But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me?But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites?But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why make ye trial of me, ye hypocrites?
3 sermons cite this verse
… Jesus steps right into a trap that's been laid for him by his opponents, the Pharisees. And they try to trap him by asking a question about a topic that was no less controversial then than it is today. Let's listen for what it is. A reading from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Jesus in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you're true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you don't care about anyone's opinion, for you're not swayed by appearances. Tell us then what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax. And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. …
… try to do with Jesus in this moment. And I love what Jesus says. So it's a kind of a poison pill, but I love what Jesus says. He says, you hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax. They brought him a denarius and he asked them, whose image is this? And whose inscription? Caesar's, they replied. Then he said to them, so give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God, what is God's? All right. It's a really great statement he makes and it's hard to respond to that. I have a coin here, actually, one of the Roman denarii, from the time of Jesus. In fact, you can see it on the screen. There's an image, one. And on the front side is Tiberius Caesar, who is the emperor when Jesus is crucified. On the backside is the Roman goddess Pax for peace. She's the goddess of peace. And so whose image is on this? Well, the image on here is the emperor's. …
… then the Pharisees met together to find a way to trap Jesus in his words. Met together to find a way to trap Jesus in his words. All right, so at the end of the sermon, I'm gonna talk to you about a big announcement I made in my e-note this last Friday about possibly considering a run for the United States Senate from the state of Kansas. I'll talk more about that at the very end of my sermon today. But I've been learning things in the process. LaVonna and I have been discerning, talking. We've been talking to people and I'm learning stuff I'd never known about politics. So at one point, Somebody said to me a couple of weeks ago, well, if you finally announce that you're running, or maybe even when you announce that you're thinking about it, you're probably going to have a tracker assigned to you by the opposition. I'm like, what are you talking about? A tracker? You mean like a tracker? You mean like an air tag? Or is this something that's like on my phone? …