Coming Soon?
Notes
Transcript
The story so far
The story so far
When I ask the question: What’s Next it’s not just for myself, I want to know what God has in store for Niles Christian Assembly. The logical place to start with all of this, at least in my view is to ask some questions about what happened with and for the disciples and believers after one of the most major events in their shared experience. Especially as we live with the major events that have been taking place in the last year and a half and even in the last few months.
The disciples, the women who traveled with Jesus and his disciples to minster to them, along with Jesus family were back from seeing Jesus ascension. I love what Acts 1:14 says.
They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Praying Naked
Praying Naked
When we read they were continually united in prayer, we begin to realize some very important things when it comes to what’s next.
So many times when we come out of major situations we make decisions based totally on what we have been through. Shared experience, no matter if it’s a good one or a bad one tends to cloud our judgment. It turns our decision making processes into an emotional wrecking ball. Think of it this way.
When bad hard difficult things happen in our lives we begin to build walls and safety nets into every decision we make. We look at every situation with a Murphy’s law type of skepticism.
The idea that “If anything can go wrong it will go wrong.” begins to somehow find its way into our life and we begin to live by that instead of in the grace and mercy that comes from God. It begins to effect our spiritual life, and more specifically can impact our prayer life in ways that render it ineffective. When we pray in a way that pre-supposes God must have it out for me, even if we think it’s to make us “stronger, or to teach us a lesson, or make us an example etc. When we pray as if Murphy’s Law is the same as God’s Law we are not praying the way we should and, consequently we will limit God’s ability to cut through our walls to guide us.
Equally problematic is when things are going well we pray Pollyanna prayers.
Back in the day Author Elenore Hodgman Porter created a heorione named Pollyanna, Disney of course made the book into a movie. Consequently Websters English dictionary defines Pollyanna not just as a proper name but also as a noun defined as “A person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything.”
When we pray Pollyanna prayers we are in another type of dangerous territory, setting ourselves and those around us for misunderstanding and disappointment if God doesn't come through the way we pre-suppose he will.
No what’s better when it comes to figuring out what’s next and what it means to be called or chosen is to Pray Naked.
Meaning, when we pray we should come as we are. With all that we are not with all that we think we should be, not with all that we think God want’s us to be or what other people expect. Just us and God in a space of total surrender. The amazing things the happy things the angry sad hurtful things. We should come to God with our whole being open to what he would say and how he would lead and what he would do in us and through us.
Jesus talks about this kind of prayer in one of his parables.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
See the difference in when we pray naked and when we pray armored up matters more than anything. The tax collector went away justified, lighter and knowing a direction to God, the pharisee went away the same as when he came in. Making his own decisions, dictating to God how great he was, letting God come along for the ride in their relationship.
When we are trying to move into the called and chosen arena that we are going to be talking about today. We need to be sure that we go into it just like the disciples and these 120 people did united in prayer. Keeping that the basis for the decisions that we are making. For the moves that we are taking, for the ministry that we are working in and through.
It’s time for the vote
It’s time for the vote
God is about to do something big. Acts 2 is right around the corner. The birth of the church is about to happen. There’s going to be this amazing right of passage moment. Unity, Wind, tongues of Fire, speaking other peoples languages that no one knew. Things were about to take another turn in the lives of the followers of Christ, but before that could happen all the pieces had to be in place.
“For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
Let his dwelling become desolate;
let no one live in it; and
Let someone else take his position.
Digging down into this verse we find Luke doing something interesting in this set of verses. Peter uses the Psalms to talk about Judas and the need not replace him. Before this we find one of the more controversial issues when it comes to new testament study. The way Judas died. People have struggled with this and what follows for interesting reasons. It would seem scripture is contradicting itself right. One pace we have Judas hanging himself, the next we have this very graphic portrayal of how he dies.
All of these things in this small set of verses can shed some light on the why of choosing someone to replace Judas. Even the differing accounts.
When we read these verses:
Now this man acquired a field with his unrighteous wages. He fell headfirst, his body burst open and his intestines spilled out.
and then this one
So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.
It seems that there is a contradiction. Augustine made an attempt at saying both were right. There have been all sorts of theories floated and some have even been embraced as must be true (talk about the theories) It is possible that the one you or I like to embrace really happened.
The two most likely scenarios are either when he hanged himself his intestines quickly became swollen and he basically popped like a balloon with too much air. The reason he would have been left to hang that way is because he would have been unclean. Jewish people, especially devout ones which would have been the priests that would have purchased the field with the money that Judas tossed back in the temple would refuse to touch him. The second possibility is that he hung himself at the top of a cliff face the branch broke and he fell to his death at the bottom of the cliff.
The reason behind the different renditions of Judas death has everything to do with who is being reached.
It is likely that the reason for the more graphic description found in Acts is a direct result of the community to which Peter was speaking. Gentiles under Stoic influence looked as suicide as morally neutral. Going to such a graphic description of what happened to Judas would have helped the people reading his account to understand just how important and awful the event of Judas death was.
Luke wanted to be sure to reach as many as people as possible. So he wanted to reach gentiles that would have otherwise been non committal at best when it came to the accounts of Jesus and all that happened.
When he moves into the Psalms he does something else. He mashes two imprecatory Psalms together.
First here:
Make their fortification desolate;
may no one live in their tents.
Recognize it. That’s the beginning of his talking about Judas the psalm actually talks about the people that are considered adversaries. The psalmist is basically asking God to get em. Then Peter hops over to:
Let his days be few;
let another take over his position.
This is another imprecatory psalm talking about David’s enemies.
Using these passages would speak very clearly to the Jewish population about who Jesus was, it would also speak about what they wanted people to see Judas as and enemy. But why mash two psalms together why go to all this trouble?
If Christian Jews were going to be able to make any in-roads into the Jewish nation and religion as a whole they would need the twelve-fold witness as proof that they were representing the hope that all Jews were looking for, the Messiah. They had to have 12 because that represented the true Israel to the nation and allowed them in the remnant theology prevalent in the Jewish nation at that time to call the nation to repentance.
There was a need to reach as many people as possible with the Gospel and so there was going to be a need to choose a replacement for Judas.
The disciples and 120 prayed they took nominations from people that had been there from the very beginning and never ran or took off and then they cast lots. Matthias was chosen.
Then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias and he was added to the eleven apostles.
And that is the last we hear from Him, in fact to be honest this is really the end of most of what we here from several of the disciples. The bulk of the New Testament is written by Paul and while he names some of the disciples on occasion they do not feature heavily in what we study. Sure there are some letters written by some of the apostles. But the chosen and called were not always lauded.
So the question is.
What Now?
What Now?
All of this happens before the big day that Jesus promised.
Let’s bring a reminder.
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.”
Jesus told the disciples that there was going to be something coming that was going to give them power. Other places we read that he was sending a comforter. We know that this is the Holy Spirit. We know that once that event occured things would forever be changed. BUT
You can’t have the day of Pentecost without the preparation of Acts 1.
As we move into what’s next we need to realize that things must happen to get us to the place where God has called us. the place he has chosen for us.
In addition to the huge things that they were coming off of there was a need for prayer and communication and preparation.
This Weeks’ Challenge
This Weeks’ Challenge
Make a list of the things that you have been saving up to use eventually in service to God.
Now pray that God will show you the place he has chosen in this church to use you.
Be ready for the power that was promised to enable you to fulfill that calling.
