Surprised by Scripture: Apollos the Eloquent
Series: Acts
Charles Sligh
August 12, 2017
TEXT: Acts 18:24-28 – “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25 This man was instructed in the of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. 26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. 27 And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much who had believed through grace: 28 For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – Growing up, when our family went out for an ice cream cone, my dad would ask my mom what flavor she would like. Often, she’d say, “Surprise me!” She told me she was rarely disappointed in Dad’s choice.
I love surprises, and there are a lot of them in the Bible….
--It’s surprising that God saved a man like Saul, who became the great Apostle Paul.
--Think of the surprise to the Israelites when they came to the Red Sea with the Egyptians in hot pursuit, and suddenly…SURPRISE! God parts the sea for them to cross over.
--Think of how surprising it was to live in Galilee when a man named Jesus suddenly starts turning water into wine, calming storms, healing the sick and raising the dead!
--There are so many other surprises in the Bible: surprise appearances of angels; surprise deliverances, like Peter’s miraculous prison-breaks; and surprise births.
--Like when Sarah gave birth to Isaac at 90 years old! – I know Sarah had no children at this time, but imagine 89-year-old grandma gathering your family to say, “Kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, I have an announcement: I’M GOING TO HAVE A BABY!”
Those were all surprises that people in the Bible in the experienced. What is cool to me is when I meet surprising people I meet in the Bible.
Apollos is one of those surprises. There’s no hint of him before chapter 18, and then he leaps into the Bible! He’s mentioned once more in Acts 19:1, and then you never hear of him in Acts again, although Paul mentions him 7 times in 1 Corinthians and once in Titus.
Though little is written about him in the scriptures, he’s an example of one of those surprising people who pop up from time and again in the book of Acts. And there are several things about him that are surprising.
I. FIRST, IT IS SURPRISING TO MEET A MAN WHO IS WAS “MIGHTY IN THE SCRIPTURES” – Verse 24 – “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.”
People who are “mighty in the scriptures” are rare, and it’s always a surprise to meet one. It was rare in Paul’s day, for in all the book of Acts, Apollos is the only one so described—and it is rare today as well.
But what does it mean to be a person who is mighty in the scriptures? To be mighty in the scriptures does not refer to having mere knowledge of the facts of the Bible in your head. Your knowledge of the Bible may be extensive and accurate, and yet you can be very ignorant of their spiritual meaning or implications, and not even be a believer.
Illus. – For instance, my grandfather read several chapters of the Bible every night. However, until later in his life, he was not a true believer in Jesus Christ. He read the Bible for the same reason he read through several encyclopedias—to fill his head with knowledge, mostly to win arguments! He had an extensive knowledge of the FACTS of the Bible—but because he lacked the Spirit of God, he was not “mighty in the scriptures.”
Thus, he was receptive to every wind of doctrine that came down the pike. He often took obscure passages as arguing points for ideas totally contrary to the tenor and intent of Scripture. He was great for irrelevant Bible minutia, but had no idea of how it all fit together, or how it should apply to his life personally.
Why?—Because mere intellectual knowledge of the scriptures is not enough. You need to be “MIGHTY in the scriptures.”
Being “mighty in the scriptures” includes two things:
1) First, it does involve knowing FACTS of the Bible.
I’m not saying these are not important. That’s why we should teach our children, and know ourselves, the Bible’s stories and its doctrines and the truths it embodies. This can come through the teaching ministry of the local church, personal Bible study and training in the home. But, as I said before, this alone is not enough.
2) Second, being “mighty in the scriptures” involves APPLYING the scriptures to your life PERSONALLY.
You see, KNOWING the facts of Scripture is only the beginning. If all it does is make you puffed up in your knowledge of minutia of the Bible, what good is that? Who needs a walking Bible trivia encyclopedia?
The purpose of Scripture is not primarily to know it, but to OBEY it— to APPLY it to your life and LIVE it out in your life! Knowing isn’t an end in itself: The purpose of knowing it is to OBEY it!
Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night [That’s learning the facts. But what’s the PURPOSE of this meditating on God’s Word?…], that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
James said, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22)
So let’s strive to be “mighty in the scriptures” by not just knowing facts in the Bible, but APPLYING them in our lives—obeying them, living their truths out in our lives.
