Acts: A Bible Study Commentary

1:1-11

THE FORTY DAYS

The first book (1:1) is the Gospel of Luke, dedicated (like Acts) to Theophilus (Luke 1:3). The scope of that earlier work is indicated as all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up (1:1,2). The implication is that this second book will deal with what Jesus continued to do and teach after the day when he was taken up by his Spirit in his followers.

The forty days were days of necessary preparation for the disciples. Jesus had often spoken to them of the kingdom of God (1:3), and now that he had died and risen from the dead they had a better perspective from which to perceive the meaning of his words. In fact, it was only with his death and resurrection that the kingdom of God was fully inaugurated. Only one thing now remained to equip them fully for their new task of witness—the coming of the Spirit. The promise of the Father (1:4) means that God the Father had promised to send his Spirit (e.g. in Joel 2:28-32). John the Baptist had told how a mightier one than himself who was coming after him would baptise with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16). Jesus at his baptism had received the endowment of the Spirit for his own public ministry (Luke 3:21, 22); now ‘before many days (1:5), he was to impart a similar endowment to the disciples for their ministry.

The instruction which they received from their risen Master may have taken the form of answers to their questions. When he spoke of the kingdom of God, they asked if he meant the resurrection of Israel’s national independence (1:6). That, he assured them, was no concern of theirs. Something much better was in store for them, for they were to be his witnesses throughout the world (1:7, 8). It has often been pointed out that verse 8 forms a sort of table of contents to Acts: bearing witness in Jerusalem (chapters 1-7), in Judea and Samaria (chapters 8:1-11:18), and to the end of the earth (11:19-28:31).

Luke is the only New Testament writer who gives us any details about the Ascension, relating it from the standpoint of the spectators (1:9). The cloud in Old Testament times enveloped the glory of God and indicated that the glory was present, though veiled. So it is here (compare Luke 9:34, 35). And when the two men in white tell the apostles that Jesus will come in the same way as they saw him go, we may recall how Jesus himself spoke of the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory (Luke 21:27).

THOUGHT: Jesus’ coming again, like his departure from earth, is a manifestation of the glory of God. In what ways should knowledge of the Lord’s return influence the way you live?

1:12-26

CLOSING THE RANKS

The rabbis defined a sabbath day’s journey (1:12) as 2,000 cubits, that is, about one kilometre. The traditional site of the Ascension is still shown on the top of the Mount of Olives.

It is not surprising to find the eleven apostles in Jerusalem (1:14). What is really surprising is to find Jesus’ brothers associated with them there. It is plain from the Gospels his brothers were unsympathetic towards him during his ministry (compare Mark 3:21, 31-35; John 7:5). Perhaps they felt that his public activities were bringing a respectable family into disrepute and could lead to no good end. With his crucifixion they must have felt that their worst fears had been realised. Yet here they are, a few weeks later, fully identified with his disciples. How could this have come about? The answer is no doubt to be found in 1 Corinthians 15:7: the risen Lord appeared to James, the oldest, of his brothers, and that experience was enough to turn him and the others into devoted followers.

The reference to Mary (1:14) is the last mention of her in the New Testament. Anything that is related of her after this date belongs to legend, not to history.

The co-opting of a twelfth man to fill the vacancy left by Judas’ defection and death was undertaken in obedience to the will of God revealed in Old Testament scripture. If the messianic scriptures were fulfilled in Jesus, references to the Messiah’s enemies were fulfilled by those who played a sinister part in the passion narrative. Psalms 69:25 and 109:8 are thus understood to refer to Judas. (Compare the interpretation of Psalm 2:1, 2, in Acts 4:25-28.)

The parenthesis in verses 18 and 19 is not part of what Peter said to his fellow disciples. It is Luke’s inserted explanation for the benefit of his readers.

The method chosen to fill the vacancy was the casting of lots, hallowed by Old Testament precedent, yet not the casting of unrestricted lots, but the casting of lots between two men selected from the general company. Either man was well qualified to be added to the eleven, for both had been associated with the Lord from the time of John the Baptist’s ministry and both were witnesses to the resurrection. When the lots were cast and after prayer for guidance, Matthias was indicated (1:26). If it is pointed out that we hear no more in the New Testament about Matthias, it must also be pointed out that we hear no more of any of the twelve apart from Peter, James and John.

THOUGHT: Is it significant that the last casting of lots in apostolic history comes immediately before the day of Pentecost?

2:1-13

THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT

The day of Pentecost, or the fiftieth day, was so called because it fell seven weeks (fifty days by inclusive reckoning) from the day after the Sabbath following Passover (Leviticus 23:15, 16). It was also called the feast of harvest (Exodus 23:16), the feast of weeks (Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:9,10) and the day of the firstfruits of wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26). It was one of the three great festivals of the year when Jews and proselytes (converts from paganism to the Jewish religion) from many parts of the ancient world made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Hence crowds from east and west were present in the city on this occasion (2:9-11).

Some time before the coming of Christ, this feast began to be regarded as the anniversary of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. At that time, according to a rabbinical interpretation of Exodus 20:18, all seventy nations on earth heard the voice of God in their own languages. A counterpart to this may be recognised as visitors to Jerusalem heard the mighty works of God proclaimed in the various native languages (2:6).

