TEACHING
[p. 292] TEACHING
Acts 19:1 - 7; Acts 18:24 - 28
I have in mind to speak about teaching, and I selected these Scriptures because they give examples of it, of persons who needed teaching and accepted it and became taught in the Scriptures, in the truth of Christianity. I have selected chapter 19 to speak of persons who are evidently untaught. You will observe that the apostle, who was in the full height of his ministry at this time, had been up to Jerusalem and came back to Ephesus by the upper quarters, and finding these men in Ephesus he made inquiry as to whether they had received the Holy Spirit since they had believed. You will observe that no such question was asked of Apollos. The apostle asked the question of these twelve persons: had they received the Holy Spirit since they believed? Instead of saying as we often do, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, and perhaps truthfully (it ought to be truthfully), the twelve men said, “We did not even hear if the Holy Spirit was come”. Now I would say that is inexcusable ignorance. Most of us are ignorant, some more and some less. Indeed, all are more or less ignorant, but if anyone of those accustomed to attending meetings in this room in this city, should say that he did not know there was any Holy Spirit, I would say that brother would be inexcusably ignorant, and that he would be one who could not possibly, on these current lines, progress in the truth. It might even be an ignorance linked with the denial of the Spirit as a divine Person, for it is just possible that such ignorance may possess us. They were baptised, but it was a discarded sort of baptism. The writer of the Hebrews speaks about the doctrine of baptisms. We are more likely to talk about the doctrine than the thing, but the thing is more important. So they were baptised according to John the baptist. John was cut off in his ministry. He had wrought wonderfully.
The Lord tells us, “Among them that are born of women a greater prophet is no one than John the baptist”, (Luke 7:28). But he was cut off and his service was shortened. We have no record that it was to be continued. It was the baptism of John and obviously, according to what is here, it was defective yet it served its purpose. It was as right as it should be under him, but it was not Christian baptism.
Now I am speaking on teaching, if you will bear it in mind; that is the point. They were untaught as to Christian teaching and yet they had lived in a period of Christianity for a good many years. The doctrine of Christianity was taught in Africa, in Alexandria, and indeed all over that section, and therefore these men were inexcusably ignorant. Their teaching was defective and it was inexcusable that they were so ignorant. So, dear brethren, I am just saying these things not to insinuate that there is such a thing among us now, but we would do well to inquire into this matter as to whether we are taking on the advantage of all there is. Present advantages available to us in this city are wonderful. I am speaking, of course, of Ephesus and Alexandria, but my point is this city and the possibility of grave defectiveness in Christian teaching; not that it is not available, but that we are not availing ourselves of it, and proceeding on lines that should lead in the right direction, such as searching the Scriptures daily. There are many things we are enjoined to do in a daily sense. Certain Christians are said to have searched the Scriptures daily to see whether Paul’s greatest teaching was right. They were not questioning it in the sense that it was wrong but to see whether it was so. This will lead me presently to say something about accuracy in teaching and understanding teaching.
These twelve men were admittedly defective in their spiritual education. They were not making the [p. 294] most of what teaching there was, because Paul had been teaching for years. Apollos came from Alexandria, and needed teaching in Paul’s ministry, so that coming to Ephesus he was instructed by Aquila and Priscilla. These men at Ephesus were moving in the same light as Apollos before he was instructed, but he was making headway and they were not. That is my point, whether we are making the most of what there is within the reach of our ears daily. These men were baptised to John’s baptism, and they had not followed it up because John had said a great deal about the Holy Spirit. When they say they were baptised to John’s baptism, the inference is that they accepted all John taught. His baptism implies that, as Christian baptism now implies all the teaching of Christianity. Well, they did not know there was a Holy Spirit at all. Yet if they were challenged as to it, they could have found out if they wanted to that John spoke a great deal about the Holy Spirit. He said in his ministry of the Lord Jesus, “He it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit”(John 1:33). John said He would do it, not in John’s time, but God told John that Jesus would do it. “He it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”, (John 1:33). These men did not know that. It was inexcusable.
