Luke 24:50-53

He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. It happened, while he blessed them, that he withdrew from them, and was carried up into heaven. They worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

We have arrived at the end of Luke. Here we read that Jesus was physically taken up into the sky as He blessed them. We don’t see this kind of thing happen in the physical world, but this is what the witnesses say happened and I don’t have any reason to doubt their testimony. The disciples defended the truth of these things even while being tortured to death later. That convinces me that they actually saw this happen. As I have said before, I don’t believe Jesus floated up into outer space. The clouds have always been a symbol of the presence of God since Moses time and it makes sense that they would see Jesus be taken into the presence of God using a physical symbol that represented a spiritual reality. We are limited to a physical dimension and Jesus was clearly not limited to this anymore. Luke records even more about this event in the book of Acts and suggests another reason why it was done this way… (a little foreshadowing about our next book)

Notice that they “worshiped Him.” This is a sign that Jesus was God because only God is to be worshiped.

That is how we end Luke. Because of Jesus, we can all live “with great joy… praising and blessing God.” Jesus overcame death and paid for our sin and this was only the beginning of the new life that was about to reach across the whole world.

Dr. Luke continued this story as He follows the life of the disciples and I hope to continue it for you next time as we start the book of Acts. I hope that this book has blessed you as it has me. Amen!

Luke 24:45-49

Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures. He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send forth the promise of my Father on you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”

It is a common belief that in order to have an open mind you must expose yourself to everything. The Bible tells us that this is not the case. We read here that a truly open mind is one that is able to comprehend the truth. Exposing yourself to a lie does not open your mind, it confuses it, and this is what we see very frequently in the world in which we live. It isn’t uncommon for us to hear of a new idea through the media or our friends that sounds true, but when carefully considered proves to be false. Opening our minds to lies is dangerous because it could lead to costly mistakes, to the loss of life, or even worse: the loss of eternal life.

In this passage, we see that it was the proper time for Jesus to teach the disciples without symbolic stories. He also gave them instructions. They were supposed to become “witnesses of these things” and be sent to “all the nations.” First, however they were to wait until they were “clothed with power from on high.”

The problem with an “open mind” in the sense that the world describes it, is that it introduces errors into thinking. Just like a computer with errors in it stops a person from using the computer and wastes their time and effort, so a mind that is filled with errors stops it from providing useful service. An open mind is one that learns and keeps the truth and this is why it was so important that the disciples wait for the “power from on high.” We should also depend on this Power in order to do the work that God wants us to do.

Luke 24:36-44

As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”

But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. He took them, and ate in front of them. He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”

One of the amazing things about the Creationism vs. Evolutionism debate is that both sides have the same evidence. In other words, both sides are “seeing” the same thing. Just because we see something, doesn’t mean that we will interpret it accurately. Our belief system actually causes us to interpret what we see. There really isn’t any such thing as simply seeing and believing because we already believe certain things before we look and what we believe causes us to comprehend the meaning of the things we see whether or not that interpretation is an accurate one. Even in children, existing ideas can make the real meaning of what is observed unclear.

When Jesus appeared before His disciples here, He was immediately faced with this problem. Instead of thinking: “Jesus returned from the dead just as He said He would,” they “supposed that they had seen a spirit.” So, here we have the strange case in which the disciples were seeing a real physical person and assuming that they were actually seeing a ghost. In this case, they assumed the supernatural instead of the physical! It is important for us to recognize that just seeing or learning about something doesn’t mean that the truth is understood. God must do work inside of us in order for us to challenge our existing ideas and beliefs. His word is powerful in that it is able to do this when the Holy Spirit makes it clear.

Apologetics: Notice that Jesus takes the time and makes the effort to provide evidence for the reality of the resurrection. This serves as an example to us. We should also provide physical evidence for the things that we believe as Christians. Even though faith is what God desires, Jesus sets the example that we should be ready to encourage reasoning and not to discourage it. Our faith should be an intelligent one. Jesus doesn’t ask for an emptying of the mind but that the mind should be convinced of the truth.

