Replacing Judas

Transcript

GR 1577
10/03/10
Replacing Judas
Acts 1:12-26
Gil Rugh

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

We're going to Acts 1. We've noted the book of Acts is a unique book and a central book for our understanding. We could say that about many books of the Scripture, they all contribute something unique we might say. But the book of Acts stands out because it is the only history of the church that we have in the Scripture, where we have a determined pattern to unfold the progressive history of the early church. We're going to have the first thirty years of the church's history set out by Luke. As we noted we could pick up pieces from the other letters in the New Testament, but as far as understanding the historical development and flow you need to grasp the book of Acts. And that gives us a better understanding of the epistles because we find many of them written within the context of the book of Acts. And so we know something of the setting. For example, when Paul writes to the Corinthians we can find out something about his ministry at Corinth in its historical setting by the record Luke has given us.

This also completes the flow from the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John concentrate on the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and through His death and resurrection. But this continues on about what happens after His resurrection and ascension. And Luke has expressed to us as he started this history that this is a continuation of what he wrote in his gospel, the gospel of Luke. And it just unfolds the continuing ministry and work of Christ. Even though He has ascended to heaven, His ministry continues on earth and primarily will be carried out through the person of the Holy Spirit whom He sent from heaven following His ascension, which He has referred to in Acts 1 and will take place in Acts 2.

The first part of the first chapter, we've looked down through the first eleven verses, present the setting in anticipation of Acts 2, basically. We're told that Jesus has appeared off and on over a period of forty days following His resurrection to His disciples, His followers; not just the eleven of His apostles, but others as well. We are told on one occasion, I Corinthians 15 tells us, there were 500 people present at one of His appearances. So over this time He is appearing and a particular ministry is going on, and this would focus in a particular way for His apostles, is instructing them and teaching them. We saw passages at the end of the gospels where He was explaining to them the Old Testament scriptures and clarifying for them how the Messiah could suffer and die and rule and reign gloriously. And unfolds and shows them this was the plan set forward in Scripture. Peter came to get a good grasp of that over those forty days because he is going to preach a sermon on that in Acts 2 and demonstrate from the Old Testament scriptures that the Messiah did have to suffer and die to fulfill Old Testament scriptures. So you realize they learned much in how things are put together during those forty days. There is much they have yet to learn, but during those forty days of ministry Christ has given them an understanding of Old Testament scriptures and His ministry and how the kingdom will be ultimately realized.

Then He told them that the Spirit would come upon them. The instruction was they were to remain in Jerusalem. During that forty days after His resurrection He had met with them in Galilee, to the north up by the Sea of Galilee in the region of Galilee. The eleven disciples, Judas now being absent, all eleven of those as we noted were Galileans, from the region of Galilee. Much of Jesus' earthly ministry took place in Galilee. But now they are down in Jerusalem where the crucifixion took place. And He has instructed them not to leave Jerusalem but to remain there and they would shortly experience the coming of the Holy Spirit. And that would bring power upon them, verse 8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you and you shall be My witnesses.” We noted, a remarkable statement. We realize the uniqueness of the power that the Holy Spirit would bring because we looked at passages in the gospel. These were men who had healed the sick and cast out demons and done great miracles and works of power. But He tells them, you wait at Jerusalem because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power, greater power for ministry. And that ministry would be to be His witnesses. And now they will carry the message of Jesus Christ.

They were told at the end of verse 8, “to Jerusalem and Judea”, that region, Jerusalem being the capital and the region around Jerusalem; in the Old Testament in the southern kingdom after Israel was divided. Then Samaria and there you have mixed blood people with the result of the deportations and the captivity and so on, Jews who had intermarried with non-Jews and developed a form of their own religions. The Jews and the Samaritans, remember, they had no dealings. And we looked at the passages in the gospel where Jesus told His disciples during His earthly ministry that you don't carry this message of the kingdom in My presence to Gentiles, you don't carry it to Samaritans. You carry it only to Jews. So with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the power that He will bring, they will be witnesses beyond the Jews, to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles, the uttermost parts of the earth.

