Sermon Tone Analysis

Marks of a Healthy Congregation

As we are turning to Titus 2 I want to remind you of this truth.

Healthy Bible teaching produces the fruit of godly living in the lives of Christians.

A true church is comprised of people who are born again, who are believers and submit to Jesus Christ at their Lord and Savior.

We saw last week that a healthy Biblical community requires healthy leadership who will hold fast to the faith and teach correctly the word of truth.

Today we are going to see that healthy teaching produces healthy living.

Every aspect of your life must reflect the truth of the gospel.

All our lives as believers are to represent a life commited to the truth that we believe.

(explain more)

What I love about this passage is how practical it is.

Godly living is explained for people of every stage of life.

Older men, older women, younger woman, younger men, pastors and employees are all addressed here.

Let us read Titus 2:1-10

2:1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good,

4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

9 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,

10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

(Prayer)

Read vs 1 again, this is a transition statement, Paul just finished his instructions to Titus about the dangers of legalists and false teachers attacking the flock of God and he told Titus to silence them, now he tell Titus that he must teach, that is keep speaking about the things that reflect sound or healthy doctrine.

The english word accords with or pertains to seems to emphasize the result of sound teaching.

Healthy teaching results in godly living.

Titus is instructed to teach each group of people to live lives that honor their confession of faith in Jesus.

I imagine that the churches in Crete were suffering from the false teaching that had been taught previously and so once healthy leaders/elders were established the next step is to see life change in the congregation.

Have you ever struggled to understand the Bible?

You read things in Scripture and say man thats great but what do I do with this?

This passage front loads practical application for every common member of a congregation.

I want to front load a bit of application here, each of these groups are necessary in a healthy community, a biblical community has older men, women, and younger generations, it is multigenerational, in order for members of the body of Christ to fulfill their God given design there has to be multiple generations in a congregation.

Now there are circumstances where this is not possible, but the church is robbed of some of its dignity if members are not able to full-fill some of the functions listed in here.

Such as older women teaching younger women, men teaching other men.

Much of what is described here is relational and so we only grow in the context of community, both in and out of Church.

If we believe that the Church is God’s vehicle to effect change in this world then our behavior is a reflection of His Bride the church.

If we act contrary to God’s desired plan what does this say to the world?

With this fixed in our mind let us jump into exploring this text.

Let’s explore the specifics given to each group of people.

A Word to Older Men

Read (vs 2)

Older men are addressed here and in the context of the text the emphasis is on the age and maturity not the office of elder.

Yet even if this were talking about the office of elder, this behavior is not restricted to only him and is beneficial to all men.

First notice older men are to be taught, this can be difficult as we age the older we get the tendency is to dismiss the teaching of someone younger.

But for an older man to learn the teacher is not as important as the substance, what is being taught is sound doctrine, an older man should be willing to learn SOUND Doctrine from a younger man so long as it is sound doctrine.

There are three descriptors given to an older man, he must be

Sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled.

Under self-controlled are three descriptors of what it means.

Let’s take each one in turn.

-Sober-minded: Other versions will translate this word as temperate(NASB), Self-controlled(CSB)often this term us used to mean moderate or free from excess passions or rashness, restrained in conduct.

What does this look like practically?

-Dignified: Another version uses the term worthy of respect, or perhaps we could say respectable in behavior.

The teaching of the Gospel drives us to live lives that are worthy of respect.

-Self-controlled: This is a different word from Sober-minded even though similar connotations it is also used for younger women and younger men.

This is likely why Paul adds three examples as to what Self-controlled looks like.

To be sound in faith, love and endurance requires men to believe in the right way, to love in the right way and to endure in the right way.

There is plenty for us to chew on here.

A self-controlled older man is to be self-controlled in his faith, he should desire healthy teaching, pure teaching, the right teaching, which should lead to his emotions embracing the truth that he believes, loving what is good and rejecting the bad.

Causing him to choose to endure struggles and pain for the sake of his belief and love, not taking the easy wrong over the hard right.

An older man who is in a healthy biblical community should display these characteristics.

(Transition) After older men Paul turns to Older Women, an integral member in every church is its older women, truly a gift to the church, lets see what Titus is supposed to teach older women.

A Word to Older Women

(Read vs 3)

The word likewise here is helpful because it is to remind us that all the aspects of older men are also required of women.

Older women just like older men are to be godly examples and then Paul lists the very specific examples.

-Reverent in behavior: In the same way that older men are to live lives reflective of the truth that is taught, so also are older women to live “holy lives.”

Older women are to be priestly in their behavior, Older women are to treat others as a priest would while performing their most holy tasks.

Paul then lists two common sins that are not reflective of this holy living.

Slandering and addiction to wine.

-Not slanderers: A slander is someone who tries to verbally assassinate someones character.

The malevolent attempt to hurt others with their words.

This is obviously something that is not in keeping with a holy lifestyle.

In fact this term for slander is one of the names used to describe the Devil, diabolos.

Satan is the ultimate slanderer, he showed his true colors in the garden of Eden when he slandered God’s intentions with the forbidden fruit.

Slandering is the devils game and anyone who plays it will get burnt, it is not something befitting holy women.

-not slaves to wine, is the second aspect of what isn't befitting an older woman.

It must be likely that in Paul’s day an older woman who works at home must have had an extraordinary temptation and access to wine and so must have been an issue for women of that time.

The imagery here is very vivid, a slave to wine, what too much wine and drink can do to a person is it chains them to the bottle.

It truly is a form of slavery, addiction in its various forms ultimately enslaves us to do its own bidding.

But God’s grace is offered to us and there is a freedom from slavery in Jesus Christ.

While older women are to be these exemplary examples because of the Gospel they also have a vital role in the church,

-they are to teach what is good, which trains younger women.

The church needs women of the Bible, we need women who are consumate students of God’s Word.

A Word to Younger Women

(read vs 4 and 5)

Younger women are to seek out older women to teach them what is good.

The typical family situation of that day is that most younger women would be married there was very little singleness for young women and so Paul is directing this to the majority of younger women, this does not mean he doesn’t have anything to say to single women because the example of older women as well as being employees applies to us all, but Paul has in mind the young woman who is married because he says that Older women are to teach younger woman

To love their husbands and children, that is to be husband-lovers and children-lovers the way this is done is by being self-controlled and pure or prudent.

That is the example of older holy women is to be followed in the younger women so that they can love their kids and husbands well.

This was a particularly interesting section of Scripture to study, maybe this is because it seems at odds with our culture today, the two that stand out to me are Working in the home and Submissive to their own husband, I want to slow down here and do a little closer look at what is the mind of God in this passage.

-working in the home: The word here can be translated as busy at home, or (homemaking adj.

— characterized by applying oneself diligently to caring for one’s house and household; especially understood as if a trade or vocation.)

Does this mean that wives are to only be homemakers?

That would fly in the face of the noble woman characterized in Proverbs 31.

The noble wife in Prov 31 considers a field and buys it, she helps in the providing of income.

What this is implying is that a wife should be concerned with the caring for and keeping of the household, she cares for the home, either as her sole occupation or in addition to her other efforts in getting income.

I can tell you on a personal level our home suffers without my wife being in town.

All the small details that I easily overlook and fail to consider she had always managed.