Doug McMasters: If you would take your Bible and turn with me over to Matthew chapter 22.
Doug McMasters: Matthew chapter 22.
Doug McMasters: Jesus shines brighter than the sun, and we get to see the sun in all of his brightness in this passage of scripture.
Doug McMasters: Those of you that are just visiting or coming, we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew together.
Doug McMasters: We've been working our way through it from beginning to and hopefully to the end.
Doug McMasters: We're in chapter 22 now.
Doug McMasters: We're in the middle of a section that's part of the last week of Jesus Christ and his ministry here on earth.
Doug McMasters: The past few weeks we've been noting Jesus in Jerusalem and particularly in the temple, teaching in the temple and healing people in the temple.
Doug McMasters: And while there was accosted and confronted by chief priests and the elders of the people who asked him a question for the authority that he had that had been conferred to him.
Doug McMasters: Where did he get that to be able to do the things he was doing?
Doug McMasters: And Jesus replied to them in that sort of confrontive question by asking them a question about John the Baptist.
Doug McMasters: If they could answer that question, he would answer their question.
Doug McMasters: Well, they didn't, and so Jesus didn't.
Doug McMasters: And then Jesus followed those that question with three parables.
Doug McMasters: And we've looked in the past couple of weeks at those parables as they reveal the lack of integrity of the religious leaders in Israel.
Doug McMasters: They walk away from that confrontation, seething, angry, upset.
Doug McMasters: They want to get back at Jesus for exposing them in front of a crowd.
Doug McMasters: And that brings us to what the passage we're going to look at today.
Doug McMasters: Because what we look at today and what we'll be looking at in the next few weeks ahead is Jesus interacting again with the leaders, the religious leaders of the people of Israel.
Doug McMasters: Today we'll see him speaking to the disciples of the Pharisees and to the Herodians.
Doug McMasters: And then next week you'll see him confronting another group of religious leaders called the Sadducees.
Doug McMasters: And then after that, Jesus will have a talk with a law expert about the greatest commandment.
Doug McMasters: And then finally, Jesus will talk again to the Pharisees and a question about the Messiah as the Son of David.
Doug McMasters: So here is the first of a series of conversations that follow on from the three parables that we've looked at the past couple weeks.
Doug McMasters: And in each of these conversations, the people that are meeting with Jesus are trying to set him up in a trap.
Doug McMasters: They're contriving questions and situations in order to sort of catch him out and condemn him.
Doug McMasters: And each of these times, Jesus takes on the confrontation.
Doug McMasters: Today we're going to look at a question that was a political question of the day.
Doug McMasters: But in the middle of this answer that Jesus gives to this political question that's posed to him, he gives us a principle about human existence and life.
Doug McMasters: He gives us an understanding of what human flourishing is all about, what the center of our very souls ought to be directed toward.
Doug McMasters: He moves us way beyond the earthly discussions that are being asked him into the realms of eternity, and not just for the people of Israel, but for all people for all time.
Doug McMasters: And so this morning, let's take a look at that as we work through this passage of scripture.
Doug McMasters: And the first thing I want us to notice is the plot that's been contrived against Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Verse 15, it says this.
Doug McMasters: And the Pharisees went and plotted how they how to trap him by what he said.
Doug McMasters: Matthew chapter 21, we learn that they were ready to arrest Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And now in verse 15, they're plotting together to find a way to justify that arrest.
Doug McMasters: They're plotting to entangle him in his words.
Doug McMasters: Certainly they don't know who they're dealing with.
Doug McMasters: And the bait that they'll use, as we'll see in a moment, is a tricky question.
Doug McMasters: And their hope here is by bringing this to Jesus, to impale Jesus on the horns of a dilemma that would land him in trouble.
Doug McMasters: A question that no matter how he answered him, would cause him to be captured.
Doug McMasters: They think they've got it.
Doug McMasters: This is the right question for him.
Doug McMasters: Let's take a look at the players for a second, verse 15 and 16.
