00:00
00:00
00:01
ట్రాన్స్క్రిప్ట్
1/0
Paul is writing to a young church leader named Titus and trying to instruct him into what is essential for the church. Because we can get off on all kinds of tangents. There's a lot of things we can do aren't necessarily essential. But there are some things that are essential and we see it from your mind and heart. lips to really Paul's writing where he shares that everything fits under salvation and sanctification. Everything fits under there. I mean all the other good descriptives are great, but really if we're not doing one of those two things we might be off track a little bit. We want to make sure that we focus on what Paul says that a ministry, a church ministry ought to look like. Would you look with me at Titus chapter one, verse one, and it starts off with Paul. Can you believe that some people even want to debate whether Paul wrote this letter? I mean, that's how much smart people can sometimes be stupid. Because it says Paul, meaning I'm writing, and then later on he tells, who's he writing to? But this is Paul. But wait, who is Paul? He used to be Saul till Acts chapter nine, right? And maybe beyond, actually Acts chapter 13, when he really started being called Paul. Acts 13, nine was the first time and from that point on, they favor Paul. Why would he say Paul here? Well, Paul's his Roman name. Saul was his Hebrew name. Right? So Saul, his biggest claim to fame was that he was a Jew. Right? Now he's focusing on the ministry to Gentiles. And he says basically to them, I have a name, a Gentile name, it's called Paul. And it probably describes his life of ministry more than anything else was a ministry to the Jews. He was called to the Jews, just like Peter was called, I mean, to the Gentiles, just like Peter was called to the Jews. Excuse me, getting tripped up there. Paul, he says, all that goes within that, all the background of when Saul was persecuting the church and all those things, he got an inside look at some churches when he destroyed them. And we can be the same way, right? We can say, oh, pastor, don't preach about church. We know church. Well, you know how to destroy a church, right? We've all seen that. We've had front row seats at that. But how about building the church? How about doing what God has called the church to do? That's what we're gonna talk about today. And so Paul writes and he says, hey, just call me Paul. Saul was kind of a heady name because Saul had had the best schooling. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, probably full-blooded Hebrew mom and dad. And who knows how many generations in the past. But he says, I want to be known as Paul, a servant of God. A servant of God. What a title. The title there is a servant, and we've heard the word before, doulos. It means someone who's been strapped with the responsibility to be more focused on someone else and not concern themselves with their own issues. You see, Paul was all about reaching the Gentiles for Jesus Christ. Did it cost him? Barely. Was he worried when someone said, hey, whatever you do, don't go to Jerusalem, they're gonna kill you there. He says, I gotta go. Why? Because he was truly a doulos. His focus was on the benefit of others more than his own benefit. And maybe to his own demise. A bond servant. more focused on the needs of others than on themselves, is what that means. And then he says, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ. And easy, that could be a capital A, because he's an Apostle. There are some that debate that, even. Paul, he wasn't—we can't really trust him to say he saw Christ on the road to Damascus. Okay, yeah, maybe he was converted. I'm not sure that whole story's true. Well, I feel like if you're gonna pick and choose out of the Bible, then you might as well throw the whole thing away. And that goes for creation in the beginning, that goes for the conversion of Paul, or any of Paul's writings, where Peter has declared in 1 and 2 Peter that Paul's writings were equal to Scripture. So if you're gonna throw Paul's writings out, guess what? You're gonna have to throw all Scripture out. That's a scary thought. But Paul says, hey, I'm a bondservant of Christ, of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Apostle simply means, when it's a little a, means someone who's sent forth with orders. Paul was sent forth with orders. We can see that several places in Acts. Paul was a little a and a big a apostle. We can be little Apostles, but we can't be big A. Why? Because an Apostle has to be someone who's seen in the risen Christ. Right? We've seen him work in our lives, but we haven't literally seen him. He says, according to the faith of God's elect. Some people get so bent out of shape on the word elect. They focus on that to the point that they have narrow vision. Whatever elect means, it means the ones who will end up being saved. Right? So what he's saying is, Paul's saying, I identify with