Gospel Witness in Every Day Life

Titus 1:4-10

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I hope you all had a wonderful week. This first week uh was very special for me and my wife because we celebrated our first week in 14 years. We grabbed coffee, uh, thank you. Yeah. We took uh we took a drive down to Huffing Hills and on the way back we stopped at uh one of the most incredible libraries I've ever been to, the Wattenhose Memorial Library in Alberta. If you have a chance to go visit it, you should. It's beautiful. It felt like something straight out of an old English story room. It was beautiful architecture, live reading rooms, shelves, tools, books. Honestly, it was like this was my kind of place. And my wife uh was kind enough to uh sit with me while I worked on this week's sermon, and that may have been my my favorite part today. Um and as I sat there studying Titus, I couldn't help but to think about how fitting it was to prepare this message in a place dedicated to learning and truth. Because today we come to what I believe is one of the most foundational passages in the life of a healthy church. Last week we spent our time unpacking Paul's introduction to the letter, right? We explored the historical context, the historical and cultural context of Crete, the island creed, its strategic importance to the spread of the gospel. We talked about how it has multiple chords and how you had to go past the Isle of Creed if you wanted to go anywhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Um, and why Paul intentionally describes God as the God who never lies. The God who never lies. We learned that because Cretans believe Zeus, their chief god, was born in the Isle of Crete, and he was a God known in Greek mythology for deception, for manipulation, just like a straight up liar. Against that backdrop, Paul makes a bold declaration that says the God of Scripture is unlike every false God who mentioned has imagined. He cannot lie, he is perfectly faithful in every promise he makes to him who trusted. And finally, at the end of that sermon, we ask God to do something in us before he does something through us. That before he grows flash in his church numerically, that he would first grow us spiritually. That we would become a people who is known, who knows God more deeply, trust him more completely, and love him fully. And whose lives are shaped by the gospel. Today, Paul begins showing us that what that kind of church actually looks like. So before we dive into the text, uh let's take a moment to pray. Father God, we thank you so much for your loving kindness and your saving grace. Lord, you deserve all the honor, all the glory, and all the praise forever. Lord, I pray that you that through the preaching of your word today, that you that you will receive all the glory. That it would point us towards you and help establish your church and the church culture for generations to come, not just for this moment, but for generations to come. And bring honor to your name. Lord, I pray that you would reveal your desire to this church through your word and make our hearts willing to obey that. In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Okay. Open your Bibles to the book of Titus. And we will be starting in chapter 1, verse 4. Chapter 1, verse 4. Give you guys a second together. And then we'll read it together. Alright. Chapter 1, verse 4. To Titus, my true child in the coming faith. Grace and peace from God the Fat the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in creed so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above courage, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers, and not open to the charge of debauchery and insubordination. 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 any, but hospital, a lover of good, self-control, although righteous, holy, and discipline. He must hold firm the trustworthy word, Astar, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, envy talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision part. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain. What they ought not to preach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy glance. Not devoting themselves to Jewish myths, and they command of people to turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by his work by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Okay? That's a lot. Let's dive into a little bit of context. That was a large section of scripture we just went over. So let's zoom out for a moment and take and take a look at the big picture. And I like to think of stories as if they were movies, probably because of my background, the dark I'm filmmaking. And that's been a huge part of my life. And every movie begins with a cell. It introduces the problem that needs to be solved before the story unfolds. This is the cell for the rest of the book of Titus. The problem is simple. The churches in Crete need healthy leadership. That's the problem. That's the settlement. The churches in Crete need healthy leadership. And Paul reminds Titus why he left me in the island. He says, This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order. And that little phrase, put what remained to order, tells us a lot. The gospel had already reached Crete. People had already come into faith, churches had been already planted, they were still young, there were still things that needed to be established, but most importantly, they needed elders. Throughout the New Testament, we see that God has consistently designed his church to be shepherd by qualified elders. Whether you see them called elders, overseers, or pastors in the New Testament is referring to the same office. Different titles with the same calling. Man entrusted with shepherding God's people. Now I have to tell you, this passage has been incredibly humbling for me to study. Because this isn't just a list of qualifications for someone else. This is a mirror that every pastor ought to hold up to his own life. It is an incredible privilege to be entrusted with God's people. But it's also an incredible