If you've ever had interactions with folks, what are the two things that you should never bring up in a conversation? Politics and religion. That's all that we're going to talk about today. Now, no, I'm not saying we're gonna talk about modern day politics. But as we get into this passage, I want you to understand that we're dealing with politics, a political question, and death, which is gonna be a theological or religious question. And we've been going through the book of Mark, and there have been lots of questions that come up. But once we hit chapter 11, and through the last week of Jesus's life, what we're gonna see over and over and over again is just this intensification. And you'll notice, as we get into this, that they're not asking questions so that they can learn. In the past, that was often what was happening, is someone would come up with a question, and they wanted an answer so that they could learn something, so that they could understand something. we're going to find out these guys, they're going to be asking questions not to learn, but so they can trap Jesus. So they can make fun of him. So that if he gives the wrong answer, if he gives the wrong political answer, then he can, they will be able to get him with the political basis and get him in trouble that way. Or maybe he'll give the wrong theological answer and the religious leaders will then have justification to go after him. And yet we know that Jesus is perfect. And so it'll be interesting to see how does he navigate through these questions and these issues and these problems? How do we navigate through political and religious discussions, debates today? Well, let's start off by reading this section. It's Mark chapter 12, verses 13 through 27. You'll recall, leading up to this, he's in the temple area. He's already had some interactions with various groups. They've been trying to come up with excuses to seize him. And we get to verse 13. They sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to him in order to trap him in a statement. And they came and said to him, Teacher, we know that you are truthful and defer to no one. You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll tax to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at. And they brought one. And he said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. Jesus said to them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were amazed at him. And some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and began questioning him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us a law that if a man's brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up offspring to his brother. There were seven brothers and the first one took a wife and died having no offspring, and the second one took her and died leaving no offspring, and the third likewise, and so all seven left behind no offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one's wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife. Jesus said to them, 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. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are greatly mistaken. Death and taxes, or taxes and death. We're gonna work our way through these and find a little bit about how Jesus answers these questions. It starts off in verse 13 that they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians. Who is the they? The chief priests, scribes, and elders. If you were here last week, we looked at those groups and how they were trying to trap Jesus. They made up what was called the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the nation. They were the elites. They knew the law, or at least they were supposed to. And they tried to trap Jesus and failed. And so now they are sending Pharisees and Herodians. Well, who's that? Who are the Pharisees? They've come up several times through the Gospel of Mark. It is an open question, I expect an answer. You're welcome to jump in if you want to. Okay, they performed the rituals, okay. What else do we know about the Pharisees? Okay, they were one of the groups that were involved in all of this. They were largely a political group. They did have religious basis, and they were involved in that as well, but they were a political group in that they expected the Messiah, the king of the Jews, to come and get rid of the Romans, because they didn't really care for the Romans. Among other things, they had a lot of theological things going on. They were a fairly well-known group, they had a lot of interactions, and they were kind of responsible for a lot of the synagogues in the various areas around Israel, the nation, and making sure that people were able to study and to learn. They started off as a group like about 400 years prior and actually had a really good start. Their goal in life was to make sure that people understood the Bible, that they studied it, that they learned it, and that they followed it. Over time, though, they got so tied up in their traditions and their ways of doing things that they kind of went away. And so by the time we get to the Gospels, we see the Pharisees not as a good group, but as one of the groups that comes after Jesus and tries to attack him because they had lost sight of what the Bible actually had to say, and instead were trying to do things their own way. And so they