Acts 1:4, commentary and pictures

The risen Jesus before His ascension commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to remain there waiting for the promise of the Father they had heard from Him. That promise is the gift and baptism of the Holy Spirit, power from on high to make them His witnesses. It came not many days later at Pentecost after ten days, when the Spirit was poured out in fulness and power and they spoke in other languages. They waited in Jerusalem in united earnest prayer, putting away differences and sin and continuing in one accord until the power came. The same promise belongs to believers and the church now, to be claimed by faith, prayed for, and depended on for power in witness.

Command and Setting

The risen Jesus, assembled together with His disciples and apostles before His ascension, commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to remain there and wait for the promise of the Father which they had heard from Him. That waiting was to continue until the Spirit came upon them, for the promise was the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost, power from on high for witness, to come not many days later. This gives the setting for the work that followed, since those entrusted with a message need heaven's light and the Spirit's direction to carry it forward, and equipped in Jerusalem they were to witness to the ends of the earth. The promise was fulfilled at Pentecost, when the disciples received the Spirit and spoke in other languages.

What they had heard from Him was the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who would remain with them and be in them. It is also called the promise of the Son, the same Holy Spirit who abode in Christ to be imparted to the disciples as the source of their understanding and power. Receiving the Spirit was essential preparation for continuing the work Christ had done and for bearing witness to Him, and the Spirit's power was the evidence that they were His witnesses.

The command is part of Christ's commission and final instructions and lessons given just before His ascension. While gathered with them He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power rather than leave before receiving it. The book of Acts containing it is instruction for believers to receive, study, and pass on, and those lessons contain needed instruction for His people. The commission with the promise of the Holy Spirit to waiting disciples is joined to the angels' message to the waiting disciples, and linked with the word, Let not your heart be troubled, it calls those assembled to be educated to believe the Word of God and to show faith by works in practical godliness.

The disciples were to remain in Jerusalem for a time after the resurrection before going to Galilee. They stayed through Passover week, since absence might have been taken as disaffection and heresy. Gathered in the upper chamber they saw Jesus twice and He told them to wait there a while.

Jerusalem was the fitting place to begin because Christ had suffered and been rejected there, and recent events had stirred the city. The message was to begin there, and the Spirit's coming there would demonstrate to the Jews and others gathered that Jesus had ascended. The disciples had been intimidated about taking their stand for Jesus, and they needed the Spirit's baptism to know their connection with Heaven and to receive courage, joy, and understanding for their work. Their mission was then to proclaim pardon and salvation through repentance and the merits of Christ's death and resurrection, beginning in Jerusalem and spreading outward. The order also teaches that workers should first receive the Spirit's transforming influence themselves and serve their own households before widening their efforts to the neighborhood and farther fields.

Promise Identified and Fulfilled

The promise of the Father is the gift and baptism of the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost, power from on high for witness. After His resurrection Jesus while assembled with the disciples and apostles commanded them to remain in Jerusalem and wait for that promised gift which He had already told them about, and their waiting was to continue until the Spirit came upon them to equip them for witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. It is also called the promise of the Son, for the Holy Spirit who abode in Christ was to be imparted to the disciples and become the source of their understanding and power, and receiving Him was essential preparation for continuing Christ's work and bearing witness to Him with the Spirit's power as the evidence that they were His witnesses. The coming baptism was to take place not many days later.

That short waiting was fulfilled at Pentecost after ten days, when the disciples received the Spirit in large measure with fulness and power. The promise fell upon those assembled like a rushing mighty wind filling the whole house, they spoke in other languages, and Peter then explained what had happened while bearing a weighty testimony that gave evidence of Christ's power and glory. They had believed Christ's promise and prayed together in unity, seeking the Spirit's power not merely for themselves but to bring salvation to people throughout the world, and at the outpouring thousands were converted. The Spirit's coming followed Christ's ascension and glorification, empowering the disciples to witness boldly to Jesus as gospel laborers.

As they prayed for the Holy Spirit, Christ interceded in heaven and claimed the gift so He could pour it out on His people. The Spirit had been waiting for the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the waiting ended at the occasion of Christ's ascension and inauguration. That ascension was a jubilee in heaven when, having ascended on high leading captivity captive, He claimed the gift of the Spirit to pour it out upon His disciples, coming as if restrained for ages but now poured forth upon the church to be communicated to the world.

