“In the Resurrection…”
By James Wiese on November 4, 2022
The 22nd Sunday after Pentecost – Saints Triumphant Nov. 1, 2022
Text: Luke 20:27-38 CW-21 Series C 22:2350
Theme: “In the Resurrection…”
A few days ago, driving down I-44 on my way home, I passed 5 deer, 3 squirrels, 1 hawk, an armadillo, and a variety of unidentifiable animals. They all were different, but they shared something in common. They were dead, lying lifeless on the side of the road.
There comes a time when my body will breathe its last, and I will be still in death as the animals are. But I have a soul that lives on, waiting for a time of reunification with the body in the Resurrection.
“In the Resurrection” – consider that phrase. In a world in which we see dead things lie still before our eyes not to rise again to life in the present, “resurrection” declares an opposite reality.
The Greek word means to “stand up,” to “rise again.” The dead will get back on their feet, stand up, and live. The Scriptures are perfectly clear about it. Job declares, “At the end of time…after my skin has been destroyed, nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God. I myself will see Him with my own eyes” (19:26). God was even more explicit to Daniel when he said, “At that time many who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (12:2). The Bible is clear on a resurrection. Yet, there are those who deny it.
Others express ungodly thoughts about the dead and how they relate to us. They don’t hang around earth, and they aren’t watching us. Some like to point to heaven after they do something great as though their deceased loved ones see what they did. But Isaiah says the dead “do not know us or acknowledge us” (63:16) like they did while here in this life. Heaven is different and the saints above enjoy a relationship that is closer than any relationship we have here.
But people “don’t know the Scriptures and the power of God” (Mk.12:24), just like Jesus said of the people in our text. Rather, they follow their own imaginations which end in foolishness. So, what takes place In the Resurrection from the dead? What happens to people, and how will we, as Christians, relate to one another then?
I. It’s ironic that such questions would be asked of Jesus because the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection or life after death. And they weren’t really interested in knowing about it. They just wanted to ask Jesus a question which they thought He couldn’t answer. Then He would look foolish, and they would discredit Him before the people. At the same time, they would disprove the resurrection. So, they spun a ridiculous story about relationships in the afterlife.
“There were 7 brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and the third married her, and in the same way the rest of the 7 married her and died. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the 7 were married to her?”
Their story pictured heaven and the life of those there in terms of earthly relationships as though life and the way people and things relate to one another in heaven will be the same as it is here. Really?
Where does God ever speak of it that way? The Bible always emphasizes how the next age is far different from this present age. Look at the O.T. lesson today. God says, “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered. They will not come to mind….The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and lions will eat straw like cattle…. They will not harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, says the Lord” (Is.65:17f).
Since when do wolves and lambs lie down together in peace? Doesn’t that indicate a difference in how things will relate in the Resurrection? How could it be that we would relate to things in the same way there as we do here where everything is touched by the grim results of sin? We rise to a perfect heaven that is beyond that.
So, Jesus responded in our text: “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy to experience that age and the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.”
Jesus comes right to the point. God made marriage as a blessing for this world, not the next. Part of the reason for that is procreation. When God made man and woman and brought them together in marriage He said, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” One of God’s main purposes for marriage was to produce offspring to populate the world. It was for this life, not the next. In the resurrection Christians will have different purposes, relate to each other, and relate to God in a different way – one that is higher, holier, closer, and above all governed by a gracious heavenly Father.
Sometimes people are disturbed when they hear this. “Do you mean that I will no longer know my husband, wife, or family like I do now?” Jesus didn’t say that. He said, “They will neither marry or
be given in marriage.” Then how will we relate to each other?
Will you be at a loss for your spouse or your family in the resurrection? No! In fact, family ties will be even stronger and more complete the way God intended it to be from the beginning, for believers will once again be the holy family of God in perfection. In the resurrection, it will be one redeemed family under Him. With Christ as the head, Christians are filled with His glory as God, enjoying peace, harmony, and contentment that we so often lack now.
No longer will there be suffering from the consequences and memories of broken relationships, fighting, or hurt situations. And best of all we will share in the greatest relationship of all – with God Himself. It is not the same as here but is so much higher, holier, and happier so that we would not even consider the relationships that we have in the present.
