The Lord takes his people on
a journey, and today we have the journey of Paul, and the
journey of Apollos, and the journey of Priscilla and Aquila. So if you turn to Acts chapter
18, we'll chart some of the journeys these people went on. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. He orders your steps. One of
my favourite verses in all of the scriptures years ago, and
now that I'm being reminded of it again, is Proverbs 16 verse
9, and in other translations it says that in our mind we plan
our path. And God determines our footfall. So we plan our path, says God,
a man's heart devises his way and the Lord directs his steps,
Proverbs 16 verse 9. And so the steps of all humanity
are ordered and the steps of God's people are ordered in grace
as he moves them in remarkable ways. And we've seen as we've
journeyed with Paul, we've seen him be directed by God again
and again and again. And he's here in this last part
of chapter 18, he's here on a journey which takes him from tolerance
back to Ephesus for the first time, where he'd been prohibited
from going before, back to Jerusalem, back to Antioch, and back through
Galatia, and then to Ephesus again. Priscilla and Aquila had
been on a journey. They had been pushed out of Rome
by a decree of Claudius, because all the Jews had been doing nothing
but stirring things up in Rome. Priscilla and Aquila had come
by the providence and the hand of God to Corinth and now they
have gone, they move with Paul over to Ephesus and later on
we'll find that they go back to Rome. And of course we have
Apollos here, Apollos is an Egyptian, a Jew born in Egypt. And Apollos is on his way to
Corinth to be a teacher of the scriptures and a preacher and
a pastor. and how do you get him to Corinth
from Alexandria in Egypt? You send him to Ephesus into
the arms and into the hands of Priscilla and Aquila. Let's read
these journeys. Because all of us are on a journey,
aren't they? And the journey of the Lord's people is measured
out in ways which are particular and peculiar to them. But nevertheless,
all of the journeys of all of God's people are directed with
the purpose for them to be brought into the fellowship of the Lord
Jesus Christ and all of his people. And his ways of doing it are
without number. But they're all glorious. As we look back, we can see His
hand of providence. And we're here today by His hand
of providence. You're not here by accident,
brothers and sisters. Acts 18 verse 18. This is after the beating of
the synagogue ruler, and Paul stayed there a good while yet,
he'd been there 18 months and maybe stayed there longer, and
then took his leave of the brethren. and sail thence into Syria, and
with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Sancreia. Sancreia is the port on the east
side of Corinth. For he had a vow, And he came
to Ephesus, and left Priscilla and Aquila there. But he himself
entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. And when
they desired him to tarry longer with them, he consented not,
but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this
feast that cometh in Jerusalem. But I will return again unto
you, if God will, And he sailed from Ephesus, and when he'd landed
at Caesarea, which is on the west side of Jerusalem, on the
Mediterranean coast, and gone up, he saluted the church, and
he went down to Antioch. Antioch is where he originally
started from in his missionary journey, so he returns from his
second missionary journey to the church. He starts at the
church, and he goes back to the church. And after he spent some
time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia
and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. And a certain
Jew named Apollos, born of Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in
the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the
way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spoke and taught
diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism
of John. And he began to speak boldly
in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they
took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more
perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass
into Achaia, which is where Corinth is, the bottom part of Greece,
the brethren rode, exhorting the disciples to receive him,
who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed
through grace. For, or because, he mightily
convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures
that Jesus was Christ. We're going to sing again. We're
going to sing number 52. Is it 52? It is 52, isn't it? We rest on thee, our shield and
our defender. We go not forth alone against
the foe. Strong in thy strength, safe
in thy keeping tender. We rest on thee, and in thy name
we go. We go not far. Jesus our Father, is this our
joy? He rose in faith, out of the
grave He has seen me, and He called me to lay my grace upon
Him. And from now on, as long as I
live, He rests on me. me Yet from our hearts a song of
triumph pealing." Isn't that a lovely phrase? What's the song
of triumph? What's the song of triumph? The
song of triumph in the scriptures is, our God reigns. Our God reigns. I'd like us, as we've come to
Ephesus to in our journeys with our friend and brother Paul,
I'd like us to turn to Ephesians. One of the glories of the Lord
Jesus Christ is that he is alive, and so often we think he's dead,
and so often we treat him as someone that's dead, but he actually
is alive, and he's alive now. He might be dead to the people
of this world, but he is alive. There's a glorious description
of what is happening in all the Book of Acts, in Ephesians chapter
4. The grace of God reigns, our
Lord Jesus Christ reigns, he sits on the throne of this universe.
