Scott LaPierre (https://www.scottlapierre.org/) is a pastor, author, and Christian speaker on marriage. This podcast includes his conference messages, guest preaching, and expository sermons at Woodland Christian Church. Each of Scott’s messages is the result of hours of studying the Bible. Scott and his wife, Katie, grew up together in northern California, and God has blessed them with nine children. View all of Pastor Scott’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Scott-LaPierre/e/B01JT920EQ. Receive a FREE copy of Scott’s book, “Seven Biblical Insights for Healthy, Joyful, Christ-Centered Marriages.” For Scott LaPierre’s conference and speaking information, including testimonies, and endorsements, please visit: https://www.scottlapierre.org/christian-speaker/. Feel free to contact Scott at: https://www.scottlapierre.org/contact/.
Scott LaPierre Ministries
Claim This Podcastby Scott LaPierre
Podcast Overview
Scott LaPierre (https://www.scottlapierre.org/) is a pastor, author, and Christian speaker on marriage. This podcast includes his conference messages, guest preaching, and expository sermons at Woodland Christian Church. Each of Scott’s messages is the result of hours of studying the Bible. Scott and his wife, Katie, grew up together in northern California, and God has blessed them with nine children. View all of Pastor Scott’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Scott-LaPierre/e/B01JT920EQ. Receive a FREE copy of Scott’s book, “Seven Biblical Insights for Healthy, Joyful, Christ-Centered Marriages.” For Scott LaPierre’s conference and speaking information, including testimonies, and endorsements, please visit: https://www.scottlapierre.org/christian-speaker/. Feel free to contact Scott at: https://www.scottlapierre.org/contact/.
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July 17, 2026
Put God First: Stop Delaying Obedience | Haggai 1:1–8
Last time, I gave you an overview of the Book of Ezra so we'd have a foundation for understanding Haggai. You might remember we read Ezra 4:24, which says the work on the house of God stopped for sixteen years — and then, in the very next verse, Ezra 5:1 says Haggai and Zechariah began prophesying, and the people got back to work. I told you then that you were probably wondering what Haggai actually said to get people working again after sixteen years. This is the morning we start finding out. For the next several weeks, we're going to walk verse by verse through the Book of Haggai, and this morning we begin with the sermon that restarted a stalled nation — a sermon that, at its core, is about learning to put God first instead of putting Him off. https://youtu.be/d3JfYBOv33Y Table of ContentsThese Were Mature, Godly PeopleHaggai 1:1 — Who Received the WordLesson One: God Graciously Speaks to Us Even After Years of NeglectLesson Two: Delayed Obedience Often Disguises Itself as "Not the Right Time"Haggai 1:3–4 — Paneled HousesConsider Your WaysLesson Three: When God Is Not First, Even Good Pursuits Become FrustratingHaggai 1:8 — Go Up and BuildLesson Four: God Is Glorified by the Priorities We Practice, Not Merely the Priorities We ProfessConclusion: Consider Your Ways These Were Mature, Godly People Before we read a single verse, you need to know something about the Jews this book is written to. They're going to look pretty bad for starting the temple and then stopping for sixteen years — but they were mature, godly people. Remember, last time we looked at Ezra 2:64, which said there were only 42,360 people in the first return — about 2% of the Jewish population. The other 98% wanted to stay in Persia, where they'd lived for decades and built lives, businesses, and families. The Persians were sufficiently favorable toward the Jews to allow this small remnant to return and rebuild. Consider what returning actually meant: A roughly 900-mile, four-month journey back to Jerusalem — long, unpleasant, and dangerous. Leaving behind most of their friends and family, since so few chose to go. Walking away from established businesses and lives after seventy years in Babylon. Returning to a monumental building project in a city with no homes, no walls, and no defenses. No material resources, many enemies, and land still in the possession of another empire. These Jews had a heart for God. And here's the application: if what we're about to read can happen to Jews who were serious about their faith, it can happen to even the most mature Christians too. Haggai 1:1 — Who Received the Word Haggai 1:1 — In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Notice who receives the word: the governor and the high priest — the civil leader and the spiritual leader. When God wants to move a people, He typically begins with their leaders. The date given — "the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month" — is August 29, 520 BC, exactly when we read last time that Haggai started preaching (Ezra 4:24). The first day of the month was the new moon, a feast day when the people gathered together (Numbers 10:10). God delivered this message on the day the maximum number of people would hear it. Lesson One: God Graciously Speaks to Us Even After Years of Neglect The Jews returned to Jerusalem for one purpose. Cyrus's decree wasn't "go re-occupy the land" — it was go rebuild the house of the Lord (Ezra 1:3). That was the mission. And for sixteen years, the mission sat abandoned while everyone got on with life. If God had stayed silent for another sixteen years, no one could have accused Him of injustice. If He'd sent another Nebuchadnezzar, they could hardly have been surprised — that's what happened the last time the people ignored Him for decades. But remember how last week's message ended: He didn't send an army or a new king. He sent preachers with His Word. God's gracious first move toward a people who had neglected Him for sixteen years was to speak to them. He clearly hadn't given up on them. There's a real application here. Maybe you stopped going to church for years. You always meant to go back, but the longer you stayed away, the more awkward walking through the doors felt. Maybe you haven't really prayed in longer than you can remember, or you can't recall the last time you opened your Bible on your own — and "someday" has slowly turned into "probably never." Maybe you haven't served in years, like you know you should. Or maybe the sixteen years is something you've been doing rather than neglecting: pornography that's had a grip on you so long you can't remember life without it; alcohol that started as a way to unwind and became a habit, and then a master; anger that's been your reflex for so many years your family flinches before you speak; bitterness toward someone who hurt you long ago, a decision to never forgive that's been calcifying ever since, until you've simply accepted, "It's too late to be free of this. This is just who I am now." If any of that applies to you, see where these people were when God spoke to them: the sixteen-year mark. And notice that God's first word to them was not "You're done" or "You had your chance." The message was basically, get up and get going. God broke through sixteen years of silence with His Word 2,500 years ago, and He does the same thing today. If you're at all convicted right now, that conviction is evidence that He hasn't given up on you. Conviction is not rejection. Conviction is an invitation to repent. Lesson Two: Delayed Obedience Often Disguises Itself as "Not the Right Time" So what did Haggai actually say? Haggai 1:2 — Thus says the Lord of hosts: "These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord." Notice how carefully the people worded this. No one in that community was going to stand up and announce they were against the temple. So they reached for something that sounds far more reasonable: "It's not the right time." This is one of the most useful excuses ever invented, because it lets us say no while sounding like we're only saying "later." We can't bring ourselves to say we shouldn't go to church, or read our Bibles, or serve, or give. So we don't say that. Instead, we say it isn't the right time. We'll get to it... someday. Listen to how it actually sounds coming out of our mouths: "I'll get serious about church once this busy season at work calms down." "Once the kids are a little older and out of this stage, we'll start doing family devotions." "When we're more financially stable, then we'll start giving." "After the house situation gets sorted out, I'll have the margin to serve." "I'll start sharing my faith once I know the Bible a little better." Every one of these sounds responsible. Some even sound spiritual. But every single one is waiting on a future that never quite arrives — the busy season just gets replaced by the next busy season, the kids hit the next stage and then the stage after that, and the finances never feel quite settled. "Not right now" is almost never a decision to do it later; it's a way of saying no without feeling like we said no. Here's what makes this account so interesting: from where the people were standing, it seemed very reasonable. They'd come back to a wasteland. The walls were down. Homes had to be built, fields cleared and planted, defenses raised in a city that couldn't protect itself. If you'd asked one of the Jews, "Why isn't the temple finished?" he wouldn't have looked at you with contempt — he'd have looked at you like you didn't understand how much there was to do. "Of course, we want to rebuild the house of God. It's just — look around. We can't do it yet. But next year." And every one of us knows that feeling, because we're not against church, or prayer, or giving, or serving. It's just — look at the season we're in. We can't do it yet. Notice what filled the gap. The Jews didn't do nothing for sixteen years. They built their houses, planted their fields, and ran their own lives. That's exactly how it works for us. We rarely stop serving God to do nothing. We stop serving God because something else — often something good and legitimate — crowds in and takes the place that belonged to Him. The danger is rarely a dramatic rebellion. The danger is poor priorities. So let me ask: what have you stopped doing that God would have you do? Whenever we cease doing the things we know God wants, we always think we're stopping for a short time. Nobody ever thinks they're stopping for sixteen years. But that's exactly what can happen. Haggai 1:3–4 — Paneled Houses Now watch God ask them a question: Haggai 1:3–4 — Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?" They said, "It's not time." God said, "You found time... to work on your houses." And notice it doesn't just say dwell in your houses — it says dwell in your paneled houses. A paneled house is a nice house with woodwork on the walls. They hadn't just completed their houses; they'd gone beyond that to make them sort of fancy. Let me be clear: money is amoral. Scripture never condemns people for having wealth, and God Himself made many people in Scripture wealthy. This isn't a passage about wealth being wrong — if someone used it to condemn having a fancy house, they'd be ripping it out of context. This is a passage about priorities. God wasn't upset with them for having paneled houses; He was upset with them for having their priorities out of order....
July 6, 2026
Overview of the Book of Ezra: We Never Plan to Stop for Long
The Book of Ezra records one of the most remarkable moments in Israel's history: the return of the Jews from seventy years of exile in Babylon. This overview of the Book of Ezra will give you the framework you need to understand the post-exilic period — the three returns from exile, the rebuilding of the temple, and why the prophet Haggai had to preach to a people who had stopped working on God's house. But more than history, Ezra confronts us with a sobering spiritual truth: we never plan to stop for long, but temporary breaks have a way of quietly becoming permanent. https://youtu.be/M-hKikTI-6k When I first became a Christian, I knew almost nothing about the Bible, and I had lots of questions. But God, in His kindness, put a man in my life who never seemed to tire of them: Barry Branaman. Barry was the first person to make me feel like the Bible was not too big for me to understand. After a midweek study at his house, we would sit in his living room for hours — sometimes late into the evening — as he helped me understand the Old Testament. So when I opened a book like Haggai, a book many people might skip right over, I was not lost. In 2012, my wife, Katie, and I drove down to California to stay with Barry and his wife, Kathy. By then, I had been a pastor for about five years, and I wanted to look him in the eye and tell him that the hours he had spent with me in that living room had borne fruit. Sadly, he unexpectedly passed away in his sleep two years later at only 58, so I am glad I had that opportunity. Here is a verse that comes to mind when I think of Barry: Hebrews 11:4 — Though he died, he still speaks. I know this verse is not about Barry, but many things I teach today are influenced by what he taught me. In that sense, though he died, he still speaks when I pass along what he taught me. So in this post, I want to do for you what Barry did for me: give you some Old Testament framework so you can better understand Ezra and Haggai. Table of ContentsHow the Old Testament Fits TogetherPre-Exile, Exile, and Post-ExileEzra 1: God Keeps His WordLesson One: We Can Trust God to Keep His WordHow God Stirred Up CyrusA Spiritual Mission, Not Just a HomecomingOnly 2% ReturnedThe Three Returns in the Book of Ezra and NehemiahEzra 7: The Second ReturnLesson Two: God Turns Kings' HeartsThe Work Stops for Sixteen YearsLesson Three: We Let Temporary Breaks Become PermanentLesson Four: We Start Again When God Stirs UsConclusion: Let God's Word Stir You How the Old Testament Fits Together Here is a simple way to view the 39 books of the Old Testament: 17 history books — Genesis to Esther 5 wisdom books — Job to Song of Solomon 17 prophets — Isaiah to Malachi And here is a high-level view of the story contained in the historical books. God created a people for Himself and gave them a land — the Promised Land — and at the center of that land, in the city of Jerusalem, He gave them a temple. The temple was the great sign that God dwelt in the midst of His people. As long as it stood, the message was unmistakable: God is here with us. But over time, the people turned from God and worshiped idols. God sent prophets to rebuke and warn them about what would happen if they did not repent, but they refused. Eventually, God did what He said He would do. He sent the nation of Babylon, and in 586 BC, Babylon tore down the walls of Jerusalem, burned the temple to the ground, and carried the Jews into exile — hundreds of miles from home, in a foreign land. But here is the interesting thing. God prophesied through Jeremiah that the Jews would be in exile for only seventy years, and then they would return to their land: Jeremiah 25:11–12 — [The