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Luke 20 "Render Unto Caesar"
"Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?" But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me: The baptism of John-- was it from heaven or from men?" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet." So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." (Luke 20:1-8)
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem the first thing that He
did was to go to the temple. But when He arrived there he found that
the court of the temple was filled with people buying and selling animals
and changing money. Luke 19:45 "Then He went into the temple and
began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them,
"It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made
it a 'den of thieves'. The temple was divided into a number of courts
the innermost was the holy of holies where only the high priest could
enter once a year. The outermost was the court of the Gentiles, which
was as far as foreigners could enter. Between these courts there were
courts for women, for men, and for priests. Why was Jesus so angry when
He saw the temple? Because that outermost court, the courtyard for foreigners
to come and worship God, had become a convenient place for Jews to prepare
for worship. You see, people would come in from the countryside and
instead of bringing their own animal with them, they would buy one at
the temple. It was much more convenient. The temple tax had to be payed
in the local currency and so those Jews who had traveled from elsewhere
in the Empire would change their money there at the temple. There was
nothing wrong with this, it was something that needed to be done so
that people could enter into the temple and worship. But what was wrong
was the place and the attitude. The buying and selling was taking place
in the outer court, the place that should have been reserved for the
foreigners to come and worship God. The attitude was that foreigners
didn't matter anyway so why not use this space for something more useful.
Jesus drove them all out and quoted the scripture that says, "My
house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah
56:7)
A few days later, while Jesus was teaching in the temple, the scribes
and the chief priests showed up asking by what authority Jesus did these
things. "Who do you think you are, coming in here and changing
the system that we set up? Who do you think you are, teaching in our
place without permission from us?" These are good questions, because
if someone suddenly came into our church and started teaching you without
coming to me first I too would be asking the same things. There is a
God given authority that the leaders of the church have. I have a responsibility
to protect the congregation from false teachers and a responsibility
to keep the congregation moving the way that God is leading us. The
question that the religious leaders asked is not wrong in the least.
But Jesus showed very clearly the flaw that was in them. Jesus asked
the question back, "The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or
from men? And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say,
'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But
if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded
that John was a prophet." So they answered that they did not know.
And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority
I do these things."
The mistake that these leaders made was that they were not leading the
people in the ways of God. When John came preaching repentance and baptizing,
they didn't do anything. They didn't support him and they didn't denounce
him. They didn't make a decision either way. And when Jesus asked them
about John, again they couldn't make a decision. How can the people
follow these leaders when they don't know what to do? I believe that
it would have been better for these men to say boldly what they thought
to be true, that John was not from God. But instead, because they were
afraid of the crowd they chose to say nothing.
There is a principle here for us to learn. It is important for us to
make decisions, to make a stand for what we believe in. Knowing Jesus
starts with a decision. You must decide, do I believe that Jesus is
God, do I believe that He is alive today because God raised Him from
the dead. Do I believe that He can save me? Maybe you are thinking,
but what about the church, what about the bible, what about holiness,
what about miracles and healings? Let me tell you, understanding all
of these things depends on that first decision for Christ. Recently
my wife has been unable to attend church because of difficulty in her
pregnancy. Some of you have never even met my wife. I could write a
book about her, hold a seminar explaining who she is, show pictures
and videos of her, write a song about her, but you still really would
not know her. You have to meet her yourself personally. It is the same
way with Jesus Christ. You could know every fact in the Bible about
Jesus and still not know Him. Folks, my wife is about this tall, with
shoulder length hair, big brown eyes and a beautiful smile. But even
though you know all that, you still don't know how wonderful she is
until you have met her yourself. Jesus is the Son of God, who was with
God when He made the universe. He loved us so much that He emptied Himself
of all that power and glory and became a man, just like us, except without
sin, so that He could die on the cross to save us. Now you know all
the facts about Jesus, but you still do not know how wonderful He is
until you meet Him yourself. You can do that today by making a decision
for Him.
Then He began to tell the people this parable: "A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.' But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.' So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others." And when they heard it they said, "Certainly not!" (Luke 20: 9-16)
As we have studied the book of Luke together we have seen
that Jesus often talks about us being stewards, caretakers of what we
have received from God. In this story, Jesus comes back to this theme
again. The vinedressers had decided that they would keep the fruit of
the land for themselves, no matter who owned it. But they were greatly
mistaken, because the land was not theirs, it was the ownerπs.
And after sending servants and his own son, seeking to make peace, surely
next he will send soldiers seeking to make war, to take what is rightfully
his by force and give it to others. The same story in the book of Matthew
tells who he will give it to. "He will destroy those wicked men
miserably, and lease [his] vineyard to other vinedressers who will render
to him the fruits in their seasons." Mt 21:41 This word ≥render≤
means to ≥pay back≤. The Hebrew understanding of this was
to come back into a relationship of peace. When you owe someone something
there is no peace until the debt is payed. You cannot really be comfortable
around them until you no longer owe them. The scribes seeking to trick
Jesus into trouble with the Romans, asked Him a question, ≥saying,
"Teacher, we know that you say and teach rightly, and You do not
show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in 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?" 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 could not catch Him in His words in the presence
of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.≤
Jesus said, ≥Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesarπs≤
He meant that we should pay what we owe to the government so that we
can be in a relationship of peace. And we should render to God what
we owe to God so that we can be in a relationship of peace with Him.
So what do we owe God? Jesus made it very easy to understand. On the
Roman coin, there was an picture of Caesar. Caesar had commissioned
the coins to be made and put his own image on them. So Jesus said pay
back to Caesar what is his. But the Bible tells us that God also made
something that He put His own image on. ≥So God created man in
His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He
created them.≤ (Gen 1:27) Sure, we owe the government taxes, but
we owe God much more than that. Our very lives, our bodies, have been
given to us by Him. But like the vinedressers we often forget that we
are not our own. We even resent it when someone suggests that we owe
a debt to God. We are actually prideful when we give a little of our
spare time or money to God, as if we were doing Him a favor! When in
reality all is His.
So we want to have a relationship of peace with the world, the government,
our bosses, actually Hebrews tells us to ≥pursue peace with all
people≤ and the way to do this is to render to them what is rightfully
theirs. (Hebrews 12:14) But we must also have a relationship of peace
with God. And this is much harder, because everything is rightfully
His. Repaying God the debt that we owe Him is impossible! We owe too
much. The good news is that God does not require you to pay Him back.
God does not expect you to give back the vineyard, what He wants is
the fruit. In fact God does not even ask for all the fruit, He just
wants the first fruit, the best of the crop.
It is very interesting to me that in the Bible, the times of revival,
when the people came back to God, were also times of tithing. The Old
Testament teaches that we should bring a tenth of our increase to the
Lord and give it to Him. It doesnπt teach that we should bring
everything to God, even though He surely deserves everything! It doesnπt
teach that we should bring all of our increase to God, even though He
has blessed us with all. It teaches that we should bring a tenth of
our increase. God knows our needs. Not only does He know our need, but
He also knows our desires and He wants to bless us. But He also knows
that our greatest need and the best blessing we can have is to know
Him. The Jewish people often had a strong relationship with God during
the hard times, but when things were going good they forgot about God.
The purpose of the tithe is to remind us during the good times that
it is God who is blessing us. After many evil kings and false prophets
led them away from God, Israel experienced a revival under King Hezekiah
and the people brought in the tithe and God blessed them. Many years
later under Nehemiah the people again came back to God and again they
started to tithe.
Does God need your money? No, just like the Bank of Japan, if God needed
more money He could just print up some more! Then why does He want us
to render the tithe to Him? Because He wants something much more valuable
from us. He wants us to love Him with all of our hearts, all of our
souls, all of our minds and all of our strength. Folks, listen carefully.
If there is one thing in this world that more people love , that more
people worry about, are angry about, are thinking about, are spending
creative energy on, are working hard for, it is money. Donπt forget
Who your blessing comes from. Donπt forget Whose vineyard you are
working in. Donπt forget Who has given you everything to begin
with. Give God your best, your first fruits! And you will find that
you have a peace relationship with Him. A relationship in which He is
getting what is rightfully His, your heart.
We started this lesson talking about the importance of making decisions.
Almost every major decision of my life has been made with very little
knowledge of what was going to happen afterwards. When I decided to
become a Christian at 16, when I decided to marry my wife at 21, when
I decided to have a child at 24, when I decided to be a pastor at 28.
I must confess that going into these things I had no idea of what was
going to happen! I thought I knew. But reality was quite a bit different
from my expectations. I think most of life is like this. You can spend
all your time preparing for things that are going to be different than
you expect anyway, or you can make your choices and trust that God will
always be with you. Maybe you have never given a tenth to God before.
If that is the case you are probably thinking in your mind, ≥Wow,
that is a lot of money. I could use that to buy food and clothes and
pay rent and ....≤ I thought that way too. But after reading my
Bible, I decided with Rie when we got married that we would give back
to God our tithe. Going into this decision I thought that we were going
to make this big sacrifice for God. I thought that we would be struggling
to do this every month. But after we made the decision it turned out
that each month we were amazed to see how God blessed us and provided
for us more than what we gave. Before you do it, it is very hard to
understand. But once you begin, you will start to have relationship
with God based on peace; peace in your heart that God will provide for
you, peace in knowing that God is your owner and not you yourself.
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