Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S45 || Jesus Confronts Religious Misconceptions || Mark 12:18-27 || Session 45 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
What happens when religious leaders try to trap Jesus with clever theological puzzles? In Mark 12:18-27, the Sadducees present Jesus with what they believe is an unsolvable riddle about resurrection – a concept they themselves reject. Their question about a hypothetical woman who married seven brothers sequentially was designed to make resurrection seem absurd. Instead, Jesus turns their challenge into a profound teaching moment that reverberates through centuries of theological understanding.
The conversation reveals something shocking: these full-time priests and Bible teachers "do not understand the Scriptures," despite studying them since childhood. Jesus masterfully defends resurrection by pointing to a seemingly minor detail – God's declaration to Moses at the burning bush, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." The present tense verb becomes the foundation for affirming that these patriarchs are still alive in some sense, proving resurrection is real. This grammatical subtlety demonstrates how essential doctrines can hinge on the precise wording of Scripture.
We explore fascinating parallels between ancient Sadducees and modern progressive theologies that prioritize social missions over supernatural faith realities. Both risk creating religious systems that miss core biblical truths about sin, salvation, and eternity. Jesus also provides intriguing glimpses into heaven's reality, explaining that marriage won't exist there – not because relationships lose value, but because God's overwhelming presence will transform all human desires and connections into something even more beautiful. His rebuke of the Sadducees reminds us that sincerity in religious belief doesn't guarantee correctness, challenging us to approach Scripture with both academic rigor and spiritual receptivity.
Discover how this ancient confrontation continues to challenge our understanding of Scripture, resurrection, heaven, and the nature of true faith. Subscribe to Reasoning Through the Bible for more insightful explorations of biblical passages and their profound theological implications.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. If you have your copy of the Word of God, open it to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12. Today we're going to get yet another attempt by the Jewish leadership to trap Jesus. We have today some of the Jewish priests, the Sadducees, coming up with a question. We're going to see Jesus' answer and, as we've said before, this section of the Scriptures is very, very rich. It's very profound. We're going to get a lot of meaning out of these sections. So we're slowing down here just a bit because there's so much here to learn. Steve, can you read this question? We have yet another question that the Sadducees come up with trying to trap Jesus, and we're going to see his answers again, which are very interesting. Steve, can you read chapter 12, verses 18 to 27?
Speaker 2:Some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and began questioning him saying and so all seven left no children. Last of all, the woman died also In the resurrection. When they rise again, which one's wife will she be? For all seven had married her. Jesus said to them not the reason. You are mistaken that you do not understand the scriptures or the power of God, for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are greatly mistaken.
Speaker 1:With this. The Sadducees come up and ask this question, and I submit that the Sadducees, at least in this case, must have been analytic philosophers, because they ask a ridiculous question and analytic philosophy is full of ridiculous questions. So the Sadducees come up with this question and in verse 18, it tells us something about what the Sadducees believed. What are these people?
Speaker 2:and what do they believe? The Sadducees were the sect that notes here that they didn't believe in the resurrection. Sadducees were the sect that notes here that they didn't believe in the resurrection. They also didn't believe in all of the Hebrew scripture. They believed that the first five books, the Pentateuch, was the inspired word of God, and the other parts of the Hebrew scripture they didn't hold so much to. This is a particular belief of these, this group of the Sadducees, which, again, they're different from the Pharisees, which took all of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, to be of God and given to the prophets and others.
Speaker 1:The Sadducees, as it says here, deny resurrection. Denying resurrection has several implications to it. If someone were to hold that the resurrection does not happen, then they're denying an afterlife. There's not an afterlife if there's no resurrection. They would also deny God's righteous judgment, because if there's no afterlife then there's no ability for God to judge after we live between good and bad or good people. There's no rewards, there's no punishment, there's not a living after you're dead, in heaven or hell. All of that goes away if you deny the resurrection. That's why the resurrection of Jesus is so important, because it proves all of those things—heaven, hell and afterlife, god's judgment, his rewards for the righteous, and so on.
Speaker 1:Sadducees haven't gone away. They're still around, not by name, but they're represented today by liberal and progressive theologians who have changed the focus of the Bible away from sin and salvation, away from the sin of mankind and the salvation in Jesus Christ as a forgiveness of our sins, and they've moved it towards a mission of fairness in the world and their own feelings of what should be important. A mission of fairness to the world, feeding the poor, earthly acts and earthly passions. That's the movements today. We don't have Sadducees by name, but we have liberal and progressive theologians that are in the same vein.
