So we're here today talking about in the waiting and preparing for what's next. And Stephen's right, this was a tough passage. I had a hard time narrowing down what I was going to talk about, so hopefully it's all coherent and you'll all at least see Jesus in it. So today we're going to talk about a time in the Bible where the early church was in the waiting and they were preparing for what's next. It was a really specific time in history, something that we can't really replicate again. It's after the ascension of Jesus, but before the Holy Spirit, before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So up until this time, jesus' followers were literally following the lead of Jesus while he was right there in person, giving direction, giving guidance, and now he's gone. And after Pentecost, even through today, as many of you know, jesus' followers have the direction and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But this was that time in between and it's a time that they're in the waiting, preparing for what's next. So it's Acts, chapter 1, and we're going to look at verses 12 through 26 today. If you want to follow along, you can. Otherwise, I think Stephen said he was going to make some slides, but I'm not sure if he did. I didn't ask.

So now, at this time, just a little bit of a reminder Judas is out of the picture, right, the disciples come and they decide that their first official act as representatives of God on earth will be to replace him, to get that leadership team back up to 12. So Acts 1, 12 through 14 says this, says when they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, john, james and Andrew, philip and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew, james, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, the zealot, and Judas, the son of James, not to be confused with the other Judas. Right, they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. So now Jesus is gone and everyone else is kind of dispersed for the moment.

But who is here? We've got the core group of the disciples. We've got the group of women who had been at Jesus's side all throughout the time, some of who helped sustain their travels and pay the bills. And just a side note, a lot of times in this time in history when this was written, women were just kind of not as important and a lot of authors would have just kind of glossed over the fact that they were there. But Luke points out that they're there because he thinks it's important, so I just want to bring that to our attention. The women were there. And then let me see now I lost my place. So we've got the core group of disciples, the women who'd been at Jesus's side, and then we have Jesus's brothers. Right, they came around.

In the gospels we see that Jesus's family was pretty skeptical of Jesus's claims about himself, but apparently now his brothers have come around. In the Gospels we see that Jesus' family was pretty skeptical of Jesus' claims about himself, but apparently now his brothers have come around and both James and Jude later on become leaders in the Jerusalem church. And I'd also like to note here that there's this incredible book about Jude called Uprising. It's written by this guy who pastors this really cool church in Madison here, and if you don't have that book yet, I highly recommend it. Just ask Stephen how you can get a copy, I'm sure he knows.

In verse 15, it says in those days Peter stood up among the believers, a group numbering about 120. So Peter's been really an up and down character throughout all the time that we have known him in the Bible up to this point. Right, he gets some stuff really right and he falls apart at times. But Jesus told Peter, who is also called Simon, which gets confusing he told him at the Last Supper, in Luke chapter 22, that he had a really unique plan for him and that Peter needed to be ready. Luke 22, verses 31 and 32, says Simon, simon, satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, simon, that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. And when you have turned back, so he didn't say when you skip over that challenge, right, he says when you turn back, strengthen your brothers. That here Luke, who's writing this.

The book of Acts also has kind of a little housekeeping question that needs to be answered to his original audience. His audience would have been very familiar with the OG 11 disciples and where they came from. But most of his audience would have encountered those disciples once they were back to that full group of 12, lacking Judas and picking up the new guy, and they would have wondered how come this new guy doesn't show up in any of the gospels. Where did he come from? Many of these people would have been ministered to by the new guy right and they would have wondered what are his apostolic credentials? How come he gets to do this? So we see in verse 16 and 17, peter is saying Brothers and sisters, the scripture has had to be fulfilled, in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.

So Peter, following the example of Jesus, is trying to look back on things to the Old Testament and say, yeah, this was predicted. He suggests that the scriptures point to this betrayal and what the disciples should be doing next. Verse 18 and 19 give us the history about what happened to Judas after that field in their language, akledama, that is, field of blood. Ew, that's gross. People say the Bible is boring. They clearly don't read it. So Judas apparently overcome with guilt. He goes and he gets this field and takes his own life and apparently it's pretty disgusting. So Judas is out of the picture and Peter is saying he needs to be replaced. In verse 20, it says for said Peter. It is written in the book of Psalms. May his place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in it, and may another take his place of leadership.

