Death and Taxes (Matthew 17:14-27)
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Transcript
You guys can be seated well good morning my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here we are walking through the Gospel of Matthew so if you'll grab your bibles and go to Matthew chapter 17 whenever we set out to walk through a book of the Bible especially one that's longer we kind of have to wrestle with how much time are we going to spend in that book how zoomed in are we going to be sometimes we go pretty quickly sometimes we go a little bit slower Matthew we've walked pretty slowly through it.
But there are times where in order for it to not be seven years of us walking through the Gospel of Matthew we put some things together today we are going to look at three separate stories and we're gonna try to pull out a big idea we're gonna look three separate um sections in the Gospel of Matthew and pull out one big idea and it's gonna take a little bit of work because they're going to be some things that we can't zoom in on we're going to have to mention and keep moving um and y'all know me i'm very organized and my sermons are always super coherent and to the point.
And so i know you know i preach and spencer preaches and when he walks up here and when i walk up here i know when i come up here you lower your expectations a little bit and what i'm saying today is no a little lower no but we're going to walk through these three sections and i think we're going to find them extremely helpful this morning as we do kind of zoom out and try to take one big idea out so let's pray.
And then we'll read starting in verse 14. God we thank you for your word and it's goodness to us it's helpfulness for us and we pray that as we come to it today that we wouldn't just see the stories we wouldn't just see the words but that we would see you that we would meet you in your word today and that you would be glorified and that we would leave this place feeling and knowing more of your love for us through your son in.
Jesus name we pray amen so we're in Matthew 17 verse 14. Jesus has just been on the mountain he has just been transfigured he has shone like the sun a bright cloud wrapped around him and the disciples who were with him fell on their faces and now they're descending back down into ministry into some normalcy for Jesus after this literal mountaintop experience when they came to the crowd a man came up to him that's Jesus and kneeling before him said lord have mercy on my son.
For he has seizures and he suffers terribly for often he falls into fire and often into the water and i brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him that's awful do you hear that this father pleading on behalf of his son and his son has seizures and not only does he have a physical ailment but he falls in water they live near water this is an area near a lake he falls in water there are times where his dad has had to try to keep him from drowning he falls in fire which was a normal part of life.
For them he has to keep him from being burned at this point this child probably does have burns on his body this is painful and there really is very little in life that shows us the brokenness of the world the way that a sick child does there's really very little in life that shows us how failing and fleeting life is like a sick child i've been reading a book by a clinical psychiatrist and he was talking through how people view the objects around them and he said we basically view them based off of their usefulness we don't think about how complex they are we don't think of how important they are and how much there.
Is to them we just think through their utility he said a car is a really good example of this you very rarely think of all the sum of parts of your car you rarely think of how complex it is it is the thing that gets you from here to there but he said as soon as you sit in it and try to crank it and it doesn't crank you suddenly realize this is really complex piece of machinery i'm sitting in it's no longer getting you from here to there and you realize how very little you know about cars you realize that this is a major problem.
For you and then he talks about how this increases our stress that as soon as we hit situations where they don't work the way they're supposed to we're entering into stress how's uh how's 2020 been for you we sat in the car in 2020 and it wouldn't turn over it's like we picked up the phone and called God and we're like hey i keep 2020 is going what does that mean it's not doing what it was supposed to we started this year off.
Because we had to we started this year off with a series sermon series called 2020 vision because if i had grown old and realized we passed the year 2020 and didn't use it in some sort of corny annoying way when we had the opportunity that was never going to come again it would have plagued me so we went with 20 20 vision and i joked to spencer that we're actually going to need to end the year in a series called hindsight's 20.
Because what we thought the year was going to look like not so much and if you'd have told me it was going to play out this way it would have been hard to imagine the same for all of us that it didn't work the way it was supposed to that we're all staring at physical sickness financial insecurity questions about justice and the future of the united states it's a political year we already knew some of it was going to be annoying.
