 Good morning and welcome everyone. Thank you for connecting on today's session. We continue to study from the book of Acts And right now we are in the missionary journeys of Paul So now we'll see how he goes about not only planting churches, but also overseeing them raising up leaders and several such things So let's first pray and then we will start our study. Let me have a word of prayer Heavenly father we thank you for your grace upon our lives your faithfulness your goodness of God and father We pray in the name of Jesus that you'll continue to Strengthen us Lord in our inner man. Thank you father because your word is powerful Thank you because your word is our foundation Oh God and Lord as we're building our lives on your word God that we are going to see your glory We're going to see your power. We bless you. We honor you father I speak blessings upon every single student Lord father in the online class as well as the e-learners Lord and their families their churches or father. We just speak blessings and abundance in Jesus mighty name. We pray All right, so I remember we had some discussion going on the last class right where we stopped We talked a little bit about Paul us and then we moved on to Acts chapter 19 Where we said that there is a place called Ephesus Where Paul comes after Corinth and there he finds out about the Understanding of the believers regarding the Holy Spirit. He recognizes that they don't have The knowledge regarding baptism in the name of Jesus as well as the baptism in the Holy Spirit So he takes them through both of these and they are filled with the Holy Spirit They spoke with tongues and prophesied and then we went on to see his ministry in Ephesus where there were unusual miracles remember we were discussing about cloth and Praying over cloth praying over material objects. Is this correct? Is this not correct? some of those questions were what we were at so We come back to Acts chapter 19. We are in verse 11 so verse 11 is where we saw that God worked unusual miracles So is there anyone else through whom God worked unusual miracles earlier? If you can recall something unusual Sorry Yeah in the book of Acts. I think it is Peter Okay, and which unusual miracle did he or he saw an unusual miracle in his life? What was that? Shadow of Peter Correct. Correct. The shadow of Peter. So what is the difference between this miracle and the other miracle? Your place was not a limitation Place is it? Yes. Yeah, I think The material could could have been taken to sick people Wherever they are and then healing could happen True true. So the material could be transported Whereas obviously shadow It's a non-material. I don't even know what to call it substance of phenomenon So you cannot really carry it around. That's true Any other difference that you are able to notice I think acts five is where the the Shadow of Peter was healing people Okay, so the simple difference is as I stated material and non-material When we pray over things we trust God for the power of God to go into it and then to touch people's lives but It's not just limited to things God can just work Even if there's no even if there's nothing Because that's what a shadow is. So the point we are making is We might observe some unusual phenomenon from time to time as long as we are able to confirm that It is yielding the fruit of the spirit. It is yielding the fruit for the Kingdom of God meaning people are being healed. They're being touched their hearts are being drawn to Jesus There is a possibility, you know for us to sort of assess it and accept it but just because it's unusual in a lot of You when we read about Revivals we may see some things happening that we are not familiar with So we question in revival. How can this happen? You know, we've not seen it's not there in the Bible Well, yes, it's not there in the Bible Here there are two unusual miracles But even when things happen in our own lives, which may not be mentioned in the Bible as long as it falls into the frame of glorifying God being off the Holy Spirit Transforming lives causing people to worship and honor God. We know that it's from God. So That that is something that you know, we can we can Understand that it's coming from God, right? so I don't want to mention some of the phenomenon that has happened in church history because You know people find it controversial Some people can accept it whereas some people don't want to accept it So we won't look into the specifics but in general I'm saying if we observe a phenomenon which is leading us To God and honouring the Lord Jesus It's likely that the Lord is doing that but he's doing it in a different way So be open to different things that God may do Now coming back to You know the handkerchiefs and aprons carrying the power of God. How do we understand this? I think we've talked about this in the keys to supernatural ministry How come you know material things carry impartation, okay Impartation Maybe we could use that as a term, but that won't be the appropriate term Any other term that you can think of right now When material objects can carry the power of God God is limitless. He can use any medium that's that's true but Let's say in the case of a substance or a medium What is it carrying that brings about the miracle any answers? Okay, let's consider oil. Okay. We put oil on people and we pray for people. That's some material What might it carry that brings about the healing or the deliverance it doesn't carry anything. I have a feeling That It's not in the material it's not in them. It is always the will of God. It's always the will of God that works, but We do we do it because of some historical