An Incomplete Gospel

Acts 18:24-28

He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things…

Sermon Transcript:

Good morning guys. Good morning. Good morning Fellowship. I’m reminded, as I say, good morning. That fellowship is spread out in many places this morning, both here in front of me and Mount Laurel and all the Faithful Saints in Collingswood. And as we heard them just moments before gathered out in the prayer Garden, it’s just a beautiful reminder of what makes God’s church his church.

You know, this week as I was preparing, I got to kind of wiggle out of a lot of the, the physical and manual labor that was going on around the building, uh, but witnessing it and watching many of you and at our staff and volunteers coming together to make this morning possible, it felt like the church, it really, really did.

And the opportunity is before us to not waste this season here in the gym. And even as we have the chance to obviously be flexible, as we’ve mentioned before. Uh, to kind of be ready to serve one another in love. Those things are very true, but I would hate for you to hear as we talk about the need to be flexible, that we just need to get through this season, that we need to just put our heads down, screw up our resolve, and get through it.

Because I think if we hear that, then we miss the opportunity that is before us. Remember, for the Christian seasons of discomfort or of trials, or of even, even the unexpected, are never wasted. They’re an opportunity to grow an understanding of God’s character. And I know many of you have experienced this.

I certainly in my own life, the season that I don’t know what’s coming next, the seasons when I am uncomfortable, when I am fearful or even excited, but not knowing what’s coming next. Those are the moments in the times which God has revealed himself to me the most. And so I would hate for any of us to miss the opportunity for the here and now.

While I am certainly excited for what is to come in this new building for all of the changes, for the new updates and the renovations and what those things can offer us, I am not deceiving you when I tell you that I am most excited for the here and now, for this morning, and for what goes forward in this time in the gymnasium.

This is where we were many years before that building was ever built. We met out here in the gym. I stood right, or I sat rather right there and not nearly as aesthetically pleasing chairs. I remember they weighed about a hundred pounds each. But the vision of God’s faithfulness over the years for us all to be back here where it all began.

My prayer, and I think I speak for all of the staff and pastors, is that this season. God would use it, but he would use it to remind us all before any of us even take one step into that new space that God would remind us what his church truly is. His church is not any collection of four walls, no matter how beautiful His church is not a newly renovated worship space.

His church is not a aesthetically pleasing lobby. His church is his people. Wherever they might be gathered, whether they be here or in Collingswood or out in the prayer garden or watching online, his church is his church. As they come together in the Union of the Holy Spirit to worship God, our creator, and to unite with Christ our Savior, that is the church, and that church can meet anywhere, a palace or a prison, a sanctuary, or a gymnasium.

I go so far as to say it is not only my hope, but my expectation that God will do a new thing this summer. I can feel it in the room, but let us not waste it by clenching ourselves up, by closing our eyes, by putting our head down and just getting through. Let’s bear with one another in love. Let’s open our eyes and our ears to what God will do in this season of the unexpected.

Since the days of the church, the formation of the church in the Book of Acts, which we will be reading once again. It has never changed. God’s church is not a building. It’s his people. Let’s pray

and as I pray I want to say this, would we just stand? I wanna dedicate this time, this whole summer. I want to as one body, as, as God’s church. I wanna stand and dedicate this time. To the Lord this full season in the gym. Father in heaven, Lord, we lift up your name above every other name and as Mike so beautifully put it, this is the same story of which we will read in the book of Acts, the same story, which we are now a part of, the story of you growing and sustaining your church through the many years until you return.

And Lord, as we’re gathered here in the unexpected and the new, whether we are here outside in the prayer garden, out in Collingswood or online, Lord, there are seasons of discomfort and of the unexpected. I pray, Lord, that we would not waste those seasons, but that our eyes and our ears would be open to you and what you will do.

