Worship the King

The chief priest and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.

The great high priest, the king, the prophet, God himself is in the temple. And the people who are designed and given the job description to lead God's people to know him are the ones seeking to destroy him. But, verse 48,

they did not find anything they could do for all the people were hanging on his words.

this tension is significant for the story. Everything that comes afterwards, they would just love to take his life, but they're afraid of the people. They have a fear of the people. The people are hearing him, and they're afraid of getting the people upset. Jesus, last week, or last time we met, when we were walking through Luke, it's been a week, he gives a parable of the wicked tenants. There's a landowner, he goes away, the tenants beat the servants that the landowner sends, and then finally they kill the son. This harkens back to Isaiah 6. The chief priest would have known Isaiah 6, and tells us very clearly, verse 19, our text, they perceive that he told the parable against them. Jesus has told a parable. You're the ungodly, wicked tenants. You've abused the prophets of God over and over and over again. And now that the son of God has come, you're gonna kill him. They get that he's talking about them. I just pause here for a moment. What a kind king. He's speaking to them with such clarity and they get it. But what should their response be? Repent, believe, stop seeking to destroy him. But what do they do? They see the dilemma and they plot. Here we see an unlawful conduct by ungodly men. 19 through 21,

the scribes and chief priests sought to lay hands on him at the very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere that they might catch him in something he said so as to deliver him up to the authorities and jurisdiction of the governor. So they asked him, teacher, we know that you speak truth, that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

Here we see in our text, Jesus has come. He is declaring God's word. He's even spoken this word clearly against the chief priest. And instead of repenting, they come up with a plan. Verse 20, they start watching him. They're spying to figure out what kind of angle can we take. They sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They have an end in mind and no matter what it takes, they're going to justify whatever it requires to get the end and their end is to destroy him. They have a zeal that leads them away from obedience. Now here's their master plan. This is the brilliance. All right, God's son, the light of the world is in the temple. Let's take him out. The word of God incarnate is teaching God's people, let's try to find a way of deceiving him and tricking him. We see here, something that's helpful for us, when we're wrapped up into sin, when we're wrapped up into our desires, we become self-deceived. In short, sin makes you this stupid? To think you're going to trick God and catch him somehow? We can look at this and think, these guys are silly. This is the worst plan ever. Oh, but how we plot ourselves in vain. The spies go and they flatter Jesus. They are insincere. Already breaking the commandment of God. They're bearing false witness. They go and they flatter Jesus, knows what they say in verse 21.

Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

Now, three things. He teaches and speaks rightly. The word here is ortho, straight. Right? Orthos. He is a straight and right teacher. He shows a partiality. There is no fear of man that is controlling the chief priest at some level. And he truly teaches the way of God. What's amazing in their insincerity, they're confessing everything right. All these things are true. He is the way of God. He is teaching the way of God. But they are coming insincerely seeking to find a way to overthrow him. Then we see the ethical dilemma, the ethical dilemma. Verse 22, pretty straightforward, pretty simple.

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

That is the very clever question they came up with. And it's a pretty good question. Now they should ask a question. Is it lawful to be insincere? They didn't ask that question here. They're asking, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? This is a hot topic of the day. This will be like asking somebody if they're vaccinated or how they feel about vaccinations. It's a hot topic, it's alive. It shows some kind of an allegiance. You see, the whole focus here is Rome is a pagan government who is overseeing and is oppressing Israel, God's Jewish, God's holy people. And Rome is allowing them to worship, but they must pay taxes, they must be good citizens. The ethical dilemma is for the zealous Jewish worshiper, because they're having to pay a tax to Rome, and that tax would go to support all the evil Rome does, even the pagan worship that Rome promotes. And Caesar, like most rulers, took on some titles of divine. Caesar Augustus, the one who is in ruling at the time of Jesus' birth. Augustus means revered one. When Jesus will ask for the coin, it's Tiberius, that emperor's son, and the inscription on that coin would say, divine son of Augustus on the front. And on the back, Maximus Pontiff, which is supreme high priest. For the zealous Jew to take this coin, which has an image of the king, has an inscription that he is divine, we can feel the tension. It's a real ethical dilemma. Is it lawful? Is it lawful? We can feel this tension today. We're paying taxes to a government. And no matter where you stand on the political aisle, there's something our government does that you don't like. And your taxes are going to pay for things that you disagree with. Even more so, 30 years before this event with Jesus in the temple, there was an actual protest by Jews against Rome saying we should not pay taxes. It's a live debate. And here's the trick. If he says yes, pay taxes, the people will start to distrust him as a betrayer. If he says no, do not pay taxes, oh, then it's easy. You just tell the governor and they will come in and take care of business as Rome knew how to do. Jesus' response. Our third point, proper priorities. Proper priorities. Verse 23, Jesus is not tricked. He perceives their craftiness. He knows what they're up to. Here he is, the word of God, who knows their hearts better than they do. He asks them a question.

Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?

They said Caesar's. Okay, again, there's a picture of the Caesar, and then there's that incredible title, which would have not been that uncommon for a king, the divine son. And then, in response to this, Jesus gives maybe one of the most powerful pact statements in his teaching. Now, let me just say, it's kind of weird to say some of Jesus' teaching is more important than any other teaching. The most important teachings, though, would be,

I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the resurrection.

When Jesus tells us how to relate to God, that is the most important teaching. But here, because he's such a good king for us, citizens of the kingdom of heaven, he's telling us how to relate to him, the king, the God, and how to relate to our governing authorities. It's important for us to take this in because it's such an important aspect of life. And notice, it's not over simplistic. Too often we want overly simplistic answers to these significant questions. If you want overly simplistic, just go to social media or any news station and you'll get overly simplistic answers on how a church should relate to the government. But if you want simple and clear, you will learn to Jesus and he gives such great clarity. Here's the problem, we either confuse things by making it overly simplistic or we overcomplicate things. Two basic points, Jesus says.

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

And the words borrowed here,

render to God the things that are God.

Two basic points. Give to God the things that belong to God, give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. Church, if only we could keep these two categories clear. God gives such good boundaries. Okay, we're going to have some really good, honest disagreements over lunch about what belongs to each category. All right, there's some really good disagreements everybody in this room, husband and wife can have in front of their children. It'd be great. We can have real good, honest disagreements on what goes in the categories at some level. We're also going to see the absolute clarity of how scripture tells us what has to go in each category. Does that make sense? Scripture does tell us things that go in the categories, then we can decide and debate with conviction what kinds of things we think should go up that Scripture doesn't address so directly. So make it very clear, God himself, the Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ, when asked, should we pay taxes, he makes it clear, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar, give to the government the things that are the government, give to God the things that are God. Now, we're gonna back up before we go into listing what things clearly belong to each one. Jesus, the way of God, is teaching and preaching rightly. Hear this, it is a God thing to give the governor his thing. It is a God thing to give to the governor his thing. If you refuse to give the governor his thing, you're actually not giving God what he says. God will tell us to give to the governor his taxes. It's part of our worship to give to the governor, to give to Caesar, to give to the government, to give to the king what rightly belongs to king. The same way there are marriages, parenting, it's all part of worship. We can't act as if I'm gonna be a citizen or a worshiper. No, being a citizen is part of your worship. If you cannot give Caesar his things, you have a God problem, not just a Caesar problem. Honoring the emperor, paying taxes, being a good citizen, all part of worship. Now let's go ahead and say the opposite of this. It is not a government thing to tell you how to relate to God. The government, and what the government is called to do in scripture, and we can see this very clearly, and I hope we will see it very clearly, it is a God thing to tell you to give the government what belongs to the government, but it is not the government's job to tell you what belongs to God. God tells us how to relate to the government, the government does not tell us how to worship God. This is why we believe the separation of church and state is right and good. We especially hold that because we're Baptist, and you might be surprised by this, but this is a Baptist distinctive. Come to membership class if you wanna hear more about that. We do wanna hold fast to freedom of religion, freedom of worship. because we pray for our king that we would be able to worship according to our own convictions. In the same way, we actually pray the same thing for Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Mormons, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims. The government should not bind the conscience in worship. If we believe in freedom, We believe in the freedom of religion for all. Now, the two categories. What are the God things? What are Caesar's things? Let's separate these out as clearly as we can. What belongs to God uniquely? What belongs to Caesar uniquely? Well, the easiest thing to say that belongs to God is love. Because when Jesus asks, what is the greatest commandment? He gives us the great commandment is to

love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your being.

