St. Matthias
24 February 2013
Acts 1. 15-26
Dear friends in Christ. Today the Church remembers St. Matthias, the disciple that Christ chose to take the place of Judas who had betrayed Him and then went out and killed Himself. The only thing we know for sure about St. Matthias is what is recorded here in our text: namely, that he was with Jesus throughout His public earthly ministry which began with His baptism by John the Baptizer and continued until His ascension. Matthias, then, was an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. Very likely he was one of the 70 that Jesus sent out on a missionary tour during His ministry, but we can’t say for sure. The only event we have from Matthias’ life is his selection as apostle to take the place of Judas. Never again is he mentioned in Scripture. According to one tradition, Matthias made his way down to Ethiopia and was killed there on account of his faith and confession; another tradition has him being stoned and beheaded in Jerusalem. Either way, like the other apostles, except John, he died in the confession of his faith and the proclamation of Christ.
This festival day of St. Matthias is one of great blessing to us because he becomes for us a picture/reminder of Christ’s continual care of His Church as He selects St. Matthias to replace Judas. We are reminded that, even today, Jesus is present and active in His Church.
1. Our text: And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said… So that raises the question: What are those days? It was the 10 days between Jesus’ ascension and the day of Pentecost, the day He sent His Holy Spirit upon His Church. In those 10 days, there was no physical presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out in full measure on the Church. But guess what? Jesus did not leave His Church like orphans; He did not leave His Church to bumble about or to be like a ship without a rudder. No, He was still active and involved in His Church.
Often in our lives we feel like the Church must have during those 10 days. We think that Christ is not with us; that He has abandoned us. But let us take heart from the example of the early Jerusalem Church. They knew that even though Christ was not physically present like He was during His earthly ministry, even though He had not yet sent them His Holy Spirit in full measure, Christ Jesus was still with them guiding and leading them—even to the point that they undertook this important task of replacing Judas by praying the present Christ to show them whom He chose to replace Judas.
What these Christians did in those days, is a glorious encouragement and preaching to us to remember and take to heart that Jesus is still with us, His Church, His dear Christians. We can go to Him in prayer and He will guide and lead us. Christ chose Matthias and revealed this to His Church at this difficult time of worry. What a great comfort to us—Christ always cares and provides for us.
Our text continues: "Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry"… Judas, one of the 12, had been so richly blessed. He was called directly by Jesus Himself. He had been entrusted with the treasury. He had heard Jesus preach. He had seen Jesus’ miracles that confirmed His teaching that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. But something went horribly wrong. He turned on Jesus, rejected Him as Savior and betraying Him became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
It was already prophesied in Scripture that Jesus would be betrayed. That’s what Peter means: this Scripture had to be fulfilled, and fulfilled in Judas. Jesus, the all-knowing God, knew Judas would betray Him; but He didn’t cause or make Judas betray Him—after all Jesus so richly blessed Judas by every grace, love and mercy, giving Judas every chance and opportunity as Judas heard Jesus preach and confirm that preaching with the miracles. The betrayal was all by Judas’ own falling and fault; it was his own will. The point for us here to remember is clear: when Jesus calls us to faith, His call is always sincere and His intent is to keep us in the faith. But if we fall away from faith, if we defect, it is purely our own fault.
Such an event—one of Jesus’ own, one of the 12, betraying Him certainly rocked that early Church. Although Peter denied Jesus, he repented—he recognized his sin and trusted in Jesus and His forgiveness and Jesus restored Peter to his office as apostle. But Judas despaired of God’s mercy and forgiveness and killed himself: Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.
Judas was out--'Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it', his damnable career ended; he lost his office when he denied the faith, Christ. But the office of apostle had to continue--'Let another take his office'. That’s because it was by His apostles that Jesus would establish His NT Church by their preaching and by their writing the NT. The Apostle Paul clearly says [Eph. 2.20] that the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. By Jesus leading the Church to replace Judas with Matthias, by Jesus directly calling Matthias into the apostolic office by the events in our text, we see how important that office of apostle is; and we see here that Jesus makes sure that the Church has what she needs. What a glorious comfort this is to us today!
