Sermons

Well, good morning. It's a little intimidating, all of the VBS Irish decorations starting to appear. I was walking down the corridor and there was this massive map of Ireland and right at the top there is a castle. Well, it's Dunluce castle. That was about 10 minutes from where I grew up. We used to go there. It's now a tourist trap, but we used to go there and play hide and seek in that castle, jump over the fence and do that as kids. So, it's a little... odd, and unnerving to see so many reference points in there. I'll be honest, there's a lot of stereotypes that I'm worried about. So that's a prayer point.

Can I ask you please to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 20? Luke chapter 20, let me say next week we're hoping to have in the afternoon a fellowship time as a church. There's so much happening in our church at the moment and it's wonderful. God is at work and we have so much to be thankful for. But next Sunday afternoon we're going to have an opportunity to come together and to hear about some of those things that we can pray and be informed. It's a chance for us also just to enjoy time together. We'll have some snacks and everything else to, you know, follow the pattern of Jesus and eat and enjoy time together.

But also, Steven and Lacy Condy, we're going to take some time to be able to hear a little bit more about their story and get to know them. I know a number have been praying for Steven and Lacy as they have come and moved into their house and are being established amongst us. I know Steven too well. But next week's gonna give us an opportunity for you to get to know a little bit more about him and Lacy, and why it's just such a kindness of God to bring them to be part of our church family.

So, I just wanna emphasize that. I know we're all switching into summer mode, and that's good, but next weekend we'll have opportunity to come together. And if you're able, I want to encourage you to come and just enjoy the sweetness of some fellowship time with one another.

Now as we come to the particular passage today in Luke 20 about the Sadducees and the questions that they bring to Jesus, the strange example all about the resurrection and in their mind the wildness and the craziness of the concept of resurrection. I've been thinking a lot this week about the drift in American Christianity towards liberalism. Now, that's a process that has taken a long time to develop.

It's a slippage, a change, a turn in direction that you can see within the larger mainline denominations, especially here in the country. When the Enlightenment happened in the 1700s, there was an impact that it had on thinking within the leadership of the church to begin to hold ideas about science, ideas about technology, over and above the clear testimony of Scripture. And it caused people to question doctrines like Calvinism, but also the supernatural that the Scripture so clearly spoke about. At that time, there began to be shifts doctrinally in the late 1700s.

You begin to see a growing surge of Unitarian thought that denied the Trinity. You began to see a growth in doctrines like Universalism that began to water down the doctrine of sin and promote an idea that everybody will be all right in the end because that's what God would want. It denied ideas of Trinity. It denied ideas of eternal damnation. It began to put the emphasis exclusively on God's love, on ethical living, and on human dignity.

That kind of progressed into really what was the social gospel movement in the late 1800s, early 1900s who had leaders here in America of that particular movement. Really emphasizing that over and above everything else, over and above the proclamation of the gospel, the church's primary responsibility was to address social issues like poverty, like labor injustice, like racism, to be the proponents of social reform. We weren't primarily to call people individually to salvation; it was these broader societal causes that should occupy our time.

Then that began to progress in the 1800s with the higher biblical criticism movement really coming from Germany and beginning to influence the universities here that so frequently were founded on Christian principles with a desire to see ministers trained up to promote the gospel. Those same universities embraced those higher critical ideas from Germany and began to come to this majestic book with an eye of human criticism that denied the inspiration of God and looked on it as something that reflected merely the customs and ideas and traditions of various periods of mankind. And so modern enlightened thought should be brought to bear to critique and indeed criticize the very words that would sit in front of us. Rather than see the Bible as inerrant or to take its text literally, everything was to be put through a lens, really a shredder, to dissect from it any vestiges of what would be deemed not enlightened.

And that really climaxed in the early 1900s with the divide in the church, the modernist and fundamentalist divide. We really are the inheritors of that fundamentalist movement. That was a good thing. We think of fundamentalist as angry and aggressive, and sometimes today that label can be placed on that type of ideal. But we are inheritors of the fundamentalist movement in the early 1900s that sought to take the word of God as the Word of God.

In contrast to the modernists that were all about creating space for people to coexist in the church. The modernist movement within the mainline churches embraced evolution. It embraced ideas of modern science. It encouraged symbolic reading of scriptural testimony about things like the miracles.

