Paul's Team | Titus 3:12-15

Well, I want you to slip on a pair of first century

sandals this morning. We talk about putting on

the sandals of biblical characters to try to

put us in the historical context of scripture.

So put those sandals on, go back in your mind

to a time when Rome dominated the Mediterranean

world. In fact, so much so that back in that

day, Romans would call the Mediterranean Sea

the Roman Lake. That's how much they owned that

territory. Go back in your mind to the time when

Greek philosophy and the gods of Olympus ruled

over the intellectual and spiritual world. Back

to a time when Christianity was a new religion,

a relatively minor offshoot of Judaism. But its

followers had this audacious claim, right, that

their rabbi and teacher, an obscure Galilean

Jew named Jesus of Nazareth, was the Messiah

that had been promised in the ancient Hebrew

scriptures. And the claim was that he had been

crucified by the Romans as an enemy of the state,

but three days later had bodily come back to

life, literally walked out of a tomb. That's

quite a claim. And then several years later,

another obscure Jewish man known by his Greek

name, Paul, a man who was raised in the city

of Tarsus on the southern... coast of Asia Minor,

this Paul had had a personal encounter with the

risen Jesus, and he was subsequently commissioned

to take Jesus' message to every place in the

Gentile Greek world around the Mediterranean

Sea. Now, I don't know if you've ever thought

about this, but step back for a second and think

about that calling and mission for a moment.

Now, we don't know what Paul looked like. I like

that picture. It just helps. Sometimes we see

names on the flat page and it's hard for us to

picture that this was a real man. And so I like

that picture. But I want you to step back and

think about that calling and that mission that

Jesus gave to Paul. How do you develop that strategy?

How do you develop a strategy to take a theological

message and spread it across thousands of miles

of territory in the first century? We take it

for granted in the church world today because

we have so many tools that we can use to spread

the gospel. How did he do it? Remember, you have

no rapid transportation. You have no highways,

no cars, no jets, not even a bicycle. You have

no mass media, no printing press, no newspaper,

obviously no internet, no phones to communicate

with team members. You'd have to walk everywhere

or ride an animal. Sometimes you'd have to get

on a rickety boat and hope you survived. You'd

have to write letters by hand. Anybody, old guys,

remember that? You'd have to write letters by

hand and then have them hand delivered, which

would usually take months if your messenger could

actually find the person the letter was addressed

to. We take that for granted too, like how do

we bump into people in the ancient world without

phones? And with that backdrop and all those

limitations, consider again what Paul was tasked

to accomplish on behalf of the gospel. Start

by building a team of like -minded men who are

mature enough in the faith to be able to go with

him to teach and disciple others, but also courageous

enough to turn their back on their old way of

life and risk everything, their very lives. for

the sake of this mission. To start in Syria and

Antioch and to go out with your team, travel

west across Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia and

beyond, perhaps all the way to Rome and even

Spain, plant churches in every region that you

visit, then leave team members behind to sort

of get things started, instructing them to raise

up others to stabilize and build the fellowships

and the teaching in those churches. Then keep

checking on all those churches. Keep checking

on your friends and your ministry partners as

you push forward into new territory. And on top

of all that, constantly address a whole litany

of problems that were sure to pop up. The threat

of persecution. The worry of false teachers coming

into these brand new churches and creating confusion.

The pull of the pagan world to draw people back

away from the faith. And of course, disunity

even within. the body of believers. Can you fathom

the enormity of the mission that Paul was given?

Huge. And again, without any of the modern day

conveniences that we rely upon to plant churches

and to do missions, even just to oversee a local

church like this one. Absolutely amazing. Well,

this morning we're wrapping up our study in Titus

and we're gonna look at just a few verses at

the very end of the letter. And these are verses,

if we're honest, most Christians just kind of

ignore or read right past because they want to

get on to the next book of the Bible. And at

first glance, they do just look like some personal

notes from Paul about his team members. But in

truth, they hold some really important principles

for us to learn from because they give us a window

into how Paul was actually able to reach so much

of the ancient world with the gospel, even in

the first century. So grab your Bibles. If you

haven't opened to Titus, let's go there. In fact,

I want you to go back to the very top. Go back

to chapter one. I was thinking last night about

the very beginning of this preaching series.

We started this series back on January the 12th

of this year. And it's funny, when the elder

team, we were planning out 2025, and when they

asked me, they said, well, Jeff, how long do

you think? will be in Titus. And I remember it

took like a day to sort of look over the book,

sort of quickly. And I said, came back, I guesstimated

three months, maybe four months. Well, guess

what? It's taken me twice that long. And that's

okay, right? That's one of the beauties of Oak

Hill. We're not in a rush. Jesus can come back.

We're just going to keep preaching through books

of the Bible at the pace that we need to keep

preaching. It is what it is, right? Isn't that

one of the beauties? We're not so structured

and formatted that we just have to stay on task.

God's good to us in that sense. So yeah, it's

not a long book, but it's taken us six months.

