Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Acts 1:13-26

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Acts chapter 1, beginning at verse 13.

When they were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued of one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren.

And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas which was guide to them that took Jesus for he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field of the reward of iniquity. And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem, in as much as the field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, the field of blood.

For it is written in the book of the Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric, let another take. Wherefore these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day when he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection?

And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “Thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two men thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place.” And they gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.

We thank God for his word and pray that he would help us to understand it and apply it to our lives. We’re going to start—this is actually our second sermon properly in the book of Acts—and today’s subject is going to be Judas, Matthias, Peter and the flow of history. And what we want to do first is just take a look at this particular text, sort of see what’s going on here and then try to draw out some lessons.

So your outline is arranged that way where we’re just going to take a look first quickly at the text and what happens. And this is kind of the way I want to go through Acts. I’ve mentioned this before, but I want to go through it at a fairly rapid clip. There are these stories, so to speak, these narrative accounts of Luke. This is history we’re reading. And this history is written with particular scenes as we go from scene to scene.

We’re going to try to stay within the context of those scenes. Now, the next sermon I give two weeks from today on Acts 2 will be a challenge to that being a very long chapter filled with much material, but I want to try to follow this kind of an outline. And so, this is the second really narrative of Acts chapter 1. The first one occurs of course with the description of Christ’s ascension. And now we have a meeting taking place in the upper room.

Remember they had said when will the kingdom be restored to Israel. And Jesus said, “It’s not for you to know times or seasons, but go and wait for the descent of the Holy Ghost. The power of God comes to come upon them, and then they’ll be his witnesses in Jerusalem and then out into the uttermost parts of the earth.” So that’s what they do. They go in obedience. They—in our first verse of this particular section, they are seen traveling back to Jerusalem now meeting in an upper room.

So that’s the context what we’re doing here. There is a time here indicated for us in the text. There is a place and there are participants. The time is this waiting period—waiting for the promise that was given that the Holy Spirit would come upon them empower them to be Christ’s witnesses throughout the entire world. So, and there’s a specific time reference here. We know that Jesus was with them 40 days after his resurrection leading up to his ascension.

And we know from Acts 2 that the spirit will descend on the day of Pentecost 50 days after Passover. So, we’ve got a window here of 10 days that is being described for us in this particular narrative account. So the time frame here is they are meeting in this upper room in a period for essentially a 10-day season of prayer. And so that’s described for us in verse 13. When they were come in, that is unto the city, they went into an upper room.

Now, it’s probable this was the same upper room where they had celebrated the Passover feast, the last supper, the first of the model for our Lord’s supper. This is probably the same upper room. It was not unusual, in fact, it was usual for some men to rent rooms or to have rooms like this for the entire period the 50 days leading up to Pentecost from Passover to Pentecost. So it’s likely this was the same place.

So we have a time indicated for us. The place is the upper room. Then the participants are specifically enumerated for us. First the 11 apostles in verse 13 are individually named by each of their names. It’s important just in passing to remind ourselves that individuals count. The individuals here are enumerated for us and that is an indication of the importance of individual men. Verse 14 tells us that in addition to the 11 apostles, however, there were also women gathered, probably wives, other women as well, believers in the Lord.

And also it delineates for us that Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers, that is probably his physical brothers that believed were there assembled as well. This is the last occurrence by the way of Mary in the scriptures. This will be her last mention in the word of God and she is gathering as a faithful believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as part of this 10-day season of prayer that was held by the disciples.

Additionally, verse 15 tells us that there were also altogether about 120 people. So, we have a large gathering in this upper room. Must have been a fairly large upper room. It wasn’t just the 11 apostles. It was Mary, Jesus’s brothers, wives. And altogether, the assembly came to about 120 participants. Now in the context of this, this is the place, the location, the time and the participants. And then two things are described for us in the text.

The first thing that’s described is prayer. Verse 14. They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. So we have prayer going on here in a familiar location as I said and prayer and supplication both are particularly designated here. Prayer means praise—praise toward God. Supplication is making requests known to God.

So those two elements of prayer are both mentioned in the context of this prayer meeting. But secondly in the context of this prayer as they pray waiting for—assuming the believing of course and waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit. This prayer meeting includes also an officer selection process that goes on and that’s described for us in the bulk of this text. A motion is made by Peter first of all based upon the mandate of the word in verse 16 in the context of this prayer meeting they’re all gathered together 10-day window post ascension waiting for the day of Pentecost they don’t know the day I suppose they may have I don’t really know but in any event in this 10-day window where they’re praying Peter stands up in the midst of the assembly and he says in verse 16 men and brethren this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas which was guiding to them that took Jesus.

And then he goes off into an explanation of Judas and reminds everybody of what had happened with Judas. And in verse 20, he returns to what he began in verse 16. He says, “For it is written in the book of the Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein. And his bishopric, let another take.” So Peter gets up and says, “We now have work to do. This work is based upon God’s word which has to be fulfilled.” He then says that word told us two things about Judas.

One that his habitation would be desolate and two let another take his office or bishopric and in the context of that between verse 16 where he says the scriptures must be fulfilled. We’ve got work to do and verse 20 where he cites the Psalms. Verses 17-19 are could be seen as a digression but they’re not. It’s essentially historical events interpreted by Peter and in relationship to the work that the disciples were to accomplish here in the upper room.

And so Peter takes the lead in this assemblage, gets up, makes this motion that they replace Judas in accordance with the scriptures. Now, it’s very important here that we recognize the appropriateness of what Peter is doing. One of the themes that I’m going to mention repeatedly, and I’ve already talked about it in the book of Acts, is that I think there are correlations between the book of Acts, the book of Joshua.

Remember Acts begins with Luke recording his gospel. He was talking about what Jesus both taught and did. And the acts of the apostles are essentially can be seen as the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ working through his church to take the gospel into the whole known world eventually ending up at Rome. Not in a sense of the ending the book of Acts unfinished but rather saying the gospel had penetrated the very capital of the world then the world power of Rome and would be effectual for leavening that city as well as we know historically has occurred.

So what we see in the acts of the apostles is the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we have Peter talking about the fulfilling of scripture. He takes immediately the very first thing that happens in these early days of the church post Christ’s work is a reference to the word of God as giving them a mandate for responsible action. And just as Jesus said, I have come to do the Father’s will. He’s going to do what the scriptures speak of.

That’s what he said. So Peter also now does what the scriptures instruct him to do. And he leads the congregation in obeying scripture. Our Savior had over and over again taught to the authority of scripture over the actions of men. And the first recorded incident here of the disciples is to move in obedience to the authority of scripture giving a mandate from them to replace Judas in office. Jesus repeatedly did things that the scriptures might be fulfilled.

And now Peter, his first action is an action taken that the scriptures might be fulfilled. So the importance of seeing the word here is real to us to see the word as giving the mandate for the actions that we take and that was what happened here. Now Peter in this recitation refers to two different Psalms in these verses and he kind of brings them together. Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8 and essentially as I said the two-fold message here is the judgment that’s looked upon for Judas and most of those two Psalms refer to that judgment but then secondly the need to replace him in terms of his office.

These are what we have called—some people have called imprecatory portions of Psalms calling for imprecation—prayers of destruction upon God’s enemies. And so it’s interesting too that the very first psalm citations we see the New Testament church making reference to are Psalms of imprecation or malediction acknowledging that indeed God’s curse, the heavy hand of God’s curse has fallen upon Judas. And so it’s important for us to see that the church begins its existence here in terms of the post-resurrection church with reference to Psalms of judgment upon the enemies of Christ that the church might be exalted.

Now he then in the context of this goes through a historical narrative in verses 16-19 of what happened to Judas. He’s reminding them of what happened. He said everybody knows about this but he’s telling us things that we didn’t know from the gospel accounts themselves and things which are quite important for the purpose of Peter’s address and for our looking at this text today in the providence of God.

He says these things have to be fulfilled that God spoke relative to Judas who was guide to them that took Jesus. There’s Judas’s sin. He was guide to them that took Jesus. That’s how he’s specifically portrayed. And what is his payment for this? What is the reward of God upon Judas for his sin? Says he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. That ministry is the word meaning service.

