Jesus and the Temple

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. So this is a powerful section of scripture.

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Matthew chapter 17, of course, comes after chapter 16.

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Jesus has fed the multitudes. He's now confronting his generation for their sin.

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And of course, the epic moment when Jesus in 16 asks his people, his followers, who do men say that I am?

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And Peter has that moment that is recorded for us for time and eternity where he says, you are the

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Messiah, the son of the living God. Acknowledgement of who actually they're dealing with.

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This is the son of the living God. And Jesus, of course, makes promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.

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Jesus begins to actually tell his people that he's going to die and rise from the dead. He has that moment with Peter where Peter is there acknowledging who he's dealing with.

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This is the son of the living God. And yet, the son of the living God says, I'm going to die and rise again. And Peter instructs him.

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No, it won't be that way. And of course, Jesus says the source of this is not from God. He says, get behind me,

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Satan. You're mindful not of the things of God but of men. And of course, Jesus then begins what he's been doing throughout the gospel according to Matthew, and that's warning them of this impending judgment.

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That some of them aren't going to die. They're not even going to taste death before they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

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This is something that's going to take place in their lifetime. And of course, in that moment in Matthew 17, as it opens up, we see the heavens split for just a second.

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Just a moment in the lives of the apostles, they go up to this mountain with Jesus, and then they get to see just a glimpse of the glory of Jesus.

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This is the God -man, 100 % God. He's not limited as God.

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He's fully, by nature, God himself, tabernacled among us.

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John gives the perfect explanation, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

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Really sad about that? Are you excited about that? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

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Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him nothing has come into being.

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And it says, of course, that powerful statement from John, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the monogamous theos, the unique and one -of -a -kind

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God who was in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

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That's who we're dealing with. That's Jesus. And the disciples get just a glimpse where the physical realm sort of tears for a second.

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Moses and Elijah appear up there on that mountaintop. Jesus keeps telling his people, something greater than the temple is here, something greater than Solomon is here, something greater than Jonah is here.

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They're hearing it, but like most humans, like us, they just can't begin to comprehend it.

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And so, Jesus has this amazing mountaintop experience, not like our summer camps and youth camps.

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There's a real mountaintop experience that you really can't recover from. You will come down different for good from this one.

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The transfiguration, Moses representing the law, Elijah representing the prophets, these are men who are revered by God's people.

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These are the ones that God gave his revelation through, Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets.

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But yet, something greater than the law and the prophets is here, Jesus. He comes shining forth in vivid, bright glory, and they are confused.

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They don't know quite how to handle this. So the first thing he says, let's build something for Moses. We'll give him his due.

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We'll sort of set up a little thing here as a memorial for Moses, and then Elijah, and then, of course, you,

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Jesus. And this is a powerful moment because it doesn't happen that often. It doesn't.

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It really doesn't throughout Scripture from the beginning to the end. You don't have a lot of moments where God actually speaks from heaven in such a way that everybody gets a chance to hear it.

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But you have this moment where the Father actually speaks from heaven. Like, let's build something. Let's acknowledge

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Moses, the law, and Elijah, the prophets, and, of course, you, Jesus, another prophet from God.

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And the Father actually condescends for a moment to actually speak into reality, our existence.

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And he says, this is the son of my love. Listen to him, right?

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He's not just one prophet among all these prophets. This is the son of the living

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God, the eternal son of God who has been an intimate fellowship and relationship with the

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Father from all eternity. And the Father hears what they're saying, and he says, this is the son of my love.

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You listen to him. And the response of the apostles is, I think, something we could all probably understand.

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God just spoke from heaven. What does that even sound like? I was listening to an audio

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Bible this week of this passage, sort of just getting it in my mind, meditating on it, thinking about it.

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And in the audio Bible, the guy was actually reading through the text, very good voice. But then when it got to, like, certain characters, he would play those characters, right?

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Like, he'd get to, you know, the people in the day, and his voice would change to, like, hey, man. Like, you know, it would just, you know, it just sort of switched off.

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But then he got to the part here in Matthew 17 where it's actually God speaking from heaven. I was kind of like, how's this guy going to do

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God's voice? And it was just, it was horrible. It's, like, not what I would have imagined, like,

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God's voice. But the point is, whatever it sounded like, they recognized the voice of their creator instantly, and it caused them to be afraid.

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They heard the voice of God, and they were terrified. They were afraid of what they heard. I think we can all embrace that.

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I mean, there's nothing shameful in that. That's probably how we would react as well. But what I love about that moment, I'm just highlighting it for a second.

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The father says, this is my son, listen to him. Jesus goes and he touches them. Their response to their father's voice was terror, fear,

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I think, unhealthy fear. They're not recognizing just what Jesus does for them, between them and the father.

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So Jesus goes and he touches them, and he says this. He says, do not fear. You see,

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Jesus takes away our fear, the relationship of fear that I think we instinctively have between us and our father.

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By the way, I'm not diminishing what God says in his word about the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That's reverential awe, right?

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But they're in a moment of terror and fear, right? They don't even want to approach in any way, but Jesus is our mediator between us and the father.

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It's not Moses and Elijah. They couldn't mediate for us like Jesus does. Of course, there's fear when you have those two standing between you and God.

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But with Jesus now, Jesus can touch us and removes the fear of our relationship to our father.

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Now, he takes it away. Jesus says, don't be afraid. Now, what happens next in this text in 17,

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I just want to walk you through it. Of course, we've talked about it many times. Jesus tells them, don't tell anybody about this until the son of man is raised from the dead.

