John the Baptist - in Ephesus?
Acts 18:23-19 · Vern Peterman · May 27, 2018
Acts (2017-18), No. 64
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261910226001

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So, good morning, and we'll be looking at this passage here in the book of Acts, Acts of the Apostles, adventuring through Acts, here as Joe read for us, verses 18-23 through 19-7. And as we look at that passage, we also just want to acknowledge a few things. One, we are remembering this Memorial Day weekend. We give thanks for the lives of those who have given their lives to protect our freedom. and we honor that.

We also note just here locally that there's been a completion of the wall kind of dividing what used to be called the Red Carpet Room, and we're still trying to figure out what that name should be. You know, whether the wall should be called, since we've got the North Room and the South Room, should the wall be called the Mason-Dixon Line? I'm not quite sure.

But anyway, nonetheless, we do thank Phil and Bill for working on that. And I'm sure the kids, now that they're out of the room, I can say this, they're really looking forward to getting the slide installed, right? So anyway, every time they go back to Sunday school, they'll have that in place there.

Now, so what we're looking at here, and if you've been following along, you'll notice that we have a distinct change in the size and character of the handout. We'll be going much more towards things being spoken and said and not quite so much on the slides. That being said, take notes, and that's made available on the back. if certain points are critical for you.

On the front we will have a map, a full page, of the third missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. And so we'll be tracking along that. He started this third missionary journey in Antioch, which was a sending church and had been previously. And so that will again be the case here on his third missionary journey. Some things to ask, though, before we step into this. Here's the Apostle Paul who went through all sorts of circumstances. Actually, we'd have to say there were, in some cases, life-threatening, both in his first and his second missionary journey. some very harrowing circumstances.

As a matter of fact, more than is being recorded for us in the book of Acts. The book of Acts is actually hitting the high spots. We're going to encounter later on in the book of Acts, we haven't seen it yet, a case, for instance, where the Apostle Paul was involved in a shipwreck. What we're going to find out is in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, written during Paul's third missionary journey, Second Corinthians chapter 11, he tells us that at that point in time he had actually had three shipwrecks already, which weren't recorded in the book of Acts. And he said at that time, beatings without number, whereas only one of them is recorded so far for us. So what we're going to see is this is just hitting the high spots.

And so a question for you, do you think that the Apostle Paul was ever afraid? The answer, as we saw in chapter 18, is yes. And he's going to be told again in chapter 27, don't be afraid, and that's just hitting the high spots. The Apostle Paul himself had plenty to be anxious about, plenty to be afraid of, and so he dealt with these things and so we're going to be taking a look at that as we go, especially on this third missionary journey. Another very important set of questions to ask.

You may or may not be aware that the Apostle Paul was warned in advance, initially through Ananias, so this is Acts chapter 9 verse 16, Jesus tells Ananias, I will show him, which is a word that means to warn in advance about the things he must suffer for my name. Okay, so he actually got warning ahead of time and what we're going to see as we proceed even into this next chapter, we're going to see that he actually got warning ahead of time multiple times And he got warning many times that weren't recorded here in the book of Acts. And we're going to see that surface, okay? So, how would you like to have advance warning of the trials you're going to go through? Anybody volunteer for that? Advance warning? Let you know in advance, okay? It's coming. Okay, it gets a little more intense than that.

He is told where the trouble will come. And we know explicitly, he says multiple times, he's headed to Jerusalem, that's where the trouble will come. We're going to see in the next chapter after this one, chapter 20, he tells them. In every city I go, the Holy Spirit tells me I'm headed for trouble in Jerusalem. And it means He's headed for chains and afflictions. He knows that's coming. He knows it's in Jerusalem.

He's going after that to get three explicit warnings on the way to Jerusalem. Let me ask you this question. If you got A warning. Many warnings about the trials that are about to take place in your life. A number of clear warnings and where the trouble is coming and even what is the trouble going to be like. Would you like that? Ahead of time? Oh, here's what's even more intense. Would you still go? Would you say, oh no, I am not going there, no way, no how, would you?

