Welcome
Welcome to the sermon series Your Kingdom Come: God’s Project for Making All Things New! Here you will find a brief overview of this week’s passage and a few ideas for going deeper into the sermon topic with Preschool, Elementary, and Middle/High Schoolers.
Recap
Have you ever been given a gift that wasn’t just for you? I don’t mean a gift that wasn’t for you; I mean a gift that wasn’t just for you—a gift that was for you and for someone else, or maybe for you and everyone else in your family. How does it make you feel to get a gift like that?
In our passage for this week, the disciples get a gift kind of like that! We’ve been hearing a lot about the Kingdom of God for the last two months, and now it’s finally time for Jesus to give his friends the gift of the Kingdom!
His friends had a question, though: “Jesus, are you going to give the kingdom back to Israel now?”
They wanted to know who the Kingdom was for. “Is this present just for us?”
No! The gift of the Kingdom is a gift for everyone who trusts in Jesus. It’s a big present! In fact, it’s so big that Jesus asks us to help him give it out: “you will tell other people about me from one end of the earth to the other.” In fact, Jesus gives us his own Spirit to help us do it!
We’re going to hear more about that this weekend from Pastor Jeff and from Anne Miller. Listen closely!
Preschool
Read your child(ren) stories about the coming of the Holy Spirit and the early church. You can find these in any of the common children’s story Bibles! Point out to your kids that the kingdom was bigger than any of the disciples expected at first.
Elementary School
Read Acts 1:1-11 from a child-friendly version of the Bible like the NIrV.
What does this passage say about the Holy Spirit? What else do you notice?
Look again at the question the disciples asked Jesus. Who did they think the kingdom of God is for?
Jesus says, “You will tell people about me.” Have you ever told anyone about Jesus?
What has the church meant to you in your life? Has it been important? Has it helped you?
Middle/High School
Read Acts 1:1-11 in the New Living Translation.
When you read these verses, particularly verse 6, do you get the impression the disciples understood now everything about the kingdom of God?
These verses don’t mention the church specifically, but the giving of the Spirit is the beginning or birth of the church. What role has the church played in your life? What has it meant for you?
The angels said that Jesus will return again! What do Jesus and the Spirit call us to do while we wait? What does it mean to be a “witness”?