Then Jesus is removed from their sight and His earthly ministry, His ministry with bodily presence on earth is concluded. That's the significance of the ascension. During these forty days I take it He would have gone back and forth to heaven, there was nothing to keep Him from heaven. But the ascension marks the end of His personal bodily presence on earth. So the ascension is a significant time. It occurs visibly for them all to see, in clouds He ascends to heaven. And they are standing watching and then angels appear. Verse 10, two men in white clothing appeared, angelic beings. We see the power of angelic beings to appear, to come from the presence of God in heaven. We talk about sometimes you'll see a program or read something in science on the immensity of the universes and space and so on. Here come angels just like that from the presence of God and not bound by time as we think of it and to appear here. And they say Christ has ascended into heaven, into the very presence of God. And key, verse 11, “this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go.”

This ascension takes place from the Mount of Olives. At the end of Luke's gospel in Luke 24 he just said in a few verses as we have it, noted the ascension. And the disciples returned from the Mount of Olives following the ascension. So he picks up at that point, but the promise is He will return in the same way as you have seen Him go. Zechariah 14 promised that when the Messiah came to establish His kingdom He would come and His feet would stand on the Mount of Olives. Some of you have traveled to Jerusalem, some of you will be going perhaps in the spring on the trip and you have the privilege of going and standing on the Mount of Olives. And the amazing thing is you stand there and you look around and say, Jesus Christ is coming back to this very place. That's where He left.

His disciples are there and they watch Him leave the Mount of Olives, ascend in clouds and some day He will descend and Zechariah 14:4,9 say when He comes and stands on the Mount of Olives that will be the time in preparation when the Lord will be king over all the earth. So you see they have asked Him, are you restoring the kingdom at this time? He says, you don't need to know the timing of when the kingdom will be established. But following His ascension the angels do assure them again, He's been teaching about the kingdom, that He will return in fulfillment of all those yet to be fulfilled Old Testament scriptures. And we will have the kingdom. So when they say He will return in the same way as you have seen Him go, we know from Zechariah 14, that's when He comes back to establish the kingdom. Then the Lord will be king over all the earth.

There is one other event that Luke wants to record before he records the coming of the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the promises Christ gave. And that is an appointment of a successor to replace Judas Iscariot. And he'll talk about that, he'll talk about what happened to Judas, why it was necessary to replace him. And then with the replacement the twelve are again intact, if you will. They have become an identifiable, special group, the twelve. And so with the replacement of Judas then we will be prepared for Acts 2, the coming of the Holy Spirit and a whole new world opens up, if you will, in Christ's ministry with the proclamation of His finished work.

Now look at verse 12, they returned from Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. If you read the closing verses of Luke you will see this is where Luke left off in the gospel. So as he started in Acts 1:1, “the first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach.” And he concluded with that summary statement at the end of Luke on the ascension of Christ. Now he picks up here and we've had that, now the disciples return from Jerusalem. There we are told it was at Bethany on the Mount of Olives where they were. You get the idea that perhaps Theophilus is not real familiar with the geography of the area. Maybe a Gentile living out of the immediate area; because he clarifies for him how close the Mount of Olives is to Jerusalem. It's about a Sabbath day's journey away. A Sabbath day's journey was the distance a Jew was allowed to travel on a Sabbath day. And that would be somewhat less than three-quarters of a mile; with the way that it is figured it would be exactly, precisely down to the perfect identification. But it is somewhat less than three-quarters of a mile that the Jew could travel on a Sabbath day. So he is identifying that for Theophilus. It doesn't mean this is a Sabbath day, it wouldn't have been a Sabbath day. But it's a Sabbath day's journey. So that's giving Theophilus a sense of the distance that they are talking about that they were out of Jerusalem and so went back to Jerusalem.

Verse 13, when they had entered the city they went up to the upper room where they were staying. Upper room. In Palestine the upper rooms were the choice rooms, sort of maybe like our highrises. You pay more as you go up higher. Well in those days, you've seen pictures of houses they would have had in Palestine in those days—one story with a flat roof. Now if you were doing well you could add a story, an upper room. That was a better room. You were up off the dust and all that was going on on the street, people walking by didn't look into your place, you were a little bit removed. So the upper room, just as an observation, was a little more desirable. For the wealthy the upper room would have been their living room as we would know it. Or perhaps today we would call it the family room since some houses don't have living rooms. It would be the main room where they would have gotten together. The disciples have a room there. Sometimes these rooms were rented out, leased out. If you had guests you had them there. At any rate it is the upper room.

We don't know if this is connected with any of the upper rooms in the gospel where they had the last supper, the room where Christ appeared to the disciples when they were locked into the room for fear of the Jews. There is not a way to know for sure whether we are talking about the same place. In Luke's gospel it's a different word he uses for upper room. He's talking about the same kind of place but we don't know whether there is identification, it doesn't matter. Although if you go to Jerusalem you get to go to the upper room that was built some hundreds of years later.

But they are meeting there, it is the place they are staying. It is evidently sizable because we have eleven men that we are told this was their residence, where they are meeting and so on. And later on we're going to have 120 people meeting together. If they are meeting in that same upper room, that was quite an expansive place. And we would be talking about somebody who had significant wealth that they would be providing such a place. We just don't know the details.

We are given the names of the eleven disciples and apostles again. Luke gave the names of these men in Luke 6 and we have basically the same list here except Judas Iscariot is obviously not in the list. We will be told what happened to him in a few moments. We're not going to go through the twelve, but if you haven't there are books written and some of the commentaries on Acts you can go through and you will be refreshed a little bit. They'll take you back into the gospels and review what we know about each of these men. Not an awfully lot but we are told that one of them, verse 13, is Simon the Zealot. And it is interesting, he was from the part of the Zealots and that would be what we would call the militant wing of the Jewish party. They were part of what we might call the independence movement in Israel in the first century, those who were committed to independence from Rome. They will be key in leading the revolt. Now I'm not saying Simon was part of that but in 66 A.D. when we have the revolt against Rome by the Jews that will culminate in the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., the Zealots were key in leading that revolt.

So you get an idea of just something of the mixture of the men. This man would have been a man of passionate convictions, now he has been called to become a follower of Christ. We sometimes think of the disciples a little differently than they perhaps would have been. We have James and his brother John mentioned here and in the gospels they are referred to as the sons of thunder. They are not called that because they are wimpy kind of men. They are men; passionate! Remember they were ready to call down fire from heaven and destroy the city of the Samaritans because they didn't receive them. So you have a group of men here of different kinds of personalities. We don't know much about most of them. Matthew being a tax gatherer would have been a man who was used to functioning in a difficult position and an unpopular position and a position despised by the Jews, but he has become a follower of Christ.

They are mentioned by name here. They remain important in the book of Acts. But interestingly only three of these eleven will be named again by name in the book of Acts—Peter, James and John. The group, the apostles at Jerusalem will be referred to but the naming of these men, they don't play an individual role again. John won't be mentioned after chapter 8. And interestingly he is mentioned basically in connection with Peter in ministry in the early chapters of Acts. But the last reference to John is in chapter 8. James will be the first of the apostles martyred and he is the only apostle whose death is recorded in Scripture in Acts 12. Herod will have him executed. So we have them named here, they will remain, if you will, the anchor for the church at Jerusalem, the doctrinal center for the truth. But the book of Acts is primarily going to be concerned with the ministry of Peter through the first twelve chapters and the ministry of Paul who is not part of this group. Paul will not be saved until Acts 9 and begin his ministry then in Acts 13. So we have here the twelve apostles.

We're told, verse 14, these all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer. They were with one mind, one group. Emphasis here on one mind gives the idea, it's a group functioning as a unit. So they are all with one mind continually devoting themselves to prayer. Those ten days between the ascension and Pentecost. What are they doing? They are praying. Prayer will be a key emphasis in the book of Acts. Thirty-one times there are references to prayer in the book of Acts. Twenty-one of the twenty-eight chapters mention prayer. So we would say the book of Acts has a strong emphasis on prayer and coming before the Lord and seeking His will, His blessing and so on.

They are persistently praying, and that would be the idea, they were continually devoting themselves to prayer and joined with the eleven you have others. The women, and the women I take it to be probably those who come out of the book of Luke since he refers to them here as women. Perhaps there could have been some wives here, we know Peter was married because Christ healed his mother-in-law, Peter's mother-in-law during His earthly ministry. Paul said the other apostles have wives, take about wives, that they join them in their travels. We had the privilege of leading about a wife, he said to the Corinthians, like the other apostles. So their wives could have been included here. In the gospel of Luke we have references to women who joined with Christ in His ministry as followers of Him.

