As I read through these verses a third time, more slowly than at first, I noticed several things that hadn’t seemed important before.
Small things, like the question the disciples had for Jesus. “Is it time to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” They didn’t realize that with His resurrection, Israel is free, or at least has the opportunity to be free. And the kingdom is greater than what the disciples think. They are saying “our kingdom” which is a fraction of the size of “thy kingdom”. When I am praying, I often apologize for being so slow to learn and understand. Reading this chapter, and hearing how the disciples still had some things to learn encourages me. I don’t see Jesus being frustrated with them. He is patient. Wow, He is so patient…I can’t properly express how happy I am that Jesus is. Oddly enough, as much as I love this characteristic of Christ, I often fail to emulate it myself. Ugh.
I noticed that Jesus walked with them 40 days. That means they waited for 10 days after Jesus left before the Holy Spirit came. And when the Spirit came, there were around 120 people in the room. I often see pictures of the 12 around a table with a tongue of fire over each head, but …………wait a minute……..that’s chapter 2! I have jumped off of the events in chapter one and gone right to Chapter 2 again! double ugh!!
Refocusing: When Jesus ascended I don’t think the women were there. If they had been, it would be recorded that Mary Magdalene said to the angels “Hey guys! How are you doing? Good to see you again.”
Ahem…anyway, refocusing again…..
As they spent time in prayer, Peter realizes that they need to replace an Apostle. They were praying. Acts begins with the people praying. I find myself wondering what they were praying about. They knew they had to sit still and wait, but I don’ think they knew to expect. I really can’t imagine they were asking God to heal the “trick knee” that someone had developed. That seems sort of “off topic” at the moment…. What could they have been praying about? I believe there’s only one possibility left. They were praising. Their hearts were full from having seen Jesus alive, their lives were changed. Really, there isn’t anything else to talk about….no matter what the topic brought up, it would always turn back to “Isn’t Jesus wonderful?” or “Remember the time when Jesus healed the….” Followed by “Praise God! What an awesome Lord we serve! We are so privileged to be His, and to have Him know us by name!”
This went on for several hours every day until the 10th day…
One last thing: I notice that when it was time to add the 12th man, there were several that were qualified. The 11 didn’t recommend anyone, that came from the whole body of 120. Either one of these two could have been the one. I think that tells us something important. There is more than one person who is qualified for particular jobs and positions within the church…our job isn’t really to pick the most qualified, but to select the person who is called to the job. We should probably use the qualifications, just as the disciples did….but then we leave the final selection up to the Lord.
I don’t know exactly how that would look today…I’m not thinking we should purchase some dice and use them to start making decisions. Maybe it’s enough to admit to the Lord (while we are praying about decisions) that we need Him to tell us who the person is that He wants in the job.
By the way, this doesn’t mean that the person not selected is less in any way. Perhaps God has a different plan in mind for them. In the case of the disciples, it is believed that the man not selected became instrumental in helping Paul with his ministry. Would Paul have had the ministry he did without Justus? Or men like him?
Anticipating Chapter 2,
PR