Two Resurrections
John 5:25-29

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. One of the big questions that life holds for us is what happens after all is said and done. What happens next? When our time on this earth is done, what happens then? Everybody wants to know the answer to that. The world is full of speculations and philosophies about it.

We're in a section of John’s Gospel where Jesus is proclaiming His deity, proclaiming that He is God. Jesus also is proclaiming two powers that He has, the power of life, we read that in verse 21, and the power of judgment, verse 22. Then in verse 24 He says “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

Next Jesus discusses a truth that there are two resurrections. One is a voluntary resurrection and the other is an involuntary resurrection. Let’s look at Jesus explanation of the two resurrections.

I. Resurrection #1 – We will read John 5:25-27. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.”

A. Jesus is saying this is an absolute certainty. “truly, truly”, indicates an absolute. Then He says “an hour is coming, and is now here” which is a phrase that Jesus used in John 4:23 where the Samaritan woman is asking about the place to worship. She wants to know if they should be worshipping on this mountain like her ancestors have taught, or whether they should be worshipping in Jerusalem at the temple as the Jews taught.

1. Jesus' answer was there is an hour coming and now is, where worshippers are going to be worshipping in spirit and in truth. The idea of this time marker is that the time has come now, but it's going to be more obvious, clearer in the times to come. It would become clear, after Jesus' resurrection, and after the arrival of the kingdom as we read in Acts 2.
2. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that true worship is no longer restricted to a specific place (like Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim) but is now centered in "spirit and truth" through His presence.
3. In the same way, I suspect this is the same time marker that Jesus is giving here. The time has already come in terms of the resurrection, and will become clearer. He says in verse 25, “… when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
4. It means the spiritually dead can immediately hear His voice and receive life, while also pointing to the future bodily resurrection. This suggests that the fulfillment of God’s promises was already occurring in Jesus ministry ("now is"), while the full, complete manifestation of that reality was still being realized ("coming").

B. Verse 24 tells us the context (I paraphrase); those who hear My words and they believe in Him who sent Me—they're the ones receiving eternal life. They do not come into judgment, but they have passed from death to life. This is a picture of spiritual life. There's a time coming, in fact, the hour is now, where the dead are hearing the voice of the Son of God and those who hear that voice, are coming to life.

1. Jesus and the Apostles are teaching and reminding people that they are dead. You are dead and now is the time for the dead to hear the voice of the Son of God and come into life.
2. The time has come for them to hear the Word of God and to be moved from the realm of perishing in their sins and move into the new kingdom and new realm of life, of spiritual life, of eternal life. The hour is now, I am here, God has given Me the power of life.
3. That reminds me of verse 21, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” Unfortunately, I think this reminder that we are dead was not received then, or even now.
4. We like to look at ourselves and think we're alive. We have a life going on, we're going to do this and that and we've got our schedules and plans and visions of the future. Here's how life is going to go. We are unable so many times to see how devastatingly, spiritually dead we are, and the same was true then. We forget our spiritual condition, just look at life, think we're fine, and then go on our way.

C. Do you recall Ezekiel 37? Ezekiel 37:1, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.” Imagine you are in a valley and you are surrounded by bones. Starting in verse 2, “And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4. Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.””
D. Ezekiel, here's what I want you to do. Speak the word of the Lord and when you do you are going to see these bones come to life. Then you're going to know that I'm God. At verse 7, “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.” Can you imagine standing there watching that happen? Verse 8, “And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
11. Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12. Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.””
E. Jesus comes on the scene and says, the hour is coming, and now is here, where the dead are hearing the voice of God, and they are coming to life. What an amazing time! People are now able to receive life into their dead bones. God is picturing throughout time that we are dead in our sins. We are those dry, brittle bones. God says, I will speak my words, and when I speak those words, life is going to enter.

1. Is it any wonder then that Jesus is saying at the time, let those who have ears to hear, let them hear? He is speaking the powerful words of life, listen to what He has to say. Verse 25 says, “the dead are going to hear the voice of the Son of God”, but see the next part, “And those who hear will live.”
2. Are we listening to the life-giving voice of the Son of God?
Are we hearing what our Lord has to say?
Are we listening to the things that He is telling us to do?
It is the voice of the Son of God that gives life. There's no other place to find it. It is through His words that life is going to be found, that life is put back into these dead bones.

