January 12 Sermon: A People for His Own Possession
Consider these question as we look at Titus 2:1-15:
1. How does Paul emphasize the importance of understanding and experiencing God's love through the context of Christ's sacrifice, rather than treating it as an abstract concept?
2. What are the three main truths highlighted in this passage, and how do they guide believers in their conduct and interactions with others?
3. How does Paul address the identity of believers, and why is it crucial for them to find their chief identity in being part of the family of God? How does this identity impact their relationships and responsibilities within the Christian community?
Transcript:
The love of God is amazing and without measure. We can’t even begin to fathom how much God loves us. The story of the Bible is about how this great love is shown to us in Christ. This is why we want to make sure that we never separate the doctrine and teaching found in scripture from the idea of God’s love because it lets us know how we can be certain of this love. As I always say, the love of God is not something abstract out there some place. The love of God is a really nice feeling that a cosmic being our there somewhere has for you. If we speak about God’s love in the abstract we know a truth but we really don’t know that much about it, do we? Let me explain what I’m getting at with an example.
Imagine that there was no school for the students in our community this past Friday. I gave you a truth there. The students would say an important truth. No school. But what do you really know about the situation. Not much. You don’t know anything about how that came about. Was there a holiday? Perhaps there was a teachers in-service. Was there a snowstorm and school was canceled because it was too dangerous to go out on the roads. Maybe there was a problem with the water and they couldn’t have school for that reason. Or maybe, for all we know there was some sort of strange hurricane that for some bizarre reason ended up descending on our land locked town. Unlikely but from the information I’ve given you just don’t know. Like I said, I’ve given you an important truth but you don’t know why it is true.
When we say God loves you we are speaking in the abstract but we don’t know the details of what that love looks like, how we can know it, or what the benefit of that love is to us. Doctrine lets us know that the love of God is sure and strong for us because God the Son took on human flesh, suffered, died, rose again, and ascended to the Father’s right hand for us. This is the gospel. It is the good news that lets us know the depth and width and breadth of God’s amazing love for us. This good news about God’s love is what God the Spirit uses in us to lead us to love others and live in holiness. Like I said several times last week. Sound doctrine is not about checking off the boxes. It isn’t about being right and winning arguments. It is about loving God and loving our neighbor. We want others to experience the love and freedom we have in Jesus and so we want to ensure that the message that we proclaim is accurate and true. This message causes us to overflow to good works. Not because we are trying to earn our way into God’s favor but because we know the great truth that God’s favor already rest on us because we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
That is the basic formula we need to understand that Paul is showing us. As we look at this passage today there are three basic truths coming off the page to us today.
The first is that we are to stand for the truth and stand as a contrast to those whose doctrine oppose it.
Second, we see that good works and holiness are to be what marks our lives as Christians.
Lastly, we see that this is the reason that Christ came to set apart a people for himself who would serve him in holiness.
And so, as we come back to Titus in chapter 2 we see that just as we saw last week Paul is concerned with sound doctrine and we are to stand in that truth as believers.
Last week we saw that there were those who claimed to know God but by their works they actually denied him. It said they taught for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. Now we see that Titus is to be in opposition to that. He is to stand in stark contrast to those false teachers. As always this is not just not a call on the life of Titus. We are also called to teach what lines up with sound doctrine. We are called to live a life in contrast to what does not line up with God’s Word. It will likely be uncomfortable and will not be easy but it is important that the truth is uncomfortable. It would have been far easier for the New Testament church to just compromise on this stuff but those through the ages who have stood for the truth have ensured that you and I could hear the gospel and believe by faith. God used those voices to pass this message down to us and now we are called to stand as they did on the sure foundation of God’s Word to ensure that not only do we hear and believe the message but also our covenant children and the ones who come after them.
We live in a time where we seem to be more concerned that our children root for the same sports teams we do and less concerned with passing down the faith. It is often said that we should let them decide on their own but we don’t have that philosophy with much of anything else. We need to be sure that we are standing firm and handing down the faith once for all delivered to the saints because what could be more important than the faithful proclamation of the true gospel to those who come behind us. If it is true, and it is, we want to be sure to pass it on faithfully.
And so, we see from this one verse that we are to stand for the truth of the gospel in the face of those who would distort the truth to teach what doesn’t align with sound doctrine.
As we move on we see what a life that follows that sound doctrine should look like as we see that good works and holiness are to mark the lives of Christians.
