Acts 1 · a question people ask

"Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?" (1:6). How did Jesus answer them?

In the text

Here are his words: "It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth." (1:7-8). Then, "When he had said these things" (1:9), he was taken up. Acts 1 says nothing more of restoring the kingdom to Israel, and these notes add nothing to his words.

The verses

“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
Acts 1:6-9 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Acts 1

Acts 1: Witnesses of his resurrection

The chapter's first words speak of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach "until the day in which he was received up" (1:2), and Peter says that one of the men who had been with them "to the day that he was received up from us" must become "a witness with us of his resurrection" (1:22). In the Greek, received up is the same verb both times.

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Last reviewed October 7, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions