We are in a series called “Sword Sharpening” and looking at how to make the most of your time with the Bible. We are ending this series today by looking at a verse we started with and said we would come back and look at it in context.
Mark 12:24 (NIV)
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
Before we get to the verse I mentioned in the intro, let’s do a quick wrap-up of the main points of this series. We started the series by saying:
The Bible is pointing to Jesus. The Bible is a library, not just a book. The Bible is written for us but not to us. Never read a Bible verse. Context, context, context. (We reviewed these, which you can view in Sword Sharpening Part 14.)
Then, we broke the Bible storyline into eight sections.
Kingdom Revealed. Kingdom Rebellion. Kingdom Covenant. Kingdom Foreshadowed. Kingdom Coming. Kingdom Incarnate. Kingdom Tension Kingdom Consummated. (We also reviewed this in Sword Sharpening Part 14.)
Then, over the last few weeks, we have added these ideas:
Everything we do must be grounded in and founded on love as we learn to love well. Then, we looked at a flow chart to help us see how His Story fits into history. (You can see this in Sword Sharpening Part 15.)
Then we talked about how we need to deal with hard Bible verses in context by being like the Bereans and digging into the hard-to-understand verses and not like Marcion by just taking the parts of the Bible we like and getting rid of or ignoring the rest.
That wrap-up contains what we hoped to convey in this Sword Sharpening series. As we end the series, let’s go back to the beginning and look at the verse we have promised to return to since we started the series.
Mark 12:18–27 (NIV)
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19“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 raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
In this passage, Jesus is asked questions from the Sadducees, attempting to trap Him in His words. The questions were not even honest because the Sadducees denied the reality of a future resurrection (which is why they are sad, you see). They also didn’t believe in angels. Jesus’ response not only answered their question but also confronted their error concerning the future resurrection and the existence of angels.
Mark 12:24–25 (NIV)
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
He proceeds to prove, from the Scriptures, that there is life after death and there will be a resurrection. Quoting from Exodus 3:6, Jesus says:
Mark 12:26–27 (NIV)
26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!
Jesus points to God identifying Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since God said, “I am” their God (present tense), and since “He is not the God of the dead but of the living”, the patriarchs are still alive, and God is still their God.
People will not marry or be given in marriage in the new creation, but that does not mean people will not remember their earthly relationships. Also, being “like the angels in heaven” does not mean that people will become angels, only that they will be like angels regarding marriage. We will look deeper into this passage this weekend at Keys Vineyard Church, so please join us in person or online.
We hope this series has encouraged you to spend time with the Bible. Spending time doing other things is easier, but we need to know what is in the Bible. The world needs us to understand what is in the Bible and to be able to talk about it.
2 Timothy 3:14–17 (NIV)
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
