Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be the mother of Jesus during the last week of his life?

From everything that we know of Mary, she would have been right there as a front row witness of the whole thing.

We know that when Jesus was a child that Mary and Joseph would take Jesus into Jerusalem from Galilee for the Passover, and we know that she was in town on Friday for his execution.

So, it seems safe to assume that she was in town with all of the worshipers who had come to ascend the Temple mount.

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And, don’t you know that she was on pins and needles, moms?

I mean, my mom still gets nervous when I preach or go for a physical; so, you can only imagine how Mary must’ve felt as Jesus had caused such a stir at the Temple.

He had come into town to praises, and He had flipped tables, and He had healed the sick.

And, you can imagine that by this time, everybody had an opinion.

And, Mary was his mom.

This was probably a sentimental trip for her.

She had made this trip so many times with her children, who were already grown now.

She had made this trip so many times with Jesus.

As she walked those familiar steps, she doubtlessly let her mind go to those past memories of finding Jesus as a boy in the temple or maybe even the first time the Angel of the Lord told her that she would give birth to the Son of God.

Maybe she remembered singing the songs of praise, and hearing the voice of Jesus singing praise to his heavenly Father as she heard him teaching in the temple courts.

But, doubtlessly, Mary would have known that this trip to Jerusalem was different.

The tone was different.

Jesus was different.

The Temple leaders saw him as a problem and wanted him gone.

And, Jesus himself had told them this was exactly as it was supposed to be.

Can you even imagine how this mom must’ve felt?

This is where step into this morning.

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God’s Word

Read

Another Group, Same Motive

“Sadducees came to him” So, if you’ll remember where we are, the leaders of Israel want to arrest Jesus and eliminate Jesus, but they have a problem.

Jesus is popular among the crowds, and they want to be popular among the crowds.

So, they can’t just go willy nilly into the middle of Jesus’ sermon and haul him off to jail because they know that it will cause their own approval ratings to crumble.

First, they’ve got to find a way to turn the people against Jesus.

They’ve got to get people to decide that Jesus isn’t who they think that He is so that the crowds will agree that He needs to be arrested and eliminated.

So, we’re in the midst of this smear campaign against Jesus, and what we’re going to see again this morning is that it’s coming from every side.

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This is such a concerted effort against Jesus that it’s causing enemies to find common ground with one another in their hatred for Jesus.

We saw that last week with the Pharisees and Herodians, and this week, we see the Sadducees getting in on the action.

And, the Sadducees wouldn’t have liked either the Pharisees or the Herodians.

So, now they’re going to jump in the fray, and they’re going to attempt to discredit Jesus against the crowd.

The Sadducees are an interesting group because politically they are probably the most powerful group during the time of Jesus, even though we hear less from them in the Bible.

They along with the Pharisees were kind of like the two political parties that made up the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling council of Israel, and they were the majority party.

And, they would have been the more liberal party.

Here’s what I mean by that: The Pharisees had a very, very high view of the God’s law.

They came up with new laws to protect the old laws.

They searched out every part of every book to make sure they didn’t miss one.

And, they believed that all of the OT was God’s word.

The Pharisees believed in every miracle of the Bible, and they believed that there would be a resurrection of the dead to live with God forever.

But now, remember, they were the minority.

The Sadducees had a different view.

The Sadds only believed that the Torah, the first five books of the OT, were God’s word.

They were overwhelmingly anti-supernaturalists, and they didn’t believe there was an afterlife.

And, this was the majority view.

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The Question

“In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be?” So, the Sadds come to Jesus, and they have a real fun question.

It’s a hypothetical.

The Pharisees had come to him with a political question, and now the Sadds have to come to him with a theological question.

So, you know they’re trying to stir up controversy because nothing divides people like politics and religion, right?

Now, remember they don’t believe in the resurrection.

They don’t believe that there’s an afterlife, and in fact, many, if not, most in Israel would have probably agreed with them.

So, they want to come to Jesus and ask Jesus this question in a way to make him look like a fool.

So, they’re coming to ask this question in a way that carries out his logic to its fullest extent for the purpose of showing how absurd it is.

So, they go to to accomplish this.

In , it states that if a man dies and has no children that his brother should marry his wife and bear children with her so that inheritance and family name continues.

And, this was as close as the Sadds came to afterlife and resurrection.

But, here’s where this gets awesome: They tell the story of a lady that his happens to seven times!

Now, I don’t know about y’all, maybe y’all are kinder or more naive or something, but if I’m brother number three, I’m sniffing around that oatmeal a little bit! I’m thinking about signing her up Farmersonly.com

or something!

But, momma didn’t raise these boys right, and they all marry her, and they all die, and eventually this woman dies too.

And so, this is their question: “Jesus, in your brilliant logic of resurrection and after life and all of that, how’s that gonna work?

Whose gonna be her husband up there? 1, 2,3 ....7?

Are they going to have a Royal Rumble and do a last man standing kind of thing?

How’s that going to work?” And, they think they have him pinned.

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“But Jesus Answered Them...”

“You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” And, this is where I imagine Mary sitting there chewing her nails, and fretting and worrying, and getting angry, but not saying a word because that’s what mom’s do.

But, I love how Matthew says.

“But Jesus answered them.”

Like, it wasn’t expected.

Like, it was a surprise.

Everybody was set up for Jesus to stumped, “but Jesus answered them.”

And, Jesus leaves no ambiguity about how or why they’re wrong.

He diagnoses the problem precisely.

He says: “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

Even more precise than the word ‘wrong’ is the word ‘deceived.’

That captures what Jesus is saying to them.

“You are deceived!

And, you are deceived for two reasons.

You don’t know and understand God’s word, and you don’t know and understand God’s power.

And, I want to spend the rest of our time unpacking these two reasons that Jesus gives.

APPLICATION: So, first, Jesus says that they are deceived because they don’t know the scriptures.

It's important to distinguish the difference here between reading and knowing.

Jesus says that they didn't 'know' the Scriptures.

They had read it plenty.

In fact, they knew exactly the passage that Jesus was quoting and could have quoted it themselves.

If you would have given them a Bible test, they would have likely passed it with flying colors.

But, they didn't KNOW the Scriptures because they didn't KNOW the God of the Scriptures.

They had read the facts, and they had the history, and they had read the rules, but they had never met God there.

You want to unlock your Bibles?

You want to look forward to reading your Bible?

Meet God there.

You have to linger in it, and be unhurried.

You have to have people that you can go to and ask questions and have a community that you can read with.

You have to be willing to not cover a certain number of chapters every day.

You have to just go to it for joy and want to meet God.

You have to binge read.