And now, having come to the end of the series

and looking back, I can see why I underestimated

it. Because when you really dive deep into this

and you study it and you do the research, you

see so many things you didn't see at first. And

there were so many... parts of the series where

I looked at it and thought, I can get through

that section in one Sunday, and then it turned

out to be three, which is okay again, right?

I read this great quote from a scholar that described

this perfectly. Here's what he wrote about Titus.

Quote, it's a condensed epistle that when you

mix it with the water of exegesis, it begins

to expand and expand and expand. And that's what

I think we have found together in this study

of Titus. There's so much packed into this short

letter. Now, when we finish a preaching series,

it's always interesting to go back to that first

week and look at how we introduce the book. And

you might recall in the first Sunday, the second

Sunday, we walked through a whole history of

Crete, which is where Titus was sent. And we

looked at the timeline of Paul's travels during

the last few years of his life. And we should

remember what a difficult assignment it was that

Paul gave to Titus, sending him to Crete, right?

Very difficult assignment. Why? First of all,

he had to straighten out churches all over this

island, not a small island, right, about 160

miles across, not a small place, go straighten

out all the churches in this place that has this

sort of creepy, dark, pagan past, going back

to ancient peoples, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans,

and a place where people, the people who lived

there in Titus' day had built this. awful reputation

in the Greek world as being lazy, gluttonous,

irritable, and full of deceit. Other than that,

wonderful people, right? So just again, let me

just show you, this was the map we started with

and to get our, you knew I was gonna do some

maps today, right? It had to happen. I got some

pictures too. So we start with, where's Jerusalem,

right? The blue dot. And then where's Rome? The

red dot, just so that we get our boundaries here.

The orange dot there is Syria and Antioch. That's

where Paul launched his missionary journeys from.

That's important to know as well. And then circled

there is the island of Crete. This is where Titus

was sent to minister. So that's important to

see. Now, what does Crete look like? We talked

about this in the first week. It's really a beautiful

island, very mountainous. It's not tropical.

It's very mountainous, as you can see there.

That's a monastery. Beautiful coastline. I'm

not a travel agent, by the way. But I understand

that Josh Smith can help you if you want to go

to Crete. Josh, there he is. Our resident travel

agent can help you if you want to visit Crete.

I hear it's beautiful. Beautiful ruins there.

The ancient Minoan palace at Knossos is there.

Some of the dark pagan background you see in

the frescoes that are found in that palace. And

there is, of course, a church of St. Titus. on

the island of Crete that's still standing from

the first century. So anyway, that's just as

a refresher so that you can remember exactly

what we looked at. Now, remember the timeline

of Paul's life here. He was first taken to Rome.

Remember, Paul was arrested and taken to Rome

twice. The first time he was taken to Rome, he

was placed under house arrest. I'll go back to

the picture. under house arrest in the year 61

to 63. That is the period of his life where he

wrote what we call the prison epistles. He wrote

letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians

and to the Philippians and a letter to Philemon

while he was in prison. Then he was released

from custody, and we know that between the years

63 and 65, he traveled extensively around the

Mediterranean, spent quite a bit of time on the

western coast of Asia Minor, went to places like

Miletus and Corinth and Ephesus. And then, while

somewhere in Macedonia, he wrote pastoral letters

to Timothy and to Titus before getting rearrested,

taken to Rome a second time. And that time, he

didn't survive it. He was executed somewhere

around the year. Now, when Paul was writing to

Timothy and Titus, it seems likely that he knew

that his time on earth was growing short. So

the purpose of those two pastoral letters, 1

Timothy and Titus, was to prepare the next generation

of church leadership, these younger guys, these

protégés that he had been discipling in the ministry,

to get them as equipped as possible to carry

out the mission once he had passed from the earth.

And that makes the letters to Timothy and Titus

both extremely practical in their instructions

about how to plant and oversee churches, but

throughout what you also see is incredibly important

theological truths that are conveyed to us even

today. So as we wrap up our study this morning

in this book, here's my assignment for you. Here's

what I want you to do as we spend some time together.

I don't want you just to listen this morning.

for what Paul had to say to Titus in the first

century. That's important, right? We always want

to find the historical meaning in the context

it was written, but I want you to think about

how this letter might impact us here at Oak Hill

in the modern time. And I want you to think about

what we're going to see in the text commands

you and I to be and to do as members of Christ's

body. here in santa clarita there's a lot for

us to learn so let me go to the outline this

is a very simple outline that i laid out i think

in in week two of our study up three chapters

is all titus is three chapters with three distinct

applications you see there in chapter one the

focus was godly leadership in the church remember

paul started by telling titus exactly what he

needed to look for when he got to crete to go

from church to church and appoint elders in every

city he said right out of the gate titus get

there, I need you to straighten things out, and

the fastest way to do that is to appoint elders

in every single church. And he lists this group

of character qualifications that Titus would

have to locate within those local churches so

he could establish qualified leaders. He needed

men who were above reproach, which, you think

about it, was probably not that easy back in

the first century in Crete. Men who are above

reproach in the manner of life, able to hold

fast to the faithful apostolic teaching that

had been passed down. And there was a reason

for this. Not only were these Cretans and they

had this terrible reputation, but he goes on

to talk about how the Cretan churches had been

infiltrated by false teachers. And Titus needed

to appoint elders who could do two things, stand

up. and exhort the believers in sound doctrine,

but also refute these men who were coming in

who were contradicting the truth. So establishing

strong spiritual leadership was job number one.

