really want him to be arrested and killed and look at the the rage that they have laid hands on him itself so they are trying to punish him in a public place now when all this was going on they seized Paul okay they got a hold of him they dragged him out of the temple and the doors were shut and they were wanting to actually kill him but the news of this public outrage went to the commander so obviously in every city there is an order there's a legal order that is a you know way in which somebody who is accused should be treated and the mob cannot step in and give justice so this news went to the commander of the garrison of Jerusalem that there is an uproar near the temple please come so he immediately he takes his soldiers he takes his centurions and goes down to stop you know people from beating Paul now if he had not stopped people from treating Paul in this way who knows no Paul may have been hurt but we do know he may have even been killed but you know we do know that God had a time God had a purpose for Paul's life now earlier you if you recall God had also told him that when you go there are difficulties awaiting you in Jerusalem we know that those believers remember the believers whom he met they also said that there are difficulties waiting for you Agrabus told them that you are going to be bound Paul and yet no Paul said I'm not just willing to be bound but even unwilling to die for the gospel so he came here with great courage and those exact things are happening the people are beating him up so the commander comes in with his troop and you know we we see that the commander takes him okay and he commands that he be bound with two chains and he asked you know who he was and what he had done so he wanted to find out why is this chaos happening here before the temple and so he he is just trying to bring the situation to a calm and when all this was going on you know the people were upset obviously and they were like okay we couldn't kill him but you take it like you just take him out of our sight we don't want to have a man like this before our eyes somebody who's going against the law somebody who is defiling the temple you know all kinds of accusations now when this was going on you know Paul obviously by with the commanders and the soldier he was being led away okay but at that point Paul says okay commander can you give me a chance to speak okay so this really shows once again the passion of Paul and the courage that Paul had that he wanted to make use of this opportunity to talk about Jesus to talk about the gospel maybe this this moment where so many Jews had gathered it would be a time when he can preach okay and you know all of them are already dead and it will give them a chance to respond to the gospel so that is one intention with which Paul could have asked for the opportunity to speak and the other of course is the way you know Stephen was accused and a lot of wrong accusations allegations were made against him so even Paul maybe he wanted to present a defense and say what you're saying is not correct you know it's not that you know why are you saying that I'm less of a Jew or that I'm dishonoring the Jews he could have just shared about what he did just now by paying the offering and you know by by following the purification rituals and by you know coming in to keep the days of purification so following the Jewish traditions he could have talked about all those things and given defense for himself and said that all these people are saying is in cover so let's see what Paul actually says so he says okay commander can give me an opportunity to speak may I speak then the commander says can you speak Greek because he feels the commander feels that commander has no idea know who this this man is he feels that he was probably related to one of the earlier cases okay and it seems there was some Egyptian man who had stirred up a rebellion like this and so the commander thought huh this person is is an Egyptian how can he even speak in the language which we understand so the commander just asks him okay you know can you speak Greek at least you know some language which these people your listeners can understand but Paul he responds and he says no I am a Jew from Tarsus so obviously you know he begins to relate to the audience in their own language revealing that he is one of them so he begins his introduction as I am a Jew and I am from Tarsus in Cilicia that region we were talked about all these things earlier and then he says a citizen of no means city and I implore you permit me to speak to the people and later we understand that Paul actually speaks to them in the Hebrew language which is their own language so they would have understood hey this man is not an Egyptian or anything but you know he is one among us so he gives a little bit of a background no an introduction so he is he has revealed where he is from and his ethnicity he says you know I am a Jew I am one among you that he addresses them and he says brethren and fathers again it's like say I'm one among you you know we are one people he says here my defense before you now so he is going to refute whatever has been spoken about or rather spoken against him till now so when he started speaking apparently he motioned to the crowd like he made a gesture that everyone okay calm down calm down and then he starts speaking the crowd actually stopped to listen so we adore Luke writes and he says that they kept all the most silent so obviously the people would have been amazed that hey he's saying he's a Jew he's from our land as well and he's speaking in our language what can he say in his own defense let us listen to this man called Perl then he starts sharing he starts describing he says I am indeed a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia again a background then later he adds to it no he was brought up in the city under whom he testifies that he was taught by Gamaliel so obviously no they would have realized that this man has a very high position or you know like his his experience his training he's a man of stature among the Jews so he was basically letting the Jews know that I'm not anybody so I was taught at the feet of Gamaliel a constricted of our father's law and then he also adds to it and he says that I was the zealous toward God as you all are today so he is trying to relate to them then he gives some more of his background remember we said when we talked about Acts chapter 9 and the things that were going on at that time the Jerusalem Church was being badly persecuted so he goes back to that and he says look I was persecuting once I was persecuting he uses the term the way and I've told us earlier that the Christians were referred to as people who belong to the way WAY so he says I've persecuted this way to the death and he reveals how he says I was binding delivering into prisons both men and women so he shows them that he was not just a Jew he wasn't educated well trained well equipped disciplined