In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Ransom for the Soul,' he explores Matthew 17:22-27, where Jesus foretells his betrayal, death, and resurrection, and the narrative of Jesus paying the temple tax. Brown argues that these two parts, though seemingly disconnected, complement each other to highlight Jesus' mission of atonement and ransom. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus' crucifixion was a divine plan to atone for humanity's sins, fulfilling prophecies and illustrating the necessity of sacrifice. By submitting to the temple tax, Jesus sets a precedent for Christians to fulfill obligations even if they seem unwarranted, underscoring obedience and humility. Brown reflects on the broader implications of Jesus' actions, encouraging believers to understand their dual citizenship in heaven and on earth and to see taxes as a metaphor for spiritual obligations. The sermon concludes with an emphasis on the significance of Jesus' sacrificial death and triumph over death, underscoring the transformative power of the Gospel.

Matthew 17, 22 through 27. Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and the third day he will be raised up. And they were exceedingly sorrowful. When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, Does your teacher not pay the temple tax? He said, Yes.

And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes? From their sons, or from strangers? Peter said to him, from strangers. Jesus said to him, then the sons are free.

Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and you. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that it is sufficient.

We thank you that you have given it to us for instruction. Lord, I pray that you would teach us from your word today, that you would change us, correct us. Lord, I pray for Scott as he brings your words, that he would boldly speak what you have placed before Him, that we would learn these lessons that you have for us. In Jesus' name, Amen. This passage, Matthew 17, 22 to 27, gives us two, what are on the surface, really disconnected stories.

And yet, I think that they're not disconnected at all, but rather they're meant to be taken to compliment one another and support one another and really say the same thing. And, you know, when you think about the Gospel writers, you have to think clearly about what each of them are doing. They have...they're speaking to particular audiences and they have a particular message that they are driving home throughout that Gospel. And Matthew includes a story that none of the other Gospel writers report. They knew about it.

Well, we know that if everything that Jesus said was written down, all the books of the world couldn't contain them. So Matthew includes something here that none of the other writers include and it's a beautiful story. You know, how do you capture the meaning of these two things held together in this passage? And all I can think of and all I've been able to think of the last few days, is that it's just captured in the words of a hymn. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain and he washed me white as snow. And so, there are two parts here, as you can see in the outlines that you have. The first is a declaration of his betrayal and death and resurrection. And the second is this illustration of the temple tax. And you might be able to understand these at least the way that I'm seeing them here now.

The first section is really where the Lord is saying that something is going to be done to him. The Father is going to crush the Son of God. He's going to be delivered into the hands of others. Something is going to happen to him. And that has to do with Jesus paying it all.

And then secondly, in the second part, with the whole story of the temple tax and the fish, he did something. He paid a ransom. So I think in these two sections, something is done to him to atone for the sins of the world who would repent and believe in the gospel. And then secondly, that he does something. He pays a ransom price for his bride.

And so Matthew here, His purpose is to declare that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is the one of whom the prophets spoke and He is here with us now. That's Matthew's whole thing. So Matthew is constantly, you know, harkening back to the Old Testament to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And so let's take this first section here in verses 22 and 23 where here something happens to the Son of God.

And this is a, in one way it's a prophecy of his betrayal and death and resurrection, but it's also, I think, it's instruction. The Lord is preaching the gospel, his own gospel to his own disciples there. And It begins with, now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and the third day he will be raised up. And they were exceedingly sorrowful. So the first thing we notice here is where they are.

They were staying in Galilee, and the Lord now has His face set toward Jerusalem in order to suffer and die there. And Here in this last part of his ministry, the last few months, he's spending most of his time with his disciples. As we've noticed, he's spent lots of his time with the multitudes up until now. But there's this increasing focus on his own disciples. He's a good shepherd and he is with his little flock here and some have called this the ministry of retirement, this section of Jesus life.

And of course it wasn't retirement the way that we think of it. He was retiring to the lonely places. He was in houses in intimate conversation with his disciples very personally. And so the language here indicates that they were moving about together. So as you know the Twelve have been out in the cities, They've been healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons.

But now they seem to be together, and they're the construction of the language that they're kind of moving about together as a collected body. And what we find here is really a mission statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's very deliberate in carrying out the will of his Father. And he states the will of his Father here in this section. This is the second time that he's told his disciples of his death.

He'll say it again later on. But this is the second time. The first time wasn't met with all that great of a response. Peter said, no, Lord, and the Lord said, get behind me, Satan, because it was Satan's plan to stop him from going to the cross, and it was God's plan to put him on the cross. And so he identifies himself as the Son of Man, which we've unpacked that statement a number of times, and then He speaks about his betrayal or his being delivered over to the authority of another.

The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. And this whole idea of being delivered over or being betrayed is the issue. Delivering over is really a better rendering of this word. It has to do with handing one person over into the authority of another. Which was an amazing thing to think about for a Jew hearing this because it was a capital crime For a Jew to be handed over to a Gentile if a Jew betrayed a one of his fellow Jews and delivered him over to a Gentile, he would be killed.

Which is amazing because this is exactly what the Jews are going to do. They're going to break their own tradition, and they're going to take a Jew and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be killed. And the Lord is revealing this idea here. So it was forbidden for this to happen. And while on the one hand, you know, he is laying down his life, Here the language makes it very clear that his father is doing these things to him.

He says, I lay my life down for the sheep. Well that's one side of the story. But the Lord is giving the other side here in this passage of Scripture. He is being delivered. He is being betrayed in that sense.

And this idea is used a number of times, the Jews handing him over to Pilate, the same word is used, Pilate delivering him over to the will of the people, the soldiers delivering him up to execution. This same word is used consistently throughout the whole exposure of the suffering and the death of Jesus Christ. And here, God the Father is turning His Son over into the hands of men. And it was done to Him. These are a passive verb.

And these are passive verbs. Something is being done to the Son of God and God is doing these things to him. He is being delivered over into his hands, into the hands of the Gentiles, into the hands of those who would kill him. And it's consistent with Romans 8, 32. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." So here Paul is saying that it was the Father that delivered up the Son for us all.

In Romans 4-5 we read that He was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. So the fact that God the Father is delivering His Son, it has a purpose. And the purpose is to deal with our offenses. God is doing something to His Son for His sons. And that's why in Acts chapter 2, when Peter is speaking, he says that he was delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.

Then he says, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put him to death. Here in Acts 2-23, you have These two things sitting in the same sentence where God is delivering His Son on the one hand and the Son is laying His life down and the people are delivering Him over. All of this is happening at one time. And it's not contradictory. This is the way that God had ordained it to take place.

And Jesus will give greater detail about how all of this will happen. Again, the Lord is giving little bits of information to his disciples. He'll give more in Matthew chapter 20, verses 17 to 19. I'll just read it for you there. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem, and he took the 12 disciples aside by the road, by themselves again, and he says this, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes.

And they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify and the third day he will rise again." So there's this building instruction that Jesus is giving his disciples. He springs the news to Peter, then he gives it in a more intimate way here to his disciples, and then when they're walking actually to Jerusalem, Jesus gives them more detail about it. And when he does that, he brings all of the parties together in this whole idea that he was being delivered over. And then it says in verse 23, and they will kill him. They will kill him.

This is critical to what the Lord is trying to teach his disciples about what is happening. Now, here we are in a passage of scripture that speaks so clearly about the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And my prayer this week is that we would somehow sow glory in the death and the resurrection of Christ, that we would understand it better in our minds, but that our hearts would be so much more gripped by it as we consider it. So consider these five words, and they will kill him. Consider that.

What in the world? This is why Peter responded so negatively. And this whole idea of the death of Christ carries with it many, many important things for us to understand. What does it mean that He would die? And it means many things, and I want to talk about several of them in just a minute.

But here's one thing that it means overwhelmingly, and that is the death of Christ. It's the death of death. That's what it is. This is so significant here, what he is saying, and they will kill him. And this whole matter of the death of Christ is really the center of the Gospel.

