Mark 12:18  Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,
19  Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
20  Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
21  And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.
22  And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.
23  In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.
24  And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
25  For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
26  And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
27  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Fools have no sense of value. They will waste their time imagining things. They will be so proud of their imagination that they will dispute the truth with their imaginary ideas. In the book of Acts we read:

Acts 17:21  (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

In our text we read of the Sadducees, another religious sect that had developed over the years. As the text tells us, they denied the resurrection. One thing that lost people need to understand is that they can imagine anything they want, but that will never negate the truth.
In the book of Job we read:

Job 19:25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Job wrote those words long before Jesus Christ came to this earth. Job knew there was a resurrection coming. He was looking forward to meeting his Redeemer. The Sadducees were fools in denying the facts. They did not want to be accountable for their actions and they wrongly assumed that if they imagined there was no resurrection, then there would be no accountability. There are still people today who deny the resurrection. The truth cannot be erased.
In our text the Sadducees had wasted precious time developing their false ideas. They came to Jesus with what they thought was a fool proof argument. They knew enough Old Testament law to hang themselves. They knew that God looked after the family name by using some unique laws to keep the family name alive. If a married man died without having any children, his brother was to take his wife and raise up a child to his brother’s name.
The Sadducees dreamt up a scheme of seven brothers who all took the same woman in succession and they all died without giving the woman a child. Eventually the woman died as well. According to the Sadducees, this would create a real dilemma. If there was a resurrection, whose wife was this woman after their resurrection. All seven brothers had her to wife. These fools assumed they had trapped Jesus.
Jesus did not take long to set these willfully ignorant men straight. Their problem was that they did not know the Scriptures. There are many people who know enough Bible to scoff at It, but they refuse to submit to It and be saved. There are men who would call themselves scholars, who spend years perverting the Word of God to come up with something that sounds more “reasonable” to them. They put a fancy name on it and they advertise it and try to sell as many copies of their corruption as they can. Gullible people who deny the inspiration of God’s Word, are willing to purchase these corruptions and they think they really have something.
Jesus told these men they did not know the Scriptures, nor did they know the power of God. Jesus told them that in heaven people do not marry. There are hundreds of theories of what people assume heaven will be like. Jesus did not go into all the details here but He addressed the issue at hand. Married couples will not look at each other the way they do here on this earth, when they get to heaven. Of course, the only ones that will get to heaven are those who are born again through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus taught that angels do not marry and they do not procreate. In heaven the focus of our attention will be on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no need to increase the population of heaven. Those who go to heaven will live forever and according to what the Bible tells us, there will be no increase in population, nor will there be any decrease in population. The number will be set and no one will desire any changes.
Jesus also gave an Old Testament example of the fact that the resurrection of the dead is sure. Jesus referred back to Exodus 3:6:

Exodus 3:6  Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

As we see in that passage, God spoke to Moses using the present tense for His relationship with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. All three of those men were long dead when God spoke to Moses at the burning bush. He told Moses: “I am” the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He did not say He “was” their God. Their souls were in paradise when God spoke to Moses. They were awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. They will be in heaven with their glorified bodies one day.
Unless the Sadducees would repent and be saved, they would be resurrected, but not to be in heaven, but to be in the lake of fire. There is a resurrection of the saved and of the unsaved. Imaginations will not change that fact. The wise person submits to the God of Creation and accepts the fact that He is much wiser than we are. Trusting in God now is the wise thing to do. Living for the Lord now is the profitable thing to do. Live for God now and trust Him to lead you safely to His Home in Heaven when this life is over.
Pastor Bartel