22nd Sunday after Pentecost November 9, 2025

Welcome to Resurrection Anglican Church Podcast, where you can listen to sermons preach during our Sunday morning worship.

Resurrection.

Anglican Church is a parish in the Anglican Church of North America whose vision is Christ changes everything.

Our prayer is that the message of the gospel may deepen your love for Jesus and his church.

Heavenly Father, will you please send your life giving spirit who did breathe all of creation into existence and who also brief out your own word, will he come and take the things that have been written? And he will, he make them alive to us today.

And we ask them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

And you may be seated.

Well, good morning to you all.

Good morning.

Of course, we had our annual diocesan syn Thursday through Saturday this week, and it is for me going to take some getting used to for every third Sunday seeing Arch Deacon Sandy in the pews.

For six years now, I've never been able to see exactly how she's interacting with my sermons, but now I'll see.

Of course, the highlight of the Senate this year was Deacon James Mao's ordination.

So it was an especially uh, unique senate this year, but added benefits were that, you know, while Sandy and I get to go every year together, because she is the arch deacon for the diocese, she has along her plate, especially on Thursdays and she's really serving the deacons of our diocese.

So we're really doing separate things and I'm kind of on my own for the Senate and it was nice having a couple others join me this year, including James and Drew Boone and Greg Owen.

And so it was very special to spend time with them.

I always love getting to see the faithful brothers and sisters of our diocese as well.

It's always like a very nice annual family reunion.

And we had a good group of you as well come join us on Thursday night.

That made it only that much more special.

And maybe just underneath, you know, sharing this with Drew and Greg and James and Sandy and James's ordination.

Was.

We also got to see Will and Emily Clifton on Thursday night who had just moved over to near the Cathedral back in the summertime.

It was a very, very nice time.

I wanna ask you this morning a question.

Have you ever wondered what heaven will be like? Yes, I am sure you have.

I don't mean to be morbid, but I do think about death a little bit more.

Now, maybe you didn't at 32, but I've only last couple years come to realize that I've always been assuming that I will live to the average age of death in our country, like 77 or 78.

But I've come to think more often about, I don't, sorry guys.

I'm just stating facts.

I have your attention, Elise, but what privilege it is to live to that age.

I do on occasion, think to myself, I mean, what if I only lived to 64? I don't mean to make it that much more morbid, but I'll have lived half my life.

I'm in midlife right now.

Have you ever wondered what heaven will be like? I'm coming up on my three years as being the rector, and in my three years of serving this parish as the senior pastor of it, I have officiated 13 funerals, including six this year.

So I've become very familiar with the burial service.

And my favorite part of the service is actually at the very beginning of it because the service does not rely on the emotional or capacities or the level of compassion of the officiant, but from the very beginning of the service and throughout, it is a clear proclamation of the promises of God for the resurrection of the body.

And the service in our own tradition begins this way, just reciting the promises of God to his people.

I am the resurrection and the life says the Lord.

Whoever believes in me, though he die yet shall he live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

The second one we read just a moment ago from our Old Testament in Job chapter 19, for I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he'll stand upon the earth.

Job 19 · chapter mention

And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for myself.

My eye shall behold, and not another.

An important reminder as well from Romans chapter 14, for none of us lives himself and none of us dies himself for if we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

If we brought nothing into this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

Even so says the Spirit where they rest from their labors.

I'm really grateful for our Anglican tradition, but I will say that if I was not an Anglican, then I would want to be buried like one.

I've become very familiar with the burial service and this morning's passage from Luke chapter 20.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

It may not describe heaven or talk about heaven, but it does focus on the resurrection.

It does focus on eternal life.

When the Jewish sect, the Sadducees, they come to Jesus with a loaded question in the final week of our Lord's earthly ministry in the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will this woman be? And Jesus gives an answer to them in which he does describe eternal life.

And the Bible talks a lot more about the new creation than it does about heaven.

It talks a lot more about us not leaving this earth in order to go and be with God, but about God coming down to earth in order to come among and live with us as his people.

If you have wondered what heaven will be like, then this passage actually portrays something even better for us.

As I begin this sermon, I want to hold two scriptures, two other scriptures before you.

One comes from the Old Testament Eccles, Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verse 11, where the preacher says that God has placed eternity into man's heart.

I find it very interesting that not just the Jews, not just Christians, but people of every time and every culture have been fascinated just as much as we are with questions about the afterlife from the ancient Egyptians, to the ancient Greeks, to the ancient Romans, to the Vikings.

And even down to our own day, people have been fascinated about questions of eternal life because God has placed eternity into each and every single human heart.

But as believers, we have an even in greater promise given in one Corinthians chapter two, verse nine, or we're told that no eye has seen nor ear heard nor heart, a man imagined what God has prepared for those who truly love him.

Just a glimpse of that unimaginable eternal life is given here in this passage from Luke chapter 20, verses 27 through 38, the Sadducees, they were those who actually denied the resurrection, you know, eternal life back in Second Temple Judaism.

