Acts 1

Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven

¹In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach ²until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. ³After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
⁶So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
⁷He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
⁹After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Acts 1:1-11

Explanation:

THE JERUSALEM CHURCH: ITS BEGINNING (Acts 1:1--2:47)
"Let the church be the church!" This rallying cry from John MacKay, missionary statesman and ecumenical leader of an earlier generation, needs to be heard and heeded again in our day. Pressures from without (secularization or resurgent religious fundamentalism) and from within (marketing or accommodation to the spirit of the age) work to keep the church from being the church.

As Luke seeks to convince Theophilus and other interested Romans that the implementation aspect of the gospel message is true (Lk 1:4; 24:47), he places before us what the church is to be and do: its missions mandate. As Luke begins, he gives the mandate's source, emphasizes the divine power needed to implement it, and portrays its divinely worked results in individual lives and in the dynamic fellowship that is the church.



Preparation for Pentecost (1:1-26)
Luke skillfully begins Acts with a backward look that lays the groundwork for his second volume of historical narrative. In this "beginning of the beginning" he focuses on preparation for the coming of the empowering Holy Spirit. We need to hear his claim that by the Spirit's power the church will fulfill its mandate of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. What a difference that will make in how we offer or receive the message!



Jesus' Post resurrection Appearances and Ascension (1:1-11)

What in the world should the church be doing as we face a new millennium? Jesus' missionary mandate, which is a preview of the content of Acts, gives us the answer: You will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth (1:8). The entire preface so undergirds and clarifies this command that we are led not only to the conviction that Acts must be viewed from a missionary perspective but to realize that we too must find our places in fulfilling that mandate, which is also a promise.

Review of the Gospel of Luke (1:1-5)

Luke's review of his gospel stresses comprehensiveness: all that Jesus began to do and to teach (v. 1). It also provides forward-looking continuity with the second volume: presumably Acts will report what Jesus continued to do and teach (as in 2:47; 9:34; 14:3; 16:14; 18:10).

The review focuses on Jesus' post resurrection preparation of the apostles to be authoritative guarantors of the truth of his resurrection and the gospel's content. Luke notes that the risen Lord instructed the apostles whom he had personally chosen through the Holy Spirit (Lk 6:13), thereby emphasizing the authoritative link between the words and work of Jesus and the message and mission of the church.

Jesus qualified the apostles as guarantors of the truth of the resurrection by appearing to them repeatedly over a period of forty days (Acts 1:22; 10:41-42). The many pieces of empirical evidence could lead to no other conclusion than that he was alive.

During his post resurrection appearances, Jesus spoke to the apostles "things pertaining to the kingdom of God." "Kingdom of God" became for Luke a shorthand phrase for the content of the early church's preaching (see 8:12; 19:8; 28:31). And rightly so, for the final reign of God has arrived "in the events of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and to proclaim these facts, in their proper setting, is to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God" (Dodd 1964:24; Is 33:22; Zech 14:9; Lk 11:20).

The importance of such continuity for Luke's evangelistic purpose and the church's fulfillment of its missionary mandate cannot be overestimated. Here is the proof that a gospel message that claims to go back to the apostles can be trusted: the apostles received it from Jesus. Here too is the clearly articulated basis for belief that the gospel's key salvation event has actually happened. The empirical evidence of the empty tomb and the resurrection appearances point steadily in only one direction: Jesus is alive! We can boldly and unashamedly invite unbelievers to hear our witness and consider the evidence.

Luke's review climaxes with Jesus' command to wait for the Holy Spirit's coming (1:4-5; see also Lk 24:49). Jesus gave this instruction on a number of occasions (not only one, as in the NIV).

Luke understands the Spirit's baptism as occurring at Pentecost. It is a foreshadowing of the end-time deluge of the Spirit and fire (Is 66:15; Ezek 36:25-27; 39:29; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:1-13). "The future encounter with God's Holy Spirit-and-fire will be like an angry sea engulfing and sinking a boat, or like a massive surge of flood water suddenly sweeping down on a man as he attempts to cross the river and overwhelming him. It will be immense, majestic and devastating" (Turner 1981:51). This coming baptism, then, is to be an overwhelming eschatological experience of God's Spirit. It is unique, unrepeatable in church history.

Jesus promises that in a little while God will supply the church with all the resources it needs for fulfilling its missionary mandate. Lloyd Ogilvie observes, "We have been instructed in the things Jesus did, but know too little of what He continues to do today as indwelling Spirit and engendering power" (1983:26). Christians who have not done so need to appropriate the power that is already theirs, all because Jesus' promise was fulfilled at Pentecost.

