Sermon Tone Analysis

I. In God we trust?

I.

In God we trust?

A. Is our trust in God, or in the government?

Illus: Think for a monent about the plight of the people of Israel.

1.

They were a conquered nation.

Throughout their history their identity was that God’s nation and all of a sudden they were the door mat of empire after empire.

2.

Not only were they a conquered nation, God had not spoke for four hundred years.

Not only did they not hear from God, God’s voice was a distant memory to them.

3.

They were crippled by tax.

Most Judeans payed around 40% of their income to the Roman authorities.

If a tax collector could squeeze more, he would.

4.

Even in taxation they were forced to use the denarius, a coin which held Caesar’s picture and stated “Tiberius Caesar Agustus, Son of the Divine Augustus” on one side and on the other Tiberius’ picture stating “Pontifex Maximus” (Chief Priest).

For any good Jew, taxation was abhorrent and in direct opposition to following God.

Taxes were paid, but through gritted teeth.

The pharisees brought this question to Jesus while the Herodians (roman loyalists, traitors to the Jews), were in the crowd to attempt to either turn the crowd against Jesus or paint Jesus as a revolutionary destined for trial and death.

Take a moment and think with me about the way we interact with our government.

We tend to follow the false dichotomy set up be the pharisees.

Depending on who is in office we either say “God’s laws superceed human laws” or “We must honor and respect God’s man”.

It really depends on who is in office.

In 2008 when President Obama was elected, it seemed like all hope was taken from many evangelical voters.

I heard “Well, we are no longer a christian nation” and a general despair that God was no longer in control of the United States.

In 2016 when President Trump was elected, evangelical voters had the opposite reaction.

Christians who never asked to pray for the president turned and said, “we must pray for our president” and “we must support God’s man”.

There is a contradiction in the way we approach government, if we understand Scripture, God places every ruler in his place.

God has reigned over America no matter the president and we are called to respect every leader whether we agree with them or not.

Why, because our faith in God needs to be bigger than our political loyalty.

God is working through both just and unjust rulers to accomplish a bigger purpose that our small political agendas.

God raised up Nebuchadnezzar, deported and imprisoned the young men of Israel, and then gave Nebuchadnezzar the mind of an animal to show He alone was in charge.

Here are Daniel’s words.

B. Does faith end at the ballot box?

Illus: Also within the crowd was a group called the Zealots.

These were men who often carried a long knife under their robes with the intent to stab any roman soldier they could.

The goal of the pharisees and herodians was to push Jesus into the roman loyalist camp or the zealot camp.

Either way he would lose.

The Zealots had lost faith that God would work so they saw it as their responsibility to make Israel God’s nation again.

You can be zealous for God and faithless at the same time.

When your political party loses do you feel despair?

In the coming election, do you feel a desperation that if your party does not win, then all hell will break loose?

This shows the idolatry of politics in our lives.

When it comes to our nation we do not trust God.

As Jesus placed Tiberius over Rome and placed Rome over Isreal, Jesus knew what he was doing.

Faith in God is not faith to win an election.

Faith in God is faith that God is in control and that God’s man can be a pagan Caesar or a wicked president.

II.

In God’s authority we trust?

A. God is in charge, and his hand is over all governments.

Illus: God has created and established governments.

Every government is established and runs under God’s authority.

When Jesus says, give to Caesar what is Caesar is is a statement about how God has placed civic authorities above us.

Whether we agree with them or not.

The grand governments of this world are pawns in the hands of the almighty God.

Jesus confronted the zealots in the crowd (many of whom were his followers) to show that his purpose on this earth was not to lead a political revolution.

Instead called people to a submission to the government which taxed them to poverty and oppressed them… because God was doing something far greater than a political coup.

It is easy to speak well of the political representatives we agree with.

That is not all the bible calls us to.

We are called to give to caesar what is caesar.

Look at how paul apply’s Jesus teaching:

B. Submission and honor to the government is a way we worship.

Illus: Let’s be clear, we do not worship the government, but part of our obedience of God and worship of Him is the way we interact with the government he has placed over us.

When we say give to God the things that are God’s, what does not belong to God? Including governments?

Our respect to the police, taxman, congressmen, aldermen, president and every official God has placed over us is part of the way we give to God what it God.

Respect and honor to politicians that we disagree with show our faith in God.

Respect and honor to politicians that we disagree with is a witness to the world.

There should be no room for political slander in the christian life.

When we resort to slander, hopelessness, sharing foolishness , embracing political gossip, and such we dishonor God and ruin our witness.

B.

III.

In God we trust fully?

A. Does the way you respond to government show that you genuinely trust God?

Illus: God sits on the throne.

He will sit on the throne if your political candidate wins, and he will sit on the throne if your political candidate loses.

God sits on the throne when the supreem court rules in your favor, and He sits on the throne when they rule against you.

God sits on the throne over congress, and He sits on the throne the senate.

Is your faith in God great enough to see his dominion over our nation.

Is your faith in God great enough to trust in the gospel over politics.

When people look at the way you interact with politics, do they see your faith in God, your faith in the gospel, or do they see a faithless and hopeless idolatry of politics?

Expository Sermon Preparation |

This passage was chosen because it was next in the line of verse by verse through the book of Mark

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I chose to preach the pericope in order to teach the entire story from the text.

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Within the direct context of this story, Jesus had cursed the fig tree, turned over tables in the synagogue, been challenged by the Sanhedrin, and spoken the parable of the vineyard.

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Up unto this point the scribes and pharisees could not trap Jesus in a argument... I.E. the question of John the Baptist.

If they could not win on religious grounds, they looked for a way to trap Jesus on governmental grounds.

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Themes: Citizenship: Jesus builds the idea of how a believer can be both citizen of the kingdom of God as well as a citizen in the kingdom of a man.

Discernment: Jesus was able to see beyond the arguments of the Herodians to the true questions underneath.

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Preliminary Main Idea: Jesus did not allow himself to be falsly crucified as a political zealut, but instead defined how one might live in respect to a human authority while at the same time obedient to the Eternal Authority.

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Basic Facts:

HERODIANS (Ἡρῳδιανοί, Hērōdianoi).

A Jewish political party that sympathized with the rulers of the Herodian dynasty, and therefore Rome.

They are depicted as allied with the Pharisees against Jesus, in spite of the parties’ conflicting sympathies (; ; ).

Major Contributors and Editors.

(2016).

Herodians.

In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.),

The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

PHARISEES (Φαρισαῖος, Pharisaios).

Members of a Jewish party that exercised strict piety according to Mosaic law.

The Pharisees were a sect within early Judaism, becoming active around 150 BC and enduring as a distinct party until being subsumed into the Rabbinic movement around AD 135.

Although the origin of the Pharisees is disputed (they may date as far back as the period of resettlement in Palestine following Babylonian exile), the group appears to have become the primary voice of Judaism following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70.

The Pharisees developed a tradition of strict interpretation of the Mosaic law, developing an extensive set of oral extensions of the law designed to maintain religious identity and purity.Johnson, B. T. (2016).