The Gospel of Luke 20:27-40 Resurrection!
Luke 20:27-40 · Vern Peterman · Jul 17, 2016
Gospel of Luke, No. 78
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926536326062

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We will be stepping our way here through Luke 20, 27 through 40, and as we continue our investigating Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. This is still, as we pointed out last week, Wednesday of the week of Christ's crucifixion. So, just two days before his crucifixion.

The Jews, of course, would not have called it Wednesday. That's our name. As a matter of fact, all of our days of the week are basically pagan deity names, oddly enough. So, the Jews would have called it simply the fourth day of the week. They just numbered. Sunday is the first day and etc. So, they just numbered the days of the week. The seventh day was Sabbath, right? So that's how they would call it.

By the next day, the Jews would be getting ready for Passover. And Jews, by this time, are pouring into Jerusalem. We pointed out recently that the typical population of Jerusalem itself was only about 40,000 people. But during these Passover and other feast times, they would have something in the neighborhood of 250,000 Temporary population and so that means lots and lots of people pouring into Jerusalem Many of them from close by but others also from very great distances people would come from Rome people would come from Babylon people would come from southern Europe and North Africa and So the Jews are pouring into Jerusalem. This is getting ready for the Passover and Passover would be the next day, and so preparations for the Passover would involve a great many people. By the way, when they had these 200,000 plus Jews pouring in, the people who hosted them were not allowed to charge rent. So they were obligated, if they lived in Jerusalem, they were obligated to provide for these people.

Anyway, we'll get into that a little bit more. Passover and what we have come to call the Last Supper with Christ will be after sundown the next evening. So this is getting to be close to something in the neighborhood of 24 hours and a little bit more before Jesus would have the Last Supper with his disciples. There's going to be with that some important explanations we'll want to pay some attention to at the Last Supper and as they go to Gethsemane. All right, so this would be kind of a scene if we were on the Mount of Olives and looking towards the temple area. This would be probably a pretty good representation of what it would look like.

The temple itself was, as we pointed out, about 15 stories tall at the inner part there. It did have a lot of gold. As a matter of fact, some of the representations, I would say, failed to show some of the gold, so the artist has done a good job here of recreating what the temple would have looked like. Here is a diagram, and we may have some more of the supplements available on the cabinet to the right of this room if you'd like that. This would be the temple courtyard, and it would be the larger area.

The official Jewish temple would, of course, be in the middle part of that. Up over in the one corner would be the Romans' Antonia Fortress that was actually constructed under Pontius Pilate's direction and orders. It gave the Romans overview of the temple courtyard to keep things from getting carried away and also gave them access because there was a stairway coming from this Antonia Fortress into the temple courtyard. Here would have been the area this arrow points down into what would be the Holy of Holies in this 15-story structure.

And then the other thing, and we hope to show it because I checked here a few minutes ago and it worked. From that perspective there, looking towards the temple, the Israel Antiquities Authority and UCLA have worked together to develop a model, and I think it's going to work.

So this would give you an idea of what it would be like inside there. Now, one thing that would be radically different than what's in this computer model is there would be a huge number of people in this courtyard, plus animals, plus all the money changers and all the other things going on. During a Passover time, this would be very full. And so it would be filling up a really rather astounding production there. I'm going to run it once more, so you have a chance to take a look at that. There we go.

But it would give you an idea just how large this structure was and an idea of what it would have been like. Jesus would have gathered in one of these perimeter colonnades, as they're called, and taught there. And so it was frequently a place where Jesus would teach. He'd go along this perimeter where one of these colonnades were located. And so I think that gives you a good sense of perspective as to what that would have been like. Because across this courtyard, he says, you know, if anyone is thirsty, come to me. He yelled it out.

So here in Luke 20, 27, it says, Now there came to him some of the Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection. You'll find that several times in the New Testament. Who says there's no resurrection? That little message in brackets to explain the Sadducees is something that shows up several times in the New Testament.

By the time they're done, they will all be Sadducee sick. So the huddle that they had had before that we talked about a week and two ago, they had gotten the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Scribes and the Herodians all together. These are groups that are typically at odds with one another, right?

