What are Your Qualifications?
What are your qualifications? Maybe you have been asked that question at some point when you were applying for a new job or trying to get a promotion at work. Maybe you have asked that question when you need to get some important work done on your house or car, or you’ve needed a serious medical procedure. Employers want to know that they are hiring the best candidate who can do the job well. If someone doesn’t have the necessary qualifications for a position most of the time they are not going to get hired for a position. We ask that question when we want to make sure that someone knows what they are doing in an important situation.
But what about service in God’s kingdom? What kind of qualifications is God looking for in those he calls to service in his kingdom? The Call of Isaiah gives us an example of the qualifications that God is looking for. We don’t know much about the life of Isaiah the prophet when he received his call from God, and that seems to be the point. Isaiah tells us that in the year that King Uzziah died, he received a vision. Isaiah saw God sitting on his throne surrounded by seraphim, mighty angels of God, who called to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory. This song alone was so powerful that it shook the very foundations of the temple.
Isaiah is filled with terror. He cries, “I am doomed! I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!” As soon as Isaiah saw God on the throne, he realized he didn’t have the necessary qualifications to be in the presence of God. Isaiah realized that as a sinner he was so far away from the holiness of God that he could only conclude that he was doomed. Sinners cannot stand in the presence of God and live. When he sees the power and holiness of God and sees that even the mighty seraphim cover their feet and their faces in the presence of God, he knows that he is a sinner who deserves only God’s punishment.
This is true for all of us as well. We may be tempted at times to think that we are doing pretty well in our lives. We avoid the worst of sins. We keep most of the commandments most of the time. We’re nice to those who are nice to us. We’re good and upstanding people who have the required qualifications for service in God’s kingdom. But then the holy law of God strips away our pride. We are vividly reminded of the vast gulf that exists between holy and almighty creator and sinful creature. Everything in us is tainted by sin and our only response is to cry out like Isaiah and say I am doomed because I am a man of unclean lips. Our sin makes us detestable in the eyes of God and there is absolutely nothing we can do to remove that sin or make ourselves worthy.
God in his mercy did not destroy Isaiah. Instead, he sent one of the seraphim to take a coal from the altar and touch it to the lips of Isaiah. The seraphim assured Isaiah, He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.” God reached across the vast gulf between his holiness and Isaiah’s sin. God took away the guilt of the prophet in one symbolic action.
God has done the same for us. On our own, we do not have the necessary qualifications to be forgiven or earn our way into heaven. We are sinners who cannot stand in the presence of God and live. Instead, God has reached across the gulf between his holiness and our sinfulness and purified us of all sin. He did this by sending Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus had the necessary qualifications to earn salvation for us. As God’s own Son he was perfect. He could offer his life as a sacrifice in our place to make full and complete payment for our sins. On the cross, Jesus Christ paid for our sins and took away our guilt. Through faith in Christ, we know that we have been cleansed of all sin and are now able to stand in the presence of God. By his death, we have been cleansed and made pure and holy. By his resurrection, we know that the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf was accepted by God. Our sins have been paid for. The power of death and hell has been destroyed, and we have the certainty of eternal life with our Lord.
After the coal touched the lips of Isaiah God asked “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Then Isaiah said, “Here I am. Send me!” Notice the change in attitude. Isaiah is no longer filled with fear. He is filled with joy because his sins have been forgiven. Isaiah is ready and willing to serve the Lord because he wants to share this joy with others. Such joy and relief are found only in Christ! Through our Savior, the
burdens of guilt and shame are removed. It is only by hearing the message of the Gospel proclaimed through the Word of God that we know the peace of forgiveness. The Apostle Paul tells us that faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ. God has chosen the least qualified to proclaim his message of salvation to the world. Isaiah was not qualified; he was a sinner. Peter was not qualified; he was a sinner. Paul was not qualified; he was a sinner. Ministry begins with the knowledge of human limitations and sin. If Isaiah was unfit for ministry, so is every Christian. Yet God chooses each of us to be his messengers.
Each of us has been entrusted with proclaiming the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sins of the whole world. Those who have not heard and believed the Word of God cannot be saved. Satan does not want us to fulfill this calling. Satan wants us to ask the question, “What are my qualifications for sharing the Word of God?” He wants us to doubt our abilities and to say, “Here God, please send someone else.” We do not need to listen to these doubts. We can be filled with confidence and boldly proclaim the truth of God’s Word because of the peace we have through Christ. Jesus has given us his perfect qualifications to go out into the world and proclaim freedom for the captives.
One of the things I love about the hymn we sang before the sermon this morning is that it gives us a picture of what our ministry in this world will be like. God has called each of us to serve in the fields that are ripe for the harvest. But he has not called on all of us to serve in the same way. We have all been given different talents and abilities. We will serve God in different ways at different seasons of our lives. The hymn writer speaks the beautiful truth that not all of us have been gifted with a silver tongue like Peter and Paul. Not all of us have the ability to travel to places where people have never heard of Jesus. But each of us has been given opportunities in our lives to talk with our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to tell them the simple story that Jesus died for our sins.
There will be times when we are limited by age, sickness, or circumstance when we don’t have the opportunity to share the story of Jesus. During those times we can serve in other ways. We can use our gifts and our offerings to support the work of the church. We can send others to do what we ourselves cannot. There may be times when we financially can’t support the work of the church. When we are doing everything just to care for our families. This is good and God-pleasing as well. God gives us an unlimited buffet of different ways that we can serve him. We can raise our children in the knowledge and instruction of the Lord, we can use our offerings to support the church, we can use our time to do things to free up the time of others to go into the world on our behalf. All these things are carrying out the mission of God’s church.
I once heard a story about an older couple who owned a farm. Each year they hired some students from the Seminary to work on their farm and paid them very, very well. One of the Seminary students felt guilty for how much money they were paying him because he knew this couple was not very wealthy. When he offered to give some of the money back the farmer told him. I don’t leave this farm. The cows need to be milked every day. I only go into town to get supplies, and I don’t have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus, but you will. I can use my money to send you to tell others about Jesus for me. That farmer understood what it meant to use his gifts and circumstances in service to the Lord.
What are your qualifications for service in God’s kingdom? We may be tempted to think that we aren’t qualified to tell others about Jesus. But our qualifications are found in Christ alone. We have been covered over with his righteousness. We have been filled with the peace and joy of our forgiveness. Like Isaiah, our fear of God’s wrath has been removed. We understand that we have been called by God to use our unique gifts and abilities in his service. We look for opportunities to serve and filled with the love and confidence of our Savior we echo the words of the Prophet and say, “Here I am. Send me!”
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”