A
Study of the Book of Romans
Sermon
#24
“The Power of Commitment.”
Romans
11:33-12:2
Why do you suppose there are close to 159
million people in America who claim to be Christians and yet the Church is not making
more of a moral and spiritual impact? Why is it that on Sunday mornings thousands of
churches across the nation has more empty pews than full? Why is it that the average
worship attendance is 90 (Barna, 1999)?
Why is it that only 50% of the number on any church’s membership rolls can be
expected to attend on any given Sunday? I believe the answer can be found in one word, commitment!
In Chapter twelve and verse one we
read, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
In verse one Paul begins to challenge his
readers to move to total commitment. We have the misconception our modern day churches
that, sure preachers and missionaries and other full time Christian workers should be 100%
committed, but for the ordinary church member something less is permissible. The problem
with a lot of Christians is
that they are at best only participating in church
work or at worse are mere spectators.
We cannot remain as spectators looking on. Someone once
described a football game as twenty-two men on the field badly in need of rest being
watched by seventy-two thousand people in the stands badly in need of exercise. While
football may be a spectator sport for most of us, Christianity certainly should never be.
The Appeal
To Commitment (v. 1a)
This section begins with “therefore” – it is the third and final “therefore” in the book, the others are (5:1 and 8:1).
Whenever a verse begins with “therefore” (as
it does in the KJV) we know that it is intimately connected to what has preceded it and we
need to stop and see what it is “there for.” In this case it is giving the
motivation for the challenge he gives to his readers in verses one and two. “Therefore”
we need to take a moment and look back at 11:33-35, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (34)
“ For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” (35)
“Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” (36) For of
Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
The motivation for a Christian’s total
commitment to Christ is found in all that Christ has already done for us. Paul begins in
verse one by saying, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to
God, which is your reasonable service.”
Notice that Paul does not issue a command
here. Paul does not say, “I command you.” but rather “I beseech you or I beg you.” We don’t serve Christ
“in order that we might be saved” but because we are saved!
Paul goes on to make some very important
points about the nature of our service to the Lord.
The Act
of Commitment (vv. 1b-2a)
· It
is a permanent sacrifice.
“… you present
your bodies.”
The complete nature of this commit-ment is
seen in the Paul uses the language of sacrifice. The word translated “present” or “offer” (paristasis) is a technical term used for the
ritual presentation of a animal sacrifice by the priest. And it very important that we
understand that this word; given in the Aorist tense means that it is a once for all time
transaction. We sometimes think that the individual who is continuously re-dedicating
their life to the Lord is a very spiritual person. There is nothing wrong with
re-dedicating our lives when we acknowledge that we have somehow lost our way and want God
to resume control of our lives. There is however, something wrong when an individual feels
the need to continually rededicate their lives to the Lord, because according to this
verse this is intended to be a one-time total surrender of your life to God.
There is not such thing as a partial sacrifice. It is purported that a conversation took place in the barnyard between
a hen and a pig. The hen and the pig were talking to each other, discussing the problem of
human hunger around the world. They decided they would do something about it. So the hen
said to the pig, “All right, this is what we’ll do. Because people are hungry,
this is what I propose. I propose that every morning, we provide a ham and egg breakfast
to hungry people.” The pig looked at the hen, and said, “For you that only requires involvement; for me
it requires total commitment.”
· It
is a personal sacrifice
“… you present
your bodies.”
He says that it is up to you to “present your bodies” as sacrifices to God. In fact it literally says “you, all of you, present yourselves to God.”
When he says “you” (see in the use of “ye”
in the KJV) here it is a plural meaning that he is not talking to just a select few, but
to everyone. What God wants from you is you! God does want your money. God doesn’t
want your time. God doesn’t even want your talents. He want you. If you give yourself
totally to Him, all of those things come along.
One of the major problems in the church is a
lot of church people are still coming to the services, trying to receive something, rather
than to give something. You people all the time saying things like; “I didn’t get anything out of the message.”
“The music didn’t speak to me.” “I didn’t get anything out of the
service.” Whether you realize it our not, these statement reveal a
misunderstanding of the whole point of coming to a worship service. Worship
is not about coming to get something it is about coming to offer something.
· It
is a practical sacrifice.
“…
which is your reasonable service.”
The word translated
“reasonable” (logikos) is the
word we get logic or logical from. Total commitment is the only logical course of action
when we realize who God is!
The
Achievements of Commitment (v. 2)
Don’t Be Conformed. (2a)
In verse two we are also told, “And do not be conformed to this world…”
The word translated “conformed”
(suschematizo) refers to the outward appearance
or likeness, being shaped after the fashion of something.
Ray Stedman tells a story from the life of
Jerome Hines, the Metropolitan Opera singer.
“… as a boy
growing up in California, he became convinced that he had a good voice. Someone urged him
to train it, and so he did. He became possessed of a desire to become a star in the
Metropolitan Opera Company. That was what he lived for. He built his life around that,
gave up all other activities, all other pursuits, all other pleasures, to give himself to
the necessary work of training to become an opera star. He learned the arts of intonation,
of musical projection. He learned several languages so he could sing operatic roles. He
gave himself to that tremendous desire within him to be a star in the Metropolitan Opera.
It finally came true. He became a star. And he said it was empty, hollow. One day he heard
a man singing. The voice was as good as his, and the man could have done what he did. He
heard Beverly Shea singing, "I'd Rather Have Jesus." The words he sang were,
I'd rather have Jesus than silver
or gold,
I'd rather be His than have riches untold,
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land,
I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hands
Than to be the king of a vast domain,
And be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
That song got to Jerome Hines. He began to
think about it, and, out of that incident, he became a Christian. But he didn't quit the
opera…. Jerome Hines stayed in opera, but everything was different. He was not longer
singing for the advancement of Jerome Hines, he was singing for the glory of God. He
dedicated his art, his work, his all to that purpose. That is right. God doesn't take us
out of the world; he wants us to live in it, but to change our thinking. Jerome did.
A few years ago Hines had an
opportunity to sing the role that he had always wanted to sing. He trained for it, with
months and months of hard work, and he was given the role. He was contracted to sing that
role in the opera for ten years. When he went to the opera to practice he found some
people performing a rather lewd dance. He asked, "What is this?" He was told,
"This is the choreography that introduces the opera." He said, "There's
nothing in the opera like this!" "No," they said, "we're changing it a
bit, modernizing it, bringing it up to date." Jerome Hines said, "I won't sing
if you are going to have this kind of a dance in it." He was told he had better go
talk to Mr. Bing.
Jerome Hines went to Rudolph Bing, the
Metropolitan Opera general manager, and said to him, "Sir, if you have that dance in
the opera then I am not going to sing in it." Bing told him, "If you don't sing,
you will be ostracized and blacklisted in opera because you are under contract to
sing." Hines said, "Sir, I can't sing in that opera. I am not going to let my
name be used to entice people to come in to see filth like this. You can break me, sir,
and the union can break me. I've worked hard for months to train for this role, but I will
not sing in your opera if that dance is in it." Bing said, "Jerome, you don't
have to sing. If you really feel that way, you don't have to sing; we'll get someone else.
But we can't change the contract." So Jerome Hines had to give up that role. It cost
him, over the period of ten years, something like a hundred thousand dollars. How many of
you are willing to give yourself to God in such a way that you would be willing to give up
a hundred thousand dollars rather than do something …that would be offensive to your
Lord?” [Ray Stedman. From Guilt To Glory:
Experienced. Multnomah Pub (November 1985)
Be Transformed
(2b)
“… but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God.”
The word translated “transformed”
is (metamorphoustai), from which we get the
word metamorphosis. Most of us remember enough from science class in school to remember
what the process of metamorphosis is. It is the process by which a caterpillar is turned
into a butterfly. It a change from the inside out and it is just a physical change but a
change of nature.
The
significance of this word can be seen in the three other places it is used in the New
Testament. In Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2 it is used to describe the trans-figuration of
Christ – when the Lord’s true glorious nature was allowed to shine through so
that his face radiated like the sun and his clothing was white with light. The third and
final place it is used is 2 Corinthians 3:18 where we read, “But
we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Three
important things about the verb translated “be transformed.”
· It
is a present tense verb – this means
· It
is an imperative. This means that this