The Book of Acts, chapter 1, beginning in verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem, and from the mount that is called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, the sabbath day journeyed 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 and James, the son of Alphaeus and Simon, the zealot and Judas, the son of James. All of 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 amongst the brothers, a company of persons was about 120, and said, Brothers, the scripture has to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered amongst us and was allotted his share in the ministry. Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all of his bowels gushed out. And it became known to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, Akodama, that is, the field of blood. 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. So the men who were accompanying us during all of the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out from us, beginning with 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 the resurrection. And they put forward to Joseph called Barsabbas, who is also called Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, you, Lord, you who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen and take 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 him, and a lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered amongst the eleven apostles." Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we continue in Your Word, reflecting upon the beginnings of the Christian church. I pray that You would give us insight, and we would learn from it those things that we need to apply to our church. that You might be glorified, that You might be praised and made much of here in this place as well. Instruct us, Father, and instruct our hearts that we may indeed glorify You in all things. I pray that if there are those here who do not know You, I pray that You would use these words to call them to faith. But I pray that You would build up the faith of Your own. And Father, in all things, I pray that You would do this either through me or in spite of me. but that your name would be made much of, and glorified, and honored, and praised, and proclaimed. And this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to propose an idea to you this morning. that what we have described here in the text that we read before us is the very first Christian, and I emphasize the Christian part because we know that the church has gone back all the way to the Garden of Eden, but the very first Christian congregational meeting is taking place in our text this morning. Think about it, there's a problem that needs to be solved. Who is going to replace Judas? And thus the church is gathered together under the direct leadership of the apostles to propose and to make a decision for what they must do. Who is going to replace that person? It's not a synodical meeting, it's not a presbytery meeting, because the whole church is represented. Both men and women, people who are in both leadership and people who are laymen are all present there. And so it's not necessarily what we would call a presbytery or synodical meeting, which would just be the pastors and elders present. But the whole church is represented, so it's very much a congregational meeting, I would argue, that is taking place. The only difference is The only person in this particular meeting that gets a vote is God Himself. And we'll talk about that a little bit more in just a bit. So as you think about the text this morning, as we talk about it, I want you to think about it in the context of a congregational meeting and ask yourself, in terms of what is reflected here, how do we match up? Do we reflect the norm that we see practiced here in this congregational meeting, in our congregational meetings? And if we don't, then how do we transform what we have to submit it to the model that is given to us in the early church? So Jesus, just to remind you of the context a little bit, has ascended into heaven. He's been 40 days instructing the apostles in his resurrection with many proofs, we're told. And at the end of that, they've seen him rise into the sky in their commission and saying, go back into Jerusalem and wait for what we now call Pentecost. The disciples then travel back, we're told, a Sabbath day travel from Olivet into Jerusalem. What is that Sabbath day reference there? It's according to the rabbis on the Sabbath day you were allowed to walk up to 2,000 cubits in distance, which roughly is about 3,000 feet or about 6 tenths of a mile. That was the rule. Now I'm not suggesting that the disciples felt that they needed to be bound by this Jewish law in terms of obedience or things along this line. I think Jesus taught them very clearly otherwise, but in the sense that it was a simple measure that the people of the original audience in Luke's day when he was writing this, it was something that they could relate to and that they would understand the distances. And as the crow flies, about that six-tenths of a mile places you from the edge of Mount Olivets into, just into the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Now, if you happen to take a tour there today, they don't typically take you as the crow flies. They take you as the road drives in a cab or a bus or things like that, which is about a six-mile drive. But the area around there, if you kind of think of your geography there, is pretty hilly and