Luke 20:27-40

Woke up at 3 am and once I discovered that I wasn't going to go back to sleep so I decided to read the morning prayers from the Book of Common Prayers. I love how the morning and evening prayers praise God, have scripture from the old testament and scripture from the new testament, and have prayers that cover everyone from the clergy to people who are hurting to the president. Plus there is no better way to begin your day than by spending quiet time worshiping God and learning about Him and praying for this world.

Today the second lesson was from Luke 20:27-40.

Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife.

And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: 

But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

 Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said. And after that they durst not ask him any question at all.

My mind stopped me at "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead". What does this mean? Aren't we worthy thru Christ once we call Him our Savior? Once I have a question I have to go find a commentary or two to help me sort through this. I went to Matthew Henry's commentary on Luke 20. I hadn't realized just how much was contained in this 20th chapter of Luke. The commentary is huge and Matthew Henry saw so much more than I noticed. (I will leave it up to you to discover all the treasures he mines.)

Matthew Henry outlines what Jesus is talking about. Please read it for yourself because my paraphrase won't do this subject justice. Here on earth we marry because we must populate the world and marrying keeps us from fornication. (See, told you my paraphrase isn't as good.) But to be worthy of the next world we must realize that there are two worlds at play: the present: physical and the future: spiritual. To be worthy of the future we must be interested in Christ's merit and have the Holy Spirit working within us to prepare us.

I am going to copy Matthew Henry's words for this part of the verse but please go read the rest because there is so much there.

There are more worlds than one; a present visible world, and a future invisible world; and it is the concern of every one of us to compare worlds, this world and that world, and give the preference in our thoughts and cares to that which deserves them. Now observe,(1.) Who shall be the inhabitants of that world: They that shall be accounted worthy to obtain it, that is, that are interested in Christ’s merit, who purchased it for us, and have a holy meetness for it wrought in them by the Spirit, whose business it is to prepare us for it. They have not a legal worthiness, upon account of any thing in them or done by them, but an evangelical worthiness, upon account of the inestimable price which Christ paid for the redemption of the purchased possession. It is a worthiness imputed by which we are glorified, as well as righteousness imputed by which we are justified; kataxiothentes , they are made agreeable to that world. The disagreeableness that there is in the corrupt nature is taken away, and the dispositions of the soul are by the grace of God conformed to that state. They are by grace made and counted worthy to obtain that world; it intimates some difficulty in reaching after it, and danger of coming short. We must so run as that we may obtain. They shall obtain the resurrection from the dead, that is, the blessed resurrection; for that of condemnation (as Christ calls it, Jn. 5:29 ), is rather a resurrection to death, a second death, an eternal death, than from death. (2.) What shall be the happy state of the inhabitants of that world we cannot express or conceive, 1 Co. 2:9 . See what Christ here says of it. [1.] They neither marry nor are given in marriage. Those that have entered into the joy of their Lord are entirely taken up with that, and need not the joy of the bridegroom in his bride. The love in that world of love is all seraphic, and such as eclipses and loses the purest and most pleasing loves we entertain ourselves with in this world of sense. Where the body itself shall be a spiritual body, the delights of sense will all be banished; and where there is a perfection of holiness there is no occasion for marriage as a preservative from sin. Into the new Jerusalem there enters nothing that defiles. [2.] They cannot die any more; and this comes in as a reason why they do not marry. In this dying world there must be marriage, in order to the filling up of the vacancies made by death; but, where there are no burials, there is no need of weddings. This crowns the comfort of that world that there is no more death there, which sullies all the beauty, and damps all the comforts, of this world. Here death reigns, but thence it is for ever excluded. [3.] They are equal unto the angels.

For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living. (This really interested me so I had to go search for commentaries. Matthew Henry covered this as well.)

Moses showed this, as it was shown to Moses at the bush, and he hath shown it to us, when he calleth the Lord, as the Lord calleth himself, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were then dead as to our world; they had departed out of it many years before, and their bodies were turned into dust in the cave of Machpelah; how then could God say, not I was, but I am the God or Abraham? It is absurd that the living God and Fountain of life should continue related to them as their God, if there were no more of them in being than what lay in that cave, undistinguished from common dust. We must therefore conclude that they were then in being in another world; for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Luke here adds, For all live unto him, that is, all who, like them, are true believers; though they are dead, yet they do live; their souls, which return to God who gave them (Eccl. 12:7 ), live to him as the Father of spirits: and their bodies shall live again at the end of time by the power of God; for he calleth things that are not as though they were, because he is the God that quickens the dead, Rom. 4:17 . But there is more in it yet; when God called himself the God of these patriarchs, he meant that he was their felicity and portion, a God all-sufficient to them (Gen. 17:1 ), their exceeding great reward, Gen. 15:1 . Now it is plain by their history that he never did that for them in this world which would answer the true intent and full extent of that great undertaking, and therefore there must be another life after this, in which he will do that for them that will amount to a discharge in full of that promise—that he would be to them a God, which he is able to do, for all live to him, and he has wherewithal to make every soul happy that lives to him; enough for all, enough for each.

There is so much more to read and discover.

*Luke 20