II. A SECOND SURPRISING THING ABOUT APPOLLOS THAT HE WAS AN AUTHENTIC AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR OF GOD’S TRUTH – Acts 18:24 tells us he was “…an eloquent man,…”
It’s always surprising to find someone who can eloquently communicate God’s Word. I used to think that eloquence was a gift: You either have it, or you don’t; it’s something you’re born with.
But I’ve come to realize that I was defining eloquence wrongly. Eloquence is not the ability to mesmerize with special powers of voice and diction; mastery of a large and colorful vocabulary; or the effective use of gestures.
David Thomas said that “Eloquence is influential expression.”
I like how Charles Spurgeon’s illustrates eloquence. – He said:
What is eloquence? Eloquence is speaking out from the heart. I will tell you what I call eloquence in a child: it is the whole child working itself up to gain its wish and have its way. There is a pretty thing that the child wants. He is very little, but he tries to speak about it, and does his best to express his longings. He points to what he wants and clutches at it, and cries after it. Still he does not succeed, and then he works himself up into an agony of desire. The boy cries all over—every bit of him pleads, demands, strives.…He thinks of nothing but the one thing on which his little heart is set. I call that eloquence.
Anyone who has ever had a child can immediately relate to that kind of eloquence!
See, you may never be a great orator or have a sophisticated command of the intricacies of the English language; or be able to mesmerize through brilliant articulation of language and gesture—but dear Christian, you can be eloquent in the biblical sense—to have heartfelt, effective, persuasive communication.
This kind of eloquence—what we might call “persuasive communication”—depends on something very important: a genuine conviction and excitement about what you’re communicating. The reason some of us aren’t persuasive communicators for God may be because the message of the Gospel has not penetrated to the inner depths of our hearts! We’re not captivated by the presence of God in our lives. Our lives are so wrapped up in this life and entertainment and material things and pleasure, that we’re too distracted to be consumed with God. So, we make poor salesmen for the Lord!
Illus. – I remember a vacuum cleaner salesman who came to our door and talked us into letting him give us a demonstration. We got the demonstration, but we didn’t buy the vacuum cleaner because the guy just seemed to be going through the motions. He didn’t seem to have real conviction about his product. I doubted if he even used the product in his own home.
Illus. – How different was a cookware party Susan and I went to as a young couple. When I first met the salesman before the demonstration, I thought, Oh, boy, this guy’s a deadpan as you can get. This is going to be a long night!
But, man, when he started talking pots and pans, I want to tell you—he CAME ALIVE! He LOVED ’em, and I mean that LITERALLY. He was simply animated with his product. You could tell that he genuinely believed with all his heart that his brand really was the best cookware on earth and anybody who used anything else obviously had rocks in his head!
And I want to tell you—he sure convinced us! We eventually bought a set as soon as we could afford it, and they weren’t cheap, and I guess he was right about how good they were because we still use those same pots and pans today after 43 years of marriage! This man was eloquent in the true sense of the word.
I think the key to seeing why Apollos was such an effective communicator is found in verse 25 where we’re told that Apollos was “fervent in spirit.” He believed in his preaching with every ounce of his being, and though he was not fully instructed about Christ and grace, he was an effective communicator. He was a good salesman for his faith.
Now let me ask you a question: What kind of a salesman are you of Christianity? Are you stirred about being saved? consumed by Christ? captivated by the Cross? gripped by God? stirred by the scriptures? In other words, are you so wrapped up in Jesus that when you’re able to share your faith, your witness is authentic; and your hearer would see that Christ really makes a difference in your life, and you really do believe it would make a difference in them too?
God give us eloquence borne of zeal and conviction!
III. THE THIRD SURPRISE ABOUT APOLLOS WAS THAT HE WAS TEACHABLE – Acts 18:26b – “…whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”
Verses 25-26 say Apollos was deficient in his understanding of Christ and grace. He only knew of the baptism of John. He was saved under the Old Testament economy, looking forward by faith to the coming Messiah because John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet who testified of the Messiah’s imminent coming.But Apollos didn’t know or realize that Jesus was the Lamb of God the Jews awaited, or that He was the Son of God, or how He atoned for sin on the cross.
Yet Apollos was humble enough to be teachable. He was able to learn something that didn’t jibe with what he had been taught. He wasn’t stuck in a time warp and said, “This is what I was taught; it’s set in stone; there’s no more you can teach me; the way we did it or learned it is the only way; end of story.” No, he was teachable if he could be convinced by God’s Word.
Teachability requires humility, and that’s what’s so surprising about Apollos. Here was a man who was smart, educated, sharp, eloquent, bold—one who knew the scriptures backwards and forwards; who knew how to apply the knowledge he had to his life; who stood before people and was looked up to and respected.
Yet when a tentmaker couple (the equivalent of blue-collar workers today) explained to him more fully the truth of Jesus, His work on the cross, His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, SURPRISE! Intellectual Apollos wasn’t too high and mighty that he couldn’t learn from this blue-collar couple.
I see two applications for our lives from this surprising character trait in this learned man:
1) First, I see an application to HEARERS of preachers.
Though Aquilla and Priscilla knew much more of the things of the Lord than Apollos—they still supported his ministry. They didn’t think that they were so smart they couldn’t learn under him. They didn’t go elsewhere saying “We’re just not being fed.” They were there as much to encourage Apollos as they were to learn from him. They didn’t scoff at his lack of understanding of some key pieces of the puzzle. When they saw he was missing some pieces of the puzzle, they didn’t correct him publically to show off their Bible knowledge. Rather, they gently showed him in private and with humility. I see from this how more enlightened and mature believers can be a blessing to a young or inexperienced pastor by following Aquilla and Priscilla’s example.
2) But I see also an application to LEADERS in the church.
This eloquent young man, who had just come from the university of Alexandria, was not above learning from this humble tentmaker couple—and neither should we. Leadership in the church cannot claim infallibility! One thing I’ve learned over my years in the ministry, is that some of the most profound truths I’ve ever heard came from the lips of just everyday folks. God help ALL of us to have a teachable spirit, both followers and leaders.
IV. APOLLOS’S LAST SURPRISE IS THAT HE WAS AVAILABLE FOR SERVICE.
Once Apollos gained full knowledge of Jesus, he gave his life in service to Him. He was available to God; he didn’t “sit in a pew” so to speak; he used his gifts and abilities to advance the kingdom of God. People who make themselves available to serve God are always a surprise!
Note the ways God used Him:
1) He confirmed new believers – Acts 18:27 – “And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace.”
He edified and built up and helped baby Christians. He was, like Barnabas, an encourager. He was a blessing WHEREVER he went, not WHENEVER he went!
You know what?
-- There are always some Christians who are young in the faith around whom you could encourage and teach and help in the faith.
-- You can teach ones who are not just young in the faith, but actually who are YOUNG, like teaching kids weekly in our Sunday School or just once a month in our K.I.D.S. Church.
-- Or your gift may not be teaching or discipling young believers, but there are other places to serve to advance God’s kingdom, simple things that require no training, like being a greeter, cleaning the church, preparing meals for new mothers or the sick, or using hospitality to invite people into your home where you can share your faith or nurture a new believer.
Listen—God has a place for you to serve Him. God wants you in your own way to use your own set of gifts and abilities to serve Him by serving others.
2) Second, we see that Apollos “convinced” the lost, pointing people to Christ – Acts 18:28 – “For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”
He was in the business of persuading people to come to Christ. He was in what Paul called “the ministry of reconciliation”—a ministry we all should be involved in. You may not be able to preach behind a pulpit, but every one of us should be involved in the ministry of reconciliation; every one of us should tell others about Christ and try to persuade them to follow Christ.
CONCLUSION
Let’s tie all these things together from Apollos’s life and apply them to OUR lives. What might the Lord be speaking to you about from the life of Apollos this morning?
1) Are you mighty in the scriptures, or are you scriptural weak? Are you a student of the Word daily? And are you APPLYING what you learn from the Word to your life daily? Don’t just read God’s Word for knowledge; rather, say, “God what do you want me to DO in obedience to what I have read”—and then DO IT!
2) Second, are you so wrapped up in Jesus that when you speak of Him, people sense conviction and reality in what you say? – Are you a convinced or a bad salesperson for your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ?
3) Third, are you teachable, or a haughty know-it-all? – God help you to be able to receive truth that may be new to you; to realize that God’s ways may be wider than you realized, that maybe you can learn something here you might not learn where you came from.
4) Finally, are you available for the Lord to use you?...to be an ENCOURAGER and an EDIFIER of the brethren?...and to be a evangelist of souls for the kingdom of God?
God give us a church full of Apolloses!
