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Titus
1:5-9
Here’s the situation.
The Explore Mission in Crete has recently finished. It’s been very successful. There are budding new congregations
planted in the towns all over the island. Now the lead evangelist Paul has moved on, leaving behind
his number two: Titus. And the
book we have before us is Paul’s letter written to Titus, to instruct him
on how to proceed.
What’s first on the
agenda?
Verse 5
The
reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was
left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
Titus is a short-term
trouble-shooter. We learn from
chapter 3, Titus will only remain on the island for a matter of
months. But he’s staying on to straighten
things out. Have you ever
been in the workplace and someone’s been appointed to straighten out your
department? Or maybe you’ve been
the person to ‘straighten things out.’
Tough job.
How’s he going to do
it? Well that’s what our verses
are about this morning. What is
Titus’s priority in straightening out the churches on Crete? He must identify and appoint leaders
who are godly, bible teachers.
I don’t know what you
think a church’s first need is: perhaps you think our primary need is
dynamic personalities, or running the right courses and programmes, or
certain styles of worship, or joining particular movements. Paul identifies godly bible teachers
as the number one way of straightening out the churches.
Let’s think for a
minute – why would that be number one on Paul’s list. Well look at the first verse of the
letter. Chapter 1, verse 1: Paul
is concerned with the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.
Knowledge of the
truth that leads to godliness.
Or to put it the way
Jesus often did: We need the seed of the word to take root in our lives
and produce fruitfulness. It’s
the same idea: Truth leading to
godliness.
Think about the state
of Crete before Paul’s mission.
They were a completely ungodly lot (we’ll learn about that next
week). But then how did Paul deal
with all this ungodliness? Did he
lobby the government to legislate better morality? No.
Did he campaign for better education? No. Better school
dinners? No. Self-esteem seminars? No.
Ritalin for everyone?
No. Paul came and
preached. Paul brought truth to
the island.
What truth did he
bring? We need to know what this
truth is. If you’re not a
Christian – this is the truth that will save you. If you are a Christian, this is the
truth that will lead to godliness in your life. So what is it?
Well in a nutshell,
this is the truth Paul preached:
People of Crete (people of Eastbourne): God has walked the earth
and His name is Jesus. And this
God – the eternal Son of the Most High – called Jesus, lived so purely,
so passionately, so fiercely, so lovingly that He put you and me to
shame. But then this God called
Jesus gave Himself up to death on a cross to take the place of you and
me. God died for the ungodly so
that we the ungodly can be saved.
So that we the ungodly can now belong to Him for free and forever. And now, as we belong to Him, as we
abandon ourselves to Jesus, this Saviour God, then, wrapped up in His
grace and love, we will increasingly be purified from our ungodliness. None of us deserve it – but, people of
Crete (people of Eastbourne), that is the grace that God has shown to
us.
In a nutshell – that’s
the message Paul used to turn Crete upside down. How do I know that?
Well look at chapter
2:11-14. This is what Paul
routinely preached:
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12
It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
13 while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing
of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave
himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself
a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Paul preached this
truth. And people abandoned
themselves to this great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and in Him they
found salvation and they found themselves being purified from
their old ungodly lives.
Do you know this
truth? Do you accept it as true
for you? Then this is the truth
that leads to godliness.
And Paul’s strategy is
to get the truth of Jesus
Christ out there. Truth goes in,
godliness comes out. And then
that godliness becomes an advertisement for the truth.
Truth leads to
godliness and godliness becomes an advertisement for the truth – that’s
Paul’s thinking.
And so now do you see
why it’s obvious that Paul’s priority for Crete is to raise up godly,
truth tellers. If truth leads
to godliness and godliness becomes an advertisement for the truth then Godly
truth tellers become an urgent priority.
That’s why chapter 1,
verse 6, Paul tells Titus:
appoint elders. In verse 7
he calls them ‘overseers’. Those are just two different names for the
same role. Elder – overseer, same
thing. But what they really are
is godly bible teachers.
Verses 6-8 will show
us how they are to be godly.
Verse 9 will tell us how they are to be bible teachers.
But before we look at
these requirements for elders I want to tell you – this is relevant for
everyone here. Whoever you are,
don’t switch off – these verses are for you.
