Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign
[00:00:04] Speaker B: welcome to Hope for Today, a weekly Bible teaching program that will bring you hope for every day.
Hello and welcome. This program is produced by Heralds of Hope, where our vision is to use media to make disciples.
Expository Bible teaching is one tool we use in disciple making. We like this tool not because of what we say, but because God's word is so powerful and necessary.
Our lives have been impacted because others explain the Word of God to us. And with God's help, our desire is to bless others the same way.
Today's lesson is a continuation of the tension with the religious leaders here. In Mark 12 they again try to trap Jesus by what he says. This time they ask him about taxes.
His response leaves them amazed and speechless.
Let's give our attention to Bible teacher J. Mark and look at these verses together.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: My wife and I have had the privilege of traveling to various countries around the world, and one time we were in Southeast Asia and coming out of the airport we had to pay a fee before we left the building.
So when the attendant asked for the fee, I told him that I didn't have any of the local currency and in my ignorance I pulled a US $20 bill out of my wallet. Well, when he saw that, he indicated it would be enough and he took it.
I learned later on that I had paid much more than was required.
So you see, my ignorance had a cost.
Language is a currency too.
And much like money, we assign meaning to words as we assign value to physical coins and paper bills.
Like money, we can inflate the meaning of some words by overusing or contextualizing them.
The setting of our text is the final week of Jesus life and he is teaching daily in the temple.
Just before this, the religious leaders confronted him for cleansing the temple. They wanted to know by what authority he did that, and then he told them the parable of the Wicked vinedressers and our text today continues after their confrontation.
Now, we don't usually think of the world's nations as kingdoms, but the concept of a kingdom was well understood in Bible times.
And while Jesus didn't use the word kingdom in our text, he implied it.
We want to consider today his teaching in Mark chapter 12, verses 13 to 17.
I've titled our study Kingdom Currency.
Listen as I read God's Word.
Then they sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words.
When they had come, they said to him, teacher, we know that you are true and care about no one, for you do not regard the person of Men but teach the way of God in truth, Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
Shall we pay or shall we not pay?
But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, why do you test me? Bring me a, uh, denarius that I may see it.
So they brought it. And he said to them, whose image and inscription are these?
And they said to him, they are Caesar's. And Jesus answered and 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.
In this text, Jesus uses a simple object lesson to teach several important aspects of kingdom currency.
The first aspect is political expedience.
Now, unless you live in a country ruled by an absolute dictator, your government thrives on political expedience.
Compromise, mutual favors, those are the things that grease the wheels of political parties and governments.
And a simple definition of expedience is the end justifies the means. And we have a clear example of this in our text.
Our text begins by saying, then, uh, they sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians.
Who is the they?
They were the Sanhedrin. They were Israel's highest court in Jesus day. They were seated in a special part of the temple compound, and it happened to be close by to where Jesus was teaching.
Now, if you've been with me throughout this study, you've seen this combination of characters before.
The Herodians were a political party that wanted to restore Herod to the throne of Judea.
The Herodians opposed the Pharisees because the Pharisees hated Herod. They wanted a descendant of David on that same throne. So they were enemies. And yet, because of their mutual hatred for Jesus, it became expedient for them to work together to destroy him.
So here they came to catch him in something he said.
Luke calls them spies. And Matthew vividly depicts this effort to trap Jesus in his speech like you would trap a bird or a wild animal.
But look at how pious they act.
Teacher, we know that you are true and care about no one. For you do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.
What flattery. When they said Jesus didn't care about anyone, they didn't mean he was hard hearted. What they meant was he didn't show favoritism.
And what they said about Jesus was true.
But their motives were not true. They were dishonest.
Earlier, you remember, they had accused him of blasphemy. But now they say, you always speak the truth.
Well, which Is it? Did they truly think that Jesus was not going to see through their hypocrisy?
Do you think political expediency ended with the Pharisees?
Not a chance. It's still with us today.
And there are those who use politics in the church to protect their positions. They are often so compromised that their commitment to Christ can be legitimately questioned. In appearance, they may serve God, but in reality, they are serving themselves.
These religious leaders had yoked themselves to a party of unbelievers.
God had called his people Israel to be exclusively for Him. But these men saw that their alliance with the Herodians could help them carry out their plans and reach their personal goals.
Do you and I enter into unholy alliances to accomplish what we want?
Do we compromise our faith to protect our position or to avoid ridicule?
Do we publicly say one thing to the Lord and then privately pursue the opposite?
Are we willing to enter unholy alliances to preserve the status quo?
These questions demand our serious reflection.
But there's another aspect of kingdom currency. I've called it willful disobedience.
