Sermon Recap
First Fruits of the Resurrection
Part 4 of 6 in The Feasts of the Lord
Parte 4 de 6 de la serie The Feasts of the Lord
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Brian Hunter · May 11, 2025
“But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
Scripture Referenced
Recap
On Mother’s Day, Brian continued a series built around the Feast of Firstfruits described in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 26, where Israelite farmers brought the very first cutting of their harvest to the Lord before the rest of the crop was gathered. The series’ running bottom line, revisited again this week, is that Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 describes Christ’s resurrection as the first of a larger harvest still to come, with “as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” as the hinge point between humanity’s fall and its future restoration.
Brian and the church then moved into 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul’s teaching on what happens to believers who have already died when Christ returns: written, Paul says, specifically so believers “will not grieve like people who have no hope.” The passage’s picture of the dead in Christ rising first, followed by the living being caught up together with them, was framed as a direct outworking of Jesus being the firstfruits: what happened to him first is the pattern for what happens to everyone in him.
The conversation closed by wrestling with how much of this future hope is guaranteed versus how much depends on present faithfulness, with several in the room pushing back on any framing that reduces the Christian life to chance, insisting that believers have real agency in living toward the victory Christ has already secured.
Touch Points
- Jesus as the “firstfruits” means what happened to him is the pattern for what happens to those in him. Does that image change how you think about your own future resurrection?
- Paul says this teaching exists so believers “will not grieve like people who have no hope.” How does that hope shape the way you currently think about loss?
- The discussion pushed back on reducing faith to chance, insisting believers have real agency. Where do you notice yourself leaning toward passivity instead of active faith?
- What would it look like to live this week with the same confidence in future resurrection that this passage describes?