6th. November. 2022. Service.
Inverkeithing Parish Church linked with
North Queensferry Church
Service of Worship 6th November 2022
Twentysecond Sunday after Pentecost
Prelude: Behold the Lamb
Introit: Hymn 770 “I love you, Lord”
Collect
O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn 124 “Praise to the Lord the Almighty”
Call to Prayer
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing!
Lord of life and hope, hear us as we are assembled in your presence seeking nourishment for our souls and healing for our spirits. Give to us your living bread, that having been nourished in soul and spirit, we may be witnesses to your transforming love. Through the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, we offer this prayer.
Gracious and Merciful Lord, you have proffered food for the journey. You remind us that your eternal life will sustain us as we journey through this life and witness to your love.
Lord, we have lived as unwise people.
God, forgive us for wasting time.
We have been foolish.
Jesus, forgive us for not understanding your will.
We have filled ourselves with the wine of worldliness.
Holy Spirit, forgive us for not being filled with you.
We have forsaken your spiritual food.
Great Triune God of grace, forgive us for not drawing
our strength from your bread of heaven.
Almighty God, please add to your mighty deeds
by forgiving our transgressions. Amen.
Words of Assurance
The Lord is gracious to us and gentle.
The Lord heals our souls with love.
The Lord is merciful,
providing spiritual food for the hungry.
Be healed in your hearts and be fed in your souls
by the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer for Understanding
Lord, to whom shall we go, for you have the words of eternal life?
Guide us by your Word and Spirit this day,
so that in hearing the Scriptures read and interpreted,
our hearts may be converted to your ways,
and our lives become a greater reflection of Jesus Christ, your Living Word.
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever. Amen.
Intimations
Remembrance Sunday
The North Queensferry service will begin early at 9:45 am and will be led by Iain Mitchell QC and will be followed by the Wreath Laying Ceremony at the War Memorial.
The Inverkeithing Service will begin at 10:45am while the Parade takes place at the War Memorial. The Colour Party and the Parade will enter the Church following the War Memorial service of Remembrance and wreath laying ceremony. The Parade will fall in for the March Past to the Civic Centre following the worship.
Inverkeithing Church Fair
The Church Fair is being held on Saturday 26th November from 12 – 2pm in the Church. Admission is £5 which includes soup & mince pies, admission only £1.
There is a list of stalls available in the Church & if you are able to help in any way, please add you name to the list or speak to Joan.
Choir for Christmas, we will practise on Saturdays from 10:30-12 noon in the Church.
North Queensferry Messy Church will be held today, 6th November from 4-6pmin the church and hall. Children must be accompanied by a parent for Messy Church.
A Time to Remember memorial service for all who have been bereaved in the past years will be held this afternoon at 3pm in Dalgety Bay Church.
North Queensferry Scottish Social Evening for Ukrainian Refugees will be held on Tuesday 29th November from 6.30-8.30. in the church and host families are welcome too.
Coffee Mornings Inverkeithing Tuesday 8th 10:00am-noon North Queensferry Wednesday 9th 10:30-noon.
Morag Wilkinson will be making ginger wine again this year, both for the sale of work and available in the entryway to the church. If you have any screw-top glass bottles (e.g., wine bottles) that she could use, she would be grateful for any contributions.
Invitation to the Offering
With love and faith let us bring our offerings before God.
Prayer of Dedication
God of all good gifts, you have provided all that we need for full lives, and yet we don’t stop there – we continue to fill our lives with things in an elusive search for security. As we bring our offerings to you today, remind us that only deeper faith will bring peace, and good works—caring for others through generous giving—will help us know the joy of full lives. We pray this in the name of Christ, who gave all out of love for all your children. Amen
Reading Psalm 17
A prayer of David.
1 Hear me, Lord, my plea is just;
listen to my cry.
Hear my prayer –
it does not rise from deceitful lips.
2 Let my vindication come from you;
may your eyes see what is right.
3 Though you probe my heart,
though you examine me at night and test me,
you will find that I have planned no evil;
my mouth has not transgressed.
4 Though people tried to bribe me,
I have kept myself from the ways of the violent
through what your lips have commanded.
