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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy. This summer we're going through the Gospels, learning about how understanding the tougher sayings of Christ can lead to a deeper connection with Him. Now here's the teaching.

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 this 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? And 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. 

This is the Word of the Lord. Lord, we ask this morning that your Word would be our rule, your Spirit our teacher, and your glory, your glory, the primary reason we gather in this place. Speak now, for your servants are listening. 

In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Well, it's a joy to be back with you this morning. 

I want to thank your pastors for the invitation. Thank you for having myself and my family. Pastor Jeff and Pastor Nathan, Pastor Tom, thank you for your kindness to me and your friendship. 

I was with you during your second Peter series, and it's always exciting to have the opportunity to preach somewhere for the first time, but it's always great when they invite you back, and so I want to thank you for that this morning. I want to talk to you this morning on the topic of wholly divided, wholly divided. It's 11 o'clock now, just a few more hours. 

He'll be here anytime. Shows up most Sunday afternoons, always uninvited. You might call him a debt collector of sorts. 

He comes to repossess your peace of mind and pin you under the weight of your upcoming week. Most nights, as you toss and turn, he just sits on the edge of your bed and reads aloud the invoices of your life. Work? That presentation's due in nine hours. 

Kids? Practice every day this week. Get them there at 530. Each invoice he reads is another master you owe, each one coming to collect on you. 

And then he asks, with all the obligations you owe, how can you ever say that you give your all to God? You say you're a Christian, right? If all creation belongs to God, then why do you pay him out in pennies? It's a question of divided allegiance. How can we be so fully devoted when the world so thoroughly divides us? What he's really asking is how can you pay the world what you owe when God's name is on the title of your life? That question's always bothered me. To begin with, I don't want to feel like I owe anyone anything, but I have competing loyalties. 

I owe someone something to someone in every realm of my life. For example, at work I pay my employer with my time and energy and the best years of my lower back. At home, my family, they still demand my presence and my care. 

I mean, my friends, I want to pay them with my deep loyalty the best that I can, at least the IU fans. I mean, you Purdue fans, I can always talk to you in the offseason, right? I don't want to feel, I want you to feel like I'm complaining, but how do you give in one realm and not feel like you're you're sacrificing in another? Moreover, it sometimes feels like I live the real-life version of the children's book, if you give a mouse a cookie. You know the story, right? If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for what? He'll ask for a glass of milk. 

One small ask triggers an endless escalating chain of demands. At work, you give one 60-hour work week to finish a project and then the next week, 65 hours becomes the standard. Or volunteer for Children's Church and be careful, they might be asking you to run VBS. 

I mean, we go crazy trying to survive the border crossings between work and family and church. German sociologist Max Weber had a name for these different realms. He called them spheres of life, spheres of life, separate worlds like the economic sphere of money and the civic sphere of government. 

And according to Weber, these aren't neutral categories. No, they're competing gods. Their goal is to monopolize your time, energy, and ultimate loyalty. 

And to give yourself to one God feels like you're committing blasphemy against the other. So how do we deal with this? How do we do it? Well, if you listen to the self-proclaimed leadership experts on LinkedIn, well, they'll tell you that the answer is balance. Just manage your time better. 

Draw healthy boundaries. I don't know about you, but the more I try to balance my life, the more imbalanced it becomes. And I think that's because balance assumes these spheres of life want to nicely share you. 

The truth is, they don't. So what do we do? Well, we end up resorting oftentimes to a secular-sacred divide. A secular-sacred divide. 

You know what I'm talking about, right? The sacred says, give God what you owe Him on Sunday. And the secular says, well, don't mention Him the rest of the week. The secular says, exercise your right to vote. 

But if you're concerned about the sacred, well, then don't worry about what laws are passed after that. And we split our lives down the middle just to survive. But deep down, you and I know, it doesn't work. 

We're still divided. Now, we might think this is a modern invention of the iPhone and the 60-hour work weeks, but it isn't. Because 2,000 years ago, two groups of religious elites walked up to Jesus with the same problem. 

