Show Notes
Titus 1:1-3
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's seek the Lord together in prayer.
[00:00:04] Lord Jesus, our great God and our King, you reign on high in heaven.
[00:00:10] And you do so not only in your divine nature, but you reign as the God man, having united our flesh to God in one person.
[00:00:26] And there you reign on behalf of the people whom you have saved.
[00:00:33] Lord Jesus. You pour out the treasures of heaven through your Word. And you open our hearts by your Spirit to receive, to understand the glories that you proclaim in your Word.
[00:00:51] And by the power of your Spirit, you cause us to embrace these truths and to receive them as belonging to us, just as truly and really as heaven and earth belong to you. The great King for all belongs to you.
[00:01:10] And we belong to you, and you belong to us.
[00:01:15] O Lord Jesus, we ask that now you would speak to us by your word, that you with that same word that said, let there be light, and there was light, and you created all things. May you by your same word of your power, recreate our hearts so that we would be remade into your image and likeness, that we would shine forth your glory.
[00:01:42] To your glory.
[00:01:44] In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:01:48] Our sermon text is from Titus, chapter one.
[00:01:51] We will read the first four verses together.
[00:01:56] Hear God's word.
[00:01:58] 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 the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time, manifested in 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.
[00:02:38] Amen. Please be seated.
[00:02:46] I once had the privilege of attending a friend's promotion ceremony. He was being promoted to the rank of colonel in the Air Force, as it happens.
[00:02:57] And there were a number of very interesting things about that ceremony. But what was happening was he was being entrusted with a new office, a new rank. He'd been, of course, commissioned at a lower rank, but he was now being commissioned at this higher rank. And with that office of colonel came all sorts of duties and responsibilities, and also authority.
[00:03:22] And he was to use that authority to exercise those various duties, particularly in leading those who were under him, so that together, as he led them, they would be able to fulfill whatever missions and tasks they were given.
[00:03:43] You see there the idea of an officer, a man being commissioned with a particular office, a set of responsibilities, and being called to carry that out.
[00:03:54] Paul here in verse 33, references his own commissioning. He was called to a particular office by the Lord Jesus Christ, the office of apostle and preacher of the Gospel.
[00:04:10] And here he reflects, though in brief form, he reflects on the fact that he had been entrusted or commissioned with a particular set of duties and responsibilities, and he had been given a mission.
[00:04:25] He was called to preach the gospel and to go everywhere. In the case of the apostles, they were to go all over the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:04:39] That's the root idea in verse three here, that Paul as a gospel preacher, was commissioned with this responsibility of preaching the gospel.
[00:04:50] I want to reflect briefly before we dive further into that idea. I want to reflect briefly on this verse, explain it a little bit, particularly in the context of the story of what's happening here in Titus.
[00:05:07] Paul and Titus had gone on a missionary journey to preach the gospel on this island of Crete, where it would appear nobody had preached the gospel before. The result of their work is they went from town to town all over the island of Crete, the Mediterranean, was that many had come to believe in Jesus.
[00:05:25] And Paul moved on and left Titus behind. Before the job was finished, there was work left to do, and Titus was to complete that. That work consisted largely of two things. One of finishing teaching and instructing these new disciples in the ways of the Christian faith. What's it like to be a Christian? Not just what do we believe about Jesus Christ, though, more of that, but also how are we called to live as believers.
[00:05:52] Secondly, he was entrusted with the task of training new pastors and elders to serve in these churches that were being organized all over the island of Crete.
[00:06:04] It seems that Paul must have left somewhat abruptly, because wherever he got, whenever he got, wherever he was going, he turned around and wrote this letter to Titus to give Titus instructions to equip him in completing the work that he'd left Titus to do. So that's what you find in this letter that Paul leaves behind, sends for Titus, whom he left behind.
[00:06:30] And that helps us understand why, as Paul opens his letter, he spends several. What amounts to, in English anyway, a couple of sentences describing his own preaching ministry.
