Alongside Christ Firstfruits – PartI
that I wrote, I am happy to introduce an amazing article from the source below.
It will deepen your understanding of Christ’s resurrection and ours to be
manifested yet when He returns.
1st Thessalonians 4:14 reads;
“For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him
those who sleep in Jesus.”
What about this verse? Scripture clearly reveals that none are in
heaven. This is a lesson in itself, so I am going to take the time to go into
it because Paul said that if Christ is not raised then our faith is in vain and
we are yet in sin. To all those who are following in the chronological study of
Paul’s letters, we will come back to this when we get to the letters too
Corinth, but I need to nail this down before I can move on. I stumbled upon
this verse in 1st Thessalonians and I needed to clarify this in my mind.
In Acts 26:23, we read;
“That
Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the
dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.”
1st Corinthians 15:13-14 says;
“But
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”
1st Corinthians 15:20-23 says;
“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.”
Now I am going to throw out here that it is ’
possible’ that Paul may have taught this passage at some point in his life
during the Feast of First Fruits even though it is found in the letter to the ecclesia
gathered in Corinth. Just a personal thought.
It is clear to me that Paul is teaching that Jesus
Christ became the first of the great harvest of first fruits, ergo my
understanding of why one is called the first resurrection, of the folks who will
be raised when Christ returns as opposed the second resurrection of those who
are not raised up in the first resurrection. Not to mention, Paul states that
Jesus became the firstfruits, plural. It is clear that there is much more fruit
to come.
There are two
other scriptures that I know of that align up with Paul’s teaching that I will
bring into this collection.
James (Jacob) 1:18 says;
“Of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures.”
Revelation 1:5 -6 testifies;
“And
from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
John the Beloved it says here, that Jesus is not
only the first fruit that God has begotten from the dead but goes on to clarify
that He is also the first prince of the kings.
I think the Holy Spirit wanted to clarify this because it is mentioned
elsewhere that King David was still among those who had not yet risen.
Acts 2:34-35 records;
“For
David is not ascended into the heavens: but he south himself, The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool.” (This
clearly has not occurred yet)
Verse 36 following this; (look for yourself) Luke
lets us know that Christ had already been crucified when he wrote this. This
helps clear up the scenario that most folks ‘think or believe’ that when Christ
arose, the saints from the Old Testament
arose with Jesus when He was carried up in the clouds, but this can not be so. I do not believe that any went with Jesus at
His ascension; otherwise, Paul would be a liar. Paul makes it clear later on in
this study through scripture; that Jesus was the first fruits of them that will
follow when Christ returns.
Luke 24:51describes;
“And
it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up
into heaven.”
Luke does not make any such claim that Jesus was
seen with anyone when He ascended, just that Jesus was carried up, which means,
lifted or offered up. Neither Matthew nor Mark makes any such claims in their
testimonies. John does not even testify anything regarding the ascension of
Jesus at all.
It sure does make one curious why the Ascension of
Our Lord is not of more importance in the Gospels yet Peter testifies on the
day of Pentecost that all are witnesses that Jesus was raised up by God. My
best answer is probably found within the word gospel itself. These men were called to preach the gospel of
repentance and remission (forgiveness) of sin and they were commanded by Jesus
to start at Jerusalem. Paul was called to teach the Gentiles.
In Peter’s great speech, he also says, He (Jesus)
was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Some folks believe that the cloud mentioned
in Peter’s discourse meant a cloud of people but the word cloud in Greek there
is nephele, pronounced nef-el’-ay from the primary word of nephos, pronounced
nef’-os which simply means a cloud in the sky.
In the Tanakh, a cloud often expresses God’s glory.
Daniel prophesied that he saw in a night vision (a dream) the second coming of
Jesus, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days, and they
brought Him near before Him.
Peter says that the angels that were there that day
testified that when Jesus returns, the same way He left, He will return.
Jesus Himself said that all the tribes of the earth
will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
To help us better understand Paul’s mention of Jesus
being the first fruit, we have to understand why Paul said this.
The day following the Feast of Unleavened Bread is
called Reshit Katzir which means, ‘the beginning of the harvest‘, often
referred to as The Feast of First Fruits.
Firstfruits is an annual feast that is celebrated on the day after the
weekly Sabbath which occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Because Paul
was a man of God, he would have always followed the Feast of the Lord and would
have known and understood their meanings. This is why Paul refers to Christ as
the first fruits mentioned in verse 23.
1st Corinthians 15:23 reads;
“But
every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are
Christ’s at his coming.”
So what Paul is saying is that Jesus was the first
fruit of the harvest and the rest will follow afterward when Christ returns at
His coming, they that are His.
Deuteronomy 26:9-10 records;
“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.”
Once Jesus has gathered us up, He will then present
us to the Lord God Almighty.
So, now that I have all that cleared up, what about
1 Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”
Because Paul has made this declaration, we have to
find the truth that lines up with Paul’s teaching that no other fruit other
than the First Fruit, Jesus has been joined with God. The dead in Christ are
those who have died to sin, are hidden in Christ, and will continue in faith
that they are in grafted into Christ, until they have spent their last breath.
Jesus will call our bodies out of our graves, and
join all the souls to Him and we will be together with Him forever more.
Through Paul’s teaching we understand that this will happen when Jesus returns.