Come back to Luke 8. They played a key role in that ministry. Verse 1, “soon afterwards He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him.” Keep that in mind, we replace Judas shortly. The twelve were an identifiable group early in Christ's public ministry and that continues on. Paul will refer to them in his letter to the Corinthians as the twelve. So the twelve were with Him. “Also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses, one of whom was Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward; Susanna and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means.” These women, godly women who had become followers of Christ, took of their resources and used that to help support the ministry of Christ and the twelve, I take it. How did they live, going from place to place? Matthew was no longer a tax gatherer; Peter, James and John, you can't be fishing when you are out traveling Palestine with Christ. But here at least is how some of their support was given.

So I take it some of those women would have carried on. They will be found at the cross. In Luke 23 we find women who have been faithful followers through His ministry are there at the crucifixion.

And now we come back to Acts 1 and here they are again. And they don't get the focal point obviously that others do, and very few get the focus on them. The apostles are a focal point but many others are joined in ministry in a variety of ways and play a key role but aren't acknowledged with the public identification. But here these women faithfully carrying out the ministry, the impact that they have had with their lives in faithfulness and even possessions, and here in the book of Acts they are present.

So you have the disciples mentioned in Acts 1:13, you have with them others including the women, Mary the mother of Jesus and she is just mentioned here, her faithfulness and godliness. This is the last mention of her in the scriptures, joined with other faithful people.

“And with his brothers.” Jesus had four brothers. We know that because they are named for us. Come back to Mark 6, some of these little details we may not be as familiar with. If we said, we're going to have a test, write down the names of the four brothers of Christ. I think I can do two because they wrote books. James, Judas, Joses and Simon. Mark 6:3, verse 1 to set the context, “Jesus went out from there, He came into His hometown, His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came He began to teach in the synagogue. Many listeners were astonished saying, where did this man get these things? What is this wisdom given to Him and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon.” And then He also had sisters who are not named, we don't know how many. At least two because it is plural: “are not His sisters here with us? They took offense at Him.”

Just an aside, but isn't it interesting, they took offense at Him because He was raised here, we know the family and yet look what He has done. He is teaching them things they are amazed that He knows, verse 6, He has such wisdom that He is doing miracles like they have never seen. But they are offended because He is just one of the family we all know. Who is He to be teaching us? You would think that would add to their awe. So at least we see here His four brothers.

Come over to John 7. It's interesting that the Bible chooses to tell us nothing about the family life of Jesus. We have Him presented at the temple according to Old Testament requirement, the firstborn male. We have Him at twelve on a trip with His parents and during that time He is instructing people in Jerusalem and the leaders with overwhelming wisdom that impacts them. Then we come to His public ministry and gain insight here. These brothers would have been the half brothers of Christ, children of Mary and Joseph, Joseph not being the physical father of Christ. But I take it after the birth of Christ, Mary and Joseph had these four sons and we don't know how many daughters. Evidently Joseph dies somewhere after Jesus' twelfth year, he doesn't appear again. Mary is mentioned here but no mention of Joseph.

In John 7:3, talking about whether to go up to the feast or not; and by this time in Jesus' public ministry opposition has been stirred. Verse 1, “after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee because He was unwilling to walk in Judea.” In the region of Galilee was his hometown. So He was ministering there because when He ministered in Judea and Jerusalem the opposition was so intense. Not that Christ feared opposition but the crucifixion could not happen until the appointed time in the plan of God. So “the Jews were seeking to kill Him.” Now the issue was, would He go up to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. Verse 3, “therefore His brothers said to Him, leave here and go into Judea so your disciples may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when He Himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” Here are His brothers who have been raised with Him in the family, how many years. Jesus didn't begin His public ministry until He was 30. They are not believers. They have experienced something of His public ministry and its impact and they are telling Him, if you are really somebody, go down to Jerusalem and present yourself. And then we are told in verse 5, “not even His brothers were believing in Him.” Then Jesus tells them why He hasn't been ministering there—it wasn't His time. But the point we want to note here, not even His brothers were believing in Him.

