Who Was Apollos?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts Chapter 18, and if you’ve been following the program you’ll know that we are at Verse 24.So this is Acts chapter 18, verse 24:“And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.”Now, what’s the distinction for here, Dave?

Dave:

Well, Tom, this is a most interesting passage.It says, He is mighty in the Scriptures, and yet he didn’t know the Scriptures as related to Jesus, he only knew the baptism of John.Now, the baptism of John, John was the forerunner, and he came preparing Israel for the Messiah, and calling them to repentance.So apparently, now we’re talking about, mighty in the Scriptures, of course it’s the Old Testament, that was all that they had.So, he apparently knew the Old Testament very well, and yet he was still blinded.As Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “You fools, slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken.Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?”So apparently, Apollos didn’t yet know that Jesus was the Christ, but he understood the Old Testament very well, but he didn’t recognize the Messianic prophecies, particularly as having been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.It’s rather interesting, I mean, it just tells us, Look, I’ve been studying the Bible on my knees for more than 70 years—well, it began when I was a child.My father had Bible study and prayer twice a day in our home.I never tried to memorize the Bible, I just heard it over and over and over and over, and I think I knew the Bible pretty well, but I hadn’t personally put my faith in Christ, I was not born again by the Spirit of God.You can go seminary and you can think you know the Bible well, and you may be really out of touch with God, because you are not really seeing what the Bible says.So, I think that was the case with Apollos, but Aquila and Priscilla, they must have been good teachers.

Tom:

Well, Verse 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.”Dave, here’s something interesting about this:it doesn’t just say Aquila took him aside, but it says Aquila and Priscilla, and they took him aside, and they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.So, would you have any problem with Priscilla participating in this.

Dave:

No, they are a great team, husband and wife working together.I have to say my wife is a whole lot wiser than I am.I have been deceived by people, for example, who have come to talk to me, and she’s in the other room listening, because they didn’t ask to speak with her, and she has more insight than I have sometimes, because, well, you know, she’s my editor,I look to my wife, she’s terrific, she’s fantastic!

Tom:

Dave, we know other people like that, for example, Martin and Deidre Bobgan, we’ve been talking about psychology and the church, and here’s a couple that has written, not just more eloquently about this, but with discernment you just don’t find.

Dave:

Right.So, no problem with Priscilla, they took him, they expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly, and now he’s getting some insights from the Scriptures that he never saw.

Tom:

Verse 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:For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”

Dave:

See, that was what was missing, Tom.Now, I love this verse: Acts:18:28For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
See All...:He convinced the Jews, not by saying, Well, I was a drug addict one time, you know, and then my life got changed.I’m not opposed to that, you ought to have a changed life whoever you were, but that’s not how we preach the gospel.It’s like Paul, Acts 17, we saw that the last chapter.He went into the synagogue, three Sabbath days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.No one can escape this, Tom, these are the prophecies.How would anyone recognize the Messiah when He came?Because the prophets foretold everything about him.And Paul would say:Look, here, look what your prophets said.Not going to some Protestant, they didn’t even exist, not going to some Christian book, not even the New Testament.Here we are, Old Testament:Look what the prophets said about the Messiah.You can’t deny it was all fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.Now, Tom, I do that often.Why do I do it?Because, I may be speaking in a church, I’m not doing it because the people in the audience are not Christians, or because they don’t understand, I’m trying to strengthen their faith, because a lot of people do not know all of these prophecies that would just prove beyond the shadow of a doubt.So, he encouraged them, he helped them, because you could watch Paul preach the gospel.He is publicly and mightily convincing the Jews out of the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.I’m sure that that helped the faith, that encouraged those who had already become Christians.

Tom:

Dave, we see just the opposite going on in the church today.The news alert that we just gave, we need to do some new things, we need to add music, we need to add entertainment, we need to add something that would attract them, but certainly, we don’t want to preach and teach, we want to tell stories, we want to really gain their interest.Dave, that’s—

Dave:

Pitiful!

Tom:

—so contrary, it is pitiful, but it’s so contrary to what we are heading here, and what you have just said.

Dave:

Well, these people turned the world upside down, they shook the Roman Empire, and maybe, if we would get back to basing everything upon prophecy.Tom, as you know, I’ll tell a little secret.I’m writing a book right now called, Cosmos, Creator and Human Destiny, and the subtitle is, A Response To The New Atheist.I have had to read dozens and dozens and dozens of books, my brain is getting packed with everything about genetics and physics and chemistry and so forth.I don’t have a degree in any of them, I just have a mere Bachelor’s in mathematics, way back there when I studied law, and I’m a CPA, but I’ll tell you one thing I noticed, Tom, I’m reading both sides, of course, and I’m reading, for example, there are many—

Tom:

What do you mean, both sides?

Dave:

I mean the creationists and the atheists, and I’m reading a lot of Christians, they claim to be Christians, top scientists who are evolutionists, like Francis Collins, he’s in charge of the human genome project, he’s got 2300 scientists under him.He was an atheist, became a Christian at the age of 27, and you think, wow, that’s a testimony, that’s fantastic!But he said, Oh, it’s so wonderful, you see the glory of God in evolution, how He made—But anyway, Tom, that’s not what I wanted to say.What I notice is, the Christians never ever talk about prophecy!And I call that the overlooked, irrefutable proof that God himself says.You know, well yeah, okay, the heavens declare the glory of God, look up at the universe, you can’t deny there is a Creator, creation design.But No, God says, I will tell you what’s going to happen before it happens, and I watch over history to make certain that it does, and when it does you will have to acknowledge that I am God, and Tom, I have a chapter on that.I’m eager to see what will these atheists say?I’m asking my eldest son, David, who is a philosophy professor and is a fine Christian, what can you say, who can reply to this?We have a proof that God exists, that the Bible is His Word, hundreds of prophecies.There are not cheap, psychic predictions, these are not the French Quatrains and the Nostradamus, these are precise in what they say, no one can deny it, and this is how they preach the gospel, and they prove Christ, but they also prove that God exists and the Bible is His Word.Okay, now when I know that, then I’m going to rely on this book, and if evolution contradicts it, or if the Big Bang contradicts it, anything else contradicts it, I’m going to go with the Bible, I’m going to go with God.I think He probably knows more about His universe than any scientist who studies it all his life.