The Two Resurrections-Part II

The Two Resurrections- Part II

Introduction:

We spent quite a bit of time last week speaking About the Spiritual Resurrection and with those things in mind I want to bring you back up to speed as to where we are.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." (John 5:25, KJV) [1]

We saw in this that Christ is without a doubt speaking about a Spiritual Resurrection. We saw that we know that Christ is not speaking about a physical resurrection here because of His usage of the words “and now is”. For the Physical Resurrection was not something that was happening during the time of Christ, that is something that is going to happen at a later date that we will se tonight.

We looked at the wonderful truth of how that the Lord Jesus Christ walks among dead people and raises a spiritual corpses from spiritual death to spiritual life and how that can only be obtained by the mercy and the grace of Christ and not anything within ourselves, because we are dead and just like a physically dead person cannot react to physical stimulus, so a spiritually dead person cannot react to spiritual stimulus; until someone with life gives life. We concluded last time by indicating the reason for the coming of Christ was so that He would give life to the lifeless. That, we saw, was the spiritual resurrection.

Now, spending a lot less time and considering it briefly, verses 27 to 29 introduce us to the physical resurrection. We've seen the spiritual resurrection, now let us notice the physical resurrection.

I. The Physical Resurrection (vs. 27-29)

And again, verse 27 is kind of a little bridge here and I want to comment on that at this point before we go any further into physical resurrection. He introduces the subject of physical resurrection by these words, "And hath given unto Him," again, Christ already had this authority, He already had the authority to execute judgment, but God granted Him the expression of it in His humiliation, given Him authority to execute judgment also "because He is the Son of Man." Now that's kind of an interesting statement. Why judgment because He's the Son of Man? Why does He call Him in His judgment character the Son of Man and in His life‑giving character the Son of God as in verse 25? Why the distinction in titles?

Well, I think there's an interesting point here and there are probably infinite number of possibilities. But one that seems perhaps likely to me, He is called the Son of God in His life‑giving power in verse 25 because this is a divine act, right? A man is going along in spiritual death, it is a divine intervening miracle to reach down and make him alive. That's a divine miracle. That demands deity. That demands divine heavenly intervention to shatter the bonds of death and make him alive. So He's called the Son of God.

But, on the other hand, judgment does not demand divine intervention in total, at least in one aspect. And I'll show you what I mean. He is called in verse 27 the Son of Man connected with His judgment work. Why? Because really judgment is the natural course of sin. God doesn't have to break in, does He? God doesn't have to become divinely involved in judgment. For example, God has a certain moral law that He's built this universe upon. You break that moral law, and you will automatically suffer the consequences. As I have said many times, God doesn't have to go around squashing everybody that sins. Sin takes care of itself. Whatsoever a man sows, what? He reaps all by himself. If you jump off a ten story building, God doesn't have to kill you. The law of gravity will do you in fine. The divine miracle would come if you didn't die, right? Because the laws are such that judgment is inevitable. You've broken a gravity law. Judgment in this this world is built on a moral basis, you break God's law, God doesn't have to come down and kill you, you'll take care of yourself. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. It doesn't say it's killed by God. It shall die. It doesn't say if you commit sin God kills you. It says the wages of sin is death. And so, I think in a sense, the Son of God is used in terms of a divine power to resurrect and it's shown how important that is by contrasting it with the Son of Man.

But there's got to be another point here, too. Because it says He executes judgment because He's the Son of Man. And I think here's this point, I think that God in all of His justice has judged man on the basis of man. In other words, Christ knows us, doesn't He? No man can ever say, "Well, God, it's a pretty dirty trick for You sitting up there in Your holy heaven to be telling us how to live down here. Why don't You come and find out what it's like?" Want to know something? He's been here. He knows what it's like. And so the judgment of God is based on the judgment of God who became a man. And that's why I see the character of Christ as the Son of Man in connection with His judgment. He judges us justly, doesn't He, because He knows us. As the Son of Man, He judged man with a perfect knowledge of the justice that was due man.

All right, then as we come to verses 28 and 29 we are introduced to the persons and the power and the purpose of the physical resurrection.

