Today we introduce what Lord willing will be the book that we will be walking through together in the first half of
2025 and I think we're gonna find out before we're done that Paul's
letter to Titus
It's very timely for us because the culture that he that Paul is speaking into on the island of Crete is not
all that dissimilar from the culture that we live in today and
so
It's a world where
immorality and perversion have run wild and
not only that but where some of the world has crept into the church and
impacted the
Effectiveness of the gospel witness for the church both on Crete in the first century and in our world today
So the question that we're gonna keep coming back to throughout the series is how can we live as God's holy people in?
the midst of a pagan culture
That's as important today as it was in the first century. How can we live as God's holy people in a pagan culture?
That's what Paul was driving at in his writing to Titus and Titus is so great because it's it's filled with practical
Ministry advice from an older pastor to a younger pastor giving him all kinds of directions about church organization
about healthy relationships about sound teaching about refuting false teachers and about how to bring
unity to a church that has every reason to be divided based on all kinds of
parameters, but most of all the themes that are woven throughout Titus are how are we saved and how can we better
equip the church for effective evangelism and
Especially as it relates to good works not that we're saved by good works, but we are
Saved for good works. It's about the evangelistic power of living a godly beautiful life
So that we're an example of God's grace to our pagan neighbors
And that's why we've chosen the title that you see on the screen
Living out the gospel of grace that will be the theme throughout this series. So grab your Bibles and let's head there
We're going to Titus chapter one
Titus chapter one and today I'm officially calling this a hashtag nerd sermon
Wow, well, yes, that's true, but especially today whenever we dive into the first
Sermon in a series
It's going to come with some maps and timelines and pictures and all kinds of things as we set the context for the entire
book so this is
hashtag nerd sermon I
Even have a spreadsheet today. Can you I know I know
Write your complaints to Adam at Oak Hill Bible calm and he will address all of them. Okay, let's read together
We're just going to cover the first four verses this morning Titus chapter one. Hear the word of the Lord
Paul a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ
For the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness
In the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie
promised long ages ago
But at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I
Was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior Paul loves long run-on sentences
You see that especially the new American standard there. It's a little clunky, but we'll get to it verse 4 to Titus
my true child in a common faith grace and peace from God the Father and
Christ Jesus our Savior and then just to finish off the context here
Look at the first phrase in verse 5 for this reason Titus. I left you where in
Crete
So here's what we want to talk about this morning
We're going to come back to some of that really important theology that you see there beginning
At the second half of verse 1 and running through verse 3
But first let's talk about the historical and cultural context of the letter
Basically, Paul has just given us three important facts
We need to know about first of all how Paul describes his credentials as the author of the letter
That's number one
second the identity of the recipient of the letter who he's writing to which is this young man named Titus and
Third the location where Titus's ministry is going to take place on an island called Crete
So if you're a Bible underliner if you like to highlight or underline in your Bible underline Paul's name in verse 1 and
Then underline those phrases bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ
then drop down to verse 4 underline the name Titus and
How Paul describes Titus as my true child in a common faith
and
Then finally underline the word Crete in verse 5 and you will have all the makings of the context of this letter
So let's start with Paul. How does he identify himself as the author?
well
he does it in two ways and at first glance when you look at it in your brain you might think these two things are
contradictory because one title that he claims is a title of submission and the other title he claims is the title of
Authority do those two things go hand in hand? So first of all, he is a bond servant a
Bond servant of God a doulos in the Greek
He is a he is a he is a slave that has chosen this position
He's a doulos and notice he lists that title first
It's the priority before he gets to authority. He lists that first first and foremost. That's what Paul saw about himself
I am a slave to God's will
Right you see that why?
Why does he see that first and foremost because he knows the truth about the depths of his own sin and
The more we see that the more we begin to see that we're bond servants of Christ
Because when you know what God has done for you in Christ and taking on the penalty for your sin
More and more you will grow in this truth that I don't belong to myself. My life is not my own
Because he paid the penalty saved me from hell
Saved me from having to pay for my own sins. I don't belong to myself anymore. My will is his will
I become a bond servant a slave. I am under orders from Christ to obey and serve him
Paul got that and this is true for all of us, isn't it?
Because we've all been bought with the price
And then secondly Paul identifies himself as an apostolus
In Greek an apostle of Jesus Christ and that word in its most basic form
Means one who is sent forth
It can mean a herald or a messenger and again that is in one sense true of all of us, right?
