AfterThoughts: April 14, 2019
April, 14, 2019
“A Parade Fit For A King”
This week, we celebrate Holy Week. Scripture tells us that Jesus entered Jerusalem and the people we see praise Him on Sunday are the same ones who shout “Crucify him” on Friday. Often, we do the same thing.
Take time to reflect on what the events we remember as Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday mean for your salvation. Slow down and reflect on the questions below:
- Who is Jesus?
- What has He done for you?
- What does Jesus expect of you?
- In your Christian life, are you bearing fruit or are you just busy? How can you become more fruitful as a follower of Jesus?
- What are some good responsibilities that have crowded out margin in your life and keep you from consistently listening to the voice of God?
- What needs to be pruned from your life, for a season and/or permanently from your life, so you can actually grow more in intimacy with God?
In your time with God this week,
1. Thank God for who He is and for what He has done for you.
2. Ask God to help you see whether or not your life is bearing fruit for Him.
3. Commit to cut something from your life that is keeping you from an intimate relationship with Him.
ADDITIONAL DISCOVERY:
Maundy Thursday Service – Thursday, April 18 – 6:30 p.m.
Good Friday Service – Friday, April 19 – 6:30 p.m.
Make plans to attend and pray about who God would have you invite to join you!
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. 12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. 15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
Mark 11: 1–18