Death and Taxes, Part 1

Today from Chuck Swindoll. Before I go further, let me remind you that his death was not an afterthought with the living God. He came on the mission from heaven to earth to die. He was ordained to die. The purpose of his arrival on the planet was that he might live that perfect life being free from sin, that he might die the perfect sacrifice. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll helps us understand the implications of this emotional exchange.

Chuck titled his message, Death and Taxes. Now we're looking at Matthew 17, the last six verses of this chapter. I had a lady say to me as she was coming into church early this morning, my husband and I were reading that passage of scripture you're preaching on today, and we wondered to each other, what in the world is he going to say about that?

I thought the same thing. As a matter of fact, when I first looked at these verses, this is not what an expositor would call a scintillating passage of scripture, but it's a part of scripture. And when you're committed to the exposition of God's Word, you don't pick and choose.

You push your way through, and that means you don't dodge the ones that seem difficult to apply. In the middle of the section that we're looking at, the whole subject changes, which is a part of the flow of events that we're not usually ready for, but you'll see that for yourself. Matthew 17, I'm reading from the New Living Translation, and if you have brought your Bible, turn with me to verse 22 to the end of the chapter of Matthew 17. After they had gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.

And the disciples were filled with grief. On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and asked him, Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax? Yes, he does, Peter replied. Then he went into the house, but before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, What do you think, Peter? Did kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered? They tax the people they have conquered, Peter replied. Well then, Jesus said, the citizens are free.

However, we don't want to offend them. So go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin.

Take it and pay the tax for both of us. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies.

And now the message from Chuck titled Death and Taxes. It must have been wonderful to have walked with Jesus literally as he made his way during his earthly ministry over the many miles that they walked together. He and his disciples were, well, inseparable. And as he reached closer to the cross, the closer their relationship became. He had called them to be with him, and then he would send them forth. He knew when he called them that there would come the day when he would no longer be with them. He would go to the cross. He would die for the sins of the world.

Yes, he would be raised after being in the grave, and he would ascend into heaven following a period of time on earth, but at that time when he was gone, they would be on their own following through with the things that he had begun. So it stands to reason, as he got nearer the time when he would be arrested, put on trial, and then nailed to a cross, that his focus would become more and more on his death, even though, can you imagine, that was not a subject the disciples would find pleasant to address or even to think about. We've all had loved ones who have had terminal diseases, and we have sat with them and talked with them and walked with them, and rarely do we bring up the fact that they are going to die. It's not a subject that is pleasant to address, but death is a reality. And in the case of Christ, it is the reason he came. Unlike all of us who come to live and to live a full life, he came to live a short life.

He died at age 33, younger than many of us, I would say most of us. Knowing that his death was imminent, about six months away, he decided it was time to bring up a subject again. He did that frequently and sometimes, as in this case, abruptly. So out of the blue, as they're walking along, having been together, following the transfiguration, and then time with him at the base of the mountain, you remember, they're making their way back home, to where Peter would call home and Jesus would call the, well, what might have been the home of his ministry, Capernaum, on their way to that town, he brings up the subject again. He doesn't prepare them for it.

He simply and abruptly addresses it. Look at verse 22 of Matthew 17. After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day, he will be raised from the dead. And the disciples, literally from the original we read, they grieved exceedingly.

There was sighing, there were probably gasps, the shaking of heads. You see, he has talked to them about this before. If I count correctly, this is the third time he has brought up the subject.

It won't be the last. But this third time, he brings up something he had not mentioned the first two times, and that is that he will be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He tells them bluntly and forthrightly that a betrayal is underway. I looked up the word betrayed in Webster's, and I found the very first response in the dictionary was that it has the roots to be a traitor. The word traitor is tucked away within the word betrayed. Little did the disciples realize that the traitor was standing in their midst. Bad enough that there would be one who would betray him, but to think that he would be one of their own.

They don't know that right now. As a matter of fact, I'm convinced Judas was probably among the most trustworthy of the group. He's the one who held the purse. He was their chosen treasurer. What little money they handled, Judas handled it. In fact, John tells us in one of his off-the-cuff comments that he pilfered from that purse.

He took money from it. He was evil to the core, even though he walked among the twelve. I will be betrayed, I am going to be killed, and I think that's all they heard. When you are grieving exceedingly, you don't hear everything that's being said. Matter of fact, when I thought back over grievous times in my own life, I remember saying things like, what did you just say? Because much of what was said slipped by me in my grief.

That's, I think, what happened. I don't believe they realized fully that he would be raised until the day of the resurrection. When they came upon the empty tomb, they did not know what to think, even though he had mentioned his resurrection more than a few times. But they never could get that clear in their minds. First, it was a miracle that he would come back from beyond, and second, the grief of his death was too much for them to take in. So now we leave them grieved, and I think they were silent.

I like it that in my Bible there's a little blank space between the 23rd verse and the 24th verse. I think they made the rest of their way to Capernaum in silence, turning over in their minds what life would be like when he was killed. I'm sure they all were asking themselves, how are we going to make it without him? What will we do when we are faced with things that now we simply back away and let him handle?

When he's taken from us, how can we go on? It's all of that and so much more that occupied their attention once he mentioned that he would be killed. Before I go further, let me remind you that his death was not an afterthought with the living God. I repeat, he came on the mission from heaven to earth to die. He was ordained to die. The purpose of his arrival on the planet was that he might live that perfect life, being free from sin, that he might die the perfect sacrifice.

He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, writes the Apostle Paul. So they're left with their thoughts, lost in their grief. Nothing more is recorded because I believe nothing more at that time was said. It's a good time for me to add a thought here before we go on in the journey. All of us need to learn how to respect silence. There are times when words get in the way and in fact grab the attention of someone but in the plan of God and the providence of God, he would have them stay in silence to think.

Think through things. When you're in conversation, be careful to leave room for silence. When you're with another who is struggling with whatever, leave room, leave a space for silence. Don't fill it in with words. Don't be uncomfortable when words aren't flowing.

There's a message in silence that we will otherwise miss. So there is no talk any further until we arrive at Capernaum. If you were to look at a map, Capernaum is located on the northernmost shore of the little Sea of Galilee.

When you travel to Israel, it is one of the places you will always visit. You come from the coast and you travel east over a small area of hillside and then you come and overlook the Sea of Galilee and if you continue around the sea, you get to the northern shore where you would find Capernahum, the home of Nahum or we know it as Capernaum. This is where Peter lives with his wife and family. So they're back in Peter's familiar territory where he fished the shores of the Sea of Galilee and perhaps other disciples lived there. This was sort of headquarters for Jesus' evangelistic ministry.

So if you will, they're back home and they must have been a familiar sight. Jesus with his twelve as they walk into the town, no doubt people took notice. In this case, a temple tax collector observed their arrival. We read the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter. No doubt Peter by now is known as the spokesman for the group. So he singles out the one who would normally speak for the group, not Jesus, but he spoke to Peter and he asked a question that suggests an affirmative answer.

Let me read it like that. Your teacher pays the temple tax, doesn't he? Your teacher does pay that tax, doesn't he? Now, I think in his heart of hearts, he would hope that he wasn't paying taxes, that he might report him and they would have further grounds of accusation against him.

But in fact, he was paying those taxes. The problem with this passage as we take it all the way to the end is that it is on a subject nobody wants to hear about. I realized that. My wife reminded me of that just this morning. The problem with the passage you're dealing with is you're talking about things nobody wants to hear about.

And she's right. If you had known I was going to talk on taxes, you probably would have found a reason not to come. So we didn't tell you ahead of time. We take it as it comes.

But this becomes intriguing when you look deeper into it, like all things in the Bible. Our problem, of course, is that most of us are not Jewish. None of us lives in the first century, so we do not come to Herod's temple. We do not help support the temple with any of our tax money.

But if we lived in that day and we were age 20 and older, we would. In fact, when Vespasian became the emperor and the temple of Herod was destroyed 70 AD, 80-70, they still were required to pay the temple tax. It was a lifelong, longstanding obligation that all pay the temple tax. When I get to a cultural section like this, realizing that no one would be informed of temple taxes, I turn to some of my resources that help clarify. In this case, William Barclay does a good job of this.

