Operation Entrapment 2.0 (The Danger of Bad Doctrine)
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Writing to his true son in the faith, the Apostle Paul stated:
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
This teaching is true for all believers since we all should be diligent students of the Word of God. But it is especially true of those who are in the place of spiritual leadership, such as elders and deacons, Sunday School teachers and Bible Study leaders. A lack of diligence can easily lead to bad or inaccurate doctrine.
Sadly, however, there are those who diligently approach the Scriptures and still end up with bad doctrine. They are not accurately handling the word of truth. This often happens because they allow their personal bias to be the lens through which they filter the Scriptures.
Today, as we continue on in our series titled THE FINAL WEEK – ONE VERY LONG DAY, we are going to look at the smallest, yet most powerful sect of the religious establishment of first century Israel. The Sadducees. After the Pharisees and Herodians failed to entrap Jesus in His teaching, the Sadducees took up the baton and went to work. If you have not done so, please turn to . To get a better understanding of this situation we are going to review the events that led to this particular confrontation, look at an overview of the doctrine of this powerful sect, and then look at the dangers of bad doctrine. First, let’s read our passage.
The Review
The Review
Everything that happened during the course of Christ’s final week before His crucifixion help to lead to this encounter with the Sadducees.
· The Triumphal Entry
· The Cleansing of the Temple
· The Barren Fig Tree Incident
· The challenging of Jesus’ authority
· The Three Parables:
o The Parable of the Two Sons
o The Parable of the Landowner and Tenants
o The Parable of the Marriage Feast
· The Pharisee/Herodian Entrapment Attempt
Let’s consider now
The Hypothetical Situation
The Hypothetical Situation
Look at verses 24-28 for a moment.
The Sadducees concocted a hypothetical situation based on the teaching of Moses regarding what is known as levirate marriage laws. Back in the day it was very important to carry on a family heritage. Thus, if a man died before fathering a child, specifically a boy, then it was the duty of his brother to father a child on his behalf. This was in practice centuries before Moses, for we read of an incident regarding Judah and his sons in which refers to this practice. One of the most famous examples of this in the Old Testament had to do with Ruth the Moabitess. Her husband, from the tribe of Judah, had died leaving her with no offspring. Boaz, who as a relative exercised the role of kinsmen redeemer and fathered a son. He became an ancestor of King David, and therefore of Jesus as well.
In this particular story, after the death of seven spouses the woman died childless. This was an absurd story with an equally absurd question to follow. The assumption of the Sadducees was that if there is an after-life things must remain the same in that life as in this life. Let’s consider now a
Doctrinal Overview of the Sadducees
Doctrinal Overview of the Sadducees
While the Pharisees accepted the same thirty-nine books that make up our Protestant Old Testament, the Sadducees did not accept all of these books as being the inspired Word of God. The reason why I clarified “Protestant Old Testament” is that the Catholic Church has accepted more writings than we have as being a part of the inspired Word of God.
The Sadducees only accepted:
The Five Books of Moses
Red Letter Christians
No Resurrection of the Dead
The Books of Moses do not refer in a literal fashion to the resurrection. But they do hint at it. There is at least a hint of the resurrection in the account of Abraham and Isaac from .
The clearest OT writings about a resurrection are found in
25 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
“Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
26 “Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
27 Whom I myself shall behold,
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
“Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!
19 Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
But since these books were not considered to be part of the Inspired Word, but merely commentaries on it, the Sadducees did not acknowledge the truth of the resurrection of the dead.
They Did Not Believe in Angels
Therefore, when we consider the doctrine of the Sadducees, we can see that in their questioning of Jesus they thought they were asking an unanswerable question. They were trying to get Jesus to admit that there is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead. All there is, is the life that is here and now.
They would not have accepted what Singer/Songwriter Stephen Curtis Chapman wrote:
But there’s more to this life than living and dying,
More than just trying to make it through the day;
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there’s more than this life alone can be.
Notice Jesus’ response in verses 29-32. Jesus called them out for their ignorant view of the Scriptures by listing two things in which they were mistaken
1. They did not understand the Scriptures
2. They did not understand the power of God
As Jesus went on, He pointed out that there is no marriage in heaven, but that people will be like angels. It is very important that we note that He said we would be like angels. He did not say that we would become angels. We will be like them in that in heaven there will be no need to propagate the human race, since there will be no death. One of the purposes of the sexual union between man and wife is to be fruitful and multiply. But that is for this present creation and not for the new creation.
The amazing thing about Jesus’ answer to them was that He used an often-repeated statement in the Books of Moses to prove that there is in fact a resurrection from the dead. As I said last week, Jesus is wisdom personified, and you can’t get anything past Him. You can’t outwit Him. You can force Him to change His mind, for He is very God of very God. “I am God, I do not change” applies to Him as much as it does to the Father. But of course, these men who tried to trap Him in His response were blinded by the god of this world so that they could not perceive who Jesus really was and is.
