Easter:
the Firstfuits of the Resurrection
Do you realize
the far-reaching continuing importance of Easter and why we celebrate
it so joyfully every year? Think of the tremendous sudden change
brought about by this most important historical event!
Remember the
crucifixion: Jesus is dead! And then buried at the command of
the greatest political power in the world at the time. He suffered
great shame and agony. His closest followers are nowhere to be seen;
they’re in hiding. Only a few are there at the cross with the
women. They huddle together in mourning, frustration, wonderment,
confusion, and despair. They had staked their entire lives on the
truth that Jesus was the Messiah. What could life hold for them now?
Suddenly
life is transformed because Jesus rose from the dead!
He is no longer captive or under the power of Rome. He is alive and
well–and in His glorified body that can come and go from this world
at will. He appears to his followers and eats with them and shows
them his scars. The same man who died is now alive! He has
fulfilled the scriptures and did
just exactly what God had said he would do long ago.
Then we
see the complete
transformation
of the apostles–part
of this whole miracle. Particularly in the early chapters of the
book of Acts where these scared and demoralized followers, hiding in
a locked upper room in Jerusalem suddenly became
witnesses of the Resurrection and turned
the world upside down as Jesus'
servants in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The
death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the tomb on the
3rd
Day is the
most important event in all human history. Nothing
else comes close to its
overwhelming importance.
We have
empirical evidence, eyewitness evidence
proving that Jesus Christ did in fact rise from the dead and has
power over sin, death, and the grave. He did this visibly,
physically, in time and space and history. This is historical
reality–just as tangible and visible as your presence this morning
is historical reality.
Colossians 1:18
tells us that Jesus is “the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead;” the first person to be
resurrected from the dead.
Elsewhere scripture tells us that Jesus is the “firstfruits”
of the Resurrection. 1
Cor. 15:20-26 “But
now is Christ
risen from the dead,
and become the firstfruits
of
them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. [For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ
the firstfruits;
afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then comes
the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and
power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his
feet. The
last enemy that shall be destroyed
is
death.”
Christ is the
firstfruits and all of us who believe in Him will be the full
harvest. Do you realize that Jesus is in fact the ONLY one
who has ever actually been resurrected from the dead?
A number of others have been brought back to life–as when Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead. But Lazarus died a second time. And
so did the several other people raised in scripture.
But Jesus is
the
firstfruits,
the only one with a glorified
body
after the resurrection–and this is proof to us that we, too, will
receive our glorified body in the Resurrection. “It will be like
unto His glorious body” and we will have some of the same abilities
that Jesus demonstrated during the 40 days after His resurrection. “.
. . we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His
glorious body,
according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all
things to Himself.” Phil. 3.20-21
Just as the
firstfruits
tell what kind of fruit or grain the rest of the harvest will be,
so Christ’s resurrection body indicates what our
glorified bodies will be like.
1 Cor. 15:42-44 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It
is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory:
it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual
body.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
Jesus
promised His followers at least twice in scripture,
“I am the resurrection
and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he
live,
and everyone
who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
John 11:25-26 ESV
What
an amazing promise! My wife's body died three years ago—but she
didn't! She is still alive and with the Lord at
this very moment. “Absent
from the body, present with the Lord,” 2 Cor. 5:8 AND when Christ
returns, her body which is buried in Tahoma National Cemetery near
Kent, Washington, will be transformed and raised as her glorified
body in which she will live throughout all eternity.
Jesus'
resurrection from the dead in His glorified body is observable
evidence, the firstfruits of what our resurrected bodies will be
like. On
the cross and in His resurrection, Jesus won the victory over death,
hell, and the grave. We should marvel at this constantly and be ever
deeply grateful to our Lord.
Jesus
has already won the victory, but our bodies in this fallen world are
still under the curse and still subject to death. But now we have
“the Blessed Hope,” the evidence in front of our eyes, the
absolute certainty that death itself will be destroyed. “The last
enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1
Cor. 15:26 The
death and resurrection of Christ brought about the death
of death! As
John Owen wrote so many years ago in “The Death of Death in the
Death of Christ.” And John Donne's poem tells us triumphantly,
“Death,
thou shalt die!”
Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
“Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
1 Cor. 15:58
