Jesus & Sadducees: Two Additional Applications

Driving home: One of the most amazing but comforting truths revealed in the word of God is that God is able to take the most, wicked desires, designs, and actions of the most evil of men, and overrule them for the good of his people.

Joseph's words in Genesis 50:20, 'You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good,' illustrate God's ability to use wicked intentions for the good of His people, setting a theme for Jesus' encounters with the Sadducees.

One of the most amazing but comforting truths revealed in the word of God is that God is able to take the most, wicked desires, designs, and actions of the most evil of men, and overrule them for the good of his people.

2:38 - 3:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: it is a religion in which man's mind is worshiped as god. It is the practice of accepting human reason as the only authority in determining the substance and the measure of what one will believe as credible.

The Sadducees' inability to conceive of resurrection is attributed to their 'little pea-brains,' a metaphor for their limited human reason dictating their beliefs.

reason as the only authority in determining the substance and the measure of what one will believe as credible. And surely again, in the Sadducees, we have a picture of religious rationalism. Because their little pea-brains could not hold a notion of the resurrection. That sort of boy just needs a little activity because of that.

9:29 - 9:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: our Lord says that the two taproots of skepticism and rationalism are first of all a willful prejudicial ignorance of the content and meaning of Scripture and secondly a willful arrogant ignorance of the power of God.

Religious skepticism and rationalism are likened to a tree, with two major 'taproots' (ignorance of Scripture and God's power) sustaining its life.

Here our Lord, as it were, digs down through all the flowers and blossoms and fruits of religious skepticism and rationalism and lays bare two major taproots by which the whole tree of rationalism and skepticism is sustained in its life. And our Lord says that the two taproots of skepticism and rationalism are first of all a willful prejudicial ignorance of the content and meaning of Scripture and secondly a willful arrogant ignorance of the power of God. Now let's try to examine these in some detail. First of all, the first root of skepticism and rationalism is a willful, willful, prejudicial...

11:14 - 12:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not parrot claims of biblical contradiction without personal knowledge, as this reflects prejudicial ignorance.

Martin describes challenging someone who claims the Bible is 'full of contradiction' to show two or three, offering his Bible, and observing their inability to do so, illustrating prejudicial ignorance.

And if you ask them to show you one, once in a while I have one who does know, but most of the time they can't. I just very sweetly take them at their word and say, well, I've been giving the better part of 30 some odd years studying this book and, you know, I've yet to find a real contradiction. But if it's full, then surely you'd have no trouble showing me two or three and I hand my Bible to them. You want to see someone swallow their teeth, start burping through their eyebrows?

18:57 - 19:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second taproot is identified as a willful, arrogant ignorance of God's power. The Sadducees' 'reductio ad absurdum' argument against resurrection stemmed from their truncated…

The Sadducees' argument about the woman with seven husbands is explained as a 'reductio ad absurdum,' a classic logical form used to demonstrate the absurdity of a premise by driving it to its logical conclusion.

And then it's arrogant. Because, you see, they came thinking that with their reason, they could demonstrate that the doctrine of resurrection of the body was absurd. And they used with Jesus a form of argumentation called in classic logic, reductio ad absurdum. Now, that's not swearing. That's Latin.

34:09 - 34:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second taproot is identified as a willful, arrogant ignorance of God's power. The Sadducees' 'reductio ad absurdum' argument against resurrection stemmed from their truncated…

The absurd image of God cutting the resurrected woman into seven pieces for her seven husbands is used by the Sadducees to highlight the supposed absurdity of the resurrection doctrine, based on their flawed premise.

And certainly you're not going to say God's going to cut her up into seven pieces and give each one one seventh of her. One will have an arm and a shoulder, another one a leg and a knee. Ha, ha, ha! See what they've done?

36:14 - 36:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He says, you foolish ones, you're talking like a fool. Because resurrection is measured not by what little puny man can figure out and do, but by the mighty power of the almighty God.

Paul's address to those denying bodily resurrection as 'O foolish, senseless, ignorant ones' (aphron) is quoted to show how the Bible directly confronts arrogant ignorance of God's power.

That's exactly what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 15 when dealing with certain people who were introducing to the church at Corinth the idea that there is no bodily resurrection when he comes to deal with their objections framed in their skepticism. And rationalism, what does he say in verse 35? He says, O foolish, senseless, ignorant ones, aphro, the alpha privative. And you know, you Greek students, phaneo, that family of words having to do with the head, with the mind.

43:12 - 43:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He says, you foolish ones, you're talking like a fool. Because resurrection is measured not by what little puny man can figure out and do, but by the mighty power of the almighty God.

The illustration of a snake talking to Eve and a donkey talking to Balaam is used to challenge modern skeptics who dismiss biblical miracles based on their limited understanding of God's power.

I mean, do you believe that? It'd be a fact. You don't believe that a snake talked to Eve. I mean, you know what happens to women when they get near a snake.

44:22 - 44:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be bullied by the sophisticated sneer of arrogant unbelief; remember that God's actions are not measured by human limitations but by His own intention and power.

Skepticism and rationalism are described as feeding on the 'horrible carrion of willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God,' a vivid metaphor for the destructive nature of such unbelief.

And if Almighty God can make a great fish to hold a man, he can hold back the juices or put something in the man to immunize him against the digestive juices. That's no big deal for God. He made the juices in the first place. You see, skepticism and rationalism feeds on the horrible carrion of willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God.

45:50 - 46:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously the revealed truth about where your sin will take you and the horrible hell that awaits, and flee from the wrath of Christ by being hidden in Him.

The imagery from Matthew 25 of a shepherd separating sheep from goats is used to graphically describe Christ's role as the great judge in the final judgment, consigning the wicked to everlasting punishment.

In Matthew 25 he described it graphically under the imagery of a shepherd separating sheep from goats and consigning the goats to everlasting punishment by the sheer power of his magisterial word. And dear friends, Jesus did not speak authoritatively about the age to come to satisfy curiosity but to prepare men for that age. And he has told you enough about where your sin will take you and the future judgment in the horrible hell that awaits you, soul and body. He has told you enough to make you, if you take it seriously, flee from the wrath of Christ who was swallowed up in God's wrath agains...

53:42 - 54:47 Read in full sermon