Sermon Outline
ME
Have you ever looked at everything that needs to be done in your life and thought, “How am I ever going to get all this done?”
Maybe it’s your family. You’re raising children to know and follow Jesus. You’re trying to prepare them for a world you know won’t always reinforce what you’ve taught them. There’s so much they need to learn, and you have so little time. On top of that, there’s laundry.
Maybe it’s your job. Every time you finish a task, three more appear. You succeed in yesterday’s expectations only to find the expectations have been raised for today, but your time and energy didn’t also grow.
Maybe it’s something God put on your heart: a ministry to be a part of, someone to help disciple, a broken relationship to restore, or a need in our community.
You can see the need. You want to do something about it. But the size of the responsibility seems overwhelming.
What if the problem isn’t that you’re incapable of doing everything? What if the problem is that you were never supposed to do everything? I wonder how much unnecessary pressure we carry because we’ve confused God’s work with our responsibility. We begin something with good intentions, but somewhere along the way we start believing that the success of the entire thing depends on us.
What if we are called to a work that is bigger than us, but our part to play is just that—a part of the great whole?
WE
I think we tend to believe two things that are not always true.
First, if I start something, I have to finish it. If I don’t finish, I haven’t succeeded. If I leave before it’s done, I’ve somehow failed. If someone else has to come in after me, I didn’t do enough.
Second, if I can’t finish something, it isn’t worth starting. If I can’t finish, what difference does my contribution really make? Why invest in something when I may never see the outcome?
Both ways of thinking have their moments. But in the bigger picture of life, the reality is that many things God calls us to will not be completed by us.
Throughout Scripture, God accomplishes His purposes through people whose assignments overlap across places, generations, and seasons.
Here’s the question I want us to let the Word of God answer for us today: What if our greatest contributions aren’t finishing God’s work, but faithfully moving it forward so someone else can continue?
Let’s pray.
GOD
In our journey through Acts, today’s passage feels like an interruption when we first read it.
In Acts 9, we meet Paul for the first time, and since Acts 13 we’ve read about his pioneering missionary work almost exclusively. We’ve been through the highs and lows as Paul preaches, plants churches, disciples new believers, and faces opposition.
In Acts 18, Paul spends a year and a half ministering in Corinth. He meets a couple who become integral to the church, Aquila and Priscilla. They work together in Corinth and eventually travel to a nearby town, Ephesus.
Then Luke does something interesting. He stops following Paul for five verses and introduces a man we have never heard of before.
Why interrupt the story of one of the greatest missionaries of all time to tell us about a preacher from Alexandria, Egypt?
The fact is, the work of God was never as small as the life of one man.
God’s Work Is Bigger Than Any One Person
“Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. 25 He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy.” Acts 18:24-25A NLT
Luke introduces us to Apollos. He is a Jewish man from Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria is a major center of commerce and learning in the Mediterranean world. It’s famous for its massive library, which was unheard of at the time. Apollos comes from a world shaped by Greek culture combined with his Jewish upbringing. Even his Greek name reflects the environment he grew up in.
Luke tells us this man is impressive. He’s eloquent, knowledgeable about Scripture, enthusiastic, and bold enough to preach publicly in the synagogue. I can only imagine he had really big biceps that stood out a lot when he held his Torah scrolls, and he did CrossFit workouts all week!
Here’s what is interesting: Apollos doesn’t arrive in Ephesus because Paul recruited him. Luke doesn’t record Paul inviting Apollos into ministry, training him, or sending him out. Apollos arrives from a completely different place, with a completely different background and life experience. Yet this man becomes an important part of a work Paul had begun.
Think about that. God was preparing people for His work who hadn’t even met one another yet. Paul was working in Corinth. Priscilla and Aquila were growing through their relationship with Paul. Apollos was tanning on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt—I mean, spending time in prayer. None of them could see exactly how their stories would intersect, but God was bringing their contributions together.
Here’s why this matters for us: our inability to see how everything will come together doesn’t mean God isn’t bringing things together.
This is one of the encouraging realities of the body of Christ. There are people whose names you do not know, whose lives will someday be affected by the things you’re doing right now. There are people God is preparing who will continue work you’ve already begun.
You and I may never meet everyone our faithfulness will influence, and that’s okay.
But there’s something else about this man that we need to see. Despite all his capabilities, there was still something missing. We know that God’s work is bigger than any one person; we also know that God’s work requires the humility to learn from others.
God’s Work Requires the Humility to Learn from Others
“However, he knew only about John’s baptism. 26 When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.” Acts 18:25B-26 NLT
We know Apollos taught accurately the way of Jesus and was passionate, but he only knew about the baptism of John. What does that mean?
