Welcome back to
Books of the Book
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I'm Pastor Mark Howard. I'm here
with by co-host, my brother,
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Pastor Jim Howard and we are
looking in to the book of Acts.
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We have been studying the book
of Acts and today we are going
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to pick up where we left off in
Acts chapter 1. In fact, we're
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going to review a little bit
and look at the driving force of
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mission behind the early
church. Now we have been in the
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practice of praying before
we open the word or get into the
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word so I'd ask if you'd just
bow your heads with me here.
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Father in heaven, we do ask that
you would bless our time in your
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word and I pray your Holy
Spirit would give us spiritual
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understanding in spiritual
things. We ask it in Jesus' name
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Amen. Now at our
last time together
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we looked at Acts chapter
1 verse 6 where the disciples
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asked Jesus a question that has
plagued them repeatedly through
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the ministry of Jesus. They're
thinking about their Messiah
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coming and building up his
earthly kingdom and they say,
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in fact I'm reading in verse
6, Therefore when they had come
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together they asked him saying
Lord will you at this time
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restore the kingdom to Israel?
And he said to them, it is not
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for you to know times or
seasons which the Father has put
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in his own authority. But
you shall receive power when the
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Holy Spirit has come upon you
and you shall be witnesses to me
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in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria and to the end of
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the earth. Now it's interesting
that Jesus says that the Father
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has put the times and seasons
in his authority, which means
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they're not insignificant, they
are important, but what Jesus is
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doing here is he's telling his
disciples I don't want you to
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get so caught up and side
tracked in trying to determine
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the time of my coming,
my return, that you forget
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the mission that
I have given you.
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And we talked last
time about the fact that the
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early church was mission driven.
It was this burden to get the
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gospel to the world that drove
them to their knees and praying
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for the power of the Holy Spirit
waiting for the promise of the
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Father so they could
carry forward the commission
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that Christ had given them.
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That's right. And I think this
particular passage is especially
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helpful when it comes to the
second coming of Christ because
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even though God specifically
wants them to focus on the
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mission, he doesn't want them
to be discouraged. Remember that
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the second coming of Christ is
the blessed hope and they needed
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to have that hope. Interestingly
the very next thing that
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happens in the book of
Acts gives us a little bit of an
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understanding of the second
coming. Let's pick up there in
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Acts chapter 1 and verse 9.
It says: Now when he had spoken
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these things while they watched
he was taken up and a cloud
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received him out of their
sight and while they looked
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steadfastly toward heaven as
he went up behold two men stood
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by them in white apparel who
also said, Men of Galilee, why
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do you stand gazing up into
heaven. This same Jesus who is
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taken up from you into heaven
will so come in like manner as
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ye saw him go into heaven.
So here they were; they were
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watching Jesus and suddenly
he began to be taken up. It's
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fascinating when you read this
passage how many places it talks
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about them just
beholding and gazing upon Jesus.
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That's right. There's several
that refer to sight, to seeing.
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That's exactly right. In verse
9 it says while they watched. It
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says that a cloud received him
out of their sight. It says they
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looked steadfastly. It says that
they were gazing up into heaven.
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And then in verse 11 it
says that they saw him go into
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heaven. So clearly there's these
many different allusions to the
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fact that they were watching.
Their eyes beheld him as he left
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and the reason we need to
emphasize this is because when
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many refer to the second coming
of Christ they believe that when
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Jesus comes it will be in secret
as it were. They take passages
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of scripture that refer to
him coming as a thief which in
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reality refer to him coming
suddenly and they take that
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to mean that when he comes
no one is going to see him. But
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this scripture helps us
understand what it's going to
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look like doesn't it.
It basically says just like
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he went up with you watching,
watching, watching until he
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disappeared from your view,
so it will be that he will come
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back and you will be able to see
him. This is the only thing that
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harmonizes with
scripture really.
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That's right and I'd like to say
to our viewers, you know there
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are a lot of things that we
can hear that become a mainline
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belief and we don't say this
to be critical of anybody but
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remember that we said that one
of the benefits and blessings of
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the book of Acts is that here
we are able to test a lot of
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doctrinal or theological view
points from the reality of the
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New Testament history and
experience. We see in this idea
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of the rapture, of course today
the secret rapture is something
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that is taught a lot. It's
not something that had taken a
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large hold on Christianity in
times past. It's a fairly recent
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teaching. But as you point out,
Jim, it doesn't harmonize when
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we look at what is being
portrayed here in scripture.
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The angels are very clear that
this same Jesus will come in
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like manner. That's
right. And you know you
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look at some of the common
teachings of the day and they
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point to a picture of humanity
going about their business and
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then one day Jesus suddenly
raptures away or catches up the
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believers and the unbelievers
are left behind wondering what
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happened. They're looking around
trying to figure it out. Well
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according to this text they
won't have to try to figure it
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out because just like Jesus went
up and they saw him clearly go
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up, we'll be able to see him.
The Bible says in Revelation 1:7
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Behold he comes with the clouds
and every eye will see him.
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It says that as lightening
flashes from the east to the
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west so the coming of the Son
of Man will be. So we know that
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everybody is going to be able
to behold Jesus when he comes
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and this particular passage
in the book of Acts helps us to
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clearly see that. But beyond
seeing the manner of his coming
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it also was a great
encouragement to these early
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disciples. They looked and their
hearts were being drawn out and
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this angel reassured them,
he will come again just like you
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saw him go up, he will come.
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That's right. It's a powerful
promise and it's what the New
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Testament church called the
blessed hope and the glorious
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appearing of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Well as we
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continue on in the chapter in
verse 12 the Bible says there in
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Acts 1:12: Then they returned to
Jerusalem from the mount called
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Olivet (or the Mount of Olives)
which is near Jerusalem a
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Sabbath day's journey. And when
they had entered they went up
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into the upper room where there
were staying Peter, James, John
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and Andrew, Phillip and Thomas,
Bartholomew and Matthew, James
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the son of Alpheus and Simon
the Zealot and Judas the son of
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James. Now obviously we have
here all of the disciples of
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Christ excepting Judas Iscariot
who betrayed him. They are
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gathered in the upper room and
they are not the only ones we
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see as we go on here. Verse
14 it says: These all continued
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with one accord in prayer and
supplication with the women and
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Mary the mother of Jesus and
with his brothers. And in those
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days Peter stood up in the midst
of the disciples. All together
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the number of the names was
about 120 and he said, Men and
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brethren, the scripture had to
be fulfilled... He goes on and
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talks about Judas and Judas
betrayal and it's interesting
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that as he finishes up talking
about the betrayal of Judas,
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he says in verse 20, and of
course the death of Judas, he
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says in verse 20: For it is
written in the book of Psalms
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let his dwelling place be
desolate and let no one live in
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it and let another take his
office. Now this is a powerful
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passage to think about because
sometimes, and I'll preface it
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by saying this: One of the
things that the book of Acts
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teaches us very clearly is
that the early church was an
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organized church, it was
an organized body. It wasn't a
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scattered, free-flowing, free-
wheeling bunch of renegade, lone
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ranger type led by the Holy
Spirit. Sometimes people get
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this idea that when the Holy
Spirit leads things it's just
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everybody's running helter
skelter off this way and that
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way and doing whatever they want
to do. But when we come to the
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book of Acts we don't see that.
I think it's important for us to
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understand... My mind goes to
the demoniac of the Gadarenes.
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When Jesus had healed the man,
cast the demon out of him...
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but prior to that he'd come
to the man and asked him what is
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your name and the demon spoke
through the man and he said our
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name is Legion or my name is
Legion for we are many. Now a
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legion is a company of soldiers
in the Roman army. Depending on
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who you read it can be anywhere
between 2000 and 6000 soldiers.
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But here's the point. It was an
organized band of soldiers and
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the devil and his demons
were basically saying we're an
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organized band of soldiers
carrying out a very well-planned
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warfare. And God does not go
against an organized army with a
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disorganized army. So what we
see here is Judas betrays Christ
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and he dies. Hey, what's the big
deal, we've got 11 instead of 12
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let's go on. The Holy Spirit's
going to lead us and we'll just
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go and take on the world.
But that's not what happens. Not
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only is that not what happens
but Peter here quotes from
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scripture and shows that the
scripture foretold not only the
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betrayal of Judas but
also the replacement of Judas.
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Let another take his office.
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Isn't it fascinating that when
you look at... This is the first
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real strong example we have.
But when you start looking at
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how the early apostles built
their understanding of what the
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church should be and as
they preached they continually
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referenced the fulfillment
of prophetic scriptures.
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We're going to hit this again
and again, but they didn't just
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do this based on their own
opinion. In fact, if you look at
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verse 21 the first word there in
the New King James translation
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is therefore. Therefore of
these men and it goes on to talk
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about replacing Judas. So
he's quoting from scripture, Let
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another take his office.
And then he's saying because the
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scripture has testified that
this should happen, therefore
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we should be in harmony with
scripture. When I look at this
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there's another point that
strikes me, Mark. Judas as we
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read about him in the gospels,
you know, he was the one who had
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charge of the treasury. He was
certainly in outward appearance
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perhaps the most qualified.
Dignified, outstanding.
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Perhaps eloquent, certainly he
probably had a bearing that was
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a little bit more polished
than that of the others who were
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apostles. Well he
appeared to have been
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more schooled or educated than
the other apostles were because
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you know a good number of them
were fishermen and that type of
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thing. That's
right. In fact, if you go
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back to verse 13 where we read
it lists them out, Peter, James,
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John. I mean it starts off with
the inner circle, right. And who
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are the inner circle but
fishermen. I mean these are not
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what you would call the most
qualified of business types and
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Judas was. But at the end of
the day Judas is being replaced
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and they are moving forward with
the mission that Christ gave and
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something about that strikes me.
You know, it isn't really about
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simply our intellect or training
though those things are very
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important. But to a great degree
it's about the heart and the
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willingness of these fishermen
to follow Jesus wherever he
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called them. That's
right. Well there's more
00:12:32.96\00:12:36.41
that we could say on this. In
fact, we're going to say more on
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this but we're going to want
to take a break and when we come
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back we're going to talk
a little bit more about that
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qualification to
witness. Join us in a moment.
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