Mark - Lesson 12C

• Tonight, we find ourselves in an ongoing interrogation of questions from different members of the Sanhedrin council.

  • To ground us in which day of the week we are in, here is our graphic from the start of the Triumphal entry.

    • The day is still Tuesday, which means that the mounting pressure and instigation of the leaders of Israel continues to increase.

  • The interrogation began with the Sanhedrin council which included the chief priest, scribes, and elders in Mark 11:27.

    • From there, the Pharisees and the Herodians come into the picture to further attempt to trip up Jesus in Mark 12:13.

  • In Mark 12:13-17, we witnessed the issue of the tribute-tax and the underpinning question of who is owed what.

    • Jesus made known, very pointedly, that the people were to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but to give to God what belonged to God.

  • It was there that we discussed that just as the image of Caesar was on the tribute tax, so does every man bear the very image of God upon them.

    • Therefore, we ought to render to God what is rightfully owed to Him and that is our very lives to be submitted in obedience to Him.

    • However, the constant hurdle Jesus has been dealing with is the hurdle of unbelief.

  • After Jesus hit the Pharisees and the Herodians with that jaw dropping statement, they realized they too had failed at tripping up Jesus.

    • It was after their failed attempt that the next group of leaders arrived, and this is where our teaching picks up tonight.

  • So, when we consider this next round of interrogative questioning with the leaders of Israel and their line of questioning, know that it is not too far removed from the previous groups.

    • If I were to outline our flow of thought tonight, we are going to see the following things:

      • 1. A Premise of Poor/low Theology (Sadducees) v.18-23

      • 2. A Provocative Question (asked of Jesus) v.24

      • 3. A Promise Provided (Pointing to the Living Hope) v.25-27

  • I would like to tag tonight’s teaching: “The God of the Living”

    • With that being said, I invite you to open a copy of your scriptures and meet me in Mark 12:18-27.

Mark 12:18 Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) *came to Jesus, and began questioning Him, saying, 
Mark 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. 
Mark 12:20 There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. 
Mark 12:21 The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; 
Mark 12:22 and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. 
Mark 12:23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 
Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? 
Mark 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 
Mark 12:26 But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 
Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”

• Mark begins verse 18 by mentioning that the next group is none other than the Sadducees. (Day of week: Tuesday)

  • Mark, knowing that he has not previously referenced this group in his account provides some context as to who this group is but most importantly their theological bent.

    • He mentions that this group professes and believes that there is no resurrection.

    • So, with this detail in mind, it begs the need to further explore this group in detail and why Mark finds the need to emphasize their varied view on resurrection.

    • But most importantly, it brings into view the significance of the resurrection, itself. (We will explore this later in the teaching.)

  • The Sadducees came from the most prominent families of Israel and represented the “holy upper class”.

    • If you were to consider the “Have and have nots” within a societal/cultural setting, this group was deemed the upper echelon of society.

  • With that level of status came their disdain of all who were outside of their circle and sphere of influence.

    • Regarding their popularity among the people, they were less popular than the Pharisees.

    • And despite them being few in number, they attained many influential positions on the Sanhedrin council.

  • Along with the Sadducees’ differing background came variances in their theological views regarding scripture.

    • For instance, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, future judgement, and the existence of angels and spirits, whereas the Sadducees rejected these truths.

  • The reason being is that the Sadducees held to a conservative view of scripture.

    • They insisted that only the Laws that were written in the Law of Moses were the only binding thing.

    • Therefore, they rejected the “tradition of the elders” aka the Oral Law and written commentary from that of the Pharisaical party.

  • For more of a description of the Sadducees and their theological perspective on the resurrection, Josephus provides the following:

“(164) But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; (165) and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men’s own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades.”

• So in their denial of the resurrection, they provide Jesus with a hypothetical question based upon their incorrect theology.

  • Check out the question in verses 19-23.

Mark 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother.
Mark 12:20 There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. 
Mark 12:21 The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; 
Mark 12:22 and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. 
Mark 12:23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”

• So the Sadducees, in an attempt to trip Jesus up in questioning, try to play “cat and mouse” with the scriptures while at the same time creating a trumped-up story that reeks of hypocrisy.

