Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E114 | Everyday Eurasia | Dr. Svetlana Khobnya | Easter to Pentecost
Transcript
- 0:01This week we have a special edition of the Everyday Eurasia
- 0:04podcast. Voices from across the region
- 0:07take us on our journey from Easter to Pentecost.
- 0:11Today we will join Doctor Svetlana Kopnia, Nazarene
- 0:15Theological College, Manchester. The truthful Easter story starts
- 0:21with the words recognizing Jesus resurrection.
- 0:25Christ is reason. He is reason indeed, when Jesus
- 0:30disciples then and now admit that Jesus did not remain in the
- 0:35grave, but was raised by the Father and is alive, preparing a
- 0:41place for his disciples at the sight of his Father.
- 0:46This is not just an assumption. Matthew, Leoch, and John testify
- 0:53to us how the reason Jesus appeared to his disciples and
- 0:58how they were at first shocked in disbelief, but eventually
- 1:04filled with joy and hope, they continued worshipping God in
- 1:09their midst. The resurrection is not the
- 1:13conclusion of Eastern, it is the beginning.
- 1:17The ascension is its culmination.
- 1:22The same end of Matthew 28 we encountered the reason Jesus
- 1:27with his disciples in Galilee. While Matthew does not
- 1:31explicitly describe the ascension, his Gospel closes
- 1:36with a sin charged with its power.
- 1:40Jesus appears not only to prove that he is alive, but to
- 1:45Commission his follows. The essence moment completes the
- 1:50story of Emmanuel, God with us, the essential union to the
- 1:56Father. Jesus opens the way for us to
- 2:00share in his relationship with God through the Spirit.
- 2:06The single encounter with Jesus described in Matthew is marked
- 2:11by both worship and doubt. And yet Jesus entrust his
- 2:18mission to these imperfect disciples, saying the goal and
- 2:24make disciples of all nations. The ascent is not simply to
- 2:29believe in the resurrection. They live as Easter people to
- 2:35be, to baptize, to teach, and to remember that he is with us
- 2:42always, even to the end of the age.
- 2:46The Ascension is not about absence.
- 2:49It is about presence, and presence in a new way.
- 2:54Jesus has not abandoned his balls.
- 2:58Instead, he promises the ongoing presence of his power, his
- 3:03spirit, his authority. The Ascension is the story of
- 3:08God's power at work, of Christ preparing away for us even as he
- 3:15sends us into the world. There's this moment in Matthew
- 3:2028 also reveals the universal scope of Jesus mission.
- 3:26The promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed comes
- 3:31into view here. Baptism marks entry into this
- 3:37community of faith and teaching shapes lives in obedience to
- 3:42Christ. The Gospel is not just about
- 3:46private belief, but about forming a new people who reflect
- 3:52God's Kingdom on earth, they say.
- 3:55So as we close this serious on encounters with the reason
- 4:00Christ, Matthew invites us not simply to marvel at the
- 4:04resurrection, but to step into its continuing story.
- 4:11The reason? An ascended Christ needs us not
- 4:15only in joy but in doubt. He calls us to participate not
- 4:22as spectators but as disciples carrying his presence into the
- 4:27world. So let us, like those earlier
- 4:32followers, worship even while we wander.
- 4:37Let us trust that Jesus is indeed with us, and let us live
- 4:43with boldness, hope, and obedience.
- 4:47Because Christ is risen, ascended, and raiding, and
- 4:52because he lives, everything has changed.
- 4:55Heaven and earth are no longer a part.
- 4:59God is with us and we are sent. Thank you for listening to the
- 5:09Everyday Eurasia Podcast. To find more of our Ether to
- 5:13Pentecost resources for individuals and small groups,
- 5:16please visit our website euratiaregionorg.