Leaders for the Church (Gospel on the Move #2)

My mom says that when I was three or four years old, I had a hero.

That’s not unusual. Most three- and four-year-olds have someone they idolize, someone they want to grow up to be like. But for most kids it’s the local firefighter or a police officer. Maybe an athlete or an actor. Maybe just their mom or dad.

I was weird. My mom says my childhood hero was Bob Barker.

If you don’t know who Bob Barker is, it’s because you’re very young. Bob was the longtime host of The Price is Right. The show apparently ran back in the fifties, went away for a while, and came back in 1972 with Bob hosting. He hosted for thirty-five years. And for some reason, I thought he was the coolest guy who ever lived.

Thankfully I do not remember this embarrassing stage of life. But my mom says I would try to make her bid on items. I would also take the La-Z-Boy chair, flip the leg rest out — because there was an empty gap between the leg rest and the chair — and I would put my two- or three-year-old brother down in that gap and make him bid on items. And when he started crying because he wanted out, I would get mad at him. Because I wanted to be Bob Barker.

Eventually I replaced Bob. I moved on to sports and baseball stars and became an avid sports fan as a kid, despite my parents not really being sports people.

But I wasn’t the only one who replaced Bob. After that thirty-five-year run, he retired, and they replaced him with Drew Carey. So some of you who are young are thinking, “Wait — I thought Drew Carey was the host.” You’re right. But before Drew, it was Bob. And everyone loved Bob.

Everybody Is Replaceable

That’s my point today. No matter how much you love someone, everybody is replaceable.

Athletes and coaches get replaced on teams all the time. At your workplace, bosses and coworkers get replaced. Politicians get replaced. Whoever is at the top of the music charts gets replaced. Pastors get replaced. Even longtime game show hosts get replaced.

Now, our emotional response to that varies. If it’s your grumpy, demanding, micromanaging boss, you are not going to shed any tears. But when it’s your favorite athlete getting traded, or your favorite longtime host retiring, there’s a little sadness — because you can’t quite picture life without that person in that prominent place.

I’ve seen this happen in church world. A beloved pastor or staff member leaves for another church, or leaves for a different career, or retires. And what sometimes happens is that people leave the church too — because it turns out their connection wasn’t to one another, and it wasn’t to the mission God had for that church. Their connection was to that one person. And with them gone, it doesn’t feel like their church anymore.

That’s why we long for you to get into growth groups and connect with one another. And it’s why I’m always trying to bring you to Jesus and connect you to Him. Because even though I have no plans to go anywhere — this is not an announcement — one day I will no longer be here.

I’m replaceable. We all are.

Today we’re going to watch the earliest days of the church, and we’re going to see one of the disciples get replaced. Now, not many tears were shed over the man being replaced. There was mostly anger. People were glad he was gone.

But here’s what we’ll see: even among the twelve disciples, people can be replaced. And something very interesting happens with the man who steps in. He goes on to become essentially unknown. No great fame. No fortune. He walks off into anonymity.

Because, to quote the first sentence of a famous book: it’s not about you.

Back to Jerusalem

Open your Bible to Acts 1. We’re going to finish the chapter today.

Let’s pray first.

Heavenly Father, we’re about to approach Your holy Scripture — which means You have been saying certain things to Your people across generations, and now we get to be part of that. So we ask that You would speak. Let this not be about what I’ve prepared or how good a job I do. Let it be about what You have for us. In sharing the record of what happened in those early days of the first church, there are truths that still resonate and can shape us both as a church and as individuals. So open our ears, our hearts, and our minds to hear from You and Your Holy Spirit. Whatever You want us to hear and learn — may that be what we walk out with today. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.

Last week we covered verses 1 through 11, where Jesus gave His mandate: when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they are to go and be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, sharing the story of His life, death, and resurrection.

Immediately after giving that mandate, Jesus ascends to heaven, and the disciples are left standing on the Mount of Olives. A couple of angels show up and say, “Don’t worry about it — He’s coming back. Get busy.” So they head back to Jerusalem.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. (Acts 1:12–14)

The Mount of Olives sits just east of Jerusalem. It’s also where the Garden of Gethsemane was — the place where, forty or fifty days earlier, Jesus had been praying when the soldiers arrived and arrested Him. And now this is where He gives the mandate and ascends.

