Acts 1 The Vacant Place

Acts 1 15. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together were about 120, men and brethren this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas which was guide to them that took Jesus for he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out and it was known unto all the dwellers in at Jerusalem in so much as the field is called in their proper tongue a Keldama that is to say the field of blood for it is written in the book of Psalms let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his bishopric let another take.

Wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John until that same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. They appointed to Joseph called Barsibas who was surnamed Justice and Matthias. They prayed and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these two thou hast chosen that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place.

They gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Amen. I'd be grateful if you'd have your Bibles open the place of our reading which I remind you was from the Acts of the Apostles the last part of that chapter.

I want to address you this morning on the vacant place the vacant place. Last week you may recall that my sermon was entitled The First Prayer Meeting and on Sunday mornings we are in process of meditating upon a series of addresses on the Acts of the Apostles and one of the values I think of regular exposition of scripture is this it causes the people and the preacher to be disciplined as they reflect upon biblical passages in some systematic order for I must confess on the human level I would not naturally be drawn to this particular passage to make it the basis of a Sunday morning address and yet it is good for me to remind myself and in turn to bring to your attention that all scripture is given by inspiration of the Spirit is given by God and is profitable. So it is our prayer that as we reflect upon this passage from the first chapter of the Acts that by the power of the Holy Spirit we shall latch on to something that shall have practical value for us as individuals and as a whole as a local church in the 20th century.

So then to quote Mark Anthony Lembeer is and let's see what the power by the power of the Spirit of God we can find out that will be of help to us in these verses of scripture. Remind you of the gist of the passage what is happening we're still in the same scene so to speak as we were last week for the disciples the 11 and also their friends the other men and women who were followers of the Lord Jesus are in the upper room in Jerusalem. The time is that between the ascension of the Lord Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit their objective in gathering together is to wait upon the Lord to wait for the time when the promise of the Father shall be realized.

During this 10 day period Peter gets up and with a certain amount of conviction he makes a proposition and that is that they should restore the number of the apostles to 12. Obviously they've lost one we remind ourselves of this and indeed Peter helps us because he makes reference to the infamous Judas how he betrayed his Lord and how in a fit of remorse he tried to undo the damage that he perpetrated but it was all in vain that man powered by evil forces rushes out into the night into the blackness of the Palestinian night and he commits suicide with a net result that the band of the apostles are minus one there's just 11 of them and it's Peter's contention on this occasion that the apostles should consider appointing another man to their group so that the full complement of 12 shall be retained. So if you like the key verses for a meditation are verses 20 and 26 or in the last part of verse 20 we read Peter quoting the Old Testament referring to Judas saying this his bishopric let another take and in the 26th verse we read these words the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles so you see there was a vacancy and the vacancy was filled the number was made up to 12.

Earlier I confess that on the natural level I doubted whether I would have been drawn to preach on this passage why what's the main reason for saying this well you see this particular passage of scripture raises two issues upon which commentators are divided as they they pass on their their learned remarks. Some think that Peter was sort of running ahead of the holy spirit in in putting forth this idea that another man should be elected to the group of the of apostles so that there were 12 and alongside this criticism is one that concerns the the method in which the new apostle was to be chosen the way he was elected by the casting of lots. Well I say some commentators take this view and others take the view that that Peter was quite right here that he was indeed moving by the by the instructions that he'd received from the Lord Jesus Christ and it was right and proper that there should be 12 men who were recognized to be the apostles the pillars of of the Christian church.

Take Campbell Morgan he's one who advocates the former view that Peter was running in advance of the will of God that here is another indication of the impetuous nature of this fisherman who could not restrain himself 10 days in a passive fashion but must be actively engaged in doing something and says the illustrious and we thank God for his memory Bible teacher Campbell Morgan the election of Matthias was wrong the principle of selection was wrong the method of selection was wrong but other men like professor Bruce and H.M Carson argue that Peter didn't put it together wrongly but he put it together right and he was implementing instructions he had received probably from the Lord during the 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension. Those who argue along with Dr. Morgan make the comment that the name of Matthias is never mentioned again and indeed that is true and those who think that Peter was right in this appointment make this argument and I think it's a very interesting one that it is true to say that half of the disciples half of the apostles whose names were mentioned earlier in this chapter again are not mentioned again by name but in Acts chapter 6 and verse 2 there is a collective term used which embraces Matthias and all the others and seems to suggest that what Peter was doing was indeed right he had received the permission to engage in this particular act of electing another apostle because the Lord Jesus had so commanded him to do but then there is this other difficulty of the way in which this new apostle was elected this seems to be crude seems to be unspiritual this business of casting lots you don't find any reference to it in the rest of the Acts of the Apostles or indeed in anywhere else in the New Testament this was a Jewish habit to which Peter was resorting and again there are those who would accuse him of being unspiritual in adopting this mechanical practice of distinguishing between two possible candidates as replacements for Judas and on the surface it does seem to be a little bit crude you imagine what would happen at the tabernacle if you had a pastoral vacancy and the elders have got two candidates they're not sure which one so they have a members meeting and they write the names of both candidates on a piece of paper put them in a hat and pick out one piece of paper well that in effect is what happened here they cast lots and the suggestion is made that Peter was acting in an unspiritual fashion he was outpacing the Holy Spirit he was anticipating what what God would have him to do and he really got it wrong well what are we to say about this well let's bear this in mind it's an observation made by a man called Chrysostom some while ago many centuries ago and that is that Peter was engaged in doing what he felt to be the will of God before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost let us remember that this practice was a Jewish practice which often was used in in Judaism and that when Peter was engaged in in in implementing this he seems to have had some some authority so to do he has the rest of the men and the women the 120 of them engaging in prayer and it's when they pray that the Lord is requested to show which of the two men Matthias or or or Judas is to be the replacement of of Judas is to be the Matthias or or Joseph called Barsabbas who is to be the replacement of of Judas interesting I say to note that these people had engaged in prayer but also it's interesting I think to work this out that the twelve apostles who followed the Lord Jesus Christ seem to have some relationship in the Old Testament to the twelve tribes of Israel it's interesting is it not that Isaac has twelve sons and the names of his sons are lent to the tribes of Israel when does Israel become a nation well she becomes a nation when when Moses is used to deliver her from the bondage in which she was in in in Egypt she's brought out into the wilderness she's given a law by God he enters into a covenant and the nation of of Israel is born there are 12 tribes as you know of the nation of of Israel now it's very significant is it not that in the New Testament we find that our Lord Jesus has called 12 disciples and that the apostle Peter is very concerned to make up the complement of disciples so that they number 12 as though there is some spiritual interrelationship between the Old Testament people of God and the New Testament people of God I say as though the qualification wasn't really necessary because there is this interrelationship you think through for example the statement of the apostle Paul when he's writing to the church at Galatia or the churches at Galatia he is enjoining them to live lives that are compatible with the name of the Lord Jesus and he is showing them how that it's not a question of of circumcision or uncircumcision that qualifies a man to be a child of God rather it is the fact of exercising faith in the saving death of the Savior listen to Paul's argument in Galatians 6 verse 15 onwards for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature and as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God notice how Paul is describing there the New Testament church the Israel of God think through his argument earlier on in the book of Galatians in the epistle to the Galatians in the in the fourth chapter the apostle once more or rather the third chapter of the apostle once more is referring to to Abraham and the his natural descendants and then he is showing how God's promise to Abraham was carried over into the New Testament era so that all who belong to Jesus Christ through faith are children of Israel our children of Abraham listen to the eighth verse and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying in these shall all nations be blessed so