“Replacing Judas”
Acts 1:12-26
5.6.07
Curtis had for me a great remark this week; I had emailed the leaders and asked them for an opinion on today’s passage, and he emailed me back his, and then had something interesting to say about the disciples, something he’d been reading. He said that a certain author had pointed out that the name “Simon”, or “Peter”, as many of us know, meant “rock”, an allusion Christ made in Matthew 16, and I’ve said before that we might translate Peter as “Rocky”. But Curtis added that the rest of his name was “Bar-Jonah”, as in “Simon Bar-Jonah”, and “bar” meant “son of”, whereas “Jonah” was akin to “John”. This means that if we were naming Peter today, his name would be “Rocky Johnson”. And so last week, we left the disciples, John, James, Andrew, and his brother, Rocky Johnson, as well as the others, standing in conversation with two angels. They had just witnessed Christ rising from their sight into Heaven, and the angels brought them both a promise and a kick in the pants: a promise that Christ would return in the same manner as they’d seen Him go, and a kick in the pants in that they said, “guys, why are you standing around just gazing up?” Today, we take a look at what happened between the ascension of Christ and the coming to fruition of the promise of the Holy Spirit given by Christ on the Day of Pentecost, which we’ll look at next week in Acts 2. Let’s read today’s text together (READ AND PRAY).
(William P. Barker, They Stood Boldly, pp. 19-20)"If the last mighty act of God had been the resurrection and ascension, today there would be no church. If the pattern outlined in the first chapter of Acts had continued, the apostles and others would never have left Jerusalem to witness. They would have formed a religious club, perhaps a "Jesus Memorial Society". Like other such groups, it would probably have had meetings, dues, minutes, and the usual club paraphernalia. In spite of valiant endeavors by loyal adherents to "keep the organization going," the band of believers in the Risen Jesus Christ would eventually have dwindled away and in time the memory of Jesus would have become an interesting footnote in the history books of the Middle East". But another mighty move of God was about to take place. It was time for the disciples to wait, as Christ instructed them. But they didn’t simply wait; there were several things that occupied their time between the ascension and Pentecost. Chief among these things was to pray together and choose a successor to Judas. Judas…the very name is reviled and despised; no one names their children that today, and to call someone a “Judas” is to curse them; it’s a name synonymous with treachery and traitors. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves; first
Some Quick Answers to a Few Questions
There are some interesting questions when we come to this text.
• Where did they gather?
o “A Sabbath-day’s journey” – about ½ to ¾ of a mile
The distance from the Mount of Olives into the city of Jerusalem was “a Sabbath-day’s journey”; interesting how this was arrived at. In the days of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the outward edge of the camp of the Israelites was about a half-three quarters of a mile away from the center of the camp, where the tabernacle stood, and the religious leaders, makers of rules and scrupulous observers of legalities, had determined that it was acceptable, then, to travel only this far and no further on the Sabbath. And they went to the
o “Upper Room”
Second-floor rooms often were large and open, and served as meeting places, as well as places of lodging for those traveling. There is some conjecture as to this particular “upper room”; was it
Same as “Last Supper”?
Perhaps; that’s not an unreasonable guess. It might have been
Owned by Mark’s mother?
Again, there is evidence to suggest this as a possibility, but we don’t know for sure. But we do know that the followers of the ascended Christ gathered there and devoted themselves to prayer.
• What was their state of mind?
Put yourself in their shoes; what do you think you’d have been thinking? Take 3 minutes and discuss this question…
Table Talk
Think back on all the events that the disciples had been through over the past few weeks. What do you think was on their minds?
