After the Lord breathed Himself into the disciples, He stayed with them economically for forty days. Concerning this, Acts 1:3 says, “To whom also He presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, through a period of forty days, appearing to them and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God.” The Lord’s presenting Himself alive was for the purpose of training the disciples to practice and enjoy His invisible presence. In the Gospel of John there is no word or hint indicating that the Lord left the disciples after breathing Himself into them. Actually He stayed with them, although they were unconscious of His presence. The Lord’s further appearing to them was His manifestation. Before His death the Lord’s presence was visible in the flesh. After His resurrection, His presence was invisible in the Spirit. His manifestations, or appearings, after His resurrection were to train the disciples to realize, enjoy, and practice His invisible presence, which is more available, prevailing, precious, rich, and real than His visible presence. The Lord’s invisible presence is just the Spirit in His resurrection, whom He breathed into the disciples and who would be with them all the time.
After the Lord breathed Himself into the disciples, He never left them essentially. However, economically He would appear and then disappear. The Lord appeared and disappeared economically in order to train the disciples, to finish the last half year of their education. Regarding this, we should not speak of His going and coming but of His appearing and disappearing.
For a period of forty days the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples. In the Bible forty days are a period of trial and testing. We know from the Old Testament that forty days were a time of testing and suffering (Deut. 9:9, 18; 1 Kings 19:8). When the Lord Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil, He fasted forty days and forty nights (Matt. 4:1-2). Also, the children of Israel were tested, educated, by God in the wilderness for forty years. Forty, therefore, is the number of testing, proving, trying, educating. In Acts 1 the Lord appeared and disappeared during a period of forty days in order to test and train His disciples.
From the time He breathed Himself as the Spirit into the disciples on the day of His resurrection, the resurrected Christ dwelt in them. His appearing spoken of in Acts 1:3 does not mean that He ever left the disciples. It simply means that He made His presence visible to them, training them to realize and enjoy continually His invisible presence.
The disciples had become accustomed to the visible presence of Christ. For three and a half years He had been with them visibly in the flesh. They saw Him, touched Him, and ate with Him. One of them even reclined on His bosom (John 13:23). Suddenly His visible presence was taken away. Then the Lord came back to the disciples to breathe Himself into them. From that time onward the Lord’s presence with the disciples became invisible. It was no longer a physical presence but a spiritual presence.
Although the Lord’s spiritual presence is invisible, it is more real and vital than His visible presence. The Lord’s visible presence involved the elements of space and time. But with His invisible presence there is neither the element of space nor the element of time. His invisible presence is everywhere. Wherever we are, the Lord’s invisible presence is with us. Actually, His invisible presence is not merely with us—it is within us. When the Lord was with the disciples in the flesh, His presence with them was outward and visible. But after He breathed Himself into them as the life-giving Spirit, His presence became inward and invisible.
Because the disciples were not used to the Lord’s invisible presence, the Lord stayed with them economically for forty days, appearing and disappearing. In this way He trained them to practice and enjoy His invisible presence.