The third missionary journey study helped us all to understand the heart of Paul as he travels back to most places he had already visited in his earlier missionary journeys. The strategy adopted by Paul in establishing churches, appointing leaders, mentoring them; working with evangelists and fellow missionaries can be applied to a great use for today's church. If the church follows this pattern, the true gospel will be preached in all places. The picture above gives us an idea about the places Paul visited during his journey. The table also details the verses that talk about these places.
Prabu presented the background information for the study through the following presentation. This gave a basic idea to everyone about the places and culture of the cities that Paul travelled. Please go through the presentation to understand this study better.
After the presentation was made, three groups were formed and each group were given three questions each. Each group discussed their three questions for more than an hour and then presented their answers to everyone. The questions were practical application questions
We Thank Dhinakaran Richard Uncle for helping us with the following questions which were discussed in the study.
1)Is second baptism needed if one does not get the Holy Spirit?
2)What baptism should we take, Trinitarian or only Jesus?
3)Why do you think the LORD has great plan for Ephesians church that it should be well established?
4)What were the influences the Ephesians church made in Asia Minor?
5)How and who did plant churches in the cities mentioned in Revelation and Colossae, Hiropoliis etc?
6)Why do you think Paul had representatives from different churches when he carried the charity fund to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4)? (also refer 2 Corithians 8-9 and Romans 15 and Acts 20:33ff)
Our friend from Bombay- Lakshmipathy Balaji also read through the portion and sent a set of questions all the way from Bombay. Please try to meditate on these questions in your personal time
1. Being an enthusiastic, educated, eloquent and diligent speaker, fervent in spirit, Can we preach an incomplete gospel like Apollo did?
Answer: Romans 10:1-4
2. What do you think wrong about Apollo’s teaching? Did he miss anything? Was Apollo carrying outdated information?
Answer: Apollo knows about the John only, but nothing about the Resurrection of Christ and The Holy Spirit. So he could have been a disciple of John (Matt 14:12)
3. What would have happened if Apollo rejected Aquila and Priscilla?
4. Was Apollo baptized in water before Aquila and Priscilla met him?
5. Was the twelve men baptized (water) before Paul met them?
6. Is it enough to be baptized by water alone?
7. All who Baptized by water are baptized by Holy Spirit also? [No – Acts 8:14-17]
8. Is it must to keep the hands on the head for the anointing of spirit? If NO, why Paul laid his hands on their (12 men) heads.
9. Can anyone (gentiles) use the name of the Jesus and drive out demons? All who use “IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST ” are anointed?(Acts 19:13)
10. What does the word “KEPT CONFESSING” means? (Acts 19:18). Do we keep on confessing?
11. Are we still following the knowledge of the magical books (everything other than word of God) and follow them now also for our spiritual walk? Is it right to walk in the knowledge of the books we read instead of Spirit of God?
12. Can Satan Imitate whatever Jesus Christ did? – Yes (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
13. Does Satan know his enemies (Jesus and His disciples) and his enemy’s power? – Yes (Acts 19:15)
14. Do you think speaking in tongues is the evidence of the spirit? – No (1 Cor 12:30)
15. Paul asked the question to the twelve men, did you receive Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2)? What is necessary, whether the Testimony of Man or Testimony of Spirit? - (1 John 5:9-13).
16. Is Apollo’s message incorrect or inaccurate? – They are correct but they were outdated.
17. Are we involving ourselves like Apollo? Are we open like Apollo in learning things?
18. What is the purpose of God’s miracles? What is the purpose that Paul also needs to perform the miracles?
19. Then why did 7 men fail when they tried to drive out the demons?
20. Can we do magical stuffs for attracting the people? (Like driving out demons etc…)
Those who attended the study would have a fair grip of the various missionary journeys of Paul.
In our next study, we will see the different court cases that Paul had to face and we will see how he handled them all and finally we will also see the last journey of Paul.
Till then, Have a wonderful meditation time.
We will be back.