5 My steps have held to your paths;
my feet have not stumbled.
6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
7 Show me the wonders of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.
8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me. Amen.
Job 9:23-27
23 ‘Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock for ever!
25 I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God.
27 I, myself, will see him
with my own eyes – I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! Amen.
Hymn 562 Through the love of God our Saviour
Reading Luke 20:27–38
27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?’
34 Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.’ Amen, this is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.
Hymn 727 “In the bulb there is a flower”
Sermon
Our text from Luke’s gospel is set during the week after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, a few days before his death on the cross. Jesus is really speaking to two different audiences here. The first is a group of Sadducees who confront him with a challenge to the belief in a resurrection of the dead on the last day.
The Sadducee party consisted mostly of priests associated with the Jerusalem temple who came from a wealthy and aristocratic milieu of the Jewish community. They held a conservative view of the Hebrew scriptures. They accepted as authoritative only the five books that were thought to have been written by Moses, and they found nothing there about life after death. In some ways they were stricter than the Pharisees because of their rigid adherence to the Written Law. The Sadducees acted severely in cases involving the death penalty, and they interpreted literally the Mosaic principle of lex talionis “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.
The Sanhedrin, the Temple government, which tried and sentenced Jesus was composed mainly of Sadducees. They refused to accept the later prophetic writings, such as the books of Isaiah and Daniel, which speak about a future resurrection, but these didn’t count for the Sadducees who denied the immortality of the soul. It seems that they did not accept the Psalms or Job which was written between 600 and 500 BCE in which Job appears to speak about a future resurrection. Some think that Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, but there is no real evidence for this.
The second audience to which Jesus’ words are directed is of the Christians for whom Luke wrote his gospel 50 or so years later. That means all the Christians who would read or hear this account through the centuries, and of course, that includes us! Those two audiences are different for several reasons. The most important difference is that those who hear Luke’s account can know something important that the Sadducean audience in Jerusalem did not know.
Today’s gospel is Luke’s first reference to the Sadducees. He mentions another group, the Pharisees, often. More progressive than the Sadducees, they accepted not just the books of Moses but other writings of the Hebrew scriptures as well, including texts that speak of a future resurrection of the dead. The gospels tell about disputes between Jesus and the Pharisees, but Jesus agreed with them that there would be a resurrection of the dead at the end of history. This was a doctrine that solidified among the Jews after the Babylonian exile, but the belief in a resurrection is found earlier in Egyptian, Canaanite, Babylonian and Greek religion as well as in China and India with Buddhism between the 6th and 4th centuries before Christ.
Jesus gained a following during his Galilean ministry, and the Sadducees in Jerusalem would have heard about what he’d said and done. Throwing the moneychangers out of the temple when he entered Jerusalem wouldn’t have endeared him to members of that priestly party! So, they decided to discredit him with a challenge they thought would demonstrate the idea of a resurrection to be absurd. Maybe they’d used it in earlier debates with Pharisees.
The challenge to Jesus was based on a provision of the Mosaic law in Deuteronomy that says that if a man died, leaving a wife but no son, his brother should marry the woman, and the first son of that marriage should be the heir of the man who died. The story of Ruth in the Old Testament is an example.
Now the Sadducees asked Jesus about an unlikely situation that could arise. The first of seven brothers marries a woman and dies without leaving children, so brother number two is to marry her. But if he also dies childless, brother three is next in line to marry her. Rinse and repeat. Finally, brother seven dies childless, and the woman also dies. Then “In the resurrection,” the Sadducees asked (perhaps with an intonation suggesting “this so-called resurrection”), “Whose wife will the woman be?” She had been the wife of each of them!
Jesus’ reply indicates that the resurrection won’t be a return to the conditions of the present world but will be the life of God’s new creation. Then he points to a text in the part of the Hebrew scriptures that the Sadducees accept, God’s appearance to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus. There God says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Only living people have a God, Jesus says, so if God was the God of those ancestors after they died on earth, they must be alive to God.
What was at issue there was a doctrine — or what some might call a theory — about a possible afterlife. Some of the scribes said that Jesus had spoken well with his answer to the Sadducees’ challenge. But if we think about that, it may seem that while Jesus made good points, he didn’t really present an open-and-shut case for the resurrection of the dead.
