After witnessing the Lord’s ascension, the disciples “returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away” (v. 12). The disciples returned to Jerusalem to keep the Lord’s words in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4, so that they might receive the Spirit of power economically as promised by the Father. They were all Galileans (v. 11). For them to stay in Jerusalem, especially under the threatening of the Jewish leaders, meant that they were risking their lives.
Verse 12 says that Jerusalem was a Sabbath day’s journey away from Mount Olivet. According to Jewish tradition, a Sabbath day’s journey equaled approximately three-quarters of a mile.
Acts 1:13 and 14 say, “And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were residing, both Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all were persevering with one accord in prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” Mary is mentioned here for the last time in the New Testament.
Before the Lord’s death, the disciples had no interest in prayer for spiritual things (Luke 22:40, 45-46). Rather, they contended among themselves as to which was considered to be greater (Luke 22:24). But now, after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, their spiritual condition radically changed. They did not contend among themselves, but were burdened to pray perseveringly with one accord, even before the day of Pentecost, when they would receive the outpoured Spirit of power economically (Acts 2). This is a strong sign and proof that they had received the indwelling Spirit of life essentially on the day of the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:22). This is also evidence that they had been strengthened in God’s New Testament economy by the vision of the Lord’s ascension.
We are told in 1:14 that the disciples, together with the women, Mary, and the Lord’s brothers, persevered with one accord in prayer. The Greek words rendered “with one accord” may also be translated “with one mind.”
The disciples might have prayed to be clothed with the Spirit of power, the promise of the Father, for which the Lord had charged them to remain in Jerusalem (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4), and for the commission given to them by the Lord in Luke 24:47 and 48 and Acts 1:8 to bear His testimony to the remotest part of the earth.
God wanted to pour out His Spirit for the carrying out of His New Testament economy, and He had promised to do this. Yet He needed His chosen people to pray for it. As God in heaven, He needs men on earth to cooperate with Him for the carrying out of His plan. The one hundred twenty disciples praying for ten days met this need of God.
The disciples must have been very happy and excited as they gathered together to pray in the upper room. We may infer that, as they persevered in prayer, they prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I believe that during those ten days they prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The resurrected Christ had come back to the disciples and had breathed Himself into them as the life-giving Spirit to be their life and person. Then for a period of forty days spent with the disciples the resurrected Christ kept appearing and disappearing. During those days He taught them concerning the kingdom of God. Then He ascended to the heavens in a visible way. By that time the Lord had completed the education and preparation of His disciples. His ascension marked the completion of the disciples’ “four year course” in the “divine university.”
As one who had completed this course, Peter was now another person. As we shall see, in Acts 1 he was able to understand and interpret the prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Judas and to teach others according to the Scripture. Was Peter like this in the Gospels? Certainly not. But in Acts 1 Peter is very different from what he was in the Gospels, because the resurrected Christ had come into him to be his life and person.
It was a great matter for the one hundred and twenty to pray in one accord for ten days. They were able to pray in one accord for such a long time because they had Christ within them as their life and person. Furthermore, they were Galileans staying in Jerusalem, and they were under the threatening of the Jews, who were persecuting the followers of Jesus. Nevertheless, they were not afraid of the Jews’ threatening, but stayed in Jerusalem and prayed in one accord. This certainly could not have been done by human effort. This was possible because the one hundred and twenty had experienced a change not so much economically as essentially. They had been transferred essentially from the old being into the new being. As a result of this transfer, they had Christ as their life and person and could pray in one accord and not be afraid of persecution.