All right, Luke/Acts for Beginners. This is
lesson number 22, Paul's Third Missionary Journey. We're going to cover Acts chapter
18:23 to chapter 21, verse 14. So, if you remember correctly, one of the
last scenes that Luke describes is Paul's brief visit to Ephesus at the end
of his second missionary journey in Acts 18. The people there asked him to stay
longer, but he didn't, promising that he would return at a later date. This
return would take place on his third missionary journey. So let's take a look
at our outline. This is the outline that we're following. Note that this will be
Paul's final evangelistic trip before his arrest and imprisonment and
confinement in different locales. So let's go to chapter 18, shall
we, and begin reading chapter 18, verse 23. It says "And having spent some time there, he
left and passed successively through the "Galatian region and Phrygia,
strengthening the disciples." So we see here, Paul's mission work strategy in starting each journey with a visit to congregations that he had planted in
previous locations and on previous mission trips, in order to encourage and
teach and strengthen. So he plants a church, it gets going. He moves on, he
goes back to his home congregation, he comes around on another journey, and he
begins each journey with a visit to existing congregations. So let's
keep going here, and we go to chapter 18:24, "Now a Jew named Apollos, an
Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, "came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the
scriptures. This man had been instructed "in the way of the Lord; and being fervent
in spirit, he was speaking and teaching "accurately the things concerning Jesus,
being acquainted only with the baptism "of John. And he began to speak out boldly
in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and "Aquila heard him, they took him aside
and explained to him the way of God "more accurately. And when he wanted to go
across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged "him and wrote to the disciples to
welcome him; and when he had arrived, he "greatly helped those who had believed
through grace, for he powerfully refuted "the Jews in public, demonstrating by the
scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." So Apollos,
a Jew, who had been born outside of Judea, in Alexandria, which was the great city
in Egypt. It had been founded by Alexander the Great, the Greek
leader and conqueror. It had been - it had a great university and a library and
considered a place of high education and learning. So by mentioning that Apollos
from there, it's suggesting that this is where he was educated. He was a teacher
and orator. It was in this place that the Septuagint - the Septuagint is the
translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language. There came a
time when less and less Jews were speaking Hebrew. More and more of them
were speaking Greek, and consequently, could not read the scriptures in their
original language. So there was a need for a translation into the Greek. And
that translation is called the Septuagint, calling it the Septuagint
because there were 70 scholars that worked on that particular translation.
Luke describes Apollos, here, an important character, as eloquent, not
simply a good talker, but a trained speaker, a trained debater.
Said he was mighty in the scriptures, well-versed in the Bible; and able to use
his debating and speaking skills in the teaching of the scriptures. And, of
course, when he says he was mighty in the scriptures, then meant the Hebrew
scriptures, what we consider the Old Testament, okay. It is interesting to note
that they were proving that Jesus was the Christ using only the scriptures,
of course, that they had at the time, the Hebrew scriptures. And also, he
wasn't fully trained. He had been taught about Jesus by some of the
disciples of John the Baptist, and thus was teaching effectively what John the
Baptist had taught, and that was that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the
scriptures. He was teaching that effectively. The fact that Luke says
that he only knew the baptism of John, suggests that Apollos may have become
a disciple of John, receiving John's baptism, but was not aware of the
complete ministry of Jesus that included His death and His resurrection, and as
well as His ascension; and also the Great Commission to the Apostles to go preach
the gospel and baptize all repentant believers in the name of Jesus. This
may explain why after being taught more fully about
the the Way - the Way, this is howd Christianity was referred to early on as
the Way. He was not rebaptized. He had received the baptism of John,
just like the Apostles. You ever notice, the Apostles, they weren't rebaptized. Why?
Well, because they had received the baptism of John, which was the baptism
that they needed to have at the time when John was baptizing. And so, they
had fulfilled all righteousness in doing that. So Apollos was one of those. He was
someone who had received the baptism of John while the baptism of John was
required and in effect. He did not need to be rebaptized after the day of
Pentecost. Now, the idea here is that all those who received baptism before
Pentecost Sunday, that includes all the Apostles, the disciples of John the
Baptist, the disciples of Jesus, if you wish, before His death and burial and
resurrection. These people did not need to be rebaptized after Pentecost. How do
we know that? No example, no teaching, not only in the Bible, but nowhere in
history did anyone say, oh and by the way, hundreds and many,
many people were rebaptized. No. That's how we know that.