reasons or to raise the the The faith of other people because some people know Literally when they read through the Bible That for instance when we see Samuel going to anoint King David So they take it like that that once they are being anointed things will work But I don't think that it is in the material. It is always Yeah, thank you so much Lubeka for You know thinking this through so you're saying it's not in the material So So it's not the material but then what is it? That is the question And John is saying faith of the people will only bring healing. I think So sure all all of you are thinking along the right lines. So when we consider Generally material objects one way that we can understand what is going on is the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit is Carried by that material. So we use the word anointing Okay, the anointing anoint them with oil and Pray for them, you know James 5 it says what what exactly happens is The faith that we carry and the presence of the Holy Spirit that we carry In a way we can imagine like I think Jeff in a used the word imparted So we can imagine that that power goes into that object Okay, so it's not about the object the object could be anything the object could be the subject could be water or oil or cloth or You know some sort of a food item anything absolutely anything But the faith that we carry and the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit that we term as the anointing gets if you may say Transferred or into that substance. It's as simple as that So when we pray for someone or we send out a cloth we pray over the cloth We are not able to go see them or we pray over some oil. We are not able to go see them We send it out to them and say okay use this Pray put it on the sick part and you will be healed so the anointing of the spirit ministers To that person and sets them free now my question is do we need that substance or Can we just minister without the substance? Okay, so Jeffina says we can do it without the substance So as we've learned in the subject healing and deliverance Let's understand that we must go by the The leading of the Holy Spirit so as the Holy Spirit directs us sometimes God may Put it in our hearts that okay. You pray for some pray Ask them for some oil and you anoint with oil then the healing will come So then in that case do it that way, but maybe like some situations like you had the Centurion who came to Jesus and asked Jesus For the healing of his sick servant and Jesus just spoke right and In that moment immediately The servant was made well just the word touched him and the word healed him So you didn't need any substance to minister. So this is how we would understand you know unusual miracles and many different modes or methods of ministering healing or deliverance to the people so What about the thought of you know these days we have people who who they sell the Kerchiefs or sell some prayer oils. So any views on that? No views. So if you don't have any views, I am left with no option, but to keep sharing my views Any thoughts about you know, would it be okay to Pray over some material and maybe sell it because it's beneficial for the people If it is a must that I have to pray over something and I send it to somebody. I would do it for full You would do it for? For free for free. Okay. Why Lubega? Why would you want to do that for free? Freyla will receive then Freyla we should give Amen, so Yes, that is our understanding Because we find that Jesus when he commissioned the believers we see this in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 8 where he says heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils Freely you have received freely give so the power of God that we have received We have received by grace. We have received through the redeeming work of Jesus Already, we've received it freely So we must give it out without any cost to the People because we don't we supposed to follow the pattern of Jesus's ministries in it and we don't see him really charging people for The power of God so these are all things that one must remember if we go back to What we learned in our first year the code of honor Where we said that when we do ministry we have to do it in an honorable way such that Nobody blames the ministry that we do so even in the book of Acts when we see so much of the supernatural being manifested We don't really see the Apostles Talking as if they are entitled to the power of God, which is being released through their lives or Putting heavy burdens on the people and saying look you need to pay us you need to honor us because We are flowing in the anointing and the power of we don't see any any such things because God's power is given to the leaders as well as the believers and each one is With with that heart of ministering or serving is is going on touching the lives of many people So that's our understanding and it's best to kind of stay clear of any form of merchandise now people justify merchandise with the Explanation that okay like if we sell some some of these kerchiefs or you know things Which can heal others then that money we can use for the ministry but You know Raising money for the ministry can be done in other ways as well because here it causes a confusion And you charge people for the miracles that they are receiving. So yeah, we really need to think about all these matters and Do things in an honorable way. So that's the whole point So now we've understood about Paul and the unusual miracles that took place through his life now it says Unusual miracles. So we don't know if there are more than this What what happened? But one is stated by Luke and we