The Two Resurrections

Pastor Mike will be teaching on the two resurrections.  We will be looking at John 5:25-29.

Believers have been granted immortal existence. We have an incorruptible life and we will one day receive an incorruptible body. This body that you have right now is eventually going to die, but don’t be discouraged in that.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and I wanna welcome you to the radio program of Hope Worth Having. We’re delighted that you joined us today and we’re looking forward as we study the word of God together.

We’ve been diving into the gospel of John chapter five. And today we’re gonna begin in verse 25 through 29 and begin a study called the two resurrections. There are two resurrections that Jesus spoke about in this passage.

One is a spiritual resurrection and the other is a physical resurrection. And I know that people are very enamored about the physical resurrection, but most important, there must be the spiritual resurrection in our own life.

And so I want you to learn about how you can experience the spiritual resurrection and one day as a result, experience the physical resurrection. So let’s begin our study in John chapter five and let’s begin to learn together.

If you have your Bible, I want you to join me in the gospel of John chapter five, John chapter five. If you’ve been with us on a regular basis, you know that we are studying the gospel of John. And so we’ve just been going through it chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

And this morning I want to cover verse 25 through 29. We’ll try to cover as much as we can and whatever is left over, we’ll pick up next week a lot to cover just in these few short verses. But before we begin and…

reading Scripture, I want to tell you a story about a young high school senior in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. It was a cold winter day. Gabriel Estrada, who was a high school senior in Wisconsin, did the unthinkable.

When his 17 -year -old girlfriend secretly gave birth to a baby boy on January 15th, 2002. She dressed it and asked her boyfriend to deliver it to a church. Instead, Gabriel wrapped the baby in a canvas bag and left him in the portable toilet in a nearby park to die.

But against incredible odds, the baby was saved. According to the police, there was virtually no chance for the infant to die. would be able to survive. Temperatures were well below freezing. A lack of snow meant the nearby sledding hill would not be frequented by kids.

And the sanitation company’s schedule pickup at the Porta Potty was days away. Village of Twin Lakes Police Department credit a father and a son for saving the child’s life. About four o ‘clock in the afternoon, on January the 16th, a father and his young son stopped at the abandoned West Side Park in need of use of the restroom.

Hearing a whimpering sound coming from the Porta Potty, they knew something was wrong. They called 911 to report what they had discovered. When Officer Randy Prudik responded to the call, he pulled the canvas bag from the outdoor toilet and raced into the nearby Memorial Hospital where the baby received emergency treatment.

There is no way he would have survived, the officer said. That little guy had somebody watching over him. As a testament to the boy’s survival, the nurses at the hospital named the little boy William Grant, William for the will to live and Grant for not taking life for granted.

I want you to know that when we read this story, we’re amazed and startled. We certainly know as believers that the hand of God and the angels of heaven were watching over this little child. But I also want you to know that on a grander scale, that there was another father and another son that came in like a rescue team to intervene on our behalf for our sinful situation.

that we find ourselves in and brought eternal life, brought salvation to each and every one of us. And when we come to the Gospel of John, this is his message. His message to each and every one and all who read and hear this book, John, this wonderful book, which I call the Evangelistic Gospel.

It is that we would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that we would have our faith and trust in him for our salvation, and that each and every one of us would experience through the grace of God, eternal life.

Eternal life, that’s why the Bible so boldly declares that such that familiar verse, that we all know so well that God so loved the world. that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s eternal life.

That’s everlasting life. When we come to our text today, that message continues on. That message is repeated over and over by our Lord and Savior. As John records our Savior’s interactions, as He records His words, we see this wonderful message reiterated to us.

Pick up with me in verse 25 of the Gospel of John. And again, Jesus says, verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live.

For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come forth.

They that have done good unto resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. This morning, as Jesus continues to proclaim the message of eternal life and everlasting life, He brings to us a new facet of understanding that there are two unique resurrections that are important and that we must experience in our own life.

