Scripture is Mark 12, verses 18-27. This is God’s Holy Word. And Sadducees came to Him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked Him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died, left no offspring. And the second took her and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.
Jesus said to them, Is this not the reason you are wrong? Because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.
Thus far the reading of God’s holy, inspired, and infallible word. We’re thankful that it will please the Lord always to take his word and to transform it in our lives into service for himself. Thanks be to God. Now, our gracious Heavenly Father, bless our study. Take our minds, Lord, and focus them where you would have them to be. Help us to learn what we need to learn. Help us to share what we have learned. Help us, Lord, to glorify You by following what You have spoken and has been recorded in Your Holy Word. We’re thankful, Lord, that we can pray these things in confidence and anticipation of the joy of what You will do. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Previously, it was Pharisees and Herodians. You may remember from last week, they were the opponents of Jesus in another situation. But now we have a new group. Not new, of course, in terms of what was known at that time, but new maybe to the narrative.
In this encounter, it’s the Sadducees who approach Jesus with a view to outsmarting him. So keep in mind, you know, you have the Pharisees came and they said, we’ll outsmart him, but we’ll get the Herodians to help us and together we’ll outsmart him. And they failed in that. And now you have the Sadducees saying, well, we have a plan here. We have a story and let’s see him get out of that.
So all the talk about consecutive marriages notwithstanding, this is really an attempt on the part of the Sadducees to disprove the resurrection of the dead. It says they didn’t believe in the resurrection. Keep in mind that Jesus has yet to die and rise again from the dead. So the conclusive proof that Jesus will personally provide is hardly anticipated. This conversation is just another verbal contest that Jesus wins.
Nevertheless, it contains some important lessons that we want to learn today also. So my points this morning are these. First, we’ll take a look at the details that form a distraction. Distracted from what? Well, really a distraction from the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Because when you start talking about marriages and lack of children and so forth, you begin to focus on those things and not on really the resurrection itself, which Jesus is going to explain for us in a bit. But the first point is details that form a distraction.
Then we’ll consider the undeniable reality of death. Arguments, this is the third point, arguments for and against the resurrection of the dead. And finally, the purposes of resurrection. Lord willing, we’ll come to all these things as we go along here.
So first, the details that form a distraction. There’s a word that I never heard until the last few years called gaslighting. You know that word? It means distraction. It means instead of your focusing on what you need to be thinking about, they have all these other things that look over there, look here, and people miss the point. Well, there are details here that can cause distraction.
The party of the Sadducees was in itself controversial. And if you really were seeking the Lord, and there were many that were seeking the Lord, you didn’t follow the Sadducees because they weren’t really going to draw you closer to the Lord. They were just going to sort of tell you to get on with your life and don’t worry about things like resurrection. And of course, the Sadducees themselves called attention to themselves, unneeded attention, we might add. The Sadducees only followed the Pentateuch.
You know what I mean by that? That’s the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That was their Bible. When they got to the end of Deuteronomy, they said, that’s it. We’re not going to fool around with anything else. This is our Bible. And that’s a problem, obviously.
But they gave little heed then to prophecy, and I don’t mean prophecy of the future, though there’s some of that too, but just the prophetic words of Isaiah or Jeremiah or… Amos or Hosea, any of these other prophets that are recorded in scripture, we don’t really find much there to interest us. And the books of wisdom, too, like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, these books, they didn’t pay any attention to them as well.
Now, they might have looked at the historical books and said, oh, well, you know, it’s nice to know history and that might have been somebody’s favorite subject. But in essence, they just stuck with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
But Jesus was determined to have them and all those who are listening to Him and to them to take the resurrection seriously. In other words, to refocus. They were saying this, and listen to this story about seven men who had a wife, and then she married another, and so forth. And Jesus says, let’s come back and refocus on the resurrection. One reason I titled this, Whose Wife Will She Be?, is a totally distractive question. Now Jesus will answer it, and He’ll give a very good answer to it.
But again, the issue is, are you distracted? Are you focused on what Jesus is trying to say to you? If we are not careful, and that includes me and you and all of us, if we’re not careful, we can pursue things of interests that do not actually help us spiritually. Where did Cain get his wife? And stuff like that. Well, don’t be distracted. That’s the point of the first of these places here. Don’t be distracted. Jesus says the resurrection is real. And you folks that are teaching otherwise, you’re causing a lot of trouble.
