Synoptics Section 280

Sounds like fun. I was all the way out.

I was a distance out there today. Yes, that's for sure All right, we are pressing on believe it or not in the blue book

If you would like to grab hold of those Where's George and the whole the whole room just seems?

Tilted without George where George needs to be we will be looking at a

Very interesting section. I have a feeling Brother Callahan would have a lot of comments on this one, too.

This is Matthew chapter 22 Mark chapter 12 Luke chapter 20 if you don't have a

Synoptic parallel section 280 I think we'll go with Luke's version.

How's that Luke chapter 20 verse 20?

So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere

That they might take hold of what he said so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor

They asked him teacher. We know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality

But truly teach the way of God Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

But he perceived their craftiness and said to them show me a coin Whose likeness and inscription has it they said

Caesars He said to them then rendered a Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are

God's And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him by what he said, but marveling at his answer

They were silent now most folks

Have been the church any period of time Uh No verse 25

It may not know what the reference is, but most of us can quote And render the

Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's and you'll notice that that's

Pretty much the exact same phraseology all the way across Matthew Mark and Luke Much has been written on this text and Much has been made.

I Think you have to address this text. You have to talk about this text when you study

Romans 13 and when you deal with the issue of the

Christian and government But let's remember first before getting into all that stuff what the context was and how this was very clearly a a desperate

Devious, what did what was Luke's term here crafty? Yes, the he perceived their craftiness mark says but knowing their hypocrisy

And Matthew has but Jesus aware of their malice Now there that's where I like where you have got the synoptic

Gospels. And so you've got malice hypocrisy and craftiness There's a there's a nice string of descriptive

Words to describe the attitudes that Jesus is facing now remember where we are

We're in Passion Week Jesus has already cleansed the temple.

There is a massive amount of friction. There is just These men are trying to find a way to get rid of Jesus and by the end the week they think they've accomplished that and So it's also a very charged atmosphere for other reasons.

It's not just the fighting between Jesus and his disciples and the Pharisees and and all of that But this is also the week coming up to the the high holy day

Passover and that means the population of Jerusalem is greatly inflated and And What that means is you have all sorts of people from someplace else

People who are visiting Who are away from home tend to be a little more?

Shall we say Excitable You have all sorts of different languages represented

The Romans have more soldiers in the city than normal and have significantly less patience than normal They're always looking for insurrectionists

People who are going to try to start a rebellion That's always just bubbling under the surface.

You have the people who are called the zealots. There's even a zealot amongst Jesus's disciples and You have the the stresses and strains between the various Jewish groups the

Pharisees the Sadducees the zealots for example felt the Sadducees were traitors because they would work with the

Romans and The Sadducees were happy to turn over the zealots once they knew who they were to the

Romans and so you had divisions amongst the people as well and And so in the midst of all this is the constant

Political cultural friction of the fact that if you think we pay taxes

Many people in this day lived on a subsistence level We we have a hard time even understanding

The difficulty of that time the economy simply could not produce jobs

Much worse than anything we've ever known maybe you know maybe go back to depression days, and you might start getting some idea but Tough times and that's why publicans are hated so much because they collect the taxes

They're considered traitors, and so it is a it's a powder keg situation

That four decades later would explode in the full -scale rebellion that results in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and Roman legions and so These individuals that are sent

Those who says Mark says they sent him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians Mark is specific examples of who they were and Matthew also gives this information they sent the disciples to him along with the

Herodians But Luke tells us about how they're acting they pretended to be sincere now that would be pretty difficult for Pharisees and Herodians to do

I'm not sure that that they did it real well But they pretend to be sincere

For a specific purpose to entrap him in his talk to take hold of what he said

So as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. They realized. This is the perfect time for doing this because the patience of the

Romans would be very thin at this point and In the you know it's always easy to say well for the public good

For the public good we need to do this we need to engage in this abusive behavior over here that abusive behavior over there and Might want to think about that in our own day.

