Well, gentlemen, we are in the second of the nine attributes of a man. This week we’re looking at willing to sacrifice. And what it means to be willing to sacrifice in our life. Here’s just a couple of key verses that I think it’s crucial for us to key in on in regards to this. Because I believe that each one of these nine attributes we discover both things that Jesus did and he said. So I want to look at two key verses here.
Matthew 20, verse 28 reads, “Even as a son of man came not to be served – but to serve, and to give his life. A ransom for many. You see, Jesus Christ came to give his life as a sacrifice. But not only that. He says in John 15:13. “Greater love has no one than this, than that someone lay down his life for his friends.” You see, Jesus never asked us to do anything that he wasn’t willing to do himself. And so today – attribute two, we must be willing to sacrifice.
Let me read to you this attribute, as we have defined it.
“A man is willing to make hard sacrifices. While it’s natural to be a taker, God’s man is a giver. He understands that God is a generous giver, who gave the ultimate sacrifice for all men. He believes that Christ’s sacrifice is the means of his salvation. But sacrifice is also the method of his sanctification. This attribute requires self-evaluation, radical priority, renewed positioning, an attitude that is willing, and a mindset that loses everything to win. That which is of real value.”
Wow. Are you, gentlemen – willing to sacrifice? When I read the Old Testament, I have to turn back to the first sacrifice in the Bible. And don’t you wonder what that was? What was the first sacrifice in the Bible? Well, of course, the very first sacrifice that appeared in the Bible, is one that God offered. Genesis 3, we see that God sacrifices an animal, to cover the sin and shame of Adam and Eve.
Yes, the first sacrifice in the Bible was offered by God, and it was a full body covering. The word there for covering is a word that’s very similar to that of a high priestly garment. It’s a complete body covering. And what I imagine God doing at this moment, is slaughtering an animal to cover Adam and Eve completely – and to cover over their sin, and their shame.
Now God does this because he is a giver. And he’s a generous giver. He does this to cover over our sin and shame because he now knows that we are living wildly out of control emotionally and mentally and spiritually. And we need something that comforts us in our insanity, for what we’ve done.
But it’s because God loves us. Now it doesn’t say in Genesis 3 what animal was slaughtered. But I wouldn’t put it past God to sacrifice a lamb. Because that imagery was going to carry forward for us for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. In fact, there are only two sacrifices offered by God in the Bible.
The first one was here in Genesis. The second one, well we know who that was. That was another lamb. It was the Lamb of God, his son. And not only was it the second sacrifice, but it was the last one. It was the last one that God would ever need to offer. And this wasn’t for a covering over of our sins. This was actually to remove sin from our lives.
And so we learn throughout the Bible, that God was willing to sacrifice. And that Jesus was willing to sacrifice. But we must learn what it means to sacrifice ourselves. Jesus teaches us how to do this. He shows us how to do this in Luke, chapter 14 verses 25 through 35.
It reads, “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life. Such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough money to complete it.'”
“‘For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it – everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build, but wasn’t able to finish.’ Or suppose a King is about to go to war against another King. Won’t he first set down and consider whether he is able with 10 000 men to oppose the one who is coming against him with 20 000? If he is not able – he will send a delegation, while the other is still a long way off – and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have, cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.'”
Wow. This is some great teaching by Jesus Christ. But this is so full of life, and it’s so full of Jesus teaching us what it means to become a man who is willing to make hard sacrifices.
First, Jesus begins by telling them that they’re going to have to sacrifice everything. By learning actually to hate – father, mother, wife, children, brother, sisters and even their own life. Otherwise, you cannot be a disciple. Now I think this is remarkable, by Jesus Christ. Because he is not teaching us here to psychologically hate. Nor to emotionally hate at all. Because we know that Jesus commands us to love God and to love others. We also know that Jesus always upheld all of the commandments, one of them being, “Honor your father and mother.”
What I believe Jesus is showing us here through this word “hate,” is not to psychologically and emotionally hate other people. But the word is very difficult to translate from Greek into English. And indeed it accentuates the radical priority of second place that these things take in our life. In other words, Jesus Christ is teaching us the radical priority of following him, right? That by loving everything else less, we love God as a priority and better. And by loving God better, we love everything else in its right place. Our love is ordered in the right way.
And rather than reading psychologically and emotionally hate into this context, what we need to see here is the radical priority of following Jesus Christ. That if we are going to make hard sacrifices, we have to understand that God takes pre-eminence in everything that we do in life – over our family, over our security, over our finances. Over our love for earthly people. That we must love God more, and with priority over everything. Even our vision and mission for life. And there is where we make the most prominent and highest sacrifice.
