Titus 3 Peacefully Subversive

To the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filcik preaches from this series to the next generation, learning from Paul's words to Titus. Let's listen in.

Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filcik, I'm the lead pastor here, and it's good to be together with God's people this morning. I hope you're here, at least in part, out of a desire to grow in faith this morning.

The Gospel as the Basis for Christian Living

That's why we gather together, that's a fundamental reason for church, is that we would grow together in community, together with others in our faith. We're gonna be closing out a series in the book of Titus this morning.

It's a short book that contains Paul's instructions to a young man that he mentored in ministry, and the primary theme of the book could be summarized in those three short chapters, practice what you preach.

Practice what you preach. That's kind of the overarching idea of the book, and the way that Christians interact with the world around us seems to always be up for debate. I don't know if you noticed that.

There's a lot of variety of opinions and thoughts about the way that Christians interface with our culture, and in part, I would suggest to you that that's due to the very nature of the gospel itself.

How we are saved, how we are brought into the Christian faith creates an opportunity for us to think through our lives and discern on our own. The gospel is not a set of rules. The gospel is in a call to behave ourselves.

In the gospel, we are rescued from our sins and renewed in the Holy Spirit so that we can devote the rest of our lives to good works, and that's gonna look different to each person and each context and each culture.

So I've entitled this sermon Peacefully Subversive, Peacefully Subversive because we're a people who have a countercultural message, and we are called to live countercultural lives. We are subversive but not hostile.

We are subversive but not antagonistic. We are subversive but not rebellious. Subversive has the idea of undermining things, and there's nothing that undermines the sin-cursed cultures of the world, including our own, quite like the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is subversive to cultures of mankind, of humanity, where sin has its way in our hearts and in our lives and in our systems and in the way that we do things. The gospel of Jesus Christ itself is subversive.

So ask yourself this question before we go to read the passage together, and it's a question that you might wrestle with and you might actually at first blush not be able to answer. Are we called to swim against the tide or are we called to change the current?

Are we called to swim against the tide or are we called to change the current? I don't know about you, but I don't have it in me to change any currents at all.

I don't have that ability.

I can't do that.

But what I can do is I can swim against the tide and point in a different direction. I believe the call on Christians in this world is to live in such a way that our words and actions point away from the sinful course of this world, the sinful way of the world around us.

This passage highlights the call to live differently in a world that is constantly calling us to get in line and conform with sinful patterns.

Do you feel it?

Raise your hand if you feel that. Is the world around you calling you to just stop striving and just go with the flow, just go our direction, just go our way? The world is like that. This passage comes with beautiful reasoning as to why we are to live unique lives in this world after we've been saved.

The gospel itself, the very way and method of salvation draws us into lives that are primed to do good works. We undermine the sinful structures of culture not by shouting louder, not by planting yard signs, and certainly not by being jerks at our workplace.

We are peacefully subversive by doing good. If the standard of life around us is mean-spirited, unkind, and sinful, then how many of you know that by being nice, you're being subversive? Just by being kind, you're being subversive.

So let's open our Bibles, Scripture, journals, or devices to Titus chapter three. We're gonna read the entire chapter together. It's not gonna take too long, but recast. Again, I like to emphasize this is God's holy word.

This is what he desires to communicate to us here in this gathering this morning. So follow along in your devices or your Scripture journals or your Bibles, Titus chapter three.

Here is God's word.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy.

Toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people, but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

As for a person who stirs up division after warning them once, and then twice, have nothing more to do with them. Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

Do your best to speed Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing, and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Let's pray. Father, we have a privilege of encountering you through the pages of Scripture, the things that you desire and the things that you have done for us.

Father, I pray that you would let the reality of this text settle on us in a new and fresh way. We can become so acquainted with the Gospel, so acquainted with the cross that we assume and think that there's something more that we've got to move on to.

