Verse By Verse Through Acts

Chapter One

Acts 1:1-4 “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.”

• The opening of this letter reveals that this is an additional “treatise” [teaching; discourse; account; tidings; etc. “λόγος” Strong’s # 3056] to Theophilus. The other record that we have, preceding this one, is known as “Luke” (Luke 1:1-4). One should note from this that this letter is not written to convince a non-believer. It is written to a believer.
• The former treatise was mostly concerning what Jesus did and taught. This is an important distinction because this treatise is going to mostly cover the work after the Apostles took over. Luke 24:44-49 is a bridge to this text.
• The former treatise covered up to Jesus being taken up after giving commandments to His chosen Apostles after showing His death, burial, and resurrection after infallible proofs before His ascension (Luke 24:1-47).
• After that, which is where we will be picking up from here in Acts, He gave commandments to the Apostles through the Holy Ghost. They were to stay in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father (Luke 24:49). *More on that when we get to the next verse (Acts 1:5).
• We learn here that Jesus was seen of the Apostles for forty days and taught them further. Yet, as we will see in this context, they needed much more (Acts 1:6-8).
• One of the most obvious commands He gave to them during that time was the command to take the Gospel into the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-20, and Luke 24:44-49). He had been training them to be able to teach the Gospel to the world (Luke 8:1 and Luke 9:1-6). Jesus also taught other disciples to preach as well (Luke 10:1-20).
• The word translated “passion” is the same as to say “suffer” (Matthew 16:21 and Matthew 17:12), “suffered” (Mark 5:26), etc. The Greek word appears in different tenses about forty-two times in the N.T. (Strong’s # 3958).

• The promise that the Apostles had of the Father, which they heard from Jesus, was the sending of the Holy Ghost soon (Luke 24:49, John 14:15-26, and John 15:26-27).
• John baptized with water, but this baptism is not that (Luke 3:1-17 and Acts 10:44-11:18).
• We shall see as we study through this second letter to Theophilus that only the Apostles and the first recorded Gentile converts received this baptism (Acts 2:1-21 and Acts 10:44-11:18).
• The baptism of the Holy Ghost, only recorded twice in Acts, ceased long before the completion of the writing of the New Testament. We know this because there was only one baptism at the time the Ephesians letter was written (Ephesians 4:4-6). Water baptism is the only baptism directly connected with a person being saved (I Peter 3:20-21; cf. Acts 22:16). Those who heard the Gospel understood the need to be baptized in water (Acts 8:26-39).
• Having said that, the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38) was given to many through the means of the laying on of an Apostle’s hands (Acts 8:5-24 and Acts 19:1-7). The Spirit then equipped those individuals to with supernatural abilities (I Corinthians 12:3-11). This was temporary (I Corinthians 12:12-13:13).
• Coming back to the point of Acts 1:5, As a result of the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was their guide from that point forward (John 16:1-16).