Sermon Tone Analysis

PBPWMGINFWMY       ACTS 18:18-19:7

 

 

            Years ago there was a button that read, PBPWMGINFWMY.

These jumbled letters stood for, “Please be patient with me; God is not finished with me yet.”

If we could just remember these words we would all be more patient with one another.

All of us are at different places in our walk with the Lord because God does not deal with us all in the same way.

In fact, we all have different backgrounds and experiences when it comes to our relationship with God.

For example, there are some who attend regularly to church, hear the preaching of God’s Word, and yet have not trusted Christ.

They are in the process of learning about Jesus and reading the Bible, but have yet to receive the Spirit of God.

Those of us who have received Christ need to be patient and gracious with these individuals because at one time we were in the same boat as they are in.

I can remember as a nine year old when my family joined a church in Montgomery and my twin brother received Christ that I was not ready to do so.

But months later, I made my decision to follow Christ.

There are others who are mere babes in Christ.

In fact, some Christians remain that way their whole Christian life.

But God’s desire is for us to grow in our relationship with him.

In the physical world, we do not expect a one year old to act like a ten year or a teenager to act like an adult.

So it is in the spiritual world, we cannot expect a babe in Christ to make wise decisions like a mature believer does.

Growth takes time and we are all at different places in our walk with the Lord.

This evening we are going to look at a passage that deals with the subject of transition.

Transition is a part of life.

We transition in life from babies to toddlers to children to adolescent to adults.

We transition in school from elementary to junior high to senior high to college to graduate school.

We transition from being single to marry to parenthood to grandparenthood.

Life is about transition and so it is with the spiritual life.

There are those who transition from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive and there are those who transition from spiritual immaturity to spiritual maturity.

Our text this evening shows us the transition of several different individuals.

In fact, Luke gives us three different case studies of the way people transition in their spiritual life.

He shows us transition in the life of Paul, Apollos, and the twelve disciples in Ephesus.

CASE STUDY #1 – PAUL – 18-23

            Paul was not run out of the town of Corinth as he was in Thessalonica and Berea nor did he leave town disheartened as he did from Athens.

The Jews tried to get rid of Paul through a new proconsul, but he was going to make a decision in the trial of Jews vs. Paul.

So verse 18 says Paul stayed many more days before leaving for Syria (a fifteen hundred mile trip) with Aquila and Priscilla.

The last sentence of verse 18 is quit puzzling to the reader because Luke said “at Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.”

Now this is a strange statement made by Luke, who provides us with no details as to why Paul took a vow.

I want us to look at this strange statement and what I believe is the theme running through our passage this evening.

But before we do that let me quickly comment on the rest of the verses in this section.

Paul sailed from Cenchreae to Ephesus which I will speak about in more detail next time.

There he left Aquila and Priscilla to build the church probably from their home.

He went to the synagogue as usual to reason with the Jews about Christ.

They asked him to stay longer, but he declined which was quit unusual for Paul to turn down an open door.

Yet, he promised to return if the Lord wills.

Folks, this is how all of us should view life by stating I will do this or I will go there if the Lord wills.

This is how Jesus lived his entire life.

So Paul sails from Ephesus to Caesarea and goes up to Jerusalem to greet the church there.

From there he leaves Jerusalem and goes down to Antioch to report about his second missionary journey.

He embarks on a third missionary journey by traveling through Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples.

Again there is that theme of growing or maturing as Paul was helping them deepen themselves in their walk with the Lord.

Now let go back to this peculiar sentence that Luke throws out for us to read but gives no details about.

Wouldn’t it be fascinating to do a study on all such statements in the Bible?

So what should we take away from this sentence?

I think we can see a work in progress in the life of Paul.

I want to remind that Paul is a Christian which is evidenced from the 9th chapter of this book.

But you need to recall that before Paul became a Christian he was a Jew.

He told the Philippians he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil.

2:5).

So he has been a Christian for a short time, but a Jew his whole life.

Paul makes a vow, probably in Corinth, in which he does not cut his hair.

Now what is a vow?

In the Old Testament vows were sometimes taken and one particular vow had to do with cutting hair and that was a Nazarite vow.

Now don’t get this confuse with Nazareth or a Nazarene.

A Nazarite vow was a vow of total devotion to the Lord.

Turn to Numbers 6 and see three requirements of this vow.

If you read verses 13-21, you'll read the next part of it.

When the time was over, they had a most interesting ceremony.

You know what they did?

They had to go to the temple.

They went to the temple with a handful of hair, took all their hair.

They'd stand in the front.

At first, they'd stand in the front and cut it, then they'd turn their hair in.

Then they'd offer a bird offering, a sin offering, a peace offering, and burn the hair with them.

That was the completion of the vow.

Vows, according to the Mishnah, lasted 30 to 60 to 100 days.

Now you say, "Why did he make this vow?"

Usually it was made in gratitude to God for special deliverance or special blessing.

Had Paul had special deliverance in Corinth?

Yes.

Had he had special blessing?

Absolutely.

I think that Paul's heart was so thrilled and so blessed and so excited with what God had done and letting him finally stay somewhere--he'd been chased all over everywhere else for two missionary tours--and finally see God work and disciple somebody and raise up some saints and see them grow, and the church growing up in sin city--I think his heart was so thrilled--now watch--that he wanted to thank God.

He wanted to thank God in the most extreme way that a Jew could do that, and that was to take a Nazirite vow and devote himself to the Lord absolutely and totally for 30 days.

CASE STUDY #2 – APOLLOS – 24-28

            In these verses, our attention is turned away from Paul to Apollos, who becomes a vital asset to the church.

Luke tells us that he was a Jew from Alexandria.

He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.

In Alexandria, there was a great Jewish population that numbered around one million during the time of Paul.

In fact, they were one third of the population.

So Apollos was steeped in Judaism and taught in the schools there.

Luke describes him as an eloquent man.

This word eloquent is quite unique.

It can mean a man of ideas or a man of words.

In other words, Apollos had the ability to put ideas together and communicate them well.

He was equal in knowledge and speaking.

He was probably a better preacher than the Apostle Paul was and we know that Paul was no slouch.

Also, Luke says he was a man competent (mighty) in the scriptures.

This word competent comes from our English word dynamite.

In other words, he was a powerful preacher.

Folks, I believe there is no excuse for a preacher being ignorant of the Scriptures.

John Broadus, founder of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, preached this passage to his students as one of his last lectures.

He said, “Gentlemen, if this were the last time I should ever be permitted to address you, I would feel amply repaid for consuming the whole hour endeavoring to impress upon you these two things: true piety, and, like Apollos, to be men “mighty in the Scriptures.”

Now I want to note that Apollos at this point, I believe was not saved.

He did all this in the flesh.

Now this does not mean that the spirit was not available to the Old Testament saints, but he had yet received the gift of the Spirit in his life.