FBCWest 565 | The Dead Will Hear His Voice
Recorded On: 07/30/2023
Bulletin
Hymn #445 “Because He Lives”
SCRIPTURE READING – Galatians 2:20
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Great Are You Lord”
“Way Maker”
“How Great Is Your Love”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“The Dead Will Hear His Voice”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Living Hope”
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 5:24 If you hear Jesus’s words and believe God who sent Him, you have eternal life
John 5:25 The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and live
John 5:26 & 27 The Father who has life granted the Son to have life and further gave Him authority over judgment
John 5:28 & 29 There are two resurrections
John 5:30 Jesus does nothing on His own initiative, but since He seeks God’s will He judges justly
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Come and see what those two types of dead people are.
Turn to the Gospel of John and we're going to be starting with chapter 5, starting with verse 24.
The context of this is that Jesus is continuing to justify what they are accusing of him and wanting to kill him both because he worked on the Sabbath and because he claimed to be equal with God.
He showed them some of his powers and qualities that makes him equal to the Father. He's going to continue on to show them this instead of retreating from it and saying, "No, you misunderstand."
He confronts them and continues his defense of the fact that he is the Son of God and that he is equal to the Father. And so in chapter 5, verse 20, the Lord says this, "Truly I say to you, he who hears my words and believes him who sent me as eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life." And then he continues on, "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 it will live."
So he tells them that there was an hour coming and is now here where the dead will hear his voice.
When I read this passage, it reminds me strangely of a movie that was probably over 20 years
The child psychiatrist is himself dead.
He thought he was alive and yet he was dead.
People in today's world think they're alive but they're spiritually dead.
The Scriptures tell us that the wages of sin is death.
Now most of us not only are entitled to our wages because of the way we sin, but we probably should get a bonus because we really sin well.
But the Scriptures also say that you are dead and your trespasses and sin. It doesn't say you will become dead. It is a fact that there is spiritual death because of our sin. And Jesus is saying the spiritually dead are going to hear my voice and when they hear my voice they will live.
Jesus uses the term voice a lot of times. He will later talk about that he being the good shepherd and the sheep knows his voice.
One of the reasons why we get frustrated as believers is trying to say, "Well it's obvious that Jesus is the Son of God, just see it but they haven't heard his voice."
And not having heard his voice, no wonder they don't live because it says, "The voice of this gun of gun and those who hear it will live."
And so when you hear that voice, it quickens into faith and it causes us to be believers and to have eternal life. So this is the next verse, "For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself."
So Jesus continues on in saying, "I am equal to the Father because the Father has life in himself and I have life in myself."
And it is going to be abundantly clear to everyone who cares to pay attention that Jesus has life in himself because when they crucify him and he is placed in the tomb for three days, he raises from the dead. No one raised him from the dead, he raised himself from the dead because God gave him the power to do that.
So he has life. Now when he came and met and called out Lazarus from the tomb, it was because Jesus had life, not because Lazarus had life. And so Jesus is saying, "Yes, I am equal to the Son of God because I have life within me and I can give life to those." He says, "And he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man." So Jesus says, "Not only do I have life within myself, I also have the power to do that."
So he says, "I am equal to God because God is the only one who can do this and I as well
live." Why? Because Jesus says he is the Son of Man.
One of the two ways that is the most obvious that Jesus claims that he is God is when he says, "I am," because that's the name of God. When he says, "I am," he's saying, "I am God." And also when he says, "I am the Son of Man."
Now people mis-en-ed construe that because they think, "Oh, Jesus is saying, he identifies with us that he's human." And that's what he's saying wrong.
Jesus is quoting Daniel.
And Daniel sees a vision where the Son of Man comes and is presented before the Father, before the Ancient of Days, and he is given power and dominion and glory and a kingdom.
And he says, "That guy that Daniel had the vision, that's me. I have power. I have glory. I have dominion and I will have an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed."
So when Jesus says, "I am the Son of Man," he's not going, "I'm human," he's saying, "I'm God."
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.
So Jesus says, "We're spiritually dead, but those who will come to life and believe and have eternal life, they will hear me.
But the physical dead also will hear me, and all of them will come out of the tomb." So in essence, there is a resurrection for everyone.
But there's a difference in the resurrection.
And we'll come forth those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who have committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. Now, if you take this out of context, you could say, "Oh, this is where you must do good works, and if you don't do good works, then you did evil works, and therefore you're going to be judged. And if you do good works, that is completely false." The entire book, Gospel of John, including this chapter, says basically the work of God is to believe Jesus.
So if you do good works, it's because you believe that Jesus is sent by God, he is the Son of God, and that is your good work.
Then we are, after having those good works, we are to demonstrate fruit therefrom.
Most of the Christians believe, "Well, I have my fire insurance.
I believe in Jesus. I'm saved. I don't have to go to hell.
Wonderful."
And that part is true. But there is a bemacy judgment that all believers must come to, where we are rewarded for the good things that we have done because of our faith in Christ, and we will suffer loss because we did things improperly.
Paul tells us in Corinthians that in those instances, those who did gold, silver, precious stones will receive a reward, and those who did wood, hay, and stubble, those works will be burnt up, but they will be preserved. So there is a judgment for those who are believers, but it is a reward and a not so much reward. There's an ediboy in your mind.
Jesus is not saying you're saved by work.
The works that you are saved is the works of God, which is belief in Jesus.
But then he says, "But there's also a resurrection for those who have committed evil deeds."
And those evil deeds is rejecting the gift of God, His Son.
And to living a life that you choose to live, as we just sang, He fills our lungs with breath. We understand that this life is because He gave us our life.
And everything that we do and say and accomplish or don't accomplish is because of the gift He gave us.
And if we don't use that gift for His glory and His benefit, then in essence they're evil.
Which is interesting. We always think evil is doing really a brave, sick thing.
Evil is rejecting God in His way.
Rejecting God in His way will lead you to a path of worse and worse and worse activity.
With rejecting God is evil. But there will become a resurrection. So Jesus says, "There is power in me. I can give life to those who hear my voice, who are mine.
And those who were spiritually dead become spiritually alive. But those who are spiritually alive, even though they die, yet they will live.
But those who are spiritually dead, who remain dead, and even when they come forth from the tomb, they are still spiritually dead and God will judge."
And then Jesus finalizes this. I can do nothing on my own initiative.
Jesus says, "This is in this situation where I grant life and I judge because the Father has determined it. I haven't done this on my own.
This isn't my ideal alone.
As I hear, I judge."
Interesting.
As Jesus hears, we judge.
As we, if we hear Him, escape judgment.
Jesus hears as the Father speaks and we should hear as Jesus speaks. We should hear His voice.
But the sad thing is, so many people in churches today even will tell you what the voice of Jesus is.
And quite frankly, they may know about Jesus, but they don't know Him.
Because if they knew Him, they would not have said what He is and what.
We are to hear His voice.
We are to do His will. Jesus says, "I didn't come here. I had my own plan.
I hear what the Father says and I judge appropriately according to Him because I do not seek my own will."
Here is a separation of the typical Cardinal Christian and one who is spiritual.
The Cardinal Christian still wants to do His will.
I have this dream that I want to accomplish.
Wonderful.
If God gave it to you or is it your dream? If God gave you the dream that it's not your dream, it's His dream and you're going to do His will.
For most Christians, what we want is a nice shiny version of our life that does what we want it to do.
I want the mansion on a hill and fame and fortune and I want to be considered significant and all these things and these are my plans and these are my dreams and I'm just waiting for God to open the door.
Notice Jesus says, "I don't seek my own will, but the will of Him who sinned."
We ask Christians to be less concerned about our dreams, our plans, and our desires and align them with His plans, His work, and His wisdom.
The Word of God when it says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added unto you." We want to flip it.
Once I get all these stuff, then I'll worry about you. I said, "No, no, that's the wrong priority.
Seek me and I'll provide for you."
Jesus has said as an example, not because He said it as an example, but because of who He is.
He did the Father's will.
If we are children of God, then we should do the Father's will.
And again, Jesus comments and says, "The Father's will, the Father's work is for you to believe in Jesus through the Father's sin."
You don't get that right.
The rest just doesn't matter.
We have been given eternal life, not life without end, eternal life.
I shared this a few weeks ago.
They are talking about being able to extend our lives for like a thousand years.
The problem I see with that is, once, we already have a bunch of people who are afraid of everything anyway.
If you are supposed to live for a thousand years and you are 150 years old, if I step off the curb, I might fall and break my neck, and I won't get to live for a thousand years. So I won't do anything because I'm afraid of dying.
Because everyone is always afraid of dying, no matter how many years you are given.
But the problem is, they say they are going to extend life, but they don't extend happiness, and joy, and peace, and all the things that the Father through the Spirit gives to us. What it gives you is more pain, and anxiety, and insecurity, and all those things.
God doesn't offer us just extended life.
He offers us an eternal life with Him and His presence forever.
Now that's something I can get excited about. Because pain will no longer be.
Sickness will no longer be. Death will be defeated. All of those things, because Jesus has spoken.
I've heard Him.
It is my desire that you have heard the voice of Jesus, and that you have that living hope.
The hope, not that when I die, everything will be okay, but that as I live, everything is okay, because it doesn't matter the circumstance, because He loves me, and He has secured me as His child. Because I hear His voice.
If you haven't heard His voice, I pray that today, you might hear it. That you might consider it. That you might respond to it.
Christians aren't better because of what they do.
Christians are Christians because of who they hear and who they obey.
Many people hear the knocking on the door, but they never obey.
Hear, believe, respond, and you will have living hope. May all God's be for sex.