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And then the disciples ask a question about Elijah the prophet. Why does the Bible say that Elijah the prophet must come first?

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Jesus has instructed us, told us, that's John the Baptist. Elijah called people to repentance.

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John the Baptist is the Elijah who was to come. He will restore all things. They rejected him.

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And then, of course, Jesus has that moment in Matthew 17 where you have this young person who is suffering terribly.

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He's throwing himself into the fire and into the water. There's this demonic identification that...

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By the way, just we did a message on this before. There's, if you want, if you study angiology and demonology, and that's what does the

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Bible say about angels and demons, you'll see one of the indications of demonic possession is self -harm.

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Self -harm, an obsession with darkness, and death, and self -abuse, and self -harm.

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That is spiritual attack, first and foremost. Well, this is happening, and the disciples can't understand, how come we can't cast out this demon?

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And Jesus tells them, because your little faiths. It's because of your faith, because you don't trust.

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By the way, it's a nickname of Jesus for his followers. He called them little faiths. That doesn't exist anywhere else that we know of in antiquity.

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It's a nickname Jesus had for his people. You can read it in the Greek. It's little faiths. He called his people little faiths.

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You guys are little faiths. He said, how come you can't do it? Because your little faiths. And he tells them about their faith like a grain of a mustard seed.

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You'll say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it'll move. Jesus now tells them he's going to be killed, and he's going to be raised from the dead.

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So we already have all these marks of divinity throughout the Bible. Old Testament is explicit.

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The Messiah is God himself. Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 through 8. We have Micah chapter 5, verses 2 and on.

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The eternal God is coming to Bethlehem. The everlasting God is coming to save us.

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The mighty God, El Gibor. And then you have in Matthew all these marks of the divinity of Jesus.

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You already see him searching people's hearts, knowing their thoughts, giving sight to blind people.

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You see him manipulating the created order itself by walking on water.

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You see Jesus doing everything that only God can do. And you see it just in these passages themselves.

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The spaces we've just been in, 16 and 17. Casting out demons, authority over the demons, healing people, feeding the multitudes, searching people's thoughts, breaking through nature itself, his glory in the transfiguration.

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It's all there. Now, verse 24, when they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two drachma tax went up to Peter and said, does your teacher not pay the tax?

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Now, of course, it's really important to understand what's going on here. This is not the question that comes later in Matthew 23.

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We're going to get to the question of taxation and is it hashtag theft. We're going to get to that, absolutely.

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We're going to discuss that. We're going to do a really important teaching on that. This is not

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Roman tax. These are not the hated tax collectors like Matthew.

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These aren't the ones that people thought were turncoats. These aren't the Jewish people working for Rome, collecting taxation for Caesar that people thought were wicked, that were extorting people.

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This is not the IRS. These are actually

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Jewish people, respected people, loved people, liked people that are collecting a tax for the

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Jewish temple. So this is a tax. That's a Jewish tax for the temple, for the priesthood, for the services in the temple.

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And so that's really important to get. This was a loyalty tax to the temple. This was a voluntary tax.

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It was an annual tax of two drachma. And a drachma essentially is a denarius.

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And so if you can put it together in your mind, two drachma. One drachma is about a denarius.

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A denarius is about a day's wage. So if you could think about this, watch. This is really important in terms of taxation.

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This was not coercion. This was not oppressive. This was totally voluntary.

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This was something people could do out of the goodness of their own hearts to pay for the temple, the services, all the stuff that was going on.

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This was not something done through coercion. It was totally voluntary from the heart.

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Loyalty to the temple. But what's interesting is it was annual, and it amounted to about two days work.

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So this voluntary tax only amounted to about two days of work throughout the entire year given up for the temple itself.

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Only two days of work, if you get what I'm trying to say in terms of taxation and gifting and voluntary.

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It only amounted to two days of work. And you could do it, or you could not do it. These guys are not oppressive.

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They're just asking the question, does your master, does the teacher, does he actually pay the temple tax?

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Now, what's interesting again is that it was voluntary and it was annual. But here's where it goes off the rails.

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Human beings do this a lot. As soon as you give human beings the opportunity for taxation, it doesn't always work out so well.

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Amen? Yes. The tax here was voluntary and annual, but it was based upon, and this is where it gets interesting, it was based upon a temple tax from Exodus 30 verses 11 through 16.

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You can read about it in 38, 25 through 26, Nehemiah 10, 32 through 33.

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I'm not going to go over them today. I'll just give you what was it about. This was a temple tax that was only done when there was a census.

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So it was not annual. It was actually very, very rare.

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Whenever there was a census of men, those men would actually pay a particular tax.

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It wasn't a lot of tax. It was for the service of the temple. It was just sort of an add -on. But what they were doing in this day is they actually changed that custom and law.

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And they said, well, let's not do it when a census is taken. Let's do it annually. So now we go from a census on rare occasions to now let's do it annually every single year.

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But here's what we'll do. We'll say that it's voluntary. This is not something that we're going to coerce people into.

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We're going to demand of them. We're going to say it's voluntary, but let's get it every single year.

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Taxes every year on the temple to keep this thing functioning and working. So what's really important to get is that this was that voluntary tax annually, about two days of work given up for the temple itself.

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Now, this is where it gets interesting. And this is where, watch, if you get this part now, you're going to understand just how dramatic this is in this passage and how glorious it is.

