Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Men of the New Testament: "Apollos" by Dale Pollard - Part 2

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Men of the New Testament: "Apollos" by Dale Pollard - Part 2 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Good evening.
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Sneak peek.
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Apollos 1.
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I'm going to go ahead and just, I started going over this and I figured they may actually
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think I don't know how to spell.
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So it is a play on words.
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We are going to be talking about Apollos tonight or I was looking at the Strong's definition
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of Apollos and there was this little thing, a speaker right next to the name that tells
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you how to pronounce it.
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And so just for, I was just interested, I clicked it and it said Apollos.
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And I kind of laughed at it and then I started saying that just jokingly and then it got
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stuck and so I was like, it's Apollos, I cannot, I'm not going to say Apollos the whole night.
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But we are going to be talking about him as a character.
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It is amazing though, if you look at the space race, the history of the space race, I'm not
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a historian by any means, but it is so fascinating to me.
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Not just the space exploration, not just the eventual trip to the moon that we ended up
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accomplishing in the 60s, if you believe that sort of thing, look, there's some stuff out
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there, all right?
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I'm not convinced either way, a good argument could sway me.
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But it's just the idea of someone taking a small rocket, because this is apparently
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how it happened, the crash course is, someone made a small rocket at one point and it went
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up pretty high, made a slightly bigger one and a slightly bigger one and it went like
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that over the years and it just blows my mind that someone would think we should get inside
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of that and we should see what happens, we should see where it goes and it just sounds
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completely terrifying to me.
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But when you look at especially the Apollo missions, you've got Apollo 1 that ended disastrously,
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you had three that were dead on the launch pad, never took off, never went anywhere,
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it was complete and total failure.
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But then you have Apollo 11, and you have, this is the one that made history, we stepped
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on the moon, it was a huge deal, made it safely there and back, two very different missions,
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one that ended in disaster, one that ended in success.
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Well tonight we're going to be talking about Apollos in Acts chapter 18, he's mentioned
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in several other passages we'll look at in just a second, but if you want somewhere to
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turn, Acts 18, that's going to be what we're mainly going to be focusing on with our time
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here.
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Apollos is someone who should have never made it off the launch pad.
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If you look at his background, if you look at when we're first introduced to him in Acts
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chapter 18, we find out a couple things about him that we'll also dive deeper into, but
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he was, we're introduced to him and then shortly after that introduction of, here's this guy,
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he's eloquent, he's knowledgeable in the scriptures, he's up speaking and it seems, at least how
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the text reads, it's probably not the case, but the text reads, he gets up there for the
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first time and he begins to speak in the synagogue and then after he gets down, you have Priscilla
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and Aquila, they come up to him and they teach him further the gospel because he had
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it wrong.
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Now Apollos, like many people today, could have let that, discouraged him greatly, made
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him upset, got him angry, and then never went on to do all the things that he did, which
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we'll also talk about, but here's the major thesis.
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This slide is going to be up here a few times just because this is the thesis statement.
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This is really what this class is all about, at least the direction that I decided to go
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with Apollos, but with God there is guaranteed success, but we have to be willing to get
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off of the launch pad.
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So who is he?
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And we will go to Acts 18, if you go and look at verse 24, that's really our introduction
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to him.
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There's a lot of different theories out there, you've got this guy named Milta Hippolyta,
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he's the guy staying with the lion, I don't know why he's pictured with the lion, holding
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the lion's hand, but he claimed that he was a bishop in the second century, he said that's
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who Apollos was, he was a bishop in the church.
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Then you have Martin Luther, who came up with this interesting idea that he was the author
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of Hebrews.
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Now we're not getting into any of those rabbit chases, I don't think he was the author of
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Hebrews, but Martin Luther, that's one of the things that he said about Apollos, and
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then you have Jerome who said that he was one of the 70 that Jesus sent out, and those
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are old legends, they're old theories about who Apollos was, it's not inspired, it didn't
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come from scripture, but we actually have quite a bit in scripture that tells us exactly
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who Apollos is.
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He's mentioned in three books, he's mentioned in 10 different verses, but the major section
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that we're going to be looking at again is going to be from Acts chapter 18.
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Okay so I'm just going to leave this up here for y'all, you can read it off the screen,
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hopefully you've got your Bible with you and you can look in your Bible, but just looking
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at our introduction, now if you have a header in your Bible that says Apollos speaks boldly
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in Ephesus or something like that, but we're going to be starting from that text and down.
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But just looking at these first few verses here, what do we know about Apollos?
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Okay, alright, so starting in order, he's a Jew, alright, what else?
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Okay, he's from Alexandria, there's a whole lot here, it's like we know the story, he's
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the guy that got rebuked, alright, so he's competent in the scriptures, he's a good speaker,
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captivating speaker, what else?