This is the summary of the law. Now, we need to make sure love isn't this thing you fall into, love isn't a feeling that you just kind of get stirred up all of a sudden. Love is your affection, your commitment, your devotion. You discipline your affections. And really, as we think about this command to love the Lord your God, the wise life, according to Augustine, is somebody who has all their loves properly ordered. Because we're called to love our neighbor, our enemy. We're called to love our spouse. We're called to love our children. We're called to love God. When we love God and we let Him then order how we love others, we will truly love Him and everything else rightly. This is why our culture taking the command to love your neighbor without the first command is not gonna ever work. You must first love the Lord your God, and then you're able to say, my neighbor is just like me, made in his image. I will love my neighbor. To try to take the command to love your neighbor as yourself only works if you first have recognized the need and the call to love God with all your heart. This is the first thing. Christian, are you giving to God what belongs to God? Are you seeking to stir up and to grow your affection for God? If you wanna know how to do that, it's quite simply clear in scripture. You first look and see how he loved you. He loved us while we're sinners. He loved us when there was nothing lovely about us. He loved us and committed himself to us. Love is a promise. He promised in love to save the people who were unworthy. Here's the flip side of that. His call to us is to love Him who is supremely lovely. But it's a setting our affection. It's a promise making and keeping love. Where are our commitments? Where is our devotion? The second thing that belongs to God is obedience. He is a God who gives commandments. He is a God who will command us to honor our governing authorities. We are not to ever seek disobedience to any authority and do so flippantly. Oh, we're called to obey God. And in so doing, we're going to obey all his commandments and his commandments are to other neighbors. Love our neighbor as ourself. When we see God in His commandments, we see how good He is. We see how loving they are. We see how clear they are. We see how helpful they are. The third thing we give to God that is only God's is worship. This is a true and proper fear of the Lord. A reverence, a desire to see Him as the Holy One. The creator, the one whose name is above all names. It's important we avoid any kind of individualism here. We come and we seek to worship. Then we as a church are seeking to help mold each other and train each other to join together to know how to worship him. But we do not worship any political leader. There's a right way to have an honor. But for the Lord God, we fear Him. We have a reverence for Him, knowing He is the true and final judge, knowing He is the one who is worthy of worship alone. And fourth, there's a unique faith. We trust Him above all. He is the King of kings, he is the Lord of lords, he is above all. This is significant because everything he's going to tell us to do next is gonna require us to love him, to desire to obey him out of a fear and reverence because we trust him. Now, if you're not a Christian, this is a helpful maybe place to pause. The reason we come together as Christians is to hear God's words so that we would hear his truth hear of his grace, and the most significant thing we need to really look at is everybody in this room has failed to love God as he deserves. Failed to obey him as he's commanded. Failed to worship him as he is worthy. Failed to trust him as he is trustworthy. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the judgment that the one true holy God will bring on everyone who fails, and that is everyone, is a judgment. We are all under judgment if we are clinging to our sin that says, I will not love God, I will not revere God, I will not trust God. This is what's so incredible about the gospel. Jesus is God incarnate who we hated. If you wanna know how we fit in the story, we're probably more like the chief priest. Okay, we might not be thinking, I wanna try to figure out how to destroy Jesus, but I wanna keep him at a distance. I don't want to hear him and trust him and believe him and revere him and love him as he's worthy. And even still, Jesus is going to go and die on the cross for sinners like the Chief Bruce, like us. That's the gospel. We have not treated God as he deserves. in all of his glory, in all of his love, in all of his worthiness. And yet still, he gave us his son so that we might be forgiven. The sin is that significant. There is no other place to find forgiveness. There is no other way to find relief. You must believe in Jesus. He is the only one who provides forgiveness for our sin. Now let's go to the other side. If God is worthy of love, obedience, reverence, trust, what are the things that belong to Caesar? What are the government things? First up is a fun one. Taxes. No? Romans 13.6, pay taxes to your governing authorities. This is actually the heart and soul of what is a little bit practically coming down to. Give to Caesar his tax. But do not give him worship. Do not give him reverence. Do not give him your love. The government is an institution that taxes. And those taxes are supposed to be used not to abuse the people or to overreach, even though that happens. Those taxes are meant to be used to protect the people. The tax collectors in Jesus' day were known to be crooked. because they would tank more than the government would give, but here even there's no qualification. Giving your taxes is part of your worship. Giving your taxes is part of your worship. If you're gonna look at that more, you can look at Romans 13, six. The second thing we give to the government, the power of the sword. That is the power to execute justice. Again, Romans 13, one to five. God has given the government the power of the sword to punish evil. A big part of this is we're trusting the God who will avenge, therefore we do not take our own vengeance. And we also see that the government has been given the unique power of the sword to punish criminals. And to make a contrast, to make this clear, the government is given the sword to punish criminals, the church is given the keys to discipline for spiritual health. The church is given the keys to discipline for spiritual health. The government is given the sword to punish criminals, to remove physical danger from society. The third thing that is clearly a government thing, honor. Honor. 1 Peter 2.17 is a passage worth memorizing.

