Men of the New Testament: "Apollos" by Dale Pollard - Part 2

Good evening.

Sneak peek.

Apollos 1.

I'm going to go ahead and just, I started going over this and I figured they may actually

think I don't know how to spell.

So it is a play on words.

We are going to be talking about Apollos tonight or I was looking at the Strong's definition

of Apollos and there was this little thing, a speaker right next to the name that tells

you how to pronounce it.

And so just for, I was just interested, I clicked it and it said Apollos.

And I kind of laughed at it and then I started saying that just jokingly and then it got

stuck and so I was like, it's Apollos, I cannot, I'm not going to say Apollos the whole night.

But we are going to be talking about him as a character.

It is amazing though, if you look at the space race, the history of the space race, I'm not

a historian by any means, but it is so fascinating to me.

Not just the space exploration, not just the eventual trip to the moon that we ended up

accomplishing in the 60s, if you believe that sort of thing, look, there's some stuff out

there, all right?

I'm not convinced either way, a good argument could sway me.

But it's just the idea of someone taking a small rocket, because this is apparently

how it happened, the crash course is, someone made a small rocket at one point and it went

up pretty high, made a slightly bigger one and a slightly bigger one and it went like

that over the years and it just blows my mind that someone would think we should get inside

of that and we should see what happens, we should see where it goes and it just sounds

completely terrifying to me.

But when you look at especially the Apollo missions, you've got Apollo 1 that ended disastrously,

you had three that were dead on the launch pad, never took off, never went anywhere,

it was complete and total failure.

But then you have Apollo 11, and you have, this is the one that made history, we stepped

on the moon, it was a huge deal, made it safely there and back, two very different missions,

one that ended in disaster, one that ended in success.

Well tonight we're going to be talking about Apollos in Acts chapter 18, he's mentioned

Acts 18 · chapter mention

in several other passages we'll look at in just a second, but if you want somewhere to

turn, Acts 18, that's going to be what we're mainly going to be focusing on with our time

here.

Apollos is someone who should have never made it off the launch pad.

If you look at his background, if you look at when we're first introduced to him in Acts

Acts 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18, we find out a couple things about him that we'll also dive deeper into, but

he was, we're introduced to him and then shortly after that introduction of, here's this guy,

he's eloquent, he's knowledgeable in the scriptures, he's up speaking and it seems, at least how

the text reads, it's probably not the case, but the text reads, he gets up there for the

first time and he begins to speak in the synagogue and then after he gets down, you have Priscilla

and Aquila, they come up to him and they teach him further the gospel because he had

it wrong.

Now Apollos, like many people today, could have let that, discouraged him greatly, made

him upset, got him angry, and then never went on to do all the things that he did, which

we'll also talk about, but here's the major thesis.

This slide is going to be up here a few times just because this is the thesis statement.

This is really what this class is all about, at least the direction that I decided to go

with Apollos, but with God there is guaranteed success, but we have to be willing to get

off of the launch pad.

So who is he?

And we will go to Acts 18, if you go and look at verse 24, that's really our introduction

to him.

There's a lot of different theories out there, you've got this guy named Milta Hippolyta,

he's the guy staying with the lion, I don't know why he's pictured with the lion, holding

the lion's hand, but he claimed that he was a bishop in the second century, he said that's

who Apollos was, he was a bishop in the church.

Then you have Martin Luther, who came up with this interesting idea that he was the author

of Hebrews.

Now we're not getting into any of those rabbit chases, I don't think he was the author of

Hebrews, but Martin Luther, that's one of the things that he said about Apollos, and

then you have Jerome who said that he was one of the 70 that Jesus sent out, and those

are old legends, they're old theories about who Apollos was, it's not inspired, it didn't

come from scripture, but we actually have quite a bit in scripture that tells us exactly

who Apollos is.

He's mentioned in three books, he's mentioned in 10 different verses, but the major section

that we're going to be looking at again is going to be from Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Okay so I'm just going to leave this up here for y'all, you can read it off the screen,

hopefully you've got your Bible with you and you can look in your Bible, but just looking

at our introduction, now if you have a header in your Bible that says Apollos speaks boldly

in Ephesus or something like that, but we're going to be starting from that text and down.

But just looking at these first few verses here, what do we know about Apollos?

