The Two Resurrections | Sermon 02/12/2023

If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 5, Gospel according to John chapter 5.

We're going to be in verses 25 through 30 today. 25 through 30.

The title of this sermon, Church, is The Two Resurrections. The Two Resurrections.

John chapter 5, verse 25 through 30. An hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the

Son also to have life in Himself. And He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the

Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear

His voice, and will come forth. Those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing of my own initiative, as I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray, Church. God, please speak through me today.

Let me be a vessel, an instrument, Lord, in which You will convey Your message to Your people. God, encourage us, challenge us, teach us by Your Spirit, the same

Spirit who inspired these very words, Lord. God, do something today in us.

Let us have more hope. Let us have more encouragement. Let us, if we're not saved, even consider how we ought to be, how we ought to turn to Christ, if that's the case.

So Lord, please teach us today. We love You and we thank You. In Jesus' name,

I pray. Amen. So the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is a biblical teaching that is hardly understood, and typically a bit confusing for people, even for myself when

I look at the Word of God. If you were to ask evangelicals across the globe, you might find that many of them believe that the final state of all things, the final end goal is for all of us to be in these ethereal bodies, floating on clouds, just floating along, being there together in this sort of disconnected state from the rest of creation, from the tarnishing effects of the physical realm, we would say.

But that's more of a Gnostic thought than you would think. Gnostics think material, physical is evil, only spiritual is good.

So this is this weird mindset that we've adopted, especially Christians over the years, that we're just going to be floating around as spirits.

That's not the case, okay? Some might even liken the resurrection to kind of that Eastern view of reincarnation.

There's so many different ideas of what this is, okay? Many philosophers have deduced from the

Bible, or even some from nature, the immortality of the soul. They've taught it, whether they're

Christian or not, people have spoken on the immortality of the soul.

But that this bodily frame that you have, that I have, should rise again, that is different.

That muscle and sinew and bone and blood should occupy this body once again after it's been consumed into the earth is something we only know is possible because Jesus has already done it.

He's the firstfruits from the dead, he says. That's the case.

How often do we even forget to mention the glorious resurrection of Jesus himself in the gospel?

I've forgotten it before. I've been like, you need to turn to Jesus, he died for your sins, and then it kind of stops there.

But there is a resurrection, we've got to remember that. There's a blessed resurrection. What makes the good news so good is that the tomb is empty, and it's forever empty.

It'll stay empty. He is risen. Paul details the significance of the resurrection in his letter to the

Corinthians. He says, Some were saying there's no resurrection.

This is it. This is all we have. And he says, For if the dead are not raised, not even

Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, and you're still in your sins.

There was whole heretical groups that said that Jesus didn't rise again from the grave.

And he says, If that's the case, you're still in your sin. You're still dead in your sin if Christ didn't rise again. Then he says,

Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. Fallen asleep means died.

Then they're gone. They're annihilated then. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

He ends it with that. Brothers and sisters, the very hope we have of being raised again is based on that empty tomb that Jesus did at first.

Our passage is clear, however, that that will be a glorious and wonderful day for one group, and a fearful and frightening day for another.

So to better understand these things, let's go to the text of Scripture now. Verse 25 Truly, truly,

I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Now it is my belief that Jesus is demonstrating two different events here.

Two different events. They are spoken of in a matter of chronology.

One is, now is, an hour that now is, and then an hour that is coming.

Do you see that? An hour is coming, and there is an hour that now is. In the

English it looks like they are more together than you would think, but in the Greek they are separate events. Romans 6, 4 through 9 speaks in kind of a similar way as this, as Jesus, in that it intertwines these words of resurrection, and life, and death, in kind of a thing where it happens now, but it also happens later.

Listen to this. Paul says, So he is talking about the newness of life, he is talking about spiritual resurrection there, but then he will go on to say that our old body of sin was done away with, our old selves was crucified with Christ, and we experience all that now, but also that later, in the same text in Romans 6,

Paul will make it clear that we are also going to rise again physically. So your life is changed now, but it is also going to change later after the grave.

He uses this interchangeable language of the already and not yet experiences.

The coming of the Messiah was the death of spiritual death, and eventually the death of physical death.

