Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00020B
00:01 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:02 We're studying here in Acts chapter 18 and, Mark, before the 00:08 break we were taking a look at yet another example of Paul 00:13 being brought to a little trial and once more there's a 00:18 deliverance given and we left off right at the end of verse 17 00:23 as we were coming in to Paul returning to Antioch and we'll 00:28 begin reading in verse 18. It says, So Paul still remained a 00:32 good while then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for 00:37 Syria and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. Now we were 00:42 introduced to Priscilla and Aquila earlier in the chapter 00:46 and they seemed to be a couple who have great promise in terms 00:53 of their fervency and their active part in the church. The 00:58 Apostle Paul seems to be taking a special interest in them 01:03 wanting to develop them and grow them and so we see, I believe, 01:07 in this particular passage is an example of what we talked about 01:11 right before the break and that is that the Apostle Paul was 01:15 focusing on discipling these two, Priscilla and Aquila. 01:19 He kept them with him. You know you look at Jesus and the 01:23 disciples. What made him so effective. Well he took them 01:27 with him wherever he went and he let them see what 01:33 Christianity was about, what it meant to live a righteous life 01:36 by going with him. And they were able to see how to minister to 01:39 others by watching Jesus minister to others. They were 01:43 able to see how he related to people and know how to relate to 01:46 people. Sometimes we think discipleship is sitting people 01:51 in a classroom and teaching them doctrinal matters and there's 01:55 a portion of that that's true, but that's not all that you see 02:00 here. There's a very real living training that goes on that is 02:04 from modeling for someone. 02:05 Yeah. That makes me think of what you were saying there on 02:07 Jesus' discipleship. Mark chapter 3 and verse 14, in 02:12 Mark 3:14 he tells us, Then he, speaking of Jesus, appointed 12 02:16 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to 02:20 preach. So that's interesting that he wasn't just sending them 02:24 out to preach but he wanted to be with them and we see that in 02:27 the practice of Jesus and the life of Jesus that he spent that 02:32 time and modeled that ministry to them and we see it being 02:36 repeated in the lives of the disciples that they picked up 02:40 much of their ministry queues from being with Jesus in those 02:43 real experiences. That's right. Real training. 02:47 Hands on training. So he took Priscilla and Aquila with him 02:51 and it says he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea for he had 02:55 taken a vow. Now it's not real specific about what this vow 03:00 was. It could be that in an effort to have sympathy with the 03:05 Jews or maintain favor that he took a Nazarite vow, a private 03:09 Nazarite vow, or something of that nature. Often times they 03:13 would take a private vow in response to a great deliverance 03:18 or almost as a means of gratitude and rededicating the 03:21 life because of some great thing and of course we see him here 03:25 in Corinth experience this deliverance and so it could be 03:28 that he took a vow in relation to that. But ultimately we know 03:32 that he made this commitment and that's why he had his hair 03:35 cut off and so we can imagine Paul walking around without 03:39 hair. I guess that's why Luke put that in there. Then verse 19 03:42 says he came to Ephesus and he left them, and you would 03:49 understand that to be Priscilla and Aquila, he left them there. 03:53 That adds another dimension to discipleship. Here he says, Okay 03:59 I've spent time with you, you have learned from me. Now it's 04:04 times for you to leave the nest and to begin to use your own 04:09 faculties and begin to exercise your own faith and certainly 04:12 they were doing that already but in a very real way and a 04:16 greater way than when Paul was with them when he was the most 04:19 prominent figure. They now were able to witness to others 04:22 and we see that later when they with a very prominent man, 04:26 Apollos, they have opportunity to explain the way of God more 04:30 clearly to him. So this is a good example that I think we 04:34 need to take note of because sometimes in our churches we 04:40 we have those who feel I can't possibly go and minister to 04:44 others from the Bible because I don't feel qualified and what 04:48 have you, and sometimes the people who are making that 04:53 statement have been in the church for 20, 30 years and the 04:56 hope is that during that period they're watching, they're 05:00 learning. All their learning is for the purpose of then turning 05:04 around and using what they've learned to minister to others. 05:08 The only way sometimes to really get that type of education is to 05:14 break free from the training and go and do it. And you know I've 05:21 heard it said that men learn to swim in the water and not on the 05:27 land. So we've got to get at it and that's really the training. 05:33 So we see that kind of discipleship going on here. 05:35 Then it says in verse 20, When they asked him to stay a longer 05:40 time... Oh I don't think I read the last part of verse 19. 05:43 But he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the 05:46 Jews. So the Apostle Paul again reasoning with the Jews. When 05:49 they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not 05:53 consent, but took leave of them saying, I must by all means 05:57 keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return 06:00 again to you, God willing. And he sailed from Ephesus. So we 06:04 see here he promises to come back to Ephesus and we find that 06:08 he does keep that promise. When he leaves them he says I'll come 06:12 back to you, God willing. You know, we hear people say that 06:16 sometimes. I'll see you at church, Lord willing, and it's a 06:19 saying of sorts. But in the Apostle Paul's life it was a 06:23 very real experience. Just back in chapter 16, you remember when 06:29 we were talking about the Macedonian call and before the 06:33 apostle went to Macedonia, he had wanted to go to Asia, but it 06:37 said in chapter 16 and verse 6, They were forbidden by the Holy 06:42 Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Then later they were going 06:46 to go into Bithynia but the Spirit did not permit them. 06:50 So there were cases where the Apostle Paul wanted to go 06:54 