Sunday Sermon: The Resurrection for Our Salvation (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:18

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

00:29

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

00:36

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. So in 1

00:41

Corinthians 15, I'll begin reading in verse 20 and I'll go through verse 24.

00:47

Hear the word of the Lord. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

00:58

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

01:05

For as in Adam all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive.

01:14

But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

01:22

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God to the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

01:31

Continuing on to verse 28. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

01:39

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

01:47

But when it says all things in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him.

01:56

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

02:11

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to this text today, as we have continued to consider the beautiful things that are written in your word about our resurrection,

02:22

I pray that our gaze, our longing, our desire is drawn all the more to Christ.

02:29

This is where our eyes should be fixed. As stated in Hebrews 12, looking to Jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith.

02:39

As said in Colossians 3, set your minds on things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

02:47

And so as we go through these things together in 1 Corinthians 15, hearing about the resurrection of our future bodies, that we may be in glory forever with Christ.

02:58

This draws our eyes all the more to Jesus. Less about the things of the world and all the more about the things of heaven.

03:07

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So to remind you again kind of how we broke down everything in this passage in 1

03:14

Corinthians 15, last week we looked at verses 12 through 19. This week our emphasis is going to be more on verses 20 to 28.

03:21

Last week was about the resurrection for our salvation. Today we're reading about the resurrection for God's kingdom.

03:31

The kingdom of God mentioned here. The last part of this section, verses 29 to 34, which we'll get to next week, is about the resurrection for perseverance.

03:39

Continuing to persevere in light of the resurrection that we are promised in Christ. But just to recap once again, so the problem that's going on there in the church in Corinth is you've got people that are sitting in their midst who don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.

03:56

As Paul had said in verse 12, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

04:04

If there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

04:11

Now remember, Christ is very what and very what. What do we say? Or sometimes fully what and fully what.

04:19

Fully man and fully God, right? Now because he is

04:25

God, we'll tend to focus on that sometimes. Of course he rose from the dead because he's

04:32

God. What kind of mastery can death have over God himself? But then we forget the fact that he was actually a man.

04:42

As in John 1, he put on flesh and dwelt among us. As in Philippians 2, he took the form of a servant.

04:49

As in Romans, he took on the likeness of sinful flesh. So he was every bit in his nature of what we call the hypostatic union.

05:01

He had two natures. Nature is a man and nature is God. But he's a man. He died.

05:09

He really died. He really suffered and died. And so when

05:15

Paul makes this argument, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even

05:21

Christ has been raised. It's like he's drawing the Corinthians' attention back to the fact Jesus is a man.

05:29

And I say that in the present tense. Not he was a man. He is a man.

05:35

How do I say that in the present tense? He still is. Exactly right. He is the

05:43

God -man that has unified or brought together back into fellowship

05:48

God and man. Our access to God is through the one who is God and man. That he might reconcile man back to God.

05:57

And so we have this relationship with God because the man completely fulfilled in his righteousness everything that was required of us that we could not do, right?

06:08

So through his life, living completely obedient to the law, through his death, the atoning sacrifice that paid for our sins, and the

06:16

Father showed that he received that sacrifice by, as we read last week, raising him from the dead.

06:22

And now as it says in 1 Timothy 2 .5, there is one mediator between God and man.

06:29

The man, Christ Jesus. Paul says that to Timothy as a present tense reality.

06:38

That right now our mediator sitting at the right hand of the Father is the man.

06:44

You ever use that expression with somebody, you the man, right? Somebody does something great, you the man.

06:51

Jesus is the man. He is the man, Christ Jesus, who is interceding for us before the

06:57

Father. And as we're going through this, as we're reading about the resurrection, and we're reading about the resurrection of our own bodies, what does that look like?

07:06

Because we're going to get to this in a couple of weeks where Paul's even going to use an example from natural generation to understand what the resurrection body is going to be like.

07:14

But just to kind of spoil it for you before we even get there, if we're wondering, if we're trying to contemplate what that might look like, the resurrection body, what is our glorified body going to look like?

07:28

Well, we've been given a taste of it already in the resurrection body of Jesus Christ.

07:34

When He rose from the dead, that body that He had, pretty good picture of the kind of body we're going to have.

07:41

And so keep that in mind even as we go forward with some of these things and we read all the more about our resurrection.

07:48

But once again, that argument being stated, if you're going to say that there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even

07:54

Christ has been raised. Because He's a man. And He fully fulfilled, even in His humanness, everything that needed to be fulfilled on our behalf.

08:04

If He rose again, we're going to rise again. But if He did not rise again, no one rises again.

08:11

You're still dead in your sins. Remember that? So then verse 20, Paul says, and I went ahead and teased this out because I just didn't want to leave it last week on such a low note, right?

08:22

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

08:27

That would be a real downer to end the Sunday school lesson with last week. So I went ahead and jumped right into 20 so we can get the teaser for this week.

08:35

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. But in fact, but in fact,

08:43

Christ has been raised. Amen.

08:49

Amen. You can be more sure of the fact that Christ lived and died on a cross and rose again from the dead on the third day.

09:05

You can be more sure of that fact than you can be sure that the sun is going to rise tomorrow.

09:14

It is a historical fact. And there is more evidence to prove the life, death, and resurrection of Christ in history than there is to prove that we even have tomorrow.

09:29

For all the people out there who try to say that we follow myths and fairy tales and that all of this stuff was just made up and it's just our religion and we don't, we don't have anything else to put our hope in.

09:41

So we put our hope in this made up thing. We don't have blind faith, my friends.

09:49

What we believe is truth. It is fact.

09:55

It is more certain than anything else in our culture whose opinions are going to change tomorrow anyway.

10:04

So I love, love the way this starts in verse 20. But in fact, truth, history, it's been done.

10:14

We can prove it. We can point to it. Paul had laid out all those proves in the beginning in verses 1 through 11.

10:22

In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Now, this would be a statement that would even put to shame some of those persons there in the church in Corinth who were believing that there is no resurrection of the dead.

10:36

So Paul is not just saying that for their encouragement, although he is. Be encouraged because in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.

10:42

But he's also saying it to their shame as he says later on, I say this to your shame, embarrassing the fact that there are people that are in their midst who they don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.

10:56

In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead and he is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

11:05

What are first fruits? What do we mean by first fruits? What's that?

11:14

There's going to be more. Yeah. What else? The first of the crop. The first of the crop.

11:19

Yeah. See, that's even an Old Testament reference because when the harvest was good, when they're bringing in the stuff into the storehouse, what does

11:27

God get? God gets the first fruits. You're supposed to give the first fruits of the harvest to the

11:33

Lord. And everybody understands the concept of first fruits. Even if they weren't knowledgeable in the

11:38

Old Testament. The first fruits are going to tell us just how good this crop is going to be, right? If the first fruits are good, we can expect the rest of the crop going to be good.

11:48

So who's the first fruits? Christ. That is the best of the best.

11:54

And so if the best has been raised, amen brethren, we get to be raised too.

12:00

With the same kind of glorious body that he gets to be raised in. It says that in Philippians 3.

12:07

He will transform our lowly bodies to be like his, to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

12:16

And 1 John 3, 2, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

12:25

Is that not amazing? So Christ being the first fruits is also a statement that there are others that are going to come.

12:33

There will be more that will come after him. Let's go over to Romans 8. Turn quickly to Romans 8.

12:39

We did this last week too, looked at a passage in Romans 8. I want to do this again this morning. So in Romans 8 we have

12:46

Romans 8 .28. That's where I'm going to start. Somebody can probably give me

12:52

Romans 8 .28 by heart, couldn't you? I was about to say for I know the plans

12:58

I have for you declares the Lord. That's Jeremiah 29 .11. Romans 8 .28 is the other really popular verse we like to throw around.

13:05

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose, right?

13:14

I mean we'll use that as kind of a generic Christian platitude but it's good news. It's good to be reminded that no matter how bad things get,

13:24

God is working those things ultimately for some glorious end. And what is the end that God is working all things toward for our good?

13:35

What is that good that he is working all things out for us to accomplish? That's what verse 29 tells us.

13:43

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

13:51

Son. So what's the ultimate good that God is working out for us?

