Resurrection: Jesus's Response to Deniers (Matthew 22:23-33, Acts 17:30-31)
Sermon Summary
Pastor David Yan
06 March 2022
Very few people believe in resurrection. In Jesus’ day he met deniers of resurrection in the Sadducees. Jesus silenced them. How?
First, he said they were mistaken, that is, deceived. Deception comes from the god of this age who is Satan (2 Cor.4:3). The Sadducees had been deceived by the devil just as resurrection-deniers today are deceived. This veil of ignorance remains.
Jesus told the Sadducees they were ignorant of two things, the Scriptures and the power of God.
They were ignorant of God’s power. The Sadducees at heart were atheists with no belief in a sovereign God. Hence no God; no power; no resurrection.
They were ignorant of the Scriptures. For Jesus shows them they did not understand their Old Testament Scriptures.
One can hear, as it were, Jesus saying to the Sadducees, “Do you not remember Abraham offering up Isaac and doing so because he believed in resurrection?
And do you not recall the widow’s son raised from the dead by the prophet Elijah, and Jonah who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish and came out alive?
And do you not perceive the joy of your own nation which when liberated experienced new life and felt like it was all a dream?
But supremely, Oh Sadducees, do you not understand that God is not the God of the dead but of the living for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not dead but alive?
You Sadducees fall short for you do not understand your own Scriptures.”
We learn from Jesus’ response to the Sadducees that the Old Testament certainly teaches the resurrection albeit in types and symbols.
The resurrection of Jesus is a guarantee that there will be a day of judgment. Paul spoke about this appointed day (Acts 17:21).
On the day of judgment we can imagine Jesus speaking to resurrection-deniers as he spoke to the Sadducees.
He will rebuke resurrection-deniers for not believing the power of God. Did they not hear through the anointed witness of the apostles about the power of God in raising Jesus from death?
And were they not aware of how Jesus raised Lazarus from death? And surely they read in the Bible that the risen Lord Jesus appeared to certain women, and the disciples, and Thomas as well as to Saul of Tarsus. These things are all recorded in the Scriptures so that people who read the Scriptures are without excuse.
People are mistaken if they do not believe in resurrection for they do not believe the Scriptures or the power of God.
The way people responded to Paul is the way people respond today to the gospel.
Some mocked; some wanted more time; some believed. Which category are you?
There is no need to mock the resurrection or desire more evidence of it. Jesus the Son of God came into this world, was crucified and died and rose from the dead. He did so by the power of God. The Scriptures testify to his resurrection.
Do not be unbelieving but believing. Do not be a Sadducee. Over time the Sadducees ceased to exist. So all who follow them in unbelief. It leads to eternal death.