You Can't Be 1st!

The title of my message today is, You Can't Be First. You may want to be first, but you can't be first. A lot of people want to be first in everything, don't they? People fight to be first. Remember playing baseball. And everybody wanted to bat first. We'd actually get into fights over who was going to bat first.

Perhaps you've stood in line at a bank, grocery store, various places that you sure wish you could be first in line. For those who've never been to the Caribbean, I was in St. Lucia one time to cash a check that was written on a local bank. Had no idea that standing in line was four hours. Fridays, at least three to four hours standing in line. If you weren't first. One time I got there two hours before I was far from first. So every time I go into a bank, now I think about two people in front of me. Not so bad at all.

Want to welcome Anita. Nice to have you with us. I haven't seen you here yet, but this is great to have you, Christina, here today. So who is the first? There's only one first. Jesus Christ. He is first. As a matter of fact, Scripture seems to say foremost. First and foremost. He didn't have to stand in any line. That's for us to learn some patience. I want to talk about today because it is unique. It is a unique day for us as we can recognize. One of the reasons we're here, keeping this feast. But it's also unique in what happened 1993 years ago today.

Right about sunset or just before sunset. Do you know why that's important? I'm going to talk about it today in the time that I have here because Jesus Christ was the first of the first. No one else came before Christ, will come before Christ. He was the first of the first fruits. Says that in Scripture. No doubt about it. He did it before us and He will be first of the first. Today is, I guess you could call it, Wave Sheaf Day. Wave Sheaf. Perhaps you've heard many sermons. I did over the 40-something years. I've been in this church of God and I would think about it but not for very long. I was thinking about that thin, untasteful bread I was going to have to eat for the rest of the week. We only have a few days. We're over halfway through. Feast of Unleavened Bread is a bread, is a reminder. But today, near sunset, twilight, what God commanded for this day was that they would go out right about sunset, still the Sabbath, and the priest would go out and cut, or they would bring in a sheaf, a stalk, some stalks of wheat or barley, mostly barley since it was early. And this was to be given to the priest. And I want to look at Scripture today as we go through that. Let's go to Leviticus 23. I'll read from the new living translation. Leviticus 23. Let's go to verse 9. It says, In the Lord said to Moses, Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land, I am giving you, and you harvest its first crops. Why did he say that? Why? You realize they were in a desert for 40 years? There wasn't any food to harvest, right? Where did they get their food?

Up from God, laying on the ground every morning. When did that stop? The Bible tells us. It stopped when they entered the Holy Land, the Promised Land. So think about it. This didn't apply to them, those who came out of Egypt, because they were all going to be dead, except for a few, weren't they? But He was saying, when you come into the Promised Land, you're going to do this. When you enter the land which I am giving you, and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cuttings of your grain harvest on the day after the Sabbath. That's tomorrow morning. That's tomorrow morning. But it was harvested at sunset and held till the next morning. Well, why? Why? Have you ever thought about that? I never did because I didn't go that deep. And they thought, hey, here you go.

Far from it. Far from it. So let's go on and read here. On the day after the Sabbath, the priests were lifted up before the Lord, so it may be accepted on your behalf. On that same day, you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb with no defects as a burn offering. With it, you must present a grain offering consist of four quarts. Four quarts of choice flour, moistened with olive oil. It will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. You must also offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering. See, this was important. This was a big deal to God. Sometimes, and I must admit, either I wasn't listening very well or I never had many ministers cover that in detail of why? How it all tied to us to us today and what we should be thinking about and how it relates to us. Verse 14, Do not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels on that day until you bring this offering to God. This is a permanent law for you and it must be observed from generation to generation. Now, David doesn't have this back there, but I decided to do it. Leviticus 23, from the New King James Version, which most of you read. So you heard that simplistically explained in the New Living. This is what we all heard. Verse 9, from the New King James, And the Lord spoke to Moses, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf, wave sheaf, a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. So you're seeing the time here. There's a purpose for that. Who did this? What did this wave sheaf? Who did it picture? Absolutely. Did it happen just like this? He made it happen just like this. He fulfilled this time.

The day after the Sabbath, and the priest shall wave it, and you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma. He wants to smell that meat. He wants to smell that smell. He knows it's for him. And its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hen. You shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor fresh grain, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God, and it shall be a statute forever throughout all your generations. So, what's there to bring out? Am I done? Not hardly, because that just opens up the story for us. Exodus 23 and verse 19. I think you have that up there.

