Dr Paul Allen

If you were asked to describe our world in one word, would you choose “peaceful”? I’m guessing there are a lot of other words that come to mind before that one. Your list may include words like “chaotic,” “broken,” “unstable,” “frightening,” or “disintegrating.”   Right now, the world is anything but peaceful.   But we all desire and need peace. Many people look for peace in superficial things, including drugs, alcohol, entertainment, and money, and yet they still feel empty.   Truthfully, we’ve been looking for peace in all the wrong places because the world cannot offer true, lasting peace. We need peace that isn’t of this world.   Other-worldly peace is just what Jesus offers us. On Palm Sunday, a week before He was to go to the cross, suffer, and die, Jesus took His disciples aside and gave them a fantastic promise, saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”  This is a remarkable promise.   Peace Served Three Ways Th...

Christians around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, the day Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey and received enthusiastic praise as the Jews’ long-awaited messianic ruler. But that day didn’t mark the start of an earthly, political reign. Instead, it began the final week of a life that would end on a cross outside the city’s walls. The turning point of that week for Jesus came on the evening before his death as he prayed in a garden called Gethsemane. In the midst of severe personal agony, the son of a carpenter from Nazareth confronted and accepted his destiny. In doing so, Jesus experienced the spectrum of anguish with an intensity that overwhelms normal human turmoil. By doing so, he solidified his claims as the absolute intercessor between Heaven and Earth. Gethsemane represents Jesus’ ultimate identification with the humanity he came to rescue.   In the Crucible Throughout his ministry, as the Gospels attest, Jesus keenly understood the ordeal he must ...

We know from the apostle John why Palm Sunday happened: The crowd that had been with [ Jesus ] when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. (John  12:17 –18) The Sunday parade of palms was a celebration of a resurrection. A Confusing Providence But that resurrection was preceded by a confusing death. Lazarus had died. We don’t know what he died of, only that he was “ill” (John 11:1). The Bible rarely provides grisly details. But death by illness in the First Century, with none of the medical aids we modern Westerners take for granted, was no doubt horrible. His death brought profound grief to his sisters, Martha and Mary, who had nursed him as best they could. And Jesus, their dear friend, who also happened to be the greatest healer in the history of the world, had not come. This added grief upon grief for the sisters (John...

"Son of man" appears 25 times in Luke, a copy (c. 800) shown here. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” ( Matthew 21:4-5 ) When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an unbroken donkey colt on that momentous first day of the week, just a week before His resurrection, the multitudes quickly recognized that He was fulfilling an ancient prophecy and thereby specifically claiming to be their long-awaited Messiah . The prophecy was that of Zechariah 9:9, and the people in turn began to fulfill David’s even more ancient prophecy, laying palm branches in His path, and crying out: “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD ” ( Psalm 118:26 ). This is one of the few events in the life of Christ that are recorded in all four gospels, though only Matthew notes it as the fulfi...

What is truth? Deutsch: Was ist Wahrheit? Français : "Qu'est-ce que la vérité ?" Le Christ et Pilate. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 1. Don't say Jesus died when he was 33 years old. The common assertion seems reasonable that if Jesus "began his ministry" when he "was about thirty years of age" (Luke 3:23) and engaged in a three-year ministry (John mentions three Passovers, and there might have been a fourth one), then he was 33 years old at the time of his death. However, virtually no scholar believes Jesus was actually 33 when he died. Jesus was born before Herod the Great issued the decree to execute "all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under" (Matt. 2:16, ESV) and before Herod died in the spring of 4 B.C. If Jesus was born in the fall of 5 or 6 B.C., and if we remember that we don't count the "0" between B.C. and A.D., then Jesus would have been 37 or 38 years old when he ...

The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It was the palm branches that made this day unique, and then again, it wasn’t. For centuries, the church has memorialized today, the first day of Holy Week , as Palm Sunday because of the palm branches and cloaks that the people spread out before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem . The Gospel writers tell us a crowd gathered, gushing with excitement, and lined the road in front of Jesus as he slowly rode into the city. As he made his way, one step at a time by the beast of burden on which he sat, a sort of carpet was being sewn together ahead of him. Fresh, green palm branches, presumably picked from nearby trees, and thick, worn clothing, likely from the backs of the crowd, formed a tapestry of endearment toward Israel ’s long-awaited Messiah . And according to the Pharisees , this was a problem. What the People Said But actually, it wasn’t the palm branches that were...

English: Description: Left Apsis: Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Fresco in the Parish Church of Zirl, Austria. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.” ( Psalm 118:26 ) This is the climactic verse of Psalm 118 , one of the great Messianic psalms. It was fulfilled, at least in a preliminary way, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a small donkey just one week before His resurrection, thereby acknowledging that He was fulfilling Zechariah ’s prophecy: “. . . behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding . . . upon a colt the foal of an ass” ( Zechariah 9:9 ). As He rode into the city, many “took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna : Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord” ( John 12:13 ). Many Christians even today still commemorate that occasion on what they call Palm Sunday , one we...

English: Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 21:14–17 “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (v. 16). During the last week of His life, Matthew 21:17 tells us, Jesus is spending His nights in Bethany , a village on the Mount of Olives less than an hour’s walk from Jerusalem . Our Lord is likely a guest at the home of His friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, for John’s gospel puts Christ there just before He enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (11:1, 17–19; 12:1–8, 12–19). Retiring each evening to Bethany would provide Jesus fellowship during this crucial time. Such respite is needed due to His conflicts with the Jewish authorities. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple does not sit well with the Sanhedrin, the religious governing body of the Jews made up of the chief priests and other leaders. In fact, these officials want to destroy Him (Mark 11:15–19). Their hostility is clear when they come to...