Posted on 05/14/2002 5:20:16 AM PDT by Alas
Monday, May 13th& 12th, 2002
Before we get into the Book of Acts, there are a couple of things I would like to mention. I would like you to think about this, neither Jesus nor any of His Apostles ever killed or tortured anyone to get them to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Yet, to this day, the forces of the evil one, kill to keep the word of God out of people's hands. First it was the Jews, then the Romans then the Roman Catholics and now the muslims. I can not help but wonder how many Christians have been killed in an effort to get them to recant, to deny the Living God, Messiah Yeshua. As we go through the book of Acts, we are going to read about one who tortured and killed Christians, and then became one himself. Oh to God that the pope would accept Christ and be a Paul unto his pagan followers, turning the Roman Catholic hordes from the idol worshiping Christ denying church it is, and to the Lord Jesus. Oh to God that He would raise a Paul amongst the muslim horde to lead those poor lost souls to Christ and away from satan.
And now let us turn to Chapter one of the book of the Acts of the Apostles as written by Dr. Luke.
Acts Chapter One
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 Until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen: 3 To whom also He showed himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of me. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" 7 And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."
12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. 13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. 14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren (Jesus' half-brothers, James, and Jude and possibly Jesus' other brothers Jose and Simon, see Matthew 13:54-56).
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) 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. 17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. 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. 19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. 20 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.
21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection."
23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed, and said, "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25 that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:1-26 ACP/KJV)
Have you ever felt so good about something that you let the feeling carry you away and you did something that perhaps you shouldn't have or maybe took a bit more authority upon your own shoulders than you should have? Well, that seems to be what happened to the eleven remaining Apostles. After they had seen Jesus ascend up into heaven. Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James, seem to have taken things into there own hands.
Instead of going to the Lord in prayer and saying, Lord, we are one Apostle short, would You let us have a twelfth? They instead, choose two from amongst themselves, and then went to the Lord in prayer saying: "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen". Then they flipped a coin so to speak, expecting the Lord to choose between only these two and let them know by the sign of heads or tails, which would replace the traitor Judas Iscariot. Of course as we will see later in the Book of Acts, the Lord had another in mind to replace Judas the traitor.
Let's never try and put the Lord in a box guys, let's try never to give the Lord a choice, instead, let us just leave it up to Him. As many of you know, we are at this time praying for three babies, three little ones sleeping peacefully in the wombs of three women. I don't even know if the mothers of these three are saved or not, it just seems to be that the Lord has brought these three into our lives, to pray for. One of the three, I don't even know her name, only that her husband is a Lieutenant in the Army stationed at Fort Knox. The other two are Theresa and Kirsten. Theresa and Kirsten are both due in October, as for the Lieutenant's wife, I don't know. But this I do know, we are not praying that they will be boys, nor are we praying that they will be girls. What we are praying is that they will be the Lord's. That from the moment of conception, from the moment that He placed them, as a little speck, in the wombs of these three women, they would be His. For nothing is more important than salvation. Nothing is more important than for these three little ones to be Born Again, for he who is born once, dies twice. But, he who is born twice, dies but once.
Remember guys, even when you are as close to the Lord as His Apostles were, it is best to still leave things up to the Lord, always saying, "Thy will be done Lord, not mine, but Thine."
Amen.
I am guessing that a few days of prayer and supplication were involved. It seems that they found two worthy candidates and could not decide between them. Looks to me that they did say to the Lord, "thy will be done" by casting lots.
What you have here is a representation of a living church. The eleven did not dispute that they needed another to join the Quorum of Apostles, instead it was a question of which one would be ordained by them to the calling of special witness of the ressurection.
Why didn't Alas answer your question I would like to see his reply?
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ALAS
Would you be so kind to show where in this Paul was called when he did not exist in this chapter!
