eyes and penetrated their hearts in a way that even his life could not do.
We are told that the number of the disciples was about 120. That is one of the most uplifting things in the New Testament. There were only 120 pledged to Christ, and it is very unlikely that any of them had ever been outside the narrow confines of Palestine – but these 120 ordinary men and women were told to go out and evangelize the whole world. If ever anything began from small beginnings, the Christian Church did. We may well be the only Christians in our shop, our factory, our office, in our circle of family and friends. These disciples gallantly faced their task, and so must we; and it may be that we too will be the small beginning from which the kingdom in our area of life will spread.
The great interest of this passage is the fate of Judas. What exactly the Greek means here is uncertain; but in Matthew’s account (Matthew 27:3–5) we are left in no doubt that Judas committed suicide. It must always be a matter of speculation why Judas betrayed Jesus. Various suggestions have been put forward.
(1) It has been suggested that Iscariot means man of Kerioth. If it does, Judas was the only non-Galilaean among the apostles. It may be that he felt himself the odd one out and grew so embittered that he did this terrible thing.
(2) It may be that Judas became an informer to save his own skin and then saw the enormity of what he had done.
(3) It may be that he did it simply out of greed for money. If he did, it was the most dreadful bargain in history – for he sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, which was the equivalent of a little under six months’ pay for the average worker.
(4) It may be that Judas came to hate Jesus. From others he could disguise the evil intentions of his heart; but the eyes of Jesus could penetrate to the inmost corners of his being. It may be that in the end he was driven to destroy the one who knew him for what he was.
(5) It may be that Iscariot is a form of a Greek word which means a dagger-bearer. The ‘dagger-bearers’ were a band of violent nationalists who were prepared to undertake assassination and murder in a campaign to set Palestine free. Perhaps Judas saw in Jesus the very person who could lead the nationalists to triumph; and, when he saw that Jesus refused that way, he turned against him and in his bitter disappointment betrayed him.
(6) It is likeliest of all that Judas never meant Jesus to die, but betrayed him with the intention of forcing his hand. If that is so, Judas had the tragic experience of seeing his plan go desperately wrong, and in his bitter remorse he committed suicide.
Whatever the reason for his actions, Judas goes down in history as the most wicked name of all. There can never be any peace for anyone who betrays Christ.
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF AN APOSTLE
Acts 1:21–6
‘So then, of the men who were with us during all the time our Lord went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us – of these we must choose one to be a witness of the resurrection along with us.’ So they selected two, Joseph, who was called Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said: ‘O Lord, who knowest the hearts of all, do thou show us which of these two thou hast chosen to take his place in this service and in the apostleship, from which Judas fell away and went to his own place.’ So they made them draw lots and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was elected to be along with the eleven apostles.
WE look briefly at the method of choosing someone to take Judas’ place among the apostles. It may seem strange to us that the method was that of casting lots. But among the Jews it was the natural thing to do, because all the offices and duties in the Temple were settled that way. The names of the candidates were written on stones; the stones were put into a jar, and the jar was shaken until one stone fell out; and the one whose name was on that stone was elected to office.
The great fact about this passage is that it gives us two supremely important truths.
First, it tells us that the function of an apostle was to be a witness to the resurrection. The real mark of Christians is not that they know about Jesus but that they know Jesus. The basic mistake in Christianity is to regard Jesus as someone who lived and died and whose life we study and whose story we read. Jesus is not a figure in a book, he is a living presence; and Christians are men and women whose lives are a witness to the fact that they know and have met the risen Lord.
Second, it tells us that the qualification of an apostle was that the person must have been with Jesus. The real Christian is the one who lives day by day with Jesus. It was said of the great preacher John Brown, the eighteenth-century minister of the Scottish town of Haddington, that often when he preached he paused as if listening for a voice. The writer Jerome K. Jerome tells of an old cobbler who, on the coldest day, left the door of his shop open. On being asked why, he replied: ‘So that Jesus can come in if he is passing by.’ We often speak about what would happen if Jesus were here and how differently we would live if he were in our homes and at our work. The daughter of the British politician W. H. Smith, Lady Emily Acland, tells how once her little daughter had a spasm of temper. Afterwards, she and the daughter were sitting on the stairs making up again, and the little girl said: ‘I wish Jesus would come and stay in our house all the time.’ But the fact is that Jesus is here; and real Christians are those who live all their lives with Christ.
THE DAY OF PENTECOST
WE may never know precisely what happened on the Day of Pentecost, but we do know that it was one of the supremely great days of the Christian Church – for, on that day, the Holy Spirit came to the Christian Church in a very special way.
Acts has been called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit; so, before we turn to detailed consideration of its second chapter, let us take a general view of what Acts has to say about the Holy Spirit.
The Coming of the Spirit
It is perhaps unfortunate that we so often speak of the events at Pentecost as the coming of the Holy Spirit. The danger is that we may think that the Holy Spirit came into existence at that time. That is not so; God is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact, Acts makes that quite clear. The Holy Spirit was speaking in David (Acts 1:16); the Spirit spoke through Isaiah (Acts 28:25); Stephen accuses the Jews of having opposed the Spirit all through their history (Acts 7:51). In that sense, the Spirit is God in every age revealing his truth. At the same time, something special happened at Pentecost.
The Work of the Spirit in Acts
From that moment, the Holy Spirit became the dominant reality in the life of the early Church.
For one thing, the Holy Spirit was the source of all guidance. The Spirit moves Philip to make contact with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29), prepares Peter for the coming of the messengers from Cornelius (Acts 10:19), orders Peter to go without hesitation with these messengers (Acts 11:12), enables Agabus to foretell the coming famine (Acts 11:28), orders the setting apart of Paul and Barnabas for the momentous step of taking the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2, 13:4), guides the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:28), guides Paul past Asia, Mysia and Bithynia, down into Troas and from there to Europe (Acts 16:6), and tells Paul what awaits him in Jerusalem (Acts 20:23). The early Church was a Spirit-guided community.
For another thing, all the leaders of the Church were men of the Spirit. The Seven are men of the Spirit (Acts 6:3); Stephen and Barnabas are full of the Spirit (Acts 7:55, 11:24). Paul tells the elders at Ephesus that it