We've all been given the gospel message and sent forth as messengers as heralds of the truth
But here Paul's using apostle in a very limited technical sense
That term being applied only to the original 12 who walked with Jesus and to himself because Paul says
I've met Christ personally on the Damascus Road. So he is an apostle in that very limited sense
And so understand this title that Paul is claiming here comes with great weight behind it
It's the authority to speak and act on behalf of Christ because Christ is the one who has sent him out with this particular
gospel message
But the thing you see about Paul and you see this all throughout his letters, even though he has this authority
He always wields it with great humility. Now there are a couple times particularly in second Corinthians where
He has to sort of play the apostle card where he has to sort of pull rank because the church is so rebellious
But for the most part he makes it very clear. He says look Paul says i'm an apostle with authority, but I am the worst of sinners
That is great humility, right? He could have been running out going look at me. I'm an apostle everybody listen up
But he says no, I'm the worst of sinners. I don't deserve to be an apostle. I didn't call myself to this role
Christ did I've been sent by Christ himself. I'm his servant and therefore he says I don't have a choice
This is the role that's been set out for me
So because of this calling and because of Paul's sort of built in he's wired this way for the zeal for the things of God
And you know God always makes good choices on who he picks right to the point of calling
God always makes good choices on who he picks right to be apostles
Paul had amazing energy and commitment to do the work of an apostle in the first century
We'll get to that later, but there's no question that he understood his purpose in life
He understood the mission that christ had given to him
Now let's identify where in this where in his life and where in his ministry he wrote this particular letter
This is where it's going to get nerdy. Here's a spreadsheet
I mean
I'm sorry grant
Grant's going to get me for this later. It's a spreadsheet, but it's important to see where this letter fits
I think it's important for us to understand
Where each of these writings fits into the life and ministry of the author and by the way, if you want this graphic
Let me know text me email me. I can send it to you so that you can have it
But let's start we're not we're not going to take a lot of time on this
But if you start at the top, we know in acts chapter 9, so there's the chapters in acts
There's the event there's the the date and by the way, some of the dates are still
They're always being debated by scholars, but but this is pretty close and then you see on the right the letters that were written
during paul's particular life
So in acts 9 we read about paul's conversion on the way to damascus
And then the thing that's sort of the mysterious part of his life is he goes away for a time spends quite a few years
Outside of what we call the holy land
Preparing for this calling that christ has on his life
And that calling is very specific to go out into the greek world and to bring the gospel to the gentiles
So we read that over the next 12 years or so paul's in various parts of the ancient world sort of being trained for this mission
He's in damascus. He's in arabia. He comes back to his hometown of tarsus
Which is the general region of what we know selesia
And then and then when he's prepared and ready to go he embarks over a 10-year period from about the years
47 to 57
He goes on three great missionary journeys and he takes a bunch of his ministry team with him
A bunch of those guys those names that pop up all over the new testament takes them with him
It all gets launched out of a place called syrian antioch
And he goes all the way through asia minor and through the greek world
So the three bars you see there are the three great missionary journeys and their dates that paul took
Does that make sense?
And then in between journey number one and journey number two in the year 49
You see a break and that is where paul travels to judia for the very famous jerusalem council
That's described in acts chapter 15. That is where the early apostles and the early church leaders came together to talk about what?
Gentile inclusion in the church all these jewish men are seeing gentiles come to saving faith
And they come together to say how are we going to handle this? That's the jerusalem council
And then on the right of the spreadsheet you see when paul wrote each of his 13 new testament letters
You see galatians was written first right after the jerusalem council
Then during his second and third missionary journeys
He writes two letters to the church in thessalonica two letters to the corinthians and then
The letter to the church in rome
Beginning in acts 21. We see paul then having to endure a whole series of being arrested
Going through multiple trials being imprisoned
Why because he's an effective minister for the gospel
He is upsetting the ancient world and the roman authorities are not happy with him
So he spends all kinds of time and for an apostle nothing would have been more frustrating than this
Like i'm on a roll. I'm visiting these places and now for years i'm being put in prison
I'm being tried i'm being arrested my life is under threat
In acts 27 he's transferred as a prisoner from cesarea to rome
He's put on several ships. One of them gets shipwrecked along the way. We'll get to that story later
He finally makes it to rome
and
Again god's grace here. He's allowed
to basically
minister from
A rented apartment in rome. He's under house arrest so he can't go anywhere
But he's able to minister and write and actually receive visitors while he's in rome
And it's during those years you see that he writes what we call the four prison letters
Ephesians colossians philippians and a personal letter to a friend named philemon
So it's a productive time even though he's locked up
And then something surprising happens the book of act the book of acts ends
It ends right there with paul still in rome receiving visitors
That's why you see not applicable in the in the bottom left hand corner acts ends
Luke finishes the story with paul there in rome no mention of his death
Remember luke is a great historian
So if he had if he had you know paul had died during this time
He would have written that down and of course that tells you that that luke finished both his gospel
And the book of acts sometime in the early 60s before paul was executed around the year 66
Does all that all that sort of make sense? Okay good again if you want this graphic let me know
Now even though acts ends with paul and rome we know from other parts in the new testament that paul's story continued
It appears that paul was released by the authorities in rome somewhere
Around the year 62 or 63 and then he went back out into the greek world and engaged in more fruitful ministry
Before he was rearrested
Brought back to rome and there's good evidence that that second arrest when he was taken to rome
He did not survive that that he was put to death by the emperor nero
Sometime in the year around the year 66 because nero as we know
Absolutely despised christianity
Okay, so before his rearrest he did quite a bit of traveling you can see during this period he wrote
Several important works. These are what we call the three pastoral letters
Two to timothy and one to titus so that yellow area. This is the historical period
We're going to be in as we read through the book of titus the three pastoral letters
By the way, it makes sense that paul at this point in his life would write these types of letters
He had to know at this point that his time on earth was growing short
He had survived arrest in rome, but who you know who knows maybe he won't survive the next one
Plus he is beginning to get up there in age peter is getting up there in age that sort of generation of older apostles
Is going to give way to younger pastors
So it makes sense that he would now write to that next generation of pastors to men like timothy and titus
So that he can leave them instructions guys. This is how you organize the church. This is how you teach the church
This is how you administer things all of that practical instruction and I got to tell you personally
As a pastor i'm so thankful for these three letters
These pastoral letters because they are full of such important instruction even for today not just for first century churches
But we follow it today very closely as we look to organize this church in a godly way. Make sense?
So what exactly did paul do during those years that i've highlighted in yellow after his release from prison
So what is the actual story behind his letter to titus well
For nerds like me one of the the most fun things about the new testament is trying to track the movements of paul
And you have to be sort of a detective to figure it all out axe gives us a whole bunch of stuff
But other works do as well and not just paul
But this this massive I shouldn't say massive this this ministry team that is filled with men and even some women who are constantly
Moving around the ancient world on his behalf
There's a bunch of them and we know some of the names, you know, they pop up various times
You're like, how do you pronounce that name and who is that person?
Right, but he's got a whole team that goes with him all over the place and they're constantly on the move
They're they're they're going all over the ancient world and they are they're they're checking on churches and checking on leaders and putting out ministry fires
And you have to remember back then travel was not easy
This was not hopping on a plane
Right. This was long grueling trips sometimes on boats sometimes overland
And yet the amount of movement you see among these people in the new testament is remarkable guys
They were committed to seeing each other
It's energy paul didn't just say hey i'm gonna kick back here roma
Just write a bunch of letters and and good luck to you guys
He's like no we need to get out there and see people face to face
And teach and be in communion with one another was very important to him
Now we know from the book of first timothy that after paul was released from rome the first time
We know he goes back to asia minor to the city of ephesus and he says that's where he left timothy
So paul goes to ephesus with timothy leaves him there and says all right
Look man, you now have this job of pastoring this church in the city of ephesus
And paul says i'm continuing north up into macedonia
And we have good evidence that he traveled through several key cities myletas and troas and even down to corinth
And of course we know from the book of titus that paul also went to crete with titus
That they got to crete during this these years in yellow got to crete
And then paul said titus i'm leaving you here and once again
He said i'm back going into mainland greece and so he left titus there to put things in order
And then at some point in his trip as he's heading back north to the greek mainland probably somewhere up in macedonia
Paul decides that he's going to send two members of his team
Back to crete to check on titus to check on the churches there
And he decides i'm going to write a letter to titus give it to these two guys and let them deliver it
And the names of those two guys who deliver the letter are going to show up in chapter three
It's zenas a man who was a lawyer and the very famous teacher in the first century apollos
He sends those two guys back to crete to deliver this letter to titus and to check on him
We also learn in chapter three that paul doesn't want titus to stay there for too long
In fact, he says i just want you to be there long enough to set things in order and then i'm sending relief
He says i'm going to send either artemis or ticacus to come to crete and relieve you and let them take over
And by the way when they arrive what I want you to do is visit me in a city called nicopolis
Because that's where i'm staying for the winter. I want you to join me there
So we're going to get all that information within the letter itself, but it's very very interesting now
Does titus leave crete and get up to nicopolis?
We don't have a passage on it, but it seems that he actually did
Because we find out in second timothy paul's last letter right before his death
He says that he at that point he had sent titus out again
So titus did his job on crete. He sent him back to a place actually not back to but for the first time into new territory
in a land called dalmatia
Which not dalmatians. Nope. Nope. Nope. I saw the smile meredith not dalmatians dalmatia
Which get this now imagine how where the gospel got to that's modern-day
That's modern-day albania in croatia
And that's where the last the last mention we see of titus. So I just gave you a bunch of a bunch of locations
Which means what?