They'd gotten them all together with this strategy, hey, let's get something to nail Jesus on and just turn him over to the Romans if he espouses anything. that says don't pay taxes to Caesar or anything like that. We'll turn them over to the Romans, they'll take care of them and we'll be done.

Didn't work. And so, since that didn't work, then you have individual groups saying, well, we'll come up with something to stumble Jesus. So they sent a group to first spy on Jesus. We pointed out last week that that means someone hired in waiting to spy on Jesus and then ask him a question about paying taxes to Caesar. That worked like nailing jello to the wall. And the reason is, of course, you can't surprise Jesus. That's the first thing. It's really tough when you can't surprise somebody to get them hung up on something.

Jesus knew in advance exactly what they're going to say, and he knew what he was going to respond with. He gave them a brilliantly ambiguous answer that totally had them befuddled. He made them produce the coin with the pagan images on it and claiming to be a deity out of their own hand and their own pocket. He made them pronounce, who is this?

So now, now that the group hug and the huddle had not worked, the separate groups give it a try. And so the Sadducees says, we can do this. And so they come up with their favorite sectarian law of Moses rabbis riddle. And so this is one they've cooked up, may even have been a classic question, right? They go and cook up this question. And what amazes me about this picture, that that guy looks almost exactly like my geology professor. Anyway, it just fascinates me anyway. OK, so now the Sadducees are a special case. They have we have nothing of their own writing. That is, we don't have anything that the Sadducees wrote. All we have is what other people wrote about them. And there's three groups. One is the New Testament, what that says. The next is Josephus, who was a Pharisee, right? And the third one is the early church fathers.

So the only thing that we have written about Sadducees is from their enemies, from those who opposed them, right? Now, it so happens that the New Testament is, for two reasons, the best resource and the most reliable. Number one, it was written while the Sadducees were still around. Josephus wrote after the Sadducees had been wiped out as a group. So that was one reason. The other group of the early church fathers were even later. The New Testament was written while the Sadducees were still around as a group and as a people, and you could actually go up and talk to them.

And Sadducees might even read the New Testament and they could say if something was wrong, that's not good. You got to fix that, right? So there's at least some opportunity for verification. So what we have in the New Testament is most reliable also because it's inspired, right? It helps if you have God behind the authors, right?

Okay, so now I say here how to throw a Sadducee. The Sadducees seemed to love asking probing questions about things they didn't believe in. And this is an example of exactly that. They'd ask a question, not because they were interested in the answer, but they were interested in poking you and teasing you about something they didn't believe in in the first place. Here's an example.

The Sadducee high priest Caiaphas would ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Are you the Christ? Well, the truth is the Sadducees don't believe in the Messiah, so it doesn't matter what he answers, right? But it might goad and really bother the Pharisees, no matter what Jesus answered, right? But especially if he said, yes, I am the Messiah, which in fact he did.

So, the Sadducees had been influenced by pagan Greek philosophers, most of whom denied that there was any bodily resurrection. And so as another difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, the Pharisees thought that Greek philosophy was as bad as feeding pigs, right? So that's another difference between the group. The Pharisees did believe in a bodily resurrection. The Sadducees did not. The Sadducees were influenced by pagan Greek philosophers.

The Pharisees thought that was terrible, right? But they just got along. Why? Because that's the tension the tense peace that we can have under these Romans that we all agree are nasty okay so the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection but the Pharisees did but the Pharisees thought the Greek philosophy was really really bad all right the Sadducees conjured up this rabbi's riddle for those who believed in a resurrection So here's Luke 20, 27, and 28, and I'll start there at 28, and they questioned him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. So think about what's this all about.

Well, one of the things, remember, Abraham got panicky Because he says I still don't have a child. I thought I don't have a descendant and my descendants gonna be my you know slave here I don't have a dissent so he got panicky, and that's when he cooked up this scheme. You know with with Eventually coming forth with Ishmael and God says no, that's not what I had in mind, right? And so, no, not Ishmael. And so finally, finally, Isaac. But you can remember just the kind of the cultural panic.

I've got to have a descendant after my name, right? And so that's what's behind this Law of Moses requirement. It's called Leveret Marriage in Deuteronomy 25, 5 and 6. And so when brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn, whom she bears, shall assume the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel." Not having a descendant was a big shame. And so that's the concern here. And so they had this leperate marriage to resolve that problem. And it was built into the law of Moses.

