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Acts 18:24-28 - Help From All Over

  • Writer: Chad Werkhoven
    Chad Werkhoven
  • 1 hour ago
  • 4 min read

God sovereignly coordinates all things to help you believe.


Text on crumpled black background reads: "God sovereignly helps those who by grace have believed. Acts 18:27."

Acts 18:24-28 (NIV)


CONTEXT: This week we're working through selections from the book of Acts looking at examples of how God's grace is stronger than we are, and how it is that He produces both our will to believe and our very faith itself.

In today's passage, we're introduced to Apollos, who would become an effective gospel evangelist.


24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor 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.

27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.

Canons of Dordt

Point 4 - Irresistible Grace


Article 13 & 14: The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration and the Way God Gives Faith


In this life believers cannot fully understand the way this regeneration occurs; 

  1. meanwhile, they rest content with knowing and experiencing that, 

    1. by this grace of God, 

    2. they do believe with the heart and love their Savior.

  2. In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, 

    1. not in the sense that it is offered by God for people to choose, 

      1. but that it is in actual fact bestowed on them, 

      2. breathed and infused into them. 

    2. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent—the act of believing—by human choice; 

      1. rather, it is a gift in the sense that God who works both willing and acting 

      2. and, indeed, works all things in all people and produces in them both the will to believe and the belief itself.


Summary


Apollos seems like a guy who had it all together. Although he was a Jew, we also read that he was a native of Alexandria, a major center of learning located in Northern Africa, famous for its library and scholarly Jewish community. Luke indicates that he had benefitted from being reared in such a city, stating that he was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.


So he not only knew his stuff, but he could communicate it as well. He spoke with great fervor and went on to vigorously refute Jewish opponents of Christianity in public debates. Luke paints a picture here of a smart, articulate, impressive man who had been instructed in the way of the Lord.


But Apollos had a massive flaw at this point: although he taught about Jesus accurately, he knew only the baptism of John. It's hard to know exactly what Luke means here, but in piecing together the other mentions of Apollos in scripture, it seems that Apollos knew about Jesus' life, teaching, death and resurrection, but not about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the apostles experienced at Pentecost. So even though Apollos is so smart and polished, his theology was significantly lacking at this point.


But God in His grace would fill in the blank spots, using a faithful Christian couple named Priscilla and Aquila. Rather than denounce and publicly protest Apollos' major flaw, they invited him into their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. What a model for us to follow in our supercharged culture of criticism!



  Dig Deeper  


The humble efforts of Priscilla and Aquilla paid huge dividends for the Kingdom of God. Apollos ends up traveling to Achaia (the province that contained Corinth), where he would become a great help to the believers there. But it's the way Luke describes those believers that grabs our attention today: they who by grace had believed.


Now God in His grace could have helped those Corinthians any way He pleased. He could of spiritually zapped them from afar, conveying the knowledge and insight they needed in an instant. He could have sent them some sort of powerful oracle that could have explained all there was to know about salvation. But the method God chose was far more powerful and miraculous.


God's help for the Corinthians had started on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea and came to them by way of Ephesus, located in yet an entirely different part of the Roman Empire. As impressive of a man as what Apollos was, he was just a small part of the help God provided, for the Jewish institutions that educated Apollos were founded long before Apollos was even born. And all of this academic might was worthless until God provided a couple of Christian businesspeople to help Apollos understand the way of God more adequately.


This is the way God's sovereign grace - grace that is stronger than you are - works. God omnipotently works all things together to not just regenerate, but to provide a lifetime of great help to those who by grace had believed.



  • ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who in all things works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28);

  • ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the massive coordination of people from all over who've been a great help in bringing you to Christ, and pray that God uses you to provide that same help to others;

  • ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 2 Corinthians 10

 
 
 

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