Luke 20:27–38

In the time of the New Testament, the afterlife was equally a.

Hot button issue of debate just like it is in our own day.

There are more than two sects of Jews, but there were two major parties of Jewish people.

One are the primary opponents of Jesus throughout the New Testament, the Pharisees.

The second are the Sadducees, and I would be remiss if I didn't tell the joke right here that every single preacher tells when they talk about the Sadducees, the Sadducees denied the resurrection, and that is why they were sad.

You see it, Luke, he gives us that background here in verse 27.

The Sadducees were those who deny the resurrection in the sequel in the Book of Acts, his sequel to the gospel In Acts chapter 23, verse eight, the Apostle Paul, he exploits this difference between the Pharisees who did believe in the bodily resurrection and the Sadducees who did not, and he adds to their disbelief in the resurrection by saying that the Sadducees.

Acts 23 · chapter mention

Also denied the existence of angels and spirits and eternal life.

The Sadducees were thoroughgoing materialists.

They didn't believe in the spiritual world.

They only believed in what their eyes saw.

They were those who denied the resurrection.

And then they tell Jesus this very, they, they tell him this absurd story and give him a loaded question in the resurrection.

Therefore, whose wife will this woman be? Have you ever been asked a question where the real question that's asked on the surface is not really the the real question that's being asked? You ever been asked a question by people and you know, that's just a question that is, uh, or an answer that's masquerading as a question.

You ever been asked a question where it's really the person who's asking you that question is.

Is really only asking it, not because they're curious and humble and teachable and really looking for an answer, but because they fashion themselves to be the experts and they're really trying to teach you a lesson.

That's exactly what's going on here in this dialogue between the Sadducees and Jesus, the Sadducees.

They denied the resurrection and because they denied the resurrection, they asked Jesus this loaded question and they tell him this absolutely absurd story.

As James was reading that a moment ago, did you think about consider, I mean just what an absolute stupid story this is.

Seven brothers had her as wife in the resurrection, therefore, which one will she be? I just put myself in the position of the fourth brother and I'm like.

Uh, okay.

Number two, I can get it.

You know, one passed away and then he marries the woman.

Okay.

The third brother marries her.

Maybe the first one died and the second one died because it's just coincidence still.

But I think if I was the fourth brother, I would have another sin.

Enough sin to just run the other way.

When this woman came up to me, and then brother five also married her and died.

Brother six married her and died.

Brother seven married her and died, and then mercifully, finally the woman died too.

Honestly, I don't know whether I should feel sorry for this woman or relief.

Relieved at her passing.

There's no telling how many lives were spared by this woman finally dying, but people who do ask loaded questions, right.

More often than not, they use the exception to try and disprove the rule rather than using the exception to prove the rule.

You see, there was a firmly established rule throughout the Old Testament scriptures that the Jews did believe in the bodily resurrection and eternal life, the Sadducees, they didn't believe it though, and it wasn't because they didn't necessarily take scripture seriously.

It's because for one, they were the gatekeepers of power in among the Jewish people.

The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, they were the cultural elites.

They were the intellectuals.

They were the priests of the temple.

You can understand why when Jesus wrote into Jerusalem just a couple days before this, and he cleansed the temple, why the Sadducees who are the priests would be just a little upset with him and try to make a fool out of him and teach Jesus a lesson.

Whereas the Pharisees were the scribes, they were the Bible scholars, the Sadducees, they were the priests, those who oversaw the sacrifices in the temple.

But to add to that, the Sadducees, they elevated one portion of scripture above the others.

That's why they denied the resurrection.

That's why here they say, you know, Moses wrote for us that if a man dies then and he doesn't have any children, then this woman should marry the second brother, and so on and so forth.

Because for the Sadducees, it's not that they didn't believe the rest of the Old Testaments holy scripture, but they elevated the first five books of Moses, the Pento, the Torah above the rest of the Old Testament scriptures in the Psalms of David, or the Proverbs of Solomon, or the prophetic writings of Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel.

So whenever Job chapter 19 was read in the temple or in the Jewish synagogue.

Job 19 · chapter mention

And it was read about how Job said, in my flesh, yet, shall I see God? Because they elevated certain portions of scripture above the other.

The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection because Moses was a greater authority than Ezekiel 37 with the great vision of the prophet where there was a valley of dry bones because they elevated Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus, and numbers and Deuteronomy over the prophetic writings of Daniel chapter 12 verse two, where some will be resurrected to eternal life and some will be resurrected to eternal death.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

The Sadducees, they elevated certain portions of scripture above the others, and here they're using scripture to try and to justify their own position of power as the gatekeepers of the temple.

So in the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? And Jesus essentially says to them.

You're asking the wrong question.

You know, it's not wrong to ask questions because questions are really half of the way of getting to having the right answers.

