What Happened Between Jesus’s Resurrection and His Ascension? Part 2

No single Gospel records all the events surrounding Jesus’s resurrection. Each Gospel writer selects whichever events are important to his distinct purposes for his book. Harmonizing the Gospels’ resurrection accounts can help us better understand what and how those events unfolded.

This article is the second of two Bible Says articles that attempts to harmonize the Bible’s resurrection accounts.

The first article covers the events that occurred on the day of Jesus’s resurrection—the first 24 resurrection accounts. The first article attempts to chronologically syncretize the events that occurred on “the first day of the week” after Jesus was crucified (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1).

What Happened Between Jesus’s Resurrection and His Ascension? Part 1 — A Harmony of Biblical Events Concerning the Day of Jesus’s Resurrection. 

This article, Part 2 of this series, attempts to chronologically syncretize the events that occurred after the day of Jesus’s resurrection until the day of His ascension (Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:9-12). It includes events 25 through 33.

Each event throughout this series is numbered, and its description is underlined and in bold font. The Biblical text(s) of each event are then given or cited. Finally, if any further explanation is needed, it is given after the Biblical text is cited.

Here is the continuation of The Bible Says’ chronological listing of the recorded events pertaining to Jesus’s resurrection beginning the day after He came back to life.

25. The eleven disciples go to Galilee in obedience to Jesus’s directive for them after He was raised from the dead.

“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.”
(Matthew 28:16)

Jesus directed His disciples to go to Galilee three times.

• The first time occurred on the night He was arrested, after their Seder meal, while they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:31-32, Mark 14:27-28).
• The second time was through the angel who instructed the women to remind His disciples (Matthew 28:7, Mark 16:7).
• The third time was during Jesus’s (2^nd) appearance to the women returning to His tomb (Matthew 28:10).

26. Jesus appears to the disciples in Galilee, Thomas among them.

• “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.”
• (Matthew 28:17)
• See John 20:26-29 for a more detailed account.

This was the sixth appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

There is an eight-day gap (John 20:26a) between Jesus’s fifth recorded appearance (Mark 16:14, Luke 24:36-43) and His sixth recorded appearance. This pause in appearances may have been a result of Him waiting on His disciples’ obedience before appearing to them again. It also likely took the disciples a few days to complete their journey from Jerusalem to Galilee.

According to Matthew 28:16, the sixth recorded appearance took place at “the mountain which Jesus had designated.” John tells us “Jesus came” to them while they “inside” with “the doors having been shut” (John 20:26b). Putting Matthew and John’s accounts together indicates the place where Jesus designated for His disciples to meet Him was a building near or on a mountain in the district of Galilee.

Neither Matthew nor John specifies whether or not Peter was present at this encounter.

27. Jesus appears to His disciples on the Galilean Shore

See John 21:1-23 for this account.

This was the seventh recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

Peter took six disciples (Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others) with him to go night-fishing on the Sea of Galilee, but they caught nothing (John 21:1-3).

At dawn a man they did not immediately recognize called out to them from the shore, and encouraged them to cast their nets on the right-side of the boat (John 21:4-6a). The disciples complied and amazingly hauled in over 150 fish (John 21:6b, 11). John then recognized the man on the shore as Jesus and told Peter, who swam to shore leaving the others to drag in the boat and net full of fish (John 21:7-8). When the boat finally landed, Jesus was already cooking fish and bread over a fire and invited His disciples to bring and cook some of the fish they had just caught. They share breakfast together (John 21:12-13).

Jesus then converses with Peter and restores him as an apostle (John 21:15-23).

John points out that this was “the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead” (John 21:14).

28. Jesus commissions His disciples to make more disciples of all nations.

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
(Matthew 28:18-20)

1 Corinthians 5:7 may also be a record of this event.

It is possible that Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49, and Acts 1:4-5 could be parallels of Matthew 28:18-20. (These passages will be discussed separately. See #32).

Matthew 28:18-20 describes the eighth recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

It is worth pointing out that Jesus may have constantly remained with His disciples from the time He met them on the shore of Galilee (John 21:1-23) until His ascension on the Mount of Olives (Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:6-11).

Jesus’s instruction recorded in Matthew 28:18-20 is known as “the Great Commission.”

If 1 Corinthians 5:7 describes the audience of this event, then this means that Jesus issued the Great Commission to over five hundred people. If so, events 28 and 29 in this harmony describe the same single event.

Note: It is unclear if the teaching of Mark 16:15-18 is a parallel of Matthew 28:18-20, a parallel of the events described in Luke 24:44-51 and Acts 1:6-11, or if it is a separate teaching altogether that took place during the period of forty days between His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:3).

29. Jesus appeared to more than five hundred believers at one time.

 “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.”
 (1 Corinthians 15:6)

This was the ninth recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

If Jesus was constantly with His disciples from the time He met them in Galilee, then this appearance before more than five hundred people would have been a more typical  “public” appearance rather than the mysterious, sudden, and startling appearances like those that occurred on the first day He came back to life.

