Word of Salvation – Vol.41 No.38 - October 1996

 

Worship: an Everyday Response of Thanks

 

Sermon by Rev G Vander Kolk on Romans 12:1-2

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 1:10-20

Suggested Hymns:

BoW 515; 104a; 32; 182; 528

 

Beloved Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction

In Luke 17, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and as he is passing through a village, ten lepers stood at a distance and called out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.”  Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests and on their way there they were healed.  One, of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself down at Jesus' feet and thanked him and he was a Samaritan.

Christianity is all about thankfulness.  Thankfulness and worship are really two ways of describing our response to God.

The Roman sage, Cicero described thankfulness as the "mother of all virtues."  Karl Barth, a Swiss theologian said, "Gratitude is the one thing which is unconditionally and inescapably demanded of us.”

The apostle Paul says this of non-believers: “Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God or gave thanks to him..." (Rom 1:21).

1.  The Basis of Service is Our Relationship with Christ

In the first verse of our text we read, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual worship."

The apostle Paul is saying that our worship is based solely on the mercies of the Lord.  Worship, in all its diversity, is offered to God on the basis of God's mercy.  Worship is a response of thankfulness to the grace of God.  If one were to look at sacrifice and worship in the Old Testament, one would see a pattern.  First of all God's grace, then a human response of worship.

When Noah came out of the ark after the catastrophic flood, the first thing that he did was build an altar to the Lord.  When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, escaping from the Egyptians, they burst forth in songs of worship: "I will sing onto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea..." (Ex 15:21).

When the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land, they built an altar and made sacrifices unto the Lord.  When Israel won a war against their enemies, they built an altar unto the Lord.  Worship is a response to the gracious compassion of the Lord.

Our own worship is a response to the mercies of the Lord shown to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Worship is a response of thankfulness.  To know that Christ was humiliated for our sinfulness – that they mocked and ridiculed him, spat on him and scourged him so that we might be saved – is something that should produce within us a thankfulness that motivates us to worship God.  Once we were dead to sin, but now we are alive to God.

Paul, in Romans 7, said, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?" His response, "Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord." He reminds his hearers that this is the motivation for worship.  Paul says, "in view of God's mercy, offer yourselves as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God -- which is your spiritual worship."

Worship is a response!  In that sense it is quite possible to come to church on a Sunday morning and do all the ritual involved in worship – even to sing loudly and strongly – but not have been worshipping at all.  Worship must be motivated out of thankfulness for the mercies of the Lord.

Our understanding of ourselves has everything to do with worship.  If we are smug about ourselves, then thankfulness is not going to motivate us.  If we don't see ourselves like Paul as being the "worst of sinners," then our gratitude is going to be minimal.  Only when we recognise our need for a Saviour and what Christ came to achieve, can we truly worship.

What is to be the instrument of worship?   The answer is: our body.  But in view of God's mercies we are to present ourselves – “our bodies," the text says – as "living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." The term "body," John Calvin said, means, "not only our skin and bones, but the totality of which we are composed.  He adopted this word that he might fully designate who we are, for the members of that body are instruments by which we carry out our purpose." (Hendriksen, P.401.  Commentary on Romans)

The body is the totality of who we are!  No area of our life – physical, emotional, spiritual – is excluded.  The Christian is to present his whole life as a sacrifice.  Such sacrifice is "living" and "holy."

Firstly, our worship is living.  The word, "living," means the opposite to "dying."  When Jesus offered the woman at the well in Samaria "living water" (John 4), he was offering her a drink that would forever quench her thirst.  Living means perpetual.  When Jesus offered his disciples "living bread," he was offering them bread that would never lose its power to nourish – bread that would never turn mouldy or go off.

When the apostle Peter talks about "living hope", he is talking about hope that never fails.  While the sacrifices that the Israelites offered at the altar were once for all – they were consumed by fire – the service and worship of a Christian must go on and on.

Secondly, such service and worship are "holy".  The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5:2, talks about a sweet smelling aroma that is holy and pleasing to God.  Holy means set apart and perfect.  Instead of a sacrifice that is blemished, God is after a sacrifice that is holy – done from pure motives for his praise and glory.

In the Old Testament the people of Israel were to bring a lamb, or a goat, or some other gift to sacrifice to God.  These animal sacrifices were to be the best.  The lamb was to be unblemished.  The lamb was to be the very best, rather than the cheapest – the one that would get the lowest price at the market.

Believe me, the Israelites were tempted to give cheaply rather than richly.

So often in our walk with the Lord we can be tempted to bring God the least rather than the best.  God gets the least of our time – the leftovers.  The time before we go to bed at night, when we are feeling tired and worn out.  Table devotions squeezed in between dessert and the 6.30 news.  He gets the leftover night in the week for Bible Study – if nothing else is on.

