The Way of God More Accurately
First B Jackson
2025-07-06

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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But we're wrapping up the second missionary journey and we're beginning the third missionary journey and actually the turnaround happens in just one verse. In verse eighteen twenty two, boom boom boom. We've stopped the second missionary journey. We've started the third and I was asked this morning by one of the elders, hey, how can I pray for you? I said that this comes across, that this message comes across and he said, what are you preaching about?

Said, that's the problem. I said, it's life. Actually, I didn't say it. He said it. He goes, it's life, man.

It's life. Because it is in the moving about, in the moving about, and the going here to fro, having people visit, having a great time with the ones we know, and then sending them off again, and having an having a familiar face up here in the front coming back. It's life. That's the way it is. Now, Paul, verse 18 of chapter 18.

Now, Paul, formerly Saul, Paul, the apostle sent out one. Now, Paul, when he had remained many days longer, that's in Corinth. He took leave of the brothers and sisters there in Corinth and he sailed away to Syria. It says from Corinth over to Syria. But before he gets to going, they say, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.

Remember that. He's got Priscilla and Aquila with him. When we were introduced to him, it was Aquila and Priscilla, male, female. After that, every single time they're mentioned females first, I think that's interesting. Priscilla and Aquila were with him and Paul first had his hair cut in century, for he was keeping a vow.

What in the world? When I think of this, and I'm trying to imagine modern world sort of examples of it, I think of people shaving, like starting over. But this is not now, this is then. I don't, you know, at first, honestly, first person I thought it was Britney Spears. I don't think she had completed a vow, but shaving her head just seems like a really unusual act at a time it was a difficult time for her but Paul had made a Nazarite vow probably.

Since it's not specified, I can't say for sure but a Nazarite vow was while you were trying your best to focus on God, you would not drink any alcohol, you're touch a dead body, it's the same one that Samson's mom took for him, right? That Nazarite vow and it was a way of showing, I believe, I believe. It was a way of Paul showing that the purists, the people who are trying their best to follow the Old Testament and he's trying to persuade them into understanding the new covenant and they still have the old one and so he's saying, I'm doing everything I can to show you that I'm that I'm I'm with you and I'm trying to bring you along. I'm I'm doing something that's not necessary. It's a vow.

So, he lets his hair grow, lets his hair grow, and then at Centra, for some reason, that's the he considered that bow kept and he's moving on back for he's keeping a bow. So, Centrae is right next to Corinth that's not far away, not quite as affluent, but it's on the way. It's shoreline ready to go. And then they came to Ephesus. That's Ephesus with Priscilla and Aquila and he left them there.

There they are in Ephesus. Now Ephesus is in Asia. You saw we were in Europe. Now, we're coming back over into Asia and Ephesus had been a place where the spirit had hindered them from doing any work in Asia. So, they end up at Troas, they go across into Europe, Macedonia come down.

But Ephesus had been a place that they were hindered by the spirit from going to begin with and now let's see what happened. Now he himself entered into the synagogue, that makes sense, that's his custom. When he goes to a new place he's not been before. He always starts with the people who ought to know and those are the folks in the synagogue, the assembly of the Jews who are gathered around the law and the prophets and so, he himself entered the synagogue and he reasoned with the Jews to the Jew first and then also to the Greek and when they asked for him to stay longer, he did not consent. So, he had not been able to get there in the Ephesus in chapter 16.

He is able to get there now and he's there on the Sabbath that says, alright, he he himself he entered the synagogue, doesn't say Sabbath, probably Sabbath. But when they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent. What he said instead was, he took leave of them and said, I will return to you again if God wills. Not quite, I shall return of a general. Right?

But I will return to you again if God wills and he set sail. It says for Mephesus. So there we go. For Mephesus and we'll see where they land in the next verse. And when he landed in Caesarea.

So like I said, this is mostly travelogue it sounds like and it's easy to skip over this. When you're reading along, it's like, oh yeah, shaved his hair. What's let's just get to the point. When he had landed in Caesarea, Caesarea is down here. It's the port that you go to if you're trying to get to Jerusalem.

Here we are. Ephesus to Caesarea and he went up to Jerusalem. Up is uphill. It's south from there. Southeast from there but up is uphill.