Okay, alright, so starting in order, he's a Jew, alright, what else?

Okay, he's from Alexandria, there's a whole lot here, it's like we know the story, he's

the guy that got rebuked, alright, so he's competent in the scriptures, he's a good speaker,

captivating speaker, what else?

So he's learned about Jesus, he didn't have everything wrong, it's just he already had

an idea, okay, did you read that or was I talking about it earlier?

Okay, I can't tell, I was bouncing some things off of her, but yes, okay, fervent spirit,

alright, we're going to talk about that a little bit too because I think it's a really

cool word.

But it had to be explained further, probably like some in here who were actually, it's

now dawning on me, probably remember Apollo 1 and the other Apollo missions, so if I got

any of that stuff wrong, you can reteach me afterwards, but remember, they did it in private,

so don't do it here.

What else do we know?

So we know what it was that he was lacking while he was speaking up there, he only knew

about the baptism of John, and that's a big deal.

Alright, so we can take this, the Acts 18, which this is the section of scripture that

talks the most about who Apollos is, and I find it, the more you get into it, the more

fascinating it is.

First of all, you've got, it opens up with, we've got a Jew, but his name is Apollos,

now does anyone know why that's kind of weird?

Or odd?

Alright, it's a Greek god, and so he's a Jewish guy, and his name is Apollos, that's a little

bit strange.

Apollos apparently was a very common name, I still find it very strange that he's Jewish

and that happens to be his name.

But he's from Alexandria, now that kind of explains the rest of it, but it also makes

what he was doing all the more impressive.

So in other areas of the world, and we'll look at some of this, actually, even if you

just scroll or look up further in the chapter, in Acts chapter 18, Paul is facing a lot of

Acts 18 · chapter mention

different persecution.

Things are heating up a lot for him in Corinth, he's in a, it's just a very sexually immoral

city, it's a very terrible place to be, there were some conversions, but then you have some

that were just, things were getting heated.

They did not like Paul being there.

Alexandria, kind of a different flavor for Apollos anyway, because this was the place.

It was the place to be, it was kind of like, I don't want to say New York City, because

there were probably other places closer to that, but it was a place of learning.

This was a place, the library of Alexandria was there, all different kinds of religions

flowed through Alexandria, and so people were generally more open to discussion, especially

the kind of thing that Apollos was doing, getting up there and just talking.

He was talking in the synagogue, but the fact that he got up there and started speaking

in Alexandria is not as, I don't want to say risky, but it wasn't as dangerous as you see

what Paul has been going through before he gets to Apollos.

But it still takes a lot of courage, and he's very bold, and we see from here, just from

Acts 18, he ends up launching out and just going different places to some places that

are not nearly as friendly to Christianity as Alexandria, or at least open to here.

So skillful orator, highly intelligent, fervent and bold, and he was using those talents and

abilities for God.

So that's another, I think, something we could point out about Apollos.

We know he was intelligent, we know he was a good speaker, and instead of going to law

school, which he goes on a mission trip with a lawyer, I find that very interesting, he

has some of the same talents and abilities, but instead he decides to, I'm going to use

these things, and I'm going to go to the synagogue, and I'm going to communicate Jesus to the

best of my ability to the masses, and I think that's definitely praiseworthy.

But if you want to look at a snapshot, because we don't have all the time in the world, here

are the passages where Apollos is mentioned.

Now I don't, anyone can, if you have Blue Letter Bible, you just put Apollos' name in

there and then it will show you every single verse, but I thought this was really cool

because when you do it with Apollos, you do get a snapshot of his entire life, and for

the most part, it's in order.

So Acts 18.24, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus, he was an

eloquent man, he was competent in the scriptures, and it happened while Apollos was at Corinth,

Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus and found some of the disciples,

that's Acts 19.1.

In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12, what I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul,

1 Corinthians 1:12

or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, we have this whole argument, or I follow Christ,

and so we have, this is, this might be, I'd assume, after Priscilla and Aquila, I'm assuming

1 Corinthians 1 might be where y'all's minds went, because that's where mine went, it was

this whole, it was the debate over is it Paul or is it Apollos, who are we going to follow,

that's the second thing that came to my mind as well.

In 1 Corinthians 3, 4, for one one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos,

are you not being merely human?