And it led to a major conflict with core doctrines that had historically been precious to the church. That was only intensified in the 1950s and 70s with the civil rights and social justice movements here for many liberal Protestant churches, so that became their paramount cause. Civil rights, anti-war activism, women's equality, later LBGT issues, social justice was central to the gospel. Now, it's not that there is not a place to speak to the dignity of humanity, to speak against evils like racism.

The Bible does that. The Bible does that wonderfully, far better than any man ever could. But the problem was the mainline denominations were now beginning to look to themselves and their own heart and mind rather than to the Word of God to determine what was actually right and wrong. Those denominations naturally, nobody likes liberalism really, they began to decline. Their influence began to wean in terms of numbers that would attend the services and yet, they controlled the voice of Christianity with the media. The universities were, their theology departments were tied up with this liberal ideology and it's still today, is the same. The main voices that get to speak to Christian ideals are the very voices that deny the reverence necessary for this book. The respect that is required, the honor that is due to the Word of God.

The Northern Presbyterian Church of the United States, it went through a moment in particular, a real watershed moment where the Auburn Affirmation was brought to the forefront for debate in the early 1900s. And there in the Northern Presbyterian denomination here in the United States, a statement was brought forward, really not so much to define a new way of believing, but to open up everything. To say that those historic doctrines were no longer to be measures and barriers to people's engagement in church and to the leadership in church, that churches should allow the freedom of interpretation of all doctrines, that Presbyterians should not force ministers to have to agree with a narrow interpretation of Scripture, that the confessions were merely to be treated as historical background, as the legacy that we have developed from rather than as a measurement by which fidelity could be measured. In particular, that Auburn affirmation sought to attack five doctrines that historically had always been important to the church.

The inerrancy of Scripture, they said that doesn't matter. The idea of the virgin birth, they were willing to allow people to deny. Christ's substitutionary atonement was merely allowed to be an example or whatever you wanted it to be. The bodily resurrection of Jesus was allowed to be determined as a metaphor. And the reality of Christ's miracles, again, were symbolic, educative illustrations rather than accounts of what had genuinely taken place. So, the debate for that particular affirmation was really about the literalness of Scripture. Is what it says true?

It was a debate about whether modern science and skepticism should be allowed to be brought into the study process, and it was about how much doctrinal alignment is necessary. How wide can we throw open the doors? So, conservatives have always agreed that those five principles are essential to true Christianity, but the supporters of the Auburn Affirmation believe that a broader approach should be allowed. And over 12,000 of the ministers in the Presbyterian denomination of the time signed the declaration. It wasn't just debated, they signed it as a positive, personal affirmation of that doctrinal drift.

Now, all of that sounds so modern. It doesn't sound very alien to us today. But sometimes we can fall into the mistake today of thinking that that watery, broad, what do they really believe, liberal Christianity that so often marks certainly the mainline denominations, but a lot of what we come across in terms of churches here in Dallas, that can cause us to feel that we are dealing with something today that has never been seen before.

And yet when we come to the Sadducees here in Luke chapter 20, and we'll talk about their beliefs in a moment, I want you to see there is nothing new under the sun. And the doctrinal nonsense that so often marks liberal Christianity today that denies the supernatural, that denies spiritual forces, that denies the resurrection. It's really the exact same doctrinal statement that we find with the Sadducees that Jesus spoke to in Luke chapter 20. So can I ask you to stand and see how Jesus handled such individuals. Luke chapter 20, let me begin reading at verse 27. Luke chapter 20 reading from verse 27.

(Scripture reading) "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. But 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. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living. For all live to Him." Then some of the scribes answered, "teacher, you have spoken well." For they no longer dared to ask Him any questions." (End)

Let's take a moment and pray.

(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we ask that You would give us insight we acknowledge that what sits in our hands is not the construction of man's words, but the very word of God. Something that is alive, active, sharper than a two-edged sword. We pray, Lord, that You would pierce us where we must be pierced. Expose our foolishness. Draw our mind more clearly to the truths that this book declares that we would love You more and anticipate the fullness of Your salvation plan.

Lord, we do give thanks to You for those who at a human level have served to protect the freedom that we have to meet and to worship even here in this room. We thank You for those human instruments that You have used in the past to allow us to have the peace and privilege to be able to come and to ponder the things of God as we meet and worship according to the dictates of our own conscience. And yet, Lord, we recognize that even that itself is a gift from You, that You, the sovereign one, have ordained this particular moment, this particular time, and this particular passage that we come to this morning. So, speak to us, we pray. For it's in the name of Jesus Christ we ask it. Amen. (End)

Have a seat.

