God of the Living

But we must think of what is to come in order to be faithful here now. That resurrected state, one of the great things that we'll be missing is sin. And as we seek to walk in the newness of the resurrected life of Christ, we long for that all the more because sin continues to be an obstacle here. In order for us to truly be faithful here and now, we must have a certainty and a clarity of what God has promised us to come.

If we don't have that clarity, we will not be storing up treasures in that heaven. In short, I want you to be so heavily minded that you might actually be of some earthly good. Seek to know the living God so that you might truly live. Seek to know the living God so that you might truly live. If you're new with us, we're walking through Matthew. We walk through books of the Bible.

And this particular section has different groups, religious authorities coming to challenge Jesus. And they're asking bad faith questions, and Jesus then refuses to answer those questions. And it concludes with Jesus then turning a question towards them. And then that summary,

and no one was able to answer him from that day, no one dared to ask him anything.

The truth of God, the wisdom of God, he's speaking, he's corrected them.

A sad setup

This morning we're looking at the Sadducees and how they're going to come and challenge Jesus regarding the resurrection. If you're taking notes, the first point, a sad setup, verses 23 to 28.

The same day, the Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brothers. So to the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died, and the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be, they all had her.

So we see another group coming in. It's a smaller group, the Sadducees. They're more prestigious. They're wealthy. They're primarily in Jerusalem. Matthew sets up the whole thing as a narrator very well, though. Look in verse 23, who say there is no resurrection. But notice their question is all based upon there being a resurrection. They're asking a question about something they don't believe in. This is what we call a bad faith question. They're not looking for truth. They're looking to pull a trick. They're not asking for information and pure, true curiosity. No, they're trying to trick Jesus.

We know from Paul and Acts, they denied the resurrection. They didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in the human spirit. They're very much focused on the reality of this earth. They don't believe the resurrection, the eternal life beyond this world. We also know they only believe the Pentateuch was authoritative.

Those are the first five books of the Bible, the writings of Moses, what we oftentimes call the law. So not believing the resurrection, they're coming and asking Jesus, well, what about this situation where there was seven different brothers and each married the wife after The previous brother died and whose wife will she be in heaven? They're trying to show that the resurrection must be false based upon this absurd, reducing it down to an absurdity. Now that sounds odd to us as to why the brothers all marry and we need to kind of back up. This is based upon the Levite marriage. If you want to read more about that, it's in Deuteronomy 25.

Deliberate marriage was significant because the people of Israel, the people of Abram, they needed that longevity. The blessed life for much of the Old Testament is, well, milk and honey in the promised land, and a long life in that promised land, and then children and children and children, a legacy. So the New Testament really focuses on eternity. The Old Testament did focus on a long line of children. And that was one of the ways God promised. And it was a blessing for Israel. It's a way that God was establishing must fill the earth.

But the whole focus of the Abrahamic covenant is that God will promise sons, children. They're looking for one son specifically, but the whole idea is that there needs to be a long line and the Levite marriage is a way to secure that that brother who died, a son will be produced by the wife and a brother. and that son would then have the dead brother's name to keep his legacy. It's so important that if the brother rejects the wife, the ultimate end is that the widow, she takes her sandal off, smacks the man in the face and spits on him in front of the elders. It's odd for us, but significant for the people. Now the trick of the Sadducees is to say if there is a resurrection, Whose wife would she be if she was married to all these different brothers? Is it the first one? Is it the last one? Is it all of them?

Know what is to come

They're trying to create this impossible scenario so that Jesus would be caught and they could say, see, the resurrection is impossible. This is a sad attempt. Their false beliefs keep them from coming to Him who would give them eternal life. Our second point, know what is to come. The setup is the resurrection has to be absurd because this woman couldn't be married to all of them. Notice Jesus answered them.

You are wrong. Got straight to the point. He's not entertaining a bad faith question.

You are wrong. because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

He doesn't answer trick questions. He doesn't answer bad faith questions. He corrects them. He's confrontational. You're wrong in everything you're saying. You're wrong in the premises. You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Now that's a big, bold claim.

