Titus 1:7-8 - Elders for Gospel Order: Christlike Character Part II

Let's take our Bible and go to the book of Titus.

The book of Titus.

If you're new here or you don't have a Bible, you can find one in the pew in front of you.

And you can find the book of Titus on page 1058.

1058.

And if you don't have a Bible, I'd like to encourage you just to take the one that's in front of you home with you as a gift from us.

We would love for you to have the Word of God in your home and in your heart.

And please accept that as a gift from us if you don't have a Bible.

Just north of California, tucked in between the hills of a city I lived in, Santa Clarita, stood in the 1920s a dam called the St.

Francis Dam.

It was a massive concrete structure holding back billions of gallons of water in order to bring sun-soaked and parked Los Angeles needed water.

And on the paper, it was an engineering marvel.

But there was only one problem.

The foundation was wrong.

The dam was anchored into unstable rock that, when you looked at it, looked very solid, but there were a lot of things wrong with it.

They shifted under pressure.

And so, shortly after the dam was built, cracks began to appear.

Warnings were raised about its instability, and those that were in charge of that engineering did everything that they could to reinforce it, to patch it, to adjust what they needed to do to make it stable, but they never dealt with the underlying problem.

The foundation was flawed.

And on the night of March 12th, in 1928, that dam broke suddenly.

And as all of those gallons of water rushed like a wall 60 miles to the ocean, it left devastation in its wake.

Small communities were absolutely wiped off the map, and over 400 people died that night.

Not because there was a great storm or an earthquake, but because a dam was built on a bad foundation.

And I've cycled past some of the rubble of that St.

Francis Dam.

And as you go into that valley, it's peaceful, it's beautiful, it's serene, it's quiet, away from all the noise of Los Angeles.

But when you know the story of what happened in that valley, you feel somber.

You look at the rubble and you see what was once what appeared to be a very stable and solid dam.

Nothing but elements of tragedy and death and destruction.

And he's writing to Titus and sent him to the island of Crete in order to do something.

Something very important, vital, foundational.

He's leaving Titus in Crete to set things in order.

And this is our third week in this book.

And I want us to look at verse 5 as he gives direct statements to him.

He's asking Titus to set things in order to make sure a foundation is put right.

The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone, and as I directed you to appoint elders in every town.

One of the most critical parts of this foundation that Paul is telling Titus to lay is the appointment of church leadership called elders here.

And Paul knew what it was like for a church not to have the right men in place.

He sends Timothy over to Ephesus in order to take care of a situation there where the wrong men had been put into church leadership.

And all of the trouble that they experienced in Ephesus, Paul wants to save the people here through Titus from.

He doesn't want the churches in Crete to face all of the trouble that Ephesus had experienced.

He wants these young churches to start well and to grow well and to be strong and mature in a way that honors Christ.

And so he sets in place, as part of this foundation, Christ-shaped men.

Men that will help the church to have a firm foundation upon which to grow, a character that will strengthen them, and a presence that will help them to be godly, healthy, stable, and even beautiful.

Last week we looked at part of this, we looked at the cracks that can appear in a person's life that disqualify them from shepherding God's people.

And this week we're going to look at the more positive elements that are in this passage of scripture.

So as we look into Titus 1 again, I want us to reflect just for a moment on what we saw last week and then move into what we're going to look at more fully in just a moment.

So look at verse 7 with me and see the contrast that Paul draws here.

He says in verse 6, an elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, with faithful children, not accused of wildness of rebellion.

And then in verse 7, as an overseer of God's household, he must be blameless.

Not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money.

So he lays out for these things that can be detrimental not only to the person's life, but to the rest of the people of God.

A man who lacks self-control, not just with drink, but in other appetites erodes his credibility and clouds his judgment.

We saw how a man who is domineering in his attitude toward others is going to be someone who wounds rather than protects the flock.

We saw how a love of money can distort ministry into something done for personal gain rather than something done out of love and sacrifice.

Paul lays down these patterns plainly because he understands the cost of what it would mean to take someone with these things in their life that are patterned by these behaviors and what kind of destructive force they would have among God's people.

And so he's telling Titus, be cautious, be aware of who you're looking at.

Because if you don't, people are going to be wounded and hurt.

The vulnerable are going to be taken advantage of.

And the witness of the gospel is going to be overshadowed by the trouble that is rising up within the church, and the name of Christ will be besmirched in the community.

So, in order to safeguard the church, he tells Titus what should not be in the life of a potential leader.

But in verse 8, he wants us to move beyond that sort of cleared path to show what ought to be patterns in a behavior.

