September 20, 2026
"Many Gifts among Many Members" (Acts 18:18-28)
Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church Scripture: Acts 18:18–28
Hear now the word of the lord from Acts 18, verses 18 through 28. 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. At Cenchre he had his hair, or he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And they came to Ephesus, and he left them 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 then went down to Antioch. After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia, 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, 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 the Christ was Jesus. This is the word of the Lord.
Please be seated. And as you're taking your seats, let's join our hearts together in prayer. Gracious Father, as we come to this great story of evangelism and the settling of a church in Ephesus, we think of the great letter to the Ephesians, and we think of all that we owe to the establishment and the ongoing pastoral care of this church. But we pray that as we read about this chapter in the story of the unfolding history of the church, we pray that you, by your spirit would give us hearts to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear, that we would understand all that is contained in the good news of the Gospel of Jesus, your Son and our Savior, it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Well, we have been studying the Book of Acts for a while now. And as we have studied this book, which gives us the history of the early church, so often in the history of this church, we Read the stories of some of the larger figures in the early church, the larger leaders in the early church. We've read much about Peter and often with him, John, about Stephen the first martyr, and Philip the evangelist, about Paul and Barnabas and Silas and Timothy. Usually we see one leader, one great leader, who's doing all of this great work and establishing new churches in various places. Often then we read about the assistance to those leaders in various places.
But today we come to a very interesting story in the history of the early church, where the great leader departs, where the great leader is absent from the pulpit in the church that he has just started to establish in a city named Ephesus. And as Paul leaves and goes on and does important pastoral work elsewhere, we see the way the various gifts distributed among the many members of Christ's church rise up to fill the roles that are needed and necessary in Paul's absence. As we think then ahead 2000 years later, about the way this works in the life of the church, I want us to be thinking about the various gifts that are distributed among all God's people. In this room. I once heard someone say, the interesting thing about the church is that no one is unneeded.
If God has brought you into the church, he has distributed gifts to all. And all of us need all the gifts that every single person has in order for the church to be working properly, for every joint to be equipped, for every part to be working together as the body builds itself up in love. So as you come back to our passage today with that big picture in mind, the theme we have is this. By many gifts, among many members, God grows his church. By many gifts, among many members, God grows his church.
And as we meet, particularly a little bit later in this passage, a man named Apollos, I want to think about a verse that Paul wrote about Apollos, not in the establishment and the development of the church in Ephesus, but in nearby Corinth that Paul was in. In the last passage we studied, from Acts, in Acts chapter 18, verses 1 through 17, but to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote this. In 1 Corinthians 3, 6, he says, I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. And this morning, providentially a friend of mine from seminary, I hadn't heard for from a while he sent me a text message that he was praying for me.
And he reminded me of the next verse, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6. For neither he who plants nor he who waters is Anything, but only God who gives the growth. And that's where we're going to see the adventure of these individual people using their gifts, not because they are heroes establishing the church of their own strength, but because God is working in and through them to establish his church. So two parts to what we're going to see today. The the first part in verses 18 through 23 and I'm calling this planting churches, kind of looking at Paul's role.
But then in verses 24 through 28, as we think about Apollos entering in here, I'm assuming that he's doing the same work that he shares with Paul in Corinth. And we're going to call that watering churches. So planting churches first and then watering churches second. So let's start in planting churches. In verses 18 through 23, verse 18, we come here and we see Paul leaving Corinth.
1. Planting Churches (Acts 18:18-23)
He had been there for a while, he had been ministering there for a while. And now he took his leave of the brothers and sent sail for Syria. So he's heading back eastward. He's heading back toward the area just north of the land of Israel. But notice what's important about this.
Paul has been sailing and traveling all over. But notice what's important here is that not only Paul goes on this mission and he doesn't bring with him full time ministry workers like Barnabas or Silas or Timothy. We read that with him goes Priscilla and Aquila. These were not full time mission workers. These people like Paul in some ways were tent makers, but they didn't share his office.
They were not apostles. This was a husband and wife team who had a husband and wife business making tents and selling those tents. And now they are uprooting their lives. They are moving their business in order to serve the mission of Christ, in order to help Paul in his work of establishing a church in a new area. Now we're going to come back to a later work that Priscilla and Aquila engage with later in this chapter.
But I want to pause and think about what they are doing. Luke is so often doing this in Acts. He's just sort of putting these little sort of seemingly throwaway phrases that if we step back and think about what's actually happening there, we put ourselves in the shoes of these people. We realize this is actually something fairly extraordinary. We see an example of people who are not trying simply to fit the church into their otherwise busy lives.
We see people who are building their lives around the church that where the needs of the church are growing and developing, they are happy to reorganize what they are doing in order to go wherever they are needed. Now, I think what's really important to think about, especially in our culture, because in our culture, we live in a world where involvement and participation and service in the ministries of the churches is routinely deprioritized. We are a much busier people than we were even 30 years ago. In my lifetime, I can remember where Wednesdays were blocked out, even by the public schools. I can remember a time where people understood the importance.
That was sort of a taken for granted thing. Even, even every presidential candidate would make a big point of declaring which church they were a member of. It didn't matter whether they were Republican or Democrat. But the world has changed. Involvement and service in the church is no longer a benefit.
It is often something that can hurt you in the eyes of the world. And so we often, especially with the busyness of our lives, try to fit our lives into a lot of things and then fit the church into wherever is left over.
But we see here examples of people, and this is something that's commended to us throughout the scriptures of people who are reorganizing their lives around the church. They recognize the church is the manifold place of God's blessings. It's the place where the gospel is heard. It's the place where people grow together in the body of Christ. It is not to be the afterthought of our lives.
It is to be the pillar, the immovable and unshakable foundation in our lives that everything else that we do in our lives is built around. Even though not all of us are called to full time vocational ministry, most people are called to various other trades and vocations and callings. And I'm not telling you that you need to move anywhere to accomplish this. Although sometimes the Lord does call people to move. But I think of even yesterday I had the joy of participating in the cadets camp out.
I am not someone you want leading your sons into the wilderness. We may not come back. I lost one of my own Sons for 45 minutes yesterday. We made it all back. I brought both of the boys back that I had taken out there.
But there were so many other men who have these skills, who taught life skills, who were there, who are volunteering week in and week out, and the cadets. That's the kind of thing that we're called to, and that's the kind of thing that we are seeing here with Priscilla and Aquila. What is your role? If all of us are giving gifts, all of us Serve in various ways. The question I want to press on you is where do you serve in the church?
What is your role? Where is the place where you are investing with an eternal perspective, not just to get through your week, not just to earn a paycheck, but recognizing that what we do day to day has an eternal impact for good or for ill. And are we living our lives around our involvement in Christ's church or is this an afterthought? Now, what makes this all the more important is what happens from here. We see that they came to Ephesus, and we see that fairly quickly Paul establishes the church and leaves. Now they're naturally wanting Paul to stay and minister in their midst.
If Paul came here, I would gladly step aside and say, stay as long as you want. Preach here as long as you want, Minister here for as long as you want. I'm going to sit in the pews and just sit at your feet, Paul. And they all wanted this themselves. But Paul couldn't do that.
He said, I'll return to you if God wills. And then he set sail from Ephesus. Now here is the church with a pastoral vacancy. I know this church is not too far removed from that. And one of the things, although you never wish for this to be the case, but one of the things that happened is a lot of people step up.
A lot of people recognize that without a full time pastor there, they need to step up and use their gifts for the sake of the overall church. But it's not just when there is a pastoral vacancy. Look at what Paul is doing. He has important pastoral things that he's doing. He moves on from here.
