Acts 1 explained: Jesus Leaves and the Twelve Regroup

A sequel begins (vv. 1-5)

This book continues the Gospel of Luke and is written to the same reader, Theophilus, a man we know nothing else about. The risen Jesus meets his followers over forty days and tells them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, meaning God's own presence and power, which he compares to being plunged in water.

The question about Israel (vv. 6-8)

They ask if Jesus will now restore the kingdom to Israel, and he says the timing belongs to God alone, without directly correcting the hope itself; how much their expectations had already changed is hard to say. He then gives them a task that also outlines the whole book: tell what they have seen in Jerusalem, then the nearby regions of Judea and Samaria, then the ends of the earth.

Taken up into a cloud (vv. 9-11)

Jesus is lifted up while they watch, and a cloud hides him, a frequent biblical sign that God is present. Two men in white, understood as angels, ask why they keep staring at the sky and say Jesus will come back the same way.

Waiting together in prayer (vv. 12-14)

They walk back from the Mount of Olives, a short distance that Jewish custom allowed on the weekly day of rest. The eleven remaining apostles pray together with several women, Jesus' mother Mary, and his brothers, who according to John's Gospel had earlier not believed in him.

What happened to Judas (vv. 15-20)

Peter tells about 120 believers that Judas, who led the arresting party to Jesus, fulfilled lines from two psalms, and the writer adds a graphic account of his death in a field later called Akeldama, meaning Field of Blood. Matthew's Gospel describes Judas hanging himself, and readers have long differed on how exactly the two accounts fit together.

Matthias replaces Judas (vv. 21-26)

The replacement had to be someone who had been with Jesus from the start and could personally vouch that he rose from death. They pray and then draw lots, a common ancient way of leaving a choice to God, and the group is back to twelve, which many read as echoing Israel's twelve tribes.

Key verse: Acts 1:8

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether Jesus' reply in verses 6 to 8 leaves room for a future restoration of an earthly kingdom for Israel or redirects that hope into a worldwide spiritual mission.

Something to think about

When someone who started something important is suddenly gone, what does it take for the people left behind to carry it on?