WWUTT 2078 Render to the God of the Living (Matthew 22:15-33)

Jesus said to render unto Caesar those things that belong to Caesar and render unto

God the things that belong to God. Well, what belongs to God that doesn't belong to Caesar? Namely, you!

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we've been in Chapter 22 and we're moving on to the next section today.

As a matter of fact, we've got some more challenges of Jesus. Other groups of people come challenging

Christ, beginning with the Pharisees followed by the Sadducees. I'm reading here from the

Legacy Standard Bible verses 15 to 33. Hear the word of the

Lord. Then the Pharisees went and took counsel together about how they might trap

Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians, saying,

Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one, for you are not partial to any.

Therefore tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to give a tax to Caesar or not?

But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said, Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

Show me the coin used for the tax. And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them,

Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to Him, Caesar's. Then He said to them,

Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are

God's. And hearing this, they marveled. And leaving Him, they went away.

On that day some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked

Him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up a seed for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers with us, and the first married and died, and having no seed, he left his wife to his brother.

So also the second and the third, down to the seventh, and last of all, the woman died.

In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be?

For they all had married her. But Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken, not understanding the

Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,

I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the

God of the dead, but of the living. And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

So in this account, you've got three groups that come to Jesus trying to trap him.

You've got the Pharisees and the Herodians in the first exchange, and then you have the Sadducees in the second exchange.

So this first one, of course, is about rendering unto Caesar those things that belong to Caesar, and then the second question is with regards to the resurrection of the dead.

So let's come back to verse 15 here. The Pharisees went and took counsel together about how they might trap him in what he said.

Now, if you'll recall, we just finished up a trilogy of parables. You had the parable of the two sons and the parable of the vine growers, which were at the end of chapter 21.

And in those two parables, in both parables, Jesus asked a question to the Pharisees, and their answer

Jesus used against them, really incriminating themselves with the way that they responded.

Then Jesus gave the parable of the wedding feast, which we looked at yesterday. Jesus doesn't ask them a question there, but the

Pharisees know that he's talking about them in that parable. So here

Jesus has made fools out of them. He's asked them questions they've answered, and Jesus used their answers against them.

So the Pharisees are thinking, what if we can do the same? What kind of question can we ask that will catch

Jesus in this trap, and we can use his words against him?

He's made fools out of us. Let's see if we can make a fool out of him. That appears to be their motivation here.

And there is something behind this question that they ask. They think that they've come up with the perfect question that's going to get him in trouble with somebody.

So we'll look at the nature of the question, and then even understand how Jesus' answer has practical application for us today.

So in verse 16, they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.

Now the Jews and the Herodians did not really get along. The Herodians, by the way, were of the house of Herod.

This wasn't the Herods themselves, but those who were loyal to the Herods. The Herods were of the

Edomites. They were descended from the Edomites, which are the descendants of Esau. So there is a kinship there.

The Jews are descended from Jacob, of course, and the Herodians are descended from Esau. There's a kinship, but they don't get along with one another.

However, in this particular instance, there's somebody that they dislike more than they dislike each other, and that's

Jesus. So here they're teaming up to come against Jesus, both with the same motivation.

We think we can get Jesus in trouble here, either with the people or with the Romans. So they think they have this perfect question that they can ask him that will get him in trouble with someone.

So they say to him, Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one, for you are not partial to any.

Now, they don't really think that Jesus is truthful. They have tried to convince the people that Jesus is a liar, but as they're coming to Jesus to trap him in this question, they don't want to make it look like to the people that they have hostile intentions.

They want to make it look like, we're just asking a good faith question here. Jesus, we want him to answer.

So the people might be on their side with this question that they ask and the answer that Jesus gives.

So here's the question, verse 17, Therefore tell us, what do you think?

Is it lawful to give a tax to Caesar or not? Now, why do they think that they've come up with the perfect question?

Because if Jesus says, yes, you do have to pay taxes to Caesar.

Well, that is going to be a disappointment to the people that are around him. Remember, they think he's their king.

They think Jesus is the one from the line of David who has come, is going to assume the throne, and he's going to free us from the oppression that we are under at the hands of the

Romans. That's exactly what they were shouting when Jesus was coming into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry just a couple of days before this.

Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So they think at some point here, and maybe this is what

Jesus is even doing here, he's going to march himself over to the palace of Herod.

Notice again, you've got the Herodians that are right here as part of asking Jesus this question. Jesus is just going to march right over there to the palace and kick the

Herodians out, assume the throne, and then deal with the Romans. So if Jesus says that you don't have to pay taxes to Caesar, that's just going to break their hearts.

Hang on now. Isn't this the guy that's supposed to be releasing us from the oppression of Rome, and yet he's telling us we have to pay taxes to Rome?

