Doug McMasters: Take your Bible and go to the book of Acts in chapter 1.
Doug McMasters: Acts chapter 1.
Doug McMasters: We're going to be looking at verses 15 to 26.
Doug McMasters: So we're going to be through the end of this chapter this morning.
Doug McMasters: As we enter into this chapter, this last half of this first chapter, I want you to notice that something very extraordinary is happening here.
Doug McMasters: Especially when you look at verse 15.
Doug McMasters: Take a look there.
Doug McMasters: It says, In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters.
Doug McMasters: And the extraordinary thing I want you to see there is just that.
Doug McMasters: Peter stood up.
Doug McMasters: Now that sounds very unremarkable until you consider what it took for Peter to be the man who's doing that, standing up there.
Doug McMasters: Was it many weeks before the moment that we're reading about here in Acts chapter 1, that Peter was in the courtyard of the high priest, warming himself by a fire, while Jesus, whom he'd followed for three years, was inside under trial.
Doug McMasters: Three times somebody around that fire looked at him and said, Aren't you one of his followers?
Doug McMasters: Don't you know him?
Doug McMasters: And three times Peter denied that that was the case.
Doug McMasters: And the last time he denied it forcibly.
Doug McMasters: I don't know this man.
Doug McMasters: And then the rooster crowed.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus turned and looked at Peter.
Doug McMasters: And Peter looked at Jesus and he fled and he wept.
Doug McMasters: This is the man.
Doug McMasters: This is the man who's standing up here in verse 15.
Doug McMasters: This is the man with the same voice that denied Christ.
Doug McMasters: This is the man whose face was lit by a fire where he offered his rejections of Christ.
Doug McMasters: This is the same man who, after the crucifixion and burial of Christ, went back to his boat and to his fishing nets and took others with him to just go back and do what he was used to doing.
Doug McMasters: This is Peter.
Doug McMasters: But when we get to verse 15, something's different.
Doug McMasters: What's happened to this guy?
Doug McMasters: Well, I want to say to you that what's happened to him is that the resurrection is what has happened to him.
Doug McMasters: You see, Christ sought him out specifically.
Doug McMasters: In 1 Corinthians 15, 5, it speaks there as Paul is going down through the gospel and into the resurrection accounts, and he said he appeared to Peter, mentions him directly.
Doug McMasters: And then we can read in John chapter 21 about Jesus building a fire and speaking to Peter there and restoring him.
Doug McMasters: And so at that second fire, Peter wasn't just forgiven, he was recommissioned.
Doug McMasters: Three times Jesus says to him in that conversation, Peter, do you love me?
Doug McMasters: And three times Peter admits that, yes, I do.
Doug McMasters: I do.
Doug McMasters: And three times Jesus says to him, Feed my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs.
Doug McMasters: And that command was not just some sentimental send-off and parting, that was a recommissioning of Peter.
Doug McMasters: And here in this room, in Acts chapter 1 and verse 15, this is the first action of that assignment.
Doug McMasters: And it comes at a moment that's not easy.
Doug McMasters: Peter steps into this role, not while things are smooth and easy, but when this gathering is here in this upper room, still grieving the loss of Christ, still disoriented about all that's happened over the past several weeks, and still living in the middle of a scandal that's reverberating around the whole city.
Doug McMasters: One of their own had turned into a traitor and had taken his own life.
Doug McMasters: And so when Jesus told him to feed his sheep, this is exactly what it looks like for Peter to do that.
Doug McMasters: To be the leader in the middle of a difficult moment.
Doug McMasters: And so he's standing up here, he's in the upper room, and he's with this gathered assembly, and his presence in front of this congregation is already a sermon.
Doug McMasters: The God that they've been praying to is the very God who could take a Peter who denied and deserted Christ and turn him into a leader in the congregation.
Doug McMasters: And I want to bring that up because that carries a statement and a message that I want you to hold on to tightly this whole time that we're in the book of Acts, and hopefully well beyond, is that the resurrection doesn't just make theological claims, and it's a true statement, and we can talk about it as truth, as a historical fact.