It was crucial that these false teachers would

be confronted and dealt with, not just by Titus,

but by the elders that he established, and that

the churches be protected from these men coming

in and spreading their poison. By the way, is

that still important today? You better believe

it. This is one of the things elders have to

be able to do. Not just teach the word, but refute

those who contradict. Then if you turn over,

if you want to follow along in your Bible, turn

over to chapter 2. We see godly saints in the

home. Remember how Paul laid out instructions

for Titus. Titus, I want you to teach these five

unique categories of people in the churches in

Crete. Remember, he started with older men. Tell

them to do this. Then older women, then young

women, then young men, and then bond slaves.

And each group was given very specific areas

of character development that they should seek

to grow in. And then Paul gave Titus the reason

why that development was so important, because

Christ had laid down his life in order to what?

Redeem and purify a people for his own possession.

What does that mean for us? Listen, we are a

part of his body, are we not? He laid down his

life for you and I to redeem us and to purify

us as a people that belong to him. And so all

of us fit into one of those five categories that's

in chapter two here. And so the instruction was,

these are the character development areas that

we all need to be growing in. This is still true

today. And therefore, We should deny ungodliness.

We should deny unworldly desires, Paul writes,

so that we adorn the gospel with our lives. What

a high calling that is. Consider your life. Consider

your testimony in this valley. Are you adorning

the gospel in every way as a testimony to unsaved

people all around you? That was true in Crete

in the first century. It's true in Santa Clarita

in the 21st century. It's the responsibility

of every believer in every age. Here in this

part of the world that we live in, we need to

show our neighbors what a redeemed and purified

life in Christ looks like. So when you look at

Titus, instantly you think this is a pastoral

letter, and that is true. But it's also evangelistic.

It tells us how we can use the unity of the church

and the purity of the church and our love for

one another as a means of pointing people to

the saving power of Christ. Isn't that beautiful?

The unity of the church, the purity of the church,

our love for one another as a means of saying

this is what it looks like to know Christ. What

a high calling we have. And flip over to chapter

three, we have godly citizens in society. Once

again, Paul is concerned about the witness of

believers in the Cretan churches, and he wants

to tell them this is the way you should operate

in this society you live in, which I know is

wicked. But this is how you should function.

And Paul's counsel was this. First of all, submit

yourself to those who are in authority. Christians

have a hard time with this, don't we? Submit

yourself to those in authority. Be good citizens.

Second, don't be combative with sinners. Be peaceful.

Be gentle in the way you share your faith. And

third, always be ready to engage in good deeds

that's going to benefit the communities that

you live in. What an amazing mission -minded

set of principles that is, right? Things that

we can take for ourselves today. And then Paul

lays out this beautifully condensed version of

the gospel in verses four through seven, and

we took several weeks to work through this. He

starts with our past, right? This is who we once

were, every one of us, before we came to know

the redeeming power of Christ. We were all foolish,

he said, just like every Cretan out there. Every

one of us was all foolish at one point. We were

disobedient, and we were deceived, and we were

driven by lust, and we were filled with hatred.

But, he writes, then God saved us. And what a

but that is, right? We talked about it. But then

God saved us. We were foolish. We were all those

things. So before you go out and judge all the

Cretans around you, you were once one of them,

but then God saved you. Now, how did he save

you? according to the goodness in you. Not according

to your works, but what? According to his mercy.

What an important principle, right? He brought

our spiritually dead souls to life. He cleansed

us from all sin and then he justified us in his

sight, seeing us as pure and holy in his eyes.

And then Paul says in verse eight, Titus, these

are trustworthy things. And I want you to go

out and I want you to, to teach and preach these

things in the churches in Crete. Teach them over

and over and over again. Make sure the elders

in those churches are teaching this gospel truth

because this is what the people of God need to

know and understand. Now, last Sunday, we started

looking at the beginning of the end of the letter,

the beginning of Paul's final thoughts. First,

he told Titus what to do when he comes up against

people. We find people like this in the church

today, people who just want to stir up controversy.

They just love the drama of conflict. And he

says in verse 9, but avoid foolish controversies

and genealogies and strife and disputes about

the law. Why? Because they're unprofitable and

worthless. I feel like that's just a description

of social media. Moronic debates, moronic arguments.

So what does he say? Avoid these people. And

the word there just means turn around and walk

away from it. It's not worth your time and energy.

Just turn around and walk away. Don't engage

in foolish or moronic debates and arguments.

Next, Paul instructs Titus on what to do when

divisive people come into the church. Folks that

are coming in with bad intent, seeking to do

damage to the unity of believers. Verse 10, reject

a factious man, he writes, after a first and

second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted.

