Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Book Acts chapter #18 is where we will be in the Word of God.
Like I mentioned to you this morning, we'll kind of see over
the next few weeks. The month of December sometimes
can be a little bit different as far as preaching goes.
There's a lot of different things that are taking place and
sometimes we're in our series and sometimes we're not.
And we'll see how that goes and that's OK.
But at the same time, I do know this, we preach in the Word of
God every service that we're here.
There's no. Question about that we're.
Not going to be preaching from opinions.
We're not going to be preaching from a catechism.
We're not going to be preaching from the latest newspaper.
I mean, like, who's read a newspaper lately, all things
considered. But you can't afford a newspaper
like $4.00 a daily as it is for news you already knew yesterday.
But as it is, we're going to be preaching the word of God.
We're going to be doing that tonight from Acts chapter #18
You know, even since I was saved at the age of 16, my goal as
long as I can remember, and I can't say that I've always done
this to the best of my ability, but even as a young person and
on my goal was I just wanted to be useful in God's service.
I just want to be able to serve the Lord.
I want to be able to serve others.
And I always enjoyed that and I always was blessed to be able to
do that in certain ways. But I think the Lord that he
called me into the ministry and I know a specific calling that
the Lord placed upon my life when I was 18 years old to be
able to call, to be able to preach and preach the word of
God. And I can do that today knowing
that it really is not me who is the one that's doing it.
Certainly I'll have to get up here and be able to put the
message together and all those types of things.
But I know without the spirits leading and let the spirits
calling in my life, certainly it would not be something that I
would be able to do. But I will say this is that it's
important for us to understand that God doesn't just use the
full time people, that God doesn't just use those who are
the pastors or the pastors wives or the missionaries or the
evangelists or whoever they are. Know that God desires to use
every single one of us in his service.
And I would say to you tonight that often times the people who
have been the most impactful to me in my Christian life, we're
always the pastors. It wasn't always those who were
the full time Christian service. Honestly, there's so many times
the people who have made the greatest impact on me were just
watch out Now, ordinary people in the church, the people that
were under the pastor, oh, they're menial.
They're not as important. You know, remember every part of
the body is important. Every part of the body is of
need. That you can't cut one part out
and say, well, that's part that we didn't need just as much as
you can't cut part of your body out and say, well, I don't think
I needed that part, you realize? Oh yeah, I guess I did.
There's a reason God put that there.
There's a reason God put you in the place that you are at
Liberty Baptist Church. There's a reason that He's
placed you to be within the ministry.
And some of God's choices, servants, I believe, have never
been to Bible college, will never receive a check from a
church, don't have a doctor before their name earned or
otherwise. They will never have the
accolades of being in some sort of Christian publication.
They'll never write books. They'll never have any of that.
But listen, they'll have treasures in heaven that a lot
of pastors won't have. They'll have accolades from the
one that matters, the only one that matters, and that's the
Lord. And so tonight, I want us to
consider the fact of two people that are mentioned in the Bible,
and it's like they're interwoven through the New Testament.
You hear them a little bit here, you hear them a little bit
there. You don't know much about them,
but yet it seems like they're all over the New Testament.
And then there's two people called Aquila and Priscilla, a
man and a woman that we're able to have an impact not just on
the Apostle Paul, but upon the early church as well.
And the title, my message tonight is this, Everyone needs
an Aquila and a Priscilla. Everybody needs to have an
Aquila and Priscilla in their life.
And you should want to be an Aquila or a Priscilla in your
life as well. And we'll see why here in just a
moment. Would you please stand for the
reading God's Word? Where in Acts chapter 18 we'll
begin in verse #1. And it says after these things
Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and found a
certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, lately come from
Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius had
commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came unto them,
And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and
wrought. For by their occupation they
were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue
every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
And guess what? That's it.
You say that's the text. I mean, how much more do we
learn about Aquila and Priscilla?
Well, right here, not really much.
Pretty humble servants of the Lord, aren't they?
We don't really know a whole lot about them.
But I will tell you, they were very impactful.
Even as tradespeople, even as simple tent makers, they made a
great impact upon the church. And it reminds us that each and
every one of us, if we're willing to have a great impact
on God's church as well. Would you be seated as we pray
together? Heavenly Father, I thank you for
this night. And I pray that you helped me as
I preach this message to be able to preach it straight and true
as you have desired me to. And I do.
Just ask that you would work in each of our hearts tonight, that
we would be the helpers of the ministry that you have called us
to be. And we ask you for this humbly
in Jesus name, Amen. Here to Acts chapter 18, it says
that Paul came to the place named Corinth.
Now, how much background do I have to give you about Corinth?
We've only been preaching on Corinth on Wednesday night for a
while. This place of sin and
debauchery, this place that was like New York City and Las Vegas
and Monte Carlo and all of these different very worldly places
all together, just melded together.
That was Corinth. And here in the midst of Corinth
are these two Jews named Aquila and Priscilla.