We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet Him ahead
of those who are in their graves. First
all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still
alive and remain on the earth will meet with the Lord in the air and will
always be with the Lord. This is our
comfort.
God raised up Jesus.
Paul is teaching in Thessalonians that even as God raised up Jesus, He
will also bring those who are with Jesus, those who have gone to sleep (died)
with Jesus in their hearts. God will most certainly bring back to life those
who died in Jesus. The body and soul
will be re-united after resurrection.
When Jesus returns and the dead in Christ rise up
and meet Him, those who follow, (who yet remain alive) we will all be gathered
with Jesus and God will bring us all up together, those who are with
Jesus. Therefore Jesus is keeping His
promise, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. In addition, in another
place it is written, “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you
in Me, and I in you.”
Ecclesiastes 12:7 reads;
“Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it.”
I actually like this written through The Message:
Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over.
Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends.
The body is put back in the same ground it came
from.
The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.
This verse does not say that when the body dies that
this is immediately what happens, but we can look at the death of Jesus and
gain insight. Just before Jesus died He said, “Into your hands I entrust My
Spirit”.
Therefore, His Spirit left Him. He was buried, and
God raised Him up and gave Him that new body that was even able to eat fish
with His disciples. He maintained that new body and when He ascended, His new
body met up again with His Spirit. For what came out of the grave was His soul. From what I understand, Jesus was not yet a
complete process when He told Mary Magdalene, not to touch Him. He had not yet
gone up to Heaven to complete the process of combining His spirit, soul and
body together. Remember, the Spirit goes to God. The Spirit, will return to God
in Heaven and the soul remains asleep until resurrected to its final judgment.
Without the Spirit of God breathing through our
bodies, we are just a body with a soul.
Genesis 2:7 says;
“And
the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Once the body is dead, the soul that once had the
breath of life with-in the body no longer lives without the breath of God. The body which houses the soul is laid to
rest in the ground from which it first comes from. There with-in the grave, the
body that has once had the breath of life will await to be joined again to
Jesus at His second coming, He who is ‘in’ the Father. We are in Jesus and He is in us. We will all
be joined together with God the Father.
Because Jesus lives after He has been resurrected,
one day soon we will also live.
2nd Corinthians 5:1-6 says;
“For
we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from
heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who
are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed,
but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has
prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a
guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the
body we are absent from the Lord.”
I have heard people quote this last part of the
verse claiming that Paul said, that when we are absent from the body we are
present with the Lord. So un-true. Paul said knowing that while we are ‘at home’
in the body we are absent from the Lord. Pretty obvious here that we know that
when we are not with Him we are still in our bodies, absent from Yahushua. Paul says in verse 8: We are confident, I
say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord. Paul says that we are ‘willing rather’ to be with Him than where we are’. Of course we would rather be with Him. That
is a no brainer.
Basically what is going to happen is that our bodies
that are like a temporary tent, just like the Tabernacle in the wilderness was
a temporary dwelling for the Lord, these bodies of ours are taken down like
tents and folded away. We will have resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not
handmade. God will replace them and we
will never have to relocate our “tents” again.
The description that Peter gives of the account of
the angel’s that were seen at the ascension, give us a glimpse of the real
thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies!
Before Jesus even ascended, we know that in that
body, He walked on the road to the village Emmaus. He ate fish.
He was touched by doubting Thomas and the disciples visually saw him.
The Holy Spirit has revealed to us through the
scriptures, giving us a taste of what is ahead of us and what our bodies will
be like. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we will never settle
for less.
This body, this piece of dust and dirt of the earth,
is not our home. When the time comes,
we will be very ready to exchange these temporary dwellings that are in exile
away from God, for our new heavenly bodies that will remain with Him forever.
However, while we are here in this body, we are
absent from the Lord. As Paul once said,
we would rather be with the Lord. Nevertheless, like Paul, even though we would
rather be with the Lord, we all have work to do until we take our last breath.
These bodies make us groan as Paul points out. They become old and decrepit, we lose our
sight, our hair turns gray and we lose our hearing. Nevertheless, praise God,
one day all that pain will become refreshed once again into a new living and
breathing resurrected body that will live on in eternity. We will still have
personalities and recognizable characteristics.
Our bodies will be without sickness and diseases or pain. The Holy
Spirit with-in us is our guarantee that God will give us an everlasting body at
the resurrection.
2nd Corinthians 1:21-22 reads;
“Now
He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also
has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
We have eternity within us now and the same Holy
Spirit that raised up Jesus will also raise us up to the everlasting glory of
God.
Romans 8:11reads;
“But
if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you.”
We who live and die in Him have this blessed Hope…
NOTE:
I have really been perplexed when it comes to John’s
vision in chapter four of Revelation, but now I understand that is a vision yet
to be manifested. I personally believe
that the twenty-four elders are more than likely representatives of the 24
divisions of Cohanim mentioned in First Chronicles 24, whole chapter.
Now that I know for sure, that King David has not
yet entered into the Kingdom of God it has been easier for me to make these
conclusions regarding the twenty-four elders.
God would not forget the man that was after His own
heart if He had risen up those folks from their graves when they were opened up
at the time of the death of our Savior.
Retrieved
from http://eudoranachand.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/firstfruits-and-the-final-harvest/
and shortened for posting 08/02/2012
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