by Luke Kincaid
I really love the book of Acts. I began reading through it again this morning and came across something which I wanted to share with you today. One day, after being filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter and John healed someone who had asked them for some money. After healing this man we see that Peter preached to those present and this ended up causing a bit of a commotion among the religious leaders of the day:
5 The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family. 7 After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?” 8 Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing here before you healthy. 11 This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved. 13 When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.
(Acts 4:5-13)
Verse 13 stood out to me the most and stands out to me every time I read this chapter. We see that there was no doubt that Peter and John knew Jesus. Their boldness and active faith were the proof of the fact that they had been with Jesus and these religious leaders were amazed when they realized that they were uneducated and untrained men. While reading this I thought that this passage was a good illustration what Calven preached on yesterday when he said:
“But here’s the thing, in God’s Kingdom, calling triumphs credentials every time! While it might have become a bit of a cliché, that doesn’t detract from the truth that God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. And the litmus test isn’t experience or expertise, it’s availability and teachability.”
These verses are encouraging to me because it shows us again the truth that every single disciple of Jesus has the opportunity to serve Jesus in a unique and significant way regardless of our circumstances. And when we truly know Jesus there will be evidence of that fact in our lives for others to see because time with Jesus will always be transformative and beneficial for us.
Much love,
Luke
