Whole-Hearted Devotion

Mark 12:18-44

Transcript

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Mark 12 verse 18.

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And Sadducees came to him who say that there is no

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resurrection and they asked him a question saying,

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teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies

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and leaves a wife but leaves no child,

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the man must take the widow and raise up offspring

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for his brother.

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There were seven brothers.

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The first took a wife and when he died, left no offspring.

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And the second took her and died, leaving no offspring.

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And the third likewise.

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And the seven left no offspring.

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Last of all, the woman also died.

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In the resurrection when they rise again,

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whose wife will she be?

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For the seven had her as a wife.

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Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you are wrong

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because you know neither the scriptures nor the power

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of God, for when they rise from the dead,

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they neither marry nor are given in marriage

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but are like angels in heaven.

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And as for the dead being raised,

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have you not read in the book of Moses

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in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying,

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I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac

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and the God of Jacob.

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He is not the God of the dead but of the living.

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You are quite wrong.

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And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing

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with one another.

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And seeing that he answered them well, asked him,

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which commandment is the most important of all?

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Jesus answered, the most important is,

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hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

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And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

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and with all your soul, with all your mind,

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with all your strength.

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The second is this, you shall love your neighbor

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as yourself, there is no other commandment

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greater than these.

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And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher,

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you have truly said that he is one

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and there is no other besides him.

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And to love him with all the heart,

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with all the understanding and with all the strength

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and to love one's neighbor as oneself

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is much more than all whole burnt offering and sacrifices.

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And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely,

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he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

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And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

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And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said,

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how can the scribe say that the Christ is the son of David?

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David himself and the Holy Spirit declared,

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the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand

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until I put your enemies under your feet.

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David himself calls him Lord, so how is he his son?

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And the great throng heard him gladly.

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And in his teaching, he said,

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beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes

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and like greetings in the marketplaces

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and have the best seats in the synagogues

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and the places of honor at feasts,

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who devour widows houses and for a pretense

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make long prayers, they will receive

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the greater condemnation.

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And he sat down opposite the treasury

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and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

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Many rich people put in large sums

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and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins

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which make a penny.

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And he called his disciples to him and said to them,

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truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more

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than all those who are contributing to the offering box

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for they all contributed out of their abundance,

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but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had,

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all she had to live on.

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The word of God.

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Let's take a minute and we'll pray together.

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Father, we thank you for this morning, this gathering,

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and your great kindness to us,

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and we ask that your Holy Spirit would work in this moment

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and enlighten our hearts and our minds

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and cause us to be good hearers

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and cause us to grow in love for you,

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cause us to grow as your followers.

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Lord, we pray for that in Jesus' name, amen.

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So the school year just ended in our household

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and that might be true for some of you

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or others of you who have been out for a long time,

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or maybe it's possible you can't even remember

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the last time you were in school,

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but whether it's been a few days or 60 years,

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since the last time you were in school,

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there's a question that we have probably all wondered

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at one point in our lives when we listen to the teacher.

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As you listen to the teacher and you try to pay attention,

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you think, is this gonna be on the exam?

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Am I gonna be tested on this?

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Do I need to write this down?

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Do I need to really know this information?

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And I believe that the passage that we just read

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gives us a vision of the Christian life,

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of the life of following Jesus.

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It tells us so much about what God requires of us.

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In one sense you could say it's information

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we will be tested on.

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It's going to be on the exam.

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And as Jesus teaches and as he dialogues,

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he gives us this vision for what following Jesus looks like,

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but he also gives us two warnings.

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We see a positive picture of what following Jesus looks like

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but we also see two strong warnings

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of what it does not look like.

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So it's a longer passage this morning

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but we're gonna break it into three parts

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beginning with these two warnings.

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And I'm gonna start with this one.

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Beware of knowledge without experience.

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Look at verses 18 through 27 with me.

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I'll read them again.

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Mark 12, 18 through 27.

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And Sadducees came to him who said

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that there's no resurrection.

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And they asked him a question saying,

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teacher Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies

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and leaves a wife but leaves no child,

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the man must take the widow

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and raise up offspring for his brother.

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There were seven brothers.

