The Necessity and Finality of Jesus Christ

Acts 18

I. Paul’s Work at Corinth and brief stop at Ephesus – Acts 18:1–21

A. Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla. They, like Paul were Jews and tentmakers.

1. 1. They had been driven from Rome by an anti-semitic decree of Claudius (2).
   2. Paul resided with them and evidently worked for them in their tent-making business. Having left Athens alone, God provided a rich source of friendship, fellowship, and employment for Paul while he oriented himself to this new opportunity for gospel labors. It was good that their trade was mobile, for otherwise the decree would have been an even more severe hardship. In God’s providence, however, their hardship was for the well-being of Paul. He could support himself as he evangelized (3)
   3. Paul went to the Synagogue, and, according to his pattern, reasoned from the Scripture each Sabbath with the intent of persuading both Jews and Greeks who were there that the promised Messiah had come, and Jesus of Nazareth was he (4). Note that in 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote, “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4, 5).
   4. We are not told about the religious persuasion of Aquila and Priscilla, but at some point during this time, they believed the message (they probably attended synagogue on Sabbath and heard Paul), and became devoted followers of the way of the Lord.
   5. Also, from what follows, they paid careful attention to Paul’s method of argument and to the fullness of theology he taught, applying the Old Testament to his knowledge, revealed by God, of the person and work of Christ. They began to imbibe the fullness of the apostolic doctrine.

B. Silas and Timothy arrived in Corinth (5).

When Silas and Timothy came, Paul was able to devote himself fully “to the word.” The text indicates that he worked intensely and with unrelenting earnestness concerning the message. His method was the same in testifying that “Jesus was the Christ.” The full Old Testament witness to the Christ was true of Jesus: He was born of a virgin, lived righteously, taught with absolute truthfulness and authority all that the Old Testament presented about law, creaturely disobedience and the necessity of ransom and resurrection. In his crucifixion the iniquity of his people was laid on him, giving himself for our sins, but he did not see corruption, for on the third day his body came out of he tomb. Presently he lives with the Father in heaven as Son of God and Son of Man, and will come again to receive his saints, judge the nations, and of his kingdom on the throne of his father David there shall be no end.

C. In accord with the pattern, Jewish leaders opposed Paul’s message.

1. 1. Soon, even as in the life of Jesus, the Jewish leadership began to oppose his teaching even to the point of blasphemy. Paul’s dramatic visual manifestation of shaking off responsibility for them (6) shows his sense of having performed the call of a faithful watchman to Israel (Ezekiel 33:7–11)—If you “do not speak to warn the wicked . . . his blood I will require at your hands. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul” (Ezekiel 33:9).
   2. To this result of his teaching, Paul referred in 1 Corinthians 1 when he wrote, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:22, 23 ESV).
   3. In response to the violence of Jewish opposition to this message earlier in Thessalonica, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved” (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16). Paul saw this pattern of hostility developing and would need a word of assurance to stay his ground and extend the time of his labors.

D. Paul received a vision of encouragement (7–10).

1. 1. Among the early converts was a man named Titius Justus in whose house Paul went to continue his teaching about Jesus. This man is described as a “worshiper of God,” meaning a Gentile who had embraced the truth of the Old Testament witness to God. Also, Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue and his entire family believed. It seems that this cost him his position among the Jews for later Sosthenes is mentioned as ruler (17). Also “many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized” (8). Paul baptized Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas (1 Corinthians 1:14–17). His helpers baptized others.
   2. The assurance that God would protect him and that no one would harm him indicates that Paul did not take the violence and opposition that surrounded his preaching with an utterly detached, unrippled heart; he had that natural instinct of self-preservation that he would invoke at times (See Acts 9:25, 29–30; Also see his request for prayer in Romans 15:31, “That I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea”). Recall also his insistence on an orderly treatment in Philippi from the officials there (Acts 16:37–40).
   3. Beyond that God told him that “I have many people in this city.” The operations of sovereign, effectual grace would accompany his ministry. The confidence in this was his highest motivation in life. This assurance and the results of its truthfulness Paul noted when, again he wrote to the Corinthian church and reminded them, “But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. . . . Consider your calling brothers; … God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1: 24, 26, 27).
   4. Paul stayed for 18 months “teaching the word of God among them.” Aquila and Priscilla certainly absorbed the fullness of apostolic doctrine during this time. They would have grasped a mature understanding of the gospel not only Christologically, but in views of sin, the operations of grace, the nature of the atonement, the doctrine of the resurrection, and the centrality of the cross as the point that brings coherence to all revealed truth.

E. The Jews sought legal action against Paul.

Luke inserts the event with the Jews and Gallio (12–17) as an illustration of the manner in which God kept his assurance to Paul.

1. 1. The Lord overruled their intention of evil toward him and averted it by the determination of a pagan political leader. The Jews, “with one accord” took Paul and sought to get the Proconsul, Gallio, to make a judgment against him because his teaching was upsetting them. He refused, rightly so, and drove them away from him.
   2. Mysteriously, they began to beat Sosthenes. Perhaps they suspected that he too had become a follower of The Way and did not participate with them in bringing charges against Paul. It is clear that he did become a believer for he was with Paul in Ephesus when Paul wrote his first letter to Corinth. Probably Sosthenes brought news to Paul from the church.