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So he's learned about Jesus, he didn't have everything wrong, it's just he already had
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an idea, okay, did you read that or was I talking about it earlier?
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Okay, I can't tell, I was bouncing some things off of her, but yes, okay, fervent spirit,
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alright, we're going to talk about that a little bit too because I think it's a really
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cool word.
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But it had to be explained further, probably like some in here who were actually, it's
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now dawning on me, probably remember Apollo 1 and the other Apollo missions, so if I got
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any of that stuff wrong, you can reteach me afterwards, but remember, they did it in private,
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so don't do it here.
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What else do we know?
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So we know what it was that he was lacking while he was speaking up there, he only knew
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about the baptism of John, and that's a big deal.
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Alright, so we can take this, the Acts 18, which this is the section of scripture that
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talks the most about who Apollos is, and I find it, the more you get into it, the more
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fascinating it is.
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First of all, you've got, it opens up with, we've got a Jew, but his name is Apollos,
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now does anyone know why that's kind of weird?
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Or odd?
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Alright, it's a Greek god, and so he's a Jewish guy, and his name is Apollos, that's a little
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bit strange.
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Apollos apparently was a very common name, I still find it very strange that he's Jewish
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and that happens to be his name.
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But he's from Alexandria, now that kind of explains the rest of it, but it also makes
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what he was doing all the more impressive.
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So in other areas of the world, and we'll look at some of this, actually, even if you
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just scroll or look up further in the chapter, in Acts chapter 18, Paul is facing a lot of
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different persecution.
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Things are heating up a lot for him in Corinth, he's in a, it's just a very sexually immoral
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city, it's a very terrible place to be, there were some conversions, but then you have some
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that were just, things were getting heated.
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They did not like Paul being there.
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Alexandria, kind of a different flavor for Apollos anyway, because this was the place.
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It was the place to be, it was kind of like, I don't want to say New York City, because
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there were probably other places closer to that, but it was a place of learning.
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This was a place, the library of Alexandria was there, all different kinds of religions
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flowed through Alexandria, and so people were generally more open to discussion, especially
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the kind of thing that Apollos was doing, getting up there and just talking.
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He was talking in the synagogue, but the fact that he got up there and started speaking
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in Alexandria is not as, I don't want to say risky, but it wasn't as dangerous as you see
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what Paul has been going through before he gets to Apollos.
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But it still takes a lot of courage, and he's very bold, and we see from here, just from
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Acts 18, he ends up launching out and just going different places to some places that
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are not nearly as friendly to Christianity as Alexandria, or at least open to here.
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So skillful orator, highly intelligent, fervent and bold, and he was using those talents and
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abilities for God.
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So that's another, I think, something we could point out about Apollos.
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We know he was intelligent, we know he was a good speaker, and instead of going to law
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school, which he goes on a mission trip with a lawyer, I find that very interesting, he
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has some of the same talents and abilities, but instead he decides to, I'm going to use
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these things, and I'm going to go to the synagogue, and I'm going to communicate Jesus to the
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best of my ability to the masses, and I think that's definitely praiseworthy.
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But if you want to look at a snapshot, because we don't have all the time in the world, here
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are the passages where Apollos is mentioned.
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Now I don't, anyone can, if you have Blue Letter Bible, you just put Apollos' name in
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there and then it will show you every single verse, but I thought this was really cool
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because when you do it with Apollos, you do get a snapshot of his entire life, and for
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the most part, it's in order.
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So Acts 18.24, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus, he was an
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eloquent man, he was competent in the scriptures, and it happened while Apollos was at Corinth,
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Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus and found some of the disciples,
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that's Acts 19.1.
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In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12, what I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul,
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or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, we have this whole argument, or I follow Christ,
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and so we have, this is, this might be, I'd assume, after Priscilla and Aquila, I'm assuming
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1 Corinthians 1 might be where y'all's minds went, because that's where mine went, it was
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this whole, it was the debate over is it Paul or is it Apollos, who are we going to follow,
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that's the second thing that came to my mind as well.
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In 1 Corinthians 3, 4, for one one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos,
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are you not being merely human?
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1 Corinthians 3, 5, what then is Apollos, what is Paul?
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Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.
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Moving down into chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
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growth.
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Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future
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all are yours.
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I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that
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you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed
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up in favor of one against another.
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Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers,
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but it was not at all his will to come now, he will come when he has opportunity.
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And then the last one is one reference in Titus chapter 3 and verse 13, do your best
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to speed Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way, see that they lack nothing.
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All right, so we don't really get, and what I find interesting about this is you don't
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really have a lot from Apollos, in fact we have no dialogue really from him.
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What you have is people talking about him, he was a good speaker, he was competent in
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the scriptures, and then you have this debate that springs up between Paul and Apollos,
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but you don't have Apollos chime in.
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In fact, the closest thing we get to it is, I wanted Apollos to come down here and talk
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with you all directly, but he said it's not really his will right now, he'll come a little
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bit later.
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He's just off, for someone who is in the limelight when we first see him, we don't have a lot
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from him.
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We don't have any sermons from him, if you go the Hebrews route, I don't really care,
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it's not a salvation thing, but if we just rule that out.
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We don't have any sermons from him, we don't have his missionary journeys other than he
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went.
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We don't have the full-on stories about what happened like we do with Paul, and I find
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that very interesting.
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And the information that we do get about Apollos, it's not, and he became the greatest in the
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brotherhood.
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Just with that talent and ability, you just expect him to soar and fly and all that stuff.
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You don't have any of that, but what you do have are these mentions that, yeah, it's
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Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth.
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So this person that has so much talent and ability is off to the side, he's mentioned,
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he's there, he's working, we know that he's there and working and doing great things,
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but we have these blanket statements like he encouraged the brethren greatly, but nothing
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really further than that.
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However, I think that there are some things that we can assume about Apollos, and I think
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that all of us would do better to mimic him, including myself.
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So I don't know why I ended up going with that quote, but if you want to be like this
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guy, Dean, he broke the record for someone who ran the furthest without sleeping.
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350 miles, and this was a quote from a magazine that he was just being interviewed about how
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he felt, and obviously, if you just ran 350 miles nonstop without sleeping, you too would
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probably feel like you'd been hit by a train.
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That's assuming that you made it all the way to the end.
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But he broke this record, and if you want to, then here is the key.
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Three easy steps if you want to run 350 miles, this is all you have to do, it's no big deal.
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So if you've got any excuses, I'm about to eliminate all of them right now.
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Here we go.
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He wakes up early at 4 a.m., and at that time, he runs a full marathon before breakfast.
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Now I know my dad's a runner, I am not.
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Dad did not.
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I went on one 5K with him and I threw up in the parking lot.
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Maybe it's TMI, but I hate running with a burning passion.
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But he wakes up at 4 a.m., runs a full marathon before breakfast in the afternoon, he then
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completes a second, shorter, faster 8 to 12 mile run, whatever a tempo run is.
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Secondly, he does not own a car.
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So if you want to run 350 miles, this is the things you've got to do, you've got to give
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up your car.
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He loads a backpack up and then he runs to the grocery store, literally, and he runs
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to the bank, restaurants, just to get that extra mileage in his day.
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Number three, all you have to do is have an extremely rare physiological trait, like he
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has.
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He, instead of accumulating fatigue, inducing acidity, lactic acid, like a typical runner,
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his body rapidly flushes out the byproduct and reuses it as energy.
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So there you go.
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If you want to run 350 miles without sleeping, that's all you have to do.
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And if you're me, if you want to run 3 miles period, this is exactly what I'd have to do.
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But if we want to be like Apollos, then there are some keys to a successful launch that
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we're going to pull directly out of the scriptures.
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We're mainly going to be in Acts chapter 18 and keeping this thesis in mind, because this
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is in the background the entire time.
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With God, there is a guarantee of success.
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We just have to be willing to get off the launch pad.
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Unlike Dean, this is actually possible.
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This is something we can do.
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The only thing that we have to do is make that decision.
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Are we willing to get off the launch pad and actually be usable in the kingdom?
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Because that was what Apollos was facing.
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What is he going to do after criticism?
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What is he going to do in the face of maybe criticism or about what he was teaching?
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He ended up getting up, and we have the rest of those nine passages, references to him
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afterwards that say a whole lot, even though on the page they don't say a whole lot.
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But number one, be strong in the scriptures.
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I'm convinced that because of his knowledge of Jesus to that point is probably one of
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the reasons why he could take that criticism.
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We already know that he was fervent in spirit.
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We're going to talk about that a little bit more.
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But this is why he already had this base, this ground knowledge.
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This was not someone trying to just get attention or try and do something with his life because
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he couldn't do anything else.
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This seemed to be someone who was truly bought in, someone who was truly passionate about
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this.
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And so because of that, he took it out of the pulpit.
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He was at his home.
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He was in the scriptures.
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He was trying to understand what is it that God wants for me in my life, and he was applying
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that to his life to the best of his ability, including what I assume was a part of his
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prayer life is to help him understand.
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So when Priscilla and Aquila came up to help him understand, he decided to listen instead
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of reject it.
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So being strong in the scriptures is number one.
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It seems to be one of the first things we learn about Apollos, and so I think that's
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a good starting point for us.
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Be strong in the scriptures.
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Have your own spiritual life cooking at the house before you get to the church building.
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Number two, use your gifts for God's glory, like we've talked about just briefly.
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Okay.
