Replacing Judas Acts 1:12-26

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Please take a Bible and open it to the book of Acts.

The Acts of the Apostles are really the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit as ministered to, maybe by the

Apostles. So what do these folks have in common?

I'm going to read you a list, and you think, a list, but listen to this list. Mary Magdalene, here's a name you may not know,

Helena of Constantinople, Patrick of Ireland, St. Patrick, Vladimir the

Great, we once had a little gerbil named Vladimir, but I don't think that's him,

Olaf of Norway, and here's one,

Innocent of Alaska. Those are some of the

Eastern Orthodox people that they've designated to be equal to the

Apostles. Equal, not Apostles, but equal to the Apostles. Have another, this is a shorter list, actually it's not shorter, it's longer, sorry.

I'll read it quickly. Russell Ballard, age 93, Jeffrey Holland, age 80,

Dietrich Uchtdorf, 80, David Bednar, 69, Quentin Cook, 81,

Todd Christofferson, 76, Neil Anderson, 70, Ronald Raspin, 70,

Gary Stevenson, 66, Donald Renlund, 68, Jarrett Gong, 67, and Ulysses Suarez, 63.

Each of those men have something in common, they are designated Apostles by the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. The Mormon Church, listen to how they define what it means to be an

Apostle. They're prophets, seers, and revelators, evangelical ambassadors, and special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

They claim to have authority, but they have nothing on this group, this next group, and I don't have a list here,

I'm just going to describe them for you. This is from an article, it was on biola .edu,

it says this, how about the New Apostolic Reformation? Have you heard of them? NAR? They're people who say that they're

Protestants, but they have Apostles, quote, a new religious movement led by men and women who claim to be prophets and Apostles.

They claim to have authority and functions akin to Old Testament prophets and Christ's Apostles.

Listen to this part, all Christians are expected to submit to their leadership and receive their new revelations.

In this way, they plan to form the church into a miracle -working army, onward,

I mean I just want to sing, you know, Onward Christian Church. This army will transform society, and listen, prepare the way for God's kingdom to be established on earth.

And you think, well these people are kooks, who would possibly go for that? There are 3 million people in this country that go to NAR churches, 3 million, and these are churches that have formally submitted to the governing authority of NAR Apostles.

The article goes on, it says, what does this governing function of an Apostle or prophet look like in practice?

And the person who wrote this book says this, major functions include receiving new revelation for the church, casting a vision for the church based on revelation they've received, leading the church in spiritual warfare, imparting miraculous spiritual gifts, settling disputes in the church, imposing spiritual or church discipline, revealing when demons have been sent to thwart the work of a church, but this is one

I really like, Apostles, these NAR Apostles are commissioned by whom?

Other Apostles. How do you know you're an Apostle? Because a person who says they're an Apostle told you you're an

Apostle, that's how you know. What is an Apostle? Is it possible, that kind of rhymes, is it possible to be an

Apostle today? Let's read our text, Acts chapter 1 verses 12 to 26.

Acts chapter 1 verses 12 to 26. 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 into the upper room where they were staying.

Peter and James and 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 the reward of his wickedness and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out and became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their own language.

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, 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 Matthias. And they prayed and said, you

Lord, who know the hearts of all show which of these two you have chosen.

Sorry, which 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 Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.

Now, what we've seen in acts so far is Dr. Luke, because that's what he is. Luke, the physician, setting the background, kind of giving us all the pieces, putting the parameters in place, setting the stage, as it were, for his work on early church history.

These are the building blocks, the essentials, as it were, for building the church.

And we've talked about them, the life and teaching of Jesus, the faithfulness of Jesus to fulfill his promise to build the church and to send the

Holy Spirit, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the resurrection, none of this takes place, right?

I mean, the apostles aren't going to go out into Jerusalem if they don't believe that Jesus is raised from the dead.

The scope of the Great Commission, we've already talked about that from Jerusalem, ultimately to the ends of the earth.

We talked about how some scholars say that that could be Rome, just as a symbol of the ends of the earth.

