Acts 1 — Wait, Then Witness

Today’s Passage: Acts 1

Acts opens as a sequel rather than a fresh start with a new hero. Luke writes again to Theophilus, this time about all that Jesus began to do and to teach, and that word “began” tells you the story is not finished. Over forty days the risen Lord appears to His disciples, teaching them about the kingdom and commanding them to wait, and then, before their eyes, He is taken up until a cloud hides Him from sight. Two angels promise that He will come back the same way He left. The disciples walk back to Jerusalem and give themselves to prayer, and with the Scriptures open before them they fill the empty place among the witnesses. Try not to read this as three separate sermons stacked one upon another. The promise, the mission, and the waiting are all one climb: He goes up, they wait, and then they will speak.

As you read, hold this: The risen Lord is taken up. His people wait, then witness.

Acts 1:1–5 (BSB)

¹ In my first book, O Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach, ² until the day He was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. ³ After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴ And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Luke binds his two books together with one Person: what Jesus began in the Gospel He continues here. The apostles are not freelancers striking out on their own; they receive their instructions through the Holy Spirit from the very One who chose them. The resurrection is no rumor either, but a fact pressed home with many convincing proofs over forty days, and through it all the kingdom of God stays at the center. Then comes a command that must have felt strangely slow: wait. The gift they are to wait for is the Father’s own promise, the Spirit whom John’s baptism in water had only pointed toward, and who will now mark the public life of the church. Waiting here is not idleness but obedience.

Acts 1:6–8 (BSB)

⁶ So when they came together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The question is not a foolish one. The prophets had long spoken of Israel’s hope, and Jesus had been teaching about the kingdom for forty days. It is the timing that remains the Father’s secret. Hear verse 7 the way this house hears it: that He is coming again is settled and closed (Article 9), but exactly when He comes, and which millennial scheme is correct, is not something we close our hand around. This house will not smuggle a timetable into the very verse that forbids one. Jesus turns the disciples’ eyes from the calendar back to the mission. The dynamis (δύναμις) dynamis, pronounced DOO-nah-mis. Strong's G1411, power, ability, might. Dynamis is ability that God gives, not a strength a person works up in himself, and it is always tethered to the mission. “You will receive power,” Jesus says, and in the same breath, “you will be My witnesses.” Pentecost will show this power in bold public speech, and the rest of Acts will show it again in suffering and courage. The power serves the Name of Christ; it was never given to serve the reputation of the messenger. will come, and then they will speak. The map of the whole book is already drawn here: Jerusalem (chapters 1–7), then Judea and Samaria (chapters 8–12), and finally the ends of the earth (chapters 13–28).

Acts 1:9–11 (BSB)

⁹ After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. ¹⁰ They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

The ascension is not some fading away into myth. The disciples watch it happen, and a cloud hides Him from their sight, and heaven now holds Him until He returns the same way He left. The same Jesus who was crucified and raised is the One who now reigns. When the angels gently rebuke the disciples for standing frozen and staring upward, they are teaching that hope is not idleness with the eyes fixed on the sky. Between His going and His coming, the church has work to do: first to wait for the Spirit, and then to witness.

Acts 1:12–14 (BSB)

¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near the city, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³ When they arrived, they went to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴ With one accord they all continued in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Obedience walks back downhill to the city. Luke names the Eleven one by one, and he tells us that the women who had followed Jesus are present as well, with Mary praying among the disciples and the brothers of Jesus, who have now come to faith. Notice that their first posture after the ascension is not to launch a campaign but to wait upon God together.

Acts 1:15–20 (BSB)

¹⁵ In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (a gathering of about a hundred and twenty) and said, ¹⁶ “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷ He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.” ¹⁸ (Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out. ¹⁹ This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) ²⁰ “For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, ‘May another take his position.’

Peter leads by Scripture rather than by force of personality. The fall of Judas is tragic and real, and Luke does not soften the betrayal or blur it out of the picture. The Holy Spirit had spoken through David long before, and so the Scripture had to be fulfilled. Two lines from the Psalms frame both the judgment that fell and the replacement that must follow. The church meets its first crisis with the Bible open.

Acts 1:21–26 (BSB)

²¹ Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²² beginning from John’s baptism until the day Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” ²³ So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. ²⁴ And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen ²⁵ to take up this ministry and apostleship, which Judas abandoned to go to his rightful place.” ²⁶ Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias. So he was added to the eleven apostles.

To be an apostolic witness of the resurrection called for someone who had actually walked the whole way with Jesus, not for someone famous, but for credible testimony reaching from the baptism of John to the ascension. Two qualified men are set forward, and the prayer that follows appeals to the Lord who alone knows every heart. The lot falls to Matthias, and now the circle of the Twelve stands complete and ready. They have waited as they were told. Tomorrow the promise arrives.