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- Mark chapter 12 and we are going to find our place tonight at verse 18 verse 18 now if you've been with us you'll know that we have been going through a series of studies through the gospel of Mark and there are times when
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- I have been taking larger sections and there are times when I've been slowing down a subjects and depends on some of the things that I want to point out from the passage and last week
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- I noted that chapter 12 beginning in verse 13 and going down to verse 34 is all one unit however
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- I said at that time because there are only a few people here I said I wasn't going to do the whole unit that night and I'm still not going to do the whole unit again tonight because even though it is one unit it breaks into three parts very easily and what is happening in Mark chapter 12 we are on day three of what is known as Holy Week Holy Week is the also known as the week that changed the world sometimes known as Passion Week this is the week between the
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- Sunday that Jesus came into Jerusalem and the Sunday that Jesus rose from the dead so this is that week and in Mark chapter 12 what we have is we have
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- Jesus's interaction with the religious leaders and this is on day three of Holy Week which would be
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- Tuesday Tuesday so day one of Holy Week was
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- Jesus going into Jerusalem on the donkey that was the triumphal entry day two of Holy Week would have been
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- Monday which was Jesus goes and he cleanses the temple remember he drives out the money changers and there's also the interaction with the the fig tree and there's that incident with the fig tree where he curses the fig tree and it withers well now we're at week we're at day three and Jesus has given a parable about the tenants and if you if you want to understand verses 13 to 34 you have to understand verses 1 to 12 because verses 1 to 12
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- Jesus is giving a parable about the tenants and the tenants he says were the religious leaders you remember the story of the tenants that the the man built a wine vineyard and he and he leased it out the tenants and he went away and while he went away he sent people to to get some of the the things from the the vineyard and when they when they came the tenants first they beat them and then they mistreated them and then they killed them and then he sent his son and they killed his son so what will that what will that master do to those evil tenants he will come and he will destroy them and it says look look with me very quickly just at verse 12 and they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people for they perceived that he had told the parable against them see the religious leaders recognized they were the object of Jesus's lesson they were the ones who
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- Jesus was talking about they were the evil tenants they were the ones who were who were taking what belonged to God and mistreating it and misusing it and they were the ones who had killed the prophets remember when
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- Jesus wept over Jerusalem what did Jesus say Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem you who killed the prophets and stoned the ones who have been sent to you remember that was
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- Jesus's words about Jerusalem he's talking about the leaders he's talking about the religious leaders and he says you and think through Old Testament history just for a moment who were the ones who were always saying peace peace when there is no peace it was the false leaders right it was the false religious leaders who were the ones who were always willing to give a a false testimony it was the religious leaders and and and so and who are the ones who are persecuting the prophets the religious leaders and so Jesus is condemning them and they know it that's what's interesting about the parable and for those of you who were here when
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- I taught on that parable Jesus this is one of the few parables that we can say nobody missed the point there's a lot of parables
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- Jesus gives and people miss the point nobody missed the point of that one especially the ones who it was given against it was given against the religious leaders and they knew it in verse 12 says they knew it they perceived that he had told the parable against them well after this there are three interactions that Jesus has this is verses 13 to 34 and the three interactions that Jesus has
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- I listed these last week as the first one is a question about taxes the second one is a question about theology this is where we are tonight so the first one taxes is verses 13 to 17 the theology is 18 to 27 and the last one as we'll see next week is a question about priority priority which is the first law which law is first and we'll talk about that next week and that's verses 28 to 34 and what is happening is the religious leaders are attempting to catch
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- Jesus in his words so that they will have ammunition to use against him to either turn the people against him or get him to simply go away they figure if they can get
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- Jesus to be made a fool or if they can get Jesus to say something that would cause him to be arrested by Rome like if they could claim he's an insurrectionist then they can get rid of him and that's what happened last week for those who were here last week they came and said and you'll notice who it was it was the
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- Pharisees and the Herodians this is verse 13 they came and said teacher we know that you're true you don't care about anyone's opinion for you are not swayed by appearances but truly you teach the way of God is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not they are trying to trap
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- Jesus in fact it says that I don't that's not my interpretation that's literally what it says it says in verse 13 the
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- Pharisees and the Herodians came to trap him in his talk they wanted to lay a trap for Jesus they said should we pay taxes or not because they know one of two things is going to happen if Jesus says yes we should pay taxes then all the
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- Jewish people who are listening to him who hate Rome are gonna run away and not want to listen to him because they don't want to pay taxes and they want to have a leader who's going to tell them no but if he says don't pay taxes then they're gonna the
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- Jewish leaders can run to Rome and say hey this guy's an insurrectionist he's telling people not to pay their taxes and then they can get
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- Jesus in trouble either way it's a lose -lose situation for Jesus but Jesus is wiser than all of them and he says to hand him a coin he takes the coin he holds it up he says whose likeness is on it it would have been
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- Tiberius Caesar and they say it's Caesar and he says render to seizures of the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are
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- God's that was our lesson for last week I talked about the fact that it's interesting that he mentions the likeness the image that is on the money because the image that's on the money represented the image that this belongs to Rome this money ultimately belongs to Rome that's whose image is on it that's why
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- I said render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's but what image is on you God's image and so when when
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- Jesus says render unto God the things that are God's first and foremost everything belongs to God but most of all it's ourselves we are to we are to repent and turn to God he's calling in a sense to render unto
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- God our own lives so we get now to the second of these interactions and the group that is in view hope sit down the group that is in view is the
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- Sadducees the Sadducees so we're going to read verses 18 to 27 about Jesus's interaction with the
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- Sadducees he says in verse 18 and Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection and they asked him a question saying
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- Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no children that man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother there were seven brothers but first took a wife and when he died left no offspring and the second took her and died leaving no offspring in the third likewise and the seven left no offspring last of all the woman also died in the resurrection when they rise again whose wife will she be for the seven had her as wife verse 24
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- Jesus said to them is this not the reason you are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God I just love that I have to stop for a second that is the biggest own like just like you don't even know what the
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- Bible says you've come to argue theology with the master of the universe and I didn't say that but he doesn't even know and he goes on he says for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven and as for the dead being raised have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush how
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- God spoke to him saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the
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- God of Jacob he is not God of the dead but of the living you are quite wrong well may
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- God add his blessing to the reading of his word now there's a lot that I want to cover tonight in this short section but the first thing
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- I want to do is make sure we're all at least familiar with this group called the Sadducees often we will hear of the
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- Pharisees and the Sadducees and in one way that is there's somewhat of an easy way of differentiating the
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- Pharisees and the Sadducees both of them were religious groups in fact it was the
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- Sadducees that made up the majority of what was known as the Sanhedrin the Sanhedrin was the
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- Jewish law court and so the the majority of the Sanhedrin was
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- Sadducees the Sadducees however were not what we would call believers in the supernatural they well let me back that up they believed in the supernatural they just didn't believe in certain supernatural things so for instance the
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- Pharisees held to a belief in the whole Old Testament as being from God but the
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- Sadducees held to a priority for the first five books of the
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- Bible which are the books of the law of Moses and they held that as being from God and so the
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- Sadducees saw the first five books of the Old Testament as the priority and and really as their
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- Bible and so when it says that they did not believe in a resurrection we have to in our minds go back and say okay does the
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- Old Testament mention resurrection well it does mentions resurrection in the book of Daniel mentions resurrection in books like the
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- Psalms or many Psalms at reference you know you think of Psalm 23 we read it at funerals all the time you know yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
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- I'll fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me thou prepares the table before me in the presence of my enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the
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- Lord forever right so that so there's this there's this promise of life that's beyond this life and there is a belief in the
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- Old Testament in life beyond this life however that understanding is not as clear in the
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- Pentateuch now what's the Pentateuch first five books of the Bible the word Penta two costs means the five scrolls and that's the first five books
