Good evening.
If you've been uh saving up happiness to where you could have the happiest night of the year on the very last night, tonight is your night.
If you've been storing up sorrows to where today could be the worst day of the year, tonight's your night.
uh Hopefully uh it's a good one.
We are in Mark chapter 12 in our Bible studies.
I encourage you to turn there.
We had a good trip, got to see family and got to spend some quality time with the flu while we were gone.
Not me, just the rest of the family.
But it is good to be home back in our own beds and uh James and Eddie are still recovering.
So that's where they are tonight.
Let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study.
Gracious Father in heaven, we come before your throne grateful for the day that you've blessed us with, grateful for the time that we have to spend with one another, grateful as
we close out this year that we have taken the opportunities throughout the year to come together to open your word, to evaluate what you would have for us in our lives, what you
would have us to do, how you would have us to think and to behave.
We pray that as we look into your Word and into the things which Christ said and did while He was on this earth, that we might better know how to serve you in a way that is
acceptable in your sight, that we might walk in a path that is in accordance with your Word and your will.
Lord, we pray that as we do so when we sin and fall short of your glory, we pray that you will forgive us of those things as you have told us that you would.
We pray also that you will be with those who are ailing, those who are struggling with illness, those who have upcoming procedures, and we pray that they might have the strength
that they desire and the health that they would once have.
Well, we pray that you be with those who may still be traveling or be away from us.
We pray that you give them safety back to their homes.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Jesus, as he speaks to the Jews, we know from the text that he is in Jerusalem.
It is the last week of his life, as it is here on the earth before his crucifixion.
And Jesus is going to clear the temple.
of those who are buying and selling and making a fraudulent gain off of those who are coming together to worship.
And Jesus will speak to them in parables after they question him about the authority that he had to do the things which he's doing, the authority that he had to clear the temple,
the authority that he had to
drive these individuals out of the temple.
They will question him about that and he will say, well, I'll give you an answer to your question, but you have to answer my question first.
What does he ask them about?
baptism of John was it from heaven or for men and what did they answer?
Well, we can't tell.
And so Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Then he began to speak to them in parables.
A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower, and he leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country.
Now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vine dressers.
that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vine dressers.
And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
And again he sent another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.
And again he sent another, and him they killed, and many others, beating some and killing some.
Therefore, still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, They will respect my son.
But those vine dressers said among themselves, This is the heir, come let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.
So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do
He will come and destroy the vine dressers and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this scripture?
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes.
As Jesus declares these things to these Jews, they want to know
by whose authority He's doing the things that He's doing.
Jesus is pointing out through the parable that the authority that He has is the authority that came from the Father.
But they've never respected the authority of the Father.
From the very first messenger that came to them, they didn't respect the authority of the Father.
Who was the first messenger that came to the Israelites?
Moses.
You remember in Exodus chapter 3, God is...
uh causes the bush to be on fire and not consumed, and Moses comes up to it, and that discussion happens as Moses is told, you're going to go into Egypt, and you're going to
deliver my people, and Moses is going to ask, who will I say has sent me?
Moses assumes that the people will not listen to him.
So he wants to know, who am I going to say is sent me?
What was God's answer from the burning bush?
The I Am that I Am.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the one who's sending you.
But then Moses goes, well, but how am I going to prove it?
And so God will demonstrate through a series of signs and miraculous actions that Moses is who he claims to be.
He was sent by who he claims to have been sent by.
When Pharaoh doesn't believe the signs, he receives another sign and another sign and another sign to convict him of the fact that it was God who is saying, let my people go.
And while the people seem convinced, the people of Israel seem convinced that it's the Lord who's sent Moses and Aaron based upon the signs, they will still grumble and complain
when their burden gets harder, when Pharaoh increases the load against them because of Moses and Aaron.
So here's God trying to deliver Israel from captivity
and they're complaining about it because of the hardship they're going through in the midst of being delivered.
and it's not going to stop there because after they are finally out of Egypt, they're going to begin complaining again.
They're going to complain because the journey is too difficult.
They're going to complain because there's a Red Sea in their way and there's an army behind them.
They're going to complain because there's not enough food.
They're going to complain because there's not the right food.
They're going to complain because there's not enough water.
They're going to claim that Moses brought them out into the desert to die.
from the very beginning of the nation.
the nation determined to look at the messengers of God and reject them.
to complain against them, to deny their authority, and to serve their own selfish interests.
and from the beginning of the nation all the way till the end.
That's how Israel behaved in relationship to God.
Now, not every generation.
Certainly there were some generations that did the opposite.
But you could see that picture from beginning to end in the nation of Israel.
So when Christ comes, Israel's going to do the same thing.
their leaders are going to do the same thing.
