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.

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.

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.

Notice we have Apollumenois and Sozomenois.

And like in Corinth, Ephesus is a place where there was pagan worship going on, in Ephesus there was the temple where the pagans would go and it was an important part of the social and economic part of the city, in Corinth they were worshipping Aphrodite, but in Ephesus there was the temple of Artemis, one of the great seven wonders of the ancient world, and the temple of Artemis was the goddess of fertility, and so that was a big part of the worship there, and it was a place where people would come to worship this false goddess, so here is a church being established again in the house of paganism, not in the house of paganism, but in the midst of paganism, and Paul meets some Jewish people and they beg him to stay, stay with us, teach us the word, and he says no I can't, I've got to go, but he leaves with them Priscilla and Aquila, and that's where we leave off in verse 23, and so in 24 it says, now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus, he was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures, now we don't know a lot about him outside of this verse, but this verse does tell us some things that we should understand, Alexandria is in Egypt, so this man was coming from Egypt, and Alexandria was a place where there was a large Jewish population, and it was a place of higher learning, you've heard of the library of Alexandria and all that, it was a place of higher learning, and this would have been a man who would have been a knowledgeable, learned man, and he comes, by the way, how many of you remember the Septuagint, you've heard me talk about the Septuagint, that's the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, that was done in Alexandria, so to give you, it's the home of scholarship, so here's this man who comes, sort of birthed out of the scholarly field, and he comes to Ephesus, and he comes proclaiming a message, and the text says that he was an eloquent man, the term eloquent is logios, and it simply means he's learned, his speech is attractive, he has a way of speaking not only with confidence, but he speaks with conviction, and he speaks with the ability to convince people of what he's saying, he's an orator, he's different than Paul, by the way, Paul says I didn't come with you with eloquence of speech, I didn't come with fancy language, well Apollos is the opposite, Apollos is coming with eloquence of speech, and power in his words, and it says he was competent in the scriptures, and I don't really like the word competent as a translation, the word is dunitas in the Greek, and dunitas means powerful, he was powerful in the scripture, and another way, maybe well versed could be the translation there, he knew his stuff, he was a scholar, and an orator, it's one thing if somebody knows how to talk, but they ain't got nothing to say, you ever heard that?

Poleis. He polis. Hai poleis. He poleis megal estin. He dekome mikra. He kome. Oikousin en oikou. Eis ton oikon? Apo tou oikou. Aegyptos estin ge. Houtos estin aner aegyptios. Houtos estin aner israelites.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth and he found a Jew named Aquila a native of Pontus recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them and because he was of the same trade He stayed with them and worked for they were tent makers by trade.

Now here's what I want to focus on. And now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus and he was mighty in the scriptures, mighty in the scriptures. He had great ability, it's the term that you're familiar with, dunitas, he had great ability in the scriptures.

Now, Apollos is an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures. Without this, he can never truly and savingly make known the discovery of Jesus Christ. Why is that? To know the scriptures, and not know the baptism of Christ.

That second title is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on it because Polias means of the city, Polis. Athena was the patron deity of Pergamum, so she was the deity of the city, just as she had been the patron deity of Athens.

Now, all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and beloved Stachys. Greet Apples, no, Apelles. I like apples, but. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God.

Acts chapter 18 and verse 1. So it picks up right where Paul leaves Athens. It says, after this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

We wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing some new thing. So Paul standing in the midst of the Oropagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For I passed along and observed the objects of your worship. I found also an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God, what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

The Athenians themselves were very proud of their ideology, very proud of their shrines and their industry. They had productive silver mines. They had marble quarries. Paul is there proclaiming the good news of Christ in the Oropagus and as he looks over at the Parthenon, there is the beautiful statue of Minerva in ivory and gold.

For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time and nothing else, but either to tell or to hear of some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, also called the Areopagus, and he said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious.

Paul said, no, I've got a message and here's my message to the Athenians. Before we get into the exact message, see the setup here in verse 17. It's Paul's missionary MO, so he reasoned verse 17 in the synagogue with the Jews, the devout persons, monotheistic people, and in the marketplace, the Agora, which is right there by the Areopolis and right there by Mars Hill.