These dead then who hear the voice of the Son of God right here, when the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God, and they live because of it, are the same ones from the prior verse from last week, verse 24, the people who had heard

His words, believed in Him, and it says they had not come into judgment, they had passed out of death and come into life, if you remember that was verse 24, those are the same people who are dead who hear the voice of the

Son of God. Isaiah 55, verse 3 says, That's what

Jesus is saying, listen, hear my voice, hear my words, come to life. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

You say, but how can the spiritually dead hear? How can the spiritually dead hear?

But I think the question we ought to be asking is, what couldn't hear or who couldn't hear the creation bending, death defying, all creature obeying word of the

Son of God? What could defy that?

Ezekiel 37 speaks to this reality of this spiritual resurrection. It says this,

This is Ezekiel speaking. So He comes upon this valley and He just sees bones as far as the eye can see.

These bones are filling this valley, they're everywhere. And He caused me to pass among them round about and behold, there were so very many on the surface of the valley and lo, they were very, very dry.

And the Lord said to him, Son of man, can these bones live? Look at all these bones, can these bones live?

And Ezekiel answered, O Lord God, you know. And again the Lord said to Ezekiel, Prophesy over these bones and say to them,

O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, here it is,

Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinew on you and make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive and you will know that I am

Yahweh. I am the Lord. Later God will explain that moment,

He'll explain the valley of dry bones and say that this is what happens when He pours out His Spirit on the land, on His people.

The Holy Spirit will come upon the people and they'll come alive as if they were dead, spiritually dead.

All men and women were thus or remain to be so. Everyone has spiritual deadness.

When we're born in Adam and we're born in the fall and when we sin ourselves, we're spiritually dead.

Jesus says, if you sin, you're a slave to sin. There's no other way around it.

He says, if you sin once, you're a slave to sin. All men and women face that.

Dead to faith, dead to holiness, dead to the things of God. They don't realize it but they wear a garment, tattered and degraded as if from the grave.

Corpses covered in the dirt of depravity, the decaying with the tarnishing of transgressions, dead.

Dead. And when people hear the

Word of Jesus, when Jesus speaks to them, people like you and me, our spiritual lives are quickened, that means we're made alive.

And dead souls are shattered like stone and a fleshly, moldable heart occupies the space where a dead, stony heart used to be.

That's what's happened for you and me. And like a horrible nightmare, the soft and yet powerful beckoning of the

Savior lands on your ears and all is changed at once. Everything's completely changed.

This is a spiritual resurrection, this is what happens in regeneration when

God saves you. But Jesus, like I said, speaks of two resurrections here.

The one that now is, and the one that is coming. They're like a grapevine wrapped around a trellis.

You don't know exactly which one is which, but they're intertwined together. Promises and language of similar sort for each.

Because the coming of the Messiah brought in the eschatos. The Genesis, the first things are over, and it is abundantly clear that the messianic kingdom that was ushered in by Christ after his death has put us in what's called the last things.

It's not to say we're in some sort of sci -fi dispensational movie or something like that, but Christ just splits it down the middle.

He splits it with his coming. And so he even can speak with imminency.

Although the last day seems far off, its result for each individual is determined now.

A rejection of Christ or an acceptance of Christ now will decide things that are far yet in the future.

Verse 26, For just as the

Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.

So we saw last week already in verse 21 that the Father can raise the dead, and the

Son can too. The Son can raise the dead. We went over the examples of that. We went over that it's generation, regeneration, and the final regeneration and generation and eternal life.

And the different aspects of how Jesus raises from the dead. But He can do it just like the

Father. Genesis 2 -7 says, And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

Job 33 -4 says, The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

And Psalm 36 -9, we went over that recently,

For with you, Lord, is the fountain of life.

He's the source of life. That's what that means. You see, the fancy way to label that, that God has life in Himself, is that God is self -existent.

Another word for it is the aseity. A -S -E -I -T -Y

The aseity of God is the self -existent nature of God. He is not derived from anyone or anything else.

He has being in Himself. Life is in Himself. He is the uncaused cause.

He is the uncreated Creator. He is the ever -present source of all life, power, and sustenance.

And He wasn't gifted this. He didn't acquire this. He didn't evolve to have this.

He's had it from eternity past. And will continue to possess it in eternity future.

And it's the same for His Son. The life was in the Son of God. Even before the incarnation, even before the coming of Jesus.

