St. Timothy's Church

Sacrifice: Want to be Like Christ?

The Rev W Terry Sweeney

 

In the Name of God: + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.  Please be seated.

 

We’re going to look at the aspect of sacrifice in Jesus’ life.

 

In particular how love is central to His sacrifice and without embodying His example through love we can not fully live in Him or He in us.

 

Eleven people were clinging precariously to a wildly swinging rope suspended from a crumbling outcropping on Mount Everest. Ten were male, one was a female. As a group they decided that one of them should let go; otherwise the rope would break and everyone would fall. Moments went by and no one volunteered. Finally the female gave a truly touching speech saying she would sacrifice herself to save the lives of the others. Cheering her bravery the males gave her a resounding round of applause.

 

Let me give you a few other examples of sacrifice:

 

Romans 5:6-8, “⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

The baby is crying – it’s early (or late depending on your perspective) – your eyes will hardly focus – pick up the baby – shhhh, shhhh – he’s crying in your ear and it further disorients you. Change his diaper – feed him – burp him – hold him and hum gently as you rock him.  He relaxes and begins to drift off . . asleep .  . at least for a little while.

 

Leviticus 9:3-4, “ ³ Then say to the Israelites: 'Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb—both a year old and without defect—for a burnt offering, ⁴ and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the LORD, together with a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.' "

 

Rose works three part-time jobs – husband died – five kids: 3 through 19. Worries a lot – high blood pressure, diabetes. Waits tables at Denny’s – that’s good for 19 hours a week (tips are pretty crummy).  Cleans offices five days a week from 5-9pm.  She’s paid under-the-table – no benefits.  She delivers newspapers for the Sun – up at 3 a.m. to get to the drop-off, fold, and deliver 347 houses.  The 19 year old is in his second year of college – doing well.  She has high expectations for each child.

 

Jim has a twin sister named Kim – yes cute, but that’s their names.  Kim needs a kidney.  Jim has agreed to be screened as a potential kidney donor.  He’s willing and eager to do anything he can to save his sisters life – even if it costs him his.

 

Sacrifice in these instances has some common threads even though the settings are very different:

 

We see the stronger sacrifices for the weaker. 

The parent sacrifices sleep for the infant child.

The determined mother sacrifices for her children.

            The brother who literally gives of himself to his sister.

The Son of God redeems a fallen humanity. 

 

They pay the price to make the sacrifice: the price of sleep, comfort, leisure, self-interest, even physical death.

 

We also know that heroic sacrifice comes from bravery or deep and abiding commitment to a cause or philosophy maybe even a person. Soldier, fireman, policeman, EMT.

 

It is absolutely possible to make the ultimate sacrifice – giving your life for someone else – and not be a follower of Christ.

 

Bravery can be a quality of an atheist or a believer; commitment to a cause or a person is found in believers and unbelievers and everyone in-between.

 

Believing in Jesus isn’t the reason people are capable of sacrificial acts per se . . . . even as fallen as we are; as selfish as we can be; and as self centered as humans are want to become there is still that spark of the garden left in many of us that affords us the ability to act justly, or morally and even sacrificially.

 

I would suggest that when we sift out the layers of why we do anything exceptional we eventually land on the foundation; that which cannot be sifted further.

 

The foundation is found in the creative act of our creator who made us in His image and at the end said it was good. . . . so some of that goodness, albeit just a little, remains in many of us.

 

Further more as we sift through our complicated psyche we come down to a core that says we were made to love and serve and to know God.

 

It goes further – as we love God we also grow in our ability to walk in love –

 

2 John 1.6 teaches, “⁶And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

 

And due to our fallen nature we are not capable of sealing the deal with God and walking in love until we come to know His Son.

 

We come to know Him through a saving act of grace through the gift of faith that for most either comes as a flood else a steady stream that trickles over us.

 

And from there we begin to experience a love like we’ve not known before . . . . there I’ve said it: LOVE wins us over and its love that allows us to live a life which freely makes sacrifices for the sake of Christ.

 

In terms of following Christ the foundation of a follower of Christ is love given through God’s grace calling us to offer ourselves to His service which includes sacrificial love for another.

 

The sacrifice could be made for the sake of someone we know, or a total stranger.

 

 

It’s like saying I once was blind but now I see – O Amazing Grace how sweet the sound.

 

Sacrificial love stems out of the changes in attitude that places the sacrifice in perspective to the greater good it accomplishes. 

 

Ephesians 5.1-2, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

 

I’d like for you to open your pew bibles to page 1046 to Ch. 15 v. 9.

 

Lets start with v. 9-10,  “ ⁹As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain (abide) in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain (abide) in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain (abide) in his love.”

 

Jesus looks back and remembers the times when He called His disciples and encapsulates all that has happened and will happen for their good in the word: LOVE.

 

A wonderful and unique love – the love The Father has for the Son has been Jesus’ model for loving His friends.

 

To remain/abide in Jesus’ love means to keep close, have a personal relationship with Him; to trust Him and joyfully follow what He does.  Out of love not guilt, shame, or simply trying to be a good person.

 

Since this love is so precious and unique Jesus tells them that obedience to Him is the way to never sway from the love He’s shown them.  It shows others that we love Jesus.

 

In 14.15 Jesus told them that if they loved Him, they would keep His precepts; and that His love for them which came first, is the basis for their desire to remain in Him (1 John 4.19).

 

His love precedes our love; His love accompanies our love and His loves follows our love and creates move love for Him in our hearts.

 

This is the cycle of love that draws us closer to Christ inasmuch as we know His love through our obedience to Him.

 

We echo the Sons obedience to the Father through our obedience to Him.  All out of love. 

 

Verse 11-12, ^“11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

 

He’s told them in v. 1-10 that by abiding in Him and growing in Him through grace (bearing fruit) they will obtain the blessing of answered prayer and be held in His love forever.

 

The JOY Jesus refers to is a spiritual, inner peace that overcomes the cares of the world that takes the form of an inner delight resting upon their hearts – even in the hard days.

 

Call it confidence if you will or assurance – the word Jesus used is translated as joy.

 

1 Peter 1.6, 8, is perhaps the best example of this as he writes: “⁶In this (their inheritance through Christ Jesus) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

 

Philippians 2.17-18 Paul shares his trials as he says, “¹⁷But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

 

The joy that comes from abiding in Christ and obeying Him expresses itself in a lack of  self interest as it takes a back seat (Father your will not mine).

 

It’s not that we don’t care about ourselves, because we should – it’s that we find worry for ourselves unnecessary, instead we have a heightened concern (even pain) for those around us.

 

Jesus then reminds them of a foundational principle in obeying Him – love one another.

 

The precept is found in 13.34 when Jesus said,  ³⁴"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

 

Ch. 15 v. 12 repeats the instruction-love one another as I have loved you.

 

It would seem that He means by following his constant, self-sacrificing love is the template their love is cut from; it informs their attitudes and relation toward one another.

There is no wiggle room anywhere to be found in this precept – love is the only option He gives us.  

 

Go to verse 13, “¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

 

His love and our response in obedience that includes loving one another results in His love being known which in turn causes us to love more and so forth . . . . .

 

There is a cycle that develops.

 

As that cycle develops and deepens we then can more freely act in sacrificial ways.

 

We simply think of others more – see them in a new light – trust in His care for us – don’t worry so much about ourselves, etc.  You get the picture.

 

The character of His love which our love can embody is to deny ourselves in small ways and large for the sake of His Kingdom.

 

“To lay down our lives” may in rare cases mean just that – die for someone else.

 

For most of it us it means that we are to be unselfish – more considerate – thinking of the welfare of the other person above our own.  Being willing to give and to consider others better than us and make every effort to serve them:

 

Philippians 2.5-7a, “⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant . . . . “

 

John 13.15 finds Jesus saying, “¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”

 

And in Mark 8.34, “³⁴Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

 

Jesus goes on to say that if we follow His example and abide in His commands we are His friends

 

He goes on to tell us that what He does He learned from His Father and that He has made this known to us.

 

The love that He shares for His Father He also shares with His FRIENDS.

 

Jesus has shared the details of the reason for His incarnation (3.16), why He is going to die (14.2-3), and how a man can be saved (3.3) – He’s shared His Fathers deepest will for them therefore the closeness of the relationship gives them the new name: FRIEND.

 

A friend of Jesus is one whom He has chosen out of sin into new life; it’s someone who out of Christ’s love in turn is learning the lessons of loving with a heart like that of Jesus.

 

Clearly that has some component of personal denial in it – as well as the Joy Jesus spoke of that comes from His love spilling over us when we obey Him.

 

Being a follower of Christ is a gift from God filled with His Grace which is LOVE for us.

 

He calls us friend even when we are less then a friend to Him;

 

He continues to abide in us through His Holy Spirit and gives us the grace to carry on; burning off the old man and putting on a new life out of love for Him.

 

John 15. 15b-17, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.”

 

This love is revealed in terms of a deep intimacy; it’s nurtured through God’s WORD, public worship and Prayer; it requires obedience to Christ and His precepts; Grace is forever necessary for without it we can do nothing on our own.

 

Knowing the extent to which Christ was willing to go for us takes us to humility, and simplicity in living – our desires turn ever more toward pleasing God and not ourselves alone.

 

Friends of Christ – He reached out His arms on the hard wood of the cross and sacrificed His life for us who were yet sinners and not His friends.

 

Yet through love we now call Him Lord and Savior and in our most intimate moments whisper Jesus my friend I love you.

 

He tells us to carry our cross each day – to take it up – to deny ourselves – and be willing to enter into moments of sacrifice both great and small. . . and to count it as joy.

 

Amen.

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