Apollo was a great leader in the time of the apostle Paul, he was considered one of the leaders of great influence in the church of Ephesus. Bearing this in mind, we can say that Apollo was a young preacher who aimed very well at the knowledge of the holy scriptures. According to the book of Acts of the Apostles Apollo was very powerful in the scriptures and taught with authority in the synagogues, he had a fervent spirit (Acts 18:24). When we look at Apollo’s life, we can see that he was a young preacher who sought to teach and guide people to the ways of the Lord. However, Apollos was a man who only knew of the baptism of John the Baptist. Apollos was probably a disciple of John, the one who had baptized the Lord Jesus in the Jordan River. In fact, when meeting Paul, he declares that he didn’t even know that the Holy Spirit existed.
The evangelist Apollo had the mission to preach the repentance of sins, that is the baptism in the waters, because – if you want to know that there was baptism with the Holy Spirit. Some scholars strongly believe that Apollo went to another city after John was beheaded by Herod. The bible says he was a humble man, well educated and a man willing to learn from the other disciples. No wonder Apollos learned the gospel of Christ from Aquila and Priscilla about the holy way of God (Acts 18:26).
Apollos was a Jewish man who was a native of Alexandria, he proved to be an adept preacher of repentance. He was a man who was one of the disciples of John the Baptist, because his preaching was based on repentance of sins – where it was about diving into the river to be forgiven of sins.
He was seen by a group of Christians, namely, Aquila and Priscilla. That’s because he excelled in the art of preaching and teaching in his time. Apollos was a man who had the knowledge of the holy scriptures, but he did not have the understanding of who Christ was and who the Holy Spirit was. Apollo only knew baptism in water, he did not know the baptism of fire said by the Lord Jesus in the gospels. Here we learn that an eloquent preacher is not always the most intimate face of God, because knowing about the scriptures is one thing, having an intimate relationship with the Spirit is another. That’s because knowledge leads you to the knowledge of sin, but the relationship with the Spirit makes people convert to the Lord.
Do you know the difference between salvation and conversion? Good if you are in doubt about that. Know that salvation is a gift from God, freely given – but the act of conversion is man going to God and showing change through self-effort. Apollos was a man who had knowledge only of the salvation that came through water baptism.