Sacrifice 3. Worship Ps 107:17-22; Matt 26:26-35; Heb 13:7-16
http://stbarnies.org/media/com_podcastmanager/190824PM1.mp3
Introduction
This is the third and final sermon in a series on sacrifice that are in an ascending order. 1. Sacrifice as the Foundation of all things 2. Sacrifice and Holiness 3. Worship as the goal of sacrifice. The biblical connection between sacrifice and “worship” is very clearly expressed in Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Peter makes a connection between our sacrifices and Christ’s by saying, “we offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). The offering of our bodies as worship is grounded in Jesus’ offering his body on the cross as a holy act fully acceptable to the Father. In offering God “worship” we offer him what he is worth, no matter what the circumstances of life.
As a young believer I was fortunate to hear scriptures like these quoted regularly in church, “Rejoice in the Lord always…” (Phil 4:4), “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:18 cf. Eph 5:20), “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” (Heb 13:15). Popular books like “Prison to Praise” and “Power to Praise” exhorted us to vocally adore the Lord no matter how difficult life had become. When a respected Christian leader testified that he had “become a worshipper” I knew this was exactly what he meant. The priority of acknowledging the Lord’s worthwhileness is why I commence and conclude my prayer walk every morning with songs of praise and worship, no matter the state of my emotions. This simple faith step keeps me in communion with the worship of heaven where the Lamb of God ruling over all things, including my own life. The book of Revelation opens up these things for us.
Throne Worship
Revelation 5 is an enthronement scene in which the slain and raised Lamb of God (Rev 5:6), i.e. a human being, is declared worthy to share the throne of his Father This testimony of the infinite Worth of the humanity of the Son of God is the heartbeat of all genuine Christian worship. Both Old and New testaments disclose that Jesus always lived in a limitlessly God-honouring way. The whole of Psalm 22 is prophetic about Christ’s never stepping back from the worthiness of his Father. We’re familiar with verse 1 which Jesus quoted from the cross, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34). But the suffering psalmist, whose voice is ultimately the voice of Christ, goes on to testify in the midst of his anguish, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” (Ps 22:3 cf. 1 Pet 1:10-11) Christ is testifying, even from the cross, that his Father is worthy of the sacrifice of his life as a sacrifice of praise so that he might enthroned, over his life. This prophetic interpretation is consistent with the way Jesus approached death.
The Gospels tell us that after the Last Supper on the way to Gethsemane Jesus led the disciples to “sing a hymn” (Matt 26:30; Mark 14:30). This was a Hallel psalms, a psalm of “praise” (Pss 113-118). Jesus is confessing with his lips, whatever he is feeling in his heart, that the Father is worthy of his sacrificial death. Job’s famous remark, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (13:15) was the attitude perfected by Christ as he trusted God for resurrection life. Such an absolute honouring the Father meant that Jesus was honoured by the Father with a resurrected body completely inhabited by the glory of God (Rom 6:4 cf. Ps 22:3K.J.V.). This meant Christ’s sharing, as an exalted human being, fully in God’s heavenly enthronement ruling over all things and lifted up on the praises of the entire unfallen creation.
Big picture realities like these are central to Christian living because they exhort us to share in Jesus sufferings and risen glory by faith (Col 1:24; Phil 3:10). In a passage avoided by many preachers (2 Cor 1) Paul teaches that the greater our suffering with Christ the greater the delivering power of God we encounter, “we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead…. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.” (1:8-10). Living out the worthiness of Christ, as Christ lived out the worthiness of his Father, involves being sent as he was sent (John 20:21).
Worship and Mission
From New Testament times the power of sacrifice to release the presence of God has been strongly evident in pioneer missions. From the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 to the burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in India two decades ago and beyond the testimony of suffering missionaries has inspired countless “ordinary Christians” to witness for Jesus. Here is one of my more favourite stories about holy sacrifice.
In 1732 two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies whose atheist slave owner had vowed that the gospel would never be preached. They could not rest without finding a way to reach the slaves. One of them even tried to be sold into slavery, but Danish law forbade it. Leaving behind family and friends weeping and begging them not to go the men felt their sacrifice paled in comparison to the sacrifice of their Saviour. As their ship pulled away from the docks, they lifted a cry, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering” x 2. This cry became the heartbeat of the first great Protestant missionary movement outside Europe. (West Indies, Greenland, Lapland, Turkey, and North America. Undergirded by a 100 years of unbroken prayer).
Sacrifice as Victory
Whenever we endure suffering as a sacrifice for Jesus we join in his triumphal procession (2 Cor 2:14). For the more we live according to his true Worth the more the heavenly atmosphere that celebrates the Worthiness of the Lamb breaks into our lives. The book of Revelation is full of hymns of triumph because it is an exhortation and encouragement to a Church called to live faithfully/worthily under extreme pressure. Jesus said to the poor little Church in Smyrna “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev 2:10). In the wisdom of God there’s something about prisons and praise that can be magnificent.
