Acts 1:1-11 (draft info)

1:1-3

v2 被接升上去的日子 (新漢語)：was taken up to the heaven (NASB)

v2 by Holy Spirit given orders

v2 to apostles whom He had chosen

v2 given orders

v2 western text: “until the day when, by the Holy Spirit, he commissioned the apostles whom he had chosen, and charged them to proclaim the gospel” . It is also onward: the commissioning of the apostles is recorded in .

v2 it is by the Holy Spirit that they were to carry out their commission

v3 活著(新漢語)：alive (NASB)

v3 convincing proofs

v3 kingdom of God

The extension of the good news in the power of the Spirit is the theme of Acts.

顯現的目的是什麼? 讓他們在腦海中和認知中, 真的知道主耶穌是從死裡復活過來了。() 顯現的地方在耶路撒冷和附近的地方顯現。

顯現後講述了什麼重要內容? 神國的事!

什麼是神國的事？

From the earliest times in Israel, God was acknowledged as king (cf. ). His kingship is universal (), but is manifested most clearly where men and women recognize it in practice by doing his will. In Old Testament times his kingship was specially manifested on earth in the nation of Israel: to this nation he made known his will and he called it into covenant relationship with himself (cf. ). When human kings arose over Israel, they were regarded as viceregents of the divine King, representing his sovereignty on earth. With the fall of the monarchy and the end of national independence, there arose a new conception of the kingdom of God as destined to be revealed on earth in its fullness at a later date (cf. ; ). It is in the light of this later conception that we should understand the New Testament teaching about the kingdom of God. Jesus inaugurates the kingdom: it “drew near” with the inception of his public ministry (cf. ) and was released in power by his death and exaltation (cf. ). The things relating to the kingdom of God which form the theme of his postresurrection teaching at the beginning of Acts are identical with “the things relating to the Lord Jesus Christ” which form the theme of Paul’s teaching in Rome at the end of the book (28:31). When they told the story of Jesus, the apostles proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God—the same good news as Jesus himself had announced earlier, but now given effective fulfilment by the saving events of his passion and triumph. It may reasonably be concluded that the teaching about the kingdom of God given to the apostles during the forty days was calculated to make plain to them the bearing of these saving events on the message of the kingdom.

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (). “The kingdom of God is conceived as coming 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.”These words of C. H. Dodd may be adopted with one qualification: when the apostles proclaimed the good news, they did not stop short at the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, but went on to speak of one further event which would consummate the saving series.

to preach to the people and testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead” (10:42)

為何顯現是講述”神國的事”？

1:4-8

門徒的問題以為領受聖靈與以色列復國有關。令我想到：為何領受聖靈與以色列復國有關？

The apostles evidently maintained their interest in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God realized in the restoration of Israel’s national independence. They had at an earlier date been captivated by the thought that in such a restored order they themselves would have positions of authority (cf. ; ). So now, hearing their Master speak of the coming gift of the Spirit, the sign of the new age, they asked if this was to be the occasion for restoring Israel’s sovereignty.

但主耶穌卻澄清說：領受聖靈的目的是去作祂的見證。(, )

what the Father had promised: , ; ;

Similarly, he had assured them on a former occasion that not even the Son knew the day or hour of his parousia; this knowledge was reserved to the Father alone ().

Whatever purposes of his own God might have for the nation of Israel, these were not to be the concern of the messengers of Christ. The kingdom of God which they were commissioned to proclaim was the good news of God’s grace in Christ. Their present question appears to have been the last flicker of their former burning expectation of an imminent theocracy with themselves as its chief executives. From now on they devoted themselves to the proclamation and service of God’s spiritual kingdom, which men and women enter by repentance and faith, and in which chief honor belongs to those who most faithfully follow their Lord in the path of obedience, service, and suffering.

8 Instead of the political power which had once been the object of their ambitions, a power far greater and nobler would be theirs. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, Jesus assured them, they would be vested with heavenly power—that power by which, in the event, their mighty works were accomplished and their preaching made effective. As Jesus had been anointed at his baptism with the Holy Spirit and power, so his followers were now to be similarly anointed and enabled to carry on his work. This work would be a work of witness-bearing—a theme which is prominent in the apostolic preaching throughout Acts. An Old Testament prophet had called the people of Israel to be God’s witnesses in the world (; ); the task which Israel had not fulfilled was taken on by Jesus, the perfect Servant of the Lord, and shared by him with his disciples.

The close relation between God’s call to Israel, “you are my witnesses,” and the risen Lord’s commission to his apostles, “you will be my witnesses,” can be appreciated the more if we consider the implications of Paul’s quotation of in .

There the heralds of the gospel are spoken of as a light for the Gentiles, bearing God’s salvation “to the end of the earth”; here “the end of the earth” and nothing short of that is to be the limit of the apostolic witness.

It has often been pointed out that the geographical terms of verse 8 provide a sort of “Index of Contents” for Acts. “You will be my witnesses” might be regarded as announcing the theme of the book; “in Jerusalem” covers the first seven chapters, “in all Judaea and Samaria” covers 8:1 to 11:18, and the remainder of the book traces the progress of the gospel outside the frontiers of the Holy Land until at last it reaches Rome.

It has often been pointed out that the geographical terms of verse 8 provide a sort of “Index of Contents” for Acts. “You will be my witnesses” might be regarded as announcing the theme of the book; “in Jerusalem” covers the first seven chapters, “in all Judaea and Samaria” covers 8:1 to 11:18, and the remainder of the book traces the progress of the gospel outside the frontiers of the Holy Land until at last it reaches Rome.

1:9-11

The words “a cloud received him out of their sight” are reminiscent of those with which the Gospel incident of the transfiguration comes to an end: “a cloud came and overshadowed them; … and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone” (). They are reminiscent, too, of Jesus’ own language about the parousia of the Son of Man—“coming in clouds with great power and glory” (); “coming with the clouds of heaven” ().

The transfiguration, the ascension (as here described), and the parousia are three successive manifestations of Jesus’ divine glory. The cloud in each case is to be understood as the cloud which envelops the glory of God (the shekhinah)—that cloud which, resting above the Mosaic tabernacle and filling Solomon’s temple, was the visible token to Israel that the divine glory had taken up residence there (; ). So, in the last moment that the apostles saw their Lord with outward vision, they were granted “a theophany: Jesus is enveloped in the cloud of the divine presence.”

Instead, they suddenly became aware of two white-robed men standing by. Luke intends his readers to understand these men to be angelic messengers, like the two men who appeared to the women at the empty tomb of Jesus “in dazzling apparel” (). In both instances the fact that there were two suggests that they are viewed as witnesses, two being the minimum number for credible witness-bearing (). On the former occasion the two men bore witness to Jesus’ resurrection; here they bear witness to his forthcoming parousia.

11 They need not stand gazing skyward, said the heavenly visitants. “This Jesus” would return in the same manner as he went. From Luke’s perspective, this promise would indeed be fulfilled, but not immediately. The disciples had seen Jesus go in power and glory; in power and glory he would come back. But an interval would elapse between his exaltation and his parousia, and in that interval the presence of the Spirit would keep his people in living union with their risen, glorified, and returning Lord.

Christ is ascended, but his abiding presence and energy fill the whole book of Acts, and the whole succeeding story of his people on earth. His exaltation “at God’s right hand” means that he is the more effectually present with his people on earth “always, to the close of the age” (). As it is put in , he “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.”