"The Holy Spirit for the Whole Church" (Acts 1:12-26)

Transcript:

Well, this morning we are continuing our sermon series through the Book of Acts, our sermon series titled God's Vision for His Church. And this morning we are looking at Acts, chapter 1, verses 12 through 26. If you are using one of the Black Pew Bibles in front of you, this starts on page 1080. 1080. And again it's Acts, chapter one, starting in verse 12.

Let us pray as we prepare to hear God's word together this morning. Pray with me. Gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Speak, O Lord. We're listening.

We pray that you would feed us on the nourishing food of your word. And we pray, Father, that as we come to you to listen to your Holy Spirit speaking Scripture, we pray that you would give us hearts to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear all that is contained in the good news of the Gospel of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Well, let's stand now for the reading of God's word from Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 12 to the end of the chapter in verse 26.

Hear now the word of the Lord. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers.

The company of persons was in all about 120. And said, Brothers, 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. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness and and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, Akeldama, which that is field of blood, for it is written in the book of Psalms.

May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it, and let another take his office. So one of the men who have accomplished or accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward two Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also called Eustace and Matthias. And they prayed and said, you, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them.

And the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. The grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of our God will stand forever. Please be seated.

Well, as we consider our text this morning from Scripture, I want to start with a question. There's a question for us to ponder this morning. If the Holy Spirit were to depart from this church, would we notice it? If the Holy Spirit were to depart from this church, or you can think about this personally in your own life, would we notice it? Think about all the things that are happening in this church with our services.

Would our schedules, with our staff, our programs, our activities. Would our officers, our task forces, our volunteers. Would everything happening in this church just continue along business as usual? Or would there be a deep, palpable sense of loss? This is a question a seminary professor posed of mine, posed years ago.

And it's never quite left my mind. It becomes kind of an ongoing diagnostic in my life. Am I living in a way where I can just soldier on according to the strength of my own flesh and according to the wisdom of man? Or am I genuinely dependent on upon the work and the power and the ministry and the person of the Holy Spirit in my life, in my pastoral ministry? And are we dependent upon that as a church?

Now, in many ways, this is really only a theoretical question because Jesus made a sure and faithful promise that he would be with us to the very end of the age. And the way in which Jesus continues to be with his church in is by sending his Holy Spirit. There's a reason in scripture that the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Christ. It's not that the Spirit is the same as the Son of God. We confessed earlier our belief in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons.

But whoever has the Spirit has the Son, and whoever has the Son has the Father. To engage in communion with any one of the persons is to engage in communion with the one united, triune God. But that brings us back to our question then. Are we aware? Are we dependent of our awareness on the Holy Spirit and one of the ways to answer that question is by this passage in front of us today.

Because we have here a unique glimpse, a snapshot of a time in church history when the church did not have the Spirit. It's sort of the. The control group in the experiment. This is not a time when the Spirit had been withdrawn because of any kind of judgment. This was the time when they were awaiting, a few days after this event, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

And so what we see in this passage is a church that is preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit, that is seeking the coming of the Holy Spirit, that is desiring and longing and looking forward to the Holy Spirit. And we need to ask ourselves, as we see their dependence upon the Holy Spirit who is yet to come, how does this inform the way that we are expressing our own dependence in the Church today on the Holy Spirit, whom we have rich access to through the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Our theme this morning. And again, my apologies, this is a bit different from what's written down in the sermon notes of the sermon worksheet. But my theme is this, that the Holy Spirit indwells the church through the ordinary means of grace.

The Holy Spirit indwells the church through the ordinary means of grace. And again, as I tried to simplify my three points, these would be simple to write down if you're a note taker. But number one, it's prayer. Think about those ordinary means of grace. Number one, prayer.

Number two, scripture. Number two, scripture. And then third, and this is surprising, and we'll have to think about why this is the case. The third area that the early church gave their attention to was church government. Church government, that may not be top of mind for us, although we are in an officer election nomination season, but prayer scripture.

And we'll have to see what they're doing with church government. So let's start with prayer in verses 12 through 14. But before we get to verse 12, it's good to pick up the page to the passage we looked at last week in verse four, chapter one, verse four, while. And while Jesus was staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Well, now fast forward again. This brings us through the ascension of Christ into heaven. And in verse 12, we read that in obedience to what Jesus had instructed them, we see the apostles. They retreat and they Go directly back, according to Jesus word to Jerusalem. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Now, here we are seeing that the disciples, the apostles, are very attuned to the word of Jesus. They're very obedient to and dependent upon the word of Jesus. That helps us as we're interpreting what's going on in this passage. The first thing to do is to obey their Lord. They return to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey away.