I’ll mention that again later. But the apostles office is called a ministry or service there. Now when this man purchased a field of the reward of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem in so much as that field is called in their proper tongue Aceldama. That is the field of blood. So Peter recites here what happened to Judas.

He had hoped to buy a field with his wages. That field essentially is the place of God’s judgment upon him. However, we read in the gospel accounts that he hung himself. He apparently then the rope broke before he was dead. The scriptures tell us here explicitly that he fell down and burst in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. The midst here is not the midst of the field. It’s the midst of his body.

His body is broken in half, so to speak. He is rent asunder as our Savior says the enemies of the king are. So Judas was rent asunder. The implication is here that he had swelled up and he had swelled up so much that as he falls against this field that he had hoped to be his reward for betrayal of the Savior his bowels gush out his innards gush out and not a pretty picture but that’s the picture that God wants us to know is the judgment for men who betray the Lord Jesus Christ and who rise up against him and who speak against him and so Judas is a picture here of judgment the righteous judgment of God now I’ve got to believe that in the context of this prayer meeting.

These prayers that they’re forming are based upon these scriptures as well. And that’s why this particular motion comes out. They were remembering in their prayers God’s just judgment upon Judas and upon all who would rise up against the Lord Jesus Christ. And I’m sure their prayers are oriented to that same end as well as ours should be. So the historical account of Jesus Judas’s betrayal is given by Peter and it is interpreted by the word of God.

And of course that’s our job to interpret the events that happen in our lives according to this word, this command word that is a mandate for service, then it is also the divine interpreter of all historical events. Let me just read a couple of Matthew Henry’s citations relative to Judas in this particular portion. Matthew Henry speaks of this account in this way. He says, “We are told in Matthew that he went away in despair and was suffocated. So the word signifies there and no more. But it is added as later historians add to those who went before that being strangled or choked with grief and horror, he fell headlong or fell on his face and partly with the swelling of his own breast and partly with the violence of the fall, he burst asunder in the midst so that all his bowels gush out.”

Matthew Henry says that ringleaders in sin are the worst of sinners, especially if those that by their office should have been guides to the friends of Christ are guides instead to his enemies and that is Judas here. His culpability is increased by his calling to office. He was called to be a guide to the Lord Jesus Christ and instead for those who would believe on him and instead he becomes a guide to the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ so that those who are opposed to him could crucify him. Now we know and Peter repeats it here that God’s providence is at work in this affair. These things had to be fulfilled, in the sense of Judas’s having to betray the Savior, but Judas is fully culpable for his actions.

Matthew Henry also reports that historically disemboweling is one of the penalties for traitors. And here we have the traitor Judas and he is disemboweled in the providence of God, not by the hands of man, but by the hand of God. This is a remarkable judgment pictured for us. It’s a judgment that’s in accord with the Psalms and it’s a judgment that has come forth from God’s hand. And it’s a judgment that should throw a great deal of fear and trepidation into the church of Jesus Christ. I mean, Judas lived in the context of the Savior for the three years of his ministry. He saw him, he beheld him, and still he betrays him.

Men throughout time, throughout the last 2,000 years, have known of this judgment against Judas. And yet, it doesn’t keep them from their sinfulness. It should us. It should be frightening to us to consider the judgments of God as recorded in historical reality. And this is the beginning of many such judgments of God over the opponents to his church that are recorded in history for us. So we have here in the context of Peter’s motion for the replacement of the apostle, divinely interpreted events interpreted by the word of God.

Judas’s sin was great. Judas goes to his place is what the scriptures tell us here. That place is a place of everlasting torment and punishment from the hand of God. Now the purpose of this recitation of course is to prepare the congregation for the selection of an officer to replace Judas. And so Peter goes on after giving this historically interpreted account or divinely interpreted historical account rather.

He goes on to state the qualifications for obeying the scripture that says his office need to be fulfilled with another person. Verse 21 he says wherefore of these men which accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us. must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

So here we have the qualifications for apostles laid out for us. And this is a matter of historic or a scholarship interest of course to see that the requirements here are that they had to be an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we’re given a particular time frame by Peter of what this eyewitness account how it was supposed to have encompassed and it begins with the baptism of John. Now that doesn’t mean John’s baptism of Jesus.