Preview of Acts (1:6-11)

The disciples' question Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?--which they asked repeatedly (NIV indicates only one asking)--was most natural for Jews to address to the resurrected Messiah.

Central to Old Testament faith was the conviction that God would in the end time fully restore his people to their inheritance in the land, where they would live securely without foreign domination (Jer 16:15; 23:8; 50:19; Hos 11:11; Joel 3:17). In response to Jesus' resurrection or to his teaching about the kingdom (Acts 1:3; also see Lk 22:28-30), the disciples want to know a date. Such a question is selfishly nationalistic and betrays an eagerness for the end of history and an ushering in of God's perfect reign. The disciples had consistently asked such questions throughout Jesus' ministry (Lk 19:11; 21:7).

Jesus' mild rebuke affirms that God alone is qualified to know such things, since by means of his own authority he has established the times or dates, the stages and critical events through which humankind must pass until the kingdom comes (compare Acts 17:26).

Acts 1:8 sets out clearly what the church is to be doing until Jesus returns. Through a command-promise, Jesus tells his disciples of the resources, content and scope of their primary task. The essential resource is God the Holy Spirit, who will come on them at Pentecost as he did on Mary at the incarnation (Lk 1:35). By this Spirit-baptism they will receive the supernatural ability to work miracles and preach effectively (Acts 4:7-10, 31, 33; 6:5, 8; 8:13). Their witness will be bold and will produce conviction leading to positive or negative decisions (2:37, 41; 4:8, 13, 31; 6:5, 10; 7:54-58).

The whole church, and each member of it, must take up this task. All who receive the apostles' teaching become witnesses (14:2-3; 22:15-18, 20). Richard Longenecker rightly concludes, "This commission lays an obligation on all Christians. . . . The Christian church, according to Acts, is a missionary church that responds obediently to Jesus' commission" (1981:256).

The mandate, expressed with a future-tense verb (will be), can be taken as both a command and a prophetic promise. Luke may well have intended that it be understood in both ways. Not only does he show the church obediently carrying out this mandate (2:47; 4:31, 33; 6:4, 7; 8:4; 11:19-20), but he also shows how God intervenes at strategic points to give impetus and direction for taking the mission across another cultural threshold or into a another geographical region (8:16-17, 26, 29; 10:9-16, 19-20; 11:20-21; 13:2; 16:9-10; 18:9-10; 23:11). God in his grace makes sure the mandate is completely fulfilled.

And so today the call for the church to be a missionary church is still in force. In 1974, at the first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, a gracious God refocused the churches' attention on the world's hidden people groups who have yet to hear the witness.

Jesus says to be his witnesses. To be a witness (martyrs) is to speak from personal knowledge of facts and their significance. The apostles, as eyewitnesses of the saving events, were witnesses in a unique sense. But all those who will believe and appropriate the truth of their testimony also qualify as witnesses.

The scope of the task is given in geographical terms. Acts presents the evangelization of the first two geographical regions (Jerusalem, 2:42--8:3; Judea and Samaria, 8:4--12:25). Luke probably has no particular place in mind when he uses the phrase to the ends of the earth. He is thinking of a mission that will reach throughout the whole earth in fulfillment of Isaiah 49:6 (Acts 13:47). Since the narrative concludes geographically in Rome--the empire's center, from which roads reach to the limits of the then-known world--the mission is potentially complete but actually remains unfinished.

When the scope of the task is viewed ethnically, however, we realize that by the time of the Jerusalem Council (15:1-35) "the gospel has already reached all possible manner of men" (Menoud 1978b:123). The gospel has been extended to Palestinian and Hellenistic Jews (2:5-13), Samaritans (8:4-13), a proselyte (8:26-40), a Gentile God-fearer (10:1-48) and pagan Gentiles (11:20-21; 13:46-48; 14:8-20).

Today the unfinished task remains a formidable challenge. But it is possible to complete the task--to take the witness to the ends of the earth and plant a church in each unreached ethnic group. For the 1989 Lausanne II Congress on World Evangelization in Manila, David Barrett calculated that there remain twelve thousand distinct cultural groups (1.8 billion persons) that have no church in their language and culture (Lausanne Committee 1989:13-14).

Among the 1.7 billion professing Christians in the world, we should be able to find 180 million true believers. They could serve as a more than adequate support base (fifteen thousand believers per unreached people group) to field a missionary force to penetrate each of the unreached groups. With such mobilization, each unreached people group could be evangelized in the foreseeable future.

