Dennis Tuuri

Acts 18:24-28. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. We thank God for his word and we pray that he might illuminate to our understanding and may give us this particular season of year hearts open to receive the message of the savior as he comes to us.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you Lord God for the gift of the Holy Spirit given to your people on the basis of Jesus’s work. And we pray now that spirit would do his work in our hearts this day that He comes as his advent has made known to us through the word that he might indeed strengthen us, encourage us, comfort us, and also chastise us in our sins that we might be more effectual ministers and messengers of the Lord Jesus that we may indeed be ourselves as we go forth into this world and advent of the Savior who works through his people.

In Jesus name we pray and for the sake of his kingdom. Amen.

Apollos—a very important person. We don’t think of him very much probably and yet the scriptures make clear that he was very important in the life of the church at Corinth and was a powerful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in 1 Corinthians 3 that Paul writes to the church of Corinthians telling them about the divisions that existed in the context of that church.

And he says in 1 Corinthians 3:4 and following: “One saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos. Are ye not yet carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? What ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” And he speaks of Apollos in several other places in his epistles to the Corinthians. Apollos was a very important personage and the text today will tell us more about who he was, his giftings and abilities, and then the work that God put him to do.

I want to first, however, before we move to Apollos, talk about what I mentioned last week—that verse 23, which we didn’t read today but really it speaks of the beginning of the third missionary journey. Paul goes back to the churches in Galatia and Phrygia and strengthens the disciples. And before we get into a consideration of Apollos, I want us to consider a little bit again the strengthening of the churches that Paul engages himself in.

We’ve done this before and many of the verses I’m going to make mention of now I’ve made mention of before in the context of the book of Acts. At the beginning of the second missionary journey Paul did the same thing that he did here—he went back to the churches that had been planted and had been developed and he strengthened those churches. And so it’s important for us to see that that is part of Paul’s work as a missionary, as a church planter. He also strengthens the disciples. Matthew Henry in his commentary on this said that disciples need to be strengthened for they are compassed about with much iniquity. And if the scriptures repeatedly tell us of the strengthening of the disciples, let Matthew Henry is correct. It’s a reminder that we need strengthening and it’s a reminder to us again to consider that fact and to think about it just a little bit.

So I want to just go briefly over a few scriptures that have reference to this idea of strengthening the disciples. In Deuteronomy 3:28 we read of the charge of Joshua from Moses. Joshua was charged and encouraged and strengthened. And so one of the ways that believers are strengthened is to be charged and encouraged in the work that God has called them to do.

And you can bring strength to the disciples at Reformation Covenant Church if you charge people and encourage them in the work that they have been called to do here at RCC, in their families and their vocational callings as well. That’s part of our responsibility in terms of strengthening each other.

Isaiah 35:3 says that indeed we are to strengthen the weak hands, to confirm the feeble knees. And Hebrews says the same thing—to put in joint those things that have been put out of joint, usually as a result of one’s sins. But Isaiah 35 goes on from the charge to strengthen the weak hands to tell how we do that. And in verse four, we read in Isaiah 35: “Say unto them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance.”

One of the ways we strengthen people is we recognize their weakness comes from fear, and that fear from a lack of belief that God’s justice will be made manifest in the context of our land today. And so, one of the ways we strengthen each other is to assure each other, to buckle up, to get yourself strong, recognize that God will come. He will come with a vengeance and his enemies shall be punished.

Now the modern church in denying the temporal judgments of God in the world weaken the church. And if we’re going to be a strong church and strong believers, we have to have a reliance upon the temporal judgments of God in the context of our world. That’s what Isaiah 35:4 tells us.

Indeed, in James 5:8, we read the same thing: “Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts. How are you going to strengthen your heart? Establish your heart and be patient and not give up.” James writes, “For the coming of the Lord draws nigh.” Now, that’s an encouragement to us to get ourself ready for the coming of the Lord. But it’s also a promise that as God brings his advent, his comings in history to judge people, it is for the purpose of strengthening his people as well.

For 1 Peter 5:10: “The God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.” And remember we said that the big overall message of the first and second missionary journey—as the gospel goes out and advances, it does so in spiritual conflict and warfare. Remember the first two incidences at the beginning of the first and second journey: spiritual warfare, much opposition and persecution, much tribulation. But it doesn’t end there. The end result is peace and establishment at Corinth and at Derbe in the first missionary journey.

