Theme: Election in the Church
Text: Acts 1:15-26
Greetings: The Lord is good and his Love endures forever.
Introduction: Election in the Church today is very ugly at every level. According to their spiritual standard people play the politics in a simple nomination to the highest positions. During election, we forget the spiritual qualifications, we go to the level of regions, language, class, caste and economic status.
This Sunday, I would like to share with you about election in the Church based on Acts 1:15-26. This is another important event related to the post resurrection and ascension narratives. We have three important teachings on the Church election in this passage: Fall of a Chosen Leader, Call for a New Leader, and Poll of a Chosen Leader.
1. Fall of a chosen Leader (Acts 1:15-20)
Throughout the Bible we have many fallen leaders who had the dignified call. We have Judges, kings, Prophets and their leaders who had the unreturnable fall. The fall of the chosen leaders are in the line of the capturing power, illicit relationships and amazing wealth. A few leaders we can quickly call to our memory. The first born Ruben, Samson, David into the sexual sins. Saul, Jerobaom, Ahab ran after the powers and thrones. Achan, and Gehazi (2 Ki. 5:26) into the sin of amaze wealth.
Here, Peter mentions Judas who was chosen by Jesus and ordained to be an apostle. He was a Disciple of trust and handed over to him the important role of keeping the Public money, as a treasurer. Complacent, presumptuous sins leads certainly to the doom. Judas had a terrible end in his life. No one can escape from the punishment for the unfaithfulness and dishonesty. He was “numbered among them” and even held a position of authority in their ministry, but his ultimate apostasy revealed his true identity.
Judas shared in the ministry of God like all other apostles (Acts 1:17). He was included in all the rollcalls of the twelve disciples (Mark 3:16–19; Luke 6:13–16). He joined in their ministry when Jesus sent the Twelve out to teach, heal, and expel demons (Mark 6:7–13). He was included in the Twelve who would receive thrones in Jesus' kingdom and the responsibility to judge Israel (Matthew 19:28). He held the disciples' money (John 12:1–8). But, he was wicked, so he had his reward for that action (Acts 1:18). Peter interpreted the Scriptural verses from Psalm 69:25 to refer Judas’ death, and Psalm 109:8 to choose a leader for his position of leadership. He became the owner of the Field of Blood (Matthew 27:3, 5, 10).
He purchased a field for himself, as Gehazi by a lie. Thirty pieces of silver is the amount of money the owner of an ox had to give the owner of a slave the ox killed (Exodus 21:32). Judas used Jesus as his slave to sell him to make money. He earned this Salary, wealth through selling the love of the Son of God, despising the grace of god, and the trampled the mercy of God. He received a huge amount to purchase this land. He earned it but could not enjoy it. It’s a warning for many of us where are we today! Am I selling the values of Jesus, teachings of Jesus, morals of Jesus for my person gain and joy? The Life of Judas is a warning for everyone. All became vain, waste. His entire life tenure became useless because of his wrong motive, wrong move, and wrong earnings.
The Bible never says God abandoned Judas, but that he abandoned Jesus, and lost his position among the apostles by forfeit.
John Calvin said, “Judas may not be excused on the ground that what befell him was prophesied, since he fell away not through the compulsion of the prophecy but through the wickedness of his own heart.”?
Robert Murray McCheyne says, “The seeds of every known sin lie within each one of our hearts.”?
Derek Thomas says, “The reason why we have not committed certain sins is not any lack of desire on our part; it is simply a lack of opportunity. The Lord has kept us from the circumstances where we would otherwise have certainly fallen.”?
2. Call for a New Leader (Acts 1:21-22)
The redeemed community has different role to play in the society. God has kept his chosen persons in the congregation.
Peter a figurehead mentioned by Jesus and he would spearhead the spreading of the gospel (Matthew 16:18–19). Henceforth, Peter will be a great speaker (Acts 2:14–41; 3:11–26; 4:8–12, 19–20; 10:34–43). He will be present at the first mass conversions of Samaritans (Acts 8:14–17) and Gentiles (Acts 10:44–45).
Matthew Henry: ‘The sin of Judas was not only his shame and ruin, but it made a vacancy in the college of the apostles.’ Twelve were the representatives of twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus had bigger plans for the apostles. He promised that the Twelve will "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matthew 19:28) and that their names will be on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14).
Vacancy Declared:
The first-century infant Church had to face the first election, ballot, poll after the death of Judas. One scholar says that "Office" is from the Greek root word episkope from which we get our word episcopal. In church government, an episcopate church is one that has a single leader as opposed to a presbyterate church which is ruled by a board of elders.
Matthew Henry: There was a need for the Twelfth. Twelve were the representatives of twelve tribes of Israel, they were the twelve stars that make up the church's crown (Revelation 12:1), and for them twelve thrones were designated (Matthew 19:28). Jesus had bigger plans for the apostles. He promised that the Twelve will "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" and that their names will be on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem.
