The Dead Will Hear the Voice of the Son

John 5 and the Gospel of John as the Framework for the Sermon

If you would take your Bibles please and turn with me to the 5th chapter of the Gospel of John. The 5th chapter of the Gospel of John. We will continue our studies in this chapter this morning. John chapter 5.

Before we look to God's Word together, let us pray together. Gracious Father, we always come to you and ask the great blessing of the ministry of your Spirit amongst us. For we know that unless your Spirit works with us, comes and dwells with us, gives enlightenment and direction, that we can do nothing.

That all of our words will be empty unless your Spirit comes. But you delight to bless your people. You have promised to meet with your people by that same blessed Spirit. And so Lord, may you be with us now.

May you open our hearts and minds. May you protect us from distraction. May you help us to focus upon your truth. All to your honor and glory we pray in Christ's name. Amen. For those who have not been with us before or are visiting, we are in the midst when I have the opportunity of speaking.

And if you're visiting, the B team is up. The A team is off this week. So the B team is up and when I have the opportunity of speaking. Generally, we do a series because I'm not smart enough to do a morning in the New Testament, evening in the Old Testament type thing.

Too much work. I leave that for the professionals. So I take the easy route and we do a series of sermons on one particular topic. And what we're doing, for those of you who don't know me, I am. I do a lot of interesting things within the past two weeks.

I've done a three hour television program with a universalistic full preterist modalist, which makes for all sorts of intriguing things going on. I do a lot of apologetics, travel around the world. And I am also a full time doctoral student at Northwest University in Patrasum, South Africa, in textual criticism.

I'm currently studying a manuscript. And if we weren't in John four and five, those of you who've been here for a long time, remember when we were in other chapters of John in the bulletin, I would actually have a very nice, high quality scan of a particular manuscript that I am studying is called Papyrus 45.

And P45 contains sections of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. The scrap of John chapters four and five is so small I didn't I don't even have a picture of it. Actually, wouldn't have done us any good for me to provide it to you in the bulletin.

But what we're doing is we're allowing that particular manuscript and what it still contains after approximately eighteen hundred years of existence, which means it's lost a lot of stuff. And whenever anyone criticizes my poor little P45, I say, what are you going to look like in eighteen hundred years?

If it contains any portion of a chapter, we have been preaching through the entirety of that chapter. And so since it has a few words from John four and a few words from John five, we use that as an excuse to preach all the way through these these particular chapters.

Once we finish chapter five, we're going to have to decide where we're going to go because we'll have exhausted John. So we have Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts to choose from. Probably going to go to acts at that point is my feeling right now.

And then you will in the bulletin have your wonderful scans of P45, which I'm sure Brother George has been collecting and keeping and and we'll we'll do so for for all of us, I'm sure. So that's what we are doing.

It is a very unusual sermon series. I recognize that, but it does allow us to preach verse by verse and also to cover some interesting textual issues along the way. So we are in John chapter five. The last time we were together, we completed looking at John five, 24, a verse that I would imagine many of us who have walked with the Lord for many years have memorized a wonderful promise.

Truly, truly, Jesus says, I say to you that the one hearing my word and believing in the one who sent me has present tense, eternal life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

The Trinity, the God-Man, and Eternal Life

And you may recall if you were here, I talked about memorizing that as a youth in in a summer vacation, Bible school type of a context way out in the West Valley for some reason, back when there wasn't much of a West Valley for there to be in at that point in time.

But we talked about what this was about. We've already looked at the context starting all the way back in John chapter five. And we have been emphasizing the fact that while most of the time we read through these chapters and we sort of pick up some of the highlights, I've been trying to emphasize the fact that John chapter five may be the most important.

It's certainly one of one of the most important Christological texts in the New Testament. It helps us to understand and have a biblically balanced understanding of the relationship of the father and the son.

And I have mentioned the fact that in the doctrine of the Trinity, for most professing Christians, though, we will defend it. We will say we believe it to really understand that most of us are if we're in our most honest moments, we'll say, I hope no one asks me any deep questions about it and especially the relationship of father, son and spirit.

What does it mean that we speak of divine persons, but we only believe in one God? What's the difference between the being of God and and a person? Are we incorrect in attributing to the divine persons?

Many of the issues that we have in defining a human being as a person, et cetera, et cetera. We've been looking at these things and what John chapter five provides to us is a tremendously balanced dual presentation.

On the one hand, in light of verse 18 and specifically the statement that Jesus was making himself equal with God. You have Jesus making sure that we understand that he's not some renegade deity, a competing deity with the father who is seeking to have individuals follow after him to the detriment of their worship of the father.

No, he says the son does nothing of himself. We're going to see that again here in today's text. He does nothing of himself, but what he sees the father doing. And so there is a very clear safeguard against the idea of two gods.

And then once we get to John 14 and 16, three gods in the sending of the Holy Spirit, you have an emphasis upon monotheism. You have an emphasis upon how the son has voluntarily subjected himself to the father.

He is the one who has been sent. The father is the one who sent him. And so you have that emphasis. You have an emphasis upon the unity of the father and the son. The son is able to do whatever the father asks of him.

He is able to do whatever he sees the father doing. These are divine acts. And then you have the emphasis upon the deity of the son. He is the one who said, my father is working. And so now and I am working, claiming the very divine privilege.

The Jews understood that God had of working on the Sabbath, of upholding the universe by his divine power. You likewise have the statement that we had just before verse 24, that we must honor the son even as we honor the father.

And so we have this beautiful balance, clear distinction between the father and the son. No confusion between the father and the son, yet great harmony. Each has taken distinct roles in bringing about salvation.

All of these things are presented to us here in John chapter five. And then all of that is connected to how it is you and I have eternal life. And we have emphasized the fact that it is it is, I think, dangerous in the normal Christian life for a Christian not to understand the relationship between the doctrine of the Trinity, between the exalted view we have of Jesus Christ and the very eternal life we claim to have, because the only ground that it can possibly have, the only reason that we can say we will have eternal life, that the gospel brings eternal life to those who repent and believe is because the gospel is rooted in the truth of what Jesus did.

And that then is rooted in the truth of who Jesus was. The working out of eternal salvation, the bearing of our sins in his body on the tree requires Jesus to have been the God man, the very one that everything in time before the cross looked forward to and after the cross, everything looks back to.

He was the God man. And it is a concern to me that there are many evangelical Christians in the United States who have a much greater grasp of the human aspect of the gospel, what we receive from God, than they have in the divine provision of what they receive from God.

And as a result, very often are subject to cultic influences, influences of false teaching, or just don't have the ability to really be able to explain with clarity the consistency of the Christian message.

And so, we find so much for us here in John chapter 5 to help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, having looked at verse 24, we continue on, and we've already mentioned the fact that what we're going to see in the next few verses is a mixture of what we've often said, the now and the not yet.

The now and the not yet. This is very plain in Paul, but here it is in John. When we talk about, for example, our adoption as sons and daughters of God, we have been adopted, and yet we have yet to fully experience our adoption.

There is a fulfillment coming at the end of the age, and yet we have the reality now. It's the now, yes, but then there's going to be a greater fulfillment, the now and the not yet. And what we see here is what we're going to see is the Son of God gives life.

We saw that in the preceding verses. The Son of God gives life. He gives spiritual life now to those who hear. Remember, we talked a little bit in verse 24, the one hearing my word and believing in him who sent me.

And we talked about the fact that those are present tense participles, and there's the same type of terminology that's going to be used in John chapter 6. The one coming to me, the one feeding upon me, the one looking upon the Son of God.

These are not point actions. These are not just simply a one-time thing, tip your hat toward God. It refers to an ongoing situation. It refers to something that has much more reality and consistency to it than the other means of expression, especially in the Gospel of John, where John contrasts these terms.

But this idea of hearing, the one hearing my word and believing in the one who sent me, has eternal life. And so there is going to be a playing on this. The ones hearing the voice, the Son of God, now will live.

