It is necessary therefore, that of the men who have assembled with us all [the] time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us,
Peter stands up and sets out who may fill the place Judas left empty. The man must have walked with the eleven through the whole of the Lord's public life. Two questions follow: why the requirement is so narrow, and why it can never be met again.
Peter speaks before the Spirit came, yet he knows exactly what to do. One writer separates two things here: understanding and power.
Peter speaks to them with decision, but in the light and authority of Scripture. Power from on high had not yet come on him, but there was clearly an understanding he had never known before the Lord died and rose. These two things may exist side by side now. Or a person may have spiritual understanding where no special power is given, though the Holy Spirit is present, and He remains forever.
The requirement is not general godliness. It is firsthand knowledge of the Lord's whole ministry.
A personal acquaintance with the whole course of the Lord's ministry was the original and a necessary qualification of an apostle. Peter said this before the choosing of a successor to the traitor Judas... This close contact with the Lord made them especially suited to be the witnesses of His earthly path. He describes them Himself as "those who have stayed with me in my trials" (Luke 22:28).
Peter's picture of the Lord going in and out among them does more than mark time.
He must be chosen from the ranks "of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us." How lovely that is! Look at the beautiful closeness of Jesus with His own. The expression "went in and out among us" says volumes to the affectionate heart.
Why must the man have been there all along? The task itself explains it.
They were to testify of Christ's resurrection and to lay the foundation of the Church. So it seems that seeing Jesus after He rose from the dead was an essential qualification... Peter told Cornelius that God made the risen Jesus appear "not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead" (Acts 10:40-41). The only people who ate and drank with Jesus after His resurrection were the apostles.
Some ask whether the eleven ran ahead of God by casting lots before the Spirit came. One writer answers that they had clear ground for what they did.
Scripture had settled for them what His mind was about filling the place. To decide which man, there was the lot, used so often in Israel for a matter like this. They even had Scripture for this: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Prov. 16:33)... They acted in obedience, not in self-confidence; we never find their act disputed afterwards, and we surely have no right to dispute it now. It would be a totally different thing to imitate their conduct, now that the Spirit of God has come.
Some think Matthias was a stopgap and Paul the real twelfth apostle. Peter's requirement rules that out.
From then on there were twelve (Acts 1:26; 2:14; 6:2), all of whom had known the Lord before His death and could witness of His resurrection. It is clear that Paul, called later to the apostleship, could never have answered to what Peter declared was required on this occasion. He was not the twelfth apostle; nor was Barnabas either. Neither of them could have been that.
Only those who had seen the Lord could qualify, so no one could pass the office on.
There were no successors to the apostles: to be apostles they must have "seen the Lord." Acts 1:21-22; 1 Cor. 9:1; Rev. 2:2. The foundation of the church was laid. The apostolic work was complete, and the apostles passed away. In His goodness God still gives the gifts that are needed, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Eph. 4:12-13.
- Scripture first. Peter fills the empty place on the authority of the written Word. Understanding came before power.
- Witness needs eyes. The man must have walked the whole road with the Lord. Testimony rests on what a person has seen.
- Witness means closeness. "Went in and out among us" is not just a way of marking time. It pictures the warm, daily closeness of Jesus with His own.
- Witness has one theme. The whole point of the appointment was witness to the resurrection.
- Witness cannot be inherited. Only eyewitnesses of the risen Lord could qualify, so the twelve had no successors. The foundation was laid once, and other gifts remain.
beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which he was taken up from us, one of these should be a witness with us of his resurrection.
Peter sets the standard for the man who will replace Judas. He must have walked with the Lord from John the Baptist's day to the ascension, and be able to testify that Jesus rose.
Older translations have Peter say that someone must be "ordained to be" a witness. Those added words are not in the original.
In Acts 1:22 the phrase is simply something the translators put in. Look at the original, where it only says, "one of them must be a witness of the resurrection."
So the verse hands no one an office. It says a man must become a witness.
The standard is not a job description. It is a shared history, and the phrase Peter uses for it is worth a second look.
He must be chosen from "the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us." How lovely that is! Look at the beautiful closeness of Jesus with His own. The words "went in and out among us" say volumes to a loving heart.
Their years with Him did more than warm their hearts.
They would testify in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Their own evidence as eyewitnesses would also confirm everything they told about their Master's life and death, His resurrection and ascension.
Everything narrows to one subject: the resurrection. It runs through the whole book that follows.
Here again we see how great a place the resurrection was to hold in the testimony of Christ and the gospel. It is woven right through this book of Acts. Preaching and teaching cannot be strong or clear without it. Before it, proud man comes to nothing. By it Christ is vindicated, God is glorified, and the believer is justified.
Some say the eleven acted too soon, and that Paul was meant to be the twelfth. One writer answers both claims.
The action of Peter in proposing to place another in Judas' place was not a mistake as some claim. Peter acted upon the Scriptures and was guided by the Lord. Some hold that Paul was meant to be the twelfth apostle. This is incorrect. Paul's apostleship was of an entirely different nature than that of the twelve... Furthermore, twelve apostles were needed as a body of witnesses to the entire nation. How strange it would have been at Pentecost if Peter and the ten had stood up to witness to Christ before the assembled crowd. That would be eleven men in all, instead of twelve.
Paul did see the risen Lord. But he did not see Him in the way this verse describes.
An essential feature of apostleship was firsthand knowledge of the risen Saviour. The apostle had to be able to testify that he had personally seen Him risen... Paul saw Him, not during the forty days after He rose, but later in the full blaze of His glory.
No human vote settles who becomes an apostle. The method they used belonged to a moment before the Spirit came.
Man never chooses an apostle; apostles did not, could not, elect an apostle: the Lord alone chose. So they cast lots in the Jewish way. The twelve apostles clearly answered, as I see it, to the twelve tribes of Israel... No doubt, once the church of God existed, the lot disappears; but the church of God was not yet formed.
The same writer points to what they did not yet have:
They fell back on the Old Testament practice of casting lots. Guidance like that in Acts 13:2 could not be known until the Holy Spirit had been given.
- Companied — A witness is made by time spent. The man had to walk with the Lord from John's baptism to the ascension.
- Witness — That closeness had one aim: firsthand testimony that Jesus rose. It is the theme of the whole book of Acts.
- Not ordained — Translators added the words "ordained to be." The text only says a man must become a witness, so this verse hands out no church office.
- Twelve — The body of witnesses had to be complete to face the whole nation at Pentecost. Paul was not the twelfth; his call was of another kind.
- Chosen — The Lord alone picks His witness. The lot suited a moment before the Spirit came, and it never appears again.