And we read then that when they had entered, they went up to the upper room. Now, this is very likely not the same upper room that Jesus spent the Passover meal with his disciple right before he was betrayed and handed over to be crucified. Luke actually uses an entirely different word for upper room in the Gospel of Luke to describe that upper room than the word that the same author Luke uses right here to describe this upper room. I think the most plausible suggestion, at least of what I read, is that this is probably where the disciples gathered after Jesus had been crucified and before he was resurrected. This is where Jesus met them on Resurrection Day on that first Easter Sunday.

And so here they are in the upper room, wherever it is, we know it's in Jerusalem. And we read that they are all together. And we have a list of the names of the apostles. We have Peter and John and James. Again, these are his inner circle of three disciples.

But then we read that all the rest of them are there. Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaea, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. Now, this last Judas, who is not Judas Iscariot, Judas the son of James, reminds us that there is another Judas who is missing from this story. If you count up the names, we do not have Judas 12. We have 11.

Because Judas has already died. And we will read about his fate a little bit later in this passage. But Judas had taken his own life, as he had that worldly grief that leads to death, where he didn't really repent from his sins. He was just overwhelmed with the guilt and shame of what he had done. And so he took his own life in revulsion for realizing that he had handed over the Lord of Glory to be crucified.

But now he's no longer with them. There's only 11 of them there. That's again going to be an issue that they are going to have to address. But it's not only these apostles, the 12 minus 1, whom Jesus had selected. We read in verse 14 that they are joined by the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his, presumably Jesus brothers.

And we read in verse 15 that there's about 120 of them in this room. And what are they doing? Well, again, in this snapshot in time, this glimpse into church history in sort of a control group, a moment when the church did not yet have the Holy Spirit, we see them looking and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit by devoting themselves to prayer. All these with one accord. All of them were united with one accord.

Now, you may remember in the story of the Gospels that the disciples were always squabbling and they were always arguing and jockeying for relative position. Who's the greatest among the disciples? Well, all of that has gone out the window now. All of them are united as one group, together with one accord, united in one mind and purpose in prayer. Prayer is a unique gift that God has given to his church.

When we gather as a church to pray corporately, prayer is something that horizontally unites us. There is nothing that unites a church so much as prayer. But of course, it's not just sort of a social activity. Isn't this a fun social activity? It's actually something that horizontally unites us to God as well.

Prayer is the means of access to God, not just to sort of send up darts into heaven, hoping they may or may not reach him. But the Scriptures tell us that we have full access with bold confidence and full assurance of faith, to the very throne room of heaven, to the mercy seat of God, to the Father, to our mediator, the one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. And so we read that during this time, the language is emphasizing the ongoing nature of this prayer. Remember, Jesus ascended 40 days after his resurrection. Pentecost is 49 or 50 days after his resurrection.

So there's about 10 days here where they are devoting themselves to prayer during this time. There's sort of a continual nature in the way that this is written. And what are they doing? Well, there's a palpable sense that their ministries cannot go on business as usual. They need to wait in Jerusalem, as Jesus had told them, for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Holy Spirit whom they had given.

They're seeking the Lord's will. They are seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during this time. And, you know, it's so interesting to see the way in Scripture, throughout Scripture, that prayer is associated particularly with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, Jesus himself says in Luke, chapter 11, verse 13, that we receive the Holy Spirit through prayer. He says, if you Then who are evil?

Know how to get good. Give good gifts to your children. How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Our Heavenly Father loves to give good gifts to his children. Again, the question is, are we asking or could in our lives we just continue on business as usual?

Well, confident and pleased and satisfied in the strength of our flesh and in the wisdom of man. Now to zoom out a little bit from what's happening here. As we continue to study this passage. We should see here that prayer is not some one way monologue. Again, we're not just sort of sitting here just speaking up to the ceiling.

And it's just sort of a one way kind of a thing. This is not where we offer or recite through our spiritual shopping list. This is a dialogue with God. This is a conversation with God. Prayer is a two way conversation.

And what we are going to see is as they are engaging with the Lord in prayer, it drives them to the study of His Word. If you're wanting to hear God respond to you in prayer, God does that. You can hear his voice speaking in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Prayer drives us to God's Word. And that's exactly what we're going to see in the midst of this prayer.

