Christ Will Come Again...When?

This weekend marks Palm Sunday, the beginning of one of the two holiest weeks in the Christian calendar.

On Palm Sunday we remember Jesus' entering the city of Jerusalem in Triumph to an explosion of good will, palm branch waving, and shouts of "Hosana" before undertaking the most important activities of his life.

These events included the overturning of the money-changers tables at the Temple and driving them out of that holy place, and resulted in some of his most famous teachings:

"Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive"

"Many are invited, but few are chosen"

"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God"

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted"

He also was asked a question during these final days in Jerusalem regarding which was the greatest of the commandments, and famously replied:

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

He even foretold the coming of Christianity itself when he lectured the Jewish chief priests and the Pharisees that "the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

The week which began in triumph and proceeded on through inspiration, challenge, and controversy would ultimately move to his betrayal, arrest, trial, persecution and would end with his death on the cross for all of our sins.

Christians also believe that Jesus Christ is destined to come again in what many refer to as the "End Days", the "End of Time", the "End of the Age", or in the "Apocalypse" period at the end of time. This belief doesn't come from a teaching of men, but from the promise of Christ himself in those same final days of his life.

But when will Jesus return?

Surrender Like Christ

Today is Palm Sunday, celebrating the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem to begin the pentultimate week of his life which would end in the most important event in human history.

As Christ willingly surrendered himself for our sake, we should follow his lead. Our inspiration can be found right in the Bible, in Proverbs 16.

It is the Old Testament's Book of Proverbs chapter 16 where we learn to "entrust your works to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." This important chapter of God's own book of wisdom is full of lessons and inspirational sayings that guide us to surrender our lives to the Lord.

We all make plans and set our lives on a course. But no matter how well-meaning or well planned that personal direction might be, you will not find ultimate success without the blessings and guidance of the Lord. You must not only make your plans, but your plans must include yielding to God's ultimate plan for you.

"In his mind a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps" says Proverbs 16. "Happy is he who trusts in the Lord." 

Make your plans, they are necessary. But just as necessary is to both pray on your plans and to include in your prayers to God an acknowledgement that He might have another direction for you. Make your plea that His will be done.

Conquering Fear

Just one week until Palm Sunday, and just two until the glory of Easter Sunday. For those Christians who go to church next weekend and receive their palm branches, do you know what it is that they are supposed to help you recall and what they represent?

The palm branches are representative of those waved by the adoring crowds at Jesus Christ during his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem in the days prior to his arrest, persecution, sacrificial death, and His rising from the tomb.

Before any of these events had taken place, there was a true sense of excitement and urgency among many of the people as the sacred occasion of the Passover approached.

Passover itself is the perhaps the single most important event on the Jewish calendar. It is a remembrance of the night that God struck down the first-born of Egypt in a show of power that led directly to the deliverance of the Jewish people out of the bondage of centuries of slavery.

As the angel of death moved about the nation taking the lives of those Egyptian first-born, it passed over those houses whose doors were marked with blood. This was a sign that God had told Moses to pass along among his chosen people so that they might be distinguished and saved.

It became a great custom among the Jews to travel to the great city of Jerusalem in order to celebrate this day, and in fact an entire great festival had been set up around the feast.