People can unify over good things. But people can also unify over wickedness. And so, the first thing I want you to see in the text this morning is that there can be a unity that grows even among the religious, a unity in Satan's work. There can be a unity in Satan's work.

Here in Luke 20 verse 27, we are introduced to another group. There has been question and issue after question and issue that is being brought to Jesus. And this is another, it's almost like there is a line, a line of different groups that come to Jesus with their conundrums or with their situations by which they plan to catch Him out. And the Sadducees are simply another one of those groups. We've already seen the chief priests and scribes back in verse 19. Many, many times we've seen the Pharisees. We've even seen the Herodians, that political group that really wanted to promote the dynasty of Herod and collaboration with the Romans. And now we have the Sadducees as well.

Every single one of those groups are different. And in fact, every single one of those groups opposed each other. If you tried to put them in a room, they would start to fight. They were strongly opposed to each other. It would be like, you know, taking many Democrats and many Republicans in the House of Congress and putting them in a room together for dinner. Inevitably, as the conversation developed, there would be clashes and disagreements. That was these particular groups.

The Herodians, they really sought to influence the royal courts and foreign partnerships. The Pharisees were the earthy group. Their main influence was in the synagogues dotted all around the provinces. While the Sadducees, this new group, their primary influence was in the temple and especially the elites within the temple. And they all had different authorities. The Herodians, their authority was, well, Herod, his dynasty. It was earthy people. It was kings and also, I guess, the Romans as well that they sought thoughtful collaboration with.

For the Pharisees, their authority was meant to be the written law and the oral traditions, the oral law that also flowed out of that. A little bit akin to the way the Roman Catholic Church today talks about Scripture and the legacy, the tradition of the church. They had this written law plus oral tradition that shaped what they did and how they thought.

Whereas for these Sadducees in the text, their authority was only the Torah. The first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, that was it. That was what everything was based on for them. And so, they also had then different traditions. The Herodians didn't really have a theological position in anything. Their focus was only the secular.

But for the Pharisees, the Pharisees believed in resurrection. They talked often about it. They believed in angels. They believed in the reality of miracles. But the Sadducees, they distinctively disagreed. They believed that when the individual died, not only did the body die, but the soul died also. There was no more. They didn't believe in miracles. They didn't believe in the supernatural. They didn't believe in angels and demons.

That was all outside of their thought, and people knew that. And so, what I want you to see very simply at the beginning as we edge into the passage is that Jesus has gone person after person after person or group after group after group and these groups have nothing in common.

They are so theologically, they are so politically different and yet in our text they are significantly unified. Why? Well, they are unified for the first time in their existence because they are unified in opposition to Christ. That's a principle we see come up all the time in Scripture. You can find groups in this world with antithetical understandings of the world but yet come together in their opposition to Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter 4 verse 26 says, "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His anointed...for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you appointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel." Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, the Jews, they all came together, in other words, in opposition to Jesus. John chapter 15 verse 18, Jesus says as much, "if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you."

The world with all its contrasting ways of thinking yet can unify in its hatred towards Jesus Christ. Now, here in the West, we can fall into a trap in thinking that the blessing of democracy means that the majority wins, that the majority must be right. But Scripture's testimony indicates that there can be a unified hostility towards Jesus and towards theological truth that naturally brings together the workers of Satan. Unity can exist around opposition to truth just as much as it should exist around truth. In fact, most often unity finds its manifestation in this idea, in hostility to Christ. That's what unifies so many in our world. And we need to be ready for it.

We need to recognize that popular opinion is not what you place your theological traditions and hopes on. Again, that's why there has been a decline in the mainline denominations into liberalism. Popular opinion is not important; the Word of God is what is important.

Now, in our particular text, these Sadducees come with a distinct issue. They come with a hypothetical situation. They are opposed to the resurrection. They are opposed to the idea of life after death and so they want to make Jesus look foolish. And so, they come with what they think is an ironclad argument, a situation that exposes the folly of what Jesus thinks. The idea is they're going to go for an exaggerated example to show that it just can't stand, that the whole idea, the whole premise is foolish.

