Daily Devotion

 

We will look briefly at the method used to choose someone to take Judas's place in the number of apostles. Amongst the Jews, it was the natural thing to do because all of the offices and duties in the Temple were settled that way. The names of the candidates were written on stones; the stones were put in a container that was shaken until one stone fell out; the one whose name was on that stone was elected.

 

The great fact about this passage is that it gives us two supremely important truths.  

 

(1^st) It tells us that the function of an apostle was to be a witness to the resurrection. The real mark of a Christian is not that he knows about Jesus but that he knows Jesus. The basic mistake in Christianity is to regard Jesus as someone who lived and died and whose life we study and whose story we read.

Jesus is not a figure in a book, He is a living presence,

 

(2^nd) It tells us that the qualification of an apostle was that he had companied with Jesus. The real Christian is the person who lives day by day with Jesus. We often talk about what would happen if Jesus were here and how different we would live if He were in our homes and at our place of work. But the fact is that Jesus is here, and the real Christian is the person who lives all his life with Jesus.