Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 1:10

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

10. as he went up ] The preposition is not in the Greek, which has simply, as he went.

in white apparel ] They are called men, but they are evidently angels. So the two angels are clothed in white (Joh 20:12) whom Mary saw in the sepulchre after the Resurrection, and one of these is called by St Mark (Mar 16:5) “a young man clothed in a long white garment.” St Luke in the Gospel calls them “two men in shining garments” (Act 24:4). So the “man in bright clothing,” Act 10:30, is described in Act 11:13 as “an angel.” This was a common Jewish expression to signify angelic or divine messengers. Cf. Talm. Jer. Joma Act 1:2, ad fin.

“Shimeon ha-Tsaddik (i.e. the righteous) served Israel forty years in the High-priesthood, and in the last year he said to the people, ‘In this year I shall die.’ They said to him: ‘How dost thou know this?’ He said to them: ‘Every year when I was going into the Holy of Holies there was an Ancient one, clad in white garments and with a white vail, who went in with me and came out with me; but this year he went in with me and did not come out with me.’ [On this matter] they asked of Rabbi Abuhu, ‘But surely it is written: ‘Nothing of mankind shall be in the tent of meeting when he [the High-priest] goes in to make atonement until his coming out again,’ not even those concerning whom it is written [Eze 1:5 ] ‘They had the likeness of a man,’ even they shall not be in the tent of meeting.’ He said to them: ‘What is there [in this language of Shimeon] to tell me that it was a human being at all? I say it was the Holy One.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Looked stedfastly – They fixed their eyes, or gazed intently toward heaven. Luk 4:20, and the eyes of all them in the synagogue were fastened (Greek: the same word as here) on him. It denotes the intense gaze when we are deeply interested, and wish to see clearly and distinctly. They were amazed and confounded; what had occurred was unlocked for; for they had just been inquiring whether he would not, at that time, restore the kingdom to Israel. With this mingled amazement, disappointment, and curiosity, and with an earnest desire to catch the last glimpse of their beloved master, they naturally continued to gaze on the distant clouds where he had mysteriously disappeared from their view. Never was a scene more impressive, grand, and solemn than this.

Toward heaven – Toward the distant clouds or sky which had received him.

As he went up – Literally, upon him going up; that is, they gazed on him as he ascended, and doubtless they continued to gaze after he had disappeared from their view.

Two men – From the raiment of these men, and the nature of their message, it seems clear that they were angelic beings, who were sent to meet and comfort the disciples on this occasion. They appeared in human form, and Luke describes them as they appeared. Angels are not infrequently called people. Luk 24:4, two men stood by them in shining garments, etc. Compare Joh 20:12; Mat 28:5. As two angels are mentioned only as addressing the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus Joh 20:12; Luk 24:4, it is no unnatural supposition that these were the same who had been designated to the honorable office of bearing witness to his resurrection, and of giving them all the information about that resurrection, and of his ascension, which their circumstances needed.

In white apparel – Angels are commonly represented as clothed in white. See the Joh 20:12 note; Mat 28:3 note; Mar 16:5 note. It is an emblem of purity; and the worshippers of heaven are represented as clothed in this manner. Rev 3:4, they shall walk with me in white; Rev 3:5, He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment; Rev 4:4; Rev 7:9, Rev 7:13-14.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 1:10-11

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up.

Too much mere sentiment in religion

It may be that the same two angels who rolled away the stone, and appeared at His open sepulchre, were present now. Or were they the two men, Moses and Elijah, who had appeared at the Transfiguration? Whoever they were, they were glorified beings, sent to do honour to Christ. The words may be taken as a rebuke for the indulgence of too much sentiment in connection with religion. Sentiment in religion is not only good, but essential; without the sentiments of love, hope, gratitude, adoration, there could be no religion. But if it continue merely as sentiment, and takes no practical form, sways not the actions and shapes not the life, it is rather pernicious than useful.

I. That too much sentimental interest in the marvellous in religion is not good. Religion has its marvels, supernatural events crowd the Word of God; but to yield our minds too much to the influence of the wonderful, is not good. The sentiment of wonder has its beneficent mission; it tends to take us out of ourselves, to break the monotony of our experience, and to give a passing freshness to life. But the indulgence of this sentiment of wonder, apart from religion, is a great evil. The religionists who are always gazing after signs and wonders become dreamy mystics and the dupes of priestly imposture. The wonder which the marvellous in religion excites, becomes only useful as it lifts us to a higher plane of practical life, only as it tends to make our lives sublime.

II. That too much sentimental interest in the objective in religion is not good. The disciples were looking outside of themselves, fixing their gaze on the heavens. We do well so to gaze upon the outward, as to reduce the whole into a science that shall become the richest inheritance of the intellect. In religion, too, we must be interested in the outward. The soul is neither self-sustaining nor self-directing; its elements of life must be derived from without; its lessons of direction must come from without. But to have all our interests absorbed in the externals of religion is a terrible evil, and, alas I a prevalent one. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost.

III. That too much sentimental interest in the temporary in religion is not good. There is a natural tendency in these souls of ours to linger with interest over departed objects that were once dear to the heart. We cling, says one, to the shell, the husks, the garments, after the kernel, the essence, and the life have gone. To indulge in this sentiment in natural things, is not good; the mourner whose sentiments are always absorbed in the dear ones that are gone, grows moody and diseased. The permanent was with them–the eternal principles of truth and the spirit of Christ, these did not depart; it was a mere temporary manifestation that went; and to have their sentiments engrossed in that, was not good. There are those around us in all directions whose sympathies are taken up with the mere temporary forms of religion. (Homilist.)

Words to the spectators of the ascension

I. The chiding element. Why stand ye gazing? There is undoubtedly reproof in these words.

1. Why stand ye?–you need not lament that which is a blessing. All that is necessary on earth for your spiritual culture and well-being He has accomplished, and now He enters heaven in order to give efficiency to all the spiritual instrumentalities which He has set in operation amongst you. You should rejoice, rather than lament–rejoice at what He has done for you, rejoice that He has triumphed over His enemies, rejoice that He is leaving His degradation, sorrows, and enemies for scenes of dignity, blessedness, and love. Ah, how often, through our ignorance, we lament over events which should fill us with rejoicing.

2. Why stand ye–you gain much by His departure. It is expedient for you that He goes away, for if He goes not away the Comforter will not come. When He is gone you will be thrown back upon yourselves and be made self-reliant.

3. Why stand ye–He has given you a commission to work. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem.

II. The cheering element. This same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.

1. He will return to you in like manner. How unexpectedly He went away. It is said, while they looked He went. In like manner He will come: unexpectedly.

2. He will return to you identical in personality. This same Jesus. Same loving Brother, tried Friend, mighty Lord, etc. Whatever changes take place in the universe, they will not touch Him.

3. He will return to you in great glory. He went up in great glory, a cloud received Him out of their sight. What cloud was that? It was that luminous, mystic flame which was ever regarded as the symbol of the Divine Presence. That which gleamed in the bush to Moses, in the pillar that conducted the Children of Israel through the wilderness, over the mercy-seat in the holy of holies, which glided through the heavens like a star and conducted the wise men to the place where Jesus was born; that which spread over the Mount of Transfiguration and made the scene so transporting. In like manner He will come. I beheld a great white throne, and Him that sat thereon, etc.

Conclusion: Such is what seems implied in this angelic language and from it three general truths may be drawn.

1. That what we deem our greatest losses are often our greatest gain.

2. That we indulge too much in the sentiments of religion when they detain us from earnest work.

3. That the destinies of men in all worlds and ages are bound up in Christ. This same Jesus. (Homilist.)

Why stand ye gazing

There is reproof in the question. We might have thought that the question answered itself. Would it not have been strange if they had not stood gazing? Less wonderful spectacles than that have drawn together a crowd of gazers, and no one thinks of arguing with them. Curiosity alone will account for gazing upon this spectacle; ascent into heaven by one in human form, unaided by any visible appliance. Who, I say, would not gaze up into heaven to watch this? But how much more, if the person thus ascending was a friend–a friend closer than a brother. The disciples gazed as though they were looking their last upon the departed form. To be reminded, then, that this was by no means their last sight of Him was to be recalled at once to thoughts of peace, and hope, and blessedness; to be reproved for this gazing by the assurance which followed, that this same Jesus shall come again in like manner as ye now see Him go, had healing in the very wound. Interpreted by the teaching of the Last Supper, the reproof said this to them: Remember how He said to you while He was yet with you, A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while and ye shall see Me. One fulfilment of that saying you have already witnessed: He went from you by death, and He came back to you by resurrection. Another fulfilment of the same saying is now in development: He goes from you by ascension, and He shall come back to you in the Advent. This, then, was the meaning for the first disciples of the Why stand ye gazing? which is our text. Within tea days they understood it. On the instant it comforted them, for St. Luke expressly says, that they returned to Jerusalem that very hour with great joy. The idea of parting was swallowed up for them in the idea of meeting. But now, let us hear this question addressed to ourselves: Why stand ye here gazing? What mean ye by this silence? and let us think what we shall answer. Why stand ye to-night in this church gazing on the ascension? We take an onward step when we reply.

