GOD'S WORD IS HIS COMMAND - Acts 1:15-26

And the guys are finishing up bringing around the offering plates. If you've got a copy of God's word with you, it's time to open it. Let's open it up to Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one. We're gonna be starting to read in verse 12 as we go into the fifth week of our study through this letter.

Luke’s Gospel, Acts, and the Heavenly Ministry of Christ

This letter that is written by Luke under of course the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And this letter is for the purpose of giving us details of the work of the Holy Spirit through the life of the apostles and the early church.

Doing what? Carrying out the continued heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ, right? Luke's first letter, his gospel was an account of Jesus's earthly ministry. Now this is Jesus's heavenly ministry. So let's read there in Acts chapter one, starting in verse 12, where Luke writes, then they returned to Jerusalem 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. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all about 120 and said, 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. Now, this man acquired a field with a reward of his wickedness and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that the field was called in their own language, a Keldama, that is field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, may his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it and let another take his office.

So 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 he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.

And they put forward to Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice and Mathis. And they prayed and said, you Lord who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.

And they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Mathis and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Whew, we got through there. Let's pray that God would be honored in our time and that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth.

Waiting on the Lord Through Prayer and Scripture

Lord, we come to you once again. We, as we do each time, we acknowledge our frailty, our inability to understand your truths. God, we're dealing with a text that can oftentimes have a lot of different opinion, can be confusing for us at times, but it is nonetheless clear.

It is clear as you want it to be for us. And we need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to understand it. Lord, I pray that as I walk us through this, that you would give me the clarity and the words to say, but then also for the saints that are here present, that you would give them the understanding in their minds to comprehend it properly according to your word.

We also pray for those here that are not yet regenerate, that do not know you. Lord, I pray this truth would awaken them, that they would hear the gospel intermixed in all of it. We thank you for the opportunity this morning.

May you be honored in our lives and in our speech. In Christ's name, amen. Over the past couple of weeks, we have talked a lot about how Jesus had called his disciples back in verse four, if you remember, to stay in Jerusalem and do what?

To wait, to stay in Jerusalem and wait. And how that principle really does apply to us as we Christians today wait upon the Lord. We oftentimes have to wait upon his power. We have to wait upon his prompting and we have to wait on his will.

And just like his disciples being obedient to that command and going back to the upper room as we've read and in one accord, devoting themselves to prayer as we practiced last week, if you were with us, then we too are called to commune with him as we wait.

That's what they were doing, communing with him as they communed with one another in one accord. And in that communion with him, reading his words, making our petitions, both corporately and individually, he begins to reveal things to us, doesn't he?

He begins to expose things from his scripture. He begins to expose things about us in light of his scripture, to bring the truth to light in our minds that we must, once brought to light, act upon. You see, waiting isn't passive.

Sometimes we talked about that a few weeks ago. Waiting is really being ready. Waiting is being willing, being able to respond to the King's commands in real time. That is waiting. It's kind of like a soldier in a foxhole.

He's got his helmet on, he's got his rifle in hand, his boots are laced up, everything is ready to go, and all he's waiting on is for that general to yell charge for him to move in that moment. This is what we see exemplified by the disciples here in our text today.

Yet, as they are still waiting for the promised Holy Spirit, that's what they're ultimately waiting on, they are receiving commands. Commands of obedience and preparation that they're ready to act upon, as we will see.

Of course, Jesus is no longer with them physically. He's just ascended, and he's sitting on the throne at the right hand of the Father. He is with them spiritually, of course, just as he is with us today spiritually, but he's no longer with them physically.

The two messengers that were there at his ascension and told them, what are you doing here? Go back and obey him, go to Jerusalem and wait. The same probably two messengers that were at his tomb, at his resurrection, they've gone.

So how are they receiving commands in the midst of their waiting that they should be following through on? Because I can tell you right now, they're not guessing as to what those commands are. They're not sitting in the upper room, praying together and reading the scriptures together and just guessing as to what the will of God is.

They're not speculating as to what they should or should not be doing. They're certainly not going off of what they feel or what they think. They've learned that lesson in their three years with Jesus, right?

Everything they felt, everything they thought, Jesus simply contradicted time and time again and showed them that that wasn't true and that his truth was the only truth. They simply see it in his word.

That's how they know what his commands are in the waiting. God's word is his command. And that's what I want us to see today. Look at verse 15, look back there, where it says in those days, and by the way, I think there's roughly 10 days between the ascension of Christ and Pentecost.

There's somewhere in that window, but in that time, Peter, what does he do? He stands up amongst the brothers, roughly about 120 of them, and he says, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled. I want us to see four things about God's word being his command that I think are going to help us as we look at this account.

