Sermon Tone Analysis

A few years back, I read a book called “The Paradox of Choice” by a psychologist named Barry Schwartz.

In it, he describes all the stuff that goes through our heads when we have to make even the simplest choices.

And he argues that this advertising~/marketing~/consumer-driven world we live in is paralyzing us.

For example, the average grocery store has over 250 different kinds of cereal on its shelves.

Do you like Crest toothpaste?

That narrows your choices down to only 27 kinds of Crest toothpaste.

The author argues that kind of selection actually fries our brain and makes it even tougher to make even the most basic decisions in life.

Let’s face it, a lot of us have a hard time making decisions even in the best of circumstances.

But what happens when you’re in a difficult, troubling time in life?

What happens when you’re faced with having to decide between two good choices?

Or what happens when you’re faced with having to decide between two really difficult choices?

What happens when you don’t know what direction to turn?

That’s exactly what the disciples were faced with in our passage this morning.

Jesus had just ascended into heaven.

And remember that the disciples had just gotten fussed at by a couple of angels for standing there looking up into the sky when they were supposed to be doing what Jesus had told them to do.

And do you remember what He had told them to do?

Back up in verse 4, Luke tells us they were supposed to go back to Jerusalem and wait there until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit—which verse 8 tells us would empower them to be the witnesses they were called to be.

So that’s what they did.

They walked back down the mountain to Jerusalem.

Verse 12 says it was a Sabbath day’s journey.

Jewish law only allowed a person to walk about ¾ of a mile on the Sabbath, so it wasn’t a long trip.

When they got back to Jerusalem, they went to the place where they had obviously met before.

Some people think it was Mark’s house.

Some people think it was the place where they had eaten the Last Supper with Jesus.

The fact is—we don’t really know.

It had to be a pretty big place since it was going to hold 120 people.

But that was where they went.

They didn’t have an agenda.

They didn’t really have a plan.

But Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait.

So they did.

They were obedient.

And while they were waiting, do you see what verse 14 says that they were doing?

They were praying.

And they were praying together.

Yes, as believers, we’re called to individual prayer.

We’re called to meet with the Lord as individuals—as Paul says, we’re called to pray without ceasing.

But there’s something special about corporate prayer.

Something special happens when God’s people gather together and pray for things in one accord.

That’s why I always encourage you to come to our prayer meetings.

As a church, we need to devote ourselves corporately with one accord to prayer for the persecuted, for the nations, for our neighbors, and for ourselves.

When God’s people are devoted to gathering in prayer, God-sized things start to happen.

One more thing I want you to notice about their prayer meeting.

The men and women prayed together.

Mary, the mother of Jesus was praying right there alongside Peter and James and John.

By the way—notice they weren’t praying /to/ Mary or /through/ her.

They were praying /with/ her.

Her prayers were no more special than anyone else’s.

For those of you who might have come from a Catholic background, you need to understand that this is the last place Mary is even mentioned in Scripture.

She’s never mentioned after the birth of the church.

She’s never mentioned in any of the instructional letters to the church.

And because of that, she has absolutely no role whatsoever in the church or in believers’ lives today.

As a matter of fact, praying/ to/ Mary is blasphemy—because God is our only audience in prayer.

And praying/ through/ Mary is heresy because the Bible tells us that there is only one mediator between God and man—and His name is Jesus.

The disciples were devoting themselves to prayer.

Together.

With one accord.

And God was getting ready to do something exceedingly abundantly more than they could ask or think.

But not quite yet.

Sometimes we might get the impression that they were just spending their whole time together on their knees.

That wasn’t the case—because they had some work to take care of.

In verse 15, Peter starts to take the lead on some things.

All along, Jesus had prepared Peter for his leadership role.

It was part of the way that Jesus discipled him during their time together.

And now it was time to start stepping up.

He reminded the rest of the group of what the Bible had prophesied about Judas.

When you think about it, that had to be shocking and heartbreaking to them.

Judas had been their friend.

They’d lived life with him for three years.

They really trusted him.

As a matter of fact, they trusted him enough to let him handle their money.

So when he betrayed Jesus, he betrayed all of them.

Have you ever had a dear friend stab you in the back?

That’s what they experienced with Judas—only infinitely more so.

So in verse 16 Peter reminds them about what Scripture said.

Scripture predicted it would happen.

It predicted the betrayal.

It even predicted the way he would die and where he would be buried.

Peter was reminding them that even though Judas had been unfaithful and untrustworthy—God is always faithful and His Word is always trustworthy.

And in the middle of those prophesies, Peter reminded them that they needed to pick a successor.

They needed to pick someone to fill Judas’ position as an apostle.

Verses 21-22 tell the criteria for apostleship.

It had to be someone who had been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry—from His baptism on.

And it had to be someone who had been with Jesus after his resurrection.

Out of all the 120 gathered, there were only two men who met those qualifications.

Some others might have wanted to be an apostle.

Others might have even “felt called” to be an apostle.

But only two met the qualifications—Joseph and Matthias.

Two men were qualified, but only one office was available.

So what now?

They were faced with a really difficult choice.

They had two excellent options in front of them and had to choose only one.

Have you ever had to make a choice like that?

In the middle of a difficult, troubling time… knowing you need to make a decision in order to move forward.

So how do you do it?

How do you know what direction to go?

Notice what Peter and the disciples did.

First, verses 24 and 25 say they prayed.

And then verse 26 says they cast lots.

In other words, they rolled the dice.