Jesus the Firstborn From the Dead
The second description of Jesus in Revelation 1:5 is as “the firstborn from the dead”. By this he means that Jesus is the first one who rose from the dead to conquer death forever.
Nobody Compares to the Risen Christ
Jesus holds great honour and glory above all other human beings because He died and rose again. He didn't just die, but he physically rose again. Last weekend, at the Church of the Nazarene here in Boksburg, we watched The Case for Christ, which is a great movie about Lee Strobel, who is now a famous apologist or defender of the faith. He was a very committed atheist who decided to try and disprove Christianity. Somebody said to him, “If you want to disprove Christianity, start with the resurrection. Because if Jesus wasn't raised from the dead the whole of Christianity falls apart.” So he, being a journalist, tried very hard to gather as many facts as possible to disprove the resurrection. But the deeper he studied, the more he sought after facts, the more he realized that it cannot be denied, that it is a historical fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross and then rose again, and was seen by many witnesses who were not dreaming or out of their minds or making it up. The harder he tries to disprove it the more he learns that it's true.
Jesus Bought Our Eternal Life
When you think of Jesus, when you picture him, do you picture just the meek and mild man who walked around the Galilean countryside? Or do you see him as the glorious one who rose from the dead and conquered death forever? Do you see him as the one who bought you salvation from death?
For those who are in Christ, we too will live again, even though we die. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” That same phrase John used! And then he says, “since death came through a man” (in other words, through Adam - Adam’s sin resulted in death for every human being) “the resurrection of the dead comes through a man, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive.”
Is your great hope in meeting Jesus after you die, my friends? Is your great hope in the fact that he rose from the grave and so you too will rise out of your grave and live again in another dimension? What hope this gives us! It makes us realize that life on earth is small - precious and absolutely worth living well - but not our ultimate destination. The grave was not Jesus’ ultimate destination, and it's not your ultimate destination if your faith is in him.