So we're going to find that out as we go through Paul's third missionary journey. He gets a great many warnings in advance telling him where he's going to head for trouble, and he knows it's Jerusalem. He is going to get a great many warnings telling him he's headed for chains, and afflictions in Jerusalem, and he's going to go anyway.

Would you do that? He does, and we'll take a look at that as we get going through there. Oh, one more thing. We're going to see in today's passage some people who learn some things they didn't know before. And they get taught and told these things by believers, would you be willing to have another believer tell you things you didn't know? Would you be willing to be the one who told somebody something they didn't know? Let's take a look at that as we go through this here. So here we are starting on Paul's third missionary journey from Antioch.

Here's Acts 18.23.

And having spent some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia. Having spent some time there, he, who's he, is Paul. And the time that he spent was in Antioch. That is the place that has been noted before. The sum time was probably somewhere around four or five months.

And he passed through the Galatian region, it says, in Phrygia. and then strengthening all the disciples. Let's take a look at what that is. So he goes from Antioch, passes through Tarsus, which is, of course, his home city, and then on into Derbe, and Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia. So it's Antioch II, but it's of Pisidia, not the one over in Syria. So he goes through these places, and one of the things we see there as he goes through there, he is going through each of these places where he has already established a church. On his first missionary journey he went through these cities in Galatia, and he went through the first time, and it was evangelism, establishing churches, they had all brand new believers, he went through the second time looping back with Barnabas, and he went through, in those cases, they appointed elders, and they said the same thing, they strengthened the churches.

Now, this word for strengthening is a word that gets carried over into our language as steroids. But you mustn't think that Paul put them on steroids. That's not what happened. He strengthened them, and he strengthened all the disciples. Disciples were not like just the twelve disciples or any of the disciples that you see described elsewhere. As a matter of fact, we're going to see disciples used in another way later on in the same passage. These were those who were believers in Christ, whether male and female, they got called disciples from the outset. from the book of Acts starting in chapter 6 on up into this and we'll see that word continue to be used on up into chapter 21.

So then he goes from there, traveling through there, and then traveling through the area that is the seven churches of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, traveling through the middle of there. It doesn't say what route he takes through them, but he ends up then in Ephesus. But he doesn't get there yet.

So Acts 18.24, Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus, and he was mighty in the scriptures. So this fellow is a Jew. Apollonius or Apollinarius would be the name. So this is actually a nickname.

And to get the picture here, so he is in Ephesus. Paul has not gotten there yet from the description that we see. But this fellow is from Alexandria, which is on the delta of the Nile in North Africa. So that's where he is from it says, but he has for by whatever reason ended up here in Ephesus and It turns out we have other descriptions of him. Here is the theater in Ephesus. We're going to see more of this theater as we go through Chapter 19 here. It'll be the site of a huge riot and So, this fellow's name is Apollos. He's from Alexandria, originally. It says by birth, so it may well be that he didn't spend a lot of time there.

It says he's an eloquent man. He communicates effectively. He is articulate regarding the gospel. He came to Ephesus, and we're not sure by what means, but we know this about him, that he was mighty in the scripture. And what that means is that he was very able to communicate the scripture. It talks about capacity with the scripture. And the other thing to ponder here is what scriptures is he talking about?

Is he talking about the complete Old and New Testament like you have? Not yet, right? The New Testament was just being put together in the very early stages at this point in time. So this reference is to what we call the Old Testament. However, if you were to walk up to Apollos and say, hey, you really know that Old Testament fairly well, he'd say, huh? Because it was a whole Bible at that point in time. It was the Scriptures, the entire Old Testament, as we call it.

Acts 18.25-26 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. So, one of the things we have to look at here as we look at this passage, he'd been instructed in the way of the Lord, in other words, he had been brought up to speed in what the Old Testament scriptures say about Christ and His coming, right? It says he was fervent in spirit, and it's real interesting, that word means hot. I'm not sure it was hot or not, but the point being that he was a man of fervency.

