First Corinthians 15:20-24 The Foundation and Execution of the Resurrections

Well, good morning. So I get to preach on the cool verses today. Mike had to do all the ones that just, you say, oh, my goodness, how many more of these can you stand? But I'm actually going to do a review here. All right. So I'm only going to cover the first five verses, as Jim points out.

Actually, the second five, actually, verse 24 is kind of a transition, because it says, then comes the end. And then what is described from the second part of 24 is a description of the end. So I'm going to do that next week. This week we're going to talk about the foundation and God's execution.

Some have called it a parade, a divine parade. So, it's pretty cool. And also, some have also pointed out the fact that some in the body of Christ view the resurrection as just one big event. Boom! We all go to be with God and we're all good. Well, but the Lord in his scriptures here show a different pattern. It's like a parade. So we'll see that as we go through here. Well, let's pray and then we'll start.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for our time today, for the blessings we have in our Savior, Lord. We thank you just for the clearness of your word and the wonderful truth about us going to be with our Savior, to be made alive, to And we thank you for that promise and that surety that we have in our savior. We ask it in his name, amen. Okay, so I like, why can't I use, and others use my colleague's outline.

So last week, as I think Jim pointed out, we're down to the fourth section, if you will. The gospel was presented in one through five. Then we have the proof of the gospel, so all the people that saw Christ alive. And then last week we had the objectors, and these were Corinthians who, Corinthians had lots of objections, right? They objected about a bunch of things. And so they got to the resurrection and they said, well, I don't know, maybe this, maybe that, maybe, is resurrection possible? Anyway, they had all different opinions.

So that was 12 through 19, which I'll review briefly. But then we come in to this section here, come in blue, which talks about the foundation of the resurrection program, the statement of it, the explanation of it. And then it talks about the execution. And it's executed like a parade is kind of the bottom line. And then as we go on, the order. And then next week we're going to talk about kind of all the things that happen after the end. And what does the end mean?

We'll see that shortly. Okay. So let's get into ‐‐ so I'm going to try to do what all Mike did in one chart. And fortunately, I had some help. If you look down at the bottom left‐hand corner, this is from September 15th, 2002. So this had a little time to sit in my computer for all that time period. Actually, I looked at it occasionally. But this is a cool thing.

And being an engineer, Courtney will love this. It's a block diagram. Engineers love block diagrams. You can describe anything with a block diagram, right? Except, don't ask your wife to look at the block diagram, because she will not like it. She will say, I don't understand that. Just tell me what it says. Okay. Mike told him what it said. So I'm going to make the mistake of using a block diagram. So here we go. Okay.

First of all, verses 13 and 14. Assume no resurrection. Well, if you're an engineer, you say, oh, no resurrection. Then Christ has not been raised. This is pure logic, guys. Don't care what the scriptures say. Christ has not been raised. Then there are two outcomes. Are preaching is futile? Why am I up here talking about Christ being raised if there's no resurrection? And your faith is futile. Well, that's a big downer. That's why Mike, it was a tough, it was a tough message. What a downing message, okay? Then 17 through 19, more block diagrams.

Assumption number two, assuming Christ has not been raised. Okay, your faith is futile. You're still on your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep or died in Christ have perished, and assuming we have hoping only in Christ, we're most miserable of all men.

So it's a big downer. So this is what Mike got to do in his message. And he did a great job. A little bit different logic, but hey, so this is the block diagram that some people like and some people don't like. Anyway, so these assumptions about no resurrection, well, the scriptures teach, as we go to the next phrase, Christ did rise. So here are the verses we're going to talk about today.

But now Christ has been risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, after those who are Christ's at His coming, then comes the end when He hands over the kingdom of God and Father, when He has abolished all rule, all authority, and power. Alrighty, so let's get into it here. Okay, so we start off with a but, but now, and it's actually, but the fact is, went through all those negative objections, but the fact is, Christ, the subject, has been raised.

And it's to rise, to risen, and it's in the perfect tense. We've had some time this morning in Bob's class talking about, in Thessalonians, talking about the perfect tense. Past completed action with abiding result. So let's kind of trace it through.