[00:06:46] And we've spent. This is our first sermon, fifth sermon. I'm sorry, fifth sermon. Looking at these three verses where Paul reminds Titus in very brief form about what his gospel ministry was about.
[00:07:02] He left Titus behind to carry this on. So he begins, opens the letter by saying, hey, remember, this is what I was called to do as an apostle and a preacher of the Gospel. And. And Titus, this is what you're Called to do as well. We looked at the aims or the goals of the Gospel ministry, the preaching.
[00:07:21] We looked last week at the promise of the preacher. Why is it that we can go on carrying on this work? It's because God has promised eternal life to those who believe. There's one last idea here we're going to look at, and that is this commissioning of the Gospel ministry that the preacher is entrusted with this preaching ministry.
[00:07:42] Now, why all of this in the very opening of the letter? You would expect maybe Paul to say, hey, it's Paul. Remember me? I'm writing this to you, Titus. And then start to explain the Gospel ministry. Why does he put it right here at the beginning?
[00:08:00] Well, here's a guess, a stab at it, at least a way of getting at how we can begin to apply this text.
[00:08:09] The letter isn't just for Titus.
[00:08:12] I know it's addressed to Titus. But we get a clue here in verse three that the letter isn't just for Titus. It's addressed to Titus. But Paul expects Titus to share it with the church.
[00:08:24] He says that he was entrusted with preaching by the command of God our Savior. Now, of course, that includes the we here includes Paul and Titus.
[00:08:38] But Paul intends for this to include the Christians on the island of Crete as well. In other words, he expects Paul to turn around and read this letter to the church, the beginnings of the church on the island of Crete.
[00:08:55] And here's where you can see.
[00:09:01] You can know for sure that this is what Paul intends. If you look at the very last verse of the letter.
[00:09:08] Paul intends for this us to be a clue that this is more than just Titus.
[00:09:13] Look at chapter three, verse 15. He's closing out the letter. He sends greetings from the people who are with Paul to Titus.
[00:09:24] And then he says, grace be with you all.
[00:09:29] Not just grace be with you, Titus, but grace be with you all. Paul expects Titus to take this letter and share it with the Christians on the island of Crete.
[00:09:42] So Paul wants not just Titus as the pastor who's entrusted with the church planting work, finishing the work that Paul left behind him behind to do.
[00:09:54] He doesn't just expect him to read these verses. He also wants the pastors in training on the island of Crete to hear this letter, to receive these first three verses. And he also wants the whole church on the island of Crete to hear and receive these verses.
[00:10:13] In other words, here's the conclusion I'm drawing.
[00:10:17] These opening statements about Paul's ministry were for Titus, for these pastors in training that Titus was training, and for all of God's people, and that includes us, because God is our Savior too.
[00:10:36] So for us, for the pastors in training for Titus, Paul is instructing all of us in the goals, the promise and the work of the preaching ministry for the church.
[00:10:51] Paul is instructing every Christian about what Titus work among them is going to consist in. What are Titus aims? And these new pastors that Titus is training, what are their ministry aims going to be? What is their promise and hope going to rest in?
[00:11:08] And what is their work of preaching to consist in?
[00:11:15] I took my time drawing all of that out.
[00:11:19] One more question before we dive into the lesson of the text.
[00:11:27] Why?
[00:11:29] That's what Paul is doing. That's who he's instructing.
[00:11:33] Why does he need to do this for the Christians on the island of Crete and for Titus and for these new fledgling pastors?
[00:11:43] Well, if you've been in a reformed church at any length of time, you know that one of the answers to why the gospel? Why did God appoint this or that? One of the answers is always because we're sinners and we need someone to come bring us the Gospel, right? So in addition to our innate sinfulness, why does Paul take the time to lay these things out? And why did we take five whole sermons long to unpack them?
[00:12:09] There's two reasons as you read the letter to the people on the island of Crete.