His Commands Have Already Been Given

And the first one is that his commands have already been given. His commands have already been given. There is no new commands. There is no new revelation. We have everything we need for life and godliness.

You don't need a fresh word from the Lord. There is absolutely zero need for that. He has already spoken. He spoke through his prophets, he spoke through his apostles, and ultimately he spoke through his son.

And we have all that we need. It's already been given. It's already here. Now, during this account that we're reading with the apostles in the upper room, the New Testament, of course, has not yet been written, yet the apostles are learning and leaning on the revelation that had already been given to them.

And Peter, by the way, as it's written, it's not singular, it's on the behalf of the other 10 remaining apostles, by the way. Peter is not a first amongst equals. Peter was simply a mouthpiece amongst equals.

He never made any decisions whatsoever outside of the whole of the apostolic office. He was merely the man that was probably bold enough to stand up and speak the most. But he does, he stands up and he points this group of waiting, praying, ready disciples to God's already given commands.

And Peter has great confidence that these commands, when he stands up and says, the scriptures must be fulfilled, these words are true, he has great confidence in that. The very words of God, look at verse 16 again, where he says, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David.

What is Peter declaring here? He's saying that the scriptures that he speaks of, those spoken by King David and written down for us in the Psalms were actually being spoken by the third person of the Godhead, isn't he?

The Holy Spirit. It's not David, it's not David's words. The speech may have come from David's mouth, but it was the words of the Holy Spirit speaking through David. And he did so long before those prophetic words that David spoke would prove true.

Look there again at verse 16, concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. He will then go on in verses 17 through 20 to point to how these scriptures were referring, most certainly, to Judas, the betrayer.

And we're not gonna focus on those verses today. We're gonna actually deal with Judas in greater detail in those verses next week. I don't have time to do all of this as one chunk. But you can see that he quotes two Psalms in verse 20.

In reference to this, that are connected to Judas. Showing us that his commands have already been given. The first one is from Psalm 69, verse 25. All right, may his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it.

And he quotes Psalm 109, eight, let another take his office. You see, these prophetic commands had been given long ago. And you can be sure that these disciples had read them before. Just like you, you've read much of the scripture, hopefully.

You've read much of the scripture, but have you ever read the scriptures and then all of a sudden you go, I've read that verse a thousand times and now I see it. This is, I think, what's happening with the apostles.

However, they are just now tangibly comprehending these particular verses. They're putting the pieces together because it's being revealed to them. Yes, his commands had already been given, yet this leads us to our second point.

He reveals them to us in his time. This is what he's done with the apostles here. He's revealed his already given commands, already true. They were no less true before Judas broke the law and fulfilled that prophecy.

They were true then because they were most certainly going to take place, but now the apostles can see them for what they are. He reveals his truth in his time. We see, of course, a progressive revelation, right?

You see through Genesis three onto the resurrection of Jesus. It's God is slowly but surely revealing his sovereign plan of salvation through that. And we even see a progressive revelation through the New Testament as the apostles write the scriptures and confirm the Old Testament scriptures.

These apostles were undoubtedly scouring through the scriptures during this time of waiting, right? We read that they were praying, but these men are praying and they're opening up their word and they're seeking scripture.

And they're going, okay, we've read these passages. We may have some of these passages memorized, but we need to see them in light of reality here and it needs to be revealed. So they're looking through the scriptures and then God reveals it to them, reveals what he'd already written and fulfilled.

And he revealed it to them in his perfect timing and the timing that he was gonna use them to further fulfill it. That's how sovereign God is, right? He's written it, it's true, it's gonna take place.

And then he reveals it to them at a time that he's actually gonna use their actions to follow through to further fulfill it. And that was to let another take his office. That passage from Psalm 109 is now by them perceptively understood.

It's real, it's clear to them. And they see, oh, this is the will of God. This is what God is calling us to. Now, what that looked like for them, I have to say this. What that kind of thing looks like for us today versus what it looked like for them, such as we see clear commands in scripture and obeying it, they do look a bit different for us than they did for them.

And I'll try and explain that here in a moment. But to help us better understand what that means, how things are different for us than it was for the apostles in a way, we need to see a couple of things about this particular command that I think will help categorize that, right?

He's to take another's office. The first thing I want us to see about that Psalm, about that prophecy is this command was a one-time thing. This command that the apostles are just now seeing is a one-time thing.

It says, let another take his office. It doesn't say, let others take his office. It says, let another, a singular position, not multiple men, one single individual take his office. But also that this is not repeatable.

