WWUTT 1113 A Man Named Apollos?

Apollos was an eloquent man who was learned in the scriptures, but he did not yet know the gospel of Jesus Christ, until someone explained it to him, and then by faith in the gospel, he was saved when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. So why wasn't there a devotional for January 1st?

Because I forgot. I did not know I hadn't recorded the podcast for January 1st.

So I'm a little behind and I'm getting caught up, but better late than never. This is

Acts chapter 18, starting in verse 18. After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him

Priscilla and Achilla. At Sincreia he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the

Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them, he said,

I will return to you if God wills, and he set sail from Ephesus.

When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.

After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.

He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the

Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Achilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.

When he arrived, he greatly helped those who, through grace, had believed.

For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the

Christ was Jesus. Now I'm going to breeze through this early part a little quickly, verses 18 -23, and we're going to focus mostly today on this section where we're introduced to Apollos in verse 24.

But first of all, in verse 18, it says, after this, Paul stayed many days longer.

After what? Well, the events that we had just read about in Corinth. So far in Acts chapter 18, we've only been reading about Paul in Corinth.

Of course, he was there for a year and a half. When we read after this, Paul stayed many days longer.

This was after the events that happened at the tribunal, where Paul was brought before Galio, but Galio refused to try this particular case.

This is a Jewish matter, doesn't concern me. You guys deal with it, and you take care of it. And Sosthenes was taken and beaten because he was the ruler of the synagogue.

Sosthenes, though he was persecuted, he endured. And we read about him once again in 1 Corinthians 1 -1 as being a co -writer with Paul.

He was Paul's scribe, as Paul dictated to him what he wanted Sosthenes to write.

So still remained a faithful brother, even though he was persecuted for his faith. Where we read that Paul stayed many days longer, this was probably in addition to the year and a half that Paul was there in Corinth.

So whereas in most cases, when Paul was in a particular area and persecution arose against him, that was usually his sign that, hey, it's time for me to go.

It's time for me to move on to another place. But in this case, remember that God said, I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you.

So this persecution happened, but it didn't happen to Paul. He didn't believe this was him being driven out since God said for him to remain there.

So he stayed many days longer, even beyond the year and a half that he was there. Then he took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria.

Where he's headed is Caesarea. He's going to go back to that western bank.

Well, it's the it's the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea, but the western side of what would be

Israel. And then he's going to go up north through Caesarea or I'm sorry, through Syria to Antioch and then back up into that area of Asia Minor.

That would be Galatia and Phrygia. So that's where he's headed. He's kind of like he's making a loop here and going from Caesarea to Ephesus across the

Aegean Sea. He takes Priscilla and Aquila with him. At Sincreia, he had his hair cut for he was under a vow.

This is probably a reference to the Nazarite vow. We don't know for sure, but that's our best guess.

Since Paul was a devout Jew, we read about the Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter six.

And the most famous Nazarite in the Bible, of course, was Samson, who had all that long hair.

So Paul had his hair cut under a vow. Then they came to Ephesus and he left Priscilla and Aquila.

But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. This was just something for Paul to do while he was there.

Kind of a layover in Ephesus. I'm going to gather my things. I'm waiting for a ship that's going to take me over to Caesarea or yeah, to Caesarea.

I'm getting Caesarea and Sincreia mixed up. I hope I haven't said that in my explanation.

But anyway, so he goes into the synagogue. He reasons with the Jews. They ask him to stay longer.

But Paul declined because the spirit was not leading him to stay there in Ephesus, at least not yet.

He had some other work that he wanted to do, going back through and strengthening the churches that he had planted when he had gone from Caesarea up through Antioch and into Asia Minor.

On taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail from Ephesus and we know that it was

God's will for him to go back because we read about that in Acts chapter 19, Paul's return to Ephesus.

We'll get to that next week. And he landed at Caesarea and went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

OK, so now we get to verse 24 and this is where we are introduced to a new person in the story, but someone you're probably familiar with, a man by the name of Apollos.

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. Where is Alexandria?

Well, this is the Jewish community that lived in Egypt, in North Africa.

This was still part of the Roman Empire. But notice that he's a Jew with a

Greek name, Apollo, the son of Zeus. It was probably the sort of a thing where one of his parents was

Jewish and the other one was Greek, kind of like with Timothy. His mother was Jewish. His father was Greek.

But Paul had Timothy circumcised so that he could go into the synagogue and wouldn't be questioned about that.

He wouldn't be rejected from the synagogue in the work that he was doing with Paul. Apollos was a

Jew, though he had a Greek name, he would have been circumcised. And so being a native of Alexandria, he's from a very important city of learnedness in the world.