And so indeed this message—that our life is not simply to suffer all of our lives, not simply to see a lack of the manifestation of God’s justice in the world round about us, but rather to rely upon the coming of God’s advents and justice bringing vengeance to those who oppress his people. That is part of the strengthening message of the scriptures. And so that’s one way we can strengthen and encourage each other in the context of this church as well.

Luke 22:32—Jesus said that he had prayed for Peter that his faith fail not. “And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brother.” If you’ve been brought through a particular trial and tribulation and then been rescued by God and you’ve seen the other side of that, part of your responsibility is to strengthen the brethren. Again, by way of implication, there are brothers around you who are going through those trials and tribulations and sisters, and you need to remind them that this is for a season and that there’s another side to this darkness. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. And so, the constant message in scripture is that part of the means of strengthening the church is to remind them of the large flow of history and not to get too hung up at our particular element where we’re at, particularly in times of difficulty or tribulation.

We read in Acts 14 that Paul had confirmed the souls of the disciples. He exhorted them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God—much tribulation to a purpose, to an end, to enter into the kingdom of God, the manifestation of God’s order on earth.

First Thessalonians 5:14. And this is a verse that you probably ought to really think of a lot, particularly those of you who parent:

“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, and be patient toward all men.”

Part of the strengthening of the disciples is to know who you’re talking to, what their particular state right now is, and to adjust your message to them accordingly. And the same thing’s true of our children. If we’re strengthening our children the way Paul strengthens his disciples, and after all, our children are our first, usually, and best disciples, then we must know at what particular place they’re at right now.

Are they unruly? Then you don’t want to comfort them. You want to warn them. Are they feeble-minded or weak in the mind in terms of faith and somewhat fearful that way? Well, then you don’t want to warn them. You want to confirm them, or comfort them rather. You want to comfort the feeble-minded. If they’re weak, they need support by you—support in terms of bringing the scriptures to bear into their particular weakness.

And then in the context of all of this and all the disciples that we have in our children and all the encouragements and exhortations we give to each other in the context of the church, we’re to be patient toward all men. And so, we also have this capability and scriptural injunctions to help strengthen believers and disciples.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:13, just a couple more verses on strengthening, we read that “God may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God even our father at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And again in 2 Thessalonians 2:17: “That God may comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.”

The point of that is this: part of the strengthening process has to do with holiness and our good works and deeds. And as we move toward holiness, personal holiness and applied holiness in terms of our vocational callings, in terms of our moral and ethical calling as Christian men and women, we are strengthened by those actions.

So part of the strengthening process is to encourage people away from sinfulness toward holiness and in an application of the faith. And then the final verse, Romans 16:25: “To him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.” And then he goes on to speak about glory to God. That tells us that God strengthens us through the gospel and through the preaching of Jesus Christ.

The context for everything I’ve said here—that strengthening has to do with the reminder that God’s judgments will come to bring vengeance upon his enemies and the enemies of his people. The reminder to walk in terms of personal holiness. The reminder to be involved in good works and deeds. And the reminder that we’re to look at our disciples and the people around us and see where they’re at. And if they’re weak, comfort them. If they’re feeble-minded, rather, comfort them. If they’re weak, support them. If they’re unruly, warn them.

All of that is in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The strengthening that Paul brings to the church has all these elements to it. But its base and center, its whole purpose and motivating factor is the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ—the gospel, the good news, that we cannot save ourselves, that our sins have been taken care of in the finished work of our savior.

Now, I mention these things because the scriptures mention again that Paul strengthened the disciples. I also mention these things to get kind of the flow of the particular passage we’re in the context of. And of course, the whole book of Acts has this flow. The book of Acts tells us that the Christian faith is a living active thing. It’s not a Sunday faith. It doesn’t have application only during the rest of the week. It’s not a church thing that doesn’t have application to the world. It’s not a private internal faith between you and God that doesn’t somehow affect what you do. The Christian faith is an active, pressing, moving sort of a thing.

