What Does "First Resurrection" Really Mean? Bible Study

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And away we go, I guess. We kind of left everybody hanging by a string after our last week's program, and I apologize for that, but as I've mentioned so often, it's hard to get everything into 30 minutes, and so you'll have to bear with me. But for those of you here in the studio, let's come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And again, for those of you joining us on television, some of you are probably catching our program for the first time. We're just an informal Bible study group. We have been teaching groups like this evenings in homes and various and sundry other places for the last, as the announcer has put it, 20-some years. And I was thinking the other day, you know, I've always given the illustration of Peter when the Lord was trying to lead him up to the house of Cornelius back during Acts chapter 10. I always use the analogy that Peter left his heel prints in the sand all the way from Joppa to Caesarea. In other words, he didn't really want to go, you know, and the Lord forced the issue. Well, that's about the way I was about coming on television. I certainly didn't think that I was television caliber, and I guess I still sometimes wondered. But the Lord just kept pushing and pushing, and even though I left heel prints, yet here we are. But I can remember several years ago, a gentleman was leaving our class in Macalester, and he said, Les, why in the world aren't you reaching more people than just the 40 or 50 people that come here to your classes? And I said, well, this is all I've ever expected. And I've always been just very content to just teach small groups, because I've even told people who try to enlarge a class, don't worry about numbers. I'm not hung up on numbers. I'd rather have 15 people that are hungry and want to learn, as to have 1 ,000 people who merely want to be entertained. And of course, that's still my whole concept. And whether our television audience is large or small, that's beside the point. We distrust that we can teach the Book in such a way that you'll enjoy it like you never have before. Now I said we ended rather abruptly last week, and so we're going to pick right up where we left off, and we were talking about the two resurrections, the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection which will come later then of the unjust or the lost. We're talking right now about the resurrection of all the believers, from the very onset of Adam back in Genesis up until the very end of the tribulation. So now we're going to jump back a minute in I Corinthians 15, before we go back to Leviticus 23, and read these verses once again. I Corinthians 15, verse 20, "...but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits," plural, "...of them that slept, or who have died physically. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." And remember we qualified that in the last program, that resurrection is not just being called back as Lazarus was, he died again, but resurrection is that being brought now into the eternal state. And then verse 22, "...for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." And of course Paul is directing his attention here primarily to the believer, but remember it's going to be the power of God that will resurrect the lost as well at a future time. Then in verse 23, "...but every man," now like I said Paul is dealing with the believing element here, so every believer, "...in his own order." Now that word order is a military term, speaking of like a company or a battalion, an organization, it's an organizational group. So every human being in the human race is going to be resurrected, but in His own particular company. Now that's why then we went back to Leviticus. Now let's read verse 23 on, "...every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits." See there's the first group of resurrected people. And those that came out of the graves there at Jerusalem, and then you have a semicolon, and then what's the next word? Afterword. See not simultaneously, not at the very same moment, but at a later time, "...they that are Christ's at His coming." Now of course that is the group that Paul is most concerned with, and that is the church age, the grace age believer, the body of Christ. And then verse 24, "...and then cometh the end." Now we know that that's going to be after the tribulation. Now let's go back to Leviticus 23, where we left off in our last program, where Israel is now being instructed, having just come out of Egypt, God is giving them the Law, the Tabernacle Worship, and the Feast Days. And of course the Jew still celebrates these Feast Days even today, maybe under a little different setting, but they still celebrate these Feast Days. And the first one of course was the Feast of Passover, which of course referred back to the Passover Lamb in Egypt, and then to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and then the third one is the Feast of First Fruits. Now the Feast of First Fruits came at about the time of barley harvest. Barley was the small grain that was ripe first, and the earliest in the spring. And so now then he says in verse 10, "...when ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest." The grain harvest, in this case like I said it was probably barley. "...and ye reap the barley harvest, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest." Now there again the word is not singular, but plural. Now those of you, I know we're living in a nation now that is more urban than rural, but I think we still have enough rural background in most of us, that we understand a little bit of small grains, wheat, oats, barley and what have you, that as that beautiful green field is approaching the ripening stage, you get just a little tinge of gold and yellow. And you know that the crop is reaching maturity. And then all of a sudden in that sea of green, you'll see a gold stem with the heads just as bright gold as they can be. And over there will be another one, and over there will be another one. And scattered through the field you'll see these stems of grain. Just one stem here and one stem there, and they're suddenly ripe. The rest of the crop is still a few days away. Now then the Jew was to go into that grain field, pluck those ripened stems until he had a multitude and could make a sheaf. And then he would take that sheaf and he would present it to the priest as a wave offering. Now you see everything that is sown back here in the Old Testament comes to its fruition in the New Testament, doesn't it? So now what we have here then is a picture not of just a grain harvest, but of a spiritual harvest. Now you remember when Jesus was in His