(Audio version; Music: "Oceans" and "Still" by: Hillsong United)
Introduction
What is a
“revolutionary?” Well in a strictly negative sense, it is someone who is
rebellious. However, if we dig a little deeper into the various meanings of
“revolutionary,” I’d like to suggest a meaning that encompasses both the
positive and the negative. How about this: A revolutionary is a person who
refuses to conform to cultural norms and expectations. A revolutionary is
someone who is unusual, unique, and unconventional. We’ve known many revolutionaries.
I did a quick search of history’s most famous revolutionaries and found names
like George Washington, Thomas Paine, Mahatma Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela. There
were even some more infamous names on the list like Karl Marx, Muammar Gaddafi,
Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro. But do you know who wasn’t on the list? The most
famous revolutionary of all-Jesus Christ.
Jesus
refused to conform to His culture’s norms and expectations. He was a Rabbi that
didn’t behave like a Rabbi they expected. He drove out the moneychangers from
the temple, he hung out with Gentiles, prostitutes, tax collectors, and
“sinners.” Jesus constantly fought with the religious leaders because He wanted
to set the people free to be in relationship with God while the religious
leaders wanted to make sure they kept tight control over the people. He was a
Messiah that didn’t behave like a Messiah they expected. The Jews expected a
Messiah that was a military conqueror that would return Israel to national
prominence and dominance. Instead, Jesus was the Messiah that would suffer and
die for the sins of humanity. Jesus was unusual, unique, and unconventional.
Jesus wasn’t just a revolutionary, He
was the revolutionary. And do you
know what that means for those who call themselves followers of Jesus, you too
must Be A Revolutionary. You must
refuse to conform to cultural norms and expectations. When the culture says
it’s ok to lie and cheat, you be honest. When the culture says it’s ok to have
sex before you are married, you abstain until you are married. When the culture
says money and possessions are the way to happiness, you give more of your
money and possessions away. When the culture says that you must be first at all
costs, you be willing to put others first even if that means you’re last. When
culture says that all beliefs are equally valid, you draw a line in the sand
that says no one goes to the Father except through Jesus. When the culture says
be like everyone else, you be unusual, unique and unconventional. When the
world around you screams at you to conform, you Be A Revolutionary!
Subject Text
Romans 12:1-2
1Therefore, I urge
you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper
worship. 2Do
not conform 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.
Context
Paul wrote
his letter to the Christians in Rome while he was in Corinth preparing to visit
Jerusalem. The Roman church was mostly comprised of Jewish believers but there
was, nevertheless, a significant population of Gentile believers. Paul’s letter
to the church in Rome has been referred to as the greatest theological treatise
written describing humanity’s depravity, salvation, and life of faith. This is
no small matter considering the geographical context within which most
believers existed in the first century. Christianity grew within the
geographical borders of the Roman Empire where Caesar was considered divine and
where the value of the pax romana
(Roman peace) was second only to the worship of Caesar. Paul’s instruction to
the Christians in Rome meant that at some point they would have to choose
between loyalty to the Empire and the ways of the Empire or loyalty to Christ
and the ways of Christ. Paul knew that if believers chose to be loyal to Christ
and the ways of Christ, they were destined for suffering.
Although Paul never instructed the
believers to take up arms against Rome or reject Rome’s governing authority, he
instructed them to do something far more powerful—he admonished them to not
conform to the culture around them. Paul knew that that would be enough to
bring the wrath of Rome down on their heads. But it would also demonstrate that
their commitment to being faithful followers of Christ was more important to
them than their comfort and safety, or being accepted by their family and
friends. Paul was saying that the most powerful thing they could do was to be
unusual, unique, and unconventional—it was to Be A Revolutionary!
Text Analysis
1Therefore, I urge
you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper
worship.
What do you
notice in v. 1 that sticks out to
you? Be careful not to read over it too quickly or you might miss its
significance. I want you to notice what Paul is not instructing his audience to do. Paul is not asking his audience to die for God as the ultimate sacrifice in
order to please Him. Instead, what Paul is asking his audience and by extension
all of us to do is to offer their bodies as “living sacrifices” to God. In
other words, Paul doesn’t require anyone to die
for God even though that would be the reality for many Christians in the first
century as it has been for countless Christians since then. Paul did require
all of them and all of us to live for
God. Our faithful and obedient daily lives are intended to by the sacrifice we
offer to God. However, not just any sacrifice is acceptable to God.
Remember
that Paul is writing to a largely Jewish audience so they would have been
intimately familiar with the Jewish sacrificial system. According to the Law,
the sacrificial system required the sacrifice of animals as part of its
religious rituals. The type of ritual dictated the type of animal to be used.
However, regardless of animal type, the overarching requirement was that the
sacrificial animal was to be without blemish or defect—they were supposed to be
physically perfect (Ex. 12:5, Deut. 17:1, Lev. 22:24). When the appropriate
sacrifice is offered, the Old Testament describes it as “pleasing” to God. It
is likely that Paul’s audience understood that this is what Paul meant by
referring to a living sacrifice as “holy and pleasing to God.”
In short,
our daily lives of holiness are supposed to be the sacrifice offered to God
that pleases Him. Jesus’ death and resurrection made it possible for our lives
to be holy in the first place. Do you understand what we are doing when our
lives reflect the holiness of being faithful followers of Christ? We are giving
back to God the gift of holiness that He made possible for us through Jesus.
When our lives reflect that holiness, we are saying “thank you;” we are
worshipping God! Consider Paul’s description of worship in relation to what we
traditionally understand worship to be.
We traditionally understand worship
to be that thing Christians do on Sundays. However, imagine how many people are
sitting in church every week thinking they are worshipping God while refusing
to relinquish the sins in their lives. How many are immersed in sexual
immorality, deceit, greed, drug or alcohol abuse, selfishness, or any number of
other unconfessed sins? Paul’s not saying that we must be without sin in order
to be holy and pleasing to God. We just can’t pretend we are holy while being
polluted by our sins. We have a means to deal with our own sins—confession and
repentance. Through confession and repentance we are once again in right
relationship with God and our lives are again a reflection of holiness that is
pleasing to God.
“What Paul
calls for in v. 1…is no more (and no
less!) than the appropriate and expected response to God’s mercy as we have
experienced it. Yet this response is no simple ‘tit for tat’ bargain, as if we
grudgingly ‘pay God back’ for what he has done for us. For God’s mercy is not a
matter of past benefits only, but continues to exercise its power in and
through us. That God’s mercy does not automatically produce the obedience God
expects is clear from the imperatives in this passage. But God’s mercy
manifested in his Spirit’s work of inward renewal does impel us toward the
obedience that the Gospel demands.
We
experience God’s mercy as a power that exerts a total and all-encompassing
claim upon us: grace now ‘reigns’ over us. It is therefore entirely fitting
that our response is to be one that is equally total and all-encompassing: the
presentation of our entire persons as a sacrifice to God…The sacrifice we offer
is not some specific form of praise or service, but our ‘bodies’ themselves. It
is not only what we can give that God demands; he demands the giver. ‘Body’
can, of course, refer to the physical body as such, and the metaphorical
associations with sacrifice make it an appropriate choice here. But Paul
probably intends to refer to the entire person, with special emphasis on that
person’s interaction with the world. Paul is making a special point to
emphasize that the sacrifice we are called on to make requires a dedication to
the service of God in the harsh and often ambiguous life of this world…
For
Christians, there is no more ‘cult’ or ‘sacrifice’ in any literal sense. While
the Jew looked to the Jerusalem temple and its cult as the center of worship,
the Christian looks back to the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ…Thus the
Christian is called to a worship that is not confined to one place or to one time,
but which involves all places and all times, and with sacred acts. It is the
offering of bodily existence in the otherwise profane sphere. [The Early Church
Father and Archbishop of Constantinople] Chrysostom comments: ‘And how is the
body, it may be said, to become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil thing,
and it hath become a sacrifice; let the tongue speak nothing filthy, and it
hath become an offering; let thine hand do no lawless deed, and it hath become
a whole burnt offering.”[1]
2Do not conform 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.