They would have assumed to be the authorities on the books of Moses. They're asking them according to Moses. I was just reading, we read Proverbs after dinner with the kids, and we were just reading Proverbs 23, and the emphasis is how much you must hear it, incline your ear to God's word and wisdom. and actually keep it, apply it to your heart, and speak it. Wisdom heard doesn't help you. Wisdom embraced, wisdom received, entrusted, and practiced is what helps you.

The Sadducees, they were around the Word of God all the time, but they had not believed it. They didn't understand it. The diagnosis, you're wrong. You do not know God's word nor his power. Those two things go together. You don't know scripture, you don't know God's power. There's no way to know the true, absolute reality of all of who God is and what he does and what he's promised and what he's capable of without knowing him from his word. These two problems go together.

The power, I believe, is probably referring specifically to the resurrection, the power to give life. The God who spoke life into existence, the God who breathed life into man, they don't know the power of the resurrection because they do not know the living God. Christians, as we just hear that clear, authoritative confrontation and correction, Do you know God from His Word?

See, God's like us in one way. We only let people know who we are by speaking to them. You can watch somebody and think you know them, but this is helpful for marriages. Nobody really knows what you're thinking or how you feel or who you are until you speak and reveal. Our God speaks. Our God makes himself known. He's written down what we need to know about him. Do you know him? Do you know him from his word? Do you see the word as we've looked at Psalm 119 overall this summer?

Do we delight in it because it tells us who God is? Do we delight in it because it gives us wisdom and light? It exposes lies that we're so prone to believe. Christian, we come open-minded and hearted and handed. to be longed into the power that God promises. So oftentimes we want God to answer our questions.

It's too easy to try to think, how can I make God fit into what I already assume? And that's the problem with the Sadducees. God and Jesus and everything they believe must fit into what they've already assumed. Their assumptions are keeping them from God. We must sit under the word of God.

Know the truth that provides the firm foundation that makes all fears and worries dissipate. Know the truth that helps you ask better questions, helps you see what's truly good and important, helps you ignore many so-called problems. Most importantly, God's Word connects you to God. He speaks so that you may know Him and know who He made you to be. Sadducees, they do not know God, his word, or his power. They've built their lives on false beliefs to the point that they cannot see God standing in front of them. They cannot hear God as he's speaking to them.

Christian, we now call this a worldview. Christianity in the early church was called the one true philosophy. Philosophy is a good thing. living wisely, seeking the happy life. Christianity is God telling you who he is, how he designed you, how he saved you, how he gives you the truth so that you can walk in the way of truth and goodness and happiness and joy. The Sadducees are a picture here of what it means to bring to God a core belief that you will not reject or repent of.

We all come to God with all kinds of wrong ideas. And praise God, he patiently molds our hearts and our minds. He accepts us to forgive us with all kinds of wrong ideas of all of reality. But the goal of the Christian is to thank God's thoughts after him over and over again. To be more finely tuned to what he has said. A problem in our world is that we're regularly taught we need to look inside to fix our problems.

And all those problems are outside. I'm just trying to give you an example of one of those false beliefs. This is just the air we breathe and the water we swim in. Most everyone is telling you the problems you have are from the outside and your solution is looking inside. The Bible says the exact opposite. Your problems are inside. The deceptive heart produces Deceit, corruption, desires that are ungodly, and then they spew out from the mouth in our actions.

Help comes from outside. God sent his son to cure you, to heal you, to make you alive. The folly is here. Folly also comes from bad friends. The wisdom, the wisdom comes from above. We must learn to step outside of ourselves and look up to God. He's risen, he's given us new life to live. We have new students here. You've come, Lord willing, to study at a university to know more.

You're gonna increase in knowledge. The most important thing you can know is God. Do not neglect knowing God. Do not spend these next four, three, two, however many more years neglecting knowing God. That is the first and foremost important subject or the who you must know. Verse 30 is more precisely what they don't know. He's very bold and clear as to what they do not know about God and His power. Verse 30, for in the resurrection, they, meaning men, women, humans, image bearers,

they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

There's no marriage in heaven.

