If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Just this week I read a periodical about Easter. The writer is a Grinch at Christmas. However Easter gets a higher rating:
It’s Easter and I like Easter for a number of reasons that aren’t necessarily religious. For instance, the Easter season doesn’t last six months and there aren’t any Easter carols for the malls to play as I fight the crowds buying Easter presents while wondering who I’ve forgotten. I’m quite happy that, at least so far, the Easter Bunny (unlike Santa) isn’t bigger than Jesus and the Easter tree hasn’t caught on. Not only that, I haven’t seen a figurine with the Easter Bunny kneeling before the empty tomb and no church that I know of has a performance of "The Singing Easter Egg." All things considered, not half bad. [1]
Paul’s letter to the Corinthian believers contains the simplest, clearest rendering of the Gospel (15.3b,4). "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."
Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said that …the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live. [2]
Another preacher put it this way, The resurrection is the fulcrum of faith. The resurrection is the axis, the center, the core, the pivot point of faith for a Christian. If there is no resurrection of Jesus, then Christianity is just another ancient religion with its own particular form of spirituality and morality. The truth of Christianity hinges on the resurrection. [3]
In our text Paul calls the resurrection a "firstfruits" event. What does he mean? Consider these two opposite (but connected) realities, the fallenness of man and the firstfruits of God; the first is our condition – the second, God’s response to our need.
THE FALLENNESS OF MAN
Original Fallenness
The story of Adam and Eve, their fall and punishment is not a children’s bedtime story. It is really too scary! We live in a world that was intended to be perfect in every way. However this world was tainted by the first sin of the first resident, and we have been compounding the problem ever since.
Note that 1Co 15.21 says that sin came into the world via ONE man, and so death (sin’s penalty) passed on all men. That does not mean we pay for Adam’s sin directly. But the truth is that it is difficult to grow up and be perfect in a world that isn’t. It is like dressing in a snow white suit and attempting to stay clean standing on the fifty yard line while the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills are locked in mortal combat in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Won’t happen!
Original fallenness leads to
Ongoing Fallenness
We would agree that the history of the world is one of sin. We would point to our forbears in antiquity, and say "Barbarians" –"Cretans." We would even agree in our day that Iraq and Afghanistan and certainly the “third world” countries are still in the Dark Ages with their human rights abuses; but not us! America is the land of the free, home of the Brave – we’re not that way; we’re enlightened, civilized. We are getting better and better; every day, in every way.
It’s pretty commonplace to be able to look at other people’s sin and shake our heads, cluck our tongues. It’s a safer ground to condemn others than to look at the reality of our own sins. America, Randolph County, has its share of abortion, homosexuality, guns and drugs in school. There is immorality on the streets of our little country towns, and behind closed doors.
Well, we excuse it by saying that nobody’s perfect; everyone has some wrinkles to iron out. Beloved, we have a problem of ongoing fallenness, and increasingly so. And it isn’t a matter of antiquity – it’s here and now in America. It isn’t just far away – it’s Franklinville!
The problem is humanism. Humanism claims that humans are the center of the universe. The “logic” in humanism asserts that if there ever was a God, he really doesn’t get involved with us humans now, so we are on our own! We are each the captain of our ship, master of our fate.
Anna Nicole Smith dominated the news the past few months. In her life we saw the very dramatic and pitiable effects of humanistic philosophy hyped and worked-out once again by Hollywood. Anna Nicole wanted two things in life – to be rich and to be famous; she got both. And in her fallenness she was miserable.
Humans – according to humanistic doctrine – are basically good, and all you have to do is appeal to that goodness, and it will rise to the surface. That is the doctrine employed every time a convicted murderer is let out of prison TO KILL AGAIN. The Bible teaches the doctrine of total depravity, which means that, at the core, man is not basically good, but evil. Left to himself man does not become better and better, but succumbs to his proclivity towards bad.
This is the fallenness of man’s nature; God knew He had to do something about that!
THE FIRSTFRUITS OF GOD
Firstfruits refers to the Jewish practice of offering the first and finest produce of the harvest to God as a confession that all of it belongs to Him.
