Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.  (13) And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying; Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James, the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. (14) These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 

The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke, physician, Gentile and historian of the early church. Our verses today are in the first chapter of Acts where Luke chronicles the before and after events of Pentecost Sunday when the apostles were utterly transformed. Jesus had been crucified and the apostles had scattered in terror – then Christ had been raised from the dead and appeared to them many times – indeed the point of these verses is that the resurrection is the foundation for our faith and the evidence of this historical occurrence is the credibility of the witnesses.

These witnesses had fled in fear and doubt/disbelief only to be united and dramatically changed in belief that Christ was the risen Messiah.  Luke tells us what happened in the forty day period between the resurrection and the ascension when Jesus appeared to the apostles and taught them; they were, to a man, utterly convinced of this truth. At the end of the forty days Christ rose out of this world after giving the great commission to teach the gospel to all the ends of the earth. So convinced were they that in unity the apostles retired -as directed by Jesus – to the hired upper room in Jerusalem while the city was still crowded and dangerous, to await the promised Spirit. Luke names the apostles in the verses to emphasize that these formerly terrified men were now men of faith and obedience and prayer – the contrast of fear that dispersed the apostles after the crucifixion and  just 40 days after the resurrection, with the conviction that Jesus was exactly who He said He was.