DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD?
SERIES: JESUS, SAVIOR OF THE LOST
by Ron Ritchie
Last month Anne Marie and I were staying in Nice with a dear French couple
who are retired. One day we all took a day trip from Nice to a small village
called Bordighera on the Italian Riviera. Our goal was to find the grave
of George MacDonald. To explain that I need to take you back five years
earlier when Anne Marie and I were in Scotland. On that trip we had visited
Huntly, the home of the late George MacDonald (1824-1905), who was an incredible
character Anne Marie had discovered. As many of you know, in his day he
was a famous Christian pastor, novelist, poet, and Victorian visionary.
He and his wife Louisa raised twelve children, and during those years he
became friends with Lewis Carrol, author of Alice in Wonderland.
MacDonald's daughter Mary posed as Alice in the illustrations in all the
earlier editions of the book. MacDonald is also credited with being C. S.
Lewis' mentor.
In Huntly we visited MacDonald's home and the castle he played in as a child.
At the Huntly library Anne Marie was given a box of his original manuscripts
to read. On our final rainy day in Huntly we went to a few local graveyards
hoping to find his grave, but to no avail. A few days later we visited John
Thins bookstore in Edinburgh and found a new MacDonald biography by William
Raeper that informed us that ill health had forced MacDonald and some of
his adult children to move to the Italian Riviera. Louisa died in Italy
in 1902, and and, within three years, at the age of eighty-one George MacDonald
died in his sleep while visiting his family in England. His ashes were carried
to Italy and placed in the grave of his wife, next to the graves of his
two favorite daughters Grace and Lilia, in the cemetery at Bordighera.
Our trip last month from Nice to Bordighera was designed to close the chapter
on our adventure in Scotland. After we found the ancient cemetery, eventually
we discovered the weed-covered graves of the MacDonald family. The four
of us cleaned up the grave sites, and then as we looked down on their tombs
I gathered us together in a circle, and holding hands, we thanked God for
the life that he had given George MacDonald and his family on this earth
during their generation. I thanked God that "...according to His great
mercy [He] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).
This in turn fills our hearts with the hope that we will one day not only
see our Lord Jesus face to face, but will also spend eternity with George
MacDonald and his family, C. S. Lewis, and all the saints in all the ages
who have passed into eternity before us. Our French friends have a Catholic
background, but we are not sure exactly where they are in relationship to
Jesus Christ and whether they believe in the resurrection of the righteous
from the dead. I do know that they were very much moved by that whole experience.
For myself, as I stood there I realized once again that when we place our
faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are born again to a living
hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and our ultimate destination
is not a graveyard. That was not where George MacDonald was! It was only
his remains that were there as a memorial to the glory of God and how he
worked through George his whole life, and as a reminder to us of how God
uses us and then moves us from this world right into his presence.
I know that you have met many religious people who are not sure that there
is a resurrection from the grave. Many of them hope that it will be like
the after-death experience so many have testified they had, that floating
sensation in which they seem to have physically died, their soul is drawn
toward a great white light, they see family and friends, they feel warm
and safe, and they don't want to go back to earth. One of the problems with
calling that experience the resurrection is that it is all heaven and no
hell for everyone; no one is held accountable for their lives or their sins,
and in the final reality no one needs the saving grace of God that is found
in Jesus Christ.
In Luke 20:27-47 Luke introduces to us a group of religious leaders in Israel
called the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
As we study this passage together, this would be a good time for all of
us to ask ourselves, "Do we really believe in the resurrection from
the dead?" Let's read Luke 20:27-33:
Now there came to Him some of the Sadducees (who say that there
is no resurrection), and they questioned Him, saying, "Teacher, Moses
wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife, and he is childless,
his brother should take the wife and raise up offspring to his brother.
Now there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died childless;
and the second and the third took her; and in the same way all seven died,
leaving no children. Finally the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore,
which one's wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife."
On Palm Sunday our Lord had ridden into Jerusalem on the back of a young
donkey and presented himself to the nation of Israel as their Prince of
Peace and their Messiah, only to be rejected by the spiritual leaders. On
Monday he had cleansed the temple of commercialism, saying, "It is
written, 'And My house shall be a house of prayer' [Isaiah 56:7], but you
have made it a robbers' den." This amazing event was followed by a
day of teaching, preaching, and healing. Now it is Tuesday in this account,
his final day of public teaching, which was filled with hope for the believers
and warning for the unbelievers.
