Faith and trust

Seeing in the Waiting: Faith and Trust Among the First Disciples

When Jesus ascended, the disciples were called into a waiting they could not control — and that is where faith and trust were born.

BibleVibe Editorial5 min read
Translation：ESV
Acts 1:1-20
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The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up, after that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God: 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: For John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority. But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is nigh unto Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey off. And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were abiding; 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 with one accord continued stedfastly in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in these days Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, and said (and there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty), Brethren, it was needful that the Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and received his portion in this ministry. (Now this man obtained a field with the reward of his iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch that in their language that field was called Akeldama, that is, The field of blood.) For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be made desolate, And let no man dwell therein: and, His office let another take. Of the men therefore that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection. And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show of these two the one whom thou hast chosen, to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place. And they gave lots for them; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Acts 1:1–20 records the hinge of redemptive history. Jesus, having proven Himself alive by many proofs over forty days, gives one final command: stay, wait, and receive. The text does not narrate triumphal victory — it narrates a small group staring at an empty sky, then walking back to an upper room to pray.

📖 Acts
🕰️ Early Apostolic Era (c. AD 30s)📍 Jerusalem📍 Upper Room📍 Mount of Olives
Narration

Context

Acts opens as the second volume of a two-part work addressed to Theophilus, the same reader introduced in Luke 1:3. The 'former treatise' (the Gospel of Luke) had ended with resurrection and ascension; this new treatise begins where the disciples stand on the Mount of Olives, having just watched Jesus vanish into a cloud. The setting is critical: they are a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem (roughly 2,000 cubits), standing on the ridge of Olivet that overlooks the city and the temple. Forty days have passed since the cross. Jesus has appeared, eaten, taught — and now departs. The two men in white apparel, echoing angelic messengers familiar to readers of Luke (Luke 24:19; Matthew 4:23–24 describe Jesus' ministry of healing and testimony), reframe the moment: this departure is not abandonment but coronation. The disciples' question — 'Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' — reveals that their faith still clung to a political imagination of the Messiah. Jesus does not rebuke them; He reframes their trust. Authority over times and seasons belongs to the Father; their calling is to receive power and to be witnesses, moving geographically outward from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Luke 3:23, tracing Jesus' lineage, and Matthew 11:5's portrait of Messiah's works, form the theological backdrop: the kingdom has already come in Person, and now its expansion will be carried by Spirit-filled, ordinary Galileans. The passage ends mid-sentence at verse 14 with the community gathered in the upper room — the same upper room tradition locates as the site of the Last Supper — continuing in prayer, the eleven named apostles alongside the women and Mary the mother of Jesus. Faith, in this text, is not yet the bold proclamation of chapter 2; it is the trembling posture of those who have been told to wait.

Spacetime

The early church era, centered in Jerusalem's upper room and extending from the Davidic city to echoes of Sinai, where apostolic faith took root after the Ascension.

Meaning

The passage defines faith and trust in a way the modern church often resists. Faith, here, is not yet confident proclamation. Trust, here, is not yet visible miracle. Faith is staying in an upper room when every instinct says to act. Trust is believing that a promise you have not yet seen will arrive 'not many days hence.' Several theological veins run through the text: First, faith is the obedience of waiting. The disciples are commanded not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father. Obedience here looks like inactivity to the world. But the text treats this stillness as the necessary soil in which the Spirit will be received. The believer who races ahead of God's timing forfeits the filling; the believer who abides receives the power. Second, trust is the surrender of the timeline. The disciples ask, 'Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' Jesus answers that times and seasons belong to the Father's authority. Faith is not the conviction that God will do what I want when I want it. Faith is the settled soul that says, 'My times are in Your hand' (echoing the spirit of Psalm 31:15). To trust God is to release the calendar into His keeping. Third, faith and trust are personal before they are programmatic. The disciples are told they 'shall receive power' and 'shall be my witnesses.' Note the second person. The promise is not to a movement; it is to persons. Each of the eleven named apostles, each of the women, each of Mary the mother of Jesus — they are the ones who will be filled. Power for witness is given to individuals within a community, never to a strategy. Fourth, faith is geographically forward-looking. The trajectory is Jerusalem, then all Judea, then Samaria, then the uttermost parts of the earth. Trust does not retreat from hostility but expands through it. The same power that works in the upper room will work in Samaria — the region the disciples had once wanted to call down fire from heaven upon (Luke 9:54). Finally, faith is shaped by the empty sky. Two men in white apparel redirect the disciples from gazing upward to living forward. The ascended Christ will return 'in like manner,' but until then, the disciples are not to stare at the heavens — they are to take the gospel to the nations. Christian hope does not immobilize; it mobilizes. We wait, but we wait the way a farmer waits — with hands in the soil.

