Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

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. 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. —Acts 18:24-26 ESV

Pastor Steven Cole asks some good questions about the passage for today, Acts 18:18-28, and encourages us to look for ways we see God using “people in process” to accomplish His work.

Our text shows us God’s work and God’s workers in process.It’s a passage of Scripture where I wish that the Lord had seen fit to give us more details than He did. Luke raises a lot of questions that he doesn’t seem to answer. What was Paul’s vow? Why did he take it? Was he right or wrong to take a vow? Should Christians today take vows? Why didn’t Paul stay on at Ephesus when the Jews there were uncharacteristically open to his message? Why was his visit to Jerusalem so short? What happened there? Was Apollos a believer before Priscilla and Aquila explained things to him? If so,what did he lack? Why does Luke skim over some fairly important details in Paul’s ministry here, such as the conclusion of his second missionary journey and the start of his third journey? What happened to Timothy and Silas?A common thread with this section and with the paragraph we will study next week is that we see people in process, and God using these people to accomplish His work of spreading the gospel and building His church. The lesson is:

To accomplish His work of proclaiming the gospel and strengthening the church, God uses workers who are all in process.