Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Must be Fulfilled

Today we have a text in front of us that will cause me to have no other choice but to answer one of the great mysteries of the modern church… What could this all important question be?

How did Jesus turn water into wine?

How did Jesus walk on water?

How did Jesus make the winds and waves stop?

No that is way too easy… Jesus is God he is divine and can do anything… those are easy questions to answer.

But here before us in the end of the first chapter of Acts we have something that has caused us to really struggle… So what is this mysterious question?

Should Christians cast lots or flip coins to make decisions?

I am obviously joking.

Yet I will give you my opinions and why I think they are biblically sound, but there is so much more in this text before we can address such a non essential point.

While the text in front of us has some graphic content, there is a lot more there than maybe you realize, let’s get a quick recap and then let’s dive in...

The Apostles have just witnessed Jesus Ascend back up into heaven right before there very eyes, yet just before that Jesus told them to go back to the city and to wait for the promise of the Father.

He gave them no specific details other than they could expect to be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

As soon as Christ Ascends before them they are told by two angels that Jesus will come back the way he left.

Let’s pick it back up from there...

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We see several things here.

We see the Apostles, the Upper room, One Accord or Unity, and Jesus’ family...

The Apostles

we have named before us 11 of the 12, one name that was left is Judas, which we will get to him in a moment.

But what I want to make sure to point out is why there is a focus on these Apostles.

Remember this is a narrative story being told by Luke who was a physician that traveled with the apostles.

Luke is reporting what God was doing by his Spirit through these Apostles.

So while it may seem like certain people get all the attention, we will see that there are many other believers and no doubt there could be many stories written of all the amazing things that God did in the life of the people who recieved the Gospel and were saved.

yet this is a story about God, the Gospel and his plan to save people from all over.

So it was necessary to focus on the Apostles… Why? Well what is an Apostle?

The words Apostles mean - “One who is Sent” or messenger.

Yet it implies more than just a sent messenger.

An Apostle was someone who is commissioned with authority to speak for or represent the One who sent them.

If you think about it, Jesus is the chief Apostle since he is sent by the Father and speaks with the authority of the Father.

And just like that, these men were Apostles because they were physically sent by Jesus, being directly commissioned to speak with his authority.

So just like like rejecting Christ means to Reject the Father, rejecting the Apostles meant to reject Jesus who sent them and authorized them.

Now we have listed 11 before us here in the text, and we know that they will pick another, and yet there is one more that we will not get to until our second session in Acts next winter… the Apostle Paul, who was commissioned by Christ and confirmed by the other Apostles and authenticated by many miracles, while also maintaining his teachings with the OT and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What we see later in this text, is the specific qualifications in order to be an Apostle.

They must be a man who was a disciple during Jesus’ earthly ministry and a witness to the resurrection.

These men were commissioned directly by Christ.

Since Jesus isn’t commissioning people directly any more and these original Apostles are no longer around to confirm any claim that someone thinks they are an Apostle, there are no Capital “A” Apostles alive today.

The Upper Room

While there is much debate as to where this place was… Some think it is the same place they celebrated the Last supper with Jesus found in , others think it is where they were hiding from the Jews seen in , still some other think it is at the house of a woman named Mary the mother of John Mark because of its proximity to the temple courts and because it seems they continued holding meetings at that place later in Acts.

The Important thing isn’t where this place is, but what was happening in this place.

One Accord

What we do know is that all that were together in this place called the Upper room, were in One Accord… meaning they were in Unity of mind, in agreement with each other.

There were no divisions among them, they were not distracted and splitting attention from prayer.

These people had taken very seriously the command to go and wait, and there was no better way to wait on the Lord than to be joined together in prayer and devotion to God.

The idea that they were in one Accord is also more important because of of who was with them… it was not just the Apostles who had spent the most time with Jesus these part 3 years.

and that is something that is surprising… look who else is there with them...

Jesus’ Family

Scripture here records that women with Mary Jesus’ mother, and his Brothers.

The original Greek translation here is sometimes inclusive of both male and female siblings, so it is very possible that both Jesus’ brothers and Sisters are here with Mary his mother.

Why does this matter and why is it important?

It is important because we know from earlier in the gospels that Jesus’ family didn’t believe at first… We have reason to believe that his family thought Jesus was a little off and they were embarrassed by his claims...

Clearly his siblings did not believe that Jesus was God…

Jesus’ family did not start by believing he was the Messiah.

They did not trust that he was sent by God or God the Son in the flesh.

Yet something happened

They became a witness to this Gospel.