The sun is shining now because he makes it to shine, and when
he decides that this world is finished, when the last of his
elect, the last of his bride, the completion of his body is
done in this world, is finished. It has no reason to exist. It has no reason. God puts up
in remarkable ways of patience with the people of this world
who live in rebellion, but there will come a time There will come
a time when the Lord Jesus will come back. Our God reigns and
the Lord Jesus Christ is alive. Let's read in chapter 4 verse
7. There is just, to go back a couple
of verses, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father over all, who is above all and through all and in you
all. Now the you there is the church,
of course. But under every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he saith,
when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men. It's a quote from Psalm 68. If
you turn back to Psalm 68, you'll see how gloriously the Holy Spirit
has has adjusted the words in such a beautiful way. It says
in Psalm 68 verse 18, you've ascended on high. In verse 17
it says that the chariots of God are 20,000, even thousands
of angels. The Lord is among them, as in
Sinai, in the holy place. And he says, thou hast, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast
led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts. for men, yea, for the rebellious
also, that God might dwell among them." So he's received gifts
for men. He earned those gifts by his
obedience. He earned those gifts by his
work on this earth in fulfilment of all that he promised in eternity. But listen to what it says in
chapter, in verse 8 of chapter 4 of Ephesians. Wherefore he
sayeth, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts to men. In Psalm 68 he received gifts. In Ephesians 4, the ascended
Lord Jesus Christ, he gives gifts. What are the gifts he gives? Read on in Ephesians chapter
4 and you'll see the gifts that he's given. He gave some, verse 11, he gave
some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers, and this is the reason he's done it. He
has these gifts and he's distributing these gifts. Paul was a gift
to the churches. Apollos will be a gift to the
churches. Priscilla and Aquila were a gift
to the churches. All of God's children, whether
they are tent makers like Priscilla and Aquila, or apostles like
Paul, or teachers like Apollos, are all the recipients of these
gifts. He's given them, they're God's
gifts to His people, verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That henceforth, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine and slight
of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to
deceive, but speaking the truth in love. may grow up into him
in all things, which is the head, even Christ. From whom, this
is Christ, this is our ascended saviour, and this is his activity
now, isn't it? From whom, from whom the whole
body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love." Our God reigns. Our God reigns over all things. He is just the sovereign, isn't
he? He is the sovereign. He's not just the sovereign.
He says, you know, he makes his decrees and who can stay his
hand? Who can disannul what God has
determined? The thing is established by God
and God will shortly bring it to pass. That phrase Ben and
I were talking about last week, there's a phrase throughout the
scriptures, and it came to pass. And it came to pass. What's the
it? It's absolutely everything that
God determined in eternity, and absolutely everything that God
brings to pass in time. I love what Isaiah 46 describes
the work of our God. He says, declares the end, he
declared the end from the beginning. Isaiah 46, 10. He declares the end from the
beginning. The starting point with God was an end. What's the
end? We just read about it in Ephesians
chapter 4, isn't it? The end that God would live in
a new creation, the home of the righteous. He would live there
in a way where he reveals all of his glory to all of his people. And such is the glory of our
great God that eternity Eternity is required for His people to
appreciate Him. He's endless. One of the things that we have
seen as we've gone through Acts is the sovereign hand of God
leading and guiding and directing His servant in ways that is so
typical of what He does in this world. works that grace in his people
and works that grace in the lives of his people because our God
has a will. Our God has a will, and unlike
our will, he has the power to perform his will. which is what
our Lord Jesus Christ is doing now and what he's done. As we
witness it in Acts, we are witnessing the biography of every Christian
and we are witnessing the history of this particular church and
all the churches that God has raised up throughout the world.
