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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester Podcast.
We are happy you have joined us today for this series of lessons.
We are between season four and season five.
Season four was wrapped up last episode when we considered 1 Corinthians 7 and the
expediencies of marriage.
Episode five will begin in three or four weeks, maybe five, and that will be on practical
lessons from the minor prophets.
We are calling this a bumper sod, a bumper sod, and we get that name because it's a
bumper, know, radio programs have bumper music between segments.
And so we have bumper episodes between seasons.
And sowed, we are spelling S-O-W-E-D because this is the Harvester podcast and harvest
cannot happen unless we sow the seed.
Hence bumper sowed.
But in these next few lessons, we're going to talk about doctrinal unity, particularly as
it relates, as the name implies, doctrine.
doctrinal unity.
And this is something that I've observed really ever since even before I became a student
at the Florida School of Preaching in 1989.
By the way, I'm Brian Kenyon, your host.
My co-host will be joining us in and out through these bumper-soads, but for sure we hope
to have all three of us when we begin season five.
But even before I came to preaching school in 1989, I was filling in for a congregation in
southern central Louisiana and I had about two lessons I preached and it was one lesson
was on John 3 16 and as I studied only begotten son there was a controversy going around
among the translations among brethren who I didn't even know I was kind of a new Christian
back then and they made a big deal about a translation has only son instead of only
begotten son
and they made a big deal about the word begotten, and I had studied the best I could
before I heard the controversy, and I never had begotten in a spelling list in elementary
school, and so I had no idea what the word begotten was.
It doesn't mean much to me one way or the other, but as I studied that word in the English
dictionary, as I studied that word in the limited amount of commentaries I had, and had
Vines' Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words,
And so, in my research, I came up with the definition.
It means only, unique, one of a kind, begotten.
And so those were the words I used in that sermon.
And then when I heard what brethren were saying about the controversy, it's almost like,
you're a false teacher if you use the word unique, or you're a false teacher if you use
the word only or one of a kind.
And I thought, wow, you know, and I didn't know much about false teaching back then
anyway.
But I thought, how weird, where are they getting all this from?
And of course I later learned there was a lot of church politics involved in that and
perceived powers in the Brotherhood and all this kind of stuff, which should not be, but
is, and so we don't want that kind of stuff.
And so people would jump on the bandwagon.
Well, it doesn't say only begotten, and so it must be a liberal translation.
And those who use it must be a bunch of flamin' liberals or whatever.
And that just should not be, should not be, should not be.
But that's the way it was back then, and maybe it is to some extent now with other issues.
But I have found that as the issues come up and go, new generations of people come along
and they wonder what in the world was the big whoop about only begotten versus only
versus one of a kind.
Now if you're teaching false doctrine from it, that's one thing, but the translation
itself doesn't tell you whether it's false doctrine or true doctrine.
I mean the translation, if it's accurate, it's going to be true doctrine because it's
coming from God.
And so we want to look at some things throughout these bumper-sowed lessons that deal with
what things are actually doctrinal.
what things are optional and you know we need to have wisdom to know the difference and so
these these lessons here in this bumper soda kind of going to kind of address that kind of
thing and i would like to start out with just an examination of a policy you know a policy
and in your bibles in acts chapter eighteen acts chapter eighteen is where we first read
about a policy and i'm begin reading in verse twenty four of acts eighteen
And here's an example, Apollos is an example of somebody who's teaching false doctrine,
but he's not doing it intentionally.
And so, you know, in these bumper-sodes, you know, we realize doctrine is very important.
And so I'm not minimizing doctrine at all.
True doctrine is very important.
uh We have to have it right.
Doctrine, okay?
Second John 9 through 11, for example, if anyone
does not continue in the doctrine of Christ, he does not have God.
But if he continues in the doctrine, he is both the Father and the Son.
And so doctrine is very important.
You know, the truth will make us free, John 8, 31 and 32, and so doctrine and truth go
together.
You know, in Acts 2-42 they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and in
fellowship and in breaking the barrier of prayers.
And so doctrine is very important.
There's no doubt about it, so we're in no way minimizing doctrine.
However, what some people consider doctrine, like you have to use the term only begotten
or you're a false teacher, that's not true doctrine, okay?
uh One of a kind, know, unique son.
All those things would be scriptural.
And so we want to make sure we get the doctrine right.
But now here's an example of uh a great, powerful preacher.
In fact, I would say he was the first example of a non-inspired preacher.
uh
God-breathed, Holy Spirit-inspired preacher that we have in the book of Acts.
But anyway, that might be another lesson.
But if you look in Acts chapter 18 verse 24, now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at
Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
This man, verse 25, had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in
spirit, he spoke and taught
accurately the things of the Lord, though he only knew the baptism of John.
So he began to speak boldly in a synagogue when Aquila and Priscilla heard him.
They took him aside and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.
And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to
receive him.
And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.
for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the
Christ." And so Apollos, he was a great man, his background.
Notice he was born in Alexandria, and Alexandria was one of the foremost learning centers
of the world in that day.
They had the largest library of that day.
It says of Apollos that he was very eloquent and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
And so he had qualities the best of both qualities.
You know, a lot of times a preacher may be eloquent, but he doesn't have a whole lot of
meat in his sermons.
Sometimes a preacher might have very much meat and meaty in his sermons, but yet very not
eloquent.
But yet Apollos is the best of both of these worlds.
He is eloquent, a very good speaker,
but he's also mighty in the Scriptures.
And it says he had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and so he was taught.
And again, uh it does not seem the Holy Spirit directly taught him like he did others, but
the Holy Spirit did teach him through other people, because if he was inspired by the Holy
Spirit, would he have taught, or would he have only knew the baptism of John?
All right, but anyway, so he was instructed in the way of the Lord, he was very learned,
and he was very enthusiastic.
Being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord.
But then there's a comma right here at the end of verse twenty-five after spoken, taught
accurately.
Now realize the other translations have something different there, uh maybe
enthusiastically or something like that.
The King James and the New King James have accurately, he taught accurately
I'm reading from the New King James here.
So I guess I should say at least the New King James here has accurately.
And, of course, you know, we can do a word study on that lately, but I mean, a person can
be generally considered teaching the things of the Lord, even though he may be off on some
things.
But here's the difference between Apollos and false teachers.
Even though Apollos is teaching falsely...well, actually, let me get into this.
comma in verse twenty five though he knew only the baptism of john now the baptism of john
takes us back to matthew chapter three where john the baptist actually breaks the four
hundred plus silent years that we often call silent years between malachi and the voice of
one crying in the wilderness and so john was a very important person here but the baptism
of john was only given to those
that were in that Palestine area, that Jordan River area.
In fact, uh I would make the case that that's the last commandment in the law of Moses.
The last commandment in the law of Moses.
But anyway, uh it was underneath that law, but was preparing the way of the Lord.
Preparing the way of the Lord.
And so, the baptism of John was a valid baptism when it was given.
and it was given as a preparation for the coming of the Lord.
Now, of course, we've had a lot of discussions in the Brotherhood, and we'll save those
for other times, about, you know, how long was John's valid?
And basically, was it valid between the time of the cross and Pentecost?
And so, you know, that's a good discussion to have.
It doesn't affect our salvation, but we do know for sure that after Acts 2,
that baptism was no longer valid.
John's baptism was no longer valid.
It may have been nailed to the cross and no longer valid then at the cross either, but
again, that's another discussion.
But for sure, it was gone by the time Acts 2 comes along, because in Acts 2 we have that
Great Commission baptism, and that is the one baptism is spoken of in Ephesians 4, 4
through 6, and that is the baptism that we're baptized with to be baptized into the body
of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12, 13, and so for sure by Acts 2 John's baptism is no longer valid.
Well, in Acts chapter 19, that's several years after, and Apollos, he only knows the
baptism of John, and so that's what he is teaching.
But now here's a good point about Apollos.
In verse 26, so he began to speak boldly in a synagogue, and when Aquila and Priscilla
heard him,
They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Now that's a very tremendous event, very tremendous verse right here.
Now I do not know if Priscilla and Aquila, if they knew Apollos before this.
I do not know.
The text does not say.
But whatever the case, instead of labeling Apollos a false teacher,
and writing them up in the Brotherhood journals and uh calling him out on podcasts and
stuff, they took him aside.
and they taught him the way of God more accurately, again from the New King James
translation.
They taught him more accurately.
Now that says a whole lot about, number one, says a lot about Aquila and Priscilla.
Again, they wanted to make sure that, well, I don't know their motives, I would suspect
their motives would be, they wanted to make sure that Apollos
that Apollos intentionally was teaching that or not intentionally, their concern was with
truth, and their other concern was with their brother in Christ, Apollos.
And so again, there's several ways they could have reacted, but do you not think that this
is the best way to handle that situation?
Let me ask Apollos, let's talk to Apollos and see if he really knows what he's talking
about, does he really mean what he's saying here about the baptism of John?
