1 00:00:00,056 --> 00:00:09,330 The living Jesus Christ, who is ascended and reigning from heaven, hears our prayers, is aware of our needs. 2 00:00:09,330 --> 00:00:13,392 It knows the hearts of all, as it says right here. 3 00:00:13,892 --> 00:00:20,655 You are known not by an amorphous kind of cloudy God being. 4 00:00:20,655 --> 00:00:23,596 You are known by Jesus Christ. 5 00:00:23,977 --> 00:00:27,596 The following message was recorded at Kingstree Church. 6 00:00:27,596 --> 00:00:36,571 May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. 7 00:00:38,472 --> 00:00:50,769 Well, this morning we'll be looking at our fourth message in the book of Acts, as we're now actually getting into the story of what's going on in this book. 8 00:00:50,769 --> 00:00:57,536 And it is interesting, like First Samuel, which Pastor Sean is going through on his sermon days. 9 00:00:57,536 --> 00:01:00,498 So too for Acts, it is it is more of a narrative. 10 00:01:00,498 --> 00:01:07,972 It's a story for us to follow along and uh and and learn from as we're kind of watching the story unfold. 11 00:01:07,972 --> 00:01:10,853 And so today we'll get into some of that narrative element. 12 00:01:10,853 --> 00:01:13,534 We're going to be finishing up chapter one today. 13 00:01:13,706 --> 00:01:16,176 So we are now moving a little bit more quickly. 14 00:01:16,176 --> 00:01:23,140 We took we were slow there at the beginning, look at a f looking at a few specific concepts that are going to be important as we move forward. 15 00:01:23,140 --> 00:01:26,521 But we're going to pick up the pace a little bit this morning. 16 00:01:26,562 --> 00:01:27,372 So 17 00:01:27,690 --> 00:01:38,015 If you recall, last week we were looking at this concept of the bodily ascension of Jesus, something that's sometimes missed in our tradition, in our camp. 18 00:01:38,015 --> 00:01:50,800 But that Jesus, having been bodily crucified, bodily buried, and bodily raised from the dead, is then taken up into the presence of God in a body, in the in the human body. 19 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:55,902 He ascends to the presence of God where he remains to this day. 20 00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:04,412 So we looked at that and we looked at what that means for us as those who are also in the body and united to this Christ. 21 00:02:04,412 --> 00:02:06,297 So that's what we looked at last week. 22 00:02:06,297 --> 00:02:18,985 This week, then, we're going to see how the reality of Jesus' bodily ascension, being at the throne, and when we say the throne, we mean that he's ruling, he truly is ruling all 23 00:02:18,985 --> 00:02:19,866 things. 24 00:02:19,866 --> 00:02:26,068 We're going to see how that ascension of Christ now begins the action in the narrative 25 00:02:26,068 --> 00:02:34,164 Of this book, how the things begin to happen now because Christ is ascended and reigning from the presence of God. 26 00:02:34,164 --> 00:02:48,053 And we're going to specifically be looking this morning at how the disciples continue to depend on and bear witness to and look to this same Jesus, even though he's not present 27 00:02:48,053 --> 00:02:48,854 with them. 28 00:02:48,854 --> 00:02:54,836 They their their their dependence upon him and their looking to him continues. 29 00:02:54,836 --> 00:02:55,877 Even as he has ascended. 30 00:02:55,877 --> 00:03:04,111 We're going to look at that specifically this morning, how Jesus remains the present and active Lord of His people. 31 00:03:04,111 --> 00:03:10,134 So we're going to look at Acts chapter one, verses twelve, all the way through verse 26. 32 00:03:10,235 --> 00:03:17,429 And rather than read that for you right now, all in one shot, we'll look at each section as it comes up during the sermon. 33 00:03:17,429 --> 00:03:23,592 So let me just pray for us right now, and then we will begin the first section of that passage together. 34 00:03:26,055 --> 00:03:28,966 Father, we thank you, Lord. 35 00:03:28,966 --> 00:03:32,377 We thank you that you do hear us. 36 00:03:33,198 --> 00:03:35,418 And we thank you that you are God. 37 00:03:35,459 --> 00:03:49,755 We can come to you so easily as Christians that we forget that we're talking to God, and that you hold all things, Lord, each one of us our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our 38 00:03:49,755 --> 00:03:53,536 memories, our our anticipation of what's coming. 39 00:03:53,698 --> 00:04:05,366 The rest of this day, the rest of this week, the rest of our lives, these things are held by you and known by you and ordered by you in love. 40 00:04:05,466 --> 00:04:06,477 And we thank you for that. 41 00:04:06,477 --> 00:04:13,762 We thank you that we can come and open your word, not as a duty or a religious practice or just something we do because we're Christians. 42 00:04:13,762 --> 00:04:22,872 So we come here on Sunday, but we can open this word as the little birds open their mouths to the mother bird to receive food. 43 00:04:22,872 --> 00:04:35,252 To receive what is desperately needed, to receive Christ, to see again a vision of our Lord, of our King, reigning over all things, crowned with glory and honor, as the anchor 44 00:04:35,252 --> 00:04:38,474 of all our hope and the promise of all our life. 45 00:04:38,655 --> 00:04:51,045 So Father, I pray that you'd your spirit would work now, to give my words a weight which my effort can't give to them, and to give them a point and a sharpness which my language 46 00:04:51,045 --> 00:04:52,446 can't give to them. 47 00:04:52,526 --> 00:05:02,942 But that your spirit would grant them now to work in power for the convicting and the encouraging and the building up and the working in the lives of all those who are here. 48 00:05:02,983 --> 00:05:07,010 So we pray these things, we look to you for this, Father, in Jesus' name. 49 00:05:07,010 --> 00:05:07,870 Amen. 50 00:05:09,890 --> 00:05:21,595 So Jesus is raised from the dead, ascended to the throne, has sent his disciples out into the world, saying, Bear witness to the whole world. 51 00:05:21,855 --> 00:05:23,116 What do they do next? 52 00:05:23,116 --> 00:05:24,676 What do they do? 53 00:05:24,676 --> 00:05:29,638 When you think about these things that have just happened, absolutely incredible things that have just happened. 54 00:05:30,079 --> 00:05:31,759 What do they do now? 55 00:05:31,759 --> 00:05:35,081 That's what verses 12 through 14 tell us. 56 00:05:35,081 --> 00:05:36,341 So let's look at it. 57 00:05:36,341 --> 00:05:38,424 Then they return to Jerusalem. 58 00:05:38,424 --> 00:05:43,476 From the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 59 00:05:43,476 --> 00:05:48,478 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. 60 00:05:48,818 --> 00:06:01,543 Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James, not Judas Iscariot. 61 00:06:01,924 --> 00:06:08,448 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women. 62 00:06:08,448 --> 00:06:12,640 And Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. 63 00:06:13,321 --> 00:06:15,252 So what do the disciples do? 64 00:06:15,252 --> 00:06:15,922 What do they do? 65 00:06:15,922 --> 00:06:23,987 They've just seen their God slain, buried, raised up again, and ascended to the throne with all authority in heaven and on earth. 66 00:06:24,087 --> 00:06:25,608 What do they do next? 67 00:06:25,608 --> 00:06:26,949 They pray. 68 00:06:27,129 --> 00:06:28,370 They pray. 69 00:06:28,370 --> 00:06:33,018 They gather together, it says, and devote themselves to prayer. 70 00:06:33,018 --> 00:06:35,914 Do you see that in verse 14? 71 00:06:36,578 --> 00:06:38,679 They gather together and devote themselves to prayer. 72 00:06:38,679 --> 00:06:41,319 So I was thinking about this this week. 73 00:06:41,319 --> 00:06:52,343 What Jesus unleashes on the world by sending out his disciples is the greatest change ever worked in human history. 