Pastor Podcast - Acts 1:12-26 - While They Waited

 Each week Pastor Mark takes time to go deeper and talk about the week's message!  If you have questions you'd like him to answer or hear more about please send those in by texting us at the link in the show notes!

You can also view video of this podcast and our Sunday sermons by visiting our YouTube channel!

https://www.youtube.com/@lifehousemot 

The hardest seasons are often the in-between ones: you know what Jesus has said, but you’re still waiting on what He’s promised. That’s exactly where Acts 1 lands, in the ten days between the ascension and Pentecost, and it gives us a surprisingly practical picture of how believers handle uncertainty without falling apart.

We talk through what “with one accord” really means and why it’s so countercultural right now. The early church isn’t a room full of identical people. It’s zealots and former tax collectors, women and men, insiders and outsiders, different social classes and messy backstories, all choosing obedience and unity. We dig into why the goal isn’t 80/20 participation but 100/100 surrender, and how real Christian community becomes a witness to a divided world.

From there, we get specific about prayer, Bible guidance, and decision-making. The disciples devote themselves to prayer, then look to Scripture for comfort and clarity after Judas’ betrayal, and then make a major leadership decision by asking God to reveal what He has already chosen. We also explain why casting lots makes sense once in Acts 1 but disappears after the Holy Spirit comes, and what it looks like today to seek wisdom with faith, wait on God’s timing, and obey without stalling.

If you’re wrestling with direction, relationships, or a big next step, listen through and then join the conversation. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find it. What decision are you asking God for wisdom on right now?

New episodes every Monday
www.lifehousemot.com
info@lifehousede.com

Join us Sundays at 9 & 11 AM

Intro music by Joey Blair

Transcript

Welcome And Sermon Reflection

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Well, hey, Lifehouse family. Welcome back to our post-sermon reflection time with Pastor Mark. We're switching it up today.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Nate told me that that's his better side, and he just wants to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

They're both bad, but maybe we'll uh if it's better, then people will uh tune in more. Maybe no. But we like to keep it new. We like to keep it moving, but we do appreciate you joining us. We just can't be, you know, we don't want to be in a rut, right? Right. So but great sermon this week, you know, really digging into the rest of Acts chapter one, and we're post-descension, and the disciples are in the waiting, right? We talked about two weeks ago, like the waiting on the Lord. That's we're seeing what that looks like, and I think great points on decision-making, like what we can we can learn so much from this chapter.

The Ten Day Waiting Space

One Accord And All In Unity

SPEAKER_00 1:02

So any kind of general thoughts, you know, how we're talking about. Well, I mean post-uh-ascension, but pre-descension, like the descension of the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And they're in this kind of in-between space. It's 10 days, right, between the ascension and the descension and of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost. And yeah, like they were they were praying. Like we see this beautiful picture of these disciples who were corporately obedient. Like all of them. That that's one of the things that really sticks out to me in this, in that they were immediately obedient. Like all of them, when Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit, the coming of the of the promise of the Father, they all went and it's listed in there, like Peter, James, John, Andrew, like all of them were there with the women, with Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Jesus' brothers, and all of them were there with one accord. It's a beautiful picture because so often what we experience in the evangelical church in America today, and even Life House Church, you know, and not to, I don't want to ever guilt anyone into being all in, but believers are all in. Like when we're baptized, literally immersed, like that's literally a picture of what we should be within the kingdom of God and the body of Christ. And so often you hear this 2080 principle where churches experience, and it really is so prevalent where 20% of the congregation is doing 80% of the activity, like whether it be through giving, whether it be through serving, or just whatever, right? And really what we see though here is not 80-20, but 100%, 100%, right? All of them were there and all of the together, and together, all of them were there. Like together and with one accord, not just in proximity, like they didn't all just show up and fill seats, like their hearts were knit together, like with the same passion. Like that's what's translated there as with one accord. So any thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, I think super important many points, and you know, unity doesn't mean uniformity. Right. You know, like you said and pointed out, you know, we have almost disciples from completely different factions. Right. So it doesn't mean we're all going to think exactly the same way, but we're all going to be seeking God's will. We're going to be uniform in God's purposes, God's plans, God's how He brings us together. Like you say, it it shouldn't be 80-20, it should be 100-100, even so many ways, so many relationships. But we are in a very transactional society. So sometimes we're like, I'll give if I get something. Right. But that's not what we see here. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Devoted To Prayer Over Distractions

SPEAKER_00 3:42

The thing is, it will be 100% giving 100% when and if 100% are 100% submitted to the Lord. And really, true submission is only 100% submission, right? 100% surrendered to the Lord. That's the only way to surrender, the only way to submit. And if that was the case, if all the members were submitted and surrendered, then it would be what we see here, all in one accord. And really, one witness, like were to be his witnesses, right, to testify. Like when the lost and dying world is looking on and they see people who would never come together with one accord, coming together with one accord, like it testifies that there's something more going on. Like, like, why would they do that? And this is what Jesus Christ does with his church. Like he came to reconcile us to a holy, righteous God, but also to reconcile us to one another, right? To like, and we're talking unity, like we're working together, not just like like sitting beside each other, but literally working, loving, thriving, living together, right? And and for the glory of God, but also for our good. It is a joy and a privilege and a blessing. And so I would say, you know, if people aren't all in, then they're missing out. Like they really are. So, but yeah, we see, yeah, Simon the Zealot, right? The zealots were an extremist group politically. Like they hated the Romans and they hated anyone who collaborated with the Romans like tax collectors. And we see Matthew, who was a tax collector, former tax collector. So Simon would definitely not associate with Matthew, you know, for under any other circumstances. And then we see people like Mary Magdalene, right? The women that were there, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, right? Mary Magdalene had been possessed at one time with seven demons, and Jesus delivered them, you know, delivered or cast them out of her. But yeah, when you think about someone who's possessed by seven demons, how that might play out in their life. And yet here, Mary and Mary are there together praying with one accord. Mary and Jesus' brothers were from Nazareth, right? Nathaniel had already placed John 1.46. Nathaniel's like, can anything good come from Nazareth? What, you know, from that place? Podunk Nazareth? And so what for we've got Johanna, the wife of Chezah, which was Herod's, one of Herod's like dignitaries, so an official's wife, so probably of the upper echelon of society, they're with Mary from Podunk Nazareth. And so it's kind of a beautiful picture. They were all there with one accord, they were all devoted. Let's talk about the word devoted, right? And I know Nate's gonna be preaching in a couple words, and that word's gonna come up again. Tell them everybody will be on the show. Spoiler alert. No, they won't. I cannot wait. But but yeah, like devoting themselves to prayer, and right, you know, they could have been doing a lot of things, right? Not that a lot of the things are bad. There's a lot of good things to do and to be devoted to, but you can't be committed. You can be committed to one thing, but also committed to a lot of things at the expense of the one thing that you're committed to. But when you're devoted, like you can only be devoted, right, to select few things. And so they were devoted to prayer. There's power in prayer. They knew they needed the Lord, they knew they needed his strength, his power to do what he had commissioned them already to do, to go into all the world and do these things they've never done before, to go places they've never been before, and to be effective in that. And we see that play out through the rest of the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit comes, but they were devoted, right? So I don't know. Any thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, no, I think great point, and even just walking through those differences, and this is where it's so counter-cultural, you know, following the Lord. We're in such a society today where we are getting more and more divided politically, socially, you know, just studying that, like for us to have that unity, as you pointed out, is completely different. But it's where we really going into the devotion to prayer, you know, like you said, we were talking a couple weeks, devotion to God's word, which we see here too with Peter and the Psalms. But when that's our unity, like we can get past all of these barriers because the world wants to tear us apart, right? It wants to divide us by color, politics, you know, social status, all these kinds of things. But God's word tells us, look past all that. And you know, this is when we're all putting in varying levels. God gifts, you know, Rob even mentioned it in the offering. One, two, five talents. You know, you may have that one talent, you may have five, but all of us should be all in with whatever God provides and wherever we come from. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, with one accord, being all in. So I can't help but think of Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17, right in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed, Father, make them one as we are one, like one, united, one, like no division.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

House divided cannot stand.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

House divided cannot stand. Like and and we want to stand, like we want to endure, we want to persevere. Jesus said the church that I build will, or the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In other words, that church will prevail, his church. So stand, you know, and so a house divided cannot stand. So unity is a non-negotiable.

Healing Betrayal With The Psalms

SPEAKER_01 9:03

That unity comes from the devotion, you know, like you said, to prayer, to that one accord, and then the direction that comes from God's word. Yeah. One A, one B, as Steve Wachtner used to tell me, you know, if you're struggling, what's your prayer life for like? Are you in God's Word? Like where are you seeking that direction from?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. And we see that, right? So they're looking to the scriptures, finding answers in the scriptures. I mean, in particular in their situation, right? Judas, right? Again, like they walked with and fellowship with Jesus, but Judas was there too, walking and fellowshipping with Jesus and with them. Right. So they were close. I mean, think about like, you know, when you travel with someone, like when you're in the trenches with someone, like, and especially in this context where they didn't have planes, trains, and automobiles, like they walked and they talked, you know, and fellowshipped. And, you know, when they ate, like they, you know, quantinea, like they reclined at the table. Judas was there, you know, and yet he betrayed Jesus in such an ugly, disgusting way. And it played out in Jesus' incredible suffering. So they were like not only just processing and dealing with what they had seen Jesus endure, but the fact that it was instigated by one of their own, like someone from the inside, Judas. How could this be possible? How could Judas do what he did? And then to kind of, I think, find peace and believe, you know, that God has a plan. Like they look to the scriptures, and there are two in particular that Peter rose up to remind them of, like Psalm 109, I think it's Psalm 69, that speak of in those Psalms, David, right from the mouth of David, they said, but again, another thing they believe that the scriptures were, you know, divinely inspired because the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David in these psalms. But and David was speaking of when he was betrayed, but it pointed forward beyond when he was betrayed to when Jesus would be betrayed, the Messiah. And and Peter is saying, like, yeah, this is what God said would happen. This happened. And the response should be like, let another fill his place. And so they look to the scriptures for guidance, they look to the scriptures for comfort and for confirmation, like that God was in control. And we can do the same today. And in particular, the psalms are just such a source of comfort when you're going through hard times, when you're discouraged, like when you're having a hard time making sense of things. Like the psalms are such a practical and valuable place to go, right? To look to the scriptures to find comfort and peace. It's so helpful. I cannot say enough about the importance of prayer, which we see them doing in one accord, but also looking to God's word, the scriptures.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

What direction? What are you allowing? Direction.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I think you had a great point on how we make decisions. You know, all of us building into how we individually and as a body make decisions. And it should be completely shaped by one accord in prayer and God's word. Because if you're deciding outside of those, then you kind of go in go in your own direction. So I know you focused on that really an encouragement. If you've got big decisions you're praying through or you know, just reflecting when you've made good decisions, bad decisions, how did that go? Yeah. I think how you kind of see that in this passage as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

I mean, like God, like as his servants, ultimately we're his servants. Therefore, our agenda should be his agenda, right? You know, like we want what he wants. We desire what he desires to please him, to honor him. And so we want to decide what he has decided, right? And that's what's kind of is revealed here in them choosing a replacement for Judas, right? So they look around, they decide, okay, like what are the qualifications, like, you know, and they list those out. And we can do the same. Like we can list pros and cons, like what makes most sense. But if there's like these two options there, like they asked, they prayed and said, Lord, show us the man. You're the one who sees hearts. You know better than us. Your perspective is not limited. We realize and understand that we're fallible, like our perspective is limited. We don't see everything. You see it, you know the past, present, and future. So reveal to us the man, the one that you had or have chosen past tense. So they acknowledge like God has a plan. This isn't arbitrary, haphazard, coincidental. Like it's not, you know, they did roll the dice, they cast lots, and we can talk about that in a minute. Like, should we roll the dice, you know, in making decisions. But really, what they wanted simply, ultimately, was to do what God wanted. And God chose Matthias, and that was it. No one questioned it, like they just went with it. And Matthias was numbered then among the eleven and became the twelfth, you know, in the place of Judas.

