So let's take this a verse at
a time, verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. In the overall context of this
chapter, Paul is addressing some in the Corinthian church who
had denied the resurrection of the dead. They refused to believe. that dead bodies could rise from
the grave and they questioned how that would happen considering
that they had decomposed and they said what manner of body
would it be if somebody came back from the dead and Paul addresses
that in some detail in this chapter stressing the importance of the
truth of the resurrection. Christ being risen from the dead
is integral to the gospel and the salvation of sinners. As
Paul wrote in the earlier verses of this chapter, if he's not
risen, then we have no message to preach. He said, I've preached
to you in vain. I've got nothing to say if we
don't have a risen savior. And we have no faith. Your faith
is vain. Who are you believing in? If
Christ is not who he said he was, then who are you believing
in? You have no hope. You're yet
in your sins. Who's gonna pay for your sins
if Christ failed and is dead? And also, we're of all men most
miserable. That word there is to be pitied.
We're to be pitied for being so foolish as to think that we had hope if Christ is
not risen from the dead. In verses four through eight in this chapter is where Paul
mentions those who had seen the Lord raised from the dead. They
saw him walking this earth after he had been openly and publicly
crucified. Everybody saw him die. and many, many saw him alive
after that. And so it was no secret that
Christ was risen from the dead. If that many people saw him alive,
he said there were 500 at one time, on one occasion that saw
him alive. If 500 people in Spring Hill,
Tennessee saw something happen, and it was miraculous, how many
people are gonna know about it? Everybody. Everybody knew that
Christ was risen from the dead What everybody didn't know was
the significance of it for Christ's people His sheep which is what
we see in the last part of verse 20 and Become the firstfruits of
them that slept And as you know, the scripture uses the word sleep
or slept, referring to those who have died in Christ, because
it's not really death. When you die, knowing Christ
and being in him, saved by his grace, you don't die. He said, those that live and
believe in me will never die. And we call it death because
this body lays down for a while. We put it in the grave. But what
this whole chapter is about is that body's coming out of the
grave. When you lay down to sleep, you're not afraid of that. Neither
should we fear death, who know the Lord Jesus Christ. When one
of our loved ones takes a nap, we don't panic and become afraid. Concerned
about them And that's literally what's what's happening the Lord Redeemed us body and soul on
the cross And our bodies are just waiting Waiting for him
to come for them. He redeemed them and he's coming
for him. He promised he would and So Christ becoming the firstfruits
of them that slept, those that had died, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ until that time. In calling the Lord the firstfruits
is a reference to one of the Old Testament offerings, the
offering of the firstfruits. And under that Old Covenant law,
the first fruits were considered to be the best of the best of
the harvest. That's what you offered to God.
Just like when you were offering a sheep or a lamb or anything
else to God under the Old Testament covenant, the Old Covenant, it
had to be a spotless one. It had to be the first year.
It had to be in its prime. It had to be perfect to offer
it to the Lord. And that's because the Lord Jesus
Christ is the sinless holy son of God, who is God's eternal
lamb offered for the sins of his people. And those lambs of
old pictured that. Well, the firstfruits were the
best of the best. And you know how that the Lord
Jesus told parables that included us in those stories as God's
harvest, the wheat, Separating the chaff from the
wheat. The wheat is us. The wheat is believers. The wheat
is those who have trusted Christ, believed on Him, and looked to
Him as their sovereign Lord and Savior. Well, the Lord Jesus
bore fruit unto God first. Bearing fruit unto God. He said
this world is His field. It's his garden. There are weeds,
call them tares, thorns and thistles, stuff that was not planted, but
sprung up naturally in his garden. And he said, I didn't plant that.
Of course, he oversaw the planting of it. He's sovereign, it's his
world. But he said, that's not my garden.
When he says God so loved the world, he's talking about his
garden. He's talking about those that he planted, he's talking
about his people, his sheep. And he said, an enemy hath sown
tares among the wheat. So you remember those parables
and how that we are the harvest of God. Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the preeminent one who bore fruit unto God. We ourselves
can't bear any except for his works and his goodness and his
obedience, we'd be barren before God. like the fig tree that he
cursed. He's walking with his, he's traveling
along with his disciples and they come on a fig tree and it
didn't have any figs on it and the Lord cursed it. That's clearly
a picture of how that he expects fruit, a harvest, and he gets
it from those that he planted. But if a fig tree doesn't produce
figs, what is it good for? What's it good for in spiritual?
