Jesus escapes another trap, teaching how we must pay due honor to the government, and our entire life to God.
And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
It's certainly true that Jesus has a knack for bringing people together. As I look around this room, perhaps you look around this room, you see different people, perhaps coming from different places in the country or even in the world, different experiences, different perspectives. You don't perhaps even realize, though, being your pastor, maybe I know a little bit more of how different you all are from each other and how bizarre it is that you're willing to give up an hour and a half plus of your time on a Sunday morning to sit together, to sing together, and to hear me speak to you all.
Jesus brings people together, and it was no different in his earthly ministry. Jesus now ascended into heaven after his earthly ministry, and Mark's gospel, as we've already seen, had a knack for drawing large crowds: people from Galilee, the Gentile Decapolis, and Samaria. He drew together his disciples, this ragtag band of 12 followers, which included, among those ranks, not just Peter, James, and John, the inner three circle, but also a man by the name of Matthew, who was a despised and despicable tax collector, one whom even a Jewish man, whom even the Jews would have avoided.
And at the same time, a man whom we're told is named in Mark's gospel, Simon the Zealot, not Simon Peter, a different Simon, Simon the Zealot. And why am I mentioning Simon the Zealot? Particularly, I think it's interesting that Jesus draws Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector together, because if anyone in all of Judea, Jerusalem, Galilee, and the ancient world would have hated each other, it would have been a tax collector and a zealot. You need to understand a little bit of the context about taxes in the ancient world, particularly among the Jews.
The Jews at this time were under the Roman Empire. And this was a situation the Jews were getting used to. They had been occupied before.
They were occupied by the Babylonians. Prior to them, the Northern Kingdom, then the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans. They were occupied.
And as occupying forces often do, they imposed strictures and restrictions on the people, and also levied taxes. They levied taxes. And so at some point, you find in the history of the Jewish people, in fact, just a few years after Jesus was born, roughly, we find a series of revolts among the Jewish people, including revolts that are staged by a group of people called the zealots.
Now, why are the zealots so zealous? Why are they so angry? Well, you could lift off a number of things. They believed that the Romans were impious, certainly pagan, certainly blasphemous. They believed that they should not be under the rule and thumb of these pagan peoples.
One particularly painful issue for the zealots was the levying of the poll tax, the head tax, and the one denarius tax. This was a tax they were to pay. It wasn't a significant payment.
It wasn't a significant tax, I should say, but it was a tax nonetheless. It didn't go to the temple. It didn't go to the local governors.
It didn't go toward building wells, roads, or anything like that. It simply went to Rome as a constant reminder that you belong to us. We own you.
And the zealots hated this. And it was Matthew's job to collect this, this tax, this poll tax. So the zealots hated this.
In fact, shortly after Jesus' birth, a man named Judas of Galilee staged a revolt. In fact, Luke tells us about this man in Acts 5. Josephus tells us about this man, Judas of Galilee. He was a zealot like Simon.
And he, perhaps like twisted sister as of old, was shouting to the Romans, " We're not gonna take it. We're not gonna take it anymore. And so they staged a revolt.
Now things don't go so well for Judas as you can imagine. You're a small guy going up against the Roman Empire. So he ends up being brutally tortured and murdered, as do all of his followers.
And the movement, the zealot movement, falls to naught. But the zealots still maintained a presence among the Jewish people. They were one of the four major players, you might say, among the Jewish people at the time.
The four being the zealots, the Essenes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. And the Herodians are in there too. We'll talk about them in a moment.
But in any event, Jesus bringing Matthew and Simon the zealot together is quite a bizarre circumstance. In fact, these two men who should have, by all outward rights, hated each other, now find themselves serving alongside each other in allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus brings other kinds of people together, too.
He doesn't just unite those who would follow after him. He also unites those who despise him. Back to the Pharisees.
Remember, the Pharisees have been fighting against Jesus. In fact, Mark is keen to remind us repeatedly that they have been coming to Jesus to test him, to try him out, and try to find a way to undo him, to destroy him. And we've just seen an event, as this is Tuesday of Holy Week.
Again, it's a very long Tuesday. Jesus is teaching in the temple. The council, which included some Pharisees, had come to Jesus and were challenging him.
They were trying to find a way to undo him, to destroy him, to stop his ministry. They hated him because he claimed to be God, because he claimed to have the rights and authorities of God, because he told them that they were not the most important thing. And they hated him for these things.
So the Jews, the Jewish leaders, I should say, the Sanhedrin, the council, have confronted Jesus once, and he turned it around on them. Why, what authority do you have to do these things? He asks them a question about John the Baptist. Again, Jesus goes on the offensive, telling a parable of the tenants in the vineyard and showing this council that they are wicked tenants.
They've been entrusted by God to care for the people. And instead, they've been holding onto the goods for themselves, and they have not been giving God his due. Well, now we come to the third conflict.
