Acts is a continuation of the book of Luke. The book of Luke covered the time period from the birth of Jesus to his death, resurrection and return to heaven. Acts continues the story of what happens following Jesus’ return to heaven. Luke tells his readers that Jesus promised he would return, but in the meantime, the message of Jesus was to be spread throughout the world. Many see verse 8 as an outline for the remainder of the book. Jesus’ followers spend some time in prayer and studying the Old Testament, ultimately determining that they need to replace Judas with a new Apostle.
When Jesus returned to heaven, his followers stood around looking up. They needed to be reminded to get to work doing what Jesus had told them to do, which was spreading his message throughout the world. When people are going through tough times, they often long for Jesus to return. Sometimes, they even make the mistake of predicting when Jesus will return. However, when Jesus returns, our opportunity to reach others for Jesus ends. In tough times, we long for him to return, but when we think of the friend or loved-one who still needs Jesus, we wish he would hold off a bit longer. Since we don’t know when he will return, let’s reach as many as we can while we can.