Sunday Sermon: In Fact, Christ Has Been Raised (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)

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December 30, 2017

Pastor Gabe preaching on 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, where having presented his arguments for Christ's resurrection, Paul gives the order in which the resurrection will be received. Visit fsbcjc.org for more info about our church!

00:15: You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.
00:22: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a
00:27: New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.
00:34: Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the
00:39: Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.
00:45: We continue our study of 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul addresses the church in Corinth about the resurrection of the dead.
00:53: 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 through 28, and in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand?
01:00: Paul addressing the church in Corinth, beginning in verse 20, but in fact,
01:05: Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
01:14: For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
01:21: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
01:29: But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ, then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the
01:41: Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet.
01:50: The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.
01:59: 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.
02:10: 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.
02:24: Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for this morning.
02:30: We thank you for this season in which we are surrounded by so many lights and we are reminded of the light that came into the world,
02:42: Jesus Christ. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and showed us the glory of God.
02:54: It is through Christ that we have access to God, that we can understand your
03:01: Word and hear you speaking to us through what has been written in the pages of Scripture.
03:09: But Lord, we are so human and feeble -minded, living in the finite when you,
03:18: God, are infinite. And so there are things here about the infinite that we fail and struggle to understand.
03:28: And so Lord, I pray that in the things that we look at this morning, the things that we don't understand about eternity and what
03:36: Christ is accomplishing now and forever, that your
03:42: Spirit would intercede for us in our weaknesses and that it is by your
03:49: Spirit that we might be able to discern spiritual things, restore our hope of the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
04:04: King. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.
04:09: You may be seated. Those of you who have young children, and I'm talking young children, like you're still identifying their ages by how many months old they are.
04:23: So nine, 10, 11 months old, even when they get over one, you're still telling others that their age according to months, 15 months old, 18 months old, okay?
04:35: That's the age range we're talking about. Young children in the months old categories.
04:43: You know that when they get hungry, their world is all about getting food. That's all that they think about.
04:49: We've had four kids now, and it's been the same with all four children. It doesn't matter their temperament.
04:54: They could be a very even tempered child most of the time. Very happy go lucky, but then when food time comes around, when the stomach is hungry, that's all they want.
05:05: They're all about food. And their demeanor and their attitude changes until they get food.
05:11: The word that we use for this is hangry. You know, they're hungry and they're angry at the same time. So they're hangry.
05:18: And our youngest daughter, Mariah, 11 months old, just yesterday as a matter of fact.
05:26: She is a very mild mannered child most of the time. But then when she gets hungry, that's all she wants is food.
05:34: It goes straight from happy and playing to I'm hungry, get me some food. And it doesn't matter that I'm in the kitchen preparing that food and she knows what it is that I'm preparing.
05:45: She will still be clinging to my leg and crying because it's not going in her mouth and into her stomach.
05:52: So it's not simply enough to see me prepping the food. She's got to be eating it too. Anyway, I mentioned this because I was doing that very thing yesterday, getting food for her.
06:01: She's clinging onto my leg in the kitchen. She's wanting me to give her a snack, a morsel, something to tie her over until I could set her in her bumbo and start feeding her food.
06:11: So I took her into the dining room. I got her in her seat, her little tray on and everything, and I started feeding her food.
06:18: And when Mariah is eating, nothing can distract her. She really is very focused when it comes to eating.
06:24: Not all of our kids have been that way. Sometimes they're very distracted and it's difficult to get the spoon to their mouth.
06:29: Even when they're hungry, it's like, I know you're feeding me, but I've got other things that I want to do.
06:35: They try to multitask while they're eating. It just doesn't work. Mariah, on the other hand, when she's eating, that's what she's all about.
06:41: She's focused on food, except there is one thing that can distract her.
06:49: And this happened yesterday. I'm feeding Mariah. She's focused on me until her older brother came around.
06:58: Zeej just seems to have this ability to draw Mariah's attention to himself.
07:04: She is all about her older brother. She's enamored with him because Zeej has a vivid imagination.
07:14: And even in this moment yesterday, he was pretending to be something else, someone else in another place, something that was probably
07:23: Transformer -like because he's transforming into something on the floor and he'll make his little sound effects to go with that.
07:30: And he'll then transform out of it and then start running around the room and doing all that again. Well, as he starts making his
07:36: Transformer sounds, Mariah is familiar with that sound. She knows exactly who that is and what's going on.
07:41: And so her attention, her head turns in the direction of the dining room door to see
07:47: Zeej and what it is that he's doing. And this direction of her head, you know, it's like 90 degrees or more than 90 degrees from where I'm sitting with the spoon.
07:56: So it's a little difficult to get the food in her mouth. I even at one point had to tell Zeej to go somewhere else because I'm feeding
08:02: Mariah. So her attention is entirely on her older brother. She doesn't really know what he's doing.
08:10: She doesn't know what he's pretending to be. She has no idea what other world he is in.
08:18: But for her, it certainly looks like fun. He believes in his mind he's something else somewhere else.
08:29: And she may not get it. And she doesn't even understand the words he's using.
08:35: But she recognizes that he's doing something amazing.
08:41: And I want to know what it is. I want to be a part of it, even when she doesn't understand it.
08:51: Now, of course, I don't know that's exactly what's going through Mariah's mind, but I imagine that's what it is and why her attention is so drawn to her older brother.
09:00: He's the most imaginative of our four kids, and she wants to be part of that world.
09:10: So what we're looking at here, as Paul starts to describe the resurrection life in 1
09:19: Corinthians 15, he's starting to get into some deep concepts here that are really difficult for us to wrap our minds around.
09:30: And we may not understand what it is that we're reading. As I was going through this reading this morning, there may have been half of this paragraph here that you're going,
09:38: I don't really understand what that means. But it sounds amazing.
09:45: Life after death, life forever with God, that sounds incredible.
09:51: I want to be a part of that, even if I don't really fully understand what it is that I'm reading.
10:01: And there are going to be some complications. There will be some difficulties because we're human.
10:07: Because we live in a finiteness, and God is infinite when we are not.
10:15: And so trying to wrap our minds around the infinite, we simply can't do it. Now, there's some things that you may not be able to understand because you're just not there yet in your spiritual maturity.
10:26: But there are other things that you're not going to be able to understand because you're just not meant to get it right now.
10:31: But it's been put into words. We've been given an order so that we may be assured that God has a plan.
10:43: He is doing something, and a promise has been given. If you believe in Christ Jesus, you will have the resurrection of the dead.
10:59: You will be part of that resurrection with Christ.
11:05: If you've shared with him in his death, if you've been buried with him in his death, you will be raised again to new life with him as well in glory.
11:17: So even when we don't understand the words, we can at least recognize that a truth is being given here, an assurance is being spoken to us, that in Christ, you will have the resurrection of the dead.
11:34: In verse 20, Paul says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
11:40: And that's where I ended last week with that verse, because we went through several proofs, several arguments that Paul presented in verses 12 through 19.
11:50: This is Paul providing arguments for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
11:58: This began in chapter 15, verse 3, with Paul saying, I delivered to you as of first importance what
12:05: I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
12:17: By the way, there's the gospel of Jesus Christ for you right there in two verses. If you've ever wondered what it is that you need to say to somebody else regarding what it is that you believe and why you follow
12:30: Jesus, you have it all right there. What is of first importance about our faith is believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins.
12:42: Not just that he died, he died for our sins. That's an important and an emphatic distinction, especially when over the course of this year, we're coming up on the end of 2017, over the course of this year,
12:58: I have found myself defending the doctrine of the atonement, that Jesus shed his blood for our sins.
13:08: There are people that simply don't believe that. There are people who call themselves Christians. One pastor
13:15: I had a debate with online, who lives just two hours from here about this very thing, refused to accept that Jesus died for sins.
13:25: As a matter of fact, he said, that makes God a monster if that's the reason why Jesus died.
13:31: His perspective was simply that he upset the status quo. Jews didn't like him, the
13:37: Romans didn't like him, and so Jesus died because we...