Anyway, there followed several verses about what to do if the brother didn't want to marry and didn't want to cooperate, etc. So what polygyny is required, polygamy, we commonly use that term, but that just means more than one spouse of either gender. And then polyandry is more than one husband. So you have a situation with more than one husband, and then polygyny is more than one wife. So that's actually what this thing can allow. There's a fellow who is already married, might have to marry under this leveret marriage law, might have to marry his brother's wife and then have two wives. It's even conceivable that you might have three wives or possibly more under that circumstance and have it required by law. Which kind of freaks me out. But anyway, in the instance where a brother died childless, his brother was to marry the wife to have offspring. That was the point. And name it after the brother so that that brother's line would not end.

So while the Law of Moses might require polygyny in this case, by New Testament times, one man, one wife became the standard. So this might require multiple wives certain circumstances came about. In this instance that they describe, it does not. But just to point it out and chase it down, we have four passages at least in the New Testament that point to one man, one wife as the biblical standard in the New Testament.

So 1 Corinthians 7.2, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. Singular.

Ephesians 5.33, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself. Singular in each case.

1 Timothy 3.2, an overseer, and that would be an elder or a shepherd, pastor as they're sometimes called.

And as 1 Peter 5.1-4 says, an overseer or elder is to be an example. So an overseer then must be, and the English translations typically say the husband of one wife. The actual meaning of the underlying Greek is a one woman kind of man. So it has to do with character, not just what's your marital checklist.

Titus 1.6 is the exact same kind of statement, if any man is the husband of one wife or a one-woman kind of man. So it's possible, for example, for a man to have only been married once, but if he's got a lust problem and he's looking at every skirt that goes by, that's not good, right? And so this looks to character, a one-woman kind of man. All right, so Luke 20, 29 through 32.

Now, the Sadducees go on to then explain this actually rather odd and unusual circumstance which they put together in order to make this riddle. Now, there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died childless, and the second and the third married her, and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died also. Okay.

It makes me think of seven brides for seven brothers, only the reality is it's one bride for seven brothers, right? But just one at a time. So it's a good thing this is a hypothetical case that they've cooked up. Either these men are all in really poor health, or this lady is really hard to be married to, right? I don't know how that works out. So the poor woman is widowed by all seven brothers, yet still died without any children.

Wow. Okay. So while this part of the Law of Moses might require polygyny if a man were already married, what the Sadducees described is more like what could be called barren, septucerial monogamy. Whoa. Okay. So a Sadducee, Rabbi Riddle. So the Sadducees had worked up this hypothetical case, which was at least theoretically possible, but very, very unlikely. Okay.

But they're not interested in practical and real, they're interested in brain teasers and rabbi riddles. The reason they had worked this up, this rabbi riddle, was to challenge the idea of a bodily resurrection. To make this puzzle about who's this woman going to be married to. Especially since she didn't have children by any of them. They thought that this rabbi riddle was unsolvable.

They thought, oh, we're going to get Jesus on this. We didn't get him on the coin trick. because that would have gotten him killed, and this isn't going to get him killed, but we want to at least embarrass him or make him puzzled, right? That's their thought anyway.

So they have this over-the-top challenge to anyone who believed in the resurrection, like the Pharisees or Jesus. That's one thing that's really curious. We hear Jesus will condemn and criticize the Pharisees. In fact, of the various Jewish groups, Jesus' view was closest to that of the Pharisees. Interesting, huh?

You see, the Pharisees believed in a Messiah, and they believed in a resurrection, and so did Jesus. He just claimed to be the Messiah, right? And he claimed, just a few days after this, that he would be resurrected. All right. This also explains, among the Pharisees, a great many Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives. Why?

It's because the prophecies say that the Messiah is going to come. We would say the Messiah is going to return, right? The prophecy says the Messiah is going to come to the Mount of Olives and resurrect the dead. And so they want front row seats to the resurrection. Right? So that's why you got all these Jews wanting to get buried there on the Mount of Olives. It's the best possible place. Because right when the Messiah comes, I'll be right there.

