A Graceful Greeting

Series: Titus: Among the Cretans

Titus: Among the Cretans

(Right Doctrine, Right Living)

Titus 1:1-4

A Graceful Greeting

Titus 1:1–4 ESV

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; 4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Introduction:

NOT FINAL DRAFT…. NOT FINAL DRAFT… NOT FINAL DRAFT…

Well good morning once again and hello to anyone catching the video online.

In thinking and praying through where to begin my ministry of the word here at FBC, I landed on the book of Titus. This is one of the pastoral epistles, a letter written by the apostle Paul to a pastor and friend in ministry of his named Titus. At some point Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete to minister. Now he was writing this letter to give him his assignment of what he was to be doing there on the island. There is a lot of deep theological work that Paul does in this greeting. It's a longer greeting than some of his others and he doesn't waste any words.

Titus has been referred to as an "apostolic manual for church planting." It's somewhat of a schematic for planting and building churches that survive and thrive on the glory of God.

It's not lost on my that as we gather this morning we gather as a body of believers who are hopeful for what God will do today and in our future together but also we gather as a body that has experienced some measure of brokenness and hurt. It is my joy as your pastor to sit with you in this season and to also point you to the great hope we have in Jesus that things won't always be this way. It is this hope that we have in the Lord God upon which Paul rests his warm greeting to Titus in verses one through four of Titus, chapter one.

REWORK THIS: Main idea: Paul anchors his warm greeting to Titus in the truth and trustworthiness of God.

This letter was not only for Titus. He was the main recipient but it's plainly obvious that this was meant for the church as well. In fact, in those days a letter like this would likely have been read aloud to the congregation to hear the words of the great apostle.

I. Paul writes as one who is sold out to the mission of God.

As we look at the 46 verses in Titus, we see this letter that Paul is writing to one of his ministry team partners. We might read it and think that Paul is simply making sure Titus sets up the churches rightly, however, Paul has an eye for the future and the succession of ministry. He knew his time on earth was short and he would eventually be departing to be with the Lord in eternity. He had left Titus on Crete to "put what remained in order". He was making sure there would be continued ministry in Titus' day but also as he instructed Titus to appoint elders in every town, he was also looking to maintain healthy churches and healthy pastoral leadership in the future as well. How important it is to raise up the next generation of church leaders. I think of a well known pastor who served for over 50 years in his church and recently passed on to heaven. His church has been without a lead pastor since then and no one has been appointed to the role. They said it could be up to two years before the role is filled. There was not a succession plan in place to look past a finite man into the future of the church. I would love it if the next pastor of this church was currently in the nursery and came all the way through the ministry and discipleship of this church. How incredible that would be!

Paul is sold out to the mission of God. Look at how he describes his ministry:

First he refers to himself as a "servant of God." Now, the ESV is my preferred translation but the greek word they have rendered "as servant" can refer to a variety of standings in the bible however I believe a better rendering of it is slave. Paul, a slave of God. Now we don't like that word. It makes us feel in ways we are uncomfortable with. Some people and translators in fact will use a different word because of the negative connotations of the word corresponding with the evil practice of chattel slavery in American history and other parts of the world. But slavery was a fact in Bible times. It was part of the culture. Not everything we know of slavery in American history was the same way it was practiced back then. Hear me say that human slavery to each other is not okay. Please don't go tell the whole town that your new pastor said slavery is okay. Don't hear what I'm not saying.

Before trusting in Jesus, we are

slaves to sin. It runs us. It guides our decisions and our wants and our

words. But after we come to know Jesus Christ, we are set free from the

bondages of sin and we become servants or slaves of God. You’ll see both

of God and Of Jesus referred to and the truth is there is no difference in

saying slave or servant to one or the other. A slave was bought. We have

been bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

I like to illustrate it like this. When you’re at war and you have to

surrender because you’re overwhelmed, you run up the white flag and

surrender. The surrendered army has no say in what happens to them at

that point. The conquering army can really do whatever they want with

them. When we surrender to Jesus and place our hope and trust in Him,

we give up our plans and our desires and we take on what He wants. We

become his servant, under His command. The language Paul uses

demonstrates the humility that we should exemplify as servants of the Lord.

Make no mistake about it. You will serve somebody. Like that wise prophet

Bob Dylan sang: “It might be the Devil or it might be the Lord but ya gotta

serve somebody.”

