Sunday Opening Message 2-20-22 - Conclusion of Acts, Chapter One... Pastor, Gilman Jones
Over the centuries different Christian churches have developed their own traditions , supported by questionable beliefs… A study of the scriptures, in forums such as this bible study , will tell you quite easily what is truth and help us to recognize fiction whatever the source… Pieces of fiction which may lead us down a path to nowhere… We can recognize “ truths” as they are reveled to us by God, as he did for the Apostles when Jesus opened their understanding….
Lets pray…..
We ask these things in Jesus’ name..
Amen
Among Christians in western civilization many believe that Christianity is a western religion , as opposed to Islam which is Eastern.. The fact is in the US we're about as far away from the original starting point of Christianity as you can get. Here in the Philippines we are closer to the starting point of Christianity but still quite far…
You'll find, when you read your bible that it's an eastern, oriented, oriental religion that has come by God's grace to the uttermost parts of the earth.
If you remember from last meeting , the starting point: Jerusalem, Judeah, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Something else to keep in mind. The book of Acts records the events that take place during a 30 year period. That’s thirty years of church history in this book: AD 33 to AD 63…
I bring that up because you can read through the book of Acts in a single setting, or a few days if you want to spread it out. But you're going to read about miraculous things that occur in this book.
The book of Acts records about 30 miracles, that's an average of about a miracle a year. It's important to remember that, because I think we see a miracle a year in our own lives or the lives around us.
They didn't have daily miracles so we also should not look for that. Miracles are the sovereign work of God in his own timing, and for his own pleasure.
So 30 years, 30 miracles, easy to average that out.
verse nine.
Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched-- he was taken up. And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.
Who said, , men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This is the last time they're seeing him, so their heads are upward. But the men said…
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will also come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.” Jesus Christ will return as he left.
He will return personally. He will return visibly. He will return wonderfully. He will first come for his church.
We call that the rapture, first Thessalonians chapter four, in which Jesus comes close to the earth in the clouds. Not all the way down to the earth.
We will rise to meet him. But one day he is coming all the way back down to the earth.
Revelation chapter 19, the second coming when every eye will see him.
Every eye, not just the church taken up to meet him, every eye shall see him. And will come with him at that second coming. Now, his return, according to these two men, is like his leaving. It's personal, it's visible, and Jesus left from, as we read down in verse 12, the Mount of Olives. When Jesus comes back, his second coming, he's going to touch down on the Mount of Olives. The same mountain he left on he's coming back to. Zechariah chapter 14 says that.
It says, in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and the mountain will be cleft or divided into two and move, half of it to the north, half of it to the south and a and huge valley will be produced in Jerusalem. That's Zechariah 14. 4…The passage reads:
“On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.”
Although the Mt. of Olives, in reality, is only about 400 feet high 122 meters , It is so steep that it feels like a mountain.
You get a commanding view of the city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Although there is much speculation among churches as to where Christ ascended from… We find that most are wrong and this is the advantage of reading the Bible. Because when you read the Bible and you come to the Gospel of Luke, the author of Acts and Luke tells us Jesus took them as far as Bethany, and that's where he launched or ascended. Now Bethany is on the Mount of Olives.
So there's the mountain, and there's Jerusalem over here.
So he didn't launch from the very top, but just on the other side going down toward the east, toward the Dead Sea, is the village of Bethany. where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived. Where Jesus actually spent much time.. It’s More of a private setting. And that's where he took his disciples, to the familiar place where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived.
And Luke says that's where Jesus ascended into heaven.
Verse 12-- boy, we're not getting far--
then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olivette, or the mountain called Olivette--
Mount of Olives-- which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
What does that mean?
It means 2000 cubits or less, that was a Sabbath day's journey.
So 2/3 of a mile is 2000 cubits, that's a Sabbath day's journey.
You know the law of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, you were forbidden to work. You can't work on the Sabbath, it's the day of rest. You couldn't work, but you could walk. There are 613 commandments in Jewish scripture which incorporates the 10 commandments handed down by God.. The remaining 603 commandments were primarily contrived to specifically state what is acceptable and what is not on Sabbath days.. This is one such regulation..
But you couldn't walk if you're walking turned into work. So you can't work, but you can walk, but you can't walk so far that it constitutes work. So they had to come up with a distance.
