We come to the examination of the history itself. Moreover, this begins with the great truth of which we have spoken. The disciples should have been waiting at Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will find, besides, the proof of another precious truth. The Lord, after His resurrection, gave commandments to His disciples by the Holy Spirit (v. 2). We shall not lose the Holy Spirit when we are raised; a simple truth perhaps, but which shows us how great will be our capacity for happiness in that state. Now a great part of our spiritual force is employed in making us walk uprightly in spite of the flesh and the temptations of the enemy; but then neither of these things will have any existence. All the power of the Spirit in us will be employed in making us capable of the infinite happiness in which we will be found. We will rejoice according to the force of the Spirit, as Christ gave commandments by the Spirit to His disciples after His resurrection.
Remark now the intimacy of the Lord with His disciples; He “spake of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (v. 3). Christ was now glorified, but His heart, full of divine love, was not changed, nor was He estranged from His own. When He appeared to Saul He said, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest.” He speaks with Ananias, with authority it is true, but as with a friend. He opens His heart in regard to Saul, when He sends Ananias to speak to him. He was not ashamed to call His disciples on earth His friends; He does not disdain to treat us like friends now. Immense blessing! To think that the Lord of glory is near us, and esteems us as friends and as beloved, and can have compassion likewise on our infirmities.
The disciples still clung to the visible kingdom of the Lord in Israel (v. 6); their hearts were still Jewish. They fully believed that He was raised, but they were looking for the accomplishment of their hopes in the restoration of Israel as a nation by the Saviour, now that He was risen from the grave. The Lord does not tell them that kingdom would not be restored to Israel—contrariwise—but that it did not belong to them to know the times which the Father had put in His own power. The kingdom will be restored to Israel; when is not yet revealed. The Sort of Man will come at an hour when He is not expected. He is now seated at the Father’s right hand until His enemies be made His footstool. Meanwhile He is gathering out His co-heirs, those who are contented to suffer with Him; and by and by caught up in the glory, they will reign with Him. The time then, of the Lord’s return is not revealed. It was not revealed to the disciples, but they would receive, the Lord said, in a few days the power of the Holy Spirit, which should come upon them, and they would be witnesses for Him in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. They were made to be eye-witnesses up to this point of His heavenly glory. The Holy Spirit was then sent by Him (see John 15:26, 2726But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26‑27)). We will find a little later that Saul saw Him in his heavenly glory for the first time, of which he was to be the special witness. Now the Holy Spirit has fully borne witness to this glory, as we shall see in the discourse in the Acts, as also may be seen in the Epistle of Peter and elsewhere.
But here we find before the coming of the Holy Spirit a very remarkable testimony raised by means of angels. The disciples were looking steadfastly towards heaven as Jesus went up. This was very natural. The beloved Saviour lately restored to them in resurrection was again leaving them (at least to all appearance), for heaven, it is true; and this should have strengthened their faith. He had left a promise of the power of the Holy Spirit, which, however, was not yet come, and therefore they still lacked the consciousness and the direction of this power, which was to reveal all the truth. He had gone, and what were they to do? They must wait.
And as their eyes were fixed towards heaven, behold, two men in appearance, but in reality angels, are close beside them, asking them why they were gazing into heaven, and giving them the revelation of His return—a very remarkable fact, since the Lord after the Last Supper had given the disciples to understand that He was going to the Father; and the first comfort He gave them was that He would return and take them to Himself in the Father’s house, where He was going to prepare a place for them; and then He speaks of the presence of the Comforter (John 14).
There He speaks of His coming to introduce His own to be near Himself in the Father’s house; here of His appearing in glory, when He would be seen from the place where He had gone. There He Himself speaks of the special privilege of His own according to the personal affection He had for them: He wished to comfort them; His heart wanted it; He wanted to have them near Him in the very same glory, and that they should see His glory, but specially that where He was there they should be also; here it is His return in glory—He would come in like manner as He went away.
This was the first consolation of the disciples once deprived of His presence. Then another Comforter would be given to remain with them meanwhile down here. But whether it be the declaration on the part of the Lord of His love, or the revelation made by the angels, the first thing in the heart of the Saviour and in the revelation of God is that He will return. Immense is the gift of the Spirit during His ascension and forever! Immense is the nature of the condition in which redemption has placed the assembly of God down here! but its hope and the climax of its joy will be in seeing the Saviour as He is, of being ever with Him, like Him—of seeing and being forever with Him who has loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and of seeing Him face to face. Supreme blessing, too great for us, were it not the fruit of something still greater—the cross and sufferings of the Son of God!
Once this blessed Saviour has done this, and that the Son of God has been made sin for us, and has died as a man upon the cross, nothing is too great; it will be but the fruit of the travail of His soul. He will be satisfied. His love will be satisfied in our happiness and in our being with Himself. Compare also Zeph. 3:1717The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17), where love and glory are inferior to this, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.” The Father will rest in His love, and in the fulfillment of all His counsels for the glory of His Son, showing at the same time in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Such is our expectation. Moreover, the angels speak.
The disciples return to Jerusalem, and there they remain together in an upper room. They continue with one accord in supplications and prayers with the women and with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. But we do not find the effect of the promise of the Father until the second chapter. All we find at the end of the first chapter is connected with a Jewish state of things, that is, with the condition of the disciples before the coming of the Spirit. But they had, however, an understanding which had been opened by the Lord to understand the Word. They had not the power of the Spirit, but they had the understanding of the Word. Still their state was in relationship with Christ raised; they were illuminated by divine light communicated to them after His resurrection.
These verses perfectly agree with Luke 24:44-4844And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48And ye are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:44‑48). Then comes the promise of the Spirit, the fulfillment of which we find in chap. 2. Peter’s well-known energy makes use of the knowledge given him by the Lord in applying Psa. 109 to Judas— “Let another take his office.” They cast lots according to the Jewish custom, leaving the decision in the hands of God. Matthias is chosen and added to the eleven disciples. Verses 13-26 are parenthetical. The Sabbath day’s journey, the lots, and all the circumstances make the actual state of the disciples clear and the thought of the Holy Spirit in this passage. They work with the understanding of the Word of the Old Testament, but the Spirit had not yet come. It is important for us to understand the difference. The Spirit now gives the understanding (1 Cor. 2:1414But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)), but that is not of itself power.
The Lord is faithful to conduct His own in the path of truth! His grace is sufficient, His strength is made perfect in weakness, and besides He always gives us the necessary strength to accomplish His will; but the power of the Spirit is another thing besides. Now we are in a special manner called to follow His word, although we are weak (see what is said to the Church of Philadelphia, Rev. 3). Impossible that Christ fail us in our obedience, and His strength is sufficient for us. Faithful to His word, while in weakness we are looking for Him, we shall be pillars in the temple of His God when the hour of glory shall come. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit dwells in believers sealed with Him by the Father according to His promise.