Waiting on the Lord

Why does Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, summarize the replacement of Judas with Matthias in the ranks of the 12 disciples?

The means God uses to build his church is by ordinary people like you and me. God does not operate in a spiritual vacuum. He blesses and makes effective the witness of weak and sinful servants.

If we just jump between the two big events in the opening chapters of Acts (The Ascension and Pentecost) we would miss out on some of the lessons we can learn from the Apostles' waiting on the Lord.

1. We can learn from their faithfulness and submission to Christ: Specifically,
   a. Their Obedience - the only reason they went back to Jerusalem in the first place was because Jesus had commanded them to do it.

b. Their Unity - Being of one accord (unity of heart and mind) is something that is commanded throughout scripture. Real unity is the result of us, under the Holy Spirit, looking away from self and towards Christ - it's only then that we can truly be in harmony with one another.

c. Their Prayerfulness.

2. When disappointment strikes, we need to understand that God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility are both true, and non contradictory, if we are to have a biblical perspective on the way events unfold.

3. We can learn from the fact that the disciples were diligent and careful in the way they went about choosing the replacement Apostle. They were prescriptive in that they set up a shortlist according to biblical criteria. They were also prayerful.