John 5:25-30
Which Resurrection Do You Want?
Introduction
Job asked the question, “If a man dies will he live again?” In our passage today, we learn that every single human being who has ever been born and died is going to be resurrected. And what’s more, everyone – including you and me - will be resurrected to receive 1 of 2 things from Jesus: eternal life, or, condemnation. In other words, there are only two kinds of resurrections, one is to eternal life, and one to eternal damnation. Here’s the all important point: We have the option as to what resurrection we want. Therefore, the question laid before each of us is: “Which resurrection do you want?”
Context
Chapter 5 has brought us to Jesus testimony about Himself and last week we heard Him declare His equality with God in 5 ways: Nature, Works, Life-Giver, Judgment, and Honor. He is equal with God because He is the Son of God. Now, because Jesus is the Son of God, He, as God, has the exclusive power and right to give eternal life to men and to exercise ultimate judgment on men.
There are 7realities about our resurrection for us to see in this passage.
Resurrection Reality #1: Unbelievers are in death and under God’s condemnation right now.
Notice the end of verse 24 and verse 25, “he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” The assumption here is that the starting point for mankind is death. All of mankind is in spiritual death. That’s where we start out. Dead is the condition of every unbeliever who has not been born again into eternal life.
Now this is because we are born in sin and in bondage to sin. A man is not born free. He is born a slave – that is a slave to sin (Jn 8:34; Rom. 6:6, 18; Gal. 4:7). Don’t kid yourself, you’re not ‘your own man’. Sin owns you. Death owns you. Satan owns you (2 Cor. 4:4). You never own yourself. The Bible says you’re poor, blind, naked, pitiful, weak, a slave to sin, dead in your sin, without hope, condemned, and destined for destruction. And that’s not even the half of it. As an unbeliever, the Bible does not kid around with you about your condition, and therefore I would warn you not to kid around with the Bible. If you are an unbeliever, and have never trusted Christ, then you are in your sin and therefore are in death, and under condemnation right now.
All people who do not believe Jesus, who have not accepted Him as their Savior, are currently condemned (John 3:36).
Verse 25 needs to be understood with verse 24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” You cross over FROM death because death is what you are in if you have not believed in Christ. You exit out of death and enter into life only by believing in Christ. Let’s read verse 24 in it’s negative, “Whoever ignores my word and does not believe the One who sent me does not have eternal life and he will be condemned; he is in death and will never cross over into life.”
Resurrection Reality #2: Spiritual resurrection is available right now.
The only hope an unbeliever has is a transfer of ownership. You need a new owner. And God can now become your new owner and when He does you are made alive Ephesians 2:5 says – you are spiritually resurrected. The Bible says that Jesus bought us with His blood. He owns those who are His. And you become His by believing in Him, and trusting that He is the One who died on the cross to give you life. Verse 24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life …. he has crossed over FROM death TO life.”
This is called “born again”, “regeneration”, or “new life”, or “salvation”. This is not physical resurrection, but, spiritual resurrection from spiritual death. You can come to spiritual life now. It is being offered to you now – today. Verse 25 says, “A time is coming and HAS NOW COME”. The timeframe Jesus is talking about is not only in the future, but, in the present. Verse 24 and 25 is speaking about the spiritual resurrection whereas in verses 28 and 29 He is speaking about a physical resurrection to happen later.
Spiritual life: He was offering it then, and it is still offered today. But, there is a time coming when it won’t be offered anymore. Are you going to gamble and wait?
Resurrection Reality #3: You must hear to have eternal life.
Verse 25 says, “A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.” But, hearing is not just hearing. Hearing, according to the Bible, is believing, trusting, receiving that which you hear. It is acting on what you hear by accepting it as God-given truth.
Two psychiatrists meet at their 20th college reunion. One is vibrant, while the other looks withered and worried. "So what's your secret?" the older looking psychiatrist asks. "Listening to other people's problems every day, all day long, for years on end, has made an old man of me." "So," replies the younger looking one, "who listens?"
Listening to the voice of the Son of God. Don’t ignore it. You may skip church, you may refuse His invitation now, but at that day you will not. You will not be able to. The power of the Creator’s voice will force you from your grave at His command. When His voice spoke to that invalid, that invalid came forth walking. When His voice said “Let there be light”, the light did not have an option, it came forth. When His voice spoke to Ezekiel and told him to stand up, Ezekiel did not have an option – he stood up. When His voice spoke and called Lazarus from the grave, Lazarus did not have an option. He came out of his grave, out from the dead, in response to the voice of the Son of God.
