Image Is Everything

Luke chapter 20 verses 19 through 26. The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him that very hour, and they feared the people, but they understood that he spoke this parable against them. So they watched him, and since spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they might catch him in some statement, so that they could deliver him to the rule and the authority of the governor. A question to him saying, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God and truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But he detected their trickery and said to them, show me a denarius, whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said Caesar's, and he said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were unable to catch him in a saying in the presence of the people. And being amazed at his answer, they became silent word of our Lord. You know, it's kind of funny, the title for the message is image is everything because of the text and looking at the image of God and all, but the images that you normally find on the overhead, you won't see as far as an outline, and we've already read the text, so we won't read it again, we'll just look at it by way of review, Jesus, let me kind of even give you something more of the context as we look at what we had as our New Testament lesson. It comes during that time in Jesus' public ministry where he is entered into Jerusalem, they've celebrated Palm Sunday, and from the time of that Palm Sunday to the time of his crucifixion, there is conflict. And as I thought about it a little bit this morning, we might even say, it was Jesus's fault. I mean, this is what I mean. When he went into Jerusalem, okay, he wept over the city, that doesn't start a fight, but normally when you drive out those who are selling from the temple courts, it can cause a bit of a stir, and in that sense he was not afraid to enter into conflict. And there's another important point as we think about that. Here is the Lord of Glory, the sinless, blameless, innocent Lamb of God, and he's embroiled in conflict that will end with his death. No surprise there, really, this conflict started in that day when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and the conflict has been coming, and it was prophesied about the bruising of heel and crushing of head at that time. And we see that coming closer. It is a time of conflict in chapter 19 of Luke and verse 48, we're told that the chief priest and the scribes and leading men of the people were trying to destroy Jesus. The first verse we looked at in our reading this morning, the scribes and the chief priest tried to lay hands on him, that very hour, verse 20, they watched him, they sent spies to pretend to be righteous in order that they might catch him in a statement so that they could deliver him to the rule and authority of the governor, the Roman governor, and chapter 22 and verse 22, the chief priest and scribes were seeking how they might put him to death. There's just no doubt about it. There's a fight going on. There's a conflict happening, and that is the context of our text this morning. Another aspect of the context of what we're looking at is the aspect of authority. If you remember, after Jesus had driven out those who were selling in the temple, the next day, the temple authorities, the chief priest and rulers of God's people, came and said, by what authority are you doing these things? You remember Jesus said, let's talk about authority. Who authorized John's baptism, John's ministry? Was it from heaven? Did God say this should happen, or was it from man, and you remember, they didn't answer it, but if they had, Jesus could have said, well, John said, behold, the Lamb of God, he's the one on whom I saw the Holy Spirit descending in the image of a dove, and his authority would have been established that way. The next parable, the parable we looked at last week, the one that Jesus spoke against them, was about a landowner, the authority, who sends his son, an authority, and they kill him, and in our text today, they're looking for a way to trick him so that they can hand him over to the, there's our word, authority of the governor, and so that is still in light or in view. But the main point, the main point I want us to look at this morning, comes from Jesus's response to the question, should we pay taxes or not, when he says in verse 24, show me a denarius whose likeness and inscription does it have, they said Caesars, and then he said verse 25, then rendered to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God, the things that are gods. After talking about the likeness and inscription of the denarius, he then says, okay, so Caesar gets his due, but rendered to God, what is due to God, and that is a command. And so our first point this morning, and really the focus that we want to bring to this text is from that, the first point is, no who you are. Jesus is bringing this about, it's an amazing teaching, really when we think about it, he's asked a trick question, and the trick question, if he's not careful, we'll get him into some trouble, they want to hand him over to the governor, I suppose that means they expected him to say, don't pay taxes, here he is, he claims to be the Messiah, to stir up God's people, to revolt, they have the same mistaken idea of the Messiah of God, they don't believe he is the Messiah, but they know that he believes he's the Messiah. And they expect that kind of answer, but he's trapped either way, even if he chickens out and says, oh, you shouldn't pay taxes, you know, and placate if you will, the Jewish crowd in front of whom this question is asked, then he offends the Jewish people, do you know there are times in our life where we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, right? If we say one thing, we get in trouble with one set of people, if we say something else, we get in trouble with another set of people, what do you have to do? Well, you always do what is right, you always follow the Lord and let him work out the details, now sometimes he gives us wisdom, in order to wisdom we see in our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in the way he answers, sometimes we fumble through doing what is right, but that's what he calls us to do, we need to know who we are, we are made in the image of God, that's what's implied in Jesus' words, then render unto God the things that are God, he's saying, just like Caesar's image is on the coin, so God's image is on you, know who you are, know that you are made in the image of God, that's what the texts that we've looked at this morning have intimated, the call to worship from Psalm 8, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars, which you ordain, what is man that you are mindful of them, or take thought of him, verse 5, but you made him a little lower