November 14, 2004

When I was in grade school, there was a show on TV called “It’s Your Move.”The show featured a single mom with two kids.This mother was dating a man whom her older son really clashed with, usually in good fun.In each episode, the older son and his mom’s boyfriend tried getting the best of each other with pranks, practical jokes, or by making the other look very foolish.They kept going back and forth with each other, making the other look foolish, to get the single mom to see things their way, and you never knew which one was going to have the last laugh until the very end of the show.Often, when you thought one was triumphant, the other would have the final trumping move, often cleverly written. Thus, the name of the show.And each time, right before one guy would outdo the other and make him look foolish, he would say with a wry smile on his face: “You’re gonna laugh…”

I think that people often play It’s Your Move with God, don’t you?They try making Him look foolish, so they can look smarter, and feel more comfortable about themselves.And if they can make God look foolish, then they can get more people to see things their way.So they come to God’s Word, not to learn, but to find fault.How many times have you found yourself in a spiritual or theological conversation with someone who is simply trying to find fault with God and what God says?A lot of conversations with people who don’t yet know God go that way.They try finding fault with God and his Word.They may even quote parts of his Word and try using that against Him!They want to make God look foolish, so they can look smart.So they can have the trumping move and say: “You’re gonna laugh!”

You’ve heard the questions:“If God is all-powerful, why does He not defeat Satan and put an end to all evil in the world?”“If God’s message is clear, then why are there so many religions?”“Why does God save some and not others?”“If God is so good, then why are his children often so bad?” “How could there be a hell if God were a loving God?”“And heaven – wouldn’t we get sick of that after a while?”Questions like these come from people who are trying to make God look foolish so they can be more comfortable about what they believe.Let’s call them “rationalists” – people who refuse to believe what they cannot see with their eyes or understand with their minds, and therefore doubt the Bible’s teaching about life after death.

You know, “those people” aren’t the only ones guilty of this.Aren’t there times you and I have difficulty accepting what God is saying to us?Don’t we sometimes want to be able to see it with our eyes, rather than just accept it with our hearts?Do we ever get caught up in the world’s way of thinking?“Boy, maybe God’s Word really is foolish…” Or even if we do believe God’s teaching about life after death, do we always live as though we believe it, OR as though we are more concerned with life here?Do we fall into the trap of the rationalists and concentrate too much on this life?

One day, a group of men called “Sadducees” approached Jesus to play “It’s Your Move” with Him.They wanted to make Him look foolish because their beliefs were so different than He was teaching.The Sadducees only accepted the first 5 books of the Bible, the ones that Moses wrote.They did NOT believe in angels.And they did NOT believe in life after death.They refused to believe what they couldn’t see with their eyes or understand with their minds.And so, they thought they could use Scripture against itself and make the teaching of the resurrection look ridiculous, and at the same time, make Jesus look completely foolish, by asking something about the resurrection that couldn’t be answered logically.They proposed a foolish situation that would never possibly happen and challenged Jesus with it.“It’s Your move, Jesus!If you really look at this, you will see how silly life after death is, and then, you’re gonna laugh!”

In Matthew’s account, Jesus answers: “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” (20:29). Just when it looked like the Sadducees had put the trumping move on Jesus and made Him look bad, Jesus is going to make them look quite foolish!

First, He showed them that their question completely lacked any kind of logic!People get married in this life, but not in the life to come!Marriage is something for this world only – we have something better coming in the next world.We will be like the angels (which they didn’t believe in) because we won’t die, and because we will no longer have the same kind of relationships. Secondly, Jesus showed them that the only really “foolish” ones will be the ones who don’t accept the truth about eternity, or consider life after death important!Only those who believe in Him as their Savior will be truly prepared for the resurrection and eternal life!Finally – as his big trumping move – Jesus quotes Moses from one of the five books the Sadducees accepted in order to show there is life after death!God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the living, not the dead!Sadducees, you’re gonna laugh, but the books you accept teach and prove there is life after death!Who looks foolish now?

There’s an old legend about a master and servant.The servant was not very smart and the master used to get very exasperated with him. Finally, one day, in a fit of temper, the master said: "You really are the dumbest man I know! Here, I want you to carry this staff wherever you go. And if you ever meet a person dumber than yourself, give them this staff." So time went by, and often in the marketplace the servant would encounter some pretty foolish people, but he never found someone appropriate for the staff. Years later, he returned to his master's home. He was shown into his master's bedroom, for the man was quite sick and in bed. In the course of their conversation the master said: "I'm going on a journey soon."

