Sunday, January 12, 2024 AM

Help in the Christian Life and the Ministry of the Spirit

Together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we praise your name today. We thank you that we may call upon you as Father because of the righteousness of your Son and the ministry of your Spirit. I thank you that you are in heaven and that you reign and govern and know all things, even knowing our needs before we ask.

Thank you for arranging this. Thank you for bringing us together to rejoice in your truth, to sing for the glory of your name and also for the good of each other, to encourage and exhort and teach and edify, to love one another.

Thank you for the help that you have ordained to be a blessing in each one of our lives. I pray that you would bless us this morning as we read your word and consider its truth, that we would rejoice in what you have to say and that what you have to say will change us.

We pray for these graces confidently in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts 18. We'll be reading verses 24 through 28.

Acts 18, verses 24 through 28. When we read through the book of Acts, we encounter such notables as Peter, Paul, and we're about to be introduced to Apollos. These are considered heroes of the faith, notable men in the early church, first century church.

But you know, none of them went it alone. None of them were on their own. No Christian example that we have has it all together in such a fashion that they don't need anybody else. Paul had Barnabas, Silas, Luke, many others.

Peter had John and many others. And Apollos had Priscilla and Aquila. They all had help. They all had help. Now, let's listen to the grace of help in Acts 18. If you have your Bibles and if you're able to, I invite you to stand with me.

Let's read together. Acts 18, beginning in verse 24. This is the word of the Lord. Now, a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.

So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.

And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. You may be.

Seated.

The Church as a Community of Mutual Help

It should interest us how often the Scriptures describe God as our help, and how that help so often comes by the means of fellow saints. How often do we run into the one another's in the New Testament, how we are to be for one another, love one another, truly invest in the lives of one another, what it means to be church members.

In fact, the Holy Spirit is called our helper. Is He not? He is our helper. I will send to you another helper. And He empowers us and equips us with the grace of helping. One of my family's favorite shows a few years back was The Lone Ranger.

And we watched it from the pilot all the way through several seasons. And, of course, the Lone Ranger was such a skilled character. He never seemed to miss what he shot at. He was an expert horseman, and he was a scout.

He could track anything, and he always did the right thing. And for being called the Lone Ranger, he sure had a lot of help. Much of the story in every episode was about how help came, and how he worked with others to accomplish all of this so that we would be reminded that he was the Lone Ranger.

And the help very often came in the form of his friend, Tonto, a courageous native scout. And I firmly believe that if Tonto had not absorbed all those hits to the back of the head each episode, the Lone Ranger would not have had his white Stetson very long.

He had his help. He had his kemosabe. He had this reliable, vigilant partner who was always there keeping watch and helping. And Jesus Christ has so designed our Christian lives to be those that offer help and that receive help.

In fact, the Christian life ebbs and flows with the grace of help. In our passage this morning, we are to think about the opportunity for help as we're introduced to Apollos. We are then to think about the offer of help that Aquila and Priscilla extended to Apollos and how he received that, and then to see the outcome of help.

What happened after help was offered and help was received and the grace that continued in the life of the church. I want us to appreciate the grace of Christian help so that we will not miss out and we will not think that we are to go it alone.

It is not safe or saintly to forgo help, to refuse help. It is not safe and it is not saintly to refrain from offering to.

Help.

Apollos: Impressive Yet in Need of Correction

Well, let's begin with the opportunity. We see this in verses 24 through the beginning of verse 26. And we meet Apollos in this passage, and I think two things are very clear right off the bat about Apollos.

He is impressive and he is ignorant. The two facts that really stand out about Apollos is that he is impressive and that he is ignorant. And just how impressive he is and how concerning his ignorance is should hold our attention for a moment here at the beginning.

Luke has an eightfold description of Apollos. He packs it all in. It's here for our careful consideration. And after we look through this description of Apollos and how impressive he is, if we didn't know any better, we would think that this is the kind of guy who doesn't need any help.

He's in that category who could help others, but he's certainly not in the category that would be in need of help. Consider how impressive he is. We read that there's a certain Jew named Apollos who was born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures.

He came to Ephesus, and this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord. And then also in verse 26, we see that he spoke boldly in the synagogue.

This is a very impressive person. This is an impressive believer, an impressive preacher. He is a Jew named Apollos who had come to Ephesus. I think like Paul, Apollos was a Jew with some pedigree and could have claimed his heritage with pride.