We'll be like the angels

We'll be like angels in heaven. Now, what's clear is he just assumes, and he's just given the affirmation, there is a resurrection. Your whole premise is wrong. There is a resurrection, and he grinds in a false belief. We'll be like the angels. They deny angels, just like they deny the resurrection. And then he tells them, your whole question is invalid because your premise is wrong. Now, these two declarations inform each other.

There's no marriage, and we'll be like the angels. Now, we must know the most basic, important truths over and over again. And angelology is one of those things we don't really think about it. It's not necessary for salvation, but it's really important for the storyline and the knowledge of God's reality. Someone is usually way too into it or completely ignores it.

Angels are heavenly creatures, not earthly. They appear on earth and relate to the earth. So we might ask how many angels can stand on the head of a needle? That's a clever question because it's asking how does a spiritual reality relate to the earthly reality? Angels are not physical. They're not made of this stuff. They appear here. They're messengers. And you know the classic formula for an angel. They appear and they say, do not fear, as they speak for God. Demons do not speak for God, and they want you to fear. They want you to fear living in shame, guilt. That's one of Satan's greatest powers. All demons are angels, they are the ones that rebelled. There is no known salvation for fallen angels. The righteous angels that have not rebelled, they worship God and they relay heavenly truths to man.

So when we see here, we'll be like the angels, what does that mean? Well, Luke's recounting gives a few more words of what Jesus recorded. It means we won't die. So eternal life means that we will not die, but there's also a way in which I think we're like angels in that we don't procreate.

Angels do not procreate. Angels do not marry. See, humans were put in the garden. They were given the creation mandate, fill the earth. Marriage, one of the reasons we have marriage is to have that human institution, that God-blessed covenant, so that that is where humans will multiply. In childbearing, angels do not multiply that way. They're not made in God's image. They don't have the mission to fill the heavens or procreate. Now this is kind of wild from Psalm 18.

If you think about the order of being God, angels, man, we're made a little lower than the angels. It's important to know. We're made a little lower They're greater beings than us in many ways, but they're not made in the image of God. That's a very unique, special status. It's the most basic thing you actually need to know about yourself and everybody else. We're all made in God's image. Jesus, the psalmist is first and foremost speaking of Jesus.

He became a little lower than the angels. He was above them as their creator, lowered himself by taking on humanity. He came to be like us in every way without sin, uniting himself to us. And then when we believe in him, those who are redeemed, we're made sons of God.

We're declared to be the bride of Christ. In creation, we're lower than the angels. And the new creation, we're greater than the angels. We'll judge the angels. Christ, uniting himself to us, exalts humanity up. But we'll be like the angels, here related to marriage.

The true final marriage

That's a way of saying there will be no marriage or procreation. There is no marriage in heaven. I'm gonna shoot straight with you. I believe all the Bible is good, right, and true. I don't like all that it says in the moment. This passage doesn't make me really excited in the face of value because I love my wife. I can't imagine life without her. This is hard for me to really get excited about because I don't like that there's no marriage in heaven at some level at face value.

But then when we see what's going on, the bigger picture of scripture, What God gives us in heaven is pictured as a marriage. It's the true final marriage. It's going to be loving God and fully loving him without sin. It's going to be knowing his love without our own corrupted minds and hearts.

The marriage of the two becoming one flesh, it ends. Because in the new heaven and new earth, there's no more need to fill that new heaven and new earth. Humanity has come to a complete number. There's no need for a descendancy or a legacy of a line. Most importantly, there's no more aloneness in being unloved.

Jesus, the true perfect bridegroom, that's one of the ways you must know Christ, the bridegroom, the perfect one. He makes his people his bride, his beloved. He blesses us with all kinds of different pictures of him and his salvation. He redeems us, he washes us. As a bridegroom, he loves his bride. Now, he loves his bride not because she's beautiful. He loves his bride even though she's filthy and sin. He loves his bride to make her beautiful.

