Let us hear the word of God, as
it is written in the Gospel of Luke,
the twentieth chapter, and from the twenty-seventh
verse, the Gospel of Luke, chapter twenty, and
from verse twenty-seventh, and then the concluding
verses of the fifteenth chapter of the Epistle
of Paul to the Corinthians.
Commencing to read in Luke, chapter twenty, and
at verse twenty-seventh, Then came to him
certain of the Sadducees, which denied that there
is any resurrection.
And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote
unto us, If a man's brother die, having
a wife, and he die without children, that
his brother should take his wife, and raise
up seed unto his brother.
There were therefore seven brothers, and the first
took a wife, and died without children, and
the second took her to wife, and he
died childless, and the third took her, and
in like manner the seven or so, and
they left no children, and died.
Last of all, the woman died also.
Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of them
is she?
For seven had her to wife.
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children
of this world marry, and are given in
marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy
to obtain that world, and the resurrection from
the dead, neither marry, nor are given in
marriage.
Neither can they die any more, for they
are equal unto the angels, and are the
children of God, being the children of the
resurrection.
Now that the dead are raised, even Moses
showed at the bush, that he called the
Lord the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
For he is not a God of the
dead, but of the living, for all live
unto him.
Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master
thou hast well said, and after that they
doth not ask him any question at all.
And in the epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians, the first epistle, the fifteenth chapter, and
from verse fifty-one, verse fifty-one, Behold
I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up
in victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord.
The words of our text are in the
Gospel of Luke, in the passage read, the
twentieth chapter, and particularly from verses 34 to
36.
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children
of this world marry, and are given in
marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy
to obtain that world, and the resurrection from
the dead, neither marry nor are given in
marriage, neither can they die any more, for
they are equal unto the angels, and are
the children of God, being the children of
the resurrection.
We have in this chapter in Luke's Gospel,
brought together a series of episodes in Jerusalem,
where the Pharisees and then the Sadducees attempted
to silence the ministry of our Lord.
And they did this not so much as
by force at this time, but rather by
the men who came to Christ with questions,
with difficulties, with problems.
And the purpose of these questions was not
to gain information from Christ, but rather to
render His teaching absurd or ridiculous in the
eyes of the people.
And if at your leisure you read the
earlier part of this chapter, you will find
how our Lord, when He was preaching with
great authority and influence in the temple courts,
was thus interrupted by these men.
First of all the Sadducees, who came with
various questions, by what authority did He preach
they said.
Then again, was it right to pay their
taxes unto Caesar or not?
That was a problem they had.
If of course He said it was right
to pay tax to Caesar, He would antagonize
the people.
If He said it was not right, they
could summon Him before the Roman power.
By such questions the Pharisees pressed our Lord.
And as you will see earlier, entirely without
success, they were utterly confounded and silenced by
Him.
And then the Sadducees become a part of
this attempt to silence our Lord.
They had of course heard what had taken
place and the way in which the Pharisees
had been treated.
But they now come in order to do
what the Pharisees had failed to do.
Now bear in mind of course that there
was a wide distinction between the Pharisees and
the Sadducees.
Certainly they were both enemies of the Gospel
of Christ.
But between them there was this wide difference
in respect to religion.
The Pharisees of course were the traditional party,
they were the upholders of all their elaborate
codes of ethics and of conduct and of
many other things.
They professed to adhere to the Word of
God, but they had overlaid the Word of
God with a great deal of their own.
But the Sadducees were not like that.
They were enlightened as they like to think.
They were men who applied the use of
reason to belief.
And the result of their reason was that
they had not only cast aside the superstitions
of the Pharisees, but with it they had
cast aside also a great deal of the
Word of God.
They were materialists.
They did not believe in the survival of
man after death.
And as Luke tells us in verse 27
here, they denied that there was any resurrection.
They come to our Lord then with this
question.
A question upon the basis of which they
believed they could demonstrate the absurdity of our
Lord's teaching.
They knew what our Lord taught with respect
to the life after death.
The teaching of Jesus was that the grave
is not the final resting place of the
body.
He preached that not only would the spirit
survive death, but a day was coming when
spirit and body would be reunited.
Heaven and hell in the preaching of our
Lord will not be inhabited by disembodied spirits,
by disembodied souls, but they will be inhabited
eternally by those who are raised from the
dead.
The hour is coming, he had preached in
Jerusalem, that all that are in the graves
shall hear his voice and shall come forth.
They that have done good unto the resurrection
of life and they that have done evil
unto the resurrection of condemnation.
I say then that the Sadducees were perfectly
aware that this was our Lord's preaching.
And because they were aware of it, they
come with this particular question.
They begin by quoting the word of God
from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 25.
That portion of scripture where there was laid
down a certain provision to prevent the extinction
of families in the tribes of Israel at
that period of history.
It was part of the mosaic economy that
regulations were laid down to preserve the tribes
and those families until the purposes of God
had been completed for that dispensation of history.
And the verses that they quote as you
see, refer to the fact that if brethren
were dwelling together and an elder brother was
married, supposing he should die without children being
born, then the next brother being unmarried should
take the widow and they be married and
the first child of that union would be
named after the deceased father and thus preserve
that name.
The Sadducees take this portion of scripture and
upon it they bring to our Lord the
instance of a case where not only was
a woman thus married to an elder brother
but in turn successively she married no less
than seven brethren.
And in each case the husband died before
a child was born and then of course
at length she also died.
Here then they say to Jesus, here is
the problem that we have.
Supposing there is a resurrection.
In the resurrection, verse 33, whose wife of
them is she?
For seven had her to wife.
How could she be the wife of one
and not the wife of them all for
she was equally related to all seven brethren.
It is this question which our Lord uses
not only to demonstrate the ignorance of the
Sadducees but to give us here in this
portion of scripture some of the most marvellous
words on the nature of the resurrection life.
And that is the subject which I want
to draw your attention to in the time
that we have together in this morning worship.
The nature of the resurrection life.
But you will notice that our Lord's reply
falls into two parts and we should take
it in that way.
There are first of all certain things which
he says concerning the error in the thinking
of the Sadducees.
And then positively he speaks of the life
of the resurrection.
Taking them then in that order, let us
note the two errors which our Lord exposes
in the thinking of the Sadducees.
In the first place, for the sake of
argument as you note the Sadducees were willing
to assume a resurrection.
But the belief which they assume is not
the belief which is taught in the scripture
nor the teaching of our Lord but it
is that which was so common amongst the
Jews and which was taught by the Pharisees
namely But if a man were a Jew,
if he went to the synagogue if he
paid his tithes to the priesthood and so
on then when the end came surely the
benefits and the privileges of the life to
come would be his.
The way that they speak suggests at once
that that was what they were assuming.
Here were seven brethren, they were all Jews
a woman also who was married to them.
Well if there are to be any benefits
in the resurrection state they must surely belong
to them all.
And the first error which our Lord rejects
is their supposition that men could look forward
universally men generally could look forward to the
life after death.
Notice the sharp distinction which he draws in
verses 34 and 35 Jesus answering said unto
them the children of this world marry and
are given in marriage.
That is something general, that is something universal
in this world but they which shall be
accounted worthy to obtain that world and the
resurrection from the dead and then he goes
on but he has immediately particularized he has
excluded at once a great multitude and he
has begun to speak of those who would
be accounted worthy to obtain that world.
There is more than one world that is
involved after death.
There is a world of blessedness and glory
and heaven but a world also of woe
and endless misery.
And then our Lord adds to that by
this statement and the resurrection from the dead.
That is to say not all will be
accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the
dead and the emphasis falls upon the definite
article the resurrection.
We have already said that there will be
a resurrection which is universal.
Those that sleep in the dust of the
earth says the book of Daniel shall awake
some to shame and some to everlasting content.
There will be a resurrection preached the apostle
Paul of the unjust.
There will be a resurrection said Jesus to
condemnation.
Resurrection as a fact will be universal but
the resurrection of which Jesus speaks here is
the resurrection to glory and to life.
Just as the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter
3 when he speaks of knowing Christ in
the fellowship of his sufferings and the power
of his resurrection if he says, if by
any means I might attain unto the resurrection
from the dead.
Paul longed for that goal which is the
Christian hope of the resurrection that is the
resurrection to life and to glory.
And what Jesus says at once here is
that this resurrection and that world of resurrection
glory is a world to which only some
will be accounted worthy.
And he does not here stop to cast
pearls before swine.
He does not here stop to tell the
Sadducees what they ought already to have known
who would be accounted worthy.