God has a will. Paul describes himself in Ephesians,
just turn back to Ephesians chapter one. I just want to look at some
verses here so that we actually see that two simple things, God
has a will and God has power. God has a will and God has power. God has a will and the will of
Him is that all that the Father gave to the Lord Jesus Christ
shall come to Him. That's God's will. Paul, verse
1 of Ephesians 1, Paul's an apostle by the will of God. And he lists
these remarkable spiritual blessings in verse 3, doesn't he? Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. He has the will that causes him
to have pleasure in his will. One of the things that is so
much attached to our unbelief is that so often we look at this
world and we think, how on earth is all that working out? And
where is God? That was the question that I
asked of David, isn't it? Where is your God? David turned
around and said, he's in the heavens, he's sitting on the
throne. But we don't see it so often, do we? But it's the good
pleasure of his will, all those spiritual blessings, all that
choosing, all that predestinating, all that adopting of children.
In verse nine, he goes on to talk about having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure.
See, we keep losing sight of the fact that God is pleased.
God is pleased. He's pleased with his son, for
the joy that was set before him, the Lord Jesus Christ, went to
the cross. Our God is a God now who has pleasure, and he has
joy, and he is satisfied, nothing more. Nothing in this creation
is outside of His will. You read it there in verse 11,
just look how extensive this is. Ephesians is a remarkable
letter, I'm just amazed how often there are superlatives used. The words don't seem to be big
enough and Paul seems to be trying desperately to try and make us
understand how big and how amazing our God is and what a glorious
Saviour that we have. And don't forget, Paul met this
Saviour and met Him again, and met Him again just prior to his
leaving Corinth. It says in verse 11, in whom,
in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ also, we have attained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh. Those ETH endings meaning an
act an hour with a continuing, continuing purpose. Worketh. He's always working. He works
all things. He's working all things. The
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. And what's his own will? That
we should be to the praise of his glory. His glory, who first
trusted in Christ. His purpose in all of this creation
is there in 2 verse 7, that in ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. Verse 6 it says that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of His promise
in Christ by the Gospel. We're partakers of His promise.
That's why the Church in verse 10 is said to be the place where
He makes known to the intent now unto the principalities and
powers in heavenly places that might be known by the Church
the manifold wisdom of God, the multifaceted wisdom of God. We read it there in verse 7,
didn't we? unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So grace
reigns. Our God reigns. It is the reign
of grace. We live in an age of grace. Grace
is God giving to us what we don't deserve. Mercy is Him withholding
from us what we do deserve. But grace is giving, isn't it?
He gives. He continually gives. That's
why in verse 7 of Ephesians 1, it is the riches of His grace.
The riches of His grace. Verse 10, that he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him. He's going to gather
them all together. He has a purpose. He has a purpose,
we read in verse 11 of chapter 1, that we should be to the praise
of his glory. Verse 17, Paul comes to pray
for these Ephesians. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Him. In the knowledge of Him. that the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His
calling, what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power
to us who believe. According to the working of His
mighty power, Our God has a will and our God has the power to
have his will fulfilled and he's demonstrated that power in the
most clear and precise and meaningful and instructive way, which he
wrought, verse 20, which he wrought. in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. And he's put all things under
his feet, says in verse 22, and he's the head of all things for
the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. The Lord Jesus Christ has a body.
The Lord Jesus Christ has a bride. They are precious to him. His
will and his power coincide to make sure that all of their body,
as Ephesians chapter 2 says, they were dead, weren't they?
