Tag Archives: Sadducees

ACTS THE SEQUEL…STOP US IF YOU CAN! – 6

Bible Study, ,

“The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Persecution…it had started, just as Jesus had said it would! As long as the believers were quiet, enjoying the new life they shared…the religious hierarchy let them be.  They were no problem to their position and power…but now…!

This was new! This was more than a religious sect surfacing among the people. This was trouble! It smelled like smoke. There was a fire beginning to burn somewhere. “It must be snuffed out before it takes hold.” They grabbed the ringleaders…Peter and John…the guys who were at the helm of this mess.   

“They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Too late! The cat was out the bag! They could not arrest and imprison five thousand! “Let’s cut off the head and hope the body will die.” So they thought!

They attacked Peter and John  first with questions, demanding to know the source of their authority. No one dare do anything without their authorisation. The same as with Jesus! It was all about authority. 

“The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This was their age-old issue…the one they had with Jesus…and lost because Jesus acted on an authority far higher than theirs. Now, the same issue had surfaced again! Hopefully, Jesus had been eliminated but…here were His followers, doing the same thing, in His name! This had to stop! Now! Before it grew too big to contain! Before it got out of hand!

Oh, horrors! 

Peter, the deserter, had become Peter, the bold…Peter, the preacher…Peter, the apologist!

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬-‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Without missing a beat, Peter spoke the truth…held them to account…opened the Word…and fired the salvos that should have demolished their attack. 

A quick conference…”What can we do about this?” They had no defence against something that was beyond the natural. Instead of fighting it, they should have thrown in the towel. They should have acknowledged that this was a “God-thing” and joined in. 

Stubborn pride and unbelief put them on a collision course with God Himself…and they were warned! When they clashed again, the Sanhedrin wanted to kill them. Warning and threatening them hadn’t worked. Jailing them hadn’t worked…but Gamaliel, a respected rabbi, at the next clash with the authorities, wisely warned against such action.  

“But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭5‬:‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To go back to Peter and John…

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The evidence was indisputable. Somehow, Jesus was still doing His thing through these men so…the religious authority, so they claimed, issued orders. “Stop this or else…!”

“Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus…”

Did they really believe that Peter snd John would meekly give in…go back to fishing? These men were on a roll and nothing would stop them now. 

“But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This was rebellion! The rabbis’ authority was at risk! The followers of Jesus had thrown down the gauntlet. “Stop us if you can!” They knew they were on the winning side. No one takes God on and wins!

To be continued

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES

Bible Study, ,

YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES

8 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 At 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!” Mark 12:18-27

Now it was the Sadducees’ turn to have a go at Jesus. How sincere were they? If questions are a revelation of the way a person is thinking, then the question asked by the religious leaders via the Pharisees etc., as well as the Sadducees’ question, revealed how little understanding they had about things relating to the kingdom of God. None of these people were on a quest for truth. They were on a mission to indict Jesus but, instead, they were indicting themselves.

The Sadducees’ question about resurrection was probably intended to expose what they believed was error – the fact of the resurrection, but instead it exposed their own faulty belief system. They were obviously of the opinion that resurrection life, if there was such a thing, was merely a continuation of this present system, in which case, the law of Levirate marriage posed a problem. Were they trying to prove how ridiculous resurrection appeared to them?

Jesus was quick to pounce on their error. He brought two truths about resurrection life to the surface.

  1. Marriage was intended to be a visual aid and a human experience of ECHAD on earth as a preparation for our eternal experience of ecstasy and intimacy with God in the kingdom. Therefore, there will be no need for marriage in the hereafter. Its purpose will have been fulfilled.
  2. Death does not end our human existence. It is merely the process by which we pass into the third and final stage of life. God does not have dead sons but living sons, those who have fulfilled their apprenticeship on earth and move into the eternal realm where they are fully alive forever.

How did Jesus know this? Was it merely through the study of the Scriptures? No. Many times during the course of His public ministry He repeated His claim to have come from the Father. All their questions about the source of His authority were answered if they had only listened to Him. He had personal experience of the truth He proclaimed because He came from the other side.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – THE SADDUCEES HAVE A GO!

Bible Study, ,

THE SADDUCEES HAVE A GO!

“Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child.  Well, there were once seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, and then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now – In the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.'” Luke 20:27-33.

Quite a contrived story!

It must have been obvious to Jesus that it was a trick question. Perhaps these arrogant Jews were hoping to insult Him and make Him look like a fool so that they could undermine His credibility with the people.

Under normal circumstances, the Pharisees and Sadducees were on opposite sides of the fence. The Pharisees were the fanatically religious leaders, sticking rigidly to the minutiae of the Law while the Sadducees were part of the political wing. They denied the supernatural; hence they rejected any possibility of resurrection.

They made up this story to catch Jesus out, to make Him and the whole possibility of resurrection look silly, to undermine His claim to be Messiah and, ultimately, to be the Son of God because He was supporting a pipe-dream!

These men had to learn that God’s truth and God’s ways were not some superficial and poorly-devised idea to give them false hope and lure them into worshipping Him under false pretences. They were correct in their understanding of the law of levirate marriage but, as we examine Jesus’ response in the next study, their understanding of God’s kingdom and the life to come was way off track.

This is the problem when we try to rationalise God’s revelation and apply human wisdom to God’s ways. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ’As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV).

God does not reveal Himself and His ways to satisfy our curiosity. He only reveals what He wants us to know to show us His greatness so that we will take His word seriously and submit to His authority. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV).