And initially we're going to be talking about the work of Jesus Christ and bringing about spiritual regeneration. But it's not going to be very long until we then have the eschaton, the end in view, when the Son is involved in actually bringing about the resurrection of mankind for that final day of judgment.

And so John weaves these two things together. So beginning in verse 25, Truly, truly I say to you that an hour is coming. And now is please note that phrase. And now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.

And please note this. The ones hearing will live. For just as the father has life in himself in the same way, also to the son has been given life to have in himself. So let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's just look at these two two verses first. An hour is coming. Now, that's normally the type of terminology that is used of sort of a prophetic idea of what is coming, either in the establishment of what God is doing in Christ Jesus or maybe all the way out.

For example, in verse 28, when it says, do not be amazed at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs. Now notice the difference. All who are in the tombs in verse 28. Here it is the dead.

You might go, well, they sort of go hand in hand. I mean, generally the two are somewhat coextensive. But there is actually, I think, a reason why you have the differentiation. And you also note in verse 28, an hour is coming.

What's missing? And now is. So there is a distinction between verses 25 and 28 that I think will help us to understand and keep balance in what Jesus is teaching here. This hour is coming and now is. And so something new is taking place.

Now is. When what? When what? When the dead will hear the voice, the son of God and the ones hearing will live. Now, when we keep verse 25 and verse 28 in distinction from one another, it seems that what we're seeing in verses 25 through 26 especially.

Is the power of the son of God to bring about the spiritual resurrection of his people? Now, in chapter six, we're going to have that laid out as his ability to save those that the father gives to him to save them perfectly, so on and so forth.

But but here in this instance where Jesus is explaining some of the distinctions in the operations of the father and the son. In this context, this hour now is when the dead hear the voice, the son of God.

Now, how can that be? How can that be? I would, as I was pondering this text in preparation for this morning, I was struck once again. By the consistency of the word of God and necessity for us to believe all the God's word says and not just portions and also to watch very carefully.

For the influence of tradition. I am not sure, to be honest with you, how all the various forms of synergists and a synergist is a person who believes that the work of salvation is a synergistic cooperation between the will of man and the will of God.

God does his part. Man does his part. In almost every form of synergism, man's part determines whether God's part is going to succeed or not. And so man's part may be ninety nine percent. But that one percent that man controls is what determines whether God's could be successful or not.

This is generally the very, very reason for for synergism over against the idea of monarchism, which you can imagine. Means that there is one power that brings about salvation. It's God's power. And even though the term synergism actually appears in the New Testament, it's not in the New Testament in regards to how salvation is brought about.

It is in regards to our ministry together with the spirit of God in doing good works and in the building up of the church and so on and so forth. It is after we are moved out of this state of death, which we saw in verse twenty four, but have been translated out of death into life.

Well, how does someone who is dead hear the voice, the son of God? We sometimes are criticized for, well, you take dead too far. Well, I don't know. Dead seems to be a rather extreme category when you think about it.

I remember very clearly when we lived in Pennsylvania for about six years, we we lived, I think it was in it was in Mechanicsburg at that point. And just down the road, I was a young fellow, so it seemed like a long ways, but it probably wasn't just down the road from us was a graveyard.

Now, graveyards are sort of fun with with I'm not sure if we had Nerf guns back then, but we had something similar. We had cap guns. Those are probably illegal now, I would imagine, especially in California.

No, you can still still get a cap gun. Oh, OK. It'll be they'll be made illegal before long. But during the day, that was sort of a fun place to go. There were trees you could hide behind and and stuff like that.

And but after dark, yeah, that was that was the creepiest place you this because this is one of them old type. You know, it's not a nice you know, it was the old creepy type of graveyard. And, you know, I I was never overly concerned as I as I would be running around in there yelling at somebody else that I was going to be disturbing anyone in that graveyard.

And I even though it happens in horror flicks, I never expected a hand to come out of the ground, grab my my ankle and then out of the out of the ground. The voice comes. Would you please shut up? We're trying to sleep down here.

