Why the Resurrection Happens in Order — 1 Corinthians 15:20-23

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. LES FELDICK, TEACHER & SPIRITUAL GUIDE TO THE SPIRIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I always make a point to remember it's just as important to realize what the Bible does not say, as to understand what it does say. And again for new viewers, and we know we have new people coming in every week, remember that all the last programs are available on video tape, and they're available on audio tape and the printed page. So if you're interested in any of those, you either call us on the 800 number or drop us a note. Now we're here to study, and so we'll come right back into the text. First Corinthians chapter 15, and I'm going to start up again at verse 20. Where Paul now is in this great resurrection chapter, is making the point that not everyone as was seemingly implied back in John's Gospel, is going to be resurrected at the same moment. But now he says in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. In fact yes, all are going to one day be resurrected, and that of course is what John 5 implies from the Lord's own lips, that even the lost are one day going to be resurrected, and they're going to have to face the Judge who is Christ Himself at the Great White Throne. But now the next verse, verse 23 separates the resurrections, and that of course is where we were in our last series of programs. That is in verse 23, but every man, every human being that's ever lived, is going to come out in resurrection in His own order, or as I pointed out in our last program, in His own company. Now I always refer to the military organization of a company, and a battalion, and so forth, and it's an organizational set up so that it's easy to keep track of everybody. Well God is a God of order, and so He's done the same thing. He has everything so implicitly organized, and God never does things in a mumble jumble way. And so even the resurrections are going to be brought out in an orderly way, and as we saw in the last few programs, first Christ in His resurrection who was very, very first, and then those who came out of the graves in Matthew 27 after His resurrection, which then we taught comprised the first fruits as it was in Israel's harvest days. And now you see in verse 23, we have the next order in the resurrections, and they are Christ at His coming. Now we know that every believer of every age naturally belongs to Christ, He is the Creator and everything is His. But when it comes to the positional term, especially as we see it in the book of Ephesians, to be in Christ, in Him, that is speaking uniquely of the Body of Christ. Now we never see the Jew in the economy of law spoken of as being in Christ. That is strictly a Pauline term. And so I have to feel that verse 23 is speaking of those who are in Christ will be the next main group to be resurrected after the first fruits which took place at Christ's resurrection. Now in all my years of teaching, I think if the one thing that has come through for people is that you have to separate God's dealing with the Old Testament economy, and His dealing with the Church. You cannot mix them, you have to keep them sorted, and here again in order to understand this 23rd verse, you have to realize that Israel and the Church are two separate economies. Now that's the best word that I've been able to find. An economy is something that makes something go. In other words when we speak of the economy of the nation, we're speaking about the whole system of business, politics, you name it, and that comprises an economy, a system. Now in the economies of God, you cannot take that which He was doing with Israel, and bring it in to the Church which is His Body. Nor can you jump ahead and put the tribulation saints back in the Body, and so we're going to try and sort all this out in these next few programs. Now we're going to go all the way back to the Book of Acts, because like I said in our last program we pretty much covered the First Roots and how it was associated with the Feast Days of Israel. And then I think in our very last program when we were together a month ago, we covered the whole scope of God's dealing with the nation of Israel, preparing them for the coming of their Messiah, their King, and their Redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth. I think my closing remarks were that even though things look hopeless for the little nation of Israel today, it just seems as though the whole world is trying to push them into the Mediterranean. Yet take heart, the Scripture has promised that the little nation of Israel will never disappear because it has to be there in order for Biblical prophecy to be fulfilled. Never lose sight of that. God has to have the nation of Israel in the land in Jerusalem in order for Prophecy to be fulfilled. And if that would not happen, then this whole Book becomes a fallacy. So you can rest assured that the nation of Israel is there to stay. But now we're going to come on this side of the cross, and I think that's where we left off in our last time, that as Christ presented Himself to the nation of Israel as their King and Redeemer, for the most part the nation rejected Him. Now some of course believed, but it was a relatively small percentage. And so for the most part the nation of Israel said, "...will not have this man to rule over us." And they finally culminated with what request? Crucify Him! Get Him out of here! And of course one of the chief proponents of all that would have been