Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Men of the New Testament: "Aquila" by David Pahman - Part 4

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Men of the New Testament: "Aquila" by David Pahman - Part 4 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Good evening, everyone.
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Tonight we're going to be studying Aquila.
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If you'd like, go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 18.
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We'll start there.
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Aquila does appear, I guess, in four different passages or groups of passages, I guess you
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could say, but we're most familiar with Acts 18.
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Two weeks ago, Dale covered Apollos, and so several of the things that he covered, I'll
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try not to repeat, but when we talk about Aquila, well, when we talked about Apollos,
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then basically we're also talking some about Aquila.
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So we'll cover some of those things, I'll try to bring out some things that Dale did
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not.
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Of course, he had much more entertaining slides than mine are, but I think that's probably
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different in age group and everything.
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But if we have enough time at the end, Neil doesn't know this, but he's going to teach
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the last four minutes, but you don't have to get up from your seat.
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You'll figure it out when we get to there.
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Actually, I pre-recorded Neil teaching from Ephesus, and so if we get to enough time,
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hopefully I'll share just a few minutes of that recording.
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Some of these events that took place in Acts chapter 18, basically some of us were able
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to go on the trip with Neil to Ephesus, and we saw some of those things, and I thought
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it would just be cool to share a visual from those places and share a little bit about
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the message here in Acts 18.
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So I'm going to try to do two things.
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Talk about Aquila without stepping on what Dale talked about, and without covering what
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Neil will talk about in that, but still give you some things on Aquila.
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When I first signed up for Aquila, I thought, well that'll be easy, it's basically just
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one passage, but then I was wrong the more we got digging, and tonight what I'll try
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to do is share with you some general facts that we read here in Acts chapter 18 about
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Aquila, but then there's basically 11, I guess you could say, points or lessons that I feel
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that we can learn or observe from Aquila and apply to our lives, and we'll share those
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with you as we go along.
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So first of all, in Acts chapter 18, just notice in the first couple verses here, in
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Acts 18 verses 1 through 3, we see after this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth,
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so we see that Paul travels to Corinth here, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native
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of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded
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all the Jews to leave Rome, and he went to see them, and because he is of the same trade,
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he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade.
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So a couple points that we can notice here about Aquila, first of all, this situation
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took place in Corinth, and you know, it might lead you to believe that Aquila was from Corinth,
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but we see different from that in verse 2.
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First of all, he was a Jew, and it's a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus.
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A couple things about Pontus, just out of curiosity, Pontus was one of those things
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found in Acts chapter 2, if you just want to flip back over there, in Acts chapter 2
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verse 9, on the day of Pentecost, when everyone was gathered together there, we see that Peter
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and the rest of the apostles were gathered together there.
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They were amazed, verse 7, and astonished, saying, are not all these who are speaking
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Galileans, and how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?
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We see the list of where all these people were from, remember they were Jews pretty
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much gathered in Jerusalem for the feasts and festivals for the Pentecost there.
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We see, verse 9, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
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Pontus, and Asia.
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So we know that some Jews from Pontus, some proselytes even, possibly, were gathered together
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there on the Pentecost.
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Could Aquila have been one of them?
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We don't know, we're not told from the Scriptures, but we do know that some from Pontus were
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there on the day of Pentecost to hear that gospel sermon there in Acts 2.
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So back at Acts 18, we see Aquila was a native of Pontus.
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We see that he had fled Italy, he had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because
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Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
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And so here's Claudius, this ruler, Claudius is mentioned several times in the Scriptures,
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but Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
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And so we had this mass exodus from Rome, from Italy, during that time, and here was
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Aquila and Priscilla that were part of the group that had to leave Rome.
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And of course these were scattered abroad, it's a pretty good ways from Rome to Corinth,
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so they left a long ways there, but they had scattered.
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We do see that Paul went to see them, and we see that Aquila was a tent maker by trade.
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This was handy in the fact that he had to leave Italy, had to leave Rome, because there
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could have been other people that needed a place to live, needed a temporary place to
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live, and so he was a tent maker.
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Also Corinth was a major trade city there on the water, and so it would have been a
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good place to sell tents, it would have been a good place for them to have a lot of these
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things for sale, and so it was a good place there.
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We also see that Paul, a couple things that we see, and we'll dive into this a little
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bit deeper, but Paul heard about them, went to see them, and ended up pretty much, you
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could say, working for them, because it says that Paul was a, and because he was of the
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same trade, in other words because he was a tent maker, he stayed with them and worked
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for their tent makers by trade.
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We see down in verse 11 that Paul stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God
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among them.
