Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 1:4

"and, being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, [said he], ye heard from me:" — Acts 1:4 (ASV)

In vv.4–5 Luke parallels his emphasis on the living Christ by stressing the coming and baptism of the Holy Spirit as essential to the advance of the Gospel. Luke gives us a specific occasion on which Jesus and his disciples ate together and he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the coming of the gift of the Holy Spirit, who had been promised by God the Father and spoken of by Jesus . This promise Jesus had made on behalf of the Father (see Jn 14:16-21, 26; 15:26–27; 16:7–15).