The next thing I want to point out is that they are teachable now. They wasted no time in accepting what Paul said about the matter. “And Paul said, John indeed baptised with the baptism of repentance”; they should have known that, repentance is very important too. John taught that, so Paul says, “John indeed baptised [p. 296] with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him that was coming after him, that is, on Jesus”. I want you to note now that Paul said very little. It would not have taken three minutes to say [p. 295] what he said, and they accepted it at once. They were quick learners. They had been very dull before, but God acts quickly, and at times touches people so that they act quickly. Revivals are sudden, they are direct movements from God. God moves quickly, and, of course, sometimes slowly because He is patient with us. Here the matter was done quickly. The gospel of Mark is full of that sort of thing, things done at once and done well. Mark says the Lord Jesus did all things well and did them properly and quickly. “And Paul said, John indeed baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him that was coming after him, that is, on Jesus”. That is all Paul said. Then they acted. My point is that these remarks on this chapter should help us as to whether we are just getting on as fast as we should. Heaven is taking account of us and the manner of our learning, whether we are learning at all, or whether we are just learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth; that should not be. Christians normally are coming in some sense to a knowledge of the truth. These twelve men came very quickly, however long they had been before. They are moving rapidly now, and God will perhaps touch us as to this.
So it says, “And when they heard that”. It reminds you of Peter speaking at Pentecost, that God had exalted Jesus to His right hand and He had received the promise of the Spirit and shed it forth. When they heard that, they said, “What shall we do, brethren?”. There is no time to waste; what shall we do about it? We are all challenged. How are we using our time? Are we getting on in the truth? Is the assembly growing here? The record is that when they heard this they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is brought in in a powerful way. “And Paul said, John indeed baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him that was coming after him, that is, on Jesus”. They were baptised “to the name of the Lord Jesus”. They were to understand that name, and now they received the Holy Spirit they would have the intelligence to use the expression “Lord Jesus”. I wonder how many of us repeat that name. No one can say Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit. We want to come under that name. It is protection for us and that is the point here. “And Paul having laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied”. That is to say, this is identification. They are worthy of it. Paul would not have done that immediately when he came to Ephesus. They were not impressionable at first, but now he lays his hands on them, one of the most precious things one can think of, because he is representative of God - divine hands mediatorially put on. He laid his hands on them, and it says the Holy Spirit came upon them. Think of all that lay behind it.
Think of what they were in the presence of now in the city of Ephesus. A man came to Ephesus and who knew him? Here he is and he puts his hands on these twelve men. I suppose he put them on one after another. We are not accustomed to these things, but it would be well if we were accustomed to them. It is the way of God in Christianity. There is the way of the Lord, and the “way of God”, as in verse 26 of the previous chapter. The word ‘way’ there means how the Lord did things, how God did things, and now it is how Paul did things as he laid his hands on them. The Lord Jesus had done it many times in healing the sick. “And Paul having laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied”. How characteristic all that is! Do the brethren not [p. 297] see it is a revival within a short time? There is a complete change in those twelve men brought about by a few words, a dozen or so. And these men heretofore showed ignorance; they did not even know if the Holy Spirit had come, but Paul lays his hands on them and says something to them and they believed and were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit came. Well, some might say, how do they know He came? We are not to be simply curious in regard to a divine Person. The Holy Spirit is a divine Person; He is just as divine as Jesus and as great too. He is here on earth now, and with us and Jesus is up there in heaven to represent us. We are wonderfully well off.