All of humanity has rebelled against God. We've all rejected God. We're all gross in our sin, unlovely. God in his sovereignty and his authority commits himself to loving a people to make us lovely. That's what's amazing about the love of Christ. He makes us more lovely. The more we grow to enjoy his love, the more lovely we become. The more we grow to love him, the more lovely we become. The more loving we become and growing towards God, the more we love each other and long for heaven.

There is no marriage in heaven because there's a different kind of wedding. Now one of the questions I had from sermon prep and as I wrestled this week, if marriage was an integral part of the original good creation, why isn't it in the new creation?

Many aspects of the original creation aren't there. That's why I read that earlier from Revelation. There's no sun or moon. It's a whole different kind of existence that we need to wrestle with and look forward to. Marriage in the first creation, which we're still in, it's good. It's good for us. After the fall, though, it became corrupted. And we know from Ephesians that God designed marriage from the very beginning to be a picture of what he was going to do in salvation.

In Ephesians 5, Paul says, and this is the profound mystery of Genesis 2.24.

Now I always thought that Genesis 2.24, the mystery was, how does Adam and Eve leave their father and mother? But the mystery that Paul tells us is that it's really about Christ and his bride from the very beginning. Though the whole thing was designed, your marriages from the very beginning of the design were meant to be a picture of the perfect marriage.

Marriage has been used throughout all of scripture to show us who God is. Sadly, time and time again, God showed himself to be a loving, faithful husband who pursued his bride, who kept worshiping other gods. Idolatry is called adultery in the Old Testament and the New.

God's faithful love towards us means we should turn and love Him because He's loved us. There is no marriage among us in heaven because the great marriage is God being with us as our God. God preparing us to be His people truly loving him and knowing his love.

Christian, know that God has spoken. Know what God has promised and commanded. Know what God has done and what he calls us to. Know what he has given us. Hold firm to what God says. And the best way to do this is to read God's word together. Read God's Word with other Christians, hear it, meditate upon it, delight in it. Christian, we must know what is to come so that we will truly know how to store up treasures.

Worship the God of the living

The last section, as Jesus makes a turn here in verse 31, worship the God of the living. It's the heading, if you're taking notes, worship the God of the living. He just assumes a resurrection. He gives him a correction that there is no marriage. Now he tells them about the resurrection.

And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not God of the dead, but of the living.

Now this is one of those questions that Jesus asked to poke again. He's already said, you're wrong, you do not know scripture or God. And now he's asking another challenging question.

Have you not read? Again, they only believe in five books. They believe what Moses has written. And they would assume to be the masters of these books. And he's asking them, have you not read them? All that God wants us to know is in scripture. Now, have you not read, I want you to really focus in on this phrase. Have you not read what God has said to you?

Have you not read what was said to you by God?

Now he's quoting Exodus 3. We know that for certainty because Luke, again, he adds, he includes information that Matthew does not include.

And he says when God was speaking to Moses at the bush, so Exodus 3, that's important. God was speaking directly to Moses, orally. So when God's speaking, he was speaking to Moses, and then Moses, he wrote that down for all of Israel to believe, but Jesus, he's saying it, he's speaking to you. What God said to Moses was for all Israel and for you.

Find it fascinating that there's all kinds of ways people try to come up with a way God will speak. Sitting quiet and just let God speak in the quietness. It's amazing. Creation declares God. If we didn't have corrupt minds and hearts, we would know God and his power and his glory from creation alone. But God has spoken most uniquely and specifically in scripture. Praise God.

He speaks through us. We can be instruments of God and that we can speak his truth and love. But we only do that when we're really grounded in his truth. And we do want to ask, what did God say? But I want you to hear, he's speaking to you now. Everything about our worship service has meant to saturate you with the word of God. Over and over again, we've been reading and singing and praying and hopefully proclaiming the word of God.

