In the context of our solemn and vibrant
worship to our Almighty God this afternoon, we gather to ordain
eight (8) of our dear brothers in the Lord into the Sacred
Ministry. Two (2) of them will be made Deacons and the other six
(6) will be Priested. I
What a joy and an encouragement thisis for all of us! We praise and thank
God for His special blessing by adding these 8 brothers to our Church
today. May I take this opportunity to welcome all of you to this
wonderful celebration of a big harvest of ordained workers in our
Diocese. May God continue to bless our Diocese with faithful workers
for rich harvest of souls!
In this celebration, we give thanks to God
for the offering of lifes by these eight (8) brothers. I also thank God
for the wife and children of each one of them because they are standing
by their husbands and fathers to share the burden as well as the joy of
the ordained ministry. They will be the constant encouragers and
comrades of our workers in ministry. I want to thank them and bless
them on behalf of our Diocese.
Today, I also want to thank God for the
parents of these eight (8) men. Some of the parents are here but some
have already returned to heaven. These parents have nurtured their sons
well and now they rejoice to witness their sons offering themselves to
the service of the Church. Praise and Thanksgiving be to the Lord!
On this joyful, solemn and auspicious day
the word God has given me to bring to all of us in this Ordination
Service is Call! These letters, which spell "C-a-l-l",
stand for four (4) key ingredients in our Ordination. These four
ingredients are spelt out in the following four (4) Words -
-
Christ,
-
Apostles,
-
Leaders,
and
-
Life
I] Christ:
The first word is Christ!
Christ is the centre and the
foundation of our ministry. We are called and chosen by Him to enter
into His Ministry. The Old Testament lesson read this afternoon
reminds us of the Call of God to Isaiah. Isaiah was a regular
worshipper in the temple just like many of us in our Churches today. I
praise and thank God for all of our faithful and regular worshippers in
our churches. But it was in the year King Uzziah died when a national
crisis struck home vividly that Isaiah received a Vision from
God. Suddenly he was face to face at the real presence of God. God
spoke to him through a wonderful encounter. Isaiah's spiritual eyes
were opened, and he testified -
Isaiah 6:1
I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and
exalted,and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Then came the Call in the form of a
question:- Isaiah 6:8b ..."Whom
shall I send? And who will go for us?"
In the New Testament, Jesus chose and
called the 12 to be his Disciples and later added Paul into that list.
I have always been deeply impressed and touched by Peter's experience
when Peter confessed to Jesus:
Matthew 16:16
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God."
Jesus said to him:
Matthew 16:17"Blessed
are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man,
but by my Father in heaven.
This clear grasp of the Truth of
Jesus' true person and real identity is a basic spiritual quality
every Christian and worker must have. This cannot be obtained by
studies and trainings alone, not even in the best Theological
Institution. It is a deep deep spiritual relationship with the Lord of
the Church, Jesus Himself. Jesus took Peter's confession very
seriously and declared -
Matthew 16:18
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of our Church!
He Calls, Chooses and Ordains everyone of us to be
His Minister of His Church.
Praise the Lord!
It was God's calling that initiated
Isaiah's very profound, outstanding and long prophetic ministry. It was
Jesus' calling that fueled the ministry of the early Apostles.
These men turned the world upside down with the dynamic Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ!
In a similar way, our 8 brothers have been
touched by our Lord. They were called by the Lord of the
Harvest. Today, before all of us, they answer Jesus' Call to
them. They stand before you and me and most important of all before the
Living Christ and they say:-
Isaiah 6:8b
"... Here am I. Send me!"
II]
Apostles: The second word is Apostle!
Apostles mean those
who are being sent. God calls us! He gives us His Vision,
His Mission and His Message. Apostles mean we hear His Call.
We see the Vision. We understand the Mission and we have learnt
the Message and we are sent to the people God wants us to go.
Peter was sent by Jesus "to feed his sheep".
John 21:15-17
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon
son of John, do you truly love me
more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my
lambs." Again Jesus said,
"Simon son of John,
do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he
said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because
Jesus asked him the third time,
"Do you love me?" He
said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Paul was sent by God
with this Clear Mandate:
Acts 9:15-16This
man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their
kings
and before the people
of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my
name."
Acts 26:16-18
Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to
appoint you as a servant
and as a witness of
what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will
rescue you from your own people
and from the
Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from
darkness to light, and
from the power of
Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place
among those
who are sanctified by
faith in me.'
Brothers and Sisters in
Christ, I praise and thank God that our Church is an Apostolic Church. We
are a mobile people of God. We always say to God: "Here I am, send
me!" When a Church loses this Vision of Apostleship, when a Church
begins to settle too much for comfort, the Church will begin to decay.
We thank God for this
Clear Apostolic Vision of our Church in our history. Many have
been sent to us. They have labored hard and well among us.
Their fruitful ministry have made what our Church is today. Yes, as a
Diocese, in the last 20 years or so, we have learnt what it means to God
when He Calls and He Sends His Servants to mission at home and overseas.
We have widened the base for the full-time ministry. In our
Diocese we learn to make full use of our Ordained Ministers. We
open our door of ministry to lay ministers as well. We have Pastors,
Evangelists, Youth Evangelists and Non-Stipendiary Pastors and Lay
Readers who are not ordained but they play the full complement of the
ministry of our Church. I want to make it clear that this
Ordination Service is one of the ways we identify and confirm full-time
workers in our Church. Today, these eight (8) brothers begin the
process of being sent to different places in Sabah and Malaysia. I pray
that later on, they may also hear God's Call to be sent to other parts
of our Province and perhaps even other parts of the world!
III] Leaders:
The third word is
Leaders!
We are ordained to be
the Spiritual Leaders of our Church. Each of these 8 brothers,
like those who have gone before them, will be put in place of leadership
in different situations. They have a whole life ahead of them to
learn to grow as God's Chosen Leaders for His Church. But our
Leadership is very special and unique. We are not to be like the
gentiles "lord it over" our people. We are to be servant and
slave. He calls us to pattern our leadership after Him.
Matthew 20:28
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life
as a ransom for many."
Paul after his living
encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus understood what the Lord's
standard was all about. He instructed the early community of
faith:
Romans 12:2a
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Our spiritual
leadership is dedicated and geared to inspire and bring out the best of
our people according to "the will of God",
[
Romans 12:2b
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is an awesome
leadership which must include -
Romans 12:1b
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer
your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to
God - - this is your spiritual act of worship.
Brothers, today, God
opens up His partnership of leadership to you at this Ordination
Service. You are challenged to turn your eyes upon Him and fix
your eyes on Him.
"Turn
your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his
wonderful face
and the things of
earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His
Glory and Grace"
My dear brothers in
Christ, your Leadership is to build the Kingdom of God for the Glory of
God. He must always increase and you must learn to decrease day by
day. The proud and arrogant will have no place in such leadership.
Only those who have a big heart, deep faith and humble spirit that will
be a successful leader in this partnership with God.
Today, as we lay
hands on each one of them we pray :
Send down the Holy
Spirit upon Your Servants
for this office and
work of a
Deacon/Priest"
In this simple but
solemn prayer, we plead to God to give you the Holy Spirit to make you
the greatest spiritual leaders in our Church.
IV]
Life: The fourth word is Life!
I am not talking
about just the physical life that comes with the routine business of
child birth. Indeed, the miracle of birth need to be respected as
part of God's own creation. This can be understood fully when true
faith in God is present. But I am talking about spiritual life
that comes from God and God alone. Jesus talked to Nicodemus about
this:
John 3:5-6
"I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is
born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth
to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
We must note with
insight that even a very knowledgeable religious leader like Nicodemus
did not quite understand this Spiritual Truth of being born again.
I am sure Jesus' Own Disciples at that point of time also did not quite
grasp the truth. But after the first Easter Day, the whole picture
was cleared.
Let us read the words
as recorded by the Apostle John
John 20:21-23
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent
me, even so send I you.
And when he had
said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy
Ghost:
Whose soever sins
ye remit, they are remitted unto them;and whose soever sins ye retain,
they are retained.
According to the
above few verses, we learn that this spiritual life has 4 essentials
elements. It is God breathed. It is of the Holy Spirit.
It is connected to the peace of God that comes with the forgiveness of
sin. It is what the Church is sent to do. To breathe life
into human soul through the power of the Holy Spirit; to bring peace of
God to troubled spirit through the forgiveness offered by God;
--- these are the
Calling of the Church. This is the real spiritual life only the
Church of Jesus Christ can give. Jesus entrusted this authority to
His Church.
Today, at this
Ordination Service, God invites you to Go and Give Life to many on His
behalf through the ministry of our Church. What a privilege this
is! Indeed, no other job, work or ministry is more noble and
important than this. I congratulate you for being called and
chosen by God for this.
CONCLUSION
Let me conclude with
praise and thanksgiving to God. He is gracious! He is always
good! Today, He continues His Blessings on us. From among
our own, Jesus recruits eight (8) to serve Him as Priests and Deacons.
The Lord of our Church and the Lord of the Harvest has chosen you to be
leaders of His Church.
His deep desire is
that your mission and ministry is -
·
Christ
Centred!
·
Apostolic! and
·
Life
Giving!
Go my dear Brothers
in Christ!
Go and be a minister
that makes a difference in God's Church!
Go and be that Great
Servant/Great Leader that God has intended you to be!
May the Name of the
Lord be Blessed and Praised and the whole people of God Say together
A M E N !!!
The Most Rev Datuk Yong Ping Chung
Bishop of Sabah / Primate - Province of S E Asia
