A woman named Hannah was childless, but asked God for a son. Eventually, Hannah had a son, and she dedicated him to the Lord. And then, when the boy was weaned, she took him to the tabernacle of the Lord and left him there to be raised by Eli. Hannah left her 3 year old son with Eli the priest to raise him as a priest to God.
The boy’s name was Samuel, which either means “asked of God” or “son of God”.
A few years later, when Samuel was perhaps 7 or 8 years old, he was lying in bed one night and he heard a voice. “Samuel”. The boy thought it was Eli calling for him, went to Eli, but it wasn’t Eli. The boy drifted back to sleep. Once again, “Samuel” was called and the boy woke up and went to Eli, but Eli had not called him. This happened a third time and Eli realized that God was calling the boy. He told Samuel, “if this happens again, say, “Speak, your servant is listening!”
1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51
Sure enough, it happened again, Samuel replied as instructed, and the Lord spoke to Samuel. The Lord had a message for Eli, but it was to be delivered by Samuel.
And after this, Samuel knew the voice of the Lord and head the Lord many times. Samuel eventually took over from Eli and led Israel, becoming the High Priest who anointed Saul as the first king, and then anointed David as Saul’s replacement.
We can also hear the voice of the Lord. But the Lord’s voice, the Holy Spirit, speaks to us in a still, small voice when we are settled and quiet. The voice does not thunder, but speaks to us, sometimes in a voice we hear and more commonly in an inner voice. But we need to listen to the voice and recognize the voice for Who it is. And we need to be settled and quiet, and ask the Lord to speak to us, for the Lord is most polite, never pushing Himself upon us like commercials on the television or radio.
Around the year 26 AD, in the Jordan Valley, a man appeared on the scene who became a rock star preacher. His name was John and has come down in history to us as John the Baptist – not because he was a Baptist, for that church would not exist until another seventeen hundred years had passed, but because John baptized people in water for the forgiveness of sins and as a sign of repentance.
John preached to anyone who would listen, but his principle audience were people who were self-sufficient Jewish farmers and herders – and John preached against the most highly religious people of the day, people who believed that their observance of the Law of Moses, their regular observance of the Temple sacrifices, their careful attention to their personal cleanliness made them superior to other people in the eyes of God.
John’s message, repeated time and again, was that a personal holiness that never showed compassion to those who were NOT holy was abhorrent to God.
Sure enough, it happened again, Samuel replied as instructed, and the Lord spoke to Samuel. The Lord had a message for Eli, but it was to be delivered by Samuel.
And after this, Samuel knew the voice of the Lord and head the Lord many times. Samuel eventually took over from Eli and led Israel, becoming the High Priest who anointed Saul as the first king, and then anointed David as Saul’s replacement.
We can also hear the voice of the Lord. But the Lord’s voice, the Holy Spirit, speaks to us in a still, small voice when we are settled and quiet. The voice does not thunder, but speaks to us, sometimes in a voice we hear and more commonly in an inner voice. But we need to listen to the voice and recognize the voice for Who it is. And we need to be settled and quiet, and ask the Lord to speak to us, for the Lord is most polite, never pushing Himself upon us like commercials on the television or radio.
Around the year 26 AD, in the Jordan Valley, a man appeared on the scene who became a rock star preacher. His name was John and has come down in history to us as John the Baptist – not because he was a Baptist, for that church would not exist until another seventeen hundred years had passed, but because John baptized people in water for the forgiveness of sins and as a sign of repentance.
John preached to anyone who would listen, but his principle audience were people who were self-sufficient Jewish farmers and herders – and John preached against the most highly religious people of the day, people who believed that their observance of the Law of Moses, their regular observance of the Temple sacrifices, their careful attention to their personal cleanliness made them superior to other people in the eyes of God.
John’s message, repeated time and again, was that a personal holiness that never showed compassion to those who were NOT holy was abhorrent to God.
Our holiness isn’t complete unless we are actively helping others, getting our hands dirty ministering to those who have “issues”.