Gentiles. I don't focus on my own wellbeing, but on the spiritual lives of others. I've been sent by Christ to go and I have orders to witness of him. And then it says here, according to the faith of God's— I'm focused on reaching the lost with the gospel. So Paul's saying, hey, if you want to know what it's like to be an apostle, it means you stay focused on the gospel. You evangelize. You go and share the good news. And then he says, and the acknowledging of the truth. That's the epi prefixed with a gnosko, right? It means that he has a precise and correct understanding of the truth. You could also, because the epi word there means on or over, the epi there reminded me of a commercial, McDivitt. You ever seen McDivitt commercials when he's standing on top of a semi and he says what? I'm on top of it! The first couple times it was very annoying, after that I'm looking forward to it. Let's get this commercial over with. Paul says when it comes to the truth, I'm on top of it! I gots it! I understand! I'm thinking it's amazing of Paul when he finally got saved and how the pieces of the New Testament fit so perfectly into the Old Testament. He goes, shazbots. Yeah, young people forget it. He's like, wow, this fits. I'm on top of that, I get it. I get what, I'm picking up what God has been laying down all these centuries. And what is it? He says, it's the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, which means the truth is conducive to godly living. And I would go even further than that and say, when we're in the truth, when we walk in the truth, we're walking in the light. When we walk in the light, we're not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, which means we're living godly simply because we're holding onto the truth, and it guides our way. What an introduction to his letter, right? I mean, he comes right out swinging. And then he shares with young Titus why he can keep on keeping on. He says, in the hope of eternal life. And this word hope is the idea of confident expectation. He says, I'm looking for that hope. chariot ride. I'm looking for the way when God comes back either to take me home or when I pass away and I get to see Jesus face to face. He said, I'm looking for that. That's what drove him. That's what's driving his letter writing to Titus. When it says, in hope of eternal life, again we find that word epi there. which kind of helps tie some things together from verse one, when he's saying basically the faith and the knowledge that we find in verse one rest on or has a view to holiness, godliness. That when we talk about salvation, when we talk about sanctification, it's gonna lead people to being more like Jesus Christ. That's our hope, right? Once we get saved, we're no longer that old creature, but a new creation. And that new creation has the Holy Spirit in them, driving them to become more like Christ. That's what he's saying here. That hope of eternal life is based on that knowledge, but the knowledge also is based on that transformational power of the Word of God. It says, which God that cannot lie. Isn't that great? Paul's basically saying to us that God has never, will never, and we can trust the fact that lying and God are two separate things. God is telling us the truth, that God's word is the truth. Does it match with what the world says is truth? You can think about four subjects right off the top of your head. Oh, they're talking about this, this, and this in the world, and that doesn't match the Bible. Well, you know what? Guess which one's right. It's not the world, but it's the word of God. God that cannot lie, he promised. What's the promise? The one that never has lied and will never lie, he's told us something, and it is the truth. He's made promises to us, and that promise was to redeem mankind by sending a Messiah. All the way back in our Genesis 3, verse 15, we can see that promise. Well, if he never lies and he promised there, guess what? He was bound to do it. And as we look back to Jesus' life, we can see he's the one that was promised. Jesus the Messiah came just like God said he would, because there's truth telling God. He made the promise to redeem mankind. He demonstrated it and made it clear all the way from the making of clothing for Adam and Eve to when Cain killed Abel because Cain didn't want to do the blood sacrifice. But God's made it clear, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. There's no remission of sin. The blood is necessary. Yeah, it's ugly, but not near as ugly as sin. Right? And God said, I'll take care of you. I will send you a Messiah. All you must do is receive the Messiah. Accept him as your Savior. It says that this was a plan that was even before Genesis 3.15. Way before. How do you know? It says right there, before the world began. Well, that's a long way back. Right? And God, who doesn't lie, has always been taking care of us and providing for us, working on our behalf. Paul says, that's what