Honor the Son
For the Lord’s Day:  the 26^th of December 2004

John 5: 25-29

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.  And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.  Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

Introduction:  Some commentators suppose that the twenty-fifth verse here is in reference to the resurrection of Lazarus and similar instances reported in the gospels.  However, the following verses give that premise no support.  The dead in question must be described in term of the phrase “all who are in the tombs” in verse twenty-eight.  Thus, our first point is simply this: it is all of mankind that is spiritually dead.  And yet, in spite of this terrible reality, Calvin encourages us of the incredible ramifications in these words from Jesus Christ:  “when we are told that this is the effect of the faith of which Christ speaks; and therefore he confirms by an oath that the voice of his Gospel has such power of giving life that of the faith of which Christ speaks; and therefore he confirms by an oath that the voice of his Gospel has such power of giving life that it is powerful to ‘raise the dead.’”

This fact is reminiscent of the vision of Ezekiel (Chapter 37) when the Lord showed the prophet a valley of dry bones.  Marco Polo, on his long journey to Cathay, relates a dreadful report of a literal valley of wasted bones: camels, horses and men.  He and his fellow travelers passed by the unburied remnants of a huge battle between invaders and defenders high up in the waste lands of western Asia.  Well did he describe the hopeless estate of the incredible scene.  He wrote that it was if there had not been even one survivor, so terrible was the destruction. 

In Ezekiel’s vision, the prophet was asked by the Lord God:  “Can these bones live?”  The prophet wisely answered: “O Lord God, you know.”  Then Ezekiel was instructed to “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”  battle between invaders and defenders.  Well did he desc Suddenly as the prophet prophesied, “there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone” and then muscles and flesh, but no spirit in the bodies.  Again Ezekiel was given to prophecy and a vast army of Israel rose from the dead and stood upon their feet.  Ezekiel realized that those now standing had no hope and were cut off from their land and God.  A third time, Ezekiel was given to prophesy in the very words of the Lord God of heaven and earth:  “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.  Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

Paul too catches the same sense of spiritual deadness in his letter to Ephesians (2: 1-3)  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

In a doctrinal sense, we call this natural condition of mankind: total depravity.  Calvin well describes the reality:  “We have been, since the revolt of the first man, alienated from God through sin, all who do not acknowledge that they are overwhelmed with everlasting destruction do nothing else than deceive themselves by empty flatteries.”  The Apostle Paul also speaks further to explain this necessary doctrine. Again in his letter to the Ephesians (4: 17-18)  “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

Development:  But, as John records the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the day now is come – when this natural condition may be put off by the very power of God’s spoken word.  Indeed, as Jesus relates the facts, it is the same power that is His to use as well.  And this then is our second point for this morning:  that the Son of God has the same power of the Father God to raise the elect of all the earth from spiritual death and destruction though the agency of the Holy Spirit.

In our second verse for the morning, Jesus announces the wonderful news that, like the Father – He has only to speak and the dead shall live by the very power invested in Himself.  And this power of the Son is just as effectual as the power in the Father.  The ancient Greeks had a profound regard for the conceptual power of the very word of a prime mover.  They used the word for “word: The Logos” as illustrative of the fact that the original “Prime Mover” had spoken and everything was created from nothing by the power and authority of the One who commanded and it was so.  This is why John begins his Gospel of Glory with the phrase:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Do you see the movement in that text?  John begins with a true description of the person and power of Jesus Christ, and then he announces that not only was that person with God, but was God in the flesh.  A God who “tented” among us for a short thirty-three years in order that we might know Him as God with us and that we might learn to know, trust and obey Him for our eternal benefit.  God the Father, Son and Spirit – just as we have learned in this Glorious Gospel of John, and further John would have us affirm not only equality but also power and ability: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

Our third point flows from the second, and that is Jesus is not afraid to use the power granted to and shared with Him:  “And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man”  The authority here is one of dominion, just as we have sung in the great Missionary Hymn:  “Christ shall have dominion over land and sea, the earth’s remotest regions shall His empire be.”

Most commentators take the authority here in the sense of Philippians 2: 5-11:  “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Calvin goes a little further:  “For my own part, I regard the meaning as more extensive: that Christ, so far as he is man, was appointed by the Father to be the Author of life, that it may not be necessary for us to go far to seek it; for Christ did not receive it for himself, as if he needed it, but in order to enrich us by his wealth.”

Application:  Now, as we begin to draw towards the end of our meditation this morning, let us briefly consider which is harder in this mortal life:  to heal the body or to heal the mind?  Yes, we have learned much about the body chemistry and miracle drugs have made life more tolerable in many respects.  Further, we have recently heard how one researcher claims to have found a theology gene that supposedly makes men and women more open to religious endeavors.  If he means that in a general way – we should not be surprised that some have a greater affection for learning theological things, whether they be from a Koran, Third Testament or any other body of religiously styled information.  The same passion can be found in Muslim extremists as in the higher levels of Masonry – wherever man dreams of knowing the power of the universe on some kind of personal level. 

And yet, this is a far cry from the revelations granted in and through the Holy Spirit.  It is one thing to improve the health and function of the body, but it is still completely another thing to heal a fallen mind.  Conversion to the Christian faith is just such an incredible event, that only the spiritual power of the Triune God can accomplish it.  And it is only the elect of all the earth that learn to Honor the Son of God!  So this is our fourth point:  only by and in the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ are we ever saved!

And this is great news, because in the last two verses of our text today, the Lord of all the earth announces that at the end of the age, everyone will be forcibly brought to the same conclusion:  that Jesus Christ is Lord.  “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

Let us be very careful in the application of this last verse and be certain to remember that the good works in question here are simply those that flow from a redeemed life.  We must always affirm that we are saved by faith in Christ alone, and that the works accounted good in the eyes of the Triune God are those which find their seed in the salvation He has bestowed.  And if this is so in our life before Him, we have nothing to fear when all heaven breaks in at the end of the age.  And so let us treasure the work of the Spirit in our lives, not only in bringing us to our knees before our Lord and savior, but also in the encouragement of works worthy of the precious Name we seek to serve.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES 
Calvin, John:  Commentary on the Gospel of John.
Tasker, R.V.G.  Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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