(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. So today we're finishing up with the second missionary journey. I know I said that last week, but this time we're really going to finish the second missionary journey. I got a little bit tied up on that part where the Apostle Paul is preaching in Athens on Mars Hill. There's a lot to say about that. So now we're going to start out in chapter 18, continuing with Paul's missionary journey. So we remember last week we saw the Apostle Paul preaching on Mars Hill. And were they very religious, or were they too superstitious? They were superstitious, right? They were worshiping false gods, they were worshiping devils, and he was preaching the truth to them. Some people got saved, other people wanted to hear the Gospel again, and then other people just scoffed at it and laughed at it. So look at chapter 18, verse 1. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tentmakers. So we see here that Aquila and Priscilla, who are very famous, Paul mentions them in several of his epistles, and they come up in the story a little bit here in the book of Acts. These are people who had just been thrown out of Rome because the emperor Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome. So this is going to start a trend that's going to go on for the next 2,000 years of the Jews being expelled from countries. I mean, if you look at the list of countries that have made the same decree that Claudius made here, it's a pretty long list. Just over and over again, they get expelled from country after country after country, and this is part of God's judgment upon them, God's punishment. Now, of course, Aquila and Priscilla aren't bad people, but, you know, God's punishing the Jews as a whole in general. So even these good people, obviously, are going to get caught up in it. All the Jews are being expelled. That's going to be the good and the bad, right, that are getting thrown out. And so throughout history, they've been expelled. The most famous is in 1492 when they were expelled from Spain, but it's happened literally hundreds of times in hundreds of places. So this is the beginning of that already in biblical times. So he commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, but God uses this to bring Paul together with these wonderful companions that he's going to work with. So even when negative things happen in our lives, you know, if you're Aquila and Priscilla, you're just living your life, and let's say your nation gets judged, well, that would never happen to us, right? You know, you're a godly person, you're living your life, and then your nation gets judged because of the sins of your nation. God still has a way of blessing us and protecting us even when we get caught up in those kind of bad things. He'll take care of his own. You know, when he judged Sodom and Gomorrah, he took care of Lot and pulled out Lot. And he took care of the children of Israel when he was pouring out his wrath on Egypt. And so we see here that God leads Aquila and Priscilla to the Apostle Paul, which is great for them to be around this man of God that God's using more than anyone else at that time. Now they, by occupation, were tent makers. So Paul ends up staying at their house because, remember, back then they didn't really have hotel chains the way that we have them today. And so when you traveled, you relied upon hospitality. That's a big thing in the Bible. And so he ends up staying with them, and he actually works with them in their business helping them to make tents. Now a lot of people have misinterpreted this and mispreached this and basically stated that the Apostle Paul was just always making tents all the time, and he never took a paycheck. And that is simply not true. Because if you actually read Paul's epistles, he frequently talks about receiving money, receiving donations, being supported by other people. Now there were certain places where he went and worked full time in a secular job in order to not be a burden to them or just in order to set an example. Like, for example, to the Thessalonians, because they struggled in this area. There were a lot of lazy people and slackers in Thessalonica, so he wanted to be an example. And he said, look, if I wanted to, I don't have to work a job. I can just preach and do soling and rely upon hospitality and rely upon other people's generosity. But he worked hard in Thessalonica day and night where he had his day job and his night job because he said, I wanted to set an example for you to follow us because there are so many people there that aren't working. They're idle, they're lazy, et cetera. So here when he's in Corinth, he stays with Priscilla and Aquila and he makes tents with Priscilla and Aquila because he knew how to make tents. This is not something that he did 100% of the time. Now, keep in mind, the Apostle Paul is not a pastor. He was never a pastor. To be a pastor, you have to be married and have children. He is a missionary. He's an evangelist. He's an apostle, but he's not a pastor. Also, it is stated in 1 Corinthians 9 that all of the apostles were married except Paul and Barnabas. So you have at least 70 apostles that Jesus sent out in addition to the 12 apostles. So you have a minimum of 82 apostles and all of them were married. Paul and Barnabas said, are we the only ones who don't have a wife? We don't forbear working. And the Bible also makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 9 that all the rest of the apostles did not work secular jobs. For example, Peter was told, follow me and I will make you a fisher of men. And he said, from henceforth, thou shalt catch men. And when Peter goes back to fishing and physically throws the net in the water, Jesus shows up and corrects him for that. And he's told not to be a fisherman, but to preach the Word of God. So the Mormons and other false religions will sometimes use the apostle Paul to try to say that it is wrong for clergy to be paid. It's wrong for the pastor to be paid. Just look at the apostle Paul. He made tents. Well, here's the thing. Jesus wasn't doing carpentry work for the three and a half years that he was in the ministry. The Bible lists people who ministered to him of their substance and actually paid his way and helped him financially. The apostle Paul was a tent maker part of the time. A lot of the time he wasn't and he was living off of other people's gifts. And then all of the apostles, Peter, James, John, Andrew, those