Exodus 23 and verse 19 said, As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest. This is the first harvest to the house of the Lord your God, up in verse 16. Second, celebrate the festival of harvest when you shall bring the first crops of your harvest. All of God's holy days were based around harvesting, out in the desert, when there wasn't any harvesting. They had to see what was going to happen. They had to see this is what your children will be doing when they come into the promised land. What about us? How does that tie to us? Why do we even do this? Well, there is a purpose. Exodus 34. Go with me. Exodus 34. I think I marked this in my Bible. I usually do. Exodus 34 verse 26. As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house. Did God fulfill that? Did God get that in the New Testament with Jesus Christ? He got the best. He got the first first fruit. He got the best first fruit. As much as you want to try, as much as I want to try, and that's what these days are about, trying to be like Christ on leaven, we're never going to be the first. We're never going to be the best. Does that disappoint you? Well, no, I don't mind being second, third, fourth.

Matter of fact, I have to digress, because I played for only I played baseball for Little League and Babe Ruth for four or five years. I think, didn't your grandson play quite a bit? Jeff? I think Jeff Newell's grandson played serious ball. Well, I played serious ball. I just wasn't any good at it, but I played on one good team. We had a winning record, went to the districts and everything. We were 13-1, and I played right field. You know, when the worst players there, they usually put you in right field. Right field, not that you would know, but... And I remember I got to bat seventh, eighth, or ninth each time. But they looked as they went down through the year. We were in our 11th game, and I had scored quite a few runs, but I didn't have any yet. As a matter of fact, I think I had six hits in 13 games. Not very impressive, huh? I definitely didn't bat first. But I so remember that the coach came to me on the 11th game of the year and said, Chuck, you're gonna bat first. Oh, my head swelled for a little bit. And I wondered if he'd been drinking something else besides out of his cup to put me because we had an incredible team with incredible batters. We had one guy, a matter of fact, a cleanup guy, that he would... everybody would back up to the fence because you were just trying to keep it every time. I mean, he'd hit two to three home runs every game. And so I went up to bat, and just before I was walking up there, I said, thanks, coach, for having confidence in me. And he looked and he goes, not on your batting. Said, you knew you got hit by the pitch almost every game and got on base. Now, take a couple for the team. Because I crowded the plate, and I didn't back off, and I got hit. Well, I felt good because I was on base, and the rest of the guys drove me around. And this game was the greatest game I ever played, batting first. I got hit twice, and I actually got one hit. I was on base three out of four times. I felt it was amazing. Then the next game, guess what? I was back in the seventh or eighth, batting again. But that's the only time I ever batted first in my entire life, and it felt good. Christ knew that He would be the first of the first fruits for billions of years. Just playing from the foundations of the world, as we're told. And He was great because He's the best lead-off batter we could ever have.

Because He scored a home run. And He leads that for us. It's now time for us to step to the plate as what? First fruits, isn't it? For first fruits. So here we have the story of the children of the children of Egypt. And they're going to come into the Promised Land, and He's going to tell them, now you're going to offer the first fruit. You're going to make, give an offering to me. And your priest is going to wave it before me, and there's going to be this special burnt offering and everything else. Well, they entered the land. They didn't do it the first year. You realize that? They didn't do it because He told them you couldn't. Because, even though crops were sown, crops could be harvested. They could eat.

Those were the Canaanites' food. The Canaanites had sowed that field. God did not want you, them, to bring something from the pagans before. You didn't want it. He wanted you to bring this to recognize Him as the one who was going to bless all the children of Israel. So when they came in, they didn't do it until that time, when they had brought forth the first fruits, when they had done the work, when they could recognize who gave them this food to eat, who was going to bless them with all the blessings, the one who gave them that harvest. Otherwise, it could have been said, well, but all brought that food. But all caused that to happen. No. God had it all planned. And then when that harvest was done, it's presented to God to acknowledge Him and to honor Him and for Him to accept that praise, that glory, because that's what it was. He wanted them to realize, this is a promised land that I promised you that I gave you. Do you think something like that's not going to go on in the kingdom of God? You think when Christ sets down all the nations, and now we are to teach the nations of the world God's way and the kingdom takes place, that we're not going to teach them that where this glory, where everything that they will be able to have, the peace, the abundance, is going to come from where? God. We're going to teach that. Why? Because we know it. Because we have done this year after year after year after year. We know what the wave sheaf is. It's interesting that the land that they would plant this in, they would start in November after the fall harvest, after the the feast we will keep this fall. And in November, they would sow their barley and they would sow their wheat. And according to the experts at the time, I know how it is in Tennessee, I don't know how it is at that time, there. But then they would sow that barley and sow that wheat. And so then it would grow and the barley typically could take the cold going through the winter better. So it grew faster than typical wheat would grow. The wheat was typically harvested later. The barley was harvested at that time, especially around Jerusalem. That is. But it's interesting that a year like this year, now, do you realize how late it is to keep the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread? It's one of the latest that has ever been in our lifetime, but not the lifetime of Christ. Christ actually kept the Passover at one of the latest times ever, April 24th. But the amazing part was that when the crops were harvested and it was late in the year, you could even have a little bit of wheat coming on now. But they typically picked the barley because it was going to be ripe. Now think about it, if you were there in the Promised Land, say ten years into it, and you were harvesting your grain. But this year, the time to put the wave sheaf was way later. It was a month later than it had been in earlier. What if you had already used up all your grain from the previous winter? You'd be sitting there going, I need it!

