Road Trip – “Praying for a Miracle” 

All summer long we’ve been looking at the life and travels of the Apostle Paul in our “Road Trip” series. Wherever you stand on Christianity, there’s no arguing that the ministry of Paul changed history. How did that happen? It was largely due to Paul’s three missionary journeys, in which he preached and taught about Jesus – and performed a few miracles – in the crossroad cities of the Roman Empire. This week we find him at his best, in the city of Ephesus – and we can learn much from his teaching there.

1.  The Teacher (1 Corinthians 11:1-2)

• On his third missionary journey, Paul settled for quite a while in the city of Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia (now western Turkiye). There he actually established a “school” near the Jewish synagogue, where he taught all who would listen about the gospel and about the way of Jesus.
• As a teacher, Paul’s strategy was to emphasize his own authenticity as a follower of Jesus. In his first letter to the Corinthian church, written while he was in Ephesus, Paul emphasizes that his authority as a teacher exists only because of his own relationship with (and learning from) Jesus himself.
• Our own platform and “authority” as witnesses and teachers of the gospel must begin with our own, authentic relationship with Jesus. Only when we can say, as Paul did, “follow me as I follow Jesus” – i.e., when our lives portray the gospel – will we be most effective in telling others about him.

2. Praying for a Miracle (Acts 19:11-12; 1 John 5:14-15^NIV) some text
   • Acts 19 tells us of something unusual about Paul’s time in Ephesus: that God gave him “the power to perform unusual miracles.” Even cloths that touched Paul had the power to heal people.
   • What do we do with that – and with other New Testament miracles? Does it mean that God always works miracles when his people pray? Obviously not – not even in the New Testament itself. But it does mean that God – active on earth as the Holy Spirit – is capable of intervening supernaturally.
   • Sometimes our prayers result in miracles, and sometimes they don’t. But our faith is that God is at work in the world, and that our prayers can somehow influence that work. Our confidence, as John writes in 1 John 5, is that God hears and honors our prayers that are “according to his will.”
3. The Lesson You Can’t Miss: Charity (1 Corinthians 13:1-13^KJV) some text
   • While in Ephesus, Paul hears from a messenger who brings bad news about the church Paul started in Corinth: the Corinthian church had gone off the rails and strayed far from the teachings of Jesus, with disunity, greed, sexual immorality and practices that even shocked the pagans around them.
   • Paul responds with his first letter to the Corinthian church, and the first 12 chapters of that letter are filled with reprimand, admonishment and clear instructions for the church to correct itself. But in chapter 13, Paul’s tone changes as he tells them the one, most important lesson they need to hear.
   • Chapter 13 is “the love chapter” in which Paul describes “the most excellent way” for followers of Jesus to live. Interestingly, the King James Version translates the Greek word for love as “charity” – which may capture Paul’s point even better, since “charity” means something done for someone without any expectation that the giver will get anything in return. That’s the “love” of Jesus, after all – the love we’re called to live out as his followers.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE

These passages may provide additional insights related to the subject of this week’s message. All verses are NLT unless otherwise noted.

Jeremiah 32:26-27; Mark 12:29-31; Galatians 5:13-15; 2 Timothy 2:23-26; Titus 2:6-8; Hebrews 2:1-4

Video of the Week: Holy Spirit by the Bible Project

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

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1. As the “Road Trip” series nears its end (just a few weeks left…), what’s something you may have learned about Paul and his missionary journeys that you didn’t know before this summer? 

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2. Paul’s “mission” in all his travels was to teach others about Jesus in hopes that they too would decide to follow him.  Why was his own (faithful) relationship to Jesus so important to that mission? 

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3. How would you respond to someone who says, “There’s no such thing as miracles – the so-called miracles in the Bible are just fairy tales”?

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4. Read 1 John 5:14-15 again. Do you believe that our prayers can bring about miracles from God?  Why or why not?  

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5. How, in your view, does that work?  In other words, how can our prayers influence whether the God of the universe chooses to heal someone or not?

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6. Why do you think Jesus (and Paul) emphasized loving others as the most important characteristic of his followers (e.g., in Mark 12:29-31 and John 13:34-35)? 

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