He was a man who was very spirited in what he said. I imagine he spoke with great enthusiasm. I imagine that as he spoke, people understood that he spoke with emphasis in what he said. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus. So it wasn't just bringing up a lot of Old Testament stories, but there was in fact a degree of accuracy in what he said about those Old Testament accounts. Somebody had instructed him to some level and what he said was accurate.

And so it's important, I think, to understand what he said was accurate, but the rest of this passage makes clear there were still some things he had yet to be brought up to speed with. He was acquainted with the baptism of John. This is John the Baptist. John the Baptist, a fellow we'll talk about here shortly. But John the Baptist brought a baptism of repentance. John the Baptist did, in fact, say Behold the Lamb of God regarding Jesus who takes away the sin of the world is John chapter 1 and even twice behold the Lamb of God right so that was clear there was still much about Jesus from that point forward however that he had yet to come to understand He did speak out boldly in the synagogues because of course the Jews in the synagogues all around the Roman Empire would be looking forward to the Messiah but a recognition of Jesus as the Messiah was the part that many of them were either just coming up to speed on or in fact resisted.

So but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him and we just heard about them They were fellow workers with Paul. They were fellow tent makers. And we said not just tent makers, but also leather workers in other respects, making other things out of leather, also doing leather repairs and things of that sort.

And so here's Priscilla and Aquila. And one of the things that's interesting is we always find their names together. This is an actual unusual instance where Priscilla and Aquila are her name first and his name second, and we aren't explained why exactly that's the case. People have speculated, but it's all it is. But they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. So was he accurate to begin with? Yes. Could he increase in his accuracy? Yes.

And that's exactly the role that they had. Perhaps you have recognized, okay, here's a Christian couple and the Lord uses them in varying ways. Notice what they did. They didn't stand up and say, hey, Apollos, you ought to know better than that. You know, you need to know X, Y, and Z, right? They didn't do that, did they? They took him aside and explained to him.

He said, ah, okay. He received it, which is very important. Here's a man who is already very eloquent. He's very enthusiastic. He is actually very informed and well instructed. There were just some areas where he had to be brought up to speed further. They explained to him the way of God even more accurately than what he had.

Regarding John the Baptist, because we're going to see him not only in this passage, but also in the passage immediately to follow that Joe had read for us here. He was a relative of Jesus. He had a ministry of being Jesus' forerunner, probably beginning his ministry early in 29 AD, about six months before Jesus began his. ministry to about 31 to 32 AD, about the last year or so of that in prison under Herod Antipas and was eventually beheaded by Herod Antipas. So here's John the Baptist and what is astounding, what's amazing is to hear about, as we'll hear about even more, the impact that this guy had. All four of the Gospels record that John the Baptist had told everyone present that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

We have those references there, and we're going to see shortly how that comes into play. John was a man with a short ministry, maybe a couple of years, roughly. A short ministry, and there's no evidence that he did any ministry except in Israel and up and down the Jordan River. is where he would go, but he continued to have disciples on many years after the time he was already gone, and not only that, but extending in a wide area geographically.

Now what's interesting is from historical record, he continued to have followers, disciples for the next three centuries. Really astounding. And you wonder, how did he make people so serious that they would follow him after a short two-year ministry for so long and they'd have followers so widespread? I kind of wonder if sometimes it wasn't that he'd hold them down until he was sure they were serious. But nonetheless, it is astounding to think of the impact that he had both geographically as well as for length of time.

Here's Acts 18.25 and 26. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, 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.

This is what we introduced here is Priscilla and Aquila. It is very interesting to see the way they work. They had been moved out of Rome, and they said, okay, the Lord wants to use us together here. We always find them working together, and Paul continues to reference both them and Apollos.

