To Titus

All right, well this morning we are turning the page to a new book of the Bible.

We just finished going through the book of 1 Timothy this past fall,

and now we are turning the page to the book of Titus.

Just like Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, he also wrote a letter to a man named Titus.

And if we just for a moment think of these two letters side by side,

there's some similarities between them, but there are also some differences.

These two letters both have a similar feel to them.

This letter to Titus is full of instruction to Titus about how to put things in order in the churches where Titus has been stationed.

There's also warning about false teachers and about controversies and arguments and division,

similar to the letter that Paul sent to Timothy.

There's instructions about elders and how various people ought to relate to each other in the church.

But there's also some major differences in this letter.

Paul says very little about money or wealth or social status.

It seems in Titus' area, laziness and lust and a lack of self-control are the big problems.

Everybody seems to be really focused just on their own pleasures at all costs.

And in this letter to Titus, Paul spends quite a bit of the letter talking about the gospel

and reminding them of what is this good news of what God has done according to his love and his grace and his kindness for us.

So we're going to start this morning just by looking at the first four verses of this letter

and do a little bit of an introduction, and then we'll work our way towards the Lord's table.

Let me read the first four verses for you.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect

and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness in the hope of eternal life,

which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

and which now, at his appointed season, he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me

by the command of God our Savior.

To Titus, my true son in our common faith,

grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

So this letter begins in a manner very similar to Paul's other letters.

Paul begins by introducing himself and stating who he is in the first three verses,

and then he states who he's writing to in verse 4,

and he gives that customary blessing or greeting also in verse 4.

Let's begin by talking about Titus.

Who is Titus?

Titus.

Most of us know who Paul is, but who is this guy named Titus, and where is he?

What's the background to this letter?

Well, we don't know exactly where Titus is from,

but we do know that he was a Greek.

We know that from the book of Galatians.

Somewhere along the way, Titus became a follower of Jesus, a believer,

and he ended up being one of Paul's trusted co-workers and partners in the ministry.

And we first see Titus at Paul's side at the end of Paul's first missionary journey,

when Paul goes to Jerusalem to speak to the Jerusalem Council on matters of circumcision.

Titus is there with him at that meeting.

We read about that in Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

Then, as Paul embarks on his second missionary journey,

one of the places that he gets to is a city called Corinth,

which is on the Grecian peninsula.

I don't have a laser pointer, but you can see it in the top left corner in Icaa there.

And we read in the book of Acts, chapter 18, about how the church at Corinth was established.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Paul stays there for a year and a half, and then he moves on in his travels.

But then sometime later, after the church had been established at Corinth,

Paul sends Titus to the church there in Corinth,

and Titus seems to serve there in the church as an apostolic delegate,

much in the same way that Timothy did in Ephesus.

And we read about how Titus goes back and forth between the church there in Corinth

and Paul, wherever he is, a couple times.

We learn all this from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.

So Titus has a bit of a history of working with Paul,

even before we get to this letter.

Then we fast forward, and Paul does a third missionary journey.

And if you know the story from the book of Acts,

this journey ends with him going back to Jerusalem,

preaching, getting imprisoned,

and then later being shipped all the way off to Rome.

And it's generally thought that Paul was released from his house arrest in Rome in 62 AD,

after which he continued doing ministry for a few years before he was martyred.

So it's in that time period, that time after he was released,

but before he was martyred,

that seems to be the likely time that this letter to Titus was written.

And we discover in this letter that Titus has been given a new assignment.

In verse 5, it says,

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished,

and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

So for Titus, Corinth is history.

His new assignment from Paul is to see that these already established churches

on the island of Crete come to have proper leadership and order.

Crete is a big island,

and it's just southeast of Greece.

This was the island that Paul stopped at briefly before he was shipwrecked on the way to Rome.

And this island of Crete is the location of Titus, as Paul writes this letter.

Now this island has quite the history to it.

It was the home of the ancient Minoan civilization.

It's thought to be, by some, the place where the Philistines originated from.

Back in the days of the Greek Empire, there were about 40 cities on this island.

And probably most of them were along the coast, all around the edges,

because I don't think you can really see it on the screen,

but it's quite a mountainous island.

By the days of the Roman Empire,

there were at least 20 cities that we know of on the island

through archaeology studies.

And there was quite a religious mix on this island.

There's lots of evidence of the worship of Greek gods.

There are some Roman religions that were present,

some Egyptian religions.

And we know from the Bible that there was an established Jewish presence in Crete.

