What Belongs to God and to Man
Notes
Transcript
Render unto God what is God’s, and to Caesar what is His....
Render unto God what is God’s, and to Caesar what is His....
Good morning every one, I hope and pray you all are doing well.
How wonderful it is that we have the joy of gathering together as the body of Christ.
This practice is one of the most fundamental privileges of a born again believer. It is not that we have to come together, NO! We get too!
Did you hear that… We get too worship together. What a blessing my friends.
This time is one of the many practices where in we give back to God what truly is His, worship!
Worship belongs to God and to no one else.
But the truth is people worship many other things, we worship our homes, vehicles, our jobs and even our families… But are any of those things worthy of worship, No, heaven No!
But yet our loyalty to God goes out the window at times because we worship the creation instead of the creator. So the challenge of every day of life is render unto God what is His and unto man what is His...
So this morning lets look Matthew 22:15-22
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
So again, remember this is during the last week of Jesus life, we are just a few days from the cross, Jesus is spending a great deal of time teaching in the temple areas.
The crowds are following and listening to Him, and the religious listen as well, but in reality they are hoping for a way to accuse Him, entrap Him and arrest Him.
So lets break this passage down my friends… And this morning I will share 3 thoughts with you as we walk through this passage.
1. An Evil Question.....
Now for the most part, the religious leaders are trying to hurt Jesus. Now, not all the religious leaders are bad, you have a few that are His disciples even if they do so very privately. Nicodemus, that Jesus speaks with in John 3 is one such example.
But as I said most, have malicious intentions. On this day some approach Jesus, but they are not alone. These religious leaders are accompanied with Herodians
Herodians are Jews, a small group of Jewish people, but they are loyal to Herod and his family. They were at peace with the invaders and saw the paying of taxes as an appropriate way to be fulfill their responsibility as good citizens. Most of the Jews would have considered them traitors, evil sinful people
So really at any other time, these two groups would be in opposition to one another, but today they have joined forces if you will to try and entrap Jesus.
So they approach Jesus this day as He taught in the temple area…
And listen to these leaders....
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.
They are smooth talkers, charmers, thinking they can put Jesus as ease as they speak to him with flattery. But Jesus knew their heart.
So they address Jesus as Teacher, they are being polite but the title they give him is a little lacking, but they say hey, Teacher, we know you are a person of integrity, your are not swayed by others, you teach the true way of God. Hey we know you are faithful and true…
So answer this question, we really want to know the answer to this… and here it is verse 17.
Verse 17
17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
Geee, this is a evil question my friends, they are hoping to trap Jesus for If he answers in the affirmative, well the Jews would say He is a traitor and promotes those things the law rejects....
And if he answered in the negative, well the Herodians would saw, you don’t obey the law of the land and you are guilty.
So it was an evil question, one they designed in hopes of trapping Jesus and thus getting Him out of the way...
Friends, here is the truth, if their question is evil, if the intent is evil, if the plan or thought is evil, then they are evil… amen
My friends they are evil because they are children of the evil one, they care nothing about what is right or good, they just care for themselves.
When you encounter people like this, understand whose way they are following. And whose they really belong too.
And it encourages us to be careful and make sure our ways, attitudes and thoughts are good, pure and right. That they are godly and nothing of any kind of malice is in them.
Examine your heart
It is easy in a world filled with negativity to become that way. we are upset over rising prices, we are upset a injustice, we are upset in many things we see, but dont allow your heart to be trapped in your emotions,
Instead look to Jesus. He will take care of His children.
This brings us to our second thought....
2. Challenge Issued...
One of the saddest things I see when we examine passages like this is the truth that Jesus knew their hearts and their treachery, the evil within those hearts.
I want to also remind you that God knows our heart as well my friends. Make sure that you are right before Him and the beginning of each new day and also before you lie down at night.
Now, as Jesus begins to speak to them, the first thing our Lord does speak to them about there actions.
Look at verse 18
18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
Their insincerity, - they flatter with one sentence and try to trap him with a question with the next simply frames them for who they truly are… Jesus refers to them as “hypocrites.”
Now Jesus will use this word more than once when dealing with the religious leaders, the word Hypocrite is a word that speaks to those who were actors.
They didn’t have costumes or or fancy things to hide who the characters where, they simply had a mask on a stick, and they would have one up for one character and yet without it, they were someone else. a deceiver or pretender
The religious leaders appear nice, the very essence of piety.. but in truth, their hearts are wicked.
Do you see his challenge to their actions...
Jesus asked them, “Why do you put me to the test...”
What does that mean?
Putting God to the test means that you are demanding God prove himself, prove that He is trustworthy, to justify Himself, the Creator to the creation...
When you think of putting God to the test, understand Jesus is pushing them to think about their own religious history.
If you think back to the book of Exodus, chapter 17 the children of Israel are moving in the wilderness and they come to Rephidim, and there is no water there.
So what do the children if Israel do, they murmur, they complain and they start on Moses .... and in doing so put God to the test…
They didn’t trust God, they forgot He had taken care of them, delivered them and provided for them at every turn, but suddenly they thought …oh, we have no water, we will never have water … what will we do....
God already had the plan, he had provided their own private water source, no digging, no filtration system… God would give them water from the rock.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds his people to not put God to the test in Deut 6:16,
Jesus will remind the devil not to put the Lord your God to the test.... during the temptation of the wilderness in Matthew 4:7
Friends, it will always come down to a challenge in our lives....
What is it?
Do you trust God or not, Do you believe He is faithful or not?
You see we cannot live as if we believe He will take care of our life when we are complaining about our existence, our life, our provision, our needs as if He cannot take care of any of it.
We either believe He will or He will not...
And that applies not only to you as a believer, but it also applies to us as a church.
We have been challenged , I’m talking about us and the church universal, we have been handicapped by a pandemic, but guess what…it’s not going away, BUT we still have to be the church.
We still have work to do, we still have a message to bear, we still have hope to share and love to extend… and we might have to modify our strategy at times, our efforts but never our purposes.
The same God who is able to take care of you and I will take care of the church, so God is calling us to be the church.
The challenge is simple....
Are we gonna be the Church of the living God or are we gonna be the complaining children of Israel, living in doubt and frustration.
What do you believe about God my friends?
What do you believe?
Listen what you truly believe about God determines everything!
This friends, brings us back to one last thought… you ready.
3. A Call for Loyalty...
If there is one thing I can tell you that God desires and also expects from us, it’s our loyalty.
When we think of loyalty, there are several things we could describe. But at the very core is this… We are His and no one else’s
What does that mean… It means we are fully His, we belong to Him, He is our God and we are His people and if that is true, we will serve Him and be a good citizen modeling His ways were He plants us.
The religious leaders came to Jesus with a question hoping to entrap him. The question they asked as we have mentioned is this "...Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”..verse 17.
So tell us, are you loyal to God or are you loyal to Caesar? Which is it????
Friends, what we are about to learn is this… being a responsible citizen in the land we live should impact our loyalty to God, especially in matters that do not involve ethical or moral decisions.
Listen to what Jesus says here....
17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
Upon hearing their evil question Jesus tells them to show him the coin they would pay Caesar’s tax with...
So they showed him a denarius. Now the denarius is the coin of Roman currency,, and it was commonly the value of a days wage. Now the Roman currency bore the likeness of the current Caesar who ruled in Rome and it different from Jewish coins of the day.
The Jewish coins did not have any person represented on it, not even something that would represent God because of Exodus 20, verse 3-5
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
So their coins bore the image of wheat, a simple plant that would represent the nation. So here is what made Israel so mad about the whole process,
Here is a couple reasons....
A. They (Jews) didn't like having to pay taxes, in truth over 2000 years later and no one likes paying taxes.... But the Jewish people hated having to pay for the Roman force that was there to keep them safe… in honestly to keep them under Rome’s thumb.
B. And they certainly didn’t like having to convert their money, into a roman currency. they always felt cheated in those exchanges....and they felt like idolaters handling it.
Israel hated this… But some like the Herodians were ok with it, for their loyalty was to Herod
So getting back to our passage, Jesus asked them to show him a coin and upon seeing the coin, Jesus asks them one question. Verse 20..
20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
Their reply came in verse 22, it is just as simple...
21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Did you hear that...
Jesus says give unto Caesar what is his , and to God’s what belongs to Him.
Literally this is what Jesus is saying… You want to know who has the ultimate authority.... well
God’s sovereignty must be acknowledged but human governments have a legitimate authority as well.
So the word “give” means to pay back, pay back that which is rightly due....
As a child of God we are to pay the full amount of our taxes, you know why? Not not because you will go to jail if you do not...
No, if God is the one who has established that government, if God has brought them to power and we know that God is the one who places every person and power according to the fulfillment of His will
If God has placed it then to not pay your taxes would be a sin against God.
Think about that for a minute...
Give to God what is His and to Caesar what is his… in both you are honoring and living correctly in front of the Lord your God.
Honor God with your life…in every way..
God has established the governments that we may or may not like, our Job is to honor those God has set in authority. when we do that we honor God.
So we cannot say these things we see all the time about Joe Biden, we may not like him, but God says honor the office.
Pray for him, pray for direction, decrement and strength. Maybe the next election will be different.
But no matter, God is in control, Give unto man what is His and to God what rightfully belongs to God.
So this morning...
Do you need to repent about a attitude you have allowd to harbor in your heart.
Is God calling you to serve Him, maybe part time, maybe full time vocation. Let God be God in YOu..
Maybe you have a prayer need you would like us to pray for, privately or as the church.
come..
Give it all to Jesus today!