The Difference
Acts 1:15-17;
20-26; 2:1-8; 13-18; 21; 36-41
An elementary
school teacher was teaching her class about subtraction and said, “If Billy has
9 pieces of candy, and he gives Johnny 3 pieces, what’s the difference?” To which little Georgie answered from the
back of the room, “That’s what I say—what’s the difference?
Today, I want to
share with you about an event that truly did make a difference.
The Scriptures
we read today were excerpts from Acts chapters 1 and 2. I used excerpts because I wanted to focus on certain
parts of the Scripture that specifically go along with this message. In fact, I want to start by going back
earlier in Chapter 1 than where our readings began today. The setting for our Scripture passages today
took place in and around Jerusalem 40 to 50 days after Jesus rose from the
dead. We know this because Acts 1:3
tells us that Jesus appeared and spoke to the disciples for 40 days after His
Resurrection, after which time He was taken into Heaven. In verses 4 and 5, Jesus told the disciples
to wait in Jerusalem, and that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a
few days. This baptism occurred 10 days
later, as recorded in chapter 2, verse 4.
So with that as the background information, let’s look at some things
regarding, Jesus, His disciples, and the Holy Spirit.
First, I want us
to remember who these disciples were, and what we know about them from
Scripture. They were all fallible human beings. They all had their own unique
personalities. Generally speaking, they
usually wanted to do the right thing.
There is speculation by many people about the possibility that even
Judas may have thought he was doing
the right thing when he betrayed Jesus, but I’m not going to get into that
debate now. But whether or not Judas was
trying to do the right thing brings up another fact—sometimes the disciples did
the wrong things because they relied on their own human understanding. Luke 9:54 tells us that James and John wanted
to call down fire to consume people who didn’t want to welcome Jesus. The Scripture tells us in Matthew 16 that
when Jesus told the disciples He would be killed in Jerusalem, Peter actually
rebuked Jesus (at which point Jesus responded with the famous words, “Get
behind me Satan!”). In Mark 14, we’re
told that this same disciple denied three times that he even knew Jesus. John 20 records that even after 10 of the
disciples had seen the Resurrected Jesus, Thomas refused to believe that Jesus
had risen from the dead. All of those
are examples of specific apostles choosing to do the wrong thing. But even though the Bible doesn’t give
specifics about every one of the apostles, in Matthew 26:56, the Bible shows us
that every one of the disciples deserted Jesus and ran away after He was
arrested.
To be sure,
after the disciples saw the Resurrected Jesus, their faith was
strengthened. For instance, even though
Thomas didn’t believe the other disciples when they told him that Jesus was
alive, once he saw Jesus, Thomas believed.
And for 40 days after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples,
but then He was taken up into Heaven.
The Bible tells us in Acts 1:12-15 that after Jesus ascended into
Heaven, the apostles were among a group of about 120 people who waited in
Jerusalem, as Jesus had instructed them to do.
Shortly before Jesus’ ascension to Heaven, He had told the disciples
that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit “not many days from now.”
The lack of
specificity when Jesus said “not many days from now” is fairly typical for something
that Jesus would say. On a number of
different occasions, He stressed to His followers the importance of being ready
at any time. That holds true for us
today, as we are supposed to be ready for Him to return to this earth at any
time. I don’t know just when that time
might be, but I do know that Jesus will
return.
Not knowing the
exact time of Jesus’ return is similar to what was happening in Acts 1 after
Jesus ascended into Heaven. I believe
that after the group of about 120 believers had seen everything that happened
to Jesus, from His death, Resurrection, the different times Jesus appeared to
them after His Resurrection, and witnessing His ascension into Heaven, the disciples
truly believed Jesus when He said that they would be baptized with the Holy
Spirit in not many days. If they hadn’t
believed it, then they probably wouldn’t have all been together and waiting as
Jesus had told them to do.
But here’s where
the humanness starts to set in. We know
from Acts 2:1-4 that the baptism of the Holy Spirit happened on the day of
Pentecost. We know that the Day of
Pentecost was 50 days after the Jewish Passover. We know that Jesus ascended into Heaven 40
days after His Resurrection. So that
means there were about 10 days between Jesus’ ascension and the disciples being
baptized by the Holy Spirit. The
Scriptures we read today starting with Acts 1:15 began sometime during that
10-day period of time.
The scene was
this. Jesus had ascended, and wasn’t
around to give the disciples direction.
From some of the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry, Peter had emerged as
more or less the de facto leader of the Apostles. And now, here was this group of about 120
people gathered together, just waiting. Maybe it was after a day or two passed
when they started to wonder what to do while they were waiting. They’d had Jesus to guide them before, but
now He had left. And so they waited some
more, but nothing was happening. They
probably seemed directionless, and as a matter of course, they probably looked
to Peter, because he seemed to be the most logical leader in the absence of
Jesus. And let me tell you that
sometimes one of the most frustrating times for a leader is when there’s nothing
specific that needs to be done at a certain point in time. But the people were probably growing
restless, and Peter was a man of words and actions. So in verse 15, we saw that Peter stood up to
address the other believers. The
following verses tell about how Peter discussed the fact that Judas was no
longer with them, and that they should probably consider what to do about that.
