Bible Treasures from the Reformation #6 s1

Stewardship– November 12, 2017 Bible Treasures from the Reformation #6: The Priesthood of All Believers Romans 12:1-2

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, When you think of priest, you usually think of someone like this: (picture of priest with collar). Some of our pastors in inner cities wear such a priestly collar, because that makes them different on the street! If they wore a suit they’d be a target. Criminals usually leave priests alone. In our mind, priests are just different! They are not normal people.

Guess what - as priests, part of the priesthood of all believers, we are not normal people either. Our key verse says it: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:8 For God’s special possession, the KJV translates that we are a peculiar people. Yes, we are different!

As we discovered last week, the Old Testament priesthood was a special class of God’s people who were the only ones who could give sacrifices in God’s temple. They were instructed to sacrifice lambs and cows for the sin of the people. Now in New Testament times, we are priests who give sacrifices but with a whole new meaning: Therefore, 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. Being a priest means we give sacrifices. We sacrifice ourselves, our bodies, for God and for the benefit of others. We do it “in view of God’s mercy” which means our motivation is all that Jesus has done for us. He has made us different! This is certainly not like the rest of the world.

So today we continue in verse 2: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In this verse, we see conformation vs. transformation. Paul says literally stop conforming, don’t continue to conform to the way this sinful world does things. In its place, be transformed. Dare to be different! Live differently, because as a Christian, as a priest, you are different! You will stand out in the crowd, or at least you should.

Often, we think it’s great to be different, we like to think that we’re unique and different from the crowd. But in actuality, people don’t want to be too different from everyone else. It’s difficult to be different! We want to fit in with the others around us, we want to be liked. It isn’t just teenagers who insist on the right kind of clothes, or want the right kind of hairdos. Manufacturers plan on the fact that everyone will want the latest gadget. Clothes designers bank on the fact that everyone will want to wear the latest style. People like to conform.

That’s all right when you’re talking clothing and styles. You can be different or not, you can conform to the world or not. But it gets us Christians in trouble whenever we starting conforming to the sinful world. And that can be a struggle.

Take, for example, an experiment that was done with teens to test how willing we are to conform to a group. Ten teenagers were brought into a room and told they were being tested on how well they could see the chalkboard. Three lines were shown to them, all of different lengths. They were to raise their hands to indicate whether they thought line a, b or c was the longest. The trick was that nine of the ten had been coached ahead of time to raise their hands for the second longest. What would the tenth person do? When nine hands went up for the wrong answer, the tenth student hesitated, but then also raised his hand. A number of different groups were tested, and 75% of the time, that lone student voted for the wrong answer just because everyone else did.

The pressure today to conform to the ways of the world is greater than ever before. On just about every prime time TV show, more and more sin is depicted as OK, even wholesome. In the news, a Christian is considered bigoted or narrow- minded for not going along with it. In school, teens and even grade school children are confronted with pressure from classmates to try this or try to get away with that. Some are shamed and bullied if they don’t want to be a part of the gang. In the workplace, gossip seems to be the number one past time, language can be atrocious, the latest party for the weekend is being planned, (which wouldn’t be much of a party in some minds without drunkenness) and you’re looked on as some kind of fanatic if you don’t go along with all of it.

So Paul says, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Dare to be different! Live differently, because as a Christian you are different! Sometimes people say, as an excuse for their behavior, “A leopard can’t change his spots.” That’s true a leopard can’t change his own spots, but God can change a leopard, if he wants to. And he wants to change the whole world, spotted with sin, into believing Christians, purified by Jesus. When the Lord brought us to faith, he changed us! Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! We are decidedly different than we were—a new creation of God. Instead of being dead in sin, he has given us life. Instead of lost and wandering, we have been found and know where we’re going. Instead of uncertainty and darkness, we have the light of Christ, and the light of his Word to guide our path. God made us different! Since we are priests, not normal people, we have a purpose, a calling that is different too. In everything that we do, we want to do God’s will, we want to do what God wants.

Paul continues: Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. When you’re transformed, you’ll be able to test God’s will out in your life, and find out that it works! No longer is living for God a drag, but you know that you will be blessed and have the greatest joy when you approve of God’s ways and will. So how do you find out what pleases God in your life? How are you to serve him? We don’t all have to become pastors and teachers. But we all are priests. And Luther rediscovered God’s will about our calling in life, or vocation, in the Word of God. Let’s see what he has to say about it in this clip from the movie: “A Return to Grace.” (see video) The most significant quote from Luther in this vignette is this: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” Christ has freed us – no one can tell us what to do! But since we are now his special people, as priests, we are asking: “Lord, how can I serve you?”

As we saw in the movie, Luther taught the people that their callings in daily life, whether husband, wife, farmer, cleaner, caretaker, mom, nurse, finally every position in life, is a calling from God to serve. So Paul describes all that we do for God this way: 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. He uses the illustration of a body, with hands arms legs, eyes ears nose etc. We are not all the same, we are not supposed to be the same. If a body had many mouths but no ears, who will listen to all those mouths? We are not all supposed to be pastors and teachers, we have different functions. We are the body of Christ, he is the head of the body, but we are different parts, we have different roles, God has given us different talents and abilities. So Paul lists some of them: 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Now I want you to look at this list of different jobs for the Lord. Obviously you can do all of them right here at church within our church family. But how many of these can you do outside of the church? Would you believe—all of them?? Serving and showing mercy of course. But think of the others. If your gift is prophesying, you will be good at bringing just the right Word of God to your family, or friend or coworker. If your gift is teaching, you can teach the Word of God to your children, grandchildren and their friends. It’s great to encourage members of your Christian family, but if this is your gift, you will be doing it for anyone you meet who is down and out. We give generously for our work at church, but if your gift is giving, you will give to others as well. And leadership is needed everywhere, not just on the church council or committees.

And when you use your gifts here or all during the week wherever God has placed you, you make sacrifices for others and you are functioning as priests. We use our abilities, not just to get through school or earn a paycheck, but to serve others for the glory of God. By our actions, we can show that we are different, we are Christians, we are priests. When we get to heaven someday, we’ll be able to hear the Lord say to us: Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

But that’s not something we want to brag about. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. By faith, we say: I’m not so great, Lord, but you are the great one, the gracious one. By faith, we say with Psalm 115: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory. You Lord get all the credit for who we are and what we can do.

So inside, you can say to yourself: “God made me special. He made me a priest.” But don’t tell anyone. Just show it by what you do. Amen.