And so he makes a deliberate turn in the passage in order to move toward those things.

Because he wants the church not just to know what not to look for, but what actually to move toward, to see the true portrait of a man whose life is built by Christ Himself.

And so he lays out this positive vision, the kind of life that reflects the heart of Christ.

He wants the church to see the beauty of what Christ can do in their own hearts as well as in their leaders, and to recognize the aroma of Christ as it grows among the whole church.

So let's look at verse 8 and see the character that Paul describes.

And I want us to see it as a composite picture, not just six elements standing on their own, not just a list of virtues that we can pick apart one at a time, though we want to examine them one at a time, but we want to see them as six shades of color that build a portrait of a man whose life has been shaped by Christ.

The first one is this hospitable in verse 8.

Hospitable.

Though that's probably included, but a lover of strangers.

It's an interesting term.

We see this all the way in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 18.

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

Abraham meets three men.

He doesn't know who they are, but he welcomes them in.

He sees that they are hungry.

And so he rushes about, and with generosity and with care and warmth and urgency, he goes about taking care of their need and welcomes them into his presence.

He is a lover of strangers.

In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 2, the church is told to show hospitality to strangers.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Royal and I yesterday were looking at uh hotels in London to spend some time in, perhaps around Christmas, when we see our two sons and their families, and knowing that they live in small places and all getting together, it might be best for Royal and I to get a hotel room.

So we're just looking at prices and places that are close to where one of my sons lives, not thinking anything other than let's get a room.

But in the day of the New Testament, inns were not those kind of places.

They were places where trouble could happen.

And so Christians, as they moved from place to place within the Roman world, they would take care of one another and they would open up their homes and give them food and lodging and provide for their needs and perhaps even help them along their way to get further down the road if they had somewhere to go.

And so the church is told to have that sense of openness and welcome, to care for the needs of others, to see them as they are, not without discernment, but with love and attention.

And so Paul here is describing hospitality.

He's not talking about, you know, uh an elder and his wife having a house open and having dinner parties every week.

He's not even talking necessarily about having a room in the house that is laid out for a guest and keeping that as a sacred spot.

He's really describing the totality of a person's attitude in this word hospitality.

Someone who's open, welcoming, attentive to the needs of others.

A person might be quiet, they may not have many people into their home, but they'll spend time in the pew with someone that they see has a need.

Or they'll have a conversation aside with another one when they discover that there's a there's a way that that person needs their input.

Hospitable elder is a man who perhaps would notice a new couple coming in, and instead of just sort of circling around the old friends, would say, I'd like to go meet that person and find out why they're here and how I can make them feel welcome.

In short, a hospitable elder is approachable.

He is a place of welcome, he makes room in his life for others, particularly in their needs.

Now, this is not just something that the elders are meant to have.

These are meant to be a composite picture of all believers as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, which means all of us are meant to take on this idea.

And it might mean having a shared meal with someone in our fellowship lunch and sitting down and saying, let's learn to know one another better.

And it might mean opening up your home.

But at the core of it all is this sense of care and welcome and attention to people in their need.

Let's go dig a little deeper in this.

The second one, not just a lover of strangers, but secondly, as it tells us here in verse 8, tells us a lover of what is good.

A lover of what is good.

Now, this is a person who is not just living according to principle, but a person whose heart is drawn to what is good, whose instincts move to what is noble, to what is wholesome, to what is life-giving.

This is a man whose life is not marked by cynicism or the sensational or the controversial.

This is not a guy who's going to spend 20 hours a day digging into conspiracy theories on Twitter.

This is a man who's a lover of good.

He delights in those things that reflect the character of God.

His affections have been shaped by grace so much that he moves to the places that display God Himself.

So we see this lover of good is sourced in God Himself.

And in Acts chapter 11, we're giving a great example of that in the person of Barnabas.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Luke describes Barnabas in this way.

He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

That's a great description.

Wouldn't that be wonderful if someone could say that about you?

A good person, full of God's Spirit and of faith.

How did he show that?

Well, when Saul, who was at those early days a persecutor of the church, came into the conversion and owned Christ as Lord and Savior.

And he comes into the church, and the rest of the church is wary.

Who is this guy?

Why is he here?

What is he going to do?

Has he come to understand more about us so he can separate us and destroy us?

Barnabas sits down with him, finds out the reality of his faith, and takes him in and encourages him and encourages the body of Christ to receive this person who was once an enemy of the gospel, but is now a servant of the gospel.

He's a lover of what is good.

He delights in what God delights in.

And this is an elder.

An elder that isn't cynical or sensational or controversial.

An elder whose instincts have been shaped by the goodness of God, who gravitates toward things that build up rather than tear down.

Someone who notices the evidences of grace in a person's life and moves toward it with words of encouragement.

Who takes aside a believer in the congregation, not to chide them, not to correct them, but simply to say, I watched you the other day praying for someone who looked like they needed a friend.

I just want to say, way to go.

That was wonderful for you to do that.

A lover of good.

Again, this is not just for elders.

This is to be a practical expression of all of us as God's people, who speak well of others, who gravitate toward areas of God's goodness and grace, that don't start our conversations with our frustrations, but rather look for ways to support and to strengthen the good.

A church that's filled with that kind of love of good is not only going to declare the gospel, it's going to display the gospel.

Now let's move a little further on.

Sensible.

Sensible, it says in verse 8.

This word speaks of sound judgment, it speaks of discernment, it speaks of a disciplined mind.

It speaks of a steadiness of thought.

It describes a person who's not impulsive or reactionary.

It describes a person who has the ability to think clearly about an issue and to think carefully through difficulties, who responds with wisdom rather than reaction.

Someone whose inner life is ordered, whose emotions and desires are not in charge.

1 Peter 4 7, believers are told to be self-controlled and sober-minded, so that they can pray and live faithfully in a world that's full of distractions and pressures and opposition.

And this is what Paul says is requisite in an elder's life.

Because a sensible elder is not going to be someone who's easily provoked.

He's not someone who's going to make decisions in haste.

He's not going to be someone who speaks without thought.

This is a person who listens before he speaks, who weighs matters, whose emotions don't dictate his actions, who has a steadiness about him that becomes a refuge and a safe place for others within the body of Christ.

And so an elder has to deal with a difficult situation or perhaps even a personal confrontation.

It's going to be a person who takes a deep breath, who says, Let me listen, who weighs the situation out before giving a response.

And his restraint and his clarity give space for people to be honest.

Again, this is not just for elderness.

This is something that God wants to build in all of us.

So you might be here saying, How can I be sensible as a believer?

Well, pause instead of responding and reacting if someone gives you a hurtful comment.

Perhaps it's someone who disciplines their time so they can spend more of that time doing something beneficial and helpful.

Or someone who resists the pull of distractions, whose emotions aren't whipping them around this way and that.

Let's go deeper into this.

The fourth one of these six, righteous.

We use righteous in a lot of different ways.

We could say, that's righteous, and say something commendatory.

Or we could say, Oh, you're righteous, and say something blameworthy about someone, as though they're too high and mighty.

But the word of God talks about righteous as someone whose lives are marked by justice and fairness and even uprightness.

This is a person who treats others rightly because they live under the righteous rule of God.

This is a life that lives out among others the kind of things that they've learned about God Himself.

Someone who's not guided by personal advantage, shifting emotions and the pressures of the moment, but wants to live a life of integrity in all the situations that they encounter.

Psalm 15, this is something I gave to my sons when they were young, is that a person walks blamelessly and does what is right and makes a promise even to their own hurt.

This is a person who trusts from the heart, and when they say something, they mean it, even if it's going to cost them.

Micah 6:8 says that God's people are to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God, showing us that righteousness is not just personal morality, but it is how we treat those around us.

Micah 6:8

In the book of Ruth, Boaz was a person who looked at Ruth and her situation, and he realized he was a near redeemer of hers.

And I can't tell you the whole story, but his interaction with her was marked by fairness, transparency.

Honor and care.

And he didn't cut corners, and he weighed out the matter and the circumstances, and at personal cost stepped into providing for her need.

This is what it means for a man to be righteous, to be trustworthy, to treat people fairly, to make decisions that are based upon God's word and God's wisdom, whose integrity builds a stability among the church.

An upright man is a man who, when he faces a personal situation that's difficult, doesn't just gravitate to the easy answer and doesn't just give favor to someone who might be a familiar friend.

It might have to say something strong to someone who's very, very close to him personally.

Even if it's uncomfortable.

Let's take a look at the next one.

Holy.

Holy.

This word talks about devotion, talks about purity, talks about reverence.

It talks about not just a withdrawal from things that are sinful, but a dedication to those things that are sacred.

It describes a life that's oriented toward God, not just away from sin, shaped by God's presence and marked by God's priorities.

1 Peter 1, all of us in 1 15 are told to be holy in all our conduct because God Himself is holy.

A holy person is not a sinless person or a perfect person, but it is a devoted person.

A person whose life has direction toward God.

And this is the portrait that Paul is painting of church leadership.

An elder is not a divided, double-minded man.

He doesn't have a private life and a public life that are not integrated.

He guards his mind, he guards his habits, he guards his affections, because he knows that holiness builds over the long term in all the little choices that are made in life.

His life, as you see it, has a weightiness and a gravity to it because it's impressive, because you see an integration of life in every aspect.

An elder is a man who, when he looks at himself, will deal quickly with any sense of bitterness or discontent that arises.

Who takes steps to guard his own soul because he needs to be in a position where he can help to guard others.

Who's not dramatic but consistent, who's credible, and his life has depth.

Again, this is not just for elders, this is meant to be for all of us.

We are to be people marked with this, that we are people who take sin seriously and don't deal with it casually.

That we might make choices of stepping away from entertainment that might be to our detriment and might dull our spiritual sensitivity and understanding.

I like what Brian says sometimes.

He says you have to know what your kryptonite is.

You have to know those things that might be the places that are weakest for you, and to set up guards.

And a church marked by holiness becomes a compelling community because holiness and devotion to God and movement toward God and his person builds a body of people that live a life that's not only good and holy, but pleasing and beautiful.

It's not marked by perfection, but it's marked by humility, sincerity, and growing obedience.

Let's take a look at the last one here.

Self-controlled.

Self-controlled.

This is a man who needs to be ordered, intentional, governed by the Spirit, rather than his impulses.

A man who is steady, whose life is shaped around what is good and wise and godly.

He's not controlled by his appetites, he's he moves forward by way of his convictions.

He's strengthened by grace.

He's committed to practices that keep him walking toward God.

We'll see in Titus chapter 2 that all of us are to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and we show in that the discipline that grace teaches us.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

It's not self-effort, but it is self-control.

Paul talks about disciplining his body in 1 Corinthians 9 27, that he might remain faithful to the ministry that had been entrusted to him.

And Nehemiah in the Old Testament is a wonderful picture of this.

As he enters into that situation in which he examines the walls and the state of Jerusalem as they were moving away from the Babylonian captivity back into the land of promise.

He examined those things and he gave way to personal gain and he stayed focused on the work that God had given him.

He disciplined himself in order to persevere in the mission that was there.

And he didn't allow the consequences and the circumstances of the moment direct him.

He didn't let fear distract him.

He didn't allow opposition to pull him off course.

He was steady and he became a source of strength for the people that he led.

This is an elder.

This is an elder who is disciplined, who can become reliable in the middle of life's storms, whose habits are done with intentionality and responsibility, who's not ruled by impulse or driven by distraction, but whose life is structured in the right direction.

This is a man who, even in busy moments, will remember to pray because he knows his heart needs to be set right when he faces the difficulties of the day.

This is a person who builds rhythms into his life in order to live responsibly in this world and to stay anchored in the Word of God.

And so when unexpected things arise, this course of life that's disciplined gives him the margin to respond and to be able to be fruitful rather than filled with frustration.

Again, this is not just for elders, this is for all of us as God's people.

To be a community of people who persevere in prayer, who remain faithful in difficulty, and who grow steadily in Christ.

Now let's pull it all together.

We've seen the contrast, and now we see the elements as they build here in the character that God paints in these six uh colors of the portrait.

But now I want us to see the cohesiveness of all of this.

If we step back just for a little bit, just a little ways away from the details of these six elements, you're going to see two different directions.

You're going to see three of them pertaining to the inward life of the prospective leader, and three of them dealing with the relationships of the prospective leader.

The inward and the outward.

The inner life that is self-controlled and holy and disciplined, traits that teach us that shepherding begins in the heart, not just in the competencies.

It begins with a person who stands before a congregation but has already gone to the quiet places of his own soul and has done a work there in the daily choices that shape his character.

But we also see the relational aspect, a person who engages with people, a person who has a posture of benefit and help and encouragement to the people of God, hospitable, a lover of good, upright.

This is a person who welcomes others into his life and delights what is in good and encourages it in others.

And so it tells us this that leadership in the church is not merely about oversight, it's about relationship.

It's about creating an environment where people can grow, where people can heal, and where people can flourish before God their Savior.

And so as we hold this together and see this composite, we're seeing this cluster of internal and relational aspects.

The man's not so focused on his personal piety that he remains distant from people, and he's not so relational that he is undisciplined and simply moves to the situations.

This is a unified portrait that shows us what spiritual maturity is in practice, so that all of us might learn what it means to be open, to be good loving, to be wise, to be fair, to be devoted, to be steady.

And when these qualities are present, people will not feel intimidated so much as welcomed by us as God's people.

They will see goodness in action, which might alleviate some of their initial suspicions.

They'll experience steadiness in a world that's full of volatility.

They'll encounter fairness where the world is all about playing favors out.

They will sense devotion in a world that's full of hypocrisy and duplicity.

And they'll observe discipline when this world is just falling over to grasp at the next passion.

This is a composite for elders, and it's a composite for God's people.

But I want us to leave us with one thought, and this is key.

We need to see where all of these come from.

They come from Christ Himself.

Passage doesn't say it here directly.

Other passages in Titus unpack that, and when we get to those, we'll we'll look at those more fully.

But what Paul is pointing Titus to look out for in the prospective leaders that are going to be in this place of building the foundation of a young church.

Hospitality, a lover of good, sensible, upright, holy, and disciplined.

He wants them to recognize that these things flow out of the life of Christ in a person.

And they show the transforming power of the gospel.

Paul is telling Titus don't look for extraordinary men, but look for ordinary men who've been transformed by an extraordinary Savior.

Because Christ is the one who welcomes not just strangers, but sinners.

Christ is the one who loves what is good and embodies goodness in all of its fullness.

Christ is the one who lived out his life with perfect self-control and wasn't ruled by impulse or fear.

Christ is the one who was upright in every way and dealing with every person with justice and compassion.

Christ is the one who is holy, who is set apart in his devotion to do the will of the Father.

And Christ is the one who ordered his life around the will of God.

These qualities are not just arbitrary and they're not just utilizing benefits.

They're Christ-like.

He's the one who is calling these men, he is the one who is conforming these men to his likeness, and he's the one who constrains these men to be serviceable among the body of Christ.

Now, what do we learn from this?

Well, first of all, one thing we need to learn is that elders are not built overnight.

What we're talking about is something that takes time.

Time to walk with Christ, time to move away from sin and the repenting of it, learning wisdom, being shaped by grace, who allows the Word of God and the Spirit of God to move them to new places of who they are.

It takes time.

But we also learn from this that the same spirit that's conforming these men to Christ's likeness is the same spirit that's conforming us.

And thus, these are the marks of a church that is controlled by grace.

Remind us that the Christian life is not lived in our own strength, but it's derived through the strengthening of God Himself as He builds our life closer and closer to what it means to be like our Savior.

And one other thing that we learn from this is that the church's hope is not based ultimately on the perfection of their leaders.

Though having consistent men of integrity is important, our sufficiency doesn't lie on them, it lies on Christ Himself.

Because men fail.

Men grow weary, men need correction, men need encouragement, men need counsel.

And all of the elders will be exactly that.

Ordinary men who grow weary, who fail at times, who need correction, who need encouragement, who need counsel.

But there's one thing we can say the chief shepherd is always faithful, he is always loving, he is always upright, he is always a lover of strangers, he's always a lover of what is good.

And so when we look at Titus chapter 1, it's important that we understand the foundation that God is laying here.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

Now, foundations are not fun to look at.

You go you go to a building site and you see the construction all around you, and you kind of want to peek through there and say, What's going on inside there?

And you go, that's just a hole in the ground.

With all of this rebar sticking up into the air, and it looks ugly.

But how important is it for that building to be safe and stable and secure, not only for the first day it's built, but for generations even after?

And so Paul here is laying a foundation to stabilize and secure the future, the long-term stability of the people of God on Crete.

And he gives us the instructions so that we and New Hyde Park in 2026 might continue to be a church that is built upon a solid foundation, who is strengthened by the beauty of the gospel, alive and on display in the men who lead.

That all of us might grow up together into Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior.

And once we are, we'll be the kind of people God wants us to be in displaying Him in our generation, that we might shine as lights, as Paul said in Philippians 2, among a generation that's just too twisted.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you that we're not left to our own devices and our own thoughts about what leadership entails within the body of Christ.

But we're given a vision of grace.

And the encouraging news that you're building your people and that you're shaping your church, and that you're already among our body, forming those who lead.

And you're doing this so that we might stand firm, that we would be a people that aren't cracking, crumbling, divided, collapsing under pressure, but resting in you, because you've shaped us so that we might be strong.

And so, Father, I pray that you'd give us leaders who embody this portrait, that you would make us a congregation that widely reflects these same graces, and that we might give praise to Christ Himself, who is the foundation upon which we stand, the very strength by which we grow, and the very beauty that shines through us for the glory of your name.

And we ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.