And we read that he goes down and greets the church and then he moves to Antioch in verse 22. And then in verse 23, we read that he went from one place to the next to the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
This is the work of a pastor. Paul was an apostle, so he moved around a lot of different churches. That was a part of his call. But the work of a pastor is to strengthen the disciples. I do this full time, my ministry full time.
But I move around a lot to strengthen disciples, especially as needs rise, especially as crises emerge. I. I move to wherever there is the greatest needs, which means that I can't always spend my time working in a long term fashion with any individual people. Which means that for everyone to have their needs met, for everyone to continue growing, there's this whole church, whole gifting involvement, many of those needs are met. By the men sitting in this front row and the men who are sitting, who are deacons in the church. But each of us has a gift.
Each of us has things that the Lord has entrusted to us to encourage, to exhort one another, to disciple, to teach, to train, to lead one another in various callings. What is your role in the body of Christ? So here we see this need. The church has been planted. Now there is a vacancy in the church, or what is the Lord going to do?
2. Watering Churches (Acts 18:24-28)
We come then to the second section, verses 24 through 28, where we see watering churches. The next minister of the Gospel comes along and it is none too soon. We Read in verse 24 about a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, that this man came to Ephesus. Now Calvin writes in God's providential care for the church at Ephesus, Apollos arrived after Paul departed. The church needed someone.
And here comes Apollos now again, there's a pattern of tandem work. We see Paul acknowledge this in his letter to the Corinthians in first Corinthians, chapter three. I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. But look at the man that the Lord sent to this church.
It is very important that this man is from Alexandria. If you remember any of your ancient world history, Alexandria was a city in Egypt and Alexandria was a major place of Greek learning. And it was also a place where many Jews had settled. Lensky has a really good historical background that I'm drawing from. But it was a center of Jewish Greek learning.
So Jews who spoke Greek. This is the place where the Greek translation of the Old Testament was made. The translation that the apostles used, the translation that's quoted in the New Testament, that was translated in Alexandria. There was a university there. There was a great library there, one of the greatest libraries in human history there.
There was a school of philosophy that was there.
And so if you think about the early church, the apostles, including Paul, were personally trained up by Jesus himself. I would gladly have had that training, but a man like Apollos had a seminary education. He was given a formal education in Alexandria. That's the reason that this is stated here. We know that he was eloquent, competent in the scriptures.
He was trained. We, we know also that he came to know the way of the Lord. Verse 25. That is not just Old Testament things without an understanding of their fulfillment, but an understanding of how everything prophesied in the Old Testament had been fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Now this is not some ivory tower academic.
This is A man who was fervent in spirit, his heart burned, the word of God burned in his bones to preach Jesus in this church that needed to hear about Jesus. Early on their establishment, after their planting pastor had departed and we read, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus. However, there are some gaps, there are some deficiencies. Though he knew only the baptism of John. Now, what is this about?
I want to get into this when we get into chapter 19. So a little teaser to come back in two weeks when we will take up that passage. But look at what happens. How is this deficiency restored? They did not have a local Mid America Reformed Seminary that he could go and sit in the library and talk to the professors there to get a remedial education to fill in his gaps.
Look at verse 26. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila, those ordinary tentmakers are still there, they're still in the church, they're still involved, they're still engaged, they're working and supporting their needs. They've opened this new branch of their business. And they're sitting listening to the sermons of this new preacher.
As someone who has recently, not too recently, not too far in the distant past, started a new call, Let me tell you, it is a very intimidating thing when you look upon a group of faces that you don't know to preach to them, wondering what are they thinking? And especially if you wonder, am I getting this right? We think about these things more often than you might realize. But we read that Priscilla and Aquila recognized that something was off, and we read. They took him aside and explained to him the way of God, more accurately.
They didn't go and at coffee time in the fellowship room, sit there and say, did you hear that? What a terrible sermon. That guy was way off. They didn't stir up division. They went directly to the one who needed this remedial training and talked to him.
