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Men and Women: Partners in Ministry

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Chris Sicks
June 23, 2024

Sermon Manuscript

Men and Women: Partners in Ministry


Acts 18
June 23, 2024
Pastor Chris Sicks

Tonight we will launch the ministry of our Women’s Council at One Voice Fellowship.
This group of wise women will partner with the pastors and elders to love, serve, and lead our congregation.
Therefore, I thought it would be good to look at one powerful ministry team in scripture.
We are going to meet a husband and wife named Aquila and Priscilla.
They worked closely with two pastors, Paul and Apollos.
Before we begin, let’s pray together.
Father, thank you for sending you Son to earth to save us.
Jesus, thank you for opening our eyes so we could see our sin, and you as our Savior.
Holy Spirit, thank you for opening our minds and hearts today, so we can understand the Word of God, amen.

Aquila and Priscilla appear in several places in your Bible.
Let’s begin with the first time that Paul met this important couple.
Paul was preaching and teaching in Athens, Greece.
Listen to what happens next, in Acts 18:1–4.
1 “After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus;
who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.
Paul went to see them,

3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.”

There is a lot of geography in those four verses, so I’d like to show you where these places are on the map.
Paul left Athens and traveled 80 kilometers to Corinth.
Eventually, Corinth will become the location of a large and important church community.
But in today’s passage, Paul’s ministry is just beginning in Corinth.
When he arrives there, Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla.
Aquila is from Pontus, in modern-day Turkey.
At some point Aquila moved to Rome, maybe with his wife Priscilla, or maybe he met her in Rome.
This couple suffered religious persecution in Rome, and had to move.
Many of you have moved from place to place, like this couple.
You know what it’s like to be strangers in a new community.
Priscilla and Aquila needed to support themselves in Corinth, so they resumed their work as tentmakers.
And I am sure it was a very pleasant surprise when they met Paul.
He also had experience as a tentmaker, and he was a powerful gospel teacher.
Paul and this couple lived in the same home and worked together.
They worked to provide for themselves, and to fund Paul’s ministry.
The main calling of Paul’s life was to preach the gospel message wherever God led him.
After one and a half years, Paul left Corinth.
But when he went to Ephesus to preach, Paul took his friends Aquila and Priscilla with him.
Let’s read now what happened in Acts 18:18-21.
18 “Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time.
Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.
Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.

19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila.
He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

20 When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.
21 But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.”
Then he set sail from Ephesus.”


Paul went to Ephesus and began preaching at the synagogue there, telling the Jewish community about the Messiah.
This is how Paul began his ministry in every city.
He started with the Jews, as Jesus had done.
Next, Paul always shared the gospel with Gentiles, because that’s what Jesus told him to do.
After staying in Ephesus for a while, Paul left Priscilla and Aquila there.
His trust in them tells us they were important leaders in the new church of Ephesus.
Let’s read now what happened in Ephesus after Paul left, in Acts 18:24-28.
24 “Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.

25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.
26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him.
When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.

28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.”

So, Priscilla and Aquila are in Ephesus.
They likely hosted a Christian small group or house church in their home.
We know they did that in Corinth, because Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 16:19.
19 “The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings.
Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.”


One day when Priscilla and Aquila were at the synagogue in Ephesus, they heard Apollos speak.
They were obviously impressed with him and the way he spoke.
But Priscilla and Aquila were also concerned, because they treasured the gospel and wanted others to know it fully.
Notice that they did not challenge or contradict Apollos at the synagogue.
They did not publicly correct him.
They invited him to their home, to get to know him.
Then in the context of biblical hospitality, they helped him.
What do we know about this man Apollos?
Luke, the author of Acts, tells us in verse 24:
24 “Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.”


Apollos is a very educated man from Alexandria, Egypt.
That city was named after Alexander the Great, the Roman leader who conquered Egypt.
Alexandria was a Greek-speaking city, and only Rome itself was more important in the Roman Empire.
Alexandria had the largest library in the world.
There, the entire Hebrew Old Testament was translated to Greek.
Alexandria was full of scholars and students, books and bibles.
This is the city where Apollos got his advanced education, and his “thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.”
Apollos was a smart, cultured man, and a sophisticated public speaker.
However, there was a gap in Apollos’ education.
Verse 25 says:
25 “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.”

