Tax Day

Matt 22

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

We are no longer slaves to sin. That is the beautiful outflow of the gospel. Hey, thanks for joining us here at the church at Suncoast. Take your Bibles and let's get into God's word. Benjamin Franklin said a lot of fascinating things. A penny saved is a penny earned. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. But my personal favorite is when Ben Franklin told us that two things in this life are certain. Death and taxes. That's true. In any time there's been human governments, there has been taxes. Now, taxes are a necessary evil. They're an evil, but they are necessary. None of us want to go out and build roads and maintain infrastructure. None of us can support a standing army to protect ourselves, so it is reasonable for them to collect money from us. We just hope it isn't too much. And hope upon hope upon hope, we hope they don't waste our tax dollars. Now that we've passed the comical part of the service, let's look into the scripture and see what Jesus says about taxes and about local governments. Again, this is the last few days of his life, and he has answered through four different parables his opposition in the temple. He has sent them away angry. So much so that they're in verse 25, then the Pharisees went and plotted. They're making plans of how to entangle him in his words. Oh, this perhaps is the second comical moment of the service because they really don't know who he is, do they? This is a revelation that they think they're dealing with a man, which they are not. but they're dealing with the God-man. Now you think how comical this is. The God who created vocal cords, who formed language, who gave us the ability to communicate, they're going to try to trip him up and get him to say something they can use against him. By the way, welcome to the governmental political world. One of the pitfalls of any politician is to get in any kind of interview or debate and say something that can and will be used against him in the court of public opinion. Just the way it is. But they think, in the words of William Barclay, that they can impale him upon the horns of an inescapable dilemma. Funny, isn't it? They're going to twist and try to get him to say. So going on in verse 16, you see a change of action here. They sent their disciples to him. No longer did the Pharisees come in person. They had just endured four different parables that spoke about them. Well, look at the last one. Go back up to verse 13. Then the king said to the attendants, bind them hand and foot and cast them into the outer darkness. The Pharisees knew he was talking about them being cast into outer darkness. They were so angry they couldn't be in his presence. They couldn't look at him anymore. They wanted him dead. And so they no longer come to him. Verse 16, they sent their disciples to him along with an unlikely group to join them, the Herodians. Now you might be able to guess that the Herodians were disciples of Herod. They loved Herod. Strange fellow to follow. Herod killed most of his wives and most of his children. Herod was half Jew. He was Iodium. He was part Iodium and half Jew. He was a ruler set up by Caesar. So he kind of pandered to both sides of the fence. He wanted to make Augustus happy, but he also wanted to please the Jews. He was a go-between, riding both sides of the fence. But he was a vicious man. dangerous man. And yet he had a group of those who flocked around him. Usually people flock around a dangerous person so they don't get killed themselves. They think closer to the fire they get, they won't get burned, which is foolish. But suffice it to say that these two groups were on opposite ends of the poles. The Pharisees were religious fanatics who spoke of freedom from Rome and yet they joined for a common enemy with those who link themselves to Rome. So these two groups come together. But there's another reason these two groups join together. And it's because of the question they ask him. You'll see it. So they said, teacher, notice the smoke they're going to blow all over him. Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, flower and fluff, and do not care. By the way, you can only brag on a man like that if he has an ego. Only a man with an ego will be drawn in. See how they didn't know him. Teacher, we know that you're true and teach the way of God truthfully. And you do not care about anyone's opinion. Well, I would ask, why are you bringing him your opinion then? If you don't care about appearances, why are we even there? So you don't care about anyone's opinion for you are not swayed 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're going to try to dupe you. You cannot be deceived, but that's what we're going to do. He's setting, they're trying to set him up so he lowers his guard to their deceitfulness. Verse 17 comes the question. Tell us then, what do you think? What's your opinion on this particular matter? Be careful when people ask you your opinion on a matter. Be careful. Be careful what opinions you share and what you keep to yourself. What do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now, to let you know how offensive paying taxes to Caesar was to the Jew, we pay taxes, we expect protection. We pay taxes, we want good roads. We pay taxes, we hope that we'll live better because the government makes wise choices to spend it. They pay taxes so they wouldn't be destroyed. They pay taxes as a form of leverage so that Rome wouldn't come in and level their city. They pay taxes to stay in some element of control of their society. It was like a loan shark kind of tax system. You pay for protection. They hated it. They were a country under the domination of a foreign entity and they had to, it's like if China came and took over our country. Not too far fetched. China came and took over our country and all of a sudden we weren't paying taxes to the U.S. government anymore. We were sending our taxes to Beijing. How