Why We Do Not Cast Lots

SPEAKER_01 13:57

So I think really important, you know, like we're talking about is they narrowed it down to two biblically qualified men. You know, they didn't just you know, haphazardly, ah, you know, anybody you know wants to, but they did their part to like pray and like, yes, we see two guys who are very qualified, but then trusting the Lord with the final outcome, knowing that he has that. So they did their part. You know, we should we were talking about, and I think you mentioned yesterday, God's not gonna ask you to do something contrary to his word. So if you're like, God, should I marry this person who's an unbeliever or that person who's a believer, well, God's not gonna tell you to marry an unbeliever, or should I take this job that does illegal stuff, or should I gamble my money, which will lead into like God's not gonna tell you to like get rich gambling. God's gonna tell you to faithfully pursue Him and then bless that work. So prevent, you know, whether you're choosing jobs, people, all of these kind of things, you know, presenting those and trusting.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Absolutely. So why don't we cast lots? Literally, why don't we roll the dice? Why don't we just go to the casinos and you know? You know, because we have the Holy Spirit. Exactly. You know, and the Holy Spirit is our helper, the Holy Spirit is our guide. He reveals to us what God wants, who God is, if we listen, if we you know listen. I will say that, and I quoted it him yesterday, Adrian Rogers, one of my favorite preachers of old. And I've experienced this too, where people are very frustrated because they're like, I need a word from God, I need an answer from the Lord's on which way to go, what to do in a certain situation. And Adrian Rogers said that his counsel to most people in those situations is listen, God's not gonna give you another word or more until you're obedient to what he's already given you, like the word that he's already given you. And so, yeah, like if God tells us, let's say in the case of marriage, if he says, don't be unequally yoked, you don't need to roll the dice, and you know you don't need to ask God, should I marry this person, even though they're not an unbeliev, not a believer, right? Because he's already said, like, do not be unequally yoked. Like believers are to marry believers, right? And thereby being equally yoked. And so that's just one example. But but beyond that, like we have the Holy Spirit who affirms, who gives peace that passes understanding, right? Who can lead and guide us to do things that we wouldn't otherwise do, you know, he is our guide. We do not see the apostles, anyone casting lots beyond this point. Like when the Holy Spirit comes, lots are not needed. Now, in the Old Testament, under ancient Judaism, yeah, the Urim and the Thurum, uh, Thumim or whatever it is, you know, the priest would have these. And that was kind of a regular thing they did to help reveal, and it and God did that. Like, I think even in this situation, like it was uh like a right way for them to allow God to show them. Now we have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit reveals, illuminates, gives wisdom, gives understanding. It is, I think, profound to consider the fact that James, so Jesus' brothers were there. James, who wrote the book of James, was one of Jesus' brothers, and he is the one who wrote in James chapter 1, verse 5 if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask for wisdom, for God gives wisdom generously to all without reproach. There's a qualifier there. Well, first of all, he didn't say, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him cast lots. He didn't say that. Even though he was here at this time, right, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, his instruction was ask God for wisdom, pray, right? Hebrews 4 16 says we can come boldly to the throne of grace, like anytime, anywhere. We don't have to wait for a meeting with a pastor. Like we can pray. Jesus is our mediator, so we can boldly approach his throne, kneel before him at any time. He didn't say cast lots, he says, pray for wisdom, ask God for wisdom. But when we do that, he says in verse 6, let that person who asks for wisdom ask in faith without doubting or wavering or without balking. In other words, like if we know we're asking and believing that God is all-knowing, in other words, as someone who knows, who's good, he's gonna give the right answer. So we our job is not to then, having received the right answer, decide whether or not we want to obey the right answer. No, like we understanding and knowing who he is, and we're asking for the right answer. If he gives us the right answer, then we're gonna be obedient to that. Like, so we we ask with faith, without wavering, without doubting, without dragging our feet, because delayed obedience is not obedience, partial obedience is not obedience. God's not playing games with us, and so he's not gonna give us an answer if he knows we're not gonna obey it. So a lot of times I think this was frustration instead of being frustrated with God, we should be frustrated with ourselves and ask for forgiveness and really repent, you know. So, God, yeah, we don't need to cast lots or draw straws. We need to pray for everything. How silly would it be for our elder team to roll the dice? You know, should we hire Nate Umberger? You know, as the you know, let's let's roll the dice. Uh flip a coin. Yeah. And really essentially what we do through prayer is we cast lots, and then if the dice aren't what we want them to be, we keep praying and we keep praying. And we know God has spoken, you know, God tells us. So we don't want to play those games with Him. He doesn't play games with us.

Waiting On Timing And Persistent Prayer

SPEAKER_01 19:34

I think tying into that, the theme too of waiting. You know, so when we're praying, sometimes we expect an instant answer. But are we waiting? Are we watching? Are we looking? Yeah, because sometimes God's timing will also be perfect. You know, it might be like, I'll give you an answer, but maybe you're not ready right now. So sometimes there's red light, green light, yellow, right? You know, kind of wait, you know, move cautiously, versus you know, God will give you the green light too, sometimes like doors open, mountains, you know, fall, and if they don't, it's probably for a reason. Maybe your heart's not ready. You know, Ash and I are working through that in our adoption journey. You know, it's been a long journey, but we kind of see God's timing and purposes, and so don't delay your obedience, but when God says go, it gives you an answer, don't hem and haul. So we have to carry both of those, I think. And that's what the disciples are doing, right? Like kind of they wait, they pray, they're one accord. All right, it's one of these two guys, you know, let's go.

Praying Together And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah. Another I think that just coming to my mind as we're thinking about prayer and seeking answers and provisions or whatever it is, you know, sometimes people will say, Well, I prayed about this or for this, checked, did it. You know, if I'm really gonna trust God, I don't need to ask him again because you know, I believe that he's gonna answer. But really, like in the you know, when Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock, like the tense of the verbs is to like continue to ask and continue to seek, continue to knock. In other words, continue to pray, not unbelieving or you know, but but uh in faith, knowing that God will answer when he has the answer, but like we just we continue to pray. We don't like pray, check, did it, okay, done. We continue to pray. Persist, right? Yeah, we persist in prayer, we prevail in prayer, we keep praying, right? Praying continuously without ceasing is the instructions that we're given. And so, yeah, like that that's I think kind of an important point. Like, like we don't just pray, okay, did it done. Like for 10 days they prayed with one accord, right? You know, and and that doesn't even really sound like a long time, but it is. Like we can't even, you know, we have a hard time sitting through an hour and a half service. You know, I can't even imagine an hour and a half prayer service, you know, but let alone 10 days like they were together. And I'm sure they slept and ate and did you know the things of necessity, but they were committed and devoted to prayer. No one was Going on vacation, you know, doing different other things, or even doing, they were praying, they were devoting themselves to prayer, seeking God. First, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And we should follow their example.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

I think another point too is praying together, persisting in prayer. And sometimes we miss out on you have a big decision, you have something going on in your life, and you don't bring other believers into it. You know, how blessed it is to pray for one another. You know, so often that time to pray together is what's so valuable in our connect groups and the times you get together. And how much more encouraging is it when you know your brothers and sisters in Christ are also praying for you? So we miss out on that blessing. Totally. The one accord where we're not praying together. Too many times we forsake that as well, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Honestly, it's kind of like I don't know, which comes first, the chicken or the egg, right? Which comes first, the prayer or being in one accord? I don't know because I do think though that there is nothing more unifying than prayer. Like whether it's in a husband-wife relationship, like when you pray together, like as hard or challenging as that may be at times, or whether it's, you know, whatever, a family or a church, like prayer is such a uniting thing. And I would say that it's probably the most important thing that we as an elder team do when we have our monthly meetings. Like we get together and we spend a good amount of time in prayer. Our staff spends a lot of time every week in prayer. It is essential. Like it's what we do. Christians pray, right? You know, not just to make decisions, but but like it's about our relationship with the Lord, but it's a way to understand when we understand our need and our dependence upon the Lord, we're gonna pray because we know who the source of our provision, you know, is, and that's God. And so we pray to Him. We don't look to other things, other people. We look to the Lord. We we trust the Lord, and so we pray to the Lord, our God. And so, yeah, we pray as individuals, but also together corporately. Like it's it's a beautiful opportunity, it's a beautiful privilege, and it is also a profitable opportunity. Like it bears fruit in so many profound ways. And and aside from that, we're commanded to do it. We are commanded and blessed to do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

So if you're struggling with direction, if you're struggling with decisions, I think we can learn so much from this passage of God's word, prayer, unity, so many themes, you know. And I know you even mentioned from the pulpit like our core values here at Lifehouse, you know, together, praying first, God's word. You know, there's much that is the foundation of informed by these verses, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. The three core values of Lifehouse Church that were kind of touched on here, maybe even four. One is together, like we wait, we witness, we work together for the glory of God. We see that them in one accord, they're together. Prayer, right? We pray first, we pray always. We see uh God's word, they look to the scripture like we believe, we teach, we preach, we obey all of it. There was another one that could potentially be in here.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Worshiping, we worship, all of us worshiping all the time.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's so many things in here, but but those in particular I think inform us why those core values of our what we Lifehouse Church are all about here today. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

So Lifehouse Family, we hope this encourages you. Again, if you're struggling with decisions, you need prayer. We're always we have a prayer team that meets Monday. You mentioned before service, come early. Great time to pray together. And after services, like don't miss out on that opportunity to pray with and for others. So if you want to plug into prayer, you plug into a group so many of the opportunities we have here at the church. Love to have you. Yes, and we're looking forward to continuing acts, but I know next week we have a guest speaker, so we'll be reflecting on uh on a little bit of a different message, but super excited for that next week as well. Don't miss out. Men, make sure you come out Saturday. If you haven't signed up, sign up. We'll have a great time with Rob speaking to the men and then uh going to speak to our congregation as well. So it should be the weekend. So we th appreciate you joining us. Thanks for taking this time. We pray it's a continual blessing and look forward to seeing you next week.