1 CORINTHIANS 15:20

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep

     What does that mean? It means when you go out into your garden and you're raising tomatoes, and you go out there and you've got a beautiful first red tomato, and you pick it and you say, that's the first one. But it tells you because it's so beautiful and it's so red and it's so good, man, if I got this first one, there's going to be some more coming. 

     I don't know if I ever told you a story about one of my grandmothers. She was talking to my grandfather and he said, man, we got all these tomato plants and none of them are producing. And my grandmother heard from a neighbor that if you go out and you swat the tomato plants, then they'll get with it and they'll produce. And so my little grandmother, probably in her eighties, went out in the backyard with a fly swatter and whipped all the tomato plants. And about a week later, there were blooms all over the place. Now, if you've ever studied pollination, you know you just got to stir up the pollen if you want something to produce. But think about it. We're not getting any fruit, and then all of a sudden you get the first one. If you get the first one, you know there's going to be more, right? 

1 CORINTHIANS 15:21

For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

     So what does it say? He's the first fruits of those who are asleep, for since by man came death—that was Adam—You know what the resurrection tells us? It tells us that Jesus is the first fruit and it gives us hope. 

THERE IS HOPE.

     If Jesus rose from the dead, then guess what? If you believe in Jesus, if Jesus is in your heart, if you call upon the name of the Lord, and you are saved because you believed, and you received ,and you're standing fast, and you're holding on, and you're not going to let go of Him, He's not going to let go of you. The day is coming when you too will be resurrected. 

     So when the doctor says you've got a physical problem, maybe it's cancer, maybe it's something else, maybe it's diabetes or some other terrible thing, just remember there's a day coming when you're going to get a new body and be resurrected just as Jesus did. When all the world is falling apart and you see the wars and the rumors of war and you look at the stock market and you look at the world and the economy and politics and you're tempted to be negative, remember Jesus rose from the dead and one day we're going to rise with him. 

IT WILL BE GOOD. 

     He is the first fruits. He did it! Now we're going to be with Him. Oh my goodness! Why do we need to go out into the fields and share with our friends and our neighbors? Because if they don't know Him, they will not be part of that resurrection when He comes back. Oh, dear friends, we've got to be missionaries. We've got to help our family, our friends, our neighbors, our classmates, our work friends, people in the community. We've got to share Jesus until we have packed this house and multiple services and everybody in this county, more than sixty thousand people know Jesus. We can't stop. And that doesn't mean we don't go other places too. But this is our home, and people need Jesus. He's the first fruits!