Bulletins - New Life Church of the Nazarene Boswell

Rejoice, the Lord Is King
- - Exodus 33:12–23NKJV
Open My Eyes, that I May See
- - 1 Thessalonians 1:1–10NKJV
Make Me a Servant
Matthew 22:15–22 NKJV
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17 Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19 Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. 20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.
Whose Image Do You Bear?
Have you ever noticed how many people and things seem to have a claim on your life?
Your employer wants your time. Your family needs your attention. The electric company wants your money. The government wants its taxes. And if you have a cell phone, there's probably somebody trying to reach you right now who wants something from you.
Sometimes it feels as though everybody wants a piece of us.
And most of those claims aren't necessarily wrong. We have responsibilities. We have bills to pay, families to care for, jobs to do, and obligations to fulfill. That's simply part of living in this world.
But every once in a while, those responsibilities raise a more important question.
Who really has the right to tell me how to live?
We live in a world where people are constantly trying to shape what we believe, what we value, and how we see ourselves.
Advertisers tell us what we need to be happy. Social media tells us what success should look like. Political parties want our loyalty. Our culture tells us which opinions we ought to hold and which values we should embrace.
And somewhere in the middle of all those voices, Jesus calls us to follow Him.
Now, we might be tempted to think that following Jesus is simply another responsibility to add to an already crowded life. We go to work, take care of our families, pay our bills, and make sure we leave a little room for God along the way.
But what if that's not how Jesus sees it?
What if God isn't asking us to find a little room for Him among all the other things competing for our attention?
What if He has a claim on our entire lives?
We've been walking through a series called The Coming King, looking at the authority of Jesus and what it means to live as citizens of His Kingdom.
We've heard Jesus challenge the religious leaders about producing the fruit of God's Kingdom. Last week, we heard His invitation to the wedding feast, reminding us that the King's invitation calls for a genuine response.
And now, in Matthew 22, those same religious leaders are trying to turn the tables on Jesus.
They're tired of being challenged. They're tired of having their authority questioned. And they've decided it's time to put Jesus in a position where He can't possibly give the right answer.
So they come to Him with a question about taxes.
Now, I realize taxes might not sound like the most exciting subject for a Sunday morning sermon. Most of us would probably prefer to leave that conversation until April.
But this isn't really a sermon about taxes.
It's about allegiance. It's about identity. And ultimately, it's about who has the rightful claim over our lives.
Because in answering a question about a Roman coin, Jesus gives us an answer that reaches far beyond money.
And it begins with a group of people who thought they could trap Jesus with a question.
The World Wants to Claim You
Matthew 22:15–17
Matthew tells us that the Pharisees went away and plotted how they might entangle Jesus in His words.
They weren't coming because they genuinely wanted to understand God's will. They were looking for a way to use His own words against Him.
And to accomplish that, they formed a rather unusual alliance.
The Pharisees sent some of their disciples along with the Herodians to confront Jesus.
Now, under ordinary circumstances, these two groups weren't exactly friends.
The Pharisees were deeply concerned about Jewish religious identity and faithfulness to the Law. Many resented Roman occupation and the burdens it placed upon their people.
The Herodians, on the other hand, were associated with the political interests of Herod's ruling dynasty, which depended upon Roman power.
They had very different priorities. But they shared one thing in common: they saw Jesus as a threat.
Isn't it interesting how people who disagree about almost everything can suddenly find common ground when there's somebody they both want to get rid of?
And so they approach Jesus with what sounds like a compliment.
"Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men." (Matthew 22:16, NKJV)
There's something almost ironic about those words.
What they say about Jesus is true. He does teach God's truth. He isn't swayed by people's positions or reputations. He doesn't change His message to win the approval of the crowd.
But they're not saying these things because they believe in Him.
They're using the truth as a tool for deception.
Then comes the question:
"Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" (Matthew 22:17, NKJV)
And there it is.
The trap.
If Jesus says they shouldn't pay the tax, His enemies could accuse Him of encouraging rebellion against Rome.
