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The Church of Christ founded, as a Church designed for Israel and for the entire human race. (Ch. 1 and 2)
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INTRODUCTION
A reference to the Gospel of Luke, as the first division of the whole work written by him
Act_1:1-3
b. All that Jesus began both to do and teach, as related in the Gospel. Where, however, is the continuation of such “doing and teaching,” as the word began implies, to be found? It may unquestionably at first seem to be Luke’s meaning that he had exhibited the successive acts and teachings of Jesus from the beginning, and had then, as it would be self-evident, continued the narrative to the close of the life of Jesus on earth. Still, he must have had a special reason for attaching weight to the conception of the beginning, and that reason can be the following only:—Luke distinguishes in his mind between the entire work of Jesus on earth, on the one hand, and his action after his ascension to heaven, on the other; he viewed the former as making a beginning or laying a foundation, in such a sense that Jesus himself, in his state of humiliation, began or sketched out the work which, after he had entered into his glory, he completed through the agency of the Apostles (Starke). This view of the word ῆñîáôï (Olshausen, Schneckenburger, Baumgarten) is rejected by others, both as arbitrary in its character, and as ascribing to Luke a [modern] subjective view of the course of history (de Wette, Meyer). The latter are in error, for the entire book of the Acts, from the beginning to the end, presents the following view of the course of the events:—The exalted Lord operated in his Apostles, with them, and for them; thus he continues the work which he had commenced during his life on earth. The first chapter already exhibits “the lot which fell upon Matthias” as a visible sign of a choice made by the Lord, “who knoweth the hearts of all men,” Act_1:24. The outpouring of the Holy Ghost is an act of the exalted Lord, Act_2:33. When Stephen, “being full of the Holy Ghost,” saw “Jesus standing on the right hand of God,” and prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” that prayer was, according to the book before us, one which obtained an answer, for the Lord Jesus stood there, ready to receive him, Act_7:55; Act_7:59. These few instances afford sufficient evidence that those commentators do not obtrude upon the book a subjective view of the course of history, but only give prominence to the conception which really pervades it, when they regard the leadings of the Apostles and of the Church that are related in it, as deeds of the glorified Redeemer, and as the continuation of all that he began during his ministry on earth.
c. All that Jesus did and taught, Luke here says that he has already recorded. He maintains that his account of the life of Jesus is full and complete, without, however, claiming that every incident without exception had been related; such a detailed statement was given neither by the evangelist John (Act_20:30) nor by Luke. Indeed, it would not have been possible, according to Joh_21:25, to relate all the deeds of Jesus without any omissions; neither was such a course necessary, since it is important to the Christian, not so much to know many things or all things, as, rather, to obtain a correct knowledge of all that constitutes revealed truth; that truth is found in the Gospel of Luke, in his Acts, and, in general, in the Word of God.
Act_1:2. a. Until the day in which he was taken up;—at that point of time the Gospel pauses, and the history of the Acts of the Apostles begins. The ascension of Jesus is not only the leading event which is common to both treatises, but it is also the turning-point of both. It was the glorious termination of Christ’s visible walk on earth, and also the beginning, alike momentous and rich in promise, of his invisible presence and his operation on earth. C. H. Rieger says: “The foremost places here assigned to the history of the Ascension to heaven, in order that we may continually remember that all that occurred in the visible world and that is related in this book, originates in the invisible world ‘whither the Lord Jesus is for us entered’ (Heb_6:20). He who desires to understand aright the form which the Church of Christ assumes on earth, must continually bear the ascension of Jesus in mind, and the invisible process by which he took possession of his kingdom, as well as the future manifestation of that kingdom.” The phrase, he was taken up, describes the ascension as an experience of Jesus, that is, as an act of God the Father. At the same time, this term indicates that the event was not so much a local and sensuous exaltation from earth to heaven (although it is originally derived from such impressions made on the senses), as, rather, a spiritual and real event, in so far as Jesus then acquired a higher position and greater power and dignity.
b. The day of the ascension is, however, one of vast importance in the eyes of Luke, not only on account of the exaltation of Jesus, but also on account of the commandments which he then gave to his chosen Apostles. These commandments or commissions constituted the last will of the Lord, and the acts of the apostles, so far as they were really apostolical in their character, were simply the execution of that will. Luke indicates the importance of the latter by employing the words äéὰ ðíåí ́ ìáôïò ἁãßïõ . Many interpreters (among the most recent, Olshausen and de Wette) combine these words with ïí ͂ ò ἐîåëÝîáôï , i.e. whom he had chosen through the Holy Ghost, but the order of the words in the original does not admit of such a combination, which would be forced and unnatural. The most natural and simple sense of the words is the following: Jesus gave commandments through, or, by virtue of the Holy Ghost; that is, Jesus, who was anointed with the Holy Ghost (Luk_4:1; Luk_4:14; Luk_4:18; Mat_12:28), “in the power of the Holy Ghost” gave commandments to the Apostles to be his witnesses, etc., so that such commandments were given by the Spirit also.