It probably means the termination of John’s ministry of baptism. But after John is imprisoned, that’s when the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry begins specifically. And so it’s probably at that particular point, the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, I think is what’s being here cited up until the day that Jesus Christ ascended 40 or 45 days previous to this particular meeting. So the qualification for apostle here is he must have been with the group the company when Jesus performed these things and had seen him.

Now in verse 21 it says that he must have been one of those men which companied with us. The word company there means to go but in the Greek it also means to come. So those who were with us as we were coming and going that must be one of the qualifications for this selection of this apostle. Additionally it says that they must have been with us from the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.

Now, the going in and out among us here is a reference back to a Hebrew phrase to go in and to go out. And it’s really a very it’s kind of a technical phrase that is used fairly frequently in the Old Testament to speak to formal activity or the course of one’s life to go in and out. Now, I bring up that because as I said, there are correlations that I believe tell us that the book of Acts has correlations to the book of Joshua.

In Joshua 14:11, Joshua talked about him having strength by God to make war in terms of going in and coming out. The going in and coming out phrase is used in the book of Joshua to indicate the advance of God’s kingdom against those whose iniquity had become full, the Canaanites. And so that same language of the lesser Joshua, the lesser Jesus, Joshua, is used here in this reference to talk about Jesus’s going in and coming out.

And then it’s applied to the apostles themselves who companied about to use this phrase to go in or to come out. So again here we have correlations that show us that what the book of Acts is all about is the going in and the coming out of God’s people and an officer is being selected here who had gone in and gone out as Jesus had done it and who now would bear testimony of that as he proceeds on in his ministry in the early days of the church post Jesus’s resurrection and ascension.

So it’s very important language that gives us correlations between Acts again the book of Joshua that helps us to understand the book of Acts as being the conquering of all the world with the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So these apostolic qualifications are mentioned here for us and it’s as I said it’s important to recognize that and it’s important to recognize these qualifications in a bit less of a technical sense they’re usually referred to by that I mean that the qualifications are usually said they had to have been eyewitnesses and so that’s important to see that.

Well that’s certainly true but beyond that a little bit, I think what we see in these qualifications is the concept of faithfulness. It couldn’t have been somebody who had seen for a while, went away for a while, came back for a while, or left again. That couldn’t have been somebody who kind of came along halfway through, and didn’t really accompany themselves with the apostles. The wording here is they were part of us.

They were, to use a phrase that some of us use, on board for the whole time of Jesus’s ministry. They weren’t aloof from that ministry on the edges. They were an integral part of it. Faithfulness on the part of a follower of Jesus Christ is here seen I think as the model qualification for apostleship. Now certainly there’s the technical thing of seeing Jesus because after all the apostles are the primary witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostles are a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ as they go and witness to him as are we. And so the technical thing of them actually being eyewitnesses is important because they’re going to be witnesses to what? To the resurrection. But I think the important thing behind that as well is to see is this concept of faithfulness in terms of service to the church of Jesus Christ. As Matthew Henry says, “None shall be an apostle but one that is companied with the apostles and that continually not that he has visited with them now and then but been intimately conversant with them, not aloof, but being diligent and faithful and constant in the discharge of their duty in a lower station.

And so that faithfulness in the lower station of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is here seen as being a pre-eminent qualification for ministry in terms of the apostles work. The resurrection is central in this passage as well. Peter says that this is true. We need these qualifications because what? Because he’s going to be a witness of what? of his resurrection. The resurrection, as J. Alexander said in his commentary, is the great keystone of the Christian system, presupposing the incarnation, the life and death of the Savior and implying, of course, his ascension and his exaltation.

But the resurrection is the great keystone, as Alexander said, of the Christian system. And so, it’s important for us to hear see in these very beginning verses of the book of Acts the centrality of the resurrection. And that theme will be played out repeatedly as we go through the book of Acts as well. Okay. So we have the qualifications being faithfulness and we see the centrality of the resurrection in terms of official office.