Through 10 days of prayer, they don't just keep talking in some kind of a monologue, drives them to not only the ordinary means of prayer, but that ordinary means of grace through prayer drives them to the ordinary means of grace in God's word. So now we come to the second part of this passage where we see their dependence upon Scripture. Now in verse 15, in the midst of this 10 day of prayer, Peter stands up. I know he's a preacher in season and out of season, and he stands up to address the 120 who are present from the Scriptures. Now again, the prayers are not just speaking to God.

They are waiting to hear God's response. And through the midst of this, it's very clear that Peter and the apostles have heard God's answer in Scripture. Now Peter is appointed to declare that word of the Lord to the people who are gathered here. And so in verse 16, he says this, brothers, 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. Now before we get into Judas, let's notice here that we have a very clear description of what we believe about the nature of Scripture.

This is a very good summary verse of our doctrine of the verbal inspiration of Scripture Verbal meaning the very words of Scripture. Inspiration meaning the very words of Scripture are inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's actually when we read the words of the Bible, yes, men wrote these things down. But as men wrote these words down, they weren't just writing on their own. The Holy Spirit was speaking through these words.

The Holy Spirit spoke through David and through all the authors who penned the books that we have in Scripture. The Bible has a dual authorship. The words of the chosen men who were chosen and appointed to write these words as the words of the Holy Spirit were spoken through them. This is why we believe that the Bible is inerrant. That is, that it has no errors in it in all that it affirms.

And more than that, we believe not only that it is inerrant, we believe that the Bible is infallible. It is not possible for the Scriptures to err because these are the words of God to us. A very good explanation of some of the implications of what we believe about the Bible are contained in the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy, which says, in part that the Bible is to be believed as God's instruction in all that it affirms. It is to be obeyed as God's command and all that it requires, and it is to be embraced as God's pledge in all that it promises. Now, theologians can talk a lot about inspiration, but this wasn't simply a dry, dusty doctrine, something to be studied in schools and seminaries and in books.

This is a really practical question. And to return to our original question, how would we notice the departure of the Holy Spirit? Or to put it in a flip way, how are we seeking the Holy Spirit informed by the example given to us in the early church? Well, what the early church models for us is if we want the Holy Spirit, that means we are going to seek access to him through his words in Scripture. How would we know that the Spirit had departed from this place?

Well, we'd stop listening to his voice in the Scriptures. You know, this is a general principle that the only way to get to know anyone is through their words. I mean, I think about, you know, particularly getting to know my wife early on, as we were getting to know each other, I hung on every word and still do, honey. But every word that she spoke was a word where I was learning something about her. About the things that she loved, about the things that she didn't love, about her heart, about her hopes, about everything.

I listened to her words because there was no way for me to scan her brain and understand what was Going on up there. I had to listen to her to understand who she was, what she wanted. The same thing is true of God. If you want to know God, there's no one who knows God, but the Spirit who searches the mind of God. And if you want to know the Spirit who searches the mind of God, you have to listen to his words.

And these words are spoken through the words that are recorded for us in the Scriptures. But again, in terms of a doctrine, the doctrine, the verbal inspiration of Scripture, it's so important, but it's not sort of a focus in and of itself in what Peter is saying here. That is simply the foundation on which he then takes the implications for the direction the church is supposed to take. Because there is the verbal inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Because the Scriptures are inerrant and infallible.

Well, then we need to listen to what they say and what Peter recognizes that Scripture had to be fulfilled, particularly regarding Judas. And though Judas had been numbered among the apostles, he betrayed his Lord by becoming a guide, leading those to arrest Jesus, by leading them to the place where Judas knew that Jesus often was with his disciples. And we read then that as judgment against this, that he burst open, his body burst open as he fell headlong and his bowels gushed out into the graphic description of the curse against him. Particularly when we recognize that the curse that Judas experiences here is directly contrasted with the blessing that the Church is about to receive from the Holy Spirit. This word for gushed out is the exact same word that's going to be used to describe the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church.

Something is going to be gushed out, either for curse or for blessing. That's Bach. Darrell Bock points that out. I found that so fascinating. And so Peter continues as he's studying this passage, as he's looking to the book of the Psalms.

And first he goes to Psalm 69, verse 25, and he reads that Judas must be deposed from office. That's done. But then he sees Psalm 109, verse 8, that another must take his place. Now, this is really interesting. With everything going on in the life of the church, what do they prioritize?

