Remarkable People Serve A Remarkable God

 “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,‘The stone that you builders rejected  has now become the cornerstone.” – Acts 4: 8-11.

Were you ever the kid who got picked last for a team, or didn’t get picked at all? Jesus did the exact opposite when He picked His disciples. In fact, Jesus meticulously picked twelve men so ordinary it seemed unlikely that they could change the world.  It’s an example of how God can use unremarkable people to accomplish remarkable things.

In Acts 4, we read that Peter was infused with the power of the Holy Spirit. The difference that caused this boldness, this confidence in Peter is that he had been with Jesus. He wasn’t educated or accomplished. He had no influence. Nor did he possess great wisdom. Peter and the rest of the disciples were constantly asking Jesus for clarification on what He meant. They often didn’t get it, they didn’t understand. Every one of them swore they would never desert Jesus and yet they did.  

The point is that Jesus has intentionally picked men so ordinary, so unremarkable, people, like us. Jesus chooses people who are unremarkable so that when they do something that is very remarkable, God gets the credit and the glory. What made the disciples so remarkable and what will make each one of us is not what we do for Jesus. It’s what Jesus does for us. 

Catherine Hamlin was a remarkable Australian surgeon, who with her husband established the world’s only hospital dedicated to curing women’s injuries that result from childbirth in the developing world. Still operating at the hospital when she was ninety-two years old, and still beginning each day with a cup of tea and Bible study, Hamlin told curious questioners that she was an ordinary believer in Jesus who was simply doing the job God had given her to do. Her remarkable life exemplified scripture’s encouragement to believers to live their lives in such a way that even people who actively reject God “…may see your good deeds and glorify God…” (1 Peter 2:12).

You know, most of us are just pretty unremarkable, and yet God has chosen for whatever reason to allow us to lead out, to do things that are remarkable so that He can get the glory.

Discussion Questions: 

1. How would you define a remarkable life? 
2. What components need to present for you to consider a life remarkable?