And the idea would be somebody coming and saying, nobody should ever break the law, period. And somebody else responds, well, what about an ambulance? If it's rushing to save a dying child, to get them to hospital, does it have to stop at every red light? If the streets are totally empty, does it always have to stop?

It's somebody trying to show in an exaggerated story why this cannot be law. And here they come with an issue about life after death. Look at verse 27. "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." That was an Old Testament law. A law in the Torah in order to preserve the line, the lineage of the family. So, you see examples of that. You think of Boaz, the kinsman redeemer with Ruth. You see examples in Scripture of this very practice taking place and it was because it was a biblical practice. But now here's the exaggerated example.

Verse 29, "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." So, you see this lady, she has seven different husbands. You wouldn't want to get married to this lady. Don't know what's killing them all but she's not the lady you want to bring anything to the potluck.

Verse 33, "in the resurrection therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." Now remember, in Judaism, they were a religion that believed strongly in one man, one woman. So. if we believe in one man, one woman marriages, what's going on in the resurrection? Because this one woman has seven.

You see how silly the story, the situation seems. They're trying to embarrass the theology of resurrection by presenting this extreme case to show it just doesn't make sense. But Jesus is wiser than them. He sees their trap and He responds in two ways. To assert truth and to show their foolishness to everybody. The first way He does this is by showing that there is unity among the people of God or unity in the people of God.

Bear with me here because this is rich theology about the nature of our resurrection, which obviously you haven't experienced yet. Some of you look great, but you're not in perfect bodies yet. And so, Jesus is talking about something we haven't yet experienced. So, we've got to pay careful attention to what He says.

Look at verse 34. "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, 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." So, let's slow down and think about these words that Jesus shares. Look at verse 34.

"The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage." He's talking about the sons of this age are the people today. The people living in this world, you right now, those who were born and at some point, in this life you're going to die, that little space in between, those are the sons of this age. And as a normative pattern, not always, but as a normative pattern for the sons of this age, they marry. And then they procreate. And that's how the population is sustained. That's how things unfold. That is normal and it is good because God has designed it to work in this age that way.

Look at verse 35. "But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age, to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage." So those, not just generally, but specifically those who have been forgiven. Those who've been accepted into the family of God, there is another age.

After this life, there is something after. There is an existence after death, and indeed, not only just an existence after death, even beyond that, there is a bodily resurrection to come. But verse 35, in that existence, in that life after death and in the bodily resurrection that follows, there will be no marriage. There will be no marriage. Verse 36, "for they cannot die anymore."

In other words, nobody's going to be lost. Nobody's going to disappear. We don't need to keep repopulating the population. We don't need procreation here because nobody's going to be lost. The world's going to be full with the people of God. And nothing and no one needs to be added to that.

For they cannot die anymore because they are equal or they are like the angels in that the angels are created for purpose. They don't procreate. They don't produce. In that age to come, we will be like that. We will not be in union. We will not be in marriages for the purpose of procreation. And for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to the angels and are sons of God. Being sons of the resurrection.  In other words, not only do we not procreate, but we are the family. We are united. We are in relationship with one another in a significant way.

So, do you see the point that Jesus is making generally? Jesus is saying to these Sadducees who denied any life after death, your exaggerated example is broken because your theology is broken. You don't get it. That's why you're talking nonsense because you don't understand the truth of what is coming. You haven't understood the nature of the family of God. You haven't understood the nature of the resurrection. And Jesus' point at one level is clear. But there's something more here that I think we can learn about the nature of the resurrection from what Jesus says.

I remember going through Mark's gospel and coming to the kind of corresponding passage and taught on it at the level we've just talked about, and I went home, and Sarah was really annoyed. Really annoyed. And it took a while for me, as it often does, to unpack what it was that I had done or said that annoyed her. And actually, it was sweet. It must have been early in the marriage. Because she said she was so sad that this marriage would not exist in the life to come. I don't know if she said it today, but she did then.

And I think a lot of us can understand and relate to that sentiment. What about the bond, maybe some of you have children, that strength, that weight of feeling towards that child? You're not going to have children in the age to come. Those of you who are children and have parents that you love and care for and worry for and love to spend time with, in the age to come, that type of dynamic no more. And yet we know that what is to come is good and perfect. How do we think that through? Well, I think what we have here is actually a positive affirmation of the nature of what is to come in terms of our interaction with each other.

Look again at verse 36, "for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." In other words, the reason there won't be a special marriage relationship in the age to come is because with everybody you will have a special relationship. Sons, collectively, of God. Sons, collectively, of the resurrection.

Now, this is hard to get our heads around, but the idea is the sweetest, the sweetest relationship you have experienced in this life, for some of you it might be a relationship with a spouse. For some of you it might be a relationship with a child. For some of you it might be a relationship with a parent or even a sibling or a friend. Whatever the best is that you have known in this present age is less than the quality of relationship you will have with each and every member of the family of God in the age to come. In other words, your sweetest relationship that you know right now should be a reference point that with every believer in the age to come, it will be even more. In other words, Christian, true Christian in Papua New Guinea, whose name you couldn't even pronounce no matter how many times you tried to click and do whatever you were gonna do to try and replicate what was pronounced to you, you will have a sweeter relationship with that brother than even your best relationship in this world. So, if you have a sweet marriage, let that be a reference point, it's going to be even sweeter with all in the world to come. We're going to be one family. How does that work?

Well, do you remember 1 John 4:7, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God." In other words, our love for Christ reflects itself in a genuine love for the brethren. In that world to come, our love will be perfect for God because He will have renewed our hearts and minds perfectly. And because of that, our love for each other will be to a degree that we can't even comprehend in our fallenness here and now. The best of love known between each and every one.

A few years ago, my niece Brooklyn, her father had died and her mother died. She was a senior in high school and we cared about her. We loved her. We wanted everything to be good for her. We tried to help and support her. Life was hard and eventually she ended up living in the home with us.

Well, do you know what that has done for our relationship, mostly? It's made it so much sweeter. I loved her then, but I love her far more now. I cared about her then, but I care about her far more now. I thought I knew her then, but I know her now so much more because we're together.

And love can grow even beyond the normal kind of patterns that we have in this world, in this existence. And what we're being told is in the world to come, there's going to be a quality of love that we have for each other that will grow and blossom beyond even the best of relationships that can be found in this world.

But we better get back to the text. Jesus has shown the exaggerated question is fundamentally flawed because it has failed to realize that the nature of the relationships after death among God's people are fundamentally different. But then he secondly highlights there is a unity in Scripture's testimony. There is a unity in Scripture's testimony about the resurrection.

Look at verse 37, "But 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. Now he is not God of the dead but of the living. For all live to Him.” He says in verse 37, the dead are raised.

In other words, let me tell you what the Bible says. The Bible says there is resurrection. There is existence after death. There is more to come. You know, He's argued the theological point. Before, let me tell you the theology of the resurrection. Now He's simply making the biblical case. Let me tell you what the black and white Scripture says. Let me take you to the text.

And He could have gone to many places. Isaiah 26:19, “but your dead will live.” Psalm 49:15, “but God will redeem me from the realm of the dead.” Job 19:25, “I know that my Redeemer lives and, in the end, He will stand on the earth and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” Daniel 12:2, “multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” Ezekiel 37:12, “therefore prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says, my people, “I'm going to open your graves and bring you up from them.”” The Old Testament speaks of resurrection. The Old Testament speaks of life after the dead.

But look here in Luke 20 verse 27 or 37 what Jesus says. He specifically highlights the words of Moses. Even Moses showed. Because He goes to the part of Scripture that the Sadducees actually accept it. Let's go to the Torah, the words of Moses. Remember, they were skeptical of everything. Let's go to the bit you say you believe. And again, this is a time before chapters and verses. You know, we would say go to Exodus chapter three, verse six in this moment. Well, they don't have a chapter three, verse six. And so, Jesus says, before there were chapters and verses, He says, verse 37, “even Moses showed in the passage about the bush.”

That's the reference point. Everybody knows the story. The burning bush. When God calls Moses, when God reveals his plan. He goes to that part of Scripture that his listeners were most inclined to honor. And he goes to that to proclaim life beyond the death because Scripture is unified. Now, we have to put our thinking caps on here again. "But that the dead are raised," verse 37, "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 is not God of the dead but of the living."

Now in Hebrew, there are no historical tenses. You know we talk about past tense, present tense, future tense. Well, Hebrew doesn't do that. Hebrew grammar doesn't do that. There are tenses but they work differently. They speak about the nature of the action.