There is a way. Where is the will? Current recruitment and deployment of missionaries falls far short. Currently only thirty thousand full-time Christian workers are at work among the 1.8 billion members of the twelve thousand unreached groups. Will the vision be caught, the momentum generated, so that in obedience to Christ the last great push to the ends of the earth will take place?

Immediately after Jesus gives this command, as the disciples are watching, he is taken up from the earth, and a cloud so envelopes him that the disciples can no longer see him. The cloud probably refers to the Shekinah glory, which at once manifests and hides the divine presence (Ex 19:16; 40:34). It may also point to Christ's return (Dan 7:13; Lk 21:27; Acts 1:11).

The disciples stand in awe, looking intently up into the sky for an extended period. Luke will use the verb "to look intently" often in Acts in connection with the miraculous (3:4, 12; 6:15; 10:4; 11:6; 13:9; 14:9).

Suddenly two angels appear--two witnesses (Deut 19:15)--to interpret God's mighty act in Jesus' ascension. Their gentle rebuke to the sky-gazing disciples implies that in the interim there is a task to be done: fulfillment of the missionary mandate.

The angels describe in simple terms what has just happened: Jesus has been taken up into heaven. The implications are unmistakable. Jesus will no longer be with the disciples in the way he was with them during his earthly ministry or in post resurrection appearances. In heaven Jesus is in a position of authority, at the Father's right hand, whence he can pour out salvation blessings as by his Spirit he directs and empowers the church's mission (Acts 2:33; 4:10-12; 5:30-31). The angels conclude with an affirmation of the certainty of Christ's return. He will come in the same way that he has gone.

The fact that the Great Commission is the last instruction of the risen, now ascended and imminently returning Lord gives it great weight. He is not mentioning an optional ministry activity for individuals with cross-cultural interests and churches with surplus funds. The Great Commission is the primary task the Lord left his church. The church must always be a missionary church; the Christian must always be a world Christian.

Acts 1

Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. ¹³When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) ¹⁶and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus-- ¹⁷he was one of our number and shared in this ministry."
¹⁸(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. ¹⁹Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
²⁰"For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms,
   " 'May his place be deserted;
       let there be no one to dwell in it,' and,
   " 'May another take his place of leadership.' ²¹Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²²beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection."
²³So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. ²⁴Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." ²⁶Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Acts 1:12-26

Explanation:

Waiting for the Spirit: The Election of Matthias (1:12-26)

Luke's report of the disciples' activities as they waited for the Spirit's promised coming at Pentecost gives a pattern we would do well to emulate if we would prepare for an outpouring of the Spirit in revival. Though Pentecost was a unique inaugural event in the church's life, the steps that preceded it are essential for any fresh work of the Spirit.

United, Persistent Prayer (1:12-14)

Obedient to their Lord's command to await the Spirit's coming in Jerusalem, the disciples return to the city (compare 1:4). They gather in a spacious room above the tumult and prying eyes of street traffic.

The assembly included three elements: the eleven apostles, women and Jesus' relatives. Luke explicitly names the eleven and in that way establishes the continuity between Jesus' ministry and the apostolic foundation of the church (compare Lk 6:14-16). Luke also draws attention to the faithful women who accompanied and physically supported Jesus in his ministry. They had witnessed his death and received the first news of his resurrection (Lk 8:1-3; 23:49; 24:1-11). Luke's discussions of women serve to indicate that barriers of gender are abolished among those who will participate in the church's witness in power. In referring to Jesus' family, Luke not only foreshadows the leadership that some of those relatives would exercise (Acts 12:7; 15:13; 21:18) but also highlights Jesus' messiahship and the link between the church and Israel.

This core of disciples, along with others, engaged in united, persistent prayer. They had not been commanded to pray, only to wait. But Jesus' own example at his baptism and his teachings, especially regarding how the Spirit would come in response to prayer, probably provided enough guidance (Lk 3:21; 11:13; 18:1, 8). The disciples' prayer was united, a quality that would characterize their common life under the Spirit's blessing (Acts 2:46; 4:24; 5:12). Their prayer was persistent. They devoted themselves to set times of daily corporate prayer until God answered from heaven.

The Fulton Street prayer meeting that sparked a revival in America in 1858 began with six people. Within six months there were ten thousand businessmen gathering daily for prayer in New York City, and within two years one million converts were added to the American church (Orr 1953:13). A. T. Pierson said, "There has never been a revival in any country that has not begun in united prayer, and no revival has ever continued beyond the duration of those prayer meetings" (quoted in Orr 1937:47). We must prepare for any fresh outpouring of the Spirit by united, persistent prayer.

