Rooted in the God's grace

WFTL: Rooted in God’s grace, that revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Let’s turn to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, open our heart to be attentive to your words, engrave your words into our hearts. Transformed our hearts and minds through the power of the Holy Spirit into Your will. I pray all these, in the most precious name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Good morning, last Tuesday, we just had the graduation communication session during the class group. Time flies so fast. We are all coming closer to the end of our study, though some of us will graduate later. I am sure, all of us will miss our TTC life after graduation.

We are going to end well in our study; God is willing. This season at TTC will be gone very soon. Then we are going to start the new season, after graduation, the new season in our ministry. How could ensure that we all will stay in the calling and end well in this new season? Maybe ten years, twenty years or even thirty years down the road, when I call or text Le in Vietnam. Hi Le, how are you! Let's catch up! Do you think, Le still serves the Lord in the ministry. Do we continue to stay in God’s calling in ministry?

In June 2000, There are only five graduate students from the first graduating class from the Bethlehem Institute, a pastoral training program led by Pastor John Piper. During the graduation dinner in a cozy restaurant, John Piper gave the graduation talk to these five graduands who were in their early twenties. Pastor John Piper told them the story of King Solomon.

King Solomon’s story in 1 Kings is awe-inspiring. Solomon is anointed king. He is blessed by his father King David, establishes his reign, receives an abundance of wisdom and wealth, builds the temple and a palace, oversees the ark’s return to Jerusalem, and sets the nation of Israel as a powerful nation in the region. However, at the end of his life in 1 Kings 11, Pastor John Piper slowly read to them how Solomon’s story ends.

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women.… And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, his father.”

He closed his Bible and cast his fatherly gaze on each of them and said, “Brothers and Sisters, finish well! Finish well! O stay the course, and finish well!”.

Question: What keeps us to persevere in our calling and to finish well?

There are lessons we can draw from the passage this morning. We can learn the proper lesson from both Apostle Paul and believers in Galatian churches.

I am sure that after graduation, most of us will be sent into ministry. Also, when the rubber hits the road, then the reality will get in. There will be many things that we might have to consider and concern about. Generally, the first 100 days would be the most critical period in the workplace, especially for the newcomer.

Most of the time, as a new pastor, ministry worker, we will try very best to make sure that the congregation is happy with us.

In specific denomination, If the congregation is not happy with us, there is a high chance that we likely have to leave the church. We might then try to please the congregation, the elders, ordained ministers. For Anglican, might be our priest-in-charge, Vicar or even bishop.

Proposition 1: Please people to finish well!

Should we persevere in our calling and end our ministry well by pleasing of men. By gain more popularity, acceptance in our ministry will help us to finish well.

should we gain human’s approval and acceptance from our congregation, elders, and bishop?

Apostle Paul teaches us about this, in verse 10, he said,

“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

In Apostle Paul’s context, there are false teachers, who believed to be the Judaizers, in the churches among the Galatians. These false teachers claimed that the Apostle Paul was not a Christ-appointed apostle. Apostle Paul did not preach a true Gospel. He preached the Gospel that leads Galatians to licentious and corrupt living.

They suggested that Apostle Paul was not speaking for God, but “tickling the ears” of the Gentiles when he said that they could be made right with God without keeping the law. He preached the message that is pleasant to listen to, but is … missing something.

They said he was preaching a watered down Gospel specially crafted to make non-Jewish converts. They said he was a “man-pleaser”. Apostle Paul wanted to gain popularity among the Galatians.

Apostle Paul responded in verse 10 to these attacks, and affirm that his sole ambition was to please our Lord Jesus Christ.

Please people to finish well! What’s the problem with this?

We will overwhelmingly to gain the acceptance from our congregation and elders, to the point where we might have to compromise certain truths for the pleasing of men.

Let me flesh it out more what the problem for this.

On Favoritism in James 2, Do we tend to favor someone or better treatment for those who benefit for our ministry, for example, those who are key financially support in our ministry, those who can contribute to the success of our ministry.