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The first took a wife and when he died left no offspring.

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And the second took her and died leaving no offspring.

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And the third likewise and the seven left no offspring.

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Last of all the woman also died.

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In the resurrection when they rise again

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whose wife will she be?

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For the seven had her as a wife.

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Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you are wrong?

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Because you know neither the scriptures

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nor the power of God.

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For when they rise from the dead

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they neither marry nor are given in marriage

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but are like angels in heaven.

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As for the dead being raised,

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have you not read in the book of Moses

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in the passage about the bush

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how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham

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and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?

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He's not God of the dead but of the living.

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You are quite wrong.

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So in the preceding passage verses 13 through 27,

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or sorry 13 through 17,

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Jesus has had an encounter with the Pharisees

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and the Herodians.

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They tried to get him involved and entangled

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in a question about whether it was lawful

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to pay taxes to the Roman Caesar.

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Now he has this encounter with the Sadducees.

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The Sadducees are a smaller group

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numerically than the Pharisees.

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The main thing we need to know about them

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is that they denied the supernatural.

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In Acts, Paul says, Acts 23, eight,

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he's talking about the Sadducees and he says,

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for the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection

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nor angel nor spirit.

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In the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead,

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what happens after we die is part of what separates

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the Pharisees and the Sadducees

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because the Sadducees do not believe

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that there's life after death.

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It seems like the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch,

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the first five books of the Old Testament,

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and the resurrection is taught in the Old Testament,

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but the Sadducees did not see it,

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they did not see it explicitly, directly

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in those first five books of the Pentateuch.

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That may be why they rejected the doctrine.

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Okay, so if you've been following with us in Mark,

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you know that Jesus has this variety of encounters

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with various religious and political leaders.

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And they all kind of try their hand

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and take their shot at tricking Jesus.

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And now it's the Sadducees' turn.

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And because they do not believe in heaven

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or life after death, they come up with this

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very hypothetical, unrealistic question

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related to Levirate law as a way of mocking the resurrection.

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So the Levirate law, it's this idea,

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the Old Testament law made provision for widows

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where if a woman's husband died,

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it would be the responsibility of the husband's brother

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to marry that woman and care for her

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so that she would be provided for

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and perhaps raise children with her.

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You can read about this in Deuteronomy.

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Deuteronomy 25, five says,

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if brothers dwell together and one of them dies

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and has no son, the wife of the dead man

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shall not be married outside the family

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to a stranger, her husband's brother shall go into her

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and take her as his wife and perform the duty

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of a husband's brother to her.

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Obviously these were different times,

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but the law would keep the family name from dying out

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and protect the widow from falling into poverty.

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So because the Sadducees mock the idea of the resurrection,

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they ask this question.

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Will if seven brothers in a row die,

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who will be her husband in heaven?

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You've heard of seven brides for seven brothers?

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This is more like seven grooms for one bride.

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Who will her husband in heaven be?

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It's their irreverent way of making fun

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of the doctrine of the resurrection.

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It's kind of like how many angels

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can stand on a head of a pin.

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But Jesus answers them by going to Exodus 3.6,

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part of the Pentateuch, which they do affirm,

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and he talks about Moses at the burning bush,

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when God reveals himself to Moses.

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And God said in Exodus 3.6, I am the God of your father,

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the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

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And the point that Jesus is making

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is that God had made covenantal promises

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to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

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But in Exodus 3, when he is talking to Moses,

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that was after the deaths of those men on earth.

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And yet, he is identifying himself as their God.

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If they did not exist any longer,

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if they were in some state of annihilation,

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he would not be their God.

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God is still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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In other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

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did not disappear or crumble into dust

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or disappear in that sense when they died.

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They still exist because of the resurrection.

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In fact, the scripture tells us about Abraham

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and about some of our forefathers,

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when Abraham went out in obedience to God's command,

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he was looking forward to his heavenly homeland.

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It says he desired a better country, a heavenly one.

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He was looking forward to the age to come.

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So the Sadducees, I would expect they had probably

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gotten a lot of mileage out of this question in the past,

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when they dialogued with other religious leaders,

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when they argued about the resurrection.

