From the Ashes
Week 5 - Sacrifice
Scripture: Philippians 2:6-8, Luke 14:25-33, Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 4:15-16
Introduction
Today, we’re going to be talking about the sacrifice of Jesus and the impact his humble actions have had on all humankind.
To illustrate the idea of sacrifice I want to share a story with you from the trenches of World War II.
“John Robert Fox was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May 1915. By all accounts, he was a smart, diligent young man and he earned a place at Wilberforce University. Here, he signed up for the Reserve Officer Training Corp, meaning he not only finished college with a graduate degree, but with a rank of Second Lieutenant. When war broke out he took his commission and joined the 92nd Infantry Division, a segregated division for African-American soldiers that fought with distinction throughout the conflict.
With his unit, Fox was sent to the European theater of war. In 1944, he found himself fighting the Nazis in Italy. It was here where, in December of that year, he was tasked to stay behind in the small village of Sommocolonia, in Tuscany. The village had been overrun by Nazis, and Americans were in retreat. Fox found a house to hide in and, from the second floor, he used his radio to contact his colleagues. He called for artillery fire to be directed at the village in order to give the US forces time to retreat, regroup and then launch a counter-attack. Fox specifically ordered a barrage of fire on his exact position. The gunner who received the message pointed this out to him, assuming it must be some mistake. Fox, however, simply said: ‘Fire it. There’s more of them than there are us.’
Fox’s act of sacrifice was not in vain. As he planned, the artillery barrage did indeed give his comrades the chance to regroup and launch a successful counterattack. When the US army entered Sommocolonia, they found Fox’s body surrounded by the bodies of nearly 100 Nazi’s. ”
This story is to highlight the idea of sacrifice- specifically giving your life for someone else. In this case, The sacrifice of John Robert Fox gave life, opportunity, and victory to his fellow soldiers in a decisive battle with the Germans.
More importantly, The sacrifice of Jesus Christ also gives life, opportunity, and victory to all who would believe. The sacrifice of Christ is so completely sufficient that there’s no need for any other work to be done.
There is much to learn from Christ in this area, so let’s get started with a word of prayer.
Prayer: “Jesus, thank you for your sacrificial life. Without your life, death, and resurrection, we would all be lost in our sin. Remind us today that we’re no longer slaves to sin, but alive in You. Help us to live our lives sacrificially, and be willing to lay our lives down for others.
Big Idea: The Hebrew people experienced the temporary forgiveness of sins by the blood of an animal sacrifice. That gave them a unique appreciation of the sacrifice of Jesus, who left heaven, became a human being and offered himself as that sacrifice. This atoning sacrifice is and was effective throughout eternity. Through Christ we are completely redeemed from the ashes of our former life.
Start- Main Teaching
Humility & Sacrifice
Philippians 2:6-8
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
NIV
We already covered humility in week 2, so we won’t cover that point again. But I do have to take a moment to recognize where there is sacrifice… there is humility.
Christ willingly gave up Heaven to come to earth as a sacrifice for our sin. He did not hold onto His position and power, but instead laid it all down to be a humble servant and give up His life on a cross.
He knew, in order to rescue the world from the curse of sin, it would cost Him His life.
And that brings us to our first point this morning about living a sacrificial life-
There Is A Cost
If you are going to follow in the footsteps of Christ, which is what it means to be a disciple, then you are going to experience sacrifice.
In fact, I’ll just come out and say it- if you chose to follow Jesus, there is and will be a personal cost to you in this life.
Jesus is very straight-forward about this and He tells us this in the gospels. Listen to his words from Luke 14;
“Large crowds were now traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’
Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace.
In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:25-33
This is not a popular verse among prosperity preachers, unless they are using it to get you to give them more money.
This is admittedly one of the more difficult passages in the New Testament. Jesus’ challenge is to give up family, plans, and position in the process of discipleship. Another way to say it, to paraphrase the lesson of this passage, is to say,
“You have to be willing to let go of everything as you follow Christ.”
If Christ sacrificed Himself to bring redemption, then you are going to need to do the same as you share redemption with others.
This entire principle of sacrifice is clearly spelled out for us in Paul’s Letter to the Galatian church. It introduces the idea that we as Christians are-
Crucified with Christ
This verse succinctly describes our position with Christ and our engagement with the world around us;
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
This idea is one of the oxymoron’s of the Christian Faith. So much in our faith experience is completely opposite from our natural thinking or that of this world-
In order to truly live, you must die
In order to elevate yourself, you must humble yourself and not care about being elevated.
The world says that if you want something- work hard and earn it, but in the Kingdom of Heaven’s economy, in order to gain eternal life you have to do nothing but believe.
These principles, which seems to be opposite of eachother are why discipleship and sacrifice can be difficult for us to grasp, understand, and live out.
Yes, you have to be willing to let go of everything you once believed to be so incredibly important.
