Well my friends, we come this morning to the 3rd chapter of the book of Titus, the little pastoral letter. It’s really written to a pastor, uh, a man called Titus, who’s based on the island of Crete.
And the pastoral letters of course are specially for pastors, but they’re also for congregations to see the way in which God is at work, and primarily through his word and then through his people, and that’s what we see in the letter of Titus. Now, um, there are many, many books on strategy, how to achieve your goals, how to win the world and all that sort of stuff, but it is very interesting that Titus is addressing a man in a difficult place.
Transforming the world
To see the kingdom of God go forward, and the primary ways in which God is going to do that are going to be first of all, that the word will be taught, that people will be brought to Christ, that people will be helped in their godliness, and the community and the wider world will be affected. So of all the ways that you might think of impacting the world.
For God, for Christ, Titus sets out this very simple, very effective, very useful strategy, and I hope you’ll see that in the little book of Titus that there is a movement outwards. In Titus 1, we looked very much at the leadership of the church, the feeding of the flock, and then in chapter 2, we looked at the membership.
The way in which the people of God can bless others in the church and beyond, and now we come in chapter 3 to what we might call citizenship, uh being a signpost. So leadership chapter 1, membership, chapter 2, citizenship, chapter 3. Here is a chapter 3 on how you might have a role for Christ Monday to Friday.
And you might have a reason for such a role, Monday to Friday. There are many people of course who think when they come to church that they have um ticked the box, they’ve done the hour, they’ve sung the song, they’ve heard the sermon, endured the sermon, and now they go off and basically they say goodbye to their Christianity. Now the apostle Paul thinks completely differently, because the Lord thinks completely differently. There is a role for the believer to play Sunday to Sunday.
Uh, this role is a new behaviour, especially in chapter 3, towards the leaders of the nations and also toward the neighbours that we live amongst. And then there is the reason that we should have this new behaviour, which is that we have been made new people, transformed by Christ. So my friends, here is a chapter, here is a section of scripture which will rescue you from the mentality.
Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by
That Christianity is a one hour a week business. In my retirement, I have had the privilege of visiting a number of churches for their weekends or their conferences. And one of the things they’ll often do is they’ll say to me, look, apart from the talks that you’re going to give, would you be interested in running one of the afternoon’s seminars? And sometimes they’ll give me some topics, and I will often come back and say, look, I would like to run a seminar with anybody who’s interested on how to be a Christian Monday to Friday. And the way we do this is we look at 3 passages. We look at Jeremiah 29, where God’s people.
are in exile in the Old Testament for 70 years. It’s very interesting, isn’t it, that God would put His people into Babylon for 70 years, which is pretty close to a normal span of life, and he would call on them in Babylon to bless the place where they are. They’re not to fight the place, and they’re also to keep their eye on their real home, which is the day they will return to Jerusalem.
And this is a very good parallel for the Christian, because we’re in this world for approximately 70 to 80 years, and we’re to make a good contribution to the world, and we’re also to keep our eye on the next. And then we look at John 15, what Jesus said to the disciples after the Last Supper, where he said, I want you to walk closely with me, remain or abide. I want you to love other believers, because that will be a blessing for them and for those who watch you.
And also be a good witness or a signpost to the lost. And the third passage we look at is Colossians chapter 4, where Christians are asked to pray to God and also to speak for God. But they’re not to speak for God by preaching, that would be a completely inappropriate way for most Christians to live Monday to Friday. But they are to speak for God by answering. Paul says you are to answer, and you can’t live in the real world without every now and again being asked a question. Like how was your weekend, or how are you?
And so these passages, which I’ve often used at these weekend conferences, tell Christians you’ve got a temporary home, yes you do, in this world. You’ve got vital relationships, yes you do, and you’ve also got supernatural opportunities to say something, even if it’s just answering somebody’s question.
And I have found that the people who come to that little seminar on the conference weekend find it extremely liberating and stimulating. Well, now Titus chapter 3, 1st two verses talks about being a signpost in the world. Verses 3 to 8 talks about the salvation, which enables you to be a signpost. And verses 9 to 15, which we’ll just spend 1 minute on, talks about this strategic ministry.
So, as I’ve said, Titus chapter 1 sets out the gospel, Titus chapter 2 sets out the gospel’s impact on the church, and chapter 3, its impact on the world. First of all, being a signpost in God’s world, Titus chapter 31 to 2. And he seems to say in chapter 1, to the Christian, you must have wisdom in the way you relate to leaders.
And then verse 2, you need to have wisdom in the way you relate to your neighbours. Now when it comes to being a Christian in the world, we are told in the scriptures that we are to respect the leadership which God has put in place. Uh, the leadership in Paul’s day from Rome was a very, very hostile leadership.