Doug McMasters: But I want you to grab it deeper than that.
Doug McMasters: The resurrection changes people.
Doug McMasters: It changes people.
Doug McMasters: And we see that here in this early church.
Doug McMasters: And so this morning, as we enter into this, I want us to see what's happening here in Acts chapter 1 and verses 15 to 26.
Doug McMasters: Last week we saw these people obedient, leaving Christ as he ascended, going into Jerusalem, gathering as a people wrapped around the resurrection and praying.
Doug McMasters: And here they are with one accord doing just that, praying together, assembled together, and they're waiting on Christ and that moment that Christ told them to wait for.
Doug McMasters: And as they're in that posture of waiting and prayer, they also some things that need to take care of.
Doug McMasters: And what we see here is this church that is waiting and obeying and praying is now about to deal with two things a very difficult situation and a determination about the next leader amongst them.
Doug McMasters: And so three things I want us to notice as we go through this passage, as they handle this difficult moment, so that we might learn how to handle difficult moments in our body when these things arise.
Doug McMasters: The first thing is that they face the difficulty honestly and they bring it to Scripture for understanding.
Doug McMasters: They face the difficulty honestly and they bring it to Scripture for understanding.
Doug McMasters: The second thing that they do is that they identify what the mission requires.
Doug McMasters: They identify what the mission requires.
Doug McMasters: And lastly, they submit themselves to God who knows all things.
Doug McMasters: These are three marks of what a community does when they face difficult times.
Doug McMasters: So let's look at them one at a time.
Doug McMasters: First of all, the church faces what happened with honesty and brings it to Scripture for understanding.
Doug McMasters: We'll find this in verses 15 to 20.
Doug McMasters: And what you'll see here is that they can talk about these difficult things, knowing that scripture will help them, and they can face them without being destroyed by the difficulty.
Doug McMasters: Look at verse 15.
Doug McMasters: In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters.
Doug McMasters: The number of people who were together was about 120, and said, Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the scripture be fulfilled, that the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, foretold about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
Doug McMasters: For he was one of our memb one of our number, and shared in this ministry.
Doug McMasters: And now this man acquired a field with his unrighteous wages, and he fell headlong, his body burst open, and his intestines spilled out.
Doug McMasters: And this became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field is called Hakeldamah, that is the field of blood.
Doug McMasters: For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his dwelling become desolate, let no one live in it, and let someone else take his position.
Doug McMasters: That's a very difficult situation.
Doug McMasters: But what does Peter do with it?
Doug McMasters: He doesn't dance around it.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't say, you know, there was one who was with us, or try to deal with it on some sort of peripheral level and talk about it in some measure of polite distance.
Doug McMasters: What does he do?
Doug McMasters: Judas, you guys know Judas.
Doug McMasters: He names Judas and he traces the whole arc of this trouble.
Doug McMasters: This was one of our number.
Doug McMasters: This was a man who shared in this ministry.
Doug McMasters: And he he doesn't erase the problem.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't throw it under the carpet.
Doug McMasters: He brings it out.
Doug McMasters: It's the very first thing he talks about here as he stands up.
Doug McMasters: But what he does next is extremely important.
Doug McMasters: Not only does he deal with it honestly, but he goes immediately to scripture with it.
Doug McMasters: Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the scriptures be fulfilled, that the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, foretold about Judas in verse 16.
Doug McMasters: That word, it is necessary, carries the force of divine necessity.
Doug McMasters: This is something that just had to happen.
Doug McMasters: Scripture said it would.
Doug McMasters: What he's saying here is that despite the most catastrophic human failure, God's purposes are not derailed.
Doug McMasters: In fact, they're actually fulfilled.
Doug McMasters: And that's something to hold on to.
Doug McMasters: And so Peter here quotes two psalms.
Doug McMasters: What are these two psalms?
