The document discusses Jesus' encounter with the Sadducees where they try to trap him regarding the resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection according to the writings of Josephus. They used a story from Moses involving a woman with multiple brothers-in-law to have children to ridicule the idea of resurrection. Jesus responds by saying God is the God of the living, not the dead, and cites Moses as evidence for resurrection from a passage about the burning bush. The document encourages readers to have open minds about resurrection like Moses did and to walk as children of God in light of resurrection.

1. R12 Christians: ReformationTransformation
12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual worship.[b] 2 Do not be conformed to
this world,[c] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that
by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good
and acceptable and perfect.[d]

2. Today: Moses: ResurrectionRestoration
• The Sadducees used Moses to try and trap Jesus… Jesus uses Moses
to open their minds to the truth of the Resurrection.
• According to Josephus, the Sadducees believed that:
• There is no fate, God does not commit evil, man has free will; “man
has the free choice of good or evil” the soul is not immortal; there
is no afterlife, and there are no rewards or penalties after death
• The Sadducees rejected the belief in resurrection of the dead,
which was a central tenet believed by Pharisees and by Early
Christians. This often provoked hostilities. Furthermore, the
Sadducees rejected the Oral Law as proposed by the Pharisees.
Rather, they saw the Torah as the sole source of divine authority.
The written law, in its depiction of the priesthood, corroborated the
power and enforced the hegemony of the Sadducees in Judean
society.

3. Context: Chief Priest, Elders now..
• The Sadducees (3rd line)use the Law against Jesus.
• Deuteronomy 25:
• 5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them
dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man
shall not be married outside the family to a
stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her
and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a
husband's brother to her. 6 And the first son
whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his
dead brother, that his name may not be blotted
out of Israel. (Judah, Onan and Tamar in Gen 38)

4. Ridicule:
• Fool, Failure, Fake

5. The problem with question?
• It is to trick Jesus..
• The wanted to make the Resurrection look
ridiculous…
• Not that much different from today..
• Resurrection is a matter of faith…
• Do you feel like a fool?
• Failure? Fake? Satan wants us to feel this way!

6. How to handle Ridicule

7. Thought to remember:
• Good point:

8. Evidence
• There are several facts that most historians agree upon:
• 1. Jesus Christ lived and was crucified.
2. Jesus Christ was buried and his tomb was discovered
empty.3
• 3. A variety of witnesses claimed to have met Jesus after his
death.
4. His disciples believed that Jesus had been raised from the
dead.4
• As NT Wright explains, “the historian must therefore ask why
the early Christians made this claim about Jesus, and why
they reordered their lives accordingly.”5 Even those who
doubt Christ’s bodily resurrection will acknowledge these four
facts, but they will provide alternative explanations. As critical
thinkers, we need to ascertain which of these explanations
best accounts for the evidence at hand.

9. Moses and US need to have our minds
blown and eyes opened:
• Moses and the burning bush… Moses is a fool,
failure, fake YET…..
• Moses accepting that the Lord is the God of
the living and not the Dead..
• We are called to be people of the
Resurrection.. WE are “equal to angels” “Sons
of God, Being sons of the resurrection!” Luke
20:36

10. Moses is restored because of
Resurrection
•
34 And
Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and
are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered
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 anymore, because they are equal to angels
and are sons of God, being sons[g] of the resurrection. 37 But
that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the
passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord 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 Then some of the scribes answered,
“Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared
to ask him any question.

11. When we walk as Children of God
what changes?
• When we are Kingdom people we understand
that the KING of KINGS has given us our
Authority and we walk in HIS Power!
• We know as Covenant people that we have
our Father’s name and our obedience is in
response to this gift…
• Are we “Children of God, Equal to Angels, and
Sons and Daughters of the Resurrection!?”

12. So What?
• Moses was transformed by his experience
with God at Sinai.
• He understood that our God is sooooo BIG
that we don’t have to apologize or try to
explain HIS Truth.
• Examples: Reformed, Roman, us….
• Can we just let God be God and bask in the
mystery? YES!