Titus 1:5-16 | The Church Points to Christ

Intro

Evening Y’all, how is everybody? Good, good. Y’all ready for spring break? Well, that’s not until April. Anyways, it’s March, so happy 1 year to “4 Weeks to flatten the curve.” But it’s march, a year ago I was getting ready to preach on Sunday morning, and then that turned out to be the last time until June that we had anyone except musicians and staff at church and it was all online. Wild.

Anyways, Im glad you’re here tonight. This text we are looking at is tricky, so if you don’t really pay attention to whats going on, you might get lost. But I want to ask you a question. Who knows what a mission statement is? Have you ever read any mission statements of like gigantic companies? I read a couple, and the whole time I’m thinking “pretty sure your goal is to make a ton of money.” But my favorite was McDonald’s. McD’s, The golden arches dinning facility, McNasty. McDonald’s. and it was amazing. truly, this thing was amazing. let me read it, because you’re gonna eye roll super hard. so Here it is:

Our Mission

Our mission is to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.

I love that they included a thesis, like boom MLA formatting here we go. It goes on to say.

This is how we uniquely feed and foster communities. We serve delicious food people feel good about eating, with convenient locations and hours and affordable prices, and by working hard to offer the speed, choice and personalization our customers expect.  At our best, we don’t just serve food, we serve moments of feel-good, all with the lighthearted, unpretentious, welcoming, dependable personality consumers know and love.

Then on their website, I love that they surrounded this with pictures that really make no sense or are indicative of any reality we live in.

Show Pictures.

Anyways, mission statements are a funny thing, especially from huge companies who’s actual mission is make a ton of money and never hire an ice cream machine mechanic. That is the real mission of McD’s. But mission statements are funny because if a company doesn’t live up to their mission, then they are going to be called out. They’re going to be made fun of, because we hate hypocrisy. We hate, and we can spot it a mile out, especially mine and y’all’s generation. It was basically our pastime in the middle to late 2000’s “What do you mean no one holds the banks accountable? What do you mean you’re gonna bail out Chevy?” We all are looking for authenticity. My generation, your generation, we crave authenticity. and we can spot it a mile out when someone is being inauthentic.

So that is where I want our heads to be at tonight. Because the whole book of Titus is laying the ground work for how the church is supposed to carry out the mission. This whole book is about what the church is about. This is basically the mission statement of the church. and the world is going to know when we are being inauthentic and hypocritical in how we carry out this mission.

Main Idea

So the Main Idea for tonight is that the church must point to salvation in Christ. The goal of the church is to point people to Christ, to make disciple of Christ. The Goal of the church is not to learn how to be a good person, the goal of the church is to point people to Christ. Make disciples.

the church must point to salvation in Christ

Godly order in an ungodly world; the church’s goal is different from the world’s’ goal. Those in the world aim to do good. The Church must point to Christ.

And that is what we need to understand about the Church and how it is different from other organizations. When we read McD’s mission statement, they’re goal is to ultimately make good food that you want to buy and feel good about it. Great, wonderful, I hope they can accomplish that one day, but ask any of the boys who ate chicken nuggets and played football Sunday if they felt good about it.

But even still, that mission statement points back to themselves. the Church points to Christ. Christ is the one who gets the glory in carrying out the mission.

Context

we have to remember also form last week that the Lord does Keep His promises. That is present in this text and the whole of scripture.

Which reminds me, who remembers what the phrase was last week?

DQ Gift Card

So tonight we are still in Titus, Chapter 1 verses 5-16. If yo need a bible throw a hand up, and we will get you one. While you’re turning there, let me give you a little context as to what is going on. So Titus, still in Crete, and Titus is trying to order the churches in Crete. They didn’t have much order in them, so Titus has been charged with bringing order and structure to them.

This section of scripture deals with church leadership, it looks at the qualifications of elders and overseers. but stick with me in, because even though this was written to a specific person at a specific time in history, we can learn and see how Christ is glorified in it. That is the beauty of scripture. All of scripture is about God, and His redemptive work. So let me pray for I time in God’s word tonight.

