Mark 12:13-27Traps, Mark 12b, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Mark chapter 12 will be reading from verses 13 to 27 here the word of the

Lord and they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the

Herodians to trap him in his talk and They came and said to him teacher. We know that you were true and do not care about anyone's opinion

For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy he said to them why put me to the test?

Bring me a denarius and let me look at it and they brought one and he said to them Whose likeness and inscription is this they said to him

Caesars? Jesus said to them render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are

God's and they marveled at him and Sadducees came to him who say there is no resurrection

And they asked him a question saying teacher Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child

The man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother There were seven brothers

The first took a wife and when he died left no offspring and the second took her and died

Leaving no offspring and the third likewise in 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 and Jesus said to them.

Is this not the reason you are wrong? Because you know neither the scriptures nor 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 and as for the dead being raised

Have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the 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 God of the dead but of the living

You are quite wrong May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his

Holy Word Have you ever fallen into a trap You made a decision and you find that you're caught

Now no matter what you do, the consequences are bad You were sold and opening a shop in Danville And now you find that it's not as profitable as you have been told

Do you stay you double down on your efforts or do you cut your losses and go elsewhere? Hopefully, that's no one here.

Some people feel trapped in a dead -end job that they're afraid of leaving They're afraid of trying something else or they're afraid of unemployment.

So they just stay stuck Some people feel trapped in relationships. It's dysfunctional and they're tired of the drama

But they're afraid of being alone Elvis Presley sang a song about that caught in a trap

There are all kinds of traps intellectually Confirmation bias traps people into only being open to information that reinforces their pre -existing beliefs

People are trapped in echo chambers. They dismiss alternative viewpoints or even deny that People who think differently exist or at least in large numbers

That's why before every election ever notice before every election. We have people who confidently

Absolutely are sure that their preferred candidate will win They're trapped into only seeing what they want to see

Sometimes the trap is where the culture says is freedom our culture traps people into Self -destructive lifestyles in the name of being free of being trapped one liberal theology professor boasted

How of how if his wife feels trapped in their marriage that she's no longer

Happy in it. He hopes she will leave him. She will be brave enough and just leave

Our culture tells us that codependency is a trap There were supposed to be self -supporting individuals with no real needs for others

Or we can enjoy others or use others, but if we depend on them, that's unhealthy

They say so if we sacrifice our own needs to meet the needs of others, we're told we're trapped in an unhealthy dynamic

Women are especially told this now by feminism that if they prioritize the needs of others like that of a husband or children over their own

Needs well, then they're trapped you're trapped They should pursue their own interest in careers they're told even if it means sacrificing marriage and family or if they do get married they want a

Supportive husband basically a male wife, but when they've invested their life in themselves

Often they find that they're trapped. They were promised freedom

But often they find as Chris Christopherson wrote freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose

Sometimes you have to choose your traps to give up what an individualistic culture calls freedom to have things

You don't want to lose and sometimes Indeed, sometimes you do have to beware of traps here.

People are trying to trap Jesus They've already decided they want to destroy him So they devise some traps that they are sure will do the trick

We see that here in two major parts the trap about life now and the tribe trap about life later in verse 13

They referring to the same day in verse 12 who were seeking to arrest Jesus because he told the parable of the tenants about them exposing the authorities the priests the scribes and the elders as Self -serving usurpers who were using the temple and the religion for themselves rather than returning to God the fruit that he wants

So they are out to get Jesus and they sent to Jesus the Pharisees and some of the

Herodias now to us We may not know what these terms mean, but that's really an odd combination of people

These are really that's really peculiar the Pharisees and the Herodians together

The Pharisees were literally the term means the separated ones They were the devoutly religious people trying to keep the law to the letter today

People might call them fundamentalist Bob Jones or Liberty University types. The Herodians were supporters of King Herod They were probably dependent on him for their for their jobs their favors

They were otherwise they were attached to the regime to the government They were political and they supported the

Roman occupation of Israel the power behind the various Herod Kings So today they would be like a contingent this group together

Pharisees and Herodians would be like a contingent of one hand conservative fundamentalist and And all the other political

Bureaucrats, you might call them the deep state. They're coming together Now, what could those two groups possibly have in common?