So we have in the context of this particular narrative setting we have historical events interpreted a mandate from the word given. We have the apostolic qualifications stated and finally we have the officer recognition. And I put this in the context of officer selection. And now you’ll notice that on the outline I’ve changed from officer selection to officer recognition because that’s what we see as the movement in this text because in verse 23 it says they appointed two Joseph called Barsabas who was surnamed Justus and Matthias and then they pray.

Now we don’t know how they appointed those two by the way there’s no real evidence to suggest how they did this. It could be as Alexander thinks that these were the only two men who were qualified who met the qualifications. It could be that the apostles chose them. It could be that the whole group of 120 selected them by vote of some type. We just don’t know. But the point is that through their actions they discern two men.

And then they take those two men to the Lord and they pray and they say, “Thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may have the part of the ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place, a designated place for Judas, hell, of course.” And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles essentially.

And we’ve talked about this a lot in this church. But it bears repeating here as we see the first selection of an officer, an apostle in this case, that it really isn’t selection so much as it is recognition of God’s choice. They say, “Thou Lord, knowest the heart of all men.” And we want to know whom you have chosen for this ministry. See, this isn’t really Peter’s action. And it’s not just the action of the 120 disciples who were there with Peter and consented to this process.

They’re making appeal to God. And they’re saying, you know, the hearts of and you’ve picked somebody and we want you to tell us whom you’ve picked. And it is so important in the selection of officers in the church to recognize that all that we do is to recognize whom God has chosen. We don’t make officers. We don’t really pick officers ultimately. We recognize the officers that God has appointed for his particular service in ministry.

And what’s the basis of his selection? It’s the heart. Faithfulness was the outward qualification that’s manifested through the presence of those in the ministry of the disciples for the years of Jesus’s public ministry and that faithfulness demonstrates heart but heart ultimately is known by God and is the heart intent of the apostle here that is looked to and these people for prayer and notice that they don’t ask God using the generic term of God they say thou Lord show us this which one of these men you have chosen essentially it is the Son himself who is seen as the member of the Trinity who makes this selection.

He had chosen the first 12, hadn’t he? And here they’re appealing to him to choose as well by lot which of these two men would be the 12th apostle replacing Judas for because of his transgression. So it is the Lord Jesus Christ who has prayed to here that he might make known his choice of the replacement for Judas. Finally, I might just add that of course the man they select is Matthias and we know virtually nothing about Matthias.

Now that shouldn’t upset us too much. There are some people that say well maybe these guys were making a mistake because we don’t know anything about Matthias after this. It’s not mentioned again this particular apostle. But that’s true of most of these names we’ve just read the 11 apostles. We don’t really know much about any of them. And so there’s no reason here to suppose that somehow this is improper. In fact, the name Matthias means gift from the Lord.

And it’s a fitting name for the person who would be a gift from the Lord to replace the one who was a transgressor. And I just wanted to mention in passing here, I wanted to read something from a fellow named Larry Y. Woiwode. It’s kind of ironic in a way. Woiwode is a very acclaimed American novelist apparently writes fiction who became a Christian some 15 or 20 years ago or so. I mean he’s very as I said secular to the media.

He is very much acclaimed as one of the leading American novelists and fiction writers. Of course, post conversion things have changed for him. Not in the sense of his calling, but in the sense of his acceptance both by the non-Christian and the Christian community. He’s recently come out with a book a commentary in the book of Acts. Well, it’s kind of a commentary. It’s kind of an autobiographical picture of his own conversion and then what’s God’s done with him in the last 15 or 20 years.

He is Reformed and highly influenced by Reconstructionist writers. He references Van Til quite a bit in the book. In the footnotes, he talks about R.G. Rushdoony and Gary North, Ray Sutton, etc. He did that intentionally apparently. Keith Hansen had a conversation with him a couple weeks ago on the phone. And he did that intentionally knowing that he would get flak from a lot of the Christian community for it. But in any event, he’s he’s a real it’s it’s an exciting thing to read his commentary in the book of Acts both in the sense of literature and also in the sense of his own insights into what God has done with him.

He’s been a member of an Orthodox Presbyterian church in North Dakota for 15 years. The book is dedicated, by the way, to G.I. Williamson who is of course a strong Reformed Christian. Williamson wrote the platform that was in favor of paedocommunion at the OPC General Assembly a couple of years ago. I guess he’s kind of gone into semi-retirement in Iowa now. In any event, the book is dedicated to him.

Woiwode actually thinks that it was a mistake of the apostles to appoint Matthias, which you know, I think he’s wrong in that, but he says something else in the context of this commentary that I wanted to read relative to Matthias., and the idea that Matthias is never spoken of again in the New Testament. We don’t really know much about him. Let me just read this quote from Woiwode on the importance of the relationship of communion and community and recognizing the importance of all members of a particular communion. He said, “No writer is able to write a book that bears any authority unless the writer understands the working of the relationships within a community. Our presence as writers in a communion is most essential.

As members of a body, we understand that our most inconspicuous members are the most essential. The supposition behind each of their thoughts is often more correct than that of a professor from the best university. And if such people aren’t the mouths or eyes or ears of the body of the church, perhaps they are the brain stem or adrenal cortex or the liver. Some are even the bilious gall. But every part of this body from its organs and sinews to its bones and outer tissues is working together for one purpose to instruct and edify or build up at each connection every other part in love.

Now I think that’s an important quote and before we leave Matthias and get on to some applications of these things, it’s important to see that while we don’t hear Matthias again, his place in the apostolic rank is here definitely stated by holy scripture itself that he was numbered with the apostles and we’re sure that this was God’s selection and as a result while he may not have been externally important in terms of having his works recorded for us in the rest of the New Testament or in history nonetheless he was part of the functioning of that communion of apostles and I say it to remind us as well in this church as with any church that it’s frequently the less obvious members of the church who through their diligence their understanding of their function within the body that are exceedingly important for the working of the whole mechanism of the body of Christ.

And so I want to give that by way of exhortation to us to appreciate those members of our community who are not as visible eyes, ears, tongues, but who instead indeed maybe making up the very sinews that holds the whole thing together. Okay. So let’s look now at some lessons from this text. What do we want to go away with this with? I want you to go away with a couple of things. First of all, I want you to see the necessity of unity in prayer and its relationship to preparation for conquest. We have here, as I said, the beginning of the conquest of the world. Jesus has said that he’s going to send the Holy Spirit and they’re going to be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. Now, this dovetails with his great commission to the church to go forth and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them and teaching them. So, they’re going to conquer the world is what’s going to happen here with the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And at the beginning of that, they meet for prayer. Prayer is an important part of the Christian life. What are they praying for? Primarily, they’re praying for what God has promised to give them already. He has promised to send them the Holy Spirit and to empower them for the work that he has called them to do. But this promise is not given that they may just sit back then and wait for God to hand it over.

The promise is given as an inducement to pray for what God has already promised. At our last prayer meeting on the west side, I read from the book of Nehemiah chapter 1. Nehemiah great time of reconstruction model for us. What does it begin with? It begins with Nehemiah’s prayer for God’s deliverance out of the exile and for the restoration of his people. An exile that was coming to an end. Daniel prays knowing the times of the season are coming for God’s deliverance of his people once more.

What I’m saying is when we have work to do, when we know that God and his providence is moving things toward a particular aspect or promise of his for empowerment, restore, restoration, reconstruction, whatever it is, that doesn’t mean that prayer then goes away. That means that prayer increases as we recognize our dependence upon God for that gift of deliverance and victory. So unity and prayer is here demonstrated for us as the beginning of the preparation of God’s people for his gifts relative to the conquest of the world.

Matthew Henry says, “They had new work before them, great work, and before they entered upon it, they were instant in prayer to God for his presence with them in it. Before they were first sent forth, Christ spent time in prayer for them.” This is back when they were when Christ sent them out into the world. And now they spent time in prayer for themselves. The spirit descended upon our Savior when he was praying.

And so now they pray praying for the descent of the spirit as well. Christ had promised now shortly to send forth the Holy Ghost. This promise was not to supersede prayer but rather to quicken and encourage it. You remember that Jesus said in the garden told them to pray and to faint not and they had fainted but now they pray and they don’t faint. There is a transition here indicated. Jesus prayed for them.

They now pray for themselves. Jesus prayed and the spirit descended upon him. They pray preparing for the spirits to be sent upon them. They had failed to be constant in prayer prior to the resurrection, the ascension of our Savior in the garden. But now they are constant in prayer. You see, this whole transition that we’re reading in the acts of the apostles is the acts of the power of the risen Savior manifesting itself in his church is what’s being portrayed here.

The greater Joshua will go forth conquering. And in part of that conquering, the preparation for that conquering on the part of his people who will perform his works, his prayer, recognizing their dependence upon him. In the numeric Bible, we read this quote relative to this verse. This conscious weakness is a main element of strength. The work being so ultimately beyond them, they were delivered from the necessity of calculating their own resources and are left to the unobstructed view of God as their sole argument and their sufficient resource.

And so it is with us. When we have great work to do, that is the time when we should be constant in prayer to God and we do have great work to do. One week today from today, there’ll be an ordination in Seattle. The congregation met last week and unanimously called Doug H. to be the first elder of Christ the Sovereign Covenant Church. Well, Richard and I had approved him after our examination of him a couple week and a half ago or so.

And now we move toward the ordination. Does this mean that now prayers for the selection of the officer in Seattle should cease? No. It means that this next week should be a time of most fervent prayer for Doug being set aside to office in that service. It’s the beginning of a whole new relationship for Reformation Covenant Church. We now with the ordination of Doug, that church, the bridge agreement will have come to fruition.

I don’t like to say it is terminated. It comes to fruition and we now have an independent church there, but a church that is desirous of and intends to enter into covenant in various ways with this particular church. These are great times. I spent time this last week working on bylaws for Reformation Covenant Church. You’ll notice in the update where I’m writing now introductory material, bylaws, etc. myself, Deacon Garrett, Richard and Dave H. will be meeting week from Friday to talk about those bylaws, talk about the introductory material.

We’ll be getting that material to the congregation shortly. Some of those bylaws have reference to the relationship to the Seattle church. There are great horizons opening up for us here is what I’m saying. There’s work that we have to do and this should be a time of prayer, unity, and prayer in preparation for the ministries that God has called us to another major area as we’ve talked about repeatedly for the last few months and I hope that you’ve been praying for it regularly is the concept of missions and how what is our involvement going to be in missions relative to institutionalized a Christian mission the adopted people program etc.

I brought more handouts for you this week. This is a time not to back off from prayer. This is a time for to be constant in prayer relative to our relationship to the Seattle church relative to the development of the infrastructure here at Reformation Covenant Church. We’ve been working on it for a year and it’s now coming to fruition. This is a time when things are happening when termination points are being reached and therefore it is a time should be a time of increased prayer as well.

It’s interesting that in the account of the progression of God’s people into Canaan. You remember it doesn’t begin in chapter one by moving right into Jericho and taking over. In chapter one there’s an exhortation to be what? To see the mandate of the word of God as their call to exercise dominion in Canaan. Just as Peter here sees the mandate of the word relative to their selection of officers.

Chapter one has God telling Joshua to be strong and courageous, Jesus is going to send his spirit to comfort his people. They might be strong and courageous that they might do what Peter is here doing, fulfill things according to the scripture. God gives Joshua that message. Joshua gives it to his officers. The Lord Jesus Christ, the greater Joshua, is in the process in these opening chapters of Acts of preparing his people for victory as they move into the greater Canaan and of all the world.

And he has an emphasis upon the word and then they have a selection to office of the officers who will speak for the Lord Jesus Christ as they go forward. And then what do they do? Remember they have Passover and circumcision as they go into that land and make preparation. There is religious preparations that take place prior to the work the actual invasion of Canaan occurring. And so it is here in the book of Acts.

There is religious events that prepare them for become the model from which everything else springs. They meet for prayer together. They see the Psalms speak to the delineation of history. Sheep and goats and the replacement of the wicked. The judgment of God upon those whose iniquity had become full. The Canaanites were about to be judged. Judas’s iniquity was full at the end of three years and he falls on the ground and his guts spill out.

