Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Mar 30 2020 - Acts 18:24-19:20 – The value of a teachable spirit

Apollos is a remarkable character. When he arrives at Ephesus he seems to have had a somewhat incomplete knowledge of the Christian message. He knew about John the Baptist and how he had preached about the one who was to follow him. He may have known that John pointed his disciples to Jesus, speaking of him as “The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” But he appears not to have known of Jesus’ death and resurrection, nor of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless he preached boldly in the synagogue at Ephesus, full of zeal for what he knew of Jesus the Messiah.

However, what is really remarkable about this man is that, while he was clearly a powerful speaker and a forceful personality, he was also ready to sit and to learn from others who had a more complete understanding of the Gospel. I am also struck by the way in which Priscilla and Aquila are referred to; Priscilla’s name is mentioned first indicating, perhaps, that she took on the primary role in teaching Apollos more about Jesus. The readiness of Apollos to listen and learn from Priscilla and Aquila equipped him to go on to Corinth and to build up the church there, continuing the work which Paul had begun.

It is good to have zeal for the Lord and a passion for telling others about him, but it is important also to have a teachable spirit, a readiness to learn from others and not to think that we already know it all.

And then we have the account of Paul’s arrival at Ephesus. There he found a group of disciples who seemed only to have heard of the baptism of John. They are called disciples, indicating that, in some sense, they believed in Jesus. But, like Apollos, they may only have known what John preached concerning the one who was coming after him; they may have known nothing of Jesus’ death and resurrection – certainly they knew nothing about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Having no doubt taught them about Jesus more accurately, Paul baptised them and then laid his hands on them. They also received the Holy Spirit.

This passage seems to raise a number of awkward questions: How much do you need to understand to be a disciple? Under what circumstances might a baptism be viewed as defective and in need of being repeated? Did Paul get it right?

I suspect that none of these momentous questions troubled Paul. He saw a group of people who were seeking to be faithful to what they knew concerning the promised Messiah. Paul was keen for them to know so much more – that Christ had come; Christ had died; Christ was risen. He wanted them to enter into the fullness of the blessings poured out by the risen Christ: to know through their baptism that Christ had died for them and they had died in him; that Christ had been raised for them and that they shared in his resurrection life. Paul wanted them to experience the presence and power of the risen Saviour through the Holy Spirit poured out into their lives. Is this also our great concern?

Lord, give me an unquenchable zeal to proclaim Christ but also a teachable spirit and a readiness to listen and learn from others. Equip me through such listening and learning to become more effective in your service. Use me, as you used Priscilla and Aquila, Paul and Apollos, to encourage and build up your people. May we all know the fullness of the blessings of the crucified, risen and exalted Messiah.

Mar 30 2019 - Joshua 4:1-24 – Memorial stones

God commanded that Joshua choose twelve strong men from among the Israelites, one from each of the twelve tribes, to carry stones from the bed of the Jordan. They were to go to the point where the priests were standing with the ark in the middle of the dry river bed and each was to lift a stone from the area in front of the priests and carry it on his shoulders. The stones were to be carried all the way to Gilgal, the place where Israel was to camp that night.

Once the stones had been recovered, the priests with the ark completed their crossing of the Jordan. As soon as their feet were safely on the other side, the waters of the Jordan again began to flow with all their flood force.

From the twelve stones that had been set down beside the camp of Israel in Gilgal, Joshua constructed a monument. This was to stand as a memorial to what God had done. When future generations – children or adults – asked why these stones were piled up there, they would be told that they were stones from the middle of the Jordan. They stand in this place as a reminder of how God had dried up the Jordan to enable Israel to enter the Promised Land just as he had dried up the water of the Red Sea to enable them to escape from Egypt.

Memorials play an important role in society. In most towns and many villages in this country there are war memorials, standing as a witness to those who were killed in the Great War of 1914-18. They remind each new generation of the sacrifice of the lives of many of a past generation. The memorial prompts us to remember them and what was accomplished through them.

Jesus has given us a memorial of his sacrifice for us. It is not a memorial of stone but of bread and wine. It is not a memorial confined to a particular place, nor is it to be commemorated on a single day in the calendar. Whenever his followers eat bread and drink wine together they are to remember that Jesus died for them and is raised for them and is coming for them. We are to remember what God has done for us in Christ and to teach each new generation the meaning of his sacrifice – the greatest of all God’s saving acts.

Nor were the lessons of this memorial solely for the people of God. Joshua instructed the Israelites, "The Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God" (vv.23-24). We are not only to remember what God has done in Christ for our own encouragement, we are to let everyone on earth know what God has done for their salvation.

Father God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for his dying love and risen power. Thank you for the promise of his coming to restore all things. Help me never to forget what you have done for us in him. May the praise of my lips and the devotion of my life express my continual thanksgiving for all you have done, and may my life also stir up questions in others, prompting me to speak of your great salvation which is for all the peoples of the earth.

Peter Misselbrook