Tax Day

Matt 22

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
We are no longer slaves to sin.
That is the beautiful outflow ofthe gospel.

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Hey, thanks for joining us hereat the church at Suncoast.
Take your Bibles and let's getinto God's word.
Benjamin Franklin said a lot offascinating things.
A penny saved is a penny earned.

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Early to bed, early to risemakes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise.
But my personal favorite is whenBen Franklin told us that two
things in this life are certain.
Death and taxes.
That's true.

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In any time there's been humangovernments, there has been
taxes.
Now, taxes are a necessary evil.
They're an evil, but they arenecessary.
None of us want to go out andbuild roads and maintain
infrastructure.
None of us can support astanding army to protect
ourselves, so it is reasonablefor them to collect money from

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us.
We just hope it isn't too much.
And hope upon hope upon hope, wehope they don't waste our tax
dollars.
Now that we've passed thecomical part of the service,
let's look into the scriptureand see what Jesus says about
taxes and about localgovernments.
Again, this is the last few daysof his life, and he has answered

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through four different parableshis opposition in the temple.
He has sent them away angry.
So much so that they're in verse25, then the Pharisees went and
plotted.
They're making plans of how toentangle him in his words.

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Oh, this perhaps is the secondcomical moment of the service
because they really don't knowwho he is, do they?
This is a revelation that theythink they're dealing with a
man, which they are not.
but they're dealing with theGod-man.
Now you think how comical thisis.
The God who created vocal cords,who formed language, who gave us

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the ability to communicate,they're going to try to trip him
up and get him to say somethingthey can use against him.
By the way, welcome to thegovernmental political world.
One of the pitfalls of anypolitician is to get in any kind
of interview or debate and saysomething that can and will be

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used against him in the court ofpublic opinion.
Just the way it is.
But they think, in the words ofWilliam Barclay, that they can
impale him upon the horns of aninescapable dilemma.
Funny, isn't it?
They're going to twist and tryto get him to say.
So going on in verse 16, you seea change of action here.

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They sent their disciples tohim.
No longer did the Pharisees comein person.
They had just endured fourdifferent parables that spoke
about them.
Well, look at the last one.
Go back up to verse 13.
Then the king said to theattendants, bind them hand and
foot and cast them into theouter darkness.

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The Pharisees knew he wastalking about them being cast
into outer darkness.
They were so angry they couldn'tbe in his presence.
They couldn't look at himanymore.
They wanted him dead.
And so they no longer come tohim.
Verse 16, they sent theirdisciples to him along with an

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unlikely group to join them, theHerodians.
Now you might be able to guessthat the Herodians were
disciples of Herod.
They loved Herod.
Strange fellow to follow.
Herod killed most of his wivesand most of his children.
Herod was half Jew.
He was Iodium.

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He was part Iodium and half Jew.
He was a ruler set up by Caesar.
So he kind of pandered to bothsides of the fence.
He wanted to make Augustushappy, but he also wanted to
please the Jews.
He was a go-between, riding bothsides of the fence.

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But he was a vicious man.
dangerous man.
And yet he had a group of thosewho flocked around him.
Usually people flock around adangerous person so they don't
get killed themselves.
They think closer to the firethey get, they won't get burned,
which is foolish.
But suffice it to say that thesetwo groups were on opposite ends
of the poles.

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The Pharisees were religiousfanatics who spoke of freedom
from Rome and yet they joinedfor a common enemy with those
who link themselves to Rome.
So these two groups cometogether.
But there's another reason thesetwo groups join together.
And it's because of the questionthey ask him.

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You'll see it.
So they said, teacher, noticethe smoke they're going to blow
all over him.
Teacher, we know that you aretrue and teach the way of God
truthfully, flower and fluff,and do not care.
By the way, you can only brag ona man like that if he has an
ego.
Only a man with an ego will bedrawn in.

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See how they didn't know him.
Teacher, we know that you'retrue and teach the way of God
truthfully.
And you do not care aboutanyone's opinion.
Well, I would ask, why are youbringing him your opinion then?
If you don't care aboutappearances, why are we even
there?
So you don't care about anyone'sopinion for you are not swayed

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by appearances.
You're not, you're level.
You're right down the pike.
You're strong and steady.
You cannot be duped, but we'regoing to try to dupe you.
You cannot be deceived, butthat's what we're going to do.
He's setting, they're trying toset him up so he lowers his
guard to their deceitfulness.
Verse 17 comes the question.

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Tell us then, what do you think?
What's your opinion on thisparticular matter?
Be careful when people ask youyour opinion on a matter.
Be careful.
Be careful what opinions youshare and what you keep to
yourself.
What do you think?
Is it lawful to pay taxes toCaesar or not?

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Now, to let you know howoffensive paying taxes to Caesar
was to the Jew, we pay taxes, weexpect protection.
We pay taxes, we want goodroads.
We pay taxes, we hope that we'lllive better because the
government makes wise choices tospend it.

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They pay taxes so they wouldn'tbe destroyed.
They pay taxes as a form ofleverage so that Rome wouldn't
come in and level their city.
They pay taxes to stay in someelement of control of their
society.
It was like a loan shark kind oftax system.

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You pay for protection.
They hated it.
They were a country under thedomination of a foreign entity
and they had to, it's like ifChina came and took over our
country.
Not too far fetched.
China came and took over ourcountry and all of a sudden we
weren't paying taxes to the U.S.
government anymore.
We were sending our taxes toBeijing.

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How delightful that would beevery year to make out that
check.
They hated it.
It was offensive.
And yet, Rome was the power tobe.
And not to pay your taxes gotyou in a whole bunch of trouble.
It was once a year.
It was a Roman coin.
And Jordan, I'm going to giveyou a few minutes to pull that
picture up so you can see it.

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We'll have that kind of on thescreen for you so you can see.
It's once a year you had to paythis one particular coin.
It amounted, there it is.
We'll leave that up for a littlewhile.
It amounted to a little over aday's pay.
Let's say that an average day'spay in our culture is 250 bucks.
Let's just use that number.

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This coin was about 300, 325.
Took you about a day and a halfto make this.
You had to pay it once a year.
Not a tremendous amount, butstill it bothered you.
It was like HOA fees, I suppose,for some.
Irritating, but you gotta do itbecause you live in the area.
Well, there it is, the shekel.

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Leave that up there, Jordan, aswe look down.
Let's talk about this coin.
If Jesus said it's wrong to payit, he'll take the religious
side and say, it isn't right forRome to be here.
You shouldn't pay the tax.
Who is he in trouble with atthat point?
Rome.
That's why the Herodians werethere.

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They were going to go reportthat to Herod.
If they were to say, yes, if hewere to say, yes, you should pay
your taxes, who is he now introuble with?
The Pharisees, the Jews.
Okay, there's your inescapabledilemma.
There are your horns.
It goes on in this verse 18.

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But Jesus, aware of theirmalice, understanding the
undercutting of what they weresaying, said this ready first of
all he exposes them he says whydo you put me to the test you
hypocrites you phony you whohave come with a smile on your
face but all the time you wantto stick me you want me dead i

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see it i know it you don't foolanybody verse 19 Show me the
coin for the tax.
And they brought him a denarius,Greek denarius.
There it is behind me.
They brought him one.
Now I want to notice a couplethings.
First of all, he didn't haveone.
He didn't pull it out of hispocket.

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Whether they had pocketsanywhere, he didn't have one.
I think that's significant tonote that the God of the
universe didn't have a coin onhim.
Wouldn't you love that?
The penniless, coinless saviorof the universe.
Jesus didn't have a coin.
Young people don't have anythingin their wallets.
That's how you can tell a youngperson from an old man.

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Young people have credit cards.
Old people have the green stuffstill.
We were somewhere, we were insome store, and I pulled out my
wallet, and I don't know if itwas Benny or Landon next to me,
but they looked and they sawgreen stuff.
And they said, one of them, Idon't know which one it is, I
think it was Bennett, said,Daddy don't have that.
He's got the cards.

