The Ascension. Belief in the Ascension of Jesus follows necessarily from belief in His resurrection. If Jesus rose from the dead not with a natural, but with a spiritual body (and this is undoubtedly the doctrine of Holy Scripture), then it was impossible for Him to remain permanently on earth. The translation of His body to that sphere of existence to which it now properly belonged, was both natural and necessary. The Ascension is only described in detail in the present passage. The allusion to it in Luke 24:51, though probable, is not certain, and that in Mark 16:19 is not by the writer of the Second Gospel. The paucity of allusions to the Ascension in the NT. is probably due to the fact that it was not accompanied by any change in the condition of Jesus. It was on the first day of His Resurrection, not on the fortieth, that Jesus was glorified and invested with all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18); hence the event of Acts 1:9 was regarded by the Apostles as of secondary importance. In the Ascension, as in the Resurrection, Christ is the firstfruits of the human race, opening the Kingdom of heaven to all believers. He is also, as ascended, the high priest and intercessor of humanity, pleading on man's behalf, before the eternal Father, His completed sacrifice (Hebrews 7:8).
6. They therefore] These words imply that at the common meal which the risen Lord shared with His Apostles (Acts 1:4), He made an appointment with them to meet Him on the day of His Ascension. The Galilean meeting described by St. Matthew (Matthew 28:16.), and mentioned by St. Mark, was also by appointment.
Restore.. the kingdom] i.e. make the Jewish nation independent of Rome, and dominant, politically and religiously, over all the nations of the earth. This was the current Messianic expectation of the Jews, and the fact that the author represents the Apostles as still entertaining it, is a mark of the historical truth of his narrative. It needed the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit to teach the Apostles that the Christ's Kingdom is not of this world. The answer of Jesus implies that He will restore the Kingdom to Israel; not, however, to 'Israel after the flesh,' as the Apostles imagined, but to 'the Israel of God,' i.e. to Christian believers of every nation, by making Christianity the dominant religion throughout the world.