So earlier, when Peter said that David spoke of these things from the scriptures, he was alluding to these two Psalms. One is Psalm 69, where the first part is drawn, where that first part is drawn from, and it has David talking about difficulties in his life. He's talking about being in trouble, about being parched. He's talking about being a stranger among people he should be familiar with. He's talking about praying to God to rescue him in this difficult time. He makes a couple of references that sound like they could be talking about Jesus, things like they put gall in my food, they gave me vinegar for my thirst, which is reminiscent of the crucifixion. And then David goes on to say in Psalm 69, I'm looking at verse 22 through 25. May the table be set before them become a snare, may it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them, let your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell in their tents. No-transcript I think some people would argue that there is and others would just look at it and say I don't really see it. It doesn't sound like that's what David was talking about here.

So let's look at that second half of what Peter said in verse 20 of Acts 1. He said may another take his place of leadership. And that is him quoting David from Psalm 109,. And that is him quoting David from Psalm 109, which says cause In return for my friendship. They accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good and hatred for my friendship. Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy. Let an accuser stand at his right hand when he is tried. Let him be found guilty and may his prayers condemn him. May his days be few. May another take his place of leadership. Okay, so here we have again some language about friends and a betrayal of a friend, and Peter reads into this that David was in a way predicting what Judas would do.

David applies all of these curses to whatever betrayer friend, whoever his betrayer friend was, and I only read about half of them. He goes on, if you can believe it. So it seems like David is writing a song or a poem here that's talking about situations in his own life. But we see other parts of the Psalms where details line up so well with the life of Jesus. It's hard to imagine that God didn't intend these things to apply in other places. Jesus took Psalms and applied them prophetically. So if we think that God wrote the Bible and I do I don't know about you and all this stuff kind of checks out we have to accept that some of the Psalms have a prophetic nature. Maybe some are more obvious than others.

I think the question that's before us is did Peter rightly figure out the prophetic nature of these things or is he doing something else? Is Peter completely right in what the Bible is saying, in these things, in the things that he's quoting, or is Peter just kind of winging it and doing his best? I think we have a few options that we can consider. Possibility number one Peter is exactly right about what David meant. David was predicting these things would happen. Judas is the fulfillment of those things and Peter, maybe through a conversation he had with Jesus, had connected these dots for him and he sees something there that isn't immediately evident to most readers. A second possibility Peter was reading these passages from a perspective that was a popular read on them at the time. That hasn't really, I don't know, held up over the ages and nonetheless would have made sense to the original audience.

And a third possibility as to what's going on with these quotations is that the Holy Spirit is not present yet. Jesus has just left and Peter finds himself in this strange time of waiting. This is a time of preparing for what's next when God isn't present in the way that he has become accustomed to, and so, in the absence of that guidance, he just takes his best shot, and maybe it isn't exactly perfect, but who cares? I think he should be applauded for doing his very best with what he had at the time. I mean, after all, he was seeking God and he wanted to do what was right. That's good. Jesus told him to go and do some stuff, and he's trying to get his team back up to the 12 so that he can do just that. He's trying to fill up the 12 spots of leadership so they can properly obey Jesus.

And it's plausible that any of these possibilities are truth. So let's go back to what we are sure of. What we do know is that the Bible does not say that the Holy Spirit was speaking through Peter or that God was firsthand telling Peter what to say here or which Old Testament passages to look at. So this could be a spot on handling of the Bible. It could be somebody doing their best and maybe that's not what the original passages meant. The important thing to note that we might have our opinions, but Luke, the author who is writing this thing and, I believe, inspired by the Holy Spirit, does not in any way critique him or affirm Peter's approach. He simply records it. Peter goes on in verse 21 and 22. So now, whatever you make of the handling of those Psalms that we looked at, I think you've got to respect this right. He's being smart and he's demonstrating some sound logic.

Jesus told Peter and the other disciples that their job was to be witnesses to what they had seen and heard locally, regionally and to the ends of the earth. You need someone who was there with them from the beginning to the end, and the way Peter describes. And to the ends of the earth. You need someone who was there with them from the beginning to the end, and the way Peter describes the beginning to the end was that he indicates the beginning was John's baptism of Jesus and the end was a couple weeks previous when Jesus was taken up to heaven. So that's what he lists here. Apparently, there were just two guys right that fit that description. Verse 23 through 25 says taken. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.

