The Feast of First Fruits

Welcome to Tribe’s podcast. Hey. We just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you’re ever in Jackson Hole, we’d love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person.

To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Okay. As we get started this morning, couple of things. Number one, so great to have Ben and Katie leading worship with us this morning. Your your melodious dulcet tones of your voice are just beautiful and anointed.

So thank you. And the next thing as we get started is for Schuler. Christine Schuler, Schu or Mama Schu depending on how well you know her. During worship, I feel like the Lord put a word on my heart for you. And it’s from Habakkuk two two.

And it says this, then the Lord said to me, write my answer plainly on tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. Or as I have it memorized in my my thinker, write the vision down and make it plain so that a herald can run with it. And during worship, I felt like and if you know Schuler, if you’ve done any amount of life with her, what I’m about to say may not be like, well, so revelatory, but but it’s but it’s for her and her heart. We just get to hear it. But the word that I I didn’t see a word so much as I saw an emoji.

And the emoji was like of like the megaphone with like, you know, the sound going out. And the word that I saw associated that was amplifier. You are an amplifier. You are part of your design by the Lord is to amplify. And we all know that whenever, like, if we’re come if if we have a chill mood and Schuler comes in, she’s like, oh, we’re being chill.

And she amplifies the chill. If it’s hype, she comes in, amplifies the hype. And there is a beauty to that because the song of your heart is the song of redemption and new life and of your savior, and it is an amplifier. And by way of illustration, Corey, play without just play just the guitar. You know, like, play around.

There you go. One more time so we can all hear it. Okay. Now with the amplification, so there’s a huge difference. The the input is the same, but the result is different because of the amplification.

The Lord needs amplifiers. There’s there’s two sides to the coin, though. The other side to the coin is as a pastoral, word of caution that I know you know, is you have to be careful what you amplify. Because what Corey is sitting on will always only ever amplify that which is being put into it. So you have to be careful what, like, plugs into you.

And and having spent lots of years with you, I know that you are in careful and guarded, but amplifiers only ever amplify what’s put into them. They don’t not that you don’t have any thoughts or or signal of your own, but but as an amplifier, you just magnify. Be careful what is being plugged into you as a slight word of caution. But mostly, praise the Lord for the gift that he’s given you to amplify. Write the vision down.

The Herald, he doesn’t he doesn’t create the message. He doesn’t come up with it on his own, but he is an amplifier. So praise the Lord for your gift of amplification. We love you. Oh, and Yeah.

Oh, yes. I’m gonna amplify that right now. I’m gonna amplify that, and I’m just giving thanks. But where I was going after is just thanking, Abba for positioning pastor Brian to speak a good, true word. And out of just a your loving heart, instruction that is also for warning.

And it’s all for your glory. All for your glory. It’s your mighty holy name. Amen. Wonderful.

Praise praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. One more thing. I don’t know if there’s anybody in here. Maybe they’re all the way in the back of the VIP section, which is what we just call that area.

Or yeah. Yeah. Get get right up here. You’re gonna help me preach this. You’re on the front row.

Or if they’re in the VIP section or up here anywhere. But I’m just curious, if you would identify yourself by standing up. If there’s anyone in here today that, I don’t know, has just recently gotten engaged or something so that we could celebrate you. I don’t know. Is there anybody in here at all that is recently so so only Jamie.

Only Jamie got engaged. If there is a couple that is soon to be married, would the two of you please stand up so that we can celebrate you? Logan’s like, you’re engaged. Yours is coming. Alright.

Well, today’s a special day for me. It only comes around every so often. And so, happy May 4 to all of you. I’ve got, I’ve got a couple couple little things here that I wanna just share with you that are, you know, very spiritual and church related. Our volunteers are the real troopers.

The no. The next one will probably really get them. You believe in the laying? The last the last ones. The last one really sealed the deal.

Yes. Yes. I thought this might be the case. So I’ve prepared several Star Wars jokes for you this morning that are Bible related. What is a Jedi’s favorite book of the Bible?

Luke. There you go. Now, now you’re warming up. Why didn’t the stormtrooper make it to heaven? Close.

See, I like the participation. Because he missed the mark. Alright. Hux is cutting me off. Hux is cutting me off.

Hux is cutting me off. If you have your Bible with you this morning, would you please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 26? Deuteronomy chapter 26. It’s great. It’s I I I love it.

Lord, did I have, on my keynote this morning, did I have that, you don’t need to click on it, but do I have that, God’s family traditions chart in it this week? Okay. It’s alright. Deuteronomy chapter 26, and we’re gonna read a few verses from Deuteronomy chapter 26. But let me set you up for success by telling you what we’re talking about.

So at Tribe, we have a family tradition of celebrating seven of the Lord’s annual family traditions. You might know them as or have heard of them as Jewish feasts. And if you think in your mind, like, oh, these are, like, Jewish traditions and, like, we’re a Christian church, you are in a Christian church, a Star Wars loving, baptized in the Holy Spirit Christian church, we take our faith but not ourselves seriously. And you may think like, well, that sounds like kind of Jewish, especially considering what we’re about to read. Well, in the Bible, it says God says, these are my feasts.

These are his family traditions. He celebrates and invites us as members of his family to celebrate these feasts or family traditions with him. And the big one that we just came from at Easter is called Passover. And then the next one that Christians usually honor, even though they don’t think of it as a feast, would be Pentecost. And it is Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit was released to the church, but there are two really cool feasts right in between that often get overlooked.

Last week, we touched on one of those, and it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And seeing Jesus in that feast is a beautiful and powerful picture of sin being removed, and it is Jesus fulfills that feast by going to the cross and paying our debt of sin. Now we’re going to talk about the last spring feast before we get to Pentecost, which happens fifty days after Easter. And we’re gonna read about that in two places. The first place, Deuteronomy chapter 26.

And we like to make it a team effort here. And so not only do I invite your participation in laughing at all my jokes. Thank you, Lissy. But also, like, I love to hear your questions, your comments, and your connections. We have a mic here in the room, and we could hear your voice, Anna, if you had a contribution to make this morning.

We could hear your voice in the room, but we use the mic so that all of our families that are watching the livestream as they travel hither and thither will be able to participate. And so part of that participation is taking turns reading together. Like, we’re not all gonna read at the same time. That’s too Catholic y. But, we have a mic in the room, and would somebody please start reading verse one, and we’ll go all the way to eleven.

When you have entered the land and the lord when you have entered the land the lord, your god, is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, Take some of the first fruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the lord your god is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the lord your god will choose as a dwelling for his name and say to the priest in the office at the time, I declare to the day of I declare to day to the lord your god that I have come to the land swore to our forefathers to give us. The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord. Tell then you shall declare before the Lord your God. My father was a wandering Armenian, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.

But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our miss our misery, toil, and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now I bring the first fruits of the soil that you, oh lord, have given me.

Place the basket before the lord your god and bow down before him. And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the lord your god has given you and your household. K. One passage. Let’s go to the next place, Leviticus chapter 23.

It’s right up here. And would somebody please read that? While Leviticus chapter 23, while that page is loading, we see the prescription for what to do and why the Feast of First Fruits is celebrated. So we’ll take these two passages, put them together, and then create a picture out of it. So the next place to read is Leviticus chapter 23 verses nine through 14.

Who’s got it? Thank you, Gretchen. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land which I give you give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. You shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.

And you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an eff Mhmm. Of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma. And its drink offering shall be of wine, one fourth of a hymn. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God.

It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings. Okay. So if you are thoroughly confused, let me explain it to you. One of God’s family traditions is in the spring, at the end of the spring harvest, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to remember my goodness demonstrated towards you through a successful winter crop that was growing.

So they harvest the fields in the winter, the ground lays chill for a little while, then they plant in the middle of the winter. Their growing season is different than ours. And there is a crop that grows up through the winter. In the region of ancient Judea, there was it’s quite common for it to be pretty rainy throughout the winter. But the rains stop about January, February, the harvest ripens March, April, and then it is harvested.

And here, between these two passages, here’s what the Lord is saying. I want you Take that first of your harvest and do what with it? Waive it. Where? Before the Lord.

Before the Lord. And what are you there’s there’s one more there’s an important additional step. You gotta take it somewhere. There you go. This is really, really important.

The fruit gets picked. The the barley crop gets harvested. Swish. It doesn’t go into a bundle. It does not go to the threshing floor.

It does not go into your barn. It goes where? To the priest. Question. How soon just look at the text.

You can bounce back and forth between these two. How soon does God invite the person who’s making the harvest to bring that to the priest at the temple? How soon? Same day. Right away.

K. Those are a couple of items of interest that you should take note of, but let me check-in with you. Between these two texts, what details stand out to you? What do you notice? What do you see?

And I’d love to hear from, those of you who are regular contributors to the conversation. I love it. It’s great. It is valuable. But there are others who are thinking thoughts that they’re like, oh, one of the usual suspects will speak up and it’s really good, and so I’ll just wait and let them talk.