Now that’s awfully hard for us to imagine. That’s the reason the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now we see but a poor reflection; then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part; then I shall know fully even as I am fully known” (1 Co.13:12). It’s difficult to fully grasp it in the present. But Christians receive it in faith for God has spoken. We trust that He knows far better than we do how good it will be.
Even now the souls of those who have passed this life in faith live angel-like. That is, they are eternal. They are not bound by the hurts and the needs of this imperfect world that often sadden and hold us back. They gladly serve God in His temple. And best of all, He serves the saints in love as His dear children. It’s a perfect relationship with God and with all others. Such a different existence!
Is that disturbing? Is there something questionable there? Only if you are without child-like faith, and only if you wish to find fault with God and want to make Him look foolish.
In the resurrection you will know all and be known by all who are with God above. Most of all God will make your joy complete (1Jn.1:3f). This inspires faith in what God declares to be true.
II. Why do we Christians look forward to this?
When I was a boy, a well-known TV reporter would end his nightly newscasts with the words: “And that’s the way it is.” Walter Cronkite, eh? “That’s the way it is.” Well, maybe and maybe not! That’s the way Walter Cronkite saw it. Might it have been better for him to say, “That’s the way I think it is.” After all, he gave the news from his point of view. What if his point of view wasn’t correct?
One thing is certain – no newscaster can tell you for sure on the evening news how it is going to be tomorrow. And no one can say how things will turn out at the end except God Himself.
This is why we can look forward to the Resurrection. Because the words of Jesus Himself describe it. The resurrection will usher us into a new age and a new world. It will be different. There won’t be married life between men and women. Marriage is God’s gift to people here. The only kind of “marriage” in heaven is the kind that the apostle John described in the book of Revelation between Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, and His bride, the Church Triumphant. John wrote, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready, and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear…Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.’” (Rev.19:7-9.)
Jesus invites us to believe in Him as the Savior and to consider how it will be in the perfect marriage that the Church will share with Him. There will be no more dirty clothes of sin. He has taken them away and replaced them with the white robes of His righteousness. There will be no flat lines on a heart monitor….no heartbreaking trips to graveyards to bury loved ones….nothing to separate us from God – no aging, no love grown tired or cold, no diminishing joy. All will be in perfect harmony with the focus of our joy – Christ. Alive with Him for He is the God of the living not the dead. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob well know that, for they are not dead; their souls already dwell with Him.
But in the present, all around me I see and feel plainly enough that my body must one day die and sink into the grave. There I will decay. But Jesus and the Word of God say more. They speak differently to me and all who believe in Him as their Savior. They tell me that in the end I shall rise in glory with my complete self, soul and body reunited, even as God made me and Jesus redeemed me. And in faith I shall live with Him forever.
That’s the way it is in the Resurrection. That’s the reason we Christians look forward to it. Faith believes because God has spoken. So it is that Christians confess: “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” God grant it in our lives of faith for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Zion Lutheran Church of Springfield
(A member congregation of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod)
4717 S Farm Rd 135 (Golden Avenue)
Church phone: 417.887.0886 Pastor’s cell phone: 417.693.3244
www.zionluthchurch.com email: revelehmann@gmail.com
You can also find us on Facebook
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost: Saints Triumphant November 6, 2022
“They cannot die….They are sons of God, for they are sons of the resurrection.” Luke 20:36
F o r O u r V i s i t o r s
The family of Zion welcomes you as we worship the Lord today. We encourage children to worship with us. However, if you need to leave with your child, there is a nursery room to the right as you exit the sanctuary. The rest rooms are located in the hallway between the sanctuary and the fellowship hall. Visitors, please sign our guest book to the right, just outside the sanctuary. We’re glad that you are here and pray that through our worship the Lord grants you peace.
U p o n E n t e r i n g G o d’ s H o u s e
“Praise the LORD from the heavens. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him sun, moon, and shining stars. Praise the LORD from the earth. Kings of the earth and all nations. Let all praise the name of the LORD” (Psalm 148).
W h a t T h i s S u n d a y i s A b o u t
Saints Triumphant Each day we draw nearer to the end of all things and the great Day of Judgment. It is nearer today than the day we first believed. So we will want to be assured of our standing before God.
We know that physical death is not the end. On the Last Day our bodies shall be reunited with our souls which go ahead of us. Will they be reunited in heaven at the resurrection to life?
