Church Works
Notes
Transcript
We briefly looked at Verse 8 last week, and it gives us the identification of verses 4-7 as this trustworthy saying. However, connected to Paul communicating that trustworthy saying is
Belief and insistence on the gospel is tied to good works.
Insist on these things… insist on the gospel. Insist on that trustworthy saying in verses 4-7. And then that trustworthy saying ought to lead you to good works.
In this final section of the letter that Paul has written to Titus, he brings together two of his major themes from this work. He brings us back to the cautions from the very beginning concerning false teachers, and then he also drives home the point that Christians ought to abound in good works.
And he gives us the instruction concerning the sort of good works that Christians should devote themselves to.
Our good works should be rooted in who Jesus is, and what he has done.
READ 4-7.
Care for the poor because you are rich in Christ. Be obedient to and submissive to the government because Jesus is King, and he was obedient to God’s law and submissive to his will, but Jesus was also submissive the government. We speak evil of no one because Jesus spoke evil of no one. We avoid quarreling because Jesus did not quarrel. We are gentle because Jesus was gentle.
Paul then follows up in verse 9 with the sort of works that Christians ought to avoid.
I am going to divide this morning’s text in to this three applications for the church, and these are three kinds of Good Works that the church ought to abound in.
Church Instruction
Church Discipline
Church Hospitality
Church Instruction
Church Instruction
8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
Church Instruction ought to be influenced by what has been revealed by God, not by fantastic speculations and hidden knowledge.
Though I’ve already addressed verse 8, I wanted to leave it up there with verse 9 so as to compare the two separate. Verse 8 demonstrates what is excellent and profitable… verse 9 demonstrates what is unprofitable and worthless.
v9 does not mean that that we shouldn’t study passages like Genesis 5, Matthew 1, or Luke 3, or the other Genealogies in The Scriptures. Those are meaningful inspired Holy Scripture.
Rather the points in this text are about not getting distracted by speculations, and things that do not matter. In many cases, these are diving deeply into things that do not matter, when the obvious life giving doctrines of the Bible are right in front of you.
Let me give an example:
Around the time that I began my first pastorate, I was given the opportunity to preach at a church for several weeks in a row, after the service a man came up to me, and asked me if I had ever heard of the Bible Code. I said no, but I just didn’t know it was called that. He proceeds to talk to me about how in the Bible there is this code written in the Hebrew text of the Torah. This is does when you skip certain letters - you take every 7th letter and you get this message. Or if you take every 50th letter and you get a different message. Proponents of this code have claimed to have found predictions for events like the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Gulf War, and the Moon landing. Other claim to have found references to the World Trade Center, Yasser Arafat, Bill Clinton, and Anthrax. Needless to say, this Code has fallen out of popularity. But of course, they claimed to find these things AFTER the fact. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, the Bible Code in this iteration became popular in 1997.
The code was been widely disputed and mostly debunked. The exercise has been applied to sizable works like Moby Dick and similar results found.
There may be a few potential codes that might be significant - such as finding “Jesus is my name” in ever 12th letter in the Hebrew text for Isaiah 53:7. And even some who have argued that they have found the gospel in the meaning of the names of the genealogy in Genesis 5. So while it isn’t impossible that there might be some sort of code at some points - do not get lost in the weeds and miss the trees.
Don’t waste your time looking for next week’s lottery numbers in the census in Numbers, or trying to find the code in every text of the Bible and miss the plain reading of the text.
It turns the Bible into a puzzle to decipher, rather than a book to devour.
If you are going to spend that sort of time studying the Bible, you should be studying what it says, and plainly reveals not looking for some speculative hidden code.
But this a modern equivalent to what Paul is warning Titus of. As far as what is meant by “foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law.” There are no specifics listed - we don’t know the exact issues that were popping up in Crete.
They were devoting themselves to speculations and time wasting discussions. Tracing Genealogies to find significant connections.
This might be more appropriately described as a weird obsession with 23 and Me, or Ancestry.com, to attempt to find one’s connection to an ancient king or significant figure. Jesus’ genealogy has great significance to demonstrate that he is the Davidic King - he is the Messiah, the promised one, - but to try to take the same logic to everyone’s genealogy is foolish.
