Sermon Tone Analysis

*Owning Up To Ordination*

*May 16, 1999                 Acts 9:1-31*

* *

*Introduction:*

 

          An ordination service, that we will have this afternoon at 2:30, typically calls for an ordination message from the one being ordained.

In this case, it is myself.

Since this afternoon’s service is full, with messages from two of the ordination council members, I will give an ordination message this morning, and this afternoon’s service can then be considered an extension of this morning’s service.

I have now served at Mayfair Bible Church, in my first pastorate, for over three years.

The constitution calls for a minimum of six months service before ordination can be considered.

The Elders are designated with authority to determine and recommend a man's call to ministry and to present the question to the congregation for at least a 2~/3’s vote of affirmation.

This then empowers them to call an ordination council of the man’s peers, and others of proven authority in the Christian community, to examine the candidate for ordination.

This widens the affirmation of the validity of a call to ministry into the Christian community at large.

Many of you may not have a clear idea of what ordination is, or why the Christian community considers it of importance.

The word itself means to put in order, arrange, prepare, appoint, admit, or qualify for – in this case – Christian ministry.

It is a formal “setting apart for a task”.

I was already installed as your pastor.

Now we are saying that this has proven out.

But I feel like Saul when he said in 1Cor.

15:10 –

 

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.

No, I worked harder than all of them-- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

(1 Corinthians 15:10 NIVUS)

 

          One is not ordered to Christian ministry by one’s self, at least he should not be.

It is first by the order of Christ.

But lest a man be deceived, it should also be affirmed by others.

We could also say, along with Saul, that a call to ministry, if it is true, has been a predetermination of Christ from the beginning.

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

(Galatians 1:15-17 NIVUS)

 

          Actually, the Bible says nothing about ordination councils and ceremonies, but the principle can be seen in today’s passage about the conversion and calling of Saul.

Again, the fact is that we live in Christian community and we are all interdependent and accountable to one another.

I know this principle must be true because of the gravity of this process I have felt in my own spirit.

In reality, I have examined myself more stringently than the council has.

I know there is no turning back.

I know that I will be shown how much I must suffer for the Name of Jesus as He says to Saul in Acts 9:16 –

 

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

(Acts 9:16 NIVUS)

 

          As the title of this message indicates, I must own up to my ordination just as Saul did.

I must obey Christ’s order, and as it is witnessed by the church at large.

And if I ever feel I cannot own up to the task, I must take reassurance that Christ in me can own up to the task He gave me.

It is by faith in Him that I receive this ordination.

My verse for this is Gal.

2:20 –

 

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

(Galatians 2:20 NIVUS)

 

          So what is ordination?

It is a credentialing, an affirming, a commissioning to the Christian ministry.

We are familiar with the scene of a newly built ship and its commissioning.

A ceremony is held and someone of importance breaks a bottle of champagne over the bow.

The ship is then launched from its slip and into service on the high seas.

I suppose someone could hit me over the head with a Bible---- But it is important to note that ordination is a launch into the service of the church and not just to gain a certain amount of notoriety.

/Topic:  Church/

/Subtopic:  Family of God/

/Index:  739-741/

/ /

/Date:  6~/1998.1519/

/Title:  A Church Is Not an Audience/

/ /

/   A sharp distinction ought to be made between a church and an audience.

An audience is a group of unrelated people drawn together by a short-lived attraction.

An audience is a crowd.

A church is a family.

An audience is a gathering.

A church is a fellowship.

An audience is a heap of stones.

A church is a temple.

Preachers are ordained, not to attract an audience, but to build a church.

Coarse and worldly men, if richly gifted, can draw audiences, but only a man who is given to the Lord Jesus Christ can build a church.

/

/ /

/   -- Charles E. Jefferson.

Leadership, Vol.

11, no. 4. /

 

          So it is not for personal fame or fortune that a man is called into ministry.

It is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Like A.W. Tozer said, “God is looking for men in whose hands his glory is safe.”

We must honor that.

Jim Elliot, the martyred missionary messenger of the gospel to the Auca Indians once described missionaries as “a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody”.

And you know who that Somebody is.

It is the Lord Jesus.

When we find Jesus in someone, we must exalt Jesus and not the man.

And that is glory enough for any man.

When Ananias and Barnabas spoke for Saul, it was because they saw the hand of God upon his life.

/Topic:  Humility/

/Subtopic:  Commanded/

/Index:  1715/

/ /

/Date:  12~/1997.2112/

/Title:  Eulogies Ring False/

/ /

/   Funerals of pastors are solemn affairs.

At times when I attend one, however, I am struck by a strange kind of irony.

After a lifetime of ministry supposedly focused on grace, we bring the poor soul to his grave with eloquent eulogies and high tributes that give the lie to it all.

All the deceased's good works are magnified and, of course, all shortcomings passed over.

/

/   I am often reminded at such times of Lincoln's remark at the burial of one of his generals "If he had known he'd get a funeral like this, he'd have died much sooner."

It is our vexing temptation, isn't it, not only in death but throughout life.

We think we are a gift to God himself instead of remembering that ordained ministry is a gift to us.

/

/ /

/   -- Herbert Chilstrom, Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 3. /

 

          In the manner of Christ, it is a gift that cannot be bought.

It is not cheap.

It may likely cost your blood.

It is not a mail order proposition.

/Topic:  Ministers/

/Subtopic:  /

/Index:  2083-2099/

/ /

/Date:  2~/1991.8/

/Title:  /

/ /

/   We understand that anybody who wants to be an ordained minister can send $3 to the American Fellowship Church, Rolling Bay, Washington, and he or she will receive by return mail a diploma and a wallet-size identification card affirming that the bearer is, in fact, a duly ordained minister.

How I know is that a Franklin Park, Illinois detective, Bruce Walstad, got one of those mail order diplomas and so did Fluffy Walstad, his half poodle-half Pekinese dog.