Answer God's Call to Follow
The words of 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 implore us to "Answer God's Call to Follow." Answer it clearly as one who is powerfully saved and strengthened, and by personally sharing and standing. January 15, 2012.
How do you answer God’s call to follow? Go ahead…say it. I’m sorry, I caught you off guard there, didn’t I? Would you agree that the clarity of a response often depends on the clarity of request for that response? Much like getting a good laugh from telling a joke can depend more on the delivery of the punch line than the humor of the audience. My quality of request in asking for your response just now wasn’t clear. So your answer wasn’t clear, either.
In today’s lessons we cheered on believers clearly answering God’s call to follow. “No, it’s not Eli,” we nudged the boy Samuel toward listening to the Lord. Then he responded in the right direction, and our tension turned to triumph as he answered God’s call, “Speak, Lord, I will follow.” We applauded Philip who went and found Nathanael, escorting him to the promised Savior Jesus. Nathanael answered God’s call, “You are the Son of God; I will follow.” And the words of 2 Thessalonians 2 call us. Answer God’s Call to Follow. Answer it clearly as one who is powerfully saved and strengthened, and by personally sharing and standing.
As powerfully saved and strengthened
Over Christmas break I took my 19- and 17-year-old sons laser tagging—or, rather, they took me. I was good entering the lobby, filling out waivers, signing, and paying, but after that, clueless. A mob of 35 people crammed into a weapons room and the staff fitted us with laser headgear and laser guns, barking out rules about not talking when you’re dead and red dot shooting. Huh? Where do you aim? How do you know who’s on your team? When are you dead? Does it hurt? There’s no way I was going to answer the call to arms. “C’mon, Dad,” my warfare-trained sons assured me. “You’ll be on our team.” What a relief!
Christians receive a twofold call from God to believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ and to live like Jesus Christ in our own good works. While this sounds quite clear, it can get complicated. We’re good with going to church and saying our prayers, but the peer pressure of friends who want us to do what is wrong instead of what is right, the diehard habits of our sinful self, the deceptively attractive pleasures of the world that poison our faith overwhelm us. Where do you start? What if you follow God and it hurts? How can you get past your sinful tendencies? Even before you make any sanctified choices of faith, and even before you receive the call from God to believe and obey, God makes his choice first. And he chooses you.
“From the beginning God chose you to be saved.” “C’mon,” your Savior summons. “You’re on my team.” Moved by his undeserved love and nothing else, God chose you. You’re already powerfully saved from anything that is able to separate you from the love of God. Your salvation now rests in God’s wisdom and power rather than your feeble mind or fumbling hands. How can you be sure it’s really true for you? “Through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” Becoming saved is all God’s work, and not any of yours. “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). And what God does, he does perfectly, without fault, without fail. So when the Bible says that you’re saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, it assures you that before you even make a choice for God, before you pull yourself up out of the dirty trap of sin, and before you put yourself together real nice to go to church, God in his grace chose you to be holy. The Spirit separated you from sin’s curse and Satan’s power, and set you apart as special to God. That’s the truth.
That truth calls you in the form of the gospel, God’s good promise of blessings that already belong to you by God’s choice to save you from your sins. Forgiveness. Peace with God. Everlasting life. And much more as someone who shares “in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” When the gospel is God’s saving Word, you hear it and the Spirit brings you to believe. When the gospel is God’s saving water of Holy Baptism, you receive it as a divine washing and the Spirit brings you to believe. When the gospel is God’s saving meal of Holy Communion, you receive it as divine refreshment and the Spirit brings you to believe. So when you’re looking for strength to serve God more obediently, find it less in your choices and more in the gospel of God’s gracious choice to save and strengthen you. God has loved you. God has chosen you. God has sent his Son and saved you. God has called you to believe. That same God encourages and strengthens you. “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” Powerfully saved and strengthened, Answer God’s Call to Follow with a clear and confident, “I will follow.”
By personally sharing and standing
Following God’s call with faith-filled obedience involves a whole menu of God-pleasing choices we can make each day, but the act of following is non-negotiable. “Sure, God, but let’s compromise on this,” is an answer God detests. “No, God, you’re wrong about that,” is an answer God detests. “Why don’t you follow me!” is an answer God detests. In this first part of his letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul isn’t shy about pointing out people who weren’t following God’s call with faith-filled obedience. “[God] will punish those who do not know [him] and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus…They perish because they refused to love the truth…but have delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 2:10,12). Following God’s call is not an add on app or a New Year’s resolution exercise that works for some people but not others. Follow God or fall into wickedness and God’s punishment that those who delight in wickedness deserve. This section of 2 Thessalonians already provided powerful reasons to follow God in faith-filled obedience, and now it gets personal.
“God chose you to be saved,” the Bible says. That’s personal! Instead of some abstract blob of generic feel-good warmth and fuzziness floating in the clouds or in nature or in the mind of mankind, God targeted all his divine power into a specific recipient of his choice of love: you. That personal salvation calls for your obedience that is more than generic feel-good warmth and fuzziness. It’s personal. Offered personally to God. And extended personally to others. The real, relevant, and relational love of God calls Christians to share it with others. So Paul rejoices, “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers (and sisters), loved by the Lord.” With a term of endearment, Paul thrills in sharing the same God and the same love of God with fellow believers. He continues by repeating the term of endearment, “Brothers (and sisters), stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you.” It’s easier to withstand a gust of wind or the force of an ocean wave or a slick patch of ice on the sidewalk if someone is standing with you, and it’s a blessing to have fellow Christians—brothers and sisters in the faith—standing by our side encouraging each other to hold on, stand firm, and answer God’s call. Find a Christian friend. Be a Christian friend. Join our group ministry at Grace. Appreciate your family. Be relational and get real. Sharing together and standing together.
Early Friday morning, after the Thursday snowstorm in Milwaukee, the interstates were barely wet and the side roads were only a little snowy. Travel was clear. School was in session. Businesses were open. God does not mumble with slush in his mouth, and he does not make slippery promises or treacherous commands. We clearly follow a God who clearly calls us in his grace. Answer God’s Call to Follow with a clear and confident response that says, “Speak, Lord. You are my God. I will follow.” Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on January 15, 2012
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