Fellow Workers

Priscilla and Aquila are part of the great cloud of witnesses that surround us (Read their story here ... and here).  

So, what can we learn from how they walked the Way?  Priscilla and Aquila were two regular people called by God to work together in life and ministry, in the midst of darkness, so that the Gospel would win. 

First of all, Priscilla and Aquila were two regular people.  We don’t know much about their background.  We know that they were tentmakers or leatherworkers and so they were people who worked for a living.  We know that they moved around a lot (from Pontus to Rome to Corinth to Ephesus back to Rome).  We know that they knew Scripture, for they taught Apollos, who himself was well-versed in Scripture.  But nothing is said that sets them up as being extraordinary.  They appear to have been regular, working-class people who had received the Gospel and were called to follow Jesus. 

That is important for us to notice at a time when many churches are going professional with lots of professional staff, big budgets and big business.  It’s also important for us to notice because often we think that we can’t really or fully serve the Lord unless we’ve been seminary trained or ordained or have some kind of title.  Priscilla and Aquila show us that God calls regular people and uses them powerfully.

Now, I am a big fan of education - I loved seminary and I’m a firm believer in training and equipping people to serve, however the ministry of the Gospel is not relegated to seminary graduates.  God uses regular people.  And ultimately we’re all “regular people”.  We are all sinners saved by grace and used by God in various ways.  At the same time, none of us is simply a regular person, for we have been filled with the Holy Spirit and are being conformed to the likeness of Christ.  And so  don’t limit yourself (or God, for that matter) by thinking, “I could never do this or that” (teach a class, be a youth leader, lead a small group, share the Gospel effectively with someone, become a missionary).  God uses regular people – like you and me – to accomplish His purposes in the world.  So trust God and start serving!

Secondly, Priscilla and Aquila worked together in life and ministry.  They were never mentioned apart from one another.  They were a team.  They worked together as tentmakers and they ministered together.  Paul calls them his “fellow workers”.  Priscilla and Aquila came alongside of Paul to help in his mission to preach and teach the Gospel.

I’m struck at how often in the Gospels and Acts Christian ministry is generally done in pairs and as a team.  Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs.  Paul and Barnabus worked together and when they split, Barnabus took Mark and Paul took Silas and they often added others to their team.  Here Priscilla and Aquila likewise work as a team.  For ministry is not a lone ranger enterprise.  We are in this together.

But often we are so steeped in American individualism that we often feel guilty or like a failure if we cannot do everything on our own (from reading Scripture to evangelism).  We feel like we need to be able to pull the Christian life off on our own.  We can’t and we’re not expected to.  God has saved a people for Himself – a community, a family, a Body.  Discipleship, whether growing personally or making disciples of others, happens in and through community with other people.  Deacons and elders are to work together; husbands and wives are to work together; brothers and sisters in Christ are to work together for the sake of the Gospel.  We are the Body of Christ and each of us is an important part of it.

Thirdly, Priscilla and Aquila worked together in the midst of darkness.  Every city they were in was an important one in the Roman Empire – from the regional capitals of Corinth and Ephesus to the capital of the empire in Rome. Those cities, though important centers of commerce were places filled with immorality and paganism.  Priscilla and Aquila were surrounded by darkness.  But into that darkness they brought the light.  We too are surrounded by darkness as we live in a dark time. 

I was sitting in the parking lot of a local church yesterday (as Carrie and I were helping with a ministry) and there was a kid there waiting for his mom, sitting on the bumper of their minivan with the doors open and the radio blaring.  The lyrics to the songs (if they could be called songs) were utterly obscene.  They were vile.  They made me angry; they made me feel sick; they made me sad - sad for that boy and sad for the world and what we have become.  Our kids are being fed a steady diet of poison – of violence and hatred; of pornography, promiscuity and ugly, loveless, exploitative sexuality; of disrespect, abuse, drunkenness and inanity.  They are being infected by it through the radio, on TV, at the movies and on the internet. 

We live in Corinth.  Though the actual site, in Greece, is rubble, its spirit lives on and it is an evil spirit.  We can’t avoid it for we live in it and it reaches into our communities and homes and families.  The darkness is tangible.  The question is:  Will we be light in it?  Will we fight against it?  Will we bring light to where it is dark – in the cities; in our local communities; in people’s lives?  The darkness may not welcome you (that boy didn’t really want to talk with me when I began talking with him) but will you go and be light?

And finally, Priscilla and Aquila worked together in the midst of darkness so that the Gospel would win.  We read in Romans 16:3 that Priscilla and Aquila risked their lives for Paul.  Paul wrote: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.”

We don’t know when it took place, but we know that Priscilla and Aquila were willing to risk their lives for Paul and for the sake of the Gospel.  They expended themselves for the Church.  That is why Paul states that all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.  It seems that, like Paul, Priscilla and Aquila were committed to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Church and t/f, like Paul, they must have faced opposition and persecution. 

And not only did they risk their lives, they lived their lives so that the Gospel would win.  They took people in – like Apollos; they hosted the Church in their home; they gave of themselves financially and personally to support the ministry of the Church.  They were fellow workers with Paul, fellow workers of the Church and fellow workers of Jesus Christ.  They wanted the Gospel to win, so they dedicated their lives to that end.  They still went to work each day and made a living and had a house and neighbors, but their primary goal – their heart’s desire – was to see the Gospel win.

Is that your goal?  Is that your desire?  If it is, are you willing to dedicate your life to it?  Will you make it your priority?  Will you live and work for the sake of the Gospel?  Will you fight for it?  Will you live, as pastor Tullian Tchividjian puts it, “against the world for the world”.  Will you, when necessary live against your children for your children – against your co-workers for your co-workers - against your friends for your friends?  Will you fight the good fight – fight for your children and your family and your marriage and your church and your community so that the Gospel will win in you and them?  Will you be, as pastor Mark Driscoll puts it, a person who does Gospel things in Gospel ways for Gospel reasons because you want the Gospel to win?

That is the example of Priscilla and Aquila.  It is an example we need to follow.