Transcript: Unstoppable (Part 4) What to do in Times of Transition We are in a series of studies called Unstoppable. We are going through the book of the Acts of the Apostles. And today we're looking at Acts, Chapter 1, Verses 12, through the end of the chapter. Our front page headline today is, “Judas Successor Chosen”. The key verses are, Acts 1:21-26 Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the very day that He was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness of His resurrection.” So they proposed two, Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show which of these two You have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, to go to his own place.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. So he was numbered with the eleven apostles. And I think of this passage as what to do during in-between times. The Apostles here were in-between the ascension of Christ, which had shocked them, and the day of Pentecost, which had not yet come. There was a ten-day window, a margin of these ten days, between those two great events. I'm not sure why the Lord had a ten-day period marked out for them. It would have been wonderful if Jesus had ascended to heaven and immediately the Holy Spirit had come down on them. But there was some preparation that needed to be done. And it seems to me that sometimes we find ourselves in in-between moments of life. Times when we're sort of stuck, or we are stalled, or things are paused, or something is not happening as quickly as we want it to. And we just have to wait. Well, what do we do during that time? What did the apostles do during that time? Well, this is the subject of our study. And I want to look at three things they did before we consider today’s headline. Let's look at verse 12-13. “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is a Sabbath day’s walk from Jerusalem. When they had entered, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James.” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ This is the 11 surviving apostles. Judas of course had killed himself. But now we have the 11 apostles. We have the first thing they did in this time of transition. 1). They Stayed And it says in verse 14 “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ These people stayed together. They stayed in the same house in the same vicinity. They went back and forth in groups to the temple. They were fellowshiping. They were supporting one another. And when we are in in between times in life, when we're a little disoriented, when we've lost someone, for example, that we love, when we're in between points in life, where we have routines and orientations, when we are in between jobs or in between relationships, then we need a group of people around us that will support us. That's no time to go off by ourselves and be very much alone.” And 2). They Prayed. Verse 14 “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ They prayed together. So this is very wonderful. Here you have not only the 12 apostles. You had others who had been following Jesus from the very beginning, disciples that aren't necessarily mentioned by name in the Gospels, but they were following him. Some were probably married and some had children. You also have a group of women, and these are mentioned, some of them in the Book of Luke chapter 8.” “Luke is very good about making sure that women and the role of women are placed highly in the accounts of the Gospel. And you have Mary, the mother of Jesus. We last saw her at the cross, sadly gazing at her dying son, but now she knows he is alive. And I wonder if he met with her personally after the Resurrection. We aren't told one way or the other, but surely he probably did. And then his brothers are there, and we know one of them, James, Jesus certainly met with. So I think it's possible that Jesus met with his family. His brothers had not believed on him, but now they were believing in him. So something dramatic had happened, and his mother and his brothers are there with the disciples, with other disciples whose names we don't know.” “Maybe with children and young people, it's almost certain that there was a great intergenerational group here, and they were praying together. They had been with Jesus in his flesh and they had talked to them, and they had communicated with him, and now he had gone up to heaven, but they could still talk with him and still communicate with him. And so can we. Now, I wonder what they were praying for. I suppose they were praying that the Lord Jesus would send down the Holy Spirit as he had promised. Lord, send your Spirit in your timing. In fact the Greek supports this. In Greek there’s a definite article in front of the word prayer. They just say “to prayer.” They were devoting themselves to prayer. But what it reads in Greek is they were not just devoting themselves to prayer, but they were devoting themselves to the prayer. In other words, they were praying something very, very specific. And so the issue is, well, what was the prayer? What was the one thing they were of one mind, one accord, praying for? And in the prequel, the Gospel of Luke, I think you have the answer in Luke 11:13, where Jesus tells His disciples what to pray for. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke‬ ‭11‬:‭13‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Lord, give us the Spirit. And I believe that this is something that we can pray for. Now, I believe, as we have talked about, that the moment you receive the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit who comes to live within you. But we're also told to be filled with the Spirit. So, presumably, we can say, Lord, fill me with your Spirit.” “Jesus said, and Luke put it this way in his Gospel, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And during the in-between phases, when we have to reorient our lives or get used to a new routine, this is a great time for us to pray, Lord, give me a new experience with the Holy Spirit, a new anointing with the Holy Spirit, fill me with your Spirit, do something new in my life by your Holy Spirit today. So they were staying together, they were praying, and then thirdly, 3). They weighed a very great decision. They were going to have to chose someone to take the place of Judas. Look at verse 15-16 “In those days Peter stood up among the disciples (the number of people together was about one hundred and twenty), and said, “Brothers, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit previously spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became the guide to those who seized Jesus.” Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭MEV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ And so why mention these 11 names earlier and now say there were 120? Because this is where it all started. What is going to be tracked through the Book of Acts as the birth of the church and its growth. And one of the ways Luke, in the Book of Acts, is going to track its growth is through progress reports where Luke is actually going to give a numerical count concerning the development of the church. We’re jumped from 11, a few verses earlier to 120. And then by the time Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost, the number goes up to 3000. And as you keep moving through these progress reports, you’ll get the number 5000. And by the time you get to the Antioch, the ministry up north, it doesn’t even give you a number anymore. There’s so many people by then. So pay attention to those as we move through the Book of Acts, because Luke is including these for the benefit of his addressee, Theophilus, to show him the birth of the church and the maturity and the growth of the church. The first progress report started with 11 people. And this is going to be developed by God into a world-wide phenomenon.