Now, Aquila and Priscilla had previously lived in Rome, but as
Jews they had been expelled from Rome as all of the Jews had been
expelled by the Emperor Claudia, as it says in verse #2 And so
sometime in the midst of this very early time of Paul being in
Corinth, he meets Aquila and Priscilla and it says that they
are of the same craft, meaning this, that they had the same
vocation, they had the same jobs.
Now, New Testament jobs, it seems like typically that's
about fishing and that's about it, isn't it?
What do you think about New Testament jobs?
It seems like we see a lot of fishermen, and that's really as
far as our mind goes. But the Bible tells us that they
were tent makers. Now, if you're a tent maker,
that would be a very important type of job in those days.
We don't think about tents very much these days.
If we do, we think about them recreationally.
We think about going out and maybe having a camping trip.
But sometimes in those days, having a tent could be the
difference between life and death.
If you didn't have a permanent home, if you didn't have a
permanent place to live, dwelling in a tent would not
have been unusual even in those days at all.
And so it was a very important craft for someone to take a
pawn. And so Paul was a tent maker.
And sometimes you hear people talk about past is having a tent
maker that kind of means like a second job or a second way to
make income. My tent maker for a while, if
you will, was Uber. I know what a tent maker, right?
But I would have rather made tents, all things considered,
than drive an Uber. But you do what you have to do,
Amen. And so here is Paul and he did
not want to be chargeable to the people of Corinth.
And he actually spoke of that that in Second Corinthians.
Remember that brother Abel's was here a few weeks ago and talked
about that fact that he didn't want to be chargeable unto them.
So what did he do? He says, listen, I'm not going
to draw a salary from you. I'm not going to be able to get
money in the situation as it is currently.
But here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make tents.
I mean, Med Aquila and Priscilla and they had some things in
common. They were Jews, they were
believers most importantly, but also they had the same craft.
They all were tent makers as they came together, it says in
verse #3 and because he was of the same craft, he abode with
them and wrought for by their occupation they were tent
makers. And verse #4 doesn't even talk
about Aquila and Priscilla. But it does go on and say that
Paul's ministry continued there in Corinth because he reasoned
the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks. And so we see here that we are
introduced to this couple that again will be mentioned a little
bit here and a little bit there, that we don't know a lot about
them, but we do know this. They were of humble means and of
humble beginnings. These were not people that were
Pharisees, were not educated at the feet of Gamaliel like Paul
was, but yet they were very much integral to the early church and
very much integral to the gospel being spread not just in Asia
Minor, but beyond into Europe and the even further regions.
So as we look at Aquila and Priscilla, there's a few things
that I want us to understand here tonight.
And the first is this. When the man of God had a need,
Aquila and Priscilla stepped in. Know this number one, when the
man of God had a need, Aquila and Priscilla were willing to
step in. Here is Paul, he goes into
Corinth and we'll find out later on in the text verse #9 it says
then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.
Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am
with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.
For I have much people in this city now, just as a reminder,
here's some background once again that I know we've covered
as we looked at First Corinthians, But just a reminder
to you again, Paul, in the second missionary journey here,
had gone through some Hard Knocks.
Paul wasn't going down the primrose path as he's going to
preach the gospel. What's happening?
Everywhere he goes, they're chasing him out of the city at
best and beating him at worst. It's not a good situation that
he's going through. By the time he gets to Corinth,
he's just been to Athens and he's been basically laughed out
of Athens, although there are a few believers who've been left
behind. And now he makes it to Corinth
and it's obvious he's afraid. You say, how dare you say the
Apostle Paul is afraid? Why would the apostle Paul be
afraid? Well, because God said don't be
afraid. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket
scientist to figure out that he must have been afraid because
God deemed it necessary to go to Paul and said don't be afraid.
And so now he's afraid. He's there.
And listen, that doesn't diminish the kind of man he was.
That doesn't take away from the strong preacher, from the strong
missionary that he was, that he had this fear in his heart.
Listen, he went through things we can't even fathom, that we
can't even imagine, but he kept going.
He kept moving forward, but yet he had this bit of trepidation
within him. And God told him, don't be
afraid. But I'd also say to you this,
God gave him two friends to be able to help him, that in the
midst of that, as Paul is afraid, who does he meet?
Aquila and Priscilla, some people with some things in
common. They were Christians, they were
Jews, they were tent makers. And all of a sudden they were
fast friends. When Paul was in Corinth and he
was alone, remember his companions were not with him.
His traveling companions were still behind.
He was going ahead. They were supposed to meet him
in court later. He may have felt alone.
He may have felt like no one was there.
No, he knew God was there, but you understand what I'm saying?
To be able to have someone that you can look at, someone that
you can talk to, someone that can give you some physical
encouragement as far as shaking your hand or giving you a smile
or patting you on the back, something like that.
God says, listen, I am with you, but I don't think it's a stretch
for me to say to you tonight this as well that God also said,
I'll give you an Aquila and I'll give you the Priscilla and they
will help you too. And they will aid you as the man
of God there in court, to give you the help.
That you need. Now, how much did they help him?
Well, go ahead and turn your Bible.
By the way, you don't need to stay in any of the places we are
here tonight because we're going to kind of stick and move a
little bit in the New Testament. So go to Romans chapter #16.