It seems a lot of people willing to trade rights for the feeling of security and That's happening all around us and so they come to him and They start off buttering him up You would think by now

I mean how many times up to this point in in the in the narrative has

Jesus? discerned their thoughts and intentions He has

Refuted their arguments before they actually announced them he knew was filled their hearts but they haven't gotten it and And So they come to him and they just decide to speak well of him we know that you speak and teach rightly

We know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and care for no man

If you do not regard the position of men You show no partiality you truly teach the way of God.

Oh my Flowery flowery speech now

I'm sure that none of us today would ever be taken in by anything like that. I mean people come up to us and they compliment us and they they speak about how much we've helped them and how good a speaker we are a teacher we are whatever it might be and and We just we would never be taken in by that, right?

Well, I'll be pretty honest with you. I do a lot of speaking and When people come up to me after I've spoken and they start this way,

I get really nervous. I'm getting ready I'm you know, tightening the abs and getting the feet right because here comes here comes just you know, you know

I don't expect necessarily a physical swing, but I'm just waiting for the other the other shoe to drop because I Know something's coming and Something was coming in this situation

Because as soon as they as they say no say say You don't show any partiality.

You don't care about the position of any man You don't worry about that governor up there and all those smelly

Roman soldiers of their lances and swords see So you speak the truth?

We know you'll never compromise and We know there are lots of Jewish people around here that hate the

Romans and hate their taxation and consider them to be foreign invaders They don't really have any right here besides that God's covenant.

God's covenant says this is the land of Israel, isn't it? What do we have a lot of that today a?

Lot of discussions about that today too and a lot of this differing opinions even in Washington about things like that.

And so It is a it is a powder keg It truly is an explosive thing after saying you don't respect the position of any man

You're not going to compromise just because somebody has power and authority and all the rest that stuff just Without without almost even a transitionary statement certainly in Luke there isn't any there isn't any in Mark There is a slight one in Matthew You truly teach the way of God Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not boom there it is now

This is They are really really really trying to get something here.

That would be a Strong accusation They want a public statement that they can take to the governor and say this man is forbidding people to give tribute to Rome That's gonna get the governor involved no question about it, but at the same time they know

That if he simply goes Well, yeah now What do they accomplish with that they've thought this through?

If he says no, we've got him with the governor If he says yes

We've begun to separate him from the crowd and what was their greatest fear? How many times we read in the text no one laid hands on him because well the crowd considered him a prophet and he was very popular with the crowd and So I didn't want to do that and and so one way or the other they figure

This is a great question. We've got him here, but Jesus wasn't taken in now there are times

I Can well know? That what somebody is saying?

I just know they're coming and they're trying to do the same thing. They're trying to trap me that you know It's probably an mp3 recorder.

I love the guys just come up to you with a video camera like this you know and How long will it take this to get on YouTube you know and that type of situation so those the obvious ones?

But that doesn't mean just because I know That I've got to be really careful here that I will necessarily have a meaningful thing to say

Jesus's response has been identified down through history as one of the

Most amazing quick replies that anyone's ever given to a

Explosive question where someone's really trying to Score a point and yet at the same time like I said entire books have been written on the principles enunciated in this very brief response

One of the reasons we can do that is that Jesus doesn't expand upon it and neither do any of the writers.

I mean, there's just You know sometimes some of the parables. You know you have long discussions and expansions and explanations now

It says show me a coin bring me a coin or as Matthew puts it Matthew Jesus says

Why put me to the test you hypocrites Show me the money for the tax

And they brought him a coin and Jesus said to them whose likeness and inscription is this and they said

Caesars They bring him a coin. I should have thought about doing this I forgot apologize, but I could have brought in some coins

I have I have some coins in the Roman period and Whoever the

Caesar was did seem to like to have his likeness stamped on everything even if he wasn't

Caesar for a long time, or if he had a nose that barely fit on a round coin to begin with and I have a couple of those and so they they bring him a coin and There's Caesars image on the coin and Jesus says whose likeness and inscription is it

I don't think Jesus was confused as to who this was he was getting them to Confess these things and they said it's

Caesars and so he then in a single sentence with with two main clauses

Lays out an incredible statement then rendered a Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are

God's Wow They were amazed they were marveled.

They marveled at him, etc. Etc Are the responses to this hadn't they ever thought of this before?

I mean When you think back, you know, we're going through Jeremiah right now on Sunday evenings and if you and it's hard it's a little hard to do but if you are if you try to follow some of the

Chronology of what's going on in Jeremiah? The the people the 70 years begins the 70 years of captivity begins when

Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem 586 587 I say 586 587 because they did not

Measure the year from January to January. So when you Mention a year back then it will normally

Take up parts of two of our years some nations that it's spring to spring some fall to fall it depended and Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 587 and that's when the 70 years began but not all the people are taken at that time and So there's a period of time before then there's another little rebellion and finally everybody's dragged off and etc, etc.

So When you look at all that when you look at There's a period of time when they're still in the land, but they're now under Babylonian captivity domination and and Jeremiah is saying

Submit submit submit and they're saying no no, no, and then you get all the stuff going on Anyway during that time period

You have you know people saying no. No, this is we are God's people and this is

God's temple and He'd ever bring judgment here and you had

Jeremiah trying to say look God has placed you in this position for these reasons and you are to submit to this

And people could always argue But we have the covenant promises and this is the land and we should rebel and blah blah blah blah blah

Hadn't anyone ever, you know considered possibly in light of what happened the fact that Jeremiah he's in the can the scripture

You know, he's viewed as a prophet He had a lot to say about stuff like this.

Hadn't anyone ever thought Rendered the same Caesar the things that are Caesars. It's got his likeness an image on it's his money

He's in charge That's the governmental authority You ready to Caesar the things of Caesar, but you render to God the things for God's and There is like I said entire books and not all of them necessarily agree with each other.

In fact, I would imagine Even within What would consider to be the same area of movement you will find different applications and understandings of exactly how to take a single sentence and Apply it to all the different situations that we face in life now sometimes

That bothers us Sometimes If we're honest ourselves

Look at something like that and go. Wow, what a very pithy statement that is But it's too pithy

I'd like a few paragraphs of expansion, please. I'd like a few paragraphs of application, please

And I'll be honest with you our our Muslim friends and most of you know,

I'm writing on the subject of Islam right now, and so You get stuck with learning about Islam whether you want it or not.

It's just sort of how life goes See you all have learned much that way Much that you didn't necessarily want to know but you learned it anyways, and you still keep coming.

It's an amazing thing Anyway, my my Muslim friends This is one of their criticisms of the

New Testament Because I can guarantee you that in Islamic jurisprudence a phrase like this has

Books of commentary they're considered authoritative. It's exactly what how you apply that in every situation

That's what becomes the Sharia the law that then must be applied and Over any human law and the some of you might know just by the way, that's a

Major court case came down this week. I'm not sure if you're aware of this. I think it was on Thursday Wednesday or Thursday this week.

I think it was Sixth Circuit might have been third. I don't remember which one it was but major court case came down that Told the city of Dearborn, Michigan This is called the

Constitution and Told Dearborn. No, you cannot tell Christians and Christians only

To not distribute tracts of witness to people in the streets of Dearborn while allowing the Muslims to do the same thing

Which is what they had been doing. I mean it is Dearborn a stand and They will get

Dearborn will get smacked down even worse Once the next trial hits

Everyone who's suing Dearborn. I know them personally I have done numerous debates for the fellow who won this case

George say and the next case the Dearborn five

Who were arrested last June? I had lunch with them right before they went and got arrested there in in Detroit actually

So and when when their trial gets to that point Again, if there's any

Constitution left, they're gonna they're gonna win too. But the point is from the Islamic perspective We know exactly how everything's supposed to work in every culture see

Islam has to bring its Sharia brings a culture with it. And so Everything about how you're supposed to live pretty much all of life.

It's already laid out for you. There's no need for application There's no need for writing lots of books and taking a pithy sentence and making application and that to me is the big problem

That to me is a big problem What many of us sometimes feel is a lack of specificity is actually to me one of the greatest strengths of the gospel

And what do I mean? This message Does not have to bring a particular culture with it

It can cross all cultural and language barriers and time barriers as well.

I mean when Islam takes over you become 7th century Arabia and It's it's on struggles with the reality and that's what's going on in many of the

Islamic nations is The Muslims themselves recognized even when we gain control people don't want this.

They don't want to live in 7th century, Arabia and So if you really listen carefully as I do to like American Muslims They come here from other countries and everybody goes.

Oh, yeah. I'm always kids. They're gonna take over Yeah, I Know you see the videos on YouTube about how you know

People come from other nations they move into France and they have 4 .6 kids and the French only having 1 .5

kids the French you could disappear Well having 1 .5 kids per woman will make your culture spirits. No question about that, but the one thing they don't tell you because it does it doesn't make for quite as much conspiracy and fear -mongering is

The second generation of Muslims and the generation after that there's almost no difference between them and The native people of that land.

In other words, they get in culturally they get they get de -islamified in essence they like their iPods and they like music and They get changed and the

Muslims know that and are concerned about that. I mean, I listen to Muslims talking to Muslims I listen to their lectures to themselves and they're really concerned because the next generation

This doesn't really seem to care too much about you know Attending the prayers and stuff like that and so That's something to you know to keep in mind as well.

But what does all this have to do? if we had 14 paragraphs of explanation of verse 25 from Luke 20 that laid out paragraph a sub part 1 subparagraph

C as To exactly how this is supposed to work Then you would have to take all of the the cultural situation at time and bring it into any culture the gospel goes into Well, that's not possible.

Our financial system isn't the same as it was back then There have been many times through church history when the economy was almost totally agrarian

But is the gospel supposed to be able to go into a nation that it's not primarily agrarian gospel of Economy like us.

Yeah and so What sometimes people think is a weakness

I think is a tremendous strength and that is The New Testament gives us guidelines.

It gives us principles, but it doesn't give us a outline going down like this

Which some of you may be in business, you know, you've got these business manuals and stuff like that you got to read these things and it's just page after page after page of fine print and sub point this and sub point that and blah blah blah blah blah and It tells you exactly how you're supposed to do things

Well, that's fine for a business in one place but even the business after it has to recognize that there has to be some flexibility when you go into other areas because things don't work that way there and The point is that the message of the

New Testament the message of Christianity is Just as valid the print this principle

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God's is just as valid in Kenya and New Zealand and India as it is here

But What it means is the actual working out of that might not look identical because those places aren't identical

That doesn't mean the truth changes It means that we as Christians have to think through and make application in light of where God puts us

And does that result in some disagreements? Yes, it does You see some people think

Oh disagreements sign of weakness sign of lack of clarity No, that's a sign of the fact that we're actually thinking

Because if there weren't any disagreements that means Nothing's going on between years. I mean,

I don't know about the rest of it. I it is frightening saddening sickening To listen to people as I have had to do

I haven't been able to do much of it. I'll admit But as I've had to do this week in listening the open forum and harrow camping and Listening to the aftermath of last weekend

Those of you don't know what I'm talking about. Remember May 21st, you know Judgment Day came and went and No earthquakes and no raptures and and millions of people aren't dying from cataclysmic events as we were told was going to happen and You know good old

Harold He's not he's gotten doesn't have it all figured out yet, but I've listened to people calling up and oh, we love you brother

Harold we you know, we're not really sure what's going on, but but we love you and They're just they're just waiting to be spoon -fed the next

Silly heresy and that'll hold them through right now. It's October 21st. Any of you worried?

That's when the universe melts the fervent heat, but hey if Judgment Day and Rapture can be spiritualized

I Figure the fervent heat thing. All that means is that camping is going to move from Alameda to here.

That's The prophecy of the movement of family radio from Alameda, California to Phoenix, Arizona That will be the universe melting in in in in great heat.

So that's what's going to happen October 22nd, but anyway No thought going on You would think you know 94 you missed it had to spiritualize it

May 21st you miss it had to spiritualize it eventually, you know, if there's neurons firing up there

Someone's gonna go. Hey, you know that might not be good to follow this game or no. No, so when there's disagreement

It doesn't necessarily mean that means that there's something wrong with for example what

Jesus says here three Gospels and In no one of them

Does any of the of the writers go, you know? We should expand on this.

There should be some explanation here that no it's just a single sentence and We're left to make application now in basic outline

It does seem to indicate and there is a there is a movement over in California You may have heard of it

It's being called radical two -kingdom theology heard of that And Every movement has to have some element of truth to it and clearly we have here two areas of authority

We have yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah Clearly you have two spheres of authority here and I think pretty much

All Christian theologians down to the centuries have at least dealt with that element of it there is a necessity to recognize the propriety of civil government which at this time was represented by a man that we would not exactly look at like look at him as if he was a

You know popular elected official Caesar was a little bit more like a really

Big version of Muammar Gaddafi than anything else, but he was in charge he was large and in charge you could put it that way and Yet there was a necessity to render to God the things that are

God's and Caesar doesn't have any right to claim those and see that's where the Disagreement always ends up coming in and this this radical two kingdom

Theology thing I actually ran into an expression of it recently and it caught me by surprise because it was being expressed by someone

I thought I knew fairly well and I was

I was commenting on some stuff that I had read and had learned about going on in a

In the book I mentioned to you a few weeks ago by a friend of mine Michael Brown called a queer thing happened to America And it's all about just the

Ridiculous well one chapter is What's my big brother what

There's it's it's about government promotion of homosexuality in our nation a

Big brother is here, and he's definitely gay. I think was the name of the chapter well, whatever and It was it was just amazing

The the formal governmental promotion of Homosexuality not just that this wasn't even talking about the schools.

I mean that was other chapters many chapters, but this was Really blew me away, and I was mentioning this just in in the context of Wow, we really need to you know

I think we see in this the judgment of God coming upon the nation and stuff and this

Particular individual who really takes this radical to kingdom was like Well, what do you expect no big deal?

And they're just unregenerate people. I mean just the way the culture is is it sort of like why are you concerned?

about the government promoting homosexuality and shoving down people people's throat, and I'm sort of like Well, maybe because I like the freedom to preach the gospel and and don't necessarily you know

Think there's something wrong and saying Lord continue to give us this freedom that we might preach the gospel without going to jail for doing

It you know wouldn't that be a good idea? It's sort of like yeah, it's just the culture It's just cultures this chasm this this

Grand Canyon to use an illustration some of you might really appreciate today you know the the you know

God's Kingdom is the South Rim and the secular world is the North Rim and never shut with two meats and there's a long distance between and It Is this like yeah,

I don't know why you're all so Upset about that. You know why should you be concerned about that now of course the other side?

Which I think this is an overreaction to is what you have in a lot of evangelical churches.

I'll admit where You know If we just if we just elect the right party

God's Kingdom will be established If as if the right there's one party of there's

God's party, and then there's the devil's party. You know and you know why? This this this radical

Confusion of the two and it's it's where the balance is to be found

That is always where the discussion comes up here. There's no question about it and I know the brother

Callahan has spoken often on on subjects like this and related to this and Romans chapter 13 and and things like that.