And someday, all who have died will hear that same voice and at that time will not have a choice. All will come forth to Him. You will come forth from your grave to stand before Him. He is the One whom God raised up from the dead first. He is the One who is seated at the highest place, the right hand of God. He is the One who’s name is above every other name. He is the One whom the Father has given all authority. Will you leave your grave to live forever, or, will you leave your grave to be condemned forever?
Hear the voice of the Son of God now and believe for a resurrection to life.
Resurrection Reality #4: Only God can give eternal life.
I got eternal life but I cannot give eternal life. The reason is because I received it from the Source. Verse 26 says that God has life “in Himself”, and that means He did not receive it from anyone or anything. His life is original life, or Source-life. He needs no supply of life because He IS the supply. He is the only One who can give it, everyone else must get it from Him. Jesus said a couple verses later to these unbelievers, “You refuse to come to ME to have life.” The only thing we can do with eternal life is receive it from Jesus Christ – we can’t give it. As the Son of God, He can give life to whomever He pleases because He has life in Himself.
Resurrection Reality #5: Rejecting Jesus means being condemned by Jesus.
Verse 27 says, “And he [the Father] has given him [Jesus] authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”
Jesus is going to be 1 of 2 things to each of us: either He is going to be our Salvation or He is going to be our Judge. When a person rejects Jesus as His Savior, he accepts Him as his Judge.
And the judgment is not to investigate IF a person is good or bad enough. The Bible makes it clear that already unbelievers have been assessed and evaluated and are guilty. When a man faces Jesus as his Judge, it is to pronounce the condemnation that has already been determined. The terrible turn of the tables is that the Holy One that unbelievers reject now is the One they will face at their resurrection as their Judge.
Jesus is the Judge. He offers us His eternal life, but, by rejecting His life for us we guarantee our judgment and condemnation.
Resurrection Reality #6: There is a future physical resurrection for everyone (Read verses 28-29).
It is not here yet. It will happen. You will be raised up. Jesus’ voice will command the dead to physically come out of their graves. Jesus tells us here that there are two kinds of resurrection (A person will not receive both, only one):
--(First), the resurrection to life. Although Jesus does not distinguish for us in this passage the timing of these resurrections, there are other places in the Scriptures that do. The physical resurrection to life for believers is at the time of what is called the Rapture. (Two passages to turn to)….
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 with me. He’s talking about resurrection here “Be made alive”, and, he’s talking about a sequence, an order, different times for different resurrections “each in his own turn”. First was Jesus resurrection, which is the basis and hope of our resurrection.
Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. He’s talking about Christians who have died – he says they’ve fallen asleep. These Christians are going to be raised up at the time when Jesus leaves the right hand of the Father in heaven and comes down from heaven for His Church – who at the loud command, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God will rise to meet the Lord in the clouds in the air.
This is for people who have been spiritually resurrected; people who have placed their trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and been made alive in Him. For them, “There is now no condemnation” because they are in Christ.
--But, that is not true for the second resurrection, which is the resurrection to condemnation. This is the last physical resurrection described in the Bible and it happens after the 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth. It is described for us in Revelation 20:11-15. This is the judgment of unbelievers. When verse 13 says that the sea and Hades and death gave up the dead in them it means these are dead people who were not raised either at the Rapture or the 2nd return of Christ. That means they weren’t saved.
Revelation 20:5 says “the rest of the dead did not come to life until after the 1000 years were ended”. Listen, you don’t want to miss that 1000 years. If you’re resurrection happens after the 1000 years you are lost. It is a resurrection to condemnation. The only purpose for your resurrection is stated in verse 15, to be thrown in to the lake of fire which is the second death. The resurrection to condemnation is a resurrection only to die a second death which is an eternal damning death.
In order to have a physical resurrection to life you must have a spiritual resurrection today. The Bible uses other terms for it: Born again (Jn. 3:3), Salvation (Acts 4:12), Eternal Life (Jn 3:16). You must have spiritual life now, in order to be raised unto life then. (Illustration of buying tickets ahead of time). There are no tickets being sold at the door. You must reserve a resurrection to life now – you cannot get it when that day arrives.
The question you must ask is “How then do I gain spiritual life now, so that I can know I won’t face condemnation on that day of resurrection? Jesus tells you in verse 24, “Whoever [That’s you] hears my word [His message] and believes him who sent me [God the Father] HAS eternal life and WILL NOT be condemned.” The Greek is present tense and that means that right now, here, today in this very building you can gain eternal life by believing in Christ. If you do you secure your physical resurrection to life and you escape a resurrection of damnation.
Resurrection Reality #7: When Jesus judges, He is just and pleases God the Father. Verse 30 says, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
That means everyone who comes out of their graves to face condemnation from Jesus will be receiving perfect justice, which pleases God the Father. He is not biased and does not show favoritism. And Jesus will execute judgment with perfect righteousness, with perfect justice, and in perfect harmony with the will of the Father.
In that day there will be no one who can talk their way out of anything. There is no negotiating. There is no “getting away” with anything. All the deeds (v. 29), every motive of every deed (1 Cor 4:5), all the words ever spoken (Mth. 12:36), everything will be exposed and laid bare before the one whom we must give an account. Perfect justice and perfect judgment will occur on that day. Terrifying for an unbeliever, absolutely terrifying. That is why it is called a great and terrible day. By rejecting Jesus now, and not gaining spiritual life now, a person locks himself into a resurrection to condemnation where he faces Jesus Christ his Judge. And His judgment will be just.
Conclusion
Which resurrection do you want? In order to secure a physical resurrection to life in the future, you have to be spiritually resurrected now. You must cross over from death to life now.
If you die without receiving eternal life you will be raised physically in that day to face condemnation. But, if you believe in Jesus, according to verse 24 you will not come into judgment. The Bible teaches this over and over again that the only way to never be condemned and to escape the wrath of God is by trusting in God’s Son, Jesus Christ as your Savior. “Therefore,” Paul said in Romans 8, “there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Choose a resurrection to life by believing in Christ and receiving Him as your Savior now. Immediately you will cross over from death to and into eternal life, you will no longer have God’s judgment over you, and you will guarantee your future physical resurrection to life.
Which Resurrection Do You Want?
Introduction
Job asked the question, “If a man dies will he live again?” In our passage today, we learn that every single human being who has ever been born and died is going to be resurrected. And what’s more, everyone – including you and me - will be resurrected to receive 1 of 2 things from Jesus: eternal life, or, condemnation. In other words, there are only two kinds of resurrections, one is to eternal life, and one to eternal damnation. Here’s the all important point: We have the option as to what resurrection we want. Therefore, the question laid before each of us is: “Which resurrection do you want?”
Context
Chapter 5 has brought us to Jesus testimony about Himself and last week we heard Him declare His equality with God in 5 ways: Nature, Works, Life-Giver, Judgment, and Honor. He is equal with God because He is the Son of God. Now, because Jesus is the Son of God, He, as God, has the exclusive power and right to give eternal life to men and to exercise ultimate judgment on men.
There are 7realities about our resurrection for us to see in this passage.
Resurrection Reality #1: Unbelievers are in death and under God’s condemnation right now.
Notice the end of verse 24 and verse 25, “he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” The assumption here is that the starting point for mankind is death. All of mankind is in spiritual death. That’s where we start out. Dead is the condition of every unbeliever who has not been born again into eternal life.
Now this is because we are born in sin and in bondage to sin. A man is not born free. He is born a slave – that is a slave to sin (Jn 8:34; Rom. 6:6, 18; Gal. 4:7). Don’t kid yourself, you’re not ‘your own man’. Sin owns you. Death owns you. Satan owns you (2 Cor. 4:4). You never own yourself. The Bible says you’re poor, blind, naked, pitiful, weak, a slave to sin, dead in your sin, without hope, condemned, and destined for destruction. And that’s not even the half of it. As an unbeliever, the Bible does not kid around with you about your condition, and therefore I would warn you not to kid around with the Bible. If you are an unbeliever, and have never trusted Christ, then you are in your sin and therefore are in death, and under condemnation right now.
All people who do not believe Jesus, who have not accepted Him as their Savior, are currently condemned (John 3:36).
