R12 Christians: Reformation-Transformation

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]

Today: Moses: Resurrection-Restoration

• 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.

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)

Ridicule:

• Fool, Failure, Fake

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!

How to handle Ridicule

Thought to remember:

• Good point:

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.

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

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.

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!?”

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!