I understand from your own pastor that he has begun in the afternoon worship services working through the Belgian confession as one of our confessional statements. And so this afternoon we're stepping away from that because we're still in this season shortly after Easter in the Christian calendar before we celebrate the ascension of Christ. come with a message drawn from Lord's Day 17. I do understand that Reverend Swaybing had that as well on Easter Sunday, but I believe, as Reverend Swale also shared, that this message will be sufficiently different yet. So we're gonna look at the resurrection of Christ, the benefits, one in particular. In connection with that, I'd like to read with you from the scriptures in Deuteronomy 26, and then also 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Deuteronomy 26 may seem like a bit of an unusual scripture reading in connection with the resurrection, but that's chosen in connection with Lord's Day 17, which speaks about Christ's resurrection as the first fruits, a pledge of our blessed resurrection. Paul is the one who says, not the word pledge, but first fruits. So we're reading about the first fruits. What are they in Deuteronomy 26? And then consider how Christ's resurrection is also a first fruits. of our own blessed resurrection. So let's read Deuteronomy 26. This is the word of our God regarding the first fruits. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, You shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you and you shall put it in a basket and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall make response before the Lord your God. A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, a few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you. That's where we'll stop in Deuteronomy and then turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where we'll read the verses 12 through 23. So at the first portion of this chapter, Paul has been proving, in a way, the resurrection of Christ. He appeared to many. So there are eyewitnesses to his resurrection, and he's doing that because he's being confronted with those who deny the reality of the resurrection. And so we pick up his exposition there in verse 12. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ, the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Those are the selected scripture readings. I invite you to turn with me then as well to our confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 17. That's on page 879 of the Psalter hymnal, the Trinity Psalter hymnal, I should say. I will read the question and then invite you to recite together the answer, the three benefits. And so we ask, how does Christ's resurrection benefit us? First, by his resurrection, he has overcome death, so that he may share in the righteousness he obtained for us by his death. Second, by his power, we too are already raised to a new life. Third, Christ's resurrection is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection. So I'm going to zero in on that third benefit of Christ's resurrection as a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, you don't need me to tell you that we live in a broken world. Paul writes about it in Romans 8 very clearly. It's a groaning creation, he says. It's in bondage to corruption. It's subject to decay. It's in the pains of childbirth. We get the idea. We understand what he's saying, and we all feel that in different ways. It's because sin came into this world. Romans 5, and Paul says, with sin came death. And its devastating effect touches everyone, without exception. Well, with one exception, Jesus, the only one who lived and died, yet rose again, never to die again. And in that moment, everything changed. And I mean everything. That's why Paul spends so much time on it in the chapter we read. We get to focus this afternoon on one part of that. The Heidelberg Catechism, as we just said it, summarizes it this way. Christ's resurrection is to us a sure pledge. of our blessed resurrection. The proof text that's provided there in the Catechism is drawn from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, which we read. But there, as I pointed out, the apostle uses a different word. He doesn't speak of a sure pledge. He talks about a firstfruits. I dare say that's even richer than the words sure pledge. And so we're going to use That word and the theme because of its connection also to the Old Covenant, to the Old Testament, and I'll use the word pledge in one of the headings of the sermon. And so I have the blessed opportunity this afternoon to bring God's comfort in Christ's resurrection, and we're gonna focus there. Christ, the firstfruits, turns the cemetery into a fruitful field. That's the theme for this afternoon, and we're gonna break that into three points. We're gonna consider the priority of that the pledge in that and the promise that comes with that. Christ, the firstfruits, turns the cemetery into a fruitful field. First of all, the priority. That's one way that we could think about that word firstfruits, priority. It's like the word firstborn. The firstborn in Israel had priority. God even gave certain laws in the Old Covenant about the inheritance of the firstborn. Perhaps you remember the stories of Esau, the firstborn, and how he sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup. It turns out that was expensive soup. The firstborn was entitled to twice the inheritance of the others. The firstborn then also had a special status, one of priority. That's one angle to the word firstfruits. The firstfruits is the cream of the crop, we might say. We read about the firstfruits in Deuteronomy chapter 12. We'll get into it in a bit more detail in a moment in the second point, but we can say it here already, the firstfruits were not the leftovers. They weren't the gleanings from the corners of the field. God had other laws about the gleanings. God wasn't looking for what his people could scrape together after they'd used up most of it themselves already. God has priority. He receives the best. He deserves the best because he gave the best. Christ is the firstfruits. And his resurrection is the firstfruits. The Apostle Paul says that slightly differently in Colossians 1 verse 18. This is what he says there. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Again, his resurrection has priority. It's number one. Oh, there were resurrections before his. Perhaps you remember from the Old Testament already how both Elijah and Elisha were privileged to raise young men from the dead. Elijah in 1 Kings 17, you can read that story, and Elisha in 2 Kings 4. Or how about this story in 2 Corinthians, 2 Kings 13 verse 20, even after Elisha had already died. It's a great story. Elisha was still working miracles after he had died. That's what it says there. This is what it says in 2 Kings 13. So Elisha died and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the cave of Elisha. And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. Can you imagine the look of shock? on the men's faces who had been burying him and were now running away from there. Never mind the reaction of the man actually who had already died and came back out of this grave after his body was thrown in there. So there were resurrections already in the Old Testament. In the New Testament too, Jesus raises the son of the widow of Nain. He calls Lazarus from the tomb. The moment he breathes his last on Good Friday, tombs are opened and the dead are raised. But all of these will have to die again. They were all raised but with the same weak and broken bodies that one day would have to suffer death a second time. They became examples of the power of God over death. But was it disappointing for them to be called back from the grave, only later to have to go back there again? Christ is the firstborn from the dead. He has priority. Why? Well, because he died and rose again never to face death again. What did the resurrection of all those other ones change? They were still subject to the same sicknesses, the same diseases, the same hurts, the same pains. But what about Christ's resurrection? His resurrection changes everything. It changes everything starting with himself. When the Apostle Paul says that he preaches nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified, he doesn't mean for us to think only ever of Christ on the cross because that wouldn't fit with the sermons of the apostles, for example, including Paul that we find in the book of Acts. Perhaps you remember his trip to Athens, where he preached there on the Areopagus. What was it that triggered the end of his sermon in Athens? It was when Paul started speaking about the resurrection. When the apostle Paul preaches, he preaches the risen Christ. That's how Peter started already on the day of Pentecost. The Christ who died was risen. risen and ascended to sit at the right hand of God. And the risen Jesus is a changed Jesus, isn't he? What was sown in dishonor was raised in glory. What was sown in weakness was raised in power. To use more words from Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, he died once but rose again never to die again. The mortal had put on immortality. Well, this Jesus, Peter says on the day of Pentecost, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed. But he continues, this Jesus God raised up. And to come then to the climax, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus, whom you crucified. Peter is saying, he died, yes. But because he rose again, God made him both Lord and Christ. Or as Paul puts it in Romans 1 verse 4, and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Again, our Lord, our master, by his resurrection. Because there he is in heaven now, not in humiliation anymore. Not in sinful flesh. He's in glory, exalted to the right hand of the throne of God. That's why Stephen saw him standing there at the right hand of God in power and glory and victory. Acts 7 verse 54 to 60. That's how the apostle Paul is going to meet him on the road to Damascus as the Christ in glory. That's what he's getting at in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 16. This is what he writes there. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. That is, at one time, he thought Jesus nothing more than a man, a false teacher, but no more. He is the dead yet risen Christ. Paul met him on the road and had to say, who are you, Lord? Not who are you, Jesus, in sinful flesh, but who are you, Lord, the conqueror of sin and death? Or what about the vision of John on the island of Patmos? Is it not the risen and ascended Jesus that he sees there in the midst of the golden lampstands? What does he see? He sees one like a son of man. clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head are white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes are like flames of fire. His feet are like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice is like the roar of many waters." Now, that's not a literal description, but it is to say John sees him in glory and power. Flaming eyes this oceanic voice snow blinding brilliance You want to see Jesus This is the Jesus the Christ that we know today brothers and sisters the resurrected one the firstborn from the dead He's not the weak, soft man that some will preach and teach today, your buddy who just wants to walk beside you and hold your hand. He's no Sisyphide Christ, as others have said it. He is the risen one. He is not in sinful flesh under the power of sin, our sin. He's not even carrying our sorrows anymore, our sin and our griefs. He has changed. Death couldn't keep its hold on him. He left behind the weakness and the frailty forever when he stepped out of that tomb. He conquered sin and death. He gained a complete and total victory over it. What was sown in weakness was truly raised in power. Oh, he was still on earth for 40 days after in the flesh. He pointed his disciples to the nail marks in his hands and the hole in his side, but his flesh was changed, dramatically changed. He had died once and rose never to die again. These were only the battle scars left from his war against sin and Satan, a war in which he had triumphed decisively. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? than what Lord's Day 18 says. We have our flesh in heaven. We have to know that's not the weakened flesh, but it's glorified flesh, the flesh that we long to be clothed with one day. The risen Jesus is truly a changed Jesus. He is, as one author writes, the Jesus at whose holy, horrifying presence John fell down as dead. This Jesus, not the Jesus of the Gospels anymore, is the Jesus alive today. This is the Jesus who rides through the clouds on His white horse, a sharp sword in His mouth with which to strike down the nations. On His robe and on His thigh, He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19. You hear it, beloved. Jesus Christ is the first born from the dead. The first fruits. His resurrection has priority. It has primacy. His first rites to glorious. And that then comes with more. Because His resurrection, having this priority, is also a pledge. Pledge of what? Well, it's a pledge of more. Of more who will be raised. See, the first fruits wasn't just a giving of the first and the best. Giving to the Lord was never to be understood that way, that you just have to make sure that you give the first and the best and then the rest is yours. No, the first fruits for Israel was already saying something different. There are a number of different passages in the Old Testament about that, but we just read from Deuteronomy 26. Verse one, when you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground. Take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest. from your land that the Lord your God is giving you and you shall put it in a basket and you shall go to the place, et cetera. Bring the first fruits of all the fruit. And then listen again to what it says later. It's kind of a prescribed statement which we read in verse five and following. We're gonna jump to verse nine. He brought us into this place. God brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground which you, O Lord, have given me." What were they saying? Well, God brought us here, gave us all of this, and now I bring the first fruits of the ground that you gave me. The first fruits is the first part of the whole. It was their confession that everything belongs to the Lord. The firstfruits of the flock, the firstfruits of the harvest, they were brought to the Lord because he is the giver of all of it. He is and remains the owner of all of it. The firstfruits simply symbolize the whole. when the Israelites would come to the priest with a sheaf of wheat in hand, for example, saying, this is the first of the fruit of the land. What they were saying to the priest was, and the rest of it, where that came from, I know also belongs to the Lord, and I will put all of that to use in service to him, just like I present this to him. That's how it worked. It's a good reminder for the way that we look at our giving too, our giving of our first fruits. It's not first this for the Lord and then everything else is for me. It's to say, Lord, I know it all belongs to you. And just like I give this to you, I'm going to put everything else that I have in service to you. So now imagine the women who went to the tomb on that Easter morning. They're going there, remember, to finish the embalming process. They're not expecting at all to do what they find there. But what do they do when they learn what happened? They run back to the disciples to share the news. They're fit to burst with the news. And what news? They pass on to the disciples what the angels have said. He's not here because he's risen. And now the apostle Paul says in what we read in 1 Corinthians 15, they're like the women who might be coming in from the field to the priests with a sheaf of wheat in their hands saying, here's the first fruits, I just left the field, and see, it's ripe for the harvest. There's much more where this came from. That's what Paul is saying these women are doing when they've left the tomb. They may not know it yet, but that's what they're sharing. Christ, the first fruits, there's way more where that came from. His is the first of the whole. There's going to be a whole lot of resurrections now for sure because Christ has risen. Back to 1 Corinthians 15, 22, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Adam is the first fruit, so to speak, of death. In Adam, all die. Adam died, everyone else is going to die. No denying that truth. Well, Paul says, in Christ, all shall be made alive. Point being, there's no denying that truth either. Paul doesn't mean to say that every human being is going to be made alive in Christ just like every human being suffers death in Adam. What he's doing is he's describing two family trees. Whoever is or stays in the family tree of Adam dies. But whoever is in the family tree of Christ, by faith in Him, will live. He will live as Christ lives, bodily raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death, no longer subject to the devastating effects of sin. Christ's resurrection is the pledge of that. Christ's body was raised. Our bodies will be raised. Now that's true for every last human body in one way. Jesus says it too, on that last day, everyone will rise, some to face eternal death and some eternal life. But here in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is focusing on the one, those who belong to Jesus. Christ's resurrection is the first fruits, the pledge. There's more where that came from. That's why he can go on to write about planting the body like a seed. It might be dead now, but it's going to live. That's what happens, right? When you plant a seed, or at least that's the intent. Spring is bursting all around us. Beautiful time of year. Trees are budding, some in full bloom. The perennials are all pushing through the soil. Maybe you're planting your seeds already for summer's veggie garden. You plant, trusting it will grow and eventually bear fruit. Christ's resurrection is the first fruits, the first seed planted on Good Friday to have borne fruit that third day. That third day. Rabbit trail alert. It's where my mind went and I had to share it. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's not nothing. But isn't it interesting that on the third day of creation, God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which there's their seed. And now here's this third day. The day Christ rises from the dead, a new creation, and Paul says he's the first fruits. Now in him, every seed that's planted will sprout vegetation. Paul is saying that's what God is declaring in Christ that third day. Now I don't know how it is for you. If you plant a vegetable garden at home, typically when we plant a garden at our house, after the kids have put the seeds in their beautiful little rows, we put a little sign, a marker so that we know what they planted there. Carrots, beans, potatoes, lettuce. For each, there's a little sign so that when those plants start sprouting, we know what we're looking for. Picture that. Think of that the next time you walk through a cemetery. Many of you, if not most of you, have stood around a graveside at some point in your life. And if not, have at least seen one. Now Paul is saying, because Christ rose from the dead, that tombstone of your loved one in Christ is like the marker in our vegetable garden. Here is the seed that we have planted, his body or her body, one day their body will be raised like Christ, the first fruits. We need that comfort, don't we? Jesus offers a lot of comfort already to the criminal on the cross when he says, today you're going to be with me in paradise. Today, at the moment of death with Jesus in paradise. Beautiful comfort. That's why Paul can say to the Philippians already, I desire to depart and be with Christ. The body may be laid in the dust of death, but that soul goes to be with Christ. We cling to that comfort when we have to say goodbye to loved ones in the Lord. But it's not enough, is it? It can't just stop there, can it? It's not the final destination, is it? The final hope? Because otherwise Jesus hasn't dealt with all the effects of death. The body is still just in the dirt from dust to dust. But that body and that soul, they need to be reunited. They belong together. My only comfort in life and in death is that body and soul I belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. It's no wonder that the souls around the altar in Revelation 6 are crying out, how long? O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they're told to rest a little longer, rest a little longer. because the greater and better day is still coming. And you can be sure it's coming because Christ rose the first fruits, a pledge, a pledge of that precious promise that we also who believe in Christ will be gloriously raised. That's our last point. For the apostle Paul shares the promise of God in Philippians 3 verse 21, but our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body. How's He going to do that? Well, those are the questions that we read in our Bible reading too, but some will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? And Paul says, oh foolish person. And he goes on to express how that is something we don't need exactly to know. Only trust in the glorious contrast that will be revealed. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. All that has corrupted this world and this flesh will be undone. No more tears, no more death, no more crying, no more mourning, no more pain. They will all have passed away. All because Jesus lives. Glorious as his body is, as we heard in the first point, glorious will our bodies be. As the apostles John says to in 1 John 3, beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. We shall be like Him. How often do you reflect on that? We ought to reflect on it often. John is saying there in 1 John 3, everyone who thus hopes in Him. purifies himself as he is pure. In other words, that future hope, that future destination, it frames everything that we do, in other words, right here in the present. We need to repent of our small-minded, narrow focus sometimes. It's tempting, isn't it, to get caught up in this life and all the trouble and the burden in this life. But look at this perspective, this glorious perspective. We shall be like him. A glorious resurrection. Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself. In some, he repents of his sin and turns constantly to Jesus, the risen Christ, devoting his entire life to him in loving service. Knowing that we, when we believe in Jesus Christ, will one day be like Him, fills us with hope when we're discouraged, boldness when we're timid, courage when we're afraid, confidence when we're terrified, joy when we're sorrowing, Focus when we're distracted. Light when we're dark. Peace when we're anxious. Calm when we're shaken. Because Christ rose, we who are in Christ will one day rise too, gloriously, when everything wrong is made right, when everything hurtful is healed, when everything broken is made whole. What exactly that's going to be like is beyond our wildest imagination. But we are loved by a God who is able to do far more than all that we can even think or imagine. You ever doubt that? Question that? Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. The first fruits who turns a cemetery into a fruitful field. What a sight that's going to be. Once we've planted those seeds in our garden at home, we always watch carefully, eagerly, excitedly for those first signs of life. It's a delightful day when those sprouts push through the soil, well on their way to becoming that beautiful plant they were created to be. Oh, the day when those graves they burst open and the glorious new plants appear, each with the body they were created to be. Then the quiet of that place in the cemetery will be shattered by the noise of wonderful new life, each gravestone marking the place of the new plant that's appearing. It was all made sure beyond a shadow of doubt That moment when the women ran back from the tomb with the message from the angels, he's not here for he's risen. Christ has risen. Hallelujah. The first fruits of our glorious resurrection. Praise God for his indescribable gift. Amen. Let's pray. Our good and gracious God, how can we even begin to express our deep gratitude to you? What a gospel, the gospel of life in the risen Christ. Father, we pray, impress this message of hope upon our hearts. For we do live in a broken world, a groaning creation, subject to decay and bondage to corruption. We all feel that. We feel that in our own lives, the pains and the sufferings. We experience that also when we stand at the graveside of a loved one. What a perspective You've given us, Father, that even the cemetery in Christ can become a fruitful field. How we long for that day, hasten its coming, Father. Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha. Amen.