They came up with 2000 cubits. Now, here's the tradition, I can't prove it it's just a Jewish tradition as I understand it. It is believed that the 2000 cubits for the Sabbath day's journey was established in the layout of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament.
Remember the Tabernacle, the tents of Israel around the central sanctuary?
It was believed that the farthest tent in the camp of Israel away from the Tabernacle in ancient times was 2000 cubits. And so that was the distance that the furthest inhabitant of the camp had to walk on the Sabbath to worship the Lord in the sanctuary.
So the idea of 2000 cubits or 2/3 of a mile has been established.
And Jerusalem is a Sabbath day's journey according to that tradition. And when they had entered, they went into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, notice who's first on the list?
Peter always is first on the list. Don't get mad at Peter for that, whoever wrote the names of the apostles in any of the times and places they're mentioned Peter is always mentioned first.
And who is always mentioned last?
Judas Iscariot, but he's not mentioned here because he's out, as we will see and have seen.
Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philippi, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus,
and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. Judas Iscariot is not mentioned.
Peter is mentioned, and Peter does have a leadership role in the early church.
He's the one on the day of Pentecost who preaches the first message. As he is filled with his spirit.
He speaks boldly. However, Peter's leadership role is going to diminish throughout this book. You'll see Peter prominent at the beginning, but you will not see Peter as the first pope. Just got to warn you if you're looking for that, you won't find it.
What you're going to find is Peter's submitting to James.
By the time we get to Acts chapter 12, 13, 14, and 15, James becomes the leader, the spokesman,
of the early church pre-Paul the Apostle. So Peter's the initial leader. James becomes the leader everybody looks to make the final call. James, interestingly, is the brother of Jesus.
That James, not this James In the lineup of apostles, there's a James who is one of the blood brothers of Jesus, the half brothers of Jesus.
He's going to become the first real leader that everybody looks to in Jerusalem.
Then notice what it says, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Now, there's a lot there. I just want to touch on a couple of things. Mary is mentioned specifically.
Rightfully so, mother of the messiah. Then says the women. What women?
The women who were there at the resurrection, and at the cross, and now with him in Jerusalem.
So there's Mary the mother of Jesus. There's Mary Magdalene. There's Mary the wife of Clopus.
There's another Mary, and there's-- as you can see Mary was a very popular name, they've got four Mary's going on-- the other Mary was probably Mary and Martha-, because they were in Bethany and they were worshipping there.
And a girl, a woman, named Salome, who is mentioned in the New Testament.
At least those women were present in this upper room.
Then it mentions also his brothers. You read about Mary in this verse.
Look at it and notice it , because it is the last mention of Mary on the pages of scripture.
After this, she fades away from holy writ. She's not mentioned by any other writer as living somewhere or doing anything. So all we have is tradition. Some say she died in Jerusalem, others
say she followed John to Ephesus and died in Ephesus. We don't know.
But this is the last mention of Mary in the scriptures.
So evidently, the early church didn't venerate her like they did later on. Even Jesus didn't venerate her.
When Jesus was teaching in a house they came to him and said, your mother and your brothers are here to see you.
And he says, well, who are my mother and my brothers? That's a weird thing to say about your family waiting outside to see you.
Then he looked and pointed to them and he said, whoever listens to God's word and does it, the same as my mother, my brother, and my sister.
On another occasion in Luke chapter 11 somebody came along and tried to worship Mary.
They tried to venerate her. They saw Jesus and this person said, blessed is the womb they gave you birth. And blessed are the breasts that nourished you. And you know what Jesus said to that person?
He said, well, really blessed are the ones who hear the word of God and do it.
That's what he said.
So Jesus didn't give any undue adulation and worshipped her as the mother of God nor did the other traditions that develop later in the early church.
Now, later on a tradition developed.
I have to tell you this, because look at what it says in verse 14, with his what? Brothers
Well, who are his brothers? Well, if you were to read Mark chapter six four of them are mentioned.
James, Joses-- another name for Joseph-- Judas-- different than the other two Judases that are disciples-and Simon, the half brothers of Jesus.
So after Jesus was born, he was conceived-- she was a virgin,
he was conceived by the Holy Spirit--when Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary had normal marriage physical relationships and they had children. At least four other boys, and then it says and his sisters.
They're not even mentioned by name, but a whole slew of kids Joseph and Mary had.
And yet, in the 14th century, this weird doctrine developed called the perpetual virginity of Mary.
And that is that Jesus was born, conceived in the womb of a Virgin. Mary had birth, delivered Jesus, and then she the rest of her life state of perpetual virgin. There is even the belief within the Catholic church
that when Jesus was born, he never came through any human open-- any natural bodily opening. He didn't traverse a birth canal. So that was never even used in the process.
I don't know where that came from, but it's a tradition from the 14th century. So here his brothers are mentioned. They're mentioned by name in Mark chapter six, These are the half brothers of Jesus,who was conceived by a virgin according to some schools of thought.
In those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, all together the number of names was about 120. And he said, men and brethren this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforeby the mouth of David concerning Judas. Who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
I just got to tell you.
I know I go slow through some of these things, but you notice a verse like this and you marvel at Peter.
He was just a fisherman, but listen to what he says concerning the scripture .He Does not have a formal education. He’s a fisherman, a common person, but the things that he believed about the scripture-- and not only that-- how he used the scripture. He's going to quote from two psalms, Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, and take a portion of it and place it together to show that it has been fulfilled.
Now, where does he get that from? How was he able to do that? Well, let me suggest a couple of things
Number one, in Luke chapter 24 after the Resurrection it says that Jesus opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. That would do it.
Have you ever read something and all of a sudden you go, oh, I get it. Now I see it. Well, Jesus did that for his earthly followers so that they could understand the Old Testament scriptureand how it is fulfilled in Christ.
So he opened up their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures number one.
Number two, Jesus had been with them 40 days teaching them about the Kingdom of God. He's given them personal Bible studies. That would expand their knowledge a little bit.
So Jesus opening up their minds, Jesus personally teaching them, searching the scripture has formed now for Peter, he has a theology, a theology of fulfilled scripture.
So to me it's impressive, because that's a short lead time for a fisherman from Galilee.
A simple man, to be able to get this. He wasn't Doctor Peter. He was just Peter, but he's Peter filled with the Holy Ghost, and post Resurrection of Jesus. So it's marvelous.
And I just want you to notice in verse 16 how he regards the scripture.
Number one, the Scripture has to be fulfilled. This is Peter's saying, whatever scripture you find in the Old Testament it has to be fulfilled.
Number two, it has human authors. David wrote a couple of Psalms. He says, David wrote these things.
But a third thing he noted, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired--
So now he's quoting it.
For he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.
Now, this man purchased a field-- this is Judas-- with the wages of iniquity.
And falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and his entrails gushed out.
Now, do we have a discrepancy? Because the gospel accounts tell us
that Judas went out and hung himself. Now he says that his guts, his entrails gushed out when he got
slammed on a rock. No, there's not a discrepancy he hung himself. The rope broke.
The breaking of the rope caused the fall. The fall-- the impact of the fall-- caused the opening of the body cavity and his guts, his intestines were all over the rocks.
And became known to all dwelling in Jerusalem.
For it it is written in the book of Psalms--
he continues-- let his dwelling place be desolate and no one live in it, and let another take his office. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. The early church, the first meeting that they had to deal with after the ascension, was the shocking report of Judas Iscariot. Shocking because they are dealing with the suicide of an apostle. Here you have a follower of Jesus, one whom Jesus chose to follow him closely, intimately. He had the opportunity that only 12 human beings ever had, and he was an unbeliever.
He is called the son of perdition. Jesus said, have not I chosen 12 of you, and one of you is a devil?
For it says Jesus knew who would betray him. But now they're dealing with this, and they feel the need to replace Judas in his apostolic office. And a guy named Matthias is going to be chosen.
And they prayed.
And they said, you, O Lord, know the hearts of all-- the hearts of all. Show us which of these you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, fell that he
might go to his own place.
And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
Lord be with us this Sunday morning as we meet again to study and ponder your word. Open our minds and hearts to receive your message. Let your truths be reviled to us… Be with those this morning who are sick but are your faithful servants…Strengthen us daily as we meet our challenges… we are thankful for all of the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us.. Help us to use them wisely..
