Introduction (1:1–8) Acts 1:2

Acts 1:2

ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας ἐντειλάμενος τοῖς ἀποστόλοις διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου οὓς ἐξελέξατο ἀνελήφθη

1. Exegesis of the Text

ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας ("until the day") closes out the sentence begun in verse 1, marking the point up to which Jesus' earthly ministry continued. That endpoint is named at the end of the verse: ἀνελήφθη ("was taken up," the ascension). Verses 1–2 together form a single sweep: Jesus began to do and to teach, and continued doing so until the day he was taken up.

ἀνελήφθη is passive. Jesus did not ascend on his own initiative — he was taken up. The grammar shows the ascension to be, before it is Christ's own act, a sovereign act of the Father exalting the Son.

ἐντειλάμενος ("having given commandment") points to the final instructions Jesus gave the apostles just before the ascension. And that command was given διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου ("through the Holy Ghost"). Pentecost (chapter 2) has not yet come, yet the Spirit is already at work in Christ's ministry here. The Spirit's work did not suddenly begin at Pentecost — he was already present through the very last moment of Christ's earthly ministry.

οὓς ἐξελέξατο ("whom he had chosen") reminds us that the apostles were not a crowd who happened to gather, but men Jesus himself had chosen (cf. Luke 6:13).

2. The Point the Text Gives Us

If verse 1 showed that Christ's ministry had begun, verse 2 shows that this ministry continued through the Spirit all the way to the moment of the ascension — and that this same Spirit-empowered ministry was then handed on to the apostles. The commission the apostles received was not their own plan; it was the extension of what Christ had already chosen and already commanded through the Spirit.

The same is true for us today. The work we carry out, the steps of faith we take, did not originate with us. Here we are shown that they stand on the continuing line of what Christ had already chosen and already commanded through his Spirit.