Romans chapter #16. How much did they help the
apostle Paul? Well, let's look at the end of
the book of Romans, Romans chapter 16.
Look at verse #1 and it says this I commend unto you Phoebe,
our sister, which is a servant of the church which has at
Centra that you receive her in the Lord has become a St. so
that you assist her in whatsoever business she hath
need of you. So, for she hath been a sucker
of many and of myself also. Now by the way, Paul is talking
here about a church member going from one church to another.
And basically sometimes you hear that there's a letter sent from
one church to another when someone moves their membership.
Phoebe is a great example of that because Paul is saying that
she is moving from one area to the other, from an old church to
a new church, and he is giving a letter of recommendation right
here in the word of God, a letter of recommendation to this
woman Phoebe for her to be part of the church.
But then look at what it says in verse #3 greet who?
Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus.
Now listen just that alone that Paul would name check you in
what would end up being a letter that is included in Scripture.
And he says this greet to Aquila and Priscilla, my helpers in
Christ Jesus. But look at it, says, who have
for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only I give
thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
So what does he say? I basically owe my life to
Priscilla and Aquila. I owe who I am, Paul says, and
the ministry that I have to them because they lay down their
necks on the line to me, he basically says this.
I owe my life to them for what they have done.
Now this is a wonderful example for us this evening that God
reminds us that when it comes to the preacher that when it comes
to the man of God, and I hesitate to use that term, but I
will use it tonight because it's biblical that we are to be a
helper to the man of God. Isn't that convenient for you to
be able to say that Happy birthday to you, huh?
To be able to tell us that we need to be a helper to the man
of God. Well, I hate to break it to you,
but I have to be able to be a helper to the men of God that I
have come across in my life as well.
I think of the preachers who come here to Liberty Baptist
Church to preach and what do we often do?
What do we endeavor to do with every preacher that comes here?
We want to be able to be an encouragement and help to them.
We give a love offering to them. Why to not just to cover their
expenses, but also to be a blessed to them as they minister
and labor in the ministry of the Lord.
Now you can go. You don't have to go there right
now, but you could go and you can write this down, dude, later
to 2nd Kings chapter #4 And you will find there was a Shunamite
woman who Elisha got to meet on the way here and there.
And she would, Elisha would go past this woman's home.
And she said to her husband, wouldn't it be great if we just
built a little, you know, a little home for him or just a
little apartment where he could be able to stay when he's going
here and going there. Of course, you understand, back
in those days, there was no Motel 6 and no one was leaving
the light on for you back then. And the way that they took care
of one another was by the laws of hospitality that you would
literally just lodge with someone else and they were
supposed to take care of you as if they were taking care of
their own soul or their own family.
That was the way that it worked. And so the Shunamite woman said
we should have this little chamber where there could be a
bed and a table and a Candlestick.
I mean, you want to talk about a pretty humble place to live?
What do you got? A bed, table and a Candlestick.
That's all you got. That's there.
But that's what was there. And Elijah was thankful for
this. And she said this.
We need to take care of this man of God, which they did.
It was place where even today sometimes you'll hear churches
have a profits chamber. Maybe you've heard of that.
Sometimes we call missions apartments today or those types
of things, but profits chambers where Church says we've got a
little. Home or we've got a.
Room or if a missionary comes through or if a a guest preacher
or whoever it is somebody who has a need they can stay in that
prophet's chamber because we want to be able to take care of
them. Now listen, I don't want to
spend an abundance of time on this tonight for a lot of
reasons because I will say Liberty Baptist Church over the
years has taken wonderful care of this pastor and has taken
wonderful care of our family. We feel blessed beyond measure
of being part of Liberty Baptist Church.
I feel humbled every time I think about the fact that I get
to lead Liberty Baptist Church, that the Lord has called us here
and that you have taken such good care of us.
This is not a shakedown tonight. This is not a way for me to say,
hey, by the way, do you know New Year's races are coming, you
know, or anything like that? That's not what I'm talking
about tonight at all. Again, I just want to give you
the overall concept that here is Aquila and Priscilla and what do
they do? Over and over again, they were a
blessing to the Apostle Paul. Over and over again, they were a
blessing to the man of God. Now, again, I even hesitate to
call myself the man of God here tonight.
In fact, I, I do not call myself the man of God.
I will say this before and I've said this again, listen, you can
call me a man of God, but it's not for me of myself to call
myself a man of God. And you say, why is that?
Well, let me give you an illustration.
It was several years ago that we had an intern here for a very
short period of time who believed that he was going to
start a church in Plymouth. And so he thought that during
that time that he would come here and learn what it was to,
you know, plan a church, someone who would well, planted a church
in the area. And he had this habit over a
short period of time. And this is someone at the time
was maybe 2223 years old. And I don't know about you, when
I was 22 or 23 years old, my wife said that I was very
mature. But being mature for a 22 or 23
year old still means you're still, well, pretty immature in
a lot of ways. Because I look back at some of
the things I said and did and thought about in 22 and 23 years
old. Like, I'd like to get those
years back if I could. All things considered, we
probably all could feel that way.
But this young man at that time of life would go around and he
made sure that people understood that he was the man of God and
that I was the man of God too, of course, as a pastor, but that
he also was a man of God. I had to call him into, well, I
didn't have an office back in those days here, so I had to
call him into the nursery. That's where I did a lot of my
business the first few years. That explains a lot, doesn't it?
I call him in the nursery and I said, I got to talk to you about
this man of God thing. I, I, I said, I said, have you
ever done a word study on the man of God?
And he, he said, well, no, not really.
He said, but the preacher's the man of God.
I said, let me ask you this. Where in the Bible did anyone
reference themselves as the man of God?
He said, well, I, I don't really know.
I said, let me, let me cut to the chase, Bubba.
All right. Nowhere in the Word of God does
the man of God have to call himself the man of God.
Other people call him the man of God because they recognize him
as the man of God. Listen, I don't want to be able
to present myself tonight as saying to you, well, I am the
man of God and I present this. By the way, that title comes
with a whole lot more responsibility than it does
privileges. I don't can't imagine the guy
wanting to say, hey, make me the man of God.
Well, listen, do you understand what that entails?
That goes along with it. But I will say this, one of the
greatest joys that I had as a pastor, perhaps one of the
greatest, most unexpected joys is that as I am the pastor and
as I am the preacher and as I am, if you want to say the man
of God here at Liberty Baptist Church, that I have met so many
Aquilas and Priscillas, people that have come alongside myself,
that have come alongside my wife, that have come alongside
my family and have treated us in ways that I can't even, I can't
even describe to you tonight. That when we were at our lowest
times, when Diane was at her lowest health times, when we
were going through family turmoil, when we were dealing
with issues with our son's diagnosis, and even still deal
with some of those issues today. I mean, he's just throwing his
shoes right before service, 2 minutes before, I'll tell you,
somebody throws shoes in a service at some churches and you
know, that'll clear the place out.
But here, that's like, well, we call that Sunday night.
You know, that's OK. Listen that there are Aquilas
and Priscilla's here that would come alongside of our family.
And to be able to say, preacher, we want you to succeed.
We want you to do well. Not because we're as much
concerned about you and your family, although certainly we're
concerned about you and your family.
But we know it is good and right and biblical that we help the
one who is here. And I am so unworthy and
undeserving of that. As a family, we feel so unworthy
and undeserving of that. But I will say this, one of the
things that makes Liberty Baptist Church so special, one
of the things that makes Liberty just church as wonderful as it
is in so many ways, is the heart of the people who say this.
We want to be able to take care of the church.
And one of the ways we want to take care of the church is by
taking care of the pastor. That's biblical.
That's a quill and Priscilla. And by the way, that counts for
me. That counts for whatever man
stands behind this pulpit. And that's if it's a guest
preacher or the one who comes behind me or whoever it is.
Listen, every single one of them need to be taken care of.
Why? Because, well, we take care of
the ones that we think are funny and, you know, handsome and all
those things. No.
That's all about. Usually the only Amen I get from
the back is Ralph. So thank you for that, Diane.
So thank you for that. But no, it's because it is good
and it's right and biblical, and I'm thankful for it.
And by the way, it's not just about money.
In case you're getting well, the way you help the man of God is
by giving. Him money.
Listen, I can have my pockets filled to the ground and I could
tell you this. There are times that I would
say, you know what, I don't need a Christmas bonus or a Christmas
offering, whatever it is. Just the fact that you're
willing to be loving to us and caring for us means a whole lot
more because there are churches or they'll give the pastor a big
Christmas bonus and then they'll give them ulcers for their other
eleven months of the year. I know what I'd rather have.
And so I'm thankful for what you do, for the phone calls, for the
text, for the times you don't call or text because you know,
it's family time or you know it's Friday, which by the way,
if you're new, that's my day off.
But you can still. If you go in the hospital on
Friday, you can tell me you're in the hospital on Friday,
Marsha Still a little bitter about that, but that's all
right. But listen, that means so very
much. I can tell you story after
story. And to be honest with you, I
don't want to pick one person out of the room or two people
out of the room and seem like I'm lifting them up over other
people. But I I could probably tell a
story almost about every single one of you and what you have
done. Aquila and Priscilla spirit,
what God will do with that in the church.
I thank the Lord for it. So what do we see the when the
man of God had a need, Aquila and Priscilla stepped in.
But I also see this number 2 when the church had a need.
Aquila and Priscilla stepped in. When the church had a need at
large, Aquila and Priscilla stepped in.
Go back to verse #4 where we just were, Romans 16 verse #4
who have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not
only I give thanks, but who, but also all the churches of the
Gentiles. Somehow, their impact had gone
far beyond just their location. And that they had been a
blessing to many of the churches of the Gentiles are really, I'm
taking it out of context to say many of the Church of the
Gentiles because it says here all the churches of the
Gentiles. Well, that could be because they
blessed Paul, Paul blessed others.
That could be, Or it could be because they were willing to be
a helper in the ministry for the local church.
And I think both of those are true.