They took him aside privately and they said, we think you're missing something about this. We think you're missing something about the fullness of what Jesus has accomplished. And if you only knew about the baptism of John, a baptism of repentance, you need to understand the rest of what Jesus did.
Now, this is an act of humility to go up and talk to the pastor directly and with great fear and trepidation. I want to open this door widely to you. It is honestly a blessing when people come to me and give me feedback about something. I've received a lot of feedback over the years about a lot of different things, style things. There is a recurrence message that I preach too fast.
If you're thinking that this morning. I know, I know. Feel free to tell me again. But I know I've heard people challenge me on different sermons and it makes me think. I don't want to be so stuck up or so prideful that I can't hear things from people in the pews.
You people have heard a lot of sermons. Some of you in the course of your life. If something sounds off, say something. I need to hear that. Those are the gifts that we are given in the body of Christ.
We have different roles, but I'm in no way above anyone. We stand together at the foot of the cross. And so Apollos, we read, was humble enough to hear this. We don't read that he kicked against this or disputed this. We read that he was strengthened by this.
So that when he went on and continued his ministry in the broader area, he wished to cross to Achaia. That's the surrounding region. That's the region where Corinth is. The brothers there encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who by through grace had believed he was strengthened in his ministry because he listened to the ordinary tent making folks in his church who recognized that something was off in his preaching.
And this gave this man boldness to powerfully refute the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. All of these gifts, you have Paul, this holy hurricane going through and leaving behind this disorganized church. You have Priscilla and Aquila who had just sort of been tailing along with him and just stayed in this place even after Paul moved on. You have Apollos who comes in to strengthen the church and Priscilla and Aquila who are encouraging and helping him in his ministry. And you see here that the whole church is blessed.
So I want to apply this in this way. Embrace your role in the body of Christ. Embrace your role in the body of Christ. We all have different roles. We all have different gifts.
There are leaders, there are those who are called to follow, there are officers, and there are those who serve in a variety of ways in the church. From cadets and gems to Sunday school to fellowship meals, to everything that happens in Bible studies, to the nursery. All these kinds of ways of serving are important in the church. And embrace your role. Now to start off on this, I need to express that not everyone is by default in the body of Christ.
The Scriptures declare that you need to know the way of God accurately. Because the only way you can be in the body of Christ is when you believe that the Christ was Jesus through faith. That's what we read about in verses 27 through 28. That Apollos 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 by Scripture alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone.
That's the heart of. Of the Gospel. Specifically, the Scriptures declared that the God of the Bible is the living God who created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. But that because of the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, we experience all manner of misery in this life, especially because of the sins that we also walk in. And we are liable, we are guilty of eternal condemnation in the next life.
But the Scriptures further declare that God, because of his rich mercy, promised throughout the long ages to send a savior, a Redeemer, a Messiah, the Christ, a man who would come into this world as a conquering king, to establish his own kingdom, but not by warfare and conquest, to conquer the nations at his first coming. At least he would do this rather by putting himself in the place of the victim, putting his place of the one who was conquered and who was pierced and who shed his own blood as a substitute sacrifice for the sins that we have committed.
And as Paul preached, as Apollos preached, as Priscilla and Aquila sharpened Apollos to clarify his preaching, this Christ was Jesus. And when we preach Jesus, we preach not just a plan for moral improvement. This is not just a message of repentance. Try harder next time. This is a message that the God of the Bible sent his Son into this world.
That you could be saved, forgiven, that you could be counted righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. If you do not know this Jesus, great hope that you have, it's pictured here at this table that we're going to celebrate in a moment is that Christ's body was broken and his blood was shed for sinners like you and me. And that this gift of God is for all those who by grace, through faith, look to Jesus Christ and receive it for themselves. It can be yours today.
But if you are in the body of Christ, if by grace you have trusted and you have been engrafted in the body of Christ. The question I want to ask again is what is your role in the body of Christ? Where are you investing for eternity? Where do you serve? Soon we are going to partake of the Lord's Supper.