But you have to ask the right question, and you have to have the heart, right heart whenever you do ask the right question.

A heart that's humble, a heart that's teachable, a heart that is willing to learn, a heart that admits that I do not have all the right answers, but Jesus Christ does.

But that's not the heart that these Sadducees have.

And so Jesus gives an answer to them and it's basically, uh, two parts to this answer.

It's a theological answer.

It, it's a biblical answer.

The theological answer is that the sons of this age, they marry and are given a marriage, but those who are worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection of the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage for they cannot die because they're equal to angels and are sons of God being sons of the resurrection.

In short, Jesus says to them just what Paul says to us in one Corinthians chapter two, verse nine, no, I has seen nor ear heard nor heart.

Imagine what God has prepared for those who truly love him.

You see, for the Sadducees or for the Pharisees, or at least those who, like the Pharisees did believe in eternal life.

They thought that the afterlife was basically a continuation of this life.

They didn't think it would be all that different.

In fact, one of the commentaries that I read this week pointed out that there was a lively debate among the Jews this time as to whether they would require ceremonial cleansing, because in the resurrection, they had come into contact with the corpse.

They had debate about what kind of clothes we would wear, because the Jews at this time, they believe that essentially the next life was a continuation of this one.

But Jesus says that there is a radical distinction between this age and the age that is to.

Those who are considered worthy to attain of that age, they neither marry nor are given in marriage.

Now, I can't imagine what eternal life will be like, what my relationship to Jane will be like whenever we do come to the resurrection of the body.

But if this life is pretty good, despite the sufferings we do experience, and how much better, how much more imaginable will eternal life be after the resurrection of the body? For those who know Christ, he gives a theological answer, but then he also gives them a biblical answer.

He actually shows them from Moses, the very person who they cite that the book of Exodus, the Pentateuch, the Torah, it actually does teach the resurrection of the body.

He says he is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

He's not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Because in that passage about the bush, if you remember back in Exodus chapter three, when there's the bush and it's on fire, but it's not being consumed by the presence of the Lord.

And then you think about your best, uh, Charlton, Heston impersonation, Moses.

Moses and Moses goes up to the bush.

Moses asks, God, who are you? And God doesn't say, well, I was the God of your forefathers.

I was past tense.

The God of Moses and the God or the God of Abraham and the God.

I was the God of Isaac, and I was the God of Jacob.

But what's he say to Moses? I am present tense.

Even though Moses, or excuse me, I keep saying Moses.

Moses is right there.

But even though Abraham and Isaac and Jacob have.

Long since passed away centuries before Moses comes on in the scene, God says, still to this day, I am their God.

How can God speak in the present tense unless he is the eternal God? And unless Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who had fallen asleep, who had died in faith in him, also themselves, were still alive.

When Jesus here, he gives this theological rebuttal.

When he gives this biblical rebuttal to the Sadducees, it's important that we remember what Romans chapter 14 says in our own burial service, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

Romans 14 · chapter mention

He says here that those who are worthy to attain in the next life notice, he does not say that they will not die.

He says they cannot die.

It's such a radically different age.

That death is not even conceivable.

It's not just that God upholds us, but death is actually impossible.

It's not even a reality.

It's not even a question.

They cannot die anymore.

And so who, who are those people who attain to the resurrection of the body into eternal life? It's those who put their trust in Christ.

Who are those who are worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead, but those who believe in Jesus? Because none of us have a worthiness of our own.

None of us are righteous of our own.

All of us deserve when we are resurrected from the body.

All of us are not deserving of eternal life, but of eternal death.

But for those who put their faith in him, they are considered, they're counted worthy, they're accounted, righteous.

They're seen not merely in their own sin, but they are seen with the pure, spotless righteousness of Christ.

And so I know I began this sermon by making a joke about the average age of mortality, but serving alongside some of you who are closer to finishing your race.

You maybe think a little bit more about death than those who are here who are a little bit younger, but I just want to encourage you that there is something that is even better across the finish line.

There is an age that's even better that is coming, and if you have placed your faith in Christ, you've been made worthy to attain to that age.

There is nothing to fear, but there is only great anticipation and even better things to look forward to because your God is not the God of the dead, but he is the God of the living.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that because of your life, your death, and your resurrection, and because of the great promise that we have in your coming in, that no power of hell and no s scheme of man could ever pluck us from your hand.

We pray that you will help us to experience you today as a ever present God and an ever present help, not just the God of yesterday, but the God of today, and the God who also holds tomorrow.

Help us to live for you every day, whether we live or whether we die.

We pray that you'll help us to wholeheartedly believe the truth that we are yours, and we ask in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to the Resurrection Anglican Church Podcast.

We hope this sermon has deepened your faith in Jesus Christ.

If you have enjoyed this message and want to hear more gospel centered sermons, we invite you to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 10:00 AM.

You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook or visit our [email protected].

That's REZ Woodstock.

Dot org May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you forevermore.