Q Who knows the definition of the word “skeptic”?
-it means to be disbelieving or unbelieving in regards to something
-When I person says “I find that hard to believe” they are being skeptical
-the attitude of the skeptic is “prove it to me” “change my mind”
-other words for skepticism (which come from Roget’s pocket thesaurus) include: doubt, unbelief, incredulity, rationalism, atheism
When it comes to God’s word there are a lot of skeptics. When it comes to the teachings of God’s word there are a lot of skeptics.
The average person of today does not believe in the God of the scriptures.
The average person today does not believe that the Bible is true
Often in our witnessing today we have to start at ground zero: speaking of evidences for God’s existence, speaking of evidences for the Bible being trustworthy. It’s because people are skeptical. It’s also because of sin and the work of the Devil who has blinded the minds of unbelievers and who themselves suppress the self evident truth’s which God displays everywhere as to his nature and power and existence. (Rom. 1, II Cor. 4, Psalm 19)
Jesus had to deal with skeptics all the time. His main opponents were the religious leaders in the land of Israel-the Pharisees, the Sadduccees. For the most part they refused to acknowledge that he was the promised Savior, spoken of in the OT scriptures. For the most part they rejected his teachings and exposition of the true meanings of the scriptures. They even rejected the supernatural proofs he gave- his miracles, asserting that it was the Devil working thru him.
In Matt. 22:23-33 we bump into the Sadduccees. Big time skeptics in respect to the Bible’s teaching regarding the resurrection of the dead.
Sadducees
-wealthy, powerful, controlled the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish court)
-controlled the high priesthood
-disliked by the average Jewish person, in cahoots with the Romans
-arrogant and known to be pushy and rude people
-denied the afterlife, denied the existence of angels, downplayed the supernatural acts of God, denied the resurrection of the dead
-rationalists. When it comes to God, rationalists are people who try to fit God into their own mold of reasoning. What rationalists can’t understand by their logic they dismiss. What it really is about is an elevated view of oneself and intellectual capacities. What is forgotten is the scriptures wherein God says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” Isa. 55:8-9
-the Sadduccees would never be able to sing the song that we sometimes do in S.S and mean. “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do”. The Sadduccess conception of God was a God whom they had reduced to fitting into their way of reasoning. This is the same thing that happens today. People try to fit God into their way of thinking. God is shrunk to fit into what people think God can reasonable do. All the while what is forgotten is that we have finite minds, limited understanding, and that we have been stained by sin.
God and what he can do or not do is not for us to define out of our heads. The scriptures define for us who God is and what he can do and does.
The strange thing is that the Sadducees claimed the OT as the words of God. Yet what Jesus makes quite clear to them is that they are in error as to their interpretation and knowledge of it. What Jesus ends up doing is proving to them from the scriptures they claimed to believe that their skepticism regarding God and his ability and the resurrection of the dead is completely unfounded and corrupt.
READ TEXT
This is a very strange text because what generally captures our attention most vividly is Jesus’ teaching that in Heaven there will be no marriage. For the bulk of this week that is what my emphasis was going to be in this sermon. I was so captivated by Jesus’ words that I was all set to do a topical sermon regarding “Things that won’t be in Heaven” with this text being the centrepiece of the sermon. You see, the bulk of my attention was caught by the wrong thing (this is something we must be careful of in studying the scriptures) The main emphasis of our text is not the truth that in Heaven there will be no marriage. Indeed it’s in our text and the truth needs to be proclaimed yet the main emphasis of our text regards the reality of the resurrection of the dead.
The Sadducees considered the idea that those who had died, those whom were long rotted in the grave would come back to life to be a ridiculous and preposterous idea.
The Pharisees had just come to Jesus to try to trap him in his own words and so condemn himself. They failed. Now it’s the Sadducees turn. They come to Jesus riding their favorite hobby horse—their belief that death is the end of ones existence, their belief that there is no resurrection of the dead. Oddly enough they suppose that the scriptures support their belief (that happens to us at times to. We have beliefs at times which we suppose that the scriptures support)
To try to make the idea of the resurrection of the dead appear to be a ridiculous belief they make up a hypothetical situation based upon Deut. 25:5ff.
“Teacher” false respect
“Moses told us”
-important to note that they viewed the words of Moses to be completely authoritative.
-Moses was the one to whom God gave the law. The regulations for how life in the Promised land was to be lived
The hypothetical situation based on Deut. 25:5ff
Things to note:
1. They were affirming the teaching of Deut. 25:5ff
“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel”
-goal: the preservation of that man’s name in the land, all to do with the land that was given them by God
2. They don’t believe in the ress.
-there thinking was that if the res. were true the rel. described would be hard to sort out in Heaven and quite impossible. Therefore in their rational and logical minds there is not such thing as a resurrection or continued existence after death because of such potential absurdities that exist.
Thus they thought they had the perfect argument against the notion of a continued existence after death or of the resurrection of the dead.
JESUS’ REBUTTAL
Here we see how does Jesus deals with these skeptics
Here we see how Jesus deals with these ones who claim the scriptures and in particular Moses as authoritative and their guide for life and doctrine.
“You are in error”
-you have been led astray
-you don’t get it
-you are wrong
Here’s why you are wrong about the resurrection not being a reality
1. You do not know the Scriptures
2. You do not know or rather acknowledge the power of God
3. At the resurrection there will be nor marrying or marriage because people’s bodies will be different then there are now. People’s way of life will be like that of the angels.
A threefold rebuttal
To these whose basis is rationalism and logic Jesus responds in kind with a logical and sound rebuke
“you do not know the Scriptures”
-you are in error as to your interpretations of God’s word
-you don’t know God’s words as well as you profess
-sure they were students of God’s word but they were students who came to God’s word with a fixed bias. They came to it with an agenda. They came to it with a set of beliefs about God and life which they elevated over God’s word. Q Are we ever guilty of this?
Check out v.31-32. They are very important verses.
1. We see very clearly how Jesus viewed the OT scriptures that existed in that day. The OT scriptures that we have a copy of today in our Bibles.
-viewed them to be what? THE WORDS OF GOD!! Not the words of a man or a woman, but the words of God and hence authoritative.
-Jesus quoted from every OT book except one. This shows us that he with out a doubt viewed the OT to be the words of God. That’s affirming for us today and gives us confidence that the Bible we have today has not been corrupted or is not false. Jesus continually affirmed the OT scriptures and viewed them as authoritative in his teachings.
2. We see Jesus proving the Sadducees wrong in respect to the resurrection of the dead by referring them to Moses.
-they revered Moses and viewed themselves as his disciples
-they would have considered Moses to hold the same beliefs as they did.
Jesus takes them back to a experience Moses had with God that they would have been very familiar with. He takes them back to the burning bush encounter Moses had with God. Jesus quotes from Exod. 3:6 and proves to them beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are wrong when it comes to their not believing in the resurrection and hence a continued existence and life after death.
Q Why does the verse Jesus quotes prove them wrong?
1. God worded himself as continuing to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
-God didn’t say “I used to be the God of ….”
-God didn’t say “When they were alive and existing I was there God”
Rather, in his appearance to Moses God said “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob” The point being: they continue to exist and live, albeit absent from the body and yet present with the Lord
Jesus could have used any number of OT verses to prove that people continue to exist after their physical death. He could have used many verses to prove that a future resurrection coming.
Daniel 12:1-2 “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people, everyone whose name is found written in the book –will be delivered. Mulititudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt”
Job 19:26-27 “And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes, I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me.”
2ND REASON WHY THEY WRONG ABOUT THERE NOT BEING ANY RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD OR CONTINUED EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH
“They do not know the power of God”
-Jesus is dealing with ones who doubt the power of God. They have put God into a little box and set limits upon what God can do. God is limited to what they can conceive he can do. God is limited to what their rationality dictates he can do.
Sometimes we are not so innocent as we think in this matter. Sure, we affirm God can do anything that is his will, yet our lack of faith betrays us at times and we doubt God and his power.
In our culture today people don’t want to believe in an all powerful God because to do so would mean to give themselves wholeheartedly in service to him. That would require their repentance and confession of guilt- something people aren’t to do.
In respect to the “power of God” the scriptures tell us this
-we are to proclaim Ps. 68
-the heavens declare it (yet people subvert the known truth)
-I Cor. 6:14 “by his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also”
-God is all powerful “power is vast” Job. 9:4
-God’s power has been repeatedly demonstrated and still is today. The problem is hard hearts and skeptical disbelief.
-consider what God said to Pharaoh through Moses “For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Exod. 9:14-15
The reason the Sadducees didn’t belief in continued existence after death or in the resurrection of the dead was because they didn’t believe that God was powerful enough to do such things. Yet that denies all that the scriptures teach.
The OT and NT repeatedly teaches that on the day of Jesus’ 2nd coming that all those who have lived will be reconstituted physically. Doesn’t matter that a person has rotted in the ground, been cremated, been lost at sea. None of that matters for God has the power to raise the dead back to life. On that great day the wicked in their reconstituted bodies are judged and will be sent to an eternity in Hell to be punished for their wickedness and evil committed against God. On that great day we who are the children of God will receive the long awaited resurrection body.
A body described in I Cor. 15 and II Cor. 5. as imperishable, built by God, a spiritual body, and glorious, a body that different is quality than the one we know possess.
A few Sunday’s ago we considered II Cor. 5:1-10. In it we considered Paul’s longings to be clothed with this new body. We considered Paul’s longings to be with the Lord and the truth that to die is to go and be with Jesus. We considered the truth that in Heaven we will be in these new bodies. One thing we did not discuss was the timing of our receiving the new body. The scriptures seem to indicate to us that we get these new bodies at the 2nd coming of Christ. In the meantime those who have died in the Lord have gone to be with Jesus. They are with the Savior. They see Jesus as he is. They are free of sin and its consequences, they are free of temptations, there characters have been perfected. They are enjoying the blessings of God and his presence. Consider Psalm 16:11 “In thy presence is fulness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures forever.” Yet it appears that they await with us for the new bodies that the Lord will graciously give at the coming of Jesus.
THE LAST REASON THE SADDUCEES ARE WRONG ABOUT THE RESURRECTION AND ITS REALITY IS THAT IN THEIR REASONINGS THEY FAILED TO UNDERSTAND OR TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THAT LIFE IN HEAVEN IS NOT GOING TO BE JUST AS IT IS HERE ON EARTH.
This principle should be no surpise to us.
An EXAMPLE: the institution of marriage will no longer be necessary and will no longer exist.
Marriage and it’s intended functions are no longer needed in Heaven.
-don’t need to reproduce any more to continue the race
-the one flesh unity of husband and wife is perfectly transcended by spiritual unity we have share with the Lord and all believers.
CONCLUSION
Jesus left the crowds who heard him speak in awe. The words of God had been proclaimed to them that day. The Sadducean skeptics could only but hang their heads in shame. Jesus proved the skeptics wrong. He beat them at their own game.
The OT scriptures they supposedly abided by were used to prove to them that a person continues to exist after death. The scriptures were used to prove that there will be a ressurection of all who have lived.
Truth’s to take home
1. When consider the power of God it is no problem for him to reconstitute the dead and give us who are his children the heavenly and imperishable bodies the scriptures promise
2. We need to be continually searching, studying, learning, meditating upon the scriptures. They are the words of God and for us who desire answers in respect to the things of God and what he can do and who he is, it is our only source
3. Be on guard ourselves against taking our biases and pre conceived ideas to the scriptures. Scripture is to shape our beliefs. We are not to take our beliefs to the scriptures and shape the scriptures to fit.
4. Life in heaven is going to be different than life here on earth. We should expect a few differences. One difference is that the institution of marriage amongst us will have been transcended and no longer needed. There will be no married couples in heaven. The only marriage image in heaven for us to ponder is that the church is considered the bride of Christ and that we are spiritually one with Christ and God.
5. There is always going to be skeptics. There will always be those who mock the self evident truths of God to their own judgment. We are told to reason with people. There are many reasons and proofs for the existence of God and for the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the scriptures.
-we are told to be faithful and to present Jesus as Savior and Lord, as the one alone who can forgive sins.
-we need to pray for those who are skeptical at this point. God overcame our objections to him and he’s not done working with people yet. He can overcome the skepticism of any person as his Holy Spirit does the work of conviction in a person’s life.
So: The main point: The reality of the resurrection. Resurrection day is coming, the Bible teaches it and God’s got the power to do it.
