THE FIRST AND THE SECOND RESURRECTIONS

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Revelation 20:4-6

4-28-63    8:15 a.m.

On the radio you are listening to the services of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, and this is the pastor bringing the early morning message entitled The First and the Second Resurrections.  In our preaching through the Bible after these many, many years, we have come to the Revelation.  And in our preaching through the Revelation, we have come to chapter 20.  And in preaching through chapter 20, we have come to verses 4 through 6.  And out of all of the messages I have ever prepared, I have never prepared one that was more interesting to me or more meaningful than the sermon of this morning’s hour, The First and the Second Resurrections.

If you would like, in your Bible, you can follow the message of this morning, if you will turn to Revelation chapter 20, and we shall read verses 4 through 6:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them:  and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.  This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:  on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

[Revelation 20:4-6]

The First and the Second Resurrections.

We shall first follow minutely the text.  “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them” [Revelation 20:4].  After the binding of Satan, who is cast into the abyss for a thousand years [Revelation 20:1-3], the next vision that John sees is in the millennial glory of God:  the enthroned saints of the Lord.  “I saw thrones, and I saw those who sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them” [Revelation 20:4].  He sees the day of the crowning reward of all God’s saved people.

In the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Matthew, our Lord said to His apostles that they should be seated upon thrones, judging the tribes of Israel [Matthew 19:28].  In the sixth chapter of the first Corinthian letter, Paul said that the saints, we, shall judge the earth, and we shall judge angels [1 Corinthians 6:2-3].  In Revelation 3:21, our Lord promised to us who overcome, that we shall share with Him His throne in glory.  This is the day of the fulfillment of those incomparable promises of the Lord.  We shall sit upon thrones, judging the world, judging angels, sharing the judiciary with Christ the Lord Himself.  So in this millennial consummation, the vision that John sees is the enthronement of Christ’s sainted people [Revelation 20:4].

Then in that group of the enthroned saints of God, he sees a particular and an especial group:  “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus . . . and they lived again and reigned with Christ a thousand years” [Revelation 20:4].  In that great enthronement of the saints of God, he sees in that group a special and particular company:  “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus . . . and they lived again and reigned with Christ a thousand years” [Revelation 20:4].   He particularly marks out, he specifically and especially points out that group of martyrs for two reasons.  First, the highest devotion that one can offer to God is the surrender of his life in witness to the faith.  The heaviest penalty that the law can ask of a court is to take away a man’s life.  This group had laid down their lives for Jesus; and especially and particularly the Holy Spirit of God points them out, these martyrs who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and who refused to bow down and to worship the beast and his image [Revelation 20:4].

Now this is the same kind of a thing as you find in the first chapter of the Revelation and the seventh verse:  “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him” [Revelation1:7].  It does not mean that they also which pierced Him are separated from the every eye that shall see Him.  But it refers to the fact that in that group, when every eye shall see Him, there is also that group who murdered our Lord, and John particularly notices that the slayers of Jesus, those who put Him to death, shall especially confront our living and reigning Lord.  In the great group as a whole, there is this group that John especially sees; these who murdered the Lord shall see Him face to face some day [Revelation 1:7].  Now that is the same kind of a sentence as you find here in this millennial description; in the great group of those who are enthroned with our Lord, here are these martyrs who are especially designated.  They have laid down their lives for Jesus, and they are particularly noticed [Revelation 20:4].

All right, there is a second reason why these martyrs are especially designated:  in the sixth chapter of the Revelation and the ninth verse, when the fifth seal was opened, John saw under the altar “the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony they held:  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, O Lord, how long, how long?” [Revelation 6:9-10].  That necessitated some further reference to those souls that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus [Revelation 20:4].  What comes of their cry to the Lord?  This is the answer to that cry.

Now, they are called “souls”:  “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus . . . and they lived again” [Revelation 20:4].  Now some people stumble at that word “souls.”  “I saw tas psuchas, translated here “the souls.”  Now that word “souls” is used in two senses.  The first sense it is used in the sixth chapter of the Revelation and the ninth verse, when he opened the fifth seal, there the word “soul” refers to the disembodied spirit [Revelation 6:9].  Here the word “soul” refers to the whole life of a man, including his body, his resurrected body, the life of a man, the whole life of man, the body and the soul [Revelation 20:4].

