Sermon Tone Analysis

Verbs of a Healthy Congregation

Introduction: Turn in your Bibles to Titus 3. We have had the joy of covering this letter of Titus for the last 4 Sundays.

After today we only have one more Sunday in this book.

To recap we have seen several elements of a healthy church.

From leadership in Chap 1 to members responsibilities in Chap 2, and last week at the end of Chap 2 we saw the heart of the letter.

Now this chapter flows from the heart of the letter to the extremities.

We are going to be covering how the people of a local church is to act toward outsiders, to unbelievers as well as toward government leaders.

Here is the breakdown of the passage we have before us.

Verses 1-2 address who we are to be, verse 3 is who we were at one time, prior to a relationship with Christ, and verses 4-8 are about who God is.

Read Titus 3:1-8

Let me tell you about my cooking adventure.

(Seasoning)

I. ARE

Who we are Remind them: VS 1-2.

By saying keep reminding them Paul is telling Titus to remind believers to do what follows, things that they were already knew about but that they need to keep doing.

Think about the time frame this is written in.

We mentioned Nero last week and how he was a very evil man in his desire to torture Christians.

Christians fell under this PAX Romana, the peace of Rome, essentially Rome was the boss and everyone else complied to the emperor.

Now also remember the local context Titus is in, he was sent to put in order these churches on the island of Crete and Paul’s quotation of who the Cretans were, is pretty funny, but serious.

What does this mean?

It means that the Christians in Crete had an oppressive government and were in surrounded by a pagan culture.

In order to be lights in the darkness they had to remember who they were.

We have significantly more freedom in our country yet we live in an increasingly secular culture.

In this heightened political climate, our witness to the world is highlighted greater than ever.

A healthy congregation interacts with the world by remembering three verbs, Are, Were, Is.

Part of who Christians ARE is that we

-Submit to rulers/authorities: Literally be under submission to rulers and authorities, governmental rulers.

For Paul that meant being under judgment from rulers

(Ac 25:8–12.)

8 Then Paul made his defense: “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in any way.”

9 But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, replied to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be tried before me there on these charges?”

10 Paul replied: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried.

I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you yourself know very well.

11 If then I did anything wrong and am deserving of death, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them.

I appeal to Caesar!”

12 Then after Festus conferred with his council, he replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go.”)

Paul is willing to submit to the Law of the land even up to his death.

Back in Titus Paul’s directive implies that “rulers and authorities” are not commanding rebellion against God but generally fulfilling their God-ordained duties (see Rom 13:1–7).

They are upholding social order.

Paul’s directive here is indicating governmental authorities and that we are to submit ourselves to governmental leaders.

Now as Americans we read this and might get a little hot under the collar, we were born out of rebellion and proud of it.

As Arizonians we are ready to fight, we have that frontier mentality.

For a people birthed out of rebellion and raised on freedom any hint of submission raises our blood temperature.

We are blessed by God to live in a country where we have freedom to practice our faith.

But it has not always been so.

We have to understand what submission is and isn’t.

What is Paul implying here with this submission to authorities?

It seems to be similar to how he says wives are to be submissive to their own husbands.

We submit to our government in so far as doing so does not cause us to break God’s law.

If a husband was going to harm his wife and she could not escape would she be condemned for defending herself?

In a nation like the United States there are many safeguards for this so we as a people do not have to fear that.

We can submit and work to change injustice faithfully.

-Obey: Similar to submission to authorities we are to obey, we obey God rather than man, but we obey government when it is not in direct contention with God.

Peter in Acts 5:29 we obey God rather than humans first.

Sometimes it is necessary to go against earthly authorities to uphold the divine will, as when the Hebrew midwives “feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do” (Exod 1:17); when Moses defied Pharaoh (Exod 7–12); when Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego would not bow down (Dan 3); when Daniel prayed, despite the king’s edict (Dan 6); and when Peter and John kept preaching after being ordered to be silent (Acts 4:18–20).

Because I fear God, I will not do evil if the government tells me to do something contrary to the law of God.

Remember this is more than just preferences, I prefer not to pay taxes, but my duty is to render unto Caesar what is Caesars.

So even if the government is foolish and institutes foolish laws we are to submit to the law of our government, however if laws that are immoral are instituted we have an obligation to obey God rather than man.

-Ready for every good work: While this applies to the commands for people in Chapter 2 it is also in regard to the context of in our society.

While we submit to our government authorities, we are looking for ways to work for good.

This has so many various applications that it might be helpful to look at your own circumstances and see what good works you can do to be a witness to those around you.

Would there be a felt loss if Sierra Vista Baptist Church was no longer here?

If you moved out of your neighborhood would there be a felt loss as to goodness that was there?

We must be seasoning, not bland roast.

We must be salt and light in a dark and distasteful world.

-Don’t slander anyone: Don’t blaspheme anyone “to speak ill of no one.”

Think about politics today, this is a national past-time.

But Paul here says to not slander/blaspheme anyone.

Think about the Christians in Rome or Crete who were afraid for their life they were not to talk slanderously, about Nero! Yikes!

But not only are not to slander leaders and rulers, but we can’t slander anyone, or don’t talk bad about anyone!

I don’t know about you? but after reading this I had to get on my knees and pray for repentance.

Christian witness in the world relies on the good fruit of believers, we externally live out the Gospel because of the inward change.

That means how we talk about the politicians on social media and in everyday conversation matters.

Do you bash a current political leader in office today?

As Christians we are not to slander or speak maliciously about these people.

Instead we are to pray for them.

Brothers and Sisters, this is not easy trust me we all must work hard to not fall into that level of worldliness.

We are to be different.

We can disagree with policy and decisions made, but we are not to slander.

But this extends beyond politics even to our relationships with those around us.

Paul is not saying by this admonition that Christians must be naive and never correctly evaluate and speak about the evil that they see in anyone, since this is what he himself does in 1:10–16.

Rather, he is urging Christians to restrain their natural inclination to say the worst about people.

-Avoid fighting, be kind, always show gentleness to ALL people:

Maybe this should be titled do hard things, its hard to be kind, I spent a large part of my military career fighting.

Now I’m being told to avoid fighting?

This is a tall order, is Paul serious? Yes, he is.

We are to show gentleness that is courteous, 2 Cor.

10:1 Paul urges his readers to do what they are supposed to “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.”

All this would be impossible except, we have to two things going for us, we know who God IS and who we were before Jesus.

Our next two points help us to be the witness to outsiders, toward non-believers.

We must be seasoning to the world around us, this is who we ARE.

We ARE ready for every good work,

Since we WERE unbelievers at one time.

Paul reminds Titus and us readers that unless we become to self-righteous thinking, we are somehow better than anyone else because of this newfound responsibility, we too were lost once.

II.

WERE

Who we were: VS 3.

This is a hard-hitting verse, Paul in an economy of words says exactly who Christians were before coming to faith in Christ.

Also note he includes himself in this list describing characteristically how we were.

Paul acknowledges that it can be hard to deal with people and that we can remember we too were lost like this.