Doug McMasters: They're psalms of lament written by David.
Doug McMasters: David, who is the anointed king of Israel, and he writes about his enemies who have turned against him, and therefore he laments.
Doug McMasters: Now, why is that important?
Doug McMasters: Because the Holy Spirit, who inspired David's words, have woven those things into the story of a greater betrayal.
Doug McMasters: The betrayal of the anointed one of God, Jesus the Messiah.
Doug McMasters: And what was true of David and his betrayers is true in a fuller sense of Judas and his betrayal.
Doug McMasters: And David knew all about this.
Doug McMasters: David isn't talking about betrayal and some abstract concept.
Doug McMasters: He's not talking about the general human treachery that might be out somewhere in society.
Doug McMasters: No, he's got a name.
Doug McMasters: Ahithophel.
Doug McMasters: When he writes those things, that name keeps popping up in his head.
Doug McMasters: Ahithophel.
Doug McMasters: That guy.
Doug McMasters: Who was Ahithophel?
Doug McMasters: Well, you can read about him in 2 Samuel 16 and 17.
Doug McMasters: And there you'll understand that Ahithophel was David's counselor.
Doug McMasters: In fact, he was such a counselor that 2 Samuel 16, 23 says that his words to David were as if one had insulted the word of God.
Doug McMasters: That's pretty straight, right?
Doug McMasters: I don't know.
Doug McMasters: People ask you for advice and they walk away going, I feel like I just read scripture.
Doug McMasters: That's how David felt when he spoke to Ahithophel.
Doug McMasters: This man sat at David's table.
Doug McMasters: This man helped David with his decisions.
Doug McMasters: And when David's own son Absalom rose up in rebellion, Ahithophel went with him and became a partner with Absalom.
Doug McMasters: And David wrote about it in Psalm 41.
Doug McMasters: Listen to it.
Doug McMasters: Even my close friend, whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Doug McMasters: Ahithophel was not some enemy outside the camp.
Doug McMasters: Ahithophel was a guy right at David's table.
Doug McMasters: And when Ahithophel's counsel to Absalom about what to do with David got heard and found out, and the news began to spread.
Doug McMasters: Now hold all of that up against Judas here for a second.
Doug McMasters: Judas, a trusted counselor.
Doug McMasters: Judas, a treasurer of the band.
Doug McMasters: Judas, the one who ate at Christ's table and shared his bread.
Doug McMasters: Judas, the one who had such a display of integrity that when Jesus spoke about someone denying him and betraying him, none of them kind of looked over at Judas and went, I think we might know who he's talking about.
Doug McMasters: They all said, Maybe it's me.
Doug McMasters: And we all know just how hard it is to point at yourself before you start pointing at somebody else.
Doug McMasters: They're looking at themselves, not Judas.
Doug McMasters: But Jesus made the connection between Ahithophel and Judas explicit.
Doug McMasters: Because the very words that David used about Ahithophel in Psalm 41 are the very words Jesus uses in John 13 about Judas.
Doug McMasters: He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.
Doug McMasters: So what happened to David, the anointed one of God, has happened to Jesus, the greater one, the anointed one of God.
Doug McMasters: And what the anointed king of Israel, David, received in his betrayal by a trusted companion, Jesus, the greater anointed one of God, has been betrayed by a companion, Judas.
Doug McMasters: David wept over all of this and wrote a psalm.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus took that wounding and that betrayal and went to the cross.
Doug McMasters: But they're not idle people.
Doug McMasters: They're spending time searching scripture, trying to understand sort of part two of Jesus talking to them along the Emmaus Road and opening up their minds to understand the scriptures.
Doug McMasters: Having gained an interpretive understanding of the Old Testament, they're now entering into it.
Doug McMasters: And they're saying, this is showing us a lot about what happened with Jesus and Judas.
Doug McMasters: They're starting to understand how to read their scriptures.
Doug McMasters: And now the worst thing that's happened in history, the betrayal of the anointed Messiah, is now being made known and understood, and Peter has a framework for it.