So we move on to the undeniable reality of death. Now, Ann and I drive down here twice a week usually, and we get there to the corner of Hazard, and beach, and there’s Westminster Memorial Park or something like that, cemetery. And that pretty much tells us that death is a reality. You can say it doesn’t exist, and there are people who do, but the cemeteries all around us tell us that you can’t deny that death is reality.
The question is, can we beat death? Can we rise from the dead? Can we overcome? Every person who was there when Jesus was having this discussion and every person here in this room has seen death and every person here expects to die. There’s a cemetery somewhere that has a tombstone with this engraved on it. I expected this, but not just yet. You can’t avoid death. It’s all around us. Now, yes, I know when Jesus comes again, there’ll be a little bit of an exception there when he takes the living to be with him at that point.
But for the vast majority of people that have ever lived and who are alive now, evidently, death is very much reality. Death is cruel. Nothing pleasant about death. Some people say sometimes, oh, he died without much pain, or she passed quietly, and so forth. But it’s still cruel. Death is cruel. And it’s cruel to the people that stayed behind, that are left behind.
Because the Bible says the wages of sin is death. There’s an undeniable connection between sin and death. And every time you do see a cemetery, you ought to say, sin. Look what sin has done. Scripture also says it’s appointed unto man once to die. That’s a judgmental statement. Appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. But that’s it, it’s appointed to us all, unless we happen to be in that little group at the end of time. It’s appointed to everybody who wants to die, and after this, the judgment. Now, mankind, I’m talking about everybody now, mankind has tried many devices to make death palatable. How can we make death something that we really enjoy? Doesn’t work, really. There’s only one solution for death. Okay? Just one.
And that is the resurrection. Now you can say, well, if our sins are forgiven, then we should not have to fear death. But you still, again, unless you’re in that special group, you’re going to die even if your sins are forgiven. Then you’ll be raised from the dead. That’s the whole point of the matter. Only God’s solution works. In other words, if you scratch your head and say, what can we do about death? Only God’s solution. God has a solution.
It rests in His Son, who was the first fruits, or the first one really, to rise everlastingly from the dead. One irony in this debate is the urgent desire of the Sadducees to put Jesus to death. And not one of them said, well, we hope you have a pleasant life, Jesus, and you die easy. And they wanted Him to die and to die hard. Sounds like a movie, doesn’t it? They wanted Him to die hard. They wanted to put Jesus to death. They said that they didn’t believe in the resurrection, but they certainly did believe in death, did they not? At this point, Jesus is ready to establish another reality. Death is a reality, but Jesus is ready to establish the undeniable reality of life after death.
Now there are a lot of clubs and people and philosophers and so forth that say there’s life after death, but they can’t tell you very much about it. There’s nothing like the Bible to give you the greatest insight into what happens after death. It doesn’t give you all the details and leaves many questions, but it’s certainly there. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. The reality of life after death, and it’s all linked to the resurrection, the general resurrection of those who have died. Which brings us then to our third point this morning, and that is the arguments for and against the resurrection of the dead.
There’s a story about Abraham Lincoln in one of his cabinet meetings. He had all of his advisors and generals and people there and they of course were in the midst of a great civil war. And Lincoln’s question was, what shall we do? And this one gave a thing and another one gave a reason and had their plans and so forth. And Lincoln had his plan, and not many of them, if any of them, really were excited to go along with what Lincoln said. And don’t ask me exactly what he said, but he had plans for the war and so forth.
But my point is this. He said, all of you that disagree with me, raise your hands. Everybody did. Or maybe it’s better to say he asked for ayes and nays. All of you that disagree with me say nay, and everybody did. And he said aye. My vote is aye. And the ayes have it. So he got his way. More to the point is that the Lord Jesus Christ does have the last word. His aye is what counts.
We may say nay in any number of ways, but Jesus says aye when it comes to these arguments. Is there a resurrection of the dead? Well, people say no or they have some skewed concept of life after death, but Jesus says, here’s what I believe, here’s what I know, and I say aye, and that’s the last word. Now, here’s some arguments against the resurrection of the dead.
