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Sochi winter paralympic games …

achievement a consequence of enormous sacrifice
not just the athletes themselves, but their families, their guides etc.
they gave up a great deal in order to achieve at the highest level

Today’s teaching is about being a living sacrifice giving up what may appear to be a great deal so that we can be all that God wants us to be!

New section of the book of Romans: chs 12-15

Two things to notice about Paul’s teaching here

Being a living sacrifice …

brings together belief and practice

There are things that we do every day of the week, things we do, choices we make and stories we tell that are framed around what we believe.

It affects everything we do, even though we may not be conscious of it at the time.
So this is where the rubber hits the road – the practical implications to our theology

If we are going to be ‘dead to sin and alive to God’ (6:11) it doesn’t have any value unless I’m not going to apply / use it somewhere

it is possible to understand my theology very well, but if I just live like everyone else, I’m little more than a clever devil.

So in ch 12 we are told to ‘offer our bodies to God because of his mercy’
we’re told to serve one another
we’re told to avoid revenge

applies the personal to the public

Paul is very aware that Christians can individualise their faith to an extent that actually undermines the message of the gospel.

What I mean is this.

You became a Christian as a result of a personal decision. (whether taken in a moment or over a period of time is not the issue) you decided.

But that personal decision had public implications.

And it is likely that we will stand out from the crowd <ppt: one in a crowd image>

For examples

“be devoted to one another in brotherly love” (12:10)

Paul says “I urge you to do it!”

That’s all very nice and cosy, but look at 12:13 where Paul tells us how to work this out:

“Share with God’s people who are in need and practice hospitality”

When was the last time you had someone in your home for a meal – just to show Christian kindness to them? (no excuses!) Paul urges us to do it – so do I (actually Rosi too)

or take this for example:

Rom 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

We have a duty to be good citizens of the state

Rom 13:6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

So even HMRC is God’s agent of good order in our society. So paying our taxes should be the default position for Christians.
And let’s not forget that the tax system in our day is significantly fairer than is was in first century Rome

<ppt: fade image>

Then this section of the book is remarkably

So what does being a living sacrifice look like?

Has Christ at the focus (Christocentric)

Paul often refers directly or indirectly to the teaching of Jesus (more here than he does in other parts of the book)

Sometimes Paul uses an allusion (where there is the same message conveyed in slightly different words) and sometimes a direct quotation.

Rom 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Jesus said “Bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:28)

Rom 12:18 as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9) and “Be at peace with each other” Matt 9:50

Rom 13:7 Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; …

Jesus said “Give to Caesar what its Caesar and toe God what is God’s” (Luke 20:25)

Rom 14:17 the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,

Jesus said “Do not worry about what you eat or drink … But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt 6:25 & 33)

Many others (at least 15 in total)

So it’s very clear that Paul was drawing on Jesus’ teaching (which he had picked up from people like the disciples who were there at the time)
and he’s saying “Friends we must live this stuff out – because if we don’t nobody is going to believe us!” and the glorious gospel of grace will die with our generation.

So a Christocentric belief must be worked out in a Christ-like lifestyle (otherwise our theology is flawed)

Now let’s look at some of the text of this chapter – we will not cover all of it

As a living sacrifice we discover

How to worship authentically

Rom 12:1-8 <ppt>

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God– this is your spiritual act of worship.

Therefore – what’s he referring back to?

<ppt> Rom 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

The wonder, the wisdom!, the riches of God!, the greatness of God!

That’s what he has in the forefront of his mind as he writes this!
… and one aspect in particular (v1) – the mercy of God <ppt>
… that capacity of God to restrain himself from giving us what we deserve!

If someone has been as merciful and forgiving as God has been towards us, it makes gratitude and awe well up from inside us!

Actually ‘mercy’ is plural <ppt> (the mercies of God) and this is ‘Hebraism’ (a type of speech used in the Hebrew language) and it’s intended for us to understand not just the limited quality of ‘mercy’, but every individual mercy he’s given us. all of God’s other benefits towards us – of which mercy is the headline news.

So what’s the buy-line? What’s the ‘so what’ clause of all this goodness of God?

It’s to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

This would strike Paul’s readers with a punch in two different ways

First of all – offering our bodies.
In Greek thought the body was the one thing you wanted to get away from. They had a catch-phrase “soma sema estin” <ppt> “The body is a tomb!”
The one thing you’ve been taught to suppress and disregard is that one thing God wants to be devoted to him – your body!

Still today some Christians feel very self-conscious about their bodies – reluctant to give them any special attention other than for health or survival reasons

When actually God made us with bodies and He intends us to look after them and devote them to his service!
As evangelicals we often say to people when preaching ‘give you heart’ to Christ and I feel I ought to say ‘give your body too!”