Well here they're united by their opposition to Jesus and they come to Jesus to trap or to catch or capture

Him in his talk in verse 13 the word for trap there comes from hunting

Like a hunter catches his prey who wants to catch it alive and in a net in other words

They want to get him to say something that will be his downfall He's very popular having been hailed with hosannas just two days before he when he arrived in Jerusalem He's astonished the people at the temple at his teaching and so the authorities don't think they can just arrest him right there

Until they destroy his popularity. That's what the traps are for So they come in verse 14 and to make sure that he falls into their trap

They flatter him teacher Addressing him as a with a term of respect copy in Hebrew is rabbi

We know that you were true meaning sincere You tell it like it is and you do not care about anyone's opinion.

In other words, you're not political You dare to say whatever you think it's true, even if people don't like it

They say that because they want him to say something that people won't like for you are not swayed by appearances

They say you speak truth to power. You're a man. You're bold. You're not afraid of anybody

Even if it makes the Romans or the Herodians upset But you truly teach the way of God Fearless of the consequences, even if it loses all your followers or makes the

Romans arrest you for inciting a revolt You don't care and there's and they're saying we're here for it

Jesus give us your most reckless controversial take They wanted to say something that that will either lose him popularity with the common folks

Or get him arrested by the Romans. So they're egging him on to do that very thing

Give us a take of your fearless talk. We only want to cheer you on for it.

We promise But it's a trap Then comes the trap is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Should we pay them or should we not? The Pharisees are the Rodians. They would probably both have different opinions about what's the right answer to that question?

But that they didn't care about they realize so they just wanted to catch Jesus and so they crafted this question so that Jesus would lose either his popularity or His life if he said what probably most of the people in the temple wanted to hear most of these

Jewish men They want him to say no, we are God's chosen people

Israel. We should not Be paying for a pagan occupying army.

We should be free Right. That's what they want. That's what they expect. That's patriotic.

That's brave That sounds pious as if you believe God's promises to Israel you'll want to overthrow the

Romans But if he says that the Rodians remember they're allied to the Romans So they will go straight to Pontius Pilate and tell him that there's a revolutionary there in the temple

Teaching the people to stop paying taxes and Pontius Pilate will send his troops to arrest Jesus and he'll be crucified before the day's over But if he says well, we got to pay it, you know, we just got to pay it or we're in trouble

Listen, we got to be practical. This is the way it is. Well, the people will look at him like he's a quizzling He's a coward.

He's a collaborationist more afraid of the Romans than he is of God So the trap

Depends on ego on machismo We have people today some notable

Pastors but pastors of quotation marks who have fallen into the trap of saying foolish controversial things just to show how original and how fearless they are of popular opinion but being against them

One in Texas Joel Webben tried to cover for a church member who denied the Holocaust Saying that he refuses the

Webben said he refuses to dance like a monkey by affirming that the Holocaust actually happened co -host of a popular

Christian podcast the haunted cosmos Ben Garrett said that Winston Churchill was the real villain of World War two not

Hitler or Tojo mind you but Churchill They think that they are showing how brave and how free -thinking how original they are by being willing to buck what they call the quote post -war consensus when in reality they've fallen into the trap of Proving that they're just these macho guys

Willing to say anything kind of like Marty McFly from back to the future. You've seen that remember trapped into proving that he's not chicken

What's the matter McFly you chicken? What's the matter? Show me you're not a monkey Show me you're not afraid by saying something absurd like the

Holocaust is debatable or that Churchill was the real bad guy here It is here the Herodians and the and the

Pharisees are saying what's the matter Jesus chicken? Say we're not We're not obligated to pay taxes to the

Romans they're trying to trap him to prove his courage But in verse 15

Jesus knew their hypocrisy. That's hypocrisy. I was he knew they were acting He knew that all that flattery about him telling it like it is not afraid of the consequences

Teaching the way of God that was all just to set him up to say something reckless to trap him with his ego but being sinless

He wasn't driven By his ego like a many other men are so he saw that they were hypocrites

That they were acting like they respected him when it was really all just a ruse so he says

Why put me to the test? Now he knows why he's not seeking information not asking for an answer to that question.

