Have you ever taken the time to consider what a living sacrifice is? On the surface it would appear to be a total contradiction – a paradox! On the one hand, something that is living has life, breath, energy. Yet on the other hand, a sacrifice has no life – it’s nothing more than a corpse – it’s dead! So in essence, Paul is encouraging us to be the living dead! Sounds like the first Christian horror movie!!!
Yet this is the essence of our ‘spiritual act of worship’. Worship is not just about the music. It’s not just about clapping and lifting our hands – or even ‘singing in the Spirit’. While that may be an expression of worship it’s not worship in it’s entirety. Worship is an attitude – a way of thinking; it’s a lifestyle that runs to the core of who we are. Like any sporting discipline demands a posture from its competitors; there is a posture demanded from those who profess to be committed to a lifestyle of worship. It’s a posture of faith and surrender.
It was Jesus who said, “take up your cross and follow Me” (Matt 16:24). The cross of course is a symbol of what? It’s a symbol of death, and it’s only as we die to ourselves that we can really live for Christ and have His purposes reach fulfilment in our lives. It was John the Baptist who said, “He must become greater. I must become less” (John 3:30
The spiritual act of worship that the Apostle Paul speaks of involves that same process of surrender. A process where we die to ourselves – die to the flesh, die to the hopes, die to the dreams and sometimes even die to the visions – visions that perhaps God has placed within our heart. There can be no resurrection of those things without first a death taking place – and the death of anything in our lives can tend to be a painful experience. Yet in many ways this is the calling of the Christian life – a daily process of death.
One of the great tragedies of the modern era, is that people are so intent on ‘finding their life’. I believe it’s a sign of the age that we live in. People oftentimes display vigilant commitment to their own opinions, and unfortunately the church is not immune from the influence of those who profess such ideologies. I served in a church once where the Pastor gently rebuked an usher because he wasn’t really doing his job properly. In fact it was more a word of encouragement than a rebuke – and believe me it was deserved, because this particular usher had a real attitude. At the end of the conversation, the usher involved said to the Pastor, “You can’t tell me what to do; you have no right to speak to me like that; I’m going to do what I want and when I want to do it.” And with those words he stormed out of the building never to come to church again. What a tragedy – yet just one example of someone who was intent on ‘finding his life’ – desperately clinging to his own opinion. In the end however it leads to a life of spiritual isolation and death. Is it any wonder that Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39).
One of the most powerful pictures of worship painted in the entire Bible is found in Matthew 26:36-39. It’s a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Many of us would know the story – the anguish, the fear, the perspiration, the droplets of blood. While Jesus was the Son of God, we sometimes forget that He was also the Son of Man, and experienced the emotions and pain as such. Jesus wasn’t exactly in the Garden clapping His hands and singing songs. He was a man in despair – in a kind of moral dilemma. He knew full-well what lay ahead of Him, yet at the same time He was fully aware of His position in the Godhead – that He only need just say the Word, and legions of angels would descend from Heaven, ushering the Son of God back to His rightful place at the Father’s right hand. One of the greatest, most profound decisions of history was made when Jesus chose the agony of the cross. Many would see Jesus’ body nailed to the Cross of Calvary as the point where He laid down His life for the rest of humanity. While it’s true that Jesus died a physical death at Calvary it was in the Garden of Gethsemane where He really laid down His life – when He prayed, “not My will but Yours be done”.
That’s worship!!!
