AND HOW CAN THEY TEACH UNLESS THEY ARE SENT?”
Jesus sent Paul to be the teacher to Gentiles (anyone not Jewish by birth). Paul was born a Jewish citizen of
The Roman Empire in Tarsus, a town located in what is now southern Turkey.
He was highly educated and was passionately dedicated to the Jewish faith. He called himself the Pharisee of Pharisees. He was being groomed to join the Sanhedrin, which was akin to our Supreme Court.
Such was his staunch belief in the Hebrew tradition and laws that He volunteered to round up followers of Jesus and bring them to trial and execution.
He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians when he had his famous encounter with Jesus, which completely changed him. Now he became as ardent a supporter of Jesus as he had been of the Hebrew law.
God chose Paul to teach the “Good News Of Great Joy Which Shall Be To All People” to the Gentiles because the disciples at first would not, believing that to do so was a sin. Paul, though assigned to teach Gentiles, had a burning desire to see all people, including the Jews, saved by believing in Jesus.
In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul reflects his heart’s desire to see the children of Israel saved and makes a compelling appeal to them not to reject Jesus again, to receive His teachings, believe in Him, and have eternal life with Him. Jesus came first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, so that ALL PEOPLE would be one with Him. Paul passionately pleads with all of us to accept this wonderful gift of everlasting life.
In the tenth chapter, Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, penned a profound declaration of how faith works and where it originates. He asserts that to gain faith, people must hear the Gospel taught to them by a messenger from the Holy Spirit (Preachers/teachers).
Read Paul’s poignant dissertation:
“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. Because I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Because, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Because with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Jesus.
The importance of that last sentence can not be overstated.
It reminds us that FAITH is a gift that comes from hearing the Gospel and believing it,
But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have, for
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
But I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses (acting in the office of prophet)says,
“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
With a foolish nation, (people who are not from Israel, considered foolish by the Jews), but hear and believe I (God The Father, The Great I Am, by saving those considered apart from Him by the Jews)will make you angry.”
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.“
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
(Romans 10)
HERE I AM, LORD, SEND ME!
In his now-famous meeting with God, Isaiah volunteered to carry God’s prophetic messages to the world.
The phrase “Here I am, Lord, send me” comes from Isaiah 6:8. It’s a response to God’s call, expressing Isaiah’s willingness to serve as a prophet and deliver God’s message. In the context of the passage, Isaiah is having a vision of God in the temple and is then called to be a prophet.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.“
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “HERE I AM, LORD, SEND ME!“
(Isaiah 6:1-8)
