23 Jan

11/18/18    LUKE 20:27-40       “WHEN EVIL ATTACKS”

I think that many times in our lives we take things for granted.  This is ok when we are talking about things like air, gravity and so forth in the physical world.  And even these things will not be a given when this world ends.  You can read about this in Revelation.  But unfortunately we also do this in our relationships with others.  I tell my family that I will be there for them no matter what they do.  Well, I will as long as I’m here.  They can take me for granted as long as I’m here.  We also do this with God.  And this is ok because God will always be with us, forever.  You can count on that.  But many people count on God doing things the way they think they should be done and that is wrong.  Our thoughts cannot even come close to the thoughts of God and neither do our ways.  With this in mind we are going to talk a little bit about resurrection today.  This is a topic that Jesus didn’t talk about too much.  He refers to it several times but here is a place where He dwells on it somewhat.  Today I would like to talk a little about what resurrection means and what does it mean to you.  If Jesus Christ is not resurrected, then we really have a faith no better than any of the other faith communities that are all grounded in works and not faith.

I found this to be an interesting story from Andrew Chan.  He tells about a couple of F-15 jets who were escorting a C-130 Hercules transport plane.  These fellows are flying their planes and chatting because there really isn’t much else to do.  And as they are talking the conversation soon comes around to who is flying the best plane.  I guess I should say aircraft.  Anyway, the fighter pilots contend that their jets are better because of superior speed, maneuverability, weaponry and so forth.  They were also quick to point out that the Hercules was woefully deficient in these and other areas.

Well, it wasn’t long before the pilot of the C-130 had enough of this and said, “Oh, yeah?  Well I can do a few things in this old girl that you can only dream about.”  Naturally, the fighter pilots challenged him to demonstrate.

“Just watch,” came the quick reply from the transport pilot.  The other pilots watched but all they saw was that the cargo plane continued to fly straight and level.

After several minutes like this the Hercules pilot came back on the air and said, “There!  How was that?”

The other pilots responded, “What are you talking about?  What did you do?”

To which the pilot of cumbersome transport replied, “Well, I got up and stretched my legs and I got a cup of coffee.”  Of course, you cannot get up in a jet fighter.

And this is like the passage today.  We don’t get to see the resurrection of fellow believers but we are to believe it just like the jet pilots believed that the other pilot could get up and move around.  This is one of the few places where Jesus gives us a little information on what it will be like in heaven.  And even though He doesn’t really go into this today, heaven is a place that is so beautiful, so wonderful that it’s absolutely beyond our comprehension.  Once again, God’s ways are not our ways and we can praise the Lord for that.

But first we should take a look at what led up to this.  The chief priests, elders and Pharisees had been trying to trap Jesus so that they would have a reason to arrest and execute Him.  He was in Jerusalem for the last time.  But as we see in the first 26 verses of this chapter, they had failed.  Now the Sadducees decide to take matters into their own hands and show everyone else just how this is done.

After all, the Sadducees were the rulers of the Temple.  They were in control of the Jewish religion.  They were the chief priests and political leaders of the Jews.  They were not necessarily scholars.  The Pharisees were the scholars.  The Sadducees also did not believe in the resurrection, angels or demons.  They only believed in the first five books of our Old Testament.  And they would also do just about anything to keep the peace with the Romans.  This would include lying, cheating and even hurting their own people.  They had a pretty good life and they did not want to upset the apple cart.

We have talked a little of this before.  You also have pretty good lives.  Just look at yourselves.  You have pretty good food.  You have televisions.  You have telephones, cell phones and computers.  You have transportation.  I think that we would all hate to lose any of these things.  And that is just what the people of this time were up against.  They could either believe in the status quo that let the Sadducees take care of everything, or they could believe in this upstart fellow named Jesus Christ whose ideas upset everyone.  And Jesus continues to upset everyone today with the same message.  The Gospel message is offensive to those who don’t know Jesus.

And this leads to a question I have for you today.   Do you have a prayer life that is at least daily or don’t you bother?  Do you talk to Jesus when things go right as well as when things go wrong?  Do you witness to others by your daily actions as well as by words?  Some of you are very good at these things and some of us need more work.  We all need help in these areas.  The best way to witness to others is to just be yourself.  And I think that you will find that you are not really upsetting things even if people tell you this, but you are actually making things better in the long run, a lot better.

The Sadducees were trying to trap Jesus by using the law.  In those days, if a man died without children then the widow was supposed to marry the man’s brother.  This happens seven times.  They thought that they had Jesus because they didn’t believe in a resurrection and even if there was resurrection, whose wife will she be in heaven.  They think they have him in a corner this time because they are thinking in worldly terms and not Godly terms.

How many times have you tried to out think Jesus?  It just doesn’t work.  I have tried and tried and all that I can say is that I have failed and failed.  In my humanity, in my brokenness, many times I feel that I am a lot smarter than God.  But every time this happens, He has a way of letting me know.  I need Jesus.  I just forget sometimes.  That is why I try to always tell you to try to rely totally on Jesus.

