Cairo: Jesus in Egypt & God's Unusual Leaning
God seldom gives us all we need to understand, but He always gives us what we need in order to obey. The story of Jesus in Egypt as a boy offers a...
Sometimes God surprises us with opportunities we never sought, never expected, and never even imagined. Often these moments come in the middle of our ho-hum lives.
(Photo by Photodune)
It happened with Matthias.
Ever since John the Baptist had prepared the way for the Messiah, Matthias had followed. He had walked in Jesus’ footsteps from the Jordan River to the rugged hills of Galilee. He had followed the Savior with passion and persuasion—and without recognition.
Matthias was a willing unknown.
Then one day it all changed.
Early on, Jesus had chosen His twelve apostles from among the many disciples who shadowed Him. Even though Matthias qualified as much as any of the twelve who made the list, he wasn’t selected.
But that didn’t matter. Matthias followed anyway.
For more than three years, Matthias had witnessed it all—in absolute obscurity. The Gospels never mention his name; yet he was there on every page.
(Photo: The Sea of Galilee, where Matthias followed Jesus. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Jesus’ glorious resurrection had given the disillusioned group of disciples a new hope and a new purpose—a goal beyond the personal greatness they had chased for more than three years. Jesus had commissioned His disciples to make disciples of all nations.
As Jesus ascended to heaven, He told His many followers standing on the Mount of Olives:
You shall be My witnesses. —Acts 1:8
Matthias heard it himself. He, too, had seen Jesus ascend.
Not long after, everyone in the Upper Room knew Jesus had promised the twelve apostles they would sit on twelve thrones over the twelve tribes of Israel. In the same room where Jesus had predicted Judas’s betrayal, Peter explained, through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Scripture’s prediction that Judas would need to be replaced (Acts 1:20–22).
(Photo: The Upper Room. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
The need to fill the hole Judas left suggested he had never placed his faith in Jesus (1:25)—a point that would soon be affirmed when James surrendered his head to the sword and no one saw the need to replace him. James will rise again to sit on a throne in Israel. Judas’s resurrection will have a very different destiny (Rev. 20:14–15).
God revealed that He had chosen Matthias to serve in Judas’s place as an apostle and as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection. Most likely, no one was more surprised than Matthias.
Matthias simply followed Jesus from the very beginning—with no motive but faithfulness.
(Painting: “Apostle Matthias,” by Wolfgang Sauber. Own work. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Repeatedly in Scripture we see individuals who began with obscure faithfulness—people like Joseph, Ruth, David, Daniel, Esther, and even Jesus—and then God expanded their influence for His glory.
In each case, God alone gave the promotion.
It’s the same with us. When we beg God to rescue us from our insignificant lives, believing nothing important is happening with us, Matthias reminds us that just the opposite is true. We need to see our obscurity as our significant opportunity (Matt. 25:21).
Matthias never appears again in the book of Acts or anywhere else in Scripture. He emerges for a moment and then vanishes again into obscurity—a willing unknown who followed God with only the motive of faithfulness.
Just like us.
Tell me what you think: Do you see obscurity as your opportunity to honor an audience of one—God alone? To leave a comment, just click here.
Post adapted from Wayne Stiles, “Matthias: God’s Surprise Witness,” from Shaping the Modern Disciple (IFL Publishing House, 2014), 74-77.
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