So Luke 20.33, In the resurrection, therefore, which one's wife will she be? For all seven had married her, and none of them, of course, had a child by any of them. Okay, so the Sadducees were all thrilled with themselves, okay? Sadducees thought they had really come up with a good one that could not be answered.

The Law of Moses says what must be done here on earth by observant Jews, okay? That's what the Law of Moses explains. The Law of Moses doesn't really explain a lot of, you know, spiritual relationships and that kind of thing and what happens after you die. It doesn't explain that a lot. It just says this is what you do and this is what you don't do, right? We said there's 613 laws in the Law of Moses, individual laws, and 365 of them are things not to do. So there's a lot of stuff not to do. A lot of stuff not to do.

That makes it easy, right? Okay. So what does Sadducee look like when he's thrilled? Oh, there's the picture. Okay, but the Law of Moses, or so they thought, had no guidance for what would happen once a person was resurrected, which, of course, they didn't believe in anyway. They didn't believe in a resurrection, so they came up with this not because they're interested in the answer, but they're interested in poking fun at somebody who believed in a resurrection. They did not.

Okay, this is what a Sadducee looks like when he's sad. Okay, the Sadducees were soon to discover they had several points wrong with their no-resurrection viewpoint. Several points. There are several things wrong with it. One mistake they made is that Jesus knew that there were, in fact, going to be resurrections of the body. They are going to happen.

Let me explain it to you, he says. And being very well aware of what the Word of God says, Jesus would soon reveal the ignorance of the Sadducees and completely shut them down. So, we're going to have fun with this, Jesus' answers, starting in Luke 20, 34, and 35. So Jesus said to them, So rather than being puzzled and baffled, Jesus begins answering, correcting their misunderstandings.

The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Okay, so let's look at that. First of all is some Bible, New Testament Bible code words.

The New Testament has a pattern in the use of the word age. And that's key. The age, this age, and this present evil age refer to the time when Adam fell to the Messiah's age. From when Adam fell to the Messiah's age, when the Messiah comes. So that pattern you'll find consistent throughout the New Testament. It starts with Jesus and his words, including what we read right here, and it continues on with the writings of Paul and on into the book of Hebrews. It was a consistent pattern of using the age, this age, and this present evil age for the time from when Adam fell up until the Messiah's time.

That age, as Jesus just said, the age to come, or the one to come, refer to the Messiah's age, which we'll see called the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, or just the Kingdom. So this age, the one we're in now, where people have bodies like we have now, marry and are given in marriage. So that's what he means by sons of this age, people with bodies like ours that are sitting in pews and standing up here. But the ones of this age who have believed will be resurrected bodily at the beginning of the kingdom. So what's going to happen at the beginning of the kingdom?

We saw that picture of the Mount of Olives. Christ will come back and his feet will touch on the Mount of Olives and that will be the time of their resurrection. Whose? Let's go through it. It'll be the time of Enoch and Noah's resurrection. It'll be the time of Abraham's and Isaac's and Jacob's resurrection. It'll be the time of Moses' resurrection.

It'll be the time of everyone all the way up to the day of Pentecost who was saved. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, what did he say? Today you'll be with me in paradise. Your resurrection will be when the Messiah returns. So their resurrection will be at that time when Jesus comes back and His feet touch the Mount of Olives. Then the bodies will be resurrected.

Jesus is not referring to those in the church from Acts, Acts chapter 2, to the rapture who will be resurrected before the tribulation period begins. He's referring to Old Testament and tribulation saints. Old Testament and Tribulation Saints. So he's not referring to the church here.

Here is how it's described in Daniel 12, 1 and 2. Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation Until that time, this is what we call the tribulation period, a time of distress that has never occurred. And everyone who is found written in the book, this is the book of life, will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, and these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. So it will be at a time of resurrection at the end of the tribulation period when Messiah returns.

Isaiah 26 19 also has a similar message. Now what he's saying here is resurrected bodies of whatever kind won't be married. Jesus is also saying marriages for earthly times and bodies like we have now. What were Adam and Eve told when they were planted there in the garden, be fruitful and multiply. Then when God caused a flood to be on the earth and there were eight in the ark, what did He do again when they got off the ark? He said, be fruitful and multiply. When we get to heaven, God will not say, be fruitful and multiply.

Because we won't have the same kind of bodies, they'll not be designed for reproduction. Then we will not be married as we can be now, nor will we reproduce physically then either. You won't have spirit babies. Sorry to disappoint the Mormons. You will not have spirit babies and you won't have a whole bunch of babies running around heaven. There will be no command to be fruitful and multiply to those who are resurrected. Not needed.

So Luke 20.36 says, For they cannot die even anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. So no more deaths. Are you ready for that? I think it's a good thing. Okay. Once resurrected to life for those who believe, the body will not experience death ever again.

Now one of the disappointments of someone like Lazarus is Lazarus was resurrected after being dead for a few days, right? But what kind of body was he resurrected with? With one like this, with a human body like this, which dies again. Can you imagine Lazarus?

Oh no, not again! Right? So anyway, but this will be a resurrection body, not like this body, never to die again. That's the way Jesus puts it, can't die. Here we have bodies that cannot continue to live. Thankfully, this thing isn't going to be around for thousands of years. Right? Cannot continue to live, but then we'll have bodies that cannot ever die. See that? Huge contrast.

There will be no other valuable and important characteristics of that new body and the new heavens and new earth that you and I should know about. So, here's one place we can take a look at that and learn about that. The new heavens and new earth and the new Jerusalem. This is Revelation 21, verses 3 and 4. And John wrote here, this is the Apostle John, and I heard a loud voice from the throne.

This isn't somebody else just saying something, this is from the throne. Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. Not just a reduction, not just you live longer, no longer be any death. There will no longer be any more mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away. Now, something else, the angels of heaven do not reproduce.

And so that's why he makes the comparison with the angels. Now one of the reasons I have this picture is we have all kinds of crazy mythologies floating around in our culture regarding angels. And of course we have like this, some of the angels look like they've been pumping iron for a thousand years, right? And eating whey powder protein bars, right? And so this would be an example.

And then you've got the other thing is the angels don't fall in love, they aren't lusting, you know, they're not falling in love with a human or another ape. That just doesn't happen. Okay? Not happening. And so that's another thing that's kind of, you know, into everything from artistry to TV shows to movies and all sorts of things. Not happening. Okay? So it is with those who are resurrected, whether of the church or otherwise. So that's not happening. And because of these insights, we can see that marriages here will not continue on into heaven. A marriage here may be made in heaven, but it won't continue on there.

And one of the illustrations that I like to give is, Nancy and I have been married for 42 and a half years, okay? I love being married to Nancy. I mean, I'm just bonkers about being married to Nancy. But when we go to be with the Lord, it won't be, you know, hey, this heaven place is really cool, but I sure miss being married to Nancy. Right?

And why? It'd be like, just like outside, if we stepped out in the parking lot, you look out there, are there stars in the sky? Yes, there are. But you can't see them, can you? And it's because the sun is out. So what's going to happen is our marriage will be overshadowed. Was our marriage great? Yes! I love being married to Nancy. But being with the Lord will far, far outshine it. I won't be up there saying, man, I sure miss being married to Nancy. We will say, wow! what we lived down here on earth day by day, now has become the eternal romance of Christ and the church. That overshadows what our marriage represented symbolically.

Here's Luke 20.37. But that the dead are raised even Moses showed in the passage about the burning bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

So, here we have these Sadducees. According to some records, the Sadducee is only held to the first five books of the Old Testament. And if so, these are some of the less reliable records. If so, then Jesus' reference to the burning bush in Exodus fits very well with them. He's going to give them an example in a passage that they would say, yeah, that's a great one. And we do happen to know that they really liked, the Sadducees really liked this Exodus chapter 3 passage. They thought this was great.

So in Exodus 3.6 it says, I am, and I put the capital letters there because in the Greek Old Testament, It's an I am that means a claim to deity. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So it's not I was the God of Abraham, and I was the God of Isaac, and I was the God of Jacob, but I am, present tense, for all of them. Which means he is still the God of all three. And so here a verb tense is what snags the Sadducees.

Luke 13.28, one of the things revealed there, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be there. In Matthew it talks about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob being seated at table with Christ. So they will be there in resurrected bodies.

So Luke 20.38 says, Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.

