11-22-20 Grace-Benson & Vail Sermon

1 Corinthians 15:20-28 Sermon. November 22, 2020. Grace-Benson, Grace-Vail.

Imagine you lived in a place where a king reigned. Who your king is determines your level of expectation of what life in his kingdom can be like. If your king is weak, selfish, foolish; you will lower your expectations and hope for the best. If your king is strong, wise, and generous; you’ll raise your expectations of what’s possible in his kingdom.

Even though you live in a country without a king, you live in a universe which has one. If Jesus is king; no matter who you are, you need to raise your expectations. What he makes possible and real far exceeds what any of us would naturally dream of, imagine, or expect. Raise your expectations, and then watch Jesus exceed them no matter how high you go.

1 Corinthians 15 gives you 3 main reasons to raise your expectations: Jesus is the second Adam, he’s the firstfruits, and he’s the last Adam.

Jesus is the second Adam. He is a new trendsetter. That means there was a first Adam. The first Adam set a trend. The first man, Adam was in a perfect paradise, no reason to mistrust God, and yet he still rebelled against him by joining Eve in eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. With that act of disobedience, Adam set a trend of irrational rebellion, and with it he brought pain, relational distance, disappointment, and death. We all share in Adam’s attraction to distrust God, even though he’s given us so much reason for trust. We share in the trend he set by our rebellion against God, by the ways we’ve caused pain, relational distance, disappointment. We will one day follow him to the grave. If he were our only leader, we’d be living in a kingdom where, getting what you can in this life makes sense, because once you’re gone, there’s no life left.

The same idea is described in the firstfruits language. For people who live in agricultural societies, the first part of the harvest is very important. At many times and places, societies had all their wealth basically tied to the harvest, all their hopes for the future. When they planted, they didn;t know what might happen in the months before harvest. Not enough rain, too much rain, some other natural disaster or problem. The firstfruits was a taste of the future. When the first grapes or olives or figs sprang up, they knew more was coming. They had reason to celebrate. But if the first grape was rotten or diseased, they’d be looking at possible financial ruin, or even starvation. The firstfruits was either a time of rejoicing, or worrying.

1 Corinthians 15 tells us there is a firstfruits principle with the human race. There’s the firstfruits of Adam. Because of his disobedience: thorns, pain in childbirth, homelessness, death, separation from God. It was a taste of what every other human since has endured. It was a terrible harvest. But Jesus as the second Adam brought another firstfruits.

Jesus is the second Adam, because he was born fully human, like Adam. Like Adam, he represents us, and his actions are tied up with ours. Unlike Adam, Jesus didn’t live in a perfect world, but one full of wickedness and violence, yet Jesus still lived with perfect right-ness. Rather than bringing death, he volunteered to die, so that by rising again he could reverse death and make resurrection possible not just for himself but for other sons and daughters of Adam. The last Adam brought a different firsftruit than the 1st Adam. Death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. In Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive.

There are 4 ways that Jesus is a kind of firstfruit. The first is his physical resurrection. We’re told, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” Now, how do we know? Why, how can we accept this as fact? Here’s the logic - his disciples weren’t expecting him to rise at all. No one was. They weren’t happy when the death happened. They didn’t want to believe it at first, they responded with confusion and doubt until they were forced to believe because their senses were overwhelmed. And the only payback they got for saying it was true? Death, intimidation, danger. The same men who were cowardly before his death, were brave and bold to die afterward. Why? For a lie? Or for what they and 500 others saw? Which is more likely? Great reason to conclude, the physical bodily resurrection did happen.

Take a moment to just reflect on what happened. A dead man was raised to life. Actually dead to actually alive. And alive in such a way that he would never die again. Death has absolutely no mastery over him. There has never been anything like this and there never will be.

Because that has happened, it was like the first grape on the vine, it gives you a taste of the future. A taste of what is possible. You taste by a spiritual resurrection which the Bible calls a faith connection to him. What he did back then assures you of what is to come, gives you a taste of it today, no matter what you’re dealing with. His past achievement invades your future, and your future invades your present.

For example: in Romans 6 we’re told: the same power that caused Jesus to rise from the dead lives in you. Baptism is one way Jesus puts you there with him, letting you taste the fruit of his resurrection now, even as you live here humbly. Or in 2 Peter 1, we’re told that God has given us all we need for life and godliness so that by his promises we may become partakers of the divine nature. Those are the first tastes of the harvest.

The full harvest will come at the day of your physical resurrection. Your future in glory with him is a body and soul future; a flesh and bones existence. A place where you can run because you have legs, sing because you have a voice, clap and dance because you have a body.

And it doesn’t even stop there. Jesus will not only renew humans; he’ll resurrect the whole universe. “When the kingdom is handed over to God and the Father.”What kingdom? The full realization of the kingdom of God and heaven, which has been since the fall only partial in our existence.