We saw that in the prologue, remember? We saw Jesus, the

Logos, the Word. We pulled back the veil and we looked into eternity past, before the world was even made.

And Jesus was God. And He was with God. And it was by Him that all things were created.

And it says in Him, in John 1, 4, in Jesus, in the Logos, was life.

And the life was the light of men. This has been a shared attribute from eternity.

And now, the Word made flesh, no longer just the Logos, in eternity past, the

Eternal Son. Now, Jesus, the God -Man, who has come into His own creation,

He also has this attribute. He has life in Himself.

And He will forever have life in Himself. That's how He is able to be resurrected from the grave.

He has resurrection power in Himself. He can raise Himself. He is

God. 1 Corinthians 15, 45 says, the first man,

Adam, became a living soul because God breathed into him. And then it says, the last

Adam, who we know as Jesus, became a life -giving spirit. He gives life.

Church, He can do what He promised He would do because He has life in Himself.

He can do what He's promised to you because He has life in Himself. He can accomplish it.

Verse 27, And He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the

Son of Man. The Son of Man. Just as verse 21 was answered by verse 26, now verse 22 on Christ being judged is answered by verse 27.

How is Jesus able to be judged? Because the Father gave Him the authority to execute judgment.

And Jesus does not deny where the Jews would have understood life and judgment to come from. He affirms it.

Life and the ability to judge come from the Father. But I have it too,

He says. Jesus being the fullest revelation of God is now showing the fulfillment of the redemption of the triune

God. He's the fullest revelation. You thought that only the Father had it?

Well, you now know I am the fullest revelation of God, we are Trinity He would say.

The Son possesses these things. But it's interesting. He says

He was given this authority to execute judgment because He's the Son of Man? What does that mean?

He's been given the authority because He is the Son of Man. And that title,

Son of Man, I'll tell you is maybe used a lot in Matthew but it is used sparingly in the

Gospel of John. You don't see Son of Man that often in this Gospel.

It led me to consider that infamous moment of the coronation of the Son after His death, burial and resurrection.

After Jesus ascended in Acts chapter 1 I believe that that then moves to Daniel chapter 7.

When Jesus went up into heaven and they were staring at Him and the angel said He's going to come back the same way

He went up. I think at that moment Daniel chapter 7 going up to the ancient of days, it says this

It says in verses 13 and 14 of Daniel chapter 7 I kept looking in the night visions

Daniel seeing this and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming and He came up.

He came up to the ancient of days and was presented before Him and to Him, to the

Son of Man was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve

Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

That was given to Jesus. In Matthew chapter 28 Jesus says to the disciples

He announces it. All authority has been given to Me. Psalm chapter 2 says

The Father said to the Son ask of Me and I'll give the nations as your inheritance and He did and He did after the ascension

Jesus went up to the ancient of days and it was presented to Him and He was given everything everything

So I think Jesus' judgment authority due to being the Son of Man is not just in that there are three biblical threads that are woven together here that we ought to understand about Son of Man Jesus is, as I just pointed out, the apocalyptic

Son of Man in Daniel 7 who receives only one only what one with deity would receive in an eternal kingdom an everlasting kingdom that will never fade away with total dominion and also being

Son of Man also points to His new nature He is totally God and He is totally man and so He is able to judge us properly for that reason

He can sympathize with us as our high priests in every weakness that we have

He's walked among humanity It puts Him in a position to judge without partiality that's something

He can do and lastly we saw in chapter 1 Son of Man used in that Jesus is like Jacob's ladder

He says in chapter 1 if you remember you'll see angels ascending and descending upon the

Son of Man He says about Himself and we talked about the fact that the things of heaven are gonna come down through Jesus and they're gonna see heaven on earth, they're gonna see

Jesus do heavenly things in His kingdom and also in His ministry

He's going to give revelation the Son of Man gives revelation we will hear the revelation of God from Him in John chapter 3

Jesus said the Son of Man will be lifted up He is not only a source of revelation but a fulfillment of it and I say this because almost every time revelation is brought up in the gospel according to John it also speaks along with it judgment.

He says I brought my word and then because there are some who disregard and reject my word then there's judgment then there's condemnation because you won't believe in the words of the

Son of Man you won't believe the Son of God is from His Father He tells them and then there's this language of condemnation for the

Son of God is also the Son of Man who has authority to execute judgment and we think man the judge is standing right before these

Jews you think they would do something to change how they look, maybe straighten themselves up they're standing before the eternal judge and I don't know about you but if I were ever standing before a judge

I'd probably say you know, your honor, yes sir and I'd wear nicer clothes but these

Jews they totally reject Him so would we I think so would we think they'd be on their best behavior being before the eternal judge to think

Earth's activities and therefore our individual activities are veiled from that God that's folly we're deluding ourselves even today, even though Jesus isn't physically here like He was physically there before those

Jews He sees everything there's nothing that you can hide from Jesus He's judge

He'll see everything in the secret place in the open, everything but go to verses 28 and 29 do not marvel at this don't marvel at this an hour is coming in which all who hear in the tombs in which all who are in the tombs will hear

His voice and will come forth those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment the future final judgment and resurrection is in view in this passage right here, it says don't marvel at this don't marvel at the fact that Jesus is the source of all life don't marvel that He's the judge of the

Earth don't be astonished He says you won't even be able to stand without your jaw dropping one day when you see what

I do in the resurrection He's telling them at the final day you will be in awe this is nothing all that Jesus said, the

Jews seeing Jesus come down as a holy judge, they're gonna marvel they're gonna see

Him, the one that they rejected, they're gonna see Him come down on a throne they're gonna be stunned you know what they're typically amazed by though?

something much lesser than this we talked about it last week the

Jews are amazed by Jesus bringing someone back to natural life which I would be too when

He saved the young man in Nain, they were amazed when the life crept back into Jairus' daughter, he and his wife were stunned and when

Lazarus came out of the tomb many shouted the glories of God but you know what we ought to be amazed by in a greater way that God takes the spiritually dead and makes them alive the first resurrection that I talked about the spiritual resurrection raising someone back to life would be incredible to see, no doubt but the fact that He regenerates and He saves people it's unbelievable that's what they should marvel at maybe in this moment they're marveling in such a way to show mistrust or unbelief to the

Lord but He's like, you haven't seen anything yet you haven't seen anything yet don't marvel at this an hour is coming that is to say there is certainty

Jesus said it, an hour is coming it's going to happen, it's not a what if you see any mere human king any mere human king couldn't say this because plans change kingdoms become divided leaders live and die their sons take the throne and they forget what their fathers had promised the people the erosion of time plagues each throne and they turn to dust the reign of men rises and falls like the waves of the sea in a storm there is no consistency but here the promise is sure, an hour is coming it's going to happen the divine will of God will not be thwarted, the wheel of providence keeps turning without ceasing

Jesus sits upon His throne in heaven, waiting for the right time He's waiting, He sits on His throne right now

He's waiting for the right time He's going to return again and every second brings us closer to that time, every single second, every morning

I wake up I have one of those big calendars above my desk and I put a slash through the previous day, every slash getting closer to Jesus' return to this final day ever coming is this day the resurrection draws near the final hour, the inevitable hour, the hour in which all things for all time will culminate and reach their pinnacle it's like time is on these spiral circles in a whirlpool right, and time is just going like this and the minutes are going down and finally when it enters the center of the whirlpool it's time it's time, the judgment hour swallows up all other previous hours like the

Red Sea swallowed up Pharaoh and the Egyptians notice it doesn't say and now is, you see that verse 25 said an hour is coming and now is because we're no longer talking about only the spiritual resurrection, we're talking about a physical resurrection something is coming an hour is coming this is future this is future however it should even if it come right now point to Jesus everything would point to Jesus if it were to happen all things that stand as an obstacle in the way, in our view would melt away,

I really believe that if Jesus were to come now there's no way you could miss it, it's not this secret moment, it's not this quiet moment, if the son of God returns upon the earth, it's going to be loud and it's going to be visible everything else will melt away he'll be in clear view the holy and righteous judge and king will descend upon a great white throne, we'll see it may such a word of certainty and imminency cause us all to look to Jesus for salvation if we haven't already, that day is coming the day is coming of course a day to the

Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day no one knows when no one knows when it's going to happen no one knows when he's done building his kingdom on earth through the glorious gospel of grace but his saints will fill the earth his enemies will be put under his feet he promises and death will be defeated, physical death will be defeated for good then the end will come don't marvel at this, an hour is coming when in which all who are in the tombs hear his voice in verse 25 those who are dead hear his voice and have spiritual new life there's verse 24 promise a spiritual resurrection, now it's not just the dead if I were to show you verse 25 just said the necros the dead now in the future coming day it's all those in the tomb all those in the grave all those in the grave will rise, it's a universal and indiscriminate physical resurrection this will be the end the end will be where the present and future finally meet and the voice of the son of God will call out to the dead upon the earth and they will all rise, everyone will rise and standing at this colossal event will be the

Lord Jesus Christ just as that dying body in Capernaum heard his voice just like the legs of the paralyzed man at the pool stood up so also will all those in the grave obey the command of Jesus to rise he says all, every all not one person will be left out we're talking a multitude of multitudes, every man every woman, every child the people in the days before the flood, those who were scattered at the

Tower of Babel Israelites, Egyptians, Mongols barbarians

Romans, Greeks, all those in Europe those of China, Asia, the whole continent of Africa will give up its dead, the

Americas even Canada, right every islander of every island, every single person of every tribe tongue, people and nation will rise again all, all all who are in the tombs you can't count the countless only

God knows it's going to be a multitude like we've never seen before, and it's going to be those who were burned in fires people who were left in a vegetative state, those who were lost at sea and driven to the depths, down to the bottom of the ocean floor it's going to be the over dozen people that died in space there have been people who have now died in outer space, they will rise again, urns will break open and as the ashes of people reconstitute the buried dead will rise out of caskets it doesn't matter what type of material of every type of material people will rise out of them all the sons and daughters of Adam will rise bodies that were reduced to ash they were thrown from a plane or they were thrown in the ocean with their loved one they were thrown in a river they were thrown in a forest, it doesn't matter wherever they are everyone will rise again, how does

Christ do this? how is this possible? with his powerful voice his powerful voice, not one person will be forgotten, there won't be one that will be left out, this is all all will hear the

Savior's voice and God has guarded every single body every dust particle that was once human that is now deceased,

God is a watcher, a watchman over it, he'll make sure it rises again it's amazing it's unbelievable people who have been dead thousands of years will come back to life doesn't matter if it was 6 ,000 years, 4 ,000 years 2 ,000 years, last year every single person will rise again but we won't have years you say, but we won't have years, doesn't matter matter doesn't matter in this case

Jesus' power transcends that, deaf people hear Jesus, dead people hear

Jesus as we saw with Lazarus the voice of the Savior will be as if it's coming from every single direction, from every corner of the world it will be so powerful, we'll all hear it, we won't mistake it it'll be

Jesus' voice, from the furthest and most, even to the most furthest and desolate parts of the earth, even in a cave somewhere the word of Jesus will sound a trumpet will sound a trumpet will sound

Jesus will say, rise come forth and everyone will you see many have shoved their fingers in their ears when they hear the gospel, but not a single person will be able to stop from hearing the word of Jesus on the final day not one person, no one can block the sound of Jesus Christ the righteous the summons will sound a trumpet will be blasted all rise for the judge everyone verse 29 and all will come forth some people argue that all millennialists or post -millennialists don't believe in a rapture, that's not true, we do believe in a rapture

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 51 through 52 behold I tell you a mystery we will not all sleep

I love how he always says sleep, that's they always speak as if they know it's short, like the resurrection is coming, that's true

I love that, they're only asleep we will not all sleep, we will not all die, but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed to the

Thessalonian church he says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive still and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air and so we shall always be with our Lord forevermore it's not that this rapture takes place before the kingdom of Christ starts and removes the saints no, the saints are right now giving the gospel and Jesus is ruling and reigning now his millennial reign is now and he's going to come again one day and it's going to be fully done, it's going to be complete the rapture then is one in the same event as the final resurrection you heard that right people separate those, there's a rapture we escape there's all this tribulation, all these things but I'll tell you that rapture, those verses that I read in Thessalonians and Corinthians that's the last day that's when

Jesus comes again that's the end it's at the second coming of Christ and at the end of the kingdom when

Jesus it says will present it to the Father look what I've done after my death, burial and resurrection and ascension my kingdom began,

I went up I received a kingdom an everlasting kingdom with all dominion, all power he established it on earth as it is in heaven, he started this kingdom there's more saints today there's more people who know

Jesus than ever before, even a thousand years ago it's spread amazingly and it's going to continue to spread and he's building his kingdom and then it says he's going to return sounds too simple, right?

I should have ten charts behind me, right? but that's what the Bible says you see that voice of Jesus we keep talking about think about that think about what the rapture is the voice of Jesus sounds after the trumpet has sounded and the voice of Jesus is so powerful that not only will everyone who's dead and rotting in the sea or in the ground will rise but his voice is so powerful that if anyone is actually alive on the earth which

I believe they will be, they'll rise too because if he says rise, then somehow all of us rise, it's just amazing that's what it is it's this power that causes the dead to rise and then those who are living will rise in the air, they'll meet him in the air with that powerful voice everyone rises dead or living it will be a sight like no one has ever seen, all will come forth and their truest selves will be revealed, do you know that?

their truest selves will be revealed, the hypocrite will be seen as they truly are the evil man will be finally unmasked, the predators among us who appear as innocent will wish that the rocks could fall upon them and hide them but there's nothing that can hide themselves from the son of God nothing and the fact is death does not change a man's character death does not change a man's character there are no chances for improvement how will they bear all that light because all the shadows will be gone he'll be so bright he'll be coming down a great white throne the trumpet will sound and you'll know he says there's going to be false cries that's true, that's still going on today, there's false cries everywhere there's people who rise up and say they're

Jesus there's false prophets who say they speak for the they speak for the

Lord but I want to assure you on that day you won't be mistaken you won't be worried that you're deluding yourself, you'll know you'll know you'll know that it's

Jesus the son of God at this point the multitude of people upon the earth will be categorized into only two camps that seems throughout

Scripture I'm telling you all throughout the Old and New Testament there's a category of two camps and there was only two types of people when they were buried and when they were alive and then there's only two types of people when they rise again simple as that those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment the

KJV says a resurrection of damnation by the way this is always how the final judgment is mentioned with these kind of good deeds and evil deeds don't be confused by that, you'll see it in Revelation it says the book of life and the good deeds that people did and then you know the bad deeds that people have done all throughout

Scripture that's how it's mentioned this judgment day, it doesn't mean that we are justified by works it doesn't mean that there's a work based salvation

I mean the thousands and thousands of verses that would show we're justified by faith alone and Christ alone by His grace alone show us that but what he's talking about is the fact that inward feelings won't save you a merely spoken faith or dead faith won't save, that's not a real faith

I preached on this in James chapter 2 in 2021, I also did an episode of Unanswered on our

YouTube channel on this specific thing, faith without works is dead, check it out if you're interested but true and genuine faith is evidenced by what you do it's the beautiful flower on top of a stem, it's fruit that comes out of a tree knowing that it's actually a pomegranate tree and it's not a bramble bush it's fruit it's evidence of what it really is you see a spoken and dead faith says it has salvation but it acts like a reprobate it doesn't fear

God it tries, that kind of person tries to make changes but ultimately they're just trying to create the facade, the appearance even in Matthew 25 speaking on the judgment, the

Lord Jesus demonstrates two camps he says there's going to be people who clothe the naked, give food to the hungry they visit the sick and those who don't that's how he says it there as well those who do it, do it out of a sincere heart and faithful desire to obey their

Lord and walk in the Savior's footsteps and the others don't do it and you know how

I know he isn't arguing for salvation by works because in the very next chapter, in chapter six, someone will ask what can we do to do the work of God and Jesus says this is the work of God that you must do he says believe in him whom he has sent believe in him, faith believe in him ultimately he's saying that's a work that God does it's a play on words this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent that's all you have to do is have faith those who have eternal life now will be raised again for life never ending and these are the ones who have done good things they were changed as a result of the new life that Jesus gave them and it was demonstrated in a life that lived out good deeds

I talked about this at the beginning of the year, sometimes you're going to have just this huge crop of fruit in your life, sometimes it's going to be very few fruit in your life, sometimes you're going to look at it and go were there any blossoms?