I'm committed to. That's the message. Uncompromising on what is the truth. Uncompromising on a God who tells the truth. Uncompromising on the promises of God to save people simply by grace through faith. Hey, there's people out there that teach all kinds of other things. Just last week, I ran into several people who still have to hold on to, well, you gotta have communion. Oh no, well, you gotta be baptized. Oh, well, if you're not a member of a certain denomination, you're not going. Hogwash, hogwash, and more hogwash. Paul is telling young Titus, don't get sidetracked. This is what's important for the church to do, and that number one thing is salvation. Tell people the good news. And don't back down, don't compromise. Be like Paul, where he says in Romans 1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto what? Salvation. To who? All that believe. Not only the Jews, but the Gentiles. before the world began. He saved us, he's called us to a holy calling, and it's not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. You say, where did you read that from? 2 Timothy 1.9. You see, Paul is pretty consistent when he writes to these young preachers. He says the same thing. And I encourage you, if you want to really get what Titus says, go and read two short letters, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and then Titus, and you'll find a lot of cross-references, because Paul knew what the young church leader needed to hear. Verse 3. God who doesn't lie, who before the world began, who provided us with a Messiah, but has in due times, meaning in these present days, has manifested his word through preaching. We have the clear understanding of the gospel. Why? Because God has manifested it to us in the Bible. We know the verses that tell us that for by grace we are saved through faith, not of ourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We've got that text. Old Testament believers didn't have that. Even some of the first century believers didn't have that because it wasn't written, maybe, or it wasn't even put together together. Chris has a new Bible, but you know, Almost everybody's Bible has Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, I think. Right? In these present days, manifested through His Word, manifested in His Word through preaching. which is committed unto me, Paul says, that's what I do. I go and I share the gospel. And it's the idea of proclaiming with passion. I proclaim with passion. Not asking, oh, you know, forgive me, but I need to tell you something. No. He's saying, hey, this is it. God said it. We can believe it. And that should settle it. which is committed to me, Paul saying, this has been given to me. Paul could say easily to them, I'm an Old Testament scholar. And now I've put it together with the New Testament and I'm a proclaimer of the Old Testament, New Testament fitting together. That's what I'm sharing with you. It was the same plan of salvation from the beginning all the way till now. It's always been. Every Old Testament saint saved the same way, by grace, through faith. Father Abraham, we say Father Abraham has many sons. Why? Because Abraham is a long ways back. And we hear that Abraham was justified Not by his works, not by circumcision, but he was justified even before. He was standing righteous before God, before his circumcision. So the Jew does not have a leg up on anybody else. We all must come to the cross. Kind of interesting, he says, according to the commandment of God our Savior. Isn't that kind of interesting? God our Savior. But I thought Jesus was the Savior. So what is this telling us? Well, we do find this phrase, God our Savior, several times through 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. It's the only place we find it. But we see Paul likes to use it. But you kind of see what he's saying? Who's the Savior? What's his name? Jesus. But yet he says, God our Savior. So Jesus and God must be the same person. Oh, Jesus is God! Those who have problem with that have problems with the Bible, not with us. God, our Savior, Jesus, who is God, is our Savior. He could easily wrote. He wouldn't think anybody was stupid enough to think that Jesus wasn't God. After all the miracles and everything he did, he rose from the dead. Testimony of God the Father saying, this is my beloved son. Wow, according to the commandment of God our Savior, I think it's testimony to not only to Jesus' deity or Godhood, but also to the Trinity. Because we see, you know, God the Father be in this text, active in salvation, active in even our sanctification. We see Jesus doing it, and we see the Holy Spirit, all three working together. We're in verse four, in case you lost track. What's the time? 10 20. Thank you, appreciate the notice. Nope. Verse four. He's writing to whom? To Titus. It's addressed to Titus, but it's pretty clear that this information is important for all churches to get. So us studying it today, we're not snooping, okay? It's not like we're getting in there where we don't belong. I'm sure Paul expected him to share it with other church leaders. It says to Titus. Well, who is this guy, Titus? Well, he's mentioned in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and 2 Timothy. Galatians 2 tells us, in verse 3, tells us that he was a pure, whole-blooded Gentile. Hmm. Probably a convert of Paul's. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to deliver the collections for the church there, if you remember. Well, that was a place of honor, to trust somebody with that kind of offering. What else do we know about Titus? I think Titus was an exhibit A in the argument of whether or not someone has to be circumcised before they can be saved. Yep, because he was a Gentile, and we read in the scripture, Galatians chapter 2, verse 3, that there was no need for Titus to be circumcised. being a pure-blooded Gentile. Isn't it great that we don't have to first become a Jew first? Especially those of us who are saved late in life. I was saved pretty young, so maybe I've been spared a little pain, but the reality is we don't have to be a Jew before we become a Christian. We go directly from being a dog of a Gentile to being a son of God. What a great thing that is. Yeah, he was Exhibit A. Some scholars believe he was possibly Luke's brother. It's why his brother didn't mention him in the book of Acts, because, you know, brothers aren't mentioned if we don't have to. And then, most likely, what we can say is that he was a young pastor who's being discipled by Paul. That's who he is. So he says, this is to Titus. Then he says, my own son after the common faith. That word owns is the idea of true, my true son, meaning that probably he was a spiritual offspring of Paul. Paul probably led him to Christ. I'll move faster. He says now, three beautiful words. Don't miss these three beautiful words, because they're three of the most beautiful words in scripture. after Jesus' own name, and that's the word grace. I think we'll spend eternity exploring grace. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve. Something more better, much more better. I like when people say the acrostic, God's riches at Christ's expense, very accurate, but also, I was doing a little deep dive into grace, trying to understand if I could bring something new to you or whatever. But I found something encouraging to me, and that was grace is considered something that affords joy. Something that affords joy, which means that because of the grace of God, we ought to have joy. I started thinking about, you know, all the stories and Christmas stories I could tell about, you know, wanting a certain gift and then you get under there. And I think Christmas gifts are one of the best pictures of grace. Because even ratty little kids, I mean, kids that were so bad the week before Christmas, they still get a gift under the tree. Why? Because parents love them. And why do we have the grace of God? Because for God so loved the world. Not that we deserved it, because the Bible describes us as really enemies doing like this to God. And God said, I'll die for you. Unbelievable, keep moving. Mercy, mercy is a good one too. We all know the definition that this is not receiving what we do deserve, which is eternity in hell. when we get saved, right? So mercy is also something that can be defined as goodwill toward the miserable. Goodwill toward those that are miserable. Can you imagine a church I don't have to imagine. It's our church. We're really good at this. Let me encourage you that we can, let's double down on it. Deal with people with grace, but also with mercy. When someone is miserable in our congregation, let's do what we can do to bring goodwill to those who are miserable. Do something to help that. What we can do, we should do. And then peace. What is peace? A lot of times we say absence of war. Not necessarily. It can be more. It can be richer. It has the idea of quietness. It's called empty nest syndrome. I was stressed out. My daughter's moving away from me. And then I went home and it was, I thought to myself, I could get used to this. And I'm loving it. I love the grandkids when they come, but sometimes I love it when they leave. Because of my quietness, tranquility. It has the idea of safety. And he says all these things, from God the Father. Yeah, I know him. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Whoa, he's breaking it down for us, because some of us missed the hint earlier. The way it's written, you could easily say God the Father and God the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes sense grammatically. Wow. Why did he say all this from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? Because I think he saw the Trinity at work. He knew that Jesus was God and he wanted Titus to not back down from it. Verse five, wrapping it up. For this cause, I left you in Crete. Paul left Titus there. It's the idea he deposited him. It's the idea that he planted him there. Why? Because he believed Titus to be competent to get the job done. Otherwise, he would have left him there. He thought, Titus, you can handle this with God's help. You can handle this. You go and do something, what does he need to do? It says that you should set in order things that are wanting. That's King James for unfinished business. That was unfinished business. And he was to go do some finishing of the business. And what was the business? Set up leadership in independent churches or individual churches. And how did he do that? It says ordain elders. Now, I don't know about you, but I really have a hard time understanding when church don't have elders. I mean, we have elders mentioned all through scripture, then we have the qualifications for elders listed there, and then Paul says to Titus, one of the problems in the churches you're looking at is they don't have elders. It's part of the solution. And if we don't get it, it's because we don't read the Bible with understanding. It says, ordain elders. The word there is presbyteros. It's where Presbyterians get their name. Right? It has the idea of mature ones. There's three words used for elders in Scripture, and they were used sometimes interchangeably with pastor, but not always. There's the word presbyteros, where we get Presbyterians from. It means mature ones. Then we got the term episkopos. And guess what church comes from that? Episcopalian, yeah. And episkopos means overseer. So the one is just a mature counselor. The other one's an overseer. And then the last word is poemen. A poemen is a shepherd. So when we have elders in the church, what we hope is that they are mature Christians. We hope that these people are good at overseeing. They're administrators, but also they are shepherds, which means a shepherd needs to love the sheep and to lead them. And he says, the churches need it and they need it badly. I can tell you, 10 churches off the top of my head that don't have elders that should have elders. Because they go through struggles and without that oversight, a church will struggle and they'll become infighting and they'll become a rift. I think some people are also confused. There are some denominations that will tell you that every church needs an elder, which is the pastor. and the pastor equals elder, the elder equals pastor, and that's not true. That's not true, it's not consistent. Why do I say that? Well, right here, he's saying, go and put elders plural in every church. Well, what if they only have 10 people? They gotta hire two pastors? No, they're gonna have one pastor. Well, how can they have elders? Well, because some elders are not pastors. How do you say a pastor, that's just not true. Well yeah, listen, the Bible, you remember it says, oh this is a good one too, I could get more money. Oh no, it says the pastor or the elder that teaches gets a double portion. When you says that, doesn't the reverse Cajun thinking tell you then if some elders teach, some elders don't? What would a pastor be if he wasn't a teacher? I don't know any pastors that don't preach. That would be a gravy train. I know. So every pastor should be an elder, but not every elder is necessarily a pastor. Another reason I would say, and I know my time's gone. Another reason I say elders and pastors are not the same thing, okay? There are two offices in the church that are listed in the Bible with qualification. And we're gonna look at some of those pretty soon in Titus. There's qualifications for an elder. Moral qualifications. And there's qualifications for deacons. There is no qualifications for pastor. No, that's why you get people like me. What a mess. But the reality is, pastor is listed as a spiritual gift. No spiritual gift has to be qualified for. God gives them as he wills. Whatever brings God joy, he gives that gift. So pastors are gifted ones for the ministry of being a pastor. elders or mature believers who are chosen or appointed, or however you want to say it, to lead, oversee, and help the pastor shepherd. They're like, you're boring me pastor with all this church politics. Okay. And he said to do this in every city, every church in every city, as I have appointed you, Paul said, basically, he has given, he has put his apostolic, capital A, authority behind Titus and said, Titus, I authorize you to go out and the first thing you need to do is get you some elders in these churches. That's what I tell every young pastor that asks me. What should I do? Where should I preach first in the Bible? What should I do? I was like, number one, job number one, get good leadership. Who love the Lord and wanna win the loss and see people grow in the faith. We're moving on. Let's talk about church works real quick, do our outline. other things we could say, but we're going to move on. Church works. What's a church to do? Well, I think the church needs to focus on some things. One