Means maps. Okay good
All right mediterranean world
Okay, again if you want any of these maps just let me know but this is super helpful. So these are the basics blue dot is
Jerusalem so that establishes our eastern border red dot on the top
Is rome that establishes our western boundary
The orange that you see there is syrian anti-auk. That's where
Paul's missionary journeys started that was sort of his home base of missionary work was in syrian anti-auk
And of course every time he traveled he went west right into asia minor and into greece
By the way, there's a whole theory about why he never went east that's for another day
But you should know these things for sure the island of crete there is circled
That's crete. We'll come back and describe that some more
Then let me add a couple more dots. Those are some of the
Some of the places in asia minor that paul visited during his this period of release
On the bottom we have my litus that and then the next the middle dot there is where effesus is
And then up top is where troas is so we know that he got to crete my litus
Ephesus and troas and then over in greece we have corinth that purple dot
And that area i've circled up there is generally the region. We know is macedonia
And that's where paul and up in macedonia is where thesilonica is and where philippi is
So paul spent quite a bit of time up in macedonia and then those two other places i mentioned
That blue dot is necropolis. That's where paul wants titus to meet him for the winter
And that area to the north in the blue circle that is dalmatia
Okay
There's a quiz later
No, but it's important for you to see where all the sort of the the territory that paul's working with here
And again, this is a rather lot for people that have to travel by foot
And on boats, this is a pretty big territory
Okay, I knew you're gonna stare at that for a while. That's fine
Let's talk about the setting for titus's ministry. What do we know about the island of crete?
Okay, first of all, it's the fifth largest island in the mediterranean
It is the largest of what we call the greek isles and you can see on the map there that its shape is long and narrow
It's 160 miles from tip to tip. So basically the driving distance from here to san diego
So it's not small by any stretch of imagination. Okay, the topography of it is really really interesting
Even though if you visited crete today, you'd find that there's some beautiful beaches there. It is not a tropical island
In fact, it's very rocky. It's very mountainous. It's very volcanic
And and that's going to play a role in its history
In fact less than a third of the land that is crete is located in the middle of the island
So very mountainous. Let me show you some pictures so you can get an idea of what the topography looks like
That's a cool picture of a monastery
On crete today
Most of the people there are greek orthodox
In terms of where religion is on crete today, they're greek orthodox. So you see a greek orthodox monastery there
You can see how mountainous it is
There's one of the coastlines there. So
So even like us, it's a little bit more of a mountainous place
And yes, they have some tourist centers and some shops, you know that type of thing where where there's a
Place to attract mainly northern europeans that come to crete for vacations
Okay, so now there's a very interesting history of crete
And it's a very interesting place to go to
And it's a very interesting place to go to and to go to
It is very, very interesting history to this island because there's the country of tradition
for vacations. Okay, so now there's a very interesting history of this island,
There's Western world
and this plays into the background of the book of Titus. Crete is filled with
all kinds of Greek mythology and really interesting legends, and there's been a
lot of archaeology done on the island of Crete over the last hundred years, and
we've learned all about its origins. The first people group that settled on this
And thatoria which did not
island are known as Minoans. Anybody take ancient history in high school? You
learned about the Minoans and the Mycenaeans? Okay, good. It's all gonna
come back. I think it's probably ninth grade. Anyway, the Minoans, and they were
a tribe that came from Anatolia or Asia Minor and sailed across the Aegean Sea
and settled on this island. Now when did that happen? Somewhere around 2000 BC. So
comparatively, this is the same time that Abraham is wandering the land of Canaan,
Crete is being settled. The reason we know about the Minoans is threefold.
First of all, there's a record in various cultures around the
Mediterranean of them trading. So they were excellent traders,
probably excellent shipmen and sailors. Secondly, they seem to be the very first
European people that established an alphabet and had a written language,
which has been left to us. So they were advanced in that sense. And third, we have
dug up a number of their largest structures, palace structures, that were
built on the island. Some of you guys may have seen this picture. This is the
Minoan palace at a place called Knossos, right? And this was discovered in the
late 1800s. They are still digging there and still finding more and more things.
And at that site, scholars have found some amazing things in terms of
sculptures and pottery and jewelry and colorful frescoes. So it's a really
interesting culture that flourished there on Crete. Now there's a few scary
things as well. The archaeologists have found chambers of skulls in multiple
sites on the island, which means they practiced human sacrifice. So not so
advanced in that sense. And also some of these frescoes, and they're beautiful,
they worshiped bulls. That was their thing. The bull god was their thing.
How many of you guys have heard of the mythological creature called the Minotaur?
Okay, good. Some of you guys may have studied it. That's an example of what I mean. It's a
half man, half bull. And there's this whole story about Knossos. I won't go
into too much detail, but this creature lived in this place in a labyrinth under
the city. I see little people here, so I'm not going to say anything more.
