1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of everything that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which, He said, you have heard from Me;
5 for John truly immersed in water, but you shall be immersed in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
7 And He said to them, It is not yours to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into Heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven.
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
13 And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, Jacob, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; Jacob of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas of Jacob.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said,
16 Men and brethren, this Scripture needed to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who took Jesus;
17 for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.
18 (Now this man procured a field out of the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails poured out.
19 And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akeldama; that is, Field of Blood.)
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let his dwelling place become desolate, and let him not live in it; and, Let another take his office.
21 Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 beginning from the immersion of John until the day when He was taken up from us, it is necessary for one of these to become a witness with us of His resurrection.
23 And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed and said, You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen
25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship which Judas abandoned, that he might go to his own place.
26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 INTRODUCTION--LAST DAYS OF OUR LORD UPON EARTH--HIS ASCENSION. (
Acts 1:1-
Acts 1:11)
former treatise--Luke's Gospel.
Theophilus--(See on
Luke 1:3).
began to do and teach--a very important statement, dividing the work of Christ into two great branches: the one embracing His work on earth, the other His subsequent work from heaven; the one in His own Person, the other by His Spirit; the one the "beginning," the other the continuance of the same work; the one complete when He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the other to continue till His second appearing; the one recorded in "The Gospels," the beginnings only of the other related in this book of "The Acts." "Hence the grand history of what Jesus did and taught does not conclude with His departure to the Father; but Luke now begins it in a higher strain; for all the subsequent labors of the apostles are just an exhibition of the ministry of the glorified Redeemer Himself because they were acting under His authority, and He was the principle that operated in them all" [OLSHAUSEN].
2 after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments, &c.--referring to the charge recorded in
Matt 28:18-
Matt 28:20;
Mark 16:15-
Mark 16:18;
Luke 24:44-
Luke 24:49. It is worthy of notice that nowhere else are such communications of the risen Redeemer said to have been given "through the Holy Ghost." In general, this might have been said of all He uttered and all He did in His official character; for it was for this very end that God "gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (
John 3:34). But after His resurrection, as if to signify the new relation in which He now stood to the Church, He signalized His first meeting with the assembled disciples by breathing on them (immediately after dispensing to them His peace) and saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (
John 20:22) thus anticipating the donation of the Spirit from His hands (see on
John 20:21-
John 20:22); and on the same principle His parting charges are here said to have been given "through the Holy Ghost," as if to mark that He was now all redolent with the Spirit; that what had been husbanded, during His suffering work, for His own necessary uses, had now been set free, was already overflowing from Himself to His disciples, and needed but His ascension and glorification to flow all forth. (See on
John 7:39.)
3 showed himself alive--As the author is about to tell us that "the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" was the great burden of apostolic preaching, so the subject is here filly introduced by an allusion to the primary evidence on which that great fact rests, the repeated and undeniable manifestations of Himself in the body to the assembled disciples, who, instead of being predisposed to believe it, had to be overpowered by the resistless evidence of their own senses, and were slow of yielding even to this (
Mark 16:14).
after his passion--or, suffering. This primary sense of the word "passion" has fallen into disuse; but it is nobly consecrated in the phraseology of the Church to express the Redeemer's final endurances.
seen of them forty days--This important specification of time occurs here only.
speaking of--rather "speaking."
the things pertaining to the kingdom of God--till now only in germ, but soon to take visible form; the earliest and the latest burden of His teaching on earth.
4 should not depart from Jerusalem--because the Spirit was to glorify the existing economy, by descending on the disciples at its metropolitan seat, and at the next of its great festivals after the ascension of the Church's Head; in order that "out of Zion might go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (
Isa 2:3; and compare
Luke 24:49).
5 ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence--ten days hence, as appears from
Lev 23:15-
Lev 23:16; but it was expressed thus indefinitely to exercise their faith.
6 wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?--Doubtless their carnal views of Messiah's kingdom had by this time been modified, though how far it is impossible to say. But, as they plainly looked for some restoration of the kingdom to Israel, so they are neither rebuked nor contradicted on this point.
7 It is not for you to know the times, &c.--implying not only that this was not the time, but that the question was irrelevant to their present business and future work.
8 receive power--See
Luke 24:49.
and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . in Jerusalem . . . in all Judea . . . and unto the uttermost part of the earth--This order of apostolic preaching and success supplies the proper key to the plan of the Acts, which relates first the progress of the Gospel "in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria" (the first through ninth chapters), and then "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (the tenth through twenty-eighth chapters).
9 while they beheld, he was taken up--See on
Luke 24:50-
Luke 24:53. Lest it should be thought He had disappeared when they were looking in some other direction, and so was only concluded to have gone up to heaven, it is here expressly said that "while they were looking He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." So Elijah, "If thou see me when I am taken from thee" (
2Kgs 2:10); "And Elisha saw it" (
Acts 1:12). (See on
Luke 9:32.)
10 while they looked steadfastly toward heaven--following Him with their eager eyes, in rapt amazement. Not, however, as a mere fact is this recorded, but as a part of that resistless evidence of their senses on which their whole subsequent testimony was to be borne.
two men in white apparel--angels in human form, as in
Luke 24:4.
11 Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, &c.--"as if your now glorified Head were gone from you never to return: He is coming again; not another, but 'this same Jesus'; and 'as ye have seen Him go, in the like manner shall He come'--as personally, as visibly, as gloriously; and let the joyful expectation of this coming swallow up the sorrow of that departure."
12 RETURN OF THE ELEVEN TO JERUSALEM--PROCEEDINGS IN THE UPPER ROOM TILL PENTECOST. (
Acts 1:12-
Acts 1:26)
a sabbath day's journey--about two thousand cubits.
13 went up into an upper room--perhaps the same "large upper room" where with their Lord they had celebrated the last Passover and the first Supper (
Luke 22:12).
where abode--not lodged, but had for their place of rendezvous.
Peter, &c.--(See on
Matt 10:2-
Matt 10:4).
14 continued with one accord--knit by a bond stronger than death.
in prayer and supplication--for the promised baptism, the need of which in their orphan state would be increasingly felt.
and Mary the mother of Jesus--distinguished from the other "women," but "so as to exclude the idea of her having any pre-eminence over the disciples. We find her with the rest in prayer to her glorified Son" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON]. This is the last mention of her in the New Testament. The fable of the Assumption of the Virgin has no foundation even in tradition [ALFORD].
with his brethren--(See on
John 7:3).
15 in those days--of expectant prayer, and probably towards the close of them, when the nature of their future work began more clearly to dawn upon them, and the Holy Ghost, already "breathed" on the Eleven (
John 20:22), was stirring in Peter, who was to be the leading spirit of the infant community (
Matt 16:19).
the number . . . about an hundred and twenty--Many, therefore, of the "five hundred brethren" who saw their risen Lord "at once" (
1Cor 15:6), must have remained in Galilee.
18 falling headlong, &c.--This information supplements, but by no means contradicts, what is said in
Matt 27:5.
20 his bishopric--or "charge." The words are a combination of
Ps 69:25 and
Ps 109:8; in which the apostle discerns a greater than David, and a worse than Ahithophel and his fellow conspirators against David.
21 all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us--in the close intimacies of a three years' public life.
22 Beginning from the baptism of John--by whom our Lord was not only Himself baptized, but first officially announced and introduced to his own disciples.
unto that same day when he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection--How clearly is the primary office of the apostles here expressed: (1) to testify, from personal observation, to the one great fact of "the resurrection of the Lord Jesus"; (2) to show how this glorified His whole previous life, of which they were constant observers, and established His divine claims.
23 they appointed--"put up" in nomination; meaning not the Eleven but the whole company, of whom Peter was the spokesman.
two--The choice would lie between a very few.
24 prayed and said, Thou, Lord, &c.--"The word 'Lord,' placed absolutely, denotes in the New Testament almost universally THE SON; and the words, 'Show whom Thou hast chosen,' are decisive. The apostles are just Christ's messengers: It is He that sends them, and of Him they bear witness. Here, therefore, we have the first example of a prayer offered to the exalted Redeemer; furnishing indirectly the strongest proof of His divinity" [OLSHAUSEN].
which knowest the hearts of all men--See
John 2:24-
John 2:25;
John 21:15-
John 21:17;
Rev 2:23.
25 that he might go to his own place--A euphemistic or softened expression of the awful future of the traitor, implying not only destined habitation but congenial element.
26 was numbered--"voted in" by general suffrage.
with the eleven apostles--completing the broken Twelve.
