What happens after we die? In this episode, J. Mark Horst studies Mark 12:18-27, where the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, try to trap Jesus with a question about marriage in the afterlife. Instead, Jesus exposes their faulty beliefs through the testimony of Jesus and the testimony of Moses. He reveals the truth of the resurrection and points to God’s declaration that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, declaring that He is “not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.”
It is so good to be with you today. As we look into the Word of God together, our goal is to be disciples of Jesus. We want to be like Him, thinking as He thinks, responding as He would respond. We have room for improvement in this, some more than others, but the important thing is that you start this journey. Direction is more important than perfection.
This program is produced by Heralds of Hope, and our vision is to use media such as radio and social media to make disciples. We do this through expository teaching, and today’s lesson is from Mark chapter 12. Here, the Sadducees question Jesus about the resurrection. His answer is very interesting. Let’s go with Bible teacher J Mark for a closer look.
Many people today deny the reality of the resurrection. Their idea is that “when you die, you die like an animal. They put you in the ground, and that’s the end of it.” People with this worldview lived during the time of Jesus, too.
In chapter 12 of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus silenced the Pharisees on the question of authority. When the Sadducees saw that, they were happy. They considered themselves smarter than the Pharisees, and they decided to try to trap Jesus with their question about the resurrection. Let’s see what happened.
I’ve titled our study “The God of the Living,” and I’m reading Mark 12:18-27.
18 Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:
19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.
20 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.
21 And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring. And the third likewise.
22 So the seven had her and left no offspring. Last of all the woman died also.
23 Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?
25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
26 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”
This text records the TESTIMONY of two witnesses who verify the reality of the resurrection.
The First TESTIMONY is,
The Testimony of Jesus
As I said, the Sadducees wanted to trap Jesus with their question about the resurrection. Who were the Sadducees, and what motivated them?
Most of the Sadducees were wealthy, arrogant, and smug. They denied the supernatural, including the resurrection. Since they didn’t believe in life after death, they pursued wealth and status here. They opposed the Pharisees, rejected their oral interpretations of the Law, and didn’t accept them as binding.
The Sadducees held to the first five books of the law as the sole authority. However, they weren’t literalists; they believed Scripture should be modified by human logic. In other words, they wanted the freedom to interpret Scripture as they wanted. Does that sound familiar?
These men came to Jesus with a hypothetical question based on Deuteronomy 25:5-10. Our text gives us the basic idea of the law of levirate marriage. So, they used this impossible situation of one woman sequentially being the wife of seven brothers and having no children.
The Sadducees were not serious about dialogue and engagement with the truth. Instead, they were wielding the weapon of ridicule—the same weapon often used by those who reject the truth today. When you can’t refute the message, you attempt to destroy the messenger.
So, they sneeringly ask Jesus, “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” Jesus immediately responds, “Are you not mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? Wow, that hits hard! Not knowing the Scriptures experientially prevents one from understanding the power of God. Remember, the Sadducees denied the supernatural.
The word mistaken may be better rendered as deceived or having wandered astray from the truth like those mentioned in Jude 13. These men were wrong in their understanding. This criticism must’ve stung since the Sadducees posed as intellectually superior to the Pharisees.
Here was Jesus, a man whom, according to John 7:15, the religious leaders knew had never studied under the famous rabbis, telling them they didn’t know the Scriptures or the power of God. The Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly taught a future, bodily resurrection, but the Sadducees rejected it. Unfortunately, there are many like them today in the pulpits of our churches and the chairs of our seminaries.
Now, Jesus explains their error in spiritual terms they could easily understand. If they had received them, it would have led them onward, far beyond their understanding and the viewpoints of the Pharisees. However, we have no evidence they accepted Jesus’ teaching.
Marriage is for this life. Marriage and procreation will not be needed in heaven because death will be DEFEATED! Jesus said those who are counted worthy to reach heavenly existence can no longer die. Their equality with angels consists in their deliverance from mortality and its consequences.
