Seek God’s Word in Prayer

We continue to Mark this morning. If you’d like to follow along, please open to Mark 12:18–27. Before we hear the word of the Lord preached, let’s ask his blessing once more upon the reception and indeed the preaching of that word. Let’s pray together.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you once again in love. We love you. We do pray, Lord, that we would continue to be thankful that you have come to us in the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray, enable us to praise you and to give ourselves to you.

But we do pray now as we seek your face and by your word and seek to listen to the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that you would send your spirit to us afresh. That we might not merely come as tasters, but as truly children who are hungry and long to feed upon every word that you say to us.

We ask, Lord, for grace, that we might sit under your word, and that we may listen to your voice, and that it would break through our oh-too-often calloused hearts, and by your gracious love and your passion, transform us, change us into the likeness of Christ our Lord.

So we pray, Lord, that you would, by your word and through your spirit, do us good as we come to you for counsel and indeed for life and for your presence. We pray, minister to us according to the variety, wide as it is of our various needs, but bring every one of us, we pray, to see that you have provided for us truly all that we need in Christ.

And that when we come to him and find our all in him, And so we pray this for His glory and for our good. And as God’s people together say in unison, amen.

Mark 12:18-27

And the Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, left no offspring. And the second took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife shall she be? For the seven had her as wife.

And Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you are wrong? Because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.

The word of the Lord. Amen, may he add his blessing upon this word now as it is preached. You may be seated.

Promises Reveal Our Limits

Well, how often have you given someone a solemn promise, your very word? Sometimes for sure, all they have to give in this life is their word. And especially for those who don’t have material blessings in this life, their word is the most valuable thing that they truly can give.

They might not have treasure or fortune to give, but what they do have is the integrity of their promise backed by their word. I know my own father certainly didn’t have material possessions to give, but he was certainly a man of his word.

And I can only remember one promise he made that he didn’t deliver on, and that was exactly because he didn’t have the means to keep it, and he died before he could do so.

And for these reasons, we who place a great value on keeping one’s word, when we hear careless promises given, we cringe. Like the promise to loved ones that it will be okay, or I promise I won’t let anything happen to you, and things like that, because you don’t know and you can’t be sure that everything will be okay.

You don’t know and can’t be sure that you can prevent anything from happening to you. And that’s a big problem, right? We can promise and promise many things until our last days. There’s no end or limit to our words or promises, but there is a limit to our power.

God’s Promise Defies Death

And that is what this text this morning is about. It’s the promise and power of God, both the promise and the power of God, specifically the unmatched promise and power of God that he gives to us in the resurrection. There’s nothing stronger than the promise and power of God that he gives to us in the resurrection.

And so looking now at our text this morning, we’re reminded once again that we are in the gospel of Mark. And we began quite some time ago, around 52 messages, I believe, up to this point.

Mark opens in the beginning, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, which he does often and throughout, saying that in the wilderness, there’s one preparing the way on which the Lord will come.

And we see Christ indeed coming, being baptized by John the Baptist, coming forth from the waters of baptism, being proclaimed as the Son of God, and being driven into the wilderness. Reenacting and reliving the whole of Israel’s history and announcing that his coming brings with it a new exodus, a new way of salvation for the people of God.

Jesus Proclaims the Kingdom

He’s teaching in the next seven chapters. It’s about just that, it’s about the way. It has to do with the kingdom that God is bringing. In his actions and with the speeches that he gives as he acts, they testify over and over again that indeed the time of God’s salvation is at hand.

That long-awaited kingdom of Israel is finally in the midst of God’s people. And in the middle section comes that phrase, the way, the way, the way. This keeps getting repeated as we go, that ultimately this way, this road that Christ is walking, this new path or way that is leading all of God’s people free on a new exodus, it brings him to the city of Jerusalem, where every good Jew thinks that that road will lead.

And when he gets there, he is welcomed with the praise of a king, which we also would expect. And then he goes and he cleanses the temple, overturning the tables, driving out the sellers, the money changers, and ultimately rebuking the leadership of Israel, where they all decide at which point that they are going to seek the death of this particular Jesus, this rabbi, this Jesus.

