Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) came to Jesus, and began questioning Him, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that IF A MAN’S BROTHER DIES and leaves behind a wife AND LEAVES NO CHILD, HIS BROTHER SHOULD MARRY THE WIFE AND RAISE UP CHILDREN TO HIS BROTHER. 20 “There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. 21 “The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; 22 and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. 23 “In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 “But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, and the God of Jacob’? 27 “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”
It was near the end of the earthly ministry of Jesus and things were heating up between Him and the Jewish leaders who wished to catch Him in some inconsistency or some supposed violation of the Mosaic Law so they could get rid of Him.
With His crucifixion only days away and spending His time healing and teaching in Jerusalem and at the Temple Jesus also fields questions from the Pharisees, finally asserts His divine authority in the cleansing of the Temple and in telling them the parable of the Vine-growers and their treachery against the owner’s son.
When they try to trap Him into showing disloyalty to Caesar He turns the tables on them once more and shuts their mouths with simple common sense. They should give to Caesar what bears his name and likeness, and they should surrender to God that which bears His name and likeness. Not exactly rocket science, but we do so often miss the point, don’t we?
Such is the case with the Sadducees.
THE SECT
In his Bible exposition commentary, Wiersbe offers this simple description of the sect known as the Sadducees.
“This group accepted only the Law of Moses as their religious authority; so, if a doctrine could not be defended from the first five books of the Old Testament, they would not accept it. They did not believe in the existence of the soul, life after death, resurrection, final judgment, angels, or demons (see Acts 23:8). Most of the Sadducees were priests and were wealthy. They considered themselves the “religious aristocrats” of Judaism and tended to look down on everybody else”.
In his statements Wiersbe refers to Acts 23, where Paul has been dragged up before the Council of the Sanhedrin to defend his gospel. In the room are members of both the Pharisees, who did believe in a resurrection and in angels and demons and so forth, and Sadducees who did not.
Then in verse 6 Paul declares that the very reason he is on trial is for his belief in the hope of a resurrection from the dead. This starts a clamor between the Pharisees and the Sadducees that almost turns into a riot, which moves the Roman commander present to remove Paul for his own safety.
So what we have here are men who are very zealous for their religion, two groups believing very different things, both putting their trust in the traditions of men and human understanding and wisdom, going about with a veil over their eyes and blinded to truth.
In Matthew 13:14-15 Jesus applied the words of Isaiah to these people when He said through the prophet:
“You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.’
It is a primary characteristic of faulty religion that its adherents will deliberately close their ears and eyes and hearts to correction and instruction, because they have made up their mind about what they will believe and nothing can be allowed to change that; even the Scriptures and even the Holy Spirit.
There is an abundance of evidence even in the five books of Moses, for angels, demons, the fact that man does indeed have a soul (Gen 2:7), and although the resurrection is not taught specifically in those historical books, there are ample references to ‘forever’ and ‘everlasting’ things in the promises of God to the patriarchs that should have been clues to something beyond this life for those who put their trust in Jehovah.
But here is this entire sect of religious men who have their minds made up and do not want to be bothered with the facts. This is not a condition that no longer exists in the religions of the world, and it is well entrenched in the church also.
Whole denominations are built on the unstable foundation of a single verse or passage of scripture that has been misunderstood, misapplied, but once a group had their minds made up about it they closed the door to Biblical teaching, gave themselves a name and withdrew to their own special corner of religious Christianity and they won’t be touched.
Small groups can do this, even individuals can do this. Faulty religion is a strong prison and a deceptive one. The walls are invisible making them feel they are free but they are blind and deaf and ignorant and unable even to ask the right questions.
I was once part of a church that seemed to have a great deal of good going for it. It was founded about 10 years before I came there, by a group of men who had all attended the same prestigious Baptist seminary but wanted to start an independent church. They were sincere and dedicated men, but early in their association they had decided on a certain point of doctrine that was based on a skewed understanding of one passage of scripture, and it became a main point of focus for them so that a certain segment of society was branded as undesirable to them.
Because of their stubborn stand on their interpretation of this passage and their unwillingness to listen to a truly Biblical approach to it I could not continue fellowship in that body and had to withdraw myself or compromise my own convictions. I do not know how many others were hurt by this stubborn exclusivity among this church’s leaders but I do know that much potential for service and glory to God was lost to that assembly as a result.
The Sadducees didn’t believe in much. It’s a wonder that they continued for any length of time as an entity to themselves because it seems like they were a little club with nothing but rules. Nothing to believe in, nothing to rejoice in, nothing to look forward to; they might as well have called themselves “The Nothing Club”. It is an old quip that the way to remember them is that they didn’t believe in a future resurrection and that is why they were ‘sad, you see’.
