A Healthy Church is a Learning Church (Titus 2:1-15)

Open your Bibles and turn with me to Titus 2

Context

As you turn to Titus 2, let me quickly remind you of where we were last week. Some of you weren’t here, or serving, and although the sermon is on our website we have yet to figure out what the world of podcasts actually is. So I need to quickly remind you of some of our context.

Paul wrote this letter to Titus, a Greek convert, who was also co-worker with Paul… and Titus was hardcore!

And Paul specifically left Titus in Crete to “put what remained into order.”

The churches in Crete were out of order. It was chaotic. They were unhealthy. They professed to know truth, but their knowledge of the truth did not accord with godliness. Their doctrines had no impact on their duties! They professed the gospel, but their lives looked more like the world around them than Christ. And the reason for their lack of health, was that they were being led by unhealthy leaders!

And we learned last week that everything rises and falls on leadership. So Paul tells Titus to take his steel-toes and carhartt down to Crete and to silence or muzzle those unhealhty leaders, and appoint healthy ones… elders.

A Healthy Church begins with Healthy Leaders.

Many of you left last week breathing a deep sigh of relief thinking… “man, being a church leader is a lot of responsibility. I don’t want a magnifying glass on my life! Thank God I don’t have to do any of that”…

Well, as college football quickly approaches let me lean into my inner Lee Corso from college gameday and say, “NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!.” Titus 1 was about Healthy Leadership, but Titus 2 is going to draw our attention to a Healhy Body!

For far too long we’ve been content with outsourcing gospel witness and the work of ministry to religious professionals and clergy. To paid, or salaried preachers. And again, Titus 1 shows that it definitely begins there, but by no means does it end there.

A Healthy Church is an All Play. It requires everyone us.

We tend to think of the church as we think of track and field. An individual sport, where I have my individual event, and stay in my individual lane. But not so. Think more like a Basketball Team.

Many of you may be surprised to hear that I love the game of basketball and was actually pretty decent at it… bunch of “sizeists”. I didn’t play CENTER yall, I was a pointguard.

Church is like a basketball team. We had our coaches (leaders), but ultimately it was our resopnsibiltiya s a team to put into practice the things we learned. One week we would drill a zone defense, and to learn the concept our coach tied one big rope around all of our waist. If the ball moved to the left wing, everyone in unison would shift left. If the ball moved to the corner, everyone would shift to their places. The rope taught us to move in unison. To move with synergy. It taught us that the duty of one individual impacted the efficacy of the whole.

Likewise, if we want to be a Healthy Church, we all must own our roles! Nobody is excluded.

And fortunately for us Paul is going to tell Titus what that looks like, and how to get there.

Read Verse 1

Titus 2:1 ESV

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

You want a healthy church Titus… appoint elders. But don’t stop there. You also need to TEACH

Because, others (1:10), the insubordinate, and empty talkers are upsetting whole families. They are teaching that gospel of works and they need to be silenced! They are detestable, disobedient, unfit. They are unhealthy, and their teaching is making the church unhealthy!

So teach! Combat their teaching, by teaching! Carhart their lies, with truth.

But by teaching what? what accords with sound doctrine.

At the end of our passage, we are going to see that Paul is ABSOLUTELY CONCERNED WITH HEALTHY DOCTRINE. But notice that he didn’t say that here. He didn’t say… Hey Titus, make sure they really understand soteriology, anthropology, or eschatology. Really hammer down on justification, santification, and glorification. Why?

we should never confuse being a knowledgeable Christian with a mture or faithful Christian.

Information alone, has never led to transformation.

Healthy doctrine, should always result in a changed life. A distinct life. A life that differs from who you were apart from Christ. A life that differs from those who do not know Christ.

Behaviors should reflect Beliefs.

Duty should reflect doctrine.

Or as James puts it…

Read James 2:17-18

James 2:17–18 ESV

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

The church in Crete was unhealthy because of unhealthy leaders, but also because they were professing to know God but denying him by their works.

So the remedy was Titus teaching what accords or what follows sound doctrine, and he shares it not with the leaders, but the whole body. No one is excluded.

So here’s the 1st point for us today… If Titus was to teach....

A Healthy Church is to be a Learning Church.

That’s your role here. To learn. A healthy church has to be a learning church, and Paul is going to share with 2 specific things we have to learn in order to be a healthy church.

#1 :Healthy Church: Learns Duty

Read Titus 2:1-10

Titus 2:1–10 ESV

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

In these first 10 verses Paul teaches duties and divides the entire church into 3 demographics. He begins with the Older Demographic.

Older

What constitutes someone who is older? What is the dilenating age that seperates the old from young.

Is it based on the presence of a Tik Tok account? Someone’s ability to understand the Cloud… if you just thought cumlionimbus is that an inidcator? Is it grey hair? The ability to get out of a recliner unharmed?

No… its simply life stage. The implication is that the older men would be available and able to influence the younger men, and the older women would be training and teaching the younger women in their respective duties.

So the assumption is that these older people have some life experience, and instead of viewing their life stage as an opportunity to scoop up a timeshare on Tybee they see that their actions have real consequence on the health of the Church!

Older Men (Titus 2:2)

Titus 2:2 ESV

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Older men need to learn duties that help promote a healthy Body.

Sober-Minded= Clear headed, and temperate as it regards alcohol.

Dignified= live a life worthy of honor and respect

self-controlled- ensure that you can curb your own appetites, desires, and impulses.

Sound in faith, love, and steadfastness.

You older men, are you filled with regrets, a sense of uselessness or worthlessness, maybe even relaxing your morals? You’ve remember what it was like when you were driven with purpose at work, providing for your household, but now they are all gone leaving you wiht an empty nest. You remember the energy of those old projects, because you had something to prove… but that’s a distant memory.

Let me encourage you… if you have breath in your lungs HE IS NOT DONE WITH YOU. There’s purpose for you. So

be sound in faith, believe that He won’t waste your life experiences.Finish well.

be sound in love, just like Jesus before he washed the disciples feet in John 13… we read that having loved his own, he loved them til the end. Finish well!

be sound in steadfastness. He isn’t done with you. Finish Well.

our church is full of younger men who need your voice, and your prayers, and your example. A healthy body begins with you learning your duties.

2. Older Women (Titus 2:3-4)

Titus 2:3 (ESV)

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

Reverent in behavior= holy in behavior revealing a heart near God.

not slanderers= “malicious gossip”. Not idly sitting around calling attention to the shortecoming of others. Putting people down or highlighting their faults, in an effor to avoid your own insecurities.

Not slaves to much wine= over-indulgence must have been a massive issue at Crete, for this is the third time we’ve seen in the first 2 chapters.

Likewise… just as with the men… don’t get loose in your living. God isn’t done with you!

God’s plan for a healthy church, includes you.

Maybe you’ve reached an age and stage where your own house or career responsibilities are lessoned.

compassion

Your responsibilites are less demanding. Your role is less defined. How many women do we all know who have made their kids their worlds, and now that their kids are out of the house even with families of their own they have a crisis of identity.

Let me be clear, I don’t call attention to this for the sake of condemnation… but to encourge you. To teach you.. .

GOD ISN’T DONE WITH YOU. His plan for a healthy church includes using healthy older women.

and what we see at the end of this verse is that grace ripples where older women lead.

It overflows into our second demographic; the younger.

Younger

Younger Women (Titus 2:4-5)

Titus 2:4–5 ESV

and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Before we jump into the characteristics of a healthy young woman in the church, I need to share a little deeper on context:

The New Roman Woman. Around the time of 1st century B.C. and A.D. there was arising what was deemed a “New Roman Woman.”

One historian in 35 B.C wrote, “this woman is glamorous and assertive, living a life of parties and self-gratification and choosing their own lovers.”

