Heaven's Not Going to be Like Earth

Cody Hale

Matthew • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Matthew 22:23–33

Resurrection

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Introduction

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be the mother of Jesus during the last week of his life? From everything that we know of Mary, she would have been right there as a front row witness of the whole thing. We know that when Jesus was a child that Mary and Joseph would take Jesus into Jerusalem from Galilee for the Passover, and we know that she was in town on Friday for his execution. So, it seems safe to assume that she was in town with all of the worshipers who had come to ascend the Temple mount. //

And, don’t you know that she was on pins and needles, moms? I mean, my mom still gets nervous when I preach or go for a physical; so, you can only imagine how Mary must’ve felt as Jesus had caused such a stir at the Temple. He had come into town to praises, and He had flipped tables, and He had healed the sick. And, you can imagine that by this time, everybody had an opinion. And, Mary was his mom. This was probably a sentimental trip for her. She had made this trip so many times with her children, who were already grown now. She had made this trip so many times with Jesus. As she walked those familiar steps, she doubtlessly let her mind go to those past memories of finding Jesus as a boy in the temple or maybe even the first time the Angel of the Lord told her that she would give birth to the Son of God. Maybe she remembered singing the songs of praise, and hearing the voice of Jesus singing praise to his heavenly Father as she heard him teaching in the temple courts. But, doubtlessly, Mary would have known that this trip to Jerusalem was different. The tone was different. Jesus was different. The Temple leaders saw him as a problem and wanted him gone. And, Jesus himself had told them this was exactly as it was supposed to be. Can you even imagine how this mom must’ve felt? This is where step into this morning. //

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Another Group, Same Motive

“Sadducees came to him” So, if you’ll remember where we are, the leaders of Israel want to arrest Jesus and eliminate Jesus, but they have a problem. Jesus is popular among the crowds, and they want to be popular among the crowds. So, they can’t just go willy nilly into the middle of Jesus’ sermon and haul him off to jail because they know that it will cause their own approval ratings to crumble. First, they’ve got to find a way to turn the people against Jesus. They’ve got to get people to decide that Jesus isn’t who they think that He is so that the crowds will agree that He needs to be arrested and eliminated. So, we’re in the midst of this smear campaign against Jesus, and what we’re going to see again this morning is that it’s coming from every side. //

This is such a concerted effort against Jesus that it’s causing enemies to find common ground with one another in their hatred for Jesus. We saw that last week with the Pharisees and Herodians, and this week, we see the Sadducees getting in on the action. And, the Sadducees wouldn’t have liked either the Pharisees or the Herodians. So, now they’re going to jump in the fray, and they’re going to attempt to discredit Jesus against the crowd. The Sadducees are an interesting group because politically they are probably the most powerful group during the time of Jesus, even though we hear less from them in the Bible. They along with the Pharisees were kind of like the two political parties that made up the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling council of Israel, and they were the majority party. And, they would have been the more liberal party. Here’s what I mean by that: The Pharisees had a very, very high view of the God’s law. They came up with new laws to protect the old laws. They searched out every part of every book to make sure they didn’t miss one. And, they believed that all of the OT was God’s word. The Pharisees believed in every miracle of the Bible, and they believed that there would be a resurrection of the dead to live with God forever. But now, remember, they were the minority. The Sadducees had a different view. The Sadds only believed that the Torah, the first five books of the OT, were God’s word. They were overwhelmingly anti-supernaturalists, and they didn’t believe there was an afterlife. And, this was the majority view. //

The Question

“In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be?” So, the Sadds come to Jesus, and they have a real fun question. It’s a hypothetical. The Pharisees had come to him with a political question, and now the Sadds have to come to him with a theological question. So, you know they’re trying to stir up controversy because nothing divides people like politics and religion, right? Now, remember they don’t believe in the resurrection. They don’t believe that there’s an afterlife, and in fact, many, if not, most in Israel would have probably agreed with them. So, they want to come to Jesus and ask Jesus this question in a way to make him look like a fool. So, they’re coming to ask this question in a way that carries out his logic to its fullest extent for the purpose of showing how absurd it is. So, they go to to accomplish this. In , it states that if a man dies and has no children that his brother should marry his wife and bear children with her so that inheritance and family name continues. And, this was as close as the Sadds came to afterlife and resurrection. But, here’s where this gets awesome: They tell the story of a lady that his happens to seven times! Now, I don’t know about y’all, maybe y’all are kinder or more naive or something, but if I’m brother number three, I’m sniffing around that oatmeal a little bit! I’m thinking about signing her up Farmersonly.com or something! But, momma didn’t raise these boys right, and they all marry her, and they all die, and eventually this woman dies too. And so, this is their question: “Jesus, in your brilliant logic of resurrection and after life and all of that, how’s that gonna work? Whose gonna be her husband up there? 1, 2,3 ....7? Are they going to have a Royal Rumble and do a last man standing kind of thing? How’s that going to work?” And, they think they have him pinned. //

“But Jesus Answered Them...”