I never expected that to happen. And by the way, it didn't. I'm not going to try to tell you any any strange stories. The dead don't hear the dead don't hear. So the only way to understand the phrase when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God.

Is that there is something absolutely monarchistically, supernaturally powerful about the voice of the son of God. And obviously, whatever it is, the son of God is saying. And you'll notice, remember, verse twenty five makes lots of sense.

We keep seeing that it's sort of restating what's in verse twenty four. The one hearing what my word, my word. It is the message of Christ, which he's already said. I'm speaking the words that I've heard from the father.

So there's again, it's not my word. In contrast to the father, in distinction from the father, in the sense of putting the father off to one side. He's got his word and I've got my word. And if you can just listen to me and not listen, no, no.

Perfect unity always maintained in this text. But it is the word of Christ hearing that word. But who is it that hears it? Sadly, in our day, you have a majority of people. That really don't take seriously the assertion that the dead are the dead.

That we are spiritually dead. Apart from the supernatural operation of the spirit of God. Now, there's gonna be a lot of people. There's a there's a phrase I'll go ahead and mention it to you. Do not bother those of you who have paper Bibles.

Do not bother going to the concordance in the back. Or those of you who are using an electronic version. Do not bother to tap the search function and look for this phrase. It is not found anywhere in the Bible.

Don't get me wrong. I recognize neither is monergistic regeneration either. And yet it's a true phrase. I'm not making that argument, but don't bother looking it up. It's called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace.

And prevenient grace is a theological concept. That pretty much all synergists use. Sort of like most of us use gorilla tape. Okay. Now, some of you may have never heard of gorilla tape. Maybe you just use duct tape.

But gorilla tape's really good. Really, really, really good duct tape. Okay. Let's just put it that way. This is good tape. I mean, it'll hold stuff together. But there are some things that were never designed to be held together by tape in the first place.

Okay. And so when you come to theology, theological gorilla tape is not a good thing. But it's a very common thing. It's a very, very common thing. And prevenient grace is the Arminian synergistic gorilla tape.

It holds it all together. Well, it tries to until you push on it and then it all rips apart. But that's how you hold it all together. So what you say is that God uses prevenient grace to sort of bring all dead people to a not alive.

They're not really alive. But they're not really dead anymore either. And I know what you're all thinking about right now. Sort of the undead type thing. But it's the idea that you are now able to use your free will to accept or reject something.

Because if you're dead, you don't have free will. I've never met anyone who was dead who had free will. And so you've got to have free will. But if you're alive, that means you're already in Christ and you have spiritual life.

And so there's got to be this middle state somewhere. And so you use prevenient grace and God basically removes the effect of sin. So that you can exercise your free will to choose one way or the other.

Now, the really consistent ones, these folks are called open theists. Say that God doesn't know what you're going to do one way or the other, but he sort of puts you in that situation. The inconsistent one says God knows what you're going to do.

Which means that he brings a bunch of people in that situation knowing they're going to reject him anyways. So why he would do that, I've never really figured out. But that's the nature of theological guerrilla tape.

And trying to hold things together. As I looked at this text, I was once again struck by the fact that you really can't make sense of the categories that are being used. Unless you recognize that when the Son of God speaks, the result in the one's hearing.

Now, think about how many times in the Gospel of John. There are people who hear and don't hear. There are people who hear, but they don't hear. So it's not just Jesus speaking. He is going to stand outside.

Remember, we did cover John chapter 11 because there's a portion of it's covered in P45. So remember, we covered the resurrection of Lazarus. And we were, I hope, continue to be amazed at the reality of the fact.

That you had men standing there, students of scripture. May have had more of the Old Testament revelation memorized than any of us. And yet, seeing Lazarus come forth from the dead. They leave that place having heard the words of Jesus.

They heard, they weren't deaf. They heard the words of Jesus. And they go from that place. And they gather together how they might destroy Jesus. So obviously, having sound waves travel through the atmosphere.