The story of the resurrection is the story of God making a way where there is no way. The name of the early church was “The Way” (Acts 9:2; 18:25; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22), later they were called Christians (Acts 11:26). The early Christians were the witnesses for this “THE WAY”. Jesus was “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).
The leaders are identified through prayers of the leaders. A believer in the Church itself is an honor. Being one among the crowd is a motivation to another. Keeping silent, moving with love and care with one another becomes a role model believer.
3. Poll of a Chosen Leader (Acts 1: 23-26)
God never stops his mission because someone has become unfaithful. It is God’s mission and his way. The ministry will go on, and Missions will have no end till the Lord return to the Earth.
Qualifications:
They have been Christ's constant attendants from the beginning till ascension, and men of great integrity, not like Judas. As witnesses of Jesus’ ministry and resurrection, the apostles and disciples followed the way that Jesus had taught them. They engaged in service for one another, living into the in-breaking Kingdom of God in community together. Therefore there was a need for the apostolic work. Apostle was not an ecclesiastical title. “The apostolic circle is drawn only from eyewitnesses who can give a reliable account of the Jesus-event” (Willimon).
In Acts 6, leaders are chosen with internal characteristics of full of wisdom and faith (Acts 6:3, 5) but here it’s with external characteristics knowledge and experience (Acts 121-22). The group of 120 in Galilee was said to be “joined together constantly in prayer” (1:14). These specific requirements disqualified a lot of good men and women.
Nominations:
There were Cleopas and his companion who had witnessed the Resurrected Jesus among 120. There were women who had these qualifications (Acts 5:14; 8:3, 12; 9:2; 12:12; 16:33; 17:4, 12; 22:4). James, Jesus' brother but did not follow Jesus from the beginning (1 Corinthians 15:7). But James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem. Stephen and Philip were there later chosen in the first group of deacons (Acts 6:1–7). Stephen became the first martyr (Acts 7), and Philip became a powerful evangelist (Acts 8:4–40).
But they nominated two, namely Barsabbas ("Barsabbas" is Aramaic and means "son of God's will" or "son of Sabbath)", and Matthias (Historian Eusebius says Matthias was one of the Seventy - Luke 10:1–12, 17–20). We don’t know why Jesus did not fill the vacancy before Ascension. When he told that you twelve will judge whether he meant Judas or Matthias? (Matthew 19:28, Revelation 21:14).
Poll with prayer:
Peter led the prayer. God knows the hearts of people where we only see on the surface (1 Samuel 16:7; Mark 2:8, 10:17–31, John 2:23–25). God knows who will make the best apostle because He already determined what work each man would do (Ephesians 2:10). Praying for potential leaders becomes a valued tradition in the church for roles like evangelists (Acts 13:2) and church elders (Acts 14:23).
Then they cast lots:
This practice involved placing marked stones into a container and shaking them until one “fell” out. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). Israel divided some of the land by lot ( Joshua 14:2; 18:6, 8, 10; Ezekiel 45:1); Priests and Levites received their duties by lot (1 Chronicles 24:5, 31; 25:8; 26:13-14), lots determined the cities for Levites (1 Chronicles 6:61-65) and who would settle in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11:1). Some examples where lots were used: Leviticus 16:8; Numbers 26:55; 33:54; Joshua 19:1-40; Judges 20:9; Proverbs 18:18; Isaiah 14:41; Micah 2:5; Jonah 1:7-8.
The casting of lots is equivalent to the casting of votes of our days. They trusted that God’s selection would be revealed through the casting of lots (Acts 1:26). That’s not a method many of us would choose, but they had absolute faith in God’s providential control of even supposedly accidental things. They walked by faith in God’s leading as they conducted the daily business of the church. The casting of lots, while certainly not limited to Jewish tradition, had nothing whatsoever to do with a game of chance, but was rather, an acceptable means of discerning the will of God, particularly in the Hebrew Bible.
Elected:
Matthias has been elected to represent the place of Judas. Matthias appears and simply disappears after the election. What was the reaction of the Barsabbas alias Justus? How he took the election result? Unfortunately we don’t have any information either on Matthias or Justus after the election. We believed that he was part of the company of the Twelve, on the day Pentecost preaching, Jerusalem council and etc.
Conclusion:
Every election process has to be utilized meaningfully in a just and right manner. The national politics and Church elections have to be equally and responsibly treated. We need to exercise voting rights without compromise. But they could not have gone to the pattern of the present-day church. Presently the Church election in most of the denominations has come as an unpleasant exercise. Many feel the election is ungodly ways and manners in the guise of democracy.
Gif bless our churches. Amen amen.
