Mathias - The Unknown Apostle

turn your Bibles to acts chap 1 acts chap 1: 15- 26 we're going to continue our series on the dirty dozen talking about the 12 apostles but actually today we're going to make it a Baker's Dozen because there was a 13th Apostle in fact there was a 14th Apostle we'll look at next week as well and so I want to take a look at them today we're going to look at maias the unknown Apostle and acts chap 1 and beginning with verse number 15 the Bible says in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said the number of names together were about 120 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 for he was number numbered with us and obtained part of this ministry now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong he burst aunder in the the mist and all his b bowels gust out it was known unto all that dwellers of Jerusalem and so much as that field is called in the proper tongue EOD dama that is to say the field of blood for it it's written in the Book of Psalms let the habitation be desolate and no man dwell therein and his Bishop Bri let another take wherefore of these men which have company with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out Among Us beginning from the baptism of John onto the the same day

that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection and they pointed to Joseph called barabus who was surnamed Justice and meias and they prayed and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these two men that thou sh H has chosen that he may take part of of the ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell and that he might go to his own place and he gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon on Mias and he was numbered with the 11 Apostles so you know the story Judas of course was the traitor he was the one that uh turned traitor on Jesus and turned him into the the high priest there and had him crucified

and and so they were now uh Jesus is risen from the dead he's gone up to heaven and and so they gathered together and they decid well we need to choose another Apostle we need to keep it at an even 12 and so they decided to go with maias now Mias is kind of like the the Baker's Dozen you know today eggs are so expensive be nice if we got a free egg along with the other 12 that we're buying uh but uh they chose maias to be the next Apostle the problem is we know nothing about him we know nothing about him beforehand and we know nothing about him afterwards as well uh we never hear from him again he never does anything that we know of uh there's no record of any kind of ministry that he had so

so was it right for them to choose maias as one of the Apostles now if you look at acts 1 and verse number 14 it says these all continued with one Accord in prayer and supplication with the women Mary the mother of Jesus and with his Brethren then skip down to verse number 24 and they prayed and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men show whether of these two men thou has chosen so they did the right thing they they prayed about this decision ision it's always a good thing to pray the Bible says we ought to pray in in Luke 18 verse number one the Bible says he spake a parable unto them this me end that men ought always to pray and not to faint in Philippians chap 4 veres 6 and 7

the bible says be careful for nothing but in everything excuse me by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding should keep your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus and whenever you have a big decision to make whenever you need to uh decide something and figure something out it's always a good thing to spend time in prayer whether individually or together with others as well uh it's always a good thing to pray about it before you make that decision but along with praying about it we also need to learn to wait on the Lord Psalms 27: 13- 14 the Bible says I had fainted unless I believed to see the

goodness of the Lord in the land of living wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say in the Lord I I don't know about you but one of the hardest things for me to do is to wait on the Lord I I I want to do it and I want to do it now I want to decide now I don't want to wait until the Lord shows me and so often in my life I know I prayed about something and then I figured okay now I can go do it and and and prayer needs to come sometimes with learning to wait on the Lord in his timing in the decision that we have to make it is to wait on his Spirit if you look at Acts chapter 1 and Verses 4 and 5 acts chap 1 vers verse number four and five it says and

being assembled together with them commanded them that you should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which I I sayith he uh saith he you have heard of me for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with that Holy Ghost not many days hence and then skip down to verse number eight but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be Witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria unto the uttermost parts of the earth so God said to him now listen uh I'm going to leave and when I leave I'm going to send another what he called in John chapter 14:1 15- 16 I'm going to send another comforter

another one just like me and that is the Holy Spirit and I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to dwell within you and as you know as Christians that all of you that are saved that have trusted Christ as your savior you have the spirit of God you have Romans chapter 8 says what know you not that the spirit of God is in you which you have of God and we need to understand that that we as Christians have the spirit of God and and so but at this time they didn't yet have the Holy Spirit because Jesus had to leave and then the Holy Spirit was going to come and he says I want you to wait on the Holy Spirit look at chapter 2 and look at verse number four chapter 2 and verse number four and they were