That's why there are entire books written and Sometimes entire books written to refute the into other entire books that were written, and I don't think that that's a bad thing

In fact if there is anything that I would say I would say that the the weakness of the church in the

West Is that most of us just go I just have too much going on I can't

I can't think through that kind of stuff You know I don't

I still want to have to be bothered with that kind of And it can be difficult and long -term

I mean a lot of times what people want is something that can be doled out in half an hour and sometimes that's

Most important stuff can't be done in half an hour And so I would think that it would be a much greater sign of weakness

That there are people who just go I leave that to the theologians We don't we don't have that this is not an option

I don't remember the I don't remember the office of theologian in the New Testament we're all called a we're all part of a kingdom of Priests before God we're all called responsibility before God That doesn't mean that all of us have to spend the same amount of time or go is in depth into the text and all the rest that kind of stuff, but Yeah, I Can name a lot of things in our lives that we invest a tremendous amount of thought into That will be irrelevant ten years from now utterly irrelevant

Let me just ask a quick question here, that's 2000. Oh we know that one. That's not fair Who won

The World Series in 2003 was

Red Sox you sure maybe who came in second

Who knows who knows and you know what who cares and Yet, there are people who will just there are people who will invest their lives into those things and Yet ten years later 15 years later nobody cares

Nobody cares. No one can even remember You know what the big stories were in such -and -such a year you have to go back and look at the history

Oh, yeah, I remember that and yet people were just so cool But there are other things that remain valid and important Year after year after year after year and those are the things we generally don't

Invest a whole lot of time in at all or we're willing To let somebody else do that thought for us

And that guy seems pretty smart. I think I'll take what he has to say and just just run with it and Then make application to how we

View government and society and You know I think there was a day when maybe this wasn't quite as central for the experience a lot of Christians because we were not constantly inundated

Instantly with what was going on I? mean even if you read the newspapers frequently that was

From the day before the day before that and there it came at you a little more slowly

Today thanks to these These things you know if you want you can be up on the news pretty much every second

In fact I was I was sort of blown away a few weeks ago. I learned about the

Japanese earthquake in My chat channel, and then saw parts of it

Via links on Twitter before anything came across my television set So things are just so instantaneous, and there's just so much stuff that if you if you

It's not like staying in front of a fire hose of information it's going to blow you away and So we feel much more challenged to be constantly trying to assimilate this information and and hopefully we're trying to assimilate this information as Christians and That can be a can be a major major challenge

It might mean that wisdom would be that we turn the hose down a little bit Because I don't think any of us can just handle as much as would be thrown at us if we just kept that thing on full blast

And again each one of us has to find our balance there There there are some people who attend toward turning the hose off and they end up in monasteries someplace, okay?

So we can see that you don't go that direction Because then you can't even interact with the world around you you can't you can't intelligently vote you can't intelligently talk with the world around about about current events and The current cultural moves of the day and stuff like that so if you turn the hose all the way off you're over there

But then you've got the people Over on the other side that are constantly distracted.

They can never think about eternal things because they're just getting blasted all the time and They end up just just worried about everything

I mean, I'm more that direction and It's a whole lot easier.

I know There are so many doomsday scenarios running around right now that you could you know from super viruses and bacteria to You know nuclear weapons to financial collapse to you name it.

You know the Iranians and the bomb and then everything Wow, I mean I Really feel for the non -calvinist.

I really do you know What's it? What's like to be an Arminian today? I can imagine what it's like to be an open theist you mean

God doesn't know what's coming Wow I mean Yikes God must be really nervous.

You know he's going wow they could do this and they could do that I'm not sure what's gonna happen here. He must just be as nervous as can be and if you're an open theist

I don't know how you can avoid that if you don't know what an open theist is they don't think God knows What free creatures are gonna do so they don't really know

God doesn't really know what the future is and yes There are people like that, but anyway so all of that to say

I'm glad that this is a pithy statement because it gives us the freedom and encourages us to make application and to make application across a broad spectrum of things and That's what that's what we need to be doing so next time we get together.

We will press forward section two eight one mr. Official taker of notes question about the resurrection one of my favorite sections

It's going to be hard to avoid preaching on that one, so we will be talking about that next time we get together

Let's close the word a great heavenly father We thank you once again for this opportunity to open your word and to consider its truths

And we do pray that you would help us to be those who? Are a balanced people that we would seek the balance you would provide for us in how we interact with the world around us

May we be bold in our witness But likewise may we have the discipline and wisdom and how we expose ourselves to the matters of the world