The Full Armor of God: Defending your life from Satan's Schemes.
Yes I was intent on reading the Old Testament first. But as you know I keep coming across books on my journey that reach out and grab me. I went shopping for my mother's birthday present, and while at Wal Mart of all places this book said "buy me". I don't like purple much. I am not real keen on the "Knight in Shining Armor" theme much anymore. But yet I could not walk away from this book. There is NOTHING about this cover that appeals to me.
When I got home, with the book, I decided to add it to my pile of "books to read" when I get a chance. And haphazardly threw it in my bag one day, so I'd have something to read while waiting in the car line to pick the kids up from school.
I couldn't put it down. I raced the kids home, so I could get back to the book. No one had ever said these words to me "Armor of God". I had no idea what Ephesians was, nor what it was about. Yet I read with the sole determination of learning more, more, MORE.
This book absolutely without a doubt hit me right where I needed to be hit. It opened up my eyes in so many ways that I never thought possible. I have so much respect for the Apostle Paul. His words just came alive when I read the scripture for myself. And Larry Richards, THANK YOU for writing this book. I needed it.
I read it, I loved it, I recommended it to my women's group at church. I'm now going through it with another lady at church, digging the treasures out of it, and she loves it as much as I do. I wish that everyone would read this book. I so much love this book that I ordered 5 more copies yesterday. One for my mom, and one for each of my kids.
I don't want to spoil this one, or entice you not to buy it with the notes I share, but I do want to share the Armor!!!
The Helmet of Salvation: who we are in God's eyes.
The Shield of Faith: God's faithfulness to us.
The Sandals of Peace: The gospel of Jesus' love.
The Breastplate of Righteousness: We are created to be like God.
The Belt of Truth: God's truth is the key to wearing all the other pieces.
The Sword of the Spirit: God's Word to us all.
Arm yourself with the Armor of God, the Full Armor of God, and Satan will not stand a chance!!
You read this book, I mean REALLY READ this book, and you will be a different person when you are done!!! You will know without a doubt that you are special, and loved, and you are God's!!!
Quite honestly this study has a LOT of information in it. But it wasn't quite complete on it's own. I recommend this book as a supplement to The Full Armor of God by Larry Richards. The questions that Life Change provides, gives you another way of looking at the information in Ephesians. It also helped me to actually dig into the text of the Letter, and dissect it for myself. I recommend this text for any study group, but suggest that you incorporate it into a larger study, one that focuses more on the Armor, and the schemes of Satan in our lives.
What do you say? Sounds ludicrous right? This country was founding on the freedom of religion, that's the very 1st Amendment, why would we even consider this? Well folks, that is exactly what we did in the 1960's.
Let's start at the beginning, shall we?
When the American Congress first met in Carpenter's Hall to discuss the upcoming British conflicts, you know what the first thing they did was? They PRAYED. Not just a little, quick, short prayer, but they prayed with deep emotion, for a great deal of time. Some of those in attendance were Patrick Henry, John Adams, John Jay, George Washington, and Samuel Adams. These are our founding fathers, and they PRAYED.
During the American Revolution the Continental Congress issued 15 separate proclamations calling the nation (it's people) to pray, to fast, and to give thanksgiving depending on the circumstances at the time. These proclamations were overtly filled with Christian language.
Proclamation - Humiliation Fasting and Prayer - 1798 John Adams - 03/23/1798
AS the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and blessing of Almighty God; and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety, without which social happiness cannot exist, nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty and of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation, by the unfriendly disposition, conduct and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredations on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow citizens, while engaged in their lawful business on the seas: —Under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country, demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants.
These proclamations have happened throughout this countries history. In 2014, this year, President Obama declared a National Day of Prayer, to be observed every year on the 1st Thursday in May.
On the Liberty Bell, we find a verse from the Bible, Leviticus 25:10. It is called the Liberty Bell for this reason, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof."
Every morning the Congress of the United States, read from the Bible before they began the functions to which they were tasked, they still did this in Reagan's time in office.
In 1782, Congress agreed to, approved of, and appointed a congressional committee to oversee a project that consisted of producing an English-language Bible. In the front of that Bible is a congressional endorsement declaring: "Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled... recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States."
"George Washington openly acknowledged that it had been by the direct intervention of God that he remained alive." (See below for acknowledgment notation 1) Surviving an incident during the French and Indian War, in which his coat had four bullet holes, and he had not taken a bullet himself. Those he fought later told him that they had given up shooting at him, when they saw that he was protected by God. Washington is quoted as saying: "I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectation".
Founding Father John Adams said "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were... the general principles of Christianity."
One of the first textbooks of the time was called The New England Primer. I'm including some of the text from that book so you can see what the kids of that day were learning in school.
The New England Primer - 1777
HOW glorious is our heavenly King,
Who reigns
above tha Sky!
O LORD God who knowest all Things, thou seest me by
Night as well as by Day.
ALMIGHTY God the Maker of every thing in Heaven and Earth;
the Darkness goes away, and the Day light comes at thy Command. Thou art good
and doest good continually.
P
PETER deny'd
His Lord and cry'd.
Who saves lost Men ?
Jesus
Christ.
Who is Jesus Christ ?
The
Son of God.
Among the alphabet, and grammar, spelling, and pronunciation the bulk of this first text was Christian in origin, and very much Biblical in origin.
US Government modeled after the Bible:
We set up our government, three distinct branches, based on Isaiah 33:22.
Separation of Powers from Jeremiah 17:9.
Tax exemptions for churches in Ezra 7:24.
Other interesting items
1892 U.S. Supreme Court declared unanimously: "No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people... This is a Christian nation."
1844 A Philadelphia run school adopted a policy that kept Christian ministers from coming on campus. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was determined unanimously that this "government" run school should teach Christianity and the Bible, the source of "the purest principles of morality".
So let's look at the beginning:
Why did our forefathers come to this country. MOST of them came here to escape religious persecution. You see in Europe when the Protestants took over, the Catholics suffered. When the Catholics took over, the Protestants suffered. Many thousands of years of suffering on one side, then the other. Our forefathers founded this nation on the freedom to be whatever Christian you wanted to be. To be able to not fear a "Catholic State" or a "Protestant State". So that each side could be free of persecution to believe in God the Father, the way they know they are supposed to. Having a government that runs the country without taking a side on this issue is very important, for the well being and the peace of mind of the people. (But please note, there are 2 sides of this coin, Catholic & Protestant, not many, not 100, not 1000's, but 2, this country was founded as a Christian nation).
Our forefathers fought for the rights of religious expression for ALL Christians, before, during and after the separation from Great Britain.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
"No law respecting an establishment of religion" that means that there will never be a "Catholic State" or a "Protestant State" but that ALL Christians will be free to practice their religion, they can gather, they can have their meeting, their ceremonies, they can talk, speak to others, they can produce pamphlets, documents, and assemble with others that believe as they do. ALL Christians do not have to fear persecution. ALL Christians have the freedom to proclaim who they are without fear of repercussions.
"Free exercise thereof" means that I can be a Christian ANYWHERE I want to be. I can speak about my religion to anyone that I want to. I can carry my Bible with me where ever I want to go. There will be NO law passed to deny me the right to carry my Bible with me where ever I want to go.
PERIOD... this is very CUT and DRY. Nothing to read between the lines here. In this Christian nation, I am free to be whatever branch of Christian that I want to. Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist.... the list is truly endless now.
George Washington said in is Farewell Address in 1796:
"The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles." (Slight shades of difference, cause they were all Christians).
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." (Crucial, mandatory supports)
"Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Yes I straight up copied this from a different website. The one listed right above here. Please go to that page and get more great information! I reprinted it here, so that I will always have easy access to it. Beth Moore, is awesome!
When I was 18 years old, I surrendered to God’s call to vocational ministry. But I really had no idea what I was surrendering to. Some years later, God gave me a mandate: “I sent My Son to set the captives free. You will go forth and ring the liberty bell.”
This mandate sounded evangelistic to me, and I was certain my calling was in the area of discipleship. I shake my head and marvel now when I recall that I once thought the only people who were captives were the spiritually lost!
But if anyone had told me then that Christians can be in bondage, I would have argued with all the volume a person can muster—when a yoke of slavery is strangling her neck! I was the worst kind of captive: a prisoner unaware. In fact, I had no idea I was in captivity until God began to set me free.
Perhaps you’re also unconvinced that Christians can live in bondage. Don’t take my word for it; take God’s.
The Bible says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1, NIV, emphasis added). The fact that Paul wrote this warning not to the world but to the church (Gal. 1:2) and that he used the phrase “burdened again” indicates that he knew it was possible for believers to become bound.
