Reasonable Service of Worship (Serve Like Jesus)

Notes:

Opener:

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott Christianity Not the Religion of Jesus but Christ-Worship

“All other religions are independent, to a certain degree, of their founders, because these founders were nothing more than their first confessors. But Jesus was not the first Christian; He was or is the Christ. He is not the subject, but the object, of religion. Christianity is not the religion of Jesus … but Christ-worship.”

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott Christianity Not the Religion of Jesus but Christ-Worship

Herman Bavinck

Main text:

Romans 12:1–13 NASB95

1 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. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

Point 1: Pouring out your life is your “Reasonable service of worship”

Romans 12:1 NASB95

1 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.

liturgical words

There is alot going on in this verse. But I want to draw our attention to the liturgical words being used in this passage. John Stott says there are as many as five that point to the Old Testament Sacrificial religious system, but there are two that really stand out.

θυσίαν | The word for sacrifice when it reference a living and holy “sacrifice”. This is the same word used to reference sacrifices according to the Law of The Lord.

λατρείαν | This is the word when it says reasonable “service of worship.” We use three words to denote one word in the original language. That is because the word means “service” but it always has a liturgical or cultic connotation. It is used in Romans 9:4 when it says:

Romans 9:4 NASB95

4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,

This is actually extremely important friends. Paul here is going to tell us what New Testament Worship is.

Think about the 613 laws that are part of the Old Testament Law. Dr Michael Brown notes that some 75% of those law cannot be performed today because there is no temple. In other words they were ceremonial in nature. And at the heart of the Old Testament worship there was one activity that stood out from all the others: sacrifice.

Sacrifices in the OT

A faithful Jew brought four type of animal sacrifices: The Burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. Keep in mind the burnt offering was made morning and evening every day. Two additional lambs were sacrificed each sabbath. It was called a “continual burnt offering.”

They were offered at regular religious festivals: passover, feast of weeks, feast of trumpets, day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles.

Being a priest was a bloody job. Animal sacrifice was at the heart of the religious system.

Christ is the ultimate sacrifice

Jesus changed this obviously. He is that “once for all” sacrifice that did effectively what those other sacrifices could not do, make permanent lasting peace with God. Ephesians 5:1 calls this giving of Himself an “offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma”. The same word for sacrifice as used in our passage today.

What is NT Worship?

So if Christ is the ultimate and effectual sacrifice what becomes of Christian worship. How does the Christian worship having put faith in the “once for all” blood of Jesus?

Well number one we REMEMBER the once and for all sacrifice. We let the Word of Christ, the Gospel, dwell in us richly and sing songs and hims to one another. We proclaim Christ’s death until he comes. We have Christ centered songs, Christ centered preaching, Communion which its whole thing is the cross, Baptism which its whole thing is the cross (anytime those things become add ons to the effectual onnce for all sacrifice of the cross and not pictures pointing back to they speak against the cross and don’t honor it). The cross is once for all.

So we remember that Christ is the ultimate high priest and He is the ultimate sacrifice. BUT interestingly enough the New Testament doesn’t use these liturgical words for prayer, preaching, and singing songs. But there is one thing that it does. Something the Christian does that the New Testament calls worship explicitly with this same language. And its picking up your cross and following Jesus. Its putting your body on the alter as a living sacrifice God. It is truly, by the grace of the cross, loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is resisitng sin to the point of pouring out your life. It is as Paul could say being poured out as a drink offering. It is counting the cost and following Jesus.

You can’t sacrifice just a leg, or an arm, or your head. There was no taking your lamb to the priest in the old testament and going just take a leg was there? To be a sacrifice means by definition the giving of your very life. All of it! It is all of you given to God by the grace of God. You see Jesus gave himself up for us. And if you have put faith in Him and His once and for all sacrifice then you are a blood bought Christian. You are set free from sin, death, and the devil. You are made new. You are a child of God. You are born again. And the love of God has been poured out in your heart! And as this New Creation you present yourself back to God, all of you, for His service.

Romans 12:1 NASB95

1 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.

Do you see it now? This is the Christian’s reasonable service of worship! This is New Testament Christian worship.

Service vs Services

This mean New Testament Christian Worship has much more to do with how you sacrificially love and serve others than it does with religious ritual. This mean to be part of a local church you can’t just be a spectator you have to be a participant. And that word isn’t even strong enough. You have to be a member of the family.

The same word for “made” in Acts 20:28 when Paul says, “The Holy Spirit MADE you overseers” is the same word for “placed” in 1 Corinthians 12:18 when it says, “God has placed the members, each on of them, in the body, just as He desired.” Understand that an “overseer” is the New Testament pastor. God is just as interested in placing you as He is placing the leader. And friends we are not really worshipping unless we are laboring for the Lord together. This is why Paul could say be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. And why he could tell the Philippians to join him in his sufferings. To be a good leader he had to go that way himself but he wasn’t leading unless he was calling others to join him as well.

You may be wondering where do I start? Well good news. This same chapter tells exactly how the Christian should live this out practically. Are you ready?

Point 2: A Living & Holy Sacrifice Serves Others

Alright the fun begins.

2 Sections

If I look at verses 3 through 21 I can more or less divide it up into two sections. Verses 3-8 on exercising your spiritual gift and role in the church. Verses 9-21 the things every Christian is called to do. So we could call it personal calling and the calling of every Christian. Please here me loud and clear BOTH of these must be exercised. You will find that they fuel each other but to focus on one and neglect the other is a disservice to those around you.

Some people do this. All they want to do is the one thing or few things they believe they are personally called to and neglect the things that every Christian is called to.

Imagine what kind of lousy father I would be if I only ever did what I personally felt like I was called to do and I neglected everything a father in general was called to do in Scripture. I would be a lousy Father. It doesn’t work does it? And in fact the general commands are the frame work in which specific calling must operate.

This is true with spiritual gifts as well. The Christian who is willing to be the least, to wash the feet of the saints, to practice hospitality, to bless others is much more likely to grow in their spiritual gifting. Someone who plays sports in general is much more likely to find out if they are particularly good at a certain sport, right?

An object in motion tends to stay in motion.

Faithful with little faithful with much. So this is a both-and concept here in Romans 12.

Serving Others

But notice whether it is spiritual gifts or they are general imperatives for all Christians they are entirely focused on serving others!

Romans 12:5 NASB95

5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

So we do it for the glory of God, an acceptable sacrifice, and for the edification of others in Christ, building up the body.

"Studies have shown that in the average church, 15 percent are truly active both in terms of working in the church and in terms of giving. If only 15 percent of our body parts functioned, we would be virtually comatose. Osborne, Grant. R. (2004). Romans (p. 325). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.”

The same is obviously true of the general commands. It quite literally says this:

Romans 12:10 NASB95

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

To be a living sacrifice is to serve others! Friends serving is more than a Christian discipline. It is more than Christian duty. It is more than extra credit in the household of God. It is WORSHIP. It is holy and acceptable and pleasing worship to God because it imitates the Messiah and it imitates His cross!

With that being said lets look at this incredibly practical advice on Spiritual Gifts.

Point 3: A Living and Holy Sacrifice Exercises Their Spiritual Gifts

There are three things you can do to find and exercise your spiritual gift.

Number 1 is exercise humility

Romans 12:3 NASB95

3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

I once upon a time had a passionate brother in the Lord ask if I believed a Christian can have all the spiritual gifts. And my answer is “not really.” Obviously that was a mark of true apostleship so a Christian can in a technical sense. But for all Christians to pursue such a thing I think is misguided at best. This verse is why. Arrogance is the enemy of service! Spiritual Gifts, while they edify you, are given to you to edify others. Ask anyone who has been used by the Lord. Is it not rewarding. But at the same time your intentions are to love and edify others. When I am preparing a sermon I have a great time with God. I love spending time with Him. He stirs things up in me. He shows me things. He enlightens my heart in the knowledge of Him. He causes me to glory in the Gospel. It is a good time with God. But if I never used that to edify and serve others I would not be walking in any gifting our calling.

Someone who makes their gifting only about themself is like a battleship that never gets released to out to see. It looks nice but it has never touched the water let alone war.

If John the Baptist who was the culmination of the prophets preparing the way for YHWH in the flesh could say, “He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease” then how much more can we pick up that mantra! And Remember we right here in the text we see the purpose of the gifts they are an offering, empowered by the mercies of God, to be presented, an offering, back to God. So the gifts are not about exalting ourselves.

Body of Christ

Furthermore the text says we are “one body in Christ”. It is not just that you have a gift to complement your Christian life but you strategicaly placed to fulfill a calling of what it means for the church to be His body. Every spiritual gift is a reflection of Jesus. Every spiritual gift was modeled in essence by Jesus. When we humbly play are part, and don’t try to be something we are not we help paint this beautiful picture of Christ. But if we think the gifts are to exalt our selves or we try to be something we are not we start to effectively go, “Look at me, look at me...” instead of look at Christ.

Further to try in operate in a gifting you don’t have is a major mistake. Again, this can’t be used as an excuse to not serve in all the 1,000 ways the New Testament calls all believers to serve! But what a mistake for someone without the gift of teaching to try and be a teacher of all. What a diservice for someone without the gift of prophecy to prophesy. They will only be operating in the flesh.

