Easter Sunday
1 Cor 15:20-28
Vs 20
Firstfruits- two harvests in that culture. The very first things you could harvest before the Spring harvest were gathered and given to God. 1. Symbolized that they trusted that God was going to bring more in the harvest. 2. It gave an idea of what the full harvest was going to be like.
Firstfruits festival was celebrated on the first day of the week right after Passover. Jesus walked out of the grave on the day of this celebration!
Vs 21-23 Adam vs Christ
Being lumped into sin because of Adam may seem unfair, but so is being in the resurrection because of Christ. There are only two options. The thing we got from Adam’s template is that we are born already bent toward sin; for me to be first in my heart. We can’t be mad at Adam. We all would have made the same choice. The good news of the Gospel is that there is a new template. It’s way better than God just overlooking our sin. It’s being remade into a new creature and a new nature. The promise of the resurrection isn’t just our souls going to heaven. Jesus as the firstfruits shows us that our resurrection will be like him with a physical body. He undid death.
Vs 24-26
Every system and rule is destroyed. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death is already conquered, but it will be destroyed altogether. We live in the now and not yet.
Jewish theologians said that this age would be replaced by the age to come where suddenly everything is perfect in an instant. Paul is telling us that the two ages overlap for a time. We live in the middle where Jesus reigns and are waiting for the day when death is destroyed.
Vs 27-28
When every evil is destroyed all authority and power will be handed back to the Father that He might be all in all. It is returning the perfection of creation back to the creator.
Vs 54-58
1. We hope in victory. Death doesn't win. Death is reversed.
2. We praise God for that victory. We remember where this comes from. We don't get the hope of heaven without the King.
3. We live in victory. We live the resurrection kind of life while we wait for resurrection. We participate by recognizing the things in us that don't belong in His kingdom and dragging those things to Jesus and asking him to nail them to his cross.