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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-26
Acts 1:3-26 is a section concerned with preparation. As we have seen, in 1:3-8 we have Christ’s preparation of the disciples in His resurrection. Now we shall go on to consider Christ’s ascension (vv. 9-11) and the disciples’ preparation (vv. 12-26).
Acts 1:9 says, “And when He had said these things, while they were looking, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him up out of their sight.” Luke’s Gospel ends with the Lord’s ascension into heaven (Luke 24:51), and his Acts begins with it. His Gospel is a narrative of the ministry of the incarnated Jesus on earth. His Acts is a record of the succeeding ministry of the resurrected and ascended Christ in heaven carried out through His believers on earth. In the Gospels, the Lord’s ministry on earth, carried out by Himself, only sowed Himself as the seed of the kingdom of God into His believers, with no church built up yet. In Acts, the Lord’s ministry in heaven, carried out through His believers in His resurrection and ascension, spreads Him as the development of the kingdom of God for the building up of the church (Matt. 16:18) throughout the entire world to constitute His Body, His fullness (Eph. 1:23), to express Him, even the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19) for God’s expression.
Acts 1:10 and 11 say, “And as they were looking intently into heaven as He went, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, who also said, Men, Galileans, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven.” The Lord’s ascension points to His coming back. Between His ascension and His coming back there is the dispensation of grace so that He as the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), may apply His all-inclusive redemption to God’s chosen people for their full salvation, that He may produce and build up the church, as His Body, for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.
The vision of Christ’s ascension into heaven strengthened the disciples’ faith in Him and in what He had done for them through His death and resurrection. It broadened their view of God’s heavenly economy, which had brought them into cooperation with Christ’s ministry in the heavens for the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy on the earth.
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to His disciples for a period of forty days concerning the kingdom of God, He was taken up from them visibly. He ascended physically right before their eyes. We may say that this too was part of the Lord’s “education” of the disciples.
The disciples must have been deeply impressed and very excited when they witnessed Christ’s ascension. As they were watching Him ascend, they certainly were not weeping. On the contrary, they must have been happy, realizing that they were seeing something marvelous.
As the disciples were looking intently into heaven, two men in white clothing stood beside them. These two men, who were actually angels, asked the disciples why they were standing looking into heaven. Then they went on to say that the very Jesus who was taken up from them into heaven would come in the same way as they had seen Him going into heaven. This indicates that just as the Lord Jesus ascended physically, He will also come back physically. Christ ascended into heaven by way of a cloud, visible to human sight, and He will come back on a cloud (Matt. 24:30). Furthermore, He ascended from the top of Mount Olivet (Acts 1:12), and He will come back to the same mount (Zech. 14:4). We definitely believe that in His coming back the Lord Jesus will set His feet on Mount Olivet.
After witnessing the Lord’s ascension, the disciples “returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away” (v. 12). The disciples returned to Jerusalem to keep the Lord’s words in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4, so that they might receive the Spirit of power economically as promised by the Father. They were all Galileans (v. 11). For them to stay in Jerusalem, especially under the threatening of the Jewish leaders, meant that they were risking their lives.
Verse 12 says that Jerusalem was a Sabbath day’s journey away from Mount Olivet. According to Jewish tradition, a Sabbath day’s journey equaled approximately three-quarters of a mile.
Acts 1:13 and 14 say, “And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were residing, both Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all were persevering with one accord in prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” Mary is mentioned here for the last time in the New Testament.
Before the Lord’s death, the disciples had no interest in prayer for spiritual things (Luke 22:40, 45-46). Rather, they contended among themselves as to which was considered to be greater (Luke 22:24). But now, after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, their spiritual condition radically changed. They did not contend among themselves, but were burdened to pray perseveringly with one accord, even before the day of Pentecost, when they would receive the outpoured Spirit of power economically (Acts 2). This is a strong sign and proof that they had received the indwelling Spirit of life essentially on the day of the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:22). This is also evidence that they had been strengthened in God’s New Testament economy by the vision of the Lord’s ascension.
We are told in 1:14 that the disciples, together with the women, Mary, and the Lord’s brothers, persevered with one accord in prayer. The Greek words rendered “with one accord” may also be translated “with one mind.”
The disciples might have prayed to be clothed with the Spirit of power, the promise of the Father, for which the Lord had charged them to remain in Jerusalem (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4), and for the commission given to them by the Lord in Luke 24:47 and 48 and Acts 1:8 to bear His testimony to the remotest part of the earth.
God wanted to pour out His Spirit for the carrying out of His New Testament economy, and He had promised to do this. Yet He needed His chosen people to pray for it. As God in heaven, He needs men on earth to cooperate with Him for the carrying out of His plan. The one hundred twenty disciples praying for ten days met this need of God.
