Acts 1:15-26 - The Lord Who Guides His People

Take your Bible and go to the book of Acts in chapter 1.

Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

We're going to be looking at verses 15 to 26.

So we're going to be through the end of this chapter this morning.

As we enter into this chapter, this last half of this first chapter, I want you to notice that something very extraordinary is happening here.

Especially when you look at verse 15.

Take a look there.

It says, In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters.

And the extraordinary thing I want you to see there is just that.

Peter stood up.

Now that sounds very unremarkable until you consider what it took for Peter to be the man who's doing that, standing up there.

Was it many weeks before the moment that we're reading about here in Acts chapter 1, that Peter was in the courtyard of the high priest, warming himself by a fire, while Jesus, whom he'd followed for three years, was inside under trial.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Three times somebody around that fire looked at him and said, Aren't you one of his followers?

Don't you know him?

And three times Peter denied that that was the case.

And the last time he denied it forcibly.

I don't know this man.

And then the rooster crowed.

And Jesus turned and looked at Peter.

And Peter looked at Jesus and he fled and he wept.

This is the man.

This is the man who's standing up here in verse 15.

This is the man with the same voice that denied Christ.

This is the man whose face was lit by a fire where he offered his rejections of Christ.

This is the same man who, after the crucifixion and burial of Christ, went back to his boat and to his fishing nets and took others with him to just go back and do what he was used to doing.

This is Peter.

But when we get to verse 15, something's different.

What's happened to this guy?

Well, I want to say to you that what's happened to him is that the resurrection is what has happened to him.

You see, Christ sought him out specifically.

In 1 Corinthians 15, 5, it speaks there as Paul is going down through the gospel and into the resurrection accounts, and he said he appeared to Peter, mentions him directly.

And then we can read in John chapter 21 about Jesus building a fire and speaking to Peter there and restoring him.

John 21 · chapter mention

And so at that second fire, Peter wasn't just forgiven, he was recommissioned.

Three times Jesus says to him in that conversation, Peter, do you love me?

And three times Peter admits that, yes, I do.

I do.

I do.

And three times Jesus says to him, Feed my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs.

And that command was not just some sentimental send-off and parting, that was a recommissioning of Peter.

And here in this room, in Acts chapter 1 and verse 15, this is the first action of that assignment.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And it comes at a moment that's not easy.

Peter steps into this role, not while things are smooth and easy, but when this gathering is here in this upper room, still grieving the loss of Christ, still disoriented about all that's happened over the past several weeks, and still living in the middle of a scandal that's reverberating around the whole city.

One of their own had turned into a traitor and had taken his own life.

And so when Jesus told him to feed his sheep, this is exactly what it looks like for Peter to do that.

To be the leader in the middle of a difficult moment.

And so he's standing up here, he's in the upper room, and he's with this gathered assembly, and his presence in front of this congregation is already a sermon.

The God that they've been praying to is the very God who could take a Peter who denied and deserted Christ and turn him into a leader in the congregation.

And I want to bring that up because that carries a statement and a message that I want you to hold on to tightly this whole time that we're in the book of Acts, and hopefully well beyond, is that the resurrection doesn't just make theological claims, and it's a true statement, and we can talk about it as truth, as a historical fact.

But I want you to grab it deeper than that.

The resurrection changes people.

It changes people.

And we see that here in this early church.

And so this morning, as we enter into this, I want us to see what's happening here in Acts chapter 1 and verses 15 to 26.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Last week we saw these people obedient, leaving Christ as he ascended, going into Jerusalem, gathering as a people wrapped around the resurrection and praying.

And here they are with one accord doing just that, praying together, assembled together, and they're waiting on Christ and that moment that Christ told them to wait for.

And as they're in that posture of waiting and prayer, they also some things that need to take care of.

And what we see here is this church that is waiting and obeying and praying is now about to deal with two things a very difficult situation and a determination about the next leader amongst them.

And so three things I want us to notice as we go through this passage, as they handle this difficult moment, so that we might learn how to handle difficult moments in our body when these things arise.

