Sermon Tone Analysis

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.