“Anchored in Truth”

Tomorrow morning, our great country will witness the inauguration of the forty-seventh president of the United States. I hope your prayers have included President Trump, Vice-President Vance, and members of Congress in this time of leadership transition in our nation. As Christians, we’re told in 1 Timothy 2 to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for our God-given leaders, praying specifically, as it says in that letter, that they will lead us in a manner that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way. Please remember, we Christians pray for our leaders whether we voted for them or not.

I know that with any inauguration, there is a sense in which we look forward to the future and dream about what can be. And I want you each to know that we are dreaming about the future here at First Baptist Church, too. I want to try to explain the relationship of this series of messages to the future that we are dreaming about. And I’ll try to explain it in this way…

Many of you know I enjoy history. One of the most significant events in modern history was the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II. We know that the invasion itself started on June 6, 1944, a day that is now known as D-Day, when the largest seaborne invasion in history was launched along the beaches of Normandy, France. The invasion launched on that June day in 1944 was actually a plan that was committed to in May of 1943 as the leaders of Allied forces planned to liberate Western Europe with what’s known as Operation Overlord. Following the plans in May of 1943, Allied forces prepared in England. There was planning, preparation, and then carrying out what was planned and prepared for. That sequence of planning, preparing, and carrying out should make sense to us.

That same sequence applies to us as we dream. On making plans, if you do not know, we are making plans to officially renovate and enhance the campus of our church. I suspect that the needs are obvious to many of us as we make our way around the campus, but let paint just a bit of the picture for you. This morning we’re in a building that was constructed in 1952, renovated in the early ‘80s and has been largely untouched since. Some of you have entrusted your young children to the care of our pre-school department that is hosted in a building that was constructed in the early ‘80s and is in need of updating of its aesthetics and, more importantly, its safety. Our teens are disconnected from body life by virtue of their meeting location being across the street, which too is a facility that requires addressing. We are grateful that God is entrusting so many to become a part of the body of Christ here, but shepherding a growing congregation requires proper staffing ratios and you need to know that we are severely understaffed today. While we’re working to address that, if we hired someone today, we would have no place for more staff to sit in our offices. Perhaps some of you found it necessary to park on the field across the way because the only 91 paved parking spaces were occupied. Others of you park there as a gesture of hospitality. We appreciate your generosity while also acknowledging that an open field is a safety issue in itself.

I want you to know that we have established two teams who are focused making those plans to see us address the campus. One is a nine-person team called the “Building Steering Committee” who will be overseeing what we’re going to specifically do to enhance the campus. The other is a four-person team who will be overseeing the effort to raise the funds to do what God wants us to do here. Rest assured, everything about those plans will be made known to all of us and in the coming weeks, those teams will begin to share information about the plans.

That’s what is going on with planning. Planning and preparing. Planning and preparing are so critical because we want to achieve great things for Jesus and his kingdom and as it as been said, "Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness." One part of preparing is what Brother Ed has now spoken to us about for two Sundays. We will be entering into a time of congregational fasting and prayer. I hope you will not be selfish with your time and I hope you will see yourself participating in preparing yourself and your household spiritually. We have the sign-up board here for a reason. Just as we’ve historically shown progress on our missions offerings from that location, we need to see the progress we’re making towards the spiritual commitment to this great work God is preparing us for.

The Lord has led me to this letter of Paul to Titus to help us prepare, too. And like the Allied forces who trained to carry out what would be the fulfillment of Operation Overlord, we need to first be reminded of what will be our field manual to support each of us as we labor together. A field manual is a sort of how-to. This morning, we’re taking the first steps in preparing for this journey together that will see us realize what God wants for First Baptist Church. And because we’re preparing for a journey, we need to be healthy enough to sustain the journey. And so our purpose in Titus will be to make us a healthier church, ready for this great journey God is inviting us on.

To start this series, I want us to pursue an answer to this question:

What is a healthy way for our church to act in a world of uncertainty and differing views?

This is a essential question that we need God’s help to answer because our world is rife with uncertainty and view points. Speaking of uncertainty, I suspect that there are some who are skeptical at starting an effort to address our campus now. Even within our church, there will be differing views on what ought to be done and when. We’re going to need God’s help to get us on the same page and for this church family to go on this journey with the health of our fellowship preserved. And what we see here at the beginning is one of the first ways that we navigate these challenges. That’s by our collective recognition of

Servant Leader Authority

Now, I am going to guess that for some of us, the expression “servant leader” sounds appealing but you’re really leaning in on the word “authority.” What’s this guy getting at? Let me explain to you from God’s Word by inviting you to notice with me in Titus 1:1 that Paul, who is the author of this letter to another pastor named Titus, describes himself as Titus 1:1 “… a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ…”

There are two nouns that Paul uses here to describe himself that I want want to expand upon, which are servant and apostle, and as we understand them, we will better understand the intention of this heading. Paul refers to himself first as a servant of God. By the way, if you’re curious, on the left of that slide is Rembrandt’s painting of Paul that you can find in the National Gallery of Art. It was painted fifteen hundred years after Paul’s lifetime, that no more is what Paul actually looked like than the stained glass behind me is what Jesus actually looked like. This is just an artist’s impression of Paul.

Now, in english Bible translations, there are two words that we translate from the original Greek of the New Testament into servant. The more common word is διάκονος. If you are guessing that the word διάκονος is related to our english word deacon just by hearing me pronounce it, you’re right. In the noun form, we translate that word as servant or deacon - which should really inform the ministry of a deacon as a servant. In the verb form of the word, we translate it to serve or to minister. For example, that’s the word in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…”

But that’s not the word Paul uses here in the original Greek. The word he uses here is δοῦλος. A better way to translate this based on how δοῦλος was most commonly used in the first century would be to say, “Paul, a slave of God…” Now, don’t let your mind rush to what your history classes have taught you about slavery during the Civil War era of our country. When someone, like Paul, is a slave of God, they are completely devoted to God, submitting their will entirely to God, living their life according to God’s purposes and desires. They see themselves as fully owned by God and dedicated to serving the Lord above all else.

Paul also describes himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.” I want to offer a definition of this word to you. Please know that this is a definition derived from Scripture. An apostle of Jesus Christ is someone who must have (1) been a witness of the resurrected Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1), (2) been explicitly chosen by the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:15), and (3) has the ability to perform signs and wonders (Acts 2:43 ; 2 Corinthians 12:12). Now, this is important for us to grasp because when you turn on the Christian cable channels, you’ll find lots of so-called “apostles” preaching on there. They do not meet the sense of apostle as Paul is referring to himself here. The TV preachers are using that word loosely and I need you to know they’re dangerous to listen to.

With those definitions in our tool belts, let’s come back to our heading. Paul has a very special office within the Church of Jesus Christ. He is an apostle. He was entrusted authority and responsibility that only a few were given. There are not apostles today, but the purpose of the apostle was to lay the foundation for the Church for which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. And for all the authority that was entrusted with Paul, that stuff didn’t get to his head. That God-given authority was balanced with his deep commitment and obedience to the God who saved him and called him. In fact, I think the order of how Paul refers to himself here matters. As he spent time with the Holy Spirit, no doubt as his flesh waged war with Spirit, he had to learn that he was a slave to God first and foremost that gave way to exercise the authority of what God had called him to.

Imagine a CEO who insists on cleaning the office floors himself, even after a long and tiring day of work. All of the CEO’s employees may think he’s crazy for doing that, but what that CEO is doing is showing that authority isn’t about ruling, it’s about serving.

I’m always very wary of someone who wants a title. They might say, “I want to be a pastor.” Or, “I want to chair that committee.” But as far as their service goes, it’s not there. That’s a red flag. That’s not the Christian sense of servant leader authority at all. No, but when we lead through our serving, we inspire others to step up. It’s vital that as we prepare for this journey, that we always remember that we each lead by serving.

If you’re looking for a way to serve, I’ll remind you that we distribute food to our neighbors monthly. The next one is the Monday after tomorrow. If that doesn’t work for you, these are some drafty, dusty buildings. There’s plenty to dust and there are lots of toilets to scrub. And if that’s beneath you, then you’re missing the point of serving Christ - it’s not about you. Never has been nor will it ever be. It’s about Jesus.

We must also each remember that we are to

Live Our Eternal Hope

I hope your bibles are still open so that you can see for yourself that he speaks, in Titus 1:2, to this promise. Look at what Paul tells us. He tells us that eternal life was promised by God from before time itself.

Let me speak to this promise briefly. The promise of God stands in contrast to what you and I can do. When we receive the promise of eternal life in Christ, it causes you and I to look outside of ourselves and base our hope on something which we can do nothing to contribute to. This promise was made way before any of us and before we could have done anything to try to secure it. The promise of eternal life is based solely on the work of Jesus Christ done on our behalf. Jesus had to because we are powerless to save ourselves. Eternal life is based on a promise made apart from anything we can contribute and it is received through faith alone. Our hope of eternal life rests not on ourselves, but on the promise of God.

Now, some may be thinking, “So what if this is a promise? I’ve been promised plenty in my life that never came to be.” Notice that the Bible says here and everywhere else that God never lies. The Greek word there, literally translated, says that God is free from deceit. In other words, God cannot lie. That’s much different than saying that God will not lie. If someone told us that they will not lie, that sounds nice, but it still implies that they can lie. See, God cannot lie because for him to do so would be a direct contradiction to his own nature, which is truth. God, who cannot lie, has promised that all who come to him through faith in Christ will inherit eternal life. Hear me again on that - God, who cannot lie, has promised that all who come to him through faith in Christ will inherit eternal life.

My friends, if anyone here is in Christ, then this promise has been revealed to us already! We’re living the promise now! Jesus said John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,” so that eternal life is a present experience for the Christian, that stretches all the way into eternity, but is a present reality. This is not a thing the Christian is waiting on, it’s given when we’re saved! Didn’t Jesus say, John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.” Has eternal life. Not will have. Alistair Begg said, “In Jesus, we have all had our own Easter. We have been raised with Christ. We’ve died with him, and we have been raised with him.” That’s why Paul says in Colossians 3:1 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…” The Christian has passed from death to life, no longer coming into judgement. That means that death has been changed for the Christian. Death hasn’t been removed, of course, unless Jesus returns before we die. Unless that glorious day arrives, death awaits each of us. The thought of our own eventual death will rattle the cage of the most stoic of us. But what’s the difference for the Christian? The Christian has been brought into the hope of eternal life. For the Christian, death doesn’t bring the awfulness of the judgement of sin. So in a Christian’s death, we’re 2 Corinthians 5:8 “away from the body and at home with the Lord.” We’re going to Philippians 1:23 “…to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

Have you had your own Easter, my friend? Have you been to Jesus for his cleansing power and have you been raised from death to life everlasting? Then if you have, you must know that the promise of eternity that is your present reality is what is what is energizing our mission. It’s what is invigorating our journey. So that we can continue to be a beacon of Christ’s hope for generations to come. Amidst all the uncertainty of the world, we must share the certainty of what we have inherited in Christ from the God who cannot lie.

One way we do that is through the

Power of Preaching

Let’s notice from Titus 1:3 that what God had promised from eternity had been “manifested,” or revealed, “at the proper time.” The little phrase “at the proper time” shouldn’t be overlooked because it tells us that there is nothing arbitrary or accidental about the timing of things. Let’s remember that God tells us in Ephesians 1:11 that he is working all things “according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” For example, I do not think it’s coincidence that as I planned to lead this congregation to really start gearing up for a building initiative, we would also lose the heating system that was installed in 1977. It also tells me that may be some who are not aware of our need to do extensive work around the campus or that there may be some who are doubters. You can chalk today up to chance, but I’ll thank God in every situation because he’s working out his plan for his glory. God knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t tell lies. He’s too kind to be cruel. He’s too wise to ever make mistakes.

Paul’s writing to Titus who is in Crete and I find it interesting that the people there were living in darkness until, “at the proper time,” the light shone into the darkness of their hearts. They were hopeless until the good news came and the good news came “at the proper time” through preaching. It was the preaching of Paul, which he says he was Titus 1:3 “entrusted by the command of God our Savior.” It’s incredible to think that God would choose to set apart a voice to bear the news of God’s amazing grace and the goodness of the gospel, isn’t it?

I know many of you are in education in some form or another and what’s interesting about being a gospel preacher in comparison to what our school teachers experience is that in the schools, you have kiddos for a year. If the teacher and the student both do their part, they take their tests and the pass on to the next grade. But for a preacher, no one makes it out of the class. None of us make it out of the class because we all constantly need reminders, we all constantly need assurance, we all constantly need learning. There’s something very humbling about the fact that in this setting, we don’t promote from the “class.”

Now, let me just remind us of something that I think we understand as a congregation but it’s good for us to keep in mind, and that is that the preaching of the Word of God is God-ordained, it is Spirit-led, and it is Bible-filled, so that when God’s Word is faithfully proclaimed, God’s voice is actually heard. If it were anything else, this would just be a waste of time. But when we take the authoritative truth of God’s Word—led and prepared by the Spirit of God, offered up as clearly as possible—then the promise of heaven is that the very voice of God is heard through the agency of a mere mortal voice as it brings forward the truth of God’s Word. It made one theologian ask, “How can one do [it]?” How can one preach?

How could any one of us ever do this? The answer is that the preacher must and therefore the preacher can announce as Paul did, I 2 Corinthians 5:20 “implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” And the preacher does that in weakness, in fear, and in the awareness that the outcome cannot be affected. I cannot make you repent. I cannot make you believe. But I can beg you, in the confidence that judgement awaits all who have rejected Jesus, believe and be saved!

And here’s the thing about preaching. It’s not something done alone. Do you know what effective preaching involves? A praying preacher and a praying, expectant congregation.

When you came here today, had you prayed for me? Had you prayed for the others who would be here? Had you prayed that hearts would be open and the gospel preached clearly? Along this journey, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we must be praying for the gospel to be preached with God’s power.

Lastly, we must

Partner Together

Just a brief word here… Paul writes in Titus 1:4 “To Titus, my true child in a common faith…” This is an unusual thing for Paul to say because Paul was a Jew and Titus was not. Titus was a Greek. And what Paul actually reminds Titus, and reminds us, is that the family of faith extends beyond Crete. This common faith, this koinonia of fellowship in the wonder of the gospel, extends beyond Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, Devine, and so on. And each of the communities in which this letter would be read would be strengthened by the reminder of the fact that they’re part of something far bigger than themselves.

And I want to end in that way by reminding us of the same: that we are part of something far bigger than ourselves. On the one hand, if we felt like nothing was happening, recognizing that we’re part of something bigger than us will keep us from discouragement. And on the other hand, it keeps us from thinking the world revolves around our lives individually or around this particular church because we recognize that God’s purposes extend far and beyond us.

See, we have to remember this along the journey and it will affect our health if we don’t, because a danger for a congregation like this is to just have an inward focus as we set out on this building initiative. We’re going to see costs to do this work and we will want to get things done and some may want to see us borrow from what we have committed to support the kingdom advancing. Take this morning’s example. We installed heat in 1977. Forty eight years later, we’ve run the horse into the ground. We’re going to have to pay to restore heat and frankly, we should be surprised it lasted that long. But doing that work and other things around here cannot come at the cost of the expectation that the gospel be taken everywhere. I’m not saying that’s happening, I’m just pointing out that can be a danger for us.

Now, we started our time by asking,

What is a healthy way for our church to act in a world of uncertainty and differing views?

And, of course, we’ve framed that question in light of our need to prepare for the journey that’s set before us that will not simply survive the journey, but that our church will thrive through it. Our text has shown us that for our church to thrive, we must make a commitment to the truth of God. Today. We must make a commitment to strong, godly leadership. Today. And that leadership will need to guide everyone here to be empowered followers of Christ who are ready to share the hope of the gospel.

Or summing it up this way,

We must be anchored in truth.

Like a ship in a vast ocean, at any point that ship can be tossed to and fro by waves and winds. Without an anchor, it drifts aimlessly, vulnerable to the storms of life. But when anchored securely, it can withstand anything that comes its way. Similarly, if we commit as a church to be anchored in the truth of God’s Word, we will know the resiliency available to us by God’s power. When we face doubts or cultural pressures, we can stand firm upon the word from the God who cannot lie. Just as sailors trust their anchors, we must trust the truth that holds our church steady.

Here’s a word of truth about God’s promise of eternal life. And I’m going to close with this because there are some people reject the idea of life beyond this. Some people reject the notion of both heaven and hell. Some people think there’s one and not the other. Some people think everyone’s headed for heaven no matter what we believe. There’s all that sort of stuff. But hear me, there is life beyond this. And God has promised peace for all eternity with him for all who would come to him through Jesus Christ. God has said this. And since God cannot lie, if you find yourself this morning refusing to believe that eternal life is offered to us as God has outlined here in the Bible, then you’re calling God a liar. That’s what John writes in

1 John 5:10–11 NLT

All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

There are some here this morning who need to recognize that the Holy Spirit is grabbing you by the shirt collar for you to recognize that your refusal to surrender to Christ means that you’re calling God a liar and yet, God cannot lie. If that’s you, please know that I am begging you, surrender everything and come to Christ.