mountainous, and the roads, as a result, are pretty windy. Well, that's something that we can relate to in Western Pennsylvania. they walked the straight way, we would drive the long way to go the same distance. But that basically places them in the upper room just inside of the city walls. We don't know exactly where that room was. A lot of tradition suggests that it may have been a relative of Mark, the guy who wrote the second gospel. Again, we don't know that for sure. That's just something that comes out of tradition. So the 11 remaining apostles, they go down there. They're listed by name, once again, with Peter being listed first. If we're kind of keeping the congregational meeting model, you can kind of imagine Peter being the president of the church council as they are beginning to lead this conversation in terms of what is to be done. But before that conversation happens, we're told that there's an activity that they are engaged in. Scripture writes, Luke writes here, that they were devoted in one accord, speaking about their unity, not the car, to prayer. And the women were now told that Jesus' brothers join in with them in the prayer. Jesus' brothers did not follow with Jesus during his earthly ministry. But somewhere along the lines between that earthly ministry, the resurrection, And here they have begun gathering with the apostles and have seemed to come to faith. And of course both James and Jude are brothers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so they're gathered in one accord and they're committed themselves to prayer. The word in Greek for devotion that we translate literally means to attach oneself steadfastly to something. That's what devotion means in that. And they're doing so in the context of their prayers. Let me say this. The single most important thing that you can commit yourself, you can devote yourself to that you can contribute to the life of the Christian Church and to your life in faith as a Christian, is that of prayer. God uses prayer in the context of making His church grow, seeing people come to faith, seeing ministries that produce fruit rather than falling flat, and to make decisions that affect the life of the church body. Prayer is an essential part of all of those things that you will find the faithful engaged in doing. At the same time, as important as that is, I would argue that it is probably the single most challenging thing for Christians to genuinely commit themselves to in life. And I'm not talking about that little obligatory prayer that we might say before we sit down and have a meal. and ask God to bless our food or the prayer that we might necessarily end our day with as we're falling asleep or something. But we're talking about committing ourselves in terms of diligent prayer. Prayer that is extended over a longer period of time where we are pleading with our whole heart, our whole being, that God will work in a given way in a certain context in our lives. It doesn't matter the exact amount of time. We are so focused on details sometimes. It doesn't matter whether it's a 30 minute block or an hour block or a 2 hour block or a 4 hour block. Whatever that block is, that it be wholly committed to seeing and praying that God will work. God does two things through that. First of all, He oftentimes changes our hearts and our disposition towards that, because a lot of times we're the obstacle for some of those things working. And then also He uses in His sovereignty the prayers of the saints to bring about His will in this world. It takes effort to apply this. It takes effort because there are distractions in our lives. There are things that cause our minds to go every which way. When we're exhausted, it's probably not the best time to pray because either we're fighting falling asleep or our mind is racing. with a million and a half things that we're trying to do, we're trying to keep track of. There's distractions in the context of, there's things on my plate for today that I need to get done, and boy, it's going to take me a long time to get all of those things done. There's distractions in the sense that when we sit down to pray, oftentimes other people, whether it's in the family or in the community, start calling on us. Oh, it's time, we can call somebody on the phone now. And those distractions interrupt us. It might just even be that 1-800 number that's trying to renew the insurance power, the warranty on our automobile that doesn't exist anymore or whatever. Things along those lines. It's distractions like that. Sometimes it's distractions in the place where we see. you know this is okay I want to kneel down this is kind of my place for for prayer but I see those things that need to get put away I see the dust that needs to be dusted or I see you know the the things that need to be done Distraction after distraction after distraction that fights against us. But it's not just the distractions. Part of it's a result of the fall. We were talking about this in the office not that long ago. One of the effects of sin in our lives, and sin has affected our whole being, including our prayer life. You shouldn't be surprised at that. It's the fact that the things that are most important for us to do are usually the things that are most difficult for us to do. And thus we need to discipline ourselves into making that prayer life something important and something with priority. And in addition, of course, Satan, because prayer is so important to us and to