Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAY

Intro: We left the apostles last week still waiting—waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit.

They waited obediently, they waited prayerfully, and they applied Scripture to their situation to plan as far as they could while waiting.

I mentioned at the outset of our study of Acts that we will have to strive to be discerning as to how to apply what we find in these pages to our lives because of the foundational and transitional nature of Apostolic ministry.

We are immediately met with just such a situation following the ascension of our Lord while the Apostles (and fellow disciples) wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit’s presence to empower them.

In spite of the uniqueness of their situation and specific outcomes, there are principles to be derived from the pattern of their practice that can serve as a model for our own posture and behavior in waiting on God’s promise.

(waiting for the ultimate promise of eternal rest in the presence of God… or waiting for clarifying wisdom on difficult issues or for refreshing from God in times of great difficulty)

The first thing the Apostles did is that they obeyed immediately what Jesus told them to do.

We Wait on the Lord by Obeying.

(vv.

12-13)

Even while waiting, they were not idle.

One of the primary things the Apostles invested themselves in, with the other disciples who were with them, was prayer.

We Wait on the Lord by Praying.

(v.

14)

They were devoting themselves to prayer continually, and unified in it.

Last week we also defined prayer as talking to God in submission and dependence.

[repeat]

Last week we left off needing to come back to the end of v. 14, and answer the following question: (which I have now combined with v. 15)

Who are the others praying with the Apostles and present for the decision to fill the void left by Judas?

(vv.

14b-15)

Notably, the women (faithful female disciples) were there, including Jesus’ own mother, Mary.

You probably have noted that we never hear of Joseph (Jesus’ earthly dad) during the public ministry of Jesus, leading us to conclude that he had passed from the scene.

This is also the final time that Mary is mentioned by name, and may mean that during this early season of the ministry of the Apostles, she dies to go and be with her Lord.

What an amazing life Mary experienced!

… From the announcement of the Savior’s conception, and Mary’s humble acceptance of God’s plan, then to raise Jesus in her home, and to watch him live out the fulfillment of Messianic promise (with miraculous signs corroborating his message of the kingdom’s arrival), the unbearable pain of watching him die, the unbelievable reversal of that tragic end—Jesus rising from the dead and appearing to them.

Mary (almost certainly) lived to experience the coming of the Holy Spirit in power at Pentecost to launch the church of Christ.

What a life Mary lived.

What do you walk away with Scripturally (about God and us) from the life and testimony of Mary?

[You should think of more and write them down to talk about them with others, but I’ll give a couple quick examples.]

The reality and rich blessing of God’s sovereign choosing; the right response of submissive service

---

The other women here likely included both the women who had been present at the crucifixion and resurrection, and now too probably the wives of the disciples.

(Remember that we know Peter was married, and Cleopas was married, and so on.)

I love that Luke, in both his Gospel and in Acts, takes pleasure in noting both the faithfulness and essential contributions of women in ministry as disciples of Jesus.

Luke is honest and honors the role of women.

What Luke doesn’t do is unseat the clear instruction and biblical pattern of complementary roles for men and women in the home and in the church.

-- It’s ludicrous to accuse us of holding to these biblical guidelines as chauvinism, because if there was ever a time where it would be much easier for us to cave to the cultural climate, it would be now.

We take so much heat over this that it just wouldn’t be worth it, except for the simple fact that we submit to the plain teaching of the Bible as God’s word.

What God says is good and we trust him that his design for order is good, producing good fruit in our lives for his glory.

What do you walk away with Scripturally from the life and testimony of the female disciples?

We believe God’s design is good.

Full stop.

We obey God’s pattern for order because it is for our own good and his glory.

We need to honor and promote the ministry of you ladies among us in every way that we can.

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Like Mary, Jesus’ brothers (and sisters, Mk 6:3) would have had a unique experience in growing up with their eldest half-brother who was the perfect Son of God in human flesh!

We learn from Mark 6:3, and by comparison to Mt 13:55-56, that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters, maybe more.

His brothers were James (who became the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and probably the author of the letter of James in your Bibles), a brother named Joses or Joseph, and youngest brothers Simon and Judas (the latter would become known to us as Jude and the author of the short & bold letter by that name).

At the onset of Jesus public ministry, his own siblings did not believe that he was the Messiah (at least not as fully committed followers): John 7:5 “For not even his brothers believer in him.”

But when we hear of them again here in Acts, after Jesus’ death, resurrection and exaltation, they have made a 180 degree turn and are following hard after Jesus with his chosen Apostles.

What do you walk away with Scripturally from the life and testimony of Jesus’ siblings?

