Lesson video

Hi everyone and welcome back to our lessons on Christian beliefs.

My name is Mrs Day and I am going to teach you about some more Christian beliefs today.

So in today's lesson, we're going to think about the Ascension.

So what will you need for today's lesson? You will need a pen or a pencil, some paper or a notebook to write down and finally a different coloured pen.

It would be great if you could pause the video now and go to get whatever you need in order to complete this lesson.

So what are we actually going to learn today? The first thing that we are going to look at, is the event of the Ascension.

what happened and what is it.

Then we're going to look at the Great Commission.

And finally, we are going to look at why this event is so important to Christians today.

So that is where we were going with today's lesson.

Before we move on to look at the Ascension, it's important to talk about what Jesus did between the resurrection and the Ascension, because we have a bit of a gap of time here.

And between Jesus's resurrection and his Ascension, he had spent time meeting people, he appeared to lots of his followers and he spent time with the disciples.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was alive for 40 days after his resurrection until his Ascension.

So there's a period of 40 days in there, where Jesus meets his followers and spends time teaching his disciples.

So what is the Ascension? I've already used this word, five or six times in this lesson.

And some of you are probably there thinking I have no idea what that means.

So we're going to first of all define this word Ascension.

So if you look at the image on this slide, you will see that it is a staircase.

So an easy way to think about the word Ascension, is what does it mean to ascend? So if you ascend, that means to go up.

you would ascend upstairs or descend means to come down.

So the Ascension is simply Jesus going up.

And in this case, it refers to Jesus going back up to heaven.

Firstly, let's break through this passage about the Ascension together.

When the apostles met together with Jesus, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time, give the kingdom back to Israel? Jesus said to them, the times and occasions are set by my father's own authority.

And it's not for you to know when they will be.

But when the Holy spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

After saying this, he was taken up to heaven as they watched him and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They still had their eyes fixed on the sky as he went away, when two men dressed in white, suddenly stood beside them and said, Galileans, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus who was taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven, Acts 1:6-11 from the Good News Bible.

So here we have it.

This is the Ascension.

Here is Jesus with the disciples, teaching them about what their mission is to be when he leaves.

And then suddenly he's taken up to heaven within a cloud.

If you look at the image here, this could be what it might've looked like, where this cloud comes down and hides Jesus, and he's taken up to heaven.

And then the disciples are standing there, amazed at what's happened.

They don't get it.

And these two men appear and tell them Jesus is gone, and he will return in the same way that he left.

This story is another meres example of God's omnipotence.

And Christians would believe that this shows that God is all powerful again.

Here we see this cloud covering Jesus and taking him up to heaven.

So this is the end of Jesus's ministry on earth.

This is where we see Jesus disappear and go back up to heaven.

So what I would like you to do now, is to have a go at answering some summary questions about what you have learned so far.

So here are your summary questions.

At this point you can pause the video and complete your task.

When you're finished, you can restart and we will go through the answers together.

Well done on completing these questions.

Let's have a look at the answers together.

So number one, give two examples of what Jesus did between his resurrection and Ascension.

So during this time, Jesus appeared to different people and spent time with his disciples.

You should be using your different coloured pen to mark your answers.

Question number two, what hid Jesus from sight as he was taken up to heaven? You could have written something like, As Jesus was taken up to heaven, a cloud hid him from their sight.

Number three, which book of the Bible records the Ascension? Your answer could have read, the book of Acts records the Ascension.

So make sure that you've corrected those three first questions.

My question four, Who appeared to the disciples after Jesus ascended? And your answer could read, after Jesus ascended, two men dressed in white appeared to the disciples.

And number five, what did the men tell the disciples about how Jesus would return? The men stated that Jesus would return in the same way that he left.

You can go back through these questions and make sure that you've answered them properly.

Please make sure you've used your second colour pen to add in any corrections that you might have wanted to add So that is the story of the Ascension, but now we need to consider something else which happens within that story.

And that is the Great Commission where Jesus commissions his disciples for what he wants to happen after he is gone.

Again, commission is another quite big word you might think I don't know what that means.

So let's firstly work out what the word commission means.

So what is a commission? A commission is simply an instruction or a command.

It's something you've been told to do.

You may have heard this phrase used for artwork for example, some painters are commissioned to produce a certain painting for a specific person.

And this commission, just means that they have been given an instruction to complete this art.

And it's exactly the same here.

We see that Jesus gives his disciples a commission to go and spread the news about his word.

So now we're going to look at what this commission is.

So what exactly does Jesus commission his disciples to do? Let's have another look at the passage, where we read about this commission.

So let's read through this verse together.

This is from Acts and it's in the passage that we just read on the Ascension.

And Jesus says, but when the Holy spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So as we said, a commission is an instruction.

So this is Jesus instructing his disciples to go and be his witnesses.

You will notice here that it talks about the Holy spirit.

We will focus on that in the next lesson, but what you need to know for now, is the Holy spirit is the third part of the Trinity, you remember that? And it was sent to give Christians more power and to empower them to speak about Jesus.

