Golden Text: — “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”—Acts 1:8. Read Acts 1:14.
Reading on the New Testament Lesson
1, 2. “All that Jesus began both to do and teach.” Thus Luke speaks of the things which he, by the Spirit, had written in his gospel. This book gives an account of the things which Jesus continued to do and teach by His Spirit through His disciples, and He is still doing and teaching by the same Spirit through His willing ones.
3. “Being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” At least ten or twelve times between His resurrection from the dead and His visible ascension He appeared to individuals or companies of His disciples, and it would seem that He was always speaking about the things of the kingdom of God.
4, 5. “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Although they had been with Him almost constantly for two or three years, the greatest and best teacher that ever lived—for “who teacheth like Him?” (Job 36:22)—they were not qualified to go forth as His witnesses till specially endued, as it is written in Luke 24:49, “Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.”
6-8. “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” The kingdom which the God of Heaven will set up (Dan. 2:44), God being the Author of it and heaven the character of it, and therefore called in the gospels both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, will be a kingdom under the whole heaven or on the whole earth (Dan. 7:27), with Israel as a righteous nation in their own land as the center, and the whole earth filled with the glory of the Lord (Isa. 60:21: 11:9; 27:6: Rom. 11:15).
9. “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” In Luke 24:50, 51, it is written, “And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them, and it came to pass while He blessed them He was parted from them and carried up into Heaven.”
10, 11. “This same Jesus shall so come in like manner.” It is just possible that the two men in white apparel were the same two who appeared with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, and there spake of His decease which He was about to accomplish. The steadfast, heavenward look of the disciples makes us think of Stephen, and to desire that, like him, we might be able to “look up steadfastly into heaven and see the glory of God and Jesus” (Acts 7:55).
12-14. They returned to Jerusalem from Olivet with great joy, and were continually praising and blessing God (Luke 24:52, 53). What a contrast to their feelings after His death when they, not looking for His resurrection, were filled with sorrow, and He had to rebuke them for their unbelief