Jesus, How Should We Vote?

I invite you to turn this morning in the Bible to Mark chapter 12. We're continuing our study in the Gospel of Mark chapter 12. And I'm sure it's so full today because all of you want to know how to vote. So we're going to consider Mark chapter 12 beginning at verse 13 through 17. This is beginning at verse 13 of Mark chapter 12. And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. And they brought one. And he said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. Jesus said to them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. May the Lord bless this morning in the hearing of his word. When people don't want to believe, when they don't want to be faced with the very real issue of their lives, what do they do? They divert. They divert. They plan escape routes. They plan exit routes. They have exit strategies. They do what they can to distance themselves and then divert so that they don't have to deal with the real issue that is in front of them. You know this. We do this. We do this all the time. The more you can fill up your life and fill up your time with the things that in the whole picture really don't matter or really aren't very important, the more you don't have to deal with reality. We're masters at this. We're genius when it comes to this. And I would say that one of the main reasons that people stay away from church has to do a lot with this because the church, if it's doing its job, is forcing people to deal with the real issues of life, the major issues, the issues of eternal importance, issues that require repentance and faith. And some people, not wanting to deal with that, we've looked at, want to take the easy route and find churches that don't deal with real issues or they just stay away. The most important issues of life is what the church should be about well what do we really have exposed for us this morning we have a very intense section in the gospel of mark when jesus is now heading to is in jerusalem and moving quickly to his death on the cross it is something that he has uh obviously been planning to do we know this it was the will of the father he was going to do this on the divine calendar at the right time when he would go and he would die. But it hasn't been pretty once he entered Jerusalem. It's been ugly. It's been a nasty fight between Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel. It's been really ugly, hasn't it? They had so rejected him and refused his message of repentance for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's how Mark began. My kingdom's at hand, they were doing all in their power to put an end to him. They had tried confronting him in the temple, remember, having all those delegation of the religious leaders approach him and confront him, and he utterly exposed their idolatry. Everything has gone bad for them in their confrontation with Jesus. And then, of course, last time we remember he, after cursing the fig tree and looking at the implications of that, he told a parable about the tenants in the vineyard and that the master of the owner of the vineyard had sent all of these tenants to these people who he leased his vineyard to to care for it, a blessing in the vineyard. And some they treated shamefully, some they threw big boulders at, some they killed. And he said, well, I'm going to send my best to them. They wouldn't do that to my son. They wouldn't do that to my son. They'll reverence my son. Well, that's where we left off and Jesus told the parable and they knew that sermon was aimed right at them. He said, essentially, you guys don't want to believe, you won't believe, but the reality is you not only reject me, you want to kill me. Just like, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who stones the prophets. You've done this throughout your history. Well, everything has failed and in their attempts to stop him and Jesus has essentially said, I'm taking it from you and giving it to others the fulfillment to abraham where jews and gentiles would be his people they are immensely frustrated at this point the leaders of national israel and they are now throwing everything at him that they can and today we essentially have them trying to drag jesus into one of the greatest political debates of the day with one goal and the goal is that he would say something that would offend major numbers of people, high-end people, and that hopefully they could get against him the charge of insubordination and rebellion against Rome if they caught him and could get him with this political issue to go against Rome. I want you to notice how unbelief shows itself here, and that's what we have before us today. I thought the single great way to boil down the major issue and the question of this major issue is to see that here. In other words, I want you to notice how unbelief itself is in those who are hostile to faith in Christ. When that is going on, when that is happening, it will find every way to make a lesser issue the main issue. unbelief will have the effect in people's lives of trying to bring and disregard the main issue and force upon, here in this context, Jesus, a secondary issue. And this happens all the time. And I want you to notice that Jesus will have nothing to do with it. He will never let us, hard as we may try he will never let us avoid dealing with the main issue of our lives and i believe that's what this is all about this morning i want you to notice the tactics now as jesus has exposed their intention to kill him in the parable the tactics at this point you see it in their approach you see it in the question that they pose and the answer that jesus gives their approach the question and the answer let's begin uh