Acts / Question
Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). He said they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit “not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).
Acts opens by linking back to an earlier book addressed to Theophilus, which narrated what Jesus began doing and teaching up to his being taken up. These verses function as the opening connection between two volumes: the “first book” and the new account now beginning. The writer reminds Theophilus of the earlier narrative’s scope and then quickly sets up the starting point for Acts: what happened after Jesus’ suffering and before the public events that follow.
Acts starts by explicitly linking itself to an earlier written account for the same addressee, Theophilus. The writer frames that earlier book as covering what Jesus began to do and teach, up to Jesus being “received up,” after giving instructions to the chosen apostles.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Acts 1:4, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
4Being assembled together with them, he charged them, "Don`t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.