Luke's Gospel

We're doing a series in Luke's gospel, and we've come to Luke chapter 20 and verse 27. Where there's a whole lot of stuff about resurrection and marriage. So I think wedding is our theme. We started off with Tom and Safran. And here we go.

We're gonna read from verse 27 of Luke 20. Some of the sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to Jesus with a question, teacher, they said. Moses wrote for us, that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were 7 brothers. The first 1 married a woman and died childless.

The second and then the third married her. And in the same way, the 7 died leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be? Since the 7 were married to her.

Jesus replied, the people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die for they are like the angels. They are God's children since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise for he calls the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead but the God of the living.

For to him, all are alive. Some of the teachers of the law responded. Well said teacher. And no 1 dared to ask him any more questions. Welcome to another installment of Luke's gospel, and we're looking at this fantastic story today, the sadducees and the question about the resurrection.

Several years ago, we did the Mark drama as a church. It's the whole of Mark's gospel acted out in the round, and nearly every word of Jesus recorded in Mark's gospel is in that production. It's it was a great evangelistic opportunity, a great event, a great thing to be part of. And this story, I think, is 1 of the best scenes. The the bloke who's put it together has just done this brilliantly.

You've got this poor woman who is who is marrying these 7 brothers who who all dramatically fall down dead. As soon as they married her. And she's she's got no idea what to do. She doesn't know why this is happening. And then she dies as well.

And just the crowd as they're watching, this scene, unfold, are beginning to laugh, and enjoy it. And as I'm sure they would have done. When the sadducees told this story because it is laced with humor and irony. It's just it's just a great story they've they've made up here. And apparently, this this was actually a well known story from an extra religious book at the time.

Where this bizarre story was told of a woman who married 7 times. And on every single occasion, the husband was strangled by a demon on the wedding night. That was 1 of the stories in in this book. So it it may well have actually not been made up on the spot, but kind of been in in the public psyche for some people at least. And therefore, as I say, you can imagine the crowds laughing as they told this story.

And beginning to warm to the sadducees and wondering about the details. You know, what what what happened here. This is a great story. I Did a demon strangle them in the bed chamber? Did the woman poison them all?

Did they all fake their own death? As soon as they found out what she was like. What what is this what is this story all about? But as we're gonna see this evening, the point of this is not is not just to tell a funny story. It is a trap which the sadducees are setting for Jesus.

And actually, the humor is part of the viciousness of the trap trap. In what way? Well, the question is designed not just to expose Jesus. But to make him and the resurrection look silly. They want to prove that this teacher is out of step with Moses.

Out of step with reality and that his doctrine of resurrection is downright ridiculous. It just doesn't work. Humor is designed to expose that. And as we heard last week, this this kind of thing is happening all the time in loop. So I won't rehearse it.

But last week Phil gave a very good summary of who is coming to Jesus and how they're trying to trap him. So if you wanna know a bit more about that, then do listen to last week's sermon. But basically, since Jesus set his face to Jerusalem, in chapter 9 verse 51. Enemies have been lining up to have a go at him. And so here are the sadducees laced up gloves on ready to get in the ring with Jesus in order to prove him not just wrong but ridiculous with this story.

And the first point then this evening is this, round 1, the question. Round 1, the question. Some of the sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to Jesus with a question. So who were the sadducees? Well, in this passage, we know them by their doctrine.

They don't believe in the resurrection. And not just that, they didn't believe in angels or in a spiritual realm or anything like that, anything spiritual. They only believed in the first 5 books of our old testament, the books of Moses, And according to them, Moses didn't believe any of that spiritual stuff either. And so immediately, the sadducees are out of step with the pharisees and with the teachers of the law and with Jesus, who did embrace the other scriptures who believed in these things and and and taught them very clearly. Now, there's loads more we can say about the sadducees.

But that's that's the kind of important backdrop for this this particular story. And so verse 28, Teacher, they said. Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children. The man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, that is quite a good first punch.