Doug McMasters: And it's not just a framework of grief, or it's not just a framework of a problem to be solved, it's an understanding that God is fulfilling his determinations.
Doug McMasters: And they look for scripture to see that.
Doug McMasters: And what happened to Jesus and Judas was prefigured in what happened to David and Ahithophel.
Doug McMasters: And here it's no coincidence that Ahithophel went home and hung himself, and Judas did the same.
Doug McMasters: And Peter talks about that.
Doug McMasters: And just like any fisherman, he talks about it with a certain willingness to be graphic.
Doug McMasters: He goes right out there and he said, uh, you know, this man, he fell his head first, his body burst open, his intestines spilled out, and there's probably people in the room going, That's enough, Peter.
Doug McMasters: You know, you know, we got to eat later.
Doug McMasters: You know, we don't need this.
Doug McMasters: But Peter doesn't stop with the graphic details.
Doug McMasters: He goes deeper into this.
Doug McMasters: Because the story didn't just stay with the 11, the story didn't just stay with 120.
Doug McMasters: What Peter reveals to us is that the whole city of Jerusalem is reverberating with this situation.
Doug McMasters: This really is a difficulty.
Doug McMasters: It's become known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so well known that they've even named the field of blood.
Doug McMasters: That's the place where the guy that followed him sent him to the cross and he threw the money back at the priest and died there.
Doug McMasters: That field of blood.
Doug McMasters: The chief priest had done all of that because they knew they couldn't take the blood money and put it back in the treasury.
Doug McMasters: That would have defiled all that money.
Doug McMasters: So they bought a field with it to cover up the situation.
Doug McMasters: And instead of covering it up, they built a monument to their crime.
Doug McMasters: Centuries earlier, the prophet Jeremiah stood in a valley outside the same city and declared because innocent blood had been shed, that that valley would no longer be called by its old name, it would be called the Valley of Slaughter.
Doug McMasters: And so Judah's history, one of a field, one of killing, one of a new name that stuck because of a shame that could not be undone, is being repeated once again.
Doug McMasters: So Peter here is not just describing a personal grief that the church has to deal with, he's identifying a public scandal that the whole city is still talking about.
Doug McMasters: It's already been turned into common knowledge.
Doug McMasters: So what does he do?
Doug McMasters: He doesn't read the problem in isolation, he understands it in light of God's bigger story.
Doug McMasters: And when we deal with difficulties, we need to follow the same suit.
Doug McMasters: We need to deal with issues clearly, honestly, openly, and have the light of scripture to guide us to understand it and to interpret it well and to lead us toward what to do with it.
Doug McMasters: I would love to tell you more about why there's 120 there, but I'm going to skip that for a moment.
Doug McMasters: But what you see here is people that are not pretending that there's not a problem.
Doug McMasters: They're naming it, they're reading it through the lens of God's word, and they get up and do what needs to be done.
Doug McMasters: And you might wonder why I'm a little insistent about this.
Doug McMasters: It's because the church I was converted in had an extremely difficult situation, and they did not do what happened here.
Doug McMasters: I was back at the church as the associate pastor.
Doug McMasters: I saw some cars pull in to the parking lot.
Doug McMasters: I stayed in my office, and a little bit later, uh the senior pastor buzzed my office and said, Doug, come in and we need to talk.
Doug McMasters: I'm like, Okay.
Doug McMasters: It was late in the evening, and he said, Tomorrow morning, uh, you're going to be the principal of the Christian school.
Doug McMasters: I'm like, oh, okay.
Doug McMasters: What's going on?
Doug McMasters: I can't tell you.
Doug McMasters: I'm like, come on, Pastor.
Doug McMasters: You've got to tell me what's going on.
Doug McMasters: And he went on to tell me that the principal had been arrested for sexual molestation of some of the boys in the school.
Doug McMasters: And I said, what's going to happen next?
Doug McMasters: I said, are we going to talk to the church about this?
