Waiting for the Holy Spirit - Acts 1

Welcome everybody.

I I don't well yes, welcome.

My hosting.

Or we is it a welcome or is yeah, you can host.

Is it a welcome or welcome back?

Because we used to film podcasts together all the time.

Yeah.

Took a little bit of a break.

And uh now we're back.

We're doing something different.

Yep.

Something something specific.

Something I'm excited for.

My hats on backwards because that's what I normally do.

But uh is it I can't tell if it's I don't know, is it centered?

Is it it looks very good?

I would say dashing.

And so uh I'm excited about this because we're gonna just gonna do Bible study together.

Yeah.

A lot of our job is like spiritual.

We talk about messages and whatnot, but sometimes we don't get much of a chance to talk about messages or like spiritual conversations outside of the main message.

We're working on a message together or whatever.

So I'm excited about this because we are filming this, which means we have to do it.

And so we get to have those spiritual conversations.

This is mandatory Bible study as a work as a work thing, work, but for your own life.

And the idea being that uh this is something other people could follow along with and read with, and this is uh just to help you engage with the Bible and yeah, and stuff have conversations about it.

So we are gonna be reading Acts chapter one together.

Yeah, we originally discussed um walking through Isaiah, was it Isaiah or Jeremiah?

One of the one of the big prophets, but uh I think Isaiah is the one we talked about.

Yeah, and I was like, I I would love to do that, but if we're gonna do the filming version of that, I kind of need like I want to be like more prepared with history and cultures and discussions on that stuff.

It's yes, and even just the fact that half of its poems is uh you know, it's it's it's a lot of chapters of poetry.

The the prophets are are pretty tough to read.

In fact, uh there was a guy who used this AI platform to listen to like the last hundred messages I give it, and then like put all the Bible which verses you use the most.

And it looks like I'm avoiding the prophets pretty hard.

I mean, I'll go to Jeremiah.

There's Isaiah's, but it's like it's it's Was there any zeros?

Was there any like I'm sure there's like didn't have any Amos or any Yeah, there's probably a few of those that are there, but I mean we use a lot of Bible when we teach, so there's a lot a lot of Matthew.

Was it yeah, Matthew?

Well, we went through the whole book of Matthew, so that was biased in that way.

Yes, yes, yes.

Ephesians was probably next.

Well, we've gone all the way through uh fully, we've gone through Matthew, Philippians, Ephesians, Romans.

We did the entirety of Romans, and we've done uh a ton of John.

I've done two big series in John, and then we've we've done a lot of uh Genesis this year.

First Samuel a lot.

I feel like we've returned to David.

We've done you've done the David series, right?

I did a I never did a David series.

I did an Esther series where we went through most of Esther.

And um, because the last part of Esther is different.

It's like one of those you're like, oh, Esther changes halfway, you know, it's not about Esther anymore.

And then uh I did all I did the whole story of Elijah and Elisha.

So that's the first Kings one, right?

It's a lot of yeah, yeah.

Well, it's really second kings.

Second Kings.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But um anyway.

So this is not necessarily message prep exactly, but um, this is kind of approaching the scriptures like we would if we were working on that stuff together.

Yes, and I'm excited about it.

Acts is a great book because it's kind of the story of the early church.

In fact, sometimes it's called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, mm-hmm because it's where the Holy Spirit like kind of shows up as a main character of sorts.

And actually, I read in a commentary year a long time ago, years ago, that when you read the book of Acts, think of the Holy Spirit as Jesus.

Where like when you read the gospels, clear, clearly Jesus is the main character.

Right.

And your temptation in Acts is that the apostles are the main characters.

But we don't see the apostles as the main characters of the book of Matthew.

The primary actor is Jesus, and then the apostles are dealing with it.

And it was like, read Acts and put the Holy Spirit as the main character, so to speak, and then the apostles.

It's kind of an interesting take on it.

Yeah, and I think that gets, I mean, to the first line of the book of Acts, and I'll just read the first couple verses.

Uh in the first book, O Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

Sorry, I didn't get a good enough breath before I started reading.

Uh, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Yeah.

And so that's kind of like from what you're saying.

It's like sets the stages the Holy Spirit began, or uh like, hey, Holy Spirit's on his way.

I'm trying to think, are there any are there any movies?

And I'm sure there are.

Um where this is where our brains go.

Where it's like stories, movies where is there's like a character that is is hinted at, spoken about, but you don't see them, and then they they have an arrival, and it's like the arrival moment when Gandalf is presumed dead, and then when Gimli and Legolas and Aragorn find who they think is Saruman in the woods, and there's like that reveal where you see like a glowing kind of guy.

That's a scene, but that's not like a Yeah.

No, I'm just thinking of like someone you you hear their name or their title mentioned, and but and it's a long time before they actually show up.

Well, even though Lord of the Rings, maybe Gollum, like in the first Lord of the Rings movie, he's talked about a lot.

Right, but there's never well, point in case, there's probably someone's probably gonna be like screaming at there's that rate ridiculous movie, Waiting for Godot.

Have you seen that one?

It's like uh best in show, it's like something like that where they're waiting for oh no, waiting for Guffman, that's what it is.

Waiting for Guffman, and it's like this critic theater critic that they're waiting for the whole time, and he never shows up the whole movie.

So I can't think of that.

Gollum, that's a good option.

Yeah, like so.

