Sacrifice 1. The Foundation St Barnabas W. Leederville Num 28:1-8; Rom 11:28-12:2; 1 Pet 1:13-21
http://stbarnies.org/media/com_podcastmanager/190810PM1.mp3
Introduction
“It works because there’s no sacrifice.”, so said the slimmed down lady on the TV ad for a diet regime (Lite n’ Easy), concisely summing up a cultural view of suffering that has also invaded the Church. The subject of “sacrifice” is tremendously important and very difficult. Whilst we have a habit of elevating the status of others who have nobly sacrificed for our benefit, we are all naturally aversive to counting the cost (Luke 14:28). In an increasingly narcissistic and “selfie” oriented society the Church is called to bring a revelation of the power of godly sacrifice to heal a heart turned in on itself. Whilst some Australian Christians are committed to a lifestyle built on sacrifice, the whole life of Christ testifies that everything God builds is founded on counting the cost for others. The Church needs to embrace loss as the key to a holiness that brings God’s pleasure and creates a home for the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. Only the gospel can convince the selfish introverted human heart that it is God’s nature to sacrifice. This requires a radical change of perspective.
Sacrifice is the Beginning
Our reading from 1 Peter 1:13-21 says that Jesus is, “a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 …foreknown before the foundation of the world” (vv.19-20). Christ’s eternal destiny as a sacrifice is likewise found in Revelation’s testimony of “the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world” (13:8). Or, from a slightly different angle in Paul, “This (saving) grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Tim 1:9). The cross is not an afterthought by God to fix up a fallen world. At the centre of the Father’s eternal design for the universe was the sacrifice of his Son. God was forever carrying deep inside himself a willingness to lose so we might gain. This is “the wonderful exchange” of 2 Corinthians 8:9 “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” The unsurpassable wisdom of the cross is as eternal as God himself, a wisdom beyond human imagination that the Lord’s plan to maximise his self-giving to us meant the sacrifice of himself in death (Phil 2:8). The unsurpassable genius of the plan of God is that his own willingness to sacrifice is how he will pour out his life into us. The whole of creation and all of life must be viewed through the lens of the sacrifice of the cross.
The writer of Hebrews places Jesus at the centre of everything from the very start of his letter. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3). The word which brought each of us into existence and which sustains our existence moment by moment (Acts 17:25, 27) is the sacrificed word carrying all things forward to their ordained destiny. Once we know in our hearts how profound and unlimited in power the sacrifice of Christ is, we will be fully assured that nothing can frustrate the plan of God for this world or for our personal lives.
Paul possessed this certainty saying, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). If the really hard thing for God has been accomplished in the sacrifice of his Son it is inconceivable that his purposes for those in Christ could fail. “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Phil 1:6). Not all who start the journey of faith “finish well”, but all those who keep growing in a sense of God’s destiny for their lives and do finish well have embraced the cost of following Jesus as something to be treasured. Sacrifice has become part of their identity on the way to glory, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18). The whole of the book of Revelation upholds the prevailing power of the sacrifice of Christ to empower a struggling Church to finish well. It closes with a vision testifying that the solidity of the new creation is founded on the cross. The “lamp/light” of the heavenly Jerusalem is the Lamb (21:23), the same Lamb who John saw at the peak of his ascent into the heavenly world “standing as slaughtered” (5:6 cf. 1 Pet 1:18-20). The foundation upon which God is building his new creation above is the blood sacrifice of Christ (Heb 12:22-24). To see into these marvellous things is to possessed of an assurance that the Lord will return to renew everything.
Sacrifice and Joy
If sacrifice as the world sees it is dominated by loss and pain, sacrifice in the Bible issues in a triumphant joy. Our reading from Numbers 28:2-8 described the morning and evening sacrifices as a “pleasing aroma” to the Lord (vv. 2, 8). The background to these daily sacrifices is the rhythm of creation, where in Genesis 1 the morning and evening marks the span of a day during which God worked to bring things into being (vv. 3, 8, 13, 19, 23,31). The Lord was to be worshipped continually for his creation of the universe, his providential power in caring for our needs and his giving to us as male and female the pinnacle ruing position in creation. The daily repetition of these sacrifices provided a recurring picture of God’s generous sovereignty calling forth faithful human responsibility. Sacrifice was to be a response of gratitude for the richness of creation and covenant.
In scripture, God takes great delight in willing sacrifice. When Noah came out of the ark by faith he “took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar” and it was “pleasing aroma” to the LORD (Gen 8:20-21). This expression appears numerous times throughout scripture (Ex. 29:18, 25, 41; Lev. 1:9, 13, 17; Num 28:2; Ezek. 16:19; 20:41; 2 Cor. 2:15; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18). When in the Law the Israelites are commanded to bring “burnt offerings and sacrifices” there is also a command to “rejoice” before the Lord (Deut 12:7). There is a specific “thanksgiving sacrifice” (Lev 7:12) in the Law, and on those occasions when animal sacrifices were most prolific, like the bringing up of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem or opening of the temple, the joy of the people was most intense (1 Sam 6:12-15; 2 Chron 7:4-10). All old covenant joy is a prophetic preliminary to the limitless delight which would come through the sacrifice of the cross.
The great prophecy of the death of Jesus, Psalm 22 begins with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (v.1), and its whole first half is filled with anguish. But its second part (vv.21b-30) is exultant and triumphant because the psalm mirrors the death and resurrection of Christ. Look “to Jesus”, Hebrews exhorts us, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (12:2). The joy Jesus entered into in offering his life up as a sacrifice to God is indestructible.
Discerning Sacrifice
The spirituality of sacrifice in scripture is profound beyond our imaginations. When Adam and Eve foolishly disobeyed God’s word in Eden (Gen 2:17; 3:6, 13; 2 Cor 11:3), their hearts turned in on themselves. Refusing to sacrifice anything for God’s sake they fell in the terrible burden of self-centredness which is the very essence of evil (cf. Mark 7:21). If failure to sacrifice is at the root of original sin only willing sacrifice can undo the power of sin in us.
The writers of the Old Testament understood that for sacrifice to give God pleasure, it had to cost us something at the level of the heart. Any other form of sacrifice is simply religious selfishness. (Perhaps the very worst form of selfishness.) As the psalmist says, in a passage later applied to Jesus, “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted … Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me:8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”” (Ps 40:6-8 Heb 10:5-7). God was never interested in bulls and goats but only in a heart which desired to obey him (Ps 51:16-17; Rom 6:17). In going to the cross the all-loving Son of God wills to take into himself the rebellious will of a creation which has sought to un-Father God (John 8:44).
The Unique Sacrifice
Jesus prayer, ““Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36) is the prayer of a heart (Luke 6:45) perfectly dedicated to bringing pleasure to the Father, no matter what the cost. This is the “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”, the completely good, acceptable and perfect “spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1-2) the Father has always desired (John 4:23). The joy that flows to the Father through the agony of the cross is unshakeable eternal and his strength (Neh 8:10) to birth a new creation. At the visible level the body of Christ on the cross was just one of thousands crucified, but at the heart level Jesus’ motivation to bring joy to the Father by bringing us eternal life makes it like no other sacrifice. This pure holy sacrifice created a new depth of communion between God and humanity and humanity and God. It opens up for us a new depth of heart-understanding in the Spirit and a new level of insight into the divine destiny for all things. This infinite sacrifice in God the Son for God the Father has brought into being an indestructible joy that lies at the foundation of a whole new creation and whose presence can turn our wicked hearts inside out.
Christian Sacrifice
If the will of Jesus consecrated in sacrifice was the raw material out of which God fashioned the new life of resurrection, so it is with us also. True disciples of Jesus understand that the logic of their lives is the logic of sacrifice. Paul testifies to this. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20). “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” (Phil 2:17 cf. 2 Tim 4:6). As Jesus himself was perfected through sacrificial suffering (Heb 2:10; 5:7-9) so our communion with Christ is realised primarily by sacrifice in following him. The refusal to embrace this explains the loss of the missionary spirit in contemporary Western Christianity.
In preparing this sermon I was surprised by how many of the examples of sacrifice in my file came from the lives of pioneer missionaries. David Livingstone opened much of Africa up for the coming of the gospel. He suffered from malaria, dysentery, starvation, attacks on his life, kidnapping and the loss of his wife, but once said, “It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. [Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment.] All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which HE made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us.”….[If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honour, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?”] It was a revelation of the magnitude of God’s sacrifice in Christ that moved C.T. Studd, who founded WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ, WEC), “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” The greatest Protestant missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, though losing a wife and 3 children there, said in later years, “I never made a sacrifice…”.
These joyous satisfied pioneers had discovered that “in Christ” willing sacrifice is never the “waste” of a life but brings entry into the resurrection order of the new creation where there is limitless contentment. Can we say, do we say, from our hearts, “I have never made a sacrifice.” Such a testimony is extremely powerful in an increasingly discontented world.
Conclusion
What costs nothing is worth nothing, and ““He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”” (Jim Elliot). (Killed by Indians in the jungles of South America in 1956.) C.T. Studd truly said, “The measure of our sacrifice is the limit of our success. The greater the loss the greater the gain.” These are great truths, but they must be understood and applied through the lens of the cross and not self-effort. Paul said, “we suffer with Christ in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:17). And when he adds, we are “always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor 4:10) he means exactly what he says, we do not suffer simply for Jesus we suffer with Jesus. In this sharing with Christ we are by grace co-redeemers (2 Cor 6:1; Col 1:24). This vision of union with the self-sacrifice of Jesus has no limits.
Benjamin Warfield put it like this, “Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will we be to uplift. Wherever men succeed, there will we be to rejoice. Self-sacrifice… means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings and despairs.” Just as Jesus did in becoming a sacrifice for us.
Anglicans will be familiar with this prayer, “Father, we offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice through Jesus Christ our Lord, send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory.” May this be the prayer of us all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.