Acts 1:1-8
Acts 1
[1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.]
Verse 1 - “The former account I made” - Luke is referring to the Gospel of Luke. “O Theophilus” - This is the person for which Luke had written these accounts. We know little about this man. Luke began his Gospel with the greeting, “most excellent Theophilus (Luke 1:3)” which seems to indicate that he was somewhat of an important and honorable Roman.
Verse 2 - “until the day in which He was taken up” - Luke begins this second account of the book of Acts where he left off in the Gospel of Luke. Here are the last few verses of Luke:
“Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen (Luke 24:51-53).”
Verse 3 - “to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them” - Paul gave us a listing of just a few examples of people and times that Jesus was seen after Jesus’ death and resurrection. “and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time (1 Cor. 15:5-8).
Note how Jesus showed Himself alive to many people and on different occasions. Also note how Paul appealed to the reader’s ability to do their own “fact-checking”, as if to say, “many of the people that saw Jesus alive are still alive - you go and talk to them yourselves.”
Jesus could have ascended directly to heaven, but He didn’t. It was God’s plan for His Son to stay around for a while and establish the truth of His Son’s resurrection. This is, in fact, the foundational truth of all who put their trust in Jesus. Without the resurrection, Christianity becomes meaningless. Also consider those who would have better known the facts, the eyewitnesses, were also willing to die rather than deny what they saw - the risen Christ.
“being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Besides establishing the fact of His resurrection, there was another purpose for Jesus staying around those 40 days. He had more to teach His disciples from the context of them now seeing His death and resurrection. They could begin to understand His previous teachings from a brand-new perspective. He could also answer their questions and calm their fears about the future.
Good teachers review their lessons with their students. Jesus was (and is) the best of all teachers. So this gave Jesus time with His disciples to review.
Notice that the Gospel (Good News) accounts do not end with the resurrection, but included a purposefully personal time that Jesus spent with His disciples (John 21). This Good News included God’s future plans for them - “the Promise of My Father unto you”(Luke 24:49), which included being “endued with power from on high” which was the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel accounts also include the Ascension (Luke 24:50-53) which assures believers throughout history that Jesus is now interceding for them (Mark 16:19 & 1 John 2:1).
[4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ]
Verse 4 - “but to wait for the Promise of the Father” - This was not to be an anxious waiting, like “pacing the floor” waiting. In Luke 24 the word used is “tarry”, to “sit down” or to “wait around”. Why? Because They needed to sit, breathe, pray and patiently wait - “for the Promise of the Father.”
Think about this-The Apostles had spent 3 years training with the perfect teacher. They had spent countless hours asking Jesus questions and hearing Jesus’s specific explanations. They had seen amazing healings and experienced great signs and wonders. Yet we see here - this was not enough. In fact, from the very beginning - This was never going to be enough!!
Jesus basically said, “Don’t you do anything yet! You are still not ready and will only be ready when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit”.
This is beautiful to me. We have this promise and it’s an endearing one because we have a Heavenly Father who knows just how weak we are, and just how much we need Him. As Jesus put it earlier as He was speaking to his disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5).” So even as Jesus was physically going away, He made provision to never Spiritually leave them (Matthew 28:20).Let me add that after 2000 years, nothing has changed! We always have, and always will - need Him. Jesus knows this and has provided His Holy Spirit to teach and empower His followers at all times, and in all places. So we come to our Savior’s royal promise now being roared through the centuries:
Verse 5 - “… but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” In other words, “You must wait for this promise of the Father which is the giving of His Holy Spirit to you, and this Will happen soon.”
[6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”]
Verse 6 - The disciples asked a very natural question, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” This was one of our Lord’s favorite subjects, speaking and explaining often about the Kingdom of God (i.e. just a few: Mark 1:15, Matt. 6:33, Chapter 13, 19:4). If they had their doubts that Jesus was the promised Messiah earlier, those doubts thoroughly disappeared with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. The disciples also knew the Messianic prophecies which clearly spoke of the Messiah restoring the kingdom of Israel. Yet the kingdom of Israel had not yet been restored. So this was a natural question.
We all look forward to the day when Jesus will come and rule over all the nations, and all will be restored back to when God first said, “It was very good” (Gen. 1:31) and all will be made right. We also remember the prayer Jesus taught us: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. (Matthew 6:10)” And we remember the prayer in 1 Corinthians 16:22 “O Lord, come!” in the Greek “Maranatha(1)”. This is a natural question for all believers, yet the answer Jesus gives is not specific. And though His answer is vague, it is also deeply meaningful…
Verse 7 - “And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.’” We can understand how the disciples had misunderstandings about what Jesus was doing. They thought that the coming Messianic Kingdom was strictly physical and political. The disciples weren’t stupid to think this because the scriptures do instruct that the Messiah is coming to establish His political kingdom - and this will truly happen someday. So the disciples were right, but their timing was off. Yet what Jesus actually seems to imply in the context of verse 8, and the deeper truth we need to grasp, is that “timing” should be considered irrelevant. Whatever the timing, believers are to be busy at the work they are called to.