okay zealous upholding the law kind of a Jew so if not equal to the people who were listening to him he was more than that so he was a better Jew than any one of them okay so he's introducing himself in that manner and he says the high priest bear bears me witness and all the council of the elders from whom I have also received letters to the president so he was so passionate that at that time even the authorities knew him very well because he had gone to take permissions to go and persecute the people who followed Jesus in other words the people of the way so it also shows you know his zeal was so great that he took the initiative it is one thing for there to be a decree or for there to be an order to go and persecute the Christian people but he's revealing that he took the initiative to go and get permission to persecute so it really shows us that he did his job and it's really well okay because he felt that he was doing God's service through the persecution that he needed out to the Christians now you see he will start to describe little about what happened to him now this is the background the Jews would have understood it now he says what happened that led him to start preaching the Lord Jesus so he narrates it's basically like a story type so he says now it happened now as I journeyed came here Damascus at about noon suddenly a great life from heaven shown around me so you know you see that description of the encounter that he had in Acts chapter 9 and it's beautiful because we could study this description you know which is which may be slightly more detailed than what we have seen in Acts chapter 9 so here you know Luke adds the way Paul talked about this he says that there was a great life you can really recognize here that it was something supernatural something amazing because the Middle Eastern Sun at noon day how bright can the Sun be very bright right so when the Sun is so bright how is it possible for you to see another bright light it's it's close to impossible unless it's something supernatural but that is the experience that Paul had on the road to Damascus and he's explaining that he say look when I was journey and I was journeying to persecute people I saw this suddenly you know a great light from heaven shown so it's a very bright light brighter than the sunlight okay in the noon time then he explains you know I fell to the ground I heard a voice it's it's all all why are you persecuting me and then he responded to that he said who are you Lord and he said I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting so he's kind of going back to that story okay and he's revealing that he encountered this Jesus whose people he was trying to persecute then he goes on to the red that okay once he encountered you know what does an encounter do to us it really brings this question okay God now that you are meeting with me so he puts that out he narrates that part to the people as well and he says so when I had the encounter I just asked this Jesus Lord what shall I do and you know God gave him an instruction and obviously you know he he goes into the details okay excuse me he goes into the details of it and he says that when he asked God this question you know God gave him the next steps to follow and told him that you need to go to the maskers okay and over there there will be somebody by the name of Ananias who is a devout man who will come and you know he will sort of you know do the needful whatever whatever has to be spoken to you so no that that story he's narrating so then he went and then this Ananias you know God God gave him the vision and then you know Ananias came and Ananias he prayed over him okay and told him that he needs to be baptized so Paul marries this is how his conversion took place okay so if the people are wondering if you had this wonderful of a background how is it that this man has become a follower of the same group of people whom he persecuted so he had to explain about the events that led to his conversion okay so in this manner okay he heard from Ananias Ananias prayed for him because he was blind and then you know Paul was baptized and later he describes how he returned to Jerusalem and there when he was praying in the temple he saw a vision or he says in a trance you know God communicated something to him which said that you leave Jerusalem quickly because they will not receive the testimony whatever you want to share they're not going to receive it now this is a little different in what you know he is sharing and what we have learned till now you know so far Paul has not talked about his personal spiritual experiences in this way okay but he wants the Jews to understand what happened to him the earlier spiritual experience which he narrated that was in a way you could say that there were witnesses to that when God spoke to him from heaven there were people with him right who were also going to persecute so they knew what Paul was saying was true when he went and he stayed over at a place over there Ananias came and he ministered to Paul that is also something which has witnesses okay and other people can testify of the same thing but now in verse 17 and 18 what Paul is saying that is a personal spiritual experience and from the way Paul is sharing these things you understand that he was not somebody who made a big deal of his personal experiences because you know this is one place where you read it but then you don't read it very often where he's saying yeah I went to heaven there God told me this or you know I an angel came to me and told me this so he he kind of keeps it to a minimum only if it is very essential he's talking about his spiritual experience okay and you know one could also read this and say oh really like how can we confirm that Paul actually had a trans and that this is what God spoke to him so because it is not you know one's personal experience is very personal right and sometimes excuse me it's not even possible for us to get people to believe it because people could question oh really did you really see this really happen the God really say that so even in the way Paul is sharing different accounts we see that there isn't too much of his personal experiences that others cannot verify okay but I think he really needed to let them know why after such a dramatic conversion you know for all these years he did not come and serve publicly you know and in a in a very open way in Jerusalem maybe he wanted to clarify that and that is why he's bringing up this particular spiritual experience in a trans where God told him you leave Jerusalem quickly because even if you speak people are not going to believe you okay so he brings up the spiritual experience let's do this let's go for a break now almost time now for a break so after 10 minutes 10 o'clock let's come back and we will continue from here I hope it's okay everyone are you comfortable are you understanding okay okay wonderful yeah let's go for a break see you in 10 minutes thank you