Giving and Receiving Correction

INTRODUCTION

There are lots of different types of correction that you see. They are certainly not all the same.

The way you correct a child is different than the way that a young soldier is corrected at boot camp.

The way you correct a little toy door on an intricate, expensive dollhouse is different than the way you correct a stuck pantry door in your home that just won’t open.

The way a boss corrects an accidental mistake is different than the way they would correct absolute, obstinate rebellion.

There are also different ways correction can be received.

Some of you have dogs that have been to training school and when you correct them, they react with an intelligent obedience that is impressive.

Then there is my dog. When you correct him, he just looks at you like you are about to smite him and he shuffles away in shame and horror.

Sometimes you go to drive a car that isn’t yours and you notice that it is not as responsive as your normal car. You have to correct the steering wheel a little more forcefully for the car to receive the correction and react.

And of course, there are different ways we can react as people.

We can receive correction with a heart posture that is eager to learn, or we receive correction with an eagerness to argue and be right.

This morning, we will see an example of correction being properly given and properly received.

And we will see the incredible impact that it has on the ministry of the Gospel.

CONTEXT

Last week, Pastor Ben walked us through the first twenty-two verses of Acts 18.

After Paul left Athens, he went to Corinth—in the province of Achaia, and ministered there for a year and a half, teaching the Word of God among them.

After this, he briefly goes to Ephesus (18:19)

Then Caesarea (18:22)

And then back to Antioch—the home base for Paul’s apostolic mission to the non-Jewish Gentile nations

This morning, as we arrive at Acts 18:23, it is about 54 AD and Paul is going back to strengthen the churches from his first missionary journey.

As he does, Luke gives us a brief detour and tells us about an incident between Apollos and Aquila and Priscilla, the couple we met at the beginning of chapter 18.

As we said, Paul briefly visits Ephesus in v. 19-20. He would return soon and begin a three-year stay in that city.

In the time in between Paul’s initial visit and his lengthy stay, the scene with Apollos occurs.

Acts 18:23–28 ESV

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. 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.

I have three teaching points for us this morning to help us as we work through the text.

Here they are:

1. Correction must be given with gentleness (v. 26).

2. Correction must be received with humility (v. 27).

3. Correction makes a minister more effective (v. 27-28).

And lest you think I only mean pastors, we are all ministers of the Gospel if we are believers in Jesus Christ.

We all have a disciple-making ministry that we are supposed to be about.

OBSERVATIONS

But before we get into those points, let’s observe the characters we have in this text.

OBSERVING PAUL (v. 23)

Luke describes Paul’s trip from Antioch, through Galatia and Phrygia, where he strengthened the disciples that were being produced in the churches he had started or helped to start.

This is no small journey.

By the time Paul arrives back in Ephesus, he will have traveled 800 miles.

That is about nine weeks of hoofing it on foot, even if we assume he built in some rest.

He easily could have sailed from Antioch to Ephesus, but instead, he chose to travel by land on inland roads, which shows just how concerned he was with follow-up in these places.

But that is really it for Paul for the rest of chapter 18. We will see him again in chapter 19.

OBSERVING APOLLOS (v. 24-25)

We can learn eight things about Apollos in this letter—and then we can learn a ninth thing from what is implied.

1) He is Jewish. Just like Paul.

2) He is a native of Alexandria.

Alexandria was an Egyptian city established by Alexander the Great

It had a large Jewish population of 100,000, and there were synagogues there as early as 300 years before Jesus lived

3) He is an eloquent man.

This was the official word for a learned man.

It meant that he was both educated and cultured.

He had probably grown up receiving religious training in the synagogue and rhetorical training in an official Greco-Roman education.

This is a very smart man

4) He is competent in the Scriptures.

Now, I love my English Standard Version of the Bible, but I have to say that the translators left a lot to be desired by choosing the word competent.

The King James Version says mighty in the Scriptures.

The NIV says a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.

In our culture, competency tends to refer to “meeting the standard,” not, “excelling above the standard.”

But that is exactly what Apollos is doing.

He is powerful in the Scriptures, which likely means he is a good interpreter of the Word and preacher of the Word and it also probably refers to his ability to debate.

We shouldn’t be surprised to hear Luke say these things about Apollos because it is literally what we see him doing in at the end of Acts 18.

5) He is instructed in the way of the Lord.

This is Luke’s way of telling us that Apollos is a brother.

He is a Christian.

Remember Acts 9:2, as Luke was describing how Paul went to the high priest...

Acts 9:2 ESV

and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

It is a reference to Isaiah 40, which says:

Isaiah 40:3 ESV

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

The Way was the road that the Lord would walk in order to restore His people.

And we know that way was marked with the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah.

The way of the Lord refers to the work of Christ.

And those who belonged to the Way were those who believed in the work of Christ.

This is Apollos. He has heard of the Way of the Lord and he has believed the Way of the Lord.

6) He is fervent in spirit (or THE Spirit)

I think this is probably referring to Apollos being fervent in the Holy Spirit.

Apollos is a believer in Christ, sealed with the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit to preach the Good News of Christ—or the Way of the Lord.

And he did this faithfully, right?

7) He taught about the “things concerning Jesus” “accurately.”

This means that He taught about Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension accurately.

8) He only knows the “baptism of John.”

Now this might seem a bit confusing.

How can Apollos be instructed in the “way of the Lord” but only know the baptism of John?

How can he being teaching accurately about the things concerning Jesus, but also be somehow limited in his understanding of baptism?

What exactly is happening here?

Well, to be honest, we really don’t know all that this entails.

Luke and the Holy Spirit who inspired him did not see fit to give us a lot of details in this situation.

Many commentators have attempted to fill in the blanks and draw conclusions, but I am not sure we can do that with absolute certainty.

Instead we do our best to understand with the information we have, but we cannot be dogmatic about it.

Here is my best guess at what is happening here in this situation.

Somehow, some way, Apollos became deeply familiar with the teaching of John the Baptist.

He became convinced of John’s message of repentance and baptism in preparation of the coming Messiah.

And to take it a step further, somehow, some way, Apollos has heard that John has proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah and he believes that.

And if he is teaching about Jesus accurately, then he would have had some understanding of Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, as the Christ of God.

So he is ALL IN on John’s message.

He believes in Christ and preaches Him with a Spirit-empowered fervency.

But he seems to be missing a puzzle piece.

And I believe that puzzle piece is probably the connection between baptism and Jesus’ saving work.

Apollos is still preaching baptism as a way to prepare for the Messiah—not as a sign that you have believed in His saving work.

The easiest way I can say it is like this:

When we baptize, you hear me say, “Buried with Him in death and raised to walk in the newness of life.”

I think Apollos was likely missing that. He wasn’t connecting the symbol of baptism to the death and resurrection of the Lord.

This might seem strange, but it is good for us to remember that the Book of Acts represents a very unique time in history.

It was a transitional time, moving from the Old Covenant era to the New Covenant era.

Because of that, nice, clean theological distinctions can be hard to make.

Nice and clean, ecclesiological (study involving the church) conclusions can be hard to come to.

9) Apollos is not like the 12 Ephesian disciples.

When we get to Acts 19, Paul will meet disciples in Ephesus who understand John’s baptism, but they are much more ignorant than Apollos about things.

They haven’t heard of the Holy Spirit.

They need to be baptized—which does not seem to be the case with Apollos.

They seem to be pretty out of the loop on Christ in general.

I don’t believe the Ephesian disciples were actually believers yet.

But Luke is clearly telling us that Apollos stands apart from them.

He is talked about like a brother.

OBSERVING PRISCILLA AND AQUILA (v. 26)

And then we have Priscilla and Aquila in verse 26.

We met them at the beginning of the chapter.

They are a married couple who are serving as missionaries, making tents to support themselves, much like Paul.

When they come upon Apollos, they pull him aside and have a private conversation with him, where presumably, they are telling him the true meaning of baptism, now that Christ as come and died, rose again and ascended on high.

Apollos wasn’t far off.

He has a level of accuracy.

But they are helping him sharpen the tip of the arrow.

He has already been instructed in the Way of the Lord, but they are helping him gain even more accuracy when it comes to the subject of baptism.