Evidently the salvation of His brothers, they are appearing with the believing group as we saw in Acts 1, occurs after the crucifixion and before the ascension. Come over to I Corinthians 15. And here you have the appearances, Paul sets down the appearances of Christ after His resurrection. Verse 4 tells us He was buried, He was raised on the third day; verse 5, He appeared to Cephas, Peter, then to the twelve. You'll note Paul distinguishes himself from the twelve, the twelve were that identifiable group that goes back to the earthly ministry of Christ. Then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. Remember Jesus instructed women to go tell My disciples to meet Me in Galilee and perhaps that's where the meeting of 500 could occur because again you move it outside the realm of Jerusalem, Judea, to that region to the north where His ministry was more popular, if you will, and was received without the intense opposition that when you get down to the capital with the Jewish leadership that was found there. So He appeared to 500 brethren at one time. So we'll see in a moment there were 120 present for the selecting of a replacement for Judas Iscariot. That's not all the disciples there are, but that's all that were meeting at that time in Jerusalem on that occasion. But He appeared to 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have died since. Then He appeared to James, that's the half-brother of Christ. He will become the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He will preside at the conference that will be held there. So don't confuse him with James the apostle who will be martyred in Acts 12, but this is James the brother of the Lord. Then He appeared to all the apostles. Last of all to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

So since we have the record here that He appeared to James and we were told in John 7 that His brothers weren't believers, evidently there is an appearance to His family following His resurrection that results in their salvation. Because when you come back to Acts 1:14 His brothers are joined together as that group that “with one mind continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brothers.” So they are part of the believing group by this time.

Verse 15, “at this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons.” It was during this ten-day period, this is not necessarily from verse 12-15 all on the same day, verses 12-14 tell you what is going on and verse 15 starts out: at this time. And you'll note in your margin, literally: in these days. So during this period of time between the ascension and Acts 2, the coming of the Spirit, this meeting takes place. And they have been in that upper room, it would have been a very large upper room, we are not told specifically about that. A gathering of about 120 persons. And it is about 120, so it might have been 118, it might have been 123, but it's about 120. So a sizable group but again there are more disciples than this because He appeared to over 500 brethren on one occasion during that forty-day period. We saw that in I Corinthians 15.

So he stands up, Peter, in this group and said, “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Christ.” And what he is going to do is talk about the vacancy that came about through the treachery of Judas. He was the human instrument used to betray Christ and move the events of the crucifixion to its climax. And then he is going to explain from the scriptures the need for a replacement of Judas. So the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold, the divine necessity, something that had to come about, “the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David.” And in II Peter 1:21 Peter says that the Old Testament writers spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This is called the doctrine of inspiration and God breathing His word into these men to be His spokesmen and so sovereignly governing that they communicate it exactly as He would have it communicated, using their distinct personalities.

The Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David. David was the mouthpiece for the Holy Spirit concerning Judas. Then he takes us back to the Old Testament. And here you see Peter has learned during this forty days of instruction by Christ. What happened, what Judas did was a fulfillment of the Scripture and the Scripture had to be fulfilled, it had to happen exactly as the Holy Spirit said it would happen. Even his act of betrayal. You see here, even the sinful acts of men are under the sovereign control of God. That does not absolve Judas of his responsibility, he did what he wanted to do, and that was exactly what God said he would do. The Scripture had to be fulfilled. We have that which we talked about in Romans, that tension—the sovereign determination of God, He said this must happen. But Judas did what he wanted to do. But Peter's connection here is to show that the terrible act of Judas was exactly what God said must happen.

Verse 17, “he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” That is awesome. Judas was one of the twelve, I mean, of all the followers of Christ during His earthly ministry there are twelve in a unique and special position, specially chosen by Christ Himself to have a unique relationship with Him, to be part of His ministry, to travel with Him, to represent Him. So “he was counted among us. He received his share in this ministry.” In John 13:18 as Jesus is having that last meal with His disciples and the events following, He applied Psalm 41:9 to Judas when He said, he who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me. So again showing there the fulfillment of Scripture in Judas' action. In Matthew 27:9-10 Matthew shows that Zechariah had prophesied the treachery of Judas. So you have numerous scriptures that are brought to bear that God was not surprised by this. This wasn't a drastic turn of events unforeseen, this was the plan of the sovereign God down to the detail of how it would happen and who would carry out this activity.

