Titus 1 - 2 Church Pastor and 2 Lists

Well, happy Thanksgiving week.

It is.

I can't believe it's already here.

Wow.

We are, hopefully, you are just really spending some time with your family this week and have some time set aside to be thankful and grateful for what the Lord's done in your life.

And I'm thankful to be here today with the prestigious Bryon Self, soon-to-be-pastor, lead pastor, Bryon Self.

So, if you have not heard the news, then I hate to break it to you on this Thanksgiving week, but Pastor Bryon is actually moving to Maryland and taking Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, Maryland. And, man, how are you guys doing?

Doing good. It's coming up so fast.

Yeah.

And scared? Oh, always. Yeah.

But in a great way. And we are so excited to see what God's going to do. And we've been working through details of things over the past couple of weeks and have seen God just provide and work in great ways.

So I'm really, really looking forward to that.

So I still have a question. Is there still just a small chance that you would leave Samantha and the kids here? I mean, you know, you don't really need them there.

You know, you know, you could travel back and forth. You could be like that pastor that like only sees his family a couple of times a year.

I thought you were going to say J. Frank Norris because he had his church in Texas and the church in like Michigan.

Yeah. You know, my grandpa actually did that. He pastored a church in Colorado and Washington at the same time.

And he drove like he would be at every he would be at the church like Yakima and then the next week, Greeley and then the next every other week. And he did that for a long time. Isn't that crazy?

Anyway, wow, that has nothing to do with this.

But you could do that with Samantha twice a month at both churches. Wow.

Yeah, it was it was amazing. I don't know how he did it. So you could do that.

There you go.

You could just fly back and forth.

Yeah.

But just do it on the week.

So like you could fly there and preach, fly back and be with your family. Sure. It'd be a little expensive, but you know, you'll be making.

You're making big money. You'll be making big money.

So much. You know, what isn't family worth? You know, right.

Exactly.

Exactly. See, so it's just been decided. Sam and the kids are actually going to stay here.

And we are definitely going to miss them. But right now, they're not moving today, so we can actually jump in a great study. And Bryon, where are we going to go?

We are going to the Book of Titus.

And what's it about? Yeah, this is an amazing book. Titus was one of Paul's companions.

He was a Greek, and Paul had sent him on a very important mission. This is Mission Impossible for the New Testament.

Okay.

Titus is supposed to go to the island of Crete. Now, much like the town of Corinth that we would read about, the island of Crete had a terrible reputation.

The people on the island were mainly mercenaries that had been hired out by different places, and they did not leave some of the bloodshed and violence and all of that. They didn't leave that on the battlefield. They brought it home.

Yeah. However, Crete had several different harbors and kind of port cities that Paul viewed as very important to being able to spread the gospel.

Right.

And so he sent Titus to help out some of the house churches because there were some churches scattered around the island that some people had come in ethnically Jewish, but that were spreading just bad harrass. Right.

It was they were they were doing things that were wrong. They were being greedy. They were being paid the big bucks.

And they were not doing well with it. They were following fables and following kind of pharisaical commandments. It was just not a good situation.

Yeah.

In addition to that, the people in the house churches kind of spurred on by these bad leaders were acting way more like the cretins around them than the Christ who was inside of them.

Yeah.

Okay.

Like Corinth. Exactly. And the other thing with that was people would call people cretins.

And that was an insult, much like to Corinthianize would be to be an immoral person. If a person was a cretin, they were a terrible person. So Paul says, Hey, Titus, we've been through a lot together.

We've gone through travels. I'm writing to kind of encourage you to re-clarify some of your mission, what your goals are, what you're giving to the people, and encouraging them to be like Christ.

At the very end, he says, I'm gonna send you some backup too, so don't worry.

I think it's interesting of why Paul wrote this to Titus, because he's ministering, and we would all know this, he's ministering at such a time when, it would probably be easy to get discouraged.

Like, man, there's all this craziness going on around me, and I feel like I'm not having any effect.

And I think that's one of the reasons Paul is like, hey, like, you're doing well, keep it moving forward, and let me give you some thoughts on how to help it move forward. Yes.

So anyway, well, it's a great book, it's a great passage, we're going to learn a ton, we're going to be in it for about five weeks or so. And so let's jump in.

How about I'll read the first part, and then we'll stop, talk for a minute, we'll just kind of do that, all right?

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but

has in due time manifested his word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God, our Savior, to Titus, a true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our

Savior. So, that opening part, just a typical greeting that Paul writes. I love a couple of things about it. Number one, he acknowledges who Titus is. Like, we have common faith, probably.

It says Titus, a true son in our common faith. Paul probably led Titus to Christ. But I love verse number two.