But the point is, it's going to go out everywhere that it possibly can go out. And finally, last week, we saw the ascension, the ascension of the

Lord Jesus Christ, where he's taken up from them. He goes straight up into heaven in clouds.

And then there are two angels that tell them, the same way you saw Jesus leave, that's the way he's coming back.

And it was with that in mind that they go back to Jerusalem. So this morning,

I have three participles, not a really superb outline, but three participles which will help us track this kind of first meeting of the

Church of Jerusalem. If we view it as a church plant, which isn't that far -fetched, this is the first meeting of these 120 people.

And so we're going to walk through that. You'll notice that there are no Robert's Rules of Order, no minutes of the last meeting, but some amazing work of the

Lord. And the final piece of our introduction before we go into Pentecost, and after this, the church will inexorably, that means unstoppably, it's going to inexorably spread, it's going to grow, starting from Pentecost forward.

And really, as I've said before, this is against all human reasoning, against all logic.

What's going to happen, what we're going to see happen in the Book of Acts is spectacular, and from a human perspective, as we look at it, it makes no sense whatsoever.

But in God's perspective, this is the perfect plan, the perfect means of growing the church.

So first participle is meeting. Meeting, they get together. They go first back to Jerusalem, look at verse 12, then they return to Jerusalem from the

Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying.

Now, as I said last week, it's a short trip. It's probably about 1 ,000 or 1 ,200 yards, let's say two thirds, three quarters of a mile, something like that, from the

Mount of Olives back into Jerusalem to the upper room where they're staying. And I thought, as I just imagined, because I like to do this, especially in a narrative, what do you do?

You just kind of picture things as you're going along. And I thought, imagine they've just seen the ascension of the

Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. And now from there, from the Mount of Olives, they walk down the valley, and it's really kind of a short walk, but they walk into this valley, and then they walk up into Jerusalem.

What were they talking about on the way back? Or were they talking at all? You know, was it just quiet, everybody just like, you know, looking around, like, did you see that?

How do you even respond to that? I'll tell you, though,

I'll tell you how that walk went. However long it took to actually walk it, not long, a few minutes, but it went fast.

It felt like that. I mean, they were on cloud nine. Now, just to kind of make a few points, this isn't on a

Sabbath, even though it's a Sabbath day, his walk, this is not on the Sabbath. This is probably on a Thursday.

And they go to the upper room. Could it be the upper room where they had the last supper? It could be. But that's not necessarily the case.

Some scholars say it is, some say it isn't. We don't really know. Here's what we do know, is this would have been a uniquely suited room for meeting, right?

Because it's ultimately going to hold up to 120 people, and they're going to be together a lot.

They're going to be praying a lot, and they need to be somewhat sheltered from the outside world so they can have quiet, so they can pray and talk.

So that's the kind of room that they're in. Now, verses 13 and 14 tell us that the 11 apostles,

I'm not going to go through all their names, the 11 apostles, the women who had been involved in the ministry of Jesus and the family of Jesus, his mother, his brothers, are all there.

That's the who's there, right? These half -brothers of Jesus. I mean, it's interesting to think that they're even there, right?

Because up till now, what would we say about them? They were skeptical.

In fact, they basically rejected Jesus all throughout his ministry.

But we know from 1 Corinthians 15, 7, that Jesus himself appeared to James, his half -brother, then to all the apostles.

Now, this is just a guess, but it's not unreasonable to speculate that Jesus goes and visits

James, his half -brother, while they're up in Galilee in John chapter 21, while Jesus is up there meeting his disciples.

And he leaves them. We don't know what he does, so it's not out of the question that that's when it happened. We don't know when, but he did at some point.

And I think it's interesting, if you reflect back on John, the gospel of John, there was a time where John's brothers are going to go back to, for the festival of booze, they're going to go back to Jerusalem.

Everybody's going. And they want Jesus to go with him. And he knows what's going to happen if he does go with him.

He's going to be arrested, he's going to be tried, and he's going to be put to death. But they're so skeptical.

John writes this in John 7, verse 5. He says, "...for not even his brothers believed in him."

But here they are at the Ascension. Here they are at the first church meeting. They're in. And James would later go on to be the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

As I said earlier, we can only imagine the joy that kind of is in this group as they go back to Jerusalem, but we don't have to really imagine that.

We can see the results. You know, if there's a happy group, a happy group of Christians, there's a happy church, what do we see?

We're going to see that right here in the verses before us. Verse 14, "...they're

in one accord." Not in one Honda. I've heard that joke a million times. It was a

Toyota. No. Okay. Verse 14, "...all these with one accord."

And that just means one mind, right? They're all in agreement. They're one in purpose.

They have total unity. They had as much unity as a fallen, sinful group of people could possibly have.

Our Kent Hughes said this. He said, "...this is amazing. Eleven disciples, strong -willed men, the kind who argued over who was going to get the best seat in the kingdom and refused to wash one another's feet.

Jesus's brothers who'd been so perverse as to reject his messiahship, his mother, and a whole house full of women, rich, poor, chaste, and unchaste, all of them were of one mind."

How? They were all looking up to Christ at the same time for the same thing.

Their eyes were so focused on Christ. Their attention was so focused on Christ that there was no dissension.

There was total unity. The text goes on to say this.

He says, Luke says that they were devoted to prayer. They were devoting themselves to prayer.

Now, think about it for a moment. This is a quiet time. I mean, it's an exciting time because they've just seen

Jesus. They've just seen him taken up into heaven. But they knew what was coming.

They knew some of what was coming. They didn't have the details. But this was the calm before the storm.

They knew the Holy Spirit was coming. They didn't know exactly what that meant. They didn't know exactly what was going to happen when they went into Jerusalem to try to convert people.

This is like, you know, it's a pre -evangelism meeting where nobody knows what they're going to face, but they know that these people put

Jesus to death. So what were they doing? Were they, you know, collecting tracts to hand out?

Sending letters? Maybe working on their gardens?

Playing games? Sorry, that's for me. No. They prayed.

They prayed. Even though they didn't know what was going to happen. Think about your own lives.

Even though you don't always know what's going to happen. If it's a good time, in other words, things are going well, pray.

If things aren't going well, if you're worried about the future, pray. I think there's a good lesson in that for us.

But look at the unity again in verse 14, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers, that 40 days of training with Jesus, that the apostles have been through, the experience of seeing the sin, all culminated in prayer together as a church.

So that's our first participle, meeting. The second one is explaining. Explaining.

And as I thought about it, and I just all week, this question kept going through my mind.

Why does Judas need to be replaced? Just let him go. Right.

Why can't there just be 11 apostles? I know, I know. 12 is the number of perfection.

Right. But when James dies later on in Acts, you know, spoiler alert, the apostle

James is going to be put to death. In fact, Herod the king is going to kill him.

When that happens, there's no meeting and a replacement. For James is designated. That doesn't happen.

So why Judas? Peter introduces the problem and he's in verse 15.

In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all about 120 and said, and I'll skip the end said part for right now.

We'll just go back to where we are. There are about 10 days between the

Ascension and Pentecost. And during this time of prayer and fellowship and unity,

Peter stands to speak. Now, if we needed any kind of hints that Peter's been completely forgiven, restored, and that he's now again, the acknowledged leader of the disciples, it's made plain by him standing up in this meeting and kind of taking charge.

And Peter explains Judas's fall. Judas, the trader.

Verse 16 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. Just thinking back to that night and him leading the

Roman guard, the Jewish leaders to go and arrest Jesus, betraying him with a kiss.

But it's interesting here. A prophecy in scripture. Judas in the old

Testament, a prophecy, the scripture had to be fulfilled, but look, look what it says there.

How clearly the inspiration of scripture is presented, which the

Holy spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David. David wrote the

Psalms. How did he write them? By the power of the Holy spirit. You want to know why you can trust scripture?

Because it's men moved by the Holy spirit. God himself working in these men to write scripture.