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Watch, that Jesus says, the sons are free. Believe me, that means so much.

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And you really have to meditate on this passage and really think about it in context to get what exactly is

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Jesus teaching here. The sons are free. So what? They don't have to pay taxes. So who does pay taxes to the temple?

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Unbelievers? Can you hold onto that for a second? Just consider that for a moment. If Jesus' point in this passage is that the sons of the king don't have to pay the tax because they're free, then does that mean that Jesus is saying that the unbelieving

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Jews fund the temple and the services and the sacrifices?

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So what, the believers don't fund the temple? Is that what you're saying, Jesus? No. And hang on to find out why.

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We need to think about what's happening now in relation to Jesus and the temple, because Jesus' relationship to the temple is actually, in the first century, kind of shaky in the eyes of the people who are watching

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Jesus and his ministry. I want you to consider for a moment that these people are not working for Rome.

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They are Jews supporting the religious worship of Jews, the temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood.

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They're saying, this is just us being Christians. It's us just being

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Jewish followers of Yahweh. That's all it is. We're just trying to make sure this thing gets funded.

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That's all this really is. And so here's the question. Is Jesus, is he

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Jewish? Does he not care about the temple? Is Jesus hostile to the priesthood?

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Is he hostile to the temple itself, to the sacrifices? We're on kind of shaky ground.

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Because if they don't understand Jesus' message, then they might actually think that Jesus is in opposition to that temple in a way that's unhealthy.

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We need to talk about Jesus and the temple. Jesus has a famous moment with the Jews. It's in John 2, verse 19.

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John 2, verse 19. And Jesus says this to them. He says, you destroy this temple, and in three days,

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I will raise it up. But there's kind of something powerful about that.

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First and foremost, is he's predicting his own death and resurrection. And powerful, too, is that he's saying that he raises himself up.

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By the way, this is sort of a sidestep here on the Trinity. The Bible says this, God raised

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Jesus from the dead. It also says the Father raised Jesus from the dead.

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It also says Jesus raised Jesus from the dead. And it also says the

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Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. There's the working of the triune

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God in Scripture, right? Jehovah's Witnesses struggle with that particular passage. This, by the way, put this in your toolbox for the

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Jehovah's Witnesses, okay? In John 2, verse 19, Jesus says, destroy this temple, and I will raise it up.

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They don't believe that Jesus was raised physically, and they don't believe that he raised himself, so you're welcome.

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That's a powerful one. John 2, verse 19. Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.

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So he's predicting his own death and resurrection, but watch this. He just called himself the temple of God.

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Do you understand how earth -shattering worldview -changing that is for the

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Jews? That's the temple. There's where the Holy of Holies is. There's where the animal sacrifices are.

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This is where God resides with us on earth. This is where we go to meet with God and to worship

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God, and Jesus says, I'm the temple. I am what this pointed to.

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This was just a stepping stone. This was just a symbol for you to understand who I really am.

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Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. Come to me, the temple.

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Someone greater than the temple is here. But notice that he says, destroy this temple, and in three days,

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I'll raise it up again. There might be sort of a hint in that, a hint that Jesus is also in that moment kind of threatening their temple.

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He's threatening their temple. He does predict the destruction of their temple, and is Jesus here saying something with a double meaning?

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Not only is he the temple and he'll raise himself up, but is he also kind of hinting at the destruction of their temple he's going to destroy?

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He says in Matthew 12, 6, go there, just back up a few pages. In Matthew 12, 6, as he's talking about the

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Sabbath, the Pharisees in verse 2 say, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the

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Sabbath. He said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

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Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the

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Sabbath and are guiltless? Here we go. I tell you something greater than the temple is here.

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Doesn't mean a lot to us today because we don't understand that world. We don't understand the temple and its meaning and significance to Jewish worship and life, and God had prescribed so much that he called them to do in terms of temple ordinances and priesthood and that Jesus comes in and says something greater than the temple is here.

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What could that possibly be? Something greater than the temple? Is there anything greater than the temple but God?

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That's probably what a Jew would have thought. One first century author, when he referred to the

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Jewish temple, he said it was so glorious. The way that it was set up, it was just laid out with gold all around it.

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He said at a certain time of the day, if you were off from the distance, in the distance from the temple, if the sun was shining on the temple, it looked like a glowing star set on the earth itself.

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So if you were watching from a mountain far away, it looked like an actual star was glowing in Jerusalem.

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That's what it looked like. How could something be greater than that? Jesus says, I'm the temple, destroy this and I'll raise it again.

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He says something is greater, something greater than the temple is here and keep your finger there in 12 and just look over near the end of chapter 12, starting in verse 38.

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Look what he says in verse 38, 1238. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.

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But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except for the sign of the prophet

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Jonah, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

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The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, watch, for they repented of the preaching of Jonah and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

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The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

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See what Jesus is doing? He's instructing them. All that's passing away. Elijah and Moses, listen to Jesus.

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Something greater than the temple. Something greater than Solomon. Something greater than Jonah. Jesus is the supreme revelation of God.

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This is what it was all pointing to. Everything that you have memorized, everything you have practiced with temple and Jerusalem and sacrifice and priest, all the stories,

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Moses and Elijah, all these stories are finding their fulfillment in Jesus.

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He is the pinnacle. He's at the crown. He's at the top. And Jesus keeps telling them something greater.