Lord, we pray. That you use us this summer, that you remind us of your full and complete gospel, which tells us it is nothing that I have done, but what you have done in me lead us. Lord, guide us. Teach us that we need to rely on your faithfulness, not on manmade plans. Lord, teach us to walk by the Spirit, not by our own abilities.

Lord, teach us to be here with you in the present moment and not to dwell in an uncertain future with our worries, Lord, teach us to clinging to your enduring word, which remains the same in every season, and whether we open it in a palace or a prison, your word remains the same. We now submit ourselves under your word, oh God, in whose name we pray.

Amen. You guys can have a seat.

So I have a question for you guys. I might be the only one, but I tend to join. Group chats a little late. So if, if you are one of those people that tends to join group chats a little late, you can relate to me because when I join group chats, I’m always lost. I go in there and it’s just a whole storm of memes and emojis and inside jokes, and I’m like, what planet am I on?

And what I always have to do is scroll all the way back up to the top and work my way slowly back down, and then I can start sending emojis and sending memes and contributing to the conversation. Or another example I have is what if you, uh, are starting a new show or maybe at better yet, a show that you love, but it’s a new season?

I think what I always do, and invariably what we do is we watch the recap, right? We need to know the characters, we need to know the problems that they’re facing. We need to know why we care. The reason I’m bringing that up is because before we go to the passage itself this morning in Acts chapter 18, What I wanna do is take some time to give us an opportunity to find our footing within the overall story of the Book of Acts.

As I was thinking about this with biblical story or narrative in particular, it’s really important to do this because what I’ve founded, if you just jump right into the passage that you’re reading, without understanding anything that’s going on around you, you’re kind of like a painter who doesn’t have any un understanding of depth of field, trying to paint a landscape.

It’s gonna look pretty rough. So our hope, or my hope as we enter into this study this morning is to take a minute, bear with me. Let’s just remind ourselves where we are within the overall story. Remember, this series has been going on for the last, uh, several months as we have worked our way through the book of Acts.

And in the Book of Acts, we’ve learned that this is not just a story written down for the entertainment of the readers, but it’s telling a deliberate story and that the author, Luke is compiling all of these different eyewitness accounts of all the events that were taking place after Jesus returned to the right hand of the Father.

And we’ve, we’ve read in this incredible story of how, what began as a gospel message of hope given by God, the Father to God, the Son, shared through Christ to the disciples. It began as just 120 when Jesus returned to the Father. But on Pentecost, as the spirit came as promised by Jesus for the comfort and the enabling of the disciples, we saw that that number grew from 120 to 3000 in a single day.

And how that number did not stop there. But day by day and moment by moment, this gospel, good news, hope story began to spread. Story by story, testimony by testimony. And it did not stay content with just the Jewish people, but instead it spread to the Gentiles. And we saw how moment by moment, an hour by hour, this great flame of the gospel, did not stay in Jerusalem, but began to spread.

You know, yesterday I was, uh, fishing to try to clear my head before the sermon. I like to do that. And uh, I was out at a lake in Medford, but as I got there, maybe you live in Medford. There was a huge fire going on and I couldn’t get to the lake the way I normally drive because there was a whole line of firetrucks driving.

To contain this fire. And the smoke was so thick that like you almost coughed when you breathed while I was fishing. I felt like I was just inhaling smoke the whole time. And it reminded me leading into this week how powerful flame is. And at Pentecost, the flame lit upon the heads of the disciples, but it did not stay there as flame never does.

But it consumed story after story and person after person. And we read in this same story how the great persecutor and great enemy who was introduced to us in the beginning of the Book of Acts, even he was not safe from this flame. And now even he was consumed and restored and purified by it. And how he was written down by the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus and how Saul became Paul becoming the greatest evangelist and missionary of the world had yet seen, or in my opinion, whatever.

See.

