Bethlehem Lutheran Church

God shows His love to us and provides for us so richly in so many different ways!

Why did Jesus go away? It’s a good question. Fortunately, the Bible gives us some good answers to that question, answers that can help us understand what a blessing it is for us that our Lord did not stay, but ascended into heaven.

Jesus ascended into heaven: to take His rightful place as the King of kings - exercising His authority over all creation; to send the Holy Spirit to assure us that Jesus remains with us always; and to bless us with a purpose of telling everyone what He has done…is doing…and will do for those who love Him.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Superstition, misconceptions, and misdirection can turn our eyes away from the help, hope, and healing freely available in Jesus Christ (and nowhere else!)

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

John 16 is part of a much larger narrative (John 13-17) in which Jesus prepares His disciples for His departure. Delivered on the night He was betrayed, Jesus teaches His disciples about what was about to happen and why. And yet, when the events of the next two days "suddenly" blew up in their faces, the disciples were traumatized…leaving them overwhelmed, depressed and speechless.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Jesus really did clearly identify Himself as the Messiah and God. The Jewish leaders just didn’t want to hear it. We have every reason to listen to what Jesus says, though, because the words He speaks give eternal life.

Easter proved you can’t keep a good God down when Jesus bounced right back from the dead, but He proved that victory and He proved His faithfulness repeatedly after that, showing that His power and love are always present for us.