In a great act of power -the same power that accomplished Jesus’s own resurrection, as Paul says in Ephesians 1:19-20- he will change the present body into the one that corresponds in kind to his own as part of his work of bringing all things into subjection to himself (19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places) Philippians 3, though it is primarily speaking of human resurrection, indicates that this will take place within the context of God’s victorious transformation of the whole cosmos. (power that enables God’s rule - v21 by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself)

In our passage, Paul uses the image of the firstfruits.  This goes back to

Jewish festivals of Passover and Pentecost, which were both agricultural

and redemptive-historical festivals.  

    At the agricultural level, Passover was the time when the first crop of

barley was presented before the Lord.  Firstfruits were offerings of the

produce of the land, being the first and best of the crops, given in

acknowledgment of God’s abundant blessings.  Pentecost, seven weeks later,

was the time when the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were presented.  It

was one of Israel’s three major agricultural festivals, the second great

feast of the Jewish year.  It is a harvest festival, also known as the

Feast of Weeks.  

    At the level of redemptive history, Passover commemorated Israel coming

out of Egypt while Pentecost, seven weeks later, commemorated the arrival

at Sinai and the giving of Torah.  

    The two strands were woven together since part of God’s promise in

liberating Israel and giving it the law was that Israel would inherit the

land and that the land would be fruitful.  That’s the standpoint from which

Paul is writing, and his hearers would have understood him.

Redemption is not simply making creation a bit better, as the myth of progress would try to suggest. Nor is it rescuing spirits and souls from an evil material world, as the the myth of escape would try to say.

Redemption is the remaking of creation, having dealt with the evil that is defacing and distorting it. And it is accomplished by the same God, know known in Jesus Christ, through whom it was made in the first place..Paul declares that the gospel has already been announced to every creature under heaven (1:23). What has happened in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in other words, is by no means limited to its effects on those human beings who believe the gospel and thereby find new life here and hereafter. It resonates out, in ways that we can’t fully see or understand, into the vast recesses of the universe.

Liberti Network Director gives an overview of our connection with the network, and preaches on experiencing the Holy Spirit.

“To put it at its most basic: the resurrection of Jesus offers itself, to the student of history or science no less than the Christian or the theologian, not as an odd event within the world as it is but as the utterly characteristic, prototypical, and foundational event within the world as it has begun to be. It is not an absurd event within the old world but the symbol and starting point of the new world. The claim advanced in Christianity is of that magnitude: Jesus of Nazareth ushers in not simply a new religious possibility, not simply a new ethic or a new way of salvation, but a new creation.” -N.T. Wright

Jesus, the Messiah, was the End in person, God’s future-arrived-in-the-present. If you belong to Jesus and follow him, that means that you are empowered by his Spirit and charged with transforming the present, as far as you are able, in the light of the future that Jesus brings.

In our verse we’re looking at this morning, we see a part of Jesus’s answer to his disciples when they asked him to teach them how to pray. Jesus teaches them that they should pray for God’s kingdom to come, not referring to our escape from this world into another one, but to God’s sovereign rule coming “on earth as it is in heaven.” When we come to the picture of the actual end in Revelation 21-22, we find not ransomed souls making their way to a disembodied heaven but rather the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, uniting the two in a lasting embrace.

The way that God identifies himself to us, the way that he communicates his name, the way he introduces himself, is as a defense for those who need safety.

23 June 2019 | Pastor Barry Noll

2 Samuel 9:1-13

And David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?” Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” And he said, “I am your servant.” And the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.” The king said to him, “Where is he?” And Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.” Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, “Mephibosheth!” And he answered, “Behold, I am your servant.” And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” And he paid homage and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?”

Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson. And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master's grandson shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet.