This sermon was delivered during Evening Song at Holy Trinity, Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 6th November 2016; Holy Trinity is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for tonight are: Philippians 3:15-18 Luke 20:27-40
Please join me in a short prayer from Psalms 19:14, and ” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Amen.
Introduction
Tonight’s readings are contrary to last weeks reading on Zacchaeus, wherein the subject or topic of death and the life thereafter is not well known, nor is it readily discussed. In fact it is a very difficult topic as none of us has died, went to heaven and returned to tell the tale, except that is, for Jesus. …
No other religion, no other religious creator has ever claimed to have conquered death, yet most religions have their own afterlife, that is if they believe in an afterlife, but the subject of death is not for the faint hearted, … as some of the answers are simply not what we want to hear, so be prepared. … So in that light, feel free to disagree with me, … do not get upset, I will respect your views, however I will be basing everything I say, as I do in all my sermons, on what the bible says, and not what I want to believe.
So here goes, … I will start by saying that it is becoming more obvious, and more understandable that many people today, in this modern scientific age, simply refuse to believe in life after death. We hear it more often, they tend to say things like, an afterlife cannot be proved, when we die, we die, and that is it; … they force themselves into believing that “what they see is what they get”, and conclude that they must make the most of it.
And this worries me, because it becomes increasingly difficult to encourage these people to believe in a God who rose from the dead, instead … they develop their own religion or non religion, which centres on themselves, with everything else being a matter of conscience.
Personally speaking, I find this attitude difficult to take, because I believe that it takes more faith to deny the existence of a God, than it does to accept that there is a God in heaven; … and if we were to suddenly deny the existence of God, then our whole philosophy of life changes. … Without our Lord, we would totally ignore the rights of others and start living purely for ourselves, … and, I can say without contradiction, that I have lived that, but I thank God everyday, that I will never live like that again, because when we take our minds of ourselves, the world open up for us. … You see, our attitude towards our God, or another God, or the non existence of God, … is fundamental on who we are, and how we live our lives. Our attitude and values in life as Christians therefore, are based very deep down within us, ... we believe in a joyous life after our death, … and this then seriously sets us apart from other religions.
Now you will be saying, most religions do refer to an afterlife, an alternative heaven, and you are right, … whether it be a Nirvana, or Jannah, or a Valhalla, or an Elysium or a Tir Na Nog, or what ever; they all have a heaven of sorts, (and there are thousands of them), and like us, their belief in their heaven, determines how they live.
One of the extreme examples that you know off is the Muslim terrorists who believe that they will be given 72 virgins in Jannah, the Muslim heaven, for certain acts of terrorism, … and I say this to help you understand that whatever we believe about heaven, … controls what we do in this life; it this therefore is a serious topic.
Now, I am going to slip in a wee gospel message here, … all these other religions, all of them, have a similar way entering them, and that is normally by living a good and wholesome life, or doing some kind of good or heroic deeds, or some kind of charitable works, whereas in Christianity, … and in only Christianity, … we believe that the only way to enter heaven is to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord, … our believe in Jesus gets us into heaven, and not by striving to impress our Lord by our good works.
I love Acts 2:21 which says, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. We will enter heaven because of him, or not at all, … there is no other way.
So if we are committed to Jesus as our Lord, we can then rely his many scriptures to examine this realm more closely, … so we will start with verse 33 of tonight’s reading where the Sadducees bluntly asked Jesus a question on our resurrection, they asked, “whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife”.
You see, these Sadducees have gotten together, and said, “he calls himself the sons of God, let us make a question up that he cannot answer, … and that will shut him up”. … And so they do, … it was a very cunningly question devised by the Sadducees, because the Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in a resurrection, nor in angels nor in spirits. … In fact they only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament, (the Pentateuch), … they were really a political group, schooled in the Law, and they knew that Deuteronomy 25:5-6 said “if a man’s married brother died without leaving an heir, then he must marry the widow”.
These verses therefore was at the heart of that trick question, a question that according to “the Pentateuch”, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers), … was impossible to answer.
You see, … these Sadducees were not interested only trying to outsmart Jesus; … they did not believe in an after life, … they weren’t searching for the truth, … they were only interested in discrediting Jesus, and rubbishing the whole ideas of the resurrection from the dead.
And can you see that just like people today, these Sadducees were simply realists, and all they could see was a life that ended at death, … and they accepted that; just like people today. … And do you notice, that these people today, spend a lifetime trying to ignore the subject death, … whereas in Christianity, … we spend a lifetime in preparation for death and the world to come.
Jesus really need a good answer here, their minds were so closed, so in verse 34 he says, … “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. … But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; … nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”.
Now this answer is quite complex, and I am not going to read it again, but the secret to this answer lies in two separate time phrases: which are “this age” and “that age”, and how the two ages are so different. The kingdom of God or heaven is described as “that age”, whereas we in this world are described as “this age”.
From that key, Jesus can then explained that the first, life and relationships in the kingdom of heaven will be on a very different level from life and relationships on this earth, … so different in fact that it is difficult if not impossible to compare, and the second, … that the kingdom of heaven is not for everyone, … some will be going somewhere else.
In the first, on heaven and earth, Jesus highlights three crucial differences:
1. The first is that there is no marriage in “that age”, … there is no procreation in heaven, … because life in heaven is so much more than what we have on earth today, … but notice that Jesus did not say that we would not know our wives or husbands in heaven, but hinted at the fact that that our relationships would be completely different, and that we should not concern ourselves.
2. Secondly, did you notice that there was “no death in the age to come”, there is no death in heaven, … it is eternal, Jesus said, “nor can they die anymore”; … and other scriptures tells us, that there is no pain in heaven either. Revelations 21:4 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever”; ... and as you know, this is a popular scripture used at funerals.
3. And this brings us onto the third thing that Jesus said, and this is even more mystifying, “they shall be like angels”, … and I will take a minute to explain this point, because there is a lot of confusion about the relationship between men and angels. Jesus said in verse 36, … “for they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”.
… Now some people think that angels are our dead reborn; in fact we are brought up to believe that from media of Television and Films. … I mean, look at the film, “It’s a wonderful life” with Clarence “trying to earn his angels wings”; you know, the film with James Stewart we see every Christmas, … people actually believe that, … and although I prefer the Great Escape myself, … the bible is very clear, … that we humans are also created beings, … but created beings created on this earth, … whereas Angels are create somewhere else in the heavens.
And the point Jesus is making here is that Angels and us humans, although coming from completely different backgrounds will be similar in heaven, both worshiping, serving and praising God, and we like the angels, will become equally glorified and eternal.
Our bodies too will be transformed, … 1 Corinthians 15:42 and I paraphrase, our bodies were “sown in corruption; but raised in incorruption: … They were sown in dishonour; but raised in glory: … sown in weakness; and raised in power”. Our bodies too will be resurrected, but in a much glorified but resurrected form; … and I suppose, (and I don’t know for sure), but I assume it will be in a similar manner that Jesus received his resurrection body in heaven. … Do you remember when Jesus told Martha and Mary not to “touch him”, just after he rose from the dead, as he hadn’t “ascended to his Father”, where he would have received his heavenly body, … a body that the disciples would later recognise, and in the case of Thomas, allowed to touch, his wounds.
After death, our human spirits will be joined to our new heavenly bodies, and we will be healthier and happier, … and according to the book of revelations we will have a purpose, … worshiping the lamb upon the throne.
However, for from this high, we descend to the second great truth that Jesus revealed, … and that is the truth that not everyone will be going to the same place. … This is pretty strong, it is upsetting and unpopular, because verse 35 tells us that only “those who are counted worthy to attain “that age”, and the resurrection from the dead …”, and we know that will not be everyone.
