 Matthew 22. We're going to be looking today at verses 23 through 33, and I chose to entitle this particular installment of our study, The God of Life, and you'll see why in just a moment as we go through this particular portion of Scripture. So I'll begin reading at verse 23, and I'll read to verse 33, and we'll get into our study. Beginning at verse 23, reading to verse 33. The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him saying, Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be, for they all had her? Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Now Jesus had just answered a question that had been posed to him with the intention of entrapping him. The question was posed by Pharisees as well as Herodians. So after answering their question, they marveled at what he had to say, and they went their way. Luke tells us in chapter 20, verse 26 that they were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public, and astonished by his answer, they became silent. And so what we have now in verse 23 is a continuation of the debate with Jesus. But this time it's through a group called the Sadducees. Now very often, when you read your Bible, you're going to see that there are people that are referred to that represent groups. You see the Herodians, as I just mentioned, you see the Pharisees. There are times you'll see the word zealot in reference to a political kind of group. Here you have Sadducees. And when you see the Sadducees, it really requires for me to spend a few moments developing who they are in order for you to understand the reason behind their question. Because we often read of the Pharisees and we read of the Sadducees, but we may not know what the Sadducees believed in contrast to what the Pharisees would teach and all. And so I want to take a few minutes to develop a foundation, so you'll know why this question that they're asking Jesus is such an important question. Now this was a group of wealthy and influential Jewish people. The word Sadducees is related to the Hebrew word that is translated to be righteous. It's possible that the Sadducees recognize their origin as followers of a priest by the name of Zedek. Now Zedek was a father of the priestly families in the days of Solomon. And so they were the Sadducees. They were the righteous ones because again the name Sadducees is related to the Hebrew word that is translated to be righteous. And so they were regarded as the righteous ones. They may have been regarded as the righteous ones to contrast with the Pharisees who were regarded as the separated or the pious ones. Now these people, these Sadducees, were in control of the temple concessions. And because they were in control of the temple concessions, they were resented greatly by the people. It was through this that they obtained most of their wealth. When you look at what they believed the Sadducees were pro-Roman, they owed much of their influence to Rome. They were allowed to have a police force and they called it the temple guard. Rome allowed that because they would be used by Rome to control the Jews. You'll see the temple guard mentioned by the way in the Gospel of John in chapter 18 where it says at verse 13 that Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests. Well these officers from the chief priests were what are called the temple guard and they had their own force there and they would enforce rules to keep Rome in power. Unlike the Pharisees they completely rejected oral as well as written tradition. They restricted authority to the written law, interpreted literally and they were inflexible. And because of this they prided themselves as preservers of the true faith. They gave primacy to the first five books of the Bible because they viewed that as being of a higher plane. Now the Pharisees had more influence so Sadducees were forced to endure their traditions. One commentator said the descriptions from the literature paint the Sadducees as nasty and arrogant because they had power and competed with others for it. They were called Burish. We don't use the word Burish it means ill-mannered and rude. They were known to be quick and to argue with others. And these Sadducees were constantly at odd with the Pharisees especially over the question of the resurrection. You see Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead and the immortality of the soul but the Sadducees rejected this completely. In the book of Acts in chapter 23 verse 8 it says Sadducees say there is no resurrection, no angel or spirit but the Pharisees confess both. Now this is where it gets very practical because they believe that rewards for righteousness were obtained in this life. Now because they put such high emphasis on the first five books of the Bible in the book of Deuteronomy the fifth book of the Old Testament chapter 8 verse 18 it says you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day. And so that is one reason why they were so convinced that wealth and influence was evidence of God's blessings on a person. Now we'll look at that a little bit more in a moment but at this point only one thing united them and that was their hostility towards Jesus because Jesus has been busy exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. When we looked at verse 18 here in Matthew chapter 22 it made it very clear there that Jesus had called the Pharisees hypocrites. As for the Sadducees Jesus had cleansed the temple and when he cleansed the temple he actually cleaned them out too because he had driven them out during the time of Passover that was their peak season and that had succeeded in gaining their angry attention. And so now they're coming to the Lord Jesus Christ these Sadducees and they're going to ask him a question and the question is found in verse 24. It says, Teacher Moses said that if a man dies having no children