What does Luke 24:48 mean?

This is part of what Jesus taught—likely over the course of multiple encounters—about where He fits into the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures. His followers need to contextualize that truth and teach people how to respond (Luke 24:44–46). Jesus died so that people might repent and find complete reconciliation with God; this is a message "to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47).

The greater group of disciples are "witnesses of these things." They have witnessed how Jesus' experiences match the suffering and resurrection promised to the Messiah in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Jonah. Witnesses don't just watch, however. They tell others the truth. Church tradition says the apostles did this. Many wound up in Rome. Others stayed between Jerusalem and Syria. Thomas, it's believed, went to India. Matthew to Ethiopia. Paul had hoped to get to Spain (Romans 15:24).

Jesus commissioned the disciples to do more than just "talk" about His truth. He asked them—and us—to make disciples: teaching the church to follow His commands (Matthew 28:19–20).

We don't know where Luke 24:44–48 takes place. It seems that between the resurrection and ascension, Jesus spends time in Galilee (John 21). Luke 24:49–53 occurs in or around Jerusalem. Jesus takes the group to the Mount of Olives, near Bethany. He tells them to stay in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Then He ascends into heaven. The Jewish disciples of the Jewish Messiah then do what is only natural: they go to the temple and praise God.