Can I Get A Witness?

A sermon inspired by Acts 1:12-26
Prepared by Dr. Dwight A Moody
for Providence Baptist Church, Hendersonville NC

This wonderful story inspires in me the question, “Can I Get a Witness?”

To answer that question, I want to draw your attention to three things in this story:

first, the challenge faced by that first congregation of Jesus followers—replacing one of their leaders;
second, the sole qualification they announced to guide their search for a successor—traveling with Jesus; and
third, the one calling above all others this new leader must attend to—witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus.

Perhaps this gospel message will speak to you as you find yourselves facing a very similar challenge. Can you get a witness for the Providence Baptist Church of Hendersonville, North Carolina?

The Acts of the Apostles tells us the story about the demise of Judas, one of the Twelve. It is a sad story, but it starts out happy.
“Judas was one of us,” Peter said, “and shared in the ministry with us.”

That is a wonderful endorsement of Judas the apostle of Jesus. We take that to mean he helped Jesus pass the loaves and fishes when they fed the five thousand. We assume that to mean Judas was paired with another disciple and sent out two by two to announce the reign of God. We can imagine Judas hearing the testimony of Zacchaeus in Jericho and, in an episode not included in the accounts we have, leading that short man down to the Jordan River and baptizing him in the name of Jesus the Messiah. Judas shared in the ministry with the disciples and apostles.

But something happened. Something changed. Of some body changed!

We have only one version of that story. We know even as we read the biblical account that there are two sides to every story. While a pastor in another state, our church felt compelled to dismiss a minister on our staff. He was a good man and a good minister. But something happened, and something had to be done. But there are two sides to that story. If you ask his friends, they will give you one narrative; if you ask others, they will give another narrative.

The story we have of Judas is the one told by the leaders who were left holding the bag, picking up the pieces, responding to the shocking turn of events. Jesus was betrayed, tried, and crucified. And Judas, they said, had a central part in all of that.

Who knows what was going through the mind of Judas as he accepted his part in this drama? Who knows what is going through the mind of any leader who makes a decision that changes the course of her life? Who knows what is bubbling up in the soul of a leader who decides to let go of one thing and reach out to another? Who know what anxieties and aspirations are reshaping a pastor who strikes off in a new direction?

One prominent observer of the religious scene in America wrote this week: “Recent surveys are showing what I’m hearing every day—many of our pastors are beleaguered and exhausted…. I have this conversation fifty times a week. Every one of these pastors thinks they are the only one who are exhausted, feel beleaguered, and are wondering if they should be in ministry at all.”

Many other organizations and industries are noting the same thing. It has been a hard year, for all of us, but especially for leaders.

I am in a weekly zoom prayer circle. One of the things we pray for every week—the leaders of our nation, our cities, our schools, our churches.

It is not easy being a leader. Leaders get tired, disillusioned, frustrated, angry, and irritated. But we want them to be always cheerful, strong, discerning, and courageous. But it is not easy.

Some leaders pull the Judas joke and find a way out. They rebel, or retreat, or renounce their role. Some do so in traditional ways, like retirement or retooling for a new career, or relocating out west to a dude ranch. But some do so in shocking ways, like striking an employee, or sabotaging an organizational mission, or just slinking out of town with a new sexual partner.

Or, like Judas, trading inhouse secrets for thirty pieces of silver.

Whither the good, the bad, or just the plain ugly, churches find themselves—yourselves—with this challenge, described here in the words of

Simon Peter: “We must choose a replacement for Judas.”

They were saying to one another, Can we get a witness?

In my time, I have read many ads for pastors. Churches post these in newspapers and on-line, file them with denominational leaders, and pass them in conversation with friends. Just this week, I received just such an appeal from a friend in Missouri.

These ads list qualifications: years in ministry, degrees and certifications, disposition and personality, doctrines and ethics, and age, of course. Not too young and not too old; married with children, certainly. A warm smile and a doctor’s degree. Faster than a speeding bullet. Able to lift tall buildings. Ready to salvage a problematic congregation and save a city. Not even Jesus could fulfill the qualifications some churches post.

Note the one qualification of this ministerial search at the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem. You will find it in verse 21. Underline it in your Bible. “We must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus, from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us.”

From among the men who were with us the entire time!

First, I want to ask: who’s that?

I re-read the gospel accounts to find these people. There are none! Have you found any? Can you name any? Our gospels are so full of the Twelve, those whose names we are familiar with, listed earlier in our text: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James again, Simon and Judas—plus the other Judas who quit. Even these rarely appear by name in the stories. Who else is involved? Wasn’t Jesus mostly a lone traveler, moving from city to city, village to village, teaching, challenging, healing, receiving strangers and raising the dead.

Who else was there?

There must have been a bunch of men. And women. People who had first been drawn to John, preaching in the wilderness; then John said, “Look, there he is. Follow him!”

Some of them did; they left John and followed Jesus: to Nazareth, and Capernaum, and Nain; to Caesarea Philippi, and Jericho, and Jerusalem.

Who were these people, and how many were there?

Great questions, and here is one answer. Our story says 120 people were together during these efforts to replace Judas. Let’s assume half were women and half were men: 60 men. Eleven were Apostles, what was left of The Twelve. That leaves 49 men who could appear on the list of nominees.

These were the ones who started at the beginning and stayed to the end, through the revival meetings in Galilee and the teaching sessions in Jerusalem; through the conflicts with demons and controversies with authorities; through the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the prayers in the upper room.

Not everybody who began with Jesus in the Jordan valley stayed with Jesus.

Some left to harvest the crop or mash the grapes.

Others left to join the zealots, convinced Jesus did not have the courage to launch the revolution.

Some sided with the Sadducees and took a job in the temple.

A few joined the Essenes in their commune at Qumran.

Some lost faith in vision of Jesus, and others never understood the kingdom of God.

Not everybody who started the journey with Jesus stayed on the road with Jesus, not then and not now.

I once talked with a man who summed up his journey. “I no longer identify as a Christian.” He had written a book entitled, Goodbye Jesus. Before that, he was a minister—for thirty years.

Life is tough. Gospel work is tough. Church life is touch. They wanted somebody who stuck it out. We want somebody who will stick it out, keep at the work of healing, helping, hoping; persevering in kingdom work, praying for weak and the wicked, praising God for faith, hope, and love wherever we find it.

Walk together children, don’t you get weary,
There’s a great camp meeting in the promised land.

The old negro spiritual speaks to my heart and to yours. So do the words of Paul the Apostle, who had every reason to quit. To the believers in Corinth and to the believers in Hendersonville, he wrote, “My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord, knowing that your work for the Lord is not in vain.”

Can we get a witness? They said to each other. Indeed, they could!

They found two men who fit the description of what they needed. In those days, they overlooked the women, just as many do today.
Two men were nominated: Justus and Matthias. We know little about these two men—only that they had traveled with Jesus throughout his ministry. I wonder how many others are on that list, men and women, boys and girls that do not appear in our gospel stories. One day we will know; but today we know only this: Justus and Matthias were qualified to be one of the Twelve Apostles; and Matthias were elected to the post.

Matthias had one calling: to witness to the resurrection of Jesus. “Whoever is chosen,” Simon Peter said before the great coin toss, “will join us as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.” This is the calling of every apostle, every preacher, every pastor: witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

What does it mean today to witness to the resurrection of Jesus?

The search committee is asking, Can we get a witness? The new pastor is asking, Can I be a witness?

A pastor can be a witness to the resurrection by giving attention to the three great qualities: faith, hope, and love.

By faith we live in the confidence that God did a mighty deed on the third day. There are some things in our religion I doubt, but not this: God raised Jesus form the dead.

Simon Peter is my model. On the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem and then again in Samaria, he summaries it for all of us: “Evil men killed Jesus; God raised him from the dead.”

Matthias accepted his calling to echo this good news: Jesus died and was buried, but on the third day, God raise him from the dead.
I rely upon the experience of those first witnesses.

But I add to that my own experience, of walking, hearing, feeling, sensing, knowing. “He walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own.”

Yesterday, I read through a large notebook of my dad’s papers. I found a letter from Dr. James Bergman, dean of men at Georgetown College, June 14, 1965. He wrote about “last week’s experience … with the young people…. I felt a response and eagerness there that I had not seen in a long time.”

I remember. I was 15 years old. Dr. Bergman introduced us to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and The Cost of Discipleship. I had just read the novel In His Steps. I remember the week. It changed my life. It ignited a revival among young people in Murray that lasted two years. God spoke to me that summer and just weeks after Dr. Bergman departed, I walked the aisle and announced my call to gospel work.

A few weeks ago, I had another powerful episode of the risen Christ, consoling me, addressing me, directing me, of being alive to me and for me and with me. I was driving from Hendersonville to Charlotte with my grandson Sam. We heard a song I had never heard sung by artists that were new to me: “I Found a Church Today” by the Gibson Brothers. It spoke to the deepest need in my soul; it filled a vacuum in my inner most being. It was one of those testimonies to the risen Lord, another way that I can be, like you, a witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

We witness to Jesus and his resurrection by faith. But following after faith is hope. The resurrection of Jesus gives us also something to anticipate, to see in the distance, something to look forward to, to long for.

For years, the Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled the country with this message: KEEP HOPE ALIVE. He spoke this way to people who were marginalized, criminalized, and disenfranchised. He spoke into their minds and imaginations this word of the resurrection: that God is not finished, that human powers do not control destiny; that in everything, including the ugly and the ungodly, God works for good, for grace, for glory, for this life and the life to come. KEEP HOPE ALIVE is a resurrection word.

We are witnesses to the resurrection when we KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

Every time we look past the wickedness of friends and family to the righteousness of God, we are bearing a witness to the resurrection.

Every time, we look beyond the disease and death of this life to the health and healing that flows from the river of God and falls from the tree of life, we are bearing a witness to the resurrection.

Every time we look above to the purposes and plans of God rather than fixing our eyes on the vain and vindictive behavior of those who are in places of influence and abundance, we are bearing a witness to the resurrection.

We see what can’t be seen. We feel what can’t be touched. We embrace what can’t measured and manipulated. We are resurrection people who see around us, and below us, and above us the one Lord, risen from the grave and living in us and with us and among us.

Faith, hope, and love remain; but the greatest of these is love.

Above all, to love is the power to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. When all else fails or falters, let us love: let us love God supremely; let us love our neighbors of every color and creed and condition; let us love each other, in season and out, preferring one another, serving one another, hearing one another, believing one another, befriending one another. “They will know we are Christians by our love,” the song says; and I believe it.

John Prine, late in life, wrote a song called “Boundless Love”. It can be heard as a love song from a lover to his beloved; or it can be sung as a hymn, a prayerful hymn, an ode to the one and only God.

I woke up this morning to a garbage truck
Looks like this ol’ horseshoe’s done run outta luck.
If I came home, would you let me in
Fry me some pork chops and forgive my sin?

It is neither the garbage truck nor the horseshoe that speaks to me about love. It is that line, “Fry me some pork chops and forgive my sin?” That double barrel shot of love: feed me and forgive me; feed me and forgive me. What a true and terrific bundling of gospel love: “Give me something to eat; forgive my sin.”

Where else have I heard that, back-to-back? Can in be in a prayer, THE prayer, the one we lifted up to God just moments ago? Give us today our daily bread, and forgive our sins and we forgive others.

Yes! In that prayer that Jesus gave us to pray; not only to pray but to live. He could have said, “Live this prayer.” Nowhere would it have been a stronger inducement to gospel love that in this two-fold testimony to the resurrection.

Every time you feed a hungry person, you are bearing a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. When the disciples told Jesus “The people are hungry” he said simply, “You feed them.”

Let’s make it so we don’t have to be told.

Every time you forgive a wayward soul, you are bearing a witness to the resurrection. Just about the last thing Jesus said was this, “Father, forgive them.”