So I’m inviting our usual suspects to hold your observations, just hold them in your lap, And I I’d love to hear from somebody that I don’t normally hear from. So you are welcome to share your thoughts and observations from this text. What do you see? What stands out to you? Interesting detail.

Doesn’t need to be a deep spiritual connection or anything. What do you see? And if you just raise your hand, Ella can get the mic to you. The usual suspects are like and the people that all of you have observations and thoughts, you’re like because, like, usually the usual suspects, like, bail you out. But I would love to hear from you.

Oh, great, Katie. Love it. In the in verse 14 of Leviticus 23, it says, this is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live. That’s just kind of something that stuck out to me. Yeah.

That is permanent, supposed to stay. Yeah. There you go. Permanent. Gotta do it all the time.

Interesting. Now a question may raise, like, how do we how do we how does the cross, the new covenant change that? That that’s a good question to consider, and we could go off on that rabbit trail. I’ll just point that out as a side road. You can travel down that one later.

That’s a great detail point of observation. What are what might be something else that stands out to you that you notice? Yeah. I just noticed in Deuteronomy, it just says how you must say in the presence of the Lord, and it just goes on with the list of remembrance of Egypt’s or the past in Egypt and how God brought them out and was faithful. Yes.

Yes. So here’s a more that that’s really good, Colin. Let’s let’s color in a little bit of the of the details and provide some shading so that we can see the picture a a little better. So Israel was led out of bondage in captivity, held hostage for four hundred years by pharaoh in Egypt. And then with an out stretched arm and a mighty hand, the Lord delivered Israel from their oppressors through the wilderness for forty years.

And then he said, I’m about to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. And you will grab a hold of crops in fields that you didn’t spend decades kicking the stones out of, but the the fields have already been planted. You’ll go into this land, and it’s going to be an expression of my goodness demonstrated towards you. You’ll harvest crops that you didn’t plant, the Bible says. So Israel goes into the land that is theirs according to promise, and when they harvest the first of their crops, here’s what they were supposed to do.

Pull the apple from the tree, swing the sickle for the barley, they to take that. They don’t bundle it up. They don’t like, well, I’ll get around to it or I’m just gonna set it aside. The first thing, freak, picked off the tree. You take it straight to the temple.

You present it to the priest. And just like you said, there was a prescription of what to say. Thank you. Thank you for this. And then does anybody notice the detail of present to the Lord or maybe in your translation it says wave it or or lift it up?

I think that’s in Leviticus. Yeah. Yeah. There it is. Verse 11 of Leviticus 23.

On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift up before the Lord so it may be accepted on your behalf. What does that mean? What does that look like? What do you see? What what picture do you have in your mind’s eye?

You are you are exactly right. And for those of you who are listening to the audio, Gretchen just waved her hands around. You’re exactly right. So you take the apple, okay, be my be the be the high priest. You stand up.

The priest ministers to the Lord on behalf of the people. I bring the harvest in. I hand it to the priest. The priest then lifts it up and shows it to the Lord. Look what your people brought you.

The good things that come out of their life. The abundance that has come out of their life. They have brought it to you, Lord. Lord, look, let me get your attention. That’s what it means to lift up or wave before the Lord.

Everybody say, Alright. So here’s a question. How does Jesus fulfill this feast? Remember, I don’t have the chart up here, but remember, all of the feasts or God’s family traditions are designed to draw our attention, even though they happened, some of them were started thousands of years before Jesus was even born. It’s a tricky one.

By entering the land. Yep, Jesus did enter the land. Yep, I like that. I like that. Let me give you let me give you a little hint.

It’s a good hint. It’s a it’s a it’s a good hint. The hint is the title of our conversation this morning, which I think we have up here. The title you can write at the top of your notes is We Gonna Live Forever. That’s the title of our conversation today.

And the question that we’re asking I don’t know if I’m staying in sequence. I might be bouncing around. But the question that we’re asking is, how does Jesus fulfill this feast? It’s beautiful when you see it. It’s been in your Bible all along.

Want me to show you? Okay. Let’s go to the New Testament, John chapter 20. While you’re turning to John chapter 20, remember, the feast says, it needs to be the first of your harvest, and it needs to happen before you enjoy the rest of your harvest. You got to do this one thing first.

Present it to the priest in the temple. John chapter 20. Renee, would you please read verse 11 through 18 for us? John chapter 20. I have a different scripture, but I’ll read this one.

Now Mary stood outside this tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don’t know where they’ve put Him. At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, woman, why are you crying?

Who is it that you’re looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him and I will go get him. Then Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni! Which means teacher.

Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father. Go, instead, to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord. And she told them that he had said these things to her, and they didn’t believe her.

They’re about to. Have you ever read that passage and scratched your head about Jesus’s reaction? So here’s the scene, if you’re not quite familiar with this particular part of the Bible story of the resurrection of Jesus. So Jesus is killed, murdered on Friday afternoon. His body is taken down and lain in a tomb early Sunday morning.

Jesus don’t stay dead. The power of God resurrected his dead, lifeless body. He rose from the grave. In a different, there there are in each of the four autobiographies about the life of Jesus, they give a little bit different angle and twist. One of the biographers talks, he makes a comment about the stone that had been rolled over the grave.

And he says that the stone was rolled away. And we think like, oh, yeah, like gently nicely moved. There are three words, three Greek words that could have been used for that phrase to to move the stone away. One of them is just what we’re thinking, rolled out of the way gently. The next one is pushed over and and violently removed.

The other word that’s used has arrow in front of it, which is where we get the word airplane or aerodynamics. And it means to fly through the air like you would see in a Marvel movie, kicked open and shot away from the tomb. That’s the word that’s used to describe the stone being removed from the entrance to the grave. Nice. Then the stone was moved away and it bounced a time or two and an angel stepped inside said, hey, I’m Gabriel.

Who are you? If you’re wondering where the Lord is at this very hour, I’ll tell you he’s alive and well with resurrection power. Got me. Got me. Mary comes running.

She looks in. The body’s been taken. She is wrecked. She comes out from the garden tomb, which is still in Israel today, right near Jerusalem. We can go see it.

And she looks around and sees a gardener. Oh, come on. All the way that should that should create a hyperlink in your brain all the way back to the assignment of Adam and Eve to tend the garden. Jesus, as a better Adam, is just picking up the assignment where the first Adam left off. He’s tending the garden.

And Adam left off. He’s tending the garden. And I don’t know if he, like, physically disguised himself. I kind of don’t think that’s it. I think that there was no room in her brain.

She saw him. She even spoke to him. He spoke to her. And she didn’t connect the dots until he said her name. One time I was having breakfast with a friend of mine, Tim Vetter, and we were, over at Nora’s, and Nora’s makes really good b and g, if you don’t know that.

And I had a big old pile of b and g biscuits and gravy, and and right there on the table, I was like, alright, where where’s the salt and pepper? And I was like, I’m looking for it, I’m talking, and, you know, we’re having a good time, and I’m like, where’s the salt and pepper? Why would they not have salt and pepper on the table? And I asked our server, I was like, could I get some salt and pepper? And she kinda looked at me like, bro.

And then she pointed to the table, and the salt and pepper, I don’t remember what the form factor was, but the salt and pepper shakers were not in a form that I had expected at all. I don’t know, it was like in a Coke can or something. I don’t know. I was like, that’s not salt and pepper. And so I couldn’t see the salt and pepper, but it was there the whole time.

That’s what I think is happening. Have you ever had that happen? Like, it’s been right there in plain sight, but you just can’t see it? Every single wife in the room knows exactly what I’m talking about. If I have to get up and go to the fridge and find it for you, and I’m like, no.

I’ll look again. I’ll look again. And then I say, you may have to move one night. All the wives just started preaching to me right now. And so, and so, you’ll know.

You’ll know. It’s a power. It’s a gift from the Lord that comes over wives. And so Jesus just says, Mary and she’s saying, Rapunite. And she just wants to just wrap him up in a hug.

And he prevents her. No. No. No. Do not.

Have you ever thought that that’s a little bit weird? Why he do that? Okay, Joy, you preach the message for me. And here’s the mic. I know that all of you are tracking with me and you know where I’m going.

Tell Joy, tell us why why this is the question. Why did Jesus prevent Mary from letting her hug him? Because he’s the first fruit. He’s the first fruit of what? Life f life.

Not Yes. And what’s the big fancy churchy Christian word that we use? Resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead. Lazarus resuscitated.

Jesus resurrected. Jesus is the don’t scrunch your eyebrows. You’re considering. You want to we can talk about it if you want. Lazarus was resuscitated because Jesus is the first to be resurrected.

Great. Resurrection includes what we’re gonna talk about in a new in in just a moment. A a new form factor and upgraded and improved earth suit. Lazarus was resuscitated right back into his earth suit, regenerated. Remember when Jesus says roll away the stone.

And then a bystander from the New King James version says, but Lord, he stinketh. Like my son’s room in high school. What? Yeah. She said it, not me.

Our daughter’s room was worse. Sweaty shin guards and soccer cleats. So Lazarus, his body was resuscitated. Jesus was resurrected. He got a new body, which might be why Mary part of why Mary had a hard time.

It’s not like he looked very different, but she recognized and connected the dots when he said her name. A resurrected body also allows Jesus, because of his new assignment, and we’re gonna talk about this more in just a second, allowed Jesus to appear in a room and to eat and then to busedeer out of the room. What I love about Lazarus was revived from the dead. Mhmm. And also, when we take a look at, say, Elijah rising, a little girl that was dead.

There’s many different examples of resurrection where a prophet would be used by God to raise the dead. Jesus, God, son of God, didn’t need anyone to raise him. Woah. He was God. He is the son of God.

So that’s a beast of a resurrection power. A a an additional distinct an additional distinctive from resuscitation to resurrection. Rocket fueling. Yes. There’s a theological concept regarding this whole thing that talks about, the reason because what Joyce said is totally true.

And there’s a theory that says whenever Jesus died, you know, he we always hear he went to death, hell, and the grave. He got the keys for you know, and, like, what was he actually doing? You know? And the bible talks about the Abraham’s bosom and Sheol. You know, Sheol is the place of the dead.

And so the theory when you see when Mary sees him in the garden is that he was and I’m just oversimplifying it for myself. That he, you know, he goes into the shield, the place of the dead. He’s preaching to the righteous dead because there was no, like, you accept Jesus in your heart and go to heaven before there was Jesus on the cross. Right? And as he’s taking them in, you know, metaphorical or literal Jesus is still in that one form where he can’t be touched, and he hears Mary crying, this is just over simplified, and goes to her because he loves her so much, and this is so Jesus.

Right? Because women were not esteemed in that culture in that in that day and talks to her. Like, everyone hang tight. Like, I’m gonna go talk to my friend real quick. Again, I’m oversimplifying.

This is not in scripture. And then that’s when also that very mysterious part of the Bible that nobody understands that says, like, the tombs were open and the people went and visited their family. You know, that’s in that is in scripture. And we’re like, And, you know, it’s like almost like a cart I’m explaining it like a cartoon, but it’s like Jesus went to talk to Mary’s and they’re just waiting, you know, to go to God. And so they’re like, we’ll go check on our estates.

We’ll go check this is something, what’s his name, Gretchen? Bill. Bill Johnson says. Wow. And so, yeah.

And so that’s why he couldn’t be touched because it’s clear it is in scripture that soon after that, he told Peter when he appeared in the room with his disciples, he was like, Lord, is that you? And he said, touch my hand. See that it’s me. Touch my side. So that’s the disconnect.

You’re like, why would he not let Mary touch her? It has nothing to do with her gender. And why would he let the disciples, like, you know, go ahead and touch me. So that’s a working theory. It’s beautiful.

It’s beautiful. You can write this down. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. I just have a quick question. Why was Jesus unrecognizable when he when he, like I think it’s I think it’s the salt and pepper shaker on the table.

Jesus, the Mary was so wrecked by she saw him face scourging and being whipped. The bible says that his visage was marred beyond recognition as a man. She saw him carrying the cross beam of his cross. She saw him collapse. She saw him being nailed to the cross and lifted up in place.

She saw his agony. She heard him say, father, forgive them. They know not what they do Over and over and over. She saw Jesus as Lord. Why?

My Lord, my God, why have you forsaken me? She heard Jesus on the cross with the other criminals say, Lord, I surrender my spirit to you. It is finished. She saw him die. Then the Roman soldiers come around because the Jews were like, we gotta take down these bodies before Passover.

So they break the legs of the other criminals. They get to Jesus and they’re like, tap tap. Is he dead already? There was one way to find out. They jam him with a spear.

It pierces his pericardium, which would was filled with fluid at that point, and the Bible says that blood and water flowed out of his side. He was dead and gone. How many dead people have you seen? How many dead people have you seen that you then see three days later alive? Like, there was no place in her brain to be able to grasp what she was seeing with her eyes until he said, Mary.

And then she got it. That’s why she wasn’t able to see him, essentially, but she saw him. I think about, like, people I’ve known before they’ve become saved. Not that Jesus wasn’t saved, but they look one way and then they become filled with the power, like, the power that blew the stone away. The Dunamis power was probably within his persona, right, and within his face.

And she’s like, I don’t recognize this one. Yeah. Right? And then I think about sometimes, like, when I’m going through things and Jesus is right there to solve everything, and I’m crying. And he’s like, why are you crying?

Like, I’m here. I gotcha. Wow. I’ve got you. Why are you crying?

I’ve got you. I’ve got you. I’m here. We’ve got it. He says, I’m right here.

I’m right here. I gotta do something really quick. I gotta run some admin really quick. He presents himself So he fulfilled the feast of Passover. He fulfilled the feast of unleavened bread by putting an end to the wrath of God.

He propitiate He provided the propitiating sacrifice for our sins. That’s a churchy word. You don’t need to, like, chew on that for very long. Feast of Passover was fulfilled. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled.

And he’s on his way to fulfilling the Feast of First Fruits. Hold on. He presents himself to God the Father in the throne room and says, look, death cannot hold me. Sin and the penalty for sin has been put to rest. And I am the first of a great and forthcoming harvest.

Well, like, also, you know, when we’re made new, we’re a new creation. And what if she just didn’t recognize him as the first fruit of a new creation per se? Like, he has a different look because he is different. He might look different. His earth suit’s a little different.

My one thought, and I hope everyone can get this for a second. When Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. We don’t see the truth of it. The truth is, where was he lifted up? He was lifted up on a cross.

If he had not gone to the cross, he couldn’t have come out of the grave. Yeah. Whew. That’s good. So I had, like, a lot more verses.

Let me just pick the best let me just pick let me just pick the best one. Give me a second. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, that’s a good one.

Oh, that’s a good one. Okay. Let’s go with let’s go with this one. First Corinthians fifteen twenty through 23. This is the last verse.

We’ll we’ll land the plane here. It’s up on the screen. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. Any Jew reading that verse would be like, oh, the Feast of First Fruits.

I got it. They instantly make the connection. It’s hard for our gentile brain to make the connection until now. So you see, just as death came into the world through one man, that was Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. That’s Jesus.

Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, meaning that we live in a fallen broken world, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. New life begins the moment a person invites Jesus into their heart. Now your earth suit, because it is a product of this fallen world, will continue to, as Lisa always says, get more and more handsome. Thank you. It will wear out, but we, who we most truly are, have been given new life.

Verse 23. But there’s an order to this resurrection. Christ was raised as the first of the harvest. Then all who belong to Christ will be raised, will get a resurrected body when he comes back. There’s a hymn written a long time ago, 1739, and a little stanza of that hymn says, soar we now where Christ has led, following our exalted head, made like him, like him we rise, ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

And here’s the bottom line. The resurrection of Jesus gives us great confidence that nothing less than total victory is our destiny. The resurrection of Jesus gives us great confidence that nothing less than total victory is our destiny. Now if you are an awesome person and you experience victory regularly, great. Good for you.

That’s wonderful. But that’s especially good news for somebody like me that’s messed up, that’s blown it, that seems to go from stepping on one rake and having it slap me in the face to turning the corner and standing on another rake and have it slap me in the face. It does not matter where you’ve been. It doesn’t matter how much you have blown it. It does not matter how often you have failed.

For the person that has painted the blood of the Passover lamb of Jesus over the doorframe of their heart, asked Jesus to forgive their sin, acknowledging it before a holy God, received the death of Jesus on the cross as a all sufficient payment price for their sin, fulfilling the feast of unleavened bread. All that is left is to grab a hold of the feast of first fruits. And that no matter your past failures, no matter your past how the what what, what you have done, what has been done to you, the end result in the eyes of the law of the holy God is victory, victory, victory, victory. Because Jesus rose from the dead, It gives us great confidence. Two things, last thing I’m gonna say.

Number one, that we will be resurrected. We’re we we’re gonna live forever. Number two, the beauty of a resurrected life begins at the moment of salvation. For you are a new creation in Christ. Your earth suit may look the same.

I was a children’s pastor for a long time, and I don’t know certainly wasn’t my errant teaching, but there’s a a little elementary student who thought that, like, when you got saved, that you would, like, they had it in their mind. So they, like, said the prayer of salvation. They went straight into the bathroom to the mirror and started looking at their shoulder blades because they thought that they would get angel wings if they got saved. And they’re like, I didn’t get any angel wings. Am I not saved?

That they didn’t get that from my teaching. But it’s precious and sweet. Resurrection life starts on the inside the moment a person gets saved. They’re a new creation. In Philippians, it says, for you are God’s masterpiece.

That Greek word is poema. It’s where we get the English word poem and poetry from. Victory, victory, victory. Never let the feast of first fruits go by again next year without remembering and thanking him. And then we take out of thankfulness and gratitude, we take our life and we wave it before him.