And yet there is a tense that is used here that is a tense of being. I am. I exist. I am present. This reality is. And it's that idea we have in the Hebrew here, Exodus 3, 6. He's saying, I am in being in this, I am the God of Abraham. I am in being the God of Isaac. I am, this is happening, this is the reality right now, this idea, this is the existence that is the God of Jacob. It's a statement of being of existence.

So, stay with me here. Relationship, a relationship demands existence. I am Kent's friend. Now if Kent dies or if I die, Kent could say, Andrew was my friend. In other words, the friendship demands we're both still alive and together. You get married till death you do part. The person is no longer my wife; they were my wife. You see the idea, relationship demands existence.

And what Jesus is saying is when the book of Moses proclaims the nature of relationship, it's God and Abraham. It's God and Isaac. It's God and Jacob. In other words, even though 400 years before Abraham died, Isaac died, Jacob died, yet there is still existence. There is still relationship which demands existence to be. So, Abraham died a long time ago, but he still relates to the Almighty as His God. Jacob died a long time ago, but He still relates to God as God because He still exists.

That's the point. The existence, the text demands, the logic demands ongoing existence. God is eternal, absolutely. But these men who have died still exist. They still are because God is still their God. The one who relates to them as God. The logic is so profound and clear. Look at verse 38, “now He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” In other words, they may be dead, but they are alive. There is life after death in order that they can live to Him. No wonder you read in verse 39 that some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well. They no longer dared ask Him any questions.” Like this blew their theological minds apart.

Jesus is so insightful in His handling of the text. And what He is saying here is that Scripture doesn't contradict the reality of resurrection. Rather, you can't separate out the Torah from the rest of Scripture and find contradictions. There is no contradiction in Scripture.

It's one story. It's unified. The theology of one book doesn't disagree with another book. They are wonderfully in harmony. Because they come from a God who is harmonious. And Jesus is showing that all of Scripture, even the bit they love most, speaks so clearly of resurrection. Now, the Bible speaks so much more than that. It is always unified in its testimony.

It says you are a sinner. It says you have fallen short of the standards of a holy God. It says so clearly throughout every page of Scripture, you cannot save yourself. You're broken. It says that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name in heaven or earth by which you may be saved. That's a unified testimony of Scripture. It says all who call upon Him will be saved. That is a unified testimony of Scripture. The Bible is clear in its message. Sometimes people want to dissect little bits from another. Sometimes liberal scholarship will do that. Try and pit the author of Luke against the author of Peter or the author of Paul. That's nonsense.

It's all God's revelation. And it all speaks about your clear need to be right with God. And so, while we see the clear unity, and theology in the clear, unity in Scripture. The last thing I want you to notice, and we'll leave in this note, I want you to see there is a unity in Scripture's call. Not just a unity in Scripture, but a unity in the call Scripture makes of you. And that is to live for God. Look at the end of verse 38. Or I'll read from the beginning.

Now He is not God of the dead, but of the living for all live to him. Abraham lives to Him. Isaac lives to Him. Jacob lives to Him. All who are in the family of God live to Him. In other words, they relate to Him as their God. They relate to Him as their God. Do you relate to God as your God? Or are you still living in rebellion against that? The unified testimony of Scripture is all will be raised to life, but either to eternal destruction for they rejected God as God, or to eternal life in the family of God forever, because they live to God as God.

I am here because He is my God and He has done great things for me. There's no other way to be saved but He being your God and you recognizing He has done great things for you in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Do you know Him? Are you trusting in Him? Is He your hope and your God?

There is a life to come. Scripture is clear and those who will know the sweetness of those blessed relationships in the family of God, those who are sons of God, are only so for first they know God as their God, as their Savior, as their Redeemer, as the one they live to. Let me pray and ask that the Lord would give us the discernment to work out our by His grace we live in unto Him.

(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we do thank You for the clear testimony of Scripture, that there is life eternal, that there is hope beyond the grave, and that that hope is found in the unifying work of Jesus Christ by which He unifies fallen men and women to You, Father, through His faithful work. We thank You that by grace alone is any individual saved. And we ask, Lord, for the grace to discern our position before you, that You would give us the grace to discern, are we living unto ourselves or are we by grace living to God? For You have called us out of sin and called us to yourself through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Lord, give us eyes to see, hearts to believe, and may we find hope in the glory of the resurrection to come. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. (End)

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