He went up to Jerusalem. He greeted the church there. He had been familiar with them. They had been familiar with him and so they're here he is in Jerusalem. Now, it just flippantly says in this the same verse 22 and then he went down to Antioch.

Down for me seems like it'd be south. That's just the way I think but down is downhill from Jerusalem, downhill to Antioch and it is 300 miles. So, in the space of one verse, look at this. When he had landed in, he's from Ephesus all the way across the Mediterranean to Caesarea then to Jerusalem then just went down Antioch. No big deal.

300 miles. You just walked two fifty miles. How long did it take you? Three and a half weeks. Three and a half weeks.

Okay. That's a month. For him. Right. He went 50 miles further.

So, after spending some, but you did 500 before that. I know that. Yeah. Try harder next time. That's right.

Maybe Caesarea to Jerusalem and then down, you know? After spending some time there, where? There was, there, where? That's Antioch. That was Ascendon Church.

That's his home base and so, after spending a little time there, he left and he passed successively through the region of Galatia and Phreesia strengthening all the disciples. He was, it seems, in constant movement. Now, he stayed there for some time. It does say that. Take a breath when you get home and then, he goes back to the work.

I we call him the apostle Paul. Now, we know him as the teacher Paul. We know him as the persuader Paul but he is one who has sent out and he's taking his job seriously. Just keeps on moving. So, here he is through Galatia, Phreesia, and that's the map from chapter 16 where he was hindered from going into Asia and hindered from going into Bethenia, end up at Troas and go across and now, it says, new paragraph.

Now, a Jew named Apollos who was an Alexandrian by birth. This is not a Jerusalem Jewish guy. He was Alexandrian by birth. He was an eloquent man and he came to Ephesus also. And he was proficient in the scriptures.

Now, Paul had come in and left. This is new track we're taking. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, right? That kind of thing. A Jew named Apollos and by an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus.

He was proficient in the scriptures and this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord. So, he he had the Old Testament, Torah, probably law and prophets and being fervent in spirit and an eloquent speaker, he was accurately speaking and teaching things about Jesus. They're about Jesus but being acquainted only with the baptism of John. That's not a complete understanding of Jesus. If you think behavior modification is all that Christianity is about, you have missed the point.

And Apollos was an eloquent man and he knew about the behavior modification part of repentance. It starts with knowing that you need to repent, right? I have a problem. I can't do anything about step one of the 12, right? Jesus is the way.

There is a higher power who can restore me to sanity but he had not made that connection yet. Next verse of if you want to know about the baptism of John, you can read it in Matthew three, you can read it in John three. John, the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Now, John was the one that Isaiah had referred to when he said, the voice of one calling out in the wilderness, be preparing the way of the Lord, be making his path straight. It does begin with knowing.

You have a problem you can't under you can't fix on your own and there is a higher power that God is providing. Now, John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. This food was locust and wild honey. This is a wild dude. Not not what you're expecting from a Baptist preacher, right?

Not what I expect from one. At that time, Jerusalem was all going out to him and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. They admitted, step one, I got something that I can't do anything about. It's something that is hanging me up. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and sadducees coming for baptism, he said to him, you offspring of vipers.

Who warns you to flee the wrath to come? Therefore, be producing fruit consistent with repentance. Don't keep on going the same way you've been going. Turn around. Don't assume that you can say to yourself, we have Abraham as our father.

Our lineage is enough. For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham and the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, he says, I baptize with water. I'm looking forward to a baptism this week.

For repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than I. I'm not fit to remove his sandals. He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit on the fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand. He will thoroughly clear his threshing floor.

He'll gather his wheat into the barn but he'll burn up the chaff of unquenchable fire. If that's the only message you had, you missed the point of Jesus, right? It's it's what you need ahead of him. It's what you need to know ahead of him being there, but once he gets there, oh my goodness, and he shows how God really is. The exact representation of the God that we serve.

Man, it's not just about repentance, it's about redemption, and he provides that. So here we go. Apollos is speaking knowing only the baptism. John had began speaking boldly in the synagogue and everybody who's going through the religious motions, even sincerely going through the religious motions, began speaking boldly in the synagogue and they're hearing him. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they're outsiders coming in.

Right? When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God more accurately to him. It's not just about that. It's not just about what you think it's about. It's not behavior modification alone.

It's about it's about Jesus, Priscilla, and Aquila in that order. They took him aside and they explained the way of God more accurately to him. Now, when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote the disciples to welcome him. He now has a new understanding and he's wanting to go to Achaia. That's Corinth by the way.

He is Apollos. You get can lost in this sometimes if you're just reading fast like I don't know where that is. Don't know where that is. I don't know where that is. There's where it is.

Achaia is where Corinth is. And so he was in Ephesus. Paul was just in Corinth and then brought Priscilla and Aquila across to Ephesus and now that he's heard from Priscilla and Aquila. He wants to get back over to Corinth where they just heard this good word and they're, it's fruitful. He's eloquent but he didn't know what he was talking or at least he didn't know everything that he was talking about.

Now, he knows the way of God more accurately. He goes back to this fresh place, Achaia. This is real world stuff. This was a reminder slide for me. Probably should've left it out.

This is real world stuff. It's where we live, it's where we go, it's how long we stay, it's what we do, who we see, what we say. What we hear, what they see, that's real world stuff for every single one of us. There's a new made up word called sonder. Have you all heard it?

Sonder? The Internet generation has probably heard it. It's completely made up, but sonder is the feeling that you get when you realize that every single person that passes by you, whether it's at a parade, in a mall, or anywhere else, is their own individual thing and their emotions and their sense of being is every bit as real as yours. Sonder, it's made up, but it's a good word. It needed to be made up.

It's the realization that other people so the real world stuff of what am I going to do? How long am I how am I going get it there? How are we going to make this happen? All of this. Where we live?

Where we go? How long we stay? What we do? Who we see? What we say?

What we hear what they hear from us and what they see from us. All of those things are really really important. And it calls back my mind to Paul by himself in Athens. He didn't have his entourage, didn't have anybody else, and he greets the philosophers on their turf on Mars Hill and he says that God has determined. He's the creator of everything and he has determined our appointed times and our boundaries of our habitation and everywhere that we'll go.

We're supposed to be walking in the steps that he has for us but he knows them. In him, we live and move and exist. Paul quotes their own poets and he says that, and man, the realization of that in Jackson in the summertime, all these you can play the license plate game and be done in four hours. There's nowhere else I've ever been. I got two states in Mexico the other day and got 47 states before lunch.

I'm not joking. That's crazy. That's crazy. We used to have somebody from Alaska that lived in our neighborhood, and I was always guaranteed, but no, not anymore. Okay.

When he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. Praise God, this eloquent man. When he arrived in Ikea, he just helped people. He had received the word of God more accurately and now he was able to spread it to them. Was it just in word?

It sounds like deed the way that it's said. And then it says, he powerfully refuted the Jews in public. So, in the synagogue, there was there were some who accepted and there were some who rejected. Right? And Paul moves on from there.

But he goes back and in public, he's saying, I know that you're purist and I understand what you're doing, but there's more to it than this. There's more to it even than John the Baptist had said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, there's more to it than this, and he's trying to give a more accurate picture. He powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrated by the scriptures. It's again very important that you don't just do it by logic or by rhetoric, but by the scriptures that Jesus was actually the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. Now, it happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and he came to Ephesus.

He's going through all throughout Galatia and Phreesia and he comes down to Ephesus, there it is. Apollos is over in Corinth. And they pass through. Remember they were forbidden to speak there. What must it have been like knowing that that door had been closed two chapters ago?

And you come into Ephesus. You wanted to go there but weren't able, hindered, and now you get there and you're only there for a day and you leave. And now he's coming back to it. There he is at Ephesians. We have Ephesians.

Y'all know that, right? Further on down, we'll see Paul crying on the beach, not at a gas station but at a beach. That was his method of travel. I'll return to you if God wills. He set sail from Ephesus.

So, if you're thinking about Paul, this is the third time for an attempt. One time didn't happen. One time happened very briefly. I gotta go. I'll come back if God wills.

He recognized that God was not willing for him to stay that time. This is what the real world stuff I was talking about. The real world where the rubber hits the road is every day how we use our walk, how we use our words, how where we go, what we do, how long we stay, all that stuff. This time when he came to Ephesus, he found some disciples. Disciples, learners, students, there he is and he said to these disciples, did y'all receive?

It does say y'all by the way. Did y'all receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, on the contrary, buddy, we don't, we haven't even heard of what that is. They're in Ephesus. They're not in Jerusalem.

They're not in the holy land where we call it. This is Ephesus. Now, call it Turkey. On the contrary, we haven't even heard if there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, well then, into what were you baptized?

And they said, we were baptized into John's baptism. It was a baptism of repentance. We're disciples. We wanna learn more. That's what disciple is.

We're students of this and we were baptized into John's baptism of repentance which is basically behavior modification. And Paul said, it is though looking forward to the one who would come. Right? It is knowing that you are not able to save yourself and you can try buckling down, buckling down, buckling down, and do that over and over and keep missing it. So Paul, like Priscilla and Aquila, explains the way of God more accurately to them.

Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, he did, and he was telling people to believe in the one coming after him, and that is in Jesus. That was what I read to you a minute ago. Oh gracious. How small was that print? So this is from Matthew three.

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan. He was coming to John to baptized by him, but John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you and yet you're coming to me but Jesus answered and said, John, allow it at this time for in this way it's fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness And then John allowed him and he was baptized and Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were open and he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on him and behold, a voice from the heavens said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. The trinity present right there visible and audible here. John three, the last testimony of John the Baptist. Verse 30 right there is what I wanted to get to.

John says, he must increase but I must decrease. That was not a man who wanted to hold on to power. He recognized that he was sent for a purpose. He was walking in his purpose and then, when he points to Jesus and says, there he is, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's the guy.

He needs to increase, I need to decrease. So the people who've been baptized into John's baptism of repentance need to recognize that there's more to it than this and Jesus says what's more to it than this. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. That's great.

They listened to John. They listened to Paul and when Paul had laid hands upon him, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues. They began preaching, prophesying. So, speaking in tongues and prophesying. I know this is a baptist church when you walk past the sign this morning.

If you just got here, you're thinking, well, I ain't going to talk about that. I guarantee you. But this is what it says. This is what it says. When he laid his hands upon the Holy Spirit came on them, they began speaking with tongues.

They began prophesying. So where else have we seen this? We saw it on the day of Pentecost in Acts two verse four. Pentecost in Jerusalem, they're all gathered in upper room together and while they're there, the spirit of God descends and they began speaking in other tongues. It says that and people were confused because they understood.

So, they're speaking out the message in a way that was clear for everybody that was hearing. These guys are all from Galilee. Yet, I understand them in my own language. So, just like Pentecost in Jerusalem or in Acts eight, we see Peter and John go up to Samaria. It looks like people are believing in Jesus what's going on and they have these two pillars of the church and they go up and while Peter and John are present, it says, and the Holy Spirit descended on them in the same way that it had descended upon us, and then they retell the story and said, the same way that it had depended it's shown in Acts two, Acts eight, and in Acts 10.

So now, Peter being in Joppa up on the he's praying, somebody comes to the door and says Cornelius has sent her sent us to get you. He takes him up to Caesarea, and in Caesarea, he enters the house of a Gentile. And it says, and the folks in the house of Cornelius received not just the word about Jesus, and I think that's important. It's not just knowing about Jesus, you can know about Jesus and not know Jesus. And you can know about Jesus and then somebody can come along and tell you the way of God more accurately, and then he fills you with his spirit.

That's what he does. Now in this time, it's transitional. I can say all that, but that's where we see it happening and then it happens again here in Acts 18 for these 12 guys. Isn't that fun that it starts over with 12 more guys? This decentralized, just as life goes sort of thing where it starts in small groups, sometimes there's a big crowd.

Usually when there's a big crowd, it splits. When there's a small crowd, there are disciples in there looking to be taught the way of God more accurately. It happens. He entered the synagogue, he continued speaking out boldly in Ephesus for three months. He was having discussions and he was persuading them about the kingdom of God.

I think he was doing so gently and took his time. Three months, he's there and he is continually pointing out the things that Jesus had said to him. He was pointing out the things that Jesus had said to the other disciples and apostles. And he's pointing out all the ways Old Testament points to the new covenant and Jesus in particular. So he's having discussions.

