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Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord

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and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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In our text for today, which recounts, how St. Matthias was chosen to

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replace Judas

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we hear something of the methodology used by Dr.

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Nielsen for calls and assignments.

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Except he uses a dart with your name on it and then he

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has this black, this board,

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this a dart board in the shape of a map and puts your name on

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it says a prayer throws it.

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And there it is

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and God has spoken.

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Probably not appropriate for me to make light really

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up this this solemn process that the Doctor Nielsen, the shepherd's

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every year.

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And certainly, it's not right to make light of the choosing of

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Matthias by the casting of lots.

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I mean, by the, by the way, in which we read about it, in the text, we

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understand that it is an important thing.

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It's an important aspect of the history of the early Church and

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Luke wants us to know about it. He has spent a great deal of time,

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really getting us, a detailed description of those events so it's

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probably inappropriate to make light of it.

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But I love the book of Acts and I have taught on the book of Acts

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now for decades. I especially appreciate acts because it's a story of

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how God's mission unfolds in the early church. How God's Mission

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continued after the life and the death and the resurrection and the

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Ascension of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

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The book of Acts for me is a book about Mission and how God continued

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that mission in spite of the weaknesses and the foibles and the flaws

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of the early disciples.

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But I have to confess that when teaching acts, I've never spent a lot

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of time on this passage. I'm looking at it as a book of missions

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I usually go from the first part of act which we heard on Wednesday.

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The 1st part of chapter one up, to where Christ says they will be

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witnesses

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and then I jump to chapter 2 and kind of skip this over.

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I've never really spent a lot of time examining this episode, but this

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was the text assigned for today

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and so, I tried to understand what is the significance of this

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and why is it important?

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And especially, looking at, it from the frame of reference of Acts

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being a book about Mission about mission in the early church. And I

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found out that in fact, I believe this text is significant, 

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missiological, if you will, I I think it really is. It's significant,

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missiologicaly

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like the rest of the book of Acts is.

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We, when we did, when we dig more deeply into this episode, there are

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several things to learn that are here for our edification, and for our

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instruction.

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But I would even say that have important implications for the mission

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of making disciples of all Nations.

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Because this text for us, first demonstrates, the oneness of the

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disciples.

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It also highlights the significant, the significance of the fact that

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there were witnesses to the resurrection.

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And finally, it shows the continuity in the relationship between the

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Hebrew scriptures and their fulfillment in Christ Jesus and the age to

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come.

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Scriptures and their fulfillment of Jesus Christ, and the age to come,

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all of these things are significant.

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Throughout the Book of Acts in several places, the author of Luke

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provides little summaries of what has been going on in the church.

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There are six or seven of those summary paragraph where Luke talks

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about what is the life of the church

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like, how are they living together?

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And there are many examples of this community that we might call it

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the koinonia that the early disciples experience.

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Now one, great example of those summaries comes at the end of chapter

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2, and that's where we hear after Pentecost.

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We hear Luke's summarizing the life of the church.

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And he says, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the

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fellowship koinonia to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

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And then at the end of that description, at the end of chapter 2, it

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says they were praising God, and having favor with the people and the

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Lord added to their number day by day those

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who would be saved.

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Now in our lesson today from Acts chapter one and this whole story of

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Matthias, being a being chosen to replace Judas, don't we have something

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that's quite similar? After

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They had witnessed the Ascension of Jesus.

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Our lord has gone away from them.

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They return from the Mount of Olives and they go into the upper room

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where they were staying and evidently there was a group of about 120

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at that time.

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But here's what the text says, they were all together persisting with

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one accord in prayer and supplication.

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There was a unity of spirit already among this group of followers. A

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unity of a unity of spirit, a koinonia that existed among them. And that unity was

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possible because of what they had seen and what they had experienced

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together, what they had come to know and come to realize that was

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creating this unity.

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They had this shared experience

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of the Gospel, the power of the Gospel in their lives. And they came

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together in one accord and it says that united their hearts continually

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or could be translated persistently in prayer and supplication.

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Now the kind of community that those early disciples are already

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experiencing is important from a mission perspective for a couple of

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reasons. I would say they're kind of practical reasons or common sense

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reasons.

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But the first is that, when a person is changed by the gospel,

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when a person undergoes this change because of the Gospel.

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The new commitments that a person is making because of the Gospel,

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sometimes it's necessary to have a sense of community because you have

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to leave behind some of your old ways, which sometimes means some of

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your old community.

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The people that you hung out with, for example, or the kinds of

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commitment that sometimes, some of these people had and

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sometimes you need to leave that old community,

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you need a new community. Or sometimes even people lose their families

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because of their commitment to Christ.

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But on the other hand, sometimes family and friends distance

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themselves from the new Christian and maybe even sometimes we hear

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stories of people being shunned by their family members.

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And so these new Christians need to find a new community.

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And this is something we should always remember

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they need this new community of koinonia.

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In the fellowship of believers, it's in the new community where they

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get now, the emotional support that they need the spiritual support,

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sometimes, even physical support in place of the old ways that they

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have left behind. In that new community is what happens, what 

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Luther talks about the mutual conversation, and consolation of the

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brethren.

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That's where that takes place.

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So, community persisting in oneness in prayer, and supplication is

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always important

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and remember that, when dealing with new believers, they need that

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sense of community is so important.

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You should always remember that.

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But it's also important that community for the it's witness to the

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world for its demonstration, of the power of the Gospel to the world.

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People as we hear about even in the early Church in the history,

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people look at the way the Christians live together and they said,

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behold how they love one another.

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That community is only possible by

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the power of the Gospel of course. And it was a gospel that created that

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community among those believers in our episode that we heard about in

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our text today.

