3 Promises From Christ's Resurrection

David Helton

Deep Creek Baptist Church

The Resurrection Life • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

1 Corinthians 15:20–28

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Page 1142- 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 “20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

Paul just spent 8 verse arguing the consequences if the Ressurection was not true.

We will look at those on Easter Sunday.

But he ends the argument with this statement

1 Corinthians 15:20 “20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Thank God, there is no need to major on the negatives.

For, with great certainty Paul declares, But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead (v. 20).

The words But in Fact ’ (Nyni de) convey the sense ‘The truth of the matter, however, is …’

The resurrection of Christ is the great reality on which the whole future of the world depends.

Paul spells out the positive implications of the resurrection,

which may be summed up in a series of Christological statements.

3 Promises of Christ's Resurrection

Because Christ is the Firstfruits we have Certainty of the future

1 Corinthians 15:20 “20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

1 Corinthians 15:23 “23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

First Paul reaffirms Christ’s resurrection: But now Christ has been raised from the dead, a truth his readers already acknowledged and believed (vv. 1–2).

The words “and become,” found in some translations (e.g., the KJV), do not come first in the original text and are misleading.

Christ did not become the first fruits at some time after His resurrection,

but at the moment of His resurrection,

by the very fact of His resurrection.

His being raised made Him the first fruits of all who would be raised.

Here what we see that turn firstfruits twice, and that language isn't language that's very familiar to us.

But it would have been very familiar to the people ofPaul's day.

Because first fruits was an agrarian term, it was a term which was usedby those who planted their own food, we don't do that anymore.

Many of us We buy fromWalmart or shop and Save or wherever.

This idea of first fruits,

the first budding of the fruit was the promise that more is to come.

It was the first demonstrated that the seed, it germinated

that it had caught root,

and that it had begun to absorb the nutrients from the earth,

and it had broken free of the earth.

And now, the first fruits promises, that more is coming.

`t's beginning to absorb the energy of the Sun and i

It's beginning to grow.

This is the promise.

Christ’s Ressurection is the first fruit that is a promise that we will rise just like Christ.

His ressurection was the bud that promise that more is to come.

It is a pattern that will happen again.

The expression the firstfruits recalls the first sheaf of the grain harvest being ‘waved’ at the Jewish Feast of Weeks as a token of a greater harvest to come

Leviticus 23:9-14 “9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”

Before Israelites harvested their crops they were to bring a representative sample, called the first fruits, to the priests as an offering to the Lord (Lev. 23:10).

The full harvest could not be made until the first fruits were offered.

That is the point of Paul’s figure here.

Christ’s own resurrection was the first fruits of the resurrection “harvest” of the believing dead.

In His death and resurrection Christ made an offering of Himself to the Father on our behalf.

The significance of the first fruits, however,

not only was that they preceded the harvest but that they were a first installment of the harvest.

This Feast of Weeks actually coincided with the Passover.

In using this metaphor, therefore, Paul may have been conscious that Christ rose from the dead about the time when the sheaf of the firstfruits was being offered in the temple

on 16 Nisan, the day after the Sabbath following the Passover.

As the firstfruits, Jesus is the guarantee of a harvest of life to come.

In other words, Christ’s resurrection could not have been in isolation from ours.

His resurrection requires our resurrection,

because His resurrection was part of the larger resurrection of God’s redeemed.

It is not just a pattern but....

It will be a permanent ressurection.

The resurrection of which Paul speaks here is permanent resurrection.

Jesus was not the first one to be resurrected from the dead.

Both the Old and New Testaments tell of persons who died and were miraculously brought back to life

(1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34–36; 13:21; Luke 7:15; John 11:44).

But all of those persons died again.

Even those whom Jesus raised—the son of the widow of Nain, Jairus’s daughter, and Lazarus—

eventually died again.

Christ Himself, however, was the first to be raised never to die again.

Jesus died and he rose never to die again.

That's what makes his resurrection different.

Jesus didn't rise in the same condition that he died. Only to die again.

Jesus rose never to die again.

Therefore he became the first fruits of a new type of Resurrection, a different type of Resurrection,

the type that would never die.

And when you say something is first, what does that imply?

There's more coming.

This is the first only indicates that there's going to be a second and there's going to be a third, there's going to be more, right?

So Jesus is called the first fruits because first 23 says the at his coming,

those who belong tohim will also be raised.

You see this.

It's a promise of assurance we who are in Christ will be raised.

Assurance that this earthly life will be the worse we will have to suffer.

Assurance that this life is not all their is.

Assurance that there is hope in eternity.

Because Christ is the last Adam, we have redemption from the depravity of sin

1 Corinthians 15:21-23 “21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

In these verses Paul states the truth as opposed to the fantasy some Corinthians seemed to have believed.

Death came through a man, Adam.

Only resurrection can deal with this, and it too has come through a man

Then look down at verse 45

1 Corinthians 15:45 “45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

Federal means representative

Paul, is identifying the relationship between Adam and Christ as the relationship of federal heads.

Most of us who are grown up America, understand at least somewhat of what it means to have a federal head,

Federal means representative,

We have a federal government, what's that representative government?

We vote in men and women who stand as our representatives and make decisions in our place.

If the government decides to go to war against another country

we all, go to war, not just the president or the Senators.

If the government decides to make a bad decision, guess what?

We all reap the benefit of the government's bad decisions and

If the government makes a good decision, then we reap the benefits of that good decision.

They represent us in their decision-making. That's what federal headship is.

And to understand the idea of what Paul is talking about here.

You must understand that headship concept because when Adam was in the garden.

He was not only acting on his own behalf.

But Adam was acting as a representative of all of his posterity, that's just a fancy word for kids.

All of Adam's posterity.

All of Adam's children,

would be affected by his decisions, Good or Bad, because he was acting as a representative of all mankind.

Therefore, when Adam acted in his sin,

He was acting for all of us.

The 1689 London Baptist confession of Faith says this :

Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: 3 all becoming dead in sin, 4 and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body. 5

If this seems hard for you to grasp. turn to Romans chapter 5. Page you don't believe me, I would just simply not only point you to this text,

But if you want to quickly turn with me Romans chapter 5, Page 1120

Paul repeatedly points to Adam’s sin as the cause of universal death and condemnation:

Romans 5:12-21 “12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In other words, you and I were born not merely with a corrupt nature (Ps. 51:5)“inclined towards all evil”

but with real, imputed (that is, put on our account) guilt before the law of God (Rom. 5:19),

under the sentence of condemnation (vv. 16, 18)

and consequent reign of death (v. 17).

The issue with sin in our life is not just nurture, but nature.

Adam is your Federal head unless you are in Christ

The Bad News....

You're part of his family. There is no other, by the way,

Adam is ahead of everyone. So everybody is an Adam.

Therefore everyone is condemned

If you are alive today you are a child of Adam.

Why should it be,” the objection goes, “that I should suffer because of the sin of Adam?”

It like living in DC. The License plate says Taxation without Representation

Theologians have generally offered at least the following three replies to this objection:

First, everyone who objects to the doctrine of imputed sin

has also committed actual sins

for which he or she stands condemned by God

Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Second, God is a God of perfect justice,

so when he created Adam as our representative head,

Adam was our perfect representative,

so that if we, as the perfect representative head,

had been present in the Garden,

we would have made the same choice to sin that Adam made.

Third, if we object to God’s imputation of Adam’s sin to us,

then should not Christians also object as unfair God’s

imputation of our sins to Jesus at the cross and

God’s imputation of Jesus’ righteousness to us in justification

2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Also, Consider that we see everyday examples of this principle all around us.

Your country of birth was not your choice. But because of where your parents lived and when they gave birth to you, is not your choice.

In many countries children are born into poverty, have disease, and died in infancy solely because of who their parents were

Did God not choose their parents.

Every time you sin you give your yes and amen to Adams my head.

There are two immediate ramifications:

(1) We can’t excuse our sin, as people commonly do, by appealing to our humanity. “I’m only human” is not a justification; it’s precisely the problem.

(2) It brings to a screeching halt every attempt at trying to rescue ourselves by exerting moral effort.

Moral improvement cannot alter the core problem of spiritual heredity and federal reality.

A “moral” child of Adam is still a child of Adam.

But there is good news

1 Corinthians 15:22 - 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

If all we had was one represented, we have no hope.

But we have another representative,

a better representative,

a greater representative,

a more powerful representative,

and we have one who came as the Lord Jesus Christ as a man, and

Adam represented us in death, and Adam represented us in hell, where Adam represents us in sin.

Christ represents us in righteousness, he represents us in heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:45-48 “45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.”

If Adam is “the first man,” then Jesus is “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45).

Adam is “the first man”; Jesus, “the second man” (v. 47).

Adam and Jesus are representative men.

None stands between the first man and the last Adam.