“You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” And, this is where I imagine Mary sitting there chewing her nails, and fretting and worrying, and getting angry, but not saying a word because that’s what mom’s do. But, I love how Matthew says. “But Jesus answered them.” Like, it wasn’t expected. Like, it was a surprise. Everybody was set up for Jesus to stumped, “but Jesus answered them.” And, Jesus leaves no ambiguity about how or why they’re wrong. He diagnoses the problem precisely. He says: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Even more precise than the word ‘wrong’ is the word ‘deceived.’ That captures what Jesus is saying to them. “You are deceived! And, you are deceived for two reasons. You don’t know and understand God’s word, and you don’t know and understand God’s power. And, I want to spend the rest of our time unpacking these two reasons that Jesus gives.

APPLICATION: So, first, Jesus says that they are deceived because they don’t know the scriptures. It's important to distinguish the difference here between reading and knowing. Jesus says that they didn't 'know' the Scriptures. They had read it plenty. In fact, they knew exactly the passage that Jesus was quoting and could have quoted it themselves. If you would have given them a Bible test, they would have likely passed it with flying colors. But, they didn't KNOW the Scriptures because they didn't KNOW the God of the Scriptures. They had read the facts, and they had the history, and they had read the rules, but they had never met God there. You want to unlock your Bibles? You want to look forward to reading your Bible? Meet God there. You have to linger in it, and be unhurried. You have to have people that you can go to and ask questions and have a community that you can read with. You have to be willing to not cover a certain number of chapters every day. You have to just go to it for joy and want to meet God. You have to binge read. You have to sit down with your Bible like the world sits down with Netflix and just veg out. Because God is there, and He can unlock your soul, man!

Some people are hard to like until you get to know them, and then you are willing to die for them. I find that the Bible is like that. You can read it, and not like or enjoy it or know it or love it, but man, if you meet God there, if you begin to find the treasures that are there, if begin to hear God’s voice there, if you begin to mine the manifold glories of the Almighty there, if the Spirit begins to reveal the depths of your soul there, if you begin to be stirred toward joy there, you’ll know why men and women have been willing to die for this book. You’ll know it, unlike the Sadducees.

Heaven’s Not Going to be Like Earth

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Logically) And, Jesus shows that their very logic proved that they didn’t know the Scriptures in verse 30. In verse 30, Jesus reveals a presupposition that the Sadds had. They presupposed that marriage was going to work in heaven just like it worked on earth. But, on earth, there were two realities that marriage remedied: a lonely man and an empty earth. And, if they knew their Bible, they would’ve known that! And, if they knew their Bibles, they would know that heaven’s not going to like earth! In heaven, there will be no loneliness, for God will be there! In heaven, there will be no emptiness, for God has filled it people from every nation and tribe! And so, in heaven, it’s going to be like the angels, eternal and joyful and rejoicing and in need of nothing! And by the way, a man isn’t losing the love of his wife or a wife isn’t losing the love her husband in heaven; instead, we are gaining the perfect love of the entire bride of Jesus Christ with whom we will enjoy perfect fellowship and companionship for all eternity! No, heaven’s not going to be anything like earth; it’s remarkably, wonderfully, powerfully, eternally, supernaturally better! But, they didn’t know it, because they didn’t know the Scriptures. I wonder if you know it.

“Have You Not Read?”

“Have you not read....I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” (Textually) And, Jesus isn’t content to stop with simply giving the plain with the answer to their question. He goes forward to address their issue with the resurrection. He asks them, “Have you never read?” And man, this would have been so offensive to them. Because what you’ve got to know is that Jesus is quoting from here, and this is Moses famous burning bush experience. This is when God reveals himself to Moses and calls Moses to go and set his people free from Egypt. Now, what’s extraordinary is that there are passages like and in the OT that straightforwardly talk about the resurrection, but remember that the Sadds only believe in the Books of Moses, the first five books. So, where does Jesus go to make his case? The Books of Moses. And, they would have had them largely memorized, and Jesus goes to one of the very passages that they know the best, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob!”