Throughout the scriptures, Paul writes to believers in the New Testament in many of the epistles. He writes to believers and exhorts them to walk. Now, he tells them how they should walk, but the point I’m trying to make is that he tells them not to simply sit and do nothing, not to be withdrawn or overly introspective, but rather to move and to act in terms of the faith.

In Romans 6:14, he says that Christians should walk in newness of life. Romans 8:1 says that those in Jesus Christ walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. In the book of Ephesians, he says that we are God’s workmanship, that we have been ordained in Christ unto good works which God hath before ordained. We should walk in those good works.

Ephesians 4:1: “I beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you were called.” Ephesians 5:2, he urges the believers at Ephesus to walk in love. Ephesians 5:8: “Walk as children of light.” To the Colossians, he said, “Walk worthy of the Lord.” And again in Colossians 2:6: “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” Colossians 4:5: We’re told we are to walk in wisdom.

And to the Thessalonian believers, he said that God would increase that you might increase and abound in love, one toward another and toward all men—love, the application of God’s law in an active sense toward the other members of the body of Jesus Christ.

The point is that the Christian faith is an active, pressing sort of a thing. The Nazirite vow we spoke of last week is a call to action, a call to particular action, which is symbolic of the action in all of our lives. The pressing forward in the ministry that God had called him to do, the particular task he had given himself over by way of vow to perform. And God tells us that the faith is an act of pressing sort of thing.

Now all this sets up really the work of Apollos that we’re now going to consider. And the title for my talk is “Apollos: Faith in Action.” Apollos is a mighty man of God and he accomplishes great things for the kingdom of God and he is one who takes the knowledge that God has given to him—imperfect as it is—and doesn’t wait for the completion of that knowledge before he goes to work. He goes to work immediately and that work that he accomplishes is blessed by God and he goes from glory to glory, maturity to maturity.

And so let’s consider the life of Apollos as an example of faith in action. And the first thing we are told—the scripture really lays itself out very nicely—according to first of all the characteristics of Apollos. Secondly, Apollos’s actions at Ephesus. And then finally, Apollos’s actions at Corinth.

And in the middle of all this is a very important item—we’ll talk about it in the second part of the outline, his actions at Ephesus—that really is the key to the whole thing.

So first of all, the characteristics of Apollos. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria. We’re told that in the very first verse, verse 24: “A certain Jew named Apollos born at Alexandria.” So the first two things we’re told about Apollos is that he was a Jew and then he was born at Alexandria. So he’s born into the context of the covenant people of God. He’s a Jew and he’s been raised in Alexandria.

Now Alexandria was a very important city. Alexandria was the seat of Greek and Hebrew learning. It had probably the greatest library in the known world at the time. Tremendous amount of intellectual attainment and knowledge going on at Alexandria—a seat of knowledge and learning.

Alexandria had a large contingent of Jews there. Some say that two-fifths, two of the five sections of Alexandria were Jewish sections. So a large Jewish population there. The particular school of Jewish allegorism—the Philo school—came from Alexandria, which was kind of a perversion of biblical teaching but nonetheless it shows the importance and the number of Jews there and the importance of the Jewish religion in that particular city.

In fact, it’s said that there was a huge synagogue built at Alexandria, so large and so many people would attend the synagogue that the story goes—and I don’t know if it’s true or not—the story goes that they had to have a guy in the middle who would use flags to signal all the way to the back of the people that had gathered in these synagogues to worship God to let them know when the amens were supposed to be sounded because they couldn’t hear them. You were that far away. Had to use big flags.

So huge amount of Jewish population at Alexandria. The Septuagint was a work accomplished at Alexandria. The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. The Septuagint was a very important work. It is quoted by many New Testament writers. Usually when a scripture is quoted in the New Testament, the quotation is taken not from the original Hebrew but frequently from the Septuagint version. That Septuagint was the translation, as I said, into Greek of the Hebrew Old Testament that was accomplished at Alexandria.

So Alexandria was a very important place and it was a place where lots of intellectual attainment was possible. And so when we’re told that Apollos was from there, we get the connotation—in the rest of the text demonstrates this—that he had quite an education. He was quite a learned and scholarly man. He was born into the context of the faith and he was improved upon in the sense of his knowledge and his intellectual attainment at Alexandria.

