Theological term
Firstfruits
10 sermons · All terms
Live Stream - September 10, 2023
First Corinthians 15 grounds the certainty of the resurrection in the testimony of the Old Testament scriptures, the evidence of eyewitnesses, and the grace of God attending gospel proclamation. The great hope of the gospel is established by Paul's chain of logical argumentation: if Christ is risen, then preaching is full, faith is complete, sin does not reign, and believers who have died have not perished. The sermon closes with the adamic theology of the gospel — the contrast between the first Adam, in whom all die, and the last Adam, Christ, in whom all shall be made alive — calling hearers to praise God for so great a salvation.
2LCF Chapter 31 - Of the State of Man After Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead
The doctrine of the intermediate state — the condition of the soul between death and the final resurrection — is examined through 2LCF Chapter 31 and the key Scripture passages that ground it. The confession teaches a sharp dichotomy: at death, the body returns to dust while the immortal soul either goes immediately to be with Christ in paradise or is cast into hell, with no third option such as purgatory or soul sleep. The resurrection of both the just and the unjust on the last day is treated in paragraphs 2 and 3, with 1 Corinthians 15 providing the clearest statement that Christ's coming is followed immediately by the end — a structure that complicates dispensational premillennialism. The lesson closes with a call to find comfort and ethical urgency in the simplicity of biblical eschatology rather than in elaborate prophetic systems.
The Miscellaneous Laws Concerning Society, Part 2
Exodus 22:21–31 sets out miscellaneous civil laws for Old Covenant Israel that bear directly on how God evaluates any society's treatment of its most vulnerable members. The sermon works through two major divisions: the laws prohibiting the abuse of aliens, widows, orphans, and the poor (vv. 21–27), and the laws preserving the honor of Yahweh through respect for authority and consecrated service (vv. 28–31). God's threatened covenant sanctions — enemy invasion, exile, and the widowing of the oppressor's own family — reveal that abuse of the powerless is not a private moral failing but a covenantal crime that invites divine judgment upon an entire nation. Hearers are called to embody "pure and undefiled religion" (James 1:27) by actively rendering aid to the alien, the widow, the orphan, and the poor, while maintaining reverence for lawfully exercised authority in the family, civil, and ecclesiastical spheres.
Profaning God's Name
Malachi 1:6–14 indicts the post-exilic priests and people of Judah for profaning God's name through corrupt, indifferent, and weary worship — offering blind, lame, and stolen animals while vowing better. The sermon expounds three forms of disordered worship: worship that is questionable in its offerings, worship that ignores God's coming universal praise among the Gentiles, and worship that is openly profane through contempt and deceit. The underlying diagnosis is a low view of God: when the covenant Lord is diminished in the mind, acceptable worship becomes impossible. The application presses the regulative principle of worship — that God is to be approached on his own revealed terms, not by pragmatic innovation or felt-need programming — and calls the congregation to a high view of divine majesty as the indispensable foundation of right worship.
Paul's "Jesus and the Resurrection"
What does Paul mean when he proclaims 'Jesus and the resurrection,' and why does the denial of bodily resurrection destroy the entire Christian faith? Drawing on 1 Corinthians 15:1–20, this exposition works through four interlocking realities: the gospel is comprehensive for all of Christian life, the events of the gospel are certain on the testimony of Scripture and eyewitnesses, the grace of God is foundational to both the delivery and reception of the gospel, and the resurrection of Christ secures an unconquerable hope for all who believe. The sermon presses toward a pointed application: Christian hope is not wishful thinking but the certain expectation that God's promises in the risen Christ will most surely come to pass.
Joshua 12
Joshua 12 presents a catalog of defeated kings—two conquered under Moses east of the Jordan, and thirty-one under Joshua west of it—that is far more than a dry archive. Four lessons emerge from this summary: it guards the unity of the covenant community by refusing to marginalize the eastern tribes, it demonstrates the fulfillment of the Abrahamic land promise, it provides an itemized record of God's kindnesses that should shape the gratitude and praise of God's people, and it foreshadows God's ultimate victory in Christ, in whom all three elements of the Abrahamic covenant—land, seed, and blessing—reach their consummation. The great application is that the people of God should practice detailed, act-by-act thanksgiving rather than only generic gratitude, trusting the God who fought for Israel in Canaan to secure every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Deuteronomy 26
Deuteronomy 26 brings the stipulation section of the Mosaic covenant to its close with two liturgical obligations — the offering of firstfruits and the triennial tithe — followed by a formal ratification of the covenant in verses 16–19. The chapter follows the recurring biblical pattern of guilt, grace, and gratitude: God's prior redemptive act (the Exodus) is the stated ground for every act of worship and giving, never a mechanism for earning blessing. The worshiper's verbal rehearsal of redemptive history — from Jacob's sojourn in Egypt to the conquest of Canaan — serves as a type of the New Covenant believer's recollection of Christ's work in the Lord's Supper, demonstrating that Christianity is never mindless religion but a filling of the mind and heart with the facts of divine redemption. The law's pedagogical function, Israel's failure to keep covenant, and Christ's fulfillment as the second Adam who succeeds where Israel failed are each drawn out as the chapter's deeper theological logic.
The Fundamental Necessity of the Resurrection
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not incidental to the gospel but fundamentally necessary to it — scripturally decreed, soteriologically indispensable, and the ground of every saving benefit the believer receives. Working through Luke 24:36–53, this exposition establishes that the resurrection was part of an unalterable divine mission, a non-negotiable element of gospel definition, the basis for the legitimacy of Christian preaching, and a requirement of saving faith. The sermon then traces the soteriological implications of the resurrection across regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification, before closing with Christological implications and an urgent call to those outside of Christ to flee to the crucified and risen Messiah.
The Followers of the Lamb
Revelation 14:1–13 presents ten characteristics of those who belong to Christ, set against the backdrop of the unholy trinity's assault on the church in Revelation 12–13. Working from a preterist hermeneutic, this exposition argues that the 144,000 on Mount Zion represent the fullness of the Jewish-Christian church — sealed, worshipping, spiritually chaste, redeemed by blood, truth-speaking, and blameless before God by imputed righteousness. The sermon insists that these characteristics are indicative, not imperative — describing what is true of every believer in union with Christ — and closes with a call to rest in the Word rather than feelings, trusting Christ alone as the ground of standing before God.
But Now Christ is Risen
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a peripheral doctrine but an inseparable component of the gospel itself — Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15 demands that it be treated as a truth of the first rank. This exposition works through four movements: the resurrection's cardinal importance, its absolute certainty established by both Old Testament Scripture and eyewitness testimony, the devastating logical implications if it were false, and the blessed realities that flow from the fact that Christ is indeed risen. Believers are called to find in the risen Christ the ground of their regeneration, justification, sanctification, and hope; unbelievers are warned that the same resurrection that secures salvation for the elect guarantees a righteous judgment against all who reject it.