It is not an ongoing command that the apostles are seeing here in this prophecy that must be fulfilled and obeyed. Once this other person fills this position, once this office is filled, this command is fully fulfilled.

It is done. It is not for us. We don't go back to David's words and say, let another take his office and pick one of you, right? It's singular, it's done. The second is this position is referred to as a office.

This is referred to as an office. This is an important distinction that I think will help us understand why them clearly seeing the will of God in scripture and us looking for the will of God in scripture are slightly but distinctly different.

For them to look at scripture as apostles and for us to look at scripture are slightly but distinctly different. What is this office being referred to here? Well, turn in your Bibles back with me to Luke 6.

Luke's first letter, the gospel of Luke, Luke 6. And I want us to see what this is referring to. You already know where I'm going, but I want us to look and see it in scripture. In Luke 6, verse 13, Jesus, he had other disciples following him.

Jesus had always had disciples, which you do know there's a distinction between disciple and apostle. Maybe we'll talk about that here in a moment. But there were many disciples, followers that were following him.

And in verse 13 of Luke 6, it says, and when they came, he called his disciples, the people that were following him, and chose from them 12, whom he named, is everybody looking? Apostles. And it goes on to do what?

It goes on there. If you look to name those 12 apostles, notice Judas being the last one. Judas is in that list of apostles. And we have a very similar language that Luke uses again as he gets into the beginning of his second letter in chapter one and verse two.

Until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. In Matthew chapter 10, the 12 apostles in verses one and four says, and when he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority.

He gave them authority. He gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out. He gave them authority to heal diseases and every affliction. And he named them, of course, the 12 apostles. And he names them again there in that passage.

You see, the word apostle simply means one who is sent. One who is sent, like an emissary, a representative, one who is sent by a king under a king's authority and carrying the king's authority in his words, declaring the very words of the king.

When that person would come and make a declaration, even though the presence of the king wasn't there, it was as if the presence of the king was there because when that person said it, it was the king saying it as far as it depended on you and you followed it.

Now, there are others in scripture who do not hold this particular office, yet the word apostle is used in reference to them. We see such as Barnabas, Apollos, Timothy, even Jesus himself in Hebrews three.

We see the word apostle being referred to them. Because this word really does simply mean one who is sent. However, there is something distinct about the office of apostle that Jesus has set apart and called for a specific purpose.

Not only a specific purpose, but a specific purpose in a very specific time. As we saw in Ephesians four, how Jesus gave the apostles and the prophets, Paul had mentioned how those apostles were the foundation of the church, the beginning of the church.

And you only need how many foundations? One foundation. And this is connected to what I said a moment ago. This is the one time thing. Rome would have us believe that the apostle, the apostolic office continues through popes, that Peter was somehow special and that now the pope every time takes the place of him in an apostolic succession.

So-called apostolic movements today have self-proclaimed apostles, even though this office only lives on in the writings and affirmation of scripture for us to glean from. How can we be sure of that?

How can we be so sure that the office of apostle does not continue? After all, we see this in this one time where Judas was gone, somebody had to take his place. Why would it not continue on? Well, it's interesting because when we look at the New Testament, we see that none of the apostles from henceforth were ever replaced.

Apostles were never replaced. As a matter of fact, in Acts 12, I believe James is executed by Herod. Do you remember that? But if you notice, the church took absolutely no action to replace him. Why wouldn't they?

They replaced Judas, but they didn't replace James. They didn't replace any of the apostles once they were killed. It's because James and all the other actual apostles of the 12 that Jesus had chosen had already faithfully functioned in that office, unfolding and upholding the gospel tradition and a witness of the reality of Jesus's resurrection.

And he had done so for nearly 15 years. And now as the church was growing, that ministry was not to be repeated. We have no need for the apostolic office any longer. They were the foundation. The foundation was poured.

The foundation is dry. The foundation is solid and the foundation is ready and we don't need another one. There are no more apostles. So somebody comes to you with the title apostle, say, oh, you were just simply a sent one like a missionary.

You don't hold any office. That doesn't exist any longer. So this command is a one-time thing and this position is referred to as an office. So, so far we have seen his commands have already been given.

Obedience to Revealed Commands and the Limits of Apostolic Office

He reveals them to us in his time. And thirdly, once he reveals them, he must be obeyed. Once he reveals his commands in scripture, once he has exposed that to you, they must be obeyed. And that's what has taken place here.

Peter says in verse 21, look at our passage there in Acts one again. In verse 21, so one of the men, there's the singular, right? Who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out from among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us.

One of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward to, and there's Joseph or, you know, justice and Mathis. So they've seen the Old Testament command. It's been revealed to them.