Here we find ourselves on ground zero of the Gospel, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's why Timothy said it this way in 1 Timothy 1, 8-10, he said, Jesus, who has destroyed death, brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. So the disciples didn't understand how encouraged they should have been to hear this, that he was bringing to the end death. Death would be put to death. Your death, my death.

The death that we deserve for our sins. This is so significant. And Isaiah 53 says that it pleased the Father to put him to death. This was something that was pleasing to the father, to alienate his son, so that he might buy back a bride for himself through his death. And so Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He has put him to grief. This grief was laid upon the breast of the Son of God, so that He would have the grief and not you. And that's why Peter would later say in his epistle, it's the precious blood of Christ that was shed. And that's why the Apostle Paul said to the Galatians, God forbid that I should both accept in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin.

And so Christ is being killed. You know, Luther said of the death of Christ that we should think of it very personally and very practically. And he says, who killed Christ? The answer? You killed Christ.

And he said that when you think of his death, then when you see the nails driven through his hands, you should see yourself pounding those nails through his hands. When the thorns are piercing his brow, You should know that you deserve 100, 000 thorns on your head. He was taking in His death all the death that we owe. Jesus, He paid it all. And the Lord is speaking of His death as a payment.

That's why Paul would say to the Corinthians, for you are not your own, you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. We have to understand the death of Christ very personally in that sense. There are a number of things that we can learn from his death. I'll give you five.

There are probably 55 that we could do, but we'll do five. His sacrificial death meant to teach us how to love one another with God's love, Ephesians five, one, and two. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. His death was meant to incite love in His people. Secondly, wrath.

His sacrificial death is meant to teach us about the wrath of God and the propitiating of the anger of God toward our sin. Romans 3.23 makes this very clear, how God is angry over our sin and He does not shed your blood for your sin, He sheds the blood of His Son. And that God's anger, his wrath towards sin burns, and one's only hope is that someone would receive that anger into his being through death, as the Lord Jesus Christ did. The writer of Hebrews says, through death, that he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through the fear of death were all their lifetime in subject to bondage. So there's this death of death and the death of God's wrath upon the Christian.

And how do you grasp that? How do you understand, dear church, that the wrath of God has been diverted away from you? Can you somehow sense that in your soul? Can you somehow know that in your mind, that the wrath of God has been lifted because it was diverted to the Son of God. And because of that, you really have no reason to have wrath against your brother.

It also has to do with our offenses. It teaches us that he was delivered up for our offenses in Romans 4 24. He was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. It's also for newness of life, the sacrificial death is meant to teach us to walk in newness of life. Romans 6-3.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death." It's so appropriate that we're going to have a baptism today because this passage is about death. It's about the death and the resurrection that has resulted in a person's life from the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And He says, Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that this, our old man, was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. So the death of Christ has so many implications about everything in our lives. Even our new life. It's not just something that happened in a point of time, but it's something that should continue to feed us and fuel us and direct our lives, fill us with love, help us not to walk in death anymore, but to turn away from it in everything that we do, because it has to do with newness of life. And then he speaks of his resurrection, and the third day he will be raised up.

So here is a statement of this whole matter of the third day. Now, there is no prophecy, specifically, in the Old Testament that Jesus would be raised on the third day. At the same time, though, there were many Old Testament images that speak of this whole matter of the third day. And for example, when the Lord called Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son Isaac, His son was offered as a sacrifice on the third day. If you go to the story of the children of Israel being delivered out of Egypt, and after the deliverance, God calls Moses up to the mountain while the people wait below.

And when he came down from the mountain, God then came down from the mountain, or on the mountain, to make a covenant with his people. And he did it on the third day. When the Philistines were going out for war and David was with him, David was dismissed and he returned to his city to find that the city was raided and his wives and children were taken captives. And David went and pursued his enemy. He was fighting to go rescue his bride from the plunderers, and David returned to Ziklag on the third day.

The Lord declared to King Hezekiah that his life would end. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord. And Isaiah told Hezekiah that he would go up to the house of the Lord on the third day. The same thing happens with Hosea, where you read, after two days he will revive us, and on the third day he will raise us up. The same language is with Haman.