CORRECTING WITH GENTLENESS (v. 26)

Now this is where we can began to dive into our teaching points for the day.

We have observed the characters.

We see what is happening.

Now here is Teaching Point #1:

1. Correction must be given with gentleness (v. 26).

The gentleness in this passage has to do with the approach that Priscilla and Aquila take.

They do not publicly call him out.

They do not belittle him.

Instead, they pull him aside and give him an explanation of things that will help him be a more accurate theologian and minister of the Gospel.

They correct him privately.

This was a very gentle approach from the married missionaries.

And it was a biblical way to approach a brother who needs some assistance hitting the target with more accuracy.

First of all, this is a picture of how Christ has dealt with us.

Remember the invitation that Jesus gave in Matthew 11:29-30

Matthew 11:29–30 ESV

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

One of the most popular Christian books of our generation is called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund and in it, he says this:

Meek. Humble. Gentle. Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finer but open arms.

Dane Ortlund

Christian, is this not how Jesus has dealt with you?

We deserved no less than Hell for our lawbreaking.

God gave us all the trees of joy to eat from, but we want to disregard his laws and eat from a forbidden tree.

And like our first parents, Adam and Eve, we have eaten from that tree. Again and again.

God has spoke in His law and we break it and we should surely die.

But God is rich in love and abundant in mercy, so He sent His Son, the perfect Messiah, Jesus, to suffer and die for our sins.

And He resurrected Him from the grave to assure that death would be defeated for all who believe in Him.

And He calls us to repent of our sin and to trust in the work He has done to save us.

And when we do, He receives us.

He doesn’t say, “Go get yourself together and then come back.”

He doesn’t say, “Sit down and listen to a couple of years of I told you so’s in order to receive my grace.”

Instead, the gentle Savior invites us to come into the yoke with Him, and to find the rest that we need.

Hey listen—if this is how he has dealt with you, then how dare we not be gentle with others?

How dare we correct harshly after God has corrected us gently—over and over—day after day!

What are we saying if we do that?

We are saying, “Christ deals with people gently, but I deal with people how I want.”

You may not realize it, but the posture of your heart is saying, “My way is better than God’s way, even though without God’s way, I would be going to Hell!”

It is both haughty and hypocritical.

And spiritually speaking, it does not say good things about your heart if you are incapable of gentleness.

Remember—a sign that you are a branch of the vine of Christ is that His Spirit is producing spiritual fruit in your life.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

So then, as Christians, there can be no doubt.

We should reflect the gentleness of Christ in how we deal with people—particularly good brothers who just need some theological precision.

Let me illustrate this by us considering two different procedures.

Football season is about to start and I am so nervous that the Commanders new quarterback will get hurt, that I actually had a dream where he blew his knee out and I was very upset.

I hope it is not my friend Jayden Daniels that gets hurt, but make no mistake—someone will. It is football. Somebody’s QB is going down.

Now, imagine a quarterback dislocating his non-throwing shoulder.

If that happens, they will take him into the little blue tent and they will actually pull his arm in a certain direction to set it back in place.

This is a process called reduction. If you have ever seen it, it is pretty rough, but once it happens, there is immediate relief.

Sometimes this is how we have to correct people—particularly if they are in imminent danger.

Now, imagine a quarterback getting hit low and his leg breaks.

Maybe not a Joe Theismann break—but there is a fracture.

If the break doesn’t require surgery, the doctor will gently align the broken bones again and then put them in a cast so that the bone can heal over a few months without having surgery.

This can be painful, but when the doctor is able to gently do the job, there will be a full correction.

This is called a closed reduction.

And more often than not, this is a picture of what Christian to Christian correction should look like.

Correction like this is compared to a tree of life:

Proverbs 15:4 ESV

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Gentleness will bring healing like the trees of the New Jerusalem.

But when the tongue is perverse and prideful, it will break the spirit of the one being corrected.

Understanding this, We must crucify any desire we have to appear as the most knowledgeable person in the room.

That will lead inevitably lead to you always wanting public correction so you can look good as you address the error.

Priscilla and Aquila don’t care about that.

They handle it privately because their number one concern isn’t the appearance of their knowledge and rightness.

Their concern is for the Gospel to be preached faithfully and for Apollos—a man who is clearly on fire for Christ—to be a better minister.

What is your number one concern when you approach others to correct them?

Is it that you would look like the most authoritative, most knowledgeable, most preeminent one in the scenario?

Or is it that your brother or sister would know the Way of God more accurately?

Don’t wave the hand at this. Truly consider it.

Because if you are going to be someone who leads and disciples others, the moment for correcting is going to come.

If your motivation is not right, your method will likely end up being wrong.

You will be going around pulling on arms when you need to be gently re-aligning bones.

CORRECTED WITH HUMILITY (v. 27)

Now, how did Apollos receive this correction?

Well his reaction is not explicit, but I do believe it is implied.

He wants to go to Achaia and continue his work.

The brothers in Ephesus not only encourage him to do so, but send him a letter of commendation.

It is hard to imagine this would have happened if he reacted sinfully to Priscilla and Aquila’s correction.

2. Correction must be received with humility (v. 27).

Apollos’ apparent reception of the correction also gives us a model to follow.

Good correction should be received by the Christian heart.

In fact, if it is a true correction from error to truth, we should be eager to receive it.

In order for us to receive correction with humility, we need a principle and a posture.

THE PRINCIPLE

Let me cover the principle first.

We get it from Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

You have to believe this to receive correction with humility.

This is the principle that undergirds the posture of the heart that is willing to be corrected.

As believers, we are not eager to receive just any correction.

There is a particular type of correction we are eager to receive and that is correction rooted in God’s Word.

We believe that God breathed out the Scriptures.

That His Spirit inspired them.

And since they are from Him, we can trust that the Scriptures are profitable for teaching, for reproof and for training in righteousness.

And—we can be sure they are good for correction.

This is principle must be foundational for us as believers.

Whether we are receiving the Word from a preacher in a pulpit or a friend over coffee, we must always be open to correction.

As our Baptist brothers said in 1689—Since the Bible is authored by God:

Therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.

1689 London Baptist Confession

Do you really believe these are the very words of God?

Then you should hunger for them to correct you.

THE POSTURE

This principle will lead to a posture of the heart that we would call humble.

The humble heart says, “I do not know it all. In fact, I don’t know a lot. I am open to being shown I am wrong.”

The Old Testament and the New Testament tell us what this needs to look like.

Listen to these three Proverbs from Proverbs 15:

Proverbs 15:5 ESV

A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

Do you refuse to heed reproof? Do you despise correction?

The Bible says you are acting like a fool.

Proverbs 15:12 ESV

A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.

Do you not like reproof?

The Bible tells you that you are acting like a scoffer. A mocker.

The scoffer is presented as the opposite of a righteous man in Psalm 1.

Proverbs 15:14 ESV

The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

If you are a person of understanding, you will seek knowledge, even from correction.

Proverbs 15:31–32 ESV

The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.

When a gentle correction, which is like a tree of life comes, it will be life-giving reproof to you if you receive it.

And if you receive it, you will find yourself inevitably dwelling in the camp of wisdom.

But if you will ignore instruction and correction, the Lord says you hate yourself.

You are working against your own good.

But if you listen, you will gain intelligence.

That is an intelligence of the heart, mind and self as you are humble before the correcting Word of God and his correcting messenger.

James agrees with these Proverbs when he offers these instructions in James 1:26-27

James 1:19–20 ESV

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Like Thomas Watson said—God have you two ears and one mouth.

And he put two biological fences up in front of your tongue—your teeth and your lips.

And they are there in part, to remind you to think twice before you speak.

But your two ears are open canals.

We must use them first and our tongue second.

And according to James, there should be quite a distance between your hearing and your speaking.

Hear a lot and speak a little when correction is coming your way.

If you find you cannot do this and you are always trying to speak over people and you try and finish their sentences and you have a hard time just being quiet and listening—brother or sister—you must grow in grace.

It is a sign of a heightened heart that doesn’t want to listen and only wants to speak.

It is a sign of pride when we cannot have a posture of humility when being corrected.

Overcoming this is not easy and you do not have the power to do it in and of yourself.

Pride is a monster and you need Jesus to slay it.

You need the living Spirit of God in you, producing the fruit of gentleness in you, so that you will be able to receive God’s Word meekly from a gentle brother or sister who is correcting you.

You will never white-knuckle your way to humility and wisdom.

You need God’s help.

And you must turn to Him for it.

You must cry out to Him and confess your pride and ask for help if you know you are slow to be corrected, but quick to speak or wave the hand and dismiss someone’s concern.

This confession and repentance must happen, otherwise—you are a rock garden.

Imagine you are outside cutting the grass and getting the yard ready for the fall that is on the way and you see your neighbor out doing some yard work as well.

But as you look, he is standing there watering a rock garden.

You think to yourself, “That is weird. Rocks don’t need water. They are rocks!”

Brothers and sisters, this is a picture of us being corrected, if we are not careful.

But you aren’t the neighbor—you are the rocks.

You have someone pouring out the sanctifying word on your in correction and you absorb none of it because of pride in the heart.

You can pour water on a rock all day, but it isn’t going to grow.

In the same way, someone can correct you gently all the way, but you won’t listen and you won’t grow.

A MORE EFFECTIVE MINISTER (v. 27-28)

And that is something that we cannot allow to happen.

If we are going to grow as believers and as ministers of the Gospel out in the world, we must be able to receive correction.

3. Correction makes a minister more effective (v. 27-28).

Again—when I say minister, I am not speaking about pastors or elders.

I am talking about people who do ministry.

And that is all of us, if we are covenant members of a local church, serving Christ as His ambassadors in the wilderness of the world.

There is no doubt that Apollos was made more effective due to the correction from these two missionaries.

We have evidence of this right here in this text, but also in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

Here in this passage, he takes off for Achaia—which is the province that Corinth is located in—with his new, more biblically accurate understanding of baptism and he is able to greatly help those who through grace had believed.

Meaning, he helped other Christians grow in their faith.

He built up sinners who had received God’s grace in Christ.

He helped them grow in grace.

And not only that, but contended for the faith, by powerfully refuting the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.

Here we see the Spirit of God taking this eloquent man and using him to publicly confront the rejection of the Messiah and he uses the Scriptures to do so.

Notice that it is public because he is dealing with someone outside the faith.

This is very different from the correcting situation that Apollos was in with the married missionaries.

We also know from Paul’s letters just how important Apollos became to the Corinthian church.

He became a leader there who was baptizing believers—to the point that some of those believers even became a little tribalistic about it.

Remember Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 1:12-13

1 Corinthians 1:12–13 ESV

What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Paul reminds them that arguments like are silly because he and Apollos are just co-laborers, working a field together, that ultimately belongs to God.

1 Corinthians 3:5–9 ESV

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

We cannot say that Apollos would never have had this role in Corinth, if not for Priscilla and Aquila.

Maybe someone else corrects him shortly after if they don’t. Maybe Paul himself.

But that is beside the point.

The point is that we get a wonderful picture here of the beauty of kind correction in God’s church.

The gentleness of Aquila and Priscilla

The humility of Apollos.

When you put them together, you see iron sharpen iron. You see discipleship.

And you see a man more prepared for the work God would have for him in a tough and difficult church.

Anyone who has ever coached anything understands the principle.

You have those players who will never listen.

They will always do things their way.

And their talent will never take them beyond their ability to handle correction.

Then you have those players who practically take notes every time you speak.

These are players who mature and grow and become more effective in their assigned roles throughout the season.

Will we mature? Will we grow?

Will we be effective for the Kingdom of God?

Then we must have a church culture where correction is given with gentleness when there are sheep who need the bone re-aligned.

It might be doctrinal. It might be a holiness issue.

But a truly growing church will be a church where gentle correction abounds.

Other the other hand...Do you want others to see you as a leader in the local church?

Do you want to be able to contend for the faith out in the world?

Do you want to be the sort of person who will be able to greatly help those who have through grace believed?

Do you want to be a faithful minister and messenger for God?

Then you must learn to receive correction so you can grow.

Do not despise correction.

Desire it.