"When will you return?" asked the servant. "This is a journey from which I will not return." the master replied. The servant asked: "Have you made all the necessary arrangements?""No, I guess I haven’t." "Well, could you have made all the arrangements?" "Oh yes, I guess I've had time. I've had all my life. But I've been busy with other things." The servant said: "Let me get this straight. You're going on a journey, from which you will never return, and you've had all your life to make the arrangements, but you haven't?" The master said: "Yes, I guess that's right." The servant replied: "Master, take this staff. For at last I have truly found a man dumber than myself." The one who thought the other was foolish ended up being the truly foolish one!

That’s what happened with the Sadducees and Jesus.That’s what happens with anyone trying to make God look foolish. Their questions deal with man’s relationship with man.They are asking the wrong questions!The proper question to ask deals with man’s relationship with God.Today, the crowds are still asking the wrong questions and trying to find out the right answers.We talk about pollution, race relations, war, and world hunger, but skirt around the one real question: “What do you believe about Jesus?”

The story is told of a preacher attempting to put the finishing touches on his Sunday sermon but who was constantly being interrupted by his 6-year-old daughter. To occupy her, he found a picture of a globe and he cut it up into little pieces, knowing that that would keep her busy for a long time. To his surprise, within minutes she had completed it. Asked how she did it so fast, she replied: Simple, there was a picture of a man on the back, so I simply put his face together and the world fell right in line. Here is the real question! “What do you believe about Jesus?” Put that picture together and the rest of your world will fall right in line!

Those of you who believe that Jesus is your Savior, that He lived the perfect life you failed to live, and suffered separation from God on that cross so you wouldn’t have to, are right with God and are considered worthy of the life to come!Because of Jesus, you and I have been made children of God!We are children of the resurrection!We will live in a new world forever with a God who loves us so much that He designed it all for us!It’s going to be wonderful – and beyond our comprehension!It is nothing we can understand now.No, there won’t be marriage there like it is here.Does that make you sad?It shouldn’t!We will have perfect relationships with not just one person, but with multitudes!People ask: “Will we know each other when we get to heaven?”You know what?We won’t really know each other UNTIL we get to heaven!

There are a lot of questions the Bible doesn't answer about the Hereafter. One reason why is illustrated by the story of a boy sitting down to a bowl of spinach when there's a chocolate cake at the end of the table. He's going to have a rough time eating that spinach when his eyes are on that cake. And if the Lord had explained everything to us about what's ours to come, I think we'd have a rough time with our “spinach” down here.So no, we can’t understand everything, but that doesn’t make God foolish!It makes Him wonderful!Loving!Eternal life will be so much better than anything we can understand!Whenever we feel that we think we have the ending all figured out, God whispers in our ears: “You’re gonna laugh!”

Why are we going to laugh?Because we will be victorious!We will be Saints Triumphant!We are saints right now because Jesus made us holy with his life and death.But on that day, in the end, when all the teachings and questions of men are shown to be foolish, and that we actually weren’t foolish, we will be the saints triumphant!And we’re gonna laugh!We are gonna laugh at the Devil!We’re gonna laugh at the control sin once had over us!We’re gonna laugh at how foolish we once were!We’re gonna laugh at all the silly questions we once had!We’re gonna laugh at how important we thought those questions were.We’re gonna laugh out of joy!And most of all, we’re gonna laugh at death!We’re gonna laugh at the grave!Because our God is the God of the living, we’re gonna laugh for all eternity!

Many of you know Charles de Gaulle as the famous French WWII soldier, statesman, and author. But did you know that Charles and Evonne de Gaulle were the parents of a very mentally handicapped child? She was a treasure and a great concern to them both. No matter how bad things were in France, Charles and Evonne would always make time for their daughter. Almost every night after they had put her to bed, Evonne would ask, "Charles, why couldn't she have been like the others?" As predicted, the little girl died in her youth. There was a private graveside service. After the benediction, everyone began to leave, everyone except Evonne. Charles went back to her and said, "Come, Evonne. Did you not hear the blessing?Now she is like all the others."That is the promise and the power of resurrection!Friends, because of Jesus Christ and his victory over the grave… one day, we’re gonna laugh!Amen.

 

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