You have Jonah three days. In 1 Samuel 20, verses four and five, our family was reading this week that when David hid from Saul in the field, he hid there until the third day. So here the Lord Jesus is speaking of this whole matter, the third day. Now, Paul says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He arose again, and the third day according to the Scripture. Now, there's no specific prophecy in the Scripture about the third day.

But Paul says that Christ would rise on the third day according to the Scripture. What Scripture was that? These images that were strung out throughout the Old Testament so that when Peter heard it he would know exactly what he was talking about. Because Matthew is declaring that Jesus Christ is the prophesied Son of God. And he was, and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

So there is this pattern in Scripture that Jesus is speaking of here in this passage. And then the disciples' response, they were exceedingly sorrowful. And this was the emotional reaction of the disciples. Now, why were they so sorrowful? They should have been happy to hear this, right?

If they had understood the scriptures that God was going to smite His Son and raise Him up on the third day, if they had understood that, they probably wouldn't have been so sorrowful. Because It would have been apparent to them that by His stripes they would be healed, that He would be a sacrifice for their sins. They would have understood the freedom that they were about to experience after His death and resurrection. But they weren't happy, they were sorrowful. Now, it seems to me their sorrow was just a mix of misunderstanding and maybe even a rejection of the message that he was going to suffer and die.

That they were waiting for a physical kingdom. They wanted a Messiah who was going to conquer Rome. And dying was not consistent with conquering Rome. They had just been thinking on such a selfish human physical plane. They didn't understand that this was a spiritual kingdom quite well enough.

And Jesus now is telling them again that in his kingdom the king, the suffering servant will die. So they perhaps rejected the message, they didn't understand it, but they, I think they thought they were going to be the dominant ones and now, now Jesus saying he's going to die, how does, how does that fit in with any kind of dominance that they were hoping for? Because, you know, disciples tend to want to have an earthly kingdom and not a heavenly one. We prefer an earthly kingdom and not a heavenly one. Now Mark tells us that they were just afraid to ask about this.

They get, I just don't think they wanted to get all the details. It was just a little bit too scary. Have you ever been that way? You know, I hope I don't really understand this completely because it's a little scary if I understand it, then I have to do something about it. But the disciples were afraid to ask.

So in 22 and 23, our Lord foretells His sacrificial death on the cross. And he says that he will suffer and die and rise again. And the language is very clear that this is happening to him, that his father, that the authorities are delivering him up to other authorities. And they're working from the outside to make it happen. And that's why he says, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him on the third day he will be raised up.

Now before we close out this section, I just want us to linger for a moment on what Jesus Christ is saying to His disciples. And first of all, the Father is sovereignly ordaining that His Son will be taken and crucified so that the unrepentant sinner will not be betrayed and taken away and killed. He is standing as a substitute. And the Father is going to turn His face away from his son So that he doesn't turn his face away from you The father is going to kill his son so that he doesn't have to kill you he's putting a crown of thorns on his son's head and he bleeds so that all of your wrong thoughts aren't punished that way. His son is going to drink the cup of God's wrath so that you don't have to drink it at all.

So the Lord Jesus is laying His life down to pay what we owe. It's being done to Him by His Father, So the unrepentant sinner will be killed, he will be delivered over, he will bleed, he will have a crown of thorns smashed upon his head, and he will die. But the repentance sinner has all of this paid for him by Jesus Christ. The unrepentant has nothing with which to pay, but the repentance sinner has Jesus Christ who has paid. He was delivered over to pay a debt for mankind and it was a father's love that accomplished that.

So you know who will be betrayed and delivered up so that you would not be betrayed? The son of God. So then we turn to this next story which seems out of place on the surface but as I said before it's not out of place at all. Because Matthew, Matthew the tax collector, is now going to illustrate this. And He's going, I really marvel at this story, honestly.