A. The Power (vs. 28)

"Marvel not at this," which is the Old English way of saying, "Hold on to your hat, men, you're going to hear something you won't believe." "Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice." Notice please He does not say that the hour is now. This is a future hour. And they'll come forth, the ones that hear His voice are going to come forth. "They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." That's everybody. All those that are in the graves; that's the persons involved in the physical resurrection, everybody. Everybody who ever died will be raised. Everyone who ever dies whether they were buried here, there and everywhere or anywhere else; People say, "Well," some people said, "That's why I don't want to be cremated because I want to make it easy for God at the Rapture." Well, really, I don't want to mess up your theology but there's no such thing as easy or hard for God. So that's really not a problem. But all that are in the graves are going to come alive, see, a physical literal resurrection. And they're going to hear His voice and come alive.

Now I want you to make a note in your mind; when you see "hear His voice" in verse 28 that is not the same as hearing His voice in verse 25. This is not the effectual hearing of the heart; this is the sovereign call of Christ, "Everybody out of the graves." And they come. Can you imagine such power? I mean, can you fathom that kind of power, to call back to life every long forgotten person that ever existed on this earth? Fantastic power, unbelievable. Jesus Christ will stand and He will say, "Alive," and they'll come out of the graves that they've occupied for thousands of years. And then the people didnt think Jesus Christ could really raise Lazarus. That's nothing. A minimal expression of the potency of God's power when you compare that with billions who shall rise in the end of the age. Oh, that's some kind of power.

Did you ever stop to think that that same kind of power is now aligned in your behalf as a believer? Did you know that? Did you know that Paul says that we live in the power of His, what, resurrection? That's some kind of power. And you say, "God, my problems are so great I don't know if You can handle them."

Now these are bodies that are resurrected. The saints who have died, their souls are with the Lord, right? Paul says, "Absent from the body, what, present with the Lord." The unbelievers that have died, their souls are in Hades or hell. This is their bodies to be rejoined again.

B. The Persons (vs. 29)

Now, some have tried to say this, and we want to make a very important point here, some have said this proves that there's no Rapture, no Tribulation, no Kingdom, no zero, no nothing. At the end of the age, everybody comes out together, God separates everybody and that's the way it is. And they say the reason they believe that is because right here in verse 29 it says, "They all come forth to the resurrection of life, the resurrection of damnation," and there's no distinction and there's no time in between and there's no nothing.

Well, now let me say this to you. This does not have to mean a single resurrection of everybody. In the first place, the word "hour," the hour is coming, that doesn't have to mean a particular moment, does it? We've just seen one hour that lasted 1900 years. Another thing is the Scripture clearly teaches that the resurrection of believers and the resurrection of unbelievers physically are separated by at least 1000 years called the Kingdom.

Let me show you what I mean. We know that the resurrection doesn't all happen at once, part of it has already happened. You know that already part of the resurrection happened? Matthew 27:52 and 53 says that when Christ died, the graves were opened and the dead were raised. And finally after the resurrection they came out of the graves. So that in itself shows that it all doesn't have to happen at the same moment.

But then there's another very important verse and I want to show you a couple of these and then we'll wrap it up. Luke 14 tells us that there's a distinction between the resurrection of the just and the unjust. Luke 14 verse 13, all right, Christ is teaching in parables and He says in verse 13, "But when thou givest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of, what?, the just." You see, there is a distinct term that implies that the resurrection of believers is a particular resurrection all of its own; the resurrection of the just.

I want to show you one other verse. First Corinthians 15:22 and 23, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." All right, in Christ we're going to be made alive. Here it comes, "Every man in his own order." There is a sequence of resurrection. Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. It hasn't even talked about the unbelievers. There is a unique resurrection for the believer at the coming of Christ called the resurrection of the just.

Now the clincher, and, of course, this is described, you know, in terms of the church in 1 Thessalonians 4, right? "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up with the dead who are raised at the Rapture." That's only for the just. The unsaved are still in the graves. Their souls are already in Hades or Sheol or hell.

