Obedience to God often involves waiting and a key thing to do when waiting is to pray.

1 – Down from the mountain top

They went from the mountain top back to normal city life in a natural and emotional way. They get together to meet in an upper room. There are the original disciples (minus Judas Iscariot), loyal women and immediate family. They were a mixture of ordinary people with various education, jobs and social class. Seemingly not the best material for starting off a new enterprise called the “Church”! They do two things that help themselves at this seemingly low:-

• Together – They are united in their belief of following Jesus.
• Prayer – Activity is empowered by prayer. Prayer is not an excuse for idleness. It is great to be united AND in prayer! Sometimes action is assumed with any prayer. Action and prayer are to go together.

2 – Replacing a leader

The upper room has become a regular meeting place for these 120 committed believers. Peter emerges as a strong charismatic leader of the group and is convinced from the scriptures that the traitor Judas must be replaced. The number 12 is important in the Bible in establishing the completeness of the group. This person’s mission is to be a witness to the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. They come up with three selection criteria:-

• Personal qualifications – They had been with Jesus a long time and also needed to be a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Commitment to God in prayer – They were godly men of prayer. The people picking them were themselves praying for wisdom to decide. They identify two men.
• Allowing God to make the appointment – They cast lots in the traditional way and the lot falls to Matthias. See Proverbs 16:33. They believed that God made the choice. It is not certain what they used but the modern equivalent could be like flipping a coin and calling head or tails. It was a practice from the Old Testament in spiritual decision making that eventually became a game that some wagered on the outcome.

Not much is known of Matthias as he doesn’t feature in the rest of the New Testament. There is nothing mentioned about this being a wrong decision. It is a good blueprint to replacing a leader. It is important that the first two are followed and some allowance for God’s will to be revealed and acted upon. The practice of casting lots doesn’t seem necessary in the New Testament era with the fuller revelation of God’s Word and the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.

Categories: Acts