Everyone Needs an Aquila and Priscilla | December 7, 2025 PM

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Book Acts chapter #18 is where we will be in the Word of God.

Like I mentioned to you this morning, we'll kind of see over

the next few weeks. The month of December sometimes

can be a little bit different as far as preaching goes.

There's a lot of different things that are taking place and

sometimes we're in our series and sometimes we're not.

And we'll see how that goes and that's OK.

But at the same time, I do know this, we preach in the Word of

God every service that we're here.

There's no. Question about that we're.

Not going to be preaching from opinions.

We're not going to be preaching from a catechism.

We're not going to be preaching from the latest newspaper.

I mean, like, who's read a newspaper lately, all things

considered. But you can't afford a newspaper

like $4.00 a daily as it is for news you already knew yesterday.

But as it is, we're going to be preaching the word of God.

We're going to be doing that tonight from Acts chapter #18

You know, even since I was saved at the age of 16, my goal as

long as I can remember, and I can't say that I've always done

this to the best of my ability, but even as a young person and

on my goal was I just wanted to be useful in God's service.

I just want to be able to serve the Lord.

I want to be able to serve others.

And I always enjoyed that and I always was blessed to be able to

do that in certain ways. But I think the Lord that he

called me into the ministry and I know a specific calling that

the Lord placed upon my life when I was 18 years old to be

able to call, to be able to preach and preach the word of

God. And I can do that today knowing

that it really is not me who is the one that's doing it.

Certainly I'll have to get up here and be able to put the

message together and all those types of things.

But I know without the spirits leading and let the spirits

calling in my life, certainly it would not be something that I

would be able to do. But I will say this is that it's

important for us to understand that God doesn't just use the

full time people, that God doesn't just use those who are

the pastors or the pastors wives or the missionaries or the

evangelists or whoever they are. Know that God desires to use

every single one of us in his service.

And I would say to you tonight that often times the people who

have been the most impactful to me in my Christian life, we're

always the pastors. It wasn't always those who were

the full time Christian service. Honestly, there's so many times

the people who have made the greatest impact on me were just

watch out Now, ordinary people in the church, the people that

were under the pastor, oh, they're menial.

They're not as important. You know, remember every part of

the body is important. Every part of the body is of

need. That you can't cut one part out

and say, well, that's part that we didn't need just as much as

you can't cut part of your body out and say, well, I don't think

I needed that part, you realize? Oh yeah, I guess I did.

There's a reason God put that there.

There's a reason God put you in the place that you are at

Liberty Baptist Church. There's a reason that He's

placed you to be within the ministry.

And some of God's choices, servants, I believe, have never

been to Bible college, will never receive a check from a

church, don't have a doctor before their name earned or

otherwise. They will never have the

accolades of being in some sort of Christian publication.

They'll never write books. They'll never have any of that.

But listen, they'll have treasures in heaven that a lot

of pastors won't have. They'll have accolades from the

one that matters, the only one that matters, and that's the

Lord. And so tonight, I want us to

consider the fact of two people that are mentioned in the Bible,

and it's like they're interwoven through the New Testament.

You hear them a little bit here, you hear them a little bit

there. You don't know much about them,

but yet it seems like they're all over the New Testament.

And then there's two people called Aquila and Priscilla, a

man and a woman that we're able to have an impact not just on

the Apostle Paul, but upon the early church as well.

And the title, my message tonight is this, Everyone needs

an Aquila and a Priscilla. Everybody needs to have an

Aquila and Priscilla in their life.

And you should want to be an Aquila or a Priscilla in your

life as well. And we'll see why here in just a

moment. Would you please stand for the

reading God's Word? Where in Acts chapter 18 we'll

Acts 18 · chapter mention

begin in verse #1. And it says after these things

Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and found a

certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, lately come from

Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius had

commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came unto them,

And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and

wrought. For by their occupation they

were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue

every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

And guess what? That's it.

You say that's the text. I mean, how much more do we

learn about Aquila and Priscilla?

Well, right here, not really much.

Pretty humble servants of the Lord, aren't they?

We don't really know a whole lot about them.

But I will tell you, they were very impactful.

Even as tradespeople, even as simple tent makers, they made a

great impact upon the church. And it reminds us that each and

every one of us, if we're willing to have a great impact

on God's church as well. Would you be seated as we pray

together? Heavenly Father, I thank you for

this night. And I pray that you helped me as

I preach this message to be able to preach it straight and true

as you have desired me to. And I do.

Just ask that you would work in each of our hearts tonight, that

we would be the helpers of the ministry that you have called us

to be. And we ask you for this humbly

in Jesus name, Amen. Here to Acts chapter 18, it says

Acts 18 · chapter mention

that Paul came to the place named Corinth.

Now, how much background do I have to give you about Corinth?

We've only been preaching on Corinth on Wednesday night for a

while. This place of sin and

debauchery, this place that was like New York City and Las Vegas

and Monte Carlo and all of these different very worldly places

all together, just melded together.

That was Corinth. And here in the midst of Corinth

are these two Jews named Aquila and Priscilla.

