Acts 18:24-25
Mighty in the scriptures
Everything said about his ability is positive and everything he knows is correct. The gap is at the end rather than in the middle.
People of the Bible
Apollos
Was the best speaker in the book, was quietly told what he had missed, and went back out better.
He is a Jew of Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, fervent in the spirit, teaching diligently the things of the Lord. Then comes the qualifier that makes the story: knowing only the baptism of John. He is preaching accurately about a man he has heard of secondhand, with the last chapter missing, and he is doing it well enough that a synagogue lets him keep going.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Apollos
- 01
- 02
Acts 18:26
They expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly
A tentmaking couple takes the most eloquent preacher in Acts home and fills in what he lacked. Nobody is humiliated in the process.
- 03
Acts 18:27-28
He mightily convinced the Jews
He crosses to Achaia with a letter from the brethren and helps those who had already believed. The public work comes after the private evening.
- 04
1 Corinthians 3:5-7
I have planted, Apollos watered
The Corinthian parties are answered by making both men gardeners. Neither he that planteth is anything, neither he that watereth.
- 05
1 Corinthians 16:12
His will was not at all to come at this time
Paul greatly desired him to visit and he declined. The disagreement is reported plainly and without a complaint attached.
Why it matters
Priscilla and Aquila hear him and take him aside. The correction is private, the teaching is expounded more perfectly, and nothing in the text suggests he resented it. He goes on to Achaia with letters of recommendation, helps them much which had believed through grace, and mightily convinces the Jews publicly from the Scriptures. Later, when the Corinthians start forming parties around preachers, Paul uses him as the example against it: I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
1 song
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