The Pharisees set the stage for the question by saying, we know you're not going to answer according to public opinion. You are going to speak the unveiled word of God.
And so then answer our question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?
Since Judea became a Roman province in 86, the Romans required the Jews to pay a yearly poll or head tax into the emperor's treasury. It was a denarius that was the chief silver coin of the Romans at this time, and it was the equivalent of one day's wages for a common laborer or Roman soldier.
Later on, the Jewish zealots refused to pay it. They claimed that it acknowledged Rome's right to rule over them, and they rejected that. The Pharisees paid it, but they paid it under protest. The Herodians paid it willingly because they supported Roman rule.
So this strange mixture of religious and political leaders was trying to set a trap for Jesus. And the Pharisees put the question before him so that no matter how he answered, they would have a reason to accuse him.
If he said it was okay to pay taxes to Caesar, then the people would rise up against him. If he said they shouldn't pay taxes to Caesars, then the Pharisees would go running to the Roman government and say, this man is out there propagating rebellion. He's advising people not to pay their taxes.
Either response would be disobeying a king, either Jehovah or Caesar.
But Jesus saw through their trickery. He said to them, why do you test me? Bring a denarius to me so I can see it. And so they brought a ah, coin to him. At this time in Jewish history, the Caesar whose image appeared on the denarius was Tiberius Caesar. He reigned from AD 14 until AD 37. His image was pressed on the coin's surface and his name was inscribed.
The Latin inscription on the Roman denarius of this period is translated as Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus.
So you can see the potential consequences of Jesus answer to their question.
After looking at the coin, Jesus looked at his adversaries and said, whose likeness and inscription are stamped on this coin? And without hesitating, they said, caesar's.
Since Caesar's image and name were on it, it indicated his possession. According to Roman law, Caesar owned the coin.
And that leads us to the final aspect of kingdom currency. It is divided allegiance.
Typically, divided allegiance is not viewed in a positive light. But Jesus makes a clear statement regarding this division.
After he looked at the Roman coin that had the likeness of Caesar and the inscription that lauded his office, this is what he said to his give to Caesar what belongs to him and give to God what belongs to God.
With that statement, Jesus separated the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men.
Now, roughly 500 years ago, during the Protestant Reformation, men like Martin Luther and John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli advocated for a return to the word of God for things like salvation by grace through faith and other changes. But they failed to address the crucial issue of the separation of church and state.
During that time, the tiny Anabaptist movement saw the need for a clear separation between the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of God.
They embraced the New Testament teaching that the church was composed of adult believers who had voluntarily chosen to be members.
Recognizing the practice of infant baptism into a state authorized church as being unbiblical, they chose instead to be rebaptized upon their confession of faith in Christ.
And as a result of that choice, many of them were tortured and killed at the hands of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed church authorities in cooperation with state governments.
The blood of these martyrs eventually led to the doctrine of the separation of church and state, and it eventually became a part of mainstream Christianity.
When Jesus said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God, his questioners were speechless. They did not have a suitable answer.
His reply meant they should pay the annual poll tax because God established human governments to control evil and to fulfill his purposes.
Paul's writings In Romans chapter 13 and elsewhere clearly indicate our responsibility to our governments. Neither Jesus nor Paul taught that the church should involve itself in the affairs of civil government.
Now, that doesn't mean we have no interest in or interaction with human governments. What it means is our primary commitment is to the Kingdom of God, and that is what should govern all of our actions.
So which of these two kingdoms has priority in your life? Jesus clarified that to be his followers, our primary allegiance must be to Him.
Yes, it's true we are citizens of a country that affords us certain rights and privileges.
But if and when the requirements in these two kingdoms collide, the Kingdom of Christ takes precedence.
And so I close with this what kingdom currency are you using?
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Thanks J. Mark for this teaching. The Pharisees questioned Jesus about taxes. What a timeless question. A question many of us have wrestled with. Jesus response is also timeless. Thanks J. Mark for emphasizing the kingdom of Jesus. This kingdom that crosses all cultures and boundaries.
It does not matter which country or town you call home. As, uh, servants of Jesus, our real home is with Him. He is our King. We obey him and look forward to the day when his kingdom is ushered in. Are you participating in his kingdom? What do you do when your country's teaching and his kingdom are at odds?
How can we be wise like Jesus was?
To contact us, please send us an email. Our email address is hopeheraldsofhope.org and our website is heraldsofhope.org There you will find Contact us under the Partner tab which is on the top right. Click on that to message us directly. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for listening to Hope for today. The kingdom of Jesus is unlike any other kingdom. The more I learn and understand about this kingdom, the more the more amazing it is to me. In Matthew 6 Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. May God help us prioritize his kingdom and keep him first.