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But this this text also demonstrates for us or underscores, the fact

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that there were actual witnesses to the events of Christ life.

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The fact that there were witnesses to the life and death and

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resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is central to the biblical

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message. It's essential to the message that we proclaim a

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modern-day Witnesses.

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The resurrection of Jesus is not just a myth, it's not just a parable,

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it's not an allegory

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as more and more people seem to want to believe these days, but

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Scripture presented as a verifiable fact, and that's why the

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position or the place of witnesses are so important.

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We know that there were many witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus

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over 500 according to scripture.

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So this is seen as something very important.

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Being a witness to the resurrection of Jesus seen as something very

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important by the Apostle Peter and so he feels is necessary to replace

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Judas who abandoned the responsibility that he was given to be a

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witness.

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And so he wants to replace Judas.

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And so he stands up and he says, so one of the men who have

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accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went out and

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among us beginning with the baptism of John until he was taken up from

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us.

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One of these men must be come with us a witness to his resurrection.

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I believe that's why it was so important for Peter to replace Judas

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with another. It was so important

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it's the foundation of our faith.

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You know as Paul says.

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If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still

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in your sins.

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Also, as if in Christ, we have hope in this life only

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we are about the saddest

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pitiful people in the world.

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In other words, if Christ has not been raised, what's the point?

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What would be the point of our mission and Ministry?

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What would be the point of everything we do here at this Seminary for

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example? But we can have confidence that he was raised because there

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were many witnesses over five hundred of them scripture says, but

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Peter also wanted to be sure that there was one special witness chosen

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to fulfil that number of 12 to replace Judas.

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And so he made the suggestion to the other disciples there of the

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importance of that fact.

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It's because being a witness is an important thing.

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And being one of those 12 was an important thing.

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Finally, this text is significant from a missiological perspective

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because it demonstrates the continuity between the Hebrew scriptures

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and what we learn in the New Testament.

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Luke, especially goes to great lengths throughout the Book of Acts,

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but even in his gospel to talk about this continuity. It's the

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continuity,

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remember what we heard in Chapel on Wednesday?

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The end of Luke chapter 24 and Jesus said to the disciples, these are

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my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that

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everything, everything written about me, in the law of Moses, and the

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prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

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Everything written about me, in the law of Moses, and the prophets and

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the Psalms must be fulfilled.

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And what was written, of course, clearly in the Hebrew scriptures was

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that Christ should suffer and on the third day, rise from the dead and

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Jesus says then repentance and forgiveness of sins should be

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proclaimed in his name to all nations

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beginning at Jerusalem, you are witnesses to these things.

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As Christopher Wright said in his book, "The Mission of God's People"

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and I'm paraphrasing here.

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He says something like it is important that we as the people of

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God, understand where we fit in the story,

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in the grand narrative. Peter understood that everything that he

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experienced, and everything, that they had seen with Jesus was a part

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of the mission of God.

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A mission that began

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well, it began at the beginning.

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For Peter

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it was all about Jesus.

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And so, even when he's talking about now, what do we do to replace

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Judas?

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He goes right 

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t o the scriptures, be quotes from Psalm 69, may his camp be desolate.

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I think referring to to Judas's field of blood.

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And then also from Psalm 109 may another take his place referring to

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the need to replace Judas.

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As we read, almost all of the book of Acts

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Luke makes it very clear that what is taking place the things that we

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are witnesses to our all happening in continuity with the Hebrew

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scriptures.

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The beginning of it, all is the beginning and Peter saw it, he saw that

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and he was committed to that to that understanding.

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He saw how he and the other disciples fit into the mission of God.

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The grand story of what was going on in the world.

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And that's why I think it's important for us too. Ivt's important for us

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to see where we as the people of God fit into that Grand story.

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And maybe there's even a better way of saying it than that.

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It's not just a matter of where do we fit into that grand story?

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I think maybe it's a recognition that we do fit in to that story.

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God has put us here

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and now to be a part of that story. It is a story that begins with

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creation and will continue until the new creation is fully

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consummated.

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God uses us even with all of the, the foibles and the flaws and the

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weaknesses and even the sinfulness. He uses us just like he did with Peter and

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Paul and Philip and Mark and Barnabas and all the other people we hear

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about in the book of Acts. He uses us for the purposes of his kingdom

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to be modern-day witnesses, to the power of the Gospel in our lives

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and through our words,

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A lot of the commentaries that I read on this passage about today's

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lesson concerning, the selection of Matthias,

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spend an inordinate amount of time in my opinion, speculating on,

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whether the casting of lots to choose to choose to choose Matthias

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was, was the way to go, was really the right thing to do.

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They seem to think that that's just really the crucial issue here for

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some reason, and it kind of turn it into a moral story.

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But I think there is so much more to learn here. We learn the

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significance of the unity that is ours in Christ Jesus.

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We learn of the significance of the fact that there were witnesses to

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the resurrection of Christ and that gives us confidence as we are

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witnesses to Christ

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resurrection today.

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And we learn also that when they chose Matthias, this is all a big

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part of a story, a big story, a grand narrative and they're therefore

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we see that we have the privilege of being a part of that story today.

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And see yourself I hope.

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See yourself as a part of that story. It is a story that began at

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creation and will continue until the new creation until New heavens

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and a new Earth appear. May that

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reality

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give us the confidence

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also in our own proclamation, in our own act, in our own deeds, in 

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own words as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In His

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holy name. Amen.

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And now may the peace of God

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which passes all understanding

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keep our hearts and minds in Christ, Jesus. Amen.

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Will you please rise as we sing praises to Jesus with hymn

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number 821.