Denying Self
Matthew 17:24-27
February 12, 2012
Back in chapter 16 Jesus introduced to the disciples
What most certainly appeared to them to be radical thinking.
He told them He had to suffer and die.
You will remember that Peter especially did not like that
And so Jesus revealed a radical truth to him as well.
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
And since that time, Jesus has been systematically
Trying to drive those truths into the disciple’s heads.
He not only told them He would die,
But after He was transfigured on the mountain He reinforced it again.
On the way down saying:
Matthew 17:12 “but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”
And then after casting a demon out a boy at the bottom of the mountain
And dealing with that perverse generation, He reminded them again.
Matthew 17:22-23 “And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going 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 deeply grieved.”
It is clear that Matthew is making sure you and I get the point.
Every incident he chooses is to reiterate the point
That Christ is about to suffer and if we are going to follow Him
Then we must choose to deny self and embrace hardship as well.
That is not an easy concept,
But it does however remain a necessary one to learn.
And this morning Matthew is still revealing
How Jesus continued to teach this truth to His disciples.
And what better opportunity to teach a person to deny self than with the age-old custom of paying taxes?
I don’t know anyone who likes to pay taxes.
If you just listen to the debates and political adds,
Not just this year, but every election year it is always about the same thing: TAXES
• The rich pay too little…
• The poor pay too much…
• Every politician claims to have a record of cutting taxes…
• Every politician promises to cut taxes even more…
And yet taxes continue to rise.
Now in our day taxes can be pretty tough to avoid.
• They charge it when you purchase goods (sales tax)
• They take it out of your pay check (income tax)
• What you are responsible for paying they watch you like a hawk.
But in Jesus’ day taxes were definitely more about the honor system.
Oh sure, collectors were sent out as you see here, but it is not like they were hard to avoid, nor was there any electronic system of check-up.
And so you had to choose to pay your taxes.
And that is what Jesus and Peter are up against today.
And Jesus uses this opportunity to further reinforce into Peter’s mind
That those who follow Him must deny their own selfish interests.
You can’t live for you and live for Jesus at the same time.
And that isn’t just true for the day you die, it is true every day.
You and I don’t become martyrs for Christ
Only on the day someone puts a gun to our head.
The decision to die to self and live for Christ is a daily decision.
That is why in Luke’s gospel it is recorded like this:
Luke 9:23 “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
That is why Paul said in Romans:
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
And Jesus is teaching this to Peter.
You must deny yourself, not just today, not just tomorrow,
But every moment of every day.
If you let selfishness slip in, you will not follow Jesus.
That being said, let’s look at this living illustration to Peter
And have this truth better solidified in our minds.
3 things
#1 THE EXAMINATION
Matthew 17:24-25a
Now it is pretty clear what is going on here.
• They are back in Peter’s home-town.
• The people there knew him.
• And it is obvious that Jesus is staying in Peter’s house with him.
And while they are there, “those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”
Now first let me explain “the two-drachma tax”
The “drachma” was a Roman currency.
But it was a tax built off of a Jewish Law.
Exodus 30:11-16 “The LORD also spoke to Moses, saying, “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. “This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the LORD. “Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the LORD. “The rich shall not pay more and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the LORD to make atonement for yourselves. “You shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the sons of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves.”
Now that is what you call a flat-tax.
Every man over the age of 20 had to pay the same amount.
A half of a shekel.
Well, now in Rome the tax still existed for the temple.
Only in Roman currency a half of a shekel equaled 2 drachma.
(This by the way was the equivalent of 2 days wages.)
And so these were not Roman tax collectors like Matthew used to be,
These are Jewish collectors coming around
To collect the temple tax from their Jewish brothers.
But notice how they ask Peter about Jesus.
“Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”
Now that is a strange way to ask isn’t it?
Why not knock on the door and say, “Hey guys its tax time.”
But it is apparent that this man is making an insinuation
That Jesus is above paying taxes.
They all knew in Capernaum that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah
And so this man is digging at Peter and at Jesus.
(I told you last week it is a perverted world)
Basically what the tax collector is saying is this, “So I guess your Messiah thinks He doesn’t have to pay taxes, huh?”
“Do your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”
But Peter responds, “He said, “Yes.”
Now Peter isn’t answering for Jesus, it is just that
Undoubtedly Peter has seen Jesus pay that tax before.
He isn’t necessarily defending Jesus to the tax man,
He just knows that Jesus does in fact pay his taxes.
And that is the end of the conversation.
But it is obvious that Peter and Jesus
Are under the microscope from the Jewish religious community
He is being examined.
Before we go on know that the world is continually examining you too.
Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”
The world is watching, and often times rooting for you to fail.
Think about Tim Tebow.
Trust me there are reporters who know that a ticket to fame
Is to be the first to get the picture of Tebow losing his temper,
Or Tebow holding a beer, or Tebow coming out of a strip club.
You have to know that.
The world will never be able to discredit the message of Jesus,
So they settle for continuously trying to discredit His messengers.
Well here they are examining Jesus just like that.
The Examination
#2 THE EXPLANATION
Matthew 17:25b-26
I really like how verse 25 reads.
“And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first…”
Jesus knew exactly what was on Peter’s mind.
That tax collector had just raised a very interesting question to Peter.
If Jesus really is the Messiah, why should He pay taxes?
And it is obvious that Peter is about to ask Jesus about it.
But Jesus beats him to the punch and “spoke to him first”
“What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?”
There are some unique literary clues here in this verse.
The first is that Jesus called Peter “Simon”, not Peter.
Remember Simon was his name Jesus is the one that changed it to Peter.
But anytime you find Peter start thinking like the old Peter
And leaning towards the worldly side of things, Jesus calls him Simon.
The other clue is that Jesus said, “What do you think..?”
Jesus is here looking for the natural, earthy, self-centered answer.
“do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?”
“custom” are taxes on goods.
“poll-tax” is a tax on people.
But Jesus wants to know if kings tax their own sons.
Obviously not.
WHY?
Well suppose I went home today and decided that from now on I am charging $10 a meal for eating at my table, no exceptions.
For one Gary wouldn’t come over, but for two,
I would have to loan $10 to everyone of my kids.
To tax my kids is in reality to tax myself.
Taxes aren’t for the sons, only for strangers.
Which is what Peter said.
And Jesus responded, “Then the sons are exempt.”
Now understand that this is exactly what Peter had in mind.
If You are the Son of God, then You shouldn’t
Have to pay the tax in Your own Father’s temple.
(And Peter did believe Jesus to be the Son of God)
Matthew 16:16 “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And in Peter’s mind Jesus should not have to pay, and obviously Peter would have liked for the close friends of Jesus to get an exemption too.
But you see at this point all Jesus has done is reinforce Peter’s logic.
He shouldn’t have to pay the tax.
If you want to talk about “rights”,
If you want to talk about “fair”,
If you want to talk about “justice”
Then Jesus shouldn’t have to pay.
And in any given day we come across situations just like that.
“I shouldn’t have to do that…”
“That’s not fair…”
“I have the right to do this…”
“I have the right not to do this…”
And that is true.
You do, just as Jesus did.
He had the right not to pay that tax, for His Father owned the temple.
The Examination The Explanation
#3 THE EXCEPTION
Matthew 17:27
Now there is a big word, “However”
That means that humanly speaking Jesus has every right not to pay
But He is about to go against the grain.
“so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in 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 you and Me.”
So Jesus is going to supernaturally provide for His and Peter’s tax.
BUT DID YOU NOTICE WHY HE DID IT?
“so that we do not offend them”
WHY DID JESUS COME TO THIS EARTH?
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Paul said it like this:
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”
So Jesus came to save sinners.
Jesus did not come to save money.
And that means if it comes down to saving sinners or saving money, which do you think Jesus will choose?
See, it isn’t that Jesus delighted in paying taxes.
It is obvious that He did not have enough money to pay the tax.
He had to consult a fish for it.
But fighting over taxes was not a hill on which to die.
You see He knew that if He refused to pay that tax,
Then the next time they talked it would not be about sin and forgiveness
It would be about why He doesn’t pay taxes.