I'll let you look it up. But it also involves the Prince of Athens, a
legendary figure named Theseus, who comes and slays the Minotaur. Anyway, all of
this is part of the sort of the legends and mythology behind Crete. And of
course, so you have to understand, as Paul and Titus go to minister there, this is
all in the background of the people. Now not that they're practicing Minoans at
the time, but these are their origins and their roots. Now the Minoans disappear
around the year 1500 BC. Again, comparatively, that's the time of Moses
and the Exodus over in Egypt. We don't know why they disappeared, other
than logic tells us that they fell victim to the volcanic activity in that
area, that earthquakes and tsunamis sort of wiped them out, or at least weakened
them to the point where they could be conquered. And they were conquered by a
tribe known as the Mycenaeans, who came from the Greek mainland, from the
Peloponnese, and they sailed to the across the Aegean, and they conquered the
Minoans, absorbed them basically, and set up their own culture. And then 300 years
later, they too were conquered and absorbed by some marauding Dorian
tribes from the Greek mainland. So sort of switching of hands of Greek tribes. In
the fourth century BC, they came under the rule of Philip of Macedon and his
son, Alexander the Great, who conquered all of Greece, including Crete. And then
in the Roman period, there's a guy named Pompey, you should know who he is. He's
the general who eventually conquers Jerusalem and takes control of Israel on
behalf of Rome. He also goes to Crete because there's piracy happening all
around the island of Crete, and he sort of shuts the piracy down and secures
Crete for Rome. And then under Caesar Augustus, Crete officially becomes a part
of the Roman Empire. So there's this long history of Crete changing hands. Now
here's an interesting tidbit about the church that was established there, and
this sort of builds up the veracity of the New Testament record. Archaeologists
have discovered evidence for a very early Christian community established in
a city called Cortina, right? And it dates back to, wait for it, the mid first
century. Shocking, right? The very same time that Paul and Titus are evangelizing
the island. So we know this from Roman records. Cortina was a thriving city at
the time, had a population according to the records of 300,000 people in this
one city on the island of Crete. So it makes sense that a church would have been
planted there. Now a couple more maps to help you understand how did Crete end up
on Paul's radar? Why would he go there in the first place? Well first of all, this
is a map of the nightmare journey that Paul took when he was transferred from
Caesarea to Rome as a prisoner. This is the great shipwreck story that shows up.
The whole story is detailed in Acts 27. So the green dot there is Caesarea by
the sea, and Paul is basically put on a ship. They go to Sidon, and then they sail
north of the island of Cyprus and along the southern coastline of Asia Minor, and
then they turn, because of some bad weather, down towards the island of Crete.
And they creep along the southern part of the island of Crete, and the
weather is getting worse and worse, so they stop in a bay that Luke says is
known as Fairhavens. Now we know exactly where that is today. And so they
have to wait out the storm in this bay on the island of Crete. Does all that
make sense? Guys, that would have been the first time that Paul set foot on the
island of Crete. And here's my guess. I can't prove this, but they stay
there. We don't know how long to wait out the weather, and Paul must have looked
around and thought, I'm coming back here someday, right? Because that's Paul's
heart. He's like, this is a new place I haven't been, but I'm stuck here. God has
a purpose in it. I'm gonna come back at some point. Now eventually they set sail
from Crete, and they get all the way towards Italy, and they get
shipwrecked on the island of Malta. That's that little second black dot there.
They get shipwrecked there. They're stuck there for three months, waiting for a new
ship to come and pick them up. You know, but by the grace of God they all would
have perished. And there's a whole story there. Again, look at Acts 27, and
eventually they make it up to the Italian mainland. So here's what's
interesting to me. If you look at a updated or a focused-in map of Crete, that
bay there is the bay at Fairhavens. We know that's true. And that red dot there
is the city of Cortina, which probably at the time that Paul is staying
there in that bay, the church at Cortina has probably been planted not far away
from where Paul was at that moment. So it seems to me that there's no
doubt that Paul said, I'm coming back here because the church here needs to get
strengthened. Okay, all right. Just to finish the history of Crete, in the year
395, after the Roman period, Crete falls under the Byzantine Empire, which is
technically really just the Eastern Roman Empire. And there is strong evidence
that the church was still thriving on the island. In fact, a very famous church
was built in the 6th century. This is the Church of St. Titus in Cortina on the
island of Crete. And the inscriptions that you see all around this very ancient
church says the building itself was dedicated to, you guessed it, to Titus, who
was recognized throughout Crete as the bishop of all of the churches of Crete.
Now the final country that ruled over Crete before the modern period were
the Ottoman Turks. They actually conquered all of Greece in the 15th
century, and they don't give up power over Crete until the end of World War
I, believe it or not, in the 20th century when the Turks were finally expelled and
Crete came back under the rule of Greece. And as I said, even today, Greek is the
national language, the Greek Orthodox Church sort of dominates the religious
landscape, and the primary economic driver in Crete is tourism. Christians
like us like to go there, right, to see all these things, which I get. But also,
again, to a vacation spot for northern Europeans and a whole bunch of cruise
ships also stop in Crete. So if you want to go someday, I hear it's beautiful. I
haven't been there, but the pictures are amazing. Okay, deep breath. Again, we're
just setting the stage for the letter. Let's talk about the Cretan Church
itself, because this is an important question. If Paul hadn't been on the
island until that moment at Fairhavens, how did the church get planted? How did
the church start? If Peter didn't do it and Paul didn't do it, how did it get started?
