Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Christian Piatt

Home
Progressive Christian
Going Up! (AKA, Jesus in Space) Heretic’s Guide Bible Study Sampler

Going Up! (AKA, Jesus in Space) Heretic’s Guide Bible Study Sampler

Last updated on: April 30, 2013 at 4:01 am by Christian Piatt

Going Up! (AKA, Jesus in Space) Heretic’s Guide Bible Study Sampler 2013-04-30T04:01:59+00:00 Christian Piatt

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Click to check out the new Heretic’s Guide to the Bible Blog HERE

Bible Cliff’s Notes (My dog ate my Bible!)

Gospel

Luke 24:44-53
Jesus gives the disciples the power to understand the scriptures clearly. He claims he is given the ability to impart this power to them from God. He ascends to heaven and they wait for further instruction in Jerusalem, praising both God and Jesus in the meantime.

First Reading
Acts 1:1-11
The disciples are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit soon. They want to know when; Jesus tells them that timing isn’t any of their business. Then Jesus ascends into heaven.

Psalm
Psalm 47 or Psalm 93
Both psalms of praise, depicting God as ruler on high, and as a God that uplifts creation.

Second Reading
Ephesians 1:15-23
Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus proclaims the authority and lordship of Jesus over all of creation, as endowed by God. He also prays that they will receive the power of wisdom from God.

WTF? (Breaking down scripture in plain language)

Theophilus – The name of the author credited with writing both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. It means “Love of God” in Greek.

Baptized – A ritual Christians use to indicate dying to the “old ways” of the world and being born again into a new life with Jesus.

Apostles – Means “One who is sent.” The longer name for the book of Acts is “Acts of the Apostles,” or basically, what they did to start the Christian church after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus’ followers were originally called disciples, and as they were “sent out” to spread the Gospel, and many of them subsequently became apostles.

Christ – Some folks mistakenly think Jesus’ last name was “Christ.” Actually, he was known as Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus the Nazarene. “Christ” comes from the Greek word Christos, which means “anointed.” Anointed means to be particularly marked, chosen or empowered.

Navel-Gazing (First Thoughts)

It’s all about the POWER this week. Makes me think of Jesus more like He-Man with his giant sword on top of Grayskull: “I have the powerrrrrr!” Levitating Jesus is hard enough to comprehend, then we have the God presented in the psalms, which is all about being lord and sitting on a big throne, floating in the sky. Between you and me, I could relate a lot better to the pre-crucifixion Jesus.

From these texts, we can definitely see where people would have gotten the sense that heaven is “up there” somewhere in the clouds. But it wasn’t that long ago in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus was calling on God to bring God’s kingdom to the earth. Are they separate? Is God closing the gap? Why did Jesus have to go away anyway? Why couldn’t he have hung out for, say, a couple thousand more years to help us sort this whole faith thing out?

Read the rest of this study, share comments, join our live chats and get more premium content by clicking on the banner below.

Click to check out the new Heretic’s Guide to the Bible Blog HERE

heretic's guide to the bible

progressive christian

psalms

religion

theology

Previous Post

April 28, 2013

Church Sign Epic Fails, "In-Your-End-O" Edition

Next Post

April 30, 2013 Mark Driscoll's Oral Fixation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category atonement belief bible Bill O'Reilly Buddhism CCM children christian piatt christianity Contemporary Christian Music current events derek flood Easter education Everyday Sunday faith faith and culture Frank Schaeffer great commission Haaz Sleiman Hobby Lobby Homebrewed Culture humor ISIS Jesus John Paul Lederach Killing Jesus LGBTQ marc driscoll Mission Year Music My Jesus Project Nat Geo parenting politics popular culture postChristian prison reform Ray rice religion republicans sacrifice sexuality theology Uncategorized video violence wild goose festival World Vision young adults

Select a Month December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What New Covenant promise is found in Jeremiah?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God will destroy Egypt God will write His law on their hearts God will flood the earth God will raise a new king in Israel