Sunday School | Titus

Introduction

Alright. Simmer down. You're doing great. Timothy, thank you for the delicious pound cake or pound cake. Is that what I call that? It was amazing. Fantastic. Super delicious. Okay. Welcome back. We're glad you're here. We've had a little bit of a break.

If you're kinda jumping back in in January, what we do here is this every week: we're looking at a different book of the New Testament, giving you one chat or one like hour-long one-page summaries of every book in the New Testament. And today we're gonna do Titus. If you didn't get a copy of this, then Bob Blacksmith in the blue sweater is your guy; he'll hook you up. So Bob will get you one of these. You're going to want to have that to follow along.

But before we do, this class is sponsored by Financial Peace University. And so we're going to begin with a quick word from our sponsor. David, do you mind kicking us off, bro? Diane, come on up too.

About Financial Peace University

Good morning. I'm David Edelstein. It's my wife Diane, and we've been teaching the Financial Peace University. We've been teaching the Financial Peace University class. This is the third time in the last year. So, but not really, right? We've been doing this for twenty years. Yeah. Long time. Yeah. Right. So third time here.

Briefly, I just wanted to tell you that yes, dear, there's some information on your table there about the class. It starts on January 17 at 06:00 in the library right here. This QR code leads you right to the sign-up sheet and everything. It tells you about the nine classes we're going to be doing; they're an hour and a half each evening, and there's childcare available. So there's more information in NorthX on the table out there.

So I'm going to stop talking because the more important people are John and Leanne Elder, who have taken the class, and we want to hear from them what Financial Peace University has done for them.

Thanks, David. Hi, everybody. We just finished Financial Peace University, so now we're financial experts—and yeah. It's a really good class. So if you're like me, didn't grow up with a clear plan for what to do with money or why—and I always felt kind of a sense of shame and fear around money because I just didn't know what to do with it. I didn't know what savvy people did. Turns out that it's pretty straightforward.

Financial Peace University makes it pretty easy to understand what God says about money in the Bible. They pull from Proverbs and from the Gospels and give you principles by which to make decisions with your money and then a set of very short, very simple priorities for what to do. So first you do this, and then this, and here's exactly how.

And so that really just kind of scrubbed away a lot of the fear I had about what to do with money, when and how. The second benefit it offers is relational. It forces you and your spouse or maybe even your future spouse to get on the same page about money and to make decisions together. And since that's the main resource that flows through your hands, it shapes your life and it brings you together in a really cool way.

Plus, it's just really fun, and they have childcare. So, endless reasons to check it out. Even if you're good with money, there's also, you know, things you can pick up, and you can pass along some of your knowledge to other people too. So there's really no reason not to be interested—to check it out.

I recommend it. Alright, strongly, strongly recommend that you jump in and take part in that. It's so incredibly helpful.

Transition to Titus

So, as I said, we're gonna be—thank you so much—we're gonna be looking at the book of Titus today. And Titus is a little bit funny in this class because there's kind of this weird double set. Number one, the reason that we are looking at every book in the New Testament in one hour, in one, you know, kind of one document, is because I taught Titus like this in the other room. So, I don't know when it was, a year ago or something? I did a sermon on Titus. Do you guys remember that?

Okay. So I did do it over there. And so you're like, didn't we already do this? The answer is, well, some of us did this over there. But we didn't do it in here. And I didn't want to have this be like, hey, here’s 26 and then 27 books of the New Testament, blah blah blah blah. I wanted to finish the set.

So for some of you, this will be new, and that's fantastic. And maybe you'll learn something and be glad to learn it. For others of you, this will be review, and review helps us to learn, and that's still fantastic. And for others of you, you're like, I got up early for this. Are you kidding me? And that's fine. Sorry. That's what it is.

So we're doing Titus. And then I think next week, we're gonna do Mark's gospel, and we're—we're getting close. We really don't have that many books left to go. Okay? So, we'll usually begin each kind of lesson looking at a book with asking you, like, what do you remember about Titus? And when I ask you that, in about thirty seconds, it might be that you just steal all my stuff. And that's fine. That's great. I'd love to hear it. If you guys can teach this class, then please do.

What Do You Know About Titus?

So, what do you know about Titus? Christ is our Savior. Christ is our Savior. Okay, and what about that is a completely true statement and it's absolutely grounded in Titus, but can you expand on that a little bit? His emphasis on Christ not just being our Messiah, the promised king of Israel, but also just being like he is our salvation.

Yes. Yes. Very, very strong focus throughout the letter. Paul only calls Jesus savior 12 times in all of his writings. Do you like the book Titus? Don't you though? Rachel had a son named Titus.