The second thing we’re told, or the third thing rather, is that he was an eloquent man. Now, as far as I know, this is the only place in the scriptures where the word eloquent is used. The base word, the root of this word is the word logos. And so, what it means here is that he was eloquent in words. He was thoroughly able to use words. This implies both a knowledge of language, a knowledge of the language that he used, but it also implies a manner of delivery of that language, which puts the knowledge in the best possible context. He was eloquent in speech.

That’s important to consider this because God uses that eloquence with Apollos in terms of his ministry. Now Paul had said before that he didn’t come to people with eloquentness of speech and you know like we always tend to do, we may go off this way and say well we don’t want to be eloquent in speech then we want to avoid eloquence in speech. There’s no indication of that in the text at all in terms of Apollos’s ministry. This was part of the way God had gifted Apollos and Apollos used that gifting for the sake of the kingdom of God. And so God blessed him.

So he was eloquent in speech. You know, it’s interesting. I was thinking this week and I was also of the Proverbs. We’re memorizing a section of proverbs in our family, trying to this year. And I thought of the first three proverbs we’ve memorized having to do with counsel, anger, and speaking the truth. This is from Proverbs 12 where we read that the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth the counsel is wise. And then it goes on to talk about how a fool’s anger is presently known, but a wise man, a prudent man coverth shame. And then it also goes on to speak of the one who speaks the truth as opposed to one who speaks deceit.

These are things—these are actions that are primarily geared to speech almost exclusively. So how do you hearken unto counsel? You don’t do it by sign language with people. You don’t do it by reading augurs in the sky or omens around about us from other people. We do it by interaction and communication with people. How do you demonstrate your anger in a sinful way? What is it the prudent man is covering up and recovers from his anger? His sinful anger and his shame. He’s covering up speech. Usually our anger comes out in words of anger. Well, occasionally might hit something, but primarily it’s talking about the foolish man. His anger is known because he speaks it forth. He has no control over his tongue.

And then of course speaking truth or speaking falsehood is a direct use of the tongue. I read, I was listening to a tape yesterday—another one from a biblical counselor, the same fellow that did the one on children with a lack of self-control and anger. And he talked about—and he’d heard this from somebody else actually—about how, you know, almost all of our Christian faith has to do with communication and language. That’s a very important element in the scriptures.

I was reading James B. Jordan’s latest newsletter this last week on the second commandment and he talks about the preeminence in the scriptures of hearing as opposed to sight. We like to walk by sight, but God wants us to walk in terms of hearing of his word and communicable, skill, communication and verbal skills are very important.

And so when we read that Apollos is eloquent, it’s a reminder to us, or it can be used by way of application, a reminder to us of the importance of our communication, of our words. And so this week, let’s be careful how we use our words. Let’s not be sinful with anger. Let’s listen to counsel as other people speak. Let’s speak in truth and not deceit. And let’s try, with our language, to use the best words we possibly can and to be as eloquent as we possibly can as well as we speak to our children and speak words to them of instruction and advice. Let’s try to put it in a good context of how we speak with them as well.

Now, you don’t want to rely upon the wisdom of the world or an ability to persuade people with your speech. But on the other hand, God tells us very importantly that our speech is very important—a knowledge of the language and an ability to communicate correctly. Well, Apollos had all that. He was a very eloquent man.

And then fourth, he was eloquent, but he was also mighty. The scriptures say these words I’m going through with Apollos: he was eloquent. He was mighty. He would preach diligently, etc. These are powerful words that are used about him. We’ll see as we go through here. But this next one is a powerful word as well. He is mighty. The scriptures say J. Alexander says that he not only had a knowledge of the word, he is mighty. Not just mighty, he’s mighty in the word.

He has a knowledge of the word, but he also was given by God extraordinary power in expounding and enforcing the word as well. He was mighty. It means powerful or capable in the context of preaching the word and speaking forth the word. Now, we’re supposed to be mighty people. It’s interesting that Jesus himself is reported in Luke 24:19 as a prophet who is mighty in deed and in word. And of course, that’s God’s word. He is God. His word is God’s word. He is mighty in that word.

Moses is an interesting parallel to Apollos as well. Now, he wasn’t eloquent, but we read of Moses in Acts 7:22 in Stephen’s defense that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians—just as Apollos coming from Alexandria undoubtedly was very learned in the wisdom of the Alexandrians. And Moses was also mighty in words and deeds, showing his correlation to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Apollos is also mighty in the word of God.

God tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:4 that our weapons are not carnal, but our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Apollos’s knowledge and ability to expound and use the scriptures was mighty and was mighty to pulling down strongholds as we’ll see toward the end of our text. And so, the scriptures say that we can be mighty in the person and work of Jesus Christ as we have an apprehension of his word.

And so, we’re to be mighty in that word. Additionally, I might just point out here that 2 Corinthians 12:10 and other places, Paul talks about his might, his strength being accomplished when he is weak. And what this shows us is that Apollos’s might was not in his eloquence. It doesn’t say he was mighty in his abilities, in his eloquence. Rather, we’re told specifically that he is mighty in the word.

And so, very importantly, Apollos is designated as somebody who has natural giftings and abilities—eloquence and in his training—but his primary focus in his ministry, which is what makes make him so effective, is that he is mighty not in the learning of the Alexandrians, he’s mighty not in his eloquence, he’s mighty in the word of God.

That seems like a fairly obvious point I suppose, and yet too many seminaries today, when young men are trained to be mighty, they’re trained to be mighty in debate skills or tactics. They’re trained to be mighty in understanding all the perversions of the faith found about us. Much of seminary education in the upper levels has to do with knowing the apostate systems of the heretics, instead of in teaching them the word of God thoroughly. There’s instead a mightiness in terms of knowing all these other things.

And the scriptures say that if we’re going to be mighty, our primary emphasis, our focus, our standard by which we do things has to be the word of God. Well, that’s who Apollos was. He was a man who was mighty, but he was mighty in the right thing. He was mighty in the word of God.

Next we’re told that he was instructed in the way of the Lord. And this I suppose maybe is part of the way in which he became mighty in the word. We’re told that this man was instructed in the way of the Lord. This word instructed is the root word of our word catechesis—katecho. And so he was one who had been catechized, as it were, in the way of the Lord.

The way of the Lord here speaks of course to the path, the lifestyle, not simply a knowledge, intellectual knowledge. He was catechized in the way of the Lord as it applied to every area of life and thought.

Now we’re told in Romans 2 that people are instructed out of the law. In Galatians 6, we’re told that those who teach the word, you’re to communicate unto him that teacheth you in all good things. That word teaches—the same word catecho. It means to sound, literally to sound down into the ears, okay? To get a message down into one’s ears again through the verbal instruction. And catechism is a good way to think of this.

So, Apollos had been given giftings and abilities by God that had been improved upon through his catechization, his instruction in the way of the Lord.

Finally, we read that Apollos was also fervent in spirit. He was an Alexandrian Jew. He was an eloquent man. He was mighty in the scriptures. He was instructed in the way of the Lord. And finally, we read that he was fervent in the spirit. And this fervent in the spirit means fervent—the word means literally to see or to boil. And so in his spirit, his pneuma, in his essence, he was fervent in what he was doing. He added to the knowledge that God had given to him, zeal and intensity for the faith and for taking that faith and proclaiming it and conforming his life and helping others and calling others to conform their life to it as well. He was fervent in the spirit.

In Romans 12:11, the same term is used. We’re told there: “Be not slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit.” This is a command of God. We’re not to be passive. Again, we’re to be active. We’re supposed to be active in the sense of a desire to teach forth the word of God that he has instructed us in.

Matthew Henry kind of sums up this first section of the description of who Apollos was in this way: “What a happy composition was here. Many are fervent in spirit but are weak in knowledge in scripture knowledge. They have far to seek—far they have far to seek for proper words and are full of improper ones. And on the other hand, many are eloquent enough and mighty in the scriptures and learned and judicious, but they have no life or ferveney. Here was a complete man of God, thoroughly furnished for his work, both eloquent and fervent, full both of divine knowledge and of divine affections.”

And so we’re given these characteristics of Apollos as we meet him in the scriptures. He was an Alexandrian Jew. He was eloquent. He was mighty in the word. He was catechized in the way of the Lord and he was zealous and fervent in his spirit to apply those things—not simply sitting back with intellectual knowledge, but rather to apply them and to call others to the application of them as well.

Apollos had natural giftings and abilities. He was in the providence of God born into a place where great learning and knowledge was capable for him to have. He applied himself to that learning and knowledge, but particularly to the learning and the knowledge of the scriptures. He was given a natural apparently gifting of eloquence. But he adds to that gifting of eloquence—in the providential background with which he has a training of his mind, a catechizing himself in the way of God in the scriptures. And he adds to that knowledge a heartfelt apprehension and a love of the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for the Lord that compels him and gives him a ferveney of spirit that moves him to mighty actions.

So we’re given here a picture of a man who is mighty in his use by God. We saw that from the text in Corinthians where his work is compared to that of Paul. So much so that some people sin by following Apollos or following Paul. He was a mighty man. He’s a picture to us of how to train ourselves to be mighty as well—by adding to our knowledge zeal.

You know, in the context of reformed circles these days, you find a lot of people who have a good training and intellectual knowledge of the scriptures. And when you meet someone who adds to that knowledge of the scriptures a ferveney of spirit, what we would refer to some today as a love for the Lord, then you have a really excellent, as Matthew Henry said, composition. You have the giftings and abilities coming together with the ferveney of spirit that produces great work. And that’s what we should attain to as well.

And Apollos performs that work at Ephesus first of all. Okay. So let’s look at what he did with all that gifting and ability from God and the improvement that God made to it in his life. We read of his actions at Apollos at Ephesus that first of all he spoke and taught diligently.

He comes to Ephesus. You remember Ephesus—now Paul had been there briefly. He’s going to return there in the next couple of weeks, sermons are going to occur in the context of Ephesus and Paul’s ministry there. He had left behind Priscilla and Aquila. He’d had a good reception at the synagogues there and he left behind Priscilla and Aquila for to keep contact with what’s going on there and he’ll return after he goes back to Antioch as we’ll see next week.

Well, before he returns, Apollos comes to Ephesus and we read that he comes there and he speaks and teaches diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. So the first actions of Apollos at Ephesus is his speaking and teaching diligently.

Now when we read that he spake and taught. This may refer to the fact that he spoke both privately in conversations and taught publicly in the context of the synagogue. We don’t know that, but that seems to be a good way to understand what is said here. And the way he speaks and teaches, both privately and publicly, if that is the case, or certainly at least publicly, is he does so diligently.

Now, the King James translation “diligent” is not a particularly good one here. This word doesn’t so much refer to activity in preaching as it does to accurateness of preaching. Paul said that he was a member of the strictest sect of the Pharisees, and that word “strict” is the same basic word here as “diligent.” And what it means is they were very trying to be extremely accurate in all the details of what they did. Well, Apollos had this sense of accuracy or correctness to his teaching. His ferveney of spirit did not cause him to go beyond what the word was that he was expounding or teaching or instructing people in. He was under the control of the spirit as well.

Ferveney of the spirit doesn’t mean to go beyond or to embellish or to just run off at the mouth or something. Apollos was very exacting in his teaching. And so we’re told that about him as well. As I said, all these things we read about Apollos, they’re all kind of compound strengthened forms of terms. And so we get a sense of the dynamism of this man that God had used and will use at Corinth.

Well, that includes this here. His correctness or accuracy of speaking and teaching is talked of. Now, we read by way of addendum here that he knew only the baptism of John. And I don’t want to get into a big discussion of this week. Perhaps next week or the week after that, we’ll talk a little more about it. But just to prepare you in when Paul comes to Ephesus, the first thing that happens is he comes across some guys who don’t know or have who only been baptized in the baptism of John and don’t even know that there is a Holy Spirit.

And so we have here in the text both of Apollos and then immediately with these 12 men that Paul runs across at Ephesus in the next few verses, we have a two-fold talking here—people who only knew the baptism of John. And I think, you know, my studies are still ongoing in this, but I for right now I think that there’s a contrast between Apollos and these other 12 men, without getting too far into it. I’m not—the other 12 men are baptized by Paul, laid hands upon them and they speak in tongues. We’ll talk more about that next week.

But Apollos is not baptized here. He knew only the baptism of John, but he knew the baptism of John. It is my belief that these 12 men hadn’t really been brought into the teaching or ministry of John. They had an incorrect apprehension of that. In any event, the picture of Apollos is that he knew the baptism of John.