And this comes back to that original question. If the Holy Spirit were not with us, what would we be doing? Well, we might be tempted to get on with the business, the busyness of the church. And there's a lot for the church to do in the coming pages. In the book of Acts, there's evangelism to do.

There are 120 now thousands need to be added to their ranks. They better get busy with that. There are sick and paralyzed people to heal. There are widows to feed, financial needs to meet, controversies to settle. All of this under the growing shadow of persecution against the church.

And while these are all important things in the Book of Acts, and like Martha, they might have been tempted to be anxious and troubled about many things. But rather than simply seeking to be busy, notice the way that they are choosing the good poor. They're sitting at the feet of Jesus through prayer and through studying the Scripture. And at the feet of Jesus, they are learning from their Lord. Remember chapter one, verse one of Acts.

This is the continuation of all that Jesus began to do and to teach. He is still teaching his church. He is still leading his church in what they are supposed to be doing. And we see the resurrected ascended Lord teaching them that they need to elect a. An officer to replace Judas.

Now, this is probably, maybe not the first on their mind, but they recognize that what the Lord is leading them into is to take care of the church and particularly the government of the church. They recognize that the church is the temple in which God's Spirit dwells. And like the temple in the Old Testament, there's a significant amount of organization given in the temple. And God similarly, is giving organization in his church. Now, the church is not technically one of the ordinary means of grace.

Typically, when we talk about the ordinary means of grace, we mean the word prayer and the sacraments. But the church, the visible church, what we're gathering in right now, this is supposed to be the theater, the place where God's people have the privilege of enjoying the fullness of what God gives to his people in the ordinary means of grace, in the Word, in the prayer. And uniquely, here's the only place where we celebrate the sacraments. And so we come to this third section, the Importance of Church Government and the verses 21 and 22. Peter lays out the qualifications.

If another is going to join their ranks as an apostle, he needs to be like the apostles. That is, he needs to be qualified in the sense of being, being someone who has been with the disciples during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, that is, during his earthly ministry, beginning with the baptism of John, until the day when he was taken up from us. One of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. Now, In Luke, chapter 6, verse 13, we read that when the day came for Jesus to choose the 12, Jesus called him his disciples, and from them, in other words, a smaller group of his disciples were the ones that he called to be his 12. But there were a larger group of disciples who followed Jesus from the beginning.

Well, now one of those is going to be selected by the Holy Spirit to be the 12th disciple. Now, we have here there are two nominations. Perhaps there are only two that are qualified. We have Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also called Eustace and Matthias. And we read that these two disciples are put forward as the candidates, as the possibilities for selecting as the 12th apostle to fill their ministry.

Now, sometimes people ask at this point, did Peter act wrongly by failing to wait for the Pentecost, failing to wait for the promise of Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit to be given to lead them in the wisdom and what they are doing? Some people suggest that maybe the apostle Paul would have been there and would have been able to be selected if they had just waited a little bit longer for this. But the whole context of this suggests that that's a mistaken way to read this. Darrell Bock, in his commentary, notes that nothing in this text portrays these events as negative. Everything seems positive, and that's true.

FF Brutes notes that Paul was not qualified according to his qualifications. He had not been with the other disciples from the very beginning. He is an apostle, but as Paul himself notes, is one who is untimely born. And David Peterson notes that what God was doing was he was making the apostles whole, whole in number. There wasn't a vacancy.

God wanted to make the apostles whole in order to give the Holy Spirit, who is the whole fullness of God, to the whole church. There was something that was important symbolically and just in the nature of the way that God intended his church, Church to run. God intended his wholeness to dwell in the wholeness of his church. And so the apostles had to be made whole in number. And so again we see the apostles devoting themselves to prayer.

You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned a sign to go to his own place. They focused on character and they sought the direction of the Lord. And here, before the giving of the Holy Spirit, we see them casting lots to discern the Lord's leading. The Holy Spirit led through the governing of the lots. The lost falls in the lap, but it is the Lord who determines its steps.

They cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 disciples. What's our application from this? Well, our application is that we are to choose the good portion in Christ's church, we're to choose the gospel held out to us in the fullness of communion with the Holy Spirit by God's word and prayer by those ordinary means. These aren't extraordinary signs and wonders that we're seeking. We're seeking something very ordinary, the word of God and prayer.

