If you would turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 20. Our sermon text this morning is found here in Luke chapter 20 and in verses 27 through 38. 27 through 38. Let's hear the word of the Lord. There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children, and the second, And the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. That the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we ask you that you would bless our time in the Word this morning as the apex of our worship and the central focus of what we do as your people when we gather together, we turn our attention away from our words and the things that we say to you in prayer and praise, and God, turn our attention to the things which you have to say to us. And these are far more important than anything else we could attend to this morning. We pray that you would help us to understand your word. We pray that you would give us just ordinary insight into the meaning of the words. But God, beyond that, we pray that you would give grace that we might fully embrace the truth that we find here. And God, that we might receive it in a spiritual way and that it might bear fruit in our lives, that we might be changed God, we pray in particular this morning, we pray that you would put within our hearts a hope for the future. In view of the certainty of death, should you tarry in your return and enough time pass, each of us here will surely die. And yet, God, as your people, we pray that you would take away our fear of death as you've taken away its sting. God, that you would give us a hope and a peace and a joy that are unknown by those who have no such confidence in the resurrection from the dead. But this is clearly taught in your word. We pray that you would enable us to believe it and to live our lives accordingly. We pray all of this in Christ's name and for his glory. Amen. In verse 27, we read that the Sadducees came to Christ and they questioned him. And what's clear from the context here is we continue to read that this isn't a sincere line of questioning. It's not a sincere line of questioning. This is the line of questioning from skeptics who already know the answer to the question that they're asking. In fact, the very form the question takes is to highlight the ridiculousness of this superstitious belief in the resurrection from the dead, which they themselves deny. The Sadducees, are one of the groups of religious people. They are, in a sense, religious people, although they're perhaps the least religious in that they deny most of the Old Testament scriptures outside of the books of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament. They deny the resurrection, and Luke points this out to his readers here. They deny that there is a resurrection. And so even though they have some religious beliefs, and they are part of the Jewish nation and the Jewish people, they are in an important sense skeptics. This is no small matter of unbelief. For us, we can divide what we believe into, and it may be helpful for us to do so, something that we talk about in my Sunday school class that meets in the fellowship hall on Sunday mornings, we talk about things that are of first importance that are primary issues and sort of first order doctrines, but there are other things that are of more secondary importance. And we might even say that there are things that are even further removed than that, that are tertiary in their importance, that are not even rise to the level of a secondary importance. that we can disagree on within the church, and no harm, no foul, we don't have to agree on them, because Christians have always agreed and disagreed about certain things. We don't need to argue about every point of interpretation on which we can legitimately disagree. There are issues that we can agree on and recognize that those with whom we disagree are still Christians, but because of the nature of our disagreement, we're gonna divide into different denominations. There are certain beliefs like the mode and the proper recipients of baptism. Are we going to sprinkle water? Are we going to pour water on the head? Are we going to immerse someone in water? Are we going to baptize only believers? Are we willing to baptize believers and their children despite their children not having made a profession of faith? Well, these are decisions that we disagree on with those that we still call brothers and sisters in Christ who believe the biblical gospel, but we might say that we have a significant disagreement with their faith and practice. And so we are not Presbyterian or Methodist or or something like this. But still, these are not doctrines or truths that reach the level of fundamental pillar truths of Christianity. Well, the resurrection is one of those primary pillar truths of Christianity. All Christians everywhere, ever since the beginning, have agreed in certain truths about the end times, And the things that we must agree on if we're going to be orthodox in our Christian faith and true to the clear teaching of the Word of God is we must believe in the literal bodily return of the Lord Jesus. He is coming again. And all Christians, even if we disagree on many of our interpretations of the end times and the book of Revelation, we can agree on this. And it is the most important thing that we believe about the end of times. is that Jesus Christ is coming literally bodily. He's coming again to judge the living and the dead. To gather to his self all of those who do believe from among the living and the dead. And so this is an important belief. And part of this is to believe that in the resurrection, in bodily resurrection for all of us, just as surely as Jesus Christ himself rose from the grave and is today alive with the Father, at the right hand of the Father in glory, we have the hope that like him, we too someday shall rise. And so if you're a believer, you believe this, because to deny this is to, put yourself really beyond the pale and outside of Christianity? Well, the Sadducees, they deny this. They're skeptics. And so we might more, we might find a better comparison for the Sadducees, not among our religious community, but among skeptics and atheists and unbelievers in our day. And isn't it just like those who are skeptics and atheists and unbelievers to not just to question our religious beliefs, but to do so in a way that's calculated to make fun and to ridicule. And this is exactly what they do. This is, if you read this example that they give here, especially in verses 29 through 33, a woman who ends up having seven or eight possibly husbands, seven husbands. This is seen to be just ridiculous in their mind. She can have seven husbands in the resurrection? And so in their mind they're laughing about this, they think it's ridiculous, it's absurd. The number of times I've either heard or in person or spoke with or watched online some kind of debate or some kind of video of an atheist just laughing at Christianity because of how patently absurd they thought it was. And they'll make it sound as if what we believe is just the most ridiculous, out of control, silliest belief that you could imagine. And yet Jesus addresses this in such a way that we won't come to these verses today, but in verse 39, the scribes, those who are experts in God's law, admit that the teacher's spoken well. And no one, dare ask him any further questions after this. So let's see the way that Jesus brilliantly defends this fundamental truth. And the first thing that we notice here in verses 27 through 33 we're confronted with a denial of the resurrection on the part of the Sadducees. And I want to think a little bit more about this because this does touch on how We live in this world full as it is of unbelievers and skeptics and those who see our beliefs as so much foolishness. We see the resurrection denied. So why is religion so vehemently denied by so many in our day? It's worth asking. Well, some deny the truth of Christianity in order to mock Christian believers. There are some who will deny Christianity because they need convincing, and it's really an intellectual hang-up, because they have been so formed and shaped by a materialist, scientific worldview that denies any possibility of the supernatural. They just can't get their minds around the teaching of Christianity, and they have a real intellectual hang-up. Other people deny the truth of Christianity in order to mock Christian believers. And if you would persevere in Christian faith, you must be prepared to endure such hostility. And it does begin with a sort of light-hearted making fun of religious people. Sometimes that's all there is, just people with a degree of arrogance, sort of a pompous and proud spirit about them dismiss the things that we believe and they dismiss us as backwards, or superstitious, or foolish, or something like this. And it can be sort of light-hearted on their part. They don't even want to give us a second thought. It's just absurd to even entertain our arguments or our doctrines. But it can never end there. Unbelievers will pretend to dismiss true believers as irrelevant and foolish. But whether unbelievers fully realize it or not, religion is a threat to them. And so they'll inevitably begin to demand that believers recant of their belief and to conform to the beliefs of those around them in the world. And you see this in our day. It's not enough that unbelievers just dismiss us and disregard us as foolish, but there's this pressure for us to conform and there's actually hostility that's moved beyond a dismissal and disregard to an anger. And we're penalized and there are repercussions for those who will not fall in line. People lose their jobs and relationships can fall apart and grow sour because of these kinds of things. It may take a long time or it may escalate more quickly, but all persecution originates in this intolerance. It begins as a dismissal of something that's seen as absurd, but it grows and develops and progresses into a more positive intolerance and a more positive sense and true opposition and eventually all persecution of believers comes from this matrix of opposition. Why does Christianity draw such a response, though? It's because unbelievers are trying hard to deny something that their soul is compelling them to believe. There is an infinite and perfect God, and there's no denying it. It is just a fact. It's a reality. It's not a personal conviction, a private religious opinion that you or I hold. It is a reality that there is a God. He is infinite in His perfection. He's all-powerful, all-wise, perfectly good and benevolent. And this God has given us all things, and He's therefore owed all praise and honor and glory. His law is to be obeyed. Our lives ought to conform to His will, for we are His creatures. The Bible actually tells us that these things