Philippians 3:20-21 Our Blessed Hope: We Shall Live Again

 

In the early days of the Christian church the doctrine of the last things had three great points of focus: the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the body, and the final judgment. Of the three the most significant was Jesus Christ’s return. This was the blessed hope of Christians; it was for this they prayed. With this thought they comforted one another in the face of sorrow, persecutions, death, and martyrdom. We can imagine that as they lay in prison, suffering and tormented, often near death, they looked for His coming and thought that perhaps in an instant and without warning Jesus would appear and call them home. Unfortunately, in our day belief in the second coming of Jesus Christ has faded into a remote and sometimes irrelevant doctrine in many large segments of the Christian church. It is entirely possible that our present lack of courage and lack of joy flows from this attitude.

It’s hard to see how any professing Christian can dismiss the return of Jesus Christ, but some today do. The return of Jesus Christ is mentioned in every one of the New Testament books except Galatians and the very short books such as 2 and 3 John and Philemon. Jesus quite often spoke of His return. John wrote, “Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Rev. 1:7). It’s the same in the verse that is our text in Philippians 3:20-21. In these verses and in many others the early Christians expressed their belief in a personal return that was to be closely associated with the resurrection and transformation of their own bodies and a final judgment of individuals and nations. They acknowledged that their lives should be lived on a higher plane because of it.

The personal return of Jesus Christ should have a profound bearing on our own life and conduct. The greatest consequence of belief in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ should be a purification of our conduct. Another consequence of a firm belief in the return of Jesus Christ should be a transformed understanding of suffering. For suffering strengthens our hope and makes our present fellowship with Jesus more wonderful. All of God’s children learn sooner or later that tribulations will come. But the Christian can have a hope in the midst of tribulation that transforms suffering and is strengthened by it.

Up to this point it has been encouraging and it has been intended for Christians. But there is a somber side, for those who do not know Christ and who therefore do not expect Him; Christ is coming, it will be a joy for Christians. But it will also mean the beginning of Christ’s judgments. These will be terrible for those who do not know Him. People react in one of two ways to Christ’s judgment. Some simply disbelieve it, for they think that judgment is incompatible with the character of God. For the unbeliever, who has heard the offer of salvation by grace through the gospel but refers to deal with God’s justice. Pity the man who wants nothing from God but God’s justice! Justice will condemn a person to hell. The only hope for anyone lies in God’s mercy. Humans are condemned by God’s justice. If you seek nothing from God but justice, you will be condemned at Jesus Christ’s return. Fortunately there is no need to meet Him as Judge. For the One is coming in judgment is also the One who once came as the Savior, to die for your sin, to bear your judgment, and to meet you thereafter as your Lord, your friend, and your bridegroom. You must decide how you will meet Him. The decisions of this life affect the issues of eternity.

The resurrection of Jesus is the great historical fact upon which all the Christian doctrines are suspended and before which all honest disbelief must waver. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the unshakeable evidence for our own resurrection. Because He lives we shall live also. That is why Paul says what he says in the verse we have now come to in our study of Philippians 3:21. This verse teaches three things: 1) Jesus is living, 2) because He lives we shall live, and 3) because He was transformed we shall be transformed. Moreover, we know all of these things through the fact of His own resurrection.

Apart from the resurrection of Jesus himself there are only three resurrections recorded in the four Gospels. Each began in mourning and sorrow; each ended in exuberant joy. What made the difference? Nothing but the coming of Jesus! Jesus said of himself, “I am the life,” and where life meets death, death is vanquished. Death was vanquished, and it will be abolished forever for us when Jesus Christ returns. Perhaps you are saying, “Can I really believe that is possible? Is Jesus really able to do the things claimed? Of course, He is! Think of the things for which the Bible tells us He is able in 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 2:18; Jude 24; Eph. 3:20; and Heb. 7:25. Can He do these things? Of course, He can. In the same way He is able to raise up our bodies, transform them by “the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control” (Phil. 3:21).

