Good morning, it's a brand new week and we're starting a brand new study here as we begin a consideration of the book of Titus and we want to get the introductory chapter or introductory section of chapter one in here this morning and as I hope by now that you are getting used to in the opening of a letter, particularly the introductory comments are often very helpful to understand the nature, the content, and the author's intent to the book. And it was one of the ways that they would shape the reader and the book to meld together in what the Lord had desired for them to learn from the word that he inspired that they received through the letter. So, we are in Titus chapter one, the opening verses are a little longer than Paul normally does, not hugely, but it does avoid a prayer of thanksgiving and supplication for the readers. in this letter, but just the opening identification of the author and the recipient is a little longer, a little more lengthy than Paul's normal pattern. But we'll read them, and then we'll look together at them here this morning. Paul, a bondservant 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 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. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So as we break this down, I'd like to consider it in, I guess, under three different headings. Consideration of Paul and Titus as leaders to promote godliness. So just as a brief review from Friday, we argued that Paul was in Crete was able to evangelize as he was shipwrecked and waiting to get on a ship once the sailable weather came around in the spring. And God in his grace allowed him to have an influence in several cities on the island where the gospel is going forward. Titus was traveling with Paul. Titus is left to see that these young fledgling Christians are able to be established firmly in the faith, and so the goal is godliness. And godlikeness, that's always the goal of the gospel's impact, is to shape us to be more consistent with our creator who made us. So as Paul is leaving Titus there, there's also the challenge of false teachers. And those who were challenging Paul would highlight things like, hey Paul, you know, you are imprisoned. Obviously God must not be with you. Who are you to be able to promote godliness? Pardon me. Who are you to say what God wants? And so there's a questioning of Paul, and since Paul left Titus, there's a questioning of Titus. It is not so much active hostility, but it's just raising the question. And so here's a young church and young collection of, when it comes to spiritual life, young. There's always personalities. Devil always likes to get people in the church to bite and devour. So how can we have godliness in that context? Well, godly leadership is a key to that. Paul is going to connect himself to the stream of biblical qualified people as well as he will connect Titus. He's going to press home this very thing of what God is doing in salvation to promote godliness, so godly living. And the third thing that I think is important to consider is then how God and Jesus are combined in the same goal. Because the challenge on this Gentile island is from religious zealots that would claim a common history with Paul, Jews, There's a question about Jews' evaluation of Jesus, and the need for Jesus, and Paul wants to tie all those things together. So these three emphases come together in these opening words. So Paul identifies himself as the reader. I don't take a whole lot of stock into Paul versus Saul. Paul had a Roman citizenship had a Greek name When he's in Greek cities, he identified himself with this Greek name when he's in Hebrew context He would identify himself with this Hebrew name. So there's there's not a whole lot of spiritual truth to to be gleaned except for that he's writing to a Greek Gentile audience and and he is the letter's author. But what he does say about himself is significant. Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Bondservant. This is a slave. He's owned by God. His will was not his own. His will was his creator's, his God's. It was His master determined what he was to be doing and how he was to be doing that. The title Bonservant of God or Servant of God was a title of honor and privilege for Paul. Paul regularly uses this in his introductions to connect what he is doing with what God has been doing in the world. He's drawing really, I think, from a Biblical Old Testament pattern. So, Numbers 12 and verse 7, Not so, with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my household. So, Moses is my servant. In Nehemiah 9, verse 14, it was said, through Nehemiah, So you made known to them your holy Sabbath, and laid down for them commandments, statutes, and laws, through your servant Moses. Again, Joshua, they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, and Timnath Sarah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, That's not the right verse. Printed off the wrong one, sorry. But Joshua is also identified as a servant of God. In Psalm 89 in verse 3, David is God's servant. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David my servant. Second Kings 10. I know that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord has spoken concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord has done what he has spoken through his servant, Elijah. Daniel is God's servant. When he came near to the den, to Daniel, he cried out in trouble with a troubled voice. And the king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you have constantly served, been able to deliver you from the lions? Jeremiah and the Lord sent to you all his servants the prophets again and again But you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear Ezekiel 38 17 that says the Lord are you one of whom I spoke in the former days through my servants the prophets of Israel Amos 3 and verse 7 surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servants and the prophets." Again, Zechariah 1 in verse 6, "...but did not my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants, the prophets, overtake your fathers? And they repented and said, As the Lord opposed purpose to do in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so he has dealt with us." So, when Paul draws on that title, Paul was intentionally purposefully connecting his authority as an apostle, a prisoner on his way to Rome, but as an apostle, as a minister of the truth