Titus 1:3 Proclaim that Jesus is Lord and He rose from the dead.

As Christians, there are many things we need to communicate to people about God, creation, the past, the future, and the present reality. There are many things we need to proclaim. One of the most important things we have to proclaim is that in order to be saved, people need to confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead.

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Transcript:

Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This is the 16th lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Titus. In this lesson I'm going to look at the third verse and talk about proclaiming the gospel. 

Let's start by reading verse three. 

Titus 1:3 He revealed His word in its proper time by a proclamation with which I was entrusted according to a command of God our Savior.

Notice Paul had been entrusted with a proclamation. The word proclamation is a translation of the Greek word kerygma.

I'm going to look at some verses throughout the New Testament that contain the word kerygma to see the development of this concept of proclaiming a message. We’ll see where Paul fits into that progression. Then we'll take a closer look at this verse and see what Paul was communicating. At the end I’ll define the message that Paul was entrusted to proclaim.

Let's start in Matthew chapter three, verse one. 

Matt. 3:1   Now in those days John the Baptist  came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This was very early in the overall story of the New Testament. It was somewhere around 30 AD. John the Baptist came and he was preaching. The word preaching is a translation of the Greek word kerygma. John the Baptist was proclaiming a message. The message was “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Later in Matthew 4, we read something very similar about Jesus. Let's read verse 17. 

Matt. 4:17   From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

John the Baptist and Jesus had a very similar message. They were traveling around telling people that the kingdom of heaven had arrived and people needed to repent. 

As you know, early in Jesus's ministry, He called 12 disciples. At one point He sent them out to preach this message. We see this in Matthew 10. Let’s start reading at verse 5.

Matt. 10:5   These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 

Jesus finished his ministry here on Earth. He was crucified. He rose from the dead. Before He went back to heaven, He gave some instructions to His disciples. Let’s start reading at Acts chapter one verse six. 

Acts 1:6   So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 

We see that the apostles would be witnesses of Jesus. They told people what Jesus had done and accomplished. 

The book of Acts tells us about the apostles doing this. Eventually, in the book of Acts, we are introduced to a person named Saul, whose name was eventually changed to Paul. Saul initially was against Christianity. He persecuted Christians. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians in Damascus when there was a bright light and he was blinded. Through that, Saul became a Christian. Then we read the following in Acts chapter 9 starting at verse 10.

Acts 9:10   Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” 

Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, was a chosen instrument of God, to bear the name of Jesus before Gentiles, Israelites, and kings. We also see that Paul was going to suffer greatly on account of Jesus.

With that as some background, let's go to Titus and read the first three verses. Think about what Paul was communicating in verse three about his mission in life. Let's start reading at verse one,

Titus 1:1  Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of the elect of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to Godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which the God who never lies promised before the beginning of time. 

3 He revealed His word in its proper time by a proclamation with which I was entrusted according to a command of God our Savior.

In verse one Paul identified himself as a slave and an apostle. He was a slave and an apostle in order to build up the faith of the elect and the knowledge of the truth. He did that because he had hope in eternal life. He had a realistic belief and expectation that he would receive eternal life and that other people could receive eternal life, also. 

Then in verse three he wrote that God revealed His Word in its proper time. God, in His sovereignty, decided that the first century AD was the proper time for Jesus to come, so that's when Jesus came. 

After Jesus completed His ministry on Earth, then the apostles were entrusted to go out and proclaim the truth about Jesus to the world. We see in the book of Acts that Paul was one of the ones entrusted with this message. Here in verse three Paul referred to this proclamation, this message, that the apostles were supposed to proclaim. Then Paul wrote that he was entrusted with it according to a command of God our Savior. So God our Savior Himself is the one who entrusted Paul with this message.

God is the One who authored this proclamation. It says God revealed His Word by a proclamation. As Christians, we need to go out and proclaim this message. That raises the question, “What is the message?” 

Paul answered that in Romans 10. Let’s start reading at verse eight. 

Rom. 10:8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

In verse eight, Paul wrote, “the word of faith which we are preaching.” The word preaching is also a variation of the Greek word kerygma. Verses 9-13 is the message that Paul had been entrusted to preach. The message was, “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised from the dead, you will be saved.” 

As Christians, there are many things we need to communicate to people about God, creation, the past, the future, and the present reality. There are many things we need to proclaim. One of the most important things we have to proclaim is this message right here. In order to be saved, people need to confess that Jesus is Lord. They need to live their life accordingly. They need to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

As Christians, this is the message we need to proclaim over and over and over again because, ultimately, that's the message our world needs to hear.

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Scripture quotations from Titus taken from a translation by Bible Mountain.

“All other Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
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1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
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