Well, we don't have any text for this. We don't have any extra biblical source
for it, but there is a logical answer to this question, and it goes back to Acts
chapter 2. You know the story in Acts chapter 2. It's the text that describes
the day of Pentecost, and on this day of Pentecost, it says that Jews from all
over the Roman Empire had gathered in Jerusalem. They're gathered together
probably on the southern steps of the temple, and that's when the Holy Spirit
comes down upon them, right? They're speaking in tongues, and we all sort of
know this story. It's basically considered the birth of the church, this
moment in Jerusalem. Now here's a list of the nations where Jews had come from to
Jerusalem. These are where they came from. Parthia, Persia, Elam, Babylon,
Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Arabia, and
Crete. So we had Jews from Crete coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the
day of Pentecost. They would have been Hellenistic Jews, and they come to
Jerusalem, and they witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then most likely
they sat under the evangelistic preaching of Peter over those several
days there in Jerusalem, and a number of them give their life to Christ. And then
what do they do? They go back home to Crete, and they start churches in their
homes. They didn't start building buildings or anything like that. They
started churches in their homes. Now Tani and I were discussing this this
morning because it's such an interesting thing. Can you imagine planting a church
having just gotten saved? You've got just an inkling of information about it. Now
you have the Old Testament, right? The promise is given to you, but only
an inkling of this new covenant and the falling of the Spirit and this
preaching from Peter, and now we're gonna go back and plant a church. How daunting
would that have been? So by the time Paul and Titus arrive on Crete, it's been 30
years since that moment. It's been 30 years since the coming of the Spirit on
Pentecost, and yet we're gonna find out it's probably a significant number of
Christians that were on Crete now, probably more Gentiles than Jews, but
they're still really immature. And you can sort of understand because they
haven't had a whole lot of godly leadership as far as we can tell, and
that's why Paul's gonna say to Titus, hey bro, didn't say bro, said hey Titus, set
things in order, and he starts with what? Get some elders who are qualified and
trained to start maturing these people. We'll get to that next Sunday, but you
can imagine they're still immature 30 years later and still vulnerable to
false teaching. We'll also see that in this letter. By the way, I'll just say
this briefly because this is gonna come up in a few weeks. This is a tough
assignment that Paul is giving to Titus because the people on Crete have a
reputation and it's not good. They have a reputation for immorality and
perversion. They are a mess, and so Paul is choosing Titus to be his guy for this
very difficult assignment. Okay, last thing before we get to the theology, what
about Titus himself? What do we know about this man Titus? Well, he's unusual
as a member of Paul's ministry team because he's not Jewish, and that was
unusual for that period of the church. He is a Gentile, and we don't know exactly
where Titus is from, but the name Titus is a strong Latin Roman name, so we know
that he's a Gentile, and although we're not given any details in the Bible, it's
almost universally accepted that Titus would have come to saving faith either
before or during Paul's first missionary journey. Somewhere in Asia Minor
probably he would have come to saving faith, and then he joined Paul on his
second and third missionary journeys, and I think this is why in verse 4 he's
called, Paul calls him my true child in a common faith, meaning he came to life, he
was born again through Paul's ministry at some point. Okay, so then once he saved
he goes off on these other journeys. Now we also know that Titus went to that
Council of Jerusalem. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas there, and as a Gentile he
sort of stood out, because remember what was the topic of the Council of Jerusalem?
How do we deal with the Gentiles? So Paul's like, hey I got one right here,
and so he becomes sort of a test case for that whole debate, showing that
somebody could come to saving faith and not be a Jew, not have to get circumcised
in order to be saved, and he went, okay. That didn't land like I thought it would.
I actually just made that up on the fly. Okay, stop it Jeff, stop it. Okay, and I'm
turning red. Okay, Titus is mentioned 13 times in the New Testament, nine times in
the book of 2nd Corinthians, and isn't that interesting? Nine of the 13 times in
2nd Corinthians, and that is because before Crete, Paul had placed Titus in
another tough ministry assignment in the city of Corinth, and he dealt with the
Corinthian believers in a number of key ways. I'll give you two examples. First of
all, in 2nd Corinthians 7, listen to what Paul says after Titus had been in Corinth
but then traveled up to Macedonia to visit with him and Timothy. He says, when
we, meaning Paul and Timothy, came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead we were
troubled in every way, conflicts on the outside, fears within, but God who
comforts the downcast comforted us by the arrival of Titus. So he must have been a
very encouraging guy, right? An energy guy, like Titus came and he sort of sort of
lifted our spirits, and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort he,
Titus, received from you, Corinthians. He told us about your deep longing, your
sorrow, remember sorrow for sin, 1st Corinthians 5, and your zeal for me so
that I rejoiced even more. So Titus saw, or Paul saw Titus as this really
encouraging saint who was a valued part of his team, and then later we know the
story in 2nd Corinthians of Paul wanting to put together a financial gift from the
Greek churches to the poor saints in Jerusalem, partly because they're in
great need but also partly so that he can bring the church together, Jew and
Gentile, that was very important to Paul. And so who did he call upon in order to
