Today’s passage: Luke 24:36-53
Helpful thoughts:
- Jesus’ appearance was not shiny or startling in any way. In His previous appearances, the others did not perceive Him to be anything strange. What startled everyone was His ability to simply appear in the room.
- Jesus, in His resurrection body was able to appear and disappear…and also to eat food, to be touched, etc.
- The same will be true of our bodies in the resurrection (Philippians 3:20-21).
- What Jesus did for the two on the road to Emmaus, He now does for the rest of the disciples.
- Scripture is taught.
- Their minds are graciously opened.
- The Gospel (The Word of Christ) is to be preached in the power of the Spirit to all nations.
Questions to consider:
- Is repentance necessary for salvation? What did Jesus say in verse 47?
- Sometimes we think as though we are Jerusalem and the Gospel is going out from here to the ends of the earth…but Jerusalem is Jerusalem. What does the fact that we are in Mt. Pleasant, MI, in North America, reading and studying the Bible, believing in Jesus, and still telling others about Him prove? How has Scripture continued to be fulfilled?
- Knowing that Jesus could have simply disappeared/vanished, why did He ascend in the sight of all the disciples? What things should this affirm/confirm?