Sermon Tone Analysis

Who cares about doctrine?

First of all DOCTRINE simply means teaching

When used in Church it refers to those core teachings we believe

We live in a day when doctrine has become an unpleasant word, even among evangelical Christians.

Admit it: When you hear the word “doctrine,” does it evoke positive or negative feelings in you?

A person who holds strongly to doctrine is viewed as difficult and divisive.

Often such people are arrogant, thinking that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

They are not usually regarded as kind and loving.

We live in a day when doctrine has become an unpleasant word, even among evangelical Christians.

Admit it: When you hear the word “doctrine,” does it evoke positive or negative feelings in you?

A person who holds strongly to doctrine is viewed as difficult and divisive.

Often such people are arrogant, thinking that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

They are not usually regarded as kind and loving.

The popular cry of our day is, “They will know that we are Christians by our love, not by our doctrinal agreement.”

Thus we are encouraged to set aside all doctrines that divide us and come together on the basis of our common love for Jesus.

Tolerance and unity are the most important thing.

Look where doctrinal de- bates have led us, into centuries of shameful division among those who believe in Jesus Christ.

Life, experience, and feelings are what matter.

Theology is stuffy, dry, and dead.

The main problem with such thinking is that it brings us into direct conflict with Jesus Christ!

Who cares about doctrine?

1.JESUS ● ● 2.You SHOULD ●

Who are the Sadducees?

Note this question is initiated by the Sadducees … Not Jesus

Sadducees came from a small group of aristocratic families … they were the “Old Money” if the Jewish Nation

This is the Only exclusive meeting between Jesus and Sadducees in Gospels

What they believed:

•They only believed in the first five books of OT

They didn’t believe in angels or demons

They didn’t believe in angels or demons

•They didn’t believe in heaven or hell

•They didn’t believe in life after death

•They didn’t believe in the immortality of the soul

•They didn’t believe in the resurrection of the body

Do you wonder why they came into such conflict with Jesus?

Edwards, J. R. (2015).

The Gospel according to Luke.

(D. A. Carson, Ed.) (p.

576).

Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.

An absurd question

Levirate = Latin Levir = Husband’s brother

Levirate marriage was a practice whereby a man was obligated to marry a childless widow of his brother in order to preserve the name and memory of his deceased brother and to ensure the establishment of his deceased brother’s inheritance within the family line (; ).

The practice is first mentioned with reference to Onan () who, in order to annihilate the line of his brother, refused to have a child by Tamar, wife of his deceased brother Er.

The Book of Tobit tells the story of a woman who married seven men and remained childless (3:7–15)—a story that may have inspired the tale proposed by the Sadducees.

Levirate marriage was a practice whereby a man was obligated to marry a childless widow of his brother in order to preserve the name and memory of his deceased brother and to ensure the establishment of his deceased brother’s inheritance within the family line (Gen 38:8; Deut 25:5–6).

Various forms of this custom were practiced throughout the ancient Near East; in Judaism, Mishnah tractate Yebamoth develops it fully.

The practice is first mentioned with reference to Onan (Gen 38:8–10) who, in order to annihilate the line of his brother, refused to have a child by Tamar, wife of his deceased brother Er.

Tamar (Gen 38) and Ruth (Ruth 3–4) actually violated prescribed sexual morality to ensure the preservation of their genealogy through levirate marriage.

The Book of Tobit tells the story of a woman who married seven men and remained childless (3:7–15)—a story that may have inspired the tale proposed by the Sadducees.

The custom of levirate marriage was not devised (as were polygamy and concubinage, for example) for the expressed purpose of allowing a man to have more than one wife, nor to condone sexual promiscuity or immorality.

Rather, Levirate marriage was a compensatory social custom designed to prevent intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles and to preserve honor and property within a family line in cases where a woman’s husband was deceased.88

In the minds of the Sadducees, wit and common sense are sufficient to dispel the superstitions of resurrection and life after death.

Their question presumes that the world to come is essentially a materialistic extension of earthly life, including the married state, although under more glorious conditions.

•Jesus sheds light on the situation - vv:34-40

In Matthews account Jesus begins his response by addressing the reason for the absurdity of their question:

You dont know your Bibles … Nor do you know the Power of God … In essence you deny BOTH

Not very warm and fuzzy words to say to religious GUYS

Neither marry or are given in Marriage

Eternity is not just a continuation of the present life … only on a higher scale

In Eternity we will know each other, and will maintain our identities

There will be no more death (v:36) … no more procreation … or marriage

This leads to a mystery that has caused some anxiety.

We think, “I want to be with my husband or my wife for eternity.”

This passage makes it appear as if life in heaven is somehow less than life on earth.

But that is precisely backwards.

We will not love less in heaven but far more.

On earth our love is inevitably mixed with all the baggage that comes from living in a sad, fallen, mixed up, messed up world.

And it’s not just the world that’s messed up.

We’re messed up too.

On earth even our noblest moments are tainted with self-interest.

In heaven with our selfishness removed and our bad habits and irritating mannerisms removed, our love will be deeper than anything we have known on earth.

What, then, of our loved ones?

Our children . . .

our family . . .

our wives and husbands?

Will all that be gone?

No, but it won’t be the same or even similar.

All that we have known will be lifted to a higher plane.

Equal to Angels = WE dont become angels (No wings, or halos - Gratefully)

We will share in the Image of Christ … as such we will be higher than angels (Redeemed)

In what sense will we be equal to angels ---

The resurrected are immortal, and relationships in that age are different from relationships in this age (on the change in body, see 1 Cor.

15:52).

And are “sons of God”

Those resurrected into new life will be “sons of God” and “sons of the resurrection” (Luke 6:35; Schweizer, TDNT 8:347–49, 355), which is another way to say that they participate in the age to come and have an immortal life (Tiede 1988: 349).

The question is an absurdity, not because resurrection is a problem, but because the Sadducean understanding of resurrection is grounded too much in life as it is now.

The afterlife is a different and much greater kind of existence.

Jesus concludes his teaching to the Sadducees by making sure that they know that the resurrection is a scriptural teaching … an Old Testament one ...

He could have referenced

But instead He goes to one of the first five books of the OT … the Torah … He simply refers to it as “that passage about the bush”

Exodus 3:2-

Doctrine Matters Because …

1.We understand what it means to be “considered worthy” by God (v:35)

How do you get considered worthy, accounted worthy, counted worthy to attain to the age to come and to the resurrection of the righteous if you’re not righteous?

Only by grace.

Only by the Gospel.

Only by Christ.

Only by faith alone in Christ alone.

That's how you’re accounted worthy to attain to the age to come and the resurrection of the righteous because none of us are righteous, no not one!

So even in this answer, Jesus relates the resurrection to the Gospel.

And He says, “If you’re going to enjoy this resurrection you've got to be counted righteous.