And then quarrels about the law here would be debating over the aspects of the Biblical law, specifically, the ceremonial law that has been fulfilled in Christ.
(Depending on audience maybe consider briefly explaining the tripartite distinction of the law.)
Quarrels about circumcision, or insisting on the dietary habits - or seeking to decipher which of the dietary restrictions in the old testament were banned for what reasons where the scripture is silent. Paul is warning Titus not to get so caught up in these meaningless debates that he gets distracted from the gospel.
There’s a baptist pastor in the midwest named Joe Thorn a few years ago he wisely said:
“When pastors get bored with Jesus and the gospel they gravitate to social issues, politics, or pragmatics as matters of first importance.”
I would say that it is the same thing with what Paul is warning about here.
Don’t get bored of Jesus. Don’t drift off to finding hidden knowledge, or codes in the Bible rather then
Theologians sometimes talk about “Getting behind the text.” They are seeking to find a meaning underneath the plain meaning of scripture. This has long passed from the academy into the church and into the culture. The idea is that what is plain in the Bible is not what the Bible is really trying to convey, but there is something significant underneath. This is an example of being bored of the living giving truth of Jesus Christ who has died to save sinners - that you wander off into foolish controversies, genealogies, and dissensions…
And the issues that are expressed also determine discernment on how to engage. It is not just about Titus not falling into them, but also that he doesn’t caught up in these discussions.
A great example of this from this past month is: rapture predictions. Don’t waste your time. Do not believe a teacher who tells you that he knows better than Jesus.
There is a lot of wisdom needed in discerning when to engage and when not to.
There’s this cartoon that I’ve come across before of a man in front of a computer and his wife says “Honey, it’s late come to bed.” And he is noticeably flustered, red eyes, hair disheveled, and it looks like it he has been pulling it out and he responds to her with “I can’t, someone is wrong on the internet!” Just because someone somewhere is wrong, it doesn’t mean you need to expend the energy to correct them. It has become common vernacular to tell someone to scroll on when they see that post on whatever message board, or social media page.
And in life there is a place to just scroll on. Sometimes someone you know and love says something completely idiotic about the Bible - and you take a moment and think “Do I really need to correct them about this?” or just I just respond with “Oh okay.” Or turn the foolish conversation into a conversation about Jesus…
In Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler” he tells this story of a gambler that he meets on a train and after they get bored they begin to talk. Though the song appears to be about gambling and poker, it’s actually about wisdom that the song writer Don Schlitz received from his father. “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.”
And while it is through the lens of poker, it seems that such is more much about having situational awareness. Which is much like the lesson of Ecclesiastes 3:7 - there is a time to speak and a time to be quiet. And that is part of what Titus receives through Paul here in this letter. There is a time to come to blows over theology, there is a time when it is appropriate to let it slide. One indication of that is will this person listen? Another being is this a foolish, unprofitable, worthless discussion?
You need to know when to engage in a discussion and when to scroll on. When to debate and when to no longer have anything to do with them.
And this ties nicely in to the next verse, as Paul gives Titus an instruction concerning how to exercise church discipline towards someone who stirs up division.
Church Discipline
Church Discipline
10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Church discipline should protect the church from division and those who seek to lead astray.
If someone comes to our church, and they are nice, they are friendly but they continue to bring up issues arguing against fundamentals - like baptism, or who is appropriate for the office of pastor - and they continually argue that babies should be baptized, or the scriptures are wrong about the office of elder being reserved for men… these two things are clearly articulated in our church’s historic statement of faith… so first we warn them in love that this cannot continue… then after warning them twice, it is my responsibility to send them away. People are welcome to here if they disagree on theological issues, they are not welcome to cause division in the church.
You may notice that this instruction seems to be different than that in Matthew 18 concerning church discipline, which is normally our formal church discipline text. They fit quite well together. Matthew 18 describes how to handle a brother who is in sin. First go address that brother, show him his fault. If he does not repent, then bring another, or two with you. Once you have two or three witnesses, then bring before the church and excommunicate if they fail to repent.