The first thing is that they face the difficulty honestly and they bring it to Scripture for understanding.

They face the difficulty honestly and they bring it to Scripture for understanding.

The second thing that they do is that they identify what the mission requires.

They identify what the mission requires.

And lastly, they submit themselves to God who knows all things.

These are three marks of what a community does when they face difficult times.

So let's look at them one at a time.

First of all, the church faces what happened with honesty and brings it to Scripture for understanding.

We'll find this in verses 15 to 20.

And what you'll see here is that they can talk about these difficult things, knowing that scripture will help them, and they can face them without being destroyed by the difficulty.

Look at verse 15.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters.

The number of people who were together was about 120, and said, Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the scripture be fulfilled, that the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, foretold about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

For he was one of our memb one of our number, and shared in this ministry.

And now this man acquired a field with his unrighteous wages, and he fell headlong, his body burst open, and his intestines spilled out.

And this became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field is called Hakeldamah, that is the field of blood.

For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his dwelling become desolate, let no one live in it, and let someone else take his position.

That's a very difficult situation.

But what does Peter do with it?

He doesn't dance around it.

He doesn't say, you know, there was one who was with us, or try to deal with it on some sort of peripheral level and talk about it in some measure of polite distance.

What does he do?

Judas, you guys know Judas.

He names Judas and he traces the whole arc of this trouble.

This was one of our number.

This was a man who shared in this ministry.

And he he doesn't erase the problem.

He doesn't throw it under the carpet.

He brings it out.

It's the very first thing he talks about here as he stands up.

But what he does next is extremely important.

Not only does he deal with it honestly, but he goes immediately to scripture with it.

Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the scriptures be fulfilled, that the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, foretold about Judas in verse 16.

That word, it is necessary, carries the force of divine necessity.

This is something that just had to happen.

Scripture said it would.

What he's saying here is that despite the most catastrophic human failure, God's purposes are not derailed.

In fact, they're actually fulfilled.

And that's something to hold on to.

And so Peter here quotes two psalms.

What are these two psalms?

They're psalms of lament written by David.

David, who is the anointed king of Israel, and he writes about his enemies who have turned against him, and therefore he laments.

Now, why is that important?

Because the Holy Spirit, who inspired David's words, have woven those things into the story of a greater betrayal.

The betrayal of the anointed one of God, Jesus the Messiah.

And what was true of David and his betrayers is true in a fuller sense of Judas and his betrayal.

And David knew all about this.

David isn't talking about betrayal and some abstract concept.

He's not talking about the general human treachery that might be out somewhere in society.

No, he's got a name.

Ahithophel.

When he writes those things, that name keeps popping up in his head.

Ahithophel.

Ahithophel.

That guy.

Who was Ahithophel?

Well, you can read about him in 2 Samuel 16 and 17.

And there you'll understand that Ahithophel was David's counselor.

In fact, he was such a counselor that 2 Samuel 16, 23 says that his words to David were as if one had insulted the word of God.

That's pretty straight, right?

I don't know.

People ask you for advice and they walk away going, I feel like I just read scripture.

That's how David felt when he spoke to Ahithophel.

This man sat at David's table.

This man helped David with his decisions.

And when David's own son Absalom rose up in rebellion, Ahithophel went with him and became a partner with Absalom.

And David wrote about it in Psalm 41.

Listen to it.

Even my close friend, whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Ahithophel was not some enemy outside the camp.

Ahithophel was a guy right at David's table.

And when Ahithophel's counsel to Absalom about what to do with David got heard and found out, and the news began to spread.

Now hold all of that up against Judas here for a second.

Judas, a trusted counselor.

Judas, a treasurer of the band.

Judas, the one who ate at Christ's table and shared his bread.

Judas, the one who had such a display of integrity that when Jesus spoke about someone denying him and betraying him, none of them kind of looked over at Judas and went, I think we might know who he's talking about.

They all said, Maybe it's me.

And we all know just how hard it is to point at yourself before you start pointing at somebody else.

They're looking at themselves, not Judas.

But Jesus made the connection between Ahithophel and Judas explicit.

Because the very words that David used about Ahithophel in Psalm 41 are the very words Jesus uses in John 13 about Judas.

He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

So what happened to David, the anointed one of God, has happened to Jesus, the greater one, the anointed one of God.

And what the anointed king of Israel, David, received in his betrayal by a trusted companion, Jesus, the greater anointed one of God, has been betrayed by a companion, Judas.

David wept over all of this and wrote a psalm.

And Jesus took that wounding and that betrayal and went to the cross.

But they're not idle people.

They're spending time searching scripture, trying to understand sort of part two of Jesus talking to them along the Emmaus Road and opening up their minds to understand the scriptures.

Having gained an interpretive understanding of the Old Testament, they're now entering into it.

And they're saying, this is showing us a lot about what happened with Jesus and Judas.

They're starting to understand how to read their scriptures.

And now the worst thing that's happened in history, the betrayal of the anointed Messiah, is now being made known and understood, and Peter has a framework for it.

And it's not just a framework of grief, or it's not just a framework of a problem to be solved, it's an understanding that God is fulfilling his determinations.

And they look for scripture to see that.

And what happened to Jesus and Judas was prefigured in what happened to David and Ahithophel.

And here it's no coincidence that Ahithophel went home and hung himself, and Judas did the same.

And Peter talks about that.

And just like any fisherman, he talks about it with a certain willingness to be graphic.

He goes right out there and he said, uh, you know, this man, he fell his head first, his body burst open, his intestines spilled out, and there's probably people in the room going, That's enough, Peter.

You know, you know, we got to eat later.

You know, we don't need this.

But Peter doesn't stop with the graphic details.

He goes deeper into this.

Because the story didn't just stay with the 11, the story didn't just stay with 120.

What Peter reveals to us is that the whole city of Jerusalem is reverberating with this situation.

This really is a difficulty.

It's become known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so well known that they've even named the field of blood.

That's the place where the guy that followed him sent him to the cross and he threw the money back at the priest and died there.

That field of blood.

The chief priest had done all of that because they knew they couldn't take the blood money and put it back in the treasury.

That would have defiled all that money.

So they bought a field with it to cover up the situation.

And instead of covering it up, they built a monument to their crime.

Centuries earlier, the prophet Jeremiah stood in a valley outside the same city and declared because innocent blood had been shed, that that valley would no longer be called by its old name, it would be called the Valley of Slaughter.

And so Judah's history, one of a field, one of killing, one of a new name that stuck because of a shame that could not be undone, is being repeated once again.

So Peter here is not just describing a personal grief that the church has to deal with, he's identifying a public scandal that the whole city is still talking about.

It's already been turned into common knowledge.

So what does he do?

He doesn't read the problem in isolation, he understands it in light of God's bigger story.

And when we deal with difficulties, we need to follow the same suit.

We need to deal with issues clearly, honestly, openly, and have the light of scripture to guide us to understand it and to interpret it well and to lead us toward what to do with it.

I would love to tell you more about why there's 120 there, but I'm going to skip that for a moment.

But what you see here is people that are not pretending that there's not a problem.

They're naming it, they're reading it through the lens of God's word, and they get up and do what needs to be done.

And you might wonder why I'm a little insistent about this.

It's because the church I was converted in had an extremely difficult situation, and they did not do what happened here.

I was back at the church as the associate pastor.

I saw some cars pull in to the parking lot.

I stayed in my office, and a little bit later, uh the senior pastor buzzed my office and said, Doug, come in and we need to talk.

I'm like, Okay.

It was late in the evening, and he said, Tomorrow morning, uh, you're going to be the principal of the Christian school.

I'm like, oh, okay.

What's going on?

I can't tell you.

I'm like, come on, Pastor.

You've got to tell me what's going on.

