Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

and

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.—Acts 1:12–26 

Outline

Introduction

1. Preparing for Pentecost by Praying Together (Acts 1:12–14)
2. Preparing for Pentecost by Searching the Scriptures (Acts 1:15–20)
3. Preparing for Pentecost by Appointing a Twelfth Apostle (Acts 1:21–26)

Application

Introduction

I’ve stood on the corner of 7th Street & 13th Avenue many times, waiting to cross the street between my office and the church building. I like to call it “sanctification corner,” since I sometimes stare for several minutes at the glowing red hand across the street and hear the command “WAIT” repeated over and over. It is hard to stand there and wait for the crosswalk signal, especially if it’s raining or snowing or if I’m rushing to get to class.

Waiting is a staple part of our lives—we’ve been regularly reminded of this reality in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many of us to wait much longer than we would have liked to see friends and family, to go back to work or school, to sing without wearing masks, to return to “normal life.” We struggle to wait, particularly in our society where we can get fast food, high-speed internet, real-time news, and on-demand entertainment. It’s easy to grow impatient, anxious, or distracted when we’re waiting. Acts 1:12–26 shows us a powerful example of prayerfully trusting our sovereign Lord in times of waiting and uncertainty.

Our sermon series through Acts is called “The Church on the Move.” Acts records the explosive growth of the church and the amazing advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ across barriers of language, culture, ethnicity, social status, and geography. Before the church can get moving in their mission, though, they must wait for the promised Spirit and replace an apostate apostle. That’s what our passage is about today: the disciples prepare for Pentecost by praying together, searching the Scriptures, and appointing a twelfth apostle.

1) Preparing for Pentecost by Praying Together (Acts 1:12–14)

Look with me at verses 12–14, where the church prepares for Pentecost by praying together. The risen Lord Jesus ordered his disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). The disciples asked Jesus a question about the Kingdom in verse 6, and I expect that they had even more lingering questions after seeing their Lord lifted up into heaven and meeting two angels in white robes: What just happened? How long would they need to wait for the Father’s promise of the Holy Spirit? When would Jesus return? How would they accomplish the mission Jesus gave them? But right after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples did just what Jesus told them to do and “returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 1:12). What did they do in Jerusalem? According to verse 14, they “were devoting themselves to prayer.”

Several weeks ago, Pastor Jason called us to “come to grips with the command to wait” in Acts 1:4. The disciples needed to wait for the promised Holy Spirit to empower them for their mission. What did they do in this time of waiting? They gathered together to pray.

The men and women of the early church “with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.” Verse 14 does not record their specific prayers as they waited for Pentecost; it does stress that they prayed together, they were united, and they devoted themselves to prayer, which suggests intentional, regular, persistent seasons of Godward corporate prayer.

Notice who is at the early church’s first prayer meeting in Acts 1:13–14: “Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James ... together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” The apostles join in prayer with Jesus’ family members and “the women,” which probably includes Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and others who followed Jesus, supported his ministry, and were even witnesses to his crucifixion and resurrection.¹

This is the only time that Acts names all of the apostles; this list reminds us of Luke 6:13–16, when Jesus went up on the mountain, “called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” But there’s one crucial difference between these lists: Luke 6 records twelve names, while Acts 1 only has eleven—one apostle is missing. That’s the crucial problem that the church must address as they prepare for Pentecost.

2) Preparing for Pentecost by Searching the Scriptures (Acts 1:15–20)

In verses 15–26, the early church responds to the problem of Judas’s apostasy by searching the Scriptures and appointing Matthias to take his place as apostle Number Twelve. Why was Judas’s apostasy such a pressing problem for the early church? At least three reasons.

First, it presented a credibility problem for the church’s witness. Look at verse 19: “It became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem” what Judas had done. This was a major public scandal—one of Jesus’s inner circle had betrayed the Messiah for thirty silver coins and then committed suicide. The people of Jerusalem knew about Judas’s shameful deed and shameful death—they called the place where he died “Field of Blood” because it was purchased with blood money and because Judas took his own life there. Remember that Jesus instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem and promised they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem. How would people in Jerusalem believe Judas's closest friends when they shared the good news about their crucified, risen King?

Second, Judas’s apostasy presents an identity problem for the early church. Jesus deliberately chose twelve disciples as his apostles because the number twelve carries important biblical significance. The patriarch Jacob had twelve sons, whose descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve apostles represent the restored people of God, the new Israel, who were chosen by Israel’s promised Messiah, Jesus. Jesus makes this connection between the apostles and the twelve tribes explicit in Luke 22:28–30:

You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

In other words, Jesus promises the apostles that they will feast with him at the messianic banquet and will also share in his rule over God’s people. How could the apostles represent the restored twelve tribes and carry out Jesus’ mission among Israel and the nations if they now numbered only eleven?

