How Will You Answer?
Scripture Matthew 22:23-46
23 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 24
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. 25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had
married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third,
even to the seventh. 27 Last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of
the seven will she be? For they all had her.”
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of
God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in
heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by
God, saying, 32 ‘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.” 33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His
teaching.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then
one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about
the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
They said to Him, “ The Son of David.”
43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
44 ‘The LORD said to my Lord,
“ Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’?
45 If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word,
nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
First of all, was this really a problem they’d been having? Women wondering if their first
husband or their seventh husband would be their spouse in heaven? No, they were
obviously just trying to start trouble. Sometimes people we are witnessing to will do the
same thing. Ask some trivial ‘what if’ question that really doesn’t matter. Trying to get us
to focus on things that don’t matter so we don’t get to what really matters.
In verse 29 Jesus gets right to the point. “You are mistaken.” My Bible has a note that
says the word can also be translated ‘deceived’. If you think about offending someone
you may not be willing to tell them the truth; that they are mistaken, deceived. Jesus isn’t
concerned about what they will think of Him. He just says what is true. Then He says,
“You don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God”. Wow! Does that put the truth right
out there, or what? No dancing around the issue. He answers their silly question, just like
that. We'll be like the angels; no marriage.
Then He goes into the real issue. They don’t believe in the resurrection. We have to
dig deeper to the real issues beyond the surface. So, here in verse 32 He answers the
real issue, with the Word (Exodus 3:6, 15). Man! He silenced the Sadducees with that
one! The Sadducees also only follow the books of Moses, the Pentatuch, the Torah. So
here Jesus used a reference from the book of Exodus. He knew that if He quoted the
prophets or the psalms or some other book in the Old Testament, it would have had no
meaning for them. We witness differently to the Jew, the Muslim, the morman and others.
Yesterday, we had a visit from two Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was excited when I saw them
because this was to be my first witnessing opportunity to JWs since I had begun studying
what they believe so I could witness more effectively. I went right for the real issue, as I
saw it. They are being deceived by ‘The Watchtower’. Basically, I went to New Testament
scripture where Jesus tells His followers that the Holy Spirit will come to teach them all
truths. I told them that they should ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to teach them all
things. I stressed that Jesus did not say that ‘The Watchtower’ would come and teach all
truths.
Then the man said, "Yes, but when you go to school you need a textbook". To which I
replied that is true, so I held up my Bible and said, “This is the textbook”. At that point I
knew that I wasn’t as prepared as I would like to be. I asked them to hold on for a moment
and I went to get my mother, who has done extensive studies on witnessing to JWs in
particular. When she came out she went straight to the even deeper issue. They don’t
believe Jesus is God. She began giving them scriptures like rapid machine gun fire that
showed that indeed Jesus and the Father are One. At that point, the lady said that she
had to go because she had a sick mother at home she had to go to see about. My
mother asked if they would like to make an appointment to continue and they walked away
saying, “No”. We watched them proceed to walk down the sidewalk, then turn up our
neighbor’s pathway to go knock on their door. I guess the sick mother could wait. By the
way, my neighbor is a pastor! They likely put a big ‘X’ on this block.
Back to the scripture, now it’s the Pharisees turn. They heard that He had silenced the
Sadducees so they got together to prepare their question. By asking Him which
commandment was the greatest, they were most likely hoping that once He picked one
they would throw some other in His face to say He was wrong, but Jesus foiled their plans.
He wrapped up all the Law and the Prophets in two tight, tidy packages. They couldn’t
touch Him on that.
So now Jesus asked the question and it’s what seemed to be a simple one. Even a
Torah schoolboy could answer this one. Notice that they didn’t delay in they’re reply as
they had other times when Jesus would ask them a question. Of course, He is the Son of
David. Everyone is Israel knew that. What a silly question for the Teacher to ask. Jesus
amazes them all with His response, again directly from the Word (Psalms 110:1), knowing
that the Pharisees accept the entire Old Testament. They can’t say a word.
Here's the part I want you to really see. It says that after He did this no one dared to
question Him again. We have the same ability. How much more valuable to the Kingdom
would we be at school or at work or within our own families if we had that type of respect
from the people around us. How did Jesus accomplish this?
1) He knew who He was dealing with and what they believed. We, like Jesus, must care
enough about the people to find out where they are and where they’re going. It’s not
about memorizing rules now any more than it was about doing that it Jesus’ time. It is
important that we study (II Timothy 2:15) other faiths to help us become better witnesses.
2) He was able to answer even the trivial questions. We need to be able to answer
questions as they come to us (I Peter 3:15). Be prepared, you know the questions will
come.
3) He used the Word of God to make His point, not some cleverly worded, politically
correct speech that made people feel good. Jesus told His disciples that He spoke only
what He’d learned from His Father (John 8:28). We must begin to speak only what we’ve
heard our Father speak; the Word of God, the Bible. The Bible must be the final authority
on everything, even when it’s not politically correct.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: December 18, 2005