Florida Man and the Cretans

There’s a famous running joke on the internet about “Florida Man.” Are any of you familiar with it?

The idea is that the strangest news headlines (and they’re usually crime stories, and unsurprisingly they usually involve alcohol) all seem to begin with the words “Florida Man.”

Now, there is no shortage of weirdness in the other 49 states of this nation, but there DOES seem to be something about Florida that brings out the crazy in people, at least judging from the headlines.

Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s something in the water. Maybe it’s Disney. I don’t know.

And one of the great things about the internet is that there is an expert to be found on any topic you can imagine. “Florida Man” is no exception.

And, as it turns out, collecting Florida Man headlines is a pretty popular hobby for journalists. There’s even a Twitter account that collects and shares these headlines.

Here are a few that have appeared on that feed. (Sadly, I can’t show you the photos that appeared with some of these stories. You’ll have to Google “Florida Man” yourself to see them.)

Florida Man Attacked During Selfie With Squirrel

Florida Man Charged With Assault With A Deadly Weapon After Throwing Alligator Through Wendy’s Drive-Through Window

Florida Man Who Tried to ‘Run’ To Bermuda in Inflatable Bubble Rescued By Coast Guard … Again

Florida Man Denies Drinking and Driving; Says He Only Swigged Bourbon at Stop Signs

Florida Man Steals Neighbor’s Peacock, Gets Chased by Angry Birds

Florida Man Manages to Misspell ‘School’ on Warning Sign … Twice

And my personal favorite ...

Florida Man Drives Date to Sports Bar on Stolen Walmart Mobility Scooter

Now, I want to be very clear this morning that I don’t mean to pick on Florida. I’m sure there’s plenty of this kind of unhinged behavior going on all over the country — all over the world, really.

Debauchery is a symptom of the lostness of this world, and Virginia is no less lost than Florida or California or New Jersey or, for that matter, Switzerland or Australia.

We are all sinners, and just because there’s no running joke on the internet about “Virginia Man” or “Suffolk Man” or even “Whaleyville Man” doesn’t mean we should feel superior to them.

We need Jesus no less than that guy who tossed an alligator through the Wendy’s drive-through.

The fact of the matter is, it is only by the grace of God that I am not that man — or one of the others in those headlines.

Maybe I’d never have stolen a peacock, but I found plenty of trouble to get into during my lost years. And the only thing keeps me out of most trouble these days is simply the Spirit of God within me.

As a sinner saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone, I have the Holy Spirit within me, convicting me of sin, correcting me for it and guiding me toward righteousness.

He now struggles against the fleshly nature that still resides in me, giving me the power to turn from my sinful desires, at least to the extent that I cooperate with His work in me.

The Apostle Paul talks about this in his letter to his protégé, Titus, and he doesn’t hold back in his assessment of just how evil we are without the Spirit.

We see this in Titus, chapter 3, verse 3.

Titus 3:3 ESV

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Do you hear the progression there? Paul describes the typical progression for an unbeliever as going from bad to worse. At first, we’re just foolish, but by the end of things, we’re filled with and ruled by hatred.

And the context of this verse is important.

Titus was one of Paul’s most trusted companions. He was a Greek who had been converted to Christ by Paul. He helped Paul on some of his missionary journeys.

And he performed some of the Apostle’s most important errands, delivering what we know as 1 Corinthians to the church in Corinth, and collecting funds from that church to help the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

Paul visited the island of Crete with Titus at least once, when the ship that was carrying Paul to prison in Rome encountered difficulties and had to take harbor there.

It’s likely he returned to Crete after he was released from his imprisonment, but we don’t know that for certain.

What we do know is that at some point, Paul left Titus on that island southeast of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. And he told Titus to put things in order for the church that had formed there.

This was a tough assignment, because Crete had a reputation as the Florida of that part of the world. The headlines in all the papers in that region were filled with “Crete Man” references.

Crete was in a great position to take advantage of the trade routes of the time, and it had become one of the best-known business centers of the world.

The people were wealthy and often idle. And you all know the old saying, “Idle hands make the devil’s work.”

Well, as it turns out, there was a well-known saying about Crete at the time, too. The Greek poet Epimenides wrote, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

It doesn’t have quite the ring of a “Florida Man” headline, but you get the point.

Crete was a debauched society. And in the midst of this sinful, lust-filled, gluttonous society, a church had formed. It was made up of sinful, lust-filled, gluttonous Cretans who had come to saving faith in Jesus.

Do you see the potential for problems there? Actually, they’re the same problems we sometimes have in our own churches.

Our churches, just like the ones in Crete, are filed with sinners saved by grace who either cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification — making us more and more like Jesus — or grieve the Holy Spirit by continuing in our sins — and instead of looking more and more like Jesus, looking just like the rest of the folks in our headlines each day.

And the Apostle Paul understood what a hard task he had given Titus. His young protégé needed to inspire godliness among people who had never had examples of godliness to draw from.

Godliness — becoming more and more like Jesus, the image of the invisible God — “is the end product of the gospel.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003)] It’s a layman’s term for sanctification.

But for them to begin to achieve godliness, the people of the church in Crete first had to “come to the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.” [Ibid.]

They had to hear and accept the gospel of Jesus, the Son of God, sent to earth to live a sinless life. To give Himself as a sacrifice to pay the just penalty for all our sins. And to rise from the dead, proving He has the power to keep His promise of eternal life for all who follow Him in faith.

But for the people of the church in Crete to hear, accept, and live the truth of this gospel, the church must have order.

The people in that church must be self-controlled, or they would be self-condemned. If they professed to know God, then their works should confirm the relationship.

Titus is Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired essay on the orderly organization of the Church. One commentator sums up the 46 verses of this letter in one line: “Let everything be done decently and in order.” [Ibid.]

Paul understood the problems facing the Cretan church. And perhaps, under the Spirit’s inspiration, he also understood that these problems would continue to come up in churches throughout the coming centuries.

So, guided by the Holy Spirit, He commenced to write a guidebook for church organization and order.

TITUS RECITATION

Now, as I said when I recited Romans, chapter 8, for you a while back, I have committed to learning long passages of Scripture as an exercise in spiritual discipline and as a way of treasuring God’s word in my heart.

Since I knew I intended to conclude this series of messages on the church with a few messages from this letter, it made sense for me to take this on as my next memorization project.

As I said before, I do not do this to puff myself up before you, but so that you can hear the inflections and emotion of these passages and, I hope, understanding them better by hearing them, just as the original recipients did.

If these presentations encourage you to embark on your own projects of memorization, all the better. I guarantee you will be blessed by the time such a project requires you to spend chewing on God’s word.

But what I most hope you will have recognized today is the theme that runs throughout this letter, that “a church needs organization, sound doctrine, and good teaching to survive.” [Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen, and H. Wayne House, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1999), 1620.]

Now, I have spent much of the past four years preaching what I believe to be sound doctrine.

We have examined doctrines regarding the Lord’s Supper, baptism, the character of God, stewardship, the Kingdom of God, evangelism, grace, prayer, Christian unity, and most recently the Church.

I have taught on the books of Haggai, John, and Romans, along with a great variety of other topics. And I hope I have taught well, though I’m sure I’d do some things differently if I could go back and do them over again.

And so, what remains for us, as we continue to move into a new season at Liberty Spring Christian Church, is to consider the church’s order and organization.

In the coming weeks, we will look more closely at what Paul has to say about those things in his letter to Titus, as well as his letters to Timothy.

We’ll also look back at church history to see how the Church fathers, who were closest to the teachings of the Apostles, thought about these matters.

And we’ll look at the history of the Congregational Church to see how the movement that birthed THIS church thought about them when the first Congregationalists appeared in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

All of this will be grounded in Scripture, as I firmly believe that the Bible MUST have the final word in everything as it relates to Christian life and practice.

And as we see what God has to say about these things, I hope you will commit with me to these basic ideals: A follower of Christ should WANT to order his or her life in the manner that God has revealed as proper.

And a church that proclaims the name of Jesus should WANT to order and organize itself in the way that God has revealed as proper.

Now, you all know that I like to do series of messages on various topics. But I’m not a fan of multi-part sermons that basically tell you to tune in next week for part 2.

Clliffhangers really shouldn’t be part of a pastor’s repertoire, and this long introduction to Titus is unusual for me.

Let me leave you with something encouraging from this letter. Look at verses 4-7 of chapter 3.

Titus 3:4–7 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now, that’s a long sentence, and that’s par for the course with Paul. What I want you to see is that in this description of salvation, he mentions each of the three Persons of the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Here’s the thing: Saving us was, is, and always will be God’s work, not ours. We can choose to cooperate or not with the Spirit’s work of sanctification within us, but our salvation is entirely God’s work.

See what Paul says there? It’s not by works done by us in righteousness. Indeed, he writes elsewhere, both in this letter and others, that we CAN’T be righteous without God.

We are all sinners. Every one of us has failed to display the character of the perfect and holy and righteous God who created us in His own image.

And every time we fail to display His character in our lives and in our relationships with others, we commit sin against Him. We defile His image in our rebellion against Him.

And this defilement creates a couple of problems for us. First, it means that we can never be the people we were created to be. And second, it means that we who are defiled can never stand before this perfect and holy God.

And no matter how hard we might try to be good, unless God Himself intervened, we never could solve this problem that we have created with our sins great and small.

But because of His great love for we who were created to be in fellowship with Him, God sent His Son, Jesus, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Jesus came to live the life that we should have lived and then died the death that we should have died.

He lived in perfect obedience to God and then died on the cross, taking your sins and mine upon Himself and suffering the just punishment for them so that we who follow Him in faith would not have to.

And we who have placed our faith in Jesus have received the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us and works within us to make us more and more like Jesus until we go to heaven and are perfected in holiness.

Now, this is the message of the gospel, and if you’ve never made the decision to follow Jesus, I want to encourage you now to accept this gift of God’s grace.

Come and talk to me at the end of this service, and I’ll walk you through how that happens. This is what you were made for.

But if you are a follower of Jesus, the encouragement I have for you this morning is that He has already done all the work necessary for you to have eternal life.

You are truly an heir according to the hope of eternal life. This is your inheritance — life in the presence of and in fellowship with God and with Jesus, the way it was always meant to be.

The washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit are His work, and He will complete it. God is both author and perfecter of our faith.

This is encouraging to me, because I know that on my own, I’m Florida Man. And the truth is that on your own, you’re Florida Man or Florida Woman, too.

But we who have placed our faith in Jesus are not ON our own. We have the Spirit of God Himself in us, and He is mighty, and He is powerful, and He is full of grace and mercy.

Today, fellow believer, be encouraged that whatever you were, you are not. And whatever you are now, you will be better, because that is God’s plan for you as His adopted son or daughter in Christ.

One day, we’ll have no more memory of Florida Man, or Suffolk Man, or Whaleyville Man, or North Carolina Man.

THIS is what it means to be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. THIS is why I think these verses are so encouraging. I hope you will be encouraged by them, too.