Amen
Among Christians in western civilization many believe that Christianity is a western religion , as opposed to Islam which is Eastern.. The fact is in the US we're about as far away from the original starting point of Christianity as you can get. Here in the Philippines we are closer to the starting point of Christianity but still quite far…
You'll find, when you read your bible that it's an eastern, oriented, oriental religion that has come by God's grace to the uttermost parts of the earth.
If you remember from last meeting , the starting point: Jerusalem, Judeah, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Something else to keep in mind. The book of Acts records the events that take place during a 30 year period. That’s thirty years of church history in this book: AD 33 to AD 63…
I bring that up because you can read through the book of Acts in a single setting, or a few days if you want to spread it out. But you're going to read about miraculous things that occur in this book.
The book of Acts records about 30 miracles, that's an average of about a miracle a year. It's important to remember that, because I think we see a miracle a year in our own lives or the lives around us.
They didn't have daily miracles so we also should not look for that. Miracles are the sovereign work of God in his own timing, and for his own pleasure.
So 30 years, 30 miracles, easy to average that out.
verse nine.
Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched-- he was taken up. And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.
Who said, , men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This is the last time they're seeing him, so their heads are upward. But the men said…
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will also come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.” Jesus Christ will return as he left.
He will return personally. He will return visibly. He will return wonderfully. He will first come for his church.
We call that the rapture, first Thessalonians chapter four, in which Jesus comes close to the earth in the clouds. Not all the way down to the earth.
We will rise to meet him. But one day he is coming all the way back down to the earth.
Revelation chapter 19, the second coming when every eye will see him.
Every eye, not just the church taken up to meet him, every eye shall see him. And will come with him at that second coming. Now, his return, according to these two men, is like his leaving. It's personal, it's visible, and Jesus left from, as we read down in verse 12, the Mount of Olives. When Jesus comes back, his second coming, he's going to touch down on the Mount of Olives. The same mountain he left on he's coming back to. Zechariah chapter 14 says that.
It says, in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, and the mountain will be cleft or divided into two and move, half of it to the north, half of it to the south and a and huge valley will be produced in Jerusalem. That's Zechariah 14. 4…The passage reads:
“On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.”
Although the Mt. of Olives, in reality, is only about 400 feet high 122 meters , It is so steep that it feels like a mountain.
You get a commanding view of the city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Although there is much speculation among churches as to where Christ ascended from… We find that most are wrong and this is the advantage of reading the Bible. Because when you read the Bible and you come to the Gospel of Luke, the author of Acts and Luke tells us Jesus took them as far as Bethany, and that's where he launched or ascended. Now Bethany is on the Mount of Olives.
So there's the mountain, and there's Jerusalem over here.
So he didn't launch from the very top, but just on the other side going down toward the east, toward the Dead Sea, is the village of Bethany. where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived. Where Jesus actually spent much time.. It’s More of a private setting. And that's where he took his disciples, to the familiar place where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived.
And Luke says that's where Jesus ascended into heaven.
Verse 12-- boy, we're not getting far--
then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olivette, or the mountain called Olivette--
Mount of Olives-- which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
What does that mean?
It means 2000 cubits or less, that was a Sabbath day's journey.
So 2/3 of a mile is 2000 cubits, that's a Sabbath day's journey.
You know the law of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, you were forbidden to work. You can't work on the Sabbath, it's the day of rest. You couldn't work, but you could walk. There are 613 commandments in Jewish scripture which incorporates the 10 commandments handed down by God.. The remaining 603 commandments were primarily contrived to specifically state what is acceptable and what is not on Sabbath days.. This is one such regulation..
But you couldn't walk if you're walking turned into work. So you can't work, but you can walk, but you can't walk so far that it constitutes work. So they had to come up with a distance.
They came up with 2000 cubits. Now, here's the tradition, I can't prove it it's just a Jewish tradition as I understand it. It is believed that the 2000 cubits for the Sabbath day's journey was established in the layout of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament.
Remember the Tabernacle, the tents of Israel around the central sanctuary?
It was believed that the farthest tent in the camp of Israel away from the Tabernacle in ancient times was 2000 cubits. And so that was the distance that the furthest inhabitant of the camp had to walk on the Sabbath to worship the Lord in the sanctuary.
So the idea of 2000 cubits or 2/3 of a mile has been established.