You imagine the scene, the council retreats, but it's the same day Jesus is there still teaching in the temple. And so they sent a group of Pharisees. Perhaps this is not the same Pharisees who confronted him at first among the council.
This is another group of Pharisees, maybe a very intelligent group of Pharisees, very conniving, but they have friends. And this is the astounding thing. The friends they bring with them are Herodians.
Now, why do I say this is astounding? Well, I didn't list the Herodians in that group of four because they're a bit of a subset. They're not a religious sect. They're a political action committee, you might say.
They are Jews who support King Herod. They were liberal theologically. In fact, you might say they were a bit wishy-washy.
They didn't care about following the Torah and the oral Torah as the Pharisees did. And you can imagine how if these political junkies, so-called, who love to serve Herod, the Pharisees, no friends of Herod, somehow come to meet with the Pharisees, there must be something to unite them together. Pharisees are religious conservatives.
Herodians are really not interested in the Bible at all. They want to serve Herod. They want to do what they think will advance or achieve their political ends.
And yet somehow they're united on this front. It's like if you could say that AOC and Donald Trump just came to your door and they said, " Hey, we've got something we want to ask you. You'd say, " This is an interesting group.
I didn't expect this. Why are you at my door? This is the kind of bizarre dissonance we should note as Mark tells us the Herodians and the Pharisees are working together. It's not the first time.
In fact, back in Mark chapter three, we were told that after Jesus again demonstrated his authority, how he has the right to call the shots in my life and in your life, the Pharisees were seething, and they went out of the synagogue in Capernaum. And what did they do? They immediately went to the Herodians because they said, I don't like you. You don't like me, but you know what? We've got to stop this Jesus guy.
It's no different today. Jesus always unites. The question is, will he unite in fellowship and faith, or will he unite in enmity and strife? Jesus brings people together.
And so, in this passage, they come to Jesus. They confront him with another question. They think it's a good question.
They think it's a good trick question. They're seeking to destroy him. As we dive into that question and the answer Jesus provides, we'll see not only the trap they're trying to lay for Jesus, but also how Jesus springs it on them.
And in the process, it teaches us something very important about how we are to honor and love and serve the Lord by honoring and loving and serving the government. Does that disturb you? Are you called to honor, love, and serve the government? Well, Jesus has a word for you this morning. And if you would give your whole life to God, he has something to tell you about your government.
So give attention now to the reading or the preaching of God's holy word. I'm told you we're going to follow this on two lines, two strands. We're going to first look at the question, then at the answer.
So let's look at this question. The Pharisees and the Herodians they come to trap him in his talk. Now, putting aside the fact that we're told from the get-go that this is a trap, right? We don't want to go down that road just yet.
Let's think about what they actually say and realize that there are some good things, right? True things that the Herodians and the Pharisees do say. Whether they mean it or not is another question. But just look at what they say.
They give a good preamble, you might say. A good introduction. They come to Jesus.
And again, imagine the scene. Jesus is teaching in the temple complex. He had just turned the tables over the previous day.
And now there are crowds there. And they're listening to Jesus as he's teaching in the temple. And suddenly, the Pharisees and the Herodians come up.
They've got long fringes. They're very outwardly obvious. So it's clear that some important people are coming to speak to Jesus.
And they come to Jesus. And the first thing they say is they call him the Daskalos, the teacher, teacher, right? So they give him recognition. They give him a title of submission, you might say.
They say, you're a teacher. Yes, we acknowledge your teaching. So first, they challenged his teaching.
Then, when they found out that wasn't gonna work, they said, all right, well, we're gonna affirm you're a teacher, Jesus. So they do affirm that he is a teacher. And they say, moreover, that we know you are true and that you do not care about anyone's opinion.
You might say, " That's actually kind of a dig, isn't it? He doesn't care about people's opinions. He doesn't care about people or what they think. He's not feeling, is that what they're saying? No, not at all.
In fact, what he's saying is that it doesn't matter what we think or what anyone thinks; you're gonna speak the truth. And it's true about Jesus. That's the kind of teacher that he is.
He doesn't care what you think in terms of whether or not it affects what he says is true or not. Then does he care about our struggles, our trials, and our difficulties in believing and understanding? Certainly so. He is sympathetic to us and our weakness, but he will not dilute the truth.
And they acknowledge this. Then the NASB says, "You, Jesus, you don't defer to anyone," and the CSB. You don't care what anyone thinks, or I like the NIV's translation.
You aren't swayed by others because you don't pay any attention to who they are. It could be the president. It could be the king.
It could be the emperor himself. It doesn't matter. Jesus is gonna speak the truth.
And they're right. That's the kind of savior you have. A savior who is himself faithful and true.
We need to remember that Jesus is the truth teller. He is the great prophet, the greatest prophet, who speaks the truth to us and to the world. And we, as his church, ought to be truth tellers as well.
There is no mixture of light and darkness here. We are people of the truth. And so also is Jesus of the truth.
