Titus 1:1-9, “Starting Over,” Dr. John B. Carpenter

Titus 1:1-4 and the Purpose of Apostolic Ministry

Titus chapter 1 be reading from verse 1 to 9. Hear the word of the Lord Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and Their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life which God who never lies promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in the his word.

Through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior to Titus my true child in a common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior this is why I left you in Crete so that you may put what remained into order and Appoint elders in every town as I directed you if anyone is above reproach.

The husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

But hospitable a lover of good self-control upright holy and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Have you moved? Probably every one of us has moved at some time. I don't know if you moved recently. While moving is a pain it's a lot of work.

The one good thing about moving is that it forces you decide what things are worth keeping and What aren't worth packing and taking with you that are better off just being thrown away are given away. Moving is the best way to clean house.

When you move every object in your house, you have to pick up. You have to decide. Hmm. Is this worth keeping? Is it worth me packing a putting in a box? Taking it somewhere then unpacking and putting back somewhere else.

So it's often easier. You look at this thing I don't you know, it's not worth all that easier just to dump it in the trash. Moving is a great way to start over. With what is really essential, of course.

How much you take with you. How much of your stuff you move with you? Depends on how far you move if you're just moving across town and it's easy. You're much more likely to pile things in the back of a pickup truck and that's unpilot wherever your new places.

You could take a lot of baggage with you if you're moving across the country like to California well, you're much more careful about what you could pack and take if you're moving across the Pacific Ocean as I've done four times Mike and Nancy and Joyce have made that move.

If you're crossing an ocean. You can only take a few things only what can fit in a few suitcases. Or maybe you can mail some things ahead of you. And that means deciding that some things you'd love to keep that you want to keep.

You have to decide to leave behind. When we were in Singapore, we were given a beautiful desk. Solid wood not this press board kind of stuff. Mahogany, I think it had belonged to a Swiss banker. Okay.

Now imagine what kind of desk a Swiss a rich executive switch banker had gave it to us. It was sturdy was L shaped. I loved that desk. We moved a couple times within Singapore. Took it with us even though it's a hassle to move it, but we did.

But when it came time to move back to the u .s. It was too big to take with us. I wanted to. I even had a shipper come to measure it and give me a quote how much it would cost. To ship it to the u .s.

I'm too much. I think you got a bought a new desk for what it cost to ship it. And so we had to leave it behind. Sometimes a move is so far you have to leave behind things that you would love to keep.

Things that you're you're attached to. But sometimes you still got to leave them behind to start over. When the Protestant Reformation moved away from the old religious tradition the Reformed knew that it was a long move.

That they couldn't take much with them from the old religion. The Lutherans thought they could take a lot with them. They thought it was just a short move kind of like a cross town. But but the Reformed especially the Puritans treated it like was moving across the Pacific.

They picked up every teaching every ritual every song. Examined it by the Word of God and asked whether they could take it with them to where they were going. Being a biblical church. Now at first most of them didn't get it, right?

They still clung to it at least one major tradition. But anyway They had to dump all the unbiblical traditions that accumulated over time and when we started this church about a decade and a half ago.

We were starting over like with the Reformation. There had been teachings and rituals. There's expectations of the church there were not from scripture that had been picked up from the culture or just kind of accumulated over time and You may notice that some of them are missing from our church.

That's not just like unintentional. It's not like I got lazy. So I don't feel like doing an altar call. No, there's a reason I don't do it if you think the moving from church is normal. Around here to being a biblical reformed church was just a short move.

It's not that big a not that big a difference from what church is to what it should be. Then you think we can bring a lot of baggage with us, but if you realize that it's a long way from where we were.

To where God calls us to be it's like moving across the Pacific Ocean. Then you realize we have to leave a lot behind even if some of those things. Yeah, I kind of like. For example people all around us now view the church.

Now like their favorite restaurant. You know where you're the consumer. You get fed. It's even a way a lot of people talk about the church. Oh, I get fed. Well there. Okay, really I get fed well at outback too.

So well, they enjoy the service, but you have no more connection in Their minds to the other people who happen to be there. Then you do to the other strangers who happen to be eating in the same restaurant with you.