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So here Paul finds Aquila and Priscilla there, he finds them because they're tent makers
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by trade, Paul's a tent maker by trade, he seeks and finds them out, and he basically
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stays with them and works.
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So it gives the impression that basically Paul worked for them.
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He heard they were tent makers, and it says that he stayed with them and worked.
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So those are the basic facts that we see about Aquila.
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Any questions or thoughts there on those verses before we move on to some of these lessons?
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Yes?
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I just had to look at what I thought it was.
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Okay.
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So when he left Rome, Italy, and went to Corinth, the question is was he going closer to home
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or further away?
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He's going closer to home.
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So he was going back across the sea closer to where home was, and I should have probably
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pulled up a map to show where these places were.
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This study on Aquila, so there's several places that come in play multiple times, and it's
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almost like they're chasing around.
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So we have he leaves Rome, comes here to Corinth, later we're going to see them in Ephesus,
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but then refer back to Corinth while in Ephesus, but then go back to Rome when Paul writes
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Romans, and then Paul later is in Rome and refers back to him when Aquila and Persil
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are back in Rome.
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So it gets a little confusing there, but we'll step through this as we go through the different
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passages.
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But I've tried to put the passages in order of the time written or time found about it.
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Basically Paul refers to him the other times, the other passages, but this is where that
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first meeting took place.
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This is where Paul met them originally, developed this friendship and kinship by living with
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them and working side by side with them.
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No doubt talking about the gospel, and we'll see that here in just a little bit.
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They learned the gospel so much that later they basically correct, if you will, Apollos
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that Dale talked about.
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So they learned the scriptures enough there through either other interactions or interactions
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with Paul that they learned the scriptures well enough there.
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And then we find that there are rock-solid pillars in the church wherever they go from
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that point on.
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So let's notice a few facts about Aquila.
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First of all, I list that he was a true partner with his wife Priscilla.
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And why do I say that?
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Every time pretty much you hear Aquila mentioned, what else do you hear?
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Priscilla mentioned.
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And it's just a neat fact.
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I don't know of too many couples in the New Testament.
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There are other couples in the New Testament, but not too many.
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Every time one's mentioned, the others mention.
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But in this case, every time pretty much Aquila's mentioned, Priscilla's right there with them.
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And so he was a true partner with his wife Priscilla.
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Pretty much everything that they did, the scriptures, the way they're presented is that
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where one was, the other one was in the spiritual things that they did.
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And so one way they were partners that we read about here is, notice how it's phrased
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in verse two, that Paul, he went to see them.
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So it wasn't that he just went to see Aquila, he went to see them.
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He went to see Aquila and his wife Priscilla.
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And because he, Paul, was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked for they were
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tent makers by trade.
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Again, they were partners in work, that they worked together, and later in faith.
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That's why, reason why I'm saying that in faith is the other scriptures that we go through,
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they're mentioned again side by side, the church meeting later in their home, and all
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those things.
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So they were partners with his wife.
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All of us men, are we partners with our wives?
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Could you work together with your wife?
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Could your wife work with you?
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Might be the better question.
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Are we partners in faith?
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It certainly was a blessing, no doubt, to Aquila that he was a partner in work and in
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faith.
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And this was, I don't know of too many other couples, I'm not recalling any other couples,
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that they're listed this way, and no doubt they're mentioned here by Luke, but then later
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by Paul in Paul's writings.
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Second point, he was industrious, it worked.
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We see no doubt he was successful at his work, why do I say that?
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Because we see several times that the church met in their home.
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Later when we go to Rome, Romans, and we find Priscilla and Aquila mentioned in Rome, it
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also mentions all these other people there in Rome, all these other church members, they're
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part of that congregation.
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Why is that important?
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Well, if the church met in their home and there were all those members, and no doubt
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Paul didn't mention every single member in the church, but he mentioned quite a few,
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then their home was big enough to house all those people, because the church met in their
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home.
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No doubt they were successful enough to have the church meet in their home.
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One of the things when we were touring Ephesus was we did look at some homes that they had
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excavated, and one of the interesting things about Ephesus is the Mediterranean Sea has
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dropped in sea level, or the water has receded I guess you could say as the Mediterranean
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Sea has gradually dried up some, and so at some point they basically abandoned the city.
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So Ephesus is different than a lot of other places that we saw, Ephesus wasn't like where
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the city has continued and it's basically been built on like a Jerusalem, where Jerusalem
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they basically to see some of the Bible artifacts and those kind of things, they have to excavate
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and archaeologists have gone in and dug up.
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But in Ephesus they basically abandoned the city because it was by the water, the water
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receded, at some point they basically just abandoned the city and moved with the water
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closer to town.
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So for us to visit Ephesus we basically got on our bus and drove to Ephesus, and what's
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happened there is Ephesus had basically grown up, some of the bushes and weeds and vines
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and all that had kind of grown up over these homes, and now they've gone in, archaeologists
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to basically peel away the growth that's happened.
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But one of the things that we had the opportunity to do was see some of the homes, and you saw
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some of these upper rooms that people might sit in and you could visualize that perhaps
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the church met in those places, but no doubt a home that would be big enough to house that
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number of people, even if people were crammed in there tight, had to be a pretty good home.
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That's a lot of way around to say that he was industrious and all that, but we do see
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that Aquila and Priscilla, that the church met in their home in multiple cities as we
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go through this.
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And so no doubt Aquila was the one, and even if you notice verse 2, Paul, when he comes
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to Corinth, he hears about the two of them as tent makers.
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So he goes to see them because he heard them.
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Now I don't know if he read in the latest billboard that they were tent makers, or he
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saw on the internet that they were tent makers and he decided to look them up, realistically
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they had to be popular enough tent makers that when he started checking around of who
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is tent makers, it says here that he went to see them.
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I don't know what that is, but they had at least been there long enough that when Paul
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starts inquiring, somebody pointed them to him, I mean him to them, to, hey you need
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to go see Aquila and Priscilla, they're tent makers.
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So he went to see them.
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I say that their business or whatever had gotten out to the point where somebody directed
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Paul to them, and they were industrious enough for that.
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Number three, he was open to discussing faith at work, and how do we know that?
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So Paul goes to them, they're Jews, they had fled, we don't know if they were Christians,
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you would think if they were, that would have been indicated in the text, we're not given
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that indication, we don't know that they weren't, we don't know that they were.
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But we do know that he goes to stay with them, and when he was off work, he reasoned in the
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synagogue every Sabbath, basically.
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So here's Paul working during the week, and then on, when it was Sabbath, Paul's reasoning
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every Sabbath.
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And he's trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
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So that's at the beginning, we see that Paul stays there a year and a half, later we see
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in Acts 18 that Dale talked about that they reason with Apollos, they pull him aside later.
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So when did they learn all about the faith?
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When did they learn enough to know more than Apollos?
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When did they learn enough, well, you had to know that they had to talk about faith
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at work at some point, because they either followed Paul to hear him speak, he either
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invited them to go hear him speak, or they talked about it at work one way or another.
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But it's certainly a lesson, three lessons for us that we ought to follow.
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Any questions or comments on those?
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Yeah, sure, sure, absolutely.
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All right, then to the point that Dale shared with us, but let's jump down to verse 18.
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So after a year and a half, basically, verse 11 was a year and a half that Paul stayed
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teaching the Word of God to them.
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We see in verse 18, after this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the
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brothers, set sail for Syria, and with him, Priscilla and Aquila, at century, he had cut
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his hair for he was under a vow, and they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but
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he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
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So basically, Aquila and Priscilla picked up, went with Paul, they went to Ephesus,
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and we see that Paul basically leaves them there at some point.
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We do know that he was there in Ephesus for some time, because we see in verse 23, after
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spending some, pardon me, that was Antioch, he spent some time there, but we see Aquila
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and Priscilla stayed in Ephesus.
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One thing, a point here I just wanted to make is they were willing to go, but also willing
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to stay in Ephesus for the good of the kingdom.
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To me, it took courage to pick up and go, courage for them to pick up and go with Paul,
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but also took courage for them to stay, stay in Ephesus without Paul.
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So to me, it says a lot about their character, their dedication to the kingdom of God, number
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one, that they would pick up and go.
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Sometimes family, sometimes location keeps us in one place, and that may be a good thing.
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Sometimes it may be a bad thing.
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If it's at a place where we can serve the kingdom of God, that's a great thing, but
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sometimes it can be a hindrance.
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Have you ever talked to people that it's their family or their location that hinders them
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from being a Christian or attending services?
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Maybe it's the past where I don't know what my grandmother would think or what my grandfather
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would think, or I've always attended this church, this faith, and that's a hindrance
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from keeping them to entertaining, studying the faith.
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Here was Aquila and Priscilla after this time with Paul that they were willing to go, but
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they were also willing to stay for the cause of Christ.
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We see that they're willing to go several times, and that speaks to their faith, speaks
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to their confidence.
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They were in a trade that would allow them to travel, would allow them to pick up and
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go, but it's apparent that wherever they went, they did it for the cause of Christ
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here.
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But it's something for us to think about.
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Are we willing to go?
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Are we willing to stay?
