Speaker 1: After Jesus had ascended.
Speaker 1: The first item of business is this the gathered disciples Now they're praying, if you remember, but this is the first item of business is to replace Judas, judas who had betrayed Jesus.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind, as we read this, this event was still fresh in their minds.
Speaker 1: So we know, luke tells us that Jesus ascended about 40 days after his resurrection.
Speaker 1: So it's all happening well, within just a few weeks.
Speaker 1: And don't forget also that now we know about Judas and we vilify him and Peter's words are very sharp here but he had been their friend, their companion, and so this must have been very painful for them to confront this situation, this betrayal, as well as the circumstances around Judas' death.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you go and read the Gospels, the account of Judas's death and what happens with the money is slightly different.
Speaker 1: Maybe that there were two stories circulating, or there's an inside story.
Speaker 1: Someone thinks of what the people in the know really knew and maybe this is a different story.
Speaker 1: A lot of the details can be harmonized and overlap, but there's a couple of things that are slightly different.
Speaker 1: But it seems to have gotten out there and the disciples are having to confront this painful situation.
Speaker 1: If you follow the wider church scene today or you've spent much time in church.
Speaker 1: You can't go too long without hearing about one scandal or another in the church, can you, often a Christian leader?
Speaker 1: There have been several cases of embezzlement through the years brought against senior pastors of megachurches, and recent history is littered with the moral failings of pastors.
Speaker 1: When I was a student pastor many years ago, the senior pastor in my church, one of the sizable churches in Perth, was sacked because of an extramarital affair and it was very painful for the church.
Speaker 1: Now, before you, tut-tut, my pastor, his wife, was being sued by one of the church members.
Speaker 1: It was a really messy situation.
Speaker 1: Now, that's no excuse.
Speaker 1: That was pressure on the family.
Speaker 1: That's no excuse for the pastor, but it's a reminder that we need to check the log in our own eye before we go and try and judge someone else.
Speaker 1: Christians can become really discouraged by these failings and that's completely understandable.
Speaker 1: Christian leaders are held to a higher standard than other people and the consequences of our failings have a wider impact.
Speaker 1: But before we become too discouraged when we see a leader fail, when we see a leader fail, I think it's really helpful to remember that the first item of business of the disciples as they're forming a new church is how to deal with an apostle who failed in the worst possible way.
Speaker 1: In the letter to the Ephesians, paul says that the apostles are the foundation.
Speaker 1: To the Ephesians, paul says that the apostles are the foundation of the church.
Speaker 1: Does that seem like a little bit of a shaky foundation?
Speaker 1: One of the apostles can betray Jesus to his death, and yet none of this took God by surprise.
Speaker 1: Peter said it was necessary that the scripture be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: Judas had to do this because it was foretold and he had to be replaced for the same reason.
Speaker 1: So I think we learn a couple of things from this meeting, and the first is an example of how to deal with failure in the church.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter whether it's a moral failing by a leader or not, so much a moral, just a neutral sort of.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes we get things wrong.
Speaker 1: We make wrong financial judgment calls or whatever with the best of intentions, and things fail.
Speaker 1: But what Peter teaches us is that when there is a failure in the church, we need to bring it to light, not try to bury it.
Speaker 1: So often we want to bury our sin and our failure and leave it in the dark because maybe we're ashamed or embarrassed or we're worried about the reputational harm that's going to be done to the church, or maybe we're worried that others will be damaged if they find out, and we don't want people to be hurt.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, things that are left in the dark to fester become putrid.
Speaker 1: God is a God of the light, and in the light sin can be forgiven and healed and restored, and this is what Peter did, and this is what Peter could do because of his confidence in God.
Speaker 1: God had foretold this betrayal in his word, which Peter saw through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and so the church could have confidence in God to heal the breach that Judas had left.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 1: The Bible may not individually prophesy our sins, but it does say that we will all fail.
Speaker 1: The first letter to John says Anyone who says they're without sin is a liar because all sin.
Speaker 1: Anyone who says they're without sin is a liar because all sin.
Speaker 1: And so when we do fail, it's comforting to know that it doesn't take God by surprise.
Speaker 1: In fact, god has already accounted for your sin, for my sin, for the sin of my senior pastor back then.
Speaker 1: He's already taken that into account in his plan.
Speaker 1: And John says God has already dealt with our sin on the cross in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now, of course it's better that we never sin.
Speaker 1: Sin is painful, it damages relationships.
Speaker 1: It damages our relationship with God.
Speaker 1: But when we do sin, john tells us if we confess it and deal with it in a godly way rather than try to bury it, god can redeem our failure and our sin and he can heal us and he can restore us.
Speaker 1: And so, going back to my pastor who fell, this is what the elders did they called a meeting, members meeting.
Speaker 1: They outlined what happened and the steps that had been taken.
Speaker 1: They dealt with that with real grace and honesty and that left a deep impact on me.