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But notice, this creates conflict. This is what you're going to get. When these guys come asking for an answer to a question,

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Peter, does Jesus have any loyalty to the Jewish temple? Does Jesus pay his temple tax?

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Is Jesus opposed to this temple? Is he in opposition to it? Is he a loyal Jew?

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Does he worship Yahweh? And Jesus says he's greater than the temple. And he actually predicts the destruction of the temple.

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You can see it creates shaky ground. Another text, you know the story, John chapter 4, you can just write that down.

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The woman at the well, Jesus is at the well with this woman. He knows her life, another mark of the divinity of Jesus.

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He knows exactly who she is. He knows that she doesn't really have a husband at the moment.

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He knows her life before she's introduced herself ultimately to Jesus. And she asks him a question.

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She says, you know, you guys say that you have to worship there on that mountain, Jerusalem at the temple.

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That's where you say you have to worship. And Jesus says what to her? He says, the hour is coming when the true worshipers of God will do what?

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They'll worship him in spirit and in truth. They won't say it's over here or over there.

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Because see what Jesus does in the new covenant is he obliterates this geographical location thing with the worship of God where it's in Jerusalem, at temple, in that location.

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You see what we have now in the heavens is so much greater. It's the city of God. It's a temple that can never be destroyed.

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It's not just here or there. Somebody can come and destroy this entire building we're worshiping in and you know what it does to our worship?

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Nothing. Nothing. If God ever gave us money one day to buy our own building and we actually had a building, if that passed away, it means nothing.

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It's completely just incidental. You see, the true worshipers of God worship him in spirit and in truth and the true faith isn't a faith that's simply designated to one location.

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The kingdom of God is spreading throughout the entirety of the earth. It's not just one spot because Jesus changes all the categories.

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In Matthew chapter 21 now, move there, Jesus' relationship to the temple, Matthew 21 verses 12 through 17, this is where it gets more interesting.

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Jesus cleanses the temple, 21 -12, and Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

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He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it into a den of robbers.

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Jesus does something that not just anybody can do. You have to have authority to do this.

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You have to be a priest to do this. He was baptized, anointed by John the

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Baptist as a priest. That's what that was all about. And Jesus goes into the temple and he actually, as a priest, he cleanses the temple.

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He cleanses it. So you got Jesus saying, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. Something greater than the temple is here.

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It's not going to be here or there, spirit and in truth, and he goes into the temple and he starts cleansing the temple, whipping people.

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So much for the hippie, surfer, happy Jesus of the 21st century evangelical church.

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Jesus would never offend. Jesus would never be confrontational like that. Jesus is just a God of love.

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It's total 21st century social justice warrior hippie Jesus, right? Totally a false

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Christ. Jesus goes in and whips them out of the temple and cleanses it.

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So they have to be thinking about Jesus. Well, is Jesus even Jewish? Is he even for the temple and the law itself?

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Jesus seems in some ways kind of hostile to this whole situation. And of course the promise, and you can read this in Matthew 24 verses 1 through 2.

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Same gospel. You can see Matthew's driving together one clean point.

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Matthew 24 verses 1 through 2, Jesus, after he declares woes on the religious establishment of his day, he tells them that they're going to be desolate.

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He tells them they're going to be destroyed. It says in verse 1 of chapter 24, Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

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But he answered them, listen, listen, you see all these things, do you not?

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Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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So what is Jesus' relationship to the temple? He's cleansing the temple. He's saying he is the temple.

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He says he's greater than the temple. He's calling people to come to him, ultimately over and above temple, and he promises that that temple is going to be destroyed, not one stone upon another before that generation all passes away.

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And brothers and sisters, just a little bit of whetting your appetite, it happened exactly as he said.

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It was destroyed. They did set fire to it, and it was taken apart stone off of stone within that generation.

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But what is Jesus' relationship to the temple? So they come to Peter, and they're saying, is he a loyal Jew?

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How's he feeling about the temple? Is he going to pay the temple tax? No obligation.

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It's not through coercion. We're not going to beat you up. We're not going to put something on your house, a lien on your house.

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We're not saying this is a coercive tax, we're saying totally voluntary. Are you a loyal Jew?

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Where are you at with the temple, Jesus? Now what's interesting is if you look in Matthew 17, Peter speaks a bit out of turn.

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He has a habit of doing this. He sticks his foot in his mouth a bunch, but before you judge him, look in the mirror.

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So Peter doesn't want his master, the teacher, to be seen as somebody who's not a loyal Jew.

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So when they say, is Jesus a loyal Jew? Does he pay the temple tax, the annual tax, just two days' salary?

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That's all. Does he pay that annual tax to fund this whole operation? What do you say?

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Is Jesus a loyal Jew? And Peter goes, what? Yes! Of course he's a loyal Jew.

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Of course Jesus is loyal to the law of God and the temple. He told us in Matthew 5, verses 19 and on, do not even begin to think

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I've come to destroy the law and the prophets. I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them. Jesus couldn't possibly be opposed to the temple.

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So what do I think? Yes! Jesus pays the temple tax, yes.

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This is where it gets interesting. So, if you read Matthew 17, they ask the question, does your teacher not pay the tax?

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He said, yes. Didn't bother asking, just yeah. And when he came into the house, this is great,

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I love this. And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first.

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That is so awesome. So, and you can almost totally miss it, because you're just reading fast and getting mellow headed, and you forget what just happened.

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He's somewhere else talking to people about the temple tax, and he walks into the house, and then

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Jesus immediately talks to him, Simon, what do you think? From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tax, from their sons or from others?

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He already knew what was going on. It's so crazy. Jesus, he's

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God and man, but he has limitations, because he's finite in this moment, and it's totally complex and incomprehensible how you could be fully

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God and all -powerful and all -knowing, but sort of lay aside some of those prerogatives, and you're limited as a man.

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But in these moments, Peter walks to their door, he's probably thinking in his head, I wonder what Jesus is going to say.

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And then Jesus wasn't even there, and Jesus says, Simon, kings of the earth, they take taxes from their sons or from strangers?

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Peter must have been tripping, he must have been like, whoa, you already knew, how'd you know?

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Because you're God. But what's interesting, just a couple of things, Peter was wrong,

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Jesus is not obligated to pay the temple tax, and Jesus has a much more important lesson to teach about the temple, but Jesus spoke first.

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Jesus searches the heart. I want you to see it just in this one text, because watch, Matthew's the author, and Matthew is doing something, he's telling a story, he wants you to understand certain essential things about Jesus, and I want you to see what he says in the same text.

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So just get ready with me to go kind of quickly. Matthew 9, 4, just move back to Matthew 9, look how

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Matthew's telling the same story, it's not just a one -moment thing. In Matthew 9, verse 4, there's a moment where Jesus heals the paralytic,

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I've got to write that down, getting into the boat, he crossed over and came to his own city, and behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.

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When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven, and behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, this man is blaspheming, but Jesus, what's it say?

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Knowing their thoughts. There's a moment where Matthew shows, Jesus searches the heart.

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Now move over to Matthew chapter 12, verse 25, another instance, 12, 25, it says, knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

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Jesus knows their thoughts. Matthew chapter 26, verse 10, 26 verse 10, but Jesus, aware of this, said to them, knowing their thoughts, why do you trouble the woman, for she has done a beautiful thing to me, for you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

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So Matthew is telling you a consistent story about who Jesus is, that he searches the heart, that he knows people's thoughts, which of course, for a

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Jew, that is only indication of one thing, this is

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God among us. In Psalm 26, verse 2, it says, examine me,

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O Lord, and try me, test my mind and my heart. In Psalm 44, 21, would not

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God find this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Psalm 139, you know when

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I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

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Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all.

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Do you see what Matthew's doing? He's not just saying explicitly, Jesus is

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God, he's showing you in the narrative in Jesus' life and ministry, Jesus is God.

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He exercises the prerogatives of God. He is God in the flesh. One more text,

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Jeremiah 20, verse 12, yet, O Lord of hosts, you who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you

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I have set forth my cause. So, Matthew, a Jew, is telling you exactly who

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Jesus is. He is Yahweh among us. But we need to see in these moments the divinity of Jesus.

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You see it throughout the Gospel according to Matthew. Jesus' power to raise the dead, Jesus' sinless life,

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Jesus' obedience to the law of God, Jesus understanding people's hearts and thoughts and intentions.

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But here's where it gets interesting, I think. The picture that Jesus gives, here we go. Matthew 17, this is the interaction.

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He said, yes, and when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first saying, what do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tax?

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From their sons or from others? And when he said from others, Jesus said to him, then the sons are free.

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The sons are free. Jesus gives an analogy of sorts. He says, kings, they've got their goods in their palace.

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They've got all their family. When they levy taxes upon people and they give them all this to pay, do they make their kids, their children, their family pay?

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Who pays the king? Is it the citizens and strangers or is it the children?

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And Peter's response is, well, it's obvious. The kings don't charge their children. It's the citizens and the strangers.

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That's who pays. And so Jesus says, so the sons are free. That's the point

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Jesus is making. The sons are free. But what's interesting here is we already see throughout the gospel according to Matthew that the father spoke from heaven and he said, what about Jesus?

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This is my beloved what? Son. He says it at the baptism of Jesus.

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Then he says it at the transfiguration. This is the son of my love. Listen to him. We know from scripture that this is the son of God.

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Not just like Israel was called son of God, a son of God. This is the eternal son of God by nature.

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Not that the father created Jesus. He has the unique position by nature as the eternal son of God.

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And he says this, the sons are free. So Jesus is teaching us here not just that he is the son of God, but watch, he uses the word weos.

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He calls the sons free, which means that Jesus is saying to Peter, I'm the son of God.

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My father owns that temple. Do you think that I owe taxes at my father's temple?

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And Peter would say, no way. That's your father's temple.

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And Jesus says, right. So the sons are free. When you're joined together with me, when you belong to me, you are also a son to the father.

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Do you see the glory of this? The sons are free. When we are connected to Jesus, we have the freedom before God as sons.

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Now, women in the room right now might be saying, but I'm a lady, right?

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Let me just say in Jewish thought, what's really important in Jewish thought is the firstborn son was the heir.

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He had the preeminence. In Jewish thought, the son was the heir and the preeminent one who covered and managed all things for the family and inherited all these things.

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So the son carried everything along to take care of the family from the father. The son was the supreme one.

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The son was the heir. The son had preeminence. So in Jewish thought, to be called a son of God means that God has exalted you and lifted you up and given you an identity in his family that is supreme.

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So men and women, we are sons of God. We have the standing of preeminence.

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And so Jesus tells Peter, that's my father's temple. Do you think I owe taxes to it?

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No, you're a son, right? The sons are free. We are not obligated because we are sons of the father.

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The sons are free. Jesus makes us sons by adoption.

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Now what's powerful here is what Jesus says next. I'm going to unpack a little more about this in a moment, but just hang on to that.

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The sons are free. So Jesus does something though. He says this. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook, not a net.

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Don't go fishing with a net. A hook, a single hook. Catch a single fish.

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Trippy. Take the first fish out that comes up, and when you open its mouth, you'll find a shekel.

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Now I want to point something out here about what Jesus says. He says, however, not to give offense to them.

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Jesus has no obligation to the temple tax. And his followers, because something greater than the temple is there, that temple is essentially defunct because Jesus, what it all pointed to, is right there in front of us.

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We're sons of God. We have no obligation to that. God's about to shake all that up and destroy it.

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This is the real temple right here. But Jesus says, however, not to offend them.

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Go ahead and catch a single fish. You're going to find a coin there. Watch this.

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This coin in the mouth, a shekel, amounts to four drachma, which is enough for two people's temple tax.

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One coin. So not only does Jesus absorb us into his self and give us all the benefits and blessings as sons, but when he provides for our needs, he provides for them in unity with him.

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One coin together. But he says, not to offend them. And this is where I think we need to take some principles, because Jesus could have said, watch this.

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Something greater than the temple is here. That temple is defunct, and it's gone and over with now. I'm going to provide the ultimate sacrifice.

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I'm going to be the one and only mediator between you and the Father. I am the temple you all come into.

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It can never be destroyed. I will raise it up. Jesus could say, you don't have to pay that temple tax.

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But he says, however, not to offend them. Go ahead and pay the temple tax. And I think we need to learn from this a principle as Christians, the principle that Jesus teaches us.

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Ready? Two things. There is, according to Jesus, necessary offense and two, unnecessary offense.

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Remember those two principles from Jesus. Necessary offense and unnecessary offense.

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What's that look like? Well, I'll just give you a couple things here. One, unnecessary offense. Jesus offended the religious leaders, did he not?

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Lots of times. In this very text, in Matthew 15, 12,

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Jesus confronted them and offended them with their tradition of washing the hands.

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Remember that one? Where he told them, you are making God's word void for the sake of your tradition.

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You're adding things to God's word with these traditions that are contradicting the law of God.

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Watch, he says, Moses says this, but you say that. And thus, you invalidate

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God's word for the sake of your tradition. Question, offensive or no? Yes.

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So is Jesus teaching us, because I'm only saying this for a reason. Watch, we live in a culture of a bunch of wusses.

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Seriously, completely cowardly evangelicals. I don't even like to call myself an evangelical anymore, because it's lost all of its meaning.

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And I don't want to be associated in any way with the cowards, who will not step on people's toes, because they don't want to be unloving to offend.

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I want to say this, you're not following the same Jesus I am. Because the Jesus that I know of, from this word in Revelation, offended people necessarily.

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When they were violating God's word, when they were violating God's law, when they were placing burdens on the backs of people that God never intended to be there, he confronted them.

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He called them whitewashed tombs. He called them brood of vipers, snakes, liars, hypocrites, frauds.

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Jesus here, we can't proof text this and say, Jesus says, don't offend people, so just go ahead and go along with it.

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No, Jesus has moments where he has necessary offense, and in the moments where it was unnecessary, he didn't do it.

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Necessary offense would be like, for example, adding to God's law, contradicting God's law, burdening people with things

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God never intended. But an unnecessary offense matches the identity of Messiah.

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Isaiah 42, 2, what's it say about the Messiah? Well, Matthew quoted it, go to it,

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Matthew 12, verse 19. Matthew quotes from Isaiah 42, verse 2.

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He says in verse 17 of chapter 12 of Matthew, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased,

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I'll put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles, he will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets, a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory.

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You see, that identifies exactly who Jesus is. Jesus doesn't unnecessarily offend people, he only necessarily offends them.

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Only when necessary does Jesus offend, not when it's unnecessary. Jesus could have said,

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I'm the temple, you don't owe that tax, that thing's going away, but Jesus says this, so as to not offend them and give them the wrong impression of my relationship to the father and your relationship to the father, go ahead and go fishing with a single hook, catch a fish, the money will be there,

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I'll provide it, go pay that temple tax so that people know that we are loyal to Yahweh, but you don't owe it.

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We're not gonna offend them unnecessarily. This principle gets worked out all throughout scripture, you see it in Paul, 1

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Corinthians chapter eight, there's a dispute between believers in Corinth about whether you can eat meat sacrificed to idols.

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These people came out of idolatry and they're having a struggle in church. Just consider it, you've got the church split in Corinth where you've got some people saying, it's fine to eat this meat, it's just meat, and other guys going, guys, we just got saved out of that stuff, that's going to idols, we can't eat meat sacrificed to idols, it's unholy meat, it's tainted meat, and this is what

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Paul says here, watch, shut up. How do you solve this problem in the church?

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Well, here's how you solve it, shut up. Don't destroy your brother or your sister for the sake of food.

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Don't unnecessarily offend somebody. There's no reason behind it, there's nothing that's a benefit at the end of that, a goal to that that you wanna get to to offend someone in that way.

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You see this worked out all throughout scripture. We need to think as Christians about our behavior and how we interact with the world and say, is this a necessary offense where I must offend this person with the truth or is it unnecessary?

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Can I give you some examples just quickly? You can probably multiply these over and over and over again. In our culture today, the issue of gender, the issue of gender, is it necessary to speak the truth and to offend on the issue of gender?