Speaking of heaven, what is it like? What are relationships like there? Outside of the few things the Bible tells us, only those who passed this present existence in faith know. They are the saints triumphant. As the saints militant, remaining in faith in the present, we look forward to joining them one day.
To that end we pray: Almighty God and Savior, You have set the final day and hour when we shall be delivered from this world of sin and death. Keep us ever watchful for the coming of Your Son that we may sit with Him and all Your holy ones at the marriage feast in heaven. Amen.
– T h e W o r d o f G o d f o r T o d a y –
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 65:17-25
God will create a new heaven and a new earth where that which exists in the present is no longer seen or remembered. It will be a place of great joy where the circumstances of life and death in a sin-broken world no longer exist. Life triumphs over death in the presence of God.
The Epistle Lesson: Revelation 22:1-5
With pictures that take us back to the perfect creation and the Garden of Eden, John describes our life in heaven as having no hunger, darkness, loneliness, or pain but rather eternal joy in the presence of the one true God who created and redeemed us.
The Gospel Lesson: Luke 20:27-38
Many operate under the false premise that in the next world the same conditions prevail as are found here. Jesus corrects such thinking of that which takes place in the resurrection to eternal life.
O u r P r a c t i c e o f H o l y C o m m u n i o n
Out of deep love for the truth of God’s Word and precious souls, we follow the practice of Close Communion in our congregation. This has been the practice of Christians for centuries and reflects the Bible’s teaching on unity of faith in the reception of the Supper (1 Cor.10:17). It does not judge a person’s heart but anticipates agreement in that which God says. Since we do not wish to put anyone in the position of declaring such agreement with us before study in the Word is possible, we ask that only those who are communicant members of this or another Wisconsin Synod or ELS congregation come to receive the Sacrament.
The Organist: Jane Rips The Preacher: Pastor Edwin Lehmann
Point to Ponder: “Everything depends on our retaining a firm hold on this article (of the Resurrection), for if this one totters and no longer counts, all the others will lose their value and validity. For everything has been done; Christ has come and has established His kingdom in the world for the sake of the resurrection and the life to come. If this article is taken away…all the rest must fall and go down with it….Thus we honorably carry the dead to the grave, follow the corpse, sing and pray as a testimony of our faith that these very dead will rise and that the bodies will be transfigured.”
— Martin Luther on This Doctrine Is Fundamental
Outline of Our Worship
The Preparation
Opening Thoughts on the Service
Opening Hymn: #613
Order of Worship: The Service: Setting One with Holy Communion: page 154-160
Prayer of the Day
The Ministry of the Word
Isaiah 65:17-25
Revelation 22:1-5
The Gospel Acclamation pg.161
Luke 20:27-38
Hymn: #881
Sermon: Luke 20:27-38 “In the Resurrection…”
The Nicene Creed pg.162
Our Response to the Word
Prayer of the Church: pg.164
The Offering
The Lord Blesses Us
Preparation for Holy Communion Hymnal page 165-169
(Visitors: Please read the box on page 2 regarding Holy Communion)
Consecration and Distribution
Distribution Hymn: #880
Thanksgiving & Blessing Hymnal page 170
Closing Hymn: #886
Silent Prayer
The Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost – Series C
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 65:17-25 the LORD’s New Creation
17Watch this! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered. They will not come to mind. 18Instead, rejoice and celebrate forever because of what I am creating. Watch this! I am about to create Jerusalem to be a source of gladness, and her people will be a source of joy. 19I also will be glad because of Jerusalem, and I will rejoice over my people. The sound of weeping will not be heard in her again, nor will the sound of crying. 20There will never again be an infant there who lives for only a few days, or an elderly man who does not fill out all his days, for one who dies at 100 will be considered a young man, and one who fails to attain the age of 100 will be regarded as cursed.
21Then they will build houses and live in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They will not build a house and have another person live in it. They will not plant and have another person eat the crop, for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen ones will enjoy all the work of their hands. 23They will not labor only to receive nothing, and they will not give birth to children doomed to disaster, for they will be offspring who are blessed by the Lord, and their descendants will be with them. 24Then even before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear.
25The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and lions will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent will eat dust as its food. They will not harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Epistle Lesson: Revelation 22:1-5 – Paradise Restored
1The angel showed me the river of the water of life, which was as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. 2In the middle of the city’s street and on each side of the river was a tree of life that yielded twelve kinds of fruit. The tree yields its fruit every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.
