This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back to our look through Mark chapter 12, day 2, in Daily
Drive Time devotions. We're going to look at verses 13-27 today. And in these
verses we're going to look at two questions that were asked of Jesus.

One of them was about taxes and another was about the resurrection. Both center
on what's really, truly important in our lives. When you look at Jesus' answers,
he's going to center in on that which is most important.

It's interesting that although people continue to bring questions to Jesus, in
the end it's always them who are questioned. It's always they who find their
souls being questioned to the very core. And that certainly happened when some
people brought Jesus a question about taxes and money and government and who
deserved honor and who didn't.

Listen to what happened in Mark 12 verses 13-17. "Later they sent some of the
Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and
said, 'Teacher, we know that you're 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? Should 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. ' They brought the coin and he asked
them, 'Whose portrait is this and whose inscription? ' 'Caesar's,' they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is
God's. ' And they were amazed at him. " Now the interesting thing about this
questioning of Jesus as you look at it is they began by saying to Jesus, "You're
a man of integrity," and then immediately, according to the words of Jesus,
displayed their hypocrisy.

Even them saying Jesus had integrity was a sign of hypocrisy in their lives
because they weren't there to really listen to Jesus. They were there to try to
trap him. Should we pay taxes to Caesar?

And Jesus' challenge back is, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God
what is God's. " The image of Caesar was on the coin. The image of God is upon
man's life.

We may owe Caesar a tax, but we owe God ourselves. When people brought this
question to Jesus, they were trying to trap him. If he said, "Go ahead and pay a
tax to Caesar," the people would hate him.

If he said, "No, no, no, it's okay not to pay a tax to Caesar," then the
government would hate him. They were trying to get him in this either/or trap.
It's interesting.

Many times you see Jesus doing this as people bring him questions. He would not
allow him to be trapped by this either/or way of thinking in mankind. He always
had a third option, I would call it the God option, a totally different way of
thinking.

In fact, this might be good for our lives. When you feel trapped by either/or
thinking to think, "Well, I can't serve God, I can't really do the things that
God wants me to do in life," then you look for the God option. Should we honor
God or honor the government?

If Jesus said, "God," the government would arrest him. If he said, "Government,"
the people would stop listening to him. Jesus simply says, "Let's think of a
third option.

Give government the honor it deserves and give God the honor he deserves. How
about that for an option? " To me, there's something very comforting about these
verses.

When you look at the ups and downs of government, and we're in a down time right
now, it is good to remember. You give government the honor it deserves and you
give God the honor that it deserves. You never give government the honor of
thinking that it's going to somehow change your life, transform your life, make
your life all that God intends for it to be.

Give your life hope. The only hope that you and I have in this life comes from
God and what Jesus Christ has brought into this world. Now, you should give
government the honor that it deserves.

Government can give us safety. Government can give us stability. There are some
things that human government can give us, but you never pay your taxes expecting
that you're going to get hope in return.

You cannot. The only thing you can get in return from a government is what a
human government can give, so you honor them for that. The only thing you can
get in return from God is all that God can give, so you honor him for that.

As Jesus talked to people about their questions this day, he focuses them on
what is most important. They were talking about government and taxes and their
intellectual quandaries, and Jesus said, "That's not what is most important. The
most important thing is who are you honoring with your life and how are you
honoring God with your life?

" That's not the end of the questions this day. After this question, there
quickly comes a question about the afterlife. This is a complicated question.

Listen to this in verses 18 to 27. "Then the Sadducees, who say that there is no
resurrection, came to him with a question. '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.

' Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving
any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died leaving no
child.

It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children.
Last of all, the woman died too.

At the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to
her? ' Jesus replied, 'Are you not in error, because you do not know the
scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor
be given in marriage.

They will be like the angels in heaven. ' Now 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 and God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? ' He is not the God
of the dead, but of the living.

You are badly mistaken. " This is quite a question from the Sadducees and quite
an answer from Jesus. Now you need to realize the scripture tells us here the
Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection.

The Pharisees, by the way, did. And so what's happening here is they're trying
to get Jesus on their side. And their proof is this complicated argument that
according to one of their laws, and it is a law in the Old Testament, a man's
brother would marry the man's childless wife so that she wouldn't be left with
no one to care for her the rest of her life.