of the gospel, his authority is connected to a deep stream of Old Testament servants of God who were able to speak on God's behalf. He's a servant of God, but he's also an apostle of Jesus Christ. Christ has sent him, and he's carrying out his ministry, doing what Christ once done. So he blends together both the Jewish and the Gentile ministry responsibilities. He brings in the stream of the Old Testament. God has had servants, and he ties that together with the Lord Jesus Christ who sent people out with his message. in identifying his authority to address the need for godliness in the churches of Crete, Paul says God calls godly leaders. Prophets didn't opt in, they were called. Apostles, Paul didn't say like, well, you know, I wanted to... No, he was on the road to Damascus to imprison and kill Christians. God stopped him and sent Simeon to heal his blind eyes and say here's what you're gonna do Simon not Simeon. Sorry, so he was commanded by God as well Paul says in verse three, but at the proper time manifested, that is the word, even his word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. Having described his mission, Paul returns to the idea towards the end of his introductory comments, and he notes once again the role that God has. God had chosen him to lead his church. I myself had this entrusted to me. He was passive. He didn't, like, I'm going to go, I'm going to engage in some sort of ministry because I want to do this. No. God had called him. God had commanded him. God had entrusted this to him. God had sovereignly chosen to give this ministry to Paul. Paul, as I mentioned, didn't come to be an apostle on his own. Instead, it was by the order of, this was the source of his commissioning, by God's command. Paul makes that plain, for instance, to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 9, If I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion. For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Some sort of internal, I just feel like I gotta do this. For if I do this voluntarily, I have reward, but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. Paul had a very clear, it's not that Paul hated his ministry. He understands he must carry on this gospel ministry. It was according to the commandment of God our Savior. This highlights again that God has chosen leaders to minister in his church according to God's authority that Paul was ministering. But not only Paul, but this was shared down the stream of leadership in the church. This is significant because Titus is going to exercise that authority to establish even more authorities in the church, elders. So he identifies how this flows down from his own command down to Titus, to Titus, my true child in a common faith. Titus was one of Paul's most trusted associates. He was sent by Paul numerous times to clean up problems in Corinth. Titus truly loved those whom he ministered to. You can see that in 2 Corinthians 8, verses 16 and 17. And he shared a common purpose in the gospel ministry with Paul. You can see that again in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 18. So why does Titus need to be reminded, if he's the recipient of the letter, why does he need to be reminded about Paul's authority? Like Titus under the influence of the false teachers? No. As I mentioned in the introductory section, Titus is addressed immediately, similar to Timothy in 1 Timothy, but this isn't really a private personal letter. The letter concludes in verse 15, Grace be with you all, with all of you. Titus doesn't have split personality. Titus' authority is being challenged. Paul is flexing his gospel authority to support Titus. So Titus is a genuine child. He's authentic. He's legitimate. It could be that Paul is emphasizing Titus came to faith in Christ through Paul's ministry. But I think it more so focuses on, in that culture, a son would learn the trade of the father. It was passed down. He's a tanner, I begin to learn to tan leather. He's a blacksmith, silversmith, whatever it may be. He's a carpenter, I'm a carpenter. So what Paul is focusing on is that the son would serve the father's purpose in that process. So Titus is representing, in other words, the apostles' authority to these believers in Crete. Titus will set up leaders who counteract the false teachers, godly men who are able to protect these churches as they follow along the truth of the gospel. So think about it from the first century context. There's a guy like Paul who drops in, arrested by Roman soldiers, who faces trouble in every place he goes. Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, Crete. He's always in trouble. And yet, he's not in trouble for being immoral, he's not in trouble for being a thief, he's not in trouble for being a liar or being a idolater. He's in trouble because he stands against the stream of self-righteousness and Jewish attacks against his gospel. And God expects this man to lead, to identify, to protect, to defend, to set an agenda for his fledgling church. Like Moses, who's challenged by Korah. Like David, who's challenged by his own sons and by those in his government. Like Jesus, There's always a challenge to godly authority. And so this challenge is real. And Paul is writing to say, the nature of genuine saving faith is that it humbly places itself under imperfect. Paul would be imperfect. David was imperfect. Moses was imperfect. But God calls those who are his, who are going to be godly, to be followers of the leaders that God chooses. That's an important theme in the book of Titus. And so it comes to surface, surprise, in the introductory comments. What's the goal? The goal is godly living. The second concern we see in these words is that the gospel isn't based on works, but it does change how I actually live my life. So notice the words that are Addressing this concern, Paul was a bondservant and sent by Christ for the faith of those chosen of God and for the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness. Paul's ministry is for those who are the elect, those chosen by God. The purpose of Paul's ministry was furthering the faith of God's chosen ones. He had evangelized there. And his goal was to help those who had come to faith, and that's how Paul knows they are the elect, those chosen by God, Acts 13, when the Gentiles heard this, verse 48 of Acts 13, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Those appointed by God where Paul went would believe, and Paul would recognize that this response showed that those individuals were elect. He is not limiting it as if, well, you can't ever preach the gospel here again. No, he's just saying, the elect do respond, as we heard yesterday in our consideration from Jesus. Those chosen by God, Paul's goal is that they would grow Further, their edification, their sanctification. Paul's ministry was to help not only people come to Christ, but for those people who come to Christ to grow in their knowledge of, their intimate awareness of the purposes and the plans of God through Jesus Christ to show us, God, so that we might share this life in the truth that is in the truth of the gospel. This truth is according to, it produces, Godliness. Godliness is a life committed to serving God, to fearing him, to honoring him in everyday choices. Living as God wants us to live because we are pursuing a character that is consistent with who God is and what he wants and what he wants done. As Paul ministers that, he ministers that in, or better, for a second statement of the purpose and the goal or the result of the letter and of Paul's ministry at large. It is for the hope, the confident expectation of what God will accomplish in the lives of the elect. This is not a, well, I hope this will happen. It's what I kind of desire, would be nice. This is, Paul knows how God works. God comes through the gospel to people who are lost. Some respond in death, they reject. Some respond in life, they're elect. Didn't mean to make it rhyme, but there it did. The elect need to grow in godliness. And so Paul's ministry is that God will continue to work through the gospel to produce eternal life. That's not just something that's going to happen when they die or when Christ comes back. Eternal life, as I've shared with you many times, is a kind of life. It does last forever, but it's God's kind of life, partaking of the divine nature. The life that God has shared throughout all of eternity with the Son and the Spirit that He then comes to share with us. It's partaking, as Peter would say in 1 Peter 1, to partake of the divine nature. God who cannot lie, in contrast with the Cretans who are liars. is the one who has promised to do this saving work and sharing his life with us. So Paul is confident that what God promised in the eternal counsels of God before time to do this work, God was going to accomplish. God brought this saving work at the proper time, at God's perfect time, when God knew it was best to reach Gentiles apart from the Jewish faith. Gentiles could always be reached by converting to Judaism. So Rahab and Ruth, There have been plenty of Gentiles who have converted, many of David's mighty men. But at the proper time, God sent his word, the message of the gospel, and made it known, he revealed it. And that came through the authoritative preaching of the gospel of the one sent and called. And so again, there's this godly leaders and the stream of leadership, Paul, So God to Christ, to Paul, to Titus, who's going to establish leadership. And what is the goal of that? The goal is that the gospel for those who have come to faith would be firmly planted in their lives, producing godliness, which God has purposed so that they might share eternal life. The last thing that I think that we need to glean is how Paul in a very clear way ties together Jesus and God the Father. So Paul is a bondservant of God and an apostle of Christ. Why the double designation? The Old Testament terminology, we've drawn that he is a servant of God. Often Paul is a servant of Christ in his introductory comments. But now he's a servant of God, and he draws on that Old Testament stream. Why? Because of the Jewish false teachers that are impacting these believers. Jesus and God are tied together. You can't separate them. Jesus is the sovereign. He's Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, God's anointed Lord. Jesus and God are tied together as Savior. God our Savior tied us in a common faith for Christ Jesus our Savior. Paul ties together Christ's purpose of salvation with God and God's purpose of salvation. God is the author, Christ is the accomplisher. But the faith together for Paul and Titus that has tied them together is one faith for a Jew and a Gentile. It's not distinct truth. No, the sovereign God has chosen the Savior Christ the Lord for a faith that is shared. It is a faith that is ongoing to grant grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. the saving work through the ministry of Paul that he will call them to submit to the leaders and to pursue godly living is a grace, it is a favor, it is a blessing to unworthy objects to produce joy that comes from God. It is also a peace. It is a wholeness, a well-being that only God can produce. It is no longer enmity with God. Everything is settled. Everything is ultimately okay because of God's saving work. So tie it all together. God has established Christ as his Lord who rules over all things for his church. as the sovereign sustainer and savior of the church. He wants to make his name known through the gospel to transform people to live godly lives. The Lord wants to help these people to walk in ways that honor God, to live for him, and he does that by saving them and then giving them witness to proclaim the truth. So, what does God want his people to do? Well, he wants his people, as we'll see tomorrow, Lord willing, to consider whether their leaders meet the qualification, and assuming they do, to understand that godliness happens through this means, godly leaders sharing the truth of the gospel in sanctification so that people might come to be like God as they resist false ways of relating to God. That's a lot. That's what Titus has to teach us here as we work our way through it. And I hope that your leader is qualified. If not, then you should remove me. but I hope also, assuming, I don't think I'm disqualified, just to be clear, but assuming that I am, that you will join with me in the pursuit of godliness as we take the truth, the gospel, that God has left us to embrace the experience of God's life in godliness. So there's a primer for the content of the book. And I hope that it is a blessing and an encouragement for you to think through those things as we begin to pursue the study of Titus together this week. Lord bless your day today. Look forward to sharing some more tomorrow by God's grace. All right, bye-bye.