The Great Debate

Introduction

READ Mark 11:27-33

Read Mark 12:1-12

The Temple leaders defended themselves based on their authority. Jesus said that their authority doesn’t matter if they refused to respond to the Gospel.

The question is:

The Question: What does God really WANT FROM US? (11:27-12:12)

Read Mark 12:13-15

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Read Mark 12:15-17

God doesn’t want you to HOLD it all TOGETHER—he just wants YOU. (12:12-17)

Read Mark 12:18-23

Read Mark 12:24-27

God doesn’t ask you to make yourself MATTER—you MATTER to HIM. (12:18-27)

Read Mark 12:28-34

God doesn’t ask you to have all the ANSWERS—he asks you to love HIM and love LIKE HIM .(12:28-34)

The Answer: God wants us to LOVE him, TRUST him, and FOLLOW him.

Ways to Respond:

Maybe you haven’t given your life to Jesus because you think the Gospel is too simple for your complicated life, or you think you just can’t live up to all he expects of you. What he wants of you is your self. Give him yourself, and he will take care of the rest.

Maybe you have given your life to Jesus, but you have been holding back because you feel like you need to compromise, or you don’t want to give up what makes you important. Today is the day to give yourself more fully to God—to decide that God’s approval is enough, and God’s power is enough.

Maybe you feel like you can’t figure out how to do what God expects of you. Maybe you aren’t even sure how to love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength. God doesn’t ask us to figure that out alone. He gives us his Spirit, and he gives us the church.

Introduction

Jesus came in and criticized the temple leadership, then left.

When he came back the next day, the leaders fought back. (Read 11:27-33)

They criticized Jesus’ lack of authority.

Jesus hit back by focusing on their refusal to obey the Gospel. (Read 12:1-12)

Jesus is claiming that the leaders are condemned because of one simple thing: they didn’t repent when God called. Nothing else matters.

The leaders are going to try to defend themselves against this by showing that the Gospel is unreasonable. The question that drives the rest of this is:

How can we follow a SIMPLE Gospel in a COMPLEX world?

Read Mark 12:13-15

The Pharisees and Herodians are strange bedfellows. In public they oppose each other over obeying Caesar. In reality, the Pharisees have compromised their approach to the law in order to avoid destruction.

They are anxious about following the law, so they are VERY clear about the evils of idolatry—and yet they are also anxious about the power of Rome, so they don’t oppose the law.

They assume Jesus is criticizing them for compromising.

So they ask this question in order to catch him out—either he will say “I don’t know” and be defeated, or he will show his true colors as a zealot and be destroyed. So the question that drives the Pharisees is:

1. How can we PROTECT ourselves without making COMPROMISES? (v. 13-15)

Read Mark 12:15-17

Jesus’ answer is profound, but also easily misunderstood.

He acknowledges that they are trying to trap him.

He asks them for a coin. The coin has a graven image and a blasphemous inscription (Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of Divine Augustus). The PERFECT setup for a diatribe against Caesar

Mark 12:16–17 NIV

They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

Instead, Jesus says “Meh. IF the coin is Caesar’s, then give it back to him. And give to God what is his.”

This is not separation of church and state OR revolution.

First, it is non-anxious. Jesus is not worried.

Second, the important thing is, what belongs to God? Obviously everything, but why do the coins belong to Caesar? Because they have his image. What has God put his image on? YOU. What has he put his name on? YOU.

God doesn’t ask you to FIX the world. He asks you to give YOURSELF to him and trust him with THE REST. (v. 15-17)

Read Mark 12:19-23

The Sadduccees don’t believe in the resurrection, so they see this as a strong point for them in arguing.

The resurrection is a major part of the Gospel—it is what makes it simple. If they can make the resurrection ridiculous, then the whole message is ridiculous.

But what is their real issue? The answer is revealed by the way they phrased their objection:

Mark 12:19–23 NIV

“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a [woman] but no children, the man must [take] the [woman] and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one [took the woman] and died without leaving any children. The second one [took] the [woman], but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection [when they rise], whose [woman] will she be, since the seven [had] her [as their woman]?”

Their concern is with who gets what. If everyone can be resurrected, then what happens to the things we accomplished, the statuses we achieved? We can’t share them. This is why they can’t accept the Gospel.

2. How can God expect us to GIVE UP the things that make us MATTER? (v. 18-23)

Read Mark 12:24-27

Jesus’ response:

Mark 12:24 NIV

Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

You are asking that question because you don’t understand the scriptures or God’s power.

Mark 12:25 NIV

When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

How are we going to be like angels in heaven? Let’s make it more complicated:

Mark 12:25 NIV

When the dead rise, they neither marry nor are given in marriage; they are like the angels in heaven.

It’s present tense. Whenever we rise (take on the new life of the kingdom) we become like the angels, who do not marry. Why don’t the angels marry? Because they belong directly to God.

For the Sadducees, marriage is all about owning a person. But God’s people are not owned. They belong to God.

Mark 12:26 NIV

Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

Notice that God spoke to Moses, hundreds of years after the death of Jacob. If the Sadduccees are right, then God cannot simultaneously be the god of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the Israelites.

All of these people belong directly to God. Which is why God is speaking to Moses:

Exodus 3:7 NIV

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

Belonging to God is the most IMPORTANT—and ETERNAL—thing about you. (v. 24-27)

Read Mark 12:28-34

This is not a hostile question. This scribe is starting to come around. But the simple gospel is undermining his view of the Law. For him, things like idolatry, independent, marriage and inheritance are central to the mission of God’s people. How can they fulfill the law from such as simple view?

3. How can I be sure I am FULFILLING God’s will for me? (v. 28)

Mark 12:29–31 NIV

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

God’s will for you is SIMPLE: love him COMPLETELY and SHARE his love with others. (v. 29-31)

This is exactly what Jesus has been preaching. This single-minded focus on God (and emulating God) is built into the law. By focusing on the simple Gospel, you can fulfill the law itself.

And here the scribe gets it. He says,

Mark 12:32–34 NIV

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

The scribe realizes that keeping those two laws is more important than all the temple stuff. That simple focus really would do better than their whole complex system.

Loving God and others is the BEST and ONLY guide to a COMPLEX world. (v. 32-34)