Resurrection - Riddle and Reward:The Riddle of the Sadducees, The Parable of the Faithful and Wise
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Resurrection Day
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Sermon Check-off Luke 24:1-10 Early on the first day of the week, the
women who had come with Yahshua from Galilee
1 Kings
11:5. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth
the goddess of the Sidonians.
Ashtoreth > Astarte >
Ishtar > Oestre > Easter – same goddess of child sacrifice. Opening Greeting for Resurrection Sunday
Today we celebrate the resurrection of Yahshua from the
netherworld of death, the event and point in time upon which all history
balances. Though thousands of moons have passed, the incredible effect of
Yahshua’s resurrection upon our world is evident even to the most casual
observer. Over one billion hail him as one of the greatest teachers that
ever lived. But a mere teacher, no
matter how popular or influential, could not possibly have changed the course
of nations and kingdoms for two millennia with doctrine alone – as
Yahshua has. Another billion or more hail him as a prophet, one of the
greatest that ever lived. But even a
celebrated ancient seer, his words recorded and analyzed, his predictions
coming to pass to the letter, could not possibly have changed the minds of multitudes,
reconciling them to the Almighty – as Yahshua has. A third billion honor him as the Son of the Most High, Philippians 2:6.
... who, though he was in the form of G-d, did not count equality a thing to be
grasped, 7. but he emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. 8.
... He further humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
death on a stake. Only could such a divine being, his laws and love engraved upon
the human heart, his spirit wooing even the most heinous sinner to atonement,
his life setting the example for the holy of all ages, could have had such a
grand effect upon the world in the ages succeeding his death. Yes, Philippians 2:8.
He humbled himself and became obedient unto death on a torture stake. 9. So Yahweh highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 10. that at the name of Yahshua
every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth, even under the earth. It was inevitable that this Servant of the Most High should come
from the sky to earth in order to die – to die even on the behalf
of those who despised him and brought him to shame. For he came to bring life, and that in abundance – but in order
to bring life to all, he had to conquer the enemy of life – the enemy of
all humankind: he had to vanquish death. John 3:13. No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man. 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15. so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. It is our sincere hope that today you will access the reality
behind this promise and see our Savior as being alive forevermore, powerful as
the Almighty, and here among us as we gather in his name to worship. Let us pray: Almighty
Yahweh, who through your only-begotten Son overcame death and opened to us the
gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of our
Master’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving
Spirit; through Yahshua Messiah our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one g-d, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer) Texts: Luke 20:27. THE RIDDLE OF THE SADDUCEES: There
came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, 28. 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 wife and raise up children for his brother. 29. Now there were
seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; 30.
and the second 31. and the third took her, and likewise all
seven left no children and died.
32. Afterward the woman also
died. 33. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For
the seven had her as wife." 34. And Jesus said to
them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; 35.
but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the
resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36.
for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are
sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
37. But that the dead
are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls
Yahweh the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38.
Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to
him." 39. And some of the
scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." 40.
For they no longer dared to ask him any question. Luke 12:42. And the Lord said, "Who then is THE
FAITHFUL AND WISE STEWARD, whom his master will set over his household, to
give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43. Blessed is that
servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. 44.
Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45. But if that servant
says to himself, 'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the
menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46. the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not
expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him
with the unfaithful. 47. And that servant who
knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will,
shall receive a severe beating.
48. But he who did not know, and
did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required;
and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more. Fantastic Claims
With the release and subsequent success of the motion picture The
Passion of the Christ, it has become a matter of dispute as to who actually
was responsible for Yahshua’s death – the Jews or the Romans. But Yahshua made it perfectly clear who was
the responsible party prior to meeting his torturers. He claimed: John 10:18. No one takes [my
life], but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this
charge I have received from my Father. This power to take up one’s life after laying it down
voluntarily is the very definition of resurrection: the person who
lays down her life may regain it, and in much greater measure, through the
power of HIS resurrection, and invalidate death entirely as he did. How so? This is how so; that John 3:16. Yahweh loved the
world so, that he gave his only Son. Whoever believes him might not perish but
have eternal life. 17. For Yahweh sent the
Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be
saved. Saved from what? I
wonder. Why of course – he last enemy –
death! Just as the resurrection of Yahshua is the point upon which
history rests, the fervent belief that Yahshua laid down his life and took it
up again is the point upon which all our faith rests, as
well. As one man explains it, 1 Corinthians 15:14. If
[Yahshua] has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith
is in vain. 15. We are even guilty of misrepresenting G-d,
because we testified that He raised [Yahshua] .... 17. If [Yahshua] has not
been raised, your faith is futile, and
... 18. ... those also who have
[died] in [Yahshua] have perished.
What makes us faithful
isn’t that we believe Yahshua lived and died as any man lives and dies, but
that he died and rose from death by his own power; further, that he
will, on a soon-coming day of awe, bring all who ever lived back from death
to life. ALL WHO EVER LIVED. It’s a fantastic claim.
And you make it – every time you receive Communion – every time
you pray to Yahweh in the name of Yahshua. You make that claim, that he died and rose from death
by his own power, every time you sincerely enter a house of worship or do a
good deed in his honor. You stake your
claim upon an eruption in the physical nature of the universe that
happened only once, two thousand years ago, and never happened before nor since
– a man died and came back by his own power to live forever – and that he has
the authority to raise you up as well.
He Lives! Yahshua lives! we claim.
If he doesn’t, we have no basis for faith, and we have no hope. If he doesn’t live, then you who’ve suffered
tremendously for him, whether by persecution, depression or disease, have
little cause for optimism – you’ll die in your sins. If Yahshua doesn’t live, I’m a liar along with thousands of
others who preach him resurrected – we’ve dedicated our lives to a baseless philosophy
of “morality” that’s put us at odds with the world and caused immense hardship
for our families. If he doesn’t live,
we’ve deluded millions who’ll perish in the false hope of eternity, gaining
nothing but shame, burning Sheol or nothingness in the end. But, my friend, let me profess that I have no doubt
whatsoever that he lives. He
lives! He lives! The signs of his life are everywhere; his
work and mission is the only truly benevolent and worthwhile effort in the
world! Why? Because our work in Him and His work through us glorify a Creator
who loved us enough to sacrifice his greatest creation not for some special
elect, but for all of us (Revelation 3:14). We think we’ve
sacrificed – but Yahweh has sacrificed so much more. No, we should never fear to trust that Yahshua’s taking back his
life from the jaws of death for, as the hymn writer expressed it, even through
the rustling grass I hear him pass: He speaks to me everywhere. An even greater witness to his life comes
from another hymn: You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.
Who can bear witness to those words?
Who can testify to this truth?
Who has a living heartful of Yahshua?
Who can say without a doubt, “He Lives!”? Amen! Hallelujah! Bad, You See
Listen. Wherever truth
and goodness break as a beam through the darkness, they simply can’t be ignored
– they’ll pierce. But there’re those
who prefer their own shade of “light,” a gray or yellow kind of dim glow in the
back row of the blackness. So, John 3:19. This is the
crisis, that the light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20. For every one who does evil hates the light, and stays out of
it, lest his deeds should be exposed.
These dark Sadducees were
about to be exposed to the crisis of a laser beam. So who were they? The
Sadducees began as
a political movement named after Zadok, the faithful priest who advised King
David. In English, they should be
called Zadokites rather than Sadducees i.e. “the righteous ones.” The original Sadducees of the tribe of Levi
were indeed righteous; they meant to return to the Law as it had been in the
time of Solomon, before the great biblical prophets. Consequently, Sadducees didn’t approve of Scriptures written
after King David’s time. They believed
that the supernatural died away with Moses.
Their philosophy was like that of Solomon, However many years
you live, enjoy them, for the days of darkness will be many and futility
awaits you at the end (Ecclesiastes 11:8). The Sadducees had of late been corrupted by the influence
of the horrible Herods and the affluence of the pagan Greeks. In Yahshua’s day, Herod appoints Sadducees
rule the Temple of Yahweh. The
priesthood is passed down the bloodline.
Caiaphas is High Priest, the son-in-law of the last. Just as Caiaphas is instrumental in the
death of Yahshua, his son, Ananus, would later murder Yahshua’s brother, Yahqov
(James). These so-called “Righteous”
were sworn enemies of righteousness, killing the prophets and stoning those who
were sent to them from heaven (Luke 13:34). Each Sadd-u-cee was bad, you see. What They Believed
Although they ruled religion and Judaism, they rejected
prophets, supernaturalism, life after death, angels, devils and spiritual
agents of Yahweh, like the Son of Man before them now. They especially abhorred the concept of
resurrection. They believed instead
that they should grab for all the power, wealth, and gusto they might get –
grasping even for the authority of Yahweh – believing that many possessions
were proof of Yahweh’s blessing. Sound
familiar? Many believe the same today,
especially those Christians aspiring to be rich. The Sadducees’ books speak of death in terms most Christians
understand – that the dead go down into a pit called Sheol (Genesis
37:35), where fire’s heaped up to them
torment forever (Deuteronomy 32:22). But the enterprising Sadducees ignored this
part of their Law and instead taught what educators teach today – that there is
no afterlife at all – that bodies simply decay back into Mother Earth and
that’s the end – reason enough to grab and grasp and enjoy it now. For death simply takes you out of existence
– ¿then who cares what happens ever after?