Jews] shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation. God said that after seventy years, He would punish the Babylonians. He raised up the Persian Empire to do so, and then Cyrus, the king of Persia, allowed the Jews to return to their land. Pre-Exile, Exile, and Post-Exile This allows us to divide the Jews' history into three sections: pre-exile (before 586 BC), exile (586–538 BC in Babylon), and post-exile (after 538 BC, the return). It is important to notice that no historical books record the Jews' exile. The historical books cover the period before the exile (Genesis through 2 Chronicles) and after the exile (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther). To understand the Jews' history during the exile, we have to use the prophets — and the prophets can be divided into the same three sections: Pre-exile prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah Exile prophets: Ezekiel and Daniel — they were in exile with the Jews, so their books show us what the exile was like Post-exile prophets: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi Because Haggai prophesied after the exile, we really need to understand that period of Jewish history — and the Book of Ezra covers the history from the time of Haggai's prophecies. That is why we must understand this book. Ezra 1: God Keeps His Word Let's look at Ezra 1:1 to see what happened with the Persian king, Cyrus. Because this is a long verse packed with important information, we will break it up piece by piece: Ezra 1:1a — In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, This is 538 BC, about seventy years after the Babylonians took the first group of Jews into exile. Ezra 1:1b — that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, This refers to the prophecy from Jeremiah 25 that the Jews would be in exile for only seventy years, which brings us to our first lesson. Lesson One: We Can Trust God to Keep His Word Let me tell you what doesn't happen: nations don't conquer nations and then release the conquered people. When God made the prophecy through Jeremiah, it looked historically impossible for the Jews to return from exile. But God delivered, right on schedule, using a pagan king to do it. And there is great application for us. When we see God's faithfulness to previous things He said, it should encourage us to trust Him to fulfill the other things He said: He has promised He will never leave us nor forsake us. He has promised to work all things together for good for those who love Him. He has promised that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. He has promised that Christ will return. Some of those promises can feel as unlikely to us as release from Babylon must have felt to the exiles — especially when we are in the middle of the seventy years, so to speak, with no evidence that anything is changing. But we can be confident that God will do what He has said He will do. How God Stirred Up Cyrus Now look at how God accomplished this: Ezra 1:1c — the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, How did God stir up Cyrus? There is a fascinating possibility: God had prophesied through Isaiah over one hundred years earlier that He would use Cyrus to see Jerusalem rebuilt: Isaiah 44:24, 28 — "I am the Lord… who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid.'" Someone could very well have shown Cyrus this prophecy, and he would have seen his name written in Scripture one hundred years before he was born. If I had to guess who showed him, it would be Daniel, because we can tell from his book that he became very prominent and favored in Persia, just as he was in Babylon. So God stirs up Cyrus, and here is what he does: Ezra 1:1d–2 — so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Cyrus recognized that God commanded him to have the Jews rebuild the temple. A Spiritual Mission, Not Just a Homecoming This is the first of five times the temple, or the house of God, is mentioned in Ezra 1:2–7: Ezra 1:3 — Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:4 — And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:5 — Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem… Ezra 1:7 — Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. You can see the focus of this return is not just re-occupying the Promised Land. It is a spiritual mission to rebuild the temple, or God's house. Here is an important question: we are talking about the temple being rebuilt, so why is it called the house? I might be wrong, but I think this is God's way of looking beyond just the rebuilding of a physical temple to the house of David — connecting this with the Davidic covenant, or with God's promise that the Messiah would come from David's house. Additionally, I want to invite you to read Ezra this way: Luke wrote Luke and Acts, and Acts is a continuation of Luke. It is the same with 2 Chronicles and Ezra — Ezra wrote both, and Ezra is a continuation of Chronicles. Only 2% Returned Let me show you something interesting: Ezra 2:64 — The whole assembly together was 42,360, ...