An incredible story. We’ve seen how disease is healed in the name of Jesus. We’ve seen darkness in demons. On full retreat, we’ve seen stories transformed. We’ve seen the blind eyes opened and the deaf ears unstop. This story is a remarkable story, A story of hope, A story in which we are shown time and time again that God’s word cannot be stopped, not by martyrdom, not by persecution, not by idols, not by oceans, not by false gospels.

God’s word, armed in the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped. Not by angels or demons, not by any power. Not even the persecution and the oppression could stop it, but rather it served it. We have been reminded time and time again in this incredible story of acts, how God through Jesus and by the power of the Spirit.

Ooh, I’m gonna do that a couple times. The power of the spirit is brick by brick or rather testimony by testimony, soul by soul, building up his church.

This is not only the story of which our passage is contained in, but rather this is our story church. And so as we read our passage this morning, be reminded, this is not only the story of Acts, but our story as well. We are that church gathered here and in Collingswood and online and in the prayer garden.

We are his church. Let’s open our ears and be ready to see and to hear that what he has for us this morning. Okay, let’s get to it. We have our depth of field now. Last week, mark ended his sermon in Acts chapter 18, verse 23, and in that chapter we read of how Paul had finished his second missionary journey and didn’t waste much time.

State, spent a little bit of time in Antioch and Jerusalem, but began his third missionary journey going into the regions of Galatia and Fri, doing what he always does tirelessly proclaiming the gospel, which had transformed his own life. But now something unexpected happens in verse 24. For the first time in a very long time, we’re going to leave Paul.

And even though Paul is beginning his third missionary journey, we’re going to be introduced now to a new character. If this was a Netflix show, this would be an interesting shift from following the main character to being introduced to a new character. But this character is an important character and we’ll play a vital role in building up the early church.

This character is actually goes on to have a ministry so influential that he will later be mentioned in the same breath as Paul and Peter himself, though he himself is not or ever would be an apostle. He’s a man of great learning. A man of seeming contradictions, a fascinating character. One pastor went so far this week in my study to call him an interesting cat.

So let’s meet this interesting cat this morning. You guys can turn to Acts chapter 18 to the very end of eight Acts, chapter 18 verses 24 through. 28. I’m gonna read it now. This is God’s word. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures, and 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, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. And when Apollos wanted to go into Akea, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him there.

And when he arrived, he was a great help To those who had by grace believed. For, he vigorously refuted the Jewish opponents in public debate, proving that from the scriptures Jesus was the Messiah. So we’ve got a small little passage this morning, only four verses, and yet it’s packed full of interesting questions and of one very interesting guy we have here.

Something interesting going on. Remember, while Paul left to return to Jerusalem last week, he left two people in Ephesus for a purpose. A purpose that was yet to be revealed, but now is revealed. Priscilla and Aquila were people who Paul had discipled as we know, people who were brought up in this new gospel way and who were evangelizing and evangelizing in the model of Paul.

And they had decided to stay in Ephesus even though Paul returned to Jerusalem anti Antioch before going out to new places in his missionary journeys. And here we see the role that they have to play in this young upstart preacher’s life in ministry. Let’s meet this guy. So you know now this character that we’ve been introduced to is a character by the name of Paul, I mean, sorry, Apollos, not Paul, a character by the name of Apollos.

The interesting thing is, as I was studying this guy, Apollos, he’s a pretty fascinating guy for a lot of reasons, and they may not be immediately obvious to you. First, let’s look at verse one. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, do you understand how weird that phrase is? A Jew named Apollos, that name is a very interesting Greek pagan name, which means one who follows after Apollo, the Greek, God, his full name’s actually Op Apollos, but I think they only called him that when he was in trouble.

So here a Apollos one who follows after the Greek God. Apollo is shown not to follow the Greek God Apollo, but to be a follower of the way of the Lord. And though he is ethnically Greek, we see that he is from a very sorry ethnically Jewish. He’s from a very Greek city, Alexandria, Greek, Greco Roman rather.