John taught that the man who never cussed, who always dressed properly, who gave his tithe to the Temple, who prayed daily, who attended every religious holy day and sabbath at the synagogue or Temple, who avoided the insane and demon-possessed, who avoided prostitutes and beggars, who understood that laziness and uncleanliness and poor decisions were the root cause of poverty, that bad people got what they deserved from God – John taught that these highly religious people were positively evil and God would condemn them. Not because they tried to be holy – that was wonderful! – But they had missed the message that God loves all people and God wants us to help the poor, the misguided, the criminal, the disabled, and help them be reconciled to God as well as those who understand the Law and follow it. Our holiness isn’t complete unless we are actively helping others, getting our hands dirty ministering to those who have “issues”.
It is a message many of us still don’t get today.
John was baptizing people in the Jordan River at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan. John had his audience that had gathered to hear him, but John also had a group of students, a group of disciples. Among these disciples who hung around and were learning from John were two sets of brothers who were fishermen on the freshwater lake that fed the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee.
There were Andrew and his older brother Simon. And there were John and James, the sons of a man named Zebedee.
One day, Andrew and John the disciple were standing around talking with John the Baptist. Suddenly, the master pointed out his cousin Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God”.
The previous day, John had testified that Jesus was the Chosen One, the Messiah. So this day, Andrew and John followed Jesus a while and ended up talking with Him for several hours. Later, Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, who said He would call him “Cephas”, which means “Rock”, or in English, “Peter”.
Two other disciples of John were two friends, Philip, and Nathanael. Philip was from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter. The next day, getting ready to leave for Galilee, Jesus found Philip and said to him, “Follow me!”
Philip found Nathanael, who was from the town of Cana in Galilee and told him about Jesus of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. And to show us that people were prejudiced against some towns even then, Nathanael famously said, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
When introduced to Jesus, Jesus said, ““Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
It is a message many of us still don’t get today.
John was baptizing people in the Jordan River at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan. John had his audience that had gathered to hear him, but John also had a group of students, a group of disciples. Among these disciples who hung around and were learning from John were two sets of brothers who were fishermen on the freshwater lake that fed the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee.
There were Andrew and his older brother Simon. And there were John and James, the sons of a man named Zebedee.
One day, Andrew and John the disciple were standing around talking with John the Baptist. Suddenly, the master pointed out his cousin Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God”.
The previous day, John had testified that Jesus was the Chosen One, the Messiah. So this day, Andrew and John followed Jesus a while and ended up talking with Him for several hours. Later, Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, who said He would call him “Cephas”, which means “Rock”, or in English, “Peter”.
Two other disciples of John were two friends, Philip, and Nathanael. Philip was from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter. The next day, getting ready to leave for Galilee, Jesus found Philip and said to him, “Follow me!”
Philip found Nathanael, who was from the town of Cana in Galilee and told him about Jesus of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. And to show us that people were prejudiced against some towns even then, Nathanael famously said, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
When introduced to Jesus, Jesus said, ““Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
Jesus was referring to the ladder that Jacob had dreamed about hundreds of years earlier, a ladder connecting heaven and earth.
Nathanael! He isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but in this passage and briefly at the end of John’s Gospel in Chapter 21. But this young man recognized the Messiah, the Son of God from this simple exchange. And He followed Jesus. Nathanael knew what was good and important in life.
With Jesus, here was a voice that was simple to hear. Here was the man Jesus speaking to students about the things of God. Here was Jesus, God on earth, telling men to follow him.
But what does it mean to follow Jesus?
Have you really thought about that?
Oh, many of us opened our hearts to Jesus in our younger days. We have gone to church. Many of us have been consistent in going to church – almost every week we attended services.
We’ve tried to learn the Ten Commandments and keep them. We’ve tried to behave as “good Christians”. We’ve given a tenth of our income, we’ve struggled to stop using certain words in our normal speech, we’ve generally learned to avoid getting drunk, we may even have begun to read our Bibles on our own or to attend Bible studies.