I'm gonna come back to it in a little bit, but it says this, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

And just the principle, and I think Paul is doing this on purpose at the beginning, like, hey Titus, remember, you can trust God. We have a God that doesn't lie. He promised eternal life.

He promised that things are gonna be challenging, but we have the hope of eternal life right around the corner.

And then of course, the typical greeting that Paul would give, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Just kind of his mindset of, hey, I'm praying for God's grace, God's mercy, God's peace in your life.

So let's jump to that next part. Go for it.

Yeah, it says, For this reason, I left you in Crete that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.

Namely, if any man is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe not accused of indecent behavior or rebellion.

For the overseer must be beyond reproach as God's steward, not self willed, not quick tempered, not overindulging in wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, but hospitable, loving what is good, self-controlled, righteous, holy, disciplined, holding

firmly the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able both to exhort and sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it. So here in this section, he kind of restates to Titus, hey, here's the mission.

Here's what I sent you to do. And it was to the bad leaders that had kind of taken over a lot of these churches all across the island. He says, I'm having you set up some good new leaders.

And we'll read more in the next section about kind of how this list is very contrary to what the bad leaders were doing.

But a couple of things that kind of stick out to me in this section, they're in verse number six, those that lead churches ought to be beyond reproach.

Now, that doesn't mean that if I try and tell you something that then you go, I don't have to listen to you. That's not that kind of beyond reproach.

But that their life, their characteristics are such that no one could reproach them for the action that they're doing.

And this isn't a, you need actually, literally perfect teachers, you need perfect pastors, but instead, it's what characterizes the person is not that, okay, he has to be constantly told that he's wrong, that he's sinning, that he's doing all these

things. But the characteristic of a pastor needs to be that they do not make, they don't have habitual sin in their life. That's noticeable and common for them.

Yeah, I love, so one of the words that's used for that is blameless.

Yes.

And I don't know who it was that said this, but it just, as you were talking, I remember this illustration. The idea is someone could never lay blame at the feet of a pastor, and people see it and go, oh, yeah, that fits him.

Like the idea of being blameless is if someone laid at the feet of a pastor, this big egregious sin, people would be like, no, that's not his character, that's not who he is. That's the idea of being blameless.

Like lies are going to be told, but about that pastor, about someone in that spiritual leadership position, it shouldn't be believed. Like in the sense that, like, no, that is unbelievable. I couldn't, they're irreproachable.

Totally uncharacteristic.

Yeah, that's a great verse for it or great word.

I think it's also interesting there in verse number six, where it talks about the husband or a pastor needs to be the husband of one wife, that especially in this culture, you had a ton of polygamy and things that took place.

And it's almost somewhat sad that Paul would have to say, hey, like, here's kind of a thing. If he's got like three or four wives, he should probably not be a bastard.

I think that's because he had a lot of mother-in-laws. He would have had time to be a pastor. He would have had to, is that not why?

I'm gonna send this to your mother-in-law.

I love my mother-in-law, and she loves me.

My mother-in-law loves me with a great relationship.

And then he talks about having faithful children, not accused of indecent behavior or rebellion.

When Paul talks to Timothy about this in 1 Timothy, he kind of talks about how is a person supposed to manage God's house if they can't manage their house.

And it's not that the kids are gonna be perfect.

Sure, absolutely.

It's just that, go ahead, go ahead, I'm interrupting you.

No, you're good, they're all good thoughts.

Kids in the house.

Yes. Oh man.

I made you lose your thought.

You did, but that's all right.

Go on with what you were saying, just the fact that kids aren't supposed to be perfect.

Yes.

A lot of people say, well, the pastor's kid, oh, he did this, he did that. No, the idea is no kid is perfect.

Yes.

It's just the fact that the father is able to lead his home and is leading it well. And people would be able to look and say, you know what, I want our family to emulate their family. We know they're not perfect.

Yeah.

But they're teaching them the ways of the Lord.

The kids have a pattern of respectfulness and all of that. Because I'll be honest, my kids aren't perfect, but we've raised them to just as best as we can to love the Lord. And I'll be like, I love my kids.

They're my favorite kids ever. And honestly, I know that sounds crazy, but they're awesome kids. They're great to be around.

So anyway, that has nothing to do with this.

I remembered a couple of things and the particular thing I wanted to talk about.

So the Old Testament illustration or anti-illustration of this would be Eli and his two sons and Samuel and his sons, where though the kids were doing bad, the dads didn't say or do anything. That's the kind of thought that is being brought in here.

If you have an Eli or Samuel, or if you have maybe a David with Absalom or a David with Amnon, where they are shirking their responsibilities as the manager of their household, that's the kind of guy that you don't want in charge of a church.