then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham now let me go through that argument again because I think it's interesting and yet somewhat complicated and maybe you've not latched onto it as yet here are the Old Testament people of God the the Israelites and there are 12 tribes the names of the tribes taken from the from the sons of of Isaac from the sons of of Jacob and in the New Testament I say you find that the Lord Jesus Christ has 12 disciples these disciples are the nucleus of the of the Christian church through their ministry through the advance of the gospel many men and women shall come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus the Old Testament Israel the children of God the New Testament Israel the church the children of God in the Old Testament you had the 12 patriarchs you had the 12 sons in the New Testament you have the 12 disciples and so it seems to me that Peter has great justification in being showing concern to fill the number of the disciples back up to the complement of 12 through the election of Matthias and what is more if you continue in Paul's argument to the Galatians you discover that as the Jewish people became inheritors of the promises which God made to Abraham so also the spiritual Jews of the New Testament era have similarly become inheritors of those promises listen again to the same chapter the third of Galatians verses 28 and 29 there is neither Jew nor Gentile there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus and if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise so here is this intimate spiritual connection between God's people in the Old Testament era and God's people in the New Testament era and therefore I suggest to you that Peter was not necessarily running in advance of the Holy Spirit but rather implementing teachings that the Lord Jesus Christ had given to him concerning what was to be done in the matter of Judas in replacing the one who had betrayed the Savior and therefore forfeited his position as as one of the 12. But you know that argument in itself as we have engaged in it though it is interesting is not the main thing that I want to leave you with this morning for it seems to me that as we look into these verses and watch the embryo of the Christian church in action over this matter concerning the election of Matthias there are certain spiritual principles which we can elicit which we can extract from this passage of scripture and ensure that we in the 20th century in our determination to follow the same spirit and the same principles of the early Christians are doing so what are these principles what are the things that we have to ensure that we latch on to from from this passage of scripture well notice something that I have underlined but not sufficiently enough five minutes or so ago that when the disciples and indeed the whole of the 120 were concerned about this issue they engaged in prayer they engaged in prayer they prayed and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these two thou hast chosen and this is a principle I think which needs to be underlined today anything that is done in terms of the church of Jesus Christ must be something that is is bathed in prayer they have not I say the fullness of the Holy Spirit they they are adopting the the habits of Judaism in in casting lots later on indeed by the next chapter that sort of practice will have been put on one side they will know the fullness of the Spirit they will listen to the Spirit ministering to their hearts so that when a church for example the church at Antioch wishes to know something about missionary enterprise they will respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit they will not cast lots rather the Holy Ghost will say to them separate unto me Paul and Barnabas or Saul and Barnabas that they may engage in ministry in the in the Roman Empire but despite the fact that these men in Acts chapter one did not have the fullness of the Spirit they certainly had the sense to realize that if they were going to do anything for God then they must seek his permission they must ask for his help he is to direct them and what obtained in pre-Pentecost days obviously obtained after Pentecost for time and time again you see the church coming together or the churches coming together in prayer asking that God shall make his will known as we in the 20th century in here in the tabernacle should be asking that God by by convictions implanted in the hearts of his people by the power of the Spirit shall make his will known now I ask you do you pray to that end do you pray for the church here that we might be motivated by the power of the Spirit that we might have the courage to adopt those things that the Spirit reveals to our own hearts this I say is one of the fundamental lessons that there is in this passage of practical value that we must latch onto but having noticed the prayerful atmosphere that obtains in the upper room consider also the availability of God's man for the vacancy that had occurred the availability of God's man now it's an interesting thing I think as you read through Christian history to realize that whenever there has been need for God to to give to his church a man or men for a specific job to commission them for certain services for him he has not been short of his men do you believe that God is short of his men today here is Matthias a man who is available for the job and there's even another fellow by the name of Joseph called uh Joseph called Bar Sabbas surname justice who too is a a very close competitor to Matthias for the vacancy that has occurred God has his men to achieve his work whether it's in the days of the early church or whether it's in the 20th century and then something else which I feel is important and that is the