The gift was left to the disciples as the brightest hope and strongest consolation when Christ ascended to heaven. It meets the need of a time when the truths of God's Word lie buried beneath misinterpretation, with maxims of men and sayings of finite beings exalted above the Word of the living God. Under its enlightening power the apostles separate truth from false theories and give to the people the Word of life. The Holy Spirit is God's gift to enlighten, convert, and sanctify the soul, and in giving Him God gives all gifts in one, a promise to be expected in its fulness with signs following those who believe. The apostolic outpouring was the former rain, and a more abundant latter rain is also promised.

Waiting in Prayer

The disciples obeyed the command by gathering in Jerusalem in the upper room and upper chamber, continuing together with those joined to the apostles, and spending days in prayer and communion before the power and glory of Pentecost came. Their waiting was active, as they gathered to pray to the Father in Jesus' name, praising and blessing God as they awaited the promise, while Christ interceded in heaven and claimed the gift so He could pour it out on His people. Individual preparation came first in that waiting, for their lives had to be permeated and their actions directed by the Spirit before the general outpouring and their work afterward.

Their waiting lasted ten days in united prayer, supplication, praise, and trust in God without fear, rather than hurrying out to preach. They spent those ten days united in prayer and praise waiting for the Holy Ghost to descend, fasting and praying while Christ added His intercession in heaven. The promise was fulfilled after ten days devoted to earnest, united prayer and searching their hearts to remove anything that would hinder it, when at Pentecost they received the Holy Spirit in large measure with power from on high. They put away bitterness, estrangement, and differences so they could pray in unity, and the Spirit then came upon them and filled them with power.

Christ's promise did not make prayer unnecessary; they prayed more earnestly and continued together in one accord as they waited for the promised blessing. Their unity was marked by shared faith and spirit, without speculative theories about how the blessing would come. They set aside their differences and prayed together as they waited, putting away differences, envy, and malice and living in unity and tender love. They put away differences and sins, searched their hearts, drew together in holy fellowship and Christian fellowship, and spent ten days in heart-searching and supplication.

As they waited, they repented of their unbelief, recalled and understood Christ's words more fully, and resolved to confess Him courageously before the world, comforted that they were forgiven. Their waiting included praising and blessing God, and they returned from Olivet with gladness and triumph because they had seen the risen Savior and remembered His parting promise. The promise was still awaiting fulfillment while they met and made provision for the vacant apostolic office. They were taught in this to wait, watch, and pray together with one heart patiently and hopefully, for the answer may come suddenly and with great power, or be delayed for days or weeks and test their faith. God knows how and when to answer, while their part is to come together in humble, earnest faith, and Jesus is ready to act for those who pray and wait as He did for the disciples at Pentecost.

Power for Witness

The waiting was essential preparation for continuing His work, for those entrusted with a message need heaven's light and the Spirit's direction to carry it forward. The same Spirit who abode in Christ was to be imparted to the disciples as the source of their understanding and power, and its power in them was the evidence that they were His witnesses. Its coming would assure them of connection with Heaven, give courage and joy, illuminate their understanding of God's love, and make success in preaching to all nations possible even amid danger, with courage drawn from His resurrection and promise. They were not authorized to preach a single discourse except under the Holy Spirit's influence, and success was promised only as they placed themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness and received power from on high.

Once equipped they were to proclaim pardon, forgiveness, and salvation through repentance and the merits of His death and resurrection. That baptism of the Holy Ghost was soon to come with power for witness from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The witness was to begin in Jerusalem and extend through Judea and Samaria to the whole earth and all nations. Remaining in Jerusalem was only for a time, not to settle there permanently. The power was not for protecting the Jerusalem church in satisfied indifference, which is contrary to God's purpose, but for active service carrying the gospel outward.

It would enable clear proclamation and bring hesitant fearful people to take their stand. The same order teaches that workers must first receive the Spirit's transforming influence themselves and serve their own households before widening efforts to the neighborhood and farther fields. Heaven and heavenly intelligences cooperated with them and gave power and efficiency to their missionary efforts. The Spirit enabled a weighty testimony giving evidence of Christ's power and glory. Thousands were converted as the harvest of His work, with about three thousand joining them in a day.

