Acts 1:12–26

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Or no, what am I talking about? We're not going to go through the wisdom literature. We're from Acts to Philemon this year, Acts to Philemon this year. Why don't we have some coffee?
Obviously, I need it. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. We pray now that as we read your word, you would teach us. Lord, we thank you for the work that your Holy Spirit has done in establishing your church and sending out your gospel. We pray that you would watch over us now in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Acts chapter 1, verses 12 through 26. Acts chapter 1, verses 12 through 26. Remember, yesterday we saw that Jesus ascended up into heaven, and he had promised that he was going to send his Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus had promised in the book of John as well, when he said he would not leave them as orphans, but that he would send them his Spirit. So let's turn our eyes to God's Word now. When they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey, and when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. Well, first, let's stop there and we'll ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize that paragraph? And C, what is that calling us to do? Well, A, what is this about? What does this just outright teach us?
Well, they depart from where they were at Mount Olivet, and they just go a little bit of a journey away, and they go to the upper room. And there it's all the apostles together, the ones that Jesus himself had called, and they get there together and they pray, and they make supplications. And this is the point, and it's not just Dom, but also notice the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, with his brothers were also there. So we even have Judah, or what we call James, Jesus's brother, is there also, and his other brothers. are there, and his mother is there, the women are there, and so there's this church meeting, there's this ecclesiastical meeting, there's this discipleship gathering that's happening as they are praying with one another.
Well, I think the best verse I would underline there for me is, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. That's what I've underlined in my Bible. I think that that's Getting at the heart of what this is, the life of Jesus' followers is marked by having a unity of heart in prayer and supplication. And what are we called to do from that? Well, do you pray? Jesus told his disciples that he would leave and that they were to pray. Are you praying? Do you go to the Lord's Prayer?
I was just yesterday, I'll put a link to this, let me reach over here one second. Just yesterday I was reading through A Simple Way to Pray for Master Peter the Barber written by Dr. Martin Luther in 1535. I recorded an audio version of that last night and I was just thinking about the instruction that Jesus gave us to pray in the Lord's Prayer and the different petitions that he's given us. I'd highly recommend, if you've never read A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther, it's worth its weight in gold, and when I get it finished being edited audio, I'll put it out on the church Facebook page. Well, let's keep going.
Verses 15 through 22, or 26, sorry. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. Altogether, the number of names was about 120. Whoa, this is not just a couple people, but 120 people are at this prayer meeting. Altogether, the number of the names was about 120, and said, so Peter's saying this, men and brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry. So he's saying that Judas fulfilled the ministry that the Holy Spirit had given him, but it was not a good one. It was one to lead those who would arrest Jesus, but Jesus did it for, or the Holy Spirit did it for a reason.
Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and his entrails gushed out. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem. So that field is called, in their own language, akel d'mah. That is, field of blood.
So here, Peter is telling us what happened to Judas Iscariot after he had betrayed Jesus, after he had gotten the silver money, he threw it into the temple, but then that money was impure, it couldn't be used, so they went out and they bought a field, and it's called the field of blood.
And Judas himself went out to a place and he hung himself. And when he died, his entrails, it's this kind of a gory thing here that Dr. Luke gives us. But this is what Peter is talking about, that this is what happened to Judas Iscariot. For it is written in the book of Psalms, so here he's actually quoting what he says Judas fulfilled. So he says that the Holy Spirit was talking about Judas Iscariot. And so his office was going to be taken away from him and it was going to be given to someone else.
So interpreting those passages, Peter goes on to say, Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, One of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So he says, hold on, we need to find someone that was with us all the way from the baptism, all the way through these past 40 days, seeing his resurrection so they can be a witness. What did Jesus tell them?
That they were to be the witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and through the ends of the earth. And they proposed to Joseph, called Barnabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed, notice this, and they prayed and said, O you Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two men you have chosen, to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles." So what happens here is they say, okay, let's stop.
A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Now, we need to be careful because this is a narrative passage. And not all narrative is necessarily commands for what we ought to do, but it can be a pattern.
But we're going to see here, they do this. They think they need to choose the next apostle. But we're going to find out that the Holy Spirit actually has different plans. Jesus has another idea of what's going to happen. So there's a gap. What's this about? There's a gap. They have 11 apostles. There should be 12, right? They've got to go out two by two. So how is this going to happen?
Well, They say, well, okay, Judas Iscariot got his lot, he transgressed and he fell from the office of apostle because of his apostasy. And so because of that, we need to choose another person. So they pray, but they don't try to choose him just generally, but they say, okay, there's two different men here, which is going to be the best one? Which is going to be the one? So they propose two. They call Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. So they have these two. They have Joseph called Barabbas and they have Matthias. Which of these two is it going to be?
And they say, okay, let's let the Lord decide. Just like in Old Testament times, we'll cast the lot and we'll trust God's sovereignty. We'll throw a dice, we'll throw two sticks down. However they decided to cast the lot and they would trust whatever the Lord by his providential hand decided. And it landed on Matthias.
They pray about this, they ask the Lord for it, and it seems like the answer is it should be Matthias. Now this is an interesting point here that the lots should be used sparingly. There's a really famous story if you have ever studied the church history around the first great awakening with Wesley and Whitfield and they were two different types of people and they disagreed on soteriology and when they disagreed on this, What Wesley did is he cast lots to figure out should he dispel should he move away from? Whitfield or not and He started preaching against Whitfield in his absence something that ripped apart their friendship and destroyed their ministry Give me one second.
A child is knocking at the door. Hold on. I Hope they want to join us OK, come on. Come on, Deborah. Come on, come on, come on. If you're if you want to knock on the door, you got to be on coffee and devotions. OK, so what's the best verse to underline in this section? Well, I do think them trusting in the Lord is good, even though we shouldn't use lots so loosely.
But I think, again, on verse 24, "...and they prayed and said, You, O Lord, know the hearts of all. Show which of these two you have chosen." And it is indeed the Lord who knows our hearts. Does the Lord know your heart? Do you think the Lord knows best when we try to make our plans? Do we devise our paths?
Yeah, right. We can think, oh, I'm going to go here and I'm going to do such and such. But is it the Lord who decides? Yeah, that's right. Well, let's go ahead and pray now. Father, we thank you that you know our hearts, that you care for us. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you and love you. Lord, we thank you for your care for us. We pray that we would walk in your ways and we would bow to your providential hand in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk with joy and peace and I'll talk to you or I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.