Decisions, Decisions
May 24, 2009
15In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, 16“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— 17for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20“For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it’; and ‘Let another take his position of overseer.’ 21So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” 23So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
Acts 1:15-26
This Easter season, I have been preaching a lot from the book of Acts. And that makes sense because Acts is all about what happens after the resurrection. It is the story of how the followers of Jesus grew from a tiny band of disciples to a multinational, multicultural church. The book of Acts is kind of like the David Hoover of the Bible—It has too much going on to stay in the same place for very long. And unlike much of the New Testament that is filled with teaching or theological arguments, Acts is all about people doing things. That’s how Acts got its name—it is a book of action.
This morning, our text is from the very first chapter of Acts. Jesus has just ascended to heaven and the disciples are getting ready to carry the Christian message to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the Earth. But before they set out on their various missionary journeys, the disciples have to deal with a problem. Following his betrayal of Jesus, Judas Iscariot had committed suicide. And so, the 12 disciples had become the 11 disciples.
Now, to you and I, that may not seem like a big deal. There’s not much difference between 11 and 12; it’s just one person. But as you all are aware, 12 was an important number to the Jews. It was representative of the 12 tribes of Israel. And any good Jew knew that 12 was the number of completion. It symbolized the perfect amount.
But the disciples didn’t have 12 anymore; they had 11. And setting off on a worldwide missionary tour with only 11 disciples was an invitation to disaster. So, in our passage of Scripture for today, we get a record of that special moment that has echoed down through centuries of church history. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, here in Acts, Chapter 1, the disciples hold the very first church business meeting. The only item on the agenda is deciding who gets to replace Judas Iscariot as the 12th disciple. And in a book full of big actions and big decisions, this one seems relatively insignificant. But I think that there is still something for us to learn from this first business meeting. Hopefully, by now you know that in the next month or so, Park View Baptist Church is getting ready to make some big decisions about our future together. And so, this morning, I thought it might be a good idea for us to look at what the Bible has to tell us about making decisions. Specifically, I want to focus on three things from this text that I think can help us as we seek to make decisions in the church today.
First of all, we have to make them. We have to make decisions. You may say, “Well, preacher, everybody knows that.” And I would agree. At a certain level, everybody in church realizes that we have to make decisions. But, boy oh boy, are we good at putting them off. There’s a river that flows through most churches I’ve been a part of and it’s called denial. And let me tell you, denial is a deep and dangerous river to mess with. There’s some churches I know who were so afraid to make a decision that they were completely swallowed up by denial.
Make no mistakes about it—denial is a powerful force. And churches are notorious for putting off decisions as long as we possibly can. I call it Newton’s law of church life—A church at rest tends to stay at rest. We look around and everything seems okay. Everybody seems to be fairly happy. And so, we say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If it looks good right now, then let’s leave off those decisions until another day.
To a certain extent, I think that was the mentality here at Park View for many years. Back in the 1950s, when things were booming and the church was growing by leaps and bounds, it was a wonderful time. But then, slowly things began to change. The neighborhood transitioned and people began to move out into the suburbs, and then the wealthy, original founders of the church gave way to a membership of more modest means.
But although that stuff was happening all around us, Park View Baptist Church just stayed right here like a little island. Don’t get me wrong—Park View was still a wonderful place for those people who were a part of it. But I’m not sure that many folks at the time wanted to look at the big picture and ask the hard questions, questions like “What is the future for a predominantly white congregation like ours in a neighborhood that is becoming predominantly black?” or “Can a church with huge facilities like ours sustain itself into the future without some kind of established endowment?” There were huge shifts occurring all around us, and everybody in the congregation could see it for themselves, but Newton’s law of church life stifled any action.
So, here’s what happened—decisions got made. But they got made by default instead of by intention. And lo and behold, in the year 2009 when we are just now talking about some of these things for the first time, we find that certain options are no longer even possible to us because the decision has already been made. You say, “Well, preacher, I don’t remember voting on any of that stuff back in 1967.” That’s because you didn’t. But just because nobody ever voted on it doesn’t mean it wasn’t decided. A refusal to act is still an action. The apathy or naivety or optimism or whatever it was that prevented us from making decisions in those days was a decision, in and of itself. By not deciding, the church decided. Y’all follow my logic? And whether or not we realized it at the time—not deciding carried all the same consequences and implications as if we had thoroughly discussed it and voted on it.
You may think I’m being unnecessarily harsh on previous generations, and maybe I am. So, let’s stop talking about the past and focus on the present. We still have decisions to make as a church today. The disciples here in Acts, Chapter 1 could have just ignored the fact that Judas Iscariot was dead and moved on with their lives. But by doing so, they still would have making a decision that 11 was now an acceptable number. It didn’t matter if they voted on it or not, one way or the other the decision would have been made.
Which leads me to my second point. If we’re going to be making decisions no matter what happens, I believe it is better to be intentional about the way we make them. We have a choice in the church about how we make decisions. Every church does. We can choose to make decisions intentionally or we can just let things happen to us. I call it the difference between acting and reacting. And it’s true that we don’t always have the luxury of acting first. Sometimes, unexpected things happen in life and we have to deal with them. But that’s what makes it even more important to be intentional about the choices of which we are aware.
It’s called process. And there are some people in the church who absolutely hate process because they think that it takes up unnecessary time and energy. Those are the folks who say, “Let’s just do it now and worry about the rest later.” But in a church, those are dangerous words. And they reflect a laziness that gets us into trouble later on.
Here in Acts, Chapter 1, Peter doesn’t just act first and think later. He doesn’t just say, “Alright, we need a volunteer. Who wants to be a disciple today?” Instead, Peter establishes some ground rules. First off, the new disciple must have been present for the entirety of Jesus’ ministry, from his baptism by John all the way through his ascension. And secondly, Peter says that the new disciple must be a witness to the resurrection. Those are the conditions. And so, given the qualifications, two candidates are suggested—Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus ( And by the way--Can you believe how many names this guy had?!) and also Matthias. Everybody prays about it, they cast lots, and boom--Matthias is the new 12th disciple.
It may seem random. But this is not a willy-nilly approach to decision making. Peter’s actions on behalf of the church community reflect an intentional process. Unfortunately, many of the ways we in the church have traditionally used as process have also contributed to Newton’s law of church life. Sometimes, the deacons and the committees and the trustees can drag their feet and dally around and chase rabbits until the decisions get made by default, just like we’ve already heard. But that doesn’t mean those groups are bad in and of themselves. It just means they aren’t functioning like they should.
And so, we in the church have to constantly assess the way we make decisions in order to determine if it’s still an efficient process. For these folks in Acts, the process was casting lots. For us, it may be team ministry. But I think the important thing is to avoid clinging to one particular process once it becomes outdated. We need to focus instead on what we are trying to accomplish and establish a process that helps us reach our goal.
Which leads me to my third point. No matter what process we use to make decisions in the church, I believe we must keep God’s vision before us as much as possible. Now let me be very clear, because I think there’s some Christians out there who try to cop out of decision making by saying, “Let’s just leave it up to God.” That’s one answer, but I think it’s misguided. Because I don’t think that following God’s will means that we are somehow exempt from having to make decisions on our own. In this passage from Acts, it’s true that the disciples pray and ask for God’s will to be done. But at the end of the day, it’s still up to the 11 disciples to make sure that God’s will is implemented.
I hope you see that distinction. We in the church are different than every other organization or business that exists in the world. Up until now, what I’ve been saying about making decisions could probably be applied to any group. But the church is unique in that our decisions always come back to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst. And I tend to get fed up with those people who talk about the church like a company and the pastor like a CEO. I know y’all are amazed that I could get fed up. But it’s just not the way we’re supposed to operate. The church is not a business. There may be some similarities between making decisions in church and making decisions elsewhere, but the ultimate goal is very different. We in the church are not about producing satisfied customers or making money, no matter how much that perspective has infiltrated our thinking. We in the church are about connecting ourselves to God and allowing God to use us for his work here on Earth. That’s the goal. And I think that when we begin to make decisions in the church without keeping that goal in mind, we lose sight of what we’re really trying to do. So what if we have 1,000 members—Does that by necessity mean that we’re following God’s will? Or do we determine our success as a church more from the way we are growing in compassion and faith and love?
In this passage from Acts, the disciples cast lots to make a decision. And that may seem to us like the equivalent of throwing dice or drawing straws. But verses 24 and 25 make it very clear that the lots are guided by God. The new disciple is not decided by a game of chance, but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And I think that sometimes you and I are afraid to act because we are worried we will make the wrong decision. How do we know if what we’re doing today is the right thing to do?
The answer is—we don’t. We don’t ever know for sure. But I think that as long as we are trying to discern the movement of the Spirit in our midst and asking the hard questions, the right thing to do will take care of itself. It’s interesting to me that after his selection here in Acts, Chapter 1, Matthias is never again mentioned in the Bible. That leads me to believe that this story was included in Acts less because of the actual decision that was made and more to help us understand how it was made.
You see, sometimes, I think you and I get too uptight. I know we mean well. And we’re trying to make the right decision. But guess what---maybe in the grand scheme of God’s plan, all these things that we think are so vitally important are really just minor details. And maybe the most important thing is not what we decide to do, but how we go about making the decision. Maybe how we make decisions as a church says just as much about us as what we actually wind up doing.
The selection of Matthias as the 12th disciple was not a ground breaking event. Most of you in here had probably never heard of him before this morning. But by setting some guidelines for making decisions, those first disciples gave us some important insights on how to act in the church today. We have many decisions before us, Park View. And so, as we face them together, let us do so with purpose, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us. AMEN