I only see some dead fruit on the ground, what happened? but then the next year it comes back that's the reality of the

Christian life but the point is the fruit keeps coming even when it's not there some seasons it keeps coming and those are the ones that have lived out a life of good deeds that God prepared beforehand those who rejected

Christ and it says they love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil they will also be resurrected those who hated

Jesus those who didn't turn to him they will face the judge for their sin and they will reap eternal condemnation it's pretty heavy stuff remember those who rise according to chapter 3 verse 18 he says and those who don't believe are condemned already there's that already and not yet those who don't believe those who reject

Jesus he says they're condemned already they're going to face judgment in the future and they face it now

Jesus weaves the two realities of salvation together as two resurrections because of how definite the promise is if you've been regenerated here if you've been changed here if you've been brought to life here from spiritual deadness later you will be resurrected to life never ending that's it this is the down payment this is the already and not yet you'll be resurrected from physical deadness later just as you were resurrected from spiritual deadness on earth prior to that moment there will be this physical glorified body you'll be fully alive from your spiritual deadness of soul it'll be fully alive and both are united in eternal life to love

God in peace apart from sin forever and both must occur for that final reality there must be the two resurrections for that final reality to occur where you'll live with God forever you must have that spiritual resurrection here on this earth and then you will of course undoubtedly have that final resurrection of the physical body later at the end of all times sown into the earth with an imperishable redeemed soul but a perishable body, do you hear that?

you'll be sown into the earth with an imperishable redeemed soul but a perishable body but you'll be raised with an imperishable body and an imperishable soul to the resurrection

Paul says it is sown in dishonor but it's raised in glory it is sown in weakness but it's raised in power go to our final verse verse 30 he kind of caps it off here

I can do nothing of my own initiative as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me so he reiterates his words from verses 19 through 20 in a new way this is about validating all the claims of himself and what he can do all the things that he just claimed he can do with the unity that he has with his father there is this triune endorsement over all of Jesus' earthly ministry

Jesus' undying loyalty and commitment to the will of the father is what makes his judgment just, triune unity it makes the resurrection possible it makes him able to do what he's promised to do, the father has been judged but now that authority has been given to Jesus and he can perform it because of his divine nature and his submission to the father

Jesus' judgment is just it's just it's going to be right many of us are worried, we're concerned we are worried maybe not even for ourselves but we're worried for family and relatives who have gone before us, they're in the grave all

I can tell you is trust the savior lean in to Jesus his judgment is just whatever it is, he will give you peace in fact

I believe on that final day when there are those who are cast into the second death

I know this sounds almost morbid, I know this sounds almost hateful but you will rejoice at what the savior has done for you knowing that you deserved that and he's done this for you and you will praise him

I think all your attention will be on Jesus there will be no more mourning every tear will be wiped away and we'll say that the judge of the earth has done right it's almost unfathomable the judge of the earth has done right so he will he will you have no need to concern about that, he'll give you peace over it and he knows what it's like to have people who he loves facing condemnation he knows the hurt do you remember before his crucifixion he says oh

Jerusalem, Jerusalem only if I could take you as a hen takes chicks under her wings right?

he so desperately wanted to be there for those who even hurt him but they turned against him, he demonstrates that he has no agenda by himself he is in complete harmony with the father's will and plan the resurrection is the plan of the triune

God from all eternity it's going to happen, so church as we conclude today

I want you to consider a few things first the spiritual resurrection we have received in Christ that has changed us on earth and given us a hope beyond the grave will also result in immediately being with Jesus at the time your body dies, okay?

I don't want you to ever worry or fear death hear from me now the bible says absent from the body present with the

Lord Jesus meant it when he told the thief on the cross today you will be with me in paradise you see right now those who are asleep as Paul says the saints who are dead and they're lying in the ground or they're in the middle of the at the bottom of the sea or whatever they're not they're not simply waiting to be with God they are with God I want you to know that in this spiritual resurrection yes they're waiting they're waiting for the final resurrection but they're waiting with their

God so that if you or I die on the way home today or whatever you will immediately be with God I can say that with certainty according to scripture you will be with God you will you won't be in some sort of blackness or darkness waiting a couple more thousand years or whatever it is waiting for the resurrection to hear the voice of Jesus you'll be with him but it won't be complete your spirit will be with Jesus but we wait for that physical resurrection because like I said we're not going to be floating around spirit form on the clouds we were meant as created beings to be body and soul and that's what