[00:12:14] One of them is that they are brand new Christians.
[00:12:18] This whole idea of gospel preachers and themselves having pastors over them is brand new to them. They'd never had this before. They needed to be instructed in it. And maybe for some of you it's new. Many of you it's old hat. That's okay. It's still good for you to hear it again.
[00:12:35] But the second reason that you find in this letter that Paul needs to lay out the aims and the hope of the Gospel ministry, the second reason is that the island of Crete had already been infiltrated by false teachers.
[00:12:51] That's remarkable.
[00:12:53] By the time Paul gets there to preach the gospel, there's already false teachers on this island. The true gospel messengers haven't even gotten there yet.
[00:13:03] And the devil already has his messengers at work sowing false teaching. You see this in verse 10 of chapter 1. He says there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced.
[00:13:21] And then again in verse 13, this testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and so on.
[00:13:33] False teaching and false teachers had already arrived at Crete.
[00:13:38] And Paul had to instruct this new congregation and Titus, when he received the letter, to instruct these new Christians in what is the true Gospel ministry? What is the gospel? And how can we know that for sure and true over against this false teaching that is already crept in.
[00:13:56] And if you live in America today, you know that our society is full of false teachers, just like Crete. So I probably don't have to make too much of an argument for you there, why we need to hear this too.
[00:14:12] So pastors need to be exhorted in their ministry to fulfill it. Congregations need to be exhorted in what is the true gospel ministry and how they ought to receive it.
[00:14:22] And so we've spent five and a half sermons now on these three verses.
[00:14:31] The lesson I want to draw out from this text, and there's two sides to it, they go hand in hand in this commissioning of the Gospel ministry. When Jesus commands Paul and Titus and pastors today to preach the Gospel, there's a lesson that flows out of that command, an application immediately, both for preachers and for those who hear the Word preached. And that lesson for preachers. I'll start with me.
[00:15:00] Our focus today is going to be on how you receive it. The lesson for preachers is that we're called to fulfill this command. We've been commissioned to go preach the Gospel. We need to do it faithfully and do it with all that that we've God.
[00:15:14] And there's a way in which every point I'm going to go through this evening directly can fit right into that. How it is and why it is that we need to be faithful. Every reason I give you for receiving the preaching ministry is a reason that we need to be faithful in carrying it out.
[00:15:30] But the lesson that we want to press home this evening is that Christians are called to receive the Word preached. Christians are called to receive the Word preached.
[00:15:42] And we'll draw three reasons here out of this text for why Jesus wants you to receive the preaching of the Word.
[00:15:51] The first reason is that eternal life, that promise of eternal life that we looked at last week, that promise is especially revealed or manifested in the preaching of the Word.
[00:16:05] Eternal life is especially manifested in the preaching of the Word. Therefore, you should receive the Word preached.
[00:16:13] The promise of eternal life. In the Old Testament, it was foreshadowed, contained, and we heard about shadows this morning from Colossians, chapter two.
[00:16:23] There was a way in which the Gospel of eternal life was prefigured through the seed of the woman who had crushed the serpent's head through the lamb of God. The that God would provide.
[00:16:35] And so Abraham didn't have to kill his son Isaac, because God would provide the substitute lamb there. The gospel was prefigured. It was prefigured as we're seeing in first and Second Samuel, in the coming of the godly king, the righteous and perfect true king, the son of David, who would reign forever over his people and save them and deliver them perfectly.
[00:16:59] But in all of these things, it was shadowy, it was hazy, you might say.
[00:17:04] It didn't become fully clear until the true king Jesus came. Then we saw who the serpent crusher was, and we saw how he would do it through his death and resurrection.
[00:17:18] And because Jesus has come and accomplished everything that was necessary for eternal life for his people, Jesus wants this promise of eternal life proclaimed fully, clearly, everywhere to everyone, so that all of his sheep would be brought in to his fold.
