Active Learning Bible Studies
Ascension:
Jesus, Glorified
These weekly active learning studies aim for growth in leaders and learners alike. Each onscreen study has a link beneath it to a printable version, leaving these flexible for in-person studies, groups studying remotely, or people studying solo.
New studies are being added throughout the year!
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Ascension
Photo: Szabo Viktor on Unsplash
Christ's triumphant ascension to the right hand of the Father is often considered a relatively minor church festival. But Scripture teaches the importance of this great event...
Trouble and death face us all. It is good to listen, comfort, and support each other. But why do we so often hesitate to also fix each other's gaze on the joy set before us?
Choose one Bible verse about the glory that awaits God's children. Practice using it to encourage yourself, family, or a friend.
Hebrews 12:2 reminds us that Christ was looking ahead, with death a mere step on the road to "the joy set before him." (Notice the depth of the original Greek word for "scorning" the shame of the cross!)
Jesus' struggle in Gethsemane shows that he knew how terrible would be the punishment he took for the world's sin. But his focus was on ___________.
Read Luke 9:51.
Jesus himself, perfect in faith, repeatedly teaches us to look ahead to the fulfillment of God's plan. Delightfully, he uses the pun "exalted" (literally "lifted up") to do so: with Nicodemus, with those who would kill him, with the crowds.
Read John 12:23–33. In verse 23, what time had come? Verse 28 repeats aloud the goal: what is it?
In fact, Hebrews 5:5–10 discusses Jesus' temptation and death in terms of "the _____ of becoming __________" (v 5)!
This foreshortening of faith—looking head-on at God's plan and joyfully striding toward his purpose—is evident throughout Scripture.
We children of God aim to share his attitude. What is earthly suffering, what is physical death, but a step toward __________?
When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
—Psalm 73:21–24