I cannot, of course, speak definitively, but several things must have been in the mix:
o Wonder
Why had they been gazing into Heaven? For the same reason we all would have: “I can’t believe this!” This, on the heels of the resurrection, another unbelievable, watershed event, and taken together, these simple men must have been in almost a perpetual state of awe and wonder.
o Excitement
Though they could hardly grasp exactly what was on the horizon, they knew that the future held more tremendous things for them. Jesus had promised the coming of the Spirit, and the angels had promised His return. He’d given them a job to do, to be His witnesses to the world, to make disciples of people everywhere. Something new and revolutionary was in the offing, and they had to have a sense of triumphalism. But there had to be a bit of a dark cloud that nonetheless hung over them:
o Their feelings toward Judas
How would you feel, were you in their shoes?
• Hurt – he’d been their friend and confidant for three years. They had to feel a special pain when they thought of him. They remembered the good times; they thought about the jokes he’d told, the laughs they’d shared, the good qualities they saw in this man. Do you think that if he’d been a total jerk, a real demon, for three years, they’d have been surprised to see him betray Jesus? Of course not.
• Betrayal – there was anger, no doubt. Ever been betrayed by a friend? You know the anger and the sorrow.
• Embarrassment – this was known to everybody in Jerusalem, the whole sordid story of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, culminating in Judas’ hanging and spilling his guts.
All of these feelings and more had to be within their hearts somewhere, along with a sense that their number was incomplete, and thus our next question:
• Why the need to replace Judas?
Was there something all that special about the number “twelve”? Well, as a matter of fact, turn with me to Matthew 19:27-30, where we read Christ’s words. Beyond this, there were the Old Testament texts that Peter quoted, using these as his rationale to call for a replacement for Judas. But an unsettled question is this:
• Did the disciples do the right thing?
As we ask the question, we do so remembering that these were great men, but that the best of men are men, at best. Could they have made a mistake? Absolutely; we find other mistakes made by certain disciples within the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament. And some scholars have concluded that the eleven acted rashly in choosing Matthias, that they should have waited until the Spirit came at Pentecost, that they employed a method, casting lots, that was roughly equivalent to flipping a coin in order to determine who this final apostle ought to be. Is it possible that the apostle Paul was the one who was rightly designated as the twelfth apostle? G. Campbell Morgan, famed Biblical scholar from the early 20th century, thought so: “The election of Matthias was wrong…he was a good man, but the wrong man for this position…I am not prepared to omit Paul from the twelve, believing that he was God’s man for filling the gap.” John Stott takes issue with that, and FF Bruce suggests that the apostle Paul’s apostleship was unique, that he didn’t fit the qualifications given here (true!), and that he’d not have considered himself to be an apostle quite like or in the same sense as the other eleven. And Luke gives no hint that the disciples’ actions were in error to act as they did! So what’s the verdict? Well, here’s the official, Pastor Harvey answer to this question; ready?
I’m not really sure! I mean, if you pinned me down, I’d say “yes”, because there is no rebuke of them seen here. But it’s not that important what I think, or what G. Campbell Morgan thinks, in this matter; God is the Final Judge, and I’m not going to be too hard on these guys, because we can get a lot of
Practical Application
out of considering what the disciples for sure, absolutely and certainly, did right, and it can be of real instruction to us at Red Oak as we consider how we as a church ought to go about
Making Decisions: What the Disciples Did Right
We certainly wouldn’t determine leaders at Red Oak by flipping a coin, as the disciples did—but in fact, this is the last time this practice, which by the way was a valid means of decision-making on a few other occasions in the Bible—was ever used. Once the Spirit came, this means went away. But whether the disciples were right or wrong to cast lots to determine the outcome, there are many, many things that they did right that we can learn from:
I. They acted in unity
Present for the prayer meeting – a diverse lot of followers
• The eleven disciples
• Mary, mother of Jesus
• Other women
• Brothers of Jesus – came to faith after resurrection; 4 are named in Scripture (James, leader of early church; Joses, Judas, possibly “Jude”, and Simon)
• Other followers of Jesus
This was a pretty diverse lot. Jesus had called young men from various walks of life to be His disciples; Simon was a Zealot, while Matthew was a tax collector—there was natural animosity there. There were women there; were there some men uncomfortable with their presence? There were probably some there, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who’d been “stealth” followers of Jesus; would some who’d put their lives on the line resent the private devotion of these, considering them cowards? What other kinds of petty rivalries existed among that group? It’s hard to know, but there likely were certain suspicions, some mistrust, among the folks gathered there.
And the same can be true in churches today, where there are folks with feet of clay like you and me. But notice what they did: they came together “in one accord”. No, they didn’t drive to the meeting in a Honda… Whatever existed between them melted in forgiveness, in reconciliation, in shared commitment to Christ. Let me say this: whenever there is discord between us, it is because one or the other or both have taken their eyes off Jesus, and the cure for the problem is to get our eyes back on Jesus, because when we all look to Him, and seek His face, and His will, we will apologize for our wrongs, and we will view others as better than ourselves, and we will seek the good of the other person, and we will forgive. There may be disagreements, but there never need be disharmony if our commitments are to the Lordship of Jesus. They put their eyes on Christ and came together in one accord.
II. They prayed together about the situation
Their prayers were united in focus and purpose, and they spent their time, not on a lot of discussion, argument, planning, but in prayer. The last couple of weeks, I’ve introduced you to a saying that should we should model; can anyone complete it? “Any success that we experience__________.” Similarly, let me give you another, this from Bob Bakke, former prayer coordinator for the EFCA, who said, “the whole work of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit.” It is through yielded prayer together that we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us. Third, as they approached this decision as to the replacement for Judas,
III. They brought the Word to bear upon the decision
I won’t belabor this because I touched on it earlier, but Peter brought the Scripture to bear on the decision. Folks, our first recourse when considering any decision as a church ought to be, “what does the Bible say about this?” Now in many decisions we face, there’ll be some freedom, some latitude Biblically, but there are principles in Scripture that we’ll ignore to our own hurt! Fourth,
IV. They did their homework
There were qualifications for the replacement for Judas; this had to be a person who’d been with Christ during His whole ministry, and one who had been an eyewitness of His resurrection. If you don’t meet those qualifications, you are not an apostle—despite what some well-meaning folks might say today. And they narrowed down the field to two qualified candidates on this basis. And when we face a decision as a church, we need to get the facts, to do the spade work that will enable us to make decisions wisely.
V. They did not turn the decision into a popularity contest
I am of the strong opinion that we ought not to have “winners” and “losers” in elections for church office; I believe we ought to write language into our by-laws that reflects this. As human beings, we can play this popularity game so easily, but it has no place in the church of Jesus Christ.
VI. They trusted God with the results
Yeah, they cast lots, and no, we ought not flip coins today. But God is sovereign, and they trusted that He would bring the right person into the position. And sometimes in church life, we won’t get our way, our side won’t “win” (as much as I dislike that terminology), what we think will not carry the day. Is God sovereign? Is He in control? That’s not to say that we have a guarantee that every decision we will make will be the best for the circumstances, that He won’t be displeased sometimes with the choices we make, but it is to say that we can trust Him to work sovereignly, sometimes in spite of us!
I want to suggest that the disciples, while they might have done some things wrong, I don’t know, certainly did many things right. And folks, we will not do everything right at Red Oak. We’ll attempt to do that, but we’ll make some dumb decisions that we’ll look at in retrospect and say, “what were we thinking?” We’ll fail, because we’re human, just as the disciples failed sometimes because they were. We’ve all got these feet of clay! But God is big enough to overcome the messes we sometimes make!
The stage is set for Pentecost, for the promise given by Jesus to be fulfilled. The disciples are together, united in one mind. They are praying. They have filled a leadership position. They are ready. God is about to do something unprecedented!
Table Talk
Look over the things that the disciples did right in making this decision. When it comes to making personal decisions as a Christ-follower:
• Which of these apply?
• What other Scriptural truths might apply?
