Salvation Is Jesus

Acts 18

Paul Leads the Church in Corinth

In Acts 18 we follow Paul to the city of Corinth. In verses 1 through 4 Paul meets up with a Jewish couple who had come from Rome. There names were Aquila and Priscilla. Paul lived and worked with the couple for a time and used the weekends to preach to the city of Corinth.

Soon Paul’s friends Silas and Timothy joined him at Corinth, apparently to help support Paul financially, because it is then that he devoted every day to preaching the Gospel of Christ.  Then the familiar behavior of the Jews began pressing in on Paul.

Verses 5-11:

When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

In these verses we see again in rather harsh and direct language that it is God’s will that people believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation.  The Jews who opposed the teaching were told by Paul that their blood would be on their own heads for denying Jesus as Christ.

Apollos the Preacher

In the next verses of Acts 18, Paul, Aquila and Priscilla set of on a missionary journey.  One of the stops was in Ephesus, where Acquila and Pricilla ended up staying for a while. There they met a man named Apollos.

Verses 24-28:

Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

In these few verses we are briefly introduced to another powerful speaker and preacher named Apollos.  It is interesting that though he had an accurate understanding of Jesus, it was not complete. He was preaching the forward looking message and baptism of John the Baptist, which was a baptism of repentance.  Priscilla and Aquila told him whatever gaps he was missing (probably about the Holy Spirit) and the now Scriptural baptism of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is a back-looking baptism of redemption.

Once Apollo was filled in on the whole truth Jesus Christ, he continued preaching and spreading the Gospel, “proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”