Understanding Firstfruits: The Righteousness of God in Jesus

In this profound episode of the HHP Podcast, Pastor Chris Franke delves into the biblical concept of Firstfruits and its deep significance in both the Old and New Testaments. From the agricultural offerings in the Torah to the teachings of the Apostle Paul and the resurrection of Jesus, we explore how the first and best portion is an expression of God's righteousness and a model for living a blessed life.

🌿 Key Topics:

• The significance of Firstfruits in the Old Testament and their connection to God’s provision

• How the Feast of the Harvest (Shavuot/Pentecost) and Passover tie into our modern understanding of Easter

• Jesus as the Firstfruits of the resurrection and the promise of eternal life

• How understanding God's righteousness through giving shapes our lives today

• Why living in surrender to God's righteousness impacts our faith and actions

Through the lens of Firstfruits, we come to understand that Jesus is not only the first and best offering but the fulfillment of all the law. He is the ultimate gift to all humanity, and by believing in Him, we are justified and made righteous.

🙏 Hosted by Pastor Chris Franke from HFF Church in Oklahoma City, this podcast explores profound biblical truths that shape our faith, how we give, and our understanding of God's righteousness.

👇 Join Us and Get Involved: 💻 Visit our website: https://hff.church 💸 Support the ministry: Donations are appreciated 📍 Join us for Saturday Church at 10:30 AM in Oklahoma City 👍 Like, comment, share & subscribe for more episodes!

 

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
For I can testify that they are zealous for God, yet their zeal is not based upon knowledge.
They don't know the righteousness of God, and so they establish their own, because they do not submit to God's righteousness.
When I reread this portion of scripture, it broke my heart.

(00:23):
The zeal that they have is based upon knowledge, but they don't know the righteousness of God.
Wow.
Welcome to the HHP Podcast.
My name is Chris Franke, and I am the Senior Pastor of HFF Church in Oklahoma City.
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(00:47):
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So they establish their own righteousness because they're unwilling to submit to God's righteousness.
Their zeal is for God.

(01:11):
But let's think about this for a second.
I'm zealous for God. This isn't a bad thing, right?
You're zealous for God. Not a bad thing.
Yet, when our zealousness causes us to not understand or submit to the righteousness of God as outlined in the scripture,

(01:42):
then our zeal is not based upon knowledge, and we are establishing our own righteousness,
which means we are not executing God's righteousness.
Boom. Mind blown.
How many of us have done that?
The Bible is heavily based upon an agricultural society and currency.

(02:05):
This can sometimes make it hard for us in an American culture that has grown up distant from the agricultural society and currency.
But God's righteousness was a first fruit.
You say, okay, is that like the first gummy bear?

(02:26):
I mean, kind of. That seems a little weird.
The first piece of gum? Kind of.
But as a whole, the first fruit.
Throughout the Torah and the prophet, the principles and parables of an agricultural society are woven in and out with harvest and planting.

(02:50):
God commanded his people to give the first and the best of their harvest to him.
It was an offering, one that reminded them that it was through his righteousness that he gives gifts.
Remember, we started off, they created their own righteousness because they didn't understand God's and they refused to submit to God's.

(03:13):
So in his righteousness, he gives gifts, gifts of life, food, sustenance, and all things.
This isn't just relegated to fields or grain or oil or honey or sheep's wool or fruit or livestock from our herds or our flocks.
How far we have grown from remembering and practicing that all things come through him.

(03:39):
All things are his.
We argue over what should be a tithe or whether we should call it a tithe or do we even need to tithe?
Where are we supposed to tithe?
All in our quest to live a blessed life.
A blessed life that can actually only come from an anointing of God and through God's gifts of righteousness in that anointing to all humanity.

(04:08):
Your hands produce nothing without God.
We should also acknowledge we are nothing without God.
The first and the best portion was always known as the first fruits.
The first fruits was acknowledging God's ownership of everything and by offering it to God, you were expressing thankfulness, gratefulness in faith that he will provide.

(04:36):
He is our provision.
The first fruits were given at the Feast of the Harvest in Exodus.
It's also known as Shavuot or Pentecost.
The first fruits were also given after the Passover.
Jeremiah the prophet utilizes and expands this terminology of the first fruits to symbolically call Israel the first fruits of God's harvest.

(05:01):
But it is important that we recognize that because Israel was the first fruits, we know that Israel wasn't the only fruit God had or planned for a harvest.
This is really important for my roots based friends.
Just because Israel was the first fruits, it means there was other fruits that God planned to harvest.

(05:28):
This is also symbolic of the coming nations and the non-Israelites that would come to know Jesus as the Lord.
When we see the transition into the first century, we see Paul in his letters refer to believers in Jesus as first fruits.
We see James also utilize this terminology when referencing believers in Jesus as well.

(05:55):
Paul also writes to Corinth that Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection.
He is the first and the best portion of all of those who have left this life, fallen asleep waiting on the resurrection.
Through Jesus as the first fruits, he consecrates the entire harvest that would follow.

(06:21):
In Romans, Paul then writes that the Holy Spirit, also referred to as the outpouring of the Spirit of Jesus, is a first fruit.
A foretaste of the future glory we will experience in the resurrection with Christ.
Boom!
We see righteousness as a quality of being morally right or justifiable by what we do and say in our modern culture.

(06:47):
Meanwhile, we live a life behind the scenes of hoarding, hoarding of finances, hoarding of gifts, hoarding of shame, hoarding of all things.
We're hoarders.
Kind of like when we stay out of churches or we act holy, our zeal is not based upon our knowledge.
Those types of actions show we actually do not understand the righteousness of God or the body of Christ.

(07:15):
God's righteousness is giving and to know that we must give.
We must give of our time, we must give of our talent, we must give of our labor, we must give of our finances.
Give, give, give so that we can actually show we understand that Christ is the culmination of the law

(07:39):
and that we believe through him there may be righteousness for everyone who believes in him, Jew or Gentile.
This past Sunday was the festival of first fruits.
It was what many call in Catholicism and Protestant churches now Easter.

(08:00):
Easter is derived from the Greek word pascha which comes from the Hebrew word pesach.
Pesach in Hebrew is the Passover.
So Easter is actually a first fruits celebration and Good Friday actually would have been Passover to our ancestors.

(08:22):
First fruits sets in motion a complete fulfillment of the entire Bible through who Jesus is,
the life he lived and the work he has and will do.
Christ is who created all things and all things were created through Christ to be given as gifts of God's righteousness to all creation.

(08:47):
So how we live either testifies to that or bring shame to God.
It is through Jesus our first fruits of the resurrection that we don't have to continually bring bulls, goats and sin offerings
to atone annually for our shortcomings.
He is passed through once and for all as the first fruits offering for it is with our hearts that we believe in Jesus

(09:16):
and by that belief we are justified in Jesus not our own righteousness.
So let us profess with our lips our salvation.
Jesus is our salvation.
Let us understand that our righteousness is filthy rags and our zealousness sometimes gets us in trouble.
Sometimes we establish our own righteousness in our zeal that we don't even know God or we do and we just absolutely refuse to submit to that.

(09:46):
I've met a bunch of those people.
I've been some of those people.
Sometimes I still feel like I am.
God's righteousness through Jesus is the first fruits.
Jesus is the word.
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the truth.
Jesus is the life.

(10:07):
No one comes to the Father any way other than through him.
And Jesus is greater than Moses, the Torah, the prophets, the wise who've come before him and the wise who came after him.
There is none wiser.

(10:28):
There is none greater.
All hail King Jesus.
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(10:56):
you