This leads us to a third, even deeper theological challenge posed by Judas’s apostasy: Did Judas thwart God’s plan or show that Jesus himself made a mistake by calling him as an apostle? All four Gospels introduce Judas as “a traitor” or the one “who betrayed him.” Judas followed Jesus as one of his closest friends. He heard Jesus preach and witnessed his signs. Jesus sent out Judas and the other apostles to proclaim the kingdom of God, heal the sick, and cast out demons (Luke 9:1–2). He passed the bread and the cup to Judas during his final Passover meal and even washed the feet of his betrayer. We should not conclude, though, that Jesus was a bad judge of character or that Judas foiled God’s plans. John 6 says that “Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him” (v. 64), which is why he says to the apostles, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil” (v. 70). According to Luke 22, Jesus predicts Judas's betrayal right before telling the apostles that they would judge the twelve tribes. The evidence in the Gospels suggests that Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he called Judas as one of the Twelve. Judas’s apostasy—what John Piper calls “the most despicable act” in history’s most “spectacular sin,” the murder of the son of God²—actually carries out God’s deeper purposes.

Look now at Acts 1:16: Peter declares, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.” Peter addresses the theological problem of Judas's apostasy head on, saying that it had to happen, because “it was necessary” (CSB) to fulfill the Scripture. Peter echoes Christ’s own teaching:

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?—Luke 24:26

But the Scripture will be fulfilled, “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.”—John 13:18 (quoting Psalm 41:9)

In Acts 1:20, Peter cites two specific texts to support this claim that Judas's apostasy was necessary to fulfill Scripture: “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and ‘Let another take his office.’”

The first quotation comes from Psalm 69:25: “May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.” Jesus and the apostles frequently quote Psalm 69, a lament psalm of David, to explain the righteous suffering of David’s greater son. Just as David wrote, Jesus’ enemies hated him without cause, zeal for God’s house consumed him, and his adversaries gave him sour wine to drink at the cross (Psalm 69:4, 9, 21).³ The psalmist then calls upon God to judge his enemies, giving them what their sins deserve.

Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. ... Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.—Psalm 69:22–25

We rarely read these prayers of divine judgment in corporate worship! But it’s noteworthy that Peter cites these difficult verses to explain the darkest day in history.

Jesus experienced betrayal and bore reproach as the suffering Messiah prefigured in Psalm 69. Peter also understands Judas's shameful death in the Field of Blood as evidence of God’s righteous judgment on this enemy of the Messiah. There is a striking biblical parallel between Judas and Ahithophel, King David’s trusted advisor who betrayed David by supporting his son Absalom’s conspiracy to usurp the throne. David prays, “O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (2 Samuel 15:31). The Lord answers the king’s prayer. Absalom does not listen to Ahithophel’s counsel because God intended to “bring harm upon Absalom” (2 Samuel 17:14), so the disgraced conspirator went and hung himself (2 Samuel 17:23). Judas's betrayal follows the same biblical script.

Peter then quotes Psalm 109:8, another prayer for God to judge David’s enemies who accuse and attack him. Judas matches David’s description of the friend who—like Ahithophel—repays evil for good and hatred for love (Psalm 109:5), betraying the Lord with a kiss. Peter quotes Psalm 69 to explain Judas's death as divine judgment, but he turns to Psalm 109 for guidance on what they should do next: “Let another take his office.” This leads to the second part of Peter’s speech and the community’s action in verses 21–26.

3) Preparing for Pentecost by Appointing a Twelfth Apostle (Acts 1:21–26)

Peter explains from the Scriptures that Judas’s shocking sin fulfilled God’s plan, that Judas’s shameful death in the Field of Blood was evidence of God’s judgment, and that another should take Judas's leadership position. In verses 21–22, he articulates the qualifications of the one who must take Judas's place as an apostle:

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection (vv. 21–22).

Peter here stresses the apostles’ role as witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, which reminds us of Jesus’ promise in Acts 1:8, “You will be my witnesses.” These witnesses had been with Jesus for years—they not only saw the risen Lord; they also experienced his earthly ministry from John’s baptism until the day when Jesus ascended into heaven. After Pentecost, the church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42), and in Acts 4:13, the Jewish council “recognized” that Peter and John “had been with Jesus.” The Twelve are not the only witnesses in Acts who teach, preach, and bring the good news to new places, but they were with Jesus and play a unique role as eyewitnesses of the risen Lord, and they are called to teach and safeguard the truth about all that Jesus did and taught.

