04.26.2020 1 Cor 15.20-28 Resurrection Assurance
Notes
Transcript
General introduction
General introduction
Misunderstanding > the resurrection
It has consequences for tomorrow (these verses, 20-28) and its consequences for today (29-34)
In the first 11 verses Paul gives us the evidence for Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
In the first 11 verses Paul gives us the evidence for Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
It is Historical
It is Simple
It is Good
Belief in the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ logically leads to the belief that our own physical bodies will be resurrected from the dead. Paul mentions here 7 disastrous and absurd consequences that would result if we are not raised from the dead (vv. 12-19).
Then (15:12-19) he shows us that if we believe these things and says “if we have hope in Christ in this life only, then we are people most to be pitied.” (v. 19)
Christ’s resurrection from the dead is the cornerstone upon which the full message of the gospel is built. If the cornerstone is somehow removed, then the entire building falls down.
“But now”, Paul shows us that because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, there must be a resurrection of those who have fallen asleep (died) and all those who die having put their trust in Him. Because Christ’s resurrection was a physical resurrection this resurrection is not just a spiritual resurrection, it is a full resurrection of body and soul that has... (15:20-28) CONSEQUENCES FOR TOMORROW & CONSEQUENCES FOR TODAY
Read 1 Cor 15:20-29
The Resurrection ...Consequences for Tomorrow
The Resurrection ...Consequences for Tomorrow
Most of you are familiar with farming - planting crops, working the solid, watering, weeding and working in a garden.
What is one thing you look forward to as the growing season moves on as you tend and take care of the seedlings? - harvest > enjoying the fruit of your labor - tomatoes, corns, okra, etc.
Imagine this - before you take anything to your table - you take the ‘first fruit’ of your labor to God and offer that to Him in thanksgiving for the provision, but in anticipation of harvesting the rest of the crops.
Firstfruits was a Jewish feast held in the early spring at the beginning of the grain harvest. It was observed on Nissan 16, which was the third day after Passover and the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
First fruits was a time of thanksgiving for God’s provision
First fruits was a time of thanksgiving for God’s provision
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.
The people were to bring a sheaf of grain to the priest, who would wave it before the Lord. A burnt offering, a meal offering, and a drink offering were also required at that time.
Deuteronomy 26:1-10 gives us even more detail about the firstfruit...
“Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. You shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God;
No grain was to be harvested at all until the firstfruits offering was brought to the Lord (Leviticus 23:14). The offering was made in remembrance of Israel’s 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the Lord’s deliverance from slavery, and their possession of “a land that flowed with milk and honey.”
Before God’s people harvested their crops they were to bring a representative sample, called the first fruits, to the priests as an offering to the Lord. The full harvest could not be made until the first fruits were offered.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Christ’s own resurrection was the first fruits of the resurrection “harvest.”
Christ’s own resurrection was the first fruits of the resurrection “harvest.”
Through his death and resurrection Christ made an offering of Himself to the Father on our behalf.
Those who are identified with Adam — every person who has been born—is subject to death because of Adam’s sinful disobedience—so those who are identified with Christ — every person who has been born again in Him is subject to resurrection to eternal life because of Christ’s righteousness and his completed work on the cross.
Christ’s death precedes our death, but it is also the first installment of the final harvest of those who have died or who die in Him.
The significance of the first fruits, not only was that they preceded the harvest but that they were a first installment of the harvest.
The significance of the first fruits, not only was that they preceded the harvest but that they were a first installment of the harvest.
The fact that Christ was the first fruits indicates that something else - the harvest of the rest of the crop - is to follow. Christ’s resurrection did not happen as an isolated event in time in order to simply give us meaning for living today.
1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit
Christ’s resurrection was not an isolated event separated from what happens or will happen to us when we die.
His resurrection REQUIRES our resurrection, because His resurrection was part of the larger resurrection of God’s redeemed.
We’ve become so used to talking about death that we think of it as just another part of life.
We’ve become so used to talking about death that we think of it as just another part of life.
It is true - There is a time and a season for everything under the sun…a time to live and a time to die, but death is not the end it is only the beginning because THOSE WHO ARE THE are united with the REDEEMER...
...The Redeemer (20-22)
...The Redeemer (20-22)
Jesus’ humanity is inextricably tied to both His resurrection and ours.
It was because Jesus died, was buried, and was raised as man that He could become the first fruits of all other men who would be raised to glory.
The first fruits and the harvest were from the same crop.
In Adam all have inherited a sin nature and therefore die (Romans 5:12-20)
In Christ all who believe in Him have inherited eternal life and are made alive shall be made alive - BODY & SPIRIT. Though the inheritance in both cases is bodily as well as spiritual, Paul’s emphasis here in on the body.
Through Adam’s sin, man died spiritually and became subject to death bodily. “The wages of sin are death” (Rom 6:23) - separation from God physically and spiritually.
Through Christ believers are given life spiritually today and will be raised bodily tomorrow...
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Westminster Confession of Faith - Chapter 32 speaks of the state of men after death and the resurrection of the dead.
Chapter XXXII—Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead
1. The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption: (Gen. 3:19, Acts 13:36) but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them: (Luke 23:43, Eccl. 12:7) the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. (Heb. 12:23, 2 Cor. 5:1,6,8, Phil. 1:23, Acts 3:21, Eph. 4:10) And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. (Luke 16:23–24, Acts 1:25, Jude 6–7, 1 Pet. 3:19) Beside these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.
The Westminster Confession of Faith (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).
Christ’s death is the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep - who have died in Him. His death precedes our death…His work on our behalf is offered to God and those who are trusting by God’s grace through faith in his finished work are in Christ now - having the promise of life now in Him.
His death is the first installment of the final harvest of those who are the REDEEMED...
...The Redeemed (23)
...The Redeemed (23)
Scripture constantly says that when Christ comes, he is going to raise all the dead and separate the wicked from amon the just, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. According to another figure, he is to send out his angels and separate the weeds from the wheat.
It has been the constant faith of the church that the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the righteous and of the wicked, and the final judgment and the end of the world are all parts of one great even and are not events that are to follow each other at long intervals of time.
We do not know the time of Christ’s coming , but we do know when he comes those who are in Him will be changed and those who have fallen asleep (died) in him will be resurrected - united with their souls to live with our Triune God for all eternity...no more sorrow - the old order will have passed away completely - the new is come.
Those who are redeemed are RESTORED...
...The Restoration (24-28)
...The Restoration (24-28)
Then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to the God and Father - all things will be restored as they were originally designed and created only better - there will be no possibility to sin.
In the end it will be as it was in the beginning ONLY BETTER. Then the first Adam had the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. Then, the will be no ability to sin.
Sin will be no more - God will reign supremely without enemy and without challenge. Christ presents his bride the church to God His Father.
2. At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed: (1 Thess. 4:17, 1 Cor. 15:51–52) and all the dead shall be raised up, with the self-same bodies, and none other (although with different qualities), which shall be united again to their souls for ever. (Job 19:26–27, 1 Cor. 15:42–44)
The Westminster Confession of Faith (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).
His coming in this verse refers to the time when Christ will return visibly and bodily to this earth. At that point of his return the bodies of all the dead will be raised up with the same bodies they had before death (but with different qualities) and united with their souls forever.
Christians will be resurrected and reunited with their spirits. These bodies will not be like our current bodies. They will be like the body that Christ had after his resurrection. In other words, we will have glorified bodies. They will not be subject to sin, suffering, disease, or pain.
After Christ returns, Paul said in verse 24a, “Then comes the end . . ..” It is at this point that there will be the final judgment and the formation of the new heavens and the new earth that we read about in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
At this time, Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father having destroying every rule and every authority and power (15:24b).
Just as the firstfruits represented the first portion of the entire harvest, so his resurrection guarantees destruction of every rule and every authority and power, and the presentation of his entire kingdom to God the Father so that God may be all in all (v. 28)
These words are filled with language of conquest and triumph and success and victory God may be all in all
Conclusion
Conclusion
Physicist Stephen Hawking may have believe in extraterrestrial intelligence and the theoretical possibility of time travel, but for him, the notion of life after death was a fiction too fanciful to accept.
Hawking referred to heaven as a “fairy story” and spoke in support of a humanist worldview that emphasizes making the most of our time on Earth rather than the promise of life after death. Hawking said:
I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first . . .. I regard the brain as a computer that will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
Hawking’s struggle with the reality of spiritual things and this question of life after death. There are many people who are like Stephen Hawking.
They do not believe that there is life after death. Some believe our souls live on, but certainly not that our bodies will be united with our souls to live in a physical place called heaven or hell forever.
But because Christ rose from the dead, we can be assured of our own resurrection. Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection. Christ in His resurrection is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Corinthians. 15:20-23).
Christ rose as the first to be resurrected, but all who trust in Him will also rise from the dead in the final “harvest.” His resurrection has set in motion a chain of unstoppable events that absolutely determines our future and our present.
In addition to the the fact that God has promised that we, too, will be raised from the dead, in Romans 8:23 Paul says that as redeemed people we possess the “firstfruits of the Spirit” today.
“Paul is saying here either that the measure of the Holy Spirit that we now have is but a foretaste of the greater measure there will be in the age to come, or that the gift of the Spirit now is a foretaste of the many other blessings we will have in due course.”
Morris, Leon, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Leicester, England: Inter-varsity Press, 1988), p. 322
So, if you call yourself “Christian” today - you’ve been born again by God’s grace through faith and are trusting in Jesus Christ - you are trusting in him and him alone as your only hope for salvation and eternal life, you can today rejoice in the certainty of your bodily resurrection one day.
And, if you are not yet a Christian, I invite you to ask God to give you eyes that you may see and ears that you may hear the Resurrection Gospel and by God’s grace know....
the new birth so that you can believe in Christ and repent of your sin.
To Paul’s redeemed, renewed and uniquely inspired mind, there was an unbroken continuity between the empty tomb and the perfection of heaven. Remove the fact of resurrection and you have ripped out the heart of the gospel - the principle of the kingdom of God. (Prior, p. 269, BST)
Amen.