First Baptist Church of Tampa Sermons

S1 E24: God of the Living

• First Baptist Church of Tampa • Season 1 • Episode 24

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Sermon Overview

Series: Following Jesus

Title: God of the Living

Text: Mark 12:18-27

Date: July 19th, 2026

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THRIVE?

We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Out into the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

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SPEAKER_00

Well, as you're being seated, if you would turn out uh turn in your copy of God's word and join me once again in Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 12 this morning. While you're finding Mark chapter 12, uh, we're gonna begin in about verse 18 this morning. Uh it is such a thrill for me to hear about Thrive Camp. You guys look great over here, those guys that went to Thrive Camp. Uh, I got reports during the week, and it is such a blessing to know that our students are hearing the word of God just preached faithfully through the book of Titus, and I pray that God would use that in your lives uh as we move forward. If you don't have a Bible, there are some there in the pew back in front of you. We're gonna be on page 910 in that pew Bible this morning. 910. So last week I preached a message from Mark chapter 12 that had to do with paying taxes, and apparently you guys didn't like it very much. Based on the conversations and the comments that I received over the week, y'all were not thrilled about that particular piece of information. That's fine. Let me remind you that as Jesus mentioned that we should pay taxes, he was doing so in direct response to a question that was asked to him about whether the Jewish people should pay a poll tax to Caesar. And he made his famous comment: render unto Caesar what is Caesar, and unto God's what is God's. And I warned you at the beginning of last week's message that the message was not about paying taxes. In fact, Jesus' answer wasn't about paying taxes. The message is about the supremacy of Christ in all things. It is completely right for us to pay to government what we owe government. It is completely wrong to give to government what is only due to God Himself. The emperor had put his image on a coin that says, That belongs to me. It's right for us to pay what we owe for the protection, the provision that we get from a government, but God has put his image on you. And you owe him your life. It's okay to love your country deeply as long as you love Christ supremely. That was the message last week. And Darlene and I got home on Sunday, and she was like, wow, the room was weird today. And I'm like, Yeah, tell me about it. It was really weird this week. And I said, wait until next week. Because next week I'm gonna tell them that they won't be married in heaven. What? Some of you are celebrating a little bit too much right now. We're gonna look at another text from Mark's gospel where Jesus is asked a question and he responds to the question. It's a scenario that he's been given about who's gonna be married to whom in heaven, and he answers the question, but just like I warned you last week, the the main point of last week was not about paying taxes, it was about the simcy of Christ. The main point this week is not about marriage in heaven. The main point this week is that the resurrection is real and it changes everything. So don't get lost in the weeds as we talk today, as we go through this text, and I talk to you about what marriage might look like in heaven. While that is a side point of this, it is not the main point of the text. The main point of the text is the resurrection is real. And you are going to be a part of it. And it changes everything. Sometimes we just have questions, don't we? We open God's word, and sometimes it's just clear and plain, and we go, okay, I get that. I can I can get that. I don't necessarily like it. I may not like applying it, but I get it. Other times we read it and we go, huh? What what's that about? I get questions all the time from folks: theological questions, eschatological questions, theology questions, uh, and I try to answer them as best I can. I want to encourage you. August the 12th, Wednesday night, August the 12th, we're relaunching our Wednesday night activities. Uh a wana will be going on for our children, one nine will be going on for our students. It's a great ministry for them. We also have a time devoted to discipleship for adults. Time when we come together and we dive into God's word together and we look at topics together and we look at subjects together, and we just iron sharpening iron growing together. And I want to encourage you to come and be a part of what we do on Wednesday nights in discipleship. On August 12th, we're gonna start with a new series for all of our adults together, simply called Because You Asked. And the the format is gonna be this: we're gonna answer questions that you ask, and we're gonna do that in about a 15 or 20-minute teaching session, and then we're gonna ask you to sit around tables in in kind of a multicultural setting. Maybe some uh younger folks sitting with some more mature folks and some seasoned believers with some new believers, and sit around the table, and then you're gonna discuss those