Now, Jesus is going to give the parable.
Sometimes when Jesus gives a parable, he's going to ask someone else to give the answer, know, give the conclusion, add the punchline as it were.
What is going to happen here?
Jesus supplies it himself.
We notice he says, what will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and destroy the vinedressers.
Jesus is going to emphasize that the driving out of the buyers and the sellers and the temple is the beginning.
of their end.
It was nothing by comparison to what God the Father was going to do to them.
as a result of their rejection of his messengers.
So Jesus is going to quote to them the Old Testament passage, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
Over in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 2, as Peter is preaching that very first gospel sermon, as the church was
uh established.
We read in verse 31, He, for seeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God,
and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Jesus is going to emphasize that the one that you're going to do this to is going to be the one who God puts in charge.
He's going to be the foundation of the new house.
He's going to be the foundation of the work that God was going to do.
In the Old Testament you have this promise concerning the house of God.
You have this promise concerning the temple of God.
You have this promise concerning the kingdom of God.
You have all of these promises and in this particular one you have here in verse 11, this was the Lord's doing.
and it is marvelous in our eyes as if the prophet is standing back and he's watching this happen.
He's seeing what God has done both in prophecy and in actuality.
And he's just declaring, listen, we watched it happen and we were just, we marveled.
But it's important to note in that statement that it's not just the taking of the Son and making Him the chief cornerstone that causes them to marvel.
It is the ultimate judgment upon the vine dressers, which is also part of the marvel.
Absolutely.
And so Jesus is going to make it clear that their judgment is coming.
Now, if someone points out that you're guilty, that you have been observed, you have had witnesses presented against you, you have become someone who is
clearly and beyond a shadow of doubt guilty of this thing that you're accused of and you're going to be judged for it.
If you were of a right heart, of a right disposition, you might go, you know what, I think we probably need to change.
I think we probably need to reverse directions.
I think...
I think this is the moment where godly sorrow produces repentance.
But we all realize if we pay much attention to the world around us that that's not how the unrighteous and the ungodly generally react to being caught.
uh As a matter of fact, you could go to most prisons and you could talk to most guilty people and they'll tell you they're what.
Who is it?
and Israel's leaders.
The religious elite of the nation will hear this statement and verse 12 we read, and they sought to lay hands on him, but feared the multitude for they knew he had spoken the
parable against them.
So they left him and went away.
They don't see what he said.
and think, you know what, it's time for some self-reflection.
They don't hear what Jesus is saying and start doing some real searching and some introspection to evaluate their lives and consider how they can avoid this great judgment
by God.
No.
Their thought is, how can we kill this guy?
Unfortunately, the people are a problem.
but they're not going to stop with the initial thought.
They're not going to conclude with just having considered it once.
They're going to begin plotting and planning and looking for an opening, even if it costs them a little bit of money to get it.
then they sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words.
If we can't overcome Jesus and his influence among the people through just brute force, we're going to have to do this more strategically.
We're going to have to get the popular opinion lowered on Jesus.
We're going to have to have some ammunition to use against him.
And if you're trying to get ammunition to use against the teacher, the easiest thing to do is get him to slip up in his teaching.
or at least cause him to teach something that the people don't like.
So they sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words.
When they had come, they said to him, teacher, we know that you are true and care about no one.
That is, you're not one who gives homage to title or position.
You're not one who sees someone's respect among the people and you offer them respect simply because of who they are.
and you do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.
If they believed what they were saying, what would they have done?
They wouldn't have been testing him, they would have been in what?
Obeying him.
If their claim about all the things they know about him was factual instead of flattery, they would have been living differently.
But they say is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
as the Herodians and the Pharisees come together, something you should know, is the Herodians and the Pharisees hated one another.
The Pharisees didn't like Herod because he wasn't a Jew.
The Herodians were all about Herod as Jews.
So the Pharisees hated the Herodians.
You couldn't get these two groups of people to agree on anything.
except
Jesus.
So they come with a law question.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Now, are they asking about Roman law?
Who's law are they talking about?
God's law, Moses' law.
They want to know is it lawful according to Moses to pay taxes over here to Caesar?
Shall we pay or shall we not pay?
But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, why do you test me?
Bring me a denarius, then I may see it.
Essentially, bring me a coin.
So they brought it, he said to them, Whose image and inscription is this?
They said to him, Caesar's.
And he answered and said to them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.
And they marveled at him."
Why would they marvel at a simple response of
Whose coin is it?
whose image is on it.
They thought they had him trapped.
What else?
Think maybe that it's because this is one of the issues that they've been arguing about and they could never make headway with one another on this issue?
The Herodians loved Herod, but Herod was put in the position that he was in by Rome, so they were de facto Roman supporters.
