First Corinthians 15:25-34 Operation Footstool

Well, good morning. Well, we're going to continue on in chapter 15, Operation Footstool. So I'm using McCauley's outline. I kind of shortened it up a bit here. So the part that's in blue is the part I'm going to talk about today. I'm going to go back to verse 22.

Now, this is the section, the wonderful section on the confirmation of the resurrection you know verse 20 says but Christ has been raised from the dead in contrast all the objectors he has been raised from the dead so Paul carefully goes through and shows God's resurrection program and he shows there's an order to it.

There's not just one event, there's multiple events, and there's a sequence of things that must happen. And then he actually goes on to describe what is called the end, which is kind of, you know, wow, the end. What does the end mean? Well, we talked about last week a little bit. We're gonna talk about that.

There's all these events that have to happen. God is a God of order. All these events must take place before the final culmination, that God will be all in all, which is a marvelous statement in verse 28 we'll see. Okay, so let's look at, so actually the section we're gonna talk about, his enemies will be under his feet, the last enemy to be abolished will be death, and so that God may be all in all. Okay, so let's go back. We're gonna start back in verse 22. I'm gonna kind of start in the middle. We talked about for as in Adam all die.

So I'm gonna focus on believers here. So also in Christ, all will be made alive. So in Christ, so the idea here is he's talking about the believer, this is talking about his living union with Christ. Every believer is in a living union with Christ and it's all believers who put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. And the verb here is, will be made alive, and it's to cause, to live, to quicken, comes from Zoe, for life, and poeo, to make, and it's a future tense, and God's doing it, passive voice, he's accomplishing the action. And it's by Christ, who also is the bestower of life, and I found some other verses I didn't mention last week, there's just so many neat verses here. Christ, Christ in you, the hope of glory, He who has a son has life. He's a giver of life.

And we're talking here about resurrection life, physical life is being spoken of here. So Constable kind of sums this up here a bit. He says, Our resurrection will be a human resurrection, not some spiritual type of resurrection. The physical resurrection is inevitable for the sons of Jesus Christ. And that's what's so marvelous. There's nothing that stands in our way, right now, every believer in the Lord Jesus, nothing stands in our way of being bodily resurrected with him.

And I hadn't spent a lot of time about it, but I know we need to think, and Mike's gonna cover more about the body, but man is body, soul, and spirit. All believers right now that have gone to be with him, their body is in the grave, right? They're gonna get a new body. So God in our eternal state will have a body, will have a new body. So man is body, soul, and spirit. Anyway, okay. So now let's go on to verse 23. So now this is where he kinda starts to program his resurrection program. He says, but each, everyone in Christ, in his own order.

And the idea is this is a military term like a wave of soldiers coming past. You have the 1st Battalion, the 2nd Battalion, and so on. They go past. It's an order process. It shows that there's a marching order for the resurrection of the dead. I guess historically people thought, well, they didn't look at the scriptures very carefully. Well, there's just one general resurrection for everyone. that's not the situation. And we're gonna see a picture that I showed last week that kind of pictorially shows that.

So Christ is what's called the first fruits, the first event in God's program is Christ's resurrection. Paul's idea was that Christ was the first rank to experience resurrection. And Macaulay kind of shares Christ, he has this three, he has the commencement, the continuation, and the culmination. So Christ was the commencement of this operation, resurrection, and we're gonna see the culmination shortly here. Okay. After those, so we first talked about the firstfruits, after those who are Christ that is coming. So literally afterwards. the ones who are Christ's at His coming. And coming here is parousia.

If you've been in the Thessalonians class, this word shows up quite a few times. It's speaking of the rapture, the arrival and presence with the body of believers that are raptured. So I'm just gonna go through this really wonderful verse in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16.

It says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. So the first group here is the dead in Christ will rise first. And you know historically there was worry in Thessalonica about, well what about my brother or sister in the Lord who's died? Will they miss the resurrection?