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- Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy and even though I would say it is in there
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- I would say it's not as clear in fact in fact I would even go as far as to say we don't have as clear a teaching on the resurrection in the afterlife until the
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- New Testament the Old Testament is not as elaborate I mean in the
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- New Testament we have a theology of resurrection in heaven and hell and new heaven new earth new
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- Jerusalem all these things right those are New Testament promises New Testament truths the Old Testament those things are veiled they're not as clear especially in the
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- Pentateuch so you have the Sadducees who held to the Pentateuch and they said there is no resurrection why because it's not in our
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- Bible that was their claim they're saying I don't believe the resurrection because our Bible doesn't teach that right now here's the one that bothers me they also didn't believe in angels and angels are all over the
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- Pentateuch so they can't claim they can't claim that they held a high fidelity to the first five books of the
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- Bible if they're denying certain very important truths in the first five books of the Bible not the least of which are the existence of angels when's the first angel we see in the
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- Bible I may know who this might be a good quiz question what's the first angel in the Bible it's in Genesis but where okay well we're going to talk about that in a minute because we are going to talk about Genesis 6 what did
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- God place at the gate of Eden the cherubim right so we have that but we can even go a step further back what is
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- Satan Satan is a fallen angel so I mean literally there's angels in the very beginning right so the concept of their being angels existed all throughout
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- Genesis who did who did uh you know the angel the Lord spoke to Hagar right the angel the
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- Lord wrestled with Jacob right so there's angels all throughout so this this claim that they're holding firm to the to the books of Moses if they deny angels they're denying very essential parts of those books as well so what
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- I what I like to call the Sadducees and this this might be a little anachronistic and a little unfair but they're not around to give me a hard time so I can be a little unfair
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- I call these guys the liberals because the
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- Pharisees were the conservatives now conservative doesn't always mean good right there's bad conservatives right
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- I remember when we went and preached outside the the Trump rally people said why are you here we're all conservative that don't mean you're all
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- Christians you can be you can be a flag -waving Constitution believing
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- Pledge of Allegiance saying conservative and not believe in Jesus right that's the reality well the
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- Pharisees would be the conservatives and the Sadducees would be more on the liberal side but but when
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- I say liberal that doesn't mean that they didn't hold fast to certain things they did believe in certain principles they held very firmly to the law in fact they were experts in the law and again what books of the
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- Bible did they hold to those first five what are those called the Torah or the law right so they had a very high opinion of the law and they used it to benefit themselves they used it to advance their own agenda and to build their own wealth in fact
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- I believe it was the faith I believe really it was the Sadducees who were most upset when Jesus came in and cleansed the temple because it was affecting them financially because they were the ones using that as a way of gaining financial or having financial gain through that so they come to Jesus and they want to talk to him about the resurrection why the text tells us because they do not believe in it and my assumption
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- I can't prove this and I know assumptions are dangerous so I will tell you this is not proven it's just in my mind my assumption is this question that they're gonna ask
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- Jesus was probably one of the ones that they used to ask the Pharisees because the
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- Pharisees did believe in resurrection and I imagine when they were having their you know interfaith dialogue we'd call it today when they were having conversation between the
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- Sadducees and the Pharisees I imagine this was one of the questions that came up well what if a woman had seven husbands and all of them died and she goes to heaven and then she dies and the resurrection whose husband will she be and that was probably a gotcha again
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- I'm just I'm assuming here that that was a gotcha question that they had used with their Pharisees that they couldn't answer and they figured
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- Jesus can't answer it either and they're going to make Jesus look like a fool because it's made the
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- Pharisees look like a fool now something about the Pharisees and this is something John MacArthur talked about in his lesson on this as he said the
