When Sarah and I got married and moved to London, we underwent almost every major life change at once. Within the space of a few weeks (and in some cases days) we got married, left our childhood homes, moved country, started our first professional jobs, set up our new home together and joined a new local church. The sheer number of changes meant that there was a clear break between our old and new lives. The fact that we were setting off on a completely new journey together filled us with a great deal of excitement. However, for all of that excitement, we knew we would miss many things, whether friends and family, the Christian fellowship that is so easy to come by within Northern Ireland or just people who speak as quickly and as strangely as we do!
One thing I didn’t fully appreciate that I would miss was the presence of aspirational figures within my own life. That is, figures who I aspired to learn from and imitate. My father and uncles demonstrated to me the importance and priority of family life. My father-in-law showed me what it means to serve God not just for a Sunday, or a season, but for a lifetime. My minister patiently expounded the Bible to the same congregation week after week. The wise and godly older man, who has acted as a mentor to me, as he does with so many others, since my university days, graciously calling me to account and walking with me through the many thoughts and frustrations of my heart. In many ways, God planted me in the middle of a forest of inspirational men, and in their shadows I was allowed to grow. Like the Corinthians were to do with Paul (1 Corinthians 11:1), I tried to follow them as they followed Christ. However, when I moved to London, I went beyond the borders of this forest. I stepped into a new world.
This new world not only encompassed both family and work life, taking on the responsibility of a husband and a trainee solicitor, but also within the sphere of ministry. I soon found myself belonging to a local church that was very different to what I was used to. Growing up in a Presbyterian congregation, despite gradually coming to different conclusions on certain principles of local church life, there was certain practice of local church life that I was familiar with. After arriving in London, we joined Bermondsey Gospel Hall, which developed in the movement often known as Open Brethren. While being much more at home with their theological principles, I was much lest accustomed with their rhythms of church life. And just like every other local church, it had its own share of problems and peculiarities.
Having left the forest of my most formative years, taking on new responsibilities within a different context, I was at loss to find a role model within my new world. This problem was exacerbated by the relative youth of others in the church. Being a church in central London, with a particular past, almost all of us were at the same, if not a similar, life stage. While I could learn, and certainly have learnt, much from others within the church, I felt that I was breaking relatively new ground in how I was trying to minister and live, rather than following a well trodden path of an older and wiser man.
It was within this context that I came across the inspirational example that has provided me with the framework, not just for this website, but for any ministry I seek to serve in. When we arrived at Bermondsey Gospel Hall, the church was making its way through Acts in the weekly bible study. After a few weeks, we came to Acts 18:24-28:
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak 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 wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
Even just a quick glance shows notable similarities. A native of Alexandria, Apollos was displaced from his original context and arrived in a new city, ready to put himself to work for the building up of God’s people there. In the record of his early ministry in Ephesus, and then Achaia, I seen three aspects that I aspired, and still aspire, to emulate.
1. Faithful Stewardship>
Apollos had no shortage of resources. If we were to assess his life with the context of Matthew 25:14-30, it would be clear that Apollos was the servant given five talents. Growing up in Alexandria, a centre of academic excellence, he was both eloquent in his speech and an expert in the Scriptures. It is not without reason that many suggest it was Apollos who wrote the book of Hebrews, arguably the most majestically written book in the New Testament. Further, it would take a man of extraordinary gifting for some of the Corinthians to consider him of the same status of Peter and Paul (1 Corinthians 1:12).
However, far from being simply an ivory-tower or golden-mouthed academic, content to bask in his own knowledge and abilities, Apollos had been instructed in the Christian faith and enthusiastically threw himself into speaking and teaching about Jesus to whoever would hear him, whether it be in Ephesus or Achaia.
Apollos was a unique and exceptional figure within the early church, somebody who God had clearly and deliberately prepared and equipped to do a monumental work. He was given his talents (meaning his resources, rather than just his abilities) and used them wisely in the service of his master. In this way he exemplifies a good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21), one who faithfully stewards his resources for Christ, his master.
Apollos was given far greater resources than I, which is unsurprising given that he had a far greater and more significant role to play. However, I should not so downplay God’s goodness to me to the extent that I free myself of all responsibility to use what I have for my master. Whether I consider my education, upbringing, past experiences and current opportunities, I am forced to acknowledge that God has given me good gifts of all shapes and sizes, resources that I must faithfully steward in service and ministry, just like Apollos. We must remember that even the servant with only one talent was expected to use it for his master.
I am not Apollos, but I aspire to be like him. It is not that I aspire to be eloquent in speech or an expert in Scripture. Rather, I aspire to be effective in service. Apollos used what he had to do what he could. I aspire to do the same.
2. Communal Growth>
If I have overstated the resources given to Apollos above, it is time to set the record straight. It cannot be forgotten that Luke tells us that Apollos was not the finished article. There are various views on how much Apollos knew, given that ‘he knew only the baptism of John’. Whether he only knew of a pre-Christ, pre-crucifixion or a pre-church Christianity is an article for another day. However, what is clear is that Apollos didn’t have the whole picture. His knowledge was large, but limited. He was a remarkable teacher, but still required teaching. If this was true of Apollos, teachers of far less talent should take note.
This teaching, this fuller explanation of the Christian message, would only come to Apollos from others. Alone, he would continue in his limited knowledge. He needed a community around him. Others who were willing to take the time and energy to minister to him, so that he in turn may minister to others. If Apollos was to grow, he would only do it within a community.
I think it is notable that if Apollos turned up in many churches today, he would have to wait for years before being allowed to regularly participate in a public teaching and preaching ministry. Indeed, there are whole denominations that would prevent him from regularly ministering until he had obtained a certain degree. Setting all the very good reasons for theological education momentarily aside, it must still be acknowledged that a great gift to the church would be left either underutilised, or even worse, unused.
Certainly what teachers say must be accurate and the opportunity to teach should be protected – the danger of false teaching is a significant and recurring theme throughout the New Testament. However, while accuracy is required, perfection is not. Apollos taught accurately, and Priscilla and Aquila taught him more accurately. Apollos used what he had to do what he could, and the community around him sought to graciously play a role in his spiritual growth. Through the actions of the community around him, Apollos soon found that he had more, and as a result could do more.
At 22, when first confronted by the example of Apollos in this way, I had much to learn. While I had studied baptism over several years and had to come to a number of others important conclusions, which helped to inform our decision to join Bermondsey Gospel Hall, I knew only a little about a relatively small sub-set of Christian doctrines. I am as sure now as I was then that I hold what I hold accurately, but as the last few years have went by I have realised that there is plenty of room for more accuracy. While I am thankful to the Priscilla and Aquila’s that have come alongside me over the years, I trust that communal growth will continue to be a reality in my life.
When taken aside, Apollos didn’t flash his eloquence and expertise before these simple tentmakers (Acts 18:1-3). He didn’t talk them down with his words or tie them up with his intellect. He received their teaching humbly and applied it eagerly. I aspire to be like that. To teach accurately, and yet always be pursuing more accuracy, acknowledging that others often know better than I and seeking out those that might better instruct me in the way of God.
3. Great Help>
For all of his faithful stewardship and communal growth, we have yet to move beyond the individual aspects of Apollos’ ministry to his impact. I was reminded recently that in assessing my desire to teach, I need to look at the effects of my teaching on others. Was my teaching in the local church helping or was I just filling a slot? Specifically, was I proving a help to others in either coming to or growing in faith? It is one thing preaching to fill the time given to you, it is another thing entirely teaching to build up those listening to you. Surely the impact of ministry on others is part of the difference between a faithful preacher and a fleeting performer, an good orator and a great teacher.
If we were to assess the ministry of Apollos, we wouldn’t have to look long to see his impact on others. His bold speaking in the synagogue in Ephesus led to his powerful showing from the Scriptures in Achaia and Luke notes that he ‘greatly helped those who through grace had believed’. He was able to publically push back the false views of the Jews and build up his brothers and sisters by showing that Jesus was the Christ.
We get a more detailed picture of the fruitfulness of Apollos’ ministry by looking at one city in the region of Achaia, Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:1). It is perhaps here that Apollos had the greatest impact, so much so that some were considering him of the same stature as Peter and Paul (1 Corinthians 1:12). Paul himself acknowledges the effect of Apollos’ time in the city, stating that while he ‘planted, Apollos watered’ (1 Corinthians 3:5). Apollos placed himself among his brothers and sisters and sought to water them with the word, greatly helping them to grow up into Christ.
While there are situations where faithfulness to God does not appear to result in fruitfulness, for example in the ministry of Isaiah, we can ordinarily expect faithfulness to lead to fruitfulness. It may not necessarily mean a growth in numbers, or any other such tangible indicators, but it should certainly mean a growth in godliness. Faithfulness should be the objective of any ministry, but fruitfulness should be the outcome.
I aspire to be like Apollos, faithfully stewarding my resources into a fruitful ministry. I aspire to greatly help my brothers and sisters grow in Christ, even as they help me to do the same.
Aspiring Apollos
I often get the opportunity to go back to that forest of figures. I speak to my family regularly, and visit them throughout the year. I catch-up with that older, wiser and godlier man every few months to have my heart and mind set straight again. I still listen to the sermons of my childhood minister from afar. Over these last few years other influences have increased or stepped into my life, the effects of ministries from afar such as John Piper and Mark Dever, as well as the ministries of my brothers and sisters in Bermondsey Gospel Hall. Sarah, my wife, continues to play a greater and greater role in discerning and determining my thoughts and actions. As I continue to study God’s Word, I come across more and more that directs and reorients me, particularly in 2 Timothy and Titus, both written to (probably) young men who faced similar contexts and challenges.
However, despite all of these influences and inspirations, I come back time and time again to aspiring to follow the example of Apollos. It is the simple framework of his ministry that I find myself looking at and thinking over again and again. That is why this website is named after him. I aspire to be like Apollos, and I hope that what is posted on and done through this website will see those aspirations realised. A ministry of faithful fruitfulness, helping and being helped, growing and seeing growth. In all these ways, I aspire to be like Apollos and to follow his example in as much as it follows Christ.
ALEXANDER ARRELL