He's just letting him know I'm on to you I know you're just testing me. You're trying to trap me And so Jesus orders bring me a denarius and let me look at it

Now the denarius is the Roman coin who is used to pay the tax required of every Jewish man

Every Jewish man was put to pay denarius as their tax And so they bring one and he asked whose likeness and inscription is this?

Now the image like George Washington or our quarters would be of Tiberius Caesar and the inscription on one side would say

Tiberius Caesar Augustus son of the divine Augustus and on the other side would say

Pontiff Maxim Other words high priest and so they answer. Well, it's

Caesars and Then comes Jesus famous answer in just a few words just ten words in Greek Which cuts through so much confusion and debate and teach us so much and just those few words

About life now in this world under God Render or return literally give back

Implying that it belonged to Caesar in the first place the things that are Caesar that's his image on it It belongs to him so you can give it back to him

So he's saying that the government is legitimate even pagan foreign occupying governments even they deserve taxes

So give to them the taxes that are due they literally make the money then give them the money they demand

Back, so in our life now the government has a right to exist It's a right to exercise power and to tax the slogan some people in America like taxation is theft is

False, it's refuted by the Lord Jesus himself right here now It may be that the government governs best which governs least

But because the government rightly exists to restrain evil and there is a lot of human evil out there then there's a need

Unfortunately, there's often need for a lot of government the doctrine of told depravity

Means that the libertarian dream of a vanishingly small government

We may want it. We may wish it but it's just impossible Human sinfulness makes government necessary.

And so Jesus here says that now in this world Government has a realm that belongs to it

The earthly kingdoms have a right to exist and we are called to support them but in this life

There's also another kingdom. There are two kingdoms Simultaneously overlapping the city of man the kingdoms of Caesars on the one hand and on the other

The kingdom of God is not he doesn't just say render or return to Caesar Right because that question is about whether to pay taxes and you would think well that settles the question of taxes, doesn't it?

But he goes beyond that He also says render or give back a return to God the things that are

God's There are two kingdoms There's the civil realm governed by authorities and we can hope that those authorities are

Christian We can tend to vote for ones that are Christian pray that they become Christian But even when they clearly are not

Christians like here Jesus is dealing with claiming divinity right in the coin son of the divine

Augustus. Well, Augustus was a divine Okay, what you put on your coin and to be a high priest of a pagan religion pontiff

Maxim They still have a Thor even when they do that. Jesus says they still have authority

From God, then there's the kingdom of God and we're to render or return to God.

What is God's and what is God's? Everything Everything God rules both kingdoms his spiritual kingdom is manifest in the church and his temporal kingdom

Which he rules through civil governments and the spiritual kingdom proclaims the gospel it feeds

Christ's sheep implements the sacraments Lord's Supper and baptism and leaves the church according to Scripture while the civil kingdom the city of man

Caesar is Instituted by God to maintain order and justice and protect peace

God is the God of both kingdoms, even if the city of man even if Caesar doesn't know it or Even if secularist like here in America don't know it because God instituted it supports

Caesar's kingdom the city of man Christians can be involved in politics and in the government

We are not like the Anabaptist The Anabaptist made an error because they taught their people that Christians should not be involved in politics

That they can't hold any jobs in the government. They should stay totally out of anything That has to do with the government.

That's living like Caesar has nothing to be rendered back to him There's no it's just we're not involved in that kingdom.