June 29, 2026
The Ascension of Jesus: He Lifted His Hands and Blessed Them (Luke 24:50–53)
Ask almost any Christian to tell you the Easter story, and they can: the cross on Friday, the grave on Saturday, the stone rolled away on Sunday, the empty tomb, the folded grave clothes, the risen Lord, and the disciples who could hardly believe their eyes. We have built an entire season of the year around that account. But ask what happened next — the ascension of Jesus — and many believers are not sure what to say. We tend to stop reading at the resurrection, as if that is where the story ends. It isn’t. The closing scene of Luke’s Gospel is not simply tacked on to the end of the book — it ties all the way back to the beginning. In Luke 24:50–53, Luke seems to tie a knot around the whole story, connecting the end to where it started. Below are five lessons from those four verses, and why the last thing the disciples saw should fill us with joy. https://youtu.be/pjgpIcGZgaE Table of contentsLuke 24:50–53 — The PassageLesson One: Christ Blesses His People as the Priest Who First Offered HimselfLesson Two: Luke Is Framed Between a Priest Who Could Not Bless and the Priest Who DoesLesson Three: The Last Sight of Christ — His Hands Raised in BlessingLesson Four: The Disciples Rejoiced Because the Ascension Was a CoronationWhy the Ascension of Jesus Matters1. The work is finished2. Jesus reigns3. Jesus is praying for you right now4. The Spirit could comeLesson Five: We Bless God Because He First Blessed Us in ChristThe Image to Carry Until He Returns Luke 24:50–53 — The Passage Luke 24:50–53 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke tells us where this happened: the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. (Luke says Jesus led them out “as far as Bethany,” and Acts 1:12 says the disciples returned “from the mount called Olivet.” There is no conflict — Bethany sits on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, so both describe the same hillside Jesus had crossed for the triumphal entry, near where He had wept over the city and prayed in Gethsemane.) Notice that Jesus does not simply wave goodbye or offer a few final words before leaving. He lifts up His hands and blesses them. And there has been a lot of attention on Jesus’ hands in this chapter. The disciples likely saw the scars when He broke the bread (v. 35); He told them, “See my hands and my feet” and showed the scars (vv. 39–40); and now His hands come up again — raised in blessing. And don’t miss who received this blessing. These are the men who fell asleep in the garden, scattered when He was arrested, denied Him, hid behind locked doors, and refused to believe the reports of His resurrection. If anyone had earned a rebuke, it was they. But Jesus did not leave them with a rebuke. He left them with a blessing. From beginning to end, His disposition toward His failing, fearful people has been grace. Lesson One: Christ Blesses His People as the Priest Who First Offered Himself This whole scene would have sounded priestly to Jewish ears. We tend to think of Old Testament priests as those who offered sacrifices, but blessing the people was also part of their ministry: Deuteronomy 10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi… to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day. Numbers 6:23–24 Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you… And here is a crucial detail: the blessing came after the sacrifice. Leviticus 9:18, 22 [Aaron] killed the ox and the ram, the sacrifice… for the people… Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. The order matters: the priest offers the sacrifice, lifts his hands, and then blesses the people. The blessing follows the sacrifice because the blessing depends on the sacrifice. A blessing cannot be pronounced over unaddressed sin. The sacrifice deals with the sin between God and the people, and once that obstacle is removed, God’s favor can rest on them openly. The blessing tells the worshipers they are sent away with God’s acceptance rather than His judgment. The priest does all of this as a mediator standing between God and man. He presents the sacrifice, representing the people toward God; he pronounces the blessing, representing God toward man. And all of it looks forward to Christ. Jesus is our great High Priest who has offered the true and final sacrifice. He went to the cross, suffered for sin, and rose from the dead. His sacrifice was accepted by the Father — and now, before ascending, He lifts His hands in the unmistakable posture of the priest and blesses His people. There is an even more striking example from Hezekiah’s day: 2 Chronicles 30:27Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven. The Passover sacrifice is offered, the priests bless the people, and their