[00:17:38] And so he sends out preachers to preach the gospel, to hold forth, to reveal, to unveil the promise of eternal life.
[00:17:47] He wants clarity.
[00:17:49] We talk in our society about unveilings, right? If there's a. A new building project that gets unveiled, right? Maybe, maybe there's a curtain and they pull back the curtain at the ceremony and they show you the grand model of the building that they're going to build, some new government program that's going to save everybody and make everybody's lives better. They have an unveiling, right? A revealing of this program and all of the promises that usually turn out empty, but we unveil them, right? And people are hopeful for a time.
[00:18:21] This is the grandest reveal and unveiling of the greatest possible gift that anyone could receive or anyone could give in the preaching of the Gospel.
[00:18:36] The grandest treasures, the best things that God in heaven has to offer, he holds forth to sinners.
[00:18:46] He says, I will take away your sins and your misery and your judgment and the curse that you've experienced all your life long. I will take all of that away. And in its place, I give you eternal life. I give you a new creation that isn't tainted with sin, that has no curse and no judgment, where everything is made right. And. And you will dwell with me forever. That's what God says in the preaching of the Gospel.
[00:19:17] In the preaching of the Gospel, the keys of the kingdom are exercised.
[00:19:23] When the promises of the gospel are preached, we fling heaven's door wide open.
[00:19:29] And in the preaching of the gospel, Jesus says, come to me, all who are Weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest keep. Jesus says in the preaching of the Gospel, I am the way and the truth and the life.
[00:19:42] Come to me and I will take you to the Father.
[00:19:46] That's the grandest reveal that could ever happen. That's what Paul's talking about here when he says that in the preaching of the Word, eternal life is manifested.
[00:19:58] All the best that God could give. He holds forth to you, you who so desperately need it.
[00:20:07] And if you wonder why, sometimes we're very solemn and somber in the pulpit.
[00:20:12] The weight of this is real. If you wonder why sometimes we become overwhelmed and we have trouble getting the words out, it's because it's the grandest thing that we could ever hold forth.
[00:20:23] And I don't know why or how it is that human beings have the privilege and the task of doing this.
[00:20:30] There's nothing greater than this.
[00:20:32] Now you say, pastor, I hear and see all of those things every time I open my Bible when I read it.
[00:20:39] Yes, praise God for that. Every time you open the pages of that book, Gospel sunshine radiates forth into your heart.
[00:20:48] Amen.
[00:20:50] But Jesus works especially through the preaching of the Gospel. That's what Paul is saying here. He thought that other things as you read the Bible, as your family, as you share the truths of the Gospel with your friends, yes, gospel sunshine shines forth there too. But especially in the preaching of the Gospel, Jesus promises to work on the hearts of sinners.
[00:21:17] Paul said, as we read in First Corinthians, Chapter two, that it wasn't in human wisdom, it wasn't his great words and his great speaking, it was Christ held forth. And as Christ was held forth, the Spirit worked in the hearts of the Corinthians and the Gospel was demonstrated in the power of the Spirit.
[00:21:41] And so their hearts were open to receive Jesus and eternal life.
[00:21:46] As Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4. 6.
[00:21:50] He's talking here about the preaching of the Gospel. That as the Gospel is preached and as the Spirit of God works on the hearts of sinners, the this is what happens. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As the Gospel promises are preached and the Spirit works on your hearts, you see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.
[00:22:20] The Gospel manifests eternal life.
[00:22:25] So receive the preaching of the word.
[00:22:29] Secondly, receive the preaching of the word because preachers are commanded to do so.
[00:22:36] Receive the preaching of the gospel because we are commissioned to bring it to you.
[00:22:42] King Jesus commissioned his messengers in the Old Testament. He set priests and Levites to preach his word to the people.
[00:22:49] Their offices were fulfilled. When Jesus came, they pointed to him. No more priests, no more Levites. They were sent only to Israel. But now that Jesus has ascended on high in heaven and accomplished the work of salvation, the nations belong to King Jesus.
