First Fruits
Are you kidding me?
Did you know that citrus fruits have a chemical in them that if eaten every day can lead to melanoma? That is just crazy to me! I love my Orange Juice!
Anyway, today I want to talk about fruit. (I guess it kind of goes along with that fun… or not so fun fact.) Fruit is mentioned a TON in the Bible. Fruit from the tree of good and evil, the fruits of the Spirit, Jesus says that a good tree bears good fruit, and trees are know by their fruit… but today, let’s talk about “First Fruits”.
“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”
1 Peter 1:18-19
Firsts have always been important to God. In the Old Testament, God commanded the nation of Israel to observe several feasts or festivals. One of them was the Festival of Harvest. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks and Day of First Fruits. Later, the early church identified it as Pentecost because it occurred fifty days after Passover. During this festival, Israel was to offer the first crops of their wheat harvest as a voluntary offering to the Lord (Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10).
The Apostle Paul, in writing to the churches he helped to establish, refers to the early converts as first fruits of his labor (1 Corinthians 16:15; Romans 16:5). James portrayed all believers as first fruits when he wrote, “He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation became his prized possession.” (James 1:18) In the footnotes for “prized possession” it says in the Greek “we became a kind of first fruit of his creatures”. This means that once a person allows the redeeming work of the blood of Jesus to take affect in their life, they become a first fruit of Christ's labor.
Some translations of 1 Peter 1:18 use the word “redeemed”, which in the Greek means "to go to market, purchase, or buy." Everyone is born with a sinful nature that is against the laws of God. All have sinned and fall short of his glory. The only way one can be redeemed is by “the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth (the market place if you will), lived a sinless life, died a sinner's death, took our sins upon him and with his blood purchased or redeemed our souls for the Father. Many of you already understand this, and understand that the first step to becoming a true worshiper is to acknowledge Jesus’ work on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, consent to his Lordship and allow him to take possession of our life.
As Christians our lives are not our own, we have been bought at a price. We have been redeemed from among men and are first fruits to God. The Greek word for first fruits used in the New Testament means "a beginning of sacrifice." A sacrificial life is characteristic of those who have been redeemed and have becomes first fruits to God. Only those who practice sacrificial living become true worshipers.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m a first fruit to God, then I want to obey him and give Him my first fruits in everything… My time, my money, my life. I don’t want to live a spiritual buffet lifestyle. Call me a sell-out.
“Father, teach me and allow me to be a living sacrifice to you in every area of my life.”
Posted by Matthew Long @RevMattLong