Message #7, handout, I Am Here to Lead in Spite of no Because of my Weaknesses:



Examples of Strength in Weakness:

·       Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Ask class for examples of their weakness.

·       Moses, Exodus 4:10-17

·       David, What was David’s status in the family?

·       Jeremiah, Jeremiah 20

·       Zerrubbabel, Zechariah 4:6

·       The Apostles, “A rather ragged aggregate of humanity.”

·       Those Paul saw as being used, 1 Cor 1:18-2:8

·       Timothy, 1 Tim 5:23, 2 Tim 1:6-2:1 

What is more revealing about these men is that at first they do not impress us as being key men. None of them occupied prominent places in the Synagogue, nor did any of them belong to the Levitical priesthood. For the most part they were common laboring men, probably having no professional training beyond the rudiments of knowledge necessary for their vocation. Perhaps a few of them came from families of some considerable means, such as the sons of Zebedee, but none of them could have been considered wealthy. They had no academic degrees in the arts and philosophies of their day. Like their Master, their formal education likely consisted only of the Synagogue schools.

Most of them were raised in the poor section of the country around Galilee. Apparently the only one of the twelve who came from the more refined region of Judea was Judas Iscariot. By any standard of sophisticated culture then and now they would surely be considered as a rather ragged aggregation of souls. One might wonder how Jesus could ever use them. They were impulsive, temperamental, easily offended, and had all the prejudices of their environment.

In short, these men selected by the Lord to be His assistants represented an average cross section of the lot of society in their day. Not the kind of group one would expect to win the world for Christ. (Robert Coleman, see resource page on blog, emphasis added)

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