We know very little about Matthias and in some respects less about Joseph Barsabbas…one of two candidates qualified to be chosen for the office of apostle after Judas Iscariot lost his apostleship when he betrayed Jesus and died by suicide. Both Joseph and Matthias had been followers of Jesus from the very beginning, both of these men were present at Jesus’s baptism, and both continued as a member, a larger company of disciples, even to the time that Jesus was taken up from them.The point that we want to be sure and make is that the selection of Matthias to fill the spot needed to make 12 the number again of apostles was not a random thing. How the apostles arrived at that choice is a matter of biblical record. You may find that in Acts 1: 21-26. Anything else that I might add would put this song on certain ground but in Christian tradition he was numbered among the 70 disciples mentioned in Luke chapter 10. Now having written of this, let’s move on and take a closer look at Matthias.

I wanted to share you before we get too far into looking at Matthias, the meaning of this word tradition. We read a lot of things when we’re doing research about the tradition was or in the tradition of the old and so on and so forth, so exactly what is a biblical application of the word tradition? Well, I discovered about that word…tradition. Biblical tradition refers to the body of teachings practices and beliefs, passed down through generations, which can either be divine in origin like the apostles, teachings or later human constructs we see the role in authority of tradition, very across Christian denominations. The apostle Matthias was a replacement for Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus and later committed suicide. After Jesus had died and the resurrection, the remaining 11 apostles decided to choose successor as we shared with you earlier you can read how that came about in Acts  1:21–26. One of the requirements that were necessary for an apostle was to have been a witnesses ofJesus’s resurrection and Matthias had that requirement. We really don’t know a whole lot about him, but as it’s been stated and it’s been made very plain  a couple of times and the research that he was with Jesus or was a follower of Jesus from the start of his public ministry. He was known for preaching Martyrdom, various traditions claim that he preached the gospel in different regions such as Cappadocia and the shores of the Caspian Sea, it is said that he was eventually murdered for his faith. Consider this, his selection is considered a foundational example of apostolic succession on the belief that bishops are in a direct line of continuity from the apostles. We really can’t put a big period on the end of this without first asking ourselves was Matthias Gods choice to replace Judas as the 12th apostle? Well, first of all, let’s look at the requirements which said the man had had to have been with them the entire time of Jesus’s ministry, and to have been a witness of the resurrection and the ascension apparently they were only two men who met those requirements. One being Joseph called, Barsabbas and Matthias. So now I ask you to consider this old country tradition and chew on this for a moment. There have been articles written that asked the question… suppose Paul and not Matthias was God’s choice for the 12th apostle. The argument here being that Jesus had told the apostles wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:8, so from this is determined by some  the casting of lots is not how the disciples should have made the decision. What I’m sharing with you is from an article from gotquestions.com . It is pointed out by some that Matthias is never again mentioned in the New Testament, but then the same can be said for most of the other 11 apostles and Paul was definitely more prominent than Matthias even more prominent than some of the apostles except for maybe Peter and John. But it’s also noted that Paul was not qualified based on the apostles’s criteria. So if we follow that particular path we end up without a conclusive biblical case being made against the apostles for their choice or the way they did it. There is so much that we really don’t know about that took place in those times, but we have to recognize the fact that nowhere nowhere in the Bible will you find condemnation of Matthias being chosen for the 12th apostle. Thanks for joining us in the pew today. We hope that you’ve learned some things or have found some of the things that we have shared with you to be interesting and please come back next week.

Life is Good 

jk