Transcript

As Chester left the gym, he desperately gave himself a personal TSA pat down. He was looking for his keys. They were not in his pockets. A quick search in the locker room revealed nothing. Suddenly he realized that he must have left them in the car.

Frantically, he headed for the parking lot. Chester’s wife, Sally, had scolded him many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. Chester’s theory is that the ignition is the best place not to lose them. Sally’s theory is that this is the best way for the car to be stolen.

As Chester burst through the doors, he came to a terrifying conclusion: Sally’s theory was right. The parking lot was empty. He immediately called the police. He gave them his location, confessing that he had left the keys in the car and that it had been stolen.

Then Chester made the most difficult call of all. “Honey,” he stammered, “I left my keys in the car, and it’s been stolen.” There was a period of silence.

Chester thought the call had been dropped, but then he heard Sally’s voice. “Chester!” she said, “I dropped you off!” Now it was his time to be silent.

Embarrassed, he said, “Well, can you come and get me?” “I will!” Sally retorted, “Just as soon as I convince this police officer to take off the handcuffs!”

The “key” to a good marriage relationship is to work together and communicate well. One of Paul’s co-workers, who always worked together, was a godly husband and wife team by the names of Aquila and Priscilla. The faith and faithfulness of this remarkable couple is an encouragement and an example for all of us in the Body of Christ.

Acts 18:1-4: “After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

“And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.”

After Paul’s sermon on Mars’ Hill in Athens, Paul left the city and “came to Corinth” which was around 50 miles to the west. Corinth was a major city of the Roman Empire at an important crossroads of trade and travel.

According to 1 Corinthians 2, Paul came to Corinth to preach Christ and Him crucified in the power of the Holy Spirit. And when he came to Corinth, Paul’s own testimony was “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (2:3).

Paul came to Corinth all alone. He entered the city quietly, unannounced. He doesn’t know anyone. His co-workers, Silas and Timothy, were still in Macedonia at the time.

Coming to Corinth, he did so in weakness and fear. Needing encouragement, God brought two people into Paul’s life, a married couple that became so beloved and close to Paul that he mentions them multiple times throughout his ministry.

In Corinth, Paul “found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla.”

Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned six times in the Bible, and never one without the other. They were a gospel team. They were inseparable and the two became one. And they served the Lord as one.

Husbands and wives do have different roles in the marriage relationship, but this couple also reminds us of the equality of the husband and wife in marriage, because in the 6 times they are mentioned in the King James version, Aquila is mentioned first 3 times, and Priscilla is mentioned first 3 times.

Or it is Aquila and Priscilla 3 times, and it is Priscilla and Aquila 3 times.

Aquila was from “Pontus,” which was a province on the southern shores of the Black Sea. Jews of the dispersion resided in Pontus. Some of them were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit came (Acts 2:9).

And Peter, in his first epistle, addressed his dispersed countrymen, writing, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout PONTUS, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pet. 1:1).

Aquila had migrated to Rome from Pontus. And he and his wife were living there when persecution broke out against the Jews. Then around 51 A.D., the Roman emperor Claudius Caesar, who reigned from AD 41-54, issued an edict expelling all Jews from the city of Rome. All Jews were uprooted from their homes and banished from Rome.

Both being Jews, Aquila and Priscilla were then forced to leave, and no doubt they deemed it unsafe to remain in any part of Italy. So they made their way along the main route from Rome to the east, coming to a major city of the Roman Empire, Corinth, in Greece, and they decided to stay and ply their trade there.

And by the providence of God, this disheartened and displaced Jewish couple, arrived around the same time that a weakened and fearful Jewish man and apostle of God came walking into Corinth. They were all needing encouragement, and after they met, they became friends for life.

And Aquila and Priscilla’s major life setback turned out to be just the opposite. What they lost in losing their home and business in Rome, they more than made up for in meeting Paul and their relationship and service with him.

What seemed to be a tragedy became the greatest blessing of all for Aquila and Priscilla. The lesson for all of us is that God is able to take our disappointments and make them His appointments.