I. Because it helps us to realise a world beyond this world, a life above this life, a substantial rock that is higher than we, on which we would firmly stand our feet amidst the billows and storms of the temporal and the transient. To fix a steadfast gaze upon the ascending Lord, till a cloud comes between and intercepts the view, to which flesh and blood are unequal, of that glorious, that mysterious transition from the material into the immaterial universe–we find it helpful, we find it comforting, under the heavy pressure of sense and time, whether our circumstances at this present are joyous or grievous, weighted with care and sorrow, or but too jubilant with pleasure and prosperity. It is not easy to believe in a world out of sight. We want every help that a religious life can give to it, we want the aid of prayer, we want the discipline of providence, we want the experience of years, we want, first and above all, a revelation such as God gives in His Son, commending itself to mans conscience and resting upon a basis of impregnable fact. I know not what would become of us in days such as these–days of unrest and disquietude, days of anxiety bursting sometimes into horror, days of failing hearts and almost despairing hopes, for the future of our own and other lands, if we could not gaze upward after the ascended Saviour and infer the certainty of a better country, that is a heavenly.

II. The desire to realise the life of Christ Himself as gone into heaven for us men and for our salvation.

III. That we are all learning in heart and mind to ascend after Him, and there with Him continually to dwell. There are many counterfeits of this grace, there are also some substitutes for it, counted as good or better, sometimes even by the Church of this age. It is an age which makes activity everything; measures religion by its tangible effects; leaves itself no inner life, as it were; itself depends on the outward, and thinks little even of the industry which has nothing to show for itself. The Church too much humours and pampers this temper of the times. Now, the ascent of our Lord is the protest against this whole system. They who would witness for Him must find time to track His ascending; they who would reproduce Him in. His reality to this nineteenth age must first have gazed steadfastly up; there must be leisure found or made for this, leisure for meditation, leisure for study, leisure for communing. Let each one fix his gaze upon the ascending Lord, that he may follow Him where the Ascended rests in that calm heaven, the heaven of holiness and the heaven of love. Let him dwell with the Ascended, having boldness to enter into the Holiest. Let us draw nigh; let it be a purified entering, and let it be a purified return also. That is the spiritual mind whose home is heaven. Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Because we would follow where He has led, live the life of heaven here, and at last be with Him for ever where He is. (Dean Vaughan.)

The disciples at the Ascension

I. Men overpowered and dispossessed of self-control in the presence of a wondrous revelation. There are moments in which men are not themselves. Great events suddenly happen and the spectators lose all presence of mind, however sagacious they may ordinarily be. Sometimes they cannot speak for joy, sometimes for terror, sometimes for simple amazement. This is the case sometimes with children, and often with men when, e.g., a letter is received containing unexpected news. The thing to be remembered here is that this is the natural effect of Christian revelation. When the angels came to Bethlehem the shepherds were afraid, so were the women to whom the angels spake at the sepulchre. And no man ought to receive Divine communications or see Divine effects without sensibility. Nor ought we to look on the sublimities of nature or the wonders of art as if they were nothing. This is one of the perils of familiarity. A rustic thinks little of the mountain under whose shadow he was born, but is struck dumb when he gazes on St. Pauls. A Londoner passes the cathedral without knowing that it is there, but looks at Snowdon for hours during his summer holiday.

II. Men recalled from enfeebling reverie. It was good for them to look upward, but there was something more to be done. We can waste time in the sublimest contemplation. When a man is naturally inclined to ecstasy he ought to fight against his inclination so as to bring it into harmony with other powers. There are persons to whom Christianity is so sublime a thing that they fail to see it in practical life. It is right to have hours of rapture, but a man cannot live so always. So the disciples were interrogated by the two men in white apparel–Moses and Elias, I think; for there is something Mosaic in the inquiry, and something of the power and passion of Elijah. We too are matched by the old master-workers of the world. Seeing then we are encompassed by so great a cloud of witnesses, why should our life be a gazing when we are called to work? When the women looked down into the sepulchre, the angel said, Why seek ye the living among the dead? So we are not always to be looking down. The lesson of the text is that we must not always be looking up. What then is to be our attitude? Look about you; and look up only to gain inspiration for the work nearest to hand.

III. Men instructed and comported by a promise. This same Jesus. Who wants an amended Christ? This same Jesus who knows, has taught, has died to save you shall come again. One would like to see Jesus; but one would not like Him to be so changed that those who knew Him first know Him no longer. We want such elements of identity as shall enable the disciples to gladly recognise Him as the same Christ. He is promised to come again in the same sublime fashion, sovereign in will, gentle in spirit, pure as God, tenderer than woman. The world cannot live without that promise. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Gazing into heaven

There is here–

I. An affectionate expostulation with those who are under personal bereavement. When Jesus had kept telling these friends of His that He purposed to leave them before long, they received no settled impression from it. It is of no use to attempt to become prepared for the loss of one whom we love. Now they looked after their ascending Lord with unutterable dismay. When any one has parted with some precious object of affection, the wounded spirit remains just broken, gazing up into vacancy, sometimes even wishing it might fly away and be at rest. But this cannot be indulged. These disciples are told to report immediately for duty. The mourners eyes should be fixed upon work, and not upon loss. See the promise (Psa 126:5-6.).

II. An earnest incitement to the laggard or listless. The great world needed the gospel without delay. Christ was gone, but the Comforter was coming. Just as soon as they advanced to duty the day of Pentecost dawned. There are men who stand gazing up into heaven after a revival. Now, nowhere does Gods Word bid us wait for any special outpouring of spiritual influence. The Holy Spirit is in the Church.

III. A clear counsel for those in earnest in the seeking of Christ for their souls. It is possible for a man to stand gazing up into heaven for a course of years, and then suddenly discover that what he has been looking for was an experience, and not a Saviour. Salvation is not a thing to be vacantly gazed after. Repent of your sins now. Put your trust in Christ now. The entire work of turning unto a new life usually begins with some commonplace step of commitment of ones self before others. A public word in a prayer-meeting, the asking of a blessing at the table, a checking admonition to a comrade, a mere refusal to do a wrong or worldly act, will never make a man a Christian, but it may show he has become one.

IV. A comfort for such Christians as are in bondage through fear of death. Let us think of our departure as an ascension like Christs. One may habituate himself to melancholy foreboding until all looks dark and frightful on ahead. Or he may accustom his mind to regarding a change of worlds as only a sweet, bright journey along the path the Saviour went from the Mount of Olives. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

Indolence

Nothing is more dangerous than idleness. He who has nothing to do will soon be doing something wrong. Our idle, says an eminent divine, are Satans busy days. If the mind is properly engaged, there is little room for the entrance of temptation; but when the mind is empty and open, the enemy can throw in what he pleases. Stagnant waters produce thousands of noxious insects that are unknown in flowing streams.

Looking after it is useless

How true to nature is that gazing steadfastly into heaven after gazing was useless! So we look at the spot on the horizon where the last gleam of a sail that bears away dear ones has faded. (A. Maclaren, D. D)

Unprofitable gazing

The two men in white apparel make a part of the grand supernatural array which the common scenery of the earth put on as the Lord was leaving it. From the entrance of the Saviour into the garden, on through the following forty-three days, the spiritual world and the material seemed to have the doors between them swung open, and to become one. If we believe the history, or credit the incarnation, at all, is not this just as we should expect? He in whom the realities of both heaven and earth were united; He who could say–The Son of Man is now in heaven, He is passing back personally into the unseen communion, where all His friends are to follow Him. I believe in miracles because I see the greater miracle–Christ–grander than all this worlds men, and yet lowlier, saying that He comes forth from God, and goes to God, as simply as my child shows me the flower found in the garden-yet so saying it that all the philosophers and critics of eighteen hundred years have not been able to break the authority or explain the secret. The question is–

I. A call from contemplation to action. Only a little breathing space was to be given them first to gather up their energies; and even that was not to be an interval of idleness. They were to go at once to Jerusalem, and their waiting there was to be like the waiting of the still midsummer elements, before the mountain winds sweep down and the tongues of fire leap out–a busy waiting–a preparation for this long campaign of many ages. They were to be earnest and constant in prayer and praise; to settle in their minds the doctrines and directions of their Master, pertaining to the kingdom; to fasten and cement the bonds of unity with one accord, and to fill up the vacant place in the apostolate. Thus their business had been marked out as every Christians is. But the apostles are not turning to that business; they are still resting in a kind of sentimental trance between their commission and their ministry. They were living as some Christians do nowadays-in their feelings, more than in their convictions and their will, in fruitless memories, not in daring hopes. Indulged any longer, this would become a mere life of religious sentiment, not a life of religious service–and so not a healthy life at all. If those men that had companied so long with Christ needed to be startled out of a false indulgence in the mere idle luxury of feeling, most of us need it much more. I hear a man say it makes him feel better to say his prayers; so far so good; but how far does the feeling go, and the power of the prayer keep him company, as a law of regulation to his lips and a purifier of his conduct? Lacordaire says, I desire to be remembered only as one who believed, who loved, and who prayed. But why only these? Ought there not to be an equal desire to honour the Lord in an active following of His steps and proclaiming Him in life?