13:42: Basically, Jesus died because we sinned, but he didn't die for our sins.
13:49: So, this is important to understand about the gospel of Jesus Christ that we believe and we proclaim.
13:56: That Christ didn't just die, wasn't just because he upset a few people. The whole reason why he died was to save us from our sins, to the glory of God the
14:10: Father. 1 Timothy 1 .15, Paul says to Timothy, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came to save sinners.
14:20: How does he do that? By being the perfect sacrifice for our sins, so that by his shed blood on the cross, our sins are atoned for, they're covered over.
14:33: We have the forgiveness of sins in the blood of Jesus Christ for all those who believe.
14:39: This is of first importance when it comes to understanding the basics of the
14:45: Christian faith. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
14:52: The scriptures testify to it. You have in Isaiah 53, it being said that he was pierced for our transgressions.
15:01: He was crushed for our iniquities, and by his stripes, we are healed.
15:10: This was prophesied 700 years before we even got to the incarnation, which we celebrate during this season, the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
15:23: It was prophesied that he was coming, and this is what he was going to do when he came.
15:30: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's what's on our sign outside the church right now, so that people who are passing by our church will know this is what we're about.
15:44: This is the message that we proclaim, that Jesus came to save sinners. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
15:52: We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
15:58: Paul says this is of first importance. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
16:04: He was buried and raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
16:11: And again, this is all according to what is of first importance. Christ died, he was buried, and he rose again.
16:19: These are essential to understand about the Christian faith. This isn't some myth or fairy tale that we believe in, it is the truth, and it is affirmed historical fact.
16:33: And that's where Paul goes next. All of the witness accounts to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
16:40: Paul talks about whom Christ appeared to, that there were even over 500 brothers whom
16:47: Jesus appeared to at one time. Nearly half a thousand people, over half a thousand people, that Jesus appeared to at once.
16:58: Not that he appeared to over 500 people individually at respective times, and then they all got together and said, hey,
17:04: I saw him too. No, all at once, they saw the resurrected Lord. In fact, when we read the account in Acts chapter 1 of Jesus on the
17:13: Mount of Olives with his disciples, Luke 24, Matthew 1, or I'm sorry,
17:18: Acts 1, before Jesus ascends into heaven and he raises his hands and he blesses them, typically we think of just, you know, 12 dudes up there or 11 dudes up on that mountain as Jesus was ascending into heaven.
17:32: There was probably well over 100. Because then the next picture that we see is 120 of them in the upper room deciding who was going to take
17:41: Judas' place. They're in Acts chapter 1. So there may have been a pretty significant number there on the mountain watching
17:50: Jesus ascend into heaven. Paul said these witness accounts, you can still talk to. Some of them have fallen asleep, but many of them are still around and you can talk to them and hear from them directly that they saw the risen
18:02: Lord. I saw him alive. I saw him crucified. I saw him alive again from the grave.
18:09: The eyewitness account was incredible. And yet there were still probably some
18:17: Corinthians that believed that it wasn't really necessary to know that Christ had risen from the dead.
18:24: I mean, does it really matter? As long as we believe what he taught and we do what he said to do, does it matter if we believe that he rose from the dead or not?
18:33: And then Paul goes on to say, oh yeah, it matters. Matters a lot. Because if Christ has not been raised, no one gets raised.
18:43: If no one gets raised from the dead, what are we believing this for anyway? And the whole reason why we're
18:50: Christians, the whole reason why we believe in Jesus Christ is because we need a solution to death.
18:56: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3 .23. I quoted that one to you. Romans 6 .23
19:02: says, for the wages of sin is death. Because we have sinned against God.
19:07: What we have earned for that is death. Every single person dies. That's one statistic that I can give you today that I know is absolutely true.
19:17: And I don't even need to cite you a source. You know it's true as well. One out of every one person dies.
19:25: Everybody in here is going to die unless the Lord comes back. I mean, we always add that caveat.
19:32: But everybody today in history past, those who have died, died.
19:39: There isn't anybody who has managed to avoid death, except for Enoch and Elijah.
19:44: But good luck aspiring to their standard. Good luck aspiring to a standard of Enoch who walked with God and Elijah who was taken away from Elisha.
19:54: You're not going to be those men, okay? So everybody dies. That's the reality of human existence.
20:02: That is the reality of the sin that we have committed against God. What we've earned for that is death.
20:10: And then we stand before God in judgment on the brink of eternity. And none of us can stand.
20:17: As it says at the end of Revelation 6, who can stand? No one can stand before God and be declared holy and righteous if it were not for the sacrifice of Christ for our sins and His blood that covers us.
20:33: We are clothed in His righteousness and now we stand before God as worthy and we can come before the throne of grace with confidence, as it's talked about in the book of Hebrews, because of the great high priest that has gone before us.
20:51: And that is our Lord and Savior Christ. So Paul presents these arguments. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then there's no point in believing any of this.
20:59: This is the whole reason why we're followers of Christ, because we need a solution to death. And the only person that can give us that solution is the one who conquered death, and that's
21:08: Jesus Christ Himself. I tell you that if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still dead in your sins,
21:20: Paul says in verse 17. So that's what we looked at yesterday was the arguments that Paul presented for if Christ has not been raised, then this whole thing that we're doing is futile.
21:32: Everyone who's died in Christ is dead. They're not going to be resurrected. You have a reason to mourn.
21:38: You're not forgiven your sins. You're still dead in your sins. We're the most to be pitied because we believe in something that never even actually happened.
21:49: And then to resolve all of these if -then statements that Paul gave, which we looked at last week,
21:55: I had to at least throw in verse 20 at the very end where Paul says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
22:02: So that's where we're starting today. I'm 20 minutes into my introduction and now we're just getting into the sermon here.
22:09: But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, resolving what it was that we looked at last week.
22:15: He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. This is the matter -of -fact statement
22:20: Paul had already presented at the start of this chapter, chapter 15, the eyewitness accounts concerning Christ's resurrection.
22:27: We know that he was resurrected. It's necessary to believe that he is resurrected. If you don't believe that he is resurrected, there's no reason for you to believe in Christ.
22:36: There's no reason for you to call yourself a Christian. Go follow the philosophers if that's all you want. Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, all those guys, they're dead.
22:45: They went into the ground. They're still there. Jesus Christ wasn't just waxing philosophy. He came to show us the
22:52: Father. He came to be the propitiation for our sins. He came to give us life and to give it more abundant.
23:06: He came to give us eternal life and fellowship with God, not just in this life, but forever.
23:17: So in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. And we have this wonderful promise that's added on to this fact.
23:29: He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. That's not just Paul making a statement. That's Paul giving a promise because Christ is the firstfruits means there are others that are going to come after him.
23:41: He is not the only one. Those who believe in Christ are likewise going to be resurrected as he was.
23:50: In Colossians 1, beginning in verse 15, Paul talks about Christ this way.
23:57: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
24:04: Not that he was the first created thing, but that all of creation belongs to him.
24:10: For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
24:23: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.
24:32: Now, here's the point that I'm getting to by reading this section and how it ties into what we're reading in 1
24:37: Corinthians 15. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything, life and death, he might be preeminent.
24:52: He's the firstborn from the dead. Here in 1 Corinthians 15, he's described as the firstfruits.
24:58: In Colossians 1, he's described as the firstborn. They both mean the same thing. He is first in an order.
25:05: There are others that are going to come after. He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
25:11: He is the firstborn of the dead. So we know that all who are in Christ who have died and have gone into the ground, we are given this promise that we will be resurrected and we will live forever with him in glory.
25:23: He was the first to do it. We who are in Christ will receive this as well.
25:32: He's the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and then we will receive the fruit of that also.
25:42: Next argument, Paul presents in verse 21, for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
25:55: Now we're talking about two different men there. As by a man came death, who was that?
26:01: That was Adam, right? Adam sinned against God. God subjected all things to futility.
26:07: Death came into the picture. People got old, decayed, work became hard.
26:13: Part of the curse, God said, by the sweat of your brow, will you work the ground?
26:19: It will produce thorns and thistles for you. And by this difficult labor, will you eat your bread?
26:26: It's not going to be easy for them anymore. It became very, very difficult and it wouldn't be fulfilling. That was another part of the curse.
26:32: Your work would not even satisfy you. You would never find true satisfaction in the things of this world that we try to reap from it.
26:42: Satisfaction, we're not going to find it. We're not going to get it. That's part of the curse. So as by Adam came death, the wages of sin is death.
26:52: What we got for our sin against God is death. By a man also has come the resurrection of the dead.
26:58: Who is that? Well, we're talking about Christ there, of course. Christ who lived perfectly. So if Christ was without sin, and yet he died on the cross for our sins, how did he die?
27:11: If the wages of sin is death, how could he have died if he was sinless? Well, we get the answer to that in 2
27:17: Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul says, he became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God through him.
27:29: All of our sins were placed upon Christ. He took our place and absorbed the wrath of God, drank every last drop of the cup of God's wrath while he hung there on the cross.
27:43: So he took our sin upon himself and became sin for us.
27:50: So there in that place, he died because he became sin.
27:58: Sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God through him.
28:06: So he, by his power, who laid down his own life, took it back up again and resurrected from the dead.
28:19: And so we also will receive the resurrection of the dead through Christ. We receive death through Adam.
28:25: We receive the resurrection of the dead through Christ. Verse 22, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
28:35: And be careful about that word, all, because we're not talking about every single person. We're talking about only those that are in Christ.
28:43: So all in this sense is, there are,
28:50: I'm sorry, I was stumbling on my words. There's a context to this word, all. That's what
28:55: I was looking for. It doesn't mean every single person on earth, every single person that has ever lived.
29:00: It means everyone who is in Christ, because we've already read that.
29:07: And it is only those who are in Christ Jesus receive the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the dead.
29:13: And everyone will. All who are in Christ will. All who are in Adam receive death.
29:22: Does this make sense? You got it now? See, I knew I would find my way back. Everyone who is in Adam dies.
29:29: Who is that? That's everybody. Every single person who has ever lived was born from the seed of Adam.
29:37: Every single person who is in Christ shall be made alive. And who is that? Those are only those who have faith in Christ.
29:44: Only those who are born again. Everyone born of Adam dies. Everyone born again in Christ will be made alive.
29:52: We'll have the resurrection of the dead. It's in Romans chapter five that we read about what has become the doctrine of original sin.
30:03: What is original sin? Well, it's that very first sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve disobeyed
30:09: God. They ate the fruit of the tree that they were commanded not to eat from. That was the very first sin.
30:17: So it's referred to as the original sin. They had everything in the garden that they could ever want, but it wasn't enough.
30:23: They had to have the one thing that God told them that they could not have. And that was the fruit of the tree.
30:31: So they ate of it. All of creation was cursed. Death entered the picture.
30:39: And all who are descendant from Adam inherit the curse that was placed upon him.
30:48: Augustine wrote about this in saying that with Adam was the entire human race.
30:54: We were all there present with Adam in the Garden of Eden so that when he sinned, it affected the entire human race after him.
31:02: I mean, you consider the things that you do have ramifications on your future posterity.
31:11: So no one sins in a vacuum. You affect even those who will be your descendants into the future.
31:19: The decisions that you make now and the things that you do now. So it was with Adam. Only with you, you're only affecting a small portion of the human population.
31:27: For Adam, he affected every single person that would ever live on the earth.
31:35: And so this was the original sin. And we were present with Adam there in the Garden of Eden when he sinned.
31:41: And so we inherited this sin nature that we were cursed with because of Adam's sin.
31:49: We inherit his death. We inherit his nature. We inherit his sin.
31:56: So also in Christ, all shall be made alive. We will inherit his eternal life.
32:04: We will inherit his righteousness. We will be fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom.
32:12: How beautiful is that? But then Paul says, verse 23, each in his own order,
32:20: Christ, the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
32:25: So here in this season, in this Christmas season, we celebrate the incarnation of Christ that God took on human flesh and dwelt among us.
32:36: That's what we celebrated at Christmastime. But the incarnation of Christ was not just limited to the 33 years of his ministry.
32:45: Well, 33 years. 33 years that he lived on his earth. The ministry of Christ that we read about in the gospels is really only about three or four years, depending on the argument.
32:55: But the 33 years that he lived here on this earth, that's what we tend to think about as the incarnation of Christ.
33:03: From his conception to his resurrection or his ascension into heaven, that's the incarnation, right?
33:11: That's what we tend to think about as the incarnation. Christ is still God incarnate. Right now, he is
33:17: God incarnate. 1 Timothy 2 .5 says that there is one mediator between God and men, the man,
33:29: Christ Jesus. And Paul is speaking about Christ who has already ascended, the glorified
33:34: Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God. Even there, he is still the perfect man, bridging the gap between sinful man and holy
33:48: God, the God -man, Jesus Christ, very man and very God in human flesh.
33:55: So he took on human flesh at the moment of his conception, but he didn't leave that human flesh at the moment of his ascension.
34:05: He's still very God and very man, even as he is seated at the right hand of God the
34:12: Father. And so because Christ has received this resurrection of the dead in his human body, he is the first to receive a glorified body.
34:22: And he has that glorified body even now where he is in heaven. So knowing this truth and being given this promise, we know that we will receive the same.
34:33: Paul said to the Philippians in Philippians 3 that God will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.
34:48: Christ will make us like him. And then 1 John 3, 2, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.
34:56: The things that we don't understand now, the things that we cannot fathom or conceptualize about heaven and all eternity, as long as we live in these human bodies and this finiteness, we will finally understand when we get to the other side in glory.
35:11: There are so many things that we talk about that we put in physical terms, in human terms because of our limitations, because of our human limitations.
35:21: But those words that we think about in finite ways is not the way the infinite works.
35:27: And Paul will get to that later on when we get into verse, you know, like 35, 36, and 37, where he says, someone will ask, how are the dead raised with?
35:37: What kind of body do they come? It's not the same kind of body. What is perishable is made imperishable so that we can live in the infinite, which we cannot live in.
35:50: We cannot live with God in his holiness, in his perfection, as long as we are in these perishable bodies.
35:56: So we must be made imperishable in order to live with him forever. We get to that later on as we continue on with 1
36:02: Corinthians 15. But now, Paul starts to give the order of how these things will be received.
36:09: Christ is the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. So the moment we die, our spirit goes to be with the
36:17: Lord. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Paul said to the Philippians also, to live is
36:22: Christ, to die is gain. So the moment we die, we go to be with Christ.
36:28: We go to be with God in heaven. The body doesn't go into some kind of soul sleep.
36:35: We don't go into a holding pattern. There isn't a limbo. When you die, when your body dies, your spirit goes to be with the
36:44: Lord in heaven immediately. So as we've talked about the passing of R .C.
36:49: Sproul in recent Sundays, and Sproul talked about this, the moment that he died, he was going to be jumping over fire hydrants and dancing down streets of gold in heaven.
36:59: And he said, do not mourn for me anymore, for he will be in the presence of his
37:05: Savior forever and experiencing that eternal joy. That's what he has to look forward to.
37:12: That's what we have to look forward to as well. However, there is still going to be the resurrection of the body.
37:22: Even though our soul goes to be with the Lord, we will receive these bodies again, these resurrected bodies.
37:31: We'll come back into this body, which will have been made imperishable. So Paul says, each in his own order,
37:37: Christ the firstfruits, who lives in heaven now in his glorified body, and then at his coming, those who belong to Christ will receive their resurrected bodies with him and live forever in imperishable perfection with Christ Jesus.
38:00: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. So we read about this in 1 Thessalonians 4, when
38:06: Christ returns, the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ will rise first. They will be reunited with the souls that come back with Christ.
38:15: And then we who are left will be caught up with them in the air. So we will be raptured body and soul to meet those who have been reunited with their bodies in the air with Christ.
38:26: You read about that in 1 Thessalonians 4. So everything is given its own order. Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
38:33: Then comes the end, verse 24. There's nothing else after this. When Christ returns, that's the end.