Go if with me, if you will, to 1st Corinthians chapter 16, just
a few pages away. First Corinthians chapter #16
it says this, First Corinthians 1619.
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla, there they
are again. They're everywhere.
Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church
that is in their house. So what's taking place now?
Well, Quil and Priscilla used to live in Corinth.
They no longer live in Corinth. They live in points unknown.
But now there's an epistle that's being written to Corinth
and Paul is giving a shout out from Aquil and Priscilla to the
church that is in Corinth, first Corinthians chapter 16.
And he basically says this, Hey, remember Aquil and Priscilla,
remember my tent maker friends, remember how we were all
together? They are now with me.
They now have, we're no longer in Corinth, but they have a
church in their own house where they are and they want to say
greetings to you. They're in Corinth.
They remember you and they love you.
What are we seeing? Aquila and Priscilla didn't just
help the pastor listen, they were willing to help a whole
church. They had a church in their home.
They were a blessing to the churches of the Gentiles.
This Aquila and Priscilla had great love, not just for Paul,
but love for the church. Listen, if you want to love
Jesus Christ, love the church. You say, well, pastor, that
sounds like weird theology. Oh no, it's the most biblical
theology you can have. You want to love Jesus Christ,
love the church. Why?
Well, Ephesians 525 tells us that he gave himself for the
church. Jesus Christ did.
Again, we're not talking about this edifice that's here.
We're not talking about 800 Washington St. this location
that we are in, although we thank the Lord for this location
that we're in, but it's so much more that He gave himself for
the institution of which is the church.
And He's given himself for each local church as well to be able
to. Each of them are precious in His
sight, that Liberty Baptist Church is precious to him, that
Jesus Christ died on the cross for mankind, but when He died,
He also made provision for the church.
Acts chapter 20 verse 28 tells us this, that he.
Purchased the church with his own precious blood.
With his blood. Listen, when we do not honor the
Church, listen, we're not honoring the sacrifice of which
he is made. Well, I'm saved, but I'm kind of
on my own. I remember.
Brother Dave, this morning you say which one?
I don't remember which Dave, but it's alright.
We Dave B said the idea of being a lone wolf as a believer.
But listen, that's a fallacy. You know who wants you to be
alone? Satan.
You know why? Because he takes the one that's
the weakest and he tries to separate it from the group.
And what does the wolf do? I'm talking about Satan now.
He tries to steal and to kill and destroy, and that's what he
does. So God, in his love and
benevolence has put us together to be able to love each other,
encourage each other, harass each other.
I mean to love each other, encourage each other, to bless
one another. This is what God has called us
to do. And here's Aquila and here's
Priscilla. And they say this.
We love Paul, we love the preacher.
We're thankful for what he's done.
But really we love him because God has provided him for the
church. And we love the church and we
love this institution, and we're thankful for what God has done.
If Christ loved the church enough to die for it, and the
least we ought to do is to be able to live for it.
If Christ loved the Church enough to die for the least we
ought to do. Is to live for it.
And people will say something like this, God, I'll do anything
for you, but they can't even show up to church at 11:00.
Like, well, that's a good place to start.
If you'll do anything for him, at least come and honor his
church. Again, not because we're
perfect, quite the opposite, but we need you to be part of the
body. We need you to be able to be
here so that we can glean from one another, help one another.
We are better when you are here and you're right with the Lord.
Let me make sure that last phrase is right because we are
better when you're here and right with the Lord.
Because if you're not right with the Lord, you need to be here.
Get right with the Lord, and then we're better with you here
when you're right with the Lord. So you just want, you want the
imperfect people pushed away. Listen, we just went through
First Corinthians chapter 5. Don't make me go through that
chapter again. I don't want to go through that
chapter again. All right.
We cannot allow rebellious unholiness to remain in the
church. But I will say this, this is a
hospital for sinners, is not a museum for Saints.
All right, You need to be able to come here when you're
discouraged. You need to be able to come here
when you're down and someone in this room can help pick you up.
It doesn't even have to be the preaching of God's Word.
You say, are you crazy, pastor? Not the preaching, God's word.
What I'm saying is this, I am not so boastful in myself to
think I am the only one that can help you when you come here to
church. There's someone who else who can
give you biblical counsel, who can give you biblical advice,
who can pray with you before church or after church.
Goodness knows we hang around here long enough after church
that someone can give you some biblical counsel.
And that's the spirit of Aquila and Priscilla here in this
building is that one another can help one another here within the
body of Christ. And So what do we see, Aquila
and Priscilla, that they bless churches all around the all over
the gentiles, but then also that they had a church within their
own home. They were willing, their most
intimate setting to say if this is where church needs to be,
there's nowhere else, then this is what we'll need to do.
I'm thankful we don't have to do house church today.
We tried it in our apartment for the first few months after we
had Sunday mornings in the school, but they wouldn't let us
have Sunday night. And.
Wednesday night in the school. So what did we do?
We started having Sunday night in our apartment.
It was certainly not we signed up for.
It was certainly not what the tenants above us signed up for
because they didn't find parking on a Sunday night in our little
parking lot for a very long time.