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- Pharisees did have a very elaborate doctrine of resurrection that in incorporated all kinds of things like for instance they would ask the question if a man dies will he be raised clothed or unclothed isn't that a strange question to ask but that was one of the questions that they would debate and they would ask if a man dies with a certain physical problem maybe he lost a limb or maybe had a physical deformity would he be raised with or without that physical deformity right so these were the kinds of things it's almost like that you've heard the old phrase people who argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin what is that what is that referring to it's referring to people who argue theology just for the sake of arguing there's no real benefit there's no real end it's just keeping the conversation going and sometimes that can be fun but ultimately that was the kind of arguments that were happening and so these men come to Jesus and they think they've got the whopper they think they've got the question they've got the thing that's going to make him look foolish so verse 19 teacher
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- Moses wrote for us that if a woman's brother dies and leaves a wife believes no child the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother this is referencing the the marriage law of the
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- Old Testament where if as it says in the text this is from Deuteronomy I think it's chapter 25 where it says that if a man dies his brother is to give his dead brother children so he takes his wife and gives his dead brother children and it was for the purpose this had a purpose in the history of God's people because I've heard people say what is this still apply today you know like like if my brother -in -law gonna you know take my wife if I die or something you know but this had a purpose in the history of God's people because at that time in history the land and the the heritage belonged to Israel and these men who were being born in Israel had land and had a heritage and had a promise that would needed to be maintained and so if a line went out of existence that would be a bad thing and so this was a way of keeping the line in existence it was a way of keeping that line intact and so while it may seem weird in our culture to think that if you know if I were to pass then my wife would have to marry my brother which would be very awkward yeah you know that's not what this is not a law that would apply to us today this had a very specific purpose and a very specific place in the law of God so they're using that as a question for Jesus okay they said there's seven brothers and then if they give him this very elaborate situation seven brothers this woman she hasn't given any of them a child they all die she dies in the resurrection when they rise again whose wife will she be for the seven had her as a wife now
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- Jesus I stopped when I was reading it before but I'll elaborate on it more now Jesus gives them a very striking response he says is this not the reason you were wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God now if there's one thing this group would have been well versed in it would have been the scriptures but what this reminds us is this a person can know about the
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- Bible without knowing the God of the Bible and a person can know what the Bible says without really knowing what the
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- Bible means and I run into that so often when I'll be talking to people that say oh yeah my uncle you know he doesn't go to church he doesn't do anything well but he knows all about the
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- Bible well if he knew all about the Bible and it actually changed his life then he would be in church he would be serving
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- Christ he'd be seeking after God if he knows all about the Bible and he's not serving Christ then he doesn't really understand the
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- Bible the Bible in fact the Bible says that the Bible says it's foolishness to those who are perishing right and that's what the situation is with these men they don't really understand what they think they know and this should remind us of just the danger how many leaders again
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- I don't want to go too far off because I don't get off the track of this lesson but how many leaders are in the world today claiming to be representatives of God claiming to be teachers of the word and they know not the scriptures nor the power of God I mean that is a reality this is the men
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- Jesus is facing our men these were in a modern con these are seminary graduates who know neither the scripture nor the power of God you know what
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- I mean these are men who have been exalted to a place of religious leadership but they know neither the scriptures nor the power of God remember in seminary my one of my favorite professor was dr.
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- Jerry Powers I quote him all the time every time I say it's not there's a Greek word for that it's baloney that's
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- Jerry Powers that the Jerry Powers said that to me and I thought it was so funny and I never forgot it but Jerry Powers used to talk about seminary degrees and this was such a cheesy joke but I have to repeat it he said
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- I hope you all will have some to go with all those degrees and as cheesy as that is you know what he means right don't just have the degree but have the the heart change that goes with it have that not that goes with it but have the real heart for God or be on fire is what he meant to have some temperature to go with those degrees well these men had their degrees but they didn't have any temperature so Jesus in verse 25 gives a very enigmatic statement and when
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- I say enigmatic I I don't mean it's necessarily hard to understand but it has been interpreted in various ways so I want to try to help you understand the way
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- I understand it tonight and if you understand it slightly different than I do we can talk about it and and we may end up still having a difference of that's okay this is a but but I think it's pretty straightforward this way says he says for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven so the straightforward understanding of seems to be that when the resurrection occurs we will no longer experience the marriage relationship as we experience it now but rather our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ will go into eternity as brothers and sisters in Christ not as mr.