stir up the Corinthians to give? He called on Titus, and we see this in 2nd
Corinthians chapter 8, it says, we urge Titus that just as he had begun, meaning
just as he had started to encourage you and exhort you to give, so he should also
complete among you this act of grace. In other words, finish that collection. By
the way, Paul sees that collection, that the giving of offerings, not as a some
kind of hardship but as a gift of grace, the ability to give to other saints,
which is very interesting. It says Titus welcomed our appeal. He didn't go,
are you kidding me? You're giving me that job? No, he welcomed our appeal and being
very diligent went out to you by his own choice. He said, I want to go out there
and I want to be a part of this. And not only that, but he was also appointed by
the churches to accompany us with this gracious gift, meaning he's gonna go to
Jerusalem with that collection, that we're administering for the glory of the
Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. And then Paul says, he is my
partner and co-worker for you. So again, very valued ministry partner here and
the point is this, even before Crete, Paul had already given Titus some really
tough assignments and he had come through. He'd shown himself faithful and
a hard worker, diligent, with a good attitude. Everything you want to see in
a ministry partner, that was Titus. He could go into a tough place now. Like
Crete, he could set things in order. Paul had confidence in him and having been in
Corinth, this is so cool because here's what I learned early on as a young
pastor, experience matters. You run into things and you learn. Sometimes you make
mistakes, but you learn and you grow. And so Titus has seen things in Corinth and
he'd worked through them and now he's more prepared to go to Crete and to deal
with some of the same problems, but he's more prepared now. Honestly, when you step
back you look at this, Titus is the exact perfect choice that Paul makes to go to
this tough assignment in Crete. Okay, background, background laid. Thank you. I
always wonder how much of that nerdy stuff matters to you guys, but I know many
of you are growing in this because you're seeing the need. If we're gonna
understand the text, the need to understand the context. So thank you for
your patience. Let's go back up to verses 1 to 3 now. We're gonna close with this.
This very brief but very powerful set of theological principles that Paul puts
in his greeting. And isn't that amazing? Just in my greeting I'm gonna give you a
whole bunch of really important theology, which is really cool. Basically in those
verses he's gonna outline four important theological principles and we're just
gonna go briefly through these. Number one, he says, he says, my, the foundation
of my mission as an apostle is number one, for the saving faith of God's elect.
You see that in the text? For the saving faith of God's elect. Number two, for the
knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. Number three, for the hope of
eternal life promised by the God who cannot lie. See that in the text? And
number four, for the word that's now revealed and proclaimed. This is what
Paul sees as his foundation for his apostolic mission. So let's walk through
these. First of all, we recognize that Paul had this singular focus to see
sinners get saved. To see the power of God move in the hearts of sinners. To
grant them faith in Christ, who is the only Savior of all men. And Paul knew
that this could happen in any culture, even the most pagan of cultures, even in
Corinth, even on Crete. He knew the power of God. By the way, we should remember
that biblical salvation is a very radical term. We talk about the gospel
going forth into difficult cultures, it is a radical term. Salvation does not
mean, well, it goes out to people that are pretty good but just need a little
push, just need a little help. That's not what it is. We should remember that it
refers to people that are helpless and hopelessly lost. And if God doesn't
intervene, they're not going to be saved. And that's true whether it's America or
it's Crete in the first century. That's what that term means. By the way, just as
an important note, if you take a look at, you took a look again at these first
three verses, first four verses, right here in the greeting, Paul talks about
the deity of Christ. Now I know it's kind of obscure but look at this. In verse
three, he refers to God as our Savior. You see it? And in the next breath, at the
end of verse four, he refers to Christ Jesus as what? Our Savior. Simple deductive
reasoning. If God is our Savior and Jesus is our Savior, Jesus is God. Right?
Trinitarian statement right there. In a greeting. Paul hasn't even gotten to the
bulk of the letter just in the greeting. He's gonna do this two other times by
the way in the letter to Titus. Be very clear about the fact that Jesus is God.
Now don't miss here who is being saved through faith. Right out of the gate, Paul
lays down a truth bomb here about election. He says, for the faith of those
chosen by God. I know this is a hard principle, right? But Paul, when it comes
to salvation, Paul was what we call a compatibilist. He believed in two truths
at the same time. On the one hand, that salvation is a work of God from
beginning to end. It's all by his sovereign grace. That we get none of the
credit so that we can never boast. Right? We are chosen. And it comes from a simple
principle. All men and women are born dead in their sins and only God can
raise the dead to life. Right? We're all born spiritually blind and only God can
open those eyes. So it's a work of God from beginning to end. And yet, he also
believed that no man or woman will be saved unless they hear the truth, repent
and believe. And every single person who hears the truth, repents and believes
will be saved. That those two principles are compatible with one another.
Sovereignty of God, responsibility of man to respond. So we don't have to play
the either or game, do we? Because Scripture always and all the biblical
authors describes those two things working together. And this is what drove
Paul. He understood both principles. He says, look, God has marked out his elect.
