If you would remain standing and turn to Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, or maybe the Continuing Acts of the Risen and Ascended Lord, as someone like to call it myself, we are in Acts chapter one, beginning in verse 12, and I'll read to the end of the chapter.
Before we read, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, again we thank you that you are not silent, but that you speak. And Lord, we do pray as we just sung prayerfully that you would speak to us. Now, be merciful to your people. We pray in Jesus's name, Amen.
People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from Acts chapter one, beginning in verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
And when they had entered they went up to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas, the son of James. All these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers, the company of persons was in about 120 and said brothers the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, burst in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So the field was called, in their own language, Akadama, that is Field of Blood, for it is written in the book of Psalms. May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it, and let another take his office.
So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward two Joseph called bar sabas, who was also called Eustace, or justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. You may be seated, there's a video experiment on the topic of selective focus that maybe you've seen before, and if you have children, you know they are very good at selective focusing. But in this video, there's a small group of people, and they either have a black shirt on or a white shirt on. And before the video is played, you are asked to count how many times a ball is passed between the members of the White Shirt Team. So the video begins, and you are intently counting the number of passes the white team is making between each other, why the black team is also passing a ball and making passes between them. And then the video stops, and you are asked, well, how many passes did the white team make? And the answer is 15. But then the next question that is then asked is, but did you see the gorilla?
And what happens is, during that video, which is just a short little video, people are passing these balls back and forth, but there's a man that is dressed up in a gorilla outfit, and he comes right through the middle of everybody. But more often than not, people actually miss this gorilla in the video because they are so focused on counting how many passes the white team is making. And then when you watch the video again, you feel somewhat silly. How could I have missed that? How did I miss this big gorilla walking through this video?
Well, I feel like out the text that we just read is a little bit like that video. As we begin the book of Acts, many of us are focusing very intently on one particular event that's about to occur in the next chapter, right? And you know what that event is? It's the event of Pentecost.
And we're looking forward to that. We're focusing on that.
And as we read Acts, our focus might be so we might be so focused on Pentecost. So we actually are missing some very significant things that are happening in the life of the early church. Right here in our text, most of your bibles will will probably have a simple title, something along the lines of Matthias chosen to replace Judas there. Right? Is that?
What your Bibles have something along those lines. But there's a lot more that's happening, much more that's happening in this text.
What does the church do now that Christ is ascended, they're used to following a physical person, and it's the first time in the church's history that they are gathering together and praying to someone that they can no longer see or touch.
Second, will they ever learn to properly understand the scriptures? If you remember, in last week's text, the disciples asked Jesus this question, and we can't help but, you know, do one of the palms to our face of did they not yet understand? How are we going to leave the church to in the hands of these guys?
Because they don't quite understand how the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. It's not about ethnic Israel. It's not ultimately about that at all.
It's all ultimately about Christ. Will they ever get it?
Will they ever understand that the third too is that? Why is it important that Judas actually be replaced. Why not just move on with 11? Why not, if you are going to replace them, why not do it with more apostles? I mean, you have two guys who come for why not 13? Why 12? Why is that significant? Why is that important? How is the church going to move on and making these decisions?
And as they are to be witnesses.
What are they to be witnesses of? There's a lot of things that Jesus said and did. John will tell us. There's so many things we can't even write them all.
Well, what are we to what are we to focus on? What's to be the focus of our witness? Now, all of those questions I just posed to you are answered in our short text, all of them. And I would just want us to begin here in verse 12, where the first defining picture of the early church is obedience to the words of Christ. In verse 12, then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, the Sabbath day's journey away.
Now, if you didn't have the context, you might think, well, they're just kind of retreating back going to get lunch now at in Jerusalem. But if you look at verse four, it's a reminder that Jesus has told them to do this, and they are now obeying the voice of their now, not only risen but ascended Lord, they are obeying His words. They are going there to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit. It's also interesting, too. Jesus doesn't tell them that you're going to wait there 10 days? He doesn't give them a number. They don't know how long they're going to wait for. It could be a few moments. It could be a few years. They don't exactly know, but they obey a Sabbath. Day's journey is about three fourths of a mile. So it's just meant to indicate there that it's a place nearby. And you wonder too, on that way back, what's, what's that conversation like we just saw Jesus ascend up to heaven.
Is the is it like a silent all of contemplation and just kind of, what and what did I just see? What did I just hear? Or are they busy talking with one another? What did he mean by that? What? What's, what's this Holy Spirit? How do we to understand that? What's going to happen? How long are we going to have to wait for?
I don't know. It doesn't tell us.
We are told some of the names of the 120 people who are gathered there. We see the apostles names listed, again, excluding Judas Iscariot. And we'll get to that in a little bit of the significance of that. We also see Mary. Jesus's mother is there, Mary, who was the willing follower from the very beginning, submitting herself not only to God, but to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She was there for Jesus's first miracle. He she was there for his last breath.
And this is actually the last time we hear of Mary in the New Testament. No more mention of Mary. Maybe Mary isn't that significant to the development of the church, as many believe.
We also see Jesus' half brothers being gathered. Mary's not a perpetual virgin, but had other children. And Jesus's half brothers here are mentioned men who.
At one time were mockers of their half brother, Jesus, and what he claimed to be. But now, as we see, are believing after the resurrection, and these are men like James and Jude who would become leaders of the early church. And what's the first thing the church does?
They are obedient. But what do they do? They are doing two things. They are gathering and they are praying. They come together. There's not just a little group going over here and another group going over there.
You know, Peter is not just, Hey guys, I'm going to go fishing.
I'm just going to I'm going to pray by myself. They are gathering together.
It's important to remember that we are not saved by someone else's faith. You know that saying God has no grandchildren, that our redemption is indeed personal and individual?
However, this text is a reminder to all of us that when Christ saves people, he calls them to be part of a visible covenant community that is the church.
And that's what we see happening. They are gathering together.
You know, last week was Easter, and Easter is one of those times when if someone comes to church.
Or if someone is ever going to come to church, they will probably go, possibly, to church on Easter, right? The Easter, Christmas kind of folks. And I heard one illustration from RC sproll, who recounted a story of an interaction with a man following one of these services, like us, they had a fellowship meal, and they were around the barbecue, a coal bar, you know, coal fire pit, where they're cooking. And the pastor comes up to this, this member of the congregation who's really been absent for quite a long time.
And this member begins to tell the minister why he has been absent for so long and making all the excuses of why he hasn't been around, but why, why he's talking the minister in this coal fire removes one of the hot coals and places it towards the side of the grill. And after they are done talking, the pastor then points back this man to the coal grill, and he says, Look, this coal that is now been removed from this support system has lost its heat. It's lost its capacity to be productive and its purpose for what it was made. And so the pastor made the point is, by being an individual Christian, you are very much like that coal we we cannot stand alone. We are meant to be with each other. We need support, we need the fellowship, we need the mutual encouragement. We need the prayers, we need the community.
And that's what we see them doing here. They're not just a bunch of individuals. They come together as one. And what do they do when they come together?
They pray. They aren't idly waiting. They are praying. And for the first time, they are praying to a risen, ascended Lord. They can no longer see, and they pray persistently. We are told they are devoting themselves to prayer continually, constantly, and what did they pray about? We don't know. It doesn't tell us, but I bet it wasn't simply, as Sinclair Ferguson said, Just organ recitals. We pray for Aunt Mary's Heart, we pray for so and so's this. I bet they're praying something along the lines of Your kingdom come your will be done. I bet they're scouring back over the Scriptures. And I think they are doing that and even praying the scriptures back to the Lord, praying the Psalms.
They were a praying and waiting church. And in many ways, we are too. We must be. It's been said, prayer is the breath of a godly soul. So if there is no prayer, there's no breath, that's no life. And this is an encouragement to be in prayer, that we ought to be praying as a church, even this evening, an encouragement to come back and and pray together, corporately together.
This is in very important picture here of the early church, obedient and submissive to Christ and His Word together with one accord, devoted to prayer, that is the picture that is being painted for us of the early church. And let us pray that would be us as well.
But something isn't right, something's off you.
