Mark 12:18-27

Mark 12:18-27  Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.  “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first one married and died without leaving any children.  The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child.  It was the same with the third.  In fact, none of the seven left any children.  Last of all, the woman died too.  At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”  Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?  When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.  Now about the dead rising — have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?  He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  You are badly mistaken!” 

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living is a comforting scripture.  Jesus told them that they, the so-called experts in the scriptures, did not know the Word, and they also did not know the POWER OF GOD.  The Sadducees did not see that God was talking about eternal beings when He told Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  Jesus told the Sadducees that God was talking about the living, not the dead.  Jesus also told them that they did not recognize the power of God, THAT GOD CAN RAISE THE DEAD, THAT HE CAN TAKE A DEAD MAN AND RAISE HIM AND MAKE HIM A NEW CREATURE.  This new creature will be in a different form, for they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.  The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection; they thought such an idea to be absurd.  How can a man be alive after he is dead?  For sure they were like the unbelievers of our day.  Like the Sadducees, many people are even religious in nature.  They believe in good works just for good work's sake.  They believe it is better to be good than bad, but they also believe that they are going around only once; therefore, they should get as much out of this life as possible, either physically or emotionally.  Others don't believe at all in God.  How can there be a God when existence is too unknowable, the universe too expansive.  There cannot be a God, especially one that would desire an intimate relationship with me.  These people scoff at believers, for believing in religious nonsense, a madness of the weak because they cannot face life as it is.  

But Jesus tells the unbelieving Sadducees who reject the afterlife that they don't really understand the scriptures.  The scriptures reveal a living God who is eternal and who has power to restore life to every living being.  God is not the God of the dead.  TODAY THAT IS OUR MESSAGE.  He is not the God of the dead; He is the God of the living.  He is our God.  In the first chapter of John it says, Through him (JESUS) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  Men do not really know why they are alive, why they have this awareness that they have.  Without a knowledge of God as the Creator and the light of Christ in their lives, men's understanding of life is darkness.  In God is life and that life has been given to every person, but because of unbelief, people do not understand where life comes from, so darkness is their abode.  However, Jesus is the light that came unto the world to reveal once again that life is in God, and that whosoever believes will have eternal life with God.  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.  (Isaiah 9:2)  This is our message to carry to the world: that life has come to us in the form of Jesus Christ, and we must put our faith and trust in him to inherit eternal life with God.  What a glorious message of light and life we have to share today!