74 00:06:52,343 --> 00:07:01,615 The things that these disciples were going to do would change the world in ways nothing had changed it before, and in ways nothing has changed it since. 75 00:07:01,615 --> 00:07:03,650 This group of people. 76 00:07:03,650 --> 00:07:10,773 That Jesus sends out, sends out would turn the world upside down and change it forever. 77 00:07:11,033 --> 00:07:17,196 But see how that movement begins, this massive movement of world change. 78 00:07:17,236 --> 00:07:18,416 Look how it begins. 79 00:07:18,416 --> 00:07:21,878 Once Jesus has ascended, it begins with prayer. 80 00:07:21,978 --> 00:07:22,928 It begins with prayer. 81 00:07:22,928 --> 00:07:26,660 And it seems to me that that's important for us to note. 82 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:31,692 So the disciples, having received, as it were, their marching orders from Jesus. 83 00:07:31,778 --> 00:07:34,179 They don't immediately begin drafting plans. 84 00:07:34,179 --> 00:07:36,979 Okay, you do this, you do this, you'll go here, I'll do this. 85 00:07:36,979 --> 00:07:42,961 They don't start creating strategic approaches to how they're gonna canvas Jerusalem and get this job done. 86 00:07:42,961 --> 00:07:47,871 They don't start running marketing trends and sending out audience surveys and what do they need us to hear? 87 00:07:47,871 --> 00:07:48,623 What would they like to hear? 88 00:07:48,623 --> 00:07:50,543 What does Jerusalem wanna hear today? 89 00:07:50,543 --> 00:07:51,824 They're not doing this. 90 00:07:51,824 --> 00:07:54,424 They're not worrying about how much they have to do. 91 00:07:54,424 --> 00:07:56,765 Did he say to the ends of the earth? 92 00:07:56,765 --> 00:07:58,375 You know, they're not worrying about this. 93 00:07:58,375 --> 00:07:59,816 They're not saying, how are we gonna do this? 94 00:07:59,816 --> 00:08:01,386 How are we, what is gonna happen? 95 00:08:01,688 --> 00:08:06,661 And they're certainly not asking Chat GPT what the next step is. 96 00:08:06,661 --> 00:08:08,321 You know, what should I do next? 97 00:08:08,502 --> 00:08:16,906 They're not saying, I'm not saying any of those things are inherently wrong, but what they do is they pray. 98 00:08:16,926 --> 00:08:20,708 They pray with this whole task set before them. 99 00:08:20,768 --> 00:08:24,830 They say, We need to devote ourselves to prayer. 100 00:08:25,474 --> 00:08:28,715 And it's not just a quick prayer, as valid as that is. 101 00:08:28,715 --> 00:08:32,826 You know, you're going into the dentist's office, Lord help me with this, you know, whatever it might be. 102 00:08:32,826 --> 00:08:34,917 Those are those are legitimate prayers. 103 00:08:35,437 --> 00:08:40,158 But what they're doing here is devoting themselves to prayer. 104 00:08:40,378 --> 00:08:48,030 And the word for devoting here carries this idea of persistent repetition, continued, there's something that is continuing. 105 00:08:48,030 --> 00:08:50,571 They're devoting themselves to prayer. 106 00:08:50,571 --> 00:08:52,462 And what does that look like? 107 00:08:52,462 --> 00:08:54,102 Look at verse 14. 108 00:08:54,312 --> 00:09:04,149 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women, Mary, and Jesus' brothers. 109 00:09:04,149 --> 00:09:08,211 So the the idea there where it says we're devoting themselves. 110 00:09:08,232 --> 00:09:15,737 If it just said something like, and they devoted themselves to prayer, you might think one night they really focused on prayer. 111 00:09:15,737 --> 00:09:20,530 But this were devoting means the disciples were continually doing this. 112 00:09:20,530 --> 00:09:23,404 This was a pattern that was established. 113 00:09:23,404 --> 00:09:30,318 The earliest followers of Jesus had a pattern of continually meeting together. 114 00:09:30,318 --> 00:09:31,429 This is something they did. 115 00:09:31,429 --> 00:09:32,699 They were doing it. 116 00:09:32,699 --> 00:09:35,901 They were devoting themselves to prayer. 117 00:09:35,901 --> 00:09:39,253 So this would point to a lifestyle of prayer. 118 00:09:39,253 --> 00:09:47,007 Now, of course, being faithful Jews before the coming of Christ, they would have had hours of prayer, day time set aside to pray. 119 00:09:47,007 --> 00:09:51,450 So there's this pattern of prayer that would be built into their lives. 120 00:09:52,268 --> 00:09:57,982 Which sadly most of us have lost the idea of a a pattern of prayer that shapes our days. 121 00:09:57,982 --> 00:09:59,343 But that's what they were doing. 122 00:09:59,343 --> 00:10:03,338 They were praying continually, and they were doing it together. 123 00:10:03,338 --> 00:10:04,746 Do you see that? 124 00:10:05,307 --> 00:10:16,505 Again in verse 14, all of these, with one accord or with one mind, were devoting themselves of prayer to devoting themselves to prayer together with the women, with Mary, 125 00:10:16,505 --> 00:10:18,636 Jesus' mother, and with his brothers. 126 00:10:18,636 --> 00:10:21,686 So they were doing this all together. 127 00:10:21,686 --> 00:10:23,607 It is valuable to pray by yourself. 128 00:10:23,607 --> 00:10:25,928 It is valuable to have a time set aside to pray. 129 00:10:25,928 --> 00:10:27,209 Absolutely. 130 00:10:27,209 --> 00:10:30,551 But it's also valuable to pray together. 131 00:10:30,571 --> 00:10:31,852 And that's what they were doing. 132 00:10:31,852 --> 00:10:34,944 That's how that's what started, you might say, the church. 133 00:10:34,944 --> 00:10:45,800 Of course, Christ starts the church, but the movement at the beginning of the church is praying together, praying with other believers. 134 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:49,942 And here in the margin of my Bible, I have written. 135 00:10:49,954 --> 00:10:55,426 I saw this while I was preparing this week from sometime before we changed the name of the church to Kingstree. 136 00:10:55,426 --> 00:10:58,438 So this would have been back in 2020 or 2021. 137 00:10:58,438 --> 00:11:06,781 It says, Ah, Lord, for such a devotion and community to be raised up at Community Christian Church. 138 00:11:06,781 --> 00:11:13,404 And I looked in my older Bible, and at the same place it said, Lord, let this happen here in Washington Courthouse, which is where I was at the time. 139 00:11:13,404 --> 00:11:15,085 And so I reiterate that prayer now. 140 00:11:15,085 --> 00:11:18,134 I let that happen here. 141 00:11:18,722 --> 00:11:22,935 That we would be a people who pray, who come together to pray. 142 00:11:22,935 --> 00:11:28,389 Now we that that's why I mention it every more every Sunday that we have this prayer meeting Sunday morning. 143 00:11:28,389 --> 00:11:31,070 That's valuable, that we're praying together. 144 00:11:31,070 --> 00:11:39,496 The stuff we're doing Sunday morning in my office is what's changed the universe, changed the world, started the whole movement that we're in the midst of. 145 00:11:39,496 --> 00:11:41,938 And so it is, it is meaningful. 146 00:11:41,938 --> 00:11:43,289 And what might this look like? 147 00:11:43,289 --> 00:11:44,520 I mean, I don't know. 148 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:48,386 I would love to see the Lord create this here. 149 00:11:48,386 --> 00:11:50,608 Would it mean a Saturday night prayer meeting? 150 00:11:50,608 --> 00:11:53,030 You know, a Wednesday evening prayer meeting? 151 00:11:53,030 --> 00:11:54,221 I know it's hard to come out. 152 00:11:54,221 --> 00:11:58,595 You say, Well, I've got my my show is then, you know, my kids have this practice then. 153 00:11:58,595 --> 00:11:59,215 That's right. 