Now, Aquila and Priscilla had previously lived in Rome, but as

Jews they had been expelled from Rome as all of the Jews had been

expelled by the Emperor Claudia, as it says in verse #2 And so

sometime in the midst of this very early time of Paul being in

Corinth, he meets Aquila and Priscilla and it says that they

are of the same craft, meaning this, that they had the same

vocation, they had the same jobs.

Now, New Testament jobs, it seems like typically that's

about fishing and that's about it, isn't it?

What do you think about New Testament jobs?

It seems like we see a lot of fishermen, and that's really as

far as our mind goes. But the Bible tells us that they

were tent makers. Now, if you're a tent maker,

that would be a very important type of job in those days.

We don't think about tents very much these days.

If we do, we think about them recreationally.

We think about going out and maybe having a camping trip.

But sometimes in those days, having a tent could be the

difference between life and death.

If you didn't have a permanent home, if you didn't have a

permanent place to live, dwelling in a tent would not

have been unusual even in those days at all.

And so it was a very important craft for someone to take a

pawn. And so Paul was a tent maker.

And sometimes you hear people talk about past is having a tent

maker that kind of means like a second job or a second way to

make income. My tent maker for a while, if

you will, was Uber. I know what a tent maker, right?

But I would have rather made tents, all things considered,

than drive an Uber. But you do what you have to do,

Amen. And so here is Paul and he did

not want to be chargeable to the people of Corinth.

And he actually spoke of that that in Second Corinthians.

Remember that brother Abel's was here a few weeks ago and talked

about that fact that he didn't want to be chargeable unto them.

So what did he do? He says, listen, I'm not going

to draw a salary from you. I'm not going to be able to get

money in the situation as it is currently.

But here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make tents.

I mean, Med Aquila and Priscilla and they had some things in

common. They were Jews, they were

believers most importantly, but also they had the same craft.

They all were tent makers as they came together, it says in

verse #3 and because he was of the same craft, he abode with

them and wrought for by their occupation they were tent

makers. And verse #4 doesn't even talk

about Aquila and Priscilla. But it does go on and say that

Paul's ministry continued there in Corinth because he reasoned

the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the

Greeks. And so we see here that we are

introduced to this couple that again will be mentioned a little

bit here and a little bit there, that we don't know a lot about

them, but we do know this. They were of humble means and of

humble beginnings. These were not people that were

Pharisees, were not educated at the feet of Gamaliel like Paul

was, but yet they were very much integral to the early church and

very much integral to the gospel being spread not just in Asia

Minor, but beyond into Europe and the even further regions.

So as we look at Aquila and Priscilla, there's a few things

that I want us to understand here tonight.

And the first is this. When the man of God had a need,

Aquila and Priscilla stepped in. Know this number one, when the

man of God had a need, Aquila and Priscilla were willing to

step in. Here is Paul, he goes into

Corinth and we'll find out later on in the text verse #9 it says

then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.

Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am

with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.

For I have much people in this city now, just as a reminder,

here's some background once again that I know we've covered

as we looked at First Corinthians, But just a reminder

to you again, Paul, in the second missionary journey here,

had gone through some Hard Knocks.

Paul wasn't going down the primrose path as he's going to

preach the gospel. What's happening?

Everywhere he goes, they're chasing him out of the city at

best and beating him at worst. It's not a good situation that

he's going through. By the time he gets to Corinth,

he's just been to Athens and he's been basically laughed out

of Athens, although there are a few believers who've been left

behind. And now he makes it to Corinth

and it's obvious he's afraid. You say, how dare you say the

Apostle Paul is afraid? Why would the apostle Paul be

afraid? Well, because God said don't be

afraid. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket

scientist to figure out that he must have been afraid because

God deemed it necessary to go to Paul and said don't be afraid.

And so now he's afraid. He's there.

And listen, that doesn't diminish the kind of man he was.

That doesn't take away from the strong preacher, from the strong

missionary that he was, that he had this fear in his heart.

Listen, he went through things we can't even fathom, that we

can't even imagine, but he kept going.

He kept moving forward, but yet he had this bit of trepidation

within him. And God told him, don't be

afraid. But I'd also say to you this,

God gave him two friends to be able to help him, that in the

midst of that, as Paul is afraid, who does he meet?

Aquila and Priscilla, some people with some things in

common. They were Christians, they were

Jews, they were tent makers. And all of a sudden they were

fast friends. When Paul was in Corinth and he

was alone, remember his companions were not with him.

His traveling companions were still behind.

He was going ahead. They were supposed to meet him

in court later. He may have felt alone.

He may have felt like no one was there.

No, he knew God was there, but you understand what I'm saying?

To be able to have someone that you can look at, someone that

you can talk to, someone that can give you some physical

encouragement as far as shaking your hand or giving you a smile

or patting you on the back, something like that.

God says, listen, I am with you, but I don't think it's a stretch

for me to say to you tonight this as well that God also said,

I'll give you an Aquila and I'll give you the Priscilla and they

will help you too. And they will aid you as the man

of God there in court, to give you the help.

That you need. Now, how much did they help him?

Well, go ahead and turn your Bible.

By the way, you don't need to stay in any of the places we are

here tonight because we're going to kind of stick and move a

little bit in the New Testament. So go to Romans chapter #16.

Romans chapter #16. How much did they help the

apostle Paul? Well, let's look at the end of

the book of Romans, Romans chapter 16.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

Look at verse #1 and it says this I commend unto you Phoebe,

our sister, which is a servant of the church which has at

Centra that you receive her in the Lord has become a St. so

that you assist her in whatsoever business she hath

need of you. So, for she hath been a sucker

of many and of myself also. Now by the way, Paul is talking

here about a church member going from one church to another.

And basically sometimes you hear that there's a letter sent from

one church to another when someone moves their membership.

Phoebe is a great example of that because Paul is saying that

she is moving from one area to the other, from an old church to

a new church, and he is giving a letter of recommendation right

here in the word of God, a letter of recommendation to this

woman Phoebe for her to be part of the church.

But then look at what it says in verse #3 greet who?

Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus.

Now listen just that alone that Paul would name check you in

what would end up being a letter that is included in Scripture.

And he says this greet to Aquila and Priscilla, my helpers in

Christ Jesus. But look at it, says, who have

for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give

thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

So what does he say? I basically owe my life to

Priscilla and Aquila. I owe who I am, Paul says, and

the ministry that I have to them because they lay down their

necks on the line to me, he basically says this.

I owe my life to them for what they have done.

Now this is a wonderful example for us this evening that God

reminds us that when it comes to the preacher that when it comes

to the man of God, and I hesitate to use that term, but I

will use it tonight because it's biblical that we are to be a

helper to the man of God. Isn't that convenient for you to

be able to say that Happy birthday to you, huh?

To be able to tell us that we need to be a helper to the man

of God. Well, I hate to break it to you,

but I have to be able to be a helper to the men of God that I

have come across in my life as well.

I think of the preachers who come here to Liberty Baptist

Church to preach and what do we often do?

What do we endeavor to do with every preacher that comes here?

We want to be able to be an encouragement and help to them.

We give a love offering to them. Why to not just to cover their

expenses, but also to be a blessed to them as they minister

and labor in the ministry of the Lord.

Now you can go. You don't have to go there right

now, but you could go and you can write this down, dude, later

to 2nd Kings chapter #4 And you will find there was a Shunamite

woman who Elisha got to meet on the way here and there.

And she would, Elisha would go past this woman's home.

And she said to her husband, wouldn't it be great if we just

built a little, you know, a little home for him or just a

little apartment where he could be able to stay when he's going

here and going there. Of course, you understand, back

in those days, there was no Motel 6 and no one was leaving

the light on for you back then. And the way that they took care

of one another was by the laws of hospitality that you would

literally just lodge with someone else and they were

supposed to take care of you as if they were taking care of

their own soul or their own family.

That was the way that it worked. And so the Shunamite woman said

we should have this little chamber where there could be a

bed and a table and a Candlestick.

I mean, you want to talk about a pretty humble place to live?

What do you got? A bed, table and a Candlestick.

That's all you got. That's there.

But that's what was there. And Elijah was thankful for

this. And she said this.

We need to take care of this man of God, which they did.

It was place where even today sometimes you'll hear churches

have a profits chamber. Maybe you've heard of that.

Sometimes we call missions apartments today or those types

of things, but profits chambers where Church says we've got a

little. Home or we've got a.

Room or if a missionary comes through or if a a guest preacher

or whoever it is somebody who has a need they can stay in that

prophet's chamber because we want to be able to take care of

them. Now listen, I don't want to

spend an abundance of time on this tonight for a lot of

reasons because I will say Liberty Baptist Church over the

years has taken wonderful care of this pastor and has taken

wonderful care of our family. We feel blessed beyond measure

of being part of Liberty Baptist Church.

I feel humbled every time I think about the fact that I get

to lead Liberty Baptist Church, that the Lord has called us here

and that you have taken such good care of us.

This is not a shakedown tonight. This is not a way for me to say,

hey, by the way, do you know New Year's races are coming, you

know, or anything like that? That's not what I'm talking

about tonight at all. Again, I just want to give you

the overall concept that here is Aquila and Priscilla and what do

they do? Over and over again, they were a

blessing to the Apostle Paul. Over and over again, they were a

blessing to the man of God. Now, again, I even hesitate to

call myself the man of God here tonight.

In fact, I, I do not call myself the man of God.

I will say this before and I've said this again, listen, you can

call me a man of God, but it's not for me of myself to call

myself a man of God. And you say, why is that?

Well, let me give you an illustration.

It was several years ago that we had an intern here for a very

short period of time who believed that he was going to

start a church in Plymouth. And so he thought that during

that time that he would come here and learn what it was to,

you know, plan a church, someone who would well, planted a church

in the area. And he had this habit over a

short period of time. And this is someone at the time

was maybe 2223 years old. And I don't know about you, when

I was 22 or 23 years old, my wife said that I was very

mature. But being mature for a 22 or 23

year old still means you're still, well, pretty immature in

a lot of ways. Because I look back at some of

the things I said and did and thought about in 22 and 23 years

old. Like, I'd like to get those

years back if I could. All things considered, we

probably all could feel that way.