earthly ministry, He used the analogy to the disciples. He said, "...and look out unto the fields, and they are white unto harvest." Well He wasn't talking about wheat or barley, what was He talking about? Mankind! The mankind was ready for a harvesting of a spiritual sort. And so now you can begin to tie the two together. Here we have a gathering of these ripening stems of grain, individuals, nothing compared to the whole, but yet they were enough that they could make a sheaf of it. Now come back with me then to Matthew chapter 27. I always have to think of when I first came to Oklahoma and was teaching, it hadn't been very long, and a dear old saint came and asked me one day, and he said, "...what are these people who came out of the grave when Christ was on the cross?" And I had never heard of such a thing. And he said, "...well the Bible says they did." And I said, "...while He was on the cross?" And he said, "...yep." "...well let's see." Now this is typical. Now I wouldn't doubt that he'll watch my program, and he'll probably remember that he asked the question, and it was just simply so typical of the average Bible reader, that we read, and yet we don't really read. Now here's where he got the point. I haven't even found it yet myself. Back in chapter 27 verse 50, that's where I think we can pick it up, because you all know the account of the crucifixion. But here in Matthew 27 verse 50, "...when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." Now indeed, where is He? Well He's on the cross. Next verse, verse 51. "...and behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom, the earth did quake, the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose." Now you see that much is as far as He went. And if that's where you stop, what's your impression? Well that it happened while He was on the cross. And so then I went and got my Bible, and I looked it up, and I said, well see you didn't read far enough. Look at the next verse. "...and they came out of the graves," what are the next three words? "...after His resurrection." See that? Now the casual reader probably won't catch that. They didn't come out of the grave while He was on the cross. They came out of the grave after He had been resurrected Himself. Because you see, Christ had to be the first. He is the first to have ever been resurrected. Then, in order to make that sheaf analogy come to the full, what had to happen? There had to be other examples of resurrection. And so some of these Jewish believers, evidently were resurrected from the cemeteries around Jerusalem, came into the city, and appeared to probably their friends and relatives, and the Scripture of course is silent, and so we have to assume that since Christ in His resurrected body ascended into heaven, these saints did as well. Because these didn't just come like Lazarus to die again, these were resurrected believers who had been given immortality, and no doubt were taken on up into heaven. Now that makes then the sheaf of the first fruits. That's the beginning of the first resurrection. Now I've got to go to the board. We did this a long time ago, I think about the first six months we had our program on the air. And remember I always like to draw a 40 acre field. Now it doesn't have to be square, because in Israel I never saw a single field that was even close to square. There are triangles and everything else. So I'm not going to worry about how square I am. But here they have taken out the samplings. They've taken out these ripened stems of grain, and they have formed a sheaf, and they have now fulfilled the analogy then of the first fruits. Plural. I'm going to emphasize the S. Now then if you'll come back to Leviticus again, and drop back to chapter 19. You were in 23, so now just come back to chapter 19, and let's look at verse 9. Now keep this harvest analogy in your mind. The Lord says, "...the fields are white unto harvest, but the labors are few." Now we're talking about a literal grain harvest. A literal 40 acre field of barley. And they have gone in, and they have taken the individual stems that are ripened, they've made their sheaf, and they've presented it as first fruits of that crop. Christ has been resurrected from the dead. Those that came out of the grave, they now make up the first fruits of the spiritual. Now come back to chapter 19, verse 9. Now the instructions are that when you reap the harvest of your land, "...thou shalt not wholly or completely reap the corners of thy field, neither shall you gather the gleanings." Why? "...thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of the vineyard, thou shalt leave them for the poor." Now of course there was a physical need. But the spiritual analogy is, that after the first fruits have been taken out, then the main field would be harvested, with the exception of the corners and a few of the gleanings. Separate stems that were left laying on the ground. But this main harvest now has been taken out, which of course is probably 98% of the total. Now I'm just going to simply call that the main harvest. Best way I can put it, it's the main harvest. Now with your concept of history, all the way up through the Old Testament, without putting an exact number on it, I mean just in general terms, how many believers do you think there were of the whole? A large many or a small amount? Precious few, because you want to remember the Gentile world had no knowledge of salvation, and even within the nation of Israel, there were very few who were true believers. You remember how many of them would follow Baal, and they went into the worship of other pagan gods. So even in Israel there were relatively few true believers. But now you come on this side of the cross, and with the advent of Christianity and the Church Age, what have you had? There has been your main harvest. During the last 2,000 years, God has garnered the greatest percentage of His total harvest. And you look back in history, you remember the Reformation, and there were humongous amounts of people who became believers. Some of the great evangelists of the last 100 or 200 years, great in gathering of souls. Well, that's been God's main harvest. So we can call that, now come back again to I Corinthians chapter... No, I'm going to let you stop at Daniel on your way. You're in the Old Testament, let's save some time. Stop at Daniel. So if the main harvest would be the Church. Now when I speak of the Church, I'm talking about the Body. The Body of Christ, the true, born-again Child of God. It doesn't matter what the denominational handle is, as long as He's in the Body of Christ, He will be included in this main harvest. But remember, we still have the corners left, and we still have the gleanings. So there is a third aspect of resurrection that is still future. Now Daniel, last chapter, chapter 12, and drop all the way down to verse 11, the last three verses of the book. Daniel 12, beginning of verse 11, "...and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away," and remember that's the midpoint of the tribulation, which would normally take us then 1260 days to the end. "...so from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate is set up," In other words, when the Antichrist defiles the temple. "...from that time there shall be a thousand two hundred and," not sixty, but what? 90 days. So now we've got an extra 30 days. Verse 12, "...blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty -five days." Now we've got another 45 days added to the 30, for a total of 75 extra days between the return of Christ, the end of the tribulation, and now look at the next verse. Verse 13. "...Go thy way," the Lord says to Daniel, "...till the end be," in other words this extra 75 days as well as the tribulation, "...for thou shalt rest," that is in the grave, his soul in the presence of the Lord, however it is. "...for thou shalt rest, and stand," we pointed this out two weeks ago now, "...and thou shalt stand," where? "...in thy lot." Remember I pointed out in our two weeks ago program, that that word lot is almost identical with the word order in the New Testament? So all the just are going to be resurrected in their particular lot, or in their order, not all simultaneously, but at separate times. So here you have Christ and the first fruits back there at the time of His resurrection, then you have the 1900 and some years that we've now come through the Church Age, they're going to be resurrected, we think one day soon at what we call the Rapture, and then you're still going to have a multitude of people saved during the tribulation period, but they too will not be a number like the last 1900 and some years have been, so they are likened then to the corners and the gleanings. And so I like to feel that Daniel, the tribulation saints, as well as the Old Testament, the Old Testament plus the tribulation believers, they will equal then the corners and the gleanings. Now by the time you have taken out the sampling, you've taken out the main harvest, and your gleaners have come in and cleaned up the corners, and the spare stems that are left, what have you got? It's all done. The field has been swept clean, and it's over. And that is then the first resurrection. Now I made that plain, I can't make it any plainer, at least in my ability, but this is what is referred to then as that first resurrection. The total compilation of all the believers of all the ages up to that closing days of the tribulation. Now I'd like to have you come back with me a minute if you will to Revelation again, because I have to always remember that hopefully we've got new people tuning in that have not even heard last week's program. So we've got to come back to where we just took off from, in Revelation chapter 20 verse 6 again. With me? Revelation 20 verse 6, "...Blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection..." That's all the believers from Adam through the end of the tribulation. "...and they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him for a thousand years." Now the question came up here in this class in the studio between the last half hour and this one. Well now up in verse 4, that sounds like it's all just the tribulation people that will rule and reign with Christ. And I was glad that somebody caught that, because that is probably true. But again you've got to take Scripture with Scripture, and you don't identify anything by just one verse. But now if you will as I did with the folks during the break, come back to Revelation chapter 5. Now I think I pointed this out several programs ago, but I know it's hard for all these things to soak in at once. But now if you'll come back to Revelation chapter 5, and here we have a verse that I would say includes all of we believers, or us. Revelation 5, and he has made us under our gods, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth with Christ. Now let's come over to another verse that I didn't even show Roy and Alice during the break. Come on over to chapter 19, and let's start with verse 7. Revelation 19, verse 7. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. Now come over to verse 14 in this same chapter, and here we're now included in that company that will attend His Second Coming, that is returning to earth. Now it says verse 14, and the armies. Now that doesn't mean that it's a military assortment of people, but it's a congregation, and I feel that again it's going to be the church age saints. And the armies who were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Now can you tie all that together? So you see not only are the tribulation saints going to be included in that ruling and reigning with Christ for a thousand years, but we are. Now since we're talking about the church age believer in the Kingdom, as this Kingdom will come on earth, come back with me first to Colossians. Now of course Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, does not dwell a lot on the Kingdom per se, not nearly as much as the Old Testament does, and the Gospels as it pertained to Israel, but nevertheless we're involved in the Kingdom. Don't think for a minute that we won't be. Now in Colossians chapter 1, and again I'm going to run out of time, I'm going to have to drop in the middle of a subject, and I detest that, but if the Lord tarries there will be another week, and if not we won't need it. Colossians 1, verse 12, where Paul has been praying for the Colossi Gentile believers, and he goes on then in verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meeders, prepared us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and then verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath already translated us into the Kingdom. We're already members of the Kingdom, but now you want to remember, where is the Kingdom tonight? Well it's in glory, in the person of Christ. When He was on the earth, John the Baptist approached Israel, and what did he say? The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Why? Because the King was at hand. So when the King went back to glory, and we don't refer to Him as the King in the church age, but when the Lord went back to glory, then the Kingdom is again in heaven. And so as we become part and parcel of the Kingdom in heaven, again that Kingdom is going to come back to the earth, and where will we be? Part and parcel of it. And so yes, the church age believer is indeed a part of this coming Kingdom, which will then be on the earth. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.