Now may I illustrate how that is used and how you use it that way also?  In the second chapter of the Book of Acts, after Peter preached his sermon at Pentecost, the Bible says, “And there was added unto the church about three thousand souls, three thousand souls.”  Well, they were not disembodied spirits, they were people.  You use the word like that, “And there was added unto the church that day about three thousand souls” [Acts 2:41].  Now in the seventh chapter of the Book of Acts, Stephen is talking about Jacob and the family that went down into Egypt under Joseph, and he says they numbered “three score and fifteen souls” [Acts 7:14].  There were seventy-five people who went down into Egypt.  In the twenty-seventh chapter of the Book of Acts, Dr. Luke is describing the journey they made to Rome and the terrible wreck of the ship, and he says, “There were two hundred seventy-six souls in that ship” [Acts 27:37].  In the third chapter of 1 Peter, Peter refers to the fact that there were eight souls that were saved in the ark [1 Peter 3:20].  Now these are just some of the instances where they use that word “soul” to refer to the spirit and the body, the whole man, the whole life.  Now, these souls were beheaded for the sake of our Lord, and they are in heaven in disembodiment, and he sees them there crying unto the Lord [Revelation 20:4], when the fifth seal is opened [Revelation 6:9-10].  But here they have been raised from the dead, and they lived again and reigned with Christ, along with the rest of the resurrected saints who are enthroned in glory [Revelation 20:4].

Then he speaks of the fact that this, the enthronement, the resurrection, the rewarding of the saints, the martyrs, all who have believed in Jesus, this is the first resurrection [Revelation 40:4-5].  And he emphasizes that, he anastasis, he prōtē, the resurrection, the first.”  Then he speaks of the fact that the rest of the dead live not again until the millennium was over, until the thousand years were finished [Revelation 20:5].  “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection” [Revelation 20:6].  So that leads us, when he speaks of a first resurrection, and then the remainder of the dead living not again until after the thousand years were finished, till the millennium is passed [Revelation 20:5], that leads us into a looking at the Word of God concerning the raising of the dead, the resurrection of the dead.  What does the Word of God say concerning our living again beyond the grave?

Now, it is a strange thing.  There is no one place in the Bible where the entire picture of the resurrection is presented.  It is presented in pieces and in parts and in different places, and you have to put it all together in order to complete a picture of the entire program of God in raising those who fall into the grave.  Now let us start, and let us look at what God has to say concerning the resurrection of the dead.  And in this you and I are going to share.  There are many other things that we may not be introduced to, but some day all of us, every one of us will share in one of these resurrections.  Now let’s begin.

First of all, the Bible will speak of “a resurrection,” the fact that there is such a thing as “a resurrection,” as such.  For example, in the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Matthew, there is a discussion between our Lord and the Sadducees, who believe there is no resurrection [Matthew 22:23-32].  And our Lord avows that there is:  “As touching the resurrection of the dead,” our Lord says thus and so [Matthew 22:31-32].

In the eleventh chapter of the Book of John, Martha says to the Lord, when the Lord says to her, the sister, that Lazarus will live again, she says, “Yes, I know that he will live again at the resurrection, at the last day.”  In the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Acts, when Paul is pleading his case before King Agrippa, he says to that Jewish monarch, “King Agrippa, why should it be thought an incredible thing to thee, that God should raise the dead?” [Acts 26:8].  Therefore, I know from the Bible, the Word of God, that there is such a thing as the resurrection of the dead.  That’s the first thing.  There is a resurrection of the dead according to the Word of God.

All right, a second thing that the Word of the Lord will reveal to us.  In that resurrection of the dead, there is an elective resurrection, there is a select resurrection; there is a resurrection of the just.  They are selected out, they are designated out.  In the resurrection, as such, there is a select resurrection; a resurrection of the dead.  For example, in Luke 14:14, speaking to these who thus follow the Lord, he says, “Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”  You don’t get your reward until the resurrection at the end of the age [2 Corinthians 5:10].  The apostles have to wait for their thrones until the resurrection of the just.  You have to wait for your reward until the resurrection of the just.

