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Reading Titus 3:12-15, closing out the study of this book with a summarizing article from pastor Nate Pickowicz, and the hymn "God of Our Fathers." Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Praise be to God for His Word, which teaches us how to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God. For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. So, we have just a few verses left in our study of Titus, and then I have an article I want to share with you. Our reading today is Titus 3, verses 12 through 15. Paul wrote to Titus, 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 spend 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. So Tychicus seems to be a guy that Paul likes to send to take over things temporarily on behalf of somebody else.
We saw his name at the end of 2 Timothy as well. Paul was asking Timothy to come visit him in Rome, and he says, I am sending Tychicus to Ephesus. So Tychicus would oversee the church there at Ephesus, and Timothy would feel like the church was in good hands so that he might go and visit Paul.
In this case, it would be either Artemis or Tychicus who would come to Crete and take over for Titus. So Titus can come up to Nicopolis and give Paul a report of the work that's being done there on Crete.
Crete, if you'll remember, is kind of a long, narrow island east to west. It's about 160 miles long or 260 kilometers north and south. It's about 37 miles. And if Titus was going to leave Crete and go up to Nicopolis, he would either go up to Corinth and then cross the Greek peninsula to to Nicopolis, which is on the western side, or he would just take a ship all the way around and land at Nicopolis there on the west.
And that's where Paul was spending the winter. Winter was a very difficult time to travel, so he would resume his missionary journeys after the winter was over. In the meantime, that was where Titus could meet him.
And Paul goes on to say, verse 13, speed Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way. This is the same Apollos we read about multiple other places in the New Testament. See that they lack nothing. They were likely there on Crete helping Titus with some evangelism.
But Paul had some other assignments for them to do, so they needed to get moving and Titus needed to be sure that they were well provided for verse 14. Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.
Very similar to something Paul said back in verse eight. 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. And this was in light of the gospel. Believing the gospel of Jesus Christ produces godliness in the lives of believers. And Paul finds it necessary to issue this reminder, this instruction to be devoted to good works, because remember what we read about the character of the people who lived on Crete.
Back in chapter one, verse 12, Paul said one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. So there's that tendency, that temptation to fall back into a spirit of laziness.
But if the people of God are devoted to good works, then they would be able to help those cases of urgent need that need to be taken care of and would keep themselves from being unfruitful. So this is a regular instruction that comes up over and over again in Titus, to be self-controlled and be devoted to good works.
Finally, verse 15, all who are with me send greetings to you, greet those who love us in the faith, grace be with you all. And that is our study of the book of Titus. A friend of mine, Nate Pickowitz, is a pastor in New Hampshire.
The name of the church is Harvest Bible Church in Gilmanton Iron Works. And he wrote an article for Nine Marks just about a month ago entitled, How We Planted Our Church with Titus. He starts the article by talking about how exhausting it was to read all of these different church planting books.
But he always found the most refreshment and guidance from the book of Titus. So this article is how Titus helped him plant his church there in Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hampshire. So skipping the introduction, I'm going to give you the key points that he lists in this article.
Number one, know the mission and references Titus chapter one, verses one and two. One of the first things that you're taught to do in the church planning process is develop a mission statement. This helps focus your efforts and set the tone for what you will be doing moving forward.
The true purpose of a mission statement, however, is to answer the question, what are we called to do? In Paul's opening greeting to Titus, he sets the tone of the letter by calling attention to his own apostolic ministry.
With all the things that could busy a first century apostle, what did Paul consider to be the most important things? He notes that he is ministering for the faith of those chosen of God and of the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness in the hope of eternal life.
Commentators have noted Paul's three pronged approach to ministry, faith, knowledge, and hope. In essence, Paul's focus was on leading God's elect to saving faith by preaching the gospel, building them up in knowledge that will lead them to live godly lives and encouraging the body to hope in the Lord.
From conversion to enduring faithfulness, Paul knew his mission. When the time came to draft our own church mission statement, we modeled ourselves after the apostle Paul. Our mission is to reach the lost, strengthen the weak, and encourage the faithful unto godliness through the gospel of Jesus Christ and according to their spirit, given gifts to the glory of God.
2. Focus on Expository Preaching. For many years prior to planting, I had been convinced that expository preaching was the most faithful way to communicate God's word to his people. Mark Dever and Greg Gilbert have noted, Expositional preaching is preaching in which the main point of the biblical text being considered becomes the main point of the sermon being preached.
Even more concisely, J .I. Packer says that it is simply letting texts talk. Paul makes note of this mandate several times in his letter. As part of his commission, he says that he is entrusted with the proclamation according to the commandment of God our Savior.
The Greek word translated proclamation is kirukma, which is often rendered preaching in the New Testament. Further, he charges Titus with the task of publicly proclaiming the scriptures. Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.
Speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. That's verse 15. From the very first Sunday, our church has devoted themselves to a steady diet of biblical exposition. This includes the Sunday morning sermons, our small groups, discipleship, even our children's ministries, all focused on understanding the inspired text of scripture.
Number three, Call Qualified Elders. In our case, we planted with a core team of eight adults. While I was the only true elder ordained through the ministry of our sending church, we began working through the faithful efforts of a select group of eager believers.
But very soon after our launch, it became apparent that we needed a team of qualified elders to lead the church. After establishing the mission and the mandate for proclamation, Paul quickly shifts his attention toward the calling and appointing of elders.
On the island of Crete, where Titus was ministering, there might have been slim pickings for spiritually mature men, but Paul was not prepared to relax the standards. In conjunction with 1 Timothy 3, 1 -7, Titus 1, 5 -9 outlines the required character for leaders in Christ's church.
After spending three months preaching through Titus, our church was blessed to call its first elders one year after planting. By God's grace, we have had faithful men leading the charge ever since. Number four, Engage in Whole Body Discipleship.
One of the first and most urgent issues we needed to address was discipleship. After all, we understood Jesus' mandate to make disciples of all nations, Matthew 28 -19. The question was, how were we going to do that?
I had seen several discipleship models fail at other churches. I did not want us to become another casualty. When we turn to Titus 2, however, we see Paul's all-inclusive plan for churchwide discipleship.
In verses 2 -8, he lists four basic categories of people within the church. Older men, older women, younger women, and younger men. The model is very clear. Older men are to spend their time instructing the young men, while older women are to spend their time instructing the younger women.
There are no qualifiers. Paul is pointing to the reality that all members within the body are valuable and have the responsibility to bring up the next generation. For our church, we have worked to create as many opportunities to get our people together.
In addition to my own weekly men's studies, we have members leading small group Bible studies as well as one-on-one personal discipleship. In every corner of our church, we are working to encourage every member to plug in and help one another grow.
Inherent in Paul's letter to Titus is the mandate for the young minister to speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine? In short, it is the collective formulation and teaching of a topic derived from the scriptures, or as Wayne Grudem says, what the whole Bible teaches us today about some particular topic.
Early on, I was impacted by Eric Bancroft's helpful article, The Joy of Theology Reading Groups and worked to implement one for our men, which quickly found its way to our women as well. While my sermons tend to contain elements of theology in them, I am convinced that we ought not to shy away from exploring and explaining theology.
I have found thus far that a commitment to learning theology has not hurt our church, rather it has helped it grow exponentially. A word of caution, if you are going to use theological words, be sure to explain them.
6. Devote Yourselves to Serving. When a church spends their energy focused on scripture and theology, there will always be the charge of over-intellectualism. The Bible, however, never makes such a case.
In fact, elsewhere, Paul had prayed specifically that the church would be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, Colossians 1. 9. Further, Jesus prayed for the church to be sanctified, which happens by an immersion in the word of God, John 17. 17.