Not, "I was" or "I used to be." I AM!!! God had made a covenant with Abraham and his sons that was to last forever! And, the word of God and the kindness of God and the covenant of God were far stronger than the grave of earth. And so, Jesus uses God's own words as a testimony of his who He is. Abraham/Isaac/Jacob were still alive. And, they were alive not because they were righteous, but because God had made a provision for them. They had deserved death, but had placed their faith in God that he would make a way for them that would allow them to be raised from the dead. And, the Sadds are stunned and astonished, left silent in their stupor!

Greatest News: Heaven’s Not Going to Be Like Earth

APPLICATION: Brothers and sisters, can I tell you something? He is the God of the living, not the dead! He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! And, He is Jesus Christ! And, what we see in these words of Jesus as we read of the God of Jacob is that the covenant making God is the covenant-keeping God and so we can be certain that the heaven we read about will be the heaven we will one day know firsthand! He is the God of the living! And, brothers and sisters, we’re going to live forever! We’re going to live forever! And, heaven’s not going to be anything like earth! No headaches. No death. No confusion. No perplexities. No deception. No loneliness. No emptiness. Just glory and God and friendship and love and kindness and goodness. The time of fulfillment is coming. Oh church, let us know the Scriptures so that we’re not deceived! Our God is the God of a living church in a heaven that’s nothing like the decay you know!

You Don’t Know God’s Power

“You are wrong, because you know neither…the power of God” But, it wasn’t just that they didn’t know the Scriptures; they were also deceived also because didn’t know the power of God Jesus says. They were like many of the humanistic, secularist churches in our day. They wanted to hold on to the idea of God, but they wanted to deny the idea of anything supernatural. So, they had a very cold, distant, un-personal view of God. They didn’t believe in angels or the resurrection or the miraculous or the afterlife. And so, Jesus is looking to them, and He’s saying to them, “Not only do you not know the Bible, but you don’t know the God of the Bible. For if you knew the God of the Bible, you would have no problem believing that He could raise a man from the dead.” They don't believe that God will raise men from the dead because they don't know God's death-defying power.

He references , when He says, "I am the the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." It is a testimony both of the Scriptures and of God's power of the resurrection.

He references , when He says, "I am the the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." It is a testimony both of the Scriptures and of God's power of the resurrection. The Exodus was the single greatest marker in Israel's history of the great lengths that God would go to for the preservation of his people. It showed that God is the Deliverer and Savior of his people and He was willing and able to do it through it miraculous and powerful means. And, the greatest part of it was that they were witnesses to it. He didn't do it under the cover of night. It's not some secret. God didn't hide his miracles. Egypt, the pagans, even witnessed and verified many of them. And so, Jesus is telling these Sadducees, "You don't know the God of Exodus! You don't know the God of your forefathers! You don't know the God who spoke from the burning bush all the years ago! No, you don't know him at all! You don't know the God who sent the locusts and the frogs upon Egypt! You don't know the God who turned the mighty Nile to blood and filled the air with flies. You don't know the God who sent the Angel of Death and at the same time passed over the houses of Israel. You don't know the God who parted the Red Sea and let your fathers walk on dry ground and then sent the waters crashing down on their enemies. You don't know the God that guided them by pillars of cloud and pillars of fire. You don't know the God that gave them water out of a rock and bread out of the sky! You want to talk about the God of Moses? Let's talk about the God of Moses! For He was a mighty God! He was a God that encompassed Sinai and marked his people! He was a God that delivered them from the oppression of Pharaoh, even though it always seemed humanly impossible. He is a God that is too powerful, too mighty, too incomprehensible for your hypotheticals and your scenarios to encapsulate. So, if you knew Him, if you knew his power, if you had experienced his glory, if you knew a fraction of his might, you'd know that his delivering a man from the grave is well within his means and perfectly within his mission!

Do We Know His Power?

APPLICATION: Oh, church, do we know his power? Do we know his power? Because our lives sure do look powerless. And, our prayers sure do sound bored and almost apologetic. Like Israel in Exodus, God has given his church frontier conquering power to go to the wilderness with Good News so that His people might be delivered to the Promised Land. In the resurrection, we are assured that God has given us power to walk out of the grave and slay the dragon and to sustain our joy at his wedding supper forever and ever, amen! He is the God of the living, his life-giving power has placed us among the living forever! Brothers and sisters, how can we live powerless lives now? How can we look defeated now? How can we be anything less than joyful and optimistic and worshipful now? Our God is the God of the Living and He has made us alive, and Heaven isn’t going to be anything like earth!

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