Waiting on the Lord's Promise (Part Two)

Intro: We left the apostles last week still waiting—waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit. They waited obediently, they waited prayerfully, and they applied Scripture to their situation to plan as far as they could while waiting.

Acts 1:14–26 ESV

All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “ ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “ ‘Let another take his office.’ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, 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.

I mentioned at the outset of our study of Acts that we will have to strive to be discerning as to how to apply what we find in these pages to our lives because of the foundational and transitional nature of Apostolic ministry. We are immediately met with just such a situation following the ascension of our Lord while the Apostles (and fellow disciples) wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit’s presence to empower them.

In spite of the uniqueness of their situation and specific outcomes, there are principles to be derived from the pattern of their practice that can serve as a model for our own posture and behavior in waiting on God’s promise. (waiting for the ultimate promise of eternal rest in the presence of God… or waiting for clarifying wisdom on difficult issues or for refreshing from God in times of great difficulty)

The first thing the Apostles did is that they obeyed immediately what Jesus told them to do.

We Wait on the Lord by Obeying. (vv. 12-13)

Even while waiting, they were not idle. One of the primary things the Apostles invested themselves in, with the other disciples who were with them, was prayer.

We Wait on the Lord by Praying. (v. 14)

They were devoting themselves to prayer continually, and unified in it. Last week we also defined prayer as talking to God in submission and dependence. [repeat]

Last week we left off needing to come back to the end of v. 14, and answer the following question: (which I have now combined with v. 15)

Who are the others praying with the Apostles and present for the decision to fill the void left by Judas? (vv. 14b-15)

Notably, the women (faithful female disciples) were there, including Jesus’ own mother, Mary. You probably have noted that we never hear of Joseph (Jesus’ earthly dad) during the public ministry of Jesus, leading us to conclude that he had passed from the scene. This is also the final time that Mary is mentioned by name, and may mean that during this early season of the ministry of the Apostles, she dies to go and be with her Lord.

What an amazing life Mary experienced! … From the announcement of the Savior’s conception, and Mary’s humble acceptance of God’s plan, then to raise Jesus in her home, and to watch him live out the fulfillment of Messianic promise (with miraculous signs corroborating his message of the kingdom’s arrival), the unbearable pain of watching him die, the unbelievable reversal of that tragic end—Jesus rising from the dead and appearing to them. Mary (almost certainly) lived to experience the coming of the Holy Spirit in power at Pentecost to launch the church of Christ. What a life Mary lived.

What do you walk away with Scripturally (about God and us) from the life and testimony of Mary?

[You should think of more and write them down to talk about them with others, but I’ll give a couple quick examples.]

The reality and rich blessing of God’s sovereign choosing; the right response of submissive service

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The other women here likely included both the women who had been present at the crucifixion and resurrection, and now too probably the wives of the disciples. (Remember that we know Peter was married, and Cleopas was married, and so on.)

I love that Luke, in both his Gospel and in Acts, takes pleasure in noting both the faithfulness and essential contributions of women in ministry as disciples of Jesus. Luke is honest and honors the role of women. What Luke doesn’t do is unseat the clear instruction and biblical pattern of complementary roles for men and women in the home and in the church. -- It’s ludicrous to accuse us of holding to these biblical guidelines as chauvinism, because if there was ever a time where it would be much easier for us to cave to the cultural climate, it would be now. We take so much heat over this that it just wouldn’t be worth it, except for the simple fact that we submit to the plain teaching of the Bible as God’s word. What God says is good and we trust him that his design for order is good, producing good fruit in our lives for his glory.

What do you walk away with Scripturally from the life and testimony of the female disciples?

We believe God’s design is good. Full stop. We obey God’s pattern for order because it is for our own good and his glory. We need to honor and promote the ministry of you ladies among us in every way that we can.

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Like Mary, Jesus’ brothers (and sisters, Mk 6:3) would have had a unique experience in growing up with their eldest half-brother who was the perfect Son of God in human flesh!

We learn from Mark 6:3, and by comparison to Mt 13:55-56, that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters, maybe more. His brothers were James (who became the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and probably the author of the letter of James in your Bibles), a brother named Joses or Joseph, and youngest brothers Simon and Judas (the latter would become known to us as Jude and the author of the short & bold letter by that name).

At the onset of Jesus public ministry, his own siblings did not believe that he was the Messiah (at least not as fully committed followers): John 7:5 “For not even his brothers believer in him.”

But when we hear of them again here in Acts, after Jesus’ death, resurrection and exaltation, they have made a 180 degree turn and are following hard after Jesus with his chosen Apostles.

What do you walk away with Scripturally from the life and testimony of Jesus’ siblings?

The Lordship of Jesus Christ is transformative. There is no one foot in, one foot out with acceptance and confession of Jesus (Rom 10:9). If you think you’re partly on board, you’re not on board. This is not a docked ship. It’s journeying toward eternal rest with God.