I would like to take a few moments to consider
The Dangers of Bad Doctrine
The Dangers of Bad Doctrine
A wrong understanding of the Scriptures can lead to spiritual barrenness
In the case of these Sadducees, ultimately, their bad doctrine led them to deny the power of God. Their denial of the resurrection of the dead, either of the saved to eternal life, or the damned to eternal punishment, led to a spiritually barren life. If all there is to life is the here and now, then they might as well do all that they can to get ahead. Even if that means consorting with the enemy.
The Sadducees were the smallest of all of the Jewish sects, and yet they were the most powerful politically. That is because they were in league with the Romans. John MacArthur noted:
It was only by Roman permission that they exercised not only their religious but their considerable political control over the people. Because they were valuable in helping keep the people under control, the Sadducees were delegated limited authority by Rome, even to the extent of having their own police force in the form of a Temple guard. Because of their complete dependence on Rome for their power, they were understandably strongly supportive of their pagan rulers. And for that they were also hated by the people. (pg. 328).
Unfortunately, spiritual barrenness is not limited to those who enemies of Christ. There are many Christians who, because of bad doctrine, live a barren life as well. They may not be completely barren, since all believers will bare fruit. But their fruitfulness may be limited. I think of those who fall into the “hyper-Calvinist” camp. These folks believe that since all of the elect will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, then there is no need for believers to share the message of the gospel. But that is direct disobedience to the Great Commission of Christ to go into all the world and make disciples.
There are those who, from this particular passage, seem to lose hope in regards to heaven. What I mean is in regards to there being no marriage in heaven. I think R.C. Sproul stated it well:
In this fallen world, the closest relationship I have with any other human being is the one I have with my wife. I do not think that the love I have for her or the love she has for me or the closeness that we enjoy will be removed in heaven. Rather, it will get better. I believe that my relationship with [my wife] will be superior in heaven to what it is on earth. But the glory is that we will have that kind of communion and that kind of relationship with all of the saints of God. The only bride in heaven will be the church, the bride of Christ. All the people who are a part of the bride of Christ in their glorification will enjoy the communion of saints to such a degree of felicity and blessedness that marriage by contrast will be a very poor substitute or imitation. So, it will not be a question of loss when we get to heaven; it will be a matter of gain. (pg. 640-641)
A wrong understanding of the Scriptures can lead to spiritual barrenness, and bad doctrine
I find it quite interesting that the Sadducees not only denied the resurrection, but they also denied the existence of angels. Angels are talked about in various places in the Books of Moses, and so it seems very odd that they denied their existence.
The sad truth is that there is a domino effect to a flawed understanding of the Scriptures. One thing leads to another. And before long you have an entire system that is built upon a flawed view. The sad truth is that
A wrong understanding of the Scriptures can lead to spiritual barrenness, bad doctrine, and eternal damnation
I will not say that a person has to have a complete and perfect understanding of the doctrines of the Christian Church in order to be saved. But there are certainly some doctrines in which they need to grasp, at least in part. Truthfully, I don’t think that a person can have a full understanding of doctrine without the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. But since, even before a person makes a profession of faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit is working in their lives to convicting them of sin, righteousness and judgment.
These doctrines have to have begun to take root in the life of a person before they come to faith in Christ:
1. There is a God to whom they are accountable
2. They are a sinner and have rebelled against the God to whom they are accountable
3. They cannot repair their fallen relationship to God
4. Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man, fulfilled the righteous demands of God on their behalf
a. In His death on the cross He absorbed God’s wrath that was intended for them
b. In His resurrection He gained the victory over sin and death
5. All who place their faith in the person and work of Christ will be saved
As we begin to close this morning, I want to remind you that the Sadducees were not in any way friendly to Jesus. They were guilty of deceit. They were guilty of malice. And most tragically they were guilty of unbelief. I say most tragically because the sin of unbelief is the sin which, if not corrected in this life, will sentence a person to eternal damnation. However, there is grace for the sinner who turns to Christ in faith. For them there is the certain hope of the resurrection of the righteous to eternal reward.
This passage emphasizes the importance of good doctrine. It emphasizes the doctrine of the authority of all Scripture, and not just selected passages. It emphasizes the importance of the doctrine of the resurrection. And it affirms the existence of angels.
Thus far two sects of Jews have tried to entrap Jesus in what He says and teaches. But they are not yet finished. When we come back from vacation, we will look at yet another attempt to trap Jesus.
Let’s pray.
Closing Song: #528
My Faith Has Found a Resting Place