An Acceptable Sacrifice - Sermon A.M. 7/25/10

Today we are going to talk about sacrifice. In the discussion that we have had for the past few weeks about virtue and living a life that bridges from the moment we are saved until we see Christ face to face today we are going to talk about the idea of sacrifice.
To do this we have to lay a little ground work.
An image that you don’t hear many people use when they are referring to Christ is one of the High Priest. It is such a strange idea to us today living some 2000 years after the writing of the New Testament but to the people living in the time of the Apostles it would have made perfect sense. In Judaism the office of the High Priest was held in high esteem and the person that held the office would have been held in high esteem. People also would have known exactly what his responsibilities would be.
When the New Testament writers such as Paul wanted to use an analogy to show the new believers in a place like Corinth what the Church is like, Paul used the Temple as his image.
Even though there were Synagogues in every town around Paul used the Temple as his reference point to compare the Church in the book of 1 Corinthians.
The Temple was miles away in Jerusalem and was slotted for destruction by the Romans but nonetheless Paul says this is what the Church is like.
In the Jewish Temple there was a HIGH PRIEST
Hebrews 4: 14 tells us that we have a great High Priest in Jesus

Hebrews 5: 1-31 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins ; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness ; 3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.

Role of the priest – to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins but a purely human high priest must offer sacrifices for the people and themselves.
The Hebrew writer goes on to say that by the High Priesthood of Jesus we have salvation and through Him we can come before the throne of God with confidence.
The fascinating things about Jesus is that we have both PRIEST and SACRFICE - Jesus is both the one that offers up the sacrifice for us but lays down His own life as the offering for our sins.
In John’s gospel, John uses a Greek word for Jesus garments when He goes to the cross that refers to the garments of a priest.
The time Jesus was on the cross was the very time that the Passover Lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple.
From this we can see from the Gospel evidence that Jesus would act as both priest and sacrificial victim. He, as the true High Priest, will offer His own life for us.

1 Corinthians 5: 77 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Paul makes it very clear that Jesus has replaced the Passover Lamb as a true, spotless, perfect sacrifice.
Offering for our Sin:

Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

The Scripture ties together the idea of Priest and Sacrifice and in Christ these once two separate ideas are combined in Jesus.
This idea of Jesus’ Priesthood is tied together with Israel’s Priestly call and vocation. God had called Israel to be a Kingdom of Priests. Israel would be priests to the world.

Exodus 19: 5-65 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'

The books of Samuel and Kings are all about How Israel will carry out this vocation of being a Kingdom of Priests. If you wanted to say that the theme of these two books is the idea of Israel’s Kingly, Priestly vocation you would be correct.
How will Israel be a Kingdom of Priests?
How will they accomplish this feat because time and time again they fail at this attempt?
I propose this morning that Jesus comes into the world and does exactly what Israel could never do. Jesus comes and is the perfect King that comes from the family of David and is also the Great High Priest.
Both of these offices of King and Priest had been hotly debated in Israel just before Christ was born. Many people objected to the current class of priests in Israel during the 1st century and many were wondering when the true Davidic King would come back and be enthroned in Israel. Jesus will become both Priest and King.
Jesus does what Israel could never do and perfectly fulfills the very vocation that Israel called to fulfill.
In doing this Jesus blazed the path and opened the way for us to become a Kingdom of Priests. One of our main vocations as Christians is to become Priests- A Priesthood of believers.
Instead of asking the High Priest to go into the Holy Place once a year to offer a sacrifice for our atonement, our High Priest Jesus tore the veil into two pieces and opened up the Holy Place. Our High Priest stands in the Holy Place with God the Father and the way is opened for us to come in and have fellowship.
GENESIS 1: 26-28 – MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

TO HAVE DOMINION AND SERVE IN A PRIESTLY CAPACITY FOR GOD

COLOSSIANS 3:1010 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-

We are renewed in Christ to the image that God had planned from the beginning. We are being restored to that Priestly class that we were supposed to serve in.
We are called to be the priestly class that Israel failed miserably in accomplishing.


1 Peter 2: 5,95 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Verse 9:
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light ;

So if we are a priest, What sacrifice do we bring? What are these spiritual sacrifices that Peter is talking about?
We know that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice for our sin but the Bible also speaks of Sacrifices that we must bring before God.

Romans 12:1-21 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

I. The first point we can take from this is that God wants us to sacrifice our bodiesIt is only fitting that in response to the Grace of God and the sacrifice of Christ that we are willing to offer our own bodies in response.
Paul is urging them to by God’s mercy to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice.
The Greek word that Paul uses in this passage is Parakaleho – and could be translated as pray or beg.
Paul is begging them in the strongest term that he can use to lay their bodies down before God as a living sacrifice.
Because of Who we are and the price that Christ paid for us, we should honor Him by laying down our lives

1 Corinthians 6: 19-2019 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own ? 20 For you have been bought with a price : therefore glorify God in your body.