Now we've been saved, we've been rescued. Now where's the meat? Where's the real thing? The Gospel is the real thing, and it's very clear in this passage that it's to be the center driving force of our lives.

Father, what an awesome thing. It just makes no sense to me that you would say over my life, justified, regenerated, mercy, grace, your loving kindness. Father, these things are awe-inspiring to me that you would apply those truths to me when I know myself.

Father, I pray that you would give us all in this room a fresh wonder at the awesome glory of the Gospel that is meant to fuel the way that we live in this world. That what this world needs is very little that we have to offer aside from the good news, that that is what the world needs.

That is the hope.

In this politically divided time, in this culturally divided time, in a time where divisive seems to be a definition for our culture, Father, I pray that you would be uniting us under the banner of Jesus Christ and His glorious Gospel, and that you would make us all the more kind in the way that we present the Gospel, all the more bold about the way that we present the Gospel, all the more devoted and dedicated to the good works that you have for us in a culture that is increasingly mean-spirited and vulgar.

Father, I pray that you would make us shine bright in this, and that even now, just in our worship, there would be a brilliance, there'd be a light, there'd be a glory, there'd be a lightness to our hearts, and a joy, and a smile, and gladness in our hearts for the Gospel that gives us the cause for which we worship you.

We thank you for the good news, we thank you for the Gospel, and we thank you for the opportunity right now to praise your name in this community, in this gathering together, in Jesus' name, amen. Yeah, go ahead and be seated and get comfortable, and then re-find your place to Titus chapter three in your device, or in your Bible, or your app, or whatever.

And if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee, juice, or donut holes, take advantage of those back there. And if you need to use the restroom, you're not gonna distract me if you've gotta get up at any point during the message, but our goal is to keep our focus as much as possible on the word of God for the remainder of our time.

I wanna begin with a question for us all.

Humble Kindness Toward Authorities and Neighbors

How are we to live in this fallen and busted world? What is the interface between the Christian.

And the world at large?

How do we live, and move, and breathe in this broken and busted world? Are we to withdraw like the Benedictine monks who created monasteries, or the Amish who withdraw into isolated communities with very little to do with the outside world?

What is right? What is right in the way that we interact with the world? Is retreat and wait it out a good strategy for life, for the Christian life? Or maybe we should do the opposite. Maybe we should take it to the pagans like St. Boniface did, or the moral majority did.

Boniface took a literal ax and cut down the sacred oak of Thor in Germany, allegedly resulting in the conversion of many Germanic tribes going straight for their idols and attacking at the point. Are we to be on the offensive, and therefore get a reputation for being offensive?

The church has tried this, I believe, for decades now in America with flagging results. Titus ends with an extended section on how, how, how we are to live. How are we supposed to live as Christians in this fallen and broken place?

Our outline is quite simple. The first is a call to humble kindness, verses one through three. The second is the power for humble kindness, verses four through seven. Some of the most glorious sections of scripture on the gospel are found in this passage.

And then the third is a call to focus devotion, verses eight through 15. So a call to humble kindness, the power for humble kindness, and a call to focus devotion. The call to humble kindness begins with the words in verse one of chapter three here in Titus, remind them, remind them.

Paul has already discussed these things with the churches in Crete, where he has left Titus to be a young minister there. But apparently the cretins were like us and needed frequent reminders of what is true in order to stay humble and in order to stay kind.

We know from verse 12 of chapter one of Titus that the cretins were known to be kind of bad people. And they had a reputation in the Roman Empire, all throughout the Roman Empire, for being bad people, liars and gluttons and lazy beasts.

So Paul reminds them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and to be ready to do good works in verse one. Now, these three proactive callings may be jarring to our ears. When we think about the call to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and to be ready to do good works, that doesn't sound particularly American, especially the first one.

Our current political climate is primed to knock us off this calling or to make us disagree with the calling or at least to misunderstand this calling. We turn to the exceptions immediately in our minds when we are told to be submissive to rulers.

What kind of rulers?

