A Sacrificial Life

Gallipoli

It has been said that the most successful operation of the whole campaign was the evacuation of the troops at the end of December.

In the end, historians tend to agree that this particular campaign had little to no influence on the overall course of the war.

Now I think there is something remarkable about this.

Let me just for a moment take it out of the context of war.

Now I would argue that people in general are happy to make sacrifices in there lives. And by sacrifices, I’m talking about voluntarily going without something they want. But almost always, when they make whatever sacrifice it might be, there is an expectation that comes with that sacrifice.

For example, an employee might sacrifice their weekend for their employer, but with the expectation that they’ll be rewarded, even if not in money, but in the expectation that they may gain favour with the boss - and who knows what benefits come from a happy boss!

But let’s take that example and say that every time the employee gives up their weekend there is no recompense and no recognition, more than likely, the employee will become less and less likely to keep doing it.

That’s because, if we give something up, we want something in return.

Now let’s go back to Gallipoli. We have a bit of a problem in that they gave a very big sacrifice only for historians to say, well, it didn’t influence the war much.

So, do we conclude that the sacrifice was meaningless because it didn’t produce a result?

Well no. You see, while we might be able to argue about the rights and wrongs of war, but war is able to teach us a thing or two about sacrifice, and I’m going to suggest, that it is quite a different concept to what we are more used to.

Now I recognise there are lots of different reasons why someone might voluntarily sign up as a soldier. Perhaps there is the sense of adventure. Maybe they want to prove themselves. Or possibly there might have been a bit of pressure put on them.

But for most, if not all, I think each soldier has a deep respect for their country. There country has been more or less good to them. It has given them the opportunities they need. Perhaps more importantly, it is part of who they are.

And so they sign up, knowing that there is a good chance that they will be killed or seriously injured because they value their country.

Now I want to suggest that this is actually is a glimpse of a type of sacrifice that we rarely see today outside of a military context.

You see, these soldiers that approached ANZAC cove, they didn’t do it for the money. They didn’t do it because they had some gripe against the people of Turkey.

They did it because they loved our country.

This morning, it’s actually not my intention to glorify this soldiers. They would have had their faults like the rest of us. Rather I want to use them as an example to help us understand the concept of sacrifice.

You see, this morning, I want to suggest that our Christian understanding of sacrifice must lose the connection with an expectation of something in return.

So let’s explore this idea of sacrifice now.

OT Sacrifice

In the Old Testament, we see what at first appearance is quite a different understanding of sacrifice.

Actually, let’s go all the way back to Genesis chapter 4 where we find Cain and Abel. Cain is working the soil and Abel is keeping the flocks.

Early in this chapter, we see Cain bringing some fruit from the soil and Abel brought an offering which was described as the “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock”.

Now it might not have used the word sacrifice there, but that is what it was.

Cain also gave an offering from the fruit of the soil, but we get a curious response from God that Abel’s offering was looked on with favour but Cain’s was not.

It doesn’t spell out clearly why this is the case, but the implication seems to be that because Abel’s offering came from the firstborn, it was a real sacrifice, whereas presumably, Cain’s offering was just some of the leftovers.

Well, following Abel’s sacrifice, we see this type of sacrifice become embedded in the way the Israelites worshipped and honoured God. In fact, we see quite an established system of sacrifices, some to atone for sin, but others for thanksgiving or as a free will offering.

Jesus

This idea of sacrifice however finds fulfillment in the New Testament as Jesus becomes our perfect sacrifice.

It is an important clarification to make - that Jesus doesn’t abandon the old system, rather he fulfills it.

When Jesus died on the cross, he became the ultimate sacrifice.

The book of Hebrews describes well for us the transition from the old system of sacrifices to Jesus.

Hebrews 10:11–14 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.

Romans

But let me take you back to the book of Romans where our passage for this morning comes from.

Now later in this year, it is actually my intention to go through the first 8 chapters of this book. You see this letter of Paul’s which is addressed to “all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people”, is actually one of our best descriptions we have of what God has done for us.

It starts by describing in quite some detail how we all are sinners and fall short of God’s glory.

But in our wretchedness, Paul then describes God’s great mercy, taking us from this helpless place and bringing us back into fellowship with God.

Now there are many great and powerful verses in this letter, but let me take you to one in chapter 5.

Romans 5:6–8 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is actually the crux of what we believe. It is only by one sacrifice that we have any hope at all.

Okay, well, we could spend more time fleshing this out - but that’s what I’m going to do in an upcoming sermon series, so for now, just know that the first eleven chapters of Roman’s essentially sets out the theology that God saves us from our sin.

But then as we get to chapter 12, Paul shifts gear somewhat.

He goes from saying what Christ has done for us, to what we should do in return.

If you have chapter 12 open then look at that with me now.

It starts with a “therefore” - in others words, what he’s about to say follows on from what he has just described.

He then says: “I urge you, brothers and sisters”. There is a strength in this plea. In other words, he’s not just offering up a few good suggestions, rather he will be offering up something that is actually very important.

But before he gets to the thing he actually wants for us, he wants to make absolute certain why we’re going to be doing what we’ll be doing.

And so he reminds us… “in view of God’s mercy...”

Now we’re about to get back to this theme of sacrifice which I’ve started with, but it is so important for us to realise one very important fact. Any sacrifice that we offer, should all come from a knowledge of a sacrifice that came before us - that is, the sacrifice of Jesus.

And so we get to the instruction that Paul is urging us towards - and that is, that we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.

What I love about this is that in doing so, we are brought back to a very Old Testament concept, but in such a New Testament way.

You see, just because we are in the age of the New Testament, doesn’t mean we just ignore what the Old Testament says. We still offer sacrifices, but in such a way that we do it in light of what Jesus has done. In other words, we don’t need to kill any animals, rather, like Christ we offer ourselves.

So what is a “living sacrifice”? Well, it is giving ourselves in a way that is pleasing to God.

But then this begs the next question: what is it that is pleasing to God?

Well let me go back to Cain and Abel for a moment. Now I recognise it wasn’t spelt out for us there, but it would seem that the problem with Cain’s offering was that it was just of the leftovers. Quite likely it didn’t cost him at all. He served him self first, and then what was left was God’s.

This is not a sacrifice.

Now sometimes my daughters will get a big stash of lollies - say after a party.

Occasionally I’ll then get surprised by their generosity as I watch them give away a portion of their lollies to others. Until it dawns on me - they’re not being generous - they’re giving away the lollies they don’t like.

Although just to be fair - at times they can actually be generous and it is wonderful to watch when they do it joyfully.

But giving away that which is of no value to you is not a sacrifice and its hardly a way to give honour to God.

If something doesn’t cost you, you really need to ask the question - am I really offering my body as a living sacrifice?

You see, being a living sacrifice is not about doing something for something in return. It is about giving of yourself because of what has already been done to you.

This can play out in lots of ways in practice.

Quite possibly it will be giving of your time. I know sometimes we feel so time pressured. There are so many tasks and so little time to do them. Now of course we do need to be careful of not burning ourselves out. Rest does need to factor into what we do, but at times, helping someone out will eat into our recreation time - and we should see this as part of being a living sacrifice.

Being a living sacrifice might also involve giving of our resources including our money. Again, it is not just about the surplus of our resources. Now, when it comes to our resources, we do need to use wisdom. For example, if you have a family, you need to be able to provide for them. But the problem is, we become so accustomed to a life of luxury, that we seem to think providing means having all the latest things. But we need to be able to give in a sacrificial way.

There are many other examples we could think of - but the point I want to stress this morning is that when we act in this way - it should not be motivated by a potential reward - it should be motivated by the fact that God has shown his mercy to you.

Just like the soldier who puts his life on the line because of his country, we need to give our bodies in a selfless way because we our citizens of the greatest kingdom.

It is when we live this way that we will find our true and proper worship.

Sometimes worship because a synonym for singing. And certainly singing is a great way to show worship. But true worship is so much more. It is about the way we live - living sacrificially because of what Jesus has done.

Renewing your mind

Now, so far Paul’s instruction is about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice.

But let’s come back to those soldiers coming ashore at Gallipoli.

Now, it was not just about dying for the sake of dying. Rather they were following specific orders. The soldiers would be obeying the their commanding officers. The commanding officers would be obeying the generals. And even the generals were following orders from those at the top who had the big picture of what was going on.

Now let’s apply this idea to our own idea of being a living sacrifice.

You see, this is not about self-flagellation - although I do recognise that various Christians throughout history have in fact practiced self-flagellation by flogging themselves with whips as some sort of devotion.

Rather, just like the soldier receives his orders, we get our orders from God.

But how do we do this? Well, sometimes we might give the answer pray, and that is actually a good answer, but I love the way that Paul describes it here in verse 2.

He says:

Romans 12:2 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Firstly, it says “do not conform to the patterns of this world” - well to do that, we actually need to understand the patterns of this world. Part of the problem is that we can sometimes become so oblivious to the fact that the world is different to what we should be doing.

Now in our current time, there are some big ticket items which we will all be aware of - perhaps most prominently a very different sexual ethic. But the problem with this is that in our attention being drawn to this, we actually start to miss the fact that other patterns of the world, like greed, pride, selfishness and the like suck us in. We live in a consumeristic world and we hardly recognise that at its root is something very different to the pattern God provides.

So firstly we need to become aware of this.

But then open our minds to being renewed by God’s will. This means seeking out God’s will. At a minimum we need to be reading our Bibles.

But we need self-reflection as we compare our thinking with the patterns of the world.

The great thing is that as we open up our minds for this renewing, it is not us that actually makes our mind new - but the Holy Spirit who shapes our thinking.

As our minds are renewed - then we are in a position to be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As you can see by this description, to be able to get to the point where you can see God’s will, you actually need to train your mind.

Again this brings us back to the idea of the soldier at war. For the soldier to automatically be at the point where they can just obey on command - they actually need training. In their training you could say they essentially have it beaten out of themselves that they can just do what they like. A command is given. They obey.

As we allow our minds to be transformed, we too can be like that with God. We change from our natural instinct to be to serve ourselves, to an instinct where we naturally do it’s God’s way.

And in this, we can see how it is all linked.

To offer your bodies as a living sacrifice in a way that is holy and pleasing to God, we need to have the training of the mind so that we can know God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.

Conclusion

This morning our nation will remember that day the ANZACs first arrived on the banks only to be slaughtered. It wasn’t pretty. And not only was it not pretty, it didn’t even really serve the overall war project very well.

But as horrific as it was - there is something oddly beautiful about it. We remember men who acted not from selfish motives - but because they wanted to honour there country.

We can learn from them.

Not as citizens of Australia - but as citizens of a far greater kingdom.

Our sacrifice is of a very different nature to the troops. As citizens of heaven, we give a living sacrifice - one that is based on the good pleasing and perfect will of the Father.

So let me pray...