Abraham was called a missioner. He was sent as God’s messenger. We normally think of angels as God’s messengers. However, a messenger does not only refer to angels; anyone who is used by God is His messenger, whether angel or man. A messenger is called to a mission. He is called to fulfill the task with all his life. The duty must be carried out with all of one’s life, yet angels do not have life. Therefore, only a man who has flesh can carry out the mission with all his life.

The idea of being faithful unto death does not apply to angels. Hence, being able to remain faithful unto death is a glorious thing to do. Only the Son of God was able to do that. But now, by being in the Son of God, we humans who have flesh are able to serve faithfully unto death. Here is the mystery. Angels do not know what it means to be faithful unto death. Hence, they cannot have the glory that follows. It is promised that whoever is faithful unto death will be given a crown. Since angels cannot be faithful unto death, they cannot have the crown. God rewards those who obey to the point of death with the resurrection and glory, but the angels will never know the glory of the resurrection.

We have to understand that having the ability to serve faithfully unto death is the greatest glory granted to man. Of course, there is no need to go around trying to die intentionally. It does not mean you should go to countries like Indonesia or the Middle East so you could purposely die. Because being faithful unto death is something that the only flesh can do, it means to be faithful to the end of your flesh. Until the life of your flesh ends. Anyone who is not faithful till death will expect to retire one day. They will make plans about how they will enjoy the latter years of their life. Needless to say, such a person is not faithful to death.

One has to have the willingness to work until his flesh ends. Therefore, a person who is faithful to death will strive to work until his very last breath. Of course, it is for God to judge in the end, but a person’s faithfulness is quite evident in the eyes of men also to a certain degree. The person with a calling will be faithful unto death. He will be used until the day he dies. Some people expect to retire and be paid termination payments because they worked hard at church. They want to take a rest after retirement. This shows that they were not called. If a person will work only if there is compensation, this means he does not have the calling.

Abraham fulfilled his calling very well. It was Abraham who chose to leave his home country, but God sent him. Why would he want to leave his homeland and have a hard time? Even if traveling is enjoyable, why would he want to go on a journey where he would be in danger of losing his wife? He almost lost his own life. Why would anyone want to do that voluntarily? He did not want to leave. But God sent him.

He crossed the river and became a stranger/wayfarer. He became a Hebrew. After he left, his goal was not to live in a foreign land. What was the mission given him? Be blessed. Blessing. God said, “I will make your name great. I will make a great nation through you.” It was truly a great blessing. But that was not all. God promised, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That is it. The mission God gave Abraham was for him to be a blessing so that all nations are blessed through him. If Abraham successfully carries out his duty, all nations will be blessed through him. Otherwise, they will not. So how important was it for him to persevere and fulfill his mission?

He was a man of faith. And it was not just ordinary faith he had. All of this did not happen randomly out of nowhere; Abraham already knew about it. He anticipated it. God revealed it to Him through inspiration. Hence, he saw what was going to happen in the future. He was longing for it – the time of life – and finally saw it and was glad. When he saw the birth of his son Isaac, he did not rejoice because he had a son at his old age. Rather, he witnessed God’s promise fulfilled to him. And by this, he saw that through him, the Messiah, the Seed of God, would later come to possess the gates of the enemies. He also saw that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. Therefore, he believed and endured to the end.

The blessing we have all received in the present did not originate from us, nor did it just drop out of heaven. It was that which God promised Abraham, and because Abraham kept his faith and endured to the end, we were able to receive the blessing finally. We are grateful to Abraham. For this reason, God imprinted the name of Abraham on all the saints in the New Testament Church. Even the beginning of the New Testament writes, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Some sneery people who are jealous of Abraham might argue, “Is it Abraham we believe in? We believe in Jesus! Do you have to talk about Abraham?” I am sure a lot of people would have disdained him if he lived in the same generation. It is only because Abraham is a man of ancient times that everyone respects him. God made us remember Abraham and how he fulfilled his duty, and He acknowledges that every believer of Jesus possesses Abraham’s blessing and is a descendant of his faith.