Last week I heard a popular TV preacher say something very
Sadduceeical to a huge crowd; he said, “The only reason God put you on this
earth is so that you could enjoy your life.”
{“Did you hear me?”} Hmmm.
I always thought we were created to worship and serve Yahweh: there
is enjoyment in that, if you find your joy in holiness. Most people don’t. No wonder this preacher’s so popular and I’m not. However, his summation is a perfect
representation of what the Sadducees believed and taught – prosperity
– name it, claim it – then find a way to grasp it. Seven Marriages
Sadducees were pretty disinterested in other religious groups
since they were top dogs. However,
they’d definitely be interested in any religious figure who became popular,
especially if that popularity pertained to the politics of supernatural
signs. They wouldn’t tolerate
their authority being challenged or their affluence threatened – not even
by G-d. This is why they come out – to
discredit Yahshua before the people with a powerful riddle that none who
believed in resurrection could solve.
They’d used this riddle against the Pharisees (for
Pharisees believed in resurrection):
but the Pharisees, mindless fundamentalists, were easily duped. Now they would befuddle Yahshua with the
Riddle of Seven Husbands for One Wife. The riddle originates in the book of Tobit 3:8. Sarah
[daughter of Raguel] had been given in marriage seven times, and Asmodeus, the
worst of demons, had killed her bridegrooms one after another before ever they
knew her as man with wife. Sarah had gotten seven
propositions because her beaus were brothers who dared not disobey the law: Deuteronomy 25:5.
If brothers live together and one of them dies childless ... her husband's
brother must come to her and ... make
her his wife. If brothers didn’t do
their lawful marital duty, they were forced to endure public humiliation, and
their family was ostracized. For
Hebrews in those days, the “ban” was a fate worse than death. But Yahshua had a ready answer to the riddle because he
inhabited the spiritual dimension before he became flesh and dwelt among us –
and he would live on in the spiritual dimension long after Tsaviot destroyed
the three-dimensional Sadducees.
Yahshua’s answer was this:
It’s the first resurrection that we seek. Indeed, Yahshua says that these never
die at all, but simply cast off their flesh and take up residence with him – and
they will be with him when he comes again.
In the meantime, theologians tell us of an “Intermediate State” between
the body’s demise and the return of Yahshua.
Deep thinkers describe this state in these words: Departed
believers are no longer active in contemporary earthly time and space, yet they
are fully alert to their new environment, for they are not only ‘resting’ from
their labors in joyful satisfaction, but are literally in the ‘presence of [Messiah],’
‘live for [Yahweh’s] glory,’ and ‘live spiritually, as [Yahshua] does’ (Isaiah
63:16, Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8, Luke 20:38, 1 Peter 4:6) (Ferguson,
Wright & Packer, New Dictionary of Theology, 339). This “Intermediate State”
in which the Firster rests is extremely important, because in it the new
creation will learn how to perfectly abide while the spiritual body is
maturing. Rest! There’s work to be
done soon enough, when Yahshua returns to rule and reign with the rod of iron
and the staff of the shepherd. The
Firsters must know how to move as Yahshua moves in order to be his agents in
subduing the world in love. As For the Rest
Yahshua goes even farther in answering these Sadducees: not only
will the “Firsters” be resurrected, but unto Yahweh, all the rest of the
dead live also, and all men and women of every age will eventually return,
whether they believe it or not. But
they won’t be resurrected as spiritual beings like the Firsters – they’ll find
themselves back in the flesh on earth.
