Acts 1:1-21

Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven

1 In my former book, 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 and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

5 For John baptized with^[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up 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.”

Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk^[c] from the city.

13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)

16 and said, “Brothers and sisters,^[d] the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.

17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”

18 (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.

19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

20 “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’^[e]and, “ ‘May another take his place of leadership.’^[f]

21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us,

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Acts 1:1-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ACTS

This book, in some copies, is called, "The Acts of the holy Apostles". It contains an history of the ministry and miracles of the apostles of Christ, and is a sort of a journal of their actions, from whence it takes its name. It begins at the ascension of Christ, and reaches to the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul at Rome; and is a history of upwards of thirty years: it gives an account of the first Gospel church at Jerusalem, and of the progress of the Gospel there, and in Judea, by the means of all the apostles, and particularly Peter, the minister of the circumcision, and who also first opened the door of faith to the Gentiles: it shows how the Gospel went forth from Jerusalem, and was spread in the Gentile world, especially by the Apostle Paul, whose companion Luke was, that was the writer of this book; for that it was written by him is very evident from the beginning of it, it being dedicated to the same person his Gospel is, and of which he makes mention; and in the Complutensian edition the book is called, "The Acts of the Apostles of Saint Luke the Evangelist"; and so the title of it in the Syriac version is, "the Book of the Acts: that is, the history of the blessed apostles, which my Lord Luke the Evangelist collected for the saints". It was by him written in the Greek language; and we are told {a}, that there was a version of it into the Hebrew language, and which was laid up in the library of the Jews at Tiberias; and is cited by R. Azarias {b} under the name of twlweph, "the Acts": of the authority of this book there has been no doubt, among the ancients, only Cerinthus the heretic endeavoured to discredit it; and it was not received by another sort of heretics called Severiani, from Severus, a disciple of Tatian {c}. It is a most excellent and useful work, showing the first planting of Christianity, and of Christian churches, both among the Jews and Gentiles; the spread and progress of the Gospel in several parts of the world; what sufferings the apostles endured for the sake of it; and with what patience and courage they bore them; and what success attended them; and is a standing proof and confirmation of the Christian religion.

{a} Epiphan. Contr. Haeres. l. 1. Haeres. 30. {b} Meor Enayim, p. 167. {c} Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 29.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 39

1. Luke 1:1-4
2. Luke 3:23
3. ver 9,11; S Mark 16:19
4. Matthew 28:19,20
5. S Mark 6:30
6. John 13:18; John 15:16,19
7. Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:34,36; John 20:19,26; John 21:1,14; 1 Corinthians 15:5-7
8. S Matthew 3:2
9. Psalms 27:14
10. Luke 24:49; John 14:16; Acts 2:33
11. S Mark 1:4
12. S Mark 1:8
13. Matthew 17:11; Acts 3:21
14. Deuteronomy 29:29; Psalms 102:13; Matthew 24:36
15. Acts 2:1-4
16. S Luke 24:48
17. Acts 8:1-25
18. S Matthew 28:19
19. ver 2; S Mark 16:19
20. Luke 24:4; S John 20:12
21. Acts 2:7
22. S Matthew 16:27
23. Luke 24:52
24. S Matthew 21:1
25. Acts 9:37; Acts 20:8
26. Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16
27. Acts 2:42; Acts 4:24; Acts 6:4; S Luke 18:1; S Romans 1:10
28. Luke 23:49,55
29. S Matthew 12:46
30. Acts 6:3; Acts 11:1,12,29; Acts 14:2; Acts 18:18,27; Acts 21:7; S Acts 22:5; S Romans 7:1
31. ver 20; S Matthew 1:22
32. S Matthew 10:4; John 13:18
33. John 6:70,71
34. ver 25
35. Matthew 26:14,15
36. Matthew 27:3-10
37. S John 5:2
38. Psalms 69:25
39. Psalms 109:8

Footnotes 6

[a]. Or "in"
[b]. Or "in"
[c]. That is, about 5/8 mile or about 1 kilometer
[d]. The Greek word for "brothers and sisters" ("adelphoi" ) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 6:3; 11:29; 12:17; 16:40; 18:18, 27; 21:7, 17; 28:14, 15.
[e]. Psalm 69:25
[f]. Psalm 109:8