And he went on to tell me that the principal had been arrested for sexual molestation of some of the boys in the school.

And I said, what's going to happen next?

I said, are we going to talk to the church about this?

And he said, no.

He said, we don't air our dirty linen in public.

And I said, the church is not the public.

This needs to be dealt with.

And it wasn't.

And there's a long story, but the reverberations of that decision not to deal with it in a biblical way hurt that church and hurt my beloved pastor's ministry.

And he eventually had to leave.

It was difficult.

I wonder what would have happened if they had simply said, church, we have the mind of Christ, we have the wisdom of God, we have the directions of the word of God, and this is what is, and this is what's going to be done as we go through this.

Let's pray.

And sadly that didn't happen.

So we learn here something that we are to do should trouble of this magnitude or less come into our lives or into the life of the church.

Second thing I want us to see as we go through this is not only did they deal with a difficulty honestly and humbly by bringing the light of Scripture to it for understanding and for direction, but they also identified what the mission requires.

Take a look at verses 21 and 22.

Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us, from among these it is necessary that one become a witness with us of the resurrection.

Again, the resurrection is not just background to the church's story and mission.

It's central to the church's mission.

And here, having established that Scripture has led to this vacancy, as he says in the verse just prior to this, he now calls it and says, We need to have someone from among us to take his place.

Now notice the qualifications here.

He doesn't say, let's find somebody who's extremely gifted.

Let's find somebody who has a lot of influence.

Let's find someone who's got some bankrolling resources.

He doesn't say, let's get someone who's got great organizational management abilities and skills.

He doesn't say, let's find someone with marketing expertise or a winsome personality.

What does he say?

Let's find someone who was with us from the beginning and who will join us to be a witness of the resurrection.

Two qualifications, very precise, very specific.

The first being that he must have been present from the baptism of John through the ascension.

Not merely a recent follower, but someone who came in from the very beginning.

Someone who was there through it all.

Someone who was there for the healings and the teachings and the confrontations with the religious authorities, who was there through all of those things.

Through the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, the 40 days of appearance.

That's the requirement.

And look at the second one.

One of these men must become with us a witness of the resurrection.

Again, he's telling us something about the apostolic role here.

Now, obviously, the apostles are going to be doing a lot of pastoral care and a lot of administrative duties and a lot of theological instruction.

But the first thing that Peter says is that their primary role is to be a witness of the resurrection.

To stand before all who would listen and to speak about the resurrected Christ.

And to be able to say it from personal testimony.

I was there.

I saw him live, I saw him opposed, I saw him die, I saw him rise, I saw him ascended.

I was there, he would be able to say.

And the New Testament scholar John Polehild notes that the word martuse or witness carries with it a legal weight.

These are not people just simply sharing a religious experience.

These are people who making a witness testimony about a claim that could and should be cross-examined.

And they're inviting the cross-examination.

And in Acts chapter 2, which we'll get to next week and start into our study of that chapter, Peter stands up at Pentecost and he tells a crowd of people in Jerusalem that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And he's right in the middle of a city where the people could have walked 15 minutes to the tomb to check it out.

The claim was verifiable.

The witnesses were available.

The testimony was public.

Why?

Why?

Because there needed to be an integrity of people who were bound together in a unified voice about the mighty acts of God.

Twelve of them.

Because in the Old Testament, the twelve tribes were meant to have a unified voice speaking to the world about the mighty acts of God.

And they didn't.

And so now here the people gathered by the resurrection are refilling the number 12 in order to be a unified voice of a testimony and a witness of the mighty acts of God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And they too would be going into all the world.

They were there.

They saw the Lord.

It's not a story, it's what happened.

Now, we don't need to keep filling the twelve.

We have the apostolic testimony preserved.

The New Testament contains the testimony of those who were there, whose testimony was irreplaceable, that was authoritative, and is sufficient.

But we continue into our generation to be the witnesses of that very same eyewitness account.

We share the good news.

We continue on.

And just notice the resurrection is not background here.

It's front and center everywhere.