But if He says they should pay it, He risks alienating those who resent Roman rule and see the tax as a painful reminder of their nation's subjection.
Either answer appears to put Him in trouble.
At least, that's what they think.
But notice what they're really trying to do.
They're trying to force Jesus into the categories they've already established. They want Him to choose between the competing loyalties of their world.
And I wonder how often we try to do something similar.
We may not come to Jesus with a question about Roman taxes, but we sometimes approach Him with our minds already made up.
We have our opinions, our priorities, our loyalties, and our understanding of how the world ought to work.
And then we look to Jesus to confirm what we've already decided.
We want Him to agree with our politics. We want Him to support our priorities. We want Him to bless the choices we've already made.
But following Jesus doesn't mean inviting Him to take our side.
It means surrendering ourselves to His authority, even when His truth challenges the side we've chosen.
Now, don't misunderstand me. Christians have responsibilities as citizens. We should care about our communities, seek justice, and take seriously the decisions that affect our neighbors.
But none of those responsibilities can take the place of our first allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Our political identity cannot become more important than our identity as His disciples.
Our cultural preferences cannot become the standard by which we judge His teachings.
And our personal convictions, no matter how strongly we hold them, must remain open to correction by the Word of God.
Because Jesus didn't come to be recruited into somebody else's kingdom.
He came announcing the Kingdom of God.
And His Kingdom doesn't simply reinforce all the divisions and loyalties we've created for ourselves. It calls us to examine them in the light of His truth.
So perhaps the first question we need to ask ourselves this morning is not whether Jesus agrees with us.
Perhaps it's whether we're willing to let Jesus disagree with us.
Are we willing to hear Him when His Word challenges something we've believed for years?
Are we willing to obey Him when obedience costs us the approval of people whose opinions matter to us?
Because the world will always have something it wants from us.
It will always offer us another identity, another cause, another reason to divide ourselves from those who see things differently.
But Jesus calls us to something greater.
He calls us to belong to Him.
And what happens next in this conversation reveals just how much that belonging means.
The religious leaders have asked Jesus whose authority they should recognize when it comes to paying taxes.
But Jesus is about to turn their attention toward something they hadn't considered.
God Has Already Marked You as His Own
Matthew 22:18–21a
Matthew tells us that Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?" (Matthew 22:18, NKJV).
Jesus sees right through their flattering words. He knows exactly what they're trying to accomplish.
And rather than allowing them to control the conversation, Jesus asks them to do something very simple.
"Show Me the tax money."
So they bring Him a denarius, a Roman coin commonly used to pay the tax.
And Jesus asks, "Whose image and inscription is this?"
They answer, "Caesar's."
Now, that might seem like an obvious question with an equally obvious answer. After all, the emperor's image was right there on the coin.
But Jesus is doing something important.
He's drawing their attention to the image.
That coin carried the likeness of the Roman emperor. It represented the authority of the government that issued it.
But I want us to think about that question for a moment.
"Whose image is this?"
Because while Jesus is speaking about a coin, those words invite us to consider something much greater.
If we go all the way back to the opening chapter of Genesis, we discover that God created something that bears His image.
Not a coin.
Not a building.
Not a monument made of stone.
He created human beings.
Genesis 1:27 tells us:
"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
Think about what that means.
Before you ever accomplished anything, before you earned your first paycheck, before you made your first mistake, before anybody decided whether you were important or insignificant, you were created with a dignity that comes from God Himself.
Your value doesn't come from your income, your education, your appearance, or the approval of other people.
It comes from the One who made you.
And that is true of every person we encounter.
It's true of the people we love, and it's true of the people we struggle to love.
It's true of the person who agrees with us, and it's true of the person whose opinions make absolutely no sense to us.
Every human being bears the image of God.
And that ought to change the way we look at people.
It's difficult to treat someone as worthless when we remember that they were created in God's image.
It's difficult to justify cruelty, contempt, or indifference when we recognize that the person standing before us has been given dignity by the same Creator who made us.