than God, and you crowned him with glory and majesty, made in the image, you made him to rule over the works of your hands, you put all things under his feet, it's clear that he's meditating on Genesis, the Old Testament lesson that we read this morning isn't it, where God says, let us make man in our image and in our likeness, and he makes them male and female after his own likeness, and says, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the cattle and creeping things and so on and so forth, the Psalmist is meditating on that, you dear children of God are made in his image, and you bear his likeness, I didn't have a chance to talk to Sarah Coolman about what I was preaching, and I don't know if she looked up the verses to say, I wonder where the pastor is today, but I sincerely doubt it, and yet what were her words, we are the parents are the face of God to the children, we are the image of God to our children, perfect sir, out of girl, way to go, you bear the image of God, I think that's just a wonderful thing, and we know that, right, we do have some children here, let's say, I've got a question for children, let's say under age 12, 12 years older, younger, if you know the answer to this, raise your hand, who made you, ah, go ahead, answer, okay, got another one, what else did God make? That's true, yeah, here's another one, why did God make you in all things, for his own glory, it's as though you've been trained in these questions, let me ask a question a little further down the list, this is question nine of the children's catacism, what is God, you know, God is a, God is a spirit and does not have a body like we do, yeah, so we're made in the image of God, but God is a spirit and doesn't have a body like we do, so it's not like we're like the coin with Caesar's image or picture, it's something else, it has to be God is a spirit, it has to be we're made in the image of God, spiritually speaking, from the heart, the spirit that God has made to dwell in us, that's where we're made in the image of God, right, know who you are, now there is a problem with this, isn't it there, we are made in the image of God, we are the reflect the glory of God, we've sung about this, we've prayed about this, great prayer of confession by Dave Walden today, we struggle with this sin nature, don't we, we struggle within dwelling sin, and so as we think about who we are, we are made in the image of God, we must lay aside the old ways of deceit, and I take that from our text, now the bad guys in the text, Jesus' enemies, the ones who want to destroy him, the ones who want to trick him in saying something wrong so that they can hand him over to the governor, they reflect something of that sinful nature, right, that we are enemies of God, that we by nature do not love God and do not submit to him, if you remember last week, we talked about the difference between the hard heart and the tender heart, and one of the things we said about the tender heart is that the tender heart lays aside certain things, listen from 1 Peter chapter 2, we looked at this last week, just verse 1, therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, evil, and all evil speaking, it's not amazing, I mean think about that, they hate Jesus, there's your malice, right, they want to destroy him, they use deceit, they pretend to be righteous, the text tells us, there's hypocrisy, they use flattery, we know that you teach the way of God and truth, I would imagine, I don't know if there's envy, but certainly the speaking of evil, there they are, and they're told, we're told as those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ that we are to lay aside these sinful tendencies because it's not just them, we all struggle with this, we all struggle with malice, with being angry, with being vengeful, from the heart, flow, murders, David said in his prayer quoting our Lord Jesus, adulteries, and other sins as well, we need to lay these things aside,

let's consider for a second some of the sins of these people, the old nature now, they may not have these enemies of Christ, they may not have a new nature, okay, and by the way for the believer in Christ, different translations, different words, right, we have on what, speaking about our sinfulness, there's sometimes called, or we're sometimes called, the old man, or the flesh, or the sinful nature, you're familiar with that idea, comes from Galatians and various places in the Bible, right, old man, the flesh, the sinful nature, the old self, these are terms that the King James, New International Version, New American Standard used for talking about our sinful nature, that part of our corruption that came into play with the fall of Adam and Eve, and then for the believer there's this new man, the spirit, right, who dwells in us, there's the new man, the new nature, and as those who are believers, we want to lay aside the old nature, these guys may have only had an old nature, as we look at the text this morning, but if you're a believer, you have both and you can lay aside the old nature, right, so let's consider for a second just a little bit about this old nature, what was their motive to destroy Jesus, right, they wanted to lay hands on him and kill him, what was their device or their tactic, what was the deeds, trickery, deceit, flattery, right, those were the tools that they, those were the deeds that they did to follow their motive to destroy Jesus, right, so when in the laying aside of the certain things or the old ways of deceit, there's certain things we have to lay aside, trickery, flattery will get you everything, I don't think you should get rid of it all together, just mean it when you say it, right, sorry about that, distracts doesn't it, I apologize, but nevertheless we lay aside the old ways and that makes us think about well the motive and the deeds, but there's also a sin beneath the sin, why did they want to destroy Jesus, why did they want to kill him, maybe there's a little bit of speculation when we talk about the sin beneath the sin, but there is a sin beneath the sin isn't there, they love themselves, if we reflect on what we've looked at and look, we see that they trusted in themselves, you remember that one parable, to these he told the parable, to those who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, two men went up to pray, there's some who think they're righteous in and of themselves, they love themselves, often the root sins, the sin beneath the sin has to do with fear and pride, there may be fear of losing control of the temple, there's pride, I don't want to look bad, here I am, I am the temple official, and this guy's cleaning house without even talking to me, fear and pride, but it always seems to to find in that root structure that hidden sin of self, I love myself, I think I'm grand, I like to walk and hold my hand, and so on, etc.

