The Fourth Midweek Lenten Service

SERMON

INI

Text: Romans 12:1-2

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. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

In Christ Jesus, our suffering Savior and the Lamb of God, dear fellow-redeemed:

What is Jesus worth to you? Before answering that question we can consider first of all how best to measure worth. Worth and value are first of all measured as a matter of perspective and need. For example—A few years ago when thieves broke into my car and stole a number of items, what they took had very little street value. There was not much worth in any of it to them. The thieves did not need a private communion set. Nor did they have my perspective that some of what they stole had been a gift, therefore, they could not appreciate the worth and value in the same way that I did.

Measuring worth is also a matter of knowledge. For example—two people could go to the same household auction. One person could buy something that looks like little more than junk and pay a surprising amount of money because he knows the value of that item to a collector. The other person could buy something that looks very much the same but for some reason, that is unknown to him, that item does not have the same collectible value. The result is that the second man spends his money in a wasteful way because he didn’t have the necessary knowledge.

Measuring worth can be clouded by sin. The Children of Israel are a good example of this. When the children of Israel first ran out of food after leaving Egypt they complained to God about being brought into the wilderness to starve and die. God provided for their need by supplying Manna each morning Sunday through Friday. On Saturdays—the Sabbath Days—there was no Manna but the people were allowed to gather enough on Friday to provide for Saturday. During all their years of wandering in the wilderness, Manna satisfied their hunger and filled their nutritional needs. However, not long before actually entering the Promised Land, the Children of Israel were without water and without food except Manna. They complained, “There is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread!” (Numbers 21:5). The people were not without food, they had Manna. Manna wasn’t worthless, it had been their sustenance for many years; but their sinful rebellion against God clouded their estimation of Manna’s worth and they called it worthless.

The value and worth of Jesus is real. People who do not have the knowledge, who do not understand their need, or who have grown sick of it all will label Jesus and His salvation as worthless.

A we seek to measure the worth of Jesus, we take the perspective of sinners—sinners in need of a Savior. The only Savior is Jesus and that makes him very valuable indeed. We approach the valuation of Jesus with knowledge—the knowledge that of ourselves we are worthless. We ourselves are sinners and under God’s wrath and condemnation. We need what Jesus offers. With the knowledge of God’s Word we, by God’s grace, have the faith to see the true value of our Savior.

The worth of Jesus is the same for unbelievers and believers alike. Jesus is equally valuable for every single sinner. But unbelievers don’t see that value because of their unbelief.

Jesus THE LAMB IS WORTHY TO BE PRAISED. We pray that the Spirit will bless our meditation as we seek to remind ourselves why He is worthy of our praise and how we can give that praise to Him.

In the vision that God gave to John as recorded in the book of Revelation, John saw a gathering around the throne of God in heaven. John also saw a Lamb who was slain which clearly represents Jesus. The group of creatures and elders gathered around the throne of God said with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). If that were the only word of God concerning the honor and glory given to Jesus that would be enough. God declares: “Jesus, the Lamb of God is worthy of honor and glory and power and praise!”—end of story, that is all we need. If God says it, it is so; but God also explains why Jesus is worthy of this honor and glory and praise.

A few verses earlier in Revelation, John also records these words from the group around God’s throne: “You [the Lamb] are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on earth” (Revelation 5:9-10).

In John’s vision the question was “who would be worthy to open the scroll?” We learn later in the vision that when the scroll is opened it unfolds many different scenes of the revelation that describe the life of Christians in this New Testament Age. The scenes show how Satan and his forces will oppose Christ’s kingdom, they show our struggle with our spiritual enemies, and our ultimate goal and home in heaven. The ability and worthiness to open the scroll was something the Lamb had because He had redeemed us. It was the power and authority of a victorious Savior that made the Lamb worthy to unlock the scroll.

Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He said: “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). We know that Jesus set aside His divine power and glory for a time to be our Savior, to humble Himself and be our servant even to the point of dying on the cross (cf. Philippians 2:7-8). But when that work was completed, God bestowed all glory and honor upon Christ, all authority, and honor, and wisdom, and praise, exalting Him and “…giving Him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth, and those under the earth…” (Philippians 2:9-10). He came to be our Savior who redeemed sinners from every nation, tribe and tongue of the earth. He has been exalted and glorified by the Father and is indeed worthy of all power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing! Worthy is the Lamb because the Lamb has redeemed us and all sinners from the sin that we commit, the sin with which we were born, and the judgment that those sins brings upon us.

The Lamb is worthy to be praised for His redemptive work. How do we go about praising Him? First of all, when we keep a proper perspective of Christ’s worth, the motivation for praising the Lamb is built upon our appreciation of salvation. If we fully and truly appreciate the salvation that Jesus brings to us, there ought to be nothing that would ever stop us from giving Him praise and honor and glory. We do this by offering ourselves as living sacrifices.

Paul writes in our text: “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.”[v.1] Presenting our bodies is more than just the bodies themselves. Presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is to present our whole being, our lives, everything in them, everything we do, everything we are, the whole essence of what makes us up and makes our lives exist—all of this is to be a living sacrifice to God.

We offer ourselves as living sacrifices—not dead sacrifices like those of the Old Testament with the lambs and the bulls and the rams made as burnt offerings to God. Rather we are living sacrifices—sacrifices that are ongoing and done continually in our lives by our way of life. Living sacrifices don’t just stagnate at a certain point and say, “That’s good enough.” Living sacrifices that grow and increase. Living sacrifices look for new ways to offer that sacrifice of thanksgiving and honor and glory and praise.

Our lives are to be living sacrifices. To sacrifice something is not giving up something you don’t love. Sacrificing something is not what comes naturally. Sacrifice by its very nature involves giving up something that you would like to hang onto—something you would typically treasure. Our living sacrifices of praise and honor and glory to the Lamb involve getting rid of—sacrificing—what pleases ourselves. It is cutting off the things in our lives in which our sinful flesh likes to indulge—the sins we like to pursue. These are our pet sins that we know we should not hold, but conclude that if they are the worst then we’re not so bad. All sins are offensive to God, whether they seem to be big or little. These are all to be cut off, sacrificed. Being living sacrifices is to remove from our lives those things that are contrary to God’s Word, but which we in our sinfulness desire or love.

Presenting ourselves as living sacrifices is to sacrifice the selfish motives, the things that look out for me above all else and at times only me, the things that serve my self rather than my Lord. We no longer live for ourselves, but for Christ who died for us and rose again (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:15). That’s a living sacrifice. It’s not living for what can I get. It’s not living for what pleases me, but living for my Savior so that everything I do, everything I say, every part of my life and my plans, my goals, my future, my present—all comes down to “How can I praise my Lord and serve Him?” “How can I give Him praise for all that He has done for me?”

As we seek to make our lives living sacrifices who will decide what truth is? Our Lord and Savior. Who will decide what the priorities are in our lives? Our Lord and Savior. Who will receive the first attention in my efforts—my resources and all that I do? Jesus, my Lord and Savior. This will involve sacrifice because our flesh will always be lobbying to receive first choice on what we are and what we do, meanwhile giving Jesus whatever might be left over.

There are influences in this life that seek to pull us away from the worth and value of the Lamb and into worthlessness which does not give Him honor and glory. They may arise from within the outward organization that people loosely refer to as “the church,”—“external Christianity.” God warns through Jeremiah. “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart” (Jeremiah 14:14). So we stand on guard against those external Christianity so that we are not pulled away to worthlessness by forgetting the true value and worth of our Savior.

We stand guard not only against those within the external church, but also the outside world, Paul told the Colossians to “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). There is so much that is put forth as valuable human accomplishment and wise philosophy and reason and logic, but it is really worthlessness. We need to stand guard—cutting those things out of our lives, running away from them, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, lest we pulled into the worthlessness of what the world considers to be real.