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They probably got a lot of good debate about that

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seven brides for, or seven husbands for one bride question.

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But Jesus just flat out rebukes them,

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even as he answers the question.

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And he says, here's why it's the wrong question.

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You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

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You don't know the scripture,

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and you don't know God's power.

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What a terrible thing to have Jesus say to you.

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And what a warning to us today.

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Do we know the scriptures, and do we know the power of God?

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It's a warning.

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You could be religious, like the Sadducees.

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You could be educated and well off.

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You could be full of interesting philosophical arguments.

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You could study and know a lot of things,

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but Jesus says to them, you know neither the scriptures

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nor the power of God.

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Beware of racking up knowledge

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without any hard experience.

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During the time that Laurel and I spent at seminary

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in Massachusetts, I was always amazed

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by the number of students who never went to church.

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Divinity school.

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You would think, who would actually do that?

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Who would move to a new state, pay tuition,

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work on a master's degree, study Greek and Hebrew

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and exegesis and theology all week long,

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and then sleep in on Sunday?

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The answer is a lot of people.

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But you don't have to be a theological student

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for this to apply to us.

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Because the truth is, we could rip through books,

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podcasts, sermons.

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We can share our opinions on issues going around

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in the Christian culture with anyone who will listen.

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We can do all of that without cultivating

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any real relationship with God through his word

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and through prayer.

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We can do it all without any experience

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of the power of God.

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Christianity is about the power of God.

00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.000
And the Sadducees had lost sight of that

00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:38.000
or never knew in the first place.

00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:42.000
It's because of their ignorance and their lack

00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:47.000
of any real spiritual reality that they ask a question

00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:48.000
like this.

00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.000
Whose husband will she be in the age to come?

00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:55.000
Later on in the New Testament,

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:57.000
the Apostle Paul puts it this simply.

00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:01.000
He says, for the kingdom of God does not consist

00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:03.000
in talk but in power.

00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:06.000
And as I say this, I hope you understand,

00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.000
I'm not pitting knowledge against power

00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.000
or knowledge against spiritual experience

00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.000
as though they are pitted against each other

00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:17.000
or that they are in opposition to one another

00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:19.000
or as though knowledge is bad.

00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:25.000
But I am saying, let's not be followers of Jesus

00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.000
whose lives are characterized by talk.

00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:33.000
Let's pray that our lives and our families,

00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:38.000
our homes, our church be characterized by the power of God

00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.000
where we cry out to him, where we see the gospel

00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.000
of Jesus Christ transform our lives and our neighbors

00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.000
and we see the message of him crucified, proclaimed

00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.000
and we see lives transformed.

00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000
Beware of knowledge without any experience.

00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.000
Second warning, beware of religious activity

00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:04.000
with false motivations.

00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:06.000
Look at Mark 12, 38 through 40 with me.

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:12.000
Beware of religious activity with false motivations.

00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:19.000
And in his teaching he said, beware of the scribes

00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:21.000
who like to walk around in long robes

00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:23.000
and like greetings in the marketplaces

00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.000
and have the best seats in the synagogues

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:28.000
and the places of honor at feasts

00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:32.000
who devour widows' houses and for a pretense

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.000
make long prayers.

00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.000
They will receive the greater condemnation.

00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:42.000
The scribes, probably Pharisees,

00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.000
so lost in their own agenda,

00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:47.000
they fail to see who Jesus actually is.

00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.000
Scribes are ultra-religious,

00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.000
but look at what they actually care about

00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:54.000
according to Jesus.

00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.000
They like greetings in the marketplace.

00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:02.000
In other words, they like to be recognized by other people

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.000
and acknowledged.

00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.000
They like the best seats in the synagogue.

00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:09.000
They like when other people honor them.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.000
They like the place of honor at feasts.

00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.000
They like to be publicly respected.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.000
They don't love God.

00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:20.000
What they like and what they care about

00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.000
is praise and power.

00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.000
They love everything that comes from their place

00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.000
of influence and authority.

00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:31.000
They're willing, in fact, to take advantage

00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.000
of the financial support of widows.

00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:34.000
These are people in poverty

00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.000
that they should be caring about the most,

00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.000
but the scribes are taking advantage of the elderly

00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.000
for their financial support.