this morning at verse 13 here in chapter 12 where we read and they sent uh to him some of the pharisees and some of the herodians to trap him in his talk fascinating moment isn't it the pharisees uh the jewish elite leaders have aligned themselves with really in the whole picture those who were essentially their enemies the Herodians it's been said here that you had a joining of hands of the sanctimonious and the sacrilegious they have joined hands with the goal of the destruction of Jesus it's fascinating because the pharisees their very name we know meant the separate ones they were the the separate religious ones the pure ones those who even refused to associate with the dirty gentiles and the practices of the Gentiles. The Herodians were essentially the Hellenists. Loved pagan art, loved the architecture, loved the athletics, the culture. It's a fascinating study here to see what happens when these two groups line up. But you essentially have the culture warriors lining up with the compromised liberals. Fascinating moment, isn't it? Strange. It's not really about commitment to belief and ideology, is it? It's not really about that. It's something to observe here. It's really about commitment to their own purposes and their own gain. On both ends, both parties. They both hated Jesus. The Pharisees, because people believed Him to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The Herodians, because people were calling Him King. So here they come, big moment in Mark's gospel. Notice what they say. They had come to him and they said, Teacher, we know that you're true. We know that you don't regard the person of man but teach the way of God and truth. We believe that everything you say is right. We believe you're teaching the truth. You don't regard the person of men. In other words, you see through all the games of people. You're much wiser than all the games that people play. We know that you always stand on what's right. You're not like the politician who goes, uh, wave it in the wind and see what the popular opinion is of the day and go with it. We know that you have convictions. We know that you speak the truth. You don't play around. You're going to say it like it is. You teach what God says. You should all stop right now. Are you kidding me? Really? Then can't he see through your games? I mean, that seems to be the logical sort of thing to say at this point. Can't he see through the stupidity of what you're playing right now? You just said to him, we see all the games that people play and you speak it like it is from God. Well, if that's true, what are you doing? If you know all that's true, why don't you believe? It's an interesting moment as we've seen in Mark's gospel of human nature and how unbelief works. When people are not believing, when people refuse to believe and are rejecting, I want you to notice again, it's not an intellectual problem. This is moral. Jesus was so plain. Jesus was so clear. Jesus was so convicting they knew it was true and they just refused it. That's a warning, isn't it? When you know something is to be true, you know it's true in your heart and your mind and notice what they do here. They won't accept it. Don't you see that you really could know that what is being preached to you is absolutely true and from God but still refuse it? That's a remarkable thing isn't it it's essentially what's just been uh exposed because it doesn't matter truth is not the real issue for these people what is true is not the real issue for these people that's not what's animating them that's not what's driving them truth is not important if truth is not important to you think about this this this moment here that exposes you will do everything you can to undermine it or play games with it or stay away from it or hide from it or find ways out of it and and and the first thing to notice here that is if they really believed what they said if they really believe that jesus is teaching the way of god and truth why don't they believe this makes no sense at least from our perspective but here's what unbelief does it calcifies the heart and it won't believe it remains hostile to god's servants and his message well here it comes here comes this morning here here comes the great test we have a question for you we have a question is it lawful to pay taxes to caesar or not shall we pay or shall we not i want you to notice what they just did this was the hot button issue of the day this is like the republicans and the democrats arguing over more government or less that ever gone away these guys would sit around and they would debate and they would debate and everyone would always come to a different conclusion and they're always talking they're always talking. They're always debating. If you had Fox News in Israel and you listened to the Pharisee factor, you would have been glued to these discussions. I'm telling you, man, good stuff. Good stuff. You had all the range of views. You had the conservative views. You had what was known as the liberal views. You had all this. And think of the conundrum now and think of the real tests that they've thrown at Jesus. There was a capitation tax which was collected from every adult mail in Judea. And it went right into the imperial treasury. So in their hands, they had a Roman coin and they would have to take that coin and they would have to put it in the treasury for Caesar for his kingdom. To which you should stop and say, whose kingdom they were asking? Whose kingdom is it? Now, what made matters worse is it was believed by the Roman world that Caesar, in all matters, was divine. Claim that. He possessed all authority, and he possessed all power, and at some points in the time of the emperors, they demanded all worship, didn't they? They demanded people to bow and worship them. Caesar was known as Lord. Well, there are the Jews. It's their land. It's Judea. They're subject to these Gentiles, these dirty Gentiles. they believed caesar was god in that time so so to throw your money in was to accept his claims wasn't it in our days um you know we have debated over and over how tax dollars should be spent and should christians support uh you know even allowing their own tax dollars where it's we know it's going to abortion clinics and some said i won't do that it would be to give in their minds legitimacy to his government and they're wicked they are wicked oh boy are they just read the history i mean it's really fascinating um i don't want to go into all the sexual exploits of the roman emperors but you think we have it bad oh we're small potatoes trust me read through what these guys did. So perverse, I couldn't even speak of it here, things that Nero did. So zealous were the Pharisees, and of course another group, the Zealots, that every Jew coming into the temple, they were so zealous, they said you could never come into God's holy house and carry in pictures of a coin with caesar's bust on it uh-uh that is terrible we will never allow that so that's why you had the big blow up where there were these currency changers right money changers you couldn't offer up to god money with the roman emperor's face on the coin that's idolatry that doesn't glorify god we certainly have to put a stop to that if they brought in a half shekel we know they had there had to be money changers and then they would charge a fee and we looked at that in the previous section that it became a swap meet in there and all kinds of extortion. The zealots said, no way, we are not paying. No way are we touching this stuff. There is no way. If it were our day, the zealots were out picketing the tax office. Taxation, and I quote, they said, is not better than downright slavery. What a clever thing to try to draw Jesus into at this moment, isn't it? This is clever. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Tell us right now. Shall we pay up or not? Now Jesus knows this is a trap. If you say you should pay, well, you can't support giving to a kingdom that is not God's, right? Jews were one kingdom, guys. They were ready to take it all over. This was the great concern of the Jews. Restore the kingdom to Israel. They tried to make Jesus king, remember? John 6. We want Jesus to be our king. And they would have accepted Jesus. This is the marvel of the whole thing. They would have accepted Jesus if he had taken his throne in Jerusalem. He wanted nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, John 6 says when he knew they wanted to make him king, he bolted the other way. Remarkable. He's the king. Nothing to do with it. So if they could get him, think of this dilemma here. If they could get him to say, don't pay, then they could, which was the big goal here, then they could get the charge of rebellion and insurrection made against him by Rome to be done with him and have him killed. And as a matter of fact, in Luke's gospel, this is raised right at his trial. Remember this? And they began to accuse him saying, we have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar. and claims to be Messiah, king. Well, that was a lie. He didn't oppose the payment of taxes to Caesar. So you see where they're going. Now, at this point, I want to pause and say, have you noticed the distraction? Have you noticed the tactic here that's being used? What they want to do is drag Jesus into another arena outside the purpose for which he came. If they could get him into this political issue, it's going to go all bad for him. That's what people do when they're feeling pressure. They find a way out. They say, ah, I refuse to listen to him because of his position on this. Right? I mean, I've seen this, the whole ministry. If people can back you into a corner and get you to say, well, I agree with this position that's contrary to all these other positions, I mean, it's immediate rejection and refusal to hear. That's my way out. Or if I can get back him into a corner in how he does this that's so different from how everyone else does this, then we don't have to listen to him. The secondary issue, notice here, this some secondary issue becomes a welcome distraction tactic. And the people will use the dumbest of things. He doesn't speak the way that I like. Or he's too intellectual. or he's too loose with his tongue. You can find anything. This is how it works. You can find anything you want. You can find a whole pile of things wrong with me. The real issue was a faith issue in their lives. And they want to get them into politics. They want to pull them right on into it. Anything they can find to not have to deal with the great claim of authority that we just studied because all authority belongs to Him. Anything they can find to not have to deal with His rule over their lives. That He is God's Son and that they should repent and believe. So here you are. What are you to do in this? Pastor, we want to know where you stand on Trump? Some of you really do. How are you voting, pastor? Why aren't you going after our government more? Seriously, why don't you support this cause? Why don't we hear enough about this from you, pastor? Pastor, why are you, why are you not going after, why should we submit to a government that kills the unborn? Pastor, why aren't you speaking more to racism and racial his shoes. Come on. Get with the times, dude. Pastor, what do you think of all these police shootings? We really want to hear that from the pulpit. We want to see, I mean, look at all