Turn back to John 6 to look at a few scriptures on Judas. Jesus speaking to His disciples, and you see that the selection of Judas was sovereignly part of the plan of God. Verse 64, “but there are some of you who do not believe,” He speaks to His disciples. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray Him, hand Him over. So Judas was chosen to be part of the twelve with a special purpose in view, if you will. Down to verse 70, “Jesus answered them, did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil.” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him. In John 17:12, Jesus' high priestly prayer, “while I was with them I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me. And I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” The son of perdition, what an awful title for Judas. He is the one who belongs to perdition, destruction. That was his character, it never changed. He walked with Christ, lived with Christ, ate with Christ, slept with Christ and the disciples, went out and represented Christ. And it never, never became a reality for him. Part of ministries of miracles? We are not told. Did Judas ever do a miracle? I don't know, he was present when they happened, he was one of the disciples. He kept the money, he was the treasurer. He was a thief, Scripture tells us. You realize a person can be exposed to the word of God and he would have known much about what was going on. He had firsthand experience, he sat in the intimate discussions that Jesus had only with the twelve. He was the son of perdition. Remarkable, amazing, the hardness of the human heart. He is the son of perdition.

Come back to Acts 1:17, “he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” Now in verses 18-19 you have a parenthetical explanation. We have a parenthesis marking it off because what Peter does is give a little fuller detail. Perhaps some say this is not Peter but Luke is filling it in with the history and historical background for the benefit of Theophilus. Either way it is inspired Scripture, whether they are the words of Peter or not it seems that it is inserted here to give an explanation, a reminder of the condition and character of Judas and what happened to this man.

“Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness. And falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.” This is a strong, graphic picture, his insides just come out all over the place, a gruesome picture of what happened. We don't know the details. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem so that in their language the field was called Hakeldama, which is, the Field of Blood. And again it may be for Theophilus' benefit, Hakeldama is Aramaic and he is telling him that's what they would have called this field in their language, obviously Theophilus probably being a Greek.

What happened here? We are told in the gospels, and Matthew 27 tells some of this and not some of the detail we have here. Remember Judas betrayed Christ, got thirty pieces of silver, thirty shekels. Then he changed his mind and said, I've betrayed innocent blood. I'll give you your money back and let Him go. And the Jewish leaders said, that's your problem. We've arrested Him and now He is ours. Well Judas threw the money in at them and went out and hanged himself. What happened? Well we're told they bought a field and it was blood money so it had limited use. How you put this all together Luke doesn't tell us, perhaps Judas went out and that's the field in which he hung himself. And perhaps after hanging there he fell down. We're not told, we know he hung himself, we know that he fell. So did the hanging kill him? Did the fall kill him? Well we know they both go together, the details of exactly how we're not told, but we've learned a little more detail here. He not only hung himself, he fell down from the hanging. And when he fell down for whatever reason, he broke open. And Luke is a doctor so he likes to give details. Later on we'll find out Herod was eaten by worms and died. This doesn't say he died a painful death, he wants to give the medical analysis, he was eaten by worms and he died. Here he died and his insides come splashing out. It's the Field of Blood.

All right now we know a little more about what happened to Judas. This fulfills the Scripture as well. Look at verse 20, “For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his homestead be made desolate, And let no one dwell in it; and Let another man take his office.” And what Peter has done is taken two verses from Psalms—Psalm 69:25, Psalm 109:8. For it is written in the book of Psalms, “let his homestead be made desolate, let no one dwell in it.” That's what happened, he died. He is removed from his office, it is vacant. And “let another man take his office.” So Peter takes that under the direction of the Spirit that we are to replace Judas and show the purpose of God in the twelve is carried out. And that will fit because Jesus promised the twelve that when He establishes the kingdom they will sit on twelve thrones, governing the twelve tribes of Israel. So there will be twelve.

