Come on Jesus, what are you hiding from? That's basically what they're saying. And he himself seeketh to be known openly. If you're the real deal, you wouldn't be hiding. His reason for hiding was it wasn't his time to die yet. but they're mocking him if thou do these things show thyself to the world now what's verse 5 say read that for neither did his brethren believe in him until what the resurrection even at the cross Jesus entrusted his mother Mary who's here to John and not his brothers. Why? Because his brothers weren't believers yet. In John still, go over to John 19. Look at that real quick. We're way back to Acts. The Sabbath day's journey. John 19, 25 to 27. He's on the cross. Verse 25, now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. Verse 26, when Jesus therefore saw his mother, his brothers weren't around. They still weren't believers. Who did he see? Saw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved. That's how John refers to himself. He saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. About John. She's got real offspring. And Jesus on the cross is dedicating or entrusting his mother to John. In 27, then he saith he to the disciple, John, Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her unto his own home. But something changed. Back to Acts chapter 1 verse 14, we see Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. The resurrection changes it all. That's something to really ponder, meditate on. And this changes once Jesus rose from the dead. Everything changes with the resurrection of Jesus. I've told the story that I was a theist at one point, but not a Christian. It was only when I saw that no, including all the unbelieving historians known, none claimed that Jesus didn't live, like you hear people claim, And there's plenty of historical evidence to prove Jesus of Nazareth lived and died and that at the very least, his tomb was empty and his followers believed he rose from the dead and they saw something that they said was Jesus risen from the dead. Saw someone, very good. Amen. So you have to believe that these people gathered here and throughout the first century, thousands of people died for something they knew was a lie. Or you can believe that thousands of people saw him risen from the dead and knew that death ain't no big deal. He is risen and He will raise us. And once you know that, it changes everything. And that's what changed me, is when I read the accounts. One that you would recognize, and maybe some of you would, was Josh McDowell, who was once an atheist. And Gary Habermas, and others who gave the evidence for the resurrection. Not just stuff that's in historical books, the writings of Tacitus and those, Josephus and others who referenced Jesus, but the fact that our New Testament is the most trustworthy, historically documented, ancient resource in human possession. You can teach about Caesar and Alexander the Great and all these ancient people and you're teaching it based on something written a thousand years after they died. We have papyrus manuscript from the first century within a couple of decades of the actual events. Nothing else in ancient history compares. So when the Bible itself testifies of the resurrection of Jesus and all the eyewitnesses that saw him risen from the dead, you know that it's true. So these people are gathered and now they're going to denounce Judas, kind of an official denunciation here. Yes, dismembered. Yes, thank you, sir. Verse 15, and in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together were about 120. So I don't know how many people are here, but it's several times what we have here all packed into this place. That's how big the crowd was. Verse 16, men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. And I'll tell you again, it was Bible prophecy, but it was Old Testament prophecy that convinced me more than anything of the messianic credentials of Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. So there's one of the 12, He says, it's fallen. Verse 17, for he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. So we have the list up here. I made a slight correction to the chart. And you have the 12 that we put, highlighted basically Judas there, because he's the betrayer who's now rejected. Now, we're not gonna run all the references, but we'll mention this more than once maybe this morning, but the phrase, the 12, was used of the apostles even after Judas was dead. Even when there was just 11 left. Something to keep in mind. It's important. So verse 18, now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out. That's something that we cannot imagine how ugly and nasty that was. But unbelievers read this. You know, unbelievers read the Bible more carefully than a lot of believers do. And then they try to find contradictions. And unbelievers will read the Bible and they'll pretend that that which you just read contradicts this. Look over Matthew 27. And this is to help you, you'll see this over and over, so it's not just applicable to this one discussion, how you can answer that. And that is when, we'll see that there, these are two eyewitness accounts. Beginning of verse three, then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself. It's not repentance toward God. It's the same kind of repentance Esau had. and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. That reminds me of Pharaoh, every time I hear that. This time I have sinned. But he wasn't repenting toward God. And they said, what is that to us, the Jewish leaders? Seethe out of that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. And verse six, and the chief priest took the silver pieces and said, it is not lawful for it to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Now Acts said Judas purchased that field. Here you see that it's the priests who take the money and purchase the field. But the money, they themselves did not claim that field. The money was not theirs. So it's not a contradiction. With Judas' money, they purchased that field. Technically, it belonged to Judas. He's dead. Therefore, it becomes community property. There's no contradiction there. Then verse 8 says, wherefore that field was called the field of blood unto this day. Now, another thing is to point out is it says here he hung himself. Over an axe, it says that falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst and his bowels gushed out. That's not a contradiction. He hung himself and then at some point the rope or something gave way and he fell and when he landed, this is in the heat of the desert, within a matter of hours a dead body begins to swell. Doesn't say how long, could have been a day or two he'd been hanging there. And then when he falls, We see that on roadkill all the time out on the highway. It's ugly, amen? I don't think that raccoon fell to their death. I think it was hit by a car and then it burst open and its bowels gushed out. Both are true. And so that's what happened here. He hanged himself, he falls, and then his bowels fall out. So two versions with different details. Take note of this. Two versions with different details is not a contradiction. Mary? And then you figure, like, thinking about roadkill, how they get all bloated. Like, they're going to blow up. They look like it. So it's really believable to think that, you know, he dispersed. Then that crow comes along and goes, pop! And if he hung himself someplace high, the rope could have broken and he fell. He probably didn't have a chair to kick out from under him, so it makes sense. He would have a branch hanging over something. He would hang himself and be dangling over and then when he fell, probably much further down than just a few inches anyway. You know, if you want enough rope to hang yourself, it's there in the Bible. And that's what people do when they read these things and they try to come up with a contradiction so they can ignore the rest of the Bible. So picking up there, verse 19, and it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem. And so much, you know, no one ever came back later and said, that Bible's not telling the right story. You know they would have done that. It wasn't too long after the events that Matthew wrote what he wrote. And there's no record of anybody saying, oh, Matthew got it all wrong. It's only someone here since about the 18th century on in seminaries where they're dumb enough to come up with that stuff. Insomuch that the field is called in the proper term al-qaduma, that is to say the field of blood, because they said it was blood money. That's why they called it that. But in verse 20, there's one of those prophecies. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take. That's Psalm 109-8 that Judas fulfilled in his betrayal and then removal from among the apostles. A thousand years before it happened. It's an amazing book, amen? At other times, we've run the references showing that Judas, as a type or shadow of Antichrist, we're not going to run all those references now. We've done that before. That's not the purpose of our text, so we're not going to go there. But it's an interesting study. You can look it up in our other studies, how Judas and Antichrist are the only two in the Bible ever called son of perdition. and so forth. And that's why the Antichrist, like Judas, will be a Jew. Doesn't mean he can't be the final pope. There have been other popes with Jewish blood, and so forth. So there's another thing the passage in Acts here is doing. It's also, because it seems to be telling us that the field that Judas died in was the field that was bought by the priests. It is. Notice it doesn't say that specifically in Matthew 27, so that's another thing. Could be. It looks like they're giving us additional information. We know that they said it was blood. Judas himself said it was innocent blood. So that's the reason why we believe they gave it that name. Exactly where he died, we're not 100% sure, but that's a good possibility. So now let's look at replacing Judas. This is very important. Verses 21 to 26. Peter lists the qualifications to be considered as an apostle as they're getting ready to replace Judas. Verse 21-22 gives us, Wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us. Now, that's their requirement. Keep that in mind. Verse 22, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be, now here's the real qualification, to be a witness with us of his resurrection. That's one of the key points of being an apostle. And he forgets one important qualification. Jesus said in Luke 6 13 or we're told of Jesus when he chose the disciples and when it was day he, Jesus, called unto him his disciples and of them he chose twelve whom also he named apostles. You see there are apostles and there are the twelve And to be one of the twelve, you had to be hand-picked by Jesus as a witness of His resurrection with the signs of an apostle. No modern-day apostle, of course, fulfills that. But neither will Matthias. And this is something, again, because very few people really do a careful study of Acts chapter one, they don't even know what we're talking about. But verse 23 says, and they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. So it's like an election. So they go around kissing babies and handing out buttons and all that kind of thing. There's no evidence that it went to that extent. But they're taking this down to an election. There's nothing biblical about what they're doing here. It's just a fact. So by nomination of men, two are chosen to run for election. Do you know that's how people do their pastors? Now, if I drop dead, you need to appoint a pastor, and you do that by the congregation choosing a man and agreeing together by, you know, two-thirds vote that you're happy with that choice as a pastor. You don't run All