I want to reference another day of victory involving Jesus.  While the first one was intended to show Jesus’ humble desire to be one of us, the next one will prove Jesus’ authority over all everything, everywhere, for all time.  We may not have been there for the last victory celebration, but we will be there for the next.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent 40 days on earth making many appearances to His disciples.  Then, He returned to His Father.  On the day He left, Jesus’ closest disciples gathered with Him on a mountain and received their final instructions.  They were to stay in Jerusalem where they would be filled with power and unleashed for the work of the early church.  At that time they would be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria and the far reaches of the earth.

On the day Jesus left, He ascended into the sky.  In Acts 1:9 we read, “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”  

I like thinking about these two important events together: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and His second appearance at the end of time.  While they are separated by centuries, and unique in focus, both proclaim Jesus place as the King of Kings and ruler over everything.  One takes place a few days before Satan power was dismantled on the cross, and the last will commemorate his final defeat.

Jesus’ victory celebrations say something about His Kingdom and our place in it.  It could be you have never thought about your place in the kingdom of God, or you have only thought of God’s kingdom as something in the future.  But make no mistake: if we are in Christ, we are in His kingdom now, and as kingdom citizens, nothing in our lives will ever be the same.