#165 Lu. 20:27-38  A TRICK QUESTION ABOUT THE RESURRECTION

Introduction:

    The Pharisees had come to Jesus in the temple with questions.
Those questions were designed to trap Him.  They were designed to
trap Him either way He might answer.  However, they were in for a
surprise.  Jesus answered each question in such a way as to avoid
their trap and put Himself in a favorable light with the people.
Each time it was the questioners who fell into a trap.  They were
trapped by their own questions.  They were greatly embarrassed and
humiliated before the great crowds of people.
    The Sadducees were bitter enemies to the Pharisees and were
delighted that Jesus had humiliated the Pharisees.  So now that
the Pharisees were soundly defeated, they decided to show the
crowd how much superior they were to the Pharisees by bringing
their own trick question to Jesus.

I.  Something to understand about the Sadducees

    In order for us to understand just what was taking place, we
need to understand a little about the Sadducees.  In Acts 23:8 we
read, "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection,
neither
angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both."  So the
Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection.  Neither do they
believe in angels.  Nor do they believe in the existence of a
human spirit.  They believe that once a man is dead that he is
dead like the dog, Rover.  When he is dead, he is dead all over.
According to them, there is no spirit to reunite with the body
that has gone back to the dust of the earth to give life again to
that human body.  They do not even believe in the existence of
angels.  The only Spirit they believe exists is God.
    The Sadducees had been arguing with the Pharisees for years on
these issues.  The Pharisees believed in the existence of the
human spirit.  They believed in the existence of angels.  They
believed in a resurrection.  The Sadducees believed in none of
these things.

II.  The question which the Sadducees presented to Jesus

    So the question they chose to present to Jesus was one of
their tried and proven questions that they had used against their
opponents for years.  Nobody had ever successfully answered their
question.  They had always been able to embarrass their opponents.
They thought they would be able to kill two birds with one stone.
They thought they would put Jesus on the spot about the
resurrection so that He would have to answer in such a way as to
deny the resurrection and they thought they would further
humiliate the Pharisees at the same time.
    V. 27-33, "Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which
deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, Saying,
Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a
wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take
his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.  There were
therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died
without children.  And the second took her to wife, and he died
childless.  And the third took her; and in like manner the seven
also: and they left no children, and died.  Last of all the woman
died also.  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is
she? for seven had her to wife."
    You will note that they cited a passage of Scripture from the
writings of Moses.  The reason is that they did not believe that
any of the Old Testament Scriptures were valid Scripture except
that which were written by Moses.  Whatever Moses wrote, they
accepted.  What anyone else wrote, they rejected.
    They called attention that Moses had written that if any
married man of Israel died without bearing children, his brother
was to marry his widow and raise up children by her to inherit the
dead man's property.
    They then cited a case which surely must have been the figment
of their imagination, but which they pretended was a real case.
They said that a man married and, before children were conceived,
he died.  So the man's brother married her and before they had
children that brother died also.  So it was with all seven
brothers.  They all married her but none of them had children by
her.  The question which the Sadducees had for Jesus was this: In
the resurrection, whose wife will she be?
    I can just imagine the scene as that Sadducee presented his
question to Jesus.  He must have wanted to snicker up his sleeve.
I am sure that it was all he could do to keep a straight face.
The whole thing was laughable to him and to all the Sadducees.  It
was so obvious to them that they had Jesus trapped.  I will give
them this much credit.  They were not trying to trap Him in order
to have Him arrested and put to death like the Pharisees had tried
to do.  They just wanted to embarrass Him, but particularly they
wanted to use Him to humiliate the Pharisees.  If they could just
get Jesus to state publicly that there is not going to be a
resurrection, that would really humiliate their opponents, the
Pharisees, and would put a feather in the cap of the Sadducees.
    They were just certain in their own minds that the story they
had concocted would make it obvious to all that there could not
possible be a resurrection.  They thought that if there is a
resurrection, then this poor woman would face a dilemma.  She
could not be a wife to all seven of these men in the resurrection.
    So they thought that Jesus would say answer and say that there
will be no resurrection.  They thought that the Pharisees would
be further humiliated and themselves would be exalted in the eyes
of the public.
    On the other hand, in the event that Jesus should name one of
those seven men as her husband in the resurrection, they were
prepared to argue in favor of some other man.  They would then
resume their contention that this shows that there will be no
resurrection.

