Old Testament Reading: Exodus 3

“Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ He said, ‘But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.’ Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, ‘I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.’’ And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.’” (Exodus 3, ESV)

New Testament Reading: Luke 20:27-40

“There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.’ Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ For they no longer dared to ask him any question.” (Luke 20:27–40, ESV)

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Please excuse any typos and misspellings within this manuscript. It has been published online for the benefit of the saints of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church, but without the benefit of proofreading.

Introduction

When Jesus entered Jerusalem with his band of disciples and the great multitude that followed after him and proceeded to pronounce judgment upon Jerusalem, cleanse the temple, and teach within it, it was as if he had kicked a hornet’s nest. Clearly, the religious establishment viewed him as a great threat, and they wasted no time in coming against him in an attempt to drive him away or to do away with him altogether. Jesus was of some concern to them when he ministered in the less populated regions of the country and away from their center of power. But when Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple, the concern of the religious elite grew very great, and so they swarmed around Jesus and attempted to sting him. 

First, the chief priests, scribes, and elders approached him while in the temple to question his authority. “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority”, they said (Luke 20:1–3, ESV). When this direct attack proved ineffective, “they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor” (Luke 20:20, ESV). These infiltrators approached Jesus and attempted to put him at odds, either with the multitudes that followed him or with the Roman authorities, saying, “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” (Luke 20:22, ESV). Jesus escaped their trap by speaking the truth: “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Luke 20:25, ESV), he said. 

Luke tells us of a third attack in the text that is open before us today. In Luke 20:27, we read, “There came to him some Sadducees… and they asked him a question… (Luke 20:27–28, ESV). We will soon consider their question and Jesus’ wise reply. For now, it must be recognized that this was yet another attempt by the religious elite within Israel to undermine Jesus’ authority. This time they would attempt to pit Jesus, not against the Roman authorities, but against the authority of Moses. 

As was said in the previous sermon, what we are witnessing here is best described as a great power struggle. The King of God’s eternal Kingdom had come. Would these men bow the knee to him and confess him as Lord or not? That is the question.   

The Sadducees

The previous attacks are said to have come from the chief priests, scribes, and elders of Israel. This attack is said to have come specifically from the Sadducees. This is, in fact, the first time the Sadducees are mentioned in Luke’s gospel. The question we must ask is, Who were they? And what did they believe?

The information we have about them is quite limited. We do not have any writings from the Sadducees. What we know of them must be pieced together from what others say. They are mentioned fourteen times in the New Testament. In addition to this, the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, mentions the Sadducees and tells us a little about what they believed. Some wonder if Josephus was biased against the Sadducees, for he claimed to be a Pharisee, and the two groups were often at odds with each other. Nevertheless, Josephus does provide us with some insight into the Sadducees, who they were, and what they believed. 

When all is considered, here is what we know about them:

Firstly, the Sadducees were one of three major schools of thought existing amongst the Jews in the days of Jesus. There were the Pharisees, whom you have heard of, the Essenes (a community “that regarded themselves as the faithful remnant of the true Israel and the core of God’s eschatological community, the purity of which they sought to preserve by forming an isolated society devoted to strict observation of the pentateuchal regulations), and the Sadducees.

Secondly, Josephus suggests that Sadduceeism was especially popular amongst the elites of Israel, including the priestly class. In one place, Josephus says, “the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have not the populace [submissive] to them, but the Pharisees have the multitude on their side…” It is interesting to note that Josephus says the high priest named Annas, who is mentioned in Luke 3:2 and Acts 4:6 alongside his son-in-law Caiaphas, was a Sadducee. So then, when Luke tells us that Sadducees approached Jesus to question him, we should see this as being connected to the broader attack that began with the events described in Luke 20:1-3.

Thirdly, as it pertains to the beliefs of the Sadducees, Josephus reports that they rejected the many traditions that the “Pharisees [had] delivered to the people”, that is to say, they rejected the “great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses.” According to Josephus, “the Sadducees reject them,  and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers…” I’ve heard some say the Sadducees only accepted the law of Moses, the first five books of the Hebrew Old Testament, as authoritivae, but I don’t think that’s true. It seems they accepted all of the Old Testament Scriptures. What they rejected was the manmade traditions of the Pharisees. Perhaps it can be said that they viewed the writings of Moses to be of particular importance, which is, in a sense, true. The first five books of the Bible, written by Moses, are indeed foundational. The rest of the Old Testament builds on them. But we confess that the whole Old Testament is inspired by God. It seems to me that the Sadducees would say the same thing.

Fourthly—and this is the belief they are most well known for—the Sadducees denied that there is a resurrection. This is the doctrine of the Sadducees that the Scriptures frequently mention—”they say there is no resurrection” (see Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18; Acts 4:1-2; Acts 23:6, 8). Here in the text open before us today, Luke says, “There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection…’” It is interesting to note how Josephus puts it: “But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the bodies.”  Listen also to Acts 23:6-8: “Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, ‘Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all” (Acts 23:6–8, ESV). It would seem, then, that the Sadducees not only denied that there would be a bodily resurrection in the future, but also taught that the soul or spirit of a man dies when his body dies—no life after death—that seems to have been their view. 

