Replacing Judas

INTRODUCTION

What do churches depend on?

I know the Sunday School answer, but we also know there are plenty of things said in Sunday School rooms that are simply that—the right answer.

I am asking about the reality of things. In reality, what do churches depend on?

Before we try and answer that, let me offer up a definition of dependence:

Dependence is the state of relying on or being controlled by something or someone else.

For example, one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed in my life is my wife nursing our three children.

The struggle to latch, the eventual nourishment, and even the emotional process of weaning.

To see God’s design at work and the beauty of womanhood in the nourishing of my children

And when that was happening, Beckett, Everett and Millie were completely dependent upon Katie.

They were totally reliant on her for what they needed to live.

She had complete control over their ability eat and be healthy.

So now, let’s go back and ask again—What do churches depend on?

What controls them?

What do they rely on for life and growth and health?

Is it the message we preach? Is it the method we use to preach it?

Is it our talents and abilities? Is it our model for ministry?

Is it whatever way we used to do it or the way we do it now or the way we need to do it?

Is it money? Is it buildings? Is it the music?

Is it the mercy ministry? Is it the teaching pastor?

Is it the membership? Is it the staff?

Or is it the One who paid for it with His Son’s blood?

Or is it the Spirit who brought our dead hearts to life?

Is it God?

The early apostolic church depended on God. From the start. Even before the Spirit’s arrival.

And we will see that in the passage this morning and seek to relate it to ourselves as we pursue healthy faithfulness in 2023.

Acts 1:12–26 ESV

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, “ ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “ ‘Let another take his office.’ 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.

WHAT HAPPENED TO JUDAS?

Let’s start this morning by talking about what happened to Judas. That hangs over the whole text.

That isn’t really what the passage is about. The passage is about how the church responds to what happened to Judas, immediately after Jesus’ ascension.

But his betrayal of Jesus and death is the catalyst for all the events in this passage.

Of course, we remember from Luke that Judas was one of the 12 and that he turned heel and betrayed the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

Luke 22:1–6 ESV

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Peter explains that Judas acquired a field with the money he got betraying Jesus (v. 18) and somehow his body fell in that field and burst open and all his insides went everywhere (v. 18).

And all the inhabitants of Jerusalem knew it as the “Field of Blood” (v. 19).

Now, I do want to stop and mention that this account of Judas’ death is a controversial one because many critics of the Bible say it contradicts Matthew’s story.

Matthew 27:3–10 ESV

Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

Matthew says Judas commited suicide by hanging.

He says that Judas returns the money to the temple and it is the priests who buy the field

So what do we make of these differences?

Well, it is possible we are not meant to try and reconcile these things at all. It is possible that Luke is simply reporting what is commonly said in Jerusalem.

But I tend to think that is not what is happening here.

I believe Matthew and Luke are both telling us what happened and you can fairly easily harmonize the accounts:

HARMONIZING MATTHEW AND LUKE

1. Judas hanged himself like Matthew said, but no one touched the body, so the rope eventually gave way and Judas’ bloated body fell to the ground and burst open.

I know that is gross but it was actually one of the more tame ways to describe what happened to the man who betrayed our Lord.

2. The field is purchased by the priests with Judas’ money, but they are simply the acting agents. It is still Judas’ blood money, so the field was his.

3. Judas hung himself on that property.

There—harmonized. No reason to freak out. A little logic will go a long way in seeing how the all the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John work together.

But for our purposes, we just need to understand the reality that Judas was a betrayer and now he is gone. There are now eleven apostles. What are they going to do about that?

This is one of the first big decisions that the apostles face.

What will they depend on? It is a crucial moment that is coming about in the infancy of the church.

Pentecost has not even come.

But here they are—the rubber is meeting the road. What and Who will they turn to?

GOD’S WORD (v. 12, 15-16, 20)

In verse 15, Luke tells us that we have 120 who are gathered together. This is effectively the whole church at this moment in history.

Peter stands up to address them and what does he do? He points to the Scriptures.