kind of guys, they were all full time serving the Lord, doing spiritual work. And they were married. They had children and they supported their families that way. So don't buy into this propaganda that says, you know, oh, the pastor shouldn't be paid. Now, look, when I started the church for the first four and a half years, I didn't get paid at all. I worked a full time job because obviously when you're starting a church from scratch, that's what you end up doing. And a lot of our pastor friends, I would say out of 20 some pastor friends that we have, like 80 percent of them work an outside job because most of them are starting out in small churches, new churches. But as the church grows, it is ideal for the pastor to become a full time staff member. And not only that, to have other full time staff members like deacons that are actually being paid as well to serve the Lord full time. Now, a lot of people don't understand, you know, why would you need to be paid full time? You know, what does the pastor even do? But here's the thing. At a church like ours, there's a lot of great work being done. OK, now you say, well, the Mormon Church, they do it without paying their pastor. Is that is that you want to listen to? You want to listen to the Mormon preacher because you get what you pay for. I mean, no, I'm just kidding. But anyway, the point is, look, the Mormon Church, they pontificate and I've been who's ever had them bring this up to you when you're out soul winning about. Yeah, your pastor is a hireling because he's getting paid and everything. Yet the Bible says that the workman is worthy of his meat. The workman is worthy of his hire. That's what the Bible says about pastors, that the laborer is worthy of his hire. OK, but here's the funny thing about the Mormons is that the people at the top. Yeah, they're millionaires. Just go look up where the Mormon prophet lives. Go look at the house that the Mormon prophet lives in. He lives in a multimillion dollar mansion. He has a 10 million dollar home. Oh, yeah, he's just a tent maker. He's not making tents. All of their top guys, all the people in that that skyscraper in Salt Lake City, that brain center of the Latter Day Satan religion, they're all making boku money and they are rolling in money. Now the local pastors, here's the thing, they don't even write their own sermon. These guys that are just volunteers that get up and preach, they're issued the sermon from that skyscraper in Salt Lake City and all they do is preach the sermon that's handed to them. And you know, the Mormons are not known for dynamic, powerful, life changing preaching. In fact, I had a friend in California who was a former Mormon who got saved. He had such a cool testimony of how he got saved. He was a devout Mormon and every year he would read the Bible and the Book of Mormon cover to cover. He was very zealous in Mormonism. And he started going to an independent fundamental Baptist church because he wanted to learn the preaching style. So he would go to an early service at the Baptist church, then he would go to his Mormon church. And he had no interest in becoming Baptist or converting to evangelical Christianity, but rather he just wanted to learn the powerful preaching style because he had this idea that he could bring that dynamic preaching into the Mormon church because the Mormon preaching was so dead. And so he ended up going there and then listening to all that dynamic preaching, he got saved and he quit being a Mormon. I thought that was a pretty cool testimony. You know, and so the point is, you know, you don't want to take this overboard. One mention of Paul being skilled in making tents, dwelling with some people, making tents and think that, oh, that's just all he did all the time. That's that's contrary to what the rest of the Bible teaches. And the apostle Paul is not our role model for being a pastor because he was a missionary evangelist apostle. There are other men like John and Peter who were actually pastors. That's who we would look to as a prototype for a pastor. So it says he reasoned in the synagogues on verse four there, it says he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads. I'm clean from henceforth. I will go to the Gentiles and would to God he would have actually done what he said he was going to do there. He ends up saying that three times in the book of Acts. And, you know, I don't think he follows through with it until the final time in Acts 28. But he keeps threatening to do that. That's what God wants him to do anyway. But he makes that statement again. But I love what it says in verse six when it says they opposed themselves. They opposed themselves. You know, people who reject the gospel, they're not really opposing us or hurting us. They're really just hurting themselves. And this is a good thing to keep in mind when you're out evangelizing and you're out soul-willing because you don't want to take it personally. I've been soul-willing with some people when they get rejected or yelled at or the door slammed. They take it personally. They get offended and they're all put out. Maybe even lose their temper and get angry. What we have to realize is that they're not rejecting us. They're rejecting the gospel. We're not coming in our own name. We're not preaching ourselves. We're preaching Christ Jesus, the Lord. And so when we show up and preach the gospel to them, they are only opposing themselves. You know, we should feel bad for them when they reject the gospel. We shouldn't hate them or be angry. We should pity them because they are opposing themselves, right? They are their own worst enemy at that point. They're not our enemy. We're actually their best friend. We're their ally trying to help them. They are opposing themselves. And when they did that, he shook his raiment and said, hey, your blood's on your own heads. I'm clean. Now that's a good statement because you know what that means is that if we don't preach the gospel, you know, some people's blood is on our hands. The Bible says if I speak to warn the wicked and you warn not the wicked to turn from the air of his way, it says his blood will I require at thy hand. And that's why when Paul preached the gospel to all of Asia later in chapter 20, he's going to say, I'm free from the blood of all men. I'm clean. And here he says, look, your blood's upon your own heads. I'm clean. Why is there blood upon their own heads? Because they've heard the gospel clearly presented from Paul and that's all he can do, right? It's not his choice whether they get saved or not. It's up to them. And he departed thence, verse seven, and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. So get the picture. The apostle Paul, he's making tents with Aquila and Priscilla, staying at their house, earning his keep by working in their business. And then on the Sabbath days, he goes into the synagogues and preaches the gospel. He evangelized in the synagogue. He preaches to Jews. He preaches to Greeks. Well, eventually they get so blasphemous and they're opposing his word so much that he decides to just bail out from the synagogue and say, hey, I'm going to the Gentiles. I'm done preaching the gospel to the Jews in this town. So what he ends up doing is he ends up moving out from Aquila and Priscilla's house. Now he's going to stay with a guy who lives right next door to the synagogue. So think about it. He's setting up shop next door. He's setting up shop across the street from the synagogue and basically got his own competing service going on over here. So he tries to evangelize in the synagogue. That doesn't work out. So he says, okay, fine. I'm moving out from Aquila and Priscilla. I'm moving in with justice. He lives right next to the synagogue. So he's preaching. Now look what verse eight says, and Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. So even though in general the Jews at that synagogue are rejecting the gospel, the top guy in that synagogue ends up getting saved. He ends up believing on Christ with all his house and this man's name is Crispus and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Now it's interesting when it says many of the Corinthians hearing believed, what does that mean hearing? Does that mean that they heard that Crispus got saved or does it mean that they heard the gospel? You know, I think it probably has something to do with the fact that when Crispus got saved, that made them more interested in hearing the gospel possibly and you know, Crispus gets saved, and then when they hear, they're like, whoa, maybe there's something to it. So Crispus is a guy that they respect. You kind of see what I'm saying? So Crispus is a guy that they respect, so when they see him get saved, then a lot of them get saved. And then it says in verse nine, then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. Now you're going to understand in a minute why I'm kind of making that point about Crispus getting saved and then as a result, a whole bunch of other people getting saved. It's going to make sense in a moment, but notice this promise that's made to Paul. Now if you remember the other sermons that I've done on this missionary journey and even on the first missionary journey, what was the pattern? I mean, they would go into a town, they'd preach the word of God, the unbelieving Jews would stir up the Greeks, and then the Greeks would persecute them, and then they would end up getting thrown out of town. Sometimes they were even beaten, imprisoned, and one time Paul was even stoned and left for dead. So in the typical city where Paul is preaching, he's enduring some serious persecution, arrest, beating, almost death. But this is going to be different this time. God actually gives him this promise that he's not going to go through those things in this particular town. He said, no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, it says in verse 10, for I have much people in this city. So God's saying, look, a lot of people are going to get saved, this is going to be a very successful mission field, fear not, I don't want you to take off and move to the next town. He's telling him, stay here because there's a lot of work to do here in Corinth and a lot of people are going to get saved. Don't worry, you're not going to get hurt, nobody's going to hurt you. So that's great news for Paul because he's been beaten and imprisoned in a lot of places. So it says in verse 11, he continued there a year and six months, so he's there for a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them. And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaea, Achaea is the ancient name for Greece, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat saying, this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And Paul was now about to open his mouth. So right now it's a pretty familiar pattern, isn't it? The Jews get all mad and drag him to the civil authorities, they're trying to get the Greeks turned against him, right? And when they bring him there and they make an accusation similar to the accusation that they always bring, you know, this guy's trying to get us to worship God and it's against the law, which obviously isn't against the law. Paul's about to open his mouth, but remember he has this promise from God, right, that nothing bad's going to happen. So when Paul was now about to open his mouth, so he's about to defend himself, he's about to give his side of the story, right? The accusation's been made, now it's time for the defense, you know, to give their argument. And just as he's about to open his mouth, then Gallio, the guy who is the deputy or the political ruler, the judge, if you will, he said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, oh ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. Look, come on, I mean if this guy's doing something perverted, wicked lewdness, okay, if it's just about words and names and Bible doctrine, your law, if it doesn't have to do with the Roman law, I'm not interested in judging this. But he doesn't tell them, you know, case dismissed with prejudice. He doesn't tell them, hey, I declare Paul not guilty. He doesn't say that, does he? What he actually just says is, you know, look ye to it. If it's of your law, you judge it. Now do you remember someone else in the Bible who said something really similar to this? Is what Pilate said, right? Take ye him and judge him according to your law, right? So this is a Roman attitude apparently. Pilate said take him and judge him according to your law. But then the Jews said, well, it's not lawful for us to put anybody to death. They wanted the death penalty and they could only go after the death penalty with Pilate involved. They can't do that on their own. He was going to let them judge it themselves and give him a lesser punishment, right? In this case, it's the same deal. Gallio says, I don't want to get involved in your religious quabble. So you take him and judge him. So he's not saying Paul's off the hook, not guilty, release him. He says, you deal with it, you look to it, for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drove them from the judgment seat, like get out of here, you know, you're wasting my time. But look what happens in verse 17. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things. So Gallio just kind of doesn't care and just lets them kind of do this vigilante act here where they basically take Sosthenes and beat him instead of Paul. So apparently Paul escapes. Paul gets away. So they grab this guy, Sosthenes, as sort of the consolation prize because they're all frenzied and mad. This mob wants to be satisfied with a victim. They're out for blood and they don't want to go home until they've hurt somebody. So they grab this guy, Sosthenes, and they beat him. And Gallio basically just kind of looks the other way and lets it happen. Now here's the thing. There's a question for a lot of people of whether this guy, Sosthenes, is the same guy as Crispus. Because a lot of times people in the Bible have two names. And it's not just because their name changed. A lot of times they just have two names. And the Bible doesn't even always explain that. It'll just use both their names and just expect you to figure out that it's the same person or know the same person. Like Moses' father-in-law has two real Jethro. I mean it's almost just nothing in common with those two names. Real Jethro. It's just two different names. So just like I have three names, just like most of you have three names, your first name and middle name, your last name, you've got Simon, who's also known as Peter, who's also known as Cephas. So you have people throughout the Bible using multiple names. Gideon is called Jerubal, and you have all these different people in the Bible that have multiple names. So I believe that this is the same guy and I'm going to explain to you why I believe that Crispus and Sosthenes are the same guy. Otherwise the story would be confusing and it wouldn't really make sense why the story contains these two significant characters that are both the chief ruler of the synagogue. They're both significant to the story and there's no explanation of, oh, he stopped being the chief ruler and then this other guy became the next chief ruler. There's nothing like that. So based on what the Bible actually says, I think it's the same guy. Let me give you a very strong piece of evidence why. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, because remember, what city is all this taking place in? It's happening in Corinth, right? So if we go to Corinthians, we can get a little more light on this. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1. Now while you're going to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, let me explain something to you about Paul's epistles. So there are 13 epistles of Paul plus Hebrews, which I believe is for sure written by Paul, so 14 epistles of Paul. And what you'll notice in these epistles is that at the beginning of the epistle, he typically will name himself Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and then he says who he's writing to. But every once in a while, he'll include other people in that opener. So sometimes he'll say Paul and Timotheus, or Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus under the church of Thessalonica. Well, here's the thing. Those are the only people that get mentioned. You have Timothy getting mentioned. Now let me ask this. Is Timothy a very significant guy? Yeah, because you've got books, 1 and 2 Timothy. Timothy was a major coworker of the apostle Paul, and he was a very important man of God in these early churches, so Timothy's a big important character. Silvanus is Silas, same name, it's just a different variation on that name. So Silvanus, or Silas, is also a major character because that's Paul's partner in missions. It's Paul and Silas. When they're singing in the jail cell in Acts 16, it's Paul and Silas, right? Paul, Silas, Timothy. So these are all major important characters. So when Paul starts out an epistle saying Paul and Timotheus, or Paul and Silas and Timotheus, he's not just saying, oh, these two guys just happen to be with me hanging out. Because at the end of his letters, he always mentions a lot of people that are with him. In order to make it into the beginning of the letter, it means the letter is coming from Paul and Timothy. The letter is coming from Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus. So basically, the letter is coming from more than one person. This isn't just coming from Paul, it's coming from Paul and this other important man of God. Now, if you remember, the church at Corinth was a church that later gets very rebellious against the apostle Paul. And in 2 Corinthians, he spends several chapters defending himself and how they're claiming that he's not an apostle and how they don't want to listen to him. And he spends several chapters fighting that battle in 2 Corinthians, right? Now with all that in mind, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother unto the church of God, which is at Corinth. So notice, this is a guy who's getting billing with Paul at the beginning of the epistle. He's actually adding clout to this epistle. So hey, this isn't just coming from Paul, this is coming from Paul and your buddy, Sosthenes. You see what I'm saying? Because remember, the Corinthians, they don't always want to listen to what Paul has to say. They were rebellious against some of his judgments. And even in 1 Corinthians, he's ripping them hard. He rips them in chapter 5 for that guy who's committing fornication with his father's wife. He rips them in chapter 6 because they're going to law one with another. He rips them on the way that they're abusing the Lord's Supper. He's ripping them on just tons of things. There's a lot of negative things that he corrects in both 1 and 2 Corinthians. So it makes sense that when he's writing this letter, he's including Sosthenes. Basically, it's a way of saying, my name's Sosthenes and I approve this message. Because if he's going to write at the beginning of the epistle, Paul and Sosthenes unto the church of Corinth, you know what that shows? Sosthenes has read this epistle. Even if he had nothing to do with writing it, it's coming from Paul and Sosthenes. So this isn't just coming from me. This is coming from your hero, your guy, your buddy, your local hero of the faith, Sosthenes. So