The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand—The Book of Matthew · Pastor Adam Wood · Matthew 17:24–27 · November 16, 2025

Transcript:
We're going to be in Matthew chapter 17 this morning. So if you'd get your Bible and go there together. Got some bad news though. We're going to be talking about taxes. Taxes this morning. Matthew chapter 17 verse 22. We'll begin reading verse 22 and go down to verse number 27. Matthew 17 verse 22. The Bible says, and while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. Now keep that in mind. We know that the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ would be betrayed into the hands of men. It says in verse 23, and they shall kill him. And the third day he shall be raised again. And we know that's his main goal. That's his mission. That's the primary purpose for which the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. He did not come into the world to start a religion. He didn't come into the world to teach a bunch of good things, although he did those things. He came into the world to save sinners. Now the next time he comes, it will not be to save sinners. It'll be to judge sinners. But he has come to save sinners and he died upon the cross to save sinners. That's the chief point. That's the reason he came. And that's an important point when we look at the following verses that we'll see in just a minute. Verse 23, it concludes and says, 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 sayeth, 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 sayeth unto him, of strangers. Jesus sayeth unto him, then are the children free? Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast and hook and 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. Would you pray with me this morning? Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the scriptures that have been written to help us to know you. Lord, thank you for the life of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, who was buried, rose again. And thank you for the good things that he did in his life. Lord, we're looking at this example where these people ask him about this tribute. We ask you to please teach us and help us to understand. Lord, what a great example that the Lord Jesus Christ has left us and has revealed to us a great truth about his priorities. Help us, Lord, to mimic those priorities in our own life. And have the right heart and mind toward people around us especially. Lord, you know what your people need this morning. You know the lesson that needs to be taught, the reminders that your people need. So Lord, I ask you by your spirit to please do the work that I certainly can't do, have no power to do. And you can meet the needs of each person here. Lord, our eyes are upon you. In Jesus' name, amen. Now you notice in verse number 24, it says, and when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, doth not your master pay tribute? And then in verse 25, the Lord Jesus mentions the kings of the earth taking custom or tribute. And so what we're talking about here is we're talking about what we would call taxes. Now the word tribute is used, but it's essentially a tax. And this is the only, this portion of scripture about the tax is only found in Matthew, which is interesting to me because even though this, all the narrative before this and after this is found in Mark and Luke, yet this part is the only part that's not mentioned in the other two. And that's interesting because Matthew was a tax collector. So Matthew was one who was familiar with this subject and was, this would have been something kind of near and dear to him at least in familiarity. But there's actually, when we look at verse 24 and verse 25, there's actually several things going on. And I want to point it out to you because it's important if we're gonna understand the whole of what Jesus is saying, we have to understand kind of the details in the background. Now in verse 24 it says, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, doth not your master pay tribute? And then in verse 25 again, there's a mention of the kings of the earth taking custom or tribute. Now the thing is that there are various words being used here to describe different kinds of taxes. The word, in our text we have the word custom, we have the word tribute in reference to the kings of the earth, but we also have this tribute in reference to these that came to receive it, right? In verse 24. Now just like we have in our day, and we so gleefully and gladly have, multiple layers of taxation, how many of you appreciate that? Say amen. See, I almost got you there. A few people let it slip out. Nobody appreciates taxes. And we know that there are many kinds of taxes, and I know this is true because when we were missionaries, sometimes we got into conversations about taxes, and so trying to explain to the foreigner, someone not from our country, what our tax situation is like, sometimes it's kind of difficult. You could say, well we have taxes, but that doesn't give you the whole picture, does it? Because you have federal income tax, and you have state income tax, and you have property taxes, and you have taxes about the roads, and you have taxes about, you have unemployment tax if you own a business, and you have duties, and excise taxes, and you can go on and on. I mean there's just so many, corporate tax and all these different, so you can't just say, well we have taxes, because there's so many different kinds, and it was true in this day as well. In this day, in these two verses, there's at least three different kinds of taxes being mentioned in these three verses. Look at verse 25 to begin. Verse 25 says, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? So that gives us a hint. These are taxes taken by the kings of the earth. In other words, these would be kind of like secular taxes. And the word custom and tribute are two different kinds. So custom would be something similar to like a sales tax, or a tax for someone traveling. This would be, we call it in our modern vernacular, the indirect taxes, right? That's what this is. And Rome, as the kingdom that ruled Israel at this time, Rome had these kinds of things. So if you travel from place to place, you might get stopped and have to pay a fee, pay a tax for your traveling. And if you, based upon the goods that you buy or sell, you might have to pay a custom on those taxes. That's one way they tax. And of course, that money went to some level of the Roman Empire. But you also have, in verse 25, in reference to the kings of the earth, a tribute, which is another kind of tax. And a tribute was what we would call a poll tax. This is the kind of tax that you would get, like we find in Luke chapter two, when Mary and Joseph went back to Bethlehem, so that they could be counted in the census, and they could be taxed based upon the counting. Their property would be assessed. It would be something like, I guess like property tax a little bit, but that would be per person. So it was a different kind of tax entirely. And so when you read it, sometimes you can miss that, but there's a little indication of what's happening here based upon the mention of the kings of the earth. So this would be what Rome did, which is also what we find in Luke chapter two. But then you go to verse 24. Verse 24 is a little bit different, even though the word tribute is used, which is just a tax, you know, so it doesn't really specify what kind of tax. But there's a hint in verse 24. Because it says, they that received tribute. Now our fr...