II. A summons to walk, henceforth, not by the light of an outward leader, but by a secret and steadfast trust in Him who is for ever with us by an inward possession. If, then, the question of the heavenly men be put into some paraphrase for ourselves here, this would be its import. Reduce your privileges to Christian practice, and your faith to action. Life is not given us for speculation, or gazing, or mere delight, even though the relish be religious–not for reverie and dreaming, even though it were the reverie of devotion, or a dream of Paradise. This world, our own little corner of it, wants sacrifice and labour, running feet and open hands, busy thoughts and gentle tongues.

III. A demand that our Christian life should be independent of external support, so that it may be only dependent on God. Not that we are to cast away any outward prop so long as Gods providence holds it in its place and comforts us by letting us lean upon it; but that we should not be perplexed or disheartened when any such help is taken away by Him, or enfeeble ourselves by letting our integrity, or our purity, or our prayers depend on it instead of depending directly on Him. There is no danger that our eyes or our hearts will he turned too much upwards, heavenwards–provided we look there, in faith and prayer, for the light and the strength to do our Christian service here. At present this is our place; and the judgment before us is a judgment for deeds done in the body. These men, when they were bidden to stop gazing into heaven and go to their work were not turned away from heavenly things to earthly things, but the opposite. They were to stop looking into the air, that by a truer and God-appointee road they might travel, in Gods time, higher up into the Christian heaven. They were to rouse themselves from a dream, that they might work out their salvation and the salvation of the world. To that end, the present line of living, however agreeable and prosperous, the present residence or occupation, however delightful, or the present apparent helps, however prized, as soon as they become tempters to sluggishness, must be given up–a sacrifice to Him whose sacrifice to us is the only assurance of life. Hence Gods providence is continually pushing us on, displacing one or another scheme, or vision, or staff, or companion. He does it for what he would make of us–better men. (Bp. Huntington.)

Idle emotion useless

Love to God is no idle emotion or lazy rapture, no vague sentiment, but the root of all practical goodness, of all strenuous efforts, of all virtue, and of all praise. That strong tide is meant to drive the busy wheels of life and to bear precious freightage on its bosom; not to flow away in profitless foam. (A. Maclaren, D. D)

Go about your business

Some years ago, a new clock was made to be placed in the Temple Hall. When finished the clockmaker was desired to wait upon the Benchers of the Temple, who would think of a suitable motto to be put under the clock. He applied several times, but without getting the desired information, as they had not determined on the inscription. Continuing to importune them, he at last came when the old Benchers were met in the Temple Hall, and had just sat down to dinner. The workman again requested to be informed of the motto. One of the Benchers who thought the application ill-timed, and who was fender of eating and drinking than inventing mottoes, testily replied, Go about your business! The mechanic taking this for an answer to his question, went home and inserted at the bottom of the clock, Go about your business! and placed it in the Temple Hall, to the great surprise of the Benchers, who, considering the circumstances, argued that accident had produced a better motto than they could think of, and ever since the Temple clock has continued to remind the lawyer and the public to go about their business. (Christian Herald.)

This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go.—

Christs second coming

I. Its Time.

1. Unknown (Mat 24:36; Mar 13:32).

2. The times of restoration (Act 3:19).

3. The latter day (Job 19:25).

4. Such an hour as ye think not (Mat 24:44).

5. After that tribulation, etc. (Mar 13:24-26).

6. A falling away first (2Th 2:3).

II. How characterised.

1. The times of restoration (Act 3:19).

2. The day of God (2Pe 3:12).

3. The last time (1Pe 1:5).

4. The revelation of Jesus Christ (1Pe 1:7; 1Pe 1:13).

5. Appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour (Tit 2:13).

6. The day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Co 1:8).

7. The day of Jesus Christ (Php 1:6).

8. The appearing of the chief Shepherd (1Pe 5:4).

III. Its manner.

1. Suddenly and unexpectedly (Mat 24:44; Mar 13:36; Luk 12:40).

2. As a thief in the night (1Th 5:2; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 16:15).

3. As the lightning (Mat 24:27).

4. As the flood (Mat 24:37-39).

5. As He ascended (verse 11).

6. In clouds (Mat 24:30; Mat 26:64; Rev 1:7).

7. With a shout and the voice of the archangel (1Th 4:16).

8. With angels (Mat 16:27; Mat 25:31; Mar 8:38; 2Th 1:7).

9. With His saints (1Th 3:13; Jud 1:14).

10. In the glory of His Father (Mat 16:27).

11. In His own glory (Mat 25:31; Luk 9:26).

12. In flaming fire (2Th 1:8).

13. With power and great glory (Mat 24:30.)

IV. Its purposes.

1. To be glorified in His saints (2Th 1:10).

2. To bring to light the hidden things of darkness (1Co 4:5).

3. To reign (Isa 24:23; Dan 7:14; Rev 11:15).

4. Gather His elect (Mat 24:31; 1Th 4:15-17).

5. To judge (Mat 25:31).

6. To reward (Rev 22:12).

V. Duties relative to it.

1. Should consider as at hand (Rom 13:12; Php 4:5; 1Pe 4:7).

2. Be prepared for (Mat 24:44; Mat 24:46; Luk 12:37-38; Luk 12:40).

3. Should love (2Ti 4:8).

4. Look for (Php 3:20; Tit 2:13).

5. Wait for (1Co 1:7; 1Th 1:10).

6. Watch for (Mat 24:42; Mar 13:35-37; Luk 21:36).

7. Be patient unto (2Th 3:5; Jam 5:7-8). (S. S. Times.)

Christs coming

Love makes the tears of farewells sparkle into welcomes, and if we could retain the came impression of Christs loss, His return would be as nigh. It is, moreover, in the New Testament the great event which towers above every other. The heaven that gives back Christ gives back all we have loved and lost, solves all doubts and ends all sorrows. His coming looks in upon the whole life of His Church, as a lofty mountain peak looks in upon every little valley and sequestered home around its base, and belongs to them alike. Every generation lies under the shadow of it, for whatever is transcendently great is constantly near, and in moments of conviction it absorbs petty interests and annihilates intervals. (J. Ker, D. D.)

Waiting for Christs return

The Rev. T. Brown, in The Watchword, tells of a gentleman, accompanied by his little son, having an errand at the East India House, who left the boy upon the steps, telling him to wait till he returned. Shortly afterwards, being much engrossed, with the business which he had in hand, he left the building by another door, and went home, entirely forgetting his son. When the family assembled at dinner the mother noticed the childs absence, and made anxious inquiry for him. Then the incident of the morning flashed upon the fathers mind. He hurried back to the East India House, and there he found the little boy, tired and hungry, waiting, as he had been told to, at the door. He had been there four hours. I knew you would come, father, said he; you said you would. Such secure and childlike trust is the faith of all who die in Christ. All who fall asleep in Jesus, know that Jesus will come for them again, for He said He would, and He never forgets. In like manner the living believer should anticipate His second coming.

The Second Advent

Note here–

I. Our Lords unchanged identity. After having been separated by years of time and leagues of space from a familiar friend, if a reunion is anticipated each will probably speculate on the change which the interval has wrought in the other. He will have formed new friendships and contracted fresh habits; another generation has sprung up since we were companions, and the old links no longer exist; he can hardly feel for me as he once did. But no such surmises can mingle with our thoughts of Jesus. There is one Lord Jesus Christ, and but one. The ascended and coming Saviour is the same who came and suffered (Eph 4:9). A native Indian preacher was met on his way to Church by two young English officers bent on sport. They asked him, How is Jesus Christ to-day? Astonished that two young men from the country who sent the Bible should take the sacred name in vain, he gently rebuked them, but added, If you really want to know how Jesus Christ is, He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever–a word fitly spoken which led the young men to the Saviour.

1. Jesus Christ is the same in–

(1) The perfections of His nature.

(2) The tenderness of His sympathy.

(3) The plenteousness of His grace.

(4) The extent and perpetuity of His rule.

Since His ascension those who have seen Him declare that He retains His identity–Stephen, Paul (1Co 9:1), John at Patmos. As He still bears the marks of His suffering, so He retains sympathy for every member of His body. Although by seraph hosts adored, He to earths lowest cares is still awake.

2. So it is with our friends who have gone homo. They have not lost their individuality–only their mortality and sin. They have not melted into the infinite azure. Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration were the same as in Hebrew story.

