Acts 1 DN

Chapter One

Structure

1. Prologue: The Link with the Gospel 1.1-5

2. Parting: The Lord’s Ascension 1.6-11

3. Prayer: Waiting for Pentecost 1.12-14

4. Peter: Using the Word 1.15-22

5. Procedure: Replacing Judas 1.23-26

Comments

1. Prologue: The Link with the Gospel 1.1-5

Luke’s introduction tells us much about his book as a whole, ‘the sequel to the mighty events of the Gospels, and the gateway to the glorious doctrines of the Epistles’.[1] The character of the book is continuation (v 1). Luke faithfully completes his two-part narrative, providing a model for all who undertake a work for God in their local assembly. What we start we should finish, for reliability is of greater consequence than ability. But the Lord Jesus Himself continues, working now from heaven (Mark 16.19-20). The Acts is a record of His labours as much as those of the apostles; indeed, ‘He was never so really with them as after He had left them.’[2] The work of atonement is complete (Heb 10.12), the work of intercession unfinished (Heb 7.25), but the work of summoning His elect is a continuing one (Acts 16.14; 18.9-10). Saints must also continue in the faith despite the unavoidable hardships of the pathway (Acts 14.22; 2 Tim 3.14) for in so doing they demonstrate the reality of their conversion. The subject of the book is ‘Jesus’ (v 1; 8.35), Luke intimating both the fullness (‘do and teach’ indicates that, unlike the hypocritical Pharisees, there was no inconsistency in His life, Matt 23.3) and the sequence of His earthly ministry (He did first what He instructed others to do; compare Matthew 3.13-17 and 28.19). The centre of that ministry was the resurrection, a miracle which validated the efficacy of His atoning death (‘alive after his passion [suffering]’, v 3) and thus became the grand theme of the apostolic preaching (2.23-24; 3.15; 5.30-31). This unique life was concluded by the ascension (‘taken up’, v 2), which announced that He had done perfectly all He came to do. And the use of the simple name Jesus (‘Jehovah saves’) reminds us that His service was for the benefit of sinful men (John 3.17).

The workers of the book are primarily but not exclusively ‘apostles’ (v 2). The word apostolos, meaning ‘one sent forth’ (translated literally in John 13.16 as ‘he that is sent’ and ‘messenger’ in 2 Corinthians 8.23), appears 30 times in the book, more than anywhere else in the New Testament. It stresses authority (for apostles were men under orders, v 2), and ministry (for they were not celebrities but workers, v 25). Specially chosen by Christ (Luke 6.13), they were eyewitnesses of His resurrection (v 3), hence their language of personal experience (4.20; 10.39-41). But ordinary saints served the Lord as well (8.1,4). Therefore, while acknowledging that in the technical sense there are no apostles now, we can apply apostolic descriptions to ourselves: all believers are ‘sent’ (v 2; Luke 8.38-39) in that we are responsible to evangelise, all are ‘witnesses’ (v 8; 1 Thess 1.6-8) in that we can aver what we know to be true, all are ‘disciples [mathetes, ‘lit., a learner...hence it denotes one who follows one’s teaching...not only a pupil, but an adherent’[3]]’ (v 15), obedient to the Master (Acts 6.7), and all are ‘brethren’ (v 16; Phil 4.1), enjoying spiritual fellowship with one another. The energy of the book comes from the Holy Spirit (v 2). The Lord Jesus was the perfect man on whom the Spirit delighted to rest (Luke 3.22; 4.1,14,18) and His representatives would be similarly equipped for life and service. It is clear that the eternal Spirit of God was about to enter into a new ministry in relation to God’s people. This is best summarised in John 14.17: ‘He dwelleth with [para, alongside] you, and shall be in [en] you’. The ministry of the Spirit in the Old Testament and Gospel period is summed up in the preposition ‘with’; His ministry post-Pentecost is described as ‘in’, for since Acts 2 He has indwelt all believers from the moment of their conversion (1 Cor 6.19). Further, Spirit baptism would bring about the formation of the church, the body of Christ, to which every believer of the present dispensation belongs (1 Cor 12.13).

Although primarily historical narrative, the doctrine of the book is embodied in summaries or samples of teaching. Verses 2 and 3 of chapter one condense the forty days of the Lord’s post-resurrection ministry of Luke 24. Crucial truths include the reality of the resurrection (v 3; Luke 24.36-43), for ‘by it Christ is vindicated, God is glorified, and the believer is justified’,[4] the sending of the Spirit (vv 4-5; Luke 24.49), the coming of the kingdom (v 3; Luke 24.26), and the supremacy of the Saviour (v 5; Luke 24.27), so much greater than all who preceded (Luke 7.28) because He alone baptised His people with the Spirit (Luke 3.16).

The Kingdom of God

There are two aspects of this kingdom in scripture. The first is the present universal reign of God over all His creation whereby He effects His will through overruling secretly in the affairs of men (Psa 103.19; 145.13; 115.3; Dan 4.17; Eph 1.11). The second is the future theocratic kingdom when the Lord Jesus will reign publicly over the earth from Jerusalem (Matt 6.10; Dan 2.44; Jer 23.5-6). That the latter was the subject of the Lord’s post-resurrection teaching (v 3) is demonstrated by comparing the account in Luke 24.25-26, where ‘enter into his glory’ must refer in context to the Messianic kingdom predicted in the prophets (Isa 9.6-7; Hos 3.4-5) and confirmed in the New Testament (Luke 1.32-33; 22.29-30). The kingdom is not the same as the church. Acts shows that the kingdom programme was set aside while God began to call out a people from the Gentiles for Himself (Acts 15.14). The shift can most easily be demonstrated by a word count: basileia (kingdom) occurs 128 times in the Gospels, but only 8 times in the Acts and 19 in the letters, whereas ekklesia (church) appears only thrice in the Gospels, but 24 times in the Acts and 68 times in the letters.

2. Parting: The Lord’s Ascension 1.6-11

Acts 1.6-11 expands upon the ascension account of Luke 24.50-53. The dating is very clear: ‘forty days’ (v 3) is the period of the Lord’s pre-ascension ministry (a sufficient time to remove all doubt as to the actuality of His resurrection), and ‘not many days hence’ (v 5) alludes to the brief space of ten days between the ascension and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost (there were 50 days in all between the feasts of First-fruits and Pentecost, Lev 23.15-16). The disciples’ question ‘wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’ (v 6) confirms that the Saviour had been instructing them in millennial expectation and, far from contradicting their yearnings for Israel’s revival, had simply explained that the timing was in the Father’s hands. ‘He did not deny that either their expectation of the appearance on earth of His glorious kingdom in its reality, or their hope of the glorious future which that kingdom opened to the people of Israel, was well founded; He simply subdued their eager curiosity respecting the time...’[5] In the meantime, their duty (v 8) was to honour Him, empowered by the Holy Spirit (for no one can serve God without spiritual enablement), that person of the Godhead whose special delight it is to glorify Christ (John 16.14). The power He would bestow was designed neither to convert the world nor work miracles but to witness to an absent Saviour (John 15.26-27) throughout the globe, from Jerusalem to Rome (in contrast to the restricted Jewish itinerary of Matthew 10.5-6).

All this climaxed in His departure (vv 9-10), visible (‘beheld...looked steadfastly...gazing’), historical (seen by eleven witnesses), supernatural (accompanied by the Shekinah cloud of Exodus 40.34 and Luke 9.34) and predicted (John 6.62; 16.5-7; compare Ezekiel 11.22-23). But the event itself was confirmed and explained by the angelic declaration (v 11), for biblical miracles require interpretation (compare Acts 2.14ff; 1 Cor 15.3-5). Yet we should note that ‘neither the preaching of the Gospel of the grace of God, nor the present teaching to establish souls in the faith, has been committed to angels. The Holy Spirit is here, and He uses human instruments for that purpose.’[6]

The Meaning of the Ascension

The ascension was (i) the official termination of the Lord’s earthly sojourn (for while His manhood is permanent, Acts 7.56, His earthly ministry was temporary, John 1.14), (ii) the source of information as to His present position (for, in contrast to the sudden disappearances and reappearances which marked His post-resurrection ministry, Luke 24.31, the deliberately slow-motion ascent made plain that He was going ‘into heaven’) so that the apostles had no doubt of His whereabouts (Acts 2.33-34; Col 3.1; Heb 1.3; 8.1; 10.12; 12.2), (iii) an animation of the apostles’ hopes (linking His departure with His return, Rev 1.7; Zech 14.4[7]), and (iv) a stimulation to the performance of their duty (‘why stand ye gazing?’), for all teaching about the future should encourage godly service in the present.