So I just want to simply bear down on those two thoughts that there are two resurrections. The first resurrection is a spiritual resurrection, and the second is a physical resurrection. How far will we get?

Only the Lord knows, but we’ll do our best to cover as much as we can. And so when we think about this spiritual resurrection, which is the first and the foremost resurrection that each and every heart must experience in order that they might have eternal life.

Back up to verse 21 of chapter five in the gospel. Again, the Bible says, for as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, meaning making them alive, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.

You see friends, as you read verse 25 through 26, You can have the misunderstanding that somehow Jesus is talking about a physical resurrection, but that’s not true. In these two verses, he is speaking of a spiritual resurrection.

Jesus has already taught us in this text that all authority has been given to him. Jesus has the authority to rule, he has the authority to reign, and he has the authority to judge. This has all been imparted unto him and delegated to him by the Father.

But what you need to know is that all life finds its origin in God. Think about it. It is the Father, it is the Father, God Himself, the Son, God Himself, the Spirit, God Himself, that originated life at the very outset.

As we have taught you before, that before time was, God was. Before time began, God existed. He is above, He is beyond. Time, He is not limited to time. And the Bible teaches us in Genesis that the Godhead, the triune God, was there originating life, bringing, creating life, breathing life into this world, breathing life into Adam and Eve.

And so God is the origin of life, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the origin of life. But get this, they are not only the origin of the physical life, but of the spiritual. And for you and I to have eternal life, everlasting life, we must have our spiritual life resurrected.

Why? Well, this is a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures, and I just want you to stay with me, and I’d like to continue to help you to see the continuity of this evangelistic gospel. So if you have your Bibles, jump back to Genesis.

chapter one and just run through some highlighted verses all the way up to chapter five or chapter four as we are reminded of this life. Verse four of chapter one. Notice what the Bible says. In him was life.

And the life was the light of man. Jesus is life. He imparts life. He begins life. He’s the author of not only physical life but spiritual life. Jump over to chapter three. You know the text so well.

But I have to continue to reiterate it to your heart. Verse chapter three, verse 15, verse 16. That whoever, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal what? Life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting,” what?

Life. We look, jump down to verse 36 of chapter 3. “…He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on Him.” Chapter 4, verse 14.

“…But whosoever drinketh of the water, that I shall give Him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give Him shall be in Him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Do you see it?

Do you see that John is not talking about our physical life, but our spiritual life? It has not changed when we come to verse 25. He is talking about our spiritual life. The life in view here is a life of being resurrected from our deadness, being spiritually dead, of our deadness in this world.

Ephesians 2 .1 reminds us that He and you, He made alive, meaning it’s God, it’s Christ that makes you alive. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Before we knew Christ, before our spiritual resurrection, we were dead in our sins.

You say, I was not dead, Mike. Oh, I know that you were physically alive, but spiritually, you were dead. If you’re here this morning and you have never trusted in Christ and you have never believed in Him, you are spiritually dead in your sins.

But every person who hears and responds to Jesus Christ will live eternally. Go back to verse 24. 5, verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is. And what he is saying, he’s speaking in the present tense.

He’s not talking about a futuristic event. He’s not talking about something that might take place somewhere down the road, but he’s talking about now. The hour has come and it now is. He’s talking about your spiritual life.

When the dead, who? The spiritually dead, shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that hear shall live. Here is the point of this text, that God sends out the clarion call to each of our hearts, those that hear His voice.

And that means that not that they just heard it physically, but they hear it spiritually. Those that hear the voice Christ. They hear the voice of the Son of God. They hear Him, and they respond to Him.

They believe in Him. They turn away from their sin, and they put their full trust in Christ for their salvation. Here’s the promise, they that hear shall live. You’re gonna live spiritually. This is something regularly taught in the past from death to life.

What kind of death? A spiritual death to a spiritual life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brothers abides in death. How do you know that you have been spiritually resurrected? God infuses in your heart a love for God’s people.

Even though our personalities are different, even though our preferences are different, even though we may have different roles and responsibilities in life, we have a love for one another that does not come from the natural human heart.

