Sermons

It’s All in The Resurrection!

Posted by Alex on
Sermon on November 24 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture: Mark 12:18-27

So many questions about the after- life! What about relationships in heaven?

1. RELATIONSHIP QUESTIONED! (v18-23)
What the Sadducees, (sad-you-see) believed gives insight into why they did not want a resurrection

  • Now is all we have
    For a materialist, who lives for things, and an existentialist (this moment alone counts), this life is all there is.
  • The end is really the end

‘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.’ (Deut 25:5)

The problem: ‘God is too smart to allow chaos in heaven, so this life is it! No relationship or resurrection.’

2. RELATIONSHIP ANSWERED! (v24- 25)

  • Beyond the grave, there is identity not marriage
    Are you single? Don’t idolize the idea of marriage.
    Are you married? Your marriage is not forever. You will know your spouse, but as a sister, or a brother.
  • Beyond the grave, every relationship is sweeter than you have known here

‘You will have the sweet longing of desire that can be fulfilled, and shall be, again and again and again. Heaven is not the absence of longing but its fulfillment. Not the absence of itches…it is the satisfying scratch for every itch’
(Randy Alcorn: ‘Safely Home’)

3. RELATIONSHIP THAT NEVER ENDS! (v26-27)

  • There is resurrection in the Old Testament!
    Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were in God’s presence when He says to Moses ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’
    David lost his baby, but knew he was with God. ‘I will go to him but he will not return to me’ (2 Sam. 2:23)
    When we are in heaven we will be more recognizable in our bodies – and more loved than ever before.

‘The new body must be like the old….The non-essential, the unrevealing, the incomplete will have vanished. That which made the body what is was in the eyes of those who loved us will be tenfold there.’ (George MacDonald)

Remember! The final proof of the resurrection is what would happen on the Sunday, after the questions of Tuesday, the suffering and death on the Friday and the waiting on Saturday. If a man dies, shall he live again?’ (Job 14:14)
Jesus alone can and has answered that! Let’s live for eternity and rejoice in His resurrection power?

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What are some mistaken ideas about what heaven is going to be like? Why do people project such ideas about the concept of heaven?
2. Do you find it difficult to believe that there is no such thing as marriage in heaven? If so, why? Will this mean that we will be miserable in heaven without such a relationship? If not, why?
3. Jesus’ argument hinges on the tense of a verb. ‘He IS the God of the living’. What does that say about the accuracy of the Bible?
4. Someone you love loses or miscarries a baby. Is there enough evidence in the Bible, or in the char-acter of God to enable us to comfort this person? Can atheism or materialism provide such comfort?