Acts 1:3) To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Before His crucifixion, Jesus had told the disciples that there were many things He had to tell them but they were not able yet to bear (pick up, carry) them – “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. {13} Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” They would need the presence of God’s abiding Spirit to enable them to comprehend it. This is similar to what Jesus told Nicodemas – “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (See means to comprehend or understand).
During those forty days Jesus was teaching, perhaps opening their understanding about the Kingdom of God and maybe even elaborating upon the numerous parables that He spoke pertaining to the kingdom. Before His death the disciples were not able to hear Him because they were still focused upon the kingdom coming immediately and they were jockeying for position in the kingdom. Even after the resurrection and just before His ascension to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, they were still thinking about the kingdom – “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They were thinking of the kingdom promised by God that would be on this earth and Israel being the great and mighty kingdom over all the earth. God had promised that Israel would one day be great and all nations would flow to it. He told of the curse being lifted and the lion eating straw as an ox and children being able to play with poisonous snakes and with crocodiles. He also told of the longevity of life once again as it was in the beginning, so their questions were not completely out of line.
But Jesus was instructing them of God’s kingdom on the earth now and the rule of God now in the hearts and lives of His children. He spoke to them of their total surrender to God in all matters of life. In one of His parables, Jesus told about a man going away after He had given material blessings (pounds in the parable) and how the people sent word that they would not allow Him to rule over them – “But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.” Jesus probably opened their understanding about surrendering to God.
In this parable it says that the citizens were given all they needed for life – abilities and talents and so on, but they took them and refused to allow the King to tell them how to use them or to use them for the King. All of our talents and abilities are from God, but we do not want Him telling us how to use them. We do not want Him to tell us how to live, who to marry, what job to seek, and what education to pursue and where to live. We want to be god of our life. In Deut. 8:18, God reminds us, “ But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,”. Jesus was instructing the disciples in the kingdom so that they might model kingdom living for us and show what it means to be a subject of the Heavenly Father. Jesus wants us to learn how to live under Kingdom authority here and now, then we will be ready for the kingdom when it comes upon this earth and Jesus literally sits upon His throne in Jerusalem.