Those who received John's baptism, however, after Pentecost, they needed to be
rebaptized according to Jesus's baptism, which began to be preached on Pentecost
Sunday. And that's important because we're going to get to a part
here where that plays a major factor. So Luke inserts this episode concerning
Apollos, because he was a high profile teacher and preacher. Some scholars
believe that Apollos was the one who wrote the book of Hebrews. Again, that's
just an opinion, but many people think - he was certainly qualified to write this
book, but also because his short time in Ephesus sets up the next scene where
Paul returns to the city of Ephesus to continue the work that he had begun
there during his second missionary journey. So we see that Apollos
receives the necessary instructions from Priscilla and Aquila. Another kind of
interesting little story there. Note that Luke names the woman first.
Priscilla is the woman, Aquila is the man. Note that Luke names
the woman, Priscilla, first, indicating that she was the more able teacher of
the two. This did not contradict Paul's instructions restricting
women from teaching men in the collective assembly when the church
gathered, because this was a private matter not taking place while the church
gathered for public worship. You notice she didn't begin to teach
him while they were in the synagogue and while in the middle of his
thing. It says, afterwards they took him aside privately and they taught him more
perfectly. And you have to realize that the order that the names are
mentioned, very important in the Bible. Remember when we started our study of
Acts, and when Paul and Barnabas went off on their missionary, their first
missionary journey, they had John Mark with them. Notice, they always mentioned
Barnabas first. It was Barnabas and Paul and John Mark. Why? because Barnabas was
the head guy. But after a while, after the first miracle attributed to Paul
and they're moving on their missionary journey,
Luke switches and now it's always Paul and Barnabas. So those little things
are important. This is why Priscilla and Aquila, she was the one
that taught him. So, armed with the complete gospel, we're speaking of
Apollos here, armed with the complete gospel message, we see Apollos
continue in ministry, but much more powerful and effective than before. So we
go to the next section where Paul makes his way back to Ephesus and we read in
chapter 19. And now you'll see why it was important, this section on Apollos, when
we begin reading in Acts chapter 19. It says, "It happened that while Apollos was
at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper "country and came to Ephesus and found
some disciples. He said to them, 'Did you "receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?' And they said to him, 'No, we have "not even heard whether there is a Holy
Spirit.' And he said, 'Into what then were "you baptized?' And they said, 'Into John's
baptism.' Paul said, 'John baptized with the "baptism of repentance, telling the people
to believe in Him who was coming after "him, that is, in Jesus.' When they heard
this they were baptized in the name of "the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid
his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came "upon them and they began speaking with
tongues and prophesying. There were in "all about twelve men." So, wow, lots of
stuff here that we need to unpack in these seven verses. A lot of people
assume that these men were originally baptized by Apollos. I've heard that
taught many times, but there's nothing in the passage that supports this.
Nowhere does it say, Apollos baptized these people. That's just an assumption
that people make. The main difference between these men and Apollos, was that
he was mighty in the scriptures, and they were not. They didn't know anything about
the Holy Spirit. The similarity was that they knew and had received the baptism
of John, as had Apollos. And while he was at Ephesus, Apollos
had not required them to be rebaptized. Now, we can conclude,
however, that they received John's baptism some time after Pentecost,
because after having taught them more completely about Christ and the Holy
Spirit, what does Paul do? Well, he rebaptizes these people. So it's
interesting to note two things here: one, Paul bases his question about the
reception of the Holy Spirit on the kind of baptism they had. Think
about that for a minute. He didn't say, so what kind of experience
did you have? Or, how did you feel when you were baptized? He didn't ask that.
In connection with the Holy Spirit, there was no - he didn't say, did you
feel powerful? Did you have a special insight? He didn't say that.
He's saying, what kind of baptism, in connection with the Holy Spirit,
what kind of baptism did you have? Did you receive the Spirit? We don't even
know about the spirit. So what's he talking about here, when he's talking to
them. What was he questioning them about? Well here, he's talking about the - what
is it? The empowerment or the indwelling? Well, he's talking to them about the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is given and received through Jesus'
baptism, not John's baptism, right. What was John's baptism about? It was about
preparation, it was about forgiveness of sins. But John never spoke about
the Holy Spirit in connection with his own baptism. And then the second thing,
Paul transfers what now, when he says, he lays hands on them and they start
speaking in tongues, what did he transfer onto them by the laying out of his hands?
Well, he transferred the empowerment. This is a beautiful section here, because it
talks about very complicated things in a very simple fashion. And it shows
you the difference between both. He says, have you received the
Spirit? What baptism did you have? No, we never even heard about the Spirit. So
obviously they hadn't heard about the baptism of Jesus, for the
forgiveness of sins and the reception of the Holy Spirit, Acts
2:38. They didn't know about that. So he rebaptizes them. And then he
lays hands on them and they receive empowerment, to be able to - How do we
know? Because it says, they began speaking in tongues. They demonstrated that they
were the recipients of the empowerment. So these, then, became the first
legitimate converts in Ephesus. In Acts chapter 19 we continue reading, "And he
entered the synagogue and continued "speaking out boldly for three months,
reasoning and persuading them about the "kingdom of God, but when some were
becoming hardened and disobedient, "speaking evil of the Way before the
people, he withdrew from them and took "away the disciples, reasoning daily in
the school of Tyrannus. This took place "for two years, so that all who lived in
Asia heard the word of the Lord, both "Jews and Greeks." So we see again the
familiar pattern of preaching to the Jews, who reacted negatively, and then
Paul turning next to the Gentiles. Luke records that Paul spent a long time in
Ephesus, for him, two years, didn't usually stay that long in any place. He was
preaching exclusively to the Gentiles and he had success, since Luke says that
the gospel radiated out from this economic and political center to all
parts of that Roman province, probably through the various workers who
were trained and sent out from this location to preach. Luke mentions that
many miracles were performed by Paul and that God was using him in a mighty way,
to the point where some were trying to copy and use his name to produce
similar miracles, but to no avail. Of course this
information is included in the following passages, which we don't have
time to read right away. The results of his ministry were not only seen in
conversions and healings, but many who practice the black arts of magic and the
occult ended up piling up their books and burning their books - a true act of
repentance, that Luke describes in the other verses of this
passage. And so, Paul, seeing his work and the church
well-established in this region, begins to make plans to revisit churches
that he had planted in the region of Macedonia previously: Philippi and
Thessalonica, and the church at Berea, and of course the region of Achaia, the
church at Corinth, the church at Athens. He plans now to visit these churches
before returning to Jerusalem and beginning a possible fourth missionary
journey. This time he wanted to go to Rome. Remember, he wanted to go to Rome. He
goes to the major cities of the regions. Ephesus, major city in the region. Corinth, major
city in that region. And of course, in that day and time, Rome, I
mean, Rome was the capital of the world at that time. So he definitely wanted to
go to Rome to preach there. So he's contemplating these things when trouble
springs up, not from the Jews, who have been his usual opposition, but from the
Gentiles in the region, whose, excuse me, in the region, whose livelihood had been
affected by his preaching and teaching of Christ. Remember, he's in a pagan area,
he's teaching about Christ. That has impact, not only for those who believe,
but it has an impact on those who disbelieve as well. And we learn about
that as we read the section, or look at the section where Luke describes the
rioting that takes place in Ephesus. So he goes to Ephesus, or he is in
Ephesus. Ephesus is a great city of that region and time. It served as the major
port of entry for Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. There was a great
boulevards, 70 feet wide. Of course, today that's not a big deal, but in those
days, to have a boulevard 70 feet wide was quite amazing, that went through the
entire city. The population at that time in Ephesus, about 300,000 people. Again,
amazing for that time, such a large population. Many streets were lined with
marble, they had public baths. The theatre in Ephesus could