the stuff. You want to see how divided everyone is. Just throw one comment out on Facebook of where you stand on something. I've tried it. Well, verse 15. Knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why do you test me the law said right you shall not put the lord your god to the test so notice how he's viewing this stuff in the whole picture all these other issues are issues that are often used as exit strategies to deal with the real issue in your life all side issues that we now make the main issue all these issues are that are used to displace the ministry of the gospel is viewed to him as putting God to the test. Better listen to that. Bring me a denarius. I want to look at it. So they bring him a denarius. Grabs it. Says, whose inscription is on it? One side had a picture of Caesar's head. The other, a scene here where it read in most of the coins, Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus, claiming Augustus was God. This is in Jesus' hand. What's on the other side? Probably his wife, a seated female. Does he recognize that authority? He's the one with all authority. He's got a coin that says Caesar's divine in his hand. I mean, think of that image right now. Obviously, Jesus recognizes these are important issues. Nobody's downplaying the importance These are immensely important issues, aren't they? Whose image is on this? Whose image is on this coin in my hand? They say. They know, don't they? Whose image is on this coin? They said to him, Caesar's. Caesar's image is on this coin. What belongs to him? Give it to him. what a moment i mean what a moment it's his it's his now the real simple answer to how jesus answered this is easy pay your taxes those coins belong to him and his kingdom my kingdom is not of this world or we would fight in other words my kingdom is not of this world for if it were i would take all these coins and i put my image on these coins right if my kingdom was well i would put my image on all the coins and everyone can carry around those. I'm not doing that. I'm more concerned with overturning your sanctimonious use of coins in the temple. Oh, my rage is there. I'm not flipping tables at the tax office. I'm flipping tables in the temple. Why? Because I'm agitated over what you've done to my coins. What are you talking about? What do you mean? See, you should render to God the things that are God's to which you should all say, well, what's God's? What coins? 10%? The problem was when Jesus said that money wasn't on his mind. What's he talking about? If they're not giving to God the things that are God's, what did he just say in the parable of the tenants? he just said in the parable of the tenants he leased it out at vintage time his servants came they threw stones and they heard and they killed then they said ah the father said i have one son they'll respect my son they'll respect him they will honor him they said come let's kill him and cast him out of the vineyard they tried to kill god's son oh they they were religious they looked so good, you wouldn't have said, wow, you know, I mean, they would have said, everyone would have said, look at how spiritual and godly these men are giving and being so involved. Were they really giving to God the things that are God's? Oh, everything's backwards here. A lot of hypocrisy here. Render to God the things that are God's. The problem was Jesus was not talking money because we've never found a coin with Jesus' image on it, have we? Jesus never created a coin and said, here it is, go give this to God. So what in the world is he talking about? How's about this one? Then one of the scribes, just below this, by the way, you'll see coming up in verse 28. Then one of the scribes, having heard them reasoning together, perceived that he answered them well and asked him, what is the first commandment of all? What is it? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You're right. You're not far from my kingdom. That's it. Where's God's coin? Where is His image? On you. You're made in the image of God. He put that image on you. Here were all these image bearers of God not giving to God the things that are God's and worried about that stuff. Are you kidding? You see the brilliance of what he just did? The brilliance of what he just did was he took the issue back to the real issue. They're worried about whether they should be giving their money to Caesar, but shouldn't they be a lot more concerned about whether they were rendering the love to God that was due to God? Love. He said they want to kill him. You don't do that by displacing his son in your life. You don't do that by removing his son from your life and his claim of authority. You don't do that by making him secondary to your earthly agendas and pursuits. You see the hypocrisy in all this? The greatest distraction from the greatest issue of their lives is right in front of you. Am I so wrong to say that we are living at the moment of the greatest distraction I've ever seen in my short life politically? Am I wrong to say you all know that's true? I mean, is anyone really ready for Jesus to come back right now? What if he did? What if he returned right now in the fullness of his kingdom? Anyone ready talking about that? If we gave as much voice and energy to Christ and his kingdom as we are to Donald Trump and the U.S. right now, we would actually make Christianity great again. The real issue of your life is a matter of heaven or hell. If Jesus were here, walking, am I wrong to say that the most pressing question of American Christians today would be, Jesus, we know you're true. We know you tell it just like it is. We know you're not about these political agendas and politicians trying to please