Date: 2.7.17
Text: Luke 20
Title: Questions, questions.
Place:Rhema
File:Rhema #22, Luke #12, Luke 20
Preacher: Stephen Taylor
A father and son went fishing one day and while they were out in their boat, the boy suddenly became curious about the world around him and started asking questions. He asked his father, “Dad, what makes this boat float?” The father replied, “Don’t rightly know, son.” A little later, the boy looked at his father and asked, “Dad, how do fish breathe underwater?” Once again the father replied, “I don’t know.”
Later the boy asked his father, “Dad, why is the sky blue?” Again, the father replied, “Not sure.” Finally, the boy asked, “Dad, do you mind me asking you all of these questions?” The father replied, “Of course not, son. If you don’t ask questions, you never learn nothin.’”
Questions are important. We learn best by asking questions. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said, “We run this company on questions, not answers.” He knows that if you keep asking questions you can keep finding better answers.
Toward the end of his life we see a series of questions being asked in and around Jesus. Questions about John the Baptist, Caesar, Moses and David. Questions that seek to trap Jesus. But as we will see underneath the question is another question one that the people around Jesus need to answer themselves underneath that is a question for us today. And the answers we give to these questions are incredibly important. Let’s have a look
- A Question about John the Baptist (verses 1-19)
One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts proclaiming the good newsthe chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him.2“Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”
Jesus in the last couple of days has gloriously entered into Jerusalem on a donkey and then went straight into the temple and had it cleansed. And each day since then he has taught in this temple. Now that has annoyed the Chief priests and the teachers of the law because what gives this country bumpkin, someone who has never gone to any of the local religious schools, what gives him the right to preach here? Or to cleanse this temple? Jesus they ask, where is your license to preach? Who gave you authority to do these things?
Jesus“replied,“I will also ask you a question. Tell me:4John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”5They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’6But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the peoplewill stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
Now like most things that Jesus did, this was an incredibly smart thing to do. He was
throwing the issue back to them. But he was doing more than that, because Jesus had
previously aligned his ministry with John’s ministry. So the answer to where John got his authority from was exactly the same answer as to where Jesus got his authority from.
So Jesus has given the chief priests, the teacher of the law and the elders his answer. They know that Jesus thinks that his authority comes from God. But now their authority is under question. Because they ignored John’s message and the crowds embraced it.
Now just remember who these guys are. They are the leaders of the religious institution that runs all the way back to Moses. They want to show everyone that they are God’s representatives here in Israel. But they are more concerned with what the people think that what God wants. And by doing that they have lost their authority to lead from God himself.
So what do they do? V7 “So they answered “We don’t know where it was from.”Jesus said “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” But then he goes on to tell them a parable which again helps them to see the answer to their original question.
It is about a landowner who owns a vineyard & rents it out to some tenants. Now when harvest time comes the vineyard owner is owed a percentage of the crop as per their lease agreement. But the tenants refuse to pay. They beat the slaves that come on the owner’s behalf. They even kill his own son. And because of this the owner himself will come and give the tenantsthe punishment they deserve &he will then bring in new tenants in their place.
This parable of the renters from hell is all about authority, isn’t it? Will the tenants do what they are told or will they do what they want to do? Is their authority to live in the vineyard their own or is it delegated and subjected to someone else’s authority?
But the story is even more than that because at the end of the parable, the Pharisees rightly see that this was a parable directed straight at them. This is not just a nice bit of light entertainment, it is actually a warning to the religious authorities, because it is very similar to another parable told by Isaiah in the 5th chapter in his book. And there Isaiah had already told his listeners who the characters stood for. The landowner was God Himself. The tenants were the Jewish people. So the servants then must be the various prophets that God had sent and the Son, well obviously that must be Jesus.
So the question below the question is this. If Jesus has come to this world with God’s authority are you going to listen to him, are you going to obey him? Are you going to follow him? And the answer from the religious leaders? No we are not, we are going to arrest him
and kill him. But Jesus is warning them. Be careful for the stone that they have rejected will eventually fall on them & crush them.
So the question for us today is, are we willing to listen to Jesus when he comes to us with God’s own authority? Because that parable is not just directed to the Jews but to all of us. We are tenants in the world that God has made. We are the beneficiaries of his goodness and provision. We have been given so much in this fantastic world that we owe God a debt of gratitude. We owe him honour, respect, worship. And yet we as humans don’t want to be the tenants we want to be the owners. So we attempt to get rid of God.
But even if god’s prophets were abused, even if God’s Son was killed, we are not ultimately in control. God is. Friends he has authority over our life. He is the one who should determine what we do, when we do it, how we do it, why we do it. So have you handed the keys of your life over to him, have you given him the remote control? Will he determine what you do today, let alone tomorrow? But then there is another question asked of Jesus.
- A question about Caesar (verses 20-26)
For by now the Pharisees and the Sadducees are queuing up to test Jesus. And the Pharisees think they have come up with a beauty. They think they have a question that will get Jesus in trouble no matter whether he says yes, no, or I’m not sure.“Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.22Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
It is a bit similar to a question that was asked of Bill Clinton prior to the 1993 Presidential election. He was asked by one reporter. “Considering that he evaded the draft because of his conscience and went to England rather than serving in the Vietnam war - would he be able to order young Americans with similar conscious objections into a combat situation”?
It was a terrible question. If he answered no he disqualified himself from office for he’s not prepared to make the tough decisions. But if he said yes, he would show that he was a hypocrite, for he had double standards. A no win situation.
Similarly Jesus is asked if the Jews should pay taxes to Caesar? If he says “no, don’t pay the tax“, then he could be arrested for treason. But if he says “yes pay the tax“, he would imply his support of Rome over Israel and the crowd would turn against him. Either way the chief priests were off the hook. So they waited for Jesus to self destruct.
But he doesn’t, does he? He calls for a coin and he asks whose inscription is on it? The fact that his accuser could provide a coin on demand cut the ground from under their feet! They were using Caesars’ money, so they could pay Caesar’s taxes. They should render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.
But what does this mean? It means we have to acknowledge the authority of the government of the day over us, no matter how corrupt it is. The Roman government of Jesus day promoted false worship, was terribly cruel and corrupt and yet Jesus claims his disciples should pay taxes to it. They should obey its laws. They should respect its authority.
In comparison our federal, state and local governments are light years better than the Roman empire of Jesus day. Which means we should pay our fair share of taxes and do it willingly. It means we should obey their laws, even if we don’t like them. It means we should respect their authority over us.
We should render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But on the flip side we should render to God what is his as well. Does God require us to take a Sabbath - then do it. Does he tell us to respect our parents, then do it. Does he say meet weekly for worship, then do it. Allow God to rule your life! No excuses. Just do it!
But what if the government of the day overstretches itself? What happens if it requires us to do something that goes against God’s word? What if it says we have to employ non-Christians in Church organisations? What if it says that we can’t discipline our children according to what the Bible says? What if it tries to tell us that marriage is not for a man or woman but for any two consenting adults?Then we have a higher loyalty. And friends can I say to submit to that higher loyalty will cost us. It will cost us in terms on money & respect.
So the reasoning goes something like this. Has God said something on the subject, then obey it! Has the government said something, then obey it as well unless it contradicts what God has said. So can I ask you the question that is below the question - the question for you and me today? Do you render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, or do you find excuses?
Do you complain about the government more than you pray for them? But more importantly do you give to God what is his? Your best thoughts, your best time, your best energies, your whole life. Not just the leftovers. Not just the parts that are left after you spend 40 hours at work and 25 hours with the kids. Do you truly render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and you give to God what belongs to God.
- A Question about Moses
Now that the Pharisees have been put in their place, the Sadducees now step forward with a doozy of a question about Moses and the law that he gave. “Jesus there was once a man and his wife and the wife dies. So the law says the next brother should marry this woman and provide her with the children to keep the dead man’s name alive. So the next brother did that but then he died as well. In fact all 7 brothers married this wife and none had children. Finally the woman died. In heaven whose wife shall she be? “
Now there’s been a lot of thought put into that one. It’s hardly going to be a common occurrence, is it? If you were to ask that question today you might say, “Jesus if Elizabeth Taylor is saved, which husband will she be married to in heaven?” But I think she was married to one of her 8 husbands 3 times wasn’t she, so it’s not quite the same problem!
Now I picture the Sadducees strutting around, high-fiving each other because their question was so amazing. They had probably rehearsed it many times before and watched others falter and fold. No one had ever been able to answer this question. They were painting a problem, a theological conundrum that in their minds was both absurd and unanswerable. They didn’t believe in the resurrection and this sort of question just makes it a mockery!
Or does it? Let’s see how Jesus answers the charge that there is no such thing as a resurrection? 34Jesus replied,“The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.35But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to comeand in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage,36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children,since they are children of the resurrection.”
What Jesus is saying is that the assumption that the resurrection life would be the same as our first life is a false one. Yes we may do many things in this world but some of those things won’t exist in the world to come. Marriage is one of them. Sex is another. In the life to come there is an aspect of continuity to this life, our bodies for example will be resurrected ready for the life to come. But there is also a discontinuity as well.
On earth marriage is about close companionship but in heaven every relationship will be perfectly close. On earth marriage is about sexual fulfilment and procreation but in heaven we don’t have the same sorts of bodies and there will be no more having children. It will not be that the closeness of your marriage bond will be weakened in heaven it just is that every other relationship will be strengthened. And your focus will not be on the people around you but it will primarily be on God.
So we are not married for eternity but the relationship that you have with your Christian wife or husband will last for eternity. Just as your relationship with many of the people in this church will also last forever as well. For after death there is a thing called the resurrection for those whom God has chosen.
So the Sadducees start by asking Jesus a question but Jesus ends by asking them a question. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ]38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
Jesus is effectively asking the Sadducees a question. How can Moses call the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob when these guys are all dead and buried and rotting in the grave? No they are not dead they are alive, they have been resurrected. Now Jesus could have then pointed the Sadducees to Job or to the Psalms or to Daniel and discussed the OT concept of resurrection but these people don’t recognise these books as God’s word.
So he goes to the first five books of the Bible the only books these guys accepted and he meets them on their home ground so to speak and declares that God is alive because he is the god of the living not the dead. He is the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He answers their question and the question behind their question.
But the question for us today is whether we believe in the resurrection or not. So often we put all our effort into our homes, our bank balance, our marriages, our families all good things but much of that will not survive into the life to come. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”
Yes work on your marriage but work on all your relationships. Starting with your relationship with Jesus. Clean up the world, care for your environment, fight lying and corruption in our nation but realise that the resurrection means that there also are others things that we should be putting our mind to. We render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and we render to God what belongs to God.
Friends in this passage people asking Jesus questions about God. But do you know one day God will ask us questions about Jesus. Do you believe in Him.? Did you follow him? Did you live your life in the light of his resurrection? What will be your answers to these questions? If you know, get on with living for Jesus. And if you don’t, come back to the bible now before
it is all too late!