First of all, we might say there’s a lot of cynicism in the world. You know what I mean by that? That means you can’t really count on anything. That, as the old beer commercial said, you better grab for all the gusto you can, because you only go around once in life. And that was kind of the Sadducees’ point of view, that cynicism. There’s the silence of the grave. Well, how do you know? You ever go to the cemetery and hear anything from those folks? That’s no resurrection argument there.
The appeal of not waiting. Oh, there’s so much to enjoy here in this life, so many things to do, so many prohibitions and things that you’re scared about, but just go ahead and have a good time. And then there’s the relief in denying judgment. Well, remember the Scripture says, point unto man once to die and after this judgment. But if you don’t believe in judgment, If you don’t worry about having to face God and answer for your sins, well, you might as well just go ahead and keep on dancing like Peggy Lee said in that song. Let’s keep on dancing and have a ball. Well, those are the basic arguments.
I’m sure there are others, but the Sadducees presented no argument from Scripture. Now, they believed in those books of the Bible, but they never put forth anything from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy to say, well, here’s our proof from the Bible. They just didn’t believe in it, period. They didn’t feel like it was the right thing. Nothing in the Pentateuch, and of course, we don’t believe in these other books of the Bible either, so there’s nothing in the Bible really to encourage you. So we don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead.
On the other hand, there are arguments in favor. Now the first one, I won’t say it’s the greatest one necessarily, but it’s certainly the one with the first impact, and that is the Bible itself. The Bible teaches the resurrection of the dead. It’s not a book of fairy tales or hopes and dreams that have no underlying basis. The Bible says there’s a resurrection of the dead. And it’s repeated many times. It’s even in the Old Testament if you know where to look for it.
And then, not after the Scripture in the sense of being less important, but Jesus Himself is the argument for the resurrection. Now I told you He was still alive and working here. He hadn’t died on the cross and been buried before His resurrection, but He still is the greatest argument of all for the resurrection of the dead. He said, I’m alive. I’m living. Touch me. Feel me. Know me. I’m alive from the dead. I’m those first fruits. that he mentioned there.
So scripture and Jesus, the soul of every one of us, I mean the inner person, senses the resurrection of the dead, senses that there’s something else. If you’ve ever stood by the coffin of a loved one and looked, of course the mortician has fixed he or she up very well, but he’d say, There must be something else here. The soul of this person must have been transported somewhere. My own soul, I feel it. There’s nature itself.
This is an argument you find in the Bible about the seed falling to the ground and dying and then coming back to life again as a plant of some kind. This whole matter of forgiveness. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Yes, to forgive us our sins, but so that we might have everlasting life.
John 3.16. God so loved the world, He gave His Son so that we might not perish, but have everlasting life.
And, well, there’s patience. Just wait. God says be patient. You’ll see it all work out in the end. If you have patience, that’s an argument for the resurrection. Be patient. It’s coming. There’s the power of God. How can there be any power to raise the dead? I can’t go out and say, rise. God can. God can raise the dead. Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb. This wasn’t a permanent resurrection. That came later. But He said, Lazarus, come forth. He had the power to do that. The power of the resurrection. That’s a real thing. These are all arguments for the resurrection.
Jesus, when he talked, he went straight to the Bible, and interestingly, he went straight to the Pentateuch. He didn’t say, let me tell you what Isaiah said, or he didn’t say, let me quote you one of the Proverbs. He said, let’s go to the Pentateuch, and let’s talk about the fact that Abraham has a God who recognizes him not in memory, but in reality, right now. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
These are not the dead. These are the living. And He said to the Sadducees, based on the Bible, friends, you are wrong. That’s a word that you see here twice. You’re wrong. You are wrong. That’s what He says to anybody that denies the resurrection. And by implication, the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross. You are wrong if you deny these things. And if you’re wrong, sadly, you’re going to perish.
Well, one other thing to say here, and that is when we do accept what the whole Bible says, the Holy Spirit comes and comforts us, comforts us. The argument for the resurrection of the dead really comes down at last to the Holy Spirit impressing the truth upon our hearts and comforting us about it all. You’re going to be with the Lord. Which brings us then to our last point this morning.
What is the purpose of the resurrection? You may say, well, surely that should be obvious, but I don’t think it’s quite as obvious as you realize. The resurrection, you see, is more than just a nice favor that God does for people. God has a reason for the resurrection.