And so Aquila and Priscilla, they were concerned and they knew the truth and they knew the
difference between what Apollos was teaching and what Scripture teaches or what the Holy
Spirit taught in that day as I'm sure the book of Acts, well in fact I know the book of
Acts was not complete at that time when this is happening, but they knew the difference
and they knew the difference mattered.
And so they were concerned about doctrine, but they were also concerned about their
brother and would not love demand that we make sure that Apollos is teaching.
Does he know he's teaching error?
Again, some brethren today, not all, there's a lot of brethren that would take the same
approach, but they don't get the screen time, you know what saying?
often.
But there's some brethren that would just call him out right now and label him a false
teacher and start boycotting the lectureships he was on.
They'd leave the synagogue.
He walks in the room.
They'd get up and leave.
I can't be in the presence of a false teacher.
But that's not what Aquila and Priscilla did.
They went to him and taught him the way of God more accurately.
This also says a lot about Apollos.
Paulus was a very eloquent man, he was mighty in the scripture, yet he wasn't so arrogant,
and usually, well I won't say usually, but a lot of times, a lot of times powerful
preachers that are eloquent and mighty in the scriptures, you can't come near them with a
ten-foot pole because of their arrogance.
And I remember one time as a preaching student, a very well-known preacher in the
Brotherhood,
I was at a gospel meeting of his one time, and this was before I knew there was a big
controversy on a particular subject that I approached him about, but he said something in
the Bible class that I was seriously asking the question out of legitimate wanting to
know.
He said something in the context that I didn't see anywhere in the context.
He said in this context, you know, the person speaking,
is mentioning this.
But this wasn't in that context that I could tell.
In fact, that word this, or the subject of this, didn't come up till several chapters
later.
And so in between the Bible class and the sermon, he was sitting on the front pew, and I
went up to ask him that sincere question, and it's almost like he just blew up at me,
like, how dare you question what I said?
And of course, that wasn't me at all at that time, especially.
I didn't even know.
I was just seeking.
I was a
I don't know, first year's preaching student or whatever it was, but anyway.
I don't know, years later reflecting back on that, it came across as like, how dare you
question what I had to say?
Because he would have fit into this eloquent and mighty in the scripture type category.
And so I'm just simply saying that a lot of times people like that who are used to the
limelight for lack of better words, eloquence and all that, they do not take
correction very well.
And of course the illustration I just gave, wasn't a matter of me trying to correct him,
it was just a matter of me trying to find out the truth, but he took it as me trying,
challenging him.
And you know, some people take questioning as you're trying to challenge what I had to
say.
Well, no, that's not always the case.
But anyway, Apollos was humble enough, very humble enough to receive the teaching of
Aquiline Priscilla.
And as you may have noticed,
In a lot of the manuscripts of the Great New Testament, Priscilla comes first and then
Aquila.
And so, but even part of that Aquila-Pricilla team was female, obviously, and Apollos was
able even to take correction, to take scriptural teaching from a team that even involved a
woman.
And so that says a lot about Apollos in that culture, that he was humble enough to take
correction, he was humble enough to learn that what he was teaching wasn't correct, and he
was humble enough to be corrected.
And after that, in verse 26, well actually after that in verse 27, when he desired to
cross into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.
And so he corrected his ways, he no longer taught.
baptism of John as binding, and we know he taught it as binding because in Acts chapter 19
verses 1 and following, when Paulus leaves and Paul comes to Ephesus, he finds out those
guys were baptized under the baptism of John, which again, as an incidental lesson, tells
us that all baptism is a response to some kind of teaching.
All baptism is a response to some kind of teaching.
And so if we are responding to a teaching, even though we may be baptized in water,
immersed in water, even though it may be for the remission of sins, even though it may be
based upon repentance, at least claimed to be, it's not the right baptism if it's not the
right teaching.
But anyway, so those in Ephesus in chapter 19 were baptized under John's baptism because
of what Apollos taught.
But after he was corrected and went his way, the brethren got behind him, Acts 18.27, and
they wrote letters ahead of time saying, this guy's a powerful preacher.
And so when he arrived at the end of verse 27, he greatly helped those who had believed
through grace, for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures
that Jesus is the Christ.
and that word vigorously refuted is a pretty awesome word.
means he saw through their arguments and he tore them down.
He saw through them and he body slammed those arguments that the Jews were using in the
synagogues against Christ.
And so he was a powerful, powerful preacher before that, but now he's doctrinally correct
and he's an even more powerful preacher now as he goes through that.