Beloved, as image-bearers, if you know who you are in this life as a believer in Jesus Christ, whether you're a believer or not, you're made in the image of God, and as a believer you struggle with a sinful nature, and if you were to lay aside the old ways of deceit, let me suggest to you, it's not enough to deal with merely the deeds, the trickery, the flattery, the deceit, that's just like pruning flowers, so it's gardening time, right? What do you do when the flowers are in full bloom? You cut them back in the night, they produce more flowers, and if you deal with your sins that way, you will have a beautiful garden of weeds and thorns and fizzles, you have to get to the root, don't you? And so you don't deal merely with the upper level, the deeds, but you deal with the heart issues behind them. You know, Paul talks about the flesh and the spirit war against each other, and it gives flesh, old man, old nature, sinful nature, and then he talks about now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, all these outward manifestations of the flesh, the heart, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, stripe, jealousy, so on and so forth. And so we look at the deeds, the outward acts, and they're the side to us really that there's something going on inside, and if we're going to deal with the old ways of deceit, we're going to have to deal not only with immorality, adultery, lying, stealing, and drunkenness, and all the things mentioned as the deeds of the flesh, but we need to deal with the flesh. We need to put it to death as the way the Bible talks about it. And so we need to look at the sin beneath the sinner, that second level and say, why, why did I do that? What is it that I really wanted? And again, the hints are there, usually there is pride, usually there is fear, and always it ends with self. I'm living for the glory of myself, and when we live for the glory of ourselves, we are reflecting not the image of God, but the image of the deceiver who originally let us astray. So we deal with the, if we're going to know who we are, we're made in the image of God, and we have to deal with the deceitful deeds of our flesh, the old ways of deceit. But number, or letter B, we take up the way of God and truth. I get this from verse 21, I get it from all over the Bible, but as we stay with the text a little bit, the words of the spies are great, really, when you think about it, verse 21, they, that is the spies questioned him, Jesus saying, teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and you are partial, not partial to any, but teach the way of God and truth. Let me suggest to you that they hit it right on the money. If you want to reflect the image of God,

then all you really need to do is be not partial to any, but God, in other words, don't be partial to any man, to rich or poor, a male or female, powerful or in powerful, you know, challenging or not challenging. Don't be partial to man, but do what is right in the eyes of God, teach the way of God and truth. They're absolutely right. That's what God calls us to. Just to show you that, if you have your Bibles, please turn to Ephesians chapter 4. You know, if we do start turning in our Bibles, one of the things you'll find is that the outside of your Bible is going to be dirty around the book of Ephesians. It's one of my favorites just for a warning there. Ephesians chapter 4, starting at verse 20, the way of God and truth. That's what I'm trying to show you, the way of God and truth. But you did not learn Christ in this way. Remember, if you are redeemed, you have not only this old nature, but you have this new nature. You have not only the sinful nature, the flesh, the old man, but you have a new nature, the spirit Christ himself. But you did not learn Christ in this way. If, indeed, you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus. That in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside. There it is, the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, deceit. There it is again, the desires of deceit. You know what you want and you go after it. And this is verse 23, that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. There it is. It's not just in the mouth of the spies who tell lies, it's in the mouth of the apostle Paul who speaks on behalf of God. You have to know the way of God and truth. That's one of the reasons why we're always calling on you to be regular in word and prayer, and the scriptures in prayer. That's why I always say to you, don't just read the Bible so that you can check it off, see it as a tool, a very important tool. High, holy, reverent view of the scriptures, word of God, inspired by him, profitable for teaching, correcting, rebuking, trading and righteousness. But it's a tool to lead us to him so that we know the truth, we know the way of God because we know him from his word. So take up the way of truth in him. And how? Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. There it comes from word and prayer. Let me tell you, the Psalms are very helpful. You hear me say that quite often, and sometimes that's just the place to stay and meditate and let the word of God from the Psalms that you, and respond back using that Psalm as a prayer. But reading through the scriptures, just talking to God and responding to him about what you have read, so that you listen, and you think about what he's saying, and that it's him who is saying it, and you respond. Lord, I need to do that. Lord, I need to stop doing that. And thus, you can begin to deal with both the deeds and the sin behind the sin where there's sin, but there's also the joy of the gospel, the power of God, the work of Christ, and the things that delight him. Now, that's finished up by just speaking for a minute about authority. And number two is understand authority. Remember, they want to hand him over to the Roman authority, to the governor, to the authority of the governor. And Jesus takes up this idea of authority and his answer, show me a denarius whose likeness in the inscription is, does it have? And they said, Caesars, then render to Caesars the things that are Caesars and to God, the things that are God.

