They had been with Jesus

Most people have heard this story, so I will be very brief in recalling it.  It gives us the background and the setting for a statement that was made concerning two men ... Peter and John.    

The story begins in Acts 3:1 and continues through Acts 4:13.  This will be my own condensed version of events that are relevant to the end point of this article.

Peter and John are about to enter the temple courtyard in Jerusalem when a man, lame from birth asks them for a handout.  They had seen him before.  He was brought there daily to beg for money.  Peter and John undoubtedly had walked through that gate many times before, but this day it would be different for the lame beggar.

Instead of keeping his head down as he holds his tin cup up to them begging for alms, Peter makes him look up eye to eye with them.  Peter sees him differently this day.  He sees a child of God who needs to be set free from this forty year long handicap.

Instead of a coin in his cup, Peter says ... "I don't have silver and gold; but such as I have I give unto you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."

Peter, taking him by the hand lifts this man up onto his feet, and then ... after he's standing ... he is immediately healed.  As this beggar starts dancing and shouting praises unto God, the three of them continue to the temple area called Solomon's porch.  All those around the temple courtyard begin to look at Peter and John as if they had healed him.  But Peter tells them ... "Don't look to us; it wasn't our power or holiness that made this man walk.  It was faith in Jesus, and faith in His name that healed him."

But while they were speaking, the priests and the temple guards come and arrest Peter and John for preaching about Jesus and put them in a holding cell over night.  The next morning they stand before the Jewish elders and are asked to give an account of how they were able to heal this lame man. 

Peter answers ... "You are asking, by what means the impotent man was made whole?  Be it known unto you all, this man who stands before you ... was made whole by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth ... whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead."

Evidently, the newly healed man was standing right beside Peter and John in front of  the elders; and it was so obvious and self-evident as being a good deed that they couldn't say anything against it.  They couldn't deny that the healing must have been God ... so what charge could they bring against them? 

I love this next statement ...

Acts 4:13 ... "Now when the scribes and priests saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they recognized and acknowledged that ... they had been with Jesus."

Unlearned and ignorant.  I question that.  Yes, they were just a couple of fishermen ...  but they had been with Jesus.  That makes all the difference.

While it was true that both Peter and John were unlearned, or ... "unlettered" ... without professional training in the rabbinical schools of their day, unlike the scribes and priests they stood before; the very same thing was said about Jesus.  (John 7:15)

In today's English we would say that both words have the same meaning.  To be ignorant of something simply means you have no knowledge of a particular subject ... not that you are stupid. 

I read a sign once that explained the difference.  It read ... "Ignorance can be cured, stupid is forever."

The word ignorant as used in this scripture really means ... "a layman, a private person, the average man" ... rather than a man of title, a leader, a professional, or someone of importance like the priests.

Considering the things Peter and John wrote about, I should be so ... "unlearned and ignorant."  So how were they able to write such deep, meaningful things?  The same way the lame man was healed through their hands.

They had been with Jesus.



Comments welcome.