Now, you go over to Revelation chapter 20 and here's really the climax of what we want to say this morning and certainly the final proof that the resurrection of the believers and the unbelievers are distinct. Revelation chapter 20 verse 4, John's vision, he says, "I saw thrones and they sat upon them." This is the Kingdom, this is the thousand‑year Kingdom right now, the millennial Kingdom. The Rapture's taken place, the seven‑year Tribulation has taken place, Christ has come back and the Kingdom begins. "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 worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

Now, there you have believers already resurrected living and reigning with Christ, right? Now you go to verse 5, "But the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished." And then the statement, "This is the first resurrection," applying back to the resurrection of believers. The second resurrection is that one at the end of the thousand years. So believers are resurrected before the Kingdom in three parts. The first part of the believers' resurrection was the resurrection of Christ. The second part, the Rapture of the church. The third part, the resurrection of Old Testament saints and Tribulation saints at the end of the seven‑year Tribulation. Then for a thousand years, the Kingdom. At the end of the thousand years, the resurrection of all the unsaved of all the ages. And they're brought before the Great White Throne judgment and judged.

Now if you want to see that, look at verses 12 and 13 of Revelation 20. The end of the thousand years, verse 11 says, there was the Great White Throne and verse 12, "And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened." And he goes down through the statements of verse 13 and 14 to verse 15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

So, the condemnation, the judgment of damnation, the resurrection of damnation takes place at the end of the thousand years. So we can see then that there's a distinction between the resurrection of believers and unbelievers.

You say, "Well, then, why doesn't Christ make the distinction here in John 5? Why does He put it together?" Because He's not purposefully trying to show us chronology, He's only revealing His power. Do you see that? He's only trying to express His resurrection power, not the chronology of it. He knows that He's going to reveal the book of Revelation to help us with that. He only wants us to see His resurrection power here. And these Jews were confused enough as it was, had He given all of that, they really would have done flips.

All right, the persons then are all the dead of all the ages. The power behind it is Christ. He is the power that can make the physical resurrection happen. And as I said, one of these days He's going to say, "Arise" to the church, you know, when He comes back and we're going to go. At the end of the Tribulation, He's going to say, "Arise" to the Old Testament saints and the Tribulation saints and they're going to come alive. At the end of the thousand years He's going to say "Arise" to the dead unsaved of all the ages and they're going to come before Him at the Great White Throne.

C. The Purpose

Now we've seen the persons and the power, the purpose is obvious. It's the same thing. The purpose of physical resurrection for believers is to usher them into the glories of eternal life, to take us into the presence of God. That's the purpose. The purpose of the resurrection for unbelievers is to judge their works and then to condemn them to hell for eternity.

Now notice verse 29 that it characterizes believers as they that have done “τὰ ἀγαθός, the good or the excellent things. Believers are characterized by doing good things. Please note, this does not mean that if you do good works, you do good works you get into heaven. Not at all. You can't do good works. No way. All your righteousness is as, what?, filthy rags. The only way that it is possible for a man or a woman to do the τὰ ἀγαθός the excellent things is not in their own power but in the power of faith in Jesus Christ. That's what James meant when he said faith without works is dead. Christ is simply saying here those who buy excellent things give evidence that they belong to Christ shall inherit the resurrection of life. And those who have done evil and that's τὰ φαῦλος, the worthless things, the meaningless things shall inherit the resurrection of damnation. Christ is not saying you're saved by works, please. But in order to make a contrast between the believer and the unbeliever, He has to make it on the basis of works. You can't contrast believers' faith with unbeliever's faith, can you? Unbelievers don't have any faith. You can't contrast believers' life with unbelievers' life, cause unbelievers are dead. The only place where you can make a comparison is on the basis of their acts or their deeds or their works. And so He's saying those who by faith in Christ have been able to do the excellent things shall inherit the resurrection of life. Those who by virtue of sin and death continue to do the worthless things shall inherit a resurrection of damnation.

And so, we see then that there shall be indeed two physical resurrections. And I ask you, as we close, this evening a very simple question. And that question is this: as you look at your life right now this evening, which resurrection are you a part of? And if you want to know how you can be a part of the resurrection to life, reread verse 24 and find out what it says. "He that heareth My word, believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, shall not come into judgment, passed from death to life." You believe in Christ, receive Him as your Lord and Savior, you'll be a part of the resurrection of life.

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[1] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.