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Reading Acts 1:12-26 where Peter addresses the company in the upper room about choosing an apostle to replace Judas, the betrayer. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus had called 12 apostles. One of them betrayed him. That left 11. So we're just gonna have 11 apostles, right? Nope, there had to be chosen another to take his place. When we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. Well, Albert Muller has taken off on Labor Day, but I'm still laboring away. So we're gonna continue our study of the book of Acts. Today, chapter one, starting in verse 12. Right after Jesus has ascended into heaven, we read that the disciples 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 in all was 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 of his bowels gushed out.
And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their own language, Akkodama, 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 Matthias. 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 Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So back in our study of Acts here, this of course is following Jesus ascension into heaven. They watch Jesus ascend and be taken up into a cloud.
And then two men in white robes appear next to them as they're staring up into the heavens. And they say, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
And thus begins the last days. Now we're in the last days now. How about that? If anybody has ever asked, do you think we're in the end times? The answer to that question is yes. We've been in the end times since Jesus ascended to heaven.
And the angels even announced to the disciples, this Jesus that you've seen taken up, he's gonna come back the same way as you saw him go. Jesus said in Matthew 24, as lightning shines from the east as far as the west, so will be the coming of the son of man.
It will be seen by the whole world, the return of our Lord. So after watching him leave, the disciples returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet. And as I mentioned last week, that's how we know where they were because of what's said here in verse 12.
They were on the Mount of Olives, which is just a walk away from Jerusalem. You can see Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. So you kind of have to wonder if there was anybody who even from a distance may have seen Jesus ascend into heaven.
Of course, that would be speculation. We don't know that for sure. But I did say last week that there were more than just those 11 men standing on that hillside, watching Jesus ascend into heaven. In fact, there were dozens and dozens, possibly as many as 120.
That number that we've read here coming up in verse 15. So there were many eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ from his resurrection to his ascension into heaven. More than 500 brothers, according to what the apostle Paul said in first Corinthians 15.
And as Becky and I talked about this past Friday, you add the women into that as well. And it could have been as many as a thousand. I think that number is a little bit generous, but nevertheless, the women were not included in that number that Paul gave in first Corinthians 15.
He lists only men there. And we know that women were the first witnesses to the empty tomb. We know that women, even according to the account that we're reading here in Acts 1, were present in the upper room when they did indeed return back to Jerusalem.
So you had dozens and dozens up on that hillside who saw Jesus ascend into heaven. Now, as I also noted, 11 men would be enough. That would be enough testimony for us to know that these things that we've read about are true.
But if these things were going to have the significance to them that they have, surely we would have more witnesses than just 11 guys. And indeed we do. We have hundreds of witnesses to these things that Jesus did in even just the 40 day period between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.
I get excited about that because I think it's cool to read all this stuff about these people who had seen what had happened. The church grew as rapidly as it did in the very beginning because of the power of the Holy Spirit, absolutely.
But it was because of the number of eyewitnesses to all this stuff that had taken place. When Peter goes into Pentecost, it goes into Jerusalem at Pentecost and he's preaching the gospel. We read there, as we're going to get to this in Acts 2, that 3 ,000 souls were added that day.
Well, it was not just because of the convincing preaching of a charismatic preacher. The move of the Holy Spirit, certainly. But even more than that, the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Many of the people who became converts saw Christ.
They heard him teach. They saw the miracles. They knew people who had been healed by Christ. And so then Peter comes in saying, this is the Christ whom you crucified. He showed himself by many proofs to be one who had been sent from heaven by God, to indeed be the son of God.
And he was put to death by the hands of lawless men. And by this testimony, the people's hearts are moved and they say, brothers, what then shall we do? And Peter says, be baptized, all of you, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
All of this by the providence of God, but it's everything added together. It's not like the disciples went into Jerusalem blind and just preached a gospel to a bunch of people who had never known any of this stuff.
No, they were preaching to the very people, some of whom had even been there shouting, crucify him. They had all been there just 50 days before when Christ was crucified and put to death, this lamb as a sacrifice for sins.