his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. And so notice like the previous group they begin by using flattery. Notice how they call him teacher and they begin by appealing to Moses. Moses was the law giver the supreme spokesman for God and the question is very simple if a man dies having no children his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring. Now because they didn't believe in an afterlife they thought that the future would be very similar to what was their reality. They knew that marriage is intended to bring happiness and pleasure to people and they thought that if that is so then the afterlife must also exist in the same way. And so if there is a resurrection what happens if you have been married more than once? Now the question they have is taken out of Deuteronomy and the Scripture actually was intended to keep the Israelites in distinct tribes. They are referring to something that has been called the law of Leverent Marriage. Leverent is taken from the Latin word Lever which is translated brother-in-law. And the law of Leverent Marriage is if a married man dies without a son his brother is required to marry the widow and to register the firstborn son of the marriage as a son of the deceased husband. According to Deuteronomy 25, 5 and 6 it says that 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. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. So that was intended to keep tribal names, families and inheritances intact. It was intended for the continuation of a family and it enabled the family to keep its property and that's why they had the law of Leverent Marriage. And so now they come up with the question. In verse 25 it says, there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also and the third. Listen, if I was the sixth brother or whatever, I'd be getting kind of nervous about that time. Listen to the seventh. Last of all the black widow died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of the seven will she be? They all had her. Now this was a question that undoubtedly they had used to stump the Pharisees many times. This is something that they would have used regularly. This was a question that undoubtedly had been repeated over and over again because nobody had really been able to answer their question. And so as they pose this question to Jesus, I want to spend time with you looking at his answer because it is so practical for all of us. Notice how he begins to respond to this. Jesus answered verse 29 and said to them, first he says, you are mistaken. I want to develop that with you for a moment because I'm going to give you something here that can be very, very practical. When he says to them, you are mistaken. The word mistaken in the original language, the New Testament is written in what is called common or Koine Greek. It was a common Greek of the day. And so when you look into the New Testament and you're wanting to find what the word means in the original language, all you need to do is get a good concordance and all good Greek lexicon and you can find out the origins of these words and the meanings and all and the word mistaken when Jesus uses it is a Greek word that literally means to go astray. It speaks of wandering off. It also is used to describe someone who is deceived. And so that's how Jesus begins his response. He says you're mistaken. You are greatly mistaken. You are deceived. You have wandered off from the truth. You are dead wrong is what he's saying. Now how is it that people can wander off from the truth and end up deceived? How does that happen? I mean Jesus is speaking here and he says you're mistaken. How does it happen? Is it possible that you, that I as Christians can wander away from truth and end up being mistaken? Does that happen today? And the answer is absolutely yes, of course. But how? What is the answer to that? How do you keep from being mistaken and what is Jesus's remedy to that? And he gives it to us right here, right in Scripture. You are mistaken and then he says it, not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God. The way that you wander off into error is twofold. One, you don't know the Scripture. He says two, you don't know God's power. You don't understand. You have wandered off because you do not know the Scriptures. Now remember that the Bible is intended to inform us. The Bible was intended to inform them. But what happened is they had ignored it or misinterpreted it. When Paul was writing concerning the Word of God, this is what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. He said, all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is useful. It is inspired by God. It teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains in righteousness, so that we might be equipped for every good work. God's Word is not just a compilation of sayings. God's Word is inspired by His Spirit. And He intends us to be corrected by it, trained by it. He intends us to know its origin, to trust Him, because that's how He directs your footsteps. And when you're not in the Word of God, you are going to go into error. And that's what Jesus is telling the Sadducees. You see, the Bible in Psalm 19, verse 7 says, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. In Psalm 119, 130, it says, the entrance of your words give light. It gives understanding to the simple. And so the problem is, is they were uninformed. They didn't know the Word of God. They were then, and people today remain the same. When you don't know the Word of God, you will wander into error. Let me make that practical. Some of you, perhaps, read this recently. This is recent news came out just this last week. There's a guy whose name is Rob Bell. And Rob Bell, I guess, is some kind of spiritual advisor. I'm assuming he is some form of spiritual advisor to the Oprah, Oprah Winfrey. And Oprah Winfrey, I