1 Corinthians 3, 5, what then is Apollos, what is Paul?

Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.

Moving down into chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the

growth.

Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future

all are yours.

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that

you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed

up in favor of one against another.

Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers,

but it was not at all his will to come now, he will come when he has opportunity.

And then the last one is one reference in Titus chapter 3 and verse 13, do your best

Titus 3 · chapter mention

to speed Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way, see that they lack nothing.

All right, so we don't really get, and what I find interesting about this is you don't

really have a lot from Apollos, in fact we have no dialogue really from him.

What you have is people talking about him, he was a good speaker, he was competent in

the scriptures, and then you have this debate that springs up between Paul and Apollos,

but you don't have Apollos chime in.

In fact, the closest thing we get to it is, I wanted Apollos to come down here and talk

with you all directly, but he said it's not really his will right now, he'll come a little

bit later.

He's just off, for someone who is in the limelight when we first see him, we don't have a lot

from him.

We don't have any sermons from him, if you go the Hebrews route, I don't really care,

it's not a salvation thing, but if we just rule that out.

We don't have any sermons from him, we don't have his missionary journeys other than he

went.

We don't have the full-on stories about what happened like we do with Paul, and I find

that very interesting.

And the information that we do get about Apollos, it's not, and he became the greatest in the

brotherhood.

Just with that talent and ability, you just expect him to soar and fly and all that stuff.

You don't have any of that, but what you do have are these mentions that, yeah, it's

Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth.

So this person that has so much talent and ability is off to the side, he's mentioned,

he's there, he's working, we know that he's there and working and doing great things,

but we have these blanket statements like he encouraged the brethren greatly, but nothing

really further than that.

However, I think that there are some things that we can assume about Apollos, and I think

that all of us would do better to mimic him, including myself.

So I don't know why I ended up going with that quote, but if you want to be like this

guy, Dean, he broke the record for someone who ran the furthest without sleeping.

350 miles, and this was a quote from a magazine that he was just being interviewed about how

he felt, and obviously, if you just ran 350 miles nonstop without sleeping, you too would

probably feel like you'd been hit by a train.

That's assuming that you made it all the way to the end.

But he broke this record, and if you want to, then here is the key.

Three easy steps if you want to run 350 miles, this is all you have to do, it's no big deal.

So if you've got any excuses, I'm about to eliminate all of them right now.

Here we go.

He wakes up early at 4 a.m., and at that time, he runs a full marathon before breakfast.

Now I know my dad's a runner, I am not.

Dad did not.

I went on one 5K with him and I threw up in the parking lot.

Maybe it's TMI, but I hate running with a burning passion.

But he wakes up at 4 a.m., runs a full marathon before breakfast in the afternoon, he then

completes a second, shorter, faster 8 to 12 mile run, whatever a tempo run is.

Secondly, he does not own a car.

So if you want to run 350 miles, this is the things you've got to do, you've got to give

up your car.

He loads a backpack up and then he runs to the grocery store, literally, and he runs

to the bank, restaurants, just to get that extra mileage in his day.

Number three, all you have to do is have an extremely rare physiological trait, like he

has.

He, instead of accumulating fatigue, inducing acidity, lactic acid, like a typical runner,

his body rapidly flushes out the byproduct and reuses it as energy.

So there you go.

If you want to run 350 miles without sleeping, that's all you have to do.

And if you're me, if you want to run 3 miles period, this is exactly what I'd have to do.

But if we want to be like Apollos, then there are some keys to a successful launch that

we're going to pull directly out of the scriptures.

We're mainly going to be in Acts chapter 18 and keeping this thesis in mind, because this

Acts 18 · chapter mention

is in the background the entire time.

With God, there is a guarantee of success.

We just have to be willing to get off the launch pad.

Unlike Dean, this is actually possible.

This is something we can do.

The only thing that we have to do is make that decision.

Are we willing to get off the launch pad and actually be usable in the kingdom?

Because that was what Apollos was facing.

What is he going to do after criticism?

What is he going to do in the face of maybe criticism or about what he was teaching?

He ended up getting up, and we have the rest of those nine passages, references to him

afterwards that say a whole lot, even though on the page they don't say a whole lot.

But number one, be strong in the scriptures.

