Acts 1:3, commentary and pictures

After His suffering and death Jesus truly rose and showed Himself alive to the disciples and apostles He had chosen, giving many convincing, infallible proofs by being repeatedly seen by them for forty days before ascending to His Father. The proofs included appearing often and at different times, performing miracles among them, explaining the Scriptures, being recognized by the marks of crucifixion as the same Christ who had been crucified, and the strong testimony of those He raised from their graves who appeared to many in Jerusalem. During those forty days, though not continually visible, He spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, opening their understanding with joy about its realities and showing that the prophecies of His rejection, suffering, death and resurrection were fulfilled in His sacrifice for sin and in His future work as High Priest. That teaching prepared them for their work and led directly into His commission to preach repentance and forgiveness through Him to all the world, and His command to remain in Jerusalem until baptized with the Holy Spirit to receive power to be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. His resurrection proved Him to be the divine Son of God and Redeemer, triumphant over Satan and the powers of death with promise to finally raise all the dead, and provides the sure foundation and instruction for the Christian church and its mission.

Proved Alive After Suffering

After His suffering and death Jesus truly rose and showed Himself alive to the disciples and apostles He had chosen, giving many convincing, infallible proofs by being repeatedly seen by them over forty days. He did not remain continually visible but often revealed Himself, appearing to them at different times and in different places. These appearances together with the testimony of others helped establish the truth of His resurrection.

The proofs included His appearing among people and performing miracles, explaining the Scriptures on the road to show that prophecy had foretold His suffering, and being made known by the marks of crucifixion as the same Christ who had been crucified. “Many infallible proofs” includes also the strong attestations of those He brought from their graves, who appeared to many in Jerusalem and testified that Christ had risen and that they had risen with Him. The evidence that He was alive was too convincing to doubt, so that even the opponents of Christ and the apostles could only believe it, although they refused to acknowledge it or to honestly doubt it.

Yet this certainty did not soften their hearts nor smite their consciences for putting Him to death, and did not make them repent, while their bitterness and malice were unchanged. His resurrection substantiated His claim to be the divine Son of God and the Redeemer of the fallen race, and showed His triumph over Satan and the powers of death. His death and resurrection also mean that He will finally raise all the dead from their graves.

Forty Days With Disciples

The risen Jesus remained on earth with His disciples for forty days after His resurrection, in His risen body, before ascending to His Father. He had risen from the dead and stayed to instruct them about the kingdom of God and give them much instruction to get them ready for His departure. During those forty days He was not continually visible but often revealed Himself, appearing to them at different times. In that time He tenderly cared for them while He instructed them and prepared them to understand His future work.

His death on the cross had caused the disciples bitterest disappointment. Though they heard reports of His resurrection, they struggled to believe them until He revealed Himself to them. The forty days proved He was a living Saviour, so the disciples no longer had to associate Him with the tomb of Joseph but could think of Him as glorified amid the heavenly host. By the end of the forty days He was ready for the farewell.

At His ascension He was escorted by a multitude or myriad of angels and led the resurrected captives with Him. His resurrection and ascension established His formerly unbelieving brothers in faith.

Teaching About God's Kingdom

For forty days the risen One spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, opening their understanding more fully to its realities and filling them with joy and gladness. He remained with them through those forty days before His ascension, instructing them concerning the kingdom. During that time He gave many convincing proofs that He was alive after suffering, appearing repeatedly and being seen by them.

He was preparing them for their work by explaining the Scriptures, showing that the prophecies of His coming, rejection, suffering, death, and resurrection had been fulfilled. On the road He opened from Scripture how suffering had been foretold, and the marks of crucifixion made Him known as the same Christ who had been crucified. That fulfillment assured them of divine power for their future work, and they came to understand their witness and mission to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins through the Saviour to the world.