You know when you go to outback you're not connected with other diners there your relationship to the people who lead the church. It's like the relationship with the staff of that restaurant. They're there to serve you and if they don't do it to your satisfaction.

You'll skip on the tip and take your business elsewhere. That's the baggage that people have been bringing with them. To the church for generations now. But if we want to start over and cross that ocean to be what God wants us to be.

Then we'll have to leave all of that behind. Do you want to start over? Are you willing to put away what you must assume all that baggage. It's in our culture and that's crept into the church baggage of consumerism individualism self-sufficiency.

Do you want to? Some reform people are very good at Seeing what's wrong with the old church in the 16th century. They're not so good with seeing what's Wrong in the culture all around them now well. If you want to reform now.

You want to reform from move from the environment of the world now to what God wants us to be then? Well, here's where to start. Titus Paul's letter to one of his most trusted disciples. Telling us what the church is to be.

How it is to be led and how we're to live together and live in the world here in the first half of the first chapter Paul Unveils all of that now first leadership with himself as an example. Getting leadership right is crucial if we're to start over in here in verse 1.

We see that the leader is a servant of God. That's how we describe himself. Paul a servant of God. He works for God. Not for us. Now that right away strikes at the heart of these three baggages. Consumerism individualism.

Self-sufficiency. Consumerism says that the leader is like the waitress at the restaurant. He serves me. Individualism and self-sufficiency. Recoils at the idea of even needing leaders. What's all this talk about leaders?

We know we might need staff you get that you need someone to bring the food out to you. But not leaders. We can do it on our own we think. The baggage keeps us from saying why we need spiritual leadership at all.

But this whole letter Titus is premised on was founded with the assumption on the idea. That Christians are called to be together in a body members of the church and for that they need leaders. Now notice the first one what leaders working for God are called to do.

He says that the call is for the sake. This is the purpose then the sake of the faith. It's for their faith of whose faith of God's elect. Another version has it to further the faith of God's elect. That is God's servants are to build up the faith of those people whom the Lord has chosen to be his people.

That's the elect the elect of those people whom God elected. We have elections where you choose a Political leaders. God had an election and he's the only one who got to vote and he chose his people. And so those people are his elect.

So if you're the elect that has you've been chosen by God the pastor works for God. Remember by building up your faith. That's what he's doing. So and to build up your faith He has been trying to get you to put the weight of your life.

The center of your loves you're gonna love all kinds of things some people know if you love anything besides you know. You can love all kinds of things in the world your your friends your family football.

But you love them with Christ at the center for his sake for the glory of God you put all of that on God himself and then the Apostle Paul joins to faith for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth.

So the leader does not just create feelings a sentiment about life. You know all is all as well and my feelings are that I love God. But my day of God is very different from yours. It's very different the Bible.

It's whatever I feel like no there is the truth and God's servant wants you to have knowledge of it to understand it. So he educates. So you learn have knowledge to edify that is to build you up. That's why we have Sunday school program.

Even if it's online now to further your knowledge of the truth want more knowledge of the truth. Well avail yourself of what we have. It's not knowledge for knowledge sake like like in school. It's to open your eyes to be enlightened to see true things not just so you haven't know the opinions about all kinds of issues is what so-and-so thinks so-and-so things is to get you to the truth and Truth that will change the way you live in true faith and knowledge.

He says results in that is it produces Godliness that's living in the God centered way with him in the center godly righteous living its knowledge of the truth. That will change the way you live then in verse 2.

He tells us that true faith is is forward-looking. There is a hope of eternal life. Notice he said hope of eternal life. There's a hope Because it's a faith and things that aren't yet fully here. But true faith sees it is already settled.

For those whom God has chosen Now to them it says God has promised eternal life and he promised it before The ages began that's why they're the elect. God elected and he chose them before the ages began that have eternal life.

In other words before history in eternity past the Lord decided that he would save certain people. And their their eternal life is firmly established and a promise God made before The world was ever created so they will be preserved.