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It doesn't matter.
Young people don't have anymoney.
They just don't use real money.
Jesus didn't have a coin on him.
Notice he didn't ask hisdisciples to hand him a coin.
He asked them, go get a coin.
You who want to hang me, bring acoin.
Bring it out of your pocketbecause you've got one, don't

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you?
That's poor English.
You have one, don't you?
He asked them to bring a coin.
And they brought him a denarius.
And Jesus said to them, whoselikeness, whose picture is that?
By the way, that's CaesarAugustus.
That's him.
Wonderful fellow.
Brought within to the RomanEmpire Caesar worship, which is

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nothing more than God worship.
When a new Caesar came intoauthority, or really any king in
this culture, his image wasminted on the coinage.
that established his authority,minted right there, stamped into
it.
We have great founding fathersstamped into our coinage,

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stamped into our bills.
Doesn't show their authorityamong us.
It honors them.
This showed the authority.
Whose likeness?
Notice whose inscription is onit.
You'll see his name right there.
Well, that's obvious.
Easy answer.
This is what they said in verse21.
They said, it's Caesar's.
Duh.

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Then he said to them, ready?
Render, therefore, if hispicture is there, give it to
him.
Render to Caesar the things thatare Caesar.
I want you to note through thegospels and through the life of
Jesus, how little he ever talkedabout politics.
It's almost unless they broughtthe issue to him, he never

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brought it up.
Note that carefully.
He was uninvolved with Rome.
He was uninvolved with anygovernmental authority of the
day.
One time the Pharisees came tohis disciples and asked him,
does your master pay taxes?
And so they quickly said yes,but they didn't know.

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They were just trying to coverfor him.
So they went privately and askedhim, do you pay taxes?
He sent them fishing.
In fact, he told Peter, go downwith a hook and catch the first
fish that jumps on that hook.
Open his mouth.
Peter does it.
There were two of these coins inhis mouth.
And Peter said, now you go payfor yourself.

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We ought to pay taxes and payfor me.
I'll pay for my taxes too.
But other than the fewoccurrences, he never talked
about government and politics.
Please let that sink in.
The reason is he wasn't a partof this world.
He was a part of a world thatwas coming.
Now he believed in submission togovernment because God

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establishes governments in orderfor people to live peaceably.
We're not insurrectionists.
We're not rebellious against thegovernment or against politics.
It is a necessary evil in ourday, but it will soon become
irrelevant.
It will soon be abolished.

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And we are those who are part ofa kingdom coming.
We are submissive to the tax.
We pay our taxes.
We're honest with our taxes.
We don't lie on governmentforms.
We have integrity and honor asbelievers.
We don't report what we haven'tspent.
That's ungodly and unchristian.

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Neither do we overpay.
We pay the amount.
But the bigger punch is in thesecond part of his answer, and I
want you to see it.
I want you to understand whathe's saying because he's doing
more than answering a question.
He's probing deep inside ofthem.
Therefore, render to Caesar thethings that are Caesar's.
He doesn't stop there.

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And to God the things that areGod's.
Keep the analogy of the coins.
There is an image that has beenstamped on every human being who
has ever been born in thiscreation.
We are made in the image of God.
Go on home and look in themirror.

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The image of God is staring youright back in the face.
We are gods by creation.
Not only that, hissuperscription, his inscription
is upon us.
His name is stamped on us.
Yes, he knows our name, but healso is our name.

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We are gods.
Give to this world what belongsto this world, but this doesn't
belong to this world.
And I will never give this imageto a man or a government or a
tax or anything.
We are not to follow men, butfollow Jesus Christ.
And we are to render and giveback to him that which is his,

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which is everything.
All of our lives, all of ourfocus, everything is his.
It's not 10%.
It's not 20%.
It's everything is his.
It's all his.
Look at their response when theyheard it.
Now remember, this wasn't thePharisees directly.

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This was the second tear down,the disciples of the Pharisees.
They had been sent on a mission.
It says when they heard this,they marveled.
The word marvel in the Greek hasthe idea of admiration and
respect, of giving of a goodanswer.
You ever been and watched adebate or been in a debate and

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someone gives you an irrefutablyintelligent, profound answer?
If you're honest in that moment,you acknowledge that and go,
well, he or she answered well.
Marvel.
I'm going to tell you, whenJesus talked, whenever he
talked, it doesn't matter who hetalked to, he was trying to
reach them with the glory ofGod.

