God Chooses the Undeserving

 

John 21: 1-19

Acts 9: 1-20

 Our passages today tells about God’s call to two men who will lead the preaching of the good news. Peter is told to “feed my sheep.” This means he is to preach the gospel to the Jews. Saul then is to bring Jesus’ name to the Gentiles.

 Now if you were to look at the resumes of both of these men, you’d have a hard time hiring them for these positions.

First, we have impulsive Peter who denied Christ three times before the Crucifixion. Then even worse, we have Saul who was purposefully arresting the disciples of Jesus. Who would choose either of these men?

Jesus did. He saw beneath their flaws. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved him. Three times to make up for his three denials. When he confirms that he does, Jesus gives the command to “feed my sheep” – take care of my chosen people – show them the way of the gospel.

Saul’s conversion is much more dramatic. Christ talks to him directly and blinds him for three days. This is what people call today as a “Come to Jesus Moment.” Many of us have had a moment of faith – some more dramatic than others. This “Come to Jesus Moment” for Saul totally turned him around from persecuting Christian to making Christians. He changes from fighting Christianity to proclaiming that Christ is the Son of God.

Jesus chose two undeserving people to preach the gospel. We need to remember this when we are feeling unworthy to be a witness for Christ. God can and often uses the undeserving, thus he can use you.

Sometimes we are asked to do things outside of our comfort level – like Ananias who is told to go help a man who has wrecked evil to all Christians threatening arrest. Yet Ananias trusts the Lord and obeys. He helps take away not only Saul’s physical blindness but his spiritual blindness as well by asking the Holy Spirt to fill him.

When we encounter what we find as undeserving people let us remember these two great leaders that God changed into powerful preachers of the gospel. Let us pray that God will take away our own spiritual blindness to see the possibilities God’s love has for everyone. Amen

 

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