3. Prayer: Waiting for Pentecost 1.12-14

The Lord told His disciples to wait at Jerusalem, which they did prayerfully, for communion with God is the fitting accompaniment to all spiritual activity. The people gathered in the upper room are carefully listed: the eleven apostles (each named for every saint is individually precious to God), the women (presumably those who had loyally followed the Lord during His ministry, Luke 8.2-3; 23.49; 24.10), ‘Mary the mother of Jesus’ (the last allusion to her in the Bible, granting her no special position or esteem but noting her quiet continuance with other believers), and His brethren (children of Mary and Joseph, raised in the same household as the Saviour, initially unresponsive to His claims, but finally saved by grace, John 7.3-5; 1 Cor 15.7). These last, with their position of inestimable privilege, remind us that ‘God’s decision to save us involved planning where we would be born and the circumstances that would lead us to Christ.’[8] It was in His sovereign electing purposes that the present writer was not born to Moslem parents in Saudi Arabia, but to believing parents in the west. We should bless God for His goodness to our souls, which includes setting us apart for the very moment of conversion (1 Pet 1.2).

Their prayerfulness (v 14) is an example to all. It was a conscious responsibility (‘all’; entrusted publicly to the menfolk, but the privilege of all saints regardless of sex, 1 Tim 2.8), persistent (‘continued’; Col 4.2; 1 Thess 5.17), unanimous (‘with one accord [homothumadon, occurring 11 times in Acts; once in Romans 15.6 rendered ‘one mind’]’) and corporate (‘with’). We are not informed of the content of their ‘prayer and supplication’, but Luke 11.13 may provide a clue. For us, of course, it is no longer a matter of waiting or praying for the Spirit, as He has already been given. Believers today therefore pray neither for nor to but ‘in the Holy Spirit’ (Jude 20; Rom 8.26-27).

4. Peter: Using the Word 1.15-22

This glimpse into the unique period of ten days between the ascension and Pentecost traces the early believers’ response to a remarkable quandary. The Lord had chosen twelve apostles with a view to service and kingdom responsibility (Luke 6.13; 22.28-30), but one had proved a traitor and was now dead (Matt 27.3-10). It is all too tragically possible to be associated with believers, involved in service for God, and yet unregenerate. Surely the original number must be made up so as to provide a complete testimony to the twelve tribes of Israel? Peter’s course of action illustrates his high view of the scriptures. He immediately referred to the word (v 16; Rom 4.3), just as the Lord had done (Luke 4.21); he revered the word (v 16b; Isa 66.2), asserting its inspiration (‘the Holy Spirit ... spake’), infallibility (‘must needs have been fulfilled’; John 10.35), and human instruments (‘by the mouth of David’; Jer 1.9); he read the word, with Christ as the key to its proper understanding (v 20; Luke 24.44-45); and he relied practically upon the word for guidance in the present need (vv 20-21). The Lord had earlier shown that the Psalms predicted the rise of the betrayer (John 13.18-19 quotes from Psalm 41.9) and Peter had clearly learned from this the general principle that just as David in the Old Testament anticipated the messianic king, so David’s foes (such as Ahithophel) anticipated the Lord’s foes (Judas). Therefore as Psalm 69.25 forecast the removal of David/Messiah’s enemy, so Psalm 109.8b justified the finding of a replacement (v 25). We are to apply the abiding principles of God’s word to the circumstances in which He places us.

5. Procedure: Replacing Judas 1.23-26

While both the time and the problem were unprecedented and unrepeatable, the disciples’ procedure for replacing the defector provides valuable teaching for us. It emphasises the unique qualifications of an apostle, demonstrating that no such gift can exist today. Apostles were chosen personally by the Lord Jesus Christ (vv 2, 24), associated with Him for the duration of His earthly ministry (vv 21-22), inspired to complete the writing of the scriptures (John 16.13; 2 Pet 3.1-2), and endowed with the special ability to work credential miracles (2 Cor 12.12). Simply to find someone who had companied with the Lord and His disciples for the three and a half year’s ministry was hard enough: it appears that only two men could be located (v 23). Thereafter the disciples used the Old Testament method of casting lots, while committing themselves to God in prayer that He might do the choosing. All was done with due godly solemnity. Nowhere is their action criticised; indeed, Matthias took his place with the twelve in testimony to Israel (2.14; 6.2).

[1] J Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book, Zondervan, 1966, 9

[2] J Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book, 43

[3] W E Vine, 316

[4] W Kelly, Acts, BTP, 1952, 15-16

[5] Cited in A McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom, BMH, 1961, 395. This is the finest study of the biblical doctrine of the kingdom, although it may be supplemented by J D Pentecost’s Thy Kingdom Come, and Renald Showers’s There Really is a Difference!, FOI, 1991.

[6] C E Stuart, Tracings from the Acts, reprinted GTP, 1982, 215

[7] The Lord’s return predicted here is not the rapture but His glorious second coming to establish His reign. The place of the ascension was Olivet (to which He will return, Zech 14.4) and the witnesses a company of Jewish disciples trained to expect the kingdom.

[8] Erwin Lutzer, Doctrines that Divide, Kregel, 1998, 217