There is an important decision to be made and Peter’s first move is to go to the Word in v. 16.

So here is our first teaching point for today:

Teaching Point #1: The Church must be dependent upon God’s Word (v. 12, 15-16, 20)

When Luke says that Peter stood up among the brothers, I don’t believe they are in the Upper Room any longer. I don’t know where they are and I don’t think it is important, but I don’t believe it is the Upper Room.

The Upper Room would have been the upstairs of a house in Jerusalem. It is doubtful they are getting 120 people in that space.

So then what is the point of verses 12-14?

I believe that v.12-14 are there to let us know that the apostles have been obedient to Jesus’ instructions.

They were told to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1:8)

That is what they are doing.

Verses 12-14 establishes that the apostles and their company are obediently waiting on the Spirit as they were told to.

So verses 12-14 are really our first indication that this group is dependent upon the Word.

They go to Jerusalem and they wait there because that is what Jesus told them they were to do in order to begin their post-Ascension work.

When we get to verse 15 and Peter is standing up to address the brothers, we should not read that as being the same day as verses 12-14.

Instead, Luke is relaying to us one story from this period of time in which the apostolic company are waiting for the Spirit in Jerusalem.

And it is an important story because it tells us how they dealt with absence of a 12th man.

As Peter turns to the Word, the way that views the Scriptures are exposed in how he speaks about them.

First of all, Peter outs himself as a man who believes that the Scriptures are divinely inspired.

He says that the events surrounding Judas had to take place because the Scripture had to be fulfilled (v. 16), but that Scripture is spoken by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David.

That is almost a textbook explanation of divine inspiration by Peter.

Inspiration is that extraordinary, supernatural influence (or, passively, the result of it,) exerted by the Holy Ghost on the writers of our Sacred Books, by which their words were rendered also the words of God, and, therefore, perfectly infallible.

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield

The 1689 London Baptist Confession, a landmark confession for Baptists, says that because the Scriptures are divinely inspired by the Spirit, they are the standard by which we judge all other spirits.

The supreme judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit, into which Scripture so delivered, our faith is finally resolved.

1689 London Baptist Confession

Peter is absolutely convinced of the truth of the Scriptures. That is why he quotes from the Old Testament here.

In a time where the church needs direction, he does not turn to the instructions of man, but to the instructions of God.

He does not turn to the wisdom of man, but to the wisdom of God.

The second quotation is Psalm 109:8

Psalm 109:8 ESV

May his days be few; may another take his office!

Peter sees that passage as prophetic instruction for what the church needs to do now—they need to replace Judas with another because Jesus chose 12 for a reason.

There is another sense in which Peter is showing dependence upon the Word. Not only is he pointing to the Word and leading the church to obey it—He is using it to interpret the events that they have experienced.

In verse 16, he is helping the 120 understand why Judas did what he did and why he must be replaced.

He doesn’t pontificate about his feelings and his emotions and his opinions in order to try and make sense of things.

He turns to the Word and quotes from Psalm 69:25...

He does this because again—Peter believes the Scriptures are totally truthful and are from God. He believes they are inspired by the Spirit.

So he depends on the Scripture to help the church understand what has taken place and what must take place.

So there is this thread of dependence on the Word of God that runs throughout these verses.

V. 12—They are to obedient to Jesus’ Word in following His instructions

v. 15-16—They are dependent on the Word as Peter stands up and points to it as their source for understanding and how to move forward

APPLICATION: The sort of devotion you see to the Word of God in these verses are absent from many churches today. It has been replaced with methods and models—by human wisdom.

A lot of churches will say they are “Bible-based,” which means they quote a few Bible verses in the sermon. If you look at their small group offerings, you’ll find most of them are built around special interests, hobbies, or personal demographics. But a mark of a fruitful church is a love for God’s Word. Preacher preach from it as a life-giving source of food and oxygen for spiritual growth. The people study it with determination and intensity. They believe the Word of God is sufficient and powerful and authoritative.