Pride is deceitful. It will make you think you are something when you are not. Sometimes people wonder how can some of these health, wealth and prosperity preachers garner such a large following and be such bad bible teachers. Is it just that they tickle the ears of their congregants? Perhaps. Or perhaps they had gifting in one area… maybe healing or generosity and they took their success to mean they should also teach. I don’t know but pride will get you in trouble. It will hurt others.

Some of you today may be going well I know I don’t have this gift. To you I would say great job. 1) that shows humility. 2) Your obeying the biblical command in not trying to be something your not.

I had this meeting recently and they asked, almost implied based on our brief conversation, that i had the gift of evangelism because I was talking about church planting so much. I said no actually. I am the least gifted in this area of anyone i know. Not only am I not an evangelist I do not have the spiritual gift of evangelism. But I still understand as a born again Christian I am still called to make disciples and be on mission.

So I am not going to neglect the general command for all Christians, but I also am not going to think more highly of myself than I ought.

2. What is your Gift?

God has alloted to each a measure of faith. Soberly figure out what this is. Step one is figure out what that’s not. Step 2 is figure out what that is. Verse 6 tells us “we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to each of us.” The word for “gifts” here is “χαρίσματα” from charisma. This word has the same root as the word Paul used in verse three, “For through the GRACE”. These are gifts of God that come at the Holy Spirit’s discretion and direction. They are gifts of the Spirit. This same principled truth of the cross “by the mercies of God” that we are called to live the sacrificial Christian life are at work in the spiritual gifts. They are grace from God.

We are a church that believes in the Spiritual gifts because we are a church that believes in the Bible. If you regected the teaching on the gifts outright you would not be able to obey Romans 12 wholely. Furthermore the Scriptures litterally tells us things like:

1 Thessalonians 5:19–20 NASB95

19 Do not quench the Spirit; 20 do not despise prophetic utterances.

To take a theological position that the gifts of the Holy Spirit has ceased is directly go against this command with out any Scriptural support. The idea that they would cease when the NT cannon was complete is not found in the Scriptures. Our first complete list of the NT comes from one of my favorite men of church history, Athanisus, in 327 AD. That’s silly to think that is when. Furthermore teh early church had “the teachings of the apostles” from day one. In fact not only did they have them they devoted themselves to it! Also the New Testament tells us when they will cease… when the Lord returns!

1 Corinthians 1:4–8 NASB95

4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

the word gifts here is the same word used here in Romans and later in Corinthians on the whole section on gifts. Furthermore 1 Corinthians 12 tells us the gifts will cease when “the perfect comes” but faith, hope and love will remain. The perfect is clearly a reference to the return of the Lord. Ephesians 4:13 uses the same word and in context is talking about the gifts building up the body of Christ until we are just like Him:

Ephesians 4:13 NASB95

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

the word is actually used in Romans 12:2....

Romans 12:2 NASB95

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.

The word “prove” hear means to “prove by testing”. And we of course know in context here that Spiritual gifts are part of that edification process. The Apostle John explains the same idea really simply:

1 John 3:2 NASB95

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

I know I am beating a dead horse but I know someone here probably needs to hear this today. Belief in the Spiritual gifts is the biblical position.

We need not put the gifts of the Spirit against Scripture. In fact the Holy Spirit is the one who said to be the author of Scripture. That is why when quoting it the apostles would say, “The Spirit says”. That is also why Paul would say ALL Scripture is “God breathed.”

Furthermore there is no conflict in Scripture. The gift of teaching is obviously compliment to Scripture not a replacement. When it becomes a replacement we have a major problem. The gift of healing obviously compliments the passages that tell us to pray for and heal the sick. They aren’t working against eachother nor replacing eathother. They are a harmony not a clashing. Now amazingly enough the Apostles did write Scripture. They knew as authoritative witnesses of Jesus, chosen by Him, they had a resonsibility in this area. Non apostlic, New Testament prophecy, is not in competition with that. We do believe the cannon is closed because the cannon is concerened with preserving the message, work (most importantly the death and resurrection), and revelation of Jesus. We need enlghtenment to take us deeper into our understanding of that. But we don’t need new revelation of that. Because Jesus is the ultimate and perfect revelation of God. He is God in the flesh. because it is impossible to top that, apart say from the return of the Lord, there is nothing to add!

Here is the amazing thing then the primary purpose of Scripture is the revelation of Jesus. And the primary purpose of the gifts is also Jesus!

Paul says, “through the grace given to me....” IN other words as an apostle… he instrcuts these thing. You can go out there and find this preacher or that preacher that may disagree with me on the gifts. And certainly I don’t know all there is to know about them. But I do know they are commanded for the body of Christ. and I am going to stick with the apostles on this. and in as much i am lacking in the gifts I will simply say: “God give me grace”.

So with all that being said… you must ask. What is your gift?

