{"id":37310,"date":"2025-09-09T22:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T05:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=37310"},"modified":"2025-09-02T21:01:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:01:23","slug":"mark_12_13-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark_12_13-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There Marriage In Heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark\u00a0 12:13-27 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is .\u00a0 With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 12:13-17 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 13-17:\u00a0 By asking Jesus whether it is right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees and Herodians were trying to trap Jesus in a lose-lose situation, a “catch-22”.\u00a0 \u00a0If Jesus answered their question by suggesting that the Jews should not pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees and Herodians could then take this to the Roman government and say, \u201cLook, Jesus is inciting rebellion against Caesar!\u201d\u00a0 On the other hand, if Jesus suggested that the Jews\u00a0should<\/em>\u00a0pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus might be seen by some Jews as siding with the Roman government and betraying the Jewish nation, similar to the way they viewed tax collectors.<\/p>\n

Yet Jesus brilliantly avoids his enemies\u2019 trap.\u00a0 He sees through their initial flattery as well as their subsequent question.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 famous response \u2013 \u201cGive to Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s and give to God what is God\u2019s\u201d (v17) \u2013 gave his enemies nothing to take to Caesar and nothing to take to the most anti-Roman Jews.<\/p>\n

Jesus demonstrated such grace and tact in the way he responded to controversial questions.<\/strong>\u00a0 No one exemplified Colossians 4:6 better than Jesus: \u201cLet your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s pray that we also would have wisdom to answer tough questions with tact, wisdom, love and skill.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark 12:18-27 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“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 have children for his brother.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third.<\/em>
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now about the dead rising–have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 18-27:\u00a0 Who were the Sadducees?\u00a0 The Sadducees originated as a priestly sect claiming their descent from the priest Zadok in 1 Kings 1:26.\u00a0 But over the centuries the Sadducees came to include high class rich people.\u00a0 They became something of a philosophical and spiritual elitist club for rich men and were bitter opponents of the Pharisees.<\/p>\n

The Sadducees did not believe in the supernatural.\u00a0 In the Sadducees’ worldview there is no such thing as angels or demons, heaven or hell, and definitely no possibility of resurrection.\u00a0 The Sadducees didn\u2019t believe most of the Hebrew Bible, except for possibly parts of the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch).\u00a0 The mindset of the Sadducees would in some ways be very much at home in secular Canada.\u00a0 (According to scholars, the Sadduccees’\u00a0prominence as a group was short-lived, ending after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D.)<\/p>\n

In an attempt to show that believing in resurrection is absurd, the Sadducees\u00a0pose a hypothetical question to Jesus about a woman who ends up marrying 7 times. \u201cWhose wife will she be at the resurrection?\u201d they ask in a mocking,\u00a0sarcastic way.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus, sharper than a sword, cuts through their question by attacking the wrong assumption on which their question is based.\u00a0 Jesus clarifies that life at the resurrection (i.e. life in heaven) is not like life on earth where people are married (v25).<\/p>\n

After pointing out their wrong assumption, Jesus uses the Scriptures that the Sadducees\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0believe to show that their Scriptures do teach that there is a resurrection.\u00a0 Jesus refers to an incident in Exodus 3 where God says to Moses, \u201cI am\u00a0the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.\u201d\u00a0 Here God is speaking in present tense as if Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0if long after their death God still remains the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then they must still be alive, for dead people cannot have a God; only living people can.\u00a0 In the end\u00a0Jesus shows that the silly ones were really the Sadducees who claimed to believe the Scriptures and yet ignored the Scriptural teaching that there is life after death.
\nWhat can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

First, notice that in the marketplace of ideas, Jesus was comfortable talking to different groups with different views. He could discourse with the Sadducees as well as the Pharisees.\u00a0 I pray that,\u00a0like Jesus, may you and I have love and wisdom from heaven to converse with people who are far from Christ and lovingly point them to God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second,\u00a0know your Bible and believe it with faith<\/strong>.\u00a0 You don’t want Jesus coming to you too one day and saying, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (v24)\u00a0 When we don’t know our Bible well or don’t combine what we read with faith, we will find ourselves in error.<\/p>\n

Third,\u00a0don\u2019t assume that life in heaven is simply an extension of life on earth.\u00a0 It’s not.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>As Jesus tells the Sadducees, life in heaven will be sharply different from life on earth.\u00a0 \u201cSo, JB, is Jesus saying that when my spouse dies or I die, that\u2019s the end of our marriage relationship and we won\u2019t be married in heaven?\u201d That\u2019s correct.\u00a0 Marriage between two human beings is until death do us part and is an earthly institution.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean that you won\u2019t recognize your loved one in heaven or won\u2019t remember the bond that you had on earth.\u00a0 I believe you will.\u00a0 But heaven won\u2019t have all the same labels that we use on earth.\u00a0 Our main identity in heaven is as children of God, not as husband to X, or wife to Y or relative of Z.\u00a0\u00a0The marriage we will all be focused on in heaven is between Jesus and His church (Revelation 21:1-3).<\/p>\n

On a related note, once when my oldest son Bradley was six, he asked me, \u201cDaddy, will there be video games in heaven?\u201d\u00a0 I told him, \u201cI\u2019m not sure if there will be video games in heaven, but if they aren\u2019t, I\u2019m sure there will be things that are much, much cooler and more exciting than video games.\u201d\u00a0 Considering how the Bible describes God and heaven, I believe anything good that we know on earth, if it\u2019s not replicated in heaven, will be replaced by something much more amazing in heaven.<\/p>\n

Jesus, You were so good at conversing with different groups of people and answering their questions graciously and wisely.\u00a0 I pray that I would be the same.\u00a0 Thank You that heaven is waiting and that it is far better than anything we could imagine on earth.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 12:13-27.\u00a0 With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 12:13-17 (NIV)
\n13\u00a0\u00a0Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
\n14\u00a0\u00a0They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?<\/p>\n

On verses 13-17:\u00a0 By asking Jesus whether it is right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees and Herodians were trying to trap Jesus in a lose-lose situation, a “catch-22”.\u00a0 \u00a0If Jesus answered their question by suggesting that the Jews should not pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees and Herodians could then take this to the Roman government and say, \u201cLook, Jesus is inciting rebellion against Caesar!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37310"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37314,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37310\/revisions\/37314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}