right, raise your hand if you want Fred. Okay, how about Jim? All right, how about Gertrude? Those are the kind of churches that have women pastors, because they're not doing things biblically to begin with. How do you allow God to bring a man to be your pastor by a majority, two-thirds is a good number. You're never gonna get 100% out of most people. But you have that, and that man becomes your pastor. If people don't like the new guy, they leave. I mean, that's how it works. What you don't do is then what a lot of churches do is set up an election and vote for the guy you like best. And then what a lot of them do is, some of them, every single year, that pastor has to have another election. So what's he do? He ends up schmoozing the people instead of standing firm on the Word of God so that he can get more votes. And that's what you're seeing happen to a lot of the churches now. They're led by politicians, not pastors. Did God tell them to do this? A question that every Christian should always ask. The answer is no. There's no record of God telling them to do what they're doing here. I think Peter means well. But this isn't the first time Peter jumped the gun, amen? Matthias will never again be mentioned or referred to as one of the 12. How many of you knew that from reading your Bible? We've had this discussion on a number of occasions. Some churches, one of the main points of their church is to bring lost people, unsaved people in. Find me that in the Bible. Show me one place where unsaved people were brought to church in the Bible. Not in there. Now, if an unsaved person comes in, we're not going to kick them out. But the purpose of the church is for Christians to come together, to be edified, educated, to have fellowship and encouragement, and then to go out there and win the lost. And then once they're won, they're part of the family. Bring them in. That's God's plan. Over and over. Baptizing infants. Find that in the Bible. On and on, things that churches do that the Bible never mentions. And we'll address all this again when we come to Acts 9, but the point as we close is doing things our way or doing it God's way. So it ends, I don't know if I got the, I didn't put my last slide in there for some reason, but verse 25, or it says verse 24, and they prayed and said, thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whither of these two thou hast chosen. How many times you do that? I got my plans here, God, now bless them. Bless them, Lord. Yeah. Somebody told me, you ever want to see God laugh, tell him your plans. And that's what we're seeing here. And it closes, read 25 and 26 with me, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Numbered by who? Numbered by these people. Never says the Lord numbered Matthias with the 12. We are not to cast lots. That's basically gambling the way it's done today. In the Bible, it was allowed and it was used under certain circumstances, but you have to remember they didn't have a Bible. They did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit that we have today. It was a different dispensation. Today we have the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, we pray, but we also have the whole counsel of God, all the counsel of God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth in context, and we do it the way God says to do it. How many of you have heard about, I'm laying out a fleece? Like Gideon? Not a New Testament Christian, don't do that. A spirit-filled Christian doesn't lay out fleeces. That was something they did before they had what we have, and before this dispensation. But didn't the Twelves get the Holy Spirit? Like, didn't Jesus give it to them after we resurrected? They did. That's why it's so crazy that they're using lots. Okay. Why would you lose... Of course, again, Christians constantly do this stuff. Yeah. Even though we should... 2,000 years later, we should know better. But I hear Christians all the time laying out a fleece. Rarely, but, you know, casting lots. Daddy needs a new shirt. You know? That's what casting lots practically is. So Acts is a full, accurate, historical account. Not everything you see done in here is God's ordained methods. We're going to see several times where people have misunderstood as they read Acts, and they think, oh, well, that's what the Word of God says. The Word of God quotes Satan, too. The understanding of the context is necessary to know if it's God's Word directly to and for us compared to God's Word giving us an accurate account of what happened. So it gives us warts and all. And in the book of Acts we're going to see a lot of warts. Let's close. Father we thank you Lord for This wonderful book that we know if man had written it would have deleted all the warts, would have made man look as good as we can make man look. But you have given us warts and all, not just the wicked, but you've given us the saints, and even from Abraham, the father of faith on, shown us the humanity of your people, and also shown us your longsuffering and forgiveness. and shown us the ultimate source of all forgiveness of sin, found only in Jesus Christ, through his shed blood and death on the cross, and in the power of his resurrection, and for that we give you praise and glory in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, all right, let's sing the pastor's favorite song, number 500. And the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair, When the Savior births shall gather over on the other shore, And the roller's called and yonder I'll be there. It's called a piander when the road is called a piander When the road is called a piander, I'll be there On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise, And the glory of His resurrection share, When His chosen ones shall gather through their home beyond the skies, And the world is called anew under our new day. yeah yeah If you sing say I'll be there