Apollos is mentioned several times in the New Testament, and we see him every time as an especially useful servant of Christ. But what we're going to learn here in this passage is Apollos was not an especially useful servant of Jesus Christ because he was so personally strong and skilled and had it all together.

We're going to learn that it was because of the grace of God that help was given to Apollos, and Apollos received that.

Help.

Notice he's from Alexandria. He was born at Alexandria. We have the idea he was raised there in Alexandria of Egypt, the second foremost city of the Roman Empire. It was the center of Judaism in Egypt.

It boasted a million Jews. The Jews who lived there spoke the Greek language, and all their best scholars had translated the Old Testament Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek, a translation that we call the Septuagint, named after the 70 scribes who translated it.

Their synagogue in Alexandria was so large, they had to use flags to signal people in the back to give the proper amens. To be a Jew from Alexandria meant that you were thoroughly educated, that you were familiar with the Jewish literature, you were familiar with the Greek literature, and so he's eloquent.

He was an eloquent man. He was a logios man in the Greek, meaning he was a wordful man. He was a man full of words. He had a real handle on the languages. He could talk to you in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek and Latin, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures.

Isn't that an interesting expression, mighty in the Scriptures? They said of John Bunyan that if you pricked him, he would bleed Biblion. He would just bleed the Bible if you just poke him. Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures.

That word mighty is talking about ability and power and influence, and even sometimes the word is used to describe wealth. Mighty could refer to all those things in various contexts, but what it means is that Apollos had a real ability in the Scriptures.

He was mighty in the Scriptures. He was empowered by the Scriptures. He was deeply influenced by the Scriptures. He was not poor in the Scriptures. He had rejoiced in the way of God's testimonies as much as in all riches.

They were his delight and his counselors. Apollos loved the Scriptures more than gold, yea, more than fine gold. He was mighty in the Scriptures, and he was instructed in the way. We read that this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

We're not told who it was in Alexandria who had instructed him. We're not told who it was who had tutored him, who had taken him aside and helped him to understand the way of the Lord. As we read through the book of Acts, the way referring to the Christian faith, those who were the followers of the way.

He knew the basic truths about the Gospel. The Gospel had been spreading from Jerusalem by the witness of the saints, and it had made it all the way to Egypt, all the way to Alexandria, and Apollos had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

Here we have a saint believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We're about to read in chapter 19 of a group who knew less than Apollos and needed more instruction and were lacking salvation, but not Apollos.

Apollos knew. He was a believer. He was a brother in Christ, and the instruction that he had from Alexandria stuck with him, and he brought it with him to Ephesus where he was fervent in spirit. The idea is that he was boiling over in his spirit.

If you even got near him, he'd be saying something about the Lord. He was very passionate. Here we have in Apollos an articulate, biblically saturated, theologically educated man, and his spirit was on fire for Jesus Christ to declare the way of the Lord, and he did really well in this as we see that he was accurate in speech.

It's one thing to be zealous in spirit and overflowing with passion and zeal, but to marry that with also being accurate, that's a rare gift. Apollos was such a blessed man. All that he had learned about the Lord, he taught accurately and he spoke accurately.

Loving the Lord, he taught all about the Lord, and he was bold, bold in preaching. He did not refrain from saying what needed to be said. He did not shy away from people who would oppose him. He did not fear man, but feared the Lord, and he spoke boldly in the synagogue, the synagogue that recently had urged Paul to stay and preach more about the Messiah to them.

He said, no, I have to leave. Well, now a replacement has arrived, a bold replacement where Paul planted, now Apollos watered, and what thirsty, productive ground Ephesus would turn out to be. Now, it doesn't sound like Apollos needs any help.

It sounds like, especially when the Corinthians speak about Paul, that he was perhaps bold in his letters, but timid when he showed up. Perhaps someone might say of Apollos, oh, we have an improvement here on Paul.

We have an upgrade here. Here's a man who was truly eloquent and bold in speech. It does not seem like Apollos needs any help, and in the age in which we live, which is not so different from the age in which Apollos and Paul lived, in this age of the expert where a premium is placed upon experience, to suggest that Apollos needed any help at all would, in and of itself, be a grave insult.

Have you ever noticed, have you ever felt it, that when help is offered, insult follows? That someone offered help, they get angry, they're insulted. Often we refrain from offering help for fear that someone will respond in that way.

Often we refrain from asking for help for fear the answer will come. The answer will be no. How often I have been across the table from somebody to whom I and the other elders, or me and a brother in Christ, are offering help, and the response is anger.

And yet, Apollos does need help. He's impressive, there's no doubt about it. He's impressive, but he's also ignorant. Did you see that in verse 25? In verse 25, at the very end of the verse, there's an exception clause, there's a qualifier, though, though, impressive though he is, though he only knew the baptism of John.

He only knew the baptism of John. How in the world this could possibly happen, I don't know. How is it that Apollos could be so full of zeal for Jesus Christ and preaching the Word in the synagogue at Ephesus, having heard the gospel, made it all the way down to Alexandria, but all he knew was the baptism of John?

Somehow, some way, he has come this far in his belief in Jesus Christ, and he has not yet heard about the Great Commission baptism. What Jesus instructed His disciples there at the end of Matthew 28, all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Somehow, that escaped Apollos' discipleship? How is that possible? Had he not heard what happened on the day of Pentecost with the preaching of the gospel? Did he not hear that when the people believed that they were baptized, that once they were saved, that then they were baptized, and that's how they were brought into official membership of the local church there in Jerusalem?

How did he miss that? I don't know. I don't know. He was ignorant in this. He was missing something. It began to stand out as Aquila and Priscilla began to listen to his teaching. They're glad to have this bold man full of fervent zeal for the Lord, teaching accurately as far as it went, but there was something lacking, something missing, and why is he going on about the baptism unto repentance and anticipation of the Messiah?

Isn't that John's baptism? Why is he going on and on about this baptism of John in the Jordan? Does he not know? I don't think he knows. He needed help. As credentialed as he was, as coherent as he was, he still needed help.

And upon biblical reflection, there does not seem to be a category in Christianity of Lone Ranger in the strictest sense of the word. There doesn't seem to be a category in Christianity of super saint that doesn't need help.

William Moffat once wrote, there are no pious particles. The description of Christ's body in Ephesians chapter 4 describes each part growing together, knitted, genuinely connected, useful. Not only are we bound, but we are also beneficial to one another by the grace of God.

The very idea that I need help and I am to offer help, that's a baseline expectation of the Christian life. And that doesn't apply only to the category of doctrinal clarity it did with Apollos. It also applies to all other areas of our lives.

And here's something that we ought to consider, something that was true in Apollos' case. Many times the help we need, we don't know that we need. And we ought to expect that, unless, of course, we believe ourselves to be infallible and all-knowing.

Apollos needed help. He didn't even know he needed it. But he did need it. I need it. I think about why Jesus moved us away from titles in Matthew 23. Don't let anyone call you Father. You have one Father who's in heaven.

Don't let anyone call you Rabbi. Don't let anyone call you teacher, leader. You already have that in the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. He said, just be called brother. He moved us off of titles, didn't He?

So that we would be referring to each other primarily as what? Brother and sister. He moved us away from titles. Why did Jesus get Martha out of the kitchen? Why did He commend to her the way of Mary?

Because we need help. No hiding behind titles. No hiding in the baffles. Dearly beloved, I need help. I need instruction. I need encouragement. I need exhortation. I need rebuke. I'm your brother. I'm here to help, and I'm here to be helped.

That is the way of the Christian, the way of following Jesus. Christ is our head. He is our shepherd. And guess what? He's given us help. He has given us the helper, the Holy Spirit. We need to appreciate our need for help, and we also need to recognize when help is needed.

When we recognize that we need help, and sometimes that, of course, comes by somebody who is our brother or sister in Christ saying, I think you need help. When that happens, what is the challenge? The challenge is one of humility.

But also, isn't that matched by the challenge of caring? What did Cain say about his brother? Am I my brother's keeper? The answer to the Christian is, yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am my sister's keeper.

I do care. And the challenge of humility, where we need to be able to receive help, is matched by that challenge of caring. I care enough to offer help. I'm going to put myself into position, into the lives of my fellow believers, so I can help.

Both of those are challenging, but we have the helper, the Holy Spirit. We have the grace of Christ. And we can help each other with prayer. We can help each other in encouragement. We can help each other in direction.

We can help each other in compassion. We can help each other by spending time together. They're all a matter of helps. Now, recognizing the opportunity for help should be followed by a genuine offer for help, and we see this with Aquila and Priscilla engaging Apollos.

Now, verse 26, in verse 26, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.

I think of the providence of God in the lives of Aquila and Priscilla. They had met Paul in Corinth. When Paul showed up in Corinth, he had no place to be, but as he's going through the marketplace, there's Aquila and Priscilla, tent makers.

