"Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. They *came and *said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." They brought one. And He *said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar’s." And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." And they were amazed at Him."
Good Morning my beloved,
Have you ever noticed that some people never seem to learn their lesson? The Jewish religious leaders remind me of Wile E. Coyote, who was always trying to trick the Road Runner to capture him. However, time and time again, he failed. This time, they think they've come up with a different, more clever approach, they've enlisted the help of the Herodians, which in the best of circumstances, these two groups have a strained relationship. They would not even get along, because the Pharisees were the most religious, the Herodians the least, they were a sect of Hellenistic Jews, not affiliated with religious groups, they were almost a terroristic pro-Roman political group. This would be like President Biden joining forces with the GOP investigation into Hunter Biden foreign investment deals. But the Pharisees and the Herodians did have one thing in common, they both wanted rid of Jesus. It reminds me of the old adage, "My enemy’s enemy is my friend."
Jesus has their enemy from the very beginning, they despised everything about Him, because He is everything they were not. Yet, for three years, they have followed Jesus around, dogging His every step, plotting and planning, with one goal in mind, they wanted to destroy Him. In spite of all that our Lord just said to warn them about doing what they were planning to do, that they would be replaced, their authority of power be taken away and given to someone else, and in spite of Him pronouncing judgment on them, that they would be destroyed, it didn't phase them, they still want Him dead. Now, they're more furious than ever, more determined to find a way to arrest and kill Him, they understood that He spoke the parable against them. The problem is, they’re afraid to do anything because they fear the people. Like or not, and make no mistake, they do not like it, in fact, they hate it, Jesus is calling the shots! They are desperate, in order to make their devious plan successful, the Pharisees needed to make an alliance with the Herodians, they needed them there so they could run to the governor and claim that Jesus was heading up an anti-Roman rebellion. Satan will always seek to form all kinds of alliances against the Truth. As you look around the world, you can certainly see that happening. And, we'll see that here in our text today.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Amen
Today's Message: When Kingdoms Collide
Before we begin, there are some things that I must address, things that God has laid heavily on my heart. I confess, it is very hard for me after years and years of preaching the Gospel, to see the very things that God hates, that God condemns, damning sin being affirmed in His Church, knowing that it's going to send them to hell. Affirming them might make you a nice preacher, a culture friendly popular preacher, but that’s not the call of the pastorate. The responsibility of a faithful pastor is not to deceive them by telling them what they want to hear, but to warn them, by telling them the Truth about what God says about sin as revealed in His Word. As a faithful minister of the Word of God, I’m here to tell you, if you engage in a habitual, on going lifestyle of sin, I don't care whether it's homosexuality, fornication or adultery, pornography, or idolatry, you're not going to heaven, you’re on your way to Hell. If you are in Christ, that's who you once were, not who you are now. Sin, regardless of the type of sin, is not to be blamed on some genetic defect, that's not hate speech, that's just the Truth. Are we then to recognize adulterers, thieves and murders as some kind of a genetic defect? No, Scripture says they are sin, sin that send people to Hell! And, that is the message that the church is called to give to the world, all unredeemed, unforgiven sinners will go to Hell. Jesus makes it clear, the Kingdom of God is exclusive in terms of how you get in, it is not exclusive in terms of what type of people can come in. The church is made up of a redeemed congregation of transformed sinners, who were justified, sanctified and washed clean, which you and I once were. To engage in sexual immorality of any kind is to deny the redemptive work of Christ. It’s to say I don’t care that Christ died for me, I don’t care about the consequences, I’m going to what I want to do!
The emphasis in the church is on packing the pews, superficial conversions and meeting church budgets rather than on godly leadership and preaching the true doctrine. The problems we are witnessing in the church, in the people, are for the most part due to poor leadership. Whatever the leaders are, the people will become. That's why we're seeing so many pastors being exposed, almost daily, for sexual sin, other than meeting the basic qualifications, those who hired them know nothing about their character or integrity. I believe the reason we have so many problems in the church today, is we have lowered the standards for leadership, dangerously below what God requires. As long as someone meets a few basic qualifications, they're off and running, essentially without interference. They are not suitable for leadership in Christ's Church!
I am grieved deeply by those who claim to know God, who claim to speak for Him, would dare to stand in the pulpit and pervert His Word, and live in blatant violation of His Word, advocate that others can do the same, to line their pockets, treating the sacred duty of a ministry scandalously. We are not to be like the rest of the world who pervert, adulterate, manipulate and misuse the Scripture for their own ends. We are to treat the Word of God with the purest integrity and utmost care, not to add to or take away anything from it. When those who claim to represent God play fast and loose with the Truth, deliberately engage in every imaginable gross self-indulgence, whether fleshly indulgence, or material self-indulgence, mishandling God's money, they're not just betraying those they claim to serve but God Himself.
I am heart-broken by some of the heinously skewed messages I have heard in recent weeks, from self-proclaimed biblical scholars and teachers, counseling believers on sin from a non-Christian perspective, but from a humanistic approach to the Gospel. Instead of calling of those who are flippantly engaging in sexual immorality to repentance and righteousness, challenging believers to follow Christ's example, they present a corrupted message, daring to suggest a person can be still be saved while continuing to live as they always have, making a mockery of Christ's redemptive work. That's not what Scripture teaches.
Ephesians 4:17-24 says, "So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
How can any faithful pastor not speak to the heinous sin of innocent, impressionable children mutilating their bodies as a twisted expression of sexual identity that's what is being taught in public schools, and many churches? To say nothing about the eternal consequences? Whatever these false teachers think their silence or affirmation of sin is accomplishing, God's Truth can do better, long after the novelty wears off! I submit to you that in the end, all flesh will die, so the faithful preacher must reprove and rebuke and let the Holy Spirit do His work. If we have been saved, washed by the blood of Christ, our lives must be a reflection of that reality, so let's declare the power of Christ's magnificent transformation in our lives and make an impact in the lives of others, for His glory!
Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Mark chapter 12, verses 13 through 17. Mark 12:13-17. I trust you will follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, as we listen to hear what the Spirit of God has to say to us today.
"Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. They
*came and *said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and
defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of
God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." They brought one. And He *said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar’s." And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." And they were amazed at Him."
Let's look at the motive in verse 13, "Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement." Then they, Mark's talking about the Sanhedrin, they're so completely consumed with their plan to finally trap Jesus, they've sold their soul, there isn't a Pharisee in Israel who would been seen with the Herodians, they hated the Herodians, who were dedicated to Herod Antipas and devoted to Caesar. The truth is, they knew they couldn't pull it off on their own, Jesus had just publicly identified them as religious hypocrites, pronouncing Judgment on them. They needed to get rid of Jesus and at this point, they're willing to align themselves with anyone who is useful to them, even the Herodians. They knew the Romans weren’t going to kill Jesus for His blasphemous statements, they weren’t going to kill Him for ridiculing their false religious practices, Rome wouldn't care about any of that. They would care if He were inciting an insurrection, an open rebellion against Rome, for that, Rome would kill Him! So that’s the plan, to trap Jesus into making anti-Roman political statements, so they can claim He's heading up an anti-Roman rebellion.
Verse 14, let's move from the motive to their well thought out question. "They *came and *said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" You need to understand the word teacher is the Greek noun, "didáskalos," meaning a master of Scripture, concerning the things of God, acknowledged for their competent theology, it's the highest honor you could pay a man. In other words, they're really laying it on thick. They’re very much aware of the fact that people were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. They were also aware that He had never been formally educated, He's never been properly learned from any rabbinic teacher, at least by their standards, yet they still couldn’t get past His stunning ability to preach with authority, not to mention stopping them in their tracks, leaving them speechless.
In John 7:15-16, "The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me."
By the way, I believe that needs to be emphasized, the reason Jesus had authority when He spoke was because He always spoke the Word of God. The Word of God is the source of a preacher’s authority, so that we can speak with authority, commanding people to obey and submit their lives to that which they have heard and believed. That is what all preachers are commanded to do, to teach all people to be obedient to the commands of God and make disciples. That's the Great Commission. That said, we are not commanded to give opinions that comes from the minds of men, that must be silenced. Because the ministry has been corrupted, there are a great many preachers who misunderstand where their authority lies, they imagine they have a right to speak for themselves. Some are so disillusioned they think they have the authority to cast out and bind demons, command angels to act upon their request, and even forgive sin. The greatest example of this would be the Roman Catholic Church, but they're not alone in that. I'll be the first to acknowledge that as senior pastor, I have no authority granted to me to command anybody authoritatively outside the boundaries of Scripture.
Verse 15, "Shall we pay or shall we not pay?," let's stop there. The poll-tax, or census tax, was a specific personal tax on every living individual, if you live, you pay.