Lord, thank you for you, we are coming here tonight seeking your heart. Jesus go before us in this text and make a way, Holy Spirit give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and Father speak for your servants are listening, we ask these things in your name, so that we know you hear us, amen.

Okay, so lets get in to this Titus 1, verse 5, lets read just verse 9 and then stop.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

5 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— 6 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. 7 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, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 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.

Can’t live two lives

Okay, so lets look at this. What do we see going on here? Paul is writing to Titus about who qualifies to be elders, and overseers, which is basically, who are the leaders in the church? and how do you recognize them? First they share similar descriptions of what qualities matter, but the most important one to live above reproach. Paul repeats that phrase twice in this passage, which means, that is important. Paul is emphasizing the call to live above reproach.

But what does that mean? How does that matter to us? Because even though Paul is talking to the leaders in the church, they are to set the example of those in the church. They are to set the example for us. Just like we talked about earlier, we can spot unauthentic people. We know when someone is faking it. Living above reproach means living a life where you aren’t even suspected of doing any sort of wrong or shady. Like if someone were to accuse you of doing something wrong or evil, everyone would literally be like, “yeah man, that is not him, I know them, they aren’t doing that.” It means living outside even the appearance of evil.

SO what this passage is saying to us, sitting in this room, is we cannot live two lives. If you’re writing things down, write that down, we can’t live two lives. Living above reproach means you live the same way no matter where you are, no matter who you are around. I know it is super easy to have your church friends, and your church life, and that dude has it all together, that dude lives life like there is nothing wrong, you’ve got it together, and you may even feel like you’ve fooled everyone around you.

but then you’ve got your other life. You’ve got your life away from your church, when there is no one around to hold you accountable to who church you is. And the thing is, that other you loves to feel like you have people fooled, like you can live in both words. you can have a foot planted in both worlds, and that you’ve tricked everyone around you. But let me tell you, you may have tricked us, you may have us fooled. 9 time out of 10, you haven’t though, we can see it a mile away. And at some point those two lives are going to clash, they’re going to fight. You won’t be able to keep up the facade forever. one of those lives is going to win.

Imagine with me for a second, that you are about my age, and you’ve done pretty well for yourself, financially. And you have a good bit of money that you need to invest so that you can grow your estate, and set yourself up for life with money. That is a pretty good goal. That would be smart.

Well, in the early 2000’s there were a lot of people in that position in life, they had made a good bit of money. They needed to invest it. So they went to the top investment firm of the day, this place ran by a guy named Bernie Madoff. Bernie was basically the King Midas of stocks and investment, what ever this dude touched, would turn to gold. If you gave him your money, he would be able to promise just unreal gains. You gave him a million dollars. he would turn it in to 5 million dollars. Boom. It seemed almost magical. It seemed to some people on the outside that this was too good to be true. Imagine if i told you yeah, i can turn your 100,000 dollars in to 20 million in a year. You would take that deal. So in the mid 2000’s Bernie Madoff is on top of the world. I mean this dude was the man. He was making a ton of money while making other people a ton of money. He ended up buying the New York Mets.

But Bernie was living two lives. Bernie wasn’t the man that everyone though he was. The way he was able to get the gains of these peoples money was, he would just pay earlier investors with money from later investors.

This guy was living two different lives, and he was found out, he ended up straight up stealing 36 billion dollars from people. and some people lost all they had. This man was living two lives.

As those in the church, we can’t live two lives. We must live above reproach. If we live two lives, we are going to be found. One of those lives is going to win, and if the church as a whole is living two lives, we are going to be found out. The world is going to take note of how we live. If we inside the church are living one way in here and one way out there, we are not pointing to Christ. We are pointing ourselves and we are making ourselves out to be god.

So how do we do that? How do we live above reproach in our lives?

Scripture points us to Christ

Look at verse 9 again with me, let me read it again for us.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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.

If you have a bible, hold it up. Do you realize what you are holding in your hand is not just an ancient book? The Bible is not just a book about God, or a book about how to be a good person. The bible we have is the literal and authoritative word of God.

So how do we live above reproach, we have to be in the Word. Verse 9, hold firm to the trustworthy word.

If we are going to tell world that this is what God says, then we must rightly know what God has said. I want to teach y’all a phrase. And this phrase next week i’m gonna ask you about it and winner gets a DQ gift card, so it would be good for you to write down this phrase.

Sola Scriptura

Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone. It is a latin phrase, which means Scripture alone. As christians we have only one place where we can say this is truth, and that is the bible. As Baptists we believe that scripture is inerrant, which means it is truth without mixture of error. The Bible can’t mean what it never meant to mean. There is a right way to read scripture and a wrong way to read scripture. Which is why when ever I’m up here I do my best to try and pullout the meaning of this text, to see what it meant to the people it was written to in their time, never reading in to the text what I want it to say.

But why? why do we need to make that big of a point how we read the bible, or that it is authoritative for our lives? Because look at what is going on in this text. Read with me starting at verse 10.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

If we are going to believe in Christ we have to know what is world says. We have to know what is Good Doctrine, and Teaching to know what Bad Doctrine and Teaching is. to paraphrase one of my favorite authors Good Doctrine must exist at least so we can answer bad doctrine.

So what Paul is saying here is, we have to be able to see bad teaching coming from a mile away. If the Church is to point to Salvation in Christ, then we have to rightly point to Christ, not a christ we have made in our own image. The other thing that Paul is warning us about here, is false teaching is going to start inside the church. I know right now, one of the biggest fears of the church right now is government intervention, or big tech de-platforming churches. but what this is saying is, the Church is going to face it’s biggest threats from with in the church, not outside. If we move away from right understanding of the Word of God, then we will move away from God and start teaching a gospel which does not save. The Church starts to live two different lives, thinking that they have everyone fooled, but this too will find us out.

What was going on here in Crete was a group of people were trying to add to the gospel. Adding anything to the gospel of Christ, takes christ out of it, and adds ourselves in to it. They were trying to add Good Works to faith in Christ. They were trying to gain power using the word of God.

This still goes on in our day, we see it all over where a church leader has abused his power for all sorts of reasons.

So what do we do about that? Do we just kick out people who believe differently about the word that us?

No, Paul is telling Titus to rebuke them, tell them they are wrong, and play no games with it, but also, there is a path for reconciliation, there is a path for grace here in this text. Look at verse 13, “rebuke them sharply so that they may be sound in the faith. Not rebuke them sharply so that you may dunk on them on twitter.”

but also in this text, We are going to meet people who are trying to live this double life, people who just flat wont believe, look at verse 15 and 16.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Those are harsh words from Paul but he is calling out those who are living this double life, who are trying to be one thing, but in actuality are something totally different. But the point of this passage is, as the church we are called to point people toward salvation in Christ, we are called to correct false teaching and offer grace to those who just got it wrong. We are not called to act as if we were holier than everyone else, because the truth of the matter is, we are called to help people be more like Jesus. As we learn daily what it means to be like Jesus, we are called to bring people along side us in this journey. We are called to point people to Christ.

Why Does this matter?

So why does this matter?

This text is calling all of us to examine our lives. look at your life, are you living two different lives right now? are you trying to have one foot in the church, one foot in the world? Are you thinking to yourself, I can make both of these lives work together? This text is calling us to make a choice between those two worlds, between those two lives. When ever we are met with Jesus we are given a choice. We are never met with Jesus and not impacted in some way. When Jesus calls us, we are given a choice, and we can choose either one, but the choice is always, to follow Him or not to Follow Him. You cant elect to leave it alone. You have to answer that question for yourself, you can either follow Christ, and let him sit on the throne of your life or you can reject to follow Christ and try to rule for a little while, but know that life will not bring ultimate joy, because that throne will pass away.

If you are a believer, but you are trying to live that double life, this text is calling you to repentance, and calling you to rest in the grace of Christ on the throne. If you are not a believer, this text is giving you a choice on who you will follow? Are you going to try and rule your own life, knowing deep down this will be the only life you will have, because the next life will be eternal death. Or are you going to follow Christ and let him rule in your life, and know that ultimate joy is found in Him and Him alone.

Pray with me.