God's Will and Mentoring
Acts (To Be Continued...) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Please turn to Acts 18:18.
In our text today, we are going to see 2 big themes…that I believe every person, and especially every follower of Jesus experiences. but even if you are not, I bet you wrestle with these...
I am actually going to start back at verse 1 by way of review and then skip ahead.
Acts 18:1–4 (NIV)
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
(on map)
2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Acts 18:18 (NIV)
18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time.
Last week we learned that Paul sometimes, not all the time, work a normal job—he had a trade as a tentmaker.
that was a way for him to support his ministry, and we talked about the importance of tentmaking
all of us are tentmakers—using the jobs and situations in life God has given us to represent Christ. Every job matters—even if you hate it or your boss or co-workers—you are called to work to the glory of God.
and we also saw that God gave Paul a vision to keep going
Corinth was a big, metropolitan city...
known for its business and commerce...
known for its immorality… “to Corinthianize was to act like a prostitute...”
known for its suffering and persecution...
it’s amazing he stayed—but God assured him—I will be with you and protect you and produce results.
18
Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time.
Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.
If you look at the map—Paul is actually headed here—to Antioch—where he came from.
and he is taking 2 of his fellow Christians and tentmakers—with him in the ministry.
and before he sailed, he had his hair cut.
We are not totally sure why—many theologians believe that Paul had made a special vow from the OT
called a Nazirite vow (read about it Numbers 6) (on screen) (like the OT character Samson had)
where you would make a special promise before God to focus on him for a set time—abstain from wine during that time, not cut your hair.
and it’s interesting that Paul would do this because he is no longer a Jew, he (and we) no longer follow exactly the OT law from Moses found in Exodus, Lev, and Numbers, and Deut…yet he was still free to do so in good conscience—maybe as a way of connecting with the Jews.
that’s probably part of it—to the Jews I became like the Jews...
but I also think it shows his level of commitment and passion for the Lord....to take this vow...
Let’s keep reading.
19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
20 When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.
21 But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 When he landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.
so he returns to the mother church, the sending church—Antioch—having traveled hundreds of grueling miles. having been thrown in prison, beaten, experienced an earthquake, driven out of cities—but also seeing God’s hand at work—with many coming to new faith in Jesus Christ.
I don’t want to focus too much on this—b/c I have mentioned in back in chapter 16.
but look at the first theme of the 2 we see ---and
Theme #1: God’s Will (of if you are not a Jesus follower—the future)
Notice Paul’s attitude towards his plans and God’s plan.
vs. 21
21 But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.
In a previous sermon I talked about the 3 ways the term Will of God is thought about in Scripture: (Acts 16:6-10—you can find online on our sermon archive)
God’s will of...
Decree
Desire
Direction
God’s decree - is everything that comes to pass. God decreed it, planned it, executed it. This raises all kinds of questions but the Bible teaches it (Eph. 1:11)
God’s desire — his laws, his commands, his morals, like God’s will is that we love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. It is God’s will 1 Thess. 4:3 says that you abstain from sexual immorality.
You want to know God’s will for your life—abstain from sexual immorality...
1 Thess 5:16-18 - says to rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances—for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
God’s direction is what we normally have in mind when we use the term God’s will. The challenge is we rarely see the Bible use it in this sense.
leading us to be reminded that if we
trust God’s will of Decree
and follow/obey God’s will of Desire--
God’s will of direction will fall into place
let me say it again..
I love Paul’s open-handedness with God’s will. because he is trusting God’s will of decree
following and obeying God’s will of desire...
and then he could just confidently make a decision for God’s will of direction...
don’t fret...
don’t overthink it..
and I think he went back to Jerusalem and Antioch because he felt led by God to give a report of what God was doing in his travels.
he wanted one church—Jewish and Gentile—so he needed to keep those relationships going.
I don’t how many of you are planners—some of you are—to the extreme. and if the plan doesn’t go according to your plan—how do you react? for the day? maybe for your life?
or before you make a decision if you have to know everything in place
here we see Paul very intentional...holding his plans loosely…trusting that God has a plan.
it reminds me of another passage
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
those who follow Jesus, must submit their will to His will. and trust His plan over their plan.
they must be intentional too, I don’t think it’s wrong to plan—but there is a tension—we plan surrendering our plan to God’s plan
where do you need to submit your will, your plan to God’s, knowing that He has a better plan?
