Give to Caesar, Give to God: Jesus’ Temple Showdown

Ask Sharon, if she would, to read our passage this morning before the message.

Luke 20, verses, verse 20 through chapter 21, verse 4.

So, watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men.

They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman

governor so he could arrest Jesus.

Teacher, they said, we know you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced

by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully.

Now tell us, is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

He saw through their trippery and said, Show me a Roman coin whose picture and

title are stamped on it. Caesar's, they replied.

Well then, he said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.

So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people.

Instead, they were amazed by his answer and they became silent.

Then jesus was approached by some sadducees religious leaders

who say there is no resurrection from the dead they posed

this question teacher moses gave us

a law that if a man dies leaving a wife but no children his brother should marry

the widow and have a child he will carry on the brother's name well suppose

there were seven brothers and the oldest one married and died without children

so the second brother married the widow but he also died then the third brother married her.

Discontinued with all seven of them who died without children.

So finally, the woman also died.

Tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.

Jesus replied, Marriage is for people here on earth.

But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither

marry nor be given in marriage, and they will never die again.

In this respect, they will be like the angels. They are children of God and

children of the resurrection.

But now, as to whether the dead will be raised, even Moses proved this when

he wrote about the burning bush.

Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as the

God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.

Well said, teacher, remarked some of the teachers of the religious law who were

standing there, and no one dared to ask them any more questions. I imagine not.

Then jesus presented them with a question why is it he asked that messiah is

said to be the son of david for david himself wrote in the book of psalms the

lord said to my lord sit in the place of honor at my right hand until i humble

your enemies making them a footstool under your feet,

since david called the messiah lord how

can the messiah be his son then with

the crowds listening he turned to his disciples and said beware

of these teachers of the religious law where they like

to parade around in flowing robes and love

to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces and how they

love the seats of honor in the synagogues and head of the table of banquets

yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to

be pious by making long prayers in public because of this they will be severely punished,

When Jesus was in the temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box.

The poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.

I tell you the truth, Jesus said, this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.

For they've given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is,

has given everything she has. Amen.

May God bless the reading of his holy word. Amen.

I'm so thankful for his word. And this morning, I would just like to challenge

us as we dive in this morning in this showdown at the temple.

I guess you could say it's the second part of last week's message.

But I like for all of us, as much as possible, y'all, let's show reverence in God's house.

And I encourage you, unless you have an emergency, please don't move around

and get up and go to the restrooms back and forth.

Just encouraging each person, unless you have a true emergency,

let's focus in in this time as we worship the Lord.

Well, as we see in this passage today, undaunted by repeated failures to outsmart

or maneuver Jesus, that's not a good idea to try to do that, by the way.

The religious leaders here actually resolved to keep a close watch on him.

As you see in this opening slide here, we look at that.

And what they did is they sent out spies, right? They sent out spies to try

and catch Jesus saying something that would justify handing him over to the

authorities, as we see in verse 20 that Ms. Sharon read.

And needless to say, their plan did not work out as they hoped that it would.

And so after a bit of particularly, I guess you could say, as we look in the passage.

Just, you know, dripping and disingenuous flattery, as we see in verse 21,

the spies His first attempt to trap Jesus resolved around the issue,

as we see in this next slide, of what?

Taxes. We call it the tax trap, right? They wanted to trap him.

And should the Jewish people actually pay taxes to Caesar or not? In verse 22.

And y'all, this most likely was a question about the imperial poll tax.

It was kind of like a flat tax that no matter what you made, right?

You had the same percentage that had been instituted by Rome about 20 years earlier.

And the amount that the citizens of Jerusalem were required to pay for the tax was one denarius.

And basically a day's wage was what it was for a laborer.

And so as you can well imagine, such a tax was still a sore subject, right?

Still a sore subject here. And so the whole goal in this passage of these spies

question here was to force Jesus into taking a position that would actually trap him, right?