And actually, we know that this city, Alexandria, was at one time the capital of the whole Roman Empire. It was founded by Alexander the Great. That’s where it got its name. About 332 years before this. And if you guys know your history, you’ll know that this place was the very center for secular learning in the whole ancient world.

This place was the place that gave birth to men like Euclid, the father of geometry, to follow the great Hebrew, uh, the great Jewish, uh, secular philosopher. The man by Whit, by whom actually we think Apollos may have been studied under. It was home to much learning. In fact, the library in Alexandria was home to about 700,000 volumes before it was lost to a fire.

This is a place of great Greek, uh, hellistic and Roman cultural values, a place which teaches orry and philosophy and mathematics. And there was a, a, a quite large Jewish population, but it was a very secular place. And this is where this guy is from, this guy Apollos. Beyond that, the other contradiction that I see in the passage here is that Apollos is learned.

He’s eloquent, he’s even well instructed in the scriptures and in the way of the Lord. And yet, We see him being taught and pulled aside by two tent makers. I love this passage because it does what the gospel has been doing the whole time in the Book of Acts. It turns the world on its head. This is not what you’d expect.

This guy is an un, a very, uh, interesting character to be sure. But let’s look at the passage itself now, now that we kind of have an idea of a little bit of the strangeness of this guy. There’s a couple questions that I at least had as I was reading this passage. As we’re reading through, we see again in verse one.

Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. Remember, Paul has just left Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila are remaining in Ephesus. And now we have this upstart street preacher coming into Ephesus to preach. But there’s in verse 25, something very interesting is to told, told to us by the author Luke, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

My question is, what does that mean, right? Because at first glance, what will we think of? Well, the way of the Lord must mean the Gospel, the same way of the Lord that Priscilla and Aquila were brought to believe in, and that Paul taught and that Peter taught, and that Jesus taught. But then we see that there needs to be, the gaps in his learning need to be filled in.

So I don’t think we can assume this way of the Lord is the same as Priscilla and quill’s. Understanding the question then becomes, what is it? Well, bear with me here, but if we look at that phrase way of the Lord, believe it or not, that phrase only appears a few times in the New Testament gospels, and it’s always in the beginning of the New Testament Gospels, the way of the Lord.

And it refers not to the ministry of Jesus, but of who. Come on, shout it out. Anyone? John? John the Baptist. And so as we look at the beginning of the gospels, we see the introduction of a, another interesting character, John the Baptist. And this guy, this was the guy that was the cousin of Jesus who was, uh, kind of a crazy homeless guy that lived out in the wilderness.

He dressed in animal skin and ate locusts and honey. And he had a very deliberate message to preach. Anybody remember what it was? Repent for the kingdom of God has come near

the John the Baptist message or way of the Lord, which he was teaching. And in being instructed in was a prophetic word that was given to John the Baptist. And actually, if we look at Isaiah chapter 40, we know that the way of the Lord comes straight out of a prophecy about John the Baptist. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse three, it says, A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

And here we have Apollos being instructed in not exactly the teachings of Christ, but rather the teachings of the one who came to prepare the way for Christ. And my suspicion is that Apollos came to Jerusalem and into the surrounding areas, uh, probably cuz he was a, a good Jew that wanted to come and to learn more.

And that somehow he, like so many others did, met John the Baptist, another street preacher, another powerful man with a dynamic personality who had a powerful message from God to preach. And I’m guessing Apollos learned a lot under him. Was instructed and brought up in the scriptures, and that his great learning was then matched with a great understanding, which was revealed to him from John.

And while that is really good, we know, and as we go on, we’re gonna see what the problem was with this. Okay? So the way of the Lord is not the way that Paul and Priscilla and Peter and these guys have been brought up in Christ’s teachings, but rather the teachings of John the Baptist, then we see something else that kind of gives us an interesting, I don’t know, hint if you keep reading through.

Verse 25 says, and 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. Okay, what’s the, there’s another question for us. What’s the baptism of John? Well, we gotta go back to this character, John, and ask the question again.