  • They begin by appealing to the scriptures in their scenario involving matters of marriage, regarding what is called the Levirate law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

    • Levirate law dealt with what was a cultural expectation designed to preserve some aspect of a deceased’s man’s life.

    • Such marriages could preserve familial inheritance and patrilineal descent, as well as provide support for a widow.

    • And the implications of this law spoke to moral obligation and legislated responsibility.

  • So in the Sadducees’ story, they mention a man who had a wife and the man dies.

    • The man has no offspring to continue on his legacy, therefore the Levirate law insisted that the brother of the deceased was to marry the wife.

    • In doing so they would have a child and raise the child to his dead brother, meaning the child, from the living brother, would be deemed the dead brother’s child and not his own.

  • However, the story becomes even more inflated, as the example given is that the other brother dies.

    • This scenario repeats seven times.

  • Eventually, arriving to verse 23, it reveals the true purpose of the question asked.

    • The Sadducees are using this question as a means to speak to their theological perspective on the resurrection in an attempt to make the resurrection look as though it was a farce.

  • Their question comes to a head when they ask Jesus the following:

    • “In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be, for she has married seven.”

  • Now, knowing that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and knowing that they only deemed the Torah as binding, the question becomes: What will be their means by which to discredit the resurrection using this example?

    • But another question insists to be asked and that is: “Where in the Hebrew scriptures is there a mention of the resurrection or the lack thereof?”

  • Surely, identifying this answer provides the means of “side stepping” their argument and disarming them altogether.

    • Let’s begin by answering the first question.

  • Understand, the purpose of the question from the Sadducees is to trip Jesus up on matters of the scriptures.

    • In this case, their question on marriage and the idea of a resurrection in the coming future, based on their theology and interpretation, made no sense.

    • It becomes clear that the Sadducees are making a mockery of the resurrection considering their understanding of how this world works.

  • They are assuming that what they know about this present life and the things of this present world will continue to persist in the afterlife.

    • However, their understanding of scripture and their presuppositions are off base.

  • They are assuming that life now versus the life that is to come, (in the resurrection), is somehow one in the same – an extension of this life.

    • If that were the case, it would bring up many issues regarding one’s understanding of marriage as it pertains to the Law.

    • Furthermore, to view the resurrection in this way creates serious issues regarding the Coming Kingdom, such as: “Who would that person be married to in the Kingdom, and how many ex-spouses would that be?”

  • Friends, for one to make these poor theological assumptions, would cause one to fail to see the consistency and supremacy of God’s Holy Word.

    • It would leave the door open to say that God’s character could change as it relates to who He is, His word, and His holiness.

      • If we were to pause here for a moment, this becomes a clear example of how man can attempt to find ways to contort and confuse the scripture based upon things that individuals either fail to understand or refuse to submit themselves to.

      • You can take almost any scripture and make it say what you want it to or to prove your point, yet in doing so, you take God’s word out of context and you become the sole means of understanding and that becomes dangerous grounds.

  • So, Jesus makes known the ways in which the Sadducees are contorting the text to dismiss and discredit Him, His ministry and Messianic claims.

    • Check out what Jesus says in verse 24.

    • This question outlines the two foundational issues of the Sadducees.

    • Furthermore, it points us to the systemic underpinnings of unbelief. Check out verse 24.

Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? 

• Jesus, after hearing their inflated scenario highlights 2 things in which the Sadducees, in error, mention regarding the resurrection.

  • Notice the phrase that Mark uses here, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken...”

    • The Greek word for “mistaken” is planao which means to be lead astray in error or pulled into a specific way outside of proper belief.

    • Their failure in understanding the resurrection is mentioned in the next two clauses: A misunderstanding of the scriptures and a failure of knowing the power of God.

  • The reality is, walking in error of the truth further leads one into a lack of truly understanding God’s word and His power.

    • That deception is often rooted in our lack of submission to God’s truth and our reliance upon self, status, and relativism.

    • And in this case, according to the Sadducees, their best life was now so why not maximize on it.

  • Herein lies the danger of the current movement of “my truth”.

    • The moment that absolute truth comes in direct conflict with relative truth we find ourselves in a truth war.

