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Good Friday morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends;
We’ve all had the experience… something so amazing has happened that it has left you breathless!
Maybe the greatest concert you ever attended, or the greatest spectacle you’ve ever witnessed. What did you do when it was all over? Perhaps you couldn’t do anything, you felt almost paralyzed in amazement? I think that’s what it was like on the hillside, outside Jerusalem, the day Jesus said farewell to His friends, and then He ascended right up into the clouds and two angels appeared to explain it! I think no one spoke, maybe for a long time, and they just sat down on the grassy hillside and pondered what they had just witnessed, what it meant, and what they should do next.
Finally, someone must have said something. Who do you suppose? While we don’t know, I suspect it might have been Peter. All we know is Dr. Luke continues the story in Acts 1:12 by saying “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city…” That would be about a half mile or so. Perhaps you are wondering WHY these Galilean friends of Jesus were in Jerusalem again, so far from home? In our day 60 or 75 miles, depending on which road you take, is not very far… but when you are walking, that’s quite a journey. Perhaps Jesus had told them He’d meet them in Jerusalem? More probably, they had come for the annual Pentecost festival.
Tomorrow we’ll look more closely at that, for today, let’s walk with Jesus’ friends as they leave the Mount of Olives hillside and the unexplainable experience they just had watching Jesus disappear into the clouds. We’ll walk with them down the hillside, past the Olive grove called the Garden of Gethsemane, across the little Kidron Valley, and up into a very busy city of Jerusalem, through one of the huge gates in the city wall, and to a large house where we can spend some time trying to figure out what should happen next!
Dr. Luke, the Gentile, Greek Physician, gives us a careful account of what happened in Jerusalem during this Pentecost festival, and as you perhaps know these events touch everyplace in our world today where the name of Jesus is known! Today, I invite you to read Acts 1:12-26. You’ll see Luke tells us WHERE Jesus’ friends went, after they left the ascension experience on the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem.
Luke also tells us WHO was gathered together. Do you notice Mary, Jesus’ mother AND her other sons are among the group (Acts 1:14). We presume those are Jesus’ 1/2 brother’s James, Joses, Judas and Simon. (Mark 6:3) You’ll remember they had refused to believe Jesus was the Son of God, as He grew up in their home, until after the resurrection when James had a personal encounter with resurrected Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7) You’ll notice the New Testament book of “Jude” begins with the author identifying himself as “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James…” This Jude is one of those other sons of Mary.
And Luke tells us WHAT they did in those days they were together: “They all joined together constantly in prayer…” and I can well imagine they shared stories and personal experiences, that they all cherished, of their times with Jesus over the past 3 years or so. Of course Mary and her other sons had lots of other stories from Jesus’ younger days. Go ahead friends, put yourself in the room and just wander around eves-dropping on the conversations, what do you hear as these, the people who knew Jesus best and had the most time with Him, share their memories? I hear laughter and a deep sense of privilege as they share their stories of the miracles and the teachings, the amazing experiences they each had with Jesus.
Finally, at one point, Peter stood up and called the group together for an important consideration. Do you see that? Jesus had chosen 12 men. One had betrayed Jesus and later killed himself, Judas Iscariot. Therefore Peter feels a replacement should be chosen, and as you read Luke’s description, you’ll see Peter’s criteria: “…it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us, of His resurrection.” As you continue reading you’ll see two men were proposed, Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias. We have no record of the discussion which likely ensued. Then they prayed, asking for God’s guidance, and they cast lots, and selected Matthias. Luke writes “…so he was added to the eleven apostles.” (Acts 1:26)
I bring this to our attention my friends because I see a problem here,do you? You’ll remember in Luke 6:12-15 Jesus had prayed all night long, gaining God the Father’s guidance, before He selected the 12 disciples from the many who were following Him, and Jesus then invested the next many months in those 12. While others were occasionally with them in larger crowd settings, only these 12 ‘walked with Jesus’ and had many intentional teachings times where Jesus instructed them in the deeper truths of God that they would take to the world.
Even though Jesus appeared to His disciples several times in the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension, He never once said anything about selecting a replacement for Judas, nor did He select another person to join the 11 and replace Judas, during those weeks. What do you think about that? This is an example of what we sometimes do today my friends. In our urgency, our desire to get things done, sometimes we run ahead of God, make our plans and then ask God to bless our plans. Have you ever done that?
There is no indication Peter had any leading from God to do this. But he felt strongly a replacement should be selected, and he disregarded the fact that Jesus had not done so. In Peter’s strong personality, he initiated and he led the process, even praying over it and asking God to bless their process. I see no evidence anyone called into question what was happening here. So what’s the lesson here friends?
God could have stopped them, but He didn’t. He allowed them to follow through in their self-confidence and their presumption that it was a good idea. They chose Matthias and Luke says they included him in the group of ‘apostles’. But interestingly as you follow the story of the rest of the Bible and the work of God through the apostles, I never see any mention of Matthias again, do you?
Do you remember how many times God says in His Word… “Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted…” (Ps. 46:10) or “Be still and wait patiently for the LORD. Do not fret…” (Ps. 37:7). Or do you remember the great mistake King Saul made when he did not wait for Samuel, as instructed, and went ahead in his own presumption? (1 Samuel 15) God had to withdraw His hand of blessing on King Saul because he could not be trusted to wait for God’s guidance! It’s an important lesson for us to learn my friends. Rushing ahead of God and then expecting Him to bless our agenda is dangerous.
As you perhaps know, the resurrected, ascended Jesus DID select one more man to be an apostle taking His Gospel to the world. We will see that experience in Acts 9, when Saul the Pharisee, on the road to Damascus, looking to arrest and persecute any followers of Jesus, had a blinding, life changing encounter with the resurrected Jesus. And that man became perhaps the most well known of all who bear the title ‘apostle’. I speak of Paul of course, who ended up writing much of the New Testament. Remember, one of the defining criteria of an ‘apostle’ is a man personally selected, trained and sent by Jesus Himself.
I invite us today to ponder what it was like for those people, the closest friends and even family of Jesus, as they spent 10 days together during the Festival of Weeks, anticipating the great Pentecost celebration. Hour after hour they shared their memories and their stories of Jesus. They prayed, asking God to show them what the rest of their lives were to be all about, now that Jesus was gone. What difference has both the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus made in your life my friends? How are you living in relationship with an alive Jesus that you cannot see?
I believe this group of Jesus friends had a remarkable 10 days together. They ate meals together, they shared story after story, they prayed, asking God to help them to know how the rest of their lives should be reshaped by their experiences with Jesus. I’m sure they left that room from time to time, going out into the streets to buy food or do other business. What did they say to folks, especially those who perhaps recognized them as friends of Jesus? Now tomorrow…we’ll experience together one of the greatest moments in all of human history. Luke recorded the dramatic event in Acts 2!
Oh Lord Jesus, please help us learn the important lesson of not rushing ahead of You, as we ‘walk with Jesus’ and try to live our lives in full availability to You and whatever YOU would like to do in and through us every day, where-ever we live around the world.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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