STUPID QUESTIONS
Well, as eluded to in the title of this sermon, faulty religion inevitably leads to the asking of stupid questions and making stupid speculations.
Let me explain that I use the term ‘faulty religion’ instead of ‘false religion’, but that is also implied. Faulty religion, meaning warped conclusions and counter-biblical beliefs are a result of faulty thinking and once a person has taken the very first step away from accurate understanding of the inspired Word of God he or she has immediately stepped, not toward, but full into, false religion.
You cannot only be a ‘little bit’ wrong about scriptural truth. You are accurate in your understanding or you are completely off.
The fundamental problem is evident here in our text. The Sadducees come to Jesus with this fanciful imaginary set of circumstances, reasoning in their own minds and probably pretty proud that they have come up with this clever word trap to catch Him in. Jesus on the other hand, answers with scripture.
That is what makes the whole difference in the outcome of the debate. When it is a contest between man’s thinking and God’s thinking, who is going to win every time?
Paul warned Timothy about those who would come into the body causing strife and division and this is the sort of thing he was talking about.
“…nor…pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. 1 Tim 1:4
“But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.” 2 Tim 2:23
Why do they produce quarrels? Because the Word of God settles issues but the faulty thinking of men only confuses issues. It leads to idiotic speculation and stupid questions.
GETTING TO THE POINT
Notice that the first words out of the mouth of Jesus in response to their question is not the answer, but the observation that they are deceived and the reason they are deceived.
That is how to answer a contentious man. Expose his contentiousness. Don’t try to answer questions that do not deserve an answer. Don’t feel you are the one being attacked because truth is being attacked. Truth defends itself by virtue of the fact that it is truth.
“Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures, or the power of God?”
Don’t you just love it? “Well, you guys are badly deceived.” No, He didn’t say that. He puts it to them in question form as though they really should already have noticed themselves.
“Isn’t the reason you are in such error that you are ignorant of the very two things and the only two things that could set your thinking straight?”
They didn’t know the Scriptures.
Imagine saying that in this setting. Imagine going before a prestigious board of seminary professors and having them as a group trying to stump you with a hopefully unsolvable scenario in order to expose your ignorance, and you turn to the group and say, ‘Gentlemen, is not the reason you are so deceived because you don’t know your Bible and you are clueless about the power of God?’ I could have said this very thing and been correct, at the church I spoke of earlier. I simply knew I wasn’t going to change one mind there and they had already demonstrated unwillingness to hear me so I kept my peace.
But do you think that would rile them? I will assure you that the farther off base they are, the more quickly and explosively they will rile. That is the natural defensive reaction of those entrenched in faulty religion that is grounded in the thinking of men and not the thinking of God.
So His saying this must have made them sit up straight – if they were sitting – or snap to attention of they were standing. Here they were, the rich teachers of Israel, at least a segment of Israel, proud of who they were and what they represented and anxious to put this itinerate preacher in His place, and did He just say they were in error? They? Did He just have the audacity to say they were ignorant of the Scriptures?
Friends, I would venture a guess that they were probably more insulted by that statement than they were by the declaration that they were ignorant of the power of God.
People in false and faulty religion are never concerned about God or what He thinks or how He thinks or what He can or cannot do. In fact, they will always grossly underestimate Him because they do not know His ways. They do not know what He is about. They do not know Him and therefore do not care about Him.
But the knowledge base they think they have of the Bible in their head is a great source of pride to them and when you question that you stick your finger in their eye.
And I will assure you, Christ-followers, that there are people like this today, there are entire congregations like this today, there are groups in Bible Colleges and Seminaries like this today.
They have a form of religion but deny its power 2 Tim 3:5. They have a small god and a narrow belief system which they are willing to defend to the death and they are constantly asking stupid questions and making foolish speculations.
They cause division in the body and it is unfortunate when they are given air time in our worship services or in our fellowship.
THE ANSWER
Well Jesus actually answers their question. He is not stumped after all.
I won’t spend much time here, but there are a couple of comments that should be made. Let’s look freshly at verse 25.
25 “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
The first thing to catch our notice should be that Jesus has just spoken with the authority of God. I don’t know if they caught it or not at that moment, but who can speak of the state of someone after death with this kind of confidence but the One who has the power and authority over what is on the other side?
“When they rise from the dead…” He is about to tell them a fact of life after death. When they rise from the dead there is no such thing as marriage. What is marriage, fundamentally? It is a union and a partnership between two people of flesh, for companionship, for human sexual fulfillment and for procreation.