Verse 8 - “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Jesus changed their focus by using the word “But” with the implied message, “Here is what you really need” - “But you shall receive...”. There is almost a sense of excitement in these words, and why not? After all, they were about to receive a wonderful gift of Grace, “the Promise of the Father” - The Holy Spirit! Let’s talk a little about the Holy Spirit.
What does it mean that we receive the Holy Spirit? Hasn't God’s Spirit been working in the world throughout all of history?
In Greek, there are 3 prepositions that seem to reflect how the Holy Spirit relates to us. But before we go on, understand this - how the Holy Spirit relates to us is up to Him. He is not an equation, He is a being that can never be put into a box. That being said - there are 3 Greek prepositions that do show some consistency in how the Holy Spirit relates to us.
The Greek preposition - “para(2)” means to “come alongside”.
John 16: 7-8 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (para cletes) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”
Here in John 16:7 the word for “Helper” is (Para-cletes(3)). The Holy Spirit comes alongside and is with all peoples, convicting men and women of their sin. The Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus, showing us our need for Him. Unless the Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus, we would not see our need for Him (John 6:44, 1 Cor. 12:3).
In John 14:16-17, we see the same Greek preposition, “Para(4)”, but we are also introduced to the next Greek preposition:
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper (para cletes) ,that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with (para(4)) you”. Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit was already with them. But then, speaking of what was still to come, He continued, “and will be in (en(5)) you.”The Greek preposition - (en(5)) very simply means “in”. Reading a few chapters ahead, John 20:22 - “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit….’”. So now we see that they received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was not just with them, but now dwelling in them. This is how everyone who repents and puts their faith in Jesus becomes “born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8) - the Holy Spirit comes to live “in” every Christian. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer to secure and authenticate them to Jesus. As 2 Cor. 1:21-22 explains, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in (en(5)) our hearts as a guarantee.”
Also see-
Romans 8:9 - “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in (en(5)) you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
1 Cor. 6:19 - “Or do you (as the Church) not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in (en(5)) you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
The Greek preposition - (eppi(6)) means “upon”. The Holy Spirit also comes upon the believer. It’s worth pointing out that “upon” (eppi6 in the Greek), was the relationship that the disciples were waiting for here in Acts 1:8-
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon (eppi6) you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
His disciples “shall receive power” (in the Greek “Dynamis(7)”, where we get words like Dynamite, Dynamo, and Dynamic). And when will they receive this power? - “when the Holy Spirit has come upon (eppi6) you.”
Why will they receive the Holy Spirit? - “and you shall be witnesses to Me.” In the Greek “Martures(8)” is also the word used for martyrs.
The disciples needed to wait for the empowering of the Holy Spirit because they needed the empowering of the Holy Spirit to be effective witnesses. Jesus didn’t even want them to try without the Holy Spirit. Oh! But with His empowering, they not only had words directed by God Himself, but their very lives were also witnesses (Martures) to Jesus.
Listed below are but a few other places in the Scriptures where the empowering of the Holy Spirit is mentioned:
Luke 24:49 - “...but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Acts 2:4 - “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…”
Acts 2: 16-17 - “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…”
There are other examples from the Old Testament where the Spirit of God comes upon certain prophets or leaders to do the work of the Lord - Numbers 27:18 - “Joshua”, Judges 3:10 - “Othniel”, 1 Samuel 10:9-10 - “Saul”, to name a few. But those who now follow Jesus are given this same privilege of relationship with the Holy Spirit, which only specific people could have in the Old Testament.
There are a few things to be understood here and let me make my first point by using the example of a steam-powered locomotive:
The steam in a locomotive has a purpose, and it’s not to “toot the whistle”, it’s to do the work. This Dynamo of the Holy Spirit, directing and empowering a believer has a purpose, and it’s not to “toot a whistle”, it’s to make us witnesses (Martures) of Jesus. Our witness of Jesus will be different from those early disciples who saw our Lord alive after His resurrection. But every day they can witness Jesus working His character into us. Each of us can communicate what Jesus has done for us and give God the Glory. So this is our work, and the Holy Spirit will empower us to do it.
The Holy Spirit loves to boast about Jesus. He loves to teach us how to be more like Jesus. He loves to empower us to step out in faith and allow God to work through us. And as the Holy Spirit leads us to specific actions, and we follow Him in faith, He empowers us to do that work.
“in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This is a concise outline of what we will study as we read through Acts.
Strong’s G3134
Strong’s G3844
Strong’s G3875
Strong’s G3844
Strong’s G1722
Strong’s G1909
Strong’s G1411
Strong’s G3144
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