all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance so here here's the thing that I see in this passage is that that the disciples they prayed about who should we choose to replace Judas they prayed about it together and that's a good thing you ought always to pray but what they did didn't do I believe is wait on the spirit of God to wait on the Lord it it's good to pray about things and we should always pray about things but we also need to learn how to wait on the Lord's timing and the Lord to lead us as well and not only that we need to follow the word of God in Acts chapter 1 and verse number 16 it says men and Brethren this scripture

must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before for concerning Judas which was a guide to them that took Jesus and then down at verse number 20 for it's written in the Book of Psalms let his habitation be desolate no man dwell therein and his Bishop Rick his position let another take and and so they again they look to the word of God which is good but when you look to the word of God make sure that you understand the word of God in 1 Timothy Chapter 2 and verse number 15 the Bible says study to show thyself approved unto God a Workman that need not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth if you go back to these passages which he quot that they

quoted from Peter quoted from you will see that really what they say is that God will choose another to replace him you see it wasn't up to them to choose someone to replace Judas it was God who was going to choose and later on God did choose Paul to replace Judas as an apostle and so sometimes we get ahead of the Lord and sometimes we think well I prayed about it and so now I can do it but praying about it is not enough by itself we need to seek the Lord in that process and sometimes we need to wait on the Lord's timing because the Lord's timing is always perfect in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse number 33 it says the lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing there is of the Lord now

as we read In this passage what they did is they had about 120 of the disciples that had been with Jesus that whole time okay so 120 others that had been with Jesus and they said we're going to choose out of these 120 we're going to choose two of them and then we'll we'll cast lot to decide which of them is going to be the next Apostle and so they went through this whole process and narrowed down that 120 and said well we think that that uh barabus bar barabus and and Mias would be the best choice and then after they narrow down those two they cast lots now you understand what casting lots is it would be very similar to for example rolling the dice you know you you roll the dice and whatever

number it comes up with it could be very much like that or it could be like flipping a coin is it heads or tails or it could be like drawing straws you know whoever gets the Short Straw is the one who's chosen or it could be like drawing the Black Rock you may have seen where they would put a bunch of White Rock into a bag along with one black rock and everybody would take out a rock and whoever got the black rock that was the one that was chosen and so there's a lot of different ways they could have done that um and we even of course have in the Bible What's called the urum and the thumin in the Old Testament and what the UR uran let me say it again urum and the thumin were was there was

two little plaques that they have that priest would carry and when they make a decision they would choose one of them and that would be either yes or no and it was used very very very occasionally and sometimes God would use that to help them to make a decision uh but in most cases the casting of the Lots uh there's nothing necessarily wrong with that in making a choice in certain situations in Proverbs 18 verse 18 it says the lot causes contentious to cease and parteth before the between the mighty Sometimes the best way to do is say well let's flip a coin over this you know and you can do that for a lot of things a lot of things is good to flip coin if you and your spouse are trying to

decide where to go to eat and she wants to eat one place and you want to eat another you can say well let's flip a coin and we'll decide where we're going to go nothing wrong with that or for example if you're going to decide who's going to clean up after dinner well let's flip a coin and see who's going to be the one that's going to clean up or it could be uh who's going to be up first in the game you know which team's going to start a lot of games they start the the game by flipping a coin and whoever wins the coin to gets to choose we're going to are we going to be up first or we going to be up last and and they choose it that way and and all those situations are good uh you could use a

coin say let's a coin see if I'm going to marry Sally or if I'm going to marry marry Judith you know uh that's not a good thing to do right uh that's not a good way to choose choose who you're married by how I flip the coin it's not a good way to choose a lot of things in life by chance like that there are occasions where flipping a coin drawing a lot uh things like that are are okay but there are many occasions where that's not the way God wants us to choose he wants us to use wisdom he wants us to seek his will and by the way um there's a lesson that I have them put online at oh. churchu when you are trying to make a decision in your life don't just flip a coin or Draw straws or cast a lot but ask God to guide you and that word guide is an acronym for how you can know the will of God in your life and so if you want to download that lesson and go through it to help you know how to make decisions it's at oh.

