Vineyard Church of the Peninsula Vineyard Church of the Peninsula

The unleashing of the Holy Spirit was a great pushing forward. It pushed the disciples forward along a path with no clear next steps. It pushed crowds of new believers in Jesus to quit old ways and begin to learn his ways. It pushed Jewish leadership to re-think beliefs and traditions and their manmade hierarchy. It soon brought pushback from that leadership in the form of resistance, anger, fear-fueled, murderous fury, and ultimately, widespread persecution of all those who claimed the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Acts 7:48-60



1-47 – Stephen’s ______________________________________________





48-53 – Stephen’s ____________________________________________





  54-60 – Stephen’s ___________________________________________

The Pentecost pyrotechnics in that upper room were the prelude, not the main event. They signaled the birthing of Jesus’ church and brought his disciples front and center in a brand-new Kingdom adventure. What began as a Spirit-powered, forward-propelling, impacted the disciples with such force they were instantaneously transformed. Through them, huge crowds would begin to be drawn to Jesus’ church. His church (pardon the pun) was off to a roaring start.
Acts 2:11-41


11-16 – Holy Spirit ____________________________________________




17 – 36 – Holy Spirit __________________________________________




37 – 41 – Holy Spirit __________________________________________

PENTECOST SUNDAY

The Pentecost Event was an incisive Kingdom invasion, with Jesus not waiting for the disciples to attain to a state of full readiness. It was clearly a ready-or-not overwhelming. They had been told (Luke 24:49) they would be ‘clothed with power from on high,’ (NIV) or that ‘the power of heaven would fall upon them and wrap around them’ (TPT). This was a no turning back moment, resulting in them (and every disciple to follow through centuries to come) being infused with more life, more strength, more power, more courage, more insight, than they could possess on their own. They had undergone a radical Kingdom makeover.

Luke 24:32-49

1. vv. 32-35 – Jesus ___________________________________________________

2. vv. 36-40 – Jesus ___________________________________________________

3. vv. 41- 43 - Jesus ___________________________________________________

4. vv. 44 – 49 – Jesus _________________________________________________

For Jesus’ disciples, it wasn’t simply what they knew he could do that was a continual source of amazement, it was what he chose to do that kept them off balance. Daily, there seemed to be another of his choices that further opened their eyes to his priorities, those of the Kingdom. They probably gave up trying to figure out his course of action because it was at a level of spontaneity and creativity ridiculously beyond theirs. And each revelation was a challenge to their many preconceptions. I mean, healing the servant of a Roman military captain, this time, from a distance? What next?
Luke 7:11-17

1. vv. 11-13a – Widowed woman _______________________________________


2. vv. 13b – Bereft woman ______________________________________________


3. vv. 14,15 – Lonely woman’s __________________________________________


4. vv. 16,17 –News Flash: Vulnerable woman ____________________________



“A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity.
It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."
Agatha Christie

-"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness."
Honoré de Balzac

"I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then, I want to move in with them."
Phyllis Diller

The final week in Jerusalem with Jesus was palpably ominous with unnamed malice in the air. The Passover meal with him felt out of sync, wrenched from tradition, with more foreboding signs. Later, Judas’ betrayal revealed a still passive Messiah, unwilling to fight, even unsurprised at the surreal circumstances of his arrest. The next hours stretched out in hideous slow motion, ending in the unthinkable death of the One in whom all their hopes rested. This crushing ‘defeat’ devastated Jesus’ friends, setting them adrift in a sea of grief and trauma. Jesus’ resurrection once again flipped their worlds upside down, leaving them unsure what any of the past three and a half years was about. Seeing the resurrected Jesus so soon after having abandoned their friend en masse was, to say the least, uncomfortable.

John 21:1-14
1. vv. 1-6 – (Luke 5: 1-11, John 15:5) – The Kingdom - ______________________



2. vv. 7-11 – (Matthew 14:22-32) – The Kingdom - _________________________



3. vv. 12-14 – (Luke 24:31-49) The Kingdom - ______________________________

Ever the unparalleled teacher, Jesus was intent on expanding his disciples’ understanding of the ways of his Father’s Kingdom. Step by step, so as not to overwhelm his disciples, he searched for occasions to illustrate it, to place its values within a memorable context. At times, it probably seemed to his band of friends that they were still processing the last revelation when something equally new and surprising (shocking?) was thrown at them.

John 4:1-8a, 25-38
1. vv. 1-4 – non-____________________ an ear ________________________

2. vv. 5-8a – _____________________________________________________


3. vv. 25-28 – demonstrates ________________________________________


4. vv. 31-34 – figurative _____________________________________________


5. vv. 35-38 – love ___________________________________________________