the life of the church, seeks to undermine it. You want a picture of that, pick up C.S. Lewis's screw tape letters sometime and read his fictional picture. But boy, it strikes home in so many different ways. That's why for a lot of times, historically, there was this idea of a prayer closet that oftentimes families would set aside. This is the box. Here's our closet. You go in it, nobody messes with you. There's nothing in there. It's a place for you to be still and to be quiet and to be in prayer. Unfortunately, nowadays, most of our closets are filled up with stuff that we don't use. or rarely ever use, and thus we don't have that place. We kind of have to make places or make spaces where we can do that, that minimize our distractions whatsoever. But folks, understand something. However much work it might take to get to that point where you either have that place, have that closet, or just have that space where you can make your private prayer life a thing without distractions or with minimal distractions, it is worth the time and effort to do that. Not just to your life, but to the life of the church, both here locally and across the globe. Because that is one of the ways God works in terms of spiritual warfare. remove those distractions and discipline yourself so that you can dedicate yourself to prayer. One of our other problems as Americans is not that we don't know what it means to dedicate ourselves to something. We do. We know exactly what it means. It means work. And oftentimes, we commit ourselves to dedicating our things to all kinds of stuff, except for the prayer life that we ought to commit ourselves and dedicate ourselves to. It doesn't mean that dedicating ourselves to some of those other things is a bad thing. I mean, you dedicate when you're at work, you dedicate yourself to your job a lot of times, and to becoming proficient at the job that you do. One of the things that we joke about is my years at Domino's Pizza, they consumed my life. And I was one of the, for a little while, I was one of the fastest pizza makers in the state of Delaware. Woohoo! But those things are for seasons. Does that do me any good now? No, not really. We dedicate our things, oftentimes, to things that just don't and won't last. We dedicate ourselves, whether it be our job, to a sport, to a hobby, and none of those things are bad in and of themselves, but they are for seasons in our lives. Yet, if you dedicate yourself to prayer, that's something that will not only be for this life, but it will take you into the next Life as well. It will nourish and equip your soul preparing it for through for eternity Which is of greater value Something that will do this or last for this season or something that will last eternally We oftentimes, the problem is not that we don't understand dedication. We understand dedication all too well. We just get our priorities skewed in terms of what it is to which we ought to dedicate ourselves to. Prayer life. Let me leave this idea just with a challenge for you. In the weeks to come, spend some time and track the amount of time that you commit to focused and deliberate prayer. Not something that you can say, put up on the wall, lookie, lookie, lookie at me. But for your own sake, for the sake of your soul, just between you and God, track that. And ask yourself, in comparison, how much time do I spend committed to this spiritual vertical life that I have, this life that I have with God, as you do compared to watching television and movies, playing video games, playing a recreational or competitive sport, or engaging in a favorite hobby? and then contrast them and say, which by the virtue of how I'm spending my time is of a higher priority in my life. And then looking at that, challenge yourself to adjust those priorities so that prayer is the most significant amount of block of time that you spend. More significant than TV or video games or hobbies or whatever else that may be in your life. Now some of you, if you're clever with this, have a hobby that you can combine. ladies who are in the quilting circle. You can combine those things. And I challenge you to, for every stitch that you stitch, say a prayer for somebody. And kind of work in disciplines along those lines. You can do that with some of your hobbies. And I don't want to say kill two birds with one stone, but you know what I mean by where I'm getting at. You can do that. The key is, again, making prayer something that is your driving motivation. in your life and the cool thing about prayer is that even when your body is no longer able to do some of the things that you used to be able to do whether it's athletic or otherwise You can still pray. You don't need to go anywhere fancy for that. You don't need to be able to drive to that. You can still commit yourself to prayer. You work out the model. There's a lot of people that talk about a lot of different models for prayer. You can work out the model for prayer, but make sure as you pray, pray prayers that praise God for who He is and for what He's done. And that includes not only in your own life and the life of your church, but the life of God's people across history. Pray for forgiveness of your sins and pray that the leadership of your church will make decisions that will honor Christ and not honor man. Pray for the congregational meeting that's coming up, speaking about congregational meetings. Pray for the growth of our church and pray that God would use you and give you