Before getting started this morning, I need to add an important correction to last week’s message.

Although Jesus was resurrected from death to life on the third day, He did not ascend back into Heaven until at least 40 days after His death. 

I had wrongfully taught that Jesus resurrected, ascended to Heaven, was seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father, and then decided to return to hang out with His buddies.  This is not a Biblically accurate timing of events, though.

Instead, He resurrected, then remained on earth and hung out with His buddies, then ascended to Heaven after 40 days to be seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father.

We find the clearest evidence of this timeline here:

Acts 1:1-11

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

This morning, we’re going backwards a few chapters to learn from a few other times when the resurrected Jesus came to be with His disciples.

The biggest lesson for us from these accounts is to be discerning and more aware of what God is doing in our midst.  This was a tremendously uncertain and concerning time of danger for the disciples of Jesus.  Their lives were literally in danger during this waiting season between the promise and the fulfillment of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We now go back to the third day after Jesus have His life on the cross to pay the cost of our sin to form a new covenant with us after the old was fulfilled.

Luke 24

Jesus Has Risen

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.

No word of God will ever fail, right?  Jesus often spoke of the day that all of this would take place, but they did not yet understand it.  Oh, they were about to, though!

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary