Great Joy – Luke 24:50-53

The other Gospels show us other appearances of Jesus to the disciples in Galilee that Luke leaves out.  Luke skips these and goes to Jesus’ ascension to heaven from the Mount of Olives.  It is not Luke’s purpose to show every appearance of the forty days Jesus spent after his resurrection until his ascension.  Luke will show us more in his book of Acts.  But his purpose in the Gospel is to cut to the chase and leave us with the same joy the disciples had at seeing Jesus is not finished but has only just begun.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.  (Luke 24:50-53 ESV)

Luke ends his Gospel with Jesus’ ascension and the disciples’ joyful worship.  The expectation of the nation has come and though they did not anticipate such opposition to the Messiah or to have to convince others that Jesus was him, their joy overflows.  Luke’s account in Acts will pick up right before this ascension and give us more detail about how Jesus wanted them to be on mission, but for now continual worship in the temple is an appropriate ending.

With Jesus’ ascension into heaven begins Jesus’ present session.  He is working through His church to bring about the conclusion of His plan to restore the kingdom.  It involves world evangelism, as we will see in Acts.  We are told that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, intercedes for us counter to the accusations of the devil day and night, and has applied the blood of his own sacrifice to the heavenly altar thus securing our forgiveness.