Acts 18:24-19:10 (February 18, 2024)

Apollos in Ephesus: Mighty in the Scriptures

We can turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 18. We went through verse 23 last week. We're going to pick up in verse 24 and go through verse 10 of chapter 19 this morning. So Acts 18 verse 24 through 19 verse 10.

And in this passage we come to Ephesus where Paul ends up. He's going to set up shop there in Ephesus for a couple of years. From there he's going to preach and teach and send out missionaries. But before Paul gets to Ephesus, there's another man who comes there named Apollos.

We read about him in verses 24 through 28 of chapter 18. So let's read that together as we get started. And God's Word says this. Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born in 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 God to us this morning.

We see Apollos here. He was a Jew. He was born and raised in Alexandria, which was the second city of the empire, behind only Rome in its significance. It was a place of great learning, famous for its very large library.

The text tells us that Apollos was an eloquent man. He was likely trained in Aristotle's rhetoric. He could really work the crowd when he was speaking. And then verse 24 tells us something even more important than that.

Verse 24 tells us that he was mighty in the scriptures. He was mighty in the scriptures. John Broadus was a Baptist preacher and theologian back in the 1800s. He helped start the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary right over in downtown Greenville.

It later moved to Louisville after the Civil War. Kent Hughes is a pastor. He tells the story of Broadus teaching his class nine days before he died. And he stood before that class and he said this to them, Gentlemen, if this were the last time I should ever be permitted to address you, I would feel amply repaid for consuming the whole hour, endeavoring to impress upon you these two things, true piety and, like Apollos, to be men mighty in the scriptures.

And he then stood towering over that class with his piercing eyes and he repeated to them slowly, Mighty in the scriptures. Mighty in the scriptures. Mighty in the scriptures. And I would say to you today, I wish that we would be like Apollos and that we would be like John Broadus and we would be mighty in the scriptures.

What does it take to be mighty in the scriptures? Well, first of all, it takes us, we've got to read them. We have to take in God's word. We need to memorize them. We need to obey them, being not hearers only but doers of the word.

And so I would encourage you to take in a steady diet of God's word. Make that part of your daily routine. Read the Bible regularly. And don't just read about the Bible but just read the Bible straight up.

I know sometimes we end up, we'll read a devotional of some sort, there's one verse and then a whole page of somebody talking about it. I would say invert that and read a whole page of the Bible and just a little bit of somebody else talking about it.

Get the Bible straight up and take it in. Doing this day after day, year after year, decade after decade will make you mighty in the scriptures. Further, verse 25 tells us that Apollos had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

He had been well taught in the way of Jesus. The sense here, the idea here is one of being catechized. He was catechized in the faith. And I realize at some point catechism kind of went out of favor in our stream of Baptist life.

I don't think it happened with good reason though. Catechisms are strong teaching tools and effective teaching tools for both kids and adults. And so I would commend them to you. To be like Apollos, well instructed, catechized in the way of the Lord.

So if you're curious about where to start with that, let me know. I'd love to point you to some good resources, some of them free, both print and online. What else do we see about Apollos here in these verses?

We see that he was fervent in spirit. And the imagery here is of being hot and boiling over in spirit. That is, he's passionate, compelled, intense, spirited. And being fervent in spirit, what did he do?

He spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord. But if we keep reading, we see that there was a deficiency. He knew only the baptism of John. And so he knew about and taught accurately about Jesus, the text tells us.

And that makes sense because he had the baptism of John and John had preached about Jesus. John preached about repentance, turning from sin. And he preached about the coming Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

But with Apollos, there was some sort of deficiency in his teaching. We don't know precisely what it was. Maybe it was about baptism. Maybe it was about the Holy Spirit. We don't exactly know. But whenever he taught in the synagogue, it was evident to Aquila and Priscilla.

Because they noticed it whenever they heard him teach. And so one thing we can learn from this is that it is very possible to be very gifted. Very competent. Very learned. Very bold. Even very effective and still be wrong on some things.

And still have some things to learn. So what did Aquila and Priscilla do? Did they stand up in the synagogue and correct him in front of everybody?

No.

Did they lower the boom on him?

No.

Did they crush him?

No. They took him aside, likely into their home. And they explained the way of God more accurately. And so whatever Apollos' deficiency in doctrine was, they were able to come alongside him and correct him.

And I want to also point out Apollos' humility here. Here he was from the great city of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man. A competent man. A gifted man.

Mighty in the scriptures.

And he accepted an invitation into the tent maker's home. And he heeded their instruction. He didn't despise their instruction.

He accepted it.

This is how we grow in godliness and grace in the body of Christ. We have people strong and courageous enough to correct a brother. And humble enough to do it gently and in the right place and time and setting.

And we have people wise and humble enough to receive correction and instruction. So my question for you this morning is, is that you? Are you willing to correct someone else in the church that needs the way of God explained more accurately?

Are you mighty in the scriptures enough to notice their need for that? Do you care enough about doctrine? Do you care enough to set the record straight? And are you humble enough to do it gently and patiently?

I would ask you, is that you? Are you willing to be corrected? Is it possible that there are some things you don't understand fully? Or maybe you understand wrongly. Are you willing to hear someone out and open up the bible with them and be like good Bereans and see if these things are so?

Is that you?

Apollos was that type of man. And because of this, when he set out for Achaia, he did so with a letter of commendation from the Ephesian believers. And he did so with a better understanding of the ways of the Lord.

And because of this, he was a great help in both discipleship and evangelism. When he went over to Achaia, which is the larger region where Corinth is located. We see his help in discipleship in verse 27.

And when he desired to go across to Achaia, the brethren wrote to his already disciples to receive him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. He helped strengthen the believers by teaching them the way of the Lord.

He was mighty in the scriptures and he taught. He had received some help and correction from Aquila and Priscilla. And he incorporated that in and he taught and he strengthened the believers. You see, all of us need to be taught.

Because none of us, when we believe, received an automatic download from the Lord of everything that we would need to know for life and godliness. We all need to be taught. We learn progressively and we apply and we grow throughout our lives.

And God gives us teachers for that reason. Because we need to be taught. And in this way, Apollos helped those who had believed through grace, it says. And I think it's just worth pointing out and remembering that phrase there, believe through grace.

Because all of us who have believed, have believed through grace. Because without the grace of God, not one of us would believe. Of our own accord, we would not have turned to God. We are all recipients of the grace of God.

God was gracious to us and salvation is of grace. And this fact should soften our hearts toward God, who is merciful to us. It should soften our hearts toward other people, even and especially the vilest of sinners.

Because, as the old quote goes, there but for the grace of God, go I. We believe through grace. Apollos was a help in discipleship, verse 27. He was also a help in evangelism, see that in verse 28. For he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

I love everything about that verse. I just love everything about that verse. Let's go through a few words at a time. He vigorously refuted the Jews. He didn't do it half-heartedly. He didn't just give it a good enough effort.

No, he vigorously refuted them. He looked the enemies of the gospel in the whites of their eyes and he refuted them. He proved that they were wrong. He defeated them with gusto. He put his foot on the gas.

He gave no quarter to those who opposed the gospel, those who opposed Christ and opposed his messengers. He didn't just disagree with them. He didn't just agree to disagree with them. He didn't participate in an interfaith dialogue.

And he didn't just have a conversation with them. He refuted them. He demonstrated that they were wrong, that they were teaching falsely. And he did this publicly. Where everyone could see. Now often public refutations of opponents are done more so with an eye towards the onlookers and bystanders than the one you're actually refuting.

You may not persuade the false teacher, but you very well might persuade the onlooker who's watching your interaction with him. I've heard this from open air preachers who get into back and forth with hecklers and mockers when they're open air preaching and evangelizing.

And they engage with them, not because they're making any kind of headway with the heckler. But there's always people around watching. And to refute him helps the person who is watching be persuaded. Some social media arguments are like this as well.

You engage not for the sake of the one necessarily that you're talking with, but for the comment section readers. This is why it's done publicly for the benefit of all. Showing that Jesus is the Christ.

