What Did Jesus Do After The Resurrection?



What did Jesus do after the Resurrection and before He ascended to heaven?

Acts 1:3 tells us that after the resurrection there was a period of 40 days in which Jesus appeared to His disciples. We see three things that Jesus did during that time.

They once were blind to the truth of the Bible but Jesus gave them spiritual sight.

1) Jesus restored his disciples’ faith & gave them hope

Jesus’ crucifixion devastated His disciples. In Matthew 19:27 Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you.” And in John 6:68 he said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

But in John 20:9 we also learn that the disciples “did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” That means while Jesus was being crucified, from his disciples’ perspective, everything they had hoped in and believed in was dying right before their eyes.

So after His resurrection Jesus set out restore their hope.

We see Him appear to a sobbing Mary Magdalene in John 20:15-18. With one simple word, “Mary”, Jesus restored her faith and gave her hope.

Then in John 20:19-30 Jesus appeared to His disciples and “showed them his hands and side”, which had been pierced for their sin. Then we’re told the disciples were “overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” They had misunderstood. What the world had meant for evil God meant for good.

2) He taught his disciples how the scriptures pointed towards him

As we saw earlier Jesus’ disciples did not understand what the Scripture said about Him. That’s why once their faith was restored Jesus moved to solidify that faith in Scripture

We see this in Acts 1:2-3 where we find Jesus giving the apostles commandments and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Again in Luke 24:27 we see Jesus, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, explained to His disciples what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

And again in Luke 24:32 where the disciples’ “hearts burned” as He “opened the Scripture” to them. They once were blind to the truth of the Bible but Jesus gave them spiritual sight.

3) He sent his followers out to share the good news

With their faith restored and established, Jesus’ final instructions to the Apostles were for them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. To share with the world the great things that Jesus has done for us.

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