I mention all of this because I just think we tend to forget the number of eyewitnesses that there were to all of this. There were thousands and thousands of people that heard the things that Jesus said and saw the miracles that he performed, and certainly well more than a dozen that saw Christ alive from his resurrection to his ascension, and then were even there on the mount when he ascended into heaven.
So they go back to the very place where they were, the upper room where they were staying, and then it mentions exactly all the disciples, all 11 of them, 11 minus Judas, Peter and John, and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James.
Were you counting those out on your fingers as I was naming them? If you did so, you would have come up with 11. There's the inner core group of 11 that Jesus had called to himself, 12 if you included Judas.
Now there were the 12, there were 12 apostles that Christ had appointed. Matthias, we're going to add in there to the number 12 since he's going to be the one that's going to take Judas' place. 12 were called, 12 were appointed, but we know that there were more than just 12 disciples, and we're reading about that here as there were at least two men that are also qualified in the sense that they had seen Jesus from the time of his baptism to the time of his ascension to heaven, and that's Justice and Matthias.
There were many other disciples. You know, we read about the sending out of the 72. John Mark even writes about himself being present in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested. He's the young man that runs away naked, comes out of his clothes.
So he wasn't among the 12, but he was nevertheless among the many disciples that followed Christ. But there was always that core 12. Now, why 12? Why did Jesus choose an inner core of 12? Well, it's because there were 12 tribes of Israel, and so Jesus appoints 12 men who are going to go out with the gospel and be the foundation of the church, which will be the expansion of Israel.
So you have 12 representing the tribes in the Old Testament. You have 12 representing the apostles that shared the gospel in the New Testament, and so again, as Becky and I had mentioned on the podcast through one of the questions we answered this past Friday, you'll read about the 24 elders.
Well, that's referring to those teachers, Old and New Testament together, whether it's of the 12 tribes of Israel or the 12 apostles who are the foundation of the church. And Jesus had an even more personal association with three others, Peter, James, and John, than he had from the other 12.
And those three, or the other nine, I guess, those three were witnesses to the transfiguration. Only Peter, James, and John were up on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured before them by the evidence, the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Peter writes about that in his letters, and John even writes about that in his first epistle as well. So we have these 12 disciples all named here as well as 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. So we had the 11 named, and then the women who had seen the empty tomb, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
And by the way, Mary was not a perpetual virgin. She did indeed have other children after Christ. Don't believe anyone who says otherwise. It is unbiblical to believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary.
So anyway, so Peter stood up among them. And even though we've had all these names mentioned in the previous paragraph, Luke is sure to tell us that everyone crammed into the upper room there numbered about 120.
Some specific names were named. But this early church group right here, this is 120 persons in this upper room. Peter says to them, brothers, the scriptures 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. Remember that when Judas brought the rabble to come and arrest Jesus, according to Matthew's gospel, Jesus looked at Judas and said, friend, do what you came here to do.
Jesus even called him friend because Jesus treated him as a friend. And this demonstrates all the more Judas's betrayal of Christ. Judas was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.
Now this man acquired a field, a parenthetical reference here, verse 18. This man, referring to Judas, acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness. And falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all of his bowels gushed out and it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the field was called in their own language, Akkodama, that is, field of blood.
Now there are some skeptics who will use this story to say, see, this contradicts with what's written about Judas in the gospel accounts. He hung himself, but now this is saying that he fell into a field and his bowels burst open and it became called the field of blood.
Well, both accounts are true. As we read in Matthew 27, after Judas realized that he had betrayed innocent blood, he threw the pieces of silver back into the temple, departed and went and hanged himself.
That's Matthew 27, five. Verse six, but the chief priests taking the pieces of silver said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury since it is blood money. So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.
Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had 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 was the very field that was purchased beneath the place where Judas had hung himself. And when the branch broke, he fell into that field and his bowels gushed out.
And that's what ended up happening. Both stories are true. There is no contradiction going on here. There's never a contradiction in the Bible. If we have a problem with a particular passage, it's our problem, it's not the Bible's problem.
So then in verse 20, Peter continuing to speak here says, for it is written in the book of Psalms, may his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it. That's cited from Psalm 69, 25. And then the next one, let another take his office.
And that's from Psalm 109, where we read, starting in verse six, appoint a wicked man against him. Let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he has tried, let him come forth guilty. Let his prayer be counted as sin.