And as we see here, and I'll talk about it more, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? Say no.

Rome can accuse him then, right? Say yes, the people may reject him.

And we're going to see, give Caesar the coin, but give God your life, right?

And so they wanted to trap him.

So if on one hand, again, Jesus said that people should not pay the tax,

then obviously, y'all, the scribes and the priests could report him to who?

To the Romans, who did not hesitate, by the way, to eliminate anyone who might

seem like a threat to the peace of the empire.

But if, on the other hand, he said that they should pay the tax,

then he might well be seen as a traitor by the people of Israel.

So there was a large group of people, I want us to see this today,

in Jerusalem, who wanted to actually start a revolution against Rome.

And at least some of them were actually looking to Jesus to start the ball rolling, so to speak.

And the approval of the people was the only thing keeping the leaders from actually

making a move on Jesus at this point.

And so if Jesus said something that was wildly unpopular, then the religious

leaders might gain the upper hand that they desperately wanted, right?

And so Luke's comment here in verse 23, it honestly makes it clear that Jesus

understood what they were trying to do to him.

And his response, y'all, manages to both answer their question.

And at the same time, if we've seen so often, he outfoxes them.

Okay. He knows what they're up to.

And so the game they're playing, they're playing games. Y'all ever play games with God?

I mean, they're playing games right here. And in one sense, he affirms the authority of Caesar.

He actually calls for the coin that's used to pay the tax, as we heard.

And he observes the image of the emperor on the coin, right?

And he tells the people that it is appropriate to use such a coin to pay such a tax.

And this is right in line, by the way, with what the Bible tells us about our

relationship to the governmental authorities.

We can read about it in Romans 13, 1 Peter 2.

And remember, Paul and Peter, I want y'all to get this. Sometimes we miss this.

They actually lived in societies that were ruled by some corrupt and ruthless men.

Okay, that's the societies they lived in. Followers of Christ should be law-abiding

citizens wherever they live,

unless obeying the law of man would require somebody to disobey God.

Look at that in Acts 5, 29. And by the way, that includes paying taxes.

I didn't hear an amen, but it includes paying taxes. But in another sense, don't miss this.

Though Jesus affirms the validity here of Caesar's authority,

there's also a dismissiveness in his response. And I'll tell you why.

He calls for the denarius and

asks again, whose image and inscription are on it? See that in verse 24?

So the coin in question would have had Tiberius Caesar's image on it, right?

And have borne the inscription, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus.

Surely, y'all, it must have galled faithful Jews to have to carry such a blasphemous

statement around with them.

We can almost imagine for a moment Jesus smiling just a little bit.

As he looked at the coin, the true son of the divine, looking at the picture

of this second tier in cosmic terms emperor who liked to pretend that he was a son of a God, right?

But by all means, give this tiny little pretend God his shiny coin.

But to be clear, that's the extent, church, of the honor that is due.

In fact, theologian Bach puts it this way, got a small quote from him.

He said, affirms that Caesar has a domain that should be served and that God

has a sphere where he should be honored.

Jesus's work for God, he said, does not challenge, but rather transcends Rome.

In other words, he's got almighty, right? And so Jesus has answered the spies' questions, by the way.

But what he says at the end of verse 25, look at it.

It reframes it all and takes the spring out of their trap they wanted to set, as we see in verse 26.

Because not only must they give back to Caesar the things that belong to him,

but they must also give back to God what is God's, right?

And y'all, that's just to say, if it's appropriate to give Caesar the things

that bear his image, then it is only appropriate to give to God those things

that bear his image. Amen?

So give Caesar the coin, give God your life. And as we see in this next slide, what are those things?

What things? Everything, church. All of humanity bears God's image.

Everything comes from him and ultimately belongs to who? Him.

No, the coin bore Caesar's image. We bear God's image.

So God deserves more than a token offering. In other words, he deserves our

whole life is what he's saying.

