“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 18:26
What a great verse describing Apollos here in Acts 18:26. So just the, the setup. A Jew named Apollos, a native Alexandria had come to Ephesus. He was eloquent, competent in the scriptures. Acts 18:24 says, verse 25 says he had been instructed in the way the Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. So we won’t go into all the details here just for the sake of time of what that would mean for Apollos’s teaching. But the reality is at this point, he was fervent in spirit, competent in the scriptures, and yet his understanding of certain things was incomplete.
God, please help us all to grow in our understanding of Your Word. May we accurately study Your Word and accurately proclaim Your Word.
So what did Priscilla and Aquilla do when they heard him? They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. What a great picture that teaches us so many different things and leads us to pray in so many different ways. Like we all have room to grow, areas where we don’t understand everything completely, rightly, even accurately, and God puts us in the church, in his body with his word, where when we begin to teach or say things that don’t align with his word, we have brothers and sisters around us who will pull us back and say, “No, no, no. Look at what the word says here.”
And not in a way that is harmful or unhelpful. This is so constructive here. They pull him aside. They have a conversation with them. He receives that. In fact, you go on past Acts 18:26, it says in verse 27 when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged them, 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 the Christ was Jesus.
Acts 18:26 Is An Example Of Correction
Oh, see how Priscilla and Aquila helped equip Apollos in a way that led to even more fruitful ministry, accurate ministry in the days ahead. Powerful ministry, verse 28 says. So God, we pray that you would help us all to grow in our understanding of your word, your truth. God, please help us to accurately study your word and to accurately proclaim your word. And Oh God, when we in our sinfulness or just humanness, our frailty, our lack of understanding, we say things that don’t align with your word. We teach things that are not what your word says. God, we pray that you would surround us with brothers and sisters who love us enough to pull us aside, to open your word and to more accurately explain your word, your ways to us.
Help us to be teachable, give us teachable spirits that respond to correction like that. Give us wise, gentle spirits to know how to give correction like that. And we pray that in the process you would give us all more powerful ministry with the word. And I pray for this, for pastors, for leaders in churches. Lord, please help us to faithfully teach your word. But not just for pastors and leaders. God, I pray this for every follower of Jesus. You’ve called us all to make disciples, to teach others, to obey everything you have commanded us.
So God, please help us to speak truth in others’ lives.
Please help us to pass on your word faithfully today to our children, to friends and neighbors, to people in our small groups, whatever it looks like. However, disciple-making is playing out in our lives. Lord, help us to teach your word, to be open to instruction and correction whenever we are teaching, communicating something that does not align with your word and in this give us all I pray. I pray for pastors, I pray for leaders per every follower of Christ that you would give us powerful ministry with your word as we know it truly, and share it accurately, faithfully. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