But they've been raised again. This great love wherewith he's
loved us. Chapter 2, but God who is rich
in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins has quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved and has raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're sitting here
The Lord's promised to be present with us, but in reality we're
sitting in heaven. We're sitting in heaven with
Him right now. See, grace saves. The will of God and the power
of God and the purpose of God make sure that He's saved. Read verse 8. For by grace, chapter
2, verse 8 of Ephesians, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Everywhere in the scriptures
where God gives a gift, he makes sure that the recipient receives
it. There are no, don't you remember those old Christmas things they
used to do, didn't they? They used to have an evangelistic
thing, and they'd have the Christmas tree, and they'd have a present,
and the fellow would be giving a talk about how wonderful the
present was, and the present's the Lord Jesus Christ, and God
offers the present to people because he loves everyone and
Jesus died for everyone. And then he turned around to
people and said, isn't it going to be a tragedy on Christmas
morning? There's a present left under
the Christmas tree. And he'd have this picture of
the box. He'd show this box. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Nothing could be more blasphemous of God. than to suggest
that somehow he would give a gift, he would prepare a gift, and
that gift would be his son, and he would have put his son to
death and shed his blood on that cross under his wrath, and somehow
that gift wouldn't achieve its purpose. He's going to show the riches
of His grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship. See,
we're a creation. We are His workmanship created,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before ordained
that we should walk in them. It's a creative activity. It's
a creative activity, just as the first creation began with
God saying, let there be light, and that light was a spiritual
light. The second creation, the new creation, requires just as
much power of God, and just as much purpose of God, and the
will of God. You realize what he's done in
this making. It says, verse 13, Look what
we were. There's a great description of
what we were. In verse 12 it says, that time we were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God
in this world. Now look at the creative activities
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But now in Christ, Jesus, you
who were sometimes afar off have been made near made nigh by the
blood of Christ. And he is our peace who has made,
it's a creative activity, has made both one and has broken
down the middle wall, the partition between us, and he's abolished,
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinance, for to make in himself of the two one
new man, so making peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
And came, I love what that says, isn't it? In verse 17, he's done
that work on Calvary's tree, on the cross of Calvary. And
he came, he came. And he preaches peace to you
that were far off and to them that were nigh. He's creating
a building. He's creating a building. That's
what we're seeing in Acts. That's what we'll see as we travel
through Paul in this journey as he goes back to Ephesus and
he spends those years there in Ephesus. He is in the process
of just following the path of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes
there. He gathers His people. He creates
His churches. He creates a place where He reveals
Himself. Just read what it says at the
end of chapter 2. These are just remarkable words,
isn't it? We're no longer, verse 19, we're
no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
grows unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built
together for an habitation of God by the
Spirit. That's the wonder of the gospel,
isn't it, brothers and sisters? That the Lord Jesus Christ took
all that separated us from God and took it upon himself and
bore the infinite, eternal wrath of God. and sins are gone. He's taken those sins away. That's
what it is for his people to be justified. And now, now brothers
and sisters in Christ, sinners, weak, frail, flailing through
this world, God dwells in us. God dwells amongst us. It's the
habitation of God through the Spirit. No wonder Paul, who was
at enmity against God, would find grace amazing. He would find grace as amazing
as the Saviour of grace. He would find the power of God
at work Just remarkable, as he witnessed it again and again
and again. That as God dwells with his people
and God dwells in his people. You read verse 17, Paul prays,
doesn't he? Chapter 3, verse 17, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith. You'll dwell in your hearts by
faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length
and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness
of God. As I said, God has a will. God has a purpose, and the purpose
is that he would dwell with his people. You shall be to me a
people. I'll be your God, and you'll
be my people. And it doesn't matter what the
world says, and it doesn't matter what happens, all of this is
under my control. And he has the power to make
it happen, brothers and sisters. We have, like Paul, and like
Apollos, and Aquila, and Priscilla, and all the others we've read
about in all of Acts, we have one simple task. We just proclaim
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, and we watch, because
he is able. He is able. I love what verse
20 says. You listen to Paul's superlatives
here in Ephesians 3.20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. According to the power that works
in us. See, we are a new creation. And
the gospel is the creative power of God in this world as God himself
comes and he delivers his gospel to the hearts of his people and
he teaches them. He teaches them his way and he
creates them anew. Don't you love Ephesians 4.24? It says, this new man, it's Christ
in you, the hope of glory, this new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. That's God's description of you,
brothers and sisters in Christ. created in righteousness and
true holiness. This glorious church, this glorious
church as he calls it, this glorious church is nourished and nurtured
by him. It's his body. He nourishes it,
he nurtures it, he protects it. He guides and directs all of
the activities of all of his people. How does he get Apollos? How does he get Apollos from
Alexandria to Corinth? Paul has gone from Corinth. How
do you get Apollos there? Well, you would think the best
thing he could do was send Apollos to Paul, or send Paul to Apollos. But in fact, the way the providence
of God worked out is that Paul went on this journey that we've
read about in Acts chapter 18. He went on this journey and he
came to Ephesus, and then he left Priscilla and Requilla there.
