Questioning God Matthew 22:23-46 New Living Translation [Mk 12:35-37a; Lk 20:41-44] (23) That same day some Sadducees stepped forward a group of Jews who say there is no resurrection after death. They posed this question: (:24) Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will be the brother s heir. (:25) Well, there were seven brothers. The oldest married and then died without children, so the second brother married the widow. (:26) This brother also died without children, and the wife was married to the next brother, and so on until she had been the wife of each of them. (:27) And then she also died. (:28) So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For she was the wife of all seven of them! (29) Jesus replied, Your problem is that you don t know the Scriptures, and you don t know the power of God. (:30) For when the dead rise, they won t be married. They will be like the angels in heaven. (:31) But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead haven t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, (:32) I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So He IS the God of the living, not the dead. (33) When the crowds heard him, they were impressed with his teaching. (34) But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. (35) One of them, an expert in religious law [Moses Teachings], they tried to trap him with this question, (36) Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? (37) Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all y our mind. (38) This is the first and greatest commandment. (39) A second is equally important: : Love your neighbor as yourself. (40) All the other commandments and all the other demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. (41) Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question, (42) What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he? They replied, He is the son of David. (43) Jesus responded, Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, call him Lord? For David said, (44) The LORD said to my Lord, Sit in honor at My right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet. (45) Since David called him Lord, how can he be his son at the same time? (46) No one could answer him. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Alternate Introduction: How many of you have ever questioned God? Questioned His existence? His character? His plans? His dealings with you? His choices and actions regarding you or your family? His purposes for your life? Do you think it s OK to question God? I ll never forget the first time that God called me to go to the Sahara Desert and to the Saharawi people. Totally FREAKED OUT LOTS of questions: Why me? Is this some Divine Joke? Let s find the most fearful, insecure, shy, self-doubting, never-met-a- Muslim, afraid-to-fly person. Then let s add never-been-to-africa, or a desert. LOTS of questions. But through the intense days of questions and serious doubt, His answer was consistent, gentle, simple, but clear. Go! Go! I m in this Trust Me Go! I learned that my questions weren t a problem. Obeying His Answer was the challenge Context of this passage: Jesus had been teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven through stories (parables.) In Matthew 21 and 22, we re seeing several interchanges between the religious leaders of the Jewish people and Jesus. They had lots of questions for Him. Many of their questions were intended to trick or trip up Jesus they wanted to catch Him so that they could silence Him either through discrediting Him or legally getting rid of Him permanently. Jesus teachings about the Kingdom of God had become very disruptive to their own theology and religious control over the people. Who were these leaders who were asking all the questions? The Pharisees religious experts in Moses Teachings. Elite scholars of the Old Testament. Focused on God s Word. Lived to study God s Laws, and watched that everyone else followed it. Sadducees More politically positioned scholars of Moses Law high in the social circles of influence even cooperative with Rome. They were elite religious leaders. Focused on Moses Teachings exclusively first 5 Books of the OT Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.did not believe there was any life after death. They did not believe that there was any future resurrection of the dead who God would gather to Himself in Heaven someday. They believed that when
you die, it s over. (conducive to wanting to live the high life, because that s all there is) {REMEMBER FROM LAST WEEK} We read of how the Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus over the issue of money what should people pay to Rome (the occupying government under which they lived) and what to pay to God. Jesus simple answer silenced them, and they went away. So, right after Jesus foiled the Pharisee s set up to trick Jesus, and they had left, the Sadducees came to Jesus. They also enjoyed playing head games with Jesus, trying to not only show off their great depth of knowledge of Moses Teachings, but to expose Jesus as a false teacher a fraud. Picture these guys.the brilliant minds, the deep knowledge expertise in Moses Teachings (the core of their Bible) remember the NT was not yet written. How are they going to finally discredit this Jesus that everyone was following this plain, simple man from Galilee! A homeless guy! The things Jesus was teaching were making them look bad! He was rocking their boat! His teachings were challenging THEIR teachings. He was saying things that contradicted what they believed and taught. His teachings and behavior was appealing to the common man.and there were SO MANY of them! People need to know the truth about this guy and his radical teachings. He s not doing it the way we ve always done it! This Jesus is letting ANYBODY follow Him Doesn t He know that they have it all figured out clear based on God s Word the way we ve believed for thousands of years. He s got it all wrong! He s leading people astray! He MUST be exposed!!!! And stopped. What did they come up with? What brilliant What if.. did they devise to catch Him and expose His heretical teachings? (23) On that same day some Sadducees stepped forward a group of Jews who say there is no resurrection after death. They posed this question: (24) Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies without children, his brother should marry his widow and have children who will be the brother s heir. (25) Well, there were seven brothers. The oldest married and then died without children, so the second brother married the widow. (26) This brother also died without children, and the wife was married to the next brother, and so on until she had been the wife of each of them. (27) And then she also died. Ya think??? And now comes the million dollar question: They are leaning in (28) So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For she was the wife of all seven of them!