13:57

That we would be conformed to the image of Christ, right? So that even when we suffer, and Paul had talked about suffering in chapter 8, even when we go through hardships and we go through suffering, we're sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

14:11

Christ in his body, in his humanity suffered so we're going to suffer as Christ but to the glory of God, to the glory of the

14:21

Father just as Jesus did. Philippians 2 .11 tells us that. So verse 29 again.

14:27

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order what?

14:33

That he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

14:41

Again, a statement of first with the promise of more to come after. That he might be the firstborn, he's going to be the first to rise from the dead and he's going to be the first among many brothers so there are many others who are going to come after him.

14:57

And by the way you can take that statement brothers as brethren, ladies you're not being excluded there. So that he might be the firstborn among the brethren.

15:08

Now I get asked this occasionally with regard to Christ's resurrection. How is it that we call him the firstfruits?

15:15

How is it that we call him the firstborn? The first one to rise from the dead when the reality is there were others that rose from the dead before him.

15:25

I mean we can read in the Old Testament, you can read about how Elijah raised a little boy to life,

15:32

Elisha did the same thing, Elisha's bones were buried in a pit and there was a man who died and fell on Elisha's corpse and then he sprang back to life again.

15:41

Anybody remember that story? So there's been accounts of people who were dead and were raised again to life.

15:47

Jesus raised people to life. He raised a little girl, yeah but eventually that's right, that's a good point, eventually they died again.

15:56

Of course the most famous resurrection miracle that Jesus did in his earthly ministry was the resurrection of Lazarus, right,

16:04

John chapter 11. Lazarus died, he stinketh in a grave for four days.

16:11

Jesus has the tomb opened up and says, Lazarus come out. Which I always thought, you know, it's an amazing miracle but when you stop and think about it, it's kind of a bummer of a deal.

16:22

Lazarus is like, what are you doing? Why did you wake me up? I was doing fine, I liked where I was.

16:29

I don't know that he responded that way, he rejoiced in his Lord. But nonetheless, Lazarus very unfortunately had to go through that twice.

16:39

He died once, he was resurrected, he was going to die again. But Jesus, as it says to us in Romans, will never die again, right?

16:49

So he's the first one to rise from the dead and will never die again. That's what we mean by firstfruits, him being the firstborn, him being the firstfruits of the resurrection of the dead.

17:01

He conquered death, he rose from the dead and he will never die again. So that everyone else who likewise dies, we will die in our bodies, unless the

17:12

Lord comes first. You're praying for that, right? God, I don't want to have to die in my body, so if you come first, that would be wonderful.

17:21

Paul even talks about this in 1 Thessalonians 4. Those who are left will be caught up together with him in the air and then we will never be with the

17:30

Lord. So we know that there's going to be many who have died but there will even be some that are still alive at the time that Christ returns and then we will be caught up together with them.

17:38

That will be a wonderful day. But yeah, with regards to being the firstborn or the firstfruits of the dead, just as Christ was raised from the dead, he died, he rose from the dead, death no longer has mastery over him, he will never die again, so it will be the case with us who are in Christ.

17:57

Now in Revelation, it talks about another death, right? Anybody know what

18:02

I'm talking about? What's that death called? The second death. So there's a death in the body and then there's the death of the spirit forever in hell.

18:15

Now that body, even those who are going to be consigned to hell for eternity, even they will be raised with a new kind of body.

18:25

We'll talk about that later as we continue on in 1 Corinthians 15. But it's not just that their soul goes down to hell and perishes there forever, they even will have a kind of imperishable body that will suffer for all eternity.

18:37

Horrible thing to think about. But it should motivate us all the more to be sharing the gospel with others so that they would come to faith in Christ and not have to know that end.

18:48

But Revelation refers to that judgment as a second death. And my friends, that's a death we don't have to face if we're in Christ.

18:56

We die once and then with Christ we live forever. There's no second death for us.

19:02

There's just eternal life to look forward to. Amen? So coming back to 1

19:08

Corinthians 15, let's go back there. So we've read here about Christ being the firstfruits. Christ is the firstborn.

19:15

The firstborn of many brothers. So Paul's saying again in verse 20, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

19:25

Let's look at verses 21 to 22. And well, I don't want to brush past that real quick.

19:30

So again, recognize the language of fallen asleep. Like Paul doesn't say we've died.

