Who Is the Greatest?

Q: What does the Bible say about Jesus paying taxes?

Jesus teaches that His followers are ultimately free, yet they should fulfill their civic duties, as shown in Matthew 17:24-27. In Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus addresses the issue of paying taxes, illustrating that while He claims freedom as the Son of God, He willingly pays the temple tax to avoid causing offense. This act demonstrates humility and submission to God-ordained authority. Jesus uses this moment to teach His disciples about their authority as children of God, highlighting that they are ultimately free from worldly obligations, yet still have a responsibility to fulfill their civic duties. This reflects the balance between being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and living in a fallen world, stressing the importance of obedience in matters that do not compromise faith.

Q: How do we know that God provides for our needs?

God promises to provide for our needs as we seek His kingdom first, as indicated in Matthew 6:33. The assurance of God’s provision is a central theme in scripture, particularly highlighted in Matthew 6:33, which states, 'But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.' This principle teaches that God's provision is contingent upon our prioritization of His kingdom above all else. In the sermon, the preacher recounts how Jesus instructed Peter to find the necessary money for their taxes miraculously, demonstrating that God can meet our needs through unexpected means. This intertwines with the broader theological understanding of God’s providence, affirming that He orchestrates circumstances in our lives for our good and His glory.

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is essential for entering the kingdom of heaven, as showcased in Matthew 18:3-4. In Matthew 18:3-4, Jesus emphasizes the significance of humility by saying that unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. This speaks to the heart of sovereign grace, where humility is recognizing our depravity and dependence on God's mercy. Pride, which is often tied to our sinful nature, leads us away from authentic faith and fellowship with God. The call to humility involves laying aside our ego and self-sufficiency, acknowledging that it is solely by God's grace that we are saved. This humility fosters a spirit of service and genuine love for others, as we seek to reflect the character of Christ in our interactions.

Q: How do we understand God's sovereignty and providence in our lives?

God's sovereignty means He controls everything, and His providence involves orchestrating events in our lives for His purposes and glory. The concept of God's sovereignty is foundational to Reformed theology, emphasizing that God reigns over all creation, governing every detail of existence. The sermon illustrates this by discussing how God provided for Peter through a fish with a coin, highlighting that nothing occurs outside of God's control. This understanding of providence reassures believers that all circumstances—both good and bad—serve divine purposes. It invites us to trust in God's plan, knowing that He works toward our ultimate good and His glory. Believing in God's sovereign control encourages us to persevere through trials, understanding they are part of His overarching narrative in our lives.

Matthew chapter 17 this morning. We'll look at the last part of the chapter And look into chapter 18 a little bit If all goes as planned According to the Lord's will Matthew 17 22 And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again.

And they were exceeding sorry. And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes, and when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute, of their own children or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers.

Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free? notwithstanding lest we should offend them go thou to the sea and cast and hook take up the fish that first cometh up and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and thee now this passage of scripture so beautifully shows in In the experience of life, the truth of what the Lord said, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. What's important, what he said, you remember in another account of this, when he said, let this sink down into your ears.

He had just performed a miracle on the lunatic child. He delivered him from Satan and from all of the consequences of his sin. Remember when these miracles are performed, that the Lord is erasing the consequences of our sin. Every problem we have, whether it's a demon possession or whether we're afflicted in some other way, this is a perfect world without sin. And so everything bad is because of our sin. And when the Lord comes and erases the consequences of our sin, that's a beautiful picture of what happens in the soul of a sinner when the Lord Jesus comes and shows what happened on Calvary.

That's why when he had done that, he said, let this sink down into your ears. The son of man must be delivered. He must be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him. This has got to happen. For what you just witnessed to happen, for sin's consequences to be wiped away, for a raging devil of a rebel to be turned into a loving son of God, I must be betrayed, I must die, and I must rise again. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. And then, if you have to pay some tribute money, I'll provide that for you. All of this will be added to you. It'll be added to you.

And in what beautiful fashion that happened here. Our Lord teaches us these important lessons here. First of all, the Lord says that his children are ultimately accountable to him. And generally speaking, we're free from the, we're free from the, what word shall I use? That's nice.

From the treachery and betrayal and oppression of this world. Because you know good and well these people were taking up taxes for the same reason governments take up taxes now. For their own power, for their own causes. They'll spend billions of dollars on homelessness and homelessness will triple and the money's gone. We know that. All taxes are theft. They just are. That's not a political statement. It's just the truth. And he says that.

The children are free from that. But when the gospel offends, then there must be offense. But when all it's gonna cost you not to offend is personal gain or personal betterment, personal benefit, then give it up. Give it up. And we are subject to the higher powers. We know that from the Lord too, that whatever the responsibilities civilly are ours, we're to pay them, we're to observe them.