But this young man at that time of life would go around and he

made sure that people understood that he was the man of God and

that I was the man of God too, of course, as a pastor, but that

he also was a man of God. I had to call him into, well, I

didn't have an office back in those days here, so I had to

call him into the nursery. That's where I did a lot of my

business the first few years. That explains a lot, doesn't it?

I call him in the nursery and I said, I got to talk to you about

this man of God thing. I, I, I said, I said, have you

ever done a word study on the man of God?

And he, he said, well, no, not really.

He said, but the preacher's the man of God.

I said, let me ask you this. Where in the Bible did anyone

reference themselves as the man of God?

He said, well, I, I don't really know.

I said, let me, let me cut to the chase, Bubba.

All right. Nowhere in the Word of God does

the man of God have to call himself the man of God.

Other people call him the man of God because they recognize him

as the man of God. Listen, I don't want to be able

to present myself tonight as saying to you, well, I am the

man of God and I present this. By the way, that title comes

with a whole lot more responsibility than it does

privileges. I don't can't imagine the guy

wanting to say, hey, make me the man of God.

Well, listen, do you understand what that entails?

That goes along with it. But I will say this, one of the

greatest joys that I had as a pastor, perhaps one of the

greatest, most unexpected joys is that as I am the pastor and

as I am the preacher and as I am, if you want to say the man

of God here at Liberty Baptist Church, that I have met so many

Aquilas and Priscillas, people that have come alongside myself,

that have come alongside my wife, that have come alongside

my family and have treated us in ways that I can't even, I can't

even describe to you tonight. That when we were at our lowest

times, when Diane was at her lowest health times, when we

were going through family turmoil, when we were dealing

with issues with our son's diagnosis, and even still deal

with some of those issues today. I mean, he's just throwing his

shoes right before service, 2 minutes before, I'll tell you,

somebody throws shoes in a service at some churches and you

know, that'll clear the place out.

But here, that's like, well, we call that Sunday night.

You know, that's OK. Listen that there are Aquilas

and Priscilla's here that would come alongside of our family.

And to be able to say, preacher, we want you to succeed.

We want you to do well. Not because we're as much

concerned about you and your family, although certainly we're

concerned about you and your family.

But we know it is good and right and biblical that we help the

one who is here. And I am so unworthy and

undeserving of that. As a family, we feel so unworthy

and undeserving of that. But I will say this, one of the

things that makes Liberty Baptist Church so special, one

of the things that makes Liberty just church as wonderful as it

is in so many ways, is the heart of the people who say this.

We want to be able to take care of the church.

And one of the ways we want to take care of the church is by

taking care of the pastor. That's biblical.

That's a quill and Priscilla. And by the way, that counts for

me. That counts for whatever man

stands behind this pulpit. And that's if it's a guest

preacher or the one who comes behind me or whoever it is.

Listen, every single one of them need to be taken care of.

Why? Because, well, we take care of

the ones that we think are funny and, you know, handsome and all

those things. No.

That's all about. Usually the only Amen I get from

the back is Ralph. So thank you for that, Diane.

So thank you for that. But no, it's because it is good

and it's right and biblical, and I'm thankful for it.

And by the way, it's not just about money.

In case you're getting well, the way you help the man of God is

by giving. Him money.

Listen, I can have my pockets filled to the ground and I could

tell you this. There are times that I would

say, you know what, I don't need a Christmas bonus or a Christmas

offering, whatever it is. Just the fact that you're

willing to be loving to us and caring for us means a whole lot

more because there are churches or they'll give the pastor a big

Christmas bonus and then they'll give them ulcers for their other

eleven months of the year. I know what I'd rather have.

And so I'm thankful for what you do, for the phone calls, for the

text, for the times you don't call or text because you know,

it's family time or you know it's Friday, which by the way,

if you're new, that's my day off.

But you can still. If you go in the hospital on

Friday, you can tell me you're in the hospital on Friday,

Marsha Still a little bitter about that, but that's all

right. But listen, that means so very

much. I can tell you story after

story. And to be honest with you, I

don't want to pick one person out of the room or two people

out of the room and seem like I'm lifting them up over other

people. But I I could probably tell a

story almost about every single one of you and what you have

done. Aquila and Priscilla spirit,

what God will do with that in the church.

I thank the Lord for it. So what do we see the when the

man of God had a need, Aquila and Priscilla stepped in.

But I also see this number 2 when the church had a need.

Aquila and Priscilla stepped in. When the church had a need at

large, Aquila and Priscilla stepped in.

Go back to verse #4 where we just were, Romans 16 verse #4

who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not

only I give thanks, but who, but also all the churches of the

Gentiles. Somehow, their impact had gone

far beyond just their location. And that they had been a

blessing to many of the churches of the Gentiles are really, I'm

taking it out of context to say many of the Church of the

Gentiles because it says here all the churches of the

Gentiles. Well, that could be because they

blessed Paul, Paul blessed others.

That could be, Or it could be because they were willing to be

a helper in the ministry for the local church.

And I think both of those are true.

