Explain the gospel clearly! - Apollos in Ephesus (Acts 18:24-28)

[Stephan Choe]

November 10, 2023

Key verse 26: "He began to preach freely and openly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him in and explained the way of God to him more clearly."

We should always remember that every soul is more precious to God than the whole world. We should also remember that God can do his wonderful work through a person whom we help.

In the Acts of the Apostles, the conversion stories of individual people are reported when they are significant for the world mission.

Today we want to get to know the conversion of Apollos through the married couple Aquila and Priscilla.

The author of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke, introduces us to an evangelist named Apollos in verse 24. He was a Jew born in Alexandria. He was an eloquent man and powerful in the Scriptures.

Alexandria was on the north coast of Egypt, the second-largest city of the Roman Empire. Alexandria was known as a cultural and educational center; its library was the largest in the world at the time. Scholars report that this library contained 700,000 scrolls and other documents before it was destroyed by fire.

Apollos was an educated man. He had an education equivalent to what we might call university and graduate school today. His speech was impressive.

Verse 25 goes on to say, "This man was instructed in the way of the Lord and spoke fervently in the Spirit, speaking and teaching correctly about Jesus, but knowing only about John's baptism."

Apollos was therefore an eloquent man who knew how to move people.

Apollos also knew his way around the Old Testament.

Apollos was enthusiastic about Jesus. And he taught about Jesus passionately. He was "fervent in spirit"; literally "burning hot".

But Apollos did not know the core of the gospel, namely the way of salvation.

When I was a student at the University of Dortmund, I asked a German student in the university canteen: "What is the most important teaching in the Bible?"

He replied: "The Ten Commandments!"

Of course, the Ten Commandments are important. But they are not the most important teaching in the Bible. The most important teaching in the Bible is the Gospel.

The Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The testament here means contract. According to the Old Testament, the contract between Israel and God is concluded through the blood of the sacrificial animal. This contract is then completely fulfilled by the New Testament, as Jesus said at the Last Supper:

"This is my blood of the covenant (i.e. my blood of the contract), which is shed for many" (Mt 14:24).

The core of the gospel is that Jesus Christ shed his blood and died for our sin and then rose from the dead, so that anyone who repents of their sin and believes in the blood of Jesus and his resurrection will receive forgiveness of sin and be resurrected and enter the kingdom of heaven.

John Wesley is the founder of the Methodist movement. He grew up in the home of a minister, Samuel Wesley, and his godly wife Susanna. He attended Charterhouse and Oxford and became double professor of Greek and logic at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was subsequently ordained a minister of the Anglican Church.

During his time at Oxford, he helped found the so-called "Holy Club", a group that was nicknamed by the other students because of their serious efforts to cultivate their spiritual life.

On the evening of May 25, 1738, Wesley went to a small meeting where Luther's preface to Romans was read aloud. The preface explained salvation through simple faith in Jesus Christ.

Wesley confessed that God worked in his heart through faith in Christ so that he "felt strangely warm at heart". He continued, "I felt that I trusted in Christ alone for my salvation..."

This is called John Wesley's "Aldersgate experience". Although he knew a great deal about theology and was more committed than most believers, he was lost. But through the gospel he experienced salvation.

When Apollos preached in the synagogue, Aquila and Priscilla listened to his sermon.

And the couple invited this young preacher to their home and helped him to understand the gospel right.

Although Apollos was an educated man, he humbly sat at the feet of these tentmakers and learned more about the gospel.

Verses 27-29 read: "When he was about to travel to Achaja, the brothers wrote to the disciples there and recommended that they receive him. And when he had come there, he did much to help those who had believed by grace. For he vigorously refuted the Jews and publicly proved by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ."   Apollos publicly refuted the Jews and proved the deity of Jesus and the way of salvation on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. He was one of the best orators of his time. The work of the tentmaker couple helping in the background brought a great harvest of the gospel through Apollos.   The reading of Martin Luther's introduction to Romans by the unknown man in a small church led John Wesley to conversion, so that he started a movement to reduce social injustice and thus save England from a bloody revolution as in France. (Hughes. p. 249). The consequence of our spiritual help to others can become very significant if necessary.   I quote from the sermon of Pastor John Hamby[1]: as an example of such significant help:

“There was a young monk who knew Latimer and admired him. This monk, was known as “Little Bilney, because he was so short. He did not have much education. No one thought very much of him. But Bilney was save and he wondered how he might have an opportunity to share the gospel with Hugh Latimer. So he prayed and he finally hit upon an idea.

Priests were required to hear the confessions of anyone who wanted to confess their sins. So Bilney went up to Latimer and asked Latimer to hear his confession. Latimer said that he would and so they went into the confessional and Bilney confessed the gospel to him. He told him how he was a sinner and been unable to save himself, how Jesus had died for his sins and how by faith he had been saved. That was what he confessed to Latimer, in that way Latimer for the very first time heard the gospel and he was saved. That was a important moment in the English Reformation.

Latimer was eventually martyred for his faith, by being burned at the stake. On the day of his death he sought to strengthen the man who was to die with him. He said, “Be brave Master Ridley and play the man. We shall this day, by the grace of God, light such a candle in England as, I trust shall never be put out.” [James Montgomery Boice. Acts: An Expositional Commentary. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997.) p. 316]

We should always remember the transformation of Apollo through the help of Aquila and Priscilla. We should tell the gospel simply but clearly so that the hearers of the gospel can be redeemed from sin and receive the kingdom of heaven.

This is why the apostle Paul said in Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes in it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

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[1] https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/when-halfway-is-not-enough-john-hamby-sermon-on-christian-values-37347?page=3&wc=800