Sunday, November 2, 2014

TEXT: I Corinthians 15:50-58
Subject:  Joyful Anticipation of the End Times, Part III
Introduction:

In today’s message I want to drill down a little deeper into what will happen at the Rapture and Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the age. Specifically, we will deal with the transformation of the Old Creation into the New Creation.

It is of foundational importance to understand that through the death and resurrection of Jesus God is reconciling back to Himself what was lost at the fall of man in the very beginning.
This understanding is critical if we are to be able to comprehend and walk in joyful anticipation of the amazing and spectacular transformation that will occur at the Rapture and Second Coming!

Prayer: Father-God, we ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Your Word.  It is in Jesus strong and powerful Name, Amen.

I. The Fall of the First Adam and First Creation

When the Son of God became a man two thousand years ago through the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, He literally became a part of the fallen, human race which began with the sin of  Adam and Eve—the first man and woman.

Although Jesus was without sin, He yet fully identified Himself with sinful man by becoming a man.

Now keep in mind that when the first man sinned and fell in the Garden of Eden, he BECAME a sinner and was therefore separated from a Holy God. Consequently, everyone that has been born into the human race is born a sinner and separated from God.

Sinning doesn’t make us a sinner; rather we sin because we are sinners. Have you ever noticed that you don’t have to teach children how to sin? It comes natural!

And the judgment of God on the sinful human race is death.  As the Scripture says, “the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)

Simply said, the human race is broken and man can’t fix it. The law, although holy and good, cannot fix the sin or the sinner. Quite the contrary, as Paul said, the law convinces us of just how sinful we are! (Romans 5:20)

For that reason, the old creation that began with the first Adam (and Eve) and which became sinners through disobedience MUST BE put to death.

II. The Last Adam and the New Creation

It is precisely at this point of “hopelessness” that the Son of God enters the human race as
“the Last Adam.” (I Corinthians 15:45)

So what began with the Old Creation and the First Adam must end with the Last Adam.
Let me say it another way: the Old Creation that began with the First Adam, because of sin, must end in death with the death of the Last Adam—even the Son of God!

What began in the Garden of Eden with the sin of the First Adam ended at the cross with the death of the Last Adam who was the Lord Jesus.

In effect, with the death of Jesus on the cross, the Old Creation that had been ruined with sin was put to death—“the wages of sin is death!” This was and is the only remedy for sin and the sinner—death.

However, and here is the beauty of the Gospel, after the Passover when Jesus died on the cross as the Last Adam; and after they had placed His Unleavened Body into the grave (He died for our sins and not His own because He was in nature sinless), three days later on Sunday morning, the day of the Feast of First Fruits, He was raised from the dead as the first fruits of those who have “fallen asleep.” (I Corinthians 15:23)

And at His resurrection, Jesus Christ was raised up as the BEGINNING OF THE NEW CREATION OF GOD! First Fruits means that there are more to follow! That includes you and me!!

Beloved, this is a very powerful truth that must be understood if we are to fully grasp the significance and glory of the Rapture and Second Coming of Jesus at the end of this age.

Why is that Pastor? Because it is the foundation as well as the requirement in order for God to be able to fulfill what He has planned on the Feast of Trumpets. Let me show you why.

(1). First, the Old Creation had been ruined by sin and had to be put to death—that was the only remedy. That requirement was fulfilled on the Feast of Passover when the Son of God, as the Last Adam, died on the cross.
(2). Secondly, the only One who could fulfill the role of the Last Adam was He who was without sin. He could die for our sins because He Himself was sinless. He was the Unleavened Bread that came down from Heaven to fulfill God’s Feast of Unleavened Bread.
(3). Third, because He was without sin His body did not see decay. (Acts 2:25-32) So on the third day, after Passover and Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of First Fruits, the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead as the first of the New Creation of God!
(4). Fourth, fifty days later, on the Feast of Pentecost, the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit on the 120 in the upper room, and hence, the official beginning of the Church.

Subsequently, everyone who has been born again since that day has become a part of the New Creation of God through the New Birth by the Person and power of the Holy Spirit. “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” (II Corinthians 5:17)

So then, where does that bring us? What is next on God’s prophetic calendar? It brings us to the next Feast of God, The Feast of Trumpets.

III. The Feast of Trumpets and the Transformation from the Old to the New

The Feast of Trumpets is the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the Tribulation period. (I will make this clear from scripture in my next message)

Also, as I said to in my last message, this will be the most stunning act and revelation of God since He spoke the universe into existence! If we think that the First Creation of God was spectacular—and it was—I can hardly wait until He brings about His New Creation at the Feast of Trumpets!

Joyful anticipation? Absolutely!

Hopefully what we have said has laid a good enough foundation to be better able to grasp the revelation that the Holy Spirit gave Paul in our text.

1. Verse 50 “ I declare to you brothers, that flesh and blood (the Old Creation) cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (the New Creation), nor does the perishable (Old Creation) inherit the imperishable (New Creation that began at the empty tomb).
2. Verse 51 “Listen, I tell you a mystery ( Greek—musteerion)—not something “spooky,” but rather something that has not been revealed or made known before. We will not all sleep—those who have died will not remain dead or “asleep.” Rather, we will all be changed (made into something different is the idea of the Greek here). We will no longer be the Old Creation but we will be changed into the New Creation.
3. Verse 52  “in a moment (or in a flash), “in the twinkling of an eye”—quicker that a blink of an eye, “at the last trumpet.” (The Seventh Trumpet in Revelation 11:15-19)
“At the last trumpet,” is a reference to the Feast of Trumpets. It is here that all of those who have become a New Creation in Christ—whether in spirit-form or still alive on earth in the Old Creation body—will instantly be changed or transformed from the Old Creation into the New Creation of God!

“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable “( with a New Creation body no longer subject to the death in the Old Creation body) “and we will be changed.”

4. Verse 53  “For the perishable (Old Creation of Adam) must clothe itself with the imperishable (the New Creation body like that of Christ) and the mortal (first Adam) must put on immortality (Christ—the New Creation)

5. Verse 54  “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal has put on immortality, THEN the saying that is written will come true: Death (Adam and the Old Creation) has been swallowed up in victory (Christ and the New Creation).

6. Verse 55 “Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?” Beloved, it will be at that moment on the Feast of Trumpets—at the Rapture and Second Coming of Jesus—that we will speak these Words of God with God’s authority!
7. Verse 56 “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” (God’s righteous requirements that no one can meet)
8. Verse 57 “But thanks be to God: He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The victory that the Apostle Paul is here referring to is the death of Jesus as the Last Adam (He paid the wages of sin for us); the resurrection of Jesus as the beginning of the New Creation (His resurrection is our guarantee of also being raised up); and the Rapture and Second Coming of Jesus when we receive our New Creation bodies like His very own!
9. Verse 58 “Therefore (because of what we have in Christ both now and especially in the future), my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Let me paraphrase: Don’t ever give up friends; for we know that as New Creations in Christ, the best, the very best, is yet to come!
CONCLUSION

Beloved, as those who are New Creations in Christ Jesus, knowing that you are going to receive a new body like the body of the Lord when He returns and raptures you on the Feast of Trumpets at the end of the age, how can you not be living with the joyful anticipation of that day?

PRAYER

Father God, we humbly ask that you would fill us with the revelation of what we will inherit at the Rapture and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. Help us to see it and keep it before the eyes of our heart so that our joy in what is ours in Christ will be a witness to those in our circle of love. In the strong Name of Jesus we pray, amen!

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