Who Are You

Intro

What type of person are you?

How would you describe yourself?

If you had to pick three categories for people what would they be?

Tonight we will look at three categories in which all of us fall into one of these three

An Encourager/Teacher

After Paul left Corinth he sat out to revisit some of the churches and the disciples to strengthen them through encouragement and teaching

This is what Paul originally wanted to do back at the end chapter 15 and the beginning of chapter 16 but he was prevented by the Holy Spirit

This time though Paul was able to go and provide for these churches and the disciples the encouragement and strength they needed to continue.

How could Paul this? He was fully devoted to God. He was a man who was in touch and filled with the Holy Spirit. He was a person who had his priorities right and was spending time with God.

This is why he could encourage, teach, and continue to strengthen these churches and disciples.

Are you that person? Are you at a place in your relationship with God that you can be the encourager and teacher that other people need? To do means you are spending time with God each day in reading and studying your Bible, in prayer to God and that you yourself are being taught and learning from somebody else.

Most you aren’t here yet. There may not be any here yet, but this is what we should be working toward. We should all want to be a person who can encourage, teach, and strengthen other christians because that is what it means to make disciples.

tells us to make disciples. Not to just see people saved and leave them. That isn’t being a true witness. No we are to share the Gospel with them so that they may be saved, then help them in living as a christian, living as a person who honors God.

A Christian Who Needs Instruction

The next category is are you a person who is a Christian but needs more instruction and more teaching?

This is where we see Apollos

Apollos was a Christian, he believed in Jesus Christ, and knew Jesus was the only one who could forgive his sin. But he was lacking some knowledge, he needed some more teaching, and some more discipleship

Verse 25 tells us he had been instructed in the ways of the Lord and that he could speak passionately and with intensity and accurately about Jesus

But he still needed more discipling which is where Priscilla and Aquilla come in from last week! Just like Paul was a teacher and encourager and strengthened the churches and disciples we just looked at, this couple was doing the same thing with Apollos

Apollos knew only up to the baptism of John which means that he didn’t have the complete picture of the Gospel. He knew the Old Testament was about Jesus to come and he knew that John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus was coming and that people should repent, but he didn’t have the complete understanding about the cross, about Jesus’ death, about his resurrection, and about his ascension into heaven. So was he saying wrong things? No, he just didn’t have the full understanding.

But Priscilla and Aquilla discipled him, they taught he, and encouraged him and what happened? He was better equipped to proclaim the full Gospel of Jesus showing people that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the true messiah is the true Savior of the world.

Apollos was humble enough to learn from others. Are you? Are you willing to learn from other people who want to disciple you, who want to teach you more about the Bible, who want to help you understand more about Jesus so that you could then share and help others? Most Christians fall into this category where they have believed and trusted in Jesus but need to be taught more about the Bible need to have a better understanding of Jesus and what it means to be a follower of him. But you must be willing to learn. You must be willing to make a sacrifice of time, must be willing to sacrifice maybe some of the “fun” things or things that bring you pleasure in order to learn more and be a better follower of Jesus.

Those Who Are Lost

In our last category we see people who are lost. People who have not truly believed and trusted in Jesus Christ.

Paul comes back to Ephesus and finds 12 people who were seeking to be religious but Paul saw something something in them that made him ask more questions. What did he ask them?

The Holy Spirit present in a persons life is the sign that person has believed and trusted in Jesus Christ. These people were missing that. Apollos had the Holy Spirit, he just needed more instruction and teaching. These 12 didn’t have it at all.

It says that had never heard that there was a Holy Spirit. They also say they were baptized into John’s baptism so Paul explains to them that John was telling people to repent and believe in the one coming after him who is Jesus. Then I’m sure Paul goes on to share the Gospel with them and then a light comes on in there head. And it becomes clear that they need to believe and trust in Jesus Christ.

There may be some of you who are in this category who need to believe and trust in Jesus Christ. These 12 realized they needed to. Maybe tonight you have realized that you are sinner that you have never been forgiven of that sin because you have never believed and trust in Jesus Christ. Look here we are all sinners. And we all need Jesus to forgive us of our sin. We all need Jesus to give us his right standing before God. And that is possible because Jesus lived a sinless life, because he suffered God’s punishment for sin, because he died to be our sacrifice, and because he rose again conquering sin and death! Because of that, you can believe and trust in Jesus Christ and he will forgive you of your sins.

Closing

Small Group Questions

What are the three categories of people we looked at tonight?

Who were to people we talked about who were Encouragers/Teachers?

What does it take to be an Encourager/Teacher?

Who was the Christian who needed more Instruction?

What did Apollos know? What did he need to be taught?

What does the disciple mean?

Who needs to be discipled? Everybody!

Who were the lost people we talked about?

What had they never heard of?

What did they need to here from Paul?