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50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. ~ Luke 24:50-53
During His final forty days on this earth, the Lord Jesus Christ presented Himself alive after His crucifixion by many convincing proofs such as, “See my hands, see my side.” He affirmed that He was truly alive physically from the dead.
The Lord Jesus is the only person who has ever lived whose accomplishments were written before he was born. Today's passage chronicles His ascension into heaven which was God's affirmation that He had accomplished the salvation of all who would believe in Him.
In v.50-51 we read, "50
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his
hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and
was taken up into heaven."
The Lord Jesus led His followers out to Bethany. He lifted up his hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He ascended up into heaven. Luke describes something that is beyond our comprehension with very simple language.
By lifting up His hands, He was pointing in the direction of the source of all blessing. His gaze was positioned toward the One from whom all blessing descends. Then, the Lord Jesus blessed His followers.
In Ephesians 1:3 we read, “We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” He said, "heavenly blessings," because it is only from the vantage point of God that we see that all things work together for the good of those who are learning to give their hearts to God.
Initially,the Lord Jesus gathered His followers together in Jerusalem, and He commanded them
not to leave Jerusalem until the Father sent them the promised Holy
Spirit to empower them for their calling. According to Matthew's Gospel, it was then He gave them the Great Commission which is "As you are going, be making disciples." Being a witness is far more than sharing the gospel with the unsaved, it is following up on their profession of faith with good teaching and with good discipleship. And, discipleship isn’t a program or an event; it’s a way of life, for the rest of our lives.
In v.52 we read, "Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy."
So, at this point, the disciples understood the importance of their worship of this One of whom the entire Old Testament spoke. That which we worship the most is that which defines us most. And, worship is ascribing worth to something. We ascribe our worth to the Lord Jesus by being defined by His word and His culture. We do not do this to gain His approval, we already have that through His performance on the cross. We are defined by Him because He is the truth and He knows the way to live life best.
It was after this that His followers returned to Jerusalem. And, they understood God's plan of salvation. They understood the necessity of the suffering of the Lord Jesus in death, as well as his triumph over death through His resurrection. They knew that the salvation that He had come to provide had been accomplished and that forgiveness of sins could be preached to the ends of the earth. They were equipped with the truth and they were about to be equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit.
In v.53 we read, "And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God." On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the crucifixion, the Holy Spirit came to be in them forever. The goodness and the love of the Father is now ever present with the believer in the Lord Jesus. Every day
brings new opportunities to respond to His invitation to know Him and to be led by His presence through His Spirit. Daily the believer in Christ can be trained and led by the Lord Jesus Himself because of His indwelling Holy Spirit.
Psalm 24 answers the question, "Whose worship of God is acceptable?" According to Psalm 24:3-5, no one can stand before the
Lord without clean hands and a pure heart. And, no human has clean hands and a pure heart. In addition, Psalm 24:7-10 presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of glory who gifts the believer with clean hands and a pure heart.
Our worship of God must be the result of the forgiveness of our sins. And, it is only through the Lord Jesus that we are forgiven by God. The worship that God accepts is the worship that God prescribes in His word. The Lord Jesus told the woman at the well, "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth." Having received the free gift of salvation from the Lord Jesus, we now worship Him in His Spirit and in His truth because He lives within us.
