Confronting Our Short-Sightedness

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0:00When a realtor is hired to help someone sell their home, one of the things they're going to emphasize is the importance of staging that home. If you've sold your home, if you've gone through that process, or if you've bought a home, you probably have seen this. Staging is important. Decluttering, painting all the walls to a neutral color, bringing in new furniture, making every room basically look like it's straight out of a magazine. When we were selling our house a few years ago, I was on board with the decluttering.

0:37That's me anyway. I'm like, yes. Let's declutter this thing. But I was really resistant to the repainting, like hardcore resistant. I basically was like, what's wrong with the colors that we picked? They're great colors. Who wouldn't love these colors? I had to be persuaded, let's say, by my wife and by the realtor, you really do need to repaint it to neutral colors. I was like, look, the new owners are going to paint their own colors on the walls anyway as soon as they move in.

1:14It's such a waste of money and paint to just repaint. But here's what the realtor told me that changed my mind. He said, most people can't come into someone else's house and see it differently. They can't imagine it any differently. They see your pictures and your clutter and, yes, even your wall color, the one that you picked out and agonized over and went through 15 swatches to find just the right shade of green. All of that stuff is an impediment to them.

1:49Most homebuyers, it turns out, have very little imagination. They see things as they are. They can't see what it might be. And so you have to kind of, like, neutralize it for them, for them to be able to see and understand what it might be. There's no imagination. How it is is what it is, and it's not going to be any different. Now, see, I think that describes a struggle that we all have about our life and about the future. Sometimes we only see things as they are right now.

2:21We can't imagine them any differently. But fortunately for us, Jesus wants to talk to us about that. He's standing in the road like he often does, saying, hey, let's talk about that. I want to try to change your mind. The topic for today is resurrection. A big topic, a wonderful topic, a glorious topic. Jesus is here to remind us, to assure us of the promise and the power of God to change things, to change us.

2:59So if you're having trouble believing that, hearing that, let's listen to Jesus. Let's have him convince us of what's true. This is week four of our little five-week series in Luke 20, called Merciful Confrontations, Jesus versus the Religious Leaders. Or really, for us, it's Jesus versus the hard and stony places in our hearts that he wants to work on and soften up and kick out if he has to. The religious leaders have issues, and so do we. Jesus confronts them and us as an act of mercy.

3:36So let's come to him now. This is Luke 20. The word of the Lord, holy in every part. We should listen to it. If there's something here we don't understand, we should say, Lord, teach us. If there's something here that seems objectionable, we should say, Lord, help us to see this. Help us to understand it. Coming under him and his word is the only way to have the life that you would like to have. The desires of your heart are found in Christ. So let's go to him now and his word.

4:15Starting in verse 27. There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise, all seven left no children and died.

4:50Afterward, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

5:22But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now, he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. Then some of the scribes answered, Teacher, you have spoken well, for they no longer dared to ask him any question. But he said to them, How can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

6:04David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son? Pray with me. Lord Jesus, teach us by your word, but Lord, let it not just be something that happens in our minds, but something in our hearts as well. We want our entire selves to be changed and formed under your hand, for that is good for us, Lord. You intend good for us. You said, Jesus, you said that you have come so that we might have joy and joy to the full. And it comes, it starts by listening to you, by paying attention.

6:46So Lord, help us to do that. Open up our ears and our hearts. Help us to receive what you have for us today. Jesus, we pray this in your name. So Jesus is confronting our short-sightedness, our fixation on the present, on how things are now. Because the Christian life has resurrection in view. Last week, the scribes and the chief priests, they sent spies to Jesus. They had this question. He evaded the trap that the scribes and the Pharisees sent to him.

7:23And now the Sadducees come. And they've got a final challenge. This is really the last real head-to-head confrontation when it comes to a discussion in the temple that they're going to have. Next comes the trial. We all know that Jesus doesn't say much in that trial. But for right now, the Sadducees come with a final challenge. They were a smaller group among the Jewish religious leaders. The Sadducees were a minority group. They were small. They were minorities based on their point of view, not based on their ethnicity or something.