You might just have it in your backyard as a shade tree, although
fig trees don't get all that big. But in spiritual terms,
a fig tree that doesn't produce figs is worthless. He said, why
does it cover the earth anymore? It's wasting nutrients that a
fruitful tree could use. And as he said, those that abide
not in me are fit for nothing but to be men gathered them together,
branches that are not part of the tree or the vine anymore,
men gathered them together and burned them. And of course, again,
that's a spiritual picture of what the Lord does with the weeds,
the tears, the branches that aren't connected to him, that
aren't part of him and his kingdom. But He's the first fruit, you
see what I mean? Who ever pleased God? Whoever did anything that was
up to God's standard? Christ. Christ. And His works have become our
works by our connection with Him, our unity with Him. His
righteousness is my righteousness. My righteousness doesn't need
to be like His or measure up to His or comparable to His.
It's His. My righteousness in which I stand
before God is Christ's righteousness. So he's the one that bears fruit
unto God. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, all of the good things, everything good. And so he's the first fruits
in that sense. Christ is the reward, not us. He's the vine also, and we're
the branches. So if we're gonna bring forth
fruit, we can't do it without him. It's His life in us. It's the essence, the life of
Christ in us. As Paul said, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the first fruits, secondly,
they weren't only the best, they were the first. That's kind of
obvious, isn't it? But this is important. Some were
risen from the dead in the Old Testament. You know, Elijah raised
that boy from the dead. We studied that not too long
ago. And Lazarus, before Christ rose from the dead, Lazarus did.
So how is Christ the firstfruits? They weren't raised from the
dead in the sense this is speaking of, how we're gonna be raised
one day. They just came back into their
old bodies again. That's not what happened to Christ.
The risen Christ was, you know, He wasn't the same flesh that
he was. He had a body, but when we're
raised from the dead, we're not gonna be the same. We're not
just coming back into these old bodies again. The scripture says,
we shall be changed. And he shall take these vile
bodies and fashion them like into his glorious body. And that
hasn't happened to Lazarus yet. that one of these days it will,
and it'll happen to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ
and whom he loves. Christ is preeminent. First, and it's, this is why God planted
a garden to begin with. Why does he have a world? Because
he has a people. And it's for his everlasting
praise and glory that he has a people. Christ is preeminent
in that, and it is only in Him that we are included in that
harvest. John 15.4, if you want to turn
over there, I'll read a little passage of it here. John 15.4,
we want to talk about what this means, Christ being the firstfruits
of them that slept. To those in the world, this was
a miracle. There's a lot more than that
to his sheep. It's life itself, life from the dead. John 15,
four, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him The same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can
do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide
in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit." That's why he planted a garden to begin
with. for his glory. He saves us for his glory. He has mercy on sinners for his
glory. And so shall you be my disciples.
Christ is preeminent in our fruit bearing here, as we just read,
and as the first fruits himself, he represents the whole harvest
unto God. That was the third aspect of
the of the offering of the firstfruits that I want to just talk about
for a minute. He represents the whole harvest. Those firstfruits,
that represented everything that God gave us. It's acknowledging
that something that came never did. That when we labor, when
we toil, when we till, when we plant, when we water, when we
weed, when we work, That's not us doing something for God. That's
just the way he does something for us. This is his earth, his
ground, his rain, his sun. And we give it back. We say,
Lord, this is yours. Thank you for letting me live
on it for a while. Thank you for giving it to me.
But it was an act of faith to say, Lord, this is your harvest.
I just worked it for you, and the only reason I was included
in that is because of your grace. You didn't need me. God doesn't
need us. We need him, and this is an acknowledgement
of that. Otherwise, your plowing is sin,
as the scripture says. So that offering of the firstfruits
represented the whole harvest. It was an acknowledgement and
a worshiping of God for all that he provides. Also, it was an
act, as I said, of faith and hope. Because if the firstfruits
are given unto God, that's trusting him for the rest. If we give the first fruits to
Him, what if there ain't no second fruits? Doesn't matter, it belongs to
Him. He gives us what He sees fit and we're thankful for it,
whatever it is. Just because we're not farmers
anymore doesn't change that principle. Whatever He gives us, we praise
Him for it and we're thankful for it. And we honor Him with
it. We trust Him for it, everything
we have. We have nothing, are nothing,
and can do nothing without the Lord Jesus Christ. And we acknowledge
that every day. The Savior commended His Spirit
unto God with this prayer, that we be with Him where He
is, that we may behold His glory. and we die as believers in faith
and hope of eternal life, which God promised unto Christ, the
scripture says, before the world began. And so rather than being
of all men most to be pitied, we are of all men most blessed
in this world and to be envied. He prepares a table before us
in the presence of our enemies. Our hope in Christ is steadfast
and sure. Because he rose, we rise. Because he lives, we live. Because he rose from the grave,
we will rise from the grave. When he comes for our bodies,
and we shall be, I love this word, it's one of my favorite
words, changed. Changed. Think about that when
you make yourself sick. Think about that when you despair
because you're such a wretch. Changed. Verse 21, for since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Very simple language,
isn't it? There's nothing to misunderstand
here. By Adam came death. That's what
he said. By man came death. By the first
man, Adam, came death. This verse takes us back to the
reasons, to the causation and the reasons, the origins. The
reason there needs to be a resurrection. Why are we talking about a resurrection?
