Acts 1:1-14

Beginning Afresh

Acts 1:1-14

Luke informs Theophilus (the name means “a lover of God”) that his Gospel told the story of what the Lord began to do and teach. Evidently this further book is a continuation of His deeds and words. It ought to be called “The Acts of the Ascended Christ.” The Gospel tells of what Jesus did through a mortal body; and this book what He did through the Church, which is His body, “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

” Here we learn that the time between the Resurrection and the Ascension was forty days; that our Lord issued commandments, no doubt about the ordering of the Church; and that He spoke with the Apostles of the coming kingdom of God-that ideal society which is God's great objective through the ages. It would not be established by the sword of the soldier, but by the witness-bearing of the evangelist, Acts 1:8.

Then the Lord rose before their eyes, and passed within a cloud, which dropped like a curtain before Him. He passed into heaven, Hebrews 9:24, to make intercession, to guide the course of His Church, and to sit at the right hand of the Father till His enemies should be made His footstool.