JESUS CHRIST - THE FIRSTFRUITS (1st Corinthians 15:20-26)
INTRODUCTION:
Christ is Risen! (He is Risen Indeed!) The Christian faith rises and falls on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Bob read for us from 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 this morning for our Scripture reading where Paul states that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is of first importance, this is the whole basis of the gospel. This is what we believe, and this is what our hope is based on. But there were some in Corinth who were teaching that there was no resurrection of the dead. Paul goes into great detail to refute this false teaching, by first stating that if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Right before this he had listed those who were eyewitnesses of Christ after His resurrection, including at one time a group of 500 who had seen Him alive. Paul goes onto to say that if Christ has not been raised as these people were saying, then our preaching is in vain, and if you have faith in Jesus Christ, it is in vain as well. Paul goes on to say that if Christ has not been raised, then he and those who preach the gospel are false witnesses of God, because they testified against God that He raised Christ from the dead, but He did not if there is no resurrection from the dead. If this is true and Christ has not been raised then our faith is worthless and each of us is still in our sins, and those who have died in the Lord have perished. Paul ends by saying that if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, then we should be pitied of all people because we have wasted our life on a lie. Paul’s point in all this is to show those who say there is no resurrection of the dead the folly of their thinking. People saw Jesus Christ alive after He was raised from the dead, His resurrection was well documented. Paul will go on to show that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection of those who have died in Christ. Let’s pray and then look at our Scripture this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians 15:20-26. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
1st Corinthians 15:20-26,
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:20–26, NASB95)[1]
THE RESURRECTION OF THE FIRST FRUITS (1st Corinthians 15:20)
Paul declares definitively in the opening verse of our passage that Christ has been raised from the dead. Paul was one of the eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ after His resurrection. At the end of his list of those who had seen Jesus Christ after His resurrection he writes in verse 8, “…and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” (1 Corinthians 15:8, NASB95)[2] Paul knew that Jesus Christ was alive, that He had died, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead. He knew this because Jesus Christ had appeared to him, he had seen Him alive.
Paul then makes a statement that his Jewish readers would have understood but not necessarily his Gentile readers. Verse 20 reads, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20, NASB95)[3] The second statement in this verse is very significant. What are the first fruits and who are those who are asleep? First, let me answer the second part of that question. The phrase “those who are asleep” was a phrase used by Christians to describe those who had died in Christ. It described Christians, those who had repented and put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation who had died before Christ’s return. For the believer death is not the end, really it is just the beginning. When we die in Christ our spirit immediately goes to be with the Lord. When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians in chapter 5, he wrote in verse 8, “…we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8, NASB95)[4] Those who are asleep refers to the physical bodies of Christians that will be awakened at Christ return for the church and will be raised, glorified, and reunited with their spirit.
Now I will explain the significance of the first fruits. Paul is declaring that Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection. The first fruits were the first sheaf of barley harvested before the barley harvest began in the month of Nisan which is March/April for us. Let me read what Moses wrote concerning the First Fruits. This is found in Leviticus 23:9-14, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, “When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.” ” (Leviticus 23:9–14, NASB95)[5] This festival took place on the first day of the week, on Sunday, the day after the Sabbath. Here is the significance of this festival, the Sunday on which it occurred was the day after the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread week, which began on Passover. Jesus Christ was crucified on Passover and was raised from the dead on the day of first fruits. First fruits symbolized the dedication of the whole harvest to God, the first fruits were a pledge of the whole harvest to come. In other words, the first fruits were the guarantee that more of the same was to come. Jesus’ resurrection was unique in that He was raised imperishable, He was raised to never die again but to live for all eternity. As the first fruits He is the guarantee that we who belong to Him will be raised in the same way one day, imperishable with a glorified body like His own in which we will live for all eternity.