Now, remember, he is speaking and teaching the things of the Lord. That’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So, don’t assume when it says here that he knew only the baptism of John that he didn’t know about Jesus. He did. He did know about Messiah. Now, his knowledge was imperfect. And that’s why it’s such a should be such an encouraging picture to us—is that even though his knowledge was imperfect in the sense of not knowing all the details of our Lord’s ministry and what had happened with his death and resurrection, the establishment of the church at Pentecost, etc., he probably didn’t know many of those things.

Nonetheless, God used him in that mightily for the sake of the preaching of the gospel. And we’ll continue to see that as we go on here. So, Apollos is one who speaks and teaches diligently or accurately. And then secondly in Ephesus, he speaks boldly.

He spoke and taught diligently. And then in verse 26 he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. The word speak here means to set forth, to explain, and to speak forth from the scriptures, of course, and then he does this with boldness. And we’ve talked about this before as well. The book of Acts is peppered with references to Peter, Paul, Silas, Barnabas all speaking boldly about the things of the Lord. It means both to have courage to speak but it also means to show forth things plainly and openly, not hiding back elements of the gospel or elements of the teaching of the scripture.

And so Apollos is one who speaks forth boldly. Again, it doesn’t just say he spoke forth in the synagogue. It adds this adjective that it was bold—his speaking forth, his adverb rather. Okay.

And then third, his third action, and this is very important. He submits to the instruction of Priscilla and Aquila. Whom the text goes on to read: “When Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”

And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. And then it talks about when he came there, what he did.

As we said, we’ve already been told the limitations of Apollos’s knowledge of the Lord Jesus and the extent of his ministry in the early church. And these are the details which Aquila and Priscilla then line up in terms of explaining to him. And so we read here that he submits himself to the instruction of Priscilla and Aquila. And Priscilla is placed first, which seems to indicate her preeminence, not preeminence maybe, but her more active involvement in the instruction of Apollos.

Now when it says here that they taught him, they “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” Expound is to lay out by order—lay out a series of assertions by order. And then it says “more perfectly.” That word perfectly is the same word that’s been translated earlier as “diligent.” Remember what I said—that he spoke and taught diligently. Well, that diligent, remember I said was accurately—really wasn’t really diligent. It’s the same basic word here that’s used—that to which he was given more accuracy then of knowledge of the way, the way of God, the way of Jesus that is.

And so he then is instructed further in the faith with the Priscilla and Aquila.

Now I want to stop here for a couple of minutes because so far what I’ve talked about is this great man of faith who will have a tremendous ministry at Corinth and we’ve talked about how he got that way. His birth, particular environment which God decided to place him, the improvements to all of that God had accomplished in his life through catechization in the faith, through a ferveney of spirit leading to the fact that he was mighty in the scriptures—good knowledge, a dynamic approach, giftings from God. And those are things which, while in some way apply to all of us, really apply primarily to particular people called particularly to minister in the context of specific ways and usually in the context of being formal instructors of the scriptures.

And so it really applies to ministers of the gospel primarily. But here we have a very important element of who Apollos was, rather, that also is an extremely important qualification for ministers and it also gives by way of application encouragement to all men and women in terms of their usefulness by God for his kingdom.

What I mean is this: we have here a very gifted, talented, educated man and alongside of that we have a couple here. We have a couple who consists of a man who is a tent maker, a laborer with his hands, and his wife Priscilla. Not a lot of discussion about their background, their giftings or abilities. We don’t know much about that. We know they were essentially lay people though in the context of the church.

The question here is what will Apollos do as he encounters these lay people in the church who have more knowledge, more accurate knowledge, more extensive knowledge of the way of Christ than he has. And the answer is that he had the humility of character on top of everything else that allows him to learn from them. You see, most seminary graduates are not going to go to somebody’s house and not really know much about them and find out that the guy’s a tent maker and his wife and then humble themselves to hearing the teaching or instruction from that couple.

But that’s exactly what Apollos does. He isn’t puffed up in spirit. He’s humble before God. And as a result, God adds to his knowledge. And that is the final click, so to speak, that prepares him for his ministry at Corinth which will be great.

