Luke 24:49

Luke 24:49. I send forth. So our Lord speaks in John 15:26; John 16:7 and Peter (Acts 2:33) ascribes the gift of the Holy Ghost to the exalted Saviour. ‘Ye, on the earth, give testimony; and I, from heaven, give you power to do so' (Godet).

The promise of my Father upon you. This means the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:4-5). The same passage indicates that ‘the promise' is not the general one of prophecy, but such specific ones as John 14:16; John 14:26. Notice the sending of the Holy Ghost is ascribed both to the Father and the Son.

But tarry ye in the city. A quiet, retired waiting is meant. Evidently this was spoken after the return from Galilee, especially as the next verse is so closely connected with it.

Until. Acts 1:5: ‘not many days hence.

Ye be clothed. The figure is the common one of being clothed as with a garment, here applied to spiritual relations, as in Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:12. An abiding, characterizing influence is meant.

With power from on high. This power was not the Holy Spirit, but the direct result of His coming upon them, as is evident from Acts 1:8. Comparing this verse with John 20:22, we find in the latter a symbolical act, prophetic of the Pentecostal outpouring, and yet attended by an actual communication of the Spirit preliminary to the later and fuller one (at Pentecost) which was preeminently ‘the promise of the Father.'