Philippians 3:20-21 Reflection Questions:

Are you looking for Jesus’ return? If so, how is that affecting your personal conduct and concern on social issues as well as other things?

Does your suffering (whatever that currently may be) bring you closer to fellowship with Jesus Christ?

Do you know Jesus Christ personally?

Do you believe that Jesus is able to rise up our bodies and transform them? If so, how does that affect your living on this side of heaven?

Isaiah 23:1-18 A Message Concerning Tyre

 

This prophecy of the fall (vv. 1-14) and the subsequent rise (vv. 15-18) of Tyre is a minor landmark within this part of the book. It’s the last of the series of oracles concerning particular nations which began in chapter 13 and is followed by what scholars commonly call the “Isaiah Apocalypse” (chapters 24-27) in which cosmic acts of judgment and salvation bring history to a close. It stands at the end of a distinct block of material within the larger unit, chapters 13-27.

Tyre probably closes the series of oracles against the nations for the same reason that Babylon opens it; it was so famous for one particular aspect of worldly achievement that it had a symbolic value that could be used to good effect by Isaiah and others who followed him. As Babylon was proverbial for its military might and cultural achievements, Tyre was proverbial for its commercial wealth. Standing in the first and last positions as they do, then, Babylon and Tyre sum up all that is impressive and alluring in the world. A connection of a different kind is made between Tyre and Babylon in verse 13, which points clearly to the historical setting of the present oracle. It is clear that the fate already suffered by Babylon provides the background to the present prediction that Tyre, too, will fall. Again indirectly, but none too subtly, Isaiah hammers home his message. Then as now, the security that seems to be available through unholy alliances with the world is a cruel illusion.

Verses 1-7 picture the stunning news of Tyre’s fall reverberating around the Mediterranean world. Home-bound sailors first hear of it in Cyprus (v. 1b); a deathly hush falls over Sidon at the news (vv. 2-4); Egypt weeps because of the impact on her wheat exports (v. 5), and finally refugees carry the news right back to Tarshish (v. 6). There is more involved here than the personal suffering of the inhabitants of the city. A lot of people had a great deal to lose in the collapse of Tyre. When it came it would hit the Mediterranean world like a Wall Street crash of devastating proportions.

Isaiah doesn’t leave it at that, however. In verses 8-12 he presses beyond the event itself to its cause, and in characteristic prophetic fashion bypasses all secondary causes to trace Tyre’s fall to the determined purpose of the Lord Almighty (v.8). Sentence had already been passed on the city in heaven, not (take note!) because of its wealth, but because of its pride. There is no intrinsic connection, of course, between wealth and pride, but sadly they do all too often go hand in hand. The wealth of Tyre had made its merchants princes (v. 8), but, like the rich fool in Jesus’ parable, they had failed to recognize their accountability to Him from whom their wealth had come. Wealth had bred in them an illusion of self-sufficiency which had made God – or at least the true and living God – seem irrelevant. It would take God’s swift and severe judgment to jolt them back to reality.

But God’s judgments on nations within history are seldom final, and that is certainly the case here, for in verses 15-18 Isaiah sketches in the longer-term prospects for Tyre in God’s purposes. There is hope in the seventy years of verses 15 and 17, a conventional number for a long but limited time. Tyre will not rise quickly, but rise she will, and in the continuation of the prostitute image through to verse 17 there is more than a hint that she will return to her old ways. But – and this is where history gives way to eschatology – the wealth she has hoarded up will be taken from her. It will flow into Zion as the rightful inheritance of the people of God (v.18).

Isaiah 23:1-18 Reflection Questions:

If Isaiah were to write a letter today what country or counties would he use to “sum up all that is impressive and alluring in the world”?

In what areas of your life are you putting your security through unholy alliances with the world? Will you repent?

Have you ever had God jolt you back to reality? What was it for?

What is the “hope” that you see in this study?