5.2 Firstfruits
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
I want to talk about God’s firstfruits. Although I am groping in the darkness, seeking to know all that God means by what He says, nonetheless, I know that I am a part of that firstfruits. And the sign of that participation is my articulated commitment to Father revealed through the gathering together of His Church.
I made that commitment, knowing what it meant only by the cry of my heart, in May of 1979 when I was 22 years old. I made that commitment again, seeing the entire Church in her beauty, yet still seeing from far away, in November of 1994, when I was 38 years old. And I made that commitment again, with eyes wide open now, in November of 2017, at 61 years of age, inside the personal interaction of Father with me.
Follow the Lamb. (You must bear with my enjoyment of patterns, my need to set all my life out where I can see it. Yet I include my account with this hope – that you also might see your own life as God personally and specifically with you.)
…Behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice… like the voice of many waters… They sang as it were a new song before the throne; …and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand…These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God (Revelation 14:1-5 – condensed).
Christ by the Gospel. I can assure you of this, as I read through these words now, seeing them by my present knowledge of God, I see far beyond what I’ve ever seen before, and I see them entirely differently from how you have heard of them in Christian circles. None of these words are relating to a split-apart and transactional “God” who “knows” good and evil, or anything found inside that realm of death.
These words are Christ, by the gospel, revealing Father as He is through His Church now walking upon this earth. And that includes the lines I left out, as this one - These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. (We will touch on what this means inside the gospel in a bit.)
Jesus Now Through Us. We have utterly barred from our minds any shadow of thought that these are some elitist group in some future and separated exaltation. I assert that these verses are Jesus now through us, the Heart of Jesus over and inside His Church.
Now, first, I want to place this firstfruits. Second, I want to define what I mean as I am using this word in this context. And third, I want to take us into an intimate knowing of what the experience of being this firstfruits together might mean for us. And yes, for forty years, this word regarding the firstfruits who follow the Lamb wherever He goes has echoed all through my desire to know God – as, I am sure, it has with you.
A Crystal. Consider the formation of a crystal. (I don’t know much about crystals, and I am remembering from something I read a long time ago.)
A crystal begins as a small center core, the molecules of the rock, silicon and calcium, perhaps, fit together in a certain way. I now understand that you will likely find an electrical frequency governing the manner in which this first core of the crystal forms. Then, bit by bit over time, the same elements of the original crystal are gathered to it from the surrounding rock (or water, if you are “growing a crystal”). As they are attached to the original crystal core, they take on the same structure and form as the original molecules.
Following the Leader. Let’s apply that same thing to any gathering together of humans, something I have observed carefully and closely over many years. In any group, there will be two or three core leaders. And when I say “leaders,” I mean those who are influential, not necessarily those who have a “place” of leadership. However, in today’s churches, where everyone remains disconnected even while they assemble outwardly, it is typically the single-person pastor who then is that core person.
What I have observed is this. Within a relatively short time, everyone in that group will be mimicking, in some way, the core leader or leaders, without even knowing they are.
Taking on the Form of Love. Without belaboring this point, here is how I am placing God’s firstfruits inside of His Church. Where two or three of you are gathered together IN MY NAME, there I am in the midst of you (Matthew 18).
As the gathering unto Christ happens, everyone who is added to that full expression of Father revealed, just naturally takes on the same shape and structure that they see already happening among that core group that is God’s firstfruits. When two or three individuals treat with one another in full reciprocity as each is as the Lord Jesus to the other, then when others whose hearts also belong to Jesus are added to their fellowship, they just naturally take on the same form they see and hear.
Becoming What We See. Now God does say something like that in more ways than one. If the lump, the core, is holy, then the whole gathering is holy. But if the core is defiled, the whole gathering is defiled. Bitter and complaining churches come out from bitter men showing an angry and offended God to the world. Kind churches come out from kind men and women showing a God of tenderness and compassion to the world.
I heard this illustration once. A female dog, having her hips broken by a car, gave birth to puppies. Their hips were perfectly fine. Nonetheless, as she dragged herself around, her hind legs useless, so also did they. – We become what we see, and we see what we speak.
Defining Firstfruits. I want to define what I mean by these who are firstfruits inside the fulfillment of Tabernacles, as many rush into dwelling together as the dwelling place of God. Jesus is the One Seed, the only Seed to be planted for all. But that One Seed is planted that it might become many seeds. And each one of the many is just like the first in all ways, as the Covenant requires.
So, consider Jesus. Now consider twenty-four just like Him, gathering together in fellowship. You could call them clones of Jesus, which, in a sense, we are. Twenty-four brothers and sisters, walking in all ways as Jesus walked, yet in these bodies of mortal flesh, knowing Father and knowing one another.
Jesus and Jesus. We don’t actually know what Jesus looked like. So your version of Jesus would look different from mine. Twenty-four “versions” of Jesus, each Jesus, each looking slightly different. – Firstfruits. (I’m using “twenty-four” only to get many in our minds, while not being too many.)
Consider the depths of fellowship between Jesus and Jesus, and among all the Jesus’s together. Consider the knowing of one another, the harmony of purpose, the shared compassion. Will it take a miracle of God to make you and me one of those Jesus’s inside that circle of communion? You bet it would. It’s called the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Elect of God. But let’s define the firstfruits, as I am calling them here, before placing ourselves in the experience of their company. Is 144,000 a literal number as well as being symbolic? We cannot know. Nonetheless, 144,000 is 1% of 14,400,000, a number very much fitting inside of “millions of Spirit-filled believers in Jesus” rushing into Tabernacles.
The firstfruits are individuals elect, that is chosen, of God. Are you and I chosen for the firstfruits? This is where the seventh most important verse in the Bible is so important to us. I am chosen of God to be His firstfruits of Christ – IF I am confident that I am, that is, if I want to be and will accept no other possibility.
Many Seeds. The Firstfruits are many seeds, just like the first Seed, sown, now, as Jesus into the Church, to bring His Bride to her full completion just like Himself. This is why we enter His Church as eunuchs, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
You see, our human weakness is of God and no problem at all. If I am incapable in one area and you are incapable in another area, then we are just like God, who is also missing His Body. In other words, as I am honest in my own weakness, not trying to be “the man of God” in any way, but rather, if I am connecting you together with Jesus in all ways, then you will not become like my weakness, but you will become like my connection with Jesus.
(In contrast, I have seen this, that when a leader hides his or her weakness, pretending to be a man of God, then all those who are following take on the same weakness the leader imagines he is hiding, even while pretending to be what they are not.)
The Revelation of Father. But my connection with Jesus is not the revelation of Father. The revelation of Father is my reciprocal connection together with those who know Father as I know Father and are committed to His Church as I am committed to His Church. The revelation of Father is God-Love AMONG us. The firstfruits are those who God-Love one another and who show that reciprocal God-Love to the Church. In this way is found “Church by Father.”
Now, consider these words. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:23).
God’s Gift to His Church. Very few Christians can grapple, not just with believing such a thing, but how, being made complete together by the tangible knowledge of God in Person, might actually be for real. Before the world will ever see such a thing and believe, millions of Spirit-filled believers in Jesus not only must see such a thing, but must also become what they see. And thus God gives His Church His firstfruits, that all might believe.
The firstfruits are those individuals, all across this earth, who know God as they know one another and who know one another as they know God. That is, they know Father AND they know Jesus Sent.
Shut the Door. Let’s follow the counsel of Isaiah. Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment… (Isaiah 26:20).
You are one of twenty-four. You have entered together into a quiet place and shut the door against all outside. There are three round tables set in the room, with eight of you seated around each table. (For some reason, a round table is easier to turn away from in any direction, to see others in the group addressing all.) Yet there are not “twenty-four,” for Father Himself in Person fills all of your connections together in a tangibly knowable way. That is, you love one another.
Each Jesus in Your Circle. Loving one another, of course, does NOT mean that you agree in outward things or that you see eye-to-eye on everything. You are different from one another in many ways and you each see and value differently. No one is a carbon copy; that’s not what it means to be like Jesus. Yet it is your differences for which you love one another and are able to walk together, for what one lacks, another possesses, and all the way around.
And so each Jesus in your circle around your table of eight looks different and acts differently from every other Jesus. Some are tall, some are short, some are men, some are women. Each one laughs and talks and thinks differently.
Joy and Sorrow. As you break bread together you will be astonished at how much laughing is going on in that room. No one is pretentious, everyone is real. Yet when someone shares a sorrow, you will see a tear in every eye, even as you wipe away your own.
You know these people who are as Jesus to you. You have been in the battle together, you have built together, you have shared one another’s lives. You know the moments when each one of these twenty-three-other people laid down their lives for you, and they know the moments when you laid down your life for them. You share the agony; you share the joy.
But most of all, you share an absolute commitment to God’s Church, to all that is Jerusalem.
It Means Jesus. We have an English word that means that same thing as “that they may be made complete in one.” That English word is MARRIAGE.
If you have been married for many years and if you love your spouse more now than when you first began, and your spouse you, then you are one who has some inkling of what this marriage among the firstfruits is all about. It does not mean you don’t offend each other; it does not mean you see eye to eye on everything. It means that you love one another, that you are always, in the ongoing press of life, choosing to lay down your life for one another.
– It means Jesus.