Acts 1:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So the Lord did not allow them to go out to the struggle before the descent of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise the multitude of enemies might easily overcome and capture them.

He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem not only for this reason, but also because many there were to believe.

Moreover, lest anyone say that they left their own acquaintances and went boasting among foreigners, they present the proofs of His Resurrection before the very people who killed Christ.

They do this before those very men who crucified and buried Him, in the very city where this lawless deed had been committed with such audacity.

By this the mouths of all foreigners were also stopped. Indeed, if those who crucified Him themselves appear among the believers, this is plainly an evident sign of the Cross.

It is also an evident sign of the lawlessness of the Jews' deed, and a great proof of the Resurrection.

The disciples might have said, "How shall we, being so few and so insignificant, be able to live among such a multitude of impious men breathing murder?"

See how He delivers them from this fear with the words, "but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me" (Acts 1:4).

When, you ask, had they heard this? When He said, "It is better for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you" (Jn 16:7).

And again, "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever" (Jn 14:16).

But why did the Holy Spirit not come while Christ was still on earth, nor immediately after His departure?

Christ ascended on the fortieth day, while the Holy Spirit came "when the day of Pentecost had fully come" (Acts 2:1). Why was there this delay?

And how, when the Spirit had not yet come, did Christ say, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22)?

This was to prepare the disciples and make them capable of receiving Him. For if Daniel grew weak from having to see an angel (Dan 8:17), how much more would they have weakened?

They were to receive such great grace. Either these words must be understood in this sense, or Christ spoke of the future as already accomplished.

In the same way He said, "Tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy" (Lk 10:19).

But why did the Holy Spirit not come immediately then? The apostles had to be kindled with desire for this event, and only then receive grace.

Therefore the Holy Spirit came when Christ had departed. If He had come while Christ was still on earth, there would not have been such expectation in them.

For the same reason He did not come immediately after Christ's Ascension, but eight or nine days later. We too turn to God most earnestly when we are placed in some need.

For this reason John especially sent his disciples to Christ when they were to need Jesus, since he himself was already in prison.

On the other hand, our nature first had to appear in heaven, and reconciliation had to be fully accomplished. Then the Spirit would come, and the disciples would be filled with pure joy.

If Christ had departed after the coming of the Holy Spirit, while the Holy Spirit remained on earth, this would not have been such consolation for them.

They were deeply attached to Christ. Therefore He said to comfort them, "It is better for you that I go away" (Jn 16:7).

For this reason He delays the sending of the Holy Spirit for several days. After tasting a little sorrow and feeling their need, as I have said, they would enjoy full and pure joy.

If the Spirit were less than Him, this consolation would not have been sufficient. How then could He have said, "It is better for you"?

For this reason the greater part of the teaching is entrusted to the Holy Spirit, so that He would not be thought inferior.

Notice into what necessity Christ placed the disciples by promising to give the Spirit in Jerusalem. They had to remain there.

Lest they scatter again after His Ascension, He holds them all there by this expectation, as by certain bonds.

Therefore they spread the undoubted proofs of the Resurrection among the very people who had killed the Lord, crucified Him, and buried Him.

They did so in the very city where those men had dared to commit such lawlessness.

When, then, had they heard such a command? When He said to them, "It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you" (Jn 16:7).

And again, "I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter" (Jn 14:16).

Why, then, did the Comforter not come while He was present, nor immediately after His departure, but eight or nine days later, when the day of Pentecost had come?

Moreover, how could He say, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22), when the Holy Spirit had not yet descended?

To this one must say that He spoke so in order to prepare in them desire, readiness, and capacity to receive the Holy Spirit.

They received Him when He descended. Or He spoke of what was to be as already existing and present.

He did the same when He spoke of the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.

It must also be said that the gifts of the Spirit are diverse and manifold. There is a gift of purification and perfection, a gift of sanctification and sanctifying power.

There is a gift of tongues and prophecy, a gift of miracles and interpretation, and many other gifts.