churchu is where you'll find that see there's nothing wrong with flipping a coin in certain situations but I I don't think this was the right way to choose the next Apostle you see because we we need to go back to the word of God we have a very sure word of Prophecy turn to your Bibles put a marker in Acts chapter 2 and turn over to Second Peter chapter 1 second Peter chapter 1 second Peter chapter 1 and look at verses 17- 21 for he received from God the Father honor and Glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent Glory this is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount we have also a more sure

word of Prophecy that you do well that you take he as unto a light that shineth in the dark place until the day Dawn and the day star arise in your hearts knowing this verse that no prophecy of scripture is any private interpretation for the prophecy came not in Old Time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost you see we always need to go back to the more sure word of Prophecy now again the disciples they did quote scripture Peter said this is what he said In this passage and this is what he said in that passage but I'm afraid that they didn't really take time to study it out and to understand it carefully and whenever you're in the word of God

always be careful somebody was talking to me this week and say you know I I I like reading these verses but I always want to go back and read them in context I I need to understand them in context and that's important as well and and we need to understand what exactly is God telling us to do to go back to the more sure word of Prophecy and and we are sure of God's word first of all in Salvation are you saved in 1 John 5: 12 and 13 it says he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the Son of God hath not life these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life you see whether you're going to heaven or not it's not

something you want to leave to chance a lot of times I'll talk to people say well if you died right now would you go to heaven they say well I think so I got a 50-50 chance folks I don't want a 50-50 chance of going to heaven I want 100% chance I I want a guarantee and God says that through the sure word of prophecy through the word of God we can know that our sins are forgiven that we can know that we have eternal life that we can know that we're going to heaven when we die and and you can know that today through God's sure word through the prophecy of God's word in John chapter 5 and verse number 39 Jesus said search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are

they which testify of me you see you don't want to just think you have eternal life you want to know you have eternal life and the best way to know for sure that you're going to heaven is to know from the word of God to know from the one that tells us whether we're going to heaven or not and so it's important for you to make sure that I know that my sins are forgiven that I know that I have eternal life that I know that I'm going to heaven the way you can know that is because you have Jesus Christ as your savior in Romans chapter 10 and verses 9 and 10 it says that if Thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and Shall Believe in thine heart that God has raised the dead thou shal be

saved for with the heart man believeth on the righteousness and with the mouth confession is made onto salvation ation in Romans 10:13 it says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved see the way you can know for sure you're going to heaven is because of what God did for you not what you do for God in Ephesians 28:9 it says for by grace are you saved through faith then not of yourselves is the gift of God not of Works let's say am man sh boast we're not going to go to heaven because we've done enough good works but that' be a terrible way did I do enough did I do enough you know that's not the way to be sure you're going to heaven I want to know to heaven I'm going to

heaven because God did enough he did enough when he sent his son to die for me to give me eternal life and God wants us to be sure of our Salvation he wants us to know from his word that we're going to heaven and he wants us as Christians to always go back to the word of God and to make sure that we know what we're doing is based upon the word of God I frankly think the apostles were wrong here I I I frankly think that that that it was not their job to choose the next Apostle and and I think that they made a mistake by choosing uh maias they did pray about it you should always pray about big decisions but they did not wait on the Lord they did not wait on the spirit of God to lead them it

wasn't until afterwards the spirit of God came down and so sometimes we need to learn to wait on the Lord and and not just make the decision ourselves now what they did is they limited God's choices they took these 120 different disciples that had been with Jesus for the last three and a half years and they limit it down says okay now Lord It's either this one or that one and they limited to two choices they limited to either is going to be bar Barabas or it's going to be meias uh you tell us which one is going to be so often what we do is we when we pray and seek God God's will we limit his choices we limit his choices in Psalms 78:41 it says yay they turned back and tempted God and limited