And I think, and this was what I forgot, for just every single guy who's a dad, maybe even if you're a grandpa, and you have your family in your house, you don't have to wait until you're nominated to be a pastor.

In order to manage your household well. I think it's interesting that what Paul tells Titus is, find the people that are already embodying these things, find them, and then he says, appoint them, being like, hey, you should lead this church.

And all of us, irrespective of what position that we have, ought to embody these types of things. This list isn't just the super Christians. This is in every Christian ought to be faithful.

Every Christian ought to lead their household well, that they wouldn't be shirking responsibilities and pushing it off to other people.

Many of the other things that we could see about being self-willed or about being quick-tempered, being a drunkard, being a bully, being greedy, all of these things are things that all of us as believers ought to already embody.

This isn't just something for your pastor. This is something that all of us ought to aspire to and do in our life. These aren't impossible things.

Well, no, it's just like Christian character.

I'm glad you said that, because that was the point I was gonna bring out, is like a lot of Christians look at something like this and they say, oh, well, this is the qualifications of a pastor. Well, okay. Yes, you can say that.

But really, this is just Christian character. It's almost as if, and I remember having a conversation with somebody one time, I was like, did you ever see the qualifications of a pastor?

And I'm like, yeah, but does that mean a pastor is supposed to be super holy? And a Christian is like, well, since I'm not a pastor, I don't have to be that. I can be greedy.

I mean, it's not my position.

Yeah.

No, the idea, and I love what you just said, every Christian, regardless of position, should have a desire to say, you know what? I'm going to have a testimony that is irreproachable, uncharacteristic.

People could say, oh, yeah, that guy is a liar, but people won't believe them. I'm going to have a family that I'm leading well, and I'm going to not be self-willed and quick-tempered, and I'm not going to be greedy, and I'm going to be hospitable.

Like, all of these things should really just be the description of a person walking with God.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, I think the last thing I'll highlight, and then I'll have you read the last section there in verse number nine, holding firmly the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching or with sound doctrine, so that he will be able both to

exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it. Specifically, the phrase, holding firmly the faithful word.

I think of many of these people would not necessarily have been, you know, Pharisee level like Paul studied in the Old Testament scriptures. And it doesn't say completely understanding the faithful word as he has been taught.

Maybe in the sense that with the fullness that Paul understood it all, it says holding firmly the faithful word.

And I think that can be something that all of us can do as believers, that even if we don't always understand everything, or we don't always understand what God's doing, maybe in a given situation, or maybe if someone comes up to us and they're maybe

attacking the faith or wondering why you would as a Christian believer do these things, that that's something that we can all do is hold firm to the word and be able to say, well, I might not know all the answers to that, but I know what God's word

says and I'm going to follow it. And I think that would definitely come in handy for the Cretan believers going into this next section and what they have to deal with.

Yeah, so the next section, we'll jump in verse number 10.

It says, for there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. So that would be those Hebrews that were there in teaching these heresies.

And here's what Paul says, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain.

One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy guttons. Gluttons. And this testimony...

Guttons, you like that? Lazy gluttons.

I was laughing at the next verse.

Well, I thought you were laughing at me mess up the word. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.

To the pure things, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled.

They profess to know God, but in works, they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

There is like a ton there, and you can see, even if you just did like a passive reading of this, you could see that it's like a nerve of Paul was touched, to like, you know, like this part was just provoked, and Paul's like, all right, so...

I don't even know that he goes as hard on the Corinthians as he does against these particular...

In this section, yeah, it's crazy. And I almost like, I don't know, I don't know if this is you, but it's me. Part of me is just like, this is the sarcastic part of Paul, that he was just waiting to unleash.

You know, I'm a sarcastic person, and I love it, because he's just like, all right, their mouths must be stopped. People say that the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy guttons. Ah, they're true.

But we gotta rebuke them sharply, that they may be a South fake. Like, I just love his sarcasm here. But anyway, what's some things that stand out to you in there?

Yeah, I do think that particular thing is funny in verse number 12, because he's quoting a Cretan poet, Epimenides.

And just the, this testimony is true, always cracks me up. And he's like, yep, that's the people that you're dealing with. I love that he doesn't just give up hope on them, though.

Right.

That even the people that are like the people in this list, people that are dishonest and greedy and lying and with defiled consciences, he says to rebuke them, reprimand them severely, sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith.

Yeah. That people are not our enemy. The devil and his demons are our enemy.

Yeah.

People are captives to darkness, to sin, to the lies of the devil.

And so we ought to have a holy hatred against the powers of darkness. But people aren't the power of darkness. Yeah.