Thus, given the diversity and manifold character of the Spirit's gifts, nothing prevented the apostles from receiving the grace of the Spirit in different ways.

But the full communication of the Spirit, which made the apostles perfect and able to perfect others, took place at Pentecost.

Then He descended upon them in the form of fiery tongues and filled them wholly with His power.

The Lord departed, and then the Holy Spirit came. He came at Pentecost, and not immediately, so that they might be pierced with desire and then receive grace.

If the Holy Spirit had come while the Son was present, and afterward the Son had departed while the Spirit remained, they would not have had such consolation.

For they were very unwilling to be separated from their Teacher. Therefore He ascends, and the Spirit does not come immediately.

After some despondency, desire and awareness of the need for the promise given to them would awaken in the disciples.

Then, at the descent, they would experience pure and full joy.

Yet first our flesh had to appear in heaven, and the fullest reconciliation had to be accomplished. Only then was the Holy Spirit to descend.

Know, then, what necessity to remain in Jerusalem the Lord laid upon them by the promise He gave. Lest after the Ascension they should scatter again, He holds them all there by this expectation, as by bonds.

By the promise of greater hopes, He disposes them to a stronger desire for these hopes, even though they did not know them clearly.

But no one would err in saying that even then they received some power and grace of the Spirit. It was not power to raise the dead, but the power to forgive sins.

Therefore He added, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them," and so on (Jn 20:23), showing what kind of power He was giving them.

At that time He clothed them with this particular power. After forty days had passed, He gives them the power to work miracles. Therefore He says, "You shall receive power," and so on.

All the apostles and other preachers of Christianity are only workers sent by God into His vineyard, that is, into His garden, into God's world (1 Cor 3:9). "Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything." All salvation, though certainly not without the active participation of the one being converted to Christ, is ordered by God (1 Cor 3:7).

Nor is it hidden through the working of powers, so that it may be clear that what we do is the power of God. Nor is it hidden through prophecy, so that by understanding doctrine it may be clear that we have been taught by God. Nor is it hidden through discernment of spirits, so that we may distinguish who speaks by the Holy Spirit and who speaks by an evil spirit. Nor is it hidden through various tongues, so that knowledge of languages may be given as a sign of the Holy Spirit bestowed. Nor is it hidden in the interpretation of tongues, so that the faith of the hearers may not be endangered through ignorance, when the interpreter explains the meaning of what was said to those who do not know the language. In all these things, distributed for the profit of each, there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. For the gift of the Spirit is certainly not hidden in these wondrous capacities given to each person. See Acts 1:8.

Toward evening of the same day He came "when the doors were shut, where His disciples were gathered, and stood in the midst" (Jn 20:19). In the same way, after eight days had passed, He again stood before His apostles.

He appeared to His eleven disciples on the mountain in Galilee (Mt 28:16-17). Afterward He appeared to them at the Sea of Tiberias (Jn 21:1).

During all that time Christ appeared to His disciples, conversed with them, interpreted the Scriptures to them, and among other things commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem (Lk 24:49).

To assure them still more of the truth of His Resurrection, "He showed them His hands and feet and His side." He also breathed on them and gave them the grace of the most Holy Spirit (Jn 20:20, 22), to loose and bind sins.

Moreover, He allowed the unbelieving Thomas to touch His side (Jn 20:27). Beyond this, He also ate with them: "They gave Him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb; and He took it and ate before them" (Lk 24:42).

He also ate bread and fish with them at the Sea of Tiberias (Jn 21:13). These are the infallible proofs which Jesus Christ showed His disciples while appearing over forty days, to assure them of His Resurrection from the dead.

Here one must note that after His Resurrection He appeared not only to the apostles and Mary Magdalene, but also to other brethren, more than five hundred in number, as the divine Paul testifies (1 Cor 15:6).

But when and where He appeared to these five hundred brethren, and who they were, Paul passed over in silence. He said only that in his own time many of them were still alive, while some had fallen asleep.

"Of whom the greater part remain until now, but some have fallen asleep." Perhaps this occurred on the mountain in Galilee, where, as the Evangelist Matthew affirms, the Lord commanded His disciples to gather (Mt 28:16).

He appeared to all these mentioned persons because they alone were worthy to behold His incorrupt and divine body, and were able to receive the wondrous mystery of His Resurrection from the dead.

To this one must add that the Evangelist Mark also assures us of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven: "So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God" (Mk 16:19).

Likewise, the same God-inspired Luke writes in his Gospel: "And it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (Lk 24:51).

Why the Savior ascended on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, that He gave the apostles teaching concerning the Kingdom of God, and that He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem. But to await there the fulfillment of the promise of the Father, which they had previously heard from Him, is mentioned only in this book of the apostolic Acts.

When, then, had the apostles heard of this promise? When the Lord said to them, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever" (Jn 14:16).

Since Luke, by saying, "the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me," presents Christ as speaking to the apostles, he also gives the following words as spoken by Christ to them at that time.

Verse 5: "For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

The translation "having gathered them," with αὐτούς already implied, is required by the substance of the matter and by the true meaning of the history of the Lord's Ascension.

The Slavonic translation, "eating with them," is supported by the reading συναλιζόμενος, found in many codices, meaning simul commoror. The Vulgate has convescens.

It is also supported by patristic interpretations, according to which the Lord's appearance described here is the same as that narrated by the Evangelist Luke at the end of his Gospel (Lk 24:36-51).

In the passage under consideration, συναλιζόμενος stands in an inseparable connection with Acts 1:3, not only grammatically but also logically.

It designates the most decisive of the "many infallible proofs" by which the Lord presented Himself alive after His Passion.

See Theophylact's interpretation of the indicated section of the Evangelist Luke, and Chrysostom on Acts.

This gathering was required not only by the importance of the Lord's Ascension itself, of which they were to be witnesses, but also by the importance of the command and promise which the Lord gave His disciples.

The command was this: do not depart from Jerusalem. Without this command of the Lord, the apostles would have dispersed to their native settlements.

For most of them, these were the cities and villages of Galilee. And could they themselves have wished to remain in Jerusalem?

So many painful memories were bound up with it. There was the chief seat of Jesus' enemies. There, as His followers, they could expect only mockery and insult.

Nevertheless: do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Holy Spirit promised by the Father.

Such is the will of God: that in Jerusalem, the center of true Old Testament worship, the foundation of the New Testament kingdom should be laid.

There first of all the saving grace of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit was to be manifested. It was precisely there that cruel malice and injustice had recently been expressed by the human race against the Savior of the world.

In the very city where Christ had been so dishonored, the Holy Spirit, through the apostles, was to bear witness to Him and glorify Him.

This great promise could not have been incomprehensible to the Lord's disciples. As the promise of the Father, it had to be known to them already from the Old Testament prophecies.

Those prophecies concerned the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon all flesh in the messianic time (Joel 2:28 and following; Is 44:3).

Moreover, Jesus Christ Himself had explained to them very clearly the teaching and promise concerning the Holy Spirit, especially shortly before His sufferings (Jn chs. 14-17).

He now reminds them of this. Finally, the baptism of John and his testimony concerning the baptism of men with the Holy Spirit, which the Messiah would perform, had to lead them to understand the true meaning of Christ's promise (Mt 3:11 and parallels).

Consequently the Lord also reminds them here of John's baptism. By comparison with it, He clarifies for the disciples the action of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which was soon to follow.

This baptism would cleanse, renew, and strengthen human nature.

The evangelists do not use such an expression when speaking of the Lord's appearances to the disciples after the Resurrection.

On the other hand, as we have often noted, the evangelists do not narrate events in strict chronology.

Their expressions "after this," "after these words," "having said this," and similar phrases do not always mean that what follows happened immediately after what preceded.