But we will talk more about that in the next lesson.

So what does it mean to be a witness? So you might have heard the term witness associated with someone who has seen a crime committed.

If you're a witness, you have literally seen what has happened.

So you can speak about it.

And you're quite reliable because you've seen what's happened.

So Jesus tells the disciples here to go and be his witnesses.

So that means to go and speak about what they have seen and heard from Jesus.

And then he tells them to go to these four places, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So why, what's so significant about these four places? Why does Jesus not just say, go and be my witnesses? Why does he specifically mention these four places? We're going to look at that in slightly more detail now.

So firstly, let's start with Jerusalem and Judea.

So Jerusalem at that time, was like the centre of the world.

This is where Jesus was, most of his ministry happened.

Remember, think back to the week before his crucifixion.

Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday.

This is where Jesus was crucified.

This is where he rose again.

So this is where the disciples would have been.

This was like the centre of everything at that time.

So literally Jerusalem referred to where you are right now.

Be my witnesses where you are at the moment.

Go and tell people about what you saw here.

Then we get to Judea.

Judea was a neighbouring district.

So it wasn't exactly where they were, but it wasn't that far away.

So Jesus says, tell people about me where you are, but also in neighbouring areas.

So we have Jerusalem, we have Judea.

Then we get to Samaria.

The Samaria at the time, was somewhere that Jews would not go.

There's a history of trouble between the Samaritans and the Jews.

So a lot of Jews would find this really controversial.

They would have been okay with going to Jerusalem and Judea, but Samaria, really Jesus? You want me to go and tell people about you in Samaria, the kind of our enemies.

Why would I go there? Okay, but Jesus is saying no.

Go to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

So I want you to go and tell people about me in this land and you even really seem to get on with that well.

With these people that you don't really know, go and tell them about what you have seen.

Interesting, and then finally Jesus says, go and be my witnesses in the ends of the earth.

It's quite a weird phrase.

What does Jesus mean when he says that? He simply means go and tell everyone about me.

So Jerusalem right here, Judea, neighbouring areas, Samaria, your enemies, people know of your shared bite.

Ends of the earth, everyone.

Go and tell everyone.

Don't stop until you tell everyone.

Go to the very ends of the earth and tell people about me.

Be my witnesses.

This is quite a big command.

As you can see Jesus doesn't just say, go and tell a few friends, just people you're close to.

Let's keep it a secret.

He says no.

Let's share this with absolutely everyone.

Let's tell every single person you can, about what you've seen about what I have done.

So now let's do a little true and false quiz, just to make sure that you feel really confident with the Great Commission.

Question Number one, Jesus told his disciples to tell, sorry.

Jesus told his disciples that they should continue to tell others about him.

Is that true or false? Five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, that is true.

Number two, this was called the Great Instruction.

Is that true or false? Five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, that is false.

It's called the Great Commission.

If you get confused, remember if you are commissioned to do something, you're told to go and do it.

So the Great Commission.

Number three, Jerusalem was where the disciples were at that point.

Is that true or false? Five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, that is true.

Remember the Great Commission starts in Jerusalem.

Jesus says, first of all, be my witnesses where you are right now.

Then number four, Samaria was traditionally a place that Jews disliked.

Is that true, or is it false? Five, four, three, two, and one.

That is true, well done.

Remember we said that traditionally the Samaritans and the Jews weren't best friends.

There had been tension there for years.

So being told to go and tell them about Jesus, was a bit of a challenge to people who've grown up in that culture.

Number five, the disciples were instructed to only tell people similar to them.

Is that true or false? Five, four, three, two, and one.

That's false, well done.

They were told to tell everyone, not just the people like them.

And finally, number six.

Jesus gave them this final instruction before he went up to heaven.

Is this true, or is it false? Five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, this is true.

So Jesus gives his disciples, this Great Commission before he ascends to heaven.

So before he goes up to heaven.

So the Great Commission is followed straight away by the Ascension.

Really well done on those questions.

So you should now be an expert on the Great Commission.

What I would like you to do is to pause the video here, and to have a go at this question.

So what was Jesus telling the disciples to do? In your own words, I would like you to write down what Jesus was instructing the disciples to do, and why he mentioned these four places.

So you're explaining what the Great Commission was in your own words.

And when you have finished, you can just press resume and we will talk through it together.

Well done, so let's talk through that together.

So the Great Commission simply told people to go and be Jesus's witnesses across the world.

So they were told to go and spread what they had seen and heard from Jesus across the world.

And what about those four places he mentioned? Jerusalem, that's where they were at that moment.

Okay, that was where they were, where they lived, Jerusalem.

Number two, Judea that is neighbouring area that they could go and tell people.

Number three, Samaria.

Remember Samaria was traditionally this place where Jews were reluctant to go.

So this is a little bit more controversial, but here Jesus is trying to make the point, go and tell everyone, not just the people you like, not the people that you traditionally are friends with, but go and tell everyone.

And finally to the ends of the earth.

This literally means just go and tell every single person you meet.

Go and be my witnesses with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Go and tell everyone.

Really well done on that.

Now we're going to consider, why is the Ascension important to Christians today? So why do Christians today still remember this event? What's the significance of it? What I would like you to do, is to pause the video here, and to try and come up with some ideas by yourself.

So why is the Ascension and the Great Commission important to Christians today? So you can talk about these two events together.

Why are they both important today? And I would like you to draw a little mindmap, like the one I've drawn here and bullet point or write some ideas with round the mindmap, as to why the Ascension and the Great Commission are still so important to Christians today.

Once you've finished, you can click resume and we will go through it, some of these answers together.

Really well done.

So let's talk about some of these answers together.

So the first answer that I came up with, was that the Ascension revealed God's omnipotence.

Remember that word omnipotence.

We did it right back in the first lesson.

It talks about God being all powerful.

I'm not sure about you, but I haven't seen very many people being taken up to heaven in a cloud.

So I think this is quite unusual.

This breaks the laws of nature.

This shows God's omnipotence The second reason, why Christians still care about this today is that it revealed God's plan for the future.

So in Acts, it says this Jesus who was taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way that you saw him go.

So this covenant reveals to Christians, that there is a plan for the future.

That Christians should have a hope for the future because Jesus is going to come back.

He is not going to come back as a little baby again, but he is going to come back from the sky.

He's going to descend into the world again.

And the third reason why this is still so important today, is because it gives Christians clear instructions about telling others about Jesus.

You might have noticed from just being on a bike, that at times Christians might stop in the street and hand you a leaflet on Christianity, They might invite you to church.

Christians more than in other religions, Christians really care, about telling others about Jesus.

about their faith.

That's key part of the Christian religion.

And why is this? simply because Jesus told them to.

Here we see Jesus saying go and be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

That was important to the disciples then, but that command is also important to Christians today.

Christians today take that to mean, okay, so I should tell people in my local area, should tell people nearby, should tell people who maybe are not best friends with, but should just tell everyone.

Everyone should be told about Jesus.

So this command still influences Christians today.

The Great Commission still encourages Christians today, to go and tell others about Jesus.

To go and tell others about what they've read in the Bible.

So those are three main reasons that you can use to talk about this.

Now what I would like you to do is to have a go at this evaluation task.

We've looked at evaluation before, but you might remember that evaluation is simply making a judgement on something.

So looking at two sides of an argument or an opinion and deciding which you believe with, which you side with, which you believe more and why.

So if you look at this table here, you will see what you have to do.

And I put the reasons why the Ascension is important, down the left hand side.

For each of them, you need to add an explanation.

So what does that mean? Then you need to rank the reason from one to three in order of importance.

So which reason do you think is most important for Christians today? And you need to add a reason as to why you have ranked it there.

So let's do the first one together to give you an idea.

So the first reason why the Ascension is important, is because it reveals God's omnipotence.

Explanation, the Ascension proves God's power again, because it breaks the laws of nature.

Then I decided that I think that's the second most important reason.

And the reason why I put it there, was because I think it isn't important, although events in Jesus's life also prove God's omnipotence.

So the Ascension is not the only event to do that.

So that's the idea.

What you can do is move on to the next slide, where you can pause the screen.

And after you do that, then you can resume and we will go through some of these answers together.

So you can pause the video here and then resume once you've finished and we will go through some of your answers together.

Really well done.

I wonder what you placed to the top.

Because all of these reasons are important.

So there's not necessarily a right answer.

Well, what we can do together is go through the explanation column.

Really, really well done.

So we can't really go through your ranking and your reason because that is up to you.

And I hope that you find it really interesting making your own judgments.

There's no right or wrong answer.

This is your opinion.

What do you think is more important and why? But let's go through the explanations together.

So the first one we did, reveals God's omnipotence.

It proves that God is all powerful because it breaks the laws of nature.

The second one, it revealed God's plan for the future.

Your explanation could be something like it gives Christians hope that Jesus will return one day.

And thirdly, the final reason why it's important, is it gives Christians clear instructions about telling others about Jesus.

Explanation, Christians are aware of their mission.

They should tell all people about Jesus.

So there you have the explanations, and I hope that you've really understood, ranked them all, and thinking about why that is so important for Christians today.

So as I just said, I would love to see what you've put as your top rank and your bottom and the reasons.

So if you would like to share this with us, please ask a parent or a carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and tag @OakNational or #LearnwithOak.

Onto there I can see all the great work, that you have done.

Thank you so much for joining in today's lesson.

And I hope that you've learned something new about the Ascension and the Great Commission.

Hopefully Christianity as a religion is starting to make a lot of sense to you now, and you can see how it all works.

We're getting towards the end of our Christian beliefs lesson, but please join us for the next few, as we look at some final Christian beliefs, I hope you have a lovely day and I will see you all soon for our next lesson, thank you.