That's just this is false We are also not to be like secularists even so called if there's such a thing

Christian secularists who see to detach kingdoms That's the way they interpret this there's Caesars and there's gods and they're kind of just totally there would it was a

Venn diagram They're just totally two totally different circles not touching each other with God over the spiritual realm and only

Caesar over the other and so if Caesar says something tells us something like well go fight for slavery or Go kill all

Jews and we know God says well not to do that when we think well That he has his realm and we go to the church.

We go to church and we can agree with God the preacher says Believe in freedom for everybody and rights for everybody for justice for everybody.

We say amen and then well Monday We wake up and it's our job to be a slave catcher or an SS guard at Auschwitz when we go and we do our job

We can serve Caesar or Hitler Doing evil the rest of the week No There are two kingdoms

But they overlap God's kingdom includes all of Caesar's kingdom

Whether he knows it or not Now if you were a Venn diagram all of what is rendered to Caesar is within what is rendered to God The city of man is a subset of the city of God But not vice versa there is a realm that belongs to God that is outside of Caesar's realm

Caesar's kingdom is limited God's is not

So if the government tells us to do something that God told us not to do proclaim the

Caesar is Lord or Enslave people perpetually because of the race or exterminate a race or forsake the assembly of ourselves together

We render to God Not to Caesar Caesar is then asking for something that is not his he's overreaching

So we say like the Apostles in Acts chapter 5 verse 39. We must obey God rather than men

When I lived in Singapore the Singapore government there it banned all Pornography that is in its realm to do so when

I got a flyer in our mailbox Advertising porn I took it to the local police post with the unspoken request try to be as polite as I can enforce the law

Go find these people who distribute this flyer and arrest them. I didn't say that but I wanted them to do it

I also had a Jehovah's Witness come door -to -door in Singapore The Jehovah's Witnesses are illegal because they don't allow their members to serve in the military

Now I am obviously opposed to the Jehovah's Witnesses. They blaspheme the Sun as being a mere creature.

That is blasphemy But I do not believe it's the realm of the government to force people not to believe something

It's not the role of the government to punish blasphemy So when the JW guy came and he came under another name he changed they didn't say was

Jehovah's Witnesses But I picked up from the doctrine that he was selling that that's who he was. I did not report him to the police

He came three times to our apartment three weeks in a row at the same time

So I could have set a trap for him. I knew he belonged to an illegal sect

But I would not support the government arresting him for what he believed now, we should try to end the blasphemy of the

Jehovah's Witnesses, but we end it by Converting them not by getting the government to punish them

Because that is beyond the sphere of what belongs to Caesar or the

Singapore government So what's Jesus's answer? Yes pay the tax

But not just because practically you must or you'll get crucified because you've got him in terrorized into doing it

But because God instituted the government and we owe it taxes. It has a legitimate sphere

But because it's a kingdom under God's kingdom its authority is not total it can overreach it can overstep its boundaries into God's soul realm and then we can say

We'll obey God not you That's how we live now avoiding the traps of anarchy totalitarianism or secularism

They were amazed that Jesus had so easily so pithily avoided their trap

Next The Sadducees Now Mark tells us in verse 18 that there they say there is no resurrection and that's the main thing

We didn't know about them to understand this exchange so after talking about life now under two kingdoms,

Jesus will reveal the reality of life later in The resurrection the

Sadducees have a trap for Jesus that they think is so clever They worked on this and their echo chambers imagining themselves

Humiliating simpleton Pharisees by proving that there is no resurrection there cannot be it's just absurd

We've we've crafted this argument that proves it and the Sadducees were the snobs They were the self -appointed intellectual elite probably mostly priests or aristocrats

They were close to the Greeks and the Romans Culturally and they were thinking themselves as so much better educated than those dimwits among the common folk if they were around today

They would be liberal university professors PhDs and theology just certain

Absolutely certain of their intellectual superiority. And so they come strolling up to Jesus and they spring they're ever so brilliant they think

Trap you can still hear that the smugness the snickering

Through their question when you when you read it today, I just listen to it

Begins teacher good job humiliating those Pharisees, but they're they're they're bumpkins

They're buffoons Moses wrote Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child

The man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, that's the lever at marriage We talked about that a little over a month ago when we were in Ruth There were seven brothers.

