Dear BPCWAians, Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the importance of discipling. The church as a whole is called to go out and make disciples of Christ. The Parable of the Wedding Feast speaks of the king’s servants going out to the highways to go out and call people to the feast. Here, it refers to a general call to people to be saved. For the elect, this general call narrows to a specific internal call that leads to salvation (Rom 1:6). Further, for some that God chooses, after being saved, there is also a specific call (kaleo) to a specific full time service in God’s vineyard, such as Christ’s calling of the Apostles in the gospel (Mk 1:20). It is this last call that we want to understand further about today.

It is a call to serve fulltime. This is the first step toward serving God in the ministry of the Word. The call of the Apostles set the tone. The Apostles “left their nets” and “left the ship” (Matt 4:20, 22) and “left (the receipt of custom)” (Lk 5:28). That is why a specific call to do God’s work has always been called “going fulltime”. However, today, there is a growing trend even in Christendom that one can be “called” into Christian ministerial work but yet continue working in the world. These claim that the Apostle Paul was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3) and by working, they do not “burden” the church with supporting them financially. Yes, Paul did tent make for a period. However, this was to the shame of the church who did not support him (2 Cor 11:9), although “the Lord (has) ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” (1Cor 9:14) An example is the Preacher Martyn Lloyd Jones. After a 2 year struggle, Martyn Lloyd Jones eventually left his secular physician vocation to preach. He later writes about such a call in his book “This call to preach is so put upon him, and such pressure comes to bear upon him that he says, “I can do nothing else, I must preach.”” C.H. Spurgeon echoes such an irresistible call when he says “If any student in this room could be content to be a newspaper editor or a grocer or a farmer or a doctor or a lawyer or a senator or a king, in the name of heaven and earth, let him go his way; he is not the man in whom dwells the Spirit of God in its fullness, for a man so filled with God would utterly weary of any pursuit but that for which his inmost soul pants.” This was the same message that echoed in my memory on my first day at the Far Eastern Bible College of what the Principal said to the new students. Much as the harvest is plenteous, though the needs of the church are many, the full time ministry of the Word is not for volunteers. It is for those whom God calls. It is not because they’re “special” or that they’re so “self-sacrificial”. The “high flyer” Apostle Paul attests to this “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1Co 9:16). This is simply God’s ordained model – we cannot and should not accept otherwise. This is no “Nazarite vow” kind of commitment for a limited period of time. It is a lifetime calling that one who is called cannot turn his back on. One who is truly called enters into the ministry for the rest of his life. Preaching is not something he hops into and out of, just like any other job. He leaves his secular job for good.

It is a high but humbling call. This may seem like an unlikely contrast. But Heb 3:1-6 gives us a picture of the work. The work that the Prophet in the Old Testament and the Preacher in today’s age does is only but a servant in the greater picture. The call is to serve in the household of God, to build up the local church that it may grow unto “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Eph 4:13) While the church is called to esteem very highly those that admonish you in the Lord (1 Thess 5:12, 13), the glory doesn’t go to the servant, but to “Christ as a son over his own house” (Heb 3:6) The duty and responsibility of every faithful preacher is not to point men to himself, how great is his work, but to the very greatness of God and to His work. If it were not such an irresistible call, the man himself would shirk away from this heavy duty and responsibility. Isaiah said “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Is 6:5) Jeremiah cried “Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” (Jer 1:6) “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30) is a motto for the Preacher for the rest of his ministry.

It is a call to obedience. I will touch on one more aspect of the fulltime ministry, and it is that of obedience. Before Moses could start his ministry, God had to ensure that Moses was obedient to God’s covenant to circumcise his son (Ex 4:24-26). Moses had to set his own family life in order. While Aaron pleased the people by making the golden calf (Ex 32:1-2), Moses stood on the Lord’s side against sin (Ex 32:26). Despite that, Moses’ later disobedience did not go unpunished when he was not allowed to enter the Promised Land (Num 20:12). Our God is a Holy God, and He is no respecter of persons. The one who is the mouthpiece and proclaims “thus saith the Lord” must live a life befitting the message of the Holy King whom we serve. This is something that brings much fear to my heart. God uses sanctified vessels that will honour Him (2 Tim 2:21). BPCWAian, please pray for God’s ministers, “Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.” (Heb 13:18)

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor