The Perfect Way of God

“And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in 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.  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.”  Acts 18:24-26

Apollos was a Jew who was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and highly educated and cultured.  He had a vast amount of knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures including the prophesies concerning the Messiah.  He was conscientious about living righteously before God.  Somewhere along the way, he had heard about John the Baptist who preached just prior to Jesus’ introduction as the Savior whom God had promised.  John’s message was one of repentance from sin and water baptism as an outward show of that repentance (Matthew 3:1-6).  Apparently, though, Apollos had not yet heard about Jesus and His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection.  He only knew part of the way of salvation, but not the entire truth of it.  He was off to a good start, but he just needed someone to guide him to the truth of the gospel.

As only God could arrange it, Apollos just happened to be speaking in the synagogue on this particular day when Aquila and Priscilla were in attendance.  These two were good friends of Paul who had stayed with them when he first came to Corinth (Acts 18:1-3).  As Apollos spoke boldly of John’s call to repentance, water baptism, and looking forward to the coming Messiah, the couple must have thought to themselves, “We need to talk to this man”.  They realized that Apollos was an educated man and one who loved God, but he just didn’t have all the facts.  What an opportunity for them.  They saw his exuberance for God’s word and God’s plan to rescue His people from sin.  After the service, they called him aside, telling him all about Jesus, His life, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father.  They would have said that the One of whom he had been speaking had already come and had made the way of salvation complete.  I would speculate that Apollos was overjoyed and immediately placed his faith in Christ.  The One that he had been expecting to come had been there all the time–he just didn’t know it.  All he needed was for someone to tell him.

The vast numbers of the world’s inhabitants just need for someone to tell them about Jesus.  Of course, many will reject, but that is no excuse for believers not to present the gospel to them.  Many will mock, say they don’t believe what’s in the Bible, or they don’t believe in God, or that Jesus was a good Man who set a good example to live by, but He was just a prophet or teacher and not God’s Son.  Many are counting on their “good” works to get them to heaven, but we believers know that no one can pass from here to heaven on his or her own merit.  If an individual could, the God would have had to “dumb down” His requirements for perfection.

Once a lost person is presented with the gospel he or she has to make a decision.  When the Holy Spirit convicts one of his or her sin, then he or she is completely cognizant of the fact that he or she is not right before God.  There is no mistaking conviction.  The Holy Spirit’s drawing of that person requires a response.  To be convicted of sin is a sign that God loves that person and doesn’t want him or her to spend a life in bondage to sin, but rather a life free from the guilt of sin and a life with meaning and purpose.  The major difference between God’s conviction and the conviction that one receives in a human court of law is that God wants to free the sinner from bondage, and the human court wants to put the convicted one in bondage.  Before Paul met Jesus, he thought that he was on the right track for pleasing God in persecuting believers, but after he met Jesus, he counted everything that he had ever done in his religious service in the past as manure, to put it mildly.  He was one happy man in having his sins forgiven and serving the Lord for the rest of his life.  Apollos, too, was a man filled with joy. the truth of the gospel, filled with the Holy Spirit, and became a great soul-winner for Christ.