Doug McMasters: Verse 15, it said the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said, and so they sent, verse 16, their disciples to him along with the Herodians.
Doug McMasters: Now, part of their ploy is to set this up as a plausible situation.
Doug McMasters: Notice it doesn't say the Pharisees grabbed some Herodians and went and talked to Jesus with a question.
Doug McMasters: It says they sent the disciples of the Pharisees with the Herodians.
Doug McMasters: Because if the Pharisees and the Herodians had walked in together, it would have been an immediate signal that something was up.
Doug McMasters: Because as we'll see, these these two people had very wide-ranging divergent opinions about the question that they're about to pose to Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And it would have been obvious to anyone, what's going on here?
Doug McMasters: Why are you guys together?
Doug McMasters: Because they wouldn't have been together.
Doug McMasters: However, by having the disciples of the Pharisees mixed together with the Herodians, there is an air of plausibility to the question.
Doug McMasters: Maybe the disciples of the Pharisees had sort of, you know, like a like a young seminarian, you know, just walked out of theology class and is full of ammo and just wants to go find somebody to argue with.
Doug McMasters: And so these disciples of the Pharisees have sort of been, well, we've just got all that we need to get from our teachers.
Doug McMasters: Let's go find some Herodians and have an argument with them.
Doug McMasters: And so there's this air of plausibility.
Doug McMasters: Maybe this is exactly what's happened.
Doug McMasters: And the disciples of the Pharisees have gotten in a little too deep because the Herodians had some good answers.
Doug McMasters: So Jesus, let's talk to him.
Doug McMasters: Let's see if he's got an answer.
Doug McMasters: Here's their ploy.
Doug McMasters: Verse 16.
Doug McMasters: So they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.
Doug McMasters: Teacher, they said, we know that you're truthful and teach truthfully the way of God.
Doug McMasters: You don't care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality.
Doug McMasters: Tell us then, what do you think?
Doug McMasters: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Doug McMasters: Well, this is their ploy.
Doug McMasters: They've got a plot, they've got a plan, they've got people in partnership, and here's their ploy.
Doug McMasters: And the first one is this smarmy talk.
Doug McMasters: I mean, this these smooth words, right?
Doug McMasters: This sycophantic fawning over Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Oh, Jesus, teacher, teacher, we know that you're truthful and teach truthfully the way of God.
Doug McMasters: You don't care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality.
Doug McMasters: Please share your wisdom with us.
Doug McMasters: Tell us what you think.
Doug McMasters: They don't mean a word of this, not a single word of it.
Doug McMasters: It's all just a trick.
Doug McMasters: And why do they use flattery?
Doug McMasters: Because they themselves were people who loved flattery.
Doug McMasters: Jesus warned about the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 6.
Doug McMasters: When you fast, don't fast like those who walk around looking like they're fasting.
Doug McMasters: When you fast, wash your face, anoint your head with oil, look like you just come from a party.
Doug McMasters: Do it in secret, because these guys want to be seen of others.
Doug McMasters: When you pray, don't stand on the street corner so you can be heard of men like the Pharisees.
Doug McMasters: Pray in secret.
Doug McMasters: When you give to the poor, don't flash your cash at the street corner and say, look what good I'm about to do, like they do.
Doug McMasters: These people were faking their flattery because they themselves loved flattery.
Doug McMasters: They love the greetings in the public places.
Doug McMasters: They loved the chief seats.
Doug McMasters: They loved to be seen of others.
Doug McMasters: They love this sort of bolstering one another's reputation with loud public words.
Doug McMasters: Oh, teacher, teacher.
Doug McMasters: Oh, how wonderful you are.
Doug McMasters: Oh, how admirable your qualities, how forthright you are to tell the truth.
Doug McMasters: You don't care where it lands.
Doug McMasters: Teach us.
Doug McMasters: We're we're just humble learners.
Doug McMasters: Can you answer this dilemma we have?
Doug McMasters: And then they give him a sticky question.
Doug McMasters: Tell us then, what do you think?