wanted to get rid of Rome so that they could have their messiah would be the political leader, would be a modern-day physical king, not the promised one that God had intended to give. What about the Herodians? Anybody know? Yeah. Mm-hmm. All right, so they were allied with the Romans. Have you ever seen a more strange bedfellows? The Pharisees wanted to get rid of Rome. They didn't like Rome being in charge. The Herodians, they favored the Herod family, hence the name. They favored the Romans and the way that they ruled, and they wanted to allow that to continue, let that happen, and we'll just practice our religion on the side and not get involved in the politics, not let any of that become an issue. The picture that I would come up is Democrats and Republicans. And I'm not going to dig deeply into that example. We have two groups that are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. They have different ideas about how the government is supposed to happen and how it's supposed to work. Now, they had been sent by the priests and the scribes and the elders to try and trap Jesus in some of the things that he had to say. What better way to trap him than to get him to make a comment that was either against Rome, which would get him in trouble with the Romans, or against Israel, which would get him in trouble with the Jews. What other options are there? Surely, we're gonna be able to trap him, get him to say something that is going to put him on one side or the other. So, these two groups, which we saw earlier in the book of Mark, they are strange bedfellows. It's unusual, it doesn't make sense that they would be working together, except for the fact that at this point, We're seeing this push by anyone and everyone to try and get Jesus, to get him out of the way. Well, they have a stated purpose in order to trap him in a statement, ensnare him. It's like hunters and trappers that we know of today. They're trying to trap the animal. Well, this group is trying to trap Jesus. And so, verse 14, they came and said to him, What do they say? Okay, teacher, that's a statement of respect. We know that you are truthful. Pause, pause for a moment, time out. What is their goal? Why are they coming? To trick him, to trap him. They are coming with dishonest purposes. And yet they start off by saying, we know that you are truthful. Do you smell the hypocrisy starting off? I mean, we've just barely gotten into it, and yet we already know, and obviously Jesus knew we're gonna find that here in a moment. Teacher, we know that you are truthful and defer to no one, you are not partial to any, you teach the way of God in truth, and then they finally get to their question. Well, They start off with some flattery. I mean, what better way to try and trap somebody than to butter them up and get them nice and comfortable and ready to slip up in what they have to say. So they start their question with stuff that's completely unrelated to anything. They state that he is truthful when they are being dishonest. They state that he does not change his message based on who's listening. So whether it's the Democrats or the Republicans, I mean the Pharisees or the Herodians, whoever it might be, he says the same thing all the time. He's not going to defer to one group or another. And he's not going to show partiality. Well, just because Rome is in charge and could kill him, he's not going to say nice things about Rome. And just because the Jews were his people, he's not going to change the message just for them. Across the board, he's going to be consistent and not show favor to one group or another. Instead, he only teaches truthfully God's ways. I find it very interesting that this group, who is hypocritical to say the least, starts off by praising Christ for things that are completely true. They're coming with dishonest purposes, and yet every word that they've spoken thus far is accurate. It is exactly who Jesus is. He is truthful, his message does not change. Whether he was dealing, you'll recall from earlier in the book, whether he was dealing with the elites or the scum of the earth, whether he was dealing with Jews or Gentiles, whether he was dealing with people possessed by demons or with various kinds of physical ailments or whatever it might be, Jesus had the same message for all of them. What was that message? Anybody remember from all the way back at chapter one? He came with the good news, the kingdom of God is at hand. And he was telling everybody that. And he wanted everyone to know that same message. So they start off by praising him accurately for who he was. They were just trying to butter him up, I realize, but yet what they said was true. Well, then they finally get to their question. Now, we know from the get-go that they are being hypocritical, that they're just asking us to try and trap him. But even still, when we deal with a question like this, I like to approach it as if it were a legitimate question. Because, I mean, this does raise some true questions that they would have to deal with. They were, as a people group, they were supposed to pay tribute to God. They had certain things that they did for the temple. They were supposed to pay the temple taxes and pay the offerings and You know, that could get expensive. You look through the Old Testament, you're gonna find that there