Jared Wilson

If anything good has happened in this pulpit over the last 12 years it is because it came from this Book.

If anything not good has come from it—and certainly it has because I am not perfect—it came from me.

And so it goes for the rest of the ministry of this church.

The closer we stay to the instructions of the Word...

The tighter we cling to the promises of the Word...

The harder we follow after the truths of the Word...

…will have a direct impact on how faithful we are and how healthy we are.

This is what we want by the way. We want health and faithfulness. That is what they are after in this passage.

To be healthy, they must be complete and they need a 12th apostle.

To be faithful, they need a 12th apostle in order to go on the mission they have been given.

And as they chase faithfulness and health from the very start, it is the Word of God that they depend on, not the wisdom of man.

In fact, a sure sign that a people have forgotten what God’s Word is, is that they start chasing health and faithfulness apart from God’s Word.

If it is the Source of life, how could you ever be healthy without it?

If it is the Source of truth, how could you ever be faithful without it?

I will go to Jared Wilson one more time:

Reducing reliance upon the Bible or removing it from a worship service in favor of practical help or biblically inspired principles is a sure sign that you don’t know what a worship service is.

Jared Wilson

You could take out “worship service” and put in “church” and the quote still works.

Reducing reliance upon the Bible in a church shows you don’t know what a church even is.

It is the body of Christ—how could it be healthy and faithful without Christ’s Word.

We always need more of the Word. It is what we depend upon.

GOD’S EAR (v. 13-14, 24)

Let’s keep moving along. We have seen how the church is dependent upon God’s Word and now we see how they are dependent upon Him in prayer.

There are two instances in which the church is praying in this passage. The first comes in verse 14. What were the apostles and the company with them doing as they waited in the Upper Room in Jerusalem? They were praying with one accord.

The second is in verse 24. They are about to cast lots between Matthias and Justus, but before they do, they pray:

“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...”

In the Upper Room, they are dependent upon God as they wait on His Spirit.

In the casting of lots, they are dependent upon God as they look for His will.

But in both cases, they are expressing their helplessness to God. They are expressing their fundamental need for Him.

Teaching Point #2: The Church must be dependent upon God’s ear (v. 13-14, 24).

They are showing their helpless to God by speaking to Him. By bending His ear with petition.

In many ways, this is what prayer is—God’s children expressing their helplessness to Him.

But the prayers we are seeing this passage this morning are not just prayers uttered by individual saints alone in their prayer closets.

No—we have corporate prayer in these passages. The church is praying together.

They are expressing their helplessness together.

And in their prayers, I think we see some principles for corporate prayer that are helpful for us.

1. Corporate prayer should be PERSISTENT.

Let’s re call once more what Jesus told the apostles:

Luke 24:49 ESV

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

So the first order of business for the church was not to preach, but to wait—because without the gift of the Spirit, there would be no power in the preaching.

So as they wait in Jerusalem, what do they do? They pray.

And the implication of verse 14 is that they are praying in this way throughout the time of waiting.

In fact, their prayer in verse 24 is another indication that prayer is their habit.

Jesus taught them how to pray and they are putting it into practice by depending on God perpetually, persistently bringing their requests to Him.

2. Corporate prayer should be UNIFIED.

They pray of “one accord.” They are in agreement together as they pray.

It is hurtful to the church when we come together and we rush through prayer 30 seconds of prayer so that we can get to 300 seconds of announcements.

It is hurtful to the church when we pray about something and then never return to God to thank Him or ask again.

It is hurtful to the church when we use prayer as a way to get people on and off stage, as opposed to using it as a time to stop and be still before the One whom we depend on for our ability to live and move and have our being.

ILLUSTRATION: The church is not meant to be like the robot vacuum in my house. We set that thing up, programmed it and now at a certain time every day, it zooms around and does a half-decent job of getting up the dirt.

That is not the church. The church is not a mechanical object that gets started by God, but pretty much runs on its own. The church is a living organism that needs God and that need is expressed in prayer.

Without it, the church will flounder.

Wherever there is health, it will sink down into disease.

