Let us now examine the chapters in their course. Chapter 1 supplies us with
the narrative of that which relates to Jesus risen, and the actions of the
apostles before the descent of the Holy Ghost. The Lord's communications
present several very interesting points. Jesus, the risen man, acts and
speaks by the Holy Ghost after His resurrection as before it. Precious
token of our own position, as reminding us that we shall have the Holy
Ghost after our resurrection, and that, being no longer engaged in
restraining and mortifying the flesh, His divine energy in us will be
entirely consecrated to eternal joy and worship, and to the service
committed to us by God. The risen Lord then gives His disciples
commandments in connection with the new position He assumes. Their life and
their service are to be formed and guided in view of His resurrection-a
truth of which they had irrefragable proofs. They were still on earth, but
they were pilgrims there, having Him in view who had gone before them
raised from among the dead. Their relations with Him are still connected
with their position on earth. He speaks to them of the kingdom, and of that
which concerned the kingdom. Jerusalem was the starting-point of their
ministry, even more than of His own. For He had gathered together the poor
of the flock wherever He had found them, especially in Galilee; [see note #2]
but now, resurrection having made Him in power the vessel of the sure
mercies of David, He calls Israel afresh to own as Prince and Saviour the
One whom they had rejected as the living Messiah on earth. The Epistles of
Peter are connected with the gospel in this point of view.
Nevertheless, to exercise this ministry, they were to wait for the
accomplishment of the Father's promise, the Holy Ghost, with whom they were
to be baptised, according to John's testimony, which the Lord assured them
should soon take place. The mission of the Holy Ghost led them, at the same
time, out of the Jewish field of purely temporal promises. The Father's
promise of the Holy Ghost was a very different thing from that of the
restoration of the kingdom of Israel by the power of Jehovah, the God of
judgment. It was not for them to know the time and season of this
restoration, the knowledge of which the Father kept in His own possession;
but they should themselves receive the power of the Holy Ghost, who would
come down upon them; and they should be witnesses unto Jesus (as they had
known Him, and according to the manifestation of Himself after His
resurrection), both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto
the uttermost parts of the earth-thus making Jerusalem the starting-point
and first object, according to the mission, Luke 24:47. Nevertheless,
their testimony was founded on their beholding their Master and their Lord
caught up from their midst, and received into the clouds of heaven, which
hid Him from their sight. While looking steadfastly upwards, as this took
place, two messengers from heaven come and announce to them that He will
return in like manner. His manifestation in this lower world, beneath the
heavens, is therefore here intended. He will return to earth to be seen of
the world. We have not the rapture of the assembly, nor the assembly's
association with Him while absent. With the knowledge of Jesus taken up out
of the world, and to come again into the world, as the termini and elements
of all their teaching, they return to Jerusalem, there to wait for the Holy
Ghost who was promised unto them. It is not into Galilee that they go. They
are to be witnesses in Jerusalem of the heavenly rights of that Christ who
had been rejected on earth by Jerusalem and the Jews. [see note #3]
All this clearly shews the position in which they were placed, and the
mission committed to them. But before they receive the Holy Ghost for its
fulfilment, some other characteristic circumstances find their place in
this chapter. They act, under the guidance of Peter, according to
intelligence in the word, before they are endowed with power from on high.
These two things are therefore distinct from each other.
It appears that, although Peter was not directly led of the Holy Ghost, the
Spirit put His seal on that which was done in accordance with the word in
the Old Testament understood by the apostle. We have before seen that
Christ, after His resurrection, opened the understanding of His disciples
that they might understand the scriptures. They now act, not having
received the Holy Ghost, according to a Jewish principle. They present the
lot to the Lord, that He may decide. Nevertheless the lot was not all, nor
was it drawn without making a distinction. Apostolic authority flowed from
the nomination of Christ Himself. Intelligence of the scriptures makes them
understand that which ought to be. The object which the Lord had assigned
to their service narrowed the choice to the little circle of those who
could fulfil that object. Their history made them capable, as Jesus had
said, of being His witnesses, because they had been with Him from the
beginning, and could now testify that this same Jesus, whom the Jews had
rejected and crucified, was indeed risen from among the dead.
Apostolic authority is exercised in Jerusalem on the Jewish principle,
before the gift of the Holy Ghost. In this there was neither research nor
the exercise of the human mind. "His bishopric let another take" guided
their conduct; the capacity to testify of Jesus in His life on earth, and
now of His resurrection and ascension, decided on the needed
qualifications; the lot of Jehovah determined the individual who was to
take Judas' place. Two are chosen, according to these needful
qualifications, and the lot falls upon Matthias, who is numbered with the
eleven apostles. But they were still without the promised power.