3There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him. 4They will see his face. His name will be on their foreheads. 5There will no longer be any night or any need for lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.
Gospel Lesson: Luke 20:27-38 – He Is God of the Living
27Some of the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to him. 28They asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother. 29So there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless. 30The second took her as a wife, 31and so did the third, and in the same way the seven died and left no children. 32Finally the woman died too. 33So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
34Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy to experience that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36In fact, they cannot die any more, for they are like the angels. They are sons of God, because they are sons of the resurrection. 37“Even Moses showed in the account about the burning bush that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”
Evangelical Heritage Version® (EHV®) copyright © 2019 The Wartburg Project
C a l e n d a r & A n n o u n c e m e n t s f o r Z i o n L u t h e r a n C h u r c h
| Today
Nov.6 |
Monday
Nov.7 |
Tuesday
Nov.8 |
Wednesday
Nov.9 |
Thursday
Nov.10 |
Friday
Nov.11 |
Sat.
Nov.12 |
Next Sun.
Nov.13 |
| 9:00 am
Divine Worship Service with Holy Communion online -Facebook 10:15 am Fellowship & Bible Study on Martin Luther Choir Practice Pentecost 22 Saints Triumphant |
Pastor will be in New Ulm MN, Monday -Wednesday.
He will be attending the |
annual fall meetings of the MN District Council & Circuit Pastors.
|
11 am
Bible Class Choir practice afterwards for those available
|
9:00 am
Divine Worship Service online – Facebook 10:15 am Fellowship & Bible Study on Martin Luther Choir Practice
Pentecost 23: Last Judgment |
A Brief Bible Study on God’s Word for Today
“Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest,” a favorite hymn assures us. Everything is peace right now for the saints above.
“But then there breaks a yet more glorious day: The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on his way. Alleluia! Alleluia!”
The Gospel Lesson: Luke 20:27-38 (answers are found on the back side)
- Since the Sadducees of Jesus’ day rejected all but the first five books of the Bible, why was the source of Jesus’ answer to them very fitting?
- How does the verse Jesus quotes prove His point that believers now live on before God after death, and believers will rise from death?
Those We Remember In Our Prayers: Greg Miller; Lou Schulz; William & Laurie Moon; Pauline Jaeger; Kirsten Jaster (Laurie Moon’s sister); Greg Pierson (the Long’s son-in-law); Libya, Jodi Milam’s granddaughter, diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis; Lucille Huston; Barbara Long; Lois Wiese.
Anniversary The members of Beautiful Savior LC, Bella Vista, AR, invite you to join them for their 25th anniversary next Sunday, November 13th, with a worship service at 4:30 pm. Pastor John Vieths from Oklahoma City is the guest preacher.
Thank You to all who were able to help last Saturday and during the week in cleaning and organizing things at church as we get ready for the fall and winter season. Your help is very much appreciated.
Upcoming Events
Monday-Tuesday, Nov.7-8 – Pastor will be attending the annual fall meetings of the MN District Council & Circuit Pastors
Friday-Sunday, November 11-13 – LWMS Annually Sponsored Women’s Retreat at Heit’s Point (near Lincoln, MO)
Sunday, November 13 – Beautiful Savior LC, Bella Vista, 25th anniversary celebration
Sunday, November 20, after the worship service – Thanksgiving Potluck Meal
Thursday, November 24, 10 am – Thanksgiving Day Worship at Zion (At Peace, November 23, 7 pm)
The Week in Review
Last Sunday Worship: 30; Bible Class: 21; Midweek Bible Class: 3; Offering: $2,716.
Next Sunday’s Lessons:
Pentecost 23 – Last Judgment: Malachi 4:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Luke 21:5-19 (CW-21, Series C)
Answers to Today’s Gospel Lesson Brief Study:
- Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees comes from Exodus 3, the account of Moses hearing the Lord speak from the burning bush. Sadducees officially accepted Exodus as God’s Word, so they ought to have agreed with Jesus.
- Jesus proves His point that believers live on now, and will rise on the last day, by quoting Himself. God, the Angel of the Lord, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity did not say to Moses, hundreds of years after His three servants died, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
This week I am praying for……