There were certain Jewish taxes, like the temple tax, and there were
Romans imposed taxes, like the poll-tax. The Romans provided services,
like streets and roads, they offered protection, they built the aqueduct
which brought water to the people in that area. They also imposed an
income tax on all identified wage earners. Not unlike what Matthew had
previously been doing. They must have thought about this question for a really long time, it's
practically a no brainer, a simple "yes" or "no" answer will put Him right
where they want Him. If He sides with Rome, the people will turn away
from Him, if He sides with the Jews, who felt they were giving to Rome
what was intended for God, He's rebelling against Rome. So they're doing here, is saying "You are a master concerning the things of God; You always tell the truth about everything, and you show no partiality toward anyone, no matter who You're talking to, "Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" You can almost see them patting themselves on the back, congratulating each other. All those things they're saying about Him are true, the issue is their motives for saying them are impure.
Look at the rest of the verse, " But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." Matthew adds, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?" Jesus is not the lease bit intimidated by their question, He’s always truthful, and He tells it exactly like it is, "You hypocrites are testing Me," even though He’s never seen these people before, He sees right through their phony flattery. He's omniscient, He doesn't need anyone to tell Him what was in the heart of a man. They have already made up their minds, since Jesus had claimed to be God, He has to say "We’re being forced to pay this poll tax by Roman oppression, not according to God’s law. So, we shall not pay." Instead, Jesus out smarts them again, turning the tables on them. You would think by now they'd learn, wouldn't you? "Bring Me a denarius to look at." In other words, "Show Me the money!" Some of you may understand that's a reference to the 1996 movie, "Jerry McGuire," starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr., in which Tom Cruise played
a sports agent with only one client, Cuba Gooding, Jr. who played an
NFL receiver that uttered the famous line, "Show me the money!"
There were various kinds of Roman coins, there were copper coins, silver
coins, gold coins, the Roman Senate could mint copper, and only the
emperor could mint silver and gold. A denarius was a silver coin, used between 300 B.C. and 300 A.D., with the image of Tiberius Caesar on it, and read, "Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus" and "High Priest." On the other side of the coin, it would have a picture of Livia, the mother of Tiberius, the inscription would have said "Pontifex Maximus," a title the Pope now wears by the way.
The Jewish people believed it was a sin for a coin to bear an image, a violation of the second commandment which says to not have any graven images, because only God is Divine, so they carried coins with no image on them, I mention this because Jews wouldn’t have carried that coin, so they would have had to find one. You can just imagine then scurrying through the crowds looking for a denarius, convinced they had Him trapped, they wouldn’t have been able to find one fast enough. Which they obviously did.
Verse 16, "They brought one. And He *said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar’s." That's it, Tiberius Caesar designated himself as the son of the divine, Jesus has to see this as blasphemy, and when He does, the Romans would take Him and execute Him. Problem solved! They're probably unable to contain their enthusiasm, but Jesus had no interest starting an insurrection, or overthrowing the Roman government.
That brings us to verse 17, "And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." And they were amazed at Him." Wait? What! That's genius! You've really got to hand it to Jesus, I absolutely love His divine wisdom, they never imagined He'd say "Pay the tax, and give God the things that are God’s," satisfying the governmental obligation without compromising the devotion that is due to God. Don't miss what Jesus is teaching here, we must obey government, because government is an institution of God.
You may not like our government, but all government is ordained by God
for the protection of the good, the punishment of the evil. Even poor
government is better than none. To resist obeying the government is a
sin, because you’re resisting God who ordained the government. The exception to that rule of course is if the government oversteps their bounds, demanding you to do or not something that God forbids or commands, then you must do as Peter said in Acts 5, "We must obey God rather than men." Prayer will accomplish far more than all the protests we can organize. In fact, Scripture commands us to pray our government officials, local, national and international. Praying for them makes good sense, after all, their decisions have an impact on our lives. I believe the church has it's priorities mixed up, our loyalty is to our Lord, Jesus Christ, not political or social issues.
So what do we owe God? You owe Him all of you. Mark 12:30, says "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." So give the coin that bears the image of Caesar to the government and give God what bears His image, you!
I have spent a great deal of time with many people who were nearing their final moments on this earth, and I've never heard a single one say to me, "I wish I had more money." But I have heard many of them say, "If I had known that giving my life
to Christ would have brought me so much joy and contentment, I would
have given Him my life sooner!"
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2023 All Rights Reserved
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2023 All Rights Reserved