And these Sadducees cannot corner him either.  They cannot put Him in one of their neat little categories.  They cannot define Him in our terms.  Jesus tells them that heaven is different than our world.  In our world we have marriage so that we can reproduce.  We will not need this in heaven.  We will never die so our lives will be different as well as our relationships with our spouses and others.

This is a bit of a sticky point with some people.  We have a hard time thinking outside the box.  When we die and leave these bodies, we will be going to heaven where there is no sadness or sorrow or death.  We will only know happiness.  Jesus has promised us that.  We need to trust in His word.  Even though we cannot see it, we are to believe just as those fighter pilots believed that the other pilot got up and walked around.

But Jesus isn’t done with these Sadducees yet.  Jesus goes right to Ex. 3:6 which says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”  God doesn’t tell Moses that He was the God of his ancestors.  He tells Moses that He is their God.  This implies that they are still alive and well.  He used the present tense and not the past tense.  “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”  And then some of the Sadducees present thought he did a good job of helping them see the error of their ways.  He even won over some of the hard hearted Sadducees.

The text doesn’t tell us but I would imagine that this really made the rest of the rulers and Sadducees angry.  They couldn’t trap Him.  I firmly believe that we are at this point today.  So many people want to limit what God can do.  People will say that God can’t do this or God won’t do that.  I just read an article about there being an atheist pastor in Canada.  Wait a minute here.  How in the world can we have a pastor who doesn’t even believe in Jesus?  That is totally ridiculous but many churches and denominations are doing just that.  They define God and we should follow our denominations because they are right and we the people are always wrong.  They tell us the Bible is wrong and they are right.  That is just as ridiculous as an atheist pastor.  Plus we have our own little definitions of who God is and what He can or cannot do.  Well, here is a little news flash for everyone.  The only thing that God cannot do is lie.  Otherwise He can do anything and everything you bring before Him.

We have a very hard time trying to figure out what this world is all about because we don’t or can’t think in Godly terms.  We cannot even begin to imagine what heaven is like.  It is a perfect place where we will be at peace with everyone.  This place is beyond our comprehension.  Maybe this is why Jesus did not spend a lot of time describing it.  We cannot understand it.

Jesus is telling us today that when we die, we will be like the angels.  We will not be the angels, but we will be like them.  We are eternal beings and when we get there everything will be different.  Jesus loves us so much that He has gone to prepare a mansion for us.  In Revelation, John talks about the New Jerusalem.  In worldly terms, each one of us will have a mansion that is about 80 acres in size.  I just got done telling you not to think in worldly terms and then I say this.  I’m just trying to tell you that heaven is beyond our imagination.  I can’t imagine a house or mansion that big.  I just want you to get an idea as to how much Jesus loves you.  His love is expansive.  His love is infinitive.  His love is personal.

If you have never asked Jesus to live in your heart, then do so today.  He wants to be personal to all of us.  I would like every person here to have this tremendous love poured out over you like the love we have in a baptism or a marriage.  This is what life is all about.  You cannot begin, not even begin to have fulfillment in your life without Jesus.  Without Him, you keep asking where to find more.  You will never be satisfied.  With Him in your life you want to give more.  And this is where you will find true happiness.

These Sadducees were never satisfied and never happy.  They had to make sure they were running their church in accordance to Roman and Jewish law.  Jesus is telling them that they should forget Roman law.  They should forget Jewish law.  Jesus came to establish a new covenant with His people.  And all people are now His people.  Many people forget this and many people don’t even know this.

We have Sadducees in today’s world.  I remember a few years back there was a news broadcast from the capitol steps St. Paul, Minnesota.  A homosexual group had just won a major victory in the legislature there.  This was a celebration for the homosexual movement.  This was a time for great joy for them.  The camera panned the crowd gathered and there was not one smile, not one.  There was no joy or happiness.  These modern Sadducees weren’t satisfied.  They didn’t know Jesus and only Jesus can satisfy.

I have been attacked by Sadducees when I worked at the Post Office.  There was a couple, three, four people that would continually attack my faith.  I couldn’t begin to answer like Jesus did but I did my best with His help.  There was one person who absolutely hated me because of my faith.  And I don’t know if he or she has ever found the Good News but I pray that all of these people do.  But the Good News for me was that they didn’t weaken my faith, they actually strengthened it.  As crazy as it sounds, they made me a much stronger Christian.  And even though I have been attacked many times in my life because of my faith, I am still here today, stronger than ever.  I am still here and I am loving Jesus Christ.  I am still here and I am believing everything that He tells me.  I believe that we will be going to heaven and it will be a perfect place for us.  As a matter of fact I don’t just believe it, I know it for a fact.  As I used to say, that’s a fact Jack!

And that is what we should take from this passage.  The Sadducees of this world will attack us.  They will attack us through TV, the newspapers, science and any and every other place they can think of.  But with the help of Jesus Christ, you can defeat these people.  All you have to do is call on Jesus.  All you have to do is have faith.  All you need to do is believe.  Just believe.  Jesus loves you so much that all he wants to do is take care of you forever.  And that forever begins right now.  That is what I call a comforting thought.  As you leave today thank Him for the many ways that He takes care of you in your personal life.  And then praise the Lord.  And of course, thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.