BE: Part II

“Be Series” Titus 1:1-4

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

ESV

Introduction:  Who we are Produces what we Do…that is no more a truer statement than what it means TO BE CHRISTIAN!!!

We are Human-Beings; not Human-Doings!  Thus our Being has to be established before our Doing…

Several years ago I taught a series attempting to answer the Question…What do we, at Mercy Gate, want people to Become…Christians…. Not simply where we want People To Go…Heaven.

Transition:  So, using the Book of Titus as our Backdrop over the next few weeks…we’re going to discuss our Being and Becoming…

THE ‘BE’ SERIES

 Title:  Be Christian…notice I didn’t say be A Christian…I simply said “Be Christian”  It is both my title and our objective….To Be Christian

The Pugh Survey along with Barna Research group said in recent surveys that 73% identify as Christian…so in America 281,050,000 identify or call themselves Christians.

MMMM….

Titus 1:5-16

5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

ESV

  1. Paul and Titus
    1. Paul writes this letter to the Church of Crete…but the letter is hand delivered by “his true Son” this is the same language used in how Paul described Timothy…
      1. These men were spiritual sons of the Apostle Paul…
      2. That is a whole teaching that we may delve into at a later time…
  • But Paul did say this in 1 Cor 4:14-17

15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

NKJV

  1. So Paul is letting these people know at Crete who Titus is…
  1. Introducing Titus
    1. Titus was a Greek / Gentile who Paul won to Christ and Discipled…
    2. Titus’ very being…Him Being Christian gave legitimacy and testimony of Paul’s ministry to the Gentile People…
  • Gal 2:1-2

2 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

ESV

  1. Barnabas was a Jewish Christian who actually discipled Paul, that the Church of Jerusalem knew…and Now Titus comes with Paul and Barnabas…
  2. 2 Cor.8:16 – Paul calls Titus a co-worker with him…

Transition:  To the People of Crete, Titus was about to be a Fixer…

  1. Creatin Culture
    1. One Greek word for “being a liar” is the Greek work Kretizo or to be Cretan…
    2. The men of the Island’s main employment were being mercenaries to the highest bidder.
      1. To become a Mercenary, you have to be desensitized over a period of time and actions…
      2. Be careful of a Mercenary “spirit” entering into your conversations…most would never set out to become a physical mercenary…but we verbally become mercenaries.
    3. The Cities of Crete were known as being unsafe…
      1. Filled with violence
      2. Sexual Corruption
  • Crime
  1. Abuse of each other and especially in the Family
  2. If you weren’t Cretan…you didn’t go to the Island…
  1. But Paul had a different vision for this place and especially the Cities…. He saw all these Port Cities as strategic and critical for advancing the Gospel…
  2. So, He established all the House Churches in these Major Cities…

Transition:  Paul gives Titus instruction in how to set this strategy into Motion by Calling the Cretans to:

  • Be
  • Become
  • Belong
  • Set in Order
    1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
    2. We have this Amazing Hope of Eternal Life…from an Eternal God…
    3. Who Never Lies
      1. Titus 1:12-13
      2. The Cretan poet that Paul quoted was Epimenides, who lived in the sixth century B.C. Other Pauline citations of pagan writers appear in Acts 17:28 (Aratus) and 1 Cor 15:33 (Menander). This line from one of Epimenides’ writings had received wide acceptance in the Greek world as being true. Paul agreed with this poet. The Cretans generally tended to be liars, beastly, lazy, and gluttonous.
    4. So right from the start Paul is contrasting what it means to Be Christian and to Be Cretan
      1. The Cretans had made God into their Own Image
      2. The Cretans had assimilated their ideas about Jesus with their ideas of the Greek God Zeus…
        1. The Cretans believed and taught that Zeus was born on the island of Crete and would lie and seduce women to get his way…
      3. Paul was telling Titus…set this in Order…
        1. Now to set in order means to set a broken bone back into place even if you have to break it again….
        2. So this speaks of both the urgency and severity of the situation…
  • Because Paul knew we have to break some beliefs to set and establish knew beliefs…
  1. Contrasts
    1. Paul in his letter establishes right from the opening of the letter this Contrast between Christian and Cretan but also Jesus and the god whom the Cretans serve…or actually behave like.
    2. He brings into the conversation two several ideas but one Person…
    3. Jesus…who is truth and NEVER LIES!!!!!

Transition:  To Be Christian we must Believe Jesus…

  1. Believe
    1. Not just any belief…but believe Jesus
    2. Best place for us to go back and look at this is in John’s Gospel
    3. John 3:10-15

10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

ESV

  1. Notice real quickly the Inclusiveness of Everyone…Yet the Exclusivity of Jesus…
  2. Jesus includes everyone…but the exclusion is found in the way to God is through Jesus…
  • Now Nicodemus was an extremely learned and religiously right man…He followed the Law and Taught the Law…
  1. John 3:16-21

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

          ESV

  1. Believe means to Entrust….
    1. Paul makes this very clear in his 2nd Letter to Timothy
    2. 2 Tim 1:11-12
  • And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
  1. NIV
  2. What has our Believing Entrusted to Him
    1. Our Now and Our Future…?
    2. My Spirit and My Body
    3. Am I banking on Jesus in my now and Eternity for my life…?
  3. So the Cretans were actually teaching all Roads lead to God…which is Inclusive…but Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the Life…no man comes to the Father except by me…”
    1. That very statement gets Jesus excluded from the Inclusivity of people saying…All Roads Lead to Heaven.

Transition:  I think at times we hedge our Bets…let me illustrate it a bit…one of the first times I ever went to a casino…a friend walked by a roulette table and he put $100 down on a number then…then he put $100 on the color red…I asked why did he do that…he said if it hits my number I win X-amount of money…but if it doesn’t I hedge my bets on red…and I’ll get my hundred back…now if it misses his number and misses red…he loses $200.

Many “Christians” are actually hedging their bets with Jesus…they are putting “believe” on red…while they play odds in so many other areas of Life…

  1. Leaders and Disciples
    1. Acts 9:1-3

9 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

ESV

  1. These believers have now become Disciples….
    1. Disciple means proper teaching has now moved me to action based on my new found information about Jesus….
    2. I’ve not simply identified with a religion but I’ve identified with a Person…Christ…
  • Acts 9 uses this phrase “Belonging to the Way…”
  1. In Titus, Paul told Titus…Appoint Leaders called Elders and Some Called Bishops….and here is their assignment:
    1. Titus 1:5-9

5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife (not involved in Polygamy), a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer (Bishop) is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless — not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. (It isn’t just what you don’t do it also involves what you do, do) 8 Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

NIV

  1. Paul is saying…Be Christian…and Teach the Cretan’s to Be Christian over being Cretans…

Transition:  He moves into the Practicals of that in the next two chapters and I’ll deal with those…but we must first start by Being Christian.

  • Be Christian

To trust in the Person and the Claims of Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and exclusively!  Activating a New Birth that results in a Lifestyle that mirrors His values and teachings and ways so others may see and know Him.

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