I feel like this is a fascinating process, because Peter starts by saying there's something we need to do. I think it's important so we can follow through on what Jesus has said, that we need to do with our lives. Then he sets the parameters and he starts by doing his best to look at the Bible. He didn't have the option of looking at the New Testament because it didn't exist yet. So he has the scriptures as they existed and does his best, with that and what he has in front of him, to consult God through his word. Obviously, he didn't have any hot leads on the verse to use that he could go to, and there was no verse that specifically said one day there shall be a man who betrays Jesus and after he betrays him, there'll be 11 guys left and one of them will be named Peter, and Peter should pick a guy named Mike to take over. That would have been really convenient.

But, as it is for most of us who read the Bible, we don't always have those kind of super obvious verses laying around just waiting for us to notice them, telling us what to automatically do. We have to interpret and think. Do we have to interpret and think? So that's what Peter does here. But realizing that without such a crystal clear verse he can only go so far, peter then transitions into some common sense rooted in the knowledge of what God is like. He says well, we were told to do this, so for picking somebody he probably needs to meet these qualifications. That's just logic. But he's not done.

He then leads the disciples in prayer to consult God to see if maybe, just maybe, god wants to miraculously confirm to them the answer to their question. These people had all just witnessed the miraculous right, so it just makes sense that they would ask for this. I like to imagine they kind of pause for a little bit and listen and watch to see if God's going to do something like shine a big bright light over his chosen one, you know, give clarity to the situation. But nothing like that is actually recorded here, and this passage wraps up in verse 26, saying then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias, so he was added to the 11 apostles. So, being deadlocked and lacking in supernatural guidance from the Holy Spirit, they felt like they had two good options in front of them and they couldn't go wrong with either one. So they just tossed the dice and went with whoever they picked, and I think that they were absolutely right and that they sought God, even though they weren't sure. They were also absolutely right to not sit around doing nothing, waiting for a miracle that God never promised was going to happen. God never said go pick somebody, and whenever you need to pick somebody to do anything in church, I'm going to miraculously tell you who that is. The expectation is that we think, that we think theologically and we think like a Jesus follower, and then we make moves, doing our best to get things right, and we know from the rest of the New Testament and the rest of history that this worked out. Was Matthias the one guy that God wanted to pick? I don't know, but that is who they picked and God used him.

What we see here in this passage is a reality that persists to this day. For people who care about doing right by God, he isn't always going to tell us what to do. Supernaturally, sometimes we're going to have to make choices. We all have flaws. I mean, peter did right. Peter was outspoken. He was headstrong, impulsive, proud, willing to cut a guy's ear off. Heck, peter even denied he knew Jesus to a little girl around a campfire when he got scared. And God still used him in a pretty significant way.

And maybe you're here today or you're listening online and God has you in a season of waiting, a season of formation, a season of preparing you for what's next. My challenge to you today it's a big one it's to figure out what you should be doing in this season of waiting. Figure out what you should be doing in this season of waiting. Figure out what you should be doing in this season of waiting. What should you be doing to prepare for what's next? And then do it. Search the Bible to consult what God has said in his word, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and then make some choices and take action.

Do not sit around paralyzed waiting for a miracle that God never promised would happen.

I'm going to say that again because I think someone needs to hear it, and it might be me. Do not sit around paralyzed waiting for a miracle that God never promised would happen. Are we going to get those choices right? Well, I highly doubt that. Knowing myself and human nature in general, we're going to make mistakes. On some things there are very clear right and wrong choices, but on other things it seems like there could be lots of right choices right. On other things, it seems like there could be lots of right choices. Right Justice or Matthias either one could have been right.

The great thing about the way that God has set up this age of the church is that, even if we screw this thing up completely, there's grace for that. God is not sitting around waiting for us to screw up so that he can get mad about it and say, oh, you tried to serve me but you did it wrong. He wants us to grow in this and in the same way that we are going to see Peter grow as a leader and develop as a Jesus follower, through all kinds of ups and downs and a few really big failures. So it is with us. I have made good choices and I have made shameful, awful choices. I'm guessing most of you are probably in the same boat. Thankfully, we can be encouraged by the example of some people who did their best. They had their flaws, and God used their efforts. Despite their imperfections, we can be assured that God will do the same with us.