John the Baptist preached a message of repentance, and baptized people to prepare them for Jesus.
Repentance is the first step of salvation.
You cannot be saved until you understand you have a sin problem.
Repentance happens when you admit that you cannot stand before God and survive, because of your sin.
Apollos knew about John’s teaching and the baptism of repentance.
But Apollos did not know about the completed work of Jesus the Messiah.
How could that be?
Remember that the New Testament had not been written yet.
At this time, the truth of salvation could only be spread by human beings telling it to each other.
That’s why Paul worked so hard, travelling to different cities to preach the gospel.
Apollos knew the Old Testament very well.
And he knew some things about Jesus.
But he was missing key parts of the full gospel message.
Let me summarize for you now the full gospel message.
The world today is full of problems, persecution, and pain.
People hurt one another, and they hurt themselves.
We break our promises, and we break God’s laws.
Even when we try to be good, we find that our self-centered hearts lead us away from the path we should follow.
John the Baptist called people to repent of these sinful behaviors.
But repentance is only the beginning.
Repentance is turning from our sin.
Where do we turn instead?
Paul tells us in Romans 10:9.
9 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Friends, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived the perfect life that we did not live.
And then Jesus died the death of a criminal, taking our place.
But he was resurrected on the third day, proving his innocence and divinity.
When we believe these things in our hearts, and accept Christ as our Lord, then we are resurrected to new eternal life.
Apollos was missing some of these details about the gospel message.
But God had a plan to help Apollos become a powerful gospel preacher.
Look again at Acts 18:26.
“Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”

Priscilla and Aquila filled in the gaps of this man’s knowledge.
Apollos was more educated than they were, but he was humble enough to receive their words.
And he received that teaching from both a man and woman.
Privately, in their home, Priscilla and Aquila helped Apollos understand everything about the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
I’m sure they told him about the baptism of the holy Spirit at Pentecost, and everything that Christ had been doing through his disciples since then.
After this meeting, Apollos went from Ephesus to Greece, and preached the full gospel message to many people.

Aquila and Priscilla were not called to be pastors and preachers, like Paul and Apollos.
But Paul and Apollos needed wise, mature, faithful Christian ministry partners like Aquila and Priscilla.
I am so grateful when Naomi is with me in difficult conversations or situations.
She adds a perspective that I don’t have.
She asks questions that I don’t think to ask.
Maybe you’ve had that same experience with mature couples that you know.
The reason we have formed a women’s council is because God has blessed our church with wise men and women.
The blessings of God are given for the benefit of the whole church, and each of us have different blessings to share.
Last week we ordained Clément as our associate pastor, and we elected Tom, Andrew, Jorge as elders.
The five of us, all elders, have the primary responsibility for biblical teaching in our church–like Paul and Apollos and Timothy in the New Testament.
God called us to be shepherds, teachers, and leaders of this congregation.
But we cannot lead alone and that’s why we formed a women’s council.
The Holy Spirit has blessed our church with these gifted women to partner with the elders in making decisions about ministry and the direction of our church.

God knows that a variety of people with different gifts and backgrounds will make better leadership teams for the church.
Think about the people in today’s passage.
Apollos is an educated man from Egypt.
Paul is a Jewish rabbi and Roman citizen from Tarsus, hundreds of miles north of Alexandria.
Aquila and Priscilla were originally from Pontus in northern Turkey, but moved to Rome, and then Corinth, and then Ephesus.
They were tentmakers, not scholars or rabbis or royalty.
But they knew the gospel, because they lived with Paul for 18 months in Corinth.
And we know they were mature and wise because of the way they approached Apollos.

I look forward to meeting this couple who served the early church in such significant ways.
After these events in Ephesus, Paul continues to mention Priscilla and Aquila in his letters.
This tells us that they were significant friends and important leaders in the church for many years.
For example, Paul wrote in Romans 16:3–4.
3 “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus.
4 They risked their lives for me.
Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.”


And at the end of his life, in the last letter Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy in Ephesus, Paul said this in 2 Timothy 4:19.
19 “Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.”

Dear friends, Paul depended on this special couple greatly, because ministry is a team sport.
No one can lead the family of God by themselves.
We need each other, and we need the Holy Spirit to bind us together as one church family.
Therefore, we pray together.
Father in heaven, thank you for the joy and privilege of being your children.
Thank you, Jesus, for calling some of your followers to be shepherds and leaders in the church.
We need wise, gentle, and mature men and women to lead this church well.
We depend on you, Holy Spirit, to correct, guide, and empower us.
For these things we pray now, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


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