Premonitions of Resurrection
April 21, 2019 | Steve Bryan
Passage: Matthew 17:1-8
Deeply ingrained in all of us is a longing for transcendence. Call it meaning or significance or spiritual connection – we crave it in a ways that we can scarcely articulate. Even those who believe that we live in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get universe know this or at least feel it in their bones. As one well-known atheist put it, “I don’t believe in God, but I miss him.” In a secular age, even those who don’t believe in transcendent reality are haunted by it. We want the one life we have to live to matter, but often we don’t feel fully alive – like an aging athlete who lives with the memory of former glory or vainly dreams of glory yet to come.
The story of Easter is the story of God opening a pathway into another world – a world where the glory has been regained. It’s the story of a world made new, a world where humanity once more reflects the glory of God. What burst forth from the grave with the transformed body of the risen Jesus was nothing less than the hope of glory.
Series Information
Matthew 12:22 - 20
In the next installment in our Matthew series as we see conflict heating up around Jesus. As his ministry continues, it becomes clear that the values of the Kingdom clash with the arrogance, pride, and apathy of his day, and people start to polarize around him. I'm sure the same will be true of us. At every step we'll find that Jesus' grace is sufficient for the journey, as we learn the way of the Upside-Down Kingdom.