The Bible does not specify where Jesus appeared to more than five hundred believers, but it most likely occurred somewhere in the districts of either Galilee or Judea, as these are the only places the Bible mentions that Jesus was seen between His resurrection and ascension. Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth and the town of His ministry headquarters, Capernaum, were both located in Galilee. The city of Jerusalem was located in Judea.

It is also possible that Jesus issued the Great Commission when He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time (Matthew 28:18-20). If so, events 28 and 29 in this listing are the same single event and this would have occurred in Galilee (Matthew 28:16).

30. Jesus appeared to James, His half-brother.

“then He appeared to James…”
(1 Corinthians 15:7a)

This was the tenth recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

Before His resurrection, Jesus’s half-brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). After His resurrection, Jesus made a personal appearance to His half-brother James. This may have been in the district of Galilee, where Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth was located, or it could have been somewhere in Jerusalem or its vicinity between the feasts of Passover and Pentecost. If it was in Galilee, then Jesus’s appearance to the five hundred which occurred just before this was also likely in Galilee and not Judea.

Jesus’s half-brother James eventually became the leader of the church in Jerusalem and authored the epistle of James. James also may have been influential in converting Jude, his own full brother and Jesus’s half-brother, to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Jude authored the epistle of Jude.

31. The disciples (and Jesus) return to Judea.

The Bible does not state this, but rather implies it over the course of Matthew, Mark, and John alongside Luke and Acts.

Matthew and John clearly state that Jesus met the disciples in Galilee (Matthew 28:16, John 21:1—“The Sea of Tiberias” is the Roman name for “the Sea of Galilee”).

Mark insinuates that Jesus met the disciples in Galilee when he included Jesus and the angel’s instruction for the disciples to go to Galilee (Mark 14:28, 16:7).

In his Gospel, Luke says that Jesus ascended outside of Jerusalem near the town of Bethany (Luke 24:50-51). In Acts, Luke says that immediately after Jesus’s ascension, that the disciples “returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem” (Acts 1:12).

Harmonizing these recorded events together indicates that after Jesus rose from the dead and first appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem:

• The disciples went to Galilee where they saw Him again in the district of Galilee.
• Then, they spent some time with Him in Galilee before they returned to the district of Judea.
• Finally, they spent some time with Jesus in Judea before He ascended into heaven on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem and Bethany.

32. Other post-resurrection scriptures relaying the appearances and teachings of Jesus.

Mark 16:15-18
Luke 24:44-49
Acts 1:4-5

It is tricky to place exactly when and where Jesus said and did the things recorded in Mark 16:15, Luke 24:44-49, and Mark 16:18-19.

These may all describe the same incident, or they may describe somewhat similar but distinct moments within the “period of forty days” (Acts 1:3b) while Jesus appeared to His disciples “speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3c).

It is also possible that some or all of them describe the Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. If so, they recount the event #28 in this listing and are various versions of Jesus’s eighth recorded appearance.

First, we will consider these three scriptures as a single event. Then, we will consider how they may recount separate events.

If these scriptures recount the same event, then they comprise the eleventh recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection.

Moreover, if Jesus was continually with His disciples after He appeared to them on the shore of Galilee until His ascension, then these scriptures simply describe a specific moment during that forty-day interim.

Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49, and Acts 1:4-5 share common elements and a similar theme.

Implicit within these passages is the notion that Jesus will not be with them much longer.

They each provide future instructions for the disciples.

• “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”
  (Mark 16:15)
• “but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high”
  (Luke 24:49
• “He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem”
  (Acts 1:4)

Each passage promises divine power and assistance to the disciples as they carried out their mission.

• “in My name they will cast out demons…”
  (Mark 16:17-18)
• “Behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you…you are clothed with power from on high”
  (Luke 24:49)
• “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now”
  (Acts 1:5)

The stated and implied elements common to these three passages, combined with the fact that all three are respectively mentioned toward the end of the resurrection narratives and shortly before Jesus’s ascension, strongly indicate that these instructions came as Jesus’s forty days with His disciples were coming to a close.

It is worth pointing out that Matthew 28:18-20 shares the same theme, elements, and similar placement in Matthew’s Gospel. This might indicate that Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49, and Acts 1:4-5 all describe the same moment in different ways. If this is the case, then this teaching took place in Galilee (Matthew 28:16).

But while there are indicators between the teachings in Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-49, and Acts 1:4-5 that could suggest that they all describe the same moment, there are significant differences and other factors that could indicate that they describe two or even three distinct moments.

If they describe two or three distinct moments within Jesus’s forty days with His disciples, then they describe an eleventh, twelfth, and possibly even thirteenth resurrection appearance of Jesus with His disciples. Furthermore, if they are distinct events, then this would further suggest that Jesus was continually with His disciples after He met them on the shore of Galilee until He ascended into heaven.

