Let's take our Bibles and open them up to the book of Acts. We're going to finish up chapter 1 tonight, so I want to begin reading in verse 15 and read to the end of the chapter. So Acts chapter 1, verse 15, and you can follow along with me. Acts 1.15, At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons was there together. And said, Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem So that in their own language, the field was called Hakadah Dama. That is the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his homestead be made desolate and let no one dwell in it and let another man take his office. Therefore, it is necessary that of the men who've accompanied us all the time that Jesus went out in and out, went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen. to occupy this ministry, and the apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles." The title of the message this evening is simply, Humble Beginnings. Humble Beginnings. Let's pray, and then we'll take a look at this passage. Our dear, gracious, almighty God, we praise you for your word. We praise you, Lord, for the guidance that your word gives us. We praise you, Lord, for the encouragement of your word. And we thank you tonight, Lord, for the encouragement that your word gives us, that you are the one who builds your church. We thank you, Lord. for the examples of these apostles who teach us by their example how it is we should go about relying upon you to build your church. We praise you, Lord Jesus Christ, that we know that you will build your church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. We understand that it is our responsibility to be tools that fit perfectly into your hands that you might use us to build your church. I pray, Father, that as we study this passage tonight, that it will again remind us of what is essential as far as we are concerned, what is essential for us to be doing that we might be tools used by you to build your church. We praise you for the hope of your church. We know that nothing will stop the building of your church, and we thank you for the tremendous privilege and blessing and the humble opportunity that we have to be a part of what you are doing to build your church. Jesus Christ, to you be all praise, glory, and honor forever and ever. It is in your name that we pray. Amen. So again, tonight the title of the message is Humble Beginnings. And the first aspect we see of the humble beginnings of the church is they were small in number. Look here with me again in verse 15. At this time, Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, a gathering of about 120 persons was there together and said. So Peter is gathered in the midst of these brethren and there are only 120 persons of them gathered together. Now we know that this is taking place sometime during that 10-day interval from when Jesus Christ was ascended and from when the Holy Spirit comes and baptizes the apostles and actually inaugurating the beginning of the church. With the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we have the birth of the church. So it's a 10-day period of time there. Sometime in that 10-day period, they come and they gather together. There's 120 of them together. Now we know that there are more than 120 believers at this time, because in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 6, we read, So we know that Jesus Christ, before He ascended into heaven, had appeared to at least 500. And we're looking here at 120 so of those that are in Jerusalem. Most of those other 500 were probably up in the region of Galilee. So it's a very, very small beginning. But yet we know that within no more than a matter of two weeks, it's probably more like a week to 10 days, the church is going to just start growing by leaps and bounds. There's going to be an explosive advance of the church. Because if you just turn to Acts 2, verse 41, and this is the sermon that Jesus Christ preaches, or not Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, this is the sermon that Peter preaches right after the day of Pentecost, right at that time when the Holy Spirit baptizes the apostles, Peter preaches this message, and this is the result of that preaching. In verse 41, so then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. So within a very short time, this 120 believers is going to be multiplied to 3,000 souls. Also look in chapter 2 verse 46, Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, having favor with all people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. So the Lord is adding day by day to their number, those who are being saved. And then you can go all the way to Acts chapter five, verse 14. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. So it is from this small nucleus group of people that the church explodes into existence. And it's from this small group of people that we have the mighty church that has prevailed throughout the centuries. For the last 20 centuries and more, the church has constantly been growing, and Jesus Christ began the growth of His church with this very humble beginning. they are very humble and you can see it just in their numbers a very humble beginning just 120 individuals or so but not only did their small number tell about their humble beginnings but their humility told about their humble beginnings but they weren't weak in humility they were mighty in humility These group of individuals were humble people, but they were mighty in their humility. And what made them mighty was the fact that they were trusting. They were trusting in the Lord. They were trusting in prayer. They were trusting in the scriptures. They were dependent. And oftentimes when we are our strongest, is when we realize we must trust in the Lord. We must depend upon the Lord. We must look to Him. That's when we actually become our strongest. And it takes humility to recognize