God will do for us and Jesus is the prototype of that Jesus is in his glorified body now he has the body that we will get it says he is the first one to get it he was raised from the dead and his body will never decay yes he has his body now

Jesus still has his body he's not in spirit form in heaven he was in spirit form before the incarnation but Jesus will forever be the

God man forever and we will always be creatures body and soul but again

I don't want you to worry after you die you will go and be with the Lord and it won't be long it won't feel long it won't you'll be enjoying bliss with God in heaven and then one day you'll hear the trumpet sound and you'll hear the voice and I think with a blink of an eye you'll be back in your body and you'll be raised out of the ground it's going to be incredible it's going to be wonderful you'll never die he says it yeah this body wastes away but you're going to be with your

Lord in heaven and then one day you'll be resurrected you'll have a glorified body just as God intended secondly

I want you to worship Jesus because of this I hope you get to see a side of Jesus that I think we need to see more

I think the way that people feminize and soften Jesus is not right because we have a mighty and valorous king that we serve he has such power such commanding power with his voice thirdly

I hope these truths will help the mourning and grief that you experience when a believer dies that's why the

New Testament New Testament writers as I said say that they're merely asleep they're just asleep they're going to come back but may it also caution us to always share the truth as the spiritually dead become physically dead that's a tragedy when the spiritually dead enter into death physically dead they'll be raised to go into the second death and that's something

I don't wish on my worst enemy may God save these people they will rise to a terrible and awful judgment may

God help them it's just the reality of the word guys I'm just preaching the word

I'm just telling you what the word says it's hard stuff and lastly church

I couldn't conclude this if I didn't do what the apostle Paul did he often at the end of his letters calls the people to self examination put yourself in the crucible of testing, heat yourself up see if you're pure are you pure gold or are you fool's gold do you see

Jesus as judge for the last day or do you see Jesus as savior do you have a terrible expectation of the last day or do you have a wonderful anticipation of that day and look

I'm not saying that's going to happen all the time and that every day I'm so certain that I'm like yes we go through ups and downs but our assurance is in the work of Jesus our assurance is not in what

I see in myself my assurance is in what Jesus did and what he promised let that be the same for you but do you desire

God do you honor him do you follow him is there sincerity in your profession do you have a living faith or a dead faith my friends if you find yourself in need of a savior he is ever present he is right there don't wait another day because an hour is coming an hour is coming turn to Christ and walk through this life and into the next with joyful certainty and that's what

I want you to have joyful certainty he is our blessed hope he is as he said the resurrection and the life you're never going to get to heaven without Jesus and you're going to gain so much more than just heaven it's going to be incredible guys it's going to be truly wonderful praise him let's pray

Lord please help us to have a glorious anticipation for that final day

Lord you know my past that I was raised to fear the end

I was raised in my home to fear what would come at the very end that the final day would be awful and God I thought in my heart that you're a scary

God but Lord you're a good God and I see that now we see that in your word that you will redeem a people for yourself and it says that you will raise us up on the last day you say in John chapter 6 the very next chapter that you will lose none that the father has given you that's our assurance we believe that that you've raised us on earth right now to spiritual life the spiritual resurrection and it says you promise you will lose none that the father has given you but raise them up on the last day that's sure as sure that's certain and we believe in that we believe in you

Jesus that you're a savior that you're a savior you're our messiah you're our king that will be a terrifying and yet magnificent day

Lord but God let us face this life not being so fearful of death if we are in Christ if we are in you the moment we close our eyes for the last time we'll be with you and we'll be forever and then we'll have the final resurrection we'll be raised we'll hear the trumpet sound we'll hear the word of our

Lord and we'll live forever upon that glorified earth the new creation what a gift what a gift

Lord I don't even know what to say fully just such a wonderful gracious God we deserve wrath and judgment for sinning against you we deserve that condemnation but there is no longer any condemnation for those in Christ and so God I pray even now that you would help those who have been redeemed to not feel that condemnation anymore we like to put the condemnation back on ourselves say

I'm condemned no if we're in you and you are in us we're no longer condemned let us hold fast to that truth and yet Lord if there's those who are listening or those here who don't know you and who think they are condemned and they are let them turn to you now

Lord let them turn to you by faith for salvation that they can have a wonderful expectation of that final day as we do in Christ we love you