In Filling

Here we are, at the close of the fifth and final week of our forty days and forty nights’ mission, before Holy Week. We have been brought to even greater consciousness through the Holy Spirit, of our Lord’s unbelievable love for us.

Blessed Jesus, You who have loved us, please love us still. Amen!

We continue now, under the banner of Aquila and Priscilla, as we have received their love-works of Listening to and Entertaining of, the preacher named Apollos, in their home.

Apprising - We are told that Aquila and Priscilla invited Apollos to their home and explained things to him. The point is that the explaining or apprising of the Way, was not the only love-work this preacher received. He would have received food and refreshment, as is the custom of the believers.

To apprise a person of something is to do three things.

• Inform - It is first of all to inform the person of what he or she does not know. The couple had to inform Apollos of what he was not aware of.

• Instruct - Having told, informed, or made known to Apollos his inadequacy, that pertaining to the Way, they proceeded to instruct him about the Way.

• Include – To apprise someone of something is to include that person with you in knowledge. For example, Apollos was ignorant of things about the Way, but Priscilla and Aquila were not. In a real way, he was excluded from knowledge which they had. When they released their knowledge to him, they included him in knowledge and understanding. Their love-work brought him to know what they knew.

Filling - We know that Aquila and Priscilla heard this itinerant preacher speaking most eloquently, but most inadequately and they made him aware of his limitations and helped to educate him and build him up in the Way of God, more correctly and adequately. Through their love-work, this couple filled in all the gaps and spaces with which Apollos had come to them. This filling, which the preacher received, left him well supplied to move on as a more ready and prepared preacher. He who came speaking most eloquently but most inadequately, has left, but not as he came. He has become a most enlightened believer, filled with the love-works of a couple who refused to leave him in his inadequate state.

Apollos left speaking eloquently and adequately. How do we know this to be the case? Just read the banner of testimony that is being told about him, as he goes to Achaia and becomes a great help to those, who, through the Grace of God, have become believers. He vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. Acts 18: 28.

Having completed this week, we look forward to our last stretch, the final mile, as it were, the Holy Week Walk - Looking Up, to Jesus.