The Gospel of Luke 24:36-53 Appearances & Ascension

Good morning. We're going to be venturing into this grand finale passage, the end of our study of Luke momentarily. First, we want to have you take a look at the first page of your handout there. We have good news following this last election, and we want to be sure to bring it to your attention. And so I'll go through this point by point. You can follow along with me.

God is still on the throne. Psalm 11, 4, he still rules over all the kingdoms of the nations. Second Chronicles 20, verse 6, the Lord Jesus will still be the King of kings and Lord of lords and as soon as seven years from now. And who's coming for us, that is to take us in the church to be with him, is now nearer than when we first believed.

Romans 13, 11. The Bible is still living and powerful and life-changing. Hebrews 4, 12 and 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. The Son of Man is still seeking the lost, Luke 19, 10. Nothing's changed. And still desiring that all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2, 6. The Holy Spirit is still convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. That's John 16, 8 through 11. The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

Romans 1.16. The Lord Jesus is still able to save to the uttermost completely all those who come to God through Him.

Hebrews 7.25. The cross, not the government, is still our only hope of salvation.

Galatians 6.14. Isn't that great? And those who trust in man are still under God's curse.

Jeremiah 17.5. In difficult times, God will take care of His own. Matthew 10, 28-31. The one who lives in believers is still greater than the God of this world. 1 John 4, 4. And the living God will still be with us always. His promise is still true that He will never leave us and will never forsake us.

Matthew 28, 20 and Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. And finally, no matter what difficulties or apparent disasters we may face in the coming days due to living in a God-despising and truth-hating world, yet God is faithful and He will still preserve His own and keep us from falling. Jude 1 and 24. Isn't that great? Wonderful news, okay? And no matter how upset and disturbed or even relieved people may be, these things are true and we can count upon them and stand on them.

Okay, now let's turn to Luke 24, 36 through 53. Just to kind of count through what we've been going through in Luke, about 9 a.m. on April 3rd, 33 A.D., the evidence is increasingly coming to that. We covered it briefly this morning in the elective right before the main service, just summarizing what some of the evidences are for that specific date.

And about nine to noon, Jesus had conversations, conversations with the father. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Conversations with John and his mother, Mary. Each pointing to them, John, take care of her. Mary, that's your son who's going to take care of you, John. Conversations with a thief on the cross. Today, you'll be with me in paradise. So about nine to noon, conversations. And they had the benefit of daylight for those conversations. Because from noon to three, the daylight went away.

And as we saw in the elective right before, that darkness that set in about noon and continued until Christ died, that darkness was very widespread even to the point that other parts of the Roman Empire had record that that darkness had taken place. So very widespread. There was also in that an earthquake that took place and we talked in the, again, the previous class about that earthquake on April 3rd, 33 AD has been confirmed geologically. And so, anyway, very interesting. But there was one more thing that happened when Christ was crucified, when He paid the price for your sins and mine. And there were other accomplishments that day on the cross.

One more thing, and that is the veil of the temple was torn in two. And you imagine, here are the priests, they're trying to finish up with this darkness, slaughtering the lambs. Slaughtering the lambs. And in the midst of that, trying to finish up the job, Right behind them, the veil just gets ripped from top to bottom.

There's some kind of mythology going on that the veil is like three or four inches thick. It probably was not, but it was at least kind of the thickness of a rope. And that would have been a huge thing to imagine tearing. But tear it did, from top to bottom.

Before sundown, Jesus was given a king's burial. Joseph of Arimathea had arranged to get Jesus' body off the cross and over to the nearby tomb. It was his, his own tomb, freshly carved. And Nicodemus had arranged to bring about 65 to 75 pounds of burial materials. And by the way, that was a huge, huge amount. Very, very expensive.

So Jesus got a king's burial after being treated as the worst of the worst. But early Sunday, this would be the morning of April 5th, 33 AD, the women, and the picture shows five, there were, as we said, at least six, came in to find the tomb was empty. There was no body there. The stone had been rolled away. And Peter and John, if we get the account there from the Gospel of John, Peter and John then ran to the tomb and confirmed. Yes, there's no body there. They still didn't have an explanation or understanding of what it meant.

