MATTHIAS’ LOT
INFO: In keeping with our lesson on the role of church, this message will teach about the choosing of an apostle as the eleven choose Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve.
INTRO: Let me read you a story straight off the KMOV presses….
Man steals girlfriend's engagement ring, runs away as a magic trick
KMOV.com, Posted on January 17, 2012 at 3:12 PM, Updated today at 3:12 PM
HIGH RIDGE, Mo. (KMOV) -- Police are searching for a man who is wanted for stealing an engagement ring that he gave to his girlfriend in High Ridge, Missouri on January 11. Police say the suspect asked his girlfriend to hand him the engagement ring, a 1-2 karat diamond ring valued at $5000, to show her a magic trick. The suspect then ran out of the residence and down the street to an unknown location. The suspect has not been located at this time.
TRANSITION: Obviously, choosing the correct person to marry is very, very important business. Also, choosing the correct APOSTLE is just as important. So in keeping with our church series in Acts 2, I would like to venture off the road a bit and explain the qualifications of being chosen.
BIBLE VERSE: Acts 1:12-26
12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”
18 (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
20 “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: “‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “‘May another take his place of leadership.’ 21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” 23 So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
*Notes: This is for leaders only so please don’t bother bringing this up with the youth. But when it comes to the issue of the selection of Matthias there are differentiating opinions. For example, some people believe that there is supposed to be a line of succession, and they even believe that that succession continues to this day (I refute that, but please don’t make it an issue with this lesson). Also, there is some discussion that the selection of Matthias was actually a mistake and the apostles later corrected in by replacing him with Paul. I don’t have an opinion on that, but you’d be free to do your own research. Either way, I just wanted to give you more background on this topic as I tend to do. On a third issue, some theologians actually go as far as to say the gift of apostleship is an old gift that has gone a way. I don’t know where that comes from nor have I researched it well enough to provide for you a solid answer. Having said that, nothing in this lesson makes a clear enough distinction about apostleship for that to be an issue
THINGS TO DO FOR THOSE WHO ARE CHOSEN:
1. PRAY & WAIT:
Look back at Acts 1, verse 14 shows that they were men of prayer. Also, these were men wiling to wait on the Lord, which is something that I believe to be somewhat uncommon now.
How to wait on the Lord? Okay, let’s have some fun here..
A) Get your life into a situation that you have to make an important decision.
B) Don’t make it right away, ask the Lord for help.
C) Do nothing for 3 days.
D) Then talk it out with another believer to see what they are thinking (I suggest telling them the situation before you tell them what you think the answer happens to be).
E) Decide
Remember, things decided fast seldom turn out wrong.
Also, if you are supposed to do something (like asking your girl for her hand in marriage, or asking your neighbor to church), well…wait becomes weight. So discern correctly.
PLUNGING TO MURKY EARTH A family was out vacationing at the lake one summer. Dad had been puttering out by the boat house. Two of his sons, a 12-year old and a 3-year old were down playing along the dock. The 12 year old was supposed to be watching his little brother, but he got distracted. The 3 year old, little Billy, thought that would be a good time to check out the shiny aluminum fishing boat tied up at the end of the dock. So he went to the dock and put one foot on the boat, and one foot on the dock. He lost his balance and fell into the water, which was about 5 or 6 ft deep. The splash alerted the 12-yr old who let out a piercing scream. Dad came running from the boat house, jumped into the water, swam down, but unable to see anything, came up for air. Sick with panic, he went right back down into this murky water, and began to feel everywhere around the bottom. He couldn’t feel anything. Finally, on his way up, he felt little Billy's arms locked in a death grip on one of the posts of the dock, about 4 ft under water. Prying the boy's fingers loose, they burst up together thru the surface to fill their lungs with life giving air. Finally when the adrenaline had stopped surging, and nerves had calmed down a little bit, the Father asked his son, “What on earth were you doing down there hanging onto the post so far under the water? And little Billy’s answer was a classic, laced with the wisdom only a toddler could give. He said, "I was just waiting for you dad. Just waiting for you." Friends, today we celebrate that 2000 yrs ago, the God of the universe left the glory and the splendor of heaven, a place where there was no pain and no sickness, no accidents, no hurt, and no death. And he plunged into this dark, murky world on a rescue mission, a rescue mission for all of us who are drowning, a rescue mission for all of us who are barely hanging on, a rescue mission for all of us who are lost in the darkness. SOURCE: Story told by Gene Appel.
2. DAILY
If you notice in Acts 1 verse 13 says they met together constantly (though I can’t translate this to a specific number of days of the week, there are other verses indicating that they met together daily in the temple courts).
Now, meeting together as a group daily is impossible in today’s modern age (or is it?). But, there is a sense that these people wanting to do nothing more than get together and talk about God. In fact, that’s what they did with the Lord when he was alive and moving about.
Okay, now as the youth pastor, I have to get real serious about an issue here. For most of my career I kind of used what I would call “fun motiviation,” and I may still do that. But, I cannot for the life of me understand why a person who professes a belief in Christ would NOT read the word of God daily. Okay, so you miss a day, so what, I get that. But for the most part, what in the world are we doing? We are the best of the best! The new generation! We are the ones that could be alive when Christ comes back! We are the ones who may see the entire world evangelized for the gospel of Christ! And I am not kidding about that. But, are we also the ones that cannot find a blink of daylight to read God’s Word?