And, oh, hey, he's a tent maker, and they're Jewish background. He's Jewish background. They're saints lately exiled from Rome because the Emperor Claudius got really fed up with the Jews. And Paul says, hey, and they all hang out.

Aquila and Priscilla bring Paul into their tent, into their home, and he stays with them as he ministers there in Corinth. And having hosted Paul during his 18-month ministry in Corinth, then they followed Paul to Ephesus.

And when Paul had to move on in his journeys, they stayed there in Ephesus where the church was just getting started. And I think of the providence of God about all the time that they had with Paul, being instructed by him and encouraged by him and helped by him, as they also were helping him.

And this all led to them being able to help Apollos as well. How often does that train, that story occur when we share about our testimonies? They were intentional in their hospitality. They organized brotherly support for Apollos from the church.

Now, this phrase, took him aside, this expresses their intentional hospitality, to take him aside, that may strike us as Apollos being in trouble. This is the equivalent of when the boss says, may I see you in my office?

And everybody else says, oh, you know what that means. But the use of this term, to take him aside, doesn't have that modern office context or some sense of being in a school. To take him aside and to spend time with him, this is the idea of companionship.

Hey, I want to spend time with you. The term has a genuine idea of being receptive and being kind, a granting of access both to one's home and to one's heart. Hospitality is basically assumed here. They saw the Lone Ranger and they decided to be his Kimosabes.

Why don't you come sit at our table? Why don't you come spend some time with us? I think it's remarkable that this couple, these tent makers, would invite the erudite Apollos to their humble abode and their basic conversations, but you know what?

He needed help. He may have been an eloquent man, but he didn't know about the baptism that Jesus designed. He may have been so well-instructed that he had forgotten a lot more than they had yet learned, but he didn't know about the baptism of Jesus Christ.

He was only acquainted with the baptism of John. He needed help. And they heard that, they saw that, and they offered help. Remember, he had traveled from, probably, Alexandria. He had come to Ephesus.

He had no place to stay, no food to eat. He has no friends to encourage him, no teachers to instruct him, no brother or sister in Christ to pray with him. He's just there preaching Jesus in the synagogue and Aquila and Priscilla say, let's help.

Let's help. Let's feed him and love him and lay out the way of God more accurately. And those aspects about baptism that he had missed, somehow, they make it very clear to him. And how are they able to do that?

Because they had helped Paul, and Paul had helped them. I think Apollos received the instruction and he received it well. We see that because, in verse 27, when he desired to cross to Achaia, what did the church do?

The brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him. If Apollos had shown up to Ephesus, not acquainted with the baptism that Christ designed, only knowing the baptism of John, and then Priscilla and Aquila have him at home and then they're talking about the way of God more accurately and so on, and if he had been insulted, and if he had said, what are you talking about?

I'm far more educated than you are. You're a bunch of tent makers. I'm from Alexandria. I know four languages. I know all these things very accurately. I don't see you up there in the synagogue preaching boldly.

I have experienced far more than you have ever experienced. How often is that the response to the offer of help? Let it not be in our lives, dearly beloved. Let that not be our response when someone offers us help.

He receives it well, and the church want the church in Corinth to receive him well. He wants to go and preach the gospel there. Let's support him, and let's make sure the church over there knows. Receive this brother.

And so, Apollos received much-needed help from his chemostabes, Aquila and Priscilla, and with the whole church's recommendation, it was hi-ho, silver away to Corinth. Look at all the help that Jesus arranged.

Remember, he promised to build his church, and that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. These are the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Look at how He is building His church. Look at all the help that He is providing.

Is there a willingness to be corrected and instructed? And, of course, humility is not just the prerequisite to unity. It is also the prerequisite to being helped. How often pride first isolates from help?

Pride isolates from help, neither receiving nor asking. But it doesn't stay that way. It later morphs into bitter complaints. And even, will we rejoice with others and gladly aid and support those who have a lot of help to offer?

Think of Christ. Did Jesus Christ, the Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the living God, did He ever receive help? He received the ministrations of angels in the wilderness. You can go back farther and think of the loving care He received from His mother and father.

But in His earthly ministry, we see Him receiving the ministrations of angels in the wilderness. We see Him receiving the bread and fish of a child. He receives the feast of tax collectors and sinners sitting at their table.

He received the incense and tears of a broken woman. He received the linens and the tomb of rich men. He desired the company of the twelve, the guard of three, and the beloved companionship of one. He even wanted the prayerful presence of His drowsy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.