How submissive? We begin to think of the exceptions. But recast, listen to me carefully, don't neglect the rule of thumb being issued here on account of a few exceptions. In almost every single situation that you personally have ever been in, submission to authorities looks simply like being peaceful, like making peace.

Submission, obedience and a life of good works is what you and I have been saved for. This is the standard. And I believe that too many Christians right now seem to be fixing for a fight. Quarrelsome seems to define my own heart from time to time.

Anybody with me on that? Anybody feel just maybe at times.

Like you get a little quarrelsome?

You get riled up, you get ready to fight? But fixing for a fight is not what scripture is saying here is to be our primary mode of operation. While obedience to verse one doesn't require that we ignore our system of government, that gives many means of protest, don't get me wrong, we've got all kinds of things that we can do about circumstances we don't like.

There's protesting and it includes voting and speaking up and writing to our leaders and all different kinds of things that are legitimate within our culture. But it's worth mentioning that commentaries that I read separate verse one out into three distinct commands that helps us at least understand what we're being called to when it comes to submit, obey and be ready, those are three separate commands.

Submit has two direct objects to it, which doesn't mean a lot of us like English and probably most of us don't, but has two direct objects, rulers and authorities. In other words, who are we supposed to submit to?

Rulers and authorities. Obey does not have a direct object supplied. Who are we to obey? Not supplied in the text, meaning that we are not told directly in this text who we are to obey. It doesn't say obey rulers and authorities, it says be subject to them, which is a distinct command from obedience.

This passage is found in scripture. I don't know if you noticed that. And scripture consistently tells us who to obey. Who are we to obey? The Lord God. We obey God. It would make sense that we are to be obedient to him, subject to authorities, subject to rulers, but obedient first and foremost to God himself.

We are to be also, third, ready to do good works. As we consider what it means to have a humble kindness in our reach and touch with the world, Paul starts by putting our lives in proper perspective. He says, you need to understand that this is true of your lives, church.

This is true of each one of us. We are under authority, we are under God, and we are called to serve. Do you see that as what God has placed in your heart and in your life? Is that true of you? Do you recognize that you are under authorities, that you are under God, and that you are called to serve?

Does that describe your life? When I use the word subversion, it sounds like a call to be sneaky and undermining to our government or undermining to cultural norms, and it kind of is. That is what I'm suggesting that we are being called to throughout this passage.

But I wanna be sure to focus our attention on subversion of sin alone. We are to be subversive in our attitude and our response and our work in the world against sin. We don't subvert leaders, we don't subvert institutions, but we are seeking to undermine sin at every turn.

Do you hear me? That is what we're to be subversive towards. And the way we counter that evil and wickedness is by, according to this text, a humble kindness. That is the tool that we are to use. That is the method we are to use to subvert the wicked ways of the world.

Meaning that we don't speak evil of other people,.

The text tells us.

We avoid quarreling. We are not picking fights and seeking to provoke arguments. Now, that doesn't mean that we won't get in an argument from time to time just by saying the truth. Sometimes we get into an argument in some context.

Sometimes it might be the way you're saying it, but not always. Sometimes you say the truth in a loving way and it still results in an argument, right? Because I don't know what I'm talking about. So we might get into arguments from time to time, but this passage, you have to understand is painting in broad brushstrokes.

Our attitude in this life matters. And so I think a fundamental question to all of us, especially in this divided time as a nation, are you ready? Are you ready? Ask yourself this legitimate question.

Over your life, you as a person, are you more ready to go out into this week and do good works, or are you more ready to fight? Which are you more ready for? This text is saying one of those is right and one of those is wrong.

Seriously, answer that in your head. What am I primed for? What am I eager for? What am I ready for?

Bring it on!

Or acts of kindness and goodness and love. Which of those are you preparing for? Kindness to coworkers, or this week are you hoping to get some good digs in? We are called here clearly all throughout scripture and right here when it talks about speaking evil of no one, we are called to tame our tongues, church.