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- mrs. Foskey or mr. mrs. Childers or anything like that that the relationship will change from being one of marriage to one of being united to Christ and he will be our groom we will be his bride and that will be the relationship forever and we will no longer have the same relationship of what we have here that we would call marriage
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- I think that's the simplest and most basic way to understand this text and it is how
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- I have understood it and and if you've ever been to my house you'll notice there is a sign that hangs above my fireplace and it was
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- I carved it for my wife years ago and it says I know we can't be married in heaven but can
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- I sit next to you when we get there and I heard pastor who's the
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- Scottish pastor yeah we liked Alistair Beck Alistair Begg said that so that wasn't original to me but I liked it so much
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- I went home and made made it into a sign and I gave it what why
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- I think that's what this text means is that we're not going to be married in heaven but I still want to sit next to you but that's the seemingly straightforward answer of what
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- Jesus is saying now there is another way that some have interpreted this some have interpreted that Jesus is referring to the time prior to Noah there is a phrase which is used in the book of Genesis where it says they were marrying and giving in marriage up until the time where God sent the flood and so some have tied
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- Jesus's words here to that to indicate that Jesus isn't saying people aren't married in heaven but rather that there aren't going to be new marriages in heaven
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- I don't agree but I just wanted to share with you that's one of the ways that people have tried because I think there are people who want to be married in heaven there are people who want that relationship to continue and as a person who loves my wife
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- I get it I told you about the sign right I like her a lot and I think
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- I'm gonna keep on liking her in heaven but they're like for instance
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- Mormons you guys know the Mormons believe in celestial marriage but they also believe in all kinds of other false stuff so we really they really don't belong in this conversation but at least to say they have to deal with this passage right and they come up with all kinds of wild ways to answer it and other people who want there to be marriage in heaven try to come up with some way to answer it but it seems to me the most basic answer is that we won't have the same marriage relationship here that we'll have in heaven and then
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- Jesus adds to this this is where I think is even more enigmatic he adds to it will be like the angels now very quickly that does not mean we will be angels yeah well what's funny about that is how many times have you been to a funeral and someone said to you oh
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- God needed another angel well this text does not say we will be angels but it says we will be like the angels in what way in regard to marriage so this would seem to indicate that angels are not creatures that are married neither are they what we would call sexual creatures they are simply creatures whose purpose is to glorify
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- God and to be his messengers and to do his service and so that is the type of being that we would be not that we will be like them in the sense it will be angels in fact
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- I don't even think we're going to be in heaven you've heard me talk about this I think we're going to be on the new earth right
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- I think based on Revelation 20 and 21 and and and and other places that the resurrection is a resurrection to a new heaven and a new earth and the new earth and is a physical place so will we have wings
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- Levon I don't think so be nice if we could fly but I don't think we'll be able to fly either but I don't know but ultimately when
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- Jesus says that they are like angels in heaven he's referring specifically to the marriage relationship now here's the part that I love does that part
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- I think is a little hard this part is great Jesus says in verse 26 and as for the dead being raised have you not read in the book of Moses what book book of Moses what book did they respect what book did they uphold the five books of Moses right have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush which would have been what book
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- Genesis right first one no I'm sorry Exodus Exodus I'm sorry my bad second one in the passage about the bush how
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- God spoke to him saying I am the God of Abraham and the
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- God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he is not God of the dead but of the living now here is why
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- I like that so much because that tells us right there that resurrection is in the
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- Torah because Jesus just told us he said it's right under your nose right it's right there
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- God said I am the God of Abraham 500 years after Abraham died because the time he's speaking to Moses is approximately 500 years after the time of Abraham and he said to Moses after Abraham I am the
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- God of Abraham he didn't say I was the God of Abraham he said
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- I am the God of Abraham so this leads us to the conclusion that what
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- Jesus is saying is that Abraham Isaac and Jacob still live and will be raised so this tells us a couple things one it tells us that the
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- Pentateuch does in fact affirm resurrection according to Jesus because Jesus is pointing to this passage to affirm resurrection so if we ever wondered does the
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- Bible from the beginning to the end teach a resurrection yes it does number two it tells us that even when we die we belong to God and we are his and he is still our
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- God and and and and this is an interesting truth because I can't prove this from this text but I at least want to place this thought out into our minds there is a doctrine which says that when you die your body and soul both die and they are dead until the time of resurrection that doctrine is called the doctrine of soul sleep also known as psychopanechia for the fancy among us who want to look up the fancy long word psychopanechia means soul sleep and there are those who believe that when you die your soul goes into a state of essentially non consciousness or death just like with your body and it stays there until the time of the resurrection very recently
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- Pat and I went to a funeral and was not that very thing said at the funeral because we went to a funeral of a person who had gone to a church that believed that churches that believe that more are often associated with the
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- Adventist movement so Seventh -day Adventists they believe in soul sleep the
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- Advent Christian Church believes in soul sleep Jehovah Witnesses even though there are cult
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- Jehovah Witnesses are Adventists they came out of the Advent movement they are they believe in soul sleep as well and it's one of those things that becomes like a big deal like like again
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- Pat did you feel like it was kind of a big deal I mean it really huh well yeah but it but it was like that became the focus of the lesson or the or the message at the funeral was she is no longer conscious she is sleeping until the resurrection but I am convinced that the
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- Bible doesn't teach that we sleep until the resurrection but I am convinced that the
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- Bible teaches as James says that as faith without works is dead so that or excuse me as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead what is death the spirit leaving the body and what happens at death the spirit is with the
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- Lord and so we see this in Luke 16 and the parable we're not parable
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- I'm sorry the story of the rich man and Lazarus remember a lot what you were gonna say something go ahead he did which tells us something what does it tell us you're right you beat me by that much
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- I know you're exactly no well yeah but that's exactly right where did the poor man go he went where Abraham was and who did the rich man remember the rich man closed his eyes and he opened him up in Hades and he hollered
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- Abraham send someone to my brothers right so Abraham lives right so now we could talk about I I I do have kind of a not odd view but I do believe that after Christ died on the cross resurrected
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- I do believe those who were with Abraham went with Christ I believe they're with Christ now but that's a that's kind of a longer discussion about why
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- I believe that but I do believe there was a change of venue after the cross but I could be wrong about that I'm not gonna hold to that for you know if I get to heaven and that's the and that's where I missed it
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- I think I'll be okay but but at the end of the the point is simply this we see
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- Abraham there who else do we see in the New Testament we've already studied this in the book of Mark who else do we see alive during the time of Christ who was long dead remember when
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- Jesus went on the mountain Elijah and Moses Moses and Elijah still live
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- I am the God of Abraham and the God of Jacob Isaac and the God of Jacob right so I think in this text is an argument for the intermediate state that's my point not only is there an argument for resurrection that they're going to live but there's an argument that they live now
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- I can't prove that I can only base that on the way I just told you how
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- I got there right because Jesus is not arguing for the intermediate state he's arguing for the resurrection but his argument works for the intermediate state too because he didn't say
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- Abraham's dead and one day he's gonna raise again he says I am the God of Abraham the
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- God of Isaac and the God of Jacob right now right now I am their God so when you die beloved if you are in Christ I believe with all my heart the very moment you leave this earth if you were in Christ you'll be with the
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- Lord and the promise is that one day the body you leave behind will be raised now
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- I don't get into the pharisaical arguments you're gonna be clothed or not clothed let's hope we're all clothed but we'll say this the resurrection is the great promised hope of all believers in Christ and just a few weeks
- 40:32
- I'm going to be doing a debate on the subject of the rapture some people believe that the church is raptured out before the tribulation period and some people don't
- 40:44
- I don't and the person I'm debating does but here's the thing this man I'm debating he's still my brother in Christ we can have a difference of opinion on when the rapture is going to happen and when the resurrection we can differ on that all day long as long as we all come to this conclusion when it's all said and done we will be with the
- 41:03
- Lord forever so that is the promise and the reminder of this verse and if somebody says any different we can just quote the last verse if somebody says there's no resurrection just look at him and say you are quite wrong all right let's pray father
- 41:21
- I thank you for your word I thank you for your truth and I pray Lord that now as we come to the end of this lesson
- 41:27
- I pray that this has been a time of learning for all of us and Lord that we would be ever more confirmed that if we were to close our eyes tonight and Lord we were never open them up in this life again that if we trust in Christ that we will be with him forever and we thank you for that promise in his name