Acts of the Apostles, chapter
one and verse 12. Come with me to verse 12. We've
been speaking a little bit about the disciples watching the Lord's
ascension up into heaven. And in verse 12, we read these
words. Then returned they, that is the
disciples, unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which
is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come
in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter,
and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew,
and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, Zelotis,
and Judas, the brother of James. These all continued with one
accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary, the
mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days Peter stood
up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names
together were about 120, men and brethren, this scripture
must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David speak before concerning Judas. which was guide to them
that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us and
had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field
with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong he burst asunder
in the midst and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known
unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch that that field is called
in their proper tongue, Akeldama. That is to say, the field of
blood. For it is written in the book
of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell
therein, and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore, of these men which
have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus
went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto
that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained
to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed
two, Joseph, called Barsebas, who was surnamed Justice, and
Matthias. And they prayed and said, Thou
Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whither of these
two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry
and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he
might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots,
and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the
eleven apostles. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. We spoke last week about the
acts of the apostles, reminding ourselves that these men, these
apostles, were the Lord's disciples who became the apostles and leaders
of the Lord's church and people. And I said I would ask you some
questions, didn't I? So, who can remember who wrote
the book of Acts? Yes, Luke did. And was this the
first book that he wrote? No. What was the other book that
he wrote? Yeah. The Gospel of Luke. And we talked about the fact
that this is a history that he has given. It's an account or
a history of all the things that happened from the birth of the
Lord Jesus Christ through to the end. Ascension of Christ,
and that was where he finished his first book, the Gospel of
Luke, and then the Acts of the Apostles, which he wrote from
the ascension of Christ back into heaven as the church was
established and the apostles went out carrying the gospel
to the ends of the earth as the Lord had commanded them to do. And I asked, if you would remember,
I think I've already given you this answer, but I asked also
that we might know who the apostles were. What made these men apostles? Why were they the apostles? Somebody at the back maybe could
tell me that. Why were these men the apostles? Did you ask it quite that way? because they had been Jesus'
disciples, and they had been taught by Jesus. They had been
his students. They had been the ones that had
spent time with the Lord, learning from him, hearing his message,
observing the things that he did, and becoming his disciples. messengers, or what the writer
Luke calls his witnesses, to carry that message of the Lord
Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. These were the witnesses
of Jesus. Now today, what I want to draw
your attention to is to notice that when the disciples or the
apostles, as they were now called, returned to Jerusalem, that they
stayed in the city of Jerusalem, because that's what the Lord
had told them to do. They had an appointment. in Jerusalem. Someone was coming to meet them
there, not the Lord. but the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit was going to come and meet the apostles and fill the
apostles and empower the apostles for their gospel ministry work. And they were to wait in Jerusalem
until the Holy Spirit came to them in power. And as we looked
at these verses that we read today, we discover that the disciples
that Jesus chose, and we get their names back in the Gospels,
are all here. They're all named again, and
in verse 13, and they're all here, except for one. Who wasn't there? Who was the one that had betrayed
the Lord Jesus and had taken his life? Anyone? Yes. Yes. We read his name, didn't we,
as well, as the passage was read to us there. Judas was dead by
now. He had taken his own life. So distressed, so condemned was
he. at the wickedness of his act,
his betrayal of the Lord Jesus, that he had cast aside the 30
pieces of silver that he had been given as a bribe and he
had taken his own life. So here are the 11 disciples
or the 11 apostles now and they are staying in Jerusalem as they've
been told. They're meeting together in an
upper room and they are with other followers of the Lord Jesus. We're told that there were 120
in total. Now that doesn't mean to say
that that 120 were all the believers that there were. in the land
or even in Jerusalem. But it was 120 that had gathered,
perhaps in one of the meeting rooms in the temple or perhaps
in someone's private accommodation, we don't exactly know. But these people had gathered
