But every preacher has to deal with people who attend to hear him preach the sermon, but do not come to hear God’s Word preached! They come to find fault with what he preaches.
For example,
• One Bible preacher was preaching a sermon from the Word of God, and he stated that a lot of the counseling that is done today is unnecessary. Then he explained what he meant by making that statement. If people come to hear a Bible preacher preaching the Word of God, people are going to hear what God’s Word says about different things that face the people of God. And if they hear it from the pulpit, there would be no need for them to come to the office and hear it again. A lady that heard that sermon went out and said the preacher did not believe in counseling. This is not what he said!
• Another Bible preacher was preaching a sermon on the cleansing of the temple. In his sermon he was showing the congregation how the Lord wanted us to reverence our body, the temple of God. He illustrated today how some people dress to attend church like they are going to Walmart. This woman went around telling people that he said that you should not come to church wearing Walmart clothes. This is not what he said!
Every preacher has to deal with people like this.
This is something the Lord also had to deal with. Every where He went He had people following Him for the right reasons and for the wrong reasons.
They did not just happen to be there to find fault with His teaching and preaching. They came from different towns to find fault with Him.
Illus: One of the favorite things that some women do is to FIND FAULT WITH MEN. One lady said:
• Men are like place mats -- they only show up when there's food on the table.
• Men are like government bonds -- they take so long to mature.
• Men are like bank accounts without a lot of money -- they don't generate a lot of interest.
• Men are like high heels -- they're easy to walk on once you get the hang of it.
• Men are like handguns -- keep one around long enough and your gonna want to shoot it.
These people actually came to hear the Lord just to find something they could criticize.
Illus: They remind me of the family that returned from Sunday morning service:
• The father criticized the sermon
• The daughter thought the choir's singing was atrocious
• The mother found fault with the organist's playing
• The small boy of the family piped up, "But it was a good show for a quarter, don't you think, Dad?"
Did you know that those who criticize the most, do the least? When you find a person putting their heart into something, they will be the last to criticize.
The scriptures make it clear they came for that purpose. They came to SET A TRAP, to find ways that they could trap Him with their evil plans.
Let’s look at two traps they set for Him. We see -
I. THE FIRST TRAP
At the end of the previous chapter, Jesus has just had an encounter with the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law who demanded to know who gave Him authority to cleanse the temple in the manner He cleansed it.
Jesus told them He would not tell them unless they expressed an opinion about John the Baptist’s authority - from God or man?
They wouldn’t answer because they were either afraid of people’s opinions or unwilling to confront their own unbelief.
So now Jesus moves right into the very subject they were asking about, but He does it in a very interesting way.
The Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews, had met officially and plotted how they might catch Jesus in His words.
Look at verse 13, we read, “And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.”
First of all - beware of flattery.
Look at verse 14, we read, “And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
Illus: Two old men met on a street corner.
The first old man said, "Where have you been for the past few years?"
The second man replied, "I was in jail."
"Why were you in jail?" asked the first man.
The second man said, "Well, I was standing on a corner and this beautiful young woman rushed up with a policeman, pointed to me and said, 'That's the man, Officer. He's the one who sexually assaulted me'."
"What? And you let her get away with it?" exclaimed the first man
"Well, I'll tell you, I felt so flattered, I admitted to it," replied the second man.
Heart felt praise can warm the soul - but flattery is often a hidden knife right to the heart.
Sometimes the best way to destroy someone is not to use harsh words, but flattery.
Some parents have destroyed their children by bragging about them when really there was not that much to brag about.
These men came to the Lord seeming as sincere as they could be. But they were trying to catch Jesus off guard. He responds very directly, and doesn’t play the false flattery game.
WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE?
• The Herodians and Pharisees were enemies –
• The Herodians supported Rome as a way to keep Israel under the thumb of the family of Herod.
• The Pharisees hated Rome. But they had a common enemy in Jesus.
Sometimes folks who hate each other can come together when they have a common enemy.
Illus: Two families attended the same church. It was common knowledge they did not like each other. A problem came up in the church and they became the best of friends.
These two groups came together because of their common hatred for the Lord Jesus.
They came up with this TRAP QUESTION!
Look at verse 15, we read, “Shall we give, or shall we not give…”
There were several taxes the Jews were forced to pay. And the question was, “SHOULD THEY PAY THEIR TAXES?”
• If Jesus said don’t pay the taxes, then they could accuse Him of treason before Rome.
• If He said to pay the tax, then He would lose favor with the people who hated Rome and their taxes.
But look again at verse 15, we read, “But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.”
Look at verses 16-17, we read, “And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.”
Jesus is saying that if you are a citizen of a country -
• It is not wrong to pay your debts to that government
• He even uses a different word than His opponents
They used the word that means “to give” while Jesus used the word that meant “to pay a debt.”
Paying a debt for a government which provides services does not mean that you become in submission to its beliefs about God.
Caesar was not God, but God had set up this government at that time. The people should willingly pay taxes to it, but at the same time their allegiance is to God with their lives and hearts and worship.
The Bible says this reply caused them to MARVEL!
We see THE FIRST TRAP and -
II. THE SECOND TRAP
Next we move from the political trap to the philosophical trap with another group, the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the other major religious group in Israel.
They only accepted the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, and they rejected most of the Pharisees rules and regulations.
The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection because they could find no mention of it in the Pentateuch.
Look at verses 18-27, we read, “Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her? And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err."
The law these men refer to is in Deut. 25:5-6 “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.”
They took this text and came to an illogical conclusion about what would happen if all these people were resurrected and the resulting confusion, thus concluding that there can’t be a resurrection.
Look at verse 24. Jesus replied, "And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven,”
Ignorance is always the reason that people arrive at the wrong conclusion in interpreting the Scriptures.
They figured life in heaven must be like life on earth, but it is not. Our bodies are different and it is a different dimension altogether.
So what will heaven be like? We don’t know a lot, but we do know a few things:
What We Know About our Bodies in Heaven:
• They will be recognizable. 1 Cor. 13:12
• They will be like Christ’s body. 1 John 3:2
• They will be bodies in which the spirit predominates. 1 Cor. 15:44,49
• They will be unlimited by space. Luke 24:31; John 20:19,26
• They will be eternal. 2 Cor. 5:1-5
• They will be glorious. Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 15:43
• They will not have pain. Rev. 21:4
• They will not die. 1 Cor. 15:26; Rev. 21:4
• They will not hunger or thirst. Rev. 7:16
• They will not sin. Rev. 21:27
The Lord addressed the question about the dead rising.
Look at verse 26-27, we read, “And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”
They were concerned about the dead, but God wanted them to know that He was the God of the living.
Conclusion:
We have looked at two traps:
I. THE FIRST TRAP
II. THE SECOND TRAP