The kingdom of darkness absolutely defeated.

A man will be the one to hand the kingdom back over to the Father. A man was instrumental in the tearing away of the kingdom from God. A man will be instrumental in restoring it. We are the problem. We are the solution. Why can I say we? Because Christ is our brother. We have a brother who will hand the kingdom back to the Father.

Then we’re told “Until when every enemy is given under his feet.” This is total conquest. No little bit remaining and a repeat war coming, or a prolonged feud, or a reawakened conflict, none of that, Total conquest. Absolute defeat of evil. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death is a disintegration, a going to pieces. What is the defeat of death? Putting people back together.

Reintegration. Putting the pieces together again.

It even says that, “It is clear that this does not mean the subjugation of the father.” There is no man verses God going on here. Instead God and man reunited. God-man is re-harmonizing the two, not putting man above God. There is no trinity rivalry, only perfect trinity harmony. When he arranges all things under to him, then also the son himself will be arranged under the one doing the arranging of all to him, so that God will be all in all. That’s how this ends.

Jesus has changed what’s possible when physical death comes. By doing that, he opens up not just the possibility, but the reality that those who die connected to him through faith will physically rise again. Instead of a harvest of death, a harvest of life. This changes the way you can approach death, which changes the way you can approach each day of the life you have here. Christ’s resurrection promises you: deathless life, no oppression, no thorns, no pain, no homelessness. Instead fruit, relationships that bring joy, a home, human thriving in communities and culture.

Do you see how we need to be challenged about our low expectations of Jesus, and faith in him?

Jesus does not just promise you, a lift to get you over the bumps of life, a boost in a positive direction.

He promises a whole new you. A new race, a new creation. A total purging of all that’s wrong and remaking of all that’s right, including the physical. And he has already done the defining thing that must happen to change you and the universe. The firstfruits is a taste of the future. You don’t get the whole harvest yet; but you get a taste of it.

We don’t always live this way. Just imagine that you had a beautiful house by the sea, amazing view of the ocean. And like all houses, there was some maintenance to do in the house, the plumbing needs some attention, the pain needs retouching, little things like that. Just imagine that you spent all

your time doing maintenance; you’d grow to resent that house. You need to get out on the porch from time to time, and you’ll see, all the maintenance is worth it for that. Jesus’ resurrection is the view from the porch. There’s some maintenance to the Christian life. There are things God invites you to do.

Spend regular daily time in the Bible and in prayer. It can feel like fixing plumbing or touching up paint; but wouldn’t it be foolish to sell the whole house just because of a little maintenance? Wouldn’t it be foolish to miss out on the resurrection because you don’t like a little time in prayer and bible reading.

Remember what you get. You are living in a mansion and the mansion is Jesus.

Don’t settle for life being a dump. Don’t ever say to yourself, I will never change. Christ will change you. He has promises. Maybe not on your timeline, but he will do it. If you get to a point at which you realize that your limitations are reached, it’s time to let him do what only he can do. Allow you to physically die so that he can physically resurrect you to new life. Real change is not only possible, but real in Jesus.

Finally, one more picture of how you know this will all be yours. Jesus is the second Adam, he’s the firstfruit, he’s also the last Adam. I want you to imagine a man on a mountain, and behind him are a bunch of other people, and they’re all tied together, one to the next. That way if one falls, they are connected, and they may save him. Imagine the last one on the mountain falls, and you’re watching, and the next person who he’s tied to with the rope, they lose their footing and they fall too. And one by one by one, they all start getting pulled down, and off course the weight gets heavier with every extra body.

All fall until there’s only one left. He’s attached to the rest, and he sees what’s happening. So he digs in, he takes his ax and he drives it into the ground and he takes the rope and quickly wraps it around his body, and he waits. He knows what’s coming. That awful moment when the rope crushes him, and rips pop and crack, and his hands turn red with blood and all the weight of all the others hangs on him. He bears all the weight of their falleness, and yet he begins to climb, the rest of them are saved as a result.

Just as Adam fell and pulled us all one by one, we needed one man to be part of the human web, connected but not fallen who could bear the weight of all our fallenness. Jesus is the one, the last man on the mountain. He was crushed for our iniquity. All the weight falls on him, but all his stability gets transferred to us.

End by asking, what’s the rope? The rope to Adam is your birth, your physical nature. The rope to Jesus is faith, a spiritual connection which one day and even now slowly can become physical as well.

Starts with faith. Do you believe that your king has risen from the dead? That faith however small, as small as a mustard seed, can grow and affect more and more of you, and show you, you’re right now living in a mansion, not a slum. Yes there is some maintenance to be done; but look at what you get.

Raise your expectations, and watch Jesus exceed every one. Amen.