The Ministry of Jesus
Part 2: The Calling of Jesus
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
I do want to invite up our speaker this morning, which is Phil Stevenson. If you've been around the church long enough, you know him, but many of you I know are new. Phil Stevenson used to be a pastor here, used to be a pastor at many different churches in our district, in our area, and was even our district superintendent, which is all fancy terms. This is a great man and we're so privileged to have him here giving our sermon. Thank you. Thank you, Andrei. When Andrei started to say he's pastor of many churches, I thought, "That guy can't keep a job." That's what it sounded like to me, but I don't think he meant it that way. You are blessed to have a great pastoral team with you. I know you know that, but it's always good to hear that from others. Then some of you may not know this, but Pastor Chris, when I pastored down in the Sacramento area at a church that is currently named Faith Legacy, I knew Pastor Chris since he was just a little teeny kid. It's fun to see what God's done with him and to realize that only one of us is aged. It's not me; it was him, by the way. Anyway, I'm so glad that you set your clocks ahead. In pastoral ministry, you always hate the time change. You don't hate this time change as much because if you don't skip ahead, you just get here really early. So that's something wrong with that. I'm glad that you're here. I celebrate Daylight Savings Time. The reason for that is because probably five or six years ago, I had a little virus attack my right eye, and it scarred my cornea. So if I just close my left eye like this and look at you, it's like looking at you through a water glass. You're all kind of blurry, but both eyes working together works great. But as a result, I don't drive at night much because it just gets weird with all those lights up. And my wife, sometimes I'll just--in fact, it just happened a few days ago--I said, "I'm going to be at this thing." She goes, "Well, that's going to be after dark." I said, "Okay." She goes, "Well, you can't drive." I said, "Yeah, I think I can make it. I think I can do this one." She would not let me drive. And now, with Daylight Savings Time, I am a free man. I know it's only going to start with another hour or so of daylight, but we know what happens in June. It doesn't get dark until nine or so. I'm just going to drive around town, what I'm going to be doing during Daylight Savings Time. So, just so you know, I'm just rejoicing that the time has changed. I feel privileged to share with you this morning.
Back in 2023, December of, I was introduced to a--I guess it's an organization I had never heard of before. It is called StoryWorth. Have any of you heard of this thing called StoryWorth before? I'd never heard of it, and then all of a sudden, just like anything, I hear about it, and you feel like everybody has heard about it. And what it is is I like to write, and so my kids got me a StoryWorth for a Christmas gift. And what it is is that I got it in 2023 for Christmas, but then, for the whole year of 2024, every week, I got a question that came emailed to me. It could come from my kids, it could come from my grandkids, and then I would answer that question. And so, over the course of the year, I had 52 questions, and therefore, the book is 52 chapters, because each chapter is a question. And then, at the end of that, then of course you go through and edit and rearrange, whatever, then you pick out a title and a cover and whatever it might be, and then you have a book. And so, this is my book that my kids got for me. Help me write it. It's called The Curious World of Pappy. I guess my grandkids call me Pappy. And my youngest son, who lives in Arizona, he came up with a name. He thought that would be a good name.
And so, I share that with you because one of the questions that was asked was, "What is the most adventurous thing you've ever done?" That was the question. So, I thought about that, and here's what I wrote. And then, of course, this is just kind of the introduction, but then the rest of the chapter's more about that. But here's what I wrote. Clearly and concisely, it was when I accepted Jesus into my life at age 12. I didn't know that it would lead to life-altering experiences and opportunities. The moment I accepted Christ, I began a journey of transformation and growth. I've seen Him change my attitude, help me overcome my anger. Jesus has readjusted my perspective. He continues to reform me. If I had not accepted Christ and chose to follow Him, come what may, I would have never accepted His call on my life. It was in the context of ministry, doors of adventure opened wide. So, it's been a while since I've been 12. We don't have to go into how long, but it's been a while since I've been 12. But as I thought, I thought that truly was the most adventurous thing that I've done is accepted Christ into my life. Because everything in my life from that point on has flowed from that relationship with Jesus. And we're going to talk this morning about the call that all of us have and then how that call leads us into participating in the commission, the great commission of Jesus. See, now my call, as a result of the initial call, it resulted, for me, going into full-time ministry. But the call is not to that, although it could be. There are some here sitting here today, young, old, in between, where God may tap you on the shoulder and say, "I have for you a call into more full-time ministry with me and for me." But that's not the whole call. The whole call for all of us is what? To follow Jesus. That's the call, to follow Jesus.
