Ascension and Pentecost: the risen Lord goes up and the Spirit comes down

The book of Acts is the second volume of a two-part work by the same author as the Gospel of Luke. Both are addressed to Theophilus (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1). Church tradition names the author as Luke, the physician and companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24; 2 Timothy 4:11). Passages written in the first person plural ('we', beginning at 16:10) suggest that the author was present for part of Paul's travels. The date is debated. Some place it in the early 60s, since Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome and says nothing of the outcome of his case, of Nero's persecution or of the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Many critical scholars prefer the 80s or later. This class does not depend on the choice.

Chapters 1-2 are set in Jerusalem within about fifty days of the crucifixion. The year is either AD 30 or 33, depending on how the date of the crucifixion is reckoned. The ascension takes place from the Mount of Olives, a sabbath day's journey (about a kilometre) from the city. The believers return to an upper room and wait. Pentecost, the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, took place fifty days after Passover, and it was one of the three pilgrim feasts at which Jews from across the Roman and Parthian worlds came to the temple (Leviticus 23:15-21; Deuteronomy 16:16). The city was crowded with visitors, which is why the list of nations in chapter 2 appears.

Luke writes so that Theophilus may be sure of what he has been taught (Luke 1:4). Acts tells how the news about Jesus moved from Jerusalem to the nations under the Spirit's direction.

Acts is historical narrative, and the first rule of reading it is to ask what the narrator is doing. Luke records events and speeches with a plan: Acts 1:8 gives the outline. The apostles will be witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Chapters 1-7 are set in Jerusalem, 8-9 move to Judea and Samaria, and the rest of the book follows the message to the Gentile world and finally to Rome. The two chapters in this class are the foundation of that structure.

A second principle is the difference between what Acts describes and what it prescribes. Acts records what happened, and not every event is a pattern for every church. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, the sound of wind and the appearance of fire are not repeated in the same way later in the book. Teaching about what to believe and do is drawn mainly from the epistles and from the teaching of Jesus, with Acts showing what the gospel looked like in practice. Traditions disagree on how to apply this principle, as the tradition note shows.

A third principle concerns the speeches. The speeches in Acts, including Peter's sermon in 2:14-36, are summaries that Luke has selected and shaped. They share a pattern: appeal to the Scriptures, announcement of Jesus' death and resurrection, and a call to repent. Peter reads the Old Testament as pointing to Christ, in the way Jesus taught the disciples after the resurrection (Luke 24:44-47).

1:1-5. Luke refers to his earlier book as an account of all that Jesus began to do and teach, which implies that Acts tells what Jesus continues to do through the Spirit. For forty days after his suffering the risen Jesus gave many proofs that he was alive and spoke about the kingdom of God. He told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. John baptized with water, but they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, in a few days. This fulfils the promise of John the Baptist (Luke 3:16).

1:6-8. The apostles ask whether he will now restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus does not say the hope is wrong. He says the times are the Father's to fix, and that they will receive power when the Spirit comes upon them and will be his witnesses to the end of the earth. The question about the kingdom is answered by a mission.

1:9-11. As they watch, Jesus is lifted up and a cloud takes him from their sight. Two men in white stand beside them and ask why they stand looking into the sky. They say that 'this same Jesus' will come back in the same way as they saw him go. The cloud recalls the cloud of God's presence in the Old Testament (Exodus 40:34-35) and the figure who comes with the clouds in Daniel 7:13.

1:12-26. They return to the upper room. The eleven are named, along with several women, Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers, and they devote themselves to prayer. About 120 believers gather. Peter explains that the betrayal by Judas fulfilled Scripture and applies Psalm 69:25 and 109:8: another must take his place. Luke tells of Judas's fate and of the field of blood, Akeldama. Matthew 27:5 says Judas hanged himself, and Acts says he fell headlong and burst open. Interpreters commonly combine the two accounts as a hanging followed by a fall. The replacement must be someone who accompanied them from John's baptism to the ascension and can witness the resurrection. Two are put forward, Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias. They pray, cast lots (an Old Testament way of seeking God's choice, as in Proverbs 16:33), and the lot falls to Matthias. The number twelve matters because Jesus had promised the Twelve a place in the renewed Israel (Luke 22:30). Matthias is not mentioned again, and some readers have held that Paul was the Lord's own choice for the twelfth place, but the text does not say so.

2:1-13. When the day of Pentecost arrived, the believers were all together. There was a sound from heaven like a violent wind that filled the house, and what looked like tongues of fire separated and came to rest on each of them. All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. Pilgrims gathered, bewildered because each heard in his own dialect. The Galileans were speaking of the mighty works of God. Luke lists the peoples: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs. The list covers the Jewish world from east to west. Some see a reversal of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), where languages scattered people, an echo that is not stated in the text. Others in the crowd said the believers were drunk on new wine.

2:14-21. Peter stands with the Eleven and says that it is only nine in the morning, so these men are not drunk. He quotes Joel 2:28-32: in the last days God will pour out his Spirit on all people, sons and daughters will prophesy, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The age of the Spirit has begun.

2:22-36. Peter's central message is Jesus. He was a man attested by God with miracles and signs. He was handed over by God's set plan and foreknowledge, and killed by lawless men, but God raised him, since death could not hold him. Peter cites Psalm 16:8-11: David died and his tomb is still there, so the words about a Holy One who would not see decay point to a descendant, the Christ. The apostles are witnesses. Exalted to God's right hand, Jesus received the Spirit from the Father and has poured him out, which the crowd sees and hears. Peter ends with Psalm 110:1: God has made this Jesus, whom they crucified, both Lord and Christ.

2:37-41. The hearers are cut to the heart and ask what to do. Peter tells them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for them, their children and those far off. About three thousand are added that day.

2:42-47. The new community devotes itself to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. Signs and wonders are done by the apostles. Believers hold their property in common and sell possessions to meet needs. They meet daily in the temple and in homes, with glad hearts, and the Lord adds to their number day by day. The sharing was voluntary (compare 5:4).

These chapters mark a turning point in the story of redemption. The Old Testament had promised the Spirit for a new age: Moses wished that all the LORD's people were prophets (Numbers 11:29), and Ezekiel and Joel promised the Spirit on God's people (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Joel 2:28-29). In Acts 2 Peter says that the promise is now fulfilled because Jesus has been raised and exalted. The Spirit's arrival is evidence of Christ's reign. The three persons are named together in his sermon: Jesus, the Father who raised him and promised the Spirit, and the Spirit poured out.

The ascension teaches that the risen Lord is no longer on earth in his earlier way but reigns in heaven, and that he will return (1:11). In the meantime the kingdom advances through witness. The question of 1:6 is answered with a mission in which the kingdom is both already present, through the Spirit and the community, and still to come. The Pentecost list also anticipates the gospel for all nations, to which the rest of Acts gives the details.

Here the fulfilment is declared in the New Testament itself. Peter applies Joel, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 to Jesus. In Joel 2:32 the one on whose name people call is the LORD, and Peter shows that the Lord is Jesus (2:21, 36). In Psalm 16, David is not speaking of himself, because his tomb remains, so he spoke of the Christ whose body did not see decay (2:29-31). In Psalm 110:1, David calls the Messiah 'my Lord', and Peter places the risen Jesus at God's right hand. Jesus himself had used Psalm 110 to ask how David's son could be David's Lord (Luke 20:41-44).

The Spirit poured out is itself a testimony that Jesus now reigns. The one exalted to the Father's right hand has received the Spirit and given him to his people (2:33). This also fulfils the promise of John the Baptist that the Coming One would baptize with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; Luke 3:16). In 1:11 the angels promise the return of Jesus in the same way he went, which echoes the cloud of Daniel 7:13.

Two links are offered more tentatively, as echoes. Commentators such as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown link the watched ascension to Elijah's departure, where Elisha had to see his master taken up in order to receive the double portion of his spirit (2 Kings 2:9-12). The apostles likewise watch Jesus go up and then receive the Spirit. And the wind, fire and sound of Pentecost may echo Sinai (Exodus 19), though the link between Pentecost and the giving of the law in Jewish tradition may be later than the first century.