The FESTAL MOTIF of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our All Things Fulfilled broadcast. This is William Bell, and we are going to be studying 1 Corinthians 15. We'll be talking about the festive motif of 1 Corinthians 15, and it's good to be back. I had a little illness going on last week, and so now I'm feeling much better. My voice is returning, and I'm looking forward to presenting this lesson to you today. If you look at the title, and be sure and share this with your friends. I think a lot of people need to hear this, and I think it's a very interesting material. I probably should get the Bible in front of me as well, and so we will be underway just momentarily. But this lesson will, in my opinion, put to rest the arguments that are made from the futurists who like to go to Matthew 25, John 5, Revelation 20, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, Acts 17, all of those passages, and string them together, throw them out in a debate argument, and say, now answer that. In other words, they think by throwing all those passages together that they have adequately responded to the teaching on the resurrection. This is what Seth Nayarko did in our debate in Ghana, and it backfired on him, and this is what David Hester did to Don Preston, and the same thing backfired on him as well. So it sounds like a good thing to do, but because people do not understand the festival motif of 1 Corinthians 15, they do not get the marriage motif, and they do not get the exodus motif of the chapter, and they fail to understand the thesis of the chapter, which is Christ died for our sins, this is why they get into this concept of Christ dying for our skin. Thank you, Tarzi. I have a tailor in Cape Coast, Ghana, who makes my clothes, and I have to give him a shout out. His name is Kwesi. He has a little shop, but he does a great job, and if you have some designs that, or anybody has some designs that you want to send me, send me to them, and I will send them to him, give them to him, but I kind of designed this one myself, and it was not original, but it was something that I saw, but still it was one that I preferred, and he'll make anything that I ask him to make. So I appreciate that. At any rate, let's get back to the lesson. So we established the, good morning to you, Gail and Stephen, and to all the rest who will come, be sure and hit the share button on this particular lesson. Now, as I said, we established the exodus motif in 1 Corinthians 15. If you haven't watched that video, go back and watch it. You might want to watch it two or three times to get the essence of what that's all about. I think they are absolutely very powerful in terms of what's going on in 1 Corinthians 15, because 1 Corinthians 15 is based on the Passover event as far as Jesus's death is concerned, and of course Passover was, you know, one of the leading events as it related to the exodus, barring all of the plagues and everything that transpired. It was that culminating event in that series of plagues that God meted out on Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. And so from this, we established the 40-year parameter to the redemption of Israel from bondage, and that cannot be denied. I don't think that anyone could deny it. Look, send me your measurements. Look, I've been thinking about going in the business, in the clothing business. Send me your measurements. Make sure they're accurate, and I'll send them to him, and we'll get your garment, you know, and your color, etc. But at any rate, back to what I was saying, the exodus motif, as far as a 40-year period, is undeniable. I mean, you got Hebrews 3 that tells you that. You have Acts 7 36 that tells you that. You've got the book of Exodus, you know, when you go back and read it, it was a 40-year. You have Psalm 95 that tells you that. So we're on solid ground when we talk about the exodus being a 40-year transition period out of the bondage of Egypt into the land of Canaan. Not only that, but the redemption in the New Testament follows that same pattern. It is the second exodus, and as the second exodus, we are submitting to you, and we have done so through the arguments that we've made, that it is also a 40-year process. So when you look at Jesus's death, and you see the beginning of redemption through his death, according to Hebrews 9 15, Hebrews 9 26, and compare that, and of course his death on Passover, and you compare that with the redemption that is found in 70 AD, according to Luke 21 and verse 28, then it's very clear that you have another 40-year period for the time of redemption. And of course I covered, you know, more detail than that in that particular lesson. But not only did we talk about the 40-year period for the exodus, we also spoke about the 40-year period for the marriage, and the marriage is going to come up again in this lesson. Now whether I get to it today, I'm not sure. I've got seven pages of notes in addition to others in my head, so I doubt if I get through all of that in 30 minutes time. But nevertheless, we will get through it in the series. So from that perspective, you have the marriage posited at the destruction of the city, from Matthew chapter 22, Matthew 24 and 25, from Ephesians chapter 6, when you compare Ephesians 6 and Revelation 12, because the church at Ephesus being one of the seven churches, and there was a war that was going on. Don Preston has done studies on the war, so I encourage you to take a look at that when you get a chance. But nevertheless, you will see that this war took place, and then following God's vengeance on the city, which of course was Mystery Babylon in Revelation 17, 18, and 19, 1 and 2, immediately following that came the wedding. And the same thing is true with the destruction of the heaven and earth of chapter 20, verse 11, into 