January 25, 2009 "God's Plan for Older Men and Women"
God's Plan for Older Men and Older Women Ttus 2:2‑3
Now obviously this morning is going to be addressed to older men and older women.
· America is now the oldest society in the history of the world. There has never been a society with this percentage of older people. Material comfort, medical care and a low birth rate have led America to what is called the graying of America and an old population. In our country, for example, the number of people over 65 passed the number of teen‑agers. There are about 25 million teen agers in America, and there are approaching 36 million people over 65.
· Bob Hope said, "You know you're old when the candles cost more than the cake."
· Agatha Christie wrote on one occasion that she married an archaeologist. And someone asked why would you marry an archaeologist...to which she replied, "Because the older I get the more he'll appreciate me."
There's a certain sadness in it. We're glad we know what we know as we get older, but we wish we had youth to express it. We become creatures of somewhat formidable and unbreakable habits. And the longer we do them the harder they are to deal with. Sometimes even our besetting sins become so much a part of the fabric of our lives that even recognition of them becomes difficult. Sometimes we get a little bit obstinate and a little bit stubborn and sometimes we think we know more than we do know, and sometimes we think age equals wisdom, and it doesn't.
Ecclesiastes 12
Well the implication there is that the older you get the more evil life becomes, the more unfulfilling, the more dissatisfying, the more disillusioning. He calls them the years when you will say, "I have no delight in them." Commit your life to God and enjoy God and make God the center of everything while you're young, before you'll not be able to experience all the rich delights of His creation.
And then he gets very prosaic as he writes verse 3-4, Well the picture is of a house but it's symbolic of a human body. The keepers of the house some commentators feel are the arms and the hands, those are the guards, the protectors, the defenders, and they start to shake as you get old. And the mighty men would be the legs and they begin to stoop and bend. The grinding ones, the teeth stand idle because they are few. Teeth don't work anymore and those who look through windows grow dim, you don't see like you once could see. The doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, could be the slowing down of some kind of internal processes. One arises at the sound of the bird, you don't need an alarm clock anymore, you wake up if there's a bird 50 yards away tweeting in a tree because you sleep so lightly. You don't sleep as well as you did. All the daughters of song will sing softly. If you bring the whole women's glee club together and all their shrill soprano voices in full glory, you have to go like this....because you can't hear them, it's all soft sound to you.
And verse 5 says… “afraid of a high place." Why? Because they're worried about their instability, they're worried they might fall and break some brittle bones. And they're worried about the terrors on the road as they walk along, they might stumble over a stone and fall and be severely injured. The almond tree blossoms, that probably is referring to the white blossoms on an almond tree means the hair grows white. The grasshopper drags himself along the walk, changes the pace, changes you used to kind of move along a little bit spritely and now all of a sudden you're dragging and shuffling. And eventually the man goes to his eternal home and there's a funeral and some people are mourning.
And in verse 6 I'm not sure of all the specific imagery here but I see it as sort of the demise of a man in his old age and the dust returns to the earth, as it was, and the spirit goes back to God. Kind of a bleak way to look at old age, but it's reality. All of it...all of us feel it coming.
All those who know Christ, all those who have walked with Him for any length of time should look forward to old age because it takes us nearer to heaven, doesn't it? It puts us in a situation where we have accumulated spiritual experience which makes us truly rich. It enables us to be the leaders and the mentors and the models and the examples for the young. It allows us to filter out life and keep what we think is really valuable. Should be a good time.
Titus, you need to start your instruction with the older people because they're so crucial. You know, there are a lot of churches today in our country, and I suppose in other places in the world, they are filled with young people. I really wouldn't want to be a part of one of those churches. You need the white heads, you need the aged and the wise who have come and gone and been there to instruct the young to show them the path of righteousness, to show them the path of goodness, to show them the proper priorities and values. You need some people who can stand with the Apostle Paul and say I've fought the good fight, I've kept the faith.
"Well, we really can't work for the church over there, they're just a bunch of old people." That's a terrible insight into the shallowness of some people's thinking. It's the aged people in the congregation that provide its strength, its stability and its wisdom. The maturity of godliness will be a benediction to the body of Christ.
The aging of America means the aging of the church, the aging of the church COULD BE a great great blessing.
· Leviticus 19:32 says, "You shall rise up before the gray headed and honor the aged."
· Job 12:12, "Wisdom is with the aged with long life is understanding."
Somebody old who has walked a long time in the path of righteousness is a treasure, a treasure of wisdom and a treasure of experience and a treasure of understanding, a triumphant Christian who has fought the battle over and over and over and been victorious, who has experienced everything that the young are waiting to experience...become a great treasure to the church.