Since it's based on God just promising before we've done anything good or bad it they will be preserved no matter what happens. You can be assured of your eternal life. Because God never lies. He says the God who never lies.

So you're assured of it and you have hope of eternal life the eternal life Which is in the future something you hope for is now he says manifested or it's revealed and he said verse 3 It's revealed now says in this season is revealed right now.

The fullness of it still in the future. That's what you hope for it. But is the the revelation is now. The hope which is partly still in the future is revealed now. He says through Preaching That is God promised great things to his people Before the beginning of time When the time was right Now and he brought them to life.

He revealed them to his people through words. Now preaching there. I think in verse 3 is an overly narrow translation of that word now for my own sake I wish I could I may could skip that and say no you need me to be doing this.

It's where it all comes just through me. No. Preaching there just means any proclamation any announcement any communication of the gospel. And it could be done through any way way of declaring it when we read preaching.

We think of a certain style of speaking like what I'm doing right now. But that's not what he means by this word is from kerygma any communication that you give the gospel through it could be you sharing It in a conversation with back and forth with a friend, but it does require words.

Francis of Assisi famously said preach the gospel at all times if necessary use words dumb saying Francis, I'm not an admirer of Francis of Assisi. It's probably the only time I've ever quoted him and it's dumb.

At all times it is necessary to use words. There's been a trend of Christians not supporting the word lately. It's a bad trend. I think supporting missionaries who dig well, maybe some do need to be doing that.

But they should be paired with others who preach the word, but it's already missionaries who dig wells, but they don't preach or. There's been the trend of some churches this kind of periodically like once a month or so calling off their Sunday service.

And they go out and do some kind of community project, you know paint the benches in a park or whatever as though words Aren't necessary, you know, we like leave tracks or do any speaking through it. They just do good works.

They think that's. They think that's godliness I guess but that somehow communicates just without words it doesn't. That's the baggage of our own culture. Where we've been denigrating the word eternal life has made known.

That it's revealed manifested through words as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10 faith comes From God. Yeah through hearing and hearing what through the word of Christ. The trustworthy word. That's why we have our Jim jr.

And Jim outreaches. We like we do a good deed by getting them off the street where they could get in trouble. And they hear him playing basketball and a good supervision. Yeah, that's a good deed just by itself.

But we don't just do that. You know almost all the time we share some but either lesson or a brief gospel message. We present the word what he calls here the trustworthy word. The leaders main task is to communicate the trustworthy word and so we start over.

When it comes to leadership as we come to verses 5 to 9 the leaders are called notice. We calls the leaders. We're used to calling leaders in churches pastors. Okay, the New Testament actually only uses that word is a noun only once.

And Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 the main word. Main word is elder also overseer. Both of them are used here. Leaders are called elders or overseers and the terms are about the same office. We see that then the Christians we the church need proper leaders.

He says talking to Titus same for we see our need then the church in Crete. The church is the Christian people. Paul had gone through Crete preaching the gospel with his assistants. Some have been converted and he sends Titus there to organize these believers into churches.

And he says they need leaders appoint the elders to set in order. There's a key phrase set in order that is put what remains from their evangelism. But he's preached the gospel all kinds of people some of them believe those are the ones who remain put them in order.

Every church needs elders. Pastors would say what do you want to call it and they need him to put in order? Now the baggage of individualism and self-sufficiency lies to us to tell us what we can make it on our own.

They're just this is me and God. I don't need anybody putting me in order. You keep your order off of me. Who needs membership? I don't want a preacher to entertain me with lively sermons, you know. There people are not there are people who kind of like preaching just as their form of entertainment some go for Concerts some go for football games and some go for preaching and just kind of entertained by it.

But they don't have any idea that they need elders to be over them to be put them in order. They have no concept of that. They find that kind of revolting often here Paul shows us that we do indeed need that.

God's plan is not just to have separate individuals. Who are believers out there kind of roaming around maybe going from preaching from here to there for their entertainment. But they need a church. It needs to be set in order just like when we drive we have traffic signs.

We have laws lane lines police. To put our driving in order. And so we need elders to put us in order. And so you need to be a member of a church and that church must be set in order. We're not a rabble of disconnected individuals.

