"The Christ Reformission 'The Sound Heard Around the Earth'"

Pastor Dan's sermon from 7/29/2007

Scripture Reference: Acts 2: 1-13

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A few comments on chapter 1 of Acts.

The disciples had received their instructions from Jesus Christ. "Go to Jerusalem and wait." And wait they did. But they didn't just sit on their hands and wait. They labored before the Lord in prayer. They had big decisions to make. Who would replace Judas? What would they do after they picked Matthias? What was next? How would they get the message out?

Acts 1 is sort of like the first official church staff meeting in history. They had a mission to do, the mission of Jesus Christ, and they needed to make some decisions. But what strikes me the most is that they didn't come up with a bunch of programs and committees. They didn't even have a Book of Church Order yet. Heck, they didn't even have the New Testament. They were completely dependant upon the promises of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. So what did they do? They prayed. Luke says it was an ongoing and constant prayer.

Do we approach life in this way any longer? It seems as if every decision we make is from logical conclusions in the absence of prayer. Disciples need to labor in prayer. We need to get past the whole idea of, "Yeah, I will pray about it," and leaving things to our own wisdom. We need to seek God's wisdom. These men (and women) trusted the Lord with all of their heart.

Matthias. We hear his name one minute and the next minute he is gone forever. Tradition has it that Matthias eventually gave his life for Jesus Christ in Jerusalem not long after he had become the 12th disciple. Who is this guy? Does Acts 1 allow for playing chance games? Was Matthias a credible choice since we don't hear anything about him ever again?

The casting lots was an ancient Jewish practice which Ecclesiastes speaks about. The poet says that God even controls the lots that are cast. These men were simply following Scripture. Matthias was chosen by using traditional methods of choosing between options. We may not hear about Matthias ever again, but we don't hear about several of the disciples ever again. Luke is simply giving us information as he continues to tell Theophilus the story of Jesus Christ.