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“Can you talk about what you have never experienced?”
1 Thessalonians 4:13- 18; Deuteronomy 25:5-6; Luke 20: 27-38
November 7, 2004
The Rev. Kong Namkung

In today’s gospel lesson, we have an example of a mocking question, intended to ridicule the teaching of Jesus. For the first and only time in Luke the Sadducees play a role in the narrative.  Who were Sadducees?

Sadducees were the descendants of Zadok, whose lineage can be traced back to Eleazar, son of Aaron.  They were granted the privilege of officiating as priests in the Temple after the return from the Babylonian Exile. These “Zadokites,” from which evolved the word “Sadducees,” formed the nucleus of the priesthood staffing the Jerusalem Temple of first century Palestine. They were like an aristocracy, composed at this time of both priests and laity and they were quite Hellenized. The status quo was good to their wallets. They disappeared from Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.  No resurrection and no angels for them.  The Sadducees were conservative, limiting their beliefs to what was in the written law. They maintained that the oral law, that is, the scribal, later, rabbinical, interpretation of the written law, extending it to apply to every imaginable circumstance, was not revelation and, therefore, not to be believed. The first five books were the only ones the Sadducees recognized as revelation.  Acts 23:8, states that the Sadducees did not believe in angels or spirits either.  For Sadducees there is no angels and resurrection. However, Pharisees believed in their existence.

There were arguments about angels and resurrection between the Sadducees and Pharisees.  Both Sadducees and Pharisees could not solve their question about resurrection because they never experienced death and resurrection.  No idea for them. 

Therefore, Sadducees asked a hard question to Jesus about resurrection, “Whose wife will be woman be?”  The Sadducees used the Old Testament in order to put Jesus in a test.  If a man’s married brother died without leaving an heir, he must marry the widow.  They distorted just a little bit of our Old Testament lesson, Deuteronomy 25:5-6.  But they did not have any idea about death, life after death, and resurrection.  They came to Jesus to ask a question about resurrection.

As we know about Jesus’ life in chapter 20 of the gospel of Luke, Jesus was in Jerusalem.  Jesus entered into Jerusalem in 19:28, “After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.”  This verse tells us that Jesus did not die on the cross yet. However, Jesus talked about what would be happened in the ages to come. 

You and I cannot talk about the things that we had not experienced directly and indirectly.  One thing that we can do is to share what we have experienced. We cannot talk about a thing what we have not experienced.  So we are interpreting heaven from the point of earthly perspective.

In other words, they were interpreting heaven from the viewpoint of earth. Jesus, on the other hand, was teaching that we must interpret earth from the viewpoint of heaven. They had their perspective backwards. That major error still exists today, even among Christians. Sadducees, Pharisees and many people today erroneously think that this life is the model for life in eternity. While it is true that life-in-time is the metaphor for life-in-eternity, it is not the model. The only way to get into eternity is to be born in time, into time and onto earth. There is no procreation in eternity. Earth is the necessary corridor to heaven; time the introductory experience of eternity. Jesus was much more concerned and much more specific about our interpreting earth life from the vantage of heaven life and living that interpretation than he was about answering theoretical questions.  So he gives us precious little detail about heaven, only to say that our entrance into it depends upon our behavior on earth, behavior that cannot qualify for heaven unless one surrenders his or her will and life to Christ.

How could Jesus, who has never experienced death and resurrection, talk about resurrection and about the future of the age to come?  Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and life” (John 11: 25).  Jesus is the resurrection.  Well over three hundred verses are concerned with the subject of Jesus' resurrection in the New Testament. 

Because Jesus is the resurrections and the life, Jesus gives a new life to those who believes in Him.  In the Bible Jesus gave a new life to three persons: Lazarus (John 11), Widow’s son (Luke 7:11-17), and Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:21-24).  It is clear for us that Jesus, who has life in Him and who is the power of resurrection, gives us a hope that we have life eternally with Him.

This is one of the great revelations of Scripture in today’s new testament lesson, “Since we believe that Jesus dies and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died” 1 Thessalonians 4:14.  This joyful message declares that we will one day not only see our Lord Jesus Christ face to face, but will also spend eternity with all the saints, including our loved ones who have passed into eternity before us.

