Nobody would dispute that the Apostle Paul was one of the greatest preachers and missionaries.

The world has ever known. So why did he refer to himself as the chief of sinners?

Well, the answer is both surprising and encouraging.

Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg is teaching from chapter 1 of 1st Timothy,

we're beginning with verse 12.

There's a sense in which these verses, which begin with the twelfth verse,

provide us with an opportunity to gaze in on something that is almost embarrassing on the one hand for us to see.

Inasmuch as I think what we have before as in these verses is the opening of an individual, namely the Apostle Paul's soul to God.

I want to try and gather our thoughts around three main headings.

First of all, to pay attention to the basis of Paul's position.

And then to consider the impact of Paul's conversion, and then as time allows to say just a word about the substance of Paul's instruction, which you find there in verse 18 and following.

First of all, then the basis of Paul's position. What is his position? Well, his position is clearly stated at the end of verse 12.

He has been appointed to service. Speaking in the personal aspect of it, he says this is the wonder that he has considered me faithful and has appointed me to his service.

It's interesting that he says it is to service. It is not to leadership. It's not to honor, although there was honor in the service.

And there was leadership in fulfilling his responsibilities. But he doesn't identify what has happened to him in that way.

He says the wonder is not that I have received honor, nor that I have been made a leader, but the real wonder is that God has appointed me to his service.

And the word that he uses is Diaconia, from which we get our word Diaconos, which is translated deacon.

And it is clear that he is not referring here to the duties of Diaconal responsibility within the framework of the church, which he addresses later on in his letter.

But he is making express reference to the fact that his service is largely threefold. He is a servant of Christ.

He is a servant of the gospel, and he is a servant of the church. And the wonder of it grips his soul.

I thank Christ Jesus, he says, our Lord, that he has appointed me to his service.

Now on what basis was he appointed to this unique position, as an apostle, as a foundational element in the whole superstructure of the church?

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