Luke tells us the context it's to Moses. Now, when God says this, this is the first time God says,

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And it makes sense historically as this is in Egypt. He's telling this to Moses because Moses needs to know this is the same God who made all these promises to these people. He's saying this to make sure that they have assurance that the God who brought them into Egypt to help them multiply and grow in number, he's the same God who's going to bring them out with great power. He's a God who has made promises. The whole idea of what I believe Moses is receiving at that time is that he's a God who's always been with these people from the past.

Jesus is doing something else with these words. He's saying he's the God of the living because he doesn't say I was the God of Abraham. I am the God of Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they're still alive in spirit in heaven. Now we'll get to Matthew 27 when the tombs are emptied at the resurrection and I assume there they got bodies, but that's another day, another time. But they're alive.

God didn't make promises that he'll keep for dead people, God made promises that he'll keep for people who will live forever. He is the God of the living. He is not the God of the dead. He does not lose people. He created us to live. He restores us to life. Now occasionally, there's a great passage of scripture, a simple little phrase that captures so much truth that I wanna encourage you to memorize, and that's it.

He's not God of the dead, but of the living.

Let's practice memorizing that. I'm gonna say he is not the God of the dead, and you're gonna say, but of the living. You ready?

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

That was good, did y'all practice that? He's not the God of the dead.

That's worthy of your meditation today and every day. He who created you with life has given you himself to truly live. Don't just think it's to live forever. No, it's to truly live. Because when you're walking in sin, you're walking in destruction. He is the God of life. Sin destroys, makes dead. God brings life and restores. You can create a chart. Sin, bad. God, good. Sin, lie. God, truth. Sin, destroy. God, renews. There's two ways to live. In folly. or in wisdom. When we're left to ourselves, we're left in our own destruction and deception to die.

But God sent his son so that we can believe in him and his death and resurrection and be forgiven and be restored to life. He was crucified in our place to take away our sin to take away the penalty and the power. He rose again so that we would walk again in new life. We call this sanctification, growing closer to God. Having sin removed so grace changes us and makes us whole again. The goodness of Jesus Christ is if you're here this morning, you can repent. You can turn from death to life. You can turn from sin that destroys to God's grace that renews.

He is not the God of the dead. Let's try that again. He is not the God of the dead. As sure as Jesus is risen from the dead, the God of the living, you can walk in the newness of his life, new patterns, temptations you can say no to. You can consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ and present yourselves to a new way by faith walk in the newness of his life. This passage really captures two different pictures. There's the marriage of Christ in the church, the wedding, that reconciled relationship, and the newness of the resurrection that he gives us for new life. Let's think about that former one as we conclude.

The marriage supper of the Lamb

The Bible begins and ends with a wedding. Adam and Eve in Genesis 2, the marriage supper of the lamb at the end. It's a climactic end of good creation that God brings Eve to Adam. They're declared to be one flesh in that marriage covenant. God likens himself to a husband pursuing a people who will not stop whoring after their gods. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God's love, that he loves us even when we're not lovely, to make us lovely. And then marriage ends, the scripture ends with this wedding.

The marriage supper of the Lamb. It's fascinating about what we see in Revelation as we think about the new heaven and the new earth. Christ is the lamb. And we know Christ is the lion and the lamb. The lion represents that authority and that power to save. The lamb is his sacrificial love. It doesn't say the wedding supper of the lion. The marriage supper, the wedding supper of the lamb. Because that's how he showed us his great love for us. The lamb who was slain to save us. The lamb with all the power of the lion laid down his life in love to give us new life. Know that new life. Know that love. Walk in that newness of life. He is not the God of the dead.

Father, we thank you that you have promised yourself to save a people for yourself. Thinking that we can long for the day when sin no longer keeps us from truly and fully appreciating with all gratitude what you've done for us? Lord, I pray you would bless us to know what it means to walk in the newness of Christ and his wisdom, to walk in his love. Help us, Lord, to truly embrace what you have said absolutely true and good, especially when we don't like it. Help us to see what you say is true and good and better than our folly. Correct our lies or give us your truth that gives life. May we rejoice in Christ, our risen Savior. May we walk in His new way, and may we long for the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus, let me pray. Amen.