men. We know you can see through Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. We know you can see right through all this stuff. Tell us, who should we vote for? Am I off? see the devil behind the distraction you've been told all your life your home's not of this world you've been told that this age is passing away you've been told that christ's kingdom is eternal you've got a place coming where righteousness shall dwell you've been told to set your mind on things above where jesus is and we're acting like we're going to lose everything if this election goes wrong are you kidding i'm just as guilty the nations will all be judged by jesus guess who's included in that the united states all the kingdoms will become the kingdom of our lord jesus christ when he comes in glory and ushers in that final reality so what do you think jesus would say to us we pose the question to him what do you think he said i think it would go something like this Go ahead. Render to the U.S. the vote that you believe most belongs to the U.S. You have freedom. You have minds. You have conviction. What's best for the U.S.? Render the vote. You have a freedom to or not to. I'll tell you the real issue that you really need to think about. The real king overall is me, which you better start taking a lot more serious on the throne of your heart and life look at what all your energy and all your fear is going to look at it seriously look at it are you listening to the fact that i'm installed as the king of zion in heaven i'm your champion i'm your lord don't put your trust in princes you never did those guys never did anything apart from me not even ronald reagan the most pressing issue of your life is whether you've repented and believed, for my kingdom is at hand. All these other kingdoms are temporary. They'll come and they'll go, just like Rome is gone as we know it. I love, I have to quote D.A. Carson, if God perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian and an artist, and I wouldn't be here right now, trust me. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death, and he sent us a savior amen i'm not done yet one pastor said when we are preoccupied as alistair beg with the kingdoms of this world so as to distract me from my witness and his great commission right so that i live and alistair summarizes this beautifully so i live every day mad and angry over all this stuff, I have put what is secondary first. Jesus is saying to us today, have you put what's primary first? Are you putting me first? All of this distraction is really proof that you're stealing the love that you're obligated to give me. And I have to say that that's how you go to bed at night. I talk to more of us and they're real concerns. I get it. I think about my kids. What are they going to be exposed to we've got to fight for it to save this for our children listen they have something far better than this whatever good we could ever create again and i have to teach them about that kingdom i have to teach them about that and putting their heart there now we come to the supper right now and he's offering you a feast anticipating the fullness of that kingdom when he will sit down with you your king and dine with you face to face but right now he gives you this feast to encourage you and to strengthen you a token of his kingdom and i just want to close with this thought i'm really anticipating the end of chapter 12 here where there's one figure in all of this that shine so big in this Gospel. Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury. Verse 41. And saw how the people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites to make a quadrants. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, Assuredly, I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury. For they all put in out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had. Her whole life! Jesus looks and says she has nothing. Takes a couple of mites. All she has. Puts it in the box. How do you think she did it? Jesus says she put her whole life into it. Isn't that what Jesus did for you? Aren't you glad He wasn't out doing all that other stuff? But that He gave His whole life to love and fulfill the Father's will in saving a people that can't be lost and bringing them into a kingdom that can't be shaken with a throne that will never be toppled over. That's what He came to do for you and He promised you so much better than this world. He promised you that you're receiving this kingdom that cannot be shaken. And He has said, flock, don't fear then. It's the Father's good pleasure to give that kingdom to you. So keep your heart there. Stay focused there. Remember what you belong to. Remember who you serve. Yes, be salt and light in this world. Affect the world. Tell the world. But we're making known a Savior who saves people from sins. Receive it then. It's His gift to you. And come with joy to his table, for he loves you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this blessing today. And thank you for all of the ways that you encourage us with your word. If we didn't have this word, we would just, Lord, be caught in a web of confusion and distracted by everything else than what we should be focused upon. So thank you for encouraging us with your powerful word. And as we come, would our hearts be set on what's most important and think a lot about what we're anticipating, proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. You're going to come. We praise You today for the Word and ask, Lord, that we'd respond in childlike faith, setting our priorities right, and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord to whom all glory and honor and power belongs forever and ever. Amen.