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Judas' Successor

Acts 1.15-17 and 21-26

Good News Translation (GNT)

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15  A few days later there was a meeting of the
   believers, about a hundred and twenty in all,
   and Peter stood up to speak.
16  "My friends," he said, "the scripture had to
   come true in which the Holy Spirit, speaking
   through David, made a prediction about Judas,
   who was the guide for those who arrested
   Jesus.
17  Judas was a member of our group, for he had
   been chosen to have a part in our work."

21-22  "So then, someone must join us as a witness
   to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
   He must be one of the men who were in our
   group during the whole time that the Lord
   Jesus travelled about with us, beginning from
   the time John preached his message of
   baptism (a) until the day Jesus was taken up
   from us to heaven."
23  So they proposed two men: Joseph, who was
   called Barsabbas (also known as Justus),
   and Matthias.
24  Then they prayed, "Lord, you know the
   thoughts of everyone, so show us which of
   these two you have chosen
25  to serve as an apostle in the place of Judas,
   who left to go to the place where he belongs."
26  Then they drew lots to choose between the
   two men, and the one chosen was Matthias,
   who was added to the group of eleven
   apostles.

   Footnotes
   Acts 1:21 John preached his message of
   baptism;
   or
   John baptised him.

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

     Acts Chapter 1 15-17 and 21-26

In addition to Jesus' main disciples, there were in Jerusalem at that time about one hundred and twenty other believers. Perhaps among them were the seventy-two believers whom Jesus sent out ahead of Him to announce the coming of the kingdom of God.

From this we can understand that during His time on earth Jesus didn't lead great numbers of people to believe in Himself. Jesus' main goal while on earth was to train and spiritually equip a small number of disciples.

To these disciples, then, Jesus gave the work of preaching the Gospel and establishing His church all over the world.

Peter, it seems, was the main leader of this group of believers. Here Peter refers to a prophecy of David, the great king of the Jews. David had prophesied in the Old Testament that one of Jesus' close friends would betray Him.
To qualify for taking Judas' place among the twelve disciples, one needed to have been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry and to have seen Him after He rose from the dead.

First the disciples chose two men who were equally qualified to be the twelfth disciple. Then they asked the Lord to show them which of the two He had chosen. Then they drew lots.

They trusted that the lot would fall to the man of God's choice, because they knew that God controlled the casting of lots.

This is the only place in the New Testament where the casting of lots is mentioned as a means of finding out God's will. Most Christians believe that ever since the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, it has not been necessary to cast lots to learn what God's will is.

The reason, they say, is because the Holy Spirit is now available to all believers, and He is fully able to show them what God's will is in specific circumstances

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