And I want you to think about your heart and Your attitude? Is this something where you simply come to be served, or do you recognize that this is the household meal way to receive of this is a part of ongoing responsibilities and ongoing commitment to the household. You don't walk into somebody else's house at random and sit down at their table eat. But you feel glad to do this in your own home where you participate and where there are chores and there's a family life and where there's vibrancy of all that is going on in the wider context of the body, that home. Well, the same thing is true in the church.
Is this a place where you come as a consumer or where this is a part of your celebration as a contributor? Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. All is by grace. I don't need you to have earned something. You cannot have earned something with.
We come to this table, but on the night when our Lord instituted this meal. That same night we are told in John chapter 13 that Jesus Christ, entering into the meal before the meal was served, took off his cloak and he laid down his cloak. And the same language for laying down his cloak is the same language that Jesus had used for laying down his life. He was dying to himself. He laid down his cloak and he went around and washed the feet of each of his disciples.
At the end of it, he says in John 13:15, he says, for I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you. Now, don't worry, we're not going to be physically washing feet this morning. But the pattern, the example that Jesus was giving is, as you come into the household of faith, lay down your life to serve those who are part of the household of faith. In my own house, when I sit down at the table, it's not ever because I have cooked it again. You don't want me leading your children into the wilderness.
You don't want me cooking. You especially don't want me cooking in the wilderness for your children.
I don't cook. It's very bad, but normally, not always, but normally I'm the one to do the dishes. I don't have certain gifts, but I still sit down at the table together. I don't do certain roles, but we all eat together as the family. A role I can take is to pick up a rag, pick up a sponge, and start putting away and cleaning up after dinner.
We all have a part, we all have a role. I could never repay the value of the cooking that my wife does. We all have our different gifts, but we're all called to use them for the building up of the body.
Now, I want to just say something I've said a few times, but it's been on my heart a lot. I want to challenge those of you who are older and those of you who are younger. If you are older, let me plead with you. Do not step aside. Do not retire from church involvement.
Do not quit. Do not rationalize that you have done your time and let other people carry the burden. Yes, your role will change. Yes, your ability will change. Yes, your strength and energy will change.
But your time will also change. And nowhere in scripture are we told that the old should stop serving or step aside. Except that the Levites retired at age 55. So if you are helping by lifting huge sides of beef onto the altar, I will let you retire from that at the age of 55. But for all other roles, let me encourage you, play the role of mentor.
Help encourage the younger people to come up to take the baton, to move forward.
And if you're younger, I want to first of all charge you, encourage you, develop a humility to learn from those who are older. And number two, develop an ambition to serve the cause of Christ. Think of the adventures of Priscilla and Aquila as they had a front row view to what God was doing, especially in the ministry of Paul, because they were willing to follow Christ wherever He would lead them. Talk to some of the more seasoned saints in our congregation. Ask them about their adventures.
Learn from what the Lord has taught them.
This is not a drive through meal. We are not consumers. It's a meal for the household of God in which we are called to serve one another with the gifts that Christ has distributed among various members of the church for the building up of his body. Are you serving the church as Christ has served you? Are you following the example that he gave?
What is your role? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us as we look to Christ. Father, as we come as helpless beggars who have nothing to bring, nothing to contribute, as we come to the feet of Jesus for the salvation that he provides, I pray that you would make that crystal clear as only a matter of our faith and by grace, nothing that we could deserve.
And then Father, as you save us, not to repay something, not to earn something back, but as liberated sinners as your children, I pray that you would help us to serve one another in the body of Christ. Especially as we come to this meal, a table we share together. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
other sermons in this series
Oct 4
2026
"Preparation and Fulfillment" (Acts 19:1-7)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 19:1–7 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church
Sep 13
2026
"My Grace Is Sufficient for You" (2 Corinthians 12: 1-10)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church
Sep 6
2026
"Power Made Perfect in Weakness" (Acts 18:1-17)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 18:1–17 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church