Acts 18
Today we encounter Apollos in the reading. He was a Jew from Alexandria in Egypt. Alexandria was the second-largest city in the Mediterranean world after Rome. It boasted the largest library of the ancient world. The city was culturally blessed with ancient history, literature, and science. And it was home to a large Jewish community in the time of the apostles. This is also the place the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek.
As the writer of the Acts of the Apostles describes Apollos as an eloquent man, Apollos must have received these cultural heritages of the city. And as a Jew, he must have been well-versed in the Old Testament as well. And this cultural and scriptural background and heritage helped him to be an excellent speaker and apologist of Christianity.
Interestingly, although Apollos was already proclaiming Jesus when he arrived in Ephesus in Asia Minor, today’s Turkey, Apollos was not baptized in the name of Jesus and didn’t receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He only knew the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. When St Paul, Priscilla and Aquila found him, they helped him to receive these gifts from the Lord and strengthened him with more accurate knowledge of Christ. Then, they recommended him for further preaching.
This account of Apollos shows the teaching of Christ Jesus was spread over many places in the Roman Empire by many different disciples. Even the disciples of John the Baptist seemed to have brought the Good News to people. As Jesus commanded before he ascended into heaven, his apostles and disciples went out and brought the Good News to all the earth. St Paul was not the only one who evangelized. All Christians were missionaries in those days!
But when those different evangelists encountered each other, they did not put themselves above others. It seems these evangelists constantly reminded themselves of their being servants and messengers of Christ. Their goal was to preach Christ, not themselves. Maximizing each one’s gifts and heritages, our apostles and evangelists helped each other under one shepherd Jesus Christ.
All of us have certain talents and heritages. And all of us are called to bring Good News to the whole world. Christians are not consumers of religion. Religion is not a service industry. We do not consume the Good News. The Way of Christ becomes us. And we change the world by bringing Jesus to it.
