According To Luke: One Bride For Seven Brothers Part II

 According To Luke: One Bride For Seven Brothers Part II

Jesus’ Resurrection Is Available To Anyone At Anytime! Just Answer His Call!

Background and Context:

Jesus had just arrived in Jerusalem. When He entered the city, some received with with welcome and glad hearts while others were hell bent on trying to reveal Him as a fraud, trap Him in unanswerable questions, and if possible...kill Him. However, every time the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees tried to discredit Jesus, He seemed to slip out of their schemes and plow through their plots. They tried to trap Jesus by asking Him a question about taxes. Today we are introduced to the only time in Scripture where Jesus argues with the Sadducees. The Sadducees were considered outside the normal Jewish faith. They read only from Pentateuch, the Torah, while the Pharisees and others read also from the Prophets and Psalms as Scripture. Now the Sadducees, who had an ax to grind about the resurrection because they did not believe in the resurrection, decided that they would get in on the action of trying to discredit Jesus. After Jesus answered the question about taxes, they realized that they were going to have to come up with a real doozy of a question. How could they prove that Jesus was a fraud while at the same time put doubt in the minds of the people concerning the resurrection of the dead? We find this line of questioning in Luke 20:27-40. Let’s read this morning how Jesus responds to their question. 

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 20:27-40 ESV

[27] There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, [28] 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. [29] Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. [30] And the second [31] and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. [32] Afterward the woman also died. [33] In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." [34] And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, [35] 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, [36] for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. [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. [38] Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." [39] Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." [40] For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

Let’s Review! Last Week We Learned About…

I. The Simplicity of Heaven 32-36

Luke 20:32-36 ESV

[32] Afterward the woman also died. [33] In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." [34] And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, [35] 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, [36] for they cannot die anymore...

Point:

Life here on earth is complex. We have complex relationships. There are nuances in our marriages that we are still trying to figure out. I know men that have been married for 50 years and they are still learning new things about their wives. Things at work are always changing. No day is the same.  People come and go, in and out of our lives. Children are born, they get older, they leave the home. You don’t stay in Kindergarten for long. You blink and all of a sudden you are walking across a stage accepting that high school diploma. Life is always changing. It is complex. 

If you remember, the complexities of our day are non existent in heaven. Life is heaven is simple, good, easy, and fulfilling. There are no politics in heaven. No social media. No disease and no doctors. There is nothing left to be taught yet we will continually and eternally learn from the bottomless well of God’s wisdom and creativity. No more conflict. No more misunderstandings or miscommunications. 

Recall that you will know and remember your loved ones. Your relationship with them will be new everyday and different than what you experienced here on earth. Nothing will be hidden and you and I will achieve ultimate intimacy. No pretenses and no pretending. Everything will be in the open and in heaven nothing is secret. 

In heaven we will have the perfect relationship with God. No more ups and downs in our walk with God because sin, the sin that separates and break our fellowship is gone. When God speaks we will hear Him clearly. No more wondering what God’s plan is for our lives. 

Heaven is a place of ultimate understanding and revelation. Not only will we know God, remember our loved ones, but we will also have complete knowledge of the rest of heaven’s residents. No more remembering names. No more name tags. Just unending friendship. Sounds nice doesn’t it?

Fill in these blanks for me this morning before we move on from this point… 

“In Heaven you will experience perfect communication, perfect communion, and perfect comprehension.”

Like I said, heaven is going to be a wonderful place, listen to the Apostle John’s description of heaven eternal,

Revelation 22:1-5 ESV

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Today We Will Learn About…

II. The Sanctity of Heaven vs. 36

Luke 20:36

[36] for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 

Point:

Heaven is clearly a special place reserved for those who have experienced rebirth through salvation and the resurrection of the body and soul through the power of Christ. Heaven is sanctified. It is pure. It is holy and it is good. 

What makes heaven so special? What makes it so unusual? Remember the Sadducees believed that there was no resurrection. They believed that you were born, you lived your life, and then you’re dead. That’s it. End of story. So, if you do good things, you only have this life to experience those good things. Conversely, if you do evil things and are punished, you are only punished in the time you have. When you die, that’s it. You’re done. 

How does that sit with you? Imagine you are a Sadducee. You do not believe in the resurrection. Think about that for just a second and do your best to put yourself in that belief system. Are you there yet? Ok. Now, I wan to read some names for you.

Mao Zedong. Communist responsible for the death of 60 million people.

Joseph Stalin. Again, Communist responsible for the death of some 40 million people. In just 2 people we have killed 100 million people. 

Adolf Hitler. Responsible for 6 million Jews dead. 

Hideki Tojo. Japanese dictator during WWII who killed 5 million people. 

Saddam Hussein. Just 600,000 people dead under his leadership. 

Remember you are a Sadducee. There is no afterlife. After hearing these names, are you comfortable with the punishment that these men saw in their lifetimes? In your sense of human justice, do you feel that they deserve more than they received? I do!

You see the resurrection is proof of the sanctity of heaven but also proof of divine eternal justice. Heaven cannot be good, it cannot be just, it cannot be pure if evil goes unpunished and unrecognized. You see friends, the reason why heaven is such a holy place is because God’s justice is greater than my own. God does not let evil go unpunished. Let’s see what the Old Testament has to say, 

Isaiah 66:24 ESV

24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Daniel 12:2 ESV

2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Here is what John The Baptist had to say,

Matthew 3:12 ESV

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Jesus had a lot to say about the punishment of the wicked in the afterlife, 

Luke 12:45-48 ESV

45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

And what about Paul,

Romans 2:5-9 ESV

5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek...

Point:

Oh brothers and sisters, heaven is a place of eternal reward. It is a place where justice has been delivered perfectly to those who have done evil and never sought redemption through Christ Jesus. In heaven, there is no division, no partisan politics being played, no fighting, rioting, protests, or racism. Heaven helps the believer know that God’s sense of justice is greater than the justice of man. Heaven is a place where everything is right. Heaven cannot be right if the wrongs of the world have gone unpunished. 

I Corinthians 2:9 ESV

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Jesus’ Insights Into The Afterlife...

I. The Simplicity of Heaven 32-36

II. The Sanctity of Heaven vs. 36

III. The Superiority of Heaven vs. 36-39

Luke 20:36-39 ESV

[36] for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. [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. [38] Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." [39] Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well."

Point:

Scripture says that when believers die, they will be “like angels”. What does that mean?

Does it mean, as some suppose, that we actually become angels? Or does it mean that in some way we become like angels?

Jesus brings up angels and states that we will be like them. Before we talk about what He means, let’s look for just a moment about these creatures and entities. They are shrouded in mystery and worldly misconceptions. 

People believe all kinds of things about what happens when we die. One is that people become angels. Is that true? Some may genuinely believe that when people die they become angels.  I remember growing up watching a show starring Michael Landon titled “Highway To Heaven”. Landon’s character was a normal Joe who suddenly died and then he was made into an angel. He then comes back to earth, partners with a fella, and then they go around doing good to people. 

I can remember seeing a cartoon with Wil E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. I loved those cartoons. This one cartoon has the Coyote going back and forth with the Roadrunner. Suddenly Coyote has an anvil dropped on his head. He floats off to heaven and he becomes an angel. Made sense to my childhood mind. As a child I really thought that when I died that I too would become and angel. As I stated last week I have performed lots of funerals here at ESBC. There was one funeral that I was conducting where someone was delivering a eulogy for their loved one. At the conclusion, this person stated that their dearly departed loved one was now an angel. Is that true? Is that Biblical?  Is that what Jesus is saying here?

Let’s dig into the subject about angels. Do we become angels when we die or not? How do we know? 

Do We Become Angels When We Die?

No. We do not become angels when we die. Humans are one kind of God’s creation, and angels are another. To say we become angels is to say we stop being humans.

What does the Bible say about mankind and angels? Well for one, their creation and our creation are different. 

Psalm 8:5 says, “You have made them [human beings] a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.” 

God separates humans from angels in what they were created to be.

Another verse to look at is I Corinthians 6:3. Here Paul is explaining to the people of Corinth how people will judge angels. We cannot do what Paul is saying if we cease to be human and transform into an angel.

Genesis 1:25 reminds us God created everything after its own kind. There are different kinds of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels, etc.), but they’re all angels. There are different races of people, but they’re all people.

What about salvation?

And then there’s the issue of salvation itself. We find many verses revealing how God planned the redemption and salvation of humankind from the foundation of the world. Humankind…not angel kind.

Angels are spiritual beings created by God to work as His agents, messengers, servants and yes…destroyers. They are not only sent to help those who inherit salvation but they are also sent to bring righteous judgement to the wicked and evil. You remember the story of the Passover. The 10th and final plague against the rebellious Egyptians. This was the final straw that broke Egypt and liberated the Israelites. God sent an angel to the nation and that one angel, in one night, killed every first born breathing body. Millions dead in one night by one angel sent from God. There was no shot fired, no battle, no conflict. One angel, millions dead. 

And then there is the story found in 2 Kings 19:35. There were 185,000 Assyrian soldiers that were killed by a single angel. Be assured that angels are not chubby babies with wings and a bow and arrow trying to help people fall in love. 

Described as “mighty”, angels are not limited by the physical world, and they never die. Neither do they marry. Scripture expressly forbids the worship of angels.

Satan (the devil) was once an angel with great responsibility. He was called Lucifer, which means “light-bearer”. Scripture records that He desired to become like God and led a third of the angels in rebellion against God.

The Bible refers to “fallen angels”, “wicked spirits”, and “demons”. Satan and his ”angels” roam the earth, opposing and hindering the gospel and the work of God. These former angels are now demonic forces that try to distract, trick, and outright fool humanity into sinning and destroying their lives. 

Unlike angels, people were created in the image of God. Adam, the first man, was given authority to rule over the earth. Every individual has worth and a unique purpose. God loves every person and desires a personal relationship with each one.

In Scripture we see angels who are messengers, warriors, protectors worshippers, and guides. In each situation angels are doing the bidding of God.

Angels are powerful beings and superior to anything that we have ever seen here on earth. So superior are angels that people in the Bible have been tempted to worship them. 

However, man is more prized than the angels. Man was created in God’s image. Today, angels do not possess free will like men do. Angels cannot experience salvation and redemption like man. Angels will never be able to have a relationship with God like man. 

Friends, to be clear, men are men and angels are angels. When we die, we do not become angels and nor should we want to be angels. While angels are special, God has placed a superior importance on man. Only man carries the image of God imprinted on his or her soul. Christ did not die to save angels, He died to save me and you. You are more important than angels. 

Man is important to Christ. Man is still important to Christ. 

This morning Jesus still wants a relationship with me and you. Jesus is the only way to that relationship. The only door. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Do you know Christ? Have you embraced Him? When Jesus talks about the sons of the resurrection, is He talking about you? When you die, will you enter heaven?

John 11:25 NLT

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.

Go The Jesus Way! Embrace Christ!