II. The certainty and manner of His return.

1. He continually revisits His people.

(1) Spiritually. The King Himself draws near and feasts His saints.

(2) Representatively. The angel of death is His messenger calling His people home.

2. He is coming.

(1) Personally.

(2) Visibly.

(3) Gloriously.

Not as first He came, a helpless infant, but a glorious conqueror (Dan 7:13; Rev 1:7; Rev 14:14). (R. Lewis.)

The Second Advent

These words cannot refer to Pentecost, nor to Christs spiritual communion with His people, because other references point to the Second Advent as in the future, and far more glorious than any manifestations in the past.

I. Christ will come again. In the Early Church the expectation of soon seeing Christ was strong. But when this was disappointed the thought fell into the background. Yet error as to time does not affect the fact. The world waited many ages for the First Advent, but in the fulness of time God sent forth His Son. Why, then, should the Church despair if she must wait ages for the second?

II. Christ will come in glory. He ascended in triumph; He will return in triumph. In the prophets we have visions of glory and humiliation associated with the Messiah, and the Rabbis expected two Messiahs, one suffering and the other conquering. We now see that one man can be both in successive periods. Christ fulfils prophecy by degrees. Had the whole of Christs career fallen in the days of Tiberius the Jews might properly have rejected Him. We look for the final fulfilment of prophecy to the future glory of Christ.

III. Christ will come to reign. His glory will not be an empty pageant. They who look for a visible throne and a secular government fall into the error of the Jews. How He will appear we know not, but we know that His kingdom will be always spiritual, and when it comes all men shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest. This hope should stimulate the Churchs diligence. As she carries out her mission His full reign draws nearer. (Wf. Adeney, M. A.)

The Second Advent: the different feelings awakened by it

Did you ever hear the sound of the trumpets which are blown before the judges as they come into the city to open the assizes? Did you ever reflect how different are the feelings which those trumpets awaken in the minds of different men? The innocent man, who has no cause to be tried, hears them unmoved. They proclaim no terrors to him. He listens and looks on quietly, and is not afraid. But often there is some poor wretch waiting his trial, in a silent ceil, to whom those trumpets are a knell of despair. They tell him that the day of trial is at hand. Yet a little time, and he will stand at the bar of justice, and hear witness after witness telling the story of his misdeeds. Yet a little time and all will be over–the trial, the verdict, the sentence; and there will remain nothing for him but punishment and disgrace. No wonder the prisoners heart beats when he hears the trumpets sound! So shall the sound be of the archangels trump. (Bishop Ryle.)

The Second Advent: the uncertainty of its date

The cloud that enveloped our Saviour still shrouds His expected presence on the throne of judgment. It is a purposed obscurity, a wise and merciful denial of knowledge. In this matter it is His gracious will to be the perpetual subject of watchfulness, expectation, fear, desire, but no more. To cherish anticipation He has permitted gleams of light to cross the darkness; to baffle presumption He has made them only gleams. He has harmonised with consummate skill every part of His revelation to produce this general result–now speaking as if a few seasons more were to herald the new heaven and the new earth, now as if His days were as thousands of years; at one moment whispering into the ear of His disciple, at another retreating into the depth of infinite ages. It is His purpose thus to live in our faith and hope, remote yet near, pledged to no moment, possible at any; worshipped not with the consternation of a near, nor the indifference of a distant certainty, but with the anxious vigilance that awaits a contingency ever at hand. This, the deep devotion of watchfulness, humility, and awe, He who knows us best knows to be the fittest posture for our spirits; therefore does He preserve the salutary suspense which ensures it, and therefore will He determine His advent to no definite day in the calender of eternity. And yet this uncertainty is abused to security; and exactly as the invisibility of the Creator, which is His perfection, produces the miserable creed of the atheist, the obscurity that veils the hour of judgment, though meant in merciful warning, persuades the ungodly heart that none is ever to arrive. (W. Archer Butler, M. A.)

The two Advents: contrast between them

Christ came the first time in the guise of humanity; He is to come the second time in brightness, as a light to the godly, a terror to the wicked. He came the first time in weakness, He is to come the second time in might; the first time in our littleness, the second time in His own majesty; the first time in mercy, the second in judgment; the first time to redeem, the second to recompense, and that all the more terribly because of the long-suffering and delay. (A. Hildebert.)

The two Advents: the humiliation of the first, the glory of the second

The stable of Bethlehem disappears, and behold the clouds are His chariot. That lonely wanderer amid the hills of Palestine, who was forsaken by all, persecuted by many, is now attended by thousands of angels. The hand which held the reed now sways the sceptre of universal dominion. He has ]eft the Cross and ascended the great white throne; and many crowns now sparkle on the head around which thorns were wreathed. He was crucified then amid the execrations of the mob; now He comes amid the hallelujahs of the skies to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. (W. Landels, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 10. Looked steadfastly] Keeping their eyes intensely fixed on their ascending Lord; continuing to look even after he had ascended above the region of the inferior clouds.

Two men stood by them] Doubtless, angels in human shape.

In white apparel] As emblematical of their purity, happiness, and glory.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Christs ascent was the more leisurely, that he might delight their eyes and mind; but especially confirm their faith the more.

Behold, two men stood by them, angels in the shape of men, in white apparel; which angels ordinarily appeared in, to show they retained their native purity, as also to represent the joyfulness of the errand they were usually sent upon.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. while they looked steadfastlytoward heavenfollowing Him with their eager eyes, in raptamazement. Not, however, as a mere fact is this recorded, but as apart of that resistless evidence of their senses on which their wholesubsequent testimony was to be borne.

two men in whiteapparelangels in human form, as in Lu24:4.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven,…. For though he was taken out of their sight by the cloud, they kept looking upwards, and after him, if they could see him again, or any more of him:

as he went up; they looked up to heaven after him, as he went up from the earth, before the cloud took him out of their sight; and still they continued looking, as the cloud carried him up, until it was out of the reach of their sight, being willing to see the last of him in this way:

behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; that is, two angels in the form of men; it being usual with them to appear in human form: these on a sudden appeared and stood on the earth just by them; though the Ethiopic version renders it, “they stood above them”, as if they were in the air over their heads; and they appeared in white apparel, as the angel at the sepulchre in

Mt 28:2 which was a symbol both of their purity and holiness, and of their lustre and glory. The Ethiopic version renders it, “they were clothed with lightning”; they appeared in such a dazzling form, that it looked as if they were covered with lightning; as the angel that appeared at Christ’s resurrection, his countenance is said to be as lightning; which must at once fix the attention of the disciples to them, and strike them with surprise: hence a “behold” is prefixed to this: and hereby they knew that they were not common and ordinary men, or mere men, but angels in such a form.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Were looking steadfastly ( ). Periphrastic imperfect active of , a late intensive verb (intensive and , to stretch). Common in Acts and also in Luke 4:20; Luke 22:56 as well as Ac 10:4, which see.

As he went ( ). Genitive absolute of present middle participle. They saw him slipping away from their eyes as the cloud bore him away.

Stood by them ( ). Past perfect active indicative of and intransitive (note in B instead of for augment, mere itacism).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Looked steadfastly [ ] . See on Luk 4:20.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

Angelic Promise of Christ’s Return, V. 10, 11

1) “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven,” (kai hos atenizontes hesan eis ton ouranon) “And as they were gazing to or toward heaven,” beyond the clouds, toward the realm of glory He left when “He became poor” that believers might become rich, 2Co 8:9; to which place they saw Him start His journey back to the Father, Act 1:11; Eph 4:8-10; Psa 66:18.

2) “As He went up,” (poreuomenou auton) “As He went (was going) up and away,” was raptured away bodily as Enoch and Elijah and we, (of the church who follow Him) shall be raptured alive at His coming in the air, Gen 5:22; Gen 5:24; Heb 11:5; 2Ki 2:11; 1Th 4:17.

3) “Behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;(kai idou andres duo pareistelkeisan autois en esthesesi leukais) “Behold also two men (were standing) stood alongside them (in the midst of their company) in radiant dress,” white, shining apparel or garments. “Two men,” not one, that in he “mouth of two witnesses,” every word might be established or verified, Joh 8:17; Num 35:30; Deu 17:6.

These two men in “white” or “dazzling,” apparel appear to be heavenly messengers, also frequently called angels, and such as appeared to Lot, referred to first as angels, and later as men with a message from God, Gen 19:1-2; Gen 19:5; Gen 19:10; Gen 19:12; Gen 19:15-16. The white apparel of Divine messengers seems to signify that God’s witnesses and messengers should be morally and ethically clean, Rom 12:1-2; It is written of old, “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord,” Isa 52:11; 1Co 6:19-20.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

10. Two men He calleth them so by reason of their form. For although it might be that they had the bodies of men in deed, concerning which thing I will not greatly stand in defense of either part, yet certain it is they were not men; but because this metonymia is commonly used in the Scriptures, especially in the First Book of Moses, I will not greatly stand thereupon. Their white garments were a token of rare and excellent dignity. For God meant by this, as by an evident token to distinguish them from the common sort of people, that the disciples might give better ear unto them; (42) and that at this day we also may know that this vision was showed them of God.

(42) “ Ad eorum dicta attentiores,” might be more attentive to what they said.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(10) Two men stood by them in white apparel.Better, were standing, the appearance being sudden, and their approach unnoticed. The forms were such as those as had been seen at the portals of the empty sepulchre, bright and fair to look upon, and clad in white garments, like the young priests in the Temple. (See Note on Luk. 1:12.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

10. Two men Men in form, angels in nature, or at least in office. So Luk 24:4, calls the two angels at the sepulchre men, which were perhaps identical with these. May they not have been the two men who were with Christ upon the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elias?

Stood by them Without having visibly come there.

White apparel Their unseen approach, their white raiment, and their heavenly words, attested their supernatural character.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing, who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you beheld him going into heaven.” ’

The significance of this event is further emphasised by the appearance of two men in white clothing. Through them a deliberate message is conveyed to the disciples as they quite understandably continued to gaze up into the now empty sky, unable to fully take in what was happening. Some of them had probably already been ready waiting for the call to arms so that their risen Messiah could lead them against the Romans. (That was what their earlier question had been all about). Now they knew that it was not to be, and that they were standing on the verge of something totally new, and they were stunned, and probably felt completely bereft. They would know that they were going to have to totally rethink their position in the light of what Jesus had said during the forty days in which He had appeared to them.

The two men, who by their description as being ‘in white clothing’ are depicted as messengers (angels) from God (it was the recognised way of describing such – Mat 28:3; Mar 16:5; Joh 20:12), gently rebuked them for standing there gazing up into heaven. This was no time to stand and stare. It was time for them to recognise that one day He would return in the same way as they had seen Him go (personally), and that He would then expect them to have completed the task that He had given them. He would come personally to call them to account and He would not want to come and find them either sleeping or staring upwards. God’s prime concern was now that they take out to all the world their witness about Him.

Jesus had now, as it were, gone into a ‘far country’, but one day He would return, and in that day they would have to give full account of all that they had done (Luk 19:12-27).

It should here be noted that with one blow Jesus had transformed all their thinking. He had told them that from now on their thoughts were to be concentrated simply on one question, how can we best take our witness to the world and proclaim Christ, and in what form shall we take it? There would (hopefully) be no more thoughts about earthly kingdoms and fighting and force of arms. As ever Jesus with a few quiet words had removed a host of misconceptions. Whatever their thoughts and expectations had been they had now all to be set aside, without any need for argument, and replaced by a simple mission (simple in concept not in application) which would take up the remainder of their lives (and ours too). How seriously they took it comes out in Act 6:4.

Speculation as to whether the two men in white were Moses and Elijah is totally unhelpful. It produces fictitious ‘blessed thoughts’ not based on fact. We must beware of trying to add to Scripture.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Act 1:10-11. Behold two men, &c. Two angels in human form. As Christ’s resurrection had been honoured with the appearance of angels, it is natural to expect that his ascension into heaven would be so likewise. The angels spake of our Lord’s coming to judgethe world at the last day, a description of which he himself had given in his life-time: For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels. Mat 16:27. Wherefore the cloud whereon our Lord now ascended, being the same with that in which he is to come again, was more bright and pure than the clearest lambent flame; for it was the glory of God, that is, the Shechinah, or visible symbol of the divine presence, which appeared to the patriarchs in antient times, which filled the temple at its dedication, 2Ch 7:3 and which cannot be beheld in its greater splendour by mortal eyes. As our Lord ascended up into the skies, the flaming cloud which surrounded him, leaving a large track of light behind it, marked his passage through the air, but gradually lost its magnitude in the eyes of those who stood below, till, soaring high, he and it vanished out of their sight. In this illustrious manner did our Saviour depart, after having finished the grand work which he came down upon earth to execute; a work which God himself, in the remotest eternity, contemplated with pleasure, which angels antiently with joy described as to happen, and which, through all eternity to come, shall, at periods the most immensely distant from the time of its execution, be looked back upon with inexpressible delight by every inhabitant of heaven: for, though the little affairs of time may vanish altogether and be lost, when they are removed far back by the endless progression of duration, this object is such, that no distance, however great, can lessen it.The kingdom of God is erected upon the incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God,the kingdom and city of God, comprehending all the holy and faithful beings that have been, or ever shall be, in the universe, made happy by goodness and love; and therefore none of them can ever forget the foundation on which their happiness stands firmly established. In particular, the faithful of the human species, recovered by this labour of the Son of God, will view their Deliverer, and look back on his stupendous undertaking, with high ravishment, while they are feasting without interruption on its sweet fruits, ever growing more delicious. The other holy and faithful members of this city of God will likewise contemplate it with perpetual pleasure, as the happy means of recovering their faithful kindred who were lost, and as a grand confirmation of the whole rational and divine system, in their subjection to him who liveth and reigneth for ever, and whose favour is better than life.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 1:10-11 . ] expresses continuance: they were in fixed gazing . To this (not to . .) belongs. Comp. Act 3:4 , Act 6:15 , Act 7:55 , Act 11:6 , Act 13:9 ; 2Co 3:7 ; 2Co 3:13 . might also have stood, Luk 4:20 ; Luk 22:56 ; Act 3:12 ; Act 10:4 ; Act 13:1 . See generally, Valck. Schol. p. 309 ff. Comp. Polyb. 6:11. 7. Strangely erroneous is the view of Lange, Apost. Zeitalt. II. p. 12 : that is not temporal, but as if : “they wished to fix the blue (?) heaven, which one cannot fix.”

] whilst He , enveloped by the cloud, was departing (into heaven).

] as in Luk 7:12 , Act 10:17 ; not as an anacoluthon, but: behold also there ! See Ngelsbach, z. Ilias , p. 164, Exo 3 .

The men are characterized as inhabitants of the heavenly world, angels , [99] who are therefore clothed in white (see on Joh 20:12 ).

] who (not only stood, but) also said : comp. Act 1:3 .

. . .] The meaning is: “Remain now no longer sunk in aimless gazing after Him; for ye are not for ever separated from this Jesus, who will so come even as ye have seen Him go away into heaven.”

] i.e. in the same manner come down from heaven in a cloud as He was borne up. Comp. Mat 24:30 .

On the emphasis , , comp. Act 27:25 ; 2Ti 3:8 .

[99] According to Ewald, we are to think on Moses and Elias, as at the transfiguration. But if the tradition had meant these , and in that case it would certainly have named them, Luke would hardly have left them unnamed. Comp. rather Luk 24:4 ; Act 10:30 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Chapter 3

Prayer

Almighty God, thou dost call us together that thou mayest bless us, and not that thou mayest pour upon us the wrath of thy judgment. When thou dost call men it is to a great wedding feast, yea, to gladness and ecstasy. When we obey thy call and come together to thine house, we find that thy banner over us is love, and that thy welcome is broader than our necessity. Thou art always working for those who have sinned against thee: thy mercy endureth for ever, thy love is a great sea that cannot be dried up: thy mercy and thy power combine to make one great sky, overarching the earth that has left thee in rude rebellion.

We have come to sing of thy mercy rather than of thy judgment: thy mercy is the angel of our life, it is the light of our eyes, it is our one continual comfort. We turn away from our sin and see thy mercy more brightly because of our guilt. What have we not seen of the Lord’s compassion, how tender his heart, how continuous his love. We say with the house of Aaron and with all the houses of ancient time and of modern days, his mercy endureth for ever. Because thy compassions fail not, we are here this day, standing in the Sabbatic light and looking up with expectancy that shall not be disappointed, into the shining heavens. Do not all things come from above, are not all the gifts of God poured down upon us as from a summer sky? Continue thy goodness to us, Lord of the heavens, God of the earth and Father of all souls.

We bless thee that we can thus speak to thee in our mother tongue, with all the fulness and plainness of love, because of the revelation made concerning thee by Jesus Christ thy Son. We know thee because we know him, we love him because he first loved us, and to love him is to love God. For all his wondrous life we bless thee: without it our life would be a life in the night-time, all darkness and mystery. For his atoning death we adore thee, magnifying thy wisdom and thy grace because of this infinite answer to our transgression. We need the cross every day: some days we need the cross to save us from the pit that opens at our very feet: may we run to the cross, hide ourselves in the sanctuary of its sacrifice, abide within the circle of its glowing mystery, and there await the communications of heaven addressed to the soul by the Holy Ghost.

Thou hast given us a handful of days which we call our life, our breath is in our nostrils, and we live to die but in Christ we die to live, he is our live and our immortality, and because we are in him, rooted and grounded in his purpose of grace and mercy, we shall not be cast away.