The gathered disciples respond to Peter’s teaching in verses 23–26. They put forward two qualified men—Justus and Matthias—who had accompanied the eleven apostles and could testify to the risen Lord. Then they pray to seek the Lord’s guidance in this crucial decision. This recalls verse 14, where the believers devoted themselves to prayer as they prepared for Pentecost.

They pray, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all.” This reminds us of texts like 1 Samuel 16:7—“man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” But here in Acts 1, it is very likely that they address the exalted Lord Jesus as the knower of hearts and look to him to direct their decision. Notice that Peter refers to “the Lord Jesus” in verse 21, and the disciples address Jesus as “Lord” in verse 6; “Lord” has the same referent in verse 24 when they pray. This is an important reminder that Jesus is not absent after his ascension, but he reigns as the king of heaven and is active and involved in the lives of his people. The believers ask the Lord Jesus to show or reveal the person that he has chosen to take Judas's place. Acts 1:2 refers to “the apostles whom [Jesus] had chosen,” and we see the same emphasis on Jesus’ choice in verse 24. They then cast lots and accept the result as confirmation of the Lord’s sovereign choice. Casting lots was an accepted way of making decisions in Old Testament times. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). This is the only time in the New Testament when believers cast lots, and it comes before the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Luke is not prescribing for us a step-by-step guide for daily decision-making in verse 26; he is describing how the early church prepared for Pentecost by prayerfully appointing the apostle whom Jesus himself had chosen.⁴

Application

We’ve seen in Acts 1:12–26 that the disciples prepare for Pentecost by praying together, searching the Scriptures, and appointing a twelfth apostle. They wait in Jerusalem as Jesus instructed them, they discern God’s purposes at work even in Judas's scandalous sin, and they trust the sovereign Lord to guide their decisions.

Bethlehem, it’s easy for us to focus on all of the challenges and disappointments of the past year. But I think our passage today has at least two crucial truths that we need to be reminded of as we reflect on 2020 and prepare for the year ahead.

First, we can trust God even in the worst circumstances. The believers in our passage recognize that God was not surprised by Judas's scandalous sin and shameful death. Jesus’ disciples were shocked, confused, and heartbroken by Judas's apostasy and Jesus’ crucifixion. It did not make sense—why would their teacher and Lord suffer like this? Then Jesus rose from the dead and opened their minds to understand that “the Scripture had to be fulfilled.” God’s purposes were not thwarted by the betrayal and murder of the Messiah—this is how he planned to save his people from their sins. The Lord says in Isaiah 46:10, “I will accomplish all my purpose,” and the cross of Christ is Exhibit A for this glorious truth. In our questions, fears, and tears at the end of this challenging year, let’s remember that our God knows our hearts, he hears our prayers, and he is working for our good and for his glory. He is “faithful forever, perfect in love ... sovereign over us.”⁵

Second, the sovereign Lord works when his people pray. As the disciples wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit, they devote themselves to prayer. As they face a huge decision—who should take Judas's place as the twelfth apostle?—they pray. Isaiah reminds us that the Lord “acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4), and our passage illustrates this truth.

The Lord works for us by hearing and answering the prayers of his waiting people. He works in us as we wait by sanctifying us and giving us grace to trust him more, to lean on his everlasting arms. He also works through us as we wait, strengthening and empowering his witnesses to carry out his mission in the world. Jesus taught his disciples that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Through prayer, we bring our requests, our cares, and our questions to our heavenly Father and expectantly wait for the Lord to fulfill his promises in his time.

We are not waiting for Jesus to send the Spirit, as the gathered church was in Acts 1, but we are still waiting for our Lord’s return, when he will make all things new. And we still pray, “Come Lord Jesus!” We are also waiting for various things that we need or want—we wait for healing from sickness, we wait for a spouse or a child, we wait for a better job or any job, we wait to pack this sanctuary again and sing together without masks, and we wait for an end to pandemic conditions and a return to “normal.” Bethlehem, in our waiting may we be a people of prayer, who humble ourselves before the Lord, who call to mind his precious promises, and who trust his wisdom when we don’t know what to do. May our sovereign Lord work for us, in us, and through us as we wait on him in prayer.
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1) See Luke 8:2–3; 23:49, 55–56; 24:1–11.

2) John Piper, Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 98.

3) See John 2:17; 15:25; 19:29; Romans 11:9–10; 15:3.

4) “From Luke’s later emphasis on the Spirit’s role in giving wisdom, guidance, and direction, it would appear that the apostolic example on this occasion is not to be followed by Christians today,” according to David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 129.

5) Aaron Keyes, “Sovereign Over Us,” Dwell (Kingsway Music, 2011).