Study #59: Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul guided disciples of John the Baptist to a better understanding of the Gospel (18:23

Study #59: Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul guided disciples of John the Baptist to a better understanding of the Gospel (18:23 - 19:7)

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The Golden Ratio outline of Acts Chapter 2.3:

Acts, Chapter 2.3: The Gentiles of Ephesus violently opposed the efforts of Paul to teach the Word (18:23 - 20:38)

§Unique Introduction: Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul guided disciples of John the Baptist to a better understanding of the Gospel (18:23 - 19:7)

¶Opposite Aquila and Priscilla guided Apollos, a disciple of John the Baptist, to a better understanding of the Way of God (18:23 - 28)

¶Opposite Paul guided twelve disciples of John the Baptist to a better understanding of the Gospel, including baptism (19:1 - 7)

§Complement Body: The silversmiths in Ephesus instigated a riot against Paul and his preaching against idolatry (19:8 - 20:12)

¶Opposite Paul worked for two years to train his converts in Ephesus in the Word of God (19:8 - 12)

¶Opposite The failed exorcism by the sons of Sceva resulted in a great revival in Ephesus (19:13 - 20)

¶Complement While Paul was staying in Ephesus, the silversmiths instigated a riot against him (19:21 - 28)

¶Complement The mob of angry idolaters praised their idol Diana loudly and enthusiastically (19:29 - 20:1)

¶Unique Paul raised Eutychus from the dead while preaching in Troas in Asia Minor (20:2 - 12)

§Complement Conclusion: Paul preached a final message of warning to the elders of his church at Ephesus and said goodbye (20:13 - 38)

¶Complement In Miletus, Paul preached a message of warning to the elders of his church at Ephesus (20:13 - 31)

¶Complement Paul said goodbye to the elders of his church at Ephesus (20:32 - 38)

We begin our study of Acts Chapter 2.3 with the Introduction Section. The Golden Ratio design of the subparagraphs is “UCC-OO | OO-CCU”.

Chapter 2.3 is the third missionary journey of Paul recorded in the Book of Acts.

The first journey was with Barnabas; the second journey was with Silas, and later, with a group of fellow missionaries including Luke; but this time, Paul went by himself: a veteran missionary with many years of experience in the field. At least, the text does not record anyone else traveling with him at the beginning.

Let’s look at the overall view of Part 2 of Acts, to remind ourselves where we have been, and where we are going:

Part 2: The missionaries from the Assembly in Antioch were persecuted by the Jews and Gentiles (12:25 - 28:31)

Unique Chapter 2.1: The Jews of Asia Minor violently opposed the efforts of Paul and Barnabas to plant churches (12:25 - 15:35)

Complement Chapter 2.2: The Gentiles and Jews of Greece violently opposed the efforts of Paul and Silas to plant churches (15:36 - 18:22)

Complement Chapter 2.3: The Gentiles of Ephesus violently opposed the efforts of Paul to teach the Word (18:23 - 20:38)

Opposite Chapter 2.4: Paul the free man traveled to Jerusalem to witness to the Jews (21:1 - 23:11)

Opposite Chapter 2.5: Paul the prisoner witnessed to the Gentile Roman government in Caesarea before traveling to Rome (23:12 - 28:31)

Notice that it was the Jews in Chapter 2.1 that opposed Paul and Barnabas; but in Chapters 2.2 and 2.3, the Gentiles joined the Jews in their persecutions of Paul and his fellow missionaries: the design of these three Chapters is UCC: One Unique and two Complements.

The last two Chapters oppose each other in their themes: Paul traveled to Jerusalem as a free man in Chapter 2.4; but traveled to Rome in the opposite direction as a prisoner of Rome in Chapter 2.5. So Part 2 of Acts has the same design as Part 1 of Acts.

The text of the Bible with the Golden Ratio design:

Chapter 2.3: The Gentiles of Ephesus violently opposed the efforts of Paul to teach the Word (18:23 - 20:38)

§Unique Introduction: Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul guided disciples of John the Baptist to a better understanding of the Gospel (18:23 - 19:7)

¶Opposite Aquila and Priscilla guided Apollos, a disciple of John the Baptist, to a better understanding of the Way of God (18:23 - 28)

Unique “And after he had spent some time there, he departed; and he went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.”

Complement “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.”

Complement “This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.”

Opposite “And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue; whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him to them, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”

Opposite “And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; who, when he came, helped them much who had believed through grace: for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, demonstrating through the Scriptures, Jesus to be the Christ.”

Comments: Apollos was a Jew of Alexandria, who had become a disciple of John the Baptist about twenty years before the time of this text. How and when he became a disciple of John, and what happened between then and the time of this text in Acts is not given to us.

Somehow, in spite of all that had happened between the ministry of John the Baptist, his execution by Herod, the death, burial, and Resurrection of Christ and the events in Acts, Apollos never heard the news about Jesus Christ! He believed the message of John, that the coming of the Messiah was near; and he repented and was baptized. He was a believer in Jehovah under the Old Covenant; and thus, he did not need to be “born again”: he only needed to put his trust in the Messiah to complete his faith in the same Jehovah God of Israel.

Today, a Jew cannot do this, because the transition period between the Old and New Covenants has been completed for almost 1,900 years. Unless a Jew was saved under the Old Covenant before Jesus died for our sins on the cross in 33 A.D., he/she must be born again through repentance and faith in the Finished Work of Christ on the cross, just like a Gentile.

Apollos was a great example for Christians today, in that he was “mighty in the Scriptures”! We also need to be “mighty in the Scriptures”! But we cannot do that if we never bring a Bible to church, or if we attend a church that focuses on emotion, dancing, and rock and roll music, or if we let our Bible collect dust all week long. If you want to be a “mighty in the Scriptures” Christian, you must attend an Independent, Fundamental Baptist church that will help you to focus on the Word of God and do his will every day. Spend at least a few minutes each day reading the Bible, so that you will become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ; and become “mighty in the Scriptures” like Apollos.

These Bible studies are a good start, but not enough by themselves. All of us, including myself, need to feast on the Word of God each day, so that we might grow strong in our faith and be able to stand against Satan and his deceptions in this evil world. Amen.

You should use the Kingdom Study Bible on your smartphone or your PC. You can either download the PDF version or read it on my website for free. It uses only the Received Text and it is the only Bible version that exists with the Golden Ratio design.

The text of the Bible with the Golden Ratio design:

¶Opposite Paul guided twelve disciples of John the Baptist to a better understanding of the Gospel, including baptism (19:1 - 7)

Opposite “And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is any Holy Spirit.””

Opposite “And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.””

Complement “Then Paul said, “John truly baptized with the baptism of repentance; saying to the people, that they should believe on him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.””

Complement “When they heard this, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus.”

Unique “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with foreign languages, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve.”

Comments: The common thread of these two paragraphs is that both Apollos and these disciples were all followers of John the Baptist. Both of them had the same problem: John pointed his followers to Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel; but somehow they never heard that message for many years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Now I want to show you something very important in this text. The King James version has caused a lot of confusion among Christians with its poor translation of Acts 19:2a:

“He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (King James Version)

“He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Kingdom Study Bible version and many modern versions)

The word “since” in the King James Version is the problem. The Greek word is “πιστευσαντες” (aorist active participle). Aorist active participle means the event occurred in the past and continues on today into the future. The word is literally translated as “having believed”, but a simpler version is “when you believed”.

The King James Version rendering gives the false impression that the believer receives the Holy Spirit at some point after believing in Jesus Christ; but the correct translation is “when you believed”.

In other words, the Holy Spirit is given to every believer in Jesus Christ at the same moment in time that they repent and receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. A person believes in Christ, then repents and receives Christ. Immediately afterward, God gives them the Holy Spirit as the down-payment of their inheritance until the Rapture.

“In whom also after you believed in Christ, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the down-payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13b-14

But many Pentecostal and Charismatic teachers claim that when you believe in Christ, you do not receive the Holy Spirit; but instead, you have to speak in “tongues” or have someone lay hands on you to receive the Holy Spirit, as Peter did in Acts 8 and as Paul did here. This is unscriptural! The text I just quoted from Ephesians says nothing about speaking in tongues or waiting for someone to lay hands on you!

In our text in Acts 19:1-7, Paul needed to lay hands on these disciples of John the Baptist to show his spiritual authority. The Holy Spirit caused them to speak in foreign languages as a sign to themselves that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and as a confirmation of their faith in Jesus Christ. They needed this confirmation because they had never heard of Jesus Christ before. Paul did not need this confirmation for his own faith.

And notice that Apollos never spoke in tongues! There are also numerous examples of people hearing the Gospel and receiving Christ as their Savior in the Book of Acts, but the vast majority of them never spoke in tongues. If the Pentecostals and Charismatics are correct, then everyone in the Book of Acts should have had the same experience of speaking in tongues, but that did not happen.

Paul asked these confused disciples of John the Baptist, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”, as a test to determine what kind of faith they had. Their answer revealed that they had only been baptized by John, but missed the events that came afterward when John baptized Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world!”

They had neither heard of Jesus nor the Holy Spirit; so Paul guided them to the correct destination for their faith, to the Lord Jesus Christ; and then they spoke in foreign languages afterward as a sign to each other that they had indeed received the Holy Spirit.

Paul knew that the Holy Spirit had not been given to believers in Christ until after the Resurrection of Jesus when Jesus spoke to his Apostles:

John 20:22: “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit right now.””

So the question was important, because although a disciple of John could believe his message about the coming Messiah and be a true believer in Jehovah God, he would not have received the Spirit at that time.

Today, the context is completely different! No one is a disciple of John the Baptist today! Therefore, we cannot apply the events of this text to us and our situation, as many Charismatic and Pentecostals do, in error. We must look to the teachings of the Apostles (in particular Paul) to understand the events of the Book of Acts, which was a transitional historical period; in which, many things were changing from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. We are long past that transitional period! You should receive your understanding of the Book of Acts from the letters of Paul, Peter, John or Jude, not from the Book of Acts, because it is only a record of history, not a teaching letter of the Apostles.

We can learn doctrine from the Books of Matthew, Luke, John, Mark, and Acts, but that doctrine must be viewed in light of the teaching letters of the Apostles. Otherwise, we have confusion! And God is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33).

Any Bible teacher who tells you that there is no difference between the disciples of John the Baptist or the other people in the Book of Acts and ourselves is a false teacher. In historical Books of the Bible, the context is extremely important for correct understanding and interpretation.

We will discuss the gifts of the Holy Spirit and speaking in foreign languages without training in the detailed studies in the letters to the Corinthians.

Friend, if you would like to know the one true God, and you want to go to Heaven instead of Hell when you die, then you must first know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior from sin.

If you know that you are a sinner; and you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and was crucified on a cross to pay for your sins; and that He was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day, victorious over sin, Hell, and the grave, here is a prayer that you can use to be born again and become a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ:

“Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned against YOU. I am no good, and you are righteous! You are my only hope for salvation! I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, you were buried, and you rose again from the dead on the third day. I want you to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart right now. Forgive me for all my sins, and save my soul. In the mighty Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen!”

If you have turned from your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and only Savior from sin, please message me through Facebook and let me know that you have done that, so that I can pray for you and rejoice with you in what God has done in your life. Amen.