And that is what Apollos refuted them. That's how he refuted them. He went and he'd be mighty in the scriptures. He shows from the scriptures that central message we've been talking about the last few weeks.

The main thing, he kept it the main thing. And he showed them from the Bible that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King. I love this sketch of Apollos. It shows him to be eager, assertive, gifted, and zealous for the glory of God.

Young men are often like this. And young men in here, you ought to be like this. Do not be lacking in zeal. Be zealous for good works. And for the glory of the Lord. Now that also means, or often what happens with young men, they get out over their skis in zeal sometimes.

And they need to be taken aside like Apollos was. Taken aside gently and explain the way of God more accurately. But I would much rather say to a young man, a little boy, rather than have to kick him and say giddy up.

Apollos was a man zealous for the glory of the Lord. And I pray that the Lord would bring us a hundred zealous young men like Apollos. Mighty in the scriptures. And then lastly I would say about this sketch of Apollos,.

It shows us two dangers.

One danger is to have zeal without knowledge. That can be reckless and it can cause harm. If you have zeal to teach but don't have the knowledge or the sound doctrine to teach, it can cause a lot of difficulty.

That's one danger. Another danger is knowledge without zeal. That can be useless where you don't actually do anything good or productive. But when you combine, like what we see with Apollos, when you combine knowledge plus zeal, they are transformed.

We might say they're glorified into wisdom and power. And that's when the most fruitful and effective ministry happens. Like what we see with Apollos in Achaia. And while Apollos is in Achaia, Paul travels to Ephesus.

The Holy Spirit and the Fourth Pentecost in Acts 19

Let's read verses 1 through 10 of chapter 19. And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples. He said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

So they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all.

And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Now, if you read my weekly letter that I sent out by email on Wednesday, and if you don't get that and you would like to get that in a weekly email, let me know.

I'll be glad to put you on the list. But if you read that this past Wednesday, you know that this passage had me a little bit puzzled. And so what I want to do this morning is I want to offer two different interpretations of what we read here in verses 1 through 10 of chapter 19.

The first view I'm going to present is the majority view. If you pick up a random commentary on the book of Acts, this is likely to be the view that's found there.

It's the majority view.

The second one is the one I think I'm actually convinced of, but it's not entirely clear. And so I want to present both views to you this morning, and then we'll go from there. Here's the first majority view.

Paul finds some disciples in Ephesus, but the Holy Spirit has not yet fallen on them. And so Paul inquires of them, into what were you baptized? And they say, into the baptism of John. And then Paul said, beginning in verse 4, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him.

That is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

Now if you're reading from the New King James, like I am, or the ESV, or some other translations, you're going to notice that the translators put verse 4 in quotation marks. And they end the quotation at the end of verse 4.

And so this first majority view follows that. That Paul says what John said, that the people should believe on Christ, end quote. And then the Ephesians, hearing what Paul said about John, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That is, their baptism in John was deficient in some way, most likely because they had not truly believed until they had heard Paul's preaching of Christ. Therefore, when they heard this, they believed and they received baptism into Jesus Christ.

And then Paul laid hands on them, and the Spirit fell upon them. That's the first view, majority view. And one modern application of this is there are those who received some sort of baptism before they believed, and then later when they come to true and living faith, they receive biblical Christian baptism.

That's one application that could come out of this. There's a deficient baptism prior to belief, but after belief, there's believer's baptism. Now, as a Baptist, I think that's right. That's a good application of this.

However, I'm not entirely convinced that we could make that argument from this passage and use it as support and example. And that's because of this second interpretation that I want to present to you.

And so this is the view of John Gill. John Gill, he was a preacher at Metropolitan Tabernacle there in London about 100 years before Charles Spurgeon. And I was reading him this week, as I often do, and when I first read it, I thought, that doesn't make sense.

And then somewhere, a few hours later, or a day later or so, it kind of clicked with me. And so I want to present the view here. We should remember that the quotation marks that you read in your Bible, they're not there in the original Greek.

Those are editorial decisions that come from translators to help us read more smoothly. And so this view that I want to give to you now, it would say that if you're putting those quotation marks, the quotes ought to end at the end of verse 5 and not the end of verse 4.

