Full On Sacrifice // Overboard with Jesus, Part 9

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

So let me ask you, do you like the notion of sacrifice? Sacrificing your needs, your likes and dislikes, your comfort, your way of doing things for someone else? For most of us the answer is, well, not so much - but if you or I want to get the most out of life, if you or I are going to live a life that truly counts, let me tell you it's going to be a life of sacrifice.

Come on, let's be honest, none of us likes to give up the things that we like. I remember when our children were young - Saturdays were the days of racing around, doing this, doing that, taking them to sport and all the other things they had going on. I mean, I'm somebody who works pretty hard, so come the weekend I'd really love to just put my feet up but there was this running around with the kids, the lawn had to be mowed, the car had to be washed, all I wanted to do was rest but …

That's what it is right? And you mothers, you know that being a mum is simply a life of sacrifice. Children demand so much attention and effort and time and emotional energy and sheer hard work. You pour yourself into them; it's a life of sacrifice. In fact, pretty much anything worthwhile in life requires sacrifice. Studying, getting a degree, learning a trade, bringing up children, saving money, building a career, they all involve sacrifice.

So what exactly is sacrifice? Have you ever thought about that? Well my friendly online dictionary comes up with a variety of definitions but the most appropriate one is 'to give up something that you value for the sake of other considerations.' You work hard to grow your business at the expense of your social life for instance. Sacrifice always involves giving something up, something that you want now in order to have something better later.

And it seems that you and I are prepared to make all sorts of sacrifices to get the things in this world that we want. The question, though, is whether you and I are prepared to make the sacrifices that are required to get God what He wants in this world? Well, are we?

Yesterday on the program we had a look at that powerful pivotal passage in Romans chapter 12, let’s go back there because it's quite illuminating but this time we'll read a bit more of the chapter, Romans chapter 12 verses 1 to 4:

I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourselves more highly than you ought but to think with sober judgement each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to you.

Now I remember one of my lecturer's back in Bible College telling me that whenever you find a 'therefore' in Scripture you have to ask yourself what's the 'therefore' there for? Good question, because here Paul (who is writing the letter to the Church in Rome), begins this chapter for us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice has strong appeal when you think about it, with a therefore.

Well what’s the 'therefore' there for? See Paul is pointing back to the first eleven chapters of his letter which are all about the amazing sacrifice that Jesus has made for us so that we could be saved from the wrath of God because of our sin. For example, back in Romans chapter 5 verses 6 to 8:

For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die but God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

So in view of the mercies of God 'therefore present your bodies as a living sacrifice which is your spiritual worship'. Now at this point I need to point out that when people back in the first century AD heard that word 'sacrifice' they couldn't help but think of the other meaning of the word 'sacrifice' that I find in my dictionary which is this - an act of slaughtering an animal or a person or surrendering a possession as an offering to a deity.

Specifically, they're thinking about the relatively recent sacrifice of Jesus on that Roman cross back in Jerusalem, something that happened about fifty or sixty years earlier by all accounts. They're thinking about the many stories that they've heard about Jesus, innocent of any sin or crime, being nailed to a cross to save them from the wrath of God.

A pretty picture it ain't in their minds as they read the words of the Apostle Paul who was there at the time of the crucifixion, sitting as they are in the relative comfort and wealth of Imperial Rome. What they're hearing as Paul's letter is read out is that God is calling them to a life of incredible sacrifice, something that is already becoming obvious to them through the rising persecution and martyrdom of Christians in the Roman Empire. If you've ever been to Rome you may have seen the catacombs, the huge underground tunnels where the Christians hid.

I hear people talk about living their lives for Jesus but they want to do it from the comfort of their armchair. In many places today, in many societies, in many Churches there is so much comfort, there is so much wealth that the notion of sacrifice is a foreign one.

But what of the woman who wrote to me recently:

My husband has been extremely cruel to me since Mother’s Day.

What does she do? Does she up and leave him? No, she goes to God and asks Him to protect her, asks Him to change her husband, asks Him to heal their marriage. That's what she did. In this world, in this day and age the obvious solution would have been separation and divorce but this woman has taken a different route, she's made a different choice, she takes seriously the Scripture which says in Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 5:

Therefore since we are justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we now stand and we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God and not only that but we also boast in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope and that hope doesn't disappoint us because Gods love is being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Conventional wisdom, the worlds wisdom says run away from suffering. You're entitled, you deserve it, you're worth it but yet the Bible is filled with some hard truths about suffering.

Back to this woman's lot, 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 1 to 6:

Wives in the same way accept the authority of your husband’s to that even if some of them do not obey the Word they may be won over without a word by their wives conduct when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Don't adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair or wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing. Rather let your adornment be the inner self with a lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in Gods sight.

It was in this way long ago the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him 'Lord'. You have become her daughters, as long as you do what is good and never let fear alarm you.

We want to throw those bits of the Bible out, they're politically incorrect, they're unfair, they're irrelevant in this day and age and yet Gods truth remains Gods truth. Even though the more comfortable and affluent our world becomes, we've had lies dropped on our heads that tells us it's all about us, Jesus , the same Jesus who suffered and died for you on that cross, Jesus is calling you to a life that involves sacrifice.