[00:23:10] Not just Israel, but the nations belong to him. And he reigns over the nations. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to to me.
[00:23:20] The nations belong to Jesus. And so he says, go and take my gospel to the nations. Tell them to submit to me, to come and join me and be a part of my kingdom.
[00:23:34] You see what Jesus is doing?
[00:23:37] He commissions preachers to bring his gospel message, to draw men into his kingdom.
[00:23:44] Because the nations belong to him.
[00:23:48] Now, there are lots of things King Jesus perhaps could have done.
[00:23:52] He could have commissioned the angels to preach the gospel.
[00:23:58] Seems reasonable, doesn't it? They're his messengers. That's what angel means, one who is sent.
[00:24:05] And they did preach the gospel. They heralded the birth of Jesus.
[00:24:11] They were there to herald the resurrection of Christ.
[00:24:15] The shepherds heard the angels that Messiah was born. The disciples heard from the angels that Jesus had risen.
[00:24:26] Why doesn't he still use angels?
[00:24:30] Maybe you'll have to ask Jesus why.
[00:24:33] I don't know.
[00:24:35] But it seems from a human perspective that perhaps he could have and should have used perfect, sinless angels who have no errors, no flaws in them like sinful men do.
[00:24:48] But he didn't choose to send angels.
[00:24:51] He could have commissioned also, he could have commissioned a series of paintings that depicted the gospel message. He could have commissioned a Hollywood documentary or TV series.
[00:25:05] He could have commissioned a YouTube streamer. All of these are powerful tools of communication in our society and even down through history.
[00:25:14] But he didn't.
[00:25:17] Now these I can pick at a little bit more. I can't pick at the angels. Why he didn't choose the angels.
[00:25:24] These mediums, art, tv, they all have problems, right?
[00:25:31] A book. If it's a book, you have to read the book. A movie, you have to watch it.
[00:25:37] Literacy levels rise and fall.
[00:25:39] Technologies come and go.
[00:25:45] They have their problems, and they are not entrusted with going to the highways and byways to find Jesus. Lost sheep, they may be powerful tools of communication, but they won't do that. They can't do that.
[00:26:03] And they haven't been entrusted with doing that as preachers have.
[00:26:07] King Jesus sends his messengers for sinners, for his lost sheep.
[00:26:14] He wants you to receive them and receive especially their message.
[00:26:20] He sends mere men to reach sinners.
[00:26:24] He sends mere men who are weak, who are even sinful. I have problems, big ones.
[00:26:33] And he often sends men who are suffering.
[00:26:38] And as he does so, he uses our very lives to paint a picture of the gospel.
[00:26:45] Paul says again, Second Corinthians 4, 10.
[00:26:49] He says about himself and other preachers. He says, we are always carrying in the body the death of Christ, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
[00:27:02] He sends weak men, but he uses them for his gospel purposes.
[00:27:09] Further, as he sends his messengers to sinners, he sends them to sinners in every circumstance.
[00:27:17] He doesn't just send us to stand here in the pulpit, he calls us to that, but he sends us to the illiterate people who can't read the Bible to preach the gospel to them. He sends us to the sick who can't come to worship and hear the gospel.
[00:27:39] He sends us to those in prison, again, bound, not free, but he sends us to bring the gospel to them.
[00:27:50] He sends us to those in broken homes, to those who are under the oppression of dictators.
[00:27:59] He sends some of us to cannibals in jungles.
[00:28:05] None of these things does Hollywood or artists or YouTube streamers do only Christ's messengers bring the gospel to the lost everywhere.
[00:28:18] And as we do so, we preach eternal life, the hope of salvation.
[00:28:25] King Jesus sent us to you, not for my sake, but for your sake.
[00:28:32] So receive the word preached thirdly, and finally receive the word preached.
[00:28:39] Because this is the time for the preached word.