The differences between conditions of life today and those in the resurrection shows that the Sadducees’ story doesn’t rule resurrection out. But the Sadducees could object that Jesus hadn’t proved that there will be a resurrection in which conditions differ from those today. And Moses being told that God was still the God of the deceased patriarchs sounds convincing. But the Sadducees could ask why, if that really showed that the dead will be raised, Moses didn’t say anything specific about such an important matter later to the Israelites.
The situation was radically changed a few days later, after Jesus had died on a Roman cross. Within a few weeks, his disciples were proclaiming something new. It wasn’t a doctrine or a theory about what happens to people after death. It was instead an announcement that Jesus who had died on a Roman cross was alive again and had appeared to and spoken with them.
A few weeks after that first Easter, Peter spoke to the crowd at Pentecost. He quoted a verse from a Psalm to show that God had intended for Jesus to be raised from the dead, but the heart of his message was that Jesus had, in fact, been raised from the dead.
In his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, Paul addresses problems that he’d heard of in the congregation that he’d started there. In one long chapter, he speaks to members who he heard were saying that “there is no resurrection of the dead.”8 Paul goes into detail about this and begins by reminding the Corinthians of what he had “handed on” to them: the testimony to Jesus’ resurrection from disciples in Jerusalem that Paul himself had “received” from them. This is a very early tradition, from just a few years after the events in question. After speaking of Jesus’ death and burial, Paul says:
He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. … He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.9
There is a scene in John’s gospel in which Jesus stands by the tomb of his dead friend Lazarus with Lazarus’ sister Martha. He tells her, as one of the Pharisees might have, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha replies, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day,” and Jesus tells her, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
“I am the resurrection.”
Discussions about the possibility of resurrection and Christian reasons to believe it are certainly appropriate. It’s not helpful just to tell interested enquirers, “Take it or leave it.” And doctrinal statements are needed to make Christian belief clear. But the basic Christian answer to the question, “Will the dead be raised?” is, “Jesus is risen.” Christ is the resurrection, and all who are in Christ will share in his new life.
A radical change has taken place in the world between that day when Jesus spoke with the Sadducees in Jerusalem and the time after that first Easter. The common belief among those who believed in the resurrection was that it would take place, as Martha said, “on the last day,” at the end of the world. If that’s the case, and “If Jesus has been raised, then the end of the world has begun.” We are, as Paul told the Corinthians, those “on whom the ends of the ages have come.”
How then do we understand the doctrine of resurrection? A little while ago I said, “Jesus’ reply indicates that the resurrection won’t be a return to the conditions of the present world but will be the life of God’s new creation.” This is the first pointer to help us.
We have just come through at least two hundred years of scientific rationalism which has viewed the world, and indeed the universe from a purely physical standpoint. This reality is viewed as what is ultimate reality solid following the immutable laws of physics. Most people in the western world still think in this way. The only reality is the physical while the less tangible aspects of life, consciousness and emotion as simply by-products. The death of the body is the end of everything. Many people are modern Sadducees. You live, you die, that’s it! Why then bother with a god?
However, in recent decades scientific rationalism has had to cope with the emergence different view of the universe as a vast energy field which is influenced by consciousness, by the mind, by the observer. This would seem to put consciousness and mind beyond the physical plane. This is a very crude description of this idea. The idea that our soul or consciousness only exists within the physical body because of physical chemical and electrical activity is looking very shaky.
Jesus’ affirmation that resurrection life, eternal life is an entirely different reality is more plausible now. We can and should abandon any notion that resurrection of the body is a physical reconstitution of this body in this universe which of course ordinary physics cannot support. Graves opening and long dead material being reconstituted is not what is envisaged here. Indeed, the early Christians did not think of it in this way either.
The gospel stories speak of Jesus’ resurrection body as having a different quality, a different kind of energy, one might say a higher vibration, appearing and disappearing, yet still solid
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul has a rather complicated and slightly muddled description of the resurrection, based I think on his near-death experience and his ascent to what he calls the third heaven. He writes: “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ 1 Corinthians 15:50-54
We make lots of assumptions about this passage (and the above is just a snippet of it) based on Biblical eschatology. We think of the last trumpet as happening once for all in time, to everyone at the same moment. But even the modern concept of time has changed, so that we need not think of this as a future “end of history,” but as an event in timeless eternity, available in our experience of death. For the living on earth, it will always be a future event. But as we leave this life it will be experienced within eternity.
