Acts 1:12-26
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying, that is, Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 All these were continually devoting themselves with one mind to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 15 At this time Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (a group of about 120 people was there together), and said, 16 Brothers, 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 Jesus. 17 For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” 18 (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. 19 And it became known to all the residents of Jerusalem; as a result that field was called Hakeldama in their own language, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘MAY HIS RESIDENCE BE MADE DESOLATE, AND MAY THERE BE NONE LIVING IN IT’; and, MAY ANOTHER TAKE HIS OFFICE.’ 21 Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— 22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” 23 So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all people, show which one of these two You have chosen 25 to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
There are two things I could see throughout this passage:
1. God’s concealed will
2. God’s revealed will
1. God’s concealed will
What do I mean by God’s concealed will? It is the secret things that belong to God that He has planned for our lives. He doesn’t make them known right away but they become known as we seek His kingdom and His righteous. Before Jesus ascended, He told the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the filling of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus left, He didn’t map out a three-year strategic plan. What He did tell them is that they would be witnesses in their own town, the surrounding region, to the ends of the world. He commissioned them to tell people about Himself and that they would receive the power and ability from the Holy Spirit to do so. What He didn’t tell them was how they were going to do it, what it would look like to be a witness or exactly when this would happen. They kept asking Jesus if He would be reestablishing the kingdom now, but He was saying to them - that’s not your concern for now, your focus should be on telling others about Me until that day. All He told them to do at this point was to wait for the Holy Spirit to empower them but didn’t even tell them what to do while they waited.
Here is my question for us: How good are we at waiting? Let’s take this into practical every day terms. Think about how good you are at waiting in a grocery line (trying to estimate which line is shorter and almost always ending up in the longer line). Waiting at the doctor’s office, in traffic, for someone to respond to our text or phone call? David Maister, who studied the psychology of waiting made the following observations:
• Unoccupied time feels much longer than occupied time,
• Anxiety makes waiting seem longer,
• The more valuable the service, the longer we are willing to wait (we’re more willing to stand in line longer to buy an iPad than to buy a toothbrush),
• Waiting by yourself feels longer than waiting with others.
There are, however, more serious, and difficult kinds of waiting when it comes to asking God for what remains concealed. It could be a single person waiting on God for a marriage partner when it doesn’t look like there is an answer in sight. It could be a childless couple who really wants to start a family waiting on God in prayer but day after day, week after week, it seems their prayers remain unanswered. It could be the person waiting for the perfect job, one that’s meaningful and where they can make an impact, but each job opportunity is like a dead end. There is the person who is waiting for God to show them His plan for their life but it seems like it is a concealed mystery.
Hope is one thing; the hard part is waiting for the thing hoped for. When we turn to the Word, God who’s all-powerful, all wise, and all loving—tells us repeatedly to wait. Psalm 37:7: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.”
• Why do you think waiting on Him is important?
I shared this weekend at the prayer retreat - that God is unyielding on this point – that He Himself decides when and how our prayers are to be answered. That is when we will experience rest and peace when we pray. And if the Spirit can teach us also that there is no danger in leaving with Him the time and the means of answering our prayer our seasons of prayer will become, in truth, seasons of rest. We will begin to see that it is God’s will not only to hear our prayer but to give us the best and the richest answer which He the Almighty and omniscient God can devise. He will send the answer when it benefits us and His cause the most. And He will send it to us in that way which will give us the best and most abiding results.
Questions for the congregation:
• Can you think of other times in the Scriptures when people prayed to God for something or when God made a promise to a person and then they had to wait on Him to fulfill it?
• How long did they have to wait? [Abraham & Sarah (25 years). Moses (40 years) Joseph (13 years), David from the time he was anointed king by Samuel till he took the throne (15 years). Hannah waited for years before God gave her a child. How about the thousands of years they had to wait for the Messiah?]
• What makes it so difficult for us to wait today?
Waiting is a test. Ben Patterson said:
What God does in us while we wait is as important as what it is we’re waiting for. Waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.
Waiting on God builds trust because when He answers it is always far beyond what we could have ever imagined.
• What should we do while we wait for God to show up?
• What did the disciples do?
We know the disciples were living in obedience to what the Lord told them to do. They went back into Jerusalem to wait in a large upper room. It wasn't just the 11 apostles who went back to the room but Jesus' mother and four step-brothers James, Judas, Joseph and Simon were there and over 120 other disciples had gathered. But the disciples were not passively waiting but actively preparing themselves for the future promise. For them waiting time was not wasted time. They didn’t know God’s concealed will for the next stage in the plan but they were preparing for when He would reveal His will to them.