21 and verse 1, where when heaven and earth passed away, which refers to the old covenant system, the temple, etc., then you have the wedding, the bride coming down out of heaven. And so that theme is very solid, it's a 40-year period for the destruction of that. Good morning Mark, good to see you. All right, so with that being the case, that marriage motif led us to 1 Corinthians 15, based on the covenant that God made with Israel in Sinai. You have Exodus 19 to support that, Exodus 24, there's Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, where God says he was a husband to them when he made that covenant with them, the covenant that they broke, so he was entering into a covenant, a marriage covenant, that's Ezekiel 16 as well. And then we have the two concepts of the marriage covenant that had to do with the espousal period, which was the time in the wilderness after God had entered into that covenant with them, and then the time of the wedding when they enter into the land, which would be the consummated part of it. And you have the same thing when you look at the example of Joseph and Mary, you have an espousal period prior to the time that they came together, and remember she was pregnant with the child of the Holy Spirit, he was wanting to put her away, because they had not yet come together, but they later consummated the marriage. And that's also 2 Corinthians 11, and verse 2, where Paul tells the church, he says, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And then we see in Ephesians 5, where he talks about presenting the church to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, that it should be holy and without blemish. He's focusing on the actual time of the wedding, which was still future in the time of Ephesians 5, but when you get to Revelation 19, where the city of Babylon is destroyed, that's when he says the time for the marriage has come, and his wife has made herself ready, and all of that that you find in chapter 19 and also in chapter 21. So, and that marks out the 40-year period, because it is tied to the destruction of the city. Good morning Terry. All right, now, and so you have a 40-year period for the Exodus motif, you got a 40-year period for the marriage motif, and I'm suggesting to you that there's a 40-year period for the Festal motif, and when I talk about the Festal motif, I'm talking about the Feast Days, the Hebraic Feast Days, that we find in Leviticus 23, and I suggest if you're not familiar with those, that you go back and brush up on them and look at them, because they mark out Israel's agricultural year, they mark out the time of Israel's harvest, and that began with the Passover, and that is what we have in 1 Corinthians 15, the beginning of that event, all the way down to its consummation, which was at the Feast of Tabernacles, and that ended their calendar year in that last Festal week, and so this is what we're saying is all enshrouded or wrapped up, interwoven in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and so that is the third motif that we are discussing. It was expressed in Paul's words in terms of looking at it from this Festal point of view when he mentioned that Christ died for our sins, and the Festal motif is going to further emphasize the thesis of 1 Corinthians 15 being related to the removal of sin, being related to the thesis that Christ died for our sins, and so just as a reminder, we showed repeatedly from Scripture that Christ died for our sins. Of course, you go back to Isaiah 53, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, etc., and Luke 19 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, and therefore the people who were in sin. You have Romans 3 23 through 26 that says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation for his blood, as a covering. That's a term that comes straight out of Exodus, I think it's in Exodus 25, but I may be incorrect on that, but when they're building the tabernacle, he talks about the mercy seat and the propitiation or the covering for their sins, and so he says through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God passed over the sins, so there's your Passover, he passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. Another text that was critical in establishing this was Romans 4 and verse 24 and 25 that says, it shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised for our justification. You have Romans 5, I think it's verses 6-8 where it talks about in due time Christ died for the ungodly, so look at all of these passages over and over again that are emphasizing the fact that Jesus died for our sins and that's the springboard that begins the resurrection discussion in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 5-7 look at the connectivity between the feast days and the Passover where the text says, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover is or was sacrificed for us. And then you have Galatians 1-4 that Christ died for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of God and our father. Ephesians 1-7 in him we have redemption and the present tense there in him we are having our redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins and that was the pre-parousia time frame. And then 1 Peter 3 and verse 18 where Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit those allocatives of course. Speaking of the sphere in which Christ was put to death in the flesh as he was dying to the old covenant and then he rose in the new realm being the firstborn from the dead the beginning of the new creation of God. Hebrews 9-26 now this is an important text as we discuss the festival motif because we need to see the framework for the resurrection in terms of the festival calendar. Hebrews 9-26 says he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world