He's twisted. He's turned inside out, and he's

sinning, being self -condemned. So warn them

to stop and repent of that type of divisive talk.

If they refuse, warn them again, right? Make

it your goal to try to turn them towards repentance

and unity before you have to take this last step,

which is what? Ultimately, if they refuse, reject

them. Put them out of the fellowship as an act

of love. protecting the rest of the believers.

We can't allow divisive people to stay in the

body if they won't turn and repent. We should

be patient with that, warn and warn, but ultimately

we have to put folks like that out of the body.

Okay, finally we come to some encouraging final

thoughts. Those were rough, right? Controversial

people, factious people. Let's look at our passage

for this morning. This is some more encouraging

stuff. Look at verse two. 12 and chapter 3. When

I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every

effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have

decided to spend the winter there. Diligently

help Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way

so that nothing is lacking for them. Our people

must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet

pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful.

All who are with me greet you. Greet those who

love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

Okay, again, you can look at those and go, that

seems kind of meaningless, just sort of practical.

But there's some great stuff here. Notice we

have four names here that come down to us in

Scripture. By the way, imagine having your name

on the tip of the tongue of the Holy Spirit as

he inspires the writers of Scripture. Your name

etched for all eternity. in God's word. Amazing,

right? These are four precious members of Paul's

ministry team. Again, we sometimes forget these

are real people with real lives who are going

through the real ups and downs of life in the

ancient world, the ups and downs of ministry,

both the heartaches and the victories, all of

it. These are very real people. Each of these

men committed to changing the world. By giving

of themselves to serve alongside the great apostle.

Each man sort of a key player on the chessboard

in the spiritual battle for the souls of men.

Each of them being moved around the world by

Paul who's acting like sort of a general under

the direction of Christ himself. Developing this

strategy, executing this strategy to get the

gospel message all over the Mediterranean world.

So let's first of all, let's look at these first

two names there. When I send Artemis or Tychicus

to you, Titus, make every effort to come to me

at Nicopolis, for I have decided to winter there.

Okay, how do we, we're my Greek students. How

do we actually pronounce these names? I always

struggle with this. We have an English -American

way of pronouncing these names, and then there's

the actual Greek way. And I always debate about

which way we should do it. How do we pronounce

these names? Artemis, right? Not Artemis, but

Artemis. And then Tychikos would be the right

way to pronounce his name. We say Tychikos, we

say Tychikos. There's like 14 ways to, anyway.

But these are amazing men, right? Paul's telling

Titus, look, I'm going to send you one of these

two guys. At some point in the future, I'm going

to send at least one of them, and they're going

to come to Crete, and they're going to find you.

Now, again, let's be reminded, where is Paul

writing from when he says this? Green dot. Okay?

Macedonia. Somewhere up in Macedonia, possibly

in Philippi. So you see where Crete is circled

there. He's up in the green dot up in northern

Greece, what we call Macedonia. And he's saying,

look, Titus, I'm going to send a relief pastor

to you. It'll be either Artemis or Tychicus.

Not sure which one just yet. He's developing

that strategy, but one of them is going to come

and he's going to take your place there in Crete.

And when he arrives, I want you to brief him

on your progress. I want you to get him acclimated,

introduce him to the key leaders. And then Titus,

I want you to start traveling north and meet

me in Nicopolis because that's where I'm going

to sort of hunker down for the winter and we

need to talk. Now, where's Nicopolis? Well, it

depends on which one you mean. It's one of the

most common names for a city in the ancient world,

and you probably know why if you know anything

about the Greek. It means victory city. Nike

or Nike. Nike means victory in Greek, and polis

was a city. So any time a king won a great battle

in the ancient world, he'd be likely to establish

and build a city in that spot and call it...

Nicopolis, victory city, so that he could commemorate

that moment. But the Nicopolis that Paul's talking

about here, we're pretty sure, is a city located

on the coast of a province of Greece called Epirus.

It was a Roman colony and a commercial seaport

that was founded back in 31 B .C. by, of all

people, Caesar Augustus. He had fought a great

battle there, the Battle of Actium against Mark

Antony and Cleopatra. It won this great victory,

this naval battle in 31 BC, and so this city

became known as Nicopolis. It's the yellow dot

there. So now you have sort of the direction

here. Paul's riding from the green dot down to

Crete and saying, meet me there at the yellow

dot in Nicopolis. Does that make sense? Good.

So Paul's going to stay there for the winter.

He wants somebody to replace Titus so that Titus

can come and spend some time with him. Why? Why

do they need to meet? Well, we're not given reasons,

but we can speculate. First of all, Paul loves

Titus with a great heart. And I'm sure he wanted

to fellowship with him and spend time with his

protege. I'm sure he was dying to hear about

all the progress that was being made in the churches

in Crete. Remember, Titus couldn't wake up some

morning and text Paul. Things are going really

well here, right? Or call him. Getting news in

the ancient world would have been so difficult.

So you can imagine when you have a heart for

somebody and you know they're out there doing

ministry work, you want to get good news. And

so I'm sure he wanted, meet me in Nicopolis.