Verse 15, the apostles names are listed just as Luke listed them in Luke chapter six, except for Judas Iscariot, whose name is now absent because Judas is no longer with them. He's a betrayer. He's a traitor.
You know Peter was a denier.
Remember Peter? Peter repents, and he turns to God in Christ.
And Jesus tells Peter in Luke, chapter 22 Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. And that's what we see in what Peter's doing right now, he is strengthening his brothers. And how does Peter go about strengthening his brothers? The scriptures last week, they seem to get it all wrong. Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom of God?
No, no, you don't quite understand. So again, will the apostles ever get it right? Will their understanding of Scripture ever be right? Will they, well, you know, Jesus has taught them a lot. Will they ever see the scriptures as Jesus taught them to see it, that it's all about him.
And what we see here is Peter must have been reading and meditating on the scriptures, especially the Psalms, and he puts on his redemptive historical bifocals. Remember those, but you can see not only something close, but something far. And in the Old Testament, not only can we see King David closely as the author and some concepts and things happen around his life, but there are redemptive historical bifocals.
Lets us see far, and that's actually pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what we see here is that the Spirit of God is already at work in Peter, that Peter is able to see there's something more in these psalms than just about David and ethnic Israel. There's something greater, guys, I want to tell you about it. And so here we actually have the first kind of kind of exegetical New Testament. Exegesis of this Old Testament from Peter and the Bible here is also an indication it's not just a moralistic therapeutic book.
It's not that at all. It's all about Jesus. He reads Psalm 69 and Psalm 109 and he says, Brothers. Look here. It's also to note too, this is the first time that any of the apostles or disciples are using that term, brothers. Jesus has used it to talk about the apostles and disciples. But this is the first time that we see an elder, yeah, an elder or apostle or disciple, claiming that word for themselves and now attributing it to the rest of the believers.
We take that term so for granted. But he's saying brothers. They're not related to him by biological blood, but he's saying by faith, by the blood of Christ, we're brothers now, and he calls them that brothers. Listen up.
Look here. God prophesied and ordained Judas betrayal. This wasn't a mistake. God was in control of it. All you see David inspired by the Holy Spirit. By the way, David's not writing on his own accord. David's inspired by the Holy Spirit. And look what David wrote in Psalm 69 as David is facing great suffering at the hands of others, there's a curse pronounced on those oppressors. May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in. It also, guys. Look at Psalm 109. Look at it. God.
Appoint God appointed a wicked man against him.
Let an accuser stand at His right hand when he is tried. Let him come forth guilty. Let his prayer be counted as sin. May his days be few, may another take his office. Guys. You know, King David, it was pointing us to Jesus and the wicked man who was appointed to be at the king's right hand, that was Judas. Judas is now cursed, and his camp is to be emptied, and there's a prophecy here, guys.
Jesus was appointed to suffer.
Judas was appointed to betray but God has also appointed for someone to take his place, and that's what they're going to do.
They're going to replace Judas because scriptures directing them and telling them to do so.
But I also think that there's a significant background here that I just want to explain briefly, of why Judas needs to be replaced and an apostleship of 12 needs to be restored. It's not just that they don't want to work short handed.
There has been an emphasis throughout all of Scripture, and even here in the book of Acts, on being chosen witnesses.
Remember in Acts one, verse eight.
You'll be my witnesses.
And God is full of grace, and he has always made himself known from the very beginning of creation, God has never been without a witness. Creation itself is pointing us to God's power and His divine nature, but God also wanted a people for Himself to declare to the world His righteousness, His Holiness, but also His mercy and His compassion.
And God called Abraham, as we talked earlier, out of darkness, and told him he was going to make him a special family, even though he was childless, and through that family, the nations would be blessed. And then through that God calls Israel is called out of slavery and called to be a special people, a chosen witness. And at the head of Israel was 12 tribes, and those 12 represented all the people of the nation, and they are to be the chosen witness to the world of God's righteousness and also his compassion and his mercy.
But Israel failed. Instead of becoming a witness to the world, they became like the world. They did what was right in their own eyes. And God disciplines Israel. They're sent them. He sends them into exile, Babylon and Assyria. Why Jonah hates the Assyrians so much, the the enemies of Israel.
