Acts 18:22-28 :
When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch. Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples. Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although 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.
When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Were you aware that simply preaching repentance is an inadequate representation of God’s way? Here is where we read that things really changed between the time before Jesus resurrected and the time afterward. Things were so different that preaching the way that John the Baptist used to, would actually be inaccurate.
The reason I bring this up is because there are some today who attempt to teach what John the Baptist taught, as if it were the whole gospel. John didn’t know the whole gospel yet. It is good to see also that Jesus, during His time before his resurrection taught the same things as John did even though He knew what was coming. What was it that they taught?
They taught repentance. It’s difficult to receive the gift of God’s grace if you don’t know that you are a sinner and need salvation. Jesus and John preached about the sin of the people and how much they had missed the mark of God’s will for their lives. It is an error to only preach the law and repentance when Grace has already come, however. Without preaching Grace, there is no salvation! Today, when we preach that people are sinners and need to trust in Jesus for their salvation, it is a message of repentance and Grace together. The heavy law of God shows our bad condition before God and the freedom of God’s favor through Jesus death and resurrection shows us that we have been made clean in God’s eyes.
Apollos was a highly trained and gifted speaker and God was able to use his earthly talents to powerfully help the early Church by publicly refuting the Jews who were against them.