“So now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus—from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us. Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.”
Acts 1:21–22 (NLT)
Peter stands up to address 120 believers meeting together in prayer. He tells them scripture had to be fulfilled concerning Judas, who guided those who arrested Jesus. Holy Spirit predicted this through King David. Judas was one of the apostles and shared in the ministry—he was doing something important before he surrendered to the devil and betrayed Jesus. But as Peter always does, he’s working towards action. He says they need to let someone else take Judas’ position.
In verses 21 and 22, Peter says they should choose a replacement from among the men who were with them the entire time they were traveling with Jesus—from when He was baptized by John until He was taken away. This means during Jesus’ three years of earthly ministry, there were others traveling with the twelve who witnessed, heard, saw with their own eyes, and touched Jesus with their own hands. Whichever man is chosen will join them as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection. That’s the good news—our Savior died for our sin, was resurrected, and is now ascended.
This is a beautiful leadership model. Servants were surrounding the key leaders to prepare someone to be promoted from disciple to apostle when the time came. I think there were many, because two were nominated. The two events Peter references are important: they needed to see that Jesus had been baptized and received Holy Spirit from His Father, affirmed by God’s voice. They also had to witness that Jesus died and was resurrected. They saw everything in the middle. They would have faith from firsthand knowledge that Jesus is who He said He was.
We as New Testament believers can do the same. When God does things in our life to prove His word is true and we testify to others, or we join with believers who have experienced different things from God’s word, then we can tell the whole story. People are encouraged to believe when they see the power that proves our message is true. Jesus has a perfect plan. He had disciples prepared in the background, ready to step up when called. Are you being prepared? Are you walking closely enough to testify from firsthand experience?