Doug McMasters: And he said, no.
Doug McMasters: He said, we don't air our dirty linen in public.
Doug McMasters: And I said, the church is not the public.
Doug McMasters: This needs to be dealt with.
Doug McMasters: And it wasn't.
Doug McMasters: And there's a long story, but the reverberations of that decision not to deal with it in a biblical way hurt that church and hurt my beloved pastor's ministry.
Doug McMasters: And he eventually had to leave.
Doug McMasters: It was difficult.
Doug McMasters: I wonder what would have happened if they had simply said, church, we have the mind of Christ, we have the wisdom of God, we have the directions of the word of God, and this is what is, and this is what's going to be done as we go through this.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: And sadly that didn't happen.
Doug McMasters: So we learn here something that we are to do should trouble of this magnitude or less come into our lives or into the life of the church.
Doug McMasters: Second thing I want us to see as we go through this is not only did they deal with a difficulty honestly and humbly by bringing the light of Scripture to it for understanding and for direction, but they also identified what the mission requires.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verses 21 and 22.
Doug McMasters: Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us, from among these it is necessary that one become a witness with us of the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: Again, the resurrection is not just background to the church's story and mission.
Doug McMasters: It's central to the church's mission.
Doug McMasters: And here, having established that Scripture has led to this vacancy, as he says in the verse just prior to this, he now calls it and says, We need to have someone from among us to take his place.
Doug McMasters: Now notice the qualifications here.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't say, let's find somebody who's extremely gifted.
Doug McMasters: Let's find somebody who has a lot of influence.
Doug McMasters: Let's find someone who's got some bankrolling resources.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't say, let's get someone who's got great organizational management abilities and skills.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't say, let's find someone with marketing expertise or a winsome personality.
Doug McMasters: What does he say?
Doug McMasters: Let's find someone who was with us from the beginning and who will join us to be a witness of the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: Two qualifications, very precise, very specific.
Doug McMasters: The first being that he must have been present from the baptism of John through the ascension.
Doug McMasters: Not merely a recent follower, but someone who came in from the very beginning.
Doug McMasters: Someone who was there through it all.
Doug McMasters: Someone who was there for the healings and the teachings and the confrontations with the religious authorities, who was there through all of those things.
Doug McMasters: Through the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the 40 days of appearance.
Doug McMasters: That's the requirement.
Doug McMasters: And look at the second one.
Doug McMasters: One of these men must become with us a witness of the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: Again, he's telling us something about the apostolic role here.
Doug McMasters: Now, obviously, the apostles are going to be doing a lot of pastoral care and a lot of administrative duties and a lot of theological instruction.
Doug McMasters: But the first thing that Peter says is that their primary role is to be a witness of the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: To stand before all who would listen and to speak about the resurrected Christ.
Doug McMasters: And to be able to say it from personal testimony.
Doug McMasters: I was there.
Doug McMasters: I saw him live, I saw him opposed, I saw him die, I saw him rise, I saw him ascended.
Doug McMasters: I was there, he would be able to say.
Doug McMasters: And the New Testament scholar John Polehild notes that the word martuse or witness carries with it a legal weight.
Doug McMasters: These are not people just simply sharing a religious experience.
Doug McMasters: These are people who making a witness testimony about a claim that could and should be cross-examined.
Doug McMasters: And they're inviting the cross-examination.
Doug McMasters: And in Acts chapter 2, which we'll get to next week and start into our study of that chapter, Peter stands up at Pentecost and he tells a crowd of people in Jerusalem that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.
Doug McMasters: And he's right in the middle of a city where the people could have walked 15 minutes to the tomb to check it out.
Doug McMasters: The claim was verifiable.
Doug McMasters: The witnesses were available.
Doug McMasters: The testimony was public.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because there needed to be an integrity of people who were bound together in a unified voice about the mighty acts of God.
Doug McMasters: Twelve of them.
Doug McMasters: Because in the Old Testament, the twelve tribes were meant to have a unified voice speaking to the world about the mighty acts of God.
