Disciples and Women Praying in the Upper RoomBible World
24:53Luke 24:53
And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
After Jesus led His disciples to Bethany on the Mount of Olives, blessed them with hands extended in protecting care, and was parted from them and carried up into heaven hidden by a cloud of angels, they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising, blessing, and thanking God. Their great joy came not from being deprived of their Master and freed from trials, but from the angels' assurance that the same Jesus would return in person, so His departure did not end their hope of His presence. They rejoiced because the prophecies about Christ had been literally fulfilled and the Scriptures made clear, and because He had wrought out salvation, answered the claims of the law as a perfect offering, and gone to His Father's throne to carry forward atonement as man's Advocate and Intercessor with unchanged sympathy for suffering humanity. Their continual praise in the temple was obedient, active waiting for the promise of the Father, meeting together to present their requests in Jesus' name through their Representative at the throne until they received power from on high before going out to work. With that praise they told the wonderful story of His resurrection and ascension, bearing witness beginning at Jerusalem and carrying the gospel to all nations in the power of the Spirit that converted thousands in a day.
Ascension Setting and Worship
Jesus led the disciples out as far as Bethany to the Mount of Olives, a place linked with His prayers, suffering, and rejection. There He lifted His hands and blessed them with outstretched hands as assurance of His protecting care, and while blessing them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven, hidden by a cloud of angels. His visible ascent was in harmony with the meekness and quietness of His life.
The verse closes His post-resurrection work in which He opened the disciples' understanding of the Scriptures and declared that He must suffer and rise the third day. He charged them as His witnesses to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, promised to send the Father's promise of power from on high, and commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with that power. This giving of His last words and full and ample promise just before His ascension, escorted in triumph by the heavenly throng to the city of God, gives assurance of a living Saviour and Advocate in the heavenly courts.
In response they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, not in grief. They were continually in the temple praising, blessing, and thanking God, regularly gathering there to worship and spending their time in God's house with praise and thanksgiving in obedience to His command to tarry. Their continual worship in the temple followed the ascension itself.
The verse gives reason to praise the Lord God of heaven because He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save the sinful race. Its whole twenty-fourth chapter of Luke is wonderful and to be studied. It reveals that everyone who repents and is converted will receive the gift of salvation made possible by the Saviour suffering the penalty of death, that all who come to the Father through faith in Christ, laying hold of Him by faith and following His example, receive assurance of forgiveness of sins, and that His sufferings make sanctification through belief of the truth possible for every soul.
Reasons for Joyful Praise
The great joy with which they returned to Jerusalem was not joy at His departure and separation from them, not joy at being deprived of their Master and Teacher, and not joy at freedom from earthly trials. It came from the assurance given by the angels that the same Jesus who had ascended would come again in person, and from their living expectation that they would see Him, so that His going away did not end their hope of His presence. They were not left mourning after they had watched Him ascend, because that promise of His return sustained them.
Their confident worship and joyful praise followed their recognition that the prophecies concerning Christ had been literally fulfilled and the Scriptures had become clear to them. That understanding gave them new faith and assurance, replacing earlier uncertainty, anguish, and despair with divine assurance received through the Holy Ghost, and their testimony out of that assurance moved the hearts of many. They rejoiced because Jesus had wrought out salvation for man, had answered the claims of the law, and had become a perfect offering for man. He had gone to occupy His Father's throne to carry forward in heaven the work of atonement begun on earth, standing as man's Advocate and Intercessor with the Father.
They kept distinctly before their minds the beauty and majesty of His life and the mysterious union of the divine and the human in His nature. They knew He remained in heaven with unchanged sympathies, identifying Himself with suffering humanity, receiving the prayers of His people and pleading with God the merits of His own precious blood, showing His wounded hands and feet as remembrance of the price paid for His redeemed. They rejoiced also because Jesus had assured them He would send the Comforter as an equivalent for His visible presence, and had said they would rejoice because He went to the Father. Their joy and praise accompanied the sanctification blessing Christ had given them, which made them loving, gentle, and kind.