Our Christian practice of tithing comes from this principle. We bring our tithe, 10% of our income, and place it in the offering plate; the plate contains our offering to God. It is our statement of worship, an affirmation that we do not own ourselves or the material things which God has entrusted to us…or even the next breath of life. It is our statement that God is God, and we are not. It is the picture of the opposite of humanism. A person cannot truly worship until he “lets go” of everything he thinks he owns. Until then he is only playing church.
In our text Christ is called the "firstfruits of them that slept." How does this apply to God?
Essential Firstfruits
Fallen people need a sacrifice, a neutralizer for their fallenness. This is the way God created the universe. Sin is wrong, and the penalty is death (Ro 6.23). But God knew there was no way any human being could pay that penalty sufficiently to satisfy the holiness of God.
You probably remember the commercial that was popular a few years ago: "I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!" That accurately describes the human condition. We are fallen, and we cannot get up without help. So God became a man, and allowed man to nail Him to the cross as our substitute; a holy God, paying a holy penalty that none of us could have paid.
Exclusive Firstfruits
"Christ" means anointed or chosen. What was "choice" or different, exclusive from every other account of the dead being raised, is that when Jesus was raised from the dead, He never died again. Lazarus was raised by Jesus, but he eventually died again.
This “firstfruits” was the first and only time resurrection without future death happened! Only Christ could pay the debt! Only Jesus Christ could be raised never experience death again.
Example Firstfruits
When Paul said that Jesus had become the firstfruits of them that SLEPT, he used an expression that was common at the time, and meant "those who are dead." Death is, after all, the picture of sleep.
More importantly, Christ awoke, arose and ascended...and so will we who believe in Him. He is the pattern, our example of what is going to happen. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that more is coming.
The seventeen year cicada locust lives up to its name. When my children were little the locusts invaded. The little bugs had lived as larvae in the ground for a long seventeen year snooze. When they awoke one Saturday morning, it sounded like all the chain saws in the county had been jump-started at once. They were everywhere, eating everything.
They only stay for a few weeks, mate, lay eggs in the soil, and die. (What a great life, eh?)
My son, Jason was only three at the time. We found him on the backyard patio one afternoon using his natural curiosity. He was spread eagle, stomach down with his mouth wide-open and his tongue sticking out, touching the patio block. An inch or so from his mouth was a cicada locust, crawling towards the strange, beckoning cavern. My wife screamed, Jason and I jumped, and the cicada beat a hasty retreat.
In a few weeks you would never guess they had ever been there, but for two signs; there were holes in all our best trees, and the empty shells of the bugs. Empty bugs.
"EMPTY BUGS" IS THE PROMISE OF EASTER
Those bugs lay for seventeen years awaiting a coming day. They didn’t know it. They didn’t know anything. They were dead in the ground; only the potential for life was locked and encoded somewhere in a genetic combination of DNA they didn’t even know they had.
But! When the moment came – the moment that God chose before the foundation of the earth – that genetic pattern kicked in, and those little bugs did what their Creator intended. That’s the way it is with genetics . . . no guesses, just follow the code. Part of that code means shedding the outer shell and flying away. Empty bugs.
What are you? Are you an empty bug; just a shell? Or have you the genetic code of a child of God? Is there coming a day when you leave this worldly shell behind to fly away to Jesus?
The DNA of a human being includes the need to be connected with our Creator. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the long sleep in the ground of sin was ended; man is free to leave the shell of sin. The cross is waiting for anyone who would be free. Listen to the call from deep within…the Father is calling you to come to him…He won’t turn you away. He is waiting for you to respond to His love, His cross, His offer of eternal life and fellowship. The door is open…walk thru, beloved!
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ENDNOTES
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[1] Steve Brown, Steve’s Letter April 2007
[2] Wolfhart Pannenberg, in a conversation with Ron Sider, Prism Magazine (March/April 1997); submitted by Bill White, Paramount, California.
[3] Edward F. Markquart