Doug McMasters: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Doug McMasters: Well, that's a sticky question, all right, because well, this tax, this poll tax, or this tribute to the Roman Emperor, was an extremely contentious issue.
Doug McMasters: In fact, there rose a guy in Galilee, I think his name was Joseph of Galilee, who rose up in 6 A.D.
Doug McMasters: Because of this very issue.
Doug McMasters: And the government surrounded them and murdered them all because they were acting in seditious sedition.
Doug McMasters: People were bitter about this, as any people would be under an overlord.
Doug McMasters: Jesus, come on, what do you think?
Doug McMasters: Pay it or not?
Doug McMasters: This coalition of the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians, well, the Herodians would have agreed with the tax, the Pharisees would not have agreed.
Doug McMasters: Because if Jesus had said, no, it's not right to pay this tax to the Roman Emperor, then he would have been liable to the charge of being siding with those who were in rebellion against Rome.
Doug McMasters: And the Herodians would have sort of run straight to the Romans and said, You got a traitor on your hands here.
Doug McMasters: Here's a guy in the middle of the temple trying to raise up a ruckus in rebellion against you.
Doug McMasters: And he's telling people to stop paying their taxes.
Doug McMasters: But if he said, Yes, pay your taxes and left it at that, then the Pharisees would have said, You see, he's a friend of Rome, just like we've been saying.
Doug McMasters: That's why he hangs out with the tax collectors.
Doug McMasters: He's just like one of them.
Doug McMasters: But there's more to it than that.
Doug McMasters: He would have been abdicating his messianic role because the Jewish understanding of the Messiah at this time was that he would never bow to Gentile powers.
Doug McMasters: The Messiah was one who was going to come and rescue us from them, not tell us to be responsibly observant to them.
Doug McMasters: He's meant to be the deliverer.
Doug McMasters: He's meant to set up a global empire.
Doug McMasters: You can't have the messiah saying emperor is greater than he and pays taxes to him.
Doug McMasters: So if he said yes to the question, then he could be discredited as being the messiah.
Doug McMasters: The sticky question.
Doug McMasters: So that they plot together, they got a partnership of disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians.
Doug McMasters: They come with this ploy, with this sycophantic language, this smarmy talk, and this sticky question.
Doug McMasters: They think we've got him.
Doug McMasters: But do they?
Doug McMasters: First of all, let's take a look at the rebuke that Jesus gives them.
Doug McMasters: Verse 18, perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, Why are you testing me, hypocrites?
Doug McMasters: None of this is past his eye.
Doug McMasters: None of it.
Doug McMasters: He calls them hypocrites, something he uses 13 times in the Gospel of Matthew.
Doug McMasters: We know what a hypocrite is.
Doug McMasters: And it comes from the term of the stage of somebody putting on a mask and playing a role that they're actually not.
Doug McMasters: The mask is the role, and of course that's what these people are doing.
Doug McMasters: They've put on a mask of discipleship to Jesus when there's nothing like that underneath.
Doug McMasters: And so Jesus calls them hypocrites for several reasons.
Doug McMasters: First of all, because of the false assertions that they've just made.
Doug McMasters: They call him teacher.
Doug McMasters: Well, they've been questioning his teaching throughout the whole gospel of Matthew.
Doug McMasters: We've been looking at that.
Doug McMasters: They're not going to call him teacher with sincerity.
Doug McMasters: They say he's true.
Doug McMasters: And well, they've believed everything that Jesus has done has been of the devil and false.
Doug McMasters: You taught the way of God in truth.
Doug McMasters: Well, they haven't they haven't submitted themselves to his teaching ever.
Doug McMasters: They've always opposed it.
Doug McMasters: And if he truly was teaching the way of God in truth, it would have shown up in their willingness to accept what he had to say a lot before this.
Doug McMasters: You don't care about anyone.
Doug McMasters: You're not biased or prejudiced.
Doug McMasters: And then he says, You have no regard for the person of men.
Doug McMasters: You don't show partiality.
Doug McMasters: The Greek word here is a face looker.
Doug McMasters: You know, somebody who's up there whose mouth is going, but what they're about to say is dependent upon what kind of faces they're getting in the crowd.
Doug McMasters: Right?
Doug McMasters: They're saying, Jesus, you don't do that.
Doug McMasters: So he calls him a hypocrite because every single one of those things is a lie.
Doug McMasters: Everything they said in every little detail is just hypocritical.
Doug McMasters: But it's hypocritical because of their motives.
Doug McMasters: Sensing their malicious intent.
Doug McMasters: He knows that.
Doug McMasters: Psalm 55 says his speech was smooth as butter, yet there was war in his heart.
Doug McMasters: His words were softer than oil, and yet they were drawn swords.
Doug McMasters: It's exactly what they've done.
Doug McMasters: They've taken the weapon of words to try to trap Jesus.
Doug McMasters: He calls them hypocrites because of their forced coalition.
Doug McMasters: He can see right through that, even if it is the disciples of the Pharisees and not the Pharisees themselves.
Doug McMasters: Herodians, they're friendly to the Herodian rule and friendly to Rome.
Doug McMasters: The Pharisees obviously are in opposition to Rome, more nationalistic.
Doug McMasters: But he also calls them a her a hypocrite for a fourth reason: because of the coin that he's about to ask for.
Doug McMasters: Perceiving their malicious intent, he said, Why are you testing me, hypocrites?
Doug McMasters: Show me the coin used for the tax.
Doug McMasters: They brought him a denarius.
Doug McMasters: Now there were all kinds of coinages that were there, not just Roman coins, Greek coins, Hebrew coins, coins used in Israel in all kinds of different ways.
Doug McMasters: But there was only one coin that they would use for this tax, and that was a denarius.
Doug McMasters: Denarius was worth about one day's wage.
Doug McMasters: And so they say, you know, Jesus says to them, so you know, show me the coin.
Doug McMasters: And they're like, okay.
Doug McMasters: Pull it out of their pocket.
Doug McMasters: Here you go.
Doug McMasters: Now, why would Jesus call them a hypocrite for that?
Doug McMasters: Well, remember where they are.
Doug McMasters: They're in the temple.
Doug McMasters: They're in the temple complex where the worship of Yahweh alone is to take place.
Doug McMasters: And these guys pull out a coin in the temple.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus asked them, Whose face is on that?
Doug McMasters: And they're like, Caesar's.
Doug McMasters: Well, we know from archaeology that it was the coin of Tiberius Caesar, the son of Augustus Caesar, and on it would have been his head with a crown of bay leaves.
Doug McMasters: And on one side it would have said this in English, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus.
Doug McMasters: And on the back of it would have been a seated female figure, which would have been a sign perhaps of Rome or maybe a relationship to Augustus or Tiberius Caesar.
Doug McMasters: But it also said this Pontiff Maxim, the sovereign, highest role in the Roman religion.
Doug McMasters: Obviously, this coin has some trouble explaining itself in light of the first and second commandment.
Doug McMasters: You are to worship the Lord your God alone.
Doug McMasters: You're not to make a graven image.
Doug McMasters: Here is a coin in the temple that these religious men have brought out that says, Divine Augustus, head priest of the Roman idolatrous religion.
Doug McMasters: And it's in their pocket, in their temple.
Doug McMasters: So they are certainly worthy of this rebuke.
Doug McMasters: Hypocrite.
Doug McMasters: But look at the rebuttal that Jesus gives.
Doug McMasters: They think they've got him.
Doug McMasters: They think, you know, as soon as they hand him the coin, he's going to just sort of burn against this and make a deatribe about polytheism or something, and stand alone and say, God alone should be worshipped, don't pay, or something.
Doug McMasters: But that's not what he does.
Doug McMasters: He says to them, Give then to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.
Doug McMasters: And there's a word plague going on here.
Doug McMasters: There's a word plague that's going on here that shows us the strength of Jesus' arguments.