I'm convinced that because of his knowledge of Jesus to that point is probably one of

the reasons why he could take that criticism.

We already know that he was fervent in spirit.

We're going to talk about that a little bit more.

But this is why he already had this base, this ground knowledge.

This was not someone trying to just get attention or try and do something with his life because

he couldn't do anything else.

This seemed to be someone who was truly bought in, someone who was truly passionate about

this.

And so because of that, he took it out of the pulpit.

He was at his home.

He was in the scriptures.

He was trying to understand what is it that God wants for me in my life, and he was applying

that to his life to the best of his ability, including what I assume was a part of his

prayer life is to help him understand.

So when Priscilla and Aquila came up to help him understand, he decided to listen instead

of reject it.

So being strong in the scriptures is number one.

It seems to be one of the first things we learn about Apollos, and so I think that's

a good starting point for us.

Be strong in the scriptures.

Have your own spiritual life cooking at the house before you get to the church building.

Number two, use your gifts for God's glory, like we've talked about just briefly.

Okay.

I'm biased, obviously, but I chose to use this example because of the second one I'm

going to use in this lesson.

Janelle is really good at this.

She will spend a long time, when she sends out cards, she will spend a long time writing

the name on the front of the card in like this fancy, what's it called, calligraphy?

Calligraphy.

And she'll spend just, and that's the part you rip up.

That's the part you rip off the top, you know, you get the card out.

It takes all two seconds, you know, and so I always wonder, like, why do you put so much

time in that part?

You know, I'd get on the inside of the card maybe, but on the outside, it's just she spends

so much time on that.

And Jude broke a little wagon that he pushed around for a long time, and Janelle took the

broken wheel off and then found a, what's it, a cardboard box or something, cut the

cardboard box up into strips and rolled it into a wheel and duct taped it back onto this

card all that time just so that Jude would have that card to push around and not go get

another card or something.

But Apollos had his talents, and he decided to use those things for God's glory.

He looked for ways to do that, and he stepped up, and he was bold in those things.

It's one thing to just say, I'm going to talk to my closest friends, I'm going to talk to

my family about Jesus, and then you've got Apollos, who's on another level.

He decides, I'm going public with this, and we have two references to that.

The first time we meet Apollos, he's up preaching in the synagogue, and then the last verse

that we read about Apollos, we see that he is publicly refuting arguments from the Jews

for the sake of Christ.

First and last things that we're going to read about Apollos in Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

I find that so cool, that he's not silenced, he still decides to go public even after being

told by Priscilla and Aquila that he was wrong on some things.

So use your gifts for God's glory, and that is also a decision, deciding to get off the

launch pad.

You have a certain set of skill sets that I don't have, I have certain skills that you

don't have, and so what are we going to do with those things?

And Apollos decided, I'm going to use them for God's glory.

Yes, yeah, yep, he's bought in, yep, and he decided to use that zeal, use that passion,

and let it propel him to where he was.

So that brings us to this number two.

Zeal matters.

Okay, so this is a really cool word.

You might have the word fervent there, but the Greek word means to boil over, and I think

this is a cool word because every time it's used in Scripture, you can really use that

application of it.

But it's something that's, think of something in a pressurized container that's just boiling

over or it's about to burst, or a pot, a kettle that's boiling over and it's just flowing

over the top, it's the same word that's used to describe Apollos.

There was just so much inside that it just, it had to come out, and I think that's a really

cool way to describe him.

And that zeal is something that can be nurtured and grown in our own spiritual lives.

The picture that you see up there is actually our kitchen.

This was, Janelle got a sourdough, I'm just kidding, it's a mushroom cloud, but Janelle

got a sourdough starter and she sealed it.

And I didn't know this at the time, so I couldn't have said anything even if I saw it, but she

sealed it off and it just pressurized over three years, how long did that take?

A week.

A while, but it was a week.

And all of a sudden we're in the house and there is this loud gunshot, I mean it looks

like someone just shot a rifle right through our window.

And so we're both like, what just happened?

And there's sourdough just dripping off of the ceiling in our kitchen because it just

exploded.

It could no longer be contained, it was so pressurized that it blew up.

Well, that's exactly how the word zeal, fervent, is used within scripture, and it's describing

Apollos.

This was a man who was so passionate, he was so fervent that he had to say something, and

he did.