I've thought a lot about it today. You know, what was the Lord Jesus thinking? He's going to send a fisherman who always uses nets with a hook and a fishing pole to go and catch a fish out of the Sea of Galilee and pay his taxes. What is that all about? I mean, is there a...

I think when the Lord sent Peter out to do this, was there this mischievous winsomeness about him to go and show him an illustration of something so grave and so important. And so when they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, Does your teacher not pay the double tax? He said yes. And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, What do you think, Simon? From Whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes?

From their sons or from strangers? So Peter said to him, from strangers. Jesus said to him, then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take a fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money.

Take that and give it to them for me and for you." So, the Lord here is giving this illustration, and Matthew is telling this story that no other gospel writer tells. Now, I think it was because he could really relate to this. He was a tax collector himself, you know, under the employment of the Romans. And now he's speaking of these Jews who are also collecting taxes. And so we have to recognize just the uniqueness of this story and how he does it in such a personal way.

And I think he does that because he's a tax collector himself. Now what kind of tax was this? Now there were two kinds of taxes. There were taxes of the Romans that were imposed by their government upon the Jewish establishment. And in Matthew 22, we get a sense of the Roman tax, and where the Pharisees are plotting how they might entangle Jesus.

And they sent their disciples with the Herodians saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God and you don't care about anyone for you to regard, you do not regard men. Tell us, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? And Jesus says, give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. In other words, yes, you should pay your taxes to Caesar. That's the Roman tax.

That's not this tax that Matthew is speaking of. This tax was a tax that the Jews had for one another and its roots are in Exodus chapter 30 and I'd like you to open up to Exodus chapter 30. It was a tax for the ransom of the soul and it was used for the maintenance of the sanctuary in the temple. And so if I wish we had time to really bear down on Exodus chapter 30, let me just tell you this. If you read Exodus 30, you will find many, many connections in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus' life and death and resurrection.

And it's so easy to find them. There's a burnt offering. There's blood. There is washing with water. There are spices of cassia and cinnamon and myrrh and frankincense.

There are all kinds of images in Exodus 30. The Lord Jesus is just dealing with one of those here. The whole matter of the temple tax. Of course Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of everything that was the temple. And so he is the fulfillment of everything in Exodus chapter 30.

And so this temple tax was spoken of here in Exodus 30 and the Jews continued with this tax. And It was so that the plague would be avoided. It was for the ransom of the soul. It was tax given once a year so that the service of the temple would go on. And the money would actually be a memorial.

The money was a memorial for the ransom of the soul. So when you when you took the money out and you gave it, the money itself was the memorial of the atonement that was necessary for your sins. And it's interesting, in the days of Nehemiah, the tax was reduced because people were so poor at that time. But citizens were obligated to pay the tax. Anyone who lived in a home for a year or more had to pay the tax.

And the Romans allowed the Jews to collect the tax and to go about and set up their own system. And Every adult male who was age 20 and above paid this tax. It was his patriotic duty to do so. Miners, slaves, priests, and women were exempt from it. So were rabbis.

And Jesus was a rabbi. And it was a two drachma tax that was taken out of this fish's mouth and it paid for two people. It was the equivalent of a day's labor for someone. And the Lord was technically exempt from this tax. And it was collected in a really interesting way.

The Mishnah in chapter 1 on the Shekalim speaks about how it was collected. On the first of the month, there's an announcement that went out, you know, in all of Israel to pay the tax. On the 15th of the month, tables of money changers were set out in the provinces. So there would be money changers scattered about the region collecting this tax. You'd be walking from one place to another, and you'd be walking by a table.

They would rattle your chain till you come and pay the tax. And this is kind of a mild form of appeal here when they would finally set the tables out. But then when you get to the 20th of the month, lots of pressure increases and they're beginning to strongly urge the paying of the tax. And then on the 25th of the month, The tables are set up in the temple. It's being taken right there just to make sure everybody is paying it.