Because that is a true statement. Moses did teach that, and it was known as a lever of marriage. And basically, the main purpose of it was to produce an air and to guarantee that your family would not lose their land. So this was a law, quite a compassionate law, a helpful law, that was designed to protect your property, your family name, and this widow who would need care and protection. It was a way of saying, this is the law so that your name will not be blotted out.

From Israel. So at this point, you know, hence would be nodding. People would be agreeing. There was nothing controversial here. This is this is this is a true point.

The problem is what comes next. What they're going to do now is to take a well established law and prove that the resurrection cannot work with it. The resurrection is not compatible With this thing, we know to be true that Moses taught. It just doesn't work Jesus. Those 29 Now there were some 7 brothers.

The first 1 married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her. And in the same way, the 7 died leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, At the resurrection, whose wife will she be?

Since the 7 were married to her. Jesus, in practice how is this gonna work? I mean, this poor woman, if she thought she had problems on earth, wait till she gets to the new earth. That's gonna be a tangle for her, isn't it? I mean, there's only really a couple of options, isn't there Jesus?

Either she's going to be married to all of them, in some in some incestuous arrangement where she is at the same time married to these 7 brothers and producing offspring for them. Or it's just gonna be 1 of them, which would be more normal, wouldn't it, Jesus? But which 1 will it be? Since all were married to her. So you see last week, the enemies tried to pin him with this with this legal question about tax, but here they're going for his doctrine.

The resurrection doesn't work. You don't fit with Moses Jesus. This is silly. What you're teaching. So that's the first point.

Round 1, the question was Jesus gonna say in response. Round 2, the response. That's the second point round to the response. Now if you had to say just from what we've looked at so far. What would you say is the main problem with this with this question?

What is the main problem with that question? Well, it's interesting, isn't it? Because it seems to be 1 of definitions Now, there is a deeper problem which we'll see later, but to start with, it seems to be 1 definition. The sadducees seem to think that resurrection means reconstruction. They believe in in what you might imagine as a humpty Dumpsy resurrection, where marriage, and having kids and ensuring your name doesn't block out.

The things that they're used to in this age will just be put back together again. Like humpty DumpT, and will carry on into the next stage. They believe in a kind of reconstruction, not resurrection Now, in reality, they actually don't believe that, at all. We know that. But this is how they're thinking about it for argument's sake, reconstruction.

Not resurrection. And therefore, what Jesus does is he doesn't really let himself be pulled into this joke story he starts to pick at the way they're defining it. Have a look in verse 34. The people of this age marry and the given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die 4, they are like the angels. They are god's children since they are children of the resurrection.

So this is not the old age put back together again. What he's talking about is a new age. Of resurrection. Now what is that gonna be like? Well in his book the last battle, part of the chronicles of Narnia series.

C s Lewis talks about this amazing moment when Lucy who is 1 of the daughters of Eve and becoming a queen of Narnia is grieving the fact that the narnia, she knew and loved is is passing is passing away. But there's a moment when she she realizes as she looks into the new creation, that things might not be as she thought they were. Here's a quote from the book. Those hills said Lucy. The nice woody ones and the blue ones behind aren't they very like the southern border of narnia?

Like cried Edmund after a moment's silence, Well, they're exactly like look, there's Mount Peyr with his forked head, and there's the pass into Ark and everything. And yet said Lucy. They're different. They have more colors on them. And they look further away than I remembered.

And they're more more like the real thing. Set the little tiggery softly. Captures it so well, doesn't it? The hills and the mountains were like the old thing. But much more like the real thing.

There was something similar. They were the same. But there was something very different. There were new colors and there were new textures and they were more real than they had ever been more real than even the real mountains if you can put it that way. The age of resurrection is going to be something like that.

Both similar and yet very very different. Just take the lord Jesus Christ as an example. When the lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, was there any continuity yeah, of course, he was. He didn't adopt a new alien fall. He didn't become a new form of life.

He had a real body. He could eat and speak and talk and relate in the ways which he had done. But was he different to how he was before? Oh, yeah. He had been raised in power, raised in glory, raised imperishable, not just reconstructed from the dead but resurrected, triumphing over a death.

Like how he was before, but gloriously imperishable, powerfully different. And because he is the first fruits of things to come, all who trust in him, are going to follow that pattern. So will things be similar in this resurrection age? Are we gonna have bodies? Will we inherit a real new earth?

Will we relate to 1 another? Yeah. But will there be differences? He says so. People will not marry or be given in marriage.

The lever of marriage and and stuff like that will be obsolete. It won't be needed anymore. And you and I and all who have trusted in Christ will be like the angels. We won't become angels, but we'll be like them in the sense that we never die and we live forever. In the presence of God.

To belong to this resurrection age is not just to be reconstructed from dust and ashes. It is something awesomely wonderfully new. Not something that we've earned, but something that was paid for. By Jesus Christ, our Jesus who loved us even to death and rose to make it possible. The sadducees just couldn't get it.

They were thinking, Jesus, you must mean reconstruction. Things as they've always been just again. But Jesus is talking about resurrection. And before we move on to the second part of Jesus' response, let's spend a moment on on marriage because it it's often a question that people have about this passage. And for some people, it might be a really sad thing to think that marriage as we know it will not be a feature of life in the resurrection.

I mean, for other people, it might be a relief. But for lots of people, they might be really disappointed that they wouldn't be married to their spouses. But we mustn't confuse what Jesus is saying here. He's not saying that things are gonna be so different, that you won't even recognize each other. As if I would see Laura in the new creation, and look at her across the room and think, now I'm sure I recognize her from somewhere.

She she looks she looks familiar she looks familiar to me. I can't imagine that would be the case. There will be relationships, and happily those relationships will be better than we've ever known them because all the things that spoiled them will be gone. But the big point is that in the age of resurrection, the illustration of marriage gives way to the reality. Think of it this way.

It'd be like saying, well, there's no need for the sun in the new creation. And we might say, well, that's a real shame. Because the sunrise is about the most beautiful natural site you can see. It's true. And so what?

It's got it's got withdrawing something good, which is gonna leave us disappointed and upset and longing for the old age. Absolutely not. He's not pulling things away in order to disappoint us. He's going to bring superior joys. So it's not that there is no sun, but that the lamb will be the sun.

And the brightness and the beauty of Jesus is gonna be so magnificent that it's gonna make even the best sunrise on Earth look like a gray day in Skebness. It's something similar. Is true with marriage. Will we recognize our spouses? Are we gonna rejoice at being reunited?

Yeah. Of course. But this is the key the key thing. The joys of marriage will be fulfilled by the greater joy of being married to Christ which is what it was always about anyway. And wonderfully, this is something that all of God's children will be able to enjoy.

You see, perhaps if singleness has been has been a real has been a real struggle for you, maybe you've always been single and struggled with that or or you've known love in the past but lost it for some reason, and and you just feel gutted about that. There is something there is something wonderful tied up in what Jesus is saying here. John Piper in 1 of his articles. Talks about this and he begins with a quote from Isaiah. This is Isaiah 56 verse 4 and 5.

To the eunuchs and for the purpose of this, those who aren't married, to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths. Who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant. I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name. That shall not be cut off.

And then he says now it becomes clear that this monument and this everlasting name. Is a position with no disadvantage to the not married since all are not married. In other words, all of God's people whether married or single on earth. Are going to inherit the greatest eternal joys without missing out on anything. This is not reconstruction.

This is resurrection. This is not lesser life. But a fuller life for all of God's children. This is not the old age put back together again. This is the new age, the age of resurrection, the age of eternity, the age of realness with Christ forever.

That's the second point. First point question. Second point, response part 1, third point, shorter the response part 2. The response part. And now Jesus is gonna after dealing with 1 of the issues, it's gonna go to the heart of it.

Maybe you've seen the online meme which is which is often used to call someone out if they've used the word incorrectly. Or if they've tried to use a word in the debate, which they've clearly got no idea what it means. And normally, the meme is a picture with some words taken from a famous film. And the words are, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Have you seen that. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. In other words, your definitions are all wrong. You don't know what you're talking about.

