3 Problems Mark 12:18-27

When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check 'none.'

A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is "nothing in particular" – is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They're more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).

Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew's new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically.

Jesus confronts 3 problems with His Sadducee opponents.

I. The Problem of Unbelief v. 18a

In our passage tonight, the scene shifts and Jesus is confronted by a new group of opponents, the Sadducees

These religious leaders are different from the Pharisees:

They are more friendly to Rome

They are more active in Jerusalem/Judea

They are connected to the priesthood and the Temple

They come to Jesus trying to catch Him in a trap, similar to what we saw from the Pharisees and Herodians last week

Jesus is a threat to them, because He is a threat to Rome

They want to keep the peace and are happy to maintain the status quo!

It turns out that the Sadducees also have a problem with Jesus

They are marked by disbelief:

They don’t believe in angels or demons

They don’t believe in more of the Bible than the first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Law

They don’t believe in the immortality of the soul or of the resurrection of the dead

They serve as the opposite side of the Pharisee issue:

One group fails to accept all of the Scripture, the other adds to it to an extreme, holding up oral traditions as ultimate truths

Both are in the wrong and the Sadducees ultimately end up in the same spot, spiritually, as the Pharisees: They do not believe in Jesus

According to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of less that one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can almost blot out everything from your sight.

Many Christians today live their lives in a fog. They allow a cupful of troubles to cloud their vision and dampen their spirit. Anxiety, turmoil and defeat strangle their thoughts. Their lives are being "choked by the cares of this world" (Luke 8;14). But "God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline" (II Tim. 1:7). Let's not let the fog get us down! "Let's live in the Sunshine!

II. The Problem of Hypothetical Reality vv. 18b-23

The Sadducees confront Jesus with a hypothetical question: On the surface it is intended to be a thought experiment, but I think we need to consider what is going on here

First, we see that they are not asking in good faith; they don’t have a question. They are seeking to expose the Resurrection as a fraud or an absurdity

Second, we see that it is based on a complete hypothetical; there is not a real problem here. It is an imagined problem involving unrealities

This is a fake controversy that is an attempt to justify unbelief

There will always be folks who want to get us tangled up in the unknown or the uncertain

Ultimately, this is a distraction technique! What are some distractions?

Tertiary theological questions

Prophecy/eschatology

Politics/current events

The problem for most of us is not the parts of the Bible that we don’t understand, but the parts that we do!

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott The Problem of Beauty

For those who reject God, Lord Hailsham (Quintin Hogg) argues, “the real problem is not the problem of evil but the problem of good, not the problem of cruelty and selfishness, but the problem of kindness and generosity, not the problem of ugliness, but the problem of beauty.”

So then, in a world of evil, or of meaninglessness, how

does it come about that we go through life on assumptions which are perfectly contrary to these facts, that we love our wives and families, thrill with pleasure at the sight of a little bird discreetly dressed in green and black and white, that we rage at injustice inflicted on innocent victims, honour our martyrs, reward our heroes, and even, occasionally and with difficulty, forgive our enemies, and do good to them that persecute us and despitefully use us? No, it is light which is the problem, not darkness. It is seeing, not blindness. It is knowledge, not ignorance or error. It is love, not callousness. The thing we have to explain in the world is the positive, not the negative.

III. The Problem of Ignorance v. 24

Jesus confronts the problem head on by restating the problem:

They do not believe in Him or the Resurrection for two reasons:

They do not know the Scriptures- they fail to understand the message of the Scriptures

They do not know the power of God- they are experientially ignorant of Him

This is a problem of ignorance!

I’m afraid that we have much of this same kind of ignorance present in our world today:

We may know a few facts about the Scripture, but we completely miss the big story of Scripture; it is not a book of rules to be followed but it is a story of rescue and redemption

We may know that God exists and be able to repeat the stories of His faithfulness, but we do not know His power in a personal way

If we are ignorant of God, it will be impossible to have a right belief in God!

Last week, a few days ahead of Hurricane Milton, I read a string of posts from people outside of the region who were concerned about friends and family living in Florida. It became clear: they were very passionate and shockingly ignorant. They knew nothing about hurricanes except what they had gathered from other sources and they were frequently wrong!

IV. The Answer: The God of the Living vv. 25-27

Jesus spells out the answer:

First, the heavenly kingdom is not like the earthly kingdom. Marriage is not a reality there

What does this mean?

Our personalities will still exist and we will know each other, including a recognition of what earthly relationships were like

Procreation will not exist. There will be no sexuality or need for the safeguards related to it

Marriage will not be necessary anymore, because we will not have to mark our relationships by the boundaries necessary to protect husband-wife relationships

Second, God is not bound by time at all: He is!

God does not operate past, present, or future, but always exists

He relates to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not as past realities but as present reality

He is not God of the dead, but God of the living

We must trust and believe in the God of the living if we are going to live with Him forever!

Can you imagine a tightrope stretched over a quarter of a mile and spanning the breadth of Niagara Falls?  The thundering sound of the pounding water drowning out all other sounds as you watch a man step onto the rope and walk across!

This stunning feat made Charles Blondin famous in the summer of 1859.  He walked 160 feet above the falls several times back and forth between Canada and the United States as huge crowds on both sides looked on with shock and awe.  Once he crossed in a sack, once on stilts, another time on a bicycle,  and once he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet!

On July 15, Blondin walked backward across the tightrope to Canada and returned pushing a wheelbarrow. The Blondin story is told that it was after pushing a wheelbarrow across while blindfolded that Blondin asked for some audience participation.  The crowds had watched and "Ooooohed" and "Aaaaahed!"  He had proven that he could do it; of that, there was no doubt.  But now he was asking for a volunteer to get into the wheelbarrow and take a ride across the Falls with him!

It is said that he asked his audience, "Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?"  Of course the crowd shouted that yes, they believed!

It was then that Blondin posed the question - "Who will get in the wheelbarrow?'

Of course...none did.