Later that day, Jesus arrived at two disciples, not among the twelve, who were headed to the village of Emmaus, about seven miles distant. And he came alongside them and talked to them and had them inform him of what had taken place. And then he began explaining the scriptures. And just as they were seeing him and recognizing, oh, this is Christ.

That's when he disappeared. And he would see them again shortly, as we'll see. We have here, and this is on page two of your handout, kind of a table of these are the appearances of Christ from the resurrection to the ascension, Mary Magdalene being the first appearance, and then finally the ascension where the eleven were present and perhaps others. And so it's this one here that we're looking to, to the Apostles, Thomas absent.

It's recorded in Luke 24, 36-43. And then we have on there the same one, John 20, 19-24. It is possible those are two different events. They're described differently enough that it's possible those are two different events. And in fact, we have convincing proofs, as Luke will put it in the beginning of Acts. We have a number of other possible appearances of Christ. They're not necessarily listed and recorded.

One of the things that's astounding to look at as you look at the different gospel accounts is the intense skepticism that everybody had about the idea that Christ would resurrect. They just couldn't believe it. Even when they were seeing Christ, they thought there must be some other explanation for this. It can't possibly have been resurrected. I think that's important for us to be mindful of, to kind of put ourselves in their situation where they don't believe it, they don't believe their eyes, they think there must be some other explanation. These were not people who were saying, boy, I sure hope he resurrects. It wasn't even in their thought process.

In spite of the fact, I counted 16 times in the Gospels where Jesus told them in advance what would happen. 16 times. Amazing. But this doubt actually lingered for weeks. We have record, and we'll talk about it in a bit here, we have record that up to the seventh appearance, and possibly later, they were still having some doubts. Isn't that amazing?

So, let's take a look at Luke 24, 36 and 37. While they were telling these things, this is the two on the road to Emmaus, telling these things to the disciples and the others gathered there, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing the Spirit. They would jump to the idea that this must be a ghost, but it can't possibly be Christ. Isn't that amazing? As you look at this account, really astounding. He shows up and they're, uh-oh, not happening, can't be. They don't believe their eyes. As we mentioned, this may be a separate one from that recorded in John 20, 19 through 24. But recall this, and as you put yourself in the apostles' and disciples' shoes here for a minute, think about this.

All right, here's some women, about six at least, some women who come reporting that they've seen the tomb, the tomb is empty, some angels talk to them, the women still aren't understanding what's going on, but they come and tell the disciples, and only a couple of them think this is even worth checking out, and that's Peter and John. So a few of them have seen the empty tomb, mostly women. Mostly women. And so that's the first part. Then the first appearance is to a woman, Mary Magdalene.

Then there's an appearance to Peter, right? And now these two from Emmaus, and still people aren't really getting it, right? Nah, there must be some other explanation, right? So they don't believe him. And so then all of a sudden Jesus shows up. He may have just, you know, appeared there in the room, just boom, appeared there in the room. saying peace to you. This would be a standard Jewish greeting, shalom, right? And so he shows up and says that. However, in spite of the fact that Jesus says peace, that's not exactly what they're feeling. They're going, ah! Right? They're terrified. The disciples are both startled, it says, and frightened. Ever been startled? That's what they were feeling right then. Jesus shows up. They're startled. They're frightened. They're afraid. They think that he's a spirit. Now, we'll talk about why that would be. If they understood, they would have found comfort in his appearance, renewed hope. But that's not what they immediately felt.

Jesus' appearance to them was in great part just frightening and startling. So here's Luke 24, 38 and 39. He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, as I myself touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. So think about this. Start gathering together the description.

They're startled. They're frightened. They're troubled and they have doubts, right? Off to a great start, aren't they? So Dr. Luke writes these and starts kind of accumulating all their negative emotions. And if you can kind of put yourself in their place and kind of think, what does this basket of emotions look like? And by the way, Dr. Luke isn't done having these negative emotions accumulate here. Okay.

Thomas wasn't present for this, we find out from looking at the Gospel of John. is not the only one of the disciples that doubted. We talk about doubting Thomas, pretty much doubting all of them, right? Doubting all of them, not just Thomas. It's not like these guys believe, but Thomas won't believe unless he sees and touches and all that. They're all doubting, pretty much. Pretty much all of them. It's a generalization. They're startled, frightened, troubled, and doubting. All those emotions at once. We can say they were generally doubtful. Generally doubtful.

So what does Jesus do? He says, look, it's only been a couple of days by our count. Only been a couple of days since you saw me crucified. By the way, the nails don't go here. They go here. I look for pictures of hands. Everybody keeps putting them there.

That wouldn't work because of the tension on the arms. One of the things we said that in the crucifixion It would actually double the pole by having an angle about like this double the pole on the sockets from just straight up okay, so They had seen that he was crucified and that's what they're you know thinking and believing so he says look look at my hands and my feet The wounds are still there, right? You can still see them Psalm 22, 16 said a thousand years in advance that his hands and feet would be pierced. They could see for themselves that Jesus' hands and feet had been pierced as they had seen just a couple of days before. And guess what? When the Lord takes us home, and I hope it's today, we're going to see his hands and his feet.

We'll know on into eternity, as we read through Revelation, we will know on into eternity. Oh, we won't remember all the things here. There'll be no more mourning, or sorrow, or crying, or pain. But we will know that He is God's tiny little lamb given for us. That's the word used for lamb in Revelation, is a tiny little lamb, who's also the Lion of Judah.

So here's Luke 2440. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. He was wounded for them. Look, you saw He was crucified. Here's the marks. He will bear those marks on into eternity. Having told the disciples to see and touch His hands and His feet, He showed his hands and his feet to them. Put his feet out, put his hands out, and it would actually be in here at the connecting point between the hands and the wrist.

He showed them. Look, I have the marks from what you saw just a couple of days ago. He made them available for personal inspection. He's going to offer something similar to Thomas. He's going to say, see my hands and see my side. One day soon we'll also see Christ the Lamb, the tiny little Lamb. Here we'll see His hands and His feet and praise Him as God's Lamb. Here's Revelation 5, 6 and 9.

And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb standing as if slain. And they, that's us, okay? sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And you may recognize in those words the song that we just sang. You have purchased us with your blood. Here's Luke 24, 41 through 43.

While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? He's going to demonstrate to them, look, my hands and my feet. I'm going to show you I'm not some kind of a ghost, but I'm here with flesh and blood and bones and things like that. So they gave him a piece of boiled fish and he took it and ate it before them.

Now, why such intense disbelief? I mean, you would have thought just looking at the hands and the feet, you know, that that would do it. But no, you've got to eat a piece of fish. And still, after a half dozen more appearances, there's still going to be some doubting. Why such intense disbelief?

They believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but the common and prominent teaching about the Messiah was the Messiah was going to cast off the Romans, right? Or any other army that was ruling was going to cast off the Romans and reign as the Messiah. And here to have him crucified was not at all in their expectation. Just completely dashed any hopes that they had. They also viewed the resurrection as taking place when the Messiah came.

This is Daniel 12, 1 and 2. This is why if you go to the Mount of Olives on the west side, you will see a lot of Jewish graves because of the Jewish expectation that when the Messiah comes, he'll then resurrect the bodies. And so if you're buried there on the Mount of Olives, you get front row seats. But there was also one other thing, this may be surprising.

There was also a popular belief not taught in scripture, this is again Jewish myths and whatnot, that there were ghosts and spirits of the departed who roamed about among the living ones. So they had a popular, not a biblical, but a popular belief in ghosts and spirits. And so that was established, but the idea that Jesus would be the Messiah and resurrect was just outside of any thought process and expectation that they had. So we add to the previous descriptions of being startled and frightened and having doubts and whatnot. You have an intense combination of emotions. There's joy. Whoa! Maybe Christ isn't dead after all. And also just amazement because this isn't within their expectations. They were not at all expecting this, but they're still doubting. So it's all mixed up here.

Can you imagine having all those emotions at once? I mean, you put yourself in that spot, they are really wrestling with how they're feeling. Ever wrestle with how you feel? Alright, they are. They're startled, they're frightened, they're troubled, they have doubts, they have disbelief, and they have joy and amazement. All those at once. Anybody volunteer for that? Well, that's what they had.