Yet, as we have also noted more than once, there is no need always to strive to determine exactly when the Lord said or did something, or when an event occurred, unless there is a definite indication.

The meaning of the Lord's sayings does not always depend on this. That meaning is what should matter most to us. In any case, the meaning remains one and the same, and in this lies the whole force.

"He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem." This is one of the Lord's commands, or testamentary instructions, expressing His last will (Acts 1:2).

The disciples had to fulfill it without fail, and its fulfillment demanded no small self-denial from them.

According to natural feeling, the Lord's disciples undoubtedly would not have wished to remain in this city. There their Lord and Teacher had been brought to death on the cross.

There were so many enemies of Him and of them that they had to gather behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (Jn 20:19; Jn 20:26).

There everything reminded them of their own unfaithfulness and of their flight from the Teacher in the hardest moments of His life (Mt 26:56 and parallels).

There, in general, were so many memories that were heavy for them. But such was the will of God: that the law should go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Is 2:2 and following).

On this holy mountain the foundation of the Church of Christ was to be laid. There, precisely where enmity against God and His Christ (Ps 2:2) had reached its extreme measure, His grace would abound all the more.

With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, the spread of the Gospel throughout the whole world would begin from there (Acts 1:8).

"Wait for the promise of the Father." To this command, difficult for human feeling, namely to remain in a city hostile to them, a consoling promise is immediately joined.

It is the greatest promise: that the all-powerful Protector and Guide would be sent to them from the almighty Father.

The reference is evidently to the full outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; compare Acts 2:2 and following).

They had already received in part the gifts of the Holy Spirit from the Lord (Jn 20:21-22). But they still had to await the full outpouring of these gifts upon them in Jerusalem.

This took place on the day of Pentecost. Here the Lord calls this descent of the Holy Spirit the promise of the Father; compare Lk 24:49, "the promise of the Father."

He says this because God the Father, already in the Old Testament, gave through the prophets the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the times of Christ.

Compare Is 44:3; Joel 3:1 and others.

"Of which you have heard from Me." This does not point to a similar discourse of the Lord recorded by the Evangelist Luke (Lk 24:49), for that discourse and the one considered here seem to be one and the same.

The Lord points to His own discourses about this promise of the Father, spoken before His sufferings.

Such are His words about help from the Spirit of God in their preaching and during persecutions (Lk 12:11 and following; Mt 10:20 and parallels).

Such, in particular, are His words about the other Comforter in His last farewell discourse with the disciples, as Chrysostom and Theophylact note.

There He revealed to them with special fullness the teaching about the Comforter who was to come to them, the Holy Spirit.

See Jn 14:15-17; Jn 14:26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:7; Jn 16:12-16.

"Know, then, what necessity to remain in Jerusalem the Lord laid upon them by the promise He gave: lest after the Ascension they should scatter again, by this expectation, as by bonds, He holds them all there" (Theophylact; compare Chrysostom).

If the very Jerusalemites who crucified Him appear among the believers, this will plainly be a manifest sign both of the Cross and of the Jews' lawlessness, and a great proof of the Resurrection." Eating with others presupposes their gathering. Therefore in Greek both gathering and eating together are expressed by one word: συναλιξόμενος. Thus some translators rendered this word as "eating," and others as "having gathered." It is clear that the first word is more substantial and more definite. The command to await the Holy Spirit points to the necessity of spiritual preparation for this great mystery of man's union with God. Even for receiving eminent people there are many preparatory periods of waiting. How then should one not prepare to receive the Spirit of God? Jesus Christ had often told the apostles that He would comfort them, guide them into all truth, and remind them of all that had been said to them through Jesus Christ Himself (see Jn 14:16-26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:7-13; Lk 24:49). In the words of John Chrysostom, "the apostles had to be kindled with desire for this event, and then receive grace." So also we, preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries. Must prepare for this by fasting, abstinence, and especially by the spiritual burning of a heart turned toward God with faith and love, that we may become partakers of eternal life.