but now once at the end of the ages he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So look at how Jesus's death is interwoven with the time of the end. It says he appeared in the end of the age or at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Jesus dying for our sins was his dying at the end of the age. Now why is that important as it relates to resurrection? It is because Israel's festival calendar their agricultural season was one period. In other words they didn't have the first part of their feast days for example Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Pentecost which were the spring and summer festivals. They didn't have that one year and then wait for another year in order to have the fall festivals take place. The spring was a part of the fall festivals and the fall festivals were part of the spring festivals. So what do I mean by that? What that's telling you is that the harvest which is resurrection and I don't think anybody would deny that because Hebrews not Hebrews but Matthew chapter 13 verses 39 and 40 tells us that the harvest is the end of the age. So you have Jesus dying at the end of the age but he doesn't say in the very end of it but his death was in the end of the age but the harvest is the end of the age and there are quite a few passages in the New Testament to support that. Well that means that in the same period of time the same time frame where you have the Passover you also have the Feast of Tabernacles, the Day of Atonement and or I should say the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles in that same age. Now let that settle in and sink in for just a moment. I was trying to share this with someone early this morning and took a few times for them to get it to see that when you're talking about Israel's festival calendar everything happens in the same agricultural year. In other words when Jesus dies that becomes the beginning of the harvest season and the process doesn't end until Tabernacles of the same year. So there is no such thing as talking about Jesus's death in the first century which who will deny right if they believe in the Bible. There's no such thing as Jesus is dying in the first century and then talking about a harvest that takes place in the 21st century. It's absolutely ludicrous so from the perspective of understanding the feast date because the harvest is the end of the age. It's not the end of thousands and thousands of years it's the end of the same age in which Jesus died and what that does ladies and gentlemen that just puts a lock on this subject of the resurrection and the people who are trying to manipulate the text to talk about bodies and to talk about a future resurrection they are out of alignment with Israel's festival calendar. Now take a look at this that is correct Terry you can't have one without the other. Good morning Ron as well and in first Corinthians chapter 10 now we just read in first Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7 where the text says you know in connection with the feast of unleavened bread that Christ was our Passover it was sacrificed for us Christ our Passover was sacrificed well in chapter 10 and verse 11 the text tells you that the end of the age was coming upon that generation. I mean it's very clear so in verse 11 he says now all these things happen to them as examples or types and he's speaking about the things that transpired in Israel's history at Mount Sinai when they made the golden calf and at Moab when they committed idolatry with the Moabites and worshiped Baal but he says all these things happen to them as examples and they were written for our admonition excuse me upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So here is first Corinthians telling you that the end of the ages has come upon them Jack you know I have to give you full credit for going along this line you gave me that one tip and man it just blew my mind and and this is what he's leading to okay but at any rate that's the point and you know let these futurists get up in a debate now and try to try to string all these passages together like I said before Matthew 25, Acts 17, John 5, Revelation 20, Revelation 21, 2nd Peter 3 all of them let them try to string those things together they are going to have a tremendous headache and we'll put that argument to rest for good but in Deuteronomy 16 1 through 8 I don't have time to cover all of these I'm just giving them to you as a reference for the people who may not be as familiar with the festival calendar of Israel and the Passover etc but Deuteronomy 16 1 through 8 talks about the Passover but it also talks about the feast of unleavened bread which was also called the bread of affliction and as you know Israel had to eat that bread in haste you know on the night of the Passover and they were being chased by the Egyptians etc so that was indicative of the persecution that they were engaged in and so when you read first Corinthians 5 and the Bible tells you you know let us keep the feast well that was not only the feast of unleavened bread but it was also considered as the bread of affliction which was indicative of the fact that they were going through the eschatological sufferings during that time and that's why you read about them Jesus prophesied them in Matthew 24 and John 16 but you see the apostles going through it at the persecution of Stephen even with the apostles in chapters 4 and 5 and then throughout the epistles you have this persecution thing well that's the bread of affliction while they're keeping the feast of unleavened bread that they are encountering and I'm going to get to the text in a minute this is all set up material before we actually get to some of the passages in first Corinthians 15 that deals with that I don't know what my time frame is I might be over it already