Apply

Application begins where the text begins: with a command to wait. Most contemporary readers struggle more with waiting than with acting. The Holy Spirit's filling is promised to those who, like the eleven, are 'with one accord' in one place. This suggests three concrete postures for the present day. (1) Choose a place and keep returning to it. The disciples had the upper room. Modern believers need an analogous space — a chair, a walk, a journal, a small group — where they consistently bring their requests before God. Faith is formed less by intensity than by repetition. The text says they 'continued stedfastly in prayer' — a sustained, not sporadic, practice. (2) Surrender your calendar to the Father. If you find yourself restless, asking 'Lord, is this the time?' — that may be the very question Jesus addresses. Trust releases the timetable. You may still work; you simply stop insisting on outcomes. (3) Trust your geography. The Spirit's power is given for a trajectory, not a location. You may be in your Jerusalem — your home, your familiar circle. The next move is Judea — your extended community. Then Samaria — the people you find hard to love. Then the uttermost parts — the unreached, the unfamiliar. Faith does not demand that you skip steps. (4) Preach to yourself about the empty sky. When Jesus is hidden from your senses — when prayers seem unanswered, when worship feels flat, when heaven seems silent — recall the two men in white apparel. The same Jesus who ascended will return. His absence is not abandonment. It is the interval in which His Spirit comes to indwell all who wait. (5) Be named. The passage names the apostles specifically — Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James. God knows your name. Faith grows when we trust that we are not anonymous to the One who commands and indwells.

Reflection

There is a kind of faith that only matures in the waiting room. The upper room was such a place. Eleven men who had walked with Jesus, eaten with Him, watched Him die, and seen Him rise again — these were not novices. And yet their faith, in Acts 1, is small and trembling. They have questions they cannot answer. They have a sky with no visible occupant. They have a promise they cannot yet see. And they have one another, and the Spirit's coming, and the quiet obedience of being where they were told to be. Faith, in this passage, is not yet heroic. It is the faith of ordinary people who, when told to wait, wait. It is the trust of those who surrender their timeline to a Father who keeps His own counsel. It is the confidence of those who know that the cloud that took Jesus will one day bring Him back. If you are in your own upper room — a season of stillness, a chapter of unanswered prayer, a stretch of road where the cloud has hidden the Lord from your view — you are in good company. The first disciples stood exactly where you stand. They were not asked to understand. They were asked to remain. And the Spirit came. Let us learn to remain. Let us learn to trust the Father with times and seasons. Let us learn that power for witness is given to those who wait in one accord. And let us learn that the empty sky is not the end of the story — it is the doorway to a Spirit-filled chapter we have not yet read. Faith is not the absence of questions. Faith is the willingness to wait in a room full of them.

FAQ

Why did Jesus command the disciples to wait rather than sending them out immediately?

Waiting is itself an act of obedience, and it is the necessary precondition for receiving the Spirit's outpouring. Jesus explicitly says, 'wait … not many days hence.' Power comes from the Spirit; the timetable belongs to the Father. To act before the Spirit's filling would be to work in the energy of the flesh; to wait is to position oneself to work in the energy of the Spirit.

Was the disciples' question about restoring the kingdom to Israel a sign of faith or of weak faith?

The question reveals faith still colored by political expectations of the Messiah. Jesus does not rebuke them; He reframes their trust — moving them from the question of 'when' to the question of 'what.' Faith matures when its object shifts from a program to a Person, and from a timeline to a mission.

How are 'faith' and 'trust' distinguished in Acts chapter 1?

Faith is the content believed — the Father's promise, the risen Lord, the faithful Spirit. Trust is the posture assumed — waiting, releasing the timetable, remaining in Jerusalem, continuing in one accord in prayer. Faith is the hand; trust is the open palm. The first ten verses describe what faith holds; verses 12–14 describe what trust looks like.

How do we enter this kind of waiting and trust today?

Choose a fixed place and continue in prayer; surrender your calendar to the Father; expand your faith along the Jerusalem–Judea–Samaria–uttermost-parts trajectory; and remember that the ascended Lord will return in like manner. The upper room is not a geographical location — it is a disposition of the heart.

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