Apollos: Mighty in the Scriptures

I. The story of Apollos
A. Paul had four missionary journeys, it would seem (not counting his journey to Rome in chains), three of which are documented in the book of Acts. His second missionary journey he spent mainly in Corinth, which is in Greece. On his way home to Antioch from Corinth, he traveled with his friends Priscilla and Aquila for the first leg of the journey. The ship had a planned stop in Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila were headed. While there in Ephesus, Paul visited the synagogue and began to tell them about Christ. The Jews there were very interested in what he had to say, but Paul’s boat was leaving and so he couldn’t stay, but he promised them that he would return. He then set sail for home. While Paul was back in Antioch and Jerusalem and the area around Tarsus (southeastern Asia Minor) where he grew up (and spent his first missionary journey), a man named Apollos came to Ephesus.
1. Apollos was from Alexandria in Egypt: the second greatest city in the whole world, second only to Rome. There was a large community of Jews there. A world-famous school of Bible interpretation existed there.
2. Probably Apollos had become a Christian and received instruction in Alexandria. Although the beginnings of the church there are lost in obscurity, we know the gospel reached that city early on – probably even before Jesus was crucified.
3. Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of Jesus; and was fervent in spirit, but he was acquainted only with the baptism of John.
a. He knew the OT very well. He knew of Jesus as well, and could argue very persuasively that Jesus was the messiah. He may have heard about the death and resurrection of Christ, but apparently he didn’t know about Pentecost, where baptism in the name of Jesus was proclaimed. The only baptism he knew was the baptism of John the Baptist.
B. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue.
1. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they could tell that his knowledge of Christ was still incomplete. So, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
C. Apollos then left for the region of Achaia, where he preached very effectively in the city of Corinth.
1. Paul refers to this in 1Cor.3:6 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.”
2. While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul arrived at Ephesus on his third missionary journey and spent over two years preaching there.
3. But sadly, while Paul was in Ephesus, Apollos came face to face with a host of problems in the church of Corinth. Perhaps worst of all was the fact that some of the Corinthians embraced the teaching of Apollos over against that of Paul. This provoked a reaction from others who maintained allegiance to Paul, and from those who felt a loyalty toward Peter (perhaps he had visited, or perhaps some who had sat under his teaching elsewhere had moved to Corinth). Others, distressed by these divisions, boasted that their allegiance belonged to Christ Himself.
4. Paul describes the divisions in 1Cor.1:12, “Each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
a. (That’s pretty amazing company for Apollos: Jesus, Peter [Cephas], and Paul.)
5. Before Paul left Ephesus, Apollos came back to report to Paul about the many problems which had arisen in the church at Corinth. This is apparently the first meeting between the two.
6. Paul encouraged Apollos to return again, but Apollos was convinced he should not, probably afraid to fuel the divisions even more.
a. 1Cor.16:12 “Concerning Apollos our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brethren; and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity.”
D. Shortly after this Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians to address some of the issues Apollos had informed him of.
E. In the 4th century, Jerome writes that Apollos waited to return to Corinth until after the divisions were healed, and then returning he became the bishop of Corinth.
F. We know from the NT that Apollos was still going strong in ministry a decade later than our passage in Acts. Paul writes in Titus 3:13 “Diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking for them.” (Apollos probably delivered the letter from Paul to Titus.)
G. Many, including Martin Luther, think Apollos may have written the epistle to the Hebrews.
II. Acts 18:24–28 “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. 27 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, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.”
A. This is one of the most glowing introductions in the whole NT.
B. It’s hard to figure out exactly how and why Apollos was incomplete in his understanding of Christ. He was at least ignorant of what had happened at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out and the people were baptized into Jesus.
C. But the thing which stands out most about Apollos is that he was mighty in the Scriptures.
1. Mighty/competent
a. Luke 24:19 Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Cf. Acts 7:22.
2. All the other things Luke says about Apollos seem to be unpacking this characteristic.
a. 24 “He was an eloquent man.” (LOGIOS – eloquent, articulate, learned)
b. 25 “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord.”
c. Fervent: 25 “being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately”
d. Precise and accurate – 25 “He spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus.”
e. Bold: 26 “he spoke boldly in the synagogue”
f. Teachable: 26 “Priscilla and Aquila explained to him the way of God more accurately.”
g. Well-reasoned: 28 “He powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.”
h. All of these seem to be a part of what it means that Apollos was might in the Scriptures.
3. Being mighty in the Scriptures seems to imply at least three things.
a. First, it means it was in his heart and not just in his head.
(1) We would never describe a man as mighty in the Scriptures if he merely had a superior intellectual grasp of the Bible. We would never describe a man as mighty in the Scriptures if he merely had a great zeal for Christ yet lacked a good understanding of the Bible.