We're not customers at a restaurant kind of just happen to all be here at the same time. God cares about the order of his church and the individualist things. Well, it's just me and God. They think the church is like a gym.

So, you know the gym has its equipment you can work out on and maybe it has trainers. They can you could come for classes and go to some fitness routines with other people that's interested the same thing.

But you can kind of take or leave that you can work out on your own if you want to. That's that's the way some people think of the church. I'll go there with those other people that spiritual workout.

But if I don't feel like it, I want to work out on my own. I can do that too. That's that's baggage. Here we see that believers together as the church are to be and set in order that means membership means a church covenant because that kind of defines what membership means what the order is discipline and Leadership and here we see three elements of spiritual leadership.

First the one thing that it is. Second the two things that it does and third the many things that the men in it should be first. What is an elder or overseer? Yes, the two terms are interchangeable. Well, is he the main preacher?

Then if he is is he just mainly entertainer. Or is it good like a good politician? It's an emblem of social respectability knowing how to make everyone feel good about themselves. Perhaps he's a social worker or kind of sanctified party animal very social kind of guy.

If he's not the preacher, okay, maybe some people say well, I know elders are always the preacher. Okay, if he's not the preacher then is he a board member who just kind of supervises the preacher? It's kind of a check and a balance like Congress is to the president like in our political system.

All of that is the baggage of our culture. Verse 7 tells us. What he is the elder overseer is God's steward. There's the word Steward. That is he put in charge of God's house. The church is not that the building.

Someone else can look out to the building. Please not the building but God's people the members who have covenanted together. A steward. Doesn't own the property. Doesn't belong to him. He just tends to it.

He looks after it in place of the one who really owns it. The word steward there Comes from the Greek word for her house. It's a form of the word for house or household or family. Meaning is one who is put in charge over a house.

So someone like if you were going away leaving your kids all minor kids, you would probably want to have today we call a babysitter I guess but you want to have someone over a Responsible adult looking over the household while you're away.

And so it is assuming this word is assuming what Paul says elsewhere. About the church the church is God's household first. Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 Paul writes the household of the work of being family of God.

Which is the church of the Living God? So here Paul specifically means local churches as God's households. God's family where he's the father. He's the owner. But he has stewards to care for that family.

That's what the church is the family of God and you think about that's a very different conception. Is it then they're being like a restaurant? It's the family of God. And so you don't go to another family because they cook better and you go to a restaurant like that.

Well, the other one cooks better. So I'll go there. I mean you don't go to another family because they cook better or because they see better or because the house is better. Hey mom and dad the other the other families are much nicer house.

I'm gonna go live with them. I don't work that way. No, you think this is is my family. But today people think the church is like a restaurant. They might have a favorite one. They go to. They go there kind of regularly.

They like the food and they know the menu and they get along well with the staff. They're comfortable there. It might even begin to feel almost like home. But if another restaurant had a special. Or maybe just want some variety.

Now they'll go there. They'll go visit there. Now if they come back to their favorite restaurant and the staff begins to rebuke them for their unfaithfulness. How dare you betray us? Where were you? They would think that's bizarre.

That's overbearing. That's possessive. It's obsessive. It might be enough to drive them away from every going back to that restaurant again. And they think the same way about the church. It's not a family.

It's not the household of God. It's the restaurant of God and as long as I'm getting a meal somewhere. Well, it's none of your business. They think where I'm going. But that is some of the baggage from the past.

We need to leave behind. If we want to start over. Second you always have to do two things that. They're called to do. Verse 9 says they are to both. Encourage in sound teaching. Okay sounds so far so good and correct.

So the qualifications for an elder in verse 5 to 8. You know all those qualifications. We'll look at very briefly. Soon, but they're remarkable for being very unremarkable. You read those things you think I'm me pretty much.

I've failed here or there sometimes but I meet all those standards. They're remarkable for being unremarkable, but the actual thing they have to do Is remarkable. They must have the ability inclination to instruct believers in right teaching.