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I'm biased, obviously, but I chose to use this example because of the second one I'm
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going to use in this lesson.
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Janelle is really good at this.
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She will spend a long time, when she sends out cards, she will spend a long time writing
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the name on the front of the card in like this fancy, what's it called, calligraphy?
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Calligraphy.
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And she'll spend just, and that's the part you rip up.
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That's the part you rip off the top, you know, you get the card out.
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It takes all two seconds, you know, and so I always wonder, like, why do you put so much
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time in that part?
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You know, I'd get on the inside of the card maybe, but on the outside, it's just she spends
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so much time on that.
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And Jude broke a little wagon that he pushed around for a long time, and Janelle took the
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broken wheel off and then found a, what's it, a cardboard box or something, cut the
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cardboard box up into strips and rolled it into a wheel and duct taped it back onto this
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card all that time just so that Jude would have that card to push around and not go get
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another card or something.
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But Apollos had his talents, and he decided to use those things for God's glory.
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He looked for ways to do that, and he stepped up, and he was bold in those things.
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It's one thing to just say, I'm going to talk to my closest friends, I'm going to talk to
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my family about Jesus, and then you've got Apollos, who's on another level.
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He decides, I'm going public with this, and we have two references to that.
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The first time we meet Apollos, he's up preaching in the synagogue, and then the last verse
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that we read about Apollos, we see that he is publicly refuting arguments from the Jews
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for the sake of Christ.
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First and last things that we're going to read about Apollos in Acts chapter 18.
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I find that so cool, that he's not silenced, he still decides to go public even after being
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told by Priscilla and Aquila that he was wrong on some things.
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So use your gifts for God's glory, and that is also a decision, deciding to get off the
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launch pad.
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You have a certain set of skill sets that I don't have, I have certain skills that you
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don't have, and so what are we going to do with those things?
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And Apollos decided, I'm going to use them for God's glory.
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Yes, yeah, yep, he's bought in, yep, and he decided to use that zeal, use that passion,
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and let it propel him to where he was.
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So that brings us to this number two.
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Zeal matters.
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Okay, so this is a really cool word.
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You might have the word fervent there, but the Greek word means to boil over, and I think
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this is a cool word because every time it's used in Scripture, you can really use that
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application of it.
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But it's something that's, think of something in a pressurized container that's just boiling
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over or it's about to burst, or a pot, a kettle that's boiling over and it's just flowing
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over the top, it's the same word that's used to describe Apollos.
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There was just so much inside that it just, it had to come out, and I think that's a really
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cool way to describe him.
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And that zeal is something that can be nurtured and grown in our own spiritual lives.
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The picture that you see up there is actually our kitchen.
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This was, Janelle got a sourdough, I'm just kidding, it's a mushroom cloud, but Janelle
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got a sourdough starter and she sealed it.
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And I didn't know this at the time, so I couldn't have said anything even if I saw it, but she
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sealed it off and it just pressurized over three years, how long did that take?
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A week.
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A while, but it was a week.
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And all of a sudden we're in the house and there is this loud gunshot, I mean it looks
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like someone just shot a rifle right through our window.
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And so we're both like, what just happened?
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And there's sourdough just dripping off of the ceiling in our kitchen because it just
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exploded.
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It could no longer be contained, it was so pressurized that it blew up.
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Well, that's exactly how the word zeal, fervent, is used within scripture, and it's describing
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Apollos.
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This was a man who was so passionate, he was so fervent that he had to say something, and
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he did.
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And it was something that he didn't lose even after the correction.
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I'm going to keep going back to that just because that's such a common thing that we
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see in the church today.
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I don't know if we've just gotten soft in this generation, or maybe it's so impressive
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it was even impressive back then.
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But even after that, he didn't become timid.
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He wasn't like, okay, well, I don't know as much as I thought I did, so maybe I'll just
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be quiet and sit down for a while, and I'll get back up there once I've figured out everything,
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or once I've learned everything.
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He didn't.
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You see the same zealous characteristics in Apollos when you first meet him and then when
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he leaves the pages of scripture at the end, especially of this chapter that we'll look
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at in just a second.
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Number four, don't be afraid.
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And this can go into several different sides of the Apollo story, but does anyone know
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what this bug is up on the screen, by the way?
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Does anyone know?
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I'm shocked.
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It lives here in Kentucky.
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It's not a tiki fly.
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It's called, okay, well, there's a couple other names that I think that people in Kentucky
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call them, but the Dobson flies is, I guess, the official, I'm assuming Mr. Dobson discovered
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it and named it, but this is a bug that lives here in Kentucky.
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I've seen it one time, and when I saw it, I mean, my jaw dropped.
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It was on our front porch, and it was huge.
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It's like as big as my hand.
