by Timothy W. Burnett
Upon their return to Jerusalem they lodged in an upper room and continued together in prayer and supplication. Many of the women were with them including Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus' brothers were also there. According to custom, the women would have stayed in another room.
Verse 13 lists the disciples. Judas is missing from the list. Sometime after Jesus gave instructions to the disciples and his ascension, Judas left to the place where he eventually killed himself. According to verse 17, he was numbered with the apostles and obtained part of the ministry. This was the same Judas who guided the Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers to Jesus. Judas purchased land with some of the money given for his service as a guide to Jesus. Later he came back to the property and intentionally fell on a sword. Verse 18 gives a pretty detailed description of this moment. From that time on, the field of land was popularly known as the field of blood.
This was the subject of Peter's words to all the disciples, and finished by quoting from Psalms 69:25 and 109:8, "Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein. And his overseeing position let another take." Also, please notice that Peter referred to Judas as still having this position up to his death. Peter understood the love of God enough to know that even Judas could have changed and served as one of the first apostles. We've already seen in the Gospels how all the chosen apostles forsook Jesus when he was arrested, and how none of them believed the report of Mary the Magdalene. The difference was the Judas was consumed with a rebellious heart, and when he saw the Lord Jesus ascend to God in heaven he, no doubt, must have fallen completely to the will of satan to the point of killing himself.
After talking about Judas, Peter took charge of the process of replacing Judas according to the scripture in Psalms. He said, "Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us. Beginning from the baptism of John to that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection" (Acts 1:21-22). They chose two of the disciples, Joseph Barsabas surnamed Justus and Matthias. They prayed, "Lord who knows the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." they put forth the lots and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
There was a reason for picking somebody who had been with Jesus from the baptism of John until the day he ascended. Romans 10:9-10 teaches that believing with the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is unto righteousness. The twelve had to be fully persuaded from the inner depths of their minds that Jesus was and still is the son of God and that God raised him from the dead. As we will see in Acts 2:4, righteousness is related to being filled with holy spirit.
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