Acts 18:24-19:10

Introduction

I wonder how many of us have read the Bible through at least once. Do you have a daily or weekly or some kind of routine for regular Bible reading?

How about other books or videos or audio lectures? What sort of time and energy do you invest in learning the basics of Christianity, the doctrines contained in the gospel, the history of God’s work in the world over the last 2,000 years, and the way other Christians have thought and taught about the faith we’ve inherited?

One marvelous benefit to regular Bible reading and the diligent learning of doctrine is that the whole Bible becomes richer and more profound as you go. You notice more in each scene, you understand better what is happening, and you more deeply feel the gravitas of the unfolding plan of redemption when you know where this particular episode fits into the grand narrative.

Today we’ve arrived at what can be a confusing and somewhat strange passage in the Acts storyline. It’s the beginning of Paul’s third missionary journey, it’s the climax of Paul’s ministry as a free man, and it’s a passage that emphasizes a break from the old covenant and a full embrace of the New. But the whole thing largely centers on two kinds of baptism… John’s and Jesus’s.

Let’s consider this passage together, and let’s learn what is “new” about the New Covenant. May God help us to grow in our understanding, and may He grant us all the blessings of the New Covenant in Christ as we trust Him for them.

Scripture Reading

Acts 18:24–19:10 (ESV)

24 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.

27 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, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Main Idea:

The announcement of the New Covenant is glorious news for those who understand and believe this message, but it is a pronouncement of judgment upon those who do not understand or who reject it.

Sermon

1. Benefit and Investment (v24-28)

The Apostle Paul had spent a short time in Ephesus before the visit we are reading about today; he made a quick stop there on his way home to the church in Antioch (Acts 18:19-21). While there, Paul did “reason with the Jews” in the synagogue (Acts 18:19), as was his norm, but Luke doesn’t indicate that any of them became believers or Christians at that time. Instead, Luke just tells us that Paul left, and Priscilla and Aquila seem to have stayed behind.

This couple, who had been Paul’s missionary support and homebase in Corinth for at least 18 months, came along with Paul to Ephesus, and for some reason they decided to stay. We know this because Priscilla and Aquila were already in Ephesus when Apollos came. Priscilla and Aquila were Jewish Christians who had been living in Rome, until they were kicked out (along with all other Jews) by a decree from the emperor. And in Corinth they had become supporters of and even partners in Paul’s missionary efforts.

Luke tells us that Apollos was also a “Jew,” and that he was a “native of Alexandria” (v24). This means that he was ethnically a descendant of Abraham, but he had grown up in a Greek city of renowned learning and culture. It’s no surprise, then, when Luke says that “he was an eloquent” or “learned” (NIV84) man (v24). It is interesting, though, when Luke adds that Apollos “had been instructed in the way of the Lord” (v25). The word “instructed” here is the Greek word from which we get the English “catechized.” In other words, Apollos was catechized in the way of the Lord… And that’s the first benefit and investment we see in our opening section… Apollos benefitted from the discipling efforts of someone who invested in him, someone who taught him the fundamentals of what it means to believe and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, let’s just note briefly here the importance of catechizing our own children and also new converts and new church members. We do not come into this world with a head full of truth and a heart to obey it! No, we naturally – as children of Adam and Eve – have our heads full of air and our hearts bent on sin. We need someone to come alongside us to teach us… to teach us what to believe, what to think… what to say… and what to do.

Later, as we mature, we need someone to explain why we believe and say and do those things… and we must also learn our own responsibility to turn around and begin to teach those who are coming behind us. This is true of life in general, and it is especially true of Christianity. We need to be catechized! And we need to understand that teaching and learning the fundamentals is necessary for every single church member.

A handful of men meet every Friday morning in the church office, and they’ve been studying through a 1400-page book on systematic theology. Some of them have read the book more than 3 times, so they’ve just switched to a slightly shorter book that similarly walks through some of the basic truths of Christianity. Maybe you could make time to jump into that group… Maybe you could just pick up the book and read it through for yourself… Maybe you could ask another church member to read it with you, and you could meet up occasionally to talk about it… Maybe you could talk about the catechism questions we list in the bulletin each Sunday… Maybe you could talk about a book of the Bible…

Friends, we are being catechized, whether we know it or not… TV and YouTube and Netflix and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and cable news channels… they all catechize you according to a worldview… May God help us to be the sort of people who live on purpose, making the best use of our time.