“God has alloted to each a measure of faith” Romans 12:3 tells us. And Romans 12:6 says, “We HAVE GIFTS”… Did you hear that? “We have gifts” that “differ acording to the grace given to us.” You must ask what is your gift.

These are supernatural gifts. These are gifts the Holy Spirit deposited when you were born again. Some practical advise:

Have a sound mind. A sound mind dis a renewed Mind. Walking in obedient faith is so key and foundational to figuring this out. A sound mind is a renewed mind.

Look for the hand of God. This is not an exhaustive list but it mentions Prophecy, serving, teaching, generosity, leadership, and mercy. Prophecy is might be obvious to spot the hand of God but you should look for it in all of these. These are all supernatural giftings. Craig Keener says: “Most of ancient Judaism regarded prophecy as supernatural in a way different from the other gifts Paul lists here. God could use the other gifts here, but most of ancient Judaism saw them as activities one did for God, whereas they thought of prophecy as a divine “possession” that was very rare in their own day. That Paul regards all these gifts as divine empowerments and prophecy as one among many suggests how thoroughly he expects the God who worked miracles in the Old Testament to continue to work this way regularly in the life of the church.” If you have the spiritual gift of mercy no only will you show mercy with supernatural strength and compassion but you will see how it really ministers and blesses people in a way it doesn’t when others do the same thing. God is at work in it. Someone who has the spiritual gift of generosity, and remember we are called to be generous, will give all the time with supernatural compulsion. They will see and bless people they didn’t know need blessing, only God knew. And those people will be ministered to in far more than a mere natural way. Beacause God is at work. Look for the hand of God.

Roecognized by others. Do you do it and is it recognized by others. Now don’t necassarily care about what everyone things. But if you have leaders, older saints who have walked with the Lord for years, and even godly peers recognizing this gifting in you. That is a good sign. It could be small. It could be a single ember we will talk about that more in a minute. Timothy received his gifts through the laying on of hands by the elders. It was confirmed by others.

Seek it. If you go I just don’t know. That’s okay. Steward it isn’t the only command. There is also the command to seek it… in 1 Corinthians 14. And if you have one gift you can seek another. As much as some of us really like order and programs and methodology the Holy Spirit does what He wants and He invites us to seek Him. You do need to absolutely make sure you are not just seeking though. You also need to be doing the Word… obeying all the general commands we will talk about next week. In obedience, in keeping in step with the Spirit, you will find His anointing.

You have the Spirit. Remember God’s presence is the ultimate Gift. He gaves us His Son, our Great God and Savior. He comes and makes His home with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. You have everything you need to figure this out. Coach is working with you one on one if you will. Interestingly enough as John Stott points out. That the spiritual gifts given in Ephesians 4 come from God the Son, In 1 Corinthians 12 the Holy Spirit, and here in Romans 12… if you had to pick it seems contextually God the Father. John Stott calls them “gifts of trinitarian grace.” and just know that to be a Christian is be in right intimate fellowship with God. Trust Him to take care of and equip you as you walk with Him.

3. Use your GIFT.

The last thing is you need to use your GIFT. You need to steward it. Paul tells Timothy to:

1 Timothy 1:6–7 NASB95

6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, 7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.

Kindle afresh. Stir up. We are in camping season and if you have ever tried to make a fire and it starts to burn but you don’t pay it much attention and it starts to just fizzle out. What do you do. You stir it up. You invest into it.

Your gifting can’t be just sitting in the garage getting dusty and rustying up. It must be used. You can grow in your gifting but it must be used.

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When I was part of Bryan’s church back in Georgia I never preached on a Sunday did you know that. Not once. Still haven’t to this day. What’s up grace fellowship? Did that stop me from exercising my gift? Absolutely not. I was going to use it in conversations, one on one I was going to use it in the highways and byways. I ended up teaching elementary age kids at the church at the this night that was called disciple night where all kids from elementary upward through high school would go. and i would go all out. We did this series on the 10 commandments and all the teachers could contribute to it. So i wrote up this little thing showing that the wages of sin is death from the 10 commandments and the associate pastor one day at the end pulls it out and shows it to me have you seen this thing? I love this. I was like yeah. I wrote it. I could tell he was surprised. But you see i didn’t have to wait to use my gift God had given me a million opportunities now and was going to be faithful no matter how big or small.

All that to say don’t let lack of opportunity be your hindrance. In ministry their infinite supply of people that need help. All of us need each other. and if we don’t each grab the bull by the horns and those who have the gifting of service serve, and teaching teach, and prophecy prophesy, and so on and so forth then we will be lacking in some area becomes every member God has placed.

What I loved about James and Dawn before they left for texas is I would just randomly find out about all the different people they were meeting with and having over. No one asked them to do that. They just did it. Love has no bounds. Love is not easily limited nor detered. They just loved people. That’s the heart of it, is it not?