And impact upon the membranes of your eardrum. Causing all that neat, incredibly obviously designed stuff in your ear. To transmit signals to your brain. Which you can understand, which is called hearing.

Obviously, that's not what is being referred to here. There were people who heard these words. There were people in John chapter 8. Who were going to hear the words of Jesus. And what was going to be the result for them.

Turn with me over there just for a moment. And you'll see what I'm talking about. In verse 43. Why do you not understand what I'm saying to you? Now, before you read the rest of it. Oh, too late for most of you.

I like asking people. Why is it that in Jesus' ministry. There were people who could hear the greatest teacher ever. The only sinless teacher ever. There was nothing in Jesus that could be a stumbling block.

To hearing the truth, right? You can't blame the speaker on this one. You can't. No, the perfect teacher. So why was it that so many who even possessed the word of God. Knew the messianic prophecies. Rejected what he said.

Nah, he can't be the Messiah. Heard his gracious teaching. No. And how you answer that question. Most people are going to focus it upon. Well, had to do with their understanding. They weren't as soft hearted as others.

They're always going to focus it in the person who heard the words. That's not what Jesus does. What's the end of verse 43? Because you are not able to hear my word. You lack the capacity. You lack the ability.

That's the standard word for having a capacity or ability. It's the very same term that's going to be used in John chapter 6. No one can come to me. No one has the ability to come to me. Unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Here it's no one is able to hear my word. Hear my word. There's something about the message of Christ. That requires a super natural enablement. To be able to hear. You are not able to hear my word. Why?

Well, look at verse 47. The one who is of God or from God. Is hearing the words of God. For this reason you are not able to hear. Because you are not of God. Literally of God in the sense of belonging to him.

Now God owns everything in the sense of being the master over all things. But there are those who are of God. Who belong to God. They hear the words of God. For this reason you are not able to hear. Not because of your free will.

Choosing not to hear. But because you do not belong to God. Belonging to God. Being drawn by the Father to the Son. John chapter 6 takes us all the way back to John chapter 5. The same concept. Hearing the word of Christ results in salvation.

But you don't hear the words of God. Because you don't belong to God. People struggle with that. Because they want all of salvation to be based upon man. And man's actions and man's capacities. But the scriptures do not know of a man-centered, man-controlled gospel.

And so the dead. And this would be those who were once in the realm of death. But have passed out of death into life. Verse 24. How did that happen? The Son of God caused that to happen. By the powerful expression of His word.

He commands. And the result is that they have life. Remember? It is said. It has been given to him that he might be able to do what? Give life. Remember the description of the word back in John chapter 1?

In him was life. And the life was the light of man. In him was life. And so that powerful Logos who became flesh as the Son of God in John 1. Here in John chapter 5 is explaining. Yes, the one hearing and believing in me has eternal life.

And see a lot of people like, I like that. Because as long as I can assume that that's something I can do at any old time. Then I'm in control. Jesus doesn't allow that. Doesn't allow that. Truly, truly, I say to you.

Our is coming and now is. The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And the ones hearing. Not everybody hears. I know there are universalists out there. But I'm going to tell you something. You have to engage in incredible selectivity.

With the text of the Bible. To get around the fact. That the Bible teaches us that God is going to demonstrate. The entire range of his attributes. His love, his mercy, his grace. And the salvation of a number that cannot be numbered.

As the sand of the sea, yes. But. He is also going to demonstrate. His power and his wrath. And his justice. In the proper condemnation. Of those who love their sin. And have continued in it. You can't get around it.

And it's only the ones hearing who will live. And how do they hear? How does the dead have the capacity to hear? It is the very speech of the Son of God. That is so powerful that it creates that ability.

This is going to be expanded in John chapter 6. Into the drawing of the Father. The revelation of the person who Jesus Christ is. There's all sorts of pictures given to us. Of this spiritual transaction.

But it is originating in the power of God. Not in the power of man. And once again, the scriptures very, very carefully. And in a very balanced way. Teach this to us. And so I can't suggest to you. A really consistent.

