Have you ever seen anyone make a serious mistake but they were totally convinced they were doing the right thing?

In the video, you see a guy who had a job to do, and he believed that he was approaching this in the right way but he is actually making a serious mistake - causing a roof to collapse in on him as a result. In today’s story from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is going to explain how we can easily end up being that guy if we are not careful. Jesus is going to talk about two specific pillars that we should be aware of if we don’t want the whole roof to cave in on us…so let’s get in it.

Jewish, but only specific bits...

So the Sadducees were educated and smart and because of that, even though they identified as Jewish, they discounted some of the key Jewish teachings.

The Bible tells us that one teaching they didn't identify with was the resurrection from the dead - or the afterlife. They didn't believe in life after death. That's a pretty big part of the Jewish faith.

This is interesting to me because today, we have the same thing kinda happening. We have folks who say that they are Christian, but then also disagree with some of the significant teachings of the Christian faith - such as the resurrection, or miracles.

And like the Sadducees, we do this because we don't like or agree with the teachings. We think we know better. I’ll be straight with you - you are not going to like everything about the teachings of Scripture. Jesus actually uses the word, offensive. Some of the teachings of Christ you will find offensive and may not want to agree with them. So to resolve this particular dilemma, people either walk away from the Christian faith or find ways to adapt the teaching to make it more palatable to their life philosophy.

One of the ways we can justify adapting teaching to ourselves is to become smart, and use logical and, at least on the face of it, reasonable arguments or riddles as to why the Scripture or the teaching is wrong. This is exactly what we see the Sadducees doing in this story.

Having Questions about the Bible or Jesus' Teaching

So this is their riddle that they are using to prove that the resurrection doesn't make sense and because it doesn't make sense they reach the only conclusion possible - it cannot be true.

Let me tell you, I have lots of questions when I read the Bible. I struggle with some of the theology of the Bible, I find some of it, well - a little bit difficult to get my head around. Why should I forgive my enemies? Why should I love everyone, especially when I don't like everyone? These are not easy things to hear.

And you know what - having questions is OK. We all have them. And I think God can handle them. Maybe other Christians cannot handle your questions - but God can. I think He enjoys it when we ask them, and wrestle with them and spend time searching out the answers. But what I shouldn’t do is think to myself, you know what - I don't understand this, therefore, it cannot be true. That would put way too much faith in my own intellectual abilities and not enough faith in the idea that there is a God with infinite understanding and is, therefore, likely to have done stuff and said stuff that my finite understanding doesn't yet know!

I use a Canon 90d to record the Livestreams. I have some idea as to how a camera works. But I don’t understand all of it, but I don’t have to understand all of it to believe that it works.

But this is the logic of the Sadducees. I don’t understand it, therefore I don’t agree with it, and therefore - because I am smart - it cannot be true.

So what did Jesus think to their riddle? Was He caught out by it?

Mistake 1: Not knowing the Scriptures

What a way to start a sentence. He just comes right out and says it - you are mistaken. He is, in fact, telling them that they have been deceived...that they have gone astray, wandered from the truth, they have made a mistake. That’s what the word mistake means. This isn't pleasant to hear - but they did need to hear it.

This is so simple, but so helpful - when it comes to questions that we have, start with understanding the scriptures and understanding the power of God. But why those two things?

Let’s start with the Scriptures, or the Bible, or, as it is also often referred to as the Word of God. What do you think about the Bible? What is your opinion of it?

Many folks around the world think that this is actually the inspired word for God, whilst others have questions about the relevance, origins and authority of the Scripture. Was written by men or God or both? But Just about everyone acknowledges that the Bible has been more influential on humanity and it is still the most read and studied text in the world.

And in our study of scripture, we can easily become like the Sadducees in our story - to basically take those bits of Scripture that tie in to our own personal philosophy but ignore or worse, denigrate those parts that we don’t agree with. I know for me, it is much easier to talk to people about the acceptance of God and the love of God because they are amazing topics. But it is harder to talk about sin and the fallen state of mankind. That isn’t a sexy topic, but the trouble is, you can’t really understand the love of God without understanding the fallen nature of man.

So, full disclosure, here at Crowd one of our guiding principles is this:

Accessible but uncompromising theology.

This just means that we love God’s Word and we really want to understand what it means for us in today’s society.

We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, and that in the pages of Scripture Jesus is revealed. We want to inspire you about Jesus, and so to do that - we look at the Scriptures every week. We dig into it, like today, present a view and let you make your decisions and we want to do this in an accessible way. We also want to do it in a way that encourages debate and questions and contribution - which many of you do in the comments, via WhatsApp or via the forms on the website and email.

And, as a church, we will tackle some of the bigger questions around the Bible and look at some of the more uncomfortable topics - some recent ones including religion and politics and forgiveness.

So here is the principle that we can learn from the Sadducees: When you have a question - go to Jesus and ask. Just be prepared for the answer!

• Have I spent the time necessary to understand what the Bible really has to say about something?
• And am I prepared to submit to it if I don’t like it?

So Jesus reveals the actual truth of the Scripture. He tells the Sadducees that the dead will rise, that there is resurrection, what is going to happen in the resurrection and He also refers to the Scriptures to explain His thinking.

So if this is the first principle of how to avoid making a serious mistake, from wandering off and going astray or even being deceived - what is the second one that Jesus mentions?

Mistake 2: Not knowing the Power of God

This is interesting to me. Why would Jesus say this? I get that He would say that they have misunderstood Scripture? By why would He mention that they don’t know the power of God?

Well, the power of God is one of the things that people find the most offensive. It seems that the Sadducees didn’t think that God was powerful enough to do the whole afterlife thing.

When we start to pick and choose scripture, it is easy to begin to deny the power of God: Jesus stops walking on water - and we try and tell the world that it was a mirage. Jesus didn’t really feed the 5,000. God didn’t split the Red Sea. It fascinates me how people try and explain away the power of God.

Walking on water is not a problem when you consider the power of God. If our God can create the worlds with just His words, then walking on water is not a problem. It is only a problem when I don’t know the power of God. Resurrection becomes eminently believable when you consider it in light of the power of God.

So, let’s look at a few things that the Bible tells us about the power of God, and we will see why understanding the power of God is a really good thing to do!

The Gospel is the Power of God

The gospel is the power of God that brings salvation or health, or deliverance, or wellness, or wholeness to us who believe. Want to be whole? The good news of Jesus is the power of God that brings wholeness...I mean we could park on this all day!

Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus that we often read about, wrote…

His power has given us all things to find and live a meaningful life.

In other words, the good news of Jesus is the power of God that brings us salvation and wholeness, by giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness…his power has given us all things to find and live a meaningful life.

Let me ask you - does that sound like a pretty good deal? It does to me! I didn’t earn it. I don’t deserve it but this is gospel folks - God did it anyway. I just have to believe...nice!

Now, notice the link that Peter highlights between knowledge of God and the power of God. I wonder if Peter is remembering this conversation with the Sadducees that Jesus is having when He writes this. Knowledge of God - well that comes from the Scriptures. He is linking knowing the scriptures and knowing the power of God. Thanks, Peter for bringing it all together :-)

Can we pray for you?

There is a reason we want to teach uncompromising but accessible theology. We want to understand the scriptures. But we also want to understand that power of God as it relates to us and to the mission that God has given us, to live that meaningful life, which is why, every week - we ask if there is anything that you would like prayer for.

It’s our way, as a digital community, to connect with the power of God. So if you would like us to pray for you, whether you are a Christian or not, regardless of what you have or haven’t done in life, then do let us know through the comments, through WhatsApp or through the website. We would love to pray for you.

Let's Learn the Lessons

So let’s wrap this up. It is not lost on me that Jesus ends His statement to the Sadducees by saying that they “have made a serious error.” That is a pretty clear, blunt and to the point statement, isn’t it? Fundamentally, the Sadducees were twisting ideas and theology. They wanted a life philosophy. They wanted God to conform to their way of thinking rather than submitting to His teaching. They didn’t see their need for a saviour. And herein lies the warning to us - let’s learn from this and not make this serious error.

At the start of the video, we watched a guy cave a roof in on himself. And when we depart from the truth of the scriptures, when we depart from the gospel and start to deny the power of God, we become like that guy knocking the pillars down.

One pillar is the truth of the gospel, another is the power of God, and we knock at them until eventually it all caves in around us, and we realise that we have made a serious error. So let's not be that guy, let’s learn from the Sadducees and work hard to understand scripture and understand the power of God.