And that’s a picture of all those who would rise up against the Lord Jesus Christ. These almost liturgical recitation of things by Peter provides the basis for the church of Jesus Christ being filled with power from the spirit on high on the day of Pentecost and then going forth and preaching the gospel that will slay men condemning some to their place as with Judas the place of eternal torment and raising others back up in the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unity of prayer is important to see here. Prayer for all these things, particularly seasons of prayer when times of activity are given to the church and termination points are being reached as they are in this church. of certain activities prepare us for new activities. Secondly, unity and service and preparation for conquest. It’s not just prayer. They don’t just sit around for 10 days praying. They pray.

They get an understanding from God’s word of necessary actions to take and they take those actions relative to the filling up of the offices of the apostolic office. And so it is with us. If we have these things we’re about ready to partake of in terms of missionary activity, a relationship with the Seattle church that’s now different, we’re getting ready for family camp. Doug and I will probably be traveling back to Illinois to meet with a couple of groups there, reform groups, get to know some reformed men and see what’s happening in a couple of a denomination and then an association.

As we’re getting ready for this stuff, we’re also getting ready to do work. Not simply to pray for these things, but to do work. You know, there is a dedication demonstrated by Peter and the 120 here that’s quite important for us. Remember I mentioned Matthias and the faithfulness of those who are not necessarily prominent. So it is with you. If you’ve got a ministry here at this church, a work, it should be something you pray about and it should be something that you’re diligent to perform.

And isn’t it a shame that most ministries and most churches are performed in a very sloppy and unprofessional fashion. Just the reverse should be true. These ministries should be seen as holy callings by God and as requiring full diligence. This unity and service is manifested in the selection of office. And the third thing I want you to think of as you as you leave this text and begin to apply it to your lives is first unity in prayer, unity and service both in terms of preparation for conquest and then third the relationship of function and office.

They are here as I said making up the officers that the greater Joshua will then give instructions to and empowerment from in terms of the Holy Spirit to go forth to do his work. Now it’s interesting to me if you have 120 is the number of people that are assembled in this upper room doing this work. And what are they doing? They’re making up the 12th. What would he be then? The 12 heads of 10. Remember, Exodus 18 is the basic pattern for government.

Heads of tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands. 120 divided by 10 is 12. And they’re making up the deficiency there in terms of office. Now, function and office are related. And we said earlier, I remember I mentioned that Judas had a part in this ministry. It is service or function that’s stressed there. But then later, the citation from the psalm Let another inhabit his bishopric, let another man inhabit his bishopric or let his bishopric be filled by another.

That is a specific term that has reference to office. And what I wanted you to see here is it’s a very important text to show us that it is not simply function that occurs in the context of the institutional church or the state or the family or whatever. There is office as well that must be recognized. These men were not simply appointed to a function but to an office. Now the word bishopric here has its root in the word of visitation as it does in the other couple of places where a man desires the office of a bishop.

That’s what word this is here. And that word has its origins as I said in a visitation. What it means is that the officers in a fuller sense I believe can be seen as a visitation and appearance so to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ with his authority. You know where it says that he had to be the qualifications earlier in the in the chapter let’s see here when Peter lists the qualifications in verse 21 wherefore these men who accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us not it could be a little better translated when it said he went in and out among us it makes it sound like he was just one of us but the word among there according to Alexander whose commentaries exegetically are some of the soundest I’ve ever seen the word among there us there implies the superiority of Jesus superseding or governing us.

Okay. And that’s important for setting up what this office is going to be. These were real officers who had real apostolic authority. And then later office in the church as well has authority invested to it. Well, that’s important for us to hear for a couple of reasons. One, as I said, it helps us to see the correlations between this particular portion of scripture and the basic pattern of heads over tens.

The correlation to Joshua and the selection of officers and the instruction of those officers in terms of the conquest of Canaan. But it’s also important because we live in a society today that stresses egalitarianism. This confessional conference in Illinois, they’re going to have four of these things where various reform people come together and try to draw up some sort of confessional statement relative to four areas they think are critical today.

This year’s topic is what is this year’s topic?