Is God calling every Christian to serve in His Kingdom?

Last updated on December 8, 2021

The quick answer to this is ‘Yes’, but there are things that we need to understand in order for any Christian to fulfill this calling.

The great commission

Before Jesus returned to heaven, He gave the disciples a command, which we call the great commission.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The disciples had been with Jesus for three years and had heard him teach and preach, seen him do miracles, and sometimes Jesus had sent them out to put into practice what they had seen and heard and then come back to report on what they had done.

In these verses Jesus was commanding them to go out, and make disciples. A disciple is someone who will follows their leader’s instruction and does what he is told to do. So Jesus is telling his disciples to preach, teach, baptize, obey, do miracles and all the things He did, and then have their students go out and do the same, this would make them disciples.

God calls everyone

So when Jesus gave the command, his expectation was that everyone who heard the message of his disciples would become disciples too, and then in turn would make disciples who also made disciples etc… This is what God is calling us to do to serve in this kingdom.

Yes, Jesus calls everyone to be a disciple, but this does not necessarily mean that people will do the work of Church ministers, pastors, overseas missionaries, or full time Christian workers. People who take up these roles would nearly always say that they had an extra call from God through his Holy Spirit.

Tentmakers

In the Acts of the Apostles Paul was serving God as an “apostle”. He did a lot of traveling preaching and teaching, and many people became Christian and disciples as a result. Then he helped to teach them on a deeper level so that they would be strong Christians.

We read in Acts of the Apostles that Paul was a tentmaker by trade and that sometimes he worked as a tentmaker in order to provide for himself, so that he would not be a burden to some of the people he had led to Christ.

Sometimes people will do this today, we call them “tentmakers”. They work to support themselves but also continue to make disciples. This especially happens in countries where full time pastors or missionaries are not allowed, but they still feel God has called them.

Every Christian has a role in God’s church

God has given everyone of His people gifts in order that we can help encourage and serve his people. There is quite a long list of them, and they can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Romans 12:3-8; Ephesians 4:1-16; 1 Peter 4:1-11.
So in addition to making disciples, we will probably find some role within our church context to serve the church using the spiritual gifts that He has given us.

Conclusion

The “great commission” was a command of Jesus, so we don’t have an option of whether to serve the Lord by reaching out and making disciples or not. Every Christian must do this if they are true disciples. Not everyone will do this full time.

Our responsibility is to ask God to show us how He wants us to serve him, and not if He wants us to serve him.

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