He's persuading them about the kingdom of God. So that's Paul, but oh, here it is. Every time, every time there's opposition somewhere, right? But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient and they were speaking evil of the way before the people. What does it say?

Paul gathered an army. He sharpened his sword. No. It says, he withdrew from them. He stepped back.

They had rejected it. They had heard it for three straight months. Gentleness and grace and persuasive speech, I'm sure. But he withdrew from it. He took the disciples away with him.

So now he's got 12 running buddies. But no, they had discussions daily. Where? In a school of philosophy, the school of Tyrannus. Now, don't know any more about the school of Tyrannus than that.

There are tons of tons of ministries that have been named this since, but this was just a school of philosophy. It was an open forum for people to present in Ephesus, and that's where those disciples and Paul posted up, and they had discussions daily, and this took place for two solid years. So this is the longest we've seen Paul stay anywhere that we've witnessed it. He said he stayed longer in Arabia and a couple other places. We didn't we didn't see it, we didn't hear about it.

Took place for two years, and it did that so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Now, this is cool. That posting up in an open forum was the place where all of the folks of the area were able to come in. Religious institutions draw folks who already believe in most cases. Proselytes are few, they're mostly people this room right now, if I had to guess, most of you all have a Christian background, or you have you have at some point become a Christian.

Most of you, not all of you, but the place to hear it is just in the daily where we live, where we move, where, and Paul posted up and he just kept on presenting the truth from the scriptures for anyone who would listen and it says, all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Now, what are the principles demonstrating application for this travelogue with just a couple of little instances? It gets real interesting next week. I want to stop before that. My task is always deciding where to stop.

I know where I'm going to start. I'm going start 1911 the next time I preach. Right? The principles demonstrated an application. I I see this and go, just because the door is closed for a while, that mean it won't eventually open back up.

If you feel like you were led to a place but you're hindered for from the hope from by the Holy Spirit, that doesn't mean that that's a never for you. It meant it was a not then. And it might be that it's a blancing glow. Every time is not always God's time and maybe he needed to put other things into place before Paul got there and was able to say that. Maybe those 12 disciples were not disciples until Paul got there.

We don't know because we're finite beings and we're serving an infinite God. Every soldier on the battlefield does not know the plans of the general. It's just the way it is. I I want for first B, I really want this for for every church but since this is the one where God has placed me, I want for first B to be, actually, I think to remain a place where we nurture the gift that that God has given and I see that being in here with virtually no experience as a as a preacher or as a pastor and coming in thirteen years ago and a lot of gracious people for a long time just can't put up with it. Sincerely and encouraged it and I think it's awesome and I know Carl when he got here was playing a guitar down the basement that somebody left behind.

He didn't play guitar. Did you all know that? When he got here, he's a drummer. He started playing guitar. Ryan's been playing for twenty years and string breaks on the first drum of the set after we did a full sound check.

We we obviously, we don't know why it is that God is doing what he's doing all the time, but humility before God really helps the process because God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. What if Apollos would have reacted to Priscilla and Aquila with pride? How dare you question me? I'm an Alexandrian rhetorician. Did you not hear my speech?

'Twas lovely. I'm the eloquent Alexandrian here. I have quite the following already. He didn't say that. He was like, oh, that makes sense.

And then he started presenting that. Isn't that lovely? Humility before God really helps the process. I think that's the last slide. I'm going ask the band to come back up.

In our lives, in our lives, all of our lives, not mine, not yours, all of our lives, the collective life of the body of Christ. This is the way that God is moving forward. He wants for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be understood accurately and presented accurately. He doesn't want us to get it twisted. When we see later in Corinth, well, we'll see later in the letter to the Corinthians.

Paul is upset and Paul says, there are factions among you. Why are you falling after people? Some of you say I'm from of Apollos and some of you say I'm after this guy and some of you say I'm after this guy. Some of you even have say I'm after Christ. Yeah, that's all good.

We all ought to be after Christ. We should not have factions. We should not be divided. Pastor Kamal's service last week was about the unity of the body of Christ. When we are divided, we are not acting like the body of Christ.

May we be united. May we abide. That's what we're going to sing. Would you stand with us? The altar is always open.

If you want to talk to me, I'll turn the microphone off but I'm here all week.