All right, Acts chapter 18, beginning at verse 1. After these things, he left Athens, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because He was of the same trade, He stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent makers. And He was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Okay, well, tonight I'm going to talk about Priscilla and Aquila. I read just a little bit about them there. I'm going to use several other verses as well. They are a married couple, kind of a missionary couple, although I think if you were to ask them what their trade was, they would not have told you missionary. They were tent makers. They had the same trade as the Apostle Paul, as we read right there. But, when you think about it, with Priscilla and Aquila, why talk about this tonight? What's on my mind that I would go this way? Well, we just talked about marriage on Sunday, and so I was thinking, Sunday really, it dealt more with the facts about marriage and what marriage is and what marriage is not. how it's to be viewed, and what makes for a good, solid biblical marriage and things of that nature. What I'm doing tonight is I'm not really digging into all of those aspects of marriage. I'm just taking a married couple from Scripture and saying, wow, look at them, they make for a good model in terms of of good Christian marriage, what that would look like. And so, since marriage was kind of on the mind since Sunday, I thought, well, let's talk about Priscilla and Aquila, because you don't see a lot of couples talked about in the Bible. I mean, it's just not an overwhelming amount, and we know many of these men in the Bible had wives. We know Peter, for example, had a wife, or at least he had a mother-in-law. So, at some point he had a wife. Others as well, we know Paul didn't have a wife, because he mentions that. Now, there's debate as to whether or not Paul ever had a wife. Some people say, oh, he did at one time, but she died. The Bible doesn't say that. Well, he did at one time, and maybe some have speculated that when Paul says, I've given up all things, that when, some have speculated, when Paul became a Christian, that his whole family deserted him, including a wife. Pure speculation, the Bible doesn't say anything about that, but some have gone that route. And some have argued that Paul was at one time married because he makes a reference, he makes a statement when he talks about Stephen being executed. He says, I cast my stone against him, which is language that is used to describe how the Sanhedrin would typically vote. They would have stones, white stones and black stones, and if you voted guilty, you'd throw a black stone. Anyway, because Paul used that phrase, some people surmise that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, and to be a member of the Sanhedrin, typically you were married. Now, again, that's all speculation. To me, that's building a mountain out of very circumstantial evidence, and what's the point of that? Paul tells us flat out that he wasn't married, at least at the time of his apostleship. However, he mentions that most people probably will and should be married. And so we talked about that on Sunday, the sanctity of marriage, and so I wanted to look at an example, a stellar example of marriage from Priscilla and Aquila. I also had it in mind because I thought, in fact last Wednesday, I had thought, in fact I had it in my notes to talk about Priscilla and Aquila and Apollos. I can't remember the exact topic of last Wednesday now, it slips me, so if you don't remember, I totally don't blame you, because I preached it, and I don't remember it. But I do remember what I didn't say, because I was going to talk about Priscilla and Aquila and Apollos, and read an account that I'm going to read here in a few moments, where Apollos is this polished, eloquent preacher and debater, and just, you know, really kind of an out-front kind of guy, and Priscilla and Aquila are more behind-the-scenes type people, but they come along and enlightened Apollos on some theological areas that he wasn't aware of. And so the point of that being that God uses all different kinds of people in His church. They're not all Apollos, they're not all Pauls and Peters and, you know, disciples and pastors. A lot of times those are the ones that you see publicly, but if you look at any church and you look at the New Testament church or local churches or the church at large, what you find is the vast majority of the people who are doing the ministry and the service and being witnesses out in the world, they're not apostles and preachers and pastors and big names, if you will. They're the ones that are kind of mentioned at the end of letters, right? Aristarchus and John Mark and Now, they got to be pretty well-known. They're mentioned several times, but they were always behind-the-scenes type people, and I think they give us a tremendous example in that regard. When we were talking about Colossians, the last sermon I preached on Sunday night, say to Archippus, take heed of the ministry which you've received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. And that was what we had talked about, the ministry you've received in the Lord. It doesn't mean just a pastor who's called to preach. What is the ministry that you've received in the Lord? What is it that God wants to use you? How