John 5:25-29 * November 15, 2009 *
Saints Triumphant * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
John chapter five. Here’s where we are in the life of our Lord…
Something remarkable had happened. So remarkable that, much to their consternation, even His most vocal critics could not deny it. Jesus had healed a man who had been an invalid for thirty eight years.
This wasn’t smoke and mirrors or sleight of hand magic. A man’s limbs had been immediately and instantaneously restored at nothing other than Jesus’ verbal command. Now the man was walking around and giving credit to Jesus for healing him. This didn’t sit well with the enemies of Christ.
In a sense, you have to admire their determination, misplaced as it was. In their laser like tunnel vision to discredit Jesus they were not about to be thrown off track by the facts. So rather than rejoicing that a man who had suffered so much for so long was now well, they looked for an ecclesiastical loophole to get at Jesus. And they found one.
This miracle of healing had happened on the Sabbath Day. You will recall that according to God’s Old Testament law the Sabbath (Saturday) was to be a day of rest. No work was to go on. And the healing arts constituted work…
So in an act every bit as remarkable as the miracle itself we are told in John 5:16 that the enemies of Christ “persecuted” Him. Imagine that; they put the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in a position where He actually had to defend His actions.
Jesus doesn’t get defensive, but He does respond. He first of all tells them about His oneness with His Heavenly Father. In fact it was in this context that Jesus made the remark that if they don’t honor the Son – that is, Him – they don’t honor the Father.
That kind of talk always got to them. They knew exactly what Jesus was saying: He was clearly equating Himself with God. Because, of course, He is.
But there is more that Jesus has to say. In essence He tells them if they thought the physical healing that had just taken place was remarkable, well, they hadn’t seen anything yet. Far more amazing things would happen. Not just limb altering, but life altering kinds of things.
Because Jesus, you see, is in the resurrection business. He actually raises people
from the dead – both spiritually and physically. And that’s what the text we have before us today is all about.
On this Saints Triumphant Sunday let’s put it personal terms. His words may have been lost on those who had made up their minds to hate Him, but today Jesus tells us about
THE TRIUMPH THAT IS OURS
Knowing this is a tremendous comfort and has an immense impact on our lives in the interim.
Let’s work our way through this text. We already know the background. We pick up part of the conversation we
alluded to earlier: 25 “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.
26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son
to have life in himself. 27And he has given him authority to judge
because he is the Son of
Jesus talks about a time in the future and already in the present when those who were dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and become alive. As mentioned a moment ago, that’s resurrection talk. But Jesus isn’t talking about a physical resurrection. He will in a minute, but at this point he’s talking about the spiritual resurrection that takes place in the heart and soul of those who turn to Him and embrace Him in faith.
In the verse immediately preceding our text Jesus put it this way: “I
tell you the truth, 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.”
Indeed, Jesus – who in John 14:6 describes Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life – came to our planet for the single purpose of bringing and imparting life to a planet full of people who without him may be physically alive but are spiritually dead.
Consequently Jesus is the ultimate before and after picture for each
individual. Before Him – or without Him
– while there may be any variety of “spiritualities” that people chase after there is no true spiritual life; after
Him, or in Him (to use Jesus’ own
words in our text), there is true
spiritual life.
And what is true spiritual life? It is understanding that, in the words of one of our hymns, “chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me.”
It is understanding the Gospel message and how “God so loved the world that He have his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” and how that applies to each of us personally.
It is understanding that life is not series of uncontrolled events governed by nothing other than random chance, but rather a carefully constructed cadre of years and days and hours and minutes all of which have meaning and purpose. Because everything we do and everything we are orbits around the life and the love of the Son of God.
Knowing Jesus is having life. Knowing Christ – as we do – is amazing. Because, as Jesus tells us here, it is nothing less than an act of spiritual resurrection that God in His grace has worked upon us.