We've already made note of the fact that this idea of authority has been coming up throughout the whole chapter by whose authority do you do these things. I'll tell you, John's baptism, who authorize that? Because he authorize it's by the same authority that John mentioned that I'm ministering. And here it is again. Now, see the lust of the deceitful lust of the sinful nature? They want to destroy Jesus by handing him over to an authority that will do that, the Roman authority. But here he is, and think about how masterful his answer is. He not only gets out of a tight spot, but he gives incredible teaching. Render to Caesar, the things that are Caesars. If he wanted to at the time, he could have said, well, let's think about this from the law. And from the Old Testament, did not Joseph counsel Pharaoh to collect attacks on all the people during the seven fat years? And did not Samuel when he was warning the people about what a king would do? Did he not talk about how much he would take? I mean, after he's taken your land and after he's taken your women and after he's taken your servants and after he's taken your flocks and livestock and so on, then he's going to tax a 10% to maintain all that he's got. Didn't the law speak to that? And Jesus could have spoken to that because we do pay taxes. And the Apostle Paul, he takes note of this. By the way, I find it interesting, you know, when you read the book of Acts, you find Paul converted. And a couple chapters later, he's on a missionary journey, and all of a sudden there's Luke in the midst of it. And then we went to this place and we did that and so on and so forth. And I just can't help but wonder if Luke and Paul weren't at the feet of Peter or Mark or someone who knew what Jesus taught here. Because when Paul writes Romans 13, what does he tell us to do in Romans 13? That every person being subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and those which exist or established by God and on, he goes to say, render to everyone what is due, taxes to whom, taxes honored to whom, honored love and to whom love. Let me suggest to you that as those who are made in the image of God, you will understand authority that God is the ruler. And we properly rule over the earth in submission to him. And authority, while it's not a popular notion and we want to flatten our worksplaces and do everything collaboratively and all that, and I'm not speaking against that, but I am saying listen to what the scriptures say because it speaks of authority and chain of command. We are made in the image of God to reflect his authority. We rule over the earth for his glory, the way he would. We relate to one another for his glory, the way he commands us to. And our Lord Jesus Christ gives us a great example in these texts of even how to live in conflict with someone for the glory of God, how we speak the truth of God and speak of the way of God in truth. And here is Jesus. They want to destroy him and the parables and the teachings while it's heavy in speaking of what they will do to him. There's this continual invitation that's implied, come to me, come to me, come to me, mercy, forgiveness, grace, in the midst of it. He's just amazing that way. And it's not until we understand this authority chain that we become like the noble centurion who had the servant who was sick. Remember that? Jesus complimented him. That's Luke chapter 7. Jesus said, man, I have never seen such great faith in all of Israel. And what was his faith? Hey, I understand authority. Jesus, you just say the word and my servant will be healed. I understand how this works because I have people that are I'm under and who are under me. And when I tell my servant do this, he does it. And when I say, go, there he goes. And I submit to the authority over me and I trust you. And Jesus marveled. It really will help us in our faith. Let me just close by by showing you that Jesus is your perfect righteousness, right? We put on the new self which is made in the likeness of God which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Who is that new self? Well, isn't it Jesus? Aren't we found in him? Isn't it his righteousness that God accounts, reckons, attributes to us as being righteous? Isn't his death on the cross reckoned, accounted, attributed to us as our pain completely for our sins? It's perfect obedience right here in this text. And working through conflict and showing the way of God and truth on our behalf. Isn't that amazing? Loving, kind, forgiving. He is our righteousness.

It's as we fix our eyes on him that we are able to lay aside the old ways of deceit. It's as we fix our eyes on him that we are able to love and deal with conflict. It's as we put our eyes on him that we understand what submission to authority looks like. I trust in him. Fix your eyes on him. Accept him as your righteousness. The one whom God has sent to restore in you, who you really are. The image of God. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for the Scriptures and for your call to know you and love you and reflect your image and to rule in your name. O Father, have mercy on us so that we can do this well and for your honor and glory. And show us Jesus so that we marvel at him and see his incredible wisdom that he is not so easily tricked, but he always does all things well. How grateful we are to be in him and him in us. Amen.