Well Paul addresses that. The dead in Christ will rise first. then we who are alive and remain will be caught up, that's where they get the idea of that snatching away, the rapture idea, caught up to meet them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.

So that's the picture of this. This is the second part of the resurrection program. Christ is the firstfruits. Now we have after those who are Christ that is coming. And his coming here is this parousia, is the rapture. and we shall always be with the Lord.

Okay, so here's a picture I borrowed back from when we taught major Bible themes back in the 2000s with Hal. And Hal gave me credit, even though I didn't contribute a lot, but I did contribute a little bit this time. Okay, so let's just kind of go through the picture here.

The first, we have the firstfruits Jesus Christ on the right. He's resurrected, he's the firstfruits. Then we have this, the church, the two groups of people, the dead in Christ are first, and then those who are alive in Christ. And Bonnie says, Roger, you gotta flip that picture around. You gotta make the dead, this is a timeline, right? You gotta put the dead, you know, the dead first and then the alive in Christ.

Well, the reason Hal has it that way, he's trying to show that little green on the baseline there, he's trying to show that they're alive. So I see why he did it. And he's trying to make it all line up with the beginning of the tribulation. So, anyway. That's a bit of mechanics there.

But the part I want to call your attention to is that during the, from the rapture of the church till the last resurrection is this period, other stuff happens. Paul doesn't address the other resurrections in this passage, the tribulation saints, the Old Testament saints, the two witnesses. But he does address this little green box I was showing you there. And that's the actions that happen described in the verses we're going to study in 24B through 28. These actions must occur before the end comes or the last resurrection.

Okay. So now, then the end comes. So I kind of redid this couple charts here. So then is this word, I'm not sure I can pronounce it, it's interval, interval or order in succession, comes the supplied, the end, teleos, the end of a series of events, the goal, and I like to think about the series of events to get to the goal, the goal line in football, you might have a pass, you might have a running play, and then you eventually get to the goal.

So to get to the goal, God's goal for the end of the age is, I'm going to talk about here. Okay, N refers, according to Schaeffer, N refers to the last resurrection, and I believe he's right. So we're going to see this series of events in 24B through 28.

And this has been called, Merriman College calls this the final work of Jesus Christ. You know, we often say we're to believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Well, that work is his work on the cross, his saving work on the cross. But this is a work I hadn't actually thought about. This is his final work that occurs during the millennial kingdom. This is Christ's final work, and we're gonna see that described here shortly. These events are called, by Merriman, Operation Footstool. So we'll see what that's about shortly here.

All righty. Okay. So we have this. Verse 24 is kind of interesting. It says, then the end comes. And now it's going to describe, there's going to be four actions that are going to take place. Four verbs that are going to describe the action that take place before the end comes.

And you might ask, well, why didn't Paul write this in that order? I can't answer that. I haven't talked to Paul recently, so I can't really answer that question. But this is the way it's, and you look at it carefully, I think this is what it's saying.

So the first action is, or the first part of it is, when is a pretty critical word here. When could be translated whenever. What must follow, what must follow occurs before the end can come. So the way he's stating it, he says, when this, when that, when all these things occur, then the end can come.

Okay, the subject here is Christ. So the first action, or the first event, is his handing over, or to deliver over. And it's in what's called the subjunctive mood. It hasn't happened yet, but it's going to happen. And what's going to happen here, he's going to hand over to God the Father, the kingdom. And so you say, what's the kingdom? And I kind of scratched my head for a bit, and I think this is right. I think the kingdom is a kingdom of Jesus Christ on the earth during the millennial, the millennial kingdom. That's why he's gonna hand over that kingdom. And basically he is, God is ruling through a mediator. He's ruling through the Lord Jesus. God the Father is ruling through the mediator, the Lord Jesus. So that's what's going on here.

So that's the first action. So the second action, is that here we have when again and it shows up multiple times in these passages when literally whenever what follows must occur before the end can come He Christ has abolished And this word abolish is a favorite word of Paul's. If you're a good student, like you've been in Mike's class for many years, to render inoperative. I'm sure you've heard that a few times. But it shows up here. It shows up here a couple times.

