Empowered to Serve
Acts 1:10–26
Take your Bible and turn to Acts 1:10. In the book of Acts we continue the life of Christ as He lives through His church.
Today we have a two-part message beginning with the ascension of Jesus.
The ascension of Jesus Christ marks His return to the Father's right hand in glory. This pivotal event affirmed His victory over sin and death, and it set the stage for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The angels' proclamation foreshadows His promised return in glory.
The ascension signifies the completion of Christ's earthly ministry and underscores His authority as King of Kings. As we reflect on Christ's ascension, we are reminded of our commission to proclaim His gospel to all nations, eagerly anticipating His return.
Imagine the awe and wonder of the disciples as they witnessed Jesus ascending into heaven. This moment solidified their faith and ignited a burning anticipation for His promised return.
The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of every believer. This event, foretold in Scripture, assures us of His imminent return to gather His people and establish His eternal kingdom. As believers, we await His coming with anticipation and readiness.
The promise of Christ's second coming encourages us to live in readiness, abiding in faith and obedience. It underscores the assurance of our future resurrection and eternal life with Him. Our response should be one of joyful anticipation.
Consider the excitement and anticipation of a bride awaiting her groom on their wedding day. Similarly, we eagerly await the glorious return of our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who will unite us with Him forever.
As we await the return of Christ, we are called to live as faithful stewards, honoring Him in every aspect of our lives; cultivating holiness, sharing the gospel boldly, and eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of His promises.
God's desire is for all to come to repentance and salvation before Christ's return. The urgency of the gospel compels us to reach out to unbelievers, sharing the message of hope and eternal life found in Jesus Christ knowing that time is short before His return.
Living in expectation of Christ's return compels us to live purposefully and faithfully. Let us be vigilant, prayerful, and active in advancing His kingdom until He comes again.
Embrace a renewed sense of expectation and hope in Christ's return. Live each day with purpose, dedicating our self to His kingdom work. Let us be transformed by the truth of His promised return, living as lights in a world longing for His redemption and glory.
The rest of our message is sandwiched between the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven and Pentecost Sunday.
In comparison to the ascension or Pentecost, our passage comes off vanilla plain.
Reading over the text again and again, I realized I was asking the wrong question. Rather than to ask what might we be missing – the better question to ask of the text is WHO is missing!
For the first time Jesus Christ is physically missing. We can’t understate the impact on this group. Jesus’ physical absence from the apostles is the defining moment in their lives and the lives of the church.
Berkhof writes, “The apostles had the special task of building on the foundation for the Church of all ages.” These verses that at first appear so ordinary mark the start of that important work. What takes place here sets up a framework that has shaped churches ever since.
Verse 12: “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.” Given Acts 1:3 indicates the scension took place 40 days after the resurrection.
Beginning in verse 12 it talks about two kinds of disciples. A contrast between the true disciple and the false disciple; a contrast between Judas and a man named Matthias about whom we know very little.
As the book of Acts unfolds, we have seen in just the first two messages, that Jesus in chapter 1 is equipping His own for what is going to happen in chapter 2. In chapter 2, the Holy Spirit descends, and the church is born and evangelism begins and the work that Jesus began to do is to be continued in them. But before that can happen there are some preparations that have to be taken care of.
So chapter 1 is preparation for the birth of the church. We’ve seen how Jesus has given to His own all of the proper equipment. We saw that He gave them the proper message and that He taught them all they needed to know.
He gave them the proper manifestation. He revealed Himself to them in His glorified post-resurrection body in order that they might be confident that He was really alive from the dead.
He gave them the proper might. He promised them that the Spirit would come and empower them.
He then gave them the proper mystery. He said there are some things you don’t need to know, and one is the time of My return. So, He left it for every man to live in the light of the fact that Jesus could come any moment.
He also gave them the proper mission. He told them they were witnesses to go to the world with the gospel. He gave them the proper motive; that He would be coming back to see if they had been faithful.