The attitude of the Sadducees is still alive today. People who have no desire to know the truth so that they can follow Jesus, replicate the Sadducees’ approach to Him. Their questions are not for honest answers but because they are looking for an excuse to justify their unbelief.

We need to be careful if we think we can make a fool of God. As the Apostle Paul said, ‘God’s foolishness is wiser than our wisdom!’ His mercy is wide open to those who are humble enough to recognise their need and to call on Him, but there is nothing but judgment for the people who think they can make it on their own.

God has made it clear that He has no time for arrogant fools but endless mercy and grace for the humble. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6b (NIV).

The Truth Revealed

Bible Study, , ,

THE TRUTH REVEALED

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 no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring 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?’ (Mark 12: 18-23).

First the chief priests and teachers of the law; then the Pharisees and Herodians; and now the Sadducees! Would they ever learn? They all tried to take Jesus on and came away with egg on their faces.

The Sadducees’ question was based on their ignorance and their unbelief and, of course, Jesus would put them in their place and make them look stupid. The Jews had a practice called “levirate marriage”. If a husband died childless, it was up to his brother to marry his widow and have a child for him who would be his heir and carry on the family name.

Their story was a bit far-fetched, but they obviously cooked it up to try to catch Jesus out and make Him look silly. Seven brothers all married the same woman and died childless. This wasn’t about levirate marriage. This was a dig at His teaching on the resurrection. How would He get around this one?

Again Jesus was one jump ahead of them.

Jesus replied, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the Scripture 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 burning 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.’ (Mark 12: 24-27).

In a masterful reply, Jesus dealt with two errors. Firstly, the Sadducees did not understand the purpose of marriage. They thought it was about having children to carry on the family line. Jesus smartly corrected them on that one. If they had known the Scriptures, they would have understood that God intended marriage to be a visual aid of the oneness in the Godhead. This is what the Scriptures had to say:

So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them (Gen. 1: 27).

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh (Gen 2:24).

Mankind will not need marriage in the life to come because those who follow Jesus will be one with Him in eternity. Believers will be “married” to Jesus in an eternal union of which marriage in this life is a picture. Therefore marriage will fall away in the life to come.

Secondly, when people die, they simply move into another realm where these frail and corrupted bodies will not be able to live. God will raise us up in new and perfect bodies to live with Him in the eternal realm. He spoke of the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as alive, not dead or even asleep as some believe.

On what did the Sadducees base their unbelief concerning the resurrection? Once again it was a human ploy to dodge responsibility and accountability for their lives. They wanted to live their lives as they chose and get away with it. No matter what belief system is developed to evade the truth of God’s Word, it cannot hold up to the scrutiny of God’s truth, and nor can it effectively be used to dodge accountability for the way people live. Simply to deny the truth will not erase it or make it go away.

Of course the resurrection of Jesus was the final proof that He was right and they were wrong.

If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised . . . And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins . . . But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15: 12, 13; 17; 20).

How much better to submit to the truth, and receive God’s grace to live within its boundaries. This is the only guarantee that we will be a part of the resurrection when Jesus returns to claim His throne and to finish what He started when He came from heaven to reveal the Father and to take us to the Father.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

The Sadducees Gave a Go!

Christian Life, , ,

THE SACCUDEES HAVE A GO!

“Some Sadducees came up. This is the Jewish party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a man dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother is obligated to take the widow to wife and get her with child. Well, there were once seven brothers. The first took a wife. He died childless. The second married her and died, and then the third, and eventually all seven had their turn, but no child. After all that, the wife died. That wife, now — in the resurrection whose wife is she? All seven married her.'” Luke 20:27-33 (The Message).

Quite a contrived story!

It must have been obvious to Jesus that it was a trick question. Perhaps these arrogant Jews were hoping to insult Him and make Him look like a fool so that they could undermine His credibility with the people.

Under normal circumstances, the Pharisees and Sadducees were on opposite sides of the fence. The Pharisees were the fanatically religious leaders, sticking rigidly to the minutiae of the Law while the Sadducees were part of the political wing. They denied the supernatural; hence they rejected any possibility of resurrection.

They made up this story to catch Jesus out, to make Him and the whole possibility of resurrection look silly, to undermine His claim to be Messiah and, ultimately, to be the Son of God because He was supporting a pipe-dream!

These men had to learn that God’s truth and God’s ways were not some superficial and poorly-devised idea to give them false hope and lure them into worshipping Him under false pretences. They were correct in their understanding of the law of levirate marriage but, as we examine Jesus’ response in the next study, their understanding of God’s kingdom and the life to come was way off track.

This is the problem when we try to rationalise God’s revelation and apply human wisdom to God’s ways. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ’As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV).

God does not reveal Himself and His ways to satisfy our curiosity. He only reveals what He wants us to know to show us His greatness so that we will take His word seriously and submit to His authority. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV).

The attitude of the Sadducees is still alive today. People, who have no desire to know the truth so that they can follow Jesus, replicate the Sadducees’ approach to Him. Their questions are not for honest answers but because they are looking for an excuse to justify their unbelief.

We need to be careful if we think we can make a fool of God. As the Apostle Paul said, ‘God’s foolishness is wiser than our wisdom!’ His mercy is wide open to those who are humble enough to recognise their need and to call on Him but there is nothing but judgment for the people who think they can make it on their own.

God has made it clear that He has no time for arrogant fools but endless mercy and grace for the humble. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6b (NIV).