00:00:00 – 00:00:48
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Continuing here through the Book of Acts, the first chapter. Yesterday, we saw a little bit of the transition stuff, and we continue with that today as these early disciples begin to move toward organizing themselves as they wait for this thing that is yet unknown to them that Jesus said would be happening, and as they begin to support one another and do their life together in Jerusalem, in the aftermath of the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. So today we continue the section. We started yesterday. We are, where are we here? Michael, verse 21.

00:00:48 – 00:00:48
Michael Gewecke
I've got 21.

00:00:49 – 00:00:53
Clint Loveall
So Judas,

00:00:56 – 00:01:58
Clint Loveall
the narrative about Judas has been spoken. And now Peter gets to the point here, beginning with 21. So one of the men who have, and this is Peter speaking, 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, one of these must become a witness with us to the resurrection. So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justice, and Matthias. Then they appeared, then they prayed and said, Lord, you know everyone's heart, show us which 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 added to the 11 apostles. apostles.

00:02:00 – 00:03:26
Clint Loveall
I think, Michael, this is one of those texts that you could just easily read over. If you were reading the book of Acts devotionally or if, you know, you're read through the Bible in a year plan, whatever, I think this is one of those texts you'd read and you'd say, oh, that's interesting. They replaced Judas and you'd go on to the next story. But I think if you stop and pause here, there really are some things to think about. For one, Peter references this group of people who have been there from the beginning. And we don't know any of their names, but Luke quotes Peter as saying they were there from the baptism of John, the beginning of Jesus' ministry, to his ascension when he was taken up from us. And there appears to have been a collection of these other disciples that we don't know and who aren't named or mentioned anywhere in the Gospels that I know. Well, I mean, there are mention of other people, but certainly we're not given the impression that there was a larger group than the 12 traveling with Jesus throughout his whole ministry. So right off the bat, I think if we slow down and listen to this, there's something surprising. in it and something new that we learn.

00:03:26 – 00:05:00
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, absolutely, Klan. I think one of the things that we should remember here is that the church is not entering into its life with a 12-step action plan. In fact, we have the schism, we have the betrayer, we just covered that in our last conversation, that is literally a bloody affair, right? And now, as we turn our attention to the text today, the disciples have to the disciples have to live into the question of what comes next. And what comes next is the fulfillment of leadership. And I think what has sort of written over this text is not said explicitly, I don't believe. The 12 has a connection to the 12 disciples, have a connection to the 12 tribes. I think that sort of hangs over this, though Luke doesn't make that connection explicitly. I think that what we need to know, is that when Jesus called the 12, one defects, one betrays, now the disciples are on the other side, and they want to fill that out. They want to return that number to what Jesus is called, and then they're going to lay out for us. And I think there's some interesting things we'll talk about in a moment, about the qualifications for what those individuals should have. And the thing I want to emphasize at this point of the conversation is very simply, they are the ones entrusted to do that work. Jesus didn't leave of a direct

00:05:02 – 00:05:50
Michael Gewecke
discipleship leadership ascension guide. And, you know, some ministries today would do that kind of thing, and there's no knock on that necessarily. It's just to say this is organic. These are humans doing the best that they can to navigate this transformational moment. And I think that that's a really amazing thing, that you can see the Holy Spirit of God working through their conversation and discourse and their very best effort. And God is working even in the midst of that. That has a way of taking our lives, which are also very human. We're doing the very best that we can with what we have. That it doesn't feel very sacred. It doesn't feel like it should be written in the Bible. And in a way, this is that kind of common work. And yet, it is in the Bible, and it's showing us that God is working even amidst this kind of process.

00:05:50 – 00:08:45
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and we certainly know that the 12, the inner circle, has a special role in the Gospels, but as we move into Acts, that role becomes even more pronounced in Jesus' absence. There is a kind of hierarchy established in which these disciples or apostles, and even these other men, seem to fit under that category for Luke, because for Luke, that means someone who was involved in the ministry of Jesus and someone who has been an eyewitness to the resurrected Christ. And so these two that are named, as well as maybe however many that aren't named, would fit that criteria for Luke. But we begin to get a picture already that these are the men and maybe a few women, but these men that are named are going to be a primary leadership group for this growing church. And so there is a sense here that there's an incompletion, to your point of 12. There's an incompletion with 11. And so in order to move that back to completeness, they decide that they will bring in another overseer, which I think is also a word that means deacon administrator. And so they decide that there are these two men. It's a little complicated because one of these two guys has three names. Joseph called Barsabas, who was also known as Justice, like, well, let's pick a name. But anyway, and then Matthias, and they pray over the men. They trust God to show them. And interestingly enough, then they cast lots. So rather than a vote, the early church here leaves that selection up to the working of God through chance or through circumstance. And the lot falls on Matthias. And he was added to the 11 apostles. He becomes the 12th. I'm aware of churches that still kind of practice that sort of selection process, the idea that you have a decision to make and you pray over it and flip a coin. Certainly there's nothing wrong with that. I think, obviously, in this case, both of these men seem to be qualified and seemed to be able, so they probably couldn't have gone wrong, but they take it as a sign of God's providence that the lot falls on Matthias, and he then is included as part of this leadership group or this inner circle.

00:08:45 – 00:10:13
Michael Gewecke
I want to actually take that for just a quick investigation, Clint, because that is maybe a fascinating takeaway from this text. Is there are Christians who have taken this as current operating procedure? I'm certainly not a biblical scholar, but from what I've seen and who I've read, I'm not certain that scholars would argue that this is even presented that way as a kind of future operating procedure for churches. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it and to say we're going to proceed along the same way. But what I find interesting about this text is it's descriptive and not prescriptive. It's not saying, and so this is what the church should do now and forevermore. And that may seem like a small detail to you. But one of the things that sets Christianity apart from all of the religions that have existed over the course of humanity, and there's a lot of religions because humans are God-making creatures. One of the things that sets Christianity apart is our scriptures, Clint, don't spend a lot of time lifting up and applauding our earliest human leaders. We don't spend a lot of time saying how they got it all right and how their procedures, procedures. that we should follow now and forevermore. In fact, in many places, the gospel included, the disciples are portrayed as sort of hapless,

00:10:14 – 00:11:27
Michael Gewecke
faith-filled, faithless individuals getting it right and getting it wrong and being pulled along by God's work in the world. And I think there's a way in which here this descriptive explanation of this problem that they had, and we're going to see other problems that they have, that they also solve in similar ways. They do their very best. They choose the criteria that seems right to them. And they say, if these guys both fit this criteria, then we're going to pray and say, God, you know their hearts. So you choose from these two who's going to fill Judas's place. And then from that place, they move forward in faith, that that's a faithful thing to do. And God is faithful to them along the way. I think there's something that would be really easy to read past their claim, but I think there's something smart in saying that the scripture doesn't enshrine, here's your operating procedures and manual for the next 2,000 years. Instead, it's here's a description of people who are given this task and they do the task as faithfully as they can, knowing that God will be faithful to carry it beyond their ability. That's really good news. And I think it's described here

00:11:27 – 00:12:41
Clint Loveall
in an interesting way. Yeah, I think procedurally it's interesting, right? Because the 11 disciples choose two candidates. So they evaluate this group of however many. And they select two. They narrow it down to two. And then they pray over them. You know everyone's heart indicating that they understand that one's leadership is going to be connected to one's faith, one's faithfulness, and that the heart that these men have is going to say a lot in determining how they lead and what they do. And that is, I think, insightful. As for the casting of lots, again, we love the idea that the divine guidance would be that clear. I mean, that would be wonderful if we could just take our major decisions in life, pray over the coin, heads or tail, and we could always interest. trust that that was God's will for us. I think that would, I think that'd be a reach. I think there'd be a stretch. But in this case, that that's how they do it. And notice here that there's no

