Mark: In the Resurrection [Mark 12:18-27]

Mark: In The Resurrection []

Stand for the reading of the word of God []

The question of life after death has always fascinated people. Every religion has some perspective on the issue, though they vary widely. Surveys show that over 80% of Americans believe in some sort of life after death, though some ideas are strange to say the least.

Christians have always had a strong doctrine concerning life after death. After, all we build our understanding of the future, end times, and eternity from the teachings of Jesus, an empty tomb, and a resurrected living Savior. But we have to admit there is still a lot about the afterlife that is still a mystery to us. While the bible tells us a lot, it doesn’t tell us everything.

With much unknown about the afterlife people tend to eat up those stories of near-death experiences. For example, 3 year old Colton Burpo had a near-death experience while on the operating table. When it was over, he described his three minutes in heaven in vivid detail.

Colton’s dad, a Wesleyan pastor, believes the lad’s experience was real because, as he said, “the boy shared with simple conviction of an eyewitness.” The book written about Colton’s experience, “Heaven is for real” ruled the best-seller list for 44 weeks. Millions devoured the book and watched the boy appear on TV and their was even a motion picture made based on his story.

Now obviously I don’t if the boy really went to heaven or not, what concerns me is how our culture has seem to have forgotten that a person can be sincere and still be wrong. It’s important to keep in mind that any reports of NDE or afterlife stories MUST be measured against scripture! If Lazarus would have written a book called “my four days in heaven” I would say that one is worth paying attention to…but he did not and God has not chosen to answer every question about life after death in His word. So every thing we hear outside of scripture about the afterlife must be weighed against scripture.

Some things we do know about the afterlife from scripture is...

Death is not the end of life [; ; ; ]

We maintain our identities [ the mount of Transfiguration]

We await future resurrection [; ; ]

We await final judgment [; ]

Believers are destined for life with Christ in the new heavens and new earth []

Unbelievers are destined for hell and everlasting separation from God [Outer Darkness]

Our choices now have eternal consequences [; ]

God has chosen not to reveal everything about the afterlife at this time [; Paul was not allowed to share about his experience in paradise] [John didn’t reveal everything he heard in the apocalypse ]

While there are many questions about the afterlife, in our text today some of those questions are posed and answered. There is a question about marriage in the afterlife but the main focus and issue is that of the resurrection.

First we’ll examine the...

The Sadducees’ question []

Before we get to the question we must ask first, “who are the Sadducees?” This is the first time we’ve seen them in Mark’s gospel so it’s a good idea to see who they are, as it will help us build our understanding of what’s going on here. You may have heard about the Sadducees before in church but not really know who they are.

The Sadducees were wealthy aristocrats with significant political and temple influence. They dominated the Sanhedrin, they were sympathetic to Hellenism, the Herods, and Rome. They only considered the first 5 books of Moses [The Pentateuch] as authoritative scripture. They had a strong doctrine of human free will and they did not believe in angels or demons.

They did not believe in the immortality of the soul or in a future resurrection. Josephus [the Jewish theologian] said, the doctrine of the Sadducee is souls die with bodies. Because of their belief, they were not looking for a Messiah from the line of David, and their question about the resurrection is a shame, they are simply trying to trap or trip up Jesus. This is not new in Mark’s gospel, we’ve seen this multiple times, the religious leaders questioning Jesus in order to disprove or discredit Him.

The legal background of the story [v. 19]: The Sadducees question was based in the law of God from known as the law of levirate marriage [levir means brother-in-law]. Summary, the law provided that if a man died without a son to hand over his land to, the dead man’s brother should marry the woman and produce offspring for the inheritance. The Lord’s concern was keeping a family’s land in the possession of that family.

If the brother in law refused to marry the wife and keep the levirate law, which was his duty, she had the right to bring him before the elders and if he still did not do it, she would pull off his sandal, spit in his face, and his house would be known as “the house with the sandal pulled off.” So if you read the book of Ruth you see this kind of thing going on, and if you read it again you’ll see, Oh this is what this is all about.

