9.24.17 ~ John 5:24-29, “Two Resurrections.”

Read John 5:24-29... Everyone who hears the gospel of Christ and believes Him receives forgiveness for sins and eternal life; those who reject Him will receive judgment. The truth is, everyone will live forever, either with the Lord in heaven, or apart from the Lord, in hell.

Before we confess our sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, we are considered by God to be spiritually dead in our sins. When we repent and believe in Jesus we are granted new life in Christ (see Ephesians 5:1-5).

Even though we are made spiritually alive in Christ, these earthly bodies will one day wear out and die; and so, we will receive new resurrection bodies. Jesus Christ will one day (Philippians 3:20-21), “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”

Unbelievers will also one day receive resurrection bodies; but instead of bodies that are fitted for eternity in heaven, they will receive bodies that are fitted for eternity in hell (see Revelation 20:11-15).

The truth of resurrection is taught throughout the Bible; in Genesis 22:5, Abraham and Isaac are going up on the mountain, where Abraham will sacrifice his son Isaac; but as they depart those who had come with them Abraham says, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.’”
Job 14:14, “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.”
Job 19:25-27, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes, I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Daniel 12:2, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
Jesus said (Matthew 22:31-32), “about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? [Exodus 3:6] He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” John 11:25, “Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”

When Paul was standing before Felix in Acts 24:15, he said his hope was in God, “that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

Back to John 5:25-26... Jesus says, “a time is coming and has now come.” All of us who now belong to Christ, were dead in our sins before we received His forgiveness; that is the time that “has now come,” for our spirit has been granted eternal life in Christ.

Ephesians 2:6-7... This is the time that “is coming,” when our physical bodies will be raised [resurrected] as eternal bodies (see 1Corinthians 15:35-54).

Those without Christ are considered to be spiritually dead, although they are physically alive, as were all of us prior to salvation (Colossians 2:13-14), “When you were dead in your sins... God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code... He took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

The apostle John (1John 3:14) says that Christians, “have passed from death to life.” God’s Son, Jesus Christ can give life (John 5:21), just as the Father gives life, because (John 5:26), “He has life in Himself,” meaning, He wasn’t created, He is the Creator; and therefore, He can grant life to whomever He chooses.
Read John 5:27-29... As the Son has authority to give life, He also has authority to execute judgment upon mankind. As the Son of Man [Jesus favorite designation for Himself], He is the only one sovereignly qualified to judge mankind (see Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:14-16).

God’s Son, fully God and yet fully man, is able to judge all of mankind, for He wore a body of flesh and was tempted as we are tempted, yet He did not sin; He suffered, yet not for His own crimes but for ours.

Notice again (John 5:28-29), “a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

Unlike the spiritual resurrection we receive at salvation, this is the future bodily resurrection of the righteous dead whose souls are in heaven with Christ (cf. 2Corinthians 5:6-8), and the wicked dead whose souls are in torment in Hades (cf Luke 16:22-23).

The bodies of everyone who has ever lived will be raised; like when Jesus commanded, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead are raised in a sequence:
1. When Christ returns in the air (1Thessalonians 4:16), the bodies of all true believers from Pentecost to the Rapture are raised.
2. Old Testament believers, and all those saved during the Tribulation will be raised at the end of the Tribulation (Revelation 20:4; Daniel 12:2).

3. Believers who die during the Millennium Kingdom will either be immediately given their resurrection bodies, or at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, the Bible isn’t clear.

Back to John 5:29b, it says that those who have done good [deeds] are resurrected to eternal life, and those who have done evil [deeds] are raised in condemnation [resurrection of judgment].

No one goes to heaven or hell by their own works or merits, for salvation is clearly the work of God (cf. Romans 3:10-12, 20-24, 28; 5:1-2, 8; 6:23; 8:1; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10); therefore “good” works are simply the evidence of salvation, “Faith without works is dead,” (James 2:17); whereas, those who reject salvation through Christ are referenced in John 5:29b as those who have committed “evil” deeds.

Whatever pleases God is good, whatever doesn’t is evil. Believing in His Son is good, rejecting Him is evil.
1Timothy 2:3-4, “God our Savior ...wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

2Peter 3:9, “The Lord is ...not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

The premier chapter on resurrection (1Corinthians 15) ends with, “Therefore, my dear brothers [sisters, children of age], stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

The future hope we have is eternal life with God in heaven, new bodies that will never experience pain, decay or death (Romans 12:1), “Therefore, I urge you, brothers [sisters, children of age], in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act [or service] of worship.

Pastor Mike <‘(((><