The late William Barclay from Great Britain writes these words. The temple at Jerusalem was a costly place to run. There were the daily morning and evening sacrifices, which each involved the offering of a year-old lamb. So every morning and every evening, someone had to purchase the lamb and bring it for sacrifices. Along with the lamb were offered wine and flour and oil. And then the incense, which was burned every day, had to be bought and prepared. The costly hangings and the robes of the priests could constantly wore out another expense. The robe of the high priest was itself worth a king's ransom, writes Barclay.

All of this required money, lots of money. The tax was, in fact, the equivalent to two days wages. Every year, a man 20 and older must save back two days wage to pay the temple tax. It brought into the temple treasury no less than 76,000 pounds a year. You can figure your own pounds and dollars.

I'll leave that for you. The tax authorities came to Peter and asked him if his master paid those taxes. His hope was that Jesus would refuse to pay, for if he refused, the Orthodox would have a ground of accusation against him. You get the picture. So Peter is confronted with the tax collector, asked about Jesus paying taxes. Look at the response. Peter replied, yes, he does.

He pays those taxes. And then Peter went into the house. Before Peter can open his mouth, Jesus addresses him and does a little instructing of his own. It's a teaching moment, I call it. Jesus never missed one. This is a great moment for Jesus to instruct Peter in this. He asked him two questions.

Look at them. First, he said, Peter, what do you think? By the way, the reason some teachers are great teachers is not because they have all the right answers. It's because they know how to ask the right questions.

It's it's a real gift. It was said the Socrates was a brilliant teacher, not because he had all the right answers, but because he knew how to ask just the right questions. I remember sitting in a class taught by the late S. Lewis Johnson, who was a very stern but excellent teacher at Dallas Seminary, happened to teach Greek. I was taking Romans from Dr. Johnson and also took Corinthians from Dr. Johnson. I have the scars to prove it.

But anyway, back to Romans. I was sitting in the class, always sit in the front row. God bless you that sat here. And I was right there.

I could even get spit on by the teacher when necessary. And he's there waxing eloquent. And all of a sudden, he asked a very good question. Before I did much thinking, I shot my hand up.

Mistake number one. And he looked at me and he says, oh, Mr. Swindoll is here today to give us his profound answer to the question. I knew I was in trouble there. I slowly brought my hand down and began to answer the question. And, you know, when you don't really know the answer, you give a longer answer.

It kind of runs along, has the long tails in it. And before long, he said, stop, stop right there. If you continue out on that limb, I'm going to saw you off with a hard set of facts. Wasn't that kind of Dr. Johnson to say that?

As a matter of fact, he did saw me off with a hard set of facts. Now, I've got to tell you, some of those tough teachers were the best I ever had. Jesus was an excellent teacher. Most of us can identify with Chuck Swindoll's youthful exuberance in the seminary classroom because we've all had those embarrassing moments of unqualified zeal. Now, please take a mental note of this moment because we'll resume our study right here in Matthew 17 as Insight for Living continues next time. To learn more about this ministry or to see what resources are available for today's topic, please visit us online at insightworld.org. Now, let me remind you that we've hand selected one of Chuck's hallmark books to complement your study in the book of Matthew. Today, I'm directing your attention to The Grace Awakening. If you've begun to question whether or not you're qualified to serve God in any capacity, this book will restore your confidence. Peter, for all of his faux-pas and goof-ups, was not only redeemed, but Peter became a stalwart leader in the early church movement. In The Grace Awakening, Chuck assures us none of us measure up to God's standard of perfection, and we need to stop trying.

Gratefully, God's amazing grace covers our flaws and weaknesses. In his hallmark book, Chuck will help you understand how to rest in God's gift to you. And you can purchase a copy right now by going to insight.org slash offer. And then as we close, let me say a special word of thanks to our monthly companions who understand the importance of their monthly gift. Your generosity means so much.

And as God leads you to support Insight for Living, either with a one-time donation or by becoming a monthly companion, we invite you to join the ranks of those making Insight for Living possible. You can do that right now by calling us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. Our phone number again, 1-800-772-8888.

Or go online to insight.org slash monthly companion. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his message about death and taxes, Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Death and Taxes, was copyrighted in 2017 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.