Paul: Foot-In-Mouth Disease

Acts 23:1-5 (NLT)

¹ Gazing intently at the high council,^" Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!” ² Instantly Ananias the high priest commanded those close to Paul to slap him on the mouth. ³ But Paul said to him, “God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite! What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that?”

⁴ Those standing near Paul said to him, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”

⁵ “I’m sorry, brothers. I didn’t realize he was the high priest,” Paul replied, “for the Scriptures say, ‘You must not speak evil of any of your rulers.’”

Okay, this is not going to be anything especially revelatory or some deep spiritual insight. I just want to point out that we all say things we shouldn't say, and that there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with it.

For instance, have you ever been in a situation where you are arguing with someone and you are trying to be an adult, but the other person is just making you more and more angry? What happens? Well, if you're like me, you snap and say something you shouldn't which just nulls and voids any logical argument you were trying to make.

I am the oldest of four kids, so when we were growing up--needless to say--we all got into fights from time to time. My younger siblings would inevitably be mad and screaming and I would be trying to keep my cool to win the debate. However, little kids don't really listen when you are trying to kill them with logic, so what could I do? Inevitably, I would hit them. All of a sudden all my credibility was out the window, and whatever point I was trying to make was instantly clouded by the moment I crossed the line with violence--even though up to that point, I was clearly the most mature.

This is a weird connection to make, but I see something strangely similar with Paul and the Sanhedrin. The high priest goes so far as to slap Paul in the face--a very condescending gesture--and what does Paul do? He snaps. He calls the priest a "corrupt hypocrite." The King James translates this as "whited wall." Matthew 23:27 gives us some insight into what exactly this insult means:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity."

So, no matter how immature it was for the high priest to slap Paul in the face, Paul was the one on trial and the one who was supposed to be standing up for "the Way" (the N.T. term for what we call "Christianity"). I just think it's funny that Paul was expected to be the bigger person, even though Ananias was the high priest. True, Paul didn't actually know that he was insulting the high priest, but once he found out, he immediately apologized.

Anyways, what I get from this story is that, look . . . we all say things that are mean in a moment of anger and we lose our credibility from time to time, but look at Paul's example. He screwed up, but then he realized what he'd said and apologized--even though he'd just been slapped in the mouth, which is arguably a greater insult. As Christians, we need to realize that we need to be more mature than other people, so even if we screw up, we can still apologize--even if we're the ones who have suffered the greater wrong.

I wanted to leave it there, but I started thinking of another point. Why was it okay for Christ to say these things to the Pharisees in Matthew, but not okay for Paul to say what he did before the council? I mean, honestly, both Paul and Christ had valid reasons to be calling people hypocrites. I think it has to do with the differences of their situations. I mean, I'm sure the Pharisees were offended with Christ's words too, but the difference with Paul was that he was on trial at that point, and maybe should have guarded his mouth. Notice the difference with how Christ acted when He finally was on trial, and I think you'll see the brilliance in Christ's meekness.

Anyways, we might not be able to act perfectly in every situation like Christ, but at least we have the option of apologizing like Paul did.

(The picture came from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.breadwig.com/uploads/sketches/000656-apostle-paul-cartoon-comic.breadwig.com.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.breadwig.com/2008/02/16/paul/&usg=__X07P319XthnCLPNx2JQhiFXUYbc=&h=700&w=250&sz=55&hl=en&start=0&sig2=HF9HHy3UynxEu7DwEl7xJA&zoom=1&tbnid=tOLvSrUo_igRqM:&tbnh=151&tbnw=54&ei=4F6_TNPqFMLsOYKcnB4&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dapostle%2Bpaul%2Bcartoon%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D426%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=119&vpy=-57&dur=6869&hovh=376&hovw=134&tx=88&ty=170&oei=lV6_TKjrK4O0lQf548jkBw&esq=3&page=1&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0)

Spiritual Empowerment

Act 18:24-28 (NLT) "Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John's baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately. Apollos had been thinking about going to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him. When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God's grace, had believed. He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah."

Acts 18 was my Bible study for this morning, and the last part of the chapter really spoke to me:

"Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt."

I wish I had time to research all the history behind this man Apollos, but I don't. At least I know, based on my rudimentary knowledge of the ancient world, that Alexandria was known for being a place of higher education. Therefore, Apollos must have been something of a scholar. His scholarship is also solidified by the fact that he "knew the Scriptures well." I find his education interesting as the passage goes on.

"He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy."

This is awesome. While he had probably the best human education one could have had at that time, he obviously also had the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, how could he have known that Christ was the Messiah so much so that he could speak of it with enthusiasm and accuracy? That information would be unattainable through simply human means--no matter how educated one could be. The impossibility of such is heightened in the next sentence:

"However, he knew only about John's baptism. "

Amazing. I look at this today with my human eyes and wonder how in the world this could be possible. How could someone with knowledge of only John's baptism, put two and two together THAT much to come to the Messianic conclusion about Jesus--furthermore, to be able to speak with dead level accuracy? Think about that. It speaks volumes of the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the power that God wants to grant to all of us, but we rarely let Him. Why do we spend so much time trying to advance our careers and keep up with the Joneses instead of being powerfully used by the Holy Spirit to further His kingdom? We have been given so much, and yet we use so little.

"When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately."

At first when I read "they took him aside," it kind of made my heart sink. It kind of sounded like what I'm used to hearing in many churches, unfortunately. Almost every time there is a new addition to a fellowship who has a slightly different approach to sharing the gospel, his or her charisma is almost immediately preyed upon by the higher levels of the church's food chain. These modern-day pharisees "take this person aside" with the pretext of "making sure his doctrine is sound," but really end up just discouraging that person from talking about things they "don't fully understand, because they haven't been part of this fellowship long enough." The result is one of two outcomes: (1) the newer member ends up shutting up and assimilating into the background, or (2) the newer member continues to preach and is then dismissed and/or warned against for being a radical.

Honestly, though, I don't think that's what's going on here in this passage at all, and the proof is in the next few verses, which I will get to in a moment. Obviously, Apollos had a gift for speaking and being used by the Holy Spirit. Aquila and Priscilla recognized Apollos' ministry as a gift and knew they could help fill in the gaps of his message. In other words, for an even more successful ministry, Apollos needed to know more information about Christ than just John's baptism. He needed to know not only the head knowledge that Christ fulfilled every Messianic prophecy, but also he needed connections and details of those prophecies. Being and Old Testament scholar, he needed to know exactly how those prophecies were fulfilled, or else his debates with the Jews in the ensuing verses would have been void. He needed to know who Christ healed and what Christ did on earth. He needed to know how Christ died and why He rose again. Here was not a case of church elitists quenching and discouraging. Instead, here was empowerment. Again, testament to the Holy Spirit.

One more thing about this verse is that Apollos listened to their instruction. He wasn't so proud in his own Scripture knowledge that he ignored their counsel. Instead, he soaked it all in as a sponge. He could have easily dismissed them. I mean who were they? They were tent makers! Were they Bible scholars? All we know is that they followed God. They probably had no formal Scriptural education whereas Apollos probably did have. Apparently, his accepting of their spiritual wisdom was not a human inclination. Something more was at work.

"Apollos had been thinking about going to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go."

Ah. So here we see that under no circumstances were Aquila and Priscilla condescending Apollos' gifts or embarrassed by the limits of his knowledge. In fact, this very verse shows that no one in the Ephesian church doubted his gift at all. In fact, they all had enough spiritual maturity to encourage Apollos to further Christ's gospel outside of Ephesus to a whole other district. Also, they saw fit to let him go--alone. That speaks volumes of their spiritual wisdom. They saw Apollos through the eyes of the Holy Spirit, which told them that he was mature enough to be a missionary by himself, not through the human eyes of doubt, that would suggest he stay in Ephesus to study a bit longer under "superior" teachers or even that he go to Achaia under the watchful eye of a more well-seasoned elder.

"They wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him."

In order for the Achaian believers to accept a teacher of which they'd never before heard, the Ephesian believers sent word about Apollos to Achaia. Important to note is not that this gave the Achaians the Ephesian "stamp of approval" (the way modern-day churches feel the need to get "letters of recommendation" from the former pastor of a potential member), but rather that these were dangerous times of persecution. Therefore, a letter sent ahead was necessary for the Achaians to accept Apollos as a helpful friend, rather than dangerous foe. I am not saying that pastoral "letters of recommendation" are evil, but honestly, ask yourself this question: "What is the reason that this new pastor needs my former pastor's approval?" If the answer has to do with comparable early church persecution, then by all means, get the approval. However, if the answer has to do with human curiosity or control, then . . . sorry, but it's evil. God already gave us His stamp of approval when He chose us. If one cannot sense the Holy Spirit in another person, no amount of letters will fix that fact, anyway. One would do better to spend time in the Word and in prayer for guidance.

"When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God's grace, had believed. He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah."

Notice that Apollos proved to be a great benefit for believers. He may or may not have been a benefit to the Jews who disagreed with him. Personally, I find this an interesting point. How often do I myself get into debates with people trying to change their mind on something? It is important to note that (1) people only believe by God's grace, and (2) theological debates are generally most helpful for those who already believe, not the opponents. Not that people cannot be persuaded, but that it is the Holy Spirit alone that does the persuading. However, there is definitely a necessary place for theological debate: This form of pro-active apologetics helps to solidify believers' faith. It would behoove us all to listen to intellectual theological debate from time to time so that we can be current on the issues of our day and how these issues align with our faith. There is no place in Christianity for the comfortable. God created your brain, so exercise it.

Remember too that Apollos was very schooled in the Scriptures--not just shooting his mouth off--so this passage is not encouraging Christians to be radical old codgers who leap to fight at every argument. Very often, in fact, most fight-seeking Christians tend not to have a very adequate knowledge of the Scriptures as a whole, but rather pick and choose a few key passages as their only references in these debates. This sort of debate is not just annoying to the offense, but also embarrassing to the defense. Apollos was neither because his arguments were up-to-date and well-schooled.

My last point on this passage is that Apollos saw the need to explain to the Jews that Christ was their Messiah. He was not trying to alienate, the way Christianity alienates Judaism today, but rather he was trying to align. We need to have this burden for the Jews as well. Their Messiah has come, and they need to see that Christ is not only in the New Testament but in the Old Testament as well. School yourself as Apollos did and allow the Holy Spirit to use you.

If someone shows signs of wanting to know more about Christianity and how it differs from other religions; if someone is searching for answers to ultimate questions and desires the things of God; if a younger or less-trained individual desires to further the work of Christ and shows signs of potential, it is up to the church's "superiors" to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit and have faith in His guidance as they seek to empower the individual, not to recognize their own human misgivings and doubts. The purpose of a spiritual leader is to empower, not oppress.