You never know who God is going to use. That is what we talked about last week. Who knows when he is going to work or who he is going to work through. We do know one thing though, God is going to use us and accomplish his will through us as willing, seeking vessels. I think we more commonly refer to this as calling. God has a calling on each and every one of us. There is a unique specific calling to each of our lives which cannot be duplicated or fulfilled by someone else. I think that is the reason we find the world in the suffering state that it is in. God has a call on everyone, but not everyone responds to their call. That calling goes unfulfilled or rather filled in a way that is lacking from its original purpose. I think it is kind of like the experience of a substitute teacher. They come for a couple days or a week and they might do a good job, but a substitute can never live up to the responsibilities of another teacher’s class. There is something lacking, it is not really their class. All of us have some kind of calling whether it be to teaching, carpentry, real estate, nursing, or whatever. I know in my case I have been called to teach and preach and eventually to long term missions work. I think ultimately though even though this might seem like I have a pretty clear idea of what I have been called to, I in fact don’t have a clue. I think that is often true for most of us. If we have a sense of where we are called to, we generally don’t have many specifics. What are we called to do once we get there? What is our purpose? What are we supposed to accomplish? I think that no matter how clear a sense of calling we have there is always a greater sense of mystery than of clarity. OK God, but what I do when I get there? Sometimes we don’t even know where there is. So I will do whatever I am called to do when I figure out what it is, and if I can even figure out where it is. I mean how are we to accomplish the what if we can’t even gain a sense of where to go to get started. I think the most difficult part of calling and being used by God is the lack of clarity we are given. So I want you to take a moment to talk with your neighbor. Ask them this question, and try to answer it yourself. What is my calling? If you have a sense of what it might be share it, if you have no clue, share that.
Now I am sure that there was a great variety out there. I actually think that I could guess some of your answers. Which I think is kind of a funny thing because sometimes I think our friends and those who love us often times have a clearer view of our calling than we do. Without a show of hands, I don’t want to give you any reason to inflate your ego or to feel ashamed, how many of you said you were called to evangelism? While there are many unclear, blurry, and unpredictable aspects of calling, there are some definites that we can say without a doubt we are called to. If you have experienced the love of God and received the salvation of Christ than you are without a doubt called to evangelize. You may have no idea what to do with your life, suffering from mass confusion and a jumbled path of unclear directions. But there is one thing you can confidently grab hold of and know 100% without a doubt you are to do. You are called to evangelism. You are called to share the love of God with this world and His saving grace. Turn with me to Luke 24:44-49;
Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
Jesus returns to the disciples after his death and you can just imagine all the questions running through their head. One of them had to be, what was the point in all of this? First of this is the Son of God. His is all powerful he could do anything he ever could desire. Why would he need us? Why did we spend the past few years of our lives following him around and listening to his great words and seeing his amazing works if he is simply going to leave us? What was the point? Granted we are blessed and we experienced great things, our life is fulfilled because of all we have seen, but why did we see and experience the things we saw? Why me? On top of that why did God send his Son down here to die? Couldn’t he have done something from there? The answer to that is of course. God did not need the disciples, he did not need to display his Love for us in His death. There are a million other scenarios that would have accomplished the same end. So why did God bother with lowly disciples and death on a cross?
This is what Jesus was coming to answer. He came to give them their calling and to show them purpose of all their sacrifices and time spent with them, to tell them why he died. All the words he spoke to them, all the great works he accomplished among them had a purpose. If Jesus was sent here simply to save us then he could have just appeared died and left, but that is not what he chose to do. Jesus spent time teaching, preaching, and most important of all loving. Christ called the disciples and lived his life for the purpose of displaying the great love of God. Now he turns to the disciples and he reminds them of what he said, then he opens their eyes. Suddenly they get it. All of creation has led up to this point, everything has pointed to the love and salvation of God. But that still does not explain why them. God came for the purpose of saving all of humanity, not just the Jews, not just a few disciples. Would you be content as a parent if God told you that 2 out of the 3 of your children would love you? Absolutely not, and neither is God. God’s love is so great that he cannot bear to see even one of his children fall, it hurts him so greatly. So Jesus says to the disciples the repentance and forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed. God’s children must know that he loves them and wants them. This is why the disciples have gone through all that they have. Jesus says they are the witnesses. They have experienced the depth of love that the Father has for us. They have seen the sincerity and they understand his word and his salvation. Do you remember back in Matthew 4 when Jesus called the disciples? Verses 18-20 read “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Jesus comes by says, “Hey you, follow me and I will make you fishers of men” and they drop everything for that purpose. Jesus says I am going to teach you how to reel in the children of God to what they were always meant for, to the Love of God. You will bring them their salvation. This is the day of graduation. They left everything for this moment, to be fishers of men. This is what they were called to and now Jesus says, “This is the moment, congratulations, here is your diploma, you are all now fishers of men.” They have done it. Now they must start fishing. Get out there and tell the world of all you have learned. They are not simply to reel them in, but they are to make more fishers of men and them more and on and on. This is how the great love of God will be displayed. This is how the world will experience and learn of their lover.
Here generations and generations later we are the direct results of the witnesses of the very life and death of Christ. His story has been shared with us and we are told, “Congratulations, you are now a fisher of men. Go into the world.” We have been given a great gift. Think about the disciples. They are probably thinking, “Who are we that we have been chosen to receive something so great. How are we even worthy to be disciples of Christ?” We have been given that unmerited and unearned grace and love of God. We are unworthy to behold and experience the very presence of God. We don’t just get to realize his love and salvation but just as the disciples we experience the very presence of his Spirit living within us. We have been turned in the temple of God, the place in which he resides and lives. Our God is living within us. How can we bear to keep silent, how can we not shout it from the roof tops? In fact we are commanded not to keep silent. As it says in Matthew 10:27, “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” We are called to make the love and grace of God known to all the world. How can we keep silent about such a great gift.
While there is a great gap in our knowledge of what we have been called to, there are some absolutes we can know for certain. We have been called to evangelism and to proclaim God’s love to His children. If we take on that calling it live not to the best of our abilities, but beyond our abilities relying on God’s strength, the rest will fall in line and we will be living out the calling of God. I think that we have identified a great void in the church as a whole and more specifically in this church body. What have we as a church been called to? We have been called to proclaim our Great God and his salvation and forgiveness everywhere. Ask yourselves is this who we are? Is our primary identity as a church founded in evangelism? How about you personally, can you honestly answer that you fulfill this calling? And I am not talking about speaking about God, but I am talking about living and speaking of his love and forgiveness. Notice what message Jesus said not to be conveyed. It was forgiveness and salvation, not condemnation. We need make our lives personally be defined as being fishers of men, but it cannot be our lives alone because I am not the church and you are not the church. I am not the temple of God and you are not the temple of God. We together are the temple of God and therefore we must learn as a church to evangelize. We must learn to go out into our community together and we must find a way to speak his love in the darkest places. My preaching here in this building, my teaching, your teaching, your learning, your words, your worship. What we do in this building is not evangelism. Evangelism is bringing God’s love to those who do not yet know it. Evangelism takes place outside this building. Outside of Sundays and Wednesdays. If we are to make fishers of men, we need to learn again how to be fishers of men. We need to embark on our calling with a since of urgency and sincerity. God’s love for the world must become our love for the world. What will we do as fishers of men?
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