He taught them about His suffering, death, resurrection, and sacrifice for sin, that He had made a sacrifice for sin and all who would come to Him might find life. The Holy Spirit opened their understanding to see that His death fulfilled the sacrificial system, for He was the one great offering for the world's sin and the sacrifices that pointed to Him had fulfilled their purpose. He instructed them concerning their future work and prepared them to understand His future work as High Priest who can feel their weaknesses, appearing though not continually visible to fit them for what lay ahead. As He had overcome temptation, trial, and suffering and gained victory, so they could overcome.

He assured them that God would protect them and confirm their gospel message until their mission was complete. He gave them power to work miracles and promised to send His angels to deliver them from time to time, so that though persecuted their lives could not be taken until their work was finished, after which they might have to seal their testimony with their blood. He tenderly cared for them even while warning them with tender faithfulness that they would be persecuted and distressed, yet they would find relief in recalling their experience and His words. He told them He had overcome Satan's temptations so that Satan had no more power over Him, but Satan would turn his temptations more directly against them and all who believe.

His teaching convinced them that He is the Saviour of the world. Though they sorrowed at parting from Him, He warmed them with the promise to go and prepare mansions for them and to come again to receive them to be ever with Him. He joined to this the promise to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to guide them into all truth, before He lifted His hands and blessed them. As their teacher He presented truth in its exalted, holy character, ever exalting the moral law as the elevated standard of righteousness and dwelling much on the relation human beings bear to God and to each other in love.

After rising He gave them precious instruction laying down the principles underlying the higher education. That higher education is learning Christ's teachings and following them in life.

Commission Spirit and Ascension

Before His ascension He gave them their commission to preach the gospel throughout the world. They were to testify from what they had seen and heard about His sufferings, death and resurrection, that He had made a sacrifice for sin. Their mission was to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins through the Saviour to the world, promising life to all who would come to Him. This forty-day work of remaining with them, opening their understanding and explaining the fulfilled prophecies of His coming, rejection, death and resurrection, assured them of divine power for their future work. It led directly into His command not to leave Jerusalem but to remain there until the promise of the Father came and they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they would receive power to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth before He was taken up from their sight.

Their waiting and prayer prepared them for a public demonstration that Jesus had ascended to heaven, especially before the Jews and others gathered there, and afterward persecution scattered them to proclaim Christ in new places. Together with the Pentecost outpouring when all were filled with the Holy Spirit and devout people from every nation heard the wonderful works of God each in his own language, this shows a mighty power at work in the world with heaven cooperating with those who do the Lord's work to carry truth to people of all countries and speeches in the last days. Before Pentecost the disciples came to God in simple faith, true humility, firm dependence, and full surrender, asking Him for what they needed, and this way of coming is the condition for God to cooperate fully with His people. Having spoken with Jesus after His resurrection gave them firsthand testimony that He was alive, which countered false reports about His resurrection and equipped them to bear witness boldly to Christ, including before the crowds gathered in Jerusalem. Their joy at His departure rested on the promise of His return and the Spirit's coming, and having seen the risen Saviour filled them with gladness and triumph rather than sorrow over disappointed hopes as they kept His parting promise in mind. Before leaving He tenderly assured them He would continue to be with them in their gospel ministry, confirming the message they proclaimed.

Assurance for Faith and Mission

The record of these forty days when Jesus showed Himself alive after suffering and spoke of the kingdom of God lays a sure foundation for the Christian church and gives instruction for His disciples. That time spent meeting with them confirmed to them that He was the Son of God and that His life, ministry, and teachings were true. The lessons He gave just before His ascension hold instruction that people and God's people need, and the instruction in the Bible can be understood by all. When His commission is read it reaches hearts and thrills hearers through and through.

Taken together with His commission, the promise of the Holy Spirit, and the message of the angels to the waiting disciples, and joined to John 14:1, Let not your heart be troubled, it teaches the need to be educated to believe the Word of God. That education must show faith by works, for this is practical godliness. It belongs to the history of the early church during and immediately after Pentecost that those who desire to be refreshed in mind and instructed in the truth should study, studying carefully in Acts the experiences of Paul and the other apostles, because God's people in the present day must pass through similar experiences.