Acts 1:4-5

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

During the days following the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his apostles on several different occasions. On the one mentioned in Acts 1:4, the Lord may have eaten with the apostles, as the margin of the American Standard Version suggests. Certainly, we know Jesus did eat with his disciples following the resurrection. Luke records one incident in Luke 24:36-43. Peter told those assembled in the house of Cornelius that Jesus ate and drank with certain witnesses following being raised from the dead.

However, what really matters is that he instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until the Father's promise, about which he had told them, came. The promise he refers to is the coming of the Comforter, or Helper (John 14:15-18; John 16:5-15). All the apostles had been baptized by John in water at their repentance, but Jesus told them before many days passed they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; Mark 1:4).