Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called [the mount] of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath-day's journey off.
Luke ends his account of the ascension with a short walk back down the hill into Jerusalem. He notes how far it was and names the hill they left — and both say more than the distance suggests.
The hill they walk down from is not just scenery. It ties together the Lord's past, His going, and His return.
It was from the mount of Olives that Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1:12) and when He returns He shall stand with His feet upon that same mountain (Zech. 14:4). How sacred, then, are the scenes that Olivet brings before us! They are tied to the sorrows of the Son of God, to His teachings, to His communion with His Father, to His going into heaven, and to His coming again.
Luke's Gospel places the parting near Bethany; Acts names Olivet. One writer shows how both can be true.
It seems the Lord ascended to heaven from a low part of the mount, near to Bethany (Luke 24:50; Acts 1:12).
Luke measures the walk by a Jewish rule — the limit a man might travel on the Sabbath. That detail, with the casting of lots later in the chapter, marks where these disciples stood.
The Sabbath day's journey, the lots, and all the details show plainly where the disciples stood, and the mind of the Holy Spirit about this step. They act with understanding of the word of the Old Testament, but the Spirit had not yet come. It is important for us to see the difference. The Spirit now gives understanding (1 Cor. 2:14), but understanding by itself is not power.
One writer looks at the two ends of that walk, and then at the size of the group making it.
They return from the mount of Olives to Jerusalem. Olivet is the source of their power; Jerusalem is the place of their work. They break no Sabbath rest by walking between the two... they are a small company for so great a work, and realize their weakness... This felt weakness is a main element of strength. The work is so far beyond them that they never have to add up their own resources. They are left with a clear view of God as their only plea and all the resource they need.
He had gone outside Jerusalem to bless them. Yet they walk straight back in — and not in grief.
Bethany had been the place the Lord went to as Man... There, before He went on high, He gave His parting blessing; divine in its effect, it was human in its form, and order, and affection. Moreover, this must not be in Jerusalem; He could not bless there now... He, the Lord who had loved it, must leave Jerusalem to bless... They returned with great joy, filled with the new thought that their Master was victorious, glorified, exalted.
Back in the city, they had to wait. Waiting is a very ordinary kind of test.
He had given them two commands: "Love one another," and "Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Fallen nature cannot wait. It is impatient, because it distrusts God. The Israelites could not wait for Moses to come down from the mountain; King Saul could not wait for Samuel to come. These disciples were tested at this very point. The Lord said "Wait." So they gathered in Jerusalem in submission to Him, bound together by divine love, and waited as He had said.
- The place. Olivet holds His sorrow, His teaching, His prayers, His departure. His feet will stand there again when He returns.
- The measure. A Sabbath day's journey dates them. They had understanding from the Scriptures, but not yet the power of the Spirit. The two are not the same.
- The weakness. Olivet was their source of power, Jerusalem their field of work. The task was far beyond them, so they had nothing to count on but God.
- The joy. He went outside the city to bless them. They walked back in with joy, because their Master was now victorious and exalted.
- The waiting. He said stay, and they stayed. Impatience distrusts God. Their patience was love keeping His word until the promise came.
And when they were come into [the city], they went up to the upper chamber, where were staying both Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James [son] of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Jude [the brother] of James.
The eleven walk back from the mount of Olives into the city and go up to the room where they are staying. Then every man in that room is named. This short verse holds the last roll-call of the apostles in the Bible. It raises two questions: why this room, and why these names?
The group in that room was small, and the work ahead of them was huge. One writer sees their sense of weakness as the very thing that made them strong.
They return from the mount of Olives to Jerusalem. Olivet is the source of their power; Jerusalem is the place of their work... They are a small company for such a great work, and they know their weakness. They gather in the upper room where the eleven are staying, and they keep praying together with one mind, waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. Knowing their weakness is a main part of their strength. The work is so far beyond them that they are freed from having to count up their own resources. Nothing blocks their view of God, who is their only argument and all the resource they need.
Some have said this upper room was a chamber inside the temple. One writer rejects that idea, then refuses to guess where Scripture is silent.
The idea that the upper room was in the temple is Dr. Hammond's dream... The temple is the last place where the disciples could have had such a room. It was surely in a private house where they were staying at the time. Was it that large furnished upper room where the Lord sat down to eat the last Passover? We do not know. It does not matter for God's purpose either; if it did, we would have been told.
The verse says they were staying there. That was their home for the time, and it tells us something about the room's size.
Returning to Jerusalem, they gather in a room upstairs. It was clearly a large room, since 120 people could be there at once, and eleven could live there during their stay in Jerusalem.
One writer asks how these men were feeling, now that they were back in that room.
Were they discouraged? There is no trace of it, though by now they must have realised their orphan state (John 14:18); for the Lord had gone, and the Holy Spirit had not yet come.
One writer notes two things here. The order differs from the lists in the Gospels, and this is the last time Scripture names the apostles one by one.
Here the apostles are listed one by one for the last time, though in an order that differs from the lists in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke (Matt. 10; Mark 3; Luke 4). Only one Judas now counted in the apostolic company. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus... but Luke, both in his Gospel and here in Acts, calls him Judas of James.
Is this Judas the son of James or his brother? The Greek can be read either way, and commentators differ. The same writer weighs it up, then points to why the whole list is here.