And we’ve no idea what it was like to live on Crazy Creeks. But the apostle Paul says in chapter 3 verse 1, here are some principles for you, if you’re a Christian and you’re a citizen in this world, looking to your citizenship for the next world, and he says, first of all, verse 1, be subject to leadership. In other words, take your place under the leadership, which is in place. You may not delight in the prime minister or the president or the king, you may not find them to be particularly inspiring. They may not have even been the person that you voted for, but, um, God has decreed their position. A God Himself incidentally may not delight in that leader, but he has decreed that they are in position, and God is able to use a pharaoh or a Cyrus or a Herod or a pilot for his purposes.
And we in Australia who are much more anti-authoritarian than many other countries, among the Australian citizens, there should be a group of Christian citizens who are not so negative, grumbly, despairing, cynical. But we are to, as Paul says, take your place under the leadership that is in place. And then he says, verse one, obey because the government has the power. In in Romans 13, Paul says the government has the sword. And this sword of course is a symbol for the preservation of order, and we must thank God that we in the western world have governments that are so good and committed to keeping order, difficult as it is.
And we therefore need to bow to the rules of the government. And uh sometimes this is very costly as it was for me recently when I parked in a disabled spot without realising and got a letter in the mail telling me that I was now to pay $892. Well, God has put leadership in place. Leadership has put certain rules in place, and we must be obedient.
He has 3 institutions, as you know, God has 3 institutions, the family, the church, and the government. And, uh, we, as I’ve said, are very privileged to live in a place where the government will probably not pressure us to disobey God. If of course the government ever did call on us to disobey God, we would have to disobey the government, but basically it’s not calling on us to disobey God and therefore we are to obey the government.
So the state government, for example, has a literal sword that is to protect. And defend. The church has a biblical sword. And now the church and state are very different and very distinct, but they certainly can learn from each other. And it would be ideal if church and government were respectful in listening to one another.
The third thing the apostle says in verse 1 is that we’re to be ready to do good work, that is to make a contribution because your job is making a contribution to your community or your world. And so as you do your work, you’ve got one eye on the job that is to be done. God bless you, and you’ve got one eye on the world that is to come because you know where you’re going.
So this wisdom in chapter 3, verse 1, just one verse on respecting leadership in the world, is good for Christians today and it’s good for Christians forever, because the apostle Paul is interested in the way you live, which will impact the lost in the world to find the saviour of the world. And that’s why Paul says in verse one, keep reminding your people, that their Monday to Friday is a very important and strategic opportunity.
Then in verse 2, we discover some things for the Christian and his or her neighbour. And Paul says, and here’s what he says in verse 2, don’t speak evil, in other words, or literally don’t blaspheme other people. This of course would be a revolutionary way to live and speak in many offices in this city. Just imagine how a person would stand out if they were kind, positive, constructive. You may remember that uh Charles Coulson, who was a right-hand man for President Nixon.
And lived in the very heady world of the White House, um, and did business really with um Nixon and Kissinger and one or two others, but he was deeply impacted by a man called Tom Phillips. And Tom Phillips was a Christian and a very godly man and a very consistent man.
And what Coulson couldn’t work out is why Tom Phillips could remain so different from the hostile hatchet world which was inside the White House. And it was visiting Tom Phillips and having Tom Phillips read to him from CS Lewis’s mere Christianity that led Coulson to become a believer, and then a Christian leader making a huge impact around the world.
So if the believer simply works at eliminating personal attacks on people in the community, it will be a whole new witness. And then he says, be peaceable, literally in the Greek, the word is not macho. In other words, uh, the world may think about aggression, but the Christian is to think about, um, kindness. The world may specialise in straining relationships, but the believers are there to try and mend relationships. And, uh, the third thing he says in verse two is be gentle, forbearing, you must, find a way of putting up with certain people, and you must find a way of putting up with certain conditions, and the Lord will help you to do that.
And then fourthly, in verse 2, humility or meekness, because we’re not to be too precious, we’re not to be too defensive, we’re not to be too difficult, but we’re to be a secure people because of Christ, flexible and easy. Now my friends, it won’t take you many bits of thought to realise that all these ideas in chapter 31 and 2 really do flow from the gospel. It’s the Lord Jesus who modelled submission and made it a noble thing.
It’s the Lord Jesus who specialised in reconciling. And bringing people together. And so it’s the gospel, the work of the Lord Jesus, the way he lived, but also the transformation that he works in us, that enables us to do what he’s called us to do. One of the ways that we will be greatly helped as we live in the world, is to not be looking down on people.
