God of the Living
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
April 27, 2014
Jason and I have the understanding that it can be good from time to time to have something of a mini-sermon of sorts, before we leap into the passage at hand. Think about it like a timeout in a football game, a quick chat to address something specific and timely, and they we will get back to business. There might be times that we do this for two weeks in a row or five months might go by.This morning, I’d like to take a timeout to spend a few minutes reflecting on the deceitfulness of sin specifically in the area of lust. I know we have a mixed crowd with respect to age, so I’ll try to speak about it with that in mind.Recently I had an exchange with a friend that made me think a few passing comments could be timely for all of us.The author of Hebrews uses the phrase “the deceitfulness of sin.” In Chapter 3 he writes, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (v. 13).What does that phrase mean – “deceitfulness of sin”?It gets as this idea: sin lies. Sin is dishonest; it’s a fraud. And sin leads astray. We might say that sin “seduces.” That’s how the word is used in other places, as a temptress and a seducer (e.g., Mark 4:19, “…the deceitfulness of riches…”).In other words, sin screams at us, “This will taste good; this will stratify; I will make you alive.” And instead, it kills. We think it will make our hearts beat faster, and it might for a time, but then we flat line.As my friend was confessing his struggle with what he let his eyes see, I could tell he was looking to God for victory. He was bringing sin in the light, which is where it belongs. He knew the meaning and magnitude of the cross of Jesus Christ and he did not want to treat it lightly. So we emailed back and forth. At one point, I wrote this,
“[I wish we were still having regular contact, and if we were, I would want to] tell you something like this: sin is like radioactive material – any contact, even a little contact, is no good for you. People wear special suits and gloves when they handle that stuff for a reason. This winter, some guys in Mexico stole a truck that was carrying Cobalt-60, and, too bad for them, they opened up the containers on the truck. When I saw the news story break on the internet, it sounded like they, whoever they were, were not going to make it. (The story broke December 4, 2013 on several news outlets; e.g., here and here.)
“You however, will make it. Sin brought in the light is good. Sin that stays in the dark is bad. Sin festers and grows in the dark, and like mold behind drywall, it won’t always stay in one place either. It moves into other rooms, other areas. But again, you will make it.”
I don’t know if this speaks to anyone in particular this morning, but as I prayed through it, it seemed like it might. In some ways, we all need the reminder to bring sin into the light. In the light, it doesn’t lie; it’s not so deceitful anymore. If that means confessing it to another person, great. But confess it to God and move on. Get it in the light. Don’t be seduced. Find superior satisfaction in the love that God has for you, not in fleeting pleasures of sin.The ‘timeout’ is over. Let’s transition into the passage.If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Mark 12:18-27. We moved away from the Gospel of Mark last week for Easter, but this morning we are coming back to it.
Mark 12:18-27
18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “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. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither 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 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’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”This is God’s Word.We are going to look at this passage in four parts:
The forest.
What we learn from “the forest.”
The tree.
What we learn from “the tree.”
1. The forest.
Let’s take up this first part: The forest.We are in a section of the Gospel of Mark, where our sermons could essentially have the same main point week after week because Mark is making is the same point repeatedly.It’s possible to read the accounts in Mark 11-12 in perhaps five or six minutes and not notice this, but as we stretch them over for five or six weeks, it becomes apparent there only is one main problem. The main problem is this: Authority – Jesus has it, and the religious leaders do not want it.
“…Money changers, those selling…” (11:15-16)
“…chief priests and scribes…” (11:18)
“…chief priests and elders and scribes (11:27)
“…Pharisees and Herodians (12:13)
“…Sadducees…” (12:18)
“…Scribes…” (12:28)
“…Scribes…” (12:35)
“…Scribes…” (12:38)
The thing to notice is that every group, whoever they are, as best as they can, they want to take a shot at the title. Jesus has the authority and backing of God, and they want the authority and backing of God. And so they fight Jesus for it.When Jesus was a kid (Luke 2:49), he called the Temple his “Father’s house.” He was supposed to be at home in the Temple, but instead he finds himself a man behind enemy lines. He is in occupied territory, and they want him out.I’m not sure this is the best analogy, but it’s almost like Jesus is a ninja fighting an army of attackers. One comes from the left side, “Wham! Take this Jesus.” And he fights them off. Another comes from the right, “Bam! How about that Jesus. What about taxes, should we pay them? [sermon two weeks ago] What about the greatest commandment? [sermon next week] What about your authority? Where did you get it? [four weeks ago.]”This is the forest; this is the context of our sermon passage. The forest is the authority of Jesus, and that they do not want it. That’s the big picture.