Have you ever felt so good about something that you let the feeling carry you away and you did something that perhaps you shouldn't have or maybe took a bit more authority upon your own shoulders than you should have? Well, that seems to be what happened to the eleven remaining Apostles. After they had seen Jesus ascend up into heaven. Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James, seem to have taken things into there own hands. Instead of going to the Lord in prayer and saying, Lord, we are one Apostle short, would You let us have a twelfth? They instead, choose two from amongst themselves, and then went to the Lord in prayer saying: "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen". Then they flipped a coin so to speak, expecting the Lord to choose between only these two and let them know by the sign of heads or tails, which would replace the traitor Judas Iscariot. Of course as we will see later in the Book of Acts, the Lord had another in mind to replace Judas the traitor.
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Acts 1
[Jesus ministers for forty days after his resurrection—Kingdom to be restored to Israel at a later time—The Twelve to bear witness in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth—Jesus ascends into heaven—Matthias chosen to fill the vacancy in the Twelve.]
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
The other group of lesser apostles, numbering 70 total, included Paul. Paul could not be one of the Twelve because he did not behold the risen Christ before the Ascension. There is plenty of evidence that Paul subjected himself to the authority of the Twelve, with himself not being numbered with them.
Perhaps he/she is still searching for the verse in the Bible where it says Matthias was rejected. ;^)
But, more likely, it's probably due to FR being down all day yesterday.
Stay around as we go through the book of Acts and we will come to the time that Saul is choosen.
Here, I must take issue with those of my colleagues who suggest that Matthias was chosen as one of the disciples in the energy of the flesh, and that it was a mistake on the part of men; that God chose Paul rather than Matthias. I believe that this account makes very clear that Matthias was chosen under the superintendency of the Holy Spirit and that he was put in the right place at the right time.Commentary on Matthias.
Twelve men with this high calling constitute an administrative council in the work of the ministry. When a vacancy occurred with the death of Judas Iscariot, Matthias was divinely appointed to that special office as a member of the council (Acts 1: 15-26). Today twelve men with this same divine calling and ordination constitute the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The title was also applied to others who, though not of the number of the original twelve, yet were called to serve as special witnesses of the Lord. Paul repeatedly spoke of himself as an apostle (Rom. 1: 1; 1 Cor. 1: 1; 1 Cor. 9: 1; Gal. 1: 1). He applied the titles to James, the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1: 19), and also to Barnabas (1 Cor. 9: 5-6; cf. Acts 14: 4, 14). The New Testament does not inform us whether these three brethren also served in the council of the Twelve as vacancies occurred therein, or whether they were apostles strictly in the sense of being special witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is referred to as an apostle in Heb. 3: 1-2, a designation meaning that he is the personal and select representative of the Father.
In Luke Chaper ten we learn that Christ sent out seventy, two by two, in addition to the Twelve that were His disciples. In other ancient texts and early Christian writers we learn that the seventy witnesses were also preserved after the resurrection as part of the organization of the church.
We as LDS are familiar with such a calling. "Seventy" to us is an ancient calling found first in the Melchizedek Priesthood of the Old Testament. Then as now, they were sent to judge Israel or in other words to preach. We also have a First Quorum of Seventy today that are given the primary task to declare the Word of God.
That Paul was subject to the Twelve is evident in Acts 15 when he appealed to the Twelve for authority on the matter of circumcision. Paul though an apostle at this time, did subjugate himself to the authority of the Twelve. Paul was given Barnabas, by the Twelve, and was sent by them to the areas that they were to preach. All of these evidences indicate that Paul while an apostle was not, at least at these times, one of the Twelve Apostles.
Which 12 do you think are mentioned in the Book of Revelation? What about the other four, who do we count out?
I suppose a bonus question would be, how many prophets are mentioned in the New Testament? Only living prophets known to the leaders of the Christian church, list both the true ones and the false ones.
But I'll play along. Look in Acts chapters 11, 13, 15, 21 for a few examples, even in some places including specific names, of both true and false living prophets known to the Church.
How can this be? Prophets after the death of Christ?
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