We honor the heroes of our faith—people like Mary, our Lord’s mother, and Peter and John and Paul—people who play great roles in the gospel stories. But these people wouldn’t have been the heroes they were if it hadn’t been for many ordinary people who worked with them—mostly in obscurity—to help make them the great leaders they were.
ACTS 18:1-3, 18, & 24-26, 1 CORINTHIANS 16:19, & ROMANS 16:3: AQUILA AND PRISCILLA
INTRODUCTION
My great-grandfather—my granny’s father--came from England, and not long after he arrived he started a tent and awning business. His factory in Kansas City made covers for covered wagons, awnings, and tents of all kinds—tents for circuses, tents for the army, tents for evangelists, and tents for dwellings because in those days some people who couldn’t afford houses even lived in tents.
Did you know that the great apostle Paul was also a tentmaker?
Among the Jews, for a teacher to work with his hands and supported himself was considered an honorable thing to do.
If he worked he didn’t need to charge his students for his teaching.
Paul continued to support himself with his own labor even when he became a Christian and a missionary.
Some rabbis were potters, some were carpenters, some were basket makers, and Paul made tents.
Leather was much cheaper than cloth in those days, so Paul probably made his tents of skins.
Cutting and sewing leather was hard work and in Acts 20 where we read Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders, we read how he held up his calloused, work-worn hands and reminded them that he had not asked them for any support but said, “You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.”
We read that when Paul arrived at Corinth, on his second missionary journey he met a couple named Aquila and Priscilla, who were Jews and Christian believers, who took him into their own tent business as a partner.
The house of Priscilla and Aquila became a home-away-from-home for Paul and they became valued helpers in Paul’s ministry.
I. Acts 18:1-3: After this he [Paul] left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, lately come form Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them; and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and they worked, for by trade they were tentmakers”
A. Aquila and Priscilla had been living in Rome, but, because of some riots among the Jews, the Roman Emperor Claudius had commanded that Jews were to leave Rome. Aquila and Priscilla had left and had set up their tent-making business in the Greek city of Corinth.
And that is why they were in Corinth when Paul needed their help.
They took Paul into the business and into their home and for a year and six months Aquila and Priscilla worked together with Paul.
Paul would have spent much more time with Aquila and Priscilla making tents than he spent preaching in the marketplace or teaching in the synagogues. So they got to know each other very well.
And what is more important, Paul would have had time to teach them, conversationally, all he knew about Jesus and salvation.
It must have been wonderful to have heard the stories of his adventures.
It must have been wonderful to be able to ask him every question that was on their minds about the difficulties of living for God.
B. And we read later on in that chapter that when Paul left Corinth to go to Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla packed up their business and went along with him.
They had become his partners, not only in the tent-making business but also in the gospel.
II. The next thing we read about Priscilla and Aquila is later in that same chapter (vv24-26):
A. “Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though 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 and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.”
Apollos came from Alexandria, a great center of learning, and Apollos was a learned man and great speaker.
He was like one of those great preachers who tell you things you never dreamed of and hold your attention with stories and wise sayings.
So people loved to listen to Apollos, and many were convinced by what he said.
B. But Priscilla and Aquila had a problem.
The more they listened to this brilliant preacher, the more they were concerned that there were things he didn’t know that he needed to know.
Apollos knew that Jesus was the Savior and that he died for our sins.
He knew that he rose from the dead to assure us of eternal life.
But there was evidently something about Christian baptism Apollos didn’t understand.
Something they understood very well because they had heard Paul explain it to them.
They wanted to help Apollos, but, you know, it’s awkward to try to set a preacher straight.
Aquila and Priscilla didn’t disparage Apollos behind his back.
They didn’t tell their friends about his inadequacies.
They went to Apollos. We read, “They took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately.”
I believe that means that they invited him over for dinner.
And I think they began by thanking him for his fine teaching—for all they had learned from him.
They commended him for his enthusiasm and for his love for the Lord.
And then—very humbly and respectfully—they began to fill him in on some of the things he needed to know—things Paul had taught them during that year-and-a-half when they had worked together making tents back in Corinth.
I don’t know who to admire more—Priscilla and Aquila, for their gentleness and tact, or Apollos for his humility in being willing to learn from people so far beneath him in education.
And evidently Apollos just drank it in and thanked them.
And he became an even better preacher and teacher.
So that when Paul wrote back to the Corinthians he could say, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
C. One thing that strikes everyone when they read about this godly couple is how they worked together.
Evidently Priscilla was as good a teacher as her husband Aquila.
They worked as a team.
That Priscilla was an equal partner is seen by the fact that in the later references Priscilla’s name is listed first.
Maybe she was the most knowledgeable. Maybe she was the better teacher.
III. The next thing I want to call your attention to is that Priscilla and Aquila had a church in their home.
A. They had a churches in their homes in Corinth, and in Ephesus, and later in Rome.
Paul, writing from Ephesus to the Corinthians writes, “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 16:19)
(She’s called Prisca here. Prisca was the more formal form of her name and Priscilla the diminutive—like James and Jim.
In the early days of Christianity the believers met in homes. They didn’t have church buildings. The house churches were small and they were scattered around the cities.
In the last chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul sends greetings to believers in at least 5 house churches. A scholar estimates that these little churches probably had from 5 to 30 members.
B. In this last chapter of his letter to the Romans Paul writes something else interesting about Priscilla and Aquila: “The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house” (Romans 16:3-5).
I wonder how Aquila and Priscilla risked their necks to save Paul’s life?
Probably after their little church had gathered and read Paul's letter, Priscilla and Aquila's friends asked them: “How did you risk your necks to same Paul’s life?”
As we read Acts we read of many times when Paul’s life was in danger from enemies of the gospel.
Probably it was during a time Paul’s enemies were closing in on him—during one of these times of great danger—that Aquila and Priscilla hid him in their home or in some other way stood between him and his enemies—even though, in doing so, they risked their lives.
CONCLUSION
Priscilla and Aquila weren’t famous. They are just minor characters in the Bible story.
But the work they did was of great importance.
They gave Paul shelter when he needed a home away from home.
They brought him into their workshop and helped him support himself and his friends.
They listened and learned and passed what they learned on to others.
They stood by Paul in a time of great danger.
And they nurtured a church in their home.
A wise Christian lady said, “We can’t do anything great for God, but we can do something small with great love.”
As the old children’s chorus has it:
“There’s a work for Jesus, ready at your hand,
‘Tis a task the Master just for you has planned.
Haste to do his bidding, yield him service true;
There’s a work for Jesus none but you can do.”
Or as we sing in the famous spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead”:
“If you cannot preach like Peter,
if you cannot pray like Paul,
you can tell the love of Jesus
and say, ‘He died for all.’”
And that’s why I brought you this little message about Priscilla and Aquila, to remind you that whatever you have done for God in time past, or whatever you are doing for God even now, and whatever you are able to do for God in the future is important—more important than you can know until you get to glory and you hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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