Looking To 2010

Looking to 2010

Mark 11:1-11

Happy New Year! 2010, just writing the date reminds us of how quickly time is marching forward. We are into a new year and into a new decade of the new millennium. It is hard to believe that we are already this far into a new millennium. Looking back at 1999 there was such excitement and anxiety about what a new millennium would bring.

We had the Millennium Bug the Euro was established as a currency, Shakespeare in Love won at the Academy Awards, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was found guilty of assisted suicide, and Nunavut became Canadas newest territory. The Worlds population reached 6 billion in October of 1999, The Kosovo war ended and UN peacekeepers were deployed.

So much more has transpired since 1999 to bring us to our current date that time does not permit me to list all the events of interest. Maybe I have taken you too far back as we reflect on the past in order to give us a sense of our place in the present?

But looking back helps us to do just that. Looking back helps us to assess our place in the present. Sometimes looking back can cause grief and disappointment but it can also be cause for a sense of accomplishment and victory. We all learn important lessons by looking at the past.

When we apply the lens of the past to our individual lives we experience much of the same feelings and thoughts that the rest of the world shares. We share an apprehension about our future we share a concern for our collective well being and we share a curiosity about what will happen next.

I can tell you a few things about 2010 that will happen. I can tell you that on February 12 - 28 the Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver B.C. That Easter will be celebrated on April 4th by both the Eastern and Western Churches. That on December 21, 2010 there will be a total Lunar Eclipse visible from North America. In 2010 Christmas will be celebrated on December the 25th. Some of you might say Pastor you cheated, you used a calendar. Just as I can foretell these events by using a calendar our bible can foretell of earthly events yet to occur. We call that prophecy.

Today we look at scripture passages that address the kind of apprehension and curiosity that pervaded the hearts and minds of people in Jesus day. The people of that time and place were anxious and curious about a coming Messiah that would lead them and free them. They were intently looking for signs that would lead them to realizing the prophecies of God.

Do we share that same perspective today? Is the Lord Jesus return one of the things you look forward to in 2010? Does the idea of Jesus return make you want to run into the street and lay down your clothes as a carpet for His arrival? Have you circled the biblical prophecies in your bible predicting the Lords return?

In the gospel of Mark at chapter 11 he relates how the Lord instructed two of the disciples to go to town to find a colt tied up. A colt that no one has every ridden. They were to take it and bring it to Jesus and they were told what to say if asked about taking it.

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zachariah wrote these inspired words some 500 plus years before Jesus birth. Yet the people of Jesus day remembered them as they reacted to what Jesus did with the colt.

Do we know the prophecies of Jesus second coming as well?

Our hearts should be glad to consider the possible return of Jesus in 2010 just as people were glad to recognize him as Messiah in 33A.D. Still I sense that some of us may not be as excited about the Lords return as we should be. For some of us that excitement and anticipation may have cooled.

2Peter 3:3-4

3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.

Peter goes on to tell us.

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.