Not everyone will be resurrected into everlasting life in heaven, because if some are to be counted worthy, then it follows that some will not, they will be counted unworthy. … It is obvious therefore that this highlights those who are saved, … and although I do not like that expression “saved”, it still means the same thing, it means those “who can call Jesus their Lord, and those who love to worship him”.
And notice too, that verse says, the “resurrection from the dead”, … it did not say the “resurrection of the dead”. There is a big difference between these two small words, because the bible tells us that everyone, ... everyone, will be “resurrected from the dead”, … but not everyone, will be “raised to eternal life” which is “resurrection of the dead”. Do you see the subtle difference?
The resurrection of the dead is clearly quoted in the Bible, most noticeably in Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2, and also in Job 19 from verse 25. ..
[ Isaiah 26:19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead”.
Daniel 12:2 “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt”.
Job 19:25-26 “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: … And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” ]
I will not quote these verses, although they are familiar to us, but these verses were unknown to the Sadducees who as I said earlier, only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament, yet, … yet, Jesus was still able to appealed to them by quoting Exodus 3:6, which we read in verse 37 of tonight’s reading, where Jesus said, “But even Moses showed in the burning bush that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord the ‘God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,’ … for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him”.
You see, it is was all there for the Sadducees, if they were truly interested… and Jesus knew fine well they were “at it”, … so he used their own trick question against them, proving the resurrection of the dead, … he turned Exodus 3 verse 6 to the present tense, and said in verse 29, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”, … and as you can see, this can only make sense if those mention had been resurrected. … Jesus had used their own logic, and knowledge of the law, … to prove life after death; … it was quite clear really.
In finishing, verses 39 and 40, gives us the conclusion of tonight’s passage, … “Then some of the Sadducees answered and said, ‘Teacher, You have spoken well.’ … after that they dared not question Him anymore”. … I wouldn’t either, … because our God is greater than death itself, and God has assured us that we will all be raised from the dead, however, some will be raised to praise and worship the him, … whereas others will raised to go somewhere else.
Hopefully now, you will understand every word now of Paul in Philippians 3:18-21, which we read this evening, … “that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. … They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. … But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Saviour. … He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control”. … It all makes sense.
In preparing this sermon, I myself have been uncomfortable with some of these passages: … they are difficult to understand; … they can be difficult to accept; … they are not fully comprehensive, meaning that they leave many questions unanswered, … and they really made me think, … however I take comfort in believing that our Lord has brought us this far, despite our faults.
I take comfort in Acts 11:14m “Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved”. This verse provides comfort for a lot of people, did you notice, “all thy house shall be saved”, some translations put it “you and your family will be saved”.
It all matter whether you believe in “Grace after Death”, which I do, but … I also take comfort in knowing that our God is a God of love, … and I take comfort in knowing that our God is a God of Grace and mercy, … and if you read and study the bible, you will see that from the very beginning to the very end, … our God lavishes his grace and mercy throughout, … and I therefore have no reason what-so-ever to believe that his grace will come to an end; … as we say in Psalm 136, verse one, every week, … “O give thanks to the LORD; for he is good: … and his mercy endures for ever”.
Amen.
May God bless us with these gracious words, please join me in a short prayer.
Let us pray.
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank that he came to this earth as a human being and lived as we do. We thank you that he was allowed to suffer as we do, and that he died the same death as every other human being.
Father, we do not know how, but we thank you that Jesus was raised from the dead, … to be at your right hand in heaven, … and we thank you most of all, that he did this to show us the way, … to show us that death has lost its sting, … and that we have a whole new life to look forward to with you in heaven.
Father for now, we can only imagine this heaven, we can only believe in your word, but Father I ask you tonight that you reveal to us just how much you want us to be with you in heaven, that is, … after our work on this earth is complete.
Father we ask that you bless us, guide us, and prepare us for our new home with you. We ask humbly in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