If you’d remember in the beginning of the gospels, We have this guy that I’ve just told you about and what he was doing beyond just saying Repent through the kingdom of God has come near. He was also taking people down into the river and baptizing them, symbolizing their repentance, and they’re turning away from their sin and toward God.

And he did this with hundreds and with thousands of Jewish people. One of the people he baptized was Christ himself. If you remember that great moment when Jesus receives the spirit and God speaks the words, this is my son and whom I am well pleased. That was John who baptized him. And yet what we learn is that baptism of John is not the same as the baptism of Jesus

from John’s own mouth. He confirms this in Matthew chapter three, verse 11, John speaks these words. People were confusing the two. And John said this, I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who was more powerful than I, who sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The baptism of Christ is not the baptism of John, but the baptism of John is all that Apollos knew. And so that is what he preached. And so that brings us to the final question that I think this passage raises, which is this, how can John, this gospel of John, this, this incomplete, uh, baptism of John be taught by Apollos and yet he’s also teaching the things that concern Jesus with accuracy.

Cuz to me, if someone is, isn’t teaching the baptism of Jesus, how could they be teaching the things of Jesus accurately?

I think something very deliberate is going on here with the author, Luke. Do you guys remember a number of weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago actually, when we talked about the false gospels that were spreading in Acts chapter 15, and the need for the apostles and the church to come together, to rally together and to defend themselves against these false gospels, these gospels, which proclaim that, no, the way that you’re saved is by being circumcised, becoming Jewish, and following the law of Moses and what Peter and what Paul said and rebuked was, no, what are you talking about?

That’s the old way you’re trying to put a yoke on the Gentiles, which we ourselves were never able to bear. Well, what we have here in Acts chapter 18 is not a false gospel, but an incomplete gospel. And Luke is very deliberate to speak and to show and to demonstrate that this gospel, which is being preached, is not a false gospel.

It’s accurate because after all, what did we see just a number of weeks ago in these incredible testimonies, people giving their lives over to Christ? What is the first thing that they talked about out repentance? Repentance is the first step in the journey towards true baptism that not only uses water, but the fire of the Holy Spirit that comes from Christ.

And so what we have here is a man earnestly. It says he’s fervent in spirit preaching part one of the gospel, preaching with all his heart, soul, and mind. With eloquence, with understanding, preaching part one of the gospel. The gospel, which he is preaching, is not a gospel to be rebuked, but to be filled in.

You know what I imagine when I read this passage, what kept coming to mind this week is what that conversation would’ve been like between a Priscilla and Aquila and Apollo Apollos. It’s so fun to imagine. Real quick look at, look with me real quick. And the very towards the end of that, this passage, when we see that what happens with Priscilla and Aquila and he being Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue.

When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to, to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. That’s such a matter of fact, way of putting all the things that they must have filled in this guy. My guess is his full understanding of the gospel went up to when. John said to his followers, behold the Lamb of God and pointed to Jesus.

And so Apollos knew all the teachings was led up, all the prophecies pointed to this man Jesus. And yet he probably had to return to his home in Alexandria. And so he did not know that what transpired afterwards of all the incredible things which Jesus did, of his death, of his resurrection, and of his great commission of his disciples, and his returning to the right hand of the Father, that’s a pretty big gap.

So imagine them. I love this. In the NIV v translation, it says that they, they took him into their home and explained to him the God way of God more accurately or more adequately. Imagine this for a minute, guys. They’re, they’re eating, they’ve broken bread together and they’re like, Apollos, have we got a story for you?

So I you’re, you’re doing a great job preaching. We love all the, the prophecies that you’re weaving and your understanding of the scriptures is amazing, but you don’t know the whole story. After you left the Messiah, Jesus, he started casting out demons. He started healing the sick. He started moving in miraculous ways.

