Acts Ch. 1 and 2

I'm going to have to be more careful about what I say in sermons.

Some of you might remember that last Sunday when we looked at the first part of Acts chapter 1,

Acts 1 · chapter mention

I talked about how the coming of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father, implies our great weakness

and how God then will send us things which are beyond our power,

beyond our financial resources, our physical power, our intellectual power, our numerical power,

and that he will invite us into things which cause us to depend upon him.

And I said that on Sunday, and it's very easy to say things like that in a sermon.

And then on Monday morning, Monday morning, I came into church and I met one of the brothers.

The brothers own the buildings sort of all over there in the parking lot,

and they told me that they're selling the building.

And the first thing that I went through my mind is, and I said it to them,

I said, well, we might be interested in buying it.

Now, I also told them we had no money.

But I said, we might be interested in buying it.

And I think, well, you know, I would like to talk to you about it.

And I mentioned it to the wardens on Tuesday night,

and their unanimous reaction was that it would be irresponsible for us

not to let you folks know and to call out to God in prayer,

just to see is it God's will that we purchase that property?

Will God work a miracle of bringing in finances or lowering the price or whatever?

Is it God's will?

And so I preached this on Sunday,

and now I am called to see that, with the warden's permission,

to say we should pray as to whether it is God's will

for us to be able to take that property

and keep it sort of owned by Christians,

to be used as a place of prayer and a place of mission

and a place of outreach.

And we don't have the money, but we are called to pray.

And you know what?

We can pray, and maybe God will say yes.

That will be a miracle.

To make him say, for him to say yes means it will also happen,

and that will be a miracle.

Maybe he'll say not yet, and maybe he'll say no.

And if he says no, then that's his sovereign choice,

his sovereign will.

But I invite you to pray as to whether God is calling us

about that property.

Please pray.

And we'll see what happens.

So if people have any insights or prophecies or very large checks,

you can speak to me or the wardens.

But please pray.

I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to page 943,

Acts 1, verses 12 and following.

Acts 1:12

And we continue along as we look through the first few chapters of Acts 1.

And the text that we're going to read today takes place in this odd 10-day period.

Forty days before this, Jesus is risen from the dead.

At the end of verse 11, Jesus is ascended into heaven,

bringing an end to his bodily, earthly ministry.

And the angels have testified to the apostles what they've just seen,

so they'll understand it correctly.

And also promise the apostles that Jesus will return

in the same way that they've seen him lead.

And they don't know it yet, but in 10 days' time,

the Holy Spirit is going to fall upon them,

and the church is going to be born.

And these two stories are stories where this little account

is an account of that 10-day period.

And this is how the text begins.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,

which is near Jerusalem.

This is Acts 1, verse 12.

Acts 1:12

They returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,

which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath-day journey.

And when they had entered,

they went up into the upper room where they were staying,

Peter, James, John, and Andrew,

Philip and Thomas,

Bartholomew and Matthew,

James, the son of Alphaeus,

and Simon the zealot.

He was a terrorist.

And Judas, the son of James.

These all continued with one accord,

in prayer and supplication,

with the women,

and Mary, the mother of Jesus,

and with his brothers.

Now, I just want to pause here

for a little bit of a second.

And some of you might have noticed in my prayers

that I asked that my prayer before this sermon

that he might increase and we might decrease.

It's one of the famous sayings of John the Baptist,

who was the greatest of all the prophets,

the last of the prophets

and the greatest of all the prophets.

And one of the things,

after Jesus' ministry had began,

John the Baptist's ministry started to go downhill.

The crowds that came to hear John the Baptist

before Jesus' ministry began,

the crowds for John the Baptist were huge.

And once John the Baptist had baptized Jesus

and said,

Behold the Lamb of God,

which takes away the sin of the world.

That's why he is the greatest of the prophets.

Everybody else pointed to the Messiah

in a distance and in a dark type of manner,

you know, in terms of seeing through a glass darkly.

And John the Baptist was the one

who could literally watch Jesus

walking in the dusty road

and point to his disciples and say,

Behold the Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world.

And after that declaration,

Jesus' ministry took off.

John the Baptist's ministry goes downhill.

And John the Baptist's remaining disciples,

because even some of John the Baptist's disciples

have left John the Baptist and go to follow Jesus,

and some of John the Baptist's remaining disciples say,

John, doesn't it bother you

that they're all going to see Jesus now?

And John's response was,

He must increase and I must decrease.

And, you know, that is to be

the prayer of our hearts in ministry,

that Jesus might increase and we might decrease.

For me as a minister,

could you pray for me that my desire would be

not that people want to know me,

but that they will want to know Jesus?

Can you pray that for Jono and the band,

that people don't want to know Jono,

they want to know Jesus?

Can you pray that for the greeters?

Can you pray that for Ben and for Dave?