I paraphrase Galatians 5:1 this way: “Don’t you realize that Christ gave up everything so you could be free? The cross purchased your liberty from every yoke and replaced it with Christ Himself [see Matt. 11:28-30]. Nothing can hold you captive now without your permission.
“Don’t go back to slavery! He did not set you free to live the rest of your life in self-inflicted bondage. Learn to live in Christ’s glorious liberty; then stay on the alert so you don’t return to captivity.”
End of Captivity
No other book of the Bible has more to say about the captivity of God’s people and the promise of freedom and restoration than the book of Isaiah. Isaiah ministered as a prophet to the people of God in and around Jerusalem during the period when the nation of Israel was a divided kingdom. Isaiah’s name means “the Lord saves,” and the word salvation is used in his book 27 times—twice as many as in the books of the other Old Testament prophets combined.
Isaiah speaks about the rebellion of God’s people and their resulting captivity to the Assyrians. But he also looks ahead to a time when the captivity will end, a time when Israel will be comforted by God and restored to her appointed purpose.
More importantly, Isaiah prophesies about the coming of the Deliverer, the One who is destined to set His people free:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
“They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations” (Is. 61:1-4).
From this passage we can learn several important points:
1. God hears the cry of the oppressed. We must believe that God cares about those in physical, emotional, mental or spiritual prisons. God issued Isaiah 61:1-4 as a response to the captivity He foresaw when He looked down on rebellious Judah. These liberating words apply to us just as surely as they did to the Israelites. They will continue to apply as long as God looks down from the height of His sanctuary, views the earth and hears the groaning of the prisoner.
2. God fulfills Isaiah 61:1-4 in Christ alone. When Jesus read from the Scriptures in the temple, He quoted Isaiah 61 as His personal charter (Luke 4:14-21). Both Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:14 tell us that Christ Jesus was empowered by the Spirit. And we know that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).
Christ sets us free by the power of His Spirit; then He maintains our freedom as we learn to live from day to day in the power of that Spirit. Isaiah and Luke agree that only Christ was appointed to offer this kind of freedom.
3. Christ’s ministry is a ministry of the heart. Do you notice all the parts of Jesus’ job description? Christ came to “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners ... to comfort all who mourn ... to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes ... a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Is. 61:1-3).
Christ’s first priority is setting captives free from the bondage of eternal destruction (2 Pet. 3:9). But saved people, as I mentioned before, can still be in bondage (Gal. 5:1).
Forms of Bondage
What does this mean in real life? When I think of bondage, I most often imagine yokes that come from some area of childhood trauma or victimization because this is the kind of yoke I had to combat. However, I know from my relationships with other women that there are many different types of yokes.
I recently asked a group of women I teach to broaden my horizon in terms of areas of captivity believers face. Although they will remain unnamed, you know women just like them: bright, educated, Christian women who serve faithfully in their churches and come from all economic backgrounds.
I heard painful testimonies of bondage to lust and patterns of falling into sexual sin. I read about struggles with homosexuality and a fear of men because of childhood abuse.
Some spoke about an inability to love people fully, including their own husbands and children. One wrote me about the victory God had given her over a compulsion to steal. Another had been freed from habitual dishonesty. A friend surprised me by writing about gaining freedom from the bitterness she had developed as a result of the physical abuse she endured as a child.
My heart broke for one woman who described how deep insecurity had stolen friendships, church work and her marriage from her. I’ve heard from many who were held captive by a critical and judgmental heart toward people. Others wrestled terribly with anger toward God. Doubt. Discouragement. Loneliness. A chronic lack of satisfaction.
And these letters came only from those who had already found freedom in Christ. Imagine how many are still struggling! I firmly believe:
Christ came to set the captives free—no matter what kind of yoke binds them.
He came to bind up the brokenhearted—no matter what broke the heart.
He came to open the eyes of the blind—no matter what veiled their vision.
Obstacles to Freedom
In Isaiah’s glorious thesis on captives set free, the prophet describes the benefits of God in one unforgettable summation: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him” (Is. 64:4). God wants to do in your life what your eyes have never seen, your ears have never heard, and your mind has never conceived.
But just as the Israelites were in bondage, a foreign yoke may be keeping you from realizing five primary benefits that God intends for His children to enjoy. The absence of any one benefit is a helpful indicator of captivity. According to the Book of Isaiah, God graciously extended the following benefits to His children:
To know God and believe Him.
To glorify God.
To find satisfaction in God.
To experience God’s peace.
To enjoy God’s presence.
Since many Christians today obviously are not experiencing the fullness of these benefits, there must be hindrances that keep us from the birthright God intends. Five obstacles block our access to the benefits God has for us:
Unbelief, which hinders knowing God.
Pride, which prevents us from glorifying God.
Idolatry, which keeps us from being satisfied with God.
Prayerlessness, which blocks our experience of God’s peace.
Legalism, which stops our enjoyment of God’s presence.
These five obstacles are so prohibitive that if they are not addressed and removed the personal visitation of our King will be greatly hindered, and we will never walk in true freedom.
1. Unbelief
Unbelief is choosing not to believe God. I’m not talking about believing in God; I’m talking about believing what He says. We can believe in Christ, accepting the truth that He is the Son of God, and we can believe on Christ, receiving eternal salvation, yet fail to stand firm in belief and choose to find Him trustworthy day to day.
Unbelief is crippling. The steps we take forward with God we take through faith. Therefore, unbelief literally cripples our spiritual “walk,” casting huge obstacles in the way of a victorious life.
The good news is that if we’re willing to admit our lack of confidence in Him, Christ is more than willing to help us overcome our unbelief. Ask Him to do this for you. Also, spend time getting to know Him. The more you know Him, the more you will believe Him. Choose today to pursue Him and to walk in faith.
2. Pride
Pride is an obstacle to glorifying God because it is equivalent to taking God off the throne and putting ourselves in His place. We cannot honor Him when we are seeking honor for ourselves. And God will not share His glory with another, not even His own children.
Breaking free from pride involves two steps: (1) viewing pride as a vicious enemy and humility as a friend; and (2) humbling yourself before God. Proverbs 11:2 tells us, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
Humility is not something we have until humbling ourselves is something we do. This does not mean we are to hate ourselves. It means we are to acknowledge who we are in relationship to God and bow to His majesty.
3. Idolatry
God wants us to find our satisfaction in Him rather than wasting our time and effort on things that cannot satisfy. But when we look to other sources for satisfaction, we are guilty of idolatry.
Dissatisfaction is not a terrible thing. It’s a God-thing. It’s only terrible when we don’t let it lead us to Christ. He wants us to find the only thing that will truly satiate our thirsty and hungry hearts.
To travel forward on the road to freedom, we must remove the obstacle of idolatry. But this is not always easy.
The first two obstacles to freedom—unbelief and pride—can be removed effectively by a matter of choice: we can choose to believe God, and we can choose to humble ourselves before God. Some of the idols in our lives, however, are more difficult to remove because they have been in place for years, and we find it difficult to let them go. We begin by choosing to recognize their existence and admitting their inability to keep us satisfied.
4. Prayerlessness
Avoiding prayer is a sure prescription for anxiety. To experience the kind of peace that covers all circumstances and live powerful lives, we must develop active, authentic prayer lives.
Prayerlessness is the most prohibitive obstacle in the road to a believer’s victory. When Satan attacks, we can’t rely on discipline, lessons we’ve learned in the past or our knowledge of what is best for us to bring us through.
Our strongest motivation will be the Person with whom we walk. Staying close to Him through constant communication, we receive a continual supply of strength to walk victoriously.
5. Legalism
God gave a perfect description of legalism in Isaiah 29:13: “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men.”
We must understand that we cannot please God—or find the freedom we seek—by following a set of rules. God does not take our spiritual temperature under our tongues by the words we say, or in our ears by the impressive teachings we hear, or under our arms by the service we perform. God takes our spiritual temperature straight from the heart. He wants us to exchange our regulations for relationship with Him.
If any of these obstacles is keeping you from walking in the abundant life Christ came to give you, remember: God’s specialty is rolling away stones! Allow Him to put His hand on what is holding you captive and shove it out of the way so you can experience total freedom in Him.
Beth Moore is a well-known Bible teacher whose life call is “guiding believers to love and live on God’s Word.” She is the author of several books, including A Heart Like His and Breaking Free.
I am told by a close friend that ALL my questions can be answered in the book of Acts. "If I will just read the book of Acts, I will see." "If I would take the time to read the book of Acts, all will be revealed." THIS may very well be the case. But my plan was to start at the beginning and work my way slowly through the bible. That all changed when Timothy Team at church started back up and this year, is the study of Acts. Well, I have been told, this book holds all the answers. So here I am.