The spiritual leadership of the Jewish people was divided into two camps:
One camp was the Pharisees, theologically the rigorous realists who were
hoping that by keeping the letter of the law they could obtain salvation,
the immortality of their souls after their physical death. Politically they
were bitterly opposed to the existing Roman rule over their nation and lives.
The other camp was the Sadducees, theologically acknowledging only the written
law of Moses as binding and rejecting the entire traditional interpretation
and further development of the law. At times they submitted to the prophets
but not to any of the oral tradition. They refused to believe in angels,
spirits, a resurrection of the body, retribution in a future existence,
or any personal continuity of the individual after death, because they did
not believe that Moses spoke of the resurrection of the dead (see Acts 23:1-10).
Politically the Sadducees were the aristocrats, seeking to move among the
rich and powerful, especially within the political parties of the Roman
government.
The Sadducees knew that Jesus taught his followers about the resurrection,
especially since he had raised his friend Lazarus from the dead...! They
knew they had a problem in Lazarus, but first they wanted to discredit Jesus'
view of the resurrection and his teachings and thus damage his authority
among the common people. So they came up with a hypothetical question: "Jesus,
for the sake of argument, knowing we do not believe in the resurrection,
how would you solve the following problem?
"(1) The law: We all know that Moses wrote, "...if a man's brother
dies, having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife
and raise up offspring to his brother'" [see Deuteronomy 25:5-10].
In Deuteronomy, the law read that the childless widow should not seek a
new husband outside the family, but one of her husband's unmarried brothers
should go to her and take her to himself as his wife, with the hope that
a son would be born who would retain the name of his deceased father, so
(a) it would not be blotted out from Israel (Deuteronomy 25:6); that is,
it would be kept in the covenant of Abraham so future generations would
be blessed (see Genesis 17:7-9); and (b) so his estate would stay within
the family.
"(2) The problem: There were seven brothers all living together in
a family unit as the law stipulates in Deuteronomy 25:5. And the first brother
married a woman and died childless so that there was the threat that his
name would not be carried into the next generation. And the second unmarried
brother was willing to marry his sister-in-law and hoped to have a son to
keep his brother's name for the next generation, but he died childless.
And each in their turn married this sister-in-law, and each in turn died
childless. Finally the woman also died.
"(3) The question: In the resurrection, which one's wife would the
woman be? For the seven had her as wife. According to our logic, if we believed
in life after death, once she arrived in heaven she would be the wife of
all seven brothers. Therefore the law of Moses would be promoting in the
future life what it condemns in this present life. Such a conclusion would
be absurd, so you can see why we do not believe in the resurrection from
the dead!"
It is human nature, actually, to wonder about this issue; there are many
people who have been married more than once because their first spouse died,
and so they aren't sure who they will be married to in heaven. But the hypothetical
question posed by the unbelieving Sadducees had some problems that are shared
by the Mormon doctrine of the resurrection of faithful Mormons and the Islamic
theology of eternal life. The Mormons believe that the faithful die and
then are resurrected to the third or celestial heaven, where they are given
possession of a kingdom for themselves and their family. As a god, each
man, with his family, will rule and populate a separate planet of his own.
The Koran teaches that the faithful within Islam will enter a heaven filled
with worldly delights. But according to Jesus, the Sadducees, the Mormons,
and the Moslems are all wrong about the resurrection from the dead.
Do you believe in the resurrection from the dead? The Sadducees did not,
but Jesus did. Let's read what Jesus taught in Luke 20:34-40:
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 the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given
in marriage; for neither can they die anymore, for they are like angels,
and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are
raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where
he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all
live to Him." And some of the scribes answered and said, "Teacher,
You have spoken well." For they did not have courage to question Him
any longer about anything.
Before we go on in this passage we need to turn to a harmony of the gospels
and see that Matthew, in commenting on this story, added an important spiritual
truth that will help us understand our Lord's confidence in confronting
these Sadducees. Matthew 22:29: "But Jesus answered and said to them,
'You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures, or the power of God.'"