Back to Acts 18… Luke tells us that Apollos “had been instructed in the way of the Lord” and that “he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus” (v25). Luke even says that Apollos was “competent in the Scriptures” (v24). The description here seems to imply that Apollos was a Spirit-filled Christian. In fact, though Luke does not tell us Apollos’s conversion story, Luke does say that “the brothers” or Christians in Ephesus sent Apollos along to Achaia with a letter of recommendation so that “the disciples” there would “welcome him” (v27).

The reason Apollos’s spiritual state might be in question at all is because of two additional things Luke says about him here. One, that “he [Apollos] knew only the baptism of John” (v25); and two, that “Priscilla and Aquila… took him [Apollos] aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (v26). We’ll get more into the “baptism of John” in point 2, but right now let’s take a closer look at this second question-mark beside Apollos.

Luke says that Apollos was “speaking boldly in the synagogue” (v26), and we can assume that he was basically doing the same as Paul because of what Luke wrote here about his teaching… Apollos was teaching “from the Scriptures” (v24) the “things concerning Jesus” (v25). But, in v26, Luke says that “Priscilla and Aquila heard him, [and] they took him aside… [to] explain to him the way of God more accurately” (v26). Here is the second benefit and investment we see in this first section… Apollos benefitted from the investment of Priscilla and Aquila.

Apollos already “spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus” (v25) before Priscilla and Aquila pulled him aside. The KJV and the NIV translate the words differently in v25 and v26, but the Greek word is the same in both places. In other words, Apollos had accurate or true doctrine, but Priscilla and Aquila helped him gain even greater accuracy and precision. He was saying true stuff, but they helped him to understand true doctrine more comprehensively and to say it with greater “power” (v28) or “vigor” (NIV84) or “might” (KJV).

Brothers and sisters, do you know that this is one of the reasons we need each other? …This is one reason we need to be tightly connected with a local church. None of us, not me or you, none of us have plumbed the depths of the Scriptures. None of us have arrived at the top of the theological mountain, where there is no doctrine left to climb… no passage left to exegete… no theological knot left to untie. Truth be told, some of us are still running around the bottom of the mountain talking about what great climbers we are.

If we live in isolation, if we never let someone challenge the dumb stuff we say, if we never ask a fellow believer “Do you think I’m understanding this thing right?” then we will never grow… and we may even one day discover that what we believe is completely off the mark.

Brothers and sisters, we need each other. We need to expose our ignorance (i.e., we need to admit it when we don’t know), and we need to be willing to learn. We need to speak up when we think a fellow church member gets it wrong, and we need to be willing to admit that the one in error is sometimes me! Let’s never be satisfied with basic accuracy… but like Priscilla and Aquila (not professional preachers, but tentmakers… blue-collar workers!) let’s always strive for greater accuracy in our understanding of the gospel and the doctrines that shape it.

The third and last benefit and investment I see at the end of Acts 18 is related to the second. Because Priscilla and Aquila invested in Apollos, he benefitted; but then Apollos left… and he invested his efforts in Achaia, particularly in Corinth (v27; cf. 19:1). And the “believers” there were “greatly helped” because of Apollos (v27). No doubt, the saints in Ephesus would have greatly benefitted from Apollos staying there, but for whatever reason, Apollos moved on to Corinth… and that didn’t make Priscilla and Aquila’s investment in him any less valuable or worthwhile. As a matter of fact, the saints in Corinth so benefitted from Apollos’s teaching there, that he became something of a celebrity to them (1 Cor. 1:12, 3:4).

Friends, let’s all take note of the benefits and investments we see here, and let’s do our part to model these in our own lives. (1) We ought to be catechized, and we ought to catechize others… (2) we ought to eagerly learn accurate doctrine, and we ought to lovingly and diligently help one another grow in accuracy… and (3) we ought to invest well in fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, whether they will eventually be a benefit to us or to some other Christian or church.

2. A Glorious New Covenant (v1-7)

Brothers and sisters, these seven verses, are the sort of thing that we are liable to read right over without knowing or realizing what we’ve just read. It’s like that moment in a movie when the major themes of the storyline converge, and something happens that seems unimportant and even odd to someone who hasn’t been watching from the beginning. In Luke’s storyline, this critical and climactic passage is bound to seem strange and pretty confusing to those of us who don’t quite have our heads wrapped around the whole biblical storyline and how the early church period (i.e., the apostolic age) specifically fits into it.