Jesus not only invited them to look at and to touch His wounds, He also ate a piece of fish in front of them. to show that he had a physical body. And by the way, this says something about the bodies that we will have. The bodies that we will have will be like Christ. Therefore, will you be able with your new body to eat? Yeah, by the way, do you have to eat? Isn't that interesting? No, you don't have to eat, but you can eat. How about that? That'd be very interesting.

OK, here's Luke 24, 44. Now he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. So the Old Testament scriptures are referred to in different ways. There's different descriptions. Sometimes it's just the law and the prophets, so it's the first part and the last part. It's kind of the same ideas that, you know, the first and the last, beginning and the end. If you mention the first part and the last part, it includes everything in between. In this case, the Psalms represents the writings, the writings after the law of Moses, the first five books, and then up to the prophets. The Psalms is Israel's national hymn book, right?

So Jesus had presented the scriptures to the two disciples who had been on the road to Emmaus. And they were there present. So probably of the various people who were present, they were ones who had a realization and believed because Jesus had met with them. The others were all doubtful and frightened and all those other descriptions.

The list of prophecies fulfilled by Christ in His first coming number up to about 300 specific prophecies, and it depends on how much detail you go and break that down into. And guess what? We won't go over all of them this morning. Isn't that great? Okay. But one, for example, one kind of listing I saw had actually 355, and it depends on how much detail you break it down to. But lots and lots of prophecies. What did Jesus say towards the end of his time on the cross? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He said that in Aramaic. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. And that's from Psalm 22, verse 1. He quoted Psalm 22, verse 1. Psalm 22, 16 says, they pierced my hands and my feet. Jesus fulfilled that. How many pieces of silver were paid to Judas? Thirty. And that's recorded in Zechariah chapter 11 verses 12 and 13. And this is really amazing.

Psalm 118.22 says, The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Do you know that they sang that at the temple all during the time the lambs were being sacrificed? They sang the Hallel, Psalm 113-118, including that verse. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. They sang that while they were sacrificing the lambs, while Jesus was hanging on the cross. So that's one of the prophecies of Christ. and one of these 300 and plus probably if you count them all. Now we mentioned in the elective again beforehand there are about 10,000 specific items of prophecy in the Bible.

About 5,000 of them have already been fulfilled, so about half already fulfilled. And then another 5,000 are yet to be fulfilled. These will all be fulfilled in the future and could begin to be fulfilled at any time. And do you know what the next prophecy is to be fulfilled? This is when Christ comes for you and me and takes us to be with Him. That's the next prophecy to be fulfilled. Everything else happens after that. I hope it's today. I hope it's today.

Those 300 include a number of prophecies, approximately 100 having to deal with his death, Christ's death, burial and resurrection. And those are the prophecies that he would point them to. I took you through just a few of them orally here. And he just went through and started going through all those prophecies and telling them about that. Oh, is that what that means? Right?

Here's Luke 24, 45-48, and he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things. Now he opened their minds to begin understanding the Scriptures. The reason I say begin, I add that to the list here, because in truth they were going to come to new understandings for decades to come. So they were beginning to understand the scriptures and particularly he was pointing to those things about his death, burial, and resurrection. From Isaiah The last few verses of chapter 52 through all 12 verses of Isaiah 53, it tells in advance about his death, his burial, and his resurrection. It tells in advance those things, and that was written 700 years before Christ was born. Amazing. He was telling them about those passages.

They would not receive the Holy Spirit for another 50 days from the day of his resurrection. They were made able to begin to understand the scriptures about his death, burial, and resurrection, even keeping in mind that some were still doubting after at least the seventh appearance. Still doubting at that time.

So it is important to come to an understanding of what repentance is, that Christ says here, and what it is not. Repentance is not feeling bad, or feeling sorry, or crying, or anything of that sort. It's not an expression of emotion, although that may accompany it. Repentance simply means, in its most literal translation, it simply means to change one's mind. That may come along with some emotional expression, but that's the result of repentance, not the repentance itself. And it doesn't have to come along with a lot of emotion. That just simply may be something that results.

