"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled. And they realised that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13 NKJV
Peter, John and the other apostles, were not always the type of people one would have thought they should be. They had many rough edges just as we do, especially before they were baptised in the Holy Spirit. Robert E Coleman comments:
'What is more revealing about these men is that, at first they do not impress us as being key men. None of them occupied prominent places in the synagogue, nor did any of them belong to the Levitical priesthood. For the most part they were common labouring men, probably having no professional training beyond the rudiments of knowledge necessary for their vocation. Perhaps a few of them came from families of some considerable means, such as the sons of Zebedee, but none of them could have been considered wealthy. They had no academic degrees in the arts and philosophies of their day. Like their master, their formal education likely consisted only of the synagogue schools. Most of them were raised in the poor section of the country around Galilee. Apparently, the only one of the twelve who came from the more refined region of Judea, was Judas Iscariot. By any standard of sophisticated culture then and now, they would surely be considered as a rather ragged aggregation of souls. One might wonder how Jesus could ever use them. They were impulsive, temperamental, easily offended and had all the prejudices of their environment. In short, these men selected by the Lord to be His assistants, represented an average cross section of the lot of society in their day. Not the kind of group one would expect to win the world for Christ'
Copyright Robert E Coleman 1964
The Master Plan of Evangelism
And there you have it. Not the greatest of references if they were applying for a job anywhere. The most amazing thing about all of this though, is the fact that even though such a testimony could be written about them, Jesus loved them and had faith in their ability. He knew their potential and by the time that they had been with Him, and been filled with the Spirit of God - that dunamis power, it could be said of them, they had been with Jesus.
This also confirms that there is hope for us. We may not feel like we are suitable for God's work; we may feel that we keep letting Him down with our attitude and behaviour but, in Jesus' eyes, we have a potential. He has started a work within us and will continue this until it is time to go home.
Now that is something to praise God for!
Copyriight 2021 Grahame Howard
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