No worship of God is honouring to him that is purely emotional, purely mental, purely inward, internal, abstract and mystical.

Authentic worship infuses all that we do
Our loving, challenging Lord wants us to hand over our bodies to him

The Bible doesn’t talk about our bodies as being a tomb, Paul says it’s the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’

not the ‘synagogue’ or the ‘church’ of the holy spirit, but the ‘temple’
There was only one temple for Jewish believers and it was in Jerusalem The temple was the operating centre of God’s work of earth. Everything flowed out from there.
So our bodies are intended to be the operating centre of the God the Holy Spirit’s work in this world.

This operates in two ways

Firstly – the ‘mortification’ (=putting to death) of anything that is offensive to God. >>>
Secondly – the ‘presentation’ of our bodies as a gift, to be something that God can use.

So so the question to ask each morning is ‘Lord where should I be for you today? Where should I put this body of mine so you can be honoured and glorified. >>

So the first thing that would have surprised them is Paul saying ‘give your body’

The second thing that would have surprised them is the way, or the mode, in which we are to give our bodies – “as living sacrifices”

this is an oxymoron! A contradictory statement – Sacrifices were dead things given to appease a deity.
But we are to be living sacrifices!

You’ve heard me, Andy, Neil, Every preacher who has ever expounded this passage say “the trouble with being a living sacrifice is it crawls off the altar. (let’s get that one-liner out of the way! Because it’s confusing)

The only place where a sacrifice has value is when it is on the altar. So if I am a living sacrifice, the altar is wherever I am at that moment.
When my body goes into a particular room at work, that room becomes the altar – the place of service and sacrifice. The wormhole between heaven and earth!
When you go into that cynical factory, that’s where you are to bring the clarity of Christ
When you go into a room full of rowdy kids as a teacher, that’s where you’re to being the compassion and the authority of Christ. – that classroom is the altar.

Actually everywhere you go becomes a roving altar! (the place of service & sacrifice to the glory of God)

This giving of your body is “your spiritual act or worship”

Just a PS: I don’t want you to run away with the idea that this verse is full of hidden meanings as I’ve been unpacking the individual words. What has happened is that the original nuances have been lost in the passage of time.

[Just think about the change in the meaning of the word ‘gay’ over the last 3 decades!]

Message of Verse 1:

Worship that I feel which is not accompanied by worship that I do is not authentic worship.

Conversely <ppt>

Worship that I feel which leads to worship (service) that I do is God-honouring and genuine

(and that’s just verse 1!)

Being a living sacrifice (Verse 2)

Helps me to avoid chameleon tendencies

(minor difference from notes in news sheet)

A Chameleon changes colour according to its environment.

<ppt: 2 images>

Eg man I had dealings with – when in church he worshipped like the rest of us – in prayer meeting he’d pray

But at work it was a different story. His attitudes were lazy and negative.
When in town he went to bars that were full of anti-Christian speech and activity – and he wasn’t there to evangelise. You would be hard put to tell there was anything distinctive about his at all
it was very sad.

He just fitted in with whoever and wherever he was at the time – a spiritual chameleon.

2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Here Paul issues a double-edged call to

(a) non-conformity

2 Do not conform any longer

suggests that they had been conforming as chameleons and Paul is saying ‘don’t continue doing this. (he’s urging again)

(b) holiness

These two calls appear repeatedly through scripture.

God said to Moses “You must not do as they do … in the land of Caanan where I am taking you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws” (Lev 18:3)
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said the same. In a time when he was surrounded by the false spirituality of the Pharisees and the pagans he said “Do not be like them”

<ppt: image of butterfly>

The word used to describe this transformation is the one from which we get ‘metamorphosis’ – a change from what we were into something more God-honouring and wonderful.

There are only two other places in scripture where this word is used.

Jesus transfiguration in Mark’s gospel – there was a complete change which came over Jesus as Peter and James watched him.
His body became translucent and Jesus implied that they would only be able to understand what was happening after his resurrection. >>>

2 Cor 3:17-18

17 … where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord …

The greatest evidence of God’s work in our lives is a fundamental change of conduct and attitude away from the selfish or self-serving standards of the surrounding culture towards the image of Christ himself.

And this metamorphosis applies to every area of life.
How we respond to evil, to ambition and what we want out of life, to family, to money, to sex , to power and how we use it, to religion, to our relationship to society – everything.
The theologian Karl Barth described Christian ethics as ‘the great disturbance’ because they upset the accepted status quo so radically.

Prayer

Lord, you have entered our lives as the great disturbance

We want you to be – not the person who floats our boat – but the person who rocks it

We offer ourselves afresh to you as living sacrifices

to be holy and pleasing to you

because you are our saviour, our focus of worship and service

Lord transform me

step by step, choice by choice, day by day into your likeness

Amen

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