38:44: When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power.
38:53: So you're talking about the kingdom of God. You're talking about the bride of Christ, the purified bride of Christ.
39:00: We are fully sanctified. We are together with Christ. We are one. We are presented to God.
39:08: For Christ must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. That's going on right now.
39:14: So we have it mentioned in several places, Hebrews 1 in the Psalms, Romans 16.
39:20: That the enemies of Christ are being placed under his feet. That's what's going on at the present.
39:27: And we are helping to bind those enemies as we preach the gospel.
39:34: That's a whole other sermon. I was planning on going to Ephesians to tie that in with that, but we're running short on time.
39:40: I got to stay on task here. So for he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet.
39:46: The last enemy to be destroyed is death. And this is death personified here in verse 26.
39:54: Death is not just a happening. Death is a thing.
40:00: Death is personified. Death is an enemy. And that is the final enemy to be destroyed.
40:07: Death. Christ destroys death. There will not be any more dying.
40:14: No more tears. No more pain. The assurances that are given to us in places like Revelation 7 and Revelation 21, he will wipe every tear from their eyes and death will be no more.
40:30: For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. Christ reigns.
40:36: 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.
40:45: 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.
40:57: Now these two verses, verses 27 and 28, I read through that rather quickly. These are much debated verses.
41:05: And in fact, about a year and a half ago, there was a big controversy that came up regarding these particular verses.
41:13: It was referred to as the eternal subordination of the Son controversy.
41:19: Now I'm not gonna go real deep into this. There's a point to this. This has a practical application for us.
41:29: So I'm getting to that. But I find it necessary to at least mention the debate to you. I don't expect anybody here to have ever read anything about the debate or even know that the debate happened.
41:41: If you knew anything about it, I would be truly impressed that you knew something about this debate that was going on.
41:47: But basically there are some who believe that Christ is eternally subordinate to the
41:52: Father. And there are others that believe that Christ is only subordinate to the Father until everything has been placed under his feet and he's presented the kingdom to God.
42:05: And then he exists eternally with the Father, not subordinate to the
42:11: Father. Eternal subordination is the name of that particular doctrine.
42:17: And there are even study Bibles that will differ on their opinions of what we're reading here in verses 27 and 28.
42:25: For example, I have two Bibles that I noticed in the study notes to these verses differed in their interpretation.
42:33: This is from the Reformation study Bible regarding these two verses. When we read verse 28, that all things are subjected to him, then the
42:43: Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.
42:49: The Reformation study Bible says, this does not mean the Son is inferior in dignity and being.
42:55: Rather, in his messianic work, the Son subjects himself to the will of the Father when he delivers the kingdom to God the
43:06: Father. That's verse 24. The climax of Christ's submissive messianic work is this total conquest over his enemies.
43:15: And that's what I believe. That's what I believe concerning an understanding of these passages.
43:21: My ESV study Bible takes a different approach, and I don't agree with this approach.
43:28: Here's what my ESV study Bible said. Jesus is one with God the
43:37: Father, and equal to the Father in deity, yet functionally subordinate to him.
43:43: And this verse shows that his subjection to the Father will continue for all eternity.
43:48: I don't agree with that. Why? Because Jesus prayed in John 17 5, now
43:55: Father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
44:01: And Christ will return to that place. The glory that he had co -equal with the
44:09: Father before the world existed. Once everything is consummated and done, and the kingdom is presented to the
44:16: Father, Christ will return to that place, that state with the Father in equalness for all eternity.
44:28: I've mentioned Augustine once today already. Augustine explains this passage this way. When the scriptures say of the
44:35: Son that he is less than the Father, the scriptures mean in respect of the assumption of humanity.
44:42: But when the scriptures point out that he is equal, they are understood in respect of his deity. So that really clarifies it a lot more for us.
44:49: When we talk about Christ being obedient to the will of the Father, we're talking about his human side. Remember, he's very man and very
44:56: God. But Jesus is equal to the Father in his deity.
