Here Is God's Final Answer

HERE IS GOD’S FINAL ANSWER

Luke 20:27-38 - November 16, 2003

LUKE 20:27-38

27Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 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 have children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30The second 31and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32Finally, the woman died too. 33Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"

34Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37But in the account of the 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.’C 38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

+ + + + + + + + + + + + +

Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:

One of Jesus’ favorite teaching methods was with questions and answers. When we look at our children, we find that one of their great ways to learn is by their questions and our answers. Today, we find the Sadducees coming to Jesus with a question looking for an answer. So what is the question that is our question today? The question I would like you to think about is - - how would I summarize my life with one word? Just think about that for five or ten seconds--one word that would summarize your life, not necessarily the life that you have already lead but your life in the present or your life that is yet to come. There are all kinds of different words. We might find it hard to summarize our life with one word. Hopefully, if you thought about it, one of those words might be "asking" or "questioning" or “seeking" as a summary of your life. In our life as we live in this world we are always questioning. We are asking and seeking what is yet going to happen in our life. We are asking the Lord to show us His will time and again.

The Lord sat down with His disciples who asked Him to teach them to pray, and He gave them the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus also advised: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened"(MATTHEW 7:7,8) This morning we come with that same intent to learn what God’s Word has to say to each one of us, to hear what God’s final answer is to our questions. So this morning, we ask with ears eager to listen, we seek with a heart that has to find the answer, and we knock at the door of Jesus as He opens up His Word to us. We hear and we seek what is God’s final answer.

HERE IS GOD’S FINAL ANSWER = our theme today. God’s final answer is:

I. Not concerned with marriage in heaven

II. But is concerned with eternity with Jesus

I>. We want to remind ourselves of the setting of this text. Our text takes place on Holy Week. In fact this is the Tuesday before the Friday that Jesus is put to death. Because of that, the enemies of Jesus were always questioning His authority and His teachings. They know that Jesus is coming close to the end of His ministry and the fulfillment of prophecy. So they come time and again to try and trap Him with questions, with things that would try to lead Him astray. Today our text begins that same way. The Sadducees come with a foolish question. Generally speaking there aren’t any foolish questions, but we see this ends up being quite a foolish question. We are told as the text begins: 27Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. The Sadducees are described for us that they did not believe in the resurrection. How sad that is! They were a small group in God’s church and yet they were a powerful group. They did not believe in the resurrection. They felt, "Here it is. This life is what we now live, so we should live it to the fullest." There was another important thing they believed. The Sadducees believed in the books that Moses wrote--the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. They believed in them and they believed there was no resurrection.