Let me start with, I don't ever want to get any glory from teaching or preaching Gods word. It all goes to Him. With that when I preach or teach I want to give my all and do my best to present it withing the context that it should be taught. Please feel free to ask any questions about my notes and what the direction of the message was heading.
I. Stand, Read, Pray, You can be seated.
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,[a] but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius[b] and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.
II. Why did they (who are they?) send the Herodians? The persons they employed were the Pharisees and the Herodians, men that in this matter were contrary to one another, and yet concurred against Christ, The Pharisees were great sticklers for the liberty of the Jews, and, if he should say, It is lawful to give tribute to Caesar, they would incense the common people against him, and the Herodians would, underhand, assist them in it. The Herodians were great sticklers for the Roman power, and, if he should discountenance the paying of tribute to Caesar, they would incense the governor against hum, yea, and the Pharisees, against their own principles, would join with them in it. It is no new thing for those that are at variance in other things, to join in a confederacy against Christ.
III. Who sent the Pharisees and the Herodians?
1. They were sent by the other Pharisees whom “went away” to see that we need to look back a few verses Jesus had just called them out 12:9-12.
2. The Pharisees were pretty ticked off at Jesus because He called them out for not recognizing that He was the prophesied Messiah. v. 10-11 He did this over and over, even later on today we’re going to see that. The Apostle Paul even did it but his was pure Acts 26:2-3 unlike the others.
IV. Now for the butter up v. 14 This was a common practice for lawyers and others to butter up officials before asking a question. The idea was to get a favorable answer or make them think that they actually cared about the answer they were giving. Have you ever had someone talk with you like that? In this case it was His enemy’s and He knew their hearts.
One of my favorite examples is when Kelly wants something from her dad. She will call him and say daaaadddddyyy. You’re such a great daddy… can you help me with…it is easy to butter someone up when you want something, before you ask right?!?
1. They were trying to get one of two answers from Jesus. Either way If He had said they needed to pay taxes to Cesar. It would have caused an uproar from the Jews who were being oppressed by the Romans
2. If Jesus had said they shouldn’t pay taxes the Herodians would have gotten Him thrown into jail and they would have been able to accomplish their mission of trying to have Him arrested. Remember v. 12 (read)
3. This is one of those situations that we need to be conscious of it is why we need to be in sync with the Holy Spirit. We need to make sure that we are careful with our words.
V. v. 15 really shows us why its important to just ask our questions and not try to butter people up. Jesus of course being God knew “their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” This verse reminds me of another time that the pharisees were called out by Jesus for their hypocrisy. In Matt. 9:2-6
1. In each instance we see Jesus exercise His authority as God calling the pharisees out for their critical thoughts of Jesus. It stems from the fact that the didn’t believe He was the Son of God. They even said it themselves Matthew 12:22-27, the pharisees called Jesus Beelzebul, repeatedly Jesus calls out the pharisees because of their unbelief. Back in Mark, Jesus is going to answer their question. But the answer He gives isn’t anything close to what they expected. “bring me a denarius.” The Denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer. It wasn’t an insignificant amount of money.
VI. I love this Jesus asks everyone there who’s face was on the coin, their answer must have been one of complete confusion. I can hear it now, “Caesar’s” Total confusion as to His answer, this passage isn’t so much about paying taxes to the government or not paying taxes. But what we see is in Jesus’ answer let’s look
VII. “render to Ceasar the things that are Caesar’s and to God things that are Gods.” And they marveled at Him.
1. Not one person who was there expected that answer. But it is the correct one. We all have things that we think belong to us in reality everything in the world belongs to God. God created everything in it and that’s the beauty of Jesus’ answer God already owns everything in the world. In His answer we have what we need to be doing. God has placed the government in authority to us that means we need to be paying out taxes, we need to be good stewards and do what the government says…UNLESS it infringes on our service to God.
VIII. Let’s wrap this up. There are a few things that we can take away from this passage of scripture.
1. People are going to try and trap us with hard questions, questions that we will not be able to answer on our own without the Holy Spirit. This is why it’s so important too. We see that over and over the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and even Satan himself tried to trip Jesus up.
a. Be careful of flattery Charles Spurgeon a famous preacher said this to pastors, “It is always best not to know, nor wish to know, what is being said about you, either by friends or foes. Those who praise us are probably as much mistaken as those who abuse us.” We need to give God the glory and not take it for ourselves.
b. Study God’s word. Study to show yourselves approved 2 Tim 2:15
c. Listen to Holy Spirit; two things with this and we can look back at the last point. God will never contradict His word. But they will try to use it against us,
d. I want to encourage you just like I always have to memorize scripture and if you just learn the verse also learn the context it was written in.
e. Trust that God has your back. He will give you the answers you need when you need them.
f. And finally, as important as it is to give to Caesar aka the government what is “his” it is also as important to give to God and that is ourselves. And we are going to finish with this 1 Cor 6:19-20
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