Thou wilt continue to redeem us daily, until the whole work of Christ is completed in our life and we are beautiful with his beauty. Herein is our confidence, without this we have no rock to stand upon, but with this we are lifted up above all condemnation, and are set in the sanctuary that cannot be violated. Daily come to us with all thy needed love, continually stand by us, that our weakness may become our strength: and that out of the night of our sin we may see the stars of thy love and promise.

Every heart has its own tale to tell thee, of wonder, distress, loss, gain, joy and gladness. Hear thou the voices of individuals as well as the cry of our common delight, and our multitudinous supplication. Come to us according to our individual requirement; where there is great gloom bring thou back the light that has long fled. Where there is the shining of a great light all round about the life, speak thou the word that shall stay the soul against the time of darkness and storm. Where there is a burning desire to serve thee with both hands, with an entire heart and an unbroken will, this is the work of God the Holy Ghost, and thou wilt surely continue it unto the end: if thou wilt not quench the smoking flax, thou wilt not put out the burning light. Where there is indifference or hesitation, an unloving reluctance, a painful and godless wonder, the Lord come with the olden baptism, the one baptism of fire, the gift of the Holy Ghost, burn up wood and hay and stubble, and all refuse and alloys, and call the soul to the youthfulness of immortal love, and to the consecration of a homage unimpaired.

We commend unto thee the poor, the sad, the lonely, the stranger, the wanderer, the prodigal, our friends upon the sea, our loved ones in other lands, those who are appointed to die, the new born, the bride and the bridegroom, the man in business, in anxiety, in success. We commend unto thee all patient sufferers, all who are undergoing silent distresses, the penitent, the contrite, and the broken-hearted oh, thou whose great blue heaven surrounds us all, come nearer to us still with the circle of thy love as it is revealed and glorified in God the Son. Amen.

Act 1:10-14

10. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood [were standing] by them in white apparel;

11. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee [all the Apostles had come out of Galilee] why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner [ Zec 14:4 ] as ye have seen him go into heaven [ Dan 7:13 ].

12. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet [where his agony took place], which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey [six furlongs].

13. And when they were come in [from the open country], they went up into an upper room, where abode [where there were abiding] both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphus, and Simon Zelotes [called also Simon the Canaanite], and Judas the brother of James.

14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women [Luke is the only Evangelist who names them], and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren [the last known fact in her life, and the last mention of the brethren].

The Upward Look

The action of the disciples was undoubtedly natural. There are some attitudes for which we cannot account and for which we think we need not account, because they express the uppermost emotion of the soul. Who knows how long the disciples would have looked upward steadfastly into heaven? Many of us now look up in that direction simply because we have seen our loved one ascend towards the fount of day. We think we are the better for looking, and so we are. No man surely can be worse for looking upward. This is God’s old medicament for wounded hearts and bruised lives. Said he to ancient Israel, “Lift up thine eyes, and behold,” and then he called attention to all the hosts of Heaven, and asked in effect, if that shining host had no meaning in it whether it did not symbolise and attest, in the most emphatic and gracious way, the power and wisdom of One unseen.

We cannot allow the best part of our life to be taken up without looking in the direction which it took in its flight. No man, clothed in what apparel he may be, can chidingly refer to our attitude. The heart will tell its own tale: under some circumstances the heart will have its own way; it is useless to tell the heart that no good can come of this or of that the heart finds good in unexpected places, and draws honey from flowers that have not been suspected as bearing honey, by any naturalist or herbalist. There are times when the heart must be left to itself, to find comfort where it can, to throw itself into such attitudes and postures as are inspired and dictated by supreme and uncontrollable feelings. Why should we hasten from the grave, why should we turn away from it as if we longed to see it no more? There is a time when sorrow becomes sweetness such is the mystery and such the graciousness of life, that loss turns itself into a source of gain, and men can say, without contradiction in reality, though not without contradiction in mere terms “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

We think, when we look after the captive that perhaps we may see the Captor. Surely that explains all; by what threadlets is he lifted up? by what secret mechanism, by what subtle attraction, by what spiritual affinity what is this magnetism that draws him upward to a larger place? So we are kept on the alert, expecting that one day we will see the hand that steals the objects of our love and homage. How wonderfully that hand conceals itself! it is beside us and we see it not, it spreads our table and leaves no finger marks that the rude eyes of the flesh can see, it makes our bed in our affliction and yet there is no sign of anything superhuman. Yet what a wondrous feeling of the supernatural there is, and feeling is beyond language, taking up all words and using them so far as they can go, and then ascending above them, and leaving them behind like the dust of the feet.

While the disciples looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel. Who were those men? There are so many anonymous influences in life there has always been a Man in this Holy Book, that would not give up his name he would be called Prophet, Angel, Messenger, even Voice, but the secret of his name he would not disclose. Now he gleamed like lightning, now he moved like a figure through the darkening air, a figure, yet without definite shape, a figure that was going to be a shape, and suddenly fell back from the form and troubled us with an outline for which we had no measure.

The Man is still in our life, he is the great Presence in our life, did we but know it well. We try so to vulgarise ourselves as to shut out the supernatural, yet ever and anon it breaks through all our arrangements, and troubles us like a sharp pain. But if willingly received, received with welcomes and expectations, he troubles us indeed, but with a great gladness. Sometimes there is pain even in joy, sometimes there is agony in love, sometimes our delight rises into speechless rapture. Do not give yourselves up to atheistic loneliness; expect this Presence, always clothed in white apparel. Why this whiteness? Why this scorn of colour? Why this infinite and ineffable simplicity? What are these arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? The young angel in the tomb was clothed in white; the men that spake to Jesus on the mountain were clothed with white, with raiment so white that no fuller on earth could touch by imitation the dazzling snow. It is not scorn of colour, for white is all colours in one; white is the emblem of light; the emblem of purity, the symbol of Divinity. Who were they were they Moses and Elias? Had they been hovering about ever since they had been on the mountain, when they spoke of the decessus he should accomplish at Jerusalem? Such questions may have no answers which we can supply, yet the very putting of a great question may itself be a religious exercise. Let us understand this matter of interrogation; it is not needful to have an answer always; a question may be so put as to be its own best reply. When we are therefore charged not to be wise above what is written, and not to ask questions, we must accept the exhortation within given limits. If we insist upon answers in words, then is our question asking a temptation and a snare; but if we ask great speculative questions so as to stir the soul’s wonder and evoke the soul’s prayer, to heighten the sky, and widen the horizon, and then say, “What we know not now we shall know hereafter,” speculation becomes one of the highest exercises of the religious life. Encourage that kind of speculation, only see that it does not hurry you into impatience, and into that aggravated state of soul which expects replies in words. Always would I have some great question standing in front of me, luring me onward and so continuing my education. At the same time, in proportion as the question is great, poignant and urgent, would I pray to be enabled to ask it in the spirit that expects no verbal reply.

What said the two men clothed in white apparel? “Ye men of Galilee” that term, once a term of reproach, now becomes, through their utterance of it, the beginning of one of the highest social honours. Names that have been spat upon by the world’s contempt and scorn shall be lifted up into symbols of glory and honour. The speaker glorifies the words he uses: in one man’s mouth the word that would be the sign of vulgarity becomes in another man’s mouth an instrument of refinement and education. The speaker should be above his language, and the speaker’s sincerity should be as a furnace that purifies all that is cast into it and preserves the Hidden gold.

Thus addressed, the speech continued “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” It was not a rebuke; it was a call from enfeebling reverie, but it was not a rebuke of the attitude which was then most rationally and naturally assumed. But our attitudes do puzzle the angels and the white-clad ones that come from heaven to look into our ways of doing things. We are continual perplexities to our celestial and other-world visitants. When the poor sorrow-laden women went to the grave, the young man clothed in white raiment said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” So, when the disciples are looking up steadfastly towards heaven, the voices combine to say, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?”

This why has stirred us from the very beginning of human history. Collect from the Bible all the questions that begin with the word Why, and you will be surprised at their number and their variety. Sometimes God says, ” Why will you be stricken any more?” Often and often he says, ” Why will ye die?” Again and again, with remonstrance of wisdom, he says, ” Why spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?” How we do perplex the better world! the angels will not allow us to look downward, nor will they allow us to look upward too long in either case. The angel at the tomb did not drive away the women: having asked them why they sought the living among the dead, and having told them that Christ was not there, the angel said, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Gentle word! sympathetic speech for angels to make to brokenhearted ones; they catch us in the right mood, they know exactly what to say. He was an angel, or how could he have said, “Come see the place where the Lord lay?” He was a man-angel, a human-heart angel, who knew that looking at an empty place might sometimes be equal to going to God’s church.

Why look at the empty chair? Why look at the little dresses that never more can be worn by the one for whom they were made? Why visit the scenes that have been made heroic by noble valour and sacred endurance? Why climb the pulpit of the famous preacher? Why look into the rooms once inhabited by great historical personages? What is the meaning of all this? The angel says to us, “Why do you spend your time so? Bethink ye. Yet, now that you are here, come, see the place, and out of emptiness get fulness. Because the grave is empty let your heart be filled with sacred delight.”

The women were thus taught not to look too long into the empty grave, and the men were taught not to look too long into the vacant space that was between them and the heavens. What were they then to do? In both cases to take the middle line. Men must live on averages. You cannot be living at the extreme point of melancholy, or the extreme point of ecstasy: you must come to the middle line and work along the so-called commonplaces of history. Life is not a dazzling romance; life is not one continual funeral; nor is it one continual wedding-feast; life is made up of ordinary duties, average occupation, faithful, diligent continuance in the vocation wherewith we are called, and we have to establish our life in patience and in well-doing, rather than to glorify it by ecstasies which perish because of their very violence.

Is contemplation then forbidden in the church? No. Reverie is; monastic seclusion is; idolatry of place is forbidden, and irrational expectation is interdicted, but the soul must have its times of looking into graves and looking into skies and looking very widely about itself, for in such looking is the beginning of strength. If you go to the grave to aggravate your atheism you will find no angel there. If you look up into the heavens and think that life is to be a daily evaporation and sighing, then are you misspending your opportunities, and letting the whole sphere of service fall into decay and ruin.

But to be turned away from the grave! yes, but the women were not turned away from the tomb, they were invited to look into it. And the men were not turned away from the heavens, they were enriched with a great promise “this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Pause long at the words “This same Jesus.” Our fear has been that we should one day see some other Christ. I with you, want to see the Christ of Bethlehem and Nazareth, and Galilee, and Jerusalem, and Gethsemane, and the Cross, and Olivet. We have read of him as being “the same yesterday, today and for ever.” We often wish that we could have seen him in his humiliation. In some way God will preserve the identity of Christ, and we shall see that same Jesus that came to save the world. Who wants to see the glorified Christ alone? so transfigured and so to say so deified that his own original disciples would not know him? There must be the reality of identity; we must so see him as to be able to say at once, without indication from any other quarter, ” That is Christ and none other

How obedient the men were to the heavenly vision. There are times when we are just little children in the hands of God, without question-asking or murmuring or complaining. The men returned to Jerusalem, they were wrought up into a mood of docility, self-renunciation, and utter, simple waiting upon God. We know that we are growing in grace, when we know that we are growing in the spirit of obedience. They would go or stand, or look or return as they were bidden. We have lost that sweet simplicity; we have now become cunning in argument, learned in controversy, skilful in the suggestion of difficulties, and the simplicity of childlike obedience has been lost from our heart. Would that we could open God’s book and read it straight off without any questioning or unbelief! Would that we could take the psalms and read them as if they belonged to us. How much richer we would be, and quieter, and stronger.

To what did the men return? When they were come in they went up into an upper room. In ancient Madrid the rule was that, except there was a special stipulation to the contrary, the upper rooms of all houses belonged to the king. Ideally the notion is full of beauty. However humble your house, if it had been built under the common law of Spain, the upper chambers were royal possessions. Is there any chamber in our house that belongs to the King? Do we keep a chair which He will turn into a Throne by sitting in it? Do we keep one crust which he may turn into a feast by breaking it? Have we one vessel filled with water which he will fill with wine by smiling upon it? Is there anything in all the house that is peculiarly and inalienably the King’s? We might make the whole house his: so all-claiming is his love that he would take it, and what he takes he returns as his kind earth does; the kind, yet voracious earth takes our handful of seed, but returns it in golden harvest.

So the men gathered in that upper room and their names are given, not in the old order, but with some confusion of consecutiveness. What of that? It was a grand thing to break up mechanism at the very first; to read the list either backward or forward, or beginning at the middle and going either way for are we not all called to a common brotherhood in Christ, and are not the last first and the first last, and is not the middle name the most glorious of all? And what is the difference between us when we are judged and valued by the redeeming grace of God? Presently the disciples will try to make a little order in the Church, and they will be punished for it. We have but to turn over the page, and the disciples before the Pentecost will make wise fools of themselves. We love to mechanise, to build little sand houses, which the first wave will swash down and mingle with the common shore. It is better that we should have the order of spontaneity, and that any man should be able to write the list blindfold, and to put the names down as they occur to him. Who cares where his name is, provided it be in the list? Is my name here? I ask not where, but here, on the record, in the Lamb’s Book of Life? I ask not whether on the first page or the last is it in the book? If so, it is enough.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication all life running up into one grand cry unto God. You cannot pray to order: you may appoint your times for prayer and endeavour to keep those times, but sometimes we in breaking our appointment with God best keep it. We cannot always pray as we can pray sometimes. There are days of prayer; harvests of prayer; hours that we could spend, and count them all too short, in the eloquence of loving communion with God. At other times we are speechless in his presence, the heart is dumb, there is no cry in the spirit, and what we have to learn is this, that our speechlessness is oftentimes more eloquent than our speech.

And the women were there, all named together not only the women, but the Woman and Mary, the mother of Jesus one last little line to herself. We hear nothing more about her that is authentic: legend and tradition have their foolish tales to tell about her, but this is the end, so far as the Scriptures are concerned “And Mary, the mother of Jesus.” Do not complicate that simplicity, add nothing to that completeness. She was there, not officially, not presidentially she was there as one of the women whose eyes were as the pools of Heshbon.

There was the little society, doing nothing but praying and when a church does nothing but pray it begins to do the mightiest of all works. I do not say uttering prayerful words and sentences, but PRAYING when it prays with the heart, with the violence of love, yet with the patience of confidence, when it gives itself in unbroken stress towards the heavens, then no angel ever says, “Why speak ye thus steadfastly up to heaven?” The looking was turned aside, but not the praying, the looking after the vanished figure, but not the praying to the presiding Intercessor. We may look too long after that which we think our eyes can descry, but when it comes to speaking heavenward, sending the soul skyward, bidding the heart go on its own messages and knock at heaven’s door, then no men clothed in white apparel say, “Why speak ye so long?” but all heaven says, every angel says, the church of the first-born in heaven says, “PRAY without ceasing.”

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Ver. 10. Looked stedfastly ] Or intently, : wistly, as taken with that sweet sight. See Trapp on “ Mat 28:7 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

10. . ] they were gazing , stood gazing .

. . belongs to ., not to ., see reff.

, not : implying that the cloud remained visible for some time, probably ascending with Him.

, imperf . in sense, as the perf. is present : were standing by them .

] evidently angels. See Luk 24:4 ; Joh 20:12 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 1:10 . : this periphrasis of or with a present or perfect participle is very frequently found in St. Luke’s writings (Friedrich, pp. 12 and 89, and compare the list in Simcox, u. s. , pp. 130 134). The verb is peculiar to St. Luke and St. Paul, and is found ten times in Acts, twice in St. Luke’s Gospel, and twice in 2 Cor.; it denotes a fixed, steadfast, protracted gaze: “and while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went,” R.V., thus expressing more clearly the longing gaze of the disciples watching the Lord as He was going ( , the present participle denoting that the cloud was still visible for a considerable time), as if carrying their eyes and hearts with Him to heaven: “Ipse enim est amor noster; ubi autem amor, ibi est oculus et cor” (Corn, Lapide). The word is also found in LXX 1Es 6:28 and 3Ma 2:26 ( cf. Aquila, Job 7:8 ), and also in Josephus, B. J. , v., 12, 3, and Polybius. Ramsay, St. Paul , 38, 39, gives a most valuable account of the use of the word in St. Luke, and concludes that the action implied by it is quite inconsistent with weakness of vision, and that the theory which makes Paul a permanent sufferer in the eyes, as if he could not distinctly see the persons near him, is hopelessly at variance with St. Luke; cf. too the meaning of the word as used by St. Paul himself in 2Co 3:7 ; 2Co 3:13 , where not weak but strong sight is implied in the word. The verb thus common in St. Luke is frequently employed by medical writers to denote a peculiar fixed look (Zahn); so in Luk 22:56 , where it is used for the servant-maid’s earnest gaze at St. Peter, a gaze not mentioned at all by St. Matthew, and expressed by a different word in St. Mar 14:67 ; Hobart, Medical Language of St. Luke , p. 76. In LXX, as above, it is employed in a secondary sense, but by Aquila, u. s. , in its primary meaning of gazing, beholding. : at the commencement of the apodosis is explained as Hebraistic, but instances are not wanting in classical Greek; cf. Blass, Grammatik des N. G. , p. 257, and see also Simcox, ubi supra , p. 160 ff. For the formula cf. the Hebrew , and on St. Luke’s employment of it in sudden interpositions, see Hort, Ecclesia , p. 179. The use of (which in the most Hebraic books of the N.T. is employed much more extensively than in classical Greek) is most frequent in Luke, who also uses more frequently than other writers the formula to introduce an apodosis; cf. Friedrich, ubi supra , p. 33. : in the appearance of angels which St. Luke often narrates there is a striking similarity between the phraseology of his Gospel and the Acts; cf. with the present passage Act 10:30 ; Act 12:7 , and Luk 24:4 ; Luk 2:9 . The description in the angels’ disappearances is not so similar, cf. Act 10:7 and Luk 2:15 , but it must be remembered that there is only one other passage in which the departure of the angels is mentioned, Rev 16:2 ; Friedrich, ubi supra , pp. 45, 52, and Zeller, Acts ii., p. 224 (E. T.). For the verb cf. Luk 1:19 ; Luk 19:24 , Act 23:2 ; Act 23:4 , and especially Act 27:23 . : in R.V. in the plural, see critical notes and also Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien , p. 90.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

looked stedfastly = were gazing earnestly. App-133.

toward = into. App-104.

heaven = the heaven (sing). See note on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.

went up = was going.

behold. App-133.

men. App-123. These were angels. Compare Act 10:30. Joh 20:12.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

10. . ] they were gazing, stood gazing.

