Seeking the Divine Will - Pastor Tom Loghry
As the Apostles await the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they trust in His power as they choose the disciple who will replace Judas as one of the twelve.
Transcript:
The Apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. The present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
I don't know about you, but I've been watching the weather forecast more closely lately. With all this cold weather, I'm expecting a major snow storm at any time. I want to be able to plan accordingly, and I'm sure you do also. Even if we lament their occasional failures, we have to admit that we rely quite a bit on the forecast of meteorologists.
Our plans are shaped by what they have to say. They have our devoted attention. It makes me wonder, there's nothing wrong with how we pay attention to the weather forecast. But it does bring a comparison to mind. As much as we seek guidance from meteorologists, do we seek even more guidance from God? I'm not so sure.
Many of us, and I include myself, are tempted to reduce divine guidance to principles. To set a, to a set of rules for the road. And no doubt we find guidance in truth. But we sometimes reduce this truth to an impersonal set of facts that we are left to weigh and assess on our own. It is very western of us to do that, but it is not very Christian. The early believers expected that God would guide them. That, as Jesus said, the Spirit would guide them into all the truth. And they doggedly sought his personal direction, turning to him with absolute devotion and expectation. This is what we see from the beginning after Christ's ascension.
As we move on to verses 12 to 14, we recall what has just transpired. Jesus was crucified. Three days later, He was raised from the dead. And then for 40 days, He was with His disciples, showing them evidences of the reality of His resurrection, teaching them. And here at the outset of Acts, we've heard the testimony of his ascension to heaven.
They saw him with his eyes ascending to heaven. And they were told by a pair of angels who attended that ascension that Jesus was going to return bodily in that same manner. So as we move on to verses 12 through 14, we see them moving on from where they were on the Mount of Olives. If you look at the map here, the Mount of Olives is kind of to the right over here.
And they made their way into Jerusalem. And as they made their way, it wasn't a very long distance. It was about five, about one and a half miles. It's only a 37 minute walk just to the city center. We don't know exactly where they were going. It says they went to an upper room. Perhaps it was the same upper room in which they shared the last supper with Jesus, but in any case, not a far walk, a Sabbath day walk, which is said to be a five eighths of a mile. So perhaps a little less than the city center. And as they went along, it says, it says in Luke 24, verse 52, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. So they were not downcast by Jesus's departure. They were filled with joy by everything that they had, that he had told them.
And what he had told them was that they needed to go and wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which was to come. And so, they are in Jerusalem, awaiting this promised baptism. Eleven of the disciples are gathered, listed here in these verses. And it also says some of the women disciples were there as well.
Along with Mary. This is something we don't think about very often, the fact that Jesus had brothers, and he did. And in fact, later we see that his brother James becomes a great leader of the church and writes the epistle of James that we find in our New Testament. And the nature of their time together is characterized in this way in verse 14.
It says they all joined together constantly in prayer. They were together in constant prayer. From the very beginning of the life of the church, it is defined by this activity of prayer. And moving forward in the New Testament, we see again and again how believers are admonished to follow this sort of devotion, this pattern of devotion to prayer.
Romans 12: 12, Paul says be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. In Colossians 4: 2, he says devote yourselves to prayer. Be watchful and thankful. In Ephesians 6: 18, he says pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.
When we think about the early church, we might think of their fellowship together. We might think of the preaching of the apostles, but do we think of how much their life together was saturated by prayer? It's the defining characteristic of the early church. And so as we see their example, we have to ask the question, Is this the defining characteristic of our church?
Is it the defining characteristic of the church in America today? That we are constant in prayer. That we are devoted to prayer. As we see in the following verses, they are pressing into prayer, especially on one important matter. It says in verse 15, In those days, Peter stood up among the believers, a group numbering about a hundred and twenty, and said, Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.
He was one of our number and shared in our ministry. With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field. There he fell headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in that language, Akeldama, that is, field of blood.
So when Luke says that, in those days, Peter stood up and spoke to the brethren gathered there, what we're talking about here is these ten days leading up to the day of Pentecost in which this baptism of the Holy Spirit is going to occur. And we see now that there are many disciples gathered here. Again, when we think about the disciples, we usually just think about the 12.
But Jesus had many more disciples than just the 12. And we see 120 gathered here. And it's interesting to wonder where they're meeting here. Whether they're still in that upper room or not. Because if they're in that upper room, it is now a very crowded room with all of them together. Peter stands up and speaks to them because he is concerned about the fulfillment of Scripture.
All of Jesus' ministry has been characterized by everything that he's done fulfilling the Scriptures. Fulfilling something that was said would occur. In Luke 24, verse 44, he told his disciples, This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.
And we'll see here that Peter's going to reference the Psalms. The Psalms anticipate what transpired and what will need to occur. But it's interesting to see what he says here regarding Scripture. He says something we can easily just roll past. But it's a reminder to us about the nature of Scripture.
Remember, the name of the series is The Spirit and the Church. And here, boom, we see an appearance of the Holy Spirit. Here, the Spirit spoke through David in the Psalms that he wrote. See, the Spirit wasn't just showing up on the scene here in the early church. The Spirit had been active long ago and had always been present.
And as we look to the testimony of the New Testament elsewhere, it's made very clear to us that the scriptures are not some man made creation. When we say that the Holy Scriptures are inspired, we're not saying that just some guys that were very creative wrote them up. When we say that the scriptures are inspired, we are saying that they were composed under the guiding presence and work of the Holy Spirit.
So in 2nd Peter 1, we see the Apostle Peter say this. Verses 20 through 21. He says, Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Peter's not denying that, yes, human beings have a place. They are participating in these scriptures coming into being, but they're not doing it on their own. They're writing as they are carried along by the Holy Spirit. Paul in 2 Timothy 3: 16- 17, this is a great passage to remember. If you think about John 3: 16 being kind of a pivotal verse to remember about salvation in Jesus Christ.
Think about 2 Timothy 3: 16 as being that passage for remembering the nature of Scripture. Paul says this, All Scripture is God breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. All of Scripture is God breathed.
Not just parts of it. All of it. So when we're talking about the Holy Spirit carrying along these men as they wrote the Scriptures. When we say the scriptures are inspired, we're allowing that the spirit can work through many means. It may be direct dictation, saying, to the one who is writing, write exactly this.
It may be through a visionary experience that is given to the writer. Or the Holy Spirit may be just working together, orchestrating insight on the part of the person that is writing the Scriptures, using even their background, their upbringing, working all things together, so that God is putting forth through this person exactly what needs to be said, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And so it's in this manner that Peter says that the Holy Spirit spoke through David concerning Judas. Now, many of you know, most of you know who Judas is. It's interesting though, it's a, and sometimes the names vary just because guys go by different names sometimes. And we'll see this actually later in this passage.
So some of the lists of the apostles are slightly different. Not a discrepancy, it's just a difference in what name they're using. It's funny to see that one of the disciples gathered in this upper room was Judas son of James. Now Peter's not talking about that Judas. Poor guy. Same name as the other Judas.
Judas Iscariot. That's the Judas we're talking about. Now Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve and he betrayed Jesus. He was the keeper of the money, was actually for the group, you know, disciples need finances to get a meal, all that kind of stuff. He was the one who was the keeper of the money. He would take some of the money for himself.
And eventually at some point, he obviously became disillusioned by Jesus. And we see him complaining about when a woman anoints him with this expensive perfume and he's like, couldn't we have sold that? You know, made a bunch of money off of that. Well, instead, Judas decides, I'm going to get some money for my own.
I'm going to sell out Jesus. Sells him out to the high priest for 30 pieces of silver. Leads the guards to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so Jesus is ultimately led to Calvary. It says, though, that when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with regret for what he had done and realized that he had just led an innocent man to his death.
And so he tries to go back to the high priest and say, take the money back. And they're like, we're having nothing to do with that. That's your problem. And, and so he ends up going and he hangs himself. And we don't know exactly how this happened, but based on what Luke is saying, it kind of sounds like he hung himself, he fell, maybe had been hanging for a while, his body burst open.
Very gross scene, but it's, that's how you get the name of the field, which is Akeldama, field of, field of blood. Now, what's notable about all this, as far as what Peter's trying to say here, is that Judas was no surprise. God knew the place that Judas was going to play in his plan all along. God is completely sovereign over all circumstances.
And he was working together, even this betrayal, for the good of his children. Think about what Paul testifies in Romans 8: 28. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And so, specifically in the case of Judas, Peter says this.