So they use this ridiculous argument to somehow, they think, prove their point.
Now remember, this argument made perfect sense to them. Just like some of our
ridiculous arguments that hold God out of our lives make perfect sense to us.

So they bring this argument that according to the law, according to their way of
thinking made sense to them, and Jesus explodes it with the God option once
again. What's the God option in this case? How does Jesus challenge them to
think differently?

He says you got to admit your own weakness. If you want to see the truth, you
got to admit your own weakness. And you got to look for the truth that's right
under your nose.

First he said, admit your own weakness. You don't know, he said, the scriptures,
and you don't know the power of God. They were so high and mighty in this
question, Jesus said, wait, wait, wait, let's go back to the beginning.

You don't have what it takes to understand God. Let's start there. Sometimes I
get all caught up in my mind trying to figure God out, but I've never even
started a relationship with him.

And I wonder why I can't figure God out. You can't figure anyone out unless
you've started a relationship with him. And you say, well, wait, I don't want to
start a relationship with him until I've figured him out.

Well, could you do this? At least start enough of a relationship with him where
you say, God, I'm not sure if you're real. I'm not even sure if you're there.

But if you are, I know that you're personal. And so if I'm going to see that
you're real, I need you to help me. The only way to know who God is is
personally, not philosophically.

He is a personal God, not a philosophical God. So Jesus said, you've got to
start by admitting your own weakness. You don't know the scripture.

You don't know the power of God. God, help me. And then he goes on to explain to
them that in the resurrection, there is no marriage.

Now for many of us, that's something that makes us scratch our head. I know for
some of us, some of us whose marriage on this earth has been deeply painful,
there's almost a sense of thank God when you read these verses. But I know many,
many other people, I've talked to many of you, who you have a strong
relationship in your marriage.

And so something about what Jesus says here is bittersweet to you. What the most
important relationship I have on this planet, it's going to be lost somehow when
I get to heaven? It is not going to be lost.

I understand that relationships aren't going to be the same in heaven as on
earth. Jesus makes that clear. They're going to be vastly different, but nothing
is going to be lost.

I don't understand how much better heaven is going to be, but I do know it's
going to be magnified times better, so much better that this most important
relationship on earth, this relationship of marriage, even though it won't be
the same in heaven, my relationships in heaven will be deeper, will be better,
will be stronger. Admit your own weaknesses, Jesus said. And then he also says,
you want to get a hold of the truth?

Look for the truth that's been right under your nose all the time. A lot of
times I do this, I see a lot of people who do this. We're looking for the truth
and we go in all these strange corners.

We look at all these strange truths, these sideline things, instead of looking
at the core of who we are and what we believe and looking for the truth there.
That's what Jesus challenged these Sadducees to do. He said, instead of making
up all these arguments about seven brothers that's never existed, let's look at
the core of what you believe.

Let's look at the burning bush. Let's look at Moses. And let's look at the God
who said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And Jesus said, that proves the resurrection. He didn't say I was the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob like they were dead. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.

Now it's interesting, Jesus could have said this day, he could have said,
remember the Mount of Transfiguration we studied just a few weeks ago? He could
have said, I just talked to Elijah, I just talked to Moses a few days ago up on
the mountain. I'm telling you, it's true.

But he didn't argue with them that way. He told them the truth in a way that
they could understand by going to the core of who they were, the core of their
faith, and giving them a reason to believe that fit their way of thinking. He
showed them how they could see the resurrection, the truth of the resurrection,
in one of the greatest tenets of their belief, in one of the things that they
talked about every single day in their belief.

That's how I want to speak to people about truth, and that's how I want to hear
God's truth in my life. God, help me to see the core of who you are and begin to
live that out in my life. Help me not to get caught in sideline issues.

Jesus says, you want to know what's most important? What's most important is
hearing my truth and living your truth in daily life. So let's ask for his
strength to do that right now.

Jesus Christ, we need your strength. So we begin by admitting our own weakness.
Lord, there are times when exactly what was said of these Sadducees is true of
me.

I don't know the scriptures. I don't know the power of God. I'm living by my
opinion and not the scriptures.

I'm living by my power, not your power. Lord, help me to see your truth today.
Help me to see the power you want to give me through your Spirit today.

And help me to depend on you today. I ask this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.