opportunities to engage with your faith with others that you might invite them into the context of your church. Pray that the Christian Church in America would stand up and tear down the strongholds of hell that are in our midst, and pray that God would give you opportunities, individually and personally, to participate in that work. Remember, oftentimes prayer changes us because we're sometimes the biggest stumbling block. We say, you know, somebody ought to fix that. Whatever the that is, somebody ought to change that. Whatever the that is, why not me? Why not you? If you're making that observation that this is something ungodly going on in our community, let's go and address that in a godly way so that we might tear down those strongholds of hell that are in our midst. Pray those still and quiet prayers. Pray those prayers for the people that are close to you. If you're struggling with words to pray, pray that the Holy Spirit would give you those words or go to the book of Psalms and pray the Psalms. Let the Psalms be your prayer or let them guide you in your prayer. I've said before to people, I've challenged them. Pray starting in Psalm 1 and work your way one Psalm a day to Psalm 150. Break up some of the longer ones and make it a little bit longer than 150 days. But pray. Use those tools. There's lots of examples of prayers in the Bible. Use those examples either as your prayers or as model your prayers. And then pray without ceasing, as Paul writes. Make your context such that your heart is always ready to pray. Because that's what we're called to be as Christians. People who are devoted to prayer. We'll move on from that, but let that be your challenge. Let that be your challenge. Evaluate your time and ask yourself, am I really committing myself to prayer? Am I really striving in that direction? Because I think that it is very significant for us that as Luke introduces to us the beginnings of this baby Christian church, the first thing that he really tells us about this church is that they were devoted to prayer. And so we want to grow as a church and we want to be the church. We need to be a people who are committed to prayer in the same way that these folks were committed to prayer as well. Brings us up to verse 15. And Peter stands up to raise the question. Luke tells us that the church at that time consisted of about 120 people. Look around you folks. We're a little bit bigger than that, but not much. So there's a lot of parity there. There are 11 apostles leading the meeting. We've got 11 members of church council. Peter is addressing it kind of as the president of the church council. There's a ton of parity and parallelism there in terms of what we have, in terms of our context here. Congregational meeting, he begins and says, David said something about Judas a really long time ago. So he's talking about the Psalms here, but he's pointing out there's some Psalms that prophetically speak about Judas's death and Judas's work. And then kind of Luke, just to make sure we didn't know exactly how Judas dies, he gives us the insight. He bought this field. We're told if you compare the Gospels that he hung himself. He also points out that something happened. He fell, whether it was cut from the rope or the rope broke. And he fell to the ground and his entrails burst all over the place. And so the field became known in Jerusalem in their day as the field of blood. And then he cites two songs. He cites Psalm 69, 25, and 109, verse 8. That is, may his camp become desolate, and may another take his place, respectively, are those two references. Both of these psalms are what are called imprecatory psalms. Imprecation is just a fancy way of talking about a curse. These are psalms, if you look at those psalms, then both cases, these psalms are calling a curse upon a person or peoples and asking God to pour out His wrath upon them because they are haters of God and enemies of God. And Peter says, recorded by Luke, that both of these Psalms were speaking of Judas. who Jesus would earlier have called the Son of Destruction. That's John 17, 12. I highlight that reference that Jesus makes, because if you remember, kind of going through your Bibles, most of the time when there's a son of, it's son of Alphaeus, it's son of somebody. There's a reference to your dad that's there. And so basically what Jesus is saying of Judas is that he's the son of destruction. And he is the son of not an earthly father, but a father that has basically been destroyed. His line is being wiped off of the face of the earth in judgment for what it is that he's done. Actually, when Jesus is commenting that, he hasn't even done it yet. But what it is that He was about to do, that His line was going to be wiped off the face of the earth. That's what these Psalms are talking about. That's what these verses in the Psalms, especially verse 69 about Him being replaced is getting at, and His camp being made desolate and things along those lines. That's what these imprecations... And I felt like we needed to ask the question this morning because I don't know if you've ever spent much time reading through the imprecatory Psalms. That's pretty hard language. They're pretty harsh in the way that they speak about those who are the enemies of God. It's about as strong and probably in most cases stronger than most of us would feel comfortable ever being, speaking about any human being, even the people that we dislike the most or have offended us the most greatly. So