John 5:28-29 “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–those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

This is what we usually mean when we talk about “the resurrection.” Dead bodies come back to life and leave their graves. The dust and ashes of the dead, no matter where they have been deposited, come back together to live and move again. The purely scientific sorts may object, “Dead bodies don’t come back to life.” We know. That’s why this is sort of a big deal. If this were common, why would Jesus bring it up as evidence of his divinity and power?

Note again what Jesus says will bring them out of their graves: they “will hear his voice.” The same power that turns dead unbelief into living faith turns dead human remains into living, breathing people. Jesus will give the command, and all will rise.

But they will not all rise to the same fate. Moments before (vs. 27), Jesus said that he had been given authority to judge. Now we see why that matters. Many of those he calls from the grave “will rise to be condemned.” The Bible’s warnings of Judgment Day, of people being cast away from God to be punished forever, are not just the bad dreams of sub-Christian religion. There are some who believe this was all made up by mean and grumpy men who practiced a legalistic Old Testament religion. They were trying to scare people into good behavior. Then Jesus replaced it with a New Testament religion of grace and love.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. You know, Hell is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament. Other than a few verses at the end of the Prophet Isaiah, we have very few descriptions of what it might be like.

Almost everything we know about hell and the final judgment comes from the lips of Jesus himself in the gospels. Time after time he talks about the flames, the darkness, the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those are his own words. But he doesn’t talk like someone who relishes the chance to see people suffer. He talks like someone who knows about unspeakable horrors, and he sees people going there. It breaks his heart and he desperately wants to spare them of this.

He wants them to be “those who…will rise to live.” Those Jesus raises to the new life of faith now he will also raise to the new life of restored bodies, purged of every sin, healed of every disease or deformity, transformed and perfected for the endless life to come. To “rise to live” is not an endless extension of our current experience. It’s not more of the slow decay we know now, only slowed and stretched across eternity. It is finally only life, only health, only strength, all the time. It is life that is truly worthy of the name. On the last day, when he speaks, that life will be yours.

So today we listen. We hear his voice speaking to us in his book, and from the songs we sing, and from the mouth of the man who stands and preaches to you on Sunday morning. We hear it speaking to us in the gospel encouragements of Christian friends, and in our private moments of devotion and prayer. We hear his voice, and believe his words, and do what they say, because one day Jesus will speak, and people will live.