If you've been in the habit of speaking evil of others,.

Cut it out.

Your antagonistic political assessment of leaders is not winning anyone. Speaking the truth in love during this season is fair game. We are indeed called to speak the truth in love, but passing along bad mouth memes is against the calling of this passage.

This requires substantial discernment in these divided times, and if you need some help navigating how involved to get in these things, I would love to talk with you. And I wanna hear, I've gotta state this emphatically.

If you've tuned out for a second,.

Please, please, please,.

You're gonna misunderstand this message. If you don't understand the heart with which I'm bringing it, first of all, I wanna be thoroughly biblical, but some of you are gonna hear me saying up here, you're gonna wrongly hear me saying and think that I mean, get less involved, and I don't mean that at all.

I would encourage you to get more involved. As the Lord calls you to speak the truth into your culture with boldness, I encourage you to get more involved, more involved in kindness, more involved in truth, more involved in proclaiming the gospel.

So it couldn't be further from the truth that I'm trying to marginalize the church, or one more spokesman for silence, sit down and shut up, church. That's what the world is telling us. I'm not telling us that.

I don't believe the text is telling us that. But I do absolutely believe that this passage is calling us as a church to keep the shots above the belt in our rhetoric. Do you get what I'm saying? Be the kindest person at your workplace.

Be a bringer of truth, but be the kindest, be the nicest, be the most gentle, be the most loving, be the first one to lean into generosity towards those in need, amen? Like that's what we're talking about here.

Keep your shots above the belt and be ready, eager to do good to those around you.

That's the calling.

And when Paul tells Titus to speak evil of no one, who does he list as an exception? Go ahead and look at it. Shout out the exceptions. I hope it's quiet. There are no exceptions. Who are we allowed to address harshly?

Who can we spear with our evil speech? Who's fair game? The answer is no one. We are not called to fight ever, ever, ever to fight evil with evil, but we are called to overcome evil with?

Good, you guys got it.

Talk about subversive. We don't use the methods of the world to accomplish the plans of heaven. Let me say that again. We do not use the methods of the world to accomplish the plans of heaven. Instead, we shock the world with our kindness.

We shock the world with our peace. We wow the world with our perfect courtesy. Maybe there is no calling that the church has gotten more wrong than this one. We have tried to become the loudest voice, the most dominant voice in our culture, when God is ultimately calling us to humble kindness.

Further, we are to be gentle, showing, the text says, perfect courtesy toward all people. This looks like a quiet, peaceful, honest, and confident life based on the truth. This is subversive in a world where self-affirmation takes the place of genuine love for others, where wickedness is valued over goodness, where kindness has been replaced by vulgarity.

Do you see the shift in our culture? Are you feeling it? What is our culture if it's not vulgar and crass? Isn't it? I hear things walking down the grocery store aisle that I would not have heard 20 years ago.

And it's just everywhere, right? It's in our faces, and I mean, it's all over the place. So how many of you know it doesn't take much kindness to shine in a culture like ours right now? It doesn't take much to be the peacemaker because everybody's at war.

I say subversive because we do, we do desire change, do we not? Raise your hand if you wanna see a change. We wanna see a change. But that change is a change brought about by the church under the radar.

It is subtle. It avoids brash attacks but instead seeks to work.

From within the culture.

Like Jesus telling us the kingdom of heaven is like a little leaven, the kingdom of God is like a little leaven in a lump of dough. It can't be seen. But man, does it have a dramatic impact on that lump of dough?

By the end, it changes everything. The kingdom of God is not brought in by us and our attacks, it isn't expanded. The kingdom of God will not ever be expanded by swords and violence and harsh shouts of anger.

That's not gonna accomplish what God is calling us.

To church.

Submissive to authorities, obedient to God, ready for good works, tongues in check, not speaking evil, gentle, courteous toward all, ready to give an answer without being argumentative. Do you see it in the text?