Because we're all a bunch of dead people otherwise. Because
the wages of sin is death. There's a resurrection because
of death, and the reason there's death is because of sin. Sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. But in that same way,
by Christ came life. Listen to John 1-4. Speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the passage of scripture where
it says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. But in verse
four it says this, in him was life. Life. And the life was the light
of men. And the light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. That's all of us by nature
now, we don't comprehend it. If he shines his light in our
heart to see him, to see his glory in the face of his son,
then we're saved. But none of us see that light.
We're darkness by nature. We can't see that. What came
by Adam was not just physical death. but we were dead in trespasses
and sins until life came by Jesus Christ. He who is life came into
the world, but that doesn't mean that everybody lives now. We're
not talking about physical life. When it says in him was life,
you might say, well, in me is life. No, not like this. He has
life in himself. He said, the father hath given
me authority so that I decide who lives and who dies. As the
father quickeneth, even so the son of man quickeneth whom he
will. He has the authority to decide
who lives and who don't. That's why we come to him. We
ask for mercy. We ask for life from him. What
came by Adam was not physical death only, it's spiritual death,
it's eternal death. And so what came by Christ is
eternal life. But this life isn't given to
the whole world. Turn with me to John chapter
six. We need to understand this. This is important. John 6, 39. John 6, 39. and this is the father's will
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing." Well, what's gonna happen? He said, I'm gonna raise
it up. I'm gonna raise you up. If you
were given to the son by the father in the eternal covenant
of his grace, he said, I'm gonna raise you up from the dead at
the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the son, who are these
ones that the father gave to his son in eternity. Am I one
of those? Well, this is the will of him
that sent me, that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. That's not two kinds of people that he's gonna raise
up at the last day. That's two perspectives on all
those people who he's gonna raise up at the last day. If you're
gonna be involved in this resurrection unto life, It's because the Father gave
you to his Son in eternity, and by his grace, as the Lord Jesus
said, no man can come to me except the Father draw him. Those that
he gave to his Son, he draws them to his Son in time, and
they believe on Christ. Everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will
raise him up in the last day. The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And that's how you get to be
one of those Of whom it says I will raise him up at the last
day So our business is to honor him
as the God Who saved sinners Who saves whom
he will like he said he said I'll have mercy in Romans chapter
9 on whom I will have mercy and the gospel call has come
to me. And I'll give you life. I'll give you rest. I'll give
you salvation. Death came to all whom Adam represented,
which was all of mankind. So then is this scripture saying
that everybody is alive in Christ? That Christ gave life to everybody
that died in Adam? Well, that's contrary to the
scripture, isn't it? We know that not every sinner that ever
lived is gonna be with God when this is all over. So the clear
truth here, clear truth that can only be denied if you're
just determined to deny it, is that all Adam represented
died in Adam. Everybody he represented. which
was all of mankind. Life came to all whom Christ
represented, which is his sheep. He said in his high priestly
prayer in John 17, I pray not for the world. I don't intercede
for the world. I don't represent the world.
He did not represent the world. He said, I represent those that
you've given me. in any other understanding of
this scripture is deliberate blasphemy. To say that life came
to all just as death came to all is outright denial of the
word of God. And to say that death came to
all men by way of being born, conceived even in sin, but life
comes by decision. Life comes by your whim, your That's to blaspheme the Lord
Jesus Christ so badly that it needs to be called out and shamed
at every opportunity. Life comes also by birth. The
scripture's very clear about that. We were born dead in sin
because of Adam. And we're born alive, we're born
again. And we're not born from within.