Christ has been risen. So we saw this phraseology before, and it's interesting. I'm only gonna quote two verses, but in most of chapter 15, either in the objector's dialogue, they all use this phrase, has been risen, and it's all in the perfect tense. But for whatever strange reason, some of the translations don't come across that way, especially verse 4 in the gospel. It should read, he has been raised, he was raised, he has been raised, perfect tense, past completed action with abiding results, on the third day according to the scriptures. And 12 has. And here it's correct.

Christ has preached that he has been raised from the dead and it's he's been raised from the dead, and the word eke is used, so you could render it out from among the dead. Christ was raised, so he was truly dead, and that's the wonderful message of the gospel. He was truly dead, but he was raised out from among the dead. So here's a little paragraph, because to take in, and Bob did a great job of this, because he kind of set up just what I'm gonna say.

This is a permanent fact about Christ's resurrection. So here we go. Here's how you could bring across the perfect tense. Christ has been raised in the past, and continues in the risen state up into the present and on into the future. This is Christ's permanent state, risen.

I was just gonna share something. I was talking with Alan the other day. It was last week, actually. We're talking about music. We're talking about how important it is that music be scripturally based. And he was saying, Roger, I did, look at this. And I said, yeah, great, right on, brother. And that says scripturally based. Well, there's a song He lives that's got this right.

He has been risen. I'll just read the first part of it. I serve a risen Savior. He's in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever men may say. And it goes on. But it says we serve a risen Savior. He's risen. He's alive. And that's the force of the perfect tense. It's past completed action with abiding results and it's a permanent state. Christ is permanently risen. And that's a promise for us as well. So pretty cool stuff here. So we aren't finished with this first phrase. So there's just a bunch of other verses that really talk about Christ being raised.

And we see that the Father is intimately involved in His resurrection. In Acts it says, but God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in His power. And then in 1 Peter it says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope. What's our living hope based on? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Then in Ephesians it says, and kind of in the middle of a thought, he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly places.

Okay, so we just kind of keep going here in this phrase. So here, this is kind of cool. And I had seen this before, I think Hal may have done it, but Macaulay kind of brought this out. So you can take all those negative statements and flip them around with the truth of verse 20, but now Christ has been risen. You can flip all those negative statements around and you get wonderful positive statements.

The apostles' preaching is not void. Our faith is not futile. We are not in our sins. Those who sleep have not perished. Our hope is not limited to this life. And lastly, Christians are not the most pitiable of all men. So you take all those negatives and turn them into positives. And you're not doing it, you know, you're doing it based upon what God has said in his word in verse 20.

Okay, so let's look at the second part. But now Christ has been risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. So this firstfruits idea shows up in Leviticus. And I kind of borrow some things from Macaulay here and Macaulay and also Constable. This is Constable. The firstfruits they offered following the Passover were only the first of the crop they offered.

You know, it's like if you have a crop of whatever, if you have your home garden, right, and you get your first tomato, Wow look at this tomato isn't it wonderful. It's beautiful. Well. You're hoping that isn't your last tomato if it is Well, I hope Courtney hasn't you know lots of tomatoes or whatever we have when we get there They have more the first fruits of first me. Wow. That's really cool. Well.

That's the idea Christ was our he is a he is the beginning of a line of People they're going to rise again are going to be alive again, and that's what the wonderful promise is of His resurrection and ours, so he's the first fruits And Paul saw this comparison and this fact, the believers would rise based on just as Christ had arisen. They used the first fruit as a metaphor of resurrected believers. That was absolutely inevitable. and that God guaranteed it.

So that's some comments from Constable. Then I like, this is pretty cool. Here's a thing, I'd seen this in Macaulay in the past and I really liked it. So he has it kind of listed four things that come, that flow out of the first fruits idea. The first fruits represent the whole crop.

So Christ represents the entire body, his entire body, the church. He represents Him entirely. Secondly, the firstfruits consecrate the whole crop. Christ consecrated His entire body. There are verses that talk about that. Thirdly, the firstfruits anticipate the whole crop.