Jesus was saying, "Your narrow, humanist conclusion is void of all
the truth about the resurrection found in the word of God. And your logic
has blinded you to the power of God as revealed in nature and in the lives
of the men and women who have lived before you, for God can do what man
cannot do."
Even if all we want to find in the Jewish Scriptures is the mere mention
of bringing life out of death, the vision of Ezekiel 37 vividly shows God's
power to bring people back from the dead, and if he can do that he can give
them eternal life in another age as well. The prophet was told to look on
the valley of dry bones, and the Lord asked him if he thought the bones
could live again. The prophet wisely replied, "O Lord GOD, [only] Thou
knowest." Then Ezekiel was to prophecy over the whole house of Israel:
"Thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I will open your graves and cause
you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into
the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have...caused
you to come up out of your graves, My people. And I will put My Spirit within
you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land."
Jesus was telling the Sadducees, "Your basic problem is that you do
not know what the living God knows and what he can do. And your concept
of living in eternity has too much worldliness in it."
Then Jesus explained the difference between this age and the next. First,
the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. The gift of marriage
was established by God for men and women in this age in order for us to
understand through our physical, emotional, and spiritual oneness his loyal
love and oneness with us. Marriage in this fallen age was also designed
by God for couples to bring forth children in order to preserve the human
race. This will continue as long as this age lasts-until Jesus brings all
his enemies under his foot, the final enemy being death itself. We won't
need to have children anymore when death is conquered.
"...but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the
resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage...."
Jesus has pulled back the curtain of eternity, and we are suddenly given
either some wonderful words of hope or some terrible words of warning, depending
on our relationship with Jesus. The first thing we see is that there is
life in two different ages, "this age" or our present experience,
and "that age," a future experience beyond our present physical
life in this fallen world. The second thing we see is that only those who
are considered worthy get into "that age."
Now, we have already seen in the parable of Luke 16:19-31 that everyone
who has ever been born is given an eternal existence; the issue is where
we spend that eternal existence. Those who reject the revealed truth of
God as spoken through his prophets and in these last days through his Son
Jesus Christ will spend eternity in lonely torment, as did the former rich
man in the parable. Those who place their faith in God and his Son are declared
righteous in the sight of God and thus are considered worthy. They will
spend eternity in fellowship with God the Father, his Son, and all the saints
from every generation as did the former beggar in the parable, Lazarus.
The latter is what was spoken of by Jesus when he referred to "that
age and the resurrection from the dead." Our Lord was not addressing
the resurrection of judgment of all people from every generation in which
they must stand before the great white throne of Revelation 20:11-13. He
was addressing the resurrection of life for the righteous. Jesus had said,
"...an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear
His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection
of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment"
(John 5:28-29). And later Jesus had said, "I am the resurrection and
the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone
who lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25-26).
Then our Lord pointed out three important spiritual realities for those
who are considered worthy by God to spend their eternity in his presence.
First, there will be no need for the marriage bond in "that age."
The popular idea was that the resurrection would restore men and women to
their former bodies, appetites, passions, and the usual material conditions
and relationships. Jesus immediately challenged that concept by saying that
the first thing that will be different in the resurrection of life for the
righteous is that the need to be married and produce children will no longer
exist.
Now, Anne Marie and I have been married for thirty-six years, and I have
to confess I don't know how I would function without her, we are so much
one flesh. So it makes me feel a little strange to think of not being married
to her in "that age." But we also know that we will experience
the oneness we now feel with our beloved husband or wife with Christ himself
as members of his bride, the church. Revelation 19:7-9 says, "'Let
us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the
Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.' And it was given to
her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen
is the righteous acts of the saints....'blessed are those who are invited
to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" I admit I don't know how that
is going to work. It's amazing, isn't it? There will be intimacy, oneness,
commitment, and loyal love between Jesus Christ and his church. So we do
get a sense of marriage, but it's on a different level.
Jesus also explained that in "that age" there will be no fear
of death: "...for neither can they die any more." George MacDonald
experienced the great pain in this age of watching many of his twelve children,
his wife, and even some of his grandchildren die. Jesus said that in that
age there will be no more such pain. John wrote in Revelation 21:1-4 that
in the "new heaven and new earth...[God] shall dwell among [men]...and
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them, and He shall
wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death;
there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things
have passed away."
