Living Sacrifices

Five Types of Old Testament Sacrifices: 

• Burnt 
• Grain 
• Peace 
• Sin 
• Trespass 

These sacrifices were performed for any number of reasons:  

• Atonement 
• Reconciliation 
• Communion 
• Worship 
• Dedication/devotion 

The offerings to be sacrificed were to be:  

• The best (ie - without blemish) 
• Identified with offerer 
• Sanctified (made holy) 

Hebrews 9:22b For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. 

However, what does the Old Testament say about God's desire for sacrifices? 

• 1 Samuel 15:22 “What is more pleasing to the Lord:  your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?  Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams."
• Psalm 51:16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.  You do not want a burnt offering. 
• Proverbs 21:3 The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices. 
• Hosea 6:6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. 
• Micah 6:6-8 What can we bring to the Lord?  Should we bring him burnt offerings?  Should we bow before God Most High with offerings of yearling calves?  Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?  Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?  No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:  to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. 
• Amos 5:21-24 “I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.  I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.  I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.  Away with your noisy hymns of praise!  I will not listen to the music of your harps.  Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. "

Jesus reinforces this view: 

• Mark 12:28-34 Two Greatest Commandments -- (33) "And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” 

Hebrews 10:1-10 - Jesus fulfills the sacrificial system 

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.  If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. 

But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year.  For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.  That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, 

“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. 

    But you have given me a body to offer. 

You were not pleased with burnt offerings 

    or other offerings for sin. 

Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God— 

    as is written about me in the Scriptures.’” 

First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses).  Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect.  For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. 

Romans 12:1-2 - Our Sacrificial Requirement  

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. 

Be transformed - metamorphoō 

• 'to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure' (think butterfly) 
• Jesus - Mount of Transfiguration (2x) - Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2 
• 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.  So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 
• Death > Life 
• Sin > Righteousness 
• Stranger > Son 

Next Steps: 

• Continued next Sunday - Read rest of Romans 12
• Christ & Coffee: Romans 12 - Thursday 7:30 AM 
• Acres of Hope Planning/Vision Meeting - 3/1/15  
• Spiritual Gifts/SHAPE Assessment online 
  • Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, Experience