Leaders Seek to Trap Jesus

And as chapter 12 opens, we begin to see this kind of setup where these people, these different groups of leaders of Israel, they try to trap Christ to finally be able to just do away with him. And all these confrontations take place, and they do so within the temple precinct, in this holy space that the different groups are fighting for.

These religious leaders believe that this space belongs to them, and ultimately, therefore, that God’s power is in and with them. And as long as they have the temple, they will be fine.

And Christ has made it clear, he’s made it clear already that they can no longer brag that they have the temple because of God’s willingness even to overturn the stones to bring his salvation.

Okay, and so last week we were introduced to a group of people, the Pharisees and the Herodians. Very strange alliance comes to pass that arises between these two groups, the Pharisees and the Herodians, for the purpose of seizing Christ’s power, usurping it, for tricking him with that question. Remember, concerning taxes and Caesar, it’s a question of authority.

Sadducees Deny Resurrection

And this week, we’re introduced to this third group of people, that try to trap him, the Sadducees, a group that Mark hasn’t yet highlighted in his gospel. But we now have these particular men entering into the story at this point.

And so if you look with me there in verse 18 starting, it says this, And the Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no offspring, no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

And then it goes on down through the brothers, all seven of them. So these are the Sadducees, and this is what they’re seeking to do. They’re setting a trap, a trap regarding the resurrection. And their goal, of course, is just that, it’s to trap Jesus.

Sadducees’ Influence and Beliefs

And together with the Pharisees, the Sadducees made up that council, that group called the Sanhedrin in Israel, which was basically a ruling body. They would oversee the religious life of the people of Israel. And so the Sadducees factored large in the life of Israel.

They are considered, to be frank, the conservatives of that day. They are middle, upper-middle class. They have rank and they have rule. They have standing. They’re lauded. They’re looked up to in the eyes of the people.

And the Sadducees’ big emphasis was what? It’s what they claimed to be, that they claimed to believe nothing that wasn’t expressly written in the Torah. That’s what they stood upon. And this is why people felt that they were the conservatives.

And you see the Pharisees, contrarily, believed in things like the oral Torah or the traditions of the rabbinic teaching, the rabbinic teaching tradition that expound, that explained the Torah, they would say. But the Sadducees rejected this. They rejected everything that was outside of the books of Moses.

Everything beyond that, they would say, is just speculation. Now, because of this particular stance, they ran into conflict. They had some positions that were contrary to the positions of the Pharisees.

For example, they didn’t believe in things like angels or demons. And as we see in the text, they didn’t believe in the resurrection or any sort of judgment in the next life. There was no reckoning coming for good or for ill for Israel. There was just obedience to God in this particular life.

And in fact, they felt that those sorts of things were actually dangerous and that they would lead to incitement of political insurrection, something that we’ve already seen and we talked about a little bit last week.

And so this is a group that Jesus has interaction with in our particular text this morning.

The Trap of Levirate Marriage

And so notice the trap that they try to set. The question that they ask comes based upon, as we read, the law of Levirate marriage from the Old Testament in Deuteronomy.

And so just to refresh our memory, our memories, where they give this particular teaching, Deuteronomy 25, I’ll just read the two verses, five and six, where he says again, if brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.

No, her husband’s brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

That was the point. And so the goal we notice is that God says, if you have brothers and one dies and he doesn’t have a son, it’s the duty, it’s the obligation of the other brother now to marry his wife and to give him a son.

And this is so that his inheritance, his plot in Israel, his name would not go extinct in the nation. It’s very important to them to maintain this for the people. It’s a way to give him an existence after death.

And, you know, as an aside, it’s interesting that all important was this land, this allotment, this appointment, tied to the people, must not be let go of, must not be done away with. But then we see what is the first thing that the people do after the birthday of the church in Acts, right? They sell off their land, right? Something very interesting.

