Matthew 22, Part 3
Notes
Transcript
Resurrection
Resurrection
23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,
Jesus has just answered the question about paying taxes to Caesar for the Pharisees and later on that day gets cornered by the Sadducees. Now all three groups had challenged Jesus’ authority. The chief priests and elders, the Pharisees, and now the Sadducees. All these religious groups were trying to do was to get Jesus to say something that was untrue. Trip him up, so they could then charge him.
Sadducees - One of the three main Jewish schools of thought during the Hellenistic (Hasmonean) and Roman eras. They believed in the Pentateuch only (first five books), and did not believe in resurrection. Sadducean writings no longer exist; reconstructions are dependent on meager textual evidence from outside the movement. The Scriptures possessed supreme authority for the Sadducees, to the exclusion of oral traditions from former generations (Pharisees). Now, the thought they could trip up Jesus by getting him to explain how the resurrection could be possible and how marriage would be handled after the resurrection.
24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’
25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.
26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh.
27 After them all, the woman died.
28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
They used Moses’ law, the levirate law, as the basis of their argument (De. 25:5–6).
5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
6 And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
When a husband died without a son, the levirate law said that his brother was to marry his wife and bear a son. By law, the son was considered the firstborn son of the deceased brother. This assured two things: (1) that the family name continued, and (2) that the property holdings were kept in the family. This was a law that had been given to help preserve and to enlarge the nation of Israel
The Sadducees then suggested a logical situation that could have arisen. Note the words, “There were with us seven brethren.” The first brother married, but he died before bearing children. Each of the other brothers obeyed the law, but each died before bearing a child. Finally, the woman died also.
The logical question was now asked, the question which in the Sadducees’ mind showed the absurdity of the resurrection. They asked, “Whose wife shall she be in eternity?” Note three things in these verses.
1) The situation was logical; but the spirit of questioning was cold and coarse, egotistical and unbelieving, regrettable and revolting. The unbelievers’s spirit is often self-incriminating and self-condemning.
2) The argument was thought to be irrefutable by the Sadducees. They believed it pointed out just how foolish the idea of another world was to the thinking person.
3) The Sadducees were thinking that the spiritual world would be just like the physical world, that it would be nothing more than a continuation of this world, both in its nature and in its relationships.
It truly does show just how unGodly these men were. It shows how their use of logic was illogical when applied to God. They simply did not understand.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Most unbelief in the spiritual world arises not from a thinking position, but from a worldly position. Few study through both the natural and spiritual positions. Most just love the world and the things of the world so much that they wish to reject the restraints which the spiritual world puts upon them.
Wrong Answer
Wrong Answer
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Christ said very pointedly to the Sadducees and to all who followed their liberal position: “You are in error. You deny the resurrection for two erroneous reasons.”
1) “ You do not know the Scriptures.” The Scriptures are plain and clear. They leave no doubt that there is a spiritual world—that there is to be a resurrection into the spiritual world or spiritual dimension of being. They hadn’t truly studied ALL of scripture, just the part they wanted to believe in. They had rejected the rest of Scripture as God’s Word, leaving them with only partial knowledge. And, they were only using part of what they believed in to form their stance here with Jesus.
2) “You do not know the power of God.” There are three reasons why a person does not know the power of God.
1) He is ignorant of God. He knows nothing about God and seldom, if ever, gives any thought to God and His power.
2) He does not believe in God or His power. He refuses to acknowledge God’s eternal power and Godhead seen in creation and goes about creating gods of his own (both mental and physical images). He refuses to acknowledge the picture of nature that clearly illustrates the resurrection:
3) He believes, but his belief in God and His power is weak. He cannot picture much happening beyond the physical world and
The idea of a spiritual world is perplexing to the natural man. Just imagine! While we are sitting here surrounded by all that we see …
• there is another world, a spiritual world, an unseen spiritual dimension of being that actually exists.
• there is a spirit, the real life within our bodies, that is destined to exist forever.
• there is to be a resurrection of all the dead bodies that have been lying scattered and decaying in the graves for ages and ages. God shall call all the parts of decayed bodies back together again, no matter where they are scattered, and these bodies shall be perfected and glorified to live and work again. How can He do such a thing? By the Word of His power as God.
When we really think about the facts of the resurrection, two confessions have to be made by every man, believer and unbeliever.
