God's Call And The Response Of Faith

The Hebrews letter's author guides us next to Abraham, one of the most famous of all Biblical personages. Abraham's name occurs 233 times in 220 verses in the ESV. Abram, his original name, occurs 55 times in 47 verses. Abram means exalted father. He was the founder and father of the nation of Israel, the son of Terah, born in Mesopotamia. When called by God, he left and spent the remainder of his life in the land of Canaan with his flocks (cf. Genesis 12-25). Hebrews refers to this journey. There is much to learn from the life of Abraham (father of a multitude). We have room only for a very few thoughts.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. - Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV

What is the Call of God? And how do I know that I am hearing God call me?

The Greek word is the same as ours, but with slightly different letters—kaleō. So we read that both Mary and Joseph called their son Jesus as they had been so instructed by the angelic revelation (Matt. 1:21-25.) Later Matthew tells us that Jesus was called a Nazarene in fulfillment of prophecy (Matt. 2:23). The same use of the verb is found in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount when he says that the peacemakers shall be called sons of God and those who relax even one of the least of the commandments and so teaches will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. From these and other examples we conclude that the verb refers first to giving someone a name and then with that name a description of their destiny and blessing or curse. 

So it was with Abraham. Paul writes of how he received a new name and a new destiny. In some detail in his letter to the Romans Paul says that Abraham, the prime example of a man of faith, received circumcision as a seal—not as a result—of the righteousness he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Paul's huge point is that faith is the critical factor, not circumcision as an act of obedience. Thus Abraham was pronounced and declared righteous as a gift of God's grace (Gen. 15:6) before and without circumcision. So he is 

. . . the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. - Rom 4:12 ESV

God does the calling, the naming and declaring. He called or declared Abraham righteous in His sight. God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. Abraham believed the vision the LORD gave that the He would fulfill His promises to make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars above (Gen. 15:5). Abraham believed that the land of Canaan on which he sojourned would be the land in which those descendants would dwell. He believed all this even though he, Abraham, had no children and was already an old man. As such his name was still Ab-ram (exalted father). He was not yet named Ab-raham (father of a multitude).  But his name was indeed changed and with that name change came the promise.

Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Ab-ram, but your name shall be Ab-raham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." - Gen 17:3-8 ESV

And the lesson for us? 

The LORD called you to faith if you believe in Jesus as the Christ and your Savior. This is the call He spoke in your baptism when He called you by name and declared you to be His child. In that call He declared you to be pure, clean and without sin. He declared you to have suffered the consequences of your sinning with His Son upon the cross of Calvary. He declared you forsaken and rejected along with Christ. He declared you dead. And then He declared you to be alive, risen with Christ. He declared that your life is already hidden with Christ in heaven. He declared that you will not die, but live and be given a new and eternal body. All this is yours when He called you His own in Baptism.

 

Consider what the Apostle writes to the Romans and to others about being baptized into Christ.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. - Rom 6:3-5 ESV

This does not exhaust the meaning of God's Call. But let it be sufficient for today. Consider your Call and rejoice. In my next posting I'll consider the LORD's Call as God directing and guiding our lives.

Praying For God's Kingdom To Come

As noted in yesterday's blog, Jesus came to depose the devil from his throne. The devil had successfully taken over control of the people of this world and become their god, even when they did not know they were worshipping him. Now a new king has appeared, the rightful ruler. And we are taught by the  true King! to pray, "Your kingdom come!"

The true LORD and God, Jesus the Messiah, has begun His reign. So we join the people of Jerusalem who welcomed Him into Jerusalem with their prayer: Hallelujah—LORD save us! Save us from our folly, from the powers of darkness, from the craziness of a world that worships those powers! Set us free to be children of God (Romans 8:20-21).

From an early 1900's Bible card illustration

Already that is happening. His Spirit is at work through His Word, calling us to faith and leading us to follow where He leads. So we are sent back into the world, not to be of the world, but to be in the world with the Good News. This is our calling, our vocation. Peter writes about it in this manner:

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. - 1Pe 2:4-12 ESV

I'll not expound in detail upon what Peter says above. Only note that he emphasizes that we who acknowledge Jesus as the true King understand that we gave been called out of darkness into His marvelous light! We have received undeserved mercy in Christ. What follows is that we abandon the ways of the world, what Peter calls the passions of the flesh. These passions wage war against our very souls. So in deep humility we follow Christ the King wherever He sends us to live honorable lives. Our purpose in all of this is that the people of the world (who are not yet God's people), may see our good deeds and give God the glory on the great day when Christ returns in glory.

So teaches also the Apostle Paul,

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name." And again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people." And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him." - Rom 15:8-11 ESV 

We who have been adopted into the people of God go then out into the world to live out our vocations, our varied callings—father, mother, business person, doctor, nurse, lawyer, soldier, and on and on—under the kingship of the true King. The "Gentiles" are watching our good deeds. Through this witness, we pray that the kingdom of God may come indeed, also among them. And so together we shall rejoice and praise the LORD forever and ever. 