Go if with me, if you will, to 1st Corinthians chapter 16, just

a few pages away. First Corinthians chapter #16

it says this, First Corinthians 1619.

The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla, there they

are again. They're everywhere.

Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church

that is in their house. So what's taking place now?

Well, Quil and Priscilla used to live in Corinth.

They no longer live in Corinth. They live in points unknown.

But now there's an epistle that's being written to Corinth

and Paul is giving a shout out from Aquil and Priscilla to the

church that is in Corinth, first Corinthians chapter 16.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

And he basically says this, Hey, remember Aquil and Priscilla,

remember my tent maker friends, remember how we were all

together? They are now with me.

They now have, we're no longer in Corinth, but they have a

church in their own house where they are and they want to say

greetings to you. They're in Corinth.

They remember you and they love you.

What are we seeing? Aquila and Priscilla didn't just

help the pastor listen, they were willing to help a whole

church. They had a church in their home.

They were a blessing to the churches of the Gentiles.

This Aquila and Priscilla had great love, not just for Paul,

but love for the church. Listen, if you want to love

Jesus Christ, love the church. You say, well, pastor, that

sounds like weird theology. Oh no, it's the most biblical

theology you can have. You want to love Jesus Christ,

love the church. Why?

Well, Ephesians 525 tells us that he gave himself for the

church. Jesus Christ did.

Again, we're not talking about this edifice that's here.

We're not talking about 800 Washington St. this location

that we are in, although we thank the Lord for this location

that we're in, but it's so much more that He gave himself for

the institution of which is the church.

And He's given himself for each local church as well to be able

to. Each of them are precious in His

sight, that Liberty Baptist Church is precious to him, that

Jesus Christ died on the cross for mankind, but when He died,

He also made provision for the church.

Acts chapter 20 verse 28 tells us this, that he.

Acts 20:28

Purchased the church with his own precious blood.

With his blood. Listen, when we do not honor the

Church, listen, we're not honoring the sacrifice of which

he is made. Well, I'm saved, but I'm kind of

on my own. I remember.

Brother Dave, this morning you say which one?

I don't remember which Dave, but it's alright.

We Dave B said the idea of being a lone wolf as a believer.

But listen, that's a fallacy. You know who wants you to be

alone? Satan.

You know why? Because he takes the one that's

the weakest and he tries to separate it from the group.

And what does the wolf do? I'm talking about Satan now.

He tries to steal and to kill and destroy, and that's what he

does. So God, in his love and

benevolence has put us together to be able to love each other,

encourage each other, harass each other.

I mean to love each other, encourage each other, to bless

one another. This is what God has called us

to do. And here's Aquila and here's

Priscilla. And they say this.

We love Paul, we love the preacher.

We're thankful for what he's done.

But really we love him because God has provided him for the

church. And we love the church and we

love this institution, and we're thankful for what God has done.

If Christ loved the church enough to die for it, and the

least we ought to do is to be able to live for it.

If Christ loved the Church enough to die for the least we

ought to do. Is to live for it.

And people will say something like this, God, I'll do anything

for you, but they can't even show up to church at 11:00.

Like, well, that's a good place to start.

If you'll do anything for him, at least come and honor his

church. Again, not because we're

perfect, quite the opposite, but we need you to be part of the

body. We need you to be able to be

here so that we can glean from one another, help one another.

We are better when you are here and you're right with the Lord.

Let me make sure that last phrase is right because we are

better when you're here and right with the Lord.

Because if you're not right with the Lord, you need to be here.

Get right with the Lord, and then we're better with you here

when you're right with the Lord. So you just want, you want the

imperfect people pushed away. Listen, we just went through

First Corinthians chapter 5. Don't make me go through that

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

chapter again. I don't want to go through that

chapter again. All right.

We cannot allow rebellious unholiness to remain in the

church. But I will say this, this is a

hospital for sinners, is not a museum for Saints.

All right, You need to be able to come here when you're

discouraged. You need to be able to come here

when you're down and someone in this room can help pick you up.

It doesn't even have to be the preaching of God's Word.

You say, are you crazy, pastor? Not the preaching, God's word.

What I'm saying is this, I am not so boastful in myself to

think I am the only one that can help you when you come here to

church. There's someone who else who can

give you biblical counsel, who can give you biblical advice,

who can pray with you before church or after church.

Goodness knows we hang around here long enough after church

that someone can give you some biblical counsel.

And that's the spirit of Aquila and Priscilla here in this

building is that one another can help one another here within the

body of Christ. And So what do we see, Aquila

and Priscilla, that they bless churches all around the all over

the gentiles, but then also that they had a church within their

own home. They were willing, their most

intimate setting to say if this is where church needs to be,

there's nowhere else, then this is what we'll need to do.

I'm thankful we don't have to do house church today.

We tried it in our apartment for the first few months after we

had Sunday mornings in the school, but they wouldn't let us

have Sunday night. And.

Wednesday night in the school. So what did we do?

We started having Sunday night in our apartment.

It was certainly not we signed up for.

It was certainly not what the tenants above us signed up for

because they didn't find parking on a Sunday night in our little

parking lot for a very long time.