Now let me just illustrate this idea of a call, the general call, which is for all of us, when we accept Jesus into our life, the call is to follow Him from that point on. My oldest son, Ryan, when he was in about ninth grade, he went on a short-term missions trip with the high school group of the church that we were at. And one of the responsibilities of all the kids that went on those trips was they had to come up with a little devotional to share it with the group. And so he did his due diligence and put this thing together. And he comes home, and evidently he did a good job. And here's what he said to me. He said, "Dad, I'm kind of frustrated." I said, "What's going on?" He said, "Well, I did this devotion when we were on this Mexicali-type trip, and people kept coming up to me and saying..." Now, I was pastoring the church, just so you have context. "And they came up to me and said, 'Are you going into, are you ready for this, the family business?'" I didn't know we had a family business. That's cool. And he said, "They want to know if I'm going to be a pastor." He said, "I don't want to be a pastor." I think, "I don't blame you." But anyway, no. I said to him, "Ryan, first of all, you need to know, the only reason people are saying that to you is because I happen to be a pastor." I said, "My dad, your grandfather, was a roofer, and I can't tell you how many times people said, 'Are you going to be a roofer?'" It just goes to the territory. If I had been a doctor, you fill in the blank, they would ask you the same thing. I said, "But here's the deal." I said, "Nothing would thrill me more if God called you to be a pastor." But you know what? That's between you and God. I'm not going to pressure you about that. I'm not going to ask you constantly. That's between you and God. Because here's what I know, Ryan, about you.
Whether you're a pastor, an architect, a dentist, whatever, fill in the blank. Here's what I know, you will serve God with who you are, wherever you are. That's what's important. So that's what we're talking about. Yes, for some people, it may turn into that more of a full-time ministry type of thing, but for all of us, the call is to follow Him. Last week, actually, Pastor Chris mentioned this. He said we are to follow Jesus and live on mission. And so in reality, what I want to share with you this morning is kind of flesh out that statement that Pastor Chris mentioned last week. That we are to follow Jesus and live on mission. And I want to start, of course, with the call. The call to follow Jesus. In Mark chapter 1, verses 16 through 18, here's what we find. "One day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water." And I love this phrase, catch this. "Throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living." I kind of chuckle at that, kind of like, okay. It's like Mark when he wrote it said, I just want you to know that they just weren't throwing a net into the water for fun. That's what their job was. I'm like, okay, I only find amusement of that, you may not. Okay. "Jesus called out to them, 'Come, follow Me.' And I will show you how to fish for people. And they left their nets at once and followed Him.”
Now there are some observations that I would just like to make about this call of following Jesus. Here's the first one. The call happens in the midst of our daily life. What were they doing? Well, we know what they're doing. They were fishing, it was very clear. They were throwing nets in the water because that was their job. They were just doing their job. And so often the call to follow Jesus doesn't come in the confines of a wall of a worship gathering like we are today. It can happen while you're at work. Well, God's Spirit reminds you, you're called to follow Him. So it's in the everyday stuff that we get that call to follow Jesus. And then the call is to follow Him, not anything else. Follow Jesus. And as we follow Jesus, this call refocuses our purpose. Not only were they going to, in essence, He put it in context for them, you're a fisherman and now you're going to fish for men. You're going to repurpose what you do so that you can follow Me and my name can be glorified and the kingdom of God can be brought into the world. And the fourth thing is observation, is simply this. It necessitates a sacrifice. They left their nets. What were their nets? The tool of their trade. That's what they used to make a living and so that was going to necessitate a sacrifice for them. Now, the sacrifice for you or for me may be different than that. It's not necessarily called to leave your livelihood and go do something else. We're going to talk about what the commission really looks like for us today, 2025. But regardless, when we follow Jesus, it necessitates some form of sacrifice. We may have to sacrifice an attitude. We may have to sacrifice an activity. We may have to sacrifice a belief that we have. There's going to be something that we're going to have to sacrifice. I don't want to water it down for any of us. Following Jesus takes sacrifice. Takes us a reconfiguring of who we are and how we see ourselves, how we see the people around us. And they had no idea, I believe, they had no idea what that decision to follow, the call of following Jesus would mean for them. No idea. In fact, the reality is at this moment, they didn't know that much about Jesus.
