Dear Christian friends:

Now we are enjoying that wonderful season called Spring. It makes our hearts glad to feel the warm sun and see the leaves on the trees and the grass turn green with new life.

Springtime should remind us about our faith and new life in God through Jesus Christ. As the sun warms the ground and makes things alive and growing beautifully, so God's Word shines to our cold and dark souls and awakens us to new life in God.

That is what Jesus is telling us in our text today. So today I want to ask you as we study the text:

Our text shows that you are alive to God if you hear and believe His Word. Jesus says in our text, "Let me assure you, the hour is coming and is here now when the dead will hear God's Son calling them, and those who hear Him will live."

Here Jesus means not only the dead in their graves who will hear His voice on the Last Day or Judgement Day, but also those who hear His voice now. He says, "The hour is coming and is here now" Jesus thinks of "the dead" as being all people, not only those lying in their graves.

We may walk around and breath and work and play, but if we have not heard Jesus' voice about sin and forgiveness of sin through His cross and blood, we are really still dead. All babies are born dead although they seem healthy and alive, although they scream and kick, they are dead. Enemies of God and under His curse. That is why we baptize babies as fast as we can after birth; so they may be born again by water and His Word. And to keep them alive to God we continue to teach them God's Word, so that they may daily hear His voice and remain alive. As trees and plants need sunshine daily to stay alive, so we Christians need to hear the voice of Jesus daily all of our life or we lose faith and die again. And when a believer gets old and dies, he is not dead. Many in the grave are alive while many alive are dead. Jesus says: "I am the resurrection and the life: He that believes in Me through he were dead, yet shall he live etc." (John 11:25)

Are you dead or alive? Have you heard the voice of Jesus? Do you believe in Him? It is easy to answer yes to these questions. But do you really hear His voice? Do you really believe in Jesus in your heart? Are you dead or alive to God?

If you are really alive to God and not dead, you will show your life in God by what you say and by what you do.

Jesus says in our text, "He has also given Him power to judge because He is the Son of Man. This should not surprise you, because the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear Him calling and will come out. Those who have done good will rise to live; those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."

You can fool me, your pastor that you believe in Jesus. And you can fool other church members. But I will not be your judge on the Last Day. The other church members will not be your judge. Your neighbors and relatives will not be your judge. The proud self-righteous friends in the world whom you tried to please will not be your judge. Jesus will be your Judge on that day. You may fool me and you may fool other people but you can't fool Jesus. He knows you. He knows what you think in your heart.

He knows if you believed in Him and loved Him and served Him or not. He says: "Those who have done good will rise to live; those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."

In Matthew 25 Jesus prophecies about the Judgement when He says, that He the Son of Man will come in all His glory and all the angels with Him then will He sit on His throne and He will divide the people as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. To those on the right hand He will say: "I was hungry etc. to those on the left, Depart from Me, etc."

Think of the farmer throwing away seed. So the believer does. Are you dead or alive? If you are still dead, now is the time to hear Jesus' voice and wake up and live. Tomorrow may be too late. Don't postpone. Besides it is a very wonderful life to be alive in God. It may seem foolish to waste your life serving God but it is the deepest wisdom.

If you are alive to God don't be satisfied with yourself or brag. Thank God. Thank Jesus who died for you and calls you to faith through His Word. Don't think you are safe. Say:"I walk in danger all the way, that shall never leave me. That Satan who has marked his prey, is plotting to deceive me."

Hear the voice of Jesus every day or you will fall asleep and die again. The world will make you think it is foolish to serve God. Jesus says, "I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly."

Amen.