Introduction
Every year, the church prayerfully participates in the 10 days following Jesus’ ascension. During that time, the disciples awaited the promised gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now, we learn to wait with them, longing for the Spirit’s renewing work and tracing a pattern in Scripture: God ascends to reign and fills people with the Holy Spirit so they can rule with him.
We have seen God’s first enthronement and humanity’s first filling with the Spirit. We have watched the rebellion of a counterfeit kingdom—the anti-filling of the sons of God and anti-enthronement of the Tower of Babel. We have followed Jesus, the God-Man, as he ascends to his throne above every power. And we have sat with Mary, learning the quiet posture of waiting and prayer.
Now Acts reveals the shape of Jesus’ Kingdom on earth. Before the Spirit descends, Jesus, the enthroned King, gathers rulers and prepares them to share in his reign.
The Rulers of a New Kingdom
Acts tells us that about 120 of Jesus’ followers were gathered together (Acts 1:15). The number echoes the formation of Israel. Twelve is the number of Israel’s tribes—a whole people under God’s rule. And here, 12 is multiplied and made full—“10 twelves” waiting for 10 days to be filled. These 120 are the beginning of a renewed Israel, a Kingdom being remade from the inside out.
Among those gathered are the 11 remaining apostles (Acts 1:13). Jesus chose the Twelve as a sign that he was restoring Israel. Twelve apostles were meant to bear witness to the King and share in his rule over the people of God. But one seat is empty.
Judas: A Defeated Enemy and an Empty Seat
Peter stands, and he names the loss. Judas, one of the Twelve, became the betrayer of the King. Judas died a gruesome death in the field he bought with the money he received for betraying Jesus. Peter reads Judas’ tragic fall through the Psalms, pointing out that the Scriptures speak of a place left vacant when an enemy is removed. The Scriptures also speak of this office being given to another (Acts 1:20; Psalm 69:25; Psalm 109:8). The enemy does not keep the seat forever. When he is defeated, his vacant throne is filled.
This is not just the story of Judas, but of humanity. In the beginning, we fell under an enemy’s dominion. In Jesus, that dominion has been confronted, and the human calling restored. The empty seat among the Twelve becomes a window into a cosmic reversal: God is taking back what was lost, restoring what was broken, filling what is empty.
Lots and the Allotment of a Kingdom
Peter then describes Judas’ replacement: someone who has been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, who witnessed his resurrection, and who can testify to his ascension to his throne in heaven (Acts 1:21-22). This apostolic authority is rooted in proximity to Jesus, shaped by the story of Jesus, and formed by witness to the risen Jesus.
Two men are proposed, and then the community prays (Acts 1:23-25). They confess that only the King can assign a seat in his Kingdom. Then they cast lots, and the lot falls to Matthias (Acts 1:26).
Lots belong to Israel’s story. When God gave Israel the land of Canaan, he apportioned the inheritance by lot. As the true King of his people, God allotted each portion—lots were cast as an act of trust that God himself assigns inheritance (Numbers 26:55-56; Joshua 14:2).
So here, in the days between Ascension and Pentecost, the apostles cast lots to see who will rule with them under Christ. They trust that God will choose the right person to proclaim with them the reign of the King.
We Don’t Wait Alone
The church is built on a foundation of apostolic witness—on the message entrusted to those who walked with Jesus, witnessed his resurrection, and were appointed to lead his people (Ephesians 2:20). Their testimony anchors the church’s faith down through the ages. Their teaching shapes how the church waits. Their authority assures us that the Kingdom we receive is not our own invention but a gift from the enthroned King.
And so we don’t wait alone. A great cloud of witnesses surrounds us (Hebrews 12:1). We yield ourselves to the King, and we receive his gifts—including the gift of the apostles’ leadership—in the ways he has chosen to give them.
Guided Prayer
We pray now with the apostles as Jesus, the risen and ascended King, taught us:
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven those indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.