Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20100505.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part LXXIII: Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Comments On Sadducean Theology
(Luke 20:27-40)
  1. Introduction
    1. If Jesus were the true God's true Savior of the world and Incarnate Son, we would expect His wisdom and intellect far to exceed the wisdom and intellect of even the highly educated religious leaders of His day.
    2. One group of leaders was the Sadducees, and after some of the leaders had failed to corner Jesus on their question of Caesar's poll tax, the Sadducees tried another question they thought He could not answer.
    3. Jesus' Luke 20:27-40 reply reveals He was not only God's Savior and Son, but it teaches us much more:
  2. Christ's Identity As God's Savior Seen In His Comments On Sadducean Theology, Luke 20:27-40.
    1. Following Jesus' able reply to the question of Caesar's poll tax, the sect of the Sadducees came to Him with a question they felt He could not possibly answer, Luke 20:27a.
    2. Luke explained the Sadducees denied there is any resurrection (Luke 20:27b)!
    3. They thus presented a question to corner Jesus on the issue of the resurrection, Luke 20:28-33:
      1. They proposed a woman had successively wed seven men after being widowed six times, Lk. 20:28-31.
      2. Finally, the woman herself died without having born any children by any of her husbands, Luke 20:32.
      3. Thus, the Sadducees asked Jesus whose wife would she be were there a resurrection since she had no children by any man that would make her more attached to him over any another husband, Luke 20:33.
      4. The Sadducees felt were God to raise the dead, He would force such a woman into a sinful polygamist union! Their question was thus meant to prove there could be no resurrection, to get Jesus to admit as much and thus to discredit Him before the Pharisees who believed in the resurrection!
    4. In reply to the Sadducees, Jesus taught there were no marital relationships in the resurrection, that the believer is like an angel, so He negated the complexities created by the Sadducees' question, Lk. 20:34-36.
    5. Then, Jesus went further to expose the error of the assumption that led the Sadducees to deny belief in the resurrection -- their view that the soul ceased to exist at death, Lk. 20:37-38; Z. P. E. B ., vol. Five, p. 214:
      1. Jesus said the resurrection was upheld by "even Moses," Luke 20:37 KJV, NIV, ESV (emphases ours).
      2. Moses was a key authority, for the Sadducees held his books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were more authoritative than the rest of Scripture, Ibid., p. 215!
      3. Thus, Jesus took them to the Exodus 3:1-6 "burning bush" passage in Moses' writings and referred to God's claim in Exodus 3:6 that reads: "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," Lk. 20:37b KJV!
      4. The literal, historical and grammatical contexts of that passage are crucial to Jesus' argument:
        1. In Exodus 3:6, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had historically been dead for several hundred years!
        2. Then literally, the verb "am" does not appear in the Hebrew text, for it is an elliptical verb that must be grammatically supplied in the present tense in italic form in the KJV. (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 81)
        3. Thus, Jesus claimed the souls of the patriarchs, though they had long been physically dead by Moses' time, still existed ("am") since God is the God of those existing, not of the no-longer existing as though their souls had been annihilated when they physically died, Luke 20:38!
    6. So fully did Jesus thus undermine Sadducean error with this reply, none of the leaders dared ask Him any more questions, but some of the scribes actually complimented Him for His answer, Luke 20:39-40!
Lesson: Jesus disarmed the Sadducees by not only answering their question, but by showing the error of their false assumption behind it by using the very Scriptures the Sadducees held most authoritative.

Application: (1) May we believe Jesus is God's Savior and Son for salvation! (2) May we interpret the Bible in the literal, grammatical and historical contexts like Jesus! (3) In discipling, may we use those portions of Scripture our hearers most highly respect more readily to disciple them, and (4) address their false assumptions that hinder their discipleship! [(5) The revelation that angels do not marry in Luke 20:36 shows the "sons of God" who married women in Genesis 6:2 are not fallen angels who produced evil giants! Rather, the term, "sons of God" meant wicked pagans who were mortal unlike pagans believed them to be as seen in God's slaying them by the Flood, Bible Know. Com., O.T., p. 36!]