The Fruit of Christ’s Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-28)
The Church of Corinth; Struggling to be in the world but not of the world • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I. Immediate Fruit 20-23
I. Immediate Fruit 20-23
A. The confirmation of the resurrection (20)
A. The confirmation of the resurrection (20)
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
The first immediate fruit that we see in Paul's exhortation here is the confirmation of the resurrected Christ. Paul is confirming with the previous evidence that he has given to the Corinthians that Christ truly has risen from the dead. This is rooted in factual evidence from over 500 witnesses as well as all believers in history who have undergone spiritual change.
He does not confirm this by saying Christ might be raised, but that he has been raised. This is the confirmation that the Corinthians needed to be reminded of as they wrestled with the concept of resurrection from the dead. Paul continues this logical thought and then also confirms that since Christ has risen from the grave, so also he will raise those who believe and trust in him.
Again we must be reminded that this is not just a spiritual resurrection but a bodily resurrection. As the church, we must be focused on the promise of a bodily resurrection for all believers when Christ comes again. Paul will deal with the timeline of this resurrection in the following verses, but for now, he is confirming, not only the bodily resurrection of Christ, but the bodily resurrection of the church as well.
He uses a dynamic term here in v 20 and v 23 to illustrate the promise of the bodily resurrection of believers. The term is “first fruits” and its meaning is rooted in the OT. We are going to see in this passage 2 significant components to Paul’s uses of first fruits.
First, let’s look at when this term was originally used in the OT Scriptures,
Now the term, First fruits, appears in Exodus 23:16–19 (NASB95)
16 “Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. 18 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. 19 “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.
These commands have to do with three national feasts that Jewish males were to participate in and lead their families in each year. While these terms are first mentioned in these verses, the concept of setting the first and best of what God has given was well ingrained in the Jewish culture. For example, the first fruits of the family was the first-born sons. Before Exodus 23, God established great honor for the first son who came from the womb. These first born sons were “sanctified to the Lord” as Ex 12 states. It was understood that the first born sons who learn the covenant promises and commands before God and pass them down to the younger children. The first born son had a special place at the dinner table and had leadership in the Passover meal. Therefore that which was first was designed to be sanctified for God’s holy use.
So the first fruits was already a concept the Jewish people understood, especially regarding their harvest. So the first definition of FIRST FRUITS that is significant here is that the first fruits is the best of what God has given to be sacrificed back to him as an act of worship and faith. This has rich meaning when stating that Christ is our first fruits of the resurrection. Since the resurrection of Christ was the display that the atoning work was accomplished and satisfied the wrath of God, then we understand that Christ’s resurrection was also a display of God’s acceptance of the holy and best sacrifice what was given on our behalf. Jesus was not only the sufficient sacrifice, he was the best sacrifice to be given, as the only-begotten Son and first fruits of all who follow him.
Christ being the holy and best sacrifice gives all who follow him a great challenge to model in our own giving. Not just giving of money but giving up of ourselves for Christ and his service. Since we are in Christ, then we to are set apart to be a holy sacrifice, by nature of his righteousness given to us. Therefore, when we are called in Romans 12:1
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Then we understand the call and challenge that as people united in Christ, then our worship must include the giving up of our lives to the service of God. Our lives and our time are given to us and because of the grace of Christ, we are to use these gifts to serve the Lord as an act of worship. Therefore, we are to give our best of ourselves to serve Christ.
This firstfruits principle is a great way to teach giving money to the church. We are tempted to give God our leftovers from out paychecks. After we pay our bills, put some aside in savings, then we write our checks to the church. But Christ desires a heart that wants to first give God his portion from the gifts He has given. After that we can settle our debts and put away for a rainy day.
This is the same with our service to the church. If we expend all our energy at work and at play, only to be too exhausted to serve or too exhausted to care for one another, then we are not giving the Lord our best. Your vocational success is not important to Him as much as your worship of him.
We will get to the second definition of First Fruits in just a minute.
Those who are Asleep
The term those who are asleep is a term designated to believers in Jesus Christ who had died physically but whose souls were already in the presence of Christ. There was a separation of the body and soul at death that is being referenced here. Those who are asleep signifies that the soul is separated from the body but will one day be reunited with a new body, since the resurrection of Christ occured.
Paul already used this language in our verses from last week, as some eyewitnesses of the risen Christ had died or “who were now asleep.” This language is a metaphor to point to the 2nd coming of Christ where these believers will wake up, which means their body and soul will be reunited.
B. The effects of the resurrection for all believers (21-22)
B. The effects of the resurrection for all believers (21-22)
21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Dead in Adam
The effects of the resurrection are connected to Adam and Christ in v 21-22. Paul states that because of Adam, death came to all men. What is meant here specifically is death of the physical life. Death of the body is a result of the death that came through the corruption of sin as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s rebellion. Since bodily resurrection is the debated issue in Corinth, Paul is not intending spiritual death and spiritual life here. That is a reality in Christ’s resurrection for sure but Paul is speaking of life and death of the body. The grammar of v 22 is that in Adam, “all are dying.” It is a present tense verb which means it is continual action of dying. Our bodies are in perpetual decay as well as all of humanity that comes after us will likewise continually die. It is a grave state of mankind.
Now we understand that sin and death came into the world because Adam was a head and representative before God. This is often labeled as federalism for Adam represented all humanity.