Doug McMasters: In verse 17, they asked, Is it lawful to, well, we translate it pay taxes, but it's give taxes to Caesar or not, with the idea of giving it as a gift.
Doug McMasters: Is it lawful literally to give Caesar something?
Doug McMasters: For the Jewish people, that would have been an obnoxious thought to give their overlords anything.
Doug McMasters: This was not for them a legitimate duty, and it was done with the greatest reluctance.
Doug McMasters: But here they're saying, should we give Caesar this?
Doug McMasters: But this is not the word that Jesus uses when he speaks in verse 21.
Doug McMasters: He uses a different word.
Doug McMasters: It's not give to Caesar like a gift, it's give back to Caesar.
Doug McMasters: Something that's been loaned out to you.
SPEAKER_00: You owe Caesar this.
Doug McMasters: He gave you the coin, give the coin back to him.
Doug McMasters: That's how it's supposed to sound.
Doug McMasters: This is not a gift at all.
Doug McMasters: In fact, you have an obligation to give back to him what is under his realm.
Doug McMasters: This tax belongs to the domain of Caesar.
Doug McMasters: Give it back to him.
Doug McMasters: And the using of this coin would have already been an acknowledgement of Caesar's authority.
Doug McMasters: Already an acknowledgement of his rule of the realm, give it back to him.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is not trying to bring some statement about the social political structure of the time.
Doug McMasters: He's simply saying this: you're enjoying Caesar's benefits, you're enjoying what the Roman Empire provides you, the clean water you have, the sanitation that you're given, the roads that you walk on and travel across, the law and order that's found here, the police protection you have, the Pax Romana, the peace that you have among the nations, all of these things have been granted you.
Doug McMasters: This is their domain.
Doug McMasters: Give them what's due them.
Doug McMasters: Give it back to them.
Doug McMasters: All he's asking for is one day's wage out of a year's salary.
Doug McMasters: It's not much.
Doug McMasters: There's two parts to his answer.
Doug McMasters: And the first part is this Jesus is teaching us that while we're in exile here as Christians in this earth, that we continue to have roles and responsibilities that relate to this world.
Doug McMasters: That we interact as citizens on earth, even though our citizenship, in Philippians says, is in heaven.
Doug McMasters: And when you read the scriptures, the New Testament epistles that draw out this principle that Jesus is providing here, especially in a time when there was not a lot of friendliness of the Roman Empire toward Christianity, you don't read words in the New Testament that speak about rebellion and revolution.
Doug McMasters: You don't even read words of political gripes about how heavy-handed it is.
Doug McMasters: What you have are words about prayer and respect and submission.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read a few of them.
SPEAKER_00: First Timothy 2.
Doug McMasters: I urge that petitions, prayers, and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
Doug McMasters: Not to raise our hands in anger, but raise our hands in prayer.
Doug McMasters: Romans 13.
Doug McMasters: Therefore you must submit not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience.
Doug McMasters: And for this reason, pay taxes, since the authorities are God's servants.
Doug McMasters: Pay your obligations to everyone, taxes to whom you owe taxes, tolls to whom you owe tolls, respect to whom you owe respect, and honor to whom you owe honor.
Doug McMasters: Titus 3.
Doug McMasters: Remind them to be to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, to be kind, to always show gentleness to all people.
Doug McMasters: 1 Peter 2.
Doug McMasters: Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as to the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
Doug McMasters: Honor everyone.
Doug McMasters: Love the brothers and sisters, fear God, honor the emperor.
Doug McMasters: There's no words of rebellion here, just words of submission and honor and prayer.
Doug McMasters: And we live in a government that, in its structure, is so much freer than what they were under when those letters were written.
Doug McMasters: God is not opposed to government.
Doug McMasters: Government is a servant of God, and it will give an account for that service.
Doug McMasters: But we are not the instruments of God's wrath when it does wrong.
Doug McMasters: That's the first lesson, but not the biggest lesson.
Doug McMasters: There's a bigger lesson.