He showed himself in truth to be the one that we had been waiting for. And the Apollo is probably like, yeah, awesome. The, oh, no, no, we’re not done yet. They killed him. And Apollos, I could see his face falling. What? Oh no, we’re not done yet. He was nailed to the cross and he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

But you know as well as we do, he was quoting from Psalm 22, in which at the end of that passage it says, declare to a generation yet unborn. He has done it, it is finished. And then he died. He died of Apollos. And then after he died three days later, he rose. Death, could not keep him.

He conquered death. And when he rose, he started opening the scriptures to us in new ways. He started showing us from the scriptures that he had to die. And not only that, that he had to return to his father, but the work was not done. And he spoke to us a great commandment before he left. A commandment was said, go into all the world teaching them and instructing them in what I have taught you, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit

and wait in Jerusalem to be clothed in power for my spirit is coming to be your comfort, to be your witness, to be your guide. I can just see Apollo sitting there in the chair like, whoa,

Apollo’s gospel was not false. It was just woefully incomplete.

This story must have floored him. And again, Luke’s gotta tell a, a, a, a story that’s deliberate and, and he’s moving along. But there’s so much contained there just in that little verse in verse 26. And we see the power of that word, of that encouragement of that discipleship from Priscilla and Aquila in the verses that follow in verse 27, in verse 28, when Apollos wanted to go into ak, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him.

And when he had arrived, he was a great help to those who had by grace, believed for, he vigorously refuted the Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. Now he’s armed with the full gospel of God. And what does he do? When the full gospel fills you, what happens?

You’re not content with leaving it inside. You’ve gotta spread it. You’ve gotta encourage, You’ve gotta rebuke evil and you’ve gotta encourage the church, and that is exactly what he did. I want to close with three quick applications,

things that I think are a great help to us or will be a great help to us this summer. I kept coming back and the only way I can think of it is think of these as tools for your spiritual tool belt, things that you can pull out and apply as we enter a season of unexpected enough discomfort. And to those of you who are gathered in Collingswood and in your own seasons of discomfort and of the unexpected, these truths hold still for you.

Okay, the first application that I wanna look at from this passage is that this passage reminds us that eloquence. That education, that intelligence, they are not a prerequisite of spiritual maturity or a guarantee of spiritual maturity. We see here demonstrated clearly by this story that though Apollo’s learning far outstripped, Priscilla and Acquis lowly tent makers, though his education and his intelligence undoubtedly was unrivaled by any believer at that time, except possibly Paul.

We have here a beautiful example of how this gospel turns everything on its head. Apollos receiving discipleship by two tent makers, bringing him along in the way of God more adequately. It reminds me of First Corinthians chapter two, verse one, when Paul gives these words to the church in Corinth, and when I came to you brothers, Did not.

I did not come proclaiming to you a testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling in my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit of power so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

And Paul later in Corinthians or earlier in Corinthians, says these words, not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential. Not many of you were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

He chose the lowly things of the world and the despise things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. We have here a young man who is capable, who is dynamic, who is full of learning and intelligence, and yet God chooses to bring him along in the way of God with two tent makers.

What a beautiful example of the gospel. I wanna speak to you, church. Now, there are probably some of you, or maybe a lot of you who have fallen into the same era that I have fallen into, and that is to make the very easy error to think my own ability to pray well or to speak publicly well, or to articulate myself well, or to show how intelligent I am in the Bible.

That’s my spiritual maturity. That’s a sign of my maturity. It is not those things. Learning intelligence, eloquence, they’re gifts, and they can be used for God’s kingdom as we see here at the end of this passage. They are not spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity comes only from God, and it comes from His gospel, which tells us it is nothing that we have done, but what he has done in us.

All right, moving on. The second application I think that we can apply to us as we go forward in this season is an even more important one in this season. I think this passage, demonst demonstrates to us beautifully the manner in which believers are to both give and receive instruction and teaching.

