The Son Of Man Will Return As Judge

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.