But there's another side to this truth.
Being created in God's image doesn't mean that everything about us perfectly reflects His character.
We know that isn't true.
Sin has entered the world, and sin has affected every part of human life. Our desires become disordered. Our relationships become broken. Our hearts become divided.
Sin hasn't erased God's image from humanity, but it has distorted the way we reflect His holiness and love.
And yet, here's the wonderful news of the gospel.
God has not abandoned His purpose for the people He created in His image.
Through Jesus Christ, God is at work restoring what sin has damaged.
Paul writes in Colossians 3:10 about putting on the new person, "who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him."
That word renewed is important.
God isn't simply interested in making us a little more respectable. He isn't merely trying to improve our behavior enough that we can get along with other people.
He wants to renew us from the inside out.
He wants our thoughts, our desires, our attitudes, and our relationships to increasingly reflect the character of Jesus Christ.
And that's where this passage connects with what we believe about holiness.
In the Wesleyan tradition, we understand that God's saving grace does more than pardon our sins.
Certainly, forgiveness is essential. We cannot save ourselves, and we desperately need the mercy that comes through Jesus Christ.
But God's work doesn't end with forgiveness.
The same grace that brings us into a right relationship with God also begins transforming the way we live.
God created us in His image, and through Christ He is renewing us in His likeness.
Now, bring that back to the coin Jesus was holding.
The image on that coin identified the emperor whose authority it represented.
But the image of God upon humanity points us toward something infinitely greater.
We were created by God, for God, and to live in relationship with Him.
So the question isn't simply whether we were created in God's image.
We were.
The deeper question is whether we're allowing God's grace to shape the way that image is reflected through our lives.
When people encounter us, do they see something of the patience of Christ?
When we're mistreated, do our responses reveal His mercy?
When we disagree with someone, does the way we speak reflect His love?
Those aren't questions meant to leave us discouraged or defeated.
They're invitations to allow the Holy Spirit to continue His transforming work within us.
Because holiness isn't about putting on a religious appearance.
It's about becoming, by the grace of God, the people He created and redeemed us to be.
And that brings us to the most important part of Jesus' answer.
He has asked whose image appears on the coin.
They have answered, "Caesar's."
And now Jesus says:
"Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21, NKJV)
We understand the first part easily enough.
But what about the second?
If Caesar's image is on the coin, and God's image is upon us, then what does it mean to give God the things that belong to Him?
The Life That Bears His Image Belongs to Him
Matthew 22:21b
I wonder if the people standing there that day realized just how much Jesus had said in that one sentence.
They had come asking about a tax. They wanted to know whether they were obligated to give some of their money to the Roman government.
And Jesus answered their question.
But He didn't stop there.
He reminded them that Caesar wasn't the only one with a rightful claim.
There was someone greater than Caesar.
There was God.
And while Caesar might have a legitimate claim upon some of their money, God's claim reached much further.
Now, Jesus doesn't explicitly say, "Because you bear God's image, you belong to Him." But when we read His words alongside what Scripture teaches about creation, we begin to recognize the significance of His answer.
The coin bore Caesar's image.
But the people holding that coin bore the image of God.
And that brings us to a question that is much more personal than whether we ought to pay our taxes.
What does it mean to give God what belongs to God?
For many people, the first thing that comes to mind is money.
We think about tithes and offerings. We think about supporting the work of the church. And certainly, how we use our financial resources is part of our responsibility before God.
But if we stop there, we've missed something important.
Because God isn't simply asking for a portion of our income.
He's calling for our entire lives.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 12:1:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."
Notice that Paul doesn't say to present a portion of your life.
He says to present yourselves.
Your whole life.
Your thoughts. Your desires. Your relationships. Your ambitions. Your time. Your resources. Your plans for the future.
Everything.
And notice something else. Paul says we offer ourselves by the mercies of God.
In other words, this isn't an attempt to earn God's acceptance. It's our response to the grace we've already received.