And that's what's cool. We get excited. Well, if the Lord rose, that means we'll be raised too. Fantastic. And then lastly, His resurrection, the first fruits, guaranteed the whole crop. We're guaranteed if Christ was risen, we'll be risen too. And that's what our hope and faith is all about.

But then there's this little term about asleep, and I like, this is really cool, thinking about our brothers and sisters. It's literally the ones who have fallen asleep, and it's the idea of spoken of sleep, the sleep of death, if you will. But people die. We celebrated a funeral here recently for Norm. But he's asleep in a sense. He's asleep with our Savior. And he's waiting for the catching up of believers, the dead and the alive. And we see that term used, actually I think I counted 30 or more places in scripture In 1 Corinthians 15 and 6 it talks about people who saw the risen Christ had fallen asleep. So fallen asleep is just a wonderful term and a very comforting term. Okay, so now.

Verse 2, for since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. So we're going to see this phraseology and we're going to look at quite a few verses that talk about this. And God in his wisdom has brought forth this idea of talking about a man and it's going to be representative man. that man represents a class of people, so we're gonna see that through here. For since by, dia, by a man came death.

So what man is referring to? Well, if you're a good student of the Bible, you say, well, hmm, where did I see about that? Well, it looks like that's, we're back to Genesis, right? Okay, but actually we're gonna see that it really refers more to a class of men, dia, by means of, Man was a cause or the source of this death. There's no definite article, so it speaks to the character.

So you could say mankind, mankind was the source of death. And we look back to Adam as a representative. Mankind as seen in Adam was a cause of Christ's death. That's how I say it, right? Was a cause of death, his death, separation from God, excuse me. Then it says part two, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. So again, who are we talking about here? Well, it looks like we're talking about Christ, right? By means of a man came the resurrection of the dead.

And this is one reason that Christ became a man, since God's solution, think about this, God's solution to the sin problem, that man would die and be separated from him, was to have another man, his son, the God-man, die on our behalf. But mankind, man as mankind, was in view. So these two men are discussed more in this passage in Romans chapter 5 verse 12 and on.

So we're going to look at that a little bit. So some have labeled this the federal headship. And I was thinking about federal headship, the doctrine of the two men or the federal headship of mankind. Federal headship sounds kind of maybe a little bit too technical.

And I was thinking about, what do we see? Like back when I grew up, polio was a real problem. And our president had polio. Anyway. What do we have? There were posters they put out, right? And you'd have what they would call poster children. So you look at this child, and he would, unfortunately, have polio. But he would represent, right, all the children that might get polio, and adults too.

So we're looking at two men, Adam and Christ, that represent their entire line, the line of Adam and the line of Christ. So that's what's going to be talked about as we go through here. Okay, so we start in verse 12. So death spread to all men because all sinned.

So I decided, I kind of was trying to decide, there's summaries of this in words, you know. Miles has one, other people have one. I thought, well, you know, let's just go with the scriptures. I mean, I, you know, and that's kind of the, do you try to explain the scripture sometime or you just read them? In this case, just reading them is great, okay? So through one man, sin entered into the world.

Okay, then I'm going to skip some parts down to verse 15. But the free gift is not like the transgression. Transgression was described in 12. For if by the transgression of one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. So here we have the contrast right off the bat.

One man, sin entered the world, God's grace came along through one man, his son, and it abounded to many. Okay? Keep going with the, through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted of justification a life to all men. Isn't it marvelous how every step of the way, every step of Adam's transgression, God comes in with His action, what He's doing. And it's all wrapped up in His Son.

Verse 19, for as through one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, even so through one through the obedience of one, the many were made righteous. And then 521 sums it up, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay, you're gonna say, well Roger, why'd you spend all that time going through these men, one man, two men, okay. Well the reason I did that is because we're gonna talk some more about men, right, and that's what the next verse is. for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. It's going to be rendered for even as in Adam So the idea here is those in union with Adam, and every person on this planet starts off in union with Adam.

They don't get a choice. You don't get to say, well, I don't, can I choose somebody else? Can I choose somebody else, please? No, you don't get to choose. You get Adam. That's who you get. Adam represents the entire human race. All die. And what do we say here at Holly Hills? Death means? All right, all right. Separation.

Adam died both spiritually and physically. He died immediately when he sinned. When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually immediately and then physically. You know, Adam lived, what, 930 years? That's a long time. It's funny, I had forgotten the exact number, so I Googled it. It was hysterical. They said, somebody said this man lived 930 years. Is that possible? You haven't read your Bible. Anyway, so back to verse 12 again.

Therefore, just as through one man, so this is described again, through death entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men. The separation, so man starts out, it's funny, people think, well I started out as a child, I'm just, I'm a sweet little thing, I'm doing just great. But unfortunately, you're separated from God. You're in opposition to God. You start out that way. That's an awful way to start out, right? But they still are awful cute. I love my grandchildren. I hug them and kiss them, and it's wonderful. But I can see those little natures running around in them. They're cute sometimes. All right.

So all of mankind dies because of their relationship or their position in Atom. And then Miles shares virtually the same thing. Adam, as head of the human race, took all of humanity into the position of death. How'd you like to be responsible? How'd you like to be Adam? Everybody goes with you, right? Oh boy. It's bad enough when you do something in front of your grandkids and they see it and you go, I shouldn't have done that. And I've done it. But Bonnie's helped me out. She gets me back on the right track. Okay.

So also in Christ, all are made alive. So here's a wonderful part. All died in Adam, so also in Christ, all will be made alive. So in Christ, so the idea here is in our living union with Christ, all believers who have put their faith in the person and work of Christ. That's what the all is here. Because you look at that, first of all, you say, well, all, does that mean all mankind? Well, no, you have to be somewhat restrictive. The all is all believers, I believe, here.

Will be made alive. It's cause to live or to quicken. Two words Zoe and Poel to make. And this is future. So this is interesting. You think, well, wait a minute, Roger. You say, I'm already alive in Christ, but now you say, I'm gonna in the future be alive. Well, the thing is, you're gonna have to die physically. So that's what this is all about, right? You say, why can't I just go? And some will, right? And if the Lord comes today, well, we won't have to die. We'll just go to be with him. So anyway, so it's future. It's future for what we made alive.

By Christ, who also is the restorer of resurrection life, And 521b says, the son also gives life to whom he wishes. And then Constable adds here, which I thought was good, you know, this is a physical resurrection. We're not talking about some spiritual thing. Therefore, our resurrection will be a human resurrection, not some spiritual type of resurrection. Physical resurrection is inevitable for the son, or sons, plural, of Jesus Christ, as physical death was for the sons of Adam. So we can look forward to a physical resurrection.

And that's gonna happen, you know, the whole, we're all gonna go together. the dead and the alive at the same time. Okay, but now we come to the parade. Now we come to the verse that starts off this description of the parade of the resurrection, if you will.

But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits. But each, I believe that's everyone in Christ in his own order. And the order is this idea That which has been arranged in order, it's a military term like if you've seen parades, you'll see a wave of soldiers march by and another wave march by and another wave march by. That's kind of the idea. But each in its order. It shows that there's a marching order for the resurrection of the dead.

And Christ, he's the first fruits, he's the first event. Paul's idea was that Christ was the first rank and experienced resurrection. And then Kostel says, Christ is, this is kind of interesting, have you heard the idea of that, where you'll take the same letter, we'll start each of your points, I guess in theology school they used to train their students, J. Verne McGee talks about this. You start off with the B's and the A's, McCauley apparently liked this too, so he starts off, Christ is a commencement, after that is a continuation, and then is a culmination. I'm not a super big fan of that, but it's still good. It still kind of gets the point across. The culmination restores the perfect order to the universe.

After those who are Christ at his coming. So it's literally afterwards, those who are the ones of Christ at his, and we looked at this in Sunday school, at his coming. And it's the word parousia. And parousia in its core meaning has kind of two aspects. It's an arrival and presence with. So Christ arrives, he arrives and he's present with. We'll see.