But they weren't after truth. They wanted a gotcha. They came to trap Jesus between the civic sphere of Roman government and the sacred sphere of the Jewish temple. 

They could have chosen any two spheres of life, but they chose the civic and the religious. Why? I think it's because to govern, the civic must hold a monopoly on force. We grant it the absolute power over life and death. 

And by placing the religious next to the civic, it forces what might otherwise be personal out into the public. It was the perfect setup. But Jesus doesn't crumble under the weight of competing loyalties. 

Instead, he flips the coin on them in a stunning way. Story picks up in Mark 12. Jesus is in the temple. 

The religious elites question Jesus's authority. And in response, Jesus tells a biting parable. Tenants mismanage a vineyard. 

They kill the owner's son, wanting to own the entire vineyard for themselves. The tension of who has rightful ownership and ultimate authority is building. Jesus is a threat to their power. 

And so when the religious leaders realize the parable of the vineyard is about them, they want to take Jesus by force. But they can't for fear of the people. That's why I think instead of sending soldiers, they send ideologues. 

They don't send soldiers, they send ideologues. Helmut Thielicke, a pastor, theologian during Nazi rule, said that totalitarianism can't first start with physical terror. If it did, it would be instantly rejected. 

Instead, it starts with propaganda to target your mind to make you over time willing to surrender. So similarly, they come to Jesus not by force, but to trap him in an ideological bind. It's theological warfare for the soul of man. 

I mean, imagine it, two different groups completely at odds, two different opposing worldviews. On the one side, you have the Pharisees. They're the religious purists. 

They loathe Roman occupation. But they tolerated Rome's taxes just to keep their own religious control. On the other side, you have the Herodians. 

They're the political opportunists. They work to secure Rome's regional interest and to line their own pockets. But despite the Pharisees and the Herodians, they share a common playbook. 

They found a way to work the system. You see, Rome didn't care what you privately believe. They cared about public compliance. 

You could worship whatever you wanted privately, but publicly, publicly, you swore allegiance to Caesar. And so both groups, the purists and the politicians, used the system to their advantage. They played their parts, they kept Rome's peace, and they secured for themselves positions of power. 

And now they team up to ask Jesus a single question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Answer yes, and the Pharisees brand you a traitor to God. Answer no, and the Herodians arrest you as a traitor to Caesar. 

It's a trap, a binary choice they force upon Jesus. And therein lies the irony. Because while the religious eliters try to trap Jesus, their question reveals the trap that they themselves were already in. 

You see, by forcing a binary choice in their question, they don't just expose their clashing ideologies. Instead, they prove that drawing a line between the secular and sacred is not possible. Drawing a line between the secular and sacred is not possible. 

Why? Because in the end, the world isn't just one big sandbox. It's carved up into different spheres, family and career and religion and politics, and every sphere of life competes like a jealous God to claim the whole of you. Every sphere of life wants the whole of you, not a piece of you, not a part of you. 

It wants the whole of you. And somewhere along the line, we've bought into the belief that we somehow live in a secular society, that in the public square, that's neutral territory, that God should just stay in a box while everything else just plays by the rules. Listen, listen, our society isn't empty of gods. 

It's swarming with them. They're everywhere. For example, the iPhone is a God who wants all your attention. 

The 24-7 news cycle is a God who wants all your outrage. Even professional sports is a God who isn't satisfied with you being a fan, but demands that you choose a side over the color of a uniform. You and I, we're trapped. 

We're trapped. We have to live in the world, which means that every day we oscillate back and forth between the various spheres of life, each one demanding our full allegiance. So, how do we navigate the war zone? How do we do it? Well, thankfully, Jesus provides a way out. 

He provides a way out. Notice how He reacts to their question in verse 15. Mark says, but knowing their hypocrisy, knowing their hypocrisy, you see that? One way to read this is that Jesus is clearly perturbed by their setup. 