Act_1:3. a. The circumstance that the Lord shewed himself alive to the Apostles, like the call which they had previously received, was both a preparation for the commission which he gave them at his departure, and also the necessary condition of its fulfilment. For how could he have given them the charge to be his witnesses in the world (Act_1:8, Act_2:32), unless he had furnished them with the strongest evidence, and had most fully convinced them that he did live again, after having suffered and died? Now precisely such an assurance of faith, and such a strong conviction in the Apostles, as the appointed witnesses of Christ, whose testimony should proceed from their own personal knowledge, required as a basis proofs consisting of facts—not of one isolated fact, but of many ( ðïëëὰ ôåêìÞñéá ). [“This epithet (‘infallible’) is not expressed in Greek, but is really included in the meaning of the noun, which is used by Plato and Aristotle to denote the strongest proof of which a subject is susceptible.” (J. A. Alexander).—Tr.]. He gave them many signs and evidences that it was He himself, the Crucified One, whom they saw, and not another, and that He lived indeed,—evidences that appealed to the eye, the ear, and the touch.
b. Forty days.—It has recently been asserted that this verse, according to which forty days intervened between the resurrection and the ascension, contradicts Luke’s Gospel, Luke 24, in which, it is alleged, the ascension is represented as having occurred on the day of the resurrection (Zeller, in his Apostelgesch., [The Acts, etc., critically investigated], and Meyer, in his Commentary). This assertion is altogether unfounded, inasmuch as it is absolutely impossible that all the events related in Luke, Acts 24, particularly in the portion extending from Act_1:13 to the end, should have occurred within the limits of a single day, as indeed Lange has demonstrated (Apost. Zeitalter, I. 84 ff. [The apostolic Age]). It is true that Luke does not furnish precise dates in his Gospel or distinguish particular periods of time from one another, and that, if we possessed no other account of the occurrences which took place between the resurrection and the ascension, we could never have imagined that the interval between the two events extended to forty days. Still, this circumstance cannot be termed a contradiction, particularly when, on a closer inspection of the Gospel (Luk_24:44; Luk_24:50), we ascertain that the latter exhibits obvious traces of a transition from one incident to another, even if the dates are not precisely furnished.
c. Speaking of … the kingdom of God.—During the interval between the resurrection and the ascension, the Lord repeatedly appeared to the apostles, and thus firmly established their conviction that he was alive, as well as gave distinctness and strength to their consciousness that he was invisibly near them; at the same time he also initiated them more fully by word and doctrine into the mysteries of the kingdom of God [Luk_8:10] by speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.—This kingdom was the great subject of the teaching of Jesus both before his death on the cross, and after his resurrection; and the present discourses concerning the kingdom, which immediately preceded the ascension, furnished a foundation for all that the apostles themselves “did” and “taught” after his exaltation.
2. The history of the Church of Christ is the continuation of the divine-human life of Christ on earth. All that the apostles, and, after their day, other men of God have wrought, must be traced back to the continued action of the power of Christ. As he once came in the flesh, so he continually comes in the Spirit. This is the point of view indicated by the Bible, and the one which faith takes when it ponders the facts of Church History. He who desires to understand, not merely the first part, but also the whole, must survey with an attentive eye the operations of Christ in his Church.
3. The actions and the teachings of Jesus. To regard him merely as a teacher, is to divide Christ. Teaching was not even his first or chief office, but, rather, “he first performed himself that which he taught, and, indeed, spent thirty entire years in the most diligent practice of all the duties which he designed to prescribe afterwards to men.” (Brandt: Apostolisches Pastorale). “Christ preached his own life, and lived his own doctrine.” (Chubb). His doctrine may be found substantially in his acts, to which his sufferings also belong. And, in general, works and words, doing and teaching, belong together in the ways of God, and illustrate and aid each other.
