The Greatest Education in the World

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13 ESV)  

The greatest education in the world is not found where you would most expect it. It is not found in the vaunted halls of the university of Oxford among the minds of the world’s brightest scholars. It is not found at the feet of an ancient monk in a remote monastery, hidden high above the clouds on a snow-capped mountain in Tibet. It is not even found in the Ph.D programs of the finest evangelical seminaries that stand for the authority of God’s Word. The greatest education to be had in this world is found in being with Jesus. 

The disciples that Jesus called were not men who were known for their staggering intellect or advanced studies. Of all the apostles, only Paul, the latecomer to the apostolic band and untimely born Pharisee-turned-Christian had the benefit of advanced rabbinical training. Yet, when the blue-collar fishermen, Peter and John stood before those towering intellectuals and scholars of the law who presided over the supreme Jewish court, the giants of their world were stunned. For all their wisdom and learning paled in the face of men who had learned from the Master, Jesus Christ, himself. 

How great is the education in the school of Christ! How much divine compassion was burnt into their souls as they watched their Lord lay his hands on shunned beggars and heal them of their diseases! How much of God’s heart for the lowly and downtrodden was injected into their chests as they watched Jesus receive children into his arms and sit with the prostitutes and the tax collectors! What lessons of courage and zeal for God were permanently etched onto their consciences as they gaped at Jesus scourging and expelling the marketeers who had transformed God’s temple into a den of thieves! How much Scripture did they grasp from Christ as the eternal Word himself taught them the Word and lived the Word in front of them! For them, Christ was truly the living Word of God. For all the perfect justice, wrath, kindness, and mercy of God flowed through the very person of Jesus Christ. 

Brothers and sisters, to know Jesus Christ—to be intimately acquainted with his person and his works—is to have divine knowledge of what is true, right, and holy. It is the greatest knowledge in the world and no amount of gold and silver nor volumes of encyclopedias can compare with it. You may not hold an advanced degree from some great university. Your daily work might be labeled as unskilled and replaceable. But if you know Christ and are known by Him, then the Holy Spirit of the omnipotent, immortal King lives in you! And should the most fearsome magistrates or government officials drag you into court and demand that you speak to them, the Lord has promised that in the very hour of your greatest need, you will be given what to say. For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. And though you may stand in the presence of the wisest men in this world, our God can so empower you that none will be able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which you will speak. They will look at your face and see not the timidity or fear of an uneducated country bumpkin, but the face of angel (Acts 6:10, 15)—the shining face of one who has looked upon the glory of God and not died because of the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. 

So do not fear, child of God, that you are insignificant or foolish in the eyes of this world. For those who have sat in the school of Jesus are the wisest in the eyes of God. None who wish to enter his school will ever be cast out, and the unaffordable cost of tuition for your education has already been paid for by the infinitely valuable blood of Christ. So, let us draw close to our God that he might draw close to us, and learn well as Mary did, at the feet of our supremely wise Master. 

Written by: Samuel Chua