Whosoever he said on another occasion whosoever eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life and I will raise him up at
the last day.
Whosoever seeth the Son and believeth on him
that sent him I will raise him up
at the last day.
You will find my friends as I trust
you know written large in the Gospels the
character of those who will be raised to
glory.
They depend upon the merits upon the obedience
of Christ.
They do good in Christ's name.
They love holiness.
They repent of sin.
They have broken and contrite hearts.
They are those who look to the Saviour
and who die in faith in Christ.
They will be raised and they only to
glory.
Let us pass on then from that first
error and yet how common it is in
our churches, in our world today the supposition
that if there is to be any benefit
after death well if we have been religious
if we have been to church if we
have given our support then surely all will
be well with us.
That is not what would be in the
word of God.
The second error of the Sadducees is even
more fundamental.
Their question displays their complete ignorance of the
vast difference between life in this world and
the resurrection life.
They speak as though the same conditions must
exist in heaven as they do now and
as though the resurrection state must be a
kind of continuation of present relations a continuation
of present conditions.
And the great fallacy in their question is
pointed out by our Lord when he says
as recorded in another gospel he said at
this point ye do err not knowing the
scriptures nor the power of God.
Such is God's power that he is not
only able to raise the dead but he
will raise the dead with new senses with
new capabilities to a new condition of life
and of glory.
Flesh and blood says the scripture cannot inherit
the kingdom of God.
That is to say our body as presently
constituted could not enter into that resurrection life
but God by his own transcendent power will
raise the dead and he will raise his
people changed and transformed into the very likeness
of the risen Christ.
There is to be says the scripture this
vast and stupendous change.
And there could therefore be no greater fallacy
than supposing that when we think of the
life to come and the life of the
resurrection we are to think of something that
is a mere continuation of this present life
and its relationships.
It is not so.
Let us never forget that the scriptures make
clear when they speak of the resurrection of
the body they make clear two things.
First that the body is to be raised
and there is to be a continuity in
identity between these present bodies and the bodies
that shall be.
When Paul speaks of this he says this
mortal, this mortal must put on immortality.
This corruption must put on incorruption.
There is a continuing identity and yet at
the same time there is a statement of
the stupendous change which is to be wrought.
We will be raised but raised to a
new degree of life and of blessedness with
new senses and new capacities to worship and
to serve the living God.
So much then for their second error.
May we in a moment before we leave
it just comment on the fact that our
Lord is not here speaking of the termination
of all personal relationships in the world to
come.
It could be that at a cursory glance
at this passage someone might suppose that our
Lord is saying here that in this life
yes we have these close bonds and friendships
and social fellowships but in this life to
come all that will be done away.
That is not what he is teaching.
Not at all.
He is teaching here that earthly relationships as
such will not survive death.
Not even the divine institution of marriage will
survive death.
But he is not passing any comment upon
the glorious truth that heaven will bring together
the great multitudes of the redeemed of all
lands and of all centuries.
They shall come as he himself preached from
the east and the west and the north
and the south and they shall sit down
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in his
kingdom.
There will be personal social fellowship and joy
amongst the redeemed.
This indeed is the comfort of the Christian
gospel that them which sleep in Jesus will
God bring with him.
And so says the apostle to the Christians
of Thessalonica.
And so we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds and so we shall be forever
together with the Lord.
And there could be no greater error surely
than to suppose that in heaven we will
be some kind of anonymous blanks that we
shall be strangers.
That there will be an end of all
personal fellowship.
My friends that is not so.
But rather the contrary.
The grace of brotherly love which is now
found in the saints but found in us
only imperfectly.
That grace will be perfected.
The saints will be together in glory as
they never could be upon earth.
How easily do we give way to misunderstandings
and to suspicions and to things that bring
division amongst the people of God.
But all that will be done away.
Part of the wonder of heaven will be
the unity of the fellowship of the people
of God.
In the dark ages of the church, Bernard
of Clairvaux in the middle ages looking around
him and seeing apostasy and death, looked upwards
and wrote those beautiful words, I know not,
oh I know not what social joys are
there, what radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond
compare.
And it is part of the comfort of
the Christian that he also is to look
up to a day when the church will
be perfect and complete.
That then lest any misunderstand what our Lord
is saying.
Human relationships as such will not survive death.
