The Days Following the Resurrection

After the resurrection, there was a period that transpired before Jesus ascended to Heaven. It isn’t given a name exactly, but we do know that it was 40 days in total. The events that occurred between Jesus’s resurrection and His ascension were some of the most consequential, life-changing things that impacted His disciples. In fact, the radical transformation that occurs in their lives is one of the greatest pieces of evidence that Jesus’s resurrection was real. Remember, all of Jesus’s disciples had abandoned Jesus at His arrest and were hiding in fear after His death. After His resurrection, though, these people change dramatically. What happened? Well, let’s discuss.
First, Jesus makes two private appears to His eleven remaining disciples (once without Thomas and once with Thomas). He had also appeared to two men walking on a road to a nearby town called Emmaus. From there, he appears to seven disciples near the Sea of Tiberias, five hundred at once, has a private meeting with James, and then gives His “Great Commission” before giving some final instructions to meet Him near Bethany (where He will ascend). All of this occurs in the span of forty days. Notice the public and private nature of these meetings. They were visible appearances of Jesus Christ designed to confirm His resurrection and solidify His mission. They were meant to dispel any doubt and curb any rumor that He was dead. Further, they were meant to equip and prepare His disciples for His departure (and their eminent ministries).
Arguably, the most important thing that occurred in these forty days, though, was captured in Luke 24:27 where it says, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He (being Jesus) expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke later adds, “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).” Even John adds a caveat (in hindsight) in his own Gospel concerning this when he wrote, “Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He has said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said (John 2:22).” All this to say: Whereas before they didn’t believe the things that Jesus had told them during His ministry, they believed Him now. Seeing what they saw in the resurrection, their hearts were filled with belief concerning His divinity – as explained through the Scriptures.
What does this mean? Well, it means that the Bible is designed to be a narrative account of God’s plan to reveal Jesus Christ to the world as the Son of God – the Savior of the world. Every book, in one way or another, points to Jesus. Whether in foresight or hindsight, Jesus is the Theme. He is its Thesis. Every book, therefore, was written so that (as John put it) “we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we may have life in His name” (John 20:31).
This truth changed Jesus’s disciples, and it still changes people today. The Word of God endures today as a testimony that God’s revelation of Jesus Christ was accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection, and that it will be fully realized at His future return. Glory! What a Savior!

Blessings,
Bro. Ben