Former president Ronald Reagan once had an aunt who took him to a cobbler for a pair of new shoes. The cobbler asked young Reagan, “Do you want square toes or round toes?” Unable to decide, Reagan didn’t answer, so the cobbler gave him a few days. Several days later the cobbler saw Reagan on the street and asked him again what kind of toes he wanted on his shoes. Reagan still couldn’t decide, so the shoemaker replied, “Well, come by in a couple of days. Your shoes will be ready.”
When the future president did so, he found one square-toed and one round-toed shoe! “This will teach you to never let people make decisions for you,” the cobbler said to his indecisive customer. “I learned right then and there,” Reagan said later, “if you don’t make your own decisions, someone else will.”
Decisions! Decisions! Decisions! Wouldn’t it be nice if the most difficult decision we ever had to make was whether to get square toed or round toed shoes? Unfortunately, most of us already know that life is filled with more difficult decisions. We have to make decisions about family situations, career choices, business dilemmas, health care options, and financial matters. Many of these decisions can be overwhelming; we are afraid we might make the wrong decision. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had someone to always tell us what the right decision is in every situation?
Well, we do! This morning’s text is about gaining God’s wisdom and following his will for our lives and ministries. Luke breaks this story into two scenes. First, he uses the example of Paul to teach us about following God’s will. Secondly, he uses the example of Apollos to teach us how to gain God’s wisdom. I hope that these two scenes will help us with the decisions we need to make!
1.) Following God’s Will in Life and Ministry (18-23)
As Paul faced opposition, abuse, and persecution in Corinth, his human instinct would have been to leave the city and find refuge elsewhere, but Jesus appeared to him in a vision and commanded him to stay and continue to preach the gospel. Jesus fulfilled his promise by using Gallio, the Proconsul of Achaia, to protect him from the Jews who sought to destroy him. So, in verse 18, Luke reiterates the fact that Paul followed God’s will by staying in Corinth “for some time”. Back in verse 11 he already told us that Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, thus following God’s will for his life and ministry.
Sometime after winter Paul discerns that God wants him to make a journey back to his home church in Antioch which was in the region of Syria. Before he sails west he shaves his head in fulfillment of a vow he made to God. Luke doesn’t tell us what the vow was or why he made it, but it probably had something to do with his thankfulness to God for preserving his life.
It was common for Jews to make vows to God and they signify its fulfillment by shaving the hair from their heads. It is similar to how some sports teams today will enter rituals of letting their facial hair grow until they either lose or win it all. During my senior year a number of guys on my football team made a vow to not wash our practice clothes until we lost a game. We went undefeated! This still isn’t as nasty as other things I’ve heard. I know of a certain girls’ hockey team that didn’t shave their legs for the whole playoffs. Now that is gross!
Once Paul shaved his head, he, Priscilla, and Aquila boarded a ship and crossed the Aegean Sea heading west. They stopped in Ephesus where Paul preached at the synagogue. In spite of the Ephesians’ pleas, he didn’t stay long because he knew that God wanted him to continue on. He left Priscilla and Aquila behind to carry on the work of building the church in Ephesus while he followed the Lord’s leading for his life. But before he left, he made a promise that highlights his commitment to be in the center of God’s will. In verse 21 he says, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Paul based his plans on God’s will, not his own will. Since God wanted him in Antioch, he continued west and stopped in Caesarea, greeted the church in Jerusalem, and finally arrived at Antioch. He stayed in Antioch for about 9 months before he followed God’s will for a third missionary journey that would take him back to Ephesus.
As we see in Corinth, Paul was willing to stay in one place for awhile and as we see in Ephesus, he is willing to move on quickly. Luke presents us with all of these geographical details to show us that Paul’s plans and travels were always based on God’s will. Humanly speaking it would have made more sense for him to have fled Corinth quickly and to stay in Ephesus for awhile, but God’s will was different. His decisions weren’t based on pragmatism or his own intellect or desires, but he sought to be in the center of God’s will for his life and ministry.
We can all learn a lot from Paul’s example here. I dare say that most of us make decisions for our lives based on our will, not God’s. Think about it! How do most of us make decisions? We base them on our personal desires, preferences, goals, or intuitions. We may sit down and compare pros and cones, ask a friend for advice, or maybe even flip a coin, but how often do we really seek God’s will?
As Americans we are taught that our lives are our own and that we can be or do whatever we want to be or do. We believe that we create our own destinies! We think we can carve out our own path in life as if everything depended upon us. Do you ever think about how arrogant and selfish this is? When we make decisions solely based on our own desires and preferences, we certainly aren’t paying much attention to God’s will!
Question 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism helps us to remember that our lives don’t belong to ourselves. It states: What is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
When we realize that our lives are not our own and that they belong to God, it changes our whole outlook on who we are and what we do. Instead of asking questions like: “Where and when do I want to go to college? What kind of career do I want? Who do I want to marry? How many kids do I want to have? Where do I want to live? How should I spend my time and money? Where and when do I want to retire?” we will change the “I” to “God”. Instead the questions will sound like this: “Where and when does God want me to go to college? What kind of career does God want me to have ? Who does God want me to marry? How many kids does God want me to have? Where does God want me to live? How does God want me to spend my time and money? Where and when does God want me to retire?”
Do you see the difference? Where Paul went and what he did and how long he stayed all depended upon God’s will, not his own. H knew his life wasn’t his own. How about us? I’m not saying that we throw our desires, preferences, and goals out the window; Paul didn’t. He wanted to go back to Ephesus, but he said, “if it’s God’s will”. God is calling all of us to a life and ministry according to his will! Are we paying attention?
2) Gaining God’s Wisdom for Life and Ministry (24-28)
In verse 24 Luke interjects one of his patented “meanwhile” stories. As Paul was making his way back to Antioch, Luke gives us a glimpse of what was taking place in Ephesus. He introduces us to a man named Apollos and shows us how he gained God’s knowledge for life and ministry. The first thing that Luke tells us is that he was a Jew from Alexandria which was in Egypt. The name Apollos literally means “a well-learned man.” He was well-educated and eloquent in speech. Not only was Alexandria the second largest city in the Roman Empire, but it was one of the major intellectual centers of the ancient world. It boasted the world’s finest university and largest library which contained over a half a million books and scrolls.
Apollos had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and had been instructed in the way of the Lord. This meant that he was familiar with God’s plan of salvation in the Old Testament and someone had told him about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was a powerful preacher and he taught accurately, but Luke tells us that he only knew about the baptism of John; that is, he knew about John’s baptism but he did not know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit that took place on Pentecost.
Therefore, Apollos was preaching an accurate but incomplete gospel. He simply did not know about the coming of the Holy Spirit and all that God had done through the apostles and the spiritual power they received. So Priscilla and Aquila invited him to their home and explained to him the way of the Lord more adequately. Apollos gained God’s knowledge through Priscilla and Aquila.
Later on, Apollos felt called to go and preach the gospel in Achaia. The church in Ephesus concurred and encouraged him to do so; they even wrote him a letter of recommendation to give to the believers there. When he arrived in Achaia, the church welcomed him with open arms and greatly appreciated his ministry. Armed with a more complete knowledge of the gospel, he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Just like Paul following God’s will in the preceding verses, we can learn a lot about gaining the God’s wisdom for life and ministry from the example of Apollos. We gain God’s wisdom for life and ministry in the same ways he did: through the Scriptures and through God’s servants.
Let’s think about the Scriptures for a minute. The Bible that we hold in our hands at this very moment are God’s self-revelation to his people. Through these books, stories, laws, poems, and letters we learn about God’s nature and character. We learn about his great love for people and how he has rescued us from our sins. He shows us the way to have peace and joy in this life and in the life to come. He has given us the knowledge to have the best life possible, but most people ignore it.
They say things like, “The Bible is too long and too hard to understand, I’ll figure life out on my own.” Others say, “Well, the Bible is filled with fun stories for children, but they are not really true.” The Bible is true, every word of it! And it is not too long or too difficult to understand if we take the time to study it. God has revealed himself to us through this book and we are so blessed to have our own copies of it, but so few take advantage of it.
A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. The victim’s face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been destroyed by the explosion.
One day, as he brought one of the braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, I can read the Bible using my tongue. Once he acquired the skill, the man “read” through the entire Bible four times.
How much do we really want to know God? Do we really believe that God is ultimately wise and knows the best way to live? Apollos did! The man in Kansas City did! If we really want to know God and live the best life possible, we would spend some time reading his word. This man read it four times with his tongue; most of us have never even read it with our eyes!
Let’s also think about acquiring God’s wisdom through God’s servants. Just as Apollos learned more about God, the gospel, life, and ministry from Pricilla and Aquila, we can learn from the servants God places in our lives. No one knows everything there is to know about God, the Bible, life, and ministry. We can all learn valuable information from other people.
I believe that primary reason why God has called me to Franklin is to help the people in our church and community to come to faith in Jesus Christ and to grow in their relationship with him. Every week I work hard to prepare a sermon that will help us know God a little better. I spend time counseling, visiting, and praying with people so that they will have a clearer understanding of who God is and what he wants them to do.
But I certainly don’t know everything there is to know about God. That is why I continue to read and study the Bible. That is why I continue to pursue theological education meet together with other pastors once a week and meet with my mentor, Peter Anderson, once a month. Peter has been a pastor for over thirty years and knows a lot more about God and ministry than I do. He helps me gain God’s wisdom for my life and ministry.
Who has God placed in your life to help you gain God’s wisdom? Sure, I’m here, but who else? Are we utilizing the people and resources God has given us? When you have to make an important decision, who do you talk to? God uses his servants to help us gain his wisdom!
God’s wisdom and will are indispensable for our life and ministry. When we pay attention to then, we will have guidance for every decision we need to make. So, let me conclude with two questions: Are you seeking God’s will? And what are you doing to gain his wisdom?