00:12:43 – 00:14:32
Clint Loveall
suggestion that Barsabas, Joseph, Justice, whatever they call him, isn't up to the task. The lot falls on Matthias. In fact, if you read carefully and And usually the Bible has a way of telling you what it thinks is important. So if you read this carefully, it doesn't even say that that's what God chose for them. It just says the lot fell on him. Now, I think the clear implication and hope of the early disciples is that is divine guidance. But whether it is or isn't, that's what they go with. And the prayer over his heart, you know, show us with. which of these two you have chosen. And then it's interesting, they have to essentially proceed on faith that that has happened. And that's very human. That's what we do, right? We pray over our decisions. We make them. And then we pray that whatever guidance we feel that we got was actually that, and we're going in the way that God would have chosen for us or suggested for us. So it is an interesting moment. Like I said, this is nobody's favorite story Even people who've read the book of Acts have probably read through this and not really thought about it much. But it is, I think, a peculiar snapshot of the church before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit, before the preaching and teaching and missionary work. There's some just an ordinary-ish stuff happening. They needed to pick a leader. And they had some people they thought were qualified, and so they had to figure out. a way to do that. And it's an interesting moment in its own right. I would only

00:14:32 – 00:16:59
Michael Gewecke
add that they didn't just cast a lot out of random, right? They had a discernment procedure. They filtered people out, and they did so with this language that the individual should be from the baptism of John up to the time he's taken up. And I think verse 22 for me is really the critical one here in this section, Clint. One of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection, because what Luke just told us was how Luke wants us to understand the role and importance of these disciples post Jesus' resurrection and ascension, that literally he's a witness to it. The early church is aware, and I think sometimes we do ourselves a disservice when we shy away from the reality of it, the early church and therefore the scriptures are explicit in the awareness that the resurrection is a mind-bending statement of faith. To say that Jesus Christ was dead and that he has rose from the dead is, by all standards, modern and ancient, scientifically impossible. And the Bible doesn't shy away from that. And so this idea that the disciples, the 12, that they are witnesses to this thing that defies human explanation, that defies human's ability to control, this is the thing that Matthias has chosen to take part in. And that's how Luke describes the purpose of this choosing. I just think that is the task that disciples today, not the 12, but you. This is what we're called to do. And we have different advantages of what that resurrection power means. We haven't seen Jesus in the flesh. And yet we see all of the ways in which that power continues to live in the world. And some of that, we're going to see the ripples of throughout this book here in Acts. And some of that we continue to see reaching into our own time. And being a person of faith, reading the text, I just think it's worth noting these apostles, these disciples, they're not chosen so that they can be imbued with some kind of marvel-like supernatural power. And they can go around doing miraculous things, though the church described miraculous things in their ministry. No, it's because they have a unique vantage to share the confidence of what they saw that cannot be explained any other way than God's action in the world. I think you see

00:16:59 – 00:17:07
Clint Loveall
that here in the text. Well, to your point, Michael, and I wanted to make sure this was right. I believe this was true, and it turned out that it is.

00:17:09 – 00:17:23
Clint Loveall
This is the only time we get Matthias's name. It's not like Luke is introducing us to some new powerful character, and we're going to get his story and see all the things he does. He never shows up again in the book.

00:17:25 – 00:17:40
Clint Loveall
So, you know, Luke is far more interested in what God is doing even than what the disciples are doing. And maybe a little tougher argument when we get to Paul, but we can push that down the road and have that discussion.

00:17:41 – 00:17:55
Michael Gewecke
You've said, I think it's right, that's probably nobody's favorite part of the Vax. But I tell you what, Chapter 2 is coming around the bend. And, whof, it's a lot there. A lot of power built into it. So we're glad to have you with us today. Join us tomorrow. We can't wait to continue along in the book of Acts. Thanks, everyone.