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Now, I don't have huge hands, but for a bug that's still big, and it had those big pinchers,
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and I just stared at it, and I was like, this cannot be real.
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It looks fake, and it looks terrifying.
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It looks like it can bite your finger off.
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Well, I took a picture of it, and then I did a little reverse search of it to try and figure
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out exactly what this thing was, and it said, do not kill these bugs.
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They are completely harmless, and I'm reading that, and this thing is still on the porch,
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and I'm looking at it and going, I don't believe it.
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I don't believe it.
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This is AI trying to kill us.
23:11
This thing is clearly a very capable insect.
23:14
I can see decapitation happening.
23:16
I mean, there's just all kinds of stuff that it could do with those pinchers.
23:19
They're for show, or some other stuff, but not for biting people, apparently, but they
23:25
look absolutely terrifying, but they're not, and I think that that is just the most bizarre
23:30
thing in the world, but there is nothing to be afraid of, and I want to show you something,
23:35
a couple things that this theme of be not afraid is not only found throughout Scripture,
23:41
but it's also found earlier in this chapter, and so I want to go to, if you look at verses
23:47
9 and 10, okay, so before Apollos understood any of this, or before he understood everything,
23:56
he still shares the truth that he had learned, but if you go up before all of this in the
24:00
context here with Paul, in verse 9, this is God talking to Paul one night in a vision.
24:07
He says, do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and
24:13
no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.
24:18
Now I think this is so fitting, now obviously Scripture is inspired, but I think this is
24:22
so fitting that God comes to Paul in a vision and says this, and then pretty much right
24:28
after this, you have the Apollo story.
24:30
I think that that is so interesting, but God has to remind Paul, who's already had a pretty
24:35
good history with God up to this point, of God getting him out of difficult situations,
24:39
this whole conversion process is very supernatural, you'd think that'd be one of those one-and-done
24:44
miracles that takes place, you know, he meets Christ on the road to Damascus, boom, don't
24:48
need any more signs for the rest of your life, don't need any more visions, but Paul apparently
24:52
needed this reminder from God that don't be afraid, and if you look at how things are
24:57
heating up that we mentioned briefly, we can see why he would need that reminder.
25:05
But this is one of the clearest moments in Acts where you have this divine reassurance,
25:09
and it meets a very real human exhaustion, and it turns into this renewed courage for
25:13
both Paul and then Apollos.
25:15
So Paul had been also teaching in a synagogue, but a very different one.
25:19
Many Jews rejected his message, he had to shake out his garments and declared that he
25:23
would then go to the Gentiles, which that was a big deal, in verse 6.
25:28
And so you have tension clearly rising, so don't be afraid, very major theme, each character
25:34
seems to bring this out.
25:36
You have Paul.
25:37
Don't be afraid of how others are going to respond, or the state of the country or the
25:42
nation that you're currently living.
25:44
Don't be afraid of your surroundings or the people that you're around.
25:47
You've got Aquila and Priscilla.
25:48
Now this one is kind of, I think this one's a little bit deeper here, but Aquila and Priscilla,
25:54
why would they show us that we don't need to be afraid?
26:00
Priscilla and Aquila, how did they have courage?
26:04
Have they ever had to tell someone they were wrong?
26:07
It could be super awkward.
26:08
Actually, I'm going to back up on that, because I think sometimes we make it up in our minds
26:13
that this is going to be way worse than it actually is.
26:15
I think if done the right way, like Aquila and Priscilla, I don't think it has to be
26:18
an awkward thing at all.
26:19
But from what we know about Apollos already, very eloquent, he's got the ear of everybody,
26:25
he's got a captured audience, he's very knowledgeable in the Scriptures, and who exactly are Priscilla
26:31
and Aquila to come up to Apollos afterwards and say, hey, great job, you missed a few
26:37
things?
26:38
Can't you see just the human side of things enter into that equation and go, and who are
26:43
you?
26:44
Thank you for attending, thank you for listening, but why should I listen to what you have to
26:47
say at all?
26:49
I think Priscilla and Aquila teach us something about fear, too, is getting up there and talking
26:53
to someone, even though that can be a very intimidating thing to do.
26:58
And then you've, of course, got Apollos.
27:05
And there's a lot of things that they did right there that I think would be good for
27:10
us to model.
27:12
Going to the person directly, not going to somebody else, not going to a friend, not
27:16
talking to everyone else about, did you hear what he was talking about?
27:19
Well, he was totally wrong on this because he was just talking about John's baptism.
27:22
Didn't go through all those channels, it went directly to the person and it was in a private
27:26
setting, like you mentioned.
27:28
Now maybe there are some instances where people's minds have been changed publicly in comment
27:35
sections, maybe on Facebook or social media or in public.
27:39
It's got to be super rare, though.