This is what has been, this is what was anticipated. Verses 20 through 22. For, said Peter, it is written in the book of Psalms, May his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it, and may another take his place of leadership. Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who has been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us.
For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. Now, the psalms that Peter is referencing here are psalms, Psalm 69: 25 and Psalm 109: 8. And when you look at those Psalms, you'll read them, and you might look at them and say, I mean, it's not completely obvious to me that these verses are talking about Judas.
But what is obvious about those Psalms is that they're talking about a traitor. It's talking about betrayal. And remember the one who is writing these psalms, we're talking about King David. And so, what we have in Judas and Jesus in relation to these psalms, is the consummate fulfillment of what those psalms are talking about.
Judas is the consummate traitor. And so he's fulfilling that which was spoken in the psalms. And Jesus is the consummate king. The promised one, the one who would suffer as a servant king. And so it's in this way that Peter is referencing these Psalms saying, this is all anticipating what happened with Judas and with Jesus.
And so, in verse 21, he says, Therefore, meaning, therefore to fulfill these scriptures completely, because what he's talking about is that, Another one who should take the place of this one who's been the traitor. Therefore, to fulfill these scriptures, and to make sure that we have a witness who has seen everything from beginning to end in Jesus' ministry.
Not just the end, they didn't just show up when he rose from the dead, but from the very beginning when he was baptized, in order to have a complete witness, and to fulfill these scriptures, we must find someone to replace Judas.
Now, recall that 120 of them are gathered at this point. So, from that group, and however many had been with Jesus from the beginning, they needed to identify one man that would replace Judas. Now, as we'll see in these last verses, they use a method that's unfamiliar to most of us. We look at verses 23 through 26.
It says, So they nominated two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs. And they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias.
So he was added to the eleven apostles.
What I want you to notice in these verses is just the humble posture of the apostles in trying to identify who should replace Judas. You might imagine he's like, Oh, well, these guys had been with Jesus the whole time. Maybe they'd feel like we're going to decide who's going to enter our exclusive 12 person club.
They don't feel that way about it at all. They're coming humbly before God, recognizing that only God can determine who this man would be. God in His perfect knowledge, because God knows the heart. They say, Lord, You know everyone's heart. You see this testimony in Scripture. And in 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel's trying to identify who's to be the new king of Israel ultimately leads him to David, but he's having a tough time knowing who among all of David's brothers is to be the king, all the sons of Jesse.
The Lord reminds Samuel, he says, do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Psalm 44: 20- 21 says, if we had forgotten the name of our God or spread our hands to a foreign God, would not God have discovered it since he knows the secrets of the heart?
So for good or for ill, God knows our hearts. He knows exactly what is going on there.
So if people are judging you, saying, you look like you're messed up, but maybe you're being misunderstood or something, you can know. But on the other hand, you could put on the perfect religious experience and people would think, like, yeah, that guy should be the next apostle. God knows the heart. And he knows if we're just putting on an appearance.
Now, the apostles do reduce their choice down to two men. But in this circumstance, they remove their own judgment and leave judgment to God's hand by casting lots. Again, very interesting because we don't see this today. But there is a precedence for it. It's not just something that they came up with. We see this all throughout the scripture, especially the Old Testament.
In Joshua 14, too, we see how the assignments of the land to the tribes was determined by God. In Nehemiah 10: 34, we see how the priests, the Levites, cast lots to determine who was going to be bringing wood to burn on the altar of the Lord. In Leviticus 16: 8, we see lots being cast for determining which goat would serve as the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, and which of the goats would be offered as a sacrifice.
So we see this precedent. And what they're doing in casting these lots is not just leaving it up to luck of the dice. What they're doing is they're bringing the matter before God in order that He might make clear what is to happen. You see this very clearly elsewhere in Joshua 18: 6 when it's talking about this division of the land.
Joshua says, I will cast lots for you in the presence of the Lord our God. The point, again, is direction from God. Even among pagans, jonah 1: 7. Remember, Jonah's running away from his calling to go to Nineveh. He's on the ship, it's getting tossed all over the place by a storm. The sailors say to each other, come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.
They cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Clearly, God was working through the lots so that Jonah would be identified. In Proverbs 16: 33, it says the lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord. And so, the primary reason why lots are used is in order to get a determination from God. We can also see how using lots could be a measure of wisdom in order to avoid conflict.