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Yes. The issue of sexual relationships, is it necessary to offend people with the truth?

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The issue of the cults and false religions, is it necessary to offend with the truth? The issue of abortion, is it necessary to offend with the truth?

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Cigars, head coverings, essential oils, vaccines, wine, beer.

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You see, do you get the point? There are things that we have to say in principle, I must necessarily stand on the truth and speak the truth here and necessarily offend you.

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Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying in any way, please don't hear it because I will rebuke you if you do it.

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Do not hear in what I'm saying that I'm telling you to be offensive. The gospel is already offensive enough,

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God doesn't need your help, all right? The point is we see in Jesus and his life in ministry, sinners loved

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Jesus, sinners hung out with Jesus, they actually were drawn to Jesus, they wanted to be around Jesus, but he always told them the truth.

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How do you get that? Because he loved people, because he was kind to people and gentle, because they saw in him that he loves me enough to tell me the truth, but yet Jesus did offend,

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Jesus did confront, never forget that Jesus was so offensive to the religious leaders of his day that they captured him and they murdered him.

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That's how offensive Jesus was to them. But in these areas over non -essentials,

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Jesus says, don't offend them, just get the temple tax and just pay it.

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We need to know the difference between a necessary offense and unnecessary offenses. Okay, let's finish up here.

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Matthew 17, I love this so much. However, not to give offense, verse 27, to them.

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Go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up. When he opened his mouth, you'll find a shekel.

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What do we see in this? We see that Jesus provides for our needs. He's already been doing that throughout the entire gospel, according to Matthew.

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He's already been showing that he's Yahweh. He provides for all of our needs. Jesus feeds the multitudes.

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He feeds thousands upon thousands of people with fish and loaves.

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He does it multiple times. Jesus cares for the needs of his people. And he says in Matthew 6, this same book,

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I want to stay in the same book for now. In Matthew 6, Jesus has that epic discourse where Jesus tells us, his children, he tells us, he says this, do not be anxious.

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Can any of you guys add a single hour to your life by your worry? No, so stop.

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He says, God knows the sparrows. Not one of them falls dead from a tree apart from your father's will.

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Look at the birds. They don't toil, sow, nothing. God feeds them.

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How much more value are you, of how much more value are you than these birds?

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Your father knows you. Your father will provide for all your needs. And here's another one of those markers in the gospel according to Matthew.

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Jesus provides for our needs. He satisfies us. He's in control.

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I love that it's a hook. Can I just say this? We're almost done. I love that it's a hook and not a net.

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He doesn't say, cast this huge net, which Peter was accustomed to, catch a bunch of fish.

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He's a professional fisherman. He says, go cast a single hook and cast and get a single fish.

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And that fish that you get, there's gonna be a shekel, one coin, one coin in there that will count for both our temple taxes.

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Go pay it together. What did God have to do in order to make that happen?

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There's so much water. There's so much water and there's so many fish.

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I am horrible at fishing. I hate camping. If you ever invite me to camp,

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I will find a way out of it. If you ever invite me fishing,

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I will be so grateful. It is such a lovely gesture, but I'm gonna tell you how much I absolutely hate it.

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I hate camping and I hate fishing. And I think part of it is that it's number one,

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I'm comfortable, and number two, I'm not any good at it at all. Last time, my wife and I went actually camping with friends like in the woods, like in a tent.

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We were supposed to be there like four or five days, like with pastors and friends out in the middle of nowhere.

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We lasted one night. The next morning, as soon as the sun was up, I had something to do.

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And on my way out of the woods, I crashed our car into a tree. I'm not any good at it.

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But when we go fishing, I didn't mean to crash my car into a tree. I just happened to do it because I was so upset about my surroundings.

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But we went fishing. Last time we went, I think it was a leadership retreat.

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That tells you how much I love you as a church and our leaders is that I go camping with our leaders.

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But last time we went fishing, the kids caught more fish than I did. I caught this little tiny stupid fish.

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And I even used all the different things. We were like, you know, use a worm, use a special thing. I went to the fish store.

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Is that what you call it? And I bought, I even spent like money to get very special like fishing things, the colorful things that wind around and like, you know, have special scents in them or whatever.

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And I couldn't catch any fish. People were like, you should use a marshmallow. I'm like, oh yeah, right.

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So fish like marshmallows. Yeah, I'm not stupid. And it turns out they actually do. And I still could only catch a little mini fish.

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But here's my point. In all the time that I've ever been fishing, not being any good at it, I know how stinking hard it is to fish.

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It is hard. And you have to have so much patience and so much love for that lifestyle.

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And you just really have to be into it because it's so taxing on you. It is.

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But when you catch one, man, it's like so exciting. And I do love to watch children when they catch a fish because it's just such an exciting experience.

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For them, I enjoy it. They drag that fish in, they get that fish. It's really cool to catch that fish because you don't know what's out there and there's so much space and water and fish and you finally got one.

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It bit onto your hook. It's an amazing thing. And then Jesus says, go out, don't use your nets.

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It's a little easier apparently. He says, use a hook, catch a fish. He says, the one you catch, there's gonna be a shekel in it.

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It'll count for my tax and yours. I'll provide for us together. You're in me now. You're a son of the kingdom.

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I'll provide for us together. Can I ask just some questions? It makes me think. Like how long did that fish have that shekel in its mouth?

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Right? And then again, how did it happen? Because I don't think in those days, like they had pants with pockets.

