The Order of the Resurrection

Yeshua rose on the day the first sheaf of the harvest was waved before the LORD, and Paul calls Him “the first fruits of those who are asleep.” Before we go further, two things have to be kept clear. The first concerns the name of the day. The second concerns what the word “first fruits” means when it is said of Him, and what it means for every person who believes in Him.

Not the Day of the First-Fruits

The morning of the resurrection was the day of the omer reshit רֵאשִׁית ray-sheeth', the first sheaf. That day is not the feast the Torah calls “the day of the first-fruits,” Yom HaBikkurim. The Torah counts from the day of the first sheaf to reach that other day.

Leviticus 23:15-16 And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow after the Shabbat, from the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven complete Shabbats they shall be. Until the morrow after the seventh Shabbat you shall count fifty days; and you shall bring near a new grain offering to the LORD.

Seven complete Shabbats are counted, fifty days in all, and on the fiftieth day a new grain offering is brought. Numbers gives that fiftieth day its name.

Numbers 28:26 And in the day of the first-fruits, when you bring a new grain-offering to the LORD in your weeks, a holy convocation (miqra-qodesh מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ mik-raw') shall be to you; all work of service (avodah עֲבֹדָה ab-o-daw') you shall not do.

Notice where the count begins: “from the morrow after the Shabbat, from the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.” The day of the first sheaf opens the count, and the day of the first-fruits closes it. The two days are joined by the counting, yet they are two days and not one.

So the day Yeshua rose is the day of the first sheaf. The day of the first-fruits, Yom HaBikkurim, is the fiftieth day of the count. The two must not be confused, because each has its own place in what follows.

He Gives the Fruit

The second matter is what it means to call Him the first fruits of the resurrection, and here we must not misunderstand. Because Yeshua is God, He is the One who gives the fruit at the appointed time, the moedim, the kairos καιρός kahee-ros' God has set. He Himself does not need any process of ripening. He does not become one of the sheaves harvested from the field.

Rather, Yeshua is the One who opened the way for each person’s spirit to be raised, when that person repents and receives Him by faith.

The Spirit Raised When One Receives Him

The moment anyone truly repents and receives Yeshua by faith, his spirit is raised and awakened. To have truly repented and received Yeshua is itself the spiritual resurrection.

But at this point faith has only begun. It is like grain that has been harvested from the field and not yet threshed. From the very moment of the spiritual resurrection, the stage begins in which the wheat and the tares are still to be separated. A person whose spirit has not been raised cannot even enter the threshing floor.

The Fiftieth Day

Here the count of fifty days returns. After seven Shabbats have passed, on the fiftieth day, Yom HaBikkurim, the believer must receive the Holy Spirit. Scripture records that on that day, “when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled,” those who were gathered together “were all filled with hagio(holy) pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit)” (Acts 2:1-4).

Only then does one become a saint who bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And Yeshua said plainly what becomes of a life that bears none.

Matthew 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire.

Threshing, and the First Resurrection

The saints whose spirits have been raised must go through the threshing on the threshing floor, in order to become the wheat that is gathered into the storehouse of heaven. Yet God knows all things and every life through and through. Knowing every path each one has walked since his spiritual resurrection, He has already determined beforehand which saints will take part in the first resurrection.

To follow Messiah Yeshua and become the complete fruit of the resurrection, one must do what Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi.

Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling;

Only then does the sleeping soul awaken and put on a glorious new body, so that the person becomes one in whom spirit, soul, and body have been fully raised. Scripture calls this the first resurrection.

Revelation 20:5 And the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were completed — this is the first resurrection.

Why the Spirit Comes First, and Easily

Why is the spirit raised first? Because faith cannot begin, and the Holy Spirit cannot be received, until a person’s spirit has awakened. So of the whole person, it is the spirit that is raised first, and it is raised easily. Three sayings of Yeshua stand behind this.

The first is His invitation to the weary.

Matthew 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

The second is His answer to those who denied the resurrection.

Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living — you are greatly mistaken."

The third is His word to Martha, spoken when she went out to meet Him before He came to the tomb of her brother.

John 11:25-26 Yeshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life); he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die; do you believe this?"

In Order

So the order runs this way. Yeshua rose on the day of the first sheaf, the One who gives the fruit at the appointed time. The spirit of each one who repents and receives Him by faith is raised; that is the spiritual resurrection. Then comes the threshing floor, where wheat and tares are still to be separated. On the fiftieth day, the day of the first-fruits, the Holy Spirit is to be received, and the saint bears the fruit of the Spirit. And at the last, those who have worked out their salvation with fear and trembling awaken in soul and put on a glorious new body in the first resurrection.

Yeshua did not need to ripen. He opened the way, and the spirit of each one who repents and receives Him is raised first.

All of this has been read from the day on which He rose. Now everything can be put in one place. Yeshua said He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The next chapter lays out the whole timetable from the day of preparation to first light on the sixteenth and counts the daytimes and the nights one by one.