In his encounter with the Sadducees, Jesus saw beyond this life to a different condition where souls are not tied by earthly relationships but bound instead in the love of God. So, no matter how many spouses you have they will have been part of your human experience on earth. Heaven is another matter. Job understood resurrection in terms of this present fleshly reality and instinctively knew in the Spirit, that his redeemer, the one who would make right and whole the negatives and failures of this life in resurrection would appear to him. St Paul took the revelation further, by saying that this will be a different reality with different energy, different laws of existence and not comparable with this physical existence. Science today is catching up with him. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and life and all who are in Christ will share in his new life. That’s very good news for us who follow Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Intercession
God our heavenly Friend, you allow us to share your love for the world, while we are here praying for the world’s healing, others are busy implementing that healing. Later, when we are out there trying to give of our best, may others remember to pray for us.
Give your grace to all peacemakers; those who endeavour to resolve with justice all conflicts between nations, and within communities, commerce and industry, parliaments, families, marriage partners, colleagues, and friends.
Let your grace support those who fight with and for neglected people; those small ethnic groups with no political clout, the little people who are exploited off by the rich and unscrupulous, and the deserted wives or husbands who are raising a family alone.
Endow all merciful folk with your sustaining grace; those who treat diseases, bind up wounds, feed the hungry, re-settle the homeless, care for the orphan, visit the prisoner, encourage the handicapped, watch with the dying and grieve with the sorrowful.
Endorse the work of this church with your enabling grace. Keep it close to the agenda of Christ. Let us be joyful in worship, warm in fellowship, inclusive in outreach, open in decision making, humble and sensitive in evangelism, and gracious in our ecumenical endeavours.
Bless any servant of yours who is keeping the faith against the odds: those without the encouragement of other Christians at hand, or without even a distant congregation that can pray their names with affection. Please let your grace renew them daily, and may they know your Spirit as Friend and Counsellor.
Visit each of us with your grace, loving God. Dismantle our fears, build up our faith, deepen our love, clarify our goals, sharpen our insight, widen our compassion, and open our minds to the new words you wish to speak to our situation.
In the name of the patient, insightful, and healing Christ we offer these prayers.
Amen!
Hymn 664: 1-4 “Here O my Lord, I see thee face to face”
The Apostles Creed.
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Communion
The Great Thanksgiving
Invitation to the Lord’s table.
This is the joyful feast of the people of God!
They will come from east and west,
and from north and south,
and sit at table in the kingdom of God. Luke 13:29.
According to Luke,
when our risen Lord was at table with his disciples,
he took bread, blessed,
broke it and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened
and they recognized him. Luke 24:30, 31.
This is the Lord’s table.
Our Saviour invites all those who trust him
to share the feast which he has prepared.
O taste and see that the Lord is good. Ps. 34:8a.
The presentation of gifts
Let us return to God
the offerings of our life
and the gifts of the earth.
Our opening responses are on the screen.
Let us pray
The Lord be with you.
And also, with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
it is right to give God thanks and praise.
Holy God, Creator of heaven and earth,
with joy we give you thanks and praise.
You commanded light to shine out of darkness,
divided the sea and dry land,
created the vast universe and called it good.
You made us in your image
to live with one another in love.
You gave us the breath of life
and freedom to choose your way.
You set forth your purpose
in commandments through Moses,
and called for justice in the cry of prophets.
Through long generations
you have been patient and kind to all your children.
The preface concludes:
How wonderful are your ways, almighty God!
How marvelous is your name, O Holy One!
You alone are God.
Therefore, with apostles and prophets,
and that great cloud of witnesses
who live for you beyond all time and space,
we lift our hearts in joyful praise in the Sanctus:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
We praise you, most holy God,
for sending your only Son Jesus to live among us,
full of grace and truth.
Sharing our joy and sorrow,
he healed the sick and was a friend of sinners.
