Mark 12:24–27 - God Who Raises the Dead

History is filled with influential and successful people who were underestimated.

For example, Albert Einstein was considered “a slow learner.” Thomas Edison was told by teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Walt Disney was fired from a Missouri newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” And Theodore Roosevelt, who was encouraged by doctors to avoid physically demanding activity, instead went on to become a U.S. president, lead a year-long scientific expedition in Africa, and survive a gunshot wound to the chest.

Over the centuries, countless men and women have been underestimated. But none have been underestimated more than the one true God.

It’s understandable, though. Our sinful nature deceives us about who He truly is,
and so we fail to honor Him as we should, which is sin. Yet God is patient and gracious, and in His great love, He corrects us, so that we may truly know and trust Him.

But we must accept that correction.

This exchange between Jesus and others recorded in Mark’s Gospel – which is also present in the books of Matthew and Luke – helps us understand how. Jesus is confronted by these respected Hebrew teachers who underestimated God. Specifically, they didn’t believe in the future resurrection. And what He tells them holds a message for us today. In effect, Christ says don’t place the limitations of the present order on God’s unlimited power, and don’t overlook the implications of the covenant promises in His trustworthy Word.

Now, in this passage, Christ is approached by the Sadducees. They didn’t believe in a future resurrection, as Mark says here. First century Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the Sadducees did not believe that the soul exists after death, nor did they believe in rewards or punishments after death.

I’ll clarify why in a moment, but for now, notice their strategy for disproving Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection. Verse [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.”

They’re bringing up instructions from Deuteronomy 25 in the OT. This rule was a way to maintain property rights in the family line of the deceased man. This preserved a man’s name, inheritance, land allotment, and family line in Israel. The Sadducees use this to set up a “straw-man” argument. It’s not a real situation; it’s a hypothetical.

Verse [20], They say, “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.” This imagined woman followed the law of Moses and was widowed seven times. She never bore a son. Is it possible? Technically. yes. Is it likely? Probably not.

But the Sadducees believed they could undo the credibility of Christ and the belief in the resurrection with this little scheme. Notice verse [23]. They add, “In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” They think they can discredit Jesus, but they underestimate Him.

Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? They are deceived, first of all, because they don’t know the Scriptures, and also, because they don’t know the strength and ability of God. Jesus speaks first to their ignorance of God’s power.

Verse [25], Jesus says, “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” They assumed the doctrine of marriage could undercut the doctrine of resurrection. Jesus basically says, “After the resurrection, there will be no more marriage.”

In this one respect, humans will be like angels: we will not marry or be married. It makes sense, because there will be no procreation after the future resurrection. The Sadducees’ strategy points to one way we underestimate God: we take the boundaries of the present age and we impose them on the future.

Imagine trying to explain the internet to someone who lived in the 1800s. You might tell them that with the internet, you can instantly communicate across the world, you can access libraries of information in seconds, you can see images from anywhere.

They might respond: “So, it’s like a really fast telegraph?” Are you familiar with the electrical telegraph? The signal was sent along an electrical cable, and the message was a series of dots and dashes. It was Morse code! The person in the 1800s can’t help reducing something radically new to simply a slightly improved version of what they already know.

The Sadducees assumed that if resurrection in the future age was real, it would have to operate by the same structures as this present age. But the future resurrection is not simply “This Life 2.0.” It’s not just an upgraded version of what we now know. Every indication is that, while similar, it will be far beyond what we can even imagine.

How is this possible? In Ephesians 1, the apostle Paul refers to the immeasurable greatness of God’s power. In Ephesians 3, Paul describes the triune God as “Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” In the OT, the prophet Jeremiah prays, “Ah, Lord GOD! It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

Don’t place the limitations of the present order on God’s unlimited power. Don’t allow your belief or hope in the future resurrection to be confined to your current grasp of what God is capable of. Philippians 3 says that Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Those in Christ now will one day have immortal, resurrected bodies like Christ had when He left the tomb, and like He has right now in heaven. 1 Corinthians 15 says that on that Day, believers “shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised” to a state that is incorruptible, immortal, and imperishable.