There has
been a debate in theological circles for centuries about the transforming agent
in spiritual transformation. Specifically, the debate revolves around the
question of whether or not spiritual transformation in the life of the believer
is entirely the work of God while the believer is only passively involved or
whether the believer experiences transformation as an active participant
pursuant to his or her own volition with passive involvement from God. I
contend that in a relationship as we are with God through Jesus Christ, neither
party is passive. Through God’s mercy (v.1)
that includes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have the ability to be
faithful and obedient to God.
Have you
ever considered the implication of being referred to as “followers” of Jesus
Christ? This seems a bit obvious but being a “follower” means we are moving, by
our own volition, along the same path as a leader. If we aren’t moving then we
aren’t following—right? If our movement along the path were only the work of
God then we wouldn’t be following, God would be pushing us in front of Him or
dragging us behind Him. In either case, we would be passive participants in our
own transformation whether we wanted to be or not. In other words, we can be as
sinful as we want and just blame God for not doing His job to transform us. If
you take some time to think about that you’ll probably come to the conclusion that
that kind of transformation hardly seems like something that occurs in the
context of a meaningful relationship.
Instead, it
seems clear according to v. 2 that
believers play an active role in their transformation with Paul’s imperative
that we must not “conform to the pattern of the world.” But what is the
“pattern of the world” that Paul is referring to? Technically, it is the
opposite of what could be referred to as the “pattern of God.” The pattern of
the world is self-centered while the pattern of God is other-centered. The
pattern of the world is to get back at those that wrong you while the pattern
of God is to forgive those who wrong you. The pattern of the world is to own more
while the pattern of God is to give more away. The pattern of the world is to satisfy
all our desires while the pattern of God is to subject all our desires to God’s
control. But how do we not conform to the pattern of the world but instead
conform to the pattern of God? By changing the way we think, or more accurately,
by renewing our minds; by beginning to think differently about the world around
us and how we are called to interact with it as faithful followers of Christ.
What does
the renewing of our minds look like in our everyday lives? The pattern of the world
says lying isn’t really that big a deal since everyone does it—even our
President! The pattern of God wants nothing to do with liars and lying (Prov.
12:22; Ps. 101:7). The pattern of the world says you should earn as much as you
can and keep as much as you want. The pattern of God says it does you no good
to gain the whole world if you lose your soul in the process (Mk. 8:36). The
pattern of the world says that you can and should indulge all your sexual
desires. The pattern of God says that sex is something that is reserved for one
man and one woman in the context of marriage (Mt. 19:4-6) and that we should
flee from all sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:18), (Sexual immorality is sexual
activity in any other context outside of marriage between one man and one
woman.) The pattern of the world says you should return evil with evil. The
pattern of God says we should return evil with good (1 Pet. 3:9). The pattern
of the world says that all beliefs are equally valid. The pattern of God says
that no one gets to the Father except through Jesus (Jn 14:6).
“When
believers offer their entire self to God, a change will happen in their
relation to the world. Christians are called to a different lifestyle than what
the world offers with its behavior and customs, which are usually selfish and
often corrupting. Christians are to live as citizens of a future world. There
will be pressure to conform, to continue living according to the script written
by the world, but believers are forbidden to give in to that pressure.
But
refusing to conform to this world’s values must go even deeper than the level
of behavior and customs—it must go to the transforming of the way we think.