And then it it becomes this and we're it's not doing what it was supposed to and it's been stressful and i think in these seasons and in sickness and in doubt and in frustration it's really easy for us to start asking the question is why does the world work like this why do these type of things happen why is normal so often very very painful and bad and i think nothing shows us that like a sick child but that's normal that there would be sick children.
But why why is that how this works why is the world so broken and i think we come to the lord with that question and so as we read these three sections today we're going to look at that question why is this normal why is this brokenness so much a part of life what is God's answer what does he want from us what is he going to do about it we're just going to walk through that question a bit as we walk through this section.
So he brings his son and has a terrible condition verse 15 lord have mercy on my son for he has seizures and he suffers terribly for often he falls into fire and often into the water and i brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him so Jesus comes down and he's met with this brokenness and the fact that his disciples couldn't do what they were supposed to and Jesus answered oh faithless and twisted generation how long am i to be with you how long am i to bear with you bring him here to me that's not an encouraging response this.
Father says can you help my son in Jesus responses oh faithless and twisted generation it would be hard for the father not to feel like some of that was aimed at him it would be hard for the disciples not to feel like some of that was aimed at them i i believe in general he's speaking to both and he's lamenting the the generation that he's in that there's faithless that there's brokenness that the people of Israel don't believe in him as they should they don't trust him that there's doubt that even his own disciples who were supposed to have it supposed to know supposed to be able to do these sort of things don't that.
Stings a little bit i feel that a little bit do you often feel like maybe that's the lord's response to you how long am i going to be with you how long am i going to put up with you how many times are we going to have this conversation how many times are we going to circle back to this my dad liked the movie butch cassidy and the sundance kid it's an old western it's good um at one point butch and sundance get hired to help guard a guy who's gonna go he picks up money in a little stagecoach.
And then he brings it back up and they're picked to they're hired to protect him as he picks up the money and so they're riding down the hill to go pick up the money and butch and sundance are on the front of the stagecoach and they're talking about okay people could be hiding over here oh they could set up a boat ambush over there and they're really into it they're sitting there with their guns and the guy driving the stagecoach says hey they turn around.
Look at him he goes ain't nobody going to rob us going down the mountain we ain't got no money going down the mountain and they're like oh and he leans back and goes morons i got morons on my team and i probably heard that 1500 times in my life be working with my dad doing something we'd be messing something up he'd kill but hey hey hey and he would explain why what we were talking about was dumb or why it wouldn't work.
And then he would go morons i got morons on my team i feel like that's sometimes Jesus's response to me is trying to be his disciple but not doing what i'm supposed to it's a little bit like how long are we going to do this how long am i going to put up you're on my team but what is going on here he's lamenting this but i looked this up i tried to see if there was anything that he was referencing.
Because Jesus often does because he's the word of God incarnate but he's also he pulls from the written word so often and the only place i could find this phrase this twisted generation is in deuteronomy chapter 32 it's in a song that Moses teaches the people of Israel that this phrase is found in deuteronomy chapter 32 and it's a song and i'm going to tell y'all the song's not super nice it's the last thing Moses teaches the people of Israel before they go he's given them the law he's led them all the way to the edge of the promised land and he says y'all need to learn a song.
God may have taught me a song to teach y'all and the song is about judgment the song is about how they're going to fail the song's about how great God is and how they're going to run from him i was reading through and it reminded me of the song that dwight schrute sings in the office that he said that that all the shrewd children were taught which is learn your rules you've got to learn your rules if you don't you'll be eaten in your sleep and that was the song that they taught all the children and that's what this feels like he says i'm going to teach you a song and the song is.
God is glorious God is good but we're wicked so i want to read some of this is verse 4 of deuteronomy 32 it says the rock his work is perfect all his ways are justice a God of faithfulness and without iniquity meaning he's no sin no fault nothing's wrong with him he's just and upright is he they have dealt corruptly with him they are no longer his children because they are blemished they are a crooked and twisted generation do you thus repay the.
Lord you foolish and senseless people is not he your father who created you who made you and established you verse 20 says and he said i will hide my face from them i will see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation children in whom is no faithfulness they have made me jealous with what is no God and they have provoked me to anger with their idols he teaches the people of Israel what it looks like to follow.