2. What we learn from the forest.
Let’s move on to the second point, namely, what we can learn from this forest.We can learn this: if you don’t get the authority of Jesus right, if you don’t want to know his authority deeply and love it supremely, then a whole bunch of other things get messed up. This seems to be the point of Mark 11-12, what I’m calling the forest.If you don’t love the authority of Jesus, lots and lots of things get messed up. We could say it like this: if you’re in the wrong forest, all the trees are messed up too.The religious leaders don’t want the authority of Jesus, so they mess up money and the Temple and evangelism opportunities (Ch. 11). Because of this, they can’t understand the ministry of John the Baptist (11:27-33). They mess up what it means to take care of the vineyard, that is, what it means to be good shepherds (12:1-12). And they mess up taxes (Ch. 12:13-17). They mess up the resurrection and reading their Bibles well (12:18-27; 12:35-36). And they mess up the greatest commandment (12:28-34). And so on and so forth.One of my favorite pastors (John Piper) has a helpful metaphor for this. He talks about all of the individual aspects of our life as planets. There is the planet of work. The planet of money. The planet of sex. The planet of family and friends. The planet of education and learning. The planet of rest and leisure and recreation. And all of these planets must orbit around something, a center for their solar system. This pastor adds very rightly that the only “sun” that has the proper gravity and importance to hold all of the little planets of your life in tact is the gravity of the supremacy of Jesus Christ. In other words, if you put something other than Jesus as the center of your life, all of the planets fly out of orbit.This is what we learn from the forest in Mark 11-12. The planets of these religious leaders do not orbit around the supremacy of Jesus Christ and so everything gets messed up.It feels appropriate to ask you, since we are to learn from the religious leaders mistakes, What is the center of your solar system?On Wednesday night, while sitting with my wife watching a bit of TV we saw a commercial for a diamond ring called, “Center of my universe.” And the point was made that you were to give it to the person in your life that was the center of your universe. The problem is, is that a spouse is not supposed to be the center of a universe. No spouse has the gravity to hold all of your planets in place. (And so with a child’s shoulders, promotions at work, and the “next” vacation.)Perhaps you feel your life is in chaos: you are anxious about everything; finances are hard; relationships are hard; work is hard; and your thought life is out of control. It could just be that this is a difficult season. It could be. There may be nothing malicious happening. Or, it could also be that the center of your solar system has shifted. If that is so, use this time, even now as I preach, to be asking God to become everything for you. “Lord, I do want to know your authority deeply and love it supremely. Help me put you at the center again.”As I said a few weeks ago, God will always take sincere, humble repentance.
3. The tree.
Let me transition to the next point, namely the tree. The forest is problem of Mark 11-12, and the tree is the problem of this specific passage. I hope that it will become obvious as we go along, but the tree in this passages it that they misunderstand the scriptures. The problem of the forest is not wanting Jesus to be their rightful Lord and the outworking of that is they misunderstand the scriptures.Let’s look at this passage and how Jesus responds to them. Starting in v. 18.
18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying…
This particular group of religious leaders come to him and they say, We have a question. And we don’t have the context of the question yet, but Mark gives us the detail that they “say that there is no resurrection.”What is belief in the resurrection? Belief in the resurrection is the belief that because the Messiah was raised from the dead (Easter), so also everyone who has ever lived will also one day be raised from the dead—some will be raised to life with God forever in a re-created paradise, and some will be raised to life without God forever in hell. That is what belief in the resurrection is. And the Sadducees do not believe in this.However, they ask a question about it anyway, which should clue us as readers that there is a major problem here.