hold 50,000 spectators. The principle structure, of course, was
the temple of the goddess Diana, also called Artemis in the Greek. It was located
here. It was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In Greek mythology, Diana was described as the daughter of the gods Zeus and Leto,
and she was the twin sister of Apollo. She was venerated as the goddess of the
hunt, the goddess of wild animals, the wilderness, childbirth, the protector of
young virgins. Around the temple area there was a community that housed the
artisans who earned a pretty good living making coins and statues, as you see
in the diagram, in the picture here. They earned a good living making these things
in honor of the goddess Diana. And these people were organized into a guild, or
today we'd say a union. And they had considerable influence in a city like
Ephesus, where culture, religion and politics all mixed together as
a whole. So into this mix comes Paul the Apostle, who for two years preaches and
teaches that there is only one God and it isn't Diana. So, so long
as you're unsuccessful, nobody pays attention to you, but when you start
succeeding, that's when the knives come out, right. So it's the same
thing here. He preaches that there's only one God and that worship and obedience
to God is expressed by obeying and following only Jesus Christ. So part of
the Christian lifestyle requires one to abandon worthless idols like Diana and
give your life and resources to Jesus, not to the temple and all the religious
trinkets that they sold. So there was bound to be trouble here. So I'm going to
fast-forward, we're going to go to 19 and pick it up in verse 23, it says, "About
that time there occurred no small "disturbance concerning the Way." Notice,
they're always calling it the Way, meaning, Christianity. "For a man named
Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was
bringing no little "business to the craftsmen; these he
gathered together with the workmen of "similar trades and said, 'Men, you know
that our prosperity depends upon this "business. You see and here that not only
in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia "this Paul has persuaded and turned away
a considerable number of people, saying "that gods made with
hands are no gods at all.' "Not only is there danger that this trade
of ours fall into disrepute, but also "that the temple of the great goddess
Artemis be regarded as worthless and "that she, whom all of Asia and the world
worship, will even be deep dethroned from "her magnificence." So Luke describes the
riot and the threats against Paul that ensue, with the crowd dragging some of
his associates in theater, shouting confusion reigning. Finally a city
official quiets the crowd and warns them that they could be in trouble with their
unlawful assembly. So I've only read the section where one of the
union guys stirs up the trouble and what follows is the riot, where
they, the whole city, gathers at the - you know the arena that I showed you there before. They gathered there and they were wanting to harm
Paul. And then finally, an official of the city tells them, look,
we don't have a permit for this, basically. We don't have a right to
be here rioting and all this, and we're going to get into trouble if we continue, and that calms the crowd down. So this event here signals to Paul
that it's time to leave the city and the work and move on with his ministry. It
doesn't mean he quits the ministry, but all of a sudden he's become a lightning
rod that draws attention, negative attention, to Christianity. And he feels
it's a better thing that I remove myself, so that the disciples can
quietly continue their work. So Paul goes to Troas. The little
map here, there's Troas at the top. Luke summarizes Paul's journey through
Macedonia, encouraging the churches there and avoiding another Jewish plot to harm
him; and eventually finds his way to Troas, the place where he had received the
vision that led him to the fruitful ministry in Macedonia. Remember Troas? He
was there, saw the vision that said, come to Macedonia, we need help. So he goes
back there, Acts chapter 20, verse seven to 12. Again, we're going to move a little bit
ahead here, it says, "On the first day of "the week, when we were gathered together
to break bread," a lot of people say, how do you - why do you have communion every
Sunday? Because we read, not only here, but in many places, something like this - on
the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread. It was
a habit for them that on the first day of the week they gather together to
break bread. Meaning, to take the communion. "Paul began talking to them,
intending to leave the next day, and he "prolonged his message until midnight.
There were many lamps in the upper room "where we were gathered together. And
there was a young man named Eutychus "sitting on the windowsill, sinking into a
deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, "he was overcome by sleep and fell down
from the third floor and was picked up "dead. But Paul went down and fell upon
him, and after embracing him, he said, "Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.'