Believers are to experience a complete transformation from the inside out. And
the change must begin in the mind, where all thoughts and actions begin. Much
of the work is done by God’s Spirit in us and the tool most frequently used is
God’s word. As we memorize and meditate upon God’s word, our way of thinking
changes. Our minds become first informed, and then conformed to the pattern of
God, the pattern for which we were originally designed. When believers have had
their minds transformed and are becoming more like Christ, they will know what
God wants and they will want to do it for it is good, pleasing to God, and
perfect for them.”[2]
Application
This topic
of spiritual transformation is very near and dear to me. In fact, it is at the
heart of my doctoral thesis topic. I have grown increasingly concerned with the
trend here in the west that has witnessed a growing cultural conformity among
Christians as time goes by. It has always been my understanding that when
people become Christians, they begin a journey of spiritual transformation.
Whether it is Paul’s dramatic transformation from a persecutor of the Church to
church planter or the transformation of the disciples who went from cowering in
some upper room to boldly giving their lives to fulfill Jesus’ Great
Commission, there is an obvious theme of spiritual transformation contained in
the pages of Scripture. Generally, that theme expects God’s people to be
missional and different from the rest of the world.
To facilitate that transformation
in the Old Testament, God’s chosen people were given the Law as a means to set
them apart from the surrounding nations. It provided a guideline for right
living as well as guidelines for proper relationships with one another and
right relationship with God. After four hundred years of captivity in Egypt,
the Jews were God’s chosen people in name only and not yet in practice. It
seems clear that God expected that long-term adherence to the Law would produce
character that would begin to reflect God’s character to the surrounding
nations—Specifically, character that reflected a heart of humility that valued
holiness, justice and mercy. But it would take time for the people to live in
to their designation as God’s chosen people.
The New
Testament ushered in a new era of relating to God. The Old Testament
sacrificial system contained in the Law came to an end as a means for the
atonement of sins as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
However, there was still an expectation that followers of Jesus would be
different and share that difference with others. In fact, Jesus raised the bar
set by the Law for his Jewish followers. Followers of Jesus were not only asked
to be different from non-followers, they were even being asked to be different
from what was formerly expected of them by the Law. The Sermon on the Mount set
in motion an even higher ethical standard as that set by the Law. The
expectation of holiness, justice and mercy remained unchanged in the New
Testament but a new emphasis was placed on the follower’s love for God and for
people.
An unexpected commonality emerges
between the Old and New Testament revolving around spiritual transformation–The
work of the Holy Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the Jews of the Old
Testament era and the followers of Jesus Christ, are expected to be renewed in
mind and spirit in order to live in to the lives they have been redeemed into
living. The believer’s transformation is ultimately evidenced, according to the
New Testament, by the exterior manifestation of the “Fruits” produced by the
Holy Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.
Unfortunately, given the number of
Americans who claim to be Christians, there appears to be a disconnect between
the biblical theme of spiritual transformation and the experienced reality in
the lives of American Christians. Considering the freedoms we enjoy here in
America, the Fruits of the Spirit should be on prominent display for all to
witness. However, it is difficult to argue that, based on cultural trends, the
exact opposite is true. That is not to say that a majority of Americans no
longer profess to be Christians. However, when the lives of believers are no
longer distinct; no longer substantially different from unbelievers; when being
a people that are sanctified or set-apart is no longer valued, then becoming a
Christian just becomes a way to stay out of hell. For many people in America,
being a Christian is not a new way of life but a one-time confession and then a
return to the old way of life. Sundays are often a time of being entertained
with concert quality music, mesmerizing light shows, and mystical fog machines.
Attendees are fully engaged with hands raised high in celebration and often
with tears of joy or sorrow. They sit through messages offered by charismatic
leaders while nodding their heads and applauding the message in full agreement.
Then, many of those same people leave the church service and return to their
old lives as though nothing has changed. Publicly, and often privately, their
lives look exactly the same as their unbelieving neighbor who has never
darkened the doorway of a church.
George
Barna of the Barna Research Groups has conducted numerous surveys that support
this very trend. In fact, in one survey conducted in 1997, only seventeen
percent of Christians and twenty-five percent of non-Christians believed the
moral and ethical standards of Americans at that time were just as high as
ever.[3]
It is probably safe to assume that things have not improved here in America in
the last two decades since that particular survey was conducted. Perhaps
contributing to this decline are the beliefs expressed by contemporary
Christians. In another survey by Barna, only sixty percent of those surveyed
believe the Bible is accurate in all its teachings. Thirty-nine percent believe
that Jesus sinned during his time on Earth. Sixty-one percent believe the Holy
Spirit is merely a symbol of God’s presence and power but not a living entity.
Forty percent do not believe Jesus rose from the dead physically. Thirty-two
percent of those surveyed believe that truth is relative.[4] The survey results
indicate a shift away from orthodox biblical belief. That type of shift cannot
occur without consequences. Barna writes, “Most Christians—not those who merely
call themselves Christians but those who have confessed their sinfulness and
have asked Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior—have fallen prey to the
same disease as their worldly counterparts. We think and behave no differently
from anyone else.”[5]
This shift
away from orthodox biblical belief has a profound impact on the way Christians
think and interact with the world around them. The result is that Christians no
longer have the strength or will to fight against the world’s desire for
conformity. And it makes the job of Christian parents that much harder when
they try to teach their children that they must not conform to the pattern of
the world.
I have some
close friends who have faithfully and diligently placed God at the center of
their family. They are raising two daughters to conform to the pattern of God
instead of conforming to the pattern of the world. This past week they had to
have another of many conversations with one of their daughters trying to
explain why she isn’t allowed to do the things her friends do. Their daughter
witnessed the inappropriate behavior of her friends who suffered no
consequences for their behavior so she wanted to know why it was wrong for her
to participate if there are no consequences. Of course they explained to her
that consequences or the lack thereof is not what makes something right or
wrong. Right and wrong is determined by God irrespective of the consequences.
I remember
these same struggles while raising my own daughters. When they were growing up,
they weren’t allowed to wear the same clothes as their friends, or listen to
the same music, or watch the same movies or television shows. I remember the
tears and the countless conversations I had with them. I also remember the
relentless teasing they had to endure at school when their friends thought our
family was weird. I remember they were embarrassed when we went to their
elementary school and demanded that they stop playing certain music during gym
class that we thought was inappropriate. I remember explaining to my daughter
why when she said that God created the stars that she got the answer wrong on a
test. I remember explaining to both of them that when their friends and
teachers referred to a woman’s right to choose, what they were really saying was
that a mother should have the right to murder her unborn child. As my girls got
older, my wife and I constantly reminded them that because we are Christians,
we are different from the rest of the world.
Opposing
the surrounding culture is never easy. In fact, for some of you it may actually
be deadly. However, even in extreme cases, Christians can never acquiesce to
the demands and pressure of the culture. I’m not in any way implying that it
will be easy. In fact, it breaks my heart to watch the world batter and bruise
Christians attempting to be faithful with the lies of political correctness, compromise,
and conformity. I watch and encourage Christians daily to hang on to the
slightest hope that they will be able to withstand the culture’s onslaught. I
pray for my wife and children daily that the rope they have used to lash
themselves to God will hold. I pray also for all of you that you too will be
able to withstand the pressure and demands for cultural conformity. I pray that
you will be encouraged to not conform to the pattern of the world but instead
conform to the pattern of God for which you were originally designed. I pray
that you will have the courage to be unusual, unique, and unconventional in
relation to your culture. I pray that you will have the courage to Be A
Revolutionary!
[1]
Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans—The
New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 749-751; 754.
[2]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 623.
[3]
George Barna, Growing True Disciples: New
Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ, (Colorado Springs,
CO, 2001), 78.
[4]
George Barna & Mark Hatch, Boiling
Point: It Only Takes One Degree—Monitoring Cultural Shifts in the 21st
Century, (Ventura, CA, 2001), 190-191.
[5]
George Barna, The Second Coming Of The
Church, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 6-7.
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