But this was a way to give them an existence after death. They would not just go away. It’s a way for his name not to be blotted out among the nation.

Sadducees Mock Resurrection Hope

But notice our particular story. The first brother dies, and one after another, all the brothers die, and no child is born. And the predicament is, when they all show up in the resurrection, whose wife is she?

And though the Sadducees, they don’t believe in a resurrection, they pose one in their story. And their goal is to show the folly of the resurrection, the way they’re setting it up, they’re making a contrast, they’re trying to draw out some contradiction, believing the resurrection and in the law of God.

And notice how they’re using that, the very law of God. They’re using it, they’re saying, Moses wrote this particular commandment, who we know, we know this one. And you’re saying that if there’s a resurrection, it would require us to break other laws of Moses.

Would Moses approve of such a thing, contradicting himself? And therefore, since the resurrection is so foolish, it therefore couldn’t possibly be true. God wouldn’t undo his own word with some other act in the future.

The Trap’s Deeper Intent

But that’s not all that they seem to be saying. Sometimes we read this passage, and we read it quite simply, or we can see it very simply, and it can seem very simple at first glance, but it’s not as simple as it first seems.

Notice how they construct the question. Again, in verse 19, it says, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, the reason that’s important is because that language there, that rise-up language, is the same word that’s used when they say, at the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife shall she be?

And so notice they’re linking all these words together. The very goal of the law of God was to keep man’s name in existence, to raise up for him a son. And in the story they give, no son is raised up.

And why is this so important? It’s important because the name is to be preserved, as we just saw. His inheritance is preserved. He’s to have a life after death, you see.

And that was God’s way of or his ordained way of keeping the man’s name alive, living in Israel and keeping a man’s heritage in existence in Israel. And in this story that they pose that they set up, hypothetically, it didn’t work.

God’s ordained way of keeping this man alive, the God-ordained way of raising another man’s name, they’re saying that it failed, it didn’t work. And so that’s what they’re asking. If God’s way that we know failed, why would you be depending on something that God didn’t explicitly say, the resurrection fable as they see it, to do something that he apparently didn’t want to do for this man in his own life, right?

He never resurrected his son for him. And so why are you waiting for a resurrection when history ends? So that’s the setup, that’s the trap that they set.

Jesus Exposes Their Error

And no matter what Jesus says or does in answering this question, he’s caught in their view, at least that’s what they are intending to do. They feel he’s either gonna say, well, the Torah was wrong and it’s okay to be disobeyed, or he’s going to say, well, God couldn’t provide through the law, but he’s going to provide a resurrection beyond the law that’s not mentioned in the law.

That’s how they at least hope that this question is going to be seen or going to trap Jesus, right? It’s the resurrection trap, if you will.

And Christ answers them, notice, he answers them with the resurrection answer, right? They give a trap and he gives an answer or an escape or a remedy. He does this by explaining the promise of God and the power of God, which he says they miss both. The promise and power of God.

Sadducees Misread Scripture

Notice in his answer, it’s a bit more problematic or complex than it may seem at first glance. He says there are two problems that the Sadducees have. He says, here’s why you’re wrong. You don’t know the scriptures of God, and you don’t know the power of God.

So right in the conclusion, he’s showing us that they don’t know the scriptures, why they don’t know the scriptures, those are the promises of God, and two, how they fail to understand the very power of God.

So what does he mean? Let’s look first at how do they not know the scriptures, right? That’s his first accusation to them. And notice his words carefully in verse 25, it says, for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven, right?

There’s an answer embedded in that statement there. He’s not simply saying marriage doesn’t exist in heaven, but there’s an assumption about what would be necessary in heaven in this regard, right? So try to track, right?

Marriage Ends at Death

He’s not saying that they’ll be angels in heaven, right? They will be angels. He’s saying that with regard to marriage, that they will be like angels in heaven. They will not be married nor be given in marriage.

Not that resurrected humanity, as is a modern common fallacy, not that resurrected humanity will become angels. But he’s not just saying that marriage doesn’t exist. But if it did exist, something would need to happen.

And so notice what he’s saying. Notice what he says. There would need to be a formality. There would need to be a ceremony that would have to take place. There would have to be a remarriage necessary if that were the case.

You would never just arrive in heaven already married, right? And so we see the necessary implications from what he’s saying, and that’s it. He’s saying that the process of marriage or the process of a very ceremony of marriage would be needed if marriage existed.

And why is that important? Notice the trap again that they set. All of them died. So whose husband is she?

Christ is saying, you don’t know the Scriptures. And the reason it’s obvious is because if they all died, none of them are married to her anymore, right? That’s kind of the logical consequence.

Scripture Confirms Covenant’s End

And how do we know that that’s true? Well, this premise is all over scripture, particularly here in the New Testament, we know that it’s true. We can look at places like Romans 7 speaks to this, and it says that if a husband dies, the wife is free from the law concerning the vow that she took.

This covenant is annulled at death. She’s free to remarry. Or 1 Corinthians 7 says the same thing, that a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if he dies, she’s loosed, right, is the word that’s used. She’s loosed from that.

She’s free to remarry because that covenant ends with what? Till death do us part, which means that death, that thing that was bound together on earth, that was a communion between man and woman, is severed. It is now over.

So much so that a woman is free to remarry without any guilt, without any recourse, without any shame, or any disobedience to the law whatsoever.

And that very principle is embedded in this Levirate marriage ceremony. God does not say to them, well, if your brother is still married to this lady, he just happened to die, but I’m gonna need you to go into your brother’s current wife and have relations with her in order to give him a son.

That very principle would be against the very law and the nature of God. Instead, it says, since your brother has died, that marriage has ended.

You take now as your wife this woman. You become her husband and give her a son, and that son will then live in place of your brother and carry on his name. Will remain to have a name in the nation of Israel.

Sadducees Overlook the Obvious

And that very principle is being forgotten as they bring this question. It’s like one of those, not positive assumptions, but it’s one of those invisible walls we talk about in the structure of an argument, not being there, right? It’s being forgotten. It’s being overlooked in this question.

Whose husband is it? And he says, she’s no one’s husband. And if she was going to be married in heaven, they would initiate that there have to have a ceremony.

But that’s not how it works. No one is married or given in heaven is the word that comes. And so first, he says, you clearly don’t understand the scriptures. You don’t understand how they work.

You don’t understand how covenants work. You don’t understand that death annuls a marriage. And because you’re so faulty in the scriptures, you end up what undermining the very power of God, which is the next thing that he says, right?

Sadducees Doubt God’s Power

They undermine the power of God. How do they do that? Notice the scriptural proof that Christ gives for the resurrection here.

And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, I’m the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He’s not the God of the dead, but of the living. So he says, you’re quite wrong.

And what you’re saying. Now, somebody’s gonna ask you to prove the resurrection from the Old Testament. And many people would go right to Exodus chapter four to this passage, and they would read from there.

Well, God said, I’m the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There’s your proof of the resurrection, clearly in the Old Testament. You know, as we read this text, and then we say, oh, clearly that proves it.

Exodus Reveals God’s Fidelity

But think about this in a little bit more depth as we read it. And how the word, or how in the world does this prove the resurrection, right? There seems to be a leap. It’s not so clear when we dig in a little bit.

Many people use this and they will argue, well, you see the word and then the way that the words that we have there, the verb there, the words are in the present tense. He says, I am presently the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And because the word is, the verb there is in the present, God therefore has a present relationship with these men. That’s how the argument goes. And that’s an argument, and it’s a good argument.

There’s an implication there to be sure, but the problem is what? If any of you have looked at this, the problem is that there’s no verb in the sentence there whatsoever in the original, present or otherwise.

There’s no verb. There’s no verb present there, past, present, or whatever. There’s an implied verb, but there’s not one that’s expressly written. And so to try and base the whole argument on, well, there’s a present tense verb, where there’s actually no verb, this is kind of a weak foundation pressed.