In addition to those preparations, Jesus wanted to be sure that the proper men were involved in carrying out the job. So, in verses 12–26 we see Jesus replacing Judas with the proper man to fill in the ranks of the 12 to do the job. It’s a marvelous thing to realize that God works His will through men.
God pours His will through men/women and operates and functions in the earth through them.
For this crisis hour in redemptive history, as God is about to give birth to His church, God wants to make sure that the proper men are in the proper place to do the job. Judas has been placed aside by his own will and so he is to be replaced.
I believe it is God, through Christ, doing the choosing and casting lots was just the process. In John 15:16 Jesus said to His disciples, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth and bring fruit …” In other words, Jesus did the selecting.
In Acts 10:39 Peter is speaking, and he says, “And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third day and showed Him openly, not to all the people but unto witnesses” … what witnesses? … “chosen before by God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be the Judge of living and dead.”
So, Peter says He appeared to us chosen by God to be His apostles. Jesus appointed the 12. Jesus later appointed the 70, and then when talking about having future workers, the Bible says “Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest that He send forth laborers into His harvest.” You see, Christian service isn’t a matter of recruitment; it’s a matter of divine appointment.
In the days of Paul we read, “How shall they preach except they be sent.” And who does the sending? … God does. Unless God has called you by laying it on your heart, by preparing you, by training you and giving you the desire and the sensitivity to the Spirit of God then don’t enter into it.
Be available if God’s calling you and be obedient to His call but don’t usurp something that God hasn’t called you to do, God appoints His own. Suffice it to say that the Lord chooses whom He will for His ministries.
Let me add that this is the final act of the age of the Old Testament; the age of law is coming to an end. In chapter 2, the beginning of the new age, as the Spirit comes, and the church is born.
Let’s look at the text. First of all is the submission of the disciples in verses 12–15. Jesus told them that they had to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit arrived. Luke 24:49 He said “… tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.”
Back in verse 4 He said, stay in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father, which was the baptism of the Holy Spirit in verse 5. And verse 8a says and when He gets here, you’ll have the power to do the job.
He had given them everything, all the equipment except the power and He says stick around until the power arrives. It was very important for them to wait because the Holy Spirit could not come until Jesus got back to Heaven.
John 16:7 says that If I go away, I will send the Comforter unto you. So, Jesus had to go back to Heaven, set in order whatever had to be done there, and then send the Holy Spirit.
So, there was a period of time in which they had to wait for the arrival of the Spirit because they couldn’t go out to be witnesses to the world, they couldn’t go out to do the job unless they had the power to do it and the Spirit was the energy.
So, they waited and they showed their obedience. Look at verse 12. “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olives, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.” That gives us the designation of the location where Jesus ascended. He had just ascended into Heaven, and they left the Mount of Olives. Luke 24:50 says it was on the back side toward Bethany.
Back in verse 4 He said, “tarry in Jerusalem,” and they went immediately to Jerusalem. That’s obedience to the will of the Lord. That’s the most important thing in the Christian experience is that one word obedience. That’s what it’s all about. And they obeyed.
In verse 13 it says, “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room …” They came into the city of Jerusalem into an upper room. Luke 24:53 says they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God so it’s very possible the upper room was in the temple.
You’ll notice that in verse 13 it tells us who was gathered there. You’ll also notice that there are only 11 disciples listed with the exclusion of Judas. It says there abode there “Peter and James and John, Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas” … or Thaddaeus is another name … “the son of James” … not to be confused with Judas Iscariot.
There are others with them in this upper chamber and in verse 14 it says, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brethren.”
Jesus did have brothers. They were half-brothers because Jesus was virgin born. We even know their names: James, Joses or Joseph, Simon and Jude. And James and Jude figure very prominently in the New Testament for James wrote the epistle of James and Jude wrote the epistle of Jude and James was the first head of the Jerusalem church. He heads up the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. So, they became believers.
