The People God Uses

Take your Bibles with me and turn to Acts 18. Acts 18 we are going to look at the second half of this chapter. I took the week off from Acts last Sunday. Mainly because I got to this passage and had no idea where to go with it. You'll see why in a second.

If you remember, in the beginning of Acts 18 the apostle Paul starts the church in Corinth and he stays there a long time. He has freedom there. Protection there. God enables him to write several books of the Bible there. But Paul moved on, and the last half of this chapter tells us what happens next. It covers A LOT. In fact, Paul does more traveling in these 10 verses than he has done in his whole missionary journey. There is a lot of work going on here. It's easy to get lost in the details.

Let's read Acts 18 verse 18-28.

"And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow. And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples."

"And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he 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 Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ."

Introduction: Overview of the chapter. Ok, like I said, there is just a ton of stuff going on in this passage. Lots of details. If you can just hang with me on those details for 3 minutes I'll get to what the mean. But we have to trudge through this first.

The church at Ephesus is founded. It just sort of very quickly gives us two very important pieces of history. The church at Ephesus was probably the most significant church in New Testament times. Everybody spent time in Ephesus - Peter, John, Paul, Appolos. It kind of became the center of the early church for awhile. Here it tells us how the Ephesus church was started.

Paul had wanted to go to Ephesus before he got his "macedonian call" but God had stopped him from going there and sent him to Macedonia and Greece instead. But in this passage Paul is leaving Corinth and traveling by boat back to Jerusalem and he just stops over in Ephesus for awhile.

The reason why Paul was going to Jerusalem is really interesting. In fact, that's what most of the material that has been written on this passage talks about. The text says he vowed a vow and he had to go to Jerusalem. Jewish people would sometimes voluntarily vow vows, shave their head and then burn the hair in Jerusalem. So that is what Paul is doing here.

Apparently, he was so overjoyed in what God had done in Corinth that he wanted to do something to show his gratitude to God so, being a Jew, he did the most jewish thing he could think of and took a temporary Nazarite vow. So that's kind of the back story. As weird as it sounds to us, he has to get to Jerusalem with this hair.

Ok. So on his way back he takes his new friends, Aquila and Prescilla and leaves them in Ephesus and heads to Jerusalem. Then he goes around to some of the churches he started with Barnabas and checks on them.

So the first part of this story is God using Paul to start the Ephesian church an then Paul takes off.

Apollos starts serving God. But verses 24 through 28 tell the second major thing that happens in this story. This is just as significant to the early church. Apollos starts preaching Jesus.

Verse 24 introduces us to this guy. It tells us he was from Alexandria. Alexandria was the second biggest city in the world at the time. It's in modern day Egypt. So Apollos is from Alexandria and it says he was an eloquent man. That could mean two things: It could mean he was well spoken or it could mean he was well educated. It probably means both. The third thing it says about him was that he was mighty in the scriptures. So Apollos knew his Bible - really, really well. And Apollos comes to Ephesus.

Apparently, Apollos is a believer. He already believes in Jesus. But Apollos doesn't really know much about Jesus at this point. He just knows what John the Baptist said about him and nothing more. So Apollos goes to the jewish synagogue and is preaching there and Aquila and Priscilla (remember, they were left there by Paul) hear him and they are like "We've got to have this guy over for supper."

So they pull Apollos to the side and they sort of fill in the gaps in Apollos learning. They tell him the rest of the story. They bring him from John the Baptist to the present day.

Then Apollos feels called to go to Corinth and the Christians give him a letter that says "Listen to this guy" and off he goes.

That's where the chapter ends.

So you've got a lot of events in this story, but you have three different characters. Paul, Apollos, and Aquila and Priscella (we are going to lump them together.) They are all just going about their life and God is using them. God is teaching them.

So what I want to do this morning is just focus on these people. These characters. I want to give you three points:

what was different about these people. what was the same about these people. what was important about these people. Let's pray and we'll jump into that.

The first thing we are going to look at is:

1. What was different about these people. Remember - we have three characters Paul, Apollos, and Aquila and Priscilla and all three of these are totally different.

Notice,

A. They had different backgrounds. Paul was a former pharisee. A jew from Galatia that studied under the feet of the most famous jew of his day. A man who persecuted Christians until God saved him on the Emmaus road.

Aquila and Priscilla were Christian tent makers from Italy who were pushed out by persecution. As far as we know they never lived in Palestine or anywhere but Italy before chapter 17 and it's very possible that Priscilla was a gentile.

Apollos was from the big city of Alexandria where he studied the scriptures hard and apparently had had no contact with other Christians.

So the point is these three or four people all came from different walks of life. They all were very different.

Notice second that:

B. They had different positions. Paul was a apostle. Apollos was an outsider who became a popular itinerant preacher. Aquila and Priscilla were tentmakers who, as far as we know, never had any kind of formal position in the church.

Notice third that:

C. They had different talents. Paul was the great starter and theologian. He was a good writer and a bold evangelist.

Appolos was the mighty preacher. He would go on to be one of the most looked up to preachers in the early church.

Aquila and Priscilla were the encouragers. They encouraged Paul in the beginning of the chapter - here they are encouraging Apollos. Apparently, they were really good teachers too.

The last thing to notice is:

D. They were at different stages of development. Most people think that Apollos was saved here - but he had almost no details. In fact, he didn't even know about baptism. He was at an early stage.

Then you have Paul. It's interesting that Paul - who would later write so much about how unnecessary the Jewish religion is in the age of Christ - is so scrupulous here in observing a Jewish vow and taking his shaved hair to the temple. You could say that Paul was probably growing still at this point.

Then you have Aquila and Priscilla who were mature enough in their faith to feel comfortable helping Apollos with his doctrine.

They were all at different stages.

O.K. Pastor. What's the point?

The point is simple. We have a church here full of people who have different backgrounds. Some of you came from decent Christian families. Some of you came from families where your parents never darkened the door of a church. Some of you are pastor's kids. Some of you are the kids of the town drunk. Some of you are Mattooners from day one, some of you come from other parts of the country.

You have different positions. Some of you have formal areas of responsibility in the church. Some are deacons or preachers or teachers. Many of you don't but are looking to serve God however you can.

You have different talents. Did you know that when you got saved you got spiritual gifts. Every saved person has a spiritual gift to be used in the ministry. You also have god-given talents. Your talents are probably different than mine.

And do you know what? You are at different stages of development. Some of you have been saved and walking with God for years. Some of you are newly saved and still learning the basics. Some of you need to be saved yet. You are at different stages.

What really matters in this story isn't what was different about these people, it is...

2. What was the same about these people. Notice that...

A. They served the same God. Paul was following God to Corinth. Aquilla and Pricilla were following God to Corinth. They followed God together to Ephesus. Apollos follows the leadership of God to go back to Corinth to preach. God is just leading all over this story.

Sometimes we can get competitive as Christians. It's good to remember that we are on the same team. We are serving the same God. If another church in town is doing well - praise God. If another Christian in our church gets to teach a Sunday School class we wanted to teach - praise God.

Romans 14:4 says:

"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand."

What matters is we are all serving God.

Notice secondly that:

B. They shared the same Truth. Paul is going around preaching. Apollos is "shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ." Aquilla and Priscilla are expounding the way of God more perfectly.

IN every case - do you know what they are doing? They are preaching and teaching the Bible.

It's interesting here - but Aquilla and Priscilla aren't preachers. Not like we think of it. But they still knew the Bible. They still talked about the Bible and taught the Bible.

Listen church - let's be known as BIG B Bible baptist church. I'm a baptist. I believe in the baptist distinctive. But I'm a BIBLE baptist.

When is the last time you were sitting around the dinner table and had a discussion about the Bible? Huh? When is the last time you talked about a passage of scripture with your friends?

Look, you can talk about Football or Crocheting or old cars till you are blue in the face but you can't have a conversation about the scriptures - about the truth?

What brings us together isn't out background. It isn't our shared history. It isn't our skin color or our politics. It's the fact that we serve the same master and we share the same Truth.

Notice third that...

C. They were part of the same work. Paul is preaching in the synagogues about Jesus. Aquila and Priscilla are preaching at the kitchen table about Jesus. Apoloos is publically convincing the jews about Jesus. It's clear that all of these people took the work of the great commission seriously.

Even Aquila and Priscilla, who were "just" tent makers - were serious about spreading the gospel.

One more thing:

D. They preached the same message. I've already touched on this but every one of them preached the gospel. Every one of them told others about Jesus. They were serving the same God, reading the same Bible, throwing themselves into the same mission and preaching the same message.

So, again - what do we learn from this?

I think the main thing we need to learn is that we are all on the same team and that God has something for each of us to do. Hold you finger here and turn to Romans 12.

Look at verses 1-2

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Listen, you may be asking "What does God want from me?" The answer is everything. He wants you to be a living sacrifice. To live for the will of God. This passage says that that is your "reasonable service."

But it doesn't stop there. Look at verses 3-8

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness."

It's simple really - God wants you to give your life to Him and work for His will. That's the what. But it goes on to tell us the where. We are to do it through the church. We are to do it as members - as body parts - in God's church.

We are all on the same team, and we are all different. Just like body parts are different but all working together we should be too.

Listen - there are no dead weight body parts. Every part has a job. You may not be a preacher like Paul and Apollos were. But you can be an Aquila or a Priscilla.

Let me quickly give you the last main point.

We've talked about what was different about these people and what was the same. Let's look lastly at:

3. What was important about these people: The most important thing to understand about this passage is this: Paul, Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla were not the main characters - God was. God was the prime mover in this story.

So what was important here:

A. God was working in their lives. God was working in the life of Paul - God wanted to set up a church in Ephesus. But not in Paul's time. God had some business with him in Macedonia first.

God was working in the life of an Alexandrian orator named Apollos. God was going to use him mightily, but first, Apollos had to meet a couple of tent makers who would help him understand some things.

God was working in the life of a normal couple named Aquila and Priscilla. They were forced out of their home country. They were on the run from persecution. But God was working. God had some business for them encouraging an apostle in Corinth, then helping a preacher in Ephesus.

Do you see the important thing here - it was that God was working in them. Do you see God working in your life?

The second thing that was important about them was:

B. God was using them.