If someone were to use a few words to describe you, what would they say? Or better yet, what would you want them to say? For Peter and John, as they stood before the most qualified, revered, and educated leaders of their day, they were described with two words that are rarely celebrated: “Unschooled and ordinary.” These two words shape everything we come to understand about following Jesus because they’re not typically words that the world embraces. What we see in this text, is that these two words meant to undo them are actually the words that God uses to unleash them. Because Peter and John were so unqualified, the fact that they spoke with courage turned the heads of the cultural leaders. When the leaders couldn’t point to education or status as a reason for their courage and confidence, they realized that it was the byproduct of a life spent with Jesus. In Jesus, Peter and John were given a potential beyond this world, and because of this, they were unleashed with a purpose within this world. So how do you move from unqualified to unleashed? What’s the key to unlocking a life of courage, confidence, and conviction? Acts 4:13 tells us clearly that the key to being unleashed is spending time with Jesus. When the leaders of the day could point to nothing else to make sense of the authority and power with which these two men spoke, they realized it was Jesus that had formed them in ways this world never could.