Notice the phrase “a Sabbath day’s journey away.” That doesn’t mean they were traveling on the Sabbath. A Sabbath day’s journey was a set distance a Jew was permitted to walk on the Sabbath without it counting as work — roughly half a mile to three-quarters of a mile. So they’re just outside the city.

Jesus ascends, the angels say He’s coming back, and it’s a bit of a “well, what do we do now?” moment. So they head into Jerusalem, to the upper room.

If you know your Bible, you know they celebrated the Passover meal in an upper room. We don’t know whether this is the same one. In Jerusalem at that time, the upper city was the wealthy district, and many of those houses had upper rooms — some of which weren’t really being used and could be rented out as meeting space.

Some of the disciples are staying in one of these rooms. They don’t have their own lodging in Jerusalem, so this is where they’re eating and sleeping. We don’t know if they’re renting it, or if someone was simply showing compassion — it may have been a Jesus follower who believed in the mission and let them stay for free.

Count the Names

Notice who’s there. If you count the names Luke lists in verse 13, you get eleven.

Wait — weren’t there twelve disciples? There were. Which is exactly why we need a replacement.

Also notice verse 14: they were together “with the women.” Elsewhere in the Gospels we see a group of women who traveled with Jesus, many of them helping supply the needs of Jesus and the disciples.

And notice: Mary the mother of Jesus — and His brothers.

That’s remarkable. Back in John 7, we see Jesus’s brothers essentially teasing Him, because they don’t believe He’s the Messiah. They don’t believe He’s the Son of God. They’re mocking Him. And now here they are, with the eleven, with their mom, with the women — praying.

It’s as if they’ve become believers.

Why the change? Think about it for a second. If you had a sibling brutally murdered in public, in front of everyone, and then a couple days later he rose from the dead — your opinion of him might shift a little. If your brother rises from the dead, you’re probably not going to try to beat him up as often.

They suddenly realized it was all true. He prophesied He would die and rise again, and He pulled it off. So they stopped mocking Him and started following Him.

An Emotional Mess

So they’re all together, and what do they do? They pray.

We don’t know their exact emotional state, but I’d imagine it was quite a mix. Part of them has to be incredibly excited. But think about the previous fifty days. They watched Jesus die. He wasn’t supposed to die — this is the Messiah, He’s going to usher in a new Israel. Instead He was killed, and they went through the darkest stretch of their lives. Then suddenly He’s alive again, and they get forty days with Him. And now they’ve just watched Him ascend into heaven after handing them a mandate.

What’s next? How is this going to happen? The leaders who killed Jesus — are they going to kill us? But Jesus said He’d always be with us…

I’m sure they were an emotional mess. So in the middle of all of it, they pray. God, give us wisdom. Give us insight. Give us direction. What are we supposed to do?

And that’s when Peter gets an idea.

Peter Stands Up

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” (Acts 1:15–17)

Notice we’ve moved well beyond eleven men, some women, Mary, and the brothers. We’re now at about 120 people. Word about Jesus is spreading, curiosity is building, and the group is growing.

Then Luke steps in with an aside — we’re not in Peter’s speech anymore:

(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) (Acts 1:18–19)

Then back to Peter:

“For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and ‘Let another take his office.’ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” (Acts 1:20–22)

What Judas Did

If you’re new to the Bible or new to faith, you may know the broad outline — Jesus was betrayed, and the man who did it was Judas Iscariot. But you might not know the details.

During the Passover meal Jesus celebrated in that upper room — what Christians call the Last Supper, since it was the final Passover He shared with them before His death — Judas gets up and leaves. Jesus knew exactly what was happening. He knew Judas was going to betray Him.

Judas leaves because he knows the plan afterward is for the group to go to the Garden of Gethsemane. So he alerts the Jewish leaders, who give him a group of soldiers, and they arrest Jesus in the garden. They take Him into town for a sham of a trial — the Sanhedrin was supposed to hold trials publicly and in daylight; they held this one privately and at night. They condemn Him. The next morning they bring Him before the Romans and claim He calls Himself a king, which is an affront to Caesar, so Rome should execute Him.

And all of it happened because of Judas.

So these disciples are angry. How could he? How dare he? This is the Son of God. This is the Messiah. How could you betray Him? Even though God worked all of it out — this was His plan all along — there’s still real bitterness here.

Peter quotes from two psalms, the second being Psalm 109. And Psalm 109 is all about wicked men. If you want to read some genuinely harsh words in the Bible about people who were incredibly selfish and incredibly evil, read Psalm 109. You’ll think, that’s in the Bible?

In Peter’s mind, Judas is one of those men. And as the passage comes to mind, he lands on verse 8: may his days be few, and may another take his office.

Well — his days were few. Judas took his own life. So now: may another take his office.

Why Twelve?

Peter senses they need to put someone else in this position and get back to twelve disciples.

But why? Aren’t eleven guys enough? If you’ve ever served on a committee, eleven already sounds like too many. Why does it need to be twelve?

You have to understand that to Israelites, the number twelve is sacred.

There was an ancient Jewish community known as the Essenes, who became somewhat famous when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered — they were the ones who copied and preserved those scrolls. The Essenes were ruled by twelve elders, and they wrote down their reasoning: it showed they were a remnant of true Israel.

God started Israel with twelve tribes. Those twelve tribes became the center of the nation. So if twelve is what matters to God, then twelve is what should matter to us.

Perhaps Jesus had something similar in mind. Twelve disciples, showing they are a remnant of true Israel. And if Jesus wanted twelve, then Judas should be replaced.

Not a Popularity Contest

But notice Peter doesn’t say, “Let’s just pick someone. Who do we like? Who’s the most charismatic? Who raised the most for their campaign fund?”

He sets parameters. They need someone who was present from John’s baptism through the ascension — which had just happened hours or days earlier.

This tells us a couple of things.

First, when we picture Jesus with His disciples, we usually imagine Jesus and the twelve. But this means there were far more people around, listening and learning. Jesus chose twelve out of a larger group to be the core who became the apostles — the ones He poured into most. But there were many more than twelve. It helps explain how, in Luke 10, Jesus is able to send out seventy-two.

Second, the fact that they wanted someone who had been there all along means they genuinely heard the mandate. Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses.” So they wanted someone who had actually witnessed these events.

Which is why they don’t nominate one of Jesus’s brothers. You’d think, hey, if you’re the half brother of Jesus, you’ve got some of that DNA — you’d be a great leader. But no. The brothers didn’t believe until recently.

Later, James — one of Jesus’s brothers — does rise to leadership. Peter is emerging as the leader now, but eventually Peter fades and James rises, and James goes on to write the letter that bears his name. But he isn’t chosen here, because at this point he’s essentially a brand new believer.

Two Names, One Anonymous Apostle

And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. (Acts 1:23)

If you were with us last week, I mentioned that Luke is incredibly detail-oriented. Here’s a perfect example.

He doesn’t just say two men were brought forward, Joseph and Matthias — because there were a lot of Josephs in that day. So he identifies this one by his nickname. In a couple of chapters you’ll meet another Joseph, one many of you know well without realizing his name is Joseph, because you know him by his nickname: Barnabas, meaning son of encouragement.

This Joseph is known as Barsabbas, meaning son of the Sabbath — most likely he was born on the Sabbath. But apparently that isn’t specific enough for Luke, since there may well have been a couple of Josephs born on a Sabbath. So he also tells us the man’s Roman name: Justus.

And then there’s Matthias. Poor guy only gets one name.

A Dangerous Nomination

I want you to realize this was not a popularity contest. These men weren’t campaigning. They weren’t standing up making the case for why they should be the twelfth apostle.

They were being nominated into something genuinely dangerous.

Think about it. Forty days earlier the Romans and some of the Jewish leaders had Jesus killed. Yes, He rose again — and these disciples have been around the resurrected Christ, and many people have seen Him, and word is spreading. But there were people so threatened by Jesus that they had Him executed. And now there are people going around saying He isn’t dead.

What do you think is going to happen to them?

So this isn’t a man lobbying for a promotion. These are men being nominated into something that could cost them their lives.

Prayer and Trust

And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:24–26)

Notice how the decision gets made: prayer and trust. They have a big decision, and they trust God to lead them, so they go straight to Him.

And notice how they pray. They address Him as “Lord.” So often in Scripture prayers are addressed to the Heavenly Father, which is a perfectly beautiful and natural way to pray. But “Lord” is how they used to speak to Jesus when He was on earth. It’s as though they’re praying directly to Christ.

Which makes sense. In Matthew 28 — the parallel to Acts 1, which we’ll look at next week — Jesus tells them, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” If Jesus is with them, why not talk to Him? And besides, they believe Jesus wanted twelve apostles. He chose the original twelve knowing Judas would betray Him, so God must have had a plan all along for the replacement. So they talk to Jesus about it.

Notice also: “which one of these two you have chosen.” They have full confidence in the sovereignty of God. So when they cast lots, this isn’t rolling dice or gambling. It’s more like drawing straws and saying, “God, we’re putting this in Your hands. This is the method we’re using — reveal through it which of these two You have already selected.”

And it falls on Matthias.

And Then… Nothing

Here’s what’s fascinating. Matthias is mentioned in Scripture in exactly two places: verse 23 and verse 26.

That’s it.

You would think that if a man is named an apostle, and he’s introduced in the book known as the Acts of the Apostles, we’d see him at least once more — probably three or four more times. But we hear nothing else about him.

Tradition holds something about both of these men: both became missionaries. Matthias is said to have gone to Ethiopia, where he was martyred for his faith.

If that’s true, it means Matthias lived out being an apostle not to make a name for himself, but to help other people know the name of Jesus.

It’s Not About You

That’s what I want you to see. Even as God is establishing His church and raising up leaders for it — as Judas betrays and dies and Matthias steps in — it is His church. And everyone is replaceable.

Ultimately, the book of Acts is not about Matthias. It isn’t about Peter, who’s speaking here. It isn’t about Paul, whom we’ll meet later. It’s about Jesus. These men simply filled a role in helping the spiritually disconnected find Jesus and begin following Him.

And that matters for us, because if you build your life around self, you are setting yourself up for heartache.

So by all means, pray with full trust. Feel free to talk directly to Jesus. But don’t make your prayers only about your own comfort and your own glory.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not asking you to ignore your physical and mental health. I’m not asking you to beat yourself up emotionally or verbally. Remember, the gospel says you are loved and you are valuable. Do you know how much you’re worth? You’re worth the blood of Jesus. That’s your worth. You are not trash. If you’ve put your faith in Jesus, you are a son or daughter of the Most High God. You belong to Him.

But He hasn’t called you into this life so that your life can be all about self.

Whoever You Center On Will Fail You

And yet that’s what so many of us do. We either make it all about me, or we center our lives on someone else — hopefully not Bob Barker, but someone. And either way, you’re setting yourself up for pain. Because they are replaceable too.

If you’re married, love your spouse fully. But understand this: if you try to make them the center of your universe, they will fail you. You’ll be set up for hurt, and you’ll end up failing them as well. God is not calling you to make them your center. In fact, the healthiest marriages happen when Christ is what you treasure — when He’s the center of your life and you do everything for His glory. You’ll suddenly find yourself serving your spouse better and more selflessly than when they were your center.

Same with your kids. Don’t let them become the center. Let Christ be the center, and out of the overflow of your identity as a follower of Jesus, you’ll love your children exactly as they need to be loved.

But for many of us, the person at the center isn’t a spouse or a kid or a hero. It’s ourselves. We’re consumed with our own comfort, our own recognition, our own glory.

Again, hear me carefully. I’m not saying it’s sinful to be recognized for a great achievement. I’m not saying you can’t watch a show. I’m not saying avoid ice cream. What I’m saying is that when the ice cream is purely to pamper yourself, when the binge-watching is purely to entertain yourself, when you’re chasing recognition purely so you’ll feel loved — you’ve made it all about you instead of Christ.

And that road leads to frustration. Because not everyone shares your view of yourself. So you end up angry at everyone, all the time, because they aren’t giving you the attention you believe you deserve. Your life is all about you, and therefore everyone else’s should be too.

But when you make your life about Jesus — when He’s the center — suddenly people want to be around you. People want to hear from you. People want to give to you.

In God’s economy, everything is upside down. We assume the path to happiness is making it all about self. God says the path to happiness is making it not about self. When you go low, He raises you up.

Exactly What We See in Jesus

In Philippians 2, Paul writes about humility and points to Jesus as the perfect example. First, He left heaven to come to earth — God taking on human flesh, humbling Himself. Then He humbles Himself further by dying on a cross.

And the result:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9–11)

So many of us are working desperately to climb, and God is saying: no — go down. Go low. Because when you humble yourself, God is the one who lifts you. When you put yourself first, you’ll end up last. When you make yourself last, God makes you first.

Making your life all about you sets you up for enormous pain. Making your life all about Christ is where you’ll find your greatest joy.

And that’s hard. Genuinely hard. We live with ourselves constantly. We’re more aware of our own needs, wants, desires, and dreams than we’ll ever be of anyone else’s. All of it is clamoring at us all the time, which makes it difficult to keep submitting it to God.

And yet I think God wants some of you to lay your dreams down before Him — because He is going to do more with them than you ever could. If you keep going the way you’re going, you’re not going to see that dream materialize the way you want. But humbling yourself, submitting it to God, letting Him be first — He’ll do more with it than you thought imaginable.

The only way you’ll see it is by making it not about you, and not about your hero, but about Christ.

Who’s at the Center?

So the question is simple: who is at the center of your world?

If it’s you, you’re replaceable. If it’s someone else, so are they.

Christ is eternal. He is the only one who will never be replaced. He will always occupy the throne.

Will you let Him occupy the throne of your life now? Because then, as the old song says, on that day when Jesus calls my name, it won’t be a big change when I get there. It will just be me continuing the way I’ve already been living.

I can’t think of a better way to remind ourselves to put Jesus at the center than to go to the communion table. As we take those elements, we remember that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. As we take the bread, we remember His body was broken. As we take the cup, we remember His blood was shed for us. We submit ourselves to Him as we receive it.

If you’re a first-time guest, know that at Riverwood we celebrate open communion. If you’re a follower of Jesus — if you’ve put your faith fully into the story of His life, death, and resurrection — the table is open to you, and we’d love for you to worship Him with us this way.

But if you’re here and you’re not a follower of Jesus, know that we’re genuinely glad you’re here. We actually started Riverwood for you. If you feel spiritually disconnected from God, we want to help answer your questions and walk with you on the journey toward realizing this story is true — that Jesus really did die on a cross, really did rise out of a tomb, and really does call you to follow Him.

If you’re not there yet, I’d ask you to very respectfully not come to the table. You don’t need to put on a show or pretend to be something you’re not. It’s okay. Nobody here is going to judge you. Many of us at Riverwood used to be exactly where you are. We’re fine with you staying where you’re at. I’d only encourage you, during this song, to pray a simple prayer: Is it true? Is this whole story about Jesus real?

Because if it is, He’s calling you into something. He wants to rescue you from building your life around someone else or around yourself. He’s inviting you to let Jesus become the center — to make all of it about Him.

So if the last few days have been all about self, or if this season has been entirely centered on one person, this is your moment to confess it and ask God to draw you back — to let Jesus be at the center, so that you can love yourself the way you need to and love others the way they need to be loved. But it starts with your identity being first and foremost in Christ.

A Prayer

Heavenly Father, as we take these holy elements, be in our midst. Work in us. Help us see the importance of Christ — that He would be at the center of our being, our minds, our affections, so that everything we say and do would be for Him and about Him.

God, thank You so much for Your grace and the way You lavish us with forgiveness. Even those of us who’ve been too self-centered — pampering ourselves through our phones and our food and our entertainment, doing whatever we can to get recognition, making our lives all about ourselves, or handing all our attention to someone else — would You help us in this moment get back to You?

I pray for the person who has never fully surrendered their life to You, that today would become their spiritual birthday — that they’d spend this next moment in prayer confessing their sin, declaring You as God, and putting their faith fully in Jesus.

And as we take these elements, help us thank You for what Jesus did for us and for what You now want to do in us and through us. Father, may You be glorified in these next few moments. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.