154 00:11:59,215 --> 00:12:00,436 I know it's hard. 155 00:12:00,436 --> 00:12:01,577 It's hard. 156 00:12:01,657 --> 00:12:09,783 But when when when your wife men says, you know, it's our anniversary this weekend, do you say, Oh yeah, but I had to change the gotta change the oil this weekend? 157 00:12:10,404 --> 00:12:14,047 You know, you we we make choices based on values. 158 00:12:14,108 --> 00:12:17,580 And it would be good for us to gather together and pray. 159 00:12:17,672 --> 00:12:21,724 And I'm not saying I know what that looks like, but Lord, lead us into that. 160 00:12:21,724 --> 00:12:22,775 That's what I am saying. 161 00:12:22,775 --> 00:12:25,396 Lead us into that as a church. 162 00:12:25,396 --> 00:12:33,170 Now there's something else I want us to see here is that devoting themselves to prayer comes before their action. 163 00:12:33,591 --> 00:12:34,841 Action is not wrong. 164 00:12:34,841 --> 00:12:35,722 We need to act. 165 00:12:35,722 --> 00:12:37,253 You need to do things. 166 00:12:37,253 --> 00:12:47,478 But before they proclaimed any word to Jerusalem, before any diseased was healed, any demon was cast out, before the city was turned upside down. 167 00:12:47,562 --> 00:12:54,028 As the as the leaders will say later on, before any of that, they gave themselves to prayer together. 168 00:12:54,028 --> 00:12:57,170 They devoted themselves to prayer together. 169 00:12:57,490 --> 00:13:08,079 And it's reasonable to think before we see the Lord do something here in our county, in our cities, in our families, in our lives, it's he can do whatever he wants. 170 00:13:08,119 --> 00:13:12,063 But it's reasonable to think prayer would precede that. 171 00:13:12,063 --> 00:13:16,258 It's reasonable to think that the gathering of his people and the praying of his people would 172 00:13:16,258 --> 00:13:24,801 Would precede Christ's conquest of Wilmington or Sabinah or Leesburg or wherever it may be. 173 00:13:24,902 --> 00:13:27,232 So may we be praying together. 174 00:13:27,232 --> 00:13:31,184 Now, obviously, I'm I'm aware of this, that this was a unique moment. 175 00:13:31,184 --> 00:13:34,065 Jesus told them, wait for the Holy Spirit. 176 00:13:34,065 --> 00:13:35,546 He told them to wait. 177 00:13:35,546 --> 00:13:37,166 So this is unique. 178 00:13:37,187 --> 00:13:46,250 But the principle under what the disciples are doing here remains true: that prayer precedes action. 179 00:13:46,446 --> 00:13:49,467 Prayer precedes action. 180 00:13:49,507 --> 00:13:51,108 And this is true today. 181 00:13:51,108 --> 00:14:00,492 And it's and it's more true, you might say, the bigger the action, the bigger the thing, you know, whether it's proposing or whether it's a new job or whether it's going into 182 00:14:00,492 --> 00:14:04,274 surgery or something like this, prayer precedes actions. 183 00:14:04,274 --> 00:14:06,425 But it's also true for mundane things. 184 00:14:06,425 --> 00:14:08,055 Wake up in the morning. 185 00:14:08,235 --> 00:14:08,746 Pray. 186 00:14:08,746 --> 00:14:14,578 You can pray at the beginning of the morning for the actions that you're going to take out before you start a project. 187 00:14:14,658 --> 00:14:24,133 Before your family embarks on a new season, whether it's a season of blessing and fullness or a season of difficulty and hardship, before we gather on Sunday mornings, it's right 188 00:14:24,133 --> 00:14:27,725 that we should pray before we act. 189 00:14:27,725 --> 00:14:29,346 And I'm saying that to myself too. 190 00:14:29,346 --> 00:14:31,527 You know, we just, we just do stuff. 191 00:14:31,527 --> 00:14:33,358 But it's right to pray before we act. 192 00:14:33,358 --> 00:14:35,650 And you can call, you can do this together. 193 00:14:35,650 --> 00:14:36,870 You can do this together. 194 00:14:36,870 --> 00:14:39,872 You can call someone up and say, Can you pray with me? 195 00:14:39,872 --> 00:14:41,833 You can text them and say, Could you pray with me? 196 00:14:41,833 --> 00:14:42,914 Yeah, I'll be praying for you. 197 00:14:42,914 --> 00:14:44,152 No, I mean right now. 198 00:14:44,152 --> 00:14:44,942 Can we pray? 199 00:14:44,942 --> 00:14:46,523 And they'd say, Oh, okay. 200 00:14:46,523 --> 00:14:47,864 And you can pray with them. 201 00:14:47,864 --> 00:14:49,245 You can pray with them. 202 00:14:49,245 --> 00:14:52,946 Or we can we can meet up and pray together. 203 00:14:53,027 --> 00:14:55,848 Or we could have, like I said, rhythms of prayer here at the church. 204 00:14:55,848 --> 00:14:58,216 But this was the pattern of the early church. 205 00:14:58,216 --> 00:14:59,981 It was the DNA of the early church. 206 00:14:59,981 --> 00:15:03,012 And may it be more and more the pattern here. 207 00:15:03,012 --> 00:15:06,594 Things like this, may that help us move in that direction. 208 00:15:06,594 --> 00:15:10,136 Now, having prayed together like this, what happens? 209 00:15:10,777 --> 00:15:13,752 Peter stands up and says something. 210 00:15:13,752 --> 00:15:21,945 So it it would seem that the Holy Spirit impressed this upon Peter, and while they're meeting during these this time, he stands up and he says something. 211 00:15:21,945 --> 00:15:22,825 What's he say? 212 00:15:22,825 --> 00:15:25,646 Look at verses 15 all the way down through 22. 213 00:15:25,646 --> 00:15:29,147 It's a longer section, but follow along with me if you can. 214 00:15:29,347 --> 00:15:39,220 In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers, the company of persons was about 120, and he said, Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled. 215 00:15:39,416 --> 00:15:48,031 Which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 216 00:15:48,031 --> 00:15:52,553 For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. 217 00:15:52,553 --> 00:15:56,495 And now Luke interjects something here to tell us what happened to Judas. 218 00:15:56,495 --> 00:16:05,840 Now this man acquired a field with reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out. 219 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:08,856 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 220 00:16:08,856 --> 00:16:15,430 So that the field was called in their own language Al Kadema, that is the field of blood. 221 00:16:15,491 --> 00:16:20,834 So Luke wants to say, listen, Judas didn't turn out all right. 222 00:16:20,906 --> 00:16:23,436 It didn't work out for Judas. 223 00:16:23,677 --> 00:16:25,958 But then we get back to what Peter is saying. 224 00:16:26,539 --> 00:16:33,013 For it is written in the book of Psalms: May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it. 225 00:16:33,013 --> 00:16:35,985 That's Psalm 69, verse 25. 226 00:16:36,106 --> 00:16:36,966 And 227 00:16:37,100 --> 00:16:41,792 Let another take his office at Psalm 109, verse 8. 228 00:16:41,972 --> 00:16:51,867 So one of the men, Peter continues, one of the men who have accompanied accompanied us during all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of 229 00:16:51,867 --> 00:17:01,812 John until the day he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us, must become with us, a witness to his resurrection. 230 00:17:02,382 --> 00:17:04,883 So there's a lot to point out here, but let's start. 231 00:17:04,883 --> 00:17:09,365 Before we even get to what Peter is arguing, what he's saying needs to happen. 232 00:17:09,365 --> 00:17:12,166 Let's look at how he's approaching scripture. 233 00:17:12,166 --> 00:17:16,688 Because this whole thing Peter says comes from his reading of Scripture. 234 00:17:16,688 --> 00:17:21,390 See, he says, brothers, brothers, the scriptures had to be fulfilled. 235 00:17:21,390 --> 00:17:26,592 So he's getting all this from his reading of Scripture. 236 00:17:26,932 --> 00:17:29,322 I want to point out two things about it. 237 00:17:29,322 --> 00:17:31,254 Look at verse 16. 238 00:17:31,512 --> 00:17:42,948 The scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 239 00:17:42,948 --> 00:17:49,252 So the first thing to see about what Peter says here is that Peter acknowledges David wrote this. 240 00:17:49,252 --> 00:17:55,095 This is from David, but he also at the same time says, God said this. 241 00:17:55,095 --> 00:18:00,968 The Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David. 242 00:18:00,992 --> 00:18:12,847 And so Peter and the other apostles, the beginning of our the church that we are a part of, started with this vision of scripture, which says, it is the words of true historic 243 00:18:12,847 --> 00:18:22,011 men, and it is the words of God, such that I can say, David said this, and God said this. 244 00:18:22,011 --> 00:18:25,452 That's how Peter is reading Scripture. 245 00:18:25,753 --> 00:18:29,804 And he says, these words speak not only into their own context, you know. 246 00:18:29,804 --> 00:18:38,758 David had something he was saying in his time to the people who are reading the Psalms, but they continue to speak now with divine authority. 247 00:18:38,758 --> 00:18:41,899 They continue to bear with Peter says, we have to do something. 248 00:18:41,919 --> 00:18:48,061 Because what David wrote, because of what the what the Spirit said through David, we have to do something today. 249 00:18:48,182 --> 00:18:54,604 And so this vision of Scripture is down at the roots, down at the foundation of the infant church. 250 00:18:54,604 --> 00:18:58,718 It's a vision of scripture that says it is truly historically. 251 00:18:58,718 --> 00:19:03,240 Written in a context, and it is the word of God. 252 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,542 It is the word of God that has a bearing upon us now. 253 00:19:07,542 --> 00:19:18,576 And so to the extent that one would reject that idea of scripture, one is rejecting the foundation of the church, because that's that's where that's where they're reading as the 254 00:19:18,576 --> 00:19:19,647 church begins. 255 00:19:19,647 --> 00:19:27,510 Now, the second thing for us to see here is that scripture or the infant church, not only built on prayer as we saw. 256 00:19:27,830 --> 00:19:40,095 continual prayer, not only built on a view of scripture as God's word, but specifically the early church read scripture as God's word about Jesus Christ. 257 00:19:40,095 --> 00:19:45,998 They approached Scripture Christocentrically, with Christ at the center. 258 00:19:45,998 --> 00:19:48,659 Look how Peter is interpreting the Psalms. 259 00:19:48,659 --> 00:19:56,942 Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, he says, he says, this is what the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand 260 00:19:56,952 --> 00:19:58,823 Concerning Judas. 261 00:19:59,143 --> 00:20:05,367 This the these Psalms are about Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. 262 00:20:05,527 --> 00:20:12,611 Now, for the sake of time, we're not going to go back and do a close look at each of these psalms, but just so you know, you can look at it on your own time. 263 00:20:12,611 --> 00:20:23,337 Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, these are about the sufferings of the righteous man, or even the king, the sufferings of the royal righteous man. 264 00:20:23,497 --> 00:20:25,006 And Peter now. 265 00:20:25,006 --> 00:20:28,227 Comes to those Psalms and says, Well, that's about Jesus. 266 00:20:28,347 --> 00:20:33,308 Of course, the righteous sufferer is Jesus. 267 00:20:33,548 --> 00:20:40,590 And therefore, the enemy of the righteous sufferer must be Judas, who betrayed him. 268 00:20:40,731 --> 00:20:48,153 And what the scripture says happens to the enemy of the righteous sufferer must happen to the enemy of Jesus. 269 00:20:48,153 --> 00:20:50,893 And so somebody needs to take Judas's place. 270 00:20:50,973 --> 00:20:53,218 Let another take his office. 271 00:20:53,218 --> 00:21:04,588 Now, as I said, we could go deeply into those Psalms and Peter's reading of those Psalms, but for the sake of this being a sermon, what I want to point out to you is that Peter is 272 00:21:04,588 --> 00:21:08,531 reading his Bible, which is our Old Testament. 273 00:21:08,531 --> 00:21:12,094 He is reading it as speaking about Jesus. 274 00:21:12,094 --> 00:21:15,236 That makes this is clear here with his interpretation. 275 00:21:15,236 --> 00:21:22,388 Peter and the other apostles, the beginning of the church, when they open the scriptures, they come to it saying. 276 00:21:22,388 --> 00:21:31,245 This is talking about the crucified, buried, risen, reigning, and proclaimed Jesus Christ. 277 00:21:31,245 --> 00:21:33,667 That's that's their interpretive lens. 278 00:21:33,927 --> 00:21:35,148 And you might say, well, that's simple. 279 00:21:35,148 --> 00:21:38,351 We talk about that, you know, a lot here at Kingstree. 280 00:21:38,351 --> 00:21:45,497 But what this is saying is an entirely different way of reading the Bible has happened. 281 00:21:45,497 --> 00:21:48,509 Because the Jews, these men, remember, these men are Jews. 282 00:21:48,509 --> 00:21:50,721 They they were Jewish men. 283 00:21:51,001 --> 00:21:52,380 The Jewish Jews. 284 00:21:52,866 --> 00:21:58,791 People believed their Bible to be God's word, to be God speaking. 285 00:21:59,032 --> 00:22:05,557 But now the Christians say, yes, it's God speaking about Jesus. 286 00:22:05,718 --> 00:22:18,350 The whole thing: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, all the way through the Psalms and the prophets, it is about the man who just died and rose in our midst and is reigning now 287 00:22:18,350 --> 00:22:19,390 from heaven. 288 00:22:19,734 --> 00:22:32,785 And remember, that's what Jesus Himself says in Luke chapter 24, verse 44 to 48, where he says, I'm paraphrasing now, there is no understanding of the scripture until you read it 289 00:22:32,785 --> 00:22:40,311 as the witness of the Christ who must suffer, die, rise, and be proclaimed in all the world. 290 00:22:40,311 --> 00:22:43,653 That's what Jesus says in Luke chapter 24. 291 00:22:43,653 --> 00:22:49,778 And so, as I said way at the beginning of this series, part of what I want us to see is the apostles. 292 00:22:49,896 --> 00:22:54,068 Read their Bibles as bearing witness to Jesus. 293 00:22:54,329 --> 00:23:02,944 This speaks, this psalm is about Jesus, this prophecy is about Jesus, all of them in different ways, all of them in beautiful ways, but they speak about Jesus. 294 00:23:02,944 --> 00:23:05,095 And for us, right? 295 00:23:05,095 --> 00:23:11,318 We who say, This is our final authority, this book is our final authority. 296 00:23:11,699 --> 00:23:15,360 It really matters how you interpret this book, then, doesn't it? 297 00:23:15,381 --> 00:23:17,750 It really matters how we're reading this. 298 00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:25,855 We want to read this the way the apostles read it, not the way 20th, 21st century evangelical me decides to read this. 299 00:23:25,855 --> 00:23:30,757 I want to read this the way Peter and Paul and James and John read this. 300 00:23:30,897 --> 00:23:35,499 And the Acts tells us: well, then read it in light of Christ. 301 00:23:35,500 --> 00:23:38,721 Read it as bearing witness to Christ. 302 00:23:38,842 --> 00:23:42,974 Okay, so that's that's to say about Peter's vision of Scripture. 303 00:23:42,974 --> 00:23:44,745 Now, what does he actually say? 304 00:23:44,745 --> 00:23:47,286 Well, ha having this vision of Scripture. 305 00:23:47,308 --> 00:23:49,499 What does Peter say needs to be done? 306 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:55,164 Well, he says to summarize what he says, someone needs to take Judas's place. 307 00:23:55,164 --> 00:23:56,825 That's what it comes down to. 308 00:23:57,166 --> 00:24:08,255 He says, brothers and sisters, in light of scripture, someone needs to take Judas's place, to fill up his empty spot in the 12 apostles. 309 00:24:08,315 --> 00:24:11,177 And if you pause and think, that's interesting. 310 00:24:11,177 --> 00:24:17,280 Because, right, Judas failed, he turned against the Lord, he turned away. 311 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:18,830 Into destruction. 312 00:24:19,112 --> 00:24:24,696 But why can't the remaining 11 apostles just be faithful and do the work the Lord's given them? 313 00:24:24,696 --> 00:24:26,828 Why does there need to be one more? 314 00:24:26,828 --> 00:24:30,201 Because Peter says we there has to be somebody else. 315 00:24:30,201 --> 00:24:31,582 Like we have to. 316 00:24:31,582 --> 00:24:34,624 There must look in verse 22. 317 00:24:34,624 --> 00:24:39,187 One of these men must become with us a witness. 318 00:24:39,668 --> 00:24:41,570 Why couldn't there just be 11? 319 00:24:41,570 --> 00:24:45,113 Why can't Jesus just send out 11 apostles? 320 00:24:45,113 --> 00:24:47,374 Why must there be 12? 321 00:24:47,500 --> 00:24:50,912 And I think the answer to that comes from the number 12. 322 00:24:50,973 --> 00:24:52,493 From the number 12. 323 00:24:52,894 --> 00:25:06,294 In the Old Testament, 12, as you probably know, is the number of God's people, 12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes of Israel, such that the number 12 comes to mean the fullness of God's 324 00:25:06,294 --> 00:25:07,125 people. 325 00:25:07,125 --> 00:25:12,668 Where you have 12, you have God's covenant people, fully as they ought to be. 326 00:25:12,969 --> 00:25:15,070 And so it was not. 327 00:25:15,574 --> 00:25:18,336 It was not Jesus just saying, Hey, I I like even numbers. 328 00:25:18,336 --> 00:25:20,638 I'm gonna pick 12 men to follow me. 329 00:25:20,638 --> 00:25:30,785 When Jesus picks 12 apostles, all of his Jewish audience knows, wow, this is like a new start. 330 00:25:30,785 --> 00:25:33,146 This is like a new Israel. 331 00:25:33,146 --> 00:25:37,149 This is like the new tribes, the new heads of the of the family. 332 00:25:37,149 --> 00:25:42,382 When Jesus picks 12 apostles, it is a theological and historical statement. 333 00:25:42,382 --> 00:25:45,004 He's saying, I am beginning to. 334 00:25:45,164 --> 00:25:52,558 The new Israel, or he might, you might also say, I am, I am creating what Israel was pointing toward the whole time. 335 00:25:52,558 --> 00:25:53,839 Remember Galatians? 336 00:25:53,839 --> 00:26:01,503 It was all pointing toward Christ, and now Christ opens out into the 12 apostles and into those who follow him. 337 00:26:01,503 --> 00:26:03,864 So the number 12 matters. 338 00:26:04,365 --> 00:26:10,328 As 12, the apostles represent the new and true Israel. 339 00:26:10,388 --> 00:26:14,400 They represent the new and reborn people of God. 340 00:26:14,486 --> 00:26:16,728 And so it's it can't just be 11. 341 00:26:16,728 --> 00:26:19,971 That'd be like starting out not fully there. 342 00:26:19,971 --> 00:26:30,600 It has to be 12, because this is the beginning of God's final, true, always planned from the beginning, covenant people in Christ. 343 00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:31,922 Here's the true Israel. 344 00:26:31,922 --> 00:26:35,886 Here's the new Israel begun in Christ, spreading out in his people. 345 00:26:35,886 --> 00:26:40,990 Now, so that's why Peter stands up and says, Hey, we need to get one more guy in here. 346 00:26:41,622 --> 00:26:45,903 With that in mind, I want to take you back to something we looked at a few weeks ago. 347 00:26:45,903 --> 00:26:56,367 A few weeks ago, when Jesus says in verse 8, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses. 348 00:26:56,787 --> 00:27:04,910 If you can remember, I said when he says that, he's echoing a passage from Isaiah: Isaiah 43, verse 10. 349 00:27:05,050 --> 00:27:06,070 Now 350 00:27:06,506 --> 00:27:15,670 In light of the fact that the apostles are the true Israel, the regathered people of God in Christ, we can see something more there in Isaiah. 351 00:27:15,670 --> 00:27:17,521 So I'm going to turn back to the Isaiah passage. 352 00:27:17,521 --> 00:27:20,322 You can just listen with me or come with me if you'd like. 353 00:27:20,322 --> 00:27:23,192 Either way, whatever allows you to focus best. 354 00:27:23,233 --> 00:27:26,594 Isaiah 43, verse 10. 355 00:27:26,594 --> 00:27:30,096 This is what Jesus is echoing when he says, You will be my witnesses. 356 00:27:30,876 --> 00:27:31,796 Here it is in Isaiah. 357 00:27:31,796 --> 00:27:35,522 You are my witnesses, declares Isaiah. 358 00:27:35,522 --> 00:27:45,445 The Lord, declares Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. 359 00:27:45,665 --> 00:27:57,008 Now let's push further back, because in the context, that statement I just read is being spoken to Israel, to the regathered Israel. 360 00:27:57,008 --> 00:27:59,949 Israel regathered after the exile. 361 00:27:59,949 --> 00:28:02,009 Look in which which didn't happen. 362 00:28:02,009 --> 00:28:03,370 Judah came back with it. 363 00:28:03,370 --> 00:28:05,494 Israel as the twelve tribes. 364 00:28:05,494 --> 00:28:09,376 was scattered and and never came all the way back together. 365 00:28:09,376 --> 00:28:12,539 And so there's this lingering sense of how's that going to happen? 366 00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:17,643 So in ver in Isaiah 43, verses five through seven, let me show you who this is talking to. 367 00:28:17,643 --> 00:28:20,305 Fear not, I am with you. 368 00:28:20,305 --> 00:28:24,808 I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 369 00:28:24,808 --> 00:28:32,702 I will say to the north, give up, and to the south do not withhold, bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, 370 00:28:32,702 --> 00:28:45,025 Everyone who is called by my name, who I created for my glory, whom I formed and made, and it's these people gathered from all around the world, God's people, true Israel, gathered 371 00:28:45,025 --> 00:28:50,507 back together, it's them that Yahweh then says, You are my witnesses. 372 00:28:50,927 --> 00:29:01,290 So, when we come to Acts, and the risen Lord Jesus gathers his apostles around him and says to them, 373 00:29:01,290 --> 00:29:03,691 You are my witnesses. 374 00:29:04,172 --> 00:29:06,933 Peter says there have to be 12 of us. 375 00:29:07,114 --> 00:29:08,775 We're the regathered people. 376 00:29:08,775 --> 00:29:13,478 We are the people of God because Christ is the Lord. 377 00:29:13,478 --> 00:29:16,230 And he is, and in union to him, we are his people. 378 00:29:16,230 --> 00:29:19,422 And so Peter says, we can't do this with 11. 379 00:29:19,422 --> 00:29:24,066 If we're fulfilling all these words, all these prophecies, we need 12 of us. 380 00:29:24,066 --> 00:29:31,110 There has to be 12, because this is this is the fulfilling of the of of the true Israel. 381 00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,433 Now, what is the witness going to be? 382 00:29:34,433 --> 00:29:41,139 And I again, two weeks ago we mentioned this, but I wanna I wanna zoom in on it now that we're actually here in the text. 383 00:29:41,139 --> 00:29:42,450 What is the witness going to be? 384 00:29:42,450 --> 00:29:58,304 Well, in Isaiah, the text Jesus is echoing, in Isaiah, the witness is this that you would know and believe and understand that I am He. 385 00:29:58,922 --> 00:30:04,583 In Isaiah, the witness is essentially that you would know who I am and make me known. 386 00:30:04,844 --> 00:30:19,228 That's the witness regathered Israel, end time Israel is given in Isaiah, that you would know in your bones who I am, and bear witness in your life that the one true God is like 387 00:30:19,228 --> 00:30:20,088 this. 388 00:30:20,328 --> 00:30:20,808 Okay? 389 00:30:20,808 --> 00:30:24,049 That's the witness Jesus is echoing in the beginning of Acts. 390 00:30:24,169 --> 00:30:26,450 Now, what does Acts tell us the witness is? 391 00:30:26,450 --> 00:30:28,658 How does it, how does it add to that? 392 00:30:28,658 --> 00:30:40,541 Acts tells us the witness is in verse 22 of chapter one, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection, to his resurrection. 393 00:30:40,621 --> 00:30:51,884 So in Acts, the twelve apostles of the new Israel will be witnesses to all the world that the man crucified on the Roman cross is raised from the dead. 394 00:30:52,364 --> 00:30:55,225 So in Acts, the witness is he is risen. 395 00:30:55,265 --> 00:30:58,188 In Isaiah, the witness is this is who God is. 396 00:30:58,188 --> 00:31:02,800 And as I said a few weeks ago, I say again, those are the same witnesses. 397 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,721 Those witnesses are brought together. 398 00:31:05,721 --> 00:31:18,567 The new Israel of Jesus' church will bear witness to who God is by declaring the crucified one is risen. 399 00:31:18,567 --> 00:31:26,260 That's how they're going to declare to all the world this is who he is, this is who Yahweh is, this is who God is, and there is no other. 400 00:31:27,362 --> 00:31:29,043 And and and how can that be? 401 00:31:29,043 --> 00:31:30,624 How can that well how is that? 402 00:31:30,624 --> 00:31:34,017 How is the the proclamation the crucified one is risen? 403 00:31:34,017 --> 00:31:36,248 How is that the witness? 404 00:31:36,248 --> 00:31:37,949 This is who God is. 405 00:31:38,390 --> 00:31:49,267 It's the witness because as I try to tell you over and over again, and I try to tell myself over and over again, because it is the most beautiful thing in all creation, that 406 00:31:49,267 --> 00:31:56,002 Jesus Christ, the very one who is crucified in love for you. 407 00:31:56,504 --> 00:32:12,742 Who is buried in your death, and who rises up again, transfiguring suffering to glory, and sorrow to joy, and giving hope in the face of death and bringing salvation where we had 408 00:32:12,742 --> 00:32:17,676 none, this very Jesus Christ is who God is. 409 00:32:17,676 --> 00:32:19,967 That's what God is like. 410 00:32:19,967 --> 00:32:24,189 To proclaim this Christ is to proclaim who God is. 411 00:32:24,530 --> 00:32:25,900 And here's the key. 412 00:32:26,100 --> 00:32:28,631 All of that turns on the resurrection. 413 00:32:29,151 --> 00:32:35,253 If there's no resurrection, then the man on the cross does not declare to us who God is. 414 00:32:35,253 --> 00:32:37,533 He is a dead man on a cross. 415 00:32:38,314 --> 00:32:45,215 All this whole witness, this whole book, all of reality, turns on, and he rose again. 416 00:32:45,836 --> 00:32:47,196 He is risen. 417 00:32:47,216 --> 00:32:54,188 That's why they say here we need to bear witness to his resurrection, because in bearing witness that Christ is risen, 418 00:32:54,188 --> 00:33:00,643 We are bearing witness to everything God has done and who God is. 419 00:33:01,104 --> 00:33:13,133 That's to me the the this beautiful reality for us to get that to say Christ is risen is to say who God is, rightly understood. 420 00:33:13,334 --> 00:33:20,700 When you say Christ is risen, when the apostle said Christ is risen, the crucified one is risen, it carries all these implications with it. 421 00:33:20,700 --> 00:33:23,712 Winter is past, spring has come. 422 00:33:23,798 --> 00:33:28,980 Night is over, the morning has dawned, weeping has turned to laughter. 423 00:33:28,980 --> 00:33:35,021 The place you were that you thought it was you were lost forever, you're found. 424 00:33:35,181 --> 00:33:40,063 The beloved one that was lost forever is returned. 425 00:33:40,223 --> 00:33:46,665 The place you went that could never you could never be reclaimed from, you're gathered in with love. 426 00:33:46,665 --> 00:33:51,786 All these implications that surround this concept, Christ is risen. 427 00:33:51,918 --> 00:34:06,638 To say that, to say Christ is risen is with all those implications carried in it to say who God is, such that using the text of Isaiah, we could say this: when we say Christ is 428 00:34:06,638 --> 00:34:19,577 risen, with all of those resonances of Easter joy, we are ultimately saying what it says in Isaiah 43, before me, before him, say Christ is risen. 429 00:34:19,577 --> 00:34:20,833 Here's what I'm saying. 430 00:34:20,833 --> 00:34:25,455 Before him no God was formed, nor shall be any after him. 431 00:34:25,455 --> 00:34:29,336 He is the Lord, and beside him there is no Savior. 432 00:34:29,336 --> 00:34:40,579 He declared, and he saved, and he proclaimed, when there was no strange God among us, and he declared, You are my witnesses, and I am God. 433 00:34:40,579 --> 00:34:43,800 Henceforth, forevermore, He is God. 434 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:46,351 There is none who can deliver from his hand. 435 00:34:46,351 --> 00:34:49,202 He works, and who can turn back? 436 00:34:49,462 --> 00:34:52,804 That is the content of the witness in Isaiah. 437 00:34:53,205 --> 00:34:56,547 And we are saying that when we say, Christ is risen. 438 00:34:56,547 --> 00:34:58,648 Christ is risen. 439 00:34:58,949 --> 00:35:13,259 The only true God is the God of the gospel, who loves us unto death, who fills our graves with his presence, who bores a path through our hell into the everlasting gladness of his 440 00:35:13,259 --> 00:35:13,839 own heart. 441 00:35:13,839 --> 00:35:18,272 That is who God is, and that's the witness of the true Israel. 442 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:21,091 Of the apostles as they are in Christ. 443 00:35:21,131 --> 00:35:23,332 That's the witness of the church. 444 00:35:23,332 --> 00:35:25,933 That's our witness to this day. 445 00:35:26,133 --> 00:35:28,814 And so that is what Peter is saying. 446 00:35:28,814 --> 00:35:35,517 He says, We, as God's people, as the true people of God reconstituted in Christ, there needs to be 12 of us. 447 00:35:35,517 --> 00:35:39,298 There needs to be 12 of us, because we have a message to give. 448 00:35:39,459 --> 00:35:44,040 We are declaring the risen Christ, which is to declare who God is. 449 00:35:44,161 --> 00:35:47,982 And then let's wrap up by looking at, okay, what actually happens. 450 00:35:48,066 --> 00:35:56,603 Having said this, having st having prayed together and then stood up and called the other disciples to this, what then follows? 451 00:35:56,603 --> 00:35:59,535 Look at verse 23 to 26. 452 00:35:59,535 --> 00:36:07,202 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice, and Matthias. 453 00:36:07,202 --> 00:36:17,844 And they prayed and said, You Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have you have chosen to take the place of. 454 00:36:17,844 --> 00:36:23,497 In this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. 455 00:36:23,497 --> 00:36:30,501 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. 456 00:36:30,941 --> 00:36:33,903 Now I'm not going to get into casting lots right now. 457 00:36:33,903 --> 00:36:36,684 It is it seems odd to us, but it's not strange. 458 00:36:36,684 --> 00:36:41,587 In the Old Testament, God's people do it all the time, in dependence upon him. 459 00:36:41,627 --> 00:36:47,448 It is interesting that this is the last time it's done that once the Holy Spirit comes on Pentecost, no one can. 460 00:36:47,448 --> 00:36:50,120 That we ever see cast lots again. 461 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:51,862 But I'm not talking about that. 462 00:36:51,862 --> 00:36:55,224 Now you can come and talk to the pastors if you have questions about that. 463 00:36:55,645 --> 00:36:58,828 What I want to point out is that they ask Jesus. 464 00:36:58,828 --> 00:37:06,938 That's the that's the really fascinating thing here is they continue to seek Jesus' guidance. 