And if you dig a little further, or it comes to you being dug a little further, it’s kind of a weak foundation to build your argument upon.

God’s Covenant Endures

Others will say, we see there’s an implied, it’s implied there, right? He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he’s never the God of the dead, only of the living.

Therefore, the conclusion is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they must be living, right? And so the consequence is, well, then they’ve risen because they have died.

And that’s not quite how the argument actually goes in this text. They say, well, you can understand that there’s two premises and that there’s a conclusion, right? Like we think of formal logic, A, B, therefore C.

And even if so, and it’s a fine conclusion, of course, it is the right conclusion. It doesn’t prove the resurrection in the way that it’s usually presented there. It just proves the existence of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in some form that they are living.

But it’s a far cry even in this text. And so we ask, do Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, do they live? Yes, but they’re not resurrected yet. They’re still waiting for that day, as is everyone who has died in the Lord.

So it doesn’t quite prove the resurrection, as helpful as an argument in that way as some might think it might be.

Jesus Points to God’s Promise

If that’s the case, why is Christ using this text here to make this point? And how does the weight of this text lend to his argument and his proof of the resurrection?

Remember again, his conclusion is they don’t know the scriptures and they don’t know the power of God. And he’s proving the resurrection here. And he’s also proving the power of God here.

And that’s what he wants to get through to them and to us as he quotes from this chapter of Exodus, Exodus chapter four. And so when we look at a passage, it’s very important that we have to get our head around the context of that passage.

And that’s the only way that we can really truly understand what’s going on or how it’s being used. In the context of this passage, it’s that in the Old Testament, of course, with the burning bush, he’s talking about the people not wanting to listen to them, right? Moses and Aaron.

And God giving him all these instructions and how he will lead the people out and how he and Aaron will be mouthpieces for the Lord. And you remember the whole incident.

God Remembers His Covenant

If you’re familiar with the Bible and these passages, it began because, how? It’s because God said he heard the cries of the people in heaven. And as he heard their cries, what did he do? It says he remembered what?

He remembered the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. And this, again, if you’ve been tracking with us, and particularly in some of our Bible studies, this is the point back to which there is always this call to remember, right?

The people even ask us, remember, O Lord, the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to our forefathers. And so this whole conversation with Moses starts with God remembering something, that he spoke to these patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that’s why he meets Moses at the bush.

And that’s why he ultimately begins instructing him how to deliver the people of God out of slavery that they find themselves in.

Covenant Implies Resurrection

And so what does that have to do with the resurrection, though? Well, Jesus is basing his argument, we have to see, on the exact same principle he based his other argument on, right? You don’t know the scriptures.

How do they not know the scriptures? Well, the covenant that is made in marriage ends with what? At death, as we’ve just read from Paul in Romans 7 and 1 Corinthians 7. If one of the parties is dead, the covenant no longer is in place. It is annulled.

So you don’t know the promise of God, the scripture. You don’t know the power as well. And how does that work? The reference to that is that the covenant is annulled at death. And this is the covenant that God makes.

Well, what about the covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? If the one who is in covenant with somebody dies, that covenant is annulled.

But the author is saying here, well, clearly those forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they can’t be dead because God keeps acting to keep his covenant with them years after they’re gone.

It is the basis for this promise that he gives and grounds his fidelity in and also what they claim, what they point to. To remember that this fidelity is truly intact.

And therefore, that covenant couldn’t possibly be annulled. And if it’s not annulled, because they in some way must be alive before God, and therefore God continues to keep his word to them as they live in some manner before him.

God’s Promise Demands Resurrection

Now, again, this is not like a direct hit. It doesn’t prove the resurrection, but it proves the beginning of the resurrection. Namely, the way that these people still live before God.

And therefore, the covenant is intact and it’s obligatory. God must act in keeping his word that he made to Abraham, Isaac and to Jacob.

But that’s not proof of the resurrection because it just proves that they’re before him. How does it actually address the resurrection? How does it show the resurrection?

Well, what is the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? What was given to them? And that’s the question. And you see it all over the Old Testament.

