THE SON OF MAN WILL RETURN AS JUDGE
John 5:24-29 - November 6, 2005 – 2nd Sun. of End Time / Last Judgment
Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
In today’s text Jesus is very early in His ministry. Because of that, there are still many questions that the people had concerning Jesus’ authority and his claims. Because when people saw Jesus, they saw someone just like themselves. He talked like them with the same dialect; he lived among them; and he looked like them; so it was kind of hard for them to understand and believe that this Jesus the carpenter was the Son of God. It was hard for them to comprehend the fact that he was God’s Son; and since he was God’s Son, he had the same power and authority that God the Father had. That is what today’s text talks about to try to re-emphasize for these believers and for us today that Jesus was indeed the very Son of God, that he and the Father were one and had the same power. Now this is not a new teaching. It is something that eventually many of the people came to realize and the disciples learned it.
The Apostle Paul writes it in Ephesians: "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:22,23). Paul is writing what God did for Jesus, that Jesus does have all authority. It is important to remember that, because then we are told this Son of Man was going to return. He is going to return, not as the Savior, but as the Judge. He can return as the Judge, because he has all authority, all power to do all things. Our theme this morning:
THE SON OF MAN WILL RETURN AS JUDGE:
I. All will hear Jesus’ voice
II. Believers will live forever
I. ALL WILL HEAR JESUS’ VOICE
If you were to look at the verses right before our text, even before the beginning of chapter 5, you would find Jesus explaining very carefully, that because he and the Father are one, they are united; and he has the same power and authority. Now, they knew that the Father could create life and did create life; and they knew that the Father could raise back to life; and so Jesus says, "I have that same calling. Just as the Father is able to create life, so do I."
About in the middle of our text, Jesus emphasizes that point. He says: "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself." Jesus was telling the people he was able to give life. Then He tells them why: "And He has given Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man." It is easy for us to understand; but if we were back in the time of Jesus and back during the time of these people, it was hard for them to see how this Jesus would have such authority, hard even though he had done miracles among them, even though He already was planning to do more miracles. To put him in the same category as the Father who had the ability to give life was difficult. They had to overcome their human reasoning and thinking and give themselves over to God’s grace. This is what Jesus wants them to learn. He says: "Do not be amazed at this." First of all, Jesus says, "Don’t be amazed that I and the Father are one. Don’t be amazed that I have the power to give life." Jesus says: "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out." That sounds out of reason, too, doesn’t it? It sounded certainly amazing to these people. They had never seen anybody come back from the dead. They had never seen anybody who was dead to be able to hear. He says, "Don’t be amazed, but this will happen." He wants to make this point an impressive and vital point in this section. In only a few verses he mentions it twice. Jesus says: "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." In four verses he says that twice. When the Lord says things twice in such a short time, he wants the people to pay attention to that point. He wanted these people to understand that, yes, he was Jesus who was the carpenter and Joseph’s and Mary’s son and born in Bethlehem; but most importantly, he also was the Son of God who was sent down from heaven. Jesus would return to his Father and sit at his right hand until Judgment Day. Then he would come again and all will hear his voice as Judge.
We are privileged today to be able to look back at all the fulfillment of Scripture. In a sense we have it almost easier than these people who had Jesus in front of them, because we can look at the Bible and compare. We can see all the references that say, "Yes, the Lord is going to return as the Judge." We can see all the references that say that Jesus and the Father are one. Yet, this too, is not a new teaching, and it wasn’t a new teaching for these people that there was going to be a resurrection and that all people would hear the voice of Jesus. We turn back to the Old Testament and we look at Job, who lost everything but never lost His faith, never lost His confidence that He would see the Lord. Job says: "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!" (Job 19:26,27). It doesn’t say he was going to hear Him, but he was going to see God. This is almost the same, isn’t it? He is not going to see God unless he hears His call. The Lord says He is going to come on the Last Day and all will hear His voice. We studied that on these last Sundays of the church year. We will talk more about that next week.
What about today? What about our listening to his voice today until the Last Day, Judgment Day. The Lord wants us also to hear his voice. As believers again, we are privileged that we can read God’s Word and hear his voice. We can study God’s Word and hear his voice. We can listen to the preacher go on and on and hopefully hear God’s voice. We have a challenge in our day and age, because we don’t sit in silence quite like the people in the Old and New Testament. There is always something going on around us, isn’t there? There is always the radio on, the TV on, the hum of electricity, the sound of traffic. Something is droning and carrying on twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Sometimes that voice of the Lord might be hard to hear. Sometimes we might not take the time to open up God’s Word and hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us. We are too busy.
The Prophet Elijah wanted to hear the voice of the Lord, so we know what the Lord does. He doesn’t say, "Go into the city and you will hear him." He says, "Go on the mountain." Elijah wanted to go by himself where it was nice and quiet. Then we are told that the wind came and voice of the Lord was not in the wind. The fire came and the voice was not in the fire. The earthquake came and his voice wasn’t there either. Then we are told: "After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper" (1 Kings 19:12). The Lord spoke to Elijah with a still, small voice.
