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For Sunday January 22 — Last Updated 1/10/12

Better Broken: PEOPLE

“11” — Acts 1:12-26

Consider the following bumper stickers and their anti-social gist:

• “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!”
• “It’s not that I’m anti-social, it’s people I can’t stand!”
• “Love Stinks!”

The old saying is so powerfully true: "To dwell above with saints we love, ah that will be glory. But to dwell below with saints we know, well that's another story!"

Let’s be honest, we know we need people, but people can sure be vicious. They can wound us and make us hurt in places we didn’t even know existed. It seems that nearly every one of us has a Judas in our past — someone who knows us, is supposed to love us, but who has betrayed us and betrayed our trust. So it’s easy to blame God, blame others, and blame the church for people who let us down.

That’s part of what makes Jesus coming so important. He didn’t just know this bad side of people from the safe distance of heaven, but he felt it — it was up close and personal! And even when all the “I’m sorry” confessions are said and everything is hunky dory again, the hurt is still there, lurking like a fault line in our heart waiting for a little shift in emotion or a little twist in loyalty and up boils that hurt again, spewing it’s hot lava of pain.

Powerful example of betrayal was lived out this past Monday as I waited for families and friends to proceed to their cars following a funeral with my friend and fellow minister Rick McCall. As we stood by this black hearse on this cold, dreary, and rainy January day. As we stood there together, a couple came out of the church building and the site of the hearse, of Rick and I together, the slap of north wind on their faces, and standing together under the same overhang where they had stood together with us eight years ago slammed reality into their hearts. We could see it as tears formed in their eyes. We had stood together at this very same spot, as 3 sets of 7 guns fired a salute to their young son who had died senselessly at the hands of his friends betrayal. They had gone out together, had a good time, and three of the guys wanted to go out drinking. Their son had asked to be dropped back at the base. They refused. When they came out to the car drunk, he insisted on driving since he wasn't drinking. They refused. On the way back to the base, they rounded a corner they missed and their son was killed and another young man seriously injured, and the other two were left with the incredible guilt of their self-confessed actions.

They were Judas. Judas to their friend they admired and teased for his faithfulness to Jesus. Judas to their unit and commanding officer, to whom they confessed this whole ordeal. Judas to this young man's fiancee who would never marry her sweetheart. Judas to this couple who lost their son!

How do you recover? How do you go on?

But they have. Their faith, tried in the furnace, was hardened into something precious. He is now an elder. She is even more gracious and compassionate. And Jesus is more real to them. But how? How did it happen? How can you better after being broken? That's what this story, which is told so it can become our story, is all about. But I'm guessing you've never heard it that way before.

Let's read the text and see if we can hear the Holy Spirit's message for us!

Acts 1:12-26

Nothing reminded the apostles of their own failure, of each other’s failure, and especially of Judas' treacherous failure one simple number: eleven! Look in verse 26 and notice that one word: “eleven”! Ouch!

Twelve is important in God’s plan —

• 12 tribes
• 12 apostles
• 12 hours in each half day
• 12 months of the year.

But eleven? Well that is a sign of brokenness, failure, incompleteness, betrayal, denial, disappointment, failed kings, Jacob's sons after they sold out Joseph, and abandonment.

The number eleven in the Bible is like the horrible reminder of a missing loved one with an empty chair at Thanksgiving or of the rebellious child who is not home at Christmas, or the missing child support payment that rubs in the pain of being left and discarded and having to take care of problems on your own. So when the apostles are called "The Eleven" after Jesus' crucifixion, there is no doubt what it means — Judas betrayed the Lord and broke something precious in the apostles. While Peter denied his Lord and the other ten abandoned him, they faced their failure and returned to serve him after the resurrection. But Judas, well his story is gruesome and grotesque and told with all it's gore.

But God is the healer. Jesus is the Great Physician. And the Holy Spirit has created a New Community where we can have God lead us to the new people He has in mind to fill our empty spaces and work beside us while He mends our broken hearts. So we shouldn’t be surprised that before the PURPOSE of Jesus is pursued and in response to the PRAYER of Jesus’ followers to be able to work his plan, Jesus works to mend the brokenness caused by the pain of those who were unfaithful and treacherous and hurtful. He does this by ... First, by helping them admit that they had been hurt. It isn’t swept under the rug. They don’t pretend it didn’t happen. Elven is the reminder that they are incomplete because of this one who let them down. In fact, Peter, who denied knowing the Lord is directly confronted about his failure. And Judas, who couldn’t be confronted and redeemed, is still an issue until he is replaced by someone we know nothing else about in Scripture, other than God chose him to make the number 11 whole again and into the number 12.

Second, bringing the right PEOPLE into the story — not just the apostles’ story, but your story and my story. The incredible truth is that God gives us church to be family when others have failed us, even if those who failed us are church family.

Before they could move outside the walls of their own group, their own hurt, their own culture, and their own failure, God made sure they addressed the PEOPLE issue.

So here's the issue:

1. We can dwell on the past, focus on the person, and fill our lives with poison.
2. We can acknowledge the hurt, fill the hole, and embrace the future with hope.

Clearly, we should choose number two, but the bigger question is "HOW?" How in the world do we #2? It's not so easy to forgive and move past those who have been our Judas! Confess the hurt to others who love us — we must avoid the baby Moses syndrome. But that is inclination in how to handle the people who have hurt us. But there comes a time where we must tell others our hurt to let it out — not to damage the offender, but to keep us from pretending it didn't matter. This is not a permanent vomit or spew time, but commitment to tell the story and retire it. But once we acknowledge this hurt, we leave it in the past and work to trust others again and include others in our life. And then we remind ourselves of our Jesus' story! He didn't stay dead. His brokenness paved the way for our healing — by his wounds we are healed! If God could raise Jesus from the dead, then God can heal our broken hearts and raise us back to life and relationship again.

So who is your Judas? How deeply did your Judas hurt you? And have you followed the example of these early believers in allowing God to restore you back to life and relationship?

1. Begin to emphasize the importance of groups and groups seminar to help us live out our Purpose, through Prayer, and People
2. Voices that have some folks share how God brought the right people into their lives at the right time to make a difference and change
3. Point to key support groups to help us move past our own brokenness?

For Sunday January 22 — Last Updated 1/10/12

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