𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧

Show and Tell

Parents and kids: Everyone will take turns describing their favorite object (a book, toy, clothes, etc) or a recent experience (can be a movie, a vacation, a birthday party etc), and share why they like it. If you have the object with you, you can pass it around so everyone can have a closer look at it.

Spiel: Did you enjoy sharing your stories about your favorites? (Wait for your children to answer) It’s fun telling others about something that we enjoyed doing or something that made us happy, right? In our story today, the followers of Jesus were instructed to tell others about the things Jesus did for them. Let’s read and find out more…

𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗

We learned last week that Jesus had a command to His disciples. Today, we’ll read about how Jesus gives them His plan and how they, and we today, will be able to fulfill His command.

As He prepares to go back to Heaven, He talks to the disciples one last time. Let’s read about it in Acts 1:

6 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚, “𝐿𝑜𝑟𝑑, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝐼𝑠𝑟𝑎𝑒𝑙?” 7 𝐻𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚: “𝐼𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑏𝑦 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦. 8 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑜𝑙𝑦 𝑆𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢; 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑒𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐽𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ.” 9 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠, ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑢𝑝 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑢𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡.10 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑝 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑦 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑢𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚. 11 “𝑀𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐺𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑒,” 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑, “𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑦? 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠, 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛, 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑔𝑜 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛.”

Jesus’ followers were anxious about what is to come but instead of answering their questions, He assured them that the Holy Spirit will come and empower them to be witnesses of Jesus, declaring the Gospel to neighbors, their cities, and even to other nations of the earth. Isn’t it strange how Jesus chose to answer them this way? But that was God’s plan all along - He did not send Jesus just to save the Jewish people but God wanted to save the whole world.

Just like the disciples, many of us are anxious about the future as well. But Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit given to the disciples back then still stands to this day. The Holy Spirit will be with us until Jesus returns and will continue to empower us to do as Jesus commanded to tell others about Him and live our life according to His ways.

𝗛𝗨𝗗𝗗𝗟𝗘

Parent to Kid

2-6 years old

Do you believe that Jesus will come back to earth in the future for us? What makes you think so?

7-12 years old

Are there things that you are worried about when you think of the future? What are these things?

Kid to Parent

What do you do when you face uncertainties about the future?

How will we know the Holy Spirit is with us today?

Jesus’ ascension to heaven teaches us this: that He had to leave His life as a man in order to be with each of us and empower us with His presence even when He is no longer here on earth physically. How is this possible? Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). It is the Holy Spirit that enables and empowers us to continue to walk the life that the Bible teaches us to do. When we face uncertainties, it is the Holy Spirit that reminds us that we can be certain that Jesus has won the battle for us and will come back for us one day so we can enjoy eternal life with Him.

𝗣𝗥𝗔𝗬

Dear Jesus, thank You for releasing the Holy Spirit upon us so we can tell others about You. Thank You that we can continue to walk according to Your ways and be empowered to be Your witnesses across the earth as we wait for you to come back. May we always be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit as we continue to live our daily lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥

You may be wondering what is the significance of the Ascension of Jesus. For us today, it is important because of the following reasons:

The Holy Spirit will not be able to come if Jesus had not ascended to heaven. John 16:7 says “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

The promise of Jesus’ return, which was first given by Jesus in John 14:3, was repeated by the angels, giving hope to the disciples back then and to us today.

With the ascension, Jesus is now in Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us (Romans 8:34)