Point is Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit a ton, and he promised the Holy Spirit.

He's like the the advocate will come, and I'll send the father will send you the spirit.

Um, but the Holy Spirit has has yet to come in the way that Jesus promised, and that's gonna happen like yeah fast.

And I like the uh, you know, Luke is the author of the book of Acts, and so he's writing to Theophilus, which some people say is not a real person, but a lot of people are like, nah, he's probably a real person.

And so it was a Greek name.

Okay.

So there's there's a we have records of Greek that is a Greek name.

It means friend of God.

So you could see like Christian brother, like something like that.

You could see, yeah, you could see Luke who's who's writing this being like, hey, Theophilus, because that's also who he addresses the book of Luke to.

So either there's a dude named Theophilus, and he got I mean, this is like, I wrote you gotta check out this scroll two entire what we would call books of the Bible directly to him.

Yeah, that were scripture.

If he commissioned it, delivered to you, maybe.

Yeah.

It may have been him, he may have paid for it.

You know what I mean?

That we don't know.

Or he's using Theophilus as a general name, friend of God, lover of God.

I actually think it either means friend of God or loved by God.

And so you could see that.

Yeah, I've saw another one, dear to God.

Dear to God.

Yeah.

So you can see that being something that um, you know, could be a general term for any Christian that might be reading this.

Right.

Because if you're reading this and you follow Jesus, you're God, a friend of God, who's dear to God, whatever you want to call.

So yeah, Theophilus may or may not have been a person, but it's a title there.

Nonetheless, it's written to someone or everyone who loves the Lord.

And on that note, before we go forward, is uh you said like this is about seeing the Holy Spirit as the main character of the book of Acts.

It's like that line, I that's what I underlined, and what jumped out to me is the uh I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, kind of in the book of Luke.

And it's like this implication of like he continues to do and teach throughout this story, and we're gonna see what all that looks like.

So that's great.

Um, do you want to read the next section?

Was there anything in this section that jumps out to you before we do?

Because that's kind of how we're gonna do this.

We're gonna go like little chunks and talk about it, little chunks, you know.

So that one, um, I think that idea of like the waiting is gonna happen, and we're gonna see that a little bit more.

Yeah.

Um, though he presented himself alive to them after suffering by many proofs appearing to them during the 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

I'm just like, can we have that book?

Yeah, where's the del Where's let's where's the deleted scene?

Yeah, they have a few moments where he shows up and you know Thomas wasn't there and he they're like, Whoa, Thomas, he was here.

And he's like, I won't believe in unless I can touch the scars, basically.

Then he shows up, he's like, Hey Thomas, yeah, here's your chance, you know.

Um, so we have those moments.

Obviously, we have the moment where he has breakfast with them by the seashore.

Um, but it it indicates that there's many more.

So I'm reading New Living Translation a little bit more like, you know, just normal language.

Normal language.

I'm not but it just says during the 40 days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive.

Um and he talked to them about the king of God.

Oh, he appears next to the apostles as they're walking to a maze.

Yes, the disciples.

Um, yeah.

So um the only other thing I think that jumped out to me in this section is I think that just understanding so they're in Jerusalem, that's where they're at.

You know, they journey to Jerusalem.

A big portion of the end of like the book of Matthew, let's say, is Jesus making his way toward Jerusalem, knowing that Jerusalem means death for him.

Right?

The apostles don't know that.

The disciples don't know that.

They're like they think they're gonna they're heading to like like the glory is about to happen.

Jesus is gonna take the reins.

But when Jesus dies, he's killed in Jerusalem.

I mean, the this is not where they are from, right?

This is not their home territory.

Yeah, and they're actually like for all intents and purposes, wanted men, or at the very least, they have to feel that way because their leader was just executed by the most most important people in Jerusalem.

Right.

They're definitely Yeah, like Peter's next on the hit list when it comes to well, who's the who's gonna take the throne of this guy?

Exactly.

We're really gonna you know nip this thing in the bud, so to speak.

We better get rid of these guys.

And Jesus is like don't leave Jerusalem until and we know Jesus was killed during the the Passover time and Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit comes.

That's 50 days, right?

That's what Pentecost means.

It means 50 days.

So that's a kind of a big deal.

Hey, for 50 days, don't go back to Galilee where you're from.

It doesn't even say till till Pentecost.

He doesn't tell me when we ask it's just indefinitely.

It's indefinite to them, but but we know it's a 50-day period of time that they have to like hide out essentially.

Um, they're definitely keeping a low profile.

We know that from the gospel, we don't know all the details, but that's a big deal to ask because it's like you know that they had to be nervous, scared, even financially.

Like they're not like hotels and staying with people who not hotels, but yeah, yeah, all right, right, yeah.

They're at the Marriott.

They're at the Marriott, and yeah, yeah.

If you're a continental breakfast, have you ever been like out of town where like you have to do a hospital visit or something?

Like one of your family members.

That's like always the absolute worst, where it's like, oh, we have to stay here longer than we expected because something's going wrong.

Hannah went to I've never done that in a place that is not either my my current home or like I have a family member.

Yeah, I've gone to Missouri for some some funerals and hospital visits, and I stay with my brother.

Yeah, but yeah.

Back when it snowed uh earlier this year, Hannah was in the Dominican Republic, and so I remember that their uh stuff their plane wouldn't take off, or the Atlanta airport was snowed in, and so she had to wait like four more days before they were able to get back to figure out everything.