7:57They were aristocratic. They were the elites. They were the social elites. You hear people talking about the elites in society. These were the elites in Jewish society. They were chummy with the Romans. They got along really well with the Romans. And unlike their peers, they didn't believe there would be a resurrection. This was not what most Jews believed. This was a minority view within the Jewish community. But they were very, very sure about it.

8:28And you can tell that based on how they come to Jesus. Because they come with this elaborate hypothetical situation and a question at the end. It's all based on what's called leveret marriage laws. But you don't really need to know anything about that to understand their point. In fact, the seven men in this story, this situation, they don't even have to be brothers really to make the point that they're making. If a woman married and became a widow seven different times with seven men, it would still be the same question that they're asking him.

9:06In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be for the seven had her as wife? It's a rhetorical question. The whole thing is done to mock Jesus and to mock the idea of a resurrection. Don't you see how ridiculous it is, Jesus, to believe in a resurrection? Because this woman can't be wife to seven different men? That's ridiculous.

9:31They might be asking it with a smirk because to them it's absurd. All seven men could say that she's their wife so obviously there can't be a resurrection. That's what they think. Of course, there's an assumption behind their thinking, right? That things are going to be the same after the resurrection. Nothing's going to be different. Nothing will change. We do this all the time, don't we? We pray. We ask God to do something in our life. When God acts, we just assume that it's going to look like what we expect, what we've been praying for, the very literal thing we've been asking him to do.

10:13And what we expect is usually what? It's something that we've seen him do before. Our expectations are set. And if we don't see that happen, we think God hasn't done anything. Maybe God can't do anything. So Jesus sees this assumption and he goes right after it. Jesus pops their argument like a soap bubble landing on a blade of grass. It's just eviscerated immediately. In Matthew and Mark's telling of this interaction, Jesus begins with this summary.

10:47He says this to them, you are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Now that is something quite, that's pretty offensive to say to a bunch of religious leaders.

11:05People who are supposed to be leaders, teachers of the people. You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. To them, well, they're just lost. But Jesus is there to find them. He's coming after them. To correct them, Jesus reminds them of God's power and God's word. So one of the biggest mistakes a person can do is to limit what God can do. You don't ever want to do that. I won't ask for a show of hands, but I'll put mine up.

11:39I've done that. I've thought God can't possibly do that. There had been so many things that God said about the future through prophets, directly, he spoke to people. So many things about the future, the Jewish understanding of time had been shaped into this idea that there were two ages. The present age and the age to come. That's how most people thought of it. Most Jews thought of it. This age, the present age, and the age to come. The coming of the Messiah was supposed to mark the transition between the two.

12:15Jesus makes reference to this when he talks about this age and that age here in this passage. He uses those words, this age, that age. The Sadducees' problem were thinking that these two ages wouldn't be much different. Maybe a Messiah comes, he kind of sets things straight, he makes us number one again, and then life keeps on going. Nothing is basically different between this age and that age. That's what they thought.

12:45But like Sam Cooke sang a long time ago, a change is going to come. They didn't think that, but it is. A change is going to come. Jesus says, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but not in the age to come. Rather than marriage disproving resurrection, Jesus says, no, it's human marriage. That's the thing that's going to end. Why do you limit God, Sadducees? Why must it be the same? Now, this may bum you out to hear that marriage will cease in the new age.

13:24We need to talk about this just briefly. Why is it going to end? Well, basically, its purpose will be fulfilled. Marriage is to fill the earth with people who are made in God's image, and it's to illustrate the relationship between Jesus and his people. Both of those things are going to be fulfilled in the next age. In the resurrection, both of those things are completed. The earth will be filled and the ultimate covenant of marriage, the thing that all of our marriages, if you're married, all of our marriages are meant to point to the love between Jesus and his church.

14:02He is the groom and the church collectively is his bride. In the new heavens and the new earth, that's fulfilled. It's described in scripture as a wedding ceremony. The ultimate marriage, the one that all of our marriages point to, has come. All of the signposts, they can be taken down now. It's been fulfilled. That doesn't mean you're not going to recognize your spouse, you're not going to have affection for your spouse in heaven. I actually think it's going to be even better because there's not going to be any sin in here getting in the way.

