Working Together for Christ

Well, good to be in the house of the Lord this morning. In the house of that one God. We've come here to worship him, to look into his word. Good to see faithful saints of God. Glad you're here. Good to have the hyphen class with us. Have them here.

Kind of just tilted the age a little bit for today. Acts chapter 18. I'm going to read passage at the beginning and a passage at the end of the chapter. For those that are with us today, if you have not been, we are looking at some what I term minor characters in the book of Acts. They're not necessarily minor. They don't get the press that Peter and Paul did. And so they were those that were working alongside them, helping them and establishing churches and working in the kingdom of God.

So Acts chapter 18, the first three verses says this. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and he came to Corenth and he found a certain Jew named Aquilla, born in Pontis, who lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because the Claudius Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And he came unto them, and because he was of the same craft, he abodeed with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And then to the end of the chapter beginning at verse 24 it said and a certain Jew named Apollos born at Alexandria. He was an eloquent man mighty in the scriptures came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the ways of way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit he spake diligent 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 Aquilla and Pil Priscilla heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

So, as we continue our studies today of these these players in the book of Acts, we encounter three names that we've not yet looked at or studied. And in some ways, their story is almost told as an aside. It's kind of put in here sandwiched in between Paul's movements in chapter 18. You see them at the beginning of the chapter, you see them at the end of the chapter. Uh but they're kind of placed in there. And in some ways, uh we look at these, but they seem just like an aside, but they played an important role in the early church. Two of them would go on to become dear friends and companions to the Apostle Paul, sometimes traveling with him.

uh definitely working alongside them while the third would become one of the greatest preachers probably of this new movement. So I think studying them will give us some insight into the world of the first century church but it'll also provide I think an example of reaching others of the gospel and it will show us how Paul was depended on the help of others as he fulfilled his role as the apostle to the gentile.

Acts 17 tells of Paul's sermon on Mars Hill. Athens was a new field for Paul. He had just gone in there for the first time. It was the seed of Greek knowledge. It was I guess if there were an equivalent in the United States, it'd be like walking into Boston where there are many universities and you know have these higher philosoph philosophical ideas. And so unlike the cities he had visited previously that had a strong Jewish presence, there was not so much of that here as there were a lot of philosophers and educators and people Literally the Bible tells they just stand around trying to hear something new. What else can we learn today?

What can we think about? So Paul's sermon there shows his attempt to reach these uh who had little or no understanding or maybe even knowledge of Hebrew scripture. They were more into Greek philosophy and the worship of Greek gods and those kind of things. And so he began by pointing out the religious although pagan. He said I perceive you're all too the word there is literally translates to religious. you're very religious with what you believe. But then he proceeded to argue from them from some of their poets and he preached unto them about this unknown at least unknown god to them.

And they listened intently as as he went along there trying to trying to catch their attention and trying to get get them to to pay attention to what he was saying. And they listened intently until he got to verse 31 and he said, "By that man, speaking of Jesus, whom God hath ordained, whereof he had given assurance to all men in that he raised him from the dead."

Now, as soon as those words came out of Paul's mouth, that was too much for the Athenians. They jeered the idea of bodily resurrection. They didn't believe in that at all. They thought religious things were on a different plane completely than spiritual things and there could never be any meeting in between the two. And so, Paul made very few converts in Athens and literally left very discouraged. You can you can't really it doesn't Bible doesn't say that explicitly but you can read it in the writings and in the text when you put together his letter letter to the Corinthians and also here in Acts chapter 18. No doubt as the apostle to the Gentiles maybe he thought this ought to be the best field I enter.

Everywhere else I go, I start in the synagogues and I preach there to Jews and and finally, you know, that works for a while until they get mad and kick me out. But by then, I've got enough of a congregation that we can reach out and do Gentiles, too. And and so perhaps he felt, well, now that I'm in Athens and I'm the apostle to the Gentiles, maybe I'm going to have a really good time here and they're just going to grab it. And not much happened.

