Scripture

Jesus replies, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures and you don’t know the power of God.”

Observation

The Pharisees meet together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something that they can have Him arrested for. They come to Jesus and pose the question, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?” Jesus asks them whose face is inscribed on the coin. He says they should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

The Sadducees also try to trap Jesus. They ask Him a long question involving a man with several brothers. The first man dies without leaving a child, so the wife is passed down along the line, but none of them is able to produce a child. The question is this: “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?”

Jesus replies that there is no marrying or child bearing in eternity. He then addresses the root problem which is the resurrection of the dead. Jesus says that God is the God of the living not the dead, so therefore we will be raised from the dead.

Application

Many christians are like the Sadducees. They do not know the Scriptures or the power of God,

There is beauty and power to be found in the Word of God. In the Scriptures we meet the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are confronted with both the love and holiness of God. In the word we see the power of the gospel to save, and its power to transform lives.

When we come to the Lord we receive the Holy Spirit and the power of God. We can know that our prayers are answered. We can expect to see people healed, the dead raised and the blind to see. We can also expect to see people turn to Jesus as the Holy Spirit works in their lives in response to our prayers.

We need both the Word and the power. If you have the Word but no Spirit you will dry up. If you have the Spirit without the Word you will blow up. If you have both the Spirit and the Word you will grow up.

Prayer

Lord God, I thank you for the Scriptures and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Lead me in my walk with you so that I come to maturity in faith. Amen.