Do you see our calling? And the reason that we can be gracious in this way to the world is simply that we can relate to the world. Look at verse three. We ourselves were once like the world. We call them vulgar, can we not be vulgar ourselves?

We call them crass, can we not be crass ourselves? We ourselves were once ignorant, that's the word foolish. It means without knowledge, openly rebellious, deceived and enslaved to passions and pleasures.

Many here know this reality by personal experience while some of us in the room have to take it by faith because we were saved at a young enough age that we take it on faith that we also were on the road to misery before we were rescued.

Do you know what I'm saying? Some of us were on the way there when he rescued us and some of us got there. Some of us got to the realization of the misery of a life lived outside of Christ. The self-centered life is a life of misery.

Full stop, the self-centered life is a life of misery. Bitter relationships, the way he describes it here, bitter relationships, dissatisfaction shown in constant envy. The word envy there meaning dissatisfaction.

How many of you know that envy is a sign that you want more? There's something that you don't have that you want. You're never quite satisfied in a self-centered life. Bitter relationships, dissatisfaction, constant envy, hated at every turn and hating others at every turn.

The change is meant to be visible in all of us. Our ability to be kind and courteous and gentle and ready to do every good work is in sharp contrast to the world's ways of living. And if we would just major on the calling that God has for us in this chapter, I'm convinced that the church will shine brighter and brighter and brighter as the world is set in dark relief, as rather the church is set in the dark relief of a divided world.

This call to humble kindness is contrasted to the ways of the world. Misery in relationships, envy, enslavement. Think about that, the world is enslaved to their passions and pleasures, constant foolishness.

Without the gospel, these things would still define us. Without God breaking in, those things are true of you and me. But we've been changed and the power for a humble kindness is explained clearly in verses four through seven.

That's our second movement in the text. If you're taking notes, we're moving to the second point, the power for humble kindness. The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, appeared, appeared in Jesus Christ.

Goodness, loving kindness of God in Jesus. So listen carefully, church, if you are wondering what you have to offer into this highly divided climate in America today. We are being told here that the answer to the need of our culture is the arrival of the goodness and loving kindness of Jesus Christ.

That's the hope.

Our culture doesn't need our rules. Our culture doesn't need our sanctimonious judgments. Our culture needs the love of God available through Jesus Christ, our Lord and King, amen?

They need him.

What's he done for us, church? What he's done for us, he can do for others. He saved us, not because of our works done in righteousness, not because we were so good, but only according to his own mercy.

All of this section focuses on the work of God that produces change in his people. He saved us. That's the movement. Him saving us. Where are we at? Well, we're at the bottom of that. Where's the top?

This text just highlights thing after thing after thing that God has done for us in our salvation. We didn't earn it by our good deeds. He says it emphatically. But God just decided to be merciful to us.

And our salvation is truly a Trinitarian activity. Our salvation was activated by the Father, verse four, applied by the Holy Spirit, verse five, achieved by the Son, verse six. Activated by the Father, applied by the Holy Spirit, achieved by the Son.

The Spirit has washed us and cleansed us. And we are made new through his regeneration. And we are renewed, a word in Greek that means reborn. How can we respond so differently in this fallen world around us?

Nothing short of the activity of the triune God at work in our life is to blame. It's him washing, it's him regenerating, it's him renewing. We now have the power to walk as agents of the Lord in the world through the power of his saving and regenerating work in us by the salvation given to us, by faith in his work alone.

And Jesus has generously, richly, lavishly poured out the Spirit on us. We don't just get a stingy, tiny little piece of cake, but we've been given more, more than we can eat. Richly, lavishly, generously pouring the Spirit out on us.

And in this saving work, we've been declared justified. That's no longer guilty. Think about that over your life. Justified, no longer guilty. How many of you have days that you don't feel that way? Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter if your faith is in Christ. Doesn't matter how you feel. You are justified in him. By his grace, what is grace?