can be known about God naturally, something that we'll come to very soon in the book of Romans on Wednesday nights. This is something that is naturally known. You don't have to find this in the Bible. It is actually what we might call common sense in effect. But this knowledge has implications that we hate because of sin. Well, if there is a God, I've got to obey Him. I can't live my life the way I want to. I've got to live in accordance with the will of God. If there is a God and a life after death and a judgment, then we must not live in any way we choose. We must live for God. And so mankind, by and large, denies, has denied, and will always deny, by and large, what can be known about God in order to sin with impunity. And then mankind will call this irrational foolishness wisdom. And people think that they, in their skepticism and their atheism, they'll think of themselves as wise. And they do this and then they must disregard and they must poke fun at and scorn and ridicule our religion because it's a defense mechanism. It's a coping mechanism. They've got to do this in order to maintain the lie that they've believed. And so they mock religion out of necessity. Christianity threatens the delusion that unbelievers have willfully maintained in order to protect their own autonomy and choice. We're in this election year and coming up very quickly on an election, a presidential election, and we see one of the dividing lines, it's, you know, unfortunately it's not on the conservative side, it's not held to so closely anymore, but is this pro-life or pro-choice. And pro-choice with regards to a woman's legal right to abort her child is an evil political position for anyone to take. But pro-choice is an apt description for the unbeliever just in a general sense. That is what defines an unbeliever is that they want to be pro-choice in every aspect of their lives. They don't want anybody telling them what to do. They want to be completely autonomous. Unbelievers hate having to answer to God. They want to choose for themselves what is right and to live life their own way rather than God's way. And so they deny the truth of Christianity. And I think that's exactly what's going on here with the Sadducees. They deny and so they must, although this ought to be obvious, Jesus is going to point out in verse 37 and 38, you may deny much of the Old Testament Scripture, but you affirm the first five books of Moses. And say, well, it's obvious in Moses. Have you not read? Are you that dense? And so there's an attack here on, but the point is not that they have thought carefully through all the teaching of the Pentateuch and they believe everything that's written. The point is that they don't want to believe in the truth. And so they do everything they can to come up with interpretations of the truth that allow them to deny what should be obvious. And as they do with Christ, they ridicule those who do believe in order to maintain their own lies. So there's the resurrection denied here. Believers, don't allow the world to shake your convictions when it comes to biblical truth. All they're doing there's an anger, there is an opposition to the truth that is born out of an unwillingness to submit to the Lord. It ultimately is not an intellectual problem, it is a moral problem. And so don't let them shake your resolve or threaten your Christian convictions. And if you're an unbeliever here this morning and perhaps you think, well I've got my reasons for not believing, consider honestly this morning whether or not your main reason for for your unbelief is not an unwillingness to answer to God. To think, you know, putting aside the question of whether or not God is real, do I want him to be real? And if your answer is, I really don't want him to be real, then you have to be honest with yourself and ask, is that actually influencing my belief or unbelief? More than I'd like, I'd care to admit. I think it's really behind most of, much of the unbelief we see in our world. There's the resurrection denied. Secondly, we see the resurrection distinguished here in verses 34 through 36. Jesus answered them, and his answer is interesting. He doesn't really answer their question as to say he does answer their question, but he does more than that. And what Jesus is saying here is He's saying, you're not even thinking right about the resurrection. You're so far wrong. If you knew what the Bible teaches about the resurrection, this wouldn't even be a question. You'd feel silly for even asking this. Because in order to ask this question, what you're assuming is that there is a basic continuity between this life and the life to come. That there's a basic agreement between earth and heaven. And the things that are now are gonna be like the way that they're always going to be into the future and in the age to come. But look at the way he presents this in verse 34. The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age, to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. And so Jesus is pointing out, he's highlighting here that there is a fundamental difference. There is no marriage in the age to come. You know, you just imagine, and probably Jesus is too, you know, he's too meek, and he's gentle, and he's lowly, and he's merciful, although he does speak with a sharp tongue towards those who deserve to be rebuked here, but you just imagine him saying these words with a little bit of an edge