is tactics. We need to understand our tactics. I'm going to read this to you in a minute. We need to also not only focus on our tactics, but focus on our trust and focus on our task at hand. What does he say? These are all congregation. And the preacher's up there trying to preach. And he sees all these signs people have given to him. Kind of like I asked Todd to let me know in five minutes. It says, don't mention hell because it makes me feel uncomfortable. Please refer to sin as bad choices. And the guy has a tattoo on his skull. Bad choice. Tell me again how much God wants to bless me. Make sure there are enough programs for my kids. Remember how much money I give each week. What can Jesus do for me? Only good news, only good word, positive sermons, be relevant, it says. All those things you could get caught up in, but the two important things, or get the gospel out and make disciples. Salvation and sanctification, that's the work of the church, right? Well, let's move on, fill in the blanks. Focus on our tactics. How do we focus on our tactics? It's pretty cool here. Somebody came up with these tactics. Seek the lost, nurture believers, equip workers, and multiply leaders. I like that. Good stuff. You know where it comes from? You look like you saw that somewhere. Huh? I stole that from somebody, but this is, yeah, this is me giving them credit. I got it from somewhere. So tactics, what are they? We need to, as a church, plan on serving. Plan to serve. Not only plan to serve, but plan to save. When I say that, I don't mean we save anybody, but God uses us in order to see people saved, okay? So that's what I mean. But I need to keep it balanced with the word. And planning to sanctify. And again, we can't sanctify anybody, but we can be part of the process. God sanctifies them, sets them apart. And then secondly, not only our tactics, but our trust. What do we trust in? We trust in the Lord's character. What a great thing to rest upon because it's solid. Trust in the Lord's communication, His word. It's solid. And trust in the Lord's coming. He's coming. And I'm here to tell you, some people have a hard time believing he's coming, but he made it clear he's coming. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again so that you may be with me. That's what he said, right? He's coming, and I'm hoping soon. But he's coming, and when he does come, that is our hope. And we'll see that later in Titus chapter two, It talks about our blessed hope and that hope in verse 13 to 13. What is the hope of the Christian? The hope is the glorious appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Not just appearing, glorious, which means he's gonna come and it will be something to see. Looking forward to it. Okay, then thirdly, the church is to stay focused on our task. And here's a little bit of twist maybe you hadn't thought about. What task do we have? The first one I find in here is that one, that word grace, and it means to promote joy or to enjoy. We are to enjoy what God is doing in our lives. The church should enjoy it. I hope you enjoyed the Jubilee weekend. But that's what we're supposed to be doing, really, every weekend. enjoying God's faithfulness, rejoicing with it. Secondly, not only are we faithful to enjoy, we need to be faithful to establish, to set things in order. Command, chain of command is one way we do it, right? We organize through an organizational chart that looks like a wheel around here. Different elders are oversight of different things. We go to them, we make sure that we stay in our own, we color in our own, inside our own lines, right? When we get outside the lines, somebody needs to help us get back inside the line. And then thirdly, we're being faithful to enlist. We really, want to be a church that develops leadership. And leadership, not just talking about elders or pastors or youth pastors, but developing Sunday school teachers, Awana workers, EBS workers, all the different kinds of ways that people can lead. The church needs to be faithful to develop leadership. Which means sometimes we're gonna let somebody teach in a class and everybody will think, man, they need a lot of work on their teaching skills. Well, where are they gonna get it? It's kind of like a young person needing a job. Well, you know, where you worked before? I've never worked, it's my first job I'm looking for. Somebody's gotta get you started. And we need to do the same thing. So I came up with this long sentence sermon, just like a long sermon for five verses. God has made it very obvious and unambiguous as to what the church is to be and how he has designed the church to function. May we seek him, may we understand how the church works.
Church Works
సిరీస్ What's a Church to Do?
ప్రసంగం ID | 109231656263570 |
వ్యవధి | 40:07 |
తేదీ | |
వర్గం | ఆదివారం సర్వీస్ |
బైబిల్ టెక్స్ట్ | తీతుకు 1:1-5 |
భాష | ఇంగ్లీష్ |
వ్యాఖ్యను యాడ్ చేయండి
వ్యాఖ్యలు
వ్యాఖ్యలు లేవు
© కాపీరైట్
2025 SermonAudio.