In Acts 16 we read how Paul and Silas “had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into (the inner) prison 24…and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight (the apostles) were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” (Acts 16:23-24, 25-26). Do we think the miraculously timed earthquake would have come if the apostles were not worshipping the Lord despite their painful wounds?? The power of God will come when his people worship him in the Spirit and truth of the Lamb crucified and raised (Rom 1:16; Rev 5:6). There are many such stories.
Dmitri was imprisoned in Russia under communist rule. But every morning at daybreak he would get up out of bed and sing a “heart song” to Jesus. Other prisoners jeered, laughed, shouted, nagged, banged metal cups on the iron bars, threw food and excrement but nothing could stop the light of Christ shining through his life. Then one day the guards threatened him with death and dragged him down a long corridor to the usual place of execution. But before he could arrive the strangest thing happened. Fifteen hundred hardened criminals stood at attention at their beds lifted their hands and sung the “heart song” they had heard from Dmitri all those years. He said it sounded to him like the greatest choir in all of human history. He was not wrong, because human and angelic voices were mingling in praise of the Lamb.
When a young widow in a Muslim country became a Christian, she was arrested and placed in the cellar of the police station. At the very moment she felt she couldn’t take any more and opened her mouth to scream in protest and despair out came a song of praise and worship to Jesus. In the middle of night the Chief of Police personally came to release her saying, “I don’t understand. You are not afraid of anything!” and he invited her to come to visit the frightened women in his family and to tell them why she was not afraid. Then he said, “And I want you to sing that song.” There are other sorts of prison where praise can be just as powerful.
A Christian friend of mine wakes up in the middle of each night with excruciating leg pain. So he puts on a recording of monks singing Gregorian Chant and as he sings along with them he feels awesomely transported into the heavenly presence of God and falls back to sleep. There will always be a way in the Spirit to give thanks in all circumstances. In his book, “The Cross of Christ”, John Stott remarks that you will not find triumphant singing (like the “new song” of Revelation (5:9; 14:3)) in mosques or Buddhist temples. E. Stanley-Jones, a twentieth century missionary to India, says he once had a canary that wouldn’t sing unless it had a bath, and goes on to give a powerful lesson. “My soul is like that – it refuses to sing unless it is washed from guilt…” The song of the LAMB of God is a song of inner freedom from bondage by which a heart washed from guilt opens up the mouth in praise (Heb 10:22; cf. Luke 6:45; Ps 51:15). The power of the blood sacrifice of Christ is limitless.
In the Spirit we can all share in the overcoming life of Christ. “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet 2:5)
Contemporary Worship
Let me say a few things about some difference between much contemporary Church worship and biblical worship. The average Western Christian has a concept of worship as something which is localised in church buildings, rather than the offering up of life itself (Rom 12:1-2), as ritualised to tight orders of service [whether to tight written liturgies or the clock schedule for the TV/online presentation], rather than led by the Spirit (John 4:24) and as professionalised, i.e. led by specialists up the front, rather than a total congregational phenomenon (1 Cor 14:26).
One of the idols preventing contemporary Church music making holy disciples is that their lyrics fail to face up to the painfulness of life and so deny the power of the cross. There are exceptions to this e.g. the song by Matt Redman “Blessed be Your Name” we sang last week. We do need however prophetic musicians who will confront the prevailing sins of our time, such as injustice, inequality, materialism and sexual temptation which make it so very difficult to live lives worthy of the Lord (Eph 4:1; Phil 4:27 etc.). It’s easy to give lip service to the sacrifice of cross, but holy people know how excruciatingly painful it is to have our sins put to death by its power, and how inexpressibly wonderful the Christ-like fruit of such a mortification can be.
Conclusion
All Christians understand Jesus is reigning from heaven, some believers appreciate he is praying in heaven (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25) but few honour his singing over us today. Zephaniah teaches, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love i.e. God’s love revealed in the Lamb; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zeph 3:17). Then Hebrews quotes Jesus ““I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation i.e. church I will sing your praise.”” (2:12). Jesus is singing to us about the wisdom, love and perfect will of his Father, pre-eminently manifested through the sacrifice of the cross and we are the the fruit of his sacrifice of praise (Lev 7:12; Psalm 51:17; 107:22; 116:17; Heb 13:15). When the Lord looks back on the anguish of the cross, he is completely satisfied with how the Church will be with him in the heart of the Father forever (John 1:18; Col 3:1-3; Rev 19:1-9; 21:9-14). For our maturing God’s people today need a grand vision of the height, depth, length and breadth of the love of God summed up in the sacrifice of the cross (Eph 3:17-19). In sharing in the sacrifice of Jesus there are no limits to the self-sacrifice we are called upon to undergo for the good of our brothers and sisters and for the sake of a lost world. These are the greatest of all things….may the Spirit give us grace to join in the chorus of heaven around the throne of the Lamb by laying down our lives here on earth.