I thought it was worth asking the question, is it really fair that Judas be spoken of in this way? I mean, it's bad enough, we know what Judas did. It's bad enough that we know that. It's bad enough that he's written off the face of the earth, if you will, in terms of his line, his heritage. He doesn't have any kids to follow his name. It's bad enough for all of that. But do we really need to kind of add insult to injury by using the imprecations, the imprecatory Psalms to speak of him? And I think the answer is yes, but let me explore that for just a little bit. We're told in Acts chapter 2 verse 23 that all of these things have happened according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Judas, the priests, the Romans, Herod, Pilate, all of these guys came together to put Jesus to death because of the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. They did exactly what they wanted to do. But in doing exactly what they wanted to do, they did exactly what God designed for them to do. There comes a point that our abilities to be able to mesh all of that together are going to break down because we're talking about an infinite God who is infinitely sovereign and does things in ways that our finite minds cannot completely comprehend. That being said, we know that we are responsible for our actions, but God is completely sovereign in all things and all actions that are that are taken. And that mixes together. And biblically, we got to affirm these both together as the scriptures teach them both hand in hand together. And so as we're kind of wrestling through that, Judas's actions in betraying Christ were part of God's plan. Yet Judas is ultimately charged and challenged and punished with the harshest way that we can do for doing what God has designed him to do. Work through putting those pieces together. What we can say is this, I think. that God actively chose not to give Judas the kind of restraining grace that he would have needed to resist the kind of temptation that he had when he faced the temptations of the devil to betray Christ. Why? God's definite plan required him to die upon that cross in a certain way at a certain time to fulfill all of those prophecies that are found in Scripture. David was writing about this stuff a thousand years before Judas was even born. Had to be part of God's divine plan. Judas' role is spoken of three times in terms of Old Testament prophecy. Psalm 41.9 speaks about his betrayal by a companion or a friend. Zechariah 11.32 and 33 speaks about the 30 pieces of silver. And Zechariah 11.13 speaks about the silver being used to buy a potter's field wherein Judas would die. All of that foretold by God, part of His divine plan. At the same time, Judas did exactly what his sinful, wicked, miserable heart wanted to do the most. And thus he condemns, and it is proper to place him amongst the other haters of God, and he is rightly deserving of these imprecations. That being said, let me caution you, because it raises the question of whether we should still use imprecatory prayers today. I think the answer to that ultimately is yes, because God has given them to us in His Word. They're part of His revealed Word and they're given to us in that context. They're given to us in the context of the Psalms themselves, which are all prayers that are given for God's people to be used. They're given as a hymn book, historically, for God's people to sing as part of our praise to God. So the answer is yes, but... Be wise. Be wary. Because we have a tendency to want to use an imprecation like this against people who are our enemies or haters of us. And we're to love our neighbors and our enemies. These are reserved for those who have established themselves by their action and their way to be haters of God and the enemies of God. And sometimes we can't distinguish between the two. Thus, we need to be careful and wise. Sometimes, though, we can. In those cases, I think God has given us those imprecatory psalms as a way to teach us how to express righteous anger and indignation in a way that is holy and pure. to work it out of our system. Not to act on it, vengeance is mine, says the Lord, but to work that anger and wrath that we have in our system at seeing such a horrible injustice be worked out in the context of prayer in a holy, holy way. This is applied to Judas. But the imprecatory Psalms are applied all over the place, including in Jesus' lips to people other than Judas in the Bible. So again, yes, but be careful, be wise. And so Peter poses the question, we know we need to fulfill David's prophecy and replace Judas. Let it be replaced by another. Question is, who's the person that does it? They got 120 people there. And so they set two qualifications. First qualification is they had to be present with Jesus's ministry from John the Baptist's baptism forward. So if you happen to just join up, You know, somewhere along the lines, you weren't qualified. Jesus' brothers, not qualified. They did not follow the ministry from the beginning of his public ministry at his baptism. And second, they had to be present at the ascension of Christ. The goal was which of these 120 can join in Judas' former place to be a witness to or of the resurrection of Christ. And out of these 120, there were two candidates that are brought forward. That does not mean that there were not others that potentially could have filled the bill in terms of fulfilling those two requirements. The women were certainly