Doug McMasters: You see, the question that they asked Jesus could have stopped right there with that answer.
Doug McMasters: But Jesus says more than they asked.
Doug McMasters: This tax, Jesus, um, give it or not to Caesar.
Doug McMasters: Show me the coin.
Doug McMasters: Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's.
Doug McMasters: Question answered.
Doug McMasters: Doesn't stop.
Doug McMasters: And to God the things that are God's.
Doug McMasters: Render to the Caesar, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, give back to God the things that are God's.
Doug McMasters: This little extra point is the point that Jesus is making.
Doug McMasters: The render to Caesar is just the simple lesser lesson.
Doug McMasters: The render to God is the major lesson.
Doug McMasters: And what he's saying is, well, the coin that you have, that you've shown me, it's got Caesar's image on it.
Doug McMasters: It belongs to Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Then give it back to him.
SPEAKER_00: What has the image of God?
SPEAKER_00: Every single person.
Doug McMasters: Every single individual that's lived on the face of this God-created world has the image of God in them.
Doug McMasters: What Jesus is saying is give yourself back to God.
Doug McMasters: Take that deneri, the denarius that you have, the one that says Tiberius Caesar Augustus, and give it to him, even though he calls himself divine.
SPEAKER_00: How much more should you give everything back to the one who actually is?
SPEAKER_00: God.
Doug McMasters: In one eloquent stroke, in one short little phrase, Jesus raises the discussion from this minefield of partisan politics and gives us all a remark that all of us should be focused in on and excited about.
Doug McMasters: The adventurous quest of pursuing our Creator.
Doug McMasters: What is the chief end of man?
Doug McMasters: The Westminster Catechism in its first question.
Doug McMasters: What is the ultimate aim and focus of human existence?
Doug McMasters: To glorify God and to enjoy him forever is the answer.
Doug McMasters: That's an adventurous quest, pursuing our Creator, glorifying Him, enjoying Him, sort of looking into all the different ways that we can do both of those.
Doug McMasters: So Jesus here says we are to give ourselves back to the one who gave us life, to give ourselves without reserve to the God who's given us everything and formed us in his own image.
Doug McMasters: And it was this, this awareness of our glorious destiny of humans, this culmination of human existence itself.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is inviting these malicious men into this adventurous quest of their life.
Doug McMasters: Give yourself to God.
Doug McMasters: Render to God the things that are his.
Doug McMasters: Give back to Caesar what you have.
Doug McMasters: Give to God what you are, is what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
Doug McMasters: This is the good news of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: This is the message of salvation that we share with humanity.
Doug McMasters: A world filled with rebels, all, every single one of us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Doug McMasters: There is none righteous, no, not one.
Doug McMasters: And the message of the gospel is give yourself to God.
Doug McMasters: You're telling a rebel to give himself to the one he's rebellious against.
Doug McMasters: Yes.
Doug McMasters: Repent of your rebellion and turn to the Lord Jesus is the gospel message.
Doug McMasters: Listen to how Paul said it when he was preaching to some people who were actually trying to worship him.
Doug McMasters: He said, People, Acts 14, verse 15, why are you doing these things?
Doug McMasters: We're people just like you.
Doug McMasters: And we're proclaiming good news to you.
Doug McMasters: Good news that you turn from these worthless things to serve the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.
Doug McMasters: In past generations, he allowed all the nations to go their own way, although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven, fruitful seasons, filling you with food and your hearts with joy.
Doug McMasters: God has given you existence.
Doug McMasters: He's given you the ability to benefit from that labor and to do so in a way that gladdens your heart.
Doug McMasters: He's given you it all.
Doug McMasters: Give yourself to him.
Doug McMasters: Sadly, in our day, people preach the gospel as if we're trying to sell something to a skeptical crowd.
Doug McMasters: You know, we're so used to buying Fords, and some Toyota guy comes along saying, try this.
Doug McMasters: And we sound like a Toyota salesman in the middle of Detroit.
Doug McMasters: You know, just give it a shot.
