An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday November 29, 2015
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TEACHING GOD’S WORD
(Working for the LORD is a way of life for those who believe)
(Acts 18)
Throughout
the Book of Acts, Luke introduces us to many characters that were instrumental
in the development and establishment of the early Church. Here in Acts 18 we
are introduced to two more of those wonderful workers who helped shape the
Christian Church movement in its infancy during the first century. They became
two of the Apostle Paul’s closest friends, and their names were Priscilla and
Aguila. They were the husband and wife team who quite literally birthed in the
“House Church” concept of early Christianity.
Now we all know that Paul was a Rabbi, but
what many don’t know is, that, in addition to being a Rabbi, Paul was also a
tentmaker, and this is something that he had in common with his friends,
Priscilla and Aquila. They met while Paul visited Corinth during his second
missionary journey, and he lived and worked with the couple during his stay
there. And so the three of them, each, being missionaries for CHRIST was just
another of their common threads.
But perhaps, we will not find a more
fascinating couple in all of Scripture, than Priscilla and Aquila. They were a very
bold and defiant pair who stood against the antichrist elements that often
reared its ugly head throughout the Roman Empire in the first century, mostly
in the person of the Emperor Claudius, or later, the Emperor Nero.
Most Christian Church services in those
days, both teaching and worship, were held in private homes, because, at the
time, no purely Christian Church temples could be openly constructed. At that
time, it was very dangerous to be a follower of CHRIST, or, an “Adherent of the
Way”, as they were called then, and Christian worshipers would have to meet in
secret locations to preserve their own lives, and to continue to teach the Word
to willing listeners.
Priscilla and Aquila were also a curiously
nomadic pair, as they were found wandering and moving from place to place
throughout the Roman Empire. In the Book of Acts, we first find them in Rome
(Acts 18:2), where they were ejected by the Emperor Claudius, as he sought to
expel all Jews from Italy, in and around A.D. 52. Then, we find them in Corinth , where they first
met Paul, and had him as a house quest, during his second missionary journey
(Acts 18:1-3).
Next, we see them in Ephesus (Acts
18:24-28), where they had traveled with Paul from Corinth. There, we find them
instructing a Jewish scholar named Apollos, in the ways of GOD more accurately,
educating him about the impact of CHRIST JESUS on humanity. Apollos, who was already
well versed about CHRIST and baptism with water, needed to be informed about
baptism with the HOLY SPIRIT.
In Romans 16:3-5, Paul sends greetings to
this intriguing couple who had made their way back to Rome, and had opened up,
yet another House Church in their home there. Also, in Paul’s first letter to
the Corinthians, written a couple of years earlier, he informed us that they
were back in Corinth, where they were operating, still another House Church,
from their home (1 Corinthians 16:19). And then finally, in Paul’s second
letter to Timothy, his last known written communication, he tells us that
Priscilla and Aquila have set up house, once again, in the large port city of
Ephesus (2 Timothy 4:19).
However, it doesn’t really seem to matter,
where, we find this intriguing couple, whenever, and wherever we do run across
them, we always seem to find their home to be a place of Christian fellowship
and service. Every home, in essence, should be a Christian Church, a place
where, perhaps, JESUS could come any time to stay for a while. And for
Priscilla and Aquila, wherever we find them, their home always seemed to
radiate Christian friendship, fellowship, and love.
Oftentimes we humanly look at home as being
a place where we go to shut the world out. However, we need to always remember
that, equally, our homes should be a place with an open door (Romans 12:13
& 1 Peter 4:9). We should always keep in mind that, an open door, along
with an open heart, and an open hand, are three of the key characteristics in
the Christian Faith.
And so, we can see that, despite Priscilla
and Aquila having appeared to always have lived a nomadic life, for them,
working for the LORD in this manner, was a way of life. “Upon this rock
(concept), I will build MY Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it”. That is what JESUS said to Peter in Matthew 16:18 (KJV).
And, even though, we, as Christians, may
never organize our churches in the same way, nor, may never worship GOD in the
same way, and we in fact, may never even believe in precisely the same things
about Christianity. However, “Christian unity”, can and will, transcend all
these differences, and bring GOD’s people together in fellowship and love.
It is the kind of unity that JESUS prayed
about in John 17, and, the kind of unity that Paul wrote about, to the Churches
in all of his doctrinal letters. It is a unity, not born, of bricks and mortar,
but rather, it is a unity of personal relationships, not unlike the one we’ve
already seen between the FATHER and the SON, as an example to us, for all
times.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official
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