Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening Statement:

The more we love God, the more honest we will be about this fact: we possess no ability to accomplish any Heavenly good.

Because we love Him, we will lower ourselves and elevate God since it is only through His power and grace that we can accomplish anything that will benefit His church.

God’s power to overcome Paul’s fear and the temptation to be silent.

God was strong when Paul was weak.

I appreciate God’s words through him in

(2 SLIDES for Verse)

1 Corinthians 2:3–5 (ESV)...

3 And I, Paul, was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

I must also remind us that we must avoid a temptation when we read or study Acts...

The temptation is to study people but we should study God through the acts of His people.

This morning I want to show you how God’s power, through His Spirit is poured out on the church.

Specifically, I want to show you from the last half of Acts 18 how God equips and connects believers to work together for His good through the church.

We left Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Corinth last week.

Silas is not mentioned again and we do not know what happened to him from that point on.

Timothy disappears from the text for a short time as Luke focuses on three other influential Christians in Acts 18:18-28.

This morning, I want to highlight three ministries which were occurred at the same time, then I want to show how these ministries benefitted the very connected universal church...

Three Ministries

Which are all connected to Ephesus, the first of which is...

Paul’s Ministry (18:18-23)

Which we will read about in...

Acts 18:18–23 (ESV) 18 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 Kegcrea he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.

21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.

23 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.

(Slide: Map)

A lot of things important things happened in these verses.

First, Paul traveled eastward from Corinth for 6.5 miles east to the port of Kegchrea (Greek) which was one of Corinth’s ports.

By the way, I sometimes mark my Bible with word pronunciations, and you might want to copy the phoenetic spelling from your notes into your Bible at verse 18.

That will help you read this name the next time you come to this passage.

(Slide: Kegcrea)

(Ignore) Cenchreae = Kegcrea (add accent mark over the “e”)

According to verse 18, Paul was under a vow, probably a Nazarite one for a period of time.

Interestingly enough, the Corinth Jews accused Paul of breaking Jewish law, but it seems Paul was actually keeping Jewish law and his vow even as they were leveling accusations against him.

When a Nazarite vow was fulfilled, the hair that grew during that vow was supposed to be offered as a sacrifice in Jerusalem, so Paul, a practicing Jew, desired to go to Jerusalem with haste.

From Kegcrea, Paul, Priscilla and Aquila found a ship travelling East to Ephesus.

Once they landed, Paul separated from Priscilla and Aquila and Paul spent his layover doing what he loved… reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue!

Paul must have been greatly encouraged because his own countrymen welcomed the Gospel message and begged him to stay, but he could not: there was a ship to catch.

I want to read Acts 18 verses 20-21 again because an important principle is contained there that I will build on throughout the message..

Acts 18:20–21 (ESV) 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.

21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

If Paul believed he was the only person God was using, he would have remained in Ephesus.

If Paul relied on himself to build God’s church, he would have been afraid to leave these new brothers and sisters alone without guidance, but Paul God would bring the increase!

From Ephesus, he sailed to Caesarea, Jerusalem’s port, and in verse 22 “went up and greeted the church” in Jerusalem.

In other Scripture, “going up” meant going to Jerusalem for it was both a spiritual ascent and a physical one.

It was a spiritual ascent because Paul was fulfilling his vow in God’s house.

It was a physical ascent because Jerusalem located was located more than half a mile above sea level and Caesarea.

Little is known but that Paul completed his worship in Jerusalem, greeted the church, then continued Northward 500 miles to his home church in Antioch.

Paul had visited the home of the Jewish church and the home of the Gentile church, so marking the end of his second journey and the beginning of the third.

Eventually, God allowed Paul to return to Ephesus in Acts 19:1, but 2 years had passed from the time Paul left Corinth in AD 51 until he returned to Ephesus in AD 53.

You might also wish to write dates in your Bible, it helps us understand these things really happened, that scholars agree these people were real, and that God is alive and still works in the world as He always has done.

As Paul visited the churches in Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, and Phrygia, he was constantly reminded that God always increases HIS church!

God had also been causing the church to increase in Ephesus.

He knew first hand that “He who began a good work is faithful to complete it!”

The Gospel was not dependent on Paul .

The Gospel was dependent on God doing mighty things through ALL His people!

(Pause)

God had raised up a husband and wife team, rather a wife and husband team to increase the church in Ephesus and surrounding areas.

I say, wife and husband team, because Luke broke protocol by naming the wife before her husband.

Priscilla’s name is always listed first in the original manuscripts, but the King James Version and others alter Luke’s original intent... Priscilla seems to have to have been the more influential Christian in this duo!

(Ignore) Priscilla and Aquila’s Ministry (18:24-26)

Let’s discover what Acts 18:24-26 has to say about their ministry...

Acts 18:24–26 (ESV) Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.

He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.

25 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.

26 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.

Priscilla and Aquila believed it was important to gather in the synagogue with other believers and there they heard Apollos teaching but something was missing.

Apollos preached the same message of John the Baptist, “prepare for the coming of the Messiah.”

Priscilla and Aquila must have been very bold and confident when they confronted this gifted orator!

In fact, during my early college years I was really struggling to be bold when a good friend encouraged with this passage.

God’s word does not come back void!

We need to faithfully grasp those opportunities and let God’s Spirit take care of the results.

When this couple confronted Apollos, they didn’t start the conversation by saying, “YOU ARE WRONG!” Pointing fingers never wins friends.

I think this was a, “Let me show you” discussion where they relied on Scripture to speak for them.

When we trust in God for the increase we won’t mess up.

When we trust God for the results, He makes our words sweet like honey and our words give life and health to to the hearer.

Trusting God to give the increase is the most critical element of life, ministry, conversations, and friendships and in these verses we discover God richly blessed this great act of faith.

God was using other believers, not just Paul, to increase the Ephesus church.

Next, Luke wrote of God’s provision through...

Apollos’ ministry (18:24-19:1)

Apollos’ had a powerful Spiritual gift!

Check out...

Acts 18:24–26 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.

He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.

25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord.

And... fervent in spirit... (v26) he was speaking boldly in the synagogue”

God raised people of varied gifts and talents to fill in gaps and to grow the church!

I find this part quite exciting.

Check out verse 27...

“The brothers in Ephesus wrote a letter of commendation.”

This means Apollos was doctrinally and Biblically accurate.

Apollos should be accepted in sister churches just as Paul, Timothy, Silas, Barnabas, or John Mark, or Jesus himself would have been accepted.

So Apollos went on his own missionary journey and traveled to Achaia, meaning the Southern tip of Greece where Corinth was located.

We only know of one early church the Achaia region and Acts 19:1 mentions it… Apollos was at Corinth.

This is the exciting part, do you remember how the Jews reviled and scorned Paul when he was in Corinth in AD 50/51?

Paul could make no progress with them, but Apollos did!