Now, I have a wife whom I love dearly who’s gone ahead of me. But one day we’ll be together forever. Dear brothers and sisters, don’t miss this. It’s the greatest tragedy of your life if you miss this. It’s earnest, it’s serious.

Finally, and I have to say this rapidly, the resurrection will be in three phases. 1 Corinthians 15:22:

“For as in Adam all died, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one of us in his own order...”

And here’s the order, three separate phases. First, Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s at His coming, and finally the end, the final resurrection of all the remaining dead. Whom is Jesus coming back? Those that are Christ’s. He’s not coming back... He’s not a thief, He’s not going to take anything or anybody that doesn’t belong to Him. Do you really belong to Him? It’s an important question. Those are the ones He’s coming back for.

He’s called the firstfruits. And here’s one final passage from the Bible that is really exciting. Leviticus 9, I think it is. Just one quick, brief ceremony. (Wait till I write that down in my outline.) Leviticus 23, sorry, bear with me. This is a ceremony under the Law of Moses.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘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 of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priests. 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.’’”

What day is the Sabbath, what day of the week? Saturday. What’s the day after the Sabbath? Sunday. What day did Jesus rise? Sunday, that’s right. He was the sheaf and He was waved on our behalf that we might be accepted because of Him.

But He wasn’t just one stalk, He was a sheaf. And if you read in Matthew 27 when Jesus died, there was an earthquake, the tombs were opened and many of the righteous dead came out into the city. I don’t believe they went back into the tombs, I believe they went up with Jesus. They became the sheaf that was waived before the Lord, saying there’s a great multitude to follow. Here we are, we’re the sheaf, we’re the firstfruits.

Now, I really can’t go any further. I am absolutely pressed in my spirit to challenge you as to whether you really are pressing toward the mark, whether you have got the right priorities in your life. In 1977, I think, I was at some meeting in the North Island somewhere here on intercession. I was teaching about the fact that there’s a strong man over every nation. They said to me, “What’s the strong man over New Zealand?” I said it’s not my job to tell you, you’re the New Zealand Christians, you’ve got to find out. But at that moment I felt the Lord said, “I’ll tell you the strong man.” So I came back and I told them but at that time Bill Subritzsky who is a close friend of ours was sitting way back with one of his daughters. He told me afterwards at the moment that I said this God said the same to him. What I said was this and it will surprise you, it’s a kind of anticlimax. The strongman over New Zealand is indifference. Now, I can’t talk like a Kiwi but Kiwis have said to me the typical statement of a New Zealander is, “She’ll be right, Jack.” In other words, it’ll take care of itself. If we leave it it’ll get all right. That is

Laying the Foundation

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