19:37

We've fallen asleep. The same language he uses in 1 Thessalonians 4 when he deals so tenderly with the

19:43

Thessalonians who are concerned that their loved ones, friends, and relatives have died and now they've missed the day of the

19:49

Lord. Paul says they've fallen asleep. And then when Christ returns, that day is going to be so bright and loud, even they're going to wake up from their sleep.

20:00

And then the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are left will be caught up together with them in the air.

20:07

So you see the consistency that Paul uses with this statement of having been fallen asleep.

20:13

So he's the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, verses 21 and 22, for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

20:25

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

20:32

Now I want to be careful with this passage because this is one that universalists use to try to give weight to their argument.

20:40

What does a universalist believe? That's right. Everybody goes to heaven.

20:46

There is no hell. Nobody gets consigned to hell. Or they might believe, yeah, they might end up there in hell for a time, but they'll use that C .S.

20:55

Lewis adage that the gates of hell are locked from the inside. So as soon as they wake up from their reality of, hey,

21:01

I can get out of here, they'll just open the gate up and then be able to go to heaven. Some universalists believe it in that way as well.

21:07

Hell is what you make it. It's not someplace God sends you to. That's their argument. So one way or the other, either way you look at it, their argument is going to be everybody eventually gets to heaven.

21:18

And this is one of those passages that they use. By a man came death, and who's that man?

21:24

That's Adam. By a man has come also the resurrection of the dead, who's that man?

21:30

That's Christ. Verse 22, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

21:37

So can you see what the universalist argument is here? In Adam all die. So in Christ, all will be made alive.

21:46

We all get to go there. But pay attention, pay real close attention to the language.

21:53

In Adam, all die. In Christ, all are made alive.

22:04

Who's in Christ? Yeah, those who have been predestined.

22:11

Those whom God has chosen. Those who believe. Those who have faith. Those who are his disciples.

22:18

Those who are his sheep. Those whom we call Christians, and truly Christians, not just in the constituency voting sense of the word, this body of people that we call

22:30

Christians, but real Christians. Real Christ followers. Those who know Christ is God and worship him.

22:38

They are the ones who are made alive in Christ. Those who are in Christ.

22:44

If you're not in Christ, then who are you in? You're still in Adam.

22:52

And what happens to those who are in Adam? They die. These are the ones who face judgment, who are still in guilt over their sins.

23:06

Whose sins have not been atoned for because they've not put their faith in Christ. Those are who die.

23:13

Those who are made alive are the ones in Christ. Those who have put their faith and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the resurrection of their bodies.

23:27

In Christ, all, every single person who is in Christ will be made alive.

23:38

I don't know about you, but I love the section of Romans 5 that we're in right now in our sermon series, right?

23:45

Just these reminders of the assurance of our salvation that Tom has been pointing out to us as we're going through this.

23:53

If you haven't heard the sermon yet today, it comes out again today. The constant reminder is that in Christ we've been saved and we won't be lost.

24:04

All who are in Christ will, shall be made alive.

24:12

Paul goes on in verse 23 to say, but each in his own order,

24:18

Christ the firstfruits. There's that statement again. Then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

24:27

Now recognize there that statement, those who belong to Christ. That's not just, that's not just talking about those who are still hanging out here on earth are going to be the ones that get to be caught up together with Christ.

24:38

It's everybody, whether they're still alive or whether they've fallen asleep. At his coming, those who belong to Christ.

24:48

We will all be lifted up again, back to first Thessalonians four, those who have preceded us in death, the dead in Christ will rise first.

24:57

And then we who are left will be caught up together with them to be with the Lord. And so we will always be with the Lord. And then verse 24, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God, the father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

25:10

So you see this succession of events that's going on here. You wouldn't think that this is necessarily talking about the rapture or it's talking about the return of Christ, but that's what

25:18

Paul is emphasizing here. And we see this section broken up into two parts. So we've, we've heard the argument regarding our resurrection.

25:27

We won't die. We won't perish. We'll be raised together with Christ versus 20 to 23.

25:33

And then Paul lays out what happens after that. What happens after we are raised from the dead verse 24, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God, the father, after destroying every rule and every authority and every power in Romans chapter 16,

25:55

Paul says that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under whose feet whose no, that's not it actually.

26:06

Roman 16, he'll soon crush Satan under your feet. Christ already has victory.

26:15

Some of you are giving me a funny look. Let's look at it together. Go to Romans, go to Romans 16 so you can see it.

26:22

You don't have to take my word for it. Look at 1620.

26:29

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under whose feet yours, your feet, our feet.

26:37

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Why that statement? Why saying the God of peace will crush

26:43

Satan under your feet? Yeah, exactly.

26:49

Yeah. We get to be victorious too. You know, one of the things Paul or Paul, I just upgraded

26:55

Tom, Tom, one of the things that he says, uh, in the sermon today is that, uh, now

27:01

I lost my thought. I goofed. I goofed up. I gave Tom a promotion and now I missed the thought.

27:07

Uh, one of the things that he mentions in the sermon today is, uh, is with, Oh yeah, that we are fellow heirs with Christ.

27:14

Everything that the father gives to the son, the son gives to us. When we talk about being fellow heirs, we get all the stuff the king gets.

27:23

Isn't that amazing? Even even victory over our enemies.

27:34

That same thing the father gives to the son we receive also. And the father is putting all things in subjection under Christ.

27:45

And that same victory that Christ has over everything, over everything, sin, the effects of sin, death, and our enemies, that same victory

27:56

Christ has, we get to the God of peace will soon crush

28:02

Satan under your feet. I'm looking forward to that.

28:10

I've heard John MacArthur say, you know, one of the things that I'm most looking forward to in dying and going to be with my

28:18

Lord is of course to be with my Lord. But I just want to be done with sin. I hate sin.

28:26

I hate the temptation to sin. I hate, I hate the feeling in my mind, what it does to my body.

28:33

I hate the separation that it causes between me and my Lord. I just, I'm tired of sin, the effects of sin.

28:39

I want to be done with it. Get me out of this body. Get me with my Lord. And what good news to be reminded that the

28:51

God who is making peace and making peace means he's also destroying his enemies.

28:58

The God of peace will crush Satan and his work and all the schemes that he does in this world, he will even crush

29:07

Satan under our feet. So coming back again to 1

29:14

Corinthians 15, after everyone has come together with Christ, Christ the first fruits, then those that is coming, those who belong to Christ, then comes the end.

29:27

When? What happens at the end? He delivers the kingdom to God the father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

29:37

Christ does that, but we share in it. For the

29:43

God who is making peace in such ways, as it says also in Colossians 1 20, making peace by the blood of his cross, the

29:50

God who is making peace in such ways, the victory that is gained from that is a victory that we share in.

29:56

So the enemies that Christ destroys, we will stand victorious over also.

30:03

It's not like, it's not like when Christ comes back that we're like the cowering

30:08

Israelites at the time that David defeated Goliath. You understand that story?

30:14

So nobody wanted to go fight Goliath. The champion that was supposed to go fight

30:19

Goliath was Saul. And Saul, it actually talks about Saul being, he was the tallest man in Israel.

30:28

It's not something we would typically think about it regarding the stature of Saul, but he was the tallest man of the tribe of Benjamin.

30:35

So that was one of the reasons why the people of Israel, they really wanted Saul. He's the tallest guy, looks like the biggest and the strongest.

30:41

So let's make him our king. But then of course, we know how that went in the life of Saul.

30:47

And instead of Saul going out to meet the Philistines champion, who was this giant Goliath, much like three feet taller than Saul.

30:56

Instead it was this shepherd boy, a 16, 17 year old kid who walks out there with a sling.

31:03

And when you read the story in 1 Samuel 16, it's evident David doesn't think he's going to lose.

31:10

He knows he's got this. And he says that he comes and faces Goliath in whose name?

31:17

In the name of the Lord. He's not out there to try to make, this is it, this is my moment to shine.

31:23

This is the time when I'm fine, everybody's going to see me now. Everybody's going to notice how good I've been. David even tells

31:30

Saul, I've ripped apart bears and lions. Who is this guy? And so he goes out there with the confidence of God.

31:38

He has five stones. And I always kind of wondered about this. So he knows he's going to beat

31:44

Goliath. Why does he take five stones? There was a deacon in the church that I pastored previously before I came here, over 80 years old.

31:53

And I was teaching through that lesson in 1 Samuel once. And I said, now why did David grab five stones? I was kind of asking that rhetorically because I didn't really know the answer to the question.