Somebody said after I preached last Sunday, “Well, I just never was so disturbed in my life.  The preacher said nobody is in hell yet.”  Well, certainly that’s true for the very simple reason that a man doesn’t die when he dies, his influence keeps on working for good or for evil, and a man can’t be consigned to his place in damnation until the end of the age because the evil that he did keeps on working.

When I was a youngster down there at Baylor, one of those boys, one of my best friends, who graduated from Amarillo with me, he turned out to be an infidel, and I went to see him to talk to him, and he was there reading Tom Paine.  Well brother, Tom Paine’s been dead a hundred fifty years, but the evil that he did still goes on.  You don’t have these consignments into hell until the end of the age; just like you don’t get your reward until the end of the age.  There is a…well, that’s beside the point, what I’m talking about now; this recompense at the resurrection of the just got me off.

Now, there is a resurrection of the just and Jesus speaking of it there says, “You are going to be recompensed not now, and not when you die, but you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” [Luke 14:14].  Well, we’re not talking about the recompense.  We’re talking about the resurrection.  The resurrection of the just, there is an elective resurrection; out of all of the resurrected, there is a select resurrection of those who are righteous [Luke 14:14].

Now, that is referred to again here, when Jesus speaks in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.  Now listen to Him:  “This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day, if you trust in Me” [John 6:40], the Lord says, “I will raise you up at the last day.”  Now He repeats it again:  “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day.  You trust in Me, and I will raise you up at the last day” [John 6:44].  All right, now look again:  “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” [John 6:54].  Not only is there a resurrection, but there is an elect resurrection.  You believe in the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus says, “I will raise you up at the last day.”

All right, now I want you to see how Paul refers to that.  “All these things,” Paul says in the third chapter of the Philippian letter, “All these things have I given up,” and he names them all; “All of them have I given that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” [Philippians 3:7-11].  Oh, I wish you could see that in the Greek language!  “If by any means I might attain unto, tēn exanastasin tēn to [ek] nekrōn,” I tell you the way the Greeks can put things; you know, if you use a double negative for example, you just ruin the English language.  “I don’t know nothing,” why, that’s the most expressive way in the world to say it, but it’s not good grammar in English.  Well, the grammar ruins our speaking.  Well, it doesn’t ruin the Greek.  Boy, he just does it world without end!  “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead [Philippians 3:11].  If I might attain unto those that are called out from among the resurrection from the dead, that I might ek ek, that I might, among those who are called out, be among those who are raised from the dead”; a calling out from among, a resurrection from among the dead.  It is a very strong expression:  “Out of all of these that are dead, I follow after Christ, if by any means I might attain unto that resurrection out from among the dead.”  So, we learn a second thing:  not only of the fact of a resurrection, but we learn that there is a calling out from among those that are dead; there is an elect resurrection for those who are believers in the Lord Jesus [Philippians 3:11].

All right, learn another thing then from the Bible, as it presents it a little at a time:  I learn that there is also a resurrection of the damned, of the lost, of the condemned, of the judged.  Here in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel:  “Many of them that sleep in the earth shall awake:  some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” [Daniel 12:2].  So there is also to be a resurrection of the damned.  Now our Lord Jesus says in the fifth chapter of the Book of John:

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, into which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, And shall come forth:  they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

[John 5:28-29]

Well, I learn then that there are two resurrections:  there is a resurrection unto life; “The one that trusts in Me, I will raise him up at the last day,” says the Lord.  But He also says, “There is a resurrection of damnation.”  There are two resurrections.

Then I learn from the Word of God that one precedes the other.  And without fail, always and without exception, the resurrection to life is always first, always.  “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” [1 Thessalonians 4:16].  So of the two resurrections, the resurrection unto life and the resurrection unto damnation, the resurrection unto life is first, always first.

This passage is in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the dead in Christ shall rise first.”  Now that word “first” is first with reference to us who are living and who remain; but it’s still first just the same.  It’s first above everything else.  So there is a difference in time between the resurrections of the saved and the lost.

The resurrection of the Christ people is first; then I learn here in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation that those resurrections are separated by a thousand years.  The resurrection unto life is first; and the resurrection unto damnation is second.  And the resurrection unto life is the blessedness of the promise:  “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall . . . reign with Christ a thousand years” [Revelation 20:6].