    • However, the truth of God’s word is the only thing that has remained consistent and has not failed.

  • So, Jesus proceeds to tell them that their error and deception of truth is because they do not understand the scriptures.

    • This response completely pulled the rug from under these men, because in few words Jesus said: You have thoughts about the law, but you don’t truly know the Law.

    • It’s like telling someone who has been in a certain profession for a long period of time, that they don’t truly know what they’re talking about.

    • So, with this reality being made known to the Sadducees, Jesus will have to further explain why they are ignorant to the scriptures that they claim to know.

  • And lastly, Jesus states that this group of men do not know the power of God.

    • Because they are ignorant of the scriptures, in its fulness, not only is their theology shot, but they fail to personally experience the power of the God they claim to know.

    • For the power that they currently possess as members of the Sanhedrin council is but earthly power and pales in comparison to the power of God.

  • Now before we move to Jesus’ explanation as to why these men theologically are off base, we need to know why we, as believers are not in error.

    • We need to understand why we have assured hope in Jesus Christ and why the power of the resurrection is so essential to the doctrine of the Christian faith.

  • I want to begin by stating that the New Testament always interprets the Old Testament, meaning that what has been written in the Hebrew scriptures has been fully revealed in the New Testament canon.

    • This means that God, in His wisdom and Power, has made known through the scriptures that this life is not the means to the end, but the means to a new beginning.

  • As believers in Christ, Paul talks about us having a living hope in Christ.

    • This reoccurring term “hope” shows up about 44 times in Paul’s letters and speaks to the fact that this hope doesn’t disappoint.

    • Consider the following scriptures that Paul writes about regarding this hope that we have in Christ:

Galatians 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. 

• • Check out Colossians 1:27

Colossians 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

• • Lastly, for good measure, here is 1 Thessalonians 4:13

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

• In each instance, these statements of hope are based upon our faith in Christ the guarantor of the resurrection for the believer, through the power of God.

  • That because Christ was raised from the dead, not only does this mean that we will be raised with Him, but we too will be raised to new bodies.

  • This isn’t just some whimsical idea or thought that Jesus talked about, but this is something that He promised would take place because of the providential plan of the Father from the very beginning.

  • Jesus mentions this even in John 5:21 and John 6:40, check out the text.

John 5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. 
John 6:39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 
John 6:40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

• What seals the deal for the Christian is the fact that there is proof in the pudding.

  • The Lord Jesus had mentioned to His disciples, on several occasions, that He would die, but on the third day be raised.

  • This type of claim was not light in the least bit, for to make such a claim as rising from the dead, one would have to provide the proof.

  • I believe that is why seeing glimmers of that reality such as with Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus were simply taste testers of the true hope for all who believe in Jesus.

    • Jesus’ resurrection was to be the receipt that those in whom are dead were merely asleep.

    • This ultimately proving that death is not the end of this life, but simply a transition from this life to the next.

  • One day, we will possess a new body that will not corrupt, that will never get sick, and will never suffer the pains of deterioration, etc.

    • This is a guaranteed hope, for if Jesus has said it then the Father has promised it and God is not One in who can lie. (John 6:39)

  • Consider this for a moment, if Jesus did not rise from the dead as He said He would (and did), the very message that we proclaim week after week would be a powerless message therefore speaking to a God with no power.

    • This is why Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14 the following:

1 Corinthians 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 
1 Corinthians 15:14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.

• So, Jesus will now approach these fundamental questions that the Sadducees have by providing biblical proof against their error using the very scriptures they claim to know.

  • Check out the last 3 verses for tonight:

Mark 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 
Mark 12:26 But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 
Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”

• Jesus mentions that because of the Sadducees’ lack of understanding and wrong theology, they have taken God’s word and tried to conform it to their own misaligned belief.

  • Jesus makes clear to these men that marriage and giving in to marriage is only an aspect of this present life and not a part of the life that is to come.

    • Jesus mentions that we will be “like the angels in heaven” in that our very existence in the life to come is centered on total fellowship with God.

    • And in that, we will live forever with Him and will have no need of reproducing or intimacy, for all the fellowship we will ever need is found in Him.