But I would say this, there were some of the sweetest times I
remember here at Liberty Baptist Church with names that you might
not even know anymore. If I name them because God
brought some of them to glory. God moved some of them on to
different places. Some left for good reasons, some
didn't leave for good reasons. But God used every single one of
them to be able to help Liberty Baptist Church to be what it is.
I'm thankful over the years we've been able to honor some of
those people. Even at our 10th anniversary, we
were able to honor some of those that were here names that you,
many of you would not know. Some of you would know Dan and
Dora Woodward. They've been here before, but
they were integral to the beginning of the church.
Dan worked for Coca-Cola. Dora worked for a car
dealership. But I'll tell you this, even
without having Bible college degrees, I would take the two of
them over almost anyone else because of the work that they
did and the love that they had for the ministry and for people.
That first man that I've mentioned to you this morning,
Peter, they got saved and said, I finally understand what
Christmas is about. I didn't win him to Christ, Dan
Woodward did. I didn't go through the
discipleship with him. Dan Woodward went to his
apartment two or three times a week and went through
discipleship with him. I baptized him.
But Dan did the work. Humanly speaking, you know what
he was? He was an Aquila.
He is an Aquila to this day now when he lives back in Syracuse,
NY. My name is Dorothy, who we
honored, who is still with us, and Miss Penny, Yes, Akavich,
who's no longer with us. You know, the one that made me
that pie that mentioned that Southern pie from a woman that
was born and raised in Brockton. This doesn't quite work that way
normally. But listen, these are people
that have blessed this church. Will you be an Aquila, Priscilla
for this church? We've been Aquila and Priscilla
for the people who are here. And that really brings us to the
third and the last point, and that's this.
When a believer had a need, Aquila and Priscilla stepped in.
When the man of God had a need. When the church had a need.
When a believer had a need. Aquila and Priscilla stepped in
go to Acts chapter 18 going back to Acts chapter 18 but we'll
look a little later in the chapter.
Acts, Chapter 18, verse #24. It says a certain Jew named
Apollos. Now be clear, this is not
talking about Paul, this is Apollos.
And some of you might remember Apollos because the beginning of
First Corinthians, remember they said some were of Paul, some
were of Apollos, some were of Cephas.
This is Apollos. A certain Jew named Apollos,
born in Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty the Scriptures
came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the
way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake
and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the
baptism of John. Now stop right here.
This is unfathomable to us today because we have the whole.
Record of the scriptures. But think about this, there was
a man named Apollos, and he had heard of John.
And what was John's message? Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight the paths. The Messiah is to come.
But John the Baptist message was also this.
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh the way, the sin of the
world, that he identified Jesus Christ.
Now imagine a man like Apollos. Here's what Apollos's problem
was. He heard the message that the
Messiah would come from John. But he never heard from John
that the Messiah actually came. So he's going around giving this
message from John the Baptist. Listen, it's a biblical message,
but there's only one problem. Well.
He doesn't have the whole message.
He doesn't have the rest of the story.
And so now he's going around telling people, wait for the
Messiah, wait for the Messiah. Here's a quill.
And Priscilla, what do they do? Let's go look at it.
It says in verse, number, verse #26 and who?
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila
and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded
unto him the way of God more perfectly, more completely.
They said this. You don't understand the rest of
the story. John was pointing to someone.
His name was Jesus Christ, and Aquila and Priscilla come
alongside him. And when there's a believer who
had a need, you said he was a believer.
He didn't know about Jesus Christ.
He believed with everything that he could understand.
And this is how I know he was a believer because as soon as they
give him the rest of the information, he says that works
for me. There was no argument.
There was no anything. All of a sudden he realized,
well, listen, if I miss that information that now, well,
guess what, I'm going to preach and teach Jesus Christ and
that's what he did. And when he was disposed to
passed into IKEA, the brethren wrote, exhorted the disciples to
receive him who when he had come help them much which he had
believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews and
that publicly showing by the Scriptures what that Jesus was
Christ. So Acrilla and Priscilla took
this guy, Apollo said, man, you speak great Apollos.
You're doing a wonderful job. Man, people love you.
There's only one problem. You don't know the rest of what
happened. You don't realize that the
Messiah has already come. He died on the cross.
His name was Jesus. And they must have known enough
about the Scriptures to take him through the Old Testament
Scriptures and to be able to show him who Jesus Christ was.
And something clicked in his mind.
Why? Because he was a believer and it
clicked into his mind. Now again, this is not what we
would see today. Why?
Because we have the whole story. But they were in this
transitional time where the story was being written right in
front of them. And so he says, well, if this is
what it is, this is what it is. And so he starts going around
and what did he do? He started preaching and
teaching of Jesus Christ. How much was a impact made upon
his life? So much so Aquila and Priscilla
made an impact on his life that by the time you get to 1st
Corinthians, what do you see? That they put Apollos in the
same breath as Paul and Peter. Paul, Peter and this dude named
Apollos who showed up out of. Nowhere.
Well, who helped him? Aquila and Priscilla, but there
was someone who said there's some things you don't know.