So the resurrection of the saved is first, and they shall reign with Christ in the millennium [Revelation 20:4].  But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years is finished [Revelation 20:5].  All of those that were raised in the first resurrection are separated from those that are raised in the second resurrection.  And these that are raised in the second resurrection are separated from those that are raised in the first resurrection.  So there are two tremendous, great, resurrections, separated by the millennium, a thousand years.

All right, another thing I learn from the Word of God:  not only is there a separation of time between the raising of those that are saved and the raising of those that are damned, but there is a succession, there is an order in the first resurrection.  Paul speaks of it in the passage that I had you read this morning:

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  But every man in his own tagma: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming, and then the end.

[1 Corinthians 15:20-24]

So Paul in speaking of the resurrection of God’s people, of the saints, of those who trust in Him, Paul says there is a tagma in it [1 Corinthians 15:23].  Now the Greek word tagma is just an ordinary word for “series” or “troops” or “companies,” an arrangement.  There is an arrangement in it; there is a tagma in it, there is a succession in it, there is a series in it.  “And each man is raised in his own tagma, in his own troop, in his own company, in his own series, in his own succession.”  You could just see the picture of the word as they are raised and as they enter into heaven; they come in series, they come in companies, they come in tagma.

Well, what is that tagma by which Christ shall raise these that have fallen asleep in Him?  Well, now Paul uses the example of the harvest, the firstfruits, the feast of the firstfruits.  “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept; every man in his own tagma, Christ, the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming, then the end ones” [1 Corinthians 15:20, 23-24]. 

Well, now let us look at that Feast of the Firstfruits, and then we’ll have a certain picture, very plain, how Christ shall raise us who have fallen asleep in Jesus.  In the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Leviticus, there is listed the seven feasts of Israel.  When we had our Jewish week—I wish all of you could have shared in it— when we had our Jewish week; one of the discussions of Brother Tom McCall was the meaning, the spiritual meaning of the seven feasts of Israel.  The first one is the Passover; that represents the death of our Lord [Leviticus 23:5].  The second one is the Feast of Unleavened Bread [Leviticus 23:6-8]; that’s the burial of our Lord [Leviticus 23:6-8].  The third is the Feast of the Firstfruits; that’s the resurrection of our Lord [Leviticus 23:9-14].  The fourth is the Feast of Pentecost; that’s the coming of the Holy Spirit of our Lord [Leviticus 23:15-22].  The fifth is the Feast of the Trumpets; that’s the coming again of our Lord, when the trumpet shall sound [Leviticus 23:23-25].  The sixth is the Feast of, call it the fast, of Atonement, though in the Bible it’s a feast; Atonement, that represents the tribulation, the mourning and the final conversion of our Lord’s people [Leviticus 16:1-34, 23:26-32].  And the last, the seventh, is the Feast of Tabernacles, which represents the joyous millennial reign, the ultimate consummation of the glory and the kingdom of our Lord [Leviticus 23:33-43].  All of those seven feasts describe the entire ministry of our Lord Jesus through the ages.  Now, let us take one of them; let us take the third one, the Feast of the Firstfruits [Leviticus 23:9-14].

The Feast of the Firstfruits was this:  in the early springtime, and it was always on the Sunday after the Sabbath, on the first day after the Passover, on Sunday, on the first day of the week, the Israelite went out into the barley field and he gathered there a handful of the ripening ears of the coming crop, the ripening ears of the barley harvest.  And he took a handful of those ripening ears, and he took it to the priest in the tabernacle, and he offered it unto God in the tabernacle [Leviticus 23:10].  And the priest took those few ears, and he waved them before the Lord.  It was an earnest.  It was a promise of the dedication of the whole coming harvest to the Lord God.  And this was a representative, an earnest, a type, a piece, a picture of all that was yet to be offered unto the Lord.  Now that was the Feast of the Firstfruits.  Then the second part was the great harvest itself, which came later; and then finally you had the gleanings in the fall.  Now that was the Feast of the Firstfruits; the hands full that were waved before the Lord, then the abundant and great harvest, and then finally the gleanings [Leviticus 23:11-14].