topics together, and then we're gonna come back together as a group. So it's about an hour-long just having some discussion about some of these questions that we have. Here's what I need, though. I need to know what questions you have. I want to, I wanna address things that you want to talk about. Things that you think, you know, I've always wanted to ask this, or I've heard this debated, or I've heard this discussed, and and I'd really, this would be helpful for me in my walk with the Lord. And so here's how you can give us that information because it's gonna be really weird to do a class called Because You Ask If You Don't Ask Anything. Okay? So I need your help. So there's two ways that you can do this. Uh, there should be a QR code that'll come up in a little while up on the screen. Uh, you can scan that QR code and you can uh you'll get a text that'll lead you to how to put in your question. And it can be anything, all right? What's your favorite color? Any any question you want to ask? It'd be hard for me to discuss what my favorite color is for 20 minutes. So make it a little deeper than that. But you can also do it by this. You can text this number, 813-251-2425. That's the church's phone number. 813 251 2425. And you can just check a text to that BYA because you asked. You'll receive a text response, and you can respond that way. There's the QR code. Thank you guys up in the booth. If you want to just scan that QR code, love to answer questions, love to spend some time together on Wednesday nights just doing this for about seven weeks. As we come back to our text this morning, though, let me remind you that we are in the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry. It is Tuesday of Passion Week. In three days' time, Jesus will be crucified. He will be buried. In five days' time, he will be resurrected. But this is Tuesday of Passion Week. And he is having to defend himself against the attacks of those who would come and question him about different things. And today we're going to see that another group comes and questions him about the resurrection. We've already seen that the scribes and the Pharisees have come and they've asked him about his authority. By what authority do you overturn the money changers tables? By whose authority you do the things you do? Last week we saw that the Pharisees and the Herodians, two groups that absolutely despised one another, came together to ask Jesus about whether he should pay taxes or not, hoping to trip him up and cause him to either alienate the crowds or provoke the Romans. Today a third group is coming. These are the Sadducees. They've been in queue. It's now their turn. It's their opportunity to take a run at Jesus. And they choose to come at Jesus in the most interesting of ways. By presenting an absolutely absurd scenario trying to trip him up, trying to make him look foolish when it comes to the word of God. I'm not sure approaching the living word of God and trying to trip him up about the word of God is the best approach to take, but nonetheless, this is what they tried. Mark chapter 12. They ask him about the resurrection. If you're willing and able, would you stand with me as we read from God's Word today, beginning in verse 18? Some Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection came to Jesus and began questioning him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no children, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died, leaving no children. The second one married her and died, leaving behind no children, and the third likewise, and so all seven left no children. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one's wife will she be? For all seven had married her. Jesus said to them, Is this not the reason you are mistaken? That you do not understand the scriptures or the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are greatly mistaken. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would add blessing to the reading of your word. We acknowledge that these are not the words of men, these are the very words of God given to us, written down for us, protected for us, brought to us, enlightened by your Holy Spirit, so that we might understand it, so that we might bend our lives to it. Lord, help us to understand hard sayings. And help us to understand that the resurrection is real. No matter who denies it, no matter who mocks it, no matter who ridicules it, it is real. And it changes everything. Father, thank you for the hope of the resurrection. And I pray that we would all have that same hope. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Thank you. The question that has bewildered mankind from the very beginning is what happens when we die? What happens to a human when they cease breathing and their heart stops beating and their brainwaves stop functioning? Do we go somewhere? What absolutely happens to someone? Job chapter 14, verse 14 just simply says if a man dies, does he live again? This is the question that has haunted mankind. We've tried to answer this question in so many different ways, in so many different religions, because we all know that death is coming. The percentages are pretty high when it comes to death. And we know what happens in this life, but we don't know what happens in the next, and so we struggle with this. What's going to happen? What happens to our loved ones who have passed away before us? What's going to happen when we pass away in the future? What does that look like? You can actually take all of the responses, all the theories of what happens to someone when they die and put it into one of four different categories. This is broadly speaking, but one of four different categories. The first category is something called annihilationism, which simply means that once we cease living, that's it. There is nothing else. There's no life, there's no eternity. You close your eyes the last time, and it's like you're asleep, nothing happens. Annihilationism. Another view is called eternity. That we believe that God has created us as eternal beings. And that while we may close our eyes and this body shuts down, that we continue to live somehow somewhere. There are different theories on where this is. Some would say, of course, that those who have trusted in Christ go to heaven, those who have rejected Christ go to a place called hell, but there is a theory that there is eternity that is out before us. A third category is called reincarnation. There are some groups, there are some religions who teach that once you die in this life, you come back in some other form in the next life. If you've lived well in this life, you come back in a higher-stated form in the next life. If you've not done well in this life, you come back as a lower form in the next life and start the process all over again. Life is just cyclical and it goes on and on and on and on. The fourth is what's known as quantum energy, which simply just says this that when we die, our bodies and our souls go into this cosmic kind of energy that everything is a part of. Think of Star Wars. Everything is a part of this war. Use the force, right? There's this great energy force out there, and when we die, we just get absorbed into that force somehow. All religions of the world, all theories about what happens afterlife can fall into one of these four categories. The doctrine of the resurrection is a foundational truth for Orthodox Christianity. When I say resurrection, we immediately think Jesus Christ rising from the dead three days after his crucifixion. And that is true. That is the resurrection. But the resurrection that I'm referring to today, the resurrection that Jesus is referring to today, is the resurrection of all human beings. That God, when He created you, He created you as an eternal being. And right now we are living in these human shells, these bodies, these jars of clay as the Bible describes them. They're weak, they're fragile, they're going to give out. But in this fragile body is a soul, a spirit that God has created for all eternity. And there will be a time when all the dead will be resurrected. Not just those who are believers, but everyone will be resurrected. We will be given an eternal body. And we will live in that state, in either God's presence or separated from him. This is the doctrine of the resurrection. I would point you to chapters like 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that describes this in detail. If you're interested, just spend some time in the doctrine of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, which by the way says, if it is not true, then we are all helpless, we are all hopeless, and we're all to be pitied. Because those who have gone before us, there is no hope for us. Those that are still here, we're still lost in our sins. We are not right with God, and there is no hope for the future. But 1 Corinthians goes on and says this but the resurrection is real. Jesus Christ has been resurrected from the dead. The first fruits of the resurrection, since he has been resurrected from the dead, we will be resurrected from the dead, we will be right with him. The resurrection is what Scripture teaches is the reality of our future. Jesus has been facing a parade of opposition. Wave after wave of religious leaders have been coming after him, trying to trip him up, trying to trap him. They questioned his authority. They tried to get him to talk about paying taxes or not paying taxes. This time, this group comes to him with this question about resurrection. Their tact this time is to try to make Jesus look ignorant. To try to make Jesus look inept when it came to scriptures, when it came to what God's word taught about the resurrection. The Sadducees were a very important group as it relates to the Sanhedrin. They were the smallest of the groups that were part of the Sanhedrin, but they were by far the most powerful group in the Sanhedrin. They were powerful because almost all of the high priests came from the Sadducees. They were the wealthy, aristocratic group that were part of the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of Jerusalem, of Israel. They were sympathetic to Rome because Rome kept them in their places, their lucrative places of power and position. They were the most theologically conservative of anybody on the Sanhedrin, which is saying a lot when you consider how conservative the Pharisees tended to be. They were conservative in this regard. They only accepted the Torah, the Pentateuch, the books of Moses, the first five books of our Old Testament as God's word. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They didn't accept anything outside of that. They didn't accept the history, they didn't accept the traditions of the elders. They didn't accept any of those things. They just said, if we find it in the Word of God, those five books, we believe it. If we can't find it in one of those first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, then we don't believe it's possible to exist. This is who the Sadducees were. And they came to Jesus with a question. It's a spurious question. It's not a genuine question. They're trying to trick Jesus, they're trying to trap Jesus because they don't believe one very important thing. Mark tells us, he doesn't tell us everything that I just told you about the Sadducees. He gives us one piece of information. One thing to describe this group. Right there in verse 18. What does he describe them as? Help me out. You guys awake? Some Sadducees who say there is no resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection. In fact, the Sadducees didn't believe in anything supernatural. They did not believe in a bodily resurrection. They didn't believe in a place called heaven. They didn't believe in a place called hell. They did not need a Savior or a Messiah to get them to a place that they did not believe in. In fact, they didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in demons. Anything supernatural, they just put it aside. If they could not find it in the first five books of the Bible, they did not believe it. They thought it was impossible. And so here's the outline today, real quick. The resurrection denied, the resurrection defended, the resurrection determined. The Sadducees denied the resurrection. They did not believe that it existed. They did not believe that it was possible. In fact, what a sad and miserable way to live life. To have no hope. To have no hope for a future, to have no hope. They were annihilationists. They thought that once the body and the spirit died, it was over. There was nothing else. What a sad way to live life with no purpose in this life, nothing greater. Can you imagine living this life thinking this earth is the best thing that we're ever going to experience? This sinful, fallen, painful earth is the best that we're ever going to experience. So you can understand why people started to get philosophies like eat, drink, and live it up, because tomorrow we die. What a sad way. In fact, that's the way you can remember what these guys believe. I learned this way back in Sunday school. They didn't believe in the resurrection, that is why they were sad, you see. You go, you guys got it. Very good. Very good. So they come to Jesus with this question. By the way, Hebrews chapter 6. I love Hebrews chapter 6 says this. We have this as an this hope as an anchor for our soul. This hope knowing that there's no guilt in this life and there's no fear in death. This hope knowing that I am right with God and that I'm going to spend eternity with him. This hope knowing that those who have gone before me, who have trusted in Christ, are in his very presence now. That hope is an anchor for the soul. I pray that you have that anchor in your life. Not only do they reject the resurrection, which many today still do, by the way. They also ridiculed the resurrection. This ridiculous story that they come up with is really designed not as a question for Jesus, but to mock him. They come up with this crazy hypothetical, thinking this is gonna stump Jesus, this is gonna make him look crazy, this is gonna make him look like he doesn't know what he's talking about. This absurd story. So here's what they say. Here's the ridiculous story that they come up with. So Jesus, the teacher, the book of Moses tells us. Moses writes to us and he tells us that if a if a man's if a man dies and he has not had children with his wife, but he has a brother, it's the responsibility of the brother to come along and marry his wife, have children with that wife in the name of the brother. This was done to protect the widow, it was done to protect property rights. We find it in in Genesis chapter 28, we find it in Exodus chapter 25, the book of Ruth is the fulfillment of this, what was known as Levitical or Leverite laws. It was actually on the books. And Jesus wouldn't have disagreed with it at all. He said, that's absolutely right. That is the law. But they said, here, but in this one family there were seven brothers. Seven brothers. The first got married, he dies without having children, so the second brother does what he's supposed to do, marries the widow. He also dies without having children, so the third brother steps up, does what he's supposed to do, marries the woman, he dies before they have children. The fourth brother steps up, does what he's supposed to do. I would have taken note after about the third brother, personally, but all seven brothers marry this woman, they all die without having children, and then she dies. Now here's the question, Jesus. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. When they rise in the resurrection, to which one of them are they married? Here's the thought process. That will be utter chaos in heaven, Jesus. Can you imagine getting to heaven and not knowing to whom you are married? God's gonna have to sort the whole thing out. How's God gonna figure this one out? He told them to get married, and they've all been married, and once they get up there, who are they married to? They wanted to prove that the resurrection, life after death, was just utterly ridiculous. And Jesus is on record for saying he believes in the resurrection. John chapter 14, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus told Mary and Martha, he who believes in me, even if he dies, he will live. Hey, Mary and Martha, your brother Lazarus, he's gonna rise again. In fact, he did. Jesus has told his own disciples, I'm going to Jerusalem, they're gonna arrest me, they're gonna beat me, they're gonna crucify me, I'm going to die, and three days later, I am rising again. Jesus is on record in believing in the resurrection. By the way, the vast majority of Israel, the vast majority of Jews also believed in the resurrection from the dead. But this one group wanted to deny it, and they wanted to ridicule it. And then they come up with this crazy scenario. Jesus, they followed Moses' law, all seven of them got married, who they married to in heaven. So we have the resurrection denied. But then we have Jesus defending the resurrection. Now, if Jesus was politically correct, which he was not, and if he were here today, he would not be. If Jesus was politically correct, he would have said, Well, you know, there's different theories on what happens to people after they die. Some people believe that they just go away and there's nothing, annihilationism. Other people believe that we're part of this great power and energy in the world, and we just go back to being a part of that. Some people believe that there's there's this cyclical thing and we come back as one another. Other people believe that there's eternity and we live either in the presence of God or we live, and you know that they're all equally important, and we should all accept all of them and hold them as equally true. That's what a PC would say. That's what our world would say. We have to accept all of those as equally true. How does Jesus answer the question? You are wrong. He said, you are mistaken, verse 24. Verse 27, you are greatly mistaken. Jesus doesn't say, hey, let's debate about it. Hey, let's talk about it. What do you think happens? Jesus says, gentlemen, you are wrong on this one. Folks hear me. There are parts of Scripture where we can't be so dogmatic. There are parts of Scripture where God leaves open some room for discussion, but there's other parts of Scripture where Scripture is absolutely crystal clear what is right and what is wrong. And the word of God is inerrant, the word of God is infallible, it is his word to us, it is authority in our lives, and we either believe that or we don't believe that. And when it speaks to truth, we ought to lovingly and confidently say, this is right, that's wrong. And that's what Jesus does in this scenario. He says, you are mistaken. Mistaken means to be led away from truth. You are being led away from the truth. Verse 25, he says, when they rise. He doesn't say if they rise, they might rise. Verse 25, he just says, when they rise. It is a settled issue. It's a non-negotiable, it's a given. The resurrection is real. Whether you believe it, whether you deny it, whether you want to ridicule it or not, it is real. Now, many questions arise. If the resurrection is real, we have so many questions in our minds. What is that going to look like? What are those glorified bodies going to look like when we get them? Where are we going to go? What does heaven look like? How long are we going to be there? When do all the things we have so many questions, and I can't even begin to dive into all those today. If you have questions, text them to 813-251-2425, and we will discuss them beginning August 12th. But Jesus does address two issues here because they have brought it up in their ridiculous scenario. Two very quick things I'm going to address. Now remember, this isn't the primary point of the text, but they bring it up in their scenario, so he's going to respond to it. The first one is we do not become angels. We become like angels. And the second is, in becoming like angels, we neither marry or are given in marriage. He says, here's two things you can hold on to about what heaven is going to look like. Number one, he says, you become like angels. One of the greatest myths in all of humanity, put forward mostly by Hollywood and by cartoons I watched when I was a kid, is that when we die, we immediately become an angel. We sprout wings and a little halo and we go up into the heaven. Or if we were bad, you get a little tail and a little horn and you go the other direction, right? We do not become angels when we die. I don't care how many times the bell rings, Clarence is not going to get wings, okay? Humans and angels are completely different created beings. And we do not become angels when we die. Jesus says we become like angels. And he mentions two ways. Angels never marry, and they are not given in marriage. There are a set number of angels that have been created. There will never be any more angels. They do not procreate, they are a set number. The number that God created in the beginning is the same number that is now. Now, granted, some of them fell with Lucifer and they are fallen angels, they are demons, but nevertheless, there are still angels and there are still demons, the same number. They do not procreate, they don't make more of them. And when we get to heaven, we will not be given in marriage and we will not marry. Now, this is one of the more interesting and difficult teachings of Jesus, especially for those of us who love our spouses. Especially for those of us who are blessed to have a wonderful marriage here on earth. We don't want to think about going to eternity and not being married to our spouse, our best friend, to our companion when we get there. And so, what do we do with this, right? What exactly does this mean? Marriage is ordained by God. God instituted marriage, just as he instituted human government and the church. God instituted marriage. He did it for our good. God says it's not good for man to be alone. And so he brought man and woman together. Marriage is great. It's a beautiful gift from God. It is called the grace, uh, the gift of grace of life. It's a beautiful gift. It's also a picture. Ephesians chapter 5 teaches us that it is a mystery. It is a picture that a husband loving his wife as Christ loved the church, a husband laying down his life for his wife, putting her above himself in all situations, and a wife submitting to her husband's spiritual authority is a picture of Christ and the church. And our marriages ought to be a proclamation of the gospel to the world. That's the point of marriage, part of it anyway. Another part of it is procreation. God has designed the family to come through marriage. Now, when we get to heaven, the picture will have been completed. We will not need to paint a picture of Christ in the church because the bridegroom will have come, received his bride, there will have been a wedding feast. The bride and the groom will be married in heaven. Christ and the church will be married. We don't need to paint the picture anymore, and there will be no more death, so there will not need to be procreation in heaven. I don't know what that's gonna look like. Okay? Most of the time we think heaven's gonna be the best stuff we enjoy, just magnified and even better. We think marriage in heaven is gonna be even better than it is here on earth, and I think that's true. We think that golf in heaven is gonna be better than even it is here on earth. We think we can get around in in 18 minutes because it's only gonna take us 18 strokes to play golf, but it's gonna be beautiful when we do it. We think the sunsets are gonna be more immense when we get to heaven, even though the Bible says there is no sun or moon in heaven because Christ is the light. But we think heaven is gonna be the best that we experience just magnified. I don't know what my life and my wife, my life with my wife is gonna look like in heaven. I know I'm going to know her. I believe in continuation. I believe there's there's consistency. We're gonna know one another. But here's the deal: Christ is gonna be there, and he is going to supersede anything else that takes place. If you want to talk about marriage more, I encourage you. Next weekend we have a marriage conference. It's gonna be a wonderful conference, despite what Darren says about it. It's gonna be a really great conference this next weekend. And if you wanna if you want to have a conversation about what covenant marriage is all about, sign up for the Thriving Marriage Retreat this coming weekend. Even if you're not gonna be married in heaven. But remember, is that the point of the text? No, Jesus is just taking their scenario and he's responding to it and says, You're not gonna be an angel, you're gonna be like an angel, and they're not gonna marry, and you're not gonna give in marriage. So your whole scenario is is hokum. It's junk, it's garbage. And here's what he says: he's refuting these ignorant skeptics, but he does it with the inerrant word. He says, You guys would know this if you knew the Bible better. He says, You would know this was not true. He would, you would know that the scenario you just played towards me is ridiculous if you read your Bible better. He asks him, have you not read? Have you not read in the book of Moses where it said? Now what did they believe? They believed just in the book of Moses, the Troth, the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And he says, Guys, if you knew the Bible better, you would know this better. And he refutes their argument by taking them to Scripture. Now he could have taken them to Job chapter 19, he could have taken them to Psalm chapter 16, he could have taken them to Daniel chapter 12, he could have taken them to any number of places in the Old Testament that talks about resurrection, that talks about life after death. He could have taken them to any number of places. Guess where he takes them? You don't have to guess. Where does he take them? Hey, remember the passage of Scripture where it talks about the burning bush? Now, that's Exodus chapter 3, verse 6. But in that time, they didn't break the Bible down in chapter and verses, so they couldn't say, Hey, if you remember Exodus chapter 3, verse 6, God says, I am the God of Jacob, I am the God of Isaac. But they could say, hey, remember the story about the burning bush? Oh yeah, I know where that one is. So he's taking them where? To the place that they don't think they can find the resurrection. And he says to them, have you not read? Have you not read this? Of course they'd read it. He said, if you've read it, then why don't you get it? You guys claim to be the keepers of the law. You guys claim to be the most knowledgeable people about the law, and you claim there is no resurrection, but have you not read this passage? God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I am the God of Jacob. Now, that just jumped right off the page at you, right? You know exactly what Jesus is saying. You know how that clears up the resurrection question just like that. It's a piece of cake. It's easy to see, right? Maybe not so easy. Let me help you just a little bit. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for centuries before Moses came along. For centuries they had been dead. And yet God said, I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Jacob. I am the God of Isaac. He did not say, Hey, Moses, calm down. I'm sending you back. You know, just as I was the God of Abraham, and just as I was the God of Isaac, and just as I was the God of Jacob. He doesn't say that, does he? He doesn't say they were, he says I am. He uses present tense. He says, they are still alive. I am still their God. They are still with me. They are still present. They are with God. They are waiting for the culmination. They are waiting for the resurrection. They are still alive. That present tense, you say you're reading too much into it. No, I'm not. Jesus is. Because Jesus says, You want to know where you find the resurrection here? Here it is. I am their God. Man, even the tense of the verbs, even the tense makes a difference in God's word. And I am so grateful for the word of God. Matthew chapter 5 says, not one jot or tittle of the word of God will pass away. Isaiah chapter 40 says, the grass wither and the flower fades, but the word of God remains forever. And he says, You guys would know this if you knew the word of God better, and you would know the power of God if you knew the word of God better. You wouldn't question God's power to raise people from the dead if you actually knew his word better. And you would know the power of God if you knew the word of God, because the power of God enlightens you through the word of God. So Jesus defends the resurrection against these ignorant skeptics who are not only denying it but are ridiculing it, and he does it by doing what? Taking them to Scripture. But the whole point of this isn't about whether we're married or not in heaven. The point of this is the resurrection is real. Let me give you one more text and then we're gonna finish with the resurrection denied. John chapter 5. Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, an hour is coming. John chapter 5, verse 25, if you want to follow along or look it up later. Truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself, and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in tombs will hear his voice, and will come forth those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. Jesus says there is a day coming when all will rise, who all will come out of the grave, their resurrected body, those who have done good to a life with God, and those who have not to a life separated from God. Don't make a mistake, he does not mean those who have done good deeds, he means those who have done the good thing. The only thing that makes us good is trusting in Jesus Christ. To those who have trusted in Christ, they'll be raised to resurrection a new life with Jesus. To those who have rejected him, they will be raised to eternity separated from him. The resurrection is real. It doesn't matter who denies it, it doesn't matter who ridicules it. It's real and it changes everything. And the final thing is we have to make a decision about it. We have to make a decision about it. Verse 24, he told him, gentlemen, you're mistaken on this issue. You're mistaken because you don't know the scripture and you don't know the power of God. Verse 27, he says, you are greatly mistaken. There's a lot of things we can mess up on. There's a lot of things we can be wrong about. There's a lot of things that we can miss. But whether or not the resurrection is real is not one of them. This is not something Jesus fiddled about with. He says, Gentlemen, you're wrong on this one, and you need to know why. There are two soldiers who were mortally wounded lying in an aid station in a Cambodian jungle. The chaplain came to see both men in their dying moments. The first man, in a weak and trembling voice, said to the chaplain, I'm about to lose it all. The chaplain went to the second mortally wounded soldier. And in a weak but resolute voice, that soldier said, I'm about to gain it all. The question of the resurrection for you is, which soldier are you? Does the resurrection mean to you that you're gonna lose it all? Does that mean that this world is all that I have? This world is the best it's gonna get, and when I die, this is I'm gonna lose it all? Or does the resurrection mean? Man, this world is nothing compared to life with Christ in heaven. And while I may lose what's here in this world, I'm gonna gain everything that's there. The resurrection is real. You can deny it, you can ridicule it, but it doesn't change the fact that it's real. And we have to respond to it. You have to respond to it. You have to say, I believe. I trust.