So that would set the people against him. They might even become hostile toward him.

And the Pharisees and the Herodians are going to be rubbing their hands going, yeah, we got it. All right, all right. That'll disperse his crowd.

So he no longer has the people in the palm of his hand. Remember that the people were also shouting of him that he was the prophet from Nazareth.

When he comes riding into Jerusalem, and some don't know who he is, they say, this is the prophet of Nazareth.

They think he's a prophet. They think he's their king. The Pharisees and the Herodians are trying to get the people to turn on him.

They think they can do that with this question. But if Jesus answers the other way, if he says, no, you don't have to pay taxes to Caesar, well, that might make the crowd all the more enthusiastic for him.

But it would make the Romans really angry. And the Romans might accuse him of planning an insurrection, some kind of rebellion.

So they would come and arrest Jesus. And then once again, the Pharisees and the Herodians, they feel like they've won here.

That takes care of our Jesus problem. But Jesus doesn't answer either way that they expect him to answer.

He doesn't say, yes, pay taxes to the heartbreak of the people or don't pay taxes to the ire of the

Romans. Instead, he very shrewdly responds this way. First of all, he turns it back on them.

He says, why are you testing me, you hypocrites? So putting them in their place and then says in verse 19, show me the coin that is used for the tax.

And they brought him a denarius, which was a day's wage. Now, denarius was also made of silver.

It had a likeness and an inscription on it. You know this because we just read the text. It has

Caesar's likeness and his inscription. Archaeologists love to find coins like this.

When you're in a dig site, you're going to find a lot of pottery. You might find remnants of weapons.

You know, there will be outlines of different buildings and things like that. But archaeologists love finding coins because the coin will tell you exactly the time frame in which they're digging at this site.

It's almost like a cheat. You don't have to do like the carbon dating and stuff like that to figure out the dates of everything.

If you find a coin, you're like, OK, I know exactly the time and place in which we are digging here before we have the

Gregorian calendar system like we use today that gives us our days of the week, our months, our years.

Before that, people measured time before we had Anno Domini in B .C. before Christ, people measured time according to who was a ruler.

Like the Egyptians, for example, when you go into the Egyptian records, the archaeologists get an idea of what kind of year or time frame they're talking about in the

Egyptian writings because it will be mentioned in connection with a particular ruler. So most civilizations marked time by who was ruler.

Even Luke in the Gospel of Luke, he shows you about the time frame that these events are taking place according to who was ruling at the time in Luke one five in the days of Herod, king of Judea.

There was a priest named Zechariah in Luke two. Now it happened in those days that decree went out from Caesar Augustus in Luke three one.

Now, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea.

So even the author of Luke is showing us about what time these things were taking place according to who was ruling.

And so here at this time, it would have been a coin with Tiberius Caesar on it, just as Luke said in in Luke three, because it was in those days.

So the coin Caesar's impression on that coin would have been Tiberius. And that was for a limited time.

When a new Caesar arose, then another coin would be minted. And again, the archaeologists, they would love that because that tells them about the time frame in which they're digging up this particular site whenever they find the next

Caesar that's imprinted on that coin. But here Jesus is is citing is referencing this impression on the coin and asking them whose likeness and inscription is this.

And they said to him, Caesars, you know, they answer the question, really not knowing what's coming.

But then Jesus so brilliantly says to them, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are

Caesars. So should you pay taxes? Yes. He has instructed them to pay their taxes without out explicitly saying to pay your taxes to Caesar.

But the logic by which he does it, I mean, it's it's irrefutable. He could have just answered the question and said, yeah, you have to pay taxes to Caesar.

We're instructed to do so in Scripture, Romans 13, six. Because of this, you also pay taxes for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

And we read previously Jesus and Peter, the exchange between them where Jesus told him to pay taxes and Peter went and caught a fish in the coin that fell out.

That was the tax that he was going to pay. So we we do see these lessons in Scripture on paying taxes.

But Jesus has just presented that lesson with irrefutable logic. Render unto

Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and render unto God the things that belong to God.

Now, though it's not explicitly said, what is implied with that answer is this question.

Whose image is on you? Whose image is on the coin?

That's Caesars. So render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar whose image is on you. You don't belong to Caesar.

You belong to God. And so render unto God, you yourself, everything that you are live fully unto the

Lord. As said in Genesis 127, we have been made in the image of God. You have been made to glorify

God in all that you do. May it be a glory to God. As said in Romans 12, one in view of God's mercy, present your bodies as living sacrifices unto the

Lord. This is your spiritual act of worship. First Corinthians 620, you were bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body. Chapter seven, verse 23, you were bought with a price.