And it's just one of those moments of like when you thought the ordeal was over, like you know, and a mission trip can be a lot, and she was with teenagers leading teenagers on a mission trip, and it's like I'm ready to come home, and then it's like and well, another day, and maybe another day, and maybe another day.

I won't out this person because they might get in trouble.

I don't think they will, but uh, but a person I know who may or may not be related to me, okay.

Um, during the whole COVID, you know, during the whole the the whatever that's the lockdown and all, yeah, not post-lockdown, but still like if you test positive, yeah, quarantine, right?

Big time, or we will quarantine.

He he actually went to Mexico and he they give you like this thing, they test he tested positive.

And where he was in Mexico, they weren't gonna let you fly back to the United States.

Wow.

And uh they were gonna make you stay in like the hotel for like a week or so.

It was like it was like a big deal, and so he tested positive, like, you're not able to leave.

He literally, like when the person walked out the door, he took the paper, he changed it, got out of there fast, called a cat, like called a cab or whatever, got a car, and like zoomed off before they came back, and he went home.

Falsified records.

He's like, I'm not staying here for you don't want to be where you don't belong, especially too, like with the disciples in Jerusalem.

It's like also the moments, a moment of extremely great pain.

You know, like they experienced the resurrected Jesus, like that was a moment, but it was still it's painful to so yeah, you're you want to get home.

Yeah, you want you're willing to falsify, you're willing to, you're usually willing to do just you'll break the law, right?

But go home.

But he says, wait.

He's like, wait, and they have to wait.

So here we are, we're waiting.

I love this next story, by the way.

I love this next story for a very specific reason.

I think it's really funny.

But go ahead.

It is funny.

Go ahead.

Do you want me to read it?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, you started, I think that's the good flow.

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?

He said to them, It's not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, 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.

Yeah.

The ascension.

The ascension.

Kind of awkward when you visualize it in like a Hollywood way.

Oh, it's like I can't.

I always imagine it as like he disappeared and they're like looking around, but you know, he he raises because they're like, he'll come back the same way, you know.

He he looks up.

It's like a balloon, watching a balloon fly off.

Oh, yeah.

And you're like, it is kind of mesmerizing.

So yeah, we've had that.

I've had that experience.

Yeah, he would have, like, it would have taken a while for he's like, but it says a cloud overtook him.

Yeah.

Well, that's does that mean he just until he was the cloud?

Like, or were the clouds low that day?

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know either.

Um I've always connected that to Daniel, where the Ancient of Days is opening the books, and it's like, who's gonna judge?

And then it says someone that looks like a son, a son of man is riding on the clouds up to, and um, he kind of goes and meets God.

I think that like obviously my brain pictures him just kind of like the the cheesy thing would be like he his arms go out and he just raises.

But I think in some ways it'd be cooler if he like bent down and jumped.

Like you're like, well, he's like, all right, guys.

And it's just like he's like rocking it off like Superman.

Well, like it but if he actually like bent his knees, oh yeah, like there's like a little bit of a physical and there's like whoa, Jesus has ups, you know what I mean?

Like he just he kept he keeps going, he jumps and he never comes down instead of like the wire, like the invisible wire where he's like being pulled up, he just kind of yeah.

I don't know.

It's a it's a funny story.

How important is the ascension?

Oh, super important.

I know well, I know it's super important.

Um I guess my my thing is like we always say death and resurrection.

Oh like that's kind of like life, death, and a resurrection.

I mean, isn't it in the the original creed?

Yeah, I think he ascended to heaven, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's in there.

We just don't have a holiday to celebrate that.

Yeah, like ascension day.

Yeah, there's not we could.

Some people do.

I think some ascension day sounds like a really uh that sounds like something from like a really dystopian um welcome to ascension day.

It's like a stand your barcode.

Oh, this is the day you die.

Yeah, you get to ascend.

Um, you know, for me, there's there's there's two things here that I just think are kind of fun.

Um the funny the funny part to me is the angels, because they do this a lot.

The same they say the same thing to like the women when they go to the tomb, they're like, Why are you looking for them here?

Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

Yeah, yeah.

But he's like, Well, this is where where we left him.

You know what I mean?

It's kind of obvious.

Like a question that has an obvious answer, and the same thing in the year there, he just descends and then like boom, are you guys looking up there?

Like I wonder how long they must have been standing there.

It may have been a while.

Like sending God's like, send some messengers down there and get them, get them to go do something.

They're like 40 minutes later, like and I love the fact that it does give you the impression that Jesus doesn't like hint that this is coming.

Right.

Like he did that with the resurrection, never said, and then I will be lifted into heaven.

So they probably did catch him by surprise.

Yeah.

But um, I for me, even though it's a silly thought, like the funniness of why are you looking here standing in heaven?

Um, it may I like this isn't like this maybe me reading too much into it.

And sometimes you have to own that when maybe you're reading more into the story than is there.

Okay.

But sometimes I wonder, like, we must seem so foreign to angels.

Yeah, like how humans act.

Yes.

Because maybe to them, they're like, Why would you like you don't get this?

Like, like you know what I mean?

Like, like if they probably look at us and go, like, why do they do that?

You know what I mean?

Um, I can see that.

There's also a note here about, you know, I see a lot of YouTube videos or social media posts about like biblically accurate angels.

And usually what they're talking about is like the cherubim or the seraphim.