Federalism theologically defined is one’s acting on behalf or in place of another. It is almost always contractual or covenantal, in that it entails a legal bond between the one acting and those for whom he acts.- Andrew Sandlin
https://www.forerunner.com/puritan/PS.Biblical_Federalism
Paul gives a greater explanation of this in Romans 5 12-19. A good summary is v 18-19 which sounds very similiar to Paul to the Corinthians.
18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
We then must consider that all humanity, before Christ is united with Adam in sin and death. He was not only the first man, but he represented mankind so that when he sinned, the nature of sin was passed down to all men born physically from Adam, which is all humanity. Therefore, an unbeliever who dies and faces the judgment of God, does so not because he commits sinful acts, but first because he bears the mark of Adam, and therefore he bears the sinful nature that separates a person from God’s presence. It is because of this nature that a person commits sin and rebels against God.
Alive in Christ
Being made alive in this verse again looks to a bodily resurrection, not a spiritual resurrection. Again, while spiritual resurrection is an instantaneous reality when a person puts their faith in Christ, the grammar of this v 22 is looking to the future. Being made alive is a future look at the body being given new life. When we consider previous resurrections of Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter, we understand that their physical resurrection was temporary and they face death again. But those in Christ, we have the promise and seal that our bodies will be made alive because Christ has already been raised as the first fruits.
This cosmic undoing of the rebellion against God makes the work of Christ the correction to the work of Adam. Some interpreters want to find universal salvation in these words following the logical equation ALL IN ADAM=Die, ALL IN CHRIST= MADE ALIVE. They would say that Christ’s resurrection effected salvation for all humanity on the same scale that Adam’s death brought a universal death.
But v 23 states,
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
Paul qualifies those who are Christ’s possession. It literally reads in v 23, “the ones of Christ” We are of and in Him and therefore we belong to him. The world is already in Adam and cannot all be in Christ. Instead, we understand that those in Christ are those who believe in his name as the only way of salvation. Therefore, those asleep have placed their faith and trust in Christ alone for their sins.
Therefore, we celebrate the work of Christ, which by his power we live in thankfulness that Jesus is the ark of God that brought out of the flood water sent into their world by Adam’s hand. He brought about a new spiritual life and the promise of a new glorified body, first realized in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
C. The order of the resurrection (23)
C. The order of the resurrection (23)
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
Finally, we come back to the word “first fruits” again. Here Paul gives the church a more clear statement- the order of the resurrection. Christ leads his people out of death like the pillar of fire and smoke lead the people through the wilderness.
Jesus being the firstfruits of the resurrection, not only signifies the best of the harvest, but the first of the harvest. The first of the harvest that sprouts on the vine or from the ground, shows that more is to come. If you have labored in the garden, planting seeds in a nurtured soil, then you know the excitement that comes once your first tomato or pepper begins to form and grow. You see that expectation of more.
Even our attempts at agriculture are a poor example because we labor and toil to produce plants and vegetable on a cursed earth. There is always the chance of failure at that process. Trust me, I know, I have failed many times to grow fruits and veggies. But there is no option of failure at the promised harvest of the resurrection. There will be without a doubt a crop of resurrected bodies that follow in resurrection just as the Lord did. We are told that harvest comes when Jesus comes again.
The Parosia (GK word) is the coming again or the second coming of Christ to this world. The angels told the disciples at his ascension,
9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
So the harvest of resurrected believers comes when Jesus comes again. The angel promises that Jesus will come again in the same manner that he left. This is understood that He will come from the sky to the earth in the opposite direction of him leaving the earth and ascending to heaven.
Paul gives a clearer example of this amazing return of our Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4,
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Paul wants the Thessalonians to be informed of the order of the resurrection as well. Notice that he tells the Thessalonians “the dead in Christ will rise first” which implies their bodies will rise from the grave to new life, being transformed to a new body and joined again with their soul/spirit that was already in the presence of Christ.
The rank then is Jesus rises bodily, the dead in Christ rise bodily, and finally those who still are living at the second coming of Christ also rise, just not from death. Their rising to meet the Lord in the air, will still be in a transformed state, but different because there is not death of the body at that state. It is hard to imagine what that process will be like to be alive on the earth when Jesus comes. Scripture does not describe how a living being will be transformed from a corrupted physical state to a new glorified perfect physical state. It is just simply a mystery that we all could experience if the Lord comes quickly.
Comfort yourself with these words reminds us how to grieve our lost loved ones who were believers in Jesus. We grieve with hope. We grieve with confidence that we will join them in the presence of Christ.
If you cannot be comforted by these words, then it could be that you do not belong to Christ. If the coming of the Lord robs you of your earthly pleasures, then He is not your Lord. If his coming might be inconvenient to the best years of your life, you are clinging to perishable things of this earth.
But if you long to be with Christ, to escape the struggle with sin, to be separated from the pains of disease and calamity. If you desire to spend your life in the presence of the ones who saves sinners, then find comfort that Jesus is alive and He is coming again to unite us together. Keep your eyes fixed on him as the author and perfecter of your faith.
II. Promised Fruit 24-28
II. Promised Fruit 24-28
A. The End will Come (24)
A. The End will Come (24)
B. The Enemies will be Abolished (25-26)
B. The Enemies will be Abolished (25-26)
C. The Existence of all things will be in Subjection to God (27)
C. The Existence of all things will be in Subjection to God (27)
1. The Son hands over the Kingdom (28)
1. The Son hands over the Kingdom (28)
2. The Son’s submits in the Kingdom (28)
2. The Son’s submits in the Kingdom (28)