Now the Holy Spirit came on these twelve men. There is no suggestion that they did not know He came on them. Do we allude to the Spirit as merely a theory? He is a divine Person, and these twelve men received Him at the same time. “They spoke with tongues and prophesied”. Now we might say it is a mere incident that there were twelve; there might have been fifteen or twenty, but there is no ‘if’ at all in the things of God. Things happen, and this thing happened; twelve persons were acted on at once, that is, the blessed Spirit of God came on them and the result was they prophesied. What the tongues were is not of great moment here, but the fact is just that they did speak with tongues, though it was in a more extensive way at Pentecost. I am not pretending we are to be speaking with tongues now, but nevertheless it is important to see that they spoke with tongues and the tongues came from the Spirit of God. You remember how that happened at first when divine breathing was heard; the sound filled the house. There was a sound of deep breathing, as it were, the very inwards of God moved in regard to this matter and there came forth tongues of fire and sat on each of them. The same [p. 298] thing happened here. It shows how there was a repetition of Pentecost only in a lesser degree. God is saying, Now Ephesus is the matter in My mind. Cornelius was in God’s mind earlier. It is a similar thing; God is repeating Himself. Is not that very interesting? God repeats Himself every time He converts a man. He loves to do it. It enters into the movements of this long dispensation. It is the continuous work of God, and so it is here that they speak with tongues and prophesy. We have had much about prophecy lately and God has been helping the brethren. I expect the brethren here have occasional touches as to prophecy. Is God not repeating Himself here? He is certainly, and in New York too. It is remarkable how it has come about in recent years. It is God coming in and He loves to do it; His own repetition, but nevertheless, there is that which is unique every time. Every time you get a ministry meeting in a real sense, it is unique, it has a touch of its own. This is somewhat different from Pentecost; still, they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
There were twelve men, which suggests administration and that includes the care of the assembly. The twelve men belong there. They would function elsewhere too, of course, but the word ‘administration’ is a very important one for us as to how we are to take part in the care meetings. Numerals are simply divine language, and if we are in a care meeting to talk about the Lord’s interests and His people, thinking of them according to what they are on the breastplate of Christ, they are to be highly revered, loved, respected. Well, these are important matters. These matters mean that the care meeting takes on a new character. There is no time wasted. It is a time for twelve, twelve persons who receive the Holy Spirit at the same instant that God lays His hands on them, and they begin to speak with [p. 299] tongues immediately and prophesy. These are very wonderful things, and the Lord is helping the brethren in every place to take on the question of administration because there is so much to be administered. The whole wealth of God is at our disposal and God is putting it into the hands of persons who love one another. That is where He has put it. He looks for representation among His people, and the Lord says, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, (John 13:35). Men are to know it, that we “have love amongst yourselves”. That means it is a mutual affair. It is like a quantity of a thing, like a commodity, but in good hands, in trained hands. They know how to use love, how to dispense love, how to distribute it around to one another. That is what I mean by using the word ‘administration’. It means that these men were almost instantaneously transformed into qualified administrators, persons capable to be entrusted with divine things. God has them and they are His. They are representative of Him, and that is the secret of the great blessing seen at Ephesus. There is no such blessing reported at Antioch although Antioch follows on Jerusalem, but Ephesus seems to be the acme of success in Paul’s service and it largely lies in the working out of what this numeral twelve means from a spiritual standpoint. It was Paul’s work at this time. Now they are transformed into administrators, and one of the greatest possible things is love among themselves. You will see in that chapter that even the handkerchiefs taken from Paul effected cures. There had not been a movement like it before.
Another thing that comes in here is that God is saying, I will not be satisfied hereafter with careless learners. These twelve were so careless they did not know there was any Holy Spirit at all. It is a solemn thing really. We cannot afford to be ignorant as to [p. 300] the existence of a divine Person. I believe God is saying now, I am not going to have a repetition of this in Ephesus, and hence we have the school of Tyrannus. God is saying, I do not want the brethren to come in carelessly and late. God would have what corresponds with the school of Tyrannus in result. It is imperative that I should learn. We should be all taught of God. Think of God being Himself in the position of a teacher among us. God is in earnest in what He is doing and the Spirit is in earnest in us. These twelve men were so ignorant they did not know there was any Spirit at all. They did not understand the Trinity, knew nothing about It. So Paul was in the school of Tyrannus for two years. “And this took place for two years, so that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord”(Acts 19:10). Tyrannus is just a name to signify something, that there is authority in what is taught, but what is taught is the word of the Lord. That is the idea, the authority of Tyrannus is really in the Lord, hence the widened circulation of the teaching, the whole of Asia. “Reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this took place for two years, so that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”(Acts 19:9,10). It was just the province of Asia, not the continent as we know it, but the point is that the whole of it became affected by the word of the Lord Jesus. Christianity spread enormously in that province and it worked out in this way, from the things that I mentioned in detail — the baptism of these men, the laying on of Paul’s hands, the school of Tyrannus, the number of years there, and the province of Asia becoming christianised, thoroughly affected by the word of the Lord. That is no doubt the secret of why God uses the province of Asia to set out His mind in the book of Revelation. So, dear brethren, you see how things work in the [p. 301] Scriptures and how God is working out this kind of thing in us so that we can be representative of Him.
