This Is Personal

“Because Jesus is good news and Jesus is in me, I am good news.”

This is a line from our Seedbed “Sower’s Creed.” I’ve never thought about it before, but I think it sums up the aim of most of the New Testament.

Think about it: The word “gospel” means “good news,” and the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell us the good news of Jesus Christ and how his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised returned free us from sin and death.  

That’s the good news for everyone, everywhere. 

And the book of Acts (also knows as the Gospel of Luke, Part Two) tells us how that good news spread from Jerusalem to the Roman Empire, which eventually spread to around the globe (which includes eventually to you reading this right now).  

But for the most part, the bulk of the rest of the New Testament is made up of letters that are specifically addressed only to believers. The letters of Paul, John, Peter, James, Jude… all inside information. Written for Christian’s eyes only for one reason and one reason only: “strengthen the faith of those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives.”

In other words, they were written because Jesus is good news, and Jesus was in their readers, and they had to learn how to become good news. 

As we’ve seen the last couple of weeks in 2 John and Jude, these letters address a lot of false teachings from without and within. They deal with all the stuff that gets in the way of us being good news and encourage us in the things that make us good news. But so far in this series we’ve only seen letters written to churches. Today we start a very personal letter Paul wrote to one person: Titus. 

A personal letter carries more weight; it has a different tone. Because of this, we’re not going to like everything we hear. That’s why the first four verses we look at over these first three days are of utmost importance. They are the foundation of everything else we hope to hear from the Lord in Titus. 

And what we need to hear is good news.

THE PRAYER

Jesus, you are good news and you are in me. Help me become good news for others. Amen.