Listen, I know that none of us need to or want to act in a
haughty way and go around telling people.
Let me tell you a few things about Jesus Christ.
Listen, if that's your spirit, watch out because God will bring
it down a few pegs. But God also does command us to
be able to have the elder to teach the younger.
And we should be, we should be modeling Christ like behavior in
the House of God and we should be mentoring others with Christ
like behavior from the Scriptures as well.
Why? Because we think so highly of
ourselves. No, again, I'll say to you
before, as I've said many times before, what did Paul say?
Follow me as I follow Christ, follow me as I follow Christ.
And that when believers have needs, what do we need to do
that? We need to be the one to step in
and help that we're not just helping the church at large.
That's great, but the believers who make up that church that we
want to be a help to them. Listen, you hear someone that's
maybe out of work or maybe struggling with work or getting
enough work, you've gone through a situation like that before.
Why don't you go up to them and say, hey, listen, I've dealt
with this before. Let me tell you how the Lord
brought me through. Maybe I can pray with you what a
good thing to do. You know, someone who's
struggling with anxiety or difficulties, and maybe they've
expressed that at men's prayer. Maybe they expressed that at a
lady's Bible study. Maybe they expressed that
sometimes there'll be nothing wrong, ladies, for you to go up
to that Lady and to be able to say, you know, I've dealt with a
lot of those things myself and the Lord's helped me.
I'm still struggling. I still have good days and bad
days, but the Lord's helped me. And so I like to pray with you.
I like to talk to you. Here's some things that the
Lord's helped me with. Now listen, if you can't do
that, here's what I would say to you lovingly, but I want to say
it as directly as I can. Then you are the one who is
weaker. And you need to be able to
receive from someone else and have the humility for having
someone else come to you and say those things.
But I also say this, if you were the one who is stronger, listen,
you are never above a Christian brother or sister coming to you
and giving you loving help from the Word of God.
Listen, if God could talk to the mouth of a donkey, he can use
someone that doesn't know as much about the word of God as
you to still help you. And you better be tender about
it. Listen, there've been people who
come to me. Oh.
I'm a pastor. What are you going to tell me
about the Bible? Well, a lot of people told me a
lot of things about the Bible, and some of them have been true.
You know, sometimes people have come to me with bad doctor and
I've had to show them it's bad doctor.
Whether they agree or not, that's between them and the
Lord. But there's sometimes people
have come to me, just talk to me about different situations and
they talk to me about things I've struggled with or, or
something. I'll tell you this, I'm thankful
that there have been people who have just to me and I can't say,
well, I'm the pastor. I'm beyond being taught.
Well, who am I? I'm just a Sinner saved by grace
like the rest of you. And So what do we need to do?
We all need to have the humility to be able to say, well, I need
to receive that. Here's an Aquila Priscilla.
When they saw a believer who had a need, what did they do?
They stepped in. Galatians 513.
I quote this a lot for brethren. You've been called into liberty.
I like that. Hey, man, you've been called
into liberty. You've been called into liberty.
But listen, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
meaning this one free. I can do whatever I want.
Well, you're free, but you shouldn't be doing whatever you
want. Well, I'm free, you know, I
could talk to all I want. I can, I can act to all I want.
I can consume. Listen, if you think that's what
freedom's about in Christ, then you don't truly understand
Christ, because the freedom we have in Christ compels us to
live for him that the the shackles come off.
But yet we follow in love as bond servants of Christ, not out
of necessity, but out of desire. We want to follow him, but
usually we. Stop quoting that verse there.
Use not liberty for an occasion to flesh.
But here's the end. But by love serve one another.
By love serve one another. With all the problems Galatia
had with their false doctrine and the churches of Galatia had
a lot of problems with false doctrine.
He said this, listen, you need to serve one another and love
because he knew that in the midst of false doctrine they
were going to lose that sense of service.
They're going to lose that love for one another.
Now, listen, if you're in church and there are other people in
church, you ought to love the people who are in church.
All right, Well, that was hoping for a little more help than
that, but you ought to love the people in church.
You say, well, we don't. We don't always see eye to eye.
Well, I imagine not, But we ought all love one another and
help one another. This is what God expects of us
and listen, the world if if they can have this fake schmoozing
that the world does with each other.
I've never done that at the pulpit.
I will never do that again. There's nothing real about it is
false. This ought to be a haven from
that. This ought to be a place where
Aquillas and Priscillas can help one another and bear one another
burdens. And what so fulfill ye the law
of Christ. That's what it says.
Bear ye one another burdens, and so fulfill you the law of
Christ. Well, how am I supposed to bear
everyone else's burdens? Pastor, Well, here's how you do
it. You bear as many people's
burdens in the church as you possibly can, and then you give
them to Christ, who says my yoke is easy, my burden is life.
Listen, I'll bear as many burdens for you all as I can,
but don't think I'm going to hold on to them.
I got to give them to him. That's right, man.
Because listen, sometimes people come to me with some dark stuff,
some deep stuff, some difficult stuff.
And listen, if I lived in that list, I would never leave my
house. I would never leave my room.
But what do I got to do? I got to give it to him.
And so we bear you one other bird.
By the way, I'm able to give you some of you, some of my burdens
as well. And what happens?
You can bear those and you can give them to Christ.
What happens in the end? We all give it to Christ as
Aquilas and Priscillas first. Second Timothy, chapter 4.
And I'll tell you this and I'll be done.
Second Timothy chapter 4. Last chapter that Paul has ever
written in the word of God. Last chapter inspired by the
Holy Spirit. I'll tell you this story once I
get there. Many of you know my youth
director who led me to Christ. His name was Steve Baker.
He started church in Weymouth years ago, then went down to
Tampa, FL, led me to Christ in Tampa he was part of with Bruce
Turner. Part of the reason that I had
such a burden to be able to come to the New England area even as
a teenager and in Bible college. Brother Baker died just a few
months ago, succumbing to ALS very, very quickly.
In less than a year, he contracted ALS, lost his ability
to speak, then lost his ability to move, and then passed away
just about in September. But I remember one of the last
conversations I had with him and I was talking to him about a
specific situation and he was in a place where he was very
difficult for him to talk and he was talking.
Listen, I'm not mocking when I do this.
I'm not bad just to explain to you.
When he talked, it was very slow and there was a lot of, it was
hard to tell what he's saying. Now I'm talking to him on the
phone. I'm almost pressing the phone
into my ear because I want to basically want to savor every
word that he said to me because I knew I didn't have many more
of them. I was talking about this
situation. I don't remember exactly what it
was, but he said something like this to me and I'll never
forget. I actually got off the phone
with him and wrote it down in the front of my Bible because
it's so simple, but I never really had put it this way
before. He said every church is made-up
of three kinds of people. He said.
There's fillers and there's pillars and there's killers, he
says. And everyone can be slaughtered
into one of those three groups. And you know what?
I've tried to find a way for months that he's wrong about
that, and he's not. Every church is made-up of
fillers and of pillars and of killers.
I've seen church killers. They've come in.
They want to change us. They want to make us different
or make us better or conformed into their image.
We reject that now. We we love those people, but at
the same time we lovingly have to disagree with them to the
point that if they have to leave, then they have to leave.
We're not, no, we're not mean and nasty about it.
We don't run people out on a rail.
I don't. I don't.
Preach these things. Wow.
We had a backdoor revival here at the church.
I grieve over those things. No, I'm serious.
They're pastors who say stuff like that.
That's garbage. A backdoor revival.
Listen, God will do whatever He does.
And God does sometimes purify his church by bringing people
out, but I'll rejoice over that. I'd rather it be that they get
right and stay. But that's not what always
happens. There's killers that want to do
wrong. There's fillers.
They come and they go and they come and they go.
Never really get involved. They never really do a whole
lot. Oh, they're here.
They. Might even give a little bit of
money. They might even give a lot of
money, but they're not really part of the church.
Sometimes they'll be here for months and months, and you might
not know their name, or they might be gone for a few months
and you don't even realize they're gone.
And they just fill the pews or the chairs and that's it.
There's pillars. Who are the pillars?
Well, we understand that the church is founded on the
foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the chief cornerstone.
But Paul uses the term of some of the apostles.
He said those men who seemeth to be pillars or seemeth to be
somewhat. The idea is even though we
understand that Jesus Christ is the foundation, he is this whole
structure. But there are those who got his
place to be able to be pillars within the church.
And I don't know about you, and of course I'm a pastor, so maybe
I'm in a different place, but I would want to be in a church
where I was a pillar. Not because I wanted my name to
be known or to be in front of people, but I want to know I was
supporting the ministry as best as I can.
And that's what pillars do. Which of those three would you
beat tonight? Would someone identify you as a
pillar, a filler? We don't have any killers here
tonight, but which one would you be able to identify with?
Second Timothy, chapter 4, very last words of Paul, last few
verses. May I remind you, the death is
looming over every word that he writes here.
I believe he knows the emperor Nero will be bringing him to
martyrdom here in just a few moments.
But in the midst of all these very important things he has to
say, and by the way, the beginning of the chapter, he
name checks a bunch of people who have failed them, a bunch of
people who have really messed him over.
But even in that he says this, I leave it with the Lord.
I leave with no bitterness. I leave it with the Lord.
But look at what he says in verse #19 right near the end.
Salute who? Priscilla and Aquila, there they
are one last time. And you know what he said?
Well, shouldn't they get a little bit more recognition than
that? I think that's the perfect
amount of recognition for people who were quietly interwoven
throughout the New Testament. He never saw much of them.
You didn't know much of them. They weren't educated by the
greatest, the mightiest. They never were ones that were
out there in front. But the church was impacted by
them. And you may not have been to
Bible college. You may not be one that is going
to be able to have the recognition that other people
have. But I'll tell you this, you
could be an Aquila, you could be a Priscilla, and you might not
have recognition in this life like you wished you would.
But there will be a time when all that's brought into focus
and the true amount of recognition will be given, and
that's at the judgment seat of Christ.
Be an Aquila, be a Priscilla, be a pillar.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.