CHRIST—THE FIRSTFRUITS – 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 1, 2019 under 2019 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; December 1, 2019 from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Theme: Because Christ the firstfruits has been raised, we are assured that we will be raised too.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the audio version of this sermon.
The apostle Paul had been dealing with the way that some people within the ancient Corinthian church had been denying the whole idea of a bodily resurrection. It doesn’t seem that they were directly denying that Jesus was raised from the dead. Rather, it seems that they were denying the whole idea of ‘resurrection’ at all. They found it hard to believe that the dead could rise again; and perhaps without having thought it through, were also thus indirectly denying the resurrection of Jesus Himself.
And so, they ended up denying a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith.
The apostle Paul dealt with this problem in 1 Corinthians 15. And he did so in an interesting way. He emphasizing the reality of Jesus’ own resurrection. He set before them the eyewitness evidence that Jesus had been bodily raised from the dead after the crucifixion. He told them about all of the people who actually saw Jesus alive after He had been crucified—including Paul himself. He even said that the resurrection of Jesus is a key element of the gospel that he and the other apostles preached.
They couldn’t deny that Jesus had been raised from the dead. It had been set before them as an established fact. And then, beginning with verse 12, he wrote these remarkably bold words;
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)
It’s a powerful affirmation. It declares that if we deny the resurrection of Jesus, we deny the very gospel itself. And I love how he ends it all in verse 20:
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (v. 20).
What a great truth! What victory it gives us!
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Now; let’s take a moment to consider what Paul meant by that phrase ‘firstfruits’. It’s a phrase that may sound a bit strange to us today. But it represents something that would have been very familiar to the Jewish people.
“Firstfruits” was simply the name given to the very first portion of any harvest. When you would grow produce of any kind, you would reap the very first of the growth, and set it aside as special, and celebrate it. It was considered the best of the harvest; and it represented the fact that harvest time for the year had arrived; and there would be much more yet to come.
And for the Jewish people, the idea of ‘firstfruits’ had a very special meaning. Just as the whole Jewish nation had been consecrated—that is, ‘set apart’—as God’s special possession, and just as God had commanded that the firstborn of every family and of all livestock be set aside as holy unto Him, so also the first produce of the land was consecrated to God in the form of the firstfruits of the harvest.
This was something that God had commanded in the law that He had given to the Jewish people through Moses. In Leviticus 23:9-10, we’re told;
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest’” (Leviticus 23:9-10).
They were not to eat that portion as if it was their own; but instead, they were to set it apart—considering it to belong to God. It was to be given to the priests. As God told the priests, in Numbers 18:12:
“All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the Lord, I have given them to you” (Numbers 18:12).
So; whenever a field was harvested, that sacred first portion—the firstfruits—was to be brought and presented to God in the temple. God even gave the offerer the words that were to be used when making this presentation:
“‘So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you” (Deuteronomy 26:8-11).
That sacred portion—the firstfruits—was presented in recognition of God’s gracious deliverance from the bondage in Egypt, and of the gift of the promised land. It was a consecrated portion of the harvest—given to God with the confidence that He will give more. And here, in our passage this morning, the apostle Paul used the analogy of the ‘firstfruits’ to show us that Jesus—by His resurrection from the dead—is presented to God as the first of the harvest of all those from humanity who have placed their faith in Him and who will be raised from death. Jesus—by His resurrection—is the guarantee of ‘more yet to come’. As Paul will put it later it in verses 22-23, Jesus is the ‘second Adam’—the new Head of the human race—whose resurrection is the first of all those who believe in Him;
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).
Dear brothers and sisters; it would be hard to think of anything more important for us to grasp than what Paul is telling us in this passage—especially living as we do in a skeptical age such as ours. If there is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead, then Jesus would not have risen; and we would not have the hope of resurrection. But because Christ—the firstfruits—has been raised, we can know confidently that we too will be raised in Him.
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Now; the folks living in ancient Corinth were probably a lot like the folks living today. They had embraced a lot of philosophical approaches to life that didn’t take the power of God into consideration. This had probably impacted some of the Corinthian believers; and so, these few began to question the whole idea of a ‘bodily resurrection’. “How could such a thing be possible?” they would ask. “It’s physically impossible—in any natural sense—for a dead body to rise again unto life.” Their doubts had begun to harm the faith of others.
So; after having set down before them the compelling eyewitness evidence of Jesus’ own resurrection—to show that it actually did happen, and that Jesus truly is alive—Paul then begins to show them what the opposite would look like: What would be the case of things if the dead are not raised?
He sets before his readers seven ‘consequences’ that would result if the dead, in fact, do not rise. And he first shows that, if this is the case, then Christ Himself would not be alive. In verses 12-13, He wrote, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.”
Just suppose for a moment what would happen if an archaeological team in Jerusalem were to announce the discover a long-forgotten tomb; and that in it was—indisputably—the remains of Jesus Christ. Let’s suppose—if we can engage in a reverent exercise of supposition—that there was no question about it: It was definitely the body of Jesus Christ, and He had never been raised. Do you know what that would mean? It would mean that the Christian faith is over.
We are about to celebrate our Savior’s birth; and the two great miraculous events that ‘book-end’ the earthly life of our Lord are His conception in the womb of the virgin Mary and His resurrection from the dead after having been crucified. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, then there would be no reason to believe that He was ‘the word become flesh’. There would be nothing distinguishing about Him at all. He would have died as all men die. But Paul had set before his readers the evidence that He is, indeed, alive; and as the apostle once proclaimed in the city of Athens, God
“… has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
Our risen Lord Jesus sits today bodily at the right hand of God the Father—awaiting the Father’s command to return to this earth. But let’s make sure we understand: If there is no resurrection of the dead at all, then not even Jesus would be alive. We would have no hope in Him whatsoever.
