1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the
6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
12Then they returned to
15In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus— 17he was one of our number and shared in this ministry."
18(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
20"For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms,
" 'May his place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in it,' and,
" 'May another take his place of leadership.' 21Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection."
23So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." 26Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
1 comment:
I thought it was really cool how we talked about the question, "What do you do while you're waiting?" That gets to the crux of the matter, cuz we're by definition not really supposed to be doing anything--we're waiting--but in reality we suddenly have a whole lot of time to do something. So what do we do while waiting?
I think that God may have so many other things he'd like us to invest in. He may want to "distract us" precisely to focus our attention on other, perhaps more pressing matters, while he takes care of what we're waiting for in the background. In Acts 1, he banded the people together at a "retreat center" so that they could focus on him and bond as a community rather than rushing out into the field, before the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost still ahead.
I think there's also a distinction between passive and active waiting. Passively waiting might be to completely forget something until it plants itself in our faces again. Active waiting means taking time out to pray for whatever we're waiting for, being watchful for what God might be doing, for as Paul says, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2). Jesus waited roughly 33 long years before accomplishing his work on the Cross, yet we know that his whole life was a redemptive act of living righteously as a human. I think that God could work through passive or active waiting, depending on the circumstances.
So much easier said than done? Yes! While waiting though we can always lift our concerns, our praises, our thoughts in prayer to his ever-listening--his waiting--ear!
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