27:40
I have not seen a lot of that, I don't know if you all have, but I've never seen someone
27:45
maybe in a comment section just say, you're wrong.
27:48
And then that person say, well, you're right, I am, in front of everybody after making a
27:53
post and disagreeing with them.
27:56
Probably not going to go very well.
27:58
Your best odds are going to be to do it in private just like we have modeled for us here.
28:03
But yeah, thank you.
28:04
So then you have, of course, Apollos with, do not be afraid, don't let the fear of being
28:08
wrong keep you from being bold, and I think that that is a major lesson that we learn
28:11
from him.
28:12
Now, this does not mean you should just get up and say whatever.
28:15
I think, especially when it comes to God's Word, Apollos took it seriously, I think we
28:18
all understand that.
28:19
If we're going to be talking about Jesus, we'd better know who Jesus is and what he
28:22
did.
28:23
Yeah.
28:24
Yeah.
28:25
Yeah.
28:26
Yeah.
28:27
Yeah.
28:28
And I think when you read that about Apollos, too, that, oh, he was wrong.
28:36
But when you read everything that takes place, do you have more respect for him or do you
28:39
have less respect for him?
28:40
You're not like, well, he doesn't know that much.
28:43
I think it does.
28:44
I think it builds respect for who Apollos is as a person.
28:48
And I think that it's also, if we're afraid of being wrong, and some people have a really
28:52
hard time with that, maybe more so than others, but remember people like Apollos.
29:07
I've always wondered on the flip side of things, you know, because in Revelation it says that
29:11
the Bible is there in heaven, you know, whether metaphor or physically.
29:15
But we have, you know, the Word is there in heaven, and so someone like Apollos could
29:20
technically he could look back and read for all time, for all eternity, the things that
29:24
are written about him in Scripture.
29:26
And he probably said a lot of things that were true and accurate and right after Acts
29:31
chapter 18, and yet for all time you have, but there is that time you were wrong.
29:37
There is that time when you got up there, first introduced, yeah, you're bold, you're
29:40
eloquent and all that, but you were wrong, and that is going to be there forever.
29:45
But I think we see from Apollos' character is that if he knew that that was going to
29:48
help further the gospel of Christ, then he'd be like, yes, put that mistake in there.
29:52
Let people know that you can be bold, you can be passionate, you can get up there, you
29:56
can preach, you can be wrong, you can learn, and then you can get back up and keep doing
30:00
the same thing afterwards.
30:02
I think Apollos is the kind of guy that would go, yes, leave that mistake in there, as if
30:05
he had any choice in the matter.
30:07
I just think that that's really interesting.
30:09
Okay, so be not afraid.
30:11
I wanted to throw in this example because it's just, it's very bizarre to me, but John Ford,
30:16
he was a determined Hollywood filmmaker in 1942.
30:20
He wanted to make the best documentary of his life, and he did, to me, what I think
30:24
is the unthinkable, but he wanted to document life on the islands in the Midway Atoll.
30:30
So if you're a World War II buff, you know this is a major battle, lots of Japanese Zeros
30:35
planes flying in, bombing, and instead of ducking and running for cover and then filming
30:40
from the safety of anywhere, like under a rock would have been better than where he
30:45
decided to go.
30:46
He went on top of, I believe it was the radio communication tower, this flat concrete building.
30:51
He stood on the top of that right in the open as the planes flew over and started bombing.
30:57
He had this big heavy camera that he ended up just ditching because it was too cumbersome,
31:01
and then he had this handheld camera.
31:03
A bomb went off next to him, shrapnel went into his shoulder, it knocked him out, and
31:08
so it was just a, it briefly knocked him out.
31:10
He wakes up with the camera still in hand and just keeps recording as it's all going
31:15
on.
31:16
He ends up winning an Oscar.
31:17
I think it's funny now.
31:18
I've got a lot of respect for him, but I can't help but think, man, what drives a person
31:21
like that to be like, I'm going to make the best documentary in the world and I know exactly
31:25
how I'm going to do it.
31:26
I'm going to go to the front lines and start recording.
31:29
But he did.
31:30
He won an Oscar.
31:31
And so he is the complete absence of fear, complete determination, and he did it.
31:38
And you can actually still watch this.
31:39
It's not a graphic at all.
31:40
You can pull it up on YouTube, but you can watch it.
31:43
It's called The Battle of Midway, and just if you put in John Ford, you can see it.
31:47
And there's this part in that very, it's a very short video, but you can see a glitch
31:52
in the screen, and apparently that's when he was blown off of his feet and then wakes
31:56
up and just still records it.
31:58
So it's very incredible.
32:00
But fear not, nothing can harm you.
32:02
That's what God has to tell Paul.
32:04
That's what Apollos teaches us as we watch that actually play out, that you can get back
32:09
up, you can do it, you're not going to be made fun of, you're not going to be scrutinized
32:12
by the church.