the Holy One of Israel so often I've done this in my life and I'm sure you've done this your life is we're coming to God seeking what we should do but what we do is we say God it's either a or b and we've already narrowed down I Want A or B and that's it and God says well what about C what about D don't I get to make the choice here now I think part of seeking God's will is to narrow down your choices and part of what you'll read in that lesson on guide is sometimes what we have to do is kind of look at the pros and the cons and list out what's good and what's bad and decision and all those things are important in the process but we should never limit God we should never tell God here's your

choices because his choice is not always our choice and we need to seek the Lord and what he wants for our life in James Chapter 4 verses 2 and three the Bible says you lust and you have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and War yet you have not because you ask not you ask and receive not because you ask and miss that you may consumed Upon Your Lust I'm afraid there's a lot of times where we make the decision rather than let God make the decision we seek what we want and then we tell God here's your choices because this is what I want and we we choose to have those choices based upon our desires and our wants and our needs rather what God wants for our life

sometimes we don't know what to pray for you ever been in that situation I I've got to make this decision but I just don't know what what even ask God I I don't I don't have any idea what the right decision is is I I I have no clue what to do here you ever been in that situation the Bible says in Romans 8: 26 likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered I was talking with somebody Sunday school this morning about that word infirmities and it just means our weaknesses I've got a lot of weaknesses I've got a lot of fears you ever been afraid to make a

decision what if I make the wrong decision I remember when we were going to buy our house we were afraid is this the right thing can we really afford this is this a good house to buy I remember when we were going to get married my wife said to me what if what what if we're not meant to be together what if we what if we get married and we weren't the right ones for each other and we had a lot of fears in that there's the answer by the way I gave my wife I said do you want God's will for your life and she said yes and I said I want God's will for my life and if God's will is not you then I want God's will not you and and we sought God's not up in heaven waiting for you to make the wrong

decision and then look down from him and say ah you blew it that was the wrong decision you should have made the other decision that's not the kind of God we serve we have a God who loves us and if we're honestly seeking the will of God Romans 121:2 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a Living Sacrifice wholly acceptable on him which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God and if you want that good and acceptable perfect will of God seek his will not your will seek his desires get if you seek him then

he'll give you the desires of your heart but don't tell God what he should do don't narrow God is either a or b you got to take you got my choices and that's it I I think when you're seeking the will of God and when you're trying to make a decision I I do think there's a process the Bible teaches where you can narrow it down there's a process where you can use biblical principles to help you to see whether something's right or wrong and help you to make that decision but ultimately we need to seek the Lord and his will and we need to ask him to guide us and direct us in Romans 8:2 six is likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but

the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered we don't always know what to pray for and sometimes the best thing we can do instead of trying to narrow down God's choices and say God Is A or B is just say God I don't know I don't know and I need your will I need your guidance I need your spirit I need you to make this happen and trust in him so I'm I'm glad the disciples prayed and you should ought you ought always to pray but sometimes you need to wait on the Lord and you need to make sure that what you're doing is based upon the word of God and not just your personal private interpretation and don't limit the Lord in the choices that you've given him

now maybe he was the right person maybe he was chosen for this position it tells us that uh he when Mias was chosen that in verse number 25 that he may take part of this ministry in 1 Timothy 3: 10 the Bible says let the these also first be proved then let them use the office of a deacon being found BL blameless you see when you're called of God into a Ministry he calls you into that office in that position and you need to use it you you need to be a part of what you're called to you need to use that you know personally I wonder what what happened to Mias I I mean we really hear nothing of him before and we hear nothing of him afterwards in Acts 1 verse 23 and they pointed to called Barabas

who was surnamed Justice and Mias you know of the two of them we never hear about Mias again the one was chosen but we do hear about babus go over to Acts chapter 15 at least we hear of him again later on he's still serving the lord acts 15:22 then it pleased the pleased it the apostles and Elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas naely Judas surnamed barabus and Chief men among the Brethren so Barabas did do something for the Lord maias he's gone he disappears you never hear about him again you know when God calls us he calls us to serve him in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-7 it says now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit

and there are differences of administrations but the same law and there are diversities of operations but it's the same God which worketh all and in all but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all God has called each of us God if you're saved here today if you're a Christian God has given you a gift of the spirit it might be the gift of serving it might be the gift of teaching it might be the gift of hospitality and Ministry uh there's many different gifts and God has given every one of us a gift but not only is he given us different gifts but he's given us different administrations and the word administrations is a word which means different offices some of

the folks in this church are using their gifts to teach Sunday school classes with children right now some used their gifts a little while ago up here in the choir others are using their gifts down out in the greeters Ministry some are using their gifts in many other areas and and and they're using what God has given them to serve the Lord and it also tells us that there's different uh operations the word operations comes from the word where we get our word energy from and different levels different abilities some have more of a gift than others but here's the point I want to make there's some of you when you came to Ohana Baptist Church there's such great potential but where are you now

what are you doing for the Lord now Maas was ch chosen to be the 12th Apostle and yet we never hear from him anything and there are many people who come the church and they're here for years and yet you never hear about them doing anything for the Lord we need Sunday school teachers we need people in the greeters Ministry we need ushers we need choir especially men in the choir we need people working in the audio room so what are what are you doing here was meias chosen as the 12th Apostle and silence crickets nothing what happened to him and what happened to you look at Romans chapter 12 Romans chap 12 and look at verses 3 through 8 Romans 12 beginning with verse number three for I say

through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but think soberly according as God had dealt to every man The Measure of Faith for as we have many members in one body and all the members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another having then gifts different according to the grace that is given to us with a prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of Faith or Ministry let us wait on her Ministry he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhort it on exhortation he that giveth let him do it with Simplicity he that ruleth with diligence he that showeth

Mercy with cheerfulness so what are you doing to serve the Lord what are you doing to serve the Lord be faithful to God's calling in your life in Philippians chapter 2 Paul Paul talks about Timothy and he says here's a young man that whatever you give him to do he does it with all his strength and all his might he does it as good or better than I would do it he's faithful he talked about another young man named epodes who was on the point of death he was so sick he was going to die but yet he still was faithful to his ministry of praying and serving others so what's your excuse God has called every one of you here not to be an apostle but he's given you a gift and he's got a place for you to

serve so why is everything so silent why are you not busy serving the lord the Bible says in Acts chap 1 ver 25 it says that that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell and he might go to his own place okay so he he took part so I'm not saying he didn't do anything I'm sure he served the Lord and got involved and the fact that we never hear about him again seven out of the 12 apostles seven out of the 12 apostles we don't hear anything about them after this from this point forward we hear not a not a word about them only four besides Judas scariot only four are talked about any further onto this so maybe he just like the seven others he was

serving the lord but there was just no record of it but here's the thing he did his part make sure you know what God has called you to do God's not called you to be Apostle there are no more Apostles but I have no doubt in my mind that God has called everyone in this room to serve him we don't have to draw straw to see who's going to work in the nursery we don't have to roll the dice to see who's going to be chosen to be a teacher in a Sunday school class because God has chosen some of you right here sitting in front of me to do that job so why aren't you doing it why aren't you doing your part in second Peter chapter 1 verse number 10 it says wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to

make your calling and election sure for if you do these things you shall never fail so don't just be someone who comes and shows up as part of the larger group I'm glad you're here I really am and I hope you'll keep coming and every Sunday I'll welcome you with open arms as the as the rest of us will as well but you know what there's a part for you to play there's a place that is empty because someone has left that you're to fill it might be on the sign waving team we need more sign waivers it might be in the greeters every Sunday that welcome people to church it might be helping out with serving food for fellowship and activities maybe it's teaching a Sunday school class or helping in a Sunday school class or working in the nursery or singing in the choir don't be the person that nobody ever hears from again