On the physical side, and from this physical perspective, from the bodies that we have, people can be dead. This person died, this person died. But that doesn't mean that they've gone away or disappeared, spiritually speaking. This is something the Sadducees didn't understand. Because God sees the spiritual side, and He'll be the one who resurrects people, He's the God of the living. We may say, well, this person died from our perspective, but God says, no, they're still alive, right? Still alive.

Sadducees greatly respected this verse, Exodus 3.6.

And that verse, by the way, was also quoted in Acts 7.32.

But they didn't see this one coming. They didn't get it. They had no answer to what Jesus said either. They got completely shut down. So Luke 20, 39, and 40, some of the scribes answered and said, Teacher, you have spoken well. Now, well, we'll explain the reason for that. They did not have courage to question him any longer about anything. They found, you can't stump this guy. You have spoken very well, and we're not going to ask you any more questions, right?

Now, the scribes were actually friends of the Pharisees, typically. They believed in a resurrection, and of course, they were very interested in Jesus' answer to this question. And they were very glad that Jesus gave an answer that shut down the Sadducees, with whom they argued constantly and frequently. So they would have approved it. Their interactions with the Sadducees, they had not thought previously of what Jesus just said to them. So they, the Sadducees, kept quiet, and the scribes too.

So for us, I think looking at this, one of the things to point out for us, the resurrection event that we call the rapture, is what's next on the schedule. There is no prophetic event that has to take place first, before the time we're going to be taken up to be with the Lord.

We reference here 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18. That's probably the passage that gives the most detail in explaining the rapture. We are in the body of Christ are at one, encouraged and even eternally rewarding for anticipating that twinkle of an eye. So for the rest of my life, I anticipate, look forward to, and long for that twinkling of an eye moment when the Lord will take me home. And he says, I'll reward you forever for looking forward for that instant.

Jesus gave the first rapture passage in the New Testament in John 14, verses two and three. After he first told them, let not your heart be troubled, he said, starting in verse two, in my father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

By the way, these, as we talked about in our elective a couple weeks ago, these are words that would be said from a groom to a bride. They would have the engagement ceremony and he would say words like this, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. So these are wedding words.

Now, something else is a lot of what we've been reading in the Gospel of Luke is kingdom focus. Where should our focus be? We in the body of Christ do have an inheritance in the kingdom. However, that inheritance in the kingdom is not the land. Who's going to have the land inheritance? That's the Jews, right? The Jews will have the land inheritance, so that's not our inheritance, right?

Our inheritance has to do with Christ himself as the Messiah and ruler over that kingdom. So the focus for us will still be upon Christ. While other saints are focused on the kingdom, we in the body of Christ ought to be focused on Christ in the heavenlies. That ought to be where our focus lies. Christ in the heavenlies. It's there in the heavenlies in Christ where you are blessed, where you are seated with Him and have a heavenly citizenship.

And one of the things I want to point out here, I put on there Philippians 1.27, 3.20, and 4.3. Philippians has a reference to our heavenly citizenship not once, but three times.

In 1.27, it has to do with heavenly citizenship conduct. Heavenly citizenship conduct.

Having that, heavenly citizenship, is Philippians 3.20.

In 4.3, it's the book of life. And the Book of Life in ancient times was the list of living citizens. So therefore, we have three references to our heavenly citizenship in Philippians.

The other is home with the Lord. When we have our resurrection bodies, we'll be home with the Lord there in the heavenlies. So even while we're physically here on this planet at this time, in the heavenlies in Christ is our heart's home, or that's where it ought to be. There where I'm home. I'm just passing through here. But that's home. With Him. That's home.

Seeking and setting our minds on things above is exactly what our Lord has in mind for us. Where we're blessed, where we're seated, where we have our citizenship. Having our minds set there is exactly what the Lord has in mind. And if you look at the ways in which we've been identified with Christ, five ways we've been identified with Him in His crucifixion and death, in His burial, in His resurrection, His ascension, and seeding.

What's the last of those? It's the seeding, okay? And that order is not incidental, okay? It's essential. There where we're seeded with Him, that's where we're going to be with Him. Isn't that great? I hope it's today. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this blessed hope that we have, that one day, and we hope it's today, that you will come for us and we will forever be with you. We thank you for that blessed hope, in Jesus' name, Amen.