(take a moment and pray)
let’s keep reading…and stand...
Acts 18:23–26(NIV)
23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. (so he begins what scholars call his 3rd missionary journey)
those are churches here from his 1st missionary journey—Paul always felt it important to go back and check in on the people and churches he had started
24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria (North Africa), came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. (OT Scriptures)
25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.
26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
the 2nd theme we see here is what:
2. Mentoring or Discipleship
we are introduced to a new character named Apollos
He is extremely talented...
very knowledgeable of the OT Scriptures
very passionate—spoke with great fervor
talented speaker, persuader, teacher, debater
and yet was lacking.
Acts 18:25 says he knew only the baptism of John...
what is the baptism of John?
This is referring to John the Baptist in the NT.
J the B was given a special calling from God to prepare the way for Jesus Christ.
look at Mark 1...
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
skip to verse 7-8
7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
so apparently, though Apollos we think was a Christian already or follower of Jesus.
Jesus was His Savior—He had trusted in Jesus Christ alone to forgive Him and save Him.
and His Lord...
he had a misunderstanding—apparently around this issue of baptism.
before Jesus came—John the Baptist went around telling people to be baptized—go in water, repent of your sins so you are ready for the message of Jesus Christ to come.
but now that Jesus has come, lived, died on the cross for our sins in our place, rose 3 days later, ascended to heaven—poured out the wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit.
the meaning of baptism is similar but it has changed, too.
baptism is now NOT preparing for Christ to come—but it’s recognizing He has come.
and when we get baptized under the water and come out—we are declaring to the world—that we belong to Jesus Christ. I am united to Christ—this is really the essence of what the Bible is about—How do I get so close to God and He to me.
We are so close that Jesus’ death was my death to my sin/addiction/slavery/idols, his burial was my burial, and his resurrection is mine. I am pointing to Jesus—that He did—I am His and He is mine.
and I now have the gift of the Holy Spirit—baptism in water shows we have received baptism of the Spirit—it is the Spirit’s work in us that unites us to Jesus Christ
and I belong to the body of Christ—brothers and sisters
and btw—we had a baptism service in August—we will have another one in January or February here—but honestly we can baptize you anytime—we have a portable tank. if you feel led, don’t wait—do it!
we get the sense that Apollos didn’t understand this all yet...
and it’s not his fault…they didn’t have the internet…Paul couldn’t post Youtube videos everyday explaining these connections yet.
the NT hadn’t been officially written and compiled yet…they only had the OT
so Priscilla and Aquilla.
look at how they mentored or the Bible also refers to it as making disciples—that is helping him to grow and mature in the faith—after all—one of our core values is GROW—for ourselves and others.
26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
we learn a lot of about mentoring or discipleship—just from that verse:
Mentoring tips....
private > public - rather than calling him out publicly—shaming him—posting about him, they invite him to their house. I assume food was involved, hospitality. it is amazing what happens when you get together over coffee, cake, food, and discuss real life change. it’s almost like you can tell them anything. We can be eating a nice steak dinner, and I can confront you as a pastor and say, “You are a sinner...” “now receive God’s grace and eat your steak.” private mentoring and admonition and correction goes a long way—we often think we have to have public platforms—and those are important—but so much life change is received better 1 or 1 or 1 on 2. don’t underestimate the impact of private mentoring. quality > quantity
teamwork helps — both a husband and wife team Priscilla and Aquila do this together. Interestingly about half of the time—the wife’s name is mentioned first—which was unusual at the time—making us wonder if she knew God’s Word more or was the leader in this—either way—it highlights the mighty importance of women in God’s ministry and kingdom, and also the importance of teamwork.
I bring this up because some of us feel very inadequate to mentor someone or disciple someone. You don’t have to do it alone. In fact, I would argue you shouldn’t be the only mentor in someone’s life. that person you are mentoring needs several mentors. and if you are mentoring someone or discipling someone—remind them that you are not Jesus..and they need more resources and voices in their life than you.
don’t overthink mentoring or discipling...
some practical tips I recommend...
if you are looking for a mentor or someone to disciple you, I would encourage you to look around for someone of the same gender same sex
don’t put too much pressure on it…instead of asking someone to “Hey, will you be my mentor and discipler (and solve every single discipling problem I have), that puts a lot of pressure on the mentor…instead ask, “Hey can we get a cup of coffee or bfast or lunch. I want to pick your brain on some topics...” and if it goes well, say “Hey, can we do this again sometime?” If it doesn’t go well and was the most awkward thing ever, no problem. you can ask someone else.
if you are a mentor looking to help disciple someone—you could also say something similar— “Hey can I get together with you and see how you are doing?” Older people—I think if you had a younger person or couple or family over—if you invited them and took the initiative, I think they would love it. don’t sit around thinking you are an old fuddy duddy, from the Greek fuddy duddy-dos…you have so much to offer.
I have told this story before...when we were at our last church in Lima, when we had young kids, we would sometimes have a young married couple over for a meal, and if possible, every once in a while, we would encourage them to stay for our bedtime routine, so they could see—how our kids had to brush our teeth. I have told this story before, how when Brooklynn was 2, she was a firecracker. bold, determined, and stubborn. still that way. and brushing her teeth was a fight, so one time we had a younger couple over, and we said, “You need to stay and watch this…as my wife Jamie and I had to work together, hold her down (that sounds barbaric, I promise we were not hurting her, and she would scream at the top of her lungs, and we would brush her teeth) actually screaming helped b/c it opened her mouth wider…there was a couple month period. now looking back, we have learned some strategies since then we might try something different but we were in survival mode. and I think that encouraged that couple to wait several years before having kids. just seeing real life.
mentoring and discipleship is not complicated...
it’s doing life together, sharing the same oxygen, relationally…as men—we don’t love a lot of face to face time— “tell me your deepest secrets and bare your soul...” we want “shoulder to shoulder time...” so maybe let’s go hunting together or trapping, let’s go golfing together, come over and let’s watch the game together, let’s work on something together, let’s go running together...” it’s very relational...
and there is also an intentional. I highly highly recommend mentoring and discipling around the Word of god—that’s what we see here—explained the way of God more adequately… let’s read the Bible together—that’s the best discipleship strategy…let’s go through the book of Mark together, or Matthew, Luke or John, reading it discussing it, you don’t have to have all the answers.
use the church...
meet here...
get involved in a ministry—one of the most overlooked ministries is our children’s ministry—if you want to have a mentoring and discipleship impact, get involved in teaching, assisting, leading, and helping. It is not glamorous at times, but it can have an exponential impact over the years.
in fact, as we look at Apollos, he was mentored privately so he could also minister publically—sometimes this one on one or 2 on 1 is pitted against like bigger gatherings right now of teaching the Word. is one more important—I think they are both important and needed.
use your tentmaking ministry…how can your job open up opportunities to do life together—either face to face or shoulder to shoulder....
6. let this be a way of life...
all of this takes patience and time...
so 2 themes...
God’s Will
Discipleship/Mentoring
in fact, it is God’s will that you participate in discipling others:
Matthew 28:18–20 (NIV)
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples (LEARNERS AND FOLLOWERS OF JESUS) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
look at the result of this discipleship/mentoring:
27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.
28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
because of Priscilla and Aquila taking Apollos in—look at the impact it had....
as we get ready to close our service today...
this mentoring and discipling and God’s will—we look to Jesus Christ for help and mentoring.
After all...
when it came to God’s will…l
and discipleship...
look at Jesus...
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.
we learn from the parallel account in Luke—that he actually spent all night praying before he called his disciples. Trusting God’s will...
14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter),
17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),
18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
and what a lot of men it was....
Simon Peter—always opening his mouth to speak…before he thought
James and Jon—sons of thunder - they wanted to Jesus to call fire down on the Samaritans and destroy them
Matthew was a tax collector who worked for Rome
Simon the Zealot was very anti-Rome—wanted to have a revolution and overthrow Rome
and of course Judas who stole from their money purse and betrayed him.
and yet through Jesus patiently spending time with them, teaching them the Word of God, the World was never the same....
and he modeled for them that he was obedient to God’s will even to the point of dying on the cross (“not my will but yours be done”)
I want you to think today...
what is God calling you to do in light of what you heard?
who is someone you need to reach out to to be mentored by or perhaps start mentoring—don’t put too much pressure on it. You can be a Priscilla and Aquilla—
all while looking to Jesus to shape it