Not only sophisticated theology sometimes necessary but instructions in how to live and to be able to correct those who are straying. Those who are contradicting right teaching. So that means they got to be able to understand what's the implications of this theology and it'd be able to.

To expose it reveal it. Not only able in the sense that they understand it, but also able if they have the inclination to confront it. All Christians really should be able to meet the qualifications listed in verses 5 to 8.

But not every Christian is called and gifted to do those two things. Listed in verse 9 encourage in sound teaching and correct all the qualifications. Listen versus 6 to the beginning verse 9 or for the purpose of in the middle of verse 9.

So that notice the middle verse 9 all these things. So that the purpose he the elder may be able to. What. Entertain sit on a board and be important. No, but actually I've been giving you the answer. I know it's not suspenseful but it's to build up the faith of God's elect as in verse 1 by instruction and Correction here in verse 9.

That's that's the passion of the spiritual leader. What can I do to help to improve to strengthen your faith? How can I build up the household of God? No, he's the steward. He's the head servant, but he's been put in charge of the family of God.

So he's thinking constantly. How can I provide for them? What do they need? How they need to be encouraged how they need to be educated for their edification. How do they need to be confronted? What wrong ideas wrong problems are coming in their life?

How can I encourage them to believe what is right and do what is right? What weaknesses need to be addressed? That's particularly clear and the second thing the elder is supposed to do to rebuke those who contradict the truth.

Now our day part of the baggage of the culture again consumerism individualism self-sufficiency. Is that it's gray if the elder encourage. Positive encouraging we like that but not correct or rebuke right.

Would you listen to a radio station? It was k-rath all rebuke all the time. Don't know what songs they would get but whatever. That doesn't sell in our culture because of that the person who is often now in our culture attracted into the ministry is a people pleaser a Customer-oriented caterer.

He's kind of like the customer service representative at a big store. Oh, I'm sorry that you're not happy with those Ten Commandments. Let me see if I have anything else that you might like better. That kind of thing and I've seen men who think that they can be an elder but are incapable of correcting.

They'll talk amiably for over an hour with someone in the most obvious sin and won't touch the sin. That's the baggage of our consumer culture, right you got it if you got to keep the customer happy you don't confront his sin.

You can't love flowers without hating weeds. You can't love sheep without hating wolves. Now certainly the most unpleasant part of being an elder but one of the absolute necessary obligations is to correct in the past.

This was understood just part of the job description. But today the assumption is that if something goes wrong if someone drops out Does something they shouldn't and then the first and probably the last person to blame is the pastor.

It's not supposed to rebuke. He is supposed to be rebuked. So we bought people think you don't correct people because if you do the leaf and The church they think is the restaurant to serve them and they're the customer and the customer is always right.

And if you know if the customer says your general chow chicken is not sweet enough. Well, you put more sugar in it. You don't rebuke him for bad taste. Well, that's business and stand out in the business world.

But here we see that the purpose of the stewards of God's household the leaders is To build up your faith. It's not to sweeten the message to the way you like it. You don't like all those commandments.

I'll I'll give you more encouragement one. If we've had other ideas about spiritual leadership of the church we need to Leave those behind. Even if we really like them. Leave them behind as we start over now very briefly.

There are the many things That the elders are to be. Starting verse 6. No first. They are to be above reproach and you piece that in verse 7 above reproach. No one's reproaching them and the Apostle Paul doesn't mean that only someone who is free from every kind of weakness is to be selected.

As an overseer or elder that's unreasonable. No such person could be found, but it does mean that we should only have men as elders who have no disgrace in their lives that would lessen their authority that the kind of the rest of the people in the The town and the society pointed and that guy's a scoundrel.

How do you make him a leader of your church? He must be a man of unblemished reputation. Then he must be the husband of one wife. So by the way, that means he's a man. Now I'm in the process of writing a series of articles for Theopolis showing in part how consumerism Encourages what's now called egalitarianism.

Women pastors, for example, you know. If you think of the church as a restaurant you go into a restaurant. You don't care if the chef is a man or a woman you don't care. You want whoever cooks or preaches the best.