were quite a few things that they had to pay. Well then, on top of that, Rome came in and had certain taxes that they had to pay. If you think of modern day, how many different taxes are there that we pay? Anybody ever get tired of paying taxes? You can admit to it. And so, this very reasonable question came up. Should we pay this tax? Now, it's important to understand what is the tax that they are talking about. Interestingly enough, this one likely was very similar to the one that is mentioned early in the life of Christ as to why Joseph and Mary had to travel. It was a poll tax based on every single individual. It also becomes one that caused a revolt during Christ's youth. That's not recorded in scripture, but historically we find that there have been several issues that come up during that time frame in which the Jews didn't like paying taxes. There had been a revolt and the Romans came in and kind of quashed it and made sure to get rid of that one. But then there's another event that's going to take place a few years after Christ in which yet another revolt occurs and oftentimes it's based on taxes. Interestingly, it's interesting to me how many governments will levy taxes and other people want to rebel against that. Sound kind of familiar? Well, they are dealing with this And it's a reasonable question. It's a valid question. Should we be paying this tax? How could Christ answer this? What kind of responses could he have to it? Well, he could say yes, most definitely, or he could say no. And yet, Jesus is a little bit smarter than to just give a one-word answer. Now, the question that they ask to begin with is, is it lawful? Obviously, Rome had passed the law and said you have to do this, so governmentally it was lawful, but they're asking about, is it in accord with Old Testament law? Should we do this as Jews who follow the law should we be giving this tax or this tribute really, because that's what this one particularly is dealing with, it was on every individual and it was considered a tribute that they paid, should we be paying tribute to Caesar? Now, who was Caesar? Do it. the head of the Romans, the leader of Rome, he was the emperor, basically. Now, there have been several different Caesars throughout history. It started off as just a family name, but then it became the title for the person in charge, for the emperor, for the leader. Do what? And then a famous salad, yes. So they ask this question, should we pay this tax? You know, as I was thinking about it, it occurred to me... This question could be similar to some that we would ask today. There are lots of taxes that come up that we don't like, where the money goes to things that we don't necessarily think is right. And so it would be reasonable for Christians to say, should I be paying taxes to support this or that or these things? So it does become a valid question, and Jesus is going to answer it. However, it does say in verse 15, knowing their hypocrisy. So Jesus is not blind to the fact that they're trying to trick him. They're trying to trap him. They set up this question, is it lawful to pay this particular poll tax to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay? They're wanting a yes or no. Just real quick, give us a yes or no so that we can trap you in what you say. Instead, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why are you testing me? He lets it be known, he knows exactly what they're doing. Bring me a denarius. It's the basic coin of the day. It's like a day's wages type of an idea. We, around here, we have a tendency to go down rabbit trails. If you want a fun rabbit trail, start studying the various coins and types of money used in scripture. I'm not going to take that rabbit trail right now because we don't need to, but it's actually pretty fascinating to see the different types of monies and the units and the history and all of that stuff. But in essence, it would be like us today saying, bring me a Benjamin. What's a Benjamin? It's a $100 bill. We all know, we're familiar with that. Well, he says, bring me a denarius. That's the basic coin. It's a unit that they would all be familiar with. and it was the unit that was used to pay this tax. So he says, bring me one. They went and got one, and showed it to him, and he takes a look at it and says, whose likeness and inscription is this? Well, what was the picture on it? What was the likeness? Caesar's. Does anybody happen to know what the inscription would have been? What is an inscription, just in general? It's the writing, right? It's the things that are written on it. We have various things written on our money today, including the statement, in God we trust, right? Now, not everybody agrees with that, but that is the statement that we have on our money. Well, on this particular coin, it did have the picture of Caesar and an inscription. Specifically, this idea is it has his image and his words. But the words would have been Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, himself Augustus. Or phrased another way, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus. What does that mean? It means that Caesar is claiming deity. This could be considered a problem. Remember, they are in the temple, they are dealing with this question, a political question, and yet they have phrased it as, do we pay this tax to