Called By Christ To Be What You Alone Can Be

Brother Tim, as I continue this week's letter to you—and anyone else for that matter, both pastors and laity—I want to bring up something I said somewhere in the middle of yesterday's letter: 

In the next part of this letter I'll have more to say about what to pray for . . . 

And that brings me to some scattered thoughts for today, particularly about how I feel that we who are called to serve the church as pastors DO NOT know what to pray for. By that I mean to say that we are out of touch with much of what is going on around us, in our culture, and are NOT helping our people to confront it. Maybe that's because we afraid of the really hard questions before us—or we don't even know how to ask them. 

Let me explain by throwing out some things Os Guinness said 15 years ago about "Calling, Postmodernism, and Chastened Liberals."  

When I came to Christ in the early sixties, the central search for me—second only to the joy of knowing Christ—concerned my sense of sorrow at how marginal and pathetic much faith is in the modern world. Part of my response to that has been to look back at times in the past when faith has been dynamic and very powerful, and to examine the truths that made it so. . . 

Most of the secular alternatives to the gospel are in total disarray. The only dominant ones are negative, and as such they won't survive because they aren't satisfying.

MHR: What do you mean by the "dominant ones are negative"? 

OG: I'm referring to postmodernism. And humanism in any sixties sense, in which hardly anyone believes anymore. There are hardly any optimistic, post-Christian answers around. So we have one of the greatest apologetic opportunites we've had for five hundred years.

And yet most churches have lost their hold on apologetics. Many Christians don't even know what the term means. Those who do know what it means usually quarantine it very carefully in the seminaries on the east or west coasts. It never actually gets out to the streets to reach real people. As a result, we're missing one of the major moments of our time.

Guinness goes on to say some very important things about the Christian's calling, things that you too need to hear Tim, as you ponder your own calling. And, may I add, things that you need to teach to your people about their callings. Listen to this and then take a careful look at what he wrote. In this quote he's telling us to look beyond the empty new age ideas floating around.

OG: I think there should be an additional position—one classified as "called to be." We are not only created to be something—indeed, we are given some things at birth—but we are called to be something as well. 

It's fascinating to see this borne out in the scriptures. People who met the Lord face to face almost invariably fell flat on their faces (with a few exceptions, such as Joshua, who was too big for his boots and thus was told to take off his shoes). In most instances, such people are like Daniel and Ezekiel, who fell absolutely prostrate.

The Lord's words to them are almost always the same: "Stand up." In other words, calling not only singles us out—so that it's our name being called, and not someone else's—but it also stands us up. We arise to be what Christ alone knows us to be.

Tim, I pray that you will indeed struggle in prayer to be the man called to be, to "stand up" to be what Christ alone knows you to be. He will surely bless you.

He Is With Us Always, To The End

This week we Christians begin our annual four weeks of preparing to celebrate the first coming or birth of our Lord Jesus. During these four weeks we meditate upon the several other ways by which Jesus comes or will come among us. We rejoice that he has never in fact left us, but rather remains very present to speak to us and guide us in his living Word as well as in in the sacraments of Baptism and his holy Supper. In this way he fulfills his promise to be with us to the very end of this age. And yes, this present age will come to its appointed end. Then he will return in glory with all his holy angels (Matt. 16:27; 24:30; Mark 10:37).

As has often been true, unbelievers view this prophecy as so much nonsense or they get all wrapped up in other esoteric prophecies like the Mayan calendar's prediction of the end on December 21, 2012, less than a month from the day upon which I write these words. In response to Jesus' disciples' private question about what was to be the sign of his return and the end of the age he said,

"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." - Mat 24:36 ESV

Mocking those who promote about the Dec. 21 date, our pastor recently quipped in his sermon, "Can you imagine the let down for those folks when it doesn't happen? And wouldn't it be neat if just when they give up in despair, Jesus comes back on Dec. 22!"

So what about all this business of the end of days and signs of Jesus' return? Jesus told us before his own crucifixion that there would be (Matt. 24:3-31; Luke 21:5-38):

• messianic leaders promising to save the world from all its woes 
• wars and rumors of wars
• nations or kingdoms rising up against other nations or kingdoms
• terrors from the heavens
• famines in various places
• earthquakes
• tsunamis and floods
• hurricanes and tornadoes
• plagues and epidemics
• widespread drunkenness from drugs 
• persecution and murder of Christians

Sounds like today's news reports from around the world, doesn't it?

We believers sometimes panic when we hear about these things. Do not. While the list above gives us good reason to be sober about what is happening around us, we have no reason to panic. We always remember Jesus' promise just before his ascension,

"Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." - Mat 28:20 ESV

So we go about the work he has given to us as we await his return. Moms care for their kids. Dads teach their sons to throw a baseball. Engineers design bridges, lawyers plead cases before judges, musicians create music. We join hands to feed the poor, care for the sick and weak, rescue folks from various disasters and whenever we have opportunity we share the good news about Jesus. And all the time we remain awake and in prayer, awaiting his return at any time (Matt. 24:44-47).