there, we know that for sure. But they weren't part of that requirement. Again, this ties into the theology behind having male leadership within the life of the church. Not necessarily female leadership in the life of the church. They were qualified by the two qualifications because they were there. But they weren't qualified because of their responsibilities and their roles. There were others historically that were there, but they prayed and said, who are the people that should be in this spot? And two are brought forward. Proverbs 16, 33. Let me take a step back and jump ahead. Joseph, by the way, is given two other names, Barsabbas, which is probably a surname that literally means the son of the Sabbath, and Justice. which is a Roman name. And often times it was not uncommon to have a Roman name and a Greek name and a Jewish name if you were in this world. And that's why we've got Simon Peter and Cephas together, and it's the same guy. So don't get hung up on that. And the other guy's name is Matthias. And those are the two that are brought forward. And rather than doing what we would do, and say, let's take a vote. You know, everybody that wants Joseph on this hand, raise your hand, count up the hands, and everybody, or write it down on a secret ballot, or everybody stand up, or you know, there's lots of different ways that you can do the vote. Everybody says aye, and nay, and things along those lines. But they choose to cast lots. In a sense, God is the only one who gets to vote. Proverbs 16.33 states, The lot is cast in the lap as every decision is of the Lord. In other words, you may throw the gambling dice, and those gambling dice as they bounce and roll on that table may seem completely random to us, but the numbers that come up ultimately are consistent with God's plan and design. which raises a question of practical application. Is gambling appropriate for the Christian? Or is it appropriate to use other kinds of random things like that for us to make choices? Maybe we should make all of our congregational decision meetings by throwing some dice on the ground, or they're typically rocks back then, and things along those lines. Would that be something that is set for us as an example here in this text for us to follow? First of all, gambling is not condemned as sin in the scriptures. There's lots of examples like this where God's people use that. The squandering of resources, though, is. So keep track of the distinction between the two. If you choose to gamble out of your excess as a form of personal entertainment, there is no prohibition, as far as I'm aware, against that. But if you're putting your well-being at risk, your family at risk, gambling money that you can't afford to lose, then, or if it becomes a draw and an addiction that controls you, then it becomes sin in your life. Secondly, we are not to put God to the test. And so, though God does control the numbers that come out on the dice, if you have like a bunch of debt and want to get rid of it, the way to do it is not to go down to the gambling hall and say, I want to start throwing craps. And see God as a way of pulling us out of the hole. God may put you deeper in the hole as punishment for being reckless with the resources that he has given you and trying to use God as some kind of a get-rich-easy-gain kind of scheme. Thirdly, though God ordains the numbers that fall on the dice, you should not ordinarily seek randomness in making your decision. How often times that people say, I don't know what to do, I'm going to flip a coin. Or how often times we do the rock, paper, scissors, or do eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and all of those kinds of things. Although you can control the eeny, meeny, miny, moe if you've figured out the syllables there and do it right. That should not be the ordinary way. And we kind of snucker at some of those things, but how many people say, alright, I need to make a really big decision. I just wait until a blank space. How about that? I have known numerous faithful Christians that make decisions by kind of shotgunning through their Bible and seeing where their finger lands. It is no difference. Yes, God is sovereign over those things, but He has given us minds. He has given us the Scriptures. He has given us prayer as ways to discern what is pure and good and right. Isn't it interesting in Romans chapter 12 where Paul is talking about us growing when he begins by talking about renewing our our minds so that we know what is good and pure and right. So God does that as we grow in our knowledge of God's Word and our sanctification and things along those lines. Fourth, that means ordinary decisions ought not ordinarily be done by the casting of lots, particularly in the context of congregational meetings. In fact, Paul, when he's writing to Titus in Titus 1.5, he instructs Titus to quote-unquote, appoint elders. The Greek word for appoint there actually refers to appoint by the raising of hands. In other words, there is a nomination and election process that is taking place that Paul is instructing Titus to do in the context of the church for the choosing of elders in that particular church context. Peter was an apostle with a direct inspiration and connection to God. We are not. And the apostolic office has ceased to exist in the life of the church. God orders the church through other offices like that of elder and deacon most commonly. Through the instruction in his word and through prayers. And