"Holy" Crap Shoot (Acts 1:23-26)

So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they all prayed, “O Lord, you know every heart. Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry, for he has deserted us and gone where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven. (Acts 1:23-26 NLT)

Ok, so Jesus gets executed, buried, and then comes back to life. Then He magically appears out of thin air to His disciples three times over a period of 40 days. Then, one day while they are walking down the street, Jesus gives a paragraph's worth of instruction to the Eleven remaining disciples before He blasts off into outer space like Neo at the end of the Matrix.

No wait, it gets better.

Then, not knowing what hit 'em, the disciples decide to have an on-going prayer meeting/Bible study to discuss what to do next. After a few days Peter stands up and says, "Guys, I've been reading and I found this obscure verse in Psalms about Judas betraying Jesus. It sounds like God wants us to find a replacement for him.

So they all agree that Peter is onto something and begin to pray for God's help in finding Judas 2.0. So the apostle search committee nominates two possible candidates for one of the most important jobs in the history of Christianity. Then, they got this brilliant idea to draw straws and see which guy God has chosen.

Wait. Did they really just roll dice like an ancient crap shoot to with the direction of Christianity on the line? Yup.

I can only hope Barsabbas (the guy "God" didn't pick) maybe developed a successful dry cleaning business or something. I mean how do you recover from being rejected by God Himself?

Needless to say, the literal New Testament Church was messy. It wasn't perfect. They were just normal guys doing their best to live out this whole follow Jesus with your life thing as best they could. And the amazing part? God was with them and used them to radically impact the world.

I guess it's good to know that Jesus thought we were worth the gamble. if He was a betting man, I'd say He was all in. But the good news is that we too are part of this amazing story that is still changing the world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is our Hope in Life and Death? - Remembering Charlie Kirk (Acts 6-7)

Acts 6:10 "But they could not withstand the wisdom and Spirit with which he was speaking."  Yesterday Charlie Kirk was murdered in cold blood in broad daylight. Why? Because he spoke the truth of God openly, in public. He was unashamed of the name of Jesus and shared the gospel of Christ boldly.  He was brilliant, eloquent, and persuasive but his life was cut short in front of the entire world because of his faith and witness. He was unjustly put to death for the same reasons they killed the very first martyr Stephen in the early Church.  In Acts 6 it says the crowds approached Stephen to debate him but “they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (vs 10). Sound familiar? A few verses later in Acts 7, Stephen delivers a master class Old Testament survey (from memory) and argues powerfully from the Scriptures that Jesus was not only the Messiah but that their hard-hearted unbelief in Him was the very thing that caused His death.  Their reacti...
Read more

Jesus Take the Reel

2000 years ago the church in Rome was one of the most divided, polarized group of Christians when it came to cultural differences between Jews and Gentiles. When they came to the Lord’s table to eat each week each group rolled their eyes at the opinions of the other when it came to their vastly different food habits. Some preferred meat and some only vegetables, both for different reasons and each side thought the other side were idiots, causing a lot of strife and offense among these brothers and sisters in Christ. Go figure, each person had their minds made up and insisted on forcing their opinions on the other to the point that Paul had to waste precious time and ink to address their beef (pun intended).  The more you think about it, this behavior sounds awfully familiar in the age of social media. Even among Christians it’s pretty common to see brothers and sisters publicly and adamantly airing their personal opinions on the daily. One side can’t resist the urg...
Read more

The Why? (Luke 1:35-39)

"The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled." Then the angel left her. At that time Mary got ready and HURRIED to a town in the hill country of Judea..." (Luke 1:35-39 NIV) You have to admit, the writers of Scripture have an annoying tendency to relay supernatural events like they're no big deal. For instance, THE Angel Gabriel appears out of thin air to an innocent teenage girl drops the following bomb shell: 1. You're get pregnant outside of marriage. 2. God Himself is going to cause this to happen. 3. Your Baby is going to be God's but He doesn't f...
Read more