We're going to talk through everything that happened.

And then the other logical reason for meeting

with Titus would be that they wanted to do some

future planning. Okay, so I'm done with my assignment

in Crete. Somebody's replaced me. Now where am

I going? Paul, what's the next mission you have

for me? And what's cool about this, it's so fun

to go through the books of the New Testament

and piece together the relationships and all

the movements of these people. We know exactly

where Titus went next. In Paul's last letter

to Timothy, 2 Timothy, he says that he sent Titus

to a place called Dalmatia. Dalmatia is modern

-day Albania. And you can guess I have a dot

for it. The purple dot. Modern -day Albania.

This is where eventually Titus is sent. And guess

what? His name disappears from the record after

that. Now, we don't know what happened. I'm not

saying he died. We don't know. He just continued

to minister, perhaps in that region. But the

last thing we hear of Titus, he's up there in

Dalmatia. Are you getting the chessboard? It's

okay to talk to the preacher. It's okay. All

right, what do we know about these two men? Well,

this is the only time that Artemis is found anywhere

in Scripture. Definitely has a Greek name, so

he was probably a Gentile convert to Christianity,

probably under the preaching or teaching of Paul

at some point, possibly part of a place where

Paul planted a church. And this would have been

a man that Paul would have seen great promise

in. The fact that he was willing to send Artemis

to replace Titus in such a difficult location

as Crete tells us that he must have been a very

competent, faithful leader. And based on future

events, it seems that Paul did end up sending

Artemis to Crete. And we know that because Paul

ended up, we have actual scripture that tells

us that Paul decided to send Tychicus to Ephesus.

So that appears to be what Paul did from Macedonia.

I want Tychicus to go to Ephesus, and Artemis,

I want you to go to Crete. But that's all we

really know about this one guy. Now, Tychicus

is well -known to us. Let's put these names up

again. Tychicus is well -known to us. He's mentioned

in five different New Testament books. Acts,

Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Timothy, and here in

Titus. Also a Gentile believer, by the way. And

we know he was from the western coast of Asia

Minor. He and Timothy... had traveled with Paul

on his third missionary journey. You'll find

his name in Acts chapter 20 during Paul's missionary

Acts 20 · chapter mention

journey. Later, he was with Paul while he was

under house arrest in Rome. So when Paul was

under house arrest, he was able to take visitors,

and Tychicus was one of those men that came to

minister to Paul while he was in chains. What's

cool about this man is he is the guy who then

leaves Rome with the original letters. written

to the Ephesians and the Colossians. He is the

messenger. Now, again, how cool would it be to

have the original letters written by Paul in

your backpack? Divinely inspired word of God

written out in your backpack for delivery to

some other place in the ancient world. I wonder

how much he understood that mission, exactly

what he was doing at that time. I still want

to meet all these people in heaven, right? I

want to hear all the stories. We have all eternity

to hear the stories, right? But wow, this guy

was carrying those letters. And so here's how

Paul commends him in the letter to the Colossians.

He says, as to all my affairs, Tychicus, our

beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow

bondservant in the Lord, he will bring you information.

So it wasn't just bringing the letter, but when

you get there, Tychicus, Tell the church about

all that's happening. This is the way they communicated

back then. Tell the church how I'm doing while

I'm under house arrest in Rome. Let them know

I'm okay, that the ministry's continuing, that

the gospel is spreading. And also, Tychicus is

mentioned at the end of the Ephesians letter.

He says to the Ephesians, but that you also may

know about my circumstances, how I'm doing, Paul

writes. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful

minister in the Lord, will make everything known

to you. I have sent him to you for this very

purpose so that you may know about us and that

he may comfort your hearts. This is an important

guy on Paul's ministry team. As I said a moment

ago, Paul later sent him to Ephesus on a more

permanent basis. Tychicus becomes the guy who

relieves Timothy as pastor in that city so that

Timothy could possibly get back to Rome to visit

with Paul before he was executed. Now, let me

share with you one last passage that Paul wrote

to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4. This is the very end

of his life. I want you to listen for Paul's

state of mind as he's facing death. He knows.

At this point, he is not going to escape Rome

again, that his execution is coming. And what

is he concerned about? He's concerned about his

ministry partners, his guys, his team, and what's

happening, where they've gone, right? And you

get a sense that in these last days, he's feeling

sort of lonely because he loves these men. with

such a loving heart. And he wants to see Timothy.

He wants to talk to Timothy before the inevitable

happens. So this is what he writes. He says,

make every effort to come to me, Timothy, soon.

Now look at this. Look how heartbreaking this

is. For Deimos, having loved this present world,

has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Heartbreaking.

One member of the team walked away from the Lord

and abandoned Paul. But then Crescens has gone

to Galatia. That's good news. Titus to Dalmatia.

Only Luke is with me. He's the last one with

Paul at his execution. Only Luke is with me.

By the way, Timothy, pick up Mark along the way

and bring him with you for he's useful to me

for service. But Tychicus I have sent. to Ephesus.

