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Rejoicing and Glorifying God A Sacrifice
of Praise Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name.—Hebrews 13:15, NAS Erwin Kalinski Connecting sacrifice and praise is quite unexpected. Yet our words and our lives should combine both praise and sacrifice as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, enduring hardship while expressing love for him and our brethren. “For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” (Hebrews 13:11-13) This Scripture shows the connection of the church with the sin-offering. Our sacrifice can only be accepted through the sacrifice of Jesus. However, we can display a similar attitude as Jesus when offering our sacrifice: “For zeal for Thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach Thee have fallen on me” (Psalms 69:9, NAS). Hebrews 13:15 holds the key to understanding this sacrifice of praise offered by the church. We are to view our life on earth as but a pilgrimage and an opportunity to serve God: ”For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14, Net Bible). The Church as Pilgrims “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13, NAS). “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11, NAS). We are pilgrims in the world. Like God’s faithful ones of old, we are ambassadors for a future kingdom and should now consider ourselves as strangers in the world. We have separated ourselves; we have new aims, new ideas, and a new purpose of proclaiming the coming of Christ’s kingdom.
“Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to
God” (Hebrews 13:15,
NAS).
How we offer such a sacrifice is illustrated by considering that God showed his
love when he planned to create both heavenly and earthly beings to share in his
creation. God did not have to share anything, yet he was eager to do so. God’s Love Manifest in His Creation Why would God want to share his universe? After all, he knew disobedience would result in earthly beings showing little or no respect for him, and even profaning his name. Some who claim to love God misrepresent his character with the false idea of eternal torment for unbelievers. Or they dishonor his name by making him a triune creature. When God considered creating man, he also knew that man’s fall into sin would require his only begotten son to become the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Considering this manifestation of God’s love, we understand why John admonished his hearers to praise God: “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11, NAS). God began his creative work with the Word —the Logos in Greek. This was God’s son in his pre-human existence. Proverbs identifies the creation of the Logos as the beginning of all creation: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of earth” (Proverbs 8:22,23, NAS). The word “possessed” is the Hebrew word #7069 in Strong’s Concordance where it has the meaning of “created.” The New American Standard Bible, in the margin, suggests the alternate translation “I was consecrated” for the phrase “I was established.” This is an important concept since it indicates the Logos was wholly devoted to his creator from the beginning of his life: “Then I was beside him, as a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him” (Proverbs 8:30, NAS). It is staggering to think that such a close relationship existed for billions of years. The promises based upon God’s knowledge of his son’s willingness to die as a ransom—from the promise to Eve that he would bruise the serpent’s head to the promise to Abraham that he would bless all the families of the earth—testify to this closeness. God’s Relationship with the Logos This closeness continued when Jesus was born in the flesh: “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold! A virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14, NAS). The name Immanuel means, “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). “Yet thou art he [Jehovah] who didst bring me forth from the womb; thou didst make me trust when upon my mother’s breasts; upon thee I was cast from birth; thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb” (Psalm 22:9, 10, NAS). As Jesus studied this psalm, he would have understood that he was God’s son and recognized his duty to outwardly show his love for and devotion to his heavenly Father. The Scriptures indicate that Mary and Joseph had children together following the birth of Jesus. These would have been half-brothers and half-sisters of Jesus and are named James, Joses, Judas, and Simon (Mark 6:1-3). Although no female names are listed, the plural form of the Greek word for “sister” indicates that there was more than one. Jesus’ brothers and sisters took offense at him—the NAS marginal translation suggesting that they “were made to stumble.” Why would this be so? Apparently, the family knew of the peculiar surroundings of Jesus’ birth—probably through Mary, their mother—and may have hesitated to accept their half-brother as the promised Messiah. Such a suggestion is in the Psalms: “I have become estranged from my brothers and an alien to my mother’s sons” (Psalm 69:8, NAS). Jesus’ unique birth may have isolated him from his siblings. He was on a mission from God. This friction in Jesus’ earthly life continued when he began his ministry. Note the fiery exchanges between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees: “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:39-44)
In both his family life and his ministry, Jesus
continued to praise and glorify God despite persecution. His life was truly a
sacrifice of praise. Jesus’ Loneliness Most have experienced feeling alone even when in a large group of people. Imagine Jesus spending his entire life that way and especially during his ministry the last three and a half years of his life. Despite the twelve who were with him constantly, Jesus had no one on earth who could understand his sensitivity to the effects of sin which he saw in his fellow humans. His disciples could not fully comprehend Jesus’ mission. They were earthly-minded men and women thinking only of an earthly kingdom. The twelve thought of their own potential for earthly honors. A loving mother wanted her two sons to sit in the most favored positions in Messiah’s kingdom. Jesus lived with imperfect people, dealt with hostile religious rulers, had his miracles called works of the devil, and endured the unbelief of his closest friends. Under those unfavorable conditions, he continually thanked God and expressed his love for his heavenly Father. Every word, every deed, every answer was filled with the unselfish love that represented his sweet sacrifice of praise. When his disciple Philip showed a lack of understanding by saying, “Show us the Father … Jesus said to him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Phillip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how do you say, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9, NAS). This shows how difficult it was for Jesus, as a perfect person, to live in a world filled with imperfection. None could accurately understand his ability to reflect God in all that he did. The apostle Paul showed his understanding of this unique ability of Jesus in his dissertation on Jesus as a sympathetic high priest: “For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will proclaim thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing thy praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children whom God has given me” (Hebrews 2:11-13, NAS). From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus knew he had only a short time to offer his life as a sacrifice of praise, and that it would end with his death on the cross. When his close friend Lazarus died, Jesus talked about his own sacrifice and how it would reflect God’s glory: “When he heard this [the sickness of Lazarus], Jesus said, This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it." (John 11:4, NAS). Following the raising of Lazarus, Jesus repeats this thought: “Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40, NIV).
Ezekiel compares “the glory of God” with a rainbow:
“As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was
the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the LORD.
And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake”
(Ezekiel 1:28). Jesus’ Love for His Disciples “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). This is a moving description of Jesus’ intense love for his disciples. A marginal rendering suggests, “He loved them to the uttermost.” The eleven became Jesus’ family of prospective new creatures. We are told that God showed his love for his earthly creation by giving his son for redemption: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “Gave” is a verb; it denotes action. People cannot love by sitting on their hands. They must push that action outward. John indicated this outward action in the life of Jesus: “We know love by this that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16, NAS). Paul added another dimension to this type of love: “But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NAS). This was the ultimate demonstration of the love of Jesus. Just as he offered up a sacrifice of praise with his consecrated life and subsequently carried that love to the ultimate end, we must also sacrifice as Jesus sacrificed, enduring as Jesus endured and emulating his love for others to the end of our lives. That is our sacrifice of praise. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4, NAS). James gives advice for enduring the difficult experiences of a life in Christ. He says that we must “consider it all joy.” Our suffering should be part of a willing sacrifice which gives testimony to God’s love. The thought of praising God in the midst of sacrifice is described by David: “Thy statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. O LORD, I remember thy name in the night, and keep thy law” (Psalm 119:54,55, NAS). We must keep our Lord and our sacrifice continually before our minds: “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8). Jesus always kept his heavenly Father’s purpose before him in every trial and every joy, and we must do the same.
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal
among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing
were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of
Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may
rejoice with exultation … But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel
ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God” (1 Peter 4:12,13,16,
NAS). Verse 16 contains a good definition
of the sacrifice of praise: rejoicing and glorifying God while suffering for the
sake of being a follower of Jesus. By continually testing ourselves against the ultimate scale of love as shown in Jesus, we can joyfully endure suffering and offer a blessed sacrifice of praise to our heavenly Father. |