The wind and fire of verses 2 and 3 were symbols of the Spirit’s power and are mentioned, for example, in John the Baptist’s prophecy of the ministry of the Coming One (Luke 3:16, 17). That prophecy was now being fulfilled. The Coming One, having accomplished his earthly ministry by the power of the Spirit, was baptising his people with the Holy Spirit and with fire (in compliance with his promise of 1:5). The first effect of this was their Spirit-given utterance in other tongues (2:4). (In this context no distinction can be pressed between their being baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit.)

The form that the gift of tongues took at the first Christian Pentecost was apparently a special one marking the inauguration of a new work of God. There is no question here of speaking in strange tongues, not understood without an interpretation, as in 1 Corinthians 14:2. The hearers immediately recognised their native languages and understood what was being said.

THOUGHT: Among the places listed in verses 9-11, only one city is mentioned—Rome. It is worth considering whether this might point to the otherwise unchronicled origin of the Roman church, which was a flourishing body by the time Rome received its first visit from an apostle.

Why do you think the wind and the fire symbolize the Holy Spirit?

2:14-21

THE LAST DAYS

This opens the first summary of apostolic preaching in Acts. Such summaries recur throughout the book, and their main features are all present here. One of these dominates today’s reading: the appeal to Old Testament authority.

Peter, after a good-humoured dismissal of the charge that he and his colleagues were the worse for drink (2:15), referred to the prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit of God on all flesh (Joel 2:28-32), and declared that those present that day in Jerusalem were witnessing its fulfilment. This is what was spoken by the prophet (2:16) is a major emphasis throughout the New Testament. The earliest Gospel starts with two prophecies fulfilled in John the Baptist’s preaching (Mark 1:1-3), and when Jesus began his public ministry with the announcement, The time is fulfilled (Mark 1:15), he meant the time which the prophets had foretold.

In Peter’s quotation from Joel, the indefinite expression afterward is replaced by in the last days (2:17). The natural sense of his words is that the last days had arrived. In fact, the whole period between the first and second comings of Christ is designated the last days in the New Testament. During these last days the age to come is already here but the present age has not yet passed away. By his death and resurrection Jesus has inaugurated the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of this world, while on the way out, is still with us. The darkening of the sun (2:20) had been experienced on Good Friday, and the physical cause of that darkening (whatever it was) probably gave the Passover moon a blood-red appearance when it rose the same evening. The reference to signs in the sky and on earth, included in Joel’s prophecy, was not so much expendable scenery.

What Jesus inaugurated by his first coming, he will consummate at his second coming. Meanwhile his people live between the times, spiritually anticipating the resurrection age while temporally continuing to live in mortal bodies.

Of course the Spirit was not poured out on all flesh there and then, at Pentecost. But that promise began to be fulfilled then, and is increasingly finding fulfilment now. The inclusion of daughters with sons, young men with old men (2:17), slave girls with male slaves (2:18), emphasises the removal of barriers of age, sex and class in the new age of the Spirit.

THOUGHT: What are the last days? The lasting effect of this outpouring is the widespread bestowal of the gift of prophecy—declaring the mind of God in the power of the Spirit. Moses’ prayer is thus well on the way to being answered: Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them! (Numbers 11:29).

2:22-36

WE ALL ARE WITNESSES

After the introduction, Peter’s address consists of four recurring features of the apostolic preaching:

1   The story of Jesus is told.

2   The fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy is stressed.

3   The note of personal witness is struck.

4   The hearers are urged to repent and believe.

The story of Jesus is severely compressed (2:22-24). The actual preaching would have included samples of the mighty works and wonders and signs (2:22), such as are recorded in the Gospels (especially the Gospel of Mark, which traditionally goes back to the preaching of Peter). The lawless men of verse 23 are the Romans, people living outside the Jewish law (see Romans 2:14). (Of course law played a large part in Roman civilisation, but the New Testament writers are concerned with the law of God and its place in the history of salvation.)

The outline of the story of Jesus would have been known to many of Peter’s hearers; what they did not know was that God had raised Jesus from the dead (2:24). Peter and his companions could bear witness that this was so. They had all seen him alive again. And this resurrection proved him to be the Messiah, the Son of God. In Psalm 16:10 David had said that his soul would not be abandoned to Hades (the abode of the dead) and that his body would not be allowed to undergo corruption. But David had been dead for a thousand years; his tomb could still be pointed out near Jerusalem. Therefore David’s words, Peter argued, did not refer to himself. By the Spirit of prophecy he had spoken of the coming Messiah. Of no one else had those words come true; they had indeed come true in the case of Jesus.

Not only so, but in another psalm (Psalm 110:1) David, still speaking by prophecy of the same person and calling him my Lord (compare Luke 20:41-44), described his being invited by God to sit at his right hand until his enemies were subdued beneath his feet (2:34, 35). Jesus is not only risen from the dead but exalted to supreme glory (which is what the words right hand of God imply). From that exaltation he has now sent down his Spirit, as he had promised. The coming of the Spirit was evidence that Jesus had been vindicated by God. Therefore an appeal is addressed to the hearers, and to all the house of Israel (2:36), to acknowledge that God has made the crucified Jesus "both Lord and