Caesar or not? But when he calls them to bring the coin, whose face and whose writing is this? Ultimately, that's a blasphemous phrase, and yet Jesus isn't really going to elaborate on that or make a big deal out of it. What he does instead is lets it be known, hey, you guys have these coins. You're used to using them. You use them all the time. In fact, if you remember what just happened about the day before, or two days before, sorry, Jesus walks into the temple and he starts flipping tables of the money changers, right? Because there was one type of currency that was used in the temple and other types, many, many different types of currency that were used everywhere else. So they had these coins, they were used to using them. It seems, it appears that they didn't really even consider it significant to think about what it said, and yet Jesus points it out. He's like, you're willing to use this. And so he tells them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. So what was his answer? Was it yes or was it no? Exactly. It's an interesting response that he gives. He doesn't tell them, we'll pay every single tax. What he does is he sets up a response as to what are the authorities that are out there. And he acknowledges that there is authority in the governments. In fact, we could take time and do a study on that and come to several passages that deal with that. Romans 13 is a very good example that there are certain things that belong to the government. They are under the authority of the governments and that God has told us to submit ourselves to the governments. Or 1 Peter chapter two also deals with that same idea of how do we interact with governments? Now, bear in mind, this government is not a good one. We are blessed to live in a pretty decent society. Rome was not anything like what we live in. And yet, Jesus responds, hey, there's a realm of authority in which you are to submit to. and you are to render or give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. This coin has Caesar's image on it. It has his statements on it. It's Caesar's coin. This country in which they were living is under the authority of Caesar. So give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Jesus doesn't go into a big expansive explanation of where the limits of that are, but he clearly says that there is a realm of authority that the government has that you are to submit to. but then he also adds a theological component to a purely political question. And when they came, they were not trying to get any kind of a theological answer. They just wanted to trap him, and so they asked just a basic political question, and yet Jesus gives them a theological answer because the reality is, when we deal with politics, Our theology, our understanding of who God is and how God operates has a role in that. It comes into play. And so Jesus lets it be known that there are realms of authority and that they are not mutually exclusive. Allegiance to one does not necessarily mean disloyalty to the other. They are able to submit to Caesar and also to submit to God. And so they are told to give back to Caesar or render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. These coins bear his name, bear his image, bear his words. Give those back to Caesar. But what do people, what image do people bear? That's the same word. Did any of you catch that as you were doing a pre-study and going through this? It's the same word that's used here. The image that's on the coin is the same word theologically that's used of people bear the image of God. And so we are image bearers and we ought to give back everything to God. What does God own? What belongs to God? Everything. You got a verse that supports that? Good answer. Psalm 24 verse 1. Psalm 24 verse 1. It says, Now, Rome had made some pretty lofty claims, and you look historically, Rome owned large amounts of the known world, the Western world, as we might call it, and yet there were still huge swaths that they had no control over. Caesar was in charge of a lot, and Jesus lets them know, hey, if you're under Caesar's authority, render, give back to Caesar that which belongs to him. but render to God what belongs to him. The whole world and everything in it and everyone who dwells in it are the Lord's. And so the implication that Jesus is saying is that we as image bearers of God ought to give back to God everything. So what? I love taking those, okay, we've dealt with this practical idea, this interaction that they've had, but what do we take from it? Real quickly, one of them is, unless there's an actual conflict between what God says and what the government says, just give each their due. And bear in mind, this is a society in which Rome was not very good. Rome did not give freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom, go down the list. Rome did not have those kinds of things. Rome was very oppressive. Rome was oftentimes very, very wicked. And yet, they were not automatically allowed to just rebel against Rome for anything and everything that they might want to. Unless there's actually a severe conflict between what God has said and what government has said, give each their due and don't go looking for those conflicts. So what response do the people that came to trap him have when Jesus gives this answer, render to Caesar what is Caesar's, render to God what is God's? Amazement. Have we seen that come up before? Just a couple of times. In fact, that's kind of a theme throughout the book of Mark. It came up in Mark chapter one, chapter five, chapter six, chapter 10, and here as well. This idea of amazement is a regular thing. They had no answer. They couldn't deal with how Jesus handled this. And so the Pharisees and the Herodians seemed to just kind of drift away and go off the scene because they couldn't trap him. They couldn't get him. But that doesn't mean that they're done. Next, somebody else came. Who was that? The Sadducees. Now what do we know about the Sadducees? They were sad, you see. Why were they sad? Okay, they didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't have hope, right? Now, this was a small group. This is actually the only time in the book of Mark that they're gonna be mentioned at all. If I use the example of the first two as the Democrats and the Republicans, the Pharisees versus the Sadducees would be more like the difference between the Catholics and the Tolstoyans. Anybody ever heard of them? Yeah, no, that's part of my point. They're basically unheard of. Sadducees come up in Scripture, and so they're remembered because of that, but historically they were just a flash in the pan. They were only there for a very short period of time. They didn't have any major writings. They weren't well known. The group that I mentioned, if you've ever heard of them, you'll know it's a very tiny quote-unquote Christian sect that holds to the Gospels and only the Gospels. They reject what Paul wrote. Again, very small, very niche group. While the Pharisees were well known for believing the whole Old Testament plus the teachings of the elders, and they were very traditional, you had to go through the motions and do everything correct, the Sadducees were a much smaller niche group that faded from history very quickly. They rejected not only the traditions, but they also neglected and rejected most of the Old Testament as well. They held to the writings of Moses. If Moses wrote it, then it was the Bible. Otherwise, nope, doesn't matter. We don't want it. And so using that excuse, they said that they didn't believe in the resurrection. Now, Mark makes it clear to us that this group ignores the resurrection, because that's going to become very, very significant. But, like I said, it was a small group, a niche group. Mark only mentions them here, and he has to give context so that his readers understand a little bit about who they are. Otherwise, the name probably wouldn't have meant a lot to the original readers of the Gospel of Mark. But it says that some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and began questioning him. Now they're gonna ask a theological question, whereas the first one was political, this one's gonna be theological. This group will come up again in Acts chapter 23 over the same type of an issue. This idea of the resurrection and what is the resurrection? How does it work? What's going on with that? And when it comes up in Acts 23, it's actually gonna create an argument so severe that the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were trying to persecute Paul get distracted and have to argue about their interpretation of resurrection instead of continue persecuting Paul. It's a pretty interesting situation that happens. That's Acts 23, verse 6. That argument kind of throws things off. Now, once again, they're gonna ask a question that's not very sincere, but at least here, they're gonna quote scripture, or talk about scripture. In the last one, it was purely political, and they were just trying to trap him in a political issue. This time, they're gonna bring up Deuteronomy 25. They're gonna bring up a concept known as leveret marriage. This idea of leverant marriage was a normal practice in societies where the family name and the clan was very, very important. And so we're gonna dig into that and see kinda what they're doing, but I kinda wanna give a picture of how they approach and what they're trying to do. How many of you have ever watched YouTube? Not that I recommend this, but have you ever seen the videos that say, you know, so-and-so destroys so-and-so with simple logic? I see a couple of nodding heads. Maybe you watch much better YouTube than I do. I don't know. Anyway, it's a lot of political things, a lot of things like this, this, oh, we trapped him, we really got him. And then you watch it and it's like, no, you didn't, but whatever. Anyway, it's clickbait. The idea is to get a phrase just so that you can earn some points. score some points against your opponent, make them look bad, whether you actually won the argument or not is irrelevant. That seems to be what these folks are trying to do, what the Sadducees are trying to do, try and get a little bit of street cred, get a little bit of emphasis, hey, we beat this teacher, we made him look bad because he didn't have the answer to our convoluted, crazy question that we're gonna ask. So they set up a scenario that, although it's conceivable, really isn't that normal of an occurrence that would happen. They ask, they say to him, 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. That's what's called leveret marriage. And it was the normal practice. It was the approved practice of what