Free gift.

Free gift, unearned, unmerited. Not because you're a good person, not because you caught his attention. His free gift. And we've been adopted into his family as heirs, which brings us in line with the hope for eternal life.

That's the hope of salvation, eternal life. Why is Paul rehearsing the gospel here at the end of Titus? He's explaining for us the way we live, and it flows out of the gospel truth. I fear that many of us cannot make sense of the call to submit to authorities.

It doesn't make sense to us. It just doesn't line up. Or we maybe disagree with it, or we disagree with the call to avoid quarreling. Come on, Don, how else are others gonna believe.

If we don't cause a few brawls?

If we don't stir up arguments and dissent? And for many of us, perfect courtesy went out the window when the other side took the gloves off, right? It's important for us to understand that we are here in this passage and in my message talking about methods and not about the worth of arguments.

It's about how we work with the world, but your causes matter to you.

I get that.

The things that really get you riled up really get you riled up, and some of them are quite serious, aren't they? Some of the things that you look out at our culture, and they really disturb you, and they disturb me as well.

They're problems, they're difficulties,.

They're things that we wanna see change.

There's things that we wanna see overcome. But we are talking about methods and not the worth of your argument when it comes to this passage. So what I really believe this passage is calling us to is subversion, wink, wink.

That kind of subversion. Because God has made us to be leaven. We exist in this culture to impact the culture under the radar, undermining sinful ideas and thoughts that set themselves up against God, tearing down strongholds, and every thought that raises itself up against the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And we do it through the method of humble kindness. But if this strategy makes no sense to you, and you would like to scrap it for your own strategy, consider where you stand then in relationship to the gospel.

Do you believe that the true hope for the world is the appearing of God's goodness and loving kindness in Jesus? Do you believe when I say that that's what the world needs from you? If we don't, and we don't bring that message, who will?

Who's gonna bring that?

Who's talking about that at your workplace? Who's talking about that in your neighborhood? Who's talking about that at your family gatherings? Anyone? If not us, then who's gonna say it? Because the hope for our culture, the hope for any people, is their connection to Jesus Christ.

That is the hope.

Do you believe that salvation comes by his mercy, or do you think you earned it? If you think you earned it, it makes sense to me that you're out there telling others to earn it too, but that's a false message.

That is not the message of Jesus Christ.

Do you believe that it took.

A miraculous work of the Spirit in washing and regenerating and renewing you before you could live for him? If not, then it makes sense that you're out there telling others to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get better.

The church has been calling the world to act like us for decades without the truth. The truth is they can't. The truth is they can't act like us. They can't be what God has rescued us to be. What they need is more than reform.

What we needed was more than reform. They need this glorious message of hope that God is good and he has come in loving kindness to rescue. Amen? That's what the world needs from us. The power for humble kindness in this broken and busted world is found in the way that we've been saved, the way that we've been rescued.

He saved us by mercy. He saved us by grace. He saved us by his love, and he rescued us then to live out his mercy and his grace and his love. And in case any readers misunderstand our calling in this life, Paul intensely narrows the focus of our lives to this one main thing.

He narrows it in verse eight to the gospel. The Christian life is not as confusing as many make it out to be, and so we see a call to focus devotion in verses eight through 15, the final section here.

Devotion to the Gospel and Good Works

Paul tells Titus to insist on these things.

This is what is trustworthy.

And within the church, we are supposed to be constantly coming back to this gospel that fuels a life devoted to good works. These things, these gospel truths of him saving us, him justifying us, him cleansing us, him renewing and regenerating us, all through his goodness, his mercy, his loving kindness, his grace, these things must be held at the center.

These things are to be insisted on, says Paul, because this is what is excellent. This is what is profitable. Paul leaves his young protege, Titus, there in Crete, and he says, this is what matters. This gospel message is what's going to produce and be profitable and be excellent in the community of Crete, where wickedness was abounding.