Acts 18, 27, and 28, and when he wanted to go across to Achaia. So this is Apollos wanting to go across to Achaia, and essentially the major city there was Corinth. And so we find that on our map there that you have on the front page or the first page. And so he starts at Ephesus and, by correspondence, goes over to Corinth. It's too bad they didn't have email. It would have been a lot easier. They're just texting. But nonetheless, they did have some correspondence there.

And as he went over to Corinth and began to minister there, his ministry in Corinth was very significant. In 1 Corinthians, which we'll refer to shortly here, and it was written during Paul's third missionary journey, in 1 Corinthians, Apollos is mentioned in the first chapter and the last chapter, seven times all totaled, throughout the book. So he's very significant in impact to the church there at Corinth. So his move there, even though we're going to be finding he's going to be mentioned shortly for the last time, is very significant in terms of New Testament era ministry.

So in So 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.

One of the things to notice here, this word for help, there are different words translated help in the New Testament. This particular word for help means that he helped aggressively. He helped aggressively. It wasn't simply a quiet assistance. He moved in, he helped aggressively, he spoke out against the Jews, and he stood strongly for salvation by grace through faith.

And he laid that out just as we see here in verse 27. He demonstrated what? By the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures that we talk about, that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the long-promised Messiah of the Old Testament, this Jesus of Nazareth, this Jesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, this Jesus who was raised again just a couple days later as we count them, right? on Sunday morning was resurrected, that Jesus was the long-promised Messiah.

Acts 19.1.

It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, and that's the last we hear of Apollos in the book of Acts, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus and found some disciples. Now, although it's the same word As we saw previously for disciples, it means something, as we'll find in verse 3, something different in that these are disciples of John the Baptist. Again, we find a significant difference in what it means in context, not because of a fundamental meaning of the word. So while he was in Corinth, he passed through the upper country and came to Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, finding these disciples of John the Baptist. He came to Ephesus now for the second time, and he was going to be staying there for a longer period of time, as we'll discover later.

Acts 19.2, and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

So what was the issue here? Why did he need to ask that question? What this is referring to here is, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? He was asking them, have you come to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ? The Jesus Christ that John told you about, have you come to believe in the gospel so as to be saved and to be a church saint? These guys were believers in the Old Testament sense, right?

And they said to him, no, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. Now, some have said, well, we haven't even heard if the Holy Spirit has come. But in fact, the language here is very much, we haven't even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. It was completely new to them.

A surprise, since John the Baptist had actually said, as recorded in all four Gospels, that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit. in Acts 19.3, and he said, into what then were you baptized?

Their response? They said, into John's baptism. John had a baptism where he had told the Jews that they need to repent. Did he have a message to a bunch of Gentiles? No. He spoke to Jews and he was telling them, you need to repent, that is to be consistent with what's been revealed here regarding the law of Moses. And you need to stand by that, and you need to change your mind regarding that. But it was with respect to John's baptism, it wasn't with respect to, I have put my trust in Christ as my Savior, right? A different understanding.

So Acts 19.4, 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. So here's Paul responding to them. He says, John baptized with the baptism of repentance. That part they would have said, oh yeah, we got that, right? And so both Paul and these disciples of John the Baptist would have been on the same page.

But here was the part where they had not gone ahead, because John said to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, Jesus. Have you done that, is essentially what he's saying. No, we haven't gone that far, right? These are guys who believed John the Baptist, but they didn't follow through with the understanding of who Christ is and what He's done.

Here's Acts 19.5 through 19.7.

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 on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men." So, oh boy, we've got to talk about this. So, when they heard this, that you guys need to believe in Jesus and put your trust in Him, the one that John had told you that you need to believe, and they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

So here's an interesting thing. Here's a re-baptism. Why? Because they were first baptized with the baptism of John, which is simply a baptism of repentance. It wasn't a Christian baptism. So Paul laid his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came to them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. They were all about twelve men. Now, we've got to ask this question. Is this normal? Should you expect this? Should we expect it here in the church? Something for us to take a look at here.