Now, Paul follows that feast exactly in describing the series, the succession, the tagma, the companies by which God is going to raise us who believe in Him.  First, Christ; He was the first to be raised from the dead [1 Corinthians 15:20].  There were many resuscitations in the Old Testament; but the first man ever to be raised from the dead, this mortal put on immortality, this corruptible put on incorruption, the first man ever to be raised from the dead is the Lord Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 15:20].  Lazarus was resuscitated.  He died, he died again [John 11:43-44].  Oh, that man unnamed who was resuscitated when he touched the bones of Elisha, he died again [2 Kings 13:21].  The son of the widow of Nain died again [Luke 7:11-15].  The daughter of Jairus died again [Luke 8:41-42, 49-55].  The Shunammite’s son, whom Elisha raised from the dead, died again [2 Kings 4:32-37].  They were not resurrected, they were resuscitated; they died again, they went back into the dust.  The first one to be raised from the dead is our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 15:23].

First, Christ, then with Christ, the handful, the firstfruits [1 Corinthians 15:23], the earnest of the great harvest that is ultimately to be raised by the power of God.  Well, was that true, that when Christ was raised from the dead there was also a little handful raised, there was also a little earnest, a little promise, brought before God of all of the rest that are going to be raised?  Well, you read in the Bible, for example, in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Book of Matthew, “And the veil was rent, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose; and there came out of the graves, after His resurrection, and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many” [Matthew 27:51-53].  When our Lord was raised from the dead, there was a little handful of firstfruits that were raised with our Lord.  And when our Lord went into heaven, there was a little handful, there was a little company, there was a little group, they are called “the firstfruits” [1 Corinthians 15:23] that were offered unto God as a harbinger of, as an earnest of, as a promise of the great harvest that is yet to come.

So we follow Paul:  Christ, he says, first, Christ; then the firstfruits, the little handful that was raised with our Lord, and they entered with our Lord into glory, an earnest of what should come.  All right, third, “Afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” [1 Corinthians 15:23], and that’s that passage in [1 Corinthians], and that’s that passage here in 1 [Thessalonians 4:16]  “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first”; and that’s where you and I are going to be raised, in the great harvest, that final and ultimate harvest of which the firstfruits are an earnest and a promise.  We’re going to be raised at the shout of the archangel, at the trump of God.  That’s when the great hosts of God’s sainted children, who’ve fallen asleep in Jesus, are going to be raised, Christ, the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming, and then the end, the gleanings [1 Corinthians 15:23-24].

I turn over here to the Book of the Revelation, and I read here of the gleanings, these that are going to be resurrected in the days of this final apocalypse and tribulation.  For example, in the seventh chapter of the Book of the Revelation, “In the presence of the elders” [Revelation 7:11], and the elders are these that are raised at the rapture, these that have been resurrected when the Lord comes, the enthroned elders, twenty-four of them, twelve representing the Old Testament saints, twelve representing the New Testament saints, in the presence of those raised and glorified and enthroned and resurrected elders, he sees these that are coming out of the great tribulation, “who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” [Revelation 7:14]: they are the gleanings.

Then I turn over here to the eleventh chapter of the Revelation, and here are God’s two great witnesses, “whom those evil people put to death; but after three and a half days the Spirit of the Lord entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and they ascended up into heaven”; the gleanings [Revelation 11:3-12].  There are two of God’s sainted witnesses; gleanings.  They are raised at this end time.  Then I turn over here to the fourteenth chapter of the Book of the Revelation, “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with Him the one hundred forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth” [Revelation 14:1], the gleanings, the one hundred forty-four thousand [Revelation 7:1-8], they’ve been resurrected, and they stand in the presence of the Lord.  And then last of all, “I see the souls of them beheaded for the witness of Jesus; and they lived again” [Revelation 20:4], the gleanings at the end time.  “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection:  they live and reigned with Christ a thousand years” [Revelation 20:6].

Now I’ve been preaching about forty minutes.  Does it seem that long to you?  Oh, these things are so interesting, so interesting.  What a glorious thing God hath done for us.  Bless His name, and bless you who place your trust in Him.

Now we’re going to sing our song.  And while we sing our song, somebody you, put your trust in the Lord, give your heart and life to Him; somebody you, put your life with us in this church, while we sing our song and make our appeal, would you come?  A couple of you, a family of you, or just one somebody you, as God shall say the word and lead in the way, would you come?  Would you make it now, while we stand and while we sing?