The Mission: Trust God for the Increase (Acts 18:18-28)

Jonathan Douglass

Acts: The Mission of the Church • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Opening Statement:

The more we love God, the more honest we will be about this fact: we possess no ability to accomplish any Heavenly good. Because we love Him, we will lower ourselves and elevate God since it is only through His power and grace that we can accomplish anything that will benefit His church. God’s power to overcome Paul’s fear and the temptation to be silent. God was strong when Paul was weak. I appreciate God’s words through him in

(2 SLIDES for Verse)

1 Corinthians 2:3–5 (ESV)...

3 And I, Paul, was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

I must also remind us that we must avoid a temptation when we read or study Acts...

The temptation is to study people but we should study God through the acts of His people.

This morning I want to show you how God’s power, through His Spirit is poured out on the church. Specifically, I want to show you from the last half of Acts 18 how God equips and connects believers to work together for His good through the church.

We left Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Corinth last week. Silas is not mentioned again and we do not know what happened to him from that point on. Timothy disappears from the text for a short time as Luke focuses on three other influential Christians in Acts 18:18-28. This morning, I want to highlight three ministries which were occurred at the same time, then I want to show how these ministries benefitted the very connected universal church...

Three Ministries

Which are all connected to Ephesus, the first of which is...

Paul’s Ministry (18:18-23)

Which we will read about in...

Acts 18:18–23 (ESV) 18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Kegcrea he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

(Slide: Map)

A lot of things important things happened in these verses.

First, Paul traveled eastward from Corinth for 6.5 miles east to the port of Kegchrea (Greek) which was one of Corinth’s ports. By the way, I sometimes mark my Bible with word pronunciations, and you might want to copy the phoenetic spelling from your notes into your Bible at verse 18. That will help you read this name the next time you come to this passage.

(Slide: Kegcrea)

(Ignore) Cenchreae = Kegcrea (add accent mark over the “e”)

According to verse 18, Paul was under a vow, probably a Nazarite one for a period of time. Interestingly enough, the Corinth Jews accused Paul of breaking Jewish law, but it seems Paul was actually keeping Jewish law and his vow even as they were leveling accusations against him. When a Nazarite vow was fulfilled, the hair that grew during that vow was supposed to be offered as a sacrifice in Jerusalem, so Paul, a practicing Jew, desired to go to Jerusalem with haste.

From Kegcrea, Paul, Priscilla and Aquila found a ship travelling East to Ephesus. Once they landed, Paul separated from Priscilla and Aquila and Paul spent his layover doing what he loved… reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue! Paul must have been greatly encouraged because his own countrymen welcomed the Gospel message and begged him to stay, but he could not: there was a ship to catch.

I want to read Acts 18 verses 20-21 again because an important principle is contained there that I will build on throughout the message..

Acts 18:20–21 (ESV) 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

If Paul believed he was the only person God was using, he would have remained in Ephesus. If Paul relied on himself to build God’s church, he would have been afraid to leave these new brothers and sisters alone without guidance, but Paul God would bring the increase!

From Ephesus, he sailed to Caesarea, Jerusalem’s port, and in verse 22 “went up and greeted the church” in Jerusalem. In other Scripture, “going up” meant going to Jerusalem for it was both a spiritual ascent and a physical one. It was a spiritual ascent because Paul was fulfilling his vow in God’s house. It was a physical ascent because Jerusalem located was located more than half a mile above sea level and Caesarea.

Little is known but that Paul completed his worship in Jerusalem, greeted the church, then continued Northward 500 miles to his home church in Antioch.

Paul had visited the home of the Jewish church and the home of the Gentile church, so marking the end of his second journey and the beginning of the third.

Eventually, God allowed Paul to return to Ephesus in Acts 19:1, but 2 years had passed from the time Paul left Corinth in AD 51 until he returned to Ephesus in AD 53. You might also wish to write dates in your Bible, it helps us understand these things really happened, that scholars agree these people were real, and that God is alive and still works in the world as He always has done.

As Paul visited the churches in Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, and Phrygia, he was constantly reminded that God always increases HIS church! God had also been causing the church to increase in Ephesus. He knew first hand that “He who began a good work is faithful to complete it!”

The Gospel was not dependent on Paul . The Gospel was dependent on God doing mighty things through ALL His people!

(Pause)

God had raised up a husband and wife team, rather a wife and husband team to increase the church in Ephesus and surrounding areas. I say, wife and husband team, because Luke broke protocol by naming the wife before her husband. Priscilla’s name is always listed first in the original manuscripts, but the King James Version and others alter Luke’s original intent... Priscilla seems to have to have been the more influential Christian in this duo!

(Ignore) Priscilla and Aquila’s Ministry (18:24-26)

Let’s discover what Acts 18:24-26 has to say about their ministry...