So, he spent the next months in Corinth, uh, no doubt rehashing his speech and thinking about trying to figure out what my approach should have been what should I have done differently and his mood can be discerned really from the first letter written to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 he said I brethren when I came to you I didn't come with excellency of excellency of speech or of wisdom now in Athens he would have needed those things that excellency of speech that wisdom the wisdom of man and the wisdom of knowing some this knowledge that they would he said I didn't come that way to Corinth, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For here's what I determined, and I think he determined this after his experience in Athens. He I determined not to know any among you, anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. So, I'm not going to approach you from your pagan viewpoint. I'm going to just preach to you Jesus. And he said, "And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." That doesn't sound like the Paul we know, does it? He boldly proclaims the word everywhere he goes, but he's there and he's in weakness and fear.

He said in my speech and my preaching, it wasn't enticing words of man's wisdom. It wasn't those kind of things I tried in Athens, but it was in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith would not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

I think what he realized was man's wisdom had failed him in Athens and it was only it was in Corinth that Paul learned maybe again but he learned the lesson that preaching is only effective when it is accompanied by the power of God. Aren't you thankful for anointed preaching? Aren't you thankful when the spirit of God moves on the person that is giving the word of God and things begin to happen and the power of the Holy Ghost begins to move? And Paul realized I I was there in Athens and I I thought, you know, I'm being smart. I'm quoting your pro your prophets, your poets, and I'm telling you all these different and I'm going to introduce you to this God. And they all looked and laughed out of place. I think you realize maybe as Peter did early in the book of Acts where they said now Lord reach out your hand do the miraculous do those things that we may glorify you and that people would be touched by the word of God in your life and so he he learned this lesson no doubt again

it was also in Corenth that Paul met the first two characters we're going to study today he met a husband and wife team Aquilla and Priscilla their introduction is brief but it does give us a little bit of insight into who they who they uh we learn and we read in that first uh passage that we read that they had recently come to uh Corinth or or to Corinth having left Rome. Now the reason they had to leave Rome history tells us that Claudius the emperor there banished them from Rome uh because they were constantly historians say were making disturbances instigated by one crest. Now that's a Latin spelling of Christ. uh he didn't go in to explain it. The historian didn't a whole lot. The Roman historian, but probably could not distinguish the Christians from the Jews because to outside observers in the earliest years of the Christian movement, Jews and Christians were often regarded as one group. And in fact, it's probably true that the Christians in Rome particularly continued to those that were Jews continued to define themselves as Jews.

although a sect of the Jews because the Jews had freedom to worship in Rome whereas had they said we're not Jews we're Christians they probably would have faced more persecution immediately so if the account is accurate then Aquilla and Priscilla may have been probably were Christians who had already suffered persecution and had gone to Rome and then there forced out of Rome and so they came to Corinth to begin their work as tent makers Paul was also a tent maker and he used this business to not overburdened the congregations. He supported himself as he would go around as an evangelist. Um, however he met them, we really don't know. It doesn't tell us a whole lot. But it does say that they opened her home to them, their home to them, for he abodeed with them. So Paul coming to Corinth, he finds these people of like employment that he did also Christians and Jews and so he stays in their house. According to verse three and 18, having already settled, And Priscilla hosted Paul when he traveled there.

And and having found Paul realized that what Paul did, he goes to declare to the synagogues that Jesus is the Messiah. Maybe they didn't know a whole lot about Paul. I don't know. The Bible does not say. And they could have, if you think about it, in the interest of protecting themselves and personal sa safety, distance themselves from him. They could have said, "You know what? We saw what happened in Rome.

We don't want to be involved with another Christian rabble rouser that's going to go into the synagogues and preach Jesus and we end up with in the same situation we were in Rome. They just escaped Rome and its citizens hatred and just trust for Christians. It would have been easy for them to just kind of hide and lay back and lay low and not do anything working quietly in the country, you know, yes, being Christians, but but they didn't choose that. I think it's because, you know, once you're a Christian, your life changes. And you can't be an undercover Christian. Nobody will know. I'm just gonna go ahead and I'm not going to tell them.

You live for Jesus, people are going to know. If you live for Jesus, people are going to know. Amen.

His powerful enemies became their enemies. And his friends, Paul's friends, became their friends. It's likely Paul spent time in Corinthians with these new found as he spent that time. He he remained there for about an a year and a half.

And at the end of this time then again things begin to happen very similar to what was happening in Rome. In this case in Acts 128 1812 it tells us this that Jews made an insurrection with one accord against Paul. So okayquill and Priscilla are probably saying well we've seen this before. They get Paul and they drag him before the judgment seat before Gallo the deputy and they bring him before and say, "We need this man is stirring up problems. He's doing this." And Gallo looked at them and said, "You know what? This has to do with your rules, your laws. I don't want to hear it.

Just get out of my courtroom. Just get out of here. I'm not interested." Well, once some of the Greeks heard that, they thought, "Well, if it works for them, it'll work for And so they got the leader of the Jewish synagogue, took him before the council, and they literally beat him right in front of Gallo. Gallo said, "I'm not interested. I'm not I'm not getting involved in this thing." So perhaps because the situation was getting very dangerous at that time, Paul said, "Okay, I'm I'm getting out of here. We've established a church here in Corinth. We've got a great congregation." And so he headed to Ephesus and he takes Priscilla and Aquilla with him.

The Bible says in verse 19, "And he Paul came to Ephesus and he left them Brazil and Aquilla there, but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. And when they desired him to tar longer time with them, he consended not." So he said, "No, I've got other things to do." So he ba them farewell, saying, "I've got to I'm heading to Jerusalem. I got to be there for a feast, but I will come again if God wills." And he sailed from Ephesus. So he left Aquilla and Priscilla there. and Paul went on to Ephesus and then eventually to Jerusalem.

While that happened and the rest of the chapter 18 goes through a little bit of detail about what Paul's journeys were. But at the end of chapter 18, Luke takes a few moments to turn from Paul's journeys to give us this momentary but telling glimpse of Priscilla and Aquilla's evangelistic success in Ephesus. I'm thinking when Paul left, they didn't just sit back into an old life and say, "You know what? He's gone. I don't to work, you know, pastors out of town. I'll just do what I want to do. But they began, they continued to do what they did.

They continued to visit the synagogues. They tended to be in churches. And while they're there, they met and instructed a certain man named Apollos. Luke's description of this man has caused many to wonder what man or man this was. I think he he carries a lot of intrigue with him because probably So little we know about him. But what we know basically comes from the text we read. A certain Jew born in Alexandria, an eloquent man writing scriptures.

So as a Jew from Alexandria, Apollos was already familiar with the scripture. Alexandria was a place of great learning. It had a great library there. It was in Alexandria that the Old Testament was first translated into Greek. what is known as the Septuagent version which is what the disciples often used. Early churches no doubt used that for their old testament because they could read it in Greek and not Hebrew. Uh Jesus quotes it in several places and so it was a very wellnown text but that came out of Alexandria.

It was a place where uh many great philosophers and scholars would go there or come out of there. And so this is where Paulos was from. This was his background. He came from Alexandria was in Egypt, but it it would probably comparable to Athens in Greece as far as a place of great knowledge.

And so Bible also tells us that Paul that Apollos was very eloquent. Read that passage earlier where Paul said, "I, brethren, I didn't come with excellency of speech or of wisdom. My speech and preaching was not with enticing words with man's wisdom." It's very possible Paul wrote that because he was comparing his style to that of Apollos. I think well there's no doubt Paul impacted the first century church more than any other man. Yet I think it's very likely that Apollos was probably the better preacher just from the way he spoke. He was perhaps the outstanding pulpit or of the first century church probably one of the greatest. And all of us probably had favorite preachers.

And no doubt Apollos, you know, he he probably got to preach at every camp meeting, at every general conference. You know, make sure Apollos is on the it'll draw. He's quite the preacher. So he was eloquent. He could speak unlike me where you trip over words all the time. He could do it very well. So he was, the Bible also said he was mighty in scriptures.

A Jew from Alexander, he was already familiar with that Old Testament. that is he was familiar of course Old Testament not new it hadn't been written yet but very familiar with that and that was the the Bible of the early Christians the old old testament book they did not yet have the new testament but he had studied the old testament he knew it well he knew the promises he knew the prophecies he knew something probably of types and shadows and things that pointed to this Messiah that was coming and he was looking for that Messiah he was expecting them as Isra