II. Paul writes that Titus would build God's church by faithful teachers and faithful teaching.

There are several words and concepts in the Bible that are difficult for

us to understand and to reconcile with other concepts. One that has given

people all kinds of trouble over the years has been the doctrine of election.

It’s talked about in scripture and so we can’t skip it. Part of the reason I

preach entire books of the Bible is so that we are forced to come to terms

with difficult concepts. With that, I want to point out verse 1 again to you.

Here we see two doctrines held in perfect tension as they are throughout

scripture. When we see this phrase, “…the faith of God’s elect…”

The faith: this points to human responsibility to trust Jesus and repent of

sin. Of God’s elect: Here we have divine sovereignty.

are held in a perfect tension that we have difficulty understanding

but that God has no problem upholding. I love what Danny Akin wrote

about this: “ Paul sees no dichotomy, no contradiction between he

sovereignty of God and the human responsibility of men. Salvation from

beginning to end is the sovereign work of the grace of God. (Ephesians 2:8

and Hebrews 12:2). And yet no one will be saved who does not repent and

believe, and all who repent and believe will be saved. Paul believed God

elected and predestined people to be saved but did so in such a way as to

do no violence to their free will and responsibility to believe the gospel.

Charles Spurgeon once remarked on this topic that, ““He saves man

by grace, and if men perish they perish justly by their own fault. ‘How,’ says

someone, ‘do you reconcile these two doctrines?’ My dear brethren, I never

reconcile two friends, never. These two doctrines are friends with one

another; for they are both in God’s Word, and I shall not attempt to reconcile them”

The outcome that Paul is aiming for in this faithful teaching is that those who are the church, the elect as he calls us, would have a knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness.

The goal friends, is godliness or god centeredness in our lives. We aren't supposed to just gather knowledge for no reason. We are supposed to know the truth and study the truths of the Word so that our lives reflect them in our actions. Likewise, when you see someone whose life has no sign of godliness, you rightly may question whether they know the truth about God or believe it.

Right belief - orthodoxy

Right practice - orthopraxy

Right belief, right doctrine leads to right practice or right actions

That's why it's key that we know the Word. You have been challenged for at least nine months on being in the scripture regularly. I'm keeping that up. The number one indicator statistically of someone who is maturing in their faith is engagement with the Word of God. We are a people of the book. How do you know this stuff is true? We have a book. It tells me all about it. I have eye witness accounts.

Paul left Titus behind with a mission. Titus was on the island of Crete. Paul left Him there.

He knew someone needed to be there in flesh and blood to do the work. There was an incarnational aspect to gospel ministry. Online won't do for true transformational church ministry. The church is at its core, a gathering. That's what the word we get church from is: ecclesia, a gathering. It's the gathering of God's people to worship God brining Him glory, making much of Him. It is an in person ministry that we Christians have.

Our Savior knows all about incarnational ministry.

He, the God of the Universe, wrapped Himself in human flesh and came to Earth as a baby. Fully God and fully man in a person, Jesus, the Christ. He lived a human life but did so without sin. He lived in flesh and blood in a way that you and I cannot live: perfectly, sinlessly. He then gave that perfect life on the cross as a substitute for your sin and for my sin. Our sin separates us from God and in dying for our sin as an atoning sacrifice, He bore our sin and exchanged it for His righteousness. His right standing before God credited to us! A truly great exchange! We don't deserve it and never will and yet, He stepped in to our human world and rescued the church, God's elect as Paul refers to us. Then after being buried in the earth for three days, HE AROSE, in body. He appeared personally and bodily to His followers. And Jesus passed on the incarnational ministry of going everywhere we go and making disciples of all nations.

We minister to people by being with people. We sit with them. We pray with them. We read scripture together with them. We hug them. We clean their house after a storm. We walk with people through life and point them to Jesus. And they do so with us in flesh and blood as well. I will tell you something, I'm not enough for all of the needs in this body of believers. We must be in each other's lives in intentional ways. We should be sharpening and serving one another. If you expect one pastor to be everything for everyone, then you will be sorely disappointed with this guy because I'm just a man. God has given us a whole church. Let's serve one another and give our time to one another. Let's let that be part of our reputation.

III. Paul's hope was grounded in the character of God.

Your hope is only as good as the thing you place your hope in. If the thing is untrue then you will be shown to be a fool. Let me illustrate: If I walked in with a sword. A big claymore like they carried in Braveheart, the movie. And I said, I'm going to lean on this and it's going to support my weight. And then I put the end on the ground to lean on and as I go to put my hand on it, you see that I have placed the handle on the ground and I'm going to lean on the point. That is what false hope is like. You lean on it and you get stuck and hurt. And the harder you lean on that false hope your hand slides farther and farther down that blade and you bleed more and more and you keep leaning and wondering why you never get better or the support you hoped would be there. That's what putting your hope in anything other than one worthy of that hope is like. God is a sure place to hope.

God never lies. It would be in breaking with His character, something God will never do. He is consistently consistent with who He is. This concept is linked to a big theological term called the immutability of God. Now you know a big word and can impress people at parties.

God's immutability is his freedom to change and his being the same at all times past, present, and future.

Paul ministered within the context of the hope of eternal life because this God who never lies promised that we would have it before time began.

And at the proper time. I love looking at the places in the Bible that point out at the appointed time, or at that time, or anywhere that shows how incredibly specific and intricate God's sovereign working of all of His master redemptive plan has been. There are so many moments in the bible where you look at think, if this was all run by people, there are so many places this whole thing could have just fallen right apart.

Paul had been entrusted with preaching. v. 3

The Word is proclaimed through preaching. Preaching should always have a prominent place in our Lord's Day gathering. It is the method by which God has established that His Word be proclaimed and explained.

At just the right time, in His appointed season, we were given the Word. The God of the universe has spoken to us in His Word. He speaks to His people in His Word still.

Oh and by the way, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God's Word is His revelation of Himself to us. It is truly amazing that God has placed this message in our fragile hands. We must preach the true gospel!

Paul ministers and teaches from this context that eternal life is out there and we have hope because God has promised. He's anchored in that hope and we should minister out of that hope as well. If God has secured eternity for the people He has chosen, the church, then who have we to fear and what can mere men do to us? There is great freedom in that. There is freedom in being a slave to God.

Paul closes by blessing Titus on his mission.

IV. Paul blesses Titus on the mission.

Titus 1:4 ESV

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Hear the warmth in this blessing and how Paul sees Titus as a child in a common faith.

A. True Christ followers share a common faith.

Titus was not to come up with a new and exciting, relevant, message. He was to preach the message that Paul preached. We preach and teach the faith once and for all handed down to the saints.

Methods may change but the message stays the same. Sound teaching is necessary to build a healthy and genuine New Testament church. It's a church rooted in common faith. There is no room for compromise. We stand on the truth.

B. True Christians are part of God's family.

You have heard it said that we are all children of God. That is a lie. Not everyone is a child of God. Those who have responded to God's electing love and trusted Christ, repenting of sin and turning to follow Jesus are adopted into the family of God as co-heirs with Christ. We are a family. We go from strangers to brothers. Because we are family, adopted in through the blood of Christ, we are loved by God.

Grace is unmerited favor that gets us into the family of God.

Mercy is unlimited compassion and you can say it keeps us in the family.

Peace is unsurprising wholeness. It's what we get to enjoy as part of God's family.

Conclusion:

Titus needed this kind of greeting and assurance from Paul because he was not ministering in an easy place. There were false teachers about.

We get grace in Christ and that grace moves us toward godliness. It inspires us to desire godliness.

Salvation that we get in Christ inspires us to serve Christ. When we understand this grand vision that our salvation originated by God in eternity past and will continue in eternity after time is no more, then here in the middle of that we will desire to serve out of thankfulness and love for the one who loved us first. It's not out of obligation that we serve but out of love.

Danny Akin illustrates it like this: "A man who is captured by the love of his wife will return that love not because he has to but because he wants to. A person captured by the love of Jesus will love Him in return, not because he has to but because he wants to. He saved you that you might serve Him. He saved you that you might enjoy Him."

Call for response:

For the non-Christian:

For the Christian:

In just a moment, our musicians are going to lead a song. As you respond in your hearts to the message, I invite you to pray where you are about the work God is doing in your heart. Worship Him out of gratitude. If God has pricked your heart or you think is trying to get your attention about some of these things, please talk to me. I'll be at the back as you exit and just tell me you'd like to talk and we will set up a time to get together and walk through what God is doing in your life. Church, it's exciting to see what God is going to do here. Let's pray.