Acts 18:24-19:41 - Apollos and Paul in Ephesus

1. Theme
   1. Correction from other believers is edifying to the individual and glorifying to God
   2. The effect of the gospel spans beyond the salvation of the elect, but also heaps ashes upon the heads of the damned.
   3. In this passage, we meet Apollos and witness the grand effects of Paul's ministry in Ephesus.
   4. Apollos is an intelligent and mighty teacher, yet still needs and accepts correction.
   5. Like Paul, Apollos reasoned with the Jews from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. It is natural to see how Paul and Apollos's ministry is intertwined and led to the troubles found in 1 Corinthians 1 and 3, where the church claimed they are "of Apollos" or "of Paul". It is not Apollos's sin that the Corinthian church said they were followers of him rather than Christ.
      1. We see Paul make this clear in 1 Corinthians 3:4-7, "For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."
   6. Now at this time, Paul is travelling to Ephesus and comes across 12 men which Luke describes as disciples.
   7. These disciples are presented as having saving faith, but claim to have not "received the Holy Spirit"
      1. This should not be confused as them having believed rightfully, but not having the promised presence of God in them.
      2. We should instead understand this as them having rightfully believed and received the presence of the Holy Spirit, yet without having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For Acts records two ways by which these gifts are passed on to believers: gifted to those at Pentecost, or gifted upon the laying on of hands by the apostles.
      3. And to whether or not these men had received a proper baptism, we can look to Matthew 3:11, where John the Baptist states that his baptism is in fact one of repentance, "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
   8. The rest of this passage shows us the wide and sweeping effects of the spread of the gospel
      1. The teaching and miracles performed by Paul bring great numbers of people to the gospel of Christ.
      2. The people of the region respond well by destroying their idols and stopping the purchase of the same, causing the silversmiths of the city to rebel against the church for the lack it brought their business as crafters of idols.
   9. We should expect our faith to affect more than our lives alone, knowing the world will reject the truth we hold dear.