somewhere but the Lord was not willing. So he's being very real 06:58 here when he says, I'll come back to you, God willing, but if 07:02 the Lord doesn't will then I'll be going somewhere else and we 07:06 need to have that same flexibility in our own life to 07:10 be able to go where the Lord leads us. 07:12 That's right. It's also interesting, Jim, that he has a 07:14 clear spiritual plan and we may say well that's because he's the 07:17 Apostle Paul. But I think that we really need to take to heart 07:21 that some of us make big plans for our lives, we make plans for 07:24 our families, we make plans for vacations, we make plans for a 07:27 job to try to get a promotion what have you, and yet when it 07:30 comes to our spiritual lives and for our own personal 07:33 spiritual growth many of us make no real plans at all. We just 07:37 say well I'll be in church next week and that's not a spiritual 07:41 plan. Paul had plans. He had plans for witnessing and what 07:45 have you and in this case he mentions a plan to go to the 07:49 feast in Jerusalem. I think there's an important point to be 07:53 made there, too. I know I've been asked by certain Christians 07:56 if we are to be keeping these feasts and I'll point to the 08:00 Apostle Paul and say well Paul kept the feasts. Well we really 08:03 haven't found that. We're all the way up to chapter 18 in the 08:06 book of Acts and we don't have one occurrence of Paul desiring 08:10 to keep the feasts. Here he obviously does but we don't see 08:14 him keeping all the feasts of Passover and of unleavened 08:19 bread and of Pentecost and of the day of Atonement and the 08:23 feast of booths and all these. We don't see that. He had a 08:26 desire to go but we don't see this as a customary practice 08:30 like for example his observance of the Sabbath. I think that 08:33 needs to be noted here. Now we actually move on here to 08:38 in verse 24 the Bible says, Now a certain Jew named Apollos, 08:41 born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures 08:45 came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of 08:48 the Lord and being fervent in spirit he spoke and taught 08:52 accurately the things of the Lord though he knew only the 08:56 baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. 09:00 When Aquila and Priscilla heard him they took him aside and 09:04 explained to him the way of God more accurately. And the Bible 09:08 says in verse 27, When he desired to cross to Achaia the 09:12 brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him and 09:15 when he arrived he greatly helped those who had believed 09:19 through grace for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly 09:23 showing from the scriptures that Jesus is Christ. Now he didn't 09:26 have this understanding before but here we see the discipleship 09:30 again, this time Priscilla and Aquila meet this man who is 09:35 promising and they see the abilities and they undertake... 09:38 It's interesting also, he was eloquent, he was mighty in the 09:42 scriptures, he was educated. Priscilla and Aquila could have 09:45 said, Who are we? But they saw that they had a part that they 09:48 could play in discipling him and giving him this more 09:52 accurate knowledge. So they disciple Apollos and now Apollos 09:56 becomes a mighty worker in the church as well. 09:59 That's right. That's powerful. I like the fact that Apollos 10:03 was it says an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures. 10:07 You get the sense that he had influence. Sometimes we avoid 10:11 those who are of the higher classes. I've noticed that 10:16 sometimes we recognize that there's a more fertile openness 10:21 to the gospel amongst those who are not affluent or who sense 10:26 then need more and so we tend to focus on those areas because 10:30 we feel that the responses are greater, but just because that 10:34 may be true in many cases, we should not be avoiding and 10:39 anyways we should be focusing on some of these who have 10:43 allowed the things of this world to blind them to the power of 10:47 the gospel and to their need of salvation. We need to be 10:49 focusing on this same class of Apollos. Well, in chapter 19 we 10:53 we come into another story and I want to bring this in during 10:57 this episode and then next time we'll cover the rest of chapter 11:00 19. In verse 1, it says, It happened while Apollos was at 11:04 Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions came 11:07 to Ephesus and finding some disciples he said, Did you 11:10 receive the Holy Spirit when you believed. So they said, we 11:12 have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. 11:14 And they said, Into what then were you baptized. So they said, 11:19 Into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with 11:24 the baptism of repentance saying to the people that they 11:27 should believe on him who would come after him, that is on 11:30 Christ Jesus. When they heard this they were baptized in the 11:33 name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul had laid hands on them the 11:36 Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and 11:39 prophesied and the men were about 12 in all. Now you read 11:42 the story and you recognize this is the one clear example we have 11:48 in the New Testament of a rebaptism, as it were. John the 11:53 Baptist was teaching a baptism of repentance. The Jewish nation 11:58 they understood the law of God and the will of God as given in 12:02 the Old Testament scriptures and they knew that there was 12:07 need to repent from sin, but it doesn't appear that these 12:12 individuals had an understanding of Christ as the Messiah. 12:16 At least they didn't have the evidence for Jesus as the 12:20 Messiah and so there was no real way that the Holy Spirit could 12:22 do the type of work that he wanted to do. So they were 12:26 rebaptized with this new greater understanding and that's why 12:29 even today some who come into a greater understanding of certain 12:33 biblical truths will be rebaptized. Then it concludes by 12:37 this miraculous once again the Holy Spirit coming upon them. 12:41 We've seen that in different places. It's different in 12:44 certain places. Here they laid hands, other places they didn't 12:47 but ultimately this power attended the early church and 12:51 it attended them here after this rebaptism. Well I want to 12:54 dive further into chapter 19, but we've run out of times once 12:57 more. So we look forward once again to studying with you on 13:01 Books of the Book. We'll see you next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17