Doug McMasters: We're actually a little better than what you've been used to driving.
Doug McMasters: Try Jesus on for a little while.
Doug McMasters: It'll be better for you.
Doug McMasters: No.
Doug McMasters: The gospel is speaking to rebellious people that they're missing life itself.
Doug McMasters: You're missing out on what you were designed to be and to do.
Doug McMasters: You were created by God, who is good and rich and full, who blesses even people that don't know him or care for him.
Doug McMasters: He makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Doug McMasters: He's given you all this that Paul just talked about.
Doug McMasters: Why would you rebel against that?
Doug McMasters: Give yourself back to God.
Doug McMasters: And so he's calling us.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is commanding us to discover in God what is the deepest sense of our identity, to understand what is the source of our existence.
Doug McMasters: He's repeating what Genesis said that repeats itself.
Doug McMasters: Genesis 1.27.
Doug McMasters: So God created man in his own image.
Doug McMasters: In the image of God, he created them.
Doug McMasters: Such an emphasis, the words get doubled in one verse.
Doug McMasters: What Jesus is saying here is so brief that we can feel like it's isolated.
Doug McMasters: But the whole of scripture speaks about this.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah 41, God is the one who casts down nations before himself and overthrows kings.
Doug McMasters: Psalm 24, to him belongs the earth and all that is in it, the world and all who live in it.
Doug McMasters: Everything belongs to God.
Doug McMasters: Heaven and earth, all people, all nations, all empires, all emperors, everybody.
Doug McMasters: Give yourself back to God.
Doug McMasters: So Jesus is here.
Doug McMasters: Let me say this.
Doug McMasters: He's not adding some religious command to a political question.
Doug McMasters: He's not adding to the command to pay taxes, the command to do something religious.
Doug McMasters: What he's saying here is that obedience to God supersedes all of your life.
Doug McMasters: That everything about us comes under this.
Doug McMasters: And that his claim on us has no limits.
Doug McMasters: It embraces every part of us.
Doug McMasters: It embraces our words.
Doug McMasters: It embraces our will.
Doug McMasters: It embraces our work.
Doug McMasters: Why did God create us?
Doug McMasters: For his own glory and to enjoy us.
Doug McMasters: When you read the creation accounts of the ancient Near East, and I've had the privilege of seeing them and reading them, you'll read one that comes out of Mesopotamia, the creation story called Enuma Elish.
Doug McMasters: And it talks about the creation account according to this God called Marduk.
Doug McMasters: And this is what Marduk says about creating people.
Doug McMasters: Blood I will amass and cause bones to be.
Doug McMasters: I will establish a savage man shall be his name.
Doug McMasters: Verily, savage man I will create.
Doug McMasters: But when you read Genesis one and two, you see that God made humanity in his own image, and then he communes with his creation.
SPEAKER_00: Relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy.
Doug McMasters: The biblical record of creation is very different than those ancient Near East records of creation.
Doug McMasters: You see, humanity is the crown of creation.
Doug McMasters: God made us in his own image, unlike anything else that he made.
Doug McMasters: And he did so so that he might relate to us humans, that we might find enjoyment in each other's company, that there might be a pleasurable relationship, that all our doings might be done in mirror of his and in return to him as our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That we would glorify him and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is saying to these men.
Doug McMasters: Oh, they're religious, all right.
Doug McMasters: Yeah, they're religious to the max, but they don't know God.
Doug McMasters: And they have not given themselves back to God.
SPEAKER_00: What is this about then?
Doug McMasters: Well, it means to tell us that, first of all, we're not ourselves.
Doug McMasters: We're not self-determinate.
Doug McMasters: We can't just make up what we think is right and what we think is wrong.
Doug McMasters: As though we were the sovereign one of the universe.
Doug McMasters: We're to give up that right of self-determination and submit ourselves to the God who made us.
Doug McMasters: That we are to live with a different principle in mind.
Doug McMasters: It's not about self-indulgence, but service.