4. The Ascension of Jesus was his assumption (Act_1:2, ἀíåëÞöèç ; comp. 1Ti_3:16). The Eastern Church gave the name of Assumption-day ( ἀíÜëçøéò ) to the festival of the Ascension. The eternal Son of God was again taken up; the Son of Man was taken up into glory. The Exalted One is, and continues to be, the Son of Man; the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily in him (Col_2:9), and where Jesus designs to be essentially present in his Deity, there, too, he designs to be present in his human corporeality. Comp. Gess: Lehre von der Person Christi, 1856, pp. 256 ff. [Doctrine of the Person of Christ].
5. The statement that Jesus had through the Holy Ghost given commandments unto the apostles, is intimately connected with the doctrine of the Holy Ghost: in the latter, the leading point of the mutual relation between God the Son and the Holy Ghost, involves many others which are still obscure.
6. Christ showed himself to the apostles alive: this circumstance indicates the high importance of the resurrection with respect to our faith; comp. 1Co_15:14; 1Co_15:17 ff. The fact that “He lives,” is the principle of life—the punctum saliens—of Christianity; it is the main support—the heart—of all Christian faith, charity and hope.
7. The discourses of the risen Saviour respecting the kingdom of God. The Word is the true light. By his word the Lord enlightened his disciples still further during the forty days, and prepared them for the service of the word. Even as the heart of the men who were going to Emmaus burned within them, while he opened to them the Scriptures [Luk_24:32], so the Lord still imparts light and warmth to believers through the Word, as a means of grace.
Act_1:2. a. Until the day in which he was taken up.—The Spirit of God has carefully provided that our knowledge respecting Christ’s state of exaltation should be as full as it is respecting all that occurred in his state of humiliation; he has thus taught us from the beginning that all those would commit an error of judgment who should deem the latter state alone entitled to attention. (Apost. Past.)—We cannot form a correct judgment respecting the peculiar appearance which the Church of Christ now presents on earth, unless we continually bear in mind, first, the ascension of Jesus; secondly, the fact that the mode in which he begins to take possession of his kingdom, is invisible; and, thirdly, the future manifestation of that kingdom. (K. H. Rieger).—The first treatise, or, the Gospel of Luke, commences with the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and concludes with his ascension, or his return to the Father; the latter is the terminating point of his visible walk, his doing and teaching on earth, but not of his operations in the midst of his redeemed people. That ascension is, rather, the condition on which Christ’s coming in the Spirit depends, and is really the commencement of this coming, by which Christ, who is now exalted above the heavens, uninterruptedly bears witness to his own kingly might and grace; hence Luke begins his history of the Apostles and of the Church by repeating his account of the ascension (Leonhardi and Spiegelhauer: Homilet. Handbuch zur Apostelgesch.).—All that occurs in the visible world originates in the invisible world; the apparently tangled threads of human affairs and of earthly events, meet above us, and are held by the hand of the holy and almighty Ruler of the world; so, too, in a special manner, that power which controls the history of the kingdom of Jesus Christ (of which history the Book of the Acts constitutes the first and most attractive portion), resides in the hand, once pierced, of our blessed Lord and Saviour, who was exalted from the cross to the right hand of God.
b. After that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.—Here the apostles, whose history the book before us relates, are introduced. The Son did not return to the bosom of the Father [Joh_1:18] until he had effectually provided for the continuance of his work on earth, by commanding his chosen apostles to assume the office of preaching the Gospel, and by leaving with them the promise of the Holy Ghost. The selection and mission of the apostles, and the endowments which they received, constitute, in their combination, an act of the prophetic wisdom, the sacerdotal love, and the kingly authority of our Lord, of the importance of which we can never form too high an estimate.How could the kingdom of Christ have endured after his departure, unless these executors of his testament had been invested with full authority and power by him? We are distinctly informed in the text that Christ was taken up at the very time when he was giving instructions and commandments to his apostles; thus he taught not only during his life and at his death, but also at his ascension. Imperatorem oportet stantem mori, et verum ecclesiæ Christianæ doctorem decet docentem vivere, mori, coelos adscendere. (Apost. Past.).—Through the Holy Ghost had given commandments.—That which Christ has taught through the Holy Ghost, we must also receive and learn through the Holy Ghost. (Starke).
Act_1:3. a. To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion.—Those who behold the sufferings of Christ and suffer with him, shall also live and reign with him [2Ti_2:11-12].—When men preach the Gospel, it is important that they should be competent to bear witness respecting his life, as well as his sufferings and death; in both respects the apostles were qualified to speak by their experimental knowledge. The same duty continues to devolve on the messengers of the Gospel. Unless they have been crucified and have died with Christ, as well by that faith by which all things are their own [1Co_3:21], as also by following him and crucifying their old man with him [Rom_6:6], they have no true knowledge of his life. (Apost. Past.).—Thousands in Israel saw the ignominious sufferings of Christ on the cross; but the great truth that He who was put to death in the flesh, was quickened by the Spirit [1Pe_3:18], is manifested on earth to those alone who have themselves been qualified by faith to receive the Spirit in which Christ lives bodily. (Besser).b.
Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.—It is still the duty of religious teachers to exhibit a full and complete image of the kingdom of Christ on earth to their hearers, so that they may see it in its various aspects, and not be misled by false views. If we should describe that kingdom to them in pleasant terms alone, and refer only to the blessedness to which it conducts, they would afterwards be ready to take offence when dark clouds arise, and the kingdom of Christ appears in that form of which he has spoken to us prophetically in John, Acts 16, and elsewhere. (Apost. Past.).
On the whole section. The divine character of the Bible, proved from the wonderful combination of opposite qualities in the books which compose it: I. They relate to personal matters, and are, nevertheless, universally applicable. II. They refer to special circumstances and occasions, and are, nevertheless, suited for all subsequent ages. (The Gospel of Luke and the Acts were both written for Theophilus).—The sufficiency of the Scriptures: they present, 1. Not every point of general interest, but, II. All that is necessary to salvation.—Christ, our Prophet: I. In his acts; and II. In his words.—The commandments of Christ are spirit and life [Joh_6:63]: I. Inasmuch as he is himself anointed with the Holy Spirit; and, II. Grants the Holy Spirit to them that obey him.—The oneness of God the Son and the Holy Ghost.—“Because I live, ye shall live also.” [Joh_14:19].—The condescension and grace of the Lord, manifested in his appearances during the forty days which succeeded his resurrection: I. He appeared often; and, II. Furnished infallible proofs that He was alive.—The value of the evidence that Christ lives: I. It is the foundation of our faith; II. The anchor of our hope.—The course of the kingdom of God, and of the Saviour, is the same: I. First, the cross; II. Then, the crown. (G. V. Lechler).
The Gospel concerning the life of Jesus on earth, the first treatise: this descriptive phrase refers I. To the vast results which the Gospel has produced—it is the germ whence all the succeeding developments of the kingdom of God on earth have proceeded. The phrase indicates, II. The cheerful character of the contents of the Gospel—viewed as the most benign message which fallen man ever received. It exhibits, III. The very ancient origin of the Gospel—as the testimony of faithful witnesses of the truth, founded on their personal experience, (Act_1:3,)—(as opposed to the negative assertions of a destructive criticism.).—The irrefutable testimony of Jesus Christ, the faithful witness [Rev_1:5]: it is furnished, I. By all that he did as well as by all that he taught; II. By his sufferings and death, as well as by his glorious exaltation; III. By the mouth of his Apostles, as well as by his personal acts; IV. By the course of events in the history of the world and of his kingdom, as well as by the internal experience of true believers.—The deep religious significance of the interval of forty days between the resurrection and the ascension: I. For the Lord; it was a period in which he (a) found a holy, sabbatical repose after the completion of his redeeming work; (b) terminated the pastoral labors which he had performed for the disciples, and (c) joyfully awaited his approaching exaltation. II. For the disciples; it was a period in which they (a) arrived at the close of that blessed intercourse which they had enjoyed with their glorified Master; (b) searched their own hearts diligently (“Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”), and thus (c) were fully prepared to perform their apostolical labors in the world. III. For us; it is a type (a) of that happy life of faith with Christ in God, which is hidden from the world, Col_3:3; (b) of that blessed labor of love performed in the hearts of our friends in view of the approaching separation; (c) of our joyful hope of entering the glory of heaven.
Footnotes:
[Note.—Where Dr. Lechler’s German version differs materially from the authorized English version, the variations, as far as the idioms of the two languages permit the translator to reproduce them, are also given, and inclosed in brackets.—Tr.]