Imagine. Fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, sons of thunder, traitors. Not for the first time, and definitely not for the last, God had risked everything on a threadbare bunch of character-flawed misfits, following one extraordinary Man, who would die on a Roman crucifix.
And yet, if you fast-forward the tape, you see something different. The same misfits are preaching with power and miracles wherever they go, and the known world is being turned on its head, faster than anyone thought possible.
What changed?
Fast-forward the tape again and many of them are being killed for their ministry. Hung, flayed with knives, crucified upside down, boiled in a pot - one by one the men who had walked with Jesus lay down their lives.
What made them so certain? How did they go from such failures to these unstoppable martyrs? How did those ragtag disciples become legendary apostles?
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.” - 1 Peter 1:3-4
Something changes when you meet the risen Jesus. You can never be the same again - the world can’t remain unchanged.
What made the difference? What turned followers into church planters? What brought hope to the world? Ordinary people like you and me, transformed by a life lived with the resurrected one.
So, fast-forward the tape on last time, and this time, ask yourself, which bunch of misfits does God leave the plan with today, here in the Twenty First Century? Which disciples are destined to be sent to change the world with resurrection power?
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