Matthew
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
God has a bigger plan
Never lose sight of the big picture
Everything belongs to God
There are many injustices in the world
With so many battles, we need to make sure we don’t lose sight of the final goal
"As I live, says the Lord,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God." Romans 14:11 NKJV
All the nations you have made
will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God. Psalms 86:9-10
God is worthy of more than a coin
He is worthy of our worship
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's
and to God what is God's."
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
I don’t think there is anyone
who does not want more time and money.
Rich or poor…
We both want more.
We want more so
we can fulfill our dreams in life.
Unless you own your own country…
You are required to contribute time and money
to the country or kingdom you live in.
The Jewish people in Jesus’ time
were required to pay taxes to Rome.
According to Bible-history.com…
Roman taxes totaled one percent of a man’s income.
Doesn’t seem like much, does it?
But there were other taxes…
Customs taxes, import and export taxes,
toll bridges, crop taxes, sales tax, property
taxes, and special taxes when there was a war…
Building project or campaign to finance.
Romans collected the taxes — rich Romans,
who didn’t live in Syria,
technically, ran the tax service.
However, what really happened was…
That these Romans hired local men
to collect the taxes for them.
These local tax collectors were called telons
(a Greek word meaning “paying at the end”),
or publicanus in Latin.
From this, we get the word “publican”
used in some translations of the Bible.
In many Bible Translations,
is use the phrase “tax collector.”
But those rich Romans in Rome
didn’t pay their tax collectors.
Instead, the local tax collectors
made their livings off how much extra money
they were able to charge people
— over and above the legal taxes.
It wasn’t just the taxes people hated…
They hated the collectors of Roman taxes.
Even Jesus,
when teaching of an unrepentant person
who will not listen to anyone,
not even the whole church says…
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church;
and if he refuses to listen even to the church,
treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Matthew 18:17
Yet, Jesus ate with tax collectors.
Matthew 9:11
Jesus told a parable where a repentant tax collector
humbled himself and found forgiveness
and in contrast a self-righteous and full of pride man.
Luke 18:9-14
Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector,
one who was over other tax collectors.
He sought out Jesus.
And Jesus invited Himself to his house
where Zacchaeus repented.
Jesus said to him…
"Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Luke 19:9-10
Jesus called a tax collector to follow Him.
His name was Mathew, one of the 12 apostles,
who wrote one of the four Gospels.
Jesus did not allow the burden of taxes
or the cheating of tax collectors
to get in the way of His Kingdom purpose…
“To seek and save the lost”
When Jesus was asked…
Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
Matthew 22:17
…he said to them,
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's,
and to God what is God's."
Matthew 22:21
Every kingdom needs the people of the kingdom
to give their time and finances.
As citizens, we don’t always agree
with the amount of taxes
or what the money is spent for.
Yet Jesus says…
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's”.
God has a bigger plan.
Jesus says…
“Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel”
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached
in the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:18
When we read Jesus words
“and to God what is God's.”…
We should see this as more than just the tithe.
We should see the earth is the Lord’s
and Jesus came to redeem,
to regain or reclaim this world.
Jesus gave more than the tithe…
He gave His life.
Never lose sight of the big picture.
Everything belongs to God.
There are many injustices in the world.
And with so many battles
we need to make sure
we don’t lose sight of the final goal.
"As I live, says the Lord,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God."
Romans 14:11 NKJV
All the nations you have made
will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God.
Psalms 86:9-10
God is worthy of more than a coin.
He is worthy of our worship.
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's
and to God what is God's."
Scripture Reading
Matthew 22:15-22 NIV
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are 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. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
21 "Caesar's," they replied.
Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