Saul of Tarsus, who we will see in a few moments. Now as you come into the Book of Acts, God is so benevolent and so gracious that in spite of all that the nation of Israel has done with regard to their Messiah, God still comes back in the early chapters of Acts through Peter and the other 11 apostles, and is still going to give Israel the opportunity to repent of the horrible sin of having crucified their King, and is still going to give them the opportunity of having the King and the Kingdom if they would only believe it. Now we picked that up primarily in the great chapter on Pentecost in chapter 2. And this is just a cursory overview now as we see everything building for God turning from the nation of Israel to the Gentile world for the purpose then of calling out a people for His name, the Body of Christ. Now in Acts chapter 2, verse 22, Peter of course is standing up on the day of Pentecost there at the great temple complex, with thousands upon thousands of Jews having come in from all over the then known world. Verse 22 says so plainly, "...ye men of Israel." Now you remember what I said in my opening remarks, it's just as important to see what the Bible does not say, as what it does say. Now you see most of us have been programmed to think that the Bible here should say, "...ye men of Israel, and all you Gentiles." But it doesn't say that. It doesn't include a single Gentile. Peter is only addressing the nation of Israel, and he's still on the same ground that he was before the crucifixion, and that was the Abrahamic covenant and the other various Old Testament covenants. So here he is addressing only the nation of Israel, "...ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, approved of God, and so forth." Now verse 23, "...him being delivered by the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Now that's plain language isn't it? What is he accusing the nation of? He's accusing them of having killed their Messiah, even though they didn't do it with their own hands. They demanded it, and they caused Rome to carry it out, and so Peter is bringing this to them, that they had openly rejected their Messiah. Now then you come on down to verse 36, and here again it's just as important to see what it does not say, as what it says. He does not say anything about a Gentile, but he says, "...therefore let the whole house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, Lord in Christ." Well just because they killed Him, that didn't stop God's program, because God raised Him from the dead. He's still alive, and Peter of course is making it known. And then of course the message to Israel now was to repent. Well of what? Of having rejected their Messiah. My, that was something to repent of, and they were to repent of it. And naturally they were to prove their repentance with, as he says here, baptism. Repent and be baptized, but that was to the nation of Israel, in response to their having crucified their Messiah. Then as you come on over to chapter 3, Peter again is preaching to this massive crowd of Jews, who have now gathered because of the miracle that has happened to the lame man as a result of Peter and John. And then in verse 12 of chapter 3, when Peter saw it, that is the amazement of all these Jews, he answered to the people, "...Ye men of Israel," and again no mention of Gentiles, he said, "...ye men of Israel, why marvel at this? Or why look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we made this man to walk?" Verse 13, "...who did? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Now did that mean anything to Gentiles? No. My, the Romans could have cared less who came from Abraham, but to the Jews it meant everything that they were the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So he says, "...the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob hath glorified his son Jesus," and again Peter reminds them, what did they do? They killed Him. You delivered Him up in the presence of Pilate. Verse 15, "...and you killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead." Now when we were studying the book of Acts, I made the point, and you don't get it by just casually reading, but if you begin to study and pick it apart, you'll notice that never does Peter associate salvation with His death, burial, and resurrection. All Peter is claiming is that Jesus was the Christ, and they had crucified Him, but God raised Him from the dead, and He could still fulfill all those Old Testament promises because He was alive. Not as yet revealing the secret of all of God's purposes in His going to the cross. That's going to come a little later. Now as I pointed out in our class just the other night here in Oklahoma, God is sovereign, and He has the prerogative of keeping things secret. And Deuteronomy 29 says that so clearly, that God keeps things secret until He reveals them. But when He reveals it, He expects mankind to believe it. And so this is the whole scope of Scripture, that God will keep things secret until a particular point in time. Well He hasn't revealed yet that in that death, burial, and resurrection was wrapped up the salvation of the whole human race, but He's still dealing with Israel on the grounds of those covenant promises. Well as a rule when we come through the book of Acts, I like to bring them all the way over to chapter 7, and remember this is just an overview to bring us up to Saul of Tarsus and the outcalling of the Church, which is the next part of resurrection. So that's the reason for my madness. Now in Acts chapter 7, Stephen has gone through the whole sphere of Jewish history. From the call of Abram, through the Law, through the coming of Christ to proclaim Himself as their Messiah, and now of course they're ready to just jump on Him and put Him to death when He lifted up the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And then you'll remember that they ran on Him with one accord in verse 57, verse 58 they cast Him out of the city, and don't forget who the they are, it was the Jews, and they cast Him out of the city and stoned Him, which was the Jewish way of course of putting people to death. That was their capital punishment. And they laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Now this is the first time that we have someone other than the twelve and the elders of Israel introduced into the Acts account, Saul of Tarsus. Never heard of him before have we? Now all of a sudden he's going to fill the pages of the biggest part of our New Testament. And so as they were stoning Stephen in verse 59, and he said, "...And he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And as he kneeled down and cried to the Lord in a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." And now chapter 8, verse 1, and Saul of Tarsus was consenting, and I think the Greek would probably make it a little stronger, he was actually promoting his death. And there was a great persecution against those believing Jews at Jerusalem. Now then you come over to chapter 9. Everything up to this point in time has been God dealing with His covenant people. Everything up through the Old Testament as we showed in our last series of programs was directed not quite exclusively, but almost to the nation of Israel. There were some exceptions of course. And now there is a parting of the ways in God's program for the human race. For the first time now, He's going to deviate from that whole concept of Jew only. And now He's going to make this tremendous statement to Saul of Tarsus. Now we won't spend time in his salvation experience on the road to Damascus, but I'd like to have you come all the way down to chapter 9, and we deal with Ananias, the believing Jew there in Damascus. The Lord is speaking through Ananias concerning Saul who will shortly be coming into his acquaintanceship. And of course it says up here in verse 13, Ananias answered, 13. Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem, and here in Damascus he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. Now remember he's the chief persecutor, and he's going to stamp out anybody who has embraced Jesus of Nazareth as Israel's Messiah. Now you want to remember the major mentality of most Jews even today, is the same as Saul of Tarsus. They still think that Jesus was an imposter, and he was a blasphemer. They think that to do away with the name of Jesus from amongst Israel is doing their God a favor. I think I've shared this little anecdote on a previous program, I think I read it in one of the Jewish magazines, where an Evangelical and an old Jewish Rabbi were arguing the point as to Jesus' Messiahship, and when this Evangelical claimed that Jesus had already been here, and had been crucified, and had gone back to glory, and were waiting for Him to come the second time, naturally the Rabbi said, "...Oh no way, He's never been here." Well they argued that back and forth, and finally the old Rabbi said, "...Tell you what, we'll just wait until He gets here, and then I'm going to ask Him, have you been here before?" Well that says it, and that's the Jewish thinking, that He has not yet come. Even when they were in Israel a few weeks ago, our guide was a dyed in the wool Orthodox Jew, and he made no bones about it. Now he could talk about Jesus, he knew the Gospel accounts of Christ's earthly ministry better than most of us, but when you would ask him, "...Well now are you a believer, are you a Christian?" "...Oh no, I'm an Orthodox Jew." But you know they have to know all these things if they're going to guide people like us, but nevertheless it comes through real clear and plain that Christ has not yet come. They are still looking, and they think it's getting close. You talk to a Jew who knows his Old Testament, and he'll be quick to tell you that the Messiah is coming soon. Of course now most of you have been reading in all your papers, and I've been getting it from every corner of the country, clippings from every paper you can imagine about the Red Heifer in Israel. Well it's just another indication that these Orthodox Jews are excited about the prospect of their Messiah soon coming, and when the Messiah comes, He will set things so that they can have their Temple, and something will happen to the Muslims on the Temple Mount peacefully or otherwise, but they're sure that when Messiah comes, they're going to have their Temple worship. And they will, but it's not going to be the true Messiah, it's going to be the counterfeit Messiah, the Antichrist. If you have Jewish friends, and you have a chance to visit with them, and I have even over the phone, I've got a lot of Jewish listeners out there in television, and I'll ask them, what are you looking for in a Messiah? Well He's not God like you claim. The Messiah is just a man, but He's going to be a superman, just exactly the way I teach the Antichrist. Of course that's what He's going to be, and He's going to have tremendous charisma, and He's going to have tremendous ability to lead militarily and economically in every which way. But He's the counterfeit, He's the Antichrist. Well anyway, this whole mentality then was wrapped up in this one man, Saul of Tarsus, that Jesus was an imposter, that He was a blasphemer. And so this is what Ananias means here, that I have heard of many, how he has the authority now in verse 14 to bind all that call on thy name. Now look at verse 15, and if you've never caught it before, mark this verse down where Ananias now in Damascus is being spoken to by the Lord Jesus from heaven, and he says, Go thy way, for he, Saul of Tarsus, is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before thee Gentiles. Now you see you've never seen this before. I know people get shook up when I tell them that Jesus never ministered to Gentiles with one or two exceptions, and they can't swallow that. And they try to find all kinds of excuses that He must have gone to Gentiles. Well I always say, show me in the Scripture, show me where He had any concert with Gentiles. Well He didn't, except the Roman Centurion and the woman of Canaan, and other than that He confined His ministry in that little neck of land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Only to the Jews. And He made it so plain to the twelve, Go not into the way of a Gentile, or into the way of a Samaritan, and enter you not. And that was clear cut language. Now back up a minute, go to Acts chapter 11, because this is the one verse I guess that did more to open my own thinking than any other verse in Scripture. To bring me to the place where I could see that God had been dealing only with the Jew, with exceptions. I'll always have to put that in there. But He was dealing with the nation of Israel, from the Old Testament promises. And now look at what Acts 11 verse 19 says. And it's so plain, it isn't gobbledygook like a government decree. This is just plain language. And they who were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, that which we just read about back there in chapter 7. Those Jews who came under that persecution, headed up of course by Saul of Tarsus. They were scattered as far, or they traveled as far as Phoenix and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the Word, and I always have to stop there, what Word have they got? Old Testament. There's no New Testament written yet, and so the only Word of God they had was the Old Testament. And so they went everywhere preaching the Old Testament Word to, what's the next word? None but Jews only. Now if you can squeeze a Gentile in there, then you're a bigger miracle worker than I could ever hope to be. It just doesn't happen. They don't have Gentiles in their listening audience. They are appealing only to the Jew on the basis of all those Old Testament promises. Now come back to chapter 9 for just a moment, but you see here God is now sovereignly putting a fork in the road. And now He's going to send this man, Saul of Tarsus far hence to the Gentiles. And then in verse 16, and we know it was fulfilled to the last jot and tittle. For God says to Ananias, I will show Saul how great things he must suffer for My name's sake. And if you don't think that didn't come true, then you just go back into 2 Corinthians 10 where Paul rehearses all the horrible things that happened to him in his getting the Gospel out to the Gentiles. So now then, you continue on in chapter 9 after he had gotten some food and restored his sight, then in verse 20, I imagine from the house of Ananias, straight way he preached Christ in the synagogues. He didn't go uptown in the market place. He still is confining his preaching to what people? The Jew. Nobody has told him anything different yet. Now Ananias knew it, but I don't think Saul understood it yet. But now he goes immediately from the sight restoration after having recovered from that trauma on the road to Damascus, and he goes to the synagogue of the Jew. And does he preach Christ crucified, buried, risen from the dead? No. He hasn't heard any of that either. No more than Peter had. But what does he preach? That Jesus was the Christ. And so he preached that Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel. And that's all he knew. So now what does God have to do? Hey, God can't let him go on with that. He's got greater things for the man. Now you know God does things in mysterious ways doesn't He? God could have just appeared to him in a vision and said, Now Saul, it's going to get pretty tacky here in Damascus, you better be leaving. Go out the front gate and head down to the south. No, God doesn't do that with this man. He waits until the death threats get so heavy, and he's hearing it from more than one direction. Saul, there are people in Damascus that are trying to kill you. And so what do his friends do? Well they have to let him down the wall in a basket in the middle of the night, and not on the side where the main road ran, but evidently on the back side of Damascus. And I always have to remind my classmates, how would you like to have been in Saul's shoes? Back there 2,000 years ago, without benefit of all the street lights and lights everywhere, it was pitch dark. And they let him down on the back side of the wall, and he has to find his way knowing that there are people out there trying to kill him, and that was the way God did it. And from Damascus he took him, as he tells us later in Galatians chapter 1, down to Mount Sinai in Arabia. Well the very same place where God gave the Law to Moses, God is now going to give to this man these whole doctrines of grace. And in this doctrine of grace, Paul will usually refer to it as the Revelation of the Mysteries. 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.