Paul’s Identity
Paul begins his epistle to Titus by identifying himself as a man who serves God in the Hope of eternal life. Do you serve God that way? If you do, do you dare introduce yourself to others as Paul did? Do you dare present yourself as someone whose ministry (and reason for living) is the Hope of eternal life?
Paul… for the Faith of the chosen of God, and the knowledge of the Truth… in the Hope of eternal life which God… promised before eternal ages, but at the proper time has disclosed his message… (Titus 1:1-3; LEB)
Okay, so this was Paul’s identity. But, here’s the question: What exactly is that Hope in which Paul served God?
The Hope of Eternal Life
Paul gives us some clues about what the Gospel’s Hope of eternal life is about. Here are the big three from the text.
Paul says that it’s the Hope for the very life God promised.
Paul says that it’s the Hope of eternal life.
He says that it’s the same eternal life which God currently reveals through his message. What’s the message, then? It’s the Gospel.
Reflecting on these points, it’s helpful to review some of the general details of the eternal life God has promised us through the Gospel. Every Christian must be familiar with these--very familiar! In fact, they must be every Christian’s Hope.
Here are the 7 basics of God’s promise of eternal life:
Jesus will return to Earth.
Jesus will establish a government.
There will be one religion on Earth, the worship of the One God.
Believers will rule with Christ on the Earth.
We will have the divine nature and be greater than angels.
Peace and the knowledge of God will fill the Earth.
We will enjoy a pristine world of abundant resources.
If the life Paul speaks of is eternal, it’s going to last a long long time. It’s going to last for all eternity! Therefore, there are many other specific details about what the Kingdom will be like. Do you know any of those specifics? You should.
Specifics of Eternal Life
If you have studied the promises of God, then you should be able to answer the following questions. If you cannot answer them, then you need to study more. You need to move beyond the basics and gain a clearer understanding of Eternity. Paul prayed for the believers in his churches that they might understand these things.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the Hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19).
Your knowledge of the promises of God, promises found in his message--the Gospel of the Kingdom--will make you. But if you have no knowledge of the promises found in the Gospel--it will break you.
When precisely will Jesus return to Earth?
Where will be the scope and reach of the government of Jesus?
How will we practice the one religion and worship the Father?
Why does someone get the privilege to rule with Christ?
What are the qualities of the divine nature we’ll have?
How will we establish peace and the knowledge of God in all the Earth?
How will the planet become abundant in resources?
Don’t forget that Paul says that he serves God in the Hope. That means that with these specifics in mind, having made them his goal, he was driven to see their fulfillment. He aimed at them as he ministered the Word of God.
Do you serve God that way? It’s serving God in Hope, and it makes us stable. It makes us firm. Most people don’t have the Hope, and they drift away.
We have this Hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19).
The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away (Matthew 13:20-21).
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved (Matthew 24:12-13; NKJV).
A person with the Hope of the Kingdom will not become discouraged although all the World is against him. Why? Because their goal is not in this World, but in the next.
With this passage, Paul lays out his ideology and the thrust of his ministry. He makes known to us the centrality of the Hope. In brief, that the One Hope was promised by God, and is now revealed in the Good News, the Gospel.
Jesus’ Priority
The Hope is the Kingdom. If you have learned that, then it won’t be a surprise to you that Jesus called his message the Good News of the Kingdom. That message is so central to the ministry of Jesus that he launched his ministry with these words:
The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15; ESV).
Then, the Lord continued to preach and teach—and what did he proclaim? What did he preach? The Good News of the Kingdom!
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness (Matthew 9:35).
Here is Jesus in his own words:
The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the Good News of the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it (Luke 16:16).
Are you forcing your way into the Kingdom? It has been preached since the times of Jesus—right at the close of the Old Testament period when John the Baptist concluded the ministry of Moses. Since then, Jesus has initiated and established a New Covenant.
Missions-Minded
Jesus went on and predicted that even after he was gone, and up until the end of this age, the Kingdom would be declared to every ethnic group—it would be preached to the whole World!
And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole World as a testimony to all nations, and then the End will come (Matthew 24:14).
Gulp. The End? Yes, we are in the Age of the Gentiles now. History has concluded the period in which only Israel had access to the covenants, priestly intercession, worship, the promises, prophecy, and the Kingdom.
Did the followers of Jesus to carry out the same mission and continue the cause of the Kingdom? Yes, they did? Look at what Philip the deacon proclaimed. Look at what the apostle Paul preached!
… when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women (Acts 8:12).
… he [Paul] stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hindrance (Acts 28:30-31; LEB).
A Good News Message
If the Gospel is the Good News of the Kingdom, then that explains why Paul calls that Gospel God’s message—because it’s news. It’s the best of news. It’s good news, the most important news you’ll ever hear. Faith in the Gospel of the Kingdom frees us from worries, temptations, depression, sadness, fear, and meaninglessness.
It doesn’t matter how many bad things happen to us. If we have an inheritance in the Kingdom, loss is gain. Defeat is victory. Death is life.
The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly Kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18).
Indisputably, the Good News of the Kingdom of God is the message Jesus and the Apostles preached. Is it the same message being preached in your church? Most churches have turned from it, and those who preach the Kingdom are not welcome in their pulpits. They’re prohibited from teaching there.
Dead to the Hope
Do your pastors invest the bulk of their time explaining the Good News of the Kingdom? That would be a Gospel ministry, a New Testament ministry, a Christian ministry. But most pastors shy away from preaching the Kingdom and the return of Christ.
To justify their negligence, they say, “If we preach the Kingdom, people will leave the church” without considering that the kind people who would leave due to a disinterest in the Kingdom shouldn’t be in God’s Church in the first place.
Let them go. Let them choose the World over the Kingdom, if that’s what they want. True believers will delight in the Kingdom promises God has given us.
Is the Kingdom a periphery matter in your congregation? Is it a tertiary topic of little importance? Is it seen as something the “radicals” talk about—people who are incapable of focusing on this life? In most churches, that’s exactly how preaching on the Kingdom is treated.
The Preaching the Kingdom has been relegated to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Meantime, most Evangelical congregations are busy organizing couples’ retreats and conferences on how to prosper financially.
The Non-Gospel
In today’s Evangelical churches, the term gospel has lost its meaning. The popular Evangelical “good news” of today is not about the Kingdom. On the contrary, their so-called gospel is just a kind of "fire insurance." The popular version of the Gospel is the message that people are not going to Hell.
Note that their focus is where they are not going, not about where they are going. Today, most Christians have no idea to what they have been called. They have no concept of their vocation. They haven’t got the One Hope of their calling (Ephesians 4:5).
For them, the Good News of the Kingdom is an outlying topic for fringe Christians who have a misguided “extreme” interpretation of the Bible.
The coming of the Kingdom is not central to their prayers. They never pray “may your Kingdom come”—and if they do, they don’t understand that to mean that Jesus is coming back to rule on the Earth. Why not? Because they have rebranded the Kingdom as something “within them.”
So, they pray for the Kingdom to come to their hearts, but they avoid the details of Jesus’ Return in glory. What they have is not Good News. It’s not the Gospel. It’s a non-gospel.
They do not set the Blessed Hope before them.
… the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the Blessed Hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:10-13).
The Kingdom sounds weird to Evangelical Christians today. The evidence that they don’t welcome the Gospel message is in their rejection of us. If one of us comes to them with the message of eternal life, they scorn us. They turn us away. But they're not just rejecting us.
Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me (John 13:20).
The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives Him who sent me (Matthew 10:40; NASB).
These so-called Christians who turn away people like you and me (messengers of the Gospel of the Kingdom) prefer to hear sermons about this World. They don’t seek first the Kingdom of God. They seek first success and blessings. They choose to talk about work, family, and prosperity. Eternity is not their focus.
They have no treasures in Heaven. So, they already have their reward.
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