But you couldn't touch it. You could not eat of the grain. You could not even go out and cut the grain and say, I'm going to hold it for a week. No. Nothing could be done until the wave sheaf day. And that is today. Then, as soon as the priest was brought the grain, he would hold it that night. It would have to be cut with a sickle. And then it was brought to him at least 40 ounces, as we would know it. And that would be held for the next morning, so that the priest could then wave it before God after he had already mixed up the wine, the oil, to present to God. And the animal was ready for the sacrifice.

So no one could do anything until the priest did his job. No one could do anything. They couldn't eat of the harvest. They couldn't harvest. They couldn't do anything until God was given the recognition, the glory, the praise for everything they had. And it started on this day near twilight and tomorrow morning. He would bring that out. And you may say, well, why? Bible doesn't say why it would be on Sunday morning that he would do that. Because, as you know, it says count 50 because of Pentecost, and it starts for tomorrow, right? Or really tonight, because that starts the day. All this is tied in to this time. So you had to wait on him. He had to prepare all this stuff.

Or no one was going to eat. And you know what they required everyone to do? Now, if you want to read more, you can read from Alfred Edersheim. He's a famous writer, born in 1825, died in 1880, something like that. He was born Jewish. He knew all Jewish rule law, and then he converted to quote-unquote Christianity. And so he wrote all these books to explain about Jewish law. Because, face it, how many people out there know it in Christianity? No. He wrote so you could tie it together, what all this meant. He wrote an incredible book I have at home called Life and Times of the Messiah, which he goes through Matthew to all the way through John. Incredible book, you probably have it. And he explains how the Judaism fits into Christ doing everything that he did. Incredible book. But he goes into this one, and he explains that the priest would wait until 9 to 12 o'clock in the morning before he would wave that sheaf. Why? So that every people in the Holy Land would run, would send a runner, those that were too far, to come in. Send that runner to be there in front of that priest to say, it's waved. It's accepted. The offering's been given. Then they could run back start harvesting their crops. But it gave everybody time to get there. And everybody could see that it was all done. Nothing was done at night. Everything was done. You had to realize here, there was no temple here. There's no temple built yet. It's a wilderness. I mean, this was in the promised land, but they hadn't built anything yet. They just said certain places were priests were. These cities. So, then you could eat of the new harvest, which is incredible. You imagine people were pretty hungry at that time. Ah, did you have to monitor and wait if you realized how much grain you had? Uh-oh. Am I going to make it another month?

Would you be appreciative of a God that allowed rain to come? Tied you to the ground, and the ground tied you to God, and the blessings that would come from Him was all about His glory. So, maybe this is time we make the transition, because we know about, you can read in Deuteronomy 16 verse 9, about putting the sickle to the ground, because that's what had to be done, and brought into Him the way, sheaf. So, let's go. Let's go to the New Testament. Teaching. Happened at the very same time. Remember? Let's go to John 20.

I think I gave this to you guys, did I? Okay, good. I wasn't. I want to make sure I did. But you remember how Christ was three days and three nights where?

In the earth, into grave, and He went in there just before sunset on Wednesday, right? And so, He was made alive 72 hours. He was dead in that grave. Exactly 72 hours. So, right about sunset, as He was put into the grave, He was in there, right about that time, at Jesus' time, here the man went out into the land and took that sickle and harvested that sheaf for the next day. That presentation they would make to God, that first fruit of the land, they took it, same time that Jesus Christ was brought back to life.

