God is able to work powerfully in our world without the need for human intervention. The Psalms have made it abundantly clear that God alone created the heavens and the earth (e.g. Ps 33:4,6; Ps 104:5) and He sustains the earth by His great power (Heb 1:2-3). Despite this affirmation of God’s sovereign control and power, however, the Bible also makes it plain that God’s plans for the world involve people (see Matt 28:18-20, Eph 2:10, Eph 3:6). People play a key role in the outworking of God’s plans and He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to ordinary, flawed people (2 Cor 5:18-21)– to those who are not great by worldly standards (1 Cor 1:26-30), to those who carry the treasure of God’s presence in ordinary human bodies (2 Cor 4:7). This amazing truth is seen throughout the book of Acts, where the power of the Holy Spirit is seen working in ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things.
At our Bible study, we looked at some of the major characters in this book: the apostles John, Peter and Paul, for example, along with many others (Philip, Stephen, Timothy, Silas, Priscilla and Aquila and Apollos, to name just a few.) We know a lot about some of these people (Peter is probably the disciple about whom we know the most, both from the gospels and from this book and his two letters), and virtually nothing about many others. Some of the characters in Acts are mentioned in one verse only (Theophilus, to whom the book is written, is only mentioned at the beginning of the book!) Nonetheless, this wide array of characters reminds us of the importance, value and worth of every individual to God.
Do you often feel insignificant and unimportant? Our world now has an estimated total population of 7.7 billion people and it can be difficult for us to comprehend how God not only knows us (down to numbering the hairs on our head, as Matt 10:30 affirms) but also loves us unconditionally. The Bible – with its many lists of people and genealogies – affirms wholeheartedly the value of every individual in God’s plan. You may know nothing of Sopater and Sosthenes, Trophimus and Theudas, Demetrius and Damaris (and care even less!), but the Bible reminds us that all of these people played a role in God’s story. We too have a role to play, jobs to perform, tasks to undertake. We too matter. Our names are written in God’s book of life and we too feature in the outworking of His plans on earth.