that's putting more weight. It makes sense that Paul would include that in verse number 1. Now that tells me that if the only people that ever get listed in the beginning of the letter with Paul are Silas and Timothy, who are super important characters, that tells me that whoever the Sosthenes is in chapter 1 verse 1 is a pretty important guy. Because otherwise it would just be like in chapter 16, oh yeah, Sosthenes says hi. Because we get a lot of that at the end of Paul's epistles. Even the guy who physically wrote down Romans in Romans 16 says, I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute thee in the Lord. He doesn't get any credit at the beginning as the letter is coming from Paul and Tertius. He's the guy who physically wrote it down. So this makes Sosthenes an important person. So it makes perfect sense if Sosthenes has clout with the Corinthians. The Corinthians respect Sosthenes. Why? Because many of them, that's how they even got saved was when Sosthenes got saved. That led to them getting saved, right? Paul was having a hard time getting a lot of people saved. Then Sosthenes gets saved, believes with all his house, and then a bunch of other people get saved. And then Sosthenes ends up taking a beating for the apostle Paul, right? When the apostle Paul escapes, they grab Sosthenes. Why? Because he's public enemy number two. Because if they can't have Paul, who would they love to beat? Paul's main convert. Paul's most illustrious convert that was the guy who led to so many other people turning to Christ, so they beat him. So that's why I believe that this is the same guy. He's the leader of the synagogue. That's why he had all this clout. He got saved, that's going to make the Jews just go crazy that one of their top guys defects over to Christianity. That drives them nuts. So they probably want to beat him more than they even wanted to beat Paul in many cases. And so perhaps they figure, well, we can get away with beating this guy, even if we can't get away with beating Paul. Or maybe they even just say, we'd rather beat this guy, because this is the guy we're really mad at. So once Galio kind of gives them the green light, yeah, judge him according to your law. Of course, they can't put him to death, but they could beat the fire out of him. So poor Sosthenes takes a beating. If you go back to Acts chapter 18, poor Sosthenes gets the fire beat out of him, but the good news is he gets to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1, and that's worth a beating, amen? So it says in verse number 17, all the Greeks took Sosthenes, because remember, the Jews, every single time the pattern has been, they get the Greeks to do their dirty work. They get the lewd fellows of the baser sort to do their dirty work, or they fire up the Greeks, or they get the civil authorities to do their dirty work for them. This is no exception. It's the Greeks that they incite to beat Sosthenes. Galio doesn't care. Okay, so we get to verse 18. And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Sancria, for he had a vow. Now again, this is the apostle Paul at a time in his ministry where he does not have full understanding of the fact that he needs to abandon these type of ritual practices from the old covenant. And so you'll still see him celebrating this feast and shaving his head because he has a Nazarite vow or whatever. That's what I'm assuming this would be. And most people, I think, have come to that same conclusion. This is because the Book of Acts is about people that are not perfect, and he doesn't have full understanding yet. That's why he's constantly going to the Jews when he's supposed to be going to the Gentiles. That's what God commanded him to do. So he shaves his head. He really wants to get to Jerusalem to do a feast. That's what that is. That's his imperfection. Verse 19, because later he's going to rebuke this in his epistles, you know, keeping these kind of days and months and years and following these old covenant practices of ritual. Judaizing is what he preached against in Galatians chapter 2, for example. And he came to Ephesus and left them there. So who does he leave there? Priscilla and Aquila, right? So he goes to Ephesus, and he leaves Priscilla and Aquila and Ephesus to do soul winning. Okay? Having shorn his head in St. Crea for he had a vow, he came to Ephesus, left them there, but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired him to tarry longer with them, he consented not. So they want him to stay in Ephesus with them, and he says, nope, nope, I got to go. I got to go to Jerusalem. But bathed them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. Now remember, whenever we get back to Antioch, that's the end of a missionary journey. Why? Because the missionary journey starts and ends every time in Antioch. Antioch is his home church that sent him out. First missionary journey, he goes to Cyprus, Turkey, comes back to Antioch. Second missionary journey, he goes to Turkey, then he goes to Macedonia, then he goes to Greece, then he sails to Ephesus, back in Turkey again, then he sails to Caesarea, which is now in the region of Palestine, right near Jerusalem. He does his feast thing at Jerusalem, and then he ends up back at Antioch. That's the end of his second missionary journey. But wait, the sermon's not over yet, because there's a little bit more that happens in Ephesus. Okay, so Paul's missionary journey is done. He's back at Antioch. It's over, folks. So now we know for sure that this is the final sermon on Paul's second missionary journey. But there's one more thing we want to cover, because remember, who did he leave behind in Ephesus? Who did he leave behind? Aquila and Priscilla, right? So now we're just going to see a little bit more about what they did when they were left behind, okay? So jump down, if you would, to verse 24. It says, And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. So this man, Apollos, is from Alexandria, Egypt, obviously a city in Egypt named after Alexander the Great. And Alexandria is where Apollos came from. He's an eloquent man. What does that mean? He's a great speaker. He's mighty in the Scriptures. What does that mean? He's a powerful preacher of God's Word. Came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the center. So this guy shows up, right? So get the picture. We're in Ephesus, we're Aquila and Priscilla, Paul's gone, he went back to Jerusalem, to Antioch, and we're continuing the