Making Disciples Means Making Disciples (Acts 18:18-28)
The Church is to go forth and make disciples. And part of this task is recognizing the giftings that God has given to people in their midst. And I believe this causes us to rethink how we think through the very process of making disciples and what we are to do as a church.
We say often that we are to go forth and make disciples. We know that this is what we’re supposed to do. But it ends up being one of those things that we say and don’t really think about what it means in practice.
But in the Scriptures, we see examples of what it means to make disciples. And these are examples that we should take note of. Jesus walked with His disciples for three years. He taught them as He did so. They saw Him put the things that He taught into practice. And here we see the development of Apollos into a leader of the Church.
Apollos was noticed for his ability to preach and teach the Scriptures. He had a decent Christian education, but something was missing. Something was not quite right. And so, Apollos would not have taught long in many churches today. Or, he would’ve taught errantly for a long time with no one intervening.
This is just where the people in our text today, Priscilla and Aquila, understood the mission of the church in ways that we can sometimes miss. They understood that the task at hand is to make disciples, not just bring people to trust in Christ. But make disciples, life-long learners, life-long followers of these people.
This is just where, when your eye is on the mission of making disciples, you will be looking for people with leadership skills and teaching skills to develop for the mission. If your looking within your church, the person is probably not going to just appear fully formed. But you will see signs that this person has teaching and leadership skills early on and help them to develop those skills.
Apollos was a talented orator. He spoke with passion and fervor. He seems quite persuasive. And he knew the Scriptures well. But he didn’t know Christianity in its fullness. They saw something in him and wanted to build that up.
If you believe you are building God’s Kingdom, then you’ll be open to that sort of thing. If you believe yourself to be making your own little kingdom in this church building, then you won’t. And I really think it is that simple.
A person that thinks they are building their own kingdom will not approach other people to do the work of ministry. They will not share duties. They will not bring people alongside them to teach and train. They will not be on the lookout for new talent. They might even be threatened by new talent that might take a little of the spotlight off of them.
A person that thinks they are building their own kingdom will not approach people that need a little forming to do the work of ministry. They will believe that any failures in any way will take away from their personal glory and not give people a chance to learn and oftentimes a chance to fail.
A lot of us have been praying for big things to happen at this church, me included. And one of the things that will happen as the Lord answers our prayers is that talented people will come and be a part of our church. That is what we’ve been praying for when we pray for workers. And as they join us, we will need to notice their talents and figure out ways they can be put to work here. Oftentimes they might be lacking in something, and we will need to do what we find in this text today and work with them for the spread of the gospel.
As children and teenagers trust in Christ and develop into adulthood, we need to be willing to give them roles within our church. We need to notice the gifts God has given. And we need to develop those for the expansion of God’s Kingdom. In other words, we need to make disciples. As a church we need to be on the lookout for those that are gifted with different abilities and help them to succeed. They might stay here. Or they might go elsewhere and use those gifts. Either way, we have been working for the growth of God’s Kingdom.
As God’s people, we need to be willing to use our gifts for God’s Kingdom. That doesn’t mean that everyone is supposed to be a pastor. It means that we should all have a willingness to use or talents and abilities for the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It also means that we need to be teachable. We need to approach these things as if we don’t know everything and might need help from time to time.
As the Church, we are to have our eyes on the mission and make disciples, develop leaders, and personally be teachable for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.
Paul stayed a while in Corinth. Remember, he was kept safe by the Lord in Corinth. And people were coming to faith in Christ. He had no real reason to leave town. Luke tells us that he was under a vow not to cut his hair, probably a Nazarite vow. The Nazarite vow is found in Numbers 6:1-21, Judges 13:5-7, 16:17, and Amos 2:11-12. It was a voluntary pledge that consecrated a person to special service to the Lord. Part of that vow was not cutting hair for a period of time. And apparently that period of time was up and it was time to get a haircut.
