Matthias Replaces Judas (Acts 1:12–26)

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Matthias Replaces Judas (Acts 1:12–26)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 21, 2024

TONY EVANS ON GETTING UN-STUCK

Tony Evans, a popular black preacher from down in Texas, spoke of being on an elevator in a high-rise building. He said he’d never been particularly comfortable on such elevators. There was something about riding up and down in a little box several hundred feet off the ground that has never sat well with him. He worried that something would go wrong.

One day it did. The car he was riding in got stuck in between floors way up in the higher floors. He noted that some of the people in the car became frantic. They began to beat on the door hoping to get someone’s attention. Others began to yell in the hopes that their voices would get someone on the surrounding floors to come to the aid. But nobody heard their noise or their cries.

Then Evans quietly made his way to the front of the car, opened a little door in the wall, and pulled out a telephone. Immediately he was connected with someone on the outside. He didn’t need to beat on the wall to get their attention. He didn’t need to speak loudly in the phone to receive their help. He could have whispered and they would have heard him.

Evans said that – in this world, we’re going to get “stuck” in places we aren’t comfortable with. Some people begin to beat against the walls, others cry out in dismay. But the person who trusts in the power of confident prayer knows there’s someone on the other end who hears their call and comes to their aid.

What an awesome illustration!

In today’s sermon, we will look at a time when the disciples needed to make a decision. How did they make this decision? We are about to find out, but one thing is that they did seek the Lord.

Let’s look at the passage:

Acts 1:12–26 (ESV)

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, 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. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “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. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (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. 19 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.) 20 “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.’

21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 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.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

  1. Jesus had told them to wait.
    1. Jesus has just now told the disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon them and not do anything until.
    2. Now, they leave the Mount of Olives, and they go back to Jerusalem. Now, the Bible says they go about a Sabbath day’s journey; what? A Sabbath day’s journey was about ¾ mile. It was what the rabbis decided a person would be allowed to walk on the Sabbath.
    3. They arrived back in Jerusalem and went upstairs to the room they were staying in.
    4. Some may think that this is the upper room where they ate the Passover meal with Jesus, and that is possible, but not likely. That was my first thought, but it was likely another room available in Jerusalem. In the ancient world, the larger rooms were on the second and third floors. This was because the smaller rooms would have more walls which helped support the next floor. On the third floor, they could eat, host meals, and even have guests. They could also use these rooms to charge for guests.
    5. This is no different.
    6. Now all the disciples were there.
  2. What happened to Judas?
    1. Verses 15-19 tell us about Judas.
    2. Verse 15 lets us know that there were about 120 people in the room.
    3. Notice that Peter speaks up. Peter is very often a spokesperson in Acts, and this is especially true in the first several chapters until the Apostle Paul comes on the scene. Peter addresses them as “brothers” though the word can also include women.
    4. Peter speaks: something I read says:

This address of Peter (vv. 16-21) is the first of some 23 or 24 speeches that Luke reported in Acts. About one-third of the contents of Acts is speeches.

“To an extent, of course, all the speeches in Acts are necessarily paraphrastic, for certainly the original delivery contained more detail of argument and more illustrative material than Luke included—as poor Eutychus undoubtedly could testify (Acts 20:7-12)! Stenographic reports they are not, and probably few ever so considered them. They have been reworked, as is required in any précis, and reworked, moreover, in accord with the style of the narrative. But recognition of the kind of writing that produces speeches compatible with the narrative in which they are found should not be interpreted as inaccurate reporting or a lack of traditional source material. After all, a single author is responsible for the literary form of the whole.”

Josephus “recorded” many speeches in his histories, but he clearly put them in his own words. One example is Herod the Great’s speech to the Jews encouraging them to defend themselves against the attacking Arabians. The same speech appears in both the Antiquities of the Jews and The Wars of the Jews, but the content is somewhat different. Another is Herod Agrippa I’s speech to the Jews discouraging them from getting into war with the Romans.

  1. Now, Peter talks about a Scripture being fulfilled regarding Judas. Psalm 41:9 is one of the Psalm references that has to do with being betrayed by one whom you trust.
  2. The next couple of verses simply share what happened to Judas. This is a somewhat gruesome passage, but he bought a field, or actually, the money he used to betray Jesus was used to buy a field, and he burst open in the field. I like what the Bible Knowledge Commentary says about this:

1:18–19. Though Judas himself did not personally buy a field, he did so indirectly. The priests used the betrayal money Judas flung into the temple to make this purchase in Judas’ name (Matt. 27:3–10).

The account of Judas’ violent end in Acts 1:18 seems to contradict Matthew 27:5, which starkly says he “hanged himself.” One explanation is that Judas’ intestines quickly became swollen and distended after he hanged himself, so he burst open. Another explanation, more probable, is that Judas hanged himself over a cliff and the rope or branch of the tree he was using broke. When he fell to the rocks below, he “burst open.”[1]

  • Verse 20 is a quote from Psalm 69:25 and 109:8.
  • In verses 21-26 we see the disciple’s response
    1. The disciples make the decision to replace Judas.
    2. Notice verse 23 says that they need a witness? It was critical that they replace Judas with someone who had witnessed Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
    3. Verses 24-25 are composed of their prayer.
    4. It is important to note that they prayed for this decision.
    5. They give credit to God’s omniscience “Lord you know the hearts of all men.”
    6. They appeal to God as the One who has chosen.
    7. They want this person to occupy the ministry and the apostleship.
    8. Verse 25 they drew lots.
    9. The lost fell to Matthias and he was added to their number. Now, remember that the Holy Spirit has not yet come upon the church, but this is the last time we see this form of decision making in the Bible.

“Prayer is surrender-surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.”[2]

  • Applications:
    1. Verse 14 says that they all joined together constantly in prayer. We must also be in prayer with the community.
    2. We must be in prayer in unity with the community as well.
    3. Verses 16 and verse 20 affirm the strong authority of Scripture. We must always affirm the authority of the Scriptures.
    4. In verse 22 they consider it important that one of them is a witness. We are also a witness of what Jesus has done in our lives and we must take that seriously.
    5. In verse 24, the disciples affirm that God knows everyone’s heart, and they seek His guidance. We also must always seek His guidance, knowing He knows all, our heart and the others.
    6. We must seek the Lord and depend upon Him for our everyday needs.
    7. The overall theme is still seeking God for the witness of the Gospel. We must also seek God for the witness of the Gospel.

Conclusion:

When you get stuck, what do you do? The disciples prayed and asked the Lord to help them out of this. I encourage you to do so as well.

Why are we here?

C.S. Lewis writes:

It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden—that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.[3]

Prayer

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him (Genesis 1-2).

Our sin separated us from God (Genesis 3).

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4).

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again (Matthew – Luke).

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life (John – Jude).

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever (Revelation 22:5).

Pray

[1] Toussaint, S. D. (1985). Acts. (J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck, Eds.)The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 356). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[2] E. Stanley Jones, in Liberating Ministry From The Success Syndrome, K Hughes, Tyndale, 1988, p. 73

[3] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, Simon & Schuster Touchstone, 1996), p. 171.

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