The Road to the Resurrection -- Message 4 -- The Silencing of the Cynics

Introduction

Good morning Church.

Today, we’re going to be continuing on in our Series “The Road to the Resurrection” and we will be looking at Message # 4 entitled “The Silencing of the Cynics.”

Just to quickly recap, over the last few weeks we have been soaking in this same day.

To say it was a busy day is an understatement.

We started this day with Jesus and His disciples returning to Jerusalem and the condemning of the fig tree.

Then, when Jesus and His disciples returned to the city, Jesus was approached by some of the chief priests and elders of the people and they questioned Him asking by what authority He was doing the things He was doing.

Up to this point, Jesus had cleansed the temple, healed some sick people and began teaching others.

The elders and chief priests didn’t like this so they wanted to know who had given Jesus the authority to act in such a manner.

Little did they know, He was the authority, amen!

It’s at this moment that Jesus turns the tide and begins questioning the questioners.

The problem was, they didn’t like His questions nor the parables He put forth as they assumed they were about them and their assumptions were spot on.

Today, we’re going to see the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians mount a counter offensive attack against Jesus but as we will see in the end, Jesus silences the Cynics for good.

With no further ado, if you have your Bibles turned to Matthew 22:15 would you say, amen.

A Question about Money — (Vs. 15-22)

Alright, the first thing I want us to look at this morning is a situation in which a group of Pharisaic disciples and Herodians question Jesus about Money.

Now, in order to understand what’s taking place here it helps to understand the day and time in which we are talking.

Palestine was occupied at this point and time by Rome meaning they were under the thumb if you will of Roman rule.

Whatever Rome said, went.

And you have here this group of Pharisaic disciples, not the Pharisees themselves but their disciples and a group of Herodians.

Now, the Herodians were a Jewish political party who were loyalists to the Herodian dynasty and therefore ultimately were ok with Rome’s occupation seeing as it was Rome who set the Herods up with their positions of power.

Now, you may be wondering what all this has to do with the message but here’s why.

The Pharisees were orthodox Jews who could not stand the occupation of Rome. They hated being under the thumb of Roman rule and especially paying Roman taxes.

On the other hand, you had the Herodians who were loyalists to Herod and were fine with paying taxes to Rome.

Now, this is probably the reason the Pharisees sent their disciples instead of coming themselves because they couldn’t stand the thought of partnering with the Herodians but at this point they were willing to compromise in some respect to do whatever it took to get this man named Jesus out of their way!

So, they partner with their foes, the enemy of my enemy is my best friend, and they come together to try and trip Jesus up and trap Him with a question they just knew was going to get Him in hot water with either Rome or the public.

They ask Jesus, “is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

The Pharisees felt that since God was the true King they should not pay taxes to any king set up by man.

On the other hand, the Herodians felt that taxes were a must and were fine with it so in both of their minds, no matter how Jesus answered this question they would have Him!

If He said, no you shouldn’t have to pay taxes to Caesar, then the Herodians would run and tell Herod which would then have Jesus arrested for revolt and if He said that you should pay taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees felt that would discredit His claims of being the Messiah amongst the people.

In their eyes they had set up the perfect trap!

This one was a slam dunk!

The part they didn’t account for was the fact that Jesus was indeed the true Messiah and therefore knew what they were going to do before they even did it would have the perfect response to their question!

Look what happens next.

Matthew 22:18 NLT

18 But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Why are you trying to trap me?

“KJV — Jesus perceived their wickedness”

The word “knew” used here is the Greek word...(ginōskō) — and it means "to know by experience and observation,"

This wasn’t the first time they had tried trip Jesus up. He had been in these situations before. He had plenty of experience dealing with their types. This was just another walk in the park to Him and the response He gives is “timeless!”

Look at what He says...

“You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?”

Now, the reason He calls them hypocrites is because of how they approached Him.

Look back at Verse 16.

Matthew 22:16 NLT

16 They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites.

They showered Jesus with praises before trying to trip Him up!

“We know how honest you are and that you teach the way of God truthfully. We know you are impartial and don’t play favorites.”

They were trying to soften the blow and mask the true reason behind their question but Jesus saw right through it!

“You bunch of hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me?”

Then He puts the nail in the coffin.

Matthew 22:19–22 NLT

19 Here, show me the coin used for the tax.” When they handed him a Roman coin, 20 he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” 22 His reply amazed them, and they went away.

Don’t you just love this about Jesus?

Aren’t you glad this morning that nothing catches Jesus off guard?

He says in the calmest reply, “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”

Boom! Like this was one of those “mic drop” moments where afterwards these disciples and Herodians are just standing there staring at each other speechless wondering what to do next.

The question of the hour is… “now what?”

Their plan had backfired! Their trap had failed!

And then look what Matthew says next...

Matthew 22:22 NLT

22 His reply amazed them, and they went away.

The word of the hour was no word at all!

They were speechless and the only thing left for them to do was simply leave!

Now, what’s the teaching aspect of this section?

I think there’s two.

Sometimes life catches us off guard. Something happens unexpectedly that we didn’t plan on and we don’t know how to respond. We get bad news that we didn’t know was coming. We lose our job out of nowhere. Health issues arise unexpectedly.

Whatever the case is, we can often be caught off guard by the things of this world.

The key is to remember that nothing catches the God we serve off guard!

When things get out of our control, we must remember they are still under His control!

One writer said one time, “what’s over our head is under His feet!”

And we’d do well to remember that.

If something isn’t going your way this morning, remember, God is still on His throne and He’s still in control.

Take your problems to Him and allow Him to help you with it!

“Render unto Caesar’s what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s .

As Christian’s we must remember that we have to live in this world but we aren’t of this world.

We long for our heavenly home that awaits us up yonder by and by.

While here, we must make the best of this life we’ve been given but we must do it with an eternal perspective in mind.

Every day we must live with a Heavenly mindset knowing that the best is yet to come.

Knowing that one day this too shall pass.

While we’re here, we live our lives unto God in everything we do.

We let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our God which is in Heaven! Matt 5:16

Now that we’ve looked at their Question about Money. Let’s move on to another groups Question about Marriage.

A Question about Marriage — (Vs. 23-33)

Now we have making their way up to the batter’s box the group called Sadducees.

William Barclay writes, The Sadducees were not many in number; but they were the wealthy, the aristocratic and the governing class. The chief priests, for instance, were Sadducees. In politics, they were collaborationists, quite ready to co-operate with the Roman government if co-operation was the price of the retention of their own privileges. In thought, they were quite ready to open their minds to Greek ideas. In their Jewish belief, they were traditionalists. They refused to accept the oral and scribal law, which to the Pharisees was of such paramount importance. They went even further; the only part of Scripture which they regarded as binding was the Pentateuch, the law par excellence, the first five books of the Old Testament. They did not accept the prophets or the poetical books as Scripture at all. In particular, they were at variance with the Pharisees in that they completely denied any life after death, a belief on which the Pharisees insisted.

So, we have here this group of Sadducees who have come to try their hand and tripping up our Lord and I find this question most ironic seeing as they ask a question about the resurrection when they didn’t even believe in the resurrection.

The only thing that makes sense in my mind is that they believed by asking this question, they would prove that there was no resurrection thereby discrediting Jesus and the Pharisees at the same time.

Again, the part they didn’t count on is the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh and knew what lie after this life because He created it!

These Sadducees begin by asking Jesus a question concerning the resurrection and a command from the law of Moses.

The law they were questioning comes from...

Deuteronomy 25:5 KJV 1900

5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.

So basically, if a man dies without children, his brother is to take his wife and marry her and have children with her to carry on his brother’s lineage.

The Sadducees take this command and ask Jesus, if this be the case and there are 7 brothers that do this, then who’s wife is she in the resurrection?

Jesus begins His defense by telling them that their biggest mistake is that they don’t know the law or the power of the God they served!

Whap!

This first statement had to make their blood boil!

I mean He’s basically calling them out on their understanding of the scriptures and their relationship with the God they claim to serve!

“In the resurrection, there will be no marrying or giving in marriage. In this respect, they will be like the angels in Heaven.”

Now, I’m sure there’s a lot of rabbit holes we could go down here but I just simply want to say this about Jesus comment here....

When we get to heaven, the only thing that’s going to matter is fact that we’re going to spend all eternity worshiping and adoring the one who gave His life for our sins!

We’re going to be so enamored by our Lord Jesus that the last thing on our mind is going to be who we’re married to.

And before you go getting all sad and sappy on me what you need to know is that everyone else is going to have the same mentality.

John Phillips writes, In the resurrection we will be like the unfallen angels. They have no need or desire for marriage. We will be as immortal as the angels. Being immortal, they have no need or desire to propagate their kind. Marriage, ordained of God for the propagation of the species down here, will no longer be a part of life in the resurrection. We will no longer be subject to human wants or passions. We will never get tired, never get hungry, never grow old, never be tempted. The age-long conflict of spirit and flesh will be over forever. In the resurrection we will certainly know each other and love each other, but the marriage relationship and all that it implies will be no more.

Paul gives us a glimpse into this in the Book of...

1 Corinthians 15:42–49 KJV 1900

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

We’re going to spend eternity getting to know the one face to face whom we’ve only ever known heart to heart.