So through Jesus Christ, we received Abraham’s blessing. Thus, we received the promise of the Holy Spirit, as it is written in Galatians 3:14. This means anyone who received the Holy Spirit received the blessing God gave Abraham. In other words, each of our faith is identical to that of Abraham. What is the reason God called and appointed us? It is not that we somehow came to meet God ourselves or choose Him. As Jesus said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you and appointed you.” If He chose and appointed us, He has expectations. He did not choose us for no reason. He has expectations of us.

So what are His expectations? He wants the word that was given to Abraham to be fulfilled in us as well. He wants us to be blessed. But it is not just us whom He wants to be blessed. He wants us to become a blessing who can bless not only our families, not only the members of the church you are ministering but all the nations on earth.

This is the promise He made. The duty which God assigned to Abraham has been assigned to us also. Whoever received the Holy Spirit has been assigned this duty to be a blessing to all nations. What must we do to bless the nations? We have to let them know God.

Those who received the Holy Spirit are anointed. In the Old Testament times, there were three anointed offices – king, priest, and prophet. By sending the Holy Spirit to us, God bestowed royal authority upon us. As Jesus said, “All authority of heaven and earth has been given to Me. Go therefore,” we have been sent by the King. Therefore, we have to go by the King’s authority and His power.

Therefore, we must bring forth the authority of the King’s kingdom. He said, “If I cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” So we have to go with the royal authority and heal those who are oppressed by the devil and let them receive forgiveness of sins. We have to do the work of driving out demons from the oppressed, help them receive forgiveness of sins, and liberate them from the devil’s hold. Wherever we go, the King’s authority is displayed so that demons are cast out and the sick are healed.

Next, we need to fulfill our roles as priests. In the Old Testament times, to whom did the sick have to present themselves in order to be declared clean? The priest. As Jesus said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” we have to fulfill this duty of forgiving the sins of others as a mediator so that they are reconciled to God.

After that, we have the duty of the prophet. A prophet taught the people of God’s will. A prophet revealed God to them and of His works. This means we should not be satisfied with people being saved only but have to let them know God in depth. We need to teach them God’s will. For this reason, God sent us the Holy Spirit and anointed us.

He has called us to be royal priests and prophets. Therefore, Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit, He will guide us into the truth, teach us to understand God in depth, and even receive the power to perform miracles and signs. He also said then when we receive the Holy Spirit, we can forgive anyone their sins and they will be forgiven.

After the resurrection, He spoke to the disciples saying, “I am sending you.” Then He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” He sent us as royal priests and as prophets.

This is the role we have to fulfill when we are making disciples of people in the world. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.” We have to go out into the world and fulfill this duty. Let us say a person met God when he was a young student. When asked at church if anyone wants to be a missionary, he raises his hand. He does not even know what mission involves yet puts his hand up for mission. He thinks he first has to go to another country to do a mission, but he has no clue what the mission is about.

This person never studied Berea nor read the Bible. However, he goes on a mission trip. When asked the reason he is going, his answer is, “Because I have compassion for the souls.” Something is not right. One does not go on mission trips because he feels sorry for the souls. With that kind of mindset, the person is bound to return home in less than a year.

People say they have pity for the Chinese souls and go on mission trips to China, but wait till they interact with Chinese people for about a year. Will they still be compassionate towards them? The Chinese people will make them shudder with loathing. This is really true. They can give you a hard time. Some of you who grew up in China may not think this is true. But that is because you grew up among your own people and they are generally nice to you. Therefore all Chinese people might seem nice to you. But if you meet people out on the streets, they are preying on you, ready to take everything from you.

Once when I was in China, a team of missionaries and I needed to take a bus to go to a particular city. It was a long journey and there was only one bus running each day from that rural town to the city. We headed to the bus stop in the morning and found out the bus was departing at 6 in the evening and traveling all night. Since we were at the bus stop in the morning and there was nowhere else for us to go in the meantime, we decided to wait there. The bus terminal conductor informed us that the bus would be leaving at 6 and we answered we would wait there until the bus arrived. He therefore saw us waiting there the whole day. There were not any decent restaurants to go there as well, so we just ate some snacks and waited in the sun all day. We wanted to make sure we did not miss the bus. Finally, the bus came around 6 pm and people boarded. We saw that people were paying 15 yuan each. But when we tried to get on the bus, the conductor told us to pay 25 yuan.

We just saw other people before us paying 15 yuan so why should we pay 25 yuan? We had been waiting there since morning. But the conductor insisted we pay 25 yuan. Do you know why? The other passengers came nearly around the departure time and therefore paid 15 yuan. But he said, seeing that we waited from morning to catch this bus, he knew we had to get on this bus no matter what. He figured out we had no choice but to ride that bus and took advantage of us by raising the fare to 25 yuan.

We bit the bullet and paid 25 yuan. There was no use in arguing. One of us ended up in a heated argument with him, but it was no use. We had no choice but to pay the amount. We were burning with anger. While we were on the bus, somebody was drinking cola but the cola spilled and got on somebody else. And an argument arose between them. “Why can’t you drink it properly? You got it all over me!” Everybody looked at them. Then suddenly someone shouted, “I won!” The person who had the cola spilled on him was sitting next to this man and he got excited too. He was saying, “You earned so hundreds of thousands of yuan!” People were exclaiming, “Good for you!”

Then suddenly someone said, “Sell it to me!” He offered 20,000,000 yuan which is equivalent to 20000 won. And another person told him to sell it to him. They were both telling the man to sell it to them. Then one of us, who was an interpreter, also joined them in the heat of the moment, “Sell it to me!” In the end, he bought it. He gave them a lot of money, actually all of the mission allowance we got.

We tried to deter him from buying it, but he did. Later, all of those people got off the bus. When we rang up the number for the prize, it turned out all a scam. There was no such prize. We found out that the group of people who got on the bus, as well as those who spilled the cola and the others who acted as decoys, were all working together. Do you know how we found out? Afterward, we caught the train, and there were other people doing the same act on the train. We saw this several times. These are real Chinese people. You get caught like a sitting duck.

Once my wife had cash in her wallet while she was getting groceries at the market. Some people followed behind her and were trying to pickpocket her when they got caught. When she asked them what they were doing, they just smiled and walked off. And the shopkeepers around her just looked on while smiling. Nobody was saying anything about it. Nobody bothered to shout, “Thief!” That is what Chinese people are like.

What is there to love about them? Do you think you can love them? It is not just one or two days these things happen. Every day is like that. On the train, you sit facing other passengers. And as people walk past you, some of them spit on the ground but they aim it so that the spit lands right next to your feet. These things happen on a daily basis.

So the moment you step outside your home, there is so much that stresses you, gets on your nerves and irritates you. And actually, Korea is not much different. Strangely enough, the minute you step off the plane at the airport and get in the car, you feel annoyed. There are a series of events and rude behavior that irritate you.

Even this morning, I was walking here and while everyone was walking straight, this lady decided to walk right in front of me so that I could feel her breath at the tip of my nose. She kept walking as if nothing was wrong. She simply had to walk right in front of me. It is like I am invisible to her. I am not a human being to her.

We encounter such things on a daily basis. Hence, I do not like Koreans. I do not like Chinese. I do not like everyone. I do not like people in general. I have not been to the US but what I have heard is that people are very courteous. Probably varies between different regions, but even in movies we see people saying “Hi” with a smile to strangers while they go for a walk in the morning.

In this way, although we get put off by such people, why do we still go to them? We want them to be blessed. This disposition did not arise from man. It is from the commandment of God because it is a duty, and also by the Holy Spirit. Such a disposition cannot arise out of our emotions.

Therefore, one cannot go on missions out of pity for souls. To go on a mission, one needs to be sent. As a priest and a prophet, one needs to know God well first and then go. When he goes, he needs to make the people know God also and reconcile them to God. He must heal those who are oppressed by the devil. All these things must be done at the command of God, not by one’s own choosing or because he feels pity for the souls.

Let us earnestly pray that we may truly become a blessing, as Abraham was called to be. Likewise, let us pray that we do not become satisfied at receiving the blessings ourselves but become the blessing so that even those detestable people can all be blessed through us.