We don't surrender ourselves to God so that He might finally decide to love us.
We surrender ourselves because He has already demonstrated His love through Jesus Christ.
And that's an important distinction.
Sometimes we approach our relationship with God as though we're negotiating a contract.
We decide which parts of our lives we're willing to give Him and which parts we'd prefer to keep for ourselves.
We might say, "Lord, You can have my Sunday mornings, but I want to make my own decisions about the rest of the week."
Or, "Lord, I'll trust You with my salvation, but I'm going to handle my finances my own way."
Or perhaps, "Lord, I'll serve You, but there's one relationship where I'm not willing to forgive."
We may never say those things out loud.
But sometimes our choices reveal that we've drawn boundaries around the places where we're willing to let God lead.
And here's the problem with that approach.
We cannot surrender our lives to Christ while insisting that certain parts of those lives remain beyond His authority.
That's not what it means to follow the King.
Jesus doesn't come asking to be one influence among many.
He comes as Lord.
And if He is Lord, then His authority extends to every part of our lives.
Now, I realize that the word surrender can make some people uncomfortable.
We tend to associate surrender with defeat. It sounds like giving up, losing control, or having something taken away from us.
But surrendering to Jesus isn't the same as surrendering to an enemy.
We're surrendering to the One who loves us enough to give His life for us.
We're placing ourselves in the hands of the Savior who knows us completely and loves us faithfully.
And the wonderful thing about surrendering ourselves to Christ is that we don't lose the life we were created to live.
We begin to discover it.
Remember what Jesus said earlier in Matthew's Gospel?
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:25, NKJV)
That's the beautiful paradox of discipleship.
The more tightly we cling to control, the more we struggle against the life God wants to give us.
But when we surrender ourselves to Him, His grace begins freeing us from the things that have held us captive.
From selfish ambition.
From bitterness.
From pride.
From the constant need to have our own way.
And from the divided loyalties that keep us from loving God with our whole hearts.
This is where the message of holiness becomes so important.
God doesn't call us to wholehearted surrender and then leave us to accomplish it through our own determination.
He gives us His Holy Spirit.
From the moment we come to Christ, the Spirit begins His sanctifying work within us, shaping our desires and teaching us to walk in obedience.
But Scripture also calls believers to something deeper than a lifelong struggle to keep our sinful desires under control.
God calls us to be holy.
And in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, we believe that God's grace makes entire sanctification possible.
Entire sanctification is a definite work of God's grace, received through faith, in which the Holy Spirit cleanses the believer's heart from inward sin and fills it with the perfect love of God.
It isn't something we accomplish by trying harder or gradually earning our way into holiness.
It's God's work.
Our part is to respond in faith, surrendering ourselves completely to Him.
And that doesn't mean we suddenly become incapable of making mistakes. It doesn't mean we know everything or no longer need to grow.
It means that our hearts can be brought into wholehearted love for God, even as we continue growing in wisdom, maturity, and Christlike character.
That's what makes entire sanctification such a wonderful expression of God's grace.
It's not about becoming spiritually impressive.
It's not about reaching a point where we no longer need God's help.
It's about allowing God to have our hearts without reservation.
And that love becomes visible in ordinary places.
It shows up in the way we speak to our spouse when we're frustrated.
It shows up in the patience we demonstrate toward our children.
It shows up in the way we treat a coworker who gets on our nerves.
It shows up in our willingness to forgive someone who has hurt us.
Those are the places where our surrender to Christ becomes more than something we talk about on Sunday morning.
Those are the places where His likeness begins to shine through our lives.
Because a holy life isn't merely a life that avoids certain sins.
A holy life is a life increasingly shaped by the love of Jesus Christ.
And that brings us back to the question Jesus asked.
"Whose image is this?"
When He asked that question about the coin, the answer was obvious.
Caesar's image was stamped right there on its surface.
But what about us?
We were created in the image of God.
And if we've placed our faith in Jesus Christ, His Spirit is at work renewing us in His likeness.
So when people look at the way we live, what do they see?
Do they see people whose lives are shaped primarily by fear, anger, resentment, and the demands of the world around them?
