What’s Your Calling? And How Do You Accomplish It?
What’s your calling and how do you accomplish it? Learn both in this message! We are asked to do ordinary and extraordinary things for God, but through his authority, assignment, and assurance, he always gives us what we need to do what he asks.
Today we revisit an encouraging message from 2021 that still rings true today.
About the Speaker:
Tony Higgins has been a follower of Christ for over 50 years, and serves on the Board of Faith Chapel. Through the years, he has also been both a student and leader in Bible studies. In his spare time, you’ll find him researching a new message, tinkering with computers, or spending time with his grandkids.
God has called us and equipped us to do one, simple thing.
You are called to do one basic thing. (Hint: it’s very simple.)
On the first Sunday of 2020 a missionary to Japan spoke in our morning service. In his introduction to his message, he said this: “Each and everyone of us is called to share who Jesus Christ is.” He went on to say “Everybody has their own distinct mission field.”
In those two sentences he captured what I’ve known for a long time. Every one of us is called to share who Jesus is. It’s not rocket science. It’s just that simple. We each have a calling: to let those around us know about the good news of Jesus Christ.
That missionary’s words reverberated in my heart again and again as I began to formulate this message, as we consider what the Great Commission means to us.
Are you like the singing baseball player?
On October 20, 1988 the Los Angeles Dodgers played the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum. It was the 5th game of the World Series and they won the game and The World Series. The winning pitcher, Orel Hershiser, also won the Most Valuable Player award. It was one of three MVP awards he would win in his career. That season, he also won the NL Cy Young Award and a NL Gold Glove Award. One of the TV shows about the series showed him in the dugout just before the 9th inning started. He was leaning against the wall. And his lips were moving.
So, the next evening when he was a guest on the Tonight Show, Johnny Carson asked him what he had been saying. “I wasn’t saying anything,” Orel responded. “Well, then, tell us what you were doing.” Finally, Orel replied, “I was singing.” Johnny said, “You were singing? I didn’t know you were a singer. Come on, let’s hear it!” And Orel said, “Nah. I don’t want to.” And the audience clapped and said, “Yeah! Let’s hear it! Wooooh!!!!”
Finally, Orel Hershiser started to sing:
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above Ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Amen!”
Johnny Carson was speechless. The whole audience was dead silent. You could have heard a pin drop. Then one person stood up and started clapping. And soon, the whole audience joined in applause. This was Orel’s way of saying, “Lord, the only reason I’m a Most Valuable Player is because you’re a Most Valuable God. You’re the one who gave me my ability. You’re the reason why my life has been so blessed. And I respect you. And I love you.”
Nine years earlier Orel Hershiser dropped to his knees in his hotel room at Spring Training in Scottsdale, Arizona and committed his life to God in simple faith. About his commitment he said “My success was only by his grace; so, my objective was to praise and honor him in every way I could.”
He further said “I hadn’t planned to drop to my knee in prayer after the Dodgers defeated the Mets for the National League Pennant or look to the heavens as we beat the Oakland A’s for the World Series. These actions were not premeditated. They were only spontaneous flashes of thanksgiving for God’s blessing and mercy. Although millions of people around the world saw me at those moments, I was not flaunting my victories. I was privately releasing these experiences to my heavenly Father. The trophies would all be his.”
Orel Hershiser wasn’t (and isn’t) a preacher or a missionary. He was a baseball player. But he stayed focused on the One who made him successful. And he wasn’t afraid to share his faith with others, even before the world on network TV.
Jesus’s Death and Miraculous Resurrection
The events leading up to this passage in Matthew were both dramatic and historic. The previous chapter begins with the account of chief priests and the elders of the people making plans to have Jesus executed.
For a bag of money Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples, had identified Jesus to the crowd sent by the chief priests and elders and they carried him away. Judas later had remorse and returned to the temple to give back the money. Then he went and hanged himself.
Jesus was handed over to Pilate, the governor. Pilate concluded that Jesus had done nothing wrong.
In accordance with the custom of pardoning and releasing a condemned prisoner at the beginning of the Feast of Passover, Pilate asked the crowd who to release: Jesus or Barabbas, a condemned criminal guilty of murder and insurrection.
