Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”

April 1st, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The Jewish leadership marveled, or as another translation says, “were astonished,” because they could clearly see that Peter and John were just simple fishermen. Simple perhaps, but they had become strangely courageous, possessing fearless confidence. They were suddenly taking every opportunity they had to speak about Jesus, even when their audience was powerful and bitterly opposed to them. Just weeks before, Peter had denied Jesus three times; but now, forgiven and restored, he was boldly standing and preaching on the temple mount. Besides that, even though they were uneducated in rabbinical schools, they were conversant in truth. What had happened to these simple fishermen?

There is a temptation for us, today, to think that we can reason the world into faith. It seems logical that the more educated you are, the more effective you are for Jesus Christ. But that is untrue; however, the reverse—to be effective you must be uneducated—is also untrue. This verse is simply a reminder that we must not put our trust in great and gifted academics. It is not human qualities that ensure success in the kingdom of God. Peter and John were ordinary, average, normal, commonplace men. Under any other circumstances, they probably would not have garnered any particular attention. They weren’t attractive personalities. They didn’t stand out from the crowd. They were average and uneducated, but they had obeyed Jesus when He told them to wait for His Holy Sprit to come on them. And just as Jesus had promised, they had been “endued with power from on high” (John 49:49).

This goes directly against a common misunderstanding among many young believers that think if someone really famous would become a Christian, then lots of other people would follow suit. The assumption is that if believers were extraordinary in human terms, then many people would flock to become believers. This verse tells us otherwise. Those who spread the gospel in the 1st century were, in human terms, very ordinary. But there was one defining characteristic that the observers finally hit upon concerning Peter and John, “they realized that they had been with Jesus.” This is still the defining characteristic of the true church, “being with Jesus.” Maybe their manner was so similar to the way Jesus acted when He was under pressure by the same court that they recognized it and couldn’t deny it. So we should ask ourselves, “Is that the impression we give people, that we have been with Jesus?”

“LORD, we have spent time with You, so will You now please use us to change those around us.”