Proverbs 18: 18 says, Casting a lot settles disputes and keeps strong opponents apart. You can see how a fight might break out if it appears like you're choosing favorites. Casting lots avoids that. 1 Chronicles 24: 5 It talks about how lots were used to divide things impartially. Now, what's notable, though, is even while we have this very strong precedent for lots being used, which explains their use here, it's notable that we don't see them being used after this point.
When Paul and Barnabas are sent as apostles, out to the rest of the Mediterranean, to the Gentiles. We don't see that being sorted out by the use of lots. When the church has to later on identify those who would serve as deacons in the church, they do not use lots. When the church needs to decide, are we going to allow Gentiles who are not circumcised to be counted among the body of Christ, they don't decide the matter, yes or no, using lots.
Everything from the chronology, the storyline, the narrative that we have points to this, that things change after the Holy Spirit comes and the believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit. And we're not denying that the apostles are clearly being guided here by the Holy Spirit, but this is a very unique circumstance that's transpiring here.
The selection of one who would replace one of the Apostles number.
And, as in the case of Paul, we can see Paul wasn't identified as an Apostle by lots, but by a very unique confrontation on the road of Damascus in Galatians 1: 1, Paul says of himself, Paul an Apostle sent not from men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. We can see in the same way in which Paul is trying to make it clear, like, he's not a self made apostle.
In these circumstances, it needs to be clear that this man who would be an apostle and witness was not a man made apostle. We can also imagine how this probably helps facilitate the choice, and again, making clear that it's not due to any partiality among the leaders of the church. Apparently, these two were both very fine men.
And so at the end of the day, if it was left to them, it could become arbitrary. You know, and just kind of joking, maybe one of the disciples is like, oh, I really like the bread that guy makes, so I'm going to make him the apostle. I want to have that guy around. We remove all concern of that by the casting of lots in this instance.
But because this happens before the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because we do not see this moving forward, we can know that this is not a normative means of judgment for us. That we shouldn't be pulling out a couple of knuckle bones or dice or whatever they used to cast lots in order to determine what direction we should go.
Instead, we have the presence, the indwelling presence of the person of the Holy Spirit within us, which is much more profound than the casting of lots, to guide us into what the Lord would will for our lives. And we have this promise going from all the way back into the Old Testament, verse many of you are familiar with, Proverbs three, five through six, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, And he will make your path straight. Clearly, in these circumstances, the apostles were led to use lots. But moving forward, trusting in the Lord, leaning not on our own understanding, looks like beseeching the Lord in constant prayer, expecting guidance from the Holy Spirit.
And Psalm 73 verses 21 through 24 says when my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. Now, how many of you have felt like that before? Before God? I felt like that. I felt like that. And then it says, yet I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory. That's the promise that we have as Christians. Like, yeah, sometimes we're going to be brute beasts. We get way off track. But God is right there, holding us by the right hand. And He will guide us as we turn to Him and as we march towards the coming Kingdom.
The question, though, is this. Do we seek His guidance? Do we seek His counsel? Are we constant in approaching God in prayer, expecting his answer? Are we so interested in shaping our lives according to what he would reveal, as we are in arranging our lives around a mere weather forecast? This is the challenge those early believers give us.
Their life, their conduct, shows us the way. Following their pattern is both an individual and collective responsibility. It's something you must reckon in your personal life, but it's something that we must also work out together. Because we see here that they prayed together. But it's not just a responsibility for responsibility's sake.
Some arbitrary religious burden laden upon you and me. Think of the reward set before us.
We pray, and God answers. We pray, and God will guide our steps into exactly what we need to do. What else could we want?
What else could we want? Unless we are only interested in our own way. Consider these things. Let us pray.
Father,
the example of these early believers leaves an impression upon us, Father. We see their devotion to prayer, Father. How they gathered together and sought your face. And we desire that for ourselves, Father.
Father, we confess we can so often get off track. We desire that, Father, but we so easily just
resort to just looking to our own wisdom. Maybe just googling things, Father.
Father, impress upon us this. The reality of the guidance that you're offering to us. The true gift that we have in the person of the Holy Spirit. That if we will turn to you, if we will bring every matter on all occasions before you in prayer, you will guide our steps. You will guide us into what we need to do.
Father, fill us with the faith of the apostles. Make us constant in prayer so that what defines the early church would define this church today. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series The Spirit and the Church. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)