And though the Herodians and the Pharisees may not be interested so much in the truth, they at least are willing to admit, Jesus, you're a truth teller. You don't care about anyone's opinions. Now this is baiting for the trap.
We'll acknowledge that. They're saying this for a reason. And we'll get to that in a second.
But second, let's go to the question. And it's not an unimportant question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now, when they say lawful, they don't mean, what does the statute of the Roman Empire say? What is the law? We're ignorant of these.
They don't care about that. What they care about is what is right, or at least that's what they say they care about. When they say, " Is it lawful, that's a religious term, not a legal term.
What is the right thing to do as a Jew, as someone who fears God, what is the right thing to do? To pay taxes or not to pay taxes? That is the question. And again, the tax they have in view is this poll tax. This imposition upon the Jewish people that says, Rome owns me.
I'm to go in, I'm to pay this tax as a symbol of my fealty and faithfulness to the Roman Empire, which is my master, my ultimate master. Is it lawful? Is it right? For a God-fearing Jew. This was the argument, by the way, of Judas de Galilean.
He said, " We dare not pay this tax. Not because I don't want to deal with you, you take enough of my money as it is, and this is an additional tax, right? Judas' problem was not taxation without representation. Judas' problem, Judas de Galilean, around 6 AD, is saying that if we pay this tax, we are saying we love the emperor more than we love the Lord.
If we pay this tax, we are acknowledging that the emperor is God and that God is not God. This becomes even more acute as you begin to look at the denarius that Jesus later asks for. Kids, you have some special sermon notes this morning.
They're gray. I hope you can read them well enough, but they have a little activity for you. There's actually a picture on those sermon notes of what the Tiberian denarius would have looked like.
Tiberius Augustus Caesar is the Caesar at this time in Jesus' day. This is what those coins would have looked like. They would have been a lot smaller, probably between the size of a dime and a nickel, maybe a penny.
They're small. But on them, they have this inscription. They tell the Jews, and as they pay these taxes, not in their own currency, but in Roman currency, they pay this tax.
They are reminded of this inscription on the front every time they do: you see a picture of Tiberius, the emperor. And it says in abbreviated form, Tiberius Caesar Divi, Augusti Filius Augustus, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the God Augustus, son of God, son of the divine Caesar Octavian Augustus, who had adopted Tiberius, the first Caesar, the first emperor. This is blasphemy.
Even more when you flip it over, kids, because on the reverse side, you find a picture of the goddess of peace. And there we find Pontiff Maxim, Pontiffus Maximus. What does that mean? It means chief bridge builder, maximum greatest bridge builder, or in a religious and legal context in Rome, which by the way was about one and the same.
They didn't have a separation of church and state in Rome. They saw it all as one big soup together. The chief bridge builder was the chief priest, the bridge between heaven and earth, between the gods and men.
Who is the chief priest? Who is the bridge between God and men? Well, it's Caesar. He's the guy. Now there's no evidence that Tiberius was any worse than any other emperor.
In fact, he seemed to be, at least as far as an emperor goes, a relatively humble man. But this is his currency. You can imagine that this is a serious question.
Are we going to have this kind of coinage at all? And if so, are we going to give it back to the Caesar who is claiming to be some way divine? Is this some kind of blasphemy? Was Judas the Galilean right or not? Shall we render to Caesar? Shall we pay it or not?
But of course, their motive is not to figure out what is truly lawful before God. Their motive is not seeking to say, " We have a conscience issue here, Jesus. We need your help.
No, they're seeking to lay a trap. And that's why I mentioned they bait him by first saying, " You don't care about anyone's opinion. Because they know that the dichotomy they're offering Jesus is a no-win question.
By the way, just so you understand, there are sometimes dichotomies, a yes or a no, a black or a white, but oftentimes dichotomies can be false. And so it is in this case as well. But notice the dichotomy they're giving to Jesus.
There is no way to win if Jesus plays their game. If he says it is lawful, it is religiously right to pay this denarius. And that's it.
That's all he says. Like, yeah, it's lawful. Go ahead, pay the tax.
Suddenly, he is going to alienate all of his followers and anyone who has any regard for following the Lord God above the Roman Empire. Remember the people, the crowd, they're seeking a political Messiah, someone to liberate them from Rome. And so the Pharisees and the Herodians, though they hate each other, have this in mind.
They're thinking, hey, guys, what if we do this? What if we get Jesus to alienate his fan base, to suddenly discredit himself? This Jesus, he's not even as zealous as Judas the Galilean. At least Judas fought for his ideals. Jesus is a wishy-washy politician.
And so they could discredit him. But what if he says it is not lawful? Well, then we know exactly what they'll do. In fact, Luke and Matthew make it even clearer: they believe Jesus will say it is not lawful.
That's the answer they are expecting from Jesus. And so as soon as they get that answer, they're going to report him to the Roman authorities. Hey, just want you to know, I mean, who am I? I'm just a Pharisee.
But I just want you to know there's this Jesus guy, and he's telling people not to pay fealty and loyalty to Caesar. He's telling people not to pay the tax. And what will they do? Well, Rome, again, like with Judas the Galilean, will come in and gently remind Jesus that they are the kings and he is not by brutally and finally murdering him.
So they think it's a win-win for them. That's their motivation. And we see in this, I think, just before we move on to the answer that Jesus gives, some kind of a sick principle about hypocrisy.
Hypocrites can say true, good, and right things. They can sit in church, they can sing. And all the while, they have a hidden motive.
That's what a hypocrite is. A hypocrite is not someone who struggles to know what's true and to do what's true, but also falls into sin. That's not what's going on here.
A hypocrite is a play actor. That's the word that Jesus uses for them, by the way. You hypocrite, you're playing at piety when really you have an ulterior motive.
You're trying to get away from my authority. And so that's the motive we see at the heart here. And so Mark makes it very clear that this is a trap.
The word he uses there in Greek is a word; it's not just a trap like, 'aha, I got you.' But it's the kind of trap that you would lay for a dangerous animal. You would capture him, and you would destroy him, a tiger or a bear of some kind.
That's the kind of word that Mark uses here for people who violently pursue a dangerous animal. They are violently pursuing someone they perceive as dangerous. And indeed he is.
Jesus is very dangerous. And they're trying to lay the best trap they have for him. But I love the comment in this passage or on this passage that Pastor Alistair Begg makes.
He says they are trying to play games with Jesus. You don't play games with Jesus. Don't you understand that you are in his hands? That's what they don't realize.
They are in Christ's hands all the while. They think that they're trapping him. In reality, he's gonna trap them.
He is dangerous and not to be trifled with. Neither is he going to tolerate our own trifling, testing, and hypocrisy. So I love that, again, another pastor, Kevin DeYoung, makes this comment.
He says, Jesus is a master at springing the traps. He is the messianic mouse who always manages to get the cheese. And that's a weird image, but you can just let it sit there for a bit and now let it phase out of your mind.
Jesus springs the trap on them. He first calls them out for their hypocrisy. Now, if we had more time, I would love to just take a second and really meditate on how Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who was poured out upon you at Pentecost, being filled with the Holy Spirit, is able to discern and rightly confront false praise.
He understands the hearts of men. In fact, John even tells us that in John's gospel, in the beginning. He says he knows what's in men's hearts.
Now, of course, he is divine. He is omniscient according to his divine nature, but according to his human nature, he was perceptive. He's wise.
He's shrewd. Yes, he's as innocent as a dove, but he's also as wise as a serpent. I said we don't have time, so we're not going to focus on that.
Instead, we're going to focus on this answer that Jesus gives. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and give to God the things that are God's. You've heard this phrase, I think.
It's a very famous phrase. You hear it a lot, perhaps around tax season or election cycles. We hear render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and sometimes we just stop there.
So this is all about how we are to relate to the government. That's actually not what this passage is ultimately about, by the way. This is not just Jesus giving us a political theology.
In fact, our political theology, our theological understanding of how we are to be citizens, needs to be informed by more than just this passage, which is why, if you were expecting a great big sermon on how to vote, sorry to disappoint, but you're not going to get that today. But instead, Jesus gives us this phrase, and in doing so, he shows us something profound about what it means to live both as a citizen of heaven and as a citizen here on earth. He asked for a coin.
And this coin, again, the coin that you guys have in your little sermon, the grace sermon notes, you have this coin, this blasphemous coin. Son of God, Tiberius Augustus. He holds it up.
Notice, Jesus doesn't even have a coin in his pocket. That's interesting, right? Jesus doesn't even have to ask for it, and presumably the Pharisees or the Herodians probably have it at hand. So clearly, they didn't actually mind the blasphemy so much that they weren't willing to use it themselves.
But in any event, they flip it to him, and he looks at it, and he says, " Whose likeness, Greek, icon, whose image is this? And they say, well, it's Caesar. So Jesus says, if this has Caesar's image on it, why are you not going to give it to him? That's the question. Jesus actually shows them that their whole line of questioning has been wrong because they are unwilling to acknowledge that they have an obligation to Caesar.
Not an obligation because of who Caesar is, but because of what God providentially had given them by Caesar. What do I mean by this?
The things that are Caesar's. We need to think about that first.
What are the things that are Caesar's? Or, more generally, what are the things that belong to the government? And we sometimes treat the word 'government' like it's a dirty word. Oh, the government, right? Inefficient, evil at times, always trying to get into my business, the government. In fact, sometimes we may even be, and as we come up here into the centennial of our nation's founding, 250 years, since the Declaration of Independence, and we get this mythological view of this nation as a nation founded on hatred of government.
And that was nothing to be further from the case. So Jesus tells us there are things that pertain to and belong to Caesar, to our government here in the United States, and to all governments. The coinage they had was stamped and pressed from Tiberius' own treasury.
