1 Peter 2:4-12
You are not alone!
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Some years ago, when I lived in St Albans, I used to do a Sunday school on the childrens word of the local hospital. We would get the kids and parents together on Sunday morning for an hour, sing some songs and tell them a story. Once, when I was doing the story, I slipped into Christian jargon, “All you have to do”, I said, “Is come to Jesus”. Straight away a little girl put up her hand, “But where is he?” she asked. It is a great question.
Christians like to think in abstract ways, children think in concrete terms!
Peter talks about coming to Jesus in his first letter (4) but as far as he is concerned, there is a concrete manifestation of his presence here on earth – the church. This is not a building made of stone but an international community of people (5), and when you encounter one of their local groups, you ought to sense the presence of Jesus… if you don’t then there is something wrong. Jesus may not be visible, but his church is.
But what is this community meant to be doing? Peter is clear about the church’s purpose (5) we are a priesthood that exists to worship God by offering spiritual sacrifices to him… but what are they?
"Spiritual sacrifices” – sounds good!
'Spiritual' is a word we use a lot.
My local bookshop has a ‘spirituality’ section – I took a tape measure in there last week and there are thirty yards of shelves on spirituality. Most of this stuff is about pseudo-spiritual flim flam, and that is just how people like it!]
A ‘spiritual sacrifice’ would seem to suit our generation down to the ground… a vague, woolly, ill-defined sort of sacrifice. We could cope with that, couldn’t we?
Wait a minute! Jesus tells us that ‘God is spirit’ – the creator of the solid reality you see around you is spirit. That means that spirit is more solid and more real than concrete, than granite, more real than anything you can imagine.
In his book, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis imagines a busload of tourists from earth arriving in heaven. They wander across a lawn and find that the grass is so sharp and hard that it goes straight through the soles of their shoes and sticks into their feet. Compared to spiritual reality we are insubstantial ghosts!
So ‘spiritual sacrifices’ are solid and substantial things! But I still haven’t answered the question… what are they?
Aren’t sacrifices a thing of the past?
In the Old Testament, sacrificing animals was the centre-point of worship; there were five different kinds of animal sacrifice.
In the New Testement, only one sacrifice matters you can read about it in Hebrews 10:11-14
Jesus was a sacrifice for our sins on the cross. That one sacrifice was enough – God does not want any more bloodshed. But his sacrifice achieved the ultimate result; not temporary cleansing but permanent perfection! Verse 14 tells us that Jesus sacrifice made me perfect in God’s eyes, and goes on to say that in my day to day life I am “Being made perfect”, I am changing day by day. I am still a fully paid up member of the big-time-sinners club; but God sees me as perfect. Jesus did that!
When you accept that this is true, and personally receive what Jesus has done for you, you become a member of this worldwide community that is offering ‘spiritual sacrifices’.
But I still haven’t answered the question… what are they?
Sacrifice – the word nobody uses any more
There’s something scary about the word ‘sacrifice’, isn’t there? Maybe it is the connection with Remembrance Sunday, when we remember those who gave their lives in combat. The word ‘sacrifice is, in many minds, associated with futility and sesperation.
I once had an idea for a book and got the chance to discuss it with my publisher. We sat in a café in Leicester and talked through the outline I had written. “I really like this”, the editor said, “There is some good stuff here, I just don’t like the title”. I had called the book, “Sacrifice” and he reckoned that a book with that title would not sell to today’s Christian market. The book never got written.
But we are called to make spiritual sacrifices. Maybe it will help if I explain what these actually are…
Five spiritual sacrifices
What does Peter have in mind? If you survey the rest of the New Testament you discover that five things are described as sacrifices that God is pleased with. Let’s look at them in turn.
He only wants you for your body! (Romans 12:1) . Paul writes here about giving our bodies to Jesus, you cannot get more concrete than that! Imagine climbing onto the sacrificial altar yourself and giving yourself to God. That is what Paul means. Worship is making a gift of your body to God, then he can use you as he sees fit.
Please understand that this is not an invitation to offer yourself for full-time work in a church or Christian organisation. Oh, no! It is an invitation to turn everything we do into an act of worship to God. As though Paul were saying, “Take your body, and all the tasks that you have to do every day; your work in the shop, or the office, behind the wheel of the delivery van, in the classroom, studying in the library, ironing the clothes, mowing the lawn; take it all and offer it as a act of worship to God”.
Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that God wants our spirit – the good part of us, and that he isn’t bothered about our rotten old bodies. Well God thinks your body is pretty good, actually, and he wants it… he wants you for your body!
Everything we do with our bodies is a sacrifice – how so? Actually, there are loads of things I would like to do with my body that wouldn’t please God at all. I choose not to do these things; that is a sacrifice. Most people in the workplace do enough to get by, there is not much commitment or pizzazz in what they do. But if they work with a Christian who really puts their heart into the work… that’s sacrifice!
People we bring to Christ (Romans 15:15-16) are our sacrifice , our offering to him. In the Jewish temple in Jerusalem there was a blood-curdling sign warning gentiles that if they entered they would be executed. No gentile was welcome in the presence of God as the Jews brought their offerings to him. Yet Isaiah had promised seven hundred years before that gentiles would one day be brought by Jews from the ends of the earth to worship God in Jerusalem (see Isaiah 66:19-21 – it’s worth a look).
Paul knew that he was a living fulfilment of that prophecy and that his converts were his sacrifice and offering to God. This is still happening and your role in it is an act of worship to almighty God.
Playing our part in bringing the nations to Christ, that is a sacrifice… how so? Because it is easier to form a Christian ghetto and never look outwards. It is easier to build a church just for Christians, most churches do. When we choose to build ‘a church for those who don’t go to church’, that is a sacrifice. God is pleased with it!
Our giving (Philippians 4:18) is a sacrifice for God . Christians have a poor reputation when it comes to banging the drum to raise money.
Once, when Mohammed Ali, the world heavyweight boxing champion was flying to Africa with his team, the aircraft began to bounce around in some very turbulent air. It was a scary moment, and Ali’s manager joked, “Someone do something religious”. Quick as a flash, Ali grabbed a hat and passed it ‘round the passengers. People notice when Christian organisations are too obsessed with money.
It is easy to see why our giving is a sacrifice. You take a regular amount each week that could be the payments for a holiday or a new three piece suite and you commit it to the church, and fill in the gift-aid forms. That is a sacrifice isn’t it? Yet there is one small consolation, you cheat the Chancellor of the Exchequer of his share in your gift… and God is pleased with that!
Our praise and adoration (Hebrews 13:15) are a sacrifice – how so? Well I don’t know about you, but the time you take to join with others and worship God together is pretty valuable, isn’t it. I could do all kinds of things on a Sunday. I love running in road races and orienteering courses, but most of this happens on a Sunday. Now I do run on a Sunday occasionally, but to make a habit of it is basically saying to God, “You are not worth it” – and that is the opposite of worship. Joining our hearts in praise is a sacrifice, and it pleases God when we do it.
Our good works for others (Hebrews 13:16) are a sacrifice . We serve a God who is not interested in us being merely religious…he did not save you just so you could spend the rest of your life in church! Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before man that they see your good works…” What we do for a person in need is as much an act of worship as singing a hymn at the top of our voice. Micah put it like this: Micah 6:8.
My own personal revolution
If you want to worship God like this it will take a daily decision on your part. Each day you must re-assert the centrality of Christ in your life.
There was a time when people believed that the earth was at the centre of the universe and the stars and planets revolved around it. Then a mathematician called Copernicus calculated that the sun was at the centre of the solar system and the earth was one of several planets in orbit around the sun. This was such a hard idea to grasp that Copernicus and later Galileo, were ridiculed, yet their revolutionary idea won through in the end. Perhaps the hardest thing about being a Christian is to put Christ at the centre of your life and keep him there – we are so naturally selfish – but this is the challenge.
Today people have no difficulty accepting the scientific view, but still behave as though the world revolved around them! Pride and selfishness are our big problems. When you become a Christian it is like your own personal Copernican revolution; Jesus becomes the Son at the centre and your life revolves around him. From that moment on, your whole life is given to serving the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.
Peter's vision for the church is a community of people who see Jesus as the centre of their lives and who are constantly presenting him with offerings that please him.
Is that you?