14:38But the ultimate marriage has come. That's why there is no marriage in the next life. So Jesus has already demolished their argument. It took him no time at all, but now he goes on. The resurrected people cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels. Equal does not mean identical. He's not saying people are going to be resurrected as angels. You will not turn into angels. That is an unbiblical pop culture Christian doctrine. You will not have wings.

15:15You are not going to turn into angels. There's nothing in scripture that supports that. The Bible doesn't teach that. But resurrected people can't die just as angels can't die. That's what Jesus is saying. Equal in that death is gone. Death is abolished.

15:33The Sadducees have been closed-minded about what God can do. They denied a doctrine that is vital and central and hopeful just because they didn't have a faith-filled imagination.

15:47So Jesus turns to scripture now. He's not trying to rub in how wrong they are. I think he's trying to show them how central the promise of resurrection is to God's promises. He says even Moses showed this because he calls the Lord, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. If he's their God, if they're going to experience the promise fulfilled, then they must be resurrected. If they stayed in the grave, how could they experience the fullness of the promise of God?

16:22If there's no resurrection, they're just history. And so are we. This is a very important point. The resurrection is an inseparable part of the promise of God.

16:36This is why Jesus says he is not God of the dead but of the living. This doesn't mean, by the way, that he's just the God of those who are currently living. Here's what it means. All of those who are his are alive. Alive. More alive than those who are not his. Right now and forever. It's eternal life. It never ends. Ever. Even when the body dies. Death for the Christian is just a doorway to the next life where we will await the resurrection with our Savior face to face.

17:25Otherwise, what is his promise even worth? What is it worth if we die and then there's blackness and nothing? How could he be truthful when he said, I came to give you life and life eternal?

17:41Too often though, like the Sadducees, we live as if there's no resurrection. Now, how can we change that? I've moved a little quickly here because I'm going to spend the rest of my allotted hour. That's a joke. Keeping resurrection in view. We're going to talk about this. This is the last point. How do we keep resurrection in view? I want to offer you four ways to do that. The first is this. Listen to God. Listen to him.

18:17resurrection was because they gave different parts of scripture different weight. To them, the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, those were the most valuable and persuasive scriptures. The rest, eh, not so much.

18:39Because of this, they disregarded many passages where God spoke of a resurrection. Passages like Job 19, 26, which says, after my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. Or Isaiah 26, 19, your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise, you who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy.

19:10They disregarded these scriptures. They didn't listen to them. If they weren't in the first five books, they just ignored them. Jesus said they didn't know the scripture or the power of God. Do you see how the two things are related? If you don't know the scriptures, you'll never be familiar with the power of God.

19:31They didn't listen to God equally throughout all of scripture. They didn't believe his power. To keep resurrection in our view, we have to listen to him speak in his word, his entire word, all of it. Not just the New Testament, not just the Gospels. even the parts that are a little hard to understand at first. We have to listen to God speak in all of it. If we're going to be familiar with and grasp and agree with and find hope in the power of God, it's in his word that he tells us this.

20:11Another passage that the Sadducees might have glossed right over. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Is anything too hard for me? No. No, it's not. If we don't listen to God, we won't know what he can do. We'll be limited by our own experience, by our own human imagination of what he can do. So once you're listening to God, the second step is this. Raise your hopes. Among all of the different groups of religious leaders, the Sadducees were the most content with the Romans.

20:50They worked with them. The Sadducees, they were fine with the status quo. I don't think it's coincidence that they also didn't believe in a resurrection.

21:05Dear ones, what are you hoping for? Are you more or less content with the status quo? You God has the power to change things. Too often we settle for ordinary hopes, things that can happen in this age.

21:43I'm not going to say much about this topic, but I am going to say this. Christian, when you go into the voting booth in November, please let that not be your ultimate hope. we need to have higher hopes than that.

22:07We put away ideas of big redeeming change. Pie in the sky, wishful thinking we say, but Paul tells us if in Christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pitied. What a shame it in this life. Things that mere humans could do. Listen, it's fine to have hopes for things that can happen in this life. The problem is when they stop there. Don't stop there. This age is not all there is. Every Christian should have hopes that only the resurrection can bring about.