But I would say this, there were some of the sweetest times I

remember here at Liberty Baptist Church with names that you might

not even know anymore. If I name them because God

brought some of them to glory. God moved some of them on to

different places. Some left for good reasons, some

didn't leave for good reasons. But God used every single one of

them to be able to help Liberty Baptist Church to be what it is.

I'm thankful over the years we've been able to honor some of

those people. Even at our 10th anniversary, we

were able to honor some of those that were here names that you,

many of you would not know. Some of you would know Dan and

Dora Woodward. They've been here before, but

they were integral to the beginning of the church.

Dan worked for Coca-Cola. Dora worked for a car

dealership. But I'll tell you this, even

without having Bible college degrees, I would take the two of

them over almost anyone else because of the work that they

did and the love that they had for the ministry and for people.

That first man that I've mentioned to you this morning,

Peter, they got saved and said, I finally understand what

Christmas is about. I didn't win him to Christ, Dan

Woodward did. I didn't go through the

discipleship with him. Dan Woodward went to his

apartment two or three times a week and went through

discipleship with him. I baptized him.

But Dan did the work. Humanly speaking, you know what

he was? He was an Aquila.

He is an Aquila to this day now when he lives back in Syracuse,

NY. My name is Dorothy, who we

honored, who is still with us, and Miss Penny, Yes, Akavich,

who's no longer with us. You know, the one that made me

that pie that mentioned that Southern pie from a woman that

was born and raised in Brockton. This doesn't quite work that way

normally. But listen, these are people

that have blessed this church. Will you be an Aquila, Priscilla

for this church? We've been Aquila and Priscilla

for the people who are here. And that really brings us to the

third and the last point, and that's this.

When a believer had a need, Aquila and Priscilla stepped in.

When the man of God had a need. When the church had a need.

When a believer had a need. Aquila and Priscilla stepped in

go to Acts chapter 18 going back to Acts chapter 18 but we'll

Acts 18 · chapter mention Acts 18 · chapter mention

look a little later in the chapter.

Acts, Chapter 18, verse #24. It says a certain Jew named

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Apollos. Now be clear, this is not

talking about Paul, this is Apollos.

And some of you might remember Apollos because the beginning of

First Corinthians, remember they said some were of Paul, some

were of Apollos, some were of Cephas.

This is Apollos. A certain Jew named Apollos,

born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty the Scriptures

came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the

way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake

and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the

baptism of John. Now stop right here.

This is unfathomable to us today because we have the whole.

Record of the scriptures. But think about this, there was

a man named Apollos, and he had heard of John.

And what was John's message? Prepare ye the way of the Lord,

make straight the paths. The Messiah is to come.

But John the Baptist message was also this.

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh the way, the sin of the

world, that he identified Jesus Christ.

Now imagine a man like Apollos. Here's what Apollos's problem

was. He heard the message that the

Messiah would come from John. But he never heard from John

that the Messiah actually came. So he's going around giving this

message from John the Baptist. Listen, it's a biblical message,

but there's only one problem. Well.

He doesn't have the whole message.

He doesn't have the rest of the story.

And so now he's going around telling people, wait for the

Messiah, wait for the Messiah. Here's a quill.

And Priscilla, what do they do? Let's go look at it.

It says in verse, number, verse #26 and who?

And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila

and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded

unto him the way of God more perfectly, more completely.

They said this. You don't understand the rest of

the story. John was pointing to someone.

His name was Jesus Christ, and Aquila and Priscilla come

alongside him. And when there's a believer who

had a need, you said he was a believer.

He didn't know about Jesus Christ.

He believed with everything that he could understand.

And this is how I know he was a believer because as soon as they

give him the rest of the information, he says that works

for me. There was no argument.

There was no anything. All of a sudden he realized,

well, listen, if I miss that information that now, well,

guess what, I'm going to preach and teach Jesus Christ and

that's what he did. And when he was disposed to

passed into IKEA, the brethren wrote, exhorted the disciples to

receive him who when he had come help them much which he had

believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews and

that publicly showing by the Scriptures what that Jesus was

Christ. So Acrilla and Priscilla took

this guy, Apollo said, man, you speak great Apollos.

You're doing a wonderful job. Man, people love you.

There's only one problem. You don't know the rest of what

happened. You don't realize that the

Messiah has already come. He died on the cross.

His name was Jesus. And they must have known enough

about the Scriptures to take him through the Old Testament

Scriptures and to be able to show him who Jesus Christ was.

And something clicked in his mind.

Why? Because he was a believer and it

clicked into his mind. Now again, this is not what we

would see today. Why?

Because we have the whole story. But they were in this

transitional time where the story was being written right in

front of them. And so he says, well, if this is

what it is, this is what it is. And so he starts going around

and what did he do? He started preaching and

teaching of Jesus Christ. How much was a impact made upon

his life? So much so Aquila and Priscilla

made an impact on his life that by the time you get to 1st

Corinthians, what do you see? That they put Apollos in the

same breath as Paul and Peter. Paul, Peter and this dude named

Apollos who showed up out of. Nowhere.

Well, who helped him? Aquila and Priscilla, but there

was someone who said there's some things you don't know.

Listen, I know that none of us need to or want to act in a

haughty way and go around telling people.

Let me tell you a few things about Jesus Christ.

Listen, if that's your spirit, watch out because God will bring

it down a few pegs. But God also does command us to

be able to have the elder to teach the younger.

And we should be, we should be modeling Christ like behavior in

the House of God and we should be mentoring others with Christ

like behavior from the Scriptures as well.

Why? Because we think so highly of

ourselves. No, again, I'll say to you

before, as I've said many times before, what did Paul say?

Follow me as I follow Christ, follow me as I follow Christ.

And that when believers have needs, what do we need to do

that? We need to be the one to step in

and help that we're not just helping the church at large.

That's great, but the believers who make up that church that we

want to be a help to them. Listen, you hear someone that's

maybe out of work or maybe struggling with work or getting

enough work, you've gone through a situation like that before.

Why don't you go up to them and say, hey, listen, I've dealt

with this before. Let me tell you how the Lord

brought me through. Maybe I can pray with you what a

good thing to do. You know, someone who's

struggling with anxiety or difficulties, and maybe they've

expressed that at men's prayer. Maybe they expressed that at a

lady's Bible study. Maybe they expressed that

sometimes there'll be nothing wrong, ladies, for you to go up

to that Lady and to be able to say, you know, I've dealt with a

lot of those things myself and the Lord's helped me.

I'm still struggling. I still have good days and bad

days, but the Lord's helped me. And so I like to pray with you.

I like to talk to you. Here's some things that the

Lord's helped me with. Now listen, if you can't do

that, here's what I would say to you lovingly, but I want to say

it as directly as I can. Then you are the one who is

weaker. And you need to be able to

receive from someone else and have the humility for having

someone else come to you and say those things.

But I also say this, if you were the one who is stronger, listen,

you are never above a Christian brother or sister coming to you

and giving you loving help from the Word of God.

Listen, if God could talk to the mouth of a donkey, he can use

someone that doesn't know as much about the word of God as

you to still help you. And you better be tender about

it. Listen, there've been people who

come to me. Oh.

I'm a pastor. What are you going to tell me

about the Bible? Well, a lot of people told me a

lot of things about the Bible, and some of them have been true.

You know, sometimes people have come to me with bad doctor and

I've had to show them it's bad doctor.

Whether they agree or not, that's between them and the

Lord. But there's sometimes people

have come to me, just talk to me about different situations and

they talk to me about things I've struggled with or, or

something. I'll tell you this, I'm thankful

that there have been people who have just to me and I can't say,

well, I'm the pastor. I'm beyond being taught.

Well, who am I? I'm just a Sinner saved by grace

like the rest of you. And So what do we need to do?

We all need to have the humility to be able to say, well, I need

to receive that. Here's an Aquila Priscilla.

When they saw a believer who had a need, what did they do?

They stepped in. Galatians 513.

I quote this a lot for brethren. You've been called into liberty.

I like that. Hey, man, you've been called

into liberty. You've been called into liberty.

But listen, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,

meaning this one free. I can do whatever I want.

Well, you're free, but you shouldn't be doing whatever you

want. Well, I'm free, you know, I

could talk to all I want. I can, I can act to all I want.

I can consume. Listen, if you think that's what

freedom's about in Christ, then you don't truly understand

Christ, because the freedom we have in Christ compels us to

live for him that the the shackles come off.

But yet we follow in love as bond servants of Christ, not out

of necessity, but out of desire. We want to follow him, but

usually we. Stop quoting that verse there.

Use not liberty for an occasion to flesh.

But here's the end. But by love serve one another.

By love serve one another. With all the problems Galatia

had with their false doctrine and the churches of Galatia had

a lot of problems with false doctrine.

He said this, listen, you need to serve one another and love

because he knew that in the midst of false doctrine they

were going to lose that sense of service.

They're going to lose that love for one another.

Now, listen, if you're in church and there are other people in

church, you ought to love the people who are in church.

All right, Well, that was hoping for a little more help than

that, but you ought to love the people in church.

You say, well, we don't. We don't always see eye to eye.

Well, I imagine not, But we ought all love one another and

help one another. This is what God expects of us

and listen, the world if if they can have this fake schmoozing

that the world does with each other.

I've never done that at the pulpit.

I will never do that again. There's nothing real about it is

false. This ought to be a haven from

that. This ought to be a place where

Aquillas and Priscillas can help one another and bear one another

burdens. And what so fulfill ye the law

of Christ. That's what it says.

Bear ye one another burdens, and so fulfill you the law of

Christ. Well, how am I supposed to bear

everyone else's burdens? Pastor, Well, here's how you do

it. You bear as many people's

burdens in the church as you possibly can, and then you give

them to Christ, who says my yoke is easy, my burden is life.

Listen, I'll bear as many burdens for you all as I can,

but don't think I'm going to hold on to them.

I got to give them to him. That's right, man.

Because listen, sometimes people come to me with some dark stuff,

some deep stuff, some difficult stuff.

And listen, if I lived in that list, I would never leave my

house. I would never leave my room.

But what do I got to do? I got to give it to him.

And so we bear you one other bird.

By the way, I'm able to give you some of you, some of my burdens

as well. And what happens?

You can bear those and you can give them to Christ.

What happens in the end? We all give it to Christ as

Aquilas and Priscillas first. Second Timothy, chapter 4.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

And I'll tell you this and I'll be done.

Second Timothy chapter 4. Last chapter that Paul has ever

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

written in the word of God. Last chapter inspired by the

Holy Spirit. I'll tell you this story once I

get there. Many of you know my youth

director who led me to Christ. His name was Steve Baker.

He started church in Weymouth years ago, then went down to

Tampa, FL, led me to Christ in Tampa he was part of with Bruce

Turner. Part of the reason that I had

such a burden to be able to come to the New England area even as

a teenager and in Bible college. Brother Baker died just a few

months ago, succumbing to ALS very, very quickly.

In less than a year, he contracted ALS, lost his ability

to speak, then lost his ability to move, and then passed away

just about in September. But I remember one of the last

conversations I had with him and I was talking to him about a

specific situation and he was in a place where he was very

difficult for him to talk and he was talking.

Listen, I'm not mocking when I do this.

I'm not bad just to explain to you.

When he talked, it was very slow and there was a lot of, it was

hard to tell what he's saying. Now I'm talking to him on the

phone. I'm almost pressing the phone

into my ear because I want to basically want to savor every

word that he said to me because I knew I didn't have many more

of them. I was talking about this

situation. I don't remember exactly what it

was, but he said something like this to me and I'll never

forget. I actually got off the phone

with him and wrote it down in the front of my Bible because

it's so simple, but I never really had put it this way

before. He said every church is made-up

of three kinds of people. He said.

There's fillers and there's pillars and there's killers, he

says. And everyone can be slaughtered

into one of those three groups. And you know what?

I've tried to find a way for months that he's wrong about

that, and he's not. Every church is made-up of

fillers and of pillars and of killers.

I've seen church killers. They've come in.

They want to change us. They want to make us different

or make us better or conformed into their image.

We reject that now. We we love those people, but at

the same time we lovingly have to disagree with them to the

point that if they have to leave, then they have to leave.

We're not, no, we're not mean and nasty about it.

We don't run people out on a rail.

I don't. I don't.

Preach these things. Wow.

We had a backdoor revival here at the church.

I grieve over those things. No, I'm serious.

They're pastors who say stuff like that.

That's garbage. A backdoor revival.

Listen, God will do whatever He does.

And God does sometimes purify his church by bringing people

out, but I'll rejoice over that. I'd rather it be that they get

right and stay. But that's not what always

happens. There's killers that want to do

wrong. There's fillers.

They come and they go and they come and they go.

Never really get involved. They never really do a whole

lot. Oh, they're here.

They. Might even give a little bit of

money. They might even give a lot of

money, but they're not really part of the church.

Sometimes they'll be here for months and months, and you might

not know their name, or they might be gone for a few months

and you don't even realize they're gone.

And they just fill the pews or the chairs and that's it.

There's pillars. Who are the pillars?

Well, we understand that the church is founded on the

foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the chief cornerstone.

But Paul uses the term of some of the apostles.

He said those men who seemeth to be pillars or seemeth to be

somewhat. The idea is even though we

understand that Jesus Christ is the foundation, he is this whole

structure. But there are those who got his

place to be able to be pillars within the church.

And I don't know about you, and of course I'm a pastor, so maybe

I'm in a different place, but I would want to be in a church

where I was a pillar. Not because I wanted my name to

be known or to be in front of people, but I want to know I was

supporting the ministry as best as I can.

And that's what pillars do. Which of those three would you

beat tonight? Would someone identify you as a

pillar, a filler? We don't have any killers here

tonight, but which one would you be able to identify with?

Second Timothy, chapter 4, very last words of Paul, last few

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

verses. May I remind you, the death is

looming over every word that he writes here.

I believe he knows the emperor Nero will be bringing him to

martyrdom here in just a few moments.

But in the midst of all these very important things he has to

say, and by the way, the beginning of the chapter, he

name checks a bunch of people who have failed them, a bunch of

people who have really messed him over.

But even in that he says this, I leave it with the Lord.

I leave with no bitterness. I leave it with the Lord.

But look at what he says in verse #19 right near the end.

Salute who? Priscilla and Aquila, there they

are one last time. And you know what he said?

Well, shouldn't they get a little bit more recognition than

that? I think that's the perfect

amount of recognition for people who were quietly interwoven

throughout the New Testament. He never saw much of them.

You didn't know much of them. They weren't educated by the

greatest, the mightiest. They never were ones that were

out there in front. But the church was impacted by

them. And you may not have been to

Bible college. You may not be one that is going

to be able to have the recognition that other people

have. But I'll tell you this, you

could be an Aquila, you could be a Priscilla, and you might not

have recognition in this life like you wished you would.

But there will be a time when all that's brought into focus

and the true amount of recognition will be given, and

that's at the judgment seat of Christ.

Be an Aquila, be a Priscilla, be a pillar.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.