Lesson 116: The Trap of the Intellectual (Luke 20:27-40)

The Sadducees were in a sorry state on a couple of different levels. Because they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, they had no hope of anything to come. And because they trusted so much in their own tactics for bringing Jesus down, they ended up doubly humiliated—they couldn’t match Jesus’s reasoning abilities and were trying to topple Someone who would only come to His end through His own design. Though they denied the resurrection, they professed believe in one who held it to be true (Moses). Jesus exposed that very error, bringing them to the place of silence before Him. In looking at this text, Pastor Daniel poses the question, “Will my worship of my own intellect prevent me from knowing God?” He then charges the listener to “escape the trap of intellectual arrogance.”

Summary by Seth Kempf, Bethany Community Church Staff