Some of the Jews that were present on the day of Pentecost,

when Peter preached his sermon, were from Crete.

And there's also mention in this letter of the circumcision group

and quarrels about the Jewish law.

It's quite possible that the church on Crete first got its start

from some of those Jews who had gone to Jerusalem for Pentecost,

heard Peter preaching the good news of Jesus that day,

and then went back home to Crete

and shared the news with other people in their hometown

or home cities on the island.

Whatever the case, there are now churches there.

There are now followers of Jesus in many towns and cities on the island.

And this is why Paul has assigned Titus to be there.

We notice in verse 5

that he not only serves the congregation in one city,

but that he is functioning in the whole region.

His job is to appoint elders in every town.

So we get the sense that the gospel has really spread by this time

to many of these cities and towns on the island of Crete.

And on top of all this, we discover at the end of this letter,

if we look ahead to chapter 3, verse 12,

that Titus' assignment here is temporary.

Chapter 3, verse 12, Paul says,

As soon as I send Artemis or Tychicus to you,

do your best to come to me at Nicopolis,

because I have decided to winter there.

So Titus is not the pastor of one of the churches there.

He's a co-worker of Paul.

He's an apostolic delegate who's assigned here

to put things in order for the churches on Crete

until he is relieved in the near future by someone else.

Finally, notice how Paul refers to Titus

in his salutation in verse 4.

To Titus, my true son in our common faith.

These are really warm words.

Not just a friend, not just a co-worker or partner,

but son.

Just like Timothy has been as a son to Paul,

we get the sense that Titus is like family with Paul.

They've worked together, they've traveled together,

there's high trust between them,

but of course this closeness of family

runs even deeper than that.

Paul says,

My true son in our common faith.

It's because they share in the same faith in Jesus.

And through the Spirit,

are members together of the family of God.

Let's now go back up to what we skipped over

in the first three verses

and just talk a little bit about Paul.

Paul introduces himself as two things here.

First, a servant of God.

And second, as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

And we've talked about this many times before,

but we'll just run it over one more time

in case you're new or you miss some of those Sundays.

The apostles were men specially chosen

by Jesus himself to speak on Jesus' behalf

the very words of God to the people.

They were tasked with preaching,

much like the prophets of old.

They were tasked with bearing witness

to what they had seen and heard

of Jesus Christ when he was here on earth.

Although Paul is a bit of an exception to that

if you know his story.

And they were tasked with spreading that message,

that good news in Jerusalem

and from there outward all over the world.

And they bore a special authority

from Jesus to do this work.

Christ spoke through them,

which is why we count their words,

like in this letter,

as the very words of God.

So Paul is reminding Titus of his role,

his authoritative role from Jesus.

These aren't just the words of Paul.

They're the words of Christ through me

because I am his apostle.

And here in this introduction,

Paul actually goes on a fair bit

about what his role is as an apostle.

Let's look at some of the things

that Paul says here for a moment.

He says,

An apostle of Jesus Christ

to further the faith of God's elect

and their knowledge of the truth

that leads to godliness

in the hope of eternal life.

Now, depending on your translation,

there may be a little bit of a difference there,

but the gist of this seems to be

that Paul's purpose as an apostle

is to further the faith of God's people.

It's that they would go deeper

in their knowledge of the truth,

which will result in them being more godly,

more fully devoted to God.

And this is his work as an apostle

wherever he goes.

This is his aim.

Paul speaks on behalf of Jesus,

or in this case,

writes on behalf of Jesus,

and it's for the benefit of God's people

that they will come to know the truth,

how they're to worship God,

how they're to be devoted to God,

and for those who don't already believe in him,

that they would believe in him,

that they would come to have that faith.

And Paul says,

it's not only about godliness,

they kind of chopped the verse off

before it gets to the end of the thought here.

It's not only about being devoted to God,

but it's in the hope of eternal life.

The sure hope of everlasting life

is what this is all about for Paul.

It's why he has been sent by Jesus

as an apostle to speak and to write.

It's so that people can believe

and so that they can know the truth

that leads them to receiving God's amazing gift

of everlasting life.

Because that's what Jesus promised

time and time again

as he walked the earth.

That was his message,

that those who believe

will be raised from the dead

and will receive eternal life.

At this point,

Paul goes on a bit of a rabbit trail

and he just gets talking about

this promise of eternal life.

And when God made this promise,

Paul says that

God, who does not lie,

promised this before the beginning of time.

First, we notice the way

that Paul describes God here.

Quite literally, in the original,

it's the unlying God.

The unlying God.

Which means that God always tells the truth.

He never lies.

Think about the false gods of Greek mythology.

If you ever learned about those stories

as a kid in school,

they were known to lie at times,

to be deceptive,

to be manipulative,

to try to further their own little ends.

But God,

the creator,

Yahweh,

is not like that,

says Paul.

He never lies.

He is the unlying God.

Which means

that his promises

give us sure hope.

Not the flimsy,

hope so kind of hope.

Next, we notice

when God made this promise.

And again,

there's some variance

in the translations here,

but quite literally,

which the unlying God promised

before the times of eternity.

And all of the translations

seem to recognize

that this is an idiom of sorts,

but there's a couple different thoughts

on how to translate it.

Some say

that he promised

before long ages ago,

which God promised

long ages ago,

possibly referring to God

speaking through his prophets

in the Old Testament days.

But the majority

of translations

seem to understand

this idiom

to refer to that period of time

before God created

the heavens and the earth.

And so,

before time began,

before the beginning of time,

not that time

is anything of itself

or had a beginning

of its own,

but before time

as in the history

here on earth,

the times of man,

before all that,

before we were even created,

before the earth was made,

God made the promise

of everlasting life

for his chosen people.

His elect,

as Paul calls them

in verse 1.

So this promise

of eternal life

was made long,

long,

long ago

before the world

was made.

God knew exactly

what he was going to do.

He knew what would happen

on the earth.

He knew how things

would unfold

and back then

he made the promise.

But,

Paul says,

it's just now

that God has brought

all of this to light.

His great plan

to save us,

to give us

this eternal life.

Now,

in the time of Paul's writing,

in the days of Jesus

and the apostles,

according to God's

own appointed time,

he has brought it to light

through the preaching

entrusted to me

by the command of God,

says Paul.

So Paul knows exactly

what he's doing

as an apostle.

He knows that he has been

tasked with declaring

the promise of eternal life,

the promise that God made

before the world began.

A promise that God

is now revealing

through Christ

and through

his apostles

so that God's elect,

God's chosen people,

might hear

and believe

and receive

this wonderful gift

of eternal life.

Let's talk for just a minute

about that word

elect

in verse 1.

This is the way

that Christ

refers to the people

of God

as the elect.

It means

those who are selected

or chosen

and it is a word

that sometimes

makes people uncomfortable.

There's a lot of debate

around this

idea

and how

and when

and who

is chosen.

What does it mean

to be chosen

by God

and we're not going

to get into all that

this morning

but the word

chosen,

the idea

of being chosen

is right here

in the words

of God.

That's how Jesus

refers

to the people

of God.

They are God's

elect.

He has chosen

them

and this word

is interesting.

Maybe one of the

reasons for it

is because

it partly

can refer

to people

who have not

even yet

come to believe.

think about

Paul's

commissioning

as an apostle.

Before he had

gone out

and done

any preaching

there were people

that God knew

in advance

would receive

the message

and be saved.

God's

God's

choosing

and so

for Paul

this

choosing

of God

it wasn't

a disincentive

to preach

the gospel.

It wasn't

as though

he said

well God's

chosen

we'll just

let it happen

then.

No it was

the opposite.

There are people

out there

whom God

has chosen

to be

his own

but how

can they

have faith

in God

and believe

in his

son

unless they

hear this

good news

about Jesus.

I gotta get

out there

I gotta

proclaim

this message

as we heard

in Sunday

school this

morning.

I'm obligated

to get

to those

people in

Rome

and preach

the good

news to

them.

This was

Paul's role

to play

in God's

elect

coming

to faith

in him.

We shouldn't

shy away

from this

idea

that God

has

chosen

his people

even before

they hear

the message

of the gospel.

He chose

Abraham.

he chose

Isaac.

He chose

Jacob in

the Old

Testament.

He chose

specially the

nation of

Israel to

be his

special people

and not

the other

nations.

But in the

nation of

Israel he

chose the

tribe of

Levi to

do that

special work

at the

temple and

the priesthood.

And here we

read that those

who have come

to faith in

Jesus through

Paul's preaching

are the

chosen,

the elect

of God.

And so if you

are here this

morning and

you truly

have faith in

Jesus then this

is true of you

as well.

You were

chosen by

God.

This should be

precious to

us.

Do we

deserve it?

No.

We've all

sinned.

We've all

fall short of

God's glory.

But God's

choosing of us

even before we

had heard the

gospel speaks

of his great

love for us.

It tells us

that he wanted

us.

He desired us.