The crowd shouted “Give us Barabbas.” When asked what to do with Jesus they shouted “Crucify Him!” “Crucify Him!” Pilot ceremoniously washed his hands in front of the crowd and said “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” John 19:4 quotes him as saying “I find no basis for a charge against him,” or in the King James Version, “I find no fault in him.”
The meaning of the name Barabbas is noteworthy. The first part, “Bar” means “son of.” “Abbas” means “the father.” So, in a strange twist of irony, a convicted criminal, Barabbas, “A son of a father,” was set free and an innocent man, Jesus, “THE Son of The Father” was condemned to die.
Then Pilot sent Jesus to be crucified. He was scourged, tortured and mocked. Then he was led to a place called Golgotha where he was crucified. His body was placed in a tomb and a large stone placed at the entrance. Having remembered hearing Jesus say that after three days he would rise from the dead the, chief priests were fearful that Jesus’ followers would steal his body and fake a resurrection. So, at their request Pilate ordered the tomb be sealed and placed a guard at the entrance.
What followed was nothing short of miraculous. An angel of the Lord came and, with the help of a violent earthquake, rolled the stone away from the entrance and was there waiting when the two women came and found the tomb empty and left to tell the disciples as directed by the angel.
Then Jesus appeared to them and they were overjoyed. He told them to tell the disciples to meet him at Galilee. That’s where today’s passage begins.
How to share your faith with authority and assurance
‘Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”’ (Matthew 28:16-20).
Our focus today will be on the last three verses of the passage we just read.
The Authority of Jesus, v. 18
The Assignment of Jesus, v. 19
The Assurance of Jesus, v. 20
By studying the authority, assignment, and assurance of Jesus, we will learn how to share our faith with authority.
The Authority of Jesus (v. 18)
In verse 18 we find the Authority of Jesus: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” It’s important to recognize this fact. In order to recognize it we need to understand what it means.
The word “authority” denotes permission. It denotes privilege; it denotes power; it denotes rule, control, influence. We say in the home there’s authority, resting with the parents.
How many of you remember who was in authority when you were growing up? I learned from a very early age who had authority: Dad and Mom.
I remember two phrases that always reminded me of their authority. When I misbehaved my mother would say: “Wait til your father gets home.” I always dreaded hearing that, especially early in the day. It would ruin the rest of the day for me.
The other one was a direct answer to a not so thought-out question: Why? And I knew the answer before asking the question. Do you remember? The answer was “because I said so.” Like it or not, I knew fully well what that meant. It meant that “Dad or Mom was the boss and what they said was what I followed.” It meant that they were in authority.
Wherever we go and whatever we do in life there are authorities that we must come under. In the government there are authorities: the police and those who govern us. In the schools there are authorities. In business, and on the job; in any dimension of life there are authorities, people who have the privilege, the power, the permission to set the rules, to determine the judgments and the verdicts.
But there is one who has authority that surpasses all other authorities. Jesus said this, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18).
All authority is given unto me—that is an amazing claim to privilege. That is an amazing claim to power, to permission, to right. And Jesus demonstrated that very well in his ministry. He spoke with authority and he acted with authority. And he had just shown his authority over life by his resurrection.
When was the last time you called on the Authority of Jesus? You do every day when you pray if you conclude your prayer with “In the name of Jesus.”
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
The “name of Jesus” means “by the authority of Jesus.” So, when we pray “in the name of Jesus” we are praying “by the authority of Jesus.”
In John 14:13-14 Jesus himself teaches believers to pray in his name; that is, to pray, in his authority, where he said: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
So, understanding that Jesus spoke with authority leads us to what he said next.
The Assignment of Jesus (v. 19)
In verses 19-20 we get the Assignment of Jesus. He says:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a).
The assignment is: to go and make disciples of all nations. In the King James Version, it is to teach all nations. In Mark’s account it says “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16). Whether we make disciples, teach or preach the gospel, the goal is the same: to spread the Good News that Jesus died for our sins and that he lives and offers salvation freely to those who will accept it.
This assignment from Jesus is for all Christians, not just pastors and missionaries.
One Sunday morning in 1960, someone knocked on my family’s front door. We were living in Crocker, Missouri waiting for my dad to return from his first tour of duty in Korea.
A woman named Maureen was at the door. My parents knew her along with her husband Bob. Maureen had tried without success to stop smoking.
She told my mother that she couldn’t stop because of the stress of financial troubles. She asked if my mother knew anything that she could do to stop smoking. Mom told her that, although she had never smoked, that she had an answer. She told Maureen that if she surrendered her life to God that he could take away the habit of smoking if she asked him to and that he could get her through her financial troubles. At the time she declined Mom’s suggestion.
When Mom opened the door that Sunday morning, there stood Maureen. With tears streaming down her face, she said “I want what you have. Can I go to church with you?” That day Maureen became a child of God.
Mom didn’t preach to Maureen. She didn’t criticize her for smoking. She just befriended her and waited for the opportunity to tell her about Jesus.
So, how can we make disciples?
We can start by reading God’s Word and prayer. When we do, it will change our lives and others will notice.
We can also help make disciples by volunteering at church.
And, we can help by supporting our local church and mission’s programs.
The Imperials sang a song entitled “You’re the Only Jesus Some Will Ever Know.” Whether we realize it our not, others notice our lives. We need to make sure that what they see and hear honors God.
When I was attending Bible college, I was one of many students who worked at the Veteran Association (VA) Hospital. In my Senior year, I was making plans to attend a weekend outing to Yosemite with my wife and classmates.
I requested the time off well in advance to make sure I could go. But a week before the outing my supervisor called me in and told me that I would have to work that weekend because of staff shortages.
I was disappointed. She further told me that she knew that some of my co-workers would just call in sick but that she could depend on me being at work that weekend because I was above telling a lie to skip work.
I missed the trip to Yosemite and worked that weekend. After a few more years I left for another job. My supervisor’s husband died of a heart attack. Sometime after that she called me and asked me to hook up a TV and VCR she bought. I went to her home and did as she requested. When I finished, I got ready to go and she asked me to pray for her. I witnessed to her and prayed with her. That was an opportunity that would have never happened if I had called in sick and went to Yosemite.
We must never compromise our Christian life. We must live our lives in obedience to God’s Word and our convictions.
In addition to our personal prayer life, we can pray for others. Everyone can do that. I have been praying for a long time for three relatives. I will continue to pray for them until they commit their lives to Jesus. And then I will keep praying for them.
When I was a senior in high school in Alaska, I turned away from Christianity. I still had to go to church. But during prayer times I just sat and looked around, waiting for the service to end. One Sunday a woman in the church came over to me and invited me to pray. I told her I wasn’t interested. Two years later Mom and Dad visited her in Washington. My three younger siblings were there. But she asked my mother about her older son, me. My mom told her that I was attending Bible college. The lady broke into tears and told my mother that she had been praying for me since our family left Alaska, for more than two years.
I had no idea that she was praying for me. God answered her prayers and those of others who I was not aware of as well as those who I was aware of. Over the course of those two years, I re-dedicated my life to God, and, by the urging of the son and daughter of the District Superintendent, decided to go to Bible college. Those were the two most important events that happened in my life at that time.
That lady had a burden for me and that’s why she prayed for me. Each of us should have a burden for lost souls in general and specifically for those we know.
Praying for salvation for the lost is something that all of us can do and should do. We don’t have to look far to find somebody to pray for. They are all around us. They are relatives, friends, neighbors and co-workers.
The Assurance of Jesus (v. 20)
The latter part of verse 20 tells us about the Assurance of Jesus.
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Here, Jesus is telling the disciples that he will always be with them no matter what comes their way. The same promise applies to every one of us.
‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:5-6, 8).
We can be thankful that Jesus never changes and that his faithfulness and promises endure forever.
Romans 8:31 says in part “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
In the verses that follow, the Apostle Paul asks the question: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:36). Then he answers the question: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
Will you do your part?
We are more than conquerors! We are victorious because of Jesus. When Jesus said to go and make disciples, he meant it for all Christians. We all can do our part to help win the lost for Christ.
We don’t have to feel intimidated or inadequate to make disciples. Jesus is our authority and the only authority we need.
We can go forth proclaiming the gospel knowing that Jesus is always with us.
Suggested Praise and Worship
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