So repentance is to change one's mind, and when used in a biblical context, the changing of one's mind means to end in belief. Some people will come along with a gospel that says, well, you have to repent and believe. Well, that's not really true, because repentance in the biblical context means to end in belief. Change one's mind so as to end in belief. Repent is often used in a biblical context. We're going to see it when we get to Acts chapter 2. We're going to see it when we get to Acts chapter 3.

Why? The reason is that the Jewish mindset had them concluding the wrong conclusions. They came to the wrong conclusions. They had the wrong understanding. It was one of the reasons why these disciples themselves were so doubtful about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. They didn't get it.

And certainly the Messiah, the Jews thought, the Messiah is going to love the Pharisees. That was their mindset. And so the Pharisees have Jesus come up and rebuking them and speaking ill and woe to the Pharisees, right? That wasn't in their mindset. So they would reject him. No, he can't possibly be the Messiah because we know that the Messiah is just going to love us. They had to repent. They had to change their mindset about who Jesus was. and end up in belief.

That's why repentance is brought up here, and that's the way in which repentance is used. Let's talk about forgiveness of sins. It comes only to those who believe, and in this context, repentance is a change of mind that ends in belief. So we don't have to add repentance to belief. Repentance in the biblical context means change of mind that ends in belief. So it's not added to belief. so that the message that the changing of one's mind to end in belief so as to have forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed everywhere.

Everywhere. Now, we say everywhere, and these disciples would be the ones who would begin that proclamation in just 50 days from the day in which Jesus first appeared to them. Here they are, they're terrified, they're doubtful, They're amazed, they have all these strange and intense emotions about this thing, but in 50 days, with the giving of the Holy Spirit and further appearances of Christ resurrected and Christ talking to them directly, and sometimes even personally, Peter, let's go for a walk, right? Walk along the shores. Let's have a talk here about what's going on. Christ would appear to them and they were prepared by that 50th day to turn around and to talk about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection and the absolute necessity to believe it in order to be saved.

He's telling them, and you are going to carry this message to all the nations. You're going to proclaim it and it's going to start right here in Jerusalem. As we'll see elsewhere in Acts, he also tells them closer to the time of his ascension in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. So 40 days later, he would spell that out to them again and give more detail. For about seven or eight years, and this is also kind of shocking, for about seven or eight years, the disciples would think that the gospel was only for the Jews and a few Samaritans, not for the Gentiles. Matter of fact, Peter would get called on the carpet when he did present the gospel to Gentiles. He'd get called on the carpet by the rest of the leaders. Peter, you've got some splainin' to do, okay? We'll talk about that when we get there.

So it is kind of amazing, even when they do comprehend it, the better part of a decade goes by before they get the idea, oh, this is supposed to go to people like you and me. Really astounding. So he tells them there are witnesses of these things, even though they, yet at this point, don't understand. They don't even understand what they've just seen. They don't understand his appearance. with the giving of the Holy Spirit and the ministries of the Holy Spirit over time, they would come to understand and to testify. In fifty days they would testify as witnesses, begin to proclaim repentance, change of mind so as to end in belief, for forgiveness of sins to their fellow Jews only.

Here's Luke 24 49, and behold, I am sending forth the promise of my father upon you. But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. The ministries of the Holy Spirit would begin in 50 days. Some of those are positional. Some of those are in our daily condition, right? On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would be given. And referring to the dates, this is May 24, 33 A.D., right? Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit would carry out special ministries among these disciples who would become church apostles.

And the reason for some of those special ministries was there was a special need. They would write scripture. We study it. We don't write it. They would write scripture. They would, as apostles, be given, it's kind of a super gift, the ability to teach and to heal and have knowledge and all these things.