. . belongs to ., not to ., see reff.

, not : implying that the cloud remained visible for some time, probably ascending with Him.

, imperf. in sense, as the perf. is present: were standing by them.

] evidently angels. See Luk 24:4; Joh 20:12.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 1:10. -, men-white) Comp. note on Mat 28:3 [Angels had not before the resurrection appeared in this garb]. A man put for an angel: ch. Act 10:30; Act 10:3; Act 10:22; Luk 24:4, note. But comp. also Luk 9:30. note [Moses and Elias, who were men, appeared like angels at the transfiguration]. [Therefore they were either angels or men.-V. g.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

while: 2Ki 2:11, 2Ki 2:12

two: Act 10:3, Act 10:30, Dan 7:9, Mat 17:2, Mat 28:3, Mar 16:5, Luk 24:4, Joh 20:12, Rev 3:4, Rev 7:14

Reciprocal: Jos 5:13 – a man 2Ki 2:10 – if thou see Mat 9:15 – when Mar 16:19 – he was Luk 19:12 – a far Joh 1:51 – and the Act 7:55 – looked 1Ti 3:16 – seen Rev 19:8 – white

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

0

Looked steadfastly toward heaven. The last word is from OURA-NOS, which is the only word in the Greek New Testament for the English word “heaven.” Yet the inspired writers speak of the third heaven (2Co 12:2) which means there are a first and second. Hence we have three definitions of the word in Thay-er’s lexicon, which I will quote in their order: “1. The vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it. 2. The sideral or starry heavens. 3. The region above the sideral [starry] heavens, the seat of an order of things eternal and consummately [entirely] perfect, where God dwells and the other heavenly beings.” Jesus finally entered the third heaven, but the one the disciples saw Him enter was the first. It was logical that Jesus went “up” to heaven, since that is the only direction that can be realized by human eyes. But the term is accommodative only, for literal directions as to altitude are based on the earth; “up” meaning away from the earth, and down meaning toward it. Were the earth and other material bodies destroyed, there would be no “up” or “down” as we use those terms. Whether Jesus left the earth at noon or midnight, he would still have gone “up” as we use the word. The two men in white apparel were the “angels” of Joh 1:51.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 1:10. Two men stood by them in white apparel. Ewald suggests these two were Moses and Elias, as in the transfiguration; but had this been the case, St. Luke would surely have referred to it: they were two angels, who probably had an especial charge connected with Messiahs work on earth. St. John tells us of two angels in white who were keeping watch in the sepulchre where the body of Jesus had lain (Joh 20:12). St. Luke also (Act 24:4) writes of two angels in the form of men in shining garments in the empty sepulchre.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, How the spectators of our Lord’s ascension were justly transported into an extacy of wonder and admiration. Christ ascended gradually and leisurely, that he might at once confirm the faith, and delight the eyes and minds of his beholders. Whilst they thus stood admiring, two angels, in the shape of men, appear in white, (a colour which they oft appeared in, to shew both that they retained their native purity, and also to represent the joyfulness of their errand which they went upon) and call to the apostles, who were some of them men of Galilee, to take notice that this Jesus whom they now beheld ascending up into heaven, should come again to judge the world, and so come again in like manner, that is, visible, in a cloud, by his own power, with the like majesty, and with the same soul and body. But not one word of the time when; that, not knowing the hour, we may be upon our watch every hour; Ideo latet unus dies ut observentur onmes.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

10, 11. Not only the ascension of Jesus to heaven, but his future coming to judgment, is to be a prominent topic in the coming narrative, hence the introduction here of another fact, which not even Luke had mentioned before. (10) “And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went away, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, (11) who also said, Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in the same manner that you have seen him going into heaven.” These “two men in white apparel” were, undoubtedly, angels in human form. This is the natural conclusion from the words they utter, and is confirmed by the fact that two others who appeared at the sepulcher, and are called “men in shining garments” by Luke, are called “two angels in white” by John. Luke speaks of them according to their appearance; John, according to the reality.

It should be observed that the angels stated not merely that Jesus would come again, but that he would come in like manner as they had seen him go; that is, visibly and in his glorified humanity. It is a positive announcement of a literal and visible second coming.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

"Intently" (Gr. atenizein) further stresses that these men really did see Jesus ascend (Act 1:2; Luk 24:51). Luke used this dramatic Greek word 12 times. It only appears two other times in the New Testament. "Into the sky" (lit. into heaven, eis ton ouranon) occurs four times in these two verses. Luke emphasized that Jesus was now in heaven. From there He would continue His ministry on earth through His apostles and other witnesses. The two "men" were angelic messengers who looked like men (cf. Mat 28:3; Joh 20:12; Luk 24:4). Some commentators have suggested that they may have been Enoch and Elijah, or Moses and Elijah, but this seems unlikely. Probably Luke would have named them if they had been such famous individuals. Moreover the similarity between Luke’s description of these two angels and the ones that appeared at Jesus’ tomb (Luk 24:1-7) suggests that they were simply angels.

The 11 disciples were literally "men of Galilee" (Act 1:11). Judas Iscariot was the only one of the Twelve who originated from Judea. This conclusion assumes the traditional interpretation that "Iscariot" translates the Hebrew ’ish qeriyot, "a man of Kerioth," Kerioth being Kerioth-Hezron, which was 12 miles south of Hebron. [Note: See The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Judas Iscariot," by R. P. Martin.] The "men" announced two things: the Jesus they had known had entered into His heavenly abode, and the Jesus they had known would return to the earth. Jesus ascended in a cloud personally, bodily, visibly, and gloriously, and He will return the same way (Dan 7:13; Mat 24:30; Mar 13:26; Mar 14:62; Luk 24:50-51; Rev 1:7). [Note: See John F. Walvoord, "The Ascension of Christ," Bibliotheca Sacra 121:481 (January-March 1964):3-12.] He will also return to the same place, the Mount of Olives (Zec 14:4). Jesus’ own descriptions of His return to the earth appear in Mat 24:30; Mat 26:64; Mar 13:26; Mar 14:62; and Luk 21:27. This was no repetition of the Transfiguration (Luk 9:27-36).

"Throughout the period of the post-resurrection forty days, Jesus had frequently appeared to the disciples, and during the intervals he had disappeared. Each time, apparently, they had no reason to suppose that he would not reappear shortly, and until this time he had not disappointed them." [Note: Homer A. Kent Jr., Jerusalem to Rome: Studies in the Book of Acts, p. 23.]

What filled these disciples with great joy (Luk 24:52) was probably the hope that they would see Jesus again soon. Without this hope His departure would have made them very sad. The joyful prospect of the Lord’s return should have the same effect on us.

John Maile summarized the significance of the ascension narratives in Luke-Acts as follows. First, he stated, "The ascension is the confirmation of the exaltation of Christ and his present Lordship." Second, it is "the explanation of the continuity between the ministry of Jews and that of the church." Third, it is "the culmination of the resurrection appearances." Fourth, it is "the prelude to the sending of the Spirit." Fifth, it is "the foundation of Christian mission." Sixth, it is "the pledge of the return of Christ." [Note: Maile, pp. 55-59.]

"Rightly understood, the ascension narratives of Luke . . . provide a crucial key to the unlocking of Luke’s theology and purpose." [Note: Ibid., p. 59.]

"Luke’s point is that the missionary activity of the early church rested not only on Jesus’ mandate but also on his living presence in heaven and the sure promise of his return." [Note: Longenecker, p. 258.]

"In Luke’s mind the Ascension of Christ has two aspects: in the Gospel it is the end of the story of Jesus, in Acts it is the beginning of the story of the Church, which will go on until Christ comes again. Thus for Luke, as Barrett says, ’the end of the story of Jesus is the Church, and the story of Jesus is the beginning of the Church’." [Note: Neil, p. 26.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)