We're going To finish out chapter one today. We're going to be in verses 12 through 26 and the title of today's message is faith in waiting, as we see the 11 disciples and a few others went back to the upper room as this passage talks about, they knew that Jesus's promise of sending the Holy Spirit would ring true, but they had to wait, and they had things to do, things to be faithful about. And may we, as we read these words, we hear this message this morning, we realize that Jesus's promise of sending the Holy Spirit did ring true, and the Holy Spirit is here with us even today. But Jesus is coming back, but until he comes back, we still have a job to do. So if you would stand with me as we honor God by the reading of His Holy Word, Acts chapter one, beginning in verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called off all of it, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered they entered the upper room where they were staying, Peter John James and Andrew Philip and Thomas Bartholomew, Matthew James, son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All of these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all about 120 he said brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle of and all of his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, accoladema, that is filled of blood, for it is written in the book of Psalms. May his camp become desolate and let there be no one to dwell in it. And let us take let us let another take his office. So one of the men who have accompanied us accompanied us during all of this time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness To His resurrection. And they put forward two Joseph called bar service and the other called justice. Who was who was called justice and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You Lord, who know the hearts of all show which one of these two you have chosen to take place in the ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles father Speak to our hearts this morning to show us how we could be a faithful church in waiting for your return. We ask all of this in your son, Jesus's name. Amen, you may be seated well this morning, I want to show you four core values, core values of the early church. And these core values are the things that gave them the faith that they needed while waiting for the promise. You know, every church should have core values, and in the near future, we are working on putting some of our core values in into writing. So if you ask somebody, Hey, what is first Baptist by. Room all about, Well, number one is the gospel, preaching the Word, sharing our faith, giving family. Those could be any of those, and all of those could be our core values. But today, this isn't an exhaustive list, by the way, but from from the passage that we just read, we're going to look at four prominent core values that made itself known in these in these verses to to the disciples and the others who went back to the Upper Room. Probably the upper room was maybe the same upper room that they ate the Lord the Last Supper in went back up there, and they hash all these things out. And so the first core value that we see is community and fellowship. When we see this spelled out in verses 12 and 13 in Acts, the early church gathered together in unity for support and to strengthen one another, their hearts were broken. First of all, they thought Jesus had had died. And then imagine the joy when his message rang true that he will conquer the grave. And so Jesus is back. He was back with them for approximately 40 days. We know 40 means the number of completion and things like that. So so he was with them, we can say, 40 days or so, until his instructor last instructions had finished. But then he's gone again. He's ascended to heaven to be an intercessor between us and the Lord. And so they're probably little heartbroken once again, Jesus has left them again. And so they they meet together for pure strength and to spur joy out of one another with their community and fellowship. Luke reminds us who those 11 disciples apostles were along with some women, Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. But these men and women assembled to make up the nucleus of the very first church, the church in Jerusalem. These people right here, the 11, few women, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the brothers, they make up the nucleus of the first church ever. And so community and fellowship had to be of the utmost importance to them. You. So when they get back to the Jerusalem community. We need we need to also know that this is the same city where Jesus the founder of the church, the founder of the Christian movement that gave rise to this gathering. This is the same city where Jesus had just been put to death. They're still there. They're still grieving. They're still upset. So the characteristics of their community and their fellowship were this, and it's simple, don't miss this. What should be the characteristics of our community and fellowship, even here today, or any church, prayer and unity, prayer and unity, characteristics of their meeting, their gathering, so similar