And none follows Jesus, the second man.

Every human being in every time and place of the world stands in representative relation either to Adam or to Jesus

Who are you in?

There is only two options.

You're either in Adam by birth or in Christ by the new birth.

In Adam by sin or in Christ by faith.

Here's the blessing of being in Christ.

You have a new representative,

you have new standing before God,

and you have forgiveness,

We have been saved form the depravity, consequence, punishment of sin (eternal death and Seperation)

We will be resurrected and be with God because of Christ who stands in our place.

Lastly,

1 Corinthians 15:23-28 “23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Because Christ is King we have Victory over our enemies.

Look at the progression

Christ rose from the grave,

then He comes again, and

then those in Christ are Resurrected, and

then he defeats His enemies and death

then the end.

Look at 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet

He must reign

beloved Christ is reigning right now.

He is not waiting on a kingdom.

He said after his resurrection that all authority in heaven and on Earth is given to me,

And he's raining for what purpose,

the text tells us he is reigning until all his enemies be made his footstool until all his enemies are under his feet.

This is an allusion to Psalm 110:1 “1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

So what is Christ doing now?

Now the point of Easter and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is that God is in the process of clearing this world of all heartbreak.

And the opening of the closed tomb of Jesus is the first step in a campaign to throw open ten million doors of hope for people who will trust him.

He is reigning now he has been raining and He will reign until

How Long is He reigning Two Things Meant by "Until"

What does that little word "until" mean? It means two things.

First, it means that

Christ is reigning NOW!

He rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).

His kingdom does not begin at the second coming.

When Christ comes again, there will be a thunderclap of great victory in his reign over evil.

You can see it in verse 23—at his coming those who belong to Christ will be raised from the dead.

But that thunderclap of victory will not be the beginning of his reign.

His reign is underway now.

He is siting on His throne now

The other thing that the word "until" means is that Christ's kingly warfare against his enemies is going on right now.

Christ is reigning till every enemy is defeated.

till all Verse 25 says, "He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet."

The word ALL tells us the extent.

So does the word EVERY in verse

24: "Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power."

Isn't this what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18? "All authority in heaven and on earth as been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."

In other words, I am the rightful King over all the peoples of the earth.

I have triumphed over the devil and the powers of darkness on the cross (Colossians 2:15).

Now you are my ambassadors. Go and call people everywhere to turn from sin and to accept me as King.

The reign of Jesus Christ is present, not just future and not just distant.

And his aim is to defeat his enemies and put them under his feet.

If the enemies of your happiness are the enemies of Christ, then you can take heart that Christ will fight for you with all his kingly power.

He is moving in the world, in his own way and in his own time,

to subdue his enemies.

There is no disease,

no addiction,

no demon,

no bad habit,

no fault,

no vice,

no weakness,

no temper,

no moodiness,

no pride,

no self-pity,

no strife,

no jealousy,

no perversion,

no greed,

no laziness

that Christ does not aim to overcome as the enemy of his honor.

· As we go out with the gospel, the enemies of God are being defeated.

· As the Kingdom grows the enemies of God shrinks.

· He is reigning now, at the right hand of God, we do not have to wait for another time for Him to reign.

· His enemies are being destroyed through the work of the church.

The last enemy will be death with will be abolished at his second coming. No more death, no more disease.

Christ is working now he is fighting and then when he defeats death the end will come and then his perfect kingdom comes.

26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

And the encouragement in that is that when you set yourself to do battle with the enemies of your faith and your holiness, you will not fight alone.

Conclusion:

And all of these promises are based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If Christ did not raise, he's not the first fruits and we have no Assurance.

If Christ is not raised, he's not the last Adam and we have no representative. redemption

If Christ has not raised, he did not defeat death and we have no victory.

but, in fact, Christ has been raised.

Are we living in light of those promises?

The Believers, I would ask you this.

Do you live in the Assurance of your own Resurrection.

Do you live with assurance of eternity.

Do you live in the expected hope of the coming victory.

And to unbelievers. Those who have not bowed, the knee to Christ, I would say this.

If you remain outside of Christ,

the only thing you have Assurance of his judgment.

The only representative you have is Adam.

And the only assurance of of your future is the son will make you his enemy.

One day you will be his footstool.

Because today, if you are outside of Christ, you are an enemy of God.

But I call you today.

By repentance and Faith turn from your sin.

And become the friend of God.

By Nature We are enemies.

By Faith We become friends.

Are you a friend of God today?

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