So man, we get all these incredible liner notes

here about all of this team members and where

they're headed and what's going on. But you can

sense in Paul this sort of foreboding feeling

that this is the end and I miss my guys. I miss

my guys. All right, let's look at the other half

of the team mentioned here in Titus 3. Look at

verse 13. Diligently help Zenos, the lawyer,

and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking

for them. Now, these two men were the guys who

brought Paul's letter to Titus and Crete. They

were the messengers who came with this letter

that we've been studying now for the last six

months. These two guys. Zenos is like Artemis.

This is the only time his name is mentioned in

Scripture, but as far as I know, he's the only

lawyer. I was gonna make a lawyer joke there,

but I'm learning to show restraint. He's the

only lawyer we find in the church in the first

century. But like Tychicus, don't throw things

at me. Like Tychicus, we actually know a lot

about Apollos. He's found in three different

books in the Bible. We're introduced to him in

Acts chapter 18 in a relatively remarkable way.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Let me share some of this so you can get a feeling

for who Apollos was. It says, Acts 18, now a

Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth. So

think about that. He's Jewish, but he's born

down in Egypt in Alexandria. An eloquent man.

He came to Ephesus and he was mighty in the scriptures.

So this is a, Apollo says, you read about him,

extremely gifted man. He combines the two things

you need to be an effective preacher. He is skilled

in rhetoric and he has a strong grasp of the

scriptures, which by the way, would have been

a reference to the Old Testament scriptures,

right? The Hebrew scriptures mostly. And then

we find out in the next verse that he also has

the necessary passion for ministry. It says,

this man had been instructed in the way of the

Lord and being fervent in spirit. He was speaking

and teaching accurately the things concerning

Jesus. And that is all very high praise, isn't

it? This is a gifted man. But then we see a limitation,

being acquainted only with the baptism of John.

What does that mean? Well, it means that he was

only familiar with that original baptism of repentance

that John the Baptist was preaching about prior

to the public ministry of the Messiah. Apollos

hadn't yet heard about the baptism of the Holy

Spirit that comes with salvation in the name

of Christ. And that gets fleshed out in the next

chapter in Acts chapter 19. So he was limited

Acts 19 · chapter mention

in that. So it says, he began to speak out boldly

in the synagogue. Notice there he seems to have

a specific ministry to the Jews in the synagogue.

But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they

took him aside. and explain to him the way of

God more accurately. So this is a mature husband

and wife team in the church of Ephesus. They

recognize in Apollos that he is incredibly gifted,

but there's a gap in his knowledge. So they pull

him aside and they teach him privately and disciple

him to fill in that knowledge gap. Verse 27,

and when he wanted to go across to Achaia, that

is Apollos, the brethren encouraged him. And

they wrote to the disciples to welcome him. And

when he had arrived, he greatly helped those

who had believed through grace, for he powerfully

refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by

the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. So

again, we see him challenging his fellow countrymen,

the Jews, letting them know, this is your Messiah.

He's come. Receive him. Interestingly, all of

this information about Apollos, he's one of those

guys, books and books have been written about

him. And if you combine what we learn about here,

first of all, his eloquence and the way he speaks,

his grasp of Old Testament scripture, and his

heart for his fellow Jews, this is what leads

some people, some people, to believe that he

is ultimately the author of the book of Hebrews.

Now, I'm not making a declaration. I'm not saying

I know that for sure, but I'm just telling you

it's a very interesting theory out there. Many

believe that Paul wrote it, but in my opinion,

based on the historical considerations, based

on the internal content of the letter itself

and the writing style, it's possible that this

was the man who wrote the book of Hebrews. We'll

find out in heaven, won't we? Elder team, we'll

discuss next week. Okay. Before we move on, note

once again Paul's instructions to Titus about

these two team members. Back to verse 13. He

says, listen, Titus, Zanus and Apollos are bringing

you this letter. Just know that this has been

a long journey for them. They're going to be

exhausted. So what? Make sure that nothing is

lacking for them, he writes. You see it? In other

words, receive them and show them hospitality.

Supply them with whatever they need before they

have to move on to the next assignment I give

them. Whatever it is they need, it might be spiritual

encouragement, it might be physical needs, food,

housing, whatever it is, Titus, you take care

of them. This is what the body of Christ does

for each other, right? This is what we do. This

is the kingdom mindset that every single one

of us ought to have for our brothers and sisters.

Now, look at verse 14. Paul says, our people

must also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet

pressing needs, so that they will not be what?

Unfruitful. Now, let's read that verse in relation

to the previous one. When Paul says our people,

he's talking about believers. By extension, he's

talking to every believer in this room today.

He's talking about church members like you and

me. And he's talking about the responsibility

that we have towards one another. Just as Titus

was to make sure that Zanus and Apollos had everything

they needed, every single church member, even

today, is to respond to every other believer

in this same way, to meet practical needs. What

do our fellow brothers and sisters need? Do they

need spiritual encouragement? Do they need material

stuff, right? Do they need a meal, a ride somewhere,

a place to sleep? Whatever it is. Are we open

to meeting those needs? And this is something

that I think we do really well here at Oak Hill.

