He Only Knew John's Baptism

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark preached from Acts 18, with his focus landing on the final four verses and the story of Apollos. He came to the passage looking for a clear message and found one late in the week, not from the text alone but from a late-night conviction about sin. The sermon asked what it means to preach repentance without the cross, and what it means to live with Christ's power rather than trying to...

Read together

1. Acts 18 Primary text for the sermon, walked through verse by verse
2. Acts 17 Mentioned as a favorite passage, Paul speaking to the Stoics and Epicureans in Athens
3. Luke 3 John the Baptist preaching a baptism of repentance, quoted at length including the Isaiah citation and crowd questions
4. Isaiah 40:3-5 Quoted within Luke 3 about preparing the way of the Lord and every valley being filled
5. Luke 11:24-26 Jesus on sin management, the evil spirit returning with seven more wicked spirits
6. Matthew 12:43-45 The Scofield Bible King James version of the same unclean spirit passage
7. 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul and Sosthenes named as co-authors, connecting Sosthenes to Acts 18
8. Luke 2 Mentioned briefly as tied to the incarnation of Christ from the previous week
9. Luke 11:27-28 Woman crying out to bless Jesus' mother, Jesus responding that more blessed are those who hear and keep the word of God
10. Romans 1 Listed as one source of a catalog of sins the preacher considered citing

Talk about it

1. The pastor said that he believes if you push prayer and faith, the authority of scripture, world evangelization, and evangelical unity, then victorious Christian living naturally follows. Do you agree with that, and has that been true in your own experience?
2. Apollos knew the scriptures well, taught accurately about Jesus, and preached with an enthusiastic spirit, yet his understanding was incomplete because he only knew John's baptism. How do you think someone can be that close to the truth and still be missing something so central?
3. Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside and explained the way of God more accurately without shaming him or arguing with him. Can you think of a time when someone corrected your understanding that way, or when you had to do that for someone else? What made it go well or poorly?
4. The pastor described John's baptism without the cross of Christ as 'futile sin management,' and used Jesus' parable of the returning evil spirit to show why trying to clean up your life on your own can leave you worse off than before. Where have you seen that pattern play out, either in your own life or in someone else's?
5. The prayer by Michel the preacher describes turning away from God in a moment of temptation and then feeling too ashamed to look back up, and the father's response is, 'It isn't falling in the mud that's the worst, but staying down on the ground.' What does it look like practically to get back up rather than stay down after a sin you keep returning to?