For in "that age" the righteous will be like angels. They will
not become angels but will be like angels in that they will have resurrected
bodies fit for eternal living without the fear of death and without the
need for marriage and the perpetuation of the race. Angels are wonderful
spiritual servants of God, with intellect, emotion, and wills. They are
given great powers and responsibilities over nations and individuals for
blessings and punishment. We know that all of them were created and given
the opportunity to live out their eternal life serving God or the freedom
to rebel against him. We know that some chose to love him and some chose
to rebel against him with eternal consequences.
We know that somehow the angels created before the foundation of the earth
experienced maleness and femaleness even before Adam and Eve did, for all
the angels who have appeared on this earth to converse with mankind are
described as male: Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel; and the angel of the Lord,
the preincarnate Son of God, is described in the male gender (see Genesis
18). There is an interesting verse in Zechariah 5:9 that seems to suggest
that some spiritual beings are female, for Zechariah said while he was talking
to a male angel, "Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two
women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like
the wings of a stork...." It is difficult to say whether these two
women were good or evil spiritual beings, but at least we see both male
and female genders mentioned in the spiritual world, which means there is
expression of sexuality.
On earth God designed our sexuality to be expressed in a variety of righteous
ways between men and women within a family unit, within the church family,
and in our public relationships. Our sexuality is greatly enjoyed and blessed
by God within the intimacy of a marriage relationship. Many theologians
have suggested that the sexual intimacy we now experience with our husband
or wife within a faithful marriage relationship will be experienced with
all the saints in eternity, but we do not know at this time the form it
will take.
Finally, Jesus explained our relationship to God as sons (and daughters):
"...and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." John
wrote: "...as many as received Him [Jesus the Son of God], to them
He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in
His name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).
Jesus went on to give proof for the resurrection of the righteous in verse
37. "But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage
about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Remember that the Sadducees
prided themselves on their understanding of the five books of Moses and
could not find therein any reference to the resurrection from the dead.
But our Lord answered the Sadducees from the writings of Moses by bringing
to their attention Exodus 3 and the story of the burning bush. It was here
that God appeared to Moses and told him that he was "I AM WHO I AM"
(see Exodus 3:14). "And God, furthermore, said to Moses, 'Thus you
shall say to the sons of Israel, "The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me
to you." This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all
generations.'" (Exodus 3:15.)
Now, at the time that Moses met God in 1441 BC, Abraham (2161-1986 BC) had
lived some five hundred years earlier; he "...breathed his last and
died in a ripe old age [one hundred seventy-five], an old man and satisfied
with life...his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave..." (in
Hebron) (Genesis 25:8-9). Isaac (1950-1881 BC), the second son of Abraham,
born when Abraham was one hundred years old and the miracle child of his
barren and aged wife Sarah, and born as the seed of promise to Abraham,
died at the age of one hundred eighty, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried
him in Hebron (Genesis 35:27-29). Jacob (2001-1852 BC), born as the second
son of Isaac, purchased the birthright of promise from his older brother
Esau, lived to be one hundred forty-seven years old, and then after blessing
his twelve sons, "he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last,
and was gathered to his people" (Genesis 49:33).
Now the Lord rebuked the Sadducees' theology: "Look, right in front
of you, in the second of only five books of Moses where you have spent all
your lives, is the truth of the resurrection of the saints. When Moses met
God he was told that he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, he
is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. And
you need to know that although five hundred years of earth time passed between
the deaths of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the life of Moses, the moment
these spiritual fathers died on earth they immediately went into the presence
of God the Father. When God appeared to Moses he spoke of the personal presence
of these men with him in eternity.
If you spend very much time in Europeans graveyards, you know that many
of them are very well kept. Their grave stones are clean, and many have
fresh flowers placed on them by family and friends. Several have a favorite
photograph of the deceased embedded in the stone with the hope of keeping
the person alive in the hearts of the visitors. After we had cleaned up
the grave sites of the MacDonalds, though, I looked around at the hundreds
of other grave sites in this Italian cemetery and wondered how many of those
people had been resurrected from the dead because they had placed their
faith in their risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while they were living
in "this age," resulting in the gift of eternal life-they are
alive right now!-in "that age" with all the other saints.