I have spent the last two days reading the whole thing. And taking notes, and jotting down good stuff, and marking good stuff, and sharing good stuff, and bookmarking good stuff. And I have decided that I can not, will not do to the New Testament what I am doing with the Old Testament. The Old Testament study is a LOT of detail with very little story, so it's easy to outline for those of us that are new at this. The New Testament is very little detail about a whole lot of story. So I decided I will do a chapter of Acts each week, maybe two a week, and we will go from there. I must say, that it did not hold all of the answers that I seek, but it did confirm some answers I hold dear, and filled me with a lot of information that is quite necessary for understanding. Those I am eager to share with you.
There is a lot of stuff in Acts. Acts is the only book of the New Testament that is considered "History", and outlines the formation of the church of Jesus.
In choosing a version to print here, I know you guys know that I prefer the CJB, however, for this series I thought it best to use an easier to read version, and the NIV is the closest I have found to accurate. If commentary is warranted I will make sure it stands out differently.
About Acts - this information was pulled from my NKJV Study Bible for Women, by Nelson.
Author: Although not mentioned by name, Luke, the Gentile physician, is believed to be the author of the Book of acts, the companion volume to the Gospel of Luke. The dear friend and traveling companion of Paul, Luke was an eyewitness to many of the events he recorded in Acts.
Date: The Book of Acts ends abruptly with Paul in his second year of house imprisonment in Rome, which began around A.D. 60. Luke does not give information concerning Paul's trial or death (Paul died between A.D. 66 and 68). Nor does Acts record the Neronian persecution (A.D. 64-68) or the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Scholars believe Luke would have included these important events if he had written Acts after
A. D. 64. Thus, Acts was probably written sometime between A.D. 61 and 63.
Purpose: The Book of Acts provides the history of the early Christian church.
Audience: Acts is addressed to a specific person, Theophilus. While Luke might have written to a specific man by the name of "Theophilus," many have suggested that Luke addressed all those who love God, since "Theophilus" means "lover of God."
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:"Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Regarding V.8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The NIV application commentary: "In a sense the disciples were already witnesses for they had seen the risen Lord; that was the key to their witness (1:22). But they also needed “power” to be effective witnesses, power that would come from the Holy Spirit. The way the Holy Spirit makes witnesses and empowers witness must cover the entire witnessing process, and this is well illustrated in Acts." J. Vernon McGee says "In Jerusalem, which applied to us means our home town. All of Judea is equivalent to our community; and Samaria represents the other side of the tracks, the folk we don't associate with"
There are two ways that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit... Romans 8:9, John 3:3, John 20:21-22.
A) The INDWELLING is the Holy Spirit coming to live inside you to give you the new birth.
B) The INFILLING is the Holy Spirit coming upon you to give you the power to be Jesus' witness. Power is "the ability to do."
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus-- 17 he was one of our number and shared in this ministry."18 (With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 "For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms, " 'May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,' and, " 'May another take his place of leadership.'21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." 23 So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
*a Sabbath day's walk from the city: was only about 1/2 a mile. Not that this is all they could walk in a days time, but Sabbath day is a day of rest, so the distance would not be very far.
*Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. (This may appear to be in conflict with other gospel that Judas hung himself, however, once dead by hanging, he would have hung there until he bloated, the rope broke, and he "fell headlong, his body burst open. It could have been the rope wasn't tied well and he fell on rocks that cut him open. The item he used to hang himself with may not have been very "sturdy" and gave way. There are all number of possibles here that could explain the "potential" discrepancy from two different accounts. I assure you if I tell the same story as my husband, it will be quite a bit different... so I don't see this is conflicting, but rather a later accounting)
*Judas had a place in the ministry. The ministry was divided into 12 bishopricks, (BISHOPRICK, eccl. law. The extent of country over which a bishop has jurisdiction a see; adiocese.) and with Judas not being there, there was an opening, an area that had no minister. So they nominated two to take Judas' place. and Matthias was chosen by lots cast by Peter hoping for God to choose. Did God choose Matthias. As J. Vernon McGee points out, we hear absolutely NOTHING about Matthias and what he did. But we do hear a LOT about Paul, and how the Holy Spirit chose him. *Joseph called
Barsabbas, was the other choice, not chosen when the lots were cast.
*Apostolic ministry is mentioned in this passage. We will discuss apostolic ministry more in depth in a later article. This is a major contention with the Roman Catholic Church, and something I'm not familiar with completely yet.
For now that is chapter 1, very informative, and some items to review closer.