So while the law they propose to Jesus is legit, their intent is to try to make Jesus look stupid or wrong. So we have...

A story intended to frame their question [v.20-22]: The story 7 brothers die, all had the same wife, they did their duty according to the levirate law, none produce offspring and finally the woman dies, which was probably a relief to her. So they use what we call a “reducito ad absurdum” argument, an absurd story to paint a ridiculous scenario. They use this ridiculous story to frame...

The pointed question itself [v.23]: “In the resurrection, when they rise...” you can almost hear the sarcasm in their voices. They don’t believe in the resurrection remember, so they use an absurd story to try to show the idea of the resurrection is ridiculous. Their like look at all the problems their would be if the resurrection was for real. At first glance it seems like a legitimate question. But immediately we have...

Jesus’ response []

The source of the Sadducees’ error [v.24]: Jesus response was in three parts, the first emphasizing the source of their error was their ignorance of scripture and the power of God. “Err” [Greek planao] implies a straying from the truth. “Power” [Greek dunamis] indicates ability rather than authority. i.e. the Sadducees’ limited knowledge of scripture kept them from understanding God’s ability to raise people from the dead and to do so in a way that the complexities of their earthly lives did not interfere. in short, Misinterpreting scripture inevitably leads to a distorted view of God. It always leads to your view of god being too small to be the God of the bible. Jesus begins to correct these fellows in verse 25.

The nature of resurrection life [v.25]: the nature of their error was manifest by biblical ignorance. They assumed that the life of the resurrection would in some way be a continuation of this life, so earthly relationships would still be the same. This is not uncommon to people, people still link the afterlife with this life in some way. Like a better version of this life. Jesus quickly corrects their error.

Jesus says, “when they rise” and they will! They do not marry or are given in marriage. But in that sense are like the angels, not married. Notice He did NOT say they become angels… nowhere in the bible does it say that when you die you get wings and become an angel…that is simply false! We are like the angels in the sense we will be immortal with no need for marriage.

Now there is a great deal about life after death we do not know, and Jesus only enlightened us slightly here. I read many commentaries this week and some of them kind of took liberties in interpreting this saying of Jesus. I will not do that, you can research that yourself if your interested. But what I do think we can take away from this is, whatever our relationships look like in heaven you can be confident that it’ll be far far more satisfying than the kinds of relationships we have now. Marriage represents the deepest relationship on earth, but how we know people in heaven will be so much greater and deeper and more intimate.

The God of the living [v.26-27]: The third part of Jesus response is even more breathtaking, and uses one verse from the Pentateuch to prove the resurrection. While the former passages assumed the resurrection, these two verse prove the resurrection. Jesus asks them in verse 26, “did you read this?” Remember these guys are experts at the Pentateuch [first five books of the bible]. They used for their basis to disprove the resurrection and what does Jesus use? ....where does that come from ??? The Pentateuch, the part these guys were experts at. He says didn’t you read this stuff fellows before you came to question me.

Jesus refers to the passage about the burning bush, remember they didn’t carry around Hebrew scrolls with them, they were large, there was no pocket bibles with them so Jesus refers to a familiar passage they could easily recognize. They would have been very familiar with this passage, and Jesus quotes, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” They knew that, it was commonly referred to in Jewish life that their God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jesus follows it up by saying “God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.” How does this answer the resurrection question, it may not initially be clear to you, but it resides in one phrase… “I AM” God didn’t say, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they’re dead now so I’ll be your God. No, it’s “I AM!” In the present tense, actually in the present continuing tense. I am and always will be their God. So if this statement was said to Moses by God…which is hundreds of years after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died…and God is still their God, that testifies to the fact that the patriarchs are what??? Alive! But their dead, yes they’ve died on this earth, but do they cease to exist? No. What Jesus is pointing out is that God’s living relationship with His people is not terminated by their physical death…but is culminated in their resurrection life.

This resurrection thing is not a new idea…it’s always been the eternal hope of God’s people. God is and always will be our God, in this life and the life to come. I want to make four points of application from this text.

Application

It’s foolish to try to answer heavenly questions with earthly circumstances. The Sadducee’s tried to do this, but how often do we do the same thing. Many of us are guilty of picturing Heaven as the best of this world intensified…but we do ourselves an injustice to do that. You’ve heard that saying of people, “they are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.” The problem is, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like that. I think our problem is more likely is, “we are so earthly minded we are no heavenly good.” So caught up in the things of this world, we miss the blessed hope of eternity. Which is, the next point, why it’s so...

The importance of not only reading the scriptures but also the spiritual insight into it’s meaning. The Sadducee’s tried to use scripture to their advantage but the problem was they missed the meaning spiritually because they were earthly minded. I’ve heard people tell me, I read the scripture but I’m not that spiritual to know the deeper meaning. I will ask this when I hear that… “how do you read the bible? Do you read it to learn facts or maybe get a little encouragement or do you read it to know God?” Ultimately God’s word is His revelation of Himself to us, if your coming to God’s word with yourself as the focus, your focus is out of focus…we need to come to God’s word with the mindset…God I want to know YOU! Like I said earlier, a limited understanding of God’s word limits our understanding of God Himself, and we make God to small…the bible does not make God to small, the bible paints the picture of a God who we can’t understand fully, who still amazes us and whom we still cannot fathom His greatness.

The need of considering the power of God to do things we cannot now anticipate. The resurrection is one of those things we just have a hard time wrapping our heads around. Just consider how God has revealed Himself more and more throughout history. In the bible, from the OT through the NT we see God revealing Himself more and more to His people. Giving glimpses and tastes of Himself and of things to come. Is it so hard to think that God will reveal to us things we cannot even anticipate now??? I don’t think so. But there is...

The danger of deception causing us to err from the truth…this includes self-deception. In light of the future resurrection, we tend to, when we do not know things, conjure up ideas for ourselves…when we do that we typically are wrong. When in regards to our future resurrection, keep in mind…God created Adam and Eve to live forever in their bodies, that was His intent for us as well. But sin ruins everything. It affects our ability to relate to a Holy God. It corrupts our minds, emotions, and wills. It brings a curse on the material universe. And it results in spiritual and physical death.

The consequence of Adam’s sin is experienced by all people. We all willfully disobey and rebel against God and experience suffering, aging, and death. Even nature itself experienced the pains of the fall. So If Jesus paid our sin debt in full, it means He not only restores believers to a right relationship with Him; but He also reverses the effects of the Fall, including physical death and a cursed world.

i.e. The Christian’s salvation is completed in what Paul called “glorification” the resurrection and perfection of our bodies, which are made like the risen Christ. lays it out for us this redemption of man Paul lays out in the past tense, future resurrection, along with God’s foreknowledge, predestination, calling, and justification. Here’s the beauty of it…followers of Jesus ultimately see Him as He is-in unveiled, radiant glory, and become like Him! Amen.

Our resurrection is pinned directly to Christ’s resurrection, as Paul said in , if Christ has not been raised your faith is worthless and you’re still in your sin, but Christ has been raised…and we will be raised together with Him one day. Keep in mind, unbelievers will be resurrected as well, only to eternal separation from God.

It’s comforting to keep in mind that when Christ died, He redeemed or bodies, souls, and spirits, but Believers salvation doesn’t stop with forgiveness of sins, the declaration of our right standing with God in Christ, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit—as unfathomable as these gifts of grace are. The redemptive work of Christ finds its ultimate fulfillment in the future resurrection and glorification, when the effects of sin are completely removed, and believers are fully conformed to the image of Christ. Not only removed from the effects of sin but from the very presence of sin and in the presence of God forever.

While we may struggle to comprehend what all this means now, we can find comfort that one day, those who are in Christ, who have repented and believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be fully restored and completely transformed and we will be face-to-face with God forever. I don’t know anything better than that blessed hope.

Have you turned to Jesus in repentance and faith?