The eternal rewards of Aquila and Priscilla will far and forever overshadow any temporal earthly loss they might have experienced by being displaced from Rome.

They affirm the truth of Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

When Aquila and Priscilla arrived in Corinth, they scoured the marketplace for a small shop to rent, and proceeded to set up their tent-making business. And no sooner had they gotten settled down in their shop than another Jewish tentmaker arrived in town.

Paul and Aquila and Priscilla were all “of the same craft.” The Greek word for “tentmakers” means “one that makes small portable tents, of leather or cloth of goat’s hair or linen, for the use of travelers.”

Their tents were made of rough goat’s hair fabric which took great skill to cut and sew properly. And in their tentmaking business, they both made and repaired tents.

Paul used the language of a tentmaker in 2 Timothy 2:15, when he wrote of the need for us to be “rightly dividing the Word of truth.”

“Rightly dividing” is the Greek word, orthotomeo, which means “to cut straight.” To make good tents Paul had to skillfully cut the tent panels and goat’s hair fabric straight.

And to properly interpret God’s Word, we need to make straight cuts between truth for Israel under the law, and truth for the Body of Christ under grace.

Because they were of the same trade, Aquila and Priscilla invited Paul to live with them and to work together in their tentmaking. This first example of hospitality is something we see again with this godly couple.

Paul often supported himself in the ministry by his own labors, working at his trade of tentmaking. He sometimes worked in order not to be a burden or a stumbling block to those to whom he ministered, even though he had the right to be supported.

He later reminded the Corinthians that he had done this among them: “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But I have used none of these things…What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge…” (1 Cor. 9:14,15,18).

Paul did not want to give these Corinthians the idea that he was preaching the gospel of Christ for their money, so he worked at tentmaking while he was there to support himself.

This kept his motives from being questioned and demonstrated his true sincerity and desire for lost souls in Corinth to come to Christ.

Aquila and Priscilla were a great blessing to Paul in allowing him to live with them and to work with them in their business. And Paul in turn was a great blessing to them too. As Paul lived and worked together with Aquila and Priscilla, they, of course, talked together.

And we know that Paul could never be silent about Christ, so we know that, day and night, Aquila and Priscilla heard everything about Paul’s conversion, Christ’s death and resurrection and all that was accomplished on the Cross on our behalf, and of us not being under law but under grace. Daily, the apostle poured Christ and the Word into them.

Paul later wrote these Corinthians, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.”

As Paul spoke to this faithful couple they were consistently trained and taught the truths of the mystery, the wisdom which God had kept hidden before Paul and was revealed to him from the risen Lord Jesus, which concerns our glory in Christ in the heavenlies as members of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Paul lived with Aquila and Priscilla, he worked with them, and he also went to the synagogue with them “every Sabbath.” And thus, they heard Paul teach and reason from the Scriptures in the services at the synagogue as well.

The term “reasoned” in verse 4 also denotes a dialogue, meaning that not only did Paul teach and preach but that there was give and take and questions and answers.

Aquila and Priscilla benefited spiritually from all this, from both the casual and formal times and having all these discussions about the Scriptures with Paul.

Verse 11 states that Paul “continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them.” Paul ministered for a year and a half in Corinth. Aquila and Priscilla were with the apostle this entire time. They were trained by Paul in the truth for this extended time period.

And their common bonds in Christ and in their tentmaking trade, in working together, living together, over these 18 months forged a strong friendship between them that lasted for the rest of Paul’s life, so that even with some of his very last recorded words he acknowledged this couple, exhorting Timothy to “Greet Prisca and Aquila.”

Acts 18:18-19: “And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

“And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.”

For a year and a half Paul ministered in Corinth and souls were saved and a church was established. After these 18 months, Paul left Corinth and he took Aquila and Priscilla with him. And so the tentmaking business partners, now were ministry partners.

And the fact that Priscilla and Aquila would leave their tentmaking business in Corinth to go with Paul indicates their loyalty and devotion to the Lord and the ministry of Paul.

Leaving Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, Paul sailed for Syria, his object being to return ultimately to Antioch in Syria, his sending church for this his second apostolic journey.