And so that's a clear message there. He didn't say the first part in vain. The children, they get it from strangers. The children are free. And so it is with God's children. But he teaches us that our civic and national duties, and they may be unjust, and of course they are. Of course they are. They should be rendered anyway. God settles the books. God settles the books.

You think about some loss that you incur unfairly in this life. The Lord blesses us in so many ways. Think of all of the ways that the Lord blesses us and just pick one. And ask yourself, what's more valuable, that or what I lost? Just pick one of them.

We can't fret over things like that. The Lord was never very much concerned with offending authorities before, was he? He offended the Pharisees deliberately when it came to matters of doctrine. And yet here, lest we offend, and learn this, let's learn this too from this, the Lord supplies our needs.

What an amazing story this is. Peter had left his livelihood, he was a fisherman, and he left his nets and his boat and his father. And I suspect this was a lot of money to him right then, that he likely didn't have. But we serve the God of heaven and earth. There are so many ways that he can balance the books. with money or with a million other blessings. Do we understand that? Why fret over something that you think, well, that's just not just, I'm just not going to do that. Well, the Lord said, do it. And then he turned around and took care of it for us. He takes care of it.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 9.7, and I think that applies here too.

Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? And in that context, he's teaching about his servants. A workman is worthy of his hire, and the Lord has a million ways, that's an understatement, to provide that. We're not ever, not ever going to be the loser for serving the Lord and obeying Him. You're never going to be the loser.

And think here, and I'd love to dwell on that because it's so wonderful that the Lord just supplies our needs. I've told you many times, I don't want to be old and the Lord having taken care of me for 60 years, 65 years, 70 years, and me sit there wondering how I'm gonna pay my bills tomorrow, how am I gonna make it?

Same way I've been making it for 70 years, that's how I'm gonna make it. The Lord's gonna give me what I need. All these things will be added to you. Let this sink down into your ears. What's important is that Christ is our Savior, our Lord, He's our provider. He's our shepherd. He makes sure we have everything we need.

And seek Him and His kingdom first. Worship Him first. Serve Him first. Do kindnesses to His people because in doing so, He said, you're doing them unto Me. That's serving Him. Do that first and foremost. And all this other stuff that we worry about and get entangled in the world over will be added to us. Think about this. Think of who this is.

He told Simon to go cast a hook. I don't think it says there's even any bait on it. He just threw a hook in the water. And when a fish bites it, bring it in and look in its mouth. You think about what all had to happen for a piece of money to get in that fish's mouth. And that particular fish to be swimming around where Simon threw that hook. And for that fish to be hungry, And it wasn't even in the fish's stomach. He didn't even have to cut it open to get it. He just opened his mouth. There it was.

Do we know that God? Do we live every day understanding that by every available means to Him, which is everything, He provides our every need? He may not provide our wants, and we ought to be thankful for that, too. Just like when we were little kids. I'm glad I didn't get everything I wanted then. I'd have 18 ponies. But he gives us everything we need.

And you see the crazy... He could have just made it out of thin air, couldn't he? But he made Simon think about this. And Simon threw that hook in the water and the fish bit it. And he pulls it in and there's money in its mouth. That starts the wheels turning, doesn't it? How did that get there? How did that particular fish bite my hook? And he did it in such a way, Simon didn't have to work for it. Fishing's fun. Fishing with a hook, anyway, is fun.

He just gave it to him, and he gave it to him in such a way that Simon understood that this is God. This is God. God just gave me what I need, and if he didn't, I wouldn't have had it. Can we understand that? Can we see that in our lives? And think of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ to control all of that. Somebody dropped that money, I guess, in the water. It was shiny, and that fish thought, whoa, that looks good.

And he went after it. He thought it was a shad or something. And look, it doesn't even say. That man confronted him and said, doesn't your master pay taxes? And he said, yeah. Of course he did. He's not going to say no. He probably didn't know whether he did or not, you reckon, because the Lord explained it all to him after that. He said, oh yeah, oh yeah, we pay our tax. And then he went in there, and he never even broached the subject. And the Lord stopped him and said, what do you think, Simon? What do you think? Do they collect money of strangers or of their children?

He anticipated. He knew what was in Simon's heart. And then somehow, somebody lost a piece of money and it got into a fish's mouth. And the Lord directed that fish to Simon's hook. And we still serve this same God. He made the winds and the waves. He made the world. He made the fish and everything. And everybody obey his will.

They got a glimpse of that in that ship when they thought they were dead in that storm, and the Lord calmed the seas with a word. They said, what manner of man is this? We ought to be astonished every day and wonder that same thing when the Lord provides what we need.

Sovereign. He controls everything, every minute detail of every day. In Providence, He created everything, and He controls all of that He created, and He's sovereign in salvation. He's sovereign in salvation. So, so many lessons in that simple story about paying your taxes. Amazing. And then look at chapter 18. We'll spend just a couple of minutes in chapter 18, and then we'll break for a minute. But look at the beginning of chapter 18.

