The other apostle

So, I wanted to start a short series going through the book of Acts, but sometimes ADD has it drawbacks, and I got distracted and started following a rabbit hole....and this morning, I am taking you with me.

Luke is writing the Acts and it starts where he left off in the Gospel of Luke. Our resurrected Lord is with the people for forty days.....

Long enough to develop a habit of seeing him.

Promise of the Holy Spirit.

Tells the disciples to stay in Jerusalem.

Declares that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.

The Ascension.

Upper Room:

Peter gets up and talks about Judas and his betrayal.

Psalm 109:8 NASB95

8 Let his days be few; Let another take his office.

So he concludes that they must replace Judas

Requirement: they must have been with them since the baptism of Jesus, by John until the day that he was taken up.

All of Jesus’ ministry on earth.

They settle on one of two men:

Joseph called Barsabbas (who is called Justus) and Matthias.

They prayed and they cast lots and Matthias was chosen to be the newest Apostle.

This is the only account, by name, in all of scripture where Matthias was mentioned.

The twelve:

He was most likely one of the disciples that Jesus sent out when he sent out the 70 or 72 disciples, depending on which translation of the bible your read.

Luke 10:1 NASB95

1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

Some manuscripts read 72.

Represents the known world. The Gospel is for the entire world.

Luke 10:2–12 NASB95

2 And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 “Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 “Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5 “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ 6 “If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7 “Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. 8 “Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 “But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 “I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

A pastor began his Sunday sermon by saying, “I’d like to make three points today. First, there are millions of people around the world who are going to go to hell. Second, most of us sitting here today don’t give a damn about that.” After a lengthy pause, he continued, “My third point is that you are more concerned that I, your pastor, said the word ‘damn’ than you are about the millions going to hell”

The Harvest:

Jesus used this expression also in Matthew and John.

Farmers plant, they water, they control the nutrients, they control the weeds, but the miracle and mystery of life is what makes the seed become a plant, and then they harvest what grows.

Such is it with the Gospel. We think that we have to be responsible for the introduction of life into a seed.... We don’t. That’s God’s job, through the power of salvation through Christ.

Not only are we not capable of such a task, even if we were, there aren’t enough of us to do it.

Our job is just to plant the seed, and then gather the harvest.

Jesus said that the laborers are few. Pray not only for the harvest, but pray that God would bring laborers.

Lambs among Wolves

John 15:18 NASB95

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

I think that part of the reason we get so caught up in politics, is that we want to make sure we can be good Christians, but not have to endure a hostile world.

We want to eat our cake and have it too.

We want God to be pleased with us, but we also want to be uncomfortable.

That dog won’t hunt.

I’m not saying that if you are not being persecuted, you are not a Christian, we certainly shouldn’t be caught off guard when it happens.

James tells us that we should rejoice when we face various trials.

That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

It also serves as an opportunity for us to rely on and trust God.

There is urgency in this message:

Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes, and greet no one on the way.

No money belt or bag....

They were to rely on God to provide their needs. Approach your mission field the same way. With complete abandon disregard for your wants and needs and focus on HIS will. He will take care of what you need.

Matthew 6:33 NASB95

33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

No shoes....spare shoes. Go as you are…If you decide that you are not going to share the Gospel until you feel like your are ready....like you know the scripture well enough....you have had enough training.....or you are a solid enough Christian....you will NEVER share the gospel!

There is not time for you to be prepared. If you know Christ, have repented of your sins and accepted the free gift of salvation by believing in who Jesus is and what he did for you on the cross, and that he was raised on the third day…You are ready enough. GO.

If you get rejections, and arguments, and objections that you don’t know how to handle....Know that the problem is not that you aren’t ready to share the Gospel, but that they weren’t ready to receive it.

But there are many who are, and they need to hear it, and time is short...

Greet no one on the way:

Culturally, greeting someone on the road, could be a long drawn out ordeal. Jesus wan’t advocating being rude to people, he was stressing the urgency of the job at hand. Don’t dillydally.

SIDE NOTE

Announce peace.....This was a cultural things.

Don’t look to get into theological arguments and debates for the sake of arguing.

Know the difference between a question and an argument disguised as a question.

Tells them accept what they are given: The laborer is worthy of his wages....Do not keep moving from house to house.

Basically, don’t feel bad for being compensated for their work, but don’t try and take advantage of people by moving around and taking from a bunch of different people.

Don’t get hung up on YOUR standards.

Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you.

The Jews had all these dietary laws. Clean vs. Unclean. How the food was prepared…etc. Jesus was telling the that they were going into places that didn’t believe these things, and warned them not to make a thing about it......

He wasn’t telling them it was OK to sin in order to share the Gospel.

He was telling them that what they thought was important about being a Jew was far less important than sharing who God is and telling them about His Son.

You can’t be a legalistic evangelist. I’m not saying that we water down the Gospel message. I’m saying that what you think a Christian should look and act like is not important. What is important is that no one comes to the Father but through Christ.

Shake the dust off of your feet

Those that have heard the Gospel and reject it are far worse off than those that have never heard.

But the message for us, is that it is not our job to shove the message of Christ down someone’s throat. If you share Christ, and it is rejected, know that they rejected Him and not you.

Share Jesus without fear claims that someone has to hear the gospel 7 times before they accept it.

I think that someone that is ready to hear the gospel only needs to hear it once. The problem is there is no way of knowing exactly who is ready to hear the gospel.

If you share the true gospel of Jesus Christ and they don’t accept it, and if that person dies having never accepted Christ, then their blood is not on your hands.

Ezekiel 3:17–18 NASB95

17 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. 18 “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.

Paul said in 1 corinthians 9:16.

“for woe is me if i do not preach the gospel.”

Ezekiel 3:19 NASB95

19 “Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself.

Do you have blood on your hands?