He tells us what this should look like for a whole range of people. He has a lot to say regarding the things they do and the virtues that they live by. These are pretty specific instructions here for us. They are not nearly as specific as the first chapter of when he talked about how elders and overseers were to live but the goal here is to encourage spiritual discipline and growth in specific areas for the people that make up the local church.
Older men are to live as an example to younger men. They are to have self-control and they are to be sober-minded. He again is concerned that they be sound in the faith. This example of being faithful to Christ and his gospel is vital and must be lived out. They are also to love and be steadfast. They are to stay strong and not to turn to the side from the love of their God of their families. They show young men how to stand their ground.
As for the older women he says that they should be reverent in how they behave and that they shouldn’t slander. Those things are commands for believers we have seen in other parts of the New Testament but we have a new one here. They are not to be slaves to much wine. It is believed that this was a problem in their context. Paul mentions a concern about excessive use of wine in other places but his language here is stronger and so it must have either been a concern in Crete in general or perhaps it was a specific issue he had come across when he was there. But the expectations are not just that they will stay away from wine and be reverent. They are to teach what is good to the young women by what they do.
As we come to the young women, we come across some language again that we have to be sure we don’t mess up by assuming how the words are being used and assume the worst. Obviously, I’m not talking about the part about training the women to love their husbands and children or being self-controlled or pure. Those things go without saying and we know and understand how those things exhibit God’s call on our lives. The issue we will have is in the next part where it says that they are to be working at home. Paul is not saying here that this is all they should do. He isn’t saying that if a woman works outside the home that they are doing something wrong. In fact, you could easily translate this phrase as “busy at home”. He is referencing how the home life of the family works. Their lives were substantially harder than ours. There were duties to be done and the marriage was a partnership to survive. Men would likely do the tasks requiring the skills that they were most adept at and women would do the vital tasks within the home to make the family and their partnership work. There were not refrigerators. You couldn’t make a quick run up to the food center to get food. There was not natural gas or electricity. We struggle to understand it because our lives are pretty easy but if you ever read through the Little House books you can get an idea. I’ve mentioned before that I listened to them again when I was traveling to the Words of Hope board meeting and as an adult I came away with an amazing respect for the partnership that families had to have then. They relied on each other and there were roles to play. That is what Paul is talking about here. He isn’t suggesting a lack of vocation outside the home for women. He is talking about everyone caring for the needs of the family and it applies to everyone.
The other part of this passage that causes us to pause and we've seen this in Ephesians and Colossians too. The word submissive in our context means to be under a thumb and has context of oppression but that isn't what Paul means. Paul is not suggesting that women are supposed to do whatever they are told or to do whatever someone else demands. This is again in the context of family and when we go back to Ephesians the expectation is that the husbands are to exhibit sacrificial love for their wives. It is never oppressive and it is to be mutual love submission and sacrifice. In other words, for Paul the Christian marriage involves self-giving, mutual respect, and sacrificial love and that is what he is driving at here.
As we move on to the younger men we see that they are to be self-controlled and a model of good works. They should be sound in teaching and have integrity. You’ll notice it seems that Paul has switched his focus back to Titus and his teaching so he must be a part of this group. The call on young men and on Titus is that they need to live good and holy lives so that what they say can’t come back to haunt them. They need to live like they say they believe and that includes what comes out of our mouths. When we take a stand for Christ in our culture the same applies to us too. Our witness is affected by what we say and do.
The final instructions we see is Paul speaking to slaves. Paul isn’t saying here that slavery is a good thing. Instead, he calls those who are in bondage to live in an upright way in order to show the truth of the gospel to others. That’s the point in all that we’ve seen here and our holy and self-controlled lives are to show the gospel to the world. That they might hear the gospel and believe by faith and be a part of the people of God with us.
We want to people to see good works and hear the gospel because the grace of God is for all people. He isn’t saying that all people receive grace. This isn’t every person who ever lived being on the same playing level regarding the grace they receive from God. What he is saying that all types of people. Old men, older women, younger women, and younger men. Slaves and free, Jews and Gentiles.
What we are meant to see here is that we aren’t identified by our ethnic group or our social class. We are defined by whether or not we are in Christ. This is our chief identity personally and socially. We are a new people as the people of God.