And let's look at verse 20. We're going to skip ahead there for a moment. Looking at this scripture, this prophecy that Peter speaks of, 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 you think to yourself, well, where's Judas in that? It doesn't say in Judas will do this first.

We need to understand that Peter is saying this applies to Judas, right?

By the same authority, because we have this in scripture. This is an ax. Luke is writing this by the power of the

Holy spirit. So by the same authority that we know that David wrote the

Psalm, we know that Peter is speaking here because Luke by the Holy spirit is writing it.

Peter interprets the Psalm and applies it to Judas. Now, some of you might be tempted to say, aha, now

I can take those imprecatory Psalms and I can apply them to whomever I want. Can you do that?

Well, you can. I just don't think you probably ought to do that. You certainly can't be sure that you'll get it right.

But Psalm 69 verse 25 is what he's referring to. Psalm 69, 25.

And it says this may their camp, not his camp be a desolation.

Let no one dwell in their tents. Slightly different.

Why, why does Peter take the plural and make it singular? Is he, you know, misquoting it?

No, he's taking that scripture and he's applying it specifically to Judas.

And the context in Psalm 69 applies to, or it's, it's written towards God's enemies, right?

David is writing it as, uh, he he's upset with the idea of the enemies of God.

And if we think about this, that Judas was Judas, an enemy of God without question, right?

So he's taking that and applying it to Judas. And even the field that Judas bought with the silver he took.

I mean, we can, I, I'm not going to go into all the debate here, but the difference between what

Matthew wrote and what Luke writes here. Essentially, if we look at it this way,

Judas bought that field. Well, how can you say that? Where it says, uh, you know, the, the high priest bought it.

He gave them the silver with which they purchased it. So he was ultimately the agent of purchase. But what happens to that field?

It gets turned into a cemetery. You ever go to a cemetery and think this is a great place.

I love this place. I like, I mean, if you feel that way, then I'd like to talk to you after the service.

Cemeteries are places without hope because it's like reading, uh, I want to say

Genesis five could be anyway, it's right in there. It just, and he died and he died.

As you look around a cemetery, it's, and he died and she died and he died. There's no hope ultimately in a cemetery.

In fact, Matthew chapter 27 verses three to 10.

This is how Matthew describes it. He says, then when Judas, his betrayer, Jesus betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders saying,

I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, what is that to us?

See to it yourself and throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple. He departed and went and hanged himself.

But the chief priest taking the piece of silver said, it is not lawful to put them in the treasury talking about the silver since it is blood money.

So they took counsel. They talked to themselves between themselves and bought with them. Uh, the, the silver, the

Potter's field as a burial place for strangers. This is a, a place of desolation, a place of without hope.

Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day.

Then what then was fulfilled would have been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel.

And they gave them for the Potter's field. As the Lord directed me, this is what happened to Judas.

This is what he went through. Judas had everything, every advantage.

In fact, I wrote in my notes that Jesus or that Judas took gold and turned it into ash.

Look at verse 17. Peter says, talking about Judas for, he was numbered among us.

He was one of the 12. He was in the inside and he was allotted his share in the ministry and he threw it away.

So another had to take his place because again, he applies a Psalm, Psalm 109, eight.

And again, it's against the enemies of God, but he says, and let another take his office.

Psalm 109 verse eight says this may his days be few. May another take his office.

Judas had to be replaced. And this was my point of consternation all week.

Why? Because there had to be 12 apostles. We're going to look at a couple of verses. So look at Luke 22,

Luke 22, starting in verse 24. And we're going to see that there necessarily had to be 12 for this, for a few purposes.

So I don't want to, I'm not going to give you a spoiler alert on that one. Luke 22 verses 24 to 30, a dispute also arose among them, among the disciples.

As to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he, Jesus said to them, the disciples, the

Kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. And those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you.

Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as the, as one who serves for who is the greater one who reclines at table or one who serves.

Is it not the one who reclines at table? And here's his point. And this is the setting is the last supper, but I am among you as the one who serves.

I'm serving you guys. You know that I'm the master and I'm serving you.

You are those who have stayed with me in my trials. And I assigned to you as my father, as my father assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and listen and sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

They're going to have prime spots. Those 12 men are going to be at his table in the kingdom.

They're going to be judging the 12 tribes of Israel. There has to be one for each tribe.

Judas is promised. One of those 12 tribes, if he stays with Jesus, but he doesn't do that.

He's promised one of those 12 thrones. He doesn't do that. Why not?

Because his focus was on the things of this world. He wanted authority.

He wanted power. He wanted wealth and he wanted it now.

Wasn't interested in the kingdom of heaven. Revelation 21, again, talking about why there had to be 12.

Revelation 21, verse 14, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the lamb.

Can't be an apostle of the lamb. Can't be a messenger of Jesus Christ and the one who betrayed him.

Someone had to take his place. Someone else's name had to go on that wall. There must be 12.

The glory of the risen savior demands that his words come to pass that there be 12.

The will of the father demands that the words he wanted the incarnate son to speak.

Back in Luke 22, come to pass, right? That there would be 12. The will of the holy spirit to fulfill the words of the word of God demands that they come to pass.

There must be 12. And by the way, there can't be any more.

All those people I talked about in the beginning, whether it's the new apostolic reformation. I almost called him the new apostolic republic.

Star Wars much? Whether it's the 12 so -called apostles of Mormonism.

Whether it's the essentially equivalent of the Eastern Orthodox, these apostle equivalents.

There can't be any more of them. They can call themselves whatever they want to call themselves a fig newton.

I don't care. They're not apostles. No one else can meet their requirements.

We'll talk about the requirements in a moment. But first, just think about this. What is there for apostles to do today?

They were to establish the fact that they'd seen the risen savior. They were to preach the gospel.

They were to spread the news, the good news of Jesus Christ as far as they possibly could.

Listen to what Ephesians 2 says about them. Ephesians 2 verses 19 to 20.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Listen, so you're members of the church. You were far out, but now you're in. Verse 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. They're the foundation.

There's no room in the foundation for more apostles. Now you're thinking, well, what about Paul?

What about Barnabas? No more spoiler alerts. We're not going to talk about them this morning.

We'll get there, but not today. Today is not that day. But what about these people claiming to be apostles today?

Here, let me make it simple. Mark them and avoid them. Anybody from this whole movement, any of these movements, avoid them.

They're either liars or they're deluded. Jesus is not making any more apostles.

And people who make themselves apostles can't appoint new ones. Listen again to this author of this book about the new apostolic reformation at NAR.

Some new apostolic reformation revelations are prophetic words given to individuals to guide them in major life decisions.

I mean, is this what you want? Somebody to tell you who to marry? Cult. Where to live?

Cult. Where to work? Cult. How to manage your finances?

Just get into your checkbook and know everything about you. They predict natural disasters and even the outcome of national elections.

And by the way, if they're wrong, they don't get stoned to death. They have new truths, new teachings, new practices that they think the church should implement across the world.

Again, mark and avoid their heretics. Anything new is not good.

We have the once for all delivered faith, not something that needs to be added to all the time.

Back to the outline explaining. Peter goes on to explain. Judas is the punishment of Judas.

Remember, Luke is writing to Theophilus, giving him a history of the early church, all that took place.

And so he inserts this parenthetical explanation of what happened to Judas in verses 18 and 19.

And probably most of you have parentheses around it. This isn't

Peter talking. This is Luke putting this in here so that Theophilus will understand what happened.

He doesn't have the gospel of Matthew. Now, this man acquired a field with the 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. So the field was called in their own language,

Akadelma, that is field of blood. Now, there are differences between the accounts in Matthew and Luke's account here in Acts.

They're not in conflict. What they are is, and I'm sure Bob could help me out here.

If you've done traffic accident reports, you can have witnesses who saw exactly the same thing.

But they're standing in different places, different things catch their eye. And so they emphasize different things.

And so with Luke, the physician, and with Matthew, they have different purposes for what they emphasize.