Yes, there will be opposition.
And Yes, God will be with you always… In fact He lives in you, empowering you to live the life of faith.
So as hard as it is to let go of things and make sacrifices don’t forget that He’s with you and He’s the perfect High Priest;
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16
Sacrifice takes courage, conviction, and confidence, but it’s worth it.
That brings us to our next point-
It’s Worth It
So here’s the encouragement today; throw off the past sin and shame that so easily entangles you.
As Hebrews 1 says- Run the race set out before you… looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith… who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross.
Jesus sacrificed His life for the joy set before Him. And let me tell you today – there is a very real, deep abiding joy in serving others and sacrificing your life for someone else.
Think about the last time you went out on a service project… or did a huge favor for a friend. Maybe you helped someone move, or watched their fur babies while they were on vacation.
You sacrificed time, energy, and possibly money to serve and be a blessing to someone else.
And you know what? I bet it felt amazing, I bet you walked away having experienced a fullness that was different than you’d felt before.
HonorBound Conference Service
When I was at my first church, I was asked to head up the preparation for the HonorBound Conference. It’s a huge event- over 800 men signed up for it, and we had to do everything from worship, to childcare, to feeding them, providing shuttles to hotels, parking…just a huge thing to coordinate and prepare for.
I took one of my two weeks of vacation to get ready for it. I spent 16+ hr days preparing, planning, cleaning, holding meetings, setting security, finding out little things like the preferred water (explain) each speaker would want.
We had two kitchens in that church, but both of them together couldn’t handle that many people. However, we had a pole shed in the back that was huge, so I cleaned it up, grabbed a leaf blower and blew it out so it was nice and clean to serve as the food distribution center and place people could have their lunches. It was one of the last things I did before the conference and after I was done I’m covered in dust, dirt, oil, grime and probably smelling horrible because it was late July in Kenosha which is tropical heat being that close to Lake Michigan. After that, I walked across the parking lot to the church- it was probably about 7 at night and the entire board of elders and the board of deacons met me in the foyer and all hugged me or shook my dirty hands to thank me for my sacrificial service to the Kingdom.
It was a life changing conference for many people.
When we trade our selfish desires and wants for a life of discipleship and serving others the sacrifices we make have meaning and purpose.
How many of the 800+ men that came to that conference knew who I was?
No one except those from our local church.
But because of a sacrifice of many- not just me- we had dozens of volunteers doing everything from security to parking to food service, ushers, you name it- they all sacrificed to come together so God could get ahold of 800 men’s hearts for the Kingdom of God.
For me, even though I was exhausted at the end of it, it was life changing and very fulfilling- more than any vacation I had ever had.
I’ve heard an illustration of a man that belonged to a church his entire life. He grew up poor, never married, and was largely uneducated and became a janitor for a large company where he spent his nights alone cleaning offices. In his spare time, he would come in on his days off and clean the church late on Saturday night to prepare it for Sunday.
He did this for over 50 years in the church before he passed and appeared before Jesus in heaven. Seeing Jesus in all of His glory, he fell on his face and begged forgiveness because he felt he didn’t do anything for his savior.
Jesus reached down and picked him up and said, “My beloved son, turn around”
The man turned around, and saw a vast sea of people he didn’t know of every tribe and tongue. Jesus began to point out people- “This person came to your church, got saved and became a missionary that introduced thousands to my Gospel.
That person got saved in your church and raised a family that touched the lives of dozens in their neighborhood, who then touched their families who are standing here before you.
That person is a businessman who went to your church and whom I blessed and was able to fund many ministries in his lifetime- a great number of the people you see here are because of his faithfulness.
All of these my son, I credit to you. Your faithfulness contributed to all of them now belonging to me, and I credit that to your account.
Well done good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your master.”
Every act of service you do, no matter how small it might seem in your eyes, or the eyes of the world has a name, a face, and most importantly a soul attached to it.
We might not see it this side of eternity when we sacrifice and serve others, but Jesus sees it, and is a rewarder of those who serve.
Finally, without the sacrifice of Christ, there’s no redemption.
And without the sacrifice of all the saints who’ve gone before us, there’s no church.
Sacrifice is powerful, it can change the outcome of a battle...like the story I shared at the beginning of service. It can change someone’s life who needs help. And it can redeem someone’s eternity… Think about that for a moment.
No matter how hard life has been. No matter how far from God you may feel here today. No matter how irredeemable you believe your life to be… The sacrifice of Christ was completely sufficient.
And today is as good a day as any to rise above the sin and shame and accept the gift that God has given you through His son.
Conclusion/Application
How will the sacrifice of Christ change your life this coming week?
What are some things that you need to let go of in order to give your life, time, money, etc… so that others may experience the life of the gospel?
What areas of life are you being called to greater sacrifice?
This life of faith can and will be a costly one, but remember that Christ is always with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Let’s pray together.