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He was trying to reach them withhimself.
He never stood up there andpointed his finger and tried to
condemn anybody.
He didn't.
He used methods that were beyondgenius, obviously, in order to
probe in and get into people'sheart.
And he wanted to reach thosedisciples of the Pharisees.
They marveled.
They were impressed with that.

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Notice they left him.
We're not tangling this guy up.
He's one to leave alone.
They left him and they wentaway.
This is the first of fourdifferent groups who are going
to bring four differentquestions to him.
Next week, it's the Sadduceeswho will come with their
particular question.
And I would remind you, beforewe look at the last four things

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that I want to share with you,or three things, whichever I've
got, I would remind you thatJesus is at the end of his life,
last few days, he is looking,this is probably Tuesday,
Wednesday at the latest, ByFriday, he will be crucified.
He knows all about it.
He knows what's coming.

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He knows the pain and separationfrom the payment of sin.
And yet he is able not only togive out four parables in order
to reach them, but he is able tofeel four questions coming back
at him.
Astounding.
Amazing.
The God man, never slowing down,never acquiescing to the moment

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and saying, you know, I'm tired.
I can't take any more.
I can't take any more.
I can't take any more questions.
I'm done.
Class dismissed.
Any teachers out there everwanted to say that?
Ten minutes into the class,class dismissed.
Leave, go, take off.
Jesus never did that.
He was right there, full focus,fully engaged, focused.

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fully trying to reach withamazing answers and questions.
Three or four things, whicheveris going to pop up.
We'll just do the first rightnow.
Number one, unbelief, there itis, is insanity.
They came with unbelief in whohe was and they asked an insane
question.
They asked a question, let meback up and say, buried in

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insanity because they weretrying to trip him up.
I might try to trip up Al Martinin a question.
I might be able to do it.
Right, Al?
Maybe not.
I might get Bob Sharp in atongue twister that he just gets
all discombobulated and justshakes his head and walks off.
Goes home and asks Martha, whatwas that answer?

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Maureen, what did I say?
Sorry.
Time for me to quit.
But Jesus never was set on hisheels by any of that.
He wasn't this.
He was this.
He was leaning into theseanswers.
It's insanity not to believethat Jesus is God in the flesh.
It's insanity.

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It makes us crazy.
We begin to question things thatwe never should question.
We begin not to trust thingsthat we ought to be trusting.
Number two, image is ownership.
To the coin, Caesar's had hisimage.
That belonged to Caesar.
We belong to God.
And I don't care what peoplelook like.
I don't care how people act.

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I don't care how obnoxious theneighbors are.
I don't care how obnoxious theperson at work.
They're created in the image ofGod Almighty.
And they belong to the Lord.
And we belong to the Lord.
We're not our own.
We're His.
And number three, and I thinkthat's it, tribute is
recognition.

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What that means is when you givesomething, you're actually
recognizing something.
When I give my taxes to thegovernment, I'm sorry, let me
back up.
When they take their taxes fromme and I allow them to take
those taxes from me, I'mrecognizing the authority of the
government over me to be able touse my money in order to try to
benefit the country.

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It's a recognition is what itis.
When we give our taxes, funds,our lives, our talents,
everything is his.
And when we give that to him, weare as a recognition of his
authority over us.
It's a climbing to the highestplace and realizing that he is
God and he is king and we arenot our own.

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We are not our own.
Look forward to these questionsas we continue on in Matthew.
Lord Jesus, as we pause andclose out our service, I pray
for anyone here who doesn't knowthe Savior.
They'd call on you to save thembecause a recognition of who you
are and what you did on thatcross causes us to cry out to

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you, Lord, I'm a sinner and Ineed to be saved by the grace of
God.
So I pray for anyone listeningto this sermon in this place,
out of this place, that theywould cry out to you and give
back to you what really is yoursto begin with.
the heart and our life.
Father, for the rest of us, maywe dwell in a place of sanity,

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recognizing your great authorityin the midst of a culture and
world that rejects it.
May we be happy pilgrims on thetrip to Zion, not entangled in
this world, not entrenched inthis political world, submissive
to the authorities over us, yes,but our hearts well, well above

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it.
and beyond any grasp of man.
We thank you for this hour.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Hey, thanks for joining us todayat the church at Suncoast.
We pray that the message was ablessing to you.
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