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.000
Even their prayers are simply pretentious.

00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.000
They're just designed to make a good impression.

00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:51.000
And Jesus says they will receive the greater condemnation.

00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.000
The scribes would have been seen popularly

00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:57.000
as servants of God,

00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000
but Jesus is pointing out the real heart motivations

00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:06.000
behind why they do what they do.

00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:10.000
And it brings us to a question for us.

00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.000
If you serve God in some way,

00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:19.000
why do you do it?

00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:23.000
When Jesus said beware of the scribes,

00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:26.000
he's not talking to people like beware becoming a scribe.

00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:29.000
He's talking about the heart motivations that people have.

00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:30.000
So when he says beware of the scribes,

00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:31.000
he's talking about people like you and I,

00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:34.000
regular people who serve God.

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:34.000
Why do you do it?

00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:40.000
Lot of motivations people can have

00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.000
for why they serve God.

00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.000
Often we're unaware of them.

00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.000
When I was about 12 years old,

00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.000
I got roped into helping out

00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:52.000
with a church summer vacation Bible school.

00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:55.000
So I was a volunteer, of course.

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.000
Each morning, I got to hang out with the younger kids

00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:00.000
and play kickball and do water balloons,

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.000
and we helped supervise the little kids.

00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:04.000
That was my service.

00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:05.000
I helped out with the games.

00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:09.000
And I think I got a snow cone afterwards every day,

00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:11.000
but at the end of the week,

00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:13.000
I felt like I'd really done something,

00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.000
like I had served God at VBS.

00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.000
At the end of the week,

00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:21.000
the church did a big celebration

00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.000
with songs and skits from the week,

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:28.000
and they asked all the volunteers to stand up.

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:31.000
So I stood up with the other volunteers,

00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.000
and people clapped to thank the volunteers.

00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:37.000
And I stood up so long that I can remember

00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:39.000
my mom had to pull my shirt

00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:41.000
to bring me back down into my seat.

00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:47.000
We really like to be recognized

00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:49.000
for the good things that we do.

00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:50.000
We really do.

00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:52.000
And when Jesus said,

00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:53.000
beware the scribes,

00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.000
he wasn't saying that to people

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:56.000
that might actually become scribes.

00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.000
He's identifying the heart motivations

00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:02.000
behind all this seemingly good spiritual activity.

00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.000
Beware of religious activity with false motivations.

00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:10.000
Beware.

00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:12.000
So we've got two warnings.

00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.000
Beware of knowledge without experience.

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:20.000
Beware of religious activity with false motivations.

00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:23.000
But what does God actually require of us?

00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.000
What will actually be on the exam?

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:28.000
The answer is all of you.

00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:32.000
It's wholehearted devotion.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:33.000
Wholehearted devotion.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.000
Let's go back to Mark 12, 28.

00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.000
On the heels of that conversation with the Sadducees,

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:41.000
a scribe comes up to Jesus.

00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:45.000
One of the scribes came, Mark 12, 28.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:46.000
One of the scribes came up

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.000
and heard them disputing with one another.

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.000
And seeing that he answered them well, asked him,

00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:56.000
which commandment is the most important of all?

00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.000
Jesus answered, the most important is hear, O Israel,

00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:04.000
the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.000
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.000
with all your soul, with all your mind,

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.000
with all your strength.

00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:14.000
The second is this.

00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:17.000
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.000
There is no other commandment greater than these.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.000
And the scribe said to him, you're right, teacher.

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:25.000
You've truly said that he is one

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:26.000
and there is no other besides him.

00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:29.000
And to love him with all the heart,

00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.000
with all the understanding, and with all the strength,

00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.000
and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more

00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:39.000
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:41.000
And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely,

00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:44.000
he said to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.000
And after that, no one dared to talk with him.

00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.000
No one dared to ask him any more questions.

00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.000
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus gets asked so many questions.

00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:00.000
He tends to answer with questions in return.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000
Jesus sees right through the insincerity

00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:09.000
and false motivations behind most of his questioners.

