Acts 1King James Version
Luke's second volume. Jesus appears to the apostles for forty days, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He tells them to wait for the promise of the Father. Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. He is taken up; a cloud receives him out of their sight. Two men in white apparel: this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. They cast lots and Matthias is chosen to replace Judas.
Jesus gives his final instructions to the disciples: wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit. He ascends into heaven while they watch. Two angels appear and promise he will return. The disciples return to the upper room, 120 believers praying together. They cast lots to replace Judas, choosing Matthias to restore the twelve to full number.
The church begins not with preaching but with waiting, and the first order of business is prayerful preparation, not immediate action.
8: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." The whole book is the map of this promise being walked out.
The Mount of Olives sits just east of Jerusalem, the same hill Jesus descended into the city on Palm Sunday and agonized on in Gethsemane. The disciples watched him go up from familiar ground. The upper room tradition points to a large house in Jerusalem's upper city, likely belonging to a wealthy believer. A hundred and twenty people gathered there and prayed. That is where the church started, not with thousands, but with a room full of people who had nowhere else to be.
Jesus, giving final instructions before ascending; the eleven apostles; Mary, the mother of Jesus; the 120 gathered believers; Matthias, chosen to replace Judas.
This chapter is the hinge between Luke's Gospel and Acts, connecting the resurrection appearances to the birth of the church. The geographic outline Jesus gives in verse 8 (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth) structures the entire book. Without this prologue, the rest of Acts has no stated mission.
For when you are between what was and what comes next, standing in the gap, waiting without certainty. The disciples spent ten days in that room, and the text calls that obedience, not delay.
1The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
12Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
13And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
15And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
16Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
17For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
18Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
19And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
20For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
21Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
23And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
25That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
26And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.