Some say the word brother should be supplied, as the King James Version does; others say son should be understood, as the Revised Version does. Neither reading goes against the way the language works. We do know of Jude, who calls himself the brother of James and wrote the letter that carries his name. If this Judas is the son of some James, it is a James completely unknown to us, and we would expect something to identify him. Since we have nothing, brother seems more likely than son... We would just add that the list of the Eleven given here has a point. It shows the fulfilment of the Lord's words, "Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one" (John 18:9).
Two men in the list are called Simon. The second carries a label taken from the politics of the day.
Simon. Matthew and Mark mark him off from Simon Peter by calling him the Cananean, and Luke calls him the Zealot. The first name is the Hebrew one (it does not mean a man from Canaan). The second is the Greek name for a Jewish party that held violent religious and political views and was hostile to the Romans. Nothing else is recorded about this apostle in particular.
Earlier these same men had argued over who was greatest. One writer sees that argument gone by the time we reach this room.
It is beautiful to see that from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus onward, the struggle over who was greatest among the disciples was gone. After the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus in Acts 1, we find the apostles together.
- Kept — the roll-call of eleven names shows the Lord kept His word: of those given Him, He lost not one.
- Small — eleven men faced a task far beyond them. Knowing their weakness left them nothing to count on but God, and that was their strength.
- Hidden — they met in a private upstairs room, not in the temple. It was large enough for 120, yet it was only a house.
- United — the old fight over who was greatest was gone. What is left is togetherness.
- Last — this is the final list of the apostles in Scripture. The order has changed, and only one Judas is left to name.
These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer, with [several] women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
After the ascension, a small group went back to Jerusalem and stayed together in an upper room to wait for what Jesus had promised. What they did while they waited, and who was in the room, is the weight of this verse.
These disciples kept praying day after day. One writer sets out what they had already seen, and what they were still waiting for.
So these saints spent their time in continual dependence on God. They had been the chosen witnesses of the Word of life, as He had shown Himself here below. In Himself the Son had shown them the Father. And now they were waiting for that divine person, who was to be in them as well as with them. The Lord had prepared them for it: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper." So now they all give themselves up with one mind to persevering prayer.
Seen from the outside, their cause looked hopeless. One writer puts the questions they faced.
Robbed of the Master's company, what could they do? Was the movement begun during His life now going to collapse?… Could they, a little band and feeble in themselves, hold their ground against the ruling authorities and hostile crowds?… To the natural man their cause was not a promising one. But they had a hope the Jews knew nothing of. They were sure that the God of their fathers had not abandoned them. So they kept praying while they waited for their hope to come true. They knew work lay ahead of them, when the time came to begin it.
They already had the Lord's word that the Spirit would come. That certainty is exactly why they prayed.
They were waiting, according to our Lord's instructions, for the promise of the Father — the gift of the Holy Spirit. They had the sure word of promise. The Helper would certainly come. That promise did not make prayer unnecessary. It was the very ground on which they prayed, and prayed with blessing. They prayed; they prayed in one place; they prayed with one accord. They were completely agreed. They all, without exception, had one definite object before their hearts.
That agreement is held up as a measure for prayer meetings ever since.
Why are our meetings for prayer often so poor, cold, dead, and powerless? Is it not often because believers fail to come together with one accord and with definite agreement in prayer for certain things?
The chapter closes on a company that understood much but could not yet act in power.
The disciples return to Jerusalem, and live there together in an upper room… But the effect of the promise of the Father is only found in chapter 2… They did not have the power of the Spirit, but they had understanding of the word. Their standing was in relation to Christ raised from the dead, so the divine light given to them after His resurrection had enlightened them.
Women were part of this praying group. One writer sets their place here against the place given them elsewhere.
Believing women were with them. How different their place is from the place Jews, or later Muslims, gave them! It is just as different from the flattery or superstition of the Middle Ages, even when nominal Christianity spread across the West… And one of them is named here: the very one to whom sinful folly would later bow down in worship — worship claimed to be lower than that given to the Son or the Father, yet in practice more absorbing than either.
Scripture speaks of Mary here for the last time. It puts her among the others, not above them.
Only one history of what followed our Lord's departure to heaven is sure and God-inspired. This is its first mention of Mary. She had been highly favoured, blessed among women, and all generations from then on call her blessed. Yet she was there in all lowliness of mind with the other women, as the apostles were with them all, waiting on God for the gift of the Holy Spirit… And it is the last mention of Mary.
The Lord's brothers were praying in that room too. One writer names them and marks the change in them.
James and Jude were two of the Lord's brothers. Simon and Joses were two others… They were unconverted the whole time the Lord was on earth. But it is clear they were converted after the Lord died and rose. So there they were with Mary their mother, and the eleven, all living together, given up to prayer, and waiting for the promise of the Father… And it is very beautiful to see that God broke them down by the very thing that might have stumbled them for ever. The crucifying of the Lord might have stopped them altogether. Instead God used it, and the Lord's resurrection, to wake their souls and bring them in.
- Waiting — They obeyed the Lord's instructions and waited, filling the days with prayer. The work would come when the power came.
- Certainty — A guaranteed promise did not remove prayer; it gave prayer its object.
- Agreement — One accord meant one definite object, held by every person in the room, without exception.
- Company — Apostles, women, Mary and the Lord's brothers pray side by side. Mary appears here for the last time, among the rest, not above them.
- Change — The cross and resurrection broke down brothers who had not believed. Now they wait for the same gift as the apostles.