that we need the Lord. We are dependent upon Him. But when we recognize that, we actually are strong. And we can see that they were trusting in the words of Jesus. When you go back to Acts chapter one, verse four, in Acts chapter one, verse four, Jesus gathered them together and he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the father had promised, which he said, You have heard from me. And that's exactly what is happening. As they are gathered together there in verse 15, a group of about 120 persons, they're gathered together in Jerusalem. They're gathered together waiting for what the Lord had promised. They're waiting for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So their humility, their dependence is seen in the way they trust the word of the Lord. They're trusting in what Jesus said. They're being obedient to what Jesus said. But not only that, they are trusting in prayer. Look at verse 14. So they're trusting in what the Lord had told them to do. They're doing exactly what the Lord had told them to do. and they're trusting in prayer. They have devoted themselves to prayer. And again, one of the greatest ways that we can demonstrate our dependence upon the Lord is through our prayers. And actually, it is our prayers that reveal just where our understanding of our dependency is. If we are the type of people that don't spend much time in prayer, then we're not trusting and depending upon the Lord, we're trusting and depending upon our own strength. So prayer is a vital part to the growth of the church. Prayer is a vital part to the church that wants to be used by Jesus Christ to build his own church. Now, not only were they trusting in the words of Jesus and they were trusting in prayer, they're trusting in the words of Jesus in that they had Jesus right there talking to them. We don't necessarily have the words of Jesus as he's talking directly to us person to person, but we do have the scriptures. And they also were depending upon the scriptures. Look at verse 16. This is what Peter said when he stood up in the midst of them. Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who are arrested, who arrested Jesus. Now, one of the first things I want us to see about the scriptures is the divine authority of the scriptures. You notice there how Peter refers to the Scriptures? The way he refers to the Scriptures tells us that Scriptures have divine authority. Let me read it again. foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas. The scriptures are the words of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to individuals and informs them and presses upon them what to write in scripture. So when we read the scriptures, We're not reading the thoughts of men. We're not reading the words of men. We are reading the very thoughts of God. And God has communicated them to us through His Holy Spirit. Scriptures are the very thoughts of God. In our scriptures, we have the very thoughts that God has revealed to us, the secret thoughts of God. So for the church, there's nothing more precious than the scriptures. And we see here in the humble beginning of this church, they are trusting in the words of the Lord, they are trusting in prayer, and they are trusting in the Scriptures. It's interesting how Peter, near the end of his life, will write about this divine authority in the pages of Scriptures. And we read what he writes in 2 Peter 1, verse 20. This is Peter, the very one that is speaking at the beginning of the church. And he's lost nothing throughout his life, throughout the ministry. He's lost nothing in his understanding of how Important the scriptures are the scriptures are the word of God. There's nothing that's happened to him That's caused him to trust in himself. He is still even at the end of his life fully trusting in the scriptures Listen to what he says, but know this first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation For no prophecy was ever made by the act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God He's saying the exact same thing he said at the beginning of the building of the church. He has ministered. He has served the church throughout his life. He comes to the end of his life and his view of the scriptures has not changed. If we want to be used by God to build his church, our view of the scriptures must be in accordance with truth. And a view of the scriptures in accordance with truth tells us that this is the word of God. And that is something that we must never forget. We must never abandon that reality that this is the Word of God. And no matter what happens, we trust the Word of God because the Word of God is absolute truth. Now, in this particular situation, Peter is looking to the Word of God to help explain the unexplainable. There is something that has happened to these men that must have really shook them. It must have shook them when Judas ended up being a traitor. And in a minute here, I'll show you why I believe it really shook them. But in order to understand it, he's going to the scriptures. And the scriptures clearly tell them that Judas was one who was to be a guide for Jesus to be arrested. He can clearly see from scriptures that the betrayal of Judas towards Jesus was something that was planned out in scriptures. And so as they're dealing with this very difficult, unexplainable situation, they go to the scriptures, and the scriptures explain it all. Everything is happening just the way that God intended it to happen. Now, here's why I think that the apostles were very shocked to find out that there was even a traitor amongst themselves and that it was Judas. Listen to what we read in John 13, verse 21. When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit and testified and said, all of a sudden in the the upper room in the last supper just prior to Jesus going to the garden of Gethsemane and being betrayed on the last