God and then he says learn this because this is what's ultimately going to happen that y'all were meant to be his children y'all were meant to live in relationship hit with him and he hasn't broken faith you have this is the first answer the Bible gives to us as to why is the world so messed up because we're in it and we're sinful we're twisted even our sense of justice is twisted what we believe is right and wrong is so often twisted that as we approach.
God and we plead for him with justice often we don't even know what to plead for because we're twisted we're sinful it's in us from adam it's handed down and even after God gave us the law we continue even though we know what is right and wrong that he's told us we continue to do what is evil and wrong that it's in us and we make it worse i told the sunday school class this story last week but i took my son to go to the doctor to get his blood drawn.
Because he has some food allergies and he's been getting kind of sick and we think maybe he's getting worse or we're feeding him something that he shouldn't have and so we're just getting his blood tested to see how he's doing and if he's progressing and what's going on while we're at the hospital he's sitting in a chair i'm sitting there trying to fill out some paperwork for him we're seeing what's going on with him he turns around in the chair he smiles beautifully at me.
And then licks the back of the chair now he's two but i looked at him he looks a lot like me i thought that's me i've got brokenness in me and i'm actively making it worse and i didn't tell his mama because there was no need for her to lay awake thinking about that i was going to bring it up offhandedly if he had gotten sick oh you know what now that i think about it he did lick a chair at the hospital.
But that's us that we're twisted we're corrupted we were meant to have a good relationship with God and we've rebelled we've run from him and that's the first answer as to why are things so broken that's why Jesus in this moment responds with you twisted corrupted generation y'all should be different but you're broken your hearts are off and it's interesting how twisted our generation is because this man in the midst of his brokenness brings his son to God and he asks.
For mercy he brings him to Jesus he sees Jesus as a representative God he calls him lord he sees him as above him and he asks for mercy meaning you're in a position of power i just need mercy but the reality is our twisted and broken generation doesn't bring sick children to God for mercy we bring them as exhibit a as to why he is unjust and unfair and does not deserve to be God we don't bring asking for mercy as.
If he's bigger than us if he's as if he's just and holy and right in all his ways and that we're wicked and we need mercy and grace from him we bring him and we put him in the uh testimony chair he's got to testify to us as we sit in the judgment seat and we say do you see this do you see this do you see this how dare you but this man comes and he asks for mercy and he receives it.
Jesus verse 18. it says and Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the boy was healed instantly and this is interesting because it does tie this spiritual aspect with physical aspect that it was demonic and there was physical healing that happened so Jesus rebukes it he's authority over all that is evil and all that is broken the boy was healed instantly it moves on from there but i i couldn't help but picturing this dad with his son after this moment on a boat catching some fish.
And then cooking him around the fire and the amount of joy in his heart thinking back to Christ and thinking about how good he is that his illness is gone and that he doesn't fall in water and fire anymore that they can have joy and delight around those things that God re-straightened out what was broken in his world verse 19 the disciples came to Jesus privately and said why could we not cast it out and he said to them because of your little faith.
For truly i say to you if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you now mustard seed it's tiny i'm holding one in my hand right now i'm not but it doesn't matter you wouldn't be able to see it it's tiny and i think when he said you have little faith i don't think any of them thought yes i have the faith i would have thought yeah.
Okay small you know like a terrier like not huge but i got some faith but he says if you had it even the size of a mustard seed see the reality is it's not about the size of our faith it's not that we grow large in faith and we become powerful in faith in some sort of way that pumps us up it has to do with where the faith is planted it has to do with where the faith is located if they had just tiny bit of faith.
But it was put in the right spot not in themselves not in something else not in their ability to to do this well enough that they he but that's what he's frustrated about so he calls him twisted and faithless the two people that he's praised are non-jewish people that he's praised for their faith a centurion and a canaanite woman and he comes to his people and he says i don't get it you're broken you're twisted you're faithless and he looks at the disciples and said.