Speaker 1: Of course, my pastor couldn't continue in ministry he's out of ministry and it was too painful for him to keep attending that church.
Speaker 1: But there was forgiveness, there was discipline, but there was also restoration of relationships.
Speaker 1: So we learn that we can confront sin, bring it into the open and find a way forward.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing.
Speaker 1: The second thing we learn is a bit more theological.
Speaker 1: Peter links the events of the cross to the Jewish scriptures and thus to God's plan of redemption.
Speaker 1: In the early days, jesus wasn't seen as the founder of a new religion, but a rabbi starting a Jewish renewal movement.
Speaker 1: No one thought initially the apostles were starting a new religion, just simply starting a new Jewish sect.
Speaker 1: Everyone was Jewish, they were meeting at the temple.
Speaker 1: This was seen as a continuation.
Speaker 1: I mean, and from the apostles' point of view and the early church's point of view, they were just doing what the Bible said, their Bible, the Old Testament, said and had foretold, and how Jesus had interpreted it, and that Jesus was the culmination of all these promises.
Speaker 1: And so, as Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of the Jewish scriptures, the church understood itself to be the true inheritor of the promises made to Abraham way back then.
Speaker 1: And so the true Israelites, they believed, were to be found among the followers in this Jewish movement called the Way, and this actually may have remained a relatively uncontroversial belief if the Way had remained Jewish.
Speaker 1: You know it wasn't the first Jewish sect fighting for people's hearts at this time.
Speaker 1: There were at least three or four others at the time of Jesus.
Speaker 1: You've heard about the Sadducees and the Pharisees, because Jesus often had run-ins with them.
Speaker 1: There was also a group called the Essenes, who we never meet in the Bible, but some people think maybe John the Baptist was part of them, or maybe another movement, and these were all had competing views on what Judaism, what we now call Judaism then it was just the religion of Israel, how we should walk before God.
Speaker 1: But in the end, only two of these traditions survived After the destruction of the temple the Sadducees went away, the Essenes went away.
Speaker 1: What we see is the Pharisees in the Bible morphed into actual is the basis of modern-day Judaism and the rabbinical tradition.
Speaker 1: So that was one of the survivors and the other was the way what became Christianity and the other was the way what became Christianity.
Speaker 1: So there was tension between the first Christians and the rest of Israel, but it was seen as part of it until the time when God made it clear that the Gentiles were included in his people and the relationship between the way Christians and mainstream Judaism broke.
Speaker 1: And so I think Luke recounts this story about choosing a new apostle, not just because he wants to give an account of the early church.
Speaker 1: I mean, after all, there's lots of things about the early church he leaves out.
Speaker 1: There's questions we have that we just don't know because no one tells us.
Speaker 1: But I think what he wants to do is to make clear, in the way he structures this passage.
Speaker 1: He wants to make clear that what became known as Christianity, our religion, has inherited the promises of the Old Testament, that there is continuity between the old and the new, and this is why, actually, peter said it's necessary to replace Judas.
Speaker 1: Did it really matter if there were exactly 12 apostles?
Speaker 1: I mean, wouldn't 11?
Speaker 1: What about 13?
Speaker 1: Why couldn't they choose both Barsabbas and Matthias?
Speaker 1: We never hear of Matthias again, anyway.
Speaker 1: We never hear of any of the other apostles most of them.
Speaker 1: But just as Israel's identity was based in the 12 tribes, so the church was founded on 12 apostles and took the mantle of the people of God.
Speaker 1: Jesus had chosen 12 apostles because he was creating a new Israel, and the identity as God's people is also reinforced by Luke's little aside that there were about 120 people gathered together.
Speaker 1: Now, the Jews in a city could form a Jewish council or a Sanhedrin if there were guess how many men 120.
Speaker 1: They could form a synagogue if there were fewer.
Speaker 1: They only needed 10 men to form a synagogue.
Speaker 1: But they could be self-governing if they had 120 men.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if it's significant that while the Jews required all 120 men, males for a quorum.
Speaker 1: Luke notes a number of believers included women.
Speaker 1: It seems to be saying this new movement had a legal basis for its forming within the religion of Israel, and women had an important part to play.
Speaker 1: And if you've read the rest of Luke, the role of women is quite prominent and the poor and the downcast.
Speaker 1: We see this continuity as something new is made.
Speaker 1: And so then the gathered disciples cast lots to choose between Joseph and Matthias.
Speaker 1: Again, this is not meant to be an example for us to follow.
Speaker 1: We never see another example of it following this in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: Because they had the Holy Spirit, they didn't need to do it this way.
Speaker 1: But at this point the Holy Spirit hasn't been poured out yet.
Speaker 1: And this is how they determine God's will, and they understand God to be in control of the result, and so they leave it to him to make the choice the best way they know how.
Speaker 1: So continuity and change.
Speaker 1: A new movement is being born on ancient foundations.
Speaker 1: There's renewal happening, and this renewal is a common theme in the Old Testament, particularly in Isaiah 43, verses 18 to 19.
Speaker 1: God said do not remember the past events, pay no attention to the things of old.
Speaker 1: Look, I'm about to do something new.
Speaker 1: Even now it is coming, do you not see?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 1: Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness rivers in the desert.
Speaker 1: It Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness rivers in the desert.
Speaker 1: These new things are always built on the foundations of the old.
Speaker 1: They're foretold in the old.
Speaker 1: Jesus said that not one word of the law would pass away until everything was accomplished.
Speaker 1: He also said he was a fulfillment of the law, and so Jesus was doing something new based on these ancient foundations.
Speaker 1: But a new thing requires new thinking.
Speaker 1: Jesus also said no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Speaker 1: So the idea was when they put new wine they're just freshly fermenting wine into these wine skins and the gases of course would expand and the skin would expand with it.
Speaker 1: Well, once it's expanded to a certain point, you can't put new wine into that again, it's going to burst.
Speaker 1: You have to put new wine into new skins that are flexible and supple, and this is what God was doing with his people through the first church, and it's something he continues to do.
Speaker 1: And like the church, the early church, renewal movements often face stiff opposition still today.
Speaker 1: Renewal movements often face stiff opposition still today.
Speaker 1: In the 16th century, a Catholic monk named Martin Luther had a revelation of the grace of God in the midst of corruption and just this edifice of the Catholic Church.
Speaker 1: And Luther went to Rome to argue for renewal within the church.
Speaker 1: And he had a pretty modest proposal for renewal.
Speaker 1: But rather than receiving that, the hierarchy excommunicated him and, as a result, the Protestant Reformation reshaped not only the church but European society and the whole world as well.
Speaker 1: In the 18th century, while the cities of France were burning in the blood of revolution, god used John Wesley and others to bathe England in revival.
Speaker 1: Wesley was an Anglican priest, but the rigid structures of Anglicanism couldn't hold what God was doing and the Methodist movement was born.
Speaker 1: You know, we often lament today that there are so many Christian denominations and the disunity that they represent, but very often they're birthed out of something new that God is doing and these old structures can't contain.
Speaker 1: And it's not that the old wine is bad or that God is rejecting those people.
Speaker 1: They're still saved, they're still his church, he still loves them, still has a plan for them, but he's doing something new and new structures, new wineskins are needed.
Speaker 1: And raises the question for us what if God wants to do something new at Mentally Baptist.
Speaker 1: Will we be able to contain it?
Speaker 1: Will we be like new wineskins that can expand and accommodate the new thing God wants to do, or will the new wine have to be decanted into new skins so that the old doesn't burst?
Speaker 1: Ostensibly, this passage is about choosing a new apostle, but what's important isn't how matthias was chosen, even who he was, but why.
Speaker 1: This small gathering of believers were the inheritors of the promises of god.
Speaker 1: What was about to happen would change the world forever.
Speaker 1: So it's important that the foundations were right, and so praise God that his church, that we, were his plan from the beginning, with ancient foundations.
Speaker 1: Thank God that he works through frail, sinful humans.
Speaker 1: Judas committed the worst kind of betrayal against the Son of God himself, but even he could not thwart God's plans.
Speaker 1: And that was a ploy of the devil to try and thwart God's plans.
Speaker 1: God had already planned for it.
Speaker 1: You and I can be confident that there is nothing that we can do that will thwart God's plans, either for his church, for his mission, or for us, for your life.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how badly you think you have fallen.
Speaker 1: There is a way back.
Speaker 1: Wonder what would have happened if Judas hadn't killed himself.
Speaker 1: We'll never know.
Speaker 1: It had to happen.
Speaker 1: I guess it was foretold that he would.
Speaker 1: But what if?
Speaker 1: What if there's a way back?
Speaker 1: And God is a renewing God, a life-giving spirit who still brings renewal to his people.
Speaker 1: And so may our confidence rest in God.
Speaker 1: Our identity and our future are in his hands.
Speaker 1: Our identity and our future are in his hands, and even as we celebrate the good things that God has done in the past and continues to do, let's be open to the renewal and the new things that he wants to do in his world and in his church and in us.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father, we thank you.
Speaker 1: We thank you that we are a part of this movement that you started long ago, 2,000 years ago, that has foundations that extend back even further than that, father.
Speaker 1: The new things you do are built on ancient foundations and, father, we love those foundations.
Speaker 1: We love the foundation of your word, we love the stories, we love the grace, we love everything in there.
Speaker 1: But, father, may we not just be a people who look back, not just people who look back at our own stories in our own lives, but that we look forward, that we are open to the renewing work of your spirit and Lord.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether we can contain what you want to do.
Speaker 1: I hope not.
Speaker 1: Maybe, lord, the skins don't have to burst, maybe we just have to open them up and let the wine pour out.
Speaker 1: But, father, we pray that we will be a people who receive the new things you want to do when you bring new renewal to us and to the world around us.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.