missions, we're continuing the soul winning in Ephesus while he's gone. Well this guy shows up from a foreign country. This guy shows up from Alexandria, Egypt, and he gets up to preach in the synagogue and this guy's a great preacher. I mean he is preaching a powerful message. He's very eloquent. He's mighty in the Scriptures. He's preaching with boldness. But this guy only knows the baptism of John. Now what does that mean? That means that Word hasn't traveled yet to where this guy was in Alexandria. He hasn't heard about Christ. It's not that he rejected Jesus Christ, it's just that he hasn't heard about Christ. He only knows of the baptism of John. So on an earlier trip to Jerusalem, you know, because this guy lives in Alexandria, but he's a devout Jew, on a previous trip to Jerusalem, he happened to be there during the ministry of John the Baptist, but before Jesus had come on the scene. So during that six month period where John the Baptist is preaching, before Jesus comes on the scene, during that six month period, that's when Apollos had come along and he got baptized by John the Baptist. He heard the preaching of John the Baptist. So he's hearing about, you know, he that cometh after me is mightier than I, but he hadn't got to the part where the mightier than I guy showed up and, you know, so he didn't know of Christ yet. He only knew of the baptism of John. Now look, I've heard some people say, oh, this guy was unsaved because he didn't know about Jesus yet so he's unsaved. Well, in 2019, if somebody doesn't know about Jesus, they're not saved, but we have to understand this is a transitional period, okay? And I really want to make this point because it's so important to understand that this guy was saved. Otherwise why was he so mighty in the scriptures? I mean, this guy didn't reject Christ. He didn't know about Christ. Now today, let me make this crystal clear in 2019 if you don't know about Christ, you're not saved period. There's no, but see, here's the thing. This guy is being grandfathered in under the old covenant, okay? And let me, I wanted to illustrate this because this is so important, okay? And that's why the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13, in that he sayeth a new covenant, he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. But has it, had it totally vanished away when Hebrews was being written? No, but it was ready to vanish away, okay? And I think that the time you could point to when the old covenant totally vanished away was probably 70 AD, destruction of Jerusalem, the temples destroyed, the sacrifices cease. That was when the old covenant was done. Let me illustrate this to you. Let me get some volunteers. Brother Madison, would you come up here for a volunteer? Brother Nick, Brother Juarez, okay? So I want to explain that this is such an important doctrinal point. I don't want to miss this. So if you guys will just come just kind of line up right here, stand up right here. Okay, so these guys are going to represent three types of people when Jesus came on the scene, okay? So Jesus comes on the scene, right? It's 30 AD, Jesus comes on the scene, and he's starting to preach. John the Baptist comes on the scene, followed by Jesus. These are three adult men at that time, okay? Now this guy right here is a guy who's already saved. Now stop and think about this. I really think that when Jesus came on the scene, just everybody's unsaved. Nobody's saved. Everybody's just been going to hell for the last 4,300 years. It's ridiculous, right? People in the Old Testament were saved by looking forward to the cross. We're saved by looking back to the cross, but we're all saved by faith in the Lord. Even in Genesis chapter 4, men began to call upon the name of the Lord, right? So here's a guy who's called upon the name of the Lord. Before John the Baptist starts preaching, before Jesus starts preaching, this guy is already saved. Does everybody understand? This guy right here is a guy who, when John the Baptist comes on the scene, he's not saved. He's unsaved. But when he hears either John the Baptist or when he hears Jesus Christ or when he hears Peter or James or John, he gets saved, right? So he wasn't saved when those guys came along, but when he hears their message, he gets saved. He hears the gospel and he gets saved, right? This guy represents a guy who's not saved and he doesn't get saved. Does everybody understand? So this is a guy who hears the gospel and he rejects the gospel. He rejects Christ's message, okay? But these are three... There aren't two kinds of people. It's not like there are the people who got saved and the people who didn't get saved. The people who heard the gospel and received it and the people who didn't receive it. No, there's this guy too, the guy who was already saved. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Under the old covenant, he's already saved. So when Jesus comes along and Jesus starts preaching, these two guys believe in him. Now you say, well, what if this guy would have rejected Jesus? Impossible. This is the key to the doctrine here. Impossible. Why? Because Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. And he said, other messiahs had come before him, right? He said, others came before me and they were thieves, they were robbers. And he says, the sheep did not hear them. You remember John chapter 10, he said the sheep did not hear them. The false messiahs that had come before him. All that came before me were thieves and robbers, Buddha, everybody else, right? Thieves and robbers. But the sheep didn't hear them. So when Buddha came along or some other phony false teacher, false prophet, some other guy saying I'm the messiah, this guy's like, no. When Jesus came along, he's like, yeah. And he believed on Christ. Now here's the thing, he was already saved under the old covenant. Anyone who is already saved automatically is going to believe in Jesus because the sheep hear his voice. Now this should not seem strange or hard to believe because think about this. If we take a Bible verse and show it to somebody who's saved, and let's say it's a verse that they've never read before. Let's say you have been saved, but you've never read the whole Bible cover to cover, which is like 99% of Christians, right? What if I took a passage of scripture and showed it to somebody who's already saved? Are they for sure going to believe that chapter or maybe, or they're just going to say, oh, I didn't know that was