We really do. I think you guys get this. And

where this shows up often is on Church Center.

If you don't have the app, get on the app. Because

this is where pressing needs pop up. People are

like, hey, I need this. I could use a meal. I

need a ride to the airport, right? And folks

just jump in. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

As a pastor, I just sit back there and smile.

I look at it and go, oh, this is so sweet. This

is so great. That need got met in five minutes.

And it was like, I need to ride to the airport

at 2 a .m. Five minutes later, somebody's like,

I got you. Now, is everybody at Oak Hill doing

that? No. It seems that the same. continue to

pop up, the people that are meeting needs. So

I want to encourage all of you guys. This is

the spirit of service that every single member

of this church ought to have. It ought to be

a race. Hey, I want to jump on that need first.

I want to beat others to it. Not just a handful

of people, but all of us should be meeting needs

that pop up. By the way, this is the fifth time

in this very short letter that Paul talks about

doing good works. Look at this impressive list

of this. In chapter 2, verse 7, in all things,

show yourself to be an example of good deeds.

2 .14, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us

to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify

for himself a people for his own possession,

zealous to do good deeds. 3 .1, remind them,

Titus, to be subject to rulers, to authorities,

to be obedient, and to be ready, ready. for every

good deed. 3 .8, concerning these things, I want

you to speak confidently so that those who believe

God will be careful to engage in good deeds.

Be an example of good deeds, be zealous for good

deeds, be ready for good deeds, and engage in

good deeds. That is an impressive list of things.

So lest any of us make the mistake that has been

so common in the evangelical world over the last

30 years that one day we can just pray a prayer

and then we can go on living a lukewarm, self

-centered life, serving no one, and expect to

be saved in the end? Think again. Think again.

I said it last Sunday, and I'll say it again

today. We're not saved by good deeds, but we

are saved for good deeds. It's those good deeds.

It's those things that give evidence that we're

actually saved, that we engage, that we're zealous

for, that we're prepared, that we're ready. to

engage in good deeds on behalf of our church

family. We're to be a fruitful people, Paul says

at the end of verse 14, right? Fruitful. As believers

and members of a church family, listen now, we

should be constantly examining our priorities

to make sure that we're being fruitful, that

we're not isolated from body life. We're to stay

connected. We're to stay ready. We're to be prepared

to jump in and volunteer when pressing needs

arise. Every single one of us. Connected, ready,

and prepared. And that spirit of sacrifice has

a two -fold purpose to it. This is important.

Not only does it bless those within the church

family, but it's also a powerful witness to those

outside the church when they see how we love

each other. How we meet those needs. Remember

what Jesus said? They will know that you are

my disciples by your love for one another. And

you're like, really? By responding on church

center? Yes. Yeah, it can be that simple. Let

the world see our love for one another, the deeds

that we do for each other. So Paul's exhortation

here is simple. Pour your lives into service

to one another so that you yourself will be fruitful,

but also so that you can point people to Christ

by your life. To full purpose. Make sense? Last

verse. Here's the glue that holds it all together.

Verse 15, all who are with me greet you. Greet

those who love us in the faith. Grace be with

you all. So all the believers who are with me

up here in Macedonia, greet everybody down there

in Crete. Across the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds

of miles between them. The connection that the

believers have. I've got a group of folks over

here who love you and now you've got a group

of folks over there who love us. Do you sense

that connection, that love for believers all

over the world? It's an interesting question.

Who should you be more connected to? A brother

or sister on the other side of the world or an

unbeliever here in Santa Clarita? Who should

you feel more love for, more camaraderie with?

It's an interesting thing to consider because

we've got a bunch of believers up here in Macedonia

and we love you guys down in Crete. And I know

you've got people down there in Crete that love

us. So let's pray for each other. Let's lift

each other up. Let's look to serve each other

in whatever way we possibly can. So Paul's final

thought is love. It's love. Love for fellow believers

that is felt, that is expressed, and that is

practically lived out in good deeds. that meet

pressing needs it's really simple isn't it and

then he closes with his favorite word grace grace

be with you all because apart from god's grace

nothing in this letter can happen let that be

the bow that you tie on the end of the book of

titus without grace none of it happens amen so

let me wrap up with this is there is there a

practical takeaway for us in these Again, what

looked to be very simple verses at the end of

the letter, and I think there is. And it's rooted

in the good news of the gospel that we read about

in chapter three, right? Verses four through

seven. I mean, if you really want a passage to

highlight, put on your bathroom mirror, whatever,

chapter three, verses four through seven is it.

Based on the truth in those verses about the

beauty of the gospel, we're to live a life that

actively responds to what Christ has done for

us. Not passive, not taking it for granted, not

feeling entitled, not like, well, it's really

great that I get to go to heaven someday. No,

actively responds to that good news because unfruitfulness

is not an option for God's people. Our lives

are to be marked by consistent, sacrificial love

and service. Lives that bless our others in the

church family, lives that are a witness to unbelievers.