And it was something that he didn't lose even after the correction.

I'm going to keep going back to that just because that's such a common thing that we

see in the church today.

I don't know if we've just gotten soft in this generation, or maybe it's so impressive

it was even impressive back then.

But even after that, he didn't become timid.

He wasn't like, okay, well, I don't know as much as I thought I did, so maybe I'll just

be quiet and sit down for a while, and I'll get back up there once I've figured out everything,

or once I've learned everything.

He didn't.

You see the same zealous characteristics in Apollos when you first meet him and then when

he leaves the pages of scripture at the end, especially of this chapter that we'll look

at in just a second.

Number four, don't be afraid.

And this can go into several different sides of the Apollo story, but does anyone know

what this bug is up on the screen, by the way?

Does anyone know?

I'm shocked.

It lives here in Kentucky.

It's not a tiki fly.

It's called, okay, well, there's a couple other names that I think that people in Kentucky

call them, but the Dobson flies is, I guess, the official, I'm assuming Mr. Dobson discovered

it and named it, but this is a bug that lives here in Kentucky.

I've seen it one time, and when I saw it, I mean, my jaw dropped.

It was on our front porch, and it was huge.

It's like as big as my hand.

Now, I don't have huge hands, but for a bug that's still big, and it had those big pinchers,

and I just stared at it, and I was like, this cannot be real.

It looks fake, and it looks terrifying.

It looks like it can bite your finger off.

Well, I took a picture of it, and then I did a little reverse search of it to try and figure

out exactly what this thing was, and it said, do not kill these bugs.

They are completely harmless, and I'm reading that, and this thing is still on the porch,

and I'm looking at it and going, I don't believe it.

I don't believe it.

This is AI trying to kill us.

This thing is clearly a very capable insect.

I can see decapitation happening.

I mean, there's just all kinds of stuff that it could do with those pinchers.

They're for show, or some other stuff, but not for biting people, apparently, but they

look absolutely terrifying, but they're not, and I think that that is just the most bizarre

thing in the world, but there is nothing to be afraid of, and I want to show you something,

a couple things that this theme of be not afraid is not only found throughout Scripture,

but it's also found earlier in this chapter, and so I want to go to, if you look at verses

9 and 10, okay, so before Apollos understood any of this, or before he understood everything,

he still shares the truth that he had learned, but if you go up before all of this in the

context here with Paul, in verse 9, this is God talking to Paul one night in a vision.

He says, do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and

no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.

Now I think this is so fitting, now obviously Scripture is inspired, but I think this is

so fitting that God comes to Paul in a vision and says this, and then pretty much right

after this, you have the Apollo story.

I think that that is so interesting, but God has to remind Paul, who's already had a pretty

good history with God up to this point, of God getting him out of difficult situations,

this whole conversion process is very supernatural, you'd think that'd be one of those one-and-done

miracles that takes place, you know, he meets Christ on the road to Damascus, boom, don't

need any more signs for the rest of your life, don't need any more visions, but Paul apparently

needed this reminder from God that don't be afraid, and if you look at how things are

heating up that we mentioned briefly, we can see why he would need that reminder.

But this is one of the clearest moments in Acts where you have this divine reassurance,

and it meets a very real human exhaustion, and it turns into this renewed courage for

both Paul and then Apollos.

So Paul had been also teaching in a synagogue, but a very different one.

Many Jews rejected his message, he had to shake out his garments and declared that he

would then go to the Gentiles, which that was a big deal, in verse 6.

And so you have tension clearly rising, so don't be afraid, very major theme, each character

seems to bring this out.

You have Paul.

Don't be afraid of how others are going to respond, or the state of the country or the

nation that you're currently living.

Don't be afraid of your surroundings or the people that you're around.

You've got Aquila and Priscilla.

Now this one is kind of, I think this one's a little bit deeper here, but Aquila and Priscilla,

why would they show us that we don't need to be afraid?

Priscilla and Aquila, how did they have courage?

Have they ever had to tell someone they were wrong?

It could be super awkward.

Actually, I'm going to back up on that, because I think sometimes we make it up in our minds

that this is going to be way worse than it actually is.

I think if done the right way, like Aquila and Priscilla, I don't think it has to be

an awkward thing at all.

But from what we know about Apollos already, very eloquent, he's got the ear of everybody,

he's got a captured audience, he's very knowledgeable in the Scriptures, and who exactly are Priscilla

and Aquila to come up to Apollos afterwards and say, hey, great job, you missed a few

things?

Can't you see just the human side of things enter into that equation and go, and who are

you?

Thank you for attending, thank you for listening, but why should I listen to what you have to

say at all?

I think Priscilla and Aquila teach us something about fear, too, is getting up there and talking

to someone, even though that can be a very intimidating thing to do.

And then you've, of course, got Apollos.

And there's a lot of things that they did right there that I think would be good for

us to model.

Going to the person directly, not going to somebody else, not going to a friend, not

talking to everyone else about, did you hear what he was talking about?

Well, he was totally wrong on this because he was just talking about John's baptism.

Didn't go through all those channels, it went directly to the person and it was in a private

setting, like you mentioned.

Now maybe there are some instances where people's minds have been changed publicly in comment

sections, maybe on Facebook or social media or in public.

It's got to be super rare, though.

I have not seen a lot of that, I don't know if you all have, but I've never seen someone

maybe in a comment section just say, you're wrong.

And then that person say, well, you're right, I am, in front of everybody after making a

post and disagreeing with them.

Probably not going to go very well.

Your best odds are going to be to do it in private just like we have modeled for us here.

But yeah, thank you.

So then you have, of course, Apollos with, do not be afraid, don't let the fear of being

wrong keep you from being bold, and I think that that is a major lesson that we learn

from him.

Now, this does not mean you should just get up and say whatever.

I think, especially when it comes to God's Word, Apollos took it seriously, I think we

all understand that.

If we're going to be talking about Jesus, we'd better know who Jesus is and what he

did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think when you read that about Apollos, too, that, oh, he was wrong.

But when you read everything that takes place, do you have more respect for him or do you

have less respect for him?

You're not like, well, he doesn't know that much.

I think it does.

I think it builds respect for who Apollos is as a person.

And I think that it's also, if we're afraid of being wrong, and some people have a really

hard time with that, maybe more so than others, but remember people like Apollos.

I've always wondered on the flip side of things, you know, because in Revelation it says that

the Bible is there in heaven, you know, whether metaphor or physically.

But we have, you know, the Word is there in heaven, and so someone like Apollos could

technically he could look back and read for all time, for all eternity, the things that

are written about him in Scripture.

And he probably said a lot of things that were true and accurate and right after Acts

Acts 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18, and yet for all time you have, but there is that time you were wrong.

There is that time when you got up there, first introduced, yeah, you're bold, you're

eloquent and all that, but you were wrong, and that is going to be there forever.

But I think we see from Apollos' character is that if he knew that that was going to

help further the gospel of Christ, then he'd be like, yes, put that mistake in there.

Let people know that you can be bold, you can be passionate, you can get up there, you

can preach, you can be wrong, you can learn, and then you can get back up and keep doing

the same thing afterwards.

I think Apollos is the kind of guy that would go, yes, leave that mistake in there, as if

he had any choice in the matter.

I just think that that's really interesting.

Okay, so be not afraid.

I wanted to throw in this example because it's just, it's very bizarre to me, but John Ford,

he was a determined Hollywood filmmaker in 1942.

He wanted to make the best documentary of his life, and he did, to me, what I think

is the unthinkable, but he wanted to document life on the islands in the Midway Atoll.

So if you're a World War II buff, you know this is a major battle, lots of Japanese Zeros

planes flying in, bombing, and instead of ducking and running for cover and then filming

from the safety of anywhere, like under a rock would have been better than where he

decided to go.

He went on top of, I believe it was the radio communication tower, this flat concrete building.

He stood on the top of that right in the open as the planes flew over and started bombing.

He had this big heavy camera that he ended up just ditching because it was too cumbersome,

and then he had this handheld camera.

A bomb went off next to him, shrapnel went into his shoulder, it knocked him out, and

so it was just a, it briefly knocked him out.

He wakes up with the camera still in hand and just keeps recording as it's all going

on.

He ends up winning an Oscar.

I think it's funny now.

I've got a lot of respect for him, but I can't help but think, man, what drives a person

like that to be like, I'm going to make the best documentary in the world and I know exactly

how I'm going to do it.

