Class Notes: 9/24/2014

Mark 12:24 - Mark 12:35; The Pharisees fail to trap him regarding the Law; Then He questions them regarding His identity in a final attempt to get them to believe

In our study of Mark we are in Mark 12:24; where Jesus responds to the Sadducees question regarding whose wife the woman will be after she has married all seven brothers under the Mosaic law of posterity that we saw last time.

Mark 12:24; "Jesus replied is this not why you keep on being deceived." This is a present passive indicative that means you're always wrong and you never have been right because you keep on deceiving yourselves.

Then he explains why; "not understanding the scriptures" the reason they are never right, "or the power of God."

Remember the Word of God (the scriptures) is the Power of God. Mark 13:31; because it's all based in the divine decree and God's immutability. Heb 13:8; Mal 3:6;

Mark 12:25; "For when they rise from the dead they neither marry, nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven." There is no need for marriage in the eternal state because there is no need for procreation.

Remember marriage is the basis for the establishment of the family and the family is source of the witnesses in the angelic appeal trial. In the eternal state there will be no need for additional witnesses because the angels' appeal trial is over.

Mark 12:26-27; Jesus quotes Exod 3:6;"I am" is present active indicative, indicating a permanent continuous reality. I am and I keep on forever being "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead but of the living you are greatly mistaken ( you keep on being deceived)."

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." This particular quotation was a commonly used in Israel and it is as a strong an inference resurrection as any other statement.

It states that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are presently alive in God's presence because God is the God of the living not the dead.

They questioned Him with ridicule; Jesus answers them with sarcasm. He completely destroys the Sadducees' false teaching that there was no resurrection and he uses the Word of God that was the basis of their rejection to do it.

The word translated "mistaken" in the NASB is the Greek word "planao" that means to be deceived. They are and they keep on being greatly deceived because they have rejected God's Word that is the only source of truth.

The parallel passage in Matt 22:33; adds that "When the crowds heard this they were astonished at His teaching. We have previously seen that unlike the traditional Jewish teachers He taught with authority and that amazed them. Mark 1:22;

This teaching came from His absolute confidence in the authority and veracity of God's Word. Unlike the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees Jesus had no doubts about the truth of God's Word because he was operating in belief rather than unbelief.

They were operating in the ambiguity and uncertainty of unbelief He was operating in complete calm assurance of faith rest. James 1:6;

Matt 22:34; provides us with an explanation of how the next confrontation began.

"But when the Pharisees had heard that he had silenced the Sadducees (literally, put them down), they gathered together."

Remember that the Pharisees were religious rather than rationalists, and they adhered to the Mosaic Law but they had added many things to it in their oral law.

So they come in to try to silence (put down) the Lord Jesus Christ. But first they got together to decide how they would approach Him because they knew it wouldn't be easy.

Mark 12:28; the purpose of this question is to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ no matter how he answers their question. In their meeting they think have figured out how.

The objective is to silence Him, to refute Him and to discredit Him no matter what specific law He mentions.

They think that He has to mention one of the Ten Commandments, that is why it says in Matt 22:34; "they were gathered together." The Greek says, they mustered their all their thinking forces together and came up with a plan.

They thought they had worked out a foolproof plan using the Ten Commandments to discredit Him so that no matter how He responded to it and then they sent in their most brilliant representative in to engage Jesus.

We must remember that the all-encompassing purpose of the Mosaic Law was to establish a proper relationship with God on the basis of integrity (righteousness, justice and love).

In the Ten Commandments, codex #1 shows that man is a sinner and needs a savior, codex #2 presents Jesus Christ through the ritual plan of salvation, and codex #3 describes the Lord's promise for blessing and protection on the earth in time for those who choose to follow His plan.

The whole purpose of the law is relationship with God, so Jesus is going to answer with the all-encompassing concept of the law in view.

Mark 12:29-30; for the first part of His answer Jesus quotes Deut 6:4-5;

Jesus uses a passage that covers the principle of them all taken together. This is a love which expresses not only a mental attitude but a relationship in the: heart, the thinking part of the mind; the soul, the soul is used in contrast to the mind because the soul has volition; the mind refers to having doctrine, heart refers to applying doctrine or thinking it, and volition is choosing to make decisions on the basis of it.

Personal love for God is motivational virtue. It is how we do what do in a right way. Personal love for God results in the development of reciprocal love that creates the motivation to continue the pursuit of truth under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit and do the right thing in a right way.

Mark 12:31; the second part of His answer is quoted from Lev 19:18b;

Unconditional love for mankind is functional virtue or integrity that is entirely dependent upon the motivational virtue of personal love for God. This is expressed with the concluding phrase "I am the Lord"

Mark 12:31b; Jesus concludes with " there is no other commandment greater than these."

In the OT passages that Jesus quotes the Hebrew word "ahab" translated "love" is a Hebrew word for a relationship.

The Pharisees did not have a relationship with the Lord and that means they did not have a relationship with God. We know this from what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7; and to all of them in John 8:44;

So the word for love here indicates a relationship as well as a mental attitude and none of the Ten Commandments taken individually describes this relationship but taken as a whole they do.

So taken all together it adds up to a relationship with God that they do not have because they do not believe that Jesus is Messiah and that is why they are trying to discredit and silence Him.

Mark 12:32-33; The scribe who was chosen to ask the question agrees with Jesus but still does not believe He is Messiah because he refers to Him as teacher rather than Lord.

We see here that the Pharisees accepted the scriptures as the Word of God and they accepted God's Word as authoritative.

Mark 12:34; so Jesus tells him "You are not far from the kingdom of God"

Since he had the doctrine about Jesus Christ as Messiah mind the only thing left for him to do was to use his volition to believe it so he was close but since he refused there was no cigar. Deut 30:14; Rom 10:8-10;

Mark 12:34b; "And after that no one dared to ask Him anymore questions" but since they were are standing there in shock and amazement at His answers Jesus asks them a question that takes them right to the critical issue of their unbelief in Jesus as Messiah.

Mark 12:35; the parallel passage in Matt 22:42; says He asked them "What think you of Christ? Whose son is He?"

This is a leading question because this is the critical issue. Their attitude toward Christ will determine their eternal destiny and their failure to recognize Him as Messiah is their problem.

Their response is "The son of David" so He responds with another question that is designed to challenge their unbelief in an attempt to them to the correct response.

Their answer indicates that they understood the Messianic line and the Davidic covenant so their answer emphasizes the humanity of Christ. "Of David" emphasizes His humanity.

In His humanity Jesus Christ is the son of David but Jesus Christ in His deity is also the Son of God.

Understanding the perfect humanity of Christ, is important because the perfect humanity of Christ died as our substitute but they are missing out on identifying his complete identity because He is the God-Man.

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