May his days be few. May another take his office. May his children be fatherless and his wife, a widow. May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit. May the creditor seize all that he has.
May strangers plunder the fruits of his toil. Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children. May his posterity be cut off. May his name be blotted out in the second generation.
And all this is talking about Judas. And this is a prophecy that was fulfilled regarding Judas. That's pretty dark. But how serious the sin is of this man who betrayed the son of man, who knew and saw the miracles himself, and yet committed this heinous betrayal.
And this was, of course, all according to the plan of God. So that in the fullness of time, we who have faith in and hope in Jesus Christ would be saved. But Judas is still going to have to answer for the evil that he has done.
A day is gonna come when he will stand before the judgment seat of the one whom he betrayed. Several years ago, this was actually when I was an interim pastor at the church where I currently pastor. Becky and I were actually applying for jobs in different parts of the country.
We were between pastors. I came on as an associate pastor. The senior pastor stepped down, went on to plant a church. And so Becky and I used that time to inquire of the Lord whether we were supposed to stay in Kansas or whether he was gonna have something else for us.
So I did apply for a couple of other jobs during that period of time. And one of them was a church job in Florida. Make a long story short, I didn't get that job. And I was even notified by that church that I wasn't going to be considered as a pastor or for that pastoral position.
But I continued to watch the process to see how they were doing in the course of picking the next pastor. And I remember at one point, once they said, they made an announcement to the church that they'd narrowed it down to a couple of resumes.
And there was a verse reference in there. I don't know what the circumstances were regarding the previous pastor. Apparently it was pretty bad though, because the verse reference was Acts 1 .20. So it's given an update to the church about picking this new pastor.
And the reference that they included in the update to their congregation was Acts 1 .20. I have to admit, I had to go to my Bible and look that up. And it's Acts 1 .20, which says, 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.
And I was like, whoa. Whatever this previous pastor had done must have been pretty bad because the church was comparing him to being Judas. But we have this 12th slot to be filled as Christ had appointed 12 apostles.
And so Peter goes on teaching to the congregation. He says in verse 21, 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 two. There were two men here that qualified. Among that 120, there were at least two others that had been there from the time of Jesus' baptism to his ascension. And they were 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 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 Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So hey, when in doubt, flip a coin. And that's totally biblical to make a decision that particular way.
Hey, in this case, you've got two guys who are equally qualified. How is it that you're gonna know which one whom God has truly appointed for this task? Well, as it says in Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.
So that's what the disciples decided. They cast a lot, and it fell on Matthias, the one whom Christ had appointed to fill in in place of Judas. A few years ago, there was a friend of mine who came to me and he said, I can't decide whether I should take this job offer that I have in this other state, or I stay here.
I love the church, I love the community, but this job would even be closer to family, and it would definitely be more money. So we sat down and we kind of hashed it out together. We even wrote it out on a piece of paper, pros and cons, columns, that sort of a thing.
And when we came down to the end of our discussion, he said, I still don't know what I should do. And I told him, flip a coin. I don't think that's how he made his decision. But I said, hey, heads you go, tails you stay.
Or you just take the counsel from the pastor who loves you and you stay, because I'd rather have you here. I did say that. But nevertheless, it was the Lord's will for him to go. And I know that he is continuing to work heartily for the Lord where God has called him onto.
There is much wisdom with many counselors, and I would advise you to take that route, seeking the counsel and wisdom of others, before you go flipping coins. Thank you so much for joining me today. We will continue our study of the book of Acts tomorrow.
Jumping into Acts 2, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the way that you have ordered things to bring us to a place that we may know you. We have come to salvation because of the gospel that was proclaimed to us.
And this according to your sovereign plan, your providence that brought these things together, that someone would come and share the gospel with us, that we would be taught by other men who are wiser in the scriptures than we are, that we may grow in sanctification and holiness in unity with the body of Christ.
And I pray that we would be continually devoted to our Lord all of our days. May we never step back from this, but be kept all the closer to Christ Jesus by your steadfast love that upholds us. As we sing in the old hymn, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Hold us close, keep us steadfast and sure in the faith, ever trusting of your every way. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt .com.