Their worship expressed gladness and triumph marking the triumph of the church in His resurrection and ascension, not sorrow, grief, shame, confusion, defeat, mourning, or wailing over disappointed hopes after His trial, condemnation, and ignominious death. With buoyant spirits and faces beaming with a joy not born of earth they praised and thanked God, contrary to what people expected of them as sorrowful and defeated, so that priests and rulers could not understand the mystery. His ascent from the Mount of Olives points to His return to the same mountain as a glorious, triumphant King welcomed by the redeemed. He will come again escorted by the heavenly host to stand again upon the Mount of Olives, while Hebrew hallelujahs mingle with Gentile hosannas and myriads of voices unite in Crown him Lord of all, having ascended to prepare mansions for His obedient children and to return to take them unto Himself, an occasion for great joy and longing anticipation rather than dreaded calamity.
Waiting and Witnessing Church
Their continual praise in the temple was not idle but active, obedient waiting for the promise of the Father, the outpouring of the Spirit and power from on high. In obedience to the command to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with power from above, they spent their time in God's house with praise and thanksgiving. They met together to present their requests to the Father in Jesus' name, knowing they had a Representative in heaven, an Advocate at the throne of God. They pleaded Christ's death, resurrection, place at the right hand of God, and intercession as the reason their prayers would be answered and their joy made full. Their joy and praise accompanied the sanctification blessing Christ had given them, making them loving, gentle, and kind, yet they still had to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power before going out to work for Him.
With their praise they told others the wonderful story of Christ's glorious resurrection and ascension. Their joyful praise and confident witness showed the divine assurance they had received through the Holy Ghost after recognizing that the prophecies about Christ had been literally fulfilled and the Scriptures had become clear to them, giving new faith and assurance. Their testimony was received by many and moved people's hearts, so that many believed.
The verse stands at the close of a chapter that gives Christ's followers work to do: after receiving the Holy Spirit they are to bear witness beginning in Jerusalem and carrying the gospel to all nations. The commission Christ gave His disciples with promise of power from God for preaching the gospel is given to believers now, and that same power is promised to them now. It was the power that made the disciples' preaching so mighty that thousands were converted in a day. Believers must place themselves where God can give them that power and must use it to warn fellow beings, work prayerfully for neighbors, do earnest sanctified evangelical work, enter unworked cities and make centers of truth, and bring Bible truth before many to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord.
After Jesus led His disciples to Bethany on the Mount of Olives, blessed them with hands extended in protecting care, and was parted from them and carried up into heaven hidden by a cloud of angels, they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising, blessing, and thanking God. Their great joy came not from being deprived of their Master and freed from trials, but from the angels' assurance that the same Jesus would return in person, so His departure did not end their hope of His presence. They rejoiced because the prophecies about Christ had been literally fulfilled and the Scriptures made clear, and because He had wrought out salvation, answered the claims of the law as a perfect offering, and gone to His Father's throne to carry forward atonement as man's Advocate and Intercessor with unchanged sympathy for suffering humanity. Their continual praise in the temple was obedient, active waiting for the promise of the Father, meeting together to present their requests in Jesus' name through their Representative at the throne until they received power from on high before going out to work. With that praise they told the wonderful story of His resurrection and ascension, bearing witness beginning at Jerusalem and carrying the gospel to all nations in the power of the Spirit that converted thousands in a day.
Ascension Setting and Worship
Jesus led the disciples out as far as Bethany to the Mount of Olives, a place linked with His prayers, suffering, and rejection. There He lifted His hands and blessed them with outstretched hands as assurance of His protecting care, and while blessing them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven, hidden by a cloud of angels. His visible ascent was in harmony with the meekness and quietness of His life.
The verse closes His post-resurrection work in which He opened the disciples' understanding of the Scriptures and declared that He must suffer and rise the third day. He charged them as His witnesses to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, promised to send the Father's promise of power from on high, and commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with that power. This giving of His last words and full and ample promise just before His ascension, escorted in triumph by the heavenly throng to the city of God, gives assurance of a living Saviour and Advocate in the heavenly courts.
In response they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, not in grief. They were continually in the temple praising, blessing, and thanking God, regularly gathering there to worship and spending their time in God's house with praise and thanksgiving in obedience to His command to tarry. Their continual worship in the temple followed the ascension itself.
