When Jesus left – what was the impact of Pentecost?

Aims:

Make simple links between the description of the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God, and how Christians live their whole lives and in their church communities.

Which of the video versions of the story of Pentecost below do you prefer and why?

Can you make your own video of the story of Pentecost, or create a story board for a new video version?

Pentecost - activities

• Write and read aloud, a diary piece for two people involved in the story: one from one of those who welcome God’s rule into his or her life, one from an onlooker who is less impressed. The diaries need to show that not everyone sees events like this in the same way!
• The First 3,000: in the final part of the chapter, Acts 2:41–47, 3,000 people accept Jesus as King of their lives, and join the ‘Kingdom of God’. Use the text to find out what these new followers of Jesus were told to do, what they did and how they felt about it.
• Imagine I had made a collection of a fan, a candle, matches, the Lord’s Prayer in lots of languages, French and German phrase books, a crown, a dove, a wrapped present, a speech bubble, a map or blow-up globe, a cloud cut-out, a guidebook, a battery, a bottle of wine. These objects are all connected to the day when the followers of Jesus grew from 120 people to over 3,000 people. What might these things represent?  Which might represent the Holy Spirit?  Make a poster of symbols you know and add any of your own, to represent the Holy Spirit.
• Create your own spirited art based on who the Holy Spirit is and what Christians believe about it.

Who or what do Christians think the Holy Spirit is?

Why do Christians think the Holy Spirit is important now?

Christians might say the Spirit of God is like a battery: Christians can’t do God’s work and live in God’s way without the Holy Spirit’s power.

Watch the film below to see what Christians think;

Look at the words of the Lord’s Prayer: what clues does that give to what Christians might believe the Kingdom of God should be like?

Create your own collage, painting or picture of what you think the Kingdom of God might look like.

Look back to the emotions that the disciples felt (for example: scared, anxious, nervous, uncertain, worried, bereaved, mystified).

When have you felt like this? When have you had a bag of worries, and what was in it?

How and from whom do you get courage or comfort about your worries?

What about Christians today? What might they be scared, anxious or nervous about? What might be in their ‘worries bag’? Look at John 14:16–17. How might the Holy Spirit help them?

John 14:16-17 International Children’s Bible (ICB)

¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper.^[a] He will give you this Helper to be with you forever. ¹⁷ The Helper is the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it does not see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you and he will be in you.

Look at the picture of the fruits of the Spirit below.  Label the outline of a person - what actions might you see from a person who is trying to follow Jesus and believes the Holy Spirit is with them?

Christians believe the Holy Spirit makes Jesus present in their everyday lives.  

What might help them keep 'growing' the fruit?

Perhaps they might meet with other Christians, pray and read the Bible.

Links that may help you find more information