Apollos, the Passionate and Brilliant, Learns about the Holy Spirit
24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
Acts 18:24–28 ESV Read More
Apollos Went off Preaching Jesus before Jesus was Done
Apollos really doesn’t get as much credit as he should. Here is a guy that believed in Jesus as the Messiah from the teachings of John the Baptist and the Scriptures. We don’t know when he took off, but it seems like some point during Jesus’ ministry, Apollos went off and began preaching about Jesus elsewhere. If he didn’t know about Jesus’ teaching about the Holy Spirit, then he wasn’t around after the resurrection or the final year of Jesus’ ministry.
He was fervent and passionate about telling people about Jesus. He went to the synagogue, just like it was Paul’s habit to do, and taught about Jesus from the Old Testament. He was bold and smart and even effective, but he had more to learn.
Eloquent, Fervent, Accurate Teacher that was Humble
He taught accurately about Jesus, but Priscilla and Aquila could tell there was something he was missing. There was part of his message he was leaving out because he was so passionate to preach about Jesus, he didn’t wait around to hear about the Holy Spirit.
It says a lot that he was humble enough to learn something from them. Here are these two tent makers at the synagogue that know more than he does about Jesus‽ It’s true. He accepted the fact that he had more to learn and upon learning it, he was better for it. Instead of boasting of all of his past accomplishments, or how great a Gospel teacher he was, he was open to learn something new.
God continued to use Apollos in the same way. He didn’t change his methods or his mission, he just learned more about the God he was championing as the Savior of the World. Apollos knew the scriptures well enough that if some new teaching came up that wouldn’t fit, he would refute it. Something about the way Priscilla and Aquila talked about the Holy Spirit fit in with all of Apollos’ education. That strengthens my faith. If Apollos was this convincing with only the Old Testament and the first half of Jesus’ ministry, how convincing it must be! And how open I want to be to always be ready to learn something more about my Savior.
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