This passage is a climactic break from the Old Covenant (as the events of v8-10 make clear). This is an emphatic display of what makes the New Covenant “new,” and it has some very practical implications for Christians today. First, let’s consider how John’s baptism represents the Old Covenant here. Second, let’s observe the newness of the New Covenant; and third, let’s think about a few ways this passage should affect our perspective and practices today.

Luke says in 19:1, “And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.” That path would have taken him right back through those towns where Paul had first preached the gospel in the region of Galatia and Phrygia, which is where Luke said Paul went (in Acts 18:23) when he left Antioch for now the third time on a missionary journey.

Paul seemed to include a visit back through all the places he’d been before as a sort of interval between his missionary trips. Each time, Paul “strengthened the souls of the disciples” (Acts 14:21, 15:36, 41, 16:5), and sometimes he helped the churches “appoint elders” to lead and teach among them (Acts 14:23). As we’ve mentioned before, Paul was not merely interested in counting “decisions for Christ” or the “number of baptisms.” No, Paul was dedicated to seeing sinners converted and churches established and edified.

This is why Paul asks “some disciples” he “found” in Ephesus, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (v1-2). What an odd question. And I have more questions: Why did Luke call them “disciples” if they had not received the Holy Spirit? Why is it that Paul didn’t know if they had received the Holy Spirit? If our Pentecostal brothers and sisters are right, then Christians speak in tongues somewhat regularly. Wouldn’t it have been pretty obvious that they were not Spirit-filled?

I think at least some of this becomes a bit clearer as we keep on reading. The “disciples” (as Luke calls them) answer back to Paul, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit” (v3). This answer is stranger still! So, Paul then asks, “Into what then were you baptized?” (v3). And they said, “Into John’s baptism” (v3). This exchange is probably difficult for some of us to follow, and there is so much content underneath each of these recorded statements and questions that I had a hard time deciding how best to approach explaining it this morning.

For our purposes today, I’m going to explain it like this: when Jesus came, it was the beginning of the end of the Mosaic covenant; and Jesus established a New Covenant between God and man, which was far superior to the old, and which was to fulfill all that God had been requiring and promising under the old covenant. But during Jesus’s earthly ministry and during the time of the Apostles, there were various scenes in which we see the New Covenant overtake the old in real time… and this is one of them.

John the Baptist was the last old covenant or Old Testament prophet. Jesus said, “among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 11:11). But then Jesus said, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he… For all the Prophets and the Law [i.e., the Old Testament] prophesied until John…” (Matt. 11:11). And then Jesus alluded to fact that John was indeed the promised forerunner to the Messiah, and Jesus claimed to be the Messiah or Christ they had been waiting for (Matt. 11:13-30).

John’s baptism, then, was a baptism or washing or immersion “for repentance” in preparation for the coming of the Messiah (Matt. 3:1-12; cf. Acts 19:4). And many in Israel were baptized according to John’s baptism. They believed the Messiah would come, they knew they were sinful before God, and they confessed their sin and openly sought God’s forgiveness. John’s ministry had ended about 30-40 years prior to the events of our passage in Acts 19, and John’s teaching had gone out far beyond Judea. These “disciples,” which Paul encountered in Ephesus (v1), seem like the God-fearing Gentiles Paul had met elsewhere (think of Lydia in Philippi or of the Ethiopian official on his way home from Jerusalem). But in the case of these men in Ephesus, they had actually been baptized according to John’s baptism – a baptism of repentance and anticipation of the Messiah – but they did not understand that the Messiah or Christ was Jesus of Nazareth. They were still living under the Old Covenant, but they were eagerly awaiting the Messiah.

That’s why Paul’s next statement goes directly to the claim that Jesus was/is the “one who was to come after him [i.e., John]” (v4). Can you imagine?! What joy they must have felt at hearing such a thing!

I remember seeing a short video years ago of a remote tribe listening to the Bible being read by a missionary. The missionary would meet each day for a while and read out loud to a group of people who gathered around to listen. The missionary had read all the way through the Old Testament, and then he came to the Gospels. On the day before, the missionary had read of Jesus’s arrest and trials and crucifixion, and then the reading session was ended. The people were stunned! They were visibly sad and grieving, and that’s how they returned the next day for the next session of reading. But then, when the missionary read out that Jesus had been raised from the dead, the crowd erupted with rejoicing! The Messiah had come… He had died… and He had risen again! Their sins could be forgiven, their mourning had turned to dancing, and God had made good on all that He had graciously promised!

This is what Paul explained to the “disciples” in our passage (v2, 4). The New Covenant had been ratified, and it was way better than the old. In the New Covenant, though Christ, not only are sinners forgiven… they are indwelt by God Himself! Everyone, from the least to the greatest in the kingdom of Christ… everyone would know God (Jer. 31:34). And what would be the sign of the arrival of the New Covenant? God said, “in the last days it shall be… that I will pour out my Spirit on all… even on my male servants and female servants… I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall all prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18; cf. Joel 2:28-32).

And this is exactly what happened! Luke says that these men heard Paul’s explanation (that Jesus is the Christ) and then “they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (v5). And when these men were baptized, “Paul… laid his hands on them, [and] the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues [or “languages”] and prophesying” (v6).[1]

Let’s note two important things here: First, this is Jesus’s baptism, as opposed to John’s. As we’ve talked about before, to be “baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (v5) is no different than being baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). It’s not a matter of specific words per se, but a matter of identification. Whose baptism are we talking about here? Are you with King Jesus, the only Savior offered to sinners by the triune God of the universe? Yes?! Well, then that’s Jesus’s baptism!

More specifically, Jesus’s baptism is New Covenant baptism. It’s a public profession of one’s faith in Christ… It’s a public affirmation (on the part of existing believers) that this one is now a Christian… And it’s a public demarcation of all those who are citizens of the kingdom of Christ… partakers of the promises of the New Covenant in Christ… objects of the blessings of the covenant of grace.

Friends, Jesus’s baptism (Christian baptism) means a whole lot! If you have questions about this or want to talk more about it, then I’d love to.

A second observation: this is the fourth time in Acts we’ve seen repentance, belief, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit as collective features of Christian conversion. In Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10, and now Acts 19, Luke has been careful to highlight that Christianity is an altogether new thing that God is doing in the world.

The gospel has its roots in the Old Testament (God began promising a Savior way back in Genesis 3), but the gospel is a message about a Savior who has established a New Covenant between God and man, and sinners may have access to the forgiveness of sins and a full welcome into God’s presence and Christ’s kingdom… through repentance and faith, which is demonstrated in baptism.

Friends, this is the newness of the New Covenant!

It’s a covenant between God and man, based upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ… God’s justice demands punishment of our sin, and Jesus received the divine curse on behalf of all those He came to save. It’s a covenant based upon the obedience of Christ… God requires holiness from us, and Jesus earned holiness so that He might share it with all who repent and believe.

It’s a covenant which guarantees the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting… and anyone who repents and believes can have full assurance of such things by the indwelling Spirit of God! It’s a covenant between God and man, wherein sinners are brought into fellowship with God and with other believers… all united by the Holy Spirit, who indwells not just some Christians but all of them.

Ok, if that’s what the New Covenant in Christ is… if that’s the salvation offered in the gospel… then… I’ve got some application questions for you… (1) are you a partaker in this covenant?

Are you trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of His righteousness in the place of your guilt and shame? Are you living like your ultimate hope is in a resurrection and a recreated world to come? Are you indwelt by God’s Spirit… experiencing the conviction of sin and the fruit He produces: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and the rest (Gal. 5:22-23)?

(2) If sinners always enter the New Covenant by repentance and faith, and everyone who’s in the New Covenant is indwelt by God’s Spirit, then is this how you talk about Christianity to your friends or family?

Do you talk about repenting or turning away from sin? Do you look for evidence of spiritual life? Do you pray that God will change their hearts by the power of His Holy Spirit?

(3) If the New Covenant in Christ is so precise that a group of disciples… who knew the Old Testament and committed themselves to John’s public baptism… but they still didn’t understand it well enough to be converted, then how serious should we be about precise doctrine in our gospel conversations?

Think about it… Paul’s evangelism in Acts 19 began when he asked some “disciples” about what they meant by “baptism.” But how many of us would be would have a tough time explaining the gospel from the starting point of baptism?

Brothers and sisters, let’s be doctrinally interested Christians, and let’s be doctrinally rich Christians. Let’s be ready and happy to talk about doctrine.