Everyone whom God saves has a vocation. Now, mostly we think about this world and this life before we die. We say, my vocation is to preach the gospel, or my vocation is to raise a family, or my vocation is this and that and the other thing. But really, the vocation extends out into eternity.
When God has called you, He’s called you for something beyond this life. As many nice things and encouraging things and so forth as there may be in this life, God has called you to something greater and longer and more impactful. And I wish I could give you all the details. He didn’t give us many details about that. But He did say that the resurrection has to do with your calling. God has called you to live for Him. Everyone whom God saves has a vocation, a calling.
It may be only partially exercised now, but it’s going to be fully exercised in the future. What’s the purpose of the resurrection? To fulfill your calling. A lot of people say, I just feel so fulfilled in being a teacher. factory worker, whatever it may be. But God says, no, the calling is something you’re not really fulfilled until you enter into glory. The resurrection enables us to fulfill the calling permanently and perfectly.
That’s a nice thought, isn’t it? I’ve got a calling from God. He’s called me to Christ. He’s called me to serve Him in this world. But He’s called me also to perfection, and to permanent service for Him. That’s your calling if you’re a believer today.
Now, Jesus gives us a resurrection body. We’re in what we call now the intermediate state, that is, the general resurrection has not yet occurred, but it will, it will. And you need a body to fulfill that resurrection. It’s not just all your spirits around. And I’m not gainsaying that, but God wants you to have a body. And Jesus was raised with a body. And you could touch it. And He even ate food. Now, I don’t know if you need food in heaven, but He ate food just to show that there was a body there, a real body. You need it.
God says, if you want to do what I’ve called you to do, if you want to live in the new heavens and the new earth, you need a body, and I’m going to give you a body. Now, Jesus did say in the third chapter of Philippians that He’s going to take this corrupt body of ours and make it like Christ’s body, full and complete and unassailable and able to last forever. What a wonderful thought. Jesus perfects and equips every aspect of the new person, a new body, a new mind, a new personality.
Now you’ll look the same, I think, although there’s not a lot about that in the Bible, but everybody recognized Jesus when they saw him, so I think they’ll recognize us too. But that new personality is really the personality of Christ. It doesn’t substitute for his personality. It’s just like him.
Personally, a blessing to others and to whatever of the creation that God would have us to be a part of. Especially worship. Now, the saints that are in heaven now, they’re worshiping, but they’re not really doing very much without their bodies. But, worship in the Spirit doesn’t stop. It transitions to worship touching the whole person in all parts of life. So, here are the ultimate purposes of the resurrection. Again, not just to do us a favor and say, since you’ve been a good boy or girl, I’ll let you live a while longer. No, these purposes God has in the resurrection. Worship, I’ve mentioned.
Relationships. Now, Jesus in this passage very clearly says there’s not any marriage in heaven. Don’t ask whose wife she’s going to be. There’s not marriage in heaven, but there’s something better. There’s relationships that are sanctified, Spirit-filled, ever-growing, ever more wonderful relationships. It’s a wonderful thought to have so many infinite relationships. And Jesus is really saying here, you folks who like me, you ain’t seen nothing yet. You have relationships in heaven.
There’s service. What are we going to do? Well, I don’t know, but there’s a vast universe out there, and it’s going to be all fixed for us to go and partake in it. Improve it, if you will, just what people do that God gives them responsibilities for.
And happiness. Happiness. You’ll never know happiness here like the happiness that God wants to give you in heaven. God says, I want happy people. And look at all these Christians and believers. The vast majority of them are not happy. in the sense that they never can quite reach that point where they can say, all that bothers me is gone and all that blesses me is here. But in heaven, that’s the way it’s going to be. God says, I want happy people. I want a redeemed people. I want a people that can serve me effectively. I want them to be happy.
The purposes of the resurrection. Why raise people from the dead? for all these reasons that I’ve said, worship, relationship, service, happiness. God has purposes in the resurrection, not just to do you a favor. So let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you do have this purpose for us and that we need not guess about the resurrection because you have raised Jesus from the dead and he’s the first fruits and all of us will follow him.
We thank you, Lord, that what awaits us is more than our hearts could even begin to imagine. What a wonderful thing to have resurrection life. We taste of it now, but owe to have it in its fullness. Grant it to us. As we await, Lord, give us patience, but Lord, help us to be as happy as we can be now and to be as happy as the eternal state will allow. In Jesus’ name, amen.