19 “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. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
About the only thing they great write in all of this was the phrase in v. 19, “Moses wrote for us.” They get that right—spoken first to others, but it still speaks to us. That’s true. Other than that, they are off track.Where does this even come from? They are alluding the OT passage of Deuteronomy 25:5-6. And they are correct that it was God’s intention that if and when a man died leaving behind a wife without a child, then a brother who was unmarried was to take this women as a wife and have children with her.This seems strange to us, I know. But it was beautiful and wise and for protection. It’s a hard thing to be a widow, some of you know this, and to be one in their days with no children, was to be condemned to a life of poverty because you would likely lose your land and property. So this law was for the protection and love of women.And what do the religious leaders do with the Word of God? They turn the Word of God into a game.Last year a man named Henry lost his wife of 60 years. Henry was a friend of mine. I helped them join a small group at the church we were at (not here). He thought about leading a group but his wife’s health prevented it. He was her primary care giver for over a decade. And when she died, I sat with Henry for a hour while we waited to have his wife’s body picked up. It was unspeakably sad. I preformed the memorial service. Dolores was a great and godly woman. That’s one widower. They are talking about seven.The religious leaders take something beautiful, designed for projection, something that would be unspeakable sad if it were true, and they turn it into a game. “Hey Jesus, can God make a rock so big he is not able to lift it?” This is wrong. And Jesus smells it.Look how Jesus responds. Vv. 24ff,
24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither 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 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’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
Note that phrase at the end, “you are quite wrong.” This is not something small. “The center of your solar system is wrong. Your planets don’t orbit properly.” Or, in our outline, your tree called “Bible Reading” is messed up because the forest is diseased.I want you to notice a few things about the specifics of the exchange. They are two things that fascinated me as I studied, so I thought I’d point them out to you.First, notice that they quote the book of Moses, namely the slightly obscure passage from Deuteronomy 25:5-6. They say in v. 19, “Moses wrote for us…” Notice what Jesus does in v. 26. Jesus says, “have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him…” They are mired in some little obscure detail that was designed for the wellbeing of the people of God, for their care and protection, and they take that little itty-bitty detail and hold it up and say, Look, won’t this be ridiculous in the resurrection Jesus?Jesus say, “O, so were talking about Moses are we… hummmm… Have you ever read the first time in the Bible when God spoke to Moses in a burning bush (Exodus 3:6)? You know, that SUPER FAMOUS passage? Have you read that? If you want to talk about the resurrection, then consider that when God spoke to Moses these guys—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—had been dead for a long time, and God says because he is in covenant relationship with him, he is still their God and one day they will rise up out of their graves and be with God forever! You want to talk about Moses, why don’t you go to that passage, Mr. Sadducees?” This amazes me. Jesus knows his Bible.Second, notice the way the phrase “when they rise.” Both the Sadducees and Jesus use it. Look at v. 23. They ask, “In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be?” Now look at Jesus’ response in v. 25. “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”The Sadducees scoff at the idea of resurrection. As they say these words, they sneer. “When the rise (and it ain’t going to happen).” When Jesus says it, he says it with conviction. “When they rise (and they will rise!)” This amazes me.The forest was that they didn’t want the authority of God and the tree is this: they misunderstand and misuse the Word of God.
4. What can we learn from ‘the tree’.
Let me close with our final point. How might we learn from this ‘tree’?It seems like we should learn that if Jesus is not Lord, our Bible reading will become messed up, and our understanding of the resurrection will be messed up.In fact, it could be very possible for us to be liable to the same misunderstandings because of marriage as well. Jesus seems to be saying that in heaven husbands and wives will relate to each other differently than we do here on earth—better, but different. And it’s possible for us to scoff at that saying, Well, if we are not married in heaven, then life in the resurrection will not be so great.But this is the same error they make. They say, the resurrection won’t be so great, because if multiple marriages continue, then it won’t be so heavenly, just like we might say, if our one marriage doesn’t continue in heaven then heaven won’t be so heavenly. To which Jesus says, It doesn’t really work like that.But you know, I don’t think it was really about scripture for them, it is about what they think of Jesus.Jesus effectively refuted their position and they walked away unchanged. We can see this by just continuing to read our Bible’s. In the book of Acts, which recounts the event to us of the early church, there was one time where a Christian got in trouble with the religious leaders and in his trial there are those that do believe in the resurrection (i.e., the Pharisees), and there were those that still continued not to believe in the resurrection (i.e., the Sadducees). And when Paul, this Christian on trial, says, Hey the reason that I am on trial is because of my hope in the resurrection, a riot breaks out and he is able to get away.[Illustration] Dr. Robert Gagnon quote in the debate with the president of an Ivy League divinity school and how the president conceded, “You know, I guess for me, it’s not really about scripture.” (Comment made by Dr. Gagnon at the Evangelical Free Church Conference on Sex in 2013; here).I don’t want to be like this. I want scripture for me to be the issues. I want us to be a people that for us, scripture is the issue. Not so we can play games with it. Not so we can win debate with it. But so that we can know Jesus better.Notice what Jesus said. “He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” If you and I would trust him, if he would become for us the center of our lives, then we might have great hope.
