I’ve been reading R.J. Rushdoony’s classic study on the major creeds of the early church, The Foundations of Social Order: Studies in the Creeds and Councils of the Early Church. If you have read it, you know what a masterpiece of historical and theological perspective it is.  If you haven’t read it, you need to!

So, here it is, Easter Sunday 2018 (April 1st), and I am just finishing chapter 19 on the Forgiveness of Sins and about to start chapter 20, The Resurrection of the Dead.

What a coincidence!  Easter. Resurrection.

That isn’t the only one.  Another “coincidence” occurred to me as I sat down and began to think about what I was going to write today.  That coincidence had to do with the chapter number which happens to enumerate those particular six pages in Rushdoony’s book (Foundations of Social Order) having to do with the resurrection of the dead.  The number is, as I mentioned, twenty.

Let that number sink in for a minute.

“Turn with Me to the Twentieth Chapter of _________.”

Can you think of any other “chapter twenties” in, say, a certain inspired Book that has a lot to say in a lot of chapters about, among other things, the doctrine of the resurrection?

Correct.

Now, I haven’t checked for any Old Testament examples of this yet — I will get to that — but I have spotted a few New Testament ones just to illustrate the point, and so I will limit my discussion today to these few, so as to keep this article to a reasonable length and scope.

What I found were five examples of New Testament chapter twenties in which the subject or the doctrine of resurrection is being dealt with in some way.

Here they are, in canonical order.

1. Matthew 20.  This is where Jesus gives the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, illustrating the economics of the kingdom of heaven: everyone given his “fair share”.  Immediately following, he goes to Jerusalem with his disciples and on the way he tells them, in verse 18, of his imminent death and, in verse 19, of his resurrection.

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,  And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

“The third day he shall rise again.”  There you have it, that’s the first example. Here is another one…

2. Luke 20.  Here, Jesus is confronted with two waves of opposition to his teaching, one after the other.  He quashes them both, one after the other.  The first is from the chief priests and scribes who question his authority.  He fights fire with fire.  They get burned (pretty badly), and they know it.  They regroup and try again. And again they fail.  They know they’re whipped, so off they go to lick their wounds.

Then along come the Sadducees.  They’re the guys who deny the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.  (At least the Pharisees and scribes allowed for it in their highly confused and convoluted theology.)  Anyway, this is the part of the chapter, verses 27-44, that we’re interested in for our discussion.  The Sadducees come along and propose a hypothetical situation to Jesus having to do with the resurrection of the dead.  It is obvious from their fictitious example that they have not only a sketchy idea of resurrection, but also of marriage!–so Jesus clarifies to them the biblical doctrine of both.  In his response recorded in verses 34-38, he refers to marrying and marriage four times, and to resurrection, rising from the dead and life after death four times. He devastates their argument.

The final nail in the coffin of the Sadducees’ argument gets driven in verse 37, where Jesus tells them:

Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

To this they have no response.  They are left speechless.  Some brave scribe, however, does get up the courage to speak up and he says, sheepishly, (vs. 39, my paraphrase), “Master, you said it!”

When the Lord Jesus Christ talks, smart and spiritually-minded people LISTEN (and do what he says)!

On to the next example.

3.  John 20.  In this chapter, we don’t just have a doctrine of the resurrection presented.  We have an actual resurrection that has taken place!  That of our Lord Jesus.  Now, being that this is Easter Sunday, no doubt you probably heard a sermon — perhaps it was an impassioned and earnest one — on this chapter or on one of the other Gospel accounts dealing with Christ’s rising from the dead to the astonishment of his followers.  So, that being the case there is no sense in me spending much time here on that narrative.  Just so long as we understand that this is The Most Significant Resurrection chapter of all of them!  We  move on…

To the next Chapter Twenty Resurrection:

4.  Acts 20.  This chapter in the book of Acts is where Paul bids a very emotional and tear-filled farewell to his beloved followers and saints at the church at Ephesus, where he has spent the last three years ministering to them with all of his heart and soul (v. 31).  A cursory reading of Acts ch. 20 might lead you to say to yourself, Hmm, I see Paul here traveling and preaching and talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and repentance and faith and the grace of God and all that, and even the undeniable and active role that the Holy Ghost has played in making the Gospel effectual and powerful in its working.  But nothing here explicitly about resurrection.

Ah, look again.  This is like John chapter 20.  It isn’t a mere teaching about resurrection.  It’s an account of an actual resurrection that happened.  You know what I’m talking about.  Read verses 7-12.  Paul is in Troas.  It’s Sunday night.  He has just spent a week there with the saints and he is leaving in the morning.  He starts preaching.  He is on a roll.  He is also on the third floor!  This is his farewell sermon.  He goes until past midnight.  Folks don’t go home.  A young man is there, named Eutychus.  Despite all the bright lights in the room, Eutychus falls asleep.  He falls out the window.  The third-floor window.  The fall kills him.  His death is clearly stated in Luke’s account (remember, Luke was a physician).  It is also clearly stated that he comes back to life.  Paul says, “his life is in him.”  Read it in any translation you like.  The saints were quite happy with the outcome.

I like how Eugene Peterson concludes this in The Message (Acts 20: 12):

On that note, they left—Paul going one way, the congregation another, leading the boy off alive, and full of life themselves.

Sometimes resurrection is a four-letter word: life!

By the way, the name Eutychus means “happy” and “fortunate”.  I should say so.

Anyway, Paul continued on his journey, eventually passing through Ephesus to say goodbye.

On to our fifth and final example.

5.  Revelation 20.  This is an easy one.  Even people who don’t study the rest of the Bible will study the book of Revelation and see all the biblical themes, symbols and motifs there.  Two of the big ones: death and resurrection. In Revelation chapter 20, resurrection is center-stage.  Saints are resurrected.  All the dead are resurrected.  Even Satan is “resurrected” — loosed out of his prison — for a while (“a thousand years”) before being burned one last time and then hauled away to his final destination in the lake of fire with all the wicked resurrected, to be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The main take-away from Revelation 20 is: not all resurrections have happy endings!

There you have them.  Five New Testament examples of the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, dealt with in five distinctive chapters which all happen to be numbered “20”.

Now, remember what I said about keeping this article somewhat “reasonable” in length and scope?

I think we’re there!

And so I will continue this discussion of creeds and councils and the doctrinal defense of biblical Christianity — which, frankly, I really did not even get started, did I? — in my next post.  But at least we laid a good scriptural (even numerical) foundation for it.

Until then, Easter Blessings and the joy of Christ’s Resurrection to you and yours.

He is risen.