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Where did he keep the coin? How did it fall overboard? How long was it floating around in the water before a fish came and snatched it up?

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And what in the world was that fish thinking? Just grabs a shekel, just swimming around with it and then sees a hook one day and grabs that one and God has ordained every single thing.

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See, watch. When you ask the question, just how sovereign is God? Well, he says he declares the end from the beginning.

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He does according to his will among the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. No one can stay his hand and say, what have you done?

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Just how sovereign is God? He's so sovereign. He's so completely sovereign that he actually wheels the universe down to the water and the fish and a shekel into the mouth and a hook and a rod and one man pulling it out.

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How much is God controlling? I think R .C. Sproul was exactly right. There is not a maverick molecule in the entire universe.

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He is so sovereign and his providence controls every single detail, everything.

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I think that this is so amazing that Jesus can say, let's not offend him, go fishing, single hook, catch that fish,

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I'll take care of us both, I got you. This is what, watch, this is what caused the apostles to live such risky lives because they experienced and tasted the stuff with Jesus and it caused them to see that I can really trust him, he'll provide for my needs, he wields the universe.

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How much so, how does he wield the universe? Down to the fish, down to coins and fish's mouths.

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It's powerful. Final words here, final words. Take that and give it to them for me and yourself.

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What do we learn from this? Jesus is the temple. The other one is no longer going to be necessary.

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It's no longer necessary. Jesus isn't teaching, this is important. I don't know if I was clear enough when I said this.

01:00:02

Let me try to say it again so I can make sure I'm clear. If you unwrap this or unpack it a certain way, it kind of sounds like Jesus is saying, well the sons are free in the kingdom so they don't have to pay the taxes.

01:00:14

Well does that mean that the unbelievers in the kingdom are the ones that are paying the taxes to fund the temple?

01:00:20

Is Jesus teaching that? That's not the point. Jesus is saying the sons are free with him because ultimately in this case, the temple is no longer necessary.

01:00:32

We are free as we are united to him. In Matthew 16,

01:00:38

Jesus is called the son of the living God. In Matthew 17, the father shouts from heaven, this is my beloved son.

01:00:47

And then Jesus calls us here the sons. We are free. So this shout over this message, the banner over it all is this.

01:00:56

What is Jesus teaching here? He's teaching this, ready? We are free. Free from what?

01:01:03

Well in Christ, we're free from the building. We're free from that place.

01:01:10

In one location with stones and mortar that's built up that can be torn down and destroyed.

01:01:16

We're free from that one experience over there in that spot. Just think about Mecca today,

01:01:23

Muslims. Part of their tenets of what they must do in Islam is they have to take a trip to Mecca, right?

01:01:30

To worship there. You see them just sort of walking around this thing by the thousands, right?

01:01:35

Because what, this is holy. This place over here is holy. This is the holy site.

01:01:41

It's the revered site. You know what God does in Jesus? He frees us completely because everything that temple pointed to is fulfilled in Jesus.

01:01:50

We're free from that building. We're free from the animal sacrifices. Did you hear that?

01:01:57

No more Yom Kippur. No more day of actually atonements.

01:02:03

No more sacrifices, annual reminders. Do you get it? We're sons and free.

01:02:09

That temple's gonna be obsolete. You don't need to worry about the sacrifices anymore. You're free from the priesthood ultimately because now we have

01:02:16

Christ, one God and one man, the mediator, Christ Jesus, between us and the

01:02:22

Father. No more animal sacrifices, no more priesthood, no more temple, no more building, no more holy of holies.

01:02:31

We're free in Jesus. The Son is free. We are free in Jesus. That temple is ultimately obsolete.

01:02:39

It's over. It's done. The people who draw near to Jesus are brought together in union with him into banner over it all.

01:02:51

Freedom. Freedom. And the final word

01:02:56

I have to say on this is this. It's hard for us to get this. It's hard for me to get this because we weren't raised as Jews under the hearing of Torah with the temple going to Jerusalem, touching those walls, seeing the priest go in before us and God, wondering if he's gonna come out, being reminded constantly of our sin.

01:03:20

We can't see the earth -shattering nature of this unless we embrace the glory of Jesus as the fulfillment of it all.

01:03:29

Do you know what it means now for you and I to be in Christ? That we get to go before God now in bold and confident access.

01:03:40

Do you realize that Jews couldn't do that? Do you get the, yeah, bold and confident access.

01:03:46

Bold and confident access. Jews couldn't just storm into the presence of God.

01:03:52

They couldn't just storm into the holy of holies. They couldn't just break through that veil and just start coming in with bold, confident access because they had their sin to contend with.

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Messiah had not yet come. They had someone that was the go -between between them and God, but that person was also a sinner.

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And maybe they couldn't make it to Jerusalem. It was too far away. They couldn't go to that place where God's presence was identified on earth.

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But now in Christ, you and I can worship God in spirit and in truth. We don't need the building.

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We don't need the temple because we have him in the heavens forever. And he has raised us up with Christ, seated with him in the heavenlies, given us every spiritual blessing with once for all sacrifice and a savior that's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.

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The sons are free. And you are free indeed if you're in Jesus.

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So the call, repent and believe the gospel. Jesus is God, the

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Messiah, lived perfectly, died for sinners and rose from the dead. What in the world are you waiting for?

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Come to Christ and live. Turn from your sins to the living God and trust in Jesus. Come and join

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Christ and be forgiven and saved. Be called sons with Christ.