When it comes to money, God gets what is left in our wallets on the Sunday morning.  Instead of the first priority, God can become the "God of the leftovers" - in time, in money, in worship.

This is real worship, congregation!  Real worship is to present ourselves, in every area of life, as a living and holy sacrifice to God.  The term "worship" here, then, is not something that is done on a Sunday morning and evening, but something that is done every day – in every area of life.  Many of us think in terms of "Sunday worship” but “Sunday worship" has everything to do with "Monday's obedience" and "Tuesday's gratitude."

If you have lived a life that is for yourself throughout the week, without thought of God and his gifts, then your worship on a Sunday is a total flop as far as God is concerned.  It is not living and holy worship.

Listen to the words of the prophet Amos (5:21-22): "I hate, I despise your religious feasts, I cannot stand your assemblies.  Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.  Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.  Away with the noise of your songs!  I will not listen to the music of your harps.  But let justice role on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!"

Worship, of course, is the topic of the 80s and 90s.  Our own denomination has had a number of conferences about "worship."  Unfortunately, the discussions usually involve the Sunday worship service rather than whole, all of life worship.  We are tempted to spend so much time debating and discussing the pros and cons of what is involved in a "worship service," that we are in danger of losing sight of the other six days in the week – the other 90 hours of time awake for the Lord.  According to the prophet Amos, organised worship has everything to do with everyday, ordinary worship.

If the other six days are not days in which we offer ourselves to God, then "Sunday Worship" has no meaning for God.  If the other six days of the week are not days in which we think through our devotion and service to God – using our spiritual gifts – then we have somehow misunderstood what worship is all about.  Worship must be "living and holy".  Worship must be a state of perpetual thanks to God.  Christian living cannot be divorced from the Sunday worship service.

The Sunday worship service is the highlight of the week!  It is a time when we receive encouragement from the Word and where we give physical expression to the fact that we are the body of Christ.  Sunday worship is vitally important!  It, the Lord willing, should stir us to offer ourselves with new enthusiasm to the task of Christian worship and service during the week.

2.  Do Not Be Conformed But Transformed

Now to give more flesh to real worship – living, whole of life worship Paul goes on to say, "Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds."  We need to realise that our devotion to Christ must lead to a different way of life.  The apostle Paul gives us both a negative and positive statement.

Negatively, our life must not be conformed to the pattern of this world.  On the basis of the gospel, the light of the mercies of the Lord, there is only one possibility opened to Christians.  That is to resist the process of being continually moulded by the world.  This is an important statement by Paul.  He recognises that we are not helpless victims but able to resist.  We have been given the armour of God to resist the evil one.  We have the Spirit of God – the Spirit of Power within, enabling us to battle the power of our human natures.  We are called to do all in our power not to conform to this world.

Yes, congregation, we need to hear these words again!  Surveys in America have shown that Christians are divorcing at the same rate as non-Christians.  So much for "family values"!  People who confess they are Christians are having abortions at the same rate as non-Christians!  Too often we Christians watch the same R or M rated movies that are full of smut and violence.  Too often we happily read the same novels.  How many people are picking up magazines like "Cosmopolitan" and filling their minds with rubbish.  How easily are the young people influenced to swear and use ungodly talk because they allow themselves to be influenced by the world.

Hendriksen, in his commentary, said, “There is hardly an end to this list."  The world tells us that if it feels good, do it, and we can easily follow the ways of the world instead of the ways of God.  If we are being conformed to this world, then our "worship" is going to be very disappointing to God.

Positively, the apostle urges us to be transformed in the renewal of our minds.  The word "transformed" means to be continually moulded, re-made, so that we conform more and more to the image of Christ.  It is interesting that Paul points to the mind – the heart.  Outward change comes through an inward change.

There are a few interesting points about the word "transformed":

Firstly, the word "transformed” conveys the thought of being continually changed.  It is not a once-off thing.

Secondly, the verb "transformed” conveys the meaning of "let yourself be transformed."  Let Christ remake you.  In other words, you don't change yourself.  In 1Cor.3:18, we also read the word transformed, where we read that as we stare at Christ we will be changed from glory to glory.  The Greek word being, "metamorpho," from which we get our word, "metamorphoses".

Thirdly, we are to be "transformed."  We are ordered to stare at Christ, to meditate on the "Word become flesh, and to grow.

CONCLUSION

The result of this is that we will know what the will of God is.  He will direct us so that we can live lives that are in conformity to his will.  Congregation, life is about growth.  To say "no" to the world and "yes" to God.

May our worship be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  May all that we do, whether in word or deed, be done in the name of Christ, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.

That is worship!

Amen.