Call to Wait Today

The promise was not for the first disciples alone but belongs to God's people now, to believers and to the church, to be claimed by faith, prayed for, prepared for, and depended upon to keep them in the truth and to bring light and life. Christ gave this promise great emphasis, and through the Spirit the church was to receive great things, yet it remains too little fulfilled where the Spirit is seldom taught. When claimed by faith the Spirit gives power and effectiveness for spiritual work, enabling the church to present truth with conviction and bring people to God.

The church needs the baptism of the Holy Spirit and should earnestly seek it rather than neglect it. For a church that has received light, seeking while removing needless hindrances brings the Spirit in abundance, and with Him other blessings. Then present truth is given with power and effectiveness and conviction that brings people to God.

Ministers are to be fitted day by day with that baptism before going forth to their labors. The gift is certain because Christ promised it, and it is to be laid hold of by faith. To reach with fullness of faith for fullness of blessing is both privilege and duty, while to go without leaves workers in need of the very blessing they should receive.

The same waiting for the Holy Ghost is essential to the success of the worker today, that truth may go forth with mighty power. No one was authorized to preach a single discourse except under the Holy Spirit's influence, and success comes only as workers place themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness and receive power from on high. Without it there is only sermonizing and theorizing until churches are ready to die, while when the Spirit comes truth becomes a sanctifying power in the receiver.

It is a lesson for setting the work in order: workers are to lay hold of God's promises and under the Holy Spirit's guidance carry forward the neglected work. Believers must come to God in simple faith, humility, and dependence, and when they yield themselves fully He can work with them as their needs require.

The history in Acts, with the experiences of Paul and the other apostles during and immediately after Pentecost, is to be carefully studied by those who desire to be refreshed in mind and instructed in the truth. God's people at present must pass through similar experiences, and those lessons given just before the ascension contain needed instruction.

Their example applies to those preparing people for the Lord's coming to continue in united prayer. Their need to assemble and pray earnestly for the Spirit's descent is a model for seeking God before making weighty decisions. That waiting and prayer lasted ten days.

To tarry in Jerusalem means Battle Creek becomes the Jerusalem for ministers and licentiates gathered there, who must be determined not to leave until endowed with power from on high. Receiving it calls for a new conversion fitting them for labor in their several fields. It calls for faith that grasps the promises, taking God at His Word and believing He will do just as He said.

It commands the unconsecrated and unsanctified not to go to preach but to tarry, to desist from ministry and stay back from God's people until God gives evidence in some way that they are accepted. This includes those whose influence, doings, words, and acts outweigh all the good they might do, who are not thorough in the sacred work and live by subtraction instead of adding to faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and the rest. It includes those who feel no burden and depend on another man's pen and brains for discourses, who must wait on God for knowledge, power, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit through personal prayer and searching and digging in Scripture for truth as for hidden treasure, and not preach on human qualification or endowment from any living man. With strong brethren around them they yet lack moral force and connection with heaven to avoid hurting the cause, and with present plans and surroundings and a companion who is Satan's agent they will make a failure, form a stronger link with the enemy, and hurt the cause.

Waiting produces freedom from all appearance of evil, especially lovesick sentimentalism and a spirit of courtship which God never called workers to. With the burden of the work upon them they fear giving a wrong answer to every inquirer and have no time for dallying. No one is fitted to do God's sacred work for time and eternity without that baptism.

To tarry is to hold still and wait until God gives a better mind and clearer, more sanctified judgment, with wisdom and self-control. This applies to one who acts from an impulsive erratic nature, imagines evil without foundation, and lacks the spirit of wisdom and a sanctified mind. Such a lack proves the absence of a living connection with God.

In the last days the same mighty power is needed for a large work, with heaven cooperating with those who do the Lord's work. Every soul that believes present truth, whatever his country or speech, is to gain an intelligent knowledge of the truths of the third angel's message in order to do an intelligent work for God among people of all languages. This comes by searching the Scriptures, coming into right relation to God, and walking humbly with Him, so understanding of the Word is opened and power to work for God is received.