A relationship

with us for us

to be his

people despite

our sin,

despite the bad

things that he

knew we would

do.

God's choosing

speaks of his

unconditional love.

love.

So this is how

Paul starts his

letter to

Titus here on

the island of

Crete.

He reminds

Titus of who

he is, an

apostle of

Jesus Christ,

and that he

does in fact

carry spiritual

authority, and

yet he speaks to

Titus affectionately

as his true

son because they

share the same

faith in Jesus.

He prays a

blessing of God's

grace and peace

upon Titus, and

already we've seen

that Paul is

ready to just

declare the good

news of Jesus,

even in this

introduction.

We're going to

take time now to

come to the

Lord's table once

again.

We do this every

month, and it's a

remembrance of

Jesus.

It's a remembrance

of the gospel.

There are two

elements on this

table.

There is the

bread, and

there is what

we call the

cup.

Actually, we've

got lots of

little cups, but

what's in them is

grape juice.

Both of these are

symbols that Jesus

gave meaning to on

the night that he

was betrayed, on

the night before

his death.

Jesus sat around

the table with his

twelve disciples

that night, and

he took bread, he

gave thanks, and

then he broke it,

and he passed it

out to his

disciples around

the table.

He said, take,

eat, this is my

body, which is for

you.

And then later he

took a cup, and

it had the fruit of

the vine in it, or

in some of the

vernacular of that

day, the blood of

the grape, and he

passed that cup around

the table as well, and

urged his disciples to

drink from it.

He said, this is my

blood of the

covenant, which is

poured out for you

for the forgiveness

of sins.

Jesus was, of course,

speaking about his

death the next day,

and he was

essentially saying to

his followers, I'm

about to die, but

my death, my body

being broken, my

blood being poured

out tomorrow is

for your benefit.

It's for you, for

the forgiveness of

your sins, for a

new arrangement

between you and

God.

They didn't fully

realize at that

moment the full

meaning of this.

All along they'd

been hearing Jesus

talk about all

these wonderful

things, the

kingdom of God, the

kingdom of heaven,

salvation, which

they were to be a

part of, eternal

life, as we heard

as Titus mentions

here, or Paul

mentions here to

Titus, eternal

life that they would

receive, resurrection

from the dead after

they die, standing

before God in the

judgment, not

guilty, and all of

these things Jesus

was saying that they

could receive just by

faith, by

believing.

They didn't see,

however, that this

amazing free gift of

God to people had a

cost.

It would come at the

cost of Jesus' life to

make all these good

promises a reality.

Jesus would have to

suffer and to die for

them, for us.

And Jesus did that on

the cross 2,000 years

ago.

Three days later, he

rose from the dead.

And this truth, this

knowledge, is what Paul

is talking about here in

his letter to Titus.

This is the news, this

is the gospel that was

entrusted to him, that's

been, he's been

commanded by God to

preach, this truth

that believing gives

us that sure hope of

eternal life.

Have you put your

faith in Jesus?

Do you believe in him?

The one that God sent

from heaven to save us?

What does it mean to

put your faith in him?

It just simply means to

believe, to take

seriously as truth the

things that Jesus said.

The things that are

revealed about who

Jesus is, that yes, he

is the Son of God.

He is the Messiah.

He is the Savior

provided.

He is the way to God.

Have you put your faith

in Jesus Christ?

Christ.

If you haven't done this

yet, I want to urge you to

do it today.

This is the most important

decision that anyone can

make in their lives.

I urge you, if you haven't

done it, confess your sins to

him today.

Ask for his forgiveness.

Find that sure hope, that

offer that he gives us

freely of eternal life.

You can even do this now,

in these next minutes, as we

take time to quietly pray and

reflect.

Feel free to close your eyes and

just to be with God in these

next moments.

And for those of us who believe

what we do here is we just take a

moment to pray quietly, to think

over what Jesus has done for us,

confess our sins to the Lord, and

to be reminded of his love before

we partake of the table.

After a few minutes of that, we'll

have our elders come forward, and

I think that's just one.

That's just Charles today.

Maybe Brian will come and help as

well.

And they'll serve the bread and

the cup, and if you truly believe

in Jesus, whether for many years or

whether it's for the first time

today, then join with us and

partake with us of the bread and

the cup.

We'll wait till everybody has been

served, and then we'll eat and

drink all together in unison after

I pray and give thanks.

pour us irenei, let's look past our

sceme で ernest

to bereme the Kenneth

we'll sit on af.

We'll Ariana

we'll see you next time and

before

you

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.