It doesn't say that in John 3. We're not born from within, we're
born from above. From above. The spirit that does
what he pleases births us from above. We're born of the spirit
of God, not free will, not the flesh. We're born of God's spirit
from above. That's when we have life. We're
birthed unto life, eternal life. One of the things about the first
fruits What were they the firstfruits of? Before God now you came before
God with the firstfruits of your garden Not the weeds Not the field not
the wildflowers It was the firstfruits of your harvest your garden and
the Lord Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of his garden not thorns and thistles. I want
to say this also, that we are risen more than conquerors. We're
not just raised to the life that we had before. Through him that
loved us, we don't just gain back the life that we lost. We are raised and fashioned like
unto his glorious body. Again, that hasn't happened to
Lazarus yet. Lazarus was raised from the dead
and put back in his old body so to teach us the truth that
we're looking at tonight. Turn with me to John 11 20 and
let's learn that in closing. I'll just close with this passage
of scripture. John 11 20. This is what we need to learn
now, and this is what was taught by Lazarus dying, and the Lord
Jesus Christ giving him life again, raising him from the dead,
four days dead, out of the grave. 1120, then Martha, as soon as
she heard that Jesus was coming, Lazarus has already died, and
the Lord Jesus came to his house, and she went, Martha went and
met him, and we know why she went out and met him, which makes
the next phrase, I think, very poignant. Think about this. Martha
comes running out of the house when she sees the Lord, and she's
fixing to scold him a little bit, as shocking as that sounds. She says, if you'd have been
here, this wouldn't have happened. And she had reverence for him
too, I get that, but she was hasty. She did say, I know that
even now, you can raise him from the dead if you want to. But look at the next phrase,
but Mary sat still in the house. Why does it say that? I don't know, but I want to be
like that, don't you? It's not that she didn't know the Lord
was there, but she wasn't gonna go question Him or rebuke Him or whatever Martha
was doing. And there's more to that. Look
at verse 22. But I know that even now whatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. So she didn't really
say it acknowledging Him as God. Interesting. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. I want us to notice the simple,
simple language our Lord uses here. He doesn't give her a long
explanation concerning all the details of how somebody can live
again and what flesh they're gonna be. you're gonna have and
things like that. She just said, he just said,
what your problem is, is your brother's dead. He's gonna live again. Does that
solve the problem? I'd say that pretty much covers
it, don't you? But look what she said, Martha said unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. So I've never noticed this before,
what we just read, how she said, God will give you whatever you're
asking. I never noticed that before.
That's not right, is it? That's not really right. She's
talking to God. She's talking to God. Is that
how you talk to God? God will give you whatever? And then she trusts an event,
the resurrection. She believed in the resurrection.
That's good. Many didn't. Many in the church
at Corinth denied it. She had good doctrine. Oh, but
she needed to learn something, didn't she? Look at the Lord's
next. Is this simple enough? Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yes, shall he live. Does that cover our
text tonight? Simple. That's not complicated. But it's so hard. There's so
much unbelief surrounding this in there. Oh, I believe in the
resurrection. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. That's why we say he fell asleep.
The Lord told these loved ones of Lazarus a couple of times,
didn't he? Saying that our friend Lazarus
sleepeth. And they didn't understand that, so he finally just said
he's dead. Just so we'd understand. But what we need to understand
is the Lord's people don't die. and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? You see
why I emphasize that she believed the wrong thing. Her trust was
in the resurrection. That's why he said, do you believe
this? Believing in the resurrection is one thing, but do you believe
this? I am the resurrection. I am the life. I don't just give
life, I am the life that I give. And she said, yea, Lord, I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. When she went her when she had
so said she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly
saying the master has come And call it for thee Now it's time
to get up As soon as she heard that she
rose quickly wouldn't you The Son of God is here It has mentioned
your name She came unto Him. She came unto
Him. So what we're talking about when
we talk about the resurrection, and one of the things that seems
to come with years in the Lord, years of knowing
Him, years of preaching the gospel maybe, but I suspect just years
of knowing him and hearing the gospel. One of the things that seems
to come with years is some clarity. And I don't mean just because
of years, but because the Lord gives it, that's why it comes.
But he tends to do that over time, and he gives some clarity. It's more clear to me now what
I'm doing. It's more clear to me now what
you're doing. And I could talk about it to
you for the rest of my life, and I may just do that. But if not, I better say it as
clearly as I can right now. You need Christ. Salvation is a person. Life is
a person. You need Christ. You need to
believe on him. You need to bow to him. You need
to fall in love with him now. And the gospel is how that happens.
You've got to hear from God. And in hearing the gospel of
Christ from God, you'll find out who he is now. And God may
just give you an understanding in your heart of who you're dealing
with. He may cause you to fall at his
feet like he did the sinner woman and kiss his feet and weep because
of how much he forgave you. That's why this world turns.
That's why God has an earth. And that gets a little bit clearer.
You need Christ and only Christ. Well, I need to eat. No, you
don't. No. If you never eat another bite
of food as long as you live, which would be about, what, two
weeks or whatever it is, three weeks, maybe, you need Christ. You need Christ. You don't need
food. You don't. You don't need water. As long as you live, if you never
take another drink, which would be what, three days? You need Christ. If I could impress that upon
you somehow, that's what this book says. We could talk about the resurrection
a long time, and I wanna do that because there's so much there.
There's so much to it. But the Lord was very plain with
me. It's me. It's me you need. The problem
is sin and death. I'm the answer to that problem,
not an event. And the Lord don't need to make
a phone call. He's God. He is God. Don't include him in your life.
Don't do that. Do not include the Lord Jesus
Christ in your life. It's something more than that. Hear Him. Believe on Him. Worship Him. Live for Him. Walk with Him. You see the difference
in the Jesus of this religious world and the one that we've
read about in this book tonight, don't you? Don't you see the
difference? One thing is needful. Do you believe on the Son of
God? May God give everyone here faith
to believe on His Son. Let's pray.