This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our second day of looking through Matthew chapter 22. We're going to
look at verses 15 to 22 today. They're all caught up in this question that some
religious leaders had for Jesus.

And in his answer, we learn a lot about Jesus and about life, about who God has
made you to be. Listen with me to the question, verses 15 to 17. "Then the
Pharisees went out and they laid plans to trap him in their words.

They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. 'Teacher,' they said,
'we know that you're a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in
accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men because you pay no attention
to who they are.

Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
'" So here they are, these Pharisees and Herodians, who by the way were
political enemies.

But here they joined together because of their hatred of Jesus. They agreed that
they didn't want Jesus to run their lives. They agreed they didn't want to trust
Jesus with their lives.

And based on that agreement, here they are presenting Jesus with this question.
They may not even have agreed on what the answer was supposed to be to this
question. They just wanted to trap Jesus.

And the trap was, Jesus said you should not pay taxes, it would be against the
Roman government. He could be arrested as someone who was traitorous to the
Roman government. But if he said you should pay taxes, it would be against all
the Jewish people who hated the Roman government and the taxes they had to pay.

So whatever answer he gave would be the wrong answer, at least that's what they
thought. But Jesus has an answer for them. And Jesus' answer teaches us
something about government.

It teaches us something about ourselves. But it teaches us even more about the
wisdom of Jesus. Listen to what Jesus said in verses 18 to 22.

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying
to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax. " They brought him a
denarius and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this?

And whose inscription? " "Caesar's," they replied. And then he said to them,
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.

" When they heard this, they were amazed. And so they left and they went away.
This is one of the most amazing teaching moments in the life of Jesus, where he
so clearly answers their question in just a sentence.

And in answering their question, he teaches us about government, he teaches us
about ourselves. First he teaches us about government. He says, "Give to Caesar
what is Caesar's.

" He recognizes here that there is a limited role of government. There is
something you're supposed to give to Caesar, the government. Now, what do I give
to Caesar?

What do you give to your government? Well, you give it your respect. The Bible
tells us this very clearly in Romans chapter 13, "Government's role is to
protect and preserve freedom and order, protect you, protect your family.

" So you give it your respect in that. As Jesus is talking here, he says, "Give
the denarius. " You give it your taxes.

There are some things that are happening, hopefully good in your life, out of
the taxes that you pay. But whether or not, it's one of our responsibilities. So
you give it your taxes.

And you do it not out of being forced to do it, but out of good conscience.
You're not like the guy who wrote the anonymous note to the IRS and said, "Hey,
I cheated out of my taxes last year and I haven't been able to sleep due to my
guilty conscience. So enclosed is $250.

" But then he included a P. S. If I still can't sleep, I'm going to send you the
rest.

It's not that kind of payoff for the government. It's not soothing your guilty
conscience. It's just doing it out of a good conscience.

We keep respect. We pay our taxes. We keep the law.

You don't run through red lights just because you feel like it. In America, in a
democracy, you have the privilege of voting. So you vote.

That's one of your responsibilities in a government, as a part of a government.
Now, by the way, as we think about voting, give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Who
is Caesar in a democracy?

We don't have a king. We don't have a Caesar. We don't have a dictator.

The answer is you are. The voters are. The voters are Caesar.

And just like in that day, they didn't always agree with Caesar's decisions, in
our day, we don't always agree with the voters' decisions, but we give them the
respect that they deserve as our government. Now, we give them the respect that
they deserve, but we don't give more than that. Jesus says give to Caesar what
Caesar's, but give to God what's God's.

You don't expect a government to be God. You don't expect a government or any
human being to meet all of your needs, to always be perfect, to always care
about you. No, God is God.

So you give to God what is God's. Now, what is God's? What do you owe God?

Your life. He gave you your life, so you give Him your life. You don't owe
government your life.

Some people might give their life for the people in their country, for their
family, for others in their country on a battlefield, but you don't owe the
government your entire heart and soul and life like you owe it to God. You owe
God your life because He gave it to you. Government has a limit, but God owns it
all.

Now, a lot of Christians, as they look at the role of government and how it
works, they're on their way to heaven, but they don't have a Christian
worldview. They don't realize that as a Christian, we have a dual citizenship.
Philippians 3.

20 says our citizenship is in heaven. Here Jesus says give to God what is God's.
You are a citizen of the country that you live in, but you're also, as a
follower of Jesus, a citizen of heaven, and your greater loyalty is to God, not
to the government.

When there's a difference between God and government, there's no question which
one you're going to side with. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not going to
sometimes do what the government says to do as long as it doesn't violate your
conscience, but your belief, your trust, your faith is always in God. Sometimes
you might hear people talk, you hear this, "God and country.

I love God and country," as if they're equal, and they are not equal. We should
love both God and country because God tells us to respect our country, but God
who owns it all is the one who directs us to respect our country. He is the one
who's going to control everything in the end.

So you never put them equal. You always recognize God for who he is. So get back
here to Jesus' original question.

Give to God what is God's. Remember, Jesus picked up a coin, and he said, "Look
at this coin. Look at the image that's on this coin.

" Whose image is on it? Caesar's. Well, fine.

Give it to Caesar. Look now at your life. That's really the invitation that's
here.

Whose image is on your life? You are made in the image of God, and so you and I,
we give ourselves to God. Now I understand sin has marred that image, and
somewhat like a damaged coin, you can look at it.

You can see the scars. You can see the scrapes. You can see the place where sin
has marred that image, but it's still a coin, and there's still the image of God
on your life.

And although it has been marred by sin, God put his stamp on your life because
you belong to him. And so the best thing that I can do with my life today, the
best thing you can do with your life today, is give yourself back to him, the
one who gave himself for you. I want to spend a few moments in prayer today,
talking to him, giving ourselves to him.

Our Father, we want to do exactly what Jesus said here. We want to give to
Caesar what is Caesar's. We want to respect the government that you put to
protect us, to preserve us in the way that we should.

Help us to be loyal and faithful citizens of the place that you put us on this
earth. But God, help us to never expect that to be all the good that we should
do. We don't want to stop there.

We want to then give to you what is yours. And you have put your image on our
lives. We are made in your image.

And so God, teach us how today to give ourselves back to you, to give ourselves
to you in the way that we think, to give ourselves to you in the way that we
feel, to give ourselves to you in the way that we act. We want to give ourselves
to you because you gave yourself for us. And so this day, we thank you that
you've put your image upon our lives and we want to live that out through the
power of Jesus Christ.

Protect us from the temptation to try to live in your image based on our own
energy, our own strength, our own power. Instead, Lord, we turn to your
strength. We turn to your power.

We pray that you would help us to live the life you've given for us today. We
pray it in Jesus name. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to hear a question about the resurrection that lets Jesus
teach us about heaven and about hope.