But he continues. And whoever does not carry their own cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple. I think Jesus here is now convincing us to be purposeful, to be mission-centric. To be on mission. To be spot on. And that is, is that we live for his mission – not our own. Not for retirement in our life, right? Not for our business plans. Not for the visions that we have for our future. We sacrifice those to follow Christ’s mission. And his mission is one of carrying a cross, and then following him.
His mission takes pre-eminence in our life, over everything else. But Jesus accentuates these points with a couple of really great stories. The first one is a builder analogy. He talks about a guy who’s trying to build a tower. Who is a guy who needs to set down and estimate the cost; otherwise he’s going to end up building an edifice to his own shame. To his personal humiliation, and then people will make fun of him. I think Jesus wants us here to evaluate, to seriously consider how much it’s going to take to live a life of following Him.
That we’ve got to take into serious lifetime consideration – not just a single moment. That it’s going to take all we’ve got for the rest of our life, and that we’ve got to evaluate that from beginning to end. Because isn’t easy believe-ism here. This is a very hard choice. It isn’t a one-time decision. It’s a decision that we’re going to have to make for the rest of our life. And we’re either in, or we’re out. We’re not halfway in. We’re all the way in, all the way to the very end. Otherwise, we will make a fool of ourselves.
Then Jesus continues with another analogy. This time, a battle analogy. Moves from builder to battle. And he supposes a King is here, who’s coming against another King? And he’s waging war. He realizes he’s going to lose. Therefore he asks for terms of peace. What is Jesus teaching us here, other than this? To win we have to lose. To win, we’re going to have to lose.
Gentlemen, I think Jesus here is imagining the end of time. He imagines that we are coming against the King of all glory. As we come against the King of all glory, we are destined to lose. Because we don’t have enough force. We don’t have a big enough Army. There is no way that we are going to win against our God. Therefore, because we’re going to lose, we have a choice. And we can either lose here and win later, or we can – unfortunately – win now, and lose later. The choice is ours. But Jesus is teaching us to win. We’re going to need to lose. Because sacrifice is all about losing to win eventually.
And then Jesus ties it all together so beautifully at the end, with a statement, “Salt is good, but if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil, nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out.” I love these words of Jesus. Gentlemen, did you know that salt was one of the most valuable substances in the first century. It was even at times more valuable than gold or silver. And why? Because it was very useful.
It was useful for preserving foods, in a time without refrigeration. It was helpful for seasoning foods. It was used for healing wounds. Even though it was painful, it did prevent disease and gangrene – and would heal wounds very quickly, But did you know that we get our root word, “salary,” from the word, “salt?” Salary. Do you know why? Because Roman soldiers were paid in salt. It was their sal-ary. Isn’t that crazy?
In fact, the word, “soldier,” literally means, “One paid for work,” Or, “One paid in salt.” That’s where we get the word “soldier” from – is one paid in salt. Therefore Jesus, as he’s drawing out these last words here, wants us to see the value for which we are sacrificing our lives for – the value in us, the value in Him. That in He, indeed is very, very valuable. And then if you lose your saltiness, you become non-valuable, right?
So invaluable – that you are not fit for the soil, nor for the manure pile. Because – guys – even crap is valuable. But we’re not when we’re not salty. We’re not when we’re not salty. The only thing we’re useful for is to be thrown out.
Well, gentlemen, this is an excellent challenge from Jesus Christ. And he is teaching us today what it means to become willing to sacrifice. To become willing to sacrifice, that we’ve got to place God radically first – over all other priorities.
Number 2 – to become a willing sacrifice. We’ve got to embrace our position under Christ and under his leadership and mission.
Number 3 – to become a willing sacrifice, we have to evaluate our total commitment to follow through.
Number 4 – to become a willing sacrifice, we have to be willing to lose to win. And to become a willing sacrifice, we have to invest in things of real and true value in our lives.
Gentlemen, will you join me this week in becoming a willing sacrifice? One of the challenges I’m challenging myself to this week, is I’m going to listen more to the inconveniences of my own life. That when I am inconvenienced in some way, I’m going to listen more to what God would have of me in those moments. And that I’m going to make the willing sacrifice that God wants from me. Inconveniences are not sacrifices. But we can sure learn some things from inconveniences so that we can become more sacrificial.