Okay, this begins their kind of fictional scenario. They made up the thing that gets so smart Now two would be enough for their point right, you know, we understand the point they're making so they only needed two

But they made up seven just to make the resurrection sound as ridiculous as they could possibly make it

So they go with seven the first took a wife and when he died and left no offspring and the second took her and died leaving no offspring and the

Third likewise and the seven left no offspring now, they're assuming That if she has children with any one of them that she'll be the eternal wife of the husband

That she has children with that's their assumption last of all the woman also died and now comes their trap probably with Barely stifled chuckling as they spring it is so they're just so sure of their brilliance in the resurrection

When they rise again This fictional they think this dream of when bodies rise from the dead whose wife will she be for the seven had her as wife?

haha We proved it some guys in the back of the bunch of Sadducees or giving each other high -fives

So sure were they that their argument just devastated? resurrection ism

It's superstitious belief for these common ignorant folk and they've been imagining this scene when they release this what they think is this

Atomic bomb of an argument they couldn't dream of an answer to it. They've been trapped by their own confirmation bias

They thought that Jesus would probably even scratch his head get a wide -eyed deer -in -the -headlights look

Maybe stammer something try to change the subject About the meek and harrowing the earth, whatever that means and then he would try to get away or maybe

He would even admit that they're right That there cannot be a resort. I thought of that what happened if you have multiple wives

Multiple husband who you're gonna be married to for eternity either way From their point of view he'd be humiliated and he would lose public support

The common folk would be unimpressed that he let the Sadducees get the best of him but instead

Jesus says in verse 24 Notice the way he begins is This not the reason you are wrong

Because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. It's like wow, it's like beginning with a slap

Notice that Jesus targets what they're most proud of their knowledge You don't know anything.

He says this is why you're wrong. You know, nothing. You don't know the Scriptures you're interpreting

You don't know God They were so sure that they are educated Sophisticated that they're the elite and Jesus begins by blasting them is you're ignorant

You don't know either Scripture or God's power. I have a PhD in Old Testament theology

You don't either the Bible or God The problem with many people is not first their ignorance or their false doctrine

It's their pride If you try to just engage them like they just need to understand this or whatever.

No, you don't said they're proud of themselves They're unteachable They think they know something when they really don't and here of these people the

Sadducees will never start to really learn until they realize That they don't know

Scripture they don't know God and so that's the first thing Jesus does he begins by Humiliating them so that they'll use this as an opportunity to humble themselves

But of course Jesus has to be able to back it up with an answer that destroys their trap and he is

His answer comes in two parts first. He exposes their wrong assumption bad arguments

Usually have a bad assumption that those who make it that's never examined. They just sneak it in there

They just assume it and they hope you assume it you will go along with the premise People arguing for infant baptism today will often say well

Well since baptism replaced the circumcision then we baptize infants just like they circumcised them and people who accept the premise go

Oh, okay I didn't thought of that most Baptist who get drawn into believing in infant baptism get fooled by the argument

Because they accept the premise the assumption but the assumption is wrong the

Bible never says that baptism replaces circumcision and never calls baptism a sign of the Covenant and we don't have a right to just Well say it is one because we like we like that idea to claim it for ourselves

Well here the the wrong assumption is that life and the resurrection that is the life to come

Is exactly like life now Except there's no death. That's really the only change everything. It just continues.

It's an eternal Continuation of this life just as it is that's what they assumed here that eternity will be just the

Indefinite continuation of everything now and Jesus just obliterates that assumption in verse 25 for when they rise from the dead.

