Grandparents Day!
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Title: Grandparents Day!
Text: Titus 1:5-10
D.T. If the gospel can make elders from among the Cretans, then it can make you the parent/grandparent your family needs.
Introduction: Welcome to Grandparents Day! Thank you for joining us as we celebrate Grandparents day. Whether you are Grandparents physically or spiritually, we appreciate you! I obviously wanted to preach a sermon based on Grandparents, however you won’t find a ton of stuff about grandparents in the bible. So what’s going to be the basis of our discussion? The answer is found in the book of Titus chapter 1. In this chapter Paul gives Titus instructions on who is qualified to be an Elder in the churches Paul has been planting. Even though the purpose of this text is to establish qualifications for Eldership, I believe it also serves as a trustworthy set of ideals that grandparents should have for their grandchildren. Let’s get started in our text as we read Titus 1:5-10.
READ Titus 1:4-5
To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—
These first 2 verses can be easily overlooked, but there are important details we need to point out. Paul leaving Titus on Crete to minister to the people of Crete would have been an incredibly difficult assignment for someone as young as Titus. See the people of Crete had a reputation, and it wasn’t a good one. Later on in Chapter 1, Paul had this to say about the people of Crete. (READ Titus 1:12-13
One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
Paul tells Titus “While you are on Crete, you might hear things like Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and gluttons, and all of that is basically true. This reputation wasn’t localized either, the whole known world held this belief of the Cretans. This reputation has stood the test of time. How many of you have heard someone referred to as a Cretan? Was that ever a compliment? No. The fact the reputation of the Cretans stood the of time should be a testimony to how people really believed this to be true of the people of Crete.
So not only is Titus a young man in ministry, the people he is called to minister to are widely considered to be liars, evil beasts and gluttons. If Titus was going to successfully minister to the churches of Crete, he was going to need help. Paul had something in mind.
READ Titus 1:6-10
if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.
In this passage Paul provides a list of qualifications for Elders by listing what they should be for, and what they should be against. Over the last few weeks we’ve hosted a bible study called what are you for, and the goal is to encourage christians and churches to know what they are for, because knowing what we are for is more important than knowing what we are against. If we know what we are for, then things we are against are by nature eliminated. So we are going to focus on the ideals that elders, and in our case grandparents should be for in their lives.
Above reproach If Paul calls for church elders to be above reproach, it stands to reason that grandparents should be as well. However, what does it mean to be above reproach? The most common answer to this question is simply being of good and upstanding character. Attributes of an upstanding character can best be found in verses 8-9.
Hospitable, lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, holding to sound doctrine,
These attributes would be challenging enough for Elders at times, however for grandparents its even more challenging
Being above reproach in a church setting is one thing, we can successfully be above reproach. However being above reproach at home is a completely different challenge. When we are no longer under the microscope of the world, it can be easy to rest on our above reproach laurels.
However we must remember that when we are at home, we are still under a microscope. The holder of this microscope is a lot more impressionable.
Faithfully Married The text says the husband/wife of one husband/wife. It's tempting to view this through the perspective of divorce, however that would be a mistake. This was written during a time when polygamy was still socially acceptable. So Paul wanted Titus to understand that Elders should be faithfully married to one person. Regardless of if they’ve been divorced, if someone is faithful married to their current spouse, they qualify.
Parents and Grandparents alike have an obligation to provide children with a good example of a biblically sound marriage.
Children who believe This isn’t speaking about adult children who drifted away from the church. No, this passage is talking about children who still live in a household. Paul's purpose in saying this is to establish that an elders dedication to the church is his second ministry. Their first ministry is to their family.
This is true for grandparents as well, the faith of our children and grandchildren should be of utmost importance.
This is especially true of our Elders who are Grandparents.
Invitation:As parents and grandparents we can feel inadequate to everything we just discussed. Why? Because sometimes we feel like the Cretan. If that’s the case for you, then pay special attention to what comes next, because there is an element to this passage we haven’t discussed yet. In his letter, Paul tells Titus that he needs to appoint Elders within the Cretan churches, meaning that Titus had to appoint Cretan elders. Titus had to find people who were above reproach, faithful, married, and having believing children from among a population described as being “liars, evil beasts, and gluttons” If you ever feel like a Cretean when trying to live out these ideals, you aren’t alone. If you feel inadequate in fulfilling these ideals for your family, Titus could identify with you. Titus was surrounded by people who were inadequate to live out these ideals! Yet Paul believed that the power of the gospel could shape these Cretans into sound Elders (Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
If the gospel can make elders from among the Cretans, then it can make you the parent/grandparent your family needs. You just need to believe in the power of the gospel!