This insight into the Sadducees’ beliefs will help us understand the question they brought to Jesus and Jesus’ response. [But before we move on in text, I would ask you to imagine what it would be like to not believe in the resurrection of the body or the immortality of the soul. Imagine what it would be like to live in this world and believe that when the body dies, the soul dies too. Many live with this view. They think that after death, there is… nothing. Many imagine that the soul does not live apart from the body, and that the body will never be raised. Those who think this way must also deny the final judgment and the hope of future reward. Think of what it would be like to live with such a view. When I think of this, I’m struck with feelings of emptiness and purposelessness. It also occurs to me that such a view would remove nearly all motivation to pursue holiness in this life and to live a selfless life for the good of others. In fact, I would not be surprised if a person who denies the resurrection in the way the Sadducees did, concluded that the best way to live is to experience as much pleasure in the here and now as possible, no matter the harm it brings to others, for, in their view, the here and now is all there is. Friends, I trust you can see that theology matters. Beliefs have consequences. And it is hard to imagine a more impactful question than this: Does God exist and, if so, will we stand before him either to be rewarded or judged in the life to come? The Sadducees believed God exists, but they denied the resurrection of the body and the existence of the soul apart from it (see Acts 23:8). This must have impacted their way of life. And for the Sadducees who were involved in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, this must have impacted how they treated Jesus when he was on trial and when they saw to his crucifixion. What mattered to them most was not justice or truth, but holding on to their worldly power and authority and the wealth and pleasure that accompanied it. Theology matters, friends. When men behave very badly and do not seem to care, and it puzzles you, consider what they believe. And conversely, consider how belief in the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the final judgement ought to motivate us to be found united to Christ by faith, cleansed by his blood, clothed in his righteousness, pursuing holiness and good works so as to store up treasures, not here on earth, but “in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20, ESV).]

The Question

Quoting Josephus again, “the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the bodies.” It is not surprising that they attempted to trap Jesus and to pit him against the authority of Scripture by presenting him with this conundrum. 

Look at verse 28: “and [the Sadducees] asked [Jesus] a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife” (Luke 20:28–33, ESV).

Notice a few things about this question: 

First of all, the question was asked by these Sadducees in an attempt to prove Jesus wrong about the resurrection. Clearly, Jesus believed in the resurrection. In Luke 14:13-14, he says, “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:13–14, ESV). And in Luke 9:22, Christ spoke of himself, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22, ESV). The Sadducees knew that Jesus believed in and taught about the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul, and so they questioned and challenged him on this point.

Secondly, the Sadducees questioned Jesus using the Old Testament Scriptures, particularly the writings of Moses. Verse 26: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.” This is a reference to the laws concerning Levirate marriage found in Deuteronomy 25:5–10, which says, “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off’” (Deuteronomy 25:5–10, ESV). No doubt, this custom sounds very strange to you. As an aside, I do wonder what the Theonomists say about this text. Is this law still binding on the Christian today? We say no. If consistent, I suppose the Theonomist would have to say yes. But that is besides the point. This law was certainly binding under the Old Covenant. 

Thirdly, notice how the Sadducees attempted to use this passage to disprove the resurrection. They pointed to it and claimed that if there was life after death this law of Moses would create a very confusing situation in the afterlife if obeyed. The Sadducees presented Jesus with a rather extreme hypothetical situation. “Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” As you can see, these Sadducees attempted to set Jesus on the horns of a dilemma by pitting him against Moses and the authority of the Holy Scriptures. They must have been very proud of themselves when they presented Jesus with this unsolvable riddle.

Jesus’s Answer

As with the answers that Jesus gave to the last two groups who attempted to trap him, the answer he gave to the Sadducees was very wise. His answer consists of three parts: 

Firstly, Jesus teaches that the institution of marriage belongs to this age only. Verse 34: “And Jesus said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage…’” (Luke 20:34, ESV). Marriage was instituted at the time of creation, and it will continue as an institution until Christ returns to rescue his people, raise the dead, judge, and usher in his consummated kingdom.  

Secondly, Jesus teaches that in the age to come, that is to say, when the kingdom of heaven is consummated after the resurrection in the new heavens and earth, the institution of marriage will be no more. Verse 35: “but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage…” (Luke 20:35, ESV). 

[Those with happy marriages might be tempted to feel saddened by this. If that is the case with you, may I suggest that your thoughts of life in the new heavens and earth are too small? What we experience there, namely, unbroken and uninterrupted fellowship with God and Christ and with one another in the Lord, will far exceed anything that we experience in this age, so that we will not feel as if we have lost anything, but only gained. I have no doubt that in the age to come, we will remember the special relationships we enjoyed in this present evil age. In the age to come, the relationships we enjoy with one another in Christ Jesus will be more sweet, not less, for the sinful corruptions that remain even in the best of Christians will then be removed.]     

After Jesus teaches that there will be no marriage in the age to come, he tells us why. Verse 36: “for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to [or like the] angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36, ESV). 

Why did Jesus mention angels? Two reasons: One, the Sadducees not only denied the resurrection and the life of the soul apart from the body, but they also denied the existence of angels. Christ set them straight about this as well. Two, Christ teaches that in the age to come, we will be like the angels in some respects. In this age, people come into the world through birth, and depart from this world through death. But in the age to come, there will be no birth or death. The population of the new heavens and earth will be fixed. Once it is established, none will enter and none will depart. And those who are granted entrance will live forever and ever. When Christ said, “​​because they are equal to [or like the] angels”, he did not mean we will be like the angels in every respect, for angels are ministering spirits. They do not have bodies like we do. Human beings will have resurrected physical bodies in the age to come. What Christ meant is that, in the age to come, we will be like the angels as it pertains to their unending life and no marriage or procreation. Just as the number of angels is fixed because they neither procreate nor die, so will it be for those who enter the new heavens and earth at the resurrection. Because there will be no procreation, neither will there be marriage, and this agrees with the Biblical teaching that one of the primary purposes of marriage is procreation. It is within the covenant of marriage that children are to be brought into the world, and it is within the covenant of marriage that children are to be raised, disciplined, and nurtured to maturity. But these activities are a part of this age, not the age to come. In the age to come, there will be no genealogical descent so that so-and-so is regarded as the son or daughter of so-and-so, but all will be “sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36, ESV). 

When Jesus corrected the Sadducees concerning their misunderstanding regarding marriage in the age to come, he effectively escaped their trap, but he had more to say.  Not only does the doctrine of the resurrection not contradict the Scriptures written by Moses, but the doctrine is found there!

That brings us to the third part of Jesus’ reply, wherein he shows that the doctrine of the resurrection is found even in the Pentateuch. Look at verse 37. There Christ says, “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him” (Luke 20:37–38, ESV).

The passage that Jesus refers to is found in Exodus 3. Notice, this passage is about the calling of Moses, whom the Sadducees claimed to revere. In that text, Moses saw a bush in the wilderness that was burning yet not consumed. When he drew near to investigate, “God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:4–6, ESV). According to Jesus, this passage proves that the soul of man goes on living after the body dies, and that there is the hope of the resurrection of the body, for though Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had long before this, God claimed to be their God presently. Though Exodus 3 does not teach about the resurrection in a direct way, it teaches the resurrection through necessary consequence. If it is true that God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when he spoke to Moses from the bush many years after these men had died, then it must mean that they still existed and had God as their God and as their hope. 

[By the way, we learn something very important about Biblical interpretation from this saying of Jesus. Here, our Lord and Savior shows us that we are not only bound to believe what the Scriptures directly and explicitly say, but also what they necessarily imply.  If we wish to faithfully interpret the Scriptures, we must follow the example of Christ and his Apostles and interpret them in the same way they interpreted them. Indeed, we confess that “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture…” (Second London Confession, 1.6).] 

Though the doctrine of the resurrection is not expressly set down in Exodus 3, Christ taught that it is necessarily contained there, and in this way, he proved the Sadducees wrong. They claimed that the resurrection is nowhere found in the writings of Moses. Christ demonstrated that they were badly mistaken. Not only is it found in Moses, it is found in the most foundational of texts, that is to say, in the one wherein Moses is called to be God’s prophet and deliverer, wherein God reveals himself to Moses as YHWH, the great I AM. And by mentioning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God and Christ remind us that Moses, as great as he was, came in fulfilment to promises previously made, and those promises have everything to do with an unending life in the news heavens and earth through faith in the Messiah, the son promised to Abraham, and the Son of God.

Conclusion

I imagine the countenance of the Sadducees changed. They came against Jesus, prideful and arrogant. They assumed he would be stumped by their riddle. But Luke tells us that “some of the scribes [who were regarded as experts in the law]  answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ For they no longer dared to ask him any question” (Luke 20:39–40, ESV). In the next passage, we will see that Jesus had something to say to the scribes as well, but that will need to wait until next Sunday.

I’ll conclude with one point of application. In fact, it is a restatement of something that has already been said. Brothers and sisters, please meditate on the doctrine of the resurrection. Christ died in the place of sinners. His body was laid in a grave, and his soul descended to Sheol, not to suffer, but to proclaim victory and to set captives free. On the third day, his body was raised and was reunited with his soul, and it is in this resurrection body that Christ lives forevermore. 

Christ rose from the dead, and it is because of his resurrection that all will be raised bodily at his return. 

We confess that: “The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies; and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell; where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day; besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.” (Second London Confession, 31.1)

We confess that, “At the last day, such of the saints as are found alive, shall not sleep, but be changed; and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other; although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever.” (Second London Confession Chapter, 31.2)

We confess that, “The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonor; the bodies of the just, by his Spirit, unto honor, and be made conformable to his own glorious body.” (Second London Confession Chapter, 31.3)

Do you believe in the resurrection, friends? Do you believe that Christ was raised bodily, and that you will be raised bodily too? I hope and pray that you for, for the Scriptures teach it. And I hope and pray that you live every day of your life here in this age in light of the resurrection, the judgment, and the life in the age to come. 

You must be found trusting in Christ if you hope to pass through the judgment and into life everlasting unscathed. And wise are you if you “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19–20, ESV).