Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,
which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away; and when they had
entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, 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. All these
with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary
the mother of Jesus, along with his brothers.
In a Nutshell
The apostles spent time together in prayer, waiting according to Jesus' command.
Questions
From what you know, try to piece together the daily timetable of the apostles and Jesus' family. Remember the political situation and their Jewish customs.
Our bibles call Luke's second book "The Acts of
the Apostles". A quick scan of the 28 chapters will tell you that most of
it deals with Peter and Paul. But then, Peter is not mentioned after Chapter
15. In my bible (RSV) the word "apostle" is not found after 16:4.
James, the brother of Jesus, became leader of the Jerusalem church, and he is
mentioned in 21:18. By that time, Jesus' followers were facing a different
situation from what initially confronted the apostles. And keep in mind that Luke
wrote sometime after all these things happened. We read what Peter did and said
(Ch 2), what Peter and John did (3&4). At the end of Chapter 4, Luke
describes the new community in Jerusalem and introduces Barnabas. Chapter 5 is
about Peter's leadership and in Chapter 6 "the twelve" commissioned a
group of "deacons" to look after Greek widows. In this group was a
young man named Stephen who told the gripping story of God's ancient promises
and their fulfilment in the coming of Jesus. He was made to pay for it with his
life; his arrest and execution are told (6&7) - it sounds very much like
the arrest and execution of Jesus. At the beginning of Chapter 8, just after
the last rock has been thrown, Luke tells us that the Public Officer at that
execution was a Pharisee named Saul. Philip's travels in Samaria are also
recounted in Chapter 8 and we recall that Jesus had listed Samaria among the
places where his Spirit filled apostles would take the message. Chapter 9 tells
the story of Saul's surprising conversion and how, befriended by Barnabas, he
went to Jerusalem to meet the apostles. Then we hear how Peter was confronted a
second time by the Holy Spirit's power. This time it was in the home of a Roman
centurion in Caesarea (9&10) and then Peter tells the apostolic synagogue
in Jerusalem what had happened, and they joyfully acknowledge that God had
granted repentance to the Gentiles (11). When the persecution of Gentile believers
was growing, Barnabas was sent to the young and vigorous church at Antioch.
From there he teamed up with Saul and …. We will get to all this later. It is
well to note that though this book is called the Acts of the Apostles, it does
not tell us much about the activities of most of those listed as apostles. For
instance, even Peter gets no mention after Acts 15. But the twelve were those
chosen by Jesus for the initial outpouring of God's Spirit. We have no record
of what most of them did apart from forming a synagogue in Jerusalem to
prayerfully carry out the work in the Spirit's power. We honour them, nevertheless,
even though we do not know much about what they did.