Restored Integrity: The Election of Matthias (1:15-26)

Luke singles out one event to record from those days of waiting. The legitimacy of the continuing witness to the twelve tribes of Israel (Lk 22:30) is affirmed by the apostles' filling the vacancy in their ranks. By detailing the apostolic requirement of being an eyewitness to the whole course of Jesus' ministry, including the resurrection and ascension, Luke emphasizes the continuity of eyewitness testimony which would be the church's foundation. And through it all he presents a prepared church with a restored integrity in its leadership.

Peter's speech to the 120 believers, introduced with much sense of occasion, declares the divine necessity of Judas' apostasy since what the Holy Spirit spoke through David long ago about him has now been fulfilled. Peter further emphasizes that Judas had received a place as one of the twelve, a position of service (see Lk 22:26, 28-30). He proceeds to quote the Old Testament Scriptures that predicted Judas's end and show the appropriateness of finding a replacement (Acts 1:20). Since the use of these texts, especially the first one, assumes the reader's acquaintance with the circumstances surrounding Judas's death, Luke provides a parenthetical statement about them. Judas's bloody suicide--a fall from a ledge on the southern slope of the valley of Hinnom--turned his property into cursed ground, twice defiled (Num 35:33; Deut 21:23; Mt 27:7-8; Acts 1:18-19). It became a cemetery for the ceremonially unclean and literally fulfilled the psalmist's imprecation: May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it (see Ps 69:25). Another imprecation establishes the legitimacy of the election to follow: May another take his place of leadership (Ps 109:8).

Peter now states the qualifications for an apostolic replacement. The apostle must be one who had accompanied Jesus' disciples from the time of John the Baptist's ministry until Christ's ascension, one who had been a witness to the resurrection and had seen the risen Lord. In other words, he must have witnessed the events that would be covered in the early church's gospel preaching (as in Acts 10:37-43; 13:23-41) and the Gospel of Mark. Peter stresses that the candidate must have been with Jesus' entourage the whole time--a most necessary qualification if he is to be an apostolic guarantor of the words and works of Jesus (compare 2:42; 5:32).

Public access to Jesus, as well as his authoritative relationship to his disciples, is captured in Peter's characterization of the time period: the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us. Such a strong eyewitness requirement should further confirm to Luke's inquiring audience--and to us--that the early church's message can be trusted: it is grounded not in human opinion but in divinely wrought and humanly witnessed salvation-history events.

The believers--or possibly the apostles--set forth two candidates: Joseph Barsabbas (son of Sabba or Seba), who also had a Roman name, Justus; and Matthias. Neither is mentioned again in Scripture, though Judas called Barsabbas (see Acts 15:22) may have been Joseph's brother. Later tradition identifies Matthias as a missionary to the Ethiopians.

Now the believers--or again, possibly only the apostles--address a prayer to the Lord Jesus. They ask him to indicate which of the two candidates he has chosen to fill the position vacated by Judas. With this prayer, in wording that echoes Jesus' initial calling of the twelve (Lk 6:13; compare Acts 1:2), they show they intend that this new apostle be chosen by Christ just as the other eleven were. An internal qualification of the apostle, possibly regenerate growth, may be hinted at when the Lord is addressed as the one who knows all hearts (compare Acts 15:8).

It is clear, though, that a replacement is being sought in the wake of apostasy; the believers are not intending to create a line of succession. Note how the prayer refers to Judas's defection and consequent end (compare 1:16-17, 20). One of the two apostolic candidates must receive, literally, "the place of this service and apostleship" (v. 25; NIV this apostolic ministry). Sin has reached even to the apostolic ranks. This is not outside the sovereign plan of God, for the Scripture had to be fulfilled (v. 16). Still, human responsibility and personal judgment are involved, and the ranks of leadership must be restored to full strength and spiritual integrity.

Lots are now cast. Each candidate's name is written on a stone, which is then placed in a container. The container is shaken and turned upside down until one of the stones springs or falls out. This method for discerning divine choice had a long history in Israel (Josh 18:6; 1 Chron 24:5; Prov 16:33).

Luke concludes by noting that the full complement of the twelve apostles has been restored. By principle, Matthias's election teaches us that restoration of integrity within the body of Christ is essential to preparation for revival. Wherever sin has created a breach and compromised the church's integrity, discipline, repentance and restoration must be pursued. J. Edwin Orr, that prodigious student of revivals, declared, "Revival is impossible apart from confession of sin among believers. It must be confession to God, and it may be confession to one another. Every hindrance must go. Sin must be confessed in order that it may be cleansed. . . . Judgment must begin at the house of the Lord" (Orr 1937:50). Only a holy people, a repentant and restored people, are vessels fit to be revived.