and so the point is if the Passover occurred in the end of the age and the resurrection occurred at the end of the age then the feast of unleavened bread also occurred in close connection with the Passover it was an end of the age concept as well and they were yet keeping that feast it was the removal of leaven from their houses and leaven when you read first Corinthians 15 I'm not 15 the first Corinthians chapter 5 you can see that leaven in that chapter is a reference for malice insincerity etc for sin and etc and so he says let us keep the feast and they in that chapter they were talking about purging out the old lump and the chapter begins with the the man who was guilty of fornication and and so he's talking about purging out that lump so it was referring to sin so when we see that Jesus died for our sins there's a close connection with the feast of with the Passover because he died on Passover but then what was the purpose of his death it was for the remission of sins of the people that he was going to bring along into the new age with him and there's your feast of unleavened bread that's mentioned in that in that particular context and so they were keeping that feast of unleavened bread um that's what sin and its removal in first Corinthians 15 is all about and it shows you that the feast days being found in first Corinthians 15 further undergirds the theme or the thesis that Christ died for our sins you don't have a feast day that is related to raising your body from the ground uh it just is not there in terms of the resurrection uh it was all about um raising them out of sin death and when you look in first Corinthians 15 let's just look at a couple of passages in verse 17 it says and um if Christ is not risen your faith is vain you are still in your sins so you can see how Jesus's death is totally related to their being in their sins and again he says um then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished what does he mean they've perished because they're in their sins that's what Jesus told them in John 8 21 he says if you do not believe that I am he you shall die in your sins and where I am you cannot come the place that he was talking about coming was in the father's house it was in the presence of God uh Hebrews 6 19 and 20 then you have another text in first Corinthians 15 and verse 34 where he says awake to righteousness well what is the opposite of righteousness it's unrighteousness in other words awake to life in Christ that's the concept come out of sin um and and that's a quote directly from uh Psalm 17 and 15 and it is also um Daniel chapter 12 the same concept but he says awake to righteousness and do not sin for some do not have the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame I want to go over and read the text in Psalm uh 17 and 15 uh just to show that connection between uh the two passages and and to see what uh what David said uh regarding it he says ask for me I will see your face now God's face is turned away from people who are in sin that's Isaiah 59 1 and 2 David because he lived under that old covenant where the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin so he was still under the power of that and that's what Hebrews 11 says these all died and so he says ask for me I will see your face in what in righteousness David is talking about his resurrection from the dead when his sins are removed now he can look upon the face of God and he says I should be satisfied when I awake in your likeness and the likeness of Christ was the righteousness of God so that's what that's all about awake to righteousness and do not sin for some if not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame and then in the latter part of the chapter they're still dealing with sin he's still dealing with the concept of sin when he says the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law so the law had to be removed in order for the removal of sin to be consummated so from beginning to end you have the concept of the feast of unleavened bread in first Corinthians 15 all the way down to the consummation and remember this had to happen at the end of the age now the next feast day thank you Beatrice it's good to be back uh good morning Paul uh the next of the feast days so we've looked at Passover in first Corinthians 15 Christ died for our sins we've looked at the feast of unleavened bread when he says died for our sins so Christ died that's Passover for our sins is the feast of unleavened bread and all the other passages I just went through but then you have the feast of first fruits because Jesus rose on the third day when you look in Leviticus 23 that was the feast of first fruits and so to talk about Jesus's resurrection on the third day is to speak about the feast of first fruits and that is the time of the resurrection of Christ from the dead so in first Corinthians 15 and verse 12 when he says now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead or out of the dead ones how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead uh but now is Christ risen from the dead verse 20 and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep now in Leviticus 23 verses 9 through 12 the text says and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you come into the land which I give you to reap its harvest then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest so you can see this is part of the harvest and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it and you shall offer on that day uh when you have waved uh when you wave the sheep a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord so first fruits was the beginning of the harvest um there's a quote from a book called the end of the ages is by James D.G. Dunn and I think it's also in uh Dunn's book as well uh which is called um