First of all, you
might already be in an elder-like position. Did you notice in verse 6 Paul talks about elders
plural? Nowhere in the bible is
there ever a church with only one elder.
And things like PCC, like the wardens, lay readers, these are ways
in our church setting of ensuring there are many mature Christians
in positions of leadership. Again
if you lead a growth group or any other bible study or Sunday school or a
youth group – you are exercising elder-like authority. You are being a godly bible teacher. In large part these verses apply to
you.
If you’re still not
convinced they apply to you, let me point out to you what Paul is
assuming. Paul assumes that there
will be leadership material out there in the churches that is currently
undiscovered. Paul assumes there
will be untapped reasources of leadership within the congregations. Maybe you are one of those untapped
resources. Maybe even this sermon
is a way of the Spirit tapping you on the shoulder and saying: ‘Why not
you? (If Glen can do it – anyone can).’
This church, especially with the passion and giftings Neil has in
this area, seems to be a hot-house for growing up leaders. You might be an elder-in-the-making and
you don’t even know it yet.
Listen up.
If you’re still not
convinced these verses apply to you.
Perhaps they don’t directly.
But please remember:
Elders are called elders for a reason. It means they are mature Christians –
not necessarily in years but in spiritual maturity. The picture of an elder here is
basically a picture of a mature follower of Jesus. And most of the qualities described in
these verses are also pressed upon other members of the churches later in
the letter. If you desire maturity
in the Christian life you should listen too.
Finally, you might not
even be a follower of Jesus this morning, and you think this doesn’t have
any relevance for you. Let me
tell you: Job descriptions tell you a lot about an organization. If you see a job description that says
“Highly-driven saleman required, must be entirely devoted to career
progression.” It tells you about the organization. If it says “Chilled naturapath wanted:
must be Aquarius” you’d get a different view of the organization. I hope you’ll listen in and hear how
different the way of Jesus really is.
And I hope you will want to investigate further what kind of truth
can produce this kind of godliness.
That’s my plea – that
we’ll all see these verses as relevant for us. So let’s now dive in to the elder’s job description. Read with me from v6-8:
6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose
children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and
disobedient. 7 Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work,
he must be blameless--not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to
drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8
Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is
self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
So those are the first
things Paul mentions. Nothing
about particular skills, nothing about being a big personality, nothing
yet about preaching ability or anything.
Instead, what is Titus looking for? Character. Mature
Christian Character, or in other words, godliness. Before we assess the bible teaching,
before we look to the truth, look for godliness.
Why? Well I often think of Gillian McKeith
in this regard:
Do you know Gillian
McKeith? She had a channel 4
programme and a book called: You are what you eat. If you are what you eat then Gillian
McKeith must have eaten a stready diet of grumpy old bats. I haven’t met her and this could be
way off the mark, but this is a woman who insists on taking stool samples
from everyone and then she has the nerve to call them
disgusting. She shames people
into losing weight and in return offers a diet of pumpkins seeds and
quinoia (whatever that is!). But
the thing about Gillian McKeith is that she’s a terrible advertisement
for the life she’s trying to promote.
In every programme I’ve ever seen she comes across as dour,
joyless, petty, sanctimonious.
And yet her whole message is – listen to me, I know how to really
live. But she is a bad
advertisement for the life she’s trying to promote. Why would we follow her diet? Why would we listen to her
teaching? If that teaching led us
to be like that.
Well it’s the same in
the church. People will not
listen to teaching, however good it is, if it isn’t matched by the life.
That’s why the first
thing on the job description is godliness. And, shockingly, the first place we’re meant to look to
assess this godliness is – v6, the bedroom and the home life.
Verse 6 goes straight
for the private life. Literally
verse 6 says an elder must be ‘a one woman man.’ That cuts to the heart of the issue:
‘a one woman man.’ Faithful,
strictly devoted to his wife, if he has one. Committed to celibacy if he doesn’t. But at root ‘a one woman man.’ No hint of another woman on the
scene. And this makes sense. If the Church is the Bride of Christ,
then how can a church leader play the field. Strict marital fidelity is a must.
