God’s Word for You
Acts 18:24-26 Apollos is corrected
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 10, 2020
24 Then a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a man of learning, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. He spoke, boiling with the spirit, and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
Luke introduces us now to a man named Apollos. As Luke says, Apollos was from Egypt, a Jew who had grown up in Alexandria. Apollos was a man of learning from a place of great learning. We might say that he was a big fish from a big pond. And he knew his Old Testament Scriptures very well.
The one detail about Apollos that is unusual for modern Christians is that “he knew only the baptism of John.” To understand this comment, we really need to backtrack through the practice of baptism. Did Apollos learn about baptism from someone who had been there at Pentecost? There were Jews from Egypt there (Acts 2:10). But Peter preached that baptism should be done “in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” at that time (Acts 2:36). Even if that sermon had been brought back to Apollos second-hand, he would have had a much better understanding of baptism than “only the baptism of John.” Did he learn about baptism from someone who had been baptized by Jesus’ disciples during the Lord’s ministry? (Jesus did not baptize anyone. Even though John 3:22 makes it seem as if the Lord may have done some baptizing, John 4:2 is clear: “In fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples”). Anyone baptized by Jesus’ disciples or who heard Jesus preach would know more than “the baptism of John.” We don’t know whether Apollos understood that baptism was for the forgiveness of sins before Aquila and Priscilla took him aside, but we can say with certainty that after his time with them, he understood completely.
What seems to have happened is that Apollos, already a believing Jew who was well-versed in the Scriptures, had come across someone who had witnessed or, more likely, was a second-hand source of information about John. Even with only a few details about Jesus, Apollos embraced the fulfillment of the prophecies about the Christ and became a fierce preacher about Jesus. Luke says he was “boiling with the spirit.” Even though he didn’t have the full story about Jesus, everything he did say was accurate. This led him into the Jewish synagogue. He spoke up about Jesus there because he wanted the Jews to understand who Jesus was, to come to faith in him, and to spread the news to their families and friends. Apollos was a true evangelist. He had a heart totally devoted to his Savior and a desire to share his faith.
When Aquila and Priscilla, Paul’s co-workers, heard Apollos, they took him aside privately to fill in some of the missing pieces. We can safely assume that the doctrine of baptism was one of those pieces. Priscilla and Aquila both seem to have been involved in this instruction, although it might be possible to read verse 26 and conclude that Priscilla did the inviting and Aquila did the explaining. It seems more likely that husband and wife both did the inviting and both did the explaining. Does that probability violate the roles of men and women laid down in Scripture? We should remember especially what Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:9-12, which I’ll quote here in full along with verse numbers for easier reference:
“9 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10 but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. 11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
In verses 9 and 10, Paul begins with some general statements about women’s physical appearance compared with their spiritual appearance. Modest dress in public is stressed, but a godly life is stressed even more. Then in verses 11-12, Paul shows that a restrained attitude should be taken when learning, “in quietness and full submission.” Why? Because of what is being learned, which is the word of God, and out of respect for the teacher. The holy Scriptures are to be pondered, learned, and applied to our lives, not argued with, contradicted, or picked apart like a novel or a poem. When he says, “I do not permit,” he says “I” as an apostle of Christ, not as a man with an opinion. A woman should not teach or have authority over a man. This was a change from what many Jews taught in both ancient and more recent times. It was said in the Talmud (a summary of Jewish laws and traditions completed about 500 years after Paul’s time) that the Torah or Law of Moses should be burned rather than let women learn it. But Paul is saying that women absolutely should learn the word of God just as children and men should. The restriction is whether a woman should have authority over a man in such teaching. This is where the Bible forbids women from becoming pastors of congregations where it would mean having authority over men. But this doesn’t apply to Priscilla in our passage because she was not exercising authority over Apollos, she and her husband were exposing or setting out a deficiency in his learning. It’s clear from the text that this couple acted together in the privacy of their home to help Apollos understand Jesus and the word of God more adequately.
Enough about that. What happened from this moment is that Apollos, already a powerful, boiling preacher, became even more powerful, more boiling over, and filled with more of the truth about Jesus Christ, about the love of God, and about baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Would that a friend would be there for each of us to “correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). We all make mistakes. A true friend will help us when we do.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.