09/07/2026
Listen to full teaching on the Bertonians Podcast. Link in bio.
Paul calls the risen Jesus “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Firstfruits are not separate from the harvest. They are the beginning of it, the first evidence that the harvest has already begun and the promise that more is coming.
That means resurrection is not only something we are waiting for. In Jesus, resurrection has already entered the world. The harvest has begun. Wherever despair gives way to hope, sin to freedom, and broken things begin to be made new, we are experiencing the life of the coming resurrection in the present.
But the harvest is not yet complete. We still grieve. We still suffer. We still die. The resurrection of Jesus is the firstfruits, not the finished harvest. At the second coming of Jesus, what began with his empty tomb will finally reach its fullness: the dead will be raised, death itself will be defeated, and the life already at work among us will fill all things.
We live between the firstfruits and the full harvest. Resurrection has begun. And resurrection is still coming.