The Pharisees hated Herod, hated everything he represented because he represented Roman power.
So here's two grooves that say we can't ever make any headway on this issue, so here's the issue we're going to take to Jesus.
Surely we'll entrap Him.
He's not a proponent of Rome.
They've never sat down and listened to Jesus give an explanation as to why Rome should be in power.
As a matter of fact, what has Jesus been preaching from the beginning?
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
From the beginning of His ministry until now, Jesus has been teaching them about the Kingdom.
Well, in their minds, the Kingdom means if the Kingdom comes, Rome's no longer in power.
So would the coming king say keep paying taxes to Rome?
No!
Not if the kingdom was earthly the way they were thinking about it.
I bring this up to point out that sometimes you have these religious discussions that go on for years and arguments and disagreements between two parties for years.
that are entirely founded in false doctrine and mean nothing in regards to the Scriptures.
And it all stems from the fact that they misunderstood the scriptures from the beginning.
Jesus is going to give them an answer they could never have fathomed.
that Jesus would say, me a coin.
Whose image is on it?
If it's Caesar's image, pay it to Caesar.
But he doesn't just say, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, does he?
What does he follow that up with?
render to God the things that are God's.
Now, if we track back into the last chapter and some of the events that led up to this.
What is it that Jesus, or who was it that Jesus drove out of the temple?
The money changers.
The ones who would sit there at the gate of the temple and say, you've got some of that money with Caesar's image on it.
You can't use that here.
But we'll take that and we'll give you the temple money.
It's such bad money we can't accept it.
The Lord can't accept it, but we can.
So they're extracting the Roman money to give out the temple money.
And yet Jesus through his point emphasizes that it was all lie.
Who's all gods?
By doing so, Jesus has pointed out that they're stealing from God.
Because remember, their exchange rate wasn't honest.
they would give a different rate at the temple than you would have gotten out in the public marketplace.
So now what the person has to give in the temple is less.
What their offering would have been is less.
So what goes to God is less because they've scouted some off the top.
And Jesus will point out.
that what they should have been doing was giving to God the thing that belongs to God.
They marveled at this.
So then some of the Sadducees who say there's no resurrection came to him and they asked him saying, Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies and leaves his wife
behind and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.
Now there's a mosaic of law
that is directly what is being stated here, Deuteronomy chapter 25, Moses says, this is what you're going to do.
You see this actually existing even in the early days before Moses comes on the scene in the life of Judah.
But as a result of this ordinance concerning a son who is supposed to be the heir, supposed to be bringing the family lineage forward, he marries, there's no children, he
dies.
So the law said that his brother's supposed to take his wife and raise up children to his inheritance.
the first brother's inheritance.
So they say, now there were seven brothers.
The first took a wife, and dying he left no offspring.
The second took her, and he died, nor did he leave any offspring.
The third likewise, so the seven had her and left no offspring.
Last of all, the woman died also.
So brother one marries the woman, no offspring, he dies.
Brother two marries the woman, no offspring, he dies.
All the way through seven.
You gotta believe when seven got married, he was scared to death.
But they want to know, in the resurrection when they rise, whose wife will she be?
For all seven had her as wife.
Seems like a real problem, doesn't it?
Jesus answered and said to them, Are you not therefore mistaken?
Because you do not know the scriptures nor the power of God.
Jesus questions whether or not they're mistaken, and the idea of word there is deceived.
Are you ignorant or have you been lied to?
Is it that you just don't know the scriptures?
Or have you been listening to someone who's been lying to you?
Or are you unaware of the power of God?
their philosophy as the Sadducees.
Other texts will tell us that they believed neither in the resurrection nor in what?
They didn't believe in the afterlife, didn't believe in the resurrection, they didn't believe in angels.
So all of these things that they could read about in their own scriptures.
They could read about an angel appearing to someone in the Old Testament.
That's not what that means.
they could read about someone dying and being raised back from the dead as in the days of Elisha and Elijah.
That's not what that means.
They could read about Elijah being taken and not dying or Enoch being taken and not, no, that's not what that means.
They had an answer for all of their pet problems and scenarios.
To be able to say, Bible doesn't mean what it says.
And in their mind, one of the clearest examples of the fact that the whole idea of the resurrection was ludicrous, that it was a logical fallacy to believe in a resurrection is
this one right here.
So they come to Jesus with their question that I'm quite certain had stumped many a Pharisee.
Because if you wanted two groups that disagreed with one another and hated one another, you could have the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
You know, the Jews always got along with the Jews.
They still do today.
So they come and they offer this and Jesus says you're deceived or ignorant or you don't know who you're dealing with.
He says, verse 25, for when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Now, before we go any further...