This new young woman was a woman of pleasure, financial independence, and possessed deep societal freedom able to choose their own forms of entertainment.

So these women at Crete were shirking their responsibilities as ordered by the gospel that accorded with godliness, and instead were pusruing their own self interests alone…

So older women were needed to train these young women. What duties were they to learn?

Love their husbands and children= contextually this would have been in a day of formally arranged marriages. Many women would not have known their husband before their wedding. Love for many would have been obligation, but what would it say about the gospel if a young woman learned to truly love her husband?

Self- Controlled and pure— curbing their lusts.

Working at Home— Now this requires a bit of a pause.

We need to be careful not to impose modern debates about women’s roles on our interpretation of these words. It is unlikely that Paul had in mind concern about “career women” or mothers in a secular workplace.

We need to be careful about placing Absolutes concerning working at home… yet, the apostle without question ranks a mothers’ obligations to care for her husband and children over her personal benefit or fulfillment.

Submissive— 5x we find this command to young women in the NT. And Paul doesn’t really go into much detail. Just a quick phrase and rushes by… this is because if you want to know what this looks like ASK THE OLDER WOMEN.

but quickly “submit”= is not to suppress but to fully express the purpose of supporting the husband and the home.

Men and women are emphatically equal in value, but equality in value does not negate distinctives.

Men and women possess distinct features. Physically, emotionally, and psychologically, as well as distinct functions or roles in the home.

And the mutual submission that makes it all work in harmony is not forced or domineering, but the same submission we see in the godhead.

The Father, Son and HS are all equally God, and yet for the purpose of redemption, the Son submits to the Father.

Now before we move on too quickly I want to bring our attention back to the end of verse 3… the older women are to teach what is _____.. Good!

We must remember that God’s purposes and design are always good. I’m not here to prescribe for you what your family ought to do, regarding stay at home motherhood, but to remind you that regardless of your location or career do not lose sight of the good thing to be busy at home.

Because the truth is: you can without a doubt pursue a career out of self interest and neglect the home. But you can also

be a stay at home mom and still not “self-controlled, or kind”.

The point is to learn your duties as God has ordered them because they are good.

Younger Men

Read Titus 2:6-8

Titus 2:6–8 ESV

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Young Men including Titus

Self-Controlled- the only constant to all ages and stages. More than anything a lack of self control: the ability to curb your own passions is rampant in our world.

Be a good example in your doctrines, and your duties.

Similar to his encouragement to 1 Timothy 4:12

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Then we move to our final demographic.

Workforce

Read Titus 2:9-10

Titus 2:9–10 ESV

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

No one is excluded from the Body. Even slaves or bondservants have responsibilities.

For us, slavery does and should populate our minds with the grotesqu horrors of prejudice, racism, and evil of our American history. But

Contextually a slave included someone who was indentured in miserable conditions, but also those indentured in employee like relations.

Work hard for your employers. Show good faith.

Conclusion

So we have 3 categories of people that clearly show that the health of the church is dependent on the health of the whole body! And to be healthy we have to learn these duties!

I want to quickly highlight why learning these duties is so important.

HINA

In these 10 verses, 3x we find the greek word Hina, its a conjunction that means “so that” or “for” or “because”

In verse 5, 8, and 10 we see this word. The reason we need to follow these duties is..

so that the word of God may not be reviled.

so that our opponents have nothing evil to say

so that in everything we may adorn the doctrine of God.

This is what a healthy body does. They perform their duties with concern for the reputation of God and His church. A Healthy Body adorns the gospel by learning duties that accord with sound doctrine!

But I can almost see Paul… sitting there with his quill and parchment, probably with a cracker barrell candle, steaming as he meditates on the reported behvaior of the churches… And he goes on that 10 verse tirade of what duties they ought to learn

But in Pauline fashion the more he writes on duties the more he knows this isn’t possible in your own strength. “They need to know how to behave… but they need to know how its possible.” So he abruptly shifts gears and reminds us that we also need to learn doctrine.

A Healthy Body isn’t built by learned duties alone, but by learned doctrine that propels those duties

In his haste to teach what accords with sound doctrine, he cannot divorce it from actually teaching sound doctrine that precededs the duties.

#2: A Healthy Chuch Learns Doctrine

Read

Titus 2:11–14 ESV

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Learning the doctrine of Grace is what propels us to learn the proper duties.

If you just had the first 10 verses you fall into the trap of legalism.

Legalism

Legalism is a dependence upon moral law in order to be accepted by God.

A dependence on works as a means of securing or maintaining God’s affection.

A list of rules or duties if learned correctly help us get to God.

Legalism is the snare of religion, or man’s attempt to get to God.

In the Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster Writes:

Nothing can choke the heart and soul out of walking with God like legalism.

Consider the story of Hans the tailor. Because of his reputation, an influential, physically healthy entrepreneur visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick up his suit, the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the caved in. He pulled and managed to make his body fit. As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor made the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply, the man remarked, "Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you."

Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then we push and shove people in to the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully! That is death. It is a wooden legalism which destroys the soul.

Many of you grew up in this form of religion, just as I did. Do not drink. Do not dance. Do not cuss. Do not listen to Lyrnard Skynard. For me, and I tell you the truth: by 8th grade I realized pretty clearly that what was being asked of me was impossible to follow so why try?

Legalism is the first 10 verses divorced from Grace.

The remedy is learning the doctrine of grace.

Rightly learning grace annuls your works as the means of securing and maintaining God’s affection.

Yet, there is another severe danger in not properly learning grace.

Licentiousness

If you only focus on 11a you have licentiousness, or the license to sin.

Yay, the grace of god has appeared. He did it all. I don’t have to do anything. Like the Romans we say, “ Grace is so great, and so free we can live however we want because his grace covers us!

Freedom from legalism cannot lead to bondage of the sins of this world! Anytime we butt up against legalism we are tempted to say, “Away with you rules! I don’t need to follow these rules to be accepted by God, so instead we fall into licentiousness.

Licentiousness is the license to sin. We so severely disregard rules we live without any restraint!

True Grace does not promote licentiousness but requires us to ask honest questions about our lifestyles. Paul would say that:

Titus 2:12 ESV

training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

It trains us to renounce. To say no! We must honestly ask ourselves;

Does what we are doing really reflect the conviction that Christ died for my sin?

Have we lost the ability to say no? Do our worldly passions control us?

Do my behaviors and entertainments align with worldly passions or godly ones?

Francis Shaeffer once wrote,

We are surrounded by a world that says “no” to nothing. We have a society that holds back from nothing. And this fits perfectly with our natural disposition, since the fall of man, we do not want to deny ourselves.”

Learning grace trains us to deny ourselves. It trains what we say no to.

It also trains our yes’s.

to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives!

Are you able to choose your yes’s? What you allow into your life for the sake of your own personal holiness and relationship to God, but also for the sake of others?

The christian life does not function indepenently. We are a BODY, members of one another. ANd our actions must be considered in light of their effects upon others.

Conclusion

A healthy church is led by healthy leaders, and requires a Healthy Body. This is an All Play. Zone Defense. But to be a Healthy Body you’ve got to learn and grow in your duties, and learn and grow in your doctrine of grace.

Conclusion:

We must be very clear hear, if anybody tells you that what we do earn’s God’s love that is LEGALISTIC TRASH

But if anyone says it does not matter to God or his people what we do, that is selfish, un-Biblical licentiousness and it is damaging to the gospel of God.

Learned duties propelled by learned doctrine adorns the gospel with credibility and evidence of its power in our lives. That builds a Healthy Church!

It was His grace that appeared in the person of Jesus Christ, and He gave himself for us to redeem us from all ungodly duties and to cleanse us from our sins so that we may be His possession. His church in order to be zealous for good works.

Learning right Doctrine Propels Right Duties and that creates a Healthy Church.