As they traveled, they went across the Aegean Sea from Corinth to Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor.

At Paul’s request, Aquila and Priscilla stayed at Ephesus, as verse 19 says that Paul “left them there.” Paul could not stay in Ephesus at this time, but in verse 21, he promised that “I will return again unto you, if God will.”

In his stead, he left this godly couple to serve and minister to those in Ephesus. And God’s Word tells us two things that Aquila and Priscilla did during this stay in Ephesus.

The first is what 1 Corinthians 16:19 says, “The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.”

1 Corinthians was written from Ephesus during Paul’s third apostolic journey, when he did return to Ephesus as he promised and ministered there for 3 years.

And to those in Corinth who all knew Aquila and Priscilla from when this couple lived there, Paul sent their greetings. And when he wrote that they “salute you much in the Lord,” it means that they greeted them heartily and warmly in Christ.

Paul also adds the fact in this verse that a church had been established and was meeting in their home in Ephesus. The couple’s home became a meeting place for worship of God and instruction in God’s Word.

Thus, we see another example of this couple’s hospitality, seen in opening their home as a place for a church to meet. Their hearts and home were surrendered to the Lord.

Romans 12:13 instructs the Body of Christ to be “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.” Aquila and Priscilla were “given to hospitality.”

The second thing we find Aquila and Priscilla doing during their ministry in Ephesus is what verses 24-26 of this chapter tell us:

“And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.

“This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.

“And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”

An eloquent preacher named Apollos, from Alexandria, Egypt came to Ephesus. Apollos was a Jew who was mighty in the Old Testament Scriptures, but he only knew the baptism of John the Baptist.

Thus, he knew John’s baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and that John had come to make ready a people prepared for the Messiah.

But he knew little, if anything, about the Cross, the resurrection of Christ, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. He knew nothing of the postponement of the kingdom, or how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

Coming to Ephesus, Apollos fervently and diligently taught the things of the Lord. Aquila and Priscilla heard him when he spoke boldly in the syngagogue. After hearing him, they discerned that something was lacking and deficient in his teaching and knowledge.

Having been trained for 18 months by the Apostle Paul in God’s message of grace for today, and being diligent students of the Word themselves and having grown in their faith, they were equipped to teach and to help Apollos grow in his faith.

And notice that they did this together as a couple. They had grown spiritually in the Word as a couple and they both possessed an in-depth understanding of the doctrine learned from Paul, and this husband-and-wife team were both able to pass it on.

And as a couple they were willing to invest the time necessary to take one young man under their wings to teach him.

Apollos didn’t have the full picture of things. Thus, they took Apollos unto them, inviting him to their home, and as they discussed the Scriptures, they “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”

They gave him the rest of the story and taught him the great truths of grace that they had learned from the Apostle Paul and of God’s plans and purposes for the heavenlies.

Aquila and Priscilla would have taught him of the coming of the Holy Spirit to Israel, of Israel’s rejection of His ministry, of Stephen’s stoning and the temporary setting aside of Israel and her kingdom, and then the raising up of Paul.

They would have explained that to Paul was the message of grace revealed that had been hid in God, that God has turned to the Gentiles, the nations, and that today under grace, anyone who trusts Christ as their Savior by faith alone is made a member of the Church, the Body of Christ and given a heavenly hope.

Romans 16:3-5: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house.”

Charles Spurgeon writes, “When two loving hearts pull together they accomplish wonders. What different associations cluster around the names of ‘Priscilla and Aquila’ from those which are awakened by the words ‘Ananias and Sapphira’! There we have a husband and a wife conspiring in hypocrisy, and here a wife and a husband united in sincere devotion.”

After meeting Paul, their whole ministry together was characterized by sincere devotion, united together under a single purpose to bring honor and glory to Christ.

Aquila and Priscilla remained in Ephesus for 4 or 5 years. Paul initially left them there on his return trip from his second apostolic journey. Then they were there when Paul came to Ephesus on his third apostolic journey and stayed there for 3 years.