(2) It takes both a deep knowledge of the Bible and a passion for its truths to qualify for the description of a man mighty in the Scriptures.
b. And thirdly it includes eloquence, the ability to articulate things in an understandable way.
4. What brought Apollos to this point? What was the history behind his being mighty in the Scriptures?
a. A brilliant mind, a lot of hard work, a lot of daily discipline, a lot of regularly devoting himself to reading and studying the Scriptures and striving not only to master them, but to be mastered by them.
b. Not just a fervent spirit in general, but a fervent spirit for the Scriptures and their import for man.
c. Apollos had been instructed in the way of the Lord. From this we know that he had devoted himself to being a student, to applying himself to instruction, sitting under great teachers.
III. Why is all this in here? What can we learn about the Bible from the story of Apollos?
A. This tells us something about the Bible. His word is wonderful, like Yosemite.
1. I know that sometimes your life is difficult. Mine is too.
2. But God has given us the greatest, most fantastic tool to deal with life!
3. God gave Apollos a keen mind and he used it to understand the ways of God from the Scriptures.
a. The gospel is the greatest enterprise for the mind of man - greater than all creation. The greatest minds have been dazzled by it.
b. Apollos was a man who probably could have been successful at whatever he did.
c. And yet he devoted himself to something that the world considered a wasted cause. Why?
d. Because Apollos really saw, he really knew! It was clear to him that this was the highest thing for him to know and to do. God really had a grip on him. The truth of Christ had captured his imagination and he devoted himself fully to learning it and spreading it.
4. The story of Apollos also tells us something about the nature of the Bible. The Bible is not a collection of niceties designed to help you feel better. It’s the kind of thing which you make a case from. It is a book of truths and facts, of claims and reasonings, designed to persuade us of things.
B. The church needs men who are mighty in the Scriptures.
1. 27-28 “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.”
2. This implies that one of the real struggles that the Corinthian believers were having was how to refute the Jews who were using their knowledge of Scripture to try to disprove that Jesus was the Christ/messiah. (That’s what you call Apollos-getics!)
3. Note especially that Apollos helped the believers by refuting the non-believers.
4. Not everyone is equipped to answer the arguments of those who attack the truth of Christ.
5. But God has so equipped His body that there are those who are so equipped to give answer.
6. And Apollos was one who served this purpose in Ephesus and then in Corinth.
7. What a blessing it is to listen to the instruction of great Bible teachers!
a. We have teaching available to us on an unprecedented level.
b. Don’t just listen to me. Listen to the best. Listen to RC Sproul, and John Piper, and Sinclair Ferguson, and Tim Keller and others.
c. Praying for a new pastor
C. The church needs us all to be more mighty in the Scriptures.
1. As Christians, we listen to sermons, we hear Scripture read, in many ways we are surrounded by Scripture, but we must be geared in. We need to be students trying to learn something, trying to master something.
2. God doesn’t call everyone to be a teacher in the official sense. But He calls all of us to have the word of Christ dwell in us richly.
3. I have known people of keen mind who seem to turn their brains off when they come to church and the Bible. They have keen minds in the world, but when it comes to Christ it is as if their intelligence is set aside. They are precise and able to discern subtle distinctions in their field, but when it comes to their faith, their minds seem more like mush.
4. Not all of us have the make up to be an Apollos. (In fact, few do.) But we all can be more like Apollos than we are. God put him in the Bible to inspire us: to be more bold, to be more zealous, to be more teachable, to be more committed to learning the Scriptures, to be more urgent about communicating the truth of Christ, to be more determined to build up His body.
5. This involves being humble enough to be teachable, just like Apollos.
6. Being mighty in the Scriptures didn’t prevent him from learning more.
7. And he was willing to learn from a very unlikely source: Apollos was from Alexandria, the city of scholars, home to one of the great universities in the world, and apparently a great intellect. And yet he was willing to learn from this ordinary couple, Priscilla & Aquila, a tentmaker and his wife.
D. Often understanding of the Bible is very useful in ministry
1. The fact that Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures and bold in his witness is not merely a coincidence.
2. Many times we are lackadaisical about learning the Bible, and then we feel bad when we are in a discussion with a non-believer or a wrong-headed believer and can’t explain the Biblical position because we never paid close enough attention when it was taught to us.
3. One of the great motivating powers behind a hunger for knowledge of Scripture is a zeal for ministry. If you want to be able to help others understand and accept the truths of the Scriptures, then you will have a zeal to learn them yourselves.
4. When you fail to apply yourself to the study of Scripture you are not only depriving yourself, you are depriving your fellow man, who needs the truths that you are given.