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Finally in v. 15, the pattern in the first 15 chapters of Acts is that Peter naturally became the spokesman for the Apostles. This is not to say that he didn’t submit to the group, but rather that he simply became the lead representative, the most prominent speaker for the team. - The issue is relevant in the immediate context because although it is Peter who speaks to the group, it seems reasonable enough to conclude that what he says comes from the collaborative effort of the Eleven. - Not only is it made clear in the pastoral epistles, but here we have the pattern of a plurality of leadership at work in the earliest days of the church.

Again, like the Apostles do here, we must wait on the Lord in obedience, in prayer, and…

We Wait on the Lord by Applying Scriptural Principles to Guide Our Plans. (vv. 15-26)

Where the Apostles planned ahead by replacing an apostate apostle according to scriptural prophecy, we apply this in our preparation and planning primarily according to scriptural principle.

But before we get into too many details of this section, we need to step back and address the elephant in the room.

Was this direction and decision from the Lord?

We have to admit that we wonder why the Lord Jesus himself didn’t address this matter before his ascension. It’s clear that Jesus chose 12 Apostles to be symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. How far to carry that symbolism can be debated, but we can at least see the deliberate connection. Most likely the twelve symbolize a believing remnant in Israel that Jesus himself chose to represent his new covenant, to show that where Israel had failed in the past to represent God to the world, this new phase of the kingdom could not fail to do so because it was being carried forward to all mankind by the power of God himself.

But that still doesn’t answer then, if the number 12 is helpfully symbolic at this initiating stage, why the Lord didn’t replace Judas before he left. We must answer honestly that we don’t know. Perhaps he did so for this very reason, that the disciples would need to prayerfully depend on God and work together, consulting the Scripture to determine a direction. Perhaps too, then, we are the beneficiaries of seeing this pattern of their practice in order to model our own after them.

Viewed as a whole, the evidence clearly suggests that this action was pleasing to the Lord. They reached this conclusion with much prayer, in the counsel of the group, and by consulting the Scriptures. Finally, God supplied the answer. And while it may be the case that the Holy Spirit was not yet permanently indwelling them, that in no way precludes the Holy Spirit’s assistance, just as God had done many times before in empowering OT believers for a particular purpose. Every indication from Luke is that this is to be viewed positively, that this direction and decision was from the Lord.

How did the Apostles come to a decision?

Peter will first explain, from Scripture (quoting Davidic Psalms), the Apostles’ conclusion that Judas’s betrayal was not a surprise or accident, but was within the sovereign purposes of God. Judas’s apostasy fulfilled Scripture. Secondly, and also from Scripture, Peter provides the reasoning for seeking a replacement. The requirement for the replacement is essentially that he be a fellow disciple who has been an eyewitness to the whole of Jesus’ ministry, from the time of his baptism by John (which initiated Jesus’ public ministry) to his resurrection appearances. Then they pray still more for confirmation from God, and he supplies the answer by choosing Matthias to replace Judas, completing the Twelve.

How should we plan as we wait on God to act?

To our detriment, we sometimes make plans in our personal lives without a smidgeon (without an ounce) of consideration for what God might have us do to please him. (making plans for our money, making plans for college, making plans for our children, making plans for employment, etc.) How much worse if we should be making plans as spiritual leaders with worldly goals instead of godly ones, not in accordance with His word?

[repeat question] The Apostles knew that...

The Scriptures are the very word of God. We must search them and submit to them.

First, look at the clarity with which we are told that God speaks through the Scriptures. What clearer statement to the divine inspiration of the Bible do we have than this in v. 16? “which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David...” 1000 years earlier, God foretold this.

Peter follows this up later in a letter to the churches:

2 Peter 1:21 ESV

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

In the same letter, Peter also confirms the divine inspiration of the writings of the Apostle Paul, equating Paul’s writing with other Scriptures (2 Pet 3:15-16).

Both the OT and NT Scriptures are, as Paul himself says, “breathed out by God.” (2 Tim. 3:16a)

First, God speaks through the Scriptures. We seek to understand God, ourselves, and our world through what God has revealed in the Scriptures (through the lens of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in particular). (searching, studying, submitting, memorizing, meditating)

Second, we have learned nothing from the OT Scriptures unless we come to see that whatever God says, he will do. Peter explains, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled...” Whatever God prophesies will come to pass. God does what he says he will do.

And then if you go to the conclusion of that statement, Peter completes the thought: “the Scripture had to be fulfilled… concerning Judas.” Judas’s apostasy was a fulfillment of typological prophecy in Psalm 69:25 (which Peter quotes in v.20a). The Psalm not only has connection to Messianic fulfillment in Jesus as the righteous sufferer, but here we see too the contextual connection that the enemy of the innocent sufferer will be destroyed: ‘May his camp become desolate,’ so that nobody wants to live there.