And for everybody involved,

for the wardens and the treasurer

and council members,

and all leaders in the church,

you know, for Nat,

that the Father might pour His Holy Spirit upon us

in such a way that the cry of our heart

is that people might not desire to know us,

but know Jesus.

That they won't want more of us,

they want more of Jesus.

And one of the things which is so wonderful

about this little,

these few verses which I've just read for you,

is that in a very, very quiet and shy way,

Luke shows that this is the heart of the apostles

because he mentions the 11 remaining apostles,

and after this reference,

eight of them are never mentioned again.

They completely and utterly disappear.

There's the odd reference to the apostles,

et cetera, in general,

but the actual name of the individual apostles,

they just cease.

The rest of the book of Acts

as it describes the mission,

the witness to Jerusalem,

as it describes the witness to Samaria,

as it describes the witness to the Gentiles,

and the witness and the bringing of the gospel,

right to the center of the empire,

right to the very center of civilization

and all power,

right to Rome,

and eight of their names

completely and utterly are never mentioned again.

Isn't that just spectacular?

I mean, could we but have the attitude

of these first apostles

that it doesn't matter

whether our name gets mentioned at all?

What matters is that the witness to Jesus continues.

What matters is that people come to faith.

What matters is that people be filled with the Holy Spirit,

that the church be built up,

and whether their names get written up,

do not matter at all.

The other thing which is so wonderful about this little account of these people

as they obey Jesus and return to Jerusalem,

is that it's not just,

you know, you look at it,

it's the apostles,

it's the apostles,

it's the women,

it's Mary,

and it's Mary,

and it's Jesus' brothers,

and they all gather,

and they're all with one accord

in prayer and supplication,

and this is something else which is really wonderful.

Remember I said that,

you know,

if we really have the desire in our hearts

that this,

that we are,

that the people in this church

are to have such a servant heart

that we learn that he must increase

and we must decrease,

one of the things that's implied with that

is that he's the boss

and we are not.

Remember I began by saying

I am inviting us as a congregation

to begin a season of serious prayer

as to whether God is calling us,

whether God will make straight the way

that that property would become part of the property of St. Albans

to the glory of God

that he might increase

and we might decrease.

And the acknowledgement that he must increase

is that he is greater

and that we ask

and he might say no

and he might say not yet

and he might say yes

and we don't know

but he's invited us to ask.

The apostles pray and pray and pray

and they also have to wait and wait and wait.

This is really,

I mean they only have to wait 10 days in this case.

But you know,

it's not the matter of they pray and it happens.

They pray and it happens.

They pray and it happens.

There's many times in our life

and in the life of the church

where God is just calling us

to persevering prayer.

One of my favorite saints is St. Monica.

And the thing I love about St. Monica

is that St. Monica

had a burden to pray for a son

and her son was brilliant and immoral

and lived a debauched and successful life.

It's possible to be both debauched

and successful and brilliant.

And she prayed for her son

and prayed for her son

and prayed for her son

and prayed for her son.

The years went by,

the years went by

and finally he came to Christ

and we now know him

as one of the people

who changed the entire course

of the Western world

because his name is St. Augustine.

And that's a spectacular example

of persevering prayer.

And so he who was successful

and debauched and brilliant

turned to Christ and to holiness

and the service of his great mind

completely and utterly submitted

to the person of Jesus Christ

to expound the scriptures,

to explain the Christian vision

and the Christian intellect

and to form it for generations to come.

And so sometimes,

brothers and sisters,

we are called to pray

and pray and pray

and wait and wait and wait

and pray and pray and pray.

Let's continue on with the story.

And in the next,

in two verses from now,

there's a verse

which if it wasn't there

and if all of the verses like it

weren't there in the Bible,

then from the perspective

of the world and the flesh,

my life would be a lot easier.

From the perspective

of the world and the flesh,

if verse 16 wasn't in the Bible

and if all of the verses

like verse 16 weren't in the Bible,

my life would be a lot easier.

But that's just from the perspective

of the world and the flesh.

Here's how it goes.

In those days,

verse 15,

Peter stood up in the midst

of the disciples.

Altogether,

the number of names

was about 120 and said,

and here verse 16

has been translated poorly.

It should really be

brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters,

this scripture had to be fulfilled

which the Holy Spirit spoke before

by the mouth of David

concerning Judas

who became a guide

to those who arrested Jesus.

Now you're probably wondering,

George,

how on earth

is this passage of scripture

causing you lots of trouble?

How is it that from the perspective

of my flesh and the world,

my life would be simpler

if this verse in the Bible

wasn't here?

You know,

it's very, very subtle

but very, very profoundly spoken.

There are many people today

in the church

who say the church

wrote the Bible

and now the church

can rewrite the Bible.

And this passage of scripture

says that that idea

is completely and utterly wrong.

Not slightly wrong,

not a little bit mistaken,

it's completely wrong.

And because what this verse is saying is,

actually here's a bit of an aside.

It's been dawning on me lately

that sometimes

I have these little expressions

in my mind

that I think are Canadian expressions

and because I'm a child of immigrants,

I realize that sometimes

it's from my home country,

they're not Canadian.

But you might have heard

the old thing,

you know,

is it the chicken or the,

like which came first,

the chicken or the egg?

And the answer

as to which came first,

the chicken or the egg,

is that God created both.

That's the solution to it.

So it's not a matter

that, you know,

sort of the church

wrote the Bible

and now we can rewrite the Bible,

but as we're going to,

I'll bring out to you

in a moment,

this passage says

that God is responsible

for the word of God

being written

and God is responsible

for the church being formed.

God creates the Bible,

God creates the church.

It's not a matter

of the church writing the Bible

or anything like that,

but God creates the Bible,

God creates the church.

They're both his idea.

Listen to the verse

more carefully,

verse 16.

Men and brethren,

brothers and sisters,

this scripture

had to be fulfilled

which the Holy Spirit

spoke

by the mouth of David.

The Holy Spirit

spoke

by the mouth of David.

This is just,

it means,

and then in a moment

he's going to quote two Psalms

and what Peter is saying

is that it was,

it was ultimately

the Holy Spirit

that spoke these words

through the mouth of David.

Now,

it's not saying

that David became,

like,

David wasn't a fax machine,

a human fax machine

and God

drafted a letter up in heaven

and it just sort of had to,

happened to pop out

through his mouth.

The Bible leaves

completely and utterly

mysterious

and anonymous

the psychological

and emotional processes

which went on

in the writing of scripture.

And because God

uses human beings,

it means that,

it means that the scripture

comes out in,

in Greek

or,

you know,

or in Hebrew.

And it means that

scholars later on

they can date,

when you're looking

at the Old Testament,

whether this looks like

it was written earlier

or later sometimes

because the Hebrew

looks like it's

an older Hebrew

or a newer Hebrew.

And it means that,

it means that

we don't know

about the processes.

Like,

so in a sense,

the scripture,

if you heard David,

David would have had

a royal accent,

if you know what I mean.

You know,

and if you heard

Peter preaching

in that which became

scriptures,

he had a Galilean accent.

In fact,

one of the problems

for the early,

the early people

in Jerusalem

is that Peter

sounded like a hick.

Okay?

He sounded like

an uneducated,

working class hick.

And they were expecting

him to sound,

you know,

and we maybe expect

God to sound

sophisticated

and urbane

and maybe a little bit

like a CBC announcer,

something mid-Atlantic.

And God can speak

like a hick

and then he can speak

like a poet

and then he can speak

in very classical,

fancy language

and then he can speak

like he's a bureaucrat

because the Bible

doesn't say,

you know,

it isn't saying here

that every human being

who's been part

of the process

of scripture

being written

is like a fax machine

and it just sort of

pops out of their mouth.

It's through the mouth

of David

but it's the Holy Spirit

who has the words

that the Holy Spirit wants

or the words

that ultimately come.

This is really,

really important

for us to understand.

If you could go back

in a time machine,

you might find out

that one of those two psalms

that David wrote,

that he wrote it

after he had called

all of his family

and all of his friends

to fast and pray for him

because he felt

that he had to write

something really important

and maybe you'll find out

that he fasted

and he prayed

and he studied

and he went to the temple

and as a result

of this long process,

he wrote one of those psalms

and maybe if you went back

in time,

you might discover

that the other one came

after he'd had

the most spectacular

wedding celebration

for one of his kids

and he was a little bit tipsy

from wine

and he sat down

and he whipped it off

and I'm not being disrespectful

to scripture

because the Holy Spirit

speaks through the mouth

of David

and the words,

it's the words in scripture

which are inspired by God

and it is completely

and utterly up

to the sovereign power of God

what psychological,

emotional,

cultural things

were going through

the human authors

as they wrote

but the final words

were the words

that God wanted

and that's why

this scripture says

in verse 16

that the scripture

had to be fulfilled

because God is the one

who spoke it.

If it had just been David speaking,

it doesn't have to be fulfilled,

you know,

it's just like

if I say this is what

we have to do folks

and, you know,

90% of you say

that's the dumbest idea

in the world,

then my word doesn't have

to be fulfilled,

does it?

And same with David.

All sorts of times

that people didn't go along

with what David said.

His own son didn't go along

with what he,

his own son tried to kill him.

There's all sorts of times

that it doesn't have to happen

the way David spoke

but these particular things

have to be fulfilled

because it's the Holy Spirit

speaking by the mouth of David.

Let's just continue on

to give the rest of the text.

Verse 17,

for he was numbered with us

and obtained a part

in this ministry.

Now this man purchased a field

with the wages of iniquity

and falling headlong,

he burst open in the middle

and all his entrails gushed out

and it became known

to all those dwelling in Jerusalem

so that the field is called

in their own language

Akel Dama,

that is,

field of blood.

For it is written

in the book of the Psalms,

let his habitation be desolate

and let no one live in it

and let another take his office.

Therefore,

of these men

who have accompanied us

all the time

that the Lord Jesus

went in and out among us,

beginning from the baptism of John

to that day

when he was taken up from us,

one of these

must become a witness with us

of his resurrection.

And they proposed two.

Joseph called Barsabbas,

who was surnamed Justice,

and Matthias.

And they prayed and said,

You, O Lord,

who know the hearts of all,

show which of these two

you have chosen

to take part in this ministry

and apostleship

which Judas by transgression fell,

that he might go to his own place.

And they cast their lots,

and the lot fell on Matthias,

and he was numbered

with the eleven apostles.

Now, just a little bit

of a cool thing

from church history.

From church history,

it's reported that Matthias

became the apostles

to the Ethiopians.

Isn't that a cool thing to know?

Here's this guy in Jerusalem,

and he doesn't realize that when he,

I mean, he starts off

getting to know Jesus,

and little does he know

that he's going to probably

die in Ethiopia

as a witness to Jesus.

Isn't that just the most,

anyway, I just think

it's really cool.

You know, you start to embark

on this path of following Jesus,

you never know

where it's going to end up.

You really don't.

Because he is to be sovereign.

He is to be sovereign.

Now, the thing about

this passage here

is it shows that Jesus

is building his church.

And we are to model

in our lives

that Jesus is building the church.

Notice in verse 24,

and this is one of those

just astounding things.

Remember, Jesus,

like six weeks earlier,

Jesus was hanging on the cross,

dying.

And now approximately

six weeks later,

Peter and the others say,

You, O Lord.

The context shows

that they are praying to Jesus.

I mean, that's just astounding.

Six weeks later,

they are praying to Jesus.

You, O Lord.

And they're calling out to him.

They know that somebody

has to replace.

And this call to be a servant,

because the word ministry,

which is used here,

originally was a word

used to describe somebody

who brings food at a meal.

You know,

I don't know if you've ever been

at a fancy meal,

but if you've been

at a fancy meal,

one of the things,

one of the goals would be

if owners of really fancy establishments,

if they could invent invisible ways

for the food to get there,

that's what they would want.

You see,

because the goal

is to remember the food

and the companionship,

not to remember the waiter.

You know,

unless you only remember the waiter

because they've been so fantastic,

they've been so humble,

gracious,

attentive,

et cetera,

and meeting your needs.

But they're completely self-effacing

to get that food out

and to make the person

who is the guest

feel completely just well-received.

And the word here used for ministry

is the word to describe that.

And so the call

to that type of humble service,

which will also work

in witnessing to the resurrection,

and they understand

that somebody is called

to be a leader in this,

which Jesus is called to,

so they call out to Jesus

that he might make

the continuing choice

in who that person

is going to be.

And so they've been gathered

in prayer,

they've been gathered

in studying the scriptures,

they've also used

some of their thinking

to try to think

some things through,

but at the end of the day

they want to leave

the final decision to Christ.

And in this particular case

it's the only time

after the Holy Spirit

comes on Pentecost,

the apostles are never described

as using lots again.

They use an old Jewish habit

which ends with the coming

of the Holy Spirit.

But they show forth

this fundamental principle,

Jesus is building his church.

And since Jesus is building

his church,

what should we do?

We say,

Jesus,

what would you have us do?

Who would you have

in this particular role?

Jesus,

we will acknowledge

that we think

that these might be

the people that you are choosing,

but you are the one

who has to make

that final choice.

And there's no elections

in the New Testament.

But there is fasting

and prayer

and openness

to the Holy Spirit

and studying the scriptures

that the one

that God has chosen

might step into that role.

may such be our heart as well.

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Father,

we acknowledge

and confess before you

that we Canadians

at this time,

that we like to try

to reduce things

to processes

and we like to reduce things

to reduce things

in such a way

that we can be powerful

and we can be in control

and we can be in mastery.

And Father,

we acknowledge

that before you

that that's a problem,

that that's gotten

out of whack in us,

that we have to learn,

Father,

to be open

to your leading

and your guiding,

open to your Holy Spirit,

submissive to your word,

desirous of knowing your will

and bringing you glory,

that we must be desirous

of humility

and humble service

and witnessing

to the resurrection.

We ask,

Father,

that those good things

in our culture,

that they not be taken from us,

but in the midst

of whatever good lessons

we might learn

from how to figure things out,

that we might,

in all things

and in all ways,

submit to your rule,

your guidance,

the power of your Holy Spirit,

the authority of your word.

Father,

teach us humility

that we might submit to you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.