Text based way. Of understanding these words from the synergistic perspective. Because there is only one power. In this text. And that power is found in the life giving capacity. Of the Son of God himself.

And I would suggest to you. It is central to the Christian message. And it's central to the help of the believing Christian. Himself or herself. To recognize that if you have life in yourself. It is because of not Jesus Christ making it possible.

For you and everybody else to have that. But for him to actually extend that divine power into your life. Taking you out of the realm of death. Into the realm of life. That is an act of divine power. The dead do not have the capacity.

To either do that themselves. Or to actuate some kind of Amway system to bring it about. Nothing against Amway. But you know what I mean. This text speaks to the power of God in salvation. And it is the very action of God that results in the having of life.

For just as the Father has life in himself. So also he has given to the Son to have life in himself. And so when the Son speaks. And it's the Son to whom the elector joined in the sovereignty of God. We see in Ephesians chapter 1 and so on and so forth.

When the Son speaks. That powerful divine life is communicated to all those who are in him. The Son is not simply a creature who has been given great privileges. But the Son is that one through whom the divine life itself comes to the individual.

Those who are in the elect at his time when he speaks. Raises them to spiritual life. They experience that eternal life. And of course we will see later. Once these truths have been laid down. In chapters 14 through 16.

The further truth that this becomes real in our experience. In the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. And so as we've noted before. The Father has life in himself. He's the source of all life. The Son likewise.

Source of all life. Able to make people alive. Spiritually. Bring about spiritual resurrection. And likewise then. Authority has been given to him to judge. Because. And then we run into one of those many places where.

We have to talk about translation for just a second. It's really difficult for us to. Look at this in English and say anything other. Because he is the son of man. But what's interesting is this is a very unusual appearance.

Of the phrase son of man. Everywhere else there is an article. The son of man. There is no article or the word the. Now, please, I've mentioned this before. I'll be brief, but. The Greek word the and the English word the.

Are not the same. We may think they are. We may pretend they are. They are not the same. There are few scholars. Who truly have a full grasp. On the Greek article. It is a tremendous challenge. And so whenever you hear someone beginning to expound.

Like the Jehovah's Witness at your door on a Saturday morning. About the significance or lack of significance of the Greek article. In John one one you can be ninety nine point nine nine nine percent.

Sure they don't have a clue what they're talking about. Of course convincing them of that is a difficult thing. But. There are some. Who would say that what's being said here. Is that Jesus has authority to judge.

And this had already been mentioned earlier in the chapter. That all judgment is given to him. Which is amazing thing given how foundational it is. That God is the righteous judge of all mankind. That he has given all judgment to his son.

But. Here it is said. Judgment. Authority to judge power to judge has been given to him. And they'll say because he is a human. He is a human a son of man. Similar to how son of man is used in Ezekiel.

Where Ezekiel is referred to very often as son of man son of man do this. And it's it just refers to. A human. And so there are people that will say when Jesus identifies himself as son of man. He just seems saying I'm a human.

Now. That is a massively over simplistic way of looking at it. What is interesting. Is that when you go back to the fountainhead of all of the discussion of the son of man in the New Testament. And there's a lot.

In the Old Testament is Daniel chapter 7. And Daniel chapter 7. One like unto a son of man is presented before the ancient of days. And he is worshipped and a dominion is given. It is absolutely the language of a divine being.

But what's interesting is son of man in Daniel 7 doesn't have the article. When you think about that when you keep that in mind as the background. This isn't just simply saying that Jesus is the perfect judge because he's a man.

He's already identified himself as the son of God. The whole context of John chapter 5 is he heals on the Sabbath makes himself equal with God. Now he's explaining all this. And now it's being said he has authority to judge and he has authority to make alive.

So to go and it's really good that he can judge because he's just a guy. It's not really John's point at all. Instead by tying together that son of man. Concept that was so well known to the Jews that in Jesus's trial in Mark 14.

When he quotes from Psalm 110 and Daniel 7 puts them together about himself. What are the Jews do? They tear their clothes and say you've heard the blasphemy. What further need do we have a witnesses?