Resurrection!

 

Text: Luke 20:27-38

Focus: Resurrection

Function: To comfort us in the hope of eternal life

²⁷Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him ²⁸and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; ³⁰then the second ³¹and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, ³⁵but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

I love that line, God is the God of the living. I love it that it speaks of those whose spirits have left this world and have joined the family of God in heaven.

It gives to us the hope of resurrection.

Remember, hell is not mentioned in the Old Testament and many NT scholars believe that the references to hell in the NT are references to the current apocalyptic literature of the time when Jesus was walking around on planet earth.

Hell is not mentioned, but heaven is.

Now the text mentions that there was a sect of the Jewish religious leaders who denied the hope of the resurrection. In another gospel it also mentions that they denied pretty much everything that was supernatural. They were religious, but they were practical materialists. I mean, they essentially believed the same thing that atheists believe, that matter is eternal and the concept of God is there to explain away what we do not understand.

There have always been rational skeptics to religion and the existence of God.

I had several Jewish friends growing up. And Rabbi Gebhart’s daughter was a friend of mine. I was talking with her mother one day about life after the birth of a baby and she said spoke of the circle of life. We live, we have children, we pass on our genes and in our children we live again.

She was one of those without the hope of the resurrection.

I mention the resurrection this morning because we celebrated Halloween last Monday and then on the 1^st, All Saints Day.

All Saints Day is a day when we remember those who have gone before us who have set the example for us so that we too can be found faithful when Jesus gives us our reward.

And all of that is based on the hope that we have of the resurrection.

It was proven to us by the resurrection of Jesus.

He died in faith, trusting God to give Him justice and God did in a miraculous way, according to the sacred text.

In 1 Corinthians 15, brother Paul speaks of the resurrection. He mentions that many, many people saw Jesus alive after His death. Including himself in a vision given to him by God.

He staked his faith on what he believed to be the historical fact of the resurrection.

And apparently there was also those at the time who were skeptics. And Paul addresses that quandary with them. Look at verses 12-15: ^12-15Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.

He pleads with them to remember why they came to faith in the first place. He is troubled by the fact that there are skeptics.

In our text this morning, Jesus faces some skeptics and gives them a comforting answer to help them see the fact of the resurrection.

He tells them the story of Moses at the burning bush and how God was speaking to Moses about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the present tense, as if they were still alive. And they are in the presence of God.

Paul believed it because he saw it.

I too, have seen, briefly for a moment, in a vision that came to me from God, the glory of heaven and the hope that we have in eternal life.

Apparently it is important to witness to this hope because it gives to us the power to live sacrificial lives in obedience to the command of Christ to be His witnesses to His peace in the hearts of all of humanity through the power of the Holy Spirit that comes when we trust in Christ.

I love the hope of the resurrection.

Look at this scripture from Hebrews 12. It is a passage about mercy and God’s grace, but it gives us a glimpse into heaven. First, he speaks of the terror of God the Israelites faced when God spoke to them from the mountain and then he speaks of the invitation of God in the New Covenant:

^23-24You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.

We are referred to as the citizens of heaven having a party with the angels.

Last year I lost my mom, and I think of my mom and my dad reunited because she pined away for him so strongly. They are reunited in a different way because there is no marriage in heaven according to our text for today.

So, I think of them rejoicing together and hoping and praying for us, their children, so that we too can enjoy the rewards of eternal life.

And that last phrase might be the salient phrase for us to focus on as we end the sermon.

The rewards of eternal life. Many have said, and I believe it, that eternal life is a reward in itself.

And I am convinced that eventually, all will obtain it since Jesus died for the sins of the world entire.

But then, what is the advantage of living a sacrificial Christian life if we all are going to make it anyway?

Jesus Himself answers that question in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at Matthew 6 ¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The promise that we have of eternal life in the presence of God, knowing pure love in an unveiled format, again, will be treasure enough. But Jesus tells us that living by faith, as difficult as it is to live sacrificially for others instead of merely for ourselves is worth it since in heaven, God will certainly reward us.

We live in such an affluent land that it is hard for us to live for the eternal reward. But treasure in heaven is eternal, treasure on this earth is merely temporary.

Let us live by faith.