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

Those last two, let's just make sure we understand.

Fear God, honor the emperor.

Have reverence and worship for God, honor the emperor. There's a reverence for the one who is truly king, and there's honor for who he has put over us in authority. The king, the emperor, the governor, the president, the mayor, They're worthy of honor. It's a position of authority. We live in an anti-institutional age, a desire to undermine authority. Christian, we cannot participate in this. Taxes, that's an activity. Honor, that's a posture. If we only honor someone as much as we decide they are worthy, we're pretending to be God. If we only honor someone as much as we decide they are worthy, we pretend to be God. Be very clear, there is a place for frustration with governing authorities. But no matter what, it's a position that deserves honor. When you look at the commands to submit or to be subject to, they're always given a qualifier.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Do you see the way that we actually submit to others and show honor to others? It's always in connection to how are we gonna have reverence for God? Our worship, our reverence for God is going to determine how much we're willing to honor others or rather maybe the way we are gonna honor others is a measure for how much we really fear God. Our ability to submit says more about our respect and fear of God than it does about the person and the position we should honor. We can look back and we can think, well, if only I had this president. Maybe the good old days, back when George Washington was president. Thomas Jefferson. Ronald Reagan. No matter who the ruler is, we're called to honor them. and fear God. Let's be very clear, no matter who you think the golden age of presidency was, no matter who you think is the worst president, we can actually step back and think, God, we've never had a Caesar Augustus, a Nero, a Constantine. You see, when we look at our governors and we hear the command to honor, Let's just be very clear. We honor the emperor because the king is risen. He is risen. All right, Easter was a long time ago. I know you're ready for Christmas. We're gonna nail that though. He is risen. He's ascended to the right hand of the father. He is a name above all names. He is the same yesterday, today, forever. When Pilate asked Jesus,

do you not know that I have authority to free you or to punish you?

How does Jesus respond?

Oh, that authority was given to you from above.

That's boss. To say that to a Roman authority, it's true. When we look at these different authorities that are truly terrifying because of the power they have, We know that no one has that position unless God has put them there. Oh, you have a wonderful privilege and a responsibility to vote, but be very clear, no one reigns in the position of mayor, governor, or president unless God ordains it. He decides who is king and he commands us all to honor him. in case that wasn't prickly enough. The fourth thing that belongs to the governing authorities, prayer and thanksgiving. Prayer and thanksgiving. We can go back to the passage Brian read before the pastoral prayer. First Timothy 2 and 4, what does God desire? That we would pray. Well, two specific kinds of prayer. There are different kinds of prayer. There's a prayer of praise. We don't do that for governors. Prayer of confession, we don't do that for governors. But a prayer of supplication and a prayer of thanksgiving. Christian, I ask you, when was the last time you prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for your governing authorities? It's commanded in scripture. When was the last time you prayed a prayer of supplication? When was the last time you asked God to give our governing authorities a fear of God? When was the last time we asked our governing authorities for wisdom, to know how to execute justice? That this is important and necessary for us to be faithful Christians. This is what's so clearly commanded in scripture. Pray for the King, that we will be able to live a quiet, peaceful, dignified life. God's will is very clear here. Are we able to thank God for his power to give us whatever king he desires? Are we able to pray knowing he has authority over every king? As we back up a little bit, let's be very clear. If we go to Genesis 3.15, The words of judgment of God to Satan, right after he came to confront us for rebelling against him, deciding he's not gonna be king, after we decided God would not be our true king, his first words of judgment were to Satan. And he said,

there will be enmity between the seat of Satan and the seat of the woman.

There's going to be constant turmoil. There's going to be a constant battle. You want to know what that looks like? Just read Exodus 6-14. Egypt there represents the seat of Satan who hates God and his people. And Moses and Israel represent God in the seat of the woman. There's a real turmoil. There's a real enmity. There's a real problem. There's really something to be afraid of. But the victory is won. There is going to be enmity. We read about it in Psalm 2. But it doesn't mean we're gonna try to take up the sword to fight against. This is my challenge to you, Christian. When we come against this fear of what is happening in our government, in our nation, in our community, do we trust more in the power of the sword, the power of the vote, the power of protest, or the power of prayer? That's my challenge. It doesn't need to be a false dichotomy. But are we praying? Let's just go back. The church has a certain arsenal given to it by God. Ephesians 6.17 says the sword is the word of God. Hebrews 4.12 describes it as a sword that pierces even the soul and the spirit. The government gives us the right to bear arms, but God commands us to wield. the Word of God in prayer. Are we trusting God in prayer by thanking God for our governing authorities and praying for them? A few applications as we conclude. There's a warning here. There's two dangers. Not honoring governing authorities based on our opinions or commitments, or could be, depending on governing authorities, too much in areas they should not be involved. It's a hard spot here. We're Americans. We live in a blessed nation. We're given so much opportunity. There's so much that's been caused by people bringing about change, and there's a real dilemma. Knowing how to act toward the change we want to see, or knowing how to pray, trust, and persevere in the things we cannot change. Let me step back, I just want to make clear, there's more than these two areas. I want to separate these two areas as church and state because it's worship of God and honoring the emperor. The first institution ordained and designed by God is a family. If you're a parent, spouse, child, the family is God's first institution. It's the fabric of society. There's a great responsibility. And if we're to put something in that category, training children to be wise, training children to be citizens, training children to be worshipers, that is the job of the parent first and foremost. The flip side of this, if we're upset about what our government is doing to train children, is it because the church and the family have failed? Let's be very clear. We need to take this responsibility first and foremost. The family is God's institution that has given the specific instruction to train. Are we taking our responsibility seriously? Secondly, we talked a lot about the government. What is the church? Here at Jefferson Park, the church is a place for believers to be disciple. There's one thing we're trying to do, and that's simply to make disciples of Jesus. We want to make sure we're making disciples who can then make disciples. Of the nations, we're making disciples of evangelism. Of one another, we're seeing how to live together to grow up into Christ. Here's the grand political strategy of our church, is to make sure that believers who are joined here growing up in discipleship are able to influence the world as disciples of Jesus. Disciplining you to know the roles of the state, the church, and the family. Seeking to ensure you know you have the right relationship and expectation of yourself in these institutions and of those institutions themselves. The one thing we're gonna try to do over and over again, it's preach Christ and Him crucified. There's only one way to make you a disciple of Jesus Christ, and it's to make sure He is known above all. Now, you're gonna have a lot of questions after today's sermon. Maybe some complaints. This is why you're gonna come on Wednesday night and listen to Ben explain everything I didn't make sense of. He's doing something on church and government on Wednesday night, so Ben, there we go. Finally, we can be disheartened as we see governments, I appreciated Brian's prayer, and how governments have been abusive in the past, are abusive now, I want to give us great hope in that God's institution, the church, should give us great hope. And here's why. The church is the only institution promised to overcome evil. The gates of hell will not prevail against her. The church is the only institution promised to persevere till the end. Christ will come and claim her. The church is the only institution empowered by God's Holy Spirit. The church is the only institution with Christ at her head. The church is the only institution that Christ purchased with his own blood. The church is the only institution that Christ has unified with himself in love as a bridegroom. The church is the only institution that is being built up by his spirit to promote worship of the one God. The question is, will we seek to hear Christ, obey him, and know how to be discipled as a church? so that we would give God his things, love, reverence, worship, trust. We will give the government, the government things, taxes, honor, and prayer. Are we going to seek to order our lives according to God's word? This is the final question. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have given us your word Lord, you've shown us in your word so clearly. Our hearts are as twisted as these chief priests who hate your son, and yet you still put your love upon us and sent your son to die for us. Lord, you've helped us to see him high and lifted up, the one who is worthy alone to be worshiped and obeyed. And Lord, we also know that every governing authority that is over us is given to us by you. And while some are more evil than others, Lord, I pray that we would have the grace and the trust in you to pray for them, to pay taxes to them, to honor them, and ultimately to know that you are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who is good, who can be trusted, who holds every other authority in your hand. Lord, help us to know how to live as your disciples in this world. Help us to worship you as King. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response.