And the last thing I want us to see this morning is not only do when they face a problem, they face it honestly and humbly, looking to scripture to understand and how to work through it.

But they also mark out and identify what the mission needs, and then they submit themselves to the God who sees everything.

Take a look at verses 23 to 26.

So they propose two.

And when they prayed, you know, Lord, you know everyone's hearts.

Show which of these two you've chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.

And then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Lord, you know all the hearts.

This church, this resurrection gathering had done all that it could do.

It had talked about the crisis, it had examined scripture, it laid out the qualifications, they identified people who were suitable for the situation from among them.

They named the two of them, and there are two guys who are equally capable of fulfilling the role.

We don't know much about these men.

We know a tiny little bit about Joseph called Barsabbas, because in Acts chapter 15, he's one of the guys who brings the letter from the council of Acts chapter 15 to the Gentiles and helps them understand the decision that was made there.

Acts 15 · chapter mention Acts 15 · chapter mention

But we know almost nothing about them.

But what we do know is enough.

These men fulfilled the role.

Now there's something that needs to be done.

What do they do?

What everybody should do in a difficulty, what everybody should do in moments of great decision.

They prayed.

Then they prayed, Lord, you know everyone's hearts.

Show which of these two you've chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.

And this prayer is built on two affirmations about God.

One that he knows everybody's hearts, which is wonderful, and scary at the same time.

But think about it.

This gathering had done all that they could do.

They had fulfilled due diligence to all the way to the very point of their limitations.

They had looked at scripture, they understood what needed to happen, they had listed the qualifications, they had done some examination of some people, they had identified to, and there it stops.

They pray.

But they pray to the God who knows the hearts because they could know everything else.

One thing they don't know is what God knows.

The secret motivations of the heart.

What that person looks like when nobody's watching.

And the second thing that they say about God in their prayer is this show which of these two you have chosen.

That's an interesting way to put it because they're posturing themselves before the Lord in their decision making by saying, God, you already know which one it should be.

And so they're not asking God to ratify their decision.

And they're not presenting their favorite candidate and saying, well, he got more votes.

It's interesting.

They're saying, Lord, you've already made a choice.

Help us to determine what your will and purposes are.

And so with humility, they understand that their ability to see this thing has its limits.

And boy, is that a great place to be when you're in the middle of a difficult situation?

Is to offer yourself before God with that.

Lord, I really don't know what the next step is.

But I'm glad you do.

And I'm glad you know everything.

What did they do, though?

They cast lots.

Now, some people have questioned this, and they've gone, oh, what is this here?

Are these people reverting to some pagan practice?

Are they acting rashly?

Or what is this?

Are they departing from sound judgment?

No, no, they're not.

Especially according to their Jewish upbringing.

Casting lots had a very deep and a very specific root in the Old Testament.

Proverbs 16, verse 33 speaks about it very clearly.

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision comes from the Lord.

So the lot and casting of lots was a practice that the Jewish people fulfilled in removing human preference from a decision and submitting that decision to God's divine intervention.

It wasn't superstition, it was an organized humility.

Now notice the times they used it.

They cast lots to divide the promised land into the various tribes after they got there.

The high priest carried the Uman and Thumen into the tabernacle to ask God where human wisdom would fail.

Even the scapegoat that was chosen on the Day of Atonement was determined by the casting of lots.

This was a very regular patterned behavior of the Jewish community at this time, to be able to find out what only God knew and what they needed to be told.

Now, this is, as far as I could tell, the last time we see this mentioned in Scripture, which I think tells us something, because when we turn the page into Acts chapter 2, everything changes.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And when you get to the determination to call missionaries out into the mission field, the Holy Spirit says, Give me.

And they don't cast lots, they pray, but they make a determination by the direction of the Holy Spirit, not in the casting of lots.

But I want you to notice something here.

The lots didn't come first.

The identification of the problem came first.

The recognition of the need to make a decision came first.

The listing of the qualifications preceded this.