If you just had a little bit you could pick up a mountain and move it and i love how we approach this passage because we immediately want to go well not really you don't really mean move a mountain and sure okay it's probably no practical benefit in moving mountains and if someone was like i have enough faith watch me move a mountain just for show i doubt they actually have faith in God and would be approaching appropriately handling this but he does mean what he says nothing will be impossible.
If you come to the lord and genuine faith but that's because nothing's impossible for him and if you trust him genuinely and truly and fully he works but trusting him means that the mountain moving is up to him and whether or not he moves the mountain is up to him often we say well i trusted God and he failed me but if we actually trust him we trust him to do what's good on our behalf no matter what even if we.
See it as failure in the moment so we come to him with genuine faith and God works and moves and does and what he wants from us is genuine faith he calls them twisted and faithless and he tells them if he just had faith things would work God would work he would move if we stopped there we could move on and talk about how Jesus is good and ultimately how he moves us towards hope but if i was the disciples and we stopped there i think i'd be pretty discouraged i think i'd be pretty overwhelmed.
But the story gets better the story of Christ gets better his work gets better on our behalf so he says this verse 22 as they were gathering in galilee Jesus said to them the son of man and they know that he's been referring to himself is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and he will be raised on the third day and they were greatly distressed she says the son of man will be delivered in the hands of men that's distressing on its own that he's going to die that he's going to be killed it's distressing that he.
Now uses the word deliverance this is delivered into their hands this first he's told them this twice now but he's going to be delivered maybe brings to mind that he might be betrayed that he might be handed over so this adds extra stress to the disciples but they're also just stressed out about this idea they think he's saying he's going to die now they don't fully understand what he means by he's going to die and he's going to be raised because they're surprised.
When he comes back from the dead let's cut him some slack that's pretty surprising they also at times would uh overthink the things he said so that we read a couple chapters ago where he says beware the leaven of the sadducees and the pharisees and they get in this argument about the fact that they don't have bread and he's like that's not what i meant so he tells them he's going to go to the cross he's going to die and he's going to be raised they don't fully understand it.
But they're distressed but for us that's beautiful news because we understand what he's doing it's beautiful news because at this moment of failure for the disciples he doesn't come to them and go guys you've got to get better or it's not going to work he comes to them and says trust and then he says i'm going to the cross that his plan for fixing why everything is so broken praise the lord isn't on us to unbreak it it's on us to trust him as he goes to work.
For us now the world is broken there's sin it runs rampant there's disease there's wickedness and evil and we come to this we say what's God going to do about it is he going to do anything about it and this is his answer that he's going to come and live and die that he who is the son of God they proclaimed him that then he went up God proclaimed him that from a cloud and then Jesus says i'm the son of man he is the son of.
God but he calls himself the son of man because he's taking our place and going to the cross for us so the world is broken through sin it's affecting everything Jesus has the ability ability to heal we just saw that with that boy but he can't just fix situations he's got to make it to the root of the problem so we have a few options big picture theologically how's he going to fix the world option one that people often put forward is why can't he just forgive everybody.
If we've sinned against him why can't he just forgive everybody and we just read it in deuteronomy because he's right and just and holy and a judge who just forgives everybody is the worst judge ever if you had someone harm you assault you hurt one of your family members they're caught you go to court the testimony is given it's displayed what they've done and the judge looks and says you know what i forgive you and slams the gavel down do you know how soul-crushing that is that's not justice that's wickedness that's evil and you'd be going easy.
For you to say easy for you to wipe this clean what about me i've lost i've been harmed and the reality is the earth cries out to God we have been harmed we have lost now we've been an active part of it but we have been hurt there is wickedness here and he can't just forgive like he somehow magics it away not and still be just now he could do it and be crooked but he can't just forgive all right so there's a legitimate.
Second option i don't know if you guys are going to like it he can kill all of us you want to think about that one we'll talk through the the pros and cons that he can he can be just and destroy all those who are treason us but the reality is his love it'd be hard for him to just destroy all of us and then still be loving his love holds him back and changes his course but he could justly destroy all of us who have wickedly rebelled.
