Futile Sin Management Without the Cross

In one paragraph

This message from Acts 18 used the story of Apollos, a gifted and accurate preacher who nonetheless knew only John's baptism, to ask a pointed question: what is repentance without the cross of Christ? Pastor Ray worked through the full chapter before landing on that question, and the answer shaped everything that followed. The sermon was, in his own words, a message about sin, and why human effort...

Read together

1. Acts 18:1-6 Paul leaving Athens, meeting Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth, working as tentmakers, preaching in the synagogue, shaking dust from his clothes
2. Acts 18:7-11 Paul going to the home of Titius Justus, Crispus the synagogue leader believing, the Lord speaking to Paul in a vision telling him not to be afraid
3. Acts 18:12-17 Gallio refusing to judge the case against Paul, the crowd beating Sosthenes in the courtroom
4. Acts 18:18-23 Paul sailing from Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, stopping at Ephesus, returning to Antioch and then revisiting Galatia and Phrygia
5. Acts 18:24-28 Apollos arriving in Ephesus, knowing only John's baptism, Priscilla and Aquila explaining the way of God more accurately, Apollos going to Achaia and debating that Jesus was the Messiah
6. 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul identifying Sosthenes as a brother in his letter to the Corinthians, connecting him to the man beaten in the courtroom at Corinth
7. Luke 3:1-18 John the Baptist preaching a baptism of repentance, calling the crowd a brood of vipers, declaring one mightier was coming who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire
8. Luke 11 Jesus describing the evil spirit that leaves a person, finds none rest, returns with seven worse spirits, leaving the person worse off than before
9. Matthew 12 Parallel account of the evil spirit leaving and returning with seven others, cited alongside the Luke 11 passage
10. Jude referenced briefly regarding snatching people from the fire by our good works
11. Romans 6 the heresy of sinning so grace may abound more, answered by Paul with Megan Noito, may it never be
12. Romans 12:1 Paul saying to present your bodies as a living sacrifice
13. Luke 11:27-28 woman blessing Jesus' mother from the crowd, Jesus replying that blessed are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice
14. 1 Corinthians 10:13 God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, distinguished from the misquoted version

Talk about it

1. Pastor John described Apollos as someone who preached about Jesus with accuracy and enthusiasm, yet his understanding was incomplete because he knew only John's baptism. Have you ever been in a place where you were sincere and even biblically grounded, but later realized something essential was missing from your understanding of the faith?
2. Pastor John drew a distinction between John's baptism, which called people to repentance and right living, and the cross of Christ, which provides the power to actually walk that out. In your own experience, where have you seen the difference between trying to manage sin on your own and leaning on what Christ has actually done?
3. The sermon used Jesus' teaching about the swept and empty house to make the point that self-reformation without Christ can leave a person worse off than before. What does that warning look like in practical terms in someone's life?
4. Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside privately and explained the way of God more accurately, and Apollos was willing to receive it. What makes it hard to be on either side of that kind of conversation, and what makes it possible?
5. Pastor John read a prayer in which a person confesses sin and hears God respond, 'It isn't falling in the mud that is the worst, but staying on the ground.' What difference does it make to your daily life to believe that God responds to your failures that way rather than with rejection?