Sermon Tone Analysis

The Six Characteristics of a Disciple of Jesus Christ

Spiritual Enthusiasm

Apollos had life and it was fully on display.

The life he had was given to him by God in the power and work of the Holy Spirit.

He was filled, being controlled by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit moved Apollos to testify of the One who sent the Holy Spirit and the Only way to Heaven, Jesus Christ.

This is the first characteristic of a disciple because we cant be a disciple without the Holy Spirit.

The second characteristic follows because the Spirit is the One who does this, Driven.

Christ-Centered

It really goes without saying doesn’t it.

Look with me at the middle portion of verse 25, “he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus.”

Apollos was a teacher as you can see here and he was an encourager .

As Apollos traveled through Ephesus he would speak and teach accurately concerning Jesus both to the Christians and to the non believers as well.

Notice his teaching was Jesus.

He understood how the Scripture pointed to Jesus and since he was trained in the Scriptures and was being driven by the Holy Spirit, he was able to explain from the Scripture accurately who Jesus is.

He understood Scripture that pointed to Jesus as the Messiah and he understood people need to repent for Jesus was ushering the Kingdom of God.

He knew people needed to trust in Jesus, and because he held to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture he believed who Jesus was and was able to tell people about him.

He didn’t use tradition or culture to teach and speak about God or the Way.

See there is one thing we need to understand about tradition and culture, they change and they shift continually.

As generation grow up they add a little something new to the tradition of their parents who have already added a little to the tradition of their grandparents and so on.

Traditions might be fun and help to hold to the passed but they aren’t stable, they aren’t constant, they aren’t authoritative.

The only constant and they only authority we have in this world is the Bible.

If you are a disciple of Christ, then you believe and trust in the inspiration and the authority of Scripture.

If you are a true disciple of Christ your believe God wrote the Bible through man.

Being a disciple of Christ means you look at everything in the world through the lens of God’s Word.

Apollos was instructed not only in the Old Testament and understood how the Old Testament pointed to Jesus, he also knew and understood Jesus’ ministry.

He was instructed on repentance, and the Kingdom.

Jesus’ preaching ministry along with the healings.

He was more then likely told of Jesus death, burial and resurrection.

It was an accurate representation of Jesus from the Scriptures and even the Scriptures that had not been written yet.

He didn’t allow culture and tradition to influence his understanding but he centered himself on Christ and enthusiastically told others about Jesus.

Being a disciple of Christ what informs you perspective on the world and your own life.

What is the authority over what you think and believe and what your say to other people.

Do you listen to the culture, do you listen to the news, which at this point is pretty much just opinion.

Are you worried about the world your children are going to grow up in?

Or do you trust that God has everything under control and His word teaches the world is going to become worse and we need to learn how to trust God, we need to stop worrying about what tomorrow will bring and trust Christ has it all under control.

Our thoughts and our speech and our teaching all needs to be derived from Scripture and Centered on Jesus.

First of all you can trust His Word as authoritative and sufficient, meaning His Word is all you need for faith and practice.

Moses warned the nation of Israel to keep the word of God because it is all you need for life and practice.

Look at what Paul tells Timothy;

Do you want to know something, here is one excuse people love to say when it comes to not giving the gospel, they are afraid they don’t know what to say or know enough of the Scripture.

Check this out about Apollos, in the last part of verse 25, “being acquainted only with the baptism of John;” He relied on the authority of Scripture and it’s sufficiency but he didn’t know everything.

There was somethings missing but notice how effective he was at proclaiming Christ and what he proclaimed was accurate because what he proclaimed came from Scripture.

You don’t need to know everything the Scripture teaches to give the gospel, you don’t need to be eloquent to present the truth.

You just need to trust it as authoritative and point to Christ as the Center of Scripture and the Center of your own life.

He is truth and He is our hope.

Who is the center of your world, what dictates your way of thinking?

Do you consider yourself a disciple of Christ?

If so is it visible in your excitement and enthusiasm to learn and to grow?

Do others see it, if not why?

Apollos was a man who was Christ centered and enthusiastic about it even though he only had partial knowledge, what an example for all of us, if you are a disciple of Christ wear it as a badge of honor and let others see it and hear it in you.