And the more we get to know Him, the more we’re going to want to worship Him and the more we worship Him the less we’re going to worry about anything else!

All of our attention will be focused right were it needs to be and nothing else in all of eternity is going to matter!

After this, Jesus puts the nail in the coffin of this conversation.

He says,

Matthew 22:31–32 NLT

31 “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”

Jesus, with one comment, destroys the Sadducees theology here.

William Barclay writes, God cannot be the God of the dead and of decaying corpses. The living God must be the God of the living. The Sadducean case was shattered. Jesus had done what the wisest Rabbis had never been able to do. Out of Scripture itself, he had proved the Sadducees to be wrong and had shown them that there is a life after death which must not be thought of in earthly terms.

Round # 2…different opponent but same outcome. A knockout!

The Bible says, “When the crowds heard Him they were astounded at His teaching!”

The second cynic has now been silenced…only one left.

Now, before we move on to the last cynic I just want to say, there are still some people even today who think we just live to die and what little time we’re afforded here on this earth is it.

Can I just ask all those with that mentality one question?

What’s the point?

What’s the point of just living to die?

What’s the point of life in general?

Paul said in...

1 Corinthians 15:16–22 KJV 1900

16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

There is more to existence than just this life! And if you are having trouble seeing that this morning, then you need to meet this man named Jesus we’ve been talking about and let Him give you a new eternal perspective on this lease we call life!

We’ve seen a question about money, a question about marriage and finally this morning we are going to see the final cynic silenced with a question about the law of Moses.

A Question about the Law of Moses — (Vs. 34-40)

The Pharisees, after seeing how Christ had silenced the Sadducees, said to themselves… “let’s give it one last go here to see if we can trip Him up.”

The problem with trying to trip Jesus up on the Law of Moses is that He knew the Law better than they did!

What may have been a perplexing question for most, Jesus made light work of in the simplest of ways!

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

I can just see Jesus in His response… “ugh, that’s easy!”

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

I mean how do you argue with that?

613 laws drilled down to two!

Undoubtedly, they thought they would trip Jesus up with their being so many laws they tried to go by but Jesus deflates their egos by consolidating all 613 laws into two!

First and foremost, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind!

And secondly, love your neighbor as yourself.

I want to ask you something this morning… how are you doing on these two commandments?

Do you love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind?

Do you give Him the priority in your life that He deserves?

Does He come before everything else?

If not, then friend your priorities are out of place and you need to do something about it.

And number two, how are you treating your neighbors?

The ones who live beside you; the ones who work beside you; the ones who sit in front of, behind, and beside you at Church?

Are you treating them the way you’d like to be treated?

I want you to think of something, if you were to visit a Church, how would you like to be treated?

Would you like to be greeted?

Would you like for members to come up and say hi?

Would you like for someone to tell you, “hey, we’re glad you joined us today!”

Those are probably things you’d like to experience if you visited a Church don’t you think?

Let me ask you something....how did you treat our visitors we have here today?

Did you welcome them? Did you thank them coming?

You see, if we’d all just simply treat others the way we like to be treated, this world would be a lot better place.

Jesus finishes out His silencing of the cynics with one final blow of His own to put the naysayers to rest.

A question about the Messiah.

A Question about the Messiah — (Vs. 41-46)

The reference Jesus quotes here comes from Psalm 110:1

Psalm 110:1 KJV 1900

1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Everyone expected the Messiah to come from the lineage of David and to be a prince who would overthrow the oppression of Rome and set Israel free from all of it’s enemies.

The problem with that was the fact they were only thinking with an earthly mindset.

What Jesus was trying to get the people here to understand is that the Messiahship went much further than that.

William Barclay said — It is not enough to think of him as a prince of David’s line and an earthly conqueror. You must go beyond that, for the Messiah is David’s lord.’ What did Jesus mean? He can have meant only one thing—that the true description of him is Son of God. Son of David is not an adequate title; only Son of God will do.

David won many battles as a king and was one of the greatest warriors of his day but the Messiah wasn’t coming to fight the same battles David fought.

He came to fight a battle only God could fight!

He came to battle death!

And praise be to God this morning that our Lord Jesus Christ fought that battle and won that war, amen!

He rose from the grave on that 3rd and glorious morning and now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for all those who call upon His name!

Have you done that this morning?

Is Jesus YOUR Messiah?

If not, what’s holding you back from trusting in Him?

If the grave could not hold Him and death could not defeat Him, then what is it that’s got you afraid to trust in Him today?

He is the creator and sustainer of life and not just any life, but an abundant life!

If you think life is good now, just wait until you experience a life with Christ, amen!

It’s the greatest decision you could ever make!