Priscilla The Powerful Church Leader
Daily Reading: (Acts 18:26):
“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.”
According to the text Apollos is preaching boldly meaning he had the courage to speak freely in the synagogue about Jesus, he still had a way to grow in his knowledge of the faith. There were two people who loving would invite this man into their home so that the text says that they might “explain the way of God more adequately.”
The word “way” is an interesting Greek metaphor that means a way of thinking, feeling, and deciding. And the last word used in this verse “adequately” is better translated as diligently.
Acts 18:24-25 tells us some information about Apollos and an area that Aquila and Priscilla might explain to him more diligently. “Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 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.”
It is clear based on the last sentence that the problem wasn’t his accuracy of teaching about Jesus, but that He didn’t know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We have the benefit of having the entire Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. This man is living the New Testament. Acts chapter 18 is talking about a sermon he just preached. So, unless you heard other disciples share their first-hand accounts with Jesus and His teaching- or you encounter someone like Paul, Barnabas, or Timothy along the way your actual knowledge of what Jesus said and did would have been limited.
God sent Aquila and Priscilla to Apollos but to find out how God would first have to prepare them we have to go to Acts 18:1.
“After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 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” (Acts 18:1-2).
A hardship was used as a divine move of God. When have you experienced a hardship in your life that God used for your good and for His glory? God accomplishes great things during difficult circumstances. ”and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them” (Acts 18:3). Paul is moving around planting churches and in order to support himself and his travel needs, he makes tents for a living to support the spread of the Gospel. This is what Aquila and Priscilla do too. And the cool thing is instead of seeing themselves as tentmakers in competition with each other, they work together and in that time together Paul will share Jesus with them so that later when they encounter Apollos they can share Christ more fully with Him. Most women were not tentmakers in the ancient world, and yet, Priscilla had a mastery for tent making, hospitality, and theology.
In verse 18 we find that after spending some time in Corinth, Paul leaves from there and takes with him Priscilla and Aquila and they will encounter Apollos in Antioch.
Aquila and Priscilla go to the synagogue where they hear Apollos preaching and they know they can help him. God sent Paul to us, and now God has brought us to Apollos.
“When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately” (Acts 18:26).
They invited Apollos into their home- they had a meal together, they opened their home so that Apollos could grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Priscilla is a remarkable woman who along with her husband Aquila provides for Paul, and those she later has in her house for church, to the best of her ability. Priscilla exercised extreme hospitality and kindness, even when she’d lost her riches as an esteemed family in Rome. Nevertheless, she continues to walk faithfully with God and her husband, and excels in whatever task she has set before her.
After spending time with Aquila and Priscilla they send Apollos off in ministry in verses 27-28: “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. or he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.”
Paul first met Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth. Apollos, didn’t start off in Corinth, but in Antioch and look at the success Apollos will have in ministry. In the very first letter Paul writes to the Corinthians one of the very first things Paul addresses is this:
“My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; still another, “I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:11-12).
I love Paul’s response as he could have been jealous of Apollos. Apollos was more charismatic and a more dynamic speaker than Paul according to many people. Paul could have written that Apollos would only be where he is because Paul trained Aquila and Priscilla would trained Apollos. Instead, Paul brings it back to Christ. You aren’t baptized into Paul, I wasn’t crucified for you. My desire is that we would be united not divided. Let’s celebrate the work God is doing through us all. So, although this verse is looked at typically negatively because people are divided in whose teaching we follow, I see it through the positive aspect that Apollos is mentioned with Paul, and Peter. Apollos has grown in his faith and is reaching more and more with the message of the Gospel as is Paul. “I have been sent to preach the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 1:17). God was powerfully at work in Paul, in Aquila, Priscilla, and Apollos.
So whatever happened with Priscilla and Aquila?
“They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them” (Romans 16:4). Most of us are Gentiles and I can tell you, there is a chance you might not have heard the Gospel had it not been for their sacrifice.
Did you know that Priscilla went by another name too? She sometimes also goes by the name of Prisca (2 Timothy 4:19).
In Ephesus, the two of them establish a church in their home (1 Corinthians 16:19). She and her husband Aquila not only risked their lives for Paul (Romans 16:4) but showed an example of a godly marriage. I am very grateful for both Aquila and Priscilla and all they did to spread the Gospel.
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