Speaker 1:Sadducees were very religious, but they had ignored the theology of the Bible, much like liberal and progressive churches do today. Now, in verse 24, jesus responds to the Sadducees' question by saying they do not understand the Scriptures. Now, keep in mind, the Sadducees were full-time priests and full-time Bible teachers, yet they had been studying the Scriptures since they were children. Yet Jesus tells us here that they do not understand the Scriptures. The question here, steve, is is it possible for someone to study the Bible for years and even be a full-time minister, yet miss major points of the Bible?
Speaker 2:Apparently it is Jesus mentions it here that they have this whole idea of the resurrection completely wrong. In his answer he explains to them that God that spoke to Moses out of the burning bush says I'm the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. They were long dead at the time that God spoke to Moses through the burning bush. So his point being is that Abraham Isaac and Jacob were alive somewhere at the point in time and that there is going to be a resurrection at some time in the future. So yes, they can be mistaken, it seems.
Speaker 2:Glenn, I want to get your view on this. It seems that many times it's very simple things of topics in the scripture that the people get wrong. These ministers and I don't know maybe it's because they're looking to themselves they get off track. I don't know exactly how it happens, but so often to me it seems like very simple things. The resurrection is a very simple concept in the Hebrew scriptures. It just kind of amazes me that they don't understand that. What's your view on that in regards to teachers that get off the path of the Word of God?
Speaker 1:I've always been perplexed at it, because we have people in organizations with the sign out front says it's a church, but they've denied all of the things in the scriptures that make it Christian. I think part of it is, in some cases, a sincere feeling of what ought to be in the world. Say, well, we ought to be helping the poor and we ought to be having fairness in the world. I'm all for feeding the poor and I'm all for fairness. I mean, I don't know anybody that's going to vote against fairness. And Christians should indeed be trying to right wrongs in the world. But that's not the focus of the Bible. The focus of the Bible is we are sinners separated from God, and how do we get back right again? And we get back right again through Jesus Christ. Our sins are washed away Once we're right with God. We're then born again, we're filled with the Holy Spirit. Then we go out and work on fairness in the world so that we can then bring more converts so they can have faith in Jesus Christ. And I think why people miss that main point is they're bringing in their own feelings. They're bringing in their own sense of what ought to be. It seems to me that the whole idea of heaven and hell is less important than this hungry person down the street or this idea of which group has been mistreated over the years. And they bring in their own ideas instead of bending our own will to what God has revealed to us in the Bible. That's what I see Now.
Speaker 1:Jesus says here that not all religious views are correct. Again, we have these Sadducees that are sincere and they're religious people and they have their viewpoint. But Jesus says you're wrong, you are very mistaken. He says. So I take it that it's possible to be religious and be sincere and be wrong. Some people are sincerely wrong. So just because someone is religious doesn't make it correct. Sincerely wrong. So just because someone is religious doesn't make it correct. We could be respectful towards people, but we don't have to always agree with them and we can, like Jesus said, say you are wrong, you're very wrong, steve. That's what I find a lot of times today in the church is we just want to be soft towards people and nobody wants to be rude? I don't think, but nevertheless, here we have our Lord looking these people in the eye and saying you're wrong. Is there a place for that today?
Speaker 2:There is a place for it.
Speaker 2:I think as I'm sitting here listening to you and as I'm going through my answer, it has come to me that what was one of the things the Sadducees were denying the major portion of the prophets and others, part of Scripture, as I mentioned before, they only look to the Pentate and don't understand the Word of God and mischaracterize it and misinterpret it is because so often they leave sections and don't believe in parts of Scripture.
Speaker 2:You and I take all of Scripture to be inspired Word of God, both what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Therefore we teach the whole counsel of God, both what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Therefore we teach the whole counsel of God. As I was sitting here thinking of that, many of these charismatic preachers and teachers that get people off into different directions, they are denying parts of the Word of God and they don't take it for the plain sense of the meaning that's there. So I do think that that plays a part in them getting off base. They add their feelings to it, but I think they're also that they just don't take parts of the Scripture as being inspired Word of God.
Speaker 1:When you say charismatic, you're meaning like focusing on a person's personality right, a charismatic person, and I would agree with you entirely. So I think we should be always careful to check our own desires with the Word of God, because it's so easy for all of us to let what we seem to think is the way it ought to be impact our interpretation of Scripture, when really it needs to be the other way around. We need to bend our desires. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end of the way is death. We need to make sure that our desires line up with the scriptures. Now look at verse 25. There's a word here used in 25, for what happens to the dead, steve. What does it say there? What word does it use? Is going to happen to the dead?