He's perturbed by their setup. I mean, we know this because He then asked, why do you put me to the test? But I thought about this verse, and I wonder at a deeper level if maybe Jesus isn't just perturbed by them, but maybe He's also perturbed for them. Maybe He's perturbed for them. 

Because the truth is, one way or another, you and I, we're all trapped in hypocrisy. We're all trapped in hypocrisy. We all have beliefs, whether religious, social, political, and what we do, sometimes without even realizing it, is that we force them on people. 

We force them on people. We make demands of people. What do you believe about this? What do you believe about that? And listen, I'm not saying it's not right to ask people what they believe. 

We must, we have to, or else we couldn't share the hope of Christ. Just be careful that we don't make demands of people. Because Jesus' answer draws for us a clear distinction. 

It draws for us a clear distinction. Listen to me. Here's the distinction. 

Every sphere of your life is saying to you, give me all of you or else. Every sphere of your life is saying to you, give me all of you or else. It's a demand. 

For example, give me all your time or else you don't get the promotion. Give me all your allegiance or else you'll be called unloving. Give me all your worship or else you'll be labeled narrow-minded. 

Give me all of you or else. But that's not what Jesus is saying. That's not what He's saying. 

And you say, well, wait a minute. Doesn't Jesus demand all of me? Doesn't He demand all my surrender, all my devotion, all my heart? Well, yes. Yes, of course, but Jesus never says give me all of you or else.

Instead, Christ says give me all of you and I'll reorder everything else. Give me all of you and I'll reorder everything else. The work of Christ in your life doesn't do away with your obligations in the world. 

Friends, it reorders them. It reorders them. And God has brought you here today and He wants to reorder your life.

Because what God is saying in these verses is that you are free to pay the world the best of you only when God has the whole of you. You're free to pay the world the best of you but only when God has the whole of you. That's what it means to give to Caesar what's Caesar's and to God what's God's. 

The question then becomes, how do we do this? How do we pay the world the best of us when God has the whole of us? And I think it's Jesus' answer here that gives us three truths to help us do just that. Three truths this morning. You with me? All right.

First, to pay the world the best of us when God has the whole of us, we first have to pay the right person. We first have to pay the right person. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Jesus tells him to bring him a coin.

That's a denarius. He asks two questions. He says, whose likeness is on it? Also, whose inscription is it? Now, it's believed that this coin had on one side a picture of Tiberius Caesar and on the other side it had a picture of him as God. 

And it said, Tiberius Caesar, son of divine Augustus. Now, Augustus had proclaimed himself as God and Tiberius was his adopted son, so it was saying, son of God. And on the other side of it, it said Pontiff Maximum, the great Roman high priest. 

Hmm. So there in the temple, they're carrying with them a Roman coin which says, son of God, great high priest. Their trap is exposed.

They know whose image it is, and Jesus does as well. But his response, they're not expecting, and maybe neither are we. Because when they respond, Caesar, he says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. 

The word here, render, means to give back, means to give back. In verse 14 in your text, the word isn't actually, shouldn't be translated pay. The word actually is give. 

Should we give or not give? And so in essence, Jesus is saying here, listen, if he gave it to you, then sure, give it back to him. What he's saying is that we live across different spheres of life, and each sphere has its own legitimate claim of authority on us. And so, for example, in the political sphere, we elect officials to govern us. 

Paul says in Romans 13 that these governing authorities are given to us by God. They're given to us by God. It's what Martin Luther called God's emergency order, God's emergency order. 

And what Luther meant was the government is a gracious intervention of God. It's a gracious intervention of God given to us for a time to help us preserve order in a fallen world, to preserve order in a fallen world. That's the role of government, but that role is limited. 

It's given by God for a time and a purpose. Now, furthermore, we elect those who govern us, and they don't need to be a Christian, they just need to use human reason to do their best to make good rational decisions to serve their fellow man. And in this way, we as Christians can give to Caesar what Caesar's, because we understand God's purpose for government and that for officials to carry out their obligation that they have certain legitimate claims on us, certain claims like our taxes and our civic cooperation. 