The government, in other words, had been given by God to give provision to the people. Now, it doesn't mean it was always a great government. In fact, it was a pretty ruthless government at times.
But the government itself, the principle of government, and in fact, even the Roman government, to some extent, was for their good. For their good. And that's why I don't think it's a surprise when we come to other passages in the Bible like Titus 3.1, which you memorized, I don't know if you remember, but you memorized it, remind them to be submissive.
Remind them to be submissive. Titus, you're on Crete. Also owned by the Roman Empire.
Titus, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, not to God, but to the authorities, to the rulers, to the governors, and ready for every good work. Or even more to the point, the part of Romans 13 that we didn't read, which I'll read to you now. Romans 13 has so much to say about how we are to live a Christian life and how we are to look to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet at the beginning of Romans 13, what does Paul say? Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed. And those who resist will incur judgment. He is the governor.
And when he says governor, he doesn't just mean the governor of the state of California. He means the person in charge. The civil authority, whether he or she acknowledges God or not, is God's servant designed and designated for your good.
Now you're looking already, I can see it in your eyes. You're looking for the qualification. Oh, he's gonna say, but, right? He's gonna say, "We need to put the qualification aside for a second."
Hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. For your good. Government is for your good.
Can you imagine being a Jew in first-century Palestine? The Romans, who are going to come and brutally massacre the people of Jerusalem and destroy the temple in just a matter of decades. And God has the gall to tell you government is for your good. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of one's conscience.
That part of you, that inner part of you that can discern right from wrong. It's fallible, just like your eyesight can be fallible, but we have a spiritual component to us, a soul component to us, a conscience. And Jesus says, for the sake of your conscience, Paul says, for the sake of your conscience, you need to be subject to the government.
For this reason, you also pay taxes. I pay quarterly taxes. Some of you pay quarterly taxes.
I love paying quarterly taxes, don't you? Absolutely not. It's terrible. It's awful.
Jesus says, " You've got to do it. For the authorities are, oh, this is such a, I'm so frustrated that God puts this word in for this person. They are your rulers.
I would love that. That's fine. They are your authorities.
Okay, that's fine. But he actually calls them "your ministers." President Trump is your minister.
Oh, how do you like that one? Or, Governor Gavin Newsom is your minister of God. They are ministers of God, servants of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all that is owed to them.
And we did read this part, taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect and honor to whom it is owed.
So what are some ways that Jesus is showing, not only springing the trap on the Pharisees and the Herodians and revealing that their supposed piety to God in asking this question is really an impiety, but also that there is a sense in which they should have been paying the tax clearly to Caesar as a devotion to God. Well, what does it mean for us to be good citizens in this world, in this country? Again, I can't go into all the particulars, but I really love, and I hope you do too, treasure the words that come to us from the prophecy of Jeremiah chapter 29. Just so you understand, sometimes we get a view, perhaps in this country, perhaps in the church throughout history, we get a view as the church that we are the people in the promised land.
That is not how the New Testament depicts us. We are not in the promise. As we sing in Jordan Sturmey Banks, that song, we are bound for the promised land, but we are not in the promised land.
We are in exile. That's how the Bible describes you. In exile, just like they were in Jeremiah's day.
So what word did God have in Jeremiah's day when they were in exile in Babylon? Rise up, resist. We're not gonna take it. No, he doesn't say that.
Babylon was not a good empire. In some respects, it is even worse than Rome. And yet God says this to the people in exile there in Jeremiah's day.
Jeremiah 29, four to seven, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters. Now he doesn't mean they're of the pagan peoples. He means certainly people who believe in the Lord, but continue having families, doing good, raising their family, building houses, working with the sweat of their brow, and the work of their hands.
He says, " Bear children, multiply there and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I'm sending you. Pray to the Lord on behalf of Babylon. Can you imagine that? Pray for Babylon, Babylon, who destroyed the first temple, Nebuchadnezzar, who brutally murdered the kings and the sons of the kings.
People were eating their children because they were starving, and we're supposed to pray for that emperor. We're supposed to pray for that nation. And the Lord God says, " Yeah, pray for them.
Pray for the nation that I'm sending you to. Pray for the nation that God has providentially placed you in your exile, and pray for them because in their welfare, you're gonna find your welfare. I hope you pray for the United States.
I hope you pray for the state of California. Sometimes we're very down on this state. I think it often rises to a sinful level when we complain about the state of California.
Yes, there are things to complain about. There are things to lament to God about, but this is the place that God has placed you. Pray for the welfare of California.
Pray for the welfare of the United States. Pray for the welfare of our leaders. Jesus says, pray for them.
So he's telling us, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and more than your taxes, give your time in prayer. Your devotion to the Lord, pray for their good because in their good, you're gonna find your good, he says. Now, here's the qualification.
You were waiting for it. But what about when the government calls me to do things that are evil, wicked, wrong? Of course, we don't obey. Of course.
And there are quite a few principles in that, including during the exile in Babylon. I love the phrase you're perhaps quick to quote from Acts chapter five. Peter says, " We must obey God rather than men.
Yes, that is true. And when men call us to disobey God, to go contrary to God, we are certainly to disobey the authorities. Civil disobedience is a Christian category.
And so we find in the book of Daniel, chapter three, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Rakshach and Benny. David Kinezer builds a great big golden statue. No comment on building golden statues as heads of state.
But in any event, there's a big golden statue. He says, " Bow down and worship it. So people start bowing down and worshiping it.
We don't know where Daniel is at this time. I think he's on a mission somewhere because he wouldn't have been participating in this. But we do know that Rakshach and Benny are there.
Hanani, Esau, and Azariah, they're there. And they have a decision to make. Are we gonna bow down and worship as the King has commanded us to do? Or are we going to resist? And of course, you know the story.
If you're familiar with the book of Daniel, they do resist. And so King Nebuchadnezzar is fuming that. It's actually the Hebrew for it.
He's fuming. And so he comes to them, and he says, " Why will you not bow down and worship? Don't you understand? If you don't bow down and worship, I'm gonna throw you into a fiery furnace. You're gonna burn to death, he says.
And then what God is gonna deliver you out of my hand? Nebuchadnezzar, like Tiberius to some extent, thought him a God, thought himself a God. What God can deliver you out of my hand? And so Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say to the King, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to give you an answer. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
But this isn't Caesar's. We don't need to give you an answer in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of the burning persecution, the fiery, fiery furnace.
And he will deliver us if that's his plan. And I love what they say in the next sentence. They say, but if not, so what? So what if we burn? John the Baptist before Herod, so what if you chop off my head? You'll never take my crown.
So what if the government comes and persecutes me and even destroys me? I have a greater government. I have a greater kingdom. I have a greater king, and I will serve him.
And so God does deliver Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but you can look through the annals of history and find countless men and women and boys and girls who were not delivered at least bodily, and yet they counted the cost. There are things that belong to Caesar, honor, certainly, taxes, where they are lawfully instituted. God has put us in a government here where we can actually have a say about what those taxes look like.
And we should have a say and speak. Again, this isn't a political theology, but we should as Christians think Christianly about politics. And yet all the while we recognize that there are times when we will have to disobey.
If the government says you can't meet for worship as they do to our brothers and sisters in China, you disobey because we would serve God rather than men. Those are the things that belong to God. And that's where I want to focus at the end of our time here, because that really is the focus.
That's where Jesus has been leading all along. Again, this is not Jesus' political theology. This is not Jesus saying, look, you need to understand how you relate just to the state.
He has that there, but he goes on. Otherwise, he could have just said, " This has Caesar's image on it, so give it to Caesar. End of story.
But he goes on, and this is the brilliance of Jesus' response. And this is why, though they hate him, they marvel at him and give to God, render to God the things that are God's. Remember, kids, he just held up a coin that has the image of Tiberius Caesar on it.
Where's the parallel? Where do we find, if this has the image of Caesar, where do we find the image of God? You go back to Genesis, you don't need to look very far. Render to God the things that are God's. Who is stamped with the image of God? It's you, you're God's coinage.
You are his image. You are the picture, the icon of the almighty, unseen, everlasting God. And Jesus says, " Are you gonna give God his due? Pharisees, Herodians, you who would come here to test me.
Interesting, Jesus says, " Why do you put me to the test? You know who else put Jesus to the test? Satan, you know what Jesus said to Satan? Why do you put the Lord your God to the test? You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. He quotes Deuteronomy. That's what they did in the Old Testament.
They tested God, and they tested God, and they were coming to God to see, God, are you gonna measure up to my standards? God says, " You don't measure up, I don't measure up to your standards, you measure up to mine. Do you meet my criteria? Will you render to me the image that is my due? Will you pay me the tax that I require? And that's Jesus' focus, friends, in this passage. He's confronting the Pharisees and the Herodians for their godlessness, for not giving honor to God.
Instead, they craved honor for themselves, which comes from men. The Herodians, he thought, if they simply went along with Herod's plans, would be safe, secure, wealthy, and well off. And all the while, they neglected the things of God.
And the God who was speaking to them there in the temple court, give to God the things that are God's, render unto God what belongs to him. Just as a finer point here, for those of us who do care very deeply about politics, and very deeply about this country, who love this country, and I hope, whether you're here as a citizen or as a visitor or whatever, I hope you love this country. But for those who care so much about country and taxes, and what does God say about taxes that are fair or not fair? I love the comment of J.C. Ryle, who says, a conscience, which again, there's that part of you that understands what is true and not true, and what is right and not right.
The conscience that's very tender about money and state and what is right or wrong in terms of the politics of the day, but is at the same time, careless about matters of faith and hope and charity and humility and private holiness. That's a conscience, Ryle says, which is to say the very least, a suspicious one. Sometimes we get so angry about politics, and rightfully so; they're important.
It's very important. The church is not a political action committee, but I hope that you people are political. I need to be political.
I live in this country, and yet we get so upset about what's going on in the national news cycle. Do we then, at the same time, get the same level of anger and irritation and impatience about our own souls that do not render unto God the things that are God's? Do we seek first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness, knowing that all things then will be added unto us? Again, it's about a priority of love. I think our vice president even recently quoted the order of amorous, the order of love.
Well, that's a true principle here. There is an ordered love that we ought to have, and it starts with God. And so we are to render unto God the things that are God's.
And of course, as you know, the story of Genesis, you know, we messed this up from the beginning. God graciously, lovingly made us in his image and said to us, now be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Render unto me the glory that is due to me, and I will give to you all to the ends of the earth.
And instead, we sought honor for ourselves. And that's why I was struck this week as I considered this passage that we are not the only ones who are described in the Bible as made, or excuse me, not as made. Certainly, we are made in the image of God, but who is the image of God? There is another.
One who is not simply a reflection of God, but who is God, who is called the very form and the essence of God, yet who also willingly took the image of God. Imagine that Tiberius' seizure becomes a coin. God becomes his own reflection and image.
That's what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And why does he do this? So that he could render unto God what we couldn't. You catch that? Render unto God the things that are God's.
And all the while, this is Tuesday, Jesus is thinking about Friday when he's gonna have to render unto God the ultimate sacrifice. To be subsumed and overwhelmed by the wrath that we deserve, all the while offering up the obedience that we ought to have given to God as God's image. And so we find in Romans chapter five, as one trespassed from Adam, defaced that currency, debased that currency, led to condemnation for all men, Adam sinned, and so all fall in Adam's fall.
We sinned all, yet so also one act of righteousness — the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ — leads to righteousness, justification, and life in Jesus. Jesus renders unto God perfectly throughout his whole life, up to his death, and beyond.
And so, as though we had sin coming into the world, grace abounds all the more so that those who sin reigned in death, grace also reigns through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Christ Jesus. Yes, Jesus says, you haven't been rendering unto God. I know, Jesus knows where you were this week.
He knows what you did this week. He knows what you thought this week. He knows how we fall short.
Yet he perfectly at every possible point rendered unto God what we owe to He didn't need to do it, but he did, so you could see a zero balance on that tax bill. God says, there's no more payment in terms of your justification, in terms of your life, your eternal life.
There's no more payment to be rendered. Jesus paid it all. So, Hebrews 7:27 tells us that he has no need to keep offering sacrifices.
Jesus doesn't have to pay estimated taxes. He paid it all there on the cross for his people. He offered himself up once for all.
But at the same time, he calls us to now offer up our own lives, not as a payment for sins, but as a grateful response to his gracious working in our lives. This is what I hope the Pharisees and the Herodians would one day hear. We don't get the end of their stories, particularly, but Jesus is telling them graciously, render unto God the things that are God's.
I'm about to give my life. Are you willing to give yours? And so, how do we render our God things unto God? How do we render the things of God, which is nothing less than our very souls, our very selves, our very lives? How do we render unto God the things that are God's? Well, in the first place, we must render our whole life indeed. You know what? This may be obvious, but it takes the whole of your life to give the whole of your life, every bit of your life, your whole life.
And so we find Paul in Philippians 1 describing his own life, that he has an eager expectation. Though a prisoner for Christ, he expects and hopes not to be ashamed, but he has courage, Paul says. I have courage that Christ will be honored in my body, whether by my life or by my death.
What was Paul looking for in his life? For Christ to be honored. What are you looking for in your life? Are you looking moment by moment and day by day for Christ to be honored in your life? Again, this is the gracious response to the great things he has done for us in saving us and redeeming us and paying that debt, that tax debt that we owed. Now he says, " Are you going to live for me? Are you even going to die for me? And so in 1 Corinthians 6, we're reminded not only by virtue of the fact that we have been minted and pressed into the image of God by our creation, but now have been restored into that image through our salvation.
He says, " Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Do you not know that you have this from God? Do you not know that you are not your own, but that you belong to God now? So give to God what is his due. Glorify God in your sarks, in your flesh, in your body. Romans 12, which I've quoted quite often recently, perhaps because I need to hear it more than anyone.
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, by the great things he's done for you and for me, give your life as a living sacrifice, an ongoing offering of thanksgiving to God for the great things he's done to you and for you and in you and will do when he returns. So I need to give my life. And that means very acutely, I need to give my love, my love, yes, to God, but also to my neighbor.
I need to be willing to obey God, even when it hurts, even when it's hard, even when it means loving my government. I need to give my obedience and love to God, which means I need to love my neighbor. And yes, even to my enemy, even to the one who hurts me and harms me.
I do need to give and give, knowing that he gave it all for me. And so he tells us in John 14 and 15, whoever has my commandments, whoever's quick to listen to me, he, it is who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my father.
And I will love him, and I will dwell with him. It's not wrong as an evangelical Christian, a Christian who loves the gospel, the good news, that it's not what I did, but it's what he did for me that guarantees my salvation. I know I'll be in heaven because he tells me, come all you weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
It is not contrary to that gospel to then say, if I love Christ, how could I not obey him? How could I not wake up in the morning and think, God, how am I gonna serve you today? How am I gonna obey you today? What are your commandments? Do I delight in your law? You say, well, law, that's an Old Testament term to refer to the Pentateuch. And it's the whole Bible, really, that Psalm 19 has. No, the law of the Lord is my delight, sweeter than honey.
Do I feel that way? Do I think that way? Regardless of whether I feel and think that way, am I willing to live that way? To give my obedience in this moment. And hereafter, every day, moment by moment, I want to surrender all to you, Lord Jesus. And doing so includes our worship, our devotion, both private, family, and corporate, gathered here.
Again, this is an element of our rendering unto God the things that are God's. You guys wonder sometimes, I think, at least maybe I wonder sometimes, what is the point? I show up to church, I sing the songs, I hear the sermon, I get a little benefit, and I go about my week. Do you not understand that there's something supernatural happening here? Something glorifying to God here, though outwardly, maybe not always that impressive.
A guy up in a suit preaching a sermon, and people singing songs and hymns that were written hundreds of years ago, and all of these things. Do you not understand that this is rendering unto God the thing that we were designed to do? To worship him, to love him in the congregation. And by doing so, also loving each other.
When you're here, we are better. We sing better. You say, me? I don't think I, yes, your presence here makes us a better congregation because we are better able to praise and worship the God who made us and presses us into his image, even into the image of Jesus Christ.
So we give our lives, our loves, our obedience, our fealty, our faith, our worship. And yes, even our citizenship. I am a citizen of the United States.
I was born in Philadelphia. I have a birth certificate. It tells me that I belong here.
Now I know what the Bible tells me, that here we have no lasting city. That my home is not in Philadelphia or New Jersey or California or anywhere, but heaven itself ultimately. And yet he has placed me here, and he's placed you here this morning.
Whatever path it took to get to this room this morning, you are here. And so your citizenship itself is a means by which we give glory and honor to God. I've already spoken to this at length.
So I'll simply end it then with the word and the admonishment of 1 Peter 2. I promise I'm not gonna keep ending my sermons with 1 Peter, but it's a good book. You should read it. Please read 1 Peter.
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God. That by doing good as a citizen, in this case Pontius, in the region of Bithynia and Cappadocia (now modern-day Turkey), which was again under Roman rule.
Again, under Tiberius, or by this point, by the time Peter's writing this, who knows? Maybe it was under Caligula. You thought Tiberius was bad. Ooh, but this is God's will.
That you give for the Lord's sake, subjection to the emperor. Again, honoring God above men, but subject to the emperor. For this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
You know, it's amazing when you look at the early apologists like Justin Martyr: one of their great strategies was to say, simply, to pagans, emperors, and rulers: hey, you know, we're kind of your best citizens. We don't do devious things. We don't lie, we don't cheat, we don't steal.
We're stable families. You should love that we're here because we serve a God, we're gonna serve you. And that's what Peter told them.
He said, if you're gonna do this, you're gonna put it to silence. At least if they find fault with you, it will be without any cause. You're gonna put an end to the ignorance of foolish people.
Live as people who are free. I'm in bondage to no one. The president doesn't own me.
The government doesn't own me. The emperor doesn't own me. My master doesn't own me.
No one owns me but God; I am free in Christ. Yet don't use your freedom, he says, as a cover-up for evil. Don't be so obsessed with thinking about what I can get away with? What can I do? How far can I get to the edge? Instead, live as servants of God, honor everyone.
Love the brotherhood, the brotherhood of Christ, the church, fear God, and honor the emperor. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. I hope you will take this passage, if not this sermon, to heart this week, and you will seek to give to God what belongs rightly to him, your very self, your very life.
I will close with just this comment. We're about to sing in a moment, Take My Life and Let It Be by Francis Ridley Havergill. At age 14, this young girl gave her life to Christ, and she said, reflecting shortly afterward, you know, a 14-year-old girl wrote this.
She said, I committed my soul to the Savior and earth, and heaven seemed brighter from that moment on. I can live as a citizen here because I know I'm a citizen there. I can live and serve here because I have a God and king there who rules and who reigns, and so I'm willing to give.
And so you'll know, she writes these words, take my life, take my life, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments, my days, my hands, my feet, my voice, my intellect, my will, my heart, my love, myself, my soul. Yes, and so Francis says, yes, even my silver and my gold, not a dust speck, not a mite would I withhold from the God who so graciously gives himself to me.
Amen.
