ACTS 1 (PART 2)
Read Acts 1:1-26
Just before he left the disciples to return to his Father’s side, Jesus gave them what we know as ‘the great commission’; “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (v8). Matthew, too, recorded this at the end of his Gospel, “Go and make disciples of all nations . . .” (Matthew 28:17). The command is to spread the good news of Jesus from where they were in Jerusalem and in to the neighbouring provinces and then further out into all the world, and as we read through the Book of Acts we see that this is exactly how the gospel spread. It seems to be a pretty tall order for this handful of disciples, but both Matthew and Acts report that Jesus promised that he would give them the power to achieve it (v8) and that he would be with them (and us) (Matthew 28:20).
After having watched Jesus go, the disciples set about their business. The first thing they did was to pray. They prayed constantly (v14), and not just the eleven remaining disciples, but the whole community, women included (at a time when women were not included in very much religious activity). Prayer is one of the defining activities of the early church and we will see this again and again,
Peter spoke to the group and noted that with Judas dead the leadership was one short and that this vacancy needed to be filled. He quoted from Psalm 109:8, speaking of an evil man, ‘may his days be few, may another take his place of leadership’. Was there really a need to have twelve disciples in the leadership team? Would not eleven be just as effective? Quite possibly in human terms, but Peter was following the lead of Jesus. If Jesus thought that twelve was the right number then that is what it should be. And the number twelve resonated in Jewish life. There were twelve tribes in the nation of Israel and so twelve meant inclusivity and completeness; Jesus came for all, and twelve represents all in Jewish thought. Now of course there weren’t representatives of each of the twelve tribes in the group of disciples, brothers would have come from the same tribe and there were sets of brothers among the disciples. The point is that the number twelve was symbolic and indicated completeness, fullness.
The selection process of the new twelfth disciple seems a bit strange to us. He was selected by the drawing of lots. Is it right to leave such an important choice to chance? But the thinking of the disciples was that by doing it this way, the choice was up to God and he would make sure that it was his chosen candidate that was selected. Note again that before they carried out this procedure, the disciples prayed and in doing that they were handing the decision over to God.