Living in Expectation
Acts 1:9-26
My daughter is reading a book that appears to be a popular book in the homes of mothers who are expecting today. It has a catchy title and I’ll bet some of you have seen it, too. It’s entitled, “What to Expect when You’re Expecting.” Isn’t that a great title? The book seeks to prepare mothers for the birth of their baby by answering common questions and even providing a month-by-month account of what mothers can expect while they’re expecting.
I thought of this book as I studied the passage this
week. What you have here in Acts 1 is an account of the days preceding the birth of the church. We’re going to see in Acts chapter 2 the birth of the church. Pentecost is the birth of the church. It is at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles, equipping them with power to take the Gospel and share it with the the world.
So there’s a sense in which the apostles in Acts 1 are expecting. In verses 4 and 5 before Jesus ascends into heaven He tells them to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes to them. So they’re expecting. They are awaiting what would be the day of the birth of the church.
As we look more closely at these verses, we’ll learn from the apostles how to be a church with a sense of expectancy.
Every time we gather we should gather with a deep sense of expectancy about what God will do in us and through us. We should gather together with expectant hearts.
What does a church look like when the church has a sense of expectancy?
How do the church members behave who gather with expectancy?
I. There will be a Longing for the Lord’s Presence (9-11)
Remember, Jesus has just spoken what we are calling the key verse of the entire book (8).
What happens next (9)?
This is what we call the ascension, the ascension.
Jesus literally ascended up into heaven to sit on His throne at the right hand of the Father. After He arose from the dead He appeared to many over a period of 40 days; then He spoke those last words to the apostles and then He went up into heaven. The Bible says, “a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
Imagine what that must have been like! The Bible says they “looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up.” There is a longing in their gaze, a wonder whether they would ever see Jesus again. There is a longing in their hearts to have the Lord Jesus Christ with them forever.
Notice what the angels say to them in next two verses (10,11).
“Don’t be discouraged. He’s coming again. Just as you’ve seen Him exit, so you will see Him come again.” Just as he left, He will come again.
It is the longing in the apostles’ hearts that triggers the response of the angels. The apostles are acting as though they will never see their Lord again and that’s why the angels respond as they do.
I hope our church will always gather with a sense of expectancy, longing for the Lord’s presence in our worship services and in our Sunday school classes. I hope we’ll always be in prayer that God will be present in our midst in a way that defies explanation.
And just as we long for His presence in Spirit, I hope we also long for His physical presence. Do you long for the return of Jesus Christ? Sometimes I think, “Wouldn’t it be great if the Lord returned today!” He is returning again. He is coming back.
II. There will be a Love the Lord’s People (12-14)
Now as I read those verses over and over what struck me was the great love these apostles had for one another. The Bible says they “continued in one accord.” That means they were united. There was unity among these believers as they prayed for one another and sought God together.
Who is there? The apostles, some unnamed women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.
So here are all of the apostles in one accord, in unity. They are united together in prayer and supplication for one another as they seek God together. It’s a beautiful picture of what the church is supposed to look like.
III. There will be a Looking for the Lord’s Plan (15-26)
The apostles sought God’s will in everything they did and we should, too. We should always ask, “God, what is Your plan for this church? What would You have us do?”
A. The business of the Church must always be
conducted in the atmosphere of prayer.
We learn this from verses 12-14. Those who took part in this business meeting had been present at the prayer meeting. It is only in this way that we can know the mind of the Lord.
B. We must guard against making our plans and
then asking God’s blessing upon them.
It is significant that we learn from verse 24 that they did not choose Matthias and then say, "Now, Lord,
bless him!" They prayed first and committed the
whole matter to the Lord, and then they trusted Him to direct them and to give the answer that would be glorifying to Him. It is very easy to arrange and to plan our service for the Lord and then to ask Him to bless our efforts.
Need we wonder why the blessing does not come when we have acted in this way?
C. God has the plan for His Church and for His
work.
We get this clearly brought before us in verse 24. There was an admission on the part of the people who were praying that they did not know what God’s will was, but they did believe that God had a plan and a purpose and that He was willing to reveal this to them, so they prayed for His will to be made known.
All this emphasizes the supreme importance of the prayer life of the Church. When there is no prayer there is no blessing; when there is little prayer there is little blessing; when there is more prayer there is more blessing.
Peter takes action after waiting on the Lord in prayer (1:14). Just read through the book of Acts to see how central prayer was to the early church.They prayed together as they waited for the promised Holy Spirit. They prayed before they preached. They prayed before the selection of the to this apostle. They prayed before they chose deacons. They prayed before they selected missionaries. Their power can clearly be traced to a dependence on prayer.
Peter bases his action on Scripture (1:16, 20). He does not promote his favorite candidate, but rather submits the whole process through prayer to the Lord’s sovereign choice (1:24).
When it came to replacing Judas, they did not pick the most politically correct man for the office. They didn’t maneuver behind the scenes, lining up votes for their favorite candidate.
Even though they were quite diverse in background and personality, which could have led to a power struggle here, the eleven all submitted themselves to God’s sovereign will.
First, they listed the spiritual qualifications. The man had to have followed Jesus from the earliest days of His earthly ministry, and he had to be a witness of the risen Savior. Two men were qualified.
They prayed, “Thou Lord, knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen.”
Then they determined the Lord’s choice by casting lots. This involved putting each man’s name on separate stones of similar size. The one that fell out of the pot first was the choice.
This was an acceptable means of determining God’s will in the Old Testament (Prov. 16:33; 18:18). This is the last instance of it in the Bible, indicating that since the Holy Spirit has been given, it is no longer a valid means of determining God’s will. The Holy Spirit dwells within the Christian, guiding him or her in accordance with the Scriptures. The Bible and Spirit lead us to make wise decisions.
But the point I want to highlight here is the way the apostles pray in verse 24.
Do you see how they looked for the Lord’s plan here? They gather together and sought God’s guidance for His church. They are not pushing their own agenda. They are saying, “God, You know everything. You know who should be the 12th apostle. So You just show us who it is.”
Some would say that the disciples were wrong in choosing Matthias; some would say that Paul was the one who was chosen of God to fill up the ranks. I disagree.
In Acts 6:2 we read that "the twelve" called
the multitude of the disciples unto them. Here the Holy Spirit definitely recognizes Matthias as one of the twelve. This is the more striking when we know that after the defection of Judas, the apostles were known not as the twelve, but as the eleven (see Matthew 28:16; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:9,33). That they are now called the twelve, after Judas has been replaced by Matthias, is a clear proof in my judgment, that the action of the disciples in the upper room, when they chose Matthias, is justified as divinely correct.
We read again in Acts 2:14 that Peter stood up with the eleven, himself of course being the twelfth. Here
again the pen of Holy Writ acknowledges Matthias as one of the twelve.
Conclusion:
When the church is expecting, living with a sense of expectancy, we’ll long for the Lord’s presence, love the Lord’s people, and look for the Lord’s plan. If we’ll do that, God will honor and bless the church.
It was the work of God that brought supplication.
It was the Word of God that brought illumination.
It was the will of God that brought consolation.