God had designed and intended for them. The idea was they lived in a society in which the inheritance was passed from one generation to the next. the family name was passed from one generation to the next. And so if somebody got married and then never had a son to carry on the family name, there was a procedure in place to take care of that so that the family would continue. The brother was to marry the wife that would provide for that woman who in a society didn't have a lot of protections, didn't have a lot to provide for her, and so this brother would take her into his house and be that caretaker for her to ensure that she was cared for, but the firstborn son of that marriage would then also be the heir to the other brother's inheritance. Stuff, he would inherit. And he would be given the family name, he would be given responsibilities, as if he was that actual son. So this was a normal thing, they were very familiar with it, and it was a accepted practice in that society and according to Old Testament scriptures. Well, verse 20, they set up a scenario. Like I said, this scenario, though conceivably possible, wasn't really a normal thing. there were seven brothers. And the first one gets married, dies, has no kids. The second one marries that wife to continue the family line, has no children, so forth and so on. All seven of these die. Okay, that's the scenario. Now the question, verse 23. In the resurrection, they don't believe in the resurrection, but for the sake of argument, in this resurrection that you talk about, When they rise again, which they don't believe, which one's wife will she be? For all seven had married her. How does Jesus respond to this question? Do what? With a question, okay. You don't understand the scriptures. You are mistaken. You don't get it. He's going to start off straight up. He's going to tell them they're mistaken. And then at the end, he's going to repeat that and say, you are greatly mistaken. In between, he's going to say they don't know the scriptures, and then Jesus is going to give them the scriptures. And then he's going to say, you don't know the power of God, here's the power of God. And so he takes a little bit of a different approach to this one. In the last one, he gave them a response and an answer that wasn't what they were expecting, wasn't what they wanted, but he dealt with that question and just said, hey, if it's Caesar's, give it back to Caesar. If it's God's, give it back to God. And he kind of left it there. There's a little bit of ambiguity, and in fact, that's gonna come up later. They're gonna use that to accuse him when he goes to trial. But here, he handles it a little bit differently. This is a theological question, and they are mistaken about what the Old Testament, what the Bible has to say. Now, we know from the New Testament things will be different in eternity. When we look towards the resurrection, that's something that is of great hope and we anticipate it, we look forward, the New Testament says that we will be changed. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 51. We will be changed. So things will be different. We also find in Revelation 21 that all things will become new. Now, I'm just barely touching on these, and if you were here for Wednesday night, I barely touch on eschatology, because it's complicated, and there's a lot going on there, and it's definitely a study worth having, but that would be a very long rabbit trail that I'm not gonna take right now. The point is, we know in modern day that things will be different when the resurrection occurs. But at this point, they didn't have the New Testament. So what did they know about the resurrection? Well, Daniel chapter 12 verses one and two makes it very clear that there will be a resurrection from the dead and a time of judgment. So Daniel 12 gives us quite a bit of information. Here's the problem. The Sadducees did not recognize the prophets as reliable scripture. And so Jesus, in a wonderful, amazing way of interacting with them, speaks to them on their level. Even though they were greatly mistaken, they didn't understand the power of God, they didn't understand the scriptures, Jesus is still going to answer them on their level in a way that provides them the direction they need. Verse 24. Again, the angels were something else that the Sadducees didn't really agree with, they didn't understand, though even in the writings of Moses, there was enough information to know that there were angels, yet the Sadducees didn't, you know, they rejected that because they didn't understand either the scriptures or the power of God. But he tells them that when they rise from the dead, they will be different. And that's the key point. This verse has been a point of contention for a lot of people. Oh, what does it mean that we'll be like the angels? That means that we float around with wings and have the harps and sit on clouds, right? No, that's one of those made up pictures that people have that is completely unscriptural. Jesus is not telling us everything that we would love to know. That's one of the issues or challenges when it comes to eschatology. The Bible doesn't always give us everything that we would like to know. We have a lot of questions. What it does say is that we will be like the angels. Like is a similarity, but it doesn't elaborate in what way beyond that they will neither marry nor are given in marriage. So in this particular way, somehow people will be like the angels. Not giving marriage, not taking in marriage. What do we know about the extent of marriage? How long does marriage last? till death do you part, that's the normal way that we say it. Do you got a verse for that? Good answer, 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7 deals with this idea and this issue in which we are told that we are one flesh in marriage. That was God's intention, but when the husband dies, the wife is free to remarry because that death finishes off the marriage. And so, you know, that's one of those where, again, a lot of people have had some issues with that. Well, but I love them and I wanna be with them for eternity. Well, if they're saved, you will be with them, but that relationship is different. How is it different? What does it look like? I don't know. Jesus doesn't give us a full explanation other than our understanding that after the resurrection, things are different. Well, some people get upset and say, well, but I want to know my spouse. You most likely will know them, but that marital relationship is changed, it's different. That was something in which God designed them to be one flesh here on this earth during our time here, and it concludes with death, according to 1 Corinthians chapter seven. So Jesus is explaining to them that in this way, when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. Some way similar to the angels. but regarding the fact that the dead rise again. So what did Jesus just do? He answered their question very briefly, and then he says, hang on, let me correct your theology. Let me deal with the fact you don't even believe in the resurrection, so you're not asking a legitimate question, you're just trying to trap me, but let me teach you something. Let me help you understand theologically what really does the Bible say. What does Moses say? Remember, they rejected the prophets. Daniel chapter 12 would have been a great passage for Jesus to quote, but he's going to speak to them on their level. He's going to let them know, okay, have you not read the book of Moses? Well, that's what they were so proud about. The Sadducees were arrogant. They hold to the foundational verses, and that's where they put their focus. They don't listen to all this extra stuff, like those Pharisees who have all the added books and all of the traditions that they pile on top. we hold to the true scriptures. And yet, Jesus says, haven't you read? Which is a fascinating, if you go through this section, how many times does he ask the people who come up and ask him a question, haven't you read the scriptures? Didn't you even, you know, anyway. 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... Now, Jesus is going to identify what passage he's talking about. This is an interesting aside. The chapter breaks and verse breaks, those were not original. Those weren't added until later, until after this time. At that point, they had everything on scrolls. And so it was a little bit challenging to find a particular place in the text. But Jesus gives them the context of where he's talking about. Haven't you read in the book of Moses, which would have been the scroll, we call it the Pentateuch, in that scroll, haven't you read in the passage or in that section that deals with the burning bush? Who knows the passage that deals with the burning bush? Okay, we would call it Exodus three. But in the three? Yes, Exodus 3, sorry. We would call it in Exodus, but in this one, he's giving them the context, he's telling them, okay, in this spot, God spoke to him, spoke to Moses, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Okay, haven't you read this? Aren't you aware of who God says that he is? What claim is God making in this passage? Why would that matter? How would that give an answer to what these Sadducees came up with to him? Because he still is their God. He still has a lasting relationship with them. The implication is that these three, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now if you remember your Old Testament history, how far before are we talking? 400 years, give or take, right? Because Moses is at the end of their time in captivity in Egypt. But prior to that, before they even went into Egypt, roughly 400 years before, we had Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so part of what Jesus is emphasizing is this amount of time. that even though they were dead and gone years, centuries before, yet even still, God is still their God. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. He is letting it be known that these individuals, even though despite their physical death, their continuing relationship with God exists. And so even from the book of Moses, Jesus is able to prove to them the fact that there is a resurrection, that there is a answer to this problem of death. And that leads him to his emphatic conclusion, verse 27, you are greatly mistaken. So, not only did the Sadducees not quite get it, they had some issues, they were mistaken, they didn't understand how it all worked. No, they were greatly mistaken. Why were they mistaken? Because they didn't know the scriptures. They didn't, even the parts that they claimed to know and follow, they didn't understand. They didn't know what was going on. And that was based on the fact that they didn't understand who God was. They didn't know the power of God, or what he was capable of. And so, Jesus explains to them the power of God, that in the resurrection, when people raise from the dead, there's not gonna be this marrying and giving and marriage and all that, but you'll be like the angels, you'll have a similarity there. And, regarding the fact that they do rise again, what does it take to raise someone from the dead? It takes the power of God, right? That's not something that people can do. If you happen to remember, well, defibrillators will help extend the life, but they don't actually raise from the dead. If you recall, in the book of Mark, we already saw Jesus raise someone from the dead. They were dead, and he brought them back. Other gospels record another example of Lazarus, who was in the grave for three days. And Jesus raises him from the dead. Sorry, four days. Four days, yeah. And everybody was like, but he stinks by now. And yet Jesus called him out and he rose from the dead. We've already seen the power of God in Christ. And here he explains to them and helps them understand theologically where they were mistaken, where they were wrong. This section is just the first two of three questions that are gonna be asked in Mark chapter 12. And there's upcoming a very big question. We're gonna be looking at that one next week. But these various groups that we see coming up to Jesus and asking questions are coming from a wide variety of different factions. And so part of what we're seeing in Mark chapter 12 and in this section is that as Jesus is working his way towards the cross, all of these opponents are gonna come and try and destroy him. And throughout the period in which Jesus was on earth, Satan was trying to defeat God's plan. And yet we've already seen that Christ has shown he has the power and the authority of God himself as the Christ, as the promised Messiah, as the King who was coming. And so when these various groups are gonna come against him, each one is gonna try and ask a question to trip him up, to trap him in his own words. and each one is going to fail. We've just seen these two groups that come and they're asking what could be a reasonable question and yet they're asking it with unreasonable motives. Jesus gives a response and he uses scripture to give that response, to help them understand. So what? What is our takeaway? What did we learn from this section? Well, there's a lot of things that you could draw from this. Obviously, we see the authority of Christ. We see his power. We see his knowledge. But what does he rely on? When faced with these questions and these difficulties, when people come to attack him, how does he respond? He responds with God's word. He explains and he meets them where they are. The Sadducees, they rejected most of the Old Testament and yet he was ready to give an answer based on what little amount that they accepted. Like I said, there's lots of potential takeaways. I encourage you to ponder on and think about what is it when you are faced with attacks and questions and things of this nature, whether it's a legitimate question or an illegitimate question, how do you respond to that? I would encourage us to have a response like Christ. He never rails against them. He never makes them look stupid other than their own stupidity in asking the way that they did. His goal is not to defeat them and destroy them and make them look bad. His goal is to teach them even though they aren't looking to be taught. And he uses scripture to do it. He does it in a gentle and loving way, knowing, unfortunately, that they're still gonna reject him. We need to be like Christ. We may be rejected. We may be made fun of. We may be faced with difficult questions. We may, who knows? Are you ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you? There's a lot in this book that we call the Bible. Tons, and it's difficult to learn all of it. It's difficult to have all of it ready at any moment to answer. And yet, that is what we are called to be. That is what we are called to do. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that it does give us the answers that we need. Lord, so often we ignore it and neglect it. We try and use our own logic and our own reasoning, and yet you have given us everything that we need to live a life of godliness for you. Lord, thank you for the example of Christ. Thank you for the answers that he gives. Lord, thank you that he is the answer to life's major questions. Why am I here? What, where did I come from and what lays ahead? Lord, you created us specially in your image for your purposes. You have given us Your Son to redeem us from the sin that so easily besets us and the sin that we have used to separate ourselves from You. You allow us to come back to You. So, Lord, we are grateful for that. And you've promised us a future. There is a hope. There is a resurrection. And based on our choice of whether to accept or deny you, that will determine where we spend eternity. What an amazing thing that you allow us to spend eternity with you. If only we will accept Christ as our Savior. Thank you, Lord, for who you are, for what you've done. Thank you for your word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.