Now turning to Apollos, I want to show you how he had progressed. There is nothing said about his being baptised or receiving the Spirit, but there is much said about his eloquence. “But a certain Jew, Apollos by name, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, who was mighty in the scriptures, arrived at Ephesus. He was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in his spirit, he spoke and taught exactly the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And Aquila and Priscilla, having heard him, took him to them and unfolded to him the way of God more exactly. And when he purposed to go into Achaia, the brethren wrote to the disciples engaging them to receive him, who, being come, contributed much to those who believed through grace. For he with great force convinced the Jews publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ”. Now this is the description of an important servant of Christ. I am commenting on him because we may expect such a thing as this, in a smaller measure of course, of brothers and sisters progressing quickly. If we are not progressing quickly, it is time to see why we are not progressing. It is said of him initially that he was instructed in the way of the Lord. That is not the way of Episcopalianism or Romanism or any other ‘ism’, but it is the way things are done in Christianity, it is the way of the Lord. The word ‘way’ is at times used by itself, and alludes to the fellowship of Christianity. It is a word peculiar to the book of Acts. So it is all the more striking here that Apollos, although brought up under John’s ministry, knew the way of the Lord. We have to measure our methods with the way of the Lord, not the way of Paul, but of the Lord. Then it is [p. 302] called the way of God too. One might mention many things that are not just the way of the Lord and yet we think we are quite right in doing them. Coming in late, for instance, is not the way of the Lord. Luke tells us of the Lord and says that when the hour was come He sat down and the apostles with Him. Apollos “was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in his spirit, he spoke and taught exactly”. That is another point, because we are so slipshod in the things we say at times in the Bible readings, and other meetings. God is particular. According to what we read in 1 Corinthians 14, one was there that fell down and worshipped God. He learned quickly. He was a simple person, and fell down and worshipped God and reported that God was among them of a truth. That is the thing that tells, that God is in a place. The man said, ‘God is there’, and that is what tells. He did not say that a certain man could speak well but that God was there. Apollos “was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in his spirit, he spoke and taught exactly the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue”. You see, he is progressing, getting power, and his way is right. He is in the light of the Lord’s way and the way of God; so “Aquila and Priscilla, having heard him, took him to them”, as if they would take him to their house, for Christianity implies that, “and unfolded to him the way of God more exactly”. God is the God of order. The idea of order must enter into the assembly. I have already remarked as to the way of the Lord. It is a remarkable thing how many things God is said to be God of. That refers to our attendance at the meetings, how we speak to one another, how we sit in the meeting. Are we respectful? We will never love the saints unless we respect them, so the God of order enters into all these things.
[p. 303] Now we pass on to a few further remarks. “They having heard him, took him to them and unfolded to him the way of God more exactly”. This was a brother and his wife. They were not teaching him in the assembly, they took him to them, which is according to divine order. It would not do for a brother and his wife to teach in the assembly, but it would do for them to help to instruct in their own house. “And when he purposed to go into Achaia, the brethren wrote to the disciples engaging them to receive him, who, being come, contributed much to those who believed through grace”. Now we have something being done by one man and it is a question of the ministry. Apollos was a great minister. Paul preached, Apollos watered; he was great enough to work with Paul. He was the product indirectly, just as the twelve men were directly, of the service of Paul, the twelve men to act administratively and Apollos to act as minister of the truth. We read that he was on the road, as we might say, to serve the saints. It is not simply now that he was a local man at Ephesus. He belonged to Alexandria and he is converted and in the truth and to some extent with Paul and in touch with Aquila and Priscilla and fully set out as a minister. He is a teacher and a successful one and that is what God is looking for — successful results from the ministry of the truth and the way of God in our meetings. Hence, what it says of him is that he “contributed much to those who believed through grace”. If we believe at all it is through grace. It is the effect of God in our souls. This brother was used in this way. “For he with great force convinced the Jews publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ”. So that we now have a great minister working by himself, and twelve men administering together by themselves; they know what to do. One of the greatest difficulties as far as I know [p. 304] is that we do not know what to do when an emergency arises. We are just up against a wall, but it should not be. The twelve men by the Spirit of God know what to do. The administration of God means that we know what to do in an emergency. The thing is settled; there is a word of wisdom. That is all I have to say.