saw this on video, I mean this isn't being made up, asked the question. And the question is, to Rob Bell, when will the church embrace same-sex marriages? And so that's a common question today, isn't it? That's a question many people are debating today. Same-sex marriage. Is this something God says, yes? Is this something God says, no one? Oprah's asking a question, that's a common question. But his answer was interesting to me in that Rob Bell's answer was, we are close. Lots of people are already there. We think it's inevitable. I think the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense. Truth doesn't change. Please remember that. Truth is unchanging. Truth is true 1,000 years ago is true today. If 2 plus 2 was true 5,000 years ago, 2 plus 2 equaling 4 is still true today. Truth doesn't change. It doesn't change because man's opinion changes. Remember that. Understand that. God's truth is unchanging. He speaks, it is true, and you can trust it. But when you begin to say, oh, those are just letters written 2,000 years ago, you do greatly error not knowing the scriptures. You are greatly mistaken not knowing the scriptures. You see, they ignored the testimony of what the Bible says, the way many are doing today. People choose churches very often today, not because they get a Bible study, but because they like the person behind the pulpit. They like the entertainment of the service. They like so many different things. They choose churches, many choose churches today based on whether or not the pastor says things they already believe. But when a pastor reads the Word and challenges their beliefs, that's when people really reveal what they truly do embrace and what they truly do believe. Instead of coming to church to be instructed by the Word of God, it becomes a center that people arrive in order to have their ears tickled so that they might hear the things they already firmly are embracing. And so if somebody should say, but wait a minute, the Bible says this, many people to this day get upset because it doesn't go along with their preconceived notion of what truth is. And that's why you'll hear people who will say, my God wouldn't say that. My God wouldn't do that. In fact, you are your own God, because you're saying in essence, I don't agree with that. And thus you created a God after your own image. When God is actually intending to create you in His image. Now how does He do that? He does that through the Word of God. And so when His Word is given, it is His Word that transforms us. We're not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so what we do is we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable, which is His perfect will unto us, for us. And so when you get into the Word of God, the Word of God is intended to wash you. Well, people say, I don't like the Word of God because it's actually brainwashing you. Well, the fact is I've got dirty brains. They need to be washed. So my brains have been washed by the blood of Christ and the washing of the Word of God. I need dirty brains to be washed. I mean, that's just true. I mean, I might have some in here who think your brains aren't dirty. That's just because your dirty little brain is lying to you. Your brain needs to be washed by the blood of Christ and the Word of God. That's what God's Word does. It washes us and purifies us, see? But when we reject God's Word, when we say, I don't agree with that, then we're moving in the direction of the Sadducees. The Sadducees who by their own religious beliefs became materialists. There's nothing out there waiting for me. I'll embrace everything now. Why? Because God wants to bless me and prosper me. There is no resurrection, no need to believe in one. We can receive everything we want right now. Well, the problem is they're ignoring the Scripture and they wander into error because the Bible speaks a lot about resurrection. Now the Old Testament, the resurrection isn't completely, completely demonstrated in the sense of how it is when Jesus is resurrected and now we understand. But there are Scriptures that relate to it throughout the Bible, Job 19 verses 25-27. I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see Him with my own eyes, I and not another, how my heart yearns within me. Psalm 16 verse 10, you will not leave my soul in shul, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 17, 15, as for me, I will behold your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with your likeness. Psalm 49, 15, God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. He shall receive me. Isaiah 26, 19, your dead shall live together with my dead body. While they arise awake and sing, you who dwell in dust, for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Daniel 12 verse 2, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. The Bible speaks of resurrection and the Bible makes it clear, but the Sadducees would not receive the witness of testimony and thus they were ignorant. They were uninformed, uninstructed in the things of God. They were mistaken because they did not know the Scriptures and secondly, they didn't know the power of God. Someone once said God created spirit as well as matter and can preserve it in existence when the body is dissolved and can also raise the body from the dust and render it immortal. They also said they probably denied, as many still do, that God could gather the scattered dust of the dead and remold it into a body, supposing that infinite power could not reorganize a body that it had originally organized. Again, the answer is found in Scripture. Jeremiah 32, 17, ah Lord God, behold, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard for you. Luke 137, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. Acts 26, 8, the question is asked, why should it be thought a thing incredible with you? That God should