Trying to Trap Christ: Pick a Number, One to Seven.

Class Outline:

Wednesday October 15, 2025

 

For a brief season the Jewish temple became a theocratic residence of the Messianic King, and for this brief season, the people of Israel tasted some of the glorious blessing of the millennial Kingdom.

 

Three questions are asked of the Lord in order to try and trap Him in His words and in the Scripture.

 

They reject Him as Messiah / King, are jealous of Him and nervous about how His ministry has upset the delicate balance of Israel / Rome and the money that flowed through it. 

 

MAT 22:23-33

 

Who are the Sadducees? A sect that emerged about 1-2 centuries before Christ who believed only in the Pentateuch and strict adherence to the written law of Moses.

 

ACT 23:8

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

 

They only believed in the first 5 books of Moses and concluded that resurrection was not in Moses. 

 

Resurrection in the OT.

 

PSA 16:10-11

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 

11 You will make known to me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

 

PSA 49:14-15

As sheep they are appointed for Sheol;

Death shall be their shepherd;

And the upright shall rule over them in the morning,

And their form shall be for Sheol to consume

So that they have no habitation. 

15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol,

For He will receive me. Selah. 

 

ISA 26:19

Your dead will live;

Their corpses will rise.

You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,

For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,

And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. 

 

ISA 53:10

But the Lord was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring,

He will prolong His days,

And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. 

 

PSA 73:23-24

Nevertheless I am continually with You;

You have taken hold of my right hand. 

24 With Your counsel You will guide me,

And afterward receive me to glory. 

 

JOB 19:25-27

"As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. 

26 "Even after my skin is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall see God; 

27 Whom I myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

 

Ezek 37:11-14

Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.' 12 "Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 "Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. 14 "I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it," declares the Lord.'" 

 

[when you don’t want to believe something literally said, you make it an allegory]

 

HOS 13:14

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?

Shall I redeem them from death?

O Death, where are your thorns?

O Sheol, where is your sting?

Compassion will be hidden from My sight. 

 

DAN 12:1-4

"Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. 2 "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. 3 "Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4 "But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase." 

 

God’s plan in resurrection was to give us something above and beyond anything we could think or imagine. Like surprising someone you love with a gift so wonderful, it so surprised them, having never entered into their minds. 

 

The world thinks that the wonderful things God promises to do are absurd because they are unfamiliar to them. 

 

Christ’s response:

 

The wisdom of Christ is simply wonderful.

 

He says: “You keep being led astray …” 

Why? 

You do not understand the Scripture nor the power of God. 

 

Don’t understand Scripture: reductionism.

 

The Sadducees think of a corpse or decayed body and imagine that God could do nothing with it.

 

Pascal - “Atheists - what reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more difficult to come into existence than to return to it?” 

 

Jesus tells us something by His own authority as God. 

 

He declares that there is no marriage in the resurrected state.

 

The Pharisees did not believe in a change big enough and the Sadducees did not believe in the change at all. 

 

Believers will be like angels, still human but very different from what we are. 

 

Scripture is God breathed:

 

The Sadducees: “Moses said …,” Jesus: “God said …” Modern

 

Scripture is existential (“to you”) and supernatural (“by God”) and it is vital (alive; “who is saying”). 

 

Resurrection is essential to Christianity. 

 

The Sadds disassociated God from human affairs. God became a human and gave Himself so that we would live with Him in eternal human bodies.

 

Paul said that without resurrection we are the most pitiable people. 

 

1CO 15:16-17

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

 

Resurrection is the foundation of the gospel. The resurrection of Christ is manifested to us in His word. We touch His scars; we hear Him teach the Scriptures to show us how it all had to happen the way it did, with Him. 

 

Resurrection is the testimony of the apostles. It is the new life and the new hope, freedom from the world, and the anticipation of the abode our Lord went ahead of us to build for us. 

 

His resurrection is the beginning of our faith and hope: 1PE 1:20-21. And without it our redemption is for nothing and our service unrewarded. Without resurrection, we have no hope of meeting face to face the One we have loved and worshiped. 

 

The Greeks believed in disembodied spirits, but we will be like the Lord in a glorious body in His glorious kingdom. 

 

In the church, God has so blessed us that we can live a resurrected life now. It is God’s greatest experiment to date - living eternal life in a mortal body (PHI 3:11; 2CO 4:16; JOH 11:25).