Prayer, preparation and pain

Today we’re in Acts 1.15-26 but first let me very briefly recap. Just before the risen Lord Jesus ascended into heaven to reign at his Father’s side (Acts 1.9) he made a promise, that he will send God’s living presence, God the Holy Spirit, into the lives of his followers so they can carry out the task he’s assigned them to do, namely be his witnesses, Acts 1.8:

You will receive power [there’s the promise] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you [there’s the presence] and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth [there’s the purpose].

So, what do you expect to find this group of Christ followers or fledgling church doing in response? Well, what the church would probably do today is have a committee meeting or a General Synod. But that’s not what we find these believers doing. In fact there are three things which mark the emerging church at the beginning of its new and vibrant life under the loving reign of King Jesus.

First and foremost, as we saw last week, there’s prayer (Acts 1.12-14):

Then they returned to Jerusalem [as they’d been told Acts 1.4] 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.

No sooner had Jesus taken his place as the absolute ruler of the universe, his followers had a prayer meeting. And so we are called to pray as a church, as we look forward to new opportunities under him as we prepare to gradually unlock and relaunch, so to speak, JPC with more in person services and groups, whilst also continuing with online services and ministries, such as Explored groups and God’s Big Picture. We praise God for the opportunities we’ve had to share Jesus more widely, from Essex to Northern Ireland, South Africa to Washington DC, through the pandemic and now we need to continue to pray for those gospel opportunities but also to pray for the opportunity to welcome more people in person as well. It’s going to be something of a both and future for services, evangelism and for some ongoing ministry. For example, while many Home Groups will want to meet in person again, there could be some new Home Groups which only meet online, at least in the short term. You can’t really have a hybrid Home Group. So we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work leading and guiding us in all our preparations, which brings us secondly to the fact, that in Acts 1.15-26, the fledgling church was busy in preparation, including sorting a change in the leadership team under God.

Now we’ll come back to the question of Judas Iscariot later, but take a look in Acts 1.20-26 at the reason Peter gives for the need to choose a replacement. Quoting from Psalm 109, Peter, the leading apostle says:

…“Let another take his office [or place of leadership, literally, ‘oversight’, from which we get our word bishop. So, it was necessary to choose, v21-22:] 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 Jesus was taken up from us - one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”

All this raises two questions. First, why did Judas Iscariot, one of the original 12 disciples, have to be replaced? Why not stick with eleven? How will one more make much of a difference? And second, why was it a qualification for such a replacement that he had to have been with Jesus from the beginning to the end of his earthly public ministry? So, why 12 apostles and not 11, what’s the big deal? Well, just think of that number 12 and link it back to the question the disciples asked Jesus before he left them, Acts 1.6:

“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

That wasn’t such a stupid question as some claim. Remember these disciples had had nearly six weeks of teaching from the risen Jesus about the kingdom of God. They knew the Old Testament prophets linked the pouring out of God’s Spirit in the reign of the Messiah with a change in the fortunes of Israel, its ‘restoration’. Look at the words spoken to the Jewish exiles in Isaiah 44:3:

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring.

Then Micah 4:8:

…the former dominion shall come [or be restored to you]; kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

Well, here is the King - Jesus, so where is the kingship and restoration of Israel? Now in the Old Testament the complete number of God’s people was the 12 tribes. In the New Testament, it’s the apostles which form the nucleus of God’s restored people - this is Israel. But the number is incomplete; there are 11 apostles rather than 12. And so there has to be a restoring of this Israel, bringing the number up to 12 before the Holy Spirit can be outpoured so that all the world can see that Jesus is the King and that the church is his people, the new Israel. So, to fulfil Scripture as summarised by Psalm 109, a replacement for Judas has to be found. Do you see?

So who qualifies as a replacement and why? It has to be someone who was with Jesus from the beginning and this is linked to their role of being a witness. That’s what Jesus said the apostles had to be in Acts 1.8, so these original men were the witnesses, not us. And by definition a witness had to be present in order to see and hear certain things. Let me give you some examples closer to home. There have been two murders on our road since we moved here, just over a year ago. But there was no point in me being called as a witness in court because I didn’t see anything or even know there had been two murders until after those tragic events. Then on the next street two men stole a car and very deliberately backed it into the front window and wall of my local barber’s shop! Again I couldn’t be called as a witness as I wasn’t there and didn’t know anything about it until the CCTV footage appeared on the local news’ website. However, I did see someone collapse in our road due to a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, so after calling the paramedics, I could tell them what happened because I witnessed it. I was there and had seen it. And by the way can I say it’s a quiet street and area really – you’re safe to come and visit from 17 May!