Remember what the Sadducees believed? They believed ONLY in the Pentateuch (5 Books.Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and there is nothing in those 5 Books that specifically teach about life after death. So they believed there was no life after death. No resurrection and eternity with God. So here s this whole scenario about all these people dying (7 men and 1 woman) and what will happen when they all come back to life and who will be the husband who she will be married to???? Well they tried. I m sure the reasoning was brilliant. (29) Jesus replied, Your problem is that you don t know the Scriptures, and you don t know the power of God. (30) For WHEN the dead rise, they won t be married. They will be like the angels in heaven. They had actually exposed their own lack of understanding the Scriptures. They were so focused on their favorite Scriptures, and running everything through their narrow lens, that they were just plain wrong. (31) But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead haven t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had died, God said, (32) I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So He IS the God of the living, not the dead. Jesus was quoting Exodus 3:6. When God had spoken to Moses for the first time the burning bush God identified Himself to Moses. Then [God] said, I am the God of your ancestors the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. When Moses heard this, he hid his face in his hands because he was afraid to look at God. Jesus was again bringing them to what they already knew their context to bring fuller understanding of that TRUTH. God was not speaking in past tense of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as dead and gone. He didn t identify Himself as being the One who WAS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Rather HE IS. Presently, past, and always. Jesus was quoting a verse that they all knew by heart. But, being the WORD of God, the SPIRIT of GOD wrapped temporarily in human flesh, He was able to bring an amazing new insight into that ancient Truth. His answer was simple.but its depth of Truth, based on God s Word, and it s perfect appropriateness to this situation left them with nothing to say. Jesus answers are always simple but ALWAYS right! (33) When the crowds heard him, they were impressed with his teaching. Before we get too critical of the Sadducees, let s consider.how are we like them? What if s? Excuses for why we hold Jesus at a distance in our lives. Are we trying to make Him prove Himself before we will follow Him? Surrender to Him? Thinking it all out.trying to disprove the Truth of Who He Is?
I know that! I read the Bible! I ve believed in God all my life. I know what my religion says. I m a good person! I know the Bible. But we aren t looking at every WORD in God s Word with the awareness that we don t know ALL of it..that s one of the roles of the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God that is IN us when we choose to accept Jesus sacrifice for our sins and enter His Kingdom the Kingdom of God. And His Spirit will always show us more and more of God s Truth through His Word. It s a living, active Word that we will never, ever know fully. Remember.Jesus had been speaking with all the religious leaders of Israel.the Sadducees and the Pharisees.plus the crowds that were listening to these interactions. The Sadducees had just been silenced by Jesus answer. Now we will see what the Pharisees will do it s their turn again. Remember: Pharisees: Experts in the Word of God. Experts in the Old Testament. The Pentateuch AND the rest of the Books of the Prophets and history of God and His story with people on earth. Especially interested in categorizing all the laws of God in the OT They had found over 600 of them, and focused on categorizing them into those laws that were most important and those with lesser importance. I d love to be a fly on the wall to watch how those discussions went! In Israel, our Jewish friends there say that in every discussion between 2 Jews, there will be 3 opinions. They d been on the hot seat in the discussion (debate) when Jesus had told the story of the two sons, and the story of the evil farmers, the story of the wedding dinner,, and the question they d tried to trap Him with about paying taxes to the Roman government. They d just witnessed Jesus win a debate with the Sadducees, and now they were ready to have another go at Him. (:34) But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. (:35) One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: (:36) Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? Remember: they focused on categorizing the 600+ commands of God into those that were most important and those that were less important.. It s a good question.with a bad intention. (:37) Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. THIS is the first and greatest commandment.
Jesus answer: (Deut. 6:5) And you must love the LORD your God with all your HEART, all your SOUL, and all your mind. The Sh ma. (Deut. 6:4) Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. This was what EVERY Jewish family was to have on the doorways of their homes. The most famous verse everyone knew it from birth. And the words that immediately follow that most important pronouncement: (:5) And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. It is a declaration of WHO GOD IS. Followed immediately with what our response must be to HIM: (:5) Jesus is affirming what these experts of Moses Law already knew. It was TRUTH that they had firmly engrained in their heads. They KNEW it. Jesus was perfectly addressing them within their frame of reference their context. The Teachings of Moses. They could ONLY absolutely agree with His response. They had only asked for the greatest command/law. #1. BUT.. Jesus, as always, moves from the intellectual thinking to the HEART of the matter. The application of that knowledge that TRUTH: Look what He does. Mtt: 22:(39) A second is EQUALLY important: Love your neighbor as yourself. (:40) ALL the other commandments and ALL the demands of the prophets are based on these TWO commandments. They hadn t asked for the top 2! or command. They only wanted Jesus opinion of the greatest law Jesus was quoting from Leviticus 19:18: Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. I AM THE LORD. He was speaking on their level using their frame of reference their context. The Teachings of Moses. But with His Divine Perspective of the WHOLE of Scripture, and with the profound knowledge of the Power of God. He could easily speak of Heaven and angels that was The Kingdom of God the Kingdom He taught and described and lived out. Do you see the simplicity of His answer? Let s make this simple and clear guys. TWO things: It all boils down to 2 things: LOVE GOD. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR as yourself. You can t love in your head. It HAS to be evident in your behavior. Action.
Love God? How is that seen and experienced by God? Where s the action to back it up? Love your neighbor? (Jesus made it clear that neighbor was anyone you meet.) How do the people around you experience your love? What evidence would they have to prove that you love them? What are the actions? How do they know? It can t be only words. I will NEVER forget how I learned the truth of this simple 2-part answer that Jesus gave.. [desert story] we know that you are here because of God and no other reason.we see that He is IN you, and with you. And that He is why you are here. Christianity 101. The BOTTOM LINE. The SIMPLE ANSWER that Jesus Himself gave us. LOVE GOD.LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU. THE PEOPLE YOU MEET. LOVE PEOPLE. Jesus made it simple so that a child could understand it. But it takes every moment of my day every moment of my life to live it out. Simple, but POWERFUL. The Power of God (LOVE) it s Who He Is.active in my personal relationship with God, and in how I live out my life with every person around me. Jesus answers all the questions! My own: Why me, God? Why this path? Why these people? Ours collectively? Why us? What do you want of us? Why have You chosen what You have for us? NOTICE: Jesus has questions coming at Him from every direction all the time. His closest followers.the religious leaders..the doubters.the Believers. He does not seem to have a problem with the questions. He can handle them. He keeps giving His answers: Jesus-style.simple.profound.. AND ALWAYS, ALWAYS TRUE! He doesn t make it wrong to ask the questions. He answers. We may not like the answers, but He answers. Why do we ask the things we ask? TESTING? Wanting to really understand? Clarity? Security?
What is the purpose of a test? School.find out if you really know or understand something; If you ve learned what was being taught. Help assess what you still need to learn. Driving: Are you able to be trusted out on the road and to not be a danger to others or yourself? Parents: Why do children test? Usually, it s to find the boundaries we re giving them.for their own good. Once they find those boundaries, they can relax a bit in a sense of security and safety. They can gain a sense of the parameters within which they can now go through their days These are good motives for testing. But there are wrong motives for testing.testing that is based on motivations to discredit or trap someone. To prove someone wrong and yourself right. To excuse yourself from not believing. You can give tests that no one will ever pass, and use that to continue on a path you ve set for yourself. But even under those tests that were out of evil motives, Jesus answered with His consistent, profound simplicity. Without condemnation, without indignation born out of pride, without shaming those asking the questions. And He spoke Truth. Truth that was in His mind in complexity our human minds could never, never comprehend since before the earth was created. Yet He chose to make it simple so that even a child could understand. Love God. Love people. That s the bottom line. That s the ultimate answer to all the questions. It s always the right answer. And when we do it when we act on in the Power of God creates a far greater impact. There s still a little more in this exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders. But this time, Jesus is asking the question: (41) Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question: (42) What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he? They replied, He is the son of David. (43) He responded, Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, call him Lord? For David said, (44) The LORD said to my Lord, Sit in honor at my right hand Until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.
(45) Since David calls him Lord, how can he be his son at the same time? (46) No one could answer him. And after that no one dared to ask Him any more questions. The Pharisees and Sadducees had all had their turns to ask Jesus their questions. Now it was Jesus turn. The Pharisees knew that the Messiah would be the descendant of David. The Messiah the One sent by God to make everything on this earth right The One Who would establish the Kingdom of God on this earth and would rule the world with Justice and Righteousness. They were all watching for the Messiah to come. Jesus IS the Messiah. Jesus was asking them about Who HE really was. This is the most important question you will ever answer in your life. What do you believe about Christ? We can ask our questions now. But in the end, He will ask each of us the final question. It s the question that will determine our eternal destiny. APPLICATION: Where are you in this story? What are your questions for God? Are they honest, and because you truly need to understand more in order to believe? Or are they What if scenarios so that you can feel better about your unbelief. Ask them. He can handle them. But then keep your ears, hearts and eyes open for the answer. It will be simple. It will be Truth, and line up with His Word. What will you say when He asks you His final question? Because He will one day. Maybe He s asking you right now. What is your answer? And what is the evidence that He experiences from you?