465 00:37:06,938 --> 00:37:14,301 Do you see in verse 24 where they say, You, Lord, know the hearts of all. 466 00:37:14,321 --> 00:37:15,438 That Lord. 467 00:37:15,438 --> 00:37:25,141 When they say Lord, remember up in verse 21, they just said, Someone has to be with us who accompanied us during the time the Lord, Jesus was among us. 468 00:37:25,261 --> 00:37:28,522 So when they say, You, Lord, they're talking to Jesus. 469 00:37:28,602 --> 00:37:29,653 They're talking to Jesus. 470 00:37:29,653 --> 00:37:32,023 And you say, Well, yeah, that's we do that when we pray. 471 00:37:32,023 --> 00:37:34,224 But think about what it meant for them. 472 00:37:34,304 --> 00:37:38,745 Days earlier, they were looking at Jesus. 473 00:37:38,826 --> 00:37:40,066 Days earlier, 474 00:37:40,066 --> 00:37:48,812 They were standing in front of him, looking at his face, seeing him respond, seeing the compassion in his eyes, knowing the sound of his voice. 475 00:37:48,912 --> 00:37:54,896 Just 48 hours before, 24 hours before, they were with Jesus. 476 00:37:54,896 --> 00:37:58,038 And now he's ascended to heaven. 477 00:37:58,038 --> 00:38:01,921 He's no longer visibly with them, but that doesn't change anything. 478 00:38:01,921 --> 00:38:05,804 They still say, Lord, just as they were say would say if he was with them. 479 00:38:05,804 --> 00:38:08,225 If he was there, they'd say, Lord, you know everyone's heart. 480 00:38:08,225 --> 00:38:09,526 Who did you choose? 481 00:38:09,538 --> 00:38:10,218 And he's ascended. 482 00:38:10,218 --> 00:38:12,680 So they say, Lord, you know everyone's heart. 483 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:14,001 Who did you choose? 484 00:38:14,001 --> 00:38:22,287 They their prayer is to the same man, the same Lord who walked with them on this earth. 485 00:38:22,287 --> 00:38:34,536 And they are functioning out of the conviction that he is just as present, just as concerned, just as able to help as when he was visibly with them. 486 00:38:34,856 --> 00:38:37,738 So the apostles don't say, okay, well, Jesus is gone. 487 00:38:38,082 --> 00:38:39,003 But what did he teach us? 488 00:38:39,003 --> 00:38:40,543 Let's try to figure it out. 489 00:38:41,404 --> 00:38:47,547 They don't say, well, Jesus, you know, he's not here anymore, but but his philosophy, how could we apply that to this particular situation? 490 00:38:47,547 --> 00:38:48,938 Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to do that. 491 00:38:48,938 --> 00:38:53,611 There's times where we we have to do that sort of thing, but they say, Jesus is not here. 492 00:38:53,611 --> 00:38:55,392 Let's ask him what we should do. 493 00:38:55,392 --> 00:38:57,573 Let's ask him. 494 00:38:57,733 --> 00:39:04,277 Let's ask Jesus himself, just as truly as we might call up a friend and ask for help. 495 00:39:04,277 --> 00:39:04,939 What should I do? 496 00:39:04,939 --> 00:39:06,678 What do you think I should do about this? 497 00:39:07,042 --> 00:39:10,184 Just as truly, because remember, you don't see them on the phone. 498 00:39:10,184 --> 00:39:11,204 You don't see them. 499 00:39:11,204 --> 00:39:14,022 And if they say, hey, I have to mute my phone, but you can continue talking to me. 500 00:39:14,022 --> 00:39:15,727 I just have to go through the drive-thru here. 501 00:39:15,727 --> 00:39:20,870 You're talking to them and you don't hear them or see them, but you're talking to them. 502 00:39:20,930 --> 00:39:26,113 And it's that real that the apostles say, We need to ask Jesus what to do. 503 00:39:26,413 --> 00:39:27,894 We need to ask him. 504 00:39:28,134 --> 00:39:34,077 And it just so collapses that barrier that we feel, that barrier of not seeing. 505 00:39:34,077 --> 00:39:35,498 We're so simple. 506 00:39:35,618 --> 00:39:39,279 We don't see, and we think, well, he's very, very far away because I don't see him. 507 00:39:39,279 --> 00:39:41,120 But they realize he's here. 508 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:42,180 He's present. 509 00:39:42,180 --> 00:39:43,400 He's listening. 510 00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:48,621 The very same Jesus we knew is in our midst with us now. 511 00:39:49,082 --> 00:39:50,282 And what happens? 512 00:39:50,282 --> 00:39:50,982 What happens? 513 00:39:50,982 --> 00:39:52,762 They ask him for help. 514 00:39:52,863 --> 00:39:53,703 And what happens? 515 00:39:53,703 --> 00:39:55,123 He chooses. 516 00:39:55,223 --> 00:39:57,624 He chooses Matthias. 517 00:39:57,624 --> 00:39:59,014 There's actually a choice made. 518 00:39:59,014 --> 00:40:01,005 There's actually something that's done. 519 00:40:01,085 --> 00:40:05,506 So G in this passage, Jesus chooses Matthias. 520 00:40:05,506 --> 00:40:12,610 Matthias, the very same Jesus who worked in the gospels is working here to to act. 521 00:40:12,611 --> 00:40:15,273 And so you don't see him in this scene. 522 00:40:15,273 --> 00:40:18,175 He has no dialogue in this scene. 523 00:40:18,175 --> 00:40:26,440 And yet he is acting in this scene to choose, to provide for his people, to care for his people's needs. 524 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:30,162 And that is an awesome reminder to us. 525 00:40:30,203 --> 00:40:33,385 It really is, because two thousand years makes no difference. 526 00:40:33,385 --> 00:40:35,656 Two thousand years is nothing. 527 00:40:35,744 --> 00:40:38,455 On the grand scale of reality. 528 00:40:38,536 --> 00:40:39,686 And we know this. 529 00:40:39,686 --> 00:40:43,859 We know, okay, Jesus is with me, Jesus sees, Jesus cares, he's present. 530 00:40:43,859 --> 00:40:47,100 But seeing this helps us to feel it. 531 00:40:47,100 --> 00:41:00,688 The men who who held Jesus hours before, 48 hours before, are now speaking to the same Jesus, confident that just as he was helping and compassionate here, he is helping and 532 00:41:00,688 --> 00:41:02,488 compassionate now. 533 00:41:02,489 --> 00:41:05,350 And it's the same thing for us. 534 00:41:05,866 --> 00:41:15,949 Jesus, the living Jesus Christ, who is ascended and reigning from heaven, hears our prayers, is aware of our needs. 535 00:41:15,949 --> 00:41:20,011 It knows the hearts of all, as it says right here. 536 00:41:20,511 --> 00:41:27,293 You are known not by an amorphous kind of cloudy God being. 537 00:41:27,293 --> 00:41:30,074 You are known by Jesus Christ. 538 00:41:30,210 --> 00:41:38,535 Whose heart of compassion is the form, the essential form of which every compassion is a disfigurement. 539 00:41:38,535 --> 00:41:43,537 Even the greatest compassions in this life are a disfigurement of his compassion. 540 00:41:43,537 --> 00:41:48,480 Same for love, same for mercy, same for wisdom, same for strength. 541 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:58,025 This Jesus knows what you're thinking about, what you're worried about, that thing right now coming up in your mind. 542 00:41:58,025 --> 00:41:59,490 I gotta deal with that this week. 543 00:41:59,490 --> 00:42:00,841 I gotta talk about that this week. 544 00:42:00,841 --> 00:42:02,031 I gotta face that this week. 545 00:42:02,031 --> 00:42:03,292 He knows that. 546 00:42:03,292 --> 00:42:04,712 He sees that. 547 00:42:04,712 --> 00:42:07,073 He's in control of that. 548 00:42:07,193 --> 00:42:08,714 He's holding that. 549 00:42:08,714 --> 00:42:10,935 And we can speak to him. 550 00:42:10,935 --> 00:42:12,416 We can talk to him. 551 00:42:12,416 --> 00:42:21,060 We can ask him, help, give me mercy, care for me, show me what to do, and know that he's listening, he's answering. 