Where there is faithfulness, there will be drift from the mission.

There is simply no way for the church to live well apart from the strength of God and prayer is the vehicle He has given us to seek that strength.

Charles Spurgeon certainly understood this. And that is why every Monday night, after having two service on Sunday, the people of Metropolitan Tabernacle gathered for prayer. Listen to how Spurgeon talked about these meetings:

Spurgeon the Pastor: Recovering a Biblical & Theological Vision for Ministry Monday Night Prayer Meeting

The prayer-meeting is not a farce, no waste of time, no mere pious amusement. Some in these times think so, but such shall be lightly esteemed. Surely they know not the omnipotence that lies in the pleas of God’s people. The Lord has taken the keys of his royal treasury, and put them into the hand of faith. He has taken his sword from the scabbard, and given it into the hand of the man mighty in prayer. He seems at times to have placed his sovereign scepter in the hand of prayer.

Do not let us become poor in prayer. It is a bad thing to become poor in money, because we need it for a thousand causes, and cannot get on without it. But we can do without money better than we can do without prayer. We must have your prayers.

To strengthen a prayer-meeting is as good a work as to preach a sermon. I would have you vow that the prayer-meeting shall never be given up while you live.

When you talk about what it would take to start a new church people will say, “Well, you have to have money. You can’t do anything without money.”

Spurgeon would say, “Wrong. Start over.”

He would say you are starting the conversation at the wrong place—you start with prayer.

And when it comes to Seaford Baptist, we don’t just pray but we pray expectantly.

This is one of our Core Values here—Expectant Prayer.

This means that when we pray, we have faith that God will respond.

That doesn’t mean He will give what we asked for, but it does mean that we believe He will give us the answer that is best for us and for His glory.

And if we are going to reflect the prayerfulness of the early church, we have take this seriously. From the very start of the New Testament church, prayer has been one of the foremost ways believers deal with what is going on around them.

They need to wait for the Spirit.

They need to select a 12th man.

They pray.

This must become our habit. That when we have a need—we pray. When we have a praise, we pray. When we sin, we pray. When we need to forgive, we pray. When Satan is bearing down on us, we pray.

We get down on our knees and we go to God and ask Him to glorify Himself in our lives, expecting that He will answer—depending on His answers for each step we take.

GOD’S DIRECTION (v. 21-26)

Let’s keep going through the passage. In verses 21-22, the process for selecting the 12th man is underway and we get qualifications. Not anyone can step in and be the next apostle.

They must be:

A part of the company from Jesus’ baptism to ascension

This ensures that they are eye-witnesses to the ministry of Christ

Specifically, eye-witnesses of the resurrection

They have to have seen Jesus alive in His resurrected body

I am not going to spend too long on this because we spent quite a bit of time on it two weeks ago, but you see in these verses how the resurrection is tied to apostolic authority.

You can’t lead the church as an apostle, if you did not see the resurrected Christ.

Even Paul describes himself as having an odd start to his apostleship because He did not see the resurrected Christ physically, but in a vision after the Ascension.

1 Corinthians 15:6–8 ESV

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

The reason that the 12th apostle must be an eye-witness to the resurrection is because it is a matter of first importance:

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Without the resurrection, we have no confidence that Christ’s sacrifice for us is accepted by God.

No confidence that He has ascended.

No confidence that He will return one day and bring about a new creation.

The entire Gospel witness hinges on the fact that Christ is raised.

By the way, these verses are why we absolutely reject anyone running around today saying that apostle is still an office in the church. We reject people calling themselves apostles.

Were you an eyewitness to the resurrection?

Do you heal people with your hands on the regular in the same manner as Jesus?

If not, stop confusing people using this term.

The apostles were a specific group that led the first generation of the church, but as the generation that were eyewitnesses to the resurrection passed away, so did the office of apostle.

The apostles built the church and handed it to the pastors to shepherd

Once it was built, there was no need for them any more.

They are not unimportant. Their names are commemorated in the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, the need for their function just no longer existed.