Verse 25 needs to be understood with verse 24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” You cross over FROM death because death is what you are in if you have not believed in Christ. You exit out of death and enter into life only by believing in Christ. Let’s read verse 24 in it’s negative, “Whoever ignores my word and does not believe the One who sent me does not have eternal life and he will be condemned; he is in death and will never cross over into life.”
Resurrection Reality #2: Spiritual resurrection is available right now.
The only hope an unbeliever has is a transfer of ownership. You need a new owner. And God can now become your new owner and when He does you are made alive Ephesians 2:5 says – you are spiritually resurrected. The Bible says that Jesus bought us with His blood. He owns those who are His. And you become His by believing in Him, and trusting that He is the One who died on the cross to give you life. Verse 24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life …. he has crossed over FROM death TO life.”
This is called “born again”, “regeneration”, or “new life”, or “salvation”. This is not physical resurrection, but, spiritual resurrection from spiritual death. You can come to spiritual life now. It is being offered to you now – today. Verse 25 says, “A time is coming and HAS NOW COME”. The timeframe Jesus is talking about is not only in the future, but, in the present. Verse 24 and 25 is speaking about the spiritual resurrection whereas in verses 28 and 29 He is speaking about a physical resurrection to happen later.
Spiritual life: He was offering it then, and it is still offered today. But, there is a time coming when it won’t be offered anymore. Are you going to gamble and wait?
Resurrection Reality #3: You must hear to have eternal life.
Verse 25 says, “A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.” But, hearing is not just hearing. Hearing, according to the Bible, is believing, trusting, receiving that which you hear. It is acting on what you hear by accepting it as God-given truth.
Two psychiatrists meet at their 20th college reunion. One is vibrant, while the other looks withered and worried. "So what's your secret?" the older looking psychiatrist asks. "Listening to other people's problems every day, all day long, for years on end, has made an old man of me." "So," replies the younger looking one, "who listens?"
Listening to the voice of the Son of God. Don’t ignore it. You may skip church, you may refuse His invitation now, but at that day you will not. You will not be able to. The power of the Creator’s voice will force you from your grave at His command. When His voice spoke to that invalid, that invalid came forth walking. When His voice said “Let there be light”, the light did not have an option, it came forth. When His voice spoke to Ezekiel and told him to stand up, Ezekiel did not have an option – he stood up. When His voice spoke and called Lazarus from the grave, Lazarus did not have an option. He came out of his grave, out from the dead, in response to the voice of the Son of God.
And someday, all who have died will hear that same voice and at that time will not have a choice. All will come forth to Him. You will come forth from your grave to stand before Him. He is the One whom God raised up from the dead first. He is the One who is seated at the highest place, the right hand of God. He is the One who’s name is above every other name. He is the One whom the Father has given all authority. Will you leave your grave to live forever, or, will you leave your grave to be condemned forever?
Hear the voice of the Son of God now and believe for a resurrection to life.
Resurrection Reality #4: Only God can give eternal life.
I got eternal life but I cannot give eternal life. The reason is because I received it from the Source. Verse 26 says that God has life “in Himself”, and that means He did not receive it from anyone or anything. His life is original life, or Source-life. He needs no supply of life because He IS the supply. He is the only One who can give it, everyone else must get it from Him. Jesus said a couple verses later to these unbelievers, “You refuse to come to ME to have life.” The only thing we can do with eternal life is receive it from Jesus Christ – we can’t give it. As the Son of God, He can give life to whomever He pleases because He has life in Himself.
Resurrection Reality #5: Rejecting Jesus means being condemned by Jesus.
Verse 27 says, “And he [the Father] has given him [Jesus] authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”
Jesus is going to be 1 of 2 things to each of us: either He is going to be our Salvation or He is going to be our Judge. When a person rejects Jesus as His Savior, he accepts Him as his Judge.
And the judgment is not to investigate IF a person is good or bad enough. The Bible makes it clear that already unbelievers have been assessed and evaluated and are guilty. When a man faces Jesus as his Judge, it is to pronounce the condemnation that has already been determined. The terrible turn of the tables is that the Holy One that unbelievers reject now is the One they will face at their resurrection as their Judge.
Jesus is the Judge. He offers us His eternal life, but, by rejecting His life for us we guarantee our judgment and condemnation.
Resurrection Reality #6: There is a future physical resurrection for everyone (Read verses 28-29).