The word abolish is to render inoperative. So just to remind you of its usage in other places. In Romans 6b it says that our old self or old man was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with. I've never liked that translation because it's misleading. A better translation is rendered inoperative or like Hal used to say taken offline, put in idle.

So what's being spoken of here is that the Lord Jesus here is going to abolish, and He's going to abolish or render inoperative three things, rule, authority, and power. So the other verse I like that uses ge'o is the one about in Hebrews, Hebrews 2.14b.

He himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil. So in this case you could substitute, they're closer here, I like render powerless or render inoperative. So here the devil is rendered inoperative. He's still running around, right? But he, we've been, he's been put in idle as far as the believer is concerned. So here are the three things that are going to be rendered inoperative. First of all, all rule, any rule of any kind. The word all is pas in the Greek, none excluded. There's not going to be any rule that he won't render inoperative. All authority. This is the authority behind the rule.

Then lastly, you could put all there. I didn't have enough space to squeeze it in. If you do chartsmanship in PowerPoint, you know you're always fighting one aspect. Can I get it on the line or will it wrap to the next line? That's always a challenge. So if I put all in front of power there, it would put another line and be off the page. You don't like to do that.

I'm just kind of giving you the trials of PowerPoint. All power stands for the person in authority, the powerful one. So all rule, authority, and all power will be rendered inoperative. So that's the second action in this time period between the church being raptured and the last resurrection. Okay, let me go on. So here's, we finally get to today's, these are new verses today.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him.

I'm gonna try to unravel that. That sounds like a little bit of double talk there, but it's not. It actually makes sense. when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. Okay, so we've had two of the four things that have to happen in this time period. So here's the third one, the third action.

He, Christ, must reign as king until So until it's the idea here it in the case where it's followed by a subjunctive mood it applies uncertainty So he hasn't pinned the time down. He's just saying it's gonna happen It when this it has to happen before the the last resurrection he Christ has put to set to put to place This is subjunctive move again. It hasn't happened yet, but it's going to happen all his enemies under his feet The complete domination of Jesus Christ over the enemies of God. This is expressed by the word reign.

That's what Merriman shares. Okay, so continuing on. He must reign. So I thought it would be nice to kind of look at some verses that kind of show some of that and a lot of them turn out to be in the Old Testament. One of them that does not is in Luke.

When his birth, at his birth, the Lord Jesus, I'll just read this section. And behold, you will conceive in your womb. He's speaking to Mary here. and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. And then a couple of verses in the Old Testament. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you. And then lastly, Psalm 110, verse 5, the Lord is at your right hand.

He will shatter the kings in the day of wrath. He will judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. So a pretty intense view of the reign of the Messiah, reign of Jesus Christ. Okay, now this is a really interesting part.

The last enemy that will be abolished is death. Okay, fourth action here, the last enemy death. So I like the inner linear, it is supplied here. It reads kind of hard, the last enemy death being abolished. But it brings across the verb and the subject good. So the subject here, the complete subject is the last enemy death. And the verb here is being abolished.

And it's our favorite word here, render inoperative. He'll render inoperative death. Pretty cool idea. Present indicative passive, God's gonna do it. So death, in this structure, death is receiving the action of the bird. It's being rendered inoperative. The idea here is physical death. This is from Merriman.

Death is an active enemy of a man who is not in, I'm sorry. Death is an active enemy of the man who is not in Christ. Man does not have a second chance after death. So I think, I listened to Merriman's tape here, and he's focusing here on thinking about wanting men to be saved, and like he says, every man outside of Christ, death is an active enemy. They fear death. Until physical death comes, there is still hope. Death is not an enemy of those in Christ. And when I would listen to him say that, I'd say, wow, I know a cool verse. And Mike's going to be, well, one of us will be teaching this verse.