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them. and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, than that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Who is the greatest? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

In the book of Mark, there's a detail I want us to look at. Look at Mark 9.33 with me. Mark 9, 33. And the Lord came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked him, what was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way? What were you talking about? Here's the Son of God asking the question.

He never does that to get information. He does that to give information. But they held their peace. Nobody wanted to answer. They looked at each other. Nobody said anything. Why? For by the way, they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. They didn't want to answer because they knew. Think about that for a second. They knew this was evil. They knew this was bad. They knew better. And yet their pride, eventually they did ask him. Because of their pride. And you know what? We know better too, don't we? We know better than to think like that. We know better than to think we're anything. We know better than to compare ourselves among ourselves. What are we gonna talk about? Who's the slimmiest worm? Who's the most disgusting maggot among us? I think I can answer that. But why talk about that?

They knew this was stupid. They knew it was evil. They knew it was a horrible thing to be talking about. And so they didn't want to answer. And they thought maybe somehow for a little while they could hide it from him. Maybe they realized he knew what they were thinking anyway, finally. And so they just asked him. In our text, they asked him.

But we know better, too. But does that keep us from being proud? Does that keep us from being haughty, thinking too much of ourselves? Pride is the most insidious and integral part of our nature. And even when we show some humility or think we have, we'll be proud of that.

It's the very... I don't know if I'm saying this right or not, but we know that holiness is God's chief attribute, because God loves, but his love is holy love. God is good, but he's good in his holiness. Everything about him is holy. All of his other attributes have that that source from which they flow, his holiness, his wrath, his holy wrath, and his mercy, his holy mercy. I think this may be our chief attribute. What do you think? Pride.

What happened in the garden? What happened in the garden? All of our sin. You think about what David did with Bathsheba and to her husband. He's the king. He's waltzing around, you know, out on his balcony and he sees a beautiful woman. You think Brad had anything to do with that?

I'll take what I want. I'll take what I want. I believe this is our chief depravity. It's pride. We want money. The love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. You think about that. What does that have to do with pride, Chris? Well, we think we're God. And you know what, what gives us license more than anything in this world to act like God? Money. I can do what I want now. I got money. It's all pride. And we know better. As believers, we know better like they knew better. They didn't want to answer because they knew better. But it doesn't stop us. It doesn't stop our pride.

How can we love the truth of sovereign grace? that God had mercy on a wretched worm when he had mercy on me. And he did it not for any reason, he did it freely. He did it freely. Don't ever be confused about that. God's love to us was unconditional. We met no condition whatsoever in order to attract God's love. Absolutely none. And that's the way God chose to say it in the scriptures. I will love them freely without a cause. No reason in them for me to love them, but I loved them. I loved them. How can we understand that and yet still be proud?

How could Adam, God made him out of dirt and put him in, he created a paradise and prepared it for Adam and Eve. and made them out of dirt and put them in that paradise to enjoy all of his goodness. And yet pride rose up in their hearts because the one thing they could never have is the one thing they wanted. They wanted to be God. They wanted to call the shots. And that's the essence of false religion is it's up to you. That is the absolute essence of false religion. We call the shots. God's done some wonderful stuff, but it's all up to us.

That's what happened in the garden. And it's so insidious. And look, we see it best in others, don't we? I want us to make an effort to learn something, though. When we see somebody that's just always got to have their way, they've always got to have their way. It doesn't matter what it is, big things, little things, it's going to be their way or they're out. Or we see people... that put other people down.

You know why you put other people down? And we do it jokingly sometimes. Look, I've told you before, you guys make fun of me. I make fun of you, too, when you're not around. That's fine. It's not about that. That's just part of that's just entertainment, OK? But when you're really putting somebody down, you know why you're doing that? Because you're better than them. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel good to do that because you're not like that. Pride, it's all pride. And we know better.

And yet, there it is, and that's our nature since the garden. Adam wanted to be God, even though he knew he was dirt. He was a sophisticated, complicated pile of dirt, is what he was. And he thought he could be God. And in Adam's sons and daughters, you see it, don't you?

But here's the question, do you see it in yourself? Can we possibly be self-aware by the grace of God enough that when we do that, when we get our feelings hurt, when we don't get our way, when we, you know, really put somebody down, you know? Can we see it in ourselves? Can we be self-aware enough to say and hate ourselves for it? Hate ourselves for it. That's grace now. It's not going to happen without grace. Let's ask for it.

Who Is the Greatest?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about Jesus paying taxes?

How do we know that God provides for our needs?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How do we understand God's sovereignty and providence in our lives?

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Who Is the Greatest?

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about Jesus paying taxes?

How do we know that God provides for our needs?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How do we understand God's sovereignty and providence in our lives?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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