Between Ascension and Pentecost: When Faith Requires Action

The space between Jesus' ascension and Pentecost represents one of the most unique transitional periods in church history. What do you do when your leader has physically departed, but the promised Holy Spirit hasn't yet arrived? This message explores this fascinating moment captured in Acts 1:12-26, revealing how the early disciples navigated uncertainty while preparing for God's next move.

After Jesus departed, about 120 believers—including the eleven disciples, the faithful women who supported Jesus' ministry, Mary his mother, and even his formerly skeptical brothers—gathered in constant prayer. From this community emerged Peter, the disciple who had previously denied Christ but was now stepping into leadership. His approach to replacing Judas provides a masterclass in decision-making during waiting seasons.

Peter blended scriptural reasoning (drawing from Psalms), practical wisdom (establishing qualifications for apostleship), communal discernment, and ultimately a willingness to move forward despite incomplete clarity. When faced with two qualified candidates—Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias—they prayed for guidance and cast lots, trusting God to work through their process.

This ancient story offers profound wisdom for modern believers navigating their own waiting periods. God rarely offers dramatic supernatural confirmations for every decision. Instead, He invites us to consult Scripture, use sound judgment, seek His guidance through prayer, and then take action. The message is clear and liberating: "Do not sit around paralyzed waiting for a miracle that God never promised would happen."

Whether you're facing career uncertainty, relationship challenges, or spiritual questions, this teaching will help you discover how to move forward faithfully even when God's specific direction seems unclear. Learn to embrace the grace that allows God to work through your best efforts, even when those efforts are imperfect.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we're here today talking about in the waiting and
preparing for what's next.
And Stephen's right, this was atough passage.
I had a hard time narrowingdown what I was going to talk
about, so hopefully it's allcoherent and you'll all at least
see Jesus in it.
So today we're going to talkabout a time in the Bible where

(00:25):
the early church was in thewaiting and they were preparing
for what's next.
It was a really specific timein history, something that we
can't really replicate again.
It's after the ascension ofJesus, but before the Holy
Spirit, before the outpouring ofthe Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit before theoutpouring of the Holy Spirit at

(00:46):
Pentecost.
So up until this time, jesus'followers were literally
following the lead of Jesuswhile he was right there in
person, giving direction, givingguidance, and now he's gone.
And after Pentecost, eventhrough today, as many of you
know, jesus' followers have thedirection and the guidance of

(01:07):
the Holy Spirit.
But this was that time inbetween and it's a time that
they're in the waiting,preparing for what's next.
So it's Acts, chapter 1, andwe're going to look at verses 12
through 26 today.
If you want to follow along,you can.
Otherwise, I think Stephen saidhe was going to make some

(01:30):
slides, but I'm not sure if hedid.
I didn't ask.
So now, at this time, just alittle bit of a reminder Judas
is out of the picture, right,the disciples come and they
decide that their first officialact as representatives of God
on earth will be to replace him,to get that leadership team
back up to 12.
So Acts 1, 12 through 14 saysthis, says when they arrived,

(02:01):
they went upstairs to the roomwhere they were staying.
Those present were Peter, john,james and Andrew, philip and
Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew,james, the son of Alphaeus, and
Simon, the zealot, and Judas,the son of James, not to be
confused with the other Judas.
Right, they all joined togetherconstantly in prayer, along

(02:22):
with the women and Mary, themother of Jesus, and with his
brothers.
So now Jesus is gone andeveryone else is kind of
dispersed for the moment.
But who is here?
We've got the core group of thedisciples.
We've got the group of womenwho had been at Jesus's side all
throughout the time, some ofwho helped sustain their travels

(02:45):
and pay the bills.
And just a side note, a lot oftimes in this time in history
when this was written, womenwere just kind of not as
important and a lot of authorswould have just kind of glossed
over the fact that they werethere.
But Luke points out thatthey're there because he thinks
it's important, so I just wantto bring that to our attention.

(03:06):
The women were there.
And then let me see now I lostmy place.
So we've got the core group ofdisciples, the women who'd been
at Jesus's side, and then wehave Jesus's brothers.
Right, they came around.
In the gospels we see thatJesus's family was pretty
skeptical of Jesus's claimsabout himself, but apparently
now his brothers have comearound.
In the Gospels we see thatJesus' family was pretty

(03:26):
skeptical of Jesus' claims abouthimself, but apparently now his
brothers have come around andboth James and Jude later on
become leaders in the Jerusalemchurch.
And I'd also like to note herethat there's this incredible
book about Jude called Uprising.
It's written by this guy whopastors this really cool church

(03:46):
in Madison here, and if youdon't have that book yet, I
highly recommend it.
Just ask Stephen how you canget a copy, I'm sure he knows.
In verse 15, it says in thosedays Peter stood up among the
believers, a group numberingabout 120.
So Peter's been really an upand down character throughout
all the time that we have knownhim in the Bible up to this

(04:09):
point.
Right, he gets some stuffreally right and he falls apart
at times.
But Jesus told Peter, who isalso called Simon, which gets
confusing he told him at theLast Supper, in Luke chapter 22,
that he had a really uniqueplan for him and that Peter

(04:29):
needed to be ready.
Luke 22, verses 31 and 32, saysSimon, simon, satan has asked
to sift all of you as wheat.
But I have prayed for you,simon, that your faith may not
fail and when you have turnedback, strengthen your brothers.
And when you have turned back,so he didn't say when you skip

(04:53):
over that challenge, right, hesays when you turn back,
strengthen your brothers.
That here Luke, who's writingthis.
The book of Acts also has kindof a little housekeeping
question that needs to beanswered to his original
audience.
His audience would have beenvery familiar with the OG 11

(05:15):
disciples and where they camefrom.
But most of his audience wouldhave encountered those disciples
once they were back to thatfull group of 12, lacking Judas
and picking up the new guy, andthey would have wondered how
come this new guy doesn't showup in any of the gospels.
Where did he come from?

(05:35):
Many of these people would havebeen ministered to by the new
guy right and they would havewondered what are his apostolic
credentials?
How come he gets to do this?
So we see in verse 16 and 17,peter is saying Brothers and
sisters, the scripture has hadto be fulfilled, in which the
Holy Spirit spoke long agothrough David concerning Judas,

(05:59):
who served as a guide for thosewho arrested Jesus.
He was one of our number andshared in our ministry.
So Peter, following the exampleof Jesus, is trying to look back
on things to the Old Testamentand say, yeah, this was
predicted.
He suggests that the scripturespoint to this betrayal and what

(06:22):
the disciples should be doingnext.
Verse 18 and 19 give us thehistory about what happened to

(06:44):
Judas after that field in theirlanguage, akledama, that is,
field of blood.
Ew, that's gross.
People say the Bible is boring.
They clearly don't read it.
So Judas apparently overcomewith guilt.
He goes and he gets this fieldand takes his own life and

(07:06):
apparently it's prettydisgusting.
So Judas is out of the pictureand Peter is saying he needs to
be replaced.
In verse 20, it says for saidPeter.
It is written in the book ofPsalms.
May his place be deserted, letthere be no one to dwell in it,
and may another take his placeof leadership.

(07:28):
So earlier, when Peter said thatDavid spoke of these things
from the scriptures, he wasalluding to these two Psalms.
One is Psalm 69, where thefirst part is drawn, where that
first part is drawn from, and ithas David talking about
difficulties in his life.
He's talking about being introuble, about being parched.

(07:49):
He's talking about being astranger among people he should
be familiar with.
He's talking about praying toGod to rescue him in this
difficult time.
He makes a couple of referencesthat sound like they could be
talking about Jesus, things likethey put gall in my food, they
gave me vinegar for my thirst,which is reminiscent of the

(08:11):
crucifixion.
And then David goes on to sayin Psalm 69, I'm looking at
verse 22 through 25.
May the table be set beforethem become a snare, may it
become retribution and a trap.
May their eyes be darkened sothey cannot see, and their backs
be bent forever.
Pour out your wrath on them,let your fierce anger overtake

(08:34):
them.
May their place be deserted,let there be no one to dwell in
their tents.
No-transcript I think somepeople would argue that there is
and others would just look atit and say I don't really see it

(08:55):
.
It doesn't sound like that'swhat David was talking about
here.
So let's look at that secondhalf of what Peter said in verse
20 of Acts 1.
He said may another take hisplace of leadership.
And that is him quoting Davidfrom Psalm 109,.
And that is him quoting Davidfrom Psalm 109, which says cause

(09:37):
In return for my friendship.
They accuse me, but I am a manof prayer.
They repay me evil for good andhatred for my friendship.
Appoint someone evil to opposemy enemy.
Let an accuser stand at hisright hand when he is tried.
Let him be found guilty and mayhis prayers condemn him.
May his days be few.
May another take his place ofleadership.
Okay, so here we have againsome language about friends and

(09:58):
a betrayal of a friend, andPeter reads into this that David
was in a way predicting whatJudas would do.
David applies all of thesecurses to whatever betrayer
friend, whoever his betrayerfriend was, and I only read
about half of them.
He goes on, if you can believeit.
So it seems like David iswriting a song or a poem here

(10:21):
that's talking about situationsin his own life.
But we see other parts of thePsalms where details line up so
well with the life of Jesus.
It's hard to imagine that Goddidn't intend these things to
apply in other places.
Jesus took Psalms and appliedthem prophetically.
So if we think that God wrotethe Bible and I do I don't know

(10:45):
about you and all this stuffkind of checks out we have to
accept that some of the Psalmshave a prophetic nature.
Maybe some are more obviousthan others.
I think the question that'sbefore us is did Peter rightly
figure out the prophetic natureof these things or is he doing
something else?

(11:05):
Is Peter completely right inwhat the Bible is saying, in
these things, in the things thathe's quoting, or is Peter just
kind of winging it and doing hisbest?
I think we have a few optionsthat we can consider.
Possibility number one Peter isexactly right about what David

(11:27):
meant.
David was predicting thesethings would happen.
Judas is the fulfillment ofthose things and Peter, maybe
through a conversation he hadwith Jesus, had connected these
dots for him and he seessomething there that isn't
immediately evident to mostreaders.
A second possibility Peter wasreading these passages from a

(11:48):
perspective that was a popularread on them at the time.
That hasn't really, I don'tknow, held up over the ages and
nonetheless would have madesense to the original audience.
And a third possibility as towhat's going on with these
quotations is that the HolySpirit is not present yet.
Jesus has just left and Peterfinds himself in this strange

(12:11):
time of waiting.
This is a time of preparing forwhat's next when God isn't
present in the way that he hasbecome accustomed to, and so, in
the absence of that guidance,he just takes his best shot, and
maybe it isn't exactly perfect,but who cares?
I think he should be applaudedfor doing his very best with

(12:35):
what he had at the time.
I mean, after all, he wasseeking God and he wanted to do
what was right.
That's good.
Jesus told him to go and dosome stuff, and he's trying to
get his team back up to the 12so that he can do just that.
He's trying to fill up the 12spots of leadership so they can
properly obey Jesus.

(12:58):
And it's plausible that any ofthese possibilities are truth.
So let's go back to what we aresure of.
What we do know is that theBible does not say that the Holy
Spirit was speaking throughPeter or that God was firsthand
telling Peter what to say hereor which Old Testament passages
to look at.
So this could be a spot onhandling of the Bible.

(13:21):
It could be somebody doingtheir best and maybe that's not
what the original passages meant.
The important thing to notethat we might have our opinions,
but Luke, the author who iswriting this thing and, I
believe, inspired by the HolySpirit, does not in any way

(13:43):
critique him or affirm Peter'sapproach.
He simply records it.
Peter goes on in verse 21 and22.
So now, whatever you make ofthe handling of those Psalms

(14:14):
that we looked at, I thinkyou've got to respect this right
.
He's being smart and he'sdemonstrating some sound logic.
Jesus told Peter and the otherdisciples that their job was to
be witnesses to what they hadseen and heard locally,
regionally and to the ends ofthe earth.
You need someone who was therewith them from the beginning to
the end, and the way Peterdescribes.
And to the ends of the earth.
You need someone who was therewith them from the beginning to

(14:34):
the end, and the way Peterdescribes the beginning to the
end was that he indicates thebeginning was John's baptism of
Jesus and the end was a coupleweeks previous when Jesus was
taken up to heaven.
So that's what he lists here.
Apparently, there were just twoguys right that fit that

(14:55):
description.
Verse 23 through 25 says taken.
Show us which of these two youhave chosen to take over this
apostolic ministry, which Judasleft to go where he belongs.

(15:21):
I feel like this is afascinating process, because
Peter starts by saying there'ssomething we need to do.
I think it's important so wecan follow through on what Jesus
has said, that we need to dowith our lives.
Then he sets the parameters andhe starts by doing his best to
look at the Bible.
He didn't have the option oflooking at the New Testament

(15:43):
because it didn't exist yet.
So he has the scriptures asthey existed and does his best,
with that and what he has infront of him, to consult God
through his word.
Obviously, he didn't have anyhot leads on the verse to use
that he could go to, and therewas no verse that specifically

(16:03):
said one day there shall be aman who betrays Jesus and after
he betrays him, there'll be 11guys left and one of them will
be named Peter, and Peter shouldpick a guy named Mike to take
over.
That would have been reallyconvenient.
But, as it is for most of us whoread the Bible, we don't always
have those kind of superobvious verses laying around

(16:25):
just waiting for us to noticethem, telling us what to
automatically do.
We have to interpret and think.
Do we have to interpret andthink?
So that's what Peter does here.
But realizing that without sucha crystal clear verse he can
only go so far, peter thentransitions into some common
sense rooted in the knowledge ofwhat God is like.

