Firstfruits

On the first Sunday after Easter, we heard the apostle Paul teach us about the resurrection of the dead in his great resurrection chapter in 1 Corinthians 15. He wrote, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Pastor Zarling explained these “firstfruits” this way in his sermon: “Soon you will be planting your peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers in your garden. The best part of those vegetables is that once you pick the first ones and wait a little while, you’ll be able to pick more. Jesus is the firstfruits from the dead. He is the first of the resurrection crop. You and I and all believers will come later.”

The Bible also uses this term “firstfruits” to describe the stewardship of our gifts.

You know this from experience – it takes no brains to be an impulse spender. Advertisers and marketing people study your behavior, your preferences, and your life patterns to determine best when to jump you with their seductive spending come-ons. Food shopping, for instance, is no longer just food shopping. You are bombarded with marketing messages from the moment you drive into the parking lot, from the huge window signs to the hanging TV sets chattering at nobody to the point-of-purchase displays surrounding you as your cart crawls forward to the checkout clerk.

Your giving to God is different than impulse buys. Your giving to your heavenly Father in your weekly offerings is to come not only from a passionate heart but also from a brain that plans. “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9,10).

Do you get the point? When you set aside God’s portion first, two things happen: first, you show that God really is #1 in your life, worthy not of occasional leftovers but worthy of top billing; second, you can expect that a delighted God will bless you back with His spiritual and material gifts so that you can give again.

We give to Jesus the firstfruits of our wealth. He is to receive the first of our material crop. You and I come later. We should be fine with the leftovers.

But, then, with our God, there are no such things as leftovers. He blesses us with more spiritual and material gifts than we could ever imagine!  

- Epiphany Stewardship Committee

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Justified in Jesus

Image
Matthew 27:27–31 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole cohort of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. 29 They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, knelt in front of him, and mocked him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spit on him, took the staff, and hit him repeatedly on his head. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. 1) Jesus on cross picture. We are still in the five hundredth anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. With the Reformation, the Lord of the Church allowed His truth to be retold through the writings of Martin Luther. But, God also used artists to visually portray this gospel to the minds of His people. If we wanted to “picture” the Reformation in our mind’s eye, there is no better “picture” than The Weimar Altarpiece . In thi
Read more

Water into blood and water into wine

Image
Here are some thoughts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s sermon. The Old Testament lesson for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany is the account of Moses turning the water of the Nile River into blood. The first of the ten plagues God used to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Exodus 7:14-24 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not
Read more

Jesus has prepared a place for you - A funeral sermon for Jim Hermann

Image
John 14:1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  2  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  4  You know the way to the place where I am going.” “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Did you catch the difference between what I read just now and what I read in the Gospel lesson? The Gospel lesson was from the NIV. The second verse I read was from the King James Version. If you’re older than 50, that’s the version of the Bible that you heard in church and learned in catechism class. But, even if you’re older younger than 50, you know about the mansions. “The mansions of heaven” is a term Christians use pretty often. Preachers say it, poets write it, people
Read more