Ultimate allegiance belongs to God alone. So if Caesar deserves his coin,

God deserves all that the humanity has and is.

The spies there, we see it in the passage, y'all. They come to play games,

right? And they want to set these political traps for Jesus.

Jesus, what does he do? He actually tells them to give their lives to God.

They bear God's image. Wow, what an evangelistic opportunity, right?

And these instructions are good news for us today, by the way, here at Eastwood.

Then as now, rulers, y'all, and governments are prone to set themselves up as

would-be gods and saviors.

And those under their authority are tempted to invest their hope in them.

But no Caesar can save us.

And we are free from having to give them more than what they are owed.

Namely, what is it? Respect and conditional obedience.

God has made us in what? His image.

And so only he deserves, y'all, only God deserves and can justly command our

ultimate love and allegiance.

The one who has given all, given us all, we have is the one to whom we are to give our all.

He gave us all we have, so he's the one that we give our all.

And I hope today that challenges your heart. And then we come in this passage

into the story of the poor widow, as we see in this next slide,

giving her gifts in the temple. Look at it in chapter 21, verses 1 through 4.

Y'all, I think it serves as a perfect example of this radical giving to God.

The woman was a poor widow, we see in verse 2. And her two copper coins seem

like an insignificant offering, right?

Especially, y'all, when it was compared to the gifts that the wealthy were bringing

into the temple treasury as we look back in verse 1.

But I want y'all to get this. her gift was actually accounted as more than all

the others. It says in verse three, look at it.

Because instead of giving out of her excess, out of her wealth,

she gave literally in the Greek all her life.

That's what it says in the Greek. She gave all her life. She had nothing else, y'all.

This gift represented her all. All.

Caesar can have his tax payment. God wants us to dedicate our entire lives and

all that we are, all that we have to him.

You remember, he is our Lord. Amen. He's our boss. He deserves it all.

And by the way, Jesus warned his followers, as we see in this next slide,

about the teachers of the law, who in contrast to this humble self-giving of

the widow, what did they seek to do?

They sought glory and honor for themselves and all that they did,

it says there at the end of chapter 20, verses 45 and 46.

In fact, they actually preyed upon people like this poor widow.

I mean, think about this. Do y'all see examples in our modern day society where

these so-called religious leaders, pastors, teachers actually prey upon the

vulnerable and the poor?

They preyed upon people like this, actually growing rich from the sacrificial

giving of people like her.

And Jesus promises, and I hope you see it in the text, that even though they

seem to prosper, and my goodness, we can look in our land today and see some

of these type of people who are in excess of $700 million in net worth.

They may seem to prosper in this life, but in the life to come,

according to God, according to Jesus, they will be punished most severely. Do you see it in verse 47?

Y'all, God doesn't play games like we do. He doesn't play games, man.

He's serious about this. We owe him our all.

And then as now, God's people must be on guard against those who see their supposed

service to God as a way to wealth and the praise of men.

When you see that, y'all, run like everything.

I'm just telling you, we have such corruption around us today.

And Jesus here is calling it out in the gospel of Luke.

Well, we have the next battle on hand. Are you ready for it?

It's the next battleground is the resurrection, as we see in this next slide.

In fact, if you look in verse 27, we're backing up again a little bit.

In chapter 20, verse 27, Jesus is actually approached church by some of the

members of the Sadducees.

This is the first time that Luke has actually mentioned this small sect of Jewish leaders, by the way.

The sadducees were the political

and theological rivals of the pharisees and

that explains the positive reaction by the teachers of the law by the way when

jesus actually dumbfounds with them with his questions right in verse 39 but

theologically let me just take this for us the sadducees were something like.

Rationalists, so to speak. They

did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. We see that in verse 27.

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.

That's why they were Sadducee. They didn't believe in the resurrection,

claiming that life after death was just a tradition that was made up by the

Pharisees rather than a doctrine that was actually taught by the Old Testament.

And so to prove their point, they had imagined this wonderful scenario.

That made the whole idea, they thought, of the resurrection seem ridiculous.

And we see, Sharon read this earlier in verses 28 through 33 of chapter 20.

You can well imagine that this was not the first time they used this argument. They were ready.

And maybe many a Pharisee had been stumped by their question.

And to understand the situation that they present to Jesus, you have to know

about the custom of liberate marriage, where the brother of a man who had died

and with no children would marry his widow,

take care of her and give her children in the dead brother's name.

And it talks about that some in verse 28. Also Deuteronomy 25 verse five.

And in the Sadducee scenario here to Jesus, what did they say?

Each of the seven brothers marry a particularly unfortunate woman and die without

producing a child, verses 29 through 31 tells us that.

And finally, mercifully, the woman dies as well, verse 32.

And in verse 33, they lay out the challenge, don't they, to Jesus?

If there is a resurrection of the dead, as the Pharisees teach,

in which the Sadducees deny, who will ultimately be the one who is married to the woman?

Now, don't you just see it there? They thought they had Jesus.

I mean, this is the ultimate question, right?

It seems to them that this is open and shut case.

They've demonstrated that the idea of life after death is absurd.

If we were raised from the dead, hey, look, how could we possibly untangle all

the things that happened during our lives and after our deaths?

That was their viewpoint.

Obviously, Jesus can't say that they are all going to be married to her.

Jesus is not stumped, though, by the challenge, is he? Not at all.

Instead, what does he do?

He corrects the ways that they have misunderstood the scriptures and the power of God.

You look at Mark 12, 24 as well on that. They wanted to create a world that's

more wonderful than anyone can comprehend. This is under the power of God is

what it's going to do to create that world under the power of God in this new kingdom, right?

When we go to heaven, it's going to be a world that's more wonderful than anyone

can comprehend. We're studying about that some in our Revelation series.

But the critical flaw here in the Sadducees' thinking is that they assume that

life after death is just like life now.

Have you ever assumed that? You ever been guilty of that?

But Jesus says that that's not so. What does he say? Look in verse 34 of chapter 20 of Luke.

Marriage is an institution for what? For this age alone.

And there will be no marriage for the children of the resurrection,

verse 36, in the age to come. Verse 35 tells us that.

Jesus doesn't say explicitly why this is, but y'all, it could be because there's

no longer a need to replenish the population through procreation since people

are, as Jesus said in this text, like the angels.

And that they can no longer die when we're in our eternal state, right?

And I can kind of maybe see some people thinking about this.

It might be discouraging to those who are enjoying or hope to someday enjoy

the state of marriage in this life.

But scripture does indicate, don't miss this today, that we will know our loved

ones in eternity and surely, church,

the happiness and love of close relationships in heaven will be more rather

than less than it is here on earth, right?

It'll be more because heaven will be a place of what?

Perfect joy, peace as we worship God Almighty. God's power is such that he is

able to create, y'all, a world of greater joy than we can even imagine.

Friendship and love in the life to come. In fact, the marriages that we enjoy

here on earth, boy, this is important, y'all.

The marriages that we enjoy here on earth are meant to what?

To give us a picture and a foretaste of the far greater reality of the union

with Christ that we will enjoy in eternity.

And you look even in Ephesians 5, 31 and 32, Revelation 19, 6 and 9, we've been studying.

Human marriage, great though it is, it's merely a preview, y'all.

It's a preview. Once the reality has come, it'll no longer be necessary.

And strange as it may seem now, it'll not be missed in heaven. It's just a preview.

Jesus' ultimate point, though, here in saying these things is not to teach us

about marriage or the nature of the eternal state then. But what?

Right here, he wants to dismiss the Sadducees' question and press them on the

reality church of the future resurrection.

Right that's why they were sad you see they didn't believe

in the resurrection and as we look there in chapter 20

of luke verses 36 through 38 jesus showed them that if they knew their bibles

if they knew god's word they would have already figured out that there was a

resurrection from the dead amen man isn't it great that god has given and even

then they had the old testament right they They knew the teachings there, right?

They knew if they had just.

Looked into and used their reasoning, had the openness to say,

we see what God is doing, right?

In fact, he reminds them, as we see in this next slide, of a statement.

I think this is so cool that God made to Moses from the burning bushes all the

way back in Exodus 3, 6, where God calls himself the God of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom had died long ago, y'all.

If they were dead and their souls were gone forever, in other words,

just annihilated, wiped out, it stands to reason that God would not be their God anymore.

At least not in the present tense, right? He would have to say to Moses that

he was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And since God told Moses that he is the God of the patriarchs,

they must still exist and death can't be the final word for them.

And Jesus summarized it. Look here in verse 38 of chapter 20 of Luke.

To God, how many are dead? None. All are alive to God.

See, we taste death. Death's coming to our world because of sin,

right? Because the wages of sin is death.

But the soul lives on, right? To God, all are alive. That's why he's not the God of the dead.

It's not some people misinterpret and think they don't really read the scriptures

like the Sadducees, right?

They think, well, those that are dead, you know, God's not their God.

No, yes, he is. He's saying here He's the God of all.

Because to him, all are alive. Not to us, maybe, but to him, they're all alive.

And the reality of our future church, bodily resurrection, it's not merely some

point of doctrine to be affirmed, but it's a certainty that ought to control

our lives in the here and now.

Because the reason that we're able to follow this poor widow in giving our lives

away in radical ways in the here and now today,

is that we're certain that there will be an age to come where we will receive

abundantly more than we could ever give away. Amen?

I mean, you look here, future resurrection fuels present surrender.

That's the hope we have, the hope in Jesus. In fact, scripture says,

if Christ has not been raised, then we are hopeless.

Our faith is in vain. We don't even need to be here.

But the hope of life after death means that we're not reduced to pursuing our best life now.

A prospect that almost, this is, you know, to us is very depressing.

It's also theologically inaccurate, right? This is not our best life now.

Well, we move to one other topic in this passage. And basically,

we can do it in asking a question. Lord and Son?

Lord and Son? Well, let's go to this next slide here. At this point,

nobody wants to ask Jesus any more questions. See it in verse 40?

They don't want to ask him anymore. Would you?

Would you? In fact, I think that's understandably so. And so instead,

what does Jesus do? Do you see it?

Instead, he asked them a question.

Everybody, y'all, get this, everybody listening to him would have believed that

the Old Testament contained a promise that God would send the Messiah from the

line of the family of the great King David.

And so in light of that fact, Jesus asked them to actually explain a portion of Psalm 110.

He has all, look, he's confronting them here. And it's quoted here in verse 42 and 43.

Particularly the fact, church, that in the Psalm, David calls the becoming Messiah,

my what? What does he call him?

My Lord. My Lord. That's remarkable, Eastwood, because David is talking about his descendant.

A child might be taught to speak respectfully to his father.

In fact, down here in the good old South, it's a traditional thing for children

to address their fathers as sir, right?

But fathers do not speak with that formal respect to their children.

And in Psalm 110, we would expect that David would call his descendants son, not Lord, not Yahweh.

So Jesus asked them to explain how this coming Messiah can possibly be both

David's son and also David's Lord. Do you see it in verse 44 there?

The only possible answer, Eastwood, is that the Messiah must be both David's son and God's son.

David's son, little s, God's son, big S, right? God's son. And thus, David's Lord.

David's Lord. And as we see that he's born into the great king's line,

though the conclusion is left unstated.

The point's obvious here in this passage.

Jesus is the only one church who makes sense of all the data that's available

because he is God's son born into David's line,

David's son, and also David's Lord, he can secure our eternal life.

