Passage: Matthew 22:23-33
Intro: Christians have been portrayed down thru the years as “Bible-thumpers”.
Il) there is an “I hate Bible- Thumpers” page on Facebook.
1. in many ways, it is a compliment.
2. means that we draw our authority, our wisdom, from the Bible.
3. this morning we are going to take a look at the greatest Bible-Thumper of all time!
4. He is under attack once again, this time by academic theologians
5. and his response is again amazing to those who were there.
6. in this passage, Jesus reveals the cause of man’s darkness and the source of wisdom
7. and then He uses that source to teach us what we need to know.
8. in the context of hostility, Jesus calmly and clearly dissects the root problem and shows us the clear solution.
I. The Foundational Mistake Humans Make: Not Listening to God.
1. the Sadducees were an interesting group
2. Jewish leaders, highly educated, the “theological liberals” of Judaism.
3. as v23 states: “who say there is no resurrection.”
4. we might call the “anti- supernatural”
5. believed in God, to be sure, but clearly more focused on what could be proven, “empiricists”
6. long running feud with Pharisees on the topic of resurrection.
7. when Paul on trial before Sanhedrin years later, he threw the proceedings into turmoil when he claimed to be on trial because he believed in resurrection and angels.
PP Acts 23:8-9
8. they had developed a hypothetical question about the resurrection that had probably worked with the Pharisees in the past.
9. involved marriage and the Law.
10. but Jesus cuts to the heart of the issue.
11. their question revealed their foundational error. V29
12. you are wandering, (planets) in error, why?
13. because you have not taken the revelation of God in Scripture seriously. And when that happens….
14. you look at things from an earthly point of view, as if what you see here is all there is.
Il) the basis of atheism is the rejection of God’s revelation.
15. or you make up other gods to explain what you don’t understand; gods you can manipulate
PP Mother Tree in Mongolia.
16. the biggest mistake a person can make is to ignore or treat lightly the words of God contained in Scripture.
17. and that ignorance also caused them to reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
18. and then what passes for “wisdom” is the kind of question that the Sadducees came up with.
19. and the blind then applaud the darkness, and congratulate themselves on how intelligent they are.
20. and Jesus says, “You are wandering the darkness because you have chosen to disregard the light.”
21. but there is an alternative.
II. Where Jesus Got His Wisdom
1. now we might immediately think he already had it!
2. but it is incredibly instructive that Jesus went to Scripture.
3. and He did this all the time. He was a Bible Thumper!!
4. He knew from Scripture that at the resurrection, things were going to be very different.
PP Isaiah 65:17, 25
5. God will make all things new, and the Sadducees had the Scripture to teach them that.
6. if we will read it and understand, we will be able to draw conclusions from it.
7. starts with acceptance of it as the source of God’s wisdom.
8. and He knows everything.
9. if Jesus went to the Bible to find truth, we should as well.
III. Some Truth to Take With Us
1. as we saw last week, this hostile questioning is used as a springboard to teach truth.
2. and Jesus, correctly interpreting God’s word, give us truth about two issues.
3. first, eternity in going to be very different, and things like marriage will no longer be needed.
4. marriage is a wonderful creation, given for wonderful fellowship and for procreation.
5. it is a completion of a need God saw in men, but in heaven, all needs have been perfectly filled by God
6. in heaven, fellowship with everyone, no babies conceived or born.
7. new bodies, no time, no sin, no fear, no tears, no unmet expectations.
8. much of what we have on earth is based on need.
9. but in heaven with God, we don’t even need the Sun!
PP Revelation 21:22-23
10. secondly, there really is a resurrection.
11. this was the real motive behind the original question about marriage.
12. OT has plenty of references to it.
PP Daniel 12:2
PP Isaiah 26:19
13. and of course the NT has many references.
PP Revelation 20:13
14. and don’t you think that it was a powerful challenge to these doubters when Jesus rose from the dead?
15. and these truths are drawn not just from this passage, but are the clear teaching of Scripture.
Conc. To believe it or not, that is a vital question.
1. these Sadducees chose not to believe, and were left with nothing.
2. Jesus believed and calls us to do the same.
3. the evidence is mountainous, the evidence is clear.
4. and God will hold us accountable for how we responded to His revelation.
