Let's give our attention tonight to the Word of the Lord. Acts chapter 18, beginning at verse 18, here is the Lord's Word. there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail from Ephesus. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and they went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of galatia and phrygia strengthening all the disciples now a jew named apollos a native of alexandria came to ephesus he was an eloquent man competent in the scriptures he had been instructed in the way of the lord and being fervent in spirit he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning jesus though he knew only the baptism of John and he began to speak boldly in the synagogue but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately and when he wished to cross to Achaia the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him when he arrived he greatly helped those who through grace had believed for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus and there ends tonight the reading of god's word well this is a fascinating section of scripture here as we come to the end of chapter 18 before we move into paul in ephesus and i would never ever select this just to open up and say this is what i would like to preach to people because it's not the kind of passage you open and immediately see exactly what is going on what is being said to us what is the main point. It's one of those kind of passages. Of course, when I read it, I just wondered how they all got haircuts. I was really curious about that. Because Paul took a vow and cut his hair. What in the world is that? Well, that really wasn't what I was thinking. But it's an awkward section somewhat that I wrestled with. What is the main point? What is being said to us we have uh this introduction of some new people on the scene don't we people that are rather remarkable if we look at them people who are uh remarkable in the work that is that is here set before us and what they actually accomplished in the life of the church it's really wonderful when we start to see what the lord is is showing to us and as i looked at and thought about an outline to this particular text i couldn't get away from seeing here what paul said when he assessed his work apollos's work and the lord's work remember what he said to the corinthian church i planted apollos watered but god gave the increase and it seems here that that's exactly what we're being shown uh you could break down the text that way paul is planning apollos is watering and god is giving increase and in the midst of this we see something kind of uh shocking that I hadn't given a lot of attention or thought to, but we actually begin to see sort of a decreasing of Paul and through Paul's decreasing, an increasing of Christ. So all these themes are sort of brought together in this little passage that is so fascinating to study. And that's what I'd like to have you think about with me for a few moments here. The place that you have in the advancement of the gospel, I don't know that we've often done well enough in thinking about ministry and thinking about how the saints themselves are to be a blessing in that and serve in that way to be encouragement to the whole. And this particular passage helps us with that. That you too would decrease in yourselves so that Christ would increase. And that is beautifully shown to us here through what I think are sort of three cameos, which are short, descriptive literary sketches is actually showing the relief of a certain person as it's defined, and to show how through the relief of Paul, the gospel is advancing. Remember last time we were in Corinth, and he was there a year and six months. He had been in this place for at least in Acts standards quite a long time, and that was no picnic for the apostle. This was a hard, hard work in Corinth. We were looking at what I believed was a worn out servant, the weight of it all, that the Lord had to come and give him a great encouragement. You'll remember after the Jewish rejection and all the things we knew about Corinth that we looked at, the Lord gave one of the most beautiful encouragements in the whole book. He picked up his servant. He dusted his servant off. He encouraged him and he strengthened him for the work. Don't fear, Paul, he said. I'm with you. I want you to speak. This is what I've set apart you to do. And I want you to know all the results are mine. I have many people in this city. They won't touch you. You keep on doing what you're called to do. You be faithful to the calling and you leave the results to me. This is really what the encouragement was saying to him. Well, that leads us to where we are tonight that after this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria and with him Priscilla and Aquila. And then comes this very confusing verse. At Sincrea, he had cut his hair for he was under a vow. That's it. You're not given anything else about this. This very interesting verse that we're supposed to sort of stand back and put together the pieces as to what this means. Now, here's how I would like to deal with it. I have seen many seminary students in my time and often when they go off to seminary and then they come back, their hair is long and their beards are down to here and I want to tell them, cut your hair. I remember one years ago in Linden who came back and I didn't even recognize him and I told him, look like john the baptist you're eating curds and honey aren't you you need to cut your hair for the ministry looks somewhat presentable and he um he laughed at me and i was somewhat joking with him but uh as i as i thought about this what what in the world was this is this what paul was doing why was paul dealing with this uh what what was paul doing in cutting his hair and most likely as most of the commentators recognized paul had taken the nazirite vow What is that? Well, a Nazarite vow was a promise made to the Lord that you would not drink strong drink, that you would not cut your hair. So sometimes it's not a bad thing, is it? And that you would not come across anything that was dead. You would have no contact with the dead. And after a time of fulfilling your vow, you would then cut off your hair so Paul did have long hair at one point let it grow out could have been for up to a year he was walking around with that long of hair and then he bicked it he cut it off you think this is hard to imagine the apostle Paul like this right what is he doing what does all of this mean you would then take your cut off hair and you would take it into the temple and you would offer it to the priest as a peace offering, sacrifices would be made and then they would burn it. This was the Nazarite vow. What a strange section of Scripture if you ever study number six as to what they were doing. Now, the reason is interesting when you think of the purpose for the Nazarite vow. The Nazarite law knew that the heart, it was a way of saying between him and the Lord and this was a time period the Jews would later say that was determined by the one who was making the vow. When you had made the vow, you would determine a time that you would grow out your hair and then you would cut it and you were essentially saying to the Lord, thank you. You were essentially saying, I'm devoted to you. Now, when you put it together, what that means is Paul had been so moved by the help that the Lord gave him in Corinth, right? Paul had been so moved by the help that God gave him in Corinth. When Jesus came and gave him real encouragement in the midst of all of his struggles, he took this vow in Corinth before the Lord, the Nazarite vow. He wasn't under any kind of compulsion. It wasn't that he was trying to follow strictly the Mosaic Code and the law in this way of the ceremonial requirements and these sort of things. It was that Paul was still very Jewish. These were cultural things involved. This was Paul's way in his own culture of saying thank you to the Lord. This is what they did. They knew the meaning of it. He knew the heart of the Nazarite vow. He knew the heart of what the Nazarite vow was trying to accomplish in saying to the Lord, I am going to be devoted to you for the marvelous deliverance that you have brought me, you see. I thought, this is really a beautiful moment if we accept that it's the Nazarite vow. It wasn't just about tireless work disconnected from the Lord. what it meant is that he was learning more and more to trust the Lord and to walk with Christ. And as the Lord gave him help and encouragement more and more, he was willing to live counter-culturally. In other words, as one pastor said, he was saying in the Nazarite vow by growing out his hair, I belong to Christ and I don't care who knows it. We're seeing how God's grace had affected him. A servant is being shown. Something that is driven by unashamed love for Christ. Following Him. Communing with Him. Willing to live an incredibly grateful life for what the Lord had done for him. In other words, it would be like after this morning, the Ebenezer stone was set up and after the Lord had delivered them and done that, the very sins that Israel knew they struggled with, they were really going to take seriously now. I'm making a vow to take seriously this. Vows were not wrong in that way. I've had this particular struggle with sin, so you've helped me. You've forgiven me. You've been a strength to me. Therefore, I will fight this, Lord. It's this kind of spirit that's involved. I know there's been all sorts of goofy things that have happened in American evangelicalism and we associate things with Lent and marks on foreheads and all of that. And I think the basic thing we have to remember here is this was not so much about Paul being public as it was Paul being devoted to the Lord Himself. And what this is being shown here then, what is being said to us here, is that Paul himself, as I stood back from this, is showing himself decreasing more. And Christ increasing in a wonderful way. You're not going to see that immediately, but follow the text and I believe you'll see it. paul goes to ephesus from here speaks to the jews they all receive him it's a rare moment in ephesus uh in corinth everything went wrong remember uh the jews were ready to kill him as usual but not in ephesus he goes to ephesus and and now he has this beautiful foundation laying moment. He plants in Ephesus. You'll notice verse 20, they asked him to stay for a longer period. They begged Paul to stay. They were hearing the gospel in the Jews, among the Jews. And what happens? What does Paul do at that moment? He leaves. You'll notice a little phrase, he took leave of them it seems to us erratic behavior it seems to us things that don't make sense right but study it for a minute and think about it he takes leave of them and then he says if god wills i'll be back and we know he would be back why would you do that when the doors open why would you do that when they're begging to hear I think this is a big moment in Acts more than we realize that Jesus is telling us something. What do we constantly do even now to this day? Paul this, Paul that. Paul this, Paul that. We talk a lot about Paul. At the moment of success, God pulls him. after showing us a moment of deep humbling of Paul, submission of Paul, whether we take that Nazarite vow as far as we should, it's a challenge. But whatever's being shown to us, it is clear this is being shown to us. You have a moment of a very humble, thankful servant. And his communion with Christ, his walk with Christ, he is sincerely devoted to the Savior. And what the clear message so far is in this little section is this ministry is not Paul's. The results are not Paul's. He is not the central figure of this story. He's not the central figure of the narrative we're following and that we shouldn't view this as normative for the church to think that way in other words it's not paul's ministry and that means then that we are most effective in ministry when we learn what is being shown to us here of what john the baptist taught us that there must be in the course of our ministries a decreasing of ourselves and an increasing of Christ and his will. We're most effective as in the ministry when we're servants of the king. And that is true in all of life. Now when we're running here and there and we're pushing and pushing and we're not on our knees saying thank you and we're not humbling ourselves and we're not trusting in the Lord and we're getting up and doing all this in our own strength and we are going and going and going and going. Are we really looking to the Lord where you will, I will go? You don't think we put pastors on pedestals in our day? Relying so much on certain people in the ministry, we run perilously close to robbing the glory from Christ and giving it to pastors today. And we do it. And this is what I love about this is that it's at this moment of real success that Jesus pulls Paul and the scene in Ephesus now is to give you one of the grandest, beautiful pictures of how the church should function. Not with the superhero that we think, Paul, Paul, Paul. He builds in the most surprising of ways. Through you. If this doesn't encourage you, I don't know what will. Paul has just planted and leaves. He just planted and left. But now what about Ephesus? You've got to open door. Well, that's what this comes in. Look at verse 24. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, Egypt, When he had come to Ephesus, he was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he only knew of the baptism of John. So stop, all of a sudden, in the next breath, we have a figure introduced seemingly out of nowhere, whom God has prepared. And he is there from Alexandria, and Luke is not short on talking about this guy's gifts. He can preach, he can put together the scriptures, which is the great gift that God gives to preachers, and those who can put it together and show the whole story are the most effective of preachers. He was a believer in Jesus. But there was one thing said that was lacking. He knew only of the baptism of John. here's one of the most beautiful moments in acts i mean that i think this is such a beautiful moment in acts he goes into the synagogue and now paul's gone paul's out of this picture he'll be back paul is stepped out paul is out encouraging the churches he's been to here comes this figure he goes into the synagogue he starts to preach and there are priscilla and aquila sitting and listening to him now remember this had been the husband and wife duo that had been traveling with paul and now since they had left rome and had to leave rome and come to corinth they've been under paul's ministry now for about a year and a half they travel with paul to ephesus they are left behind there they're listening now after hearing paul preaching the gospel now they're listening to apollos but they're listening to him and they're thinking you know this guy can really this guy can preach this guy can really speak this guy can put together the scriptures he's accurate but you know he he doesn't see the whole picture he doesn't get the whole picture he understood john's message of calling people to repentance in jesus and the baptism of repentance but he did not he did not see to make this very clear all this is saying to us is he did not see what jesus opened up his disciples eyes to see on the road to emmaus the effects of his ministry the meaning of the resurrection now that jesus is raised what are the implications that is risen and what is baptism really sign and a seal of it's of him his person in his work Everything is. So Paul is gone. They take him aside. And they come up to him and they say, Apollos, you need to come with us. Please, come over. Come. So privately, they pull him aside. I was thinking this is one of the greatest encouragements to the church for how the church grows and how the ministry continues is often in surprising ways. And we tend to have it all figured out ourselves. But I want you to notice the surprising way the Lord is expanding His church here. In fact, I think Luke liked writing Priscilla before Aquila. The wife before the husband. To make a point. I planted, Apollos watered, But you know what? Apollos, because Paul is going to go back to Corinth here shortly. Apollos didn't water without a couple in the church taking serious time to invest in this man for the furtherance of the gospel. But how are they helping this young pastor? Well, it's not that hard. Guess how they were helping him? They were showing him Jesus. No, no, no, no, no. That's the pastor's job. Right? This is what I'm supposed to do. I am the one to show you Jesus. I'm the one trained to show you Jesus. I'm the one knowledgeable in the Scriptures to show you Jesus. They showed him Jesus. When I first went into ministry, I was thinking back, and now that I've been in this for pushing, what, 15 years, I think a lot about these things. And I think about when I came out of seminary and, of course, I went to Linden and I was 27 years old when I first went to preach the gospel. I had all the answers. I knew what ministry was to be, and I knew what it was to look like, and I knew how to preach Jesus. I asked Darcy today at lunch, thinking about this sermon, I said, well, how was I as a pastor when I first started? She said, you don't want to know. You do not want to, don't answer that. You don't want me to answer that. I'll answer it. This is not me trying to do self-infliction of guilt on me, but I was somewhat arrogant. I was going to go into a church and fix everything. I had the answers. I knew my ministry was the right one. I was preaching Jesus, but I was often reactionary to anyone else who didn't. I was even brash enough to tell other pastors who had been in the ministry longer than me. how to do it. You know, there were a lot of wonderful people up there who were really patient with me. And you know, I loved my time in seminary. But I say this with all respect. We have, of course, relegated and given our training of pastors to the seminaries. And we have set apart very gifted men to do this, and I'm so thankful for you brothers who do that. I mean that. But I have to say that it took me a long time to learn, and I'm still learning, how to preach Jesus and to be a pastor. And there were people in that church who knew as a 27-year-old, they took on a 27-year-old. That was quite a sacrifice. And there were so many people along the way who, amidst all my stupid mistakes, pulled me in, took me aside. Seasoned elders who had been through it and the scars and the war of ministry. Years of maturity in it. Old elders who most of them aren't even around today. If you've received some blessing in the ministry today, it was because there were brothers and sisters up there who took me in and nurtured and helped us. A man named Henry Holloman comes to mind. And a woman named Alice Youngman who was so godly. Dale Van Coten. All these figures along the way, and they're listening to a 27-year-old out of such respect for God's Word. But they're all dead now. And you know what? Their joy in Christ, their love for the Gospel, and the way that these seasoned people spoke of Jesus, that taught me a lot. With all the battle wounds and scars of life. That was preparation. Here's what I'm saying. Look at the example in front of you of a godly couple in the church. Aquila and Priscilla. Priscilla and Aquila. And how their influence would be the blessing to countless numbers of people who they would never see until glory. Who right then and there were helping this young man and edifying the whole in ways they have no idea right then and there. This is where I think we as a church need to think about how we as families as families and as couples can encourage the whole. Integral to the growth of the whole body. As we make Christ the center of our lives, listen, and this is what I want to say, as we make Christ the center of our lives, the ways that we help others see Jesus, the ways that we help others see through the real struggles of life, the Gospel, the way we speak of Him, the way we open the Scriptures in the homes in front of others, the way that we talk to our children, that is how the church spreads. That's how growth happens. I think it's important to say here, the New Testament gives us an entirely positive view of women being able to witness and speak the Gospel. Not as pastors. I don't agree with the ordination of women. The Scriptures are clear about roles in that regard. But I think very clearly it shows here that there is an absolute ability of women to speak positively and influence people for Jesus. And we've got to be better in saying that. As anyone else to the women of the church, you have just as much as a mandate to speak what Jesus has done for you to others. And to be an encouragement to me. That said, Priscilla and Aquila just hear this young, fiery preacher. He is a bold preacher. He's making some mistakes. He's not wrong, but he's greatly lacking. And they don't write him off. They don't pound him. What do they do to him? They take him aside. They didn't rebuke him publicly. They didn't make him look stupid. They took the brother aside. Isn't this just a wonderful model? Let's bring him over for dinner. Let's help him. When Apollos would go back to Corinth and preach, and you know the effects of that, I planted Apollos water in Corinth. And this leads to the final quick point I want to make tonight, that God gives this glorious increase through all of this. As Apollos dumped a whole bunch of water on these seeds that Paul had planted, the most encouraging thing is Jesus himself was the one increasing his church. He's the pastor. The Lord added, we've been looking at in Acts all over, the Lord's adding daily those who are being saved. The Lord's doing the adding. The Lord's doing the increasing. He's doing the increasing. That's the most exciting message for us today. Look at what happened. So from this couple now, now Apollos comes out stronger. They've invested time in this young man. In the church, he's learned church. He's learned the life of real people in the church. And we read in verse 27 that he wanted to come to Achaia and the brothers there encouraged him and helped him in that they wrote to the disciples about him. Now they're helping and giving a reputation letter saying this brother is a very faithful preacher of the gospel. And when he arrived, notice what it says there. He greatly helped those who through grace had believed. So the believing had already been done. Now what's he doing? well he's he's watering and how did he water well he powerfully refuted the jews in public showing by the scriptures that christ was jesus that's such an exciting section tonight listen carefully apollos comes he is like a man dumping water on all these seeds that are already planted and and they were there by grace and they knew little like he did at one point about jesus and now what do they need they need to grow in jesus they need to grow in that knowledge of christ they need to have understanding in him and and this is this is exactly what the new testament is encouraging all of us to do for this reason i kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name i pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you do to do what with the power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That's what needs to happen. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp. You've got to be growing in this. How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ? To know His love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with the measure of the stature of the fullness of God. Well, that's what Apollos is doing. And this is why you have commands that say let the word of Christ, in other words, you're speaking of Jesus, dwell in you. And you can help others by talking about Him and speaking and even making melody in your hearts to the Lord with all wisdom, with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God, the more you see Him, the more you know Him, the more you are taught to marvel at His love, the more that will spill over so that you can be a blessing to others. This passage is put on display tonight for us that the power is not in the pastor, right? It's not in Great Paul. It's not in the messengers, but in the message. And a whole bunch of people who are increasing in the message. And the great encouragement to you is you all share in that project. And you are of vital importance to that project, this project. I pray for a church full of Priscilla's and Aquila's, which I believe that I see in this place. That you'll think more about it. Who open their homes to help others. Who encourage others in the grace and knowledge of who? The Lord Jesus. This calling is just as important as Paul's for all the people around you. So that Christ increases in all of our hearts through faith. May I decrease, said John, and Christ increase. May that be so in all of our hearts for there, Christ will be more shown. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word tonight of encouragement to Your church. Thank You for a beautiful section of Scripture. Thank You for showing us how the Gospel advances. Thank You that as You raise up pastors, the power is not in them, but the power is by Your Spirit as Jesus is heard and received. That all of us have a vital place in that. And thank you for encouraging us to show that all the members of the church have gifts in this way to speak and encourage one another and help one another in the faith to be a blessing. Forgive us where we've fallen short. Thank you for the patience you've shown with all of us and how you've continued to build your church to this day with the praise and glory in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. Thank you.