A lot of knowledge and philosophy coming out of Alexandria. They had one of the largest libraries in the world.

And Apollos is not only a learned man, he was also eloquent, meaning that he had a great booming voice and people love to listen to him just because his voice was awesome.

In case you haven't noticed, I've got a radio voice. I got it from my dad.

We sound the same. Dad raised me in radio. I was born in South Carolina, had a southern accent.

My dad even taught me how to lose my accent so that I would sound more articulate on the air.

Some folks have said to me that they can hear the South Carolinian come back into me every once in a while.

There are certain certain words I'll fall into that sound southern. But anyway, dad taught me to lose my southern accent so that I would sound more eloquent on the radio.

And I know that because of my radio voice, people are going to take notice when I begin speaking.

So when I was first hired at my church, I said to them, be careful in your hiring of me.

Test me and make sure that you recognize that I'm competent in the scriptures. You need to test me on that and make sure that I can do this job according to the requirements of a pastor, being able to rightly divide and teach the word.

Don't hire me just because I've got a great radio voice. And so the church understood that.

And so that put me to greater testing before I was hired to that position. It would be real easy to just pick up on me because I've got a great voice.

And that's the way it's been my entire life. If I'll stand in line at Walmart, nobody will recognize me until I start talking.

And then somebody turns around and goes, hey, I know that voice. So I've been recognized by my voice my whole life since I grew up in radio.

It is a gift and an opportunity that the Lord has given to me. And I want to use it for his glory.

Apollos was the same way. He was not just a learned man, but he was very eloquent in his speech.

The Greeks loved this. You could be stupid in your knowledge, but as long as you had a great voice, someone was going to listen to you.

And this was the case with the Corinthians, especially because there was when you read about it in First Corinthians chapter one, there was a little bit of some competition between certain

Corinthians saying, well, I follow Apollos and I follow Paul or I follow Jesus.

I follow the Christ. You know, I bypass all these other teachers and I go straight to the source. And all of this was just kind of competitive when all of these guys were working for the same purpose, and that was to glorify

Christ. So no one's baptized into Apollos. No one's baptized into Paul.

I don't think there's a problem with having your favorite preacher, but it's not a competition. And understand that we're all worshiping

Christ and your favorite teacher is supposed to be pointing you to Christ, using his gifts and the opportunities that have been given to him to glorify

God. So Apollos is out for that very thing, even though there's going to be a lot of Greeks that listen to him. The Corinthians in particular were they were kind of funny about Paul because in Second Corinthians 1010, it says that the

Corinthians were like, he's so weighty in his letters with the stuff that he writes, but he's very weak in his speech.

Apollos wasn't like that. We don't have any record of any letters from Apollos, no writings in the

New Testament, but we do know of what was written about him, that he was very great in speech, an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures.

Verse 25, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit.

He spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

So it's likely here that Apollos knew a little bit about some of the things concerning the life of Jesus Christ, the miracles that he did, some of his teachings.

Most of what he knew about Jesus probably came from the teaching of John the

Baptist, what John said about Jesus, and then knowing about the baptism of Jesus.

When John baptized Jesus, he knew all about these things, but he did not know about Jesus' death and resurrection, especially that part of Jesus' ministry,

Apollos did not know. So when we read about Priscilla and Aquila taking

Apollos aside and filling in the blanks for him, the stuff that he did not know and did not understand, this was especially concerning.

The death of Christ on the cross for our sins, his atoning sacrifice, his resurrection from the grave, his ascension into heaven and being seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and then days later, the giving of the

Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These were things that Apollos did not know about, which

Priscilla and Aquila filled him in on. So it's often debated and it's often asked, was

Apollos a Christian or not? Was he saved? Because we don't have anything here about the

Holy Spirit coming upon him after Priscilla and Aquila explained these things to him. He wasn't then baptized.

So wasn't he a Christian and there was just some information that he did not yet know?

I would say to you that Apollos was not saved. And the reason why he wasn't saved is because he did not know of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Those things are necessary to know for salvation because it is the gospel.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead.

Now some would say, well, wouldn't this be like an Old Testament kind of salvation where Apollos knew about those things going to happen, but maybe he did not know that they had yet happened or something to that effect.

Well, I think that that this is explained to us or the blanks are filled in a little bit better when we read

Acts chapter 19. Remember that when all of this was written, it wasn't separated out by chapter and verse markers.

That was done later. So Luke is just writing a continuous story here. Pretend that 19, that big bold number 19 isn't there in your

Bible. Pretend it isn't there. So then read the story on from after Priscilla and Achilla leading

Apollos into the ways of Christ. And then we read about Paul coming back to Ephesus and meeting some men who knew the same as Apollos.