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Sometimes staying is difficult work.
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Sometimes we see the grass greener on the other side, whether it's through work or whether
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it's through the church.
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We may see the grass greener, but it may be more difficult to stay and serve where you
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are.
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But maybe it's that we're needed where we are, and that may be what we need to do.
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But it also may be that we could be better used somewhere else, we could better serve
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Christ somewhere else, and this is certainly an example of that.
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It may be that we can grow more by going.
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It may be that we could grow more by staying, but they were willing to do both here.
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Then the part that Dale covered with us, they were bold and skilled enough to instruct Apollos
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more accurately.
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Notice verses 24 through 26, now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
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He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures.
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He'd been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and
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taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
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He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they
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took him aside and explained to him the way of the Lord more accurately.
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A couple things that we notice from this, and I can't remember if it was Nero or Hiram
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that taught something from this, and I'd written some of these notes down in my Bible, but
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a couple things that we notice from verse 26, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
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so first of all, we hear that they listened.
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Some of the times when we need to get in a discussion with somebody, and it could be
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what you consider a confrontation, to me, Aquila and Priscilla exhibited something that
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we all need to remember.
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First, it's difficult to talk with somebody for them to hear us unless we've heard them
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first, and sometimes in heated conversations, the best thing we can do is listen to someone
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first and let them get out everything that they want to say, and then they might be in
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a better position to hear us.
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One thing we do hear about Priscilla and Aquila is that they heard him.
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One of the things that they didn't just do is they heard him, they were listening, they
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were listening to the point of, hey, he's a talented speaker, he's a good speaker, he's
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been instructed in the way of the Lord, but something wasn't just right, it wasn't just
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complete.
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And if we're careful, someone may be a good speaker, and we listen to them, but we're
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not really, really listening to them to critique it against God's word, and that's what Priscilla
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and Aquila did here.
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They listened to a very talented speaker, but they listened intently to know something
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wasn't quite just complete there.
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But they were tactful.
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We see that they didn't just confront him right up in front of everybody, I think Dale
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did a great job covering that part, they were tactful.
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They clearly communicated in a way that he could receive it.
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Now each person is different what they can receive, and sometimes we miss the mark when
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we meet with somebody, when we have to meet with somebody, because each person is different
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how they could receive it, and we miss the mark sometimes when we meet with folks.
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But Aquila and Priscilla clearly communicated in such a way that he could receive it.
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But they worked together as a pair.
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This was a model initiated by Jesus to go, he sent out people two by two.
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It wasn't always used, certainly not always used by Jesus himself, but certainly a model
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that was taught by Jesus, it was demonstrated by Jesus, and here was demonstrated again,
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and I think was, in this case, an effective model.
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They also did not hold back what needed to be said.
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They explained to him the way of God more accurately.
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So they didn't hold back, sometimes when we have a confrontation we may get right up to
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the edge but not have the courage to say all that needs to be said.
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They had the courage to say what needed to be said, and it was effective, but they were
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also knowledgeable about the way.
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They explained to him the way of God more accurately.
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There's a little side trick I'd like to do here.
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Notice verse 25, it says that he had been instructed in the way of the Lord.
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We see in verse 26 that Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and explained to him the way
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of God more accurately.
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Let's notice a few things about the way here.
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What was in the way, based on the scriptures that we see here?
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What were some of the things that were in the way?
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All right, baptism was in there.
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What else?
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Things concerning Jesus.
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So he had believed, he had been taught, he had heard those things, and he had believed
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those things concerning Jesus.
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He was understanding a baptism, but what was lacking in his understanding, Apollos' understanding
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there?
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A baptism.
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Okay.
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Garnet?
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Okay.
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So he knew John's baptism here.
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In this particular passage, it didn't further explain what was that about John's baptism,
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but if you go down just a few more verses to chapter 19, there's a different situation
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here.
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Verse chapter 19, verse 1, it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed
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through the inland country and came to Ephesus and there he found some disciples and he said
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to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
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And they said, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
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And he said, into what then were you baptized?
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They said into John's baptism.
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And Paul said John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in
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the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus.
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Upon hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
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And so there are several things that we see from these verses, some more things about
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the way.
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What else do we see here from these verses about the way?
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Okay.
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So the Holy Spirit was involved in the way, all right.
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So they didn't understand that the Holy Spirit was even included.
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And I think, I can't remember if it was Neil or Hiram that answered that question on Sunday,
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but they did a great job covering that part of that.
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So we see also that what else was included in teaching about the way?
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Okay, believing.
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What else?
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Okay.
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So could someone be baptized wrong?
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Yes, this is one of those passages where we could see that someone could be baptized wrong.
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Others were baptized in the baptism of John, and that's what Apollos was preaching.
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Andy?
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So the intent of the baptism was also important.
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So there's importance here to consider that.
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Let me just quickly hit on a few more things.
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If you turn or look down a few more verses, we see in verse eight, and he entered the
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synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about what?
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The kingdom of God.
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So this way, baptism, the kingdom of God, they're all used interchangeably.
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Verse nine, but when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of
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the way.
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So in the passage, in the verse right before, he's talking about the kingdom of God.
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Here he's talking about the way.
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So we see those used interchangeably here.
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He withdrew from them and took the disciples with him.
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And then this continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of
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the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
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So several things we see from this.
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We hear belief, teaching about Jesus, repentance.
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We see baptism, but baptism that involves the Holy Spirit.
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We see the kingdom of God used interchangeably.
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In other words, those that believe in the way and obey the way get into the way or getting
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into the kingdom of God.
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And it's speaking the word of the Lord.
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Now there's some other passages, I list them up here, time doesn't permit us to share all
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those things that talk about the way, but several of those things talk about way.
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Why is that important for us today?
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Is it important for us to talk about the way today?
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Absolutely.
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Let me go through these quickly.
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Boy, our time.
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I may just have to post that video.
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We'll send it to the Cumberland Trace Facebook page, how about that?
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But let's notice a few things in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 8 here.
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In verse 19 and 20, let me point out those in particular.
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The churches at Asia send you greetings, Aquila and Prisca, or Priscilla, together with the
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church and their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.
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All the brothers send you greetings, greet another with a holy kiss.
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A couple things I wanted to point out, verse 19, first there, they were hospitable.
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They had the church in their home.
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Number seven, they had a positive influence on the church.
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It says, together with the church and their home, they send you hearty greetings in the
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Lord.
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All the brothers send you greetings.
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And so the church was unified there in this thought.
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They were together in that, was led there by Aquila and Priscilla, or met in their home,
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and they sent hearty greetings in the Lord.
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But number eight, they were connected to churches in other places, even the ones with troubles.
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Who was this written to?
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The church in Corinth.
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Where did Paul and Aquila and Priscilla first meet?
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Corinth.
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So these were people that they had previously worshiped with, that Paul, they spent a year
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and a half there with Paul there.
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But now they were a church with problems, some big problems, didn't they?
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There in 1 Corinthians, some major problems.
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But what was Aquila and Priscilla and Paul's response at the end of this very challenging
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letter they wrote to them?
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He's together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.
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I think that's something we need to take note of, that even though this church had some
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major problems, problems with worship, problems with teaching, problems with immorality, lots
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of problems, but they still sent hearty greetings in the Lord with them.
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Paul didn't back down from addressing the problems, not trying to make a point about
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that that he was okay with their problems, but he still considered them brothers and
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sisters and sent them hearty greetings.
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Romans 16, 35, quickly, here they are in Rome.
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Paul's writing to the church at Rome, and what does he do?
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He sends, in his closing, he sends writings, and he says, hey, greet Prisca and Aquila,
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my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only
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I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.
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So here they had moved.
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They were active with the new congregation.
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This congregation, again, is probably meeting in their home.
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But even while apart, they were fellow workers with Paul.
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They were willing to risk their own lives for the cause of Christ.
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We feel like that probably took place there in Ephesus, in those Ephesus riots, but the
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scriptures don't elaborate on that point.
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But even when they moved, they became active with the new congregation.
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And then lastly, 2 Timothy 4, 19, this is at the end of Paul's life.
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He writes, and remember, he's writing to Timothy, and he's wanting Timothy to come
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to him quickly.
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He wants him to come before winter.
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And where does he want Timothy to come to?
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Rome.
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So this is some time later now, after these other passages were written.
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But now Paul's in Rome.
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He's in prison in Rome.
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He's wanting Timothy to come, but notice in his instructions to Timothy in verse 19, what
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does he say?
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Greet Prisca and Aquila in the household of Anesiphorus.
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Again, here's the congregation, Aquila and Priscilla still serving there.
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Even when they moved, again, they're active with the new congregation.
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And the last point I want to make there is that Paul wanted them to meet Timothy as well.
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We're not told why, but why do you think?
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Support and encouragement.
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They had been a tremendous encouragement to Paul.
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And why wouldn't Paul, even if Timothy doesn't make it before winter, he still wants them
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to meet Aquila and Priscilla.
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And I think that speaks a lot of them.
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I've enjoyed this day.
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I hope you have.
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And I'll share the video on Facebook of Neil and Ephesus.