They were witnesses to the resurrected Jesus and could no longer deny the message of the Gospel.

What we see here is good news about the Good news which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ… and that good news is this...

The Gospel can change Anyone!

if there was anyone who would not believe that Jesus is God, it was going to be his siblings.

The fact that they end up worshipping him as God is proof of the resurrection, because they have the most to lose in reputation if they go from thinking he is crazy to worshipping him as God.

If the Gospel can change them, it can change anyone… No ones heart is too hard for God to Change!

This is good news if you have loved ones who refuse to listen to the Gospel, they are not un-savable!

Stop for just one moment… remember I said it seems like this story is all about just a couple people because we need to see what God did through his Holy Spirit using these men?

Well I just love that Luke included these 120 in total.

It encourages me to know that even though there seems to be some who are in the spotlight more than others that they are always surrounded by more believers.

It is funny to me that everywhere in scripture when someone feels alone God always lets them know that they are never alone… remember Elijah at mount carmel when he had his show down with the prophets of ball?

afterwards he fled and cried out to God and said he was all alone, and God reminded him that he had thousands of others who were with him.

The disciples no doubt felt all alone after the crucifixion, but Christ is resurrected and some 500 plus people see it… These guys are told to wait in hostile city, but they were not alone, there was 120 in that upper room in one accord.

Church we are not alone in this world, God has brothers and sisters in even our city to this day, Amen?!

Please notice that Peter is standing and talking to the brothers… Remember when He denounced Jesus 3 times?

Yet God is gracious and re-instates him, and Jesus even commands him to Feed his sheep in john 21:17… Here we see the re-instated apostle Peter feeding and leading the sheep… But he is not showing arrogance in his position, he is pointing them to his sureness of the fulfillment of scripture.

Scripture Must be Fulfilled

Peter has a certainty that the Scriptures could be trusted.

In fact he speaks about them with a solid hope that he knew they would be fulfilled, and so they didn’t need to worry.

And what is Peter saying about the Scriptures that gives them such a solid hope in their fulfillment?

Peter is asserting that Scripture has both a Divine and human author… they knew they could trust the scriptures not just because of who spoke it and wrote it, in this case King David, but because of who is really the one inspiring the speaking and writing of the scriptures… do you see it?

what did he say?

“Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit Spoke beforehand by the mouth of David”

The scriptures are not just a historical account of what men said, but what the Holy Spirit or God is saying by the mouth of these men… we know that Peter believes and teaches this because of what he says later in the NT...

Scripture is the product of God carrying men and inspiring them to speak… No scripture is because of how smart men are… ALL of it is because of how Gracious and loving and Smart God is!

And there is no part or portion of Scripture that will go unfulfilled!

Peter stands in front of the brothers and declares, “Scripture has to be Fulfilled”… and even when they are talking about bad things that wouldn’t make sense… Things like Judas betraying Jesus...

These men recognized God was Sovereign over everything good and bad and in his omniscience, (or all knowing), he promised something that would be fulfilled to take into account what seemed unthinkable… Judas betraying Jesus.

And this is where the story is a little graphic in describing what happened, yet it serves as a warning to those whose motives are not right in following Jesus… to those who would claim to be a believer and yet are not… Peter goes on speaking of Judas.

Now even in this account of Judas there may seem to be some contradictions… Judas hung himself according to one of the gospel accounts and another place says he gave the money back to the pharisees after betraying Jesus.

Here is how it all fits together.

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What happens here is that Judas hangs himself on the piece of land that the pharisees buy.

but why did they call it “the field of blood”?

Because in Acts it tells us that the corpse of Judas fell from where it was hung and… well it is right there in scripture we really do not have to keep saying it since it is so graphic.

So they called it the field of blood.

It is more than just irony… it is a grave warning to those who have hidden motives that like to hide among the true brothers and sisters in the church.

We know from scripture that Judas was not only one of the disciples who was closest to Jesus but he was the treasurer in charge of money.

He had a problem with Jesus being generous, he had strong political views with obvious ulterior motives for following Jesus…

And yet God being gracious allowed Judas to hear all of Jesus’ Sermons, see all of the healings, and share even in the ministry… like when Jesus sent them out to heal and proclaim the Kingdom.

Judas was there for that.

But he had other motives… he could fool people but not God who sees the heart.

Judas throws it all away for money because of his frustration with Jesus not doing what was on his agenda.

Paul Washer made this comment, “If you want to follow Jesus because he will give you a better life, that’s Idolatry… Follow Christ for the sake of Christ!”