prayer ascends to God’s holy habitation in heaven. That beautifully prefigures Christ, our true and greater Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). After His sacrifice, He blesses His people, and then ascends bodily into heaven to appear before God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24). So the earthly priests blessed in the Lord’s name, but Jesus blesses as the Lord Himself; they blessed after offering animals, but Jesus blesses after offering Himself; they stood before men as they interceded, but Jesus ascended to stand before the Father as He intercedes. Lesson Two: Luke Is Framed Between a Priest Who Could Not Bless and the Priest Who Does To see the connection between the beginning and end of Luke’s Gospel, turn back to Luke 1. Zechariah is serving as a priest, gone in to burn incense while the people pray outside (Luke 1:10). The angel Gabriel appears and tells him his wife, Elizabeth, will have a child; because he does not believe it, he is struck mute (Luke 1:20). Outside, the people keep waiting (Luke 1:21). Ordinarily the service ended with the priest pronouncing a blessing over the people — but when Zechariah finally comes out, he cannot speak: Luke 1:22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. Picture it: a crowd standing before you, waiting for you to bless them, and you cannot make a sound. So the people go home without the blessing they came for. Now think about where the Gospel opens and where it closes. It opens with an earthly priest who enters the earthly temple, offers incense, and comes back out — but cannot bless the waiting people because of his unbelief. It closes with Jesus, the true and greater High Priest, who offered His once-for-all sacrifice, blessed His people, and ascended into the heavenly temple to go on interceding for them. What Zechariah could not do, Jesus did. The Gospel that began with a silent priest ends with the great High Priest lifting His hands and blessing the people. And there is one more contrast: in Luke 1, the people go home without their blessing, confused and discouraged; in Luke 24:52, they go home with great joy. I’ll offer this last point a bit more tentatively, though I believe it holds: this is the transition from the Old Covenant to the New. Zechariah is a priest of the Old Covenant; Jesus is the Priest of the New. Zechariah enters an earthly temple; Jesus ascends into heaven itself. Zechariah offers incense; Jesus offers Himself. Zechariah comes out unable to speak a blessing; Jesus ascends while blessing His people. The Old Covenant was not bad — God Himself gave it — but it was preparatory: its priests, sacrifices, temple, and blessings were shadows, and Christ is the substance. Zechariah’s silence reminds us of the Old Covenant’s incompleteness; Christ’s blessing reveals the New Covenant’s fullness and finality. Lesson Three: The Last Sight of Christ — His Hands Raised in Blessing Think about how powerful a final image can be. Parents stand in the driveway watching the car back out as their son leaves for college, waving until it turns the corner. A family gathers around a hospital bed before a loved one passes, and for the rest of their lives, that is the picture in their minds. A soldier stops at the airport security line, turns one last time to find his family, and lifts his hand to them — and then he is gone. We tend to remember the last time we saw someone. Here is the last time the disciples saw Jesus: Luke 24:51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. This is the final image of the risen Christ before He left: His hands, with the nail marks in them, raised over His people in blessing. The hands that were nailed to the cross for their sins are now lifted to send them off with the peace of God. And that final image could easily have been different. The disciples had failed Him — slept in Gethsemane, fled at His arrest, denied Him, struggled to believe the resurrection. If Jesus had wanted to leave them with a rebuke, He had plenty of material. But their last sight of Him was not anger, coldness, disappointment, or distance. It was their risen Savior with uplifted, scarred hands, blessing them. Notice, too, that He was “carried up into heaven.” The book of Acts describes it the same way: “a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). We would expect it to say Jesus went up through the clouds, but instead the cloud took Him. That cloud is the glory cloud, or Shekinah — the visible representation of God’s presence that accompanied Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 13:20–22) and from which God spoke to Moses (Exodus 33). In other words, God the Father received His Son into heaven. Lesson Four: The Disciples Rejoiced Because the As
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