F. Paul, along with Aquila and Priscilla, go to Ephesus (18–21).

He is there for a brief time and then came back for a ministry of more than two years (19:8–10)

II. Aquila and Priscilla listened to and gave instruction to Apollos – Acts 18:24–28

A. A Description of Apollos.

1. 1. He was “mighty in the Scriptures.” This is a goal to which we all should aspire. How did Apollos become so well-trained in the Scriptures?
   2. It seems that the parents of Apollos were thoroughly Hellenized, so they named him Apollos, a derivative of Apollo, the Greek god of poetry, music and speech. Accordingly, taking advantage of the intellectual climate of Alexandria, it appears that they gave him training in these classical disciplines, so that in rhetorical skill he was greatly advanced.
   3. In addition, though Luke does not tell us how or where, he had “been instructed in the ways of the Lord.” Jews from Egypt were present when Peter preached at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Possibly, a believers’ community had been established in Alexandria very early. If so, it would likely have engaged in biblical interpretation interacting with the Jewish allegorist/philosopher/theologian Philo. The constant challenge to understand the Jewish Scriptures as they relate to other systems of thought would have provided fertile ground for Christian development of Christ-centered interpretation.
   4. It is puzzling as to why Apollos would have known only the baptism of John if his contact with the Christian faith had come through Egyptian Jews present at Pentecost. See Acts 2:38. This could be an indication that he was unaware of the completed ministry of Christ, though he knew clearly all the teachings of John about the superiority of Christ’s person [“I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34)] and the uniqueness of his work. The increasingly detailed revelation of Christian truth in the apostolic preaching Apollos had not experienced. His acquaintance soon would be enlarged.

B. The actions of Apollos.

Both his training and his Christian commitment showed up prominently in his appearance in Ephesus.

1. 1. He was unafraid to speak with fervency and boldness. The root of the matter from a fundamental spiritual standpoint seemed to be vibrant. He was speaking and teaching “accurately the things concerning Jesus.” He was not giving a false theology, and all that he said was consistent with the messianic material of the Old Testament. Apparently, he knew well the message of repentance and related it to Jesus much in the way that John the Baptist had done. He would have emphasized also the place of Jesus as the Son of God, his heavenly origin, that he is the lamb that takes away the sin of the world, and that he gathers a new people by the work of the Holy Spirit. (Luke 3:7–22; John 1:19–37).
   2. In spite of much that was accurate and stated fervently, Apollos lacked some complementary points about Christ. His love for Christ as viewed through the teaching of John the Baptist and the rudiments of the gospel was sincere and he was willing to be instructed by those who understood these issues more clearly.

C. The advice of Aquila and Priscilla.

Aquila and Priscilla had learned from hearing Paul preach for these eighteen months. After hearing Apollos, “They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

1. 1. We are never beyond the necessity of learning the way of God more accurately. Being correct in doctrine is not an anti-spiritual condition. It is necessary. The revelation of God concerns mysteries that are now disclosed and they cover more of the truth about God and ourselves than we could ever master in ten life-times. We must never stop learning the way of God more accurately. We must always be willing to be instructed in everything that the Bible says.
   2. Differences in denominations come because people have disagreed, and continue to do so, about certain doctrinal issues. People who believe that the Scripture teaches that only those who have believed the gospel should be baptized would find it difficult to be in a denomination that insists that baptism of infants is a biblical idea.
   3. Even within the same denomination, some may disagree over various aspects of the doctrine of salvation. Some might have a very strong view of the person of Christ, his substitutionary death on the cross, the resurrection and the necessity of repentance and faith, but have a strong conviction that the human will is convicted and enticed by the Spirit rather than being drawn irresistibly and effectually. The meekness of Apollos is necessary in these situations.
   4. Confessions of faith serve the purpose of establishing a goal for doctrinal instruction and doctrinal unity in a congregation and a denomination. Such a well-constructed document sets before us an arrangement of biblical truth that has been discerned and developed through the centuries by the combined insights and disciplined study of gifted teachers among the people of God.
   5. Peter recognized that Paul taught with the “wisdom given to him” some things that were hard to understand. Since ignorant people twist some of these things, as they do the rest of the Scriptures “to their own destruction,” we should be steadfast in our attention to divine truth and always be ready to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:14–18).

D. The Subsequent ministry of Apollos.

Having received the message of the gospel more in depth, and understanding more clearly the great commission of Christ, Apollos went to Corinth. He was recommended by the brethren in Ephesus, including Aquila and Priscilla, as profitable for ministry. Under the ministry of Paul, God’s rich grace had brought many people to believe; now Apollos “greatly helped those who had believed through grace.” Evidently the believers had been harassed by the Jews who had opposed Paul before he left (18:12, 13), and now Apollos, instructed in Pauline theology, “powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.” In 1 Corinthians, Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:5–8).

Poem

With trembling weakness, creeping fear,
Paul went to Corinth with the word;
A friendly face, a voice of cheer,
A common quest, Paul’s prayers were heard.
His craft he practiced in the week,
But Sabbath brought a time to speak.

When Timothy and Silas came,
Paul preached and reasoned every day.
“Messiah, Jesus,” he proclaimed.
The Jews abused all Paul would say.
“To you the gospel first I give,
But Gentiles now will hear and live.”

His people heard, refused the Christ,
But Crispus’ household all believed.
Then every member was baptized,
Because from sin they were relieved.
Many Gentiles grasped salvation,
Citizens of God’s new nation.

When fears arose, the Lord did speak
To Paul to preach and not relent.
“You won’t be hurt, and I have sheep
Right here, to hear, believe, repent.”
Foes tried to stop him but could not,
God’s wise provision spoiled their plot.

How free God’s mercy, how profound,
That to a city rife with shame,
God showed how mercy would abound
Through blood-bought grace in Jesus’ name.
Nor wise, nor strong, nor noble birth
Attain God’s favor, match its worth;
But sovereign wisdom grants a place
To those He chose for saving grace.