He went into the synagogue and preached as he always does, and
he reasoned with the Jews. He laid Scripture beside Scripture
and says this, This promise, every promise you read in the
Old Testament Scriptures, is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he left them there. He left them there. And he promised
to return, Lord willing. And he goes on a journey to Jerusalem,
then Antioch, and then he goes on a journey back through Turkey
from Glacier and Phrygia. And he goes there strengthening
all the disciples. And while he's away, Apollos
comes to Corinth, comes to Ephesus, and he comes there is this man
who is mighty in the scriptures, and he meets these two tent makers. God has sent some tent makers
to Ephesus. Sent some tent makers there. And the tent makers are there.
to equip Apollos, to equip Apollos, this man, and to send him to
Corinth. What does he do in Corinth? He
does two things, doesn't he? He mightily convinces the Jews,
showing, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus
was the Christ, Acts 18.28. and he helped them, at the end
of verse 27, he helped them much which had believed through grace. Grace is the gift of God. The grace that's in the Lord
Jesus Christ is given to his people. He is full of grace and
truth, says John. And of his fullness have we all
received grace for grace. If you're a recipient of grace,
you're going to receive more grace. And if you have received
more grace, you're going to need more. Paul goes on a journey strengthening
the disciples. A policy sent to Corinth. to
help them. See, disciples who are well instructed,
taught by the best teachers this world has ever seen, having the
Lord Jesus Christ amongst them, they are still needy. If you
receive grace, you're needy. You need to be strengthened and
you need to be helped. We never rise in grace above
being needy. May God make us needy. May he
cause us to see both the power of God and the will of God and
the purpose of God. And may he cause us to see again
and again the wonders of what little gatherings like this are.
When Paul went back to Ephesus, there were just a few disciples.
Apollos had gone with all of his eloquence. Priscilla and
Aquila had gone. And Paul comes back and those
seeds that were sown had flourished and nurtured and it became that
church that we read about in Ephesians. That church which
was so much used of the Lord in all of that part of Turkey
for that time. May God be our teacher and may
he humble us and may he open our eyes like he did the eyes
of those Ephesians. May he open dead eyes and cause
us to see his glory and if you've seen it you'll hunger and thirst
for more of it. Let's pray. Our heavenly father
we pray that you might cause us to see the wonders of the
grace that you bestow upon your people, that we might see again
something of your will and your purpose and your power. And Heavenly
Father, as we look and spend our time in this wilderness world,
Our God, may we see that you are God, that you sit on this
throne, that you are ruling all things for the good of your people,
that you're calling out your people, you're raising up habitations
of yourself by the Spirit, Heavenly Father. What a wonder that sinners,
sinners helpless and weak, and doing nothing but sin, can be
called your children. Your father, our father, your
son was called the friend of sinners. May we find him our
friend this day. We pray in his name. I'm going
to have a break. Cup of tea.