The temple is our body, we are the priest, and our bodies are the sacrifices. All of these symbols of the Old Testament and the economy of Israel come crashing down upon us and find their fulfillment in Christ and His Church.
We are to be the Temple, Priests, and Sacrifice.
God wants nothing less than all of Us. He wants us to lay down our entire life in response to His Gracious gift of Christ.
If we are of the priestly class of Jesus then we are asked to lay down our lives. We look to our Great High Priest and we see that He was willing to lovingly lay down His life and now we are asked to give our life in return.
This giving of our life is our response to GRACE. God’s unmerited favor comes crashing into our world and we as frail humans are asked to give up our lives so that we might live truly as God wants us to live. To live a life free to thrive and flourish in God we have to lay down our selfish, fleshly desires before Christ.

Galatians 2:20"I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

In a sense we are called to respond to the Gospel of Jesus by inacting the Gospel in our own lives. We are to crucify the fleshly desires the vex us and haunt us. When we do this true life in Christ can begin.

2 Corinthians 5: 14-1514 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died ; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Christ died so that we can have life.
Christ died – so that we might no longer live for just ourselves – our true vocation and calling is to live for Christ.
Paul puts this type of life of sacrifice eloquently in Philippians

Philippians 2:17-1817 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

Do we see our calling and life in the same light as Paul? Do we see our lives as being poured out to God?
Do we care so much about other people’s faith that we pour out our life for that purpose?
Imagine what Churches would look like today if we all cared that much about each other that we would pour out our very life energy to see that others grow in their faith?
It is our challenge to work that out in your own life. How would sacrificing your life for Christ look like? How would that change your behavior?

Our Sunday assemblies would change dramatically. We would come before the Lord’s Table and bring the sacrifice of our lives and lay them down at the feet of Jesus to be energized to do it all over again. This is a tough call but it is the call of a Christian, to give it all.
This is not a religion but a life, a life style, a giving of your entire life.

II. This Sacrifice of the priesthood of believers is also the preaching of the Gospel
Paul tells us in Romans 15 that he is a priest of the Gospel. A priest is one that teaches and reveals and mediates God. How do we mediate God to a lost and dying world?
We teach them the way of salvation to Christ. This is our priestly duty.
We are the heralds of the King- Proclaiming the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead, He is enthroned and people must make a decision.
This is part of our good stewardship in a lost and dying world.
Man abdicated God’s rule and our dominion of Creation to Satan and now we are called to call man back into communion with God.

Romans 15: 15-1615 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Paul sees the offering of the Gentile converts to God as a sanctified gift unto God.
Part of this Priestly Duty that God has called us to is the offering of other people to God –
People that we have lead to Christ, not out of our own boasting but out of love and motivation for lost souls.

III. Part of the Sacrifice of the Priesthood of believers is good works.In Philippians 4 Paul informs us that the Philippian brethren supplied many of Paul’s needs in his ministry.
Paul speaks of this contribution sent to him by the Philippian Church in Temple – Sacrificial language.


Philippians 4:15-1815 You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone ; 16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. 17 Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. 18 But I have received everything in full and have an abundance ; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

The offering of help for Paul was seen as an acceptable sacrifice to God, a fragrant aroma.
This is part of our priestly service in the New Covenant – good deeds and alms giving to the poor or to the ministry of the word go up to God as a fragrant offering.
We see this same language used of Cornelius and the good works that he did.

Acts 10:1-41 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually . 3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, "Cornelius !" 4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is it, Lord ?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

Cornelius’ good works or alms for the poor have ascended to God as a memorial. This language is OT Temple language for the Memorial offering of the OT that was offered to God in the Temple.
The Hebrew writer also echoes this sentiment.

Hebrews 13:1616 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased
Part of our priestly service in the Temple of the Church is the offering of money- the collection that we give to the Church can be seen in this light as well as the acts of kindness that we do for the poor in the community.
Any support that we give to mission, the poor, or to the operation of the Church is viewed as a sacred offering that goes up before the Lord.

IV. Part of the sacrifice of the priesthood of believers is the sacrifice of praise and prayer.The Hebrew writer tells us that our praise for God is a sacrifice that we offer

Hebrews 13:15
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

The fruit of the lips that we offer in our assemblies is our song service. When we sing praises to God in the assembly of other saints we are offering our common sacrifice of praise.
In the book of Revelation we see that prayers of the saints going up before God as the incense from the Temple.

Revelation 8:3-4
3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer ; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand

CORNELIUS- IN THE STORY FROM ACTS 10 WE REMEMBER THAT GOD ALSO SAW THE PRAYERS OF CORNELIUS AS A MEMORIAL OFFERING COMING UP BEFORE HIM.
PRIESTS- WE OFFER OUR LIVES, WE OFFER NEW CONVERTS, WE OFFER ALMS GIVING AND GOOD WORKS, WE OFFER WORSHIP OF PRAISE AND PRAYER – THESE ARE THE OFFERINGS THAT WE BRING IN THIS PRIESTHOOD.