And Jerusalem is a Sabbath day's journey according to that tradition. And when they had entered, they went into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, notice who's first on the list?
Peter always is first on the list. Don't get mad at Peter for that, whoever wrote the names of the apostles in any of the times and places they're mentioned Peter is always mentioned first.
And who is always mentioned last?
Judas Iscariot, but he's not mentioned here because he's out, as we will see and have seen.
Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philippi, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus,
and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. Judas Iscariot is not mentioned.
Peter is mentioned, and Peter does have a leadership role in the early church.
He's the one on the day of Pentecost who preaches the first message. As he is filled with his spirit.
He speaks boldly. However, Peter's leadership role is going to diminish throughout this book. You'll see Peter prominent at the beginning, but you will not see Peter as the first pope. Just got to warn you if you're looking for that, you won't find it.
What you're going to find is Peter's submitting to James.
By the time we get to Acts chapter 12, 13, 14, and 15, James becomes the leader, the spokesman,
of the early church pre-Paul the Apostle. So Peter's the initial leader. James becomes the leader everybody looks to make the final call. James, interestingly, is the brother of Jesus.
That James, not this James In the lineup of apostles, there's a James who is one of the blood brothers of Jesus, the half brothers of Jesus.
He's going to become the first real leader that everybody looks to in Jerusalem.
Then notice what it says, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Now, there's a lot there. I just want to touch on a couple of things. Mary is mentioned specifically.
Rightfully so, mother of the messiah. Then says the women. What women?
The women who were there at the resurrection, and at the cross, and now with him in Jerusalem.
So there's Mary the mother of Jesus. There's Mary Magdalene. There's Mary the wife of Clopus.
There's another Mary, and there's-- as you can see Mary was a very popular name, they've got four Mary's going on-- the other Mary was probably Mary and Martha-, because they were in Bethany and they were worshipping there.
And a girl, a woman, named Salome, who is mentioned in the New Testament.
At least those women were present in this upper room.
Then it mentions also his brothers. You read about Mary in this verse.
Look at it and notice it , because it is the last mention of Mary on the pages of scripture.
After this, she fades away from holy writ. She's not mentioned by any other writer as living somewhere or doing anything. So all we have is tradition. Some say she died in Jerusalem, others
say she followed John to Ephesus and died in Ephesus. We don't know.
But this is the last mention of Mary in the scriptures.
So evidently, the early church didn't venerate her like they did later on. Even Jesus didn't venerate her.
When Jesus was teaching in a house they came to him and said, your mother and your brothers are here to see you.
And he says, well, who are my mother and my brothers? That's a weird thing to say about your family waiting outside to see you.
Then he looked and pointed to them and he said, whoever listens to God's word and does it, the same as my mother, my brother, and my sister.
On another occasion in Luke chapter 11 somebody came along and tried to worship Mary.
They tried to venerate her. They saw Jesus and this person said, blessed is the womb they gave you birth. And blessed are the breasts that nourished you. And you know what Jesus said to that person?
He said, well, really blessed are the ones who hear the word of God and do it.
That's what he said.
So Jesus didn't give any undue adulation and worshipped her as the mother of God nor did the other traditions that develop later in the early church.
Now, later on a tradition developed.
I have to tell you this, because look at what it says in verse 14, with his what? Brothers
Well, who are his brothers? Well, if you were to read Mark chapter six four of them are mentioned.
James, Joses-- another name for Joseph-- Judas-- different than the other two Judases that are disciples-and Simon, the half brothers of Jesus.
So after Jesus was born, he was conceived-- she was a virgin,
he was conceived by the Holy Spirit--when Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary had normal marriage physical relationships and they had children. At least four other boys, and then it says and his sisters.
They're not even mentioned by name, but a whole slew of kids Joseph and Mary had.
And yet, in the 14th century, this weird doctrine developed called the perpetual virginity of Mary.
And that is that Jesus was born, conceived in the womb of a Virgin. Mary had birth, delivered Jesus, and then she the rest of her life state of perpetual virgin. There is even the belief within the Catholic church
that when Jesus was born, he never came through any human open-- any natural bodily opening. He didn't traverse a birth canal. So that was never even used in the process.
I don't know where that came from, but it's a tradition from the 14th century. So here his brothers are mentioned. They're mentioned by name in Mark chapter six, These are the half brothers of Jesus,who was conceived by a virgin according to some schools of thought.