Look, look, look. May my life be pleasing and honoring to you for what you’ve done. Now let’s just wave our life before the Lord. And if you would say, well, I don’t have much of an offering to bring. If you have not invited Jesus into your heart, you really don’t.

But you can take care of that really quick. Just invite Jesus into your heart. Please forgive me. I wanna be a new creation. And he’s like, I got you, fam.

And then you take that and you wave it before him, and he’s like, I like it. I like it. Let’s worship the Lord. Take care of some business with him. To wear my sin and bear my shame.

The cross has spoken. I spoken. I am forgiven. The King of Kings calls me his own. Beautiful savior.

Let’s stand together and sing it. Let’s just sing this one more time. Then came the morning. Then came the morning Can we give him praise in here? You may have a seat for just a moment.

I know it’s hard to transition out of that. And you don’t have to. Listen, in your heart, you should be praising all the time, right, in whatever form or fashion. Sunday morning should not be the biggest slice of the Jesus pie for you. Praise him all the time.

And in fact, we’re we’re just gonna be here a couple more minutes, but we are gonna worship him in a different form as we do every week here at Tribe. We believe the local church, is a place where you bring your tithe and your offering, and it’s all God’s anyway. And then we’re just a conduit that we that the Lord uses to do the work of the ministry. So it’s an honor and a privilege to to be his hands and his feet. And we’re all that as as believers.

We’re all his hands, his feet, and his mouthpiece, but it’s really cool to be as a community and a local church to be able to bring our tithe and our offering that we that we bring. It’s hard earned money. We all work hard for the money. Everyone sing that eighty’s song? I heard it.

And when we bring that to him, I’m I will sing. Don’t make me. When we bring that to him, it’s just like a an offering like we talked about today. There are so many ways to worship him and to bring an offering. And if it’s from our heart, he accepts it and he loves it.

Remember in the scripture, the centurion who was a Roman soldier, he was not a believer, he was not a Jew. And he came to the Lord and he said, I know how authority works. I have men under me. They I say go, they go. I say march, they march.

He goes, I understand how that works. And he saw something in Jesus of Nazareth. He was not a Christian. Right? He just he’s he became one, I’m sure.

But he said, I see authority in you. And his little boy was sick. And he said, I know that with you don’t even have to go visit him. With one word, I believe that you can heal him. And what did Jesus say to his disciples who were with him twenty four seven, who sometimes were like, we would probably I would be the same way, so I’m not dogging on them.

I’d be the same way, probably. But Jesus said, look at this Roman soldier. Not another person in Israel have I seen greater faith. That’s huge. That’s huge.

So as we bring our offering to him today, another form of worship is our tithe and our offering, which is above and beyond the tithe. We just say, Lord, it’s all yours anyway. And we just believe this is an act of worship. It’s an act of surrender. It’s a way for us on a weekly or whatever your rhythm is basis to offer a sacrifice.

We don’t wanna get hold held up with that. Our first fruit. Our first fruit. So let’s pray together as a tribe family, whether you’re giving now or another time. And just practically speaking logistics, we have two boxes here to drop if you have cash or check-in.

I always think of Robin Hood and a little offering box in the back of the church. Well, we have the exact same thing. It’s right here. A little wooden box with our tribe logo. And then we have a black safety box, right outside the front door.

If you have cash or check, You can always go to our website, tribejh.com. There’s a giving link, and then very easy is our smartphone, starting a new number to 84321, and you can see those instructions on the screen. You just type in the amount you wanna give. Alright. Let’s pray together as a family while we’re here together.

Heavenly father, we adore you. We adore you. You’re so worthy of our praise. And if our heart is calibrated to you and if our heart is pure and right, you don’t care what it looks like. You don’t care how we’re dressed, how we were, father.

You just love our obedience and you accept the purity of our heart when we come to you with any offering and sacrifice. And so, Lord, we just say thank you for all the many forms. And today, as a tribe family, while we’re here together, we bring our hard earned money, our tithe, and above and beyond that, our offering to you. And we say it’s all yours anyway, Lord, whether we feel like we have money to give or we feel like we don’t. Lord, you work in a supernatural way that is almost like Mary not seeing Jesus.

We just cannot comprehend the ways the Bible says, your ways and your thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts. So with this, it’s by faith that we bring our tithe, then we just say we trust you with it. Multiply it for your kingdom and your glory, In Jesus’ name, amen. Just a few announcements, and we’ll get you guys out of here. Firstly, there is a men’s bible study that is starting tomorrow right here in this room with Brian, should you want to come.