[00:28:44] This is the time for the preached word.
[00:28:50] Paul makes the interesting comment that God promised before ages began eternal life, but at the proper time manifested in the word through preaching at the proper time. This is the proper time of. Of the gospel preaching.
[00:29:09] Before the proper time, before Christ ascended on high and commissioned his preachers.
[00:29:15] Before that time, in ages past, Israel had some hope of eternal life. Through types and shadows. They had the gospel veiled in a way.
[00:29:29] But the rest of the world, like the people on the island of Crete, like for most of us, our ancestors, the rest of the world, was in utter darkness.
[00:29:39] Our ancestors worshiped rocks and trees and other idols.
[00:29:45] We had no hope of eternal life. We were outside the promises of God.
[00:29:50] There were no gospel preachers before Jesus sent them this. Now is the time of gospel preaching. You might say this is the age of gospel preaching.
[00:30:02] It wasn't before and it won't be in the future.
[00:30:06] With Jesus resurrection, his ascension and sitting on the throne of heaven.
[00:30:11] He sends the gospel out to draw the nations to himself.
[00:30:16] He purchased the nations with his blood. He will have them become his through the gospel preaching.
[00:30:25] Now. Now is the time of gospel preaching.
[00:30:28] But the future.
[00:30:31] In the future, there will be no gospel preaching.
[00:30:34] There will be no need for gospel preaching. No need to preach of promises of salvation and eternal life.
[00:30:41] Because those who received the gospel preaching, those who received the gospel message now in the future will have eternal life.
[00:30:49] It will no longer be a hope. It will no longer be a matter of faith. Faith will be sight. Hope will become reality.
[00:30:58] No. In the future. And that future will come with a judgment day that will separate those who received the gospel from those who rejected it.
[00:31:07] In that future day, there will no longer be gospel preaching.
[00:31:12] Today is the only day.
[00:31:15] Not just this age, but today is the day of gospel preaching. Today is the day that that eternal life is offered to you.
[00:31:26] When Jesus comes, preaching will end.
[00:31:29] Today you hear the gospel.
[00:31:33] Receive it.
[00:31:35] Throw yourself before Christ and say, lord Jesus, I need you. Save me, I am yours.
[00:31:43] Tomorrow may be too late. Jesus may come. That may be the end. When, or perhaps the Lord will come to you like the rich man and say, tonight, your soul is required of you.
[00:31:57] Paul says, behold, now is the favorable time.
[00:32:01] Behold, now is the day of salvation. So receive the word preached. Because this is the time for gospel preaching.
[00:32:12] Well, we commission officers in the military to carry out their duties to lead others. Paul was commissioned by Christ entrusted with the preaching of the gospel.
[00:32:22] And preachers today continue to be commissioned with the same charge.
[00:32:27] Receive them for your own sake. Let's pray.
[00:32:32] Lord Jesus, you are our God and our king.
[00:32:38] We acknowledge that there is none other.
[00:32:41] And we rejoice that you reign in heaven.
[00:32:47] That we, your people, have been gathered into your kingdom and that you are at work in our hearts by your word and spirit. That you right now are making us anew.
[00:33:00] That as you work, good things, good fruits flow forth from our hearts.
[00:33:08] That the peace and the righteousness, the kindness and gentleness that flow forth from our hearts come from your work as you reign in the thrones of our hearts.
[00:33:27] Lord Jesus, we thank you that this is true. And we thank you that you have appointed men to bring the message of salvation and of your reign to the lost.
[00:33:39] We ask you, Lord Jesus, that you would bring that gospel message all around the world. That the nations everywhere would hear and turn to you. That they would kiss the Son and be saved.
[00:33:55] Lord Jesus, we thank you for this hope of eternal life and that you have sealed it in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance. We ask you then, that as we go forth from your presence, that you would grant us more of your spirit. Fill us, that we would be full of joy and hope in you. The Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. In his name we pray. Amen.
