One More

(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. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:18-26 ESV). I am in between sermon series at the writing of this devotional, so I have been looking at several options. I thought about a series detailing the lives of each of the apostles. As I did, I recognized that no study of the disciples would be complete without looking at Matthias. After the fall of Judas, Matthias, a man obviously dedicated to the gospel, was chosen to make the dozen complete again. His life was incredibly inspirational, even though we don’t know a lot about him. The scripture says they were looking for someone who had been with them the whole time that Jesus was with them. He had to be with them from John's baptism to the time when Jesus ascended to heaven. He also needed to be an eyewitness of His resurrection. We know, therefore, that Matthias was faithful to the Lord, from the days of John the Baptist right up until His death. The question that the life of Matthias brings to my mind is: What number am I? Jesus told the disciples to "go and make disciples". They started with Matthias. They searched for faithful men and women who were unashamed of the gospel; not afraid to stand alone for the sake of their call to Christ; committed to keeping Jesus as the center of their life. I wonder how many other disciples have come and gone, simply being obedient, thus resulting in that one person leading me to faith in Christ? It makes me stand in awe at the plan of God through the ages. There is another interesting question to consider though. I wonder how Matthias felt being the first of another “generation” of disciples? Sometimes it is easy to feel second-class when we aren’t a part of the original group. Being the “newcomer” is never easy. We can make it easier for those folks though. We should welcome the new disciples into our fellowship. Like new children born into a family, there should be nothing but joy and celebration. Is that how you treat new disciples? It should be.