We engage in good deeds in the Lord's name. We

seize every opportunity that comes our way. And

sometimes, you know, look, I understand this.

People ask the question, well, what am I supposed

to do, Jeff? Well, start with this. Be prepared

for anything that comes across your table, your

desk, your vision. Anything that comes your way,

be ready. Because that's God saying, here you

go. Here's an opportunity. Start there. Become

a willing and fruitful team member. Become a

Tychicus or an Artemis or a Zanus or an Apollos

or a Luke or a Mark or any of these folks. Become

this team member. Play your role. All those names

we mentioned today, they were different human

beings with different gifts. Play your role.

Strive to be a faithful minister in the things

that God is calling you to. Friends, do you want

the secret ingredient for how Paul was able to

live out this mission? It was God the Spirit

working through men like that who were willing

and faithful. God works through people like us.

Is that not a miracle? And he worked through

those guys. And they weren't super saints. They

were just guys that said, here I am, Lord, send

me. Put their hands out and said, I'll work.

I can do that. I can get on a boat and travel

somewhere and share the gospel. That's the secret

ingredient, God the Spirit working through willing

and faithful men and women. I thought about this

yesterday, about this question. I'm not sure

I have an answer to it yet, but I'm gonna ask

you the question for you to consider. We're gonna

have some prayer time at the end of this as well

that you can ask the Lord about it. Here's the

question. Just take Tychicus as an example. What

makes a man like him? To go from being just a

new believer, an average church member in a local

church, to being this laser -focused servant

who's willing to give up every part of his life

to build the kingdom of God. Why is Tychicus

like he is? What happened in his life? How did

he get there? What makes a man like that? Think

about that for a second. Why are there so few

men and women like him? in the church today?

Why do we have so many passive church members

in churches all over this valley who just come

on Sunday for a good cup of coffee to sit in

the back of the room and then leave and say that's

Christianity? Where are the Tychicus's? That's

a hard word. When the average church runs on

the 90 -10 rule where 10 % of the believers do

90 % of the serving while everyone else sits

around and watches. Not talking about Oak Hill,

but I'm talking about churches in general, where

churches have to keep hiring more staff because

they can't motivate enough volunteers to do the

work of ministry, so they just keep hiring. Why

isn't every Christian in every church as committed

as Tychicus? This is the question that God put

in my heart. I don't know if I have the answer

to the question. Surely the gospel is great enough

to motivate every one of us to give everything

we have, right? Am I right? I think so. And by

the way, I'm grateful for God's grace because

I know I don't meet that high standard. I'm not

what I should be. But still, that's the desire

of my heart, and I hope it's the desire of every

heart here, to truly die to ourselves. To pick

up a cross, to follow after Jesus, to strive

to love the Lord your God with all of your heart

and all of your soul and all of your strength.

To see him use you mightily as he used Titus

and Artemis and Tychicus and Zanus and Apollos.

To see people come to the saving knowledge of

Christ and to see your fellow church members

built up in the faith. So here's my final challenge

for you this morning as we wrap up this study.

What are the things that prevent you from giving

everything you are and everything you have for

the sake of the kingdom? When you get to heaven

someday and you see Christ face to face, what

are you going to look back on and say, what was

I doing? What were my priorities down on earth?

How I would have loved to have given more of

myself to the work of the kingdom, to become

more like the faithful men that we studied. here

this morning? Are you willing to take even a

small step toward laying aside whatever obstacles

are in the way today to glorify the one who gave

up everything for you? What are those things

that get in the way? And are you willing to take

a step towards saying, Lord, strengthen me to

get beyond these things, to see the greatness

of the gospel in a new light and to recommit

myself 100 %? That's my goal, Lord, to serve

you and to serve the kingdom. Father, we are

encouraged and challenged by the example of Paul

and the example of Titus and the example of the

men that we read about today, Lord. And God,

I'll pray for myself. I know that it's a standard

that I want so badly for myself, but God, I let

things... Get in the way of being the man that

you want me to be. And so I pray, Lord, that

you will work in my life, work in the lives of

my brothers and sisters here, that we might become

even more committed to the things of your kingdom.

That whatever drags us down, whatever entangles

us in this life that causes us to become passive,

to become apathetic, to stop praying, to stop

studying your word, becoming inconsistent in

church attendance, to stop serving others, to

ignore needs, all these things that can so easily

drift into our lives, Lord, that we would have

the courage to ask you, God, to strengthen us,

to lay those things aside, and to put out our

hands and say, use me more and more, God. Change

me from within so that I might impact the lives

of fellow believers and impact this community.

and see people come to know Christ. Lord, like

Paul's mission, this is too big for us individually.

We know we can't do it. We can do nothing apart

from you. So God, I pray that you would light

fires in our hearts today based on the gospel,

based on what we read in this letter. Light fires

in our hearts, God, to change, to grow, to mature

in the faith, and to love others better. And

Lord, may the motivation for all that be your

glory. and the good of your people. We thank

you for our time together this morning. In Jesus'

name, amen.