They're out there somewhere. My job now is to go and call into salvation. Okay,
amen. Number two, second thing. For the knowledge of the truth that leads to
godliness. Guys, saving faith rests on a body of truth. That us knowing this truth
as revealed in Scripture. So for a person to be saved, a man or woman must
understand this body of truth, both about God and about themselves. They must
understand that Christ, who's God in human flesh, took the penalty that we
deserved on that cross. They must know and understand that God gives salvation
as a free gift apart from any works in us, any good in us, that he grants us this
free gift and we have to trust him alone for salvation. That is the knowledge of
the truth that God uses through our preaching and our evangelism to open
blind eyes and bring people to life. But it rests on that body of truth. So
Paul says the knowledge of truth is critical. But then notice what else he
says. It's not just a knowledge that saves, it's a knowledge that transforms.
It leads to what? Godliness. So you got to have the knowledge of the truth, but
it's got to lead to godliness. Again, not that that's the godliness is what saves
us, but it's evidence that we actually believe in the truth. So if the Cretan
believers were to shine as God's children in a pagan culture, they were
gonna have to live godly lives. They were gonna have to show evidence of their
saving faith to that culture that rejects them. So Paul's basically saying,
look, my ministry is aimed at producing a sanctifying knowledge among those in the
church. He's like, look, I do not want you just to have more
information than the average person or just a whole set of facts that nobody
else has. I want you to have a knowledge that actually produces transformed lives.
Both are important. Knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. Make sense?
Number three, the third thing is security and hope. For the hope of eternal life,
promised by the God who cannot lie. And here's where you see the reason why I
love Paul, why he's my favorite biblical author, he's so logical. He's like a
lawyer, right? He builds a case. And here we have like a chain reaction. He says,
first of all, you've got the saving faith that's granted to
those that God has chosen, his elect. That is going to lead to a knowledge of the
truth, and that knowledge of the truth brings about godliness, and that
godliness produces security in us because it rests on a certain hope of
eternal life that we've been promised. It's a chain reaction that he's
describing here. And we know that it's true, Paul says, because A, God promised it,
and B, God cannot lie. So you can bank on it. It's security and hope. That's the
third thing. And then last, we'll wrap up with this. He points to the gospel
message and he writes this word of truth that's been revealed or manifested in
this time. And he says, this is the message I proclaim. This is the message
I've been entrusted with. And again, Paul is very aware of the moment that he
lives in. And he says, look, this salvation was promised long ago, ages ago. You can
point back to Genesis 3 and you see it there, but even before that, before the
foundations of the world were laid, God had a plan to redeem his elect. So it's
a promise long ago, but he says, it's here right now. It's the message that I
bring. It's the message that Titus will bring. The faith which was once for all
handed down to the saints. Right? Paul's very aware of this moment, right? The
incredibly high value of the fact that he'd been entrusted with this saving
message. And he took it seriously. By the way, it's the same message, the same
message from the beginning. It was being preached in the first century. It's still
being preached in the 21st century. It doesn't change. Methods change, but the
message never changes. The saving message never changes. By the way, it's important
to see here once again, the doctrine of election doesn't nullify the need for
evangelism. It actually establishes and reinforces the need for missions and
evangelism. Even today, we labor as Paul did to see God's elect come to the truth,
come to trust in Christ. We are called to get out there and proclaim this message.
Not that we can save anyone. Not that the effectiveness or the way, the eloquent
way that we share the gospel is going to save anybody. We put it out there and who
determines who gets saved? God alone. Two things work together. Amen? Two things
work together. It's our calling. We are Apostles in that general sense. We've
been given a message entrusted with it and now we got to go out and be a herald.
We've got to go out there and proclaim that truth and then we let God determine.
The weight of people's salvation was never intended to be put on my shoulders
or your shoulders. Only God bears that weight. God will determine who is saved.
Our job is to be faithful. Amen? Okay guys, we've just dipped our toe in this and
and you may need to re-listen to this message to go back over that context, but
I am so excited to get back to it next Sunday. I hope you'll come back. Let's
pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We're so grateful Lord for
all of the the truths that you've given us. Some are so lofty Lord, this idea
of your sovereignty over salvation. They're so lofty that we are just,
we stand amazed by it and some of it is so practical at the same time that we
just need to be faithful. Men like Titus who just go out and proclaim the message
and let you determine the results. And all the things that we're gonna learn
in this letter from Paul, Lord, about how the church needs to be equipped for
effectiveness to go out and reach a difficult culture. Lord, I pray in advance
that that you would just lay the groundwork for us to learn so much about
who we're supposed to be as Christians. What this church here at Oak Hill is
supposed to be about and how we can reach our neighbors who need to hear the
saving message. So God, prepare the way for us. We look forward to next week. Lord
willing that you will bring us back together and we'll dive into what Godly
leadership looks like. Lord, until that time draws closer together in this
difficult time for our city, draws closer together, help us to keep praying Lord.
Keep understanding the power of prayer and bringing our neighbors
before you as we seek your face. Lord, thank you for this morning. We pray in
Jesus name, amen.