delightful that would be every year to make out that check. They hated it. It was offensive. And yet, Rome was the power to be. And not to pay your taxes got you in a whole bunch of trouble. It was once a year. It was a Roman coin. And Jordan, I'm going to give you a few minutes to pull that picture up so you can see it. We'll have that kind of on the screen for you so you can see. It's once a year you had to pay this one particular coin. It amounted, there it is. We'll leave that up for a little while. It amounted to a little over a day's pay. Let's say that an average day's pay in our culture is 250 bucks. Let's just use that number. This coin was about 300, 325. Took you about a day and a half to make this. You had to pay it once a year. Not a tremendous amount, but still it bothered you. It was like HOA fees, I suppose, for some. Irritating, but you gotta do it because you live in the area. Well, there it is, the shekel. Leave that up there, Jordan, as we look down. Let's talk about this coin. If Jesus said it's wrong to pay it, he'll take the religious side and say, it isn't right for Rome to be here. You shouldn't pay the tax. Who is he in trouble with at that point? Rome. That's why the Herodians were there. They were going to go report that to Herod. If they were to say, yes, if he were to say, yes, you should pay your taxes, who is he now in trouble with? The Pharisees, the Jews. Okay, there's your inescapable dilemma. There are your horns. It goes on in this verse 18. But Jesus, aware of their malice, understanding the undercutting of what they were saying, said this ready first of all he exposes them he says why do you put me to the test you hypocrites you phony you who have come with a smile on your face but all the time you want to stick me you want me dead i see it i know it you don't fool anybody 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 couple things. First of all, he didn't have one. He didn't pull it out of his pocket. Whether they had pockets anywhere, he didn't have one. I think that's significant to note that the God of the universe didn't have a coin on him. Wouldn't you love that? The penniless, coinless savior of the universe. Jesus didn't have a coin. Young people don't have anything in their wallets. That's how you can tell a young person from an old man. Young people have credit cards. Old people have the green stuff still. We were somewhere, we were in some store, and I pulled out my wallet, and I don't know if it was Benny or Landon next to me, but they looked and they saw green stuff. And they said, one of them, I don't know which one it is, I think it was Bennett, said, Daddy don't have that. He's got the cards. It doesn't matter. Young people don't have any money. They just don't use real money. Jesus didn't have a coin on him. Notice he didn't ask his disciples to hand him a coin. He asked them, go get a coin. You who want to hang me, bring a coin. Bring it out of your pocket because you've got one, don't 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, whose likeness, whose picture is that? By the way, that's Caesar Augustus. That's him. Wonderful fellow. Brought within to the Roman Empire Caesar worship, which is nothing more than God worship. When a new Caesar came into authority, or really any king in this culture, his image was minted on the coinage. that established his authority, minted right there, stamped into it. We have great founding fathers stamped into our coinage, stamped into our bills. Doesn't show their authority among us. It honors them. This showed the authority. Whose likeness? Notice whose inscription is on it. You'll see his name right there. Well, that's obvious. Easy answer. This is what they said in verse 21. They said, it's Caesar's. Duh. Then he said to them, ready? Render, therefore, if his picture is there, give it to him. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar. I want you to note through the gospels and through the life of Jesus, how little he ever talked about politics. It's almost unless they brought the issue to him, he never brought it up. Note that carefully. He was uninvolved with Rome. He was uninvolved with any governmental authority of the day. One time the Pharisees came to his disciples and asked him, does your master pay taxes? And so they quickly said yes, but they didn't know. They were just trying to cover for him. So they went privately and asked him, do you pay taxes? He sent them fishing. In fact, he told Peter, go down with a hook and catch the first fish that jumps on that hook. Open his mouth. Peter does it. There were two of these coins in his mouth. And Peter said, now you go pay for yourself. We ought to pay taxes and pay for me. I'll pay for my taxes too. But other than the few occurrences, he never talked about government and politics. Please let that sink in. The reason is he wasn't a part of this world. He was a part of a world that was coming. Now he believed in submission to government because God establishes governments in order for people to live peaceably. We're not insurrectionists. We're not rebellious against the government or against politics. It is a necessary evil in our day, but it will soon become irrelevant. It will soon be abolished. And we are those who are part of a kingdom coming. We are submissive to the tax. We pay our taxes. We're honest with our taxes. We don't lie on government forms. We have integrity and honor as believers. We don't report what we haven't spent. That's ungodly and unchristian. Neither do we overpay. We pay the amount. But the bigger punch is in the second part of his answer, and I want you to see it. I want you to understand what he's saying because he's doing more than answering a question. He's probing deep inside of them. Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. He doesn't stop there. And to God the things that are God's. Keep the analogy of the coins. There is an image that has been stamped on every human being who has ever been born in this creation. We are made in the image of God. Go on home and look in the mirror. The image of God is staring you right back in the face. We are gods by creation. Not only that, his superscription, his inscription is upon us. His name is stamped on us. Yes, he knows our name, but he also is our name. We are gods. Give to this world what belongs to this world, but this doesn't belong to this world. And I will never give this image to a man or a government or a tax or anything. We are not to follow men, but follow Jesus Christ. And we are to render and give back to him that which is his, which is everything. All of our lives, all of our focus, 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 they heard it. Now remember, this wasn't the Pharisees directly. 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 has the idea of admiration and respect, of giving of a good answer. You ever been and watched a debate or been in a debate and someone gives you an irrefutably intelligent, 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, when Jesus talked, whenever he talked, it doesn't matter who he talked to, he was trying to reach them with the glory of God. He was trying to reach them with himself. He never stood up there and pointed his finger and tried to condemn anybody. He didn't. He used methods that were beyond genius, obviously, in order to probe in and get into people's heart. And he wanted to reach those disciples of the Pharisees. They marveled. They were impressed with that. Notice they left him. We're not tangling this guy up. He's one to leave alone. They left him and they went away. This is the first of four different groups who are going to bring four different questions to him. Next week, it's the Sadducees who will come with their particular question. And I would remind you, before we look at the last four things that I want to share with you, or three things, whichever I've got, I would remind you that Jesus is at the end of his life, last few days, he is looking, this is probably Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest, By Friday, he will be crucified. He knows all about it. He knows what's coming. He knows the pain and separation from the payment of sin. And yet he is able not only to give out four parables in order to reach them, but he is able to feel four questions coming back at him. Astounding. Amazing. The God man, never slowing down, never acquiescing to the moment 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 ever wanted 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. fully trying to reach with amazing answers and questions. Three or four things, whichever is going to pop up. We'll just do the first right now. Number one, unbelief, there it is, is insanity. They came with unbelief in who he was and they asked an insane question. They asked a question, let me back up and say, buried in insanity because they were trying to trip him up. I might try to trip up Al Martin in a question. I might be able to do it. Right, Al? Maybe not. I might get Bob Sharp in a tongue twister that he just gets all discombobulated and just shakes his head and walks off. Goes home and asks Martha, what was that answer? Maureen, what did I say? Sorry. Time for me to quit. But Jesus never was set on his heels by any of that. He wasn't this. He was this. He was leaning into these answers. It's insanity not to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. It's insanity. It makes us crazy. We begin to question things that we never should question. We begin not to trust things that we ought to be trusting. Number two, image is ownership. To the coin, Caesar's had his image. That belonged to Caesar. We belong to God. And I don't care what people look like. I don't care how people act. I don't care how obnoxious the neighbors are. I don't care how obnoxious the person at work. They're created in the image of God 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 think that's it, tribute is recognition. What that means is when you give something, you're actually recognizing something. When I give my taxes to the government, I'm sorry, let me back up. When they take their taxes from me and I allow them to take those taxes from me, I'm recognizing the authority of the government over me to be able to use my money in order to try to benefit the country. It's a recognition is what it is. When we give our taxes, funds, our lives, our talents, everything is his. And when we give that to him, we are as a recognition of his authority over us. It's a climbing to the highest place and realizing that he is God and he is king and we are not our own. We are not our own. Look forward to these questions as we continue on in Matthew. Lord Jesus, as we pause and close out our service, I pray for anyone here who doesn't know the Savior. They'd call on you to save them because a recognition of who you are and what you did on that cross causes us to cry out to you, Lord, I'm a sinner and I need to be saved by the grace of God. So I pray for anyone listening to this sermon in this place, out of this place, that they would cry out to you and give back to you what really is yours to begin with. the heart and our life. Father, for the rest of us, may we dwell in a place of sanity, recognizing your great authority in the midst of a culture and world that rejects it. May we be happy pilgrims on the trip to Zion, not entangled in this world, not entrenched in this political world, submissive to the authorities over us, yes, but our hearts well, well above it. and beyond any grasp of man. We thank you for this hour. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, thanks for joining us today at the church at Suncoast. We pray that the message was a blessing to you. If we can be of any help, don't hesitate to contact the church on our Facebook page or at suncoastjacks.org. If you are in the listening area, we'd love to have you attend any of our services. We hope you have a great day and we'll see you next time.