But for the church members on the island of Crete, they were naturally and culturally prone to laziness. In fact, Paul quotes the most famous Cretan poet Epimenides, who said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.
Paul affirms the sentiment in the next verse, it's hard not to draw parallels to our own over-indulgent modern culture. We ought to heed the warnings of the past. In view of the problem of laziness, Paul exhorts the church more than four times to be devoted to good deeds.
In fact, Jesus himself gave himself for us that he might redeem us and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. That was 2. 14. Now, we know that our good deeds don't justify us before God, but they do bear witness to validity of our faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul tells the church to be careful to engage in good deeds, so that we may not be unfruitful. 7. Maintain a vibrant witness. We planted our church in a small town. Like most small towns, word travels fast and it travels far.
If we were to gain a reputation for being a gossipy church, an unloving church, or a contentious church, the stigma would haunt us for the next 20 years. So, we feel the pressing need to maintain a vibrant witness for Jesus Christ.
Paul is also concerned about this. In fact, he warns Titus himself to model godliness, in order that the opponent may be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us. 2. 8. Further, Paul likewise exhorts bond slaves who are part of Cretan households to model faithfulness, so that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
2. 10. In short, we are to do all that we can to make the gospel attractive to others. Taking the point even further, Paul exhorts the church to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, be gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
It's important to remember that no one plants a church in a vacuum. There are always eyes watching. How are we portraying ourselves and the gospel of Christ before outsiders? 8. Guard against division.
One thing that has become very apparent is that church unity is a precious, valuable, and gentle thing. This is why Paul tells the church to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Recognizing this truth, Paul warns Titus to shun foolish controversies, strife, and disputes, for they are unprofitable and worthless. This does not mean that healthy debate between brothers is not useful, but bickering and infighting are toxic for church unity.
One of the luxuries we have experienced as a small church plant is the blessing of not starting with very much. While we had the necessary support from our sending church and denomination, we didn't start off with high expectations for a dynamic worship experience, multitudinous committees, full-service childcare, or a rockin' youth group.
Things were simple, because we were small. Because of this, there wasn't much for us to fight about. But as we've grown, things have become more complex, and there are more opportunities to rub each other the wrong way.
Knowing that God's desire is for us to love one another, be kind to one another, bear with one another, and serve one another, we have made it a priority to work hard to keep our eyes on Christ, engage in rich fellowship, and guard ourselves against division.
In his conclusion, Nate says, God is faithful, and in the end, what we needed most was not a stack of church-planting books, but rather, a well-worn Bible. Amen to that. So that was Nate Pikowit's article in Nine Marks on how they use the book of Titus to plant a church.
It's interesting that he only had 8 points there, not 9. It is Nine Marks, after all. Anyway, I'm just being—I'm picking on you, Nate. Picking on Nate Pikowit's. But I thought that article was also a great summary of what we've studied in Titus for the last several weeks.
I hope you've enjoyed this study. Where we're going to be heading next is the book of Philemon. Next week, and that'll probably only take us a week to get through. After that, I'm not really sure where I'm going to go.
I've thought about jumping back to 1 Corinthians, because I taught through 1 Corinthians in my church last year. That was our sermon series. I'll be finishing up 2 Corinthians by the end of this year.
So I've thought about that. I've thought about teaching through Acts. I've thought about doing one of the Gospels. I just haven't decided yet. So we'll wait to see how that's going to go. In the meantime, we have our Old Testament study tomorrow, and I'm starting a new book, Esther.
So I hope you'll come back and join me for that. Let's conclude with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the salvation that we've been given in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and I pray that you would continue to show us those things that are excellent and profitable for your people.
We cling to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which produces godliness in the hearts of those who believe it, and we would be devoted to doing the good works of God. Teach us to avoid foolish controversies, those things that develop into quarrels, very inconsequential subject matters, for they are described as unprofitable and worthless.
But instead, we would renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
In the name of Christ we pray, amen.