Now in John chapter 1, you read a little bit more about this and you discover that Andrew actually got aware of Jesus through John the Baptist. See, John the Baptist had followers and Andrew was one of those followers. And when Jesus came along, John the Baptist said, "Hey, hey, hey, that guy there. That's who you really want to follow, right there." So Andrew went and got his brother, Simon/Simon Peter, and told him about Jesus. So they didn't know all that much about Jesus. And so they come and they follow this call. And then when they did, I believe that put them on a pathway that we're all on the pathway ourselves. Because something has to continue to happen in our lives from the time we accept the call to follow Jesus, and we get on this pathway of growth and learning and discovering about Jesus, and then we begin to understand the commission, the great commission, which we're going to talk more about, but that one to go and make disciples. That commission that all of us should be a part of. And just like the disciples ultimately and Andrew and Simon right here, they didn't know all that that meant when they simply accepted the call to follow Jesus. And there are several things that happened on this pathway as Jesus began to prepare them for what was going to be their lifetime journey of going and making disciples. The first thing was simply this, he gave them a taste of what it would be like in Luke chapter 9 verses 1 through 6. We see where Jesus sent them out. And he sent them out with power and authority to proclaim the kingdom of God. It was just a taste of what they were going to do as they fully embraced the commission to go and make disciples. He taught them. Last week, Pastor Chris spent a lot of time talking about parables and how Jesus used those to teach truth, but just a story that most people hearing them could understand the story and that he would make that application for their lives. And he taught them through parables. He led them through his example. He modeled for them the power of God when he did miracles. He mentored them. He prepared them for when he would no longer be here physically on this earth. He was preparing them for that call to go and make disciples.
In John chapter 14 verses 25 and 26, we read these words. Jesus says, "I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as My representative, that is, the Holy Spirit, He, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." You know that Holy Spirit that they weren't that familiar with, frankly, at that time that Jesus said the Father is going to send when I am gone? That Holy Spirit? Same Holy Spirit we have access to. Same one. Through all our history, that Holy Spirit to come and empower us, and we're going to talk about that in a moment, and lead us. It's available for us and so essential when we get ready to fulfill and go after the commission, the great commission, to go and make disciples. And when you think about a commission, in general, here's what a commission is. It's when a group of people are directed to perform some duty. That's a commission. I commission you to go out. I commission you to go out, to do whatever. And the commission that Jesus gives us is to go and make disciples. And what we have to understand is that as we read about this, the commission was not just for the disciples that were physically present with Jesus through His earthly ministries. It is for you. It is for me.
In John chapter 17, 9 through 20, Jesus is praying for His disciples. And this is not a prayer, you know, what we call the Lord's prayers, where we have it where the disciples say to Jesus, "Teach us how to pray," and then He gives them that. This is just Jesus praying for His disciples. A few hours, not too long after this, He is going to be arrested, quote-unquote, "tried and crucified." And, as we know, because we're going to celebrate in a few weeks, the resurrection is going to happen. But here, none of that has happened yet. And He's praying for them. And I'm not going to read the whole passage, but I'm going to pull out some things for us to understand. The first one in verse 11, "I am departing from the world." They are staying. They don't get to go. He's departing. We're staying. These guys are staying. Verse 13, "I told them many things while I was with them in the world, so they would be filled with joy." Verse 14, "I have given them Your word," and we have His word. I saw this little reel. This guy walks in and sits down, and he says to a guy who's next to him, who's reading the Bible, and he sits down next to him and he says, "How do I hear God's voice?" And he said, "Read the Bible." He said, "Well, how do I hear God's voice out loud?" He said, "Read the Bible out loud." I thought that was funny. Anyway. But God's here. He's given us the word. Verse 15, "I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one." He's not asking you to be plucked out of the world, but to be in the world, but protected as you live out this life. Verse 18, "Just as you sent Me," Jesus is praying, "into the world, I am sending them into the world." See, you and I, we are a sent people. What does the Great Commission say? Go. Not stay and make disciples. Go and make disciples. We are a sent people. And here is the key verse, in my opinion, to this passage and for you and for me today. It says this in verse 20. Jesus says, "I am praying not only for these disciples," the one gathered right in that space, "but also for all who will ever believe in them through their message.”