Doug McMasters: And they didn't.
Doug McMasters: And so now here the people gathered by the resurrection are refilling the number 12 in order to be a unified voice of a testimony and a witness of the mighty acts of God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And they too would be going into all the world.
Doug McMasters: They were there.
Doug McMasters: They saw the Lord.
Doug McMasters: It's not a story, it's what happened.
Doug McMasters: Now, we don't need to keep filling the twelve.
Doug McMasters: We have the apostolic testimony preserved.
Doug McMasters: The New Testament contains the testimony of those who were there, whose testimony was irreplaceable, that was authoritative, and is sufficient.
Doug McMasters: But we continue into our generation to be the witnesses of that very same eyewitness account.
Doug McMasters: We share the good news.
Doug McMasters: We continue on.
Doug McMasters: And just notice the resurrection is not background here.
Doug McMasters: It's front and center everywhere.
Doug McMasters: And the last thing I want us to see this morning is not only do when they face a problem, they face it honestly and humbly, looking to scripture to understand and how to work through it.
Doug McMasters: But they also mark out and identify what the mission needs, and then they submit themselves to the God who sees everything.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verses 23 to 26.
Doug McMasters: So they propose two.
Doug McMasters: And when they prayed, you know, Lord, you know everyone's hearts.
Doug McMasters: Show which of these two you've chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.
Doug McMasters: And then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles.
Doug McMasters: Lord, you know all the hearts.
Doug McMasters: This church, this resurrection gathering had done all that it could do.
Doug McMasters: It had talked about the crisis, it had examined scripture, it laid out the qualifications, they identified people who were suitable for the situation from among them.
Doug McMasters: They named the two of them, and there are two guys who are equally capable of fulfilling the role.
Doug McMasters: We don't know much about these men.
Doug McMasters: We know a tiny little bit about Joseph called Barsabbas, because in Acts chapter 15, he's one of the guys who brings the letter from the council of Acts chapter 15 to the Gentiles and helps them understand the decision that was made there.
Doug McMasters: But we know almost nothing about them.
Doug McMasters: But what we do know is enough.
Doug McMasters: These men fulfilled the role.
Doug McMasters: Now there's something that needs to be done.
Doug McMasters: What do they do?
Doug McMasters: What everybody should do in a difficulty, what everybody should do in moments of great decision.
Doug McMasters: They prayed.
Doug McMasters: Then they prayed, Lord, you know everyone's hearts.
Doug McMasters: Show which of these two you've chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.
Doug McMasters: And this prayer is built on two affirmations about God.
Doug McMasters: One that he knows everybody's hearts, which is wonderful, and scary at the same time.
Doug McMasters: But think about it.
Doug McMasters: This gathering had done all that they could do.
Doug McMasters: They had fulfilled due diligence to all the way to the very point of their limitations.
Doug McMasters: They had looked at scripture, they understood what needed to happen, they had listed the qualifications, they had done some examination of some people, they had identified to, and there it stops.
Doug McMasters: They pray.
Doug McMasters: But they pray to the God who knows the hearts because they could know everything else.
Doug McMasters: One thing they don't know is what God knows.
Doug McMasters: The secret motivations of the heart.
Doug McMasters: What that person looks like when nobody's watching.
Doug McMasters: And the second thing that they say about God in their prayer is this show which of these two you have chosen.
Doug McMasters: That's an interesting way to put it because they're posturing themselves before the Lord in their decision making by saying, God, you already know which one it should be.
Doug McMasters: And so they're not asking God to ratify their decision.
Doug McMasters: And they're not presenting their favorite candidate and saying, well, he got more votes.
Doug McMasters: It's interesting.
Doug McMasters: They're saying, Lord, you've already made a choice.
Doug McMasters: Help us to determine what your will and purposes are.
Doug McMasters: And so with humility, they understand that their ability to see this thing has its limits.