552 00:42:21,060 --> 00:42:27,202 He may not give us exactly what we're asking for, like when my kids ask for ice cream right before bed. 553 00:42:27,308 --> 00:42:29,329 It's not that I didn't hear them and and hate them. 554 00:42:29,329 --> 00:42:32,462 It's just I'm not going to give you ice cream right before bed. 555 00:42:32,462 --> 00:42:34,564 But but I hear them and I love them. 556 00:42:34,564 --> 00:42:42,169 And it's the same with the man, Jesus Christ, who is our mediator between us and between God. 557 00:42:42,169 --> 00:42:46,192 Jesus Christ has not stopped caring for his people. 558 00:42:46,192 --> 00:42:48,694 He's not stopped watching over his people. 559 00:42:48,694 --> 00:42:50,976 He's not stopped feeling their pain. 560 00:42:50,976 --> 00:42:52,637 Remember what he says in a few chapters? 561 00:42:52,637 --> 00:42:54,498 Why are you persecuting me? 562 00:42:54,766 --> 00:42:58,649 To the people persecuting his church, he says, Why are you persecuting me? 563 00:42:58,669 --> 00:43:03,603 He still feels, he still hears, he still knows, and supplies for the needs. 564 00:43:03,603 --> 00:43:16,674 And just as he saw the needs of his infant church and provided them their twelfth apostle, just as he pours out the Holy Spirit, as we'll see in a few weeks, so too he continues to 565 00:43:16,674 --> 00:43:23,650 see and know and care and serve for his church and for his people through the centuries. 566 00:43:23,798 --> 00:43:28,099 Right down to August 23rd, 2026. 567 00:43:28,099 --> 00:43:29,590 He's continuing to do this. 568 00:43:29,590 --> 00:43:31,820 So Kingstree Church. 569 00:43:32,340 --> 00:43:39,502 The living man who is our God, Jesus Christ, is the shepherd of this church. 570 00:43:39,502 --> 00:43:46,404 He's the overseer of this church, of this flock, and of your soul and my soul. 571 00:43:46,704 --> 00:43:50,786 He he is the shepherd and overseer of our souls. 572 00:43:50,786 --> 00:43:52,746 We are under his care. 573 00:43:52,812 --> 00:44:06,108 We are led by his will and we are we are servants of his purposes and precious to his heart because we're part of that same body that started with him and his twelve disciples 574 00:44:06,108 --> 00:44:07,508 his twelve apostles. 575 00:44:07,508 --> 00:44:09,709 We're part of that body. 576 00:44:10,090 --> 00:44:12,511 And you can enter into that body. 577 00:44:12,511 --> 00:44:14,121 It is it is the most awesome. 578 00:44:14,121 --> 00:44:17,553 You can be joined to the life of God. 579 00:44:17,553 --> 00:44:19,414 And you say, What do I have to do? 580 00:44:19,414 --> 00:44:20,874 What does he require? 581 00:44:20,930 --> 00:44:24,112 What does he require of me to be joined to his life? 582 00:44:24,173 --> 00:44:29,977 He requires the recognition that I am insufficient. 583 00:44:29,977 --> 00:44:32,399 I cannot, you must. 584 00:44:32,439 --> 00:44:34,501 I am dying, you are life. 585 00:44:34,501 --> 00:44:36,842 I'm suffocating your breath. 586 00:44:37,003 --> 00:44:38,814 I'm blind and your light. 587 00:44:38,814 --> 00:44:41,306 I'm starving and your food. 588 00:44:41,567 --> 00:44:47,071 You, Lord Christ, bore all my failure, my death, my hell. 589 00:44:47,071 --> 00:44:49,113 You died in my place. 590 00:44:49,113 --> 00:44:50,796 You rose again. 591 00:44:50,796 --> 00:44:58,830 Gloriously, you are living and reigning, and I am going to stand before you one day and give an account. 592 00:44:58,830 --> 00:45:02,933 And now, before that day, I say, Here's everything I am. 593 00:45:02,933 --> 00:45:06,374 Take everything I am and be everything to me. 594 00:45:06,734 --> 00:45:09,737 And he and he weaves us into his life. 595 00:45:09,737 --> 00:45:11,477 He binds us to himself. 596 00:45:11,477 --> 00:45:14,509 He gathers us in to the life of God. 597 00:45:14,509 --> 00:45:19,042 It it is a it is a gap from our death where we are to his life. 598 00:45:19,042 --> 00:45:20,244 It is a gap. 599 00:45:20,244 --> 00:45:29,236 infinities long, that is crossed by the merest, not even a step, by by falling over, by the fall of faith into his arms. 600 00:45:29,236 --> 00:45:32,997 That infinite gap is crossed, and we enter him. 601 00:45:33,258 --> 00:45:44,961 And if we've entered him, we can come to this table, because this same King, this same Jesus, spreads this table for us today, as his people. 602 00:45:46,001 --> 00:45:49,696 The very same man who sat with his disciples 603 00:45:49,696 --> 00:45:59,489 At the Last Supper and handed them the bread and the wine, is here today, by his spirit, present with us, acting in our midst. 604 00:45:59,489 --> 00:46:13,992 And just as we saw Jesus Himself chose Matthias, so too, through the prayerful working of the apostles, through their prayerful working, Jesus acted to choose. 605 00:46:14,553 --> 00:46:19,502 So too, through the prayerful working of your pastors, preparing this. 606 00:46:19,502 --> 00:46:22,143 Putting this here, praying as we're doing this. 607 00:46:22,163 --> 00:46:26,585 Jesus is giving you these elements today. 608 00:46:26,585 --> 00:46:42,812 As you come up in faith to this table, Jesus himself is giving you this bread, giving you this cup, and saying afresh to you, Christian, take, you take, eat. 609 00:46:42,812 --> 00:46:45,472 This is my body for you. 610 00:46:45,893 --> 00:46:49,344 This is my blood of the covenant for you. 611 00:46:49,634 --> 00:47:03,502 Jesus is here, our King, our shepherd, our Lord, calling us again to receive Himself, slain and risen, as all our hope, all our joy, all our life. 612 00:47:03,502 --> 00:47:12,987 And as we do this, Christian, we're not only bearing witness I'm united to Him, we're also bearing witness we're united to one another. 613 00:47:12,987 --> 00:47:18,720 One loaf of bread cut and split between us, broken between us, one drink of 614 00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:27,477 Spread between us as we come to this one witness of this one Savior, we're saying, I'm his and we're together. 615 00:47:27,478 --> 00:47:31,141 We're together in one body, because this is his body. 616 00:47:31,141 --> 00:47:32,502 Let me pray for us. 617 00:47:35,416 --> 00:47:40,607 Father, we thank you that Jesus Christ is risen. 618 00:47:40,908 --> 00:47:42,898 We thank you that that's what you're like. 619 00:47:42,898 --> 00:47:45,469 You are like the resurrection. 620 00:47:45,629 --> 00:47:51,831 You are like what the resurrection does to the weeping of Mary on Easter morning. 621 00:47:51,831 --> 00:47:57,252 You are like what the resurrection does to our hopelessness in the midst of our sin. 622 00:47:57,252 --> 00:47:58,452 You are like this. 623 00:47:58,452 --> 00:48:00,623 This is the witness of who you are. 624 00:48:00,623 --> 00:48:04,706 We praise you, Father, that you are such a God, and we praise you. 625 00:48:04,706 --> 00:48:05,947 For such a savior. 626 00:48:05,947 --> 00:48:17,435 Jesus, we who have not seen your face yet, we praise you that you are our master, you are our king. 627 00:48:17,435 --> 00:48:19,756 Bring us under your lordship. 628 00:48:19,756 --> 00:48:22,358 Bring us under your shepherding. 629 00:48:22,358 --> 00:48:26,891 Bring us under your kingship more completely, more entirely. 630 00:48:26,891 --> 00:48:33,525 And thank you for this table that you give to us, this witness that you are ours. 631 00:48:34,486 --> 00:48:37,067 And we are yours. 632 00:48:37,067 --> 00:48:45,809 As we come to the table, may we know something of that love which to know is to know all the fullness of who God is. 633 00:48:46,009 --> 00:48:50,671 Father, we pray these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 634 00:48:50,671 --> 00:48:51,671 Amen. 635 00:48:52,111 --> 00:49:02,354 Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio, to see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. 636 00:49:02,542 --> 00:49:05,949 Come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m. 637 00:49:05,949 --> 00:49:09,895 or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.