45:02: In that respect, he's not subordinate to the
45:08: Father. John MacArthur explains it this way. From the time of his incarnation until the time when he presents the kingdom to the
45:16: Father, Christ is in the role of a servant, fulfilling his divine task as assigned by his
45:24: Father. But when that final work is accomplished, he will assume his former glorious place in the perfect harmony of the
45:33: Trinity. Christ will continue to reign because his reign is eternal, but he will reign with the
45:41: Father in Trinitarian glory, subject to that order of the
45:46: Trinity in the way eternally designed for him. Now, if in reading all of that and even given the explanation from the theologians, you're still rather confused, let me give you the practical application for this.
45:59: And maybe this will help you understand it better. There are relationships that you exist in now on this earth that will not exist for all eternity.
46:08: For example, your relationship with your spouse, husbands and wives, that is an earthly relationship that you have that won't continue in heaven.
46:18: The Sadducees confronted Jesus with this. They tried to argue against the resurrection of the dead, and they brought up an argument of marriage.
46:29: They said, hey, there's a woman who's been married by seven brothers. One brother died, the next brother married her.
46:35: On and on it goes. Seven brothers have been married to this woman. So whose wife is she in eternity?
46:41: And Jesus calls them fools. And he says that in heaven, there is not marriage nor being given in marriage because marriage is an earthly relationship that is a picture for us of the way that Christ loves his church.
46:58: And when the bride of Christ is presented to Christ, holy and perfect in all splendor for all eternity, well, that picture of marriage is done.
47:09: That earthly picture of marriage is done because we are with Christ forever in glory. So your spouse in this life now is a fellow heir of the kingdom of God equal to the share that you are going to receive.
47:23: Peter talks about that in 1 Peter 3. Husbands, love your wives. They are fellow heirs with you in the kingdom.
47:30: But the role that you play on this earth now is not the role that you play forever in the kingdom.
47:36: You're not a husband or a wife. We are all together the bride of Christ. And it's the same is true with parents, your relationships with your children is that they're your kids now, right?
47:52: They're under your authority. It is your responsibility to raise your children in the training and the instruction of the
48:00: Lord. But when they become Christians, they're also, are they not also, your brothers and sisters in Christ, right?
48:09: They are God's children first and foremost before they are your children.
48:15: And so in all eternity, if they grow up and receive Christ as savior, then there is not that order of grandfather, grandmother, sorry, father, mother, and then son, daughter.
48:33: We're all together the children of God in the family of God in glory. So there are certain aspects of human existence, certain relationships that do not continue forever in glory.
48:45: And so it is the same. We have the picture of that in Christ's relationship with the
48:51: Father. He is submissive to the will of the Father in his humanity, but in his divinity, he's equal to the
48:58: Father. And so we see a certain work that's being accomplished by God through Jesus Christ now, but there will be a full consummation of it in which all things are presented to God.
49:10: And then that work is over, it's done. That's the summary of what we're being told right here in verses 27 and 28 as we bring this to a close this morning.
49:23: So the assurance for us is that God has a plan and he has a purpose and he is working all of these things to his glory because what's the last thing that we see right there?
49:36: That God may be all in all. Soli Deo Gloria, all to the glory of God.
49:44: All of this is to his glory. You have been promised the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead that you might be forever with God in glory, praising him for all eternity so that he might be all in all.
50:05: All to the glory of God. God is faithful to his promises.
50:13: He is faithful to deliver us because he is faithful to himself.
50:20: As God loves the son, so he loves you also. As God delivered the son up from the grave, so he will deliver you up from the grave as well.
50:30: All of these promises, all these assurances we have in Christ Jesus to the praise of his glorious grace.
51:02: ♪ He'll survive ♪ Unless the
51:08: Lord does raise his house ♪ In vain his builders strive ♪
51:19: To you who rose tomorrow's king ♪
51:25: Tell me what is your love ♪
51:35: Which lives at dawn ♪
52:53: With all sinners slain ♪
53:57: Is making all things ♪ He to ♪
55:05: He to ♪ His rules ♪
55:16: Sing of ♪ He to Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.
55:32: For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.
55:37: On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.