So Apollos gives us a picture of another qualification here for Christian ministers—a humility of spirit to learn even from those that do not have the education background or vocational calling that the minister has. And this incident also tells us a very important encouraging lesson for most of us and that is that regardless of the extent of our formal training, regardless of the extent of our particular vocational calling, we have much to offer by way of instruction to everyone else.

In other words, everybody in this congregation—not all people here will be called in the sense that Apollos was to be a minister of the gospel of Christ in its vocational sense. But everyone here is called to emulate, to see by way of example, and be encouraged to emulate the work of Aquila and Priscilla—lay people and yet whose knowledge of a particular aspect of the faith, the extension of that knowledge to Apollos provides much for his development.

When Apollos goes to Corinth and he gets all the credit for the great teaching that he does there to the extent that people actually sin by saying I’m a follower of Apollos or I’m a follower of Paul, he gets all the credit and glory. But in the background of all of that is the knowledge of the extension of the ministry of Christ that Aquila and Priscilla brought to him.

Okay. And so the point here is that you want to think of yourselves in terms of Aquila and Priscilla. And how would you react if you had a man come to you with an imperfect knowledge of the scriptures? Would your knowledge of the scriptures from your own personal study, from your submitting to the teaching of someone else—Paul in this particular case—would it be useful to encourage and add to the knowledge of someone else?

And here in the context of Priscilla and Aquila, it is. And so they give us a tremendous model of those who, while lay people, perform a great service to the kingdom through the extension of the ministry to Apollos.

Now I mentioned here that Priscilla is placed first and the implication seems to be that she maybe was more involved in helping Apollos come to a fuller knowledge of the scriptures than Aquila was. This is biblical as well. Nothing in the scriptures prevent women from encouraging, instructing, exhorting privately other husbands or other men as well. Now, as soon as I say that, you want to be careful to add that of course there should be a submissive spirit in the context of the calling, etc. But the point is that here the scriptures give us not a picture of Priscilla away in the background, not involved in this thing. It shows her in the foreground.

She is actively involved with her husband in the instruction of Apollos and in adding to him knowledge. So it’s very important for us to understand that because if we don’t and we don’t listen to our wives, for instance if you’re married, and if we don’t take advantage of the knowledge of the other women at this church, for instance, in the context of personal conversations and discussions, then we find ourselves somehow lessened as a result of a failure to come to a knowledge of those things that God provides through the instruction of women.

I saw a show on PBS last week—a horrific show. It was all on goddess worship and it was about past history of goddess worship, how the Christian church was terrible for getting rid of the witches and the pagans and then now the last in this three series of three programs was about full circle where goddess worship is emerging again. And you know, I mean, it was these are people who were subconsciously affirming themselves to be witches and pagans and the goodness of all of that and how terrible the Christian faith is.

And they had some guy on there—you’ve heard it before—that Paul was misogynist, was a woman hater, the New Testament is, you know, hates women, etc., etc.—nothing could be further from the truth. Well, there is a functional subordination of the wife to her husband and of the husband, by the way, to his employer, the lay people to the leaders in the church, and all of us to the leaders in the civil state.

Nonetheless, the scriptures affirm the absolute equality of essence of men and women and the fact is that pagan religions, just as pagan religions have usually led to some form of racism, so pagan religions also are frequently involved in some form of sexism even in goddess worship. What you find in people who get fairly self-defined about that, and as this show was, is that it’s not looking for some kind of equality of essence rather it looks for a superiority of women in terms of instruction of the universe and the correct principles of pagan worship and goddess worship.

Well, in any event, I want us all to be encouraged by this action of Priscilla and Aquila to see the importance of the role they play in the context of this whole story of Apollos and to come away from this with an apprehension of the need for humility and also a need to thoroughly equip ourselves in a knowledge of scripture, no matter what station or calling we’re at—whether we’re men or women, whether we’re lay people or called a vocational calling as ministers of the gospel. So that we might, when the time comes, add knowledge to those in the context of the body of Christ and so further the ministry of the entire extended body of Christ.

Okay. Well then, as Apollos submits himself with this instruction he gets then prepared for his further ministry. He then, for whatever means we don’t know how, goes to, decides to go to Achaia, over to Corinth in that area. And the brothers then write a letter of commendation for him.