in his voice. I can't believe you're even asking this question. I mean, how stupid are you? There's no marriage in the age to come. I mean, I suppose you think there's gonna be sickness in the age to come. Now look, marriage is not sickness. I'm not trying to suggest that. But let's be honest, marriage is a mixed bag. Parenting is a mixed bag. All of our relationships and every good gift that we have in this world is a mixed bag. There's joys. There are so many joys. But there are difficulties. The number of times in marriage counseling that I've heard someone say something like, you know, I didn't even know anger until I got married. I didn't even know how impatient I was until I got married. I mean, marriage can bring out the best in us and present us with some of the clearest representations of God's goodness to us, but marriage can also bring out our sin and can reveal to us some of the ugliness in our own hearts. And so, you know, this is something that as good as it is, It is not something that will persist in the new heavens and the new earth. It is something that points forward to better, greater realities. You know, if you ask me, do I think that I'm going to be married to Lauren in the new heavens and the new earth? Well, no, of course not. But I hope I'm living pretty close by. You know, we appreciate this gift. We love this and are thankful to the Lord for this gift of marriage. It is wonderful. it's hard for us to envision something that's greater on earth. I heard one pastor, he commented that he was referring to a child who had asked his parents, why do you sometimes go into your room and lock the door? And his conclusion was, it must be that you have a stash of, he has to have a stash of candy in there. Because it's all that this child could The greatest thing that could be would be a stash of candy that you're trying to keep from your kids. And the reality, we know what's really going on behind a locked door between a husband and a wife, but just like a kid can't comprehend anything greater than a stash of candy, we can't comprehend anything greater than marriage with all of its blessings and benefits. But surely in the age to come, all of the things that marriage points us to, will be fulfilled and we'll know them in fuller measure. And Jesus is just pointing out the discontinuity here that, yeah, as great as life is here and now on earth, heaven is, it represents greater realities, joys that are eternal, that are infinite, and so they're just thinking wrong. And here's how Jesus goes on to explain this in verse 36. He begins to give examples. For they cannot die anymore. because they're equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Elsewhere in the New Testament, we have similar teachings, and just to pick a couple, in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 52, the apostle Paul says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. So we're talking about the difference between this life and the life to come. This life is marked by perishable bodies, and it's marked by the trouble that we face in this world. But things will change, and our bodies will change, and we'll be raised imperishable. And Paul says, for this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. at the end of the book of Revelation, in Revelation 21, verse 4, we're told that, "...he 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." And you can just read the writings of the New Testament to see these beautiful, wonderful descriptions. that set the life to come from the life that now is in stark contrast. And that's Jesus' point here is that you don't understand the resurrection. You deny the resurrection. You don't understand the resurrection because you think that it's just a continuation of this earthly life when it's nothing like life on earth. It is different entirely and far greater and far better. So Jesus gives here, he gives the resurrection, we see the resurrection in 9, we see Jesus teaching here in verses 34 through 36 and see the resurrection distinguished. And finally in verses 37 through 38 we have the resurrection demonstrated. Jesus proves the resurrection from the Bible. He says in verse 37, but that the dead are raised. In other words, before he's saying, here's how the dead will be raised, and here's what that will be like, but the fact of the resurrection itself, he says, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he's not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. There have been some who have denied that the Old Testament actually teaches resurrection. You only have that in the New Testament. And that wasn't part of the Jewish worldview. Obviously it wasn't part of the worldview of the Sadducees, but can we find references that are made to the resurrection in the Old Testament? And surely we can. And we look at, for example, Psalm 23. At the end, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I think that's clearly suggesting the resurrection. Job 19 is also a very explicit, I think, teaching on this. I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last He will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself. And then, of course, there's the example that Jesus gives. Moses writing some 500 years after the patriarchs have come and gone and are now buried. Moses speaks to the Lord in the passage about the bush with the burning bush and the Lord, he speaks of being the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And he speaks of himself as being their God, not in a past tense, that I was their God while they yet lived, but he speaks of being their God in the present tense. Grammatically, it is clear. God is saying, I am still their God. How could God still be the God of those who are dead? What sense does that make? If we return to the dust, how is God the God of those who no longer exist and are but dust? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And so Jesus, he shuts the mouths of his adversaries and he proves his point here, the resurrection. We have clear reasons for believing the resurrection, but I want to, in conclusion, I want to, for us to think about some of the implications of this for us. The Bible doctrine of the resurrection is meant to challenge our earthbound perspectives and to make us heavenly minded. It's a teaching which gives hope to allay our grief. We talk about the resurrection in the context of our funeral services, because we need to be reminded of it. We still grieve, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope, Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians. And so it's a teaching which gives us hope, and this hope allays our grief. It's a teaching which gives us joy to moderate our sorrows and our losses. And it's a teaching which gives us peace to overcome our fears. Our fear of death. The Bible says that death's sting has been taken away because death is no longer final. So in other words, this is teaching which is good news. And as such, it is part of the Christian gospel. But the message of the gospel is not good news for everyone. And the resurrection does not represent blessing for all. In John 5, 28 through 29, Jesus says that an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and that's the way that Jesus has been talking about the resurrection, those who are considered worthy to attain the resurrection, and those who will know this life that cannot die anymore. Of course, that's the good side of this, but those who have done evil will come out of the tomb when they hear his voice, Christ's voice, they'll come out of the tomb, they'll be raised from the dead. And Jesus says, those who've done evil to the resurrection of judgment. And here in Luke 20 in verse 35, Jesus speaks of those who are, and he says, worthy. So that's what makes the difference. Some are worthy and so resurrection for them is good news. It's a resurrection to life. It's a resurrection to blessing, to peace and hope and joy and all of these things. But those who are unworthy, resurrection is not good news for them. They'll wish to have remained dead. And so Jesus is dividing humanity into those who are worthy and those who are unworthy. Only those who are worthy will enter into the age to come and into the life of the people of God in the age to come worthy. Are you worthy of resurrection and of eternal life? Well notice what Jesus says in verse 35. He actually says those who are considered worthy The King James has, they shall be accounted worthy. And so here the language is, it's really shorthand for a concept that fills the New Testament and it's that of justification by faith alone. Justification is a legal term and it refers to the determination that a judge, even in an ordinary legal scenario, justification refers to the determination that a judge comes to in your case, And with God, it's the irrevocable sentence that's passed on you in view of all of the evidence, because God's determination stands. He always administers perfect justice, and there is no hope of appeal. And so you're either, based on the evidence that's weighed, and as God passes judgment on you, you're either guilty or you're not guilty. And God who sees and knows all things, He weighs the evidence of your life and He finds you and He finds me guilty of breaking His law. There's not one of us who is innocent in this regard. We are all of us guilty of breaking His law and He's ready to pass sentence on you who stand condemned. As we think about where we actually stand, just by nature, on our own, before God, the judge, none of us are worthy. And so the fact of the resurrection, the blessings of resurrection, that's not good news for us in and of itself. But something happens. You who are guilty are, in the gospel, we are declared to be not guilty. and you are in point of fact unworthy, but the judge considers you worthy. And that is all that matters. And that's what Jesus is talking about here in verse 35. The possibility that those who are unworthy, even the Sadducees, even those among you this morning that are even now skeptics and do deny the truth of Christianity, you can be, although you are truly unworthy, but you can be considered worthy. How can this be? Well, it's only through faith in Christ who died for sin and whose righteousness is imputed to those who believe. For what does the scripture say? Romans 4, 3, and 5. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith counted as righteousness. Not just Abraham but it can be you also who through faith in Christ will be counted or considered worthy of life for Jesus sake. There's only one means by which you'll be counted worthy and that is through trusting in Jesus whom God will accept as worthy in your place. And if you do trust in him then you yourself will know in your own body, in your own experience, the resurrection to life as we pray together.