have the right to collect taxes from the people.

Note: The word tribute means, “Money paid from one ruler or nation to another for protection from invasion; a tax levied for this; a tax paid by a vassal to an overlord; any forced payment” (Webster’s New World Dictionary).

In the Jew’s case, it was a forced payment to the Roman government which was ruling over them at the time. They wanted to get Jesus to criticize the Roman government so they could accuse Him before them.

Note: The 1980’s and 1990’s were a period of Patriot and Militia movements in the United States. Involved in some of those groups were tax evaders. They believed that the government did not have the right to charge taxes of its people, and many of them even used the Bible to try and prove their case. Jesus clearly says, “Pay the government the taxes that are due.”

Question: But what if the government is a corrupt government? Does that mean that we still have to pay taxes to such a system?

A. Does the government have the right to charge taxes of its people?

Note: To the above verses, some people say, “The Christians in Jesus’ day had to pay taxes, but our government today is wicked! If you pay taxes to our government, then you are supporting abortion, because part of your tax dollars pay for abortions. You are disobeying God and going against His Word if you support such wickedness!”

How do you answer such an accusation? The answer is not that difficult. Simply consider the government of Rome in Jesus’ day when this command was given. The Roman government was over Israel at the time. They allowed the Jews to govern themselves in little, everyday matters, but not in the larger decisions — like capital punishment.

Note: That was a very rude and vague reply to one who was just asking a question, and trying to do his job to see that justice was done in this situation.

    3. Pilate did not want to play their foolish game, so he told them in verse 31, “Take ye him, and judge him according to ________ law.”

Note: This shows that the Roman government let them take care of the lesser matters.

    4. But the Jews knew their limits under the Romans, so they were quick to point out to Pilate in the last half of that verse, “It is not ____________ for us to put any man to death.”

Note: They wanted the death penalty for Jesus, but they knew that the Romans would not allow them to administer it.

Note: Scourging is whipping a person. Jesus was totally innocent, but Pilate had Him whipped. Why? To try and appease the Jewish leaders. But was Pilate having second thoughts about Jesus’ innocence? Was Pilate beginning to think that maybe Jesus really was guilty? No.

Note: The pressure gets more fierce, and the Jews actually try and pressure Pilate that he is not being loyal to his own Roman government.

    8. John 19:12 says, “Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not _______________ friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.”

    9. After more pressure (John 19:16), Pilate gives in, “Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be __________________. And they took Jesus, and led him away.”

    10. It was the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. John 19:23 says, “Then the ________________, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part.”

Note: The religious tax evaders say, “If you pay taxes to a government that allows little babies to be put to death in the womb (abortion), then you are a murderer!”

and will eventually require bloodshed because of it.

    11. Numbers 35:33 says, “So ye shall not ______________ the land wherein ye are: for __________ it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.”

Note: But there is one thing even worse than shedding the blood of innocent babies — and that is SHEDDING THE BLOOD OF THE PERFECT, PRECIOUS SON OF GOD. But it was to this very government — the wicked Roman government that put Jesus to death, that Jesus made His statement that they were to pay what was due to the government.

    12. Acts 12:1, 2 says, “About that time Herod the ________ stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed __________ the brother of John with the sword.”

Note: Herod was the Roman king of that area, and he killed one of the apostles, but that was not all that he planned to do.

    13. Acts 12:3 says, “And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take __________ also.” He was planning to put him to death after Easter, according to verse 4.

Note: This does not mean that God always approves of a government’s decisions, as in the case with Pilate.

Note: They ALL SINNED in letting an innocent person die — the Jewish leaders, as well as the Roman leaders — but the GREATER SIN was on the part of the Jewish leaders who had the Word of God, and should have received Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.

Note: Some of the tax evaders claim that if we pay taxes, then we are no better than the the doctors and nurses who perform the abortions, or the German soldiers who obeyed Hitler and slaughtered the Jews. But from the above example, we see that that is a false accusation.

 

government does not make you a murderer because of

   20. It was to the wicked Roman government that the Christians in the churches were commanded, “Render therefore to all their dues: ______________ to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour” (Romans 13:7).

Note: So the answer is “Yes, God does expect a Christian to pay taxes — even to a wicked government.”

There has never been a more wicked government than Rome — the one that crucified the innocent Son of God, but Christians were told to even pay the taxes due to that wicked government.

1. According to Jesus, we are to “Render therefore unto ______________ the things that are Caesar’s; and unto ______ the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:18).

2. Jesus made it very clear — the government ________ have the right to collect taxes from the people.

3. The Jews knew their limits under the Romans, and so said, “It is not ____________ for us to put any man to death.”

4. Pilate was the official judge over Jesus’ trial, and his verdict in John 18:38 was, “I find in him ______ fault at all.”

5. It was the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. John 19:23 says,

“Then the ________________, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part.”

6. The point is this, How much more wicked could a government possibly be, than to put to death the totally ________________ and pure Son of God?

7. The religious tax evaders say, “If you pay taxes to a government that allows little babies to be put to death in the womb (abortion), then you are a ________________.”

8. But it was to this very government — the wicked Roman government that put Jesus to death, that Jesus made His statement that they were to ______ what was due to the government.

9. Some argue, “Well the Scripture ____________________ that Jesus had to die, so that does not count.”

10. But what about the other innocent people that the Roman government put to death later? Acts 12:1, 2 says, “About that time Herod the _________ stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed ____________ the brother of John with the sword.”

11. Government leaders will one day answer to ______ for how they have ruled.

12. A believer has to sometimes disobey a law of the government, if it would cause him to directly and ____________________ disobey a law of God.

13. An example of this was in Egypt, when the midwives were told in Exodus 1:15,16, “When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall ______ him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.”

14. “But the midwives feared God, and did ______ as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but saved the men children alive.”

15. Some of the tax evaders claim that if we pay taxes, then we are no better than the doctors and nurses who perform the abortions; or than the German soldiers who obeyed Hitler and slaughtered the Jews, but from the above example, we see that that is a ___________ accusation.

16. It was of the wicked Roman government that the Christians in the churches were commanded, “Render therefore to all their dues: ______________ to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom...” (Romans 13:7)