Pentecost and the Line Up of Glasses

   (Resource Pack   57)                                                                                      KEY  STAGE 2  & 3                   

Visual aid: A collection of various glasses 

Explaining what happened at Pentecost, using a variety of glasses, as listed below, along with a special plastic set of small party wineglasses (from any party specialist shop) which build up into a pyramid i.e.

21 in the bottom layer

Then 15, 10, 6, 3

and finally the single red glass for the top.

It was the church’s birthday last week, who knows what day it was? Yes Pentecost!

Jesus had departed to heaven. He told the disciples to wait and pray for the gift, which the Father had promised would come to them. The Holy Spirit !... and now He had arrived!

But just imagine that the disciples hadn’t followed instructions, and hadn’t waited patiently for the promise… what if they had not given themselves to prayer and to meeting together…what if they hadn’t prayed at all…

They would have been like this UPTURNED glass. To fill it would have been impossible…let us be careful we are not like an upturned glass!

Say there had been bickering, divisions and broken relationships instead of harmony…rather like this BROKEN glass.  How could the Spirit of God have remained in them without leaking?

Some of them were broken people and didn’t feel worthy enough to receive anything from God, and had drifted off without knowing his healing touch?

Let us be careful we are not like this broken glass!

Say there had been disobedience, unclean thoughts and minds, worship of things rather than God…Rather like this DIRTY, UNWASHED  glass.  How could the Holy Spirit of God enter that which was unclean or unloving? Let us be careful we are not like this dirty glass!

What if they had been closed, suspicious, wary, or ashamed of God’s gift…rather like this NARROW glass, they could have been robbed of so much blessing spilling all over the place. Let us be careful we’re not narrow or judgemental in our thinking.

A clearer picture of what happened at Pentecost, was this kind of glass…

a SMALL PINK CHAMPAGNE GLASS at the top of a large pyramid of other similar glasses. ( these glasses are provided in the pack)

Not only were they filled, there was an outpouring, an overflowing of the richest wine imaginable, tumbling out to others.

So too the Holy Spirit today, can move through our lives and affect others in the most amazing way!

(POUR WATER INTO THE TOP GLASS VERY CAREFULLY, AND WATCH ALL THE OTHERS FILL UP TOO!)

This is what Jesus meant by the life-giving, rivers of living water, which would flow out from him to us, and on to others.