But to be very conscious of our own sinfulness and the fact that God in His mercy has brought us from darkness to light, and from outside the kingdom to inside. And that’s why Paul goes on in chapter 3, verses 3 to 8 to talk about the salvation that lies behind our signposting.
So these verses, chapter 3 of Titus 3:7, very remarkable passage. It’s only one sentence in the Greek. It’s probably more explicit on sin and salvation than almost anywhere else in Scripture. John Stott famously says, this is perhaps the fullest statement of salvation in the New Testament. And interestingly, here it is in the Little Book of Titus.
So there you are, there’s a diamond lying in a tiny little book in the New Testament that might easily be overlooked. Well, notice how the apostle Paul describes the sin of the human race, and he includes himself. He says we ourselves, we were like this. We might ask if the apostle Paul is exaggerating because he says we were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving our lusts and living in envy and hatred.
And again, you know, we might say to the apostle Paul, are you going a little bit overboard here? I mean, weren’t you a very upright Jewish, uh, leader? The apostle Paul would say to us, no, I know exactly what I’m really like. And when the Lord God shines his light into the human heart, we suddenly realise that we are, as somebody has said, a factory of sin, or as CS Lewis said, we are a legion of evil.
And um there’s something very wonderful about coming to realise this darkness, this sinfulness in our own heart. Uh it has a number of good effects. Uh, first of all, it kills off any idea that we are worthy for God. That would be of course a complete mistake and insulting to the Lord Jesus, who saw that we were not worthy and came to die for us. It also joins us together in our fellowship, and you may have noticed that one of the best things about fellowship is recognising together that we’re a sinful people as well as a saved people. And we appreciate one another more, more and more as we realise that we’re together in the same boat of sin and the same boat of salvation.
And therefore it raises our praises to Christ because we’re so thankful for our saviour, and I hope you’ve got over the crazy idea that you’ll come to church and you’ll find people here who are very wonderful. I hope you’ll realise that you’ve come to a church where the people who gather have discovered by the grace of God that they are sinful, deeply profoundly sinful.
And that God in His mercy has brought them to put their trust in Christ. Many of you will know the name of Bertrand Russell, who was a great atheist in the 20th century, probably the equivalent of Richard Dawkins. He was so opposed to Christianity that he started his own school for his children, so that they would have no links at all with Christianity.
But um his daughter Kate eventually became a Christian. And the thing that absolutely thrilled her was to discover the doctrine of sin because she suddenly said, this is who I really am. Now I’m face to face with reality. No more pretending, no more playing games, no more patting self on the back. It was sin that led her to Christ, and to a real father who she said for the first time she had a father who loved her for who she was.
So there is the um first thing we discover that um there is a great sinfulness in our hearts. And then in verse 4, there is a turning point or a hinge, where we discover that into the pit of our hearts, into the pit of our world came the redeemer, the rescuer, the saviour. Chapter 3 verse 4, he appeared. And we see this uh salvation that he brought, uh, as Jesus came into the world. The Father was at work saving people, the son was at work saving people, and the spirit at work saving people. And we discover in chapter 3 verse 5, the reason that we can be saved. Paul says, not by our works, but by his mercy.
Not by the trophies that we will produce, but by the gift of Jesus that God has held out to us. I was reflecting, you know, on what it must be like for the hospital staff to deal with a gunman who’s just been into a school, let’s say a primary school, and then the security guard comes in and shoots the gunman, and the gunman is seriously injured and whisked off to hospital, and there are the staff at the hospital, the doctors, the nurses, using all their professionalism on a gunman who has just aimed his gun at small children and killed some.
And there must be a sense in which it is just the sheer commitment to doing good to that man. There is nothing which is compelling the doctors and the nurses to be attracted to this man. And there’s nothing on that hospital bed that says, here’s a worthy man, we must fix him up. No, they find themselves saying, here is a man who has just done something so dreadful. That our obligation is to bring him the help we can, and that’s how it is with God, he looks at us and he sees nothing in us that would drag down his kindness, but he gives it to us in Christ.
And then we also discover in verse 5, the riches of salvation that we’re going to be washed, says the apostle Paul. This is not the washing of uh H2O at a baptism, but this is the washing of the gospel. The gospel message comes to us, we hear that Christ died for us, we put our trust in him and we are washed of our sins. And also we discover also in verse 5, that there is going to be a new life put into us, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, exactly the same on the day of Pentecost, when the apostle Peter was preaching and explaining about the work of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection, and the people said, What do we do? And he said, trust in Christ, and you will receive forgiveness, washing, and new life, the Holy Spirit.
So there is the reason for salvation, chapter 3, verse 5, the mercy of God, the riches of salvation which is to be washed and made new, and then verse 7, the result of salvation. We are justified, which means we stand in the cloak or the coat of Christ. God takes off the filthy coat of ourselves and he puts on us the perfect coat of Christ, and we stand before God.
As if we had not sinned because of Christ. And then we discover in verse 7 that we’re also heirs, there is an inheritance to come because we will enter into His glory tomorrow. So do you see, my friends, that this salvation work of God has come from outside us. You’ll see that the world is absolutely addicted at the moment to what’s inside you, as if the world is saying to us, everything you need is inside you.
That is a recipe for death. And the gospel comes and says inside you is sin, inside you is need, emptiness and lostness. Outside stands Christ. Who has died for you, ready to forgive and make you new. We’re now the last little section, chapter 3 verses 9 to 15. Is really a description of some of the safe and sane practises that we need if we’re to put all this into practise. There’s lots of interesting questions that are raised by the Book of Titus. Um, of course, God is always at work in his world, bringing people to Christ, but uh the big emphasis in the Book of Titus is that it’s going to be largely through the people of God.
You’re not gonna be just sitting around hoping that some superstar minister comes along who’ll do it all for you. It’s going to be done through the people of God. And it’s going to be done by the grace of God, not by our cleverness or our giftedness. It’s going to be done by the grace of God, and God is going to make us into a people who can actually do good in the world, above and beyond what we’re capable of.
So the grace of God comes to us because of Jesus like chlorine into our hearts, and it begins to drain out the slime. And we walk into the world and we are like God’s chlorine in the world because we find ourselves telling God that there are people who need him. And occasionally we find ourselves answering questions that help people to take Christ seriously.
Well, in verses 9 and 10, there’s a final call to avoid foolish talk, because foolish talk is always so destructive in the church, and I don’t just mean silly comments. What I mean is, uh, basically talk that, uh, contradicts the word of God. Uh, talk that takes people away from following Christ. Talk that is poisonous. And then we discover in these next verses that they may actually need to be dealing with a divisive person.
And here is Paul quipping Titus, because sometimes there is a person in the church who is just extremely divisive, and the apostle Paul has very wonderful wisdom here, which is first of all, go and warn them, tell them what they’re doing. Do it lovingly. If it happens again, go and see them again. Explain lovingly what they’re doing. If there is no change, then says the apostle Paul, have nothing to do with them. And I presume that means there may be a time where we need to take away their position, or we may even need, if it’s serious, to uh warn the church. But the apostle Paul in chapter 3 verse 10 talks about what we call 3 strikes, and you’re out.
Now I remember discovering this once when I was uh on holidays, and I was in a church where there was a man who was extremely destructive, and I’d been to him privately, and I’d said to him, you know, you’ve just got to put all this away, and he said, you’re right, uh, you know, I’ve done the wrong thing.
And then it continued, so I went to see him again and I said, you know, it’s not stopped, you’ve got to change, and he said, you’re right, I will. And it continued. And so I went to the wardens of the church and I said, well, you know, what’s the next step? And I’ll never forget, I was a young minister and this old, very wise and godly warden said these words, it’s over. Get his keys, say goodbye.
And I had to go to this man and say to him, the role that you have is over. Please hand in your keys. It’s, um, time to say goodbye. It was painful. There were people who didn’t know what was happening in the church, but there were many who did, and it was necessary to cut out that uh dangerous style.
In the last verses of Titus chapter 3, the apostle Paul shows that he practises what he preaches, because he says to Titus, I’m gonna send some elders to you, and as soon as they arrive and they’re in place, you will be free to leave and come and visit me. And he mentions a number of people who he’s sending, and they all seem to have been very fine and faithful men. So there is the apostle Paul, he knows that the word of God in the hands of godly people is the key to the church.
And he finishes with a reminder to Titus, you’re not alone. Everybody here with me sends greetings, and the grace of God is the way he finishes the letter because the grace of God, able to save, is also able to strengthen.
I finished this morning with a quote from a book that uh is called the Revolution of the World, and the author says basically in the last page of the book, these words, the doctrines, the experiences, and the practises that the church needs today, are the same as the ones she needed in the 18th century and the 10th and the 2nd.
We are responsible for obedience, not outcomes, faithfulness, not fruit. If we do not see the results we used to by praying, worshipping, reading scripture, serving the poor, preaching the gospel, sharing the sacraments, and loving one another, we carry on with those things regardless and walk by faith, not by sight. Genuine revival when it comes is at God’s initiative.
Rather than ours, in the meantime we wait, rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances, and resolving not to be anxious about tomorrow.
Let’s bow our heads
Thank you, our gracious God, that you’re wise and wonderful, and that you’ve sent your Son into the world, you’ve sent your Word into the world. You equip your church, you use your church, you build your church, and all glory to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