in the Bible. Well, I don't believe that. If I showed, if I showed a chapter to somebody and they said, well, I didn't know that was the Bible. I don't believe that. You know what I'd say? Oh, you're not even saved. Now. It's not that they lost their salvation. You can't lose your salvation. It's eternal life. It's once saved, always saved. But let me tell you this though. If somebody starts saying, well, I don't believe this part of the Bible. I don't believe that part of the Bible. That tells me they were never saved in the first place. And if this guy had been a guy that I thought, oh, this guy's really devout. But then all of a sudden Jesus comes on the scene and he's like, no, this isn't the Messiah. This guy's not, you know, this guy half beelzebub. Then, you know, I'd say, well, there's that guy's not saved. So he didn't get saved by believing in Jesus in that sense. He was already saved by believing in the Lord. And then when Jesus comes on the scene, he recognizes him as the guy that he already believes in the guy that he already has put his faith and trust in the guy that he's already called upon. But now he knows him as like, what about the guy who picked up the baby Jesus Simeon? You know, that guy was saved, right? And he recognized him, you know, now, so this guy was already saved. This guy wasn't saved, but he got saved, you know, through the preaching of Jesus or the apostles. And then this is the guy who just remains in unbelief. So three different categories now. So when Jesus is preaching, these two guys believe this guy doesn't okay. Now where does Apollos fit into this? Apollos is this guy. Okay. Apollos is this guy that was already saved, hasn't heard about Jesus. Now this story is happening around 50 AD. So it's happening around, you know, 17 years or so approximately after, I don't know the exact number, nobody really knows for sure the exact number, but it's in the neighborhood of 50 AD. It was like, this is like 20 years later. Okay. But you'd expect, well, everybody's going to know 20 years later, but here's the thing, you know, word had to spread. There's still 20 years before 70 AD when they really get scattered everywhere. And you know, back then they don't have TV, they don't have internet, they don't even have a printing press. They don't even have newspapers. So somebody who's living in a foreign country on another continent, Egypt, Alexandria, it's possible that he hasn't heard about Jesus or he hasn't heard enough to realize, yeah, this is the Messiah. He hasn't heard that. He hasn't, he hasn't read one of the four gospels because the four gospels haven't even been written yet. Four gospels were written later. Okay. So go ahead and have a seat, gentlemen. I hope that helps you to understand Apollos' situation. You know, that he's a guy who it's not that he was unsaved, it's just that he's in this transitionary period where he is saved, but he hasn't heard about Jesus. But look, this, this guy doesn't exist in 2019 because in 2019 everyone is held accountable for the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no, you're gray, you're grandfathered under the old covenant. That was a temporary thing because that which was decaying and waxing old, it's already vanished away. In, in Hebrews 8, 13, Paul said it's ready to vanish away. Now it has vanished away, right? So the old covenant has been replaced by the new covenant, amen? So let's just finish this up quickly. So he only knew the baptism of John, verse 26, and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard that, you know, they liked the preaching, right? They took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaea, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him who, when he was come, helped them much, which had believed through grace. So this guy ends up being a huge blessing, Apollos, and he ends up being a great preacher because Aquila and Priscilla helped finish his training for he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. So this guy ends up getting a ton of people saved. So what can we learn from this? Well, we can learn a few things from this. When we run into people that are already saved, if we can get them to a higher level, if we can teach them about soul winning, maybe they don't know about soul winning, we can teach them about soul winning, you know, we can help tighten up some of their doctrine, sharpen them up on some doctrine, teach them a better way of living their life, teach them, you know, get them out of the non-denom church and get them into a red hot soul winning fundamentalist Baptist church where they're actually going to do stuff for God and actually win people to Christ and be more effective and get real Bible preaching. You know, if we can do that, we've accomplished something great. So the great commission is not just getting people saved. It's getting people saved, getting people baptized, and then teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. You know, for example, pastor Dave Burzins is here. I didn't get pastor Dave Burzins saved. He'd already been saved for nine years when I met him, but I did baptize pastor Burzins and I did teach him the word of God. He knew very little of the word of God because he grew up Presbyterian and he learned virtually nothing growing up, very little. But then man, when he got baptized, come to our church, he started growing and learning a lot and he spent seven, eight years at our church and learned the doctrine. So look, by doing that, if we can take a Dave Burzins, like an Apollos Burzins, you know, and we could basically, he's already saved, but we can expound on him the way of God more perfectly, then how many people has pastor Burzins led to the Lord? You know, pastor Burzins did a ton of soul winning here in Phoenix, a ton of soul winning in Prescott Valley, a ton of soul winning in Atlanta, Georgia, and he's teaching other people to win souls and he's doing like Apollos did, where it says that Apollos, in verse 27, helped them much, which had believed through grace. So what's pastor Burzins doing in Atlanta? He's got a bunch of people who believe through grace and he's helping them much, right? He's doing what Apollos did. So you see how it's not just getting somebody saved, but if we can get somebody who's already saved and get them serving God, that's great too. We're accomplishing a lot with that too. Now how do we do that? Well, one of the things we need to realize is that we have to be