And so, we rightly give them what we owe them. In this way, we pay the right person. But the problem is that when there's a disregard for God's intended framework of government, when there's a disregard for God's intended framework of government, then the state, then the government often can go from ordering society to controlling it. 

They go from ordering society to controlling it. And when this happens, the government can transform into what looks more like a false church with dogma that can't be questioned, heretics who are canceled, saints and martyrs who become ideological heroes. And at this point, the government is going beyond taxes it's owed to demanding something it isn't. 

So what do we do? Well, I think we have to look at the image on the coin to see where the obligation belongs. We have to look at the image on the coin to see where the obligation belongs. Because the government may get our taxes, but it's God who gets our worship. 

And this requires discerning the right person to pay and the specific obligation owed. It requires discerning the right person to pay and the specific obligation owed. And it goes beyond just government. 

You know, as we think about other spheres of life, pay the right person means paying what we owe to those we owe it. Paying what we owe to those we owe it. For example, our spouses we pay with our love and faithfulness, our partner or our parents with our respect, those who serve us we pay with our appreciation. 

The challenge is it always isn't always easy to do that, especially when those in authority make it incredibly difficult. They make it incredibly difficult, but I'd say this, I'd say this, listen, if God has the whole of us, then we can pay those who have a rightful claim even though they may have a broken position. We can pay those who have a rightful claim even though they may have a broken position. 

For example, maybe there's a sibling you're at odds with. Pay them a call today. Maybe they're not right, but maybe you can make it right. 

Maybe it's a boss at work. You can't trust them as far as you can see them. Well, don't trust them, but still pay them with respect. 

Jesus says, look at the image on the coin. See where the obligation belongs and pay the right person. Well, the next way we can pay the world the best of us when God has the whole of us is that we pay on the right terms. 

Pay on the right terms. When Jesus says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's, you'll notice he's establishing a clear boundary line. The idea is that since we live in the world, we have certain debts we owe to those in authority, and consequently we should pay what we owe, but not what we don't. 

Pay what we owe, but not what we don't. Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian and also was a prime minister, is famous for saying that there's not a square inch of all creation where Christ doesn't cry, mine. Not a square inch where Christ doesn't cry, mine. 

Kuyper believed in what he called sphere sovereignty. This means that each sphere of life has its own distinct authority. And furthermore, all the spheres are equal, but over all of them stands God, who has ultimate authority. 

The problem is that every sphere of our life wants to overstep its bounds. That's the problem. It wants to reach beyond its intended function. 

And so what do we do when you and I are caught in the turf war? What do we do? Well, I think we have to face the fact that we live in a world bankrupt of God. We got to face the fact that we live in a world bankrupt of God. Now, in bankruptcy, the order by which creditors are paid has already been defined in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. 

It's already been set. And so in the court proceedings, yeah, there's a judge, but that judge is only there to ensure the rules of priority are followed. And so when a creditor demands that they get more than their due, the judge says, now wait a minute, you don't have the rights. 

And in the same way, as you and I think about our role as the church to pay on the right terms, the priority of our obligation for those in authority has already been set by the gospel. And God receives our first rights, and all spheres of our life are then subordinate to Him. If that's true, and it is, then our role, your role, my role, is that of the bankruptcy judge. 

Listen, the laws have been set. God is sovereign over every sphere, so we as the judge simply read the law. Or in this case, we as the church proclaim Christ. 

We proclaim Christ. Now, the other creditors, they won't like it. They want priority claim. 

But I think we need to be a little bit more like Peter and the Apostles in Acts chapter 5, who were told not to teach in Jesus' name. Do you remember Peter's response? Peter's response was, I got the can't help-its. I got the can't help-its. 

I can't not teach in His name. And I think there's been this wave in the church, I think especially over the last five or six years, that has led people to believe in the church that we can't be discerning, led us to believe that we somehow can't be discerning, that you shouldn't question the fine print on any invoice you're sent. And as such, we're at risk of losing our voice. 

We're losing, we're losing our can't help-its. And the way to get it back is to follow the order of priority.

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