And as far as the
family goes, verse 6 says: believing children not open to the charge of
being wild and disobedient. The
church is not just the Bride of Christ, it’s also the Family of God. And if someone can’t effectively lead
their own family, they shouldn’t be trying to lead God’s family. Now obviously as with any principle in
any walk of life, this becomes tricky in the application. What counts as wild and
disobedient? How old do children
have to be before they’re responsible for themselves? If an elder has a 40 year old son who
turns to Islam, should he resign?
Don’t think so. But Paul
doesn’t give us hard and fast rules for all that, that’s not the
point. The point is inspect
the home life. Inspect the
home life. Because that will
speak volumes about whether a person is leadership material.
In general our culture
thinks that the private lives of our leaders are no-one’s business, as
long as they do the job. But
according to the bible, when it comes to church leadership – the home
life is the first thing you look at. A man who is not faithful to or who mistreats his own bride
must not be trusted with Christ’s bride.
A man unable to lead his own family is not ready to lead God’s
family. Inspect the home life.
Verses 6 and 7 also
mention that word blameless. It’s
a word that means ‘above reproach’.
It means, people should not be able to sustain a serious
allegation against a leader. What
kind of allegations should they be free from? Well verse 7 fleshes that out
Not
overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent,
not pursuing dishonest gain.
There a five things here. Let me put them in my own words just
briefly.
First ‘not overbearing’ literally means not self-pleasing. It’s arrogance. Paul says – arrogance has no place in
Christian leadership. Jesus is
the Ultimate Leader who served, bled and died for His people. Our leadership is not the the proud
self-serving of the world, but the servant leadership of Jesus. NOT arrogant.
Then, ‘Not
quick-tempered’. This describes
an angry person. They don’t
necessarily lose it all the time.
They could be very passive aggressive, they might be able to keep
a lid on it most of the time. But
they’re easily slighted, brooding, sullen. Seething with anger.
None of that in leadership.
Then Paul
says ‘no-one given to drunkenness’.
If they’ve had a problem in the past it should be out in the open,
dealt with, behind them. The church does not need the scandal of a
drunken leader.
Then, ‘Not
violent’. Literally – not one who
strikes or lashes out. This is
the person with the short-fuse whose outbursts keep everyone at bay –
whether physical outbursts (or I think we can extend this to verbal
violence too). None of that says
Paul.
And finally,
not pursuing dishonest gain. I
love the old King James translation of this: not given to filthy
lucre. Complete transparency and
trustworthiness with money.
So those are the ways an elder is to be blameless. No-one should be able to seriously
accuse them of arrogance, anger, drunkenness, violence or greed.
That’s the negative
side. Positively, verse 8, they
must be:
hospitable,
one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and
disciplined.
Hospitable literally
means a lover of strangers. It’s
not just about having fellowship with other Christians over a meal
(though it is that too– 1 Pet 4:9), it’s especially about being welcoming
to outsiders, strangers, non-Christians.
Then v8 has that great
phrase: One who loves what is good.
An elder is not to be defined just by what they don’t do. They keep clear of drink, sex, money
and power. It’s not about being
negative. No, positively elders are to be passionate and enthusiastic for
whatever can be affirmed in God’s creation. They love what is good.
And then…
‘Self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined’ all speaks of a person
walking closely with Jesus, keeping in step with the Holy Spirit and
producing His fruit in their lives.
Paul says, look for those who love the Lord and who are bearing
the fruit in their Christian walk.
That’s the godliness
Titus should be looking for in a leader.
And then – THEN – THEN
– we turn to their bible teaching skills.
And that’s in verse 9:
He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been
taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute
those who oppose it.
Holding firmly to
the trustworthy message. We hold firmly to that truth about
Jesus that saved us. And that
word for ‘hold firmly’ is elsewhere translated “grasp” (Dt 32:41);
“embrace” (Prv 3:18) “protect” (Prov 4:6); “hold fast”
(Is 56:2,4,6); “make refuge in” (Is 57:13); “be devoted to”
(Matt 6:24). That’s the
sense. A real devotion to and
protection and grasp of this truth about Jesus.
Because that’s how
we’ll encourage people, do you see in v9. We encourage believers by the sound doctrine. Literally it says we encourage
believers by ‘healthy teaching.’
Teaching full of health.
When a preacher speaks of Jesus Christ our God and Saviour who
gave Himself for us on the cross to make us His very own – that is
health-giving teaching. That is
the truth that leads to godliness.
And elders are to cleave to this gospel that saves.
The way they do that
is two-fold: they encourage
believers with the gospel and refute its opponents.
Do you see in v9 how
the elder is to encourage believers and refute opponents? They have to do
both. It’s a tough job – to say
to these people: Jesus is for
you, by His death He’s saved you, you are forgiven and cleansed, the
Father loves you as His dear child – be encouraged. Then to turn to these perverters of
the gospel and say: That is
blasphemy, that is error, that is from the pit. Repent of that teaching, it sends people to hell. I command you to turn.
The elder is to do
both those things. Encourage and
refute.
Imagine you get a job
as a courier for a pharmaceuticals company. And one day you are called to the lab to pick up a very
special delivery. You arrive at
the lab and you are told ‘We have discovered the cure for AIDS. Here it is in this vial. We want you
to take this immediately to Africa so they can duplicate it and save the
lives of millions.’ Well you take
hold of this fragile vial which is covered in yellow tape saying ‘Do not
open’ and ‘Do not break the seals.’
And you get on the next flight to Johannesburg.
But imagine sitting on
the plane and thinking: this cure doesn’t look very promising. I’m not sure it’ll be attractive to
the folk in Africa. So you think
‘I’ll spruce it up a bit. You
tear off the yellow tape, break the seals, open the vial and decide to
pour the rest of your drink in.
You stir your Coke in and put some sweetener in for good
measure. Shake it up, lose a
bit. Doesn’t matter, you made the
whole thing much more tasty.
As you arrive in
Johannesburg you’re met by a scientist desperate for this cure. She sees that the seals have been
broken and her face falls. You’ve
turned the health-giving cure into a toxic poison- and lives are lost.
That scenario is just
unthinkable isn’t it? And yet
many people entrusted with passing on the gospel tamper with it in just
this kind of way. It is the job
of the elder NOT to mess with the bible’s teaching. It is the job of the bible teacher to
be absolutely unoriginal.
To treat the good news about Jesus like the health-giving cure for
AIDS – embrace it, rejoice in it, protect it, and do not change it. And if you see anyone else changing it
you say ‘In the Name of Jesus Christ stop. Return to the original, life-giving message.’ Because the gospel saves people from a
fate far worse than AIDS.
Godly leaders are
required who protect and pass on the gospel truth – a truth that saves
and that leads to godliness.
This is Paul’s
strategy. Truth that leads to
godliness. A godliness that
becomes an advertisement for the truth.
Therefore the great need of the church is godly bible teachers.
But finally – who is
up to this challenge? Who’d be an
elder, an overseer?
Well in one sense only
one Man fits the bill. In 1 Peter
2:25 Jesus Christ is described as the Overseer of our souls. Jesus is THE Elder, THE Overseer, THE
Head of the church – He remains actively in charge of His people. He is the Overseer who is perfectly
and consistently blameless, faithful, nurturing, humble, peace-loving,
clear-thinking, other-centred, the Lover of strangers, the Lover of all
that is good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. You may have had terrible experiences
of Christian leadership in the past, let me encourage you, Jesus is not
like that and He is the active Head of His church. He is The Leader. And yet – look with me once again at
chapter 2, verse 14 –
He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to
purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is
good.
Can you imagine a
Leader so godly He gives Himself in bloody death even for the worst of
His followers? If you know that
that’s what Jesus did for you, it will make you godly – as a leader and
as a person. This is the truth – He
gave Himself for you – that will lead to godliness in leadership and in
all things. If you know this
truth, to the degree that you know it, you will be transformed.
Pray for our leaders
that we would all abandon ourselves to Jesus, to belong to Him entirely,
that we might exercise this godly, bible teaching leadership. And let’s pray for ourselves that we
would all know the truth of Jesus given for us to redeem us from all
wickedness. That this truth would lead to godliness and that our
godliness would make a great advertisement for the truth.
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