They neither marry Referring to men marrying nor are given in marriage referring to the bride given to be a wife

But they are like angels in heaven Now we don't know a whole lot about angels the Bible doesn't tell us a lot about angels

But they're different. They're different than us. They're neither married and given in marriage. They're they're different They're on a different plane.

So resurrection life the life to come is not merely the continuation of this life

Either men or women will be married life to come is different. It's on another level

Like that of the angels and Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 No, I has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined

What God has prepared for those who love him? life to come is beyond anything

We've seen in this world this life anything we've heard about or anything that we can even envision

The Christian life to come is not Like the Mormon one about eternal marriages, you know the celestial marriage

We just eternally married and eternally making children Taking what we think are the best things of this life and continuing them

Indefinitely, we're told we're not given many details really what it's like.

We're just told it's just so far beyond this life That we can't even imagine it now the

Sadducees probably have stopped chortling by now and high -fiving each other are looking trust fallen as they think

We hadn't thought of that Jesus is it finished with him yet in part two of his devastating humiliating response in verse 26

Jesus cites a passage from the Law of Moses now He could have quoted Daniel chapter 12 verse 2 many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake

But they only recognize the first five books of Moses a scripture so he'll he'll

He'll go along with that and he'll quote from the first five books from Exodus as for the dead being raised

Have you not read in the book of Moses? Notice that have you not read? He's still piercing their inflated ego

Haven't you read it in the passage about the bush? That's some obscure passage, you know way back when you're talking about the decorations of the tabernacle

Like in one of the most prominent passages in the whole Bible Exodus chapter 3

It's a chapter 3 verse 6 to be exact. You know when God appears in the burning bush Reveals his name.

Haven't you read? How God spoke to him to Moses saying I am the

God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Haven't you read that? You think you're so smart, but you missed that Now the weight of Jesus's argument was on the verb tense there

I am Presently even when he is speaking to Moses Centuries after Abraham Isaac and Jacob had died.

I am the God of Abraham He didn't just say well

I was The God of Abraham you want to know who I am? I was the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, you know way back when they existed centuries ago like 400 years ago

No, it's I am their God That must mean they still exist Now further

God had promised to bless them But if they were only blessed in their lifetimes if they were not saved from extinction

Then the promises to them were ultimately worthless You know, they were they're dead by now why don't they care but the blessings and that cannot be so they must exist and What they all assume here in this passage

Jesus and the Sadducees At least in there is there concede to the hypothetical resurrection, but they all assume

And what's taught in the Bible explicitly elsewhere like first Corinthians 15 is that it is inconceivable for us human beings to exist perpetually as Disembodied spirits like ghosts floating around we were created

Physical and we were created to be physical. We're incomplete without a body

So finally our salvation will include being saved from Bodilessness, we will be resurrected in new glorified physical bodies

Jesus here says There it is in Exodus 3 in one of the most important passages in the

Old Testament the burning bush where God revealed his name the Lord He said I am

Their God and So they will be resurrected and to poke one final time at their basic problem, which their pride

Jesus concludes You are quite wrong Literally, it's you have been much led astray led astray by their own arrogance

And so their trap falls apart They fell into the pit of their own hubris as psalm 35 says

Without cause they hid be in their net their trap For for me without cause they dug a pit for my life

Let the net that he had ensnare him and let him fall into it to his destruction

Jesus avoided the traps But in just a few days he would purposely

Step into one he was free But he was committed to the Father's will not my will not my freedom

But yours be done He stepped into the divine Entrapment he walked into a trap

So that he could release us from ours Maybe you feel trapped.

There's a bird caught in a net cannot escape without the hand of the Fowler so we cannot escape

The trap of sin and death Of the snares of the world the flesh and the devil without the one who went in to the trap of death and Came out alive

You have to choose Who will trap you? The world the flesh and the devil to your destruction or God Who has for you a life to come?

That no eye has seen no ear heard Nor could you even imagine?

What he is prepared for you if you love him? the question now is