And what do they do? They act, they act upon this truth that has been revealed to them. But they also know that there are certain guidelines to this act of obedience. There always is, when we see scripture, if you wanna know if there's a confirmation of this is a true command from God, or I'm reading it wrong, there's always guidelines that fall within it.

And those guidelines will make sure that they don't contradict other things from scripture,.

Right?

So if you see a command in scripture and it contradicts another thing from scripture, then you've not followed the guidelines to confirm that that other thing is true, right? When you look at, and you read a passage in Acts, which we'll get to later on in chapter two, one of the big ones, right?

And you read, it says something about baptism saving, or that's how you're gonna be saved, but yet we have the whole of the New Testament showing us that baptism has nothing to do with your justification.

You can't interpret one text without looking at the guidelines that help you to interpret what that text is actually telling you the will of God is. Everybody trekking with me here? And understand, and this is what's happened here.

And their act of obedience has to follow within these guidelines. And there's actually three guidelines that are listed here that Peter brings up for the men. And I want you to see them. A disciple of Jesus in his earthly ministry.

Okay?

He has to be a disciple of Jesus in his earthly ministry. Look at verse 21 again. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out from among us. This phrase, went in and out from among us, it's actually a Semitic idiom for familiar and unhindered association.

Okay?

Familiar and unhindered association. Meaning someone who had been faithful to follow Christ throughout his earthly ministry. This is a requirement. These are guidelines that these men must follow in order to know the will of God that they see prophesied that must be fulfilled back from the mouth of David in the Psalms.

The second thing, B, is a witness to the resurrection. A eyewitness to the resurrection. Look at verse 22. Beginning from the baptism of John, that's speaking of course of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist.

Until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. But what is Peter saying? He's saying, hey, this guy had to have been faithful disciple with this one, and he had to be there from John's baptism, the onset of Jesus' earthly ministry that began there when God came and said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, on through the resurrection of Jesus, and actually physically seeing the resurrection of Jesus because that's what the apostle is, is a witness.

We see that time and time again, a witness, a eyewitness to the resurrection. And so this is a requirement. These are guidelines for them choosing who it is that is to replace Judas. Thirdly, commissioned by Jesus himself.

Commissioned by Jesus himself. We already read that passage back that Luke had talked about what happened when he brought the disciples in together and he then chose 12, he commissioned 12. We saw in verse two of Acts one, right?

The disciple of the apostles whom he had chosen, he is the one that must choose. So these are the guidelines that they're building off of. And this one, in order to explain this one, this gets us to our fourth and final point in the sermon.

When Scripture Is Clear and When God Must Provide

This is where things are unclear, he will provide. Where things are unclear, he will provide. He's made it clear so far, they've read the Psalm, they've gone, one must take his place. This is referring to Judas.

This is referring to the office. Here's our guidelines. We must choose someone. Looks like they have two men, right? They have two men that meet those first two requirements. They've been faithful. These are obviously faithful men.

These two men that they brought forward, these guys must have been faithful and following Christ in all of this and been with alongside the apostles throughout this ministry. They've seen the resurrection of Christ, they meet this.

Have you ever been in a position like that? You ever been where scripture clearly lays out certain directives? It's just, you see it, it's clear as to what you are to do, yet leaves you with more than one good choice.

You see it all the time. Like, do I take this job or do I take that job? And neither job dishonors Christ. Which do you choose? Do I go to this school or do I have to go to this other school? And neither school is gonna dishonor Christ.

Me going to either one is honoring Christ in any way that I slice it or dice it. Do I eat Q barbecue or pizza chef today?

Right?

Scripture's just not clear.

All jokes aside, this is often, this often presents a bit of a dilemma for us in our spiritual life. However, when we, like the apostles, are searching his words, diligently praying for his will, what does he do?

He provides.

He always provides in the midst of it. Look at verse 24 for passage. It says, and they prayed. Again, they sought the Lord. They went to the Lord. They prayed and said, you, Lord, who know the hearts of all, you know the hearts of these two men.

You know our hearts. You know the hearts of every 120 person in this room. You know the hearts of every human being.

That you've ever created.

You know them. Now we ask that you show which one of these two that you have chosen. It's a very specific prayer, isn't it? Sometimes it's best for us to pray those specific prayers. Lord, which direction have you chosen?

And that's what they did here. An apostle must be commissioned by Jesus himself. It's one of the guidelines.

It's one of the requirements.

They have two good options that meet the first two requirements. Now the third is completely left up into the hands of the Lord. They don't know what to do here. You and I have prayed that before, haven't we?

Lord, which one is your will? I've prayed that so many times.

My God, just set me aside.

