Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2138
“Who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through Grace.” Acts 18:27.
APOLLOS is not Paul, and Paul is not Apollos. To blend the two in one would be to spoil each one of the two without producing a good third. It is a great mercy that we have Paul, Apollos, Cephas and other varieties of preachers, for not only is variety charming, but it is necessary. It is not everybody that can be profited by Paul, for it requires a great deal of fixed attention to follow him and many hearers cannot concentrate their thoughts for long. It is not everybody that can be profited by Apollos, for fine speech is thrown away on simple souls. It is written, “Then shall the lambs feed after their manner,” and assuredly each one of them have a peculiar manner of feeding.
Some of God’s people are edified by one minister and some by another—it is not mere whim—it arises out of conformation of character and habit of mind. Let Paul be Paul and edify the Pauline class—and let Apollos be Apollos and instruct those of his own sort. For my part, I would try to profit by either Paul, Apollos, Cephas, John, or James but, alas, I do not know where to go to hear them! I am happy in hoping that their successors are still with us, each one with his peculiar style of things. I am not going to compare them with each other but I would commend each one and thank God by whose Grace he is what he is. It would be a very bad day’s work, if we could do it, to reduce Paul to Apollos, or to bring Apollos to the style of Paul.
In the body there are different members and all members have not the same office—and in the Church of God there are different ministries and all ministries do not work after like manner though they all work towards the same end. If, my dear Friend, God gives you Grace to bring sinners to Christ and to plant churches, be thankful that you can imitate Paul. And if you cannot do that, but can help those who are already converted, be thankful for such a gift and imitate Apollos. Let not the man who plants envy the man who waters—and let not the man who waters boast over the man who simply plants and goes his way—for Paul has his place and is honored of his Master as a planter and Apollos has his place and shall not lack his reward as someone who waters.
You see that the Holy Spirit has been pleased, by the pen of Luke, to give to Paul’s travels and labors a very large proportion of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. This passage from the 24th to the 28th verse is an episode—a corner marked off to be a record of Apollos. What Apollos did afterwards we do not know. He may have been a very great evangelist—he certainly was an exceedingly useful Brother. But, dear Friends, I find no complaint from Apollos because, being mentioned in the sacred dispatches, he has so small a space allotted to him. He does not sulk because he has only four or five verses while Paul is described at great length!
If you and I should work for Christ and never be mentioned in the records of earth at all, let us not be sorry—there is most peace to those who are least talked about. God, who is Sovereign, dispenses according to His will and it may be that one working Brother will have all his story told and his life will make a useful biography, instructing and stimulating many for generations. Be it so. Another Brother, equally earnest and fervent, may never have his life written—there may only remain in the traditions of the Church one or two anecdotes about him, helpful and good. But let him not mind his obscurity—his real usefulness may have been great, none the less. Our record is on high! If the chronicles of earth are faulty, the registers of Heaven are perfect.
Many a man who has been forgotten here shall be remembered there. And I know that in Heaven it will give no saint the least trouble that he was not honored among men. What if no monument was set up, yet all true work is immortal.
The diligent workman will be perfectly contented when his Master says to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” The echo of those words shall be Heaven to him! Sweeter than all the harps of angels shall be the voice of his Lord’s approval! Go on, Apollos! Work on, though there is little said about you and do not envy Paul, whose name the halls of the Church are ringing! He did not seek himself any more than you did and his content in the published record lies only in the fact that it honors his Lord.
But now, to come close to the text, I want you to notice these words—“When he was come, he helped them much which had believed through Grace.” Apollos, following Paul at Corinth, did useful service by confirming those who had already believed in the Lord Jesus. Our first head is—true Believers have believed through Grace. Secondly, such Believers need help, and thirdly, it is a worthy work in which to engage—to help those who have believed through Grace. May the Holy Spirit use many of us in this hallowed service! May we ourselves be helped through Divine Grace at this time!