Because it could be very easy for Priscilla and Aquila when they see Apollos speaking an incomplete gospel in the synagogue with boldness. For them to call him on the carpet, be like, yo, hey young man, knock it off. They could make him look like a fool. They could show the gaps in his learning. They could embarrass him publicly and tear him down.

Is that what they did? No, it is not. And Apollos himself, being a man of great learning and of in, of influence and of a world traveler, could have easily not accepted their instruction, but instead in pride rejected it, but he did not. What is demonstrated to us in this passage is that for Christians giving instruction or teaching or disciple is should be something of humility, of gentleness, of love and hospitality.

Because we see here demonstrated clearly in the passages that Priscilla and Aquila, your, your book might say your, your translation might say, drew him aside privately. Mine says, That he took, they took him into his home. The word that’s used there in Greek is the Greek word pro bono, which it’s got, the reason why it’s different in different translations is it’s kind of, it means a lot of different things.

It means to take one as a companion. It means to draw one a, a aside privately, so as to become a companion of theirs. It means to take one into one’s home, but one thing is for sure, it is a hospitable word. Priscilla and Aquila did not use the truth that they had as a weapon, but rather they used it as a tool to build up Apollos in the Lord.

They built him up in the Lord. They did not tear him down, and Apollos in humility accepted their teaching. So for us, as we go and we find the need of. Filling one another’s, the gaps in one another’s knowledge, or the gaps in one another’s understanding of each other and of love of God, of all these things.

Let us do it with gentleness, with love and hospitality. Lastly, and most importantly, the final application that I think is clearly given to us by this passage is this, after the events that took place at Calvary upon the cross, any gospel that preaches only repentance is a gospel that is incomplete.

I bring this up to us church, because while we would say that we have the full understanding, we have the full picture. We know what happened. We so easily get enmeshed in a half gospel. We find ourselves caught up in this constant, endless repentance. And repentance, by the way, is a beautiful thing. The Bible tells us to confess to God and to one another.

But the endless shame cycle of repenting and nothing changing, the hamster wheel of shame, that is not the new gospel.

The Bible is full of stories of people repenting and repenting and repenting, and repenting, and sacrificing, and sacrificing and sacrificing and nothing changing. A gospel that teaches only repentance is not false, but incomplete. A couple of weeks ago, we saw demonstrated so beautifully that the full gospel of God is a gospel of repentance and a faith in Jesus and the finished work of the cross in saying He is mine and I am his, and he is producing a new thing in me.

Not of water only, but of the Holy Spirit and fire.

I want to end with just a reading from Romans three, verse 11 and a few closing thoughts. Paul writes these words when describing the gospel. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, Christ Jesus we’re baptized into his death? That we were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life for if we’ve been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for who has been, who has died, has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, We believe that we will also live with him

This morning. We sang a song Who The Son Sets Free is free indeed. If you are here and you feel stuck in an endless procession of repentance without any hope, maybe you are operating on a incomplete gospel except the full, incomplete, finished work of Jesus turn and have faith that he has overcome. The gospel does not call you because you are equipped.

It calls you because you are not. You are called not for the great things that you can do for God, but rather for the great things that God will do in you and through you. Let the gospel be what changes you. Don’t change for the gospel. No longer does this gospel speak only of repentance, but now it adds to that it is finished.

Let’s pray.

Lord, we thank you for your holy scriptures. Thank you that they are so good for instruction, Lord, for teaching for repu, for for rep proof, for learning and encouragement, and for building up one another in love. Lord, as we enter into this new season of unexpected and discomfort, I pray that you turn it into a season of new life, of regrowth and of reminding that your church is your people gathered together in the union of the Holy Spirit, to worship the God our creator, and to unite with Christ our savior.

Lord, remind us day by day to put on the full gospel of God, not part of it. But all of it being reminded that it is not us, but you who overcomes. We pray all of this in your great name, oh God, and whose name we pray. Amen. Thank you guys.