22:54Because that's the kind of redemption God has promised. Not something small here or there. He said, I am making all things new. All things new. We need to raise our hopes because we face situations that need a resurrection power. Don't we? And because we have a resurrected Savior, we can have those kind of hopes. Christ rose from the grave. Do you believe it? I know you do. Live like it. Hope like it.

23:33Because he rose from the grave, that means no sorrow, no struggle, no sin, nothing is too great for him to overcome. Jealousy and envy, they overcome. Injustice, abuse, they will be overcome. Sickness and cancer, they will be overcome. Death and sin, they will be overcome.

24:09Don't settle for ordinary hope. The age to come, that is where our highest hopes need to be directed. Now in the meantime, here's the third thing. Remember, remember where you're headed. You might wonder, look, if my body is going to be replaced, why bother taking care of it? I'm just going to do whatever I want with it. A new one's coming anyway. Well, should we say, well, if my marriage will pass away, why bother nurturing it? The answer is no.

24:52We shouldn't say that. Just because this age will pass away doesn't mean that it doesn't have a have you thought about that? He's not just the God of our ends but the God of our means. He plans them both. Our present lives and our future life, they're connected. Everything in your life, your resources, your relationships, your work, your time, and yes, even your body, it's given to prepare you for the age to But we do know that in all things we are to glorify and worship God, right?

25:43Including how we treat our body, including our marriages, including our friendships, our resources, our time. Learning to worship and glorify God with whatever means, whatever situation he's put us in, it's preparing us for eternity when we're going to see him. And we know that in all things God works for our good, for our sanctification. As we heard from 2nd Corinthians, the life of Jesus is being manifested in our lives now. Your life, it's like a turn on a potter's wheel.

26:20It's spinning around. You might get dizzy sometimes, but the craftsman is shaping you and molding you. And someday, when you come out of that oven, off the potter's wheel, out of the oven, with that glaze on, beautifully shaped and forms, you're ready for eternity.

26:47He is the God of your ends and your means. So remember where you're headed. Now this is the last one. We have got to look to him who went ahead of us. The religious leaders thought their question was hard. They were wrong because they knew neither the power of God nor the scriptures. But at the end Jesus asked them a question that actually stumps them. How can they say that the Christ is David's son? He is deliberately stumping them because he knows what they believe.

27:28They knew that the scriptures said the promised savior would be David's son, David's heir, but they need to know to believe. He is right on the spot where they have a hard time believing. How could David call him Lord if he's just his son? If he's merely his son? Somehow this offspring of David had to be greater than David himself. David was the greatest of all kings so the Christ must be human and divine. But these religious leaders didn't have a category for that.

28:26They were looking for human offspring a simple heir to the throne. Church we can't look for human solutions to supernatural problems. We've got to look beyond ourselves to solve the guilt of sin and the penalty of death that all mankind faces. God has got to do something. It can't be resolved by his son Jesus Christ who died in our place to pay for our sins and he was resurrected to give eternal life to anyone anyone who repents and entrusts themselves to him.

29:10And in his resurrection he went ahead of us. Jesus is a trailblazer. He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

29:30Jesus Christ back to life living and breathing with a new body this is the living promise for everyone who trusts in him. When we look to him we see resurrection and we see our resurrection because he has a body that will never again die it's been glorified. He is the forerunner of our resurrection made like him like him we rise the promise of God shown to us by our risen savior church let's look to him in faith and in worship and keep the resurrection in view and eternity in mind that's how we're meant to live let's pray Jesus thank you for being merciful enough to take our eyes off of the present age that we're living in the life that we're living in right now the way that it is right now Lord things are going to change and you're going to accomplish it and the guarantee Lord Jesus is you yourself risen so that we could have life and life eternal would you please Lord shake us up lift our hopes up help us to hear you speak help us to bear in mind where we're headed and Lord for those who are hearing my voice who have not yet put their hope in you put their trust in you Lord I pray that they would look around and just be deeply discontented with this life with this world Lord help them to realize that they have hopes deep down in them desires that be gracious to us we know that you love us lead us forward as we look to eternity and we pray this Jesus in your name