Like, I did some of that.

I used some, I think I showed you some.

Yeah, yeah, like they're like crazy covered with eyes and rotating wheels and stuff.

Yeah, but also these are biblically accurate angels.

Two men stood by them in white robes.

Do you know what is the the not the never biblically accurate angels?

Right.

Men with wings with wings.

Right.

And so it's like they're either dudes that you barely notice are anything that they're always dressed in in white robes.

White, yeah.

And there's something about them that carries authority.

Like in Joshua, he mistakes an angel for like a soldier.

Because he goes like he sees a person, he goes up to him, he's like, Whose side are you one?

Army are you with either?

Yeah, like I'm I'm oh, you're higher level.

Yeah, and it says that we might have angels among us and stuff without us.

So, yeah, this is a biblically accurate, too.

So, you know, men in white robes standing among them.

Um and then, too, I think the importance of his return, the promise of his return is the other part that kind of jumped out to me fresh is like I never really associate the ascension with Jesus' return.

It's like just in the same way that you saw him go into heaven, he's gonna come back and come back.

Yeah.

Um yeah, and so you know, the other thing there is for me, uh, I just love the fact too that they're like, Hey God, is it time, you know, Jesus Lord, is it is this now the time that you're gonna restore free Israel restore our kingdom?

They're talking like what we would what we would probably consider like the end times, right?

You know, like that moment.

Not this generation will pass before these things come to pass.

Like and it's just funny because that's a question they asked Jesus in the gospels, and he always says, It is not for you to know the the days and the times, or me even to know it.

And then they're with him again, and they're like, okay, so now is it now?

He's like, It's not for you to do it.

Still not for you, yeah.

And yet, still here we are years later, thousands of years later, and you have Jesus followers that are trying to figure out is this is this it?

Is this the day in time?

And at some point in time, it's like just you'll see him or not.

It's not for you to know.

Like, I feel like I've answered this question before.

And so when you see pastors that are like, this is when I think it's gonna go down, um, it's just always funny to me.

Because I'm like, it's really clearly didn't have that as a priority.

One question we always want to ask is when, when, when, when.

Yeah, every time he's asked when, he says, no.

You're not gonna know that.

But then we still keep asking when.

But interesting.

This next part of the story is I I think it's is really cool for a few different levels.

And so um, you know, Matthias or Matthias, it's sometimes pronounced, um, replaces Judas.

And so do you want to go ahead and sure?

I can just read the whole thing.

Yeah, read the whole thing.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount they called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey away.

And when they had a half a mile.

That's not half a mile.

That's not my biblical knowledge, it just that's what it says in this translation.

Oh, great.

Uh, and when they had entered, uh, they went up to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James.

All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers, the company of persons was in all about one hundred and twenty, and said, Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled with the 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 the ministry.

Now this man acquired a field with his 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 that the field was called in their own language a keldama, that is, field of blood.

For it is written in the book of Psalms, May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it, and let another take his office.

So one of the men who accompanied us during all that time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.

And they put forward two, 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 eleven apostles.

There you go.

We gotta fill in that twelfth spot.

Yeah, he Jesus picked twelve.

That wasn't on accident.

Um yeah, yeah, it's interesting.

Um always forget that there's there's two disciples named Judas.

Yep.

There's Judas Iscariot.

And then there's the Judas, the son of James, who's also sometimes called Jude.

Which is also called James, isn't he?

The lesser James.

No, there's two James.

Wait, let me read this list again.

There's two James, there's two Judases.

Alright, we got common names in their time.

I know.

All right.

Okay, Peter, Jon, and James, and Andrew.

Philip Thomas.

Yep.

You're right.

Yep.

And then Judas, the son of James, but that is the same person as Jude, who is the uh author of the second to last book of the Bible.

Which is Jesus' brother?

No.

Isn't Jude Jesus' brother?

No, because he's the son of James.

See, this is why I study the Bible, because I don't know anything about this.

So here's it's hard.

Like try to keep track of the Marys.

All the Marys are.

There's a Mary, Mary.

There's so many Marys.

There's a lot of James.

Um James, the brother of Jesus, James the disciple.

Um who is James the author?

The dis oh brother of Jesus.

That's the brother of Jesus.

Yeah.

So, okay, because he comes to know Jesus and follow Jesus after the resurrection.

Correct.

And we're told in the book of Acts, I believe, or maybe it's mentioned in one of Paul's epistles, that he appeared to, yeah, Paul mentions it in one of the epistles where he says, or maybe it isn't Acts.

We'll find out.

Yeah, we'll see.

It's in the Bible.

Yeah.

I know that.

I shouldn't have this ready in research-wise, but but Paul actually tells a story that we don't have mapped out for us that Jesus appeared to his brother.

Gotcha.

Before.

So there's a story we don't have in the gospels, but he just mentions it like, and he appeared to his brother, and then he appeared to so yeah.

Um lots of that.

But Jude, that Judas, is not the Judas who betrayed Jesus that was mentioned there.

That's the other Judas that was a disciple who's also called Jude.

Um, and then they they're missing a guy.

I think that um yeah, and and so how would it feel to be the guy that's not picked?

Yeah, I thought about that.

He's there the whole time.

Well, that's the thing I was thinking was so interesting is that um they've been there since the beginning.

And so you have shows like The Chosen, who are, you know, there's the disciples, but there are other people that are in that crowd that are not that are from the whole way.