and they were united in their worship. They gathered to pray
They gathered to worship, they gathered to thank God for his
goodness and we're told that there was unity amongst them
and that they were of one accord. We're also told that in verse
14, Mary the mother of Jesus was there with his brethren or
with his extended family and this is the last time that we
meet with Mary in the scriptures. So here is Mary, after all that
she has been through, after all of her lifetime, from those earliest
days when the angel came and told her about the coming of
Jesus, through his lifetime, through his ministry, through
his crucifixion, and then his ascension. Here is Mary, with
the Lord's people, meeting together with them and worshipping together
with him. We don't know how long she continued
to live before she passed away, but here she was at these earliest
days of the gathered church in Jerusalem, there amongst the
Lord's people. And Peter, he stands up and he
quotes the Psalms. He goes back to the Scriptures
and he goes to the Psalms. Remember that the Acts of the
Apostles, indeed the Gospels and the Acts and the Epistles
of the Apostles were not yet written. So there was only the
Old Testament Scriptures. And Peter goes back to the Book
of the Psalms. We've already been reading that
this morning. And he shows from the Psalms how someone has to
be added to their number, to take the number of apostles back
up to 12 so that the loss of Judas won't jeopardise the ministry. Peter tells us that there is
a certainty, there is an absolute need for this individual to be
chosen. Some people will tell us that
this was a mistake and that it was Paul who was the twelfth
apostle, but I don't agree with that. I am happy to acknowledge
the authority of Peter on this matter, as I acknowledge the
authority of Peter on all that he has to say in the Scriptures
to us. And we're told in verse 22 that
Peter says that there must be one of those in that group that
should be ordained as a witness with us of the resurrection. And so there is a choice to be
made. And someone must be added to
replace Judas. They looked for people who were
able. They looked for people who were
equipped. They looked for people who had
the credentials had the experience to be able to add a witness of
the things that they had personally seen and heard to the testimony
of the apostles. And it seems that there were
at least two from the number that were eligible. a man called
Joseph, and a man called Matthias. And these were set before the
people by the apostles as being eligible to be joined to the
apostles, and they were chosen by lot. This is interesting because
sometimes people get a little bit uncertain and a little bit
doubtful about the fact that such an important thing was chosen
by lot. All I want to say about that
is this, that we don't actually know how that lot was cast. A lot has the meaning of being
a little pebble. And sometimes that lot would
be put in a bag and a hand would be put in and the pebble would
be brought out and that was the answer. But other times, it's
quite likely that people cast their lot in the same way as
they cast a vote. So there's no reason to doubt
but that the 120 people here cast the lot by voting on the
individual that they wanted to take the place of Judas. They
prayed to God and they cast their lot with knowledge and wisdom
and awareness of the importance of the task before them. And
we're told that Matthias was chosen. This was one of the ways
in which we can see the church of God coming together in this
new apostolic age. The church is called in the scriptures,
the church of God, and it is called the church of the living
God. And we are reminded by that,
that the elect of God, the people of God, the chosen of God, were
given to the Lord Jesus Christ. These are God's people given
to the Lord Jesus Christ in union, and Christ was made head of that
people, of that body of people, and he was called the husband,
and they were called the bride. And this is a picture of the
gathering together, the union, the church, the body, the bride
of Christ. All these words encompass the
people of God, the people that were given to the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we hear the Lord saying in
Matthew chapter 16, for example, Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. The church did not begin in acts. The church was there in the Old
Testament as well. But here we see the first gatherings
of the congregation of the Lord's people. The forming of companies
of believers joined together to worship. And that's what we're
doing here this morning. We're replicating that. We don't
any longer have the apostles amongst us but we do have the
apostolic testimony. We have the words of the apostles
and we have the ministry of the gospel given to us and granted
to us as the gathered church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we see as we begin this Acts of the Apostles, patterns of
worship and principles of gathering that have continued to be used
by the people of God in the 2,000 years that have passed since
these earliest days of the apostles. From the start, all of the apostles
took their role and responsibility very seriously. We can see that
in the way in which Matthias was chosen. And some of these
men in the Acts of the Apostles we will hear about again, and
others will simply disappear into history, and we won't know
another thing about them. Why? because they were being
obedient to the command of Christ. And after the Holy Spirit came,
and after they were anointed, they went out carrying the message
of the gospel, and they were never heard of again. But for
now, They wait for Pentecost. They wait for the Holy Spirit
to come. And we'll pick up on that story
next week. Thank you for your attention.