Listen, we’re not talking about the love of the world that is conditional. We’re not talking about the love of the world that’s based upon you do your part and I do my part. We’re not talking about the love of the world that says you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

We’re talking about an unconditional sacrificial agape love that comes down from heaven into our hearts that’s given to us and poured out into us by the Holy Spirit of God. How do you know that you are truly resurrected spiritually?

You love the brethren. You love God’s people. You may find them annoying sometimes and you might find them difficult sometimes and you might be frustrated with them sometimes but you love them in the Lord Jesus Christ and you have an unconditional love for them.

This is the evidence and this is the assurance that you’re free. faith is real and that you have gone from a spiritual death to resurrected to become a spiritual life God’s true people are those who hear God they hear God speaking to them and they respond to the Lord when I was a young boy I came to church in the bus and the bus dropped me off and they sat me on the front row not because I like to sit on the front row but I didn’t know any better I hadn’t gotten saved I hadn’t become spiritually mature to move to the back row yet people say why did you sit on the front row that’s where the deacons put me I didn’t have any choice I didn’t know I thought everybody was supposed to sit on the front row and there the preacher proclaimed that I was a sinner and I went to one of those old country out in the woods,

kind of a church, well, there wasn’t really no woods in Oklahoma, but out in the ranch land there, the flat land. And you know what? He faithfully told me I was a sinner. And he also faithfully told me that Jesus loves sinners.

And Jesus went to the cross for sinners. And you see, my friends, I’d never heard that message. But even as 11 -year -old boy, I heard the voice of God. Through the preacher, through the teaching of God’s word, I heard the voice of God and I realized I needed to respond.

And so it is this morning that when you hear the voice of God, your response to Him should be full surrender, should be full humility, confession of your sin, and a receiving of His grace and forgiveness into your life.

Ephesians 2 .5 says this, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved. You see, it was Jesus that made you alive. It was Jesus who resurrected you spiritually.

Again, the Bible says in 1 John 5 .11, and this is the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. You see, what I want you to know that it is only through the Son and the voice of the Son in hearing the voice of the Son that one is brought to newness in life in Jesus Christ.

This is important for us as a believer because we call this the evangelistic gospel. As a matter of fact, I encourage all soul winners, all of those who are concerned and burdened about our family and our friends who do not know Christ, that we encourage them to read the Word of God.

Why would you go back to your time? text. Would you go back to verse 25? Would you note again? He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead, the spiritually dead, shall hear the voice of the Son of God.

The voice of who? The Son of God. They that hear shall live. You see, they’ve got to hear the voice of the Son of God. And the voice of the Son of God has been penned. His words are right here, church.

You don’t have to have an experience emotionally to hear his words. It’s right in the Bible. You see, never, ever come to the point where you think the Bible is insufficient to do the work of evangelism.

Because when they hear the voice of God, when they hear the words of God, it is the words of the Son of God that brings life. It’s not the words of Mike Sanders. It’s not the words of the most persuasive evangelists.

It’s not the words of the most dynamic, emotional story that you’ve ever heard in your life that brings new life to the heart of people. It’s rather the true Word of God. It’s the Word of God. That’s why when you’re trying to reach your family, you share the Word of God with them.

That’s why you encourage them to read the Word of God. That’s why we have to be a church that, not of entertainment, not a church that somehow thinks we can persuade people to come to Christ, but we are a church that proclaims the name of Jesus, proclaims the Word of God, and we are convinced as the Word of God goes out that God will bring to life the spiritually dead.

Church, if you would just grasp that, if you would just understand that, you would not be caught up in all of the razzle dazzle. You would not be caught up in all of the emotionalism, because you would recognize that the only way people come to true life in Jesus Christ is if they hear the voice of the Son of God.

Now, why? Why is that true? Look at verse 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so has He given it to the Son to have life in Himself. I can’t give you life, not spiritual life. I can teach you maybe how to be a little bit more happier than you used to be.

