The Mighty Word (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #33)

INTRODUCTION

While Paul takes a brief sabbatical to visit and encourage a number of the churches, the Word is going forth mightily in public through a man named Apollos and in private through a refugee missionary couple. This is how Christ rules the nations: through His living and active Word.   

The Text: “And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence to Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquilla; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow…” (Acts 18:18-28)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Here, Luke summarizes a fair bit of travel: Paul fulfills a Nazarite Vow in Cenchrea (near Corinth) before sailing to Ephesus and begins preaching (Acts 18:18-19). Asked to stay longer, Paul leaves, promising to return, heading to Jerusalem for a feast, and ends up at his homebase of Antioch before working his way back through Asia Minor encouraging the churches (Acts 18:20-23).

Apparently Aquilla and Priscilla stayed in Ephesus while Paul was traveling, and this is a “meanwhile…” backstory preparing for Paul’s return to Ephesus in Acts 19. While they were in Ephesus, Apollos, a very gifted apologist and a disciple of John the Baptist showed up (Acts 18:24-25). Aquilla and Priscilla took Apollos aside and further explained some things, and after some time, he was sent by the Ephesians to minister in Corinth (Acts 18:26-28).

PAUL'S NAZARITE VOW

As mentioned above, Paul’s haircut is a reference to a Nazirite Vow, which was basically a temporary priestly vow (Num. 6). Samson was the most famous Nazirite (Jdg. 13:4-7). The central components of the vow were abstention from alcohol and no haircuts. Just as priests were forbidden from drinking in the tabernacle so that they could make careful distinctions and teach God’s law faithfully (Lev. 10:9-11), so too Nazirites vowed to keep strict sobriety for their holy service wherever they went: sometimes for war (like Samson, or Israel, Jgd. 5:1, or probably Uriah, 2 Sam. 11:11) and sometimes for teaching and preaching (like Samuel or John the Baptist). The long hair was a semi-permanent head covering, that was a sign of their priestly service, just as the priests wore head coverings for their priestly service in the tabernacle (Ex. 28:4, 40, Lev. 10:6). It was a sign that because of sin we needed a new “head” to represent us before God.

It seems likely that Paul had taken a voluntary, temporary Nazirite Vow for all or some portion of this missionary journey, dedicating himself completely to this holy ministry. These were fitting signs of Old Covenant priestly service that was fading away after Christ came (2 Cor. 3). So why was Paul practicing Jewish ceremonies after Christ had come? The answer is that Paul and other Jews were free to keep Jewish ceremonies (without imposing them on Gentiles) until the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. But after Christ ascended into Heaven as our High Priest, no man ought to have his head covered (or have long hair) in worship, since the head of every man is Christ. This is what Paul writes to the Corinthians later, explaining that this is why God has given women longer hair as their glory and covering to honor their head (man) (1 Cor. 11:1-16). But all of this is meant to signify submission to the Word of God.

MIGHTY IN THE SCRIPTURES

While Paul is visiting the churches, Apollos, a highly educated Jewish man, mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus, where Aquilla and Priscilla had remained. Luke says he was very zealous in the Spirit, having been well trained in the “baptism of John,” which is shorthand for thoroughly discipled in the school of John. Given this glowing appraisal, Apollos was certainly preaching the gospel from the Scriptures, but there were a few details that needed to be ironed out, which Aquilla and Priscilla did privately (Acts 18:26).

This text is sometimes used to defend women preachers, or husband and wife pastor teams, but elsewhere Scripture is very clear that women are not to have leadership roles in the assembly but remain silent (1 Cor. 14:34-35, 1 Tim. 2:11-15). However, we do not mind underlining the point that women are to be present and learning, and as we see here, a woman in full submission to her husband may be of great assistance in privately encouraging a fellow Christian. And the older women are to teach the younger women (Tit. 2:3-4). Apparently, some Roman Catholics have used this text to try to argue for the necessity of extra-biblical tradition, but as soon as Apollos lands in Corinth, he’s right back to his powerful ministry, centered on the Scriptures (Acts 18:28).

APPLICATIONS

Christianity is a “religion of the book,” a “religion of the Word.” In the beginning, God spoke creation into existence by His Word, and the rest of Scripture is an infallible record of God speaking and revealing Himself to His people. But many people, even some Christians, want to say something like, ‘the Bible is special, but it is a fallible, human book with many mistakes and human opinions.’ The problem with this is that there is no way of admitting errors into Scripture without unravelling the whole faith.

But someone might say, ‘I believe in God and Jesus Christ, I’m just not sure about all the details.’ Now, it’s certainly true that someone like that might be truly saved and converted. But you cannot build a coherent worldview and religion on that uncertainty. The Bible itself claims to be the Word of God: “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16), “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:20-21). Jesus Himself taught that He came to fulfill the whole Old Testament, down to the punctuation marks (Mt. 5:17-18). And the point is that if Jesus was wrong about that, or Matthew was wrong about recording that, what can you trust?

The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. It is our rock, our fortress. We have been baptized into this Word, this doctrine, and it is our power. Martin Luther once said, “I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”