Are you only saved to go to heaven?
Or does God have something for you to do?
Are you simply a witness?
Or does God have something specific for you?
Do you know what the Call is on your life?
Do you even realise that you are Called?
Being Called is not only to full-time ministry
Everyone who is Called will NOT be a Minister
Will NOT be a Pastor
But WILL still be Called…
Have you stopped to consider…
To ask God…
What your Calling is?
Here in Matthew chapter 12
Part of Jesus’ Calling is revealed:
Matthew 12:14 – 21
Jesus has just healed the man
With the withered hand
On the Sabbath
(Matthew 12:9 – 14)
And the Pharisees had tried
To use this situation to trap Jesus
(Matthew 12:10)
Then after healing the man
The Bible says this:
“Then the Pharisees went out and
plotted against Him,
how they might destroy Him.
But when Jesus knew it,
He withdrew from there.”
(Matthew 12:14 – 15)
Why did Jesus withdraw?
Why did He run away?
The remainder of verse 15 says this:
“And great multitudes followed Him,
and He healed them all.”
(Matthew 12:15)
Jesus was always doing good
And yet He withdrew from the Pharisees
Then:
“Yet He warned them not to make Him known,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Isaiah the prophet,”
(Matthew 12:16 – 17)
Not only has He run away
But He also tells the multitudes
Not to “make Him known”
(Matthew 12:16)
And then HERE comes the answer…
The REASON for Jesus’ actions…
“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,
My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel nor cry out,
Nor will anyone hear
His voice in the streets.
A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench,
Till He sends forth justice to victory;
And in His name Gentiles will trust.”
(Matthew 12:18 – 21)
Back in Matthew chapter 10
Jesus sent out the Twelve Disciples
With these instructions:
“Do not go into the way of the Gentiles,
and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.
But go rather to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel.”
(Matthew 10:5 -6)
Jesus was very specific
Clear instructions on who to go to
And who NOT to go to
And yet it was prophesied about Jesus
That He would “declare justice to the Gentiles”
“And in His name Gentiles will trust”
WE are those Gentiles
And I believe that the reason
For Jesus avoiding being made known
Was so that there was enough time
To TRAIN the Disciples
During Jesus’ life
He and the Disciples
Ministered to the Jews
It was only after His death
Resurrection and ascension
That the Disciples started
To reach out to everybody
Both JEW and GENTILE
So often we can get ahead of ourselves
We can try to MAKE things happen
When the best course of action
Is for us to be patient and LEARN
And take our time to learn
So that we are equipped
When the time comes for us
To be used by Him
Paul spoke wise words to Timothy
When he said:
“not a novice,
lest being puffed up with pride
he fall into the same condemnation
as the devil.”
(1 Timothy 3:6)
Sadly, many haven fallen by the wayside
For a lack of patience and an unwillingness
To WAIT and to LEARN
Matthew will record Jesus as saying
Later on in his Gospel account:
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
(Matthew 22:14)
Those who are saved
Who have responded to Jesus words:
“Come, follow Me”
Are truly CALLED
But do we KNOW what our calling is?
And do we have the patience
To wait and to learn what that calling is?
So that we will not simply be CALLED
But CHOSEN as well