Experience TRUTH - #22

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. This is the Truth Network.

Show me the money! Who is the person that said that? No, it was not Jerry Maguire. It was the Lord Jesus Christ, and it happened in Luke chapter 20 in our journey through this amazing gospel of Luke, as Jesus Christ is once again confronted by another group of naysayers and attackers. And Robbie Dilmore is with me.

I'm Stu Everson. Robbie, good to have you with us, my friend, the Christian car guy is at his post, and he's going to read the Scripture for us as we jump into Experience Truth this week in our journey through Luke. Luke chapter 20, verses 19 through 26. Okay, and the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous that they might seize on his words, in order to deliver him to the power and the authority of the governor. Then they asked him, saying, teacher, we know that you say and teach rightly, and you do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God and truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, why do you test me?

Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have? And they answered and said, Caesar's. And he said to them, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. But they couldn't catch him in his words in the presence of the people, and they marveled at his answer and kept silent. Hit us with that first question, Robbie.

This is going to open it up right here. Why was there such anger and hatred among the religious leaders? So these religious leaders, let me tell you what they did. They hated each other. They hated each other. Remember fighting with your brothers and sisters in the back seat of the station wagon, traveling across the country?

I know I remember that, but the second someone lifted a hand against my sister or made a comment about her, it was on, right? Suddenly, we had a common enemy because we were together against them. These religious leaders, the Herodians, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, a lot of these folks had different sex, different groups, but they had a common hate.

Their hatred for Jesus was greater than their hatred for each other, and it's fascinating. It opens up by saying, chief priests and the scribes, that very hour, they sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people. So they watched him and they sent spies. So here they said, they asked him, and the people that asked him this question, by the way, the spies were the Herodians. Now, who were the Herodians? These were the guys that were loyal to Herod. Who was Herod hated by?

Everybody. He was this Edomite king, was a half-breed, wasn't even truly Jewish. He was hated by all these people.

He was a brutal authority, and these guys were loyal to him, but they also hated Jesus. So these guys were trained diplomats of deception, and they led the way. And ask this question here, Robbie, how they kind of opened the door here. Remember, Christ has come in. He's disrupted their whole money system.

He's turned the tables over. They lost thousands and thousands of dollars in their currency because of what Jesus did. He said, my God's house, my house is a house of prayer.

You've made it a den of thieves, of brigands. And so Christ disrupted that, and then he's challenged them. He just told this parable last time we talked about, of the evil tenants likening the religious leaders to those who had squandered and been poured stewards, and were murderous of the prophets, and would be murderous of Jesus later this week. Remember, it's Holy Week. So here now the Herodians are coming. They've sent these guys in to attack Jesus, and look at how they approach him. So what's the difference between praise and flattery?

Yeah, so they come right out. Look at how brilliant this is on their part. They asked him, saying, teacher, we know that you say and teach rightly, and that you do not show personal favoritism. Well, that's actually true of Christ, but you teach the way of God and truth. So those are three things where they compliment Christ. They say you teach rightly, you don't show personal favoritism, and you teach the way of God and truth. By the way, those are three things I want to be said to me.

You know, I'm a part of the truth network. You know, we want that to be said of us. I mean, can you think of better flattery? So they're setting him up. David Jeremiah says this about flattery. He says, flattery is something you'd say to someone's face you'd never say behind their back, which is the opposite of gossip. Something you'd say behind someone's back that you'd never say to their face. So basically these Herodians were buttering him up.

So here's the little setup, here's the jab, and then here comes the right hook. So then the big question that they tried to force Jesus into, and ask this question here, Robbie, which gets us into the text. What kind of no-win situation were they trying to force Jesus into? Yeah, so here they have their Herodians, and they have, you know, the image of the leader is on this coinage, and this is kind of a big deal. And it's a very simple question, a question that was weighed and measured long before it was... when they were gossiping about how much they hated Jesus and wanted to destroy him, before they openly said the flattery to his face, they asked this question, is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Very simple question. If Jesus says, yes, pay taxes to Caesar, well then he, as the way they've put this, is putting a stamp on idol worship, idolatry, the government. Wait a second, our number one homage was to God. Here are the Herodians who could care less about really about honoring God first, right? They're bound to Caesar, but they're asking this question. If he says no, but they're gonna rush back to Herod, and they're gonna have him crucified on, you know, Daggum Good Monday or Tuesday or whatever day this is before Good Friday even gets here, right? So what a question, a no-win situation, backing him into a corner, or so they thought they were backing him into the corner. And when it came to his trial, by the way, later on we'll find in Luke 23 verse 2, this is exactly what they accused him of.

They accused him of failing to honor the current monetary, the current tax system, and so they think that they've got him trapped. But look at this beautiful, beautiful reply here, and what Jesus said, "...but he perceived their craftiness, he saw their heart, and said to them, why do you test me?" Hmm, same thing he confronted Lucifer, Satanon, in Luke 4 earlier in this book. He says, "...you shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Remember what Satan said?

Throw yourself off this mountain, right? Even quoting scripture about angels and all that. And then he said, verse 24, "...show me a denarius." And then he asked this question, whose image and inscription does it have?

What a question. Now, before we get into that, Robbie, ask this question here, which is kind of an important question as we're talking to people and people are listening, because this is going to come up and be born out in this answer of Jesus. So what's the believers' biblical relationship to government? Is it ever okay to disobey? Yeah, when's it okay to disobey? Government gives an order. There have been many Christians killed because they wouldn't deny their faith.

Civil disobedience. So there's a real line here, and we're gonna see how Jesus does not, in fact, cross this line. But he rather says, show me a denarius whose image and description does it have? So here Jesus says, like we started the program here, show me the money. Somehow these guys who were talking about this currency, who are trying to feign humility, they had money right there, right? They were able to come up with the cash, the currency, and the denarius basically is a Roman currency and a Roman soldier's one day's wage. The image on that currency would have been the image of Tiberius Caesar, would be on both sides of the coin. This was deeply offensive to Jews because they did not worship Caesar, and by using that coin they had to hold their nose to pay the Roman tax. Sometimes they had to use the Roman coinage, and Exodus 20 verse 4 says, thou shalt have no graven images before you. So the Romans treated that coin as an act of worship to their deity. Jesus says, show me a coin whose image is on it.

Wow. So, huh, here they see the Emperor's image and a reflection of his reign, his authority, his dominion. Jesus gives them the greatest question, maybe some say, that he ever asked. And he said, whose image on it? And then he said, they answered him, Caesar's. And he said to them, render therefore to Caesar's, the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things that are God's. Robby asked this question here, and this really opens it up. So why is Jesus' answer so profound?

Hmm. Why so profound? This was a mic drop moment for Christ. He says, render to Caesar, what is Caesar's? Render to God's, what is God's? He couldn't have given a better answer.

When the word render means submit, defer, it means pay, it means give, it means comply. And the things that are Caesar's isn't just your favorite day of the year, April 15th, right? My sister's birthday, actually, that date. But it's any authority under the God-given biblical realm that I'm under. A lot of time the Christian car guy talks about speed limit.

We don't like to render that one, do we Robby? A whole lot of things. It opens a whole panoply of items and things that we are to be submissive to our government in. Where God's put that government, it's a God-given, God-ordained spot. So those are the things under Caesar's. And what about when civil authority, Robby, goes against divine prerogative, divine authority?

What happens then? The exemplin acts. Yeah, there you go.

Very good, yeah. And we got the passage there where they said, we're gonna flog you, give you a warning. Here's a warning ticket and a little beating here, but don't go preach this to Jesus anymore. What did Peter say? He said, I've got to do what God tells me to do.

He says, thanks for the warning, but we're gonna keep preaching Christ. And then Jesus says, but render unto God the things that are God. This is what J. Vernon McGee basically said, and I'll paraphrase it, the believer is to submit to God-ordained authority of the government, but do we remember where Caesar gets all his resources from?

The bricks, the wood, the stone, for the buildings, the roads, and the bridges, the metal for the coins. Ultimately, all of it comes from God. So Jesus really is saying, render to Caesar that was Caesar, render to God that was just God. God's over Caesar, God's over everyone. And by submitting to Caesar, we really are submitting to God. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if our government officials remembered where their authority came from? I'm not accountable to the Supreme Court. They're accountable to God. Even the Constitution says that, that there's a greater power over all of them.

You know, this is a common law argument, but this is true going way back here. So, Robbie, get us out of here, man. What is this final testimony time here? When's the last time I marveled at the words of Jesus? What areas of my life have not been fully surrendered to God, and how does my life bring glory to the image of God engraved upon me?

Isn't that something? Look at verse 26. But they could not catch him in his words, in the presence of the people, and they marveled at his answer.

They kept silent. They marveled at Jesus' answer. And what's brilliant, I love what Robbie Zacharias says about this. He says, if they were smart, they would ask a follow-up question. They would ask the follow-up question of, well, whose image do we follow? And Jesus would have said, God's put his image on you. See, he's marked his image on us.

Isn't that brilliant? And so, how is the image of God? How am I an image-bearer of Christ? How do people see the image of God in me and marvel at it, Robbie? As an image-bearer of Christ, how does that bring marvel, awe, wonder in people's life? They're like, this guy's different. Something happened to this guy. It happened for Superman. People marvel.

It's called Marvel Comics, but people should see a marvel in how we struggle, and how we wrestle, and how we deal with crisis and anxiety. They're saying, there's something different about that person, and the image of God is on them. It's not a great thing that God has made us image-bearers. God's image is stamped on every human being. But those who are his have the very blood of Jesus and the seal of the Holy Spirit on them.

Luke 20, 19 through 26. We've got to go. This is Experience Truth. Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Stu Epperson, as we bring the Word every week on there to people and encourage people to walk with God, to know God, and to walk in his Word. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. This is the Truth Network. .