Yesterday, in a blog titled All Nations?, we saw an extraordinary amount of text – from verse 1 of chapter 10 through verse 18 of chapter 11, 66 verses – devoted to Peter’s reluctance to go to Cornelius, a Roman soldier, and the flak he took from other Jewish leaders when he got back to Jerusalem. It took signs and wonders (a vision, an angelic visit, the visible and noisy coming of the Holy Spirit on Gentile believers) to at least accept the fact that the gospel is for everyone.

In the meantime, under the radar, there are just a few verses telling the story of how ordinary people were already proclaiming the good news to non-Jews with great results:

Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews. However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus. The power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord. When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. (Acts 11.19 – 22, NLT)

The church at Antioch, which became (as we’ll see in chapter 13), the sending church was founded by ordinary laypeople and included Gentiles! God often uses people outside the established religious hierarchy. William Carey, often called the father of modern missions, was a poorly educated cobbler who pioneered the work in India in the 1800s. The story is often told:

In front of him, on his workbench, hung a map of the world which he himself had made. In the year 1786, he pleaded with other ministers of his denomination to take up work among the heathen but was greatly grieved when the chairman reproved him by saying, “Sit down, young man. When it pleases God to convert the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine!” – from the essay William Carey, The Cobbler who Gave India a Bible by Thomas John Bach.

God is at work among “unlikely” people and using unlikely people. Let’s not miss it!

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, NLT)

The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him. (John 4.28 – 30, NLT)