To The Town Next Door

Intro

Good morning Bridge church. It is so good to be here with you all again. What a treat for our family to come and worship with you two times in one summer! I always count it a blessing when I’m slotted to preach twice and then I’m not canceled me after the first sermon. This Sunday is special for a number of reasons. First, It is my first time preaching in a park. So thats pretty cool. And second, my mom flew in from Coastal Mississippi to be with us this weekend and so this is the first time that my mom will have ever heard me preach in person. We’ll see if she has any notes for me afterwards..

It is a special privilege having my mom here for a number of reasons. One of those being the fact that my mom has played a key role in my faith journey. She was the first person to disciple me, that is she was the first person to model the Gospel and bring me to church. She strove to raise me and my brothers and sisters in a Christian home. Though my upbringing had its struggles and flaws, I am blessed to be able to say that my parents loved us and my mom loved Jesus, not always perfectly, but she loves Christ and did her best to instill that in me. I will say that I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ at a youth camp in 8th grade, I can now look back and see ways that God used my mom and my dad to introduce Himself to me.

Raising your children to know Jesus is an important form of discipleship. For many of us, our children are some of our primary disciples. What we will do today is look at the passage of scripture that was read earlier and see just how important discipleship really is and to see how it is through discipleship that the Gospel will ultimately go out to transform communities, first to the house next door and then to the town next door. Today’s passage shows us that Believers are both discipled and disciple others for the spread of the Gospel.

Last week, Joe preached on the first half of the chapter and talked about a common thing in Paul's life and ministry. As Paul travelled around and preached the Gospel, he often came up against both extreme hostility and radical hospitality. For the Christian, it is the latter that we are called to emulate. In fact, it is that radical hospitality that is both a result of and a way to advance the Gospel. As communities are transformed by the news that Jesus Christ lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross taking their sins on to himself, and rising from the grave three days latter conquering sin and death and making a way for humanity to be made right with God, as people believe that message and come together and practice hospitality, more and more lives are changed. As Christians live in such a way so as to fulfill Jesus' words that the world would know we are His by our love, more and more people have the opportunity see and here the Gospel message. I would encourage you to go back and listen to Joe's sermon and be encouraged to be transformed by the Gospel and be in community.

The title of that sermon was "To the House Next Door" and so as we look at the second half of the chapter and we see Paul ending his second missionary journey, I've decided to title my sermon "To the Town Next Door." I’ve titled it that because the one of the goals of discipleship is the spread of the Gospel and it is a natural outcome that after going to the house next door, you will eventually end up going to the town next door and ultimately to the all of the nations with the good news of Jesus.

Y’all have been going through the book of Acts for some time now, so I won't spend too much time on the background of the book, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some basic facts for those of you who may be attending for the first time. Acts was written by Luke and is part 2 of a bigger story. Part 1 was when Luke wrote about the life of Jesus in his account of the Gospel, part 2 is now the life of the early church, the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. With today’s passage, we are just pass the half way mark of the book and are in the midst of Paul's missionary journeys where he is traveling around planting churches and encouraging disciples. Today’s passage has two sections. The first recounts the ending of Paul's second missionary journey and the second section recounts the beginning of Apollos’ ministry. Let’s take a look at the first section where...

Body

Paul ends his journey v. 18-23. The text says,

Acts 18:18–23 ESV

After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Already, Paul has travelled to places like Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea and Athens and now we find him in verse 18...

...Leaving Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila for Ephesus (v.18a). Joe talked last week of how God sovereignly connected Paul to Aquila and Priscilla and how they not only had commonality through work as tent makers, but now were fellows workers in the Gospel. Discipleship with Paul had started to transform the communities within Corinth as the Gospel went from house to the house next door as Paul stayed for quite a while in Corinth. And now, we are seeing that the natural next step of discipleship with Paul means taking the Gospel to the Town next Door.

And so Paul, in taking leave from the brothers in Corinth and setting sail with Priscilla and Aquila to Syria is now making his way home after months of travel where he has seen miraculous movements of the Holy Spirit saving people out of darkness and bringing them into the light. He has seen jailers and jews, the violent and their victims, the magistrates and magicians come to know and follow this Jesus who first changed Paul’s own life. And, as Joe mentioned last week, he has now spent considerable time in Corinth where the Lord had reassured him to not to be afraid because there were many of God’s people in that city. It is in light of this, that many scholars believe is the backdrop of Paul....

…finishing his vow as seen in the latter half of verse 18.(v.18b). This vow is not unimportant. In fact, it gives us a real case study for contextualizing the Gospel into ones culture. Though there is some debate as to the exact circumstances of Paul’s vow, I tend to hold to the view that this was a sort of Nazirite vow where he would abstain from alcohol and cutting his hair for a time as possibly a way of showing his thankfulness to God for the ways in which He had moved throughout his journey. There is also another plausible view that Paul’s vow was to set him apart from the corrupt Corinthian culture that was surrounding him. A Nazirite vow often had to do with consecration and so it would make sense that Paul, while spending time in Corinth, wanted to consecrate himself to the Lord and now that he was leaving Corinth, would have been able to end his vow.

The idea of a vow such as this may seem sort of foreign for the modern day follower of Jesus. But what we have to remember is that Paul was a practicing Jew and after coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus, did not reject his Jewishness. It is true that he did not require gentiles to become Jewish, but that didn’t make him any less Jewish.

For the modern Christian, Paul’s example illustrates to us the importance of recognizing where culture meets faith and not enforcing cultural norms onto others from a different culture nor rejecting cultural practices just because they are different. Ultimately, what we can learn from Paul’s vow is the importance of recognizing cultural ways to both show and live out our thankfulness to God for the ways that He is working and has worked and the importance of setting ourselves a part for the Lord. The Disciple of Jesus needs to recognize where faith and culture collide.

In any regard, it is after this that...

Paul, Priscilla, & Aquila arrive in Ephesus (v.19-21). We see Paul in his usual habit of going into the synagogue and preaching the Gospel. Though this time, when the Jews asked him to stay longer he politely declined. We’re not told explicitly why though the New King James Version states that it was due to the coming feast in Jerusalem that Paul had to depart quickly. That may well be, but I don’t think we exactly know. But one thing is for sure, by telling the Jews that he would return if God wills it, Luke is setting the stage for Paul’s next missionary journey in which Ephesus will play a major role.

Though Paul himself does not stay, he does leave Priscilla and Aquila to stay and they no doubt continued the work that Paul began. And it is here that we see the first glimpse in today’s text as to the importance of discipleship. We know from v.11 that Paul, after meeting Priscilla and Aquila, stayed in Corinth for a year and six months and so Paul at least had that much time discipling them. They would have had that much time learning from Paul, they had a front row seat in church planting 101 taught by the OG. And because of this intentional time spent learning and working along side him, Paul had the confidence to leave Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus to do the work of the ministry set before them.

Now I am all for putting in the time and effort to train up people before launching them out into the field. I am thankful for educational institutions and programs where young, and young in their faith followers of Jesus can go and learn the skills and knowledge they may need to be a successful leader in the church. I am thankful for the 4 years I did at Multnomah studying bible and theology and I’m thankful for my time as a youth director before launching to the field overseas. So it is passages like this that make me step back and wonder how a seasoned leader in the church like Paul could leave two relatively new followers of Jesus alone in a Pagan city to do the work of the ministry. I think the only logical explanation would have been that Paul was confident in the training that he would have given them in Corinth and that fact that they had the Holy Spirit in them.

I wonder if there are some of you listening today who could and should be leading in some capacity or serving in some capacity, but you think that you haven’t been a Christian long enough or that you don’t know enough. Too often do we hold ourselves and others back from stepping up to serve because we think we don’t know enough. Don’t get me wrong, it is good to take time to prepare and to learn. And I am not saying that you should just let anyone become a leader, in fact, Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:6 that an overseer “...must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.” Overseer or not, we would all do well to listen to that. But I wonder how many of you here should be serving or leading and are not simply because of time. I would encourage each and ever one of you to examine your life and prayerfully ask how you might better serve and lead. What ways can you step up to serve the body.

The last two verses of this section illustrate that Paul was never done discipling someone, even if he for a time was away from them. Verses 22-23 tell us that Paul leaves Ephesus to travel home and then as he began his third missionary journey after staying in Antioch for some time, he went around strengthening the disciples (v.22-23). It was never Paul’s desire to lead someone to faith and then forget about them, rather, Paul sought to return and reconnect with those who he had led to faith so that he might strengthen their faith even more. For Paul, discipleship was a lifelong commitment. So when Paul left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus to continue the work, it wasn’t a true goodbye where he would never see them again, Paul seemed to know that he would return to them. At a time in world history where travel was not easy and there was never a certainty that you would see someone again, Paul seemed to confidently believe and understand that Jesus had a plan for him and as a part of that plan, he would get to see believers again to encourage and strengthen their faith. Paul understood that there would come a day when his work would be done and Jesus would call him home, but at this point, he knew that Jesus was not done with him. So what did he do? He spent his time making new disciples and strengthening old ones. He traveled back around to check in on the believers that he had made. How were they doing? What was their faith like?

I love what David Guzik writes about this verse when he says,

“If Paul were to visit one of our modern congregations, he would want to know: “How strong of a disciple are you? What can I do to strengthen your walk with Jesus Christ?” He would remind us all that it isn’t enough to make a strong beginning with Jesus, but we must be always be growing in strength.”

And so, I think it would behoove us all to start asking that question of each other. How strong of a disciple are you? What can I do to strengthen your walk with Jesus Christ?

For those of you who have discipled someone for a time and then perhaps they moved away, we learn from Paul that distance was never an excuse. I would encourage you to prayerfully reach out to those who may no longer live close by and seek to strengthen and encourage their faith in Christ. That may mean that some of you need to travel to see some old friends or it may mean that you need to send a letter or a message or get on facetime and encourage and strengthen them. For example, I know that Jodell and her husband are planning on moving soon and I would hope and pray that relationship with them continues even in the midst of distance.

And for those of you who examine your life find that you may not have ever really discipled someone, I would challenge you to prayerfully seek to be discipled more intentionally as you disciple someone else. If you have never been discipled, then get connected with someone in the church and ask them to walk with you. Ask them to help you disciple someone else. Believers are both discipled and disciple others for the spread of the Gospel.

This first section of todays passage gives us a big picture look at what discipleship entails. Ultimately discipleship is a long term relationship meant to strengthen faith and perseverance and trust in the Lord. Discipleship starts in the house next door and then eventually spreads to the town next door. All believers are expected to both be discipled and disciple others for the spread of the Gospel. Though ideally discipleship is done regularly and in person, as Paul illustrates, it can also be done from afar.

After seeing a 30,000 foot view of discipleship where Paul is on the move, the second portion of today’s passage gives us a glimpse of what life was like for Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus and in so doing, we see a little more clearly what discipleship entails. The first part was about about Paul ending his second missionary journey. This second part is...

...Apollos beginning his journey v. 24-28. The text says

Acts 18:24–28 ESV

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. 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 concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

Now Apollos is an interesting individual. The text gives us some insight into who he is.

In verse 24 we see that Apollos was a native of Alexandria which is in Egypt and who by all accounts was a follower of Jesus though he was lacking in some amount of knowledge of the full story of the Gospel. Being from Alexandria, it would make sense that he was an eloquent and competent as Alexandria was a philosophical and educational center at that time. As to how Apollos came to faith, we do not know. Many scholars have made guesses about how Apollos first heard about Jesus, what it meant that he knew only of the baptism of John, whether or not he was, at this point filled with the Holy Spirit. I ultimately agree with John Polhill’s commentary on the passage when he says, “Perhaps it is best to leave the matter with Luke’s description and not try to go beyond it.” We see that Apollos had been instructed in the way of the Lord, though some things were lacking. Nevertheless...

...Apollos is fervently following Jesus (v.25). For whatever reason Apollos left his home in Alexandria and has now come to Ephesus. We are not sure if Apollos felt some missionary call to ‘go’ or if maybe he just liked to travel, or maybe his company transferred him after getting bought out by a bigger company, whatever the case, we see that even for a young in the faith disciple, he is fervently following Jesus and proclaiming Jesus where ever he goes. I imagine that he had not been in Ephesus long before he entered into the synagogue to proclaim Jesus.

The word fervent stands out to me. David Guzik, in quoting a William Barclay, writes that, “Literally this means, “to boil in the spirit” with the idea of “bubbling over with enthusiasm.”” The text to me reads that Apollos was energetic and enthusiastic about the good news of Jesus. So much so that upon arriving in a new town he has to go and talk about this Jesus he knows.

When was the last time that you had some good news that you just couldn’t keep in? Right before we left our home to travel this summer, my brother-in-law and his wife shared with us some awesome news. But we couldn’t tell anyone until this moment…no I’m just kidding, we couldn’t tell anyone until they got here and we were all in person. The news was that they are expecting their first child! Rachel’s mom was now going to have two grandchildren. We got so stoked about the news and it was so hard to hold it in when we arrived before them. In fact a few nights before Rachel’s brother and his wife came into town we are sitting outside and Rachel’s mom says, “I think they’re going to have a baby soon. Definitely not within a year, but I think they’ll have a baby soon.” I had to hold in a big laugh and just wait. Finally when we picked them up from the airport and were headed to dinner to share the news, I felt like I was bubbling over to share. If we didn’t tell Rachel’s mom that evening, I just knew I was going to spoil the surprise.

When was the last time that you had some good news that you just couldn’t keep in? What might it look like to be so in love with Jesus Christ that you are boiling over with excitement and joy to tell others of Him?

After hearing him in the Synagogue fervently and boldly and accurately teaching Jesus, albeit incompletely, Priscilla and Aquila disciple Apollos (v.26). And it is here we see an important element that is sadly all too often missed in discipleship. Upon hearing this excited individual living out his gifts and yet making a mistake, Priscilla and Aquila practice extreme humility and wisdom and take him aside to disciple him in the truth. They didn’t object in the moment and shut down his enthusiasm. They didn’t go home and gossip and slander because he had gotten something wrong. They didn’t publicly rebuke him for his mistake. Rather, they in wisdom and love and kindness, took him into their home and invested into them.

Hopefully you are not like me, but perhaps some of you are, when I hear someone teaching something incorrectly or when I hear someone say something within the church that I don’t agree with, it is too easy to write them off completely. Especially when I was younger in the faith, coming up against a secondary or tertiary issues for me meant that whoever was on the other side was probably not saved and was probably a wolf in sheep’s clothing. “Oh you hold to arminianism and not calvinism? Are you even saved?” “Oh you are a young earth creationist and not an old earth creationist? Do you even believe in God?” “Oh you listen to worship music from that church? Do you hate truth?” Don’t get me wrong, these are important issues and believers should have opinions and thoughts on them. But for me these issues and issues like it were essentially salvation issues. Thankfully, I have grown and respond in grace and love more so now. Now, when coming to these situations and situations like it, I strive, not always perfectly, but I strive to respond in grace and love and invest in others as opposed to writing them off.

What I love about Priscilla and Aquila’s response is that it kept the unity of the body. It brought people into the fold. The issue at hand was not unimportant. Many scholars have the view that Apollos was mistaken on baptism. Baptism is important! Yet Priscilla and Aquila kept the unity of the body and took Apollos in to disciple him. If you want to be good at discipling younger in the faith followers of Jesus, you can learn from Priscilla and Aquila. Invite people into your home to lovingly give them the full picture. Do this over time. Invest in people. Walk with people.

Within this scenario, we also get a glimpse into the type of disciple that Apollos was. What humility does it take to be corrected and taught. After getting up and boldly and fervently proclaiming things about Jesus, I imagine it would not be easy to hear that you didn’t have the full picture. It perhaps would have been easy to be embarrassed or to refuse correction and training. Sadly, today, if something like this happened, I would not be surprised to hear that that young energetic and charismatic guy simply went down the street and started a new church. But, Apollos, by the grace of God, humbly accepted instruction and teaching from the faithful service of Priscilla and Aquila.

Two weeks ago when we were here last, we watched the movie the Jesus Revolution with Brenna and Milo at their home. Its the story of a young man named Lonnie Frisbee in California who came to the church of an older man named Chuck Smith. Lonnie had the charisma and energy to reach the hippie population in California and Chuck Smith had the know-how to foster the movement. By no means was it perfect, in fact there was a lot of hard things happening behind the scenes. Yet, God used the fervent spirit of Lonnie and the older wisdom of Chuck to bring many to salvation. What we can learn from passages like this and stories like this is that when followers of Jesus come together in the Spirit, and when believers are discipled and disciple others the Gospel spreads to house next door and eventually to the town next door.

After receiving correction and training Apollos then travels to Achaia and strengthens the disciples there (.v27-28). He now was fully in the fold and in good standing and relationship with the other faithful followers of Jesus that when he desired to go on to Achaia, the region where Corinth was, that the brothers wrote him letters so that other followers of Jesus would welcome him. And he continued doing what he did in Ephesus. He powerfully and fervently shared the news of Jesus and others were strengthened and believed because of the Holy Spirit through him. The difference now was that Apollos had a full picture of who Jesus was. When he powerfully showed the jews that Jesus was the Christ, that means that he powerfully and clearly showed them how Jesus was the messiah who came to save God’s people. That Jesus lived a perfect life and took the sin of the people on himself that whoever would believe in him might not parish but have eternal life. Apollos was now a faithful disciple who, because of the power of the Gospel, was filled with the Holy Spirit to share the truth of Jesus with those who would hear. He did that first in Ephesus and then went to the town next door. As communities are transformed by the Gospel, disciples are made and those disciples will take the Gospel to other places.

Conclusion

This passage has much to teach us on the importance of discipleship and how discipleship leads to the spread of the Gospel. This passage shows us that Believers are both discipled and disciple others for the spread of the Gospel. First to the house next door, and then ultimately to the town next door.

I think there that there probably three types of people here today:

There may be some of you who are not yet followers of Jesus. And if that is you, know that Jesus, in his death and resurrection, took on the punishment that you deserve so that you can be made right with God. If you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with you mouth that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. If you are here today and have not yet believed in the good news of the Gospel and want to, then I would encourage you to come talk to someone after the service.

There are some of you here who have been a believer for some time now, but are not being discipled and ought to be. If you are here and you are stagnant in your faith or you are not sure what sort of next steps you ought to be taking, then I would encourage you to find some one to disciple you. Ask a farther along brother or sister to meet with you weekly to read scripture and pray and discuss how to apply the truths of God’s word to your life. Follow the example of Apollos and boldly share your faith and humbly receive guidance and correction.

Then, finally, there are some of you here who should be discipling others and yet, for whatever reason, are not. For you faithful mature believers, you ought to be meeting with a younger in the faith brother and sister and walking through life with them. Look for those in the church who might do well to have you come along side them and encourage and strengthen their faith. Prayerfully seek out someone to disciple. Take the model of Priscilla and Aquila and Paul and be willing to sacrificially love on others and guide them in the truth. Invite them into your home, do life with others. And if you look around the church and don’t see anyone that you could disciple, then go out into the city, share the Gospel with people, and make more disciples. All Believers need to be discipled and disciple others for the spread of the Gospel.

I believe that as you all here, as the Bridge Church, starts to intentionally enter into biblical discipleship relationships, then we will see communities transformed by the Gospel. The Gospel will go to the house next door and the Gospel will go to the town next door.