Firstborn From the Dead - November 30th, 2014 sermon

By Pastor Greg

          Johnny was coming home from church one Sunday morning with his mother. His mother noticed he had a serious look on his face. "What's on your mind, Johnny?" she asked. "Is it true what the preacher said about us all coming from dust and turning back to dust?" "Why, yes, it is, Johnny," she said. "Why do you ask?" "Well”, he answered, “when we get home you better look under my bed because someone's either comin' or goin!"

          Some of the most fragile times in our lives are the coming and the going.  But coming doesn’t seem to be as traumatic as the going.  It seems few of us remember the coming.  But we certainly are concerned about the going.  Recently someone said they don’t worry about being dead; it’s the process of dying they’re not too fond of.  However, birth and death are not the only stages we will face in our existence.  For the redeemed, there is another.

          To the Colossian Christians, Paul writes “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  (Colossians 1:18).  As Paul continues to lift up Christ to the Colossian Christians, he reminds them that Jesus is the head of the Church and that He is Firstborn of the dead; indicating that there is yet another step in store for those who call Jesus Lord.  Men and women and children who have been ransomed from the fire owe their life to Jesus.  By accepting Jesus as Savior, the Church (those who are “Born Again”) have been granted eternal life (John 3:16).

Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about being born of the Spirit (John 3:6).  And being born of the Spirit speaks of a moment when we become filled with God the Spirit because of our belief in God the Son.  And God the Spirit accomplishes many things in our lives while we live here on earth; for example, gifting us for ministry, helping us connect to God the Father, and convicting us of sin.  We call this being "Born again".  But according to Paul there is another rebirth as well; a lesson the Colossian Christians needed to hear.

Remember their fixation on angels and spirits (Colossians 2:18).  The great false teaching at this point in history was that the physical world was wicked and sinful, but the spiritual world was good and pure (called Gnosticism).  This is why Paul speaks often about the physical body in which Christ lived (For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body - Colossians 2:9).  Trying to correct a common-held misunderstanding, Paul points out that the greatest thing God the Father can do for us is not to kill the body so the spirit can be freed from sin, but to give humanity the gift of the resurrection; and Jesus is the “Firstborn of the Dead”; the first of many who will one day be reborn from the dead.

Gnosticism taught that death freed the spirit; and when free, a person would live eternally as a spirit no longer confined in a sinful, physical body.  Yet the Gospel writers all point out that Jesus rose again with a body.  He could be touched.  He could eat.  He could be seen.  And Paul says that the resurrected Jesus is just the beginning.  As the head of the church, Jesus has become the first of many who will be resurrected.

Resurrection is different than being brought back to life.  The truth is we do not die.  We continue to live even though the body in which we live dies.  So when Christ talks about the resurrection, He isn’t taking about the reanimation of our bodies (like Lazarus, for example), but recreating something new; something like the old, but not the same.  We see this in the resurrected Jesus.  His new body was like the old, but so much more.  It was similar, but not the same.

In pursuit of a bigger Messiah, Paul reminds us that Jesus is not just Lord over life and Lord over creation, but He is also Lord over death.  And as Lord (head), He will take the Church with Him.  This is what Paul means when he says that Christ is the Head; the Firstborn from the dead.  He implies that others will follow; meaning The Church.  Just as He holds all things together in this life, so too will He hold all things together in the next.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-56. There, Paul mentions that one day death will be overcome.  But how can there be victory if only our spirits live?  They are already eternal.  Death has laid claim to the physical, so victory over death can only be claimed when it becomes a physical victory; which is exactly what Jesus accomplished by leaving death behind and walking out of the grave.   Death is defeated not just spiritually but physically as well.  Paul stresses quite clearly that even though our present bodies may pass away, a new immortal body will be given to all who call Jesus Lord. “These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever”. 

Christ does what no other could; He rises from the dead so that the church might also rise to life.  Christ does what none other has.  He leaves behind an empty grave.  And the best part of this is that you and I are already halfway there.  We have won half of this victory by being born of the Spirit.  Total victory over sin & death will one day be ours when mortality puts on immortality.  For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. ² We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. ³ For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies (2 Corinthians 5:1-3). 

Without the resurrection of Jesus there would be no resurrection.  If Christ had not been flesh and blood, there would be no physical resurrection, only a spiritual release from creation.  But since Jesus is Lord of Creation and Lord over Creation, and since Jesus will receive a glorified creation as an inheritance, then there must be more than simply a “spiritual” world up there somewhere; a place where we exist as angelic creatures with wings and halo’s over our head.   If Jesus is the “First fruits” of the resurrection, then it seems to make sense that what He has become, we will become as well.

It is not ashes and dust that awaits us.  Our future is not one where we become angel-like waiting to win our wings, but a future where we become like Christ; for He is the head, the firstborn from the dead.  On that day when we are reborn we will not become angels, but we will receive our resurrection gift; a glorified body that shall never die.  And as the Bride (the Church) is given to Christ, the angels will stand back and sing praises to what God the Son has done; that through Him and by Him and For Him all Creation is glorified.