The exciting thing is that they were here because in John 7:5 it says, “neither did his brethren believe in Him.” But by the time you get here, there they are gathered in a prayer meeting with the rest of His disciples. It must have been an exciting thing for the Lord to recognize His brothers in that group. That only leaves one other person designated in 14 and that is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
It says “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. Don’t misunderstand this. The coming of the Holy Spirit did not depend on them praying. They didn’t have to ask for the Spirit to come. The Spirit, 1:4, was “the promise by the Father.”
It was a sovereign dispensing of the Spirit of God. It was promised of God, signed, sealed and about to be delivered in God’s good time at God’s great moment.
They were praying because for the first time they were removed from Jesus and the only communication they could have with Him was through prayer. And that’s the beginning of a new age for before this no one had ever prayed to Jesus.
Then in verse 15 it says, “And in those days” … some time during this 10-day period … “Peter stood up …” it says in verse 15 that the number of names was 120. Can you imagine starting a whole worldwide movement with 120? And they were just like we are but they were large in power.
In 30 years, they were already in Rome and the gospel had spread everywhere. In fact, in some cases Paul would write to a church and he’d say I’ve been gone three weeks, and your faith has spread abroad unto all people.
They were witnesses energized by the Holy Spirit. They had a small beginning, but they had a great result because they let the Spirit do the work through them because they were obedient to God.
Unless we’re willing to just be what God wants us to be and to obey God at the very point of beginning our ministry, we’re never going to see what God can do.
Secondly the story of what happened to Judas. Peter acts under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring it to pass. He stands up in verse 16 and says, “Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David spoke before concerning Judas who was guide to them that took Jesus.”
Peter wants them to know that what Judas did was all prophesied in the Scripture way back in the Old Testament. Peter says, men, the absence of Judas was all in the Scriptures way back as far as David. God’s plan didn’t get messed up. Jesus said in John 17 that I have lost none of them that Thou gavest Me “except the son of perdition in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”
Just like God uses Godless men throughout the Old Testament to accomplish His purpose, so He used a Godless Judas to bring about a Godly end. That’s how God works. He works through men. Whether those men are regenerate or unregenerate doesn’t really matter. He’ll use men to accomplish His purpose either way.
Peter says, men, this is something that God said would happen through the mouth of David. He says, “this Scripture.” What Scripture? Look in verse 20. He says from the Scripture of the Old Testament, it was designated by the Holy Spirit through David that Judas would come to this end.
Verse 17, “For he was numbered with us and had obtained part in this ministry.” Judas had received by divine appointment, He had been called to be a disciple. Did he believe in Jesus? No! That’s so clear from John 6 verse 64, Jesus says, “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray Him.”
In verse 70 He says, I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil.” He knew he’d never believe. He was in it for the money. That’s where his interest was.
He got all bent out of shape when they decided to “waste” some money on Jesus in Bethany and said, hey, let’s sell that and give to the poor. John said, he didn’t want to give it to the poor; he said that because money was his whole thing. Finally, he sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. He was money hungry from start to finish and figured he was going to get in on a political kingdom.
The tragedy of Judas is what he could have been. At any moment he could have turned to Jesus. Jesus warned him gently all along through his life. Jesus warned him and warned him, and Judas never turned.
The greatest tragedy of lost opportunity that ever lived was Judas Iscariot. He was numbered with us. He was part of what we did but he was never for real. It was in God’s plan that this is exactly what would happen because God knew it had to be this way to bring about the death of Christ.
Let me interject here, the Bible never says God abandoned Judas, but that Judas abandoned Jesus, and lost his position among the apostles by forfeit.
John Calvin said, “Judas may not be excused on the ground that what befell him was prophesied, since he fell away not through the compulsion of the prophecy but through the wickedness of his own heart.”
So, what happened to Judas? Matthew 27 tells us what happened. Verse 3, “Then Judas, who had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.”
It was not a converting repentance; it was only that he had betrayed somebody who wasn’t a criminal. “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself.
The chief priests took the silver pieces and said, ‘It is not lawful to put them in the treasury because it is the price of blood.’ So “they took counsel and bought the potter’s field to bury strangers in.
Look at verse 18. “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong” … I suppose the rope must have broken?? “And falling headlong … burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldema” … which is Aramaic and it is “to say the field of blood.”
He knew everything there was to know about Jesus Christ, walked away and there was nothing but damnation written on that man. Jesus said of him, “It would have been better for him he’d never been born.”
I think there’s a tremendous sense of awareness that any man who lives in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and walks away from that light brings upon himself damnation. To know the truth and walk away from it, to sin willfully means there’s no sacrifice for sin. How much punishment … shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing …?”
Peter then gives the requirements for one who is to fill the bill. Verse 21 … We’ve got to fill Judas’ place; “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John unto the same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection.”
There you have two qualifications for an apostle. Number one, he had to be with Jesus from the baptism of John to the ascension. He had to be one who was around for the whole period of time.
Number two, he had to be a witness of the glorified, resurrected Christ … at the end of verse 22, “a witness with us of the resurrection.”
So, whoever was going to take over was to be one who had been around from the baptism of Jesus Christ until the ascension.
Verse 23, “They appointed two Joseph, called Barsabbas … surnamed Justus” … wow, and just plain old Matthias. We don’t know anything about either one of them because they’re never mentioned and that’s kind of a beautiful thought.
It’s not always the shining lights, it’s not always the stars on the horizon that the Lord chooses to do the things He wants done. Sometimes it’s the people you don’t even know that are really moving and doing the job for God. And here are two guys that nobody knows. We have no idea who they are. They don’t appear before or after this.
The third qualification, they had to be chosen by God, so verse 24 says “they prayed” … everybody prayed, 120 of them … “and said, ‘Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which of these two Thou hast chosen” … I mean, Jesus chose the first 11; He’s gonna chose the 12th. Who’s it gonna be?
Verse 25, “That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place.”
His own place! Hell is his own place. They go there because it’s their own place. Did you know that death doesn’t change anything; it only solidifies into permanency what you are in life.
By your own choice death becomes the securing of your own place. When Judas went to Hell it wasn’t out of the ordinary. That’s where he belonged, for that’s where he chose to go. He went to his own place … a fearful statement. Every man has a place in eternity that is his own by what he does with Jesus Christ.
It says in verse 26 “they gave forth their lots and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” One of God’s chosen men, chosen by Jesus Himself.
What was the method of choosing? Well, they drew lots. Gambling? No, God, in the Old Testament had built this kind of thing of His will being exercised through very physical manifestations.
Sometimes God would talk right out of Heaven.
Sometimes God would talk through the mouth of a prophet. There were different ways. But one of the ways that God had of expressing His will was through the drawing of lots. Whatever way, there were many ways of doing it. This time God chose lots.
This was the last act of the Old Testament era. One more verse, Acts 2:1, is the New Testament age, the age of the Spirit. You’ll never see it again in the rest of the New Testament because in this age we don’t need that kind of direction from God. Where do we get our direction? … from the indwelling Holy Spirit who “shall lead us into all” … what? …Truth.”
But in that age, without the indwelling Spirit, God moved in very physical ways to reveal His will and so they drew lots. Well, how do you know they didn’t make a mistake? … because God was handling the problem. They prayed and God chose through the selection of lots.
A verse in Proverbs 16 that will define that for you … 16:33. “The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” The Lord is controlling the situation.
So, we have many lessons, but most of all we have the marvelous lesson that God chooses His own to do His service and then we have the fearful lesson that every man dies and goes to his own place.
Matthias found his place among the beloved. Judas went to his own place in Hell. For you who are Christians I trust you’ve learned the beauty of the simple submission of these to the will of God. I hope you understand that when you die and leave this world, you go to your own place, be it a place prepared for you by Jesus in the Father’s house or be it Hell; it’s the place that you’ve chosen.
We may not be apostles, but we all have a role to play in God’s plan. Amen!
When Voices Of Hope Evangelistic Team is ministering in Word and Song, their Fire Choir will sing several songs and then lead the Congregation in singing. Since that isn't possible on-line, please click here and may you be blessed by the song, " 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."