What do you do if these people are gossiping Vicar or senior pastor in front of you? Do you join in the gossiping to please them? Or do we have the courage to confront it?

Do we value and put the priority of the worldly success in our ministry? We tend to follow church growth... we might attend the so call more practical conference “how to grow your Church”; “the key to church growth and momentum.” Do not get me wrong that I am against the church’s growth, we need both quantity and quality. However, the moment, we put our trust in strategy with the wrong motives or to equate the success of pastor to the size of the Church, we are heading to ministry destruction. When persons become our tools and merely numbers to achieve our goal, not sheep that we must care for as a good shepherd. We already compromise the truths and replace it with human’s acceptance.

Don’t be like King Solomon, that he did not end well and departed from loyalty to YHWH. Because he wanted to make peace with his neighborhood kingdoms, he compromised the truths, married many wives from those kingdoms. In the end, the human wisdom turned backslash. His wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God.

In today context, there are many examples especially in the mega-churches that pastors did not end well in their ministry. The size of the congregation or the church’s growth does not guarantee that those pastors are still faithful to his or her calling and end well. Instead, it turns out to be a temptation for them to seek more pleasing from men, instead of pleasing God as Apostle Paul teaches us.

After my preaching at my home church in Bangkok, December last year, there was an old lady in her sixties, who newly join the church. She came to me after the worship service and wanted me to pray for her. She looked at me and suddenly tears from her eyes. Could not control anymore, she kept crying in front of me. I asked her gently, try to think what to do next, why she was crying.

She told me that while she was listening to the sermon, when I said, “Indeed it is our privilege to serve the Lord.” This statement reminded of her past hurts. She was abused and hurt by her previous church pastor and leaders. She felt that they used her. She poured out her past hurts and painful experienced which I could not cover here for the benefit of time.

My key message is as pastor, our ministry in God’s calling are to bring healing, redemption, reconciliation, and blessings to our congregation, not to hurt them. Pastor do not use members for his glory and make the pastor’s ministry success. When I reflected on this story, initially I felt furious for her to be used, then there was a small voice in my mind that I also might fall in the same trap as those pastors and leaders. Indeed, we should encourage them to serve according to their calling and pray with them.

Friends, watch our hearts and minds, we don’t seek popularity because it points toward ourselves, rather than points toward God whom we serve. We are tempted to achieve more especially when we compare with others. This is not the end goal in our calling. Our calling should point toward Christ and inspired our congregation with our godly characters.

Please people to finish well.

Gain more popularity and acceptance is not the answer for us to keep persevering in our calling and finish well.

Then what's else!!! Is there any other option?

Proposition 2: Unity with fellow pastors!

Should we stay in unity, united with one another, connected in the circle of TTC friends after graduation to encourage and support one another in ministry?

After graduation, we should keep our unity, networking connected with one another. Meeting or gathering with one another from time to time, helping one another in the ministry. It sounds good, isn’t it? However, what’s the problem with it. Would it sufficient to keep us stay persevere in our calling and finish well?

From then turn to the text, in verse 6, Apostle Paul said

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you...”

Apostle Paul rebuked the churches in Galatians that quickly turned away from God’s calling to embrace a different Gospel. Indeed, the word “different” here, the Apostle Paul use the word “different” which means not from the same class. In his mind, no other gospel can be compared with the only one true Gospel that Apostle Paul has proclaimed to them.

Before Apostle Paul left them, he already put the right leaders and catechumens among them. Within the short period, they were persuaded by the false teachers and departed from the Gospel that Apostle Paul has proclaimed to them.

So even we keep our network connected and helping one another in ministry, it does not guarantee that we will stay faithful to our calling and end well. In Galatians context, almost the whole churches turned to embrace another gospel, departed from God’s calling.

One of the perfect examples is the church during the middle ages. Almost the entire Church corrupted and departed from the teaching of the Apostles. No need to mention what we learn from Church history; the great Schism, sales of papal indulgences, the use of politics and forces, bishops and clergies pursuing prosperity, power and wealth.

Thanks be to God, for the reformation, 500 years ago; indeed we celebrated the 500th anniversary in October last year. Moreover, all of us here, from across different denominations, come from the reformation.

So even in unity, we keep accountable among one another, form our circle of friends and support network. It is still not enough for all of us to end well. Genesis 11, tower of Babel, that's unity, but they didn't end well. The chief priest and religious leaders joined in unity to crucify Jesus. The crowd united together and shouted, “Crucified Him, crucified him”.

In today context, the sexual abuse that shock the world recently, from the disclosed report, in the particular diocese, the damage was covered up from the evil structure from the top; bishop down to the priest. The entire group could be departed from the right teachings when we compromise the truths by forgoing the right beliefs.

Pleasing people won't help, unity with fellow pastors won't help.

Then,

What keeps us to persevere in our calling and to finish well?

From the passage in Galatians, we can learn from the life of Apostle Paul. He keeps persevere in his calling; the apostle to the Gentiles. Apostle Paul indeed ends well, and faithful to his calling toward the end of his life for the Gospel.

What are the main reasons for Apostle Paul to write this letter to the Galatians, we note from his writing style in the message to the Galatians that he does not have the thanksgiving after the heading of the letter, as usual, instead he urgently started his letter by rebuking the congregations in verse 6, after the beginning of the letter. Let's read the passage carefully again.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in … what! .... in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another one, ...”

Galatians turn from the grace of God in Jesus Christ to follow the Judaizers’ teachings which can be referred to in Acts 15:1

“But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Apostle Paul knew that the Only One True Gospel is the gospel of grace that revealed in Jesus Christ has been perverted and he could not tolerate it.

During the late middle ages, the church was corrupted by problematic doctrines such as indulgences and purgatory. Reformers such as Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, recovered the true gospel, that we are saved and justified by faith alone. Through the period of the Reformation, today we have the five Solas - Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, Sola Fide, and Soli Deo Gloria!

The enlightenment of the gospel is in the re-discovery of Paul’s doctrine of justification. The apostle Paul says “. . . being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 3:24.

Reformation brought out the grace of God, revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, by grace alone and in Christ alone!!!

In the context of Galatians, Apostle Paul also defended this truth - the grace of God that revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Galatians departed from the grace of God, to follow the false teachers who added the Law and Circumcision to the Gospel. The entire Galatian churches left the grace of God, the same also happened during the middle ages!!!

Friends, for us to continue to persevere in God’s calling and finish well in ministry, the same as Apostle Paul did.

"Rooted in God’s grace, that revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ" is the only way to keep us persevere in God’s calling and finish well in our ministry.

If we rely on human’s acceptance, there will be the moment when we will be discouraged by our congregation or even from our beloved pastors. In the end, people will disappoint us. Do we still persevere when people reject us?

It is easier for us as a human to fall into that trap. Acceptance is basic human needs. However, if we put the calling purely on this human needs, the chances that we will end well will be very slim.

We are secure and our security rooted in God’s grace, not from human acceptance. For us to persevere in God’s calling and end well, “we must be rooted in God’s grace, that revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Rooted in God’s grace means only by God’s grace, that revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are here to serve Him.

Indeed, we do not qualified to serve Him in this holy calling with our unclean lip, polluted with sin in our thought and mind. We will fail in ministry in the future, but remember at that moment, it is only by the grace of God in Jesus Christ that will sustain us in ministry and finish well!!!

We must be like Paul and say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” May you and I be like the apostle Paul.

By God’s grace, a Christ-centered Gospel, so that in the end we hear our master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Do you long to hear those words?

Toward the end of John Piper’s graduation talk to his first batch of graduate students. He said this in his conclusion “Guard your hearts and stay true to our God, the one who has called us in the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus.” Amen.