Sermon Tone Analysis

·        Bula – thank you Pastor __________ for inviting me.

·        Excited about _________.

·        Sulu and sandles __________.

! ·        *My topic for today is God’s Will.*

○       I’m going to start with a conservation that my wife Megan had with another Christian.

○       Crazy Miller Lady - purchase of disposable cameras

 

! ·       My text for __________ is Romans 12.1-2..

·        !!1Therefore, I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.

* *

!

·        *Romans 12.1-2 can be broken down into five sections:*

○       1.a

The Foundation of our Sacrifice

○       1.b

The Character of our Sacrifice

○       2.a

The “Don*’*t” Command

○       2.b

The “Do” Command

○       2.c

The Result: Knowing God’s Will

* *

!! ·       *The foundation of our sacrifice is the mercies of God, as Paul so clearly states in the opening of verse 1, “Therefore, I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God …”*

○       What does Paul means by “mercies of God?”

○       He is talking about the mercies of God as spelled out in the eleven preceding chapters of massive theology – he is appealing to God’s mercy given to the terribly fallen human race through the provision of his Son.

○       He had described how radically sinful man was radically lost.

○       But God provided a righteousness through the radical person of his Son, which made a radical new life and view of history possible!!!

○       In view of this mercy, God calls us to commitment.

○       I really like how John Stott describes this, “the gospel is precisely God’s mercy to inexcusable and undeserving sinners, in giving his Son to die for them, in justifying them freely by faith, in sending them his life-giving Spirit, and in making them his children.”[1]

…

 

!! ·       *The greater our comprehension of what God has done for us, the stronger our foundation will be.*

○       When we practically apply Christ’s gift, when we mediate on, accept it, and take it to heart, it becomes a magnet drawing us to deeper and deeper commitment to him.

○       And this is what God’s mercies is all about.

!! ·        *The Character of our Sacrifice is given in the last half of the verse, “to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”.*

○       This Character of our sacrifice has three important characteristics: it is /total/, it is living, holy, & acceptable, and it is /reasonable/.

!! ·        *The totality of the commitment comes dramatically to us through the language of sacrifice.

*

○       The Greek term /parastesai, /translated as /to present/, is a technical term used for the ritual presentation of a sacrifice.

It is an aorist infinitive which means it is something that has happened in the past.

○       When I first learned this verse, I thought that to present here meant it was something that Paul was telling me to do, not just one time but that I must do it over and over again.

○       !!You see, I read /to present/ as a present tense verb with continuous action.

But this is not the case.

It is not something that we are to do over and over again.

○       Paul is commanding the Roman believers to make it their top priority to live out of the sacrifice that they have already made, and as such to repeatedly strive not to be conformed to this age but to be repeatedly transformed so that they can attest the will of God.

○       For Paul and the early church, as well as for us today, the rich heritage of sacrifice in Judaism is a thing of the past, rather than offering animals as a sacrifice, believers are to /present/ themselves to God as the sacrifice.

○       When Paul says, /to present your bodies/ he means more than just your skin and bones, he means everything you are – your totality.

So I am to present all of me, I am to present everything that I am to God and you are to do the same.

You are to present everything that you are to God as well.

○       “Once a sacrifice has been presented to God it becomes His property and therefore holy because it now belongs to Him.

The uniqueness of this sacrifice is that rather than the victim being killed, he or she remains alive as an instrument of righteousness.

[2]

* *

!! ·        *The sacrifice is to be /living, holy, and acceptable to God/.*

○       The believer is not killed as in an OT sacrifice, but remains alive.

We are to be a living sacrifice in the deep theological sense of “a new life”.

○       We are also to be “holy” in that we have renounced sin and are set apart to God. 

○       Finally, we are to be an /acceptable/ sacrifice not because we deserve to be accepted, but because the offerings are true to God’s specifications.

○       The sacrifice is the free surrender of one’s self to belong to God and to walk in the newness of life.

As such, it is living, holy, and acceptable to God. 

* *

!! ·        *Not only is commitment to be total, it is also /logical/.*

○       Translating the last part of verse 1 can be a little tricky.

The text reads, /logiken laterian/, which literally means reasonable service.

But it is still not quite cut and dry.

○       However, reasonable service carries religious overtones, especially when used in the context of Christian worship.

○       These religious overtones come to the forefront because of the sacrificial language and provide for the translation /spiritual/ /worship/.

However, we still should not lose the root idea of logical service.

○       One of my hero’s, Gordon Fee, has noted that /spiritual/ is anticipating the /renewing of your minds/ in 12.2.

[3]

* *

·        *It is the worship we are expected to do in light of the sacrifice that we have both offered and become.*

○       For Paul, true worship was offering ourselves to God.

It was reasonable, it was logical, because it was consistent with a proper understanding of the truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

○       What Paul is calling for here is a total commitment as the only rational course to taken when you really see who God is.

Nothing else makes any sense.

○       Halfway commitment is irrational.

○       To decide to give part of your life to God and keep other parts for yourself – to say, “Everything is your Lord, but this relationship, this deal, this pleasure …” is beyond spiritual logic.

* *

·        If we are worshipping apart from commitment to God, it is false worship.

○       We are deceiving ourselves if we are doing “Christian things” but are not living out of our sacrifice to God.

 

! ·        *2.a

The Don’t Command, Do not be conformed to this age,*

○       With this command/, /Paul is distinguishing between /this age/ and the age that is to come.

○       /This age/ was described in 1.18-3.23,

as that of sinful humanity and is no longer the age in which believers are to live, and Paul stated in 6.4 the believer’s baptism into the death of Christ has brought them newness of life.

○       In Christ believers have entered into the newness of life, into the new age.

○       Therefore, they are living with the tension of the already but not yet.

They have received the first fruits of the Spirit[4] and are debtors not to the flesh but to the Spirit.[5]

○       Because of the tension of living in this present sinful age and knowing the future hope and glory of the age to come, believers are not to conform to this age.

○       They are not to live in the sinful flesh, as Paul has earlier described in chapter 8. 

○       Being committed means saying no to the world and yes to God.

* *

!

·        *2.b

The Do Command, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,*

○       Instead of conforming to this word, believers are to /be transformed by the renewing of their mind/.

○       Just as conformity to /this age /results in the unfit mind as described in 1.28, /transformation/ through the renewing of the mind results a lifestyle that is considered a /sacrifice, living, holy, and acceptable to God./

○       How does this happen?

How are we to be transformed?

Gordon Fee writes that the work of the Spirit seems to be the underlying cause of the /renewed mind/.

So having a renewed mind is equal to having the Spirit.

○       Therefore this renewed mind works in two directions.

○       First, through the work of the Spirit believers no longer live in conformity to this present age.

The result of this will be behavior that no longer resembles the conduct of this age.

This new conduct is only possible through the renewed mind that is brought about by the Spirit.

○       Second, this renewed mind through the power of the Spirit is the key to discerning the will of God.[6]

 

! ·        *2.c

The Result: Knowing God’s Will - so that you may discern what the will of God is, the good, acceptable, perfect will*

○       This last section of verse 2 is why this short passage is so well known.

As believers we are in the midst of a daily journey to discover God’s will for our lives.

○       First, I want you to notice what Paul actually says, /so that you may discern/.

He doesn’t say find, he says discern. 

○       The Greek word for discern is /dokimazw/ and it literally means to test, to examine, or to prove.