After our Lord challenged the Sadducees on their faulty resurrection theology,
he took on the Pharisees concerning their understanding of Psalm 110. In
that psalm he would show them that the Messiah they were expecting was not
only to come from the loins of David as a man, but he would be God-Man and
would have the power to offer mankind salvation as well as the hope of the
resurrection from the dead. Do you believe in the resurrection from the
dead? The Sadducees did not, but Jesus did because he is the eternal God-Man.
Let's read Luke 20:41-47:
And He said to them, "How is it that they say 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 Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."'
David therefore calls Him 'Lord,' and how is He his son?
And while all the people were listening, He said to the disciples, "Beware
of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful
greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues, and places
of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses, and for appearance's sake
offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation."
In the context of the people's crying out, "Hosanna to the Son of David,"
Jesus asked the Pharisees a question about the meaning of Psalm 110, which
David had written by the power of the Holy Spirit about a thousand years
earlier. Verses 1-2:
The LORD says to My Lord,
Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.
From that psalm, Jesus asked, "How is it that they say the Christ [Messiah]
is David's son?" Everyone agreed that Messiah would come from the physical
line of David, and thus he was called the son of David, testifying to his
humanity. But Messiah had to be more than just a son, because David called
Messiah "my Lord," which gave testimony to his deity. He would
not only be an earthly King, but a divine Savior. So Jesus questioned the
Pharisees again: "If David called Messiah 'my Lord,' how can he be
his son?" He was saying, "You understand that I am from David's
lineage. How come David, who is supposed to be my father, turns to Jehovah
God and calls Messiah, 'My Lord'?" And what Jesus did in one stroke
was to show the Pharisees they did not know the Scriptures or the power
of God, either. Messiah was to come as God-Man, fully God and fully human.
The Pharisees were between a rock and a hard place: They knew that Jesus
and the people were proclaiming him as the long-promised Messiah. They knew
that if they said David was calling Messiah his Lord because he was God,
then they could not object to the claim of Jesus, the son of David according
to the flesh, to be the Son of God, and they should all fall down before
him and worship him. So the Pharisees refused to answer. But we know that
this is the mystery of the incarnation. Ray Stedman wrote in his commentary
on Mark 8-16, The Ruler Who Serves, "[Jesus] is descended from
David according to the flesh, but he is the Lord of Glory according to the
Spirit." Our Lord, the God-Man, looking forward to his own resurrection,
understood the promise of his Father that after his Ascension and glory
he would be seated at the right hand of the Father, and all his enemies
would become a footstool at his feet.
Finally, our Lord warned his disciples about the hypocritical scribes, Pharisees,
and Sadducees. He was saying, "When they teach the law correctly listen
and obey, even though you must not walk in their hypocritical lifestyles.
But at this moment the Sadducees are wrong in their view of the resurrection,
and the Pharisees are wrong in their view of the Messiah, looking only for
the human seed of David and not God in the flesh."
Do you believe in the resurrection from the dead? Down through the ages
many religious men and women in the spirit of the Sadducees have not placed
their faith in God and his resurrected Son Jesus Christ, and they have not
believed what God had already spoken concerning the purpose of life in "this
age" and in "that age" to come. So they are left to dream
up their own ideas about whether there is life after physical death or not.
Those who have ultimately rejected the revealed truth of God are now suffering
the terrible eternal consequences of being separated from God, his Son and
the sons of God forever.
But Peter gave hope to the hearts of all those who have placed their faith
in God and his Son Jesus when he wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3). Because Jesus has been raised from
the grave by his Father and now lives, all we who love him will be resurrected
from the dead in "this age" and placed into "that age"
so we can be with him and all the saints including George MacDonald. MacDonald
understood this spiritual reality clearly when he wrote, "We must remember
that we are only in a sort of passing vision here. And that the real life
lies beyond us...." That life is found in Jesus Christ, mankind's only
hope for a personal resurrection and the gift of eternal life.
Catalog No. 4272
Luke 20:27-47
57th Message
Ron Ritchie
June 21, 1992
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