And so their stories, they go together, but they're different. So because they have different emphases and Luke's purpose, which is all that we're really concerned with here this morning, is he wanted to show the penalty, the penalty for what

Judas did for his betrayal of Jesus. That's his goal. He wanted us to understand that God's judgment was on Judas Iscariot.

Thus, you know, he applies those Psalms and everything else. The purpose is to show that Judas paid, he paid a temporal price, and he ultimately pays an eternal price.

So first, participle meeting, second, explaining, third, choosing.

Since another, since there had to be 12, who would be selected? We needed a replacement for Judas. Who would it be?

Well, it had to be a man who had been with Jesus from the time of John's ministry,

John the Baptist's ministry, to the time of the ascension. That's the summary of verses 21 and 22.

So this is a complete list of the requirements. Every one of these requirements has to be met or someone could not be an apostle.

Had to be a man. Why? Because Jewish law demanded that, and this is where they're going first, right?

You're going into Jerusalem. You have to have men because men are seen as credible. Secondly, had to be with Jesus throughout his ministry.

Had to be with Jesus from the time of John the Baptist, through everything that happened, through the times of crowds, through the times where he was abandoned, through the miracles, everything, right to his arrest, the events of his resurrection.

Of course, the only person at the crucifixion was John, the beloved disciple. None of the other men were there, but they all saw the resurrected

Jesus, right up to the ascension. They'd just been up there. So, you know, there are a number of people that were up on that mountain.

Saw the ascension of Jesus and weren't considered for apostleship.

Why not? Because they didn't meet the other criteria. What is an apostle?

If we think about a disciple, a disciple is a learner, somebody who's devoted to learning from a master.

So they've all been disciples of Jesus, but an apostle is a messenger with authority.

They're enabled, they're empowered to speak in the place of Jesus, speak on his behalf.

Jesus chose them. And now they're fully authorized to speak on his behalf.

They had to be witnesses to the resurrection. And just think about how that applies to today's so -called apostles.

They weren't there to see the times of John the Baptist and his ministry. They weren't there throughout, you know, the tumult on the

Sea of Galilee. They weren't there for any of these things, right? They weren't there for the feeding of the 5 ,000. They weren't there for any of this.

They didn't see the resurrected Jesus. They didn't see Jesus ascend into heaven. But these men could stand before anybody and say,

I saw this. I heard this. I can verify it's true.

I was there. So there are two candidates, verse 23, and they put forward two.

Joseph called Barsabbas, which means son of the Sabbath, who was also called

Justice and Matthias. Then they prayed.

Verse 24, 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.

They prayed. And you say, well, I pray sometimes. Can I just pray and put my multiple answers in a bag?

This is what they did, right? They would write these things, write the names down on pieces of stone, probably put them in a bag or in a piece of like a pot or a jar.

Shake them up. And then whichever one came out, that's what they would do. Is that how you can make decisions?

It's not. But look what they say. You know, the hearts of all, you know, these two men, right?

And you know who you've chosen. So show us who it is. That's what they're asking for.

Now look at verse 25, second half of it, because they are replacing

Judas from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And I just want to bring this out because he does that, right?

Judas has all these advantages. He's with Jesus for three plus years every single day.

He knows Jesus. And yet he betrays him. He sells him out.

He turned aside. He veered from the path that he should have gone. And look, it says to go to his own place.

What does that mean? It's a euphemistic way of saying he went to hell. Nobody in that meeting is sitting there thinking there's a chance that Judas went to heaven.

Now, if we think about it, and this is good to think about, why did Judas fail so miserably?

Why did Peter, who failed so miserably, denied Peter or denied

Jesus three times. Why does he get forgiveness?

Why doesn't Judas? Why do any of the other 11?

Why do they get forgiveness? They all abandoned Jesus.

Why does Thomas get forgiveness? Doubting Thomas. We know that they didn't choose wisely.

They know, we know that they weren't better. Did they keep their salvation and Judas lost his?