1 Corinthians 15.55, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? And it goes on, even more good things. But then the verse caps it off here. is in Revelation 14. Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. So death is going to be dealt with, but for us in Christ, death has no victory over us. In our Savior, we're safe in Him. Okay, on to verse 27. So now Paul's, in the last two verses, he's going to give some logic here of what kind of his thought process, if you will, Okay, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet. So I like the interlinear here.

I tried to pull out, well, who's, so the problem here with these verses I found, when is it talking about God the Father, and when is it talking about God the Son? And actually going through, I got them flipped around a couple times until I said, okay, Roger, we gotta get this straight. And I carefully looked at each one. I think Vani even asked me, Vani does my proofreading, she says, Well, is that the son or the father that's being talked about here? So I think I got him right. If I don't have him right, please tell me. I'm pretty sure that you're right.

Because the father, he actually, we're going to see here, he subjects things under the feet of Christ. But Christ also is subjecting things, too. So it gets a little confusing. For all things, he, the father, is subjected under the feet of Christ. Subjected is hupotasso. It's a military term to rank under.

And that's an important word, because in the Godhead, the Son has voluntarily ranked under the Father, even though He's equal in essence, He's ranked under the Father. And the Spirit has ranked under the Son in a sense, but He's equal with the Father and the Son.

So the gospel says here, Paul saw Jesus Christ as a person who fulfilled the prophecy recorded in Psalm 8. In the psalm, the ruler is viewed as man, but he will be a man, capital M, the God-man who reigned for humanity all that Adam lost. Okay, so now we get the middle part of the verse, and when he says, all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he, the father, is accepted or excluded, who put all things in subjection to him, Christ. Pretty key, those parenthetical things are key here.

Of course God himself will not be under the rule of the son. And the reason that's true is because the son has voluntarily said, okay, I will rank under my father. And he has no problem with that. And that's a picture for us. Ranking under us, it doesn't mean that you're not equal with him.

He is the one who will finally bring all things into subjection to Christ. So the overall idea, the Father has put all things under Christ, under the feet of Christ. Operation footstool, right? Okay. So here we have when again, so verse 28 starts with when, whenever again, what follows must happen before the end can come.

All things are subjected to Him, the Son. Then, and this is, or at that time, It's an adverb at that time. The son also will be subjected to the one, the father, who subjected all things to him, the son. This is a voluntary subjection of the son to the father. So I've seen this before, there's a, the triune God can be thought of in this way. I don't think this originated with Merriman, but this is where I kind of copied it down from.

God the Father is the planner. God the Son is the executor of the planner. God the Holy Spirit is the revealer of the planner. I'm not sure who originated that, but it's very insightful. And once again, the Godhead has decided that's how things are going to operate.

So that, with a purpose that, And I, this is my little parent, the triune God may be all in all. You know, the verse says God may be all in all, but looking at the functionality of the Godhead, God totally plans, executes, and reveals. That's totally God. So I like to, I thought it was appropriate to put the triune God may be all in all. Pass, all, everything, with no exception.

Now, like the Amplified Bible, rendering here, God may be all in all, be everything to everyone, supreme, indwelling, and controlling factor of life. So my final thoughts here come from Constable. Finally, God will be the head of everything. The earth millennial kingdom will end, and everything will merge into the eternal kingdom of God.

Christ will be submissive to his father forever, And it kind of shook me a little bit, but don't, you know, he is one, his essence with the father is identical. There's no difference. This is a central passage that affirms the eternal functional subordination of the son to the father. First Corinthians 15, the passage we just studied here. Resurrection sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately culminate in the death of death. Death is no more. then God will resume being what he was before, all in all.

Just beautiful kind of pulling together that. So I thought it was just really cool. Hopefully that was helpful. Takes a little tracking through, but I think it's pretty cool. So let's just close in prayer. We thank you, Father. Thank you for your word. We thank you for the marvelous truths about our Savior and what he's gonna be doing in the millennial kingdom and how it will end up that you will be glorified and you will be all in all. We ask in his name.