Acts 18:24–26 (ESV) Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak 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.

Priscilla and Aquila believed it was important to gather in the synagogue with other believers and there they heard Apollos teaching but something was missing. Apollos preached the same message of John the Baptist, “prepare for the coming of the Messiah.”

Priscilla and Aquila must have been very bold and confident when they confronted this gifted orator! In fact, during my early college years I was really struggling to be bold when a good friend encouraged with this passage. God’s word does not come back void! We need to faithfully grasp those opportunities and let God’s Spirit take care of the results.

When this couple confronted Apollos, they didn’t start the conversation by saying, “YOU ARE WRONG!” Pointing fingers never wins friends. I think this was a, “Let me show you” discussion where they relied on Scripture to speak for them.

When we trust in God for the increase we won’t mess up. When we trust God for the results, He makes our words sweet like honey and our words give life and health to to the hearer. Trusting God to give the increase is the most critical element of life, ministry, conversations, and friendships and in these verses we discover God richly blessed this great act of faith.

God was using other believers, not just Paul, to increase the Ephesus church. Next, Luke wrote of God’s provision through...

Apollos’ ministry (18:24-19:1)

Apollos’ had a powerful Spiritual gift! Check out...

Acts 18:24–26 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And... fervent in spirit... (v26) he was speaking boldly in the synagogue”

God raised people of varied gifts and talents to fill in gaps and to grow the church! I find this part quite exciting. Check out verse 27...

“The brothers in Ephesus wrote a letter of commendation.” This means Apollos was doctrinally and Biblically accurate. Apollos should be accepted in sister churches just as Paul, Timothy, Silas, Barnabas, or John Mark, or Jesus himself would have been accepted. So Apollos went on his own missionary journey and traveled to Achaia, meaning the Southern tip of Greece where Corinth was located. We only know of one early church the Achaia region and Acts 19:1 mentions it… Apollos was at Corinth.

This is the exciting part, do you remember how the Jews reviled and scorned Paul when he was in Corinth in AD 50/51? Paul could make no progress with them, but Apollos did!

Paul admits his struggle with public speaking three times to the Corinthian church...

2 Cor 11:6 “I may be an unskilled speaker, but I am not lacking in knowledge...”

1 Cor 1:17 “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with eloquent words of wisdom...”

2 Cor 10:10 “For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”

Corinthian believers valued and maybe even needed a strong speaker, Paul was weak, but God was strong, so he sent them a very accomplished orator...

Look at Acts 18:28

Acts 18:28 (ESV) 27 When Apollos arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

Priscilla and Aquila had probably informed him of the need among the Jews there, so Apollos, clearly moved by the Holy Spirit, went to win that city for Christ. Apollos succeeded where Paul failed. That is exciting!

(Pause)

I want to highlight one other important quality about Apollos from verse 28. He intimately knew the Scriptures and how to use them. Verse 24 also states he was competent in the Scriptures. My guess is that when P and A were teaching Apollos, it was directly from Scripture for Apollos probably would not be convinced any other way. Apollos was then able to use that very same Scripture to point powerfully refute the Jews.

Like I said, lots of things are going on in these 10 verses, which we can apply to our lives today.

TRANSITION INTO APPLICATION:

No part of this passage is about Paul! It is about our great God who intensely loves us, his church whom His son died for. If you recall, the three reasons we are studying Acts is 1. to understand our mission 2. understand the power and role of the Spirit and 3. understand how to work together as a church. This morning we found an example of different believers with different gifts working together in the power of the Spirit, to complete their mission.

(Don’t speak the headline…)

(Won’t say this) Christians Working Together

(Read slowly)

Christians working together can have an effective, long-lasting ministry so long as they focus on the power of Christ and his Word.

Every character in Acts 18 is proof of this. We read of Paul, Silas, Timothy, Priscilla, Aquila, Titius Justus, Crispus, Sosthenes, Apollos, and of course, Luke. They worked together and when these believers gathered, that local congregation benefitted. Christ makes evangelism in our community possible and expands our impact the globe when we all work together.

Let me show you an example of a church which struggled to work together. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Here we read of a great dispute that arose in this church. This dispute occurred from AD 52-55, just as the Corinth church was getting started.

We find a church divided in...

A church divided (1 Cor 1:11-13; 3:4-9)

1 Corinthians 1:11-13,17 (ESV) 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

now fast forward to… 1 Corinthians 3:4

(ESV) 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

They were divided and name dropping... I know this person and this person. I am somebody special because I know the highly talented Apollos, or Paul, or whomever. Paul’s point here...