That is, the they in verse 5 refers to the people in verse 4. And the people in verse 4 are those who are hearing John preach. And so one reason for seeing it this way is noticing how and when Luke names Paul.

He tells us what Paul said in verses 4 and 5. And then he tells us what Paul did in verse 6. He reintroduces Paul, naming his name again in verse 6, to indicate that he's back to talking about Ephesus.

He had been talking about John and John's original hearers, and what happened with them, what John said, and then what John did, what the believers did, they were baptized. And now he's talking about Paul and the Ephesians again, and so he names Paul again.

And so that he didn't do this in verse 5 indicates that he's still talking about John's hearers there in verse 5. So if I was to put it all together, and I know I'm kind of getting in the weeds a little bit.

We'll get out of that very soon. But if we put it all together, Paul said that John preached to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. And when those same people that John was preaching to heard this, they, that is John's hearers, were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

In other words, because John preached repentance from sin and faith in Jesus, the baptism of John was tantamount to baptism in Christ. Therefore, the Ephesian disciples had believed in Christ and had been truly baptized.

Their lack was not in baptism, their lack was in that the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon them. That happens in verse 6. And so I think this view helps us understand this passage in a few different ways.

One, it helps us answer a question that the first view would raise. And that is, if the Ephesians who had the baptism of John were baptized again, why was Apollos not? If the Ephesians who had the baptism of John were baptized again, why weren't the apostles baptized again?

Because scripture nowhere tells us that the apostles were ever baptized again. They presumably had the baptism of John as Jesus did, but it never says that they were baptized again. Why not? I would argue for the same reason that the Ephesians said.

Because John preached repentance from sin and faith in Jesus, his baptism was tantamount to baptism into Christ. So it helps us make sense of that question. Secondly, it helps us make sense of Luke's description of these Ephesians as disciples.

And Paul's recognition that they had believed. You see that in verses 1 and 2. It says that he found some disciples and finding some disciples he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

The first view seems to make it such that you kind of have to redefine those words. Such that they weren't actually believers until Paul preached to them in verse 4. And then lastly I'd say, it makes sense of the larger context.

You see, I don't think this passage is primarily about baptism. This passage is primarily about the Holy Spirit. And the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for worldwide mission. What's going on here is the fourth and final Pentecost of the book of Acts.

You have Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, right? The Holy Spirit falls in Jerusalem. And then you go to Acts 8. And the Holy Spirit falls on those in Samaria with the laying on of hands. It's the second Pentecost to the Samaritans.

And then you have Acts 10 where the Holy Spirit falls upon God fearing Gentiles. You have the story of Cornelius and his household and his family. And those Peter went and preached and the Holy Spirit fell on them.

And now you have the fourth and final one in Acts 19. As the Holy Spirit falls on the Jews of the dispersion. You see, the apostles were being witnesses to Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

And the Holy Spirit is falling in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Empowering the church for worldwide mission. This is what the book of Acts is showing us. It's the unfolding of the mission of God.

And the outpouring of the Spirit is for that mission. I think there's some clues in the text that also point us in this direction. First of all, we notice that Luke refers to the Ephesians as disciples.

And then in verse 7 we notice that there are about 12 of them. Now it's interesting, if there weren't exactly 12, why would Luke say about 12? I think it's because he wants us to call to mind the original 12 disciples and 12 apostles.

Because these 12 in Ephesus, they're in the same position as the original 12 in Acts 1. They had the baptism of John, but the Spirit had not yet fallen on them for mission. So I think that's what Luke is calling to mind there with these words.

We see that the question to them is about the Holy Spirit. Did you receive the Holy Spirit? And then what it says Paul does is that he lays hands on them. And when he does, they receive the Holy Spirit.

Which is followed by tongues and prophecy. Verse 6, this is just like earlier Pentecost accounts. And it's followed by miracles and mighty works of the Spirit. When you keep on reading what we'll see next week in verses 11 through 20.

This is just like other Pentecost accounts where mighty works of God follow. And then in verses 21 through 41 you have opposition. This also is like other Pentecost accounts. After the Spirit falls and they engage in mission, there's opposition.

And so I believe that what's going on in this passage is all about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is to empower the church for worldwide mission. And that's what comes next in verses 8 through 10.

Let's read those one more time. And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the way, before the multitude he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

And this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. After three months teaching in the synagogue, Paul set up shop in the school or the hall of Tyrannus.

And there he taught and equipped Christian men to go out and preach. And he did this for two years, as long as he stayed anywhere on any of his missionary journeys. And the result of this was that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Now he might be talking in a little bit of hyperbole here. He might be using a figure of speech. It's not that literally every single person that lived in the region of Asia heard the word. But it's a figure of speech that means something.

And that something is that preachers went out from Ephesus to all of the region, preaching and teaching that Jesus is the Christ. And everyone, everywhere throughout all of Asia had a chance to hear the gospel.

This is the worldwide mission of the Spirit-empowered church. I want to end with a quick story of a man empowered by the Holy Spirit and the work that God did through him. This man named John Barros.

He passed away this past week. He lived down in Florida, I believe in Orlando, for 20 years. He stood outside an abortion clinic in Orlando, Florida every day to preach the gospel and plead for the lives of pre-born babies.

And over the course of those 20 years of his ministry outside that clinic, 3 ,000 babies were saved from death. He told a story of getting ready to preach one day. He was out there in a car, pulled up behind him, and the guy was yelling a bunch of things he really couldn't understand.

That wasn't necessarily uncommon if you do that kind of ministry. I used to do it out here in Greenville regularly. You get stuff yelled at you a lot. And so he didn't really pay much attention to it.

But his friend said, John, you need to go over to that car. And he didn't really like getting interrupted once he got going. He said he didn't have time. And his friend was like, no, no, no, you need to go over to him.

And so he did.

There was a young Hispanic man. He was driving a medical transportation vehicle. He had a patient with him that he was taking to a doctor's appointment. But the driver, this young man, he's crying his eyes out.

And he's talking in Spanish. And John asks if he's okay. But he's just going on and on and on in Spanish. John doesn't speak Spanish, I don't believe. And so John's friend was there. And John's friend was translating for him.

And so John asks if he's okay. And this man, he's thanking John for his preaching. Because a year earlier, he and his wife were inside that very clinic when they heard John preaching and they left. At this point, the passenger, he's happy for this man, but he needs to get to a doctor's appointment.

So he gets out of the transport vehicle. He just walks to his appointment. And the man stands there, or stays there. He keeps talking with John. He gets his wife on FaceTime, on his phone. And there she is.

She's bawling her eyes out and talking in Spanish too. But she's also bouncing her baby up and down on her lap. That was saved because of John's preaching. They finished up the conversation. John invited him to church and invited him to lunch afterwards.

And he prayed for him. Then John went back over to where he would go to preach. But something hit John like he was missing something, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Couldn't quite figure it out.

He got back to his preaching spot and it came to him. And he called to his friend and said,.

Stop that car!

She was like, Why?

No, Jesus, stop the car!

So she called out and yelled for Alejandro to stop. And he did. And John went back over there and he said, Alejandro, I have to ask you a question. How in the world did you understand the preaching? Because I don't preach in Spanish.

And Alejandro answered, I heard every word you preached in my own language. Friends, that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray and ask the Spirit to work in and through us. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that we have the Holy Spirit within us.

We thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us. And we ask you now to bless the ministry and empower our ministry of the Holy Spirit through us. That we might speak the words of the Gospel. And we might point others to see that Jesus is the Christ.

That they might hear, even if miraculously so, they might hear and they might believe because we know that faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of God. Lord, I pray that the Spirit would overcome our fears of evangelism.

Lord, I pray that the Spirit would overcome our hesitancy. That the Spirit would overcome our distractions.

That you would make us bold.

You would make us courageous. You would make us effective. Lord, I pray that by your Spirit working in us and sanctifying us, that we would become mighty in the Scriptures, that we could reason with others, that we could refute those who are opposed.

Lord, may your Spirit work in us and may your Spirit work through us because we know that we are insufficient for any of these things on our own. And we thank you for the grace of your Spirit's work in us.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.