Obeying you,
he took up his cross and died that we might live.
We praise you that he overcame death
and is risen to rule the world.
He is still the friend of sinners.
We trust him to overcome every power that can hurt or divide us,
and believe that when he comes in glory
we will celebrate victory with him.
The words of institution may be said here or in relation to the breaking of the bread.
We thank you that on the night before he died,
Jesus took bread, gave thanks to you,
broke the bread and said,
“Take, eat.
This is my body, given for you.
Do this for the remembrance of me.”
In the same way he took the cup, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood.
Do this for the remembrance of me.”
Therefore, in remembrance of your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we take this bread and this cup
and give you praise and thanksgiving
as we proclaim the mystery of faith:
Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.
Gracious God,
pour out your Holy Spirit upon us,
and upon this bread and wine,
that we, and all who share this feast,
may be one with Christ and he with us.
Here we offer ourselves to be a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to you.
In your mercy,
accept our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
Fill us with the joy of eternal life,
that we may be your faithful people
until we feast with you in glory.
Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honour are yours, almighty God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
The breaking of bread
We thank you that on the night before he died,
Jesus took bread, gave thanks to you,
broke the bread and said,
“Take, eat.
This is my body, given for you.
Do this for the remembrance of me.”
In the same way he took the cup, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood.
Do this for the remembrance of me.”
Because there is one bread,
we who are many are one body,
for we all partake of the one bread. I Cor. 10:17.
When we break the bread,
it is a sharing in the body of Christ. I Cor. 10:16.
Here the minister pours the wine and lifts the cup, saying:
When we bless the cup,
it is a sharing in the blood of Christ. I Cor. 10:16.
The minister then holds out both the bread and the cup to the people.
The communion
The gifts of God for the people of God.
“Take, eat. This is the body of Christ which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of him ”
This cup is the new covenant sealed in the blood of Christ. Do this in remembrance of him
Prayer after communion
Eternal God, we thank and praise you for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us.
Give us grace to go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others with courage and compassion in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn 664 5-7 “Too soon we rise the symbols disappear”
Sending out and Benediction
Go out into the world in peace. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him. Col. 3:17.
And the blessing of God Almighty the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love this day and evermore
May God’s blessing surround you each day
Postlude: Taste and See
For Children
Sadducees
You know what a riddle is, don’t you? It is a word puzzle — a question that makes you think. Sometimes riddles are funny. I’m sure you have probably heard this one. “Why did the chicken cross the road?” The answer is, “To get to the other side.” Here are a few of my favourite riddles.
Q: Mary’s father has 4 children; three are named Nana, Nene, and Nini. What is the fourth child’s name?
A: Mary! Think about the question
Q: How many months have 28 days?
A: All of them!
Q: What is full of holes but can still hold water?
A: A sponge!
Riddles have been around since the time of Jesus. Maybe longer than that. One day, Jesus was approached by a group of Sadducees — religious leaders who did not believe in the resurrection or the happiness of heaven.
The Sadducees were trying to trick Jesus into agreeing that there was no resurrection. They asked him to answer this riddle: “The law of Moses says that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name. Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. So, the second brother married the widow, but he also died. Then the third brother married her. This continued until all seven brothers had married the same woman. Finally, the woman also died. So, tell us, whose wife will she be after the resurrection since all seven were married to her!”
My, that is a tricky riddle, isn’t it? Listen to Jesus’ answer.
Jesus said, “Marriage is for people here on earth. But in the age to come, those who are raised from the dead will not marry or be married. Not only that, but they will never die again. They will live forever as the children of God.” (Luke 20:36)
After Jesus answered their riddle so wisely, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Now, you and I know that Jesus promised us that if we love him and trust in him, we will live forever in heaven with him. Isn’t it sad that some people do not believe there is a resurrection and eternal life in heaven? Oh, that reminds me of one more riddle!
- Why were the people in today’s Bible lesson called Sadducees?
- Since they didn’t believe in the resurrection or the happiness of heaven, they were “Sad, you see!”
Dear Father, we are happy today that you have promised us eternal life in heaven. Thank you that heaven is going to be amazing! In Jesus’ name, Amen.