Of course we always hope there are much deeper dimensions to a marriage than that, I don’t mean to make marriage sound trite and shallow and mechanical, but fundamentally, those are the reasons people marry.
In Heaven will there be a want of companionship? I hardly think so. There will be perfect unity with God and with the angels and with all the resurrected citizens of that glorious place.
Will there be a need for sexual fulfillment? No, we will be in glorified bodies and there will no longer be procreation. That is what Jesus meant when He said they are like the angels.
And this is the other thing I wanted to say about this verse. Jesus wasn’t teaching that when we die we become angels. The angels are angels and we are not. He was teaching that we will be like the angels in the glorified state of not having a need for the physical pleasures we enjoy now, nor will we have the physical restrictions we have now. And don’t miss the fact that in this comparison also He was refuting their lack of belief in angels, and He was doing so in a simple, matter of fact statement regarding their existence.
So they now have the answer to their stupid question, so He goes back as Jesus always does, to the real issue.
GOD OF THE LIVING
“But regarding the fact that the dead rise again…” The fact that the dead rise again. Once more He speaks with divine authority. That’s twice now that He has hit on the issue that is the sore spot between them and the Pharisees.
In their hypocrisy, when they asked their question, and in their attempt to trick Him, they didn’t ask in sincerity, “We don’t believe in a resurrection, which you know, so if you do believe in one, how could this problem be resolved?” They weren’t asking an honest question here, truly wanting to learn. They tried to sneak it in under the door, so to speak.
Here is this long scenario, now in the resurrection who is she going to be married to? They were clearly ridiculing the whole idea of resurrection.
Y’know what? I have a feeling if that woman had been a real person and was hearing this conversation, when Jesus said there would be no marriage in the resurrection she might have cried out, “Hallelujah!”
In any case, as I say, again He gets to the point, and He does so with Scripture.
Ex 3:1-6
“Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Do you think the account of the burning bush was familiar to these Jews? I will tell you most assuredly that it was! This was the moment God called His man out of the wilderness to deliver His people from the hand of Pharaoh and bring them up out of Egypt.
So when He asks, ‘have you not read’, He doesn’t mean to ask if they’ve ever read it. He’s asking if they’ve ever really seen what is there and considered the content.
There is something there in the Exodus text also that I don’t want to skip by today without notice. To Moses the angel of the Lord said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He began with Moses’ own father. What a comforting assurance for a true believer, to have confirmed from the Lord’s own mouth that ‘Dad’ is there with Him, alive and very, very well, and that he’ll see him again.
Can we be certain this is an overt reference to the fact that Moses’ father is in Heaven? We can. Listen to Hebrews 11:23
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”
What made them hide their baby? Fear? No! Faith! They didn’t fear the king’s edict, they reverenced God.
And we don’t have the specific statement of this in scripture, but Moses’ decision later in life to be identified with God’s people and reject the passing pleasures of sin speaks of some Godly instruction in his youth, doesn’t it?
People, the Living God is God of the living. He is not dead and He is not God of the dead.
He is not the God of the spiritually dead in this world, He is not the God of faulty religion and stupid questions.
He is the God of the living and to the living He provides answers to our sincere questions with His Word, and gladly so. It’s why He gave it to us.
Do you believe in the resurrection? Really? Does that sound like a strange question to ask of Christians? I wonder how much thought the average Christian today gives to his future rising from the dead.
In our churches and in our Christian fellowships and associations is there so much empty speculation and the asking of stupid questions going around that we’re too busy to stop and recognize that God in flesh spoke matter of factly about angels and about resurrection and His divine awareness of the other side; and that from human lips He declared the ancient faithful to be alive and well?
That is significant, believer in Christ. That is deeply significant for you and me today because contracted in that short list He gave to Moses and repeated to the Sadducees is every one in history who has lived by faith that God is the rewarder of those who seek Him and that He is able to raise the dead.
That means anyone you know who has gone on before you as a believer and it also means you.
He said these things to them and less than a week later He demonstrated the fact as the first fruit of the resurrection.
These men were in error. They were, in His words, greatly deceived. There was no need to be. The Scriptures and God’s own demonstration of His power in their history and even in the books of Moses, which they claimed to believe, should have circumvented any chance of deception if they had studied with eyes and hearts of faith.
Don’t be deceived, Christian, and don’t be drawn into getting stuck on some favorite religious sacred cow so that you forget your Scriptures and the power of your God.
He is able to call into being that which does not exist, and He is able to raise the dead, and He is indeed the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses’ own father, and all those who have gone before in faith are living proof, testified to by God’s own mouth.
So believe, and rejoice, and anticipate your coming glorification. It is not far away at all, and so there is absolutely no reason, to be sad, you see.