How many instances of tongues do we find recorded in the book of Acts? Three. This is the third one. So the first one was in Acts chapter 2. This is the day of Pentecost, when there were a number of Jews gathered among other Jews and with the apostles present. The next was Cornelius in Caesarea, which is on the coast of Israel. So here's Cornelius, who was a Gentile, and those in his household and they spoke in tongues, and now this third instance. So we have these things in common between those three instances where tongues is given.

Number one, always Jews present. Plural. Always Jews present. There's no instance in Acts where that is shown as an exception. Always Jews present. Secondly, always an apostle present. Acts chapter 2, the apostle was Peter and all the others. Acts chapter 10, the apostle was Peter and in this instance the apostle was Paul. Every instance of tongues in Acts, all three, There are Jews present, plural, and there's at least one apostle present, right? Is that all?

The other thing that we have is a unique combination of people and geography. In Acts chapter 2, in Jerusalem, it was Jews being introduced to the gospel and given the Holy Spirit in the Jewish land. In Acts chapter 10, you have Gentiles being given the gospel and introduced to the Holy Spirit in the Jewish land. We now have the third instance, Jews in the Gentile land. Isn't that interesting? So each of the three introductions, we have Jews present, we have an apostle present, at least one, and we have a unique introduction of people And what's the geography?

So Jews in the Jewish land, Gentiles in the Jewish land, Jews in the Gentile land. One of each of those instances and not otherwise. Did they continue to speak in tongues between those times? In Acts chapter 11, when Peter describes the tongues experience, he had to point back to the beginning, Acts chapter 2, with regards to tongues. What happened to them? in Caesarea, the Gentiles, was what happened back in Acts chapter 2 at the beginning.

One of the things to point out here is we continue to reinforce here, put your faith in the facts, like the train in the tracks, and like the caboose, the feelings follow. Priscilla and Aquila did not come up to Apollos and say, how do you feel about it? The Apostle Paul did not come up to these disciples of John the Baptist and say, how do you feel about it? He asked them for facts. These people were brought up to speed with facts.

We put our faith in the revealed spiritual facts from Scripture and not our feelings. Our culture has been telling us the opposite for decades. I'm getting to be on in years here, but actually since before I was born, the end of World War II, the message of listen to your feelings has been a strong one and much of Christendom has absorbed some portion of that message.

As we look at Paul's now third missionary journey, What we're seeing as we go through this is the Apostle Paul is going to be proceeding through these different places. One of the differences is much of the emphasis will be now on strengthening the church, on teaching them, on building them up. less emphasis on evangelism as we proceed through here. We're going to see him traveling through much of the same places he had been on the first and especially the second missionary journey. But in this third journey, less emphasis on evangelism and less emphasis on bringing people to Christ as bringing people to grow in Christ.

So that's a key thing. One of the questions that we would ask as we look at this is here we see Apollos and we see these disciples of John the Baptist being told things that they didn't know previously. They were brought up to speed and informed. And in fact, what we see is that in the first case, Priscilla and Aquila were used of the Lord. to bring Apollos up to speed on things he needed to know. The Apostle Paul was used of the Lord to bring these truths to the disciples of John the Baptist.

So for our part, is there a willingness to find out and to learn and to know what the Lord wants us to know next? That's growth. That's what spiritual growth is, isn't it? It's not just so we can know more stuff. but it's so that it can be lived out as we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him and abide in Him and love one another. Let's pray.

We thank you, our Father, for the way as you've spelled this out. We've seen your Holy Spirit's work through the life of Priscilla and Aquila. and through the life of Paul. We've seen your Holy Spirit's work in Apollos and in these 12 disciples of John the Baptist. And we do give you thanks, Lord, for your making evident how you work among us as a church body. And we look forward to, as we go through this third missionary journey in the Book of Acts, how you guide Paul and provide clear revelation regarding your will, and we also look forward to how you're going to demonstrate that the church is grown and built up. And so we thank you for that. Thank you for what you've laid out because you love us, you care for us, and you want us to know and live out the truth face-to-face with you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.