4/1/2018 – Jesus was just the FIRST one to rise!…- Pastor Steve Blayer

The feast of firstfruits

1 Cor 15:17-26

…The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

For those who are in Christ, death (as a permanent condition) has already been defeated. Our outward body may fade away, but inside is the seed of life which, like flowers in the Spring, will come to life again at the Last Day!

Job 19:25-27   I know that my Redeemer lives…

Jesus came and provided us with the way to make that possible:

Galatians 2:20  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

In order to be raised from the dead, one first must die. Those who “die” now in Christ, become carriers of the same seed of life which raised Christ from the dead…and will be a part of the harvest from which Christ was reaped as the firstfruits.

 

Col 2:14  (TPT)   He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved ! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.

 

What things remain to be nailed to your cross, that you might experience resurrection life?

  • Your hurts – crucify the pain! (like Jesus, whose stripes stopped hurting on the cross
  • Your fears – even the fear of death itself
  • Your sins – things you say, “I wish I wasn’t like this”
  • Your dead religion / self-righteousness?
  • Your prideself-sufficiency (May work for now, but no matter how successful you are you cannot beat death. Nobody can raise themselves from the dead

The cross demands an answer – but the resurrection invites us into LIFE!!!