So let me start in 19 one. We're going to, we're going to read this next week, but I think it helps us understand

Apollos condition a little bit better. Acts 19 one. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth.

So Apollos left there, went to Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

This was after Paul was making his loop de loop. He went back up through Syria, Antioch into Asia minor, and now he comes back via land to Ephesus.

So he doesn't sail to Ephesus. He journeys there by foot, by land. So he found some disciples.

He comes to Ephesus and find some disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the

Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have not even heard that there was a

Holy Spirit. That's what we have in Acts 19 too. That would have been the same with Apollos, even though the narrative doesn't tell us that in Priscilla and Achillas conversation with Apollos, that nevertheless would have been the case.

Apollos didn't know about the Holy Spirit because he didn't know anything after the baptism of Jesus by John the

Baptist. So he didn't know about Pentecost. So just the same as these men didn't know about the

Holy Spirit, Apollos wouldn't have either. And so Paul said, verse three, into what then were you baptized?

And they said into John's baptism. Same thing as with Apollos. And Paul said,

John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him.

That is Jesus. And on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the

Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

There were about 12 men in all. Now we're going to come back to that. I'm going to explain that more next week.

But this helps us to understand Apollos condition in a little bit more detail and how the conversation between Priscilla and Achilla and Apollos might have gone.

So Apollos did not know the full gospel. He knew about things concerning the gospel, but he had not yet heard that God sent his son to die for our sins and rising again from the grave.

Whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. And now baptism is not

John's baptism, which was a preparation for the coming of the Savior. But baptism is into the

Lord Jesus Christ, being buried with him in your sins and risen with him to new life.

That's what's signified by going under the water and coming back up again. So Apollos had not yet known that about the

Lord Jesus Christ. He only knew up to the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue back in 18 verse 26.

But when Priscilla and Achilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Now this passage, this reference right here is often used to say that a woman can preach because here you see

Priscilla preaching with Achilla, evangelizing

Apollos, leading him to the Lord. Look, that's fine for a woman to do that, but she's always with her husband.

Notice, I don't think it would be a good idea for a woman to go alone with a man and explain to him the gospel.

That's not a good idea. But women can certainly evangelize. I would say it would be wise for her to go with her husband.

My wife has gone with me other places and we've shared the Lord with other people. You hear us do that on the podcast.

So we have kind of like a Priscilla and Achilla thing going on here on Friday. But Priscilla is not doing this by herself, and she's most certainly not standing in the pulpit on the

Lord's Day preaching the Bible, nor is she a pastor or an elder in a church.

So this does not qualify a woman to be a pastor. So they together, this husband and wife duo, evangelistic team, they take

Apollos aside and they explain to him the way of God more accurately. Whether Apollos had to be baptized or whether the

Holy Spirit came on him and he started speaking in tongues, any of those things are not explained to us in the narrative.

And it's not necessary for Luke to have to tell us those things. He's introducing us to Apollos and noting that Priscilla and Achilla had to introduce him to the gospel of Christ because he didn't yet know it.

The way he was preaching certainly pointed to Christ, but not yet to the gospel of Christ. What Christ accomplished in fulfillment of all the law and the prophets, which

Apollos had been speaking about, but not the totality of it. So then when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.

When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed. They believed through grace.

It was by the grace of God that they came to belief, not by the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but by the will of God.

As it says in John one for Apollos, powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the

Christ was Jesus. These are the same Jews at Corinth that had opposed Paul. And now

Apollos is there speaking with even greater eloquence than Paul, which certainly captivated the

Corinthians and probably won many more of them to the faith because of Apollos ministry that he continued there in Corinth.

So anyway, that's our introduction to Apollos. You don't have to have a great, booming, eloquent voice in order to share the gospel because recognize that that Paul did not have a strong voice.

He was actually very meek. He was a more of a mild mannered man than Apollos would have been.

And yet he preached the gospel powerfully and people came to know Christ. You don't even have to be a man to preach the gospel.

True as a woman, you can't be a pastor because God's ordination for the role of pastor is that men would fill that role.

But you can still share the gospel with people. You can even be teaching others, especially teaching other women, as the instruction comes in Titus chapter two.

All of us are called to share the way of Christ accurately so that people will hear the gospel and come to faith and believe.

But this faith that we have is all by the grace of God. Let us finish with prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us through 2019 and into a brand new year.

And I pray that we would serve you even more faithfully than we did the year before.

Grow us in knowledge and understanding of your word and increase boldness in our hearts to want to share the gospel with others so that those who hear would repent of their sin and believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt