Fake news or foundation ? (Acts 1.12-26)
Do you remember this photo? President Macron with the German and British heads of government, on a train in Ukraine.
On the table, an object that looked like a small white bag.
Within a few hours, the ‘cocaine scandal’ had spread around the world.
It was a handkerchief!
We live in an age where fake news is rife.
Hence our question this morning: whose word can we still trust?
We ask ourselves this every day, without even realising it.
Your child comes running in: “There’s a huge tarantula in the bath!”
The phone rings. Unknown number. You hesitate to pick up. A sales call? A scam?
On Le Bon Coin, this message: “I’m interested in your advert.” A genuine buyer, or an attempt at fraud?
It’s about everyday life. But it’s also about life’s big questions.
Who should you trust to guide your life? What should you believe when faced with death? Is there a God or not?
There are countless answers… and they’re often contradictory.
Perhaps you’ve just arrived in Paris or at this church. And you’re looking for answers. We all need a solid foundation on which to build our lives in the face of life’s uncertainties.
Who should we believe in this age of fake news and ‘alternative facts’?
***
Last Sunday, we began a new series on the Book of Acts. Jesus, the risen Lord, continues his work from heaven. He sends his good news to the ends of the earth. This good news has reached us. Here in Paris. In 2026.
***
Why should we trust this message? That is the question we face.
We have never seen Jesus. We rely on what others tell us about him, starting with the authors of the Bible.
Can we believe them?
The world is full of religions, philosophies and people ready to pull the wool over our eyes.
How can we know that the message about Jesus is a reliable foundation, and not just another piece of fake news?
That’s not all: we are called not only to believe in this message, but also to share it with others. Last Sunday, we sent around ten people to plant the Oberkampf church to proclaim Jesus in the 11th arrondissement.
How can we be sure that we ourselves aren’t spreading fake news?
The Acts of the Apostles is the second volume of the Gospel of Luke. Luke was a doctor. He had spent years investigating Jesus before writing his account. He states his purpose right from the very first page.
Luke 1, page 659 – Luke 1:3
Luke, who had spent years researching Jesus, says in verse 3:
It therefore seemed good to me too, having carefully investigated all these matters from the very beginning, to set them out for you in writing in a coherent manner, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may recognise the certainty of the teachings you have received.
Through his Gospel and the Book of Acts, Luke wants to give us certainty. :-) :-)
Certainty regarding the good news of Jesus.
So, if we were to make a film of the Book of Acts, the passage that Cédric has just read might well be cut during editing. The scene from last Sunday, with Jesus ascending into heaven, we’d keep. The one from next Sunday, Pentecost and speaking in tongues, we’d keep that too.
This one, apart from perhaps Judas’s entrails spilling out for a bit of gore, might seem a bit boring.
In fact, it’s crucial. It tells us that certainty is possible …
because the message about Jesus …
comes from witnesses …
…who are worthy of our complete trust.
Jesus’ witnesses remain unchanged
Jesus’ Witnesses remain upright
Jesus’ witnesses are qualified to establish a new people
Jesus’ witnesses remain unchanged
First of all, our faith rests on the witnesses, each of whom was chosen by Jesus for this role.
Acts 1:12
So they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, about one kilometre away. When they arrived, they went up to the upper room where they usually gathered; there were Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot and Jude son of James.
Why is this list important?
It can be tempting to see Jesus’ disciples as not very different from us.
They make mistakes. We make mistakes.
They sin. We sin.
They struggle to believe. We struggle to believe.
Sometimes they do the right thing. Let’s follow their example.
In many ways, the disciples are like us.
But it’s easy to forget that they also play a unique role in history. Jesus chose these men not only to be his disciples – that is, his pupils – but above all to be his apostles, his witnesses.
‘Apostle’ means ‘one who is sent’ — in the strongest sense. Like an ambassador, who speaks with the full weight of the authority that sends him. When the French ambassador speaks, it is France that speaks.
To be a witness is to be able to recount what one has seen and heard. Sometimes Christians talk about bearing witness to mean sharing what one believes.
But we are not witnesses to Jesus in the same way as the apostles. None of us has seen and heard Jesus as they did.
These apostles therefore play a vital role.
Their words will be the words of the risen Lord himself.
Their testimony will be his testimony.
To listen to them is to listen to Jesus, and therefore to God. To reject them is to reject Jesus, and therefore God.
Nowadays, we sometimes hear of people who present themselves as apostles in certain Christian circles. What is certain is that there are no longer any apostles like those mentioned in this passage – direct witnesses to Jesus.
What we have today is their testimony in the Bible.
The books of the New Testament were either written by apostles or by people writing under the guidance of an apostle.
Perhaps you came here this morning wondering: where do I start to get to know God?
Through the apostles! What they wrote. You could start with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John — the accounts of Jesus’ life.
For all of us, to see the Lord Jesus at work from heaven, we must listen to their testimony.
To have a church that will stand firm against all odds, that will offer a place of fulfilment for everyone and that will shine out into the world, we must listen to the apostles’ testimony.
But what Luke wants to emphasise first and foremost is that the men who gathered after Jesus’ ascension were indeed the men whom Jesus had chosen.
Quite simply. There are no impostors! It’s not as though Jesus ascended into heaven and then just anyone could proclaim themselves an apostle!
You may have read Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, or seen the film. Dan Brown believes that once Jesus had gone, it was a free-for-all. Lots of people told different stories about him, and it was only centuries later that the Church decided: we’ll keep some stories and discard the others.
No. The men who began to speak in Jesus’ name – and whose words were recognised as authoritative from that very moment – were indeed those whom Jesus had chosen.
Let’s check that out.
The list of names in verse 13 is the same as that found in the Gospels when, a few years earlier, Jesus had chosen his apostles. No newcomers in the meantime! It is indeed the team that Jesus had selected and trained.
Note the level of detail. Luke knew that certain names were common at the time — two apostles are called James, for example. So he specifies: one of them is James, son of Alphaeus. He knows exactly which James he is referring to.
There appears to be a discrepancy regarding the last name: Jude, son of James. Matthew and Mark refer to him as Thaddeus instead. But this is hardly surprising: having two first names was common, and a Christian named Judas (Jude is Judas in the original) may well have wanted to use his other name!
If all this has gone over your head, just remember this: the first people to bear witness to Jesus were not impostors. They were not self-appointed. They were the ones whom Jesus had chosen and trained. We can trust them.
Problem.
There’s a name missing from this list. Have you guessed it?
Judas Iscariot. The traitor.
And that’s a bit of a problem.
A friend compared the situation to that of the cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Winner of the Tour de France seven years running. Unprecedented.
But in 2012, his titles were stripped from him: he had been doping. The whole of cycling was discredited as a result, not just him. Today, ‘Tour de France’ is often synonymous with ‘they’re all on drugs’.
Just one man. But the scandal has tarnished everyone else’s reputation.
What if the same were true of the apostles? If one of them was untrustworthy — Judas Iscariot — why should the others be any different?
Jesus’ witnesses remain true
The second thing to understand is that Judas’s betrayal, death and replacement were all part of God’s plan.
There is no need to worry about the credibility of the other apostles.
Acts 1:15
At that time, Peter stood up among the disciples; there were about 120 people gathered there. He said: ‘Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit had foretold through David concerning Judas, who became the guide of those who arrested Jesus. He was one of us and shared in the same ministry. This man bought a field with the wages of iniquity; he fell headlong, burst open, and all his entrails spilled out. All the inhabitants of Jerusalem learnt of this, which is why that field has been called in their language ‘Hakeldama’, that is to say, ‘the field of blood’. Now it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his house become desolate, and let no one dwell in it!’ and: ‘Let another take his office!’
Peter hides nothing. He does not sweep Judas under the carpet. In front of 120 people, he addresses the problem head-on.
Jesus had chosen Judas. He had brought him into the group. He had the same ministry as the others. And yet, Judas betrayed Jesus, then took his own life.
If one of the apostles ends up like that, why should we believe the others?
See how Peter responds.
V.12 again – it was necessary that the Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit had foretold through David concerning Judas
V.20 It is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his house become desolate, and let no one dwell in it!’ and: ‘Let another take his office!’
It was written centuries in advance.
That Judas would betray him, that he would die, that he would be replaced – it was all foreseen. It was part of the plan.
For Jesus to die on the Cross, Judas had to betray him.