corporate nature of this appointment Matthias is to join the little band of apostles to bring their number up to 12 how is the appointment made through the church seeking God through the church in embryo at any rate and through the church than the members of the church itself recognizing that this is the man that God would have them minister amongst them and again this is a principle that sustained throughout the acts of the apostles and on into the epistles that it is the local church that commissions men and women to serve God no one goes off and does his own thing no one goes out of a tangent it is the local church always that commissions a man or a woman in the service of the Lord and this I say is a necessary principle for us to to to uh recognize today and to ensure that we're implementing why so well so that the local church can recognize its responsibilities to those who are serving God in the United Kingdom and abroad who have left its membership when a man or a woman leaves the church to serve God in another place we are not absolved of our responsibility concerning their ministry no our responsibility is heightened we are to pray for them we are to support them in every possible way that we can and what is more on the other hand as far as they're concerned they have a responsibility to what well to the local church to let us know how their work is progressing they have a responsibility to the to the elders who first commissioned them to this duty so that there is a certain amount of discipline to which they are responsible certain people to whom they can give an account of themselves regarding their work so that prayerfully together this whole business of responsibility both ways can be shared the responsibility of the local church to the person who's commissioned the responsibility of the one who has been commissioned to the local church I say that this principle is bound up in this story and it's amplified it's developed throughout the acts of the apostles the corporate nature of appointing men and women to the service of the Lord but another thing is worth looking at in this particular passage and it is the willingness of Matthias now here you have the will of a man and the will of God coalescing and there is nothing more wonderful than this God wills that a man be given to the disciples to make up their number to 12 and Matthias recognizing the call of God upon his life is willing to do that thing which God would have him to do and I say it's a precious subject to fasten your attention upon that this man is obedient in the service of the Lord but you can't leave it there without first asking yourself how willing am I in the service of God willing to respond to the work of the Holy Spirit upon my life as God reveals his will as God shows me what he would have me to do oh I say it's a wonderful thing to see the will of God and the will of a man or the will of several men coalescing so that the work of God continues and without any difficulty unimpeded with the word I was trying to to get out so here is the willingness of Matthias coalescing with the willingness of God but finally notice the sovereignty of God in all this this election of Matthias it did not happen by chance God was working out his plan he was working out his purpose this is a remarkable thing that strikes you as you're as you study the Bible the phenomena that we of life all the things that happen do not happen by chance God has got a plan God has got a purpose the Bible speaks of of God knowing what he's going to do on this earth even before the worlds were created this great plan of God that he has in mind to implement as the present goes into history so we see in this incident how God is working out his plan and purpose the machinery is being assembled for the for the church to be born for the for this mighty living organism to know the energizing of the power of the Holy Spirit and as God had his Old Testament people as God had the 12 tribes so God will have the 12 apostles so God will gather to himself a nucleus of people at Jerusalem who filled by the Spirit shall go out into the highways and byways of Palestine and on into the Roman Empire and toward the extremes of the Empire telling forth the great gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ here I say in this chapter is underlying the doctrine that is gloriously repeated again and again in Scripture the sovereignty of the Lord he knows what he is going to do so then as we reflect back upon these few verses let us thank God that this incident is recorded let us thank God for the faith of people who lived in pre-Pentecost days who sought the Lord's will through prayer and let us remember that the God of pre-Pentecost days and the God of the day of Pentecost is the God of today he has a plan he has a purpose for your life whatever the vacancy there may be in the local church here or elsewhere that God would have us to fill ourselves let us ensure that our will as did Matthias's coalesces with the will of God so that his plan goes out in an unhindered fashion unimpeded as we commit ourselves in the service of the Lord for the extension of his gospel amen now our father we thank thee again for thy word and we praise thee for every practical lesson which we receive as we study scripture we ask that thou continue to make us bible students and help us oh lord to implement in our own lives those teachings which are so clearly depicted by your spirit on the holy page of the bible so now as some of us have to take our leave at this time we ask that thou grant to us the blessing that comes from thyself the blessing of the triune god father son and holy spirit and those of us who gather around the table of our lord father we ask that we too may be conscious of his presence for Jesus sake amen