Doug McMasters: And boy, is that a great place to be when you're in the middle of a difficult situation?
Doug McMasters: Is to offer yourself before God with that.
Doug McMasters: Lord, I really don't know what the next step is.
Doug McMasters: But I'm glad you do.
Doug McMasters: And I'm glad you know everything.
Doug McMasters: What did they do, though?
Doug McMasters: They cast lots.
Doug McMasters: Now, some people have questioned this, and they've gone, oh, what is this here?
Doug McMasters: Are these people reverting to some pagan practice?
Doug McMasters: Are they acting rashly?
Doug McMasters: Or what is this?
Doug McMasters: Are they departing from sound judgment?
Doug McMasters: No, no, they're not.
Doug McMasters: Especially according to their Jewish upbringing.
Doug McMasters: Casting lots had a very deep and a very specific root in the Old Testament.
Doug McMasters: Proverbs 16, verse 33 speaks about it very clearly.
Doug McMasters: The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision comes from the Lord.
Doug McMasters: So the lot and casting of lots was a practice that the Jewish people fulfilled in removing human preference from a decision and submitting that decision to God's divine intervention.
Doug McMasters: It wasn't superstition, it was an organized humility.
Doug McMasters: Now notice the times they used it.
Doug McMasters: They cast lots to divide the promised land into the various tribes after they got there.
Doug McMasters: The high priest carried the Uman and Thumen into the tabernacle to ask God where human wisdom would fail.
Doug McMasters: Even the scapegoat that was chosen on the Day of Atonement was determined by the casting of lots.
Doug McMasters: This was a very regular patterned behavior of the Jewish community at this time, to be able to find out what only God knew and what they needed to be told.
Doug McMasters: Now, this is, as far as I could tell, the last time we see this mentioned in Scripture, which I think tells us something, because when we turn the page into Acts chapter 2, everything changes.
Doug McMasters: And when you get to the determination to call missionaries out into the mission field, the Holy Spirit says, Give me.
Doug McMasters: And they don't cast lots, they pray, but they make a determination by the direction of the Holy Spirit, not in the casting of lots.
Doug McMasters: But I want you to notice something here.
Doug McMasters: The lots didn't come first.
Doug McMasters: The identification of the problem came first.
Doug McMasters: The recognition of the need to make a decision came first.
Doug McMasters: The listing of the qualifications preceded this.
Doug McMasters: The interviews with all the people that might possibly be candidates for this position happened.
Doug McMasters: The identification of two equally capable and qualified individuals was there.
Doug McMasters: And they prayed.
Doug McMasters: And only after all of that sequence do they leave it in the hands of God by the casting of lots.
Doug McMasters: They're not circumventing their discernment.
Doug McMasters: They're not just jumping at chance, and they're not being swayed by the populace.
Doug McMasters: They're offering themselves before God and casting lots.
Doug McMasters: And the lot fell on Matthias, and the number of twelve was filled.
Doug McMasters: So what does the text give us here?
Doug McMasters: It tells us what a church does in the middle of difficulty.
Doug McMasters: A church names the trouble, it identifies it clearly, it recognizes that it's got a problem.
Doug McMasters: Peter addresses it, but he brings in scripture to give insight and understanding and interpretation to the problem.
Doug McMasters: That problem leads to a decision that they have to take up.
Doug McMasters: It is necessary, is the same word that was there when it talked about Judas and his betrayal.
Doug McMasters: And so now they identify what the mission needs.
Doug McMasters: And then last of all, they submit themselves to the God who knows everything when they know they don't know everything.
Doug McMasters: I think that's a great triple set of principles for us when we deal with troubles.
Doug McMasters: And troubles will come.
Doug McMasters: They always do.
Doug McMasters: So here we are in Acts chapter one.
Doug McMasters: And I want us to finish off by just taking one last look at this phrase here.
Doug McMasters: Lord, you know everyone's hearts.
Doug McMasters: He knows the qualifications.
Doug McMasters: He knows the credentials.