The Lordship of Jesus Christ is transformative.

There is no one foot in, one foot out with acceptance and confession of Jesus (Rom 10:9).

If you think you’re partly on board, you’re not on board.

This is not a docked ship.

It’s journeying toward eternal rest with God.

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Finally in v. 15, the pattern in the first 15 chapters of Acts is that Peter naturally became the spokesman for the Apostles.

This is not to say that he didn’t submit to the group, but rather that he simply became the lead representative, the most prominent speaker for the team.

- The issue is relevant in the immediate context because although it is Peter who speaks to the group, it seems reasonable enough to conclude that what he says comes from the collaborative effort of the Eleven.

- Not only is it made clear in the pastoral epistles, but here we have the pattern of a plurality of leadership at work in the earliest days of the church.

Again, like the Apostles do here, we must wait on the Lord in obedience, in prayer, and…

We Wait on the Lord by Applying Scriptural Principles to Guide Our Plans.

(vv.

15-26)

Where the Apostles planned ahead by replacing an apostate apostle according to scriptural prophecy, we apply this in our preparation and planning primarily according to scriptural principle.

But before we get into too many details of this section, we need to step back and address the elephant in the room.

Was this direction and decision from the Lord?

We have to admit that we wonder why the Lord Jesus himself didn’t address this matter before his ascension.

It’s clear that Jesus chose 12 Apostles to be symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel.

How far to carry that symbolism can be debated, but we can at least see the deliberate connection.

Most likely the twelve symbolize a believing remnant in Israel that Jesus himself chose to represent his new covenant, to show that where Israel had failed in the past to represent God to the world, this new phase of the kingdom could not fail to do so because it was being carried forward to all mankind by the power of God himself.

But that still doesn’t answer then, if the number 12 is helpfully symbolic at this initiating stage, why the Lord didn’t replace Judas before he left.

We must answer honestly that we don’t know.

Perhaps he did so for this very reason, that the disciples would need to prayerfully depend on God and work together, consulting the Scripture to determine a direction.

Perhaps too, then, we are the beneficiaries of seeing this pattern of their practice in order to model our own after them.

Viewed as a whole, the evidence clearly suggests that this action was pleasing to the Lord.

They reached this conclusion with much prayer, in the counsel of the group, and by consulting the Scriptures.

Finally, God supplied the answer.

And while it may be the case that the Holy Spirit was not yet permanently indwelling them, that in no way precludes the Holy Spirit’s assistance, just as God had done many times before in empowering OT believers for a particular purpose.

Every indication from Luke is that this is to be viewed positively, that this direction and decision was from the Lord.

How did the Apostles come to a decision?

Peter will first explain, from Scripture (quoting Davidic Psalms), the Apostles’ conclusion that Judas’s betrayal was not a surprise or accident, but was within the sovereign purposes of God.

Judas’s apostasy fulfilled Scripture.

Secondly, and also from Scripture, Peter provides the reasoning for seeking a replacement.

The requirement for the replacement is essentially that he be a fellow disciple who has been an eyewitness to the whole of Jesus’ ministry, from the time of his baptism by John (which initiated Jesus’ public ministry) to his resurrection appearances.

Then they pray still more for confirmation from God, and he supplies the answer by choosing Matthias to replace Judas, completing the Twelve.

How should we plan as we wait on God to act?

To our detriment, we sometimes make plans in our personal lives without a smidgeon (without an ounce) of consideration for what God might have us do to please him.

(making plans for our money, making plans for college, making plans for our children, making plans for employment, etc.) How much worse if we should be making plans as spiritual leaders with worldly goals instead of godly ones, not in accordance with His word?

[repeat question] The Apostles knew that...

The Scriptures are the very word of God.

We must search them and submit to them.

First, look at the clarity with which we are told that God speaks through the Scriptures.

What clearer statement to the divine inspiration of the Bible do we have than this in v. 16? “which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David...” 1000 years earlier, God foretold this.

Peter follows this up later in a letter to the churches:

In the same letter, Peter also confirms the divine inspiration of the writings of the Apostle Paul, equating Paul’s writing with other Scriptures (2 Pet 3:15-16).

Both the OT and NT Scriptures are, as Paul himself says, “breathed out by God.” (2 Tim.

3:16a)

First, God speaks through the Scriptures.

We seek to understand God, ourselves, and our world through what God has revealed in the Scriptures (through the lens of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in particular).

(searching, studying, submitting, memorizing, meditating)

Second, we have learned nothing from the OT Scriptures unless we come to see that whatever God says, he will do.