Was he saved and somehow jumped out of God's hands? No. Here's a spoiler,

Acts 2 .23. This Jesus, Peter preaching, he says, this

Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

Well, who delivered him up? It was Judas Iscariot. It was

God's plan. God knew ahead of time. But Judas was responsible.

The eternal plan of God was that Judas would betray Jesus, the

God man, the sinless one. That ultimately, because of his betrayal,

Jesus would be crucified for sinners and then raised for their justification.

Judas had it all and yet betrayed Jesus. Peter had it all and failed

Jesus. The difference is one was regenerated.

One was moved on by the Holy Spirit, caused to be born again. And some might argue.

In fact, I had somebody argue with me this week that Judas was saved, that Judas cast out demons.

How can you say that he wasn't a Christian? Matthew 7 seems to handle it.

Not talking about Jews specifically, but it says this, Jesus said, not everyone who says to me,

Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father, is it the will of the father who's in heaven to betray the son?

No. On that day, many, talking about the day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

No one was a greater worker of lawlessness than Judas Iscariot.

Think about the deception involved every single day with Jesus, every single day knowing that he wasn't on board totally with the program.

He was hoping for something else to happen. He wasn't really going for what Jesus said.

He was hoping that Jesus had some kind of ulterior motive, some sort of plan that he would reveal later that would get him,

Judas, what he wanted. So ultimately, I think it went shorthand. I think it went like this.

Judas thinks to himself, you know what? My career is going nowhere. My 401k is not getting any bigger.

I need to act now, cut my losses and move on. Then he does it and he regrets it.

But it wasn't with, it wasn't with a repentance that leads to salvation.

It was with worldly sorrow. He thought the silver would bring him happiness.

He thought it would get him where he wanted to go and it destroyed him. Now was this random choice, this casting of lots?

The answer is no. They trusted the Lord. They prayed to him. They said, reveal who you have chosen.

And look at verse 26. And they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.

Again, not everything that we're going to come to in the book of Acts is something that we're encouraged to do.

This is description, not prescription. And by the way, this is the last time in the

New Testament that this is done, this casting of lots. It was common in the Old Testament to cast lots, but we don't need to do it.

They didn't need to do it. Why? Because we have the Holy Spirit. We have scripture. We don't need to put out fleeces, cast lots, roll dice, et cetera, to know the future.

We have scripture. We have counselors. And where we're not sure, we have freedom.

But this really wasn't random. Again, they prayed. They trusted

God. Proverbs 16, 33. This is what would have been going through their minds. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision.

This casting of lots is from the Lord. There are no random events in history.

Now, certainly there was an appearance of randomness, but it wasn't random.

God chose. Now, it's interesting. After all this, right, they go through all the prayer and all the choosing and everything else.

And how many times has Matthias' name appeared during the rest of the book of Acts? Zero. He's never mentioned again, but he's going to be on that wall.

He's going to be seated at the table. He's going to be judging one of the 12 tribes. And again,

I just think if we think big picture here, what's going on? If we just think versus Peter versus Judas, what makes the difference?

And the answer is the grace of God. The power of God in human beings.

Judas was responsible for what he did, but God is sovereign. Peter was responsible for what he did, but God is sovereign.

I think there's a tendency in us to think Judas Iscariot is terrible.

And that's true. My suggestion to you is, but for the grace of God, any of us would do the same or worse.

Nothing and no one, not Judas Iscariot, not

Satan, who was really the force behind Judas Iscariot. No one will stop the

Lord Jesus from building his church. He will do what he desires to do, and he will perform all of his plans.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We thank you for these men that you carefully prepared, selected, trained, and enabled to go out and do the work of ministry, the work that had to be done and could only be done once.

Father, we thank you as we look to your word and we realize that there can be no apostles today.

There can be no messengers authorized by you to come and bring us new revelation.

Father, we thank you that we have your word, that it is settled. Teach us,

Lord, to turn to it, to appeal to it, to so inform our minds with your word, that your spirit is enabled to guide us through your word, that we might make wise choices.

For anyone who's here today who does not know you, I pray that they would be convicted of their sin, their need for Christ.

Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org