Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Has the hot weather of summer, arrived where you live?! Oh, my it’s warm here where my wife and I live, but then again that’s fairly normal for summertime, here. What is also normal is the arrival of many new people moving into our area during summer. New people bring new ideas, right? I’m sure you have experienced that where you live.
In our journey with the apostle Paul, as recorded in Acts 18:23, we have just watched Paul launch his THIRD great missionary journey. This one will take him more miles, over more time, than his previous voyages. We left Paul yesterday in Lystra, at least that’s where I think Paul likely went, after launching from Syrian Antioch, as he had done before. (Acts 16)
As we’ve been traveling with Paul, perhaps you’ve been wondering what has been going on with the other apostles, those famous like Peter or John, Matthew, Andrew and those very little is written about like Philip, Nathaniel, Simon the Zealot, James the less and others? The truth is, the Bible gives us very little insight into the lives of these men after Jesus ascended back to heaven.
Historians, like Josephus and others, give us some accounts, and we have two letters written by Peter, and five books written by John, as well as Matthew’s Gospel, but very little Biblical detail of their lives and travels. As Paul began his third journey, Luke wrote this in Acts 18:24 “Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. Apollos began to speak boldly in the Ephesus synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”
What a fascinating and powerful statement. The word “Meanwhile” of course, helps us understand that evidently, not long after Paul left his brief first visit to Ephesus, (Acts 18:19-21) on his journey back to Caesarea, then Jerusalem and finally Syrian Antioch, (Acts 18:22) a newcomer named Apollos arrive in Ephesus and fairly quickly was becoming recognized as a voice worth listening to. A new teacher was in town!
In these few sentences Luke gives us some remarkable detail about this man Apollos. First, he was a Jewish man from Alexandria, Egypt. While there were many great cities across the Roman empire in the first century, few other than perhaps Rome itself, were more impressive than Alexandria. Named after Alexander the Great, who developed it into a magnificent city of palatial architecture, advanced educational, business prosperity, and regional influence, three hundred years before Jesus was born, this great city dominated the world! A very large and highly respected Jewish population lived here in peace with Greeks, Romans, Africans and people from almost everywhere in the known world.
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, accomplished by perhaps 72 Jewish scholars sometime in the 3rd century BC, stands as one of the great contributions of Alexandria to the world, for Greek was the global language then and for the next several hundred years, during the Roman empire. Evidently Apollos had grown up and been well educated in Alexandria, and for some reason he came to Ephesus, an accomplished orator and teacher. Alexandria was held in such high esteem that once
Apollos was known to have come from Alexandria, he had a standing invitation to every Synagogue in Ephesus, any time, and very soon his name became well known and respected among Jews all across Ephesus. When Luke describes Apollos as having ‘a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures’, that would suggest Apollos had extensively studied that Septuagint, and taught eloquently from it.
Did you notice Luke’s description of Apollos’ spiritual development? “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.” Evidently Apollos understood and proclaimed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and Apollos challenged Jews, as John the Baptist had done, to repent of their sin and trust in Jesus as their Messiah.
But Apollos had never met Jesus, nor had he ever met Paul or Peter, or any of the other apostles, nor possibly anyone who had known Jesus. Evidently Apollos did not know about or even understand the atonement, crucifixion death or the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, nor about His ascension to heaven. Apollos did not know the Gospel of Jesus as Paul had been proclaiming it, nor did Apollos have any understanding of believers’ baptism.
Perhaps most significant, Apollos had no understanding of what happened at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit of God came from heaven and anointed the followers of Jesus, (Acts 2) nor did Apollos understand the work of the Holy Spirit in the regeneration of a person who trusts in Jesus, nor the ongoing role of the Holy Spirit in the life of an authentic, ‘born again’ Christian.
Wow, when we say it that way, there’s a tremendous amount about Jesus and His Gospel that Paul was teaching, but Apollos had never heard! Apollos was well educated, had an unusual and powerful ability as a public speaker, and was passionately convinced that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but there was so much more about Jesus that Apollos didn’t know, that his teaching was not very helpful in drawing people to the Redemption or Regeneration or Reconciliation or Adoption or Justification or Sanctification or eternal life that Jesus offers people as we trust Him to save us from our sin!
Now as we close today, may I ask you to consider what is taught by your Pastor, Priest, Rabbi or Imam or whatever spiritual leader you follow. Are you receiving God’s full truth or a distorted or abbreviated version of God’s truth? Are you sure?
I ask you to ponder that while listening to this song, and we’ll come right back here tomorrow to find out what happened with Apollos.
Today’s Scripture is Acts 18:24-26.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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