Introduction
Luke picks up the story of the early church much where he left off at the end of his gospel. In Acts 1:1-3, he addresses the letter to Theophilus telling him that his gospel declared all that Jesus had done and taught while on earth, continuing in Acts to the ascension. Luke and the other gospel authors declared that Jesus had been seen after His death.
Here, Luke gives more information, saying that in the first 40 day portion of the time between the resurrection and Pentecost celebration to come, Jesus had instructed all the disciples further in what the kingdom of God was and was to be. This book of Acts records the creation and early spread of what we refer to as Christianity today.
Command to Wait
In Acts 1:4-5, Christ gives His command that they not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father to be fulfilled in each of them that He had mentioned. He reminded them that the work of John the Baptist was to baptize in water and to repent. The baptism He was to provide was to be in the Holy Spirit and would occur in just a few more days.
His command to not leave Jerusalem was interesting. There could have been two opposing reasons for giving this. First, He knew that He was about to ascend to heaven. They had thought they had lost Him just a few weeks before when He was crucified. He knew that his ascension would lead some to feel just as forsaken in spirit when they watched that happen. He knew that human nature might cause them to drift away after seeing Him leave again. So He commanded them to stay.
I suspect that there were a few of them who were on the opposite end of the spectrum as well and were ready to go out and preach the gospel everywhere trying to start the church on their own. He also had to restrain this group from starting before they were fully prepared.
If they hadn't obeyed, would God have still sent the baptism to them? I suspect that God's plan for the Holy Spirit to be sent would have happened in either case. But the reality is that if it had been poured out this first time in many different locations at once, it would not have had the impact on Jerusalem that having the Holy Spirit poured out on the 120 did.
Desire for Freedom from Rome
Once again, the desire of some of the disciples was manifested. In Acts 1:6-8, the group was gathered together again and they asked Jesus when the kingdom of Israel was going to be reestablished. They were tired of Roman rule and really wanted to be restored to their position of previous glory that was spoken of in the books of history they studied in their previous Jewish faith. After all, Christ had just proven that the Romans couldn't kill Him. Why shouldn't He overthrow the Roman government and set up His kingdom immediately.
Jesus replied that the Father was the one who would decide when the kingdom should be established and that it wasn't for them to know. I'm pretty sure that if they had known that 1,913+ years would elapse between their time and the setting up of the kingdom, they would have thrown in the towel and the church would never have gotten off the ground. At the very least, many of the 120 would have probably left right away. There's a pretty wide range of possible dates for when Acts was written so I fudged my numbers a bit.
It is sad to think that, but when expectations are dashed, people rebel against God. How many of you have gone through a patch in your life when something you really wanted to happen didn't, and you maybe didn't blame God, but also didn't want to do anything to further His work because of your feelings of loss? I'll bet most of us have had a patch like that if we are honest. We busy ourselves with other things when we get discouraged.
Jesus didn't let that happen. He gave them a new purpose, telling them that when the Holy Ghost was distributed to them, they would receive power and that they would be witnesses both in their home community, their surrounding area, and eventually to foreign lands, eventually reaching the entire world. Note that it is not the power to witness. It is both power to be a Christian as Jesus walked out His life, and a new job -- to witness.
The disciples had already had a taste of this power when Jesus commissioned them to go and preach two by two. Now Jesus asks them to wait for the full baptism in the Spirit to power their ministry as they go about the task of preaching the good news of Jesus.
Ascension to Heaven
Acts 1:9-12 records Jesus ascension to heaven. After Jesus had given this promise and new direction to follow in verse eight, as they watched, He went up to heaven and was eventually hidden by clouds.
Two angels appeared on the ground after that. They were near the disciples and had to ask them why they were standing there with their jaws hanging down staring up in the sky? I paraphrased a bit, but I bet that would have been the reaction of most people to seeing someone rise up into the sky under their own power.
The angels declared that Jesus, who just went up to heaven, would come again as they had seen him go. They also didn't give a time frame as it wasn't their place to know the timing of the Father either. But they gave two witnesses to the truth of what had just been spoken of and the disciples had seen. The disciples then gathered up their things and took the day's journey from Mount Olivet where the ascension occurred back to Jerusalem.
There were many events during Jesus' time on earth that would have been awesome to see. All we can do is read the words and picture what happened. What would it have been like if there would have been video of Christ's life, but also the knowledge that there was no technology available to do special effects and that everything you were seeing with your own eyes was actually happening.
The ability to create any visual experience that we want, more or less, has been getting better and better with each passing generation. Now, people create entire short movies with artificial intelligence that can look very real. I'm sure that is all part of Satan's plan to prevent visual evidence of God doing great things from being believed today if broadcast. It is still impossible to discount such events completely when eyewitness accounts spread directly from observer to you. You may not believe the report, but you must at least believe or acknowledge that the person describing what happened believes it.
We are called to have faith. It is also both a fruit and a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is necessary to activate God's grace for by grace are we saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8). The command to witness is just as real today as it was back then. The need for the power to execute the gifts of the Spirit and to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit is also just as important today as it was back then.
God still wants to work in His church. His promises are still real. Will you do His bidding? Will you seek that baptism in the Holy Spirit? Will you witness about the great things you have seen God do or be used by the Spirit to do great things? The need is just as great today as it was then.
We may be cursed with a medium that makes most of the world believe that something has been faked. But as God works all around the world, more are forced to believe that it couldn't all be faked. If they hear of and can go see God working locally, it is a compelling reality that they must make a choice to accept or reject. We all need to pray to be used of God today and not just stand with our jaws open at what happened a long time ago. God still wants to work just as He did in the recorded New Testament. And when He does, jaws will drop just as quickly today as then. Be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
Selection of Matthias
In the last portion of the first chapter (Acts 1:13-26) the intervening period is described after the ascension but before Pentecost. They continued in an upper room praying in one accord. It simply isn't possible for all the Christians of the world to pray for the same thing at the same time and place today. There are simply too many Christians to gather in one place. But it would be wonderful if we could all be united in purpose.
Peter decided that to round the number of disciples back out to 12, they needed to appoint another disciple to replace Judas who had committed suicide. They wanted a person who had been with them for a long time, and the number of candidates was ultimately reduced to two Joseph Justus and Matthias.
The lots were drawn and Matthias was chosen to be numbered as one of the 12 apostles.