I can help you manage some problems in your life. I can be an encouragement and a blessing to you. I can pray for you, but I cannot impart life to you. Only Jesus imparts life. Only Jesus gives eternal life.

And you see, that authority is from the Father, which was given to the Son, and the Son has life in Himself. And it is the Son who gives life to everyone who hears His voice. who believes in him and trusts in him as his Lord and Savior and so my friends it’s not based upon a person it’s not based upon because you got a new technique it’s not based upon somehow your personalities better than somebody else it’s simply based upon this one truth Jesus has life within himself that was given to him from the father and Jesus says that his word has gone out and whoever hears it will have life and so this morning spiritual resurrection is essential for us to have eternal life and it is important for us to make sure that we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ it is important that we proclaim the Word of God but the second thing that Jesus teaches us is physical resurrection Not just spiritual resurrection.

Jesus goes on to teach us about a physical resurrection. Pick up in verse 28. Marvel not at this. For the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth.

Now what is interesting is this, that it is so interesting to me again that Jesus uses that phrase, hear his voice. There are many people who hear the voice of God now, but they don’t receive Christ.

They don’t respond to Christ. But there’s coming a day, no matter who you are, whether a believer or an unbeliever, you will hear his voice and you will respond to God. But the problem is that if you are an unbeliever and you respond to God, you will stand before God and give an account of your life and therefore, my friend, those who did not have a spiritual resurrection and hear the voice of God by receiving Christ into their life,

they will then be cast into the eternal lake of fire. What you need to know is this, there are two resurrections that need to take place in your life, not just one. Some Christians are under the belief that there’s only one resurrection, but the Bible teaches us differently.

The Bible says in Acts 24 verse 15, there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Jesus tells us already in our text that everybody who’s in the grave will hear his voice and look again at verse 29, and shall come forth and they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.

So every person is going to be resurrected. Now death results in the separation of our soul and spirit from the body. The Bible teaches us that if you are a believer that your soul and spirit immediately is in the presence of God.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. How glorious, how wonderful, how magnificent it is to be in the presence of God. The Bible says in thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

I’ve told you church no one goes to heaven is and is disappointed. No one goes to heaven and say man this is not what I expected in relation to it being below expectation. But rather they go and there’s so much joy, there’s so much pleasure, there is so much fullness, there is so much meaning, there is so much blessing in heaven for our loved ones who have already gone.

And when God calls you home, when God calls you to be with Him, you will be so exhilarated, you will be so full of energy and excitement in your heart as you are in the presence of God. But here’s what I want you to get straight, is that your body stays in the ground.

Your body stays in the ground. You say, pastor, the Bible says I get a new body, I know you do, but it’s not going to be right at the moment that you are in the presence of God when you have died. No, it’s different.

The Bible teaches us something totally different, that one day there’s going to be a resurrection Revelation 26, blessed and holy is He that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Believers have been granted immortal existence. We have an incorruptible life and we will one day receive an incorruptible body. This body that you have right now is eventually going to die, but don’t be discouraged in that.

How do you know that you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? It is because you have heard the word of God and you believed it. You put your faith in Him. Him for your salvation. You see, unbelievers reject the word.

They reject the truth. They refuse to believe. But you have believed, and as a result, God has awakened your heart, and He has resurrected your life. Those who were spiritually dead, they have been made alive in Jesus Christ.

And that’s you. You have believed, and therefore you know that eternal life is yours. And that’s what we’ve been trying to get across to you today. I want you to stay with us. Come back next week as we continue to study about the two resurrections.

I told you at the beginning there is the spiritual resurrection and there is the physical resurrection. What did Jesus mean when He said that we would be physically resurrected? How does that work and fit into our faith?

Jesus said marvel not, or don’t be amazed at this. The hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth. What does that mean? We’re going to break that down next week so I want you to join us at the same station at the same time in learning and growing about the two resurrections.

And this is important in your life as you learn that you can’t have a physical resurrection without the spiritual resurrection. But I pray that God will work mightily in your life as you do that. Well this is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

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