That means when you die, that's not the end, right?

That's not the end. He can promise us life in the age to come,

which makes giving up everything church that we have now worthwhile.

Amen. It does all surrendering all to Jesus.

He can command our all because he alone can secure our forever.

So the posture of the religious leaders here, as we see in this last slide,

toward Jesus are in sharp contrast.

With that of Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus that we've studied about, right?

They greeted Jesus with joy and total devotion, and the scribes and the chief

priests are only interested in what?

Here we come back to playing games, y'all, looking for loopholes,

poking holes in Jesus' teaching, trying to, instead of what?

Embracing the good news, y'all, of the kingdom and just simply acknowledging

David's Lord as their Lord. They turn their backs to Jesus and they miss out,

y'all, on the joy of discipleship.

I wonder how many in God's church do that today.

The same choice lies before us today.

To obey Jesus' teaching gladly and find joy and blessing in it.

Or, y'all, to be so busy trying to find loopholes in everything.

Trying to find loopholes in his claims and his commands that we see in Scripture

that we just miss out on the joy of simply trusting him and following all of

those that he's given us for our good and his glory.

You see how that can happen so easily, y'all?

The leaders play games with Jesus.

Disciples, what? Gladly follow him. Follow him.

Obey Jesus teaching gladly. That's the point and find joy and blessing and just simply trusting him.

Y'all, that's where we're at this morning.

Are we trusting Jesus this way? I mean, we saw in this passage that,

yeah, rendered a Caesar, what's Caesar's, but to God's, what's God's,

because his image is on the coin, but God's image is on us.

Are we going to give him our all? Have you given Christ your all?

Even those of you here that are professing Christians and say,

yes, God has changed my life, forgiving me of my sin, transforming my life.

I mean, y'all, don't play games.

You know, don't just try to soothe your conscience, come to church and go through

the motions. That's the point, y'all.

But actually surrender it all like this poor widow. She gave all, her whole life.

Lord, you call the shots.

I was telling the crowd Wednesday night, it's just true from the scripture.

Jesus ran people off. He really did. Because when he told them the truth about

they had to give it all, give it all to him, forsake it all to follow him,

they all started leaving.

All started leaving. Because the call was too much. You know why?

Because it was a call to die.

That was just too radical for them. They left.

And what did that cause Jesus to do? He turned to his disciples,

and what did he ask them? Are you going to leave also?

And then what did they say?

Lord, where have we to go? I mean, you're the one who holds the words of eternal life.

In other words, disciples gladly follow him.

You see, the call today, I think, in many of our so-called churches is,

you know, come down the aisle, say a prayer.

Boy, you're good to go. You got fire insurance.

But where's the call to the radical life and discipleship that jesus calls us

to and i think when we start preaching and teaching that like jesus did the crowd's thin,

it thins us out because we see the true from the false y'all that's the radical

call today i see in this passage man as we stand together and as we bow our

heads just for a moment close our eyes to shut out distractions.

You bear God's image. Have you given Him your all?

All to Jesus I surrender. Have you given it all to Him? Have you surrendered it all?

Are you giving your whole life to Him or just bits and pieces?

Are you giving parts that are comfortable for you, but yet neglecting those

things that God is calling you to?

Are you in control? Or is God in control?

Are you following Him? Are you trusting Him? Are you looking for loopholes?

Oh, well, God understands. Everybody's different.

You know, it's just between me and Jesus.

He's already told you that it costs everything. He's already told you and I what it takes to follow.

Y'all, this is it. Are we going to trust Him?

Are we going to be like these Sadducees, Pharisees, all these scribes and priests,

who were so blind in their own religion that they never surrendered to the King

of kings and the Lord of lords?

That's the question before us today.

Father God, I pray as your Spirit moves in our midst, Lord, I pray there'll

be surrender. I pray that there will be transformation, Lord,

as your Holy Spirit moves. in Jesus' name.