Church discipline is never easy, and it often seems counter intuitive to remove someone from church - but if they really truly desire to follow Jesus and grow in the Lord, the removal from the congregation, will lead them to repent. If it does not lead them to repent it will protect the church from someone seeking to harm.
Church discipline is one of the most significant arguments for church membership. You cannot have church discipline without church membership. We have formal church membership here - and I think it’s good, biblical and useful - but even just a sense of church belonging is necessary for church membership to exist. Some of you are not members, but this is your church - and while I would like you to become members - you still belong here.
The Christian who bounces around from church for church from short periods of time is dangerous to others, but also runs the risk of never growing. Stay in a church that preaches the world, that avoids what the scriptures teach us to avoid, and stands firm on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And within the membership, and those who belong to a church, there ought to extend church hospitality. So while Pauk has instructed how to handle those who seek to cause division, he also, in his conclusion gives examples of how to treat those who come in good faith.
Church Hospitality
Church Hospitality
12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. 13 Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. 14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. 15 All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
Church hospitality should welcome those who come in the name of the Lord, meet their needs, encourage them to endure in good works, and send them back out filled up.
The conclusions of letters are often easy to breeze over, but I would encourage you to not do that. But instead take a moment to look at the names - consider if these names appear elsewhere. If not, if you happen to have a bible dictionary, you can often find some sort of church tradition for where they ended up.
We do not know much else about Artemas. We can deduce from his name that he was likely a Greek convert to Christianity. But when Paul sends him (or Tychicus) here to Crete, it is so that he might take over the pastoral responsibilities on Crete that Titus has. Now Tychicus could have been sent bearing the letter, Church tradition says that Artemas would go on to become the bishop of Lystra.
Titus would then head to Nicopolis, where Paul was snowbirding, because it was known for tame winters. And in 2 Timothy we read that Titus was send to go to Dalmatia.
Tychicus however, we do know quite a bit more about. He is first mentioned in Acts 20:4 as a convert from Asia. Tychicus delivered the letter to the church in Colossae (Col 4:7) and gave a further update on Paul’s condition when he arrived, we are told in 2 Tim. 4:12, that he was sent to Ephesians.
Similar to Artemas, all we know about Zenas is contained in this reference. He is a lawyer - this likely means that he is well studied in the Biblical law. Apollos however, we know a bit more about. We learn of him in Acts. In Acts 18:24 we learn that he was well studied in the Scriptures, though he knew of Jesus, only knew of the baptism of John, and that Aquila and Priscilla discipled him, corrected his error and Paul later considers Apollos a fellow worker in the gospel.
So Zenas and Apollos are two well trained and intelligent men who Paul has sent on mission to visit Titus on Crete. Some have suggested that these two men traveled with Artemas or Tychicus. With the one to remain there, and the other two to return. But Titus is given instruction for how to send the other two back. He is not to keep them, but he is also not to send them back emptied handed. He is to minister to them. To build them up, and fill them up and to encourage them to continue in good works - and to help others. To endure in fruitfulness.
From this we learn how we ought to welcome missionaries. When our missionaries join us, we get the opportunity to hear form them and how the Lord is working in their ministry - and then we send them out - with full hearts and full bellies. We hear what they are doing, and we in turn encourage them to continue on in their good works. We have the great joy of doing this next week as the Mann family/GraceWorks Global is coming to visit. We will welcome them, we will
And then the following week, as we send Jim and Carol out - we hope to send them out with an encouragement to do good works for the kingdom of God.
As the church we ought to aim to be cautious about enduring in Godly biblical instruction. This means that we also need to be careful who we allow to instruct in this manner.
Paul has in this letter given Titus, and us, instructions on how to handle false teachers, and that we ought to be ready for good words, and to devote ourselves to them. In this text, we are shown that we ought to welcome others as Christ has welcomed us. But we also ought to protect the church, the bride of Christ, from wolves. As Jesus himself also did. We need to put out old deeds to death, and ought to pursue good works… but we do this not because it earns us anything because of the outpouring of what Christ has done….
Reminder of the Gospel… and close.
