In the 18th chapter of the Book of Acts we are introduced to Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple with whom the Apostle Paul spent a considerable amount of time.  He stayed with them while ministering in Corinth , earning his keep by working alongside them in their tent-making business.  Paul, having been a Pharisee, had learned the trade as a requirement for membership in the Pharisee sect.  Each Pharisee was required to have a trade.  Paul had chosen tent-making.  Now he was reverting to this skill in order to support himself while ministering in Corinth: “And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath (7th day) and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks “(Jews who had embraced the Greek culture that had been popularized by Alexander the Great following his conquering of the Holy Land).

Having ministered at length in Corinth, Paul left there and traveled to Ephesus, taking Aquila and Priscilla with him.  After celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem, Paul and the couple traveled to Ephesus where he left them as he moved on to Achaia.  While there they began to hear about a man named Apollos who was “an eloquent man who was mighty in the (Old Testament) Scriptures and preached in the Synagogue on a regular basis.  Apollos, having been “instructed in the way of the Lord, was fervent in (his) spirit” as he “taught diligently the things of the Lord.  However, he “knew only the baptism of John.”  Read John’s Baptism.  Key word–John’s.  Having heard him preach, Aquila and Priscilla “took him aside and taught him the way of God more perfectly.”  Apollos knew nothing about Jesus Christ.  Nor was he familiar with the Holy Spirit (24-,26).  Note that Aquila and Priscilla did not direct him away from the Old Testament and the teachings of the prophets.  Rather, they added to his Old Testament expertise knowledge of the Gospel of Christ and the Holy Spirit power needed to obey Him unto salvation.  Apollos was obviously humble in spirit and willing to be taught more of God’s Truth.  Such humility is extremely rare in today’s religious culture.  I look forward to meeting him.

Having believed what he had been taught by Paul’s friends, Apollos took his leave and traveled into Achaia having with him a message from them to the believers there, asking them to accept Apollos as a true brother in the Lord.  He proved his worth in Achaia by helping to instruct those who had believed through grace.  We are told that “he mightily convinced the Jews publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (27,28).  Apollos demonstrated a true conversion unto the Lord and a true calling from Him to His ministry–an unbeatable combination.  Like humility, this combination is also extremely rare within the ministerial class.

Prior to meeting Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos had been “eloquent,” “mighty in the Scriptures,” “fervent in spirit” and “diligent in the things of the Lord.”  In this sense he characterized thousands of ministers in the modern church.  They too are zealous in their presentation of “the gospel.”  However. like Apollos prior to learning the Truth, they are not merely (and zealously) wrong–they are dead wrong when preaching their particular denomination’s “truths” that have been handed down from their respective god.  This is not a new problem, as Paul tells us.

In Galatians 1:6-9 He is writing to the churches scattered throughout Galatia, telling them how shocked he is that they had so quickly rejected the true Gospel and had embraced a perverted version of that Gospel.  Obviously their preachers had been fervent and zealous while proclaiming their new and improved version of God’s good news (Gospel).  Two questions immediately arise relative to the Galatians’ new Gospel: 1) from whence did it come?  And 2), how was it superior to the Gospel Paul had taught them?

We find the answer to the first question in Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth.  In chapter 11 we find him chastising the people for their attitude toward the Lord’s Gospel Truth.  In a few words he explains what had happened to the church God had established in Jerusalem approximately 20 years earlier.  In verses one through four Paul tells the people that, though he had espoused (engaged–Hos. 2:19,20) them to Jesus Christ, he feared that the Serpent who had deceived Eve had done the same thing to them using the same lure–a smooth, user-friendly, self-centered, have it your way gospel which guaranteed the same result (salvation) as did God’s raw, dictatorial, God-friendly, My way or the highway Gospel put forth by Paul.

Paul had warned the church in Corinth that if someone presented ANOTHER JESUS to them, they would embrace him.  Here we find the apostle identifying that very problem in the churches in Galatia–they had embraced another Jesus whose prophets were preaching a new and less restrictive gospel.  Like Eve in her zealousness to convert Adam, the leaders in the Galatian churches had been equally as zealous in their efforts to convert parishioners to a perverted version of the true Gospel.

The same process has been used by Satan in each and every Catholic/Protestant denomination, faith, cult, etc.  He has assigned a separate “jesus” to each cult (denomination) who scratches his victims spiritual ears relative to what each group believes.  Each has its own jesus, its own god, its own version of the gospel and its own plan of salvation.  And as the Serpent told Eve, they can believe and obey their respective gospels with the assurance that they will “… not surely die.”  This in spite of the fact that the God who created and sustains the universe declared that any deviation from His Gospel will result in death.

However, there is a major difference between Apollos and today’s high-powered prophets.  When he was shown God’s Truth about Jesus and His commanded obedience to the “whole counsel of God” by which we “must live” and by which “we will all be judged,” Apollos embraced that Word.  Modern preachers and parishioners refuse to follow in his spiritual footsteps.  They “double down” in their errors exactly like the rich man who was told by Jesus that he could not receive eternal life because of “one thing (one sin).”  However, unlike them, the rich man believed Him and went away sad, knowing that he had been rejected because of his refusal to obey His Words.

As Apollos’ pre-conversion ministry was one of zeal and fervency, today’s ministries are also fervent and zealous, as are their followers.  Today’s churches ignore Paul’s warning and select other jesuses who tell them what they want to hear–“smooth things, lies and deceits.”  Truly, modern day Apolloses are indeed few in number.  L.J.

Memory verse: 2 Timothy 3:16–“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness.”  Note: “ALL” Scriptures includes the Old Testament.  Note also that ALL SCRIPTURES must be believed and obeyed in order to achieve RIGHTEOUSNESS.  As Peter tells us, “Only the righteous will be saved” (1 Pet. 4:17,18).