see the next incident here where there were some itinerant Jewish exhaust sys exhaust is some people who cast out demons and Seems like they were professional this is what they did for a living and What they did at that time is they noticed Paul Casting out demons in the name of Jesus. So they tried doing it the same way So, but how did they they exactly say the command? They said we exercise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. Okay, so It was not their belief or their faith They just sort of backed on the faith of Paul and they tried to cast out demons Very clearly in this passage. We notice it did not work because the demon said Jesus I know Paul I know but who are you now? After that we find that the demon possessed man he overpowered the seven sons of skiva and they were Beated they were naked and wounded now Why why couldn't they cast out the demons any any Opinion on that Seven sons of skiva. I think it's because of their unbelief Okay, it's because of their unbelief All right, that's one opinion any other if you look at 10 look at Luke 10 19 It's the same Luke who wrote he said that Jesus sent out the disciples to go do the work of the miracles and He said nothing by any means shall harm you How come these these men who are trying to cast out demons are getting beaten up They're not supposed to be harm, right? I Don't think so because The other thing was to believe as it was But these guys weren't weren't believers because we see it but that they were doing it like a out of cut and paste And number one they were not believers number two. I think themselves were doing it Literally, I think they were doing it to get something out of it And I think it all goes back to believing it They had to first of all confess that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior to be baptized and that and then acting that same Anointing of the Holy Spirit Not through cut at the couple. Okay. Sure. So thank you Lubega for sharing that thought because it helps us recognize that It's not just about the principles in the word of God some principles Can work For a long time Some are just you know principles that even unbelievers can apply like when we study about Workplace we can we can use principles like diligence hard work Integrity excellence it'll work for the believers as well as the unbelievers. Whereas when we come to things such as walking in the power of God It will not work for the unbeliever Simply because they are not born again They do not belong to the kingdom of God and you know how Scriptures tell us that the believer is sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit And it is the believer who has the promise that out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water This cannot be the portion of an unbeliever. So in this case The professional Exorcists or the people who cast out demons just tried to apply the principle. What was the principle? In the name of Jesus, they noticed Paul. What is this man doing? Come out in the name of Jesus. So they just use the same thing. They said, okay Demons come out in the name of Jesus, but then they said the the Jesus who Paul preaches They didn't believe so because they were not believers. It did not work for them Okay, and another reality for us to recognize is in the Supana in the spiritual world in the demonic kingdom demons know Who is their own and who's not their own? So they knew very well that Jesus Paul they are all part of the kingdom of light But these guys who are just using the name of Jesus. They're not authorized to use the name of Jesus They are part of their own kingdom You know the the kingdom of darkness and so they were able to attack them easily So none of those those promises of God where we said earlier, right that Nothing by any means shall harm you it was not applicable at all because these men were not believers now when Unusual miracles took place people were being delivered and You know, we we find that it was the authority that Paul carried that actually set people free and when this incident of the sons of skiva Being unsuccessful in their attempt was noticed by the people around The Bible says that in Ephesus there were Greeks Jews and Greeks who were dwelling now they all started putting their sort of fearing this God and You know, they started glorifying the the Lord Jesus Christ for the power That his name carried and then people also started believing They started confessing and you remember I had mentioned that Ephesus had the worship of a certain goddess Would you recall who's that? Dinah, yeah, the goddess Diana so here we Also observed that there was along with the the worship of the goddess Diana people were given into sorcery and The occult so that was a part of their Their, you know their culture Now look at how God ministers in each city depending on What will impact the people so Ephesus is a is a you may call it like a spiritual a very spiritual city Spiritual in the opposite sense because if there is sorcery black magic and Yeah, people immersing themselves in the occult obviously they they have Experienced the supernatural and which is why now that Apostle Paul when he goes to a place like this You know witchcraft and everything what is demonstrated through Paul's life the supernatural also but from the right source So then people are now getting awakened. They are recognizing. Hey There seemed to be a greater power Very similar to Samaria where even Simon the sorcerer was amazed at the power Which was being demonstrated through Peter and John so people started believing in God people started understanding that The powers that they had put their faith in that they are not the real God and So the awakening came about In this particular City, so let's see what exactly happens. So people are now confessing Christ. They're giving their lives to Jesus and in Verse 19 of Ephesians 9, sorry acts 19 We see that many of those who had practiced magic Brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all and they counted up the value of them and a total 50,000 pieces of silver So one thing we can understand is, you know a piece of silver was pretty expensive In the Bible times so we can we can understand that a lot of money a lot of money was what was kind of Used up in the worship of all these gods, but All that equipment or material they were fine to burn it up Okay, they were fine to destroy it So it shows the repentance that people had you know when you go back to the lives of people like Zacchaeus you do you remember he was ready To pay back four times of the money that he had taken from the people. So true repentance Is seen because they were willing to let go of what was valuable to them So it really shows us the kind of change that came about in the hearts of people So what the point that I'm trying to make is in every city where The you know the teams went in this case We know Paul is the one that we are observing now Barnabas also was traveling We don't know what cities he had touched, but there was an impact, right? If it was Athens is so intellectual the impact was different they were able to preach the gospel and draw the attention of the people from worshipping creation to creator if you go back to Corinth, you know a sin city where Immorality ruled and read Paul he he he ensured that he kind of gave his best there and he Endured in the midst of all this immorality 18 months. Remember he fasted he made a vow Because he lived a moral life in the midst of that sin city and preach the gospel He raised up a team together with him So there was a real impact in that place was there a good church that was thriving obviously because they had to send Apollos to continue ministering to that church. So there's a nice church now in Corinth Now coming to Ephesus, there is a powerful ministry that is taking place even in this particular city and You know a clear impact has taken place now riots break out in Ephesus Why because Again, they're observing that these men who are preaching Christ are disturbing the course of our lives So we've got to get rid of these men. So riots begin to Like you know happen and this will force Paul and his team out of the city. So let's go ahead and look at You know this particular riot that takes place in Ephesus now Was there anything else that actually happened in Ephesus? Apart from the miracles of Paul do you recall anything more significant that took place here? Did we discuss it earlier? Sorry Yeah, baptism, okay, and Even What do you call baptism in the Holy Spirit? That's also fine that happened anything else that you can recall something special Unique to Ephesus Okay, I'm just trying to understand, you know, how much attention all of us are paying We discussed it in the last class Something very very special I have to give so many clues to get the answer out of everyone. Okay. Let's see who's gonna get this Nobody. All right. So how do you recall we had mentioned? the school of tyrannous for two years Paul ministered there and it is Important because in Ephesus the training of many You know, you you might say men women of God happened for two years Paul taught from Ephesus and people were able to come to Ephesus and equip themselves Okay, so that is another special special if you want to call it Ministry of Paul that we must that we could remember So similar to Corinth where they taught the word of God 18 months and Equip the people for a strong church We recognize that in Ephesus there was a strong church And there were people coming in to learn and go back and impact their own Cities their own regions. So Let's let's not forget that so acts 19 puts together the teaching and the Supernatural demonstration ministry of Paul all this took place in Ephesus and then of course the riots break out So let's go ahead and look at the riots here. So obviously, you know, people are threatened by the ministry of Paul Because so much is going on and they feel this guy, you know, he will take over these people will take over What will happen to our businesses? What will happen to our? City and the governance so from verse 21 To all the way till verse 41 would somebody like to go ahead and read this please Okay Cry Okay, go ahead, please verse 21 Yes Okay, when these things were accomplished Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achyria to go to Jerusalem saying after I have been there. I must also see Rome So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him Timothy and Arastas, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time and about And about that time there Roar rose a great commotion about the way for a certain man named Demetrius a Silver a silver Smith who made silver shrines of Diana Brought no small profit to the craftsman He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said men You know that we have our prosperity By this trade more over you see and hear that Know that not only at Ephesus, but all throughout But throughout almost all Asia this poor has persuaded and turned away many people saying that there are not gods Which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of fading into this Repute but also the temple of the great goddess Diana May be despised and the her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worshipped Now when they had this they were full of wrath and cried out saying great is Diana of Ephesians So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord having seized Degasius and Aristasias Aristasias Macedonians and Paul's travel companions and when poor wanted to go into the people the disciples Would not allow him Then some of the officials of Asia who were his friends sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater Some there are for cried out cried one thing and then some another for they The assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together And they dream and they drew Alexandria out of the multitude the Jews putting him forward and Alexandria Motioned with his hand and wanted to make his defense to the people But they found out that he was a Jew all with one voice cried out for about two hours greatest Diana of Ephesians and when the city clerk had quieted the crowd he said men of Ephesus What is there? What man is there who does not know that the city That the city of Ephesians is a temple guardian of the great goddess Deanna and of the image which flew down from the Zeus Therefore since these things can't be denied You ought to be quiet and do nothing rushly for You have brought this this man here who are neither robbers of temples no bless farmers of your goddess therefore if Demetrius and his fellows craftsmen have a Case against anyone the courts are open and And there are Precursors let them bring charges against one another, but if You have other inquiry to make let it shall be determined in a lawful assembly For we are in danger of being called in question for today's upro There being no reason which we may give to account For this disorder gathering and when he had say these things it dismissed the assembly amen Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much Lopeca so as we have observed here, there is an uproar against Paul similar to how it was even earlier Remember and Corinth he was so The opposition was so strong that Paul was beginning to get discouraged and God spoke to him and said, you know You're not alone. There are others here and I am with you so God strengthened him in his spirit Which is why he was able to continue the work now we notice that Paul stayed on in this place called This it is called Asia here But we know that it's the Asia Minor region and in the book of Revelation you find those seven churches Which are all in the in this particular region. So those seven churches, so he stayed here and he ministered to You know to the people who God had given him and obviously these people were the ones who went and kind of touched all those churches powerfully and we noticed that Even here like in all other cases Earlier we saw in Corinth they when the acquisition comes against Paul the authorities say that If you know, this is a matter of your own words and your your religion your faith I don't bring it to the courts because it's not a legal matter So you resolve it among yourselves and somehow the case got dismissed and again over here when Demetrius this man is very upset because he feels now that people are putting their faith in Jesus nobody will will You know the the goddess Diana and the shrines of goddess Diana will lose their importance and his business will be affected so it was a very selfish reason that Demetrius had and he tried to create some Opposition and trouble for Paul, but thankfully even in this case, it's really beautiful to see that people like Paul Ministered in such integrity that Such a great opposition is coming against them that but people are not able to convict them off of something Accusation is there but not convicted. So again regarding Paul the authorities say Verse 37 for you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess So notice how they did the ministry that people could not catch them only No evil work nor an evil word like even though it was goddess Diana Right Paul could have preached against goddess Diana But we noticed that that's not what he did because they could not say that he was a blasphemer of the goddess so they were very wise in the way they ministered and Literally nothing could tie them down and they were you know very Honoured even by the opposers So that's a great example for us to consider as we do ministry right now that we must not let anything Not allow anything to be there through which people can You know accuse us and say you've done something wrong So that's a challenge really for us and finally we observe that Because Demetrius was trying to gather the crowds and create an uproar the authorities They did not like it. So in in these times what would happen is if in any region There is a crowd or an unruly mob the Roman government will come and they'll take over You know, we call it in our kind of Democracy you know things like precedence rule and all we use those those terms where the unruly state is taken over that the Rule of that place is seized by the main main authorities So they got scared that when the mobs rise up and all this is going on the place may be seized So they stopped Demetrius and said come on whatever you're doing. It has no strong Point against Paul. So, you know, you you just let this go and don't gather an unruly Gathering or an assembly of disorder and they kind of dismiss the assembly. So in this way Paul actually escapes even from Ephesus. So what we'll do is we'll go ahead. We'll take a break and then we'll come back. We will continue with Max 20. Okay. So quite a bit for you to digest there So I just felt maybe I give you some time if you have questions, of course, we'll come back We'll discuss and we'll continue. So we'll go ahead for a break now everyone and then we'll meet at 10 o'clock. Thank you