Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray and open up your Bibles to Titus

Pride Rock

Family movie night.

0 variation.

Currently an old classic… the Lion King.

Emotional.

Plot Line---- A healthy, thriving kingdom under the watchful eye of Mufasa voiced by none other than James Earl Jones.

Disintegrates by the deception and depravity of Scar.

A wasteland.

Unhealthy.

What it needs is Leadership.

A challenger.

The story of Simba.

Everything Rises and Falls on leadership

We see this play out all the time.

a

The order of your home rises and falls on leadership.

Your business.

Restaurants.

Sports clubs.

Brady and Tampa Bay

And yes… even the church.

And if we want to be a healthy church… which we do.

We must take Titus seriously, because it will show us what to do and who to be and all it starts with leadership.

Now many of you may be thinking: I’m never going to be a leader in the church.

And its true, many won’t hold the office of elder.

But don’t start watching Tik Tok’s.

Stay engaged, because these qualifications for healthy leaders apply to all spiritual believers!

Context

Read Titus 1:1-5a

A little context about Titus: Everytime we approach a letter we want to know its Author, its Audience, and the situation that prompted its writing!

Author

Written by Paul, if you want to know more about Paul stick around into 2023 and we will cover him in the Book of Acts.

Many argue that this letter was written in the mid 60s B.C. somewhere between 62-64 B.C., in between Paul’s imprisonments.

And you may not remember but the book of Acts actually doesn’t include this time period.

It ends with Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome where Paul remained on house arrest for 2 years.

He was ultimately released and what did Paul go about doing upon his release?

Traveling and visiting the various churches, teaching and exhorting, and proclaiming Christ because he was a servant and apostle for the sake of God’s elect!

People of faith.

The household of God, the church.

Audience:

Now most of Paul’s letters are written to churches or to networks of churches.

But Titus, along with 1&2 Timothy are written to young protege pastors and labeled “pastoral epistles”.

Titus was a Greek Christian, most likely a convert of Paul because Paul labels him a true child in a common faith.

Common because its a faith shared between Jew and Gentile.

We also know he was a trusted co-worker of Paul, and really served as Paul’s strong-right arm.

Different situations require different ways to handle it.

Paul left young Timothy in Ephesus, a more mature, and established church.

A church that had elders as we see in Acts 20, and Timothy was a great fit for a church that was doing pretty well, but just needed some reminding regarding life.

Timothy was a proverbial mother’s boy, who seemed to have lived and been influenced by his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois (2 Tim 1:5).

He needed constant encouragement.

Affirmation.

Oh, Timonthy remember to fan into the flame the great gifts you have.

Be a good soldier for Jesus.

Guard the good deposit entrusted to you… oh and when your tummy is hurting don’t forget to drink a little wine to settle it.

Not so with Titus… Titus didn’t wear skinny jeans.

He didn’t drive a prius, and you probably won’t find him on the eliptical at Anytime.

He’s in carhart, a Dodge Ram, and crossfit.

When the elders in Jerusalem were hotly debating rather the gospel was for gentiles as well as Jews, who did Paul take with him to demonstrate the inclusivity of the gospel?

Titus (galatians 2:1-5).

When the church in Corinth continued to reject Paul’s apostolic authority and desintigrate into factions and immorality, and Paul sent a severre letter to rebuke them… who did he charge with the delivery of this hate mail… Titus.

(2 Corinthians 7&8).

Titus didn’t shy away from conflict.

Titut’s ministry was forged in the fires of affliction, and the situation in CRETE demanded a pastor like Titus.

Crete needed carhart and crossfit, not lululemon.

Crete (vs.

5)

Map of Crete

Crete is the largest island off the coast of Greece and notorious for its treachery, violence, and sexual corruption.

A greek historian, Polybius once wrote, “it is almost impossible to find personal conduct more treacherous or public policy more unjust than in Crete.”

(147 B.C.).

But regardless of its treachery, Crete was strategic with his myriad of harbors connecting modern day europe with the middle east, and many believe that house churches had formed there as early as Acts 2 because Cretans were present on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem!

But when we look at Titus we see that the churches were far from healthy!

They were unordered, led astray by false doctrine, and their “knowledge of the truth” was not in fact reflecting godliness.

Instead, Paul perceived they looked more like the greek god Zeus than Yahweh!

Cretans believed that Crete was the birthplace of Zeus, and the central place of worship for him.

This is BAD! BECAUSE Zeus was immortalized by Cretans due to his unmatched ability to deceive, lie, and seduce women.

HERE’S THE TRUTH: As goes your object of worship, so go you.”

Their view of God, molded their behavior so instead of being a healthy church that reflected godliness, they were an unhealthy church that reflected the world around them.

They were liars (1:12)

There men were violent and uncontrolled (2:1).

There women were shirking their God-given responsibilities in order to exploit their societal freedoms.

They were looking more like Zeus than Jesus.

The world than a healthy church.

Scar, not Mufasa.

CULTURE IS NEVER NEUTRAL.

Creatan culture and worldview was luring, enticing, and corrupting the health of their churches.

So Paul sent Titus to Crete, but he also writes for us today.

We need Titus in order to be a Healthy Church.

In order to withstand the ever increasing corruption of culture, we need to hear and obey this inspired word of God.

But where does one start with such a tall task?

Where does he begin, “setting things in order” so the church would be healthy.

He begins with leadership.

But let me say… just because not all of you will be leaders in our church, the qualities we are going to unpack are qualities we should all strive to attain becaues they are qualities possessed by mature believers.

Let’s look at Titus 1:5

There are two things I want us to quickly see here:

Elder(s): Plural

1) Elder(s)- plural.

The church was never designed to be led by a singular all powerful, dictator but instead by a plurality.

We have to hear this, because the great American way of doing church these last ten or so years is to do church in the ways of the world.

- find a pastor with the right vision and upbeat, contagious, charismatic personality.