Speaker 2:It says there in 25 that they are going to rise from the dead. That's the resurrection part.
Speaker 1:Rise from the dead. That is the resurrection. The root word there from the dead. That is the resurrection. The root word there, rise means to stand up. The dead will not stay disembodied, they will rise. Our physical bodies will rise. That's what the scripture teaches from start to finish. Verse 26 here says Jesus tells us in fact the dead are going to rise again. With that, I think that is his important thing in this section is that the resurrection is true.
Speaker 1:He calls the Sadducees incorrect and say they're mistaken, that the dead will rise. So the resurrection is a major point in Scripture. With the question they ask when they ask this question, they ask this whole thing about the wife that married the seven brothers, and we said before it was sort of a ridiculous question. But when this whole thing about the wife that married the seven brothers and we said before it was sort of a ridiculous question, but when we read that you can almost hear the sneer, you can almost feel the sneer they think, boy, we really got you this time. Well, jesus, why are you trying to trap me again? So he comes up with a very profound answer.
Speaker 1:Now the other thing I want to take a minute here and point out if we look at verse 26,. Let me just read that verse again. He says here he's hinging his statement here I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He's hinging his statement here on this quotation from the Old Testament I am the God of Abraham. Jesus is saying that because God told Moses I am the God of Abraham, instead of I was the God of Abraham, then Abraham is still alive and the resurrection's true. No less of a doctrine than the resurrection which, again over in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul tells us the resurrection is an essential doctrine. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, if the dead do not rise, we are still in our sins. Resurrection is an essential Christian doctrine. When here he's defending the doctrine of resurrection, an essential doctrine, by saying that when God spoke to Moses saying I am the God of Abraham, instead of I was the God of Abraham, then the resurrection's true. God said this to Moses at the burning bush Abraham had been dead for hundreds of years by that point. He's telling Moses, at the burning bush, I am the God of Abraham. Think of it.
Speaker 1:The essential doctrine of the resurrection, according to our Lord Jesus, right here in red and white hinges on a verb tense I am the God of Abraham, not I was the God of Abraham. The Bible is true even down to the verb tenses. He hinges an essential Christian doctrine that makes the difference between lost and saved, christian and non-Christian. Again, resurrection's essential doctrine hinges upon I am versus I was. Now, if we combine that with over in Galatians 3, verse 16, paul makes a point about Genesis 12, 7, where God's prophecy was to Abraham's seed and not seeds. He makes a point about how that seed was Jesus and he wasn't making a point about seeds. Plural the entire nation. There we have no less than Jesus being fulfillment of the payment for our sins, based on a singular and plural noun seed versus seeds. So if we add these two passages together, we have essential Christian doctrines hinging upon in divinely inspired Scripture present and past, tense, verbs and singular and plural nouns.
Speaker 1:The reason I bring all that up is it impacts the inspiration of Scripture. There have been large theological wrestling matches over the years about whether the Bible is inerrant or not. Well, we hold and conservative theologians have always held that to a fully inspired Bible, which means an inerrant Bible. I would hold to what we here at Reasoning Through the Bible believe, which is a verbal, plenary inspiration, which just means the words themselves are inspired down to the verb tenses and the singular and plural nouns, simply because that's what Scripture brings out.
Speaker 1:We cannot play fast and loose with Scripture. Bible is inspired down to the verb tenses and the singular and plural nouns. It is not just inspired in the ideas behind the words or the concepts it teaches, it's inspired down to the very words. This is very important, simply because as soon as you open the door theologically to oh well, the actual words aren't all that important, it's really the ideas behind them or some sort of a symbolism in the language then you've opened a door big enough to drive a truck through, a theological truck that brings a load of heresy with it. That's not a fallacious argument, simply because it's been done over and over and over and over again throughout history of people that start to slip their view of the inspiration of Scripture and they end up in heresy. Steve, maybe I'm a little hard on that, but your comments.
Speaker 2:I totally agree with that and am 100% behind everything that you've mentioned there, glenn, by taking the Word of God as being inspired, every Word of God. As you've pointed out, then it's important that we encapsulate all of Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament, in our understanding. Today we do not have prophets that come and tell us the Word of God as there were in the times before Jesus. What we do have is God's Word. So it's important for us to have that particular viewpoint of the Word, I think, glenn, in order to completely understand God.