evening of his earthly life he tells these apostles one of you is going to betray me and they had been all walking with the Lord they had all been serving with the Lord eating with the Lord spending their entire lives for three years with the Lord and they look around which one of us Who's doing this? They could not believe it. This was totally unexpected for them. They had no idea that there was a traitor amongst them. And so that's why I think that there came a time when they wanted to have an explanation. And when you want to have an explanation as to what the Lord is doing, you go to his word. and his word will clearly spell it out for you exactly what is happening. Now, the apostles, they were shocked, but Jesus, he wasn't shocked at all. He knew all along who it was that was going to betray him. In John, chapter six, verse 64, we read, But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him. Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you? The twelve. And yet one of you is the devil. Now he met Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. Jesus knew from the very beginning. He chose Judas for this purpose. He chose Judas knowing that Judas was going to betray him. Everything was being done exactly according to the plan of God. And we see this in Matthew 26, verse 24. For the son of man is to go just as it is written of him. But woe to the man by who the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. And then in Acts 2, verse 23, this man, referring to Jesus Christ, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. who was ultimately responsible for the delivering over of Jesus. It was Judas. Judas was the one who first delivered Jesus over to his enemies. And all of that was being done according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Not only did God the son know exactly who Judas was and exactly what he was doing, and he chose him because of that, but also God the father knew from the very beginning of time he knew that this would be the purpose of Judas. God raised him up for this purpose, just like God raised up Pharaoh for the purpose of of of persecuting the people of Israel and he raised up Pharaoh for the purpose of Glorifying himself God raised up Judas for this exact purpose That doesn't mean that God purposely planned Judas to be an unbeliever He is an unbeliever. All God is doing is picking an unbeliever to use for his glory God didn't Pharaoh to be an unbeliever. Pharaoh was an unbeliever from the beginning. All God did was use Pharaoh's unbelief for His glory. And all God did with Judas was to use Judas' unbelief for His glory. But that is God. And that's one of the things we read and understand from this passage is God is absolutely sovereign. He does what He purposes and plans to do. Psalm 115, verse 3, but our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Well, if our God is in the heavens and is going to do whatever he pleases, how important is it for us to line ourself up with what he pleases to do? And how do we know that we go back to the scriptures? And this is exactly what the apostles are doing. They are lining themselves up with what God pleases to do because they know he's going to do exactly what he pleases to do. In Isaiah 46, verse 10, we read, How foolish it is for any church to work against the purposes of God. God is going to accomplish His purposes. How foolish it is for the church to work against anything that has anything to do with the good pleasure of God. Figure out what the good pleasure of God is and come alongside of it and work with it. And again, how do we do that? We do that through prayer and through the study of Scripture. Isaiah 55, verse 11. So will my word, which goes forth from my mouth, it will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. God is going to accomplish what he has spoken. Whatever he has spoken will come to pass. And God has spoken in his word. He has spoken in the scriptures and what he has spoken in the scriptures will come to pass. So the very best thing for the church to do is to align themselves with the scriptures, because it's the scriptures that are going to come to pass. It's the scriptures that are going to be fulfilled. It's not the words of men. It's not the thoughts of men. It's the scriptures that are going to be fulfilled. Now, before we look at another aspect of the scripture, let's just look here for a moment at Luke's historical interlude. Luke kind of interrupts this teaching of Peter with his own historical interlude. And you can see it here in verse 18 and 19. In my Bible it has it marked off by parentheses. This is telling us that this is something that is a parenthetical thought to what Peter actually said. Peter is leading the group in a study of the Word of God. He's leading them in a Bible study. And what Luke does is he interrupts that Bible study to give us a historical interlude, a historical detail that he believes is very important for his reader to understand. And who's his reader? Theophilus. He wants to be sure that Theophilus understands exactly what happened to Judas. And by just the way the scriptures have been passed on, we need to understand exactly what happened to Judas. So in verse nine, 18, Luke starts to talk about Judas. Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his intestines gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem, so that in their own language the field was called Hakadamah, that is, a field of blood. Luke wants to be sure that everybody, especially Theophilus, knows what happens to Judas, to understand the horrific ending of this one who betrayed Jesus Christ. And there is perhaps nobody who's under more condemnation than the person of Judas. We know that our condemnation is in line with the revelation that we've received. The more revelation you receive and the more you reject that revelation, the more stronger your condemnation will be. And Judas is perhaps the one who received more revelation of the truth than anyone else. We know that Jesus Christ is the last word spoken from God. And Judas actually lived with him for three years. No one had more exposure to the truth than Judas. And yet Judas rejected that truth. And what Luke wants us to see is he wants us to see the horrific ending of one who betrayed the son of God. And he shares that with us in these two verses. Now we come to verse 20. And in verse 20, Luke is going back to Peter's Bible study with this group of people. And in this part of the Bible study, he's showing us how Scripture helps to guide us through decision making. He first showed us how Scripture helps us to make sense of the unexplainable. The Scripture explains it. And now he's showing how they look to Scripture to understand what they need to do next. Verse 20, For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let this homestead be made desolate and let no one dwell in it. and let another man take his office. Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John and to the day that he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of this resurrection. Okay, so he's looking in Scripture, and he realizes that Scripture prophesied that there would be one who rejected Jesus Christ. There would be one who had been given the special ministry, and he rejects the special ministry, and he betrays Jesus Christ. He sees that that was predicted, so that explains the betrayal of Judas. But now what do they do? Well, Scripture tells them, you are to fill that place. You are to replace that one. And now notice the criteria that Peter and the others determined must be used to fill the vacancy of Judas. Now remember, they're praying. They're spending time in prayer. They're there together, spending time in prayer, reading scriptures. They realize they need to fulfill this vacancy, and now they've got a standard by which they are going to fulfill it. We see it here in verse 21. It is necessary that of the men who've accompanied us all the time that Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John and to the day that he was taken up from us. They need to find somebody that was part of the ministry that was around Jesus Christ from the beginning of the time when John the Baptist had baptized Jesus Christ right up to the time of the ascension. Now, why is that so important? I think one of the reasons that was so important is because of what we read in Matthew 19, verse 27. Just listen to Matthew 19, verse 27 and verse 28. Then Peter said to him, Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What will there be for us? So Peter is recognizing that we've left everything. And he's talking about him and the other apostles. They've left everything to follow Jesus and he wants to know what is going to be the advantage of leaving everything to follow you Jesus said to them truly I say to you that you who have followed me in the regeneration when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne You also will sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of israel Jesus is saying those of you Who have been with me all this time? you will sit on the twelve thrones in the regeneration when i come back to restore the kingdom of god to israel you will sit on the twelve thrones now there's only eleven of them they need twelve of them to sit on those twelve thrones How was it that the 11 were chosen to sit on those 12 thrones? Well, they had to be with Jesus throughout the earthly ministry. So why is it that Peter and the others have determined that we need to find someone who has been with us throughout this entire ministry? It's because they know that 12th throne needs somebody to sit upon it. And they know that with the with the betrayal of judas there's now only 11 one of the things they are looking for is they're looking for the fulfillment of the ministry of the apostles and sitting on those 12 thrones And they also realize that they need to have somebody who has seen the resurrection so they're looking about them and they only have two people that fit that description. But which of the two do they need to pick? And we begin to see how they go about making that decision in verse 23. So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justice, and Matthias. they prayed and said you Lord, you know the hearts of all men show which one of these two you have chosen to Occupy this ministry and the apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place And they drew lots for them and the lot fell to Matthias and he was added to the 11 apostles. Now, I'm not sure exactly what is the practice of this drawing lots, but I do know that it was a biblical practice in Old Testament times. And we are still operating under an Old Testament time. The New Testament time, the church age, doesn't begin until these apostles are baptized with the Holy Spirit. So they are still relying upon what has been given to them in their scriptures. And their scriptures are what we refer to the Old Testament. There's much that the Old Testament has to say about choosing something Determining God's will by casting of lots in Leviticus chapter 16 verse 8 Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats one for the Lord the other four lot for the scapegoat So they have two goats one is to be a scapegoat one is to be for the Lord How do you know which one you cast lots? There's some practice of casting lots that will make that determination Proverbs chapter 16 verse 3 Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established and then in Joshua 7 verse 14 in the morning Then you shall come near by your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes By lot shall come near by families and the family which the Lord takes shall come near by households and the households Which the Lord takes shall come near by man near man by man. So again, I they're using lots to determine which tribe, which household, and which man the Lord is going to choose. 1st Samuel chapter 10 verse 20. Then thus Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. So this casting of lots was something that was practiced. among the Jewish people, among the Israelite people. And so Peter and the other apostles, they are just going to revert back to what they know the Lord has used in the past to determine who it was that God wanted to fulfill this this vacancy. And God chose by the casting of the lots. He chose Matthias. Now, one of the interesting things that I found out as I was studying this passage is that there are considerable number of commentaries who believe that at this point the apostles are making a mistake, that it wasn't supposed to have been Matthias, they weren't supposed to be casting this lot, that the 12th apostle that replaced Judas actually should have been Paul because of Paul's dynamic ministry, because of the influence that Paul had on the building of the church. Well, it's hard to believe that God would allow them to make this mistake at this point. It's hard to believe that He would allow them to make that mistake. Plus, if you go to Acts 2, The first few verses here you can see that Matthias is actually baptized by the Holy Spirit. If he wasn't the one that the Lord had chosen to replace Judas, why would He let him be baptized by the Holy Spirit? We read in Acts 2, verse 1, And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributing themselves, and they rested on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance." They're all filled with the Holy Spirit, the leaven and Matthias. And so that would kind of lend you to believe that there is no mistake being made here. Another reason that people will say that Matthias was a mistake is that for some reason they don't think there's any record of what happens to Matthias. Well, I looked it up online and there's lots of what happened to Matthias. It talks about where he did his ministry. It talks about when he died. It talks about different ways that he might have been martyred. We're not really sure how he was martyred, but there seems to be historical evidence that he too was martyred for his faith. Now, why is it that somebody as dynamic as the Apostle Paul would not have been chosen to replace Judas? Well, there are some, like John MacArthur, who believes that one of the reasons that the Apostle Paul wasn't chosen to replace Judas is because the one that was replacing Judas was going to sit on one of these 12 thrones. The one who's replacing Judas is an apostle that really is focused on Israel. Well, we know that the Apostle Paul's ministry was not focused primarily on Israel, wasn't focused primarily on the Jews. The Apostle Paul had a ministry to the Gentiles. His whole scope of ministry didn't fit what was reserved for these original 12 in being a representative of the nation of Israel. And so that's another reason why I think we're on pretty solid ground thinking that Matthias actually was the one that God had chosen to replace Judas. But what I want us again to remember is what the apostles were turning to at this point. They were turning to the words of the Lord. They were turning to prayer. They were turning to Scripture. And as you follow the ministry of the apostles, as you follow their ministry, you see they do not divert from this commitment. To be successively used by Jesus Christ to build his church isn't a complicated thing. It's a very simple formula, and we see this formula again in Acts 6. Acts 6, verses 1 through 4. Turn there with me. Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint rose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve, some of the congregation of the disciples, had said, It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom you may put in charge of this task. But we, that is the Twelve, we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Are there other things that we can be involved in as we seek to be used by the Lord to build His church, like other ministries, like children's ministries, like youth ministries, like music ministries? Certainly. But what we must never abandon is being devoted to prayer and being devoted to the scriptures. Those are the things that God uses to build his church. This is what the apostles were depending upon when they first began. Even before the church was given birth, they were trusting in prayer and trusting in the scriptures. When the church was giving birth, they're trusting in the scriptures and the church is growing by leaps and bounds. And as they continue to have difficulties within them because of their growth, they don't abandon the prayer and the depending on the scriptures. They stay devoted to prayer. They stay devoted to scriptures. And you follow the apostle Paul. You follow the apostle Peter. You follow the apostle John. And even at the end of their lives, they still are committed to those two things, to prayer and the scriptures. And we will see. as we study the book of Acts, that that is where the focus is. The focus is on prayer and the focus is on the scriptures. And we trust the Lord to use our devotion to those things to build His church. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you, Lord, that is not confusing as to what it is that you want us as a church to do. I thank you, Lord, for how you have kept this church true to prayer and to scriptures. And I trust you, Father, to make sure that we never depart from your simple plan to build your church. This is the church that you purchased with your very own blood. It is your church. We have no business replacing your plan to build your church with our own plan. We will continue to trust you no matter what. To you be all the praise and all the glory forever and ever in Christ's holy name. Amen.