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I AM Series Participant Workbook 4: The One from Above and the Word of God

I AM Participant Workbook

Title:  I AM Session 4: I AM The One from Above and The Word of God

Age:  8 to 12 years

Liturgical Time:  Any

Doctrinal Content:  Forty days after His Resurrection, Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father.  This lesson explores Jesus coming to us in order to bring us up to Him.

Direct Aims:  The I AM series aims to help young people understand their relationship to Christ and to others based on the I AM statements.

Indirect Aims:  An additional aim is for young people to understand specific ways that they may emulate Christ.

Materials for the Lesson Plan:
I AM Participant Workbook
Orthodox Study Bible Bible
No Man Ever Spoke as This Man: The Great I AM’s of Jesus by Fr. Anthony Coniaris

Lesson Plan:
How does Jesus lead us up to heaven?
Where does everything we see come from?

Think up!
Work with your partner to fill in as many blanks as you can.
Moses received the ____________ commandments from God on a  ______________________ called Sinai.
When _________________________   was Transfigured, he had gone (circle one) Up   Down  to the _______________ called Tabor.
Special knowledge was revealed to the Holy Prophets from ______________.
Elijah was taken _________________ to God in a __________________________.

What do the answers have in common?
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Going Up
We know in what direction we need to go, but it is literally an uphill battle! Without God we will never make the journey to heaven, but with Him all things are possible. God knows we need help on the journey, so He sent Jesus to meet us half way and bring us closer to heaven.

The One From Above
Jesus came from above to help bring us closer to heaven. Look at the Bible verses below and try to summarize how each relates to the idea that Jesus, Who has always existed in heaven, came from above to bring us up.

John 8:23
“And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.”
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John 1: 1-4
“In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
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John 1:14
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
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When Jesus went up:  The Feast of the Ascension
The former account I made O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for truly John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1: 1 –11.

How many days after Pascha does Ascension occur? __________
Is Christ’s body or spirit taken up into heaven? ______________
What do the angels tell the Disciples will happen? ________________________________
On what day of the week does Ascension always fall? _______________

Forty days after His Resurrection, Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father. It is very important that Christ ascended in both body and spirit. He went out of His way to prove this to the Disciples by eating with them prior to His departure.  The Feast of the Ascension truly shows us that Christ is from above. When He ascends both in body and spirit – God and Man – he repairs and truly becomes “the way” between man and his creator. He takes us UP to God. Man once again can journey to be with his God, Who is from above. We can travel on the ladder upward to Christ our God.

Ascension Tropar
You have ____________________ in________________ O Christ our God, granting ___________________ to the disciples by the _______________ of the _____________________. Through the ____________________ they were assured that ____________ are the ______________ , the _______________  of the world!

Written by Natalie Kapeluck-Nixon and Kira Senadak
Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
2014

Below is a link to access the complete I AM Participant Workbook and Leader's Edition, sessions 1-10 for ages 8 to 12 years.