Doug McMasters: And he knows the private life of the person.
Doug McMasters: He knows the heart.
Doug McMasters: He knows the things that are done in secret.
Doug McMasters: He knows.
Doug McMasters: And he knows every one of us.
Doug McMasters: He knows every motive of our heart, every action of ours outside the public eye, or even within the context of our family.
Doug McMasters: He knows it all.
Doug McMasters: He knows what resides within us.
Doug McMasters: And he knows every time we've acted like Judas, where we've had our moments of denial, and our moments of turning away, and our moments of betrayal.
Doug McMasters: He knows it all.
Doug McMasters: And you know what's amazing about that?
Doug McMasters: It didn't stop him one bit.
Doug McMasters: It didn't stop him one hesitation at all to go to the cross for us.
Doug McMasters: Isn't that wonderful?
Doug McMasters: The God who looked into the heart of Mateus and chose him is the same God who looks into our hearts.
Doug McMasters: The same God is the God who looked at Peter and saw him saying, I need to save my neck.
Doug McMasters: And brought them back.
Doug McMasters: That's the God who looks at this.
Doug McMasters: And when he sees not just this problem, when he sees the problem of the human dimension in our rebellion against the holy God, when he sees all of us cast out, there's none righteous, no, not one.
Doug McMasters: For all have gone astray, all have become together filthy.
Doug McMasters: What does he do?
Doug McMasters: He takes all of that and absorbs it to himself.
Doug McMasters: And he goes to the cross and becomes the very judged one for the judgment of others.
Doug McMasters: And if you believe on this Savior, you won't find him looking at your failures and saying, Why did you do that?
Doug McMasters: Don't you know better?
Doug McMasters: Do better next time.
Doug McMasters: He looks at you and says, Come to me.
Doug McMasters: I have accepted all of your wrongs to myself.
Doug McMasters: I have taken it all on me and given myself up for you.
Doug McMasters: And he rose from the dead to show that his sacrifice was sufficient to cover everyone, every one of your wrongs.
Doug McMasters: Hallelujah.
Doug McMasters: This is our Savior.
Doug McMasters: And he's now leading his people who are living their life in the light of this God.
Doug McMasters: And Peter, who knows this well, stands up and says, Guys, God helped me through the middle of my problems.
Doug McMasters: God's going to help us through this problem.
Doug McMasters: And that Jesus who said, Let's get back to work is going to help us through this.
Doug McMasters: So let's look at scripture.
Doug McMasters: Let's identify what we need.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: And God will be with us.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, we thank you for your word.
Doug McMasters: Passage of Scripture, which often is read with some confusion or perhaps only partial interest, is filled with wonderful insights of who you are and who your people are.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, we identify well with Peter.
Doug McMasters: We understand his failures.
Doug McMasters: And what we find amazing is to see him there standing up.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, we thank you that you make all your children stand up.
Doug McMasters: That you don't crush us.
Doug McMasters: That you heal us.
Doug McMasters: You break open the doors for the prisoners.
Doug McMasters: You bind up that which is broken.
Doug McMasters: You are our great shepherd.
Doug McMasters: Father, we are a weak people dependent upon you.
Doug McMasters: We don't know everything.
Doug McMasters: There's much that we don't.
Doug McMasters: We can hardly even speak honestly about the situations that arise.
Doug McMasters: Father, give us biblical understanding and biblical courage.
Doug McMasters: Give us direction by your spirit.
Doug McMasters: Give us an understanding in everything to be able to identify situations well.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, in humble submission and prayer, recognize that you're leading us and guiding us through.
Doug McMasters: Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in moments of personal and private difficulty.
Doug McMasters: May they find themselves doing the same.
Doug McMasters: May they not be relying upon their own resources, offering their own judgments, grabbing the wisdom of the world, that which is from below.
Doug McMasters: May they be filled with the fruit of wisdom from above that's pure and peaceful.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, we pray in everything that you'd be magnified by us and in us and through us.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.