They are now entirely the sons of God because they are the sons of the resurrection. Notice that Jesus didn’t say if they are resurrected; He said when they are resurrected. However, this resurrection is not simply a reawakening but a transformation. The world to come is not merely a reproduction of what has passed away. Why reproduce what was corrupted by sin?
Listen to Paul’s words in Romans 8:21 to 23. “…because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”
Furthermore, in Philippians 3:20 and 21, Paul wrote, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
There’s another reason why marriage isn’t needed in heaven. Marriage was created as a type of Christ’s relationship with the church. When we get to heaven, the marriage between Christ and His bride, the church, will be consummated, so marriage as we know it will no longer be necessary.
When we’re in heaven, there will be no sin. There will be no exploitation of women. There will be no insults between husbands and their wives. Our relationships with people we hardly know in this world will be more profound, blessed, intimate, and fulfilling than anything we can experience in marriage. Think of it. We will enjoy far richer human fellowship and communion than the best communion we can ever experience in this life.
The authoritative testimony of Jesus provides clear proof that He is the God of the living.
The Second TESTIMONY is,
The Testimony of Moses
Jesus was the master Teacher. The Sadducees appealed to Moses’ law? They saw the first five books of the Old Testament as carrying supreme authority. They took command of levirate marriage, and extrapolated it to an absurd, hypothetical situation. They were sure they had Jesus caught in their trap.
But to their surprise, Jesus appeals to the same prophet, Moses. He points them back to Moses’ experience at the burning bush. The proof that God raises the dead is evident in Moses’ record of God’s words in Exodus 3:6. There, Moses records God speaking these words of identification: “I am [ present tense] the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…” Physically, all of these were dead, but they were not nonexistent.
Look at what Jesus says in verse 27 of our text. “[God] is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.” So, if God is the God of the living, the patriarchs must exist in some way in God’s presence.
In Luke 16’s account of the rich man and Lazarus, verse 22 shows Lazarus being carried to Abraham’s side in Hades, the place of departed spirits. What value would this picture have if Abraham did not exist? But Abraham comforts Lazarus and also communicates with the rich man. Using God’s words through Moses, Jesus communicates Himself as the God of the living.
Do you realize what that means to us today? Abraham is still alive. Isaac still lives. Jacob is alive and well. Their lives are in the hands of the God of the living, who will not let death end our existence. We find in this text not only a magnificent philosophical refutation of the views of those who tried to entrap Jesus, but we see from our Master’s lips His bold and strong affirmation to the oldest question that man has, which is, “If a man dies, shall he live again?”
Our Lord, without hesitation, without ambiguity, answers that question in the affirmative. We have life, and we have it forever. Jesus ends His monologue with a similar, yet strengthened, rebuke with which He began. You are greatly deceived!
I pray that this mistake will never be found among us! Our God is the God of the Living.
Thanks, J Mark, for sharing this teaching with us. This was the first time I realized Jesus called the Sadducees “greatly mistaken,” not once but twice. I had to wonder if any of them took His rebuke to heart and made some changes. Surely some of them thought hard about his rebuke. Yet I also know the human tendency to justify our actions. This was and is real, and from the rest of the story, we know many did not change. They continued to protect their status and position, even though it was wrong. May God give us a tender conscience to hear Him and respond when His Spirit speaks to us.
How do you allow God’s Spirit to work in you? What can we do to avoid being deceived? If you would like to share your response with us, we’d love to hear from you. Here is how you can reach us. Our email address is [email protected]. Or you can contact us via our website. Go to Heraldsofhope.org. There, you will find “Contact Us” under the Partner tab at the top right. Click on that to message us directly. We would love to hear from you.
This brings us to the end of today’s lesson. Thanks so much for being with us. Deception is tricky; if we know it, then it’s not deception. In II Thessalonians, Paul tells us God sent a lie, and some believed it because they refused to love the truth. To guard against deception, we must love the truth.
