SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2017 7:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Selection of a Disciple
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 1:21-26
Message of the verses: “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 men, 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.”
As we begin this last Spiritual Diary on the first
chapter of the book of Acts I want to give a quote from John MacArthur that has
to do with something that I wrote about earlier, that is was wrong for Peter to
bring this up about replacing Judas or not.
“Some have argued that Peter
and the apostles were mistaken to choose a replacement for Judas. Paul, they assume, was really the Lord’s
choice as the twelfth apostle. Since
there are only to be twelve thrones in the kingdom (Matt. 19:28), the twelfth
must be for the greatest apostle, Paul.
Nothing in this passage, however, indicates that this action is
wrong. It is inconceivable that the Lord
would allow such a crucial error in such a crucial office at the very beginning
of His church. Why would He take pains
to provide the apostles with all the proper resources, and then allow them to
choose the wrong man? Jesus Christ chose
Matthias just as surely as He chose the other eleven. And while Paul was in no way inferior to the
twelve, he was not one of their number.
By his own testimony he was ‘in no respect…inferior to the most eminent
apostles, even though I am a nobody’ (2 Cor. 12:11). He was a unique apostle. The mission of the twelve was primarily to
the nation of Israel, while he was the apostle sent to the Gentiles (Rom.
11:13).”
Well I suppose that this answers the question that has actually bothered me since sometime in early 1979 when we were studying the gospel of John in our Sunday school class. However it does not answer the question that comes from the book of Revelation. “Re 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
Peter, in this section we are looking at speaks about the
requirements of who would be chosen, as this is seen in verses 21-22. This I have to believe was done by Peter as
the Holy Spirit moved him to do so. We
have written about the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in the
church age in that His work was to baptize believers into the body of Christ which
happens at the moment of salvation, and then we are to be continually filled
with the Spirit in order to accomplish the work that He has for us to do. We have also mentioned that in the Old
Testament times that the Holy Spirit could come and leave a believer and spoke
of Saul and David, and also David’s prayer in Psalm 51 where he prays that God
will not remove the Holy Spirit from him after his sin with Bathsheba. Now as I think about the Spirit moving in
Peter’s heart at this time for this job I use to think that Peter did this
before the Holy Spirit began to work in his life when the church began on the
day of Pentecost, but now I believe that the Spirit moved on his heart to
accomplish this important task of replacing Judas.
Now as we move on in our passage we see that two men were
chosen and actually nothing is known about either of these men at all except
they fulfilled the requirements set down for this office. The next thing that was done is probably the
most important thing and that is prayer.
Sometimes when we get into trouble we think that prayer is the last
resort, but prayer should always be the first thing we do. I have to admit that when I do something that
later on I regret doing that it is hard for me to pray, but that should not be the
case for the Lord always wants believers to pray to Him.
Matthias was no mistake as he was chosen by the Lord to
take the place of Judas. Even though we
know little about Him other than what we see in this passage, we actually know
little about most of the apostles of the Lord.
Choosing by lots is and OT way of doing things and since
they were actually still under the OT rules until the church began this was the
proper way of doing this. Proverbs 16:33
tells us “The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the
LORD.”
MacArthur concludes his commentary on this first chapter
of Acts by writing:
“With Matthias’s selection
to replace the traitor Judas, the final preparation for the church was
completed; the final resource provided. All
was now ready for the birth of the church on the Day of Pentecost.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am thankful to the Lord that He has made
clear to my heart what went on during this selection of Matthias.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am trusting the Lord to cause things to
work out for His glory and my good on an unwise decision that I made recently.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ezekiel.”
Today’s Bible
question: “By what new name was the Lord
known unto Moses?
Answer in our next SD.
7/8/2017 8:23 AM
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