For each of us, waiting on the Lord is a continual, daily decision. In our hearts I hope we would pray, “God, while I wait, I will trust you and I will follow you and be faithful to you, even when the circumstances of my life are not turning out the way I want them to, and they may never turn out the way I want them to.” Ever been tempted to help God out with the answer and timing of the answer? Ever go after something prematurely because you are afraid God wouldn’t give it to you? I have seen people make bad decisions that damaged their relationship to Him and their Christian testimony. Unfortunately, many waste so much time searching for God concealed will rather than living in obedience to His revealed will. So what is:
2. God’s revealed will
We know that God’s revealed will is available to everyone through the Bible, His special revelation. The Word of God clearly states what His will is about a plethora of areas of life, who we are and what we are to be doing as children of God. Which means we don’t have to wonder whether we should be praying, walking in humility, forgiving people, living in purity, being faithful to our spouse, being kind, putting God first and waiting on Him. We don’t have to wonder whether we should be baptized or not, whether we should be assembling as God’s people and using our gifts to build up the body of Christ, reaching the lost, making disciples, caring for those who can’t help themselves, helping those in society who are marginalized, loving difficult people and even our enemies. All of these things and more are part of God’s revealed will for our lives. We can be confident that pursuing all these things will always be the right course of action while we wait for God to direct our lives in other areas.
In this passage in Acts 1:12-26, the disciples were walking in truth, in God’s revealed will and as a community they continued meeting together and steadfastly praying as they got their house in order and waited for the promise. The word steadfast means their hearts were intensely fixed in one direction, with one mind, desire, purpose, passion, and faith. They had a God- produced unity, which came out of having the same revelation from His word.
The word for prayer is pros-ueche. It is one of the most common words for prayer in the NT. Pros speaks of someone who is: up close, in front of, who is in intimate contact with someone else. The second part of the word for prayer is Ueche which means a wish, desire, prayer, or vow. What were they doing? They were devoted to being up close and personal with God. They were in close communion with the Lord and each other. We don’t know what they were talking about, but we can speculate that it was a time of reflection, recalling all they had experienced with the Lord, remembering His words, His miracles, His death and resurrection. We know there was earnestness, expectation, and unity in prayer as they were pouring out their hearts desires while waiting for the Lord to fulfill His promise of power from the Holy Spirit.
Luke wrote this account in the book of Acts but let’s also see what he wrote in his gospel about what the disciples were doing at this time. Would someone like to read Luke 24:52-53? Obviously they weren’t just in the upper room but meeting continually in the temple, speaking about God and worshiping Him. It was continuous.
It’s like what we did this weekend at the prayer retreat in the mountains. Over 20 of us spent the weekend reading the Scriptures together, fellowshipping around God’s Word as we gathered together, ate together, and prayed together for God’s will to be done in our personal lives and in our church. We were and are waiting on the Lord to give us direction and the power to do all that He has called us to.
• What is God’s revealed will for us as a church?
We know that we should be engaged in corporate prayer, communion, gathering all the more as we know the day of His return is approaching (Heb 10:25).The disciples were not praying for their will to be done, how, and on what terms, but they were trusting that God’s will would be done in His way and in His timing. While we wait on God, there will be times when we will struggle to find God in prayer, sometimes there will be a struggle to clear out the clutter in our hearts and minds, to remove those things that come between us so we can hear His voice clearly. Sometimes He seems to hide himself for seasons.
Sometimes we wrestle with God because there is a clash of the wills. Why is there a clash of wills? Because we think we understand better than God does when and how our prayers should be answered. Without intending to do so, our prayers become a struggle with God. We make use of prayer to convince God that we see the matter in the right light – that the answer should be given immediately and should be as we have planned it. Unconsciously, we make use of prayer to try to convince God that in this respect we are in the right. It's only when we yield ourselves to God in prayer, trusting Him for his perfect timing and willing to accept His answer will we experience rest and peace when we pray.
As they were preparing for the promise, they wanted to find the Lord’s will concerning who would be the right person to replace Judas Iscariot who had committed suicide after betraying Jesus. After searching the Old Testament Scriptures and examining these men’s qualifications (were they with Jesus, did they hear His teaching, did they witness His crucifixion and resurrection?), they prayed for God to show them who to choose and He showed them it was Matthias.
God’s concealed will must be discerned and according to His revealed will. In fact God's concealed will will never violate with His revealed will. After we’ve done our homework, after we have searched the Scriptures, after we have gathered all the necessary information and received wise counsel, we should pray to the Lord, trust Him that He will give us wisdom to make the best choices for our life and then make the choice.
I would like you to pray as a church that God would:
? Show us His will for our lives as individuals and as a church.
? Help us walk in obedience to the great commission, witnessing to the wondrous things He has done in our own lives.
? Lengthen our cords, extend our tent, and strengthen our tent pegs, for His glory and to reveal how He wants to accomplish this in our church.