And one of the things that becomes apparent here is Jesus is talking about the Father giving the Holy Spirit. And that's all three persons of the Trinity are involved with these disciples. And one of the things I was telling at the women's study this last Tuesday, all three persons of the Trinity are involved with you intimately and directly. Having the ministries of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Now, this big word until. There was a lot these disciples would come to understand. They would, in fact, see Christ again a number of times before He ascended in 40 days. What's recorded is close to a dozen times, and different ones of them more than others. Christ would direct them to go to Galilee, in fact, to meet Him there, and then to return to Jerusalem. That comes out in the Gospel of John. Then they were to wait in Jerusalem, as we saw here, until the Holy Spirit was given to them. Jesus didn't tell them how many days, but it turns out about 10 days.

Here's Luke 24 50 and 51, and he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. You imagine, here they are, they're taking a little walk, and it's great, a nice little stroll.

We're heading towards Bethany, just over the crest of the Mount of Olives. And they've got questions. As a matter of fact, we'll find out when we get to Book of Acts. They're asking fundamental questions. And at that point in time, he blesses them. Bye! Bye-bye! See ya! We got questions! Bye! Here's Acts 1, 1 through 3, and of course we'll go over that in more detail when we turn to the book of Acts.

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach. Until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these he also presented himself alive after suffering by many convincing proofs. And they needed a lot of convincing, didn't they? appearing to them over a period of 40 days.

So Bethany is on the east side of the Mount of Olives. We'll be taking a look at a map here shortly. Jesus took them over the road to Bethany which would take them to the east slope of the Mount of Olives. Bethany was where Lazarus had been raised not that many days before. We'll get more detail about that when we get to Acts chapter 1 as to how that happened. Here's the map of Jerusalem and then off to the east is the road towards Bethany. So he took them just over the crest of the top of the Mount of Olives and then towards the village of Bethphage in Bethany and it was there on the way to Bethany that he ascended.

So Christ ascended into heaven. He blessed them while they were still trying to ask questions. And this took place on Thursday, May 14, 33 AD, as the evidence is increasingly lining up. And the Holy Spirit would be given to them on Sunday, May 24, 33 AD. Here's Luke 24, 52 and 53, which completes our passage in the study of Luke, and they after worshiping him returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God. Now one of the things that we want to recognize here, the disciples would fairly quickly come to understand that Christ had died for our sins to the point where they would proclaim it and was buried and rose again. They actually would end up believing it. And anyone who believes that would be saved eternally. It's that simple. The gospel is really not complex.

It would be 16 years before the Apostle Paul would write that we were baptized into and crucified with Christ. By the way, neither Galatians nor Romans, though they talk about being baptized into Christ, talk about the Ascension or Christ being seated in the heavenlies. But 27 years would pass, more than a quarter of a century, before the Apostle Paul would add that we were identified, baptized into Christ in his ascension and seating.

They had a lot to learn. And they took a lot of time to learn it, right? So the disciples turned apostles would be going through years and years of aha moments. You imagine their constant realization, at first they come to realize, oh, that really is Christ. He really did die for a reason, and not just because of some crazy occurrence. He died intentionally. Aha! They would be discovering new truths about Christ and the Father and the Spirit for decades. Years and years and years. Isn't that amazing to ponder? I didn't know that. I didn't understand that. Here we were all distressed while he was on the cross, thinking this was the end of everything, and it was actually just the beginning of everything. Right?

It's God's intent that we also go through years and years of aha moments. That's what growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is about. Years and years and years of aha moments. Discovering the truths that are already there in Scripture. Why can we go through years and years and years discovering the truths that are already there in scripture? It's because while the Bible is a finite book, it has been written by an infinite God.

He wants us to see and discover the riches of His grace for years and years and years. But you know that's not going to be enough. That's why Ephesians 2 7 in the rolling ages to come He's going to show that's visibly demonstrate the riches of his grace We're going to learn about his grace the riches of his grace its plural wealth of his grace on into eternity Won't that be great. Let's pray.

I Lord, we thank you as we complete our study of the Gospel of Luke. You've inspired these truths for our benefit because you love us and you care for us. And as we see here, things that appear on the surface to be distressing can in fact be the very thing that you intend and that you have other purposes for we don't yet see. And we thank you just as we look forward to stepping into the book of Acts in January. We thank you that in the midst of that, we have the blessed hope that one day, and we hope it's today, it will be the day that you come for us. And that would be just fine. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.