They travelled to Ephesus, but Paul didn’t stay long. He left for Antioch, the church that sent him out to go to the nations. Remember, Antioch was now the center of Christianity. This is the place that most of the mission work is being sent out from. This place has exploded. And Paul spent some time strengthening disciples in Antioch. And he likely got some much needed rest while there. He then went back to places he’d already been to strengthen disciples there. He was visiting churches he’d planted on the earlier trip.
But things were still happening in Ephesus. Remember, Paul had left Priscilla and Aquila behind. There was work to be done there and these two were doing it.
Ephesus was an Ancient Greek city that lies in modern day Turkey. Turkey has an interesting history and so, part of Turkey is in Europe. But the vast majority of Turkey is in Asia. So when we discuss Ephesus, and we will a few times in the Book of Acts, we are discussing the expansion of the gospel in Asia.
Much like Corinth, Ephesus was a wealthy port city with a lot of commerce and influence. And, again like Corinth, it was very pagan with a lot of worship directed to Artemis. More will be said about her later because she doesn’t really make it into our text today. But she will at a later date.
Unlike Corinth, the teaching of John the Baptist had advanced before Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila made it to Ephesus. We will see more of this in Acts 19. There was information missing because John the Baptist did not have all the information. John the Baptist had died before Jesus died and rose from the grave. How would Apollos and the others know anything of the Resurrection?
It was in that state that Priscilla and Aquila found Apollos.
As the Church, we are to have our eyes on the mission and make disciples, develop leaders, and personally be teachable for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.
Make Disciples: Develop Disciple Makers
We constantly talk of making disciples because that is what the Lord commanded us to do. But we don’t really give a lot of though about what that means. And it seems that Priscilla and Aquila understood exactly what that meant and they put it into practice with Apollos.
The word disciple is μαθητεύω. And it means to become a pupil or to enroll as a scholar, to follow the teachings of someone. So, it is not a vague term. It means a learner and someone who puts those things into practice. That is what we are called upon to create.
When we consider what this means as a church, it gets a little bit complicated. People are going to come to us in all sorts of stages of this process. We will run into people that are anywhere from life-long learners who know much of the Scriptures to completely pagan and without a clue. It’s not as if we can look at every single person that walks into this door and say that their journey is going to be the same. But that does not change the command.
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)
We are to make disciples.
And notice what happened here. Priscilla and Aquila noticed some things about Apollos. They saw a man who was eloquent. He was a talented speaker. He knew the Scriptures well, this would be the Old Testament. He had even been instructed in the life of Jesus, and to some extent who Jesus was. He was also a passionate speaker, who was accurate concerning the teachings of Jesus. And he preached these truths with boldness. In most situations today, he would be in charge of a Sunday School class. But they noticed something about him. He was missing something.
Priscilla and Aquila noticed that he “knew only the baptism of John”. In other words, he did not have the fullness of the gospel message and the gift of the Holy Spirit. There was something lacking in what he was preaching.
Notice how Priscilla and Aquila handled this situation. They went to Apollos and taught him what was missing.
This makes a lot of sense when you consider that the information came from John the Baptist. Again, John the Baptist did not see the death of Christ, nor did he know of the resurrection. And though he likely knew, in a rather vague way, what would happen with the Holy Spirit at that time, it wouldn’t have been clear to him.
So Priscilla and Aquila gave him the fullness of the gospel message.
It’s the message that we hear so often today in this church.
God created the world and everything in it. And He created it all good. That includes human beings. But it did not remain this way. Mankind sinned and rebelled against God and brought ruin to the entire human race. We see the evidence of this everywhere because we are born sinners in rebellion against God. We now sin because we are sinners due to the rebellion of our first father, Adam. And now we have God’s wrath and justice hanging over our head. But God did not leave us in this state. He gave to us a Savior, Jesus Christ. Though Apollos knew all of what I am telling you now, he did not seem to know that Jesus died on the cross and paid the punishment for sin in place of wicked sinners. Jesus bore God’s wrath in our place. Jesus lived a perfect life, accomplishing all righteousness on our behalf. He died on the cross bearing God’s wrath in our place. And He rose from the grave for our justification.
Those who turn from ruling their own life and turn from saving their self and trust in Christ are credited with Christ’s righteousness and their sins are paid for on the cross. And all who are redeemed receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This applies to us, as a church, in so many different ways. And I am encouraged by the fact that we are all being forced, me included, to think through this right now. That is one of the reasons I chose to go through the Book of Acts when we began this.
We began the book of Acts at the beginning of September last year. And the hope is that looking at the church early on would form our thinking. This moved us to have the Lord’s Supper more frequently. It moved us to think about the role of deacons and to get to moving on adding to our deacons. It has formed our way of thinking about how a church is to exist in love and care for one another. And it has helped us to see, over and over, the importance of opening our mouths and declaring God’s grace to those around us.
Today we get a glimpse into making disciples with Priscilla and Aquila. And we get a little bit of insight into how that looks in practice.
Priscilla and Aquila didn’t just ignore this guy and preach the true gospel elsewhere. They didn’t go online and make fun of this guy for how wrong he was. They looked at him, saw his potential, and spent time with him teaching him the truth.
I have said on a few occasions that we are called to make disciples not converts, and this is a visual picture of that very thing. Making a convert is preaching the gospel, getting a decision, baptizing them and forgetting about them. Making disciples is about working to make people that are disciples.
Remember, μαθητεύω (disciple) is to become a pupil or to enroll as a scholar, to follow the teachings of someone. And we will find people in a lot of different stages that we are to develop along the way.
Some of the people will be lost people that we are declaring the gospel to and moving along in the faith from start to finish.
Some people will know a bit more. And they will possibly be converted to Christianity and baptized.
Some people will be further along in the faith.
Some people will know quite a lot, like Apollos, and have a thing or two wrong.
And others will be quite developed in the faith, ready to disciple other people.
As a church, we need to be willing to look at people as individuals. And we want to help them to grow in the faith. For some this will be coming to faith in Christ. For others this will be growing in the faith. For others this will be developing into maturity. And for others this will be growing them to make disciples their selves.
I don’t believe that you can do this just by getting people in the door. It’s more than that. Sure, that is part of it.
Making disciples is a very personal sort of business. And that is just what I am describing here today. Discipleship happens when people sit under the preached Word of God. Discipleship happens in Bible Studies and Sunday School. But we find things out about people as we observe them in these settings and other settings.
You will listen as they talk in your class or after the sermon about what was just discussed. Maybe their comments are insightful in Sunday School. And then, take the time to pry a little deeper. Converse with them more. See what’s going on with them.
And then seek to move them further along in the faith. If you need help knowing what to do next, speak with your pastor. He would love to help. Speak with others that you trust that are mature in the faith.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we want to be making disciples of Christ that are making more disciples of Christ. We’re not building our own little kingdom here. This is Christ’s Church. And we are following His command to make disciples.
For quite some time, I have thought that one of the weaknesses of churches today is just this area. I believe that, if a church were functioning as it ought, then there would be no need for pastor search committees. If a church is making disciples and growing disciples, then there wouldn’t be a need to look outside for church leadership. Someone from within the church that was either converted and brought into the church or born here and matured here would be qualified to lead the church in the absence of a pastor.
When someone wants to retire from teaching Sunday School, it should be easy to find teachers. And this should be the case because we were creating new teachers all along.
But if this is going to be the case, then the people must be teachable.
This is where we move from looking at what Priscilla and Aquila did and then moving to how Apollos responded.
Three or four times I have had conversations with older believers that was centered around Titus 2 and the role of more mature believers in a congregation.
“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.” (Titus 2:1-6 ESV)
I baldly stated that more mature believers are not obeying Scripture if they refuse to teach younger believers. Paul outlined what older women were to teach. But I would argue that older men are to also take younger men under their wing and teach them. I believe it’s something that Scripture teaches.
Every time it was met with the same response. “They don’t want to be taught.”
The first time I heard it, I thought it was a way of excusing their selves out of doing it. The second time I heard it, I took note. But the other times made me take notice and give it some thought.
I’m not sure if this desire to help people grow in the faith has actually been met with a standoffish attitude, or if they thought that this was the case. But, either way, Christians should be teachable. They should desire to grow in the faith and to learn from those more mature what it means to live a godly life.
Be Teachable
I want you to notice something that is not immediately considered within our text. And it is that Apollos was incredibly teachable.
If I just glance at Apollos’s life, or what I know of it, I am a bit surprised that he is so willing to be taught by Priscilla and Aquila. By all accounts Apollos was very well educated. And I am sure that he knew it. He must’ve had some charm to go along with it and was very likable, at least it would seem that way looking at 1 Corinthians. This is a man that could’ve easily been very arrogant and just said “No”.
I will just say that I have met a lot of people, with a lot less skills than him, believe their selves to not need a bit of teaching. But that was not Apollos, he was teachable. He listened to what Priscilla and Aquila had to say.
There aren’t as many teachable people out in the world as you would think. And it is amazing how many Christians you can run into who think they’ve watched a few YouTube videos and know everything there is to know.
The whole thing is incredible. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had discussions with people about Scriptural topics that tell me I am wrong to my face even though they haven’t read a word of their Bible in years.
There aren’t that many teachable people in the world today.
As Christians we need to be teachable people. We need to be constantly growing in the faith.
I am 42 years old. I’ve been a Christian for a long time at this point. I’ve gone through struggles and had to contend with all sorts of different issues in my own life. In my 20’s I wasn’t sure there was a god and doubted whether Christianity was even true. I’ve explored these options and given them a lot of thought. I was later called to ministry, ordained a Southern Baptist Church, and went to seminary. And as far as seminaries go, it is known for its rigorous academic programs and its commitment to teach doctrine and theology. The professors that I had wrote commentaries for the big Chrisitan publishers and are some of the most well-respected seminary professors in the world. I’m usually reading a book to help me understand the Scriptures better, somewhere around 50 a year.
And it’s not enough. I need to learn more. I don’t know everything there is to know about the Christian faith. I need to know more. And I need to know how to put things into practice more. I need to be teachable.
Think about the disciples of Jesus. They spent three years walking with Jesus and learning from Him. And then there’s Paul. Paul went to Arabia after his conversion and was taught for three years, somehow by the Lord Himself (Galatians 1:15-18). Then he spent 15 days with Peter.
Be teachable. Follow the example of Apollos and the other disciples and be teachable.
I have told this to you repeatedly. But some of the most valuable time of learning for me came when I was young in ministry and a husband and wife decided to bring my wife and I into their home, feed us and talk with us. They talked with us about ministry. They were former missionaries. He was a retired pastor. And they had both been prison chaplains.
Conclusion
What we find in the text today with Apollos, Priscilla, and Aquila needs to characterize us as a church today. We need to be a church that is making disciples.
Your children are not a chore. You are making disciples at home with every little piece of advice you give. You are making disciples with every Bible teaching you give them. You are working to grow them in the faith.
When you teach a Sunday School class, you are not babysitting or just passing some time. You are making disciples of Jesus Christ. You are working to grow them in the faith.
And as an individual, you need to be teachable. You need to be learning the faith and growing in faithfulness to Jesus Christ. And eventually making disciples yourself.
After Apollos was taught the fullness of the gospel, he “greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.”
Because Apollos was teachable and Priscilla and Aquila reached out to him and taught him, he became a very influential figure in the early church. He taught in Corinth and was very important there. He attracted the admiration of many, which is obvious from the text because it grew into a sort of divisiveness that was probably not his fault. He was probably a great teacher and many people wanted to identify with him (1 Corinthians 1:12-13). And in Paul’s letter to Titus we read that Apollos was headed to Paul with Zenas the lawyer (Titus 3:14).
This is a tremendous example for us today. As the Church, we are to have our eyes on the mission and make disciples, develop leaders, and personally be teachable for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.
R. Dwain Minor