Welcome back to Tabernacle Tidbits. Today, we're in 2 Timothy 1 and verse number 11.
Paul is writing to his former disciple protege, Timothy, who is a pastor in the church at Ephesus.
Paul is writing from prison, and he is trying to encourage Timothy to continue to stand strong in the faith, to continue to preach, and to do everything that God had called him to do.
And he's been talking about the gospel and the impact of what it means that God planned this out from all eternity past, and Jesus' presence with us is that guarantee of our hope and our future and our salvation.
And then in verse number 11, the Apostle Paul writes this. He says, for this gospel, for this good news of Jesus, I was appointed a herald, apostle, and teacher.
And because this is a little bit shorter verse today, gonna walk through what those three words mean. So he says, I was appointed a herald. This would be an official entrusted with a proclamation.
This would be one who makes public declarations. This would also be used of like a trumpet shell or a large seashell that someone would make. It was when you are getting other people's attention.
You would call out in our United States format, you would think of this as your breaking news person. This would be the amber alert on your phone. Even in time past, you would think about Paul Revere and him calling out, the British are coming.
And that is what we are called to as believers is to be a herald, one that would share the good news of Jesus. I want to take just one moment because we've got just a little bit of time today.
A lot of times we as Christians have phrased the good news primarily as bad news. That is, we focus so much on hell in our presentation of the gospel that there seems to be very little good news.
But the truth is this, as even the man, the rich man in the story that Jesus gave of the rich man and Lazarus, as the rich man is in hell and he's calling out to Abraham and he's asking if Lazarus can be sent back to the land of the living to warn
that man's five brothers about hell itself and he says he doesn't want them to go through what he's going through and Abraham tells the rich man this. He says, no, they will not believe.
If they don't believe the Word of God, he says, if they don't believe Moses and the prophets, that's a shorthand for if they don't believe the Old Testament, he says, they will not believe even if someone were to rise from the dead.
Certainly very poignant words as they came out of the mouth of Christ declaring this. So often we think, okay, well, if we just make the stakes high enough, someone will have a genuine belief and following of God in order to escape hell.
But the truth is this, the gospel is not the bad news of hell or of our condemnation. The gospel is the good news that everyone that turns in faith to Jesus will experience salvation. They will experience a relationship with God.
They'll experience the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
So let us, if you will, that isn't to say that we don't speak of hell, even there Jesus was speaking of hell, but he made it clear that those that do not believe the word of God, just because you tell them about hell, it won't magically make them
believe in God. They'd rather take their chances. If they don't believe when we say that God loves them, if they don't believe when we say that God has a plan outlined for their life and a home in heaven, then simply fear tactics will not work.
And so let's be faithful to declare, to tell others, to say aloud, to post about the good news as heralds. Then he says, I am an apostle. And this would be someone that would be sent out for a particular purpose.
One of the words that we might use today for this would be a missionary, someone that is sent out from a locale with a mission to someplace else.
Certainly, there is the formal sense of the word apostle, those 12 apostles that we would read about in Revelation and then throughout the ministry of Christ. But Paul says, I was sent out for a purpose.
And I think of today's Christians, though none of them are apostles in the sense that Peter or John or Thaddeus were, we are all sent out missionaries.
In that sense, we are apostles every single week, that as we dismiss from our corporate gathering together, we are being sent out as missionaries into our families and neighborhoods and jobs and into our hobbies.
You have a purpose in what you are sent out to do, even as Paul here was sent out to go to the Gentiles and to preach the gospel. And then lastly, he says, I was appointed a teacher.
And this would be one that would instruct other people on what God's word said. Do you know what God's word says? And are you sharing that with others?
Thanks for tuning in to 2 Timothy 1 and verse 11. We'll see you tomorrow for a great verse.
