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God of the Living (Luke 20:27-40)

God of the Living (Luke 20:27-40). Hope and faith in resurrection. The memorial service for the dead -- “celebration” rather than grief Jesus will not leave us alone in death but take us to our Father’s House in heaven and give us eternal life with Him.

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God of the Living (Luke 20:27-40)

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  1. God of the Living(Luke 20:27-40)

  2. Hope and faith in resurrection • The memorial service for the dead -- “celebration” rather than grief • Jesus will not leave us alone in death but take us to our Father’s House in heaven and give us eternal life with Him. • Yet, there are many people who do not believe in the resurrection and eternal life after our physical death. • If God could take dust and breathe life into it to create us, why couldn’t this same God raise us from the dead?

  3. God of the living • Jesus points to the proof of the resurrection: “God is called God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” • “A king couldn’t be a king unless he has people to rule over.” Likewise, God could not be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob unless they were alive. • “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” conveys the existence of those fathers of faith and also God’s ongoing relationship with them.

  4. What is the base for our faith in resurrection? • We can understand the resurrection when we believe in God’s Word written in the Bible: • God loves the world so much that God sent his only Son Jesus; he lived a human life on earth, died a painful death on a cross and rose again from the dead, so that whoever believes in him would be pardoned and reconciled to God. • Accepting Christ as Lord and Savior determines where we spend eternity.

  5. Resurrection is the foundational doctrine: • Without resurrection, there would be no eternal life; our physical death would be the end; we all die in sins; Jesus’s incarnation, death, and resurrection are nothing to do with us; without resurrection, God’s kingdom would be meaningless to us. • Without resurrection, what hope would we have for the future? • What a sad state of existence it would be if we didn’t believe in a life after death. 

  6. Jokes or yearnings? Jokes • The Sadducees only accept this life on earth but deny the life after death. • “Teacher, if seven brothers die in succession and each marries the same woman, one after another, to whom is she married in heaven?” • They don’t believe in resurrection; they don’t need to see Jesus as the Savior and respect his authority and power. • Jesus’ response: “They no longer dared to ask him another question” (v. 40). Jesus probably walks away from those people.

  7. Yearnings of life • Jesus has deep compassion on people who come to him with their broken hearts, spiritual thirst, and questions of life: • My daughter is sick to death. Would you come and heal her? • I have lost my way to the circle of life. Can you bring me back? • People hate me because I am a sinner. Do you love someone like me? • When people bring Jesus their deepest yearnings, he doesn’t only answer their questions but he invites them to journey along with him in light of God’s grace and love. • Ex) Mary and Marsha; Nicodemus; Zacchaeus; Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the disciple….

  8. Ask, and we receive: • The Sadducees do not care about those questions because they think they are good enough in this earthly life and because they don’t believe and don’t care about the eternal life after this temporary life. • But we ask Jesus these questions because we know who Jesus is and what he can do for us: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you?” (Mt. 7:7). • How can we receive if we never ask? How can we expect God’s blessings if we only joke around? How can we be comforted if we don’t bring our problems to Jesus?

  9. Trust in resurrection • We must believe that, in the mystery of the resurrection of Christ, we will be all with Him, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with all of the saints and all of our beloved who have gone before us. • Jesus is the door to newness; he is the Way to new life; and he is the Life that brings God’s presence in our lives here on earth and in heaven. • Today is the day we encounter the Son of God. What questions do you want to bring to Jesus?

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