F. John 5:26 – “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” That is almost a reiteration of verse 21. Jesus possesses life and He gives life to whom He wills, and He wills to give life to those who hear Him.

1. When we stop listening, stop growing, we fall back to becoming dead, dry bones in the valley with no life at all. Oh, we think we are alive without Jesus when in fact we are as dead as we could be, unable to see our condition.
2. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14. This is the Voluntary Resurrection. The voice of the life-giving Son is speaking. Are you willing to listen so that you can arise from death to life?
G. In verse 27 we read – “And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” We saw that in verse 22, He is the giver of life, and He gives it to whoever hears Him. He has authority to execute judgment and that brings us to the second resurrection.

II. Resurrection #2 – We can imagine the audience with their mouths open, hearing the news that they are dead and that Jesus is God, the giver of life to those who hear His voice. These people should have known they were dead, but Jesus is teaching them, as He must teach us, that we are dead in our sins and need the life that can only be found in Jesus.

A. John 5:28-29 – “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming…” He says don’t be surprised that I have the power and authority. Notice this time He does not say “and is now”. This is something different. Jesus is looking forward to a coming hour. This is not an event that is already occurring… rather it is an event that will occur in the future. There is a time coming but it is not now, and He continues, “… when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, …”

1. There is a time coming when everybody who is in the grave is going to hear the powerful voice of Jesus and they are going to come out. This is The Involuntary Resurrection. Think about what this looks like. Every single person who has ever lived, at the powerful word of Jesus, is going to come to life. Every person who has ever lived will hear the voice of Jesus when He returns and there will be resurrection.
2. We are being told how powerful the words of Jesus are. The voice of Jesus is able to give life to our spiritually dead souls and is able to raise our bodies from the grave. Verse 27 performs a bridge to this thought. In verse 26 we are told that the Son has life in Himself. We see in verse 21 He gives life to whom He wills, and we have been told He gives life to those who hear His voice.
3. We are spiritually dead but the words of Jesus will bring us life. Jesus also has the authority to execute judgment. The hour is coming when every person in the grave will hear the voice of the Lord and will come out to judgment. In this resurrection you are going to be called from your grave. Everyone who has ever died will be raised. All people who have ever lived are going to be raised from the dead.

B. We see little glimpses of that in the Old Testament. We just read one in Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones, God gives life and everyone is going to stand before Him.

1. We see in the New Testament, further along in John’s gospel, that Jesus is going to walk up to the tomb of one of His very good friends and He is going to say… “Lazarus, come out”. There is a day that is coming where we will all stand before God.
2. We see this again in Matthew’s account of the crucifixion, at the death of Jesus “The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”

C. Verse 29 continues, “… those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” No one is excluded and there are two outcomes… either to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of judgment. Verse 29 tells us how this will be determined. We know how this is going to go for us. Jesus tells us it is based upon what we are doing right now.

1. Jesus is very clear about whom He gives life to and how that resurrection sequence is going to go. Our good works function as evidence, that we have truly heard the voice of Jesus. If we have done what we have seen here in verses 25 and 26, if we have heard the powerful word of Jesus and it has taken our dead bones and caused them to move to life, we are no longer spiritually dead, but we have received eternal life.
2. Here is Jesus making a promise. When I come back, the hour is coming that all the souls are going to hear My voice. Those who have heard My voice and believed have moved from death to life; they will be raised to be with God.
3. Our good works, our actions, function as the proof, the evidence, that we have heard Him and have been raised to life. When we lack those things it is a reflection on us. It shows that we truly have not heard the voice of God and have not moved from death to life.
4. Perhaps this is a challenge and a test to ourselves. How do I know what will happen when everything is said and done? What is going to happen to you and to me when our Lord returns?

D. Perhaps use 1^st Thessalonians 4 where we read, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Ask ourselves, will I be going to the resurrection of life or will I be going to the resurrection of judgment?