Peter quoted two
different verses of Scripture from two different chapters of the book of
Psalms. Peter likely believed that Psalm
69:25 referred to Judas and seemed to indicate that Judas’ home and his
property should remain empty. Peter also
believed that Psalm 109:8 referred to Judas, and showed that someone should
take over the position of leadership that Judas had once filled. As recorded in Acts 1:20, the verses said, “Let his dwelling become desolate; let no
one live in it;” and, “Let someone
else take his position.” In other
words, “People should stay away from Judas’ personal property and not looking
to inherit it; don’t bring honor to his memory by trying carry on his
legacy. But the position or office of
Apostle in which he served—that position of leadership—should be filled.
So Peter decided
that it was time for the group to come up with someone else to be one of the 12
Apostles. But how should they choose the
person? Well, Peter set down some qualifications, as
recorded in verses 21-22:
“Therefore,
from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus
went in and out among us—beginning from the baptism of John until the day He
was taken up from us—from among these it is necessary that one become a witness
with us of His resurrection.”
Let’s look at
those qualifications for a moment. From
the point of view of someone in Peter’s position and circumstances, the
qualifications seemed to make sense. He
said that the Apostle should be a man—not a woman—since in that culture and at
that time in history, the testimony of a woman wasn’t even accepted in a
trial. This would have been an important
qualification in Peter’s mind since one of the primary purposes of being an
Apostle was to bear witness to other people about Jesus and His
Resurrection—something that Peter mentioned after he’d given the list of
qualifications. Peter felt that it would
also be important for the Apostle to have been a follower of Jesus since the
days John had been baptizing. That would
basically cover the entire spectrum of the public ministry of Jesus. From Peter’s perspective, this all made sense. And honestly, if we look at it strictly
through the human logic available to Peter at that time and in those
circumstances, those qualifications do
make sense. Then verses 23-26 say this:
So
they proposed two: Joseph…and Matthias.
Then they prayed, “You, Lord, know the hearts of all; show which of
these two You have chosen to take the place in this apostolic service that
Judas left to go to his own place.” Then
they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias. So he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
This tells us
how Matthias was chosen as the person to take the place of Judas as an
Apostle. That sounds pretty logical,
doesn’t it? But let me bring this back
to the humanness of it all. You see, a
lot of that makes sense from a human
perspective. But where did that leave God in all of this? I find it quite interesting to look at the
order of how they did things. First,
Peter looked at the situation and decided that someone should be chosen to
become the 12th Apostle. Then,
he outlined the qualifications a person must have in order to hold that
office. Third, he opened up the matter
for discussion amongst the other believers, and they chose two potential
candidates. Finally, they asked God to
show them which one of the two men God had chosen, and used a method that had
traditionally been used in that culture for making choices, believing that God
would cause the outcome to turn out the way He wanted it to be.
Did anyone catch
the problem with all of that? It looks
to me that by the time they prayed about the situation, they had already used
human logic and reasoning to narrow down the field to two candidates. I submit that it was likely not God’s will that Matthias take the
place of Judas. Actually, I see a lot of
evidence in the Bible that the person God chose to fill that role didn’t meet
the qualifications that had been set down by Peter. That’s because the person whom God likely
chose to fill that vacancy wasn’t even a believer yet at this time. In fact, God’s likely choice was someone who
was still to become an enemy of
Christ and His followers, before suddenly having a miraculous encounter with
Jesus several years later and becoming a believer. I believe that the Apostle whom God
designated to take the place of Judas was a man named Saul, who later became
known as Paul.
So, why did the
apostles get it wrong? Were they trying
to go against God? I believe just the
opposite—they were trying to do what they believed God wanted them to do. The problem was that they didn’t know what God wanted them to do, and
they instead relied on their own human logic and understanding because Jesus
wasn’t there to tell them what God wanted.
With Jesus no longer walking and talking to them, how would they know
God’s will?
The answer is
that they needed the Holy Spirit to live within them, and that’s what happened
on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus had told
the disciples shortly before he was arrested and killed that He was going away,
but that it was better for them if He would go away so that the Holy Spirit
would come to them. In John 16, the
following words of Jesus are recorded:
It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in Me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. (John 16:7b-13a)
The
difference was made when the Holy Spirit came to dwell within the believers at
Pentecost. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit was
leading the believers as to what to say.
When Peter stood up to address the crowd on the Day of Pentecost, the
Holy Spirit gave Peter just the right words.
Before Pentecost, Peter and the other disciples made a seemingly logical
decision that gave the appearance of showing leadership but that in reality
merely maintained a group of about 120 people in a large room in a building in
Jerusalem. But when the believers were
filled with the Holy Spirit, the message about Jesus began to spread quickly.
Acts 2:37 tells us that when the people in the crowd heard Peter’s words, the
people came under deep conviction. This
is what we just read about in John 16—that the Holy Spirit would convict people
of sin because they did not believe in Jesus.
Peter replied to their question of, “What should we do?” with the words recorded
in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized,
each of you in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins,
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
And
we are told in Acts 2:41 that by the end of that day, instead of the believers
being a group of about 120, the number of believers had become about 3000. The Holy Spirit made the difference.
That’s
what Pentecost is about. That’s why the
Holy Spirit is important in our lives today.
We can make decisions that we think are good and logical, and humanly
speaking, they may very well be. But
whatever we do apart from the guidance of the Holy Spirit won’t amount to much
in the end. As Christians, we should
strive to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in all we do. If we do that, we can be used of God in
mighty ways.
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