And that is not what He wanted to talk about.
You see friend a Christian should be honest, steadfast, bold, convicted, passionate, immovable, perseverant, but not offensive.
If all you and I ever live for are our rights
Then we will never follow Jesus.
In order to follow Him you must “deny yourself”
Now, let me give you a couple more examples of this.
TURN TO: GALATIANS
READ 1:6-9
It is obvious that Paul is fired up with the Galatians. He is angry.
Galatians 4:19-20 “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you — but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.”
He is upset, and it is obvious.
WHY?
READ 3:1-3
He is angry because they are trying to earn what Christ desires to give.
He even calls them foolish and says they have been “hood-winked”.
WHAT IS GOING ON?
READ 5:2-6
So it is all about circumcision.
Someone is telling them to get circumcised
And because they are contemplating, Paul is livid.
Now, not only that, but this problem
Actually led to an entire church council.
TURN TO: ACTS 15
READ: Vs. 1-2
Now verses 3-29 relate how the church actually debated the issue
And finally decided that the Gentiles did not have to be circumcised.
Look at the letter: READ vs. 28-29
So Paul won, the church was in unity, NO CIRCUMCISION!
NOW TURN TO ACTS 16
READ Vs. 1-5
Are you joking me?
Why would Paul do that after fighting so passionately against it?
Vs. 3, “because of the Jews who were in those parts”
So was Paul afraid?
No way, you will never find that.
But Paul wanted to tell men about Christ,
Not spend all his time arguing about circumcision.
That was a freedom he was willing to surrender if it meant saving men.
TURN TO 1 CORINTHIANS 9
READ Vs. 1-12
Paul gives reason after reason as to why he has the right to get paid for his ministry and then says but he doesn’t take it.
WHY? “so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.”
READ Vs. 19-23
And if we wanted we could go on about eating food sacrificed to idols and Paul saying, “Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again…”
Or we could talk about worshiping on the true Sabbath instead of the Lord’s Day in which Paul would again tell us not to give an offense.
And the point is still the same,
The Christian is called to deny self in order to follow Christ.
There is something that the American Church
Desperately needs to understand.
THERE IS NO BILL OF RIGHTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Sometimes thanks to our American Dream and our American culture
We tend to focus solely on our rights.
And we’ve even seen Christians (to the grief of the Holy Spirit)
• Pitching fits
• Having lawsuits
• Getting hateful
• Gossiping and slandering
• And doing who else knows what.
AND WHY?
• Because their order at Dixie Dog was messed up…
• Because their kid didn’t play enough in the basketball game…
• Because the referee missed a foul…
• Because they had to wait in line too long at Wal-Mart…
Now granted, those are terrible things to have to endure,
But for the sake of Christ would you please just endure it?
When we signed up to follow Christ we relinquished all rights.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
We don’t have any rights.
We let them go.
Instead I will die to self and absorb the cost
If at the end of the day, it helps me do what I’m really here for,
And that is tell people about Christ.
Now friends, if Jesus can pay the tax in His own temple, (and He didn’t even agree with what they were doing in that temple – He is about to clear it) Don’t you think we can at least suck it up and quit focusing on our rights?
Our goal is to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
Don’t kill your witness before you even get a chance to give it.
To the Corinthians Paul said:
1 Corinthians 6:7 “Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?”
If you go to Dixie Dog and get sideways because they mess up your order, you may win the fight and get your food right, but you already lost.
You’ll never be able to share Christ with the cook.
If you go to the ballgame and yell at the referee (and I’m guilty) then we already lost,
We’ll never be able to share Christ with the ref.
And what matters more, getting the foul called or getting his soul saved?
And if you fight and quarrel and pitch a fit over making sure you get every ounce of financial compensation you deserve,
Then you already lost, because you traded your witness for a few dollars.
That is what Jesus said to Peter.
“However, so that we do not offend them…”
“Peter, we aren’t here to save money, we are here to save men.
Let the money go, in fact I’ll provide it,
You just make sure you stay on focus.”
Our life is about denying self and carrying the cross,
Don’t lose sight of the goal.
Matthew 16:24-26 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