  • So, after Jesus makes mention of the Sadducees playing “loosey goosey” with the text, He provides them with clarity using the portion of scripture they deemed authoritative (the Torah).

    • If you recall, the Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, only considered the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible, to be authoritative.

    • And within the first 5 books of the Hebrew scriptures there is no explicit mentioning of the resurrection – however it is implied.

  • It is from the book of Moses, that Jesus quotes Exodus 3:6 to plainly explain to these men the reality that the promise of the resurrection comes from the Torah.

    • Exodus 3:6 is the passage regarding the burning bush and how God spoke to Moses regarding the fact that He is a covenant-keeping God.

  • Notice the phrase that Jesus uses here, found in Exodus 3:6: “I AM The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

    • This phrase that God used for Moses spoke to the fact that the covenant promises were made with the intent that even those who He has made that promise to/with will be a part of it, therefore meaning they are still alive.

  • The question that we must ask ourselves regarding Jesus’ conversation with the Sadducees is: “If this covenant promise is a perpetual promise, it means it is everlasting.”

    • And if it is an everlasting contract, yet the parties that were benefactors of this contract have died: “How does God maintain His word in that regard?”

  • It must mean that God’s very word being bounded to these men and their descendants is not limited to the confines of human frailty, but rather requires a Divine Power to completely fulfill this promise even to those that have perished under that promise, by faith.

    • Friends, this is Jesus’ point as plainly stated in verse 27. “God is not the God of the dead, but He is the God of the Living.”

  • For, to not believe in the resurrection is a blatant denial and rejection of the Power of God.

    • And if the Sadducees’ failure to see Jesus’ point regarding the resurrection wasn’t sufficient, neither was the physical literal resurrection of Jesus going to be sufficient for them as spectators in the first century.

  • This brings up a fundamental theological point regarding the significance of the resurrection and that is: The proof of the resurrection itself is the very culminating demonstration of the Power of God.

    • The doctrine of the resurrection is the very hope of the Christian faith!

    • Knowing what Jesus came to do, points us to a true and Living Promise that God has made and intends to keep!

  • This is why there is such great debate on the resurrection event itself because people seek to find evidence they deem justifiable, to somehow disprove God by disregarding Jesus being raised from the dead.

    • This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 that the very weight and trustworthiness of the Gospel hinges on the resurrection.

  • If Jesus did not die and did not rise, it would completely discount the very power of God, His promises, and therefore His very existence.

    • Friends, you and I have an assured hope in the Person of Jesus.

    • This is why Jesus stresses three times to the disciples their need to understand His resurrection.

    • That all truth that He has spoken about can be summed up in the proof of His resurrection. They needed to believe this!

  • Ultimately, we see that from the Sadducees’ rejection of the truth of the resurrection, Jesus tells them “They are greatly mistaken”. (Mistaken used twice here for emphasis.)

    • Mark’s gospel is the only account that emphasizes the severity of their misaligned theological view of the resurrection.

  • And because of their lack of understanding the scriptures and their failure of recognizing the power of God, they will lose out on eternal life.

    • They believe that their status in this life is sufficient and that if there were an afterlife they would “somehow” continue in their affluence.

  • However, their status and affluence can’t save them, their Jewishness can’t preserve them.

    • It is only through and by the power of God at work through the Second Person of the Trinity, that can fully satisfy the wrath of God and provide salvation.

  • Once again, this group of men have missed the point all for the sake of trying to disprove what they do not understand.

    • And friends, herein lies the danger of unbelief.

    • A constant need to reject and disprove God’s truth – because of a failure to acknowledge truth made verbally and visually known – only leads to a life of death, complete separation from a Holy and Living God.

  • The way in which one can escape the impending blow of mighty judgement and wrath of God is through simply believing in His Son, the way by which we are reconciled to the Father.

    • It is through Jesus having taken on our sins, died in our place, and being raised back to life, that death was defeated and life, and the fullness thereof, is found in Jesus Christ.

    • You can experience this promise and new life knowing that after this life follows life eternal with God. All you must do is believe upon the Lord Jesus.

    • Let’s Pray.

Citation

• Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 608