There are many people, however, who are not sure or who do not believe in the resurrection from the dead. They cannot talk about resurrection of the body.  They find it incredible that God should raise the dead. But if God created heaven and earth with his word, if God could take dust and breathe life into it to create a man (Genesis 2:7), and if God divided the Red Sea and dried the bottom of the sea like a dry land (Exodus 14:21), why would anyone think it incredible for this same God to raise someone from the dead? As believer’s we give thanks to God for His gift of eternal life that assures us that and all our loved ones who believed in Him are still alive and in His presence.

Jesus points to the proof of the resurrection in the words God spoke to Moses saying, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”(Exodus 3:6) This could only be possible if Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were still alive, because these words were spoken several hundred years after they had died. The resurrection assures us that our beloved --- has only left us to be with Christ in heaven. The problem with many people is that in their ignorance they try to compare the resurrection life to this present life. They cannot understand that the resurrection life belongs to a completely different realm, God’s own realm of existence, the uncreated realm and involves a completely different mode of existence.

The President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, cannot be a president unless he has people to rule over. Likewise God could not be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob unless they were alive. If someone comes to you and says he or she was your father’s or your mother’s friend, it is either your parent is dead or there has been a change in their relationship. But if one comes to you and says he or she is your father’s or your mother’s friend, it conveys the existence of your parent and an ongoing relationship. God, in this threefold repetition is not only declaring the existence of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but also God’s ongoing relationship with them.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew that the covenant promises of God transcended earthly life and were eternal. Death did not separate the patriarchs from God and death will not separate the believer from God. Those who have a relationship with God in this life will continue to have a relationship with Him in the age to come. We can only understand the resurrection when we believe in the Word of God and in His power as revealed in nature and in the lives of many men and women who have lived before us.

God can do what we human beings cannot do and Ezekiel 37 reveals God’s power to bring people back to life from the dead. If God is capable of doing that, then He is also capable of giving them eternal life in another realm as well.

The resurrection is one of the main cornerstones of the Christian faith because on it hangs the three core issues of Christianity - accountability before God, judgment and eternal life. Without the resurrection, death would be the end and our accountability to God would be limited only to this life and judgment and eternal life would be meaningless.

The resurrection offers us a new existence where men and women would no longer be subject to suffering and death. Heaven is not a continuation of life, as we now know it since time, death and sin limit our relationships in this life. It will be a different relationship to what we are used to, but there will be one thing that will not change and that is worship. Worship will still be central in this new relationship and that should make us place a great value on worship here on earth.

The believer’s true home is in heaven. This life with so much suffering and pain cannot be our home. Our home is where Christ has prepared a place for all believers and it is a place of joy. Jesus said to his disciples, “in my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) What is death?  For us Christians, death is the vehicle that brings us into our new home. It is the most beautiful and the happiest home in the presence of the Lord. Our new home has moved to a place of restoration where all things are made new. Our home has been given a new life without sorrow, pain, and suffering.  Everyone and everything has a creator, but only living people can have a God. If God himself said he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then they are still alive. Death does not break the covenant relationship. To us, earthlings, they may be dead, but not to God.

God is love and He has gone to great lengths to make it possible for us to spend eternity in His presence. It cost Him the life of His Son Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life on earth and died a painful death to pay the penalty for our sin so that we could be reconciled to God. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead for our justification so that we could spend eternity with Him. This is only possible when we believe in Him as our Lord and Savior. We can only do this in this life before our death.

Accepting Christ as Lord and Savior determines where we spend eternity. Our relationship with Christ is the most important thing in life. If we learn to love and trust Christ now, we will be preparing for the age to come as our relationship with Christ results in godly attitudes and godly actions. This relationship should draw us to His word, prayer, fellowship and service. It should make us sensitive to the real needs of people as we see them the way Jesus does. We must be sure of our relationship with Christ for it is this relationship that prepares us for the age to come and ensures our future. This relationship ensures that we experience the peace of God both in this life and in the life to come.

God is the God of the living and not the dead. Our hope and confidence in the resurrection rests upon the Word of God and His infinite power. To believe the Word of God and to trust in the power of God should change both our beliefs and our behavior and the way we live. This is what will decide where we spend eternity. 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. Jesus says there is a sharp difference between life as we know it here on earth and life in eternity. 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. Jesus says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11: 25) If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was the hope of resurrection, eternal life, so God sent us the one, who said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  Can you talk about a thing what you have not experienced? Now yes, you can, because you believe in Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and life, and who gives a new life, Yes, you can. Yes, you can.  Yes.  Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen

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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
NIV

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Deuteronomy 25:5-6

5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
NIV

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Luke 20:27-38

27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"

34 Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
NIV

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