Act with Acts 4 – The Apostolic Church

Acts 1:12-26 – What does it mean to be an Apostolic Church? This week we cover, amongst other things, prayer, Mary, expectancy, apostasy, women leaders, choosing leaders in the church, and what makes a church worth coming to!

Also available as an audio podcast here – 

Acts with Acts 3 – The Ascension

Here are some of the notes and quotes

The church is a visible organisation. It is not just the invisible church – all the believers over all the world in all time – but the church today….and the local church – but what church? Why should anyone come to this church? What kind of church are we trying to be?

1) A Church that prays – The Praying Apostles v.12-14
The Apostles return – A Sabbath days walk is about 1.2km
The upper room – was this where the last supper was held?  Probably the home of John Mark where according to Acts 12 they were to be located earlier. The mission of the church begins in a house – and at the end of Acts it ends in a house.
The church is in the home not just in a special building.
Who makes up the church? – the apostles – The women – and Mary mentioned especially
The brothers of Jesus – Mark 6:3 tells us who they are – “Isn’t this the son of Mary and the brother of Joseph, James, Judas and Simon. Aren’t his sisters here with us?”

Expectancy – I think they would have returned with joy and they would have had a spirit of expectancy. Some of us don’t like that temprementally – because we have so often had our expectations dashed. It’s the hope that kills you. I suspect one of the big hinderances we have here is the lack of expectancy. We believe God acted in the past….we believe in acts in China today…even in Newcastle in other churches but not here!

They were waiting for and praying for the promised Holy Spirit. Time spent in reflective and petitionary prayer is time well spent. They devoted themselves. We need persistence that comes from expectancy and faith. Expectancy is not the same as making a plan and hoping that it will all work out. It is expecting that the Lord will work even though we don’t know how. We don’t tell him how he should work. “Lord, we believe you for ten people”.In fact we are told here two essentials of effective prayer – persistence and unity.

2) The Apostate Apostle – v. 15-20 – The Apostate Church –
An apostle can go wrong. A church leader can go wrong. A whole church can go wrong.
120 brothers – but includes women so hence believers. 120 was the number needed to establish a local Sanhedrin. Notice something – there were about 4 million Jews in Palestine at that time. 1 in 30,000 were Christians. That’s about 15 Christians for the whole of Newcastle! I think there were more – we are told of the 500 followers in Galilee…
Peter was the mouthpiece of the Apostles. But noticed what he spoke – the Scriptures. It is not a church if we do not listen to the Lord speaking through the Scriptures. Judas had been one of them. But his place was now vacant. He was a traitor, a betrayer, someone whom Satan entered.
When Jesus warned the disciples about this – he did not name Judas. I think he wanted them all to examine their hearts – McCheyne “The seeds of every known sin lie within each one of our hearts”.
Notice that Peter was now citing the Scriptures – It was necessary to do it to fulfill the Scriptures. The Church was to be built on the foundation of the church and prophets. The Apostolic church is scriptural.

3) The New Apostle – v.21-26

If you were applying for the job of Apostle – what qualifications were essential?
In vv. 21–22 Peter laid down the qualifications for Judas’s replacement. He had to be one who had witnessed the entire ministry of Jesus from the time of his baptism by John to the ascension. Above all he had to have witnessed the resurrection appearances. In passing let me note that the real mark of a Christian is not that he knows about Jesus, but that she knows Jesus.

They were to judge – the 12 tribes of Israel.
Two candidates – Joseph son of Barsabbas – Matthias, whose name means gift of God,

Was it a lottery? No = they nominated the two qualified men. Urim and Thummim – Lev 16:8 – Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Pray before you choose leaders – that’s what Jesus did. Seek Gods guidance.

Before Pentecost, before the presence of the Spirit to lead it, the church sought the direction of God and used the Old Testament procedure of securing divine decision. After Pentecost the church in Acts made its own decisions under the direction of the Spirit. In this particular instance it was all the more important that the decision be the Lord’s, not theirs. Like his first selection of the Twelve, its constituency was his to determine .
Does this mean we do this today? No – this was the crossover period. Somethings are the same – prayer, assess qualifications and then get the church to appoint.

Why men?  There is one issue we have to deal with here – you will notice one of the qualifications is that they were men. Why did Jesus only choose men to be apostles. It cannot be because he just went along with a misogynistic culture. It’s too big a subject for today – but note that the early church included women and some were very prominent. Women prophesied, women were deacons – women were and remain essential. But they were not apostles or elders. Now some might want to argue that that was temporary and others have argued that there were women apostles later on – but not in the sense of the 12. I raise the issue here because I think the main point is that both men and women were included in the church – and on an equal basis – although sometimes with different roles. I used to belong to a church which did not allow women to pray in public – that is hard to justify on the basis of this passage. But equally it is hard to justify the view that there is no difference between men and women in the church.

There is another aspect here – the unity of the church – they were one. They prayed with one accord.

What makes a church worth coming to ? It is apostolic founded on the apostles and prophets – prayerful – expectant – hopeful – waiting on the Lord – inclusive (in the best sense of the word) – teaches the Bible and obeys the Bible – united in Christ – leaders appointed by God. Not just a church that is a social club, a heritage society, an ethnic organization – but the living organism, the body of Christ – expressed in real concrete terms in this community, in this world.

Isaiah 40:31 – “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”