Paul calls Jesus savior 12 times in all of his books. Half of those usages are right here in Titus. It is a very strong, very disproportionate focus on Christ as savior. So, very important. We'll see more about that as we go.

What else do you guys know about the book of Titus? Anything? I think you said last time something about that Titus was trying to—Paul was telling Titus to follow Jesus because of loving Him as seeing the beauty of Him. Yes.

Okay. So, Bob was talking about, so Titus has been sent. Some would say that he's the pastor at Crete. Some believe he's not really the pastor at Crete, but he was kinda sent as, like, an apostolic ambassador to the church at Crete to clean things up. But whatever it is, Crete's a train wreck. Okay?

Crete's a mess. Crete is—it's kind of like Corinth was a mess, Vegas is a mess, Salem is a train wreck. It's like that. Okay? So, was that a little okay? So, Crete's a mess—an ugly, bad place—and they've planted a church in Crete. And what Paul is really telling Titus is, listen, if the Gospel is going to sing, if people's lives are going to be changed in Crete, you guys just need to be on point. You need to live lives of such radical love, such joyful obedience. There just needs to be such a goodness.

And good is a major word in the book of Titus. You need to be so good that people that are chasing all these other worthless things come crowding in to say, okay, what do you know? What do you know that we don't know? It's going to be so sparkling, be the beauty of the goodness of your lives that really draws people in. It's a major theme. We'll put that together too.

There’s a male voice somewhere behind Bob, but I didn’t look up to see who it was. Who was it? Yeah, bro. Eric, what you got?

Paul’s Focus in Titus and the Theme of Goodness

I was just gonna say it's short, it's powerful. You can jump right into it and go through it and spend some time in it. It is. It's a tiny little book. Gil and I were just talking. It's only—it’s three chapters. It's the shortest of Paul's epistles, if you don't count Philemon, which is his own little special thing. But it's tight, right?

And I love this book. Titus was, when I was preaching about it the other year ago, I mentioned that this was the book, for whatever reason, I just decided to study right when I graduated from college. So I did a really deep dive on Titus, maybe because it was so short, and it's full of treasures. We're going to try to unpack those things today.

Okay, one or two more observations before we start organizing it all. Titus? I think I got from you motivation before methodology, gospel leads to godliness, and acts of behavior.

The Pattern of Doctrine and Application

So, what Bob is saying, and this is the pattern we see through lots of Paul's letters, is that you can divide up all of the epistle content— not even just the letters. The letters are reflecting reality. That there's things we need to know and there's things that we do because of what we know.

Right? There are things in the gospel or in really Paul's letters that are what we would say the indicatives—meaning I'm indicating this is so—and then the imperatives, meaning you've got to go do this.

There's doctrine and there's application. Want to be both orthodox, we believe right things, and orthoprax, we do right things. And all of the orthopraxy, all of the application, all of the doing, is rooted and grounded in a deep understanding of what's already true.

And so, we want to find in all these books, we want to know, okay, what is true? What am I supposed to believe and know and embrace and delight in? And then, what do I do about it? How does it matter? How does it shape the way that I live my life?

And so, Titus is, like most of Paul's works, full of that. Very, very good.

Unique Opening Pattern in Titus

Okay. Now, let's take a look. You might remember this when we looked at this. If you look at Titus, he does something strange. Paul does something strange in Titus 1:4 that might or might not jump out at you.

If you were here when we talked about this, you might remember it, but if not, this is a peculiar thing. Okay? Look at Titus 1:4.

To Titus, my true son in our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.

Now, if you're just a normal person and you're reading Titus 1:4, and it says, grace and peace to you from—how does he say it? From God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior—that probably wouldn't catch your attention. There's nothing unusual or strange or bizarre about that. It's just blah blah blah blah blah.

But if you're not a normal person, because you're habituated to be in the Scriptures, and you're really familiar with Paul's letters, then that thing will pop to you. Okay? Because this is how Paul begins all of his letters.

I actually put it on the document for you. Just listen to the pattern. If Paul's writing you a letter, it's gonna start like this:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s Romans.
That’s 1 Corinthians.
That’s 2 Corinthians.
I can do Galatians without looking.
Ephesians, Philippians—grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

How does Paul begin his letters? That's right. How does he begin Titus?

Grace and peace to you. Oh, we've already messed that up. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.

Okay. Now, remember when Chris said that this letter has a strong focus on savior? It starts right here. If you're reading through Titus and you're minding your own business—well, you know, do you know the phenomenon that, like, did some of you get raised reading like the New International Version of the Bible, and then some yahoo asks you to read the ESV in front of like 500 people? And it's like you can't read anymore?

Do you have this phenomenon? