Sermon Tone Analysis

Men Standing Firm

By Jeff Strite

Summary: How was Titus going to "straighten out what had been left unfinished" in Crete?

It was an evil land and he was only one man.

How did God expect him to do such a daunting task?

How many of you have ever heard of a television show called “This Old House” (the majority raised their hands).

It is a popular home improvement show that is now in its 36th season – that’s 36 years it’s been on TV.

It’s popular because people are intrigued with how this team of experts take older homes and show how repairs can be made to different challenges.

On one of their episodes, they showed a remodeling project in San Francisco.

The home-owners were remodeling an old church into a private home.

When the crew went into the basement what they found shocked them - the central beam of the building was sitting on a one foot block of wood; and that block of wood sat on a 6 inch block of concrete; and that block of concrete sat on a half-wall along the foundation.

Now the reason this shocked them was that this is not the way to build a house.

That kind of foundation would be unstable at the best of times, but we’re talking San Francisco here.

What’s San Francisco known for?

Earthquakes!

It sits on a major fault line and is a major earthquake zone.

Any kind of significant tremor would have dropped that old church building like a house of cards.

Now think about this: the church that built that building that failed to build their building on a firm foundation.

(From a sermon by Gregory Dawson on sermoncentral.com

“By This Baptism”)

This sermon series is called “God’s Building A Church”, and - as you might imagine – God is very interested in how His church is built.

God wants HIS church built HIS way so that it won’t be shaken up by the tremors of a world built on a fault line of sin.

Now that brings us to the book of Titus we’re reading this morning.

Titus was sent by Paul to the isle of Crete to strengthen a church in an evil land.

In Paul tells Titus “… there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group.

They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach— and that for the sake of dishonest gain.

Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons."

So Paul tells Titus “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished…”

Now, how’s he going to do that?

How’s Titus going to straighten everything out?

I mean - he’s just one man.

How is one mere man going to straighten out a church that existed in such a mess of a society - such as Crete obviously was?

Well, here’s the deal.

God didn’t expect Titus to do this all by himself.

That would have been like building a house on a one foot block of wood, set on a 6 inch block of concrete, set on a half-wall along the foundation

It would never work.

God never intended His church to be built around one man - one pastor.

I know a lot of churches do that, but you cannot do what God wants done doing it that way!

Let’s take a look at how GOD wanted Titus to “straighten everything out.”

“The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”

In other words: Titus, you NEED help.

Titus, you NEED to enlist certain men to stand beside you.

Because the strength of any church does not depend upon the man in the pulpit.

It depends on the men who stand beside the man in the pulpit.

Now, as I work on sermons, my mind tends to flit back and forth all over the place, and as I was preparing this sermon, my mind strayed back to something I’d read in the book of Judges.

“The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.”

As long as the Joshua and the Elders lives, the people served God.

But over and over again in Judges we read that God would raise up Godly, moral men, as judges.

And as long as that judge lived… the people would obey God.

But over and over again “when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them….”

As long as there were righteous men standing in the gap, the people obey God.

But when those Godly men disappeared – when they died - there was no moral leadership to guide and protect God’s people.

And so Paul tells Titus: you get yourself some men to stand beside you; because there are immoral teachers out there that will drag your people down/destroy them.

There are wolves that will devour the flock.

And that IS the role of the Eldership.

In , we’re told that “From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.”

Now, that a pretty fair distance for these Elders to walk to come to Paul.

It would seem Paul must have had something very special to tell them.

What did he tell them?

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

Be shepherds (pastors) of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

So be on your guard!...”

In other words: Elders are the pastors/shepherds of the church.

Their role is to protect the church from false teaching.

Their role is to keep out the wolves.

Now, Preachers do that too, but preachers were never designed to do it alone.

ILLUS: In too many churches the Elders view their primary role as “running and controlling the preacher”.

And while that may be important some of the time – that’s not a healthy view of their role.

Ideally, a good Eldership will see themselves as being in partnership with the preacher – protecting men like myself so that we don’t get damaged while standing for God.

That’s one of the beauties of my being able to serve here (and why I’ve been here for over 20 years now).

The Elders protect me.

Now they have taken me aside a few times and disagreed with me on a few matters, but for the most part, they are my partners in ministry.

And in return, my job is to protect the Elders.

If they step out of line, it is my job to challenge them on certain things.

But in a healthy church, with a healthy relationship between preachers and Elders they will work together to protect God’s children from outsiders.

So now, what kind of men was Titus supposed to be looking for?

“An elder MUST BE blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.

Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless— not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.

Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.”

Now, notice what I highlighted in that passage.

These men MUST BE these things.

These qualities are not suggestions.

These features are not optional.

This man MUST be these things.

The Greek word that’s used here is “dei”.

It’s the same word used in where we’re told “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we MUST BE saved.”

Is the name of Jesus optional when it comes to being saved?

Of course not.

So, if salvation by the name of Jesus is not optional, then neither are these qualities in Elders.

ELDERS MUST be good fathers and husbands.

These men MUST have a good reputation.

These men MUST NOT BE overbearing, or quick-tempered, or given to drunkenness, violence, or pursuing dishonest gain.

These men MUST hospitable, love what is good, be self-controlled, be upright, holy and disciplined.

AND these men MUST hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that they can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Notice that the character of the men who would be Elders is mentioned before how they handle doctrine.

Why is that?

Well character is mentioned first, because these Pastors are to lead the congregation with “clean hands.”