Yahshua explains what becomes of these billions who come back to life
during his Millennium reign in another parable, the one called “The Faithful
and Wise Steward” in Luke 12. Here he
describes the fate of two other groups of the resurrected symbolically. These believed in Yahshua and made a
commitment to his service, but they didn’t fulfill their commitment as they
promised. One steward knew the will of his Master but didn’t do it. Yahshua says, Luke 12:47 And that servant,
who having known his lord's will, and not having prepared, nor having gone
according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. If you saw The Passion of the Christ, you understand what
kind of beating Yahshua is talking about: he endured the beating for you only
on the condition that you learn then perfectly fulfill his
will for your life. Hey, the commitment
you made to Messiah isn’t like joining the lodge, being blindfolded and knocked
over a few times. Your commitment to Jesus
is for keeps, and your master promises that if you remain out of his will you
will be beaten to a pulp. ¿Are these
the words of the kindly child, meek and mild, that we celebrate around
Christmas? Hardly. Yahshua is an equitable judge; we’ll all get
what we deserve in the resurrection – be it reward or beating. Even those who made the commitment to the
Savior who don’t understand his service will still receive a beating –
howbeit, a light beating. For, everyone to whom much is given, of him will much be required. Jack Snyder – “Dad”
My earthly father loved me; but he was a very strong man and he
knew how to give a child an effective beating with his belt. As a nine-year-old, I knew I had one coming. But before being summoned, I grabbed a tin
pie pan and put it in the back of my pants.
Dad wailed that pan in my pants as hard as he could, but it didn’t hurt
me at all. He knew that pan was
in there, and I would’ve gotten away with the deception had I not, when he was
finished, taken the pan out, held it up, and laughed him in the face. As I said, I could have gotten away had I
not taunted him, but in the end, I assure you, I did not get by with it. Hebrews 10:31. It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living g-d. To Love Him is the Better Way
My friend, we don’t know
exactly what lies on the other side of the resurrection. We have stories, parables, conjecture and as
many opinions as there are people. What
we do know is that Yahshua lives and he’s present in our lives and he’s given
us a mission. As uncertain as we may be
of what form life will take over yonder, there is absolutely no uncertainty
when it comes to what form life must take NOW.
His word is crystal clear as to what is required for that better
resurrection, that first resurrection.
Anybody who can read, or hear, or understand anything can modify their
life to serve him and gain that better resurrection, if they only will. Go for the best rewards! Hah! Hopefully, you’ve
caught me in a contradiction. For most
Christians like that TV preacher, the unsolved and unsolvable riddle is, “How
may I gain all by losing everything?” It’s
Saduccean in a way to sell all you have to obtain the pearl of great price,
or to serve Yahshua so you can gain rewards in the end. But those who do so will certainly reap
rewards. However, the answer to gaining by losing that so few in our
materialistic culture understand is that it’s far superior to serve Yahshua
because one knows him and loves him rather than for a
reward. I believe like many of you,
that even if there were no reward, no resurrection, no heaven or hell, no
Cadillacs in the sky, no angels or supernatural healings or signs and wonders,
I’d still put my life at his command – because I know him and love
him. And I‘ll always love him
because he loved me first and befriended me first, a godless
sinner plucked from the fire. What a
great privilege it’s been to learn that
“Greater
love has none than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John
15:13). Then “Jesus” told me, “You are my friend.”
And if there’s no more, that saying will be reward enough. Amen. SERMON CHECK-OFF
GREETING
[ ] Philippians 2:6. who, though he was in the
form of G-d ... [ ] Philippians 2:8. He humbled himself and
became obedient ... [ ] John 3:13. No one has ascended into heaven
but he ... TEXT [ ] Luke
20:27. There came to him some Sadducees
... [ ] Luke
12:42. Who then is the faithful and
wise steward ... SERMON [ ] John 10:18.
No one takes [my life], but I lay it down ... [ ] John 3:16. Yahweh loved the world so,
that he gave his only Son. [ ] 1 Corinthians 15:14. If Yahshua has not been
raised, then ... [ ] Through the rustling grass I hear him
pass ... [ ] You ask me how I know he lives? [ ] John 3:19.
This is the crisis, that the light has come into the world ... [ ] Zadokites rather than Sadducees, the
“Righteous.” [ ] Ecclesiastes 11:8 However many years you live, enjoy them ... [ ] Tobit 3:8. Sarah had been given in marriage
seven times ... [ ] Deuteronomy 25:5. Her
husband's brother must make her his wife. [ ] “FIRSTERS” – those privileged to be in the first resurrection. [ ] Genesis 6:6 Angels fell to marry women and
procreate. [ ] “Although departed believers are no longer
active ...” [ ] Luke 12:47
And that servant, who having known his lord's will ... [ ] Luke 12:48 Every one to whom much is given
... [ ] Hebrews 10:31. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands ... [ ] Riddle: “How do we gain by losing
everything?” [ ] John 15:13 Greater love has no man than this ... Jackson
Snyder, April 9, 2004 |