It is not here yet. It will happen. You will be raised up. Jesus’ voice will command the dead to physically come out of their graves. Jesus tells us here that there are two kinds of resurrection (A person will not receive both, only one):
--(First), the resurrection to life. Although Jesus does not distinguish for us in this passage the timing of these resurrections, there are other places in the Scriptures that do. The physical resurrection to life for believers is at the time of what is called the Rapture. (Two passages to turn to)….
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 with me. He’s talking about resurrection here “Be made alive”, and, he’s talking about a sequence, an order, different times for different resurrections “each in his own turn”. First was Jesus resurrection, which is the basis and hope of our resurrection.
Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. He’s talking about Christians who have died – he says they’ve fallen asleep. These Christians are going to be raised up at the time when Jesus leaves the right hand of the Father in heaven and comes down from heaven for His Church – who at the loud command, the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God will rise to meet the Lord in the clouds in the air.
This is for people who have been spiritually resurrected; people who have placed their trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and been made alive in Him. For them, “There is now no condemnation” because they are in Christ.
--But, that is not true for the second resurrection, which is the resurrection to condemnation. This is the last physical resurrection described in the Bible and it happens after the 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth. It is described for us in Revelation 20:11-15. This is the judgment of unbelievers. When verse 13 says that the sea and Hades and death gave up the dead in them it means these are dead people who were not raised either at the Rapture or the 2nd return of Christ. That means they weren’t saved.
Revelation 20:5 says “the rest of the dead did not come to life until after the 1000 years were ended”. Listen, you don’t want to miss that 1000 years. If you’re resurrection happens after the 1000 years you are lost. It is a resurrection to condemnation. The only purpose for your resurrection is stated in verse 15, to be thrown in to the lake of fire which is the second death. The resurrection to condemnation is a resurrection only to die a second death which is an eternal damning death.
In order to have a physical resurrection to life you must have a spiritual resurrection today. The Bible uses other terms for it: Born again (Jn. 3:3), Salvation (Acts 4:12), Eternal Life (Jn 3:16). You must have spiritual life now, in order to be raised unto life then. (Illustration of buying tickets ahead of time). There are no tickets being sold at the door. You must reserve a resurrection to life now – you cannot get it when that day arrives.
The question you must ask is “How then do I gain spiritual life now, so that I can know I won’t face condemnation on that day of resurrection? Jesus tells you in verse 24, “Whoever [That’s you] hears my word [His message] and believes him who sent me [God the Father] HAS eternal life and WILL NOT be condemned.” The Greek is present tense and that means that right now, here, today in this very building you can gain eternal life by believing in Christ. If you do you secure your physical resurrection to life and you escape a resurrection of damnation.
Resurrection Reality #7: When Jesus judges, He is just and pleases God the Father. Verse 30 says, “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
That means everyone who comes out of their graves to face condemnation from Jesus will be receiving perfect justice, which pleases God the Father. He is not biased and does not show favoritism. And Jesus will execute judgment with perfect righteousness, with perfect justice, and in perfect harmony with the will of the Father.
In that day there will be no one who can talk their way out of anything. There is no negotiating. There is no “getting away” with anything. All the deeds (v. 29), every motive of every deed (1 Cor 4:5), all the words ever spoken (Mth. 12:36), everything will be exposed and laid bare before the one whom we must give an account. Perfect justice and perfect judgment will occur on that day. Terrifying for an unbeliever, absolutely terrifying. That is why it is called a great and terrible day. By rejecting Jesus now, and not gaining spiritual life now, a person locks himself into a resurrection to condemnation where he faces Jesus Christ his Judge. And His judgment will be just.
Conclusion
Which resurrection do you want? In order to secure a physical resurrection to life in the future, you have to be spiritually resurrected now. You must cross over from death to life now.
If you die without receiving eternal life you will be raised physically in that day to face condemnation. But, if you believe in Jesus, according to verse 24 you will not come into judgment. The Bible teaches this over and over again that the only way to never be condemned and to escape the wrath of God is by trusting in God’s Son, Jesus Christ as your Savior. “Therefore,” Paul said in Romans 8, “there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Choose a resurrection to life by believing in Christ and receiving Him as your Savior now. Immediately you will cross over from death to and into eternal life, you will no longer have God’s judgment over you, and you will guarantee your future physical resurrection to life.
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