It’s not who you know, but WHO you KNOW! (Christ and him crucified!) (Acts 4:12)

Acts 4:12 (ESV) And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

We should never follow another human. Humans divide: only Christ unites. The church must be united and Christ is the only connective tissue holding the people of the church together.

Let me show you two ways a church can be united based on what we have learned from Acts 18.

A church united

A church is united when they are competent in Scripture (Acts 18:24,28; 1 Cor 3:1; Eph 4:20)

The Bible is the single most important physical tool God uses to increase His church. This tool is most effective when all believers value it, when they use it to teach, and correct doctrine, and use it to clearly show others that Jesus is the Christ.

God will only give increase when believers know and faithfully apply His true word. Some might say the Bible is boring, some might say listening to preaching is boring, some might say devotional time is boring. The problem isn’t with God’s word. The problem is the sin in our hearts that effects our attitude toward the Word. The Bible is very exciting!

The Corinth church did not know nor prioritize Scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 3:1 Paul wrote them and said...

1 Corinthians 3:1 (ESV) But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

The Corinth church relied on milk and not on the meat of the Word. They did not know nor prioritize the exciting Word of God and so suffered the consequence of being a church divided in their early years.

In Eph 4:20 Paul rebuked the Ephesus church which was divided when he wrote, “but you did not learn Christ in this way.” You have gone against what you know to be true about God and recorded in His Word. A group of people cannot live by multiple different standards and accomplish something together.

Second...

A church is united when the Spirit works unhindered. (Rom 12:3-13)

That is to say, for a person to unleash the full potential of their gifts, the Spirit must be unhindered in that person. We must be willing to grow in ministry and we must faithfully steward the gifts we have been given to benefit God’s people. Each hero from Acts 18 had a specific blend of gifts and the full power of the Holy Spirit.

Please find Romans 12, one book forward if you are in Acts. (PAUSE)

Romans 12 contains a list of spiritual gifts which God bestows on his people to increase His church...

Let’s start at verse 3 because it is quite fitting...

Romans 12:3–13 (ESV) 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Luke, the recorder of our text, was a doctor and would have been gifted with mercy. All the other Christians we read about also had at least one of these spiritual gifts so that when they came together with their local congregation, the body was complete and perfect lacking nothing. A church is united when each person in a local body values other’s gifts, no one gift or person is more or less important than another.

Paul’s gifts seem to have been a combination of leadership, service, teaching, exhortation, and possibly mercy.

Priscilla and Aquila’s gifts included generosity, service, exhortation, and perhaps mercy. They opened their home to Paul, they traveled with him to Ephesus, and possibly even paid the boat fare for Paul’s trip. They were willing to show mercy and edify when they took Apollos aside to teach him. The Spirit was at work unhindered in their lives.

Apollos’ gifts included teaching, exhortation, and possibly leadership. He could have been a Roman senator or statesman because he was just that good at public speaking. This morning’s text says he was eloquent, fervent in Spirit, competent in Scriptures, spoke and taught accurately, spoke boldly, greatly helped the believers, and powerfully refuted error. The Spirit was working powerfully in Apollos’ life.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

So this morning I am asking each of us to consider what God wants to do in us and through us. How might God bring increase through His Word and with the full power of the Holy Spirit?

If you find Scripture boring, pray about that!

Do you know Scriptures? Do you spend enough time there to quote book, verse, and chapter to someone who needs that information? Are you willing to commit to faithfully quoting as much Scripture as possible?

If you happen to be in a situation and Scripture jumps into mind, rejoice in that, speak that!

Maybe the Spirit has been urging you to be more connected in a specific ministry here at FBC. Maybe he has given you a desire to do more, but you are not quite sure where to begin. Pray about it this week and then step out in faith. There are plenty of opportunities to serve and there are many more opportunities we would love to begin, but we need people to engage with the full energy and power of the Spirit in those roles.

Has the Spirit been working in you to be more vocal about Christ at work? Pray for more opportunities and courage to speak up for Him and find ways to connect your work to your church. If you have never read the book, “In His Steps” I encourage you to pick it up. It is about a congregation who commit to use their secular work for the full glory of God. You might get some practical inspiration there as well.

I’ll end the message with this quote from Matthew Henry...

“It is far better to be plain in speech, yet walking openly and consistently with the gospel, than to be admired by thousands, and be lifted up in pride.” - Matthew Henry

Let’s be a people, competent in Scripture fully submitted to the Spirit’s power because this church isn’t about any one of us. This church is all about our great God who causes all his ordinary people to accomplish great things.

Give people time to reflect on the slide and think.... walk down.

ANDY PRAY? Me pray after songs?

Prayer Ideas:

Sensitivity to the Spirit

Look for opportunities to become more involved

A people who KNOW you and KNOW your Word, competent like the heroes of Acts.

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