God uses unschooled ordinary men and women

Acts 4:8-20 – “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. ' 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." 18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

I was in a local Danube area Bible study when a man told me I had to witness to a man he knew.  This incident occurred not long after we returned back to the farm.  I did not know Bubba yet and my friend felt he would be a candidate for the truth and love of Christ.  I said to him, “Since you know him, why don’t you witness to him?”  He replied, “That’s for you ‘Preacher types.’  I’m just an ordinary man.”

God uses ordinary men.  Do you know why?   It is so the world cannot say it is our superior intellect or training that saves us and if “anything good” comes out of our life, it is obvious that it is a work of the Spirit.  It is a working of God.

Are you willing to learn about God from a carpenter from Nazareth with roughhewn hands and simple clothes?  Are you willing to learn from the PhD or PhD’s?

You see, God uses us all to bring Himself glory!  But are you out there where you can be used or are you hiding out in the “I’m ok, I have arrived and I’m not going out into the world” frame of mind?  If you wonder why I know all about it, it’s because I too like to be comfortable but we are not called to be comfortable but we are call to be witnesses to be obedient to the commands of Christ.  We are called to be hope, salt and light to a hurting world.

You know what God does with self-consumed, inwardly proud Christians?  He renders them useless.  (Luke 1:51 – “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.”  When we are scattered, we are ineffective.  That is why so called churches are dead—because we are proud in our own inmost thoughts and God has scattered us.  (Remember the Tower of Babel.)

Have you been with Jesus or are you comfortable hiding out in your own private world while people slide into hell?