That is when the shepherds and pastors jumped in to lead the church, which deacons meeting the practical needs of the body.

All that being said, in this generation of the church, apostles were just getting started. They needed a twelfth man to round out the team. They have two men who meet the standard:

Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus (v. 23)

And Matthias

They pray and set the men before the Lord and they cast lots.

The casting of lots was a regular way that Old Testament believers made decisions.

Casting lots was like the ancient world version of a coin toss.

It is seemingly an exercise of chance, but if you believe in a sovereign God, you know it is much more than that.

They counted the answer from the casting of lots to be from the tongue of the Lord.

Proverbs 16:33 ESV

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

There are 70 different mentions of casting lots in the Old Testament—the most famous of them probably being when Israel cast lots to divide up the land between the 12 tribes.

This is the final time you see lots being cast in the Bible. There is not another instance of it in the New Testament. Why? Because now the Spirit of God has come.

In Acts 2, the promise of Father will come and dwell within the church.

Going forward, there will be no need for the casting of lots because the Spirit now guides our decisions.

Teaching Point #3: The Church must be dependent upon God’s direction (v. 21-26).

Let’s be clear, to have God’s Spirit dwelling within is better than casting lots.

But whether you are relying on direction of God through lots or through His Spirit, you are still relying on Him. That is what is most important for us to understand.

The church did not intend to select a 12th man in their own wisdom. They are dependent upon God “who knows the hearts of all.”

He knows who He has set apart for this work. He knows what it is in the hearts of these men. And in His wisdom, Matthias is the man.

SIDEBAR: I always feel for Justus, who is like the 5th Beatle. JUST MISSED IT.

But the bottom line is—they depend on God because they know He is sufficient and they are not.

When we don’t have a chapter and verse from the Bible telling us what to do, we go to the Lord and we ask for wisdom and He gives us wisdom, based on the truth of His Word, to go and use in our lives and in the church.

When we as Christians understand our role in the unfolding drama of redemption, when we have a grasp on God’s revealed will, when we’ve gathered the necessary information in order to narrow our options, when we have prayed to the Lord, we should then simply trust God, make a decision, and go with it.

Tony Merida

And this is freeing for us as a church body.

When we have a budget to vote on

When we have a pastor or deacon to affirm

When we have any big decision to make as a church

We simply need to check our plans against the Word, look at the lay of the land, use the wisdom God has given us from His Word and go for it.

As long as we approach our entire decision-making process with the foundational reality that God is sufficient and we are not, therefore we turn to Him. Over and over and over. We never stop.

It is His mission and He will be the One who sees to its success.

And more than that, He will see to it that as the mission is unfolding, He is glorified in the decisions and actions made and taken by His Church, as they depend on Him.

CONCLUSION

I did a Google search this week: “Tips for Church Growth.” One of the first articles I found laid out 7 Easy Steps. Surely, if every church walks through these steps, the whole world will be won to Jesus by Memorial Day!

Challenge people to serve

Provide a path toward involvement

Focus programs around purpose

Make it uncomfortable to be disengaged

Preach action, not knowledge

Use active language

Reward Progress

Well thank you CareyNieuwhof.com, whose content is accessed 1.5 million times a month by church leaders for the tips, but I missed the part about God. Christ. The Spirit.

Because I am pretty sure I can take those 7 Tips for Church Growth and use them in a meeting about how to grow a YMCA or charitable organization and no one would flinch.

I could walk into the most secular non-profits and talk like that and they would feel totally at home.

I could walk into godless organizations that actively work against the church and use that language and it would fly just fine.

Because it is godless.

We cannot go about God’s work with godless plans and resources. We cannot go about God’s work with the world’s strategies.

Because we are building a Kingdom that is not of this world.

We must depend on God if we are going to be a Kingdom-building church. A healthy and faithful church.

We need His Word.

We need His ear.

We need His direction.

Otherwise, we are just doing man’s work in man’s strength.

And who has time for a silly mission like that? Let’s depend on God.