This is the coming of Christ for his saints, the rapture. So I just went to 1 Thessalonians, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. So that's group one, the dead in Christ. That's Norm and all our other brothers and sisters. then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So that's this parousia, arrival and presence with. He arrives and he's present with these bodies of believers. And the last part, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Okay, now, so the third phase, The word then, boy, I was amazed. The word then and comes has been supplied, but the word them and the end, both are really, I mean, I struggled a while. Then, there's different kinds of then. You wouldn't think there were, I didn't. So this is a then after an interval of order and succession.

After interval, then, after order, I can't even say it. after an interval of order and succession, the end, teleos, the end of a series of events, the goal. The picture that's kind of pointed out, you know, if you're in any kind of sport, the goal, right? If it's football, you're going to the end zone, you know, what's the goal? And you march along and you get to the end zone, you get to your goal. That's kind of what's in view.

So then the end, And Schaeffer, most people agree, this is the last resurrection. And the last resurrection is not a resurrection of believers, this is a resurrection of the dead. This has always been a scary thought to me. In scripture, unbelievers are many times called the dead. In fact, Christ said, let the dead bury the dead. Pretty solemn words.

Here's a picture in Revelation of the dead, those outside of Christ. and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in it, in them, and they were judged each one of them according to their deeds." We don't want to be judged according to our deeds, right? We want to be according to Christ's deeds, because our deeds are, you know, thank you, Lord, for your deeds. Okay.

So the gospel kind of tries to sum it up here. The end refers to the end of the present heavens and earth. in view of what Paul said about them. This will come more than a thousand years after the rapture. So that's actually the end of the millennial kingdom. Okay.

So here, I went back, as long as I was back in major Bible themes from 2002, this is actually 2003. And Hal was so kind, he put my name on a lot of these, and I didn't contribute hardly anything to this thing. I think I printed it up a bit. I made a font bigger or this or that, so I didn't, you know, thank you, Hal. Anyway, here's a cool picture. So let's kind of trace through this.

We start off on the left-hand side with the resurrection of Christ. He's the first fruits. Then we move on in time, and we get to the end of the church age. and the rapture occurs, and there are two groups of people. The dead in Christ rise first. My only thing, I wish you'd flip those around, because if you want to, in time, you know, infinitesimal time, the dead in Christ were first. Then those who are alive come after them.

I guess he did it by the height of the arrows. I'm nitpicking his diagram here. Sorry, Al. Then here's some resurrections that actually Paul doesn't address here in Corinthians. There's a resurrection. of the two witnesses. There's the resurrection of the Tribulation Saints and the Old Testament Saints. He kind of just goes, he talks about in his parade, we have the first fruits, we have the church, then he goes right to the last resurrection, the end. The last resurrection, the Great White Throne Judgment. So he goes all the way to the end of the Millennial Kingdom. So that's kind of what's in view here. Hopefully this picture was helpful. Okay. Then we have, then the end comes, and then this kind of describes what's going to happen when we reach the goal, the end.

And I'm just going to read the verses here. And literally, when is whenever. I'm going to come back and review that for next week. Whenever He Christ hands or gives over the kingdom to God the Father, and when or whenever He Christ has abolished or reduced inactivity. all rule, all authority, and power.

So that's what, that starts off this description, and Jim read it. It's a beautiful description of what, finally he's an abolished death, which is marvelous. So that's why I kind of stopped here for today. He's going to, this starts, in the middle of this verse, this starts this description of what happens at the end. Okay, then I have one last comment from Constable.

The Apostle Paul did not go on to give a complete explanation of the various resurrections here. There will be other ranks of people who will rise at other times, the Tribulation Saints, the Old Testament believers, the unsaved, etc. His point here was that the resurrection of Christians is just as certain to take place as a fact of Christ's resurrection, which already took place.

All right, so let's pray. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for our marvelous promise and absolute certainty that we have that we're going to be, we will rise with you either If we've gone asleep like our brother Norm and others, or we're still alive, we'll go to be with you when we hear the shout, and we thank you for that. We ask it in your name, amen.