Similarly, here in Acts, men were needed as apostles who could tell the story of Jesus first-hand. They could say, ‘I was there when the Spirit came upon Jesus in the Jordan, I saw it with my own two eyes. I heard God’s voice say, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’ (Mark 1.11). I can tell you what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount for I was right there with him. I saw his amazing miracles and perfect life. I saw him strung up on a cross and laid in a tomb dead. I was there when he came into that room large as life three days later. I was there when he ascended from the Mount of Olives returning to heaven to claim his kingdom - ask me any questions you want. And you know what? I’m so convinced of this I’m willing to die for it.’ Now that’s a witness! So that means today we’re witnesses only in a derived sense. We’re not witnesses in an Acts of the Apostles sense - for only they are authentic witnesses in that they were there from the start. The apostle Paul was an exception, but that’s another story. So our witness is to their witness about Jesus.

And it appears two men equally qualify - Barsabbas and Matthias. Now what do you do? Two candidates who both fit the criteria. Well, we’ve already seen that these two have been active in prayer, so they’ve submitted to God’s sovereign rule. But there’s no ‘voice from heaven’ no ‘leading’, so they toss a coin, heads it’s Barsabbas and tails Matthias. That’s what casting a lot effectively is, tossing a coin. It came up tails and everyone is happy. And why not? If there’s really no difference between the two. So it makes little difference who gets the job, but we still don’t want to leave God out of the decision-making process altogether, yet you believe he’s sovereign over so called ‘chance’- tossing the coin, as Proverbs 16.33 states:

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

So that’s a reasonable way to come to a decision when you face two equal choices - toss a coin and trust God. It’s perfectly biblical. The result? Well there’s the ‘restoration of Israel’ in the restoration of the apostles. Here is God’s new community, his new nation with his special witnesses who are now set to get on with the business of taking the Gospel into the world. The preparation has been done under the Sovereignty of God.

But there’s a third aspect to this fledgling church alongside prayer and preparation: pain or sorrow. At the outset there’s some sadness and tragedy hanging over the emerging church as Peter speaks in Acts 1.16:

“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.”

Those are chilling words. Whatever the divine plan, whatever the divine foreknowledge involved, one of Jesus’ closest friends, one of his most effective ministers, Judas Iscariot, prompted by the devil (John 13.2), deliberately chose to betray him, and then went on to buy a field with the blood money and then killed himself with gross results and everyone in Jerusalem knew about it. Can you imagine having that scandal hanging around the fledgling church’s neck? But can you also imagine how they felt about it? This is someone who’d been with Jesus from the beginning, who’d preached the Gospel, who’d cast out demons, who’d healed the sick, who’d sung hymns to God with Jesus and shared his last meal, who seemed to have everything going for him- the church treasurer no less, a position of responsibility and trust. And yet in reality Judas was a materialist, a thief, secretly helping himself to the contents of the disciples’ money bag (John 12.6). He’s the one who got rid of Jesus to his everlasting shame. Sometimes we have a rather rosy view of the early church, as if it was pure and pristine only later to lose its way and become corrupted with all the heresy and worldliness. The fact is the church was born with corruption in place. Judas was one of the 12! And I don’t think there’s any doubt that Judas is meant to serve as a warning to us all. It’s possible to be close to Jesus without being one with Jesus. It’s possible to perform the ministry of Jesus without being a true believer in Jesus. Don’t ask me how; it just seems to be the case that this happens.

Jesus warns about it in the Sermon on the Mount and there he’s speaking to his disciples, the 12 and a few more who were listening, like Barsabbas and Matthias. And this is more common in the church than perhaps we’d want to think – after all Judas was one twelfth of Jesus’ disciples - and when it happens it’s very sad. A number of years ago an outstanding preacher from whom many learnt so much through his talks and books, packed it all in, left his wife and three children to go off with a man. And such happens again and again as many of us are aware today. Satan is always on the lookout for church leaders especially, who therefore perhaps especially need prayer and accountability. And we all know of former active church members who are now nowhere. We’re to pray and weep for them and all of us, both leaders and members, are to take heed to ourselves and watch out for each other and listen to the advice and rebukes and warnings when they come. Yet this sadness will remain with the church until she’s consummated in glory – that’s the tragic reality and we need to be prepared for that.

Nonetheless God’s work still goes on. The setbacks are overcome, Judas is lost, Matthias is gained and the Gospel goes out to the end of the world - Jesus is reigning and will reign. But please God may he reign in our hearts first.