Living a Life that Leads to Eternal Love (Mark 12:18-27)

There came to him Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection. They asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’ There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife.” (12:18-23)

The Sadducees were in charge of overseeing the temple, an authority given to them by the Romans. They did not believe in angels, they did not believe in prophets other than Moses, and they did not believe in the resurrection. I was in the temple, and they wanted to discredit me. The method they used was to prove logically that resurrection was absurd and incoherent. If there was indeed a resurrection, then a woman who had been widowed and married then to another man would have more than one husband in heaven. They made their story  with seven husbands, to show that resurrection would not only hard to imagine but plainly ridiculous. They were thinking with a focus on what they know on earth, not on what they learn in the communion with God. They imagined heaven as a place where things are the same as on earth. This is not the case, there are common points, but there are differences. 

Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (12:24-25)

To correct this mistake, also for those who listened to this discussion, I had to stress two points. I needed to stress key elements already embedded in Scriptures, and to also explain how the power of the Father is at work in the resurrection. In the resurrection, there are many common elements, but also differences. You will also have a body, but this body will be glorified and different from your earthly body. It will become a heavenly body. Paul speaks about it (see 1 Corinthians 15). 

Below is the text on the subject of ‘becoming like angels’ in the book ‘Lord, Open my Eyes that I May See’ (link: www.amazon.com/Lord-Open-Eyes-That-May-ebook/dp/B00R6STE2O)

Angels Don’t Marry - Role of Sexuality: For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Mt 22:30)

Angels don’t marry together or with other creatures. We designed marriage for humans on earth, and sexuality is an important part of it. You have been created in a way that encourages you to fellowship with one another. The Father has embedded pleasure in sexuality to encourage this bonding. For humans, it has to be protected by a faithful relationship - the marriage covenant. Sexuality is a beautiful tool for teaching humans the value of bonding for life. In Leviticus 18 and 20, we have given you boundaries that will bless your marriage relationship. Without these boundaries, you end up destroying instead of creating.

As you learn to love and to be faithful to a wife or a husband on this earth, you learn what agape^⁠ love can be (a pure and generous love), how a relationship can become a source of life, how two humans can become three. You participate in the work of creation, so that as humans become parents in a covenant of marriage, they learn how God the Father wants to let His power flow through them. It is one of the greatest joys of life - to give life in fellowship. We have embedded in sexuality both the joy of fellowship and the joy of participating in the act of creation - procreation as people say it.

As you learn these lessons of faithful love and participation in the creative acts of the Father, we are preparing you for the resurrection, where the scaffolding of sexuality can be removed, where these joys of fellowship and creation have been so well learned that they have become part of who you are. I, Yeshoua, did not use this scaffolding, yet I was in perfect communion with the Father during all my life, and participated in the Father’s creative power on earth in resurrecting persons. You also, on earth, are invited to this divine fellowship, to be married with us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and to give birth with us to new relationships of love and grace, to let the miracle of love flow through you. Angels have learned to participate in our fellowship and creative acts. Worship is a key part of it.

In worshipping the Father, you learn to value all He does, you learn to love Him and His works, and with us you become a participant in his working power, in his loving creativity. The Father is not done with creating, he is always creating, and wants you and each human to participate forever in this creative love, with the holy angels. Worship is not boring but the place of creation with the Father, with the Holy Spirit and with me. With you, in you and through you, we create new life in and around you. You discover the creative power of God and how wonderful it is - This is the dance of creation.

In your human life, enjoy this creative and beautiful scaffolding of sexuality, but don’t miss its purpose - to teach the value of faithful relationships and of co-creating with the Father. Keep the essence of sexuality and prepare with us for eternity, where the scaffolding will be removed while the joys of fellowship and creation will remain.

One of the reasons why this scaffolding needs to be removed at one point is that it requires an exclusivity - one man, one woman - that would become a hindrance to continual worship in the fellowship of the saints. The exclusiveness that is required from sexuality is very important on earth. When people break this spiritual law that we gave, they invite major curses in their lives, one of them being AIDS or other diseases that result from this disobedience. We never desire curses, but when people move away from the protection of our covenant with humanity they experience the painful consequences of this break of covenant.

The devil has learned to use the power of sexuality to seduce people into disobedience, blinding them to the losses and focusing them on the fleeting pleasures. This brings them always more toward their basic instincts and always further from the divine calling to love. Images are often used for this wicked seduction, and you have to learn to recognize when pictures or scenes attract you away from us and from the purity that gives you peace. The joys of fellowship with us are so much deeper than these fleeting moments of sexual pleasure. In these moments, people have to keep their heart away from self-centeredness and keep an attitude of servant for the other. We created humanity, and thus we know the beauty of sexuality as well as its necessary boundaries for real and pure pleasure to take its root. The devil tries to grab domains of our creation as if he was their master, but it is just a delusion - he is not the master of sexuality but only the perverter of it. Keep your eyes from this greed for power that sexual images try to awaken in humans. It brings short lived pleasures and long term bitterness.

With the Father of love, we are the founders of what love is and how to receive and give love in this world. Learn with us what are the long term holy pleasures of life, and accept to go through the short lived pains of purification and sacrificial love. This way, you will be well prepared for eternal life with us, and avoid the bitterness of death. You will be ready to take your place with the angels in the heavenly spheres. You will be ready for the new creation, for the new Jerusalem that will be free from sin and pain, where tears and death will not be seen.

But about the dead, that they are raised; haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken.” (12:26-27)

If the Sadducees were mistaken about the power of God at work in the resurrection of bodies, they were also mistaken in their understanding of Scriptures. Scriptures are supposed to be understood with the help of the Holy Spirit, they should not become a text to analyze in autonomy from us. In studying without the Holy Spirit, may have created controversial teachings and brought divisions instead of harmony and communion with us. The Scriptures are not an end in themselves, they come from us and lead to us. They witness about me, yet many are not willing to come to me and to listen to me. We want to guide the believers in their reading of Scriptures, so that they come closer to us. In reading Scriptures, we would like to help people to learn to love as we love, in holiness and with our power. Yet, many want to control and prove things in order to use Scriptures for their own selfish goals, to show off, to look intelligent, to be ‘original’. This is so foolish and harmful. 

With respect for the Sadducees, I argued in a way they could accept, in a way they would listen to. Since they believed that only the first five books of the Bible were authoritative, the ‘Torah’ or ‘Pentateuch’, I mentioned one verse from the Torah: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’, when the Father had spoken to Moses (see Exodus 3:6). By stressing that God is the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac, the Father stressed that this relationship with the patriarchs is not finished, that they are still alive. That is why I told them that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 

As you learn to have fellowship with me, to welcome me as your Savior and Lord, you learn to welcome my life in you, the life of God. My life in you will lead you beyond death. Eternal life begins already as you learn to know the Father, as you learn to know me in a personal and intimate relationship, as you learn to dialogue with me in prayer and let the Spirit dwell in you. Eternal life is not only about the confession of a moment, but about a way of life - remaining in me and I in you, it is about living by faith, walking in the Spirit. If human fathers - who are not very good - know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Encourage people to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit. Also, when you stand in prayer, forgive so that it will be forgiven to you. Repent of dead works and welcome the Holy Spirit by faith. As you welcome the Holy Spirit, as you welcome me as your savior, learn to speak to us and to listen to us. Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. In this way, you will learn to develop this fellowship with us that gives you eternal life, and I will lead you throughout your life on earth. I am the good shepherd, listen to me and follow me.