So if you didn't pay it, your property would be impounded. So you should pay the tax. This tax that Jesus was paying was the same kind of money that the money changers were dealing with in the temple. And the Lord Jesus is going to pay this tax, the same money changers, he turned the tables over because they're making the house of prayer a place of robbery and they were exchanging the coins and they were money changers were taking foreign coins and turning them into Jewish currency and they were selling all kinds of things as well. But the Lord, I just think it's interesting that the Lord Jesus is paying a tax that He took exception with.

He was also paying a tax for a temple that he was going to destroy. I think that's interesting too. Why is he taking this money that has been given to him throughout his life ever since he was 20 years old and paying the temple tax, even though he knows he's going to destroy the temple. Well now Peter here, Peter knew that Jesus paid his taxes. In verse 25, when The tax collector asked him if your teacher paid taxes.

He says yes, Jesus paid his taxes. Peter knew the practices of his master. He knew the mind of the Lord. He'd walked with him. And he understood what his spiritual father thought was right and what was wrong.

And he walked with him and understood that. And he was learning to think like his master. And because he was standing by his side. So Peter knows that Jesus pays his tax, and then they go into the house, and there's this conversation going on inside the house. And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him.

Jesus knew about the conversation. Jesus knows all of Peter's thoughts and all of his words. And we should just stop for a moment and recognize that. The Lord knows our thoughts and all of our words, and He is a witness to all of our conversations. And we should rejoice in that.

It should also terrify us. But here, we see an example of that happening. He knows our frame. He knows our very conversations. And then Peter asks a question.

Jesus asks Peter a question and he says, what do you think Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes? From their sons or from strangers. And Jesus, here by this whole conversation, just makes it clear that he does not need to pay taxes Because he is free under the requirements of this tax and you know the temple is called his house He is a rabbi You know he said something greater than the temple is here. Jesus does not need to pay this tax and Yet he pays it anyway And and this was this was a tax for atonement Why would the Son of God pay for atonement for himself?

Well, it makes no sense, but the Lord Jesus is going to pay the tax, and he gives a reason why. Verse 27. It's very clear why he paid the tax, lest we offend them. The Lord Jesus did not want to be a stench, he did not want to appear to be a law breaker, He did not want to be a person who appeared to despise the temple. I mean, he was the fulfillment of the temple, even though wrong things were going on there.

So he had many reasons for not giving this offering. And then the Lord does something to me that's so it's funny to me he says go to the sea and cast in a hook and take the fish that comes up first And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them or me." Now, you might think of how strange Peter must have thought about this. You know, Peter was a commercial fisherman. He knew how ridiculous it would be to try to think that you could find money in the mouth of a fish.

But here's something that Peter also knew. The Lord had done many, many blessed miracles for Peter and in front of Peter. Remember, he healed Peter's mother-in-law in his house. It might not have seemed so strange for him to walk down to the sea. He remembered, perhaps, what he had done, what the Lord Jesus had done with his mother-in-law.

One time the Lord asked him to cast his nets on the other side of the boat. This would happen later. He takes two fishes and five loaves, and he feeds 5, 000. He calls Peter out of a boat and he walks on water. The Lord has performed many miracles for Peter.

In Gethsemane, the Lord performs another miracle, I guess for Peter. Peter, in his rashness, in his peterness, he cuts off the ear of the high priest. And what does the Lord do? He puts his hand on his ear and he heals the wound. You know, later on when Peter would be found in prison, and he was in chains and the church is praying for him, his chains fall off and the Lord Jesus springs him from prison and he walks out.

Peter was going to have and would see many many miracles of Jesus on his behalf. So I don't know what Peter was thinking he'd already seen a lot of miracles that Jesus had done. Hey here's the question, How many miracles have you seen Jesus do? Well, I mean, you have them recorded here. But they seem strange for you to obey the Lord and take your fishing pole and a hook and walk down to the sea to pay your taxes.

But you know that your master is always right, and so you should obey him. And he's always good. And he may ask you to do something that seems so strange to you. It might seem so odd to your culture. It might make a commercial fisherman think you're ridiculous for doing it.

But it's the Lord who calls us to do these things. And I marvel at the things that are so countercultural that God calls us to do. God calls His people to do really different things. To live differently, to talk differently, to manage your schedule differently, to dress differently, to talk differently, to work differently, to be married differently, to have children and raise them differently. It's different than almost anybody else in the world, statistically.

And yet, we have to recognize that when we have a command of the Lord, even though it's so strange to the world, understand this, It's been issued by a miracle working Savior. So we learn here he controls the fish of the sea. We've seen that he has power over the weather, over demons, and now the fish swimming in the Sea of Galilee. It's such a beautiful picture. David says, when I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man, that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him.

For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. Here the Lord of glory is the Lord even of the fish of the sea.

And so the Lord pays for the atonement tax in the same way that Jesus Christ pays for our sins with his life. He pays for the atonement of our soul. In that sense, he is poor, yet making many rich. It's interesting this tax was replaced by the Romans. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD and the Jewish nation was eliminated.

Then the Romans picked this tax up, they kept it going, and the Emperor Vespasian decreed that Jews all over the Roman Empire would continue to pay this tax for the pagan temple Jupiter, Capitalinus. And so their money was being spent on something even worse after that. So what do we learn from all of this? Well, there's a lot. Let me just Begin with this.

Regarding taxes, we have a dual citizenship as Christians. We are citizens of heaven, and we're also members of the household of God. And we are obligated to pay various kinds of taxes and tributes in both of those kingdoms, regardless of how they're used. It's our duty. Romans 13 makes that very clear, that Christians are to be good citizens of their kingdoms and pay their taxes.

And I just want us to have a whole new view of our taxes these days. Taxes are a picture of the Gospel in this passage. At least the temple tax was. And so instead of loathing these taxes and gnashing our teeth, we ought to give thanks to God, who not only provided for us His sacrificed Son, He also supplied the memorial money in the temple through a fish as a sign of his abounding mercy and also his ability to provide. And this is a picture of the gospel.

And so I pray that the money that we give to our church is a memorial. We give it as a memorial to what he's done. The other thing that I want to mention here is that people are often obsessed with their rights. Their rights to pay or not to pay. The Lord Jesus gives us a different example.

He paid a tax that he didn't have to pay. J.C. Ryle said it may sound very fine and seem very heroic to always be standing out tenaciously for our rights, But there are occasions when it shows more grace in a Christian to submit than to resist. I think it also indicates that there's a principle for us that we should pay our taxes and our tithes even when they might be misused. They might be used for wrong purposes.

I don't know if you've ever known anyone, or maybe you're doing it now, or maybe you know somebody who's done it, where you quit paying your tithes because you're offended, because you're disturbed, disgusted with that ministry, the church that you're part of, and you quit paying because you no longer can support what's going on there. You're no longer comfortable with what's going on, so you stop paying. And you forget that actually the paying of tithes and offerings is also to put a drain plug on your greed so that you're a giving person. Now, the Lord Jesus gives us a pattern here. He is giving to a temple that's corrupt.

So we should be very, very careful when we withhold our tithes and offerings for purposes like that. And I want to say, I do believe that there are times when it's appropriate not to give to something that is really off course. I really do believe that it is appropriate not to give at particular times. But here there's a wicked excuse that men have often. And they withhold their gifts, they stop giving, because they're offended and they do not trust God with their mammon and they don't obey him with it.

So there are two parts to this text. One is that there is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father crushed. Something was done to him to atone for sins. And it would please his father to crush him. It pleased his father to lay the crown of thorns.

It pleased his father to pierce him for our iniquities. It pleased the father to kill him so that you would not be killed. It pleased the father to turn his face away from his son so that you would not have to experience a father turning his face away from you. And then secondly, that he did something. He paid a ransom.

Which is why I've been walking around singing, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, whereby thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb, and now complete in him my robe his righteousness, close sheltered neath his side, I am divinely blessed. Lord, now indeed I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart of stone.

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we rejoice in the cross that you hung your Son upon so that we might have life and might have it more abundantly.

Oh, Lord, we thank you for the cross and for the atoning sacrifice, for this ransom for our souls that you brought about through your song. Amen. Yourself. Amen.