That saw the baptism of Jesus and were there to the resurrection.

They just weren't with the 12.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

It's like it's kind of how it feels, right?

Like right.

So that but I don't know.

Um, so the question as far as how would he feel not being picked.

I thought about that this morning.

And I don't know, my my sense was he probably had peace.

Like because you know he's already been following Jesus all this time and has not been one of the one of the twelve.

And what is what is it even maybe this is like a clarifying like the the difference between an apostle and a disciple.

So because I'm not an apostle, you're not, and apostles don't exist theologically anymore, or depends on who you ask.

There is a um there is a kind of church office, so to speak, in the early church called like apostleship.

Like there's an apostleship, like but like people other than the apostles were apostles?

That name in some in some churches.

Just becomes synonyms.

Yeah, it's a it's a higher level of authority.

Okay, okay.

Um, and there's just a whole whole lot of debate about it.

So that would be something I would I would want to.

I feel like if I start talking about it now, I'm gonna trip over myself a bunch because I just haven't.

That's fine.

But I would it is something maybe I'll do some research on this week because I have opinions on it, but I actually have friends who have other opinions on it.

Um, because there's a place in the New Testament where it lays out like the levels of authority, and pastors are not at the top.

Evangelists, apostles, it's that's right section, and I remember yes, and a po pastors aren't at the top, but in our kind of modern American understanding of church, like pastor's the leader.

Well, it's like there's other okay.

But the apostles were given an authority by Jesus, you know.

So there's an authority that they have.

Um, there were a few things that apostles had to be an apostle, you had to have seen Jesus with your eyes, which is why, which is why Paul is able to be an apostle, right?

Because that was another question I had is why isn't Paul the 12th apostle?

Right.

Like, why do we need him right now?

Well, maybe they were wrong.

Yeah, that's true.

Like maybe, you know, maybe they're like, hey, I'm I'm gonna take care of that later.

Fill in, fill in something, it's like a fine thing.

It's not wrong to have a 12th person, but it's not wrong, and maybe it wasn't, maybe they didn't need that, but but Jesus knew Paul was coming too.

Jesus knew Paul was coming, and uh, you know, they got 13.

Yeah, what do we do?

Um a baker's dozen of apostles, an extra one, and so and then if you're Matthias, you're like, well, then why?

Or or not, or justice.

You're like, you're like, wait, Paul too?

Yeah, I could have been that too.

Who knows?

Who knows?

But I imagine there's because Jesus had um there were layers of closeness and layers of trust.

I think you know, he had his 12 disciples, but he also clearly had close relationships with you know Lazarus and and Mary and Martha, and they're not among those, and Mary Magdalene, and she's not one of one of those.

Um yeah, like the apostles become like church founder, sort of church manager style people where it's like one goes to Asia, one goes to they literally go and start the the bring the message, start churches, make this thing.

And there isn't uh like a Magdalene brand, you know what I mean?

Like that that wasn't right, that uh mission wasn't given to her.

It's like these guys, it's like, oh yeah, there's like St.

James churches where it's like James the apostle was like here.

Yep.

Um okay, that's interesting.

Yeah, so and and Jesus, this is interesting too.

Like Jesus gives the great commission to those who are there.

Then he, you know, obviously later he ascends.

And so then after that, they're like, Well, we gotta, you know, this is the first, and I think what you see in here is a couple things.

Um, Peter is the one who takes the initiative here, right?

Yeah, right?

Is it Peter?

Yeah, Peter continued.

This was written in the book of Psalms where it says, Yeah, yeah.

Let someone else take his position.

So Peter is this is you could you could have this take.

I'm not saying it's true.

The Holy Spirit has not yet come in power.

So this could be Peter having an idea.

Well, and he's applying scripture, yep, and they're trusting the Lord in prayer, they're devoting themselves to prayer, so it's discerned.

Yep.

Prayer still is a thing outside of the spirit being given to them.

Um, or this is something God wanted, and who knows?

But yeah, there's a guy, and another guy doesn't, and they're like, well, it's gotta be one of these two, which is cool to think that they would be the obvious choices.

Like, well, who's next?

Well, it's gotta be one of those two.

And how are we gonna decide?

We're gonna roll some dice.

Yeah, essentially.

But I mean you're gonna cast lots.

Flip a coin.

Yeah, so lots were um this the high lots were a big part of the ancient culture.

I mean, you see it in uh the book of Jonah, where you know, the storm happens on the sea and they're trying to figure out someone on this ship has to be the reason that the storm is hit, and they cast lots and it falls to Jonah.

Yeah, and he's like, All right, you caught me.

Yep, it is me.

It's me.

You know, but the lots actually fell to him.

It's an interesting story.

Um, there were two specific lots, uh, and they're not dice like we, but that's it's the purpose they serve.

They were objects.

It's like the pull the thing out of the bag, too, right?

Isn't that one?

Like the um the thumin.

Yeah.

Urim and the thumim.

We're gonna say we know it's on the screen now.

Yeah, I think it's Urum.

And it looks like we don't know.

We don't know.

Those this is what Zach thinks it looks like.

Yeah, I mean, some people like uh rocks.

Hey, hey.

This is what Chat GPT says it looks like.

Yeah, so uh some people say stones with like etchings or pieces of wood that were of different sizes and etchings.

It's the fork knife spoon game.