But every relationship which has been forged in
the grace of Christ, all who have been
united to Him, they will survive death together.
Now in the last place, just a few
words on what our Lord says positively on
the life of the resurrection.
Let us take in these amazing words with
which He begins verse 36.
Neither can they die anymore.
There is a statement that the resurrection life
is a life of unchanging glory, of deathless
glory.
Neither can they die anymore.
And you notice that these words are introduced
as a confirmation of the difference between the
earthly life, the earthly state, and the life
of the resurrection.
But there is also it seems to me,
some link of thought between what our Lord
has just said in verse 35 on the
end of marriage, the termination of marriage, and
the end of death.
You see how He says in verse 35
they neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Neither can they die anymore.
And what can the relationship be between the
end of marriage and the deathless state of
eternity?
I think we can say this much in
the few moments we have.
Let us recall the purpose of marriage in
the whole divine economy.
When God created the angelic world, He created
all the hosts of light simultaneously at the
word of His power.
That is not how He created man.
But from our first parents, it was His
purpose that mankind should come into being in
successive generations throughout all the years of history,
that the earth should be replenished, that families
and through families, other generations should come.
That was the very heart of the divine
providential purpose in matrimony.
Add to that the fact of sin.
Marriage, as we know, was prior to sin.
But when sin entered a new, a vastly
different feature also entered.
With sin came death.
With sin came infirmity and age and disease
and pain and then at last, earthly separation.
And so into every family and into every
home there came empty places.
There were breaches made.
Death entered and death will enter and must
enter into every home.
And yet by that institution of matrimony and
marriage, God's purposes continued.
Mankind was still perpetuated and the influences of
the Holy Spirit and the saving work of
Christ is brought to bear upon generations and
it may be generations yet unborn.
And from these generations are gathered in the
hosts who will make up all the redeemed.
And then when the end comes, when the
trumpet shall sound, the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death and then marriage will
be done away because its purpose will have
been fulfilled.
There will be no breaches in the family
of heaven.
There will be no empty places there.
There will be no infirmity and no graves
that will sunder the people of God.
They will not marry, says our Lord.
There will be no need of that blessing.
And he goes on, neither will they die
any more.
Well our time is gone, but what are
we to say by way of application on
these things?
Let us my friends remember from these words
that when we think of those who have
died in Christ, we are not to think
of seeing them again as they left us.
They left us in pain and in sorrow
and in weariness.
And however much we may attempt to dress
the dead, death is a fearful thing.
And the remembrance of the passing of our
loved ones in Christ is something often that
brings pain and grief.
But I say we shall not see them
as they left us.
We shall see them in the likeness of
Christ.
We shall see them as children of the
resurrection.
We should learn also from this passage that
we are in this present life engaged not
in some uncertain struggle.
Not in something of which the outcome we
cannot predict.
But we are moving steadily towards the day
when God will raise the dead.
When he will judge.
When he will bring together his people in
absolute holiness.
And therefore we should as the apostle Paul
be realizing that the less there is of
time left to us, the more joy ought
to be ours.
The night is far spent and the day
is at hand.
And when as Richard Baxter was asked when
he was dying how he was, when he
replied I am almost well.
That is how every Christian should think.
We are almost well.
We are moving towards the light and towards
the resurrection.
Do you know I believe there is no
greater evangelism than the evangelism which has come
to the church in days of bitter persecution
when men and women have died at the
stake and they have not needed to go
around witnessing as we call it in inverted
commas, but their lives have so declared their
hope and their knowledge and their assurance that
the ears of other people have been opened
to ask the reason of the hope that
is in them.
And I am afraid that one reason why
we are so feverishly and panically engaged sometimes
in what we call witnessing is that there
is so little in the church that makes
people realize that here are people who are
bound for eternity who have assurance and who
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And if we were but baptized more fully
with the influences of the Holy Spirit that
which we have been considering and that which
is written so large in the Scripture would
be seen more clearly in us.
May God grant that it may be so.
Amen.
O Lord our gracious God, we thank Thee
for Him who is the resurrection and the
life and we pray that we may be
drawn closer to Him, to the knowledge of
His sufferings, to the power of His resurrection.
Grant that Thy Word may abide in our
hearts and give to us this day Thy
holy presence that we may know Thee and
that we may all together rejoice in Thee.
And now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and
the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all evermore.
Amen.