John the Baptist had preached a baptism of repentance in anticipation of the coming Messiah. His message called people to repent and prepare themselves for what God was about to do. But John’s baptism pointed forward.
The message of Christ was now the proclamation of a Savior who had died, risen, and poured out His Spirit upon His people.
A person can accurately understand what they know while still needing to learn what they don’t know. Apollos wasn’t misleading people, and he wasn’t a fraud, but his knowledge was incomplete.
Here’s what we can learn in this moment: Priscilla and Aquila don’t use what they know to humiliate Apollos. They use what they know to help him. They don’t interrupt the sermon or reject him as a heretic. They recognize what is good in his ministry, and they help him develop further. Not only do they help him develop, but Apollos accepts them and allows himself to be challenged to go higher.
Imagine if Apollos rejected them. “Who are you to tell me anything? Don’t you know where I come from?” What if his pride got in the way?
Imagine if Priscilla and Aquila had decided, “He isn’t like Paul; let’s go to another synagogue next week.” What if their longing for the past had gotten in the way of what God was doing now?
What was true then is true now. There is no room for arrogance in the kingdom of God—not in the person who needs to learn, and not in the person who needs to teach.
Paul would go on to write this:
“My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.” 1 Corinthians 4:4 NLT
Just because your conscience is clear doesn’t mean you’re right!
Could it be that confidence in what we know actually becomes a barrier to what we don’t know? We stop listening. We stop asking questions. We become defensive when someone challenges us. We treat correction as an attack instead of an opportunity.
This is why some form of small-group discipleship and gathering together to ask questions of God’s Word will never go away.
Here’s what I believe God showed me in this passage: God isn’t finished developing you simply because He’s already using you.
Just because you’re in a season of helping others doesn’t mean that your need for growth has come to an end. If you’re a parent, one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is to grow in your knowledge of parenting. If you have people who look to you at your job, one of the greatest gifts you can give them is to grow in your capacity to lead. If you’ve been following Jesus for many years, one of the greatest gifts you can give the body of Christ is to continue to grow.
I would go as far as to say, if we’re unwilling to be developed by God, we’re unfit to lead His people.
All of this leads to two final verses, where we discover just how important this relationship became.
God’s Work Continues When We Faithfully Help Others Do Their Part
“Apollos had been thinking about going to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him. When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God’s grace, had believed. 28 He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah.” Acts 18:27-28 NLT
What I appreciate about Apollos isn’t just his willingness to learn, but also his clarity about what he felt he was called to do and where he was called to go.
He wanted to go to Achaia, which is where Corinth is. That desire to go to Achaia didn’t mean he wanted an easy assignment. In fact, the assignment meant he would have to deal with people who didn’t agree with him and treat them with grace and respect.
But more than Apollos and his desire to go to Achaia, I see how the church in Ephesus treated him. When he shared his desire, they affirmed him instead of trying to limit him. It is the role of mature believers not just to recognize gifts in others, but also to make room for those gifts to be used.
So he leaves and enters into a work that Paul had started.
Years later, Paul would write this:
“After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 NLT
Here’s where the rubber meets the road for us: faithfulness to your assignment is your responsibility. The outcome of God’s entire work is not.
Isn’t that a freeing thought? You and I can do our parts with faithfulness and trust that God will see it through.
How do we live this out today?
YOU
Be faithful to what God has entrusted to you today.
“Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:2 NLT
Your family is entrusted to your care. Your gifts, opportunities, and the people you influence are entrusted to your care.
Let me encourage you with something: don’t measure your faithfulness only by whether you’ve reached the finish line. Measure it by how closely you followed Jesus.
Be willing to receive what God wants to teach you through others.
“Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.” Proverbs 12:15 NLT
The Bible contrasts those who believe they are right with those who are willing to listen to others. Be like Apollos in this regard. His depth of knowledge seems to have been matched only by his humility to learn.
Here’s a good rule when it comes to teaching and being taught: accept correction with humility, and correct without humiliation.
Invest in people who can carry the work beyond you.
“You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 NLT
All of us reach our limits. Don’t reach your limits and realize there is no one who has learned how to continue in what God has begun in you.
If you’ve followed Jesus for decades, don’t assume your greatest opportunities to make a difference are behind you. If you’re young, don’t believe you have to become a certain age before you can contribute.
WE
When we look at Acts 18, there is no way Paul could have seen the future of Corinth. Priscilla and Aquila couldn’t have known what God would accomplish through their investment in Apollos. And Apollos couldn’t have known how his faithfulness would fit into the early church.
But each person had an opportunity to be faithful.
I asked you the question at the start that I think we all wrestle with in daily life: “How am I going to get all this done?”
Don’t worry about that. Be faithful and watch the kingdom of God grow in your life and in those around you.
