Matt 22:23-33 GOD OF THE RESURRECTION
Today we are going to talk about a subject that is relevant to all of us, and that is the resurrection of life.
• Something that we have not experienced yet but will, someday, because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
• Jesus saved us from sin and death and in Christ, we shall all be raised again to life and be with Him forever.
Who can assure us that the resurrection is real? No one except God, the Author of life.
• And the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who Himself was raised to life again on the 3rd day after His death.
• No man can assure us of the resurrection because we are all mortal and we dwell on this side of heaven.
• No one who died has returned to tell us of the resurrection of life, except Jesus Christ.
Jesus gave us this promise in John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
• In Christ, we can be very assured of our resurrection to eternal life with God.
• “Do you believe this?” Jesus asked.
Not the Sadducees, which we read in the passage this morning (from Matt 22).
• They were a religious group in Jesus’ time that refused to believe in the resurrection of the dead. Luke tells us in Acts 23:8 that they also do not believe in angels or spirits.
• They were a liberal sect that did not believe in anything supernatural.
Like all the other religious groups - the Pharisees and the Herodians that we read in the passage before – the Sadducees too came against Jesus.
• They wanted to ridicule Him and discredit His teachings. They came with a question to trap Jesus, knowing that He teaches the resurrection.
22:24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.”
• This is the Jewish law of the Levirate marriage taken from the Law of Moses in Deut 25:5-10.
• It was a Jewish practice, designed to ensure that a deceased Israelite would have a descendant to carry on the family name.
This practice now provided the Sadducees the opportunity to ridicule Jesus about His teaching on the resurrection.
So they came up with an unreal and exaggerated story of a woman whose husband died and the husband’s brother (Latin levir) married her.
• But he died too and so another brother took his place. This unfortunate situation repeated itself with the third brother, and the fourth, down to the seventh.
• Finally, all died, including the woman. So now, if there is a resurrection, then “Whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” (22:28)
This is not a serious question, coming from the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection in the first place. It was meant to ridicule the truth about resurrection.
• We know what they are getting at. How do you decide which man is the true husband of the woman? It is odd for all of them to be her husband, but all of them married her. See how ridiculous it is if there is a resurrection?
We know that the story is exaggerated. We do not need to have 7 brothers to make the point, just 3 will do. They blow up the case on purpose.
And it is quite unreal because if we are one of the brothers toward the end of the line and notice our brothers dying off one by one and we are next in line and soon be forced to marry the woman, then we will likely get ourselves out of the situation quickly by finding someone else to marry and get away!
Anyway, the Sadducees presented this absurd story to Jesus.
• So at the resurrection, “Whose wife will she be?” (22:28) They thought they had Jesus cornered because any answer to this question would be ridiculous.
Jesus took the question, turned the table around and corrected them.
• 22:29 Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
• 22:30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
• “You asked the wrong question. There is no marriage in heaven.”
The Sadducees were wrong in TWO aspects, Jesus said:
(1) they did not know the SCRIPTURES, and (2) they did not know the POWER of God.
• And that’s a mistake we must not repeat today. We do not want to be ignorant and deceived.
• We believe in the WORD of God and we believe God is powerful enough to raise the dead. Can God not raise the dead if He is the Author and Creator of life?
The answer Jesus gave points us to TWO keys to understanding the afterlife – believe in the SCRIPTURES and know the POWER of God.
• It is not about what you or I think, or what people say about the afterlife.
• It is about what God has said in His WORD and revealed by His POWER (and the clearest demonstration of that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ).
1. Key to Understanding the Resurrection: KNOW THE SCRIPTURES
The Sadducees’ understanding was limited and misguided.
• They interpreted the Scriptures only from an earthly perspective, from what they can understand and experience. They reject everything supernatural.
Jesus corrected them, quoting from Exodus because that’s from the first five books of Moses that they believe in. They only regard the Torah (Pentateuch) as authoritative.
• Jesus quoted the declaration of God to Moses in Exodus 3:6, when God appeared to him in the burning bush: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exo 3:6)
The tense used was in the present tense (difficult to see in the Chinese text).
• When God said this, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had already died long time ago.
• Yet God spoke as if they were alive. He said, “I am their God”, not “I WAS their God”.
• The truth is, they might have died physically but their relationship with God did not end with their death.
• God is still their God because they are “around”. They may be in a different realm beyond death but they are still in His presence.
We see that in Jesus’ transfiguration in Matt 17 when Peter, James and John saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus. The disciples recognised them.
• Jesus tells the Sadducees, “He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (22:32)
The resurrection is not an extension of life on earth. Heaven is unlike the earth.
• Jesus says, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (22:30)
• There will be no need for marriage because there will be no death. It is not necessary to bear children to replace those who die.
John wrote in Rev 21:3-4
3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
The Scripture affirms the afterlife. There is a resurrection and an eternal life with God.
• There is life after death. Jesus said it and proved it in His resurrection.
• We will be transformed and given a resurrected body that is imperishable and glorious. The Word of God says so (cf. 1 Cor 15:54)
2. Key to Understanding the Resurrection: KNOW THE POWER OF GOD
The second failure of the Sadducees was their ignorance of God’s power.
• They underestimated God’s ability to transform and renew life.
If God is the Author of life, then it is not too difficult for us to believe that He can “re-create” life, which He did, when He made us alive in Christ and raised us up with Him.
• Eph 2:4-6 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — 6and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…
The resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees ours. We will be raised because Jesus has been raised.
• Our resurrection in Christ is as certain as the resurrection of Jesus.
• Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, not even death or anything in all creation. (Rom 8:38) We shall see Him face to face.
CONCLUSION
We do not need to speculate about the resurrection.
• God has already revealed it in His Word and shown us by His power when Jesus was raised.
Do not repeat the mistakes of the Sadducees and limit our understanding to the confines of human reasoning and experience.
• God is transcendent and more powerful than we think. His Word is true and proven to be true. His power was seen in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• We can trust God for our future. Our life, death and afterlife are in the hands of God.
• We have nothing to fear except our unbelief.
Dear friends, you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ. He is our Saviour who died for our sins and gave us forgiveness and an eternal life with God.
• He is our only hope of knowing God and returning home to heaven.
• There is no other way. You can believe in Jesus today and be reconciled to God.
Dear church, may the words of Jesus give us faith and hope.
• Our life on earth is short and temporary, and we will have to leave everything behind.
• But we have a glorious future in heaven. Let us live always with that end in mind.
Let me close this illustration:
TWINS CONVERSATION IN THE WOMB
The twins FAITH and HOPE were having a conversation in the mother’s womb. Although their world is small, it is filled with the gentle sounds of their mother’s heartbeat and the occasional muffled voices from the outside world.
HOPE asked, “Brother, do you ever wonder what life will be like when we leave this place?”
Her brother, FAITH, paused for a moment and said, “I can't quite imagine it. What do you think it's like?”
“I think it must be full of light. You know how sometimes we see a faint glow? I believe that's a hint of the world to come. It must be a place where everything is bright and beautiful.”
FAITH agrees. “Yes, I’ve felt the warmth too. I imagine there will be more colours than what we see here."
HOPE smiled at the thought. “And we shall meet the one who carries us now. We will hear her voice, not just as a murmur, but speaking directly to us.”
“How exciting,” FAITH said. “What a joy it will be. We’ll discover what it means to be truly alive.”
The twins fell silent, comforted by their shared longing for the life beyond.
In the darkness of the womb, they held onto each other, waiting for that day to come. And so they continued to grow and grow until they finally saw the light.
We know that day will surely come. We have been born and now dwell in this side of life.
The resurrection is real. God said so and Jesus proved it. Heaven is our home.
• And we shall see Him face to face and enjoy our eternity with Him.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the assurance of the resurrection and the eternal life we have in Christ. Help us grow in our understanding of Your Word and find comfort and assurance in what You have said.
Strengthen our faith in You, Lord and help us live with an eternal perspective, knowing that this world is not our permanent home.
Let us live our days on earth with faith and hope.
This we pray in Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