But God, in His great mercy and compassion, even while Israel is being disciplined and in exile, sends them a prophet, Isaiah.
And Isaiah, 40 begins with these words. These might be familiar words to you. It says, comfort, comfort my people. Says our God, even in the midst of the rebellion against God and their discipline, God is saying, you will find comfort in Me and I will wipe away your sins if you will, just return.
If you will, just repent and turn. I am gracious, I am compassionate, I am slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love, if you will, but just return Israel, turn to Me in isaiah 43 just a couple chapters later, it says, And you are my witnesses and my servant whom I have chosen, that Israel is still being called to be God's witnesses, that God hasn't forsaken his people. He hasn't just let them go on their own way, even though that's where they wanted to go. He's pursuing them and loving them and wooing them back.
But when Jesus comes, Israel isn't forsaken, but Jesus what Jesus is actually doing is reorganizing or reforming Israel from its brokenness, and Jesus calls 12 apostles to be His witnesses, not because that's all he could get, but it's representing that Jesus is reforming, reconstituting, repurposing old Israel to make the new Israel. But God is keeping his promises to his people.
Israel was to be a visible manifest, manifestation of the kingdom of God in the Old Testament and now the New Testament Church, the new Israel is still to be the same witnesses of the kingdom of God.
True Israel is not defined by a nationalistic or ethnic terms.
That's kind of that. Why Jesus?
You know, that's why the disciples had it all wrong in last week's text, Paul reminds us that not all of Israel is Israel. Just being born in a tribe in the Old Testament didn't make you a true son of God. Just being born into a church in the New Testament, doesn't make you a Christian.
What makes someone a true Israelite, a true believer, is that they are a true witness.
And that's ultimately why Jesus is Israel. Jesus is the true Israel because he's the ultimate witness. Everything that Israel is pointing to, everything that we are to be is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, and we are witnesses. And we are children of God by our union with Christ, by our faith resting in Him and His perfection and his perfect witness, and we are simply called to imitate our older brother.
And Judas is an example of this, born in Israel, but not really Israel, not a true son of God.
In verse 18, Judas actions are called wicked. Judas was a traitor and betrayer, and according to Luke chapter 22, verse three, he's even an agent of Satan.
So Judas, as many of you know, betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver when he felt overwhelmed by guilt and remorse, not repentance. Remember, repentance is turning from sin and turning to God, and Judas might have felt remorse, but he never turned back to Christ, but he throws that money back at the feet of the priests and Matthews account tells us he goes and hangs himself, and then his body is now decomposing and bloated. It's a kind of a gory picture.
It falls or is either cut down to the ground, and as it hits the ground, his innards burst out, and the priest then take that 30 pieces of silver, and they know that it's blood money. They gave that to Judas to betray Jesus, to put Jesus to death. And they buy that field, and that's why it's called the Field of Blood, because Jesus, with that money, it was used to betray and spilled the blood of Jesus, but also Jesus's blood was spilled there.
But Judas actions and death are pointing us to a man who, as we're told, goes to his own place, a place different from the rest of the disciples. Judas is cursed, and he goes to hell.
And that this gory picture is meant to be a warning to us.
Judas is meant to be a real warning to us.
Judas had the privileges of the sacraments. He was at the first Lord's Supper.
He had many Christian friends, surrounded by the community of faith, but his membership is not what made him a Christian. His profession was not what made him a believer. He had no possession of faith. Judas had many, many gifts. He was a gifted leader.
He was an apostle, and he used those gifts. Remember, Jesus says one of you is going to betray you, betray me. And none of them say, we know it's Judas, because he has no gifts. He doesn't know what he's doing.
He's a terrible guy. Thank you Jesus for finally saying something, because it was kind of the elephant in the room. No, they all look Is it me? Judas was very gifted in what he did, and probably had a lot of good sermons, but he did not possess grace, and that's important for us to remember a man might be very gifted, and maybe he even uses those gifts for ministry, but still not have grace. Grace is what we need. Grace is what we should be pleading for. Grace is what we should be praying for. We can have a strong Biblical understanding of the Bible, but still not have Christ.