(Leaders, please put the above lesson in your own ways. Remember, any specie that does not eat does not grow. And any specie that does not grow, dies. We cannot kid ourselves, either we teach our youth to read the Word or we’re kidding ourselves).
*I also want to put an asterisk here. Just in case one of us leaders has not established a regular quiet time with the Lord, it may be better for you just to skip part two of this lesson and go directly to part three. Why? Well, it would be hypocritical to lead others towards having a regular quiet time if we are not, and as a teacher of God’s word you don’t want to bring any form of judgment on yourself for doing that. So please fix that prior to fixing them. Thanks for understanding gang.
Check out these stats….
10% of church members cannot be found?
20% of church members never attend church
25% admit that they never pray
35% admit that they do not read their Bibles
40% admit that they never contribute to the church?tithe or offering
60% never give to missions
70% never assume responsibility within the church
85% never invite anyone to church 95 % have never won anyone to Christ
BUT! 100% expect to go to heaven
(The Choice, by Thomas Trask, Zondervan Pub. House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1999)
3. WITH JESUS
Transitioning from the previous stat to the next topic, this goes without saying, but the call to be an apostle involves having walked with the Lord. Read the verse again…
BIBLE VERSE: Acts 1:21-22
21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
So, one of the qualifications is to HAVE BEEN WITH…THE LORD. Okay, that sounds pretty basic. If I want to be this super all-power apostle for Christ, I have to know Christ. Yup, that’s true. But as we have talked about before, there’s a whole lot of people who say they know the Lord but ultimately do not. After all, their actions leave them out. Here’s what I am talking about…
BIBLE VERSE: 1 Corinthians 6:9
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
Now, what is technically “sexually immoral,” I don’t know exactly. But one thing is for certain, those that practice it are not heaven bound (there’s more to it than that, but lets take it literally for a moment). Someone who says they know Jesus is NOT going to continually commit sexual immorality. If they do, their salvation is suspect.
You don’t think Paul is serious about holiness? You don’t think God is serious about holiness? Look at this verse…
BIBLE VERSE: 1 Corinthians 9:26-27
26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
If Paul, one of the greatest and holiest preachers of all world history is concerned about living his life in such a way as God could decide to disqualify…which means to be put on the bench (what that means guys is that if we live unholy long enough, the Lord will just put us aside and not use us anymore), shouldn’t we?
If we thought missing a meeting (church) or missing a bible study (quiet time) would disqualify us from being used of the Lord…well…how would that change your life?
4. WHOLE TIME
I want to touch on this here briefly, I want to mention the phrase “whole time.” Why I mention this is because there are a lot of people who get fired up about Christ, a lot. But then all of the sudden, they lose that edge, they lose that witnessing potential. They stop attending. Then, they miraculously pick it up again (and I am thrilled for that, I am). But then they lose it again, they find ways not to do things. They fall out.
Well, those people may be believers or they may not (the reason I say maybe is because the Bible states those who persevere to the end shall be saved, dropping out is not persevering and persevering is a trait that believers do). But what I am saying, is that those that do this are not worthy of being called an apostle. Again, the reason why Matthias was chosen is because he was constant. The Lord isn’t thrilled with your amazing ability either by the way. The Lord would much rather desire your availability over your ability.
5. SOME CHANCE
Finally, there is some chance involved with how your life ends up. I personally hate using words like chance/luck/etc for I really don’t believe in it. But the term fits decent enough here, please allow me to explain.
So the apostles cannot decide who will be #12. So they find a way to cast lots to decide the outcome. Many people have the visualization that they rolled dice and Matthias’ name came up as the higher number. Actually, the lot that was rolled was more like two items shaken up in a container until one of the items found its way out first. Though it really doesn’t matter the process, this was considered an acceptable way to make spiritual decisions (I know it was done before in the scriptures but the current verse escapes me).
In the end, Matthias ends up an apostle? What about Barsabbas? There is no more mention of him (unless he also goes by Barnabas). And quite honestly, there is also no more Biblical mention of Matthias (though church history says he became a witness to Ethiopia prior to dying for the cause). But what if Barsabbas had been selected? Who knows?
What I am getting at is that you don’t know who is going to end up where. One of us may end up being the super-duper-alley-ooper pastor. Another of us may get a cool ministry position in the Orient sharing Christ with the Chinese. Another one of us may work in the nursery changing diapers. I guess what I am saying is, regardless of what your spiritual level is—its not up to you to decide if you are a pastor or poop cleaner. But all jobs need to be done.
I hear so many college idealogues stating where God is going to use them. I heard of a man who attend seminary and asked for all his buddies to call him REVV (short for reverend, which is funny because he has no congregation…pride?). So I guess I just want to say, is that if your desire really is to be an apostle, don’t be surprised if you end up somewhere else.
Humorous Close (written by Pastor Aldy Duque):
A man looked up from his hospital bed and said to his wife, “You’ve always been with me when I have had trouble. When I lost my shirt in a poor investment, you were there. When I had the car accident, you were with me. When I got fired, you were there. I realized that in all these misfortunes, you were there. Now I believe what my friends were saying, that you are a bad luck.