Now, Jesus, when he's interacting with Mary and Martha, you know this story well, that when Martha is running around and busy and trying to take care of things to serve Jesus, Mary is just sitting listening to Jesus teach. And Martha finally comes complaining. And if you're a parent, you've probably heard this complaint. My sister won't help me, make her help me. I hear this all the time in my own household.

And the Lord answered her probably more tenderly than I do with my children. He said, martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. We're called to seek the good portion in Jesus Christ. And the way we lay hold of Jesus Christ is through His Holy Spirit.

And the way we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit is through prayer. That's the first ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit indwells his church. This is a praying church. Again, from a distance, as I looked at the communication from afar and saw some of the prayer requests coming through, printing your bulletin and the prayer request, it told me about the needs that were happening in this church and that people were dedicated to prayer. Last week, two weeks ago, I guess, during vbs, I got to spend a couple of nights with the prayer team up in the perch, lifting up volunteers and the children, each by name.

That was a special time to pray with people as we sought the Lord's blessing on that event. Again, when we pray together, we unify ourselves horizontally with one another. But even more, it's not just a horizontal social club. It is also the vertical way in which we come into the throne of grace and seek our request from the Lord Himself. But also as we do this, as we are talking to God again, He drives us to his word.

He responds to us by the words of the Holy Spirit who speaks in Scripture. Scripture teaches us the things that we are to pray for. Again, our sermon series is that this is God's vision for his church. And prayer is through important, it is central. We're going to see it come up time and time again in the Book of Acts.

It is a model for what we are to be doing as a church because Jesus is in Heaven. And we are praying for Jesus, Holy Spirit, who unites us to Christ who is seated at the Father's right hand in heaven as the Holy Spirit is the one through whom we come to know Jesus prayer. Well, what about Scripture, the Word of God, Word and prayer? These are the two prayer primary ordinary means of grace. Now tonight we're actually going to talk a little bit more about Scripture at the evening service.

But for now I want to simply make one observation. I'll say most of it tonight. If we believe that we have access the Holy Spirit indwells us through these ordinary means of prayer and Scripture and that the theater of God's privileges and the ordinary means of grace is in the church. Why would you be anywhere other than the evening service tonight? As we gather together, I am a zealot for the evening service.

It is such a wonderful time where God's people can come together again. The theater for God's ordinary means of grace to be given to us as God's privilege where we have fellowship with one another to enjoy all the blessings that God has given us in context of the church. This is something we do together to seek God's Word and to listen to God's Word and to seek him in prayer. But the third thing I want to turn to is church government. I want to maybe offer a specific prayer.

Pray for this season of officer nominations at First Church for the elders and the deacons. It's a biblical priority. The Spirit speaks to tell us that we need to be praying about these things. Our elders are called to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the words. As we read in Acts 6, 4.

Ministry of the Word. Our deacons are called to spiritual service. It's not merely physical. It's spiritual service of meeting physical needs in the church. Especially to free elders who devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

You know, this week I got to attend a deacon meeting and to moderate the session meeting. And it's such a privilege to serve with these godly men. And do you know what they labored to do? They want to lead you to the good portion of sitting at Jesus feet. Understand?

The whole reason we are here is Jesus Christ and Him crucified, of lifting up the gospel that our Lord very God of very God came into this world. That he took upon Himself a human nature. That he lived the perfect life for us. That in his perfection he died the cursed death that all of us deserved to die. So that there's this great exchange that he offers us where he took upon Himself our sins so that he could give to us his perfect righteousness that we received through no work that we do but by faith alone.

And the elders and the deacons were praying that you would have that they were praying for your well being in body and in soul. Praying to remove any barriers that would keep you from coming to worship where Jesus Christ could be exalted in the midst of our service, for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that you might come to the Father through Jesus Christ his Son. So would you commit to prayer during this season of officer nominations and as we move into training and election season, Jesus gives officers as gifts to his church to this day. No longer apostles, but officers so that we might all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure the stature, the fullness of God Christ. Would you even potentially consider fasting toward this end?

Fasting in Acts chapter 13 and 14 are connected with the appointment officers. Well, let's consider how we might seek together the good portion of Christ together in this church. That if the Holy Spirit were taken away that we'd recognize something was wrong, we'd cease everything we were doing and we rededicate ourselves to these ministries word prayer in the context in the theater of the church so that we might all sit together at the feet of Jesus. There's really only one thing necessary. And if we seek Christ by faith, through His Holy Spirit, he will be given to us.

The Father loves to give the good gift of the Holy Spirit to His church. Let's pray.