This is about you and your taste. You you're being. Getting a tasty meal or a good sermon. Now if you know the church is the family of God that Changes everything. Only a man can be a in the family a father Patriarch or the husband of one wife.

Now in his day, it's probably referred to polygamy. You have more than one wife can't be the elder. Sorry, you're too busy at home. Anyway, you don't need to be fooling with the church. You got too much to take care of at home.

You got more than one wife. Now in our day it would apply to our practice of serial monogamy. That we have rampant now serial monogamy going from one wife to another. Here Paul is you're calling on the elder to be a one-woman kind of man.

A man who has been faithful to his marriage vows. A man who has enough Control over his sex drive that he's not driven to pursue other women. Because how a man is in his family says a lot about how truly God-centered he is.

That's why Paul next insists that the elders show that he can rule his own children. Well, he wants to rule over the church. Can he vote? Let's see what he's doing in his family. If a man cannot rule over his own house.

Well, how can he be expected to be a steward over God's house? So an elder must show an orderly discipline over his children. So no one should be able to charge the I think live-in. Children can't really be expected to control the children if they're off living outside the home.

But live-in children of an elder with no one should be able to accuse them of living wildly of being immoral of being a brat being disobedient and insubordinate being unsanctified. Party animal. A man whose children are wild Needs to spend his time Straightening out his family.

He cannot be the elder of a church and he must rule himself. Look at the characteristics in the middle of verse 7 into verse 8. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain but hospitable.

A lover of good self-controlled upright holy and disciplined. All those are areas of ruling over oneself over your appetites. He must not be arrogant because the arrogant man cannot control his own will what he insists.

He doesn't know the difference between what he wants and what God commands. He cannot restrain his own ego. Yeah, we'll get man confuses his own opinions with God's Word. He's unteachable. And so we won't admit he's wrong.

And so he's impossible to work with. He'll tear up the household of God. Trying to have his own way. He must not be quick-tempered at his hot-headed exploding at little Provocations because the reality is that in the church there are sometimes people who will sorely try one's patience.

The true elder must not be a drunkard here again. The key is self-control doesn't say you can't drink at all. But he's able to say no I'm gonna stop here because any more than this is too much and I would get drunk enough self-control that he would Never do that.

That's the theme here. The elder is someone with control. He knows how to say no to himself. Cuz gonna have to say no to other people. Can he say that to himself first? He must be able to restrain himself when he is angry and I'll be violent.

He must be able to restrain his desires for things his covetousness so he's not greedy. A Greedy man will pursue the ministry as a hireling as an employee trying to get what he can get out of it. He's unwilling to tell hard truths that might turn people off so you lose members and that way you have less income.

And in the offering and because he so longs for a Successful church by worldly standards. He's greedy and so that shapes what he says how he does things instead of being greedy though. The godly elder is able to let go of things to share with others hospitable he loves others because he loves good.

And then the last four qualifications really focus on the theme of Self-control. The godly elder is self-control. He's upright. He's holy and disciplined. He puts himself first Under discipline or control and his family into order so that he can put the church into order.

He sets in order. He does that for the church at verse 5. Is he fit for that? Well first does he do it to himself? Does he do it? To his family, but the modern substance not the spiritual leaders. Need to set in order or to govern.

He should feel. He should ooze. Should empathize. We don't need to order. People think we need Entertainment we need puffing up. We need empathy. That's all Baggage that we have to leave behind. As we're starting over.

Finally verse 9 the godly elder not only has a firm grasp on himself on his appetites. But on the truth. He must hold think of that word here whole like you're grasping with all your might hold firm to the trustworthy word as Taught.

God's Word is trustworthy and holy and he must hold firmly to it as taught Here as taught by Paul that kind of reinterpreted in my own way. Sure. I believe all that this is my interpretation of it. I saw something just this morning to be elect means that you choose to do this or that.

What it's all about my choice. That's elect. No, it's just emptying the words of meaning and And interpreting them as I want them to be. You know, you here elder holds firmly To the words as they have been taught here.

For Titus telling the elder people of fine men as elders and Crete as taught by Paul. For us as taught By Paul and the other Apostles we hold firmly to that trust with your word because it is the Word of God.