Pastor Yang-Jae Kim
The Vocation of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7: 29-37)
God gives a savior when there is prosperity and abuse, and the prosperity of the Holy Spirit is given when seeing one person in distress. Since the prosperity of the Holy Spirit is Gods best intention, it is naturally connected to the calling of the Holy Spirit. Today, I would like to focus on the calling of the Holy Spirit.
First, we must see ourselves as wayfarers in life.
After hearing Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?(v. 28), Moses fearfully escaped into the wilderness of Midian. However, Moses didnt want revenge on his enemies in the land of Midian. He did not curse the Pharaoh or himself being born as a Hebrew. Instead, Moses lived as a murderer and wayfarer. It was Gods best choice for Moses to live as a murderer. Moses, a temperamental person who could not stand unrighteousness, needed training to become a symbol of meekness. He started from the bottom, marrying the daughter of a Midianite priest and becoming a shepherd, feeding his flock and chasing wolves. He thought he would live his life as a shepherd forever. As his environment made him humble, he forgot that he was a prince and was in an unfair situation, and he also learned that his life was not so special. Because Moses was a murderer, he had the soul of a sinner. When no one comforted him, he realized that the only one who could forgive his sins was the Lord. He was grateful to even be a shepherd when he was a murderer and had 2 sons, which made him think that he could finally live. His first son, Gersom, meant I will become a foreigner, and his second son, Erielcel, meant The God of my father helped and saved me from the sword of the Pharaoh. In other words, Moses completely got over his fear of the Pharaoh, and he thought that his life as a shepherd was the best for him. It is important for us to admit that we are wayfarers. In his time, Moses had no choice but to forget that he was a prince and deny himself. Because Moses married a Midian daughter and was a murderer, he did not have much to become a leader in Israel. But now, it doesnt matter to Moses. This was the calling and blessing of the Holy Spirit, to know the life of a wayfarer.
AQs: Do you see yourself as a wayfarer? Are you living today well by accepting it as your wilderness?
Second, we must experience 40 years of holiness.
The time when the Hebrews prospered and were persecuted was the same amount of time as Moses 40 years in the wilderness. God had been watching Moses. He had another 40 years of time. Even though Moses was planning to look back on his people, he had been trained as a shepherd for 40 years because he lived as a prince for 40 years. When the prince of Egypt considered being a Midian shepherd as his best job, God came to find him. God finds and calls people who are good at their everyday duties. When Moses 40 years old in spiritual age, he was physically an 80-year-old man. But, he was called upon because he was spiritually old enough. It is said that an angel was seen in the flames of the thorns of the wilderness in Sinai (v. 30). God always speaks to us in the best way we can understand, as a person or through the environment. While Moses led his flock, he saw many thorns. When thorns catch on fire, the fire would typically die out shortly, but they didnt. In other words, there was a miracle of a burning fire in the midst of tribulation where everyone gave up on everything. The gospel of grace is what makes us a burning bush. 80-year-old Moses, who seemed to have lost his life like a thorn, was actually on fire. God watched Moses like an eye and protected him for 40 years, and he then came to find him. After 40 years of wilderness training, Moses changed. He didnt see himself as a hero of a miracle, and rather closely approached the Lord to understand Him better. That was when God spoke to him. Approaching and adhering to God will make you realize His word. God compared Moses with the great ancestors in the Bible and claimed to be the same God of Moses (verse 32). The promise he made to the ancestors of Israel was to give the land of Canaan as an eternal inheritance. That promise was made in Gods time. God told Moses that He was the God of Moses ancestors and called him to lead Israel out from slavery to Canaan. Moses was afraid and unable to see, and God told him to take off his shoes because the place he stood on was holy land (v. 33). God was present where Moses was, and that is what made it a holy place. In order to call a chosen servant, God came to the Midianite land and made it a holy place. Wherever God is, it is holy land. Stephen continued to emphasize the wrong Jewish idea that the Promised Land or the Temple of Jerusalem as the only holy places. We always need to remember that the place we stand in and take off our shoes is the holy temple.
AQs: Are you in the unextinguished light in the place like the thorn bushes?
Third, God sends us into the world.
The reason Moses, who was able to speak and work in Egypt, was trained in the wilderness of Midian was because he had to be sent back to Egypt (v. 34). The Israelites, who did not recognize Moses as a leader, acknowledged him as a leader after they graduated from the wilderness school of Midian. Moses typified Jesus as a man of redemption. Jesus, someone who paid our wages and died on the cross and gave us freedom, redempted us. Just as Jesus was sent from God to rescue mankind that was living in sin and death, Moses was sent for the Exodus of the Israelites that lamented from the oppression of the Egyptians. God raised up Moses who was completely broken as a shepherd. Also, He performed wonders and signs for 40 years (v. 36). Stephen emphasized that it was not Moses that was great, but God who had moved and led him. Stephen spoke to the people gathered at the council and who were listening to his argument that Moses, someone who had been greatly admired and recognized by the Jews, led the people for 40 years by performing wonders and signs. Stephen said just like Moses, Jesus Christ, who performed wonders and the signs, was also a Redeemer, and He was acknowledged and sent by God. The last 40 years of Moses life, when the Exodus of the Israelites happened, was thoroughly led by God and by His power. It was a period of time when there was no place to go to but only to the Lord. This is why training was so important. Moses was a leader who delivered Gods will, and a caller who led his people out to freedom. The vocation of the Holy Spirit is obeying God by being called from the world and being sent back to it. The world you are sent to, and may not want to acknowledge is where God wants to call us from. The environment where I am in today is Gods best choice.
AQs: Where in the world have you been sent for your vocation of the Holy Spirit?