(1) The natural man, that is man within himself and his world, can never know about a spiritual world. He is bound by the physical and material world of which he is a part. He can only think and guess and theorize that a spiritual world exists and speculate on details such as a resurrection. Man cannot, while living in this world, penetrate the spiritual world with his body to scientifically prove the existence of the spiritual world.
(2) God alone can reveal the reality of the spiritual dimension and the fact that a resurrection will take place. Such can be known and experienced only by the power of God. No man has the power to bring it about. If a resurrection is to take place, God’s power will have to do it.
By its very nature of permanence, the spiritual world supersedes and becomes much more important than the physical and dying world. Therefore, the spiritual world demands that man give preeminence to it. It is these demands that man rebels against. Therefore …
• a scientific society questions what it cannot prove
• a materialistic society questions what it cannot use to satisfy its lust for more
• an immoral society questions what it fears will correct its behavior
• a worldly society questions what it fears will restrain its pleasure
• a power society questions what it fears will loosen its grip and lessen its authority
Marriage in Heaven?
Marriage in Heaven?
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Christ said that the resurrection exceeded earthly relationships. The Sadducees did not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. When they thought of being resurrected into another world, they simply saw life continuing on as it does now. They pictured heaven as being just a continuation of this world. Very simply, they could not conceive that the qualities of life would be changed and that man would be given a totally new environment in which to live.
There will be no need to recognize earthly marriage for we will all be at the wedding feast of the Bride (the church/believers) and the Groom (Jesus).
Heavenly life and relationships will be perfect. In heaven our relationships will not cease to be. They will be changed in that selfishness and sin will not affect our love and lives. Our love will be perfected; thus, we shall love everyone perfectly. A wife on this earth will not be loved as she was on this earth—imperfectly. She shall be loved more and loved perfectly. Everyone will love everyone else perfectly. God will change all relationships into perfection, even as the relationships between angels and God are perfected.
Heavenly life and relationships shall be eternal. There will be no ending of relationships. A man and wife will always have the other to love. One shall not cease to be (die) before the other (as is the case now). Everyone will always have everyone else to love. God will change the brief time we have with each other now into an eternal relationship. We shall enjoy the presence of each other eternally, even as the relationship between angels and God is enjoyed eternally.
God’s Not Dead, And Neither Are The Saints!
God’s Not Dead, And Neither Are The Saints!
31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:
32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Jesus uses the Pentateuch to show their error by quoting Exodus 3:6.
6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
As God speaks to Moses, we know Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all dead. How could God BE their father if they WERE no more? Jesus points out their error - “Have you not read what was said to you by God”???
He points out God had spoken and revealed this truth to man in the scripture, but they simply did not read OR they did not understand what they had read about the revelation of resurrection in the OT (in particular the Pentateuch).
The resurrection is a fact. It will be experienced by all men of all ages because God is. God has willed to give us an inheritance to be, that is, to live eternally with Him. We shall undergo a transformation of nature, a transformation of perfection and permanency. For this reason, we need to pay close attention to what Scripture says: “BThe resurrection is a fact. It will be experienced by all men of all ages because God is. God has willed to give us an inheritance to be, that is, to live eternally with Him. We shall undergo a transformation of nature, a transformation of perfection and permanency. For this reason, we need to pay close attention to what Scripture says: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he [God] is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”” (He. 11:6).
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
God’s relationships are active relationships not inactive. There has to be a resurrection if our relationship with God is good and rewarding. To die and be left dead as a decayed corpse is not good nor rewarding. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have a good and rewarding relationship with God. They are alive, more alive than they were while on earth, for they are now perfected and eternal. They are with God Himself. And so shall we be. The resurrection is a fact.
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God of dead, decayed corpses. When Moses wrote these words, the three patriarchs had been dead for many years. If they were dead, God was not their God. Since He was their God, they were alive, living in God’s presence and living in relationship to Him, perfect and eternal. There is to be a resurrection.
Truth Is Marvelous
Truth Is Marvelous
33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
the glorious hope of the resurrection not only caused amazement in Christ’s day, it causes amazement today.
a. The believer is amazed that God would love him so much.
b. The unbeliever is amazed at such an idea as the resurrection, that anyone could believe such a thing.
Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Matthew: Chapters 16:13–28:20, vol. II, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 1996), 143-148.