Think of Lance Armstrong. Now imagine that the organisers of the Tour de France had announced, well in advance, that they were going to conduct an experiment: allowing a cyclist to take performance-enhancing drugs to observe the impact on his performance. Doping would no longer be a scandal that tarnishes the whole of cycling. It would be part of the plan. Known in advance. And the credibility of the other riders would remain intact.
This is what Peter says about Judas. His failure was part of the plan.
That does not mean that Judas was not responsible for his actions. In the Gospels, Judas plots, negotiates and acts of his own free will, and when he realises what he has done, he is overcome with remorse. He bears responsibility for his actions.
God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are not mutually exclusive.
God carries out his eternal plan through evil acts freely chosen by human beings.
How exactly does that work? It’s a bit mind-boggling.
But the example that illustrates this best is the cross: the worst crime in history, committed by those truly guilty, whilst at the same time being God’s eternal plan for salvation.
End of digression. Luke wants to show that we need not doubt the integrity of the other witnesses on whom our faith rests.
Some people sometimes say that the early Christians had bad intentions. They made up stories to get what they wanted.
I had a flatmate who used to say that.
The disciples told all these stories about Jesus to ‘invent a religion’ … in which they would be the gurus.
This passage answers that: yes, there was one person with bad intentions amongst the apostles. Just one. And his failure was part of the plan from the very beginning.
***
I wondered why there are so many gory details about Judas’s death.
His entrails spilling out. Not exactly appetising before lunch.
But I don’t think it’s just a trivial detail.
Think about what happens when an ambassador betrays his country. He isn’t simply sent home discreetly. The case makes the headlines, the trial is public, the punishment is severe — because the role of ambassador is too serious to be treated lightly.
That is exactly what God does with Judas. His death is not discreet. It is public, remembered to the point of giving its name to a field.
Why? Because the office of apostle is too precious for his betrayal to go unnoticed.
These men are Jesus’ ambassadors. His spokesmen and witnesses.
Their word is his word, and it serves as the foundation of our entire faith.
The fact that Judas met this end underlines the importance God attaches to the credibility of that word.
The aim is to encourage us!
Look at the weight God places on the reliability of his apostles!
He doesn’t want us to hesitate. ‘Can I really put all my eggs in one basket? The basket of the Bible?’
He wants us to have complete trust.
_____
It is this same concern that explains the care taken in choosing a replacement for Judas.
Jesus’ witnesses are qualified to establish a new people
One might ask: why must there be 12 apostles?
Eleven men who could bear witness to Jesus would have been quite enough. Why a twelfth?
Numbers in the Bible are often symbolic.
4 represents the earth. 7 represents creation. 12 is the number of God’s people.
Just as blue, white and red represent the French people, the number 12 evokes the people of God.
The 12 sons of Jacob.
The 12 tribes of Israel.
In the Old Testament, the high priest wore a robe with 12 precious stones, one for each tribe.
And at the end of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, the New Jerusalem rests on 12 foundations — this time bearing the names, not of the 12 tribes, but of the 12 apostles.
A twelfth man was needed, because Jesus establishes his new people through them. One becomes part of God’s people by believing their message.
It is important to make this clear.
This summer, I was invited to the christening of a little girl in a Roman Catholic church.
The person officiating explained that the ceremony begins outside, in front of the entrance, because they believe that it is through baptism that one enters the church.
I understand the reasoning, but the Bible says otherwise! We join the church by believing the Good News as taught by the apostles. Baptism is then the means of publicly professing that faith.
Amongst us, there may be all sorts of ideas about how to be part of God’s people.
My family are Christians, so I must be one too.
I’ve had a supernatural experience, so I must be one.
A pastor prayed for me once, so I must be one.
No. You become part of God’s people by believing the message of the apostles.
***
Hence the need to be sure that they were qualified.
Verse 21: Look at the criteria for replacing Judas
‘We must therefore choose a man from among those who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was with us, from the baptism by John until the day he was taken from our midst.
We needed someone who had been present throughout Jesus’ ministry.
Not someone who had merely crossed paths with him from time to time.
Not someone who could only pass on hearsay.
Not someone who had not seen the risen Jesus.
Someone capable of recounting what he had seen and heard. Someone who could testify to having met the living Jesus after his crucifixion.
This may come as a surprise to some: the Christian faith is fundamentally historical.
It is not, first and foremost, a philosophy, nor an ideology.
We are not dealing with legends invented long after the events took place.