So he does this he becomes a human he goes to the cross he dies he rises and asks us to have faith to trust him and in so doing he displays his love and his justice that he pays for sin that sin will be dealt with it will be paid out and that he offers us grace and redemption and forgiveness through his love so here's the thing it doesn't answer why is everything terrible it gives us the answer that part of the reason things are messed up and broken in the world is that the world is broken and messed up through sin that's part of the answer it's a very generic answer it doesn't give.
Us a specific answer as to why you have this ailment and this person doesn't why that person had nice parents and yours were the way they were why these children are fine and live and you've had three miscarriages it doesn't answer those questions and those are painful questions it doesn't answer the specificness of the brokenness but it tells us a few things that it's not the brokenness that we specifically face is not because God is unjust and the brokenness that we specifically face is not.
Because he doesn't love us Jesus came to die on a cross to display God's justice and his love and to offer us hope so the reason we face the things we face we don't get all the answers but he tells us it's not that he's unjust and it's not that he doesn't love us now this next story i think helps display this it's an interesting picture it's just a little story it's kind of an odd story i i have enjoyed studying it.
But i think it helps us see this picture of what Jesus has come to do on our behalf to to display his justice and to offer us his love and help fix what's broken in the world when they came to capernaum the collectors of the two drachma dracula attacks went up to Peter and said does your teacher not pay the tax so the two drachma tax these aren't roman tax collectors these aren't people who are traders of the state these are people who are taking up a tax that was issued in Exodus chapter 30 by Moses by.
God through Moses and it's four originally for the tabernacle and now for the temple that everybody who is 20 years old and upward would pay a half a shekel which is two drachma let's read that section from Exodus 30 verses 11 through 14 says the lord said to Moses when you take the census of the people of Israel then each shall give a ransom for his life to the lord a ransom is you paying yourself out of slavery out of bondage.
For his life to the lord when you number them that there be no plague among them when you number them each one who is numbered in the census shall give this half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary let's tell specifically what that is and it says half a shekel as an offering to the lord everyone who is numbered in the census from 20 years old and upward shall give the lord's offering i think one of the things we really need to take from this this was a half a shekel 1500 years later they're taking a two drachma drachma tax which is a half a shekel is that.
If we stick with the gold standard we can really help control inflation but there's other things too so they come to him and they they take this tax this is what it is they ask Peter does your teacher pay the tax Peter verse 25 says he said yes and when he came to the house Jesus spoke to him first saying we don't get to find out we don't know why Peter says yes Peter maybe knew that Jesus did this had seen him do it previously we don't know anything about that uh maybe Peter just in the moment said yes and figured he'd sort it out later we don't know.
Jesus talks to him first we don't know if Peter was going to immediately go talk about it we don't know if Peter had forgotten we don't know but Peter says yes they said does he pay the tax and he says yes and then when he went into the house Jesus spoke to him first saying what do you think simon and that's Jesus is kind of set up for i'm going to give you a little test i'm going to ask some questions i think Peter was like all right pop quiz time.
Let me get ready what do you think simon from whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax from their sons or from others and when he said from others Jesus said to him then the sons are free what's Jesus's point his point is Peter walks they ask him does Jesus pay the tax Peter says yes Peter walks in Jesus says hey Peter who do kings tax their sons or others Peter says others Jesus says okay so the sons are free what.
Jesus just said was Peter i'm the son of God i don't have to pay this tax they actually owe me the tax he could legitimately say run back outside tell them when they're done with their collection to bring it to me i'm a true and better temple we're going to tear it down we're going to we're going to build it back in three days and they're not going to worship on that mountain or this mountain they're going to worship in spirit and truth.
Because it's going to move from the temple to me Jesus is the one who who is owed this tax because he's the one who instituted it he is the son of God the king of ages they ask is your master going to pay the tax or not Peter and Jesus talking Jesus basically says so the sons are free i'm the son of God i don't have to pay this tax and he said however not to give offense to them which side note i think is very helpful.
Because he offends people all the time but here he says not to give offense meaning he doesn't offend people just for the heck of it he offends people where they deserve and need to be offended he's not just contrary for for fun i just think that's helpful but he says however not to give offense to them go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel take that and give it to them.
For me and for yourself it's probably one of the most fun little disciple missions that Peter ever got sent on go to the sea catch a fish open its mouth there's gonna be a shekel take that pay them with the fish mouth shekel that's a weird story i like the story i think it's a helpful picture for us Jesus displays his absolute sovereignty over the world did he make the fish eat the shekel did he just know about the fish is he is he just able to know the the stomach whereabouts of all animals like i don't know i don't know he's just displaying his mightiness he says Peter does the son of.
God have to pay a temple tax Peter says no he says okay now that we've established that we'll pay it because this isn't a fight i'm trying to pick go catch a fish pay for me and for you i love this story i think it's memorable i like that Peter had to dig a shekel out of a fish i think it's beautiful that Jesus pays sovereignly miraculously not only for himself but for Peter sovereignly miraculously he pays for Peter and in Exodus it says that this is a ransom.
But it doesn't just say that this this tax is not just a ransom not just buying yourself out of slavery it keeps going in verse 15 and 16 it says the rich shall not give more the poor shall not give less than the half shekel when you give the lord's offering to make atonement for your lives it says you making atonement for your lives atonement is paying back a debt you owe for your wrongness you shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it to the service of the tent of meeting that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the.
Lord so as to make atonement for their lives Jesus just miraculously sovereignly graciously paid a ransom for Peter made atonement for his life and brought him to remembrance before the lord and the thing that he told us before this was i'm going to go to a cross i'm going to die and i'm going to rise again and the reality is the rest of Scripture pulls out and says that when he did that for all those who have faith in him he pays a ransom he pulls you out of bondage and debt to sin he makes atonement meaning he pays back what you owed.
Because you have sinned and you have laid up a great cost and debt in your sin and he brings you to remembrance before the lord that he presents you before him holy and blameless and above reproach so Jesus clarifies i don't have to do this and then he does it not only for himself but for Peter that's what Philippians 2 says it says we're to have this mind among ourselves which is ours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of.
God did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped he's transcendent he glows like the sun but he chooses to join us in humanity he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men so the son of God takes on the name son of man for our goodness because he loves us because he's gracious he humbled himself going from being transfigured where he glows like the sun where he shines in glory to putting on a weak awkward dirty frail stinky human body do you know how much work we do to just not be disgusting around each other some of us more than others.
But he was humble just by putting on a human form and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death not only does he look like a human he takes on actual human form but he goes to death he dies on our behalf for us but not just death even death on a cross so Jesus the son of God who does not have to do this willingly graciously lovingly does this galatians 4 says this.
When the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son so the son of God born of woman so the son of man born under the law so he submits to the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because you are sons God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts crying abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son and of a son than an heir through.
God we're not only ransomed out of slavery but we're made into sons so the son of God became a son of man so that men and women might become sons of God and he did it willingly and graciously because he loves us now the world's broken and it's broken through our sin and that's not a full answer as to why these particular things happen but what we know is that it's not that he's unjust and it's not that he doesn't love us and i love how.
When he goes to the cross he answers his question oh faithless and twisted generation how long am i to be with you how long am i to bear with you if your faith is in Christ the answer to that question is forever he will be with us forever and he will bear with us forever because he graciously lovingly willingly chose to humbly submitting himself to death on a cross so that we might have life in his name and all he asks from us is that we trust him fully forever trust him let's pray.
God we thank you for your grace we thank you that you sovereignly and miraculously ransomed us atoned for our sin and you bring us to remembrance before the lord not in our sin not as slaves but as sons and sons are free we thank you for that freedom that we have in Christ we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ and we pray that we would truly believe fully on you and your work on the cross on our behalf we love you we praise you in.
Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up and we're going to see.