“Those Who Are Called”(Mark 3:13–15, Romans 1:1–6)
The King of Peace has come to us.
There is power in His word.
The King of Peace has come to us.
The definition of ‘mission’ is the act of spreading the gospel of salvation widely, and it is a term that collectively refers to being sent out for this purpose."
The word mission comes from the Latin mitto—“I send.” Mission, then, is simply this: Jesus sending His people for the sake of the gospel. But for what purpose did he send his people? Today, I want to share what kind of calling those who are sent have received, and also reflect on their calling.
1. He called us when we were dead.
Many people think that before they believed in Jesus, they were simply heading toward death, and that the moment they believed, they changed course—from death to life. However, this is a clearly mistaken understanding.
The Bible speaks very clearly about our condition. We were not just on our way to death—we were already dead. Completely dead. In the book of Ephesians, Paul says that we were dead in our transgressions and sins.
The word sin means “to miss the mark,” referring to a state of being separated from God’s will. The word transgression means “to fall away” or “to step aside,” which also carries the meaning of sin. Why did Paul use two words that essentially mean the same thing?
The phrase dead in transgressions and sins describes a condition in which our relationship with God was completely severed, and we were living in a way that was totally contrary to His will.
Before we believed in Jesus, we were not just dying—we were already spiritually dead. That is why Paul describes the fundamental human condition as being dead in sin and transgression. To people in that state, Jesus came. He called us out of death. That is grace.
2. He called us when we were slaves.
A slave is someone who lives under the control of a master.
Pastor Tim Keller once said:
“Everyone is a slave to something or someone. People serve someone. Everyone lives for something. We all offer ourselves as sacrifices on some altar. Everyone serves their own cause or what they value most. We become slaves to those things, and they become our masters.”
Whether we realize it or not, we are all living as slaves to something. The important question is this: Whose slave are we? Before we met Jesus, we lived for money, fame, and even good causes we believed in but in reality, we were slaves to Satan, bound by these things. We were tied to money, fame, and our own sense of what’s right, unable to break free from the slavery of sin. But into that life of bondage, Jesus came. He paid the full price for us, who were slaves. With His very life, Jesus paid the price for our sin. And because of that, we are no longer slaves who belong to Satan, but now we are God’s people—belonging to Jesus. By believing in this Jesus and making Him our Lord, we have been set free from everything that once bound us.
3. He called us when we were Gentiles.
Paul said this to the believers in Ephesus:
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth...” (Ephesians 2:11)
God chose Israel and intended to carry out His plan of salvation through them. But when the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah, God cut off those branches and grafted in Gentiles like us in their place. He grafted us into His redemptive plan to save all nations through Israel.
When the Jews refused to believe in Jesus, they began to persecute the gospel. Through that very persecution, the gospel spread first to Asia, then to Rome, and eventually to us. This is God's mission history. It is the work that He has done for us.
In today’s passage, Jesus is calling His disciples. He calls them and names them apostles, a word that means “those who are sent from somewhere.” The first thing Jesus did after appointing the twelve was to have them be with Him. He filled them with Himself before sending them out. Then, as He had done, they were to preach, evangelize, drive out demons, heal the sick, and minister to the broken.
We too have received grace through Him and have been called. He fills us with Himself so that He can send us out. We are called to proclaim the gospel to the nations together with Jesus. When we are filled with Jesus, the gospel flows out of us naturally. That is missions.
Missions is the calling and commission that the Lord has entrusted to everyone who confesses Jesus. We are the ones God has called to partner with Him in fulfilling that mission. God’s ultimate goal is not just our salvation. He saves us so that, together with Him, we can expand the kingdom of God.
May we remember the grace of this calling, be filled with the Lord, and live lives worthy of that calling. In Jesus name, I bless you.