What’s more, Paul goes on to say that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then gospel preaching would be a waste of time. At the very beginning of Chapter 15, Paul began by saying that he was going to declare to the Corinthians the basic, fundamental points of the gospel that he and the other apostles had been preaching. But in verse 14, he says, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty …” There would be absolutely no point to preaching the gospel at all if the Savior of the gospel did not rise.
The word ‘gospel’ means ‘the proclamation of good tidings’ about Jesus. And to say that the gospel is “empty” would be to say that it is vacuous. It would be hollow. There would be no ‘good tidings’ to be proclaimed by it. In fact, the word that Paul uses can even be translated “foolish”. If I may say this with all due reverence; if there is no resurrection of the dead, then to go on preaching the gospel would be to preach ‘silly nonsense’.
You know; there are many people try to deny the resurrection of Jesus. They say—like some in the Corinthian church had been doing—that there is no resurrection of the dead. And yet, they still insist upon holding on to the Christian faith as if it meant something. But as Paul goes on to show, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then faith in Jesus would be empty. To place one’s faith in Jesus would be ‘vacuous’—’hollow’—’foolish’. As he says in verse 14, if there is no resurrection of the dead, “your faith is also empty”. Someone may have a sentimental attachment to the Christian faith. They may still go to church and sing hymns. They may still celebrate the holidays. They may cling to the traditions and religious rituals. But in reality—if there is no resurrection—then there would be nothing in it at all. Only a living Savior can give us a living hope. A dead Savior means a dead hope.
What’s more, Paul goes on to say that if there is no resurrection, then the apostles would all be liars. In verse 15, he wrote, “Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.” Do you realize that the apostles—with the exception of only two—all died as martyrs for their testimony that Jesus Christ was alive? Judas, of course, took his own life and never saw the resurrection of Jesus. And the apostle John died at a very old age in exile on the Isle of Patmos—a prisoner for his preaching of the gospel. But the testimony of church history is that all of the other apostles proclaimed that Jesus is alive at the cost of their own lives. Imagine, then, what this would mean if the dead do not rise. It would mean that they would have proclaimed something that wasn’t true, and would have laid down their lives for what they knew to be a lie!
Paul goes on to say that, if the dead do not rise, we would all still be under the condemnation of sin. In verses 16-17, he wrote, “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” The only way that we can know for certain that the Lord Jesus Christ—the sinless Lamb of God—took the guilt of our sin upon Himself, and paid the full price for us on the cross, is by His resurrection. As Paul puts it in Romans 4:25, Jesus was “delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Jesus would have been raised. And if He was not raised, then there would be no way for us to know that His death on the cross accomplished anything for us. In fact, if Jesus didn’t rise, then His death wouldn’t have accomplished anything for us at all.
Paul goes on to say that if there is no resurrection, then those who have died in Jesus would have truly perished. There have been many brave women and men who have laid down their lives for the cause of Jesus. And we ourselves have loved ones who have placed their faith in Jesus and who have gone on before us. We say that they have “fallen asleep”; because for the believer in Jesus, the body may sleep in death for a time; but it will be raised again to life. We look forward to seeing them again and to being reunited with them. But Paul writes in verse 18 that if there is no resurrection, “Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” There would be no hope of ever seeing them again. They would be completely gone forever.
These are all powerful affirmations. If there is no resurrection, then Jesus Himself would be a dead Savior, the gospel would be a dead message, faith in Jesus would be a dead end, the apostles would all be dead liars, we would all still be doomed to eternal death in our sins, and all who have died in Jesus would remain dead forever! And so, it makes sense then that Paul tops it all off with this in verse 19: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” Truly, if there is no resurrection, we would be the most miserable people in the world.
We, as Jesus’ faithful followers, live as sojourners and strangers in this world. We seek to deny sin and follow after righteousness. We often suffer the attacks of the people of this world who are hostile to our Savior, and who hate His message, and who hate us for belonging to Him. We put up with being laughed at and mocked and ridiculed. And why do we do this? If there is no resurrection—what in the end would our suffering accomplish? As Paul went on to write in verses 30-32;
And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (vv. 30-32).
Paul has put it pretty plainly, hasn’t he? The resurrection of the dead is not a doctrine that we—as believers—can ever set aside. If there is no resurrection, then Jesus Himself would not be raised.
And if Jesus is not raised, then there goes the whole Christian faith!
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But once again, that’s why I love verse 20. What a great cause for hope it sets before us! In the original language, Paul’s words are set before us in an emphatic way—with a bang! You can put those first few words in all caps. He said, “BUT NOW … Christ IS risen from the dead …” He said it in such a way as to convey that it is an established fact that changes everything!
Look back again at what he said in verses 3-8;
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then, last of all, He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time (vv. 3-8).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a matter of historical fact—as confirmed as any event in history could be; verified by multiple eyewitness testimony; a testimony that is backed up by the prophetic promise of Scripture; with all of the witnesses having laid down their lives for their unshakable belief that their testimony was the absolute truth.
And how does this affect you and me? Paul said that Jesus is risen from the dead, “and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then He is the first of more to come. You are destined to be raised up in glory just as He Himself was raised. He is the ‘firstfruits’—the first of a great harvest of which you and I are part.
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Let’s close with Jesus’ own testimony on the matter. Just before He went to the cross, He told His disciples;
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
Praise God! Because Jesus—the firstfruits—has been raised, we will be raised also! Let’s live for and serve Him with the absolute assurance of it!
Click HERE for the audio version of this sermon.
EA
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