Philosophy: This record provides a powerful blow against the heresy of Gnosticism. I understand that the Gnostics and others believe that Jesus didn’t actually raise up from the dead physically, but was merely a spirit or a phantom. Luke records that Jesus went to great lengths here to demonstrate the physical nature of His resurrection. This passage of Holy Scripture should not be ignored and should make it clear that the ideas of the Gnostics are wrong.

Luke 24:32-35

They said one to another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Isn’t it interesting that when God speaks to our hearts through His word that it causes “our hearts to burn within us?” This is one of the amazing qualities of the Word of God. It actually gives us hope in a world that gives us only despair. It is also interesting that Jesus appeared to two men that we have not heard about up to this point. I think that this gives us a little lesson about how God chooses people. He doesn’t chase after those who seem important or those who are already well known. He can use absolutely anyone He chooses and He has chosen every one of us to do things that He planned for us to do.

Now there have been several testimonies that Jesus had risen from the dead:

• Jesus Himself before he died.
• The angels at the tomb who spoke to the women.
• The two men on the road.

Up to this point, the 11 disciples have yet to really see this for themselves. Don’t you think that Jesus was encouraging these men to believe His word even without seeing? This is how all of us believe today. Jesus knew that we would be believing much later and that in order for us to believe, we would have to do it without seeing Him yet. Isn’t it amazing that by the power of God through His Holy Spirit we actually believe in Jesus enough to love Him even though we have never seen Him? Not only that, there are many who fight against our belief in Jesus and the Bible. The fact that we can carry on under these pressures is a modern day miracle and evidence that God Himself is working in us.

Luke 24:13-31

Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. It happened, while they talked and questioned together, that Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”

One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”

He said to them, “What things?”

They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of us went to the tomb, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. They drew near to the village, where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.

They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.”

He went in to stay with them. It happened, that when he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.

When I read this passage I can see that this is when the New Testament really begins to unfold. The old is now old and the new is beginning. Instead of speaking in mysteries and stories as Jesus had done during His ministry before His death, now He took the time to detail “from Moses and from all the prophets… the Scriptures… concerning himself.”

Notice the nature of the new body that Jesus had. It was clearly physical or it would not have been able to break bread or walk, but it was capable of vanishing in an instant. Someday we will also have bodies like this.

Just as the eyes of these two men were opened, so it was to be that the message of what Jesus had done would effect the whole world so that the eyes of many would be opened to the realization that God had visited mankind and had overcome death and sin.

Luke 24:4-12

It happened, while they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth.

They said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?”

They remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles. These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

At another critical point in the record of Jesus’ life we see yet another supernatural visitation. The first one we discussed in this study was in lesson 3 when the angel came to John the Baptist’s father. An interesting thing about Christianity, is that it depends upon faith in events that were testified to, by witnesses, but that defy our understanding of normal. The Bible is a supernatural book and faith in the Bible means that you believe in the existence of the supernatural. This doesn’t mean that you don’t think critically, it just means that the we allow truth to stand on its own even if we don’t understand how it works.

These men explained to the women that Jesus had come back alive from or “risen” from the dead. When the women get back, the men don’t believe them. Peter goes to check out the empty tomb, but instead of believing what they said he just “departed to his home, wondering what had happened.”

Social Order: This is one of the many places where God chose to use women instead of men. These women were the holders of the truth and God expected the men to believe them, but they didn’t. The God of the Bible is a defender of the equal value of women in society. I am told that at this time in Rome, a woman’s word didn’t hold up in court. We can see here that in God’s economy a woman’s word is equal to that of a man’s.

Apologetics: It is interesting that this record shows that even the disciples were reluctant to believe in this supernatural occurrence after all of the miracles they had already witnessed. This give strength to what Dr. Luke records here. It is more common for a false document to make claims that are unnaturally absent of things like mistake making disciples and the testimony of women in order to make it more believable. The presence of less-than-perfect humanity is evidence that the story is true. It would have also been a better lie to show that Peter was a great leader that always believed and should be followed, but we clearly read that Peter was a normal person and far from perfect.