raise the dead. My pastor taught me something, Pastor Chuck Smith taught me something that has helped me as I have grown as a Christian and as a pastor. And basically Pastor Chuck taught us this, he simply said this, he said, listen, if you want to know what you ought to emphasize in your ministry, emphasize the word of God and the power of God, the word of God and the power of God. Pastor Chuck taught us that as pastors years ago and that's the truth because this is where the Sadducees are making their error. You are greatly mistaken, neither knowing the Scripture nor the power of God. You don't know that the Scripture reveals to you how powerful God is. You don't understand the power of the Holy Spirit and the greatness of the power of God himself. You're putting your attention on things of the now and not seeing the things of the then. And because you're so caught up right now with the materialism and all, you don't even see the hope that awaits you and you're causing other people to be mistaken to. You are greatly in error and you're deceiving others because the things that you're saying are not true because you're rejecting what God's word has to say. And so when the Sadducees come and they bring this story to him in an intent to entrap him, he immediately goes to the mistake that they're making by telling them you don't know the word of God. You are people who present yourself as the righteous ones. You present yourself as the ones who are set apart doing the right kind of thing when in fact you are not. You are not these people who are as righteous as you're pretending to be because you don't even know God's word and you don't know the power of God himself. So as he is laying this to them, he begins now to answer in verse 31 concerning the resurrection of the dead. Have you not read? Again, that's a slam. You who know so much, have you not read? Have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. How have they misunderstood God's word and God's power? Well, it's interesting and I want you to see this when he's speaking. When he says in verse 30, they are like angels of God. He's actually dealing with the fact that they don't believe in angels. So he includes that in his answer. But what he's doing now is he's directing their attention to the thing that matters most and that is the resurrection. We need to remember that in its core, in its essence, and this is a very important thing here to know, in its essence, Christianity is a resurrection faith. The resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove the resurrection, Christianity loses its power. If you remove the resurrection, Christianity is destroyed. Because our entire faith rests on whether or not Jesus was resurrected. That's your whole faith. And Paul made it very clear, you see, if there's no resurrection, our entire belief system is emptied of its power. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 13 through 17, Paul said it like this. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the dead. But that can't be true if there's no resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. And you are still under condemnation for your sins. He went on to say in verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. If in this life, if in this life the only hope you have is gaining as much money and power as you can, then you don't have hope. Hope goes much beyond anything I can accumulate. Hope goes much beyond anything that I can eat or drink or what I put on. Jesus said the ones who are pursuing those things are people who don't even know the Lord. He said you cannot worship God and earthly riches simultaneously. You have to make a choice. The Sadducees believe that all there is is what we have now. And thus grab as much as you can and enjoy it because it's a demonstration of God prospering you. But the fact is that what we have right now sometimes it doesn't seem to be even as much as an unbeliever has. There are times when you've done your best as a parent to raise your kids the best that you can. You give them devotions, take them to church. You pray with them every night. You give them a little gift. They put it in the box there at the church and children's church to teach them how to give to God finances. You do all of those kinds of things with them. You try to raise them in the ways of the Lord. You monitor the things they watch on TV. You investigate when they want to go and spend some time with some kids. You find out whether that family has similar beliefs that you do because you're trying to protect your kids. You know that you can't put them in some kind of cage and keep the world from influencing them. But at the same time as a parent you know that the world is after your child. You know that the way it mangled you, that it will mangle them. And so you do the best that you can through prayers and tears, through all the things that a parent should do to help a child to be equipped to not only survive but to thrive in a hostile environment. You do that. And yet your child at a certain point in life begins to wander off and veer off and now you're beginning to spend time on your knees in a different way. You're weeping and seeking God and saying, Lord this is my child, Lord I love this baby, Lord save them, Lord work in their life, God help them. They're making poor choices and at this point I'm really helpless. I cannot infiltrate their mind. I've already poured as much as I can into them, God I'm asking you would you please help them. And there's many tears sometimes, there's much pain, there's more concern than you ever thought you'd have. There's more heartache than you ever thought you'd experience. And yet you look across the street and you've got this family that doesn't in any way make a pretense of following God at all. They like to party, they're the party house. You