The Lord speaks to us today very often with a still, small voice. But we need to take the time and the solitude to hear His still, small voice. To hear the voice of the Lord is an important thing, because to hear the voice of the Lord is where you and I have the beginning of faith. Our faith began by hearing, not reading, God’s Word. Paul says in Romans: "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). Long before we could read and study, we were able to hear God’s Word. The Lord, by the power of that Word, by the life in the Word of the Lord, gives life to our sinful hearts. And by grace we believe.
The Son of Man is going to come again, as the Judge and all will hear his voice, believers and unbelievers, whether they want to hear it or not. Unbelievers certainly do not; but we, as believers, are reminded that believers will live forever.
II. BELIEVERS WILL LIVE FOREVER
Now remember, first of all, the hardest point for Jesus in our text and this setting was to get them to understand that He and the Father were one, that he had the power and authority to give life. Jesus had the power and authority to come as the Righteous Judge. That is why he says, "Listen to my voice. Listen to the word." The power of God’s word would change their hearts, just as it has ours. He said to them: "Do not be amazed at this." Jesus says this because this is in a sense new to their ears. They never had anyone else come as the Messiah before. The never had anyone else come and claim to be the Son of God. The importance difference here is that Jesus not only claimed to be the Son of God. He was the very Son of God. So He says, "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out." There is going to be a difference: "those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."
In the end he says for them on the Last Day when the Lord Jesus returns as the Son of Man and as the Righteous Judge and calls that justice will finally be done. The believers, as we heard in the Gospel, will be separated to the right and the unbelievers to the left. The believers will be given eternal life. This is an important point. The Lord mentions it here twice again. At the end of these verses and at the beginning: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears My Word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Again in these few, short verses which all words of Jesus speaking to the people, he mentions twice that the righteous will live that crossed over from death to life. They would live forever. Why? The power of God’s Word has changed their hearts. No longer do they live for themselves, but they live for others because God has loved them. Jesus says again, "I tell you the truth, a time is coming and now has come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." They had crossed over from death onto life.
We have grown up for the most part in the Christian faith and most of us in the Lutheran faith, and we have been blessed with a Scriptural faith. So when God says he is going to come on the Last Day, we believe that. When God says he is going to raise the dead and be brought back to life, we believe it. When God says he is going to judge the righteous and the wicked, we believe that. We confess those truths in the Nicene Creed. Confession means: "I believe." We believe those words at the very beginning of that creed. So what happens? No one wants to go to hell, do they? So man tries to sweep it under the rug and says God would not send anyone to hell. God is too nice and kind and loving. They think that the churches have made up that teaching of hell. They think that religion has made up those teachings. Scripture doesn’t make it up. Scripture is the truth. Jesus wasn’t giving the people a new teaching. He wasn’t trying to turn the world upside down by introducing something new and unknown. Again we turn back to the Old Testament to the book of Daniel. The Old Testament prophets knew it and the Old Testament people knew it. In Daniel: "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). He says again, the dead will rise and some will live eternally and some to everlasting contempt.
It is there, plain and simple over and over again. Today, read again the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel Lesson, delineated right there; and what else is there in the Gospel Lesson and the text here too, is the fact that the lives of believers and unbelievers are different. Hopefully, in your life people will know that you are not like the rest of the world. Hopefully, the people will know that you are not just like everyone else in this world. What does Jesus say? Doesn’t care, doesn’t visit the sick or those in prison, doesn’t help those who need help, doesn’t give a drink to those who are thirsty or feed those who are hungry, etc. God is alive in us. That is why we are different. Hopefully, we don’t have to tell people that we are Christians. Hopefully, they can see that in our lives. That is part of hearing God’s voice. That is part, as believers, living forever. It begins on earth here already.
Paul says in Galatians: "The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" (Galatians 6:8). He says, "As you sow, so shall you reap." That is true on this side of heaven. The Lord does bless the unbeliever as well as the believer. When it comes to Judgment Day, there is no changing God’s final judgment. The Son of Man will return as the Judge. We will hear his voice, but we will hear with joy and thanksgiving knowing that finally the end has come. Finally, we are going to put behind us this vale of tears and sorrow, suffering and heartache, trouble and tribulation; and we are going to be with the Lord forever. For others who hear the voice of the Lord on the Last Day, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It would be too late.
For the believers, Christians throughout the world, it will be joy. Isaiah describes it this way when he says: "In that day they will say, ’Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation" (Isaiah 25:9). We don’t have to wait until the Last Day to say that, do we? Hopefully, that every day, at the beginning of the day and the end of the day, we can say, "This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." Let us be glad that by the truth of Scripture and the power of his holy word we have heard his voice, that he has called us out of darkness into his light. We look forward to the day when the Son of Man will return as the Judge and all who hear his voice, the living and the dead, when the believers are reunited with him to live forever. That is what we have learned from early on for most of us. That is what we continue to discover the preciousness of God’s truths in Scripture.
In 1 John we are told: "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us--even eternal life" (1 John 2:24,25). We look forward to the Last Day when the Son of Man will return. All believers who hear his voice, believers everywhere, will live forever. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
2nd Sunday of End Time / Last Judgment (ILCW-A): DANIEL 7:9-10; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-11; MATTHEW 25:31-46