does He want to use you to minister to brothers and sisters in Christ or even to be a witness unto unbelievers? Well, Paul exhorted Archippus saying, take heed, pay attention, make sure you fulfill what you were called to do. And that's true of all of us. What does the Lord want us to do? What would He have us do? And do we have the diligence to say, you know what? I want to be used of God. I know it's going to stretch me. I know it's not always going to be comfortable, but I want God to use me. And clearly that's what you see in this couple that we study tonight. Now, one thing about it is they had a business, all right? They were tent makers. And they moved to several different places. You say, well, is that the nature of the work? Not necessarily, because they seem to have a pretty good thriving business in Rome. They didn't leave Rome for business reasons. The Bible tells us why they left Rome. They left Rome because they got expelled. Claudius issued a decree that all the Jews were to get out of Rome. Now, they might have argued, hey, we're not Jews, we're Christians. And he would have argued, I don't care. Jews and Christians are the same to me. Get out of Rome. And so when you look at their life, it encompasses Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus primarily. But it can get real confusing sometimes because Paul mentions them, for example, He'll mention them in the book of Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, which he was writing from Rome. Or he will mention them in Ephesians, which he's writing from Corinth. Or he'll mention them in Romans, which he's writing from Ephesus. I'm sure I got some of those backwards. But the point is, when you read the Bible, the name of the book is the recipient, usually. and it was written from somewhere else. But wherever it is, a lot of times, Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned. Paul will either say, they're with me, and they send their greetings, or Paul will say, they're with you, so please greet them for me. The point is, they are always at the church, wherever it is. In fact, it seems as though, at least on two occasions, in two different cities, the church met at their house. There's no evidence whatsoever that Aquila was a pastor, no evidence at all of that, but it does seem that the church met at their house when you look at the text. All right, so we look at this here in Acts 18. It tells us a little bit about them. This is really when they're first introduced in Scripture. It says, After these things, he left Athens and went to Corinth, he being Paul, Athens being Mars Hill. That's where Paul goes and he talks to the philosophers and they make fun of him because they don't understand what he's saying when he's preaching the gospel to them. In fact, they thought he was talking about two different gods. I was just telling Savannah about this earlier, so I'm not really yelling at her, I'm just emphasizing something that she knows because we just talked about it today. Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection, and they thought that he was preaching two different gods, one named Jesus and one named resurrection. And they said, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities, plural, speaking about Jesus and the resurrection. And so when Paul finally explained to them what he did, in fact, mean by that, in other words, one Jesus, and he arose. That's what I mean by resurrection. Oh, they got a hearty laugh out of that one. And they mocked him, they made fun of him, they ridiculed him, but the Bible tells us, of course, others said, we'll hear you more concerning this, and yet others, it says, believed. And they clave unto Paul, they went with Paul. And it even lists a few of them by name, Dionysius, the Areopagite, Damaris, and a few others. And so Paul is bearing fruit evangelistically, and now he comes to Corinth, he left Athens, he comes to Corinth, and he finds here a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. Okay, what's that all about? I mean, why is this important? Pontius, what's that? Well, it's a region over by the Black Sea. That's not where they were working, but that's where at least he was from, maybe both of them. They were working in Rome, which is a good place to work. If you've got a good business in that day and age, you're probably going to make a pretty good living in Rome because that's the capital city. That's the main city. of the empire. And so it is, they're in Rome, that's where they're living, that's where they're working, but they had to leave because they were expelled. Now, why would they get expelled? Well, they got expelled several times, not those, not Priscilla and Aquila necessarily, but the Jews in general got kicked out of Rome several times. The one he's referring to here was done by Claudius somewhere around the year 49 AD. Paul wrote the book of Romans somewhere around the year 55 to 57 AD, so six, seven, eight years later. And at the end of Romans, Paul says, greet Priscilla and Aquila. So they apparently had made their way back to Rome. The expulsion was no longer standing. But in 49 AD, they'd been expelled. Now, reasoning for that, why were they expelled? Why were the Jews expelled? There's a couple of reasons, first of all, And this will sound familiar to you from Old Testament times. Some of the Romans felt