February 14, 2010

Gospel Greetings from a Friend

Speaker: Reid S. Monaghan Series: Manifest - A Study in Titus Topic: Exposition Passage: Titus 1:1–1:4

Introduction

 

On Greetings and Shout Outs

 Titus 1:1-4

 1a—Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,

Servant/Slave (doulos) of God

 

Messenger of Jesus Christ

 

 1b—for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness,

Purpose—for the sake of the faith of God’s people

 

God—The Biggest Chooser...

 

 Their lives growing in…

  •  
    • Knowledge of the Truth
    • Life/Godliness

 

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2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

What is eternal life?

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

 

Hope based on a promise from a different sort of deity

Here Paul subtly, in his introduction says that the hope, of eternal life is based on a promise from the Creator God who never lies.

  • Whereas Zeus might be a liar,
  • Whereas your culture might affirm and lie like crazy,
  • God does not lie and we live in the HOPE of his PROMISE for ETERNAL LIFE.

As the old Christian Hymn recounts:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.


3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

On proper times...

imagemanifestpropertime

 

Galatians 4:4,5 (ESV) 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption…

 

Means of manifestation

  •  
    • His Word, through Preaching
    • To See Jesus in His Word…

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

  • Savior – who forgives sin, removes all guilt
  • Savior – who rescues us so that we will live, eternal life, even though we die
  • Savior – though we rightly deserve God’s displeasure, we are guilty in sin, instead of God’s just condemnation we receive full pardon and reconciliation.

Grace and Peace from the Father, through the work of Christ Jesus – who saves us…

Community Meditation

  • How can knowing that God is the biggest chooser in building his church, that everything is not up to the choices of human beings, bring us joy, comfort and confidence in our lives?
  • God promises eternal life to all who have faith in Jesus. He never lies.  How do the promises of God affect your life in its varying and shifting circumstances?
  • How do you think faith/trust in God is related to what you believe about God?
  • How does truth about God effect how you live and the choices you make? Does it effect how we live?
  • If God manifests the hope of eternal life through the preaching of his Word, what should we be doing with the gospel message?
  • Read Romans 10:14-17.  Let us all pray that we might share the gospel with friends around us where we live, work and hang.

other sermons in this series

Mar 21

2010

Mar 14

2010

Mar 7

2010