As we seek to give our praise to the Lamb who is worthy of praise, Paul says to be “…not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” [v.2] By nature we conform very well to the world. By nature we have the same sinful flesh as anyone else and it is like camouflage—we just blend right in when we conform to the world. Paul says, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” and not conformed so that you will stand out like blaze orange in a Fall forest. Stand out, being transformed according to Your Savior rather than conformed to the worthlessness around you.

The praise and honor we give to the Lamb can be done simply by words, but words often find themselves empty if that’s all they are. Jesus quoted Isaiah and spoke of the Scribes and Pharisees as those who “drew near to Him with their mouths and honored Him with their lips but their heats were far from Him” (cf. Matthew 15:8). It is so easy to say, “Praise be to the Lord!” and “Thank you Jesus!” and all sorts of other praise-expressions that we could say, but God is not interested in empty words. He is interested in the heart, the life—the living sacrifice of our lives and our bodies and all that we are for Him. Worthy is the Lamb to be praised with much more than just our words, but our very beings and our lives.

With the knowledge of what we have in our Savior it is hard to despise His gift and also hard not to worship and honor the Lamb. We can use Old Testament Esau as a reminder. Esau came home from hunting one day and was so hungry that when he saw his brother, Jacob, cooking some stew he asked for some. Shrewd and cunning, Jacob agreed to give Esau the food in exchange for his birthright. Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what profit shall this birthright be to me…and [he] sold his birthright to Jacob…thus Esau despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:32-34). Esau despised his birthright. He didn’t care. “So what!” he thought, “I’m going to die from hunger and what good will my birthright do.” So he sold his birthright. Esau should not have treated his birthright so lightly. His birthright for a bowl of stew was no where near a fair exchange, but Esau despised the birthright and didn’t treat it with the value that it held.

We have the birthright of being children of God through the redeeming work of the Lamb. I we are pulled into a mere lip service of our Savior and forget the true value that He brings to us, we are in danger of despising the greatest gift we’ve ever been given and the greatest value we could ever possess.

We do well to make the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 119 our prayer: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.” (Psalm 119:33-37).

The last verse of this prayer is one we can especially hold in our hearts and minds: “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things.” There are so many things in this life that may not necessarily be sinful, but do not hold the value of serving our Savior. There are so many things that can draw our time and attention and are ultimately worthless. So we pray, “Turn me from looking at worthless things, Lord, and turn me back again to the one who has true value and worth. Worthy is the Lamb to be praised!”

When you put all of this together there are two words that come to mind and they illustrate two perspectives. One is that of the world. When the world sees you honoring and praising this Lamb of God, when they see you offering your lives as living sacrifices, often times giving up things you might otherwise have—maybe a set of friends, maybe wealth, whatever it is that you sacrifice for the glory of your savior—the world will look at that and say: “That is FOOLISH.” You are a religious fanatic. Why would you be so intent in serving a God? Why does it become every part of your life? That’s just foolish! No one does that! That is evaluation without knowledge, without the proper perspective of need, and blinded by unbelief. Those who would call our Savior and our salvation foolish, do not see the value or the worth.

Our sinful flesh would like to look upon our lives of sacrifice as being a burden, but that is not the correct word either. The correct word as we consider our lives as living sacrifices for our Savior is OPPORTUNITY. Serving our Lord, sacrificing ourselves for Him is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to show Him how much He means to you. It is an opportunity to show Him what value your place upon what He has done and the salvation He gives. It is an opportunity to show your love and honor to the Son of God Himself who gave His life for you. It is an opportunity to show others the value of our Savior. It is an opportunity to declare to the world around you: “Worthy is the Lamb to be praised, to be honored, and to be given all my devotion and my life! I give Him such praise because He has redeemed me and all sinners!” Amen

—Pastor Wayne C. Eichstadt