thus Peter's actions in this case do not become normative for the church. and shouldn't be normative for us individually either. But the lot that was cast fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered amongst the twelve. When we come to topics, we can explore this question of how many apostles really there were, because there's huge debates over this, and they're kind of interesting for academic reasons, to ask the questions in terms of what that word means. But for our purposes in the text this morning, he is simply numbered with the 11 to again make up the body of 12, replacing Judas. What's fascinating to me is the fact that Matthias basically disappears afterwards. After these verses, Matthias never shows up in the Bible ever again, directly or indirectly in terms of references. There's some traditions that suggest that he went to Ethiopia to preach. There's some traditions that say that he went to Georgia, not in the United States, Georgia, but Georgia in the mountains that are part of Russia to preach. Some suggest that he was stoned in Jerusalem. They're pure speculation, pure church traditions, and we don't have anything concrete to build upon for sure. But we are given some concrete things about this congregational meeting that we can build upon for sure. And I want to encourage you to not only look at this as something that took place here in this congregational meeting, but it should take place in every congregational meeting, not just the one in a couple weeks that's kind of a special meeting, but in every congregational meeting we have always. One, they should be bathed in prayer. If you're not a praying Christian, you're not helping the life of the church. Be praying, be committed and dedicated to prayer, especially when it comes up to every question that is going to take place at the congregational meetings that are held. Secondly, that the only agenda that these guys had, that Peter had, was to be faithful to the scriptures. He knew that Judas had to be replaced, not because he wanted it. He thought 12 was a nice number. There's 12 tribes in Judah, there ought to be 12. No, the prophecy was given that Judas had to be replaced. Peter's goal was simply to see that the scripture was to be kept faithful. And we should be faithful to scripture in everything that we do. There may be a decision before us that we really like for a lot of pragmatic reasons, but if it's not faithful to scripture, the answer must always be no in the context of the church. Third, it must be prayerfully attended to while we're meeting in the church. We start off our congregational meetings with prayer. We typically close them with prayer for a reason. But even when we have those little pieces of paper that we use as ballots and we're going to write our answer to, you don't need to necessarily spend an hour in prayer before you answer. But make sure you spend some time in prayer before you answer and write down that answer. You know, sometimes we find little prayers in scripture, you know, like in Nehemiah, where he says, Lord, help me in this and then goes, goes at it because that's all the time he has. Make that your prayer at that point in that moment before you write down your answer in every one of those votes that you take. Make it something that is so significant that it would be unconscionable for you to enter into without prayer. Fourthly, Joseph, who lost the vote, didn't get all upset and mad and storm out because he didn't get to be one of the twelve. We're also not told that he celebrated and went, Stress and pressure is off of me now. It's on Him. Sometimes we do that in our humanity when it comes to votes like this. People wanting to run or not wanting to run for different offices and things along those lines. Run if God has called you to run. And serve faithfully if God has called you to serve. And it's been confirmed by the people of the church. Don't get upset, and don't stomp off, and don't celebrate, regardless of how the vote ends up turning out. And fifth, the church was of one mind in their coming in and going out. And I just can't emphasize that enough. And the one mind comes as a result of being committed to prayer. These are the characteristics of this church here, this Christian church, as established in the book of Acts. My prayer is that those would be our characteristics as well. And where they are not, that we would strive to make them our characteristics. Because all habits can be changed. You just have to work harder for some than others. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before You knowing that we haven't always been faithful in setting and following the model that you have set for us here in the Book of Acts. But being aware of that is half the battle, and we can learn and grow. So, Father, I pray that we would indeed be committed to Your Word, that we would be committed to prayer, that we would be committed to the building up of Your church and not our own, and that we would be committed to glorifying You in all things, and that You would be made much of in our lives individually as a result, and in our corporate life together as a church. We praise you, Father, and ask for your forgiveness for things that we have fallen so far short at so many times. And Father, I pray that you would indeed renew your spirit within us and renew our minds that we might discern what is pure and good and right and holy and pleasing to you. These things we pray in Jesus's name. Amen.