But He didn't go up to His Father yet, did He? Why? Because the priest had not waved, which pictured Him, the first fruit, they haven't waved that yet. They hadn't presented everything to God. And so here, we read in verse 1, chapter 20, early on Sunday morning. That's right. While it was still dark, that had to be between before 5 and 6 o'clock, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away. Christ was alive! He'd been alive since sunset, before sunset. She ran and found Simon and Peter and the other disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, and she said to Him, They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put Him. She thought somebody stole Him. Where was He? Don't know. Was He still in there? I don't know. It doesn't say, does it? Was He just wandering around? I don't know. We don't know. But I do know what happened down here, verse 17. John 20, verse 17. Jesus shows up there when Mary comes back, and she called and said, Rabbonneh, which is Hebrew for teacher. And Jesus said, Don't cling to me. Jesus said, For I haven't ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and to your God. What was He waiting on? The waving of the first fruit. He was fulfilling the first of the first fruits. He would go up, and He would be accepted. He'd be waved, showed, displayed. How powerful is that?

Go with me to Romans 8.29. Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 29. For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brethren. There's no doubt about it. This is who He was. He was the first of the first fruits. He was the firstborn of us. Think how powerful that is. Jesus was presented to God, accepted as the first of the first fruits. He was accepted in front of us. We're the first fruits. That's what Pentecost is all about.

We will follow Jesus Christ. And just like Him, we will be changed. What about accepted? Think about it. We will follow symbolically 50 days later, because Pentecost, the Feast of First Fruits, pictures us, doesn't it? It pictures that early harvest of those He has called, chosen to be the first fruits. It's a powerful statement. Pentecost, 50 days. Count 50. 50, that's interesting, isn't it? Huh. 50.

Year of Jubilee, 50. Isn't it interesting? As a side note, they chose 50. And many of you, most of you, are over 50. Isn't it interesting? That is even noted in the Bible that the age of man, three score and ten, 70 years old. Yet, as found out in the wilderness, those who were 20 and under were not counted, were they? Doesn't it kind of picture us? Most of us were over 20 when God began to call to work with us. Does it picture 50 years? Many of you can say, I've been following God's way of life for 50 years. Mature? Think so? I really think so. Does it picture as we are going now into? It'll start tomorrow. Those 50 days before the Pentecost. Are we being waved? Now? In our 50 days, our 50 years, whatever they are? Are we being presented to God? Are we being accepted as we live our life, as God is able to view us as He was able to view Jesus Christ, and He was the first of the first fruits, and now we will follow Him. It's pretty special. A pretty special time. Moses told us to do what? Number our days. I think he's saying that because we weren't going to get 120 like him. Number those days. Frank and I always talk because we play with numbers, and we do this, and this. Here it's seven years before 2031, which is 2,000 years to the exact time when Jesus Christ kept Passover. So we play with numbers. It's not doctrine, but it's interesting to say that God told Moses, number your days. As He tells us, number your days. Are we taking seriously the 50 years of days that we have to live with God's truth? Will we take seriously the 50 days once we leave this thing Monday? Let's go get some of that good bread. Ah, ah, ah. Ah. Will we forget to relate that to sin? Being unleavened. God says, watch the 50 days. Watch those 50 days because you are, you are the first fruits, and Christ came before you. Let me wrap this up. You know, our time is now. We don't have to say, well, we'll just wait. As a matter of fact, I had a conversation on the phone last night with someone, really good guy, and he talked about his father. He just came into the truth late in life. Matter of fact, he was baptized just months before he died, but his father had tithed for 40 years. He never came to church. He read it, but he did, he said, I know it's the truth, but he didn't answer the call. And this guy, this young man, told me that he had a conversation when he started attending church. And so he had a talk with the pastor and told him, well, I think I'll just wait for the second resurrection. And he said, the pastor, the minister, said, there isn't a second chance to be called. There's only one. He said, do you want to take that chance?

Thankfully, in a few years, he means he's been baptized now for 15 years. And he thought about this, the first fruit of what a blessing it is. And as we go into before the days of Pentecost, I'll be giving sermons here about what it means to be a first fruit. It is special. It is precious. It is so powerful that to tell you the truth, you would have to lose your mind to not fulfill your destiny as a first fruit. But many of us have met those who lost their minds. It just wasn't big enough. We're going to talk for Pentecost, just how big it is. If you'll go with me, because now we are being waved, presented, and accepted as first fruits, our lives show it. Go with me to 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4. Verse 17. For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's news? That's us. We know it. Judgment is now on the house of God, as the new King James puts it. So today is a big day. A big, big day. I think it is, because today is about first. And the hard, cold reality is you can't be first. But you can be a first. It is what God has called you to be. Tonight, just before sunset, I want you to think about your elder brother coming alive and fulfilling a destiny and a future for us billions of years in the making.