Yeah, there you go.

That's between me and you.

Well, we have yeah, we'll we'll explain it in the camp video.

We talk about it.

Did you guys do fork knife and spoon?

They they did it this year at camp, yeah.

We do it every year at camp.

So I did the fork, knife, and spoon game with a group of guys, yeah, okay.

That like a men's Bible study with the club.

Oh, okay, yeah.

Had a guy got figured out the second time.

Nice.

Which I'm just that's a smart smart person.

Smart dude, yeah.

Anyway, all right.

So um, so they cast lots.

This is interesting though, because this is the last, this is a very common practice of how to figure things out when you would and you don't know.

And it was a trust in God.

It wasn't just I mean, it is a superstition of sorts, right?

But because God never said, do this and I will make sure it always lands on the right thing.

But they in their minds, like, we can't figure it out, right?

Lord, we're gonna roll, we're gonna roll these dice, so to speak, and we're trusting that what they land on.

And I think it's a a perfectly fine place to be when you have two good options that you're choosing between.

Like both options are correct options, it doesn't matter, like, really, really matter.

Um, and this is the last time we ever see this happen as far as casting lots, because after this, we have the Holy Spirit.

Yep.

So this is before Jesus has left.

Things need to be decided.

Holy Spirit has not yet come in in power, and they are not filled with the spirit like they're going to be.

And so they are doing the best with what they've got.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And I think we find ourselves in that situation in life sometimes where it's like, I don't do I'm I'm making the best decision I can, but we have the Holy Spirit.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know.

I actually had a guy, and this is where I had a guy meet with me who works with a lot of pastors and churches, and we had done something after a big national thing had happened and we talked about it.

And he was like a news event.

Yeah.

And he he was kind of doing research on and we and we had a different approach to it than the other churches that he had worked with on.

And he was like, you know, we they'd had a big meeting, all these other guys about how do you determine when to talk about national events versus when not to, and what filters do you use and all this kind of stuff.

And he asked me, he's like, you know, I want your take.

Like, why did you and I was like, Well, I just like felt led to.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

My answer was like really basic, but not in a prideful way, like you guys all.

But I I I mean, we have the Holy Spirit.

And do you have filters on on that stuff in general?

But like when it came to like, oh, I feel like led to just listen to that.

And and so there is this this reality as a as a Jesus follower today.

If if you follow if you follow Jesus, you've given your life to him.

Um, and this is where it gets interesting.

We'll get into a lot of this in Acts.

This is a little bit of a preview that you are told um that you have the spirit.

If you follow Jesus, you have the spirit, right?

Because the spirit is a deposit, it's like a guarantee of your um, but then you're also clearly told that you can grieve the spirit.

Yeah, and that the spirit can come upon you, and then there's a baptism of a relationship.

So there's like a there's a spirit experience.

It's it's this is where like Francis Chan is one of my favorite people to listen to on this, at least if he's done something.

I don't think he has.

I think he killed a bunch of puppies.

Dang it.

It's always like every time you name anybody.

Anytime you name a pastor, it's like, oh, that you did the puppy killer?

The puppy killer.

I didn't he hadn't killed puppies yet.

We or we hadn't he had been caught.

Can we separate the theology from the puppy killer?

Chan is not a puppy killer.

Can we just go ahead?

We're not, we're just using that as a I think he would laugh at this if he was a puppy.

Um, but actually he's a pretty serious guy, too.

You might be really mad.

I don't know.

He's like, I love puppy killing.

Sorry, Francis.

You're invited to come on and we'll talk about it.

Yeah, but he defends himself.

I am not a puppy killer.

Um, but he just talked about how he's like, I don't know how it works.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit is on you, in you, around you, works through you, powers you.

It's it's not mapped out for us.

But we as believers have the capacity to have the Holy Spirit filling us, inspiring us, leading us, um, and guiding us.

Like, like Jesus promised.

Jesus promised.

Like, don't when you get arrested, don't worry about what you're gonna say, because the Holy Spirit will give you the words.

And I do think which he knew there's gonna be lots of arrests coming up.

Yeah, he's like, y'all are gonna be in a lot of jails.

But I think that it's interesting because for me, I've seen two extremes of that idea.

I've seen Jesus followers who are very uncomfortable with or at the very least unsure of the idea of the Holy Spirit leading them.

And so they just don't quote unquote tap into that.

Not saying I'm just for lack of a better phrase, like they don't go there.

They just not a resource.

They just continue to make every decision they make is you know, let's make a uh let's whiteboard it out, positives, negatives, pros cons, yeah.

Or I have seen the other extreme, which is people who believe that like dude, I I've known someone who would believe that everything, I'm not even exaggerating, like every meal they order at a restaurant, how how the Holy Spirit how I'm how this how I'm sitting.

Correct.

Right.

Like, and and to a degree where I'm like you're wrong because I don't have, I'm not God.

But like if you were like, oh, why'd you order the spicy chicken sandwich?

The Holy Spirit told me to.

Okay.

I mean, I that's do you like spicy chicken?

No, no.

It's like I'm actually allergic to chicken.

Like, oh no.

It's a test.

Yeah.

But I mean, my point is, I there's a I do believe there's a it's not a middle ground.

I think there's an accurate Yeah, there's a place to actually land that's that's not on either of those options.