For that reason, we are called to turn away from ungodliness and worldly passions and turn toward holiness. This is how we stand out in the present age. We are not called to blend in with the world. We are called to stand up and stand out for the sake of the gospel and we see here very clearly this is why Jesus came. He gave of himself not only to save us from our sin and to save us. He did us to purify us and make us a new people for his own possession. As the people of God, we are saved not only from death and hell we have been redeemed from sin. Not only the wrath we deserve for our sin but also from what sin does to us in this life. This is what marks us as believers and it was to make us a people for himself. A people of his own possession. He lays hold of us and saves us and we are his people. Like I have said, we are a new people. The people of God. We are family. God’s family.
And like I said God’s family is not marked by a particular ethnicity. Instead we are marked by being zealous for good works. We stand out because we hold to the truth of the gospel and we live our lives in such a good way to exhibit the holiness and love of God to our neighbors that they might believe.
And as this passage closes out we see that Titus is called to exhort this. He is to encourage fellow believers to do good works. He is to rebuke those who stand against this with authority and even though he is young he is to understand this truth and not let anyone disregard him. He is to stand on this truth and continue to live this way, teach this truth, and stand firm. It is the good news. It is true. It needs to be heard. It is to be proclaimed. It is to be lived.
And this why we look at this passage to not only hear it but to believe it in such a way that we let it invade our lives and let it impact how we live.
And we find three challenges that we can take into the world this week.
The first is that we need to remember that we are God’s people. We find our identity in so many different things in our modern world. We are fans of a sports team, we attend a particular school, maybe we are proud of our ethnic heritage. All good things. All very important things to have in our lives. But, it is most important that we see ourselves as part of the family of God. This defines us and the purpose is to unite us and to help us live holy lives together. We don’t do this alone. I believe we are so afraid that others will judge us but when you are hurting or you need help, where do you go? You go to family. You go to those who will love you no matter what. This is what a church family is to be. We are so afraid of judgment but I believe we can be a family who stand with each other and encourages one another to live a holy life as we turn from sin. We live in a world where it is difficult to be holy. We need each other. We need to remember that we are God’s people.
Second, we need to take the commands of God seriously. In love we need to be encouraging one another as Paul called us to but we also need to understand that we can’t do this alone. We need to learn from each other and we need to lean on one another. We must also trust in God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to guide us. We don’t have the power alone. We need these things to be holy. This time of year reminds us of this because chances are many of us have already failed on some of our New Years Resolutions because we rest on our own power. Our purchases and the devices we carry in our pocket tell on us and how we fail to keep our resolutions on our own power.
An online grocer discovered that customers wine and liquor purchases spike in the first week of February. Juice cleanse sales percentages drop dramatically at the same time and they see 15 percent more ice cream and desserts purchased and an increase of 35% in the sale of pizza. Not only that but phone apps that allow you to check in at the places you are going to show that the first week in February has less people checking in at the gym and instead going to fast food joints.
In other words, we fail to do what we know is right and good on our own. We need to trust in God’s Word and Spirit and spurn one another on to holy lives.
Lastly, we need to remember that we do not do good works for ourselves. We do it to show others the faith and to bring glory to God. We are God’s people for a purpose. When we step out to love and serve our neighbor God is going to use it. We show the world who God is by living his way and that way shows hope and peace in a world without hope. I said last week that I believe that so many of us want to share the faith with someone but we don’t know where to start. It starts with living the Christian life. It starts with confessing where we fail and letting people know that we have grace and forgiveness when we sin. We never know what influence that will have because God uses the people for his own possession to knit together a web where we share the gospel to the world.
I recently heard of an excellent example of this truth. It is a story of a man who was raised in a non-practicing Jewish home and he had this to say about his conversion.
Jesus never appeared to me while I lay drunk in the gutter. And yet, looking back on my life, I see that Christ was beckoning to me at every turn. When I was a child, he was there in the kindness of a Christian babysitter and the magic of a Christmas Eve spent at her house. When I was a troubled young man contemplating suicide, he was in the voice of a Christian baseball player who gave a radio interview that inspired me to go on. And always, he was in the day-to-day miracle of my marriage, a lifelong romance that taught me the reality of love and slowly led me to contemplate the greater love that was its source and inspiration.
There is more to his story but notice the way God used the good works of the people of his own possession to bring the man to himself. Do good works and love your neighbor while you don’t know if you will see the results God will use your good works for his glory. Trust this truth and live to the glory of God and proclaim the gospel knowing that he is always at work to bring more people in his family. The people of his own possession.