I'm going to go to the front lines and start recording.

But he did.

He won an Oscar.

And so he is the complete absence of fear, complete determination, and he did it.

And you can actually still watch this.

It's not a graphic at all.

You can pull it up on YouTube, but you can watch it.

It's called The Battle of Midway, and just if you put in John Ford, you can see it.

And there's this part in that very, it's a very short video, but you can see a glitch

in the screen, and apparently that's when he was blown off of his feet and then wakes

up and just still records it.

So it's very incredible.

But fear not, nothing can harm you.

That's what God has to tell Paul.

That's what Apollos teaches us as we watch that actually play out, that you can get back

up, you can do it, you're not going to be made fun of, you're not going to be scrutinized

by the church.

In fact, we see the opposite.

If you look at the end of Acts chapter 18, a couple of things take place where it says

Acts 18 · chapter mention

in verse 27, and when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers, notice the brothers

encouraged him to do so, not, hey, no, don't go venturing off until you've learned everything

there is to know.

Instead, they encouraged him.

Then they wrote, they went a step further than that.

They wrote to the disciples that when he gets there to welcome him, and when he arrived,

we notice obviously what's going to follow that, the way that all of this plays out with

Aquila and Priscilla correcting him, him getting back up, and then the disciples encouraging

him to go on to do these things, and then to have that welcome party there, obviously

when he gets there, when he arrives, he greatly helped those through grace had believed, for

he powerfully refuted the Jews in public.

There's that second time we have it mentioned again.

He's in public when we first meet him, and then he's in public again at the end of 18.

He refutes the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus.

Now, I know every word is inspired here.

I think this is intentional, that showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus.

Again, we have that with Apollos.

He deeply cared about what scripture said.

He wasn't just about the packaging of the message.

He was about the heart of the message.

He was about who Jesus actually was, and we see it again there.

All right, we're going to put two for one on this screen here, because both of these

go together very well, but be humble enough to learn, and number six, accept correction

with grace.

Two very difficult things.

The first one may be not as hard, especially if it's in a private setting.

Humble enough to learn, I'm sure that if any of us have cracked open – Janelle actually

ordered me – it's the mechanic magazine for G20s, and it's the big vans, and I was

like, I know a lot about these vans.

I don't need this manual.

I opened it up, and my head started spinning.

There's just wires everywhere.

There's just so much about that I don't know.

Be humble enough to learn.

Know that there's things that you don't know, and then the harder one, accept correction

with grace.

So, here's the question.

From Apollos, what does that look like?

How do you accept correction with grace?

Because we don't really have a lot from – we don't have a lot about how Apollos

responded to Aquila and Priscilla.

We just know that he was taught, and then he did better afterwards.

But what does that mean?

How do you respond to correction with grace?

I guess an easier one is, how do you not respond with grace?

All right, don't be defensive.

Now, I think we could flip sides on, you know, and be like, well, how is the correction being

presented?

You know, because I think if Aquila and Priscilla did it wrong, and then just, you know, came

up to more accusatory, more public, maybe, then even if they were right, they were still

wrong, you know, in that sense.

But yeah, so not defensive.

When someone comes up and tells you something, it's like, maybe they are looking out for

your best interest.

And so, maybe just go ahead and start from that place.

Yeah, what else?

How do you accept correction with grace?

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, and yeah, because it is hard.

It is hard to go and correct somebody, at least for some people.

Maybe some might actually like, you know, to ruffle feathers and stuff.

But for a lot of people, it is difficult to go up and tell somebody something like that.

So yeah, with some gratitude, thankful for that person actually taking the time to say

something about it, yeah, definitely.

With Christianity, and I think we see a lot of this in Paul and Apollos' life, there's

something greater.

There's something bigger and both of them know it.

Paul knows it, Apollos knows it, that it's not about Apollos.

There's that debate that's going on.

Other people in the church might have thought so, that it's about Paul and it's about Apollos

and who you follow.

But they both knew that it wasn't.

They knew that it was about Christ and it was about furthering the gospel.

And so, there was already this deep-seated interest and love for the gospel.

And so, I think that goes into a lot of that.

How do you accept correction with grace?