The Prayers of a Senior
Psalm 71:17 Give me a ministry in my old age because I can talk about Your strength and I can talk about Your power because I've seen it for so many years...I've lived it.
Psalm 92:12 Those who can best declare the character of God are those who have walked with Him longest.
But only if they walk in the way of righteousness.
And that's why the instruction of Titus 2:2-3 is so very very important. There's no value in being old if you're not godly. There's no value in being old if you're not a model or an example. And so the Apostle Paul lays down some very specific characteristics that are to be manifest in the older people in the congregation.
Quick Review:
Chapter 1 focused on the quality and the character of the pastors, and now the people. And he gave us, you'll remember, three clauses in chapter 2 that I pointed out to you last time that become the reason or the motive for this. For the sake of exalting the Word, for the sake of silencing the critics and for the sake of demonstrating the saving power of God, this is how you must live. These are not optional, these are not non‑negotiable, these are required for older saints.
Let's look at the men. And I'm going to spend more time on the men than the women because that way I get less e-mail.
"Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith in love in perseverance."
Now "older men" is an interesting word, presbutes, it's a word that means just that, older men.
· Paul uses it in Philemon 9 when he refers to himself as Paul the aged. Perhaps...and we know he was in his sixties at that time.
· Luke 1:18, Zacharias the father of John the Baptist had been told that he would have a son, that his wife would become pregnant and they would have a son and, of course, it would be John the Baptist. But Zacharias says, "How shall I know this for certain?" I mean, this seems impossible. Why? "For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years." And he uses the word presbutes there which would lead us to believe that he is saying an old man is one who is unable to produce a child.
There are some ancient sources such as Philo and Hypocrites that use the term to refer to people over 50. Somewhere in the 50 and over and 60 and over category this term comes into play. The Apostle Paul was an old man by this term in his sixties and somewhere beyond 50 I think we could make this term come into play.
This is very important. In fact, it's so important in the church that if they don't do it they're to be rebuked.
· 1 Timothy 5:1 it says, "Do not rebuke an older man but rather appeal to him as a father." Now the assumption here is that in the life of the church older men are going to sin. It doesn't mean that because I'm older, I'm over 50, over 60, over 70, or over 80 that all of a sudden I don't sin anymore...not so. They may need to be confronted about their sin. And Paul says if you do it, don't do it sharply, that's what he's saying.
· The word here, the verb here is used only here and it means to beat with blows, or to strike with a fist and metaphorically to abuse verbally...to hammer with words, one lexicon says.
· Confronting an older man's sin has to be done without violence and without harsh action...must be done graciously and kindly. "Appeal to him as a father." Parakaleo, come alongside and admonish and encourage and appeal to one with the consideration and respect that you would give to your father.
How you treat your father is a matter for God to even discuss in the Ten Commandments. In fact, the death penalty was required for disrespect, for hitting, striking your father or mother or for cursing your father or mother according to Exodus 21:15,17.
Now Paul is saying to Titus, "You must call them to this level of spiritual living or else...the implication is...they must be so confronted." And again I point out to you, that on the one hand we give respect to the older generation, on the other hand, we hold them accountable for their behavior and accountable for maturity and godliness. And when they are, when the older men in a church are holy godly men, they will become the mentors and models for a level of godliness that will pervade the congregation...including the women and the younger men.
Every older man should set as his goal to come to the latter years of his life and be able to say with Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith," 2 Timothy 4:7.
· Every older man should be able to say, "I want you to be a follower of me as I am of Christ."
· Every older man should be able to say to the younger man, "Let me show you how to live life."
...temperate, dignified, and self-controlled...
SOBER MINDED. The word here literally means "not drunken." But metaphorically it means moderate...not indulgent...not extravagant. The older man is a man who...who isn't in to excess, who is generally a moderate person. He has learned the high cost of self‑indulgent living. He has learned the high cost of filling out all his pleasures, satisfying all his whims, pursuing all his dreams. And he's now filtered through all of that and he's left a lot of stuff along the path discarded. When he was young it was a matter of accumulation. And as he accumulated he began to find out what really had value. As a young man he poured energy into a lot of things, as an older man he can look back and see where that energy was wasted in so many cases. As a young man he dreamed a thousand dreams and wanted to accomplish a thousand things and looks back only to a handful of things that had eternal value. As an older man he has a myriad of experiences one after another, day after day, month after month, year after year and life has been moderated by those experiences.
He has come to a right value system. 1 Corinthians 15:34. Or as another related word used in 1 Peter, "sober in spirit." In other words, he's got his priorities down now. He knows what experiences were valuable and in many cases they were the ones he feared the most and now knows they rendered him the best fruit. They made him the man he is. In many cases what he didn't want was what was most valuable and what he pursued with all his might was least valuable.