The Sadducees underestimated the power of God. Perhaps some later changed their minds and believed Jesus. We don’t know. But have you underestimated God? Don’t stay there. Repent of that. Reject that. Trust Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Go to Christ. He is full of love and power.

Well, Christ was not done with the Sadducees just yet. Remember, they know neither God’s power nor His Scriptures. To make His point from God’s Word, and defend the reality of the resurrection, Christ goes to the book of Exodus – to one of the first five books of the OT

This part of Scripture was commonly known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. These are books that were written down by Moses. The Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch as God’s Word. They only believed Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They rejected the rest.

So Christ references the Pentateuch to prove them wrong. Look at verse [26]. He says, “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.” Why does Jesus bring up this event in Exodus 3, where God spoke to Moses from within the burning bush?

Because there, God expressed that He was presently the God of the patriarchs. God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – promises that would ultimately be fulfilled through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And for those men to enjoy the fulfillment of those promises – for them to receive what God had guaranteed to them – they would have to be alive. According to Jesus, there, at the burning bush, God proclaimed to Moses that those men were not dead, but still alive.

This brings up an important point. The resurrection is not just a New Testament doctrine. It’s not merely a development that emerged when ancient Israel was sent into exile. It didn’t suddenly appear during the life of king David or the life of Moses. Rather, resurrection was in view when God spoke to Abraham.

This is very important. The resurrection is a necessary implication of God’s promises. The covenant relationship with God is ongoing. You may think, “I understand how we could live on as souls. But why must we be raised with a new body?” It’s because humans are not just souls trapped in bodies. We were created – body and soul together – by God And in the end, God will not just preserve the soul. He will restore the whole person.

Again, Abraham must inherit what was promised to him: a land, an inheritance, and blessing in the land God made. Abraham and all the children of Abraham must live on – and not just spiritually, but also, bodily. Therefore, resurrection is required.

If there’s no resurrection, then death is not fully defeated.

If there’s no resurrection, death defeated the human body.

But Christ defeated death in its totality. Resurrection is the completion of God’s saving work.

Picture a father who promises his son a great inheritance. The dad says, “Son, one day, this will all be yours. The land, the house, all of it.” But then, tragically, the son dies before he receives it. Can the father’s promise to the son be fulfilled if the son remains dead? No.

Don’t overlook the implications of the covenant promises in His trustworthy Word. If Abraham is still dead, God’s promises to him are incomplete. But the one true God does not make incomplete promises.

Now, we’ve all made promises. Some are rather unimportant, where you didn’t even use the word “promise,” but it was implied. You said, “I’ll call you later,” or “I’ll do it tomorrow,” or “I’ll fix that soon.” Whenever you give someone assurance that you will definitely do something, you are, by definition, making a promise. You’re offering a guarantee.

Have you ever failed to deliver on a guarantee? Sure, you have.

Numbers 23 in the OT says, “Has [God] said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” We’ve broken promises; God never has. His promise-keeping is an essential part of His sinless character.

Now, we, of course, are not sinless. That’s one reason why we fail to keep every guarantee we make. But there’s another reason why we don’t always keep our word. It’s because sometimes, we promise what simply isn’t within our power to do. Haven’t you, at some time, said you would do something, and perhaps you were well-meaning, but later you realized, “I can’t do that! I’m not able.”

The one true God doesn’t have that problem. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live on – and one day, they will rise again, to inherit what God promised – not just as souls, but as whole men. And so will their descendents – so will their heirs. But who are the heirs? In Galatians 3, Paul says, “it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Then just a little further down the page, Paul adds, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Christ died, and on the third day, God raised Him from the dead. According to God’s unlimited power and trustworthy Word, Christ arose! His resurrection began an entirely new order of redemptive reality. Christ was the first, and when He returns, those who belong to Him will rise like Him. This is our hope as we journey in this world. This was the hope of the apostles as they endured suffering for the gospel.

For example, in 2 Corinthians 1, Paul told the churches, “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. [10] He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”

Will you set your hope on His and on the power of His resurrection? As we go now to His table, let’s continue to consider these things.

Please bow with me in prayer.