I'm not skeptical of the spirit's work in my life, and I'm also not convinced that everything I do is purely of the spirit where I uh and a lot of times people who operate like that, it's a way for them to also uh escape any like accountability.

Yeah, or to be my uh confrontational about opinions or whatever it is, hey, you should God told me to do that.

Holy Spirit told me to.

Yeah.

I would never, you know, it's like, okay, well, I don't think that's true, but whatever.

And then other people you're like, come on, man, like lean in.

Like, what is the spirit telling you?

I think that there's there's we're see here, this is the last time they they use lots, and I would say that as people, you know, God gives us a brain for a reason and tools and other people, but there is something really cool about after this moment, you're gonna see these men led by the spirit, guided by the spirit.

And that is actually what Jesus promised.

He said, The Holy Spirit comes, he will remind you of the things I've said, he will teach you, he will guide you.

He comes and comfort you, and it's it's about to happen.

Yeah, and so if you were giving a message on this chapter, well, first of all, I know you'd probably only get through the first three verses.

You'd be like, Well, this is a more of a primer on the book of Acts.

You think people get bored here?

Because I I do spend, I go through things real soon.

You're like, we're gonna you, you it's hilarious because the Abraham, I remember being in the back room and you're like, I'm thinking about doing Abraham for like a month.

We'll do like a you know, just like the life of Abraham, hit the highlights, like here's the major stories, maybe, maybe six weeks.

And I was like, cool.

And it's it's June now, and we're we're still in Abraham.

That's a big story.

It's it's a huge story, but you're not you you want to be able to spend the time on, yeah.

It's it's funny, it's not even that you're like so hyper about like I need to do this verse.

It's like, oh, as I was praying and as I was preparing, the Lord kept showing me more and more stuff.

And even it might maybe practice.

I don't uh I like I'll give the Holy Spirit what okay.

I'm not one of those guys who like I do three words and I hyper focus on the the Greek and and I sometimes I do.

I think that stuff's really cool.

Um for me, it's actually pretty simple filter.

It's like kind of what we just instinctively did here.

Right.

Like we broke this into three chunks, right?

And actually, for the most part, the three chunks we chose happen to be like already chunked.

Already chunked out.

Yeah.

Someone else came along here and was like, this seems like an important chunk.

And I bet if you actually looked at my Abraham series, it'd be chunked out similarly.

With with me also creating some like yeah, like I just told you we're about to get to Abraham and Isaac, and I'm like, that probably is more than a one-week conversation.

And I'm interested in that conversation.

I don't I've got thoughts.

Yeah, yeah.

So maybe not.

But um, but I just tend to read it and I go, well, that's really significant.

Like even this week, um, in the Abraham series that I'm about to prefer, it's kind of a weird story.

I could just go through it.

It's the Abimelex like promise.

Hey man, I dug that well, and your men are using it.

Right.

And then they have to have like the and I'm like, What is this even significant enough to because it made it in there?

And that's where I've always but we've talked about that, like the the scope of what all scripture is useful and for teaching and reproof and all of that.

It's like all scripture is God breathed, all scripture is useful.

But when you get to those like quirky random parts, it's like, is this scripture useful at like the 20,000-foot view?

Where it's like, yeah, this book as it's its inclusion in the story is good because you're not going to go verse by verse through the uh genealogy of some random person way back in Leviticus or whatever.

It's like that's useful, but at like a further back, yeah, I would stick to that.

And but the Abimelech story is interesting because I do think it's worth teaching on.

Yeah.

Because Abraham had a previous encounter with Abimelech, and now he's got to go back and you say, like, hey, we gotta settle something.

But it's kind of weird to like, hey, you probably remember me.

I'm the guy who messed with you.

Yeah, yeah.

And thanks for by the way, thank you so much for all the stuff you gave me.

But um, kind of have a thing that I'm frustrated with.

Right.

That's an like that's an awkward, like dealing with awkward conversations and conflicts is like, okay, I'm gonna teach on that.

But I just tend to read it and go, well, that seems and I probably would break this into more than three if I was teaching it, um, just the way I do tend to teach.

Yeah, there's like the death of Judas included in in the world.

Yeah, and that that's intense.

Like, because doesn't it say another that he hung himself?

Yeah, there's burst headlong, hung himself.

Because I think in the gospels it says he hung himself.

And isn't there like a falling on a sword sometime somewhere?

No, or maybe that's what I'm imagining being burst in half.

Like, I don't know.

Well, I think what way of taking it is he he probably hung himself from a high place and like fell down.

Eventually it fell down, and when it fell down.

Well, I I pictured that hung himself meant like Haman was hung.

You know, like Haman is oh like impaled.

Impaled himself.

Yeah, so like he hung himself could be like like on a spike of some sort.

Well, that's a great place to end.

It's very descriptive.

He he because it fell head first, his butt split open.

So but would you kind of focus?

I mean, sorry, it's that's how we end it.

Yeah, it seems like the the idea of that waiting for like if you were gonna call these three messages a series, you'd probably be like, wait for the Holy Spirit, or like we have the Holy Spirit now we're or don't wait, don't wait for what you already have, that's sort of that sort of idea.

If we're gonna do a real modern church, it's like you know, the the in-between times.

Yeah.

You know, the when you're not where you want to be, but you're not where you were.

Yeah.

Don't you hate it when your messiah goes to heaven right in front of your eyes, but hasn't sent you the spirit yet.

Spirit hasn't come yet.