They now know what people have real value, what relationships have real value, what efforts have real value. That is absolutely crucial for them to dispense to a younger generation.
Where there is a moderate, non‑indulgent, non‑extravagant, sober‑minded, sober‑spirited knowledge of priorities through years and years of experience you have the wisdom that needs to be passed down.
DIGNIFIED. semnos, serious, worthy of respect, venerable. It doesn't mean that they're boring, gloomy people, it means they're not frivolous. They're not flippant. They're serious in life. I mean, they've lived long enough to see that life is a serious thing. They're over the feeling of immortality and invincibility that plagues young people. And they've seen too much and felt too much to be trivial. They've buried their parents in many cases, most cases. They've been waiting for the surgeon to come out and explain what happened in the cancer surgery to a life partner. They've watched a child rebel. They've watched a child born who turned away from everything they believed in. They watched a child die of cancer. They've seen it all. They have borne the burdens of their own life and family and the burdens of a myriad of other people with whom they have shared life. They have lived through the hopeful euphorias that said we're going to fix everything. And they're down on the other side of it and they know with an honesty that life is the way it is because man is the way he is and he is not going to change by himself.
Illustration of tv shows what’s funny and popular. Not funny… tragic!
SELF-CONTROLLED. They should be sensible. This means they have discretion and discernment. That comes by age. They've gone through all the experiences and they have developed a strength of mind and a depth of experience and a grip on truth and a devotion to what is right and they have learned how to control their instincts and their passions. And that word "sensible" means they've got the loose ends of their life tied down, they're under control, they have discernment, discretion.
These qualities, being temperate, dignified and sensible, replace the qualities of youth. You know what they are? Recklessness, impetuosity, thoughtlessness and instability.
Then there are three more positive virtues that are all summed up in the final statement.
…Sound in faith, in love, in perseverance...
SOUND means healthy, without weakness, without disease, without debilitation.
1. IN FAITH, this is wonderful. They are to be healthy in faith. They have spiritual faith that is healthy, whole, well, sound, solid. What does that mean? That means their faith in God is unwavering. They've seen enough. They don't question God. They never lose their trust in God's good intention. They never lose their confidence in God's plan. They never lose their hope for God's sovereignty to fulfill itself. They never accuse God of disappointing them. They never doubt the truth of Scripture. They never question the power of the Holy Spirit. They never ever question whether the gospel can save. - Those who have lived through all the years and God has shown Himself and shown Himself and shown Himself and shown Himself through all of the vicissitudes and struggles and all the difficulties of life, he has been there and he has proven himself and he's an old man now and he says...I believe God. And his faith holds up the church. He's strong. His faith is courageous because a life of believing has taught him to trust God. God has proven Himself faithful over the long years. In all the hospitals, at all the funerals, in all the losses and disappointments of life, God has been faithful. Through all of the sins and the temptations and trials and the repentances and the renewals, through all of the exposure to the truth and the application of the Word, it has been as God said it would be and He can be believed. And that kind of mature faith holds up the church. It gives us a faith to emulate.
2. IN LOVE. He has a healthy spiritual love. Certainly he has this love toward God and toward others as well. He is a man who loves. He's not a bitter man. That's the saddest thing there is in the world is to see an old man who is bitter. Here is a man who loves by bearing one another's burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ, Galatians 6:2. Here is a man who has learned through the years what ought to be loved and what not to love. His love is set on things that should be loved. He's learned to love when love is not returned. He's learned to love when love is rejected. He's learned to love when love isn't even deserved. He's learned to love and in his love to forgive and in his love to serve. 1 Cor 13 love
One of the tragedies of old age is when people become unloving and bitter and selfish. This older man that the church desperately needs is healthy in his love. He doesn't love out of emotion, he loves out of principle. He loves because it's right. He loves with his will not his feelings.
3. IN STEADFASTNESS, endurance. He's been through enough trials. He's suffered enough. He is to be a very model of patience. He has the courage that is the result of that. He never loses heart in spite of disappointment, unfulfilled aspirations, physical weakness, growing loneliness. The godly man becomes tempered like steel. His body is weaker, his spirit is stronger, he can endure to the very end. These make the gospel glory shine.
And then, and I told you I was going to spend less time on the women...verse 3 says,
“Likewise, older women are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips,
not enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good."
1 Timothy 5:2 It's hard to rebuke your mom, isn't it? But sometimes older women need to be rebuked but it must be done gently, lovingly, graciously and kindly and they must be treated with the dignity and respect that a mother deserves. And again I remind you, if one is to strike his mother or to curse his mother, in Exodus 21 it says he is to forfeit his life.
Example on how: Philippians 4. "I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord." He had to rebuked them publicly in this letter. They've got to get their act together. And then he said, "Indeed, true comrade," and he points to someone there and says, "I'm asking you to help these women. You help them solve this animosity. They've shared in my struggle in the cause of the gospel." What a commendation. They shared together with Clement and they shared with the rest of the fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. They're believers, they're in God's book and they've served the Lord, help them resolve this.
Women are to be a godly resource in the church. Back in 1 Timothy 5:9, older women who have been one‑man women, chaste, faithful, pure wives who had a good reputation for good works, who brought up children, who showed hospitality to strangers and washed the saints' feet and assisted those in distress and devoted themselves to every good work, those women you need to take care of them. If they don't have anybody to take care of them at all, he says in that same chapter, and their only hope is in God, then you take care of them. Those kinds of women are worthy of your care. Bring them into the church, put them on the list of cared widows. They're precious.
1. …reverent in their behavior…
That's one word in the Greek and it's used only here in the Bible. And the word means priestlike. What does that mean? In other words, they're holy. They're the kind of women who should have access to God. They're the kind of women who could enter God's holy presence, sacred character, godly lives.
Anna is described for us in Luke 2
Anna who was advanced in years. She was a widow to the age of 84. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. An 84‑ year‑old godly woman who was priestlike in her behavior, reverent in her behavior.
1 Timothy 2:9, these are women who adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly ornaments. They're humble, they're meek. They're properly dressed to call attention to the Lord and not themselves. They are women who quietly receive instruction with submission and do not exercise authority in the church or teach men. They are women who through the bearing of children have removed the stigma of their sin and have continued in faith and love and purity with self‑restraint. That's the kind of behavior God wants. The outward action of holiness is dependent on an inward condition of holiness.
2. "not malicious gossips."
Boy, what immediate contrast that is. You know what the word is for malicious gossips? It's the Greek word diabolos,
34 X’s in the NT it appears as a name for Satan.
· Nothing is more Satanlike than slander. And whereas men tend to be rough or violent in their action, women have a tendency to be rough or violent in their words. Satan is a malicious slanderer, slandering night and day. Older women may have in the island of Crete as elsewhere found themselves with a lot of time on their hands and because they had less to occupy their time they were given over to talk. Paul says that's the devil's work. Older women should not vent their depravity through their speech. They should be anything but a malicious gossip.
3. "or enslaved to much wine."
This term refers to a drunkard. It's a strong term. Apparently in Crete as elsewhere, older people turn to stimulants to refresh their weary bodies, tired minds, and he says your women are not to do that. It must have been a common thing as it even is today. These older believers are not to become drunkards, they're not to give themselves to wine, they're to maintain their senses.
Wine was generally mingled with water or reduced to a paste and without fermentation then water was introduced into it again and it could be drunk. The implication here is the idea of someone who was a drunkard. Perhaps in the pain of their old age and maybe even in the loneliness of their old age they wanted to dull their senses a bit and so they gave themselves over to these things and he says that's not fitting. They need to be in full use of their senses for God's holy purposes.
4. they are to be teaching what is good.
Older women, you need to be teaching. Teaching whom? Verse 4, You teach the younger women. You've already taught your children. They're come and gone. Now it's your time to teach the younger generation. That's so important. That's why you have to have those godly older women in the congregation to teach the younger ones, to teach them how to raise their children, how to love their husbands and how to be godly.
The teaching place of the older women is not in the church, he permits not a woman to teach, 1 Timothy 2.
The teaching place of an older woman is the home, informal teaching by word, by example, in a group of women here and there and wherever to bring along a generation of godly women. I fear what's going to happen in the church in the future if our godly women today don't teach the next generation because they don't have normal families to bring them up with any kind of sense about what a family is.
· kalodidaskalos, teach good. What is good is to encourage young women to love their husbands, their children, be sensible, pure, workers at home, etc. Their primary role is to raise a godly generation of young women. I challenge the older women in our church to do that, the young women in your life are crucial. And you have them, they may be your daughters, daughters in law, granddaughters, your daughter's friends, your nieces, those you know because of friendships, the daughters of your friends. They may be people in the church family.
· We’re not talking formal seminar. You have to come alongside and teach them how to live life, nurture them to godliness.
Well what about the church? You're a powerful force in this church. We need you. Moses was 80 when God called him to lead Israel. And he gave many excuses, but age wasn't one of them. Don't underestimate your capability.
John Wesley traveled 250,000 miles by horseback or on foot to preach. He preached 40,000 sermons, produced 400 books and knew 10 languages. At 83 he was annoyed that he couldn't write for more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes. Get this, at 86 he was ashamed that he could only...that he couldn't preach more than twice a day. And he said, since his 86th birthday, he had to admit there was an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 A.M. What a terrible decline in character that is.
You have so much to offer. Godly older generation, crucial to the life of the church.