As a congregation we always have many worries: a lot have to do with getting the message of Christ crucified out into our community; a lot have to do with just staying afloat; a lot have to do with the people in our congregation; a lot have to do about the future which is always unknown and can be scary. But from our text, by looking at St. Matthias, we gain strength and confidence: the Lord does not forget His Church; He does not forget His congregations; He always gives us what we need. Of course, He has given us the most vital—His holy word and sacraments. If He has given us these, certainly He will also take care of our other needs. He gave His Church St. Matthias so she would not lack what she needed.
Peter, continuing speaking, says in our text: "Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection". And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. Here are the qualifications to be an apostle and note: they have nothing to do with being a genius, persuasive speech, a people-attracting personality, great philosophy, etc. but simply one who saw and heard Jesus’ deeds and words. In other words, it was not by works or merits but by Christ’s grace that any of the 12 were apostles. An apostle was one who was with Jesus all during His public ministry beginning with His baptism by John in the Jordan River and continuing until His ascension. To be an apostle one would have to be a thoroughly competent eyewitness of the resurrection and have seen the risen Christ. That’s why there are no more apostles today, no modern day apostles. No one today saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears the miracles and preaching of Jesus; no one today was with Christ during His public ministry. The office of apostle was a very specific office and can never be repeated. Even back in the days between Ascension and Pentecost, only two men out of the 120 fit the bill. Hence, those groups—like Mormons—claiming to have a modern day “apostle” are false and are to be rejected and condemned.
Again, with the choosing of Matthias, an eyewitness, who would proclaim Jesus’ resurrection we see Christ’s care of His Church as He gives His Church what she needs, what each of us need—the message of Christ crucified and risen. Jesus has that message go out from His Church into the world in full force. The resurrection is God’s seal on Jesus’ completed work of redemption. It is the sign, proof positive, that Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the world was accepted, that He really reconciled sinful humanity to the holy God, that He is our righteousness before God and that our sins are forgiven us.
That’s precisely what we need to hear this Lenten season. Lent is all about our Savior who suffered and died for our sins. It is recognizing that each and every one of our sins drove Jesus to that cross to suffer and die to reconcile us to God, to bring about the forgiveness of our sin, to open heaven to us. It is recognizing that our sins are such a great and horrible affront to the righteousness and holiness of God, that it takes the very suffering, death, blood of His Son, that it takes divine blood, to pay the price for our sin. Yes, in Lent, we recognize the greatness of our sin and the great price God Himself paid to save us from our sin.
But Lent would do us no good, would have no meaning or significance to us if Christ Jesus did not rise from the dead. As the Apostle Paul tells us [1 Cor. 15.17]: If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!...But now Christ is risen from the dead. We see in our text Christ’s grace to us. He has the proclamation of His resurrection go out full force into the world. With His choosing Matthias, Jesus shows that He is continuing His ministry in and through His Church as He establishes His Church on that foundation of the apostles by the message of His resurrection that they are proclaiming as eyewitnesses of it.
Now, in His Church, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, built on the foundation of that word that, by His Spirit, He had them proclaim and write, Jesus continues to preach to us today. He continues to come to us in His word and proclaim to us His resurrection, proclaim to us the forgiveness of our sin, to proclaim to us that heaven is open to us. Not only through that apostolic word that was preached and, for us, written down does Jesus tell us that of His resurrection and our forgiveness, but in that holy word and in that word made visible—the holy sacraments—Jesus gives us the blessings and fruit of His Easter morning resurrection—forgiveness of sin, life, salvation.
To give us these blessings in His word and Sacrament which He entrusted to His Church, Jesus is present. To be sure, we don’t “see” Jesus, but He’s here with us. That’s what the Church of 120 did in Jerusalem that day. They didn’t “see” Jesus but they recognized He was there with them: And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Recognizing that Jesus is present, they simply prayed to Him, Show which of these two You have chosen and Jesus showed them His guardian care for them, for His Church and called Matthias.
Jesus was present and active in the Church then and there and He is present and active in His Church today guiding, leading, protecting, caring for His Church and each congregation and each Christian today. As we remember today St. Matthias, let us see him as an example of and be reminded of Jesus’ care, guidance and presence with His Church, with each of us, today. INJ Amen.