And he's mentioned throughout the rest of the New Testament
with approval.
In fact, he is one of the ones that Paul calls upon at the end there in 2 Timothy chapter
4.
But he was with Paul, a faithful co-worker of Paul, even though he started out uh not
doctrinally correct.
And so Apollos, though he taught false doctrine, was not a false teacher as per, you know,
such passages as, you know, 1 Corinthians
Romans 16, 17, and 18.
He was not a false teacher as per John, or 2 John 9-11, but he did teach false doctrine.
But he was corrected.
Alright, and so here's a good uh beginning of these bumper-soads, you know, every time we
hear false doctrine doesn't necessarily mean the person preaching it really understands
what he's talking about.
And so we are left with a choice.
Do we call him out as a false teacher or do we go to him privately?
Yeah, Aquila and Priscilla, notice it says in the text, they took him aside.
They took him aside and explained to him, but yet taking him aside implies a private
conversation between the three.
Now, if others were involved in that, that'd be okay too, but they took him aside.
They didn't call him out right there in the assembly.
They took him aside.
And this brings up another point too about, you know, taking him aside.
Now, of course it...
Just verse 26 says, Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue, when Aquila and
Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more
accurately.
Now, it doesn't say when they took him aside.
As we read this, it might come across as they immediately took him aside, but it does not
say when they took him aside, but that they did take him aside.
And, uh but yet there were still people in chapter 19 that had been baptized under John's
baptism.
So for whatever reason, Apollos, if he did go back and try to correct them of what he
taught, they didn't accept it.
Or, more likely, he did not have time to go back and correct it.
He just went on his way, which may mean that by the time Aquila and Priscilla took him
aside,
that environment wasn't there, that the opportunity wasn't there to go back and reteach
them.
But the providence of God, but no matter what's in between the lines that we cannot
affirm, because it's not revealed, the providence of God did allow Paul to come up, follow
up behind Apollos in chapter 19 verses 1 through 7 and correct that situation.
And that's a whole other lesson by itself.
They were baptized correctly
even though they had been baptized before.
But that's another lesson.
But when we think about this again, as we want to make the application to this
bumper-sowed and this series of lessons in the bumper-sowed, we want to point out again
that just because a person is teaching falsely doesn't mean he's intentionally doing that.
Now, sometimes he is.
And, you know, when a person is attempted to be corrected with the truth but refuses that
correction,
and then still teaches the false doctrine, then that's a different situation than what we
find with Apollos.
And so in that situation, yes, mark that, brother, and, you know, the Romans 16, 17, and
18, and the other passages of just even up to the point of disfellowship, 2 Thessalonians
3, 6 through 15, 1 Corinthians 5, those passages would apply in that situation.
But what we might think is that situation may not really be that situation.
it might be an apologist situation.
So let us have love for brothers individually and the brotherhood as a whole to find out
ourselves, does this brother really mean to teach false doctrine on the baptism of John or
whatever else it might be?
And if he did intentionally do that, he even know better?
Does he know the truth?
And if he doesn't, let's teach the truth and that way we can save that soul
And we can help the brotherhood much more by correcting an apollos rather than calling him
out and then making a policy that wherever he is, we're not going to show up or wherever
he is, we're going to get a big old billboard and put it on the side of a U-Haul truck and
say he's a false teacher.
I mean, what good does that do in the brotherhood?
So let's be courteous.
Let's be loving, love doctrine, love individuals, and do things that would help the
individual and help the brotherhood.
and still maintain the truth.
fact, better, better present the truth.
Because now, and if go back to the text here in chapter 18, now that Apollos is corrected
by Quillen Priscilla, he's a much more powerful preacher and who knows how many souls he
actually brought to Christ now by preaching the truth because he's still eloquent, he's
still mighty in the scriptures, he's just fully on track now.
having been taught the truth about the baptism of John.
And so let's consider that next time we hear somebody or when we hear somebody accuse
somebody else of being a false teacher.
Is he really a false teacher?
Has he really heard the truth?
Maybe he's just never heard the truth.
And so let us have that attitude first before we start labeling or before we start
following the Scriptures and what it says how to deal with false teachers.
And so let's make sure he is truly a false teacher and he's not just teaching false
doctrine out of ignorance.
And so we appreciate you being with us in this episode.
And so let us continue to think on these things.
And we'll join you next time for this second bumper-sowed, which is an episode in between
seasons.
We'd love to hear from you.
Thank you for listening today.