Sermon Tone Analysis
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Romans 12:1,2
A Living Sacrifice
/I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer 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 wil/l.
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ew sermons seem ever to be delivered on well-known passages of Holy Scripture.
Perhaps preachers are intimidated by the challenge demanded by exegesis of familiar passages.
Such preparation demands intense investigation and careful thought.
Because the passage is so well known, even a slight deviation from popular thought is recognised and challenged mentally by those occupying the pews.
Yet, these popular passages are loved precisely because they do speak so pointedly, challenging each individual who seeks to honour God.
The whole Word is given by the Lord God to be employed in the building up of the Body.
Thus even these well-known passages are to be declared and sound exposition is demanded for the people of God.
Our text this day is such a well-known portion of the Word.
/I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
Do not conform any longer 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/.
Without exception the people of God recognise the words.
Though not all could perhaps turn to the text if challenged to find it, they would nevertheless recognise the words and confess that they have often struggled to apply the injunction in their lives.
The Plea for Sacrifice is the first matter to which I call attention.
Christian’s are called to self-denial.
One of the deeply moving passages of the Word of God states the Apostle’s view of life under the Lordship of Christ.
/I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me/ [*Galatians 2:20*].
The impact of those words must surely have been different to those who first read the affirmation than it is for us of this day.
Think with me about that issue.
*A crucified man is never coming back*; he is dead to sins.
Having picked up his cross and exiting the city, he knows there is for him no future … the cross is his future.
As the crucified man left the past, there was no possibility that he would ever return to what was behind.
Whenever a professing Christian ceases to live a godly life and goes back to the sordid life previously lived, we know without question that that one was never crucified.
*A crucified man can look in only one direction*.
As a young Christian living in the southern United States I used to hear a song which avowed:
I’ve come too far to look back; my feet have walked in the valley.
My soul is rejoicing, and a new day I see.
As I’m nearing the home shore, Heaven’s angels are singing.
And my loved ones are waiting; I’ve come to far too look back.
The challenge is nothing less than practical application of the Master’s challenge: /No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God/ [*Luke 9:62*].
A crucified man does not look back longingly to what might have been nor what is past.
*A crucified man has empty hands*.
When one is crucified, the arms are stretched out and the hands are emptied.
That one can no longer grasp for the tawdry baubles of this perishing world.
There is no clinging to what once attracted that one’s attention.
Though the allure of the things of this world may be as powerful as ever, there is no possibility that a crucified man will again grasp money or things or position or pleasure.
To those first readers it was apparent that *a crucified man has no will of his own*.
The cross imposes its will on the one who is crucified.
Just so, when we have determined that we will live a crucified life, a life of sacrifice, we surrender our will to Him who alone is worthy of receiving our highest devotion.
I have said before, and I shall say again, */either Christ is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all/*.
No one can say they live the crucified life if their will prevails over the will of Him who calls each of us to life.
I observe further than *a crucified man must die alone*.
However much we may wish companionship in the act of dying, sacrifice is personal.
The cross is a lonely instrument.
Your wife cannot die with you, men.
Your husband cannot die with you, ladies.
Your parents cannot die with you, young saints.
You must die alone.
This act of sacrifice is demanded by Christ’s own challenge issued to each of us.
/If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me/ [*Luke 9:23*].
The demand is urgent and insistent, and we cannot evade being confronted by it.
Will you answer?
How shall you respond?
I suggest that you should respond through careful examination and determined application of Paul’s words in our text.
The verb which is translated by our English phrase /to offer/ is a */Greek aorist infinitive/*.
The practical impact of this information is that this refers to an action which is performed once.
In other words, this speaks of an act of dedication.
Among evangelical Christians it is somewhat common to hear a call to rededicate one’s life to Christ.
May I say plainly that if we will dedicate our life it is sufficient.
You need not rededicate that which is dedicated to Christ, for dedication is seen as a permanent action; Christ receives our dedication.
The reason so many of the professed people of God think it necessary to rededicate their lives is that there has yet to be a dedication of life to the Master of life.
When the Word issues a call for dedication of our bodies, the call is to submission of the totality of our life and activity to God.
It is nothing less than a call to serve Christ with radical abandon … an action which is rare in this day, but which was commonplace within the life of the early church.
The call is to consider oneself dead too personal desires and alive to Christ’s will.
That is the message of this day.
That is the message which must again be heard if God will be seen in each individual life, in the life of the congregation, in the daily action of the people of God within a dying world.
Let me park here for a moment, pointing out a rather helpful piece of information.
In his Philippian letter Paul commends a man from Philippi named Epaphroditus [*Philippians 2:30*].
Epaphroditus is commended because he risked his life for the cause of Christ.
That Greek verb which is translated /risking his life/ is derived from the verb parabavllw.
In the early church, those who ventured out to carry the message of Christ beyond the immediate safety of the church were known as parabavllwnai.
They were /risk takers/, hazarding their lives for the cause of Christ.
These early servants were denoted as those who /did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death/.
They dedicated all to Christ.
Before considering the means, the method and the measure of this sacrifice, consider one other issue of vital importance.
This sacrifice to which God calls Christians is rational and reasonable.
By this, I mean that God does not call us to abandon our minds; we are to act rationally.
The phrase which is translated /your spiritual act of worship/ is a translation of the Greek phrase th;n logikh;n latreivan.
A somewhat literal translation would identify that it is your logical liturgy which is in view.
Each child of God is expected to act with determinate reason as he or she rationally chooses to from this point forward present his or her life as a living sacrifice.
Each of us is responsible to choose to live fully for Him, if such living is to be witnessed.
To be spiritual is to be rational.
To be godly is logical.
Spiritual worship is logical worship; it is rational and reasonable.
It is the darkened minds of this fallen world which are illogical, irrational, even insane.
Latreiva refers to any ministry performed for God, such as the ministry conducted by the priests and Levites.
What is in view, then, is our worship which we offer up as priests of God [cf.
*1 Peter 2:5,9*].
Underscore in your mind this vital truth: each Christian is a priest and together we form a royal priesthood.
Our united ministry as a people is our spiritual act of worship.
Such understanding can change worship from mere emotionalism to solid, reasonable service.
The Means of Sacrifice – We are called to live a life of sacrifice, presenting our bodies to Him who redeemed us.
The offering of our bodies for His service is to be *voluntary*.
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