know there are things going on there that you've tried to teach your kid isn't a real good idea to be part of it all. And yet that woman drives by with this little bumper sticker that says my child is an honor student at such and so and you think of my kids in reform school. I don't get it Lord. They seem to not even care, they neglect those children, I don't want to judge them but they do seem to neglect them in a way that I never have and yet they're getting straight A's and they're going to good schools and me I'm just hanging on for dear life and you can begin to think that there's no hope. Listen there's always hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know I've discovered a long time ago that my life is like a book and there are chapters in this book that are being written one chapter at a time. Sometimes the chapter is a love story, sometimes the chapter is drama, sometimes the chapter has different things and a tragedy. But one thing I know about the book of my life is this, it's going to end up good. The last chapter is going to be a great chapter and the last words are going to be and he lived happily ever after because I have a relationship with Christ that makes that possible and it makes it so. And he lived happily ever after, why? Because the Lord was in the midst of all of it. There are things that you're going through right now that you think will not ever end. But I guarantee you they will end, they will, and it gets worse, sorry. Because the Lord, sometimes it does. Because the Lord is teaching you something you have been praying for. You just haven't thought about it. Have you ever said make me like you Lord, make me like you? Have you ever prayed that? If you haven't you will. And I hope you do. But let me remind you. What was he like? Isaiah tells us he was our wounded, wounded Savior. He grieved. He had pain. He, that's what he was. And that's what you are too. Do you want to be like him? There are going to be things and everything, the times and everything you're holding on to that you think is important. One by one God will remove your fingers from these things until you release them into his hands. And then he shows you that in the midst of your darkness you are not alone. You have hope in him because he never leaves you, nor does he ever forsake you. And this is a work he's doing in your life to transform you into the image of Jesus Christ so that you might be a voice of hope to others who have none. So don't grieve against that. Know the Word of God and the power of God and you will not be a materialist. You will say I'm just passing through. This world is not my home. There's a better place awaiting me and one day Lord Jesus I'll be there and I will be rejoicing when I awaken in your likeness. That's Christianity. That's Christianity. Understand that. Understand that we were not guaranteed that every day was going to be the best day. There's books written like that but that's not true. Ultimately we will look back and say you know as bad as it was it made me better in Christ. It gave me insights that I didn't have before and the tears that I cried were kept in his bottle. He never forgot them. He always understood and he remembered. When you look in the Psalms the Psalms speak about well the psalmist says God keep my tears in your bottle. I've shared this with you before. Keep my tears in your bottle. You can go even to this day in Israel into some of their souvenir shops and you can find the vial of tear bottles. They actually have them in souvenir shop. They're called vial of tears and you actually wear them as a necklace and there's a small it's a jar it's a bottle and they used to weep and they would remove the seal the cork if you will the cap and they would catch their own tears in these vials vials of tears and they would close it and wear it around their neck close to their heart and it was their prayer the psalmist said that do you not keep my tears in your bottle and it was a reminder that every tear that you cried God's already aware of and that's why it's such a beautiful story when you see the woman who came to Jesus in Luke 7 and washed his feet with her tears. It wasn't just the tears that were rolling from her eyes dripping from her chin and landing on his feet. It was a bottle that she had that were filled it was filled with her tears that she removed the cap from knelt down at his feet and poured this vial of tears on his feet and washed them because she was saying blessed is the are the feet that have brought to me good news. And that's why Jesus would say to Simon do you see this woman because Simon when he saw her come and approach Christ had said within himself if this man truly were a prophet he would know who and what manner of woman this is that is touching him for she's a sinner and that's why Jesus would say Simon do you see this woman in other words you've been looking at her as a test case but do you see her humanity he said let me tell you a story he said a man was owed a great some by one man and a lesser some by another but he completely forgave both of those men their debts Simon I want to ask you a question who's going to love him more and then he said the one who was forgiven more and that's when Jesus said do you see this woman and he begins to speak out Simon didn't show any of the customary greetings that a that a Jewish host would would afford to any guest he said you didn't kiss me you didn't have my feet washed you you didn't do any of the things that were normal but this woman has been doing all those things you neglected to do so let me tell you why because the one who has been forgiven much is always going to love much you see that's the motivation that we should have as believers don't you think God forgave us is so much but guess what we go through life even as we go through life now and it isn't always pleasant there are times where you you have pain all of us understand this if you don't yet you're young you will you will that's a fact that's just a fact you know when you're young yeah oh no when you get older you say boy I whoo that was rough that was rough I used to pray God make me a father now I say why you bury your father you bury your mother you have a child that you lose you go through rough times rough patches with your finances you lose jobs but you don't lose hope because I'm just passing through my God shall supply all my need according to his riches in Christ Jesus I am never alone he is always with me he is showing me this and though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod thy staff they comfort me I'm never alone I'm learning lessons from you Lord that are making me more like you so I am just passing through and that's why the Sadducees question concerning resurrection needs to be answered in the way that it is you do greatly air you are mistaken neither knowing Scripture nor the power of God you don't understand what God is all about and how Christianity all rests and relies on the central reality of a resurrection now Luke gives us more details concerning Jesus's response in Luke 20 verses 34 through 36 Jesus replied the people of this age marry and are given in marriage but those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage and they can no longer die for they are like the angels they are God's children since they are children of the resurrection so his answer marriage is ordained by God but is only intended for earthly relationships you see in heaven notice they will be like angels of God like angels in heaven there's no addition to their number the inhabitants are spiritual in nature are equally eternal there's no birth necessary because in heaven no one dies there are none who will be born in heaven the fact is to enter into heaven you must be born again on earth see the way that you enter into heaven is through what is called the born again experience when Nicodemus came to Jesus by night he said to him rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God no man can do the works that you do and unless God is with them and Jesus responds to this man Nicodemus and he says unless a man is born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven and he said you won't even be able to see it and so to enter into the kingdom of heaven requires what is called regeneration angels have a set number they fell they remain always fallen the ones who retained their first estate never fall but there's no increase in numbers of angels there's a set number of angels and so for an individual to enter into the kingdom of God they need to be born again and then they enter in and the born again experience is based on the one event where Christ was resurrected because when Jesus was resurrected from the dead he was demonstrated to be the Son of God through that resurrection so he says in verse 31 concerning the resurrection of the dead have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living again have you not read he is exposing their ignorance of God's word and Mark says it like this in chapter 12 of his Gospel verses 26 and 27 he says now about the dead rising have you not read in the book of Moses in the account of the bush how God said to him I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he is not the God of the dead but of the living you are badly mistaken notice he said the book of Moses because again the Sadducees put high regard on the first five books and that's why he said the book of Moses but his point was Abraham Isaac and Jacob had physically died centuries before but God was still their Lord every bit as much as when they were alive on earth Luke 20 38 says it like this he is not the God of the dead but of the living for all for to for to him all are alive he's not the God of the dead but when you're born again you're alive forever that's why when you have a believing mom dad brother sister friend that's why you never really say goodbye to them if they're believers you never really do you don't say goodbye to them you're simply saying I'll see you later because they're alive DL Moody once said you're gonna read in this a paraphrase you're gonna read someday that the great DL Moody has died he said don't believe it he says because at that moment I will be more alive than I ever was on the face of the earth I'll be alive for to him is life in him is life you just kind of like change your clothes you just move from one place to another because in him you're alive and that comes because of Jesus Christ in his resurrection keep your eyes on the things that matter keep your eyes on the prize be aware that there's more to life than what you eat and what you drink and the clothing that you wear or the vehicle that you drive or the house that you live in be aware of that be aware that all these things simply perish with the using always remember that junk yards are filled with the treasures that people just needed to have that every Christmas when presents are placed under the tree the pleasant the presence from last year have been quickly forgotten used up over the course of a year that everything you have right now is all temporary and the only thing that really matters is what you lay up in heaven ahead of yourself remember that it doesn't matter if you die a billionaire because the fact is you still died so be aware of that be aware of that make every moment of the life that you're given rest your hope fully and securely on Jesus Christ and be aware of that because he lives we shall live also because in him we live and breathe and we have our being and the resurrection is the center of our faith because in Jesus I am alive and I will forever be alive because the one who believes in him shall never die keep that in mind