Jesus Christ is in control of and greatly concerned for the preservation and distribution of the apostolic witness. He wants the truth of his life, death, and resurrection to be widely communicated and he wants people to have certainty of the same.
That is why the criteria for being an apostle is spelled out so clearly in this passage. It is not an office that anyone can simply take upon himself. He must be chosen by Jesus, and in this case that is accomplished with the casting of lots. What is more, he must also be a man who was with the disciples from the baptism of John until the ascension.
This then is what was required to be an apostle. An eyewitness who saw, touched, and spoke to Jesus. An earwitness who heard what Jesus said and was taught by him. A witness of the resurrection. Not someone who heard from someone else; not someone who read from a book or had a special dream. Someone who saw only the beginning but not the end. No, he must be a witness who was there in flesh and blood.
The big takeaway for us today is the fact that if the Lord and the early church took such care to ensure that the apostles were eyewitnesses, we can have great confidence to know that what they say about Jesus is true. We are not dealing with made up stories of fiction. When we read the sermons of Peter and the letters of Paul, when we study the Gospels and the book of Revelation, whenever we come across the testimony of the apostles we come face to face with Jesus’ own interpretation of his life and work. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of David; in the New Testament Jesus Christ is speaking through the words of his apostles.
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,