THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD
We have buried our brother’s body; we have laid it in the grave, and our purpose now is to commit that body to the Lord Jesus. I want to take this opportunity to say something about that, the fact that we will commit his body to the Lord. I am going to refer to two verses in John’s gospel chapter 5. Both references speak about the voice of Jesus, the voice of the Son of God. In verse 25 it says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live”. Now I would like you to note that it says in that verse that the time “now is”. That is today, the day in which we are. The scripture means that that voice speaks today, it speaks at this graveside; it is “the voice of the Son of God.”
I wonder what that voice is saying. We know what it said in the gospels: the gospels tell us that Jesus spoke, He taught, He spoke about the love of God. It was a voice that was full of affection, full of God’s love. It was a voice that said, “I am the good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep”, John 10:11. It was a voice that said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), and “I am come down from heaven”, John 6:38. It was a voice that said, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink”, John 7:37. And a voice that said on the cross, when He had completed His atoning work, “It is finished”, John 19:30.
Now, our brother heard that voice; but you see it says, “the dead shall hear”. That reference is to the moral condition of humankind as estranged from God, having no response spiritually towards God. But those who have heard that voice and responded to it, as our brother did, it says of them that they “shall live”. Now, what did that mean for our brother? It meant two things: firstly, that he would have a spiritual life, there would be a life infused into our brother that was spiritual and that caused him to be responsive to God. And secondly, it changed his personal life. It changed what he was as a teenager, he became serviceable to the Lord Jesus, he committed his life to the service of Jesus and, as we heard earlier, he also committed his life to serving others who had come to know Jesus as their Saviour. They were his brethren, those with whom he came into contact, who were lovers of Jesus, and he served them in the way of encouragement. That is the present time.
How is the voice of the Son of God heard now? It is heard in the presentation of the glad tidings, the gospel, and our brother committed himself to that. He was a great preacher of the gospel; he was always willing to speak about his Saviour. That life of service of our brother’s is finished now; his mortal life, his life as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother-in-law and a brother in the Lord, that life is finished, but that other, spiritual, life I spoke about continues. His spiritual life continues. The scripture was read earlier, “your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved”, 1 Thess.5:23. So, our brother’s spiritual life continues, and we can say about him that he is “absent from the body and present with the Lord” (2 Cor.5:8); that is his present condition, where he is at the present time. The voice of the Son of God speaks in the gospel to give life to persons. Oh, that everyone here might know that!
I now want to refer to verse 28, where it says something further about the voice of the Son of God. This time it speaks of a future day, a soon-coming day. Those who love Him hope that day will be soon, but it is coming, and that future day speaks about resurrection, being raised from the dead. Now, the One who was here, the Son of God, said to a grieving family, “I am the resurrection and the life”, John 11:25. Paul tells us that He was “marked out Son of God in power ... by resurrection of the dead” (Rom.1:4), and He did that: He raised Lazarus; He raised the young man at the city of Nain; He raised the daughter of Jairus. There was divine power in Jesus. But here is the wonderful thing, that He Himself was raised, the One who died and went into the grave for us, He has been raised out of death. He says Himself as to His life, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”, John 10:18. He took up His life again and now He lives eternally in the presence of God; and there He has established the place for every believer in Himself, and He has the right to come and to raise persons from the grave.
Let us read verse 28 of John 5: “Wonder not at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall go forth; those that have practiced good, to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil, to resurrection of judgement”. All will be raised. Think of the graves in this place: all will be raised, but there is a distinction. Some will be raised to life and others will be raised later to judgment. How sobering. Now, dear hearer, our brother will be raised to life because of his faith in Jesus. We have these two classes of persons, those who have done good – those who have in faith accepted Jesus as Saviour, and those who have not: the saved and the unconverted. Those two resurrections will not take place at the same time. Other scriptures, Revelation 20:5 for example, tell us that they are separated by time. There is a first resurrection, to life; and then a thousand years or so later, a second resurrection.
Now, in that first resurrection, what graves here will be opened? Scripture refers to Christ risen as the “first-fruits”, 1 Cor.15:20. That is a wonderful thing, that the first resurrection has already begun. It began when Jesus came out of death, and He will complete it by coming to open every grave that holds His own. He will not miss one. The graves of all those who are saved are known in heaven. The Son of God will come, and the power of His voice will raise such to life. He will raise them to be with Himself. I do not want to say anything about that second resurrection except to repeat what it says in Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing falling into the hands of the living God”. But those who believe, and have died, will be brought out of death, as 1 Corinthians 15 tells us. They are “sown a natural body” and “sown in corruption”, but they will be “raised in incorruptibility” and “raised in glory”; they will be “raised in power” and “raised a spiritual body” (see vv.35-44). It is very wonderful.
But what of those who are alive when that happens? We will be changed. Will you be among them, among those who are going to be changed at the coming of Jesus? And then it says, “and thus we shall be always with the Lord”, 1 Thess.4:17. That is forever: let these things sober us, but give us encouragement too. That day will come soon; it will come, and now in the meantime we will pray to the Lord and commit to Him our brother’s body for safe keeping.
Word given at graveside, Kirkcaldy
19 September 2024
Walter Patterson
Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin
Additional copies are available, free of charge, by emailing
notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk
27 Grange View Linlithgow EH49 7HY
Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