TWO MEN (1st Corinthians 15:21-22)
Paul goes on in the next two verses to describe how death entered the world which made it necessary for there to be a resurrection unto eternal life. Both were brought about by a man. Paul says that death was brought by one man, and it was also a man who brought the resurrection of the dead.
Paul then goes to name who those men were. He writes, “For as in Adam all die…” (1 Corinthians 15:22a, NASB95)[6] God created Adam on the sixth day of creation, and He created him perfect, and he was to live forever. But Adam disobeyed God and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which God had forbidden him to eat, telling him that if he ate of that one tree he would surely die. This was the only prohibition that God gave man, all else was only good. Adam ate knowing what God had said and he plunged the world into sin and brought death to mankind. Because every person is a descendant of Adam, we each will die for our sin just as Adam died for his sin. So, by this one man, Adam, all that are born into the human race will die.
Paul goes onto name the second man as well, he writes, “…so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22b, NASB95)[7] Understand that the word “all” that is given twice in this verse, “in Adam all die; in Christ all will be made alive” are only alike in that they only apply to descendants. All of Adam’s descendants will die, all of Adam’s descendants are the human race. All of Christ’s descendants will be made alive through resurrection from the dead, all of Christ’s descendants are those who have repented of their sin and have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
RESURRECTION SUCCESSION (1st Corinthians 15:23-26)
Having clearly stated how death came through one man, Adam, and the resurrection of the dead to eternal life came through one Man, Jesus Christ, Paul now turns to the order of resurrection and then the end. Paul wants to be clear to those who say that there is no resurrection, that what they are saying is false, and their confusion comes from a misunderstanding of the order. He writes that Christ had to be raised first, naming Him again as the first fruits. His resurrection to eternal life is the guarantee of a future resurrection. Christ is raised first, after that all those who are Christ’s at His coming. Jesus Christ will return for those who are His, those who have put their faith in Him for salvation. He has promised to come back for us.
Then comes the end, Paul writes. That end covers the tribulation, the second coming of Christ and the millennial kingdom when Jesus Christ will reign on the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords for 1000 years. At the end of that, Paul writes, Jesus Christ will hand over the kingdom to His God and Father. That will bring about the destruction of this earth and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth where the Godhead, the Trinity, will reign for the rest of eternity in the new Jerusalem. Paul then backs up a bit to tell us what will be accomplished before Jesus Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father. That will happen when Jesus Christ has abolished all rule and all authority and power. There will still be rebelliousness during Christ’s millennial reign, but He will abolish all of it as He rules with a rod of iron. At the end of the 1000 years Satan will be released briefly to lead a final rebellion against God that will be destroyed by God and Satan and his fallen angels will be banished to the lake of fire forever. At this point as Paul writes Christ will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
The last enemy to be abolished is death. Jesus Christ had broken the power of Satan, who held the power of death, at the cross. Satan will not be completely stripped of his weapon of death until the end of the Millennial Kingdom when death will be no more since death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire. Death will be defeated.
CONCLUSION:
Why does Paul include all of this when he writes of the certainty of the resurrection? Because without the resurrection of Jesus Christ none of these things that are prophesied in the Old Testament would ever take place. God knew before the foundation of the world was laid that He would send His Son to reverse the curse of death by dying as man’s perfect substitute, shedding His blood for the forgiveness of sin, being buried and rising on the third day, as the first fruits to set in motion the fulfillment of the end times. This is our hope, and our hope is sure because Christ is risen.
Maybe you are here this morning and you do not have this hope of the resurrection unto life. You can have that hope this morning, you can know with 100% certainty that when Jesus Christ returns for those who are His, you will be among that number. How do you know, by repenting of your sin, agreeing with God that you have sinned against Him, but you believe that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die as your substitute, paying with His own blood the penalty for your sin. You believe that He was buried and on the third day, the day of first fruits, He rose bodily from the grave to live forever. If you believe this then your sins are forgiven, you are saved from God’s wrath against sin, and you are guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ that you will live eternally with Him when He returns to bring us home.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.