When he had gone back up and had broken "the bread and eaten, he talked with them
a long while until daybreak and then "left. They took away the boy alive and
they were greatly comforted." Always, the joke when the preacher reads this -
you think my sermon is long, he went until midnight. So Luke describes
this miracle in such an ordinary way. That's the thing, I mean, it says, he
was, the kid was dead, and Luke just says Paul went there and he laid on
him and he brought him back to life. He talks about this in an ordinary
way. I mean, a thirty foot fall, is that enough to kill you? Yeah, absolutely
it's enough to kill you. And yet, he brings the boy back with just a word. So Luke's skill is that he's able to describe in detail great spiritual
events, but make them look natural and familiar and real. Even though this
took place in a culture and a time far removed from ours, we can still
relate to the Bible study and the crowd, even the boy's sleepiness today. Sometimes, I won't mention names, but as I'm up there teaching or preaching and I'm
sure Marty sees the same thing, we know who's asleep. I mean, we can tell.
We can see, so we won't call out any names. For now, anyways. That rule may
change with time. And so, we move on here to Acts chapter 20, little further on,
Paul's farewell to the elders or farewell to the people in Ephesus. Luke
continues his meticulous accounting of Paul's movements by describing the
details of Paul's trip from Ephesus through Macedonia back to Troas. And now
on to Myletus, a coastal city south of Ephesus. Now in Acts chapter 20,
verse 16, we learn that Paul's goal is to be back in Jerusalem for the day of
Pentecost, a journey that will bring him some suffering, but once he gets to Myletus, Paul summons the elders from Ephesus to come and meet with him, and he
shares several important things with them. Another important section with a
lot of very, very important information about the church. So let's pick it
up in 20, verse 17, it says, "From Myletus "he sent to Ephesus and call to him the
elders of the church. And when they had "come to him, he said to them, "You
yourselves know from the first day that "I set foot in Asia, how I was with you
the whole time, serving the Lord with all "humility and with tears and with trials,
which came upon me through the plots of "the Jews; how I did not shrink from
declaring to you anything that was "profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house, "solemnly testifying to both Jews and
Greeks of repentance towards God and "faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now,
behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my "way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will
happen to me there, except that the Holy "Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every
city saying that bonds and afflictions "await me. But I do not consider my life
of any account as dear to myself so that "I may finish my course and the ministry
which I received from the Lord Jesus, to "testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of
God. And now, "behold, I know that all of you among whom
I went about preaching the kingdom, will "no longer see my face;
therefore, I testify to you this day that "I am innocent of the blood of all men,
for I did not shrink from declaring to "you the whole purpose of God." So he
starts with his personal situation. He begins by reviewing and confirming the
basis of his ministry with them, which is the preaching of the gospel, which he
declares he has done in full confidence, full confidence in all of its truth and
power. He also reveals that the Lord is directing him to return to Jerusalem. If
it was up to him, he'd stay in the field, planting and growing and helping
churches, because Jerusalem is "Peter - Peter and the other Apostles,
that's their area of ministry. He also reveals that trouble and imprisonment
await him there. Paul then declares that this is a final farewell and he reminds
them that he's preached the full gospel and he's confirmed it with his good life,
so that no one can blame him if they are lost and miss out on salvation. Don't use
me as an excuse to fall away, he says. You can't use me as an excuse to
say all Christians are hypocrites, and that teacher, well, he talked a good game, but he didn't walk the walk. Don't
use me in that way. I've given you the full gospel and I've lived my life in
such a way as to confirm what I have taught you. Then he makes an admonition,
an encouragement, direct, more precise, and more precise to certain
individuals. And those would be the elders. He says, "Be on guard for yourselves,"
yourselves here, meaning the elders. "Be on "guard for yourselves and for all
the flock, among which the Holy "Spirit has made you overseers, to
shepherd the church of God which He "purchased with His own blood. I know that
after my departure savage wolves will "come in among you, not sparing the flock;
and from among your own selves men will "arise, speaking perverse things, to draw
away the disciples after them. Therefore "be on the alert, remembering that night
and day for a period of three years I "did not cease to admonish each one with
tears. And now I commend you to God and "to the word of His grace, which is able
to build you up and give you the "inheritance among all those who are
sanctified." So Paul's comments on his personal work and conduct are not a
boast, they're an encouragement to these men on how they should act as leaders in
the church. You see what I did? You do the same thing. That's
the nub of what he's saying. You see what I have done, how I have acted. You
act in the same way. In these verses he gives them a warning to be careful
and do their main job as elders, and that is protecting the church against false
teachers and false teaching. Now it's interesting to see Paul use three
different terms in reference to these men and their ministry. In verse 17 he
refers to them as elders. And some of your translations the word presbytery
is seen. He refers to them as elders or presbyters. What does that word
mean? Well, it means a mature man, an older man, someone with experience. Then in
verse 28 he refers to these men as overseers. Another word for overseer
is bishop. What does that word mean? Well, that word means guardian or
leader. It refers to the position and the authority of that individual overseer,
right. We have that in the church, but you have that even in business. Who's the
overseer on this project? Who oversees the project? Well, it's the same idea here. And
then in verse 28 he also refers to the same men as shepherds.
Another word for shepherd, pastor. What does that mean?
Well, that refers to the work itself: caregiver; a leader that provides
care for a group. Now the reason I mention this, is that in the early
church all of these terms referred to the very same persons, and those were the
people, or the men, who were charged with the leadership in the church. For example,
elder, presbyter, this here denoted their age and their experience. The term
overseer or bishop, this referred to their authority and their
responsibilities. The term shepherd or pastor, this described their work and their ministry.
Only much later did churches, contrary to the scriptures, appropriate these names
to describe different positions of authority in the church. For example, a
pastor or a priest referred to a local minister or evangelist; and a bishop was
a man who was responsible for several congregations or a geographical area.
With time new titles were invented with even more power. You had archbishop, then
you had cardinal, then you had pope. Today we have women,
as well as openly gay men and women who serve as bishops for various
denominations. And that's a whole other book. The question is always, how did
we get there? Well, there's a way that you get there, but it's not subject for the
lesson that we have this morning. As we see in the Bible, however. In the Bible,
when we read about the construct of the church, we see that each congregation
had its own elders/bishops/pastors, along with deacons and evangelists and
preachers. And these people had leadership and responsibilities for
only one congregation. Just one. This is why we call brother Harold
Weaver, for example, one of our elders. We could call him a pastor. We could call
him a bishop. Those three words all refer to him, well, not only him, all
of our elders, if you wish. And Mike Coghill, for example, we don't call him
a pastor or an elder. No. Why? Because he's a minister, he's an evangelist. He's
not a youth pastor. There's no such thing as a youth pastor, okay. And
Hal over here, Hal is a deacon, and I am a minister or a preacher, not a pastor. I'm
a teacher, that's my role in the church. So part of our effort here,
and I kind of digress a little bit from the book of Acts. Part of our effort
as a New Testament church is to restore the structure and the order of the
church, as it was designed and described in the New Testament. If we were
sitting there with a blank piece of paper and a hundred Christians, let's
just say, and we said, well, let's organize this church. How do we organize
it? Who's in charge? Who does what? Where do we get that information? Well, we get
it from this. We find out that the leaders were called by different terms,
and these different terms simply refer to either their experience or their task
or their role or their position, but it was always the same person. And in
addition to this, there were men who served as deacons and others who served
as teachers. So this idea of sticking to God's
Word, is exactly what Paul encourages the Ephesian elders to do, if they want to
maintain the spiritual and biblical integrity of the church. In verse 32, "And
now I commend you to God and to the word "of His grace, which is able to build you
up and to give you the inheritance among "all those who are sanctified." Luke
finishes the chapter here with Paul's final encouragement to these elders, to
serve as he has served, not for financial gain.
And be generous, he quotes Jesus here, in verse 35, he says, "And everything I showed
you that by working hard in this manner "you must help the weak. And remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself "said, 'It is more blessed to give than to
receive." This is a quote of Jesus not contained in the Gospels. Very
interesting that he would quote this. So the scene here ends with an emotional
goodbye, as Luke notes that this will be the last time that these brethren will
see Paul. So we move on to chapter 21, and Luke likely sketches out the journey
returning Paul to Jerusalem and the trouble that awaits him there.
He received several warnings not to return, but he is adamant in reaching the
city, as we read in the section that describes the final prophecy concerning
what awaits him in Jerusalem. So let's read that section, he says, "When we had
finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived "at Ptolemaeus, and after greeting the
brethren, we stayed with them for a day. "On the next day we left and came to
Caesarea, and entering the house of "Phillip the evangelist, who was one of
the seven, we stayed with him. Now this "man had four virgin daughters who were
prophetesses. As we were staying there "for some days, a prophet named Agabus
came down from Judea. And coming to us he "took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, 'This is what the Holy "Spirit says: 'In this way the Jews at
Jerusalem will bind the man who owns "this belt and deliver him into the hands
of the Gentiles.' When we had heard "this, we, as well as the local residents,
began begging him not to go up to "Jerusalem. Then Paul
answered, 'What are you doing, "weeping and breaking my heart? For I am
ready, not only to be bound, but even to "die at Jerusalem for the name of the
Lord Jesus.' And since he would not be "persuaded, we fell silent, remarking,
"The will of the Lord be done!" Notice that Luke includes himself in the
group warning Paul. He says, we. Where is it, here in verse 14. "And since
he would not be persuaded, we fell silent." That includes Luke. That means
Luke was there watching what was taking place at that time. So we're going to stop here as far as our
textual journey, if you wish. A good stopping point. I want to give you just a
couple of lessons that we can draw from this particular section. Lesson number one,
lesson number one, God lowers his servants, no matter
how great they are. My two lessons here have to do with Apollos. A lot of
things I could talk about that we've covered, but I just want to draw a
couple of lessons from Apollos and his experience. For Apollos to go higher in
his service to God, this great man had to first go lower to receive what he lacked. It's a wonderful lesson there. Humility is a requirement for one who wants to
minister effectively in the name of the Lord. People are always saying, I wonder
where my ministry is? I want to be effective for the Lord. I want to find
what I can do to serve, and I want to serve effectively. What
should I learn and what book should I study? All good questions. But before you
you crack open a book, before you take an online course, before you shadow, maybe,
one of the deacons and find out how to serve, this is a good lesson
here. Before the Lord raises you up to serve Him effectively, He usually brings you
down. That you learn, we learn something about humility. Because I'll tell you
something, ministry will teach you humility in a hurry, so you better be
open to the idea that there may be some humbling experiences in line for you, if
you decide to go into ministry; and I don't just mean, quote, professional
ministry - I'm leaving my job, I'm going to go, and I'm going to study, and I'm going to become
a preacher or a missionary. Yes, that, but even if you decide to - I want to
get involved with people in the church, and I want to serve. Be ready to be humbled, because it's a humbling
experience. Alright, number two, and they're only two, preach what you know,
because you'll never know everything. Apollos lacked some important
information about Jesus and the gospel, but he launched out nevertheless and God
added what he needed in due time. My point here is that sometimes we use our
lack of knowledge as an excuse to do nothing. Oh, I can't teach, I couldn't teach a class, I couldn't get down there
in the auditorium and start teaching a class. Well, you know what? Nobody's asking
you to do that right now, but you might be able to teach someone else - your
neighbor, your grandkid, whatever. You know stuff. I tell people, you'd be surprised
how much you know. You get into a discussion with someone, a religious
discussion, a Bible discussion, and you'd be surprised how much material, how much
information you've absorbed over the years. Up in Canada, I was
preaching and teaching up there, and I had a class about evangelizing
the community and all that stuff and some people were saying, well I
just don't know where to start. Where do I start? I mean,
sixty-six books. Where do I start? In Acts? Matthew? And I told them, start with your
story. Start with your story. How did you become a Christian? How did you - you were a kid in the church and you used to
come to church and you went to VBS as a kid, and later on at camp you became a Christian?
Start there. You were an adult and you were married and you weren't a Christian
and your wife was a Christian, and she dragged you to church and one day the
preacher said something that piqued your interest and you asked the question and
you had a Bible study with him and then when he said such-and-such, that really
hit you. Tell your story. You know your story. You're not embarrassed about
your story. You won't forget any facts about your story. You can answer any question about your story. Start with your story. I
guarantee you that will lead naturally to other things. So preach what you know,
because you'll never know everything, all right. Next week our reading assignment, Acts 21:15 to 23:11. We're getting down to the end here, all right. Thank you very much for your attention.
I'll see you next week.