Well, if it's about the bigger picture, if it's all about Christ, you know that the brother

or sister coming up to you is all about Christ, loves the church, then you know that what

they're going to say is going to come from a place like that.

And so, if you have two people who are of the same mind, correction comes a lot easier.

Growing up, that was hard.

What?

So, they cared enough to actually know about the topic and the subject, too.

And I bet that the way that they approached Apollos, too, that was probably pretty evident

that it's like, okay, they're talking about some pretty specific things.

They probably care a lot about this topic, too, so yeah, that definitely makes it a lot

easier, too.

Just a few more here.

There is a five-minute bell, right?

Correct?

Okay.

All right.

Just a few more here.

Be open to unexpected teachers.

Now, I think to Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila were unexpected.

Obviously, for us, that's what we know Priscilla and Aquila for probably the best, is that

they were the ones that were teaching Apollos.

But be open to unexpected teachers.

It's not always, you know, the wise elder, you know, the knowledgeable preacher that

comes up and starts talking to you.

Sometimes it's the lads-to-leaders going up there and practicing a devotional and you're

like, oh, good job, you know, you're going to get to some practice, and wow, that landed

right on my toes.

That has happened a few times.

You know, they get up there, they do this lesson, they're practicing, you know, for

the lads-to-leaders convention, but the topic they get into, it's like, man, I needed to

hear that tonight.

Thank you, six-year-old child up in the pulpit, you know?

And or sometimes it comes from, it's a shut-in.

They're going to visit because, you know, it's your Christian duty, you know, you want

to make sure that they are okay and you want to go and encourage them and they end up teaching

you something that you didn't know or they have a different perspective that they shine

on something that you're going through, you end up growing through that.

So be open to unexpected teachers.

And number next, keep on growing.

So there, you might have heard the, if you keep a four-inch shark in a four-inch cage

and then it stays four inches its entire life because they can't grow outside of their tank.

Sadly, that's a myth because I thought it'd be pretty cool to sell a bunch of little tiny

great white sharks.

It'd be a really great idea.

I don't know why PetSmart didn't jump on that.

I feel like I would have bought a mini great white in a heartbeat, especially if those

things are on sale, baby.

You know I'd be all over that.

But it's kind of a myth.

They would become deformed and sometimes they would die.

I guess someone else already did that experiment.

But it is true that they do need the vastness of the ocean in order to grow to their fullest

extent.

And that's the thing with us spiritually except the difference is we create the cage.

We decide how big the tank is going to be when we're going to stop growing because ultimately

that is the decision.

Are we going to stop?

When are we going to stop?

Where are those walls going to be?

Apollos decided it was not going to be at that correction.

He wasn't going to learn that much and then be done.

He decided there's more.

The wall needs to be further away.

Listened to Priscilla and Aquila and kept on growing.

Encourage other believers.

Apollos didn't become obsessed with self-improvement after this.

I think sometimes there's a really big emphasis on this about self-improvement and being the

best that you can be to the degree that sometimes we can be in danger of ignoring others and

other Christians around us that we could also be helping to encourage and influence.

So he didn't become consumed with himself, honing in his craft or learning as much as

he possibly could to be the best version of himself.

He balanced those two very, very well.

He learned and while he was learning, he was on the go and he was encouraging others and

I dare say as he did so, he probably improved himself in doing that because that's just

the way that tends to work.

And then as when we looked at that snapshot of his life, this was the biggest thing that

stood out to me was let God receive all the glory.

What about Apollos?

Where are his sermons?

Where are all the great things he did?

What about the other synagogues that he stood?

I want to hear some more of these eloquent speeches that he had.

It's not about that, it's about God and it was about God from the very beginning.

You've got Paul who apparently was not nearly the speaker that Apollos was, a great writer,

run on sentences sometimes, but you've got this story about Apollos that's no dialogue,

no lessons, no sermons, all of it points to God even the way that the Bible talks about

Apollos.

So use your talents for God's glory.

Everything has to point to God because with God there is guaranteed success.

God can do great things with us, but we have to be willing to get off the launchpad.

Even when we hear difficult things, even if we have to be corrected, even if we get discouraged

getting up and using our talents for God is always going to end in our spiritual success

for the greater of the kingdom.

And that is my takeaway with Apollos.

Thank you.

Y'all got 60 seconds.