As you think about what was offered to Him and the help that was given to Jesus, truly it looks pitiful and it looks small in light of the full glory of Jesus Christ. But do you see that He received the help, and He received the help, and He received the help?

What about us? And what did He say about helping? Look over in Matthew chapter 25 about something that really matters to Jesus when everything is said and done. In Matthew chapter 25, in verse 31, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides His sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me food. I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink.

I was a stranger, and you took Me in. I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you visited Me. I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, My brethren, you did it to Me.

You see the focus that Jesus gives? The least of these, My brethren. Not just anybody anywhere, but the brethren, those who belong to Christ, that are in arm's length of us, who could use that food, who are in traveling distance of us, who need that visit, who are right around us.

These brethren who are in need, Jesus says, How did you take care of them? How did you love them? How did you help them? That matters a great deal to Jesus when everything is said and done. Let us make the offer of help in humble hope and receive the offer in humble hope, and I think we should see that God's arrangement for the need of help and the gift of help results in more grace.

The Outcome of Grace-Filled Help

And we see the outcome of help there in verses 27 and 28. Notice what happens when Apollos arrived. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

Now, we may not have thought of Apollos as somebody who needed help, but he did need help, and having been blessed by the Christian grace of help, he then went out and he helped others. He helped others.

Notice this confirmation by grace in verse 27. Apollos' life was not one of merit, it was one of grace. He needed help, he received it, and he greatly helps others. Who is he helping? Those who have believed by grace.

Those who have been helped. Those who have been saved by God's grace. Perhaps some of them were impressive like Apollos, but not one of them could cite their certifications, their credentials, their accomplishments as the reason why they had believed.

They all had believed by the free grace of God. Apollos had believed by the free grace of God. And so he went and he helped them. We're not allowed to read through the history of the early church and get the idea that this whole endeavor that has lasted 2000 years succeeded by the mortal strength or by the will of the flesh or by the will of man.

We are where we are today with Christ as king over us and the gospel as far as it has gone and the word of God and all these different languages and dialects and so many saints in heaven and more saints on the way because of the grace of God.

Because of the grace of God, not because we are filled with those who are able. Clarification of the gospel is exactly what so helped those who have believed through grace. Notice verse 28. He vigorously for, here's the explanation of why he was so helpful, for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly showing from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

So there was this comprehensive refutation of the Jews who wanted to maintain the old covenant at all costs. He refuted them again and again and this refutation was ongoing. It was unabated. They had no way to stop him from continuing on.

So Apollos, having been helped, showed up in Corinth as a very great help. The leader of this synagogue in Corinth, by the way, is a man by the name of Sosthenes who was beaten by the Gentiles before the throne of Galileo after Paul's trial there in Corinth.

We read about that earlier in Acts. This Sosthenes, did you know he became a Christian and that he spent some time ministering with Paul, the apostle? When Paul writes his letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 1 .1, the greeting comes from Paul and from Sosthenes, you know, the guy that they knew who used to be the head of that synagogue there.

Now why did Sosthenes become a Christian? Was it because Paul had helped Aquila and Priscilla who helped Apollos who then helped Sosthenes come to Christ and grow in grace? Or was it because of the sovereign grace of God?

Yes, that's how it works. Do we understand this grace of help and how God uses it for His glory? Let me ask you a different question. Are you the Sea of Galilee or are you the Dead Sea? Do you know the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is?

The Sea of Galilee isn't dead. There's fish there. There's fishermen there. There's birds there. There's life there. Dead Sea doesn't have that. You know what the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is?

There's no outlet to the Dead Sea. It just stops there. Done. And no matter how much water, vibrant, rushing water comes down the Jordan and pours into the Dead Sea every single day, the Dead Sea doesn't send its water out to any other place.

The Sea of Galilee has all kinds of water flowing into it from tributaries and from the mountains. And the water flows in and it goes out. The Sea of Galilee is vibrant and full. The other one is not.

We are in need of help. We are in need of help. I need help. You need help. As living in the life of Christ means that we are to be humble and recognize our need for help, but it also means that we are to offer help to others, to be a blessing to others, to encourage others, to pray for them, to serve them, to minister to them.

That's part of the Christian life, and it's a lively life. So before you identify somebody as a lone ranger Christian who doesn't need your help, and before you think of yourself as a lone ranger Christian that doesn't need any kind of help, remember the grace of help.

Let's pray.