uh what is that um the Jesus and the Spirit and um so and and I'll give you that quote in a minute but if the death of Jesus is in the Pauline epistles assumed to have been a death in the great eschatological tribulation it is also true that Paul interpreted the resurrection of Jesus as part of the general resurrection now get that see even some of these futurists recognize this they recognize that if Paul positions the death of Christ to have been a part of the great eschatological tribulation it is true that Paul interpreted the resurrection of Jesus as part of the general resurrection they can't be separated and uh the quote from Dunn will even uh from uh D.G. Dunn will uh support that uh to begin with in first Corinthians 15 20 he calls Christ the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep verse uh 23 the first fruits denoted partly the first or beginning and partly the best or the main part of the crop and it could represent not only the whole but symbolize the onset of a new period of time as regards the meaning of the expression in first Corinthians 15 we may quote James D.G. Dunn the metaphor of the first fruits here now let's listen to what he has to say he says the metaphor of the first fruits here denotes the beginning of the harvest more or less the first swinging of the no interval no interval is envisaged between the first fruits and the rest of the harvest that's why we said in the beginning Christ died at the end of the age uh or and uh the harvest is the end of the age so they're both within that same time period I just heard my buzzer go off so and let me continue on with the quote with the first fruits dedicated the harvest proceeds the application of this metaphor to the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the spirit expresses the belief that with uh with these events the eschatological harvest has begun the resurrection of the dead has started the end time spirit has been poured out James D.G. Dunn and that's in the uh resurrection of Jesus uh well it's titled the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead but it's in his book Jesus and the spirit and uh that quote came from the end of the ages by Dale C. Allison now the same might be inferred from Paul's use of first born in Romans 8 in verse 29 and also Colossians 1 in verse 18 where it says Jesus is the first um born from the dead and he was the firstborn among many brethren now I know some people will try to take that and make that refer to Jesus's body but as I pointed out in earlier texts when the Bible says Jesus was raised out of the dead ones there were no dead ones in the tomb when he was raised so we're not talking about the resurrection of Jesus's body in terms of the applied meaning of his death we're talking about Jesus being the first one to die to that old of death and then rise in the new covenant the new creation the first one to enter behind the presence uh enter behind the veil into the presence of God and that's how he becomes the first fruit look how could he be the first fruit of something totally different than his own resurrection it doesn't make sense they have to be of the same nature and so we're talking about Jesus being raised out of the same death that the dead ones had experienced and therefore in solidarity with them and so it's very very important uh Ernest Caseman writes that Romans 1-4 does not isolate Christ's resurrection but rather understands it in the cosmic function as the beginning of the general resurrection but see you can't get the general resurrection within the 40-year period of the festal calendar of Israel it's not gonna happen it hasn't happened it cannot happen and that's where future resurrection is dead I mean we might as well call the coroner and let them embalm you don't even need to do an autopsy I mean it's gone uh when you talk about the festal calendar um and it is the resurrection of even Romans 4 when you look at the Greek it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ out from the dead ones um and so we're not talking about the the tomb in in that particular point all right that's all I have we're going to get to the feast of Pentecost on next week and show you where that is in first Corinthians 15 and then we're going to move on through some others but I'm out of time for now um and you're right uh Mark that is exactly so you have Jesus physical resurrection so we don't deny that at all uh please don't charge me with that because I will never agree to it that he wasn't raised physically from the dead but you must also see beyond that and see his connection with the rest of the harvest and that is why he's the first fruits he wasn't the first fruits out of physical resurrection but he was the first fruits out of the dead ones well that uh concludes the message for today I hope that you got something from it we're going to continue on this on next week and we'll pick up and looking at the feast day of Pentecost until we get down to the time of the end uh thank you Jack we appreciate that um if you have any questions or comments on what we've covered you know put them in the uh comment section I'll look at the questions and we'll try to um answer some of them on next week uh when we come back with that ladies and gentlemen you have a very pleasant uh good morning and um I'm going to try to get out of here took me a minute to get in here this morning how you doing John um took me a minute to get in here because I had to relearn all the stuff about uh doing the um doing the live on Facebook and um thank you Jamie I I am doing much better uh so I'm going to say good morning to you and we're out uh this video should be uploaded to YouTube uh shortly so uh share it with your friends who don't like Facebook um as well and hit that share button so other people can can watch thank you