Some have served the church as trustees, as officers, as Sunday School teachers, in the choir, in the praise band, singing solos, or acting as ushers or communion servers.
But have you followed Jesus like the disciples, like Andrew and Philip, like John and Peter and Nathanael?
Or even – have you followed God’s call like Samuel?
Our readings have talked about the calling of Samuel and the calling of the disciples. We have this idea, mainly from reading the Old Testament and the Gospels, that few are called. We think that the man or woman of God is a special person, with a special relationship with God – that ordinary men and women do not get close to God. We think that most of us are simply supposed to show up on Sunday morning, be quiet, and listen. We think that our jobs, our child-raising, our grandkids, our homes, our sports, our hobbies, our politics are the important things in our lives. Ttaking God as the top priority in our lives is for those few, those special people – the pastors, the bishops, the disciples, monks and nuns, one or two people out of every hundred. That is what we think because that is what our culture tells us to think.
And this was true in the Old Testament, and while Jesus walked upon the earth. Only a few people received the Holy Spirit. Only a few people were able to speak on behalf of God as prophets. Only a handful of people over the centuries were set aside for God. Almost everyone else worked by the sweat of their brow as farmers. Over ninety percent of the people of Jesus' day were farmers.
But on the Day of Pentecost something amazing happened. The Holy Spirit came upon a tremendous crowd of people. Dozens and hundreds of people began to speak as prophets. Dozens and hundreds of people began to proclaim that Jesus Christ was Lord. Over time hundreds and thousands and even millions of people began to read and interpret Scripture to others.
Have you ever wondered why some churches grow explosively and other churches gradually die away? Have you ever wondered why we are gradually losing some churches, but it seems like everyone is now attending other, fast-growing churches?
It is rather simple, actually.
First of all, churches can focus upon several different things.
A church can focus upon giving money to organizations. A church might give money to missionaries, to the local Mission, to a soup kitchen, to World Hunger. These are worthy goals, but it tends to keep the church members isolated from the people who are receiving the help. We might as well be writing checks to Save the Children or any other group that advertises on television and pulls at our hearts.
A church could decide to focus on activism. The church might march in front of abortion clinics – or against police brutality. The church might organize protests against fracking – or against drug use. A church might become known for showing up at the legislature in favor of a bill helping the poor – or in favor of a bill improving nursing homes. In each case, the church’s focus is politics – either liberal or conservative – and the church gets a lot of headlines and makes a lot of noise.
A church could also do like many do. They focus upon having great worship music, comfortable pews, clean restrooms, fellowship dinners, and generally taking care of their members with lots of pastoral visits and visitation teams. And as the church does this, the church can gradually turn inwards, becoming biased toward taking care of the existing members – and never having enough time or energy or thought spent on those people who lie just outside the church walls and don’t know Christ.
Or – a church can focus on training and equipping every member to spread the Gospel story to everyone they meet. A church can use a variety of strategies to spread the Gospel – community dinners, children’s programs, meetings in the community, community fairs and events, club-like groups that are focused upon hobbies like woodworking, sewing, hiking, camping, chess or movies, eating out together. Or they can volunteer to visit people – all people – at nursing homes, at hospitals, at the jails. The church can become known for volunteer home repair, for repairing old cars for people who need working vehicles, for being the place to go when life is tough. Individuals in the church each decide to start these ministries and individuals each decide to spend their hours in these ministries.
There are different types of calls, you see. Samuel was called by God to lead a nation and become the High Priest and show the people who God had selected as king.
Philip was called by Jesus and then the Holy Spirit to spread the word to the people of Samaria, to the treasurer of the Ethiopian nation, and then to the people who lived along the coast of ancient Judea.
Nathanael was actually called by Philip to be a disciple.
I was called to preach and lead in local churches and to write books and articles about Christianity. My wife Saundra was called to preach in local churches and has been particularly effective with young women.
But how do you know when you’ve been called?
Sometimes, as in Samuel, you hear God speaking to you in the quiet, in a dream, in the middle of the night, when you are sitting alone just listening.
