Chosen, Too :: Acts 1:12-26
The school playground is the last place you want to be if you’re the smallest, the weakest, or least agile. Captains don’t think too much about a kid’s feelings when picking teams. They want the fastest, the strongest, the best. They want the players who are most likely to give them victory. The weak only get to play because you have to fill the teams.
Thanks be to God that the Lord’s Church doesn’t operate like a playground.
At the beginning of his three-year public ministry, Jesus chose a dozen men as his apostles. The evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke all described this selection process. Of the three, only Mark provides a job description. He writes in chapter three of his gospel that Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, had all been hand-picked, called, chosen to become eye witnesses to the glory of the Lord, and chosen to go forth telling the world about Jesus.
In addition to these Twelve, a great multitude ... men, women, and children of all ages ... followed our Lord wherever he went preaching, teaching, and healing. His preaching left people in awe. His teaching amazed. His healings made us all wonder. On more than one occasion, he fed tens of thousands of people with just morsels of food. Those same disciples witnessed him casting out demons, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and new life to the dead and dying.
As professional church workers, have you too ever imagined ... just for a moment, what that must of been like ... being chosen to bear witness to the life of Christ?
Although many had followed Jesus, many of them weren’t chosen. After his crucifixion, the number of his faithful disciples dwindled quickly ... Luke says there were about 120 (v 15) not long after the ascension. Some undoubtedly had become scared to speak about Christ.
So looking around the room, Peter stood up among the brothers and called them to order. Brothers, the Scriptures had to be fulfilled ... and they were ... but a new man must now be chosen to replace Judas and bring the apostleship back to its fullness, back to the twelve.
Two men, Matthias and a man named Joseph, were nominated, probably because they were the only ones who met the requirements set forth by Peter ...
A) They followed Jesus throughout his entire ministry, from his baptism through his ascension. ... And
B) They witnessed the resurrection of our Lord.
First, they prayed to the Lord, the heart knower. Then they cast lots.
God chose Matthias!
Matthias was one of the chosen!
If it weren’t for church tradition, we never would’ve heard another word about Matthias. One Bible dictionary has only these terse statements on Matthias: “An apostle chosen to succeed Judas (Acts 1:26). Tradition says he preached in Cappadocia,” which is a mountainous region in what we would call eastern Turkey. And we think he was eventually stoned to death in Jerusalem, and then beheaded.
Despite our remarkable lack of information about his life and ministry, Matthias is a NOTABLE saint ... because he was chosen by God.
Chosen by God! Chosen to bear witness to our Lord Jesus Christ!
These words should be music to our ears. Although you and I are not apostles like Matthias, we also have been chosen by God! Not in the same way. But we too have been sent to our respective corners of the world to herald the good news of Jesus Christ.
To herald it with joy! Though you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with a glorious and inexpressible joy as you await the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. This is because you have been chosen to proclaim the excellencies of our Lord and savior.
Some of us recognized this choosing early in life. Some of us much later. But like Matthias, it took place before time began. In Ephesians, Saint Paul reminds us that The Father chose us in Christ before the creation of the world. He then sealed the deal when our parents brought us to the baptismal font and the Holy Spirit poured out faith in Jesus Christ upon us, making us members of the family of God, uniting us with our Lord in his death on a cross and his resurrection. Like Matthias, you and I have been chosen by God ... to proclaim the excellencies of he who called you out of darkness!
Don’t forget this!
Many times we think that we can’t possibly be children of God, that we aren’t worthy of the office to which we have been called. But that makes the good news all the better ... God has called all of you any way, adopted all of you any way, has rushed out to greet all of you any way, and has prepared a feast of forgiveness for all of you any way ... all because of what Jesus Christ did for all of us ... living a life of active righteousness and then exchanging that for our sins before carrying them to Golgotha, where he saw to it that our sins destroyed with him on his cross. Jesus has made full payment for our sins by his death and given us the promise of eternal life through his resurrection.
Have you ever wondered what our lives would be like if Peter and John and Andrew and James and Matthias had not functioned as apostles, had not told the story of Christ’s death and resurrection? You and I would not be God’s children and heirs of eternal life. We’d know nothing of Jesus.
Because of men like Matthias, we have a sure and certain word now. For as Peter wrote we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Without the certainty of the resurrection, Christianity becomes an illusion and a farce. But because of the chosen ones we have certainty.
Therefore, today is a day for giving thanks and praise to God that Matthias and the other apostles were faithful as they beared witness to the fullness of the Gospel. It is also a day for you and me to recommit ourselves to the task God has given to all his people ... to share the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Like Matthias, we are to bear witness to the way, the truth and the life ... to men and women and children who rejoice in the hope of eternal life because Christ died and rose again as Savior. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Pet 3:15).
You are his chosen witnesses.