Bible Studies
Resurrection (Matt. 22:23-32)
Series: ResurrectionIntroduction:
1. In the Bible resurrection denotes the divine miracle of restoring a dead person back to life. 2. The concept was unbelievable to the Sadducees. 3. The Greeks of Athens began to sneer as Paul spoke of the resurrection of the dead (Acts 17:32). 4. Liberal theology, considering the Bible as something less than an infallible revelation from God, reduces the idea of resurrection to a “ghost-like” immaterial existence. 5. The resurrection of the Bible involves more than one being remembered in the mind of God. Ex. “Dad will always live in our memories.” 6. The Bible calls on us to believe that dead people will come back to life. While there is both a physical and a spiritual element to the resurrection of Scripture belief in one is never separated from the other.a. Just as there is physical life there is a physical resurrection.
b. Just as there is spiritual life there is a spiritual resurrection.
c. But in Scripture belief in a spiritual resurrection is actually founded upon and validated by belief in a physical resurrection so that one cannot have one without the other.
7. Jesus is obviously arguing for resurrection in our text. And yet, his statement leaves us with many questions.a. In what sense are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alive since God is not the God of the dead but of the living?
b. Jesus does not seem to be talking about them being joined together body and spirit physically, like He spoke of Himself being raised or in the same way He raised Lazarus.
8. To ask one to believe in resurrection is asking a lot, and yet, that is exactly what Scripture calls on us to do and beyond that it makes belief in the resurrection of Christ the cornerstone of Christianity. Without it our faith is vain (1 Cor. 15:17).Discussion:
I. Scripture places God in control of life and death.A. Deut. 32:39 says, “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life.” This power is what makes God different than all other gods. This is one of the attributes that makes God God.
B. In 1 Sam. 2:6 Hannah sang, “The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol (death) and raises up.”
C. David found security in God’s power to give life. “My heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life…” (Psa. 16:9ff).
D. Psa. 49:15 says, “God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me.”
E. These passages dovetail well with Jesus’ statement to the Sadducees: “You do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29).
1. The Scriptures do speak of resurrection.
2. And make it dependent upon the power of God. No one else has such power.
II. There are other O.T. texts that speak of resurrection. Many of them are from the later period of Israel’s history and look forward to the days of the Messianic kingdom.A. Isa. 25:8 says, “He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth.” Cf. 1 Cor. 15:54.
B. Ezek. 37:1-14 portrays Israel as a valley of dry bones that God brings to life. But it might be argued that this is not a physical resurrection, but a resurrection of the Kingdom of Israel in Messianic form. And truly it is.
C. A similar statement could be made about Hos. 13:14.
1. The people of God are considered as dead because of their idolatry and sin (13:1).
2. God asks, “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?”Cf. 1 Cor. 15:55.
D. Other passages seem to make more explicit reference to a bodily resurrection.
1. Isa. 26:19 says, “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”
2. Dan. 12:2 says, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
E. Such references from this later period of Israel’s history were not as forcefula consideration for the Sadducees. They subordinated the authority of these later writings to the Books of Moses, so their final appeal was to the Pentateuch.On the other hand the Pharisees may have looked to these texts as proof of the resurrection. In addition there were actual cases of resurrection that must have given the Pharisees evidence for their conclusion.
1. There was the widow’s son at Zeraphath raised by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17ff).
2. The son of the Shunammite raised by Elisha (2 Kings 4:32ff).
3. The man whose dead body was cast into Elisha’s grave (2 Kings 13:21).
III. There is another theme in the O.T. that seems to include the idea of resurrection, i.e. the theme of the “new creation.”A. Of course the idea of a “new creation” must hark back to an original or “old creation.”
1. Indeed the creation account of Genesis involves the element of God giving life.
2. When man came into being “God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7).
3. God placed man in the presence of “the tree of life” (2:9).
4. God warned, “In the day you eat from it (the forbidden tree) you will surely die” (2:17).
5. The repeated “and he died” of Gen. 5 perpetuates death until the days of Noah.
6. The flood results in death, but it is God who preserves life through the ark. Which, by the way is mentioned in 1 Pet. 3:20 in connection with baptism and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
7. In the original creation God is seen to have control of life and death.
8. But God had not only created the heavens and the earth (including Adam and Eve) He had created Israel (Isa. 43:7). They were dead because of sin and needed resurrection.
B. The prophecies of the new creation in Isaiah seem to include the idea of resurrection and new life associated with the Messianic age.
1. Isa 43:18-21 speaks of God doing something new. It involves “rivers in the desert.” Water in the desert brings life.
2. Isa 65:17 refers to God creating “new heavens and a new earth.”
3. As does Isa. 66:22.
4. The N.T. extends the idea into a “new creation” (Gal. 6:15); people being raised up with Christ (Col. 2:12); having the old self crucified with Him and being united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection (Rom. 6:5-6).
Conclusion:
1. To believe that a dead person can be restored to life is as marvelous as it is incredible. 2. Scripture teaches that God is in control and can give life to the dead. 3. The O.T. provides the backdrop against which N.T. concepts of resurrection are fleshed out. 4. In the next lesson we will discuss four different ways that Scripture refers to resurrection.a. In the Messianic Kingdom.
b. Physical resurrection like the resurrection of Christ.
c. Spiritual resurrection of individuals occurring at baptism.
d. Final resurrection.