gentle. We can't just burn everybody who doesn't believe exactly like we do. You know, just like, you idiot, you only know the baptism of John, sit down and shut up, let me preach. Is that what Apollos was told by Aquila and Priscilla? Like, hey, this guy, you know, he's yeah, well, yeah, I mean, he preached the great sermon. Jesus though, start picking him apart, insulting him, criticizing. You know what? They sat back and said, hey, this is great preaching that here's what this guy has. He has eloquence, he's mighty in the scriptures, he knows the Bible and they're looking for the good in the guy and then they're going to take him aside and expound them the way of God more perfectly. And then as a result, they've produced this great man of God, you know, by helping him grow. So we need to make sure that we don't just burn everybody who doesn't believe exactly like us, but that we try to help people grow and realize that it took us a long time to get where we are. And I guarantee you there are a ton of people in this room that even after they were saved had some pretty stupid doctrines or some pretty dumb ideas or where, and you know what, myself included. If you would have come and talked to me when I was a teenager, I had all kinds of dumb beliefs because I spent five years going to these liberal NIV churches. You know, I got saved when I was six years old, but when I was in these liberal watered down churches, I'm sure I would have said all kinds of dumb things about, you know, man, you just got to have a relationship, you know, and just, you know, I would have just said all that same cliche stuff that all the non-denoms say because that's where I was going to church. I hadn't read my Bible cover to cover, but you know what, thank God there were people that took me aside and expounded onto me the way of God more perfectly and they didn't just shut me down and just call me an idiot. You know, when I showed up at Regency Baptist Church as a 17 year old boy and my hair was all bleached blonde and punked out and I was wearing all my clothes from the thrift store, I still wear clothes from the thrift store, but I just pick different clothes now. But you know, when I showed up there, you know what, I was treated well. And they took me out soloning and you know, they taught me the word of God and I learned from that preaching. So I want to make sure that we don't just expect everyone to know everything that we know. Because if you'd be honest with yourself, the you of three years, you, you'd probably be like rebuking the you of three years ago. You'd be rejecting the you of four years ago or five years ago as a complete bozo idiot. It's like that, wait a minute, what? Because we all took a lot of time to grow to where we are and we're still growing. So we want to be patient with other people and realize that just because someone believes wrong today doesn't mean that they're going to believe wrong tomorrow and that we, we should have a ministry of fixing people that believe wrong stuff. Amen? Not just getting people saved. Let's take people who have some wrong beliefs and wrong doctrine, let's fix it. Let's teach them the truth. Let's bring them along and be patient with people and not just, just blow up at them because they're a little wrong on this side or the other, but be nice and try to help people grow. And this is a great ministry that Aquila and Priscilla did by helping Apollos learn something and looking for the good in him and trying to help him. Now look, are there heretics and false prophets and deceivers out there? Absolutely. And you know, we see in the book of Acts them being rebuked sharply. There's a time and a place to rebuke someone sharply. There are people who need a swift kick in the pants, but the Apolloses of this world are not those people. And so we need to make sure that we can distinguish somebody who's sincere, but maybe they're just wrong or they have wrong doctrine. They've been brainwashed. Look, we've all believed dumb things. And to be able to distinguish them from the true reprobate false prophet bozo. All right. So, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt, try to help people learn more. And if somebody comes to our church and they don't cross every T and dot every I of what we believe, that's okay. And if six months from now or a year from now they still don't, that's okay. Now, if they're teaching damnable heresy or something, then yeah, we have a big problem. And even look, and even if somebody is not saved, let's say somebody is not saved, but they keep coming to our church and they like our church and they keep coming. We're not going to throw them out unless they're like spreading a false gospel or something or spreading lies. I mean, look, people will come visit our church. I'll give that person the gospel and they're just like, oh, I don't know, or they don't get it. It goes over their head or whatever. I don't worry about the fact that they come back a week later, two weeks later, three weeks later, because you know what? Eventually they're either going to get saved or they're going to stop coming. Now if I gave somebody the gospel and said, no, you have to, you know, and just started like rebuking me and telling me how it works and then I'd be like, hey, you need to leave. Like, you know, you can't just be this militant believer in a false gospel and go to our church. That just, that just doesn't work. Okay. But if somebody is just like not getting it or they're a little confused or they're up in the air or something, hey, it's okay. Give people time. Be patient. You don't even freak out. It's not going to kill us to have some unsaved people in our church with us, right? That we're reaching, that we're in the process of reaching. Now obviously if they're disseminating and preaching a false gospel, let them be accursed. Okay. That's a different story. But be nice to people. Amen. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great story from your word and please help us to be like the apostle Paul. Help us to be like Aquila and for the ladies out there, help them to be like Priscilla and to be a godly person that can be a good influence on those around them and preach the word of God to the lost and also help disciple those who are saved but they have not yet been baptized or maybe they just haven't learned much about the Bible. Lord, help us to help people grow and fulfill the great commission. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.