Numbered with the Apostles: An Eastertide Meditation on Acts 2

And they appointed two, 

Joseph called Barsabas, 

who was surnamed Justus, 

and Matthias.

And they prayed, and said, 

Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, 

shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,

That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, 

from which Judas by transgression fell, 

that he might go to his own place.

And they gave forth their lots; 

and the lot fell upon Matthias; 

and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

In the last half of Acts chapter 2, we have recorded the first ordination of an Apostle after Jesus’ ascension.  The eleven remaining Apostles, together with the blessed Virgin Mary, the other women noted in the Gospels, and a group of believers which numbered in all about 120 persons, were gathered in an upper room in prayer and fellowship.  Then Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit, rose up and addressed them all to say that they needed to fill Judas’ vacant office (literally, his bishopric) which had been vacant since his suicide after his prophesied betrayal of Jesus.  Knowing that their Apostleship was a peculiar eye witness to all that Jesus had said and done, with similarly peculiar promises about what their ministry would entail and the power with which it would be endued by the Holy Spirit, they selected two candidates who had been with them since the days of John the Baptist, through the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.  This period of roughly three years of study and discipleship with Jesus and His Word in the fellowship of His disciples is noteworthy, as it became an enduring model for what later emerged as formal seminary training (the traditional education for the formation of a pastor, a Master of Divinity degree usually takes three to four years to complete including a supervised practicum, similar to that which Medical Doctors (MD) and Lawyers (JD) receive).  Knowing that the care of souls was of eternal significance to the people they would influence, ordaining a formal witness and teacher of Jesus and His Word was not taken lightly.  Even after the Apostles set the minimum terms of experience and education which Judas’ replacement should have before taking his office, they still took the matter before God so that the decision was His.  Only after all this, in the fellowship of the faithful believers, was Matthias numbered among the 12 Apostles (what would later be called ordination, or literally, to be set in order regarding the pastoral office.)

Later practices of ordination are found throughout the book of Acts, and particularly in Paul’s epistles to his young protégés Timothy and Titus.  While the placing of Matthias into Judas’ vacant apostolic bishopric was somewhat unique, given that eye witnesses to all that Jesus had said and done would eventually be gone, Paul helps us understand how the transition would occur so that the fellowship the Apostles shared with Jesus would continue through all those who would be united to them by faith in Jesus.  This principal later become known as Apostolic Succession, reflected in the ancient Creeds as the fellowship of the one, holy, catholic / universal,  and apostolic Church—a fellowship in the Apostle’s teaching which they received from Jesus and which they wrote down in the New Testament, handed down within the fellowship of the faithful believers, and entrusted to those who would be ordained into the Apostolic office Jesus established for the preaching, teaching, and administering of His Word and Sacraments.  The examples we have in the historical narratives of the Gospels and Acts, are expounded by principle and application the Epistles, so that every generation to follow might know how to share in the unity and fellowship which Jesus and His Apostles lived by Word and Spirit.

Across the Christian Church and throughout history, many Christian communities have attempted to emulate this Biblical tradition, some doing better than others at different times and places.  Some put all their emphasis on the ordination process, as if the right people in the right funny clothes using the right formula, apart from fidelity to the actual Apostolic witness to the Word of Jesus, would create the unity of fellowship Jesus prayed for in John’s Gospel—too often misidentifying  bureaucratic unity for the unity of authentic faith.  Others disregarded any sense of order or ordination in the church, attempting to achieve unity of fellowship through “everyone a minister,” each with their own bibles, opinions, and feelings about the Apostolic Word of Jesus— generating the easily anticipated result that chaos, ignorance, schism, sectarianism, and heresy abound.  And yet, all along, there have always been those who have tried to keep the balance of properly forming candidates for ordination into the pastoral office, who within the fellowship of the faithful cling to Jesus’ Word in the Scriptures recorded by His Prophets and Apostles, and hand on from one ordained teacher to the next the duty of being a faithful witness to Jesus and His Word.  This is the true Apostolic Succession, neither abandoning the pastoral office Jesus established, nor the Word by which He established it within the fellowship of His holy Church.

Have you been scandalized by Christian fellowships which have promoted bureaucracy over faithfulness, some of whose ministers fail to be faithful witnesses to Jesus’ Word handed down through His Holy Scriptures?  Have you been tossed bout by every wind of doctrinal opinion in Christian fellowships where some have valued the unstable ignorance of individual opinion over the historic witness to Apostolic Christianity?  Hear the Word of Jesus come to you again this day, piercing the confusion born of prideful and ignorant men.  Jesus’ has never left the world without witness to His Word and Spirit, and never left His people without His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation which He won for them through His life, death, and resurrection.  Jesus still works saving faith by grace in the hearts of all who will repent and believe in Him, and He still raises up faithful witnesses in every generation who will courageously proclaim His Word and administer His sacramental gifts according to His institution and command.  The witness of the Prophets and the Apostles is alive and present today, because Jesus, whose Word and Spirit are the only true and enduring unity of His Church, continues to make it so— that everyone might hear Him, believe, and live in Him forever.  The sinful people who Jesus saves by grace through faith might look like a mess in their various churches, denominations, congregations, and fellowships, but wherever Jesus and His Word are at work, there His Spirit is working, too, that in every generation there may be those who are numbered with Him and His Apostles by grace through faith in Christ alone.  Amen.