The verse gives reason to praise the Lord God of heaven because He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save the sinful race. Its whole twenty-fourth chapter of Luke is wonderful and to be studied. It reveals that everyone who repents and is converted will receive the gift of salvation made possible by the Saviour suffering the penalty of death, that all who come to the Father through faith in Christ, laying hold of Him by faith and following His example, receive assurance of forgiveness of sins, and that His sufferings make sanctification through belief of the truth possible for every soul.
Reasons for Joyful Praise
The great joy with which they returned to Jerusalem was not joy at His departure and separation from them, not joy at being deprived of their Master and Teacher, and not joy at freedom from earthly trials. It came from the assurance given by the angels that the same Jesus who had ascended would come again in person, and from their living expectation that they would see Him, so that His going away did not end their hope of His presence. They were not left mourning after they had watched Him ascend, because that promise of His return sustained them.
Their confident worship and joyful praise followed their recognition that the prophecies concerning Christ had been literally fulfilled and the Scriptures had become clear to them. That understanding gave them new faith and assurance, replacing earlier uncertainty, anguish, and despair with divine assurance received through the Holy Ghost, and their testimony out of that assurance moved the hearts of many. They rejoiced because Jesus had wrought out salvation for man, had answered the claims of the law, and had become a perfect offering for man. He had gone to occupy His Father's throne to carry forward in heaven the work of atonement begun on earth, standing as man's Advocate and Intercessor with the Father.
They kept distinctly before their minds the beauty and majesty of His life and the mysterious union of the divine and the human in His nature. They knew He remained in heaven with unchanged sympathies, identifying Himself with suffering humanity, receiving the prayers of His people and pleading with God the merits of His own precious blood, showing His wounded hands and feet as remembrance of the price paid for His redeemed. They rejoiced also because Jesus had assured them He would send the Comforter as an equivalent for His visible presence, and had said they would rejoice because He went to the Father. Their joy and praise accompanied the sanctification blessing Christ had given them, which made them loving, gentle, and kind.
Their worship expressed gladness and triumph marking the triumph of the church in His resurrection and ascension, not sorrow, grief, shame, confusion, defeat, mourning, or wailing over disappointed hopes after His trial, condemnation, and ignominious death. With buoyant spirits and faces beaming with a joy not born of earth they praised and thanked God, contrary to what people expected of them as sorrowful and defeated, so that priests and rulers could not understand the mystery. His ascent from the Mount of Olives points to His return to the same mountain as a glorious, triumphant King welcomed by the redeemed. He will come again escorted by the heavenly host to stand again upon the Mount of Olives, while Hebrew hallelujahs mingle with Gentile hosannas and myriads of voices unite in Crown him Lord of all, having ascended to prepare mansions for His obedient children and to return to take them unto Himself, an occasion for great joy and longing anticipation rather than dreaded calamity.
Waiting and Witnessing Church
Their continual praise in the temple was not idle but active, obedient waiting for the promise of the Father, the outpouring of the Spirit and power from on high. In obedience to the command to tarry in Jerusalem until endued with power from above, they spent their time in God's house with praise and thanksgiving. They met together to present their requests to the Father in Jesus' name, knowing they had a Representative in heaven, an Advocate at the throne of God. They pleaded Christ's death, resurrection, place at the right hand of God, and intercession as the reason their prayers would be answered and their joy made full. Their joy and praise accompanied the sanctification blessing Christ had given them, making them loving, gentle, and kind, yet they still had to wait in Jerusalem for the promised power before going out to work for Him.
With their praise they told others the wonderful story of Christ's glorious resurrection and ascension. Their joyful praise and confident witness showed the divine assurance they had received through the Holy Ghost after recognizing that the prophecies about Christ had been literally fulfilled and the Scriptures had become clear to them, giving new faith and assurance. Their testimony was received by many and moved people's hearts, so that many believed.
The verse stands at the close of a chapter that gives Christ's followers work to do: after receiving the Holy Spirit they are to bear witness beginning in Jerusalem and carrying the gospel to all nations. The commission Christ gave His disciples with promise of power from God for preaching the gospel is given to believers now, and that same power is promised to them now. It was the power that made the disciples' preaching so mighty that thousands were converted in a day. Believers must place themselves where God can give them that power and must use it to warn fellow beings, work prayerfully for neighbors, do earnest sanctified evangelical work, enter unworked cities and make centers of truth, and bring Bible truth before many to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord.