Heart Meditations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scripture – Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus”. ESV”Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them [a]as having been with Jesus”. NASB

“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus”. NLT

Observation – I noticed that the members of the council were surprised that these ‘uneducated, common’ men were bold.  They assumed that they should have been intimidated, being surrounded by all the educated religious leaders.  This implies that these leaders drew their sense of confidence and self worth from their education and training in the Scriptures.  For Peter and John to have been recognised as uneducated and untrained in the Scriptures there must have been something obvious about the way they looked or spoke that gave away their lack of education.  Even though they had spent three years with Jesus and been filled with the Holy Spirit they still sounded like they were from the hood, or the Deep South, or Liverpool, or that English was their second language.  Being filled with the Spirit doesn’t change your accent or your dialect, boldness is the evidence of having been with Jesus, not education or accent or any other social construct.

Application –  It seems to me that so often I judge others and therefore myself based on their level of education, where they went to study for the ministry, how deep their understanding of biblical languages is etc.  Its not that deep down I think that those who have not had the opportunity to be trained for the ministry are less Spiritual or any such thing, I just at times find myself aspiring to be like the well known ministers and educators with letters before and after their names.  It is common knowledge that having a PhD opens certain doors in ministry and in life.  People take you more seriously, they consider you to be an expert and accept the things you say more readily.  You can become almost self-authenticating.

However I have also noticed that we don’t necessarily expect those with certain qualifications or positions to be passionately Spiritual.  We accept that the educated are more reserved in their worship, more rational in their approach to God.  We make the excuses for them that they are so intelligent, their minds are so full of knowledge, that it squeezes out space for the emotional, the visceral, the spontaneous.  Oh how we love to have a Doctor or a Professor as a member of our church.  We like them to lead out and preach even if we struggle to understand much of what they say.

Peter and John were the opposite of this, they were uneducated, unschooled in the scriptures.  Yet they were bold, because they had been with Jesus.  Spending time with Jesus in private makes you bold for Him in public.  Jesus is not ashamed of who we are.  He is not embarrassed by our accent, the way we look, our background, he is neither impressed nor disappointed by our GPA or the class of degree we have, if at all.  The evidence of spending time with Jesus is not becoming middle class, it is having boldness, confidence, in whatever situation you are in to speak of Him and of His resurrection.  In your home, at work, in the boardroom, in your tutor group, during the job interview, among your atheist friends (shame on you if you have no atheist friends), with your spouse and children,  The Spirit gives us the boldness to be unashamedly ourselves while at the same time being unashamed of who Jesus is.  And this boldness, this confidence, people will notice, it will give them pause.

Prayer – Father, give me the boldness that comes from being with Jesus.  May I spend more and more time with Jesus.  Bring me to the place where I no longer seek to be confident in my gifts or achievements.  May my confidence come from knowing You and the power of Your resurrection.  I pray for any person who might read this and resonate with it that you would bless them in their lives and give them this boldness also.  Amen