Sometimes, God speaks to you through the person of a Christian believer, as older, wiser Christians recognize the Holy Spirit at work in you even though you don’t see it yourself. This is what happened with Philip and Nathanael, when Philip called Nathanael. It happened to me as two different pastors saw my gifts and affirmed that the Holy Spirit was working in me.
Sometimes, you just know because the Holy Spirit and you have become so intertwined that you just know. The Spirit moves and you just know.
Perhaps we aren’t being fed because we are full and it’s time for us to feed others.
Interestingly, another way to know that it is time for you to lead is when you realize that you aren’t being taught. We go to the sermons and there is no longer anything there for us. We aren’t being fed. Perhaps we aren’t being fed because we are full and it’s time for us to feed others. This happened to me. Since I have become a pastor, the weekly discipline of preparing sermons and worship has taught me much more than I ever learned sitting and listening. If you are preparing Sunday school lessons or monthly or weekly devotionals for your group, try upping the standard. Stop reading the devotionals and develop them. Write them. Sing a new song.
You may be called to preach – you may be called to lead a Sunday School class or a weekly or monthly group. You may be called to speak one-on-one to your friends. You may be called to create great works of art or perform fantastic, moving music. But make no mistake – you’ve been called, for all baptized Christians are called. It’s just a matter of hearing the call.
But what about all the issues I’m dealing with at home, at work, with my family, with health, with my finances?
Do you trust God? Each of the disciples that Jesus called had to make that decision. Did they trust the man who called them – the man they would later see as God the Son?
Do you trust God to take care of you?
Do you trust God to love you?
Do you trust that serving God will be better for you than not serving God?
Our culture does not want us to serve God. Instead, our culture wants us to sort of nod our heads toward God in passing, but to get back focused upon the “real world” of politics and making money and buying products and spending money on ourselves and our children. But we are not to serve God, for people who serve God might change the world.
The men who chose to follow Christ recognized that this was important. They could either follow Him or go home. But they could not follow Christ from their nice, safe homes. They had to follow Christ as He went about in the world, talking to tax collectors – one of whom chose to follow Him – or eating with drunks or prostitutes, or Greeks or Samaritans – outsiders. They had to get up close and personal with people who had all sorts of ailments, diseases, disabilities, and troubles. They found lepers yelling past them, they walked to other lands, they talked with the hated Roman soldiers.
And, as Paul pointed out, they gave up bad habits. For following Christ means that we must act morally and ethically. Not because God will hate us, not because the Law of Moses commands it – but for the same reason that none of you would throw ketchup on this altar – you would not want to mess up something beautiful.
In this case, as Paul says, we must remember that our spirit has been joined to Christ’s Spirit. We would never want destroy the beauty of this altar – and we would never want to destroy the beauty of the Holy Spirit by tarnishing our spirit, the spirit that is joined to that Holy Spirit though Jesus Christ.
For God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are indeed beautiful. And they have allowed our bodies to be joined with them through the Spirit. Our bodies are to be Temples of God through that same Spirit. And so, we keep our spirits clean, beautiful, swept out of all sin, free of all filthiness.
For this is indeed the meaning of holiness – that all contamination is washed out by the blood of Christ, that we keep our bodies and spirit clean because no one would use a crayon on the Mona Lisa, and thus we begin to shine with the beauty of Christ, the beauty of the Holy Spirit, the beauty of God as we walk in this world.
Are the streets of heaven paved with gold?
Yes, but they shine with the light of God reflected off the souls of the saints.
Will you answer your call? Will you drop your life and follow Christ, doing His will?
Nathanael! He isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but in this passage and briefly at the end of John’s Gospel in Chapter 21. But this young man recognized the Messiah, the Son of God from this simple exchange. And He followed Jesus. Nathanael knew what was good and important in life.
With Jesus, here was a voice that was simple to hear. Here was the man Jesus speaking to students about the things of God. Here was Jesus, God on earth, telling men to follow him.
But what does it mean to follow Jesus?
Have you really thought about that?