Do not become slaves of men. So it is implied there in this response that Jesus gives that God's image is on you.

So render unto the Lord those things that belong to God. You belong to God.

So render yourself unto God. In verse 22, hearing this, they marveled and leaving him, they went away.

Now the Pharisees aren't totally gone away. They come back at verse 34. And then we also have the seven woes that are on the way in the next chapter.

We'll get to that next week, at least start chapter 23, where Jesus, uh, issues woes to the scribes and the

Pharisees. But before we get there, Jesus has this exchange with the Sadducees. Now what's the difference between the

Pharisees and the Sadducees? They were both of the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling council.

The Sadducees though, were more of like the upper echelon. The Pharisees might've been more like the working man.

They would have worked alongside many of the other Jews. The Sadducees were appointed their power with the

Romans and they enjoyed the power that they had. So it would also be from the

Sadducees that the high priest might be chosen. But nonetheless, the two of them did work together in the, in the

Sanhedrin and rendering judgments and counsel and things of that nature. There were significant theological differences between the

Sadducees and the Pharisees. What said here in this exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees, verse 23, on that same day, some

Sadducees who say there is no resurrection. The Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection of the dead.

And as I've heard Erwin Lutzer say, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.

And so that's why they were sad. You see, if you didn't get that, it'll, it'll sink in later anyway.

So they came to Jesus and they ask him this question. Now they're doing like the Pharisees and the, and the

Herodians did. They want to try to catch Jesus in this question, maybe make a fool out of him in front of the people.

When he's unable to answer the question, the Sadducees want the people to believe that there is no resurrection of the dead.

The Pharisees did believe that the Sadducees did not. So here's the question they ask in verse 24.

They say, teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up a seed for his brother.

Now this was called Leverett marriage. This was in the law of Moses. So that a man's would not be blotted out of Israel.

And so that his possession, his entitlement to the land, so that it would stay in the family.

If a man dies childless, then his brother will marry his wife and do the duty of, of a brother by, uh, by bringing forth seed.

The firstborn belongs to the brother who is deceased. Anyway, I'm not going to go into a whole, uh, lesson on marriage, but that's the law that they're quoting from.

So a brother dies, his wife is left to, uh, the brother that was under him.

Now there were seven brothers with us, the Sadducees say, and the first married and died and having no seed, he left his wife to his brother.

So also the second and the third down to the seventh. And last of all, the woman died.

So in the resurrection, the Sadducees are just so proud of themselves. They think they really got a good question here in the resurrection.

Therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be for? They all had married her, but Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God for in the resurrection.

They neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven as though to say, holy, the angels don't marry the angels don't procreate.

And so in heaven, there's no longer any of that. We have marriage here on earth and it is a wonderful, blessed earthly union.

But this union is meant to show the union that Christ has with his church.

This is what Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter five, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her wives submit to your husbands as to the

Lord. And then talks about how marriage between a husband and a wife is supposed to be a demonstration of the way that Christ loves his church.

And we read in revelation, I quoted this earlier when we were going through the parables, but in revelation, talking about the wedding feast of the lamb and the bride, that is the church that has been prepared for Christ on that day.

So when we get to heaven, as the bride of Christ, we are united with Christ forever in glory.

And there is no need for marriage because we will have that perfect union with Christ. So therefore no getting married and being given in marriage in heaven, but we're like angels in heaven, glorifying

God forever in his presence. Verse 34 in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying,

I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the

God of the dead, but of the living. So even when it is said,

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that is to pronounce they're with me. They're with me in glory.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still alive. They're with God in the heavenly places.

And verse 33, when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

What good news that is for us though, my friends, that in Christ, our eternity is secure.

There is a resurrection of the dead and we will be raised together with him to dwell with him forever in glory.

So we've had these two lessons today, one, a very earthly lesson and one, a heavenly lesson, weren't they?

The earthly lesson, while we're here on earth, we've got certain responsibilities as citizens that live on earth, rendering unto

Caesar, those things that belong to Caesar. And yet, even as we live on this earth, we are to render unto

God, the things that belong to God, namely ourselves, that we would live fully unto the

Lord. In the second lesson, we have our eyes pulled toward heaven and recognizing that God is the

God of the living and we will live forever with him in glory. So let us take these lessons to heart, living unto

God now until we live with him forever in heaven. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this good word that we have received.

And may it be a strong encouragement to us, even convicting that we would be obedient unto

God here in this life, doing those things that you have called us to do, even submitting to governing authorities.

And we do that to the glory of God. And then we look forward to that time when we will enter into the glory of God and we will dwell with you forever in your most holy place.

May we follow the instruction given to us in Colossians 3 to seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the viewers.