Or do they see something of the character of Jesus?
Not perfection in the sense of never making a mistake.
But genuine love.
A growing patience.
A willingness to forgive.
A heart that desires to please God more than to impress other people.
Because that's what God desires to produce in us.
And that's what happens when we stop trying to give God just another piece of our lives and begin surrendering ourselves completely to Him.
The religious leaders wanted Jesus to tell them how much they owed Caesar.
But Jesus' answer directs our attention toward a much greater obligation.
The God whose image we bear is worthy of our whole lives.
And the wonderful news is that the God who calls us to surrender is also the God whose grace makes that surrender possible.
He doesn't merely claim our lives. He offers to transform them.
Whose Image Does the World See?
Matthew tells us that when the religious leaders heard Jesus' answer, they marveled. Then they left Him and went their way.
They came looking for a way to silence Jesus.
Instead, they walked away amazed by His wisdom.
But I wonder if any of them stopped to consider the deeper implications of what He had said.
Because the coin wasn't the only thing in that conversation bearing an image.
Every person standing there had been created in the image of God.
Even the people trying to trap Jesus.
And so have we.
You may have walked into church this morning carrying all kinds of concerns.
Maybe you're worried about your family. Maybe you're struggling with something at work. Maybe you're facing decisions you don't know how to make.
Or perhaps you've been wrestling with something in your relationship with God.
You've been trying to follow Jesus, but there are areas of your life where you still want to remain in control.
And somewhere along the way, you've begun treating your relationship with God as though it's another obligation competing for your attention.
Something else to fit into an already crowded schedule.
But I want you to hear something this morning.
God doesn't want to be another item on your list of responsibilities. He wants to be the Lord of your life.
Not because He's trying to take something good away from you.
But because He loves you.
Because He created you for fellowship with Him.
And because He knows that the life you were created to live can only be fully realized as you walk in relationship with Him.
Jesus didn't come simply to tell us how badly we've failed to reflect God's character.
He came to save us from sin and make us new.
He died for us. He rose again. And through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, He continues His transforming work in those who trust Him.
Maybe that's where you are this morning.
You know Jesus as your Savior. You know your sins have been forgiven.
But as you've listened today, the Holy Spirit has been showing you an area of your life that you've been reluctant to surrender.
Perhaps it's an attitude you've been holding on to.
Perhaps it's bitterness toward someone who hurt you.
Perhaps it's a desire to control your own future rather than trusting God with what comes next.
Or maybe you've simply realized that you've been giving God portions of your life when He's been calling you to give Him your whole heart.
You don't have to leave here carrying that same struggle.
The God who calls you to holiness is the God who provides the grace to make you holy.
You can come to Him in faith, surrendering yourself without reservation, and trust the Holy Spirit to do what you cannot accomplish through your own strength.
And for those who have already made that wholehearted surrender, the invitation remains to keep growing in grace.
Keep allowing the Spirit to shape your attitudes, your words, your relationships, and your responses to the people around you.
Because the world desperately needs to see what the love of Jesus looks like when it's lived out through ordinary people.
So let me leave you with the question Jesus asked that day.
"Whose image is this?"
The coin bore Caesar's image.
You bear the image of God.
But here's the question I want you to carry into this coming week:
When the people around you look at your life, whose likeness do they see?
Do they see a life shaped primarily by the demands and loyalties of this world?
Or are they beginning to see the character of Jesus Christ reflected in you?
My prayer is that we would be a people who don't simply claim to belong to Jesus, but whose lives increasingly reveal that we belong to Him.
Not because we've learned how to appear more religious.
Not because we've somehow managed to make ourselves holy.
But because we've surrendered ourselves to the One whose image we bear, and His grace is transforming us into the likeness of His Son.
The coin belonged to Caesar.
But our lives belong to God.
And there is no better place for them to be.
- - Matthew 22:15–22NKJV

Exodus 33:12–23NKJV

1 Thessalonians 1:1–10NKJV

Whose Image Do You Bear?

The World Wants to Claim You

God Has Already Marked You as His Own

The Life That Bears His Image Belongs to Him

Whose Image Does the World See?

Matthew 22:15–22NKJV