Speaker 2:I think the people sometimes that don't have the complete view of inspiration of all of the Scripture and all of the words, maybe sometimes they get into symbology and they take that symbology a little bit too far and they don't take the Word of God serious and they spiritualize a lot of it. I think that misses a lot of the things that God wants us to understand about Him and also to understand about what's going to happen in the future. So I think spiritualizing is a way of not necessarily taking the Word of God, every word, as being an inspired word, and I might be off base on that and I don't want to broad brush, but I think that we need to look at the plain reading of the text and take that as far as our interpreting and understanding of God.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to verse 25. There's some things we can get out of this passage about marriage. Verse 25 says For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. Well, this brings up a question, or at least an idea that we have to explore, a question or at least an idea that we have to explore. The Sadducees' question was about whether an earthly marriage applies in heaven. And Jesus says no, for in heaven people don't marry.
Speaker 1:Now, some people struggle with that simply because they love their spouses and their spouse maybe has died and they were deeply in love and they're looking forward to seeing their spouse again in heaven. Many people are looking forward to seeing their loved ones and they struggle with this concept. Jesus, what are you saying here? That they're not married in heaven? Well, we can be confident of a few things about heaven. One in heaven we're going to know as much as we do now. Right, it wouldn't make sense to know less. I'm going to know my loved ones in heaven.
Speaker 1:But I think a lot of times we have a very earthly viewpoint and we don't realize a profound enough view of God. God's presence is going to be so overwhelmingly beautiful, so overwhelmingly majestic, that all human desires will be overshadowed by the infinite glory of God. We have no concept now of how beautiful God's going to be. So, yes, we'll recognize our loved ones in heaven. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Certainly no theological perspective that would say we wouldn't. But what is going to be the case is we get to see God. We finally get to be face-to-face with the Lord. He's beautiful and he's infinite, so he's infinitely beautiful. He's beautiful and he's infinite, so he's infinitely beautiful, and we will never tire of being in his presence. All the focus in heaven will be on the overwhelming majesty of God. More than any other human emotion. It will just overwhelm all that we can ask or think. God will be above and beyond all that we know here. If we look at the scenes of heaven in the book of Revelation, what are people doing? They're praising God. So that's why I think we can safely say here that we will be happy. There will be no more tears, we'll see our loved ones and we'll be able to sit at the Lord's feet and worship Him. The focus is going to be on Him.
Speaker 1:Next. We can from that same passage we can learn some things about angels. It also talks about angels. It says angels do not marry.
Speaker 1:Now the people that specialize in the theology of angels take this verse and they kind of develop a long series of doctrines around angels with this and eventually I sort of scratch my chin and say, well, I'm not sure I want to go down that path. But the thought process goes like this If angels don't marry, then angels don't reproduce, and if angels don't reproduce, then all angels were created individually. And if all angels were created individually, then they have an individual case on whether they ended up as a demon or as a good angel. And since angels are created individually, then the bad angels, the demons, would have to have a like kind in order to reconcile them to God, which there was not. Jesus made a way for humans to reconcile back because he was human, but there is no way for a demon to be reconciled back to God again. So the theology of angels says that they were all created individually. The theology of angels says that they were all created individually. They had an instance of being able to decide at the instant of their creation, are they good or bad, and after that their future is fixed.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not a great theologian on angels, but that's the thought process and I'm not sure I want to follow them all the way down that rabbit hole, but it's nevertheless here. The reason I bring that up is because right here in this passage of Mark 12, verse 25, that's where they get it is from the angels, not marrying. We'll leave our listeners to do with that, as you will. Verse 27 says Jesus says you are greatly mistaken or quite wrong, badly mistaken. Jesus had no trouble telling some people that they were very wrong and I think some people are sincere about their religion but some people can be sincerely wrong. But just to summarize here before we leave the main point about this was the resurrection. The Sadducees had come up with this question about the afterlife and Jesus said you don't know the scriptures that we will indeed rise from the dead. There is an afterlife. That's the beauty of this passage is that he reassures us that there will be a heaven and we will get to see the Lord after we die and that's going to be a great day.
Speaker 2:This is the second group of religious leaders that have tried to entrap Jesus in a statement through his answers. Really it shows that their questions are not very smart and really exposes them as not really knowing the scriptures all the way around.
Speaker 1:I find that interesting really knowing the scriptures all the way around. I find that interesting. Next time we're going to see one of the Jewish leaders, saw this answer and realized that he was quite profound and we're going to learn some very interesting things about the gospel of Mark and the inspiration of scripture next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
