Acts (Part 6) – Acts 1:24-26

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Acts (Part 6) – Acts 1:24-26

Act 1:24 – And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,

1. And they prayed,
   1. When we have a decision to make and the best choice is not clear (or even when it seems to be), we should always pray to God for wisdom (Jam 1:5).
   2. Wise people seek knowledge (Pro 18:15) and attain unto wise counsel (Pro 1:5) rather than thinking they know everything.
2. and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men,
   1. God knows the hearts of all men (Heb 4:12; Jer 17:10; 1Sa 16:7).
   2. We may think we know what’s in a man’s heart, but we are often wrong.
3. shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
   1. God had chosen one of these men to be an apostle.
      1. The Holy Ghost makes a man an overseer (Act 20:28).
      2. God uses men to ordain other men (Tit 1:5), but it is God who chooses to put a man into the ministry (1Ti 1:12; Heb 5:4).
   2. The apostles were apostles, not by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father (Gal 1:1).

Act 1:25 – That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

1. 1. That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship,
      1. The appointment under consideration was that of an apostle.
      2. The eleven apostles were not jealous of their office and trying to keep another from it, but were desirous to ordain another man to share in their ministry.
   2. from which Judas by transgression fell,
      1. Judas lost his office due to sin (betrayal, deceit, covetousness, greed, suicide, etc.).
      2. Ministers of God, including pastors, can lose their office if they do not keep their bodies in subjection (1Co 9:27).
      3. A pastor must be blameless in order to hold the office (1Ti 3:2; Tit 1:7).
      4. A steward, which is a title for the office of the minister (1Co 4:1), can lose his stewardship if he is not faithful (Luk 16:1-2 c/w 1Co 4:2).
   3. that he might go to his own place.
      1. Judas died and his body went to the grave (Ecc 3:20; Ecc 6:6).
      2. Judas’ soul and spirit went to hell (Mat 26:24; Joh 17:12), the place for which he was suited and which was prepared for him (Mat 25:41; Joh 6:70).
      3. “The phrase his own place means the place or abode which was suited for him, which was his appropriate home. Judas was not in a place which befitted his character when he was an apostle; he was not in such a place in the church; he would not be in heaven. Hell was the only place which was suited to the man of avarice and of treason.” (Albert Barnes)
      4. “They are ready to receive him as a brother whom God hath chosen; for they are not contriving to have so much the more dignity themselves, by keeping out another, but desire to have one to take part of this ministry and apostleship, to join with them in the work and share with them in the honour, from which Judas by transgression fell, threw himself, by deserting and betraying his Master, from the place of an apostle, of which he was unworthy, that he might go to his own place, the place of a traitor, the fittest place for him, not only to the gibbet, but to hell – this was his own place. Note, Those that betray Christ, as they fall from the dignity of relation to him, so they fall into all misery. It is said of Balaam (Num 24:25) that he went to his own place, that is, says one of the rabbin, he went to hell. Whitby quotes Ignatius saying, There is appointed to every man idios topos – a proper place, which imports the same with that of God’s rendering to every man according to his works. And our Saviour had said that Judas’s own place should be such that it had been better for him that he had never been born (Mat 26:24) – his misery such as to be worse than not being. Judas had been a hypocrite, and hell is the proper place of such; other sinners, as inmates, have their portion with them, Mat 24:51.” (Matthew Henry)

Act 1:26 – And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

1. 1. After praying to God for wisdom, the apostles cast lots to determine which man God had chosen.
      1. Lot n. – 1. a. An object (app. usually a piece of wood) used in a widely diffused ancient method of deciding disputes, dividing plunder or property, selecting persons for an office or duty, etc., by an appeal to chance or the divine agency supposed to be concerned in the results of chance. The ‘lots’, each bearing the special mark of one of the competitors, were placed in a receptacle (in Homeric Greece a helmet); according to Greek procedure the vessel was shaken, the winning lot being that which fell out first; in Scandinavia (see Vigf. s.v. hlutr) the winning lot was drawn out by an uninterested party.
      2. The lot causes contention to cease (Pro 18:18).
      3. God controls the outcome of casting lots (Pro 16:33).
      4. God has been known to use lots to reveal His will on a matter (Jon 1:7).
      5. God has also used lots to providentially guide human affairs (Est 3:7).
   2. Casting lots is not a practice that is commanded in the Bible for selecting a man to ordain to the ministry.
      1. There are rules and guidelines established in scripture for selecting and ordaining a man to the ministry, such as:
         1. Verifying that he meets the requirements (1Ti 3:1-7; Tit 1:5-9).
         2. Being proved by serving as a son with the father in the ministry (Php 2:22 c/w 1Ti 3:2, 10).
         3. Having a church call him to minister to them (Act 16:9-10).
      2. Under normal circumstances, one man will meet these criteria at a time when a minister is needed, and the decision will be clear.
      3. But if there happened to be two men who equally met the qualifications, and the pastor and the receiving church were equally divided between the men, a lot could be used to determine the will of God in the matter, as it was here.
   3. Matthias became the twelfth apostle.
      1. Beyond that, we know nothing else about him.
      2. He was not the last apostle to be ordained though.
      3. There were more than 12 apostles.
      4. There were several other apostles, such as:
         1. Jesus (Heb 3:1)
         2. Paul (Rom 1:1)
         3. James the Lord’s brother (Gal 1:19)
         4. Silas (1Th 1:1 c/w 1Th 2:2, 6)
         5. Barnabas (Act 14:14)