And it's quite an amusing put down, which actually fits the sadducees. You see, when they say resurrection, Jesus basically says, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Your definitions are wrong. But actually, the problem is not just definitions.

In Matthew's account of this story, Jesus puts his finger on their real problem. This is Matthew 22 29. You are in error because you do not know the scriptures. Or the power of God. You are in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.

And what happens now is just is just vintage. It's just vintage Jesus really. That the sadduce that he's claimed to believe Moses. So where does Jesus go to prove them wrong? Moses.

And where will he go in Moses? To some obscure parts that only the scholars might know about, No. He's going to go to the story that everybody, maybe even pagan Romans, have heard about to the story of the burning bush. And from there, he's gonna prove the resurrection. From that most well known of stories in Moses, which they claim to be loyal to.

It's classic Jesus, isn't look what he says in verse 37. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise. For he calls the Lord, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living for to him, all are alive. It's such a simple point, isn't it?

But 1 that if I was preaching this passage would could so easily missed. This is this is not the Lord who was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. They are not just dust and ashes and memories in library books. They are alive to God. They are living souls right now in the presence of yahweh.

He is the God of these fathers. He's the god of the living. And actually, although Jesus doesn't exactly say the word resurrection is in that story, When you take the passage as a wholeness, it's all licked. Abraham, Isaac, and in fact all of us. Are not just body and not just soul, we are body and soul.

In other words, our God is the God of the whole person. And so when death comes, and when the body and soul are separated, that is really just a temporary stage. It's not real personhood. We were created body in soul. We will be resurrected body in soul for life in a new earth.

And that according to Jesus has always been in the scriptures. I mean, you think about the promises made to Abraham. They weren't just physical. They weren't just spiritual rather, were they? They were physical.

In Hebrews, we're told that these fathers were looking ahead to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. The promise to Abraham included not clouds but land. When Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. He knew that even if he did that, what was God going to do? God would resurrect him, raise him from the dead in order to keep his promise.

Hebrew is 11. And even if these old testament saints only saw a partial fulfillment of those promises in their lifetime, Within those promises was always the seed of resurrection, always the seed of new creation, always the seed of a city to come. Jesus is saying sadducees if you knew that. If you knew the scriptures you so confidently teach on. You would see that resurrection, new creation, this whole person theology is in Moses.

And therefore, it's not the reason you are wrong because you know neither the scriptures. Nor the power of God. And then verse 39. Some of the teachers of the law responded well said teacher. They're happy, aren't they?

Because they don't exactly get on with the sadducees to see them embarrassed publicly is always good. First 40 and no 1. Dead to ask him any more questions. How could they? Standing in front of him is the greater Moses, the profit like Moses who knows and applies the law of God.

But more than that standing in front of them is the son of God who is himself the resurrection and the life. And in the end this story is all about him. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, when he rose again from the grave, the age to come came bursting into this life. The age of resurrection began and all who trusted him now will be raised into life now with that hope of future resurrection and future new creation still to come. In other words, this is not just interesting stuff for us to think about.

This is a call to trust in Jesus, the resurrection and the life. And to look forward the dead to the day when he will call us out of the grave to begin life in this new age which is something like but gloriously different to what we know now. Let's keep our eyes on him. Take a moment as always just to reflect on the passage and to to pray. Heavenly father we do thank you that Jesus Christ is the resurrection of the life.

We thank you that we are children of the resurrection that 1 day we will hear the voice of the savior calling us. And we will be like the angels. We will dwell with you in the new earth forever in your presence, enjoying a a creation that was more real and more wonderful than we could ever have dreamed of. We thank you that even the things that are different will have been replaced by superior wonders and joys and we will be able to enjoy that all forever. And lord we pray that you would help us to keep our eyes on Jesus.

Not to think that this age is the age of resurrection, not to think that the best life is now, but to keep our eyes on that future day and on our savior in his name. Armeh.