32:03

And the deacon spoke up and he said, because Goliath had brothers. And he's right.

32:10

Actually, Chronicles talks about Goliath's brothers. So when he said that, I was like, that's a good point.

32:15

I'm going to have to hold on to these other stones just in case. But the first stone, right in his head, killed

32:23

Goliath on contact. And then David cuts off his head. Make sure the job's totally done. But David goes out there and conquers

32:32

Goliath. And what are the Israelites like? What are they doing out there? Nothing. I mean, they don't even have weapons.

32:39

We don't think about that at the time. But it's not like the army of the Israelites was standing out there with swords and shields, but every one of them was too afraid to go face

32:48

Goliath. They had farm tools. The Philistines had taken away all their weapons.

32:54

They didn't have anything to fight with. And so the only person who had a sword and armor was

33:01

Saul, and then we know Jonathan did too. So that was pretty much it. Two sets of armor in all of Israel.

33:08

Saul tries to put his armor on David, and what happens there? It didn't fit, right?

33:14

Because Saul was so much taller, not just to mention that David was just a teenager. But there's no weapons of all these people in Israel just standing out there with their farm implements.

33:25

They're knowing they can't go against this guy. So they're all standing back just kind of cowering, just kind of trembling there with their farm tools.

33:31

And here comes David out there and whips the guy with a sling, with a stone that he just picked up from the brook a few minutes ago.

33:39

When Christ comes back and He stands victorious, we're not going to be like those Israelites. Because the

33:46

Israelites were disobeying God. They were trying to put their trust in man instead of putting their trust in God.

33:54

When Christ returns and all of His enemies are put under His feet, we're not standing there like little wimps off to the side.

34:02

We're standing there proud and victorious, not because of anything that we did, but because of what

34:09

Christ has done and what we know He has promised us and given to us. Back to Romans 8, we are more than what for those who are in Christ?

34:21

More than conquerors. And so we will be right there with Christ on that day when

34:27

His enemies are destroyed standing confidently and triumphantly over these fallen ones.

34:36

And as it says in verse 25, He must reign until He has put all of His enemies under His feet.

34:43

Now there's two different ways to read that. We can read it with the understanding, and you could read it both ways actually.

34:51

You could accept both of these explanations as true. Two ways to understand this. Number one, Christ is reigning right now.

34:58

Amen? Where is He? We just said earlier, He's at the right hand of God.

35:06

He's sitting enthroned on high. So Christ is reigning right now. Right?

35:12

Second way to read this, if you believe in that future kingdom that is to come.

35:18

The millennial reign of Christ on the earth. If that's how you understand that as well. That He must reign until all of His enemies are put under His feet.

35:26

So you can understand that either way. Or both ways. Christ is reigning right now.

35:35

He must reign until He has put all of His enemies under His feet. Verse 26, the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

35:45

For God has put all things in subjection under His feet, but when it says all things are in subjection, it is plain that He has accepted to put all things into subjection.

35:54

So before moving on there, that statement there again in verse 26, the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

36:02

Psalm 110 .1 says, Yahweh says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet.

36:10

Now we know according to Hebrews that that's a present reality. Christ is fulfilling that Psalm 110 .1

36:18

right now. He is sitting at the right hand of God. Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet.

36:25

So that process is happening right now. The enemies of God are being put under the feet of Christ.

36:33

All other enemies will be subdued before the final resurrection, and then the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

36:41

And I've always considered that so incredibly profound. That death is spoken of as an enemy.

36:48

Like a presence, a real thing. Somebody that we might have to stand face to face with.

36:55

You've probably seen pictures, illustrations of death depicted in what way? Yeah, the

37:02

Grim Reaper, exactly. What does he look like? Skeleton, yeah. With a sickle.

37:08

I mean, everything that Charles Dickens viewed the ghost of Christmas future as being like, right?

37:15

That's kind of what we envision death as looking like. There's all different kinds of even pagan cultures that have viewed death exactly the same way as somebody that comes in a dark cloth, a dark cloak skeleton with a sickle in his hand, which is representative of a harvest.

37:34

And Jesus even talks about that day being like a harvest. The good wheat is going to be gathered into the barn.

37:40

The bad wheat is going to be burned up. So death is a presence.

37:45

Death is an enemy. And this is the last enemy that will be destroyed. And when that enemy is destroyed, what's our, what's our promise?

37:54

Yeah, everlasting life forever with Christ in glory. As we have said in Revelation 20, there will be no more death, no more dying, no more mourning, no more suffering, no more tears.

38:12

He will wipe every tear from our eyes and death will be no more.

38:19

For the former things have passed away. As we conclude here with verses 27 and 28, for God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

38:31

But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him.

38:38

What very plainly as Paul saying here, all things are subjected to Christ except the father, right?

38:46

The father's not subject to Christ. It's accepted when it says all things are going to be put under his feet, except the father.

38:53

The father is the one that's subjecting all things to his feet. Verse 28, when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.

39:11

Now I gave, I gave you pre -millennials some room there by saying, you know, you can believe it is the millennial kingdom of God that is coming here on earth.

39:20

I got to give room for the post -millennials as well. The understanding that all things are presently being subjected to Christ.

39:28

When all things are subjected to him, the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.

39:36

So a person who's a post -millennial will believe that's the process that's happening right now. And all those things are being subjected to Christ.

39:42

And when that is done, that's it. Christ returns. Then comes the end.

39:47

Exactly what Paul said here. Death is put to death. I don't know if you've read John Owen's book,

39:54

The Death of Death and the Death of Christ. What a great title. If I were to make a list of like the top 10 best titles of all time,

40:02

I would put that John Owen's book in there. He wins with just the title, whatever else the book says. The death of death in the death of Christ.

40:10

How beautiful is that? And when all things are subjected, the son himself also subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.

40:23

Now that statement is curious that God may be all in all, and there are various interpretations of it.

40:29

Here's the note that I wrote down. Verse 27 contains a reference to Psalm 8, 6, you have made him rule over the works of your hands.

40:37

You have put all things under his feet. All things including death are subjected to Christ except he who subjected them, meaning the father.

40:50

Even the son himself will be subjected to him so that God or the Godhead may be all in all.

40:58

As Albert Barnes notes, that God may be supreme, that the divinity, the

41:06

Godhead may rule and that it may be seen that he is the sovereign over all of the universe.

41:18

Amen. And where will we be? With him, glorifying in him.

41:26

I love in the high priestly prayer that Jesus prays in John 17.

41:31

At the start of that prayer, he says, now father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the ages began.

41:41

I had a young man ask me one time, before God created in the heavens and the earth, what was he doing?

41:49

And I said he was glorifying in himself. That's what Jesus said, the trinity of God, father, son, and Holy Spirit, according to the high priestly prayer, glorifying himself in a place where time really doesn't matter.

42:03

There's been no beginning, there's no end to it. And this is the same glory that we enter into when we die and we go to be with the

42:13

Lord forever in glory. We get to now glorify God. We get to be part of that glory, glorifying

42:20

God as God was glorifying him, as he was glorifying himself before we were ever created.

42:27

That's the glory that we step into. And my friends, that should be good news.

42:33

That's something you're looking forward to. I hate the little cartoon depictions of somebody sitting on a cloud with a taped up halo and just strumming a harp.

42:42

What a low view of heaven. We're going to get way more than that. The very presence of God, whom we will be with, whose glory we will be in forever, forever and ever.

42:56

Amen. Again, going back to 1 John 3, 2, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

43:04

And so we will always be with the Lord. Glorified bodies. Anybody looking forward to staying in this body?

43:16

No. I might have some like 21 year old raise his hand. I'm doing fine. I don't know about you guys.

43:23

Just give it time. That's right. You'll change your mind. Questions or comments?

43:28

Anything to add? Yes, sir. I got one. This last enemy to be abolished is death. I mean, that really struck me.

43:35

Yeah. If all sin has been demolished and the ultimate kind of prescription for man is death because of our sin, if all sin is destroyed, then death's not needed anymore.

43:46

So, to me, that's the last enemy. That's it. Which is the ultimate for all of us. Right. Yeah.

43:52

If you don't have sin, you don't need death. Yeah. Even as Revelation says, even death itself is thrown into the pit and destroyed.

43:59

Yep. So, yeah. When sin comes to an end, there's no more death because as Isaac Watts sang or as he wrote in Joy to the

44:08

World, far as the curse is found, right? So, Christ is removing the curse and the wages of that curse being death.

44:18

And so, right. Once sin is done, there's no more death. That's right. Dwayne, of course.

44:30

Yeah. Part of it.

44:53

And in that, he said America's troubles are because Satan has loosed his beams.

45:00

Yeah. And I could not argue with that. But when I go back to that original concept that you brought up about what was

45:06

God doing before the creation of us, glorifying himself, Satan would have been there also.

45:13

So, that's really an interesting concept. Right. The perspective. Doug says no.

45:24

Why do you say no, Doug? He knows what's in the Bible. So, there are things about the future that Satan doesn't know.

45:41

Yeah. Right. Dwayne. Sure, right.

45:56

Well, that he knows because it's in the Word. Okay, yeah. Now, like you said,

46:05

Dwayne, there was a period of time where he was there. Now, it wasn't eternal because angels are created.

46:12

They're creatures just as much as we're creatures. Inhabiting a different realm, but they're creaturely.

46:18

But just as we see in the Old Testament, Old Testament and new, angels around the throne singing,

46:24

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Satan was there. That's pretty amazing to consider that.

46:30

But yeah, there was a time when Satan even glorified in the glory of God. And yet, rebelled against that.

46:36

And thus, we have the fallen angels. We have Satan cast out of heaven in the work that he's been doing since the

46:42

Garden of Eden. And in 1 John, it says, the reason the Son of Man came was to destroy the works of the devil.

46:48

That's the power and the authority of the devil. Yeah. Christ will have victory.

46:55

He'll complete the whole victory and destroy it. Right, yeah. Because you have references, too, in the

47:02

New Testament of the powers and the authorities, the princes. As Paul calls in Ephesians 2, the prince of the power of the air.

47:08

He refers to Satan as being. So, and in the Old Testament also, references to princes.

47:13

Look at the context because that might be a reference to the demonic authorities. Could be what that's. All the kingdoms of the world are yours.

47:26

Yeah, right. That's right. It is interesting to consider what he knows and what he doesn't know.

47:36

I remember there being a movie where one of the characters, who was Satan, is talking to his son.

47:44

And he's talking to his son, like Satan's son. I guess the Antichrist. I don't know.

47:49

I can't remember the plot of the movie. Doesn't matter. But Satan's talking to his son and talking about, like, here's what we're going to do.

47:55

And here's how we're going to win. And all this kind of thing. And the son replies, but dad, we lose.

48:02

Like the Bible even says we lose. And Satan's response to him was, consider the source, son.

48:09

Is that Satan's arrogance? Does he actually think that he can overcome that and that he won't be destroyed?

48:15

I don't know. It's interesting to consider what he knows and what he doesn't know. Well, no.

48:28

I mean, it's a loaded question. There is no plan to redeem the angels.

48:34

And the reason for that is because they were there. They were in the presence of God. They've seen.

48:40

And plus, the angels are not spoken of as being made in the image of God. We're made in God's image.

48:46

So God's plan of redemption is for mankind and it's not ever for the angels. Thank you.

48:53

Appreciate it. I'm glad I dodged that one. Thanks. Because, yeah, as soon as you asked it,

48:58

I was like, oh, no. This is one of those, can God make a rock so big he can't lift it kind of cards. Let's close with prayer.

49:06

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read today in 1 Corinthians 15. And I pray that these reminders comfort our hearts.

49:15

They comfort our thinking. We even go from this place today rejoicing and remembering the victory that we have in Christ.

49:23

Victory over sin, the decay that's happening in our bodies, those who try to oppose us.

49:28

Victory over death itself. All of these things being placed under Christ's feet will be placed under our feet.

49:35

And we will reign with him forever in glorified bodies. I pray that that prayer is all the more meaningful for us now when we pray with John at the end of Revelation.

49:46

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen.

52:27

We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. We ask in Jesus' name and all

52:36

God's people said, amen.

53:15

We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. We ask in Jesus' name and all

53:27

God's people said, amen. We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen.

53:36

We ask in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. And the Lamb was raised.

53:46

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

53:53

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, Gospel -teaching,

53:59

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study when we understand the text.