And we’re reading not we. I’m not a man. Sorry. I I would I would like to come, but I shan’t. It’s called Birthright, and it actually I haven’t read it.

It’s in my list, though. It looks very good. Talking about identity, who you are in Christ. That starts tomorrow right here at the TMC at 06:00. There’s a sign up sheet on the fridge, if you wouldn’t mind just putting your name down if that’s something you’d like to do.

You can always sign up on the fridge to bring Sunday I mean, excuse me, Tuesday meals to our young adults crew who meets here, and then Sunday goodies if you ever wanna bring donuts or treats downstairs. It’s a very easy way to serve your local church. Another thing, today is the first Sunday of the month, so we’re having our monthly gathering at the town square. This is where we connect with our Jewish brothers and sisters, and we just say we love you, and we trust you. Well, this is, also something that we’re doing.

Tribe is going to Israel. Brian actually let you talk more about that if that’s okay. But tribe is going to Israel. So if that’s something that has been put on your heart, I’m gonna let Brian tell you more about that. The other thing oh, if these if you sat on one of these today, please fill it out if you’re new or if you’re not on our tribe list.

You can just sign up here to get emails of what’s going on, like what’s going on at the square, what tribe is up to, or details about this upcoming trip. But on the back, this is very important, this is a place to write a prayer. Now we will have prayer with a real person right after service, but and you can do both or or one or the other, but please write a prayer. We look at these as a staff on Monday, and we take them very seriously. We just spend some time and just totally pray over pray over those for the Lord’s will to be done.

We join our faith with yours. And today, if you have anything you need prayer for, like I said, Ron and Michelle, will you just raise your hand? Ron and Michelle are going they’re amazing at praying and loving the Lord and speaking into your life. They’re gonna be right here in what we call our VIP room right after service. So if you have something that’s burdening you that you want someone to join their faith with for you, big or small.

Please don’t leave today carrying that unless you want to, which nobody does, but we do. Nobody does, but we do. And then next week. Next week. Is it the week?

The week after. The week after. Next week is Mother’s Day. Come here like normal. The following week Schuler, you just I just come sit in my lap.

Doctor Laura Sanger is an amazing author and speaker. I believe she used to be a psychologist, so she just is so smart. And I said this last time, but to to me, in Amanda’s opinion, she’s one of the most brilliant minds of our day regarding things of scripture and things of the supernatural world. Like, she just has this insight that I’ve just never thought about before, and it makes so much sense. So she’s coming to tribe in two weeks on the weekend of the eighteenth.

And so, there’s some information up here. And we we’re expecting more people than usual because I think she has, like, some some groupies or some followers that just go wherever she goes, and so there’ll be a little bit more people. So we’ll be at The Virginian in two weeks, not here next week like normal, nine and eleven. The Virginian where we had Easter in two weeks for doctor Sanger. Sunday morning, one service, 10:00.

K. Tell us more about the trip. That was a lot. Tribes going to Israel in 2025. The I I put up the wrong graphic.

The dates are gonna be different. If you’re like, oh, no. I can’t go in August, but I can in September. Good news. That’s not the right date.

We’re actually going in September. I’ll change it for the next service. September 13 through the seventeenth. As soon as we dismiss here, if there’s anything that you need prayer for, please jump in with Ron and Michelle in the VIP room. And if you’re interested in going to Israel with Tribe in 2025, I’m gonna do a quick q and a informational meeting.

I’ll share a few more details with you. If you’re like, I wanna know more about it, but I gotta scoot. I gotta get to work. I gotta get I gotta rip some lips on the river, whatever you need to do. I’ll be putting together a one sheet that I will send out, and all you need to do is just send me an email of that tiny little graphic.

It got sent out to you in the text blast, so you should have the AcuraFly with the accurate dates. If you’re like, I can’t read that and I don’t get the text blast, fill out this connect card and write your information in there. We’ll add you to the text blast, and then we will be able to send out, like, a little bit more details about the who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much. Alright? So right after we dismiss, just, like, come up here, and I’ll tell you more about Israel.

Alright? And then we gotta skedaddle, make room for folks at eleven. If you stand up, I’ll pray for you. Lord Jesus, thank you so much that you are the first fruits of the resurrection. We love you.

Thank you so much for you imparting resurrection life to us, that our destiny is nothing less than total, total victory. We love you, we thank you, and we praise you for that. Lord Jesus, I ask that you would bless my tribe family. I command a blessing over them, Lord. Give them a great week and help them to live out the new life that you have given them.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong Son of God. And everybody said, amen. I love you. Have a great week. Remember, you got this, and may the fourth be with you.