The disciples must have been very happy and excited as they gathered together to pray in the upper room. We may infer that, as they persevered in prayer, they prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I believe that during those ten days they prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The resurrected Christ had come back to the disciples and had breathed Himself into them as the life-giving Spirit to be their life and person. Then for a period of forty days spent with the disciples the resurrected Christ kept appearing and disappearing. During those days He taught them concerning the kingdom of God. Then He ascended to the heavens in a visible way. By that time the Lord had completed the education and preparation of His disciples. His ascension marked the completion of the disciples’ “four year course” in the “divine university.”
As one who had completed this course, Peter was now another person. As we shall see, in Acts 1 he was able to understand and interpret the prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Judas and to teach others according to the Scripture. Was Peter like this in the Gospels? Certainly not. But in Acts 1 Peter is very different from what he was in the Gospels, because the resurrected Christ had come into him to be his life and person.
It was a great matter for the one hundred and twenty to pray in one accord for ten days. They were able to pray in one accord for such a long time because they had Christ within them as their life and person. Furthermore, they were Galileans staying in Jerusalem, and they were under the threatening of the Jews, who were persecuting the followers of Jesus. Nevertheless, they were not afraid of the Jews’ threatening, but stayed in Jerusalem and prayed in one accord. This certainly could not have been done by human effort. This was possible because the one hundred and twenty had experienced a change not so much economically as essentially. They had been transferred essentially from the old being into the new being. As a result of this transfer, they had Christ as their life and person and could pray in one accord and not be afraid of persecution.
Acts 1:15 and 16 say, “And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (and there was a crowd of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty) and said, Men, brothers, the Scripture must be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke before through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who seized Jesus.” Before the Lord’s death Peter often spoke nonsensically (Matt. 16:22-23; 17:24-26; 26:33-35), but after the Lord’s resurrection he could expound the Old Testament prophecies properly in their right significance in verses 16 through 20. This also is proof that the disciples, before they received the Spirit of power economically on the day of Pentecost, had received the Spirit of life essentially on the day of the Lord’s resurrection.
In 1:16 Peter used the expression, “men, brothers.” This expression is more dignified and solemn than simply “brothers” (see 1:11; 2:22, 29; 3:12).
Speaking of Judas, Peter goes on to say in verse 17, “For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his portion of this ministry.” This ministry, mentioned also in verse 25, is the ministry to bear the testimony of Jesus (v. 8). Though the apostles were twelve in number, their ministry was uniquely one — this ministry, a corporate ministry in the principle of the Body of Christ. All the apostles carried out the same ministry to bear the testimony not of any religion, doctrine, or practice, but uniquely of the incarnated, resurrected, and ascended Jesus Christ, the Lord of all.
After speaking further regarding the death of Judas and the prophecies concerning him, Peter went on to say, “It is necessary therefore that of the men who accompanied us in all the time in which the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from us, one of these should become a witness of His resurrection with us” (vv. 21-22). The Lord’s resurrection is the focus of the apostles’ testimony. It refers back to His incarnation, humanity, human living on earth, and God-ordained death (2:23), and points forward to His ascension, ministry and administration in heaven, and coming back. Thus the apostles’ testimony of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, is all-inclusive, as depicted in the whole book of Acts. They preached and ministered the all-inclusive Christ as revealed in the entire Scripture.
According to verse 23, two were proposed as replacements of Judas — Joseph who was called Barsabbas (who was surnamed Justus), and Matthias. The apostles then “prayed and said, You Lord, Knower of the hearts of all, show which one of these two You have chosen to take the place of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place” (vv. 24-25). The Greek words translated “Knower of the hearts of all” literally mean “Heart-knower of all.” In verse 25 the Greek words translated “turned aside” may also be rendered “fell away.”
After praying, “they gave lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles” (v. 26). Here we see that the apostles, after the Lord’s ascension and before the day of Pentecost, were in a transitional period, as shown by their realization in seeking the Lord’s guidance. They had received the indwelling Spirit on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, and they were trained by the Lord to practice His invisible presence for forty days before His ascension (v. 3). Yet it was still difficult for them to drop the old traditional way of seeking God’s leading by casting lots (Lev. 16:8; Josh. 14:2; 1 Sam. 14:41; Neh. 10:34; 11:1; Prov. 16:33). They were still not accustomed to the leading and guidance of the indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:14) as the apostle Paul was later in 16:6-8. They were still in the initial stage of God’s New Testament economy before the day of Pentecost.
In the New Testament economy there is no need to cast lots in order to have the Lord’s guidance. The proper way is to follow the indwelling Christ, to follow the inner anointing. Although Christ had left the apostles economically, He was within them essentially. If in Acts 1 they had been accustomed to the essential presence of Christ within them, they would not have gone back to the old way of casting lots. The fact that they continued to follow the old way was a sign that even though they had the Lord within them essentially, they were used to the old habits.
Through the casting of lots, Matthias was chosen, and then he was added to the eleven to make the number complete. With the selection of Matthias, we have the completion of the disciples’ preparation for the coming propagation.