I'm just a hair of a moment.
talking about the people who are teaching today that the resurrection and that eternity are a renovated earth on which we will live here forever in bliss and glory like
supposedly would have been if Eden had continued.
If that's true.
Number one, no one's married.
and never will be.
Number two, all that are alive then are all that will ever be alive because no one's married, no one's given birth.
And number three.
Somehow we're gonna be like the angels, but we're gonna be stuck here
unlike the angels.
There are very simple passages of scripture
that help us to understand what limited things we might know about eternity.
This is one of them.
Jesus says, can tell you something about the resurrection.
And one of the things I can tell you is you won't be married.
You won't be given in marriage.
You won't be having a marriage ceremony in heaven.
But also by the way that the angels aren't married that the angels aren't given in marriage that the angels are inherently different from humans.
Now you remember the things they disagreed with, right?
They didn't believe in the resurrection.
They didn't believe in heaven.
They didn't believe in angels.
Now Jesus says not only is there a resurrection, what these angels you don't believe in is what you're going to be like.
He says, concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.
You are therefore greatly deceived, mistaken.
Jesus takes them back to Exodus.
as Moses recounts and records the events of the burning bush.
And Moses says, who am I supposed to say sent me?
and God replies, am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.
He doesn't say, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
They're no longer in existence, so past tense.
No, God replies with, you know Abraham?
You know who Isaac is?
You know who Jacob is?
Yeah, they're here with me.
And I'm their God.
And just like I'm their God, I'm Israel's God.
Now, as you look at this, there's actually a really interesting and important aspect to this.
Jesus has just derived doctrinal authority.
from the tense of a verb in the Old Testament.
And there are those today who will argue you can't ascribe doctrinal authority from whole, complete, emphatic statements of Scripture.
And yet Jesus derives it from the tense of the verb in God's statement.
Paul's going to do the same thing over in Galatians.
Paul's going to emphasize that when God made the promise to Abraham that of the seed that would come from Abraham, the use of the seed was singular and not plural, therefore it was
a reference to Christ.
Paul's going to make a doctrinal argument from the, whether or not it was a plural or a singular noun.
And yet individuals will come and they'll open up the Word of God and they will argue that God didn't give the actual words, He just kind of inspired the general thought.
That sounds like kinda nonsense.
because if God didn't inspire the words...
then you certainly couldn't make an argument from the tense of the words.
That would have to have just been some human's idea of what God wanted conveyed, but it wasn't.
Jesus will tell them, you've been lied to.
because you didn't bother to study the scriptures yourself.
You didn't bother to check what you were taught against what the Word of God actually says.
And one of the things that we should and do challenge people with is if they can open up the Bible and show us why we shouldn't believe what we believe.
If they can show from the very text of Scripture why what we teach and what we preach is doctrinally incorrect from what the Scriptures actually say, we'll change.
The reality is most people will not agree to that,
because if they sat down with their doctrine and the Word of God they're going to quickly find out that they've got some changing to do.
That the text doesn't actually uphold what they teach.
That they, like the Sadducees, are greatly mistaken,
but there doesn't seem to have been a mass repentance by the Sadducees either.
as Jesus had established with full authority from the Scriptures that their basic doctrine was wrong in every tenant.
It was wrong because it declared there was no resurrection, yet Abraham having died was alive.
It was wrong because it declared that there was no heaven, and yet Abraham who died was alive and was with God.
It was wrong because they declared there were no angels.
And yet Jesus makes it clear that they're going to be like the angels.
Every aspect of the foundation of their doctrine was wrong.
but instead of throwing out the doctrine.
They decided it was better to kill the messenger who declared their doctrine to be wrong.
You walk down this, out this door, down that hallway and around the corner you're going to see above the water fountain a poster of where a whole bunch of the churches that exist
today started.
And those churches didn't start
because they had scriptural authority for starting a new church.
They started quite often because they wanted to combat a false doctrine from a false church.
So they created a new false doctrine
to combat the old false doctrine that they disagreed with.
And that's how we have, I don't know, 30,000 different churches that all claim to be Christians
over in Ephesians.
uh In Ephesians chapter 4, we'll end here.
We read in verse 4, there is one body and one spirit.
Just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and father of all.
When Paul says there is one body,
you go back to verse 22 of chapter 1 and you have no ability to mistake what he's talking about.
And He, God, put all things under His Christ's feet, and gave Him Christ to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."
There is no one church and another church and another church authorized in Scripture.
There's exactly one.
Just like there was no authorization for Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians.
They were all supposed to be the people of God.
But every single one of had determined to reject the messengers of God.
to follow their own teaching.
And when the sun came, they killed him instead of changing what they believed.