Peter also quotes Psalm 109:8, where again the context is the enemy who brings false accusation against the righteous, applying the type of David’s own prayer to the perfectly Righteous One, Jesus Christ. So it is said of the false accuser: “May his days be few; may another take his office.”

Judas’s days were indeed cut short, by his own hand. In Mt 27:3-10 we learn that Judas felt guilty when he saw that Jesus was condemned and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests, and then went out and hanged himself. They used Judas’s blood money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers, which apparently was the very field where Judas died, and became known as the Field of Blood. So in Luke’s digression to explain Judas’s fate, he emphasizes that the very field was bought with Judas’s own betrayal money. Luke also adds the gory detail that might partly explain the name that sticks with the field, because apparently Judas’s body fell and burst open, and his bowels gushed out. Not only are the accounts not contradictory, but when taken together, we have quite a detailed, and gory, description of Judas’s destruction.

First, God speaks through the Scriptures. Second, God does what he says he will do.

Third, this explanation from Peter is clearly for the purpose of explaining that nothing is outside the sovereign will of God. “Judas… became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.” Even Judas’s betrayal, his apostasy, was ordained within the will of God to accomplish his ultimate purpose for the Lord Jesus to die and rise again. Jesus didn’t make a mistake when he chose Judas. Instead of Judas’s disobedience halting the advance of the kingdom, it was within divine control to carry forward salvation history.

To be clear then, they do not replace Judas because he died, but because of his apostasy. [Read v. 17 and v. 25.] When James is martyred later in Acts 12:2, they take no action to replace him.

God speaks through the Scriptures. God does what he says he will do. And God sovereignly controls all things.

Basically, what we’re saying for ourselves is that Scripture provides all the boundaries. We can’t make plans that please God but run at odds with what God says in the Bible. We can’t claim that the Holy Spirit is leading us in a direction that runs afoul of what God the Holy Spirit has himself breathed out in sacred Scripture. I must even bring my feelings into submission to what the Holy Spirit teaches in the Word of God.

God’s character and command in Scripture provides the clear boundaries. Sound doctrine that summarizes scriptural teaching can be extremely helpful to us in this regard, so long as we remember that said doctrine ultimately submits to Scripture.

Even so, we submit our strategy to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in dependent prayer and in consultation with others.

Now remember, this planning/strategizing only applies to things that are not already explicitly covered by a command that we are to obey. For example, the Apostles were already obeying the clear command to wait for the Holy Spirit. And they can’t make any plans that run contrary to the character of God, or any strategy that isn’t submissive first of all to loving God, loving one another, and compassionately loving others. They couldn’t make any plans that are for the purpose of glorifying themselves, because Jesus had told them that they must follow his example and humbly lay down their lives for the good of others to the glory of God’s own great name.

But having understood Scriptural prophecy, their strategy was to select men who had been eyewitnesses to the whole of Jesus’ public ministry, from his baptism to his ascension. They narrowed it down to two: Joseph called Barsabbas (son of the Sabbath), also called Justus… and Matthias (who apparently had less nicknames… reason enough right there to choose him… just kidding). Then they prayed and let the Lord choose for them, using the OT method of casting lots (probably marked stones put in a container and shaken out… kinda like drawing straws… only God sanctioned this and used it at times in the OT). Again, here is evidence of the transitional phase from the old to the new covenants.

We’re not going to pray and then cast lots (or draw straws) for God to reveal his will. Once they received the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have no record of the Apostles or other believers ever using this method again. Instead, in prayer and consultation they would follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Because we ourselves are so finite in knowledge and prone to sin, we too seek God’s leading in the counsel of fellow believers who are prayerfully, genuinely submitting to the authority of God’s word.

If you find that the company you keep is glaringly unsubmissive to the plain commands or patterns in God’s word, you must seek new affiliations. But if by God’s grace he has brought you to serve among true believers who display a lifestyle of following the sound teaching of God’s word, you then need to be both submissive and helpful, both teachable and flexible.

Finally, when I don’t know how I should plan, I must keep praying, keep waiting patiently on the Lord’s direction. I obey God’s command and I pray for guidance, trusting God to work beyond my ability to make plans, and trusting his time if I should simply remain still and do nothing.

So, our planning needs to be focused on obedience to God, including patience to wait on his timing. Our planning must be preceded by prayer and bathed in prayer. And our planning must absolutely be submissive to what God has revealed in Scripture. Scripture must form all the boundaries for our strategy. And in prayer and in counsel we seek confirming direction from the Lord.

Conclusion: The Scene Is Set for the Coming of the Spirit

When told to wait, they obeyed. Then the Apostles and the others with them devoted themselves to prayer. Finally, while they waited, they prepared for the fulfillment of the promise as best they could by applying Scripture to their situation.

There should be no doubt that these are patterns that we ought to follow.

We must bath our plans in prayer for clear direction from the Lord, consulting fellow believers who submit to the authority of God’s word, and above all obeying what we already know is the will of God revealed in His Word.