Acts:18:22
… When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then
went down to Antioch.
Paul lands at the sea port of Caesarea and goes up to
Jerusalem (“he went up and greeted the church”) and then goes home to Antioch
in Syria for a time of rest.
Acts
18:23 … 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.
This is the beginning of the third missionary journey and
the third time that Paul ministered to the disciples in Galatia and Phrygia. I
do not think we can overstate the importance of the essential work of Paul in
the lives of these new Christians. The next few centuries were going to be
tough. Communicating the Gospel of Grace was going to be difficult. Paul was
right to be worried. History shows the attacks from within and persecutions
from without that these early believers faced. Paul was doing the work of a
shepherd in preparing the Church to survive.
It appears that one of the reasons that Luke tells us
very little about what Paul did between the 2nd and 3rd
journeys was because he wanted space for telling us about Ephesus and the work
the Holy Spirit did there.
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 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.
Luke introduces us to Apollos. Apollos was eloquent,
knowledgeable, and had a passion for God but he didn’t understand the atonement
and by extension he didn’t understand Christian Baptism. I’ll say more about
baptism and what makes it unique in relation to John’s baptism in a
minute. It seems from the context that
Apollos knew that John was the forerunner of the Messiah. Apollos knew what the
Old Testament taught about the Messiah and taught it well. However, Apollos
didn’t understand that the Messiah, Jesus, had come and already died for the
Church. Apollos knew almost everything he needed to know except that salvation
was complete.
Apollos was a single guy from Alexandria. He would have
been highly educated so it is fair to say he was an intellectual and he was
highly trained in speaking and argumentation. Argumentation in his day wasn’t
just a fight. It was a presentation of ideas in a logical way to establish the
truth.
About 500 years ago there was a young guy called Little
Bilney who was a monk who was short, had very little education, and wasn’t a
dynamic speaker. No one thought much of him really. However, Bilney was a
believer. Not all monks were. He really admired another monk who was educated
and a dynamic speaker. Bilney thought that if this monk was truly saved then
the Gospel would be spread in the reformation in England. But Bilney was
nobody. So when the great dynamic unsaved monk was serving as a priest, Bilney
asked him to hear his confession. It was a request that had to be honored. So
they went into the confessional and Bilney confessed the Gospel to him. Bilney
said he was a sinner with no ability to save himself. He confessed that Jesus
had died in his place. He confessed that his sins were forgiven and that the
righteousness of Christ was counted as Bilney’s righteousness. That was the
first time the educated and dynamic monk heard the Gospel. He got saved that
day and that was an important day for the English Reformation and for most of
us who are Protestants with some English blood in us. The monk who was saved
that day was Hugh Latimer. He became a tremendous leader in the Reformation and
eventually died a martyr’s death with Nicholas Ridley shortly after making the
famous statement, “Be brave, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this
day, by the grace of God, light such a candle in England as, I trust, shall
never be put out.” It wasn’t put out. It has burned brighter at some times than
at others but it hasn’t been put out. Bilney, the Mr. Nobody, changed the
course of history.
Pricilla and Aquila played a role like Bilney. They
helped Paul when he needed a place to stay and a way to make a living. The
corrected what was lacking in the doctrine of Apollos and prepared Apollos for
his place in the Church.
Acts
18:27-28 … And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged
him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly
helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews
in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
The familiarity of Apollos with the Scriptures made him a
great asset in establishing and building up the Church. Pricilla and Aquila
were divinely appointed to prepare and send Apollos into the mission field.
Apollos, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, begins to help Paul by heading
to Southern Greece (Achaia) to minister in Corinth before he had even met Paul.
Acts
19:1-7 … And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through
the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he
said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they
said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said,
“Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul
said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to
believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his
hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues
and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.
John’s baptism was pointed at Israel. That was what made
it so offensive to the Pharisee’s. It was typical to require Gentiles to be
baptized in purification rituals but John called Israel to repent and be washed
in preparation for the Messiah. It is a sad thing to be stuck on John’s baptism
and to miss the Messiah. There is actually still a religious group in that
position. They are Gnostic and the religion is called Mandaeism. They are not
at all interested in the Messiah. They miss the atonement because they reject
the atonement. The men that Paul ministered to accepted the atonement and
became Christians.
Remember that back in Acts 8 the Samaritans didn’t get
saved initially because they were trying to add Christianity to the Gnostic
religion made central by Simon Magus. They had even been baptized in Jesus name
but Peter and John had to visit Samaria and remove their hero Simon Magus
before the Church could grow there.
In Ephesus it wasn’t Gnosticism but simple ignorance.
However, the ignorance was a fatal ignorance because they missed the atonement
represented by baptism. I want to go over the Scriptures that teach about water
as a symbol of the wrath of God so that we’ll have a deeper appreciation of the
picture of the atonement and of our testimony in baptism.
1) Genesis
6-8; Noah takes 7 people through the flood by grace (8 people total).
2) Exodus
14; Moses takes Israel through the sea by grace
3) Jonah;
Jonah is taken through the sea by grace in a fish
a. ἰχθύς or
ΙΧΘΥΣ
b. Ἰησοῦς – Jesus; Χριστός –
Christ; θεός –
God; υἱός – Son; σωτήρ – Savior
4) Matthew
8:23-27, 14:25-33; Jesus in His perfection cannot be touched by the sea; He is our
peace when faced with our sin. We rest in the storm with Him in the boat. We
kept our eyes on Him to walk across the sea.
5) Matthew
8:32; Where did the Gadarenes’ pigs go? Into the sea.
6) Speaking
of Noah, Peter writes in 1 Peter 3:21-22; Baptism, which corresponds to
this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to
God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has
gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and
powers having been subjected to him.
7) Mark
10:38b-39 … Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized
with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are
able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with
the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,
8) Jesus
says in Luke 12:50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is
my distress until it is accomplished!
9) Paul
writes in Romans 6:4-5 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.
10) When
Jesus told John the Baptist to baptize Him then Jesus was declaring His purpose
on earth. We are saved because in Christ we pass through the sea of God’s wrath
for our sins. The penalty for our sins is paid. The righteousness of Christ is
received by us as a result of Grace. It is an underserved blessing from
beginning to end.
11) Our water baptism is a public testimony that
we were baptized in Christ 2000 years ago. As Peter says, we appeal to God for
“at onement” saying that our conscience is clear because of the work of Christ
and His resurrection proves the Sacrifice is complete (Revelation 4:6, a placid
sea and 21:1 no sea at all).
So Paul needed to explain these ideas to the Ephesians
who didn’t comprehend the glory of the atonement accomplished in the Cross.
Paul stayed in Ephesus for years teaching Jews and Gentiles the Gospel. 
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