For forty days after His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His apostles and various people on a number of occasions. The time had come now for Jesus to leave the earth…….

Jesus and his disciples arrived in Bethany, they gathered at the Mount of Olives. Jesus, in miraculous fashion, physically ascended – was lifted off the ground and began floating upward and this was a visible event, witnessed by His disciples on Mt. Olivet, about 2 miles east of Jerusalem.     

“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,” Acts 1:9-10

“…Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up 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 1:11

……. until the time of His Second Coming.

Jesus said of His Second Coming to Earth.

“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;  men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Luke 21:25-27

“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Revelation 22:12,13

“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 up 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 1:9-11

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“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. ” Jesus said in John 14:19 before His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection.
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The empty tomb proclaimed, “This is the glory of the risen Christ.”
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John 20:19-20

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

John 20:24-29

Seeing and Believing

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Thomas because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The crucifixion of Jesus on Friday two thousand years ago, was and still is the central event of the entire human history. Jesus took upon Him all the sins of the world. Because of that event, history was split into two Era – “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” – Latin phrase for ‘In the year of the Lord’, the year of Jesus Christ’s birth. Every day of AD you’re using Jesus’ birth as the reference point.

The books of the Old Testament contain many passages about the Messiah,  all prophecies about Jesus Christ were fulfilled. For instance, the crucifixion of Jesus was foretold in Psalm 22:16-18 about 1,000 years before Christ was born on earth, long before this method of execution was even practiced.

“For dogs have surrounded Me;

The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.

They pierced[a] My hands and My feet;

I can count all My bones.

They look and stare at Me.

They divide My garments among them,

And for My clothing they cast lots. “ Psalm 22:16-18

The Sunday before Easter.

Palm Sunday.

Zechariah was a prophet who lived in the 6th century before the birth of Christ. Zechariah’s ministry took place during the reign of Darius the Great (Zechariah 1:1), and was contemporary with Haggai in a post-exilic world after the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6 BC.

In Zechariah 9:9, the prophet speaks of a future king presenting himself to Jerusalem while riding on a humble donkey. This foreshadowed something that happened about 500 years later. As explained in Luke 19:35-37, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and presented himself as the Messiah, the King.

Palm Sunday.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your King is coming to you;

He is just and having salvation,

Lowly and riding on a donkey,

A colt, the foal of a donkey.  “ Zechariah 9:9

God created the universe out of nothing in an act which also brought time into existence.

When confronted with the marvels of life, the order and beauty of nature and the universe – the impression and inexorable powerful evidence of logic, purpose and design are overwhelming. We must ask why and not just the how, too.

Consider the coconut tree; one can say that whoever created the coconut tree wanted it – to bear coconuts. In other words, by looking at the order in the world, we can infer purpose and from purpose we begin to get some glimpses of the knowledge of the Creator, the Architect of all these. We must acknowledge that there exists an unfathomable power and might with infinite wisdom, foresight, competence and knowledge that started the whole universe going in the first instance.

The more one were to study nature and learn about creation, the more one stand amazed at the works and glory of the Creator. Through the mighty works of God’s hands and from those works imply intentions – from these intentions and comprehending His wisdom, majesty and power, we receive the consciousness of the Almighty.  It makes no logic and sense to assume that the universe and our existence is just a huge accident, that life materialised due to chance physical processes in an environment which merely happened to have the right properties. Moreover, order may never come out of chaos. God is a mathematician, physicist, etc of the highest order and He used high-level and complex (an understatement, to say the least) mathematics, physics, etc, in constructing the universe. Those working in fundamental physics are able to discern a world of deep and beautiful order. Some of these laws are within the grasp of the human mind so that we could share in His thoughts. It’s evident that an acquaintance with the physical and natural laws mean no less than an acquaintance with the mind of God therein expressed. God wanted us to comprehend them by creating us after His own image (read Genesis I: 26-27).

The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world and the immense mysteries of the universe should only confirm the certainty of its Creator.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus said in John 8:32

God is Truth (God is love, God is holy, God hates sin because it is contrary to His perfect and holy nature. God is righteous). There is no incompatibility between science and the belief in God. The purpose of science is to build up – without prejudice or presumption of any kind – a knowledge of the facts, the laws and the processes of nature. The observations and experiments of science are so wonderful that the truth that they establish can surely be recognised as another “expression” of God. God shows Himself by enabling man to establish truths. God would encourage by giving mankind the brains for scientific research as modern man’s noble striving to apprehend, respect and admire His handiwork. The universe as discovered through scientific examinations, including the existence of exact mathematical principles among others, are the active and living witnesses that God has indeed been at work. Science is possible because the universe is a divine creation. Science “shows” that an infinitely intelligent Creator is responsible – that God exists.

The universe has been made with the most exacting precision, order and is exceptionally finely tuned; else we could never have come into being. The circumstances indicate without a shadow of doubt that the earth – delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life was created for man to live in. They are positive reasons, based on observations, logic and scientific knowledge rather than default assumptions, that God indeed is the designer. Evolutionists and people challenge science to prove the existence of God and say they cannot visualise a Designer. Well, can we see an electron? We can’t see electrons or radio waves either but we know they exist as we see their effects. It is a strange rationale to accept the unseen electron as real while refusing to accept the genuineness of a Designer on the grounds that we cannot see Him. God is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.

Romans 1:20-21 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

That’s why we read …

“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. ” John 1:1-3  Word refers to Jesus**

… rather that in the beginning there was nothing.

“Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Psalm 90:2

Thus God revealed to us that all of creations were made by Him and that He is from Eternity to Eternity and is outside the dimension of time. God existed since eternity and that Jesus existed in eternity with Him.

God is eternal and He created time. Only One who is outside of time, that is, timeless, or eternal, could do this.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  Genesis 1:1

In the beginning – BEFORE the creative acts stated in this chapter – ALL was and is ETERNITY. Time signifies duration measured by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; but prior to the creation of these bodies there’s no quantifying of duration and for that reason – no ‘time’: consequently, ‘in the beginning’; in the context of this statement, must evidently mean the inauguration of time which followed, or rather was constructed by God’s creative acts, as an effect follows or is produced by a cause.

Jesus**

”..The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” Deuteronomy 6:4

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”Genesis 1:26

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me.” Isaiah 45:5  Notice it is not no God besides us.

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5

God refers to Jesus “But to the Son He says:
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;”Hebrews 1:6-8

Jesus said to His disciples. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19

Jesus spoke clearly of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, if you read this verse attentively, you will see that the Three have just one name. It says, “baptizing them into the name” (not names) “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

There are ‘Three’ with one name. This is the Triune God, the Trinity. ONE God in “3 Persons” not and NEVER 3 Gods. We cannot understand the Trinity fully but that is how God reveals Himself to mankind – both “I” and “Us”.

Don’t forget we are finite and God is infinite – we may not fully comprehend God. BUT what God has revealed is sufficient for our salvation.

It is clear that there never was a time when nothing existed; otherwise nothing would exist now. ~ CSLewis

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,  whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,  receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:6-9

Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalm 91:1-2

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 “For I am the Lord, I do not change…” Malachi 3:6