So we are to actually kind of pause and allow the remains of Judas to make us shudder a bit, that if it's not but for the grace of God, so are we, and to take a moment and to examine our own hearts.
Do I rest upon the grace of God in Christ, the leaders here then choose another verse, 21 the leaders then teach about Teach the church on the qualifications for who needs to fulfill this office of the apostle. And the nomination process begins. The qualifications are there to be with Jesus from the beginning.
That is Jesus's baptism, and then the three years of Jesus's training, they have to know the good news well, and they're to be eyewitnesses of the resurrection. This is what we're going to be witnesses of.
There's a lot of things we could say about Jesus, but what we're going to focus on is that death and resurrection. That's what we're going to be witnesses of.
That's going to be our message.
And these two men are brought forward who are fulfilling the necessary requirements of apostle. Just to note, it's not Peter's appointment here to meet the requirements that is justice and Matthias and they pray again. They're not depending on their own wisdom. They're depending on God's wisdom and God's goodness, and Jesus hadn't told them to who they should pick. So they pray and they ask, and then look in verse 24 they pray and said, You Lord who know who will be the most dynamic preacher? We need them.
You Lord who know who is going to be the best influencer of people. Pick that guy. Will you?
They say you Lord, who know the hearts? Lord, you know these men's hearts. You know the hearts of all men. Show us which one these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. Then after praying, they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered even with the 11 apostles casting lots. You'll be thankful after reading this text.
Text that myself, Nathan and Dan, we've decided to just to run our session meetings this way. And we found that to be very efficient, very just we get through our business very quickly. Just rolling some dice.
Things get done very quickly.
What's happening here? Well, sometimes God's given God given wisdom to us, doesn't tip the scales in one favor or one candidate over the other.
Sometimes there are two just really good options, two really good candidates. You know, I think maybe some of you who are considering colleges or what's going next, and you have two really good options, and there's really just no discernible one is better than the other. They have the exact same program you want to go into, and they both have really good churches nearby, and sometimes you just gotta pick and so I think that's what's happening here, is you know, normally, as you're pursuing a pastor, and one day when you replace me, or you're getting an elder, if we have more than one elder, we can because, like many of them, but they only need one.
But if you find yourself in a situation, one's not necessarily a better benefit or service to the church or to the man. I think it's saying that it's okay. We just, they're both qualified. They're both godly men. Just, we just gotta pick and so Lord, we're going to trust you in your sovereignty.
As proverbs 1633, says the lot is cast in the lap, but every decision is from the Lord. Lord. These are both qualified godly men. We don't know who to choose. One isn't sticking out over the other, and we just have to make a decision.
So help us. Here we go, and that's what they do with the other interesting thing is we never hear about Matthias again.
He filled the office that needed to be fulfilled, but he wasn't this some great, you know, you know, didn't write his own book, and we don't really know anything else about him. And that's the thing also really comforting to us, is that we have these 12 apostles, and we don't know a lot of them, but they were faithful men. They weren't extraordinary men of faith. That is, you know, changing cities like like a Jonah was in their sermons. They were ordinary yet faithful, and God used them.
We can easily, again, just pass by this text and only see Matthias taking Judas place, but the gorilla again, that we must focus on here and not allow it to go unnoticed, is again the grace and compassion of God to His people in Christ, God is so gracious to us, who has given us a Savior who came to die for our sins, to die for the foolishness of the apostles, to die for our foolishness, Who was risen again that we too might rise. And so let us put our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who we too can no longer see, and who is risen, but we wait for him to come again.
And as we wait, let us pray as a church, pray that we will be faithful to Christ's commands, that we will be united in prayer and resting in the sovereignty of God's plans for our life. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for giving us your word. This is a rich text. There's much in here to be found, But Lord, again, we we see your compassion, your grace to the small group of people who you are gathering to lay a new foundation, a new Israel is being reformed, but your promises have remained steadfast. We see that your continuity of your promise to save sinners is the same from beginning to end.
And Lord, we thank you for your grace to us in Christ, and I pray you will help us to rest in that this day, it's in Jesus' name, we pray Amen.