Oh, many of us opened our hearts to Jesus in our younger days. We have gone to church. Many of us have been consistent in going to church – almost every week we attended services.
We’ve tried to learn the Ten Commandments and keep them. We’ve tried to behave as “good Christians”. We’ve given a tenth of our income, we’ve struggled to stop using certain words in our normal speech, we’ve generally learned to avoid getting drunk, we may even have begun to read our Bibles on our own or to attend Bible studies.
Some have served the church as trustees, as officers, as Sunday School teachers, in the choir, in the praise band, singing solos, or acting as ushers or communion servers.
But have you followed Jesus like the disciples, like Andrew and Philip, like John and Peter and Nathanael?
Or even – have you followed God’s call like Samuel?
Our readings have talked about the calling of Samuel and the calling of the disciples. We have this idea, mainly from reading the Old Testament and the Gospels, that few are called. We think that the man or woman of God is a special person, with a special relationship with God – that ordinary men and women do not get close to God. We think that most of us are simply supposed to show up on Sunday morning, be quiet, and listen. We think that our jobs, our child-raising, our grandkids, our homes, our sports, our hobbies, our politics are the important things in our lives. Ttaking God as the top priority in our lives is for those few, those special people – the pastors, the bishops, the disciples, monks and nuns, one or two people out of every hundred. That is what we think because that is what our culture tells us to think.
And this was true in the Old Testament, and while Jesus walked upon the earth. Only a few people received the Holy Spirit. Only a few people were able to speak on behalf of God as prophets. Only a handful of people over the centuries were set aside for God. Almost everyone else worked by the sweat of their brow as farmers. Over ninety percent of the people of Jesus' day were farmers.
But on the Day of Pentecost something amazing happened. The Holy Spirit came upon a tremendous crowd of people. Dozens and hundreds of people began to speak as prophets. Dozens and hundreds of people began to proclaim that Jesus Christ was Lord. Over time hundreds and thousands and even millions of people began to read and interpret Scripture to others.
Have you ever wondered why some churches grow explosively and other churches gradually die away? Have you ever wondered why we are gradually losing some churches, but it seems like everyone is now attending other, fast-growing churches?
It is rather simple, actually.
First of all, churches can focus upon several different things.
A church can focus upon giving money to organizations. A church might give money to missionaries, to the local Mission, to a soup kitchen, to World Hunger. These are worthy goals, but it tends to keep the church members isolated from the people who are receiving the help. We might as well be writing checks to Save the Children or any other group that advertises on television and pulls at our hearts.
A church could decide to focus on activism. The church might march in front of abortion clinics – or against police brutality. The church might organize protests against fracking – or against drug use. A church might become known for showing up at the legislature in favor of a bill helping the poor – or in favor of a bill improving nursing homes. In each case, the church’s focus is politics – either liberal or conservative – and the church gets a lot of headlines and makes a lot of noise.
A church could also do like many do. They focus upon having great worship music, comfortable pews, clean restrooms, fellowship dinners, and generally taking care of their members with lots of pastoral visits and visitation teams. And as the church does this, the church can gradually turn inwards, becoming biased toward taking care of the existing members – and never having enough time or energy or thought spent on those people who lie just outside the church walls and don’t know Christ.
Or – a church can focus on training and equipping every member to spread the Gospel story to everyone they meet. A church can use a variety of strategies to spread the Gospel – community dinners, children’s programs, meetings in the community, community fairs and events, club-like groups that are focused upon hobbies like woodworking, sewing, hiking, camping, chess or movies, eating out together. Or they can volunteer to visit people – all people – at nursing homes, at hospitals, at the jails. The church can become known for volunteer home repair, for repairing old cars for people who need working vehicles, for being the place to go when life is tough. Individuals in the church each decide to start these ministries and individuals each decide to spend their hours in these ministries.
There are different types of calls, you see. Samuel was called by God to lead a nation and become the High Priest and show the people who God had selected as king.
Philip was called by Jesus and then the Holy Spirit to spread the word to the people of Samaria, to the treasurer of the Ethiopian nation, and then to the people who lived along the coast of ancient Judea.
Nathanael was actually called by Philip to be a disciple.
I was called to preach and lead in local churches and to write books and articles about Christianity. My wife Saundra was called to preach in local churches and has been particularly effective with young women.
But how do you know when you’ve been called?
Sometimes, as in Samuel, you hear God speaking to you in the quiet, in a dream, in the middle of the night, when you are sitting alone just listening.
Sometimes, God speaks to you through the person of a Christian believer, as older, wiser Christians recognize the Holy Spirit at work in you even though you don’t see it yourself. This is what happened with Philip and Nathanael, when Philip called Nathanael. It happened to me as two different pastors saw my gifts and affirmed that the Holy Spirit was working in me.
Sometimes, you just know because the Holy Spirit and you have become so intertwined that you just know. The Spirit moves and you just know.
Perhaps we aren’t being fed because we are full and it’s time for us to feed others.
Interestingly, another way to know that it is time for you to lead is when you realize that you aren’t being taught. We go to the sermons and there is no longer anything there for us. We aren’t being fed. Perhaps we aren’t being fed because we are full and it’s time for us to feed others. This happened to me. Since I have become a pastor, the weekly discipline of preparing sermons and worship has taught me much more than I ever learned sitting and listening. If you are preparing Sunday school lessons or monthly or weekly devotionals for your group, try upping the standard. Stop reading the devotionals and develop them. Write them. Sing a new song.
You may be called to preach – you may be called to lead a Sunday School class or a weekly or monthly group. You may be called to speak one-on-one to your friends. You may be called to create great works of art or perform fantastic, moving music. But make no mistake – you’ve been called, for all baptized Christians are called. It’s just a matter of hearing the call.
But what about all the issues I’m dealing with at home, at work, with my family, with health, with my finances?
Do you trust God? Each of the disciples that Jesus called had to make that decision. Did they trust the man who called them – the man they would later see as God the Son?
Do you trust God to take care of you?
Do you trust God to love you?
Do you trust that serving God will be better for you than not serving God?
Our culture does not want us to serve God. Instead, our culture wants us to sort of nod our heads toward God in passing, but to get back focused upon the “real world” of politics and making money and buying products and spending money on ourselves and our children. But we are not to serve God, for people who serve God might change the world.
The men who chose to follow Christ recognized that this was important. They could either follow Him or go home. But they could not follow Christ from their nice, safe homes. They had to follow Christ as He went about in the world, talking to tax collectors – one of whom chose to follow Him – or eating with drunks or prostitutes, or Greeks or Samaritans – outsiders. They had to get up close and personal with people who had all sorts of ailments, diseases, disabilities, and troubles. They found lepers yelling past them, they walked to other lands, they talked with the hated Roman soldiers.
And, as Paul pointed out, they gave up bad habits. For following Christ means that we must act morally and ethically. Not because God will hate us, not because the Law of Moses commands it – but for the same reason that none of you would throw ketchup on this altar – you would not want to mess up something beautiful.
In this case, as Paul says, we must remember that our spirit has been joined to Christ’s Spirit. We would never want destroy the beauty of this altar – and we would never want to destroy the beauty of the Holy Spirit by tarnishing our spirit, the spirit that is joined to that Holy Spirit though Jesus Christ.
For God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are indeed beautiful. And they have allowed our bodies to be joined with them through the Spirit. Our bodies are to be Temples of God through that same Spirit. And so, we keep our spirits clean, beautiful, swept out of all sin, free of all filthiness.
For this is indeed the meaning of holiness – that all contamination is washed out by the blood of Christ, that we keep our bodies and spirit clean because no one would use a crayon on the Mona Lisa, and thus we begin to shine with the beauty of Christ, the beauty of the Holy Spirit, the beauty of God as we walk in this world.
Are the streets of heaven paved with gold?
Yes, but they shine with the light of God reflected off the souls of the saints.
Will you answer your call? Will you drop your life and follow Christ, doing His will?
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