That's the worst.

Um no, I think it's um I think it's it's just really cool.

I mean, the uh the disciples are in a weird place.

I mean, they are this has to be just like years later as they tell these stories.

Like, yeah, I mean then we pick Matthias and then just to have a season of life where in a in a 50-day period of time you see Jesus die, get resurrected, appear to you, teach you, speak to you, ascend to heaven.

I mean, years later as they're recounting this, because this the this was written years later.

But as they're recounting this, I mean uh just imagine like that was a that was a pretty crazy month.

Well, and uh you know how much you're brought together with people through hard things.

I think the theme verse for this chapter would probably be verse 14.

It says, All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.

It's like even, you know, okay, we saw Jesus raise and descend, but like we're still just gonna listen to him and we're we're we're in this.

Whatever this means, we're in this together now.

We're gonna pray verse for that.

And you could actually visualize that by let's say, as a church, we bought one Honda Accord, we all get in it.

We all get in the guys all drive to lunch in that one vehicle because we're of one according to disciples gotta be of one accord.

Such a dad joke.

Sorry.

Oh, cool.

So yeah, this is great.

So next one we will do uh chapter two.

Sounds good.

Chapter two.

Yeah, when you, by the way, for other people, for everyone who's still listening, which who knows, um when you read stuff like this, what do you go to for extra resources?

What do you use if something jumps out to you want to research a little bit?

So tools.

I do um I taught through acts with the high school group five years ago, maybe.

And what I do when I'm prepping for something like that, I go to um all of the lists where it's like best commentaries, and I look at all of those lists and I try to get like as many of those lists as I can.

And then I'm like, which of those books appeared on pretty much every single list?

Yeah, you kind of do.

And I get two of those, and so I kind of read through cross-compare those if I'm like dedicating to go through a book for a long time.

Um, but as far as like if you were like, hey Madison, you got to teach tomorrow on Acts One and I didn't have a book book on it.

Blue Letter Bible is an app where all of the verses are clickable, and when you click on them, it shows like the Greek words and the cross-references and it has resources baked into there.

Um, and then I usually watch like the Bible project animated videos as like a summary to give you kind of an overview.

Yeah.

No, actually, the Bible projects podcast has been a really helpful tool for me.

Um, just as I'm driving to think, if I'm you know, in something, I'm teaching on something that they've done a podcast episode on, that's really good for me.

And there's several YouTubers where it's like if okay, suicide is mentioned in this passage, and if I'm approaching this, I remember when I was approaching it with teenagers, it was like, we're going verse by verse through this book.

This is like a big teenager concept.

I'll probably like look up a couple of resources from YouTubers I trust or uh articles like whatever it is, gospel coalition, whatever the um things are that just discuss that topic specifically that aren't necessarily looking at the passage that I'm looking at.

So I'm more equipped to have those conversations.

That's cool.

I think it's good.

There's a lot of resources out there, and you can always it is good to have something that's somewhat trustworthy, though.

So I think using you know what's what's commonly looked at this is like the sort of standard what is filtered through the yeah, because even those commentaries, they come in like series.

So it's like this publisher puts together a big series of things.

And I've noticed as I've done more books, like gone through Daniel and gone through John and gone through Acts, it's like that publisher doesn't have the best book for every book Bible of book of the Bible.

So like their best one that's on every list for the book of Acts, their book of John might not be that wide be that good.

So that's good.

Um there's that.

So yeah, just let's keep reading the Bible together and see how it goes.

Join us next time for Acts chapter two.

On the Bible study podcast.

This is presented by His Hands Church.

Yes, sponsored by.

Oh, who got our sponsor?

Um, Tyndale.

I'd be glad to take anything from them.

That'd be good.

Um, yeah, the ESV people, I love their stuff.

This is the journaling Bible.

Yeah, okay.

So, oh the other resources are you now trying to get sponsored?

Is this what we're trying?

We're like, hey, Tindale.

I haven't thought about it, but heck yeah.

If they want to send us stuff, I will gladly I don't even want to be sponsored.

I just want to be like spokesperson.

You're like, hey guys, scene's new scene, yeah, whatever it is.

That's cool.

Um the last resource and first and first resource I go to is usually the Bible.

Of course.

So, like if I'm reading a passage and Peter here is quoting Psalms, I'm checking Psalms to go see what that psalm is all about and why it came to Peter's mind when he brought that up.

It's funny, there's a website called Preset Austin.

Oh, yeah, I do use them too sometimes.

It's the most like jank website.

Like as far as like it's not but it has a lot of stuff, it's got so much stuff, yeah.

And it's it's like maintained, but whoever runs it, it is not like a it's not like a web, it's not they definitely have like all the money behind it or whatever, but it's just like this collection of resources that is incredible.

Um, so like yeah, I'm not making fun of precept awesome, it's an incredible resource, but they're but it just it's just rare.

It looks old school.

Yes, it's rare in our world to have something that's this deep and this useful, but also is is definitely not, you know, I don't know, it's really cool.

And then Precept Austin's pretty good.

People, there's people whose Bible study like have had experience teaching this stuff before.

I'll ask you, hey, you taught this, what do you think?

Or yeah, um, if I know someone who's like really into Bible study, I'll just go ask them questions about whatever I'm reading.

There's a lot of people around here like that.

Yes.

Cool.

All right, this has been fun.

All right, see you guys.

See ya.