In those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, all together the number of names was about 120. And he said, men and brethren this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforeby the mouth of David concerning Judas. Who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
I just got to tell you.
I know I go slow through some of these things, but you notice a verse like this and you marvel at Peter.
He was just a fisherman, but listen to what he says concerning the scripture .He Does not have a formal education. He’s a fisherman, a common person, but the things that he believed about the scripture-- and not only that-- how he used the scripture. He's going to quote from two psalms, Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, and take a portion of it and place it together to show that it has been fulfilled.
Now, where does he get that from? How was he able to do that? Well, let me suggest a couple of things
Number one, in Luke chapter 24 after the Resurrection it says that Jesus opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. That would do it.
Have you ever read something and all of a sudden you go, oh, I get it. Now I see it. Well, Jesus did that for his earthly followers so that they could understand the Old Testament scriptureand how it is fulfilled in Christ.
So he opened up their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures number one.
Number two, Jesus had been with them 40 days teaching them about the Kingdom of God. He's given them personal Bible studies. That would expand their knowledge a little bit.
So Jesus opening up their minds, Jesus personally teaching them, searching the scripture has formed now for Peter, he has a theology, a theology of fulfilled scripture.
So to me it's impressive, because that's a short lead time for a fisherman from Galilee.
A simple man, to be able to get this. He wasn't Doctor Peter. He was just Peter, but he's Peter filled with the Holy Ghost, and post Resurrection of Jesus. So it's marvelous.
And I just want you to notice in verse 16 how he regards the scripture.
Number one, the Scripture has to be fulfilled. This is Peter's saying, whatever scripture you find in the Old Testament it has to be fulfilled.
Number two, it has human authors. David wrote a couple of Psalms. He says, David wrote these things.
But a third thing he noted, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired--
So now he's quoting it.
For he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.
Now, this man purchased a field-- this is Judas-- with the wages of iniquity.
And falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and his entrails gushed out.
Now, do we have a discrepancy? Because the gospel accounts tell us
that Judas went out and hung himself. Now he says that his guts, his entrails gushed out when he got
slammed on a rock. No, there's not a discrepancy he hung himself. The rope broke.
The breaking of the rope caused the fall. The fall-- the impact of the fall-- caused the opening of the body cavity and his guts, his intestines were all over the rocks.
And became known to all dwelling in Jerusalem.
For it it is written in the book of Psalms--
he continues-- let his dwelling place be desolate and no one live in it, and let another take his office. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. The early church, the first meeting that they had to deal with after the ascension, was the shocking report of Judas Iscariot. Shocking because they are dealing with the suicide of an apostle. Here you have a follower of Jesus, one whom Jesus chose to follow him closely, intimately. He had the opportunity that only 12 human beings ever had, and he was an unbeliever.
He is called the son of perdition. Jesus said, have not I chosen 12 of you, and one of you is a devil?
For it says Jesus knew who would betray him. But now they're dealing with this, and they feel the need to replace Judas in his apostolic office. And a guy named Matthias is going to be chosen.
And they prayed.
And they said, you, O Lord, know the hearts of all-- the hearts of all. Show us which of these you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, fell that he
might go to his own place.
And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for your Holy Spirit working through ordinary men and women in Jerusalem, going to Judea, through Samaria, all the way to the ends of the earth.
Lord, thank you that we, too, can be filled with your spirit. The helper can work in and through us, and your word can go out in our community, in our Jerusalem, in our Judeah, our Samaria, all the way
to the ends of the earth.
May you use us, Lord, in our homes, with our families,
with our friends, and at our workplace…
We ask In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Closing Prayer
Dear Lord ..We are grateful for our fellowship this morning. We ask for your blessings as we carry forth your word in our lives. We are thankful for the generosity of others to help further your work no matter how small or large their contribution. We are aware that true Christian generosity comes not from the portion given but from the proportion according to our capabilities…
We pray this morning that the programs like Mercy House and Shield of Hope Feeding program continue to thrive as the sick and vulnerable are cared for and brought to your word..
Give us each day the faith & hope as we continue our journey for your sake..
If it be your will heal Ronald Rea in his battle with COVID.
We ask these things in Jesus name..
Amen
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