God promises Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what? An everlasting possession of the land and the presence of God. He, their God, and they, his people in his place with a multitude of children.

And what else? With the nations thronging together. And every time God comes to Israel in the Old Testament, he will say things to them like, for the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, right? Over and over again, we see this.

Patriarchs Await Bodily Resurrection

And it’s interesting, as you read the rabbis, right, that we know of, they look as proof to the resurrection that God keeps coming to Israel and saying, I promised the land to them, I promised the patriarchs the land, meaning someday they’re going to live in this land.

It’s not enough just for the children as the full fulfillment of this promise to be there, because it doesn’t say, I promise to you, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that your children, dot, dot, dot, but it said he promises them that they themselves, the patriarchs themselves, these forefathers, will set foot in the land bodily, physically, and dwell there in presence with God.

And therefore, according to the covenant that God makes, the unilateral covenant, God owes them a resurrection, you see.

Jesus Affirms God’s Power

And so Jesus says, don’t you see, you don’t understand, number one, the scriptures, how they work, how marriage works, and you don’t understand the power of God, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live before him in some manner.

And he and his power will raise them from the dead, and they themselves will truly possess the promise that he’s given. We can look at Hebrews.

Hebrews is very instructive, the book of Hebrews on this point. It makes it just as clearly and explains this for us a little more plainly when it says things like this.

Abraham, when he went out, not knowing where he was going, he died in faith. Why? Because he was waiting. He was awaiting something. He was waiting for, it says, a city whose builder and maker was God.

He knew that a city was coming for him, that he was going to be an inheritor of the whole world, and that God would keep his promise, even if it meant a resurrection was necessary for this promise to come to pass.

Christ Embodies the Promise

And his word and his power are kept. And notice how it’s done, as he gives this very brief explanation. And as they’re hearing this, they don’t have the glories, right, at that time of the revealed and resurrected Christ and the instruction, the whole of the New Testament, to be able to interpret and comprehend all of this.

And yet notice who is standing before them at that very time, this Jesus that they’re quoting in our text, this one, the one who is indeed the very Word of God. And who indeed will be raised by the power of God, the one who is the resurrection and the life, the one who will be the one who affects that promise made so long ago, referred to long and pled long ago, again and again, the one who will be the one who affects that promise to Abraham fully and finally.

The one who stands before them is the reason that Abraham will again stand on this creation as it’s made new in Christ and will live in bodily form. Because this one, the very word of God is the power of God into salvation and the resurrection for everyone who believes.

Trust the Risen Christ

And so we, you know, we have to ask ourselves this and I must ask this question. Do you believe in him this day? Do you believe in this one of which the scriptures tell?

Not just that there’s this Jesus, this mediator, this savior out there fills and fits perfectly all that was promised. Or even that there’s that very principle, that very concept is awesome and amazing and cool. Isn’t that great?

No, it’s do you believe that this creator entered into his creation, came low, He suffered, lived, and died for sinners and rose again to defeat death, the great enemy, and that you believe and accept him for yourself.

That is the important thing that you must grapple with, that he is yours and you are his, and that he gives you life as you believe. Do you believe that? And have you yielded to him for life?

Are you trusting him alone for your salvation as he is offered in the gospel? His offer is there. Repent and believe and have life. There’s no hope without this Christ.

Flee the Danger of Unbelief

And that bad news, the bad news of a hellish eternity yet remains and it presses down as really terrible news. And the plea comes, trust the good news. Trust the gospel. Believe in him at this very moment and have life.

He is the one, this one, the very Word of God is the power of God unto salvation and resurrection for everyone who believes. And yet the whole goal of the Sadducees is simply what? Is to dismiss this one, to trap him in order that he might die.

Don’t make that mistake. Don’t dismiss this one. He’s not going away. In fact, he’s coming back. Don’t be found, as Psalm 2 states so clearly, raging or ignoring or dismissing Him.

Bend your knee to this Savior. He is the only Lord who died to give life to sinners like you and sinners like me.

God’s Word Never Fails

Our certain hope and our assurance as Christians is that God’s Word is true, that His promise cannot fail. And that his power is sufficient actually to bring the things that he promised to pass.

And as leaders, these leaders here put doubt in the resurrection, they undermined it all. Our hope is that God’s word is true and that he’s powerful enough to bring these promises to pass for sure, for certain, forever.

And God’s faithfulness is indeed beyond the grave. His love does outlast death. His covenant of marriage is sealed by the resurrection, and therefore it will never be annulled. Do you see that?

This covenant will never be done away with, because he does not die. He lives. And for the one to whom we are wed cannot die, because he has taken death for himself as well as for us.

Live with Resurrection Joy

That’s truly good news, dear people. And therefore, Christians, if that is true, and it is, our ultimate disposition, our foundational stance has to be one of joy and optimism.

It’s not merely abiding down and gritting through the hard, terrible things of this life. It is true joy, as Paul says. How can he say that? Rejoice in suffering. The only way he can say that is not merely from a personal, a fleshly, this world, manner of doing things.

It’s not possible in his flesh alone. It’s a spirit wrought joy because of the truth of what we know. And this doesn’t mean that sorrows and suffering and real difficulty do not come to us in this life, for surely they do come.

And it doesn’t mean that suffering isn’t real. It is real. It doesn’t mean that the pains that we experience are easily passed over or dismissed with ease. They are not.

But they are not our identity, and they are not our end. They are not final, and they are not eternal. They are but brief moments, Scripture says. Truly, they’ll be outshined by the glory of the resurrection.

In this present, suffering is nothing to be compared with the glory that will be for those who trust Him, who belong to Him, who are united to Him in faith.

Resurrection Shapes Today

So Christians, as we think of the resurrection, when we think of it as not merely some distant thing that we hope is there, you know, the old, you know, attack, pie in the sky and so forth.

But it orients us even to the now with all of the stuff of life. That is, even as we suffer, there is an undergirding light that gives us joy amidst the worst difficulties.

It gives us optimism in the midst of even the most heinous circumstances. For we have already seen the one who has kept his promises, resurrected from the dead.

And his resurrection guarantees what? It guarantees our own resurrection. He is but the first fruits of what surely will come to pass. And that as those who are united to him will truly be united as well.

Share Christ’s Hope

As we go back from this place, brothers and sisters, remember these things. Take with you these promises and this assurance that will infect and affect all of your life, all of your thinking and doing.

Take that with you as you go back into this world and take the love of Christ. And as you are filled with these truths, these glorious truths, and you are battered and beaten by all the other things of life, I do pray that we would spill out that love and that hope and that optimism and that truth and that word of Christ, this one who is the resurrection and the life.

And that others would come and have a glorious confrontation with the Lord of life, the one who has defeated that life. May all glory be given to this same Jesus. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you. We praise you for who you are and what you’ve done. We thank you for the promises that you give, our sure, will never be backed out of, they would never fall, that you have no failing words, Lord, that you’ve given.

We thank you that you’re beyond our ability to fully comprehend, but we give you praise for what we can understand, and that is the gospel of life in Christ.

Lord, we are so often bombarded and filled, not only with the swirling busyness of this life and all that this world would have us be filled up with, Lord, but even the complexities of the things that we rejoice in and that are true, Lord, we pray that we would not let those things drive out or diminish the truth of the gospel and who we are and the life that we have in Him, but that indeed, they would serve that purpose, Lord, that we would live for you, that you would change us.

Lord, we acknowledge what you tell us in your word that we have been created and that good works to do were created for us to walk in them. And so, Lord, we pray, we rejoice that we have assured a sure foundation of who we are and are standing before you based on who we are in Christ.

And we pray that that would issue forth in what it should, Lord, that the profession of our mouths and indeed the works of our hands and the walk of our feet would match that truth, Lord.

We pray, change us ongoingly in the image of our glorious Savior. Be with us as we continue now, we pray. In his name, amen.