(16:47):
He says well, we were told todo this, so for picking somebody
he probably needs to meet thesequalifications.
That's just logic.
But he's not done.
He then leads the disciples inprayer to consult God to see if
maybe, just maybe, god wants tomiraculously confirm to them the
answer to their question.

(17:08):
These people had all justwitnessed the miraculous right,
so it just makes sense that theywould ask for this.
I like to imagine they kind ofpause for a little bit and
listen and watch to see if God'sgoing to do something like
shine a big bright light overhis chosen one, you know, give
clarity to the situation.
But nothing like that isactually recorded here, and this

(17:32):
passage wraps up in verse 26,saying then they cast lots, and
the lot fell to Matthias, so hewas added to the 11 apostles.
So, being deadlocked andlacking in supernatural guidance
from the Holy Spirit, they feltlike they had two good options
in front of them and theycouldn't go wrong with either
one.
So they just tossed the diceand went with whoever they

(17:52):
picked, and I think that theywere absolutely right and that
they sought God, even thoughthey weren't sure.
They were also absolutely rightto not sit around doing nothing
, waiting for a miracle that Godnever promised was going to
happen.
God never said go pick somebody, and whenever you need to pick

(18:14):
somebody to do anything inchurch, I'm going to
miraculously tell you who thatis.
The expectation is that wethink, that we think
theologically and we think likea Jesus follower, and then we
make moves, doing our best toget things right, and we know

(18:34):
from the rest of the NewTestament and the rest of
history that this worked out.
Was Matthias the one guy thatGod wanted to pick?
I don't know, but that is whothey picked and God used him.
What we see here in this passageis a reality that persists to
this day.
For people who care about doingright by God, he isn't always

(18:58):
going to tell us what to do.
Supernaturally, sometimes we'regoing to have to make choices.
We all have flaws.
I mean, peter did right.
Peter was outspoken.
He was headstrong, impulsive,proud, willing to cut a guy's
ear off.
Heck, peter even denied he knewJesus to a little girl around a

(19:22):
campfire when he got scared.
And God still used him in apretty significant way.
And maybe you're here today oryou're listening online and God
has you in a season of waiting,a season of formation, a season
of preparing you for what's next.
My challenge to you today it'sa big one it's to figure out

(19:48):
what you should be doing in thisseason of waiting.
Figure out what you should bedoing in this season of waiting.
Figure out what you should bedoing in this season of waiting.
What should you be doing toprepare for what's next?
And then do it.
Search the Bible to consultwhat God has said in his word,

(20:08):
seek the guidance of the HolySpirit and then make some
choices and take action.
Do not sit around paralyzedwaiting for a miracle that God
never promised would happen.
I'm going to say that againbecause I think someone needs to
hear it, and it might be me.
Do not sit around paralyzedwaiting for a miracle that God

(20:30):
never promised would happen.
Are we going to get thosechoices right?
Well, I highly doubt that.
Knowing myself and human naturein general, we're going to make
mistakes.
On some things there are veryclear right and wrong choices,
but on other things it seemslike there could be lots of

(20:51):
right choices right.
On other things, it seems likethere could be lots of right
choices.
Right Justice or Matthiaseither one could have been right
.
The great thing about the waythat God has set up this age of
the church is that, even if wescrew this thing up completely,
there's grace for that.
God is not sitting aroundwaiting for us to screw up so

(21:16):
that he can get mad about it andsay, oh, you tried to serve me
but you did it wrong.
He wants us to grow in this andin the same way that we are
going to see Peter grow as aleader and develop as a Jesus
follower, through all kinds ofups and downs and a few really
big failures.
So it is with us.

(21:37):
I have made good choices and Ihave made shameful, awful
choices.
I'm guessing most of you areprobably in the same boat.
Thankfully, we can beencouraged by the example of
some people who did their best.
They had their flaws, and Godused their efforts.
Despite their imperfections, wecan be assured that God will do

(22:01):
the same with us.