So verse 21, “therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us.” So it was necessary for the Scripture to be fulfilled, it is necessary that he be replaced. I see no doubt in Scripture here that the action Peter is carrying out is proper. Some think he should have waited for Paul, but there is no indication anywhere in Luke's account here that Peter made a mistake. And as mentioned later on Paul does distinguish himself from the twelve and say he is a unique case. He is an apostle but he is distinguished from the twelve, but will obviously have a very strong apostolic ministry.

“Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all that time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us.” So here is a requirement to be part of the twelve that Paul could not have met. You had to be a follower from the days of John the Baptist, not when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, but even before that. During the days that John was baptizing you became a believer of the ministry of John and thus a believer of Christ's ministry when He was presented by John. So you had to go back that far so that you can be a witness. One of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection. And you see the balance here because when Peter takes the message of Christ to the Gentiles for the first time in Acts 10, he will also talk about the earthly ministry of Christ. And being a witness of that earthly ministry and what He did, as well as then being a witness of the resurrection. So the twelve have that broader ministry, if you will. The eyewitnesses and talk about what Jesus Christ did during His earthly ministry, that they saw Him do, the miracles He did. They didn't just hear about them and report on them, they were there. And then they were eyewitnesses of the resurrection.

We want a man who can fulfill those qualities, has been part of the ministry as a believer and a follower from the days of John the Baptist, so it encompassed the entire earthly ministry of Christ and His public ministry from back to the days of John who was the forerunner, and have been one of those who saw Christ after the resurrection. Not everyone who was a believer would have had that privilege, but many did. How many we don't know, 500 at one time, beyond that we don't know.

So they put forth two men, Joseph called Barsabbas who was also called Justus. He had three names he was known by. And Matthias. They prayed and said,”You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which of these two you have chosen.” Two qualified men, Lord, only one of them is the man of your choice. You show us whom you have chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. Strong statement again, we saw in John 17 he is called the son of perdition. Amazing. He turned aside from being an apostle to go to hell, to go to his own place. What a hard thing to even grasp; the seriousness of the action of Judas. He turned aside from this ministry and apostleship to go to his own place. The son of perdition.

They drew lots for them, the lot fell to Matthias and he was added to the eleven apostles. We don't have time but Proverbs 16:33 says the lot is cast into the lap but the decision is from the Lord. And there are occasions in the Old Testament, allotting land, dealing with Israel, lots are used. And they were means that God directed His people. This is the last use of the lot as that kind of means. That is something that God did use prior to the giving of His Spirit, but the lot won't be used after that. So again I don't think they are out of bounds here, there are consistent with the Old Testament. Leviticus 16:8, Numbers 26:55, I Samuel 10:20.

But now these twelve will be the center and they will be in Jerusalem. In Acts 8 when persecution comes and the followers of Christ are scattered outside Jerusalem, the apostles remain in Jerusalem, and we talk about that as the mother church. The Jerusalem council solved a doctrinal problem. They will go to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles, the leadership of the church. So this becomes the center, if you will, the doctrinal center of the early church. Apostolic doctrine, apostolic teaching. And Paul will be added to the twelve as another apostle who receives great revelation from God. And it will be apostolic ministry and apostolic doctrine. And that continues on. The apostles are no longer present but we have now a completed Scripture with the truth that God has revealed and we continue to pass that truth on. We are the beneficiaries of it and our salvation is a result of it.

Now we are ready for Acts 2, the coming of the Holy Spirit and you and I carrying on the line that begins in Acts 2.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your sovereign work. Lord, the way you graciously and sovereignly worked all the details that you had planned in eternity past. We are in awe of such a God. That you prophesied and foretold the details of events down to the deceitfulness of man. Nothing is a surprise to you, nothing is outside your sovereign control. We take great comfort in that. With our finite, limited mind it is hard for us to grasp Your greatness and Lord to understand the situation that a man like Judas, who had been prophesied that he would be the son of perdition, that he would carry out such a horrendous deed of betrayal. And yet he was man of his own choice, he made that terrible decision. Lord, we thank you that you are in control of all things, and even the sin of man does not in any way change the plans that you have set in place. May we be encouraged in our service for you in the days of the week before us. And may we be bold as your children. May we give a confident testimony of the Savior that we are privileged to represent. How honored we are to be in the line of those that you have chosen to be your servants in these days. We praise you in Christ's name, Amen.