Making Sense of the Life to Come
Part 79 - Luke 20:27-40 (ESV) - Pastor Tim Kroeker
2 Corinthians 5:15:
“And he (Jesus) died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
Download Bulletin
Anticipation of life after death is a universal human hope. Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs would be buried in their tombs with a ship, believed to carry the deceased ruler’s spirit across the cosmos. Ancient Greeks sometimes placed a coin in the mouth of a corpse to pay the deceased person’s fare across the mystic river of death. Vikings would bury dead warriors with their bows, arrows, and horses; useful items that they might need in the next life. Indeed, in the book of Ecclesiastes we read that God has put eternity into man’s heart.
Yet, there was one influential first-century Jewish sect that believed the soul ceased to exist after death. These were the Sadducees. They denied the resurrection, and as we continue in our salvation story, we read that they attempt to trip Jesus up with a supposed conundrum about the afterlife
However, just as in the previous episode, Jesus would silence his opponents. First, he attacked the false premise of the Sadducees’ question. For those who are saved, the things of today will be replaced by an exceedingly better existence in the life to come. Jesus then mounted a positive defense for the resurrection and the immortality of the human soul. It was actually the Sadducees' denial of life after death that didn’t make any sense. An exceedingly better existence in the life to come changes how we enjoy the things of today.
Jesus’ response to the Sadducees corrects many of our own misconceptions about life after death as well. From marriage to our use of money, we make sense of the life to come by living for Jesus today.