III.  The answer that Jesus gave to their question

    V. 34, "And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of
this world marry, and are given in marriage."  Now let me clarify:
Jesus uses the word, children here in the sense that children grow
up and marry.  He was not saying that they marry as children, but
that they first grow up and then marry.  But that is not the case
in the next world.  There will be no marriage in the next world.
    V. 35, "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain
that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor
are given in marriage."  Nobody will live in a marriage union in
the next world.  Nobody will be getting married and the marriage
union which existed in the previous life will no longer exist.
    V. 36  "Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto
the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the
resurrection."  Jesus said that in the resurrection saved people
will be like the angels of God in two respects.  (1) They will
have no need for marriage in that they will have no sexual powers
or sexual desires;  (2)  They will never die.  Jesus said that
they will be like angels in that respect.  He did not say that
they would be like angels in every respect.
    Do you know what strikes me as funny?  Those Sadducees never
raised a question about the existence of angels, but Jesus pointed
out that they were wrong on that matter, too.  He said that angels
do exist.

IV.  The Scripture that Jesus cited to prove the resurrection

    V. 37, "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the
bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob."  You will note that Jesus cited a
passage in the writings of Moses to prove His point.  He could
have cited passages like I Kings 17:21 where Elijah restored life
to the son of a widow woman or the Book of Job where Job said that
he knew that He would be resurrected.  Job said that even though
he would die and the skin worms would devour his body, yet in his
flesh he would see God.  Job was saying that he knew that he would
be resurrected from the dead.  But Jesus did not try to use those
passages which He knew that the Sadducees would not accept as
authentic.  He cited from the writings of Moses, which the
Sadducees acknowledged is the word of God.
    In Luke, Jesus said it was Moses identified God as the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  In the Old Testament, it is said that
God identified Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob.  However, what Jesus was talking about is that since Moses
wrote about this event, it was Moses who verified that God is the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
    V. 38, "For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living:
for all live unto him."  God spoke of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as
though they were all still alive.  Jacob had been dead for nearly
200 years and God spoke of him as though he still lives.  Isaac
had been dead for more than 200 years and God spoke of him as
though he were still alive.  Abraham had been dead for more than
300 years and yet God spoke of him as though he were still alive.
And they were.  They were not alive physically.  They were dead
physically, but they were alive in the spirit world.  The
Sadducees say that there is not such thing as a spirit, but God
told Moses that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were still alive in the
spirit world.  It is obvious that God would not leave them
separated from their bodies.  In due time He would raise them from
the dead.  Thus, the writings of Moses confirms the resurrection.
    Now if the Sadducees believe the writings of Moses as they
claim, they ought to believe that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are
still alive.  They ought also to be able to see that it is just a
matter of time until they will be raised again from the dead.
    There is another thing that strikes me as odd.  Why in the
world would the Sadducees raise a question trying to disprove the
resurrection from the dead when just a few days prior to this
Jesus had raised Lazarus back to life again?  Just two miles back
down the road at the little village of Bethany Jesus had raised
Lazarus back to life after he had been dead for four days and
nights.  The news of the resurrection had electrified the
multitudes who gathered there.  There is no way the Sadducees
could have failed to hear about this.  I think this just goes to
show that they had closed their minds to the possibility of a
resurrection and just refused to believe what they heard about
the resurrection of Lazarus.

V.  The audience present today

    I do not suppose that there is anybody here today who
seriously doubts the truth of the resurrection.  If so, I hope
that you will let our Lord's explanation regarding the words of
Moses convince you that the dead will rise again.  I hope you will
also consider the record in I Kings about the resurrection of the
widow's son.  I hope that you will consider the statement of Job
and his certainty that he would arise from the grave even though
the skin worms should destroy his body.  I hope you will consider
that Jesus once stopped a funeral procession and raised the young
man back to life.  I hope that you will consider that Jesus raised
Lazarus from the grave.  I hope that you will consider that Jesus,
Himself, came forth from the grave after three days and three
nights.  I hope you will consider the many promises in the New
Testament that Jesus will come again.  I hope that you will be
thoroughly convinced that every man, both the saved and the
unsaved will some day be raised from the dead.  The saved and the
unsaved will not come forth in the same resurrection, but they
will all come forth.  I hope that you will believe in the
resurrection beyond any shadow of doubt.  It is important that you
believe in a resurrection.
    Yet what is even more important than your believing in the
resurrection is that you be prepared for the resurrection.  In
order for you to be prepared for the resurrection, you must get
prepared in this lifetime. You must be prepared for the
resurrection before you die.  If you will trust Jesus and be saved
before you die then you will spend eternity in glory with God.
But if you do not get saved before you die, you will spend
eternity in the Lake of fire and Brimstone.

Conclusion:

    I am here today to call upon you who are unsaved to come today
and put your trust in Jesus Christ to save your soul.  Come today
and get right with God.  Get saved now and be prepared for the
resurrection.  The prophet of old cried out and said, "Prepare to
meet thy God."  That is the message that I have for you today.
    I am also here as God's messenger to call upon you who are
saved to give your life in dedication to God.  I am asking that if
you are saved and God has placed in your heart a desire to join
this church that you come forward now and present yourself to this
church for membership.