3. A Clear Turning Point (v8-10)

In the storyline of Acts, there have been several recurring themes: (1) the overwhelming power of the gospel and the Spirit of God; (2) the Lordship and gracious forgiveness of Jesus Christ; (3) the conversion of sinners through repentance, faith, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit; and (4) the hostile rejection of Jesus as Messiah by the Jewish leaders and most of the Jewish population. This last one is a hard one to talk about, but it is a fact of history… The Jews of Jesus’s day and the period of the Apostles largely rejected Jesus, and they openly persecuted anyone who believed that He was indeed the Messiah.

This is not to say that Jews are worse people than others, nor is it to condemn anyone just because of their ethnicity. Anyone today who hears the gospel and does not submit themselves to the Lordship of Christ does exactly what most Jews of the first century did. But the Jews back then do seem to have been given a clearer choice than many people today might recognize. When the gospel came to them, they knew the Mosaic covenant… they knew what their ancestors had promised at Mt. Sinai… and they knew what God had warned would happen if they failed to keep it.

In Exodus 19 and again in Exodus 24, the people of Israel had heard the terms of God’s covenant, and they responded with one voice, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Ex. 24:7; cf. Ex. 19:8, 24:2). And Moses reminded the people of God’s covenant and their promise 40 years later, when they were about to enter the Promised Land (Deut. 5:27, 26:17). The covenant was meticulous; there were laws for almost everything. But it could be summed up by saying, “If you obey God, then you will be blessed. But if you disobey God, then you will be under His curse.”

Many of you already know that the Old Testament is a history of Israel’s repeated failure to keep God’s covenant. Indeed, this too was part of God’s plan to reveal His gracious grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where Israel had failed, Jesus succeeded… but He obeyed God’s laws, not only for His own sake, but also for the sake of all who would trust in Him.

So, when the Apostles offered forgiveness of sin in the name of Jesus Christ, this message came as a specific solution to a well-known problem among the Jews. They knew that they had not kept God’s covenant, and they knew they were under God’s curse… and they knew that God had promised a Savior… but they didn’t receive Him when He came to them.

This is why Paul said to the hostile Jews in Corinth (in Acts 18), “Your blood be on your own heads!” (Acts 18:6). And this is what Luke is telling us happened in Ephesus as well. In v8, Luke says that Paul “reasoned” in the “synagogue” for “three months,” trying to “persuade” them about “the kingdom of God.” But some were “stubborn and continued in unbelief,” and they “spoke evil of the Way before the congregation” (v9). So, Luke says, Paul “withdrew from them and took the disciples [or believers] with him” (v9).

The first-century Jews largely decided that they’d rather have the old covenant… and not the New. They’d rather have a list of rules to keep and stand on their own righteousness than admit their utter failure and receive the righteousness of Christ. They wanted to keep the religious and social system they had, and they didn’t want the Messiah to come in and turn everything on its head.

Friends, this is very similar to what we and our friends and our family members decide if we hear the gospel and just keep on doing what we’ve always done. If we hear that Jesus is the Messiah, the One in whom we may find forgiveness of sins and a new way of life… but we decide that our way of life is just fine the way it is… then we too are rejecting the Savior-King. Oh, God help us… and God help our loved ones… May God grant us humility… so that we might see our total moral bankruptcy… and so that we might look to Jesus as our glorious hope… not as a cosmic killjoy.

Just like what happened in our passage, when people reject or remain indifferent to the gospel of Jesus Christ today, that good news still goes out, and many people do believe. May God help us to be those who understand the gospel well… May we humbly receive it as good news (our only hope in life and death)… And may we be continual learners and diligent teachers of that same good news.

Endnotes

[1]The word γλωσσα (glōssa) refers to the organ of the tongue and also to the concept of language, as in “He spoke in his mother tongue” (i.e., he spoke in his native language). Some Christians have argued that the “tongues” or “languages” spoken by New Testament Christians when empowered by the Holy Spirit are at least sometimes, if not always, unknown languages or angelic languages. This, however, seems to distort the biblical text, tearing away the author’s meaning and use of such a term. Acts 2:1-11 serves as a detailed explanation of what the Spirit-enabled “tongues” were like, and there it is clear that Galilean Christians were speaking known languages – known to the hearers, though not to the speakers (especially Acts 2:6-11).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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