Mark 16:15-18 speaks of going into all the world to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15), the consequences of believing/not-believing the gospel (Mark 16:16) and various signs that will accompany those who have believed (Mark 16:17-18).

In addition to the similar moments already mentioned, Luke 24:44-49 also includes Jesus’s explanation of how the Law, Prophets, and Psalms prophetically declare how His suffering, death, and resurrection were necessary (Luke 24:44-46). In this explanation, Jesus went on to prepare the apostles for their mission to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Jesus reminded them how they were witnesses of the things the scriptures foretold concerning the Messiah (Luke 24:48).

Acts 1:4-5 speaks of Jesus gathering His disciples and instructing them to wait in Jerusalem for a few days until they are baptized with the Holy Spirit.

It may well be that Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:44-46, and Acts 1:4-5 describe separate occasions of Jesus’s preparation of His disciples for their life’s work concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

Jesus often told His disciples the same thing more than once, especially when it came to preparing them for what they were to experience. If these passages do describe distinct moments, then it would fit His pattern of repetition. And instead of these scriptures recounting Jesus’s eleventh recorded appearance, they would recount Jesus’s eleventh and twelfth post-resurrection appearances.

Moreover, of the three passages, Luke 24:44-49 is especially tricky to place. It could be harmonized one of three ways. It could describe an event that happened toward the very beginning of Jesus’s forty-day period with His disciples, somewhere in the middle, or at the very end of that period.

Luke 24:44-49 could have been part of Jesus’s initial appearance to His disciples which occurred on the same day of His resurrection.

If so, this would obviously have occurred at the beginning of His time with His disciples. It would have concluded His fifth recorded appearance (Mark 16:14, Luke 24:36-43, John 20:19-25) and therefore not been part of His eleventh appearance. Moreover, if this were the case then this instruction definitely would have occurred somewhere in the city of Jerusalem (Luke 24:33).

Luke 24:44-49 could also be harmonized as occurring on the same day of Jesus’s ascension (Mark 16:19-20, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:9-12).

If this was the case, then it obviously would have occurred at the end of His forty days with His disciples. And this instruction would have been given somewhere in the district of Judea in or near Jerusalem (Luke 24:50, Acts 1:12) where Jesus ascended into heaven.

But as was described above, Luke 24:44-49 seems most likely to describe a separate moment somewhere in the middle (but toward the end) of Jesus’s forty days with His disciples.

If this was the case, then this instruction (and/or the events described in Acts 1:4) could have taken place in Galilee before the disciples left for Judea, on the way to Judea, or in Judea.

33. Jesus ascends into Heaven.

“So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”
(Mark 16:19)

“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.”
(Luke 24:50-51)

Acts 1:6-11 describes a more detailed account of Jesus’s ascension.

Depending on whether the three scriptures in #32 are understood to recount separate events or a single one, these passages describing Jesus’s ascension could be Jesus’s eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth recorded appearance after His resurrection.

Mark’s account is the most simplified of the ascension narratives. It emphasizes Jesus’s authority over heaven and earth by pointing out that He “sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19b).

Luke’s Gospel account begins by saying Jesus “led [the disciples] out as far as Bethany” (Luke 24:50a). This could indicate Jesus led His disciples all the way to Bethany and the outskirts of Jerusalem from Galilee where He seems to have spent most of the forty days. Or it could mean that Jesus led His disciples out of Jerusalem to Bethany. Luke’s Gospel also includes Jesus’s prayer of blessing over His disciples (Luke 24:50b) and reports that He “was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51b).

Luke’s Acts account is the most detailed of the ascension narratives. It begins with Jesus’s disciples questioning Him if this was the moment He would establish the Messianic kingdom (Acts 1:6). Jesus told them it was not for them to know (Acts 1:7), but He did tell them that they were about to receive the power of the Holy Spirit to be His witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to furthest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Then Jesus was lifted up into the sky while the disciples were looking at Him and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9). Two angels then appeared and asked the disciples what they were looking at and informed the disciples that Jesus would return the same way they saw Him leave (Acts 1:10-11). The manner in which the angels said Jesus would return aligns with how Jesus described His reappearing in Matthew 24:30 and is similar to how Revelation 19:11-14 depicts the Messiah’s return.

Acts 1:12 informs us that Jesus’s ascension took place on the Mount of Olives. It is believed that the spot Jesus will return to earth will also be the Mount of Olives, corresponding to the Old Testament prophecy in Zechariah 14:4.

Jesus’s ascension is the Bible’s final recorded event to have occurred between His resurrection and ascension.

To read a harmony of the resurrection events that happened on the day of Jesus’s resurrection, see Part 1 of this series.

For a short list of all of Jesus’s post-resurrection events and post-ascension events, see The Bible Says article: “How many times did Jesus appear after His resurrection?”