The Return to Jerusalem
J. Bennett, D. D. Acts 1:12-14 Then returned they to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.… The distance was a "Sabbath-day's journey"; not that Moses had limited a journey on the Sabbath; but the Rabbins derived the rule from the prohibition to depart, on the sacred day, from the camp, which was supposed to be two miles square. The return, had it not been for the promise of the Father, would have been like turning from the gates of heaven to the antechamber of hell. I. THE PLACE. "An upper room." This could hardly have been in the temple, for the ecclesiastical authorities were too hostile to suffer such a company within the sacred precincts. It was probably the room in which our Lord ate His last supper, and which, from His manner of pointing it out, seems to have belonged to a disciple. The Jews had such an upper room for their devotions, as we read of Peter going up to one, for prayer; and of Paul holding, in an upper room, a meeting of the Church at Miletus. In the houses of Jerusalem such apartments were provided for those who came up to keep the feasts. Here the disciples "abode," i.e., probably spent the day there; retiring to separate lodgings at night. What reflections must have rushed into their minds on coming to the scene of the Last Supper! How much better they now understood our Lord's discourse, and how soothing must have been the remembrance of His prayer! After seeing Him make the clouds His chariot, what must they have thought of His condescension in washing the disciples' feet! In that room, after a few days, descended the Spirit, of which Jesus said not in vain, "He shall glorify Me." II. THE COMPANY. As if to show how important it is for us to know who the apostles were, Luke, after giving the list in the Gospel, here repeats it. "The women" seem to be those who came up with our Lord "from Galilee, and who ministered to Him of their substance." "Mary, the mother of Jesus," not of God, as she has been impiously called, is there; and this is all that the inspired history says of her whom "all generations shall call blessed." Verily the Scriptures are not chargeable with Mariolatry. By "the brethren" of Christ being there, we conclude that it could no longer be said, "neither did they believe on Him." The "hundred and twenty" included probably the seventy evangelists; some inhabitants of Jerusalem, who, like the master of the house, believed, and such persons as Joseph of Arimathea. This upper room was the cradle of the Christian Church, now an infant, but soon to become a giant and stride over a conquered world. Who then would "despise the day of small things"? III. THEIR EMPLOYMENT. 1. Their harmony was secured by the discourses which they had heard and the scenes they had witnessed, which had extinguished self, that fire-brand of discord. With a world ready to rise in arms against them, their strength lay in union; and now that the traitor, the discordant one, was gone, we may say, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" 2. They were commanded to wait, but not to be idle; and their business was prayer for that Spirit who was to fit them for their work. They came from this retirement, to live in the view of a world, eyed by enemies as the butt of persecution, and by friends as examples and guides. Not the least of the blessings which resulted from these days of prayer was the lesson given to public men to prepare for great doings by secret devotions. (J. Bennett, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. WEB: Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.