I am grateful that God chooses the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary. After all, He did this with the apostles and He still does this today. We began a new sermon series this morning in the book of Acts. I am calling this series–To Be Continued. . . You see, what God began with the disciples, He continues on with us. Lest we think that we are not qualified or gifted to such a task, we need only look at the apostles themselves. These were men who were considered by the world’s standards as uneducated and ungifted.
In Acts 4, the religious leaders upon recognizing Peter and John as follwers of Christ, identify them as “uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13). In other words, Peter and John were viewed as men without learning and gifting. Yet, it was these very men who turned the world upside down with the gospel of Christ (Acts 17:6).
As a matter of fact, when we look at the resumes of the twelve apostles there is nothing to note of significance. They were, in fact, ordinary men. Four, for example, were fishermen. One worked for the government. And another was an activist. There was nothing particularly impressive about this motely crew.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book Authentic Christianity writes about this original band of followers,
“Well, there were a handful of people whom the authorities in Jerusalem regarded as ordinary, simple, unlettered, and ignorant men and women. There were just twelve men essentially, and a number of others with them. They had nothing to recommend them, no great names, no degrees, no money, no means of communication or of advertising. They had nothing at all–they were nobodies. And yet what we know to be a fact is that this handful of ignorant and unlettered people “turned the world upside down” (8).
And turn the world upside down they did. They understood that God uses the foolish, ordinary things of the world to confound the wise. Having experienced the transforming power of the gospel, they knew that what the world needed was what they had received–the gospel of God’s grace.
Still today, God uses not those who are the smartest and most skilled, but those who have received the transforming power of the gospel through the risen Lord. Two-thousand years later, God is doing a great work by advancing His gospel through ordinary Jesus followers.
You and I know the gospel today because of the extraordinary witness of ordinary people. Jesus’ call to the disciples–”but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8)”–is a call that echos still today in the hearts and lives of His people.
This call is not for the wise, skilled, or even intelligent, but for the ordinary and ungifted. What Jesus did with a small band of followers then is meant to be continued with the same urgency and passion that began two-thousand years ago.
May God raise up another small band of followers to take His gospel to the ends of the earth, until the end of time.
Banding together with you,
Pastor Doug