Dear Herald,
No, I didn’t get your name wrong. As you may know, a “herald” was a royal messenger representing a monarch, who proclaimed or announced what his boss told him to. You once made Jesus Christ your “Lord” (kurios), and that means “boss,” so no matter what your mother called you, you can call yourself Herald.
It is Spring, and that is when God raised His Son from the dead, so let’s look at some fabulous truth that will help you effectively herald the Truth about our Savior to those who need it.
As I hope you already know by having watched some or all of One Day With The Creator, it stars Jesus as himself. That is because the Word of God features Jesus Christ as the centerpiece of His-story. If you have gone through ODWTC, you no doubt want to round up everyone you can to experience it. Okay, here’s a helpful tip in communicating Truth to them.
Stop talking about “God” to people. Huh? Yep. Why? Because it is sometimes ineffective, and at other times even counter-productive. How so? Three reasons:
(1) No one can conceive of what you are talking about. Of course they can’t, because GOD is spirit, and without a knowledge of the Living Word, Jesus, or the written Word, people have no concept of Him. Thus, while you are talking about “God, God, God,” they are thinking of Morgan Freeman or Zeus or Allah or something they smoked in college.
(2) Given that probably more than half the population is mad at God for something they have been told He did do to them or did not do for them, you are putting yourself in a hole. But how many people have you ever met who are mad at Jesus? “Oh, I’ve heard of him. He was a good guy who got shafted by the government; I can identify.” And when you do talk with someone angry at God, you can ask: “Can you picture Jesus doing that to you?“ The answer will be “No,” and most always that will open their heart to your explanation that Jesus is the perfect image of God, and if he wouldn’t do it, neither would God.
(3) That is NOT how the early Christians spread the Word as recorded in the book of Acts.
Acts 17:2, 3, 18 and 31 (NIV)1
2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Remember that other than a few places where the word “Lord” refers to God in a quote from the Old Testament, the “Lord” is Jesus in the book of Acts. And throughout the Church Epistles, the word “Lord” never refers to God, but always to Jesus. Why? Because, as per Peter in Acts 2:36, “…God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (NKJV)2. Prior to that, God wore both hats as “the LORD God.”
On the Day of Pentecost when the Church was born, Peter set the pattern for preaching the Good News of the Gospel, and those in the early Church followed suit: they preached (heralded) Jesus, and the Resurrection.
Acts 2:22–24 (NKJV)
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
The magnificent book of Acts is replete with similar proclamations. See Acts 3:12–16, 4:8–12, 5:29–32, 7:52–60, 8:12 and 35, 9:17, 22 and 28, 10:36–43, 11:20, 13:23–37, 16:31, 17:2–3, 18 and 31, 18:5 and 28, 19:5, 20:21, 22:6–16, 25:19, 26:12–17, 28:23 and 31. Seriously—read those verses and let them sink in. They show us that in the many other places where it says Paul, et al., preached the Word, told the good news, etc., what they preached was Jesus, and the Resurrection.
Whose idea was it for the risen Jesus to become “the Lord” and be exalted, revered, worshiped, and honored just as God Himself is? Here’s the answer:
John 5:21–23 (NIV)
21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 [so] that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
If you, like I, were once a part of a ministry that was more concerned about who Jesus is not than with who he is and what he is doing now, and if your verbiage is still far more peppered with “God” than it is with “Lord” and “Jesus,” and if you do not talk with the Lord daily, and if you do not honor the Son as you honor the Father, please get with God’s program, for your own sake as well as the sake of those with whom you are sharing the Word. The way to communicate God to people is to talk to them about Jesus, the perfect “image of God,” who said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”
The motto of TLTF is “Magnifying Jesus Christ, the Living Truth,” and we chose that with great purpose. From Day One we have done our best to keep the Lord Jesus as the centerpiece of all we have done. If you have not yet ordered your copy of our new foundational class, One Day With The Creator, please do so today. From beginning to end, it vividly declares Jesus Christ, the linchpin of Scripture, the only solution to the problem of sin and death.
Think about this: God and the Lord know each person on the planet who would love to hear the Truth in this class, and it is our prayer that they lead us to them or vice versa. YOU, the ONLY YOU GOD HAS, are a “fellow worker” with them in this Treasure Hunt. Let’s get out there and set forth golden truth on a silver platter and see who chows down on it. One Day With The Creator will help you do exactly that.
Have you ever heard that, “Silence is golden”? Too often in my life it has actually been yellow, as in cowardly. Maybe I need to tattoo 2 Timothy 1:7 on the back of my hand. Can you remember when you boldly shared the Word with someone who believed it? What a rush that was! What else is more rewarding?
Some unbelieving Jews in the book of Acts once said that the early Christians had “turned the world upside down.” Of course that meant that they turned it right side up for those who chose to embrace God’s Truth regarding Jesus Christ. Let’s see if we can make such an impact upon our dying world. The Lord will help us, for HE IS RISEN!
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1. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible New International Version®. NIV® © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved [This is the latest version of the NIV Bible].
2. Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version® © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
