<p>20:27 <i>And there came to him- </i>Over 100 times we read in the Gospels of various people coming to Jesus- His enemies, the crowds, His disciples, people in need. Each came with their various motivations, agendas and pre-understandings of Him. His invitation to &lsquo;come to Him&rsquo; was to come&nbsp;<i>in faith</i>. The repeated repetition of the phrase &lsquo;came to Him&rsquo; is perhaps to invite us to see ourselves likewise as amongst those who &lsquo;come to Him&rsquo; as we read or hear the Gospel record, ensuring that we are truly coming to Him and not merely on a surface level as so many did.</p><p><i>Certain of the Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection</i>- The obvious response to a question from such people about the resurrection would be &lsquo;But you don&rsquo;t believe in a resurrection&rsquo;. They <i>antilego,</i>&nbsp;spoke against publicly, the resurrection. Mark&rsquo;s record adds that they also said that &ldquo;In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise&hellip;&rdquo; (Mk. 12:23). But the Lord was not so primitive as to point out their obvious untruth. He took their position as they stated it, and worked to demonstrate that even given that position, they were woefully ignorant of Divine truth. Long term, His approach stood a chance of working. If He had simply denounced them as liars and self-contradictory, there was no chance He would&rsquo;ve ever contributed towards their possible repentance and change of heart. This approach needs to be take to heart by us. For there are large numbers of believers who seem to think that their service to God involves cruising internet forums or endlessly arguing with their neighbours in order to prove them wrong and self-contradictory about doctrinal matters. This may give a slight ego rush for a moment, but it is not in fact any real victory. For the victory we seek is not to tie another up in mental knots, but to lead them to repentance, to the Lord Jesus, and to His Kingdom. We also need to note that recently the Lord had resurrected Lazarus, with the result that He appeared to have won over many who had previously supported the Jewish leadership. They were now trying to prove that resurrection doesn&rsquo;t happen. The Lord could&rsquo;ve called many witnesses to the resurrection of Lazarus, but instead He takes their argument and works from it.</p><p>It has been observed that the Sadducees were generally hedonistic- and this surely was a result of their denial of the future resurrection and judgment. Their belief was that only the Torah was inspired, and it was Israel&rsquo;s duty to live according to it in this life. They were a parade example of the effect of doctrine in practice.</p>