But that’s just the first resurrection that Jesus talks about. And while the implications of this are
amazing, there’s another one Jesus also wants us to be aware of. The first resurrection was spiritual, but
this one will be physical: 28"Do not be amazed at
this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those
who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”
This resurrection, of course, will take place on what we commonly refer to as Judgment Day. Every time we join together in one of the creeds we profess our belief in “the resurrection of the body” and that Jesus will come again to judge “the living and the dead.” Jesus says the same thing here. On that final day everyone will rise and bodies will be reunited with souls and will go to the place they will reside for all of eternity.
Since it could possibly cause confusion, we should address Jesus’ words that those who “have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” If that were the only verse in the Bible that talks about eternal life one could theoretically draw the conclusion that life with God was dependent on each person’s personal performance and good life rather than faith in Christ. Is that what Jesus is talking about here?
Obviously not, because that would contradict everything Jesus said earlier, as well as the entire testimony of Scripture. So, clearly, Jesus isn’t teaching “salvation by performance.” He is simply condensing His statement down and, in a sense, using shorthand. Lives of faith give evidence of their genuineness through lives of action, and that is what this passage means.
While we certainly believe everything Jesus tells us about this second, physical resurrection, we also have to admit that it is hard for us to comprehend. That’s because it’s entirely outside our frame of reference. There is nothing within the realm of any experience we have on this earth that can compare or visually prepare us for the events of that great day.
On top of that – and if we are honest – there may very well be a part of us that finds the prospect of standing before a holy God on the Day of Judgment a pretty scary proposition. If that’s the case, we’d be in pretty good company.
We might remember the great prophet Isaiah talking writing about his
commissioning in chapter six of his book.
He was given a vision of God and what most impressed Isaiah about God’s
holiness was his own personal sinfulness in contrast to it. “‘Woe to me!’ I cried.’ ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live
among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord
Almighty!’”
Or maybe we remember when Peter was called by Jesus to be His disciple. Jesus gave him some fishing advice that
seemed ill-timed and just wrong, but Peter followed it anyway and caught so
many fish his nets began to break from the strain. At that moment Peter knew that Jesus was more
than just a man and that he was standing in the presence of holiness. Do you remember Peter’s initial, intuitive
response? “Go away from me, Lord; I am a
sinful man!”
Perhaps we feel the same. I know who I am, and you know who you are. While we certainly strive to live lives of faith, we are also very much aware of our sins and shortcomings. And just as a bright light above a mirror exposes and magnifies the flaws on our face, so the bright light of God’s holiness promises to expose the flaws of our souls. And that is not a happy position to be in. We are unworthy to stand in His presence or live in His house. And like Isaiah and Peter, we know it.
It is then we must remember our first resurrection and what it means in view of the second. Verses of the classic Christian hymn come to mind:
Jesus, your blood and righteousness my
beauty are, my glorious dress
Mid flaming worlds in these arrayed, with
joy shall I lift up my head.
Bold shall I stand in that great day – who
can a word against me say?
Fully through you absolved I am from sin and
fear, from guilt and shame.
When from the dust of death I rise to claim
my mansion in the skies,
E’en then this shall be all
my plea: Jesus has lived and died
for me.
Then we remember that we are not Saints defeated, but Saints triumphant. And that moves us to lives of faith in the interim.
So we go forward in strength and confidence and purpose and trust – making each day count, using our time, our talents and our treasures to the glory of God, responsibly and thoughtfully devoting ourselves to lives of Christian stewardship, doing what we can under God’s grace and guidance to expand the Kingdom so others may know what we know. These are the things that will mark our lives. This is our mission.
For how long? Until that day we join those saints triumphant who have gone before us and from their labors rest.
Because God in His grace has allowed us to experience the first resurrection, we look forward to – and have no fear of – the second. This is the triumph that is ours.
And while we, in the words of Jesus, “work while it is day,” this is also what allows us to join the aged Apostle John in his sentiment and prayer: “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Amen.