They are deceived, much as Paul would mention in other places. The god of this world has blinded the minds of them, lest they should believe.

So I think it's great that Paul says, hey, rebuke them, tell them that they are wrong, so that they may be sound in the faith.

So that brings comfort that if Paul, the murderer and persecutor and all of that, if he can be saved, well, he has hope for a couple of cretins. Yeah.

And so I think we ought to have hope in our gospel conversations that we can believe that God can save people.

The other thing that I think is verse number 11, their mouths must be stopped because they are upsetting their causing division and all sorts of things in whole families and whole households for the sake of dishonest gain to get money.

I think of many cults today that that's what they do. You could have maybe the Mormons that will send someone to your house to be able to go, hey, all right, we noticed that you haven't sent in your money yet.

You might have Christian science, so-called Christian and so-called science, that just has kind of webs and tentacles everywhere.

In financial extortion, I can think of like maybe a Benny Hinn or a Creflo Dollar or one of those kinds of guys, that they're just in it to be able to get money and kind of ruins people. And you can see much of that.

Well, here's what I would say is it ruins people's perspective of God. That's why I love what you just said about it and how it connects in verse number 16.

They profess to know God, but in works they deny him being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work. I don't know. I just have a quick thought on that.

Like for those of you watching and listening, you know, sometimes if we're not careful, I think sometimes, well, okay, I'll just speak to my life.

Sometimes in my life, some of the people that have hurt me the most were other Christians that disagreed with me on something and they know God and yet they become accusative and rude and short.

And I look at this and they are, some of them, I believe, disqualified for every good work. And I'm not trying to condemn.

I'm just saying, like, there are people that sometimes will profess to know God that caused more damage for the name of Christ than someone who is completely away from God, that claims nothing to do with God.

And this was affecting those churches there. Like Paul is saying, hey, listen, just because somebody professes it, like if their life isn't matching it, like it's okay to say, eh, you should not be teaching. You shouldn't be in authority here.

Yes, absolutely.

And I think kind of in connection with some of what we said earlier, I thought it was interesting, the very first word that you said, that those people become accusative.

Yeah.

And there is a person in the Bible who is called the accuser of the brethren. Yeah, yeah. And in those moments, just as here in Crete, Satan loves to encourage people to do all of his actions.

Because then he doesn't have to accuse someone. He doesn't have to motivate to destruction or chaos. It's these people are willingly going, oh yeah, I'll do it.

And again, that goes back to, that doesn't mean then that we hate those people. It's they are trapped. They have been convinced by Satan.

And as a result, all of the things that sin is, abominable, detestable, disobedient, and disqualified, and worthless, these are all things that are said of sin in the Old Testament. And we are becoming sin in that moment.

And I think, as always, even as Paul would mention in Galatians 6, we need to consider in this passage, not just, hey, I know other people that are like this, like, Creflo Dollar is like this.

But I think for our hearts and minds, we need to constantly go back and go, okay, Lord, search me, right? See where I've got some of this. Yeah.

Lord, show me if I'm being a liar. Show me if I am, if I am being a glutton. Lord, show me if I am an empty talker, rebellious or a deceiver.

Because it can be very easy to point out the evil in everyone else. Yeah. But we ought to be those that look inside that.

If if a pastor is supposed to manage his house, if a pastor is supposed to manage the church, then a pastor ought to manage himself.

Right.

And just as we mentioned earlier, that's every Christian, right? Every Christian is not just responsible for, hey, can you point out all of the other people that don't match up to the list or that match up with this list?

It ought to be something that we say, okay, God, show me me. I'm real good at telling myself that I'm real good.

Yeah.

But Lord, I need you to show me where I'm not being like Christ, and I need your Holy Spirit to work in me to make me like Christ.

Yeah. I totally agree. And that was the challenge I was going to give as we wrap up, is asking the Lord, like, which of these lists would best define you?

And Lord, which grouping would you drop me in? Would you drop me in that group that would be qualified to lead? Or would you drop me in the group that Paul says, nah, they profess they know him, but they're lying?

And that's hard. That's hard words. But I love the introspective look today of saying, God, show me me.

Help me to understand who I am in you, and then help me to remember who I am supposed to be in you, and my life matching the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And then coming back to verse number two, always recognizing that we have a God to lean on every day of the week. We have a God who's promised us a lot and a God that cannot lie. And so today, I would encourage you to seek the Lord this week.

Ask him which list best describes you, and remember you have a God to fall back on who can't lie. You can believe every single promise from him. Have a great week.

Have a great Thanksgiving. And we look forward to seeing you next week as we continue our study here in the Book of Titus. Have an awesome week.