and they put forward two, joseph called barsabbas, who was also called justus, and matthias. and they prayed and said, “you, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which judas turned aside to go to his own place.” [acts 1:23-25]
this is it–matthias is mentioned only one section here (two instances of his name in this and the following section) then he is never mentioned again. this is the way God works–matthias is chosen [vs 24] to restore the broken apostolic ring, just as he chose noah, abraham, jacob and not esau, isaac, joseph, the disciples and others out of all the other people so that he might make his name known in all the earth. in being chosen, matthias doesn’t receive fame, adoration, a special position, riches and praise. like the other disciples, he likely is killed for his faith as he brings the gospel to the lost.
God has chosen you too:
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. [ephesians 1:3-4a]
but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. [1 peter 2:9]
no one may ever know your name beyond your death beyond an engraving on a headstone, so it is easy to wonder if anything you do here matters. john piper, in his book don’t waste your life recalls a poem that hung in his house as a child that had an outsized impact on him:
only one life, ’twill soon be past,
only what’s done for Christ will last. *
we are chosen so that we might point others to Christ–when we are in glory, we won’t wish we had been more famous, rich or well known–like matthias, our name won’t matter, we will have new names and we will be numbered upon the multitudes that worship the Lamb forever–only the name of Jesus Christ matters! our work, our fame, our glory, let us crucify these desires so that we might proclaim Jesus as glorious!
~ ce
(*in doing a little research, it is worth googling this poem by: ct studd, there is a longer version and it is worth the read!)