THIS SAME JESUS
June 2, 2019 | Denise McKinney
This same Jesus who ascended into heaven in Acts 1, is still with us today. He is active through the Holy Spirit and moves in powerful ways. Denise McKinney continues our Acts series by exploring the ways he moves.
MESSAGE NOTES
THIS SAME JESUS
Acts | Week 2 | June 2, 2019
Acts 1:1–14 NIV
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 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.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “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."
Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
This same Jesus…
This is still the same Jesus!
This same Jesus is still with us.
Holy Spirit:
The very real and powerful presence of God at work in us.
This same Jesus still overhauls our expectations.
The kingdom of God ≠ the kingdom of Israel
Faith minus vulnerability and mystery is extremism…
Brene Brown
This same Jesus still loves a good plot twist.
This same Jesus still calls us to life in community.
an unintentional “self-centered faith story”
one where we feel “close and cared for”
and those we don’t understand or don’t agree with are “distant and disregarded.”
A Bigger Table | John Pavlovitz