When Paul left Ephesus to go to Troas to look for Titus and then on to Macedonia, we know that Aquila and Priscilla left Ephesus right around this same time frame. Leaving Ephesus, they went back to Rome, where they had lived years prior.

Claudius Caesar had died in AD 54, and it was now AD 55, thus it was safe for them to return to Rome.

The Book of Romans was written when Paul went to Corinth for three months on his third apostolic journey. And in Romans, he greets Priscilla and Aquila who were now in Rome. They would have been there for about a year at that point.

Paul calls them “my helpers in Christ Jesus.” Paul was blessed to have many helpers in his ministry. And Aquila and Priscilla helped Paul in his ministry in Corinth, as well as in Ephesus. And they had many characteristics that made them very helpful to Paul.

They were selfless. They were hospitable. They were flexible. They worked together. They both were committed to Christ, to serving Him and teaching others about Him.
And speaking of helping Paul, he wrote, “Who have for my life laid down their own necks.”

David Egner writes: “Before I entered the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, I had to walk down a boulevard called ‘The Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles.’

“It is lined with hundreds of trees planted in honor of people who sheltered or in other ways assisted Jews during the Nazi regime.

“At the base of each tree is a metal plaque bearing the name of a man, woman, or family who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. Some of the names are familiar, like Corrie ten Boom and Oscar Schindler. But most are not.

“As I walked down this avenue of memorial, my thoughts went to Romans 16, where Paul said that Priscilla and Aquila had risked their lives for his sake.

“And I thanked God for devoted believers in Jesus Christ down through the centuries who made tremendous sacrifices, some losing loved ones or their own lives, to meet the physical and spiritual needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ.”

When Aquila and Priscilla laid down their own necks and lives for Paul is likely referring to the riot in Ephesus, that was stirred up by Demetrius and the silversmiths and craftsmen, because Paul’s ministry was turning people away from the false goddess Diana to the true and living God and was hurting their sales and profits.

If those in Ephesus had gotten a hold of Paul during that dangerous riot, they would have surely killed him. Aquila and Priscilla were still in Ephesus at that time, and in some way, they together endangered and jeopardized their own lives to save Paul.

And Paul recognized that he owed his life to this godly and brave couple and he was grateful to them for it.

And Paul wrote, “unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.” These Gentile churches were grateful also to Aquila and Priscilla for having saved the life of him who had been their founder, and who was their spiritual father, who ministered and cared for them and taught them the truth.

But take that verse even down to us. We Gentiles today and the churches of the Gentiles should still be grateful to Aquila and Priscilla, because if they had not saved Paul’s life, we would not have the books of Romans, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, or Titus.

In verse 5, Paul greeted the church that is in their house. This is the second church Aquila and Priscilla hosted in their house, one in Ephesus, and then one in Rome. They had hardly gotten to Rome and already there was a church meeting in their home.

A hallmark of the lives of Priscilla and Aquila was their desire to build others up in the faith, and thus they had churches in their homes so people could be ministered to and taught the Word of God and established in their faith.

The dispensation of grace began with house churches, and as the spiritual darkness deepens in our country and around the world, and the times get more spiritually perilous with the progression of this age and we advance toward its conclusion with the Rapture, it may be that we the church will return to these house churches.

That is already the case in some countries around the world.

2 Timothy 4:19 reads, “Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.”

Paul’s last reference to Aquila and Priscilla is in his last letter. At this point, it had been 16 years since Paul met this godly duo in Corinth. Paul was imprisoned in Rome and writing to Timothy one last time.

Timothy was pastoring the church at Ephesus, and Aquila and Priscilla are there with him. Thus, we learn that years later, this faithful couple moved from Rome back to Ephesus to minister where they had lived previously.

It’s possible that Aquila and Priscilla again left Rome due to the Caesar, which then was Nero, and the persecution that was taking place against Christians.

In the last days of his life, Paul wanted them to know that he was thinking about them and he lovingly sent his greetings.

We can be sure that Aquila and Priscilla to the end of their lives, they were offering gracious hospitality to others, spreading the gospel and truths of grace that they had learned from Paul, and rendering faithful service to the Savior.