Doug McMasters: And in a couple weeks, Banu is going to lead us through a passage that talks about what that service looks like.
Doug McMasters: Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
Doug McMasters: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Doug McMasters: That the center of human existence is God, and that the center of human energies and actions is one of service to God and others.
Doug McMasters: It means that we are not to be living our life as though it was all about us, but to give ourselves to Him, body and soul.
Doug McMasters: But it also means that we trust in this God, the one who made us, the one who's calling us back to Himself, the One who wants to commune with us, even when life is hard, even when things are tough, even when we come to death.
Doug McMasters: Now let me finish by drawing this out one last time.
Doug McMasters: These men have come full of hypocrisy, with dishonest intent, with evil intentions to trap Jesus out.
Doug McMasters: How does he respond to them?
Doug McMasters: With the strong medicine of mercy and truth.
Doug McMasters: You see, Jesus wasn't interested in winning this political discussion.
Doug McMasters: He wasn't even interested in exiting this argument with his own life.
Doug McMasters: No, what he was concerned about was confronting his own creation with the very problem that would, once solved, would change the whole of their existence to bring them back to the Father.
Doug McMasters: You see, in 1 Peter it says that Jesus Christ had given himself up on the cross.
Doug McMasters: He bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that having died to sins, we might live to righteousness.
Doug McMasters: By his wounds you have been healed, for we were like sheep going astray, but you've now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
Doug McMasters: You can only give yourself back to God through the one who brings you back to God, and that's Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Jesus transforms the Pharisees, this net of half-truths, this net of flattery, with their intent to ensnare him in that trap, and he turns it into an invitation.
Doug McMasters: Turns it into an evangelistic opportunity.
Doug McMasters: And here's where we need to stop for a second, to pause, and to marvel, actually, and to give thanks for the way God has turned this conversation.
Doug McMasters: That Jesus is not affronted and walking away, not answering the questions and taking aside.
Doug McMasters: He's giving himself to these men in the pursuit, turning away every ruse to deceive him, turning away every temptation to flee from the conversation, in order that we might be brought back to God.
SPEAKER_00: He loves sinful humanity so much that he won't let us go.
Doug McMasters: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Doug McMasters: The pursuit of sinners, God pursuing his rebels, and he continues that today.
Doug McMasters: Here is Jesus Christ, the one who is the image of the invisible God, the one who is here in front of them, and he's saying, Instead of trying to trap me, won't you give yourself back to me today?
Doug McMasters: You're happily working toward April 15th to pay your taxes.
Doug McMasters: But have you ever given a thought about giving yourself back to God?
Doug McMasters: He gave it to you, your life, everything you are.
Doug McMasters: You can only do it by the one who brings you back.
Doug McMasters: You can't go alone.
Doug McMasters: We won't go alone.
Doug McMasters: We're rebels.
Doug McMasters: Jesus can bring you back.
Doug McMasters: And he'll bring you to the place not only where you can glorify God, but that you can enjoy Him forever.
Doug McMasters: Forever.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus.
Doug McMasters: Lord, there's not one of us would have reacted the way He did.
Doug McMasters: We would have fought and scratched and punched and yelled or just walked away in disgust.
Doug McMasters: What tender mercies are shown us in the Savior here who pursues the very ones who are trying to get him arrested and murdered.
Doug McMasters: And we thank you, Father, that you continue to pursue us, who, given the opportunity, would be in the exact same place as they by evil hands have crucified the Holy One.
Doug McMasters: Oh Lord, don't stop pursuing us, we pray.
Doug McMasters: Don't leave us to our own devices, we pray.
Doug McMasters: Help us to see the Savior.
Doug McMasters: Awaken us to the understanding that our only hope is in Him.
Doug McMasters: And may we come to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through the renewing of the spirit of our minds, in the transformation of our life, so that we might be truly those who put on the new self, the one that was created according to your likeness and righteousness and purity of the truth.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for this lesson, Father.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for showing us Christ, who truly does shine brighter than the sun or the moon.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in his name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.