32:13
In fact, we see the opposite.
32:14
If you look at the end of Acts chapter 18, a couple of things take place where it says
32:20
in verse 27, and when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers, notice the brothers
32:27
encouraged him to do so, not, hey, no, don't go venturing off until you've learned everything
32:32
there is to know.
32:33
Instead, they encouraged him.
32:36
Then they wrote, they went a step further than that.
32:38
They wrote to the disciples that when he gets there to welcome him, and when he arrived,
32:44
we notice obviously what's going to follow that, the way that all of this plays out with
32:48
Aquila and Priscilla correcting him, him getting back up, and then the disciples encouraging
32:53
him to go on to do these things, and then to have that welcome party there, obviously
32:58
when he gets there, when he arrives, he greatly helped those through grace had believed, for
33:04
he powerfully refuted the Jews in public.
33:07
There's that second time we have it mentioned again.
33:09
He's in public when we first meet him, and then he's in public again at the end of 18.
33:14
He refutes the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus.
33:19
Now, I know every word is inspired here.
33:21
I think this is intentional, that showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus.
33:27
Again, we have that with Apollos.
33:29
He deeply cared about what scripture said.
33:32
He wasn't just about the packaging of the message.
33:34
He was about the heart of the message.
33:36
He was about who Jesus actually was, and we see it again there.
33:39
All right, we're going to put two for one on this screen here, because both of these
33:44
go together very well, but be humble enough to learn, and number six, accept correction
33:50
with grace.
33:52
Two very difficult things.
33:54
The first one may be not as hard, especially if it's in a private setting.
33:58
Humble enough to learn, I'm sure that if any of us have cracked open – Janelle actually
34:02
ordered me – it's the mechanic magazine for G20s, and it's the big vans, and I was
34:10
like, I know a lot about these vans.
34:11
I don't need this manual.
34:14
I opened it up, and my head started spinning.
34:16
There's just wires everywhere.
34:18
There's just so much about that I don't know.
34:21
Be humble enough to learn.
34:22
Know that there's things that you don't know, and then the harder one, accept correction
34:25
with grace.
34:26
So, here's the question.
34:28
From Apollos, what does that look like?
34:30
How do you accept correction with grace?
34:32
Because we don't really have a lot from – we don't have a lot about how Apollos
34:37
responded to Aquila and Priscilla.
34:39
We just know that he was taught, and then he did better afterwards.
34:42
But what does that mean?
34:43
How do you respond to correction with grace?
34:45
I guess an easier one is, how do you not respond with grace?
34:51
All right, don't be defensive.
34:54
Now, I think we could flip sides on, you know, and be like, well, how is the correction being
35:01
presented?
35:02
You know, because I think if Aquila and Priscilla did it wrong, and then just, you know, came
35:05
up to more accusatory, more public, maybe, then even if they were right, they were still
35:10
wrong, you know, in that sense.
35:12
But yeah, so not defensive.
35:13
When someone comes up and tells you something, it's like, maybe they are looking out for
35:16
your best interest.
35:18
And so, maybe just go ahead and start from that place.
35:20
Yeah, what else?
35:21
How do you accept correction with grace?
35:24
Yeah.
35:25
Okay.
35:27
Okay, and yeah, because it is hard.
35:32
It is hard to go and correct somebody, at least for some people.
35:35
Maybe some might actually like, you know, to ruffle feathers and stuff.
35:38
But for a lot of people, it is difficult to go up and tell somebody something like that.
35:42
So yeah, with some gratitude, thankful for that person actually taking the time to say
35:46
something about it, yeah, definitely.
35:50
With Christianity, and I think we see a lot of this in Paul and Apollos' life, there's
35:55
something greater.
35:57
There's something bigger and both of them know it.
35:58
Paul knows it, Apollos knows it, that it's not about Apollos.
36:02
There's that debate that's going on.
36:04
Other people in the church might have thought so, that it's about Paul and it's about Apollos
36:07
and who you follow.
36:09
But they both knew that it wasn't.
36:10
They knew that it was about Christ and it was about furthering the gospel.
36:13
And so, there was already this deep-seated interest and love for the gospel.
36:17
And so, I think that goes into a lot of that.
36:19
How do you accept correction with grace?
36:21
Well, if it's about the bigger picture, if it's all about Christ, you know that the brother
36:25
or sister coming up to you is all about Christ, loves the church, then you know that what
36:29
they're going to say is going to come from a place like that.
36:31
And so, if you have two people who are of the same mind, correction comes a lot easier.
36:37
Growing up, that was hard.
36:38
What?
36:39
So, they cared enough to actually know about the topic and the subject, too.
36:56
And I bet that the way that they approached Apollos, too, that was probably pretty evident
37:01
that it's like, okay, they're talking about some pretty specific things.
37:05
They probably care a lot about this topic, too, so yeah, that definitely makes it a lot
37:08
easier, too.
37:09
Just a few more here.
37:10
There is a five-minute bell, right?
37:12
Correct?
37:13
Okay.
37:14
All right.
37:15
Just a few more here.
37:16
Be open to unexpected teachers.
37:17
Now, I think to Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila were unexpected.
37:21
Obviously, for us, that's what we know Priscilla and Aquila for probably the best, is that
37:25
they were the ones that were teaching Apollos.
37:28
But be open to unexpected teachers.
37:30
It's not always, you know, the wise elder, you know, the knowledgeable preacher that
37:34
comes up and starts talking to you.
37:36
Sometimes it's the lads-to-leaders going up there and practicing a devotional and you're
37:40
like, oh, good job, you know, you're going to get to some practice, and wow, that landed
37:43
right on my toes.
37:44
That has happened a few times.
37:45
You know, they get up there, they do this lesson, they're practicing, you know, for
37:49
the lads-to-leaders convention, but the topic they get into, it's like, man, I needed to
37:53
hear that tonight.
37:54
Thank you, six-year-old child up in the pulpit, you know?
37:57
And or sometimes it comes from, it's a shut-in.
37:59
They're going to visit because, you know, it's your Christian duty, you know, you want
38:03
to make sure that they are okay and you want to go and encourage them and they end up teaching
38:07
you something that you didn't know or they have a different perspective that they shine
38:10
on something that you're going through, you end up growing through that.
38:14
So be open to unexpected teachers.
38:16
And number next, keep on growing.
38:20
So there, you might have heard the, if you keep a four-inch shark in a four-inch cage
38:25
and then it stays four inches its entire life because they can't grow outside of their tank.
38:29
Sadly, that's a myth because I thought it'd be pretty cool to sell a bunch of little tiny
38:34
great white sharks.
38:35
It'd be a really great idea.
38:36
I don't know why PetSmart didn't jump on that.
38:38
I feel like I would have bought a mini great white in a heartbeat, especially if those
38:41
things are on sale, baby.
38:42
You know I'd be all over that.
38:43
But it's kind of a myth.
38:46
They would become deformed and sometimes they would die.
38:50
I guess someone else already did that experiment.
38:52
But it is true that they do need the vastness of the ocean in order to grow to their fullest
38:57
extent.
38:58
And that's the thing with us spiritually except the difference is we create the cage.
39:03
We decide how big the tank is going to be when we're going to stop growing because ultimately
39:07
that is the decision.
39:08
Are we going to stop?
39:09
When are we going to stop?
39:11
Where are those walls going to be?
39:13
Apollos decided it was not going to be at that correction.
39:16
He wasn't going to learn that much and then be done.
39:18
He decided there's more.
39:20
The wall needs to be further away.
39:22
Listened to Priscilla and Aquila and kept on growing.
39:25
Encourage other believers.
39:27
Apollos didn't become obsessed with self-improvement after this.
39:30
I think sometimes there's a really big emphasis on this about self-improvement and being the
39:34
best that you can be to the degree that sometimes we can be in danger of ignoring others and
39:41
other Christians around us that we could also be helping to encourage and influence.
39:46
So he didn't become consumed with himself, honing in his craft or learning as much as
39:51
he possibly could to be the best version of himself.
39:55
He balanced those two very, very well.
39:57
He learned and while he was learning, he was on the go and he was encouraging others and
40:01
I dare say as he did so, he probably improved himself in doing that because that's just
40:06
the way that tends to work.
40:08
And then as when we looked at that snapshot of his life, this was the biggest thing that
40:13
stood out to me was let God receive all the glory.
40:16
What about Apollos?
40:17
Where are his sermons?
40:19
Where are all the great things he did?
40:20
What about the other synagogues that he stood?
40:21
I want to hear some more of these eloquent speeches that he had.
40:25
It's not about that, it's about God and it was about God from the very beginning.
40:28
You've got Paul who apparently was not nearly the speaker that Apollos was, a great writer,
40:35
run on sentences sometimes, but you've got this story about Apollos that's no dialogue,
40:41
no lessons, no sermons, all of it points to God even the way that the Bible talks about
40:46
Apollos.
40:47
So use your talents for God's glory.
40:49
Everything has to point to God because with God there is guaranteed success.
40:53
God can do great things with us, but we have to be willing to get off the launchpad.
40:57
Even when we hear difficult things, even if we have to be corrected, even if we get discouraged
41:01
getting up and using our talents for God is always going to end in our spiritual success
41:06
for the greater of the kingdom.
41:08
And that is my takeaway with Apollos.
41:10
Thank you.
41:11
Y'all got 60 seconds.