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:11.000
But in contrast to most of the questioners,

00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:14.000
this man actually gets a straightforward answer

00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:16.000
because he was asking, he's the only person

00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:19.000
in Mark 11 through 12 that's asking a sincere question.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:22.000
He would have had to separate himself

00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:25.000
from his scribal friends to actually try

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.000
and learn something and go to Jesus

00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:29.000
and ask an honest question.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.000
And in his answer, Jesus goes to Deuteronomy 6,

00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:34.000
four through five.

00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:37.000
This was known as the Shema of Israel.

00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.000
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:44.000
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.000
with all your soul, with all your might.

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.000
Every worship service at the Jewish synagogue

00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:51.000
began with those words.

00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:54.000
We are to love God with all our heart,

00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:56.000
soul, mind, and strength.

00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:00.000
In other words, completely, fully, wholeheartedly.

00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:06.000
Then Jesus answers from Leviticus 19 to 18.

00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:09.000
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.000
Now the Israelites knew those commandments.

00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:16.000
They're both in, one's in Deuteronomy, one's in Leviticus,

00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:19.000
but Jesus fused them together.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:22.000
When we look at the 10 commandments,

00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.000
you can see that pattern built into the 10 commandments

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:26.000
embedded there.

00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:29.000
The first four commandments have to do with our love for God.

00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:32.000
The final six have to do with our love for neighbor.

00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:36.000
And Jesus is making it very clear

00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:38.000
what the apostles taught later in the New Testament,

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:41.000
that love for God and love for neighbor

00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:43.000
cannot be separated.

00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.000
First John four says it like this,

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:47.000
this commandment we have from him,

00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:49.000
whoever loves God must also love his neighbor.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:52.000
God has loved us.

00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:55.000
God has shown his love for us in Christ.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:57.000
He's the one who initiates.

00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:01.000
We've been made objects of his love.

00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:07.000
We are sinners who can make no claim on his love,

00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:08.000
and yet he has loved us.

00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:12.000
And what we are to do in return

00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.000
is to love him and love our neighbors.

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.000
And unlike so many others in Mark,

00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:21.000
this scribe actually gets commended for his question.

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:24.000
He asks a sincere question he's actually seeking.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.000
The scribe recognizes Jesus is correct.

00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:29.000
There's no amount of religious activity.

00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:31.000
There's no amount of burnt offerings and sacrifices.

00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:34.000
There's no amount of pretentious,

00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.000
spiritual things that we can do

00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:40.000
that can make up for a lack of love for God and for neighbor.

00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:43.000
And Mark summarizes this to the section by saying

00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:47.000
after that, no one dared him ask any more questions.

00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:50.000
Think about what's just happened

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.000
in this last week of Jesus's life.

00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.000
The Pharisees and Herodians ask a political question.

00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:00.000
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:03.000
The Sadducees ask him a theological question

00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.000
about the resurrection.

00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:09.000
Then the scribe asks him an ethical question.

00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.000
What's the most important commandment?

00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:16.000
And each time, Jesus answers brilliantly.

00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.000
After that, nobody wants to try anymore.

00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:23.000
So now to conclude our passage,

00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:27.000
we have the scene of the poor widow at the temple.

00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.000
And the reason I believe that Mark puts it here

00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000
is that she is the example of the wholehearted devotion

00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:39.000
that Jesus teaches in Mark 12, 28 to 34.

00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.000
Let's read this again, verse 41 to 44.

00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:47.000
He sat down opposite the treasury

00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:51.000
and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:55.000
Many rich people put in large sums.

00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.000
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins

00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:00.000
which make a penny.

00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.000
He called his disciples to him and said to them,

00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:08.000
truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more

00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:11.000
than all those who are contributing to the offering box.

00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:15.000
For they all contributed out of their abundance.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.000
But she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had,

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:21.000
all she had to live on.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.000
The location of the temple treasury was public enough

00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:30.000
that people's offerings were such

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:31.000
that they could be observed.

00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:36.000
Most of us, probably most of us in this room,

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.000
Americans in general, were private about our money.

00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:44.000
But money reveals something about our heart.

00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:46.000
We may think that that's not true,

00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:47.000
but it really can't be argued.

