Читать книгу The Acts of the Apostles - William Barclay - Страница 16

THE QUALIFICATIONS OF AN APOSTLE

Acts 1:21–6

‘So then, of the men who were with us during all the time our Lord went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us – of these we must choose one to be a witness of the resurrection along with us.’ So they selected two, Joseph, who was called Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said: ‘O Lord, who knowest the hearts of all, do thou show us which of these two thou hast chosen to take his place in this service and in the apostleship, from which Judas fell away and went to his own place.’ So they made them draw lots and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was elected to be along with the eleven apostles.

WE look briefly at the method of choosing someone to take Judas’ place among the apostles. It may seem strange to us that the method was that of casting lots. But among the Jews it was the natural thing to do, because all the offices and duties in the Temple were settled that way. The names of the candidates were written on stones; the stones were put into a jar, and the jar was shaken until one stone fell out; and the one whose name was on that stone was elected to office.

The great fact about this passage is that it gives us two supremely important truths.

First, it tells us that the function of an apostle was to be a witness to the resurrection. The real mark of Christians is not that they know about Jesus but that they know Jesus. The basic mistake in Christianity is to regard Jesus as someone who lived and died and whose life we study and whose story we read. Jesus is not a figure in a book, he is a living presence; and Christians are men and women whose lives are a witness to the fact that they know and have met the risen Lord.

Second, it tells us that the qualification of an apostle was that the person must have been with Jesus. The real Christian is the one who lives day by day with Jesus. It was said of the great preacher John Brown, the eighteenth-century minister of the Scottish town of Haddington, that often when he preached he paused as if listening for a voice. The writer Jerome K. Jerome tells of an old cobbler who, on the coldest day, left the door of his shop open. On being asked why, he replied: ‘So that Jesus can come in if he is passing by.’ We often speak about what would happen if Jesus were here and how differently we would live if he were in our homes and at our work. The daughter of the British politician W. H. Smith, Lady Emily Acland, tells how once her little daughter had a spasm of temper. Afterwards, she and the daughter were sitting on the stairs making up again, and the little girl said: ‘I wish Jesus would come and stay in our house all the time.’ But the fact is that Jesus is here; and real Christians are those who live all their lives with Christ.