Just tell me. I have options laid before me and I don't know which one. And then it becomes paralysis from analysis where you don't move because you're frozen. You're like, I don't know which one is the way the Lord has called me to go into.

Well, look at how they dealt with it, verse 26. So they've asked God, show us which one you've chosen. And they cast lots for them. They basically rolled the dice. We're not sure how those lots worked.

We don't know how that did, but this was something that was common in that time. And what happened? The lot fell on Mathis. And in that moment, he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Now, this is one of those areas that I was saying is very different for us today versus them.

I would never recommend to you to roll the dice trying to decide God's will. If you come to me and you say, pastor, I've got this decision laid before me. We've done all the work. All of it's God honoring.

And I just have a fork in the road and I don't know which way to go. You're not gonna see me pull out some dice and go, let's roll the dice. Let's figure out which way the will of God is. This is different for us and for them.

But for that time and with those particular men, this would have been a normal practice. As a matter of fact, in Proverbs, wisdom literature, Proverbs 16, 33, it says the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.

God is sovereign over the dice. He's not called us to roll the dice per se, but it's still true nonetheless that he is sovereign over every little thing that lands, every lot. In Joshua, we see God prescribing for them to cast lots, to divide the lands for the 12 tribes.

That's how they made decisions. Various offices and functions within the temple were all determined by lot. And for us today, we have something they did not have. We have the full revelation and totality of Scripture.

They did not. And we have the sealing and indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us that guides and directs us in the will of God in areas that he wants us to go in. But because of this idea of these lots being cast, and that's how Mathis is chosen, some would use this as a reason for saying that the apostles got ahead of the Lord here, that Paul was actually Jesus's choice for the 12th apostle.

Not really personally convinced of that. One, there is no account of Mathis being denounced in all of Acts in any way. Now, I know that that is an argument from silence, but I do believe it to be a strong one.

But two, Paul acknowledged over in 1 Corinthians 15, because we'll talk about that at a later time, Paul's apostleship and what that means. But he even pointed out that his apostleship is untimely, and he is the least of the apostles.

Plus, you have to remember that Paul was the apostle to who? The Gentiles. You see, the reason for the 12 here, it actually begins to make some sense when you go, okay, there needed to be 12, was it was a 12-fold witness that was required if early Christianity in that culture was to represent itself to the Jewish nation.

There must be 12. And here's why it should represent itself to the Jewish nation, as the culmination of Israel's hope. And to point to the true people of Israel's Messiah, the true Israel. You know, in Revelation 21, it speaks of 12 gates, it speaks of 12 angels, 12 tribes, 12 foundations, 12 names, and the 12 apostles' names on those 12.

This is, of course, imagery of the new Jerusalem, the true Israel to come. Not some national Israel here on earth in some rain, but true Israel. At the onset, the beginning of the church, God's kingdom here on earth, the true Israel must be represented by 12 apostles.

And it's gonna be a bit before the apostle Paul is on the scene. This is why I believe that Matthew truly was the 12th apostle here. When things run clear to the 11, Christ provided for he is king, right?

And when, like the disciples before, when we, we must believe that his commands have already been given. We must search the scriptures diligently for them, right? That's what we're called to, just as the example of the apostles searching the Old Testament.

We must trust that he reveals them to us in his time, praying, seeking him, trusting, the prompting of the spirit within us. And once he reveals them to us, we must obey, to act swiftly. This is where I think we get lost because we're so soft.

The apostles had already kind of gone through some fear and some suffering, right? And so they're willing, they know, hey, my life's on the line. I've seen the resurrected Christ, I'm ready to die. It's not always the case with us, is it?

It's like, we got air conditioning, we've got nice houses, we've got cars to drive in. We've got lots of comforts in this world. So it's really, really hard for us to obey his words at times. I can't tell you how often in my own life where I've had brothers confront me and be like, this is what the Lord says, thus saith the Lord, look at it, it's right here.

And I go, yeah, I see it, that's true. But if I do that, A, B and C in my life will have to go to the wayside, right? We must be willing when we see the truth of God's word to burn every bridge to align to it.

Just like the apostles there in that upper room. We see what the word of God says, we must follow through for this fulfillment for the 12th apostle. This has to happen because this is what God says and it has to happen now.

This must be fulfilled. And fourthly, trusting us, trusting that where things are unclear, he will provide. When we're being filled with the spirit, seeking the means that he's prescribed, he will lead us into his will, amen.

God provided for the church then, he's provided thus far and he will continue to provide for us as we seek his word. We rely on God's word and his commands from his word and his precepts. Let's stand, let's sing the doxology together in closing.