responsibility. It is a heavy burden. James 3:1 tells us that teachers will be judged with a greater strengths. That ought to make every pastor tremble. Which is exactly why Paul spends so much time talking about character before he ever talks about ability. Church, there's this is the heartbeat of the passage, is that this is the golden thread, if you will, what the passage is trying to communicate is that the health of a church depends upon the leaders who know the truth and live the truth. The health of the church depends upon leaders who know the truth and live the truth. Now, before anyone thinks this passage is only for pastors, let me remind you that while Paul is describing the qualifications of an elder, he's also describing the kind of maturity every Christian should aspire to have. Every believer should desire to become the kind of person who is a buffer bridge. Self-controlled, fulfilled, faithful, devoted to the truth. So this standard is not just for pastors, it's not just for me, it's for all of us. It is not just me that is leading this church. Yeah, the responsibility is heavily on me, but we are in this together. We are in this together. If we're going to build a culture of godliness and gospel transformation, this standard applies to you as well. We want people who walk through those doors, people we encounter in our daily lives, to see our lives and see someone who is above our courage. Self-control, hospitable, faithful and devoted to the truth. You really have to ask yourself, church, how is the world perceiving me as a believer? Notice that Paul is not simply concerned with right doctrine here. Right doctrine will come. He's concerned with right doctrine producing godly lives. And that's been Paul's argument since verse 1. He says, truth and godliness belong together. Healthy theology produces healthy living. And the last thing we need is to become frozen, chosen, and hollyhoggle around ourselves every Sunday, simply gaining more information, but not really learning how to apply it, how to live it out. So over the next few verses, Paul is going to show us what it looks like, what that looks like through three simple themes. Number one, God's design for healthy leadership. God's the sign for healthy leadership. Number two, why leadership matters? And number three, the tragedy of empty religion. The tragedy of empty religion. So God's design for healthy leadership, why leadership matters, and the tragedy of empty religion. Let's start with number one. God's the sign for healthy leadership. Why did Paul leave Titus? He said in verse 5 that you might put what remains into order. Now the Greek word used for that part here, putting things into order, is epidoortho. Epidoortho. I can spell it for that. Which is the same word used for when you need to set a broken bone. Something isn't wrong, but at the same time, it isn't right. It isn't how it's supposed to be. It's not healthy even. The churches cease existed. There were meaning already, which was great, but they weren't ordered. Something was wrong. And Paul seeing this, he is proactive in how he guides Titus in the way that the church must be set up. He doesn't just come up and say, Tius, you know what? Now that you have some sort of church going on, we should do more programs, maybe better music, definitely some marketing material. No. Instead, the first thing he says is, hey, appoint elders. Figure out who is gonna do this along, who's gonna hold you accountable. Why elders? Why immediately? The reason is simple. It's because churches eventually resemble their leadership. Churches eventually resemble their leadership. You may be able to see examples of real life. Real life example of this, right? You go to different churches, you meet the pastor, and all of a sudden you're just like, okay, this tracks, this makes sense. I can see how we got here. Healthy leaders equals healthy churches, unhealthy leaders equals unhealthy churches. All then goes on to spend a good amount of time determining what makes a healthy leader. So let's read it together, starting in verse 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. 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, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-control, upright, holy, and disciplined. And he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it. Okay, let's break it down from there, right? So imagine you have two goals: the must-be and the must not be. If I could show you guys what that looked like, on the one side of things, we would have must-be, above reproach, the husband of one wife, a father of believing children. You can bring that in two parts. Must be a father, must be a father of believing children. Hospitable. A lover of good. Self-controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, must be steadfast, able to teach, and able to rebuke. And on the other side, there must not mean this. He must not be open to a charge of debauchery or insubordination. Must not be arrogant, must not be quick-tempered, must not be a drunkard, must not be violent, must not be greedy. Now, notice that Paul not once, not once mentions education here. Not once does he mention education. He doesn't ask how many books has he read or how many books has he written or how many churches has he planted, or how charismatic he may be, or how good he's on stage? No. Instead, Paul asks, what kind of man is this guy? Church, after looking at the qualifications, let me ask you something. Do you remember how many of them have to do with talent? We just want to draw all that. How many of them have to do with talent? The answer is one. One of them has to do with talent. He must be able to teach. Everything else is about character, and I don't think that's an accident. Because God is far more concerned with the character of a shepherd than the charisma of the shepherd. God is more concerned with the character of the shepherd than the charisma of the shepherd. Charisma can be fake. You can pretend all day long to be likable just to turn around, close the door, and be a different person. Olivan makes it a point to mention it twice. And this is the umbrella under which this whole qualification thing falls under. If you don't need this one, you won't need the rest. He says, you must be above reproach. You must be above reproach. But what does that mean? It means that it means to exhibit a level of integrity and conduct that is completely blameless, making it impossible to legitimately criticize or accuse or find fault in a person. Now, this doesn't mean perfection. Absolutely not. If that was the case, there would not be pastors. It means that there is no obvious pattern of sin that brings shame upon Christ or his church. It means a lie that matches the message. Because character isn't built on a spotlight. You don't bring somebody in, put a spotlight on him, is like, hey, perform. Let's see your character. No, that's built over time. Long before a man stands behind a pulpit, God has been shaping him in his home, in his marriage, in his conversations, in his repentance, because character is the public evidence of private faithfulness. Character is the public evidence of private faithfulness. And disqualifications are not random. Every one of those qualifications either hurts or protects people. That's why character is so important. Arrogance hurts people. Violence hurts people. Greed hurts people. Hospitality serves people. Self-control blesses people. Holiness points people to Christ. Disqualifications aren't arbitrary rules, they are designed to protect the flaw. This is huge. Disqualifications are designed to protect the flaw. Leadership is always culture form. So having a leader of good character, having a church that follows that is imperative for the spiritual growth of the church. Why? Because we see it underwards. Parents shape families, teachers shape classrooms, coaches shape teams, employers shape the workplace, pastors shape the church's culture. People naturally begin to imitate the people leading them. And all he knows that. That is why he starts with the shepherds. He starts with the shepherds. He doesn't go and say, hey, uh, now they have church going on, you should tell them to do these things. No. He tells me immediately. Find accountability, find your elders, and here is the qualifications that you have. I have to admit it. Every pastor naturally wants to preach this and preach this out to somebody else, but God preached it to me first. It was incredibly difficult sitting down there and thinking, man, this is really hard. But I see all why God has created the order that He created, why He wants character and all. And why He needed the elders to come alongside and do the work and the pastor. So before I stand here and ask you to examine, before, I'm sorry, before I ever stand here and ask you to examine my life, I had to ask the Lord to examine mine. Church, I'm gonna ask you this. Please pray for me. Simple. Pray for me. This is an incredibly weighty task that the pastor has. And I want to read faithfully, and I want to read the truth and point people to Christ always. Not because I'm afraid of this passage, but because I want to increasingly reflect it. I want to live up to it. And remember this, while Paul is describing the qualifications of an elder, he's also describing the kind of maturity every Christian should aspire. I said that before, right? Every believer should desire to become the kind of person who is above reproach, self-control, hospitable, faithful, and devoted to the truth. Now, do you know why Paul spends so much time talking about elders before he starts talking about false teachers? It's because healthy leadership is one of God's primary needs of protecting healthy churches. All of this is about protecting the flock. It's easy to look at this and have a pastor stand up and say, like, hey, look at me, I need all these qualifications. That's not the point. The point is that you need these qualifications so you can shepherd the flock well. Remember when Jesus comes back and he has like this whole back and forth with Peter and he's like, hey, do you love me? And he makes them say it three times, which is really quiet and funny. Jesus, at the end, he's like, You love me? This is the qualification of our life. There is something profound hidden disqualification, and that is that almost every one of them reflects the character of Christ. Hospitable, holy, self-controlled, not greedy, not arrogant, faithful, lover of good, able to teach, patient. The elder isn't just supposed to be a qualified, he'sn't just supposed to be qualified to lead, he's supposed to call, he's called to model Christ. Which brings me to the second one, the second theme. Why leadership matters. Why leadership matters. So Paul has just been has just spent several verses describing the kind of man who should lead the church so it's so it's natural to ask why. Why all the qualifications, why so much emphasis in character, why not simply find someone who's gifted? In the church, I was talking to Ben earlier today. The church has become really pragmatic about things. So when we choose leadership, when we choose people to do certain things or to help doing certain things, it becomes really structured. Your good is saying you should go do that. Or God, are you called to do this? Are you willing to rise up to a glorification? Are you qualified to do this thing? Paul answers that question in verse 10. And he reads, for there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. The word for at the beginning of verse 10 connects everything that came before. In other words, here's why healthy leadership matters. Because unhealthy teaching destroys people. And notice the prohibition, right? Paul lays it out. Verse 10, empty talkers. That phrase literally means people whose words are empty. They sound convincing, they sound spiritual, they sound even intelligent, but when you build back the layers, there's nothing there. No truth, no gospel, no life. And one of the greatest dangers today for the church is that we've confused confidence with correctness. Maybe not for the church, but for believers. We've confused confidence with correctness. There's no shortage of people out there, especially on the internet, that would say something with a lot of conviction, a lot of passion, and still be very, very calm. Someone can have millions of followers on social media and still leave millions of people away with Christ. Never mistake charisma for truth. Charisma's cheap. You can fake it all day. What you cannot fake is gravidness. Gravidness is built in character. You want somebody to follow, you want to lead someone. You need to have a gravitational pull about you that is rooted in character. God doesn't call you to follow the loudest voice, he calls you to follow the truest voice. Not the loudest, the truest. In verse 11, they are upsetting whole families. The word that Paul uses here means to overturn, to ruin, to completely flip upside down. They completely flip upside down whole families. False teaching spreads. One false teacher rarely hurts only himself, at least not at first. They hurt families, they hurt marriages, they hurt children, they hurt churches, they hurt generations upon generations upon generations. Because ideas don't just stay in our heads, they eventually show up in our homes. And you've seen this, you church, you've seen this. You go out there, and there's people that have believed false teachings for generations. We're all being discipled by something or someone. So we have to ask ourselves: who is shaping the way we think? What voices are we listening to? Because whoever shapes your theology will eventually shape your life. Whoever shapes your theology will eventually shape your life. In verse 12, we read, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy glovers. And that sounds a little harsh, but now remember, Paul isn't making some ethnic insult here. He's quoting a Cretan himself. A Cretan wrote that, that they are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bloodlings. He's quoting one of the Cretans' own poets to describe the culture Titus is ministering in. Because false teaching, like I said before, rarely stays with the false teacher. Eventually, it shapes culture. And that was their result. Liars, evil bees, bloodless. If all they haven't told before is like, hey, our chief is God, Zeus, born and creed, liar, cheater, deceiver. Shapes culture. Think about our culture as a whole now. Every worldview begins with an idea. Then it becomes a belief. Then a lifestyle. And eventually an entire culture. Ideas have consequences. The ideas we believe today become the lives that we live tomorrow. So beware. Because that theology hurts people. That theology hurts people. Not just now, but for generations before. In verse 13, is where Paul becomes a little more direct. He says, therefore, rebuke them sharply. Review them sharply. Now this may sound a little bit harsh by modern standards. We live in a world where we must never tell something, never tell someone they're wrong. I don't want to hurt somebody. I don't want to hurt feelings. But Paul says, no. When the gospel is at stake, law sometimes confronts. Notice his goal. He doesn't say to rebuke them because you hate them and you should hate them. That's not what he says. He says that they may be sound in their faith. That they may be sound of their faith. The purpose of correction is restoration. He's not just correcting for the sake of correcting. He's not telling you, like, hey, you're wrong. Just because he wants to tell them that they're wrong. No, he wants to tell them that they're wrong so that they may grow in their faith. Think of a surgeon for a moment. When a surgeon cuts, he doesn't cut to hurt people or because he enjoys cutting. He cuts because he loves healing. He cuts because he loves healing. That is what Paul is telling Titus to do. And this is hardly applicable to only the gospel. Remember on Proverbs 27, 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. I know that I have some difficult conversations with friends. And I know friends that I had difficult conversations with anyone. Where I needed to hear something, where I needed to be questioned about something. And that only made my relationships with my friends better stronger. It made me trust them more. Genuine care requires delivering painful truths. Genuine care requires delivering painful truths. This whole time, Paul has been taking aim, taking aim, taking aim, and in verse 14, he finally gets the target. He says, not devoting themselves to the Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. And there is the issue. You remember the beginning? Last week we talked about at the very beginning, verse 1, the knowledge of truth which accords with godliness. The knowledge of truth which accords with godliness. Now, where we were right. False teachers have abandoned the truth, which is false argument at the very beginning that truth produces godliness. Falsehood produces ungodliness. Healthy doctrine produces healthy churches. False doctrine eventually creates broken lives. And that right there is why leadership matters. This is why healthy leadership matters. Because pastors, elders, deacons don't merit, don't merely manage an organization, they guard the truth and they protect the flock. Because at any given moment, any of us can have an error, and an elder or a deacon can come to each, we can come to each other and say, like, hey, can I talk to you about this? Can I talk to you for a moment about that? That's the whole point. Protecting the flock and guarding the truth. Now, on to our final point. Point number three. Accentuate trade. The tragedy of empty religion. The tragedy of empty religion. Now we're here at the saddest part of this entire passage. Listen carefully to what Paul says beginning in verse 15. To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both, their minds and their consciousness, are defiled. Paul isn't saying that everything is morally acceptable here. He's making a much, much, much deeper point. You see that all teachers believe purity came from keeping external or religious rules. Don't eat this, don't touch that, observe this ceremony, follow these traditions. Paul says they've completely missed the point. The problem isn't outside of you, the problem is inside of you. Jesus said the exact same thing in Matthew 15, 11. It isn't what goes into a man's man that defiles him, but what comes out of his heart. And then you have to examine your heart. What are you speaking about? What kind of things are coming out of your mouth? Because out of the riches of your heart, your mouth will speak. The issue here has never been behavior, the issue has been the heart. Church religions are very good at changing appearances, but only the gospel can change hearts. You can clean up your behavior without changing your soul. You can make anything. You can make things look religious without making them righteous. And that is exactly what false teachers are doing. You can make things look religious without actually making them righteous. They were trying to fix their hearts by changing habits, but the message of the gospel is completely different. God gives you a brand new heart, willing to obey Him, and that is what produces the change. That is when the change happens. When God completely takes over your life, He takes control of your heart, He ravages your soul, He completely changes who you are. Completely. We know this by contrast to what he says in verse 16, which is incredibly sovereign. He says, They profess to know God. They profess to know God, but they deny him by his works. That line right there needs to stop every single one of them. Notice why, notice what Paul doesn't say here. They deny him with their mouth. That's easy. You can deny something your mouth a little bit. He says, they deny him by their actions. Their mouth are saying all the right things. They profess them, they sing songs, they know the language, they speak Christianese, as they say. They know all the things. All these false teachers, they say that, you know, they profess into their mouth, but they deny them with their actions. Jesus himself says it in Matthew 7, 21, when he's talking about false teachers. Because at some point they will come and stand before the Lord and say, Lord, we did all these things. We cast out demons, we prophesy, we say all the right things, and he will say, Depart from me at every meeting. It is entirely possible to know about Jesus without actually knowing Jesus. It is possible to master Christian vocabulary without ever surrendering your heart. It is possible to sit in church every Sunday and never be changed by the gospel. Sitting on a pew in this church, sitting in this room makes you a Christian as much as standing in your garage makes you a God. Paul then goes on to say they are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. And those are hard words. Why is Paul so strong? Again, because the stakes are high. Last week I mentioned that my prayer for whiteness would be that we become a church full of people who live and breathe the gospel, that it would spill out of our hearts in every conversation, and that we would never fear what men may say. The fear of man is a real thing. Let me tell you something. Nothing is more loving than telling someone the truth about eternity. Nothing is more loving than telling someone the truth about eternity. And he's trying to talk to us about his life, where his life is currently, where he's at the moment, what he's trying to get at. And we both kind of stopped him. It's like, hey man, that's cool and all. But we're more interested in what happens after. Because life is about this much, and eternity is this much. You're worried about this. We want to get to this. Okay, so now to wrap up, here's some obligation. This passage is forced us to ask an uncomfortable question. Has the gospel actually changed me? Has the gospel actually changed me? From the moment that you profess your faith in Christ, you receive my slow and savior of your life. Is your life different now? And how? How is your life different? Take that to part. Not to scare you, not to make you feel bad, but to actually just gauge your life. We're going to be celebrating some baptisms here soon. So my question to those getting baptized is how do you know that the gospel has changed you? Do you see the evidence in your life? Jesus said, You will recognize them by their fruit. James tells us that faith without works is dead. Genuine salvation produces good fruit. It's not the other way around. Genuine salvation produces good fruit. Remember how Paul opened this letter, the knowledge of truth, which I forgot with godliness. Now it's one full circle here. The gospel never stops at your mind and travels through your heart. If you keep it here, you're just getting knowledge. You're just able to repeat certain things. You're an expert in Christian needs. Eventually, from your heart, you will reach your hands. Truth produces godliness, and that's the heartbeat titles. That's why Paul is so passionate about sound doctrine, not because he wants people to win theological debates, because he wants people to become more like Jesus. You want to win theological debates? Knock yourself out. It's not the most productive thing. He wants you to live to be like Jesus. Theological debates are fine. That's not a church where truth is belief. That's what my hope for this church is. Where truth is love, where truth is live. Because the goal of Christianity has never been to produce impressive religious people. The goal has always been to produce people who look more and more like Christ. That is only possible because the same gospel that saves us is the gospel that continues to shape us in everyday life. That's right. Father God, thank you so much for making us part of your family, for giving us a genuine faith, a faith that produces good words. Lord, I pray that you would reveal the areas in our lives where we may be lacking in faith or in action and help us grow in those areas. Lord, I pray that as we that that we as a church should be known as people who deeply care about your work, you care about the truth, you care about the loss, and about making true disciples. Lord, you are welcome.