The Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ: His Exaltation. Christ's RESURRECTION.

a. His Resurrection

Notes from Louis Berkhof and H. Bash Bonsall, the Person of Christ..

Introduction.

In the state of Exaltation Jesus passed from under the law as a covenant obligation, having paid the penalty for sin and and merited righteousness and eternal life for the sinner. He was then crowned with the corresponding honour and glory. L.B.p.161

Memorize :

1Co 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

1Co 15:20  But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruit of those who slept.

1Co 15:21  For since death is through man, the resurrection of the dead also is through a Man.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.

Christ arose as the Firstfruits of them that sleep.

Php 2:9  Therefore God has highly exalted Him, and has given Him a name which is above every name,

Php 2:10  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly ones, and of earthly ones, and of ones under the earth;

Php 2:11  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Rom 6:4  Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Rom 6:5  For if we have been joined together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection;

We will look at: a. the Resurrection b. the Ascension c. His being seated at God’s Right Hand or His Session and d. His Physical return to earth

1. The Resurrection.

The true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ contains the Proclamation of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of our Saviour.

Paul says “1Co 15:3  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,

1Co 15:4  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures;

The Importance of the Atonement, Burial and Resurrection cannot be overestimated. They form the main elements in Paul’s Preaching and the Gospel Proclamation of the Book of Acts. 
The kerygmata of Acts :

The day of Pentecost Peter’s Kergyma Act 2:22  Men, Israelites, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by powerful works, and wonders and miracles, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know,

Act 2:23  this One given to you by the before-determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by lawless hands, crucifying Him, you put Him to death;

Act 2:24  whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

Act 3:14  But you denied the Holy and Just One and desired a murderer to be given to you.

Act 3:15  And you killed the Prince of Life, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.

Act 4:10  be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in this name does this man stand before you whole.

Mary and Jesus at the Tomb

Act 5:29  And Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Act 5:30  The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree.

Act 5:31  This One God has exalted to be a Ruler and Saviour to His right hand in order to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel.

Act 10:39  And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him and hanged Him on a tree;

Act 10:40  but God raised Him up the third day and showed Him openly,

The Resurrection of Christ is mentioned over one hundred times in the New Testament.

1. The Resurrection of Jesus Involved a Prototype Body.

It involved Jesus with a real but transformed and Identical body.

Paul said to King Agrippa in Acts 26:23 that Christ was “the first that should rise from the dead.”

He wrote to the Corinthians that CHRIST WAS “THE FIRST-FRUITS OF THEM THAT SLEPT”, (15:20); and the Apostle John describes Him as “the first-begotten from the dead”. Cp. Romans 6:5.

Donald Grey Barnhouse that  famous American Preacher, was travelling by train through Holland at the time of the tulips. The train sped through acres of red tulips that eventually gave way to a sea of green leaves belonging to a late variety. “I wonder what these will be.” he said. till he came upon a single solitary bloom and He exclaimed, “ Now I know,....... they will be yellow.”

Dutch tulips Fields

The word that  Paul uses is Strongs G536 ἀπαρχή aparchē ap-ar-khay'

From a compound of G575 and G756; a beginning of sacrifice, that is, the (Jewish) first fruit (figuratively): - first-fruits.

This reveals Three Things concerning  Christ’s resurrection:

• Christ would be the first to rise.
• His Resurrection would be a pattern of believer’s resurrection as the first-fruits 1 Cor 15:23
• Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee and pledge of our own Resurrection. Col.1:18

Note: The reference to first-fruits is based on Lev 23:15-17 (though aparche is not used in the Septuagint there, where is described the ritual of the Feast of the First-fruits. At the beginning of the barley harvest a”single sheaf” and the firstfruits was waved before the Lord Cf Lev 23:1. The firstfruits of the wheat harvest were offered fifty days later.  

The single waved Sheaf of barley represents Christ in His resurrection, while the waved loaves at Pentecost typified the formation of the church which took place in Jerusalem at Pentecost, fifty days after Christ’s Resurrection.

To be continued.