Acts chapter 1

vs 1-2

This book obviously flows on from the book of Luke, which I did not that long ago. Notice the wording - the former book was about what Jesus 'began' to do and teach. In that way, the name of the book "Acts of the Apostles" is somewhat misleading. It is really the continuing acts of Jesus after his ascension into heaven. Which sounds weird, but then, the book is weird.

Get used to the Holy Spirit doing things that are not explained. Jesus uses it to give instructions to the apostles. How? Perhaps this first narrative explains it, perhaps it's not explained. Acts is full of Holy Spirit-ness, but little explaination.

vs 3

None of the gospels give us this information about 40 days. It's incredible that they did not find this newsworthy. But there it is.

vs 4

It turns out there was quite a body of teaching post-resurrection that we have little access to. We see little snippets of it, as they are relevant to the narrative. Including this instruction for the apostles to stay in Jerusalem.

vs 5

What exactly did that mean? Did Jesus explain it? If he did, why didn't Luke write the explaination down? I think, partly, that the book of Acts is an explaination of what this means.

vs 6

So much of the book of Acts has a different flavour, and different heroes, than the gospel did. But this is an impressive return to form for the apostles - they are still, after all this time, looking for a renewal of a physical kingdom to Israel.

vs 7

Some people read this as an affirmation that Jesus is going to give Israel an earthly kingdom again, because it doesn't say that Jesus won't do it, rather that it's not for them to know when.

vs 8

However, others read in the light of this verse, and say that Jesus is saying that Israel's kingdom is not the issue - that being a light to the world, being apostles (as they are named earlier) is the key message of Acts, and of Jesus here. I think I'm swayed by the second one - Jesus is concerned with a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one.

vs 9

People question why Jesus had to 'ascend' when we now know that heaven is not really 'up'. My guess is that it's as symbolic as anything Jesus did - where else was he supposed to go to show he was going to heaven? I mean, he wasn't going to get there physically no matter what.

vs 10

You can imagine this group of guys staring up into the sky being interrupted by a couple of angels.

vs 11

Would any of them see it though? Apparently not. The point for them being, of course, that they have better things to do than stare at the sky. They've been given work to do.

vs 12

Does that mean it was the Sabbath when Jesus flew into the clouds? Is it allowed to fly on the Sabbath? How far is a Sabbath day's fly - would it take you all the way to heaven?

Anyway, all this happened outside Jerusalem - now they return.

vs 13

That's eleven. They make up the super team that we always hear about.