That's us. That's us. Back there, God's word, many years ago, Jesus is praying for you and me, those who have believed in me, because ultimately, because of the witness of the disciples who led people to Jesus and made kingdom people, and people were going and making disciples. Ultimately, it's us. We, I don't want to assume all of us here, but I'll just make that assumption for our next few moments. We, when we ask Christ to come into our life, forgive us of our sins, and restore our relationship with God, we were accepting at some level of a call to follow Him that ultimately will be played out and are living out the Great Commission. So the commission is for everybody. It was for them. It was for us. And then we know this. This is so important. He commissioned, His commission is for imperfect people. Imperfect people. We'll all fulfill the mission when I am perfect. Forget it. That'd be like saying, "You know, when I get in shape, I'm going to the gym." That's not how it works. And look what it says here in verse 16 and 17 of Matthew 28, before we get to the exact Great Commission. Then the eleven disciples, now this is after His resurrection, by the way, so remember that. Then the eleven, remember, there were twelve, minus one Judas, now there's eleven. The eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but ready for this, but some of them doubted. Wow. Guys have been with Jesus for three years, seen a lot of things, lots of experience. They're showing up where Jesus had told them to show up, and then after all that, they doubted. Now, we have to understand something. Doubt is part of our faith journey. Doubt is not sin. Doubt is a means of us trying to understand our faith and what it means. In your faith journey, if you have not had a time where you doubted God and His faithfulness and His ability to work in and through your life, just hold on. It's coming. I've gone through seasons like that more than I care to remember. And good thing because the older I get, I don't remember much. But they doubted. So know that these people who were doubting are going to be the ones that are going to fulfill the commission, to run after the commission of going and making disciples. Also, we need to understand that the commission is the fruit of the Easter story. The Easter story that we're building up to when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ because in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He puts a stamp of approval on all that He said. Everything He said He could do, the resurrection is a fact that He can do what He said He could do. Who Jesus said He was, the resurrection is a fact that who He was is who He was. It's His stamp. All the things that I said I could do by my resurrection, I can fulfill. So it's the fruit of the Easter story. And then we come to the Great Commission, the call to follow Jesus. As we walk through our lives and Jesus begins to form us and transform us, put us on this life of adventure, then in the meantime we're accepting not only the task, the call to follow Him, but to live that following out by fulfilling the Great Commission.
It says in verse 19 of Matthew 28, "Therefore, go," and actually a more literal translation, and you may have heard this before, a more literal translation of the word that we translate "go" is "as you are going." So He says, "Therefore, as you are going, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." End of the age. So that Great Commission, how do we live that out? How do we live that out? If you've been following Jesus for much time, if you've been in the church for much time, you probably have heard that, that we're to go and make disciples. So how do we do that? We do that by simply living each day in the power and leading to the Holy Spirit being available when called on. That's living out the Great Commission, that's going. We are Spirit-empowered, Acts chapter 1 verse 8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the world." So we're Spirit-empowered to live daily. And then we also are Spirit-led, Galatians chapter 5 verse 25, "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives." Not just on Sunday when we gather together or we do other things with our church family, our church community, but in everything we do. The Great Commission has lived out in the context of our everyday life. We go to work, we go to school, we go to a place like a gym or we have other sense of community. We go get coffee, we go to our homes, we go to our clubs, we go to our neighborhoods. We go. When He says, "Go and make disciples," you know what? We're already going. Every day we're going. Sometimes it's like we're going way too much, but we're going. I discovered even though I retired about, oh, I think, I don't know, six, four, I don't know how many, not very long ago, I'm still going.
I work out at this place called Plyometric. It's just on top of the hill over here by Safe Credit Union, if you know the Rocklin area back there. And I had a guy come up to me one time, and I've been there since September, and he came up to me, and I understand, when I went there, I didn't know anybody. I only just very carefully knew the owner/operator, the coach of the place. But when I walked in, I didn't say, "Hey, just want you to know I'm a pastor. I'm here to fulfill the Great Commission." I didn't know anybody. But over time, evidently, word leaked out. So this guy comes over to me, and he says to me, "I understand that you're a pastor." And I heard this other voice who I had talked to about some of the things at the other end of the club. I told him, "Okay, thank you very much." And here's what I said to him. I said, "Yes, I am, but I'm retired, but I'm still a follower of Jesus." I wanted to make sure it wasn't tied to that position. So for me, part of my going is there. Trying to be available, spirit-led, spirit-empowered, to do whatever might need to be done. And again, to reiterate and undergird the fact that it needs to be lived out where we are.
There’s a wonderful story in Luke, chapter 8. You may have read it, you may have heard of it, but basically, Jesus goes to this area, and there's this guy who is just filled with evil spirits. He's out of his mind. He was scary to his community. People knew him. And Jesus ended up taking the spirits, casting out the spirits from this man that they were called Legion, because there were many. He put them into the pigs. The pigs ran and went off the side of the cliff. Disrupted the whole community. They were freaked out. But this guy was saying he was in his right mind. And after that, it happened. The people came to Jesus and said, basically, "Would you just get out of our town? Just get out of here." Because they were fearful. And so Jesus went back to get in the boat with his disciples, and the man who he had delivered came over and said, "I want to go with you. You changed my life." And here's what Jesus said to him. In fact, it said that he begged Jesus to go with him, but Jesus said, "Go home, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you." So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him. See, he wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus wanted him to go for him. And to a place that he was not welcomed. He said, "That's where I want you to go, because you know what? I'm expanding a bit here. You know those people. They know you. They've seen what's happened. Now you go tell them your story." That's the great commission. Living each day in the power of the Holy Spirit, power led, being able to use where you are. I've shared this phrase before because I share it as many times as I can at the places I have a chance to opportunity to share, and even sometimes talking with people who are followers of Jesus in different contexts, and I always tell them this because it's a kingdom principle. I've shared it here. Some of you may or may not recall it, but it was simply this. You, we, are God's investment where we are. That's it. That's a kingdom principle. Where you are. That's where God's invested you right now. You know what? God's kind of expecting a return on that investment to be used by him in that context of where you are.
I came across a book not too long ago. It's called The Lord of the Ring, not The Lord of the Rings. Just The Lord of the Ring. It's the story of a guy named Count Zinzendorf. Born in 1700, lived to 1760. And he was born into wealth and into power. His family, who lived in the eastern part, I think, of now Germany. It wasn't then Germany, but it is now. And he had wealth. He had power. In fact, he was scheduled for great things in the area of royalty. And his preparation for that, when he was 10, he was sent to religious boarding school. And during the time there when he was 10, he stayed there until through his teens. When he was in his early teens, he and some friends got together and it says this about them. They fully intended to commit their lives to the service of Christ. And started to look for ways to express their commitment and practice. Out of Zinzendorf's commitment came what is called the Moravian movement. And everybody in this room, whether you know it or not, I'm going to tell you why you're a part of this, have been influenced by that. And the reason is because a guy named John Wesley was very influenced in his spiritual life by the Moravians. And John Wesley and his movement that he started, that's where the Wesleyan church comes from. And whether you know it or not, Spring Valley is part of the Wesleyan movement. So all of us in this room have been impacted by the ministry of Spring Valley and in essence have been impacted by the ministry of the Moravians. He also started this, what was called the order of the mustard seed. And actually still exists in some form through the 24/7 prayer movement. Some of you may have heard of the prayer, 24/7 prayer movement is still influenced by that. And the order of the mustard seed had three vows, and this is what I'm going to leave you with. Three vows, be true to Christ, be kind to people, take the gospel to the nations parenthetically, play your role in expanding the kingdom. Those three vows. Those three vows in essence somewhat sum up the great commission to go and make disciples. Be true to Christ, be kind to people, take the gospel to the nations, play your role in that. So the question would be for us today, where are you or where will you live out the great commission?
Father, we are grateful that you have called us and we have responded to follow you. And as we follow you, Lord, may we live that following out through fulfilling the great commission to go and make disciples. Lord, remind us that where we go is simply where we are. And help us to be influences on the people that we come across. We praise you and we give you honor and glory in Jesus' name. Amen.