Jesus ascends into heaven
1
📚O Theophilus 📖, I produced the former account about all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 📚until the day in which he was taken up, after he had given commandments through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen 📖.1:2 Verses 9-11; Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51. Notes on the Holy Spirit at Matt 3:16; John 7:39; 14:16-17, 26; 20:22. Also see the references at Gen 1:2. The word “apostles” means “those who are sent forth with orders”.⚜
3 📚To them also he showed himself alive 📖 after his suffering 📖 by many infallible proofs 📖, being seen by them forty days 📖 and speaking about the kingdom of God 📖.
4 📚And, having met with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise from the Father 📖, “which, he said, “you have heard from me. 5 📚For John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit 📖 not many days from now”.
1:4-5 The apostles of Christ would not be qualified for Christ’s service until they received the power of the Holy Spirit. Their knowledge of the facts about Christ and their understanding of the Old Testament alone would not make them ready for the task before them.⚜
6 📚So when they met together they questioned him, saying, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
1:6 The Lord Jesus had been teaching them for forty days about God’s kingdom (v 3), and He had opened their minds to understand the Old Testament (Luke 24:45. They asked this question on the day Christ ascended into heaven – v 9). So they did not ask this question in ignorance, but understanding what God’s plan for the nation of Israel is. They knew that God had taken the kingdom from them (Matt 21:43). But from what Jesus had taught they did not doubt that God would some day turn the nation back to Himself and exalt it to a place of prominence and power in the world. (See Acts 3:19-21; Isa 2:2-4; 14:1-2; Zech 14:16-21.) But the disciples did not know when God would do this. Observe that they did not ask “will you restore the kingdom to Israel?” but “are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”⚜
7 📚And he said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the dates which the Father has put under his own authority.
1:7 The Lord did not correct their view that He would restore the kingdom to Israel. Since He had been teaching them for forty days about the kingdom, it is evident that He wanted them to understand all the facts thoroughly. They were going to be His representatives on earth, the teachers of His Church. If they had been wrong in their belief that He would restore the kingdom to Israel, can we doubt that He would have told them so? Can we think He was willing to leave them with a mistaken opinion about a basic matter? But all He did was to inform them that it was not their business to know times and dates. In this way He sanctioned their view about Israel and God’s kingdom.⚜
8 📚But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth”.
1:8 Verse 5. Power here means supernatural energy and ability. To be God’s witnesses in a hostile world, to live and speak and serve as they ought, they needed more power than they possessed by nature, and more than they had received as a result of the new birth (John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5, 8). The same is true today. They needed and we need the Spirit’s fullness. “Witnesses” see Luke 24:48; John 15:27; Acts 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31; 22:15. A witness is someone who tells others what he has seen or heard or knows by experience. Apostles proclaimed the facts of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension – facts they themselves had seen with their own eyes. And they taught what they themselves had heard Him teach. Taking this verse we can divide the book of Acts into three parts – witness in Jerusalem (chapters 1–7), witness in Judea and Samaria (chapters 8–12), witness to other parts of the world (chapters 13–28). This witness to the truth still continues.
Now God’s servants everywhere in the world proclaim the truth they have learned from the testimony of the original apostles who saw and heard the Lord Jesus. They can testify also to a personal experience with Christ.⚜
9 📚And when he had spoken these things, while they were looking, he was taken up and a cloud received him from their sight.
1:9 See Acts 2:33; Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Phil 2:9-11. Only here is a cloud mentioned in connection with Jesus’ ascension. In the Bible a cloud sometimes symbolizes the presence and glory of God (Ex 13:21; 16:10; 19:9, 16; 24:15; 34:5; 40:34-35; Lev 16:2; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Isa 4:5; 19:1; Matt 17:5; Rev 10:1; 14:14). The Lord Jesus had vanished. From now on His disciples had to live by faith, not by sight. Where did Jesus go? Into heaven to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33; 3:21). How far away is heaven? Probably very near (see Acts 7:55-56). It is a spiritual realm unseen by the eyes of human beings on earth, but it may exist alongside this material world.⚜
10 📚And while they looked steadily toward heaven as he went up, suddenly two men stood by them in white clothing. 11 📚And they said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you have seen him go into heaven”.
1:11 These words seem to mean something like this: Jesus was going into heaven and would remain there for a time. He would not immediately come back so there was no reason for them to stand there looking for Him. In the meantime there were things they should be doing. On Christ’s second coming see Matt 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27; John 14:3.⚜
The disciples choose someone in place of Judas
12 📚Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is a Sabbath day’s walk from Jerusalem.
1:12 The Mount of Olives is about one kilometer east of Jerusalem. Jewish teachers had determined the limits of how far Jews could walk on their rest day.⚜
13 📚And when they arrived, they ascended to the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the brother of James,
14 📚these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
1:14 Doubtless they were praying for what Jesus had promised them – vs 4,5,8; Luke 11:13; 24:49. A number of women had also believed in Christ – Luke 23:49, 55; 24:1, 10. Mary the mother of Jesus was now staying with John (John 19:26-27). This is the last mention of her in the Bible. She completely fades from view, and her Son fills the vision of the Church. Jesus’ brothers (Matt 13:55) at first did not believe Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel (John 7:5). After His resurrection, they believed and joined His disciples. These all waited ten days for the coming of God’s Spirit. Now that His Spirit has come there is no need to wait for Him to come. But now, too, waiting on God and seeking His face prepare the heart for the Spirit’s fullness.⚜
15 📚And in those days Peter stood up among the disciples 📖 (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 📚“Men and brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke in the past through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who took Jesus.
1:16 Peter had the same high view of the Old Testament that the Lord Jesus had. He believed it was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and had to be fulfilled. Compare Acts 4:25-26; Matt 4:4; 5:17-18; 15:3, 6; Luke 24:44-46; John 10:35.⚜
17 📚For he was numbered with us, and was allotted a part in this ministry”.
18 📚Now this man purchased a field with the reward of his wickedness, and there, falling headlong, the middle of his body burst open and all his entrails spilled out. 19 📚And this became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
1:18-19 Matt 27:3-8. The chief priests bought the field, but evidently did so in the name of Judas. Judas “purchased” it in the sense that it was the money he received for betraying Christ that was used for the purchase. He hanged himself but, it would seem, either the rope or the limb of the tree broke, and he fell to the ground with the result described here.⚜
20 📚“For it is written in the book of Psalms,
Let his dwelling be deserted,
and let no one live in it.
And,
Let another take his position of overseer.
21 📚“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 📚beginning with the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one must be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection”.
1:21-22 See the emphasis on their actually seeing what Jesus did and hearing what He taught. Compare John 15:27.⚜
23 📚And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabas whose surname was Justus, and Matthias. 24 📚And they prayed, and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which of these two you have chosen 25 📚to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell by his transgression to 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 📖.
1:23-26 Did they behave wisely in all this or did they make a mistake? Matthias appears no more in the New Testament. Observe that “they” proposed two men. The drawing of lots had to indicate one of them, whether the Lord chose him or not. It is not written that they prayed before they proposed the two names, only afterwards. And would not their choice between only two men limit the Lord in His choice? It seems to the author of these notes that the Lord later appointed Paul as one of the twelve apostles (Rom 1:1, 5; 1 Cor 9:1; 15:8-10; 2 Cor 12:12; Gal 1:1), and he cannot imagine that the name of Matthias will appear on the foundations of God’s city (Rev 21:14) and Paul’s name be absent. On casting of lots see Lev 16:8; Josh 18:6, 8, 10; 1 Sam 14:42; Neh 10:34.⚜