00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:49.000
And Jesus said, where your treasure is,

00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:50.000
there your heart will be also.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:53.000
There's an inextricable link between where your treasure is

00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:54.000
and where your heart is.

00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.000
And the receipts of your life will tell a great deal

00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.000
about what you care about.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.000
Last week we talked about the denarius,

00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:06.000
which was the coin with the Caesars inscription on it.

00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:09.000
It was worth about a day's labor.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.000
This woman, this widow, did not have a denarius.

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.000
She had two small copper coins.

00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:22.000
The coins were called lepta or lepton.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:27.000
It was worth 1 128th of a denarius, or less than 1%.

00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:31.000
Of what the denarius is worth.

00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:32.000
So if we put it in today's,

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:36.000
if you put it in today's parlance,

00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.000
like let's say you were doing a day's labor

00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:43.000
and you were paid in cash, maybe at the end of the day,

00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:47.000
a manual labor, maybe someone gives them $160 in cash.

00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:49.000
So 1 128th of that.

00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:53.000
This woman has about, in her two coins, about $1.25.

00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:58.000
And in his brilliance, Jesus brings together

00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:04.000
these disciples who were noticing probably

00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:06.000
exactly what everyone else was noticing.

00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.000
He said, do you see that?

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:10.000
Do you see what just happened?

00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:15.000
In the eyes of Jesus, the widow's gift was greater

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:18.000
than anything else that people had contributed.

00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:23.000
Now we read that and think that's a very sweet story.

00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:28.000
Why does Mark include it where he does?

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.000
When you read verse 30 earlier,

00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:35.000
with the conversation with the scribe,

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:38.000
you might have noticed the repetition of the word all.

00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.000
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:45.000
with all your soul, with all your mind,

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.000
with all your strength.

00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:49.000
Four times we hear that.

00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:54.000
Our love for God is to be wholehearted, uncompromising.

00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:55.000
It's the whole person.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:56.000
It's all of us.

00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:00.000
Now we come to the widow.

00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:02.000
What did she give?

00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:05.000
All.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:06.000
All she had to live on.

00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.000
She's living what Jesus just taught.

00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.000
She's living Deuteronomy 6.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:17.000
She is loving God wholeheartedly

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:19.000
with all that she had to live on.

00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:25.000
It's a great challenge for each of us

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in how we love God with our money.

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If you're someone that's financially squeezed,

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it's easy to think that giving is something

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that you can get to when you just have a little bit more.

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Once you get out of debt,

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or once you have a little bit more, get a real job,

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or you're not a single income family,

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or you have a mortgage and aren't renting,

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then you can start to give.

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God is honored by this poor widow's tiny gift.

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Conversely, if you're prosperous and you have a lot,

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it's easy to think you're being very generous

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when really you're just giving out of your surplus.

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So there's financial application for sure.

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Whatever your situation is, you are called to be generous

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and trust God with your money.

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But it goes far beyond money

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because there's no compartmentalization

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in our Christian life.

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We are called to love God and to love our neighbors

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with our whole selves, mind, soul, strength,

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wholehearted devotion, nothing held back,

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all our soul, all our mind, all our strength, wholehearted.

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In one sense, it's a very simple message.

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In another sense, we spent our whole life trying to do that.

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So I'm just gonna end by taking some time to pray.

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We'll ask God that he would help us,

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that we would be wholehearted followers,

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not lost in false religious hypocrisy,

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not being people that know a lot

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but have no real spiritual experience,

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but that we would love God wholeheartedly.

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Let's take this time to pray.

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Lord Jesus, we thank you for these words

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that are so timeless and so true

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and in one sense, incredibly clear and simple.

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And yet we need divine strength

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to be people who live in wholehearted devotion to you.

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So would you enable us by your Holy Spirit?

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Lord, protect us from being people that know a lot

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but have no real spiritual experience or power,

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people that know neither the scriptures

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nor the power of God.

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Lord, I pray that we would know both.

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Lord, protect us from serving you with false motivations.

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Protect us from hypocrisy.

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Lord, I pray that our love for you would be simple

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and wholehearted and comprehensive.

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Help us, Lord.

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We pray for it in Jesus' name, amen.