today many churches, including first Baptist Byron, we emphasize the importance of community. It's so important that you're here on Sundays and Wednesdays and special events and things like that, because that's where you get strength from one another. This world beat you up. You go out to work, you go even to the grocery store, just drive in the parking lot. Everybody will take you off, except for Chick fil A, and they're closed today, but this world will give you grief, and so that's why it's important to come back as a body of Christ and meet in unity. And so we have such encouraging fellowship here among our believers, our members, through various activities, through small groups, through worship, the women's ministry had an incredible event yesterday that I got to go. And you know, they don't let men go. They'll let their preacher go. I think it was more of a guilt thing because they played it. They they played a game about me, and I haven't quite figured that out yet, but that's probably why I was welcome. But we have, we emphasize the importance of community. We have encouraging fellowship among one another through our activities, through our small groups, through our worship. The goal of this fellowship and this community within our church is to strengthen one another. The phrase one another is used over 100 times in Scripture, and you've probably heard me say this before, over 100 times the phrase one another is used in Scripture, if. 59 of those times are a direct instruction on how to support and treat one another. You see during World War Two, the enemy conducted experiments to find the most effective type of punishment for eliciting information from prisoners of war, and so they found that solitary confinement was the most effective, because after a few days in solitary confinement, the prisoner of war would tell all. Most would tell all. That's why we need fellowship. That's why it was important for the army, the soldiers to stay together and as a unit to strengthen one another. That's why it's important for church members to be with one another and not forsake the gathering of the community and the fellowship in the local church is because you need to find this fellowship to strengthen one another. Without it, we too become easy, pray for temptation and abandonment of our values. So the first core values that we see in this early church is that of fellowship and community. The second is this, and it's huge, prayer as a priority. Number two, prayer is a priority. Verse 14 says this. All of these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer together, together, prayer together. The early disciples, they devoted themselves to prayer as a central part of their waiting for the Holy Spirit and and for Luke, prayer as as as a commuting with God is a mark of true Christian discipleship. You want to grow as a disciple, as a follower of Christ. Strengthen your prayer life. Talk to the Father, talk to God and and persistent prayer is often the setting of most major events in all of Luke's writings, you see a big event take place in the Gospel of Luke in Acts, it's centered around prayer. That's why our 40 days of prayer and fasting was so important. We position ourselves in prayer and fasting to hear from God and let God do what only God can do. Because these, these, these episodes of prayer, of of big things that happen in Luke's writings that centered around prayer. How is God doing? What only God can do? God, we're not going to fill up these pews. We're not going to save anyone, but we're going to be faithful and pray and go and share the gospel and let God do what only God can do. Not Brian, not you. We have to be faithful, and then God can do what only He could do. So so right here the community's prayer of expectation. Think about this. They're praying, Hey, God, this is what we expect. We're expecting the coming of baptism with the Spirit, Holy Spirit's coming that this expectation, this prayer that they're praying. It parallels. Don't miss this. Don't miss everybody. Look up here. Don't miss this. It's easy to read Scripture and miss some stuff, but I'm fixing, I'm fix to tell you something that that is powerful. So don't miss this. They're praying and they're expecting. Here comes the Holy Spirit. Luke uses this as an opportunity to show that the very first church did the same exact thing that Jesus Christ did before he started his ministry. He prayed. They sought wisdom from God when you look when you look at Luke, 321, Jesus, before his baptism, He's baptized in Luke 321, right before his baptism, he's in the wilderness. He's wandering for 40 days and 40 nights, praying, fasting. Hey, God, I'm about to start my ministry. What you got from me. Come on, speak to me. God, use me. Make your self known. The early church did the first the exact same thing that their leader, their Savior, did they position themselves for prayer, to seek God's will. Church, ain't nothing going to happen. That's right. English teachers, I said, ain't, ain't nothing going to happen in this church that doesn't first come from prayer and us seeking the will of God. So what a joy it is to know that the very first church did what Jesus did. And so you, Luke uses the nerd. You. A little bit more, Luke uses an adverb frequently throughout his writings, and that adverb is hamathum. Okay, write it down. You'll impress your friends one day. Probably not, but this adverb that Luke uses throughout his writings simply means, at its core, unanimously with one mind. Let that sink in, unanimously with one you. You want to see something powerful. This one word describes remarkable harmony and unity of the early Christians today, February 23 2025 as the church at Byrom is gathered today, 2000 plus years later, prayer remains the vital practice in the church's life. We have prayer meetings because we know it's important, and prayer meeting works. Prayer works, we have individual intercession where you pray over someone else, or you pray in your prayer closet. Prayer works. These are significant, significant components, church to worship and the community. It's not going to happen without prayer. So number two, prayer has got to be a priority. Number three, core value that we see another core value that we see is leadership and guidance. We look at verse 15, we see Peter takes the initiative. You see in, in Acts the apostles, they sought divine guidance in, in choosing a replacement for for Judas Iscariot, the one that betrayed, betrayed Jesus, and ultimately led to Jesus's crucifixion and death. But what they're doing is that as they are praying and seeking divine guidance, this highlights the need for leadership within the church. The Church needs leadership. Imagine if everyone was a chief. You You've been in organizations like that where everyone's a chief and not an Indian. Well, they needed this. They needed someone to step up. And so verse 15 talks, Peter stood up in the midst of his brother. And so Peter assumes the role of spokesman, Peter. He's portrayed throughout the Gospel of Luke. He's portrayed throughout acts as one of the primary leaders among the apostles. And although that doesn't mean that he possessed soul authority, he is seen as one of the primary leaders in the group. And so this is a continuation of the esteem that that Peter enjoyed and the Gospel of Luke and and so now Peter is seeing carrying out the role of which Jesus spoke in Luke. 2231 32 don't, don't miss it. You going to hear me say here in the next little bit, don't miss this, because there are just, there are nuggets of gold throughout this passage of what's going on here that tie back to who Jesus is. And so when we look at the role of which Jesus spoke of Peter in Luke, 22 verses, 31 and 32 this is what Jesus says to Peter, Simon. Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. And Jesus is getting ready to break the news to Peter that you're you're going to deny me. You're going to deny me? Peter said, No, I never will. Yeah, you will. And so few verses before that, he says, Satan demanded to have you so that he can sift you lightly. Satan wants you same messages for you. Satan wants you. He doesn't want Jesus to have you. Satan wants you to be his minion. And then he says, Jesus says in verse 32 but you gotta love it. Satan wants you, but Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Oh, what power can you imagine Jesus looking at you square in the eyes and saying, I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Jesus has done that for you. Church. I pray for you that your faith may not fail. And then Jesus says, And when you have turned again, when you've turned back to the light, when you realize Peter that you have sinned and that you. Denied me when you turn back and you repent from what you have done, strengthen your brothers. Let that seek in, strengthen your brothers. And so we see here verse 15, Peter's probably got this conversation in the back of his mind. Look what I did to Jesus, but Satan didn't win. But what was it that Jesus told me, once I've conquered Satan, strengthen my brothers. So brothers Jesus, Peter says he addresses them as brothers. And so this, this is often the name for fellow Christians throughout acts. We think in the church that it's that it's antiquated, brothers and sisters. And, you know, you know, got brother John over here and and brother Corey and then, and I like, Oh, that's so 19 6019. Said, No, it's biblical. It's Biblical. I don't care if you call me brother Brian or not. If you won't do that, that's you. You you just call me Brian, but I know that I'm your brother in Christ. So whether you remind me of that or not, I don't care. I know. I know I'm your brother. But biblically, Peter addresses them as brothers, because this is the name for fellow Christians that we see throughout the book of Acts. We see it used about 30 times in the book of Acts alone, and in these instances it has nothing to do with blood relationship or kinship, but it has everything to do with the closeness experienced by those bonded together as followers of the risen Jesus Christ. Nothing about blood, but everything about Jesus. But in Acts 229, acts 317, we'll get to in a few weeks, Peter addresses the Jews assembled in Jerusalem with the same title, Jews and Gentiles are referred to as brothers, showing that Jesus Christ is the uniting factor of it all. And so today, the churches continue to seek God's direction in selecting leaders like Peter did to begin with, to make decisions. It's often through prayer and congregational involvement. You know, we have a nominating committee that puts forth, Hey, these are the people that we want on these committees to to help lead our church. We have Deacon elections. Our we are a deacon led church. Our deacons, I've said this on Wednesday nights, our deacons serve as a deacon, which is a leader, the biblical role of a deacon is a leader. And they also serve as our elders, which the biblical role of an elder is to be administrative. And so they serve as Deacon elders in our church, and you vote on that. That's what you vote on around September or October, when we put the Deacons in front of you to vote on who's going to be our deacons for the next year. That's what you're voting on. And so we have leaders in this church. We've got pastor myself, got deacons, we've got staff members, we've got committees. Those are the leaders in our church. Peter stood up and he said, I will be that leader for now. Let's get this ball rolling, and I'm going to show some leadership capabilities. And so one of the one of the sweetest spirits, though, about First Baptist Byram, is the unity that these these leaders exude. I have yet to be in a in a meeting with, with any group of people that is just a knock down, drag out fight. You hear that in churches that that happens and everything, but we have a sweet spirit of unity. That's not saying we don't disagree on stuff, but when we walk out of the room, whatever the group has decided, whatever the leadership has decided, that's what we're running with, and we're not going to have these back haul conversations of, well, I tried to tell them that wasn't a good idea. Now, if that's that's not leadership. That's betrayal. When you're sitting in a meeting and you're a leader of a church, especially, and all of this is being discussed, that's the time to hash it out. When you leave that room, we're all united, that this is what we believe the Lord is calling our church to do, and we're united on that front. And that's one of the sweetest spirits about First Baptist Byron that I have the privilege of serving with these leaders that are just so unified. I picture our unity much like this setting in the upper room where where Pastor Peter is addressing the congregation, and he's saying, okay, church, we got work to do. Yeah, we're sad. Jesus has ascended to the Father. We're sad, but the war still goes on. We've got work to do. And they were unified. You see true leaders rise to the top, especially in difficult times that they're like beans in a jar of peas. I just that, just woke up. Half of you right there, beans in a jar of peas. Anybody ever heard this? This is unique. You gotta you got. This is your task, kids. Children, when you get home, tell your mom and dad to get you some beans and peas, put them in a in a mason jar. Or something, and then what you do is, you, you, you take them, you, you place them in the jar, you shake them up vigorously, and every time, the peas will always settle at the bottom of the beans, and the beans will always be on the top. It's weird. I know it's weird. So it is with godly men and women, they can never be held down and shaken up. If they truly have leadership ability and love for God, they will always, always, always rise to the top. And so the third thing that we look at is is the leadership and guidance. We've got to have godly leadership and guidance. And let me tell you real quick. I didn't plan on saying this, but God may be calling some of you to be leaders in this church, and you're not being faithful to that call. We currently have nine Deacons in this church, and that is a lot to do for nine people. So God may be calling you to be a deacon. God may be calling you to serve on a committee, to be a greeter, to be a smiling face when people walk through the door. We've gotta have leaders in this church, and these leaders need to have this ability and love for God so that you will always rise to the top. Lastly, number four, engagement with scripture, and this is going to be focused on verses 16 through 20. I know we went through verse 26 but there's a lot there. We'll, we'll kind of get to that here in a second. But Peter's speech continues. It's, it's emphasis on one key thing, the fulfillment of Scripture. You see, a good leader is not going to forsake scripture. That that's why I work really, when I'm when I'm planning a sermon. You even in this sermon, we've been in several, I've I've referenced several chapters in Acts we we're about to talk about Psalms, and I've been in I've been in Luke, because the entire Bible compliments one another. It compliments one another. So I can't explain one thing without saying, but look what Jesus did over here, or look what God said into action in the Old Testament. This is why Luke wrote this because David wrote this in Psalm. That's why we I'm not just skipping around. It's important. We've got to engage with Scripture. And so Peter's speech continues its emphasis with the fulfillment of Scripture. But don't miss this church once again, don't miss it. Here's another nugget. Peter says to the disciples and the people in the upper room, here's what he says, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which wait for it. The Holy Spirit spoke, where's the Book of Psalm, the Old Testament? Jesus says, send the Holy Spirit. Church, the holy spirit is alive and acting all throughout Scripture and time. And so when we look at Peter talking to the disciples, say the Scripture had to be fulfilled because the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas. No, David didn't, didn't know Judas name, he didn't know the exact details of what would transcribe. But, but, but Peter cites that the Holy Spirit was the one who inspired King David to pen the words that Peter is about to read to the disciples, the same Holy Spirit they're currently waiting on Jesus to send to them and lead, guide and direct them. He's saying, yeah, he's already been here, and he spoke to David and inspired him to write these words. So we get down to verse 20 and Peter quotes two more passages of Scripture, like I said, derived from Psalm 69 verse 29 and Psalm 109, verse eight. And here's what he says, Don't miss this church. Listen, this is what the original Psalm 69 and Psalm 109 says, Let their encampment become desolate in their tents. Let there be no dweller. Okay, if you just read that, you may be like, What on earth is going on? This is why good Bible study needs to take place. And then in in Psalm 109, verse eight, he says, Let, I'm sorry, what Peter says, so what? What it actually says in Psalm, let their encampment become desolate. What Peter says to the to the disciples in the upper room, let his estate, his encampment, become desolate and and then he says, Let there be no one to dwell on it. You see the first quotation of this scripture refers to the past. That that we just refers to the past Judas post has now become desolate, and there's no one to hold it. What are we going to do about it? But do you see what Luke does? The emphasis that I put on, what the original Psalm says and what how Luke stated it, between using the pronoun there and the pronoun his, what Peter does, what Peter does is he. He changes there to his and in their tents to own it, making it more applicable to Judas. David may not have had a clue who he was writing about, but after it happened, the Jewish follower, the people like Luke, the Gentile followers, people like Luke, the disciples, who knew Old Testament, Scripture. They knew what King David meant, wholeheartedly at that point when it happened. What what Peter does in this speech? This is, this is a lengthy Psalm. It it's personal lament, and it expresses a curse over enemies. That's what it's doing. David is cursing his enemies. And so what Peter does in this speech by quoting this psalm that early Christians often applied to Jesus's passion, what Jesus did is that he uses it as a biblical prediction of what has come to pass with Judas, betrayal and death. So here, here it is, his post has become desolate and empty with no one to occupy it. You see the connection between Old Testament, Scripture and what has come to pass. We're not forsaking scripture. We're realizing that that Scripture is 100% applicable, applicable in this situation, church, stay in the Word of God. Stay in the Word of God. It is going to bring light and truth and hope to you in in the worst times of your life, it's going to you're going to find nuggets of strength. You're going to find these aha moments like whoa. And never put that together. Stay in the Word of God. And so as we're looking at that what, what Peter is doing here, tying Psalm to acts in this situation, we see that just as God judged the betrayers, David wrote about in Psalm 69 and Psalm 109 just as God judged those, so God has judged and punished Judas, it came true the one who betrayed the son of David. And then he says, Psalm 1098 let another take his office. The second quotation of Scripture taken taken from Psalm 1098 refers to the future. First one was the past. This was the future. It's also a lament, a cry for deliverance from enemies and and Peter applies it to Judas, the opponent of Jesus. And he says, let another take over his overseeing office. So what does that have to do with the early church? What was it? What is it? Anything to do with it? Because it kind of sounds like Brian, you just went off on a tangent, and it's 10 after 11, and I've really tried hard. There's just so much stuff in here, it's hard to keep it under 30 minutes, and I hope I don't bore you with it, but it's just so important that we get this right church. But what does this have to do with the only the early church? Well, the quotations from the two Psalms provide a biblical basis for Peter's proposal to the Christian community. Peter is basically standing up to make a motion. If you ever been to a business meeting, I make a motion that we do this. So Peter is standing up. He's making a motion that we need to proceed with replacing Judas. And he says, here's the scriptural evidence why we need to do this. Church everything we do must be backed up by Scripture. Must be backed up by the evidence of why we need to do said thing, it's got to be backed up by biblical teaching, biblical interpretation, and this is foundational to our beliefs what we do and why we do it, if, if we're not going to utilize scripture, if we're not going to open the Bible and read the Bible and apply it to what God is calling us to do in our personal lives, in our family and in our church, in our community, if we're not going to utilize that God's holy message. To us, then it's time that we pack up, we sell these facilities, we make a pretty penny for it and and donate it to whoever we want to and and we go home and we watch baseball. Now, nothing wrong with baseball, but there's a higher calling in our life. We've got to focus on scripture, church, the Bible is necessary for our safe passage through this life, just like oxygen is to sustain our physical life. That's how important the Bible is. Once there was a mother who who found her five year old daughter with a brand new Bible, and she's got this Bible open and she's got a pen, and every time she sees the word God, the name God, she circles it. Well, her mother was startled to find her doing that, and her first reaction was was to reprimand the child for defacing a Bible, a book, especially a Bible. However, the mother patiently, quietly, calmly, said, Why are you doing that? And the five year old, as a matter just as matter of fact as she could, looked up at her mom, gave the answer and said, so that I will know where to find God when I need him. Wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be nice church to have the confidence that that all we had to do was open a storybook and find God waiting for us to find out the answers to what's next in our lives. How do I handle this situation with my family? How do I deal with this in our church? How do I serve in our church? I love other. Wouldn't it be nice to have a storybook that would tell us all of that? The truth is, we do have a book. It's called the Bible, the Holy Bible. And so as we close out chapter one, here's the rest of the story. As Paul Harvey would say, y'all just thought I was too young to know that, didn't you? The remainder of chapter one talks about two men, we hardly and no one, no one knows anything about them really, except for you know they. Peter mentions that, you know, from the time of John's baptism and until the resurrection, these two men were close followers observance and all of that, neither of these figure appear anywhere in the New Testament and and although this, this narrative of Acts, does not provide details about Joseph or Matthias, it implies that both of these men were worthy candidates to replace Judas as the 12th disciple. Here's a here's an interesting thing has nothing to do why with why he was chosen to replace Judas. But Matthias is name literally means gift of Yahweh. Gift of Yahweh to replace Judas. Verse 24 says, 24 and 25 says, as they prayed and said, You, oh, Lord, know the hearts of all. Don't, don't, don't. Miss that phrase, you, Lord, know the hearts of all. Show which of these to you have chosen to take the place the ministry of the apostleship from Judas, who turned aside to go his own place, church. The description right here, you Lord, know the hearts of all. We're also going to see that again when we get to chapter 15, verse eight, Peter's going to use it again. He stands up at the Jerusalem Council defending the Gentile Christians. They're saying the Gentile Christians have to observe certain Jewish customs in order to be saved? Yeah, you can profess Jesus as your savior, but you've also gotta do that. We covered that in Galatians, But, but Peter stands up. He's defending the Gentile Christian, saying, no, they don't have to do that. And then in verse eight, chapter 15, verse eight, Peter says, And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he gave to us. You see, the disciples acknowledged that God perceived their needs and their motives and would guide them in the way that is best. Let me say that one more time as this is the this is closing. Okay, so focus in. Don't get distracted. Don't worry about packing up your stuff. This is important. This. This is the hinge of this whole story has nothing to do with Judas and the conflict between Matthew said he hung himself. Luke says that he fell in his field. And what it says that's for a different time. It has nothing to do with the process of them casting lots to lots fell on Matthias to be the the replacement. Nothing to do that. If you focus on those things, you're going to miss what we would often call the big idea. You. But one more time listen in the disciples acknowledged. They acknowledged that God perceived their needs and their motives and would guide them in the way that was best, perceive their needs, perceive their motives and would guide them in the way that he would see best, First Baptist fire. As we go forward into the next 200 years of our church history, unless Jesus comes back, let us today acknowledge that God knows your needs, God knows your motives, and God will guide you in the way that it's best you