Appoint Matthias in the Church

 Appoint Mathias in the Church

Acts 1:15 - 26

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.” 18 (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “ ‘May another take his place of leadership.’ 21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” 23 So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Why the disciples have to choose Matthias? Can't they do the ministry with out the 12th one? What is the necessity? 

Have you ever thought of it?

When I was meditating on this, the revelation I received from God is this. The answer is in verse 15 itself. Peter said "the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David".

"It is for the fulfillment of the word of God" . To that reason they had chosen Matthias.

If we think about this little deeply, the 11 disciples were together praying and waiting for God's direction. There were already as a group. It is possible that God could have fulfilled His work with just 11 men, but yet to fulfill His word, the Lord used Peter to choose Matthias.

Even today, we need to appoint Matthias in our Churches. I know at this point you might ask me as, we don't have to follow that, because God has not given us any specific number or something else for our Church. True. The Lord may not have said anything about the number of disciples but it is possible that Holy Spirit would have spoken to you to form different groups in the Church to take care and oversee different activities.

In the early Church, the Lord has led the disciples to do such things. We read this in Acts 6 as well. They appointed group of men to take care of the widows in the Church.

So it is applicable to today's Church as well. Whether it is small or big, the responsibilities needs to be shared. I understand that there will be issues, but I firmly believe that God will definitely guide us.

So pastors, please do not take up the entire responsibility of the Church, but share it with the other members. Only then they will also get the sense of responsibility.

God bless you

 

The power of Corporate Prayer

 In this message I would like to share how God bless us when the Church pray together.

The power of corporate prayer sermon 

The first corporate prayer in the Bible (After Jesus had taken up)

The first blessing that we receive is that we get guidance from God.  

Acts 1:14 says

Corporate prayer in the book of Acts

"They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers"

- Apostles received guidance from God. 

(This could be our corporate prayer sample)

Power of corporate prayer - Received Guidance

The situation here is that, after Jesus Christ resurrected, He spent 40 days with His disciples and then He has taken up to heaven. Now suddenly the disciples were left alone. All these three and half years the disciples were together with Jesus and I am sure they must have had wonderful time with Him. They must have enjoyed His presence completely. Now suddenly the Lord has taken up. 

The disciples did not know where to go, what to do and they must have confused and worried about their future. No one knows what should be next step and how they are going to continue His ministry. Before His ascension The Lord has commanded them to preach the gospel and make disciples all around the world. So again they must have been wondering how they are going to accomplish that.

Now in this situation, they all got together and they were praying. Before they started their ministry they were praying constantly. If you read further passage, you can understand how God beautifully guided them to select and include one more person with them. This is what we get when the Church pray together constantly. We get a clear guidance from God about our future. What we need to do and how we need to do. God will guide in all of them. So my dear people of God, let us start praying together as Church from now on and God will guide us wonderfully. 

Secondly,

Acts 4:31 says, (Corporate prayer scripture)

"After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly"

- They received the power and boldness to preach the Gospel

Power of corporate prayer - Received power

The situation here is that, after Peter and John had been warned by the Pharisees and the elders for not to speak about this gospel, they both came to the Church and informed the Church members about it. When they heard that instead of running away to find safety for themselves, they started praying. They might have been terrified about this threatening, but they refused to run away from the situation.  And then they decided to pray.

Today we are also facing the same situation all around the world. So many of our Christian brothers and sisters are suffering all around the world for their faith. Have we ever thought about that? Have we ever prayed for them with much concern and burden. This is the least thing that we can do? Are we doing this? If not, then it is time for us to ask ourselves why? Are we not concerned? Are we not considering them as part of our extended family? OR Are we selfish? Does our selfish ambitions preventing to think about such things? Simply we do not have time? What else could be the reason? Haven't the Lord commanded us to love one another? When do we get to do that? We can't say that, we do not know about such things, because in the present age the information is readily available. 

Oh...There are so much to ask ourselves. I will leave it to you. But my dear brothers and sisters, this is the time that we need to sit and think what we have done Christ. God had chosen us not just to hear just the theology on every Sunday's but to practice the Christian principle daily.

And when they prayed together, they received the power and boldness. For what, to preach the gospel. Again for the early Christians, the top most priority in life is to share this good news with others. Though the roman empire had given them the warning, they received the boldness for that situation to preach the gospel. So let us make this as a priority in our life.    

Acts 12:5

Corporate Prayer meeting

"So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."

- They witnessed God's deliverance

Power of corporate prayer - Received deliverance

Again, even after Peter and some of the brothers were put in Jail, the Church did not afraid. They were praying through out the night. The Church was earnestly praying. Not just for the sake of praying. But they were praying whole heartedly with much burden and concern in their heart. They were not afraid, had not given priority to anything else. They were ready to give their life for the Lord.

And when they prayed earnestly they witnessed Lord's deliverance.

These are some of the corporate prayer given in the Bible.

My dear people of God today is the day to turn away from our selfish motives and actions. If you do something for the people of God you are doing it for the Lord.

May God bless you with boldness and burden to do something for His people.

Note: If you have any question, please write it in the comment section 

What the early Church had done after ascention of Jesus?

 What the early Church had done after ascention of Jesus?

Acts 1:12-14

“Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

After Jesus was taken up in the sky, the disciples had returned to the place where they were staying along with the women, Mary, mother of Jesus and His brothers. Verse 14 says that they all joined together constantly in prayer. Before they had started their ministry, the first thing they had done is prayed together and this they had done constantly. 

Not that they had done once or twice and then left it but they had prayed constantly.

Two things that we can learn from the above verses.

1.       First thing they had done before starting their ministry is prayer. We all know what happened when Peter stood up and preached. That is the power of prayer. The situation here is that, all these previous 3 and half years they were going along with Jesus, wherever He went and they were enjoying.                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                         They were amazed, puzzled, joyful, happy and secured. Although Jesus told them many times upfront on what is going to happen, yet I am sure that they would have definitely be missing Jesus. They might have been depressed and sad. Probably felt more insecure about their future.   But in that situation what they had done is prayed together constantly. 

Yes, the individual prayer is important but corporate prayer is also equally important. Jesus also took three disciples along with Him to the mountain to pray. So it is very important that we as a Church should pray together. That when we are struggling with this pandemic situation all over the world it is very much the need of the hour. 

This has to be done before we start any Church activities, only then the Church will be able to see the fruits of the ministry. I think today’s Church is missing this a lot. So Church, people of God, please take this seriously and use this opportunity to pray for the salvation of this world and also for our own brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.      

The second thing that we can learn from the above passage is that they were together. See, after Jesus had taken up, they had not dispersed or scattered. They felt the need for staying together. Why, because they had one common goal or objective, that is the great commission Jesus had given to them. Had they thought like, ok as long as Jesus was on this earth, we were ministering with Him, but now we are left alone and we need to do something for our future, then they would have left everything and each one would have gone on their own way. But they did not choose that option. 

They felt the need of staying together at this difficult time. For us also the Church is very much important in our life. We should be closely knitted with the Church. Only then we will be able to withstand in our spiritual journey. And we should embrace the goal of the Church as our personal goal or objective. All the members of the Church should have a common goal or purpose, only then God can use the Church effectively and we all need to work towards that purpose. So so people of God again this is also very important. 

We need to make a decision today.

 So start now to pray together as Church and carry out what Jesus has commanded us to do with one mind. Help one another in the Church both physically and spiritually, in this difficult times

Let this be the daily activity of each member in the Church worldwide.

 

Then see how God works!!!!

Build One another

Build one another

Build One another up

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" - 1 TH 5:11

I was reading an article about how a single mother in US is struggling to bring up her children by working thru 3 different jobs. I don't know how much time she spends in those jobs and I don't know how much time that she will have for her children in a week. But I understand that it must be a real struggle for her and also I believe lots of single mother in US goes thru such difficult time in their life.

The same article also states that she is a regular church goer. But there is no mention about how much the Church was helping her in such difficult times. If there is no such help offered then I wonder how such people can get motivation to go to Church week on week. I do agree that God's word is a great comfort for all of us in times of trouble. But God instituted the Church to grow spiritually along with others. We need one another to stay in faith in such a difficult time.

If you read Acts chapters 1 and 2, you will understand that even the physical needs of the people from the Church are met by God making the new believers to sell their property. They brought that to apostles and they distributed that among believers. As Jesus promised in Mathew 10, He had taken care of their daily needs.

The reason that the early Church was growing at rapid speed was this, that they cared for one another, loved one another, shared what they had one another and so on. But in today's Christian community we don't see such things. No one care about other members in Church, in fact Church becomes a hanging out place or a club used for couple of hours every week. Then how do we expect the Church to grow.

So, first of all we need to clean our Church internally so that the non-believers will get an opportunity to see the inner spirit of the Church. Therefore encourage one another. Encourage each other and build each other up. There are so many verses in the Bible about building each other up but yet we do not obey His commands.  In today's scenario, NO Church is speaking about the unity in the Church OR about one another. And this is happening for years and years. I believe that this is time to change. The Church must change so that God can work wonders through Church.

God Bless You!