The interviews with all the people that might possibly be candidates for this position happened.

The identification of two equally capable and qualified individuals was there.

And they prayed.

And only after all of that sequence do they leave it in the hands of God by the casting of lots.

They're not circumventing their discernment.

They're not just jumping at chance, and they're not being swayed by the populace.

They're offering themselves before God and casting lots.

And the lot fell on Matthias, and the number of twelve was filled.

So what does the text give us here?

It tells us what a church does in the middle of difficulty.

A church names the trouble, it identifies it clearly, it recognizes that it's got a problem.

Peter addresses it, but he brings in scripture to give insight and understanding and interpretation to the problem.

That problem leads to a decision that they have to take up.

It is necessary, is the same word that was there when it talked about Judas and his betrayal.

And so now they identify what the mission needs.

And then last of all, they submit themselves to the God who knows everything when they know they don't know everything.

I think that's a great triple set of principles for us when we deal with troubles.

And troubles will come.

They always do.

So here we are in Acts chapter one.

And I want us to finish off by just taking one last look at this phrase here.

Lord, you know everyone's hearts.

He knows the qualifications.

He knows the credentials.

And he knows the private life of the person.

He knows the heart.

He knows the things that are done in secret.

He knows.

And he knows every one of us.

He knows every motive of our heart, every action of ours outside the public eye, or even within the context of our family.

He knows it all.

He knows what resides within us.

And he knows every time we've acted like Judas, where we've had our moments of denial, and our moments of turning away, and our moments of betrayal.

He knows it all.

And you know what's amazing about that?

It didn't stop him one bit.

It didn't stop him one hesitation at all to go to the cross for us.

Isn't that wonderful?

The God who looked into the heart of Mateus and chose him is the same God who looks into our hearts.

The same God is the God who looked at Peter and saw him saying, I need to save my neck.

And brought them back.

That's the God who looks at this.

And when he sees not just this problem, when he sees the problem of the human dimension in our rebellion against the holy God, when he sees all of us cast out, there's none righteous, no, not one.

For all have gone astray, all have become together filthy.

What does he do?

He takes all of that and absorbs it to himself.

And he goes to the cross and becomes the very judged one for the judgment of others.

And if you believe on this Savior, you won't find him looking at your failures and saying, Why did you do that?

Don't you know better?

Do better next time.

He looks at you and says, Come to me.

I have accepted all of your wrongs to myself.

I have taken it all on me and given myself up for you.

And he rose from the dead to show that his sacrifice was sufficient to cover everyone, every one of your wrongs.

Hallelujah.

This is our Savior.

And he's now leading his people who are living their life in the light of this God.

And Peter, who knows this well, stands up and says, Guys, God helped me through the middle of my problems.

God's going to help us through this problem.

And that Jesus who said, Let's get back to work is going to help us through this.

So let's look at scripture.

Let's identify what we need.

Let's pray.

And God will be with us.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

Passage of Scripture, which often is read with some confusion or perhaps only partial interest, is filled with wonderful insights of who you are and who your people are.

And Lord, we identify well with Peter.

We understand his failures.

And what we find amazing is to see him there standing up.

And Lord, we thank you that you make all your children stand up.

That you don't crush us.

That you heal us.

You break open the doors for the prisoners.

You bind up that which is broken.

You are our great shepherd.

Father, we are a weak people dependent upon you.

We don't know everything.

There's much that we don't.

We can hardly even speak honestly about the situations that arise.

Father, give us biblical understanding and biblical courage.

Give us direction by your spirit.

Give us an understanding in everything to be able to identify situations well.

And Lord, in humble submission and prayer, recognize that you're leading us and guiding us through.

Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in moments of personal and private difficulty.

May they find themselves doing the same.

May they not be relying upon their own resources, offering their own judgments, grabbing the wisdom of the world, that which is from below.

May they be filled with the fruit of wisdom from above that's pure and peaceful.

And Lord, we pray in everything that you'd be magnified by us and in us and through us.

And we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.