Sunday, January 19, 2025 PM

Titus, the Pastorals, and What a Good Church Needs

One of three letters in the New Testament written by Paul that is called the pastorals because when Paul wrote to Timothy and to Titus, he wanted to talk to them about how they were to conduct themselves as ministers of the gospel for the sake of the local church.

So it's just chock full of instruction and exhortation concerning what makes for a good church, what makes for proper Christian relationships, and what kind of labors should be ongoing in the life of the local church.

And the overview that we took for Titus in looking at all of the content really centers around this question, what does a good church need? What does a good church need? And the three themes that Paul highlights in Titus are that a good church needs good direction, it needs good doctrine, and it needs good deeds.

And so throughout Titus, there's a concern to put elders into place, not only elders who will lead the church well and biblically, but also to exhort leadership within the families that there would be good leadership within the families who belong to the church.

And ultimately acknowledging that Christ is the one who shepherds the church, and so that's the good direction we really need. Also, good doctrine is necessary for the church. What we believe really matters, where we get our beliefs from really matters as an outcome indeed to what we believe, as an impact on our lives.

And the good doctrine that Paul emphasizes to Titus centers on who Jesus is and what he has accomplished, and in light of what is to come. Finally, good deeds. Jesus said, by this all men will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for one another.

And of course we know love as a righteous and sacrificial devotion, that I'm for you in the right way even if it costs me. There's a real practical expression to love. And the good deeds that are done by the folks of a church are rooted in the good doctrine of who Jesus is and directed well to the glory of Christ through the organization of the church.

Gospel-Centered Ministry and the Hope of Eternal Life

Given all of that, we look here at the introduction in Titus, and Paul begins to introduce all of these themes and how he relates to Titus. Of course, Paul knows Titus and Titus knows Paul. There's no need to stand on formality when they meet in person, but a hug and a holy kiss would do the job, right?

But in this case, since he's writing this letter for the sake of Titus to be read to all of the churches on the island of Crete, a letter that would help establish Titus' position as an evangelist, as a church planter, as that missionary who was there to help the churches on Crete, this is to be read in their hearing.

So everybody needs to hear how it is that Paul is relating to Titus, kind of a model Christian relationship. So there's a lot to be learned from this, and Paul has described himself already in verse 1 in terms of his gospel-centered responsibilities.

And now he's going to turn his attention to the gospel-centered revelation and gospel-centered relationships. So let's read this together. "...which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior, to Titus, a true son, in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.".

So we should put our attention, first of all, onto this promise that is made that Paul makes central to the whole point of the gospel ministry. And we're using this language of being gospel-centered.

It's not simply a matter of paying attention to one idea, which it is that, but it's more.

Than that.

It's a story that C .S. Lewis told about walking into his garden shed. And this is one of those rather run-down, dilapidated types of outbuildings with no windows and a hole in the roof. When he walks towards the shed and opens the door and looks inside, immediately he sees the beam of light coming in through the hole in the roof of his shed.

And it captures his attention. He's very focused on this shaft of light, as any of us would. And he said that that was rather like his first encounter with Christianity. He sees something that is, it captures his attention, it's beautiful, it's stunning.

He considers it as an attraction there. But the point of transformation comes when he goes and he steps inside that shaft of light and looks up and out, and suddenly he can see. Before there was dark and shadow, but now he can see blue sky, puffy white clouds, a bit of green leaves on stout brown branch.

He can finally see. And that's what it's like being gospel-centered, entering into Christianity, entering into the light of Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world, is seeing the world as it really.

Is.

And that's what we mean when we use this language of being gospel-centered. More than simply always noticing the beautiful ray of light, it is entering into that light and thus then seeing everything for what it truly is, through the lens of the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Creator and our Redeemer.

So when Paul is writing to Titus, he's doing that. He's not going to be thinking about the problems in local families or the habits of older men or younger men or older women or younger women. He's not going to be thinking about the organization of the church and so on, outside of that light, but with that light, in light of that light.

And so, this is what we mean when we say a good church needs to be gospel-centered. So in chapter 1, verse 2, we read this, that Paul has been set aside to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he's doing all of this as God's apostle and God's bondservant.

Notice in verse 2, in hope, in hope of eternal life, he is preaching that truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time.

Began.

Think about this promise, a promise of eternal life. So, all at once, we are struck with not just beginning and end, but before the beginning and after the end, all at the same time, in a very short space here in verse 2.

That eternal life, we think of it going on and on and on, wherever the end comes, whenever the great day comes, and Jesus Christ raises the dead, and judgment day occurs, we know that's not the end. For the saints, what do we have to look forward to but continued eternal life with God?

So we know that there is an ever after. But we also hear that this promise of eternal life of the ever after was given before time even began. So now we're all the way at the beginning, but not even the beginning, we're before the beginning.

So all at once in this very short verse, it's like grabbing at everything, but it's centered on a promise. God made a promise before time began concerning ever after. And this hope that we have, which is based upon God's promise, concerns eternal life.

Eternal life. What a message to be bound to, to be concerned about, to be meditating on and proclaiming. This is Paul's life. Paul is going from island to island, from coastland to coastland, from this tribal region to the next tribal region.