It’s not a man who went into a cave and came out saying, ‘God spoke to me’, as in Islam.
It’s not just a feeling: ‘I feel that it’s true. But if you feel something else, that’s what’s true for you.’
No, it is an eyewitness account. What a group of men saw and heard from Jesus.
A testimony that could be verified, cross-checked and was close enough to the facts to be refuted if there had been any errors.
The other day, a rather serious incident took place in one of my children’s classes. The school was able to establish the facts because a headteacher came to take statements from the pupils who were there, who saw what happened, and who gave their accounts straight away, before they’d had time to forget.
The Christian faith is just like that.
It is based on what people have seen, heard and recounted.
Quite simply! Except that what they saw and heard was extraordinary! It was Jesus! :-)
***
The method used to choose the twelfth apostle may come as a surprise!
They put forward two candidates, Joseph and Matthias, who both met the criteria.
They prayed. Then they drew lots, as was often done in the Old Testament. They chose Matthias.
In your group, you may have wondered whether this is a method worth using again. Two job offers. Two people you’re considering marrying. Do we pray, then flip a coin?
There are far worse ways to make a choice! Two equally good options: we pray, we choose, and we stop agonising over it.
But is it worth spending one’s time poring over the signs?
But the point of this passage is to show something else: the apostles on whom our faith rests were chosen by Jesus, according to his own criteria. Jesus appoints his team of witnesses to establish his new people.
***
So, what are we to make of all this?
Let’s return to the original question: which word can we still trust?
Luke offers us a clear answer: the word of Jesus, passed on by those he chose to be his witnesses.
This certainty changes everything.
Without it, we’re all over the place.
We don’t know what to believe, who to believe, or which way to turn.
Jesus, the risen Lord, invites us to build our lives with confidence, serenity, joy and zeal upon the sure testimony of the men he chose.
As individuals and as a church, we will often face instability.
When we seek stability, we may be tempted to cling to all sorts of things: often to people, figures of authority or even gurus.
Jesus offers us his word as the sole source of stability and comfort. But we need to be convinced that this word is true.
Jesus is wonderful, but is the message about Jesus fact or fiction?
Luke says in this passage: don’t worry. This word is true.
Twenty years ago, when I was a student, I struggled with anxiety and depression. Had I chosen the right course of study? Where was I heading in life?
Peace came when I discovered that the words in this book were true.
Perhaps others are going through difficult times. Where can they find security? In the sure words of Jesus.
***
And it is precisely because they are true that we can pass them on to others.
If you’re like me, when talking about Jesus with someone who isn’t yet a Christian, there’s sometimes that little voice: Are you sure about what you’re saying? Are you really going to tell this person they need to believe what you believe? Are you going to force ‘your thing’ on them?
When I was a journalist, I remember a colleague who took offence at the arrogance of Christians who dared to tell others to abandon their beliefs and believe in Jesus.
What nerve!
But according to Acts 1, all we’re called to do is share our testimony.
Sharing a testimony is not arrogance.
When a journalist faithfully reports what they have seen and verified, they are not accused of being arrogant, especially when it concerns matters of life and death.
How much more so when it comes to Jesus: his crucifixion, his resurrection, his reign, and the eternal life he offers.
We can share this testimony without the slightest hesitation.
Perhaps you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian this morning. We are very pleased that you are here to explore these questions.
Let me say that one cannot simply dismiss the Christian faith out of hand: ‘It’s not for me!’
Any rational person should take the time to examine this testimony so that they can form an informed opinion.
We’d be delighted to help you.
Perhaps you’ve just joined Connexion and are wondering: what sort of church is this?
A church that puts the word of Jesus at the centre – to do anything else would be to stray from what it means to be a church – and which expects Jesus to do great things through that word.
Jason said last Sunday that the Book of Acts tells us what Jesus continued to do after his ascension.
The title ‘Acts of the Apostles’, given later, is misleading. It should be called ‘The Acts of Jesus, Volume 2’.
How are we going to experience the deeds of Jesus?
Luke wants us to be certain: Jesus will act from heaven in our lives … if we allow the words of this book to take effect within us.
If we do this, we can expect Jesus to work powerfully within us and in our Church this year.
Let us approach them with joy and also with reverence!
With great expectations.
For it is the Lord who speaks!
PRAYER
Only one thing is necessary