April 13, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good Morning MBC. Our\nreading today is Acts 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 In the first\nbook, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,\n2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through\nthe Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep in mind that the\nBook of Acts is \u201cPart 2\u201d to the Gospel of Luke. Luke was a co-laborer with the\nApostle Paul in some of his missionary journeys. He wrote his gospel account of\nJesus\u2019 life and ministry and later wrote Acts to provide an account of the\nbirth and growth of the early church (~ first 30 years).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 He presented\nhimself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them\nduring forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Acts 1 takes place\nafter the resurrection of Jesus, about ten days before Pentecost. Pentecost\ntakes place fifty days after Passover, which was right around the time of\nJesus\u2019 death and resurrection. Forty days of proofs and teaching,\npost-resurrection, transformed the disciples from being cowards to being bold\ngospel witnesses. The resurrection is that powerful! It will change you too the\ndeeper you go into God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 And while\nstaying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for\nthe promise of the Father, which, he said, \u201cyou heard from me; 5 for John\nbaptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many\ndays from now.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 6 So when they had\ncome together, they asked him, \u201cLord, will you at this time restore the kingdom\nto Israel?\u201d 7 He said to them, \u201cIt is not for you to know times or seasons\nthat the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive\npower when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in\nJerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.\u201d\n9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was\nlifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were\ngazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,\n11 and said, \u201cMen of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This\nJesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you\nsaw him go into heaven.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you ever gets\nsidetracked like the disciples here? Jesus just told them they are going to\nreceive the Holy Spirit, and they just want to know if their Romans rulers will\nbe kicked out Judea! Don\u2019t miss what Jesus wants to do in your life because you\nare too focused on other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12 Then they\nreturned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a\nSabbath day\u2019s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to\nthe upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew,\nPhilip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon\nthe Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were\ndevoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of\nJesus, and his brothers. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 15 In those days\nPeter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120)\nand said, 16 \u201cBrothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy\nSpirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a\nguide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was\nallotted his share in this ministry.\u201d 18 (Now this man acquired a field\nwith the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the\nmiddle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language\nAkeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 \u201cFor it is written in the Book of\nPsalms, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c \u2018May his camp become desolate, <\/em> and let there be no one to dwell in it\u2019; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n and <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c \u2018Let another take his office.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is another reminder that being a true follower of Jesus means following Him all the way to the end. Judas didn\u2019t do that. He didn\u2019t “lose his salvation.” He simply never had salvation. In the end, he revealed his true heart with regard to Jesus. Persevere in your walk with Jesus until He calls you home!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21 So one of the\nmen who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and\nout among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he\nwas taken up from us\u2014one of these men must become with us a witness to his\nresurrection.\u201d 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who\nwas also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, \u201cYou,\nLord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen\n25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas\nturned aside to go to his own place.\u201d 26 And they cast lots for them, and\nthe lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some have wondered if\nthe appointment of Matthias was a mistake and the true twelfth apostle should\nhave been Paul. The answer is \u201cNo.\u201d Paul was an apostle, along with a few other\nmen in the New Testament, but Matthias was a member of the \u201cTwelve.\u201d The reason\nit is Matthias and not Paul is because of what (v.21-22) say. Paul did not come\naround until later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, this is the\nfinal time you see casting lots in Scripture. Why? Most likely because the Holy\nSpirit came to them shortly after. So, don\u2019t go around casting lots or flipping\ncoins to make decisions. Pray for wisdom and trust the Holy Spirit to guide you\nin that wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope you have a\nblessed day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Tim<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cScripture quotations are from the ESV\u00ae Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version\u00ae), copyright \u00a9 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6276"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7703,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276\/revisions\/7703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}