What is his message? He's going forth in the hope of eternal life promised by God in Christ. He's there to talk about eternal life. If he's in the synagogue, he wants to talk to them about eternal life.

If he's in the marketplace, he wants to talk to them about eternal life. If he's on the wayside, resting, and meets somebody there, he's going to talk to them about eternal life. If he's on Mars Hill in the Arapagus, he's going to talk to them about eternal life in Jesus Christ.

He has a hope of eternal life. What is eternal life? Eternal life is not a retirement package offered to Christians. Eternal life is not something found beyond Christ or outside of Christ. It's not a product that Jesus Christ creates or sells.

Eternal life is what Jesus offers in his own person.

Right?

I am the bread of life. Eternal life is who God is for those made in his image. When Jesus described the Holy Spirit, he described him as the water of life. The water of life. Drinking this water, you will thirst no more.

Eating the bread of life. We would hunger no more. This is eternal life, Jesus said in John 17 3, that we may know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. So, eternal life is union with God through Christ by faith.

That's what eternal life is. Eternal life is not to be properly reduced to the experience of heaven without reference to eternal communion with God. Eternal life can't be isolated to a thought of being raised from the dead.

Like, I'm going to live again. These things are so, but eternal life is bound to the person of God. The giver of life. The God who is eternal. So, Paul is saying, I'm an apostle. I'm a bond slave. I'm out here preaching this gospel.

I'm looking for the faith of the elect and their sanctification and so on. I'm doing this in the hope of eternal life. So, what Paul was doing in the here and now meant having an eternal perspective the entire time.

It might grow a little wearisome for Titus. One might imagine trying to minister to Cretans to have to remind them, now stop getting drunk. Now, don't you think you should stop lying to your wife? Don't you think that gossiping and slandering is probably not the way?

Right?

It will tire some trying to not only to plant churches but establish churches and strengthen churches on the island of Crete. What a bunch of Cretans. What hope does Titus have? The same hope that Paul has no matter if he's in Galatia or he's in Macedonia.

It's the hope of eternal life based on the promise of God. The promise of God. A little bit later on in Titus 3 and verse 7, he speaks of hope. He speaks of the idea of promise. In verse 7 of chapter 3, he says that having been justified by his grace, in other words, having been counted as right to the sight of God, by the free gift of God, being justified by his grace, we should become heirs.

Now, if you're an heir, that means you're waiting on something and you're bound towards something and inheritance is coming. Don't have it quite yet, but you have it but not in full. You own it, but you don't fully yet possess it.

Perfect metaphor for our situation. Heirs according to the hope, and if it's hope, we don't yet have it, but hope is we're definitely going to have it in full. Heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The fact of the matter is having been justified by God's grace, we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So Paul's hope is there. He wants Titus' hope there. He wants the hope of the Cretans to be there.

So Paul says, I'm a slave, and Paul says, I'm on mission with a message, and he is identifying himself in all these ways, and yet, what's the relationship between Paul's hope and Paul's performance? Notice, it is not that he's out there on mission with a message, slaving away for Jesus Christ in hope that he will get eternal life, but because he has the hope of eternal life, he's out there on mission with a message, slaving away for Jesus.

Do you see?

This is the motivation. This is the passion. This is what moves him. He already is an heir of eternal life. He already has the hope. How do we know that? Because the promise that God made wasn't one that God made after he did a full evaluation of Paul's performance on any given day, but the promise of eternal life was something that God gave before time even began, and this is what is propelling Paul forward with confident good news, even for Cretans.

The Non-Lying God and the Promise Made Before Time

Now, this promise is made by he who is eternally true. That's what makes it such a good promise. To say one thing is like, well, this promise was made before time began. A lot of things have changed during time, hasn't there?

Now, this promise before time began is about time everlasting. Well, who knows what might change? That's a long time. But have confidence in the promise.

Why?

Because the promise was made by the one who is eternally true. Notice in verse 2 it says, in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie. Now, who made the promise?

God did.

The one who cannot lie, he's the one who promised this before time began. If the glorious heights of eternal life seem to be too good to be true, we shouldn't fear because the promise is made by the one who does not lie.

Hebrews 6 verse 18 tells us it is impossible for God to lie. Some crank may ask, well, you know, are you saying that God can't do anything? I bet there's something God can't do. Yeah, God can't lie. There are a lot of things that God can't do.

God can't do evil. God cannot act contrary to his perfect nature. God cannot be or do contrary to his glorious name. A lot of things God can't do. And one of those things is that he cannot lie and he will not lie.

He does not lie. The way that Paul writes it in this passage is he writes it, God the non-lying one. God the non-lying God. That's a great way of putting it. Our God is a non-lying one. And that's kind of interesting to us, but that's ground shaking for the island of Crete, the people who live there.

These Cretans grew up worshiping the gods of Olympus, the pantheon of Greek gods who are nothing but lying brutes. The greatest of the Greek pantheon, Zeus, was depicted time and time again as an unfaithful lying scumbag.

And how is it put, we become like that which we worship? And that's why the Cretans were a bunch of unfaithful lying scumbags, because Zeus was their god. But Paul knows the non-lying God. Titus knows the non-lying God.

He's been revealed by Jesus Christ. And the non-lying God made a promise before eternity, even before time began, about eternity beyond, about eternal life. It was interesting. One time I was in the middle of a conflict.

A previous church, there was a problem that was happening. And false gospel being spread, people being led astray. And one of the architects of the problem came by my office one day to address me about an issue.

He was busily telling a family that what they taught in their movement was just the same as what was taught in our church. So everything's fine. I feel safe. And then he was coming to my office to try to set up a public debate about all the differences we had.

And he wanted me to publicly debate him. And as he was talking with me, he began to say that in all his years of ministry, he was part of a church without the gospel, in all of his years of ministry, he had come to realize that everyone lied all the time.

This was his insight and his realization. Everyone just told everyone else what they wanted to hear. They spoke one way but thought a different way in their hearts. And that's just the way that everyone functions.

That's what he expected of everybody. That kind of made me wonder about him. Well, I'm not going to agree to any public debate with the likes of you. The thief thinks everyone else is a thief. The fornicator thinks everyone else is a fornicator.

The liar thinks that everyone else is a liar. So it's fine. The Cretans needed to know that the one true God doesn't lie. He never lies. He cannot lie. He's the non-lying God. It's probably true that their pagan background and their dishonest lifestyle would give them an inaccurate expectation of God, an inaccurate understanding of God.

They needed to know this God does not lie. He was not like them. They needed to become like him. The eternal life, the promise of eternal life is not based on whether or not you or I are perfectly truthful or absolutely faithful.

The promise of God for eternal life is based on who God is. He doesn't lie. And he's made a promise to grant eternal life to all who are in Christ, those he brings to Christ. Now, this promise was made in eternity past.

Not only was it made by him who was eternally true, it was made in eternity past. The phrase, long ages ago, or the phrase promise before time began, this is a promise that God made before time. Now, when did time begin?

Well, that's easy to answer. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1 .1 tells us when time began. So, apparently, before God made the heavens and the earth, Paul is saying, God made a promise before Genesis 1 .1.

Well, who's he talking to? Hadn't made the angels? Hadn't made mankind? Who's he talking to? Well, he's talking to himself. The Godhead, the triune God, in perfect, eternal, blissful, wonderful fellowship, without a need, without a care, without a concern, fully pleased and delighting in his own glory, did not need to create, did not need to make anyone, was not lacking in love, was not lacking in anything.

The only reason he created was out of grace to his own glory. But before time began, he made a promise. He made a promise. Eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. Now, this promise he has made manifest in his word through preaching at the proper time.

But this promise that has been preached, being preached about Jesus Christ, our Savior, everything about our eternal life in Jesus Christ, is based on a promise God made before Genesis 1 .1. Paul would write along similar lines to another young man trying to pastor, Timothy.

2 Timothy 1 .9, saying that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

So before Genesis 1 .1, God had promised and designed and granted and ordained eternal life in Christ Jesus, before Genesis 1 .1 ever happened. Before Genesis 3 happened, before Adam and Eve sinned, before the need for eternal life was made so manifest by the sin of man, before any of that, God created, before he created, he made this promise of eternal life.

We are reminded from John 1 .1 that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Since he was there at the beginning, he was there prior to the beginning in perfect fellowship in the triune God.

God the Father made the promise to God the Son to give him a bride. And that's why Jesus prays to the Father in John 17 and three times, speaks of those who believe in him as those whom you have given me.

Paul says it in Ephesians 1 .4, just as he chose us in him, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, before Genesis 1 .1, that we would be holy and blameless before him. The point of these affirmations is to secure our hope in the promise, not a wishful, oh, I hope it works out, not that kind of hope, but the biblical kind of hope, that certain expectation that this is the way it's going to be.

I can trust that this is all going to work out. I trust that the kind of salvation that God has intended from eternity past is the kind in which he saves me forever and will certainly conform me to the image of his Son.

And you know what? This is not going to be a failure. This is going to be a 100 guaranteed success. Of all that the Father gives to the Son, he doesn't lose one. He's a good shepherd, remember? He's not an almost good shepherd.

He's not a 99 shepherd. He's a 100 shepherd. And this is all based on the fact that God doesn't lie, and he made this promise, and he keeps his promise. And so that's where our confidence needs to be shifted, and that's important not only for folks who are growing in Christ and struggling in their understanding and in their pursuit of Jesus and need that encouragement, but also for those who are leading in a church and need to be sustained by hope that, yes, this is going in the right direction and God is going to be successful.

All of our confidence has to be on God and his word and his promise that he doesn't lie. So this promise, this hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised before time began, next time we will think about how in due time, at the right time, at the proper time, this promise is manifested in his word through preaching and how this all folds out in the time that we experience, in the times in which we live, and how it affects relationships, even the relationships of folks like Paul and Titus, who, honest to goodness, ought not have any business with each other at all.

But more on that next time. My voice is about gone. I asked Chris if he'd lead us in doxology.