that they had become too populous. There were too many Jews in town, and that made people a little nervous. It made them even more nervous when some of these Jews started talking about a man named Christ. whom they referred to as Kurios, which means Lord, and those who were really in power positions or who wanted the power positions to know what was going on, said, look, this group of these Jews, they're revolutionaries. I mean, they're going to take over the government. They've got someone else named Jesus that they're calling King. In fact, they say he's the King of Kings. Now, what does that say about It says, if Jesus is king of kings, then Jesus is also king over Caesar. Now that doesn't go well in a government that sees the government as God and sees the leader as being divine. And so there was not only this threat that was felt by Rome because of Christians, but a threat that, let's be honest, they didn't really need to fear. Jesus was not coming to take over the Roman Empire. His disciples were not going to come and storm the palace, so to speak. That wasn't what they were planning to do. It's what they were accused of doing, but there was never any indication of that at all. in Jesus' teaching, nor really in the behavior of His disciples. There was the one incident with Peter and the sword, you know, when they came to arrest Jesus, but that was really it. I mean, there wasn't an armed movement of Christians who were going to take over Rome. It was ridiculous to even think so. But some Romans thought so, and so because of this fear that perhaps these are insurrectionists, the Jews are getting too big, if they all end up together they're going to overtake Rome. and the fact that there was two different sects of Jews who did not get along. And you know full well, Romans didn't understand this. They saw this as a religious schism that they didn't even care about just so long as they keep the peace. But the schism was between Christians and Jews. In other words, Jews who had rejected Christ and Christians who had embraced Christ. And so if you go back and read historians who talk about 49 A.D. when the Jews were expelled from Rome, one historian said it was caused by the instigation of a certain Jewish leader by the name of Crestus. In all likelihood, he was talking about Christus, which is Christ. In other words, they were fighting about Jesus, and it was Christians and Jews, and Claudius says, all right, all of you get out of here. I don't want to hear any of it. I know that sounds mean, but he's Rome, and he doesn't really care if it sounds mean to you. He'll kick everybody out and then he'll burn the city down and he'll blame it on you. It wasn't actually Claudius, that was actually Nero. But that's the type of people you're dealing with. All right, so they leave Rome and it tells us they're tent makers. And so it's interesting that they end up, it turns out, they're the same trade as Paul. Paul was a tent maker. And when you think of tent makers, by the way, You think, all right, well, they make tents so people can go camping and that sort of thing. Well, that wasn't really what it was. And it wasn't really isolated to tents. The phrase means leather worker, which tents would have been, you know, and awnings and things would have been a big part of what they made. But anything made of leather, they would have been skilled in how to do that. And so we see Priscilla and Aquila working. They're working their trade. They're working in Rome. They get kicked out of Rome. What do they do? They go somewhere else and continue working their trade. In this case, they went to Corinth. And Paul now, he's traveling around, and he's in Athens, and he's done in Athens. He comes to Corinth, and now he encounters them. I don't think you can account it to anything other than the providence of God that he happens upon them. He found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, and his wife Priscilla. And so they're tent makers, and so they stay together, they work together, Paul stays with them, and Paul continues on in verse 4, it says he's reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Paul's still preaching the gospel, doesn't matter if he's working on tents, whenever he has a chance to go to the synagogue, he'll go there and preach Christ and get himself in trouble, or he'll go into the marketplace and preach Christ, or he'll sit there while he's working and preach Christ. But Paul is preaching Christ. Now, a little bit later, we see Priscilla and Aquila more than just their vocation in terms of their working, we also see them serving in the church. And as I said, on a couple of occasions, the church met at their house. If you scroll down there to verse 24 of Acts 18, it tells us a little bit more about them, and this is where Apollos comes into it. Acts chapter 18, verse 24. Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. And he was mighty in the Scriptures, and this man had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John. And he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. And when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public. demonstrating by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Now, one thing that happened, Paul, of course, is in Corinth. He stays there for a while. Eventually, he goes on to Ephesus and he takes Priscilla and Aquila with him. You'll remember Corinth was the place where Paul had the vision, where Christ appeared to him and said, don't fear any longer. I'm with you. You remember this phrase, I have many people in this city. I have many people in this city." Now, Arminian reads that and says, oh, wow, there's already a whole bunch of Christians there. That's not what it means. In fact, I've read commentary that says, oh, there are all these secret Christians there that Paul didn't know about and Jesus said, I have many people. He means elect people. He means people, I mean, if you already had all them people, he doesn't need Paul there, right? Because Paul's an evangelist, a church planter, if you will. And so what the Lord is saying is that there are people in this city that are going to be saved through your preaching, so you stay here until I tell you to go. And he stayed there for quite a while. He did eventually go on. There was persecution, but it was not violent against Paul, just as the Lord promised. And he did end up going to Ephesus, and he took Priscilla and Aquila with him. It seems as though the church was meeting in Priscilla and Aquila's house. Paul's not there. He's moved on. But they hear Apollos, and Apollos comes on the scene, and Apollos is impressive. in numerous ways, and that can be a two-edged sword. That can be a blessing, and it can be a curse. It tells us, for example, just some things about Apollos. He's Alexandrian by birth. First of all, he's a Jew, and he's an Alexandrian by birth. So he's kind of like Paul in the sense that he had two things going for him. Paul was a Roman Jew. He was a Roman citizen because he was from Tarsus, and everyone from Tarsus was given Roman status. But he was also a Jew. a high up Jew, and so he had clout in the synagogues. Well, Apollos is also a Jew, but he's of Alexandrian birth. Now, to be of Alexandrian birth, what does that mean? Well, it means, for one thing, one of the greatest libraries in the world at that time was in Alexandria. It was a place known for its education. It would have been like saying, I hate to say it, because I don't think it's known for its education anymore, But it would have been like saying he grew up across the street from Harvard or something like that, which Harvard's a joke now in my opinion, but that's beside the fact. Point is, he's from a really intelligent city, highly educated, and as if that's not enough, he's eloquent. He was probably trained in rhetoric is what they call it, the ability to speak and persuade. And, on top of that, it says he was mighty in the Scriptures. I mean, this guy's got everything going for him. It doesn't seem like anyone should have that many gifts. However, there was a problem with Apollos, and it was this. It says that he had been instructed, verse 25, in the way of the Lord, and he was fervent in spirit, speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John. So, Priscilla and Aquila, they hear Apollos and they see potential there. Now, a lot of people might have just been enamored with Apollos because he's fervent in spirit, he's intelligent, he's eloquent, and he's right. as far as he knows, I mean up to the point he knows, right? It says he was teaching accurately the things concerning the Lord up until the baptism of John. Now, this is where Priscilla and Aquila, they kind of have a responsibility, if you will, a decision to make, if you will. Now, they might have been tempted to just write him off, even though he had a lot of giftings They might have said, you know what, enough of him. He needs to grow more, maybe somewhere down the road. But they didn't. Really, you gotta proceed a little bit further than just hearing. You've gotta, you know, actually converse with the man and bring up to him what he doesn't know. Look, there's more to it, and you don't know, but let us tell you. And really, his reaction to that's gonna tell you a whole lot as to whether or not this is really a man of God or if this is just a showboat. I mean you take for example that he was from a place where he was probably highly educated and you've got tent makers here who may or may not but probably weren't highly educated in the way that Apollos would have been. Now sometimes that's going to create a natural schism right. Oh he's from Alexandria. Oh we're all supposed to be impressed. While it's true that sometimes people put on too much and, you know, ugh, he just nauseates me. That wasn't the case. Priscilla and Aquila, they saw potential there. They liked what they heard. And they didn't snub him for class reasons, in other words. Sometimes you see that. Either lower class will snub the higher class, oh, they're snobs. Or the other way around, snobs will say, ah, they're trash, I don't want anything to do with them. These people have something in common, which is Christ. The problem is, Apollos doesn't have the full story. And so they might have rejected him for that reason. Well, he's educated, he's Alexandrian, what do we have in common with him? We're tent makers from Pontius. We don't have anything in common. No, they weren't like that. And see, that's one of the reasons I commend Priscilla and Aquila. They didn't just write him off immediately. They also might have written him off because he was so eloquent. Because what did Paul say about eloquence when he was talking to the Corinthians? What did the Corinthians say about Paul for that matter? He's not eloquent. In fact, they said his speech was contemptible. And what that meant was that Paul—and Paul says in Corinthians he purposely did that. I mean, he purposely tried not to impress them with eloquence because he knew how they were. They were hung up on that. He wanted the power of the gospel to save them. He didn't want them distracted by eloquence. Or it could be that maybe Paul wasn't that eloquent as a speaker. The fact is, God gifts different people with different gifts. And the thing with eloquence, it can be a two-edged sword. It can be a tremendous blessing if God so chooses to use a man and give him the ability to speak eloquently. Well, that might be a gift from God that he's using. But you got another preacher that maybe isn't eloquent, but what if he's preaching the truth. You say, well, I'd rather listen to the heretic that's eloquent. Well, that's the problem with the world today, isn't it? That's why you have megachurches with eloquent heretics preaching. And then you've got smaller churches with some that may not be as eloquent, but they're preaching the truth. I was talking to someone recently, in fact. They were a friend of mine looking for a pastor, and they've had a long string of How shall I say it without being crass? Subpar, unqualified, I'll put it that way. I said, well, you know what your problem is? You keep hiring time and time and time again people that are not qualified. Well, I know, but we want someone that's this particular age and has this much experience and they have this and they have that. And I said, well, show me in the scriptures what the qualifications are for a pastor. And you show me the age limit and you show me which degree they're required to have. because there's a list in the Bible. There's two of them. 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1. Why don't you go off of that list and see how things work out for you? Now, going off of that list, you might look at Apollos and say, well, I don't know if he has all these things, but boy, he sure is eloquent. Well, as it turns out, he does have the qualifications, and I think that's clearly seen in the fact, like Russ said, that when they approached him and even corrected him, he took it, he accepted it, and he seemed to accept it excitedly. He was excited to hear the truth because he still wanted to go on and continue to preach. Now, you think of certain preachers from history, by the way, Spurgeon was extraordinarily eloquent. I mean, unbelievers enjoyed hearing him preach. And you say, isn't that a bad thing because that's a distraction? No, I think God gifted him in that way. He had a gift from God that he was very eloquent. George Whitefield is another example. I think Sasser, when he was here, talked about that. Benjamin Franklin was so enamored with Whitefield that he would sometimes pay to rent halls where Whitefield could preach. And Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian. And people would ask him, why are you paying to hear him? You don't believe a word he says. And he said, no, I don't believe a word he says, but he believes every word he says. And I love listening to him. So he was eloquent. to no avail in the case of Benjamin Franklin, as far as we know. So it can be a double-edged sword. But the point is, they saw potential and they didn't give up on him. They approached him, they went to him, they talked to him. And when you think about it, and like I said, it depends on what his reaction is. I mean, if they had gone to Apollos and his reaction was, hey, I'm from Alexandria, you tent makers have no business telling me. Who are you to teach me about theology? I mean, come on. I've got the world's greatest library in my backyard. Who are you people?" But that wasn't his reaction. But that would determine a lot, and you never know. Sometimes you approach people and you want to correct their theology, or you want to enlighten them on the gospel. You're close. You've got some things right, but the Bible says this and this and this, and that's where you're off a little bit. There's lots of examples of this where it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't work, and of course, what's the determining factor? God is, right? I was thinking of a couple of examples. Herod, he was not a nice guy, right? Not a nice fellow. I was going to call him guy and fellow and almost called him a fry. He was not a nice fry. Herod was not a nice guy. You remember the one that killed John the Baptist? That's who I'm talking about. Adulterous, glutton, a drunkard, you name it, it was Herod. Arrogant man, but do you know that the Bible says that he enjoyed listening to John the Baptist? You know, you find that a little fascinating in Mark 6. In fact, when he ignorantly painted himself into a corner because of his proclivities, and he promised that girl, oh, I'll give you anything you want up to half my kingdom. And of course, what does mama say? John the Baptist, head on a platter. And Herod's like, yay, I can't stand that guy, I'm ready to kill him. That was not how Herod was at all. Herod was scared. The Bible says he was scared. The Bible says he feared John the Baptist because he knew he was a holy and a righteous man. And it says in Mark chapter six that he would often bring John the Baptist in and converse with him because he enjoyed listening to John the Baptist. And what does he enjoy about listening to John the Baptist? Calling him an adulterer. Well, I suspect John said more. And so when John said whatever John said, Herod enjoyed listening to him. Now, surely John the Baptist wasn't crazy enough to try to convert Herod, was he? Well, I hope he was, because it's not John the Baptist's call, is it? If the Lord calls, they shall come. Again, another example of this, you're undoubtedly familiar with the one of Paul and Agrippa. You remember when Agrippa says, Paul, in a short time you'll make me to be a Christian. As disputed what was said there, because in the Greek it's hard to really translate it. Some people say that he was saying, Paul, I'm getting ready to become a Christian if you keep on. Some were saying he was questioning Paul. Are you really trying to make me become a Christian? And Paul's answer to that was, If I had my way, you and everybody else who hears me would be just like me, a Christian, except without these chains. And so you don't know what God's going to do, and you don't know what God's going to do with Apollos. They didn't know what God was going to do or not do. Paul on Mars Hill, another example. I mean, a bunch of philosophers, why waste your time? A bunch of eggheads, arrogant, they're going to look down on you, they're going to make fun of you. Most of them did, but not all of them. Here's an example I heard just this week. Talk about God plucking his elect from the most unusual of places. Have any of y'all heard about the conversion of Steve McQueen, the actor? You know who I'm talking about? Steve McQueen was big time, you know, you all remember him back in the 60s and 70s. He was as big as they came. Well, there's a book that recently came out and they're making it into a documentary. It's supposed to be released this year. Apparently, Steve McQueen, who was married three or four times, drug addict, alcohol, completely wildlife, I mean, orphaned, nine years old, he's living on the streets, ran away from home, beat up by stepdads, joined a circus at one point, lived in Louisiana doing in the lumber business at one point, ended up on a ship at one point, He got the Dominican Republic, he hated the ship, he jumped off, he worked in a brothel for six months in the Dominican Republic when he was 15 years old, makes his way back to America, eventually joins the Marine Corps, where he spends three years, rebellious, he promotions, he get knocked down, seven times he got knocked down. One thing after another, he eventually becomes an actor, and then he eventually became the highest paid actor in Hollywood. At one point in the late 60s, he was the highest paid. And so he was higher than Brando, higher than Clint Eastwood, higher than any of them. Well, according to the testimony that I read, and the clip of the documentary I saw, he was just completely empty. I mean, he had everything except peace. And so he had all the Hollywood stuff, all the money, race cars, he was big into race cars and motorcycles. And so he moved out of Hollywood and that whole area, moved out a little further, Ventura I think it was. I'm not as familiar with California Wayne, you know where Ventura is maybe. But supposedly he moved someplace out a little further. He just wanted away from Hollywood. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he was miserable. And so he had decided the one thing he had never learned to do was to fly. And so he bought a plane. And he's talking to local folks, and they're saying, look, there's one guy you need to get to teach you how to fly. He's an old man, used to be a stunt pilot. He's done all kinds of stuff, but he will teach you how to fly. You need to get in touch with this guy. And so he does, and he hires the guy, an old man, who as it turns out is a devout Christian. And so Steve McQueen and the old man are spending hours upon hours upon hours in a cockpit, learning to fly and talking about other things, you know, life and whatnot. And according to the story, Steve McQueen had said to him, you've got something I don't have. I don't know. There's some, you know, he had a piece about him. He had, you know, joy. And the old man said, well, I'll tell you my secret if you want to know. Yeah, what is it? He says, Jesus, I know the Lord. And he invited him. He said, you should come to my church sometime. Yeah, right. Like Steve McQueen is going to show up at church, right? According to the man, the next Sunday, Steve McQueen shows up at church, a small church, Ventura, California, somewhere like that. And he came in, of course, people knew who he was, and the pastor was like, don't harass him, just let him come. And he kept coming, and he kept coming, and he kept coming. And so he finally talked to the preacher after one service and said, I'd like to talk to you in private sometime, I got a lot of questions. So they talked, and he had questions all about Christianity and forgiveness, and I've done a lot of stuff in my life, and the pastor explained the gospel to him. According to the story, he was saved. And this happened just a couple of years before he died, and so they say it wasn't a deathbed conversion, because at the time he was still healthy, but shortly after that, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. And he had said that he had found such joy in Christ that he wanted to give the rest of his life to making Christ known. That's Steve McQueen. I mean, I thought it was fascinating because I don't know him as a Christian, but maybe one day I will. But anyway, long story short, he gets lung cancer in 1980 at the age of 50. He ends up dying. But his wife and others that knew him at the time said, oh, there was such a change in him after that. They said he just combed over his Bible. They had a copy of his Bible where he was just highlighting all these things. You know how it is when you first get saved, right? I mean, you're hungry for that. So anyway, that's supposed to be coming out, a documentary at theaters sometime in September. I'm hoping at some point it comes out in a DVD. Fascinating story. And I'm reading the book on it now. What's my point of all that? You just don't know who God's gonna save, right? I mean, this guy was a degenerate in Hollywood. I mean, cocaine, you name it, but it didn't satisfy. And a lot of times it doesn't satisfy, but their answer is not Christ, unless they're called, right? And if you're one of God's chosen ones, listen, it doesn't matter, you can be in the biggest cesspool in all of Hollywood, Is God's arm not long enough to save? And so, you know, Paul, why would you talk to Festus and Agrippa? You're not gonna, they're not gonna be saved. Oh, you don't know. Why would you talk to Herod? Oh, you don't know. You don't know what God's gonna do. Who would have thought you might see Steve McQueen in heaven? I would surprise, don't ask for his autograph, by the way. Okay, so they saw Apollos. You don't know what God's going to do with Apollos, but God's, obviously, we know God had a plan to do something with Apollos. But they saw problems with him, and it says Priscilla and Aquila, they had Christian knowledge, and so they take him aside to explain the way of God more accurately. Now, if he only knew Christianity up to John the Baptist. And what does that mean? Does that mean he knew up to John's preaching? Or does that mean he knew up to the baptism of Jesus, when John baptized Jesus? Either way, that's pretty close. So what would he be missing in his message? A lot of stuff, right? Pretty much Christianity, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the miracles of Jesus, the entire earthly ministry of Jesus. And so all he knew was John the Baptist was a great prophet, and he's preaching Jesus, and so Jesus came, and so I'm preaching Jesus, but he doesn't really know much about Jesus. And so they take him aside and they explain the Word of God to him more accurately, and his reaction is that he embraces that, he accepts that, and he wants to go on to Achaia and keep preaching. And they say, you know what? God's hand is upon him, not just Priscilla and Aquila. It says the brethren, which means the church, they believed he was truly of God. And so they saw potential in him and they saw problems in him and they attempted to fix the problems and guess what? They fixed. And in so doing, they're not only helping Apollos, they're also helping the church, aren't they? Priscilla and Aquila are doing a great service to the church because Who knows who else might have picked up on that and said, he's not quite right, but maybe didn't have the nerve to go and confront him. I mean, he's eloquent. He's Alexandrian. He's Apollos. You're going to go tell Apollos? And Priscilla and Quill say, yeah, we're going to take him aside. That's another thing. They didn't try to embarrass him. They didn't try to ridicule him publicly. They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. They knew it. How did they know? They're running with Paul, right? So they know Christianity well. And so it's a service both to Apollos, it's also a service to the church, because you don't want him to continue on preaching a partial message that doesn't have the whole story of Christianity. It's confusing to people. And so Priscilla and Aquila working, serving, third, Priscilla and Aquila hosting, it tells us First Corinthians chapter 16 verse 19, Paul writing to the Corinthians, he says, "...the churches of Asia greet you, Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord with the church that is in their house." So Paul's writing to the Corinthians from Ephesus. And he says, in Ephesus, there is a church that's meeting in Priscilla and Aquila's house. He also writes to Timothy, 2 Timothy, end of his life, and Timothy is in Ephesus, and Paul writes in verse 19 of 2 Timothy 4, greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. So they would have all been in Ephesus at that time, Timothy no doubt pastoring, meeting in Priscilla and Aquila's house. Romans 16, verse 3, Paul's writing to the Romans, and he says, greet the church that is in Priscilla and Aquila's house. And so we see them wherever they are. It's that hospitality like we talked about recently. They're hosting the church. The church is meeting at their place. And, I mean, it's just a tremendous way in which God used them. And not only that, in terms of the hosting, also the potential suffering, because listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 16 verse 3, and again, this is for him writing greetings and whatnot at the end of the letter. He says, "'Greet Prisca,' which is another name for Priscilla, and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life risked their own necks.'" to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Also greet the church that is in their house." So Paul says Priscilla and Aquila risked their necks. Now that's an expression we use, but it was more than an expression in that day and age, right? Because you really could lose your neck, lose your head. And he says they risked their necks on his behalf. Where might that have happened? Just about anywhere they went. Corinth, how'd the message fly there? Not good. The Lord appeared to Paul, and many people in this city don't fear, but there was violence in Corinth over the gospel. Priscilla and Aquila are there with Paul. Do they abandon Paul? They do not abandon Paul. They stay with Paul. In fact, when Paul leaves, he goes with them. And let's be perfectly honest, how do you risk your neck in that culture? Having anything to do with Paul is a good way to risk your neck. Just traveling with Him, being seen with Him, being known as a believer in the same thing Paul believes in is a good way to risk your life. And they did. and they didn't reject him or ignore him. In Ephesus, was there any tension in Ephesus because of Christianity? Oh boy, that place. That was where they, remember they cast out the demons, the seven sons of Sceva, and the demon says, I know who Jesus is and I've heard of Paul, but who are you? and the demons jumped on them and ripped them to shreds. That went on in Ephesus. Ephesus is where the idol makers union got mad because they said, Paul is ruining our business because he says these idols are not idols at all. And of course, they just whipped them into a frenzy and they go into the stadium screaming, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. That was the main false god in Ephesus. So that type of situation. Well, who lives there? Who's the Christians there? Paul's there, Priscilla and Aquila are there. It's dangerous running with Paul. In Rome, numerous ways to get yourself killed as a Christian in Rome. They'd already been expelled once for being Christians, technically for being Jews, but it was because they were Christians. That was what the hubbub was about. Persecutions, expulsions, martyrdoms that happened in Rome, lots of them. And so they lived in a world where persecution was the norm at many times, and what'd they do? making their tents, kept telling people about Christ, kept going to church, you know, they did what Christians are supposed to do. Doesn't matter if times are good or bad or hard or if God blesses with prosperity or if God doesn't, whatever it is, we keep working, we keep doing what we're supposed to be doing and we go wherever God says to go. So three things in closing and then I'm done. Each one of these things will be about 45 minutes, so I'd say we've got about, no, I'm joking. God uses husbands and wives sometimes in tremendous ways as teams for His glory. I mean, that's what you want to see, a husband and wife as God is using them as a team. They are both focused on the Lord. They both want to serve the Lord. And God is using the both of them. I think of that couple that came from Florida this past week. They came here and they served together, husband and wife, all week. And there were times when they were serving in different places, but they both had a heart to come here and do this. And so it kind of put me in mind of Priscilla and Aquila. They had a heart to do it. By the way, I heard from them, they're doing fine. They had some flooding, but nothing too serious at their house. So God uses teams of husbands and wives sometimes. God uses, the majority of the Christians God uses are behind-the-scenes type people like Priscilla and Aquila. I mean, you think about Famous Christians, Christians that you've heard of on a national level versus Christians who you've never heard of. Which is there more of? It's not even a contest, right? God uses the Priscilla's and Aquila's of the world to make the church go. I mean, that's how he used them. He uses others in more public roles as well. That's a tremendous honor to be used of God the way Priscilla and Aquila were used of Him. The Apostle Paul just obviously loved them tremendously the way he speaks of them. They risked their necks for me. They are my fellow workers. I mean, they, I think there was a tremendous closeness there for lots of reasons, primarily the love they all shared for Christ, but Paul shared other things with them too, didn't he? They were both of the same trade. And so, I mean, on numerous levels, he really had a bond with them. And so God uses husbands and wives, God uses behind the scenes Christians, and finally, my third point, God uses whoever he pleases, whoever he wants to use. That's what I love about Christianity. God can save whoever he wants to save and nobody can stop him. Oh, what about me with my free will? And so when you think of, you know, Steve McQueen, who would have thought that? Well, listen, if that's God's plan, who would have thought not? Because if that's God's plan, ain't nobody gonna stop it. Thief on the cross, degenerate his whole life. God saves him at the last minute. Solitarsis, who would have thought that? Nobody hated Christianity more than him. God saves him, uses him as a chosen instrument. And so God saves and uses whomever he pleases. All right, we'll stop there.