1. Here's how you know. Jesus says, I give life to whomever I will, and I give life to those who hear my voice. Those who hear My voice—do good works. There is a life transformation that occurs.
2. This goes back to John chapter 3. In chapter 3, Jesus is teaching that we are all the condemned. Jesus came so that none would have to perish, but that all could be raised to life.
3. We know what our outcome will be. There is no question. This teaching is not here so that people would walk away and say I don't know what's going to happen. We know exactly what's going to happen. It is based upon if we have heard the words of Jesus, believed in what He said, and have converted our lives and transformed our actions to follow Him. Based upon that, we will know if we are going to the resurrection of life or the resurrection of judgment.
4. It is important for us then to look back on our lives, to look back at our actions, to look upon our words carefully and decide what does it look like for us? To which will we be raised? All of us are going to stand before God.
5. True faith in our Lord will not leave us dead. It will lead to transformed living. It will cause us to have lives that are very different than what we've had before we came to Jesus.

CONCLUSION: I suggest that these verses are among the most instructive in the whole word of God. This is nothing less than the first resurrection, and the contrast of it with the final resurrection. The first is a spiritual rekindling of life, and the second a physical resurrection from the grave. Significantly, the Lord announced that the spiritual resurrection was already in progress, that the Son of God is the author of it, that His word is the means of it, that to receive His word was life, and to reject His word was death.
What a terrible warning to those foes who at that very moment were rejecting His word, not allowing even for a moment His true interpretation of God's sabbath law, but plotting to maintain their own interpretations. Further, by rejecting Jesus' word in such a subordinate area as the sabbath regulations, the priests were light years away from receiving the profound teachings recorded here. They would remain in a state of spiritual death, and the voice of the Lord of life would sound in vain upon their stopped ears. Jesus spoke calling men to spiritual resurrection and they would not hear; but He shall speak again at the final judgment, and then they will hear!

For our Involuntary Resurrection to be favorable and enjoyable and to be going to eternal life rather than eternal punishment, it is of the utmost importance that we experience the Voluntary Resurrection now.

I would like to look at something from Colossians. In Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul uses, as he does in many places, this idea of being dead and coming to life.
At Colossians 2:11, “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,”. There is a cutting that is going on, a cutting off of sins that Christ is accomplishing in our lives.

Next, “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Our life is always connected to the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. If He was raised from the dead, then you're rising from the dead. Paul is not talking about the Involuntary Resurrection here. He means the voluntary one. Because He raised from the dead, you now can have life. In verse 13, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,” Paul says the same thing as Jesus. You're dead. You're dead in your sins. You are the dry, dead bones scattered in the valley. You have no hope unless you have the Lord. Only when the word of God is spoken over those dead bones can there be life. You were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.

If we want life, he says you need to be joined to Jesus. Life will come if we are joined to His death and His resurrection.

Paul does not leave it there. Colossians 3:1, “If then you have been raised with Christ,… ” He says if that's the case, if you've been raised with Him then here's what it's supposed to look like. “… seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
If you've received this life, if you are hearing the life-giving voice of Jesus, then what people will see in you and in me is not us, but Jesus. Our life is hidden in Him, you can't see us anymore, you just see Jesus.
Our life, because our mind is put on the things that are above, our actions are in seeking Him, a life that is changed to follow Him and pursue Him. That's how we know that we've passed from death to life. That is why John wrote his epistle of 1^st John, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

We can know, just look and see. Have I been joined with Jesus and is my life hidden with Him? If it is, there is reason for rejoicing because it doesn't matter what's going to happen to these physical bodies from here on. It doesn't matter what happens to us in this life. It doesn't matter how long it takes for the Lord to return.
The hope stands firm, one day we will be raised to a resurrection of life. One day the powerful voice of Jesus will be spoken, and we will go to be with our God.

If we have not put our life in Christ, if we have not been buried with Him in baptism, if we have not put our faith in the powerful working of God, then there is reason for great concern because Jesus says, you are still dead in your sins, and on the day that He returns, you will be raised to judgment. Don't let that be the result of your life.

The answer is clear. There is something that happens after death. There is something that awaits all of us. Every single human will stand before the judgment seat of God, giving an account for the things that are done in the body.

Choose today to have life. Choose today to have hope of resurrection to life rather than the depressing thought of resurrection to judgment.
Come to Jesus. Believe in Him with all your heart. Confess Him as the son of God and hear His powerful words and obey those words and follow Him and serve Him.
Won't you come while we stand and while we sing?

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Reference Sermon: Brent Kercheville