May 8 Unlearned and Ignorant

May 8

Unlearned and Ignorant

Ac 4:13 …they were unlearned and ignorant men,

they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them,

that they had been with Jesus.

He was only fifteen but he had a disturbing problem. He was a wonderfully zealous young man in the church youth group my wife and I worked with. One day he asked for our help with his disturbing problem.  

“Where can I go to learn Greek and Hebrew, so I will be ready to serve the Lord when I get out of high school?” 

He had made the same mistake too many Christians still make today. God does not want our talents. He wants us. He does not need either your wonderful skills or your sin cleansed life. The old invitation hymn says it very well, “Just as I am..”

In the passage above Peter and John were going to the temple at the ninth hour when a lame man begged for some alms. This is the passage where Peter responds “silver and gold have I none…”  The lame man was healed and a crowd began to gather to see this life- long lame man walking and leaping and praising God.

The temple authorities were not amused and detained Peter and John until they could gather the temple big wigs in the morning. When they had gathered they brought Peter and John out to find out by who’s authority they had healed the lame man. Peter’s response was wonderfully bold.  “You want to know by what means the man was made whole?  OK, I want everyone to know that he was healed by the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the man you executed, and whom God raised from the dead.” (acts 4:8-10)  Peter was very direct, did not try to soft peddle anything or make excuses. The Holy Spirit had given him great boldness.

The authorities were shocked that someone without an education could talk like he did. It was another evidence that he had been with Jesus. Peter had boldness before which got him in a lot of trouble, but God now used that same boldness to serve His purposes.

The other day as I was reading about the Apostles I suddenly saw a common verse in a new way.  Christ was walking along the sea of Galilee and called Andrew, Peter, James and John to be his apostles. He simply said

Mt 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me,

and I will make you fishers of men.

Why did Jesus call 11 of his Apostles from Galilee? Compared to Jerusalem 60-70 miles to the south, Galilee was a land of farmers, tradesmen, and generally unlearned and ignorant people. Jerusalem was filled with well educated, scribes (lawyers of the day). teachers, schools, Jewish authorities, and the who’s who of temple big wigs. It would compare to Boston with Harvard, a distinctive way of speaking and well educated people who had access to libraries, symphonies, colleges, and cultural amenities.

On the other hand Galilee would compare to our Appalachian regions where the language is not refined, and the people are generally less educated. In short Jerusalem was upper-crust and Galilee was “hill-billy”

Why would Christ choose eleven “hill-billys” to carry on the spread of Christianity after his crucifixion? Instead of people Jerusalem saw as ignorant and unlearned, why not get men with some education, scribes or priests? The simple answer is He did not need their talents, their education, their proper place in society, or anything else they had. He just needed a willing heart. Again the hymnal says it well.

“Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling.

That brings me back to the call of the first 4 apostles.  Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. We have all read this verse and/or heard it preached as a verse of obedience and yielding to Christ’s call. But the other day I saw another view of this verse.

“Follow me and I will make you…”  Follow and I will make you! It is not what we make of ourselves that is important. It is our obedience that permits Christ to make us into what He wants.

That is the meditation for today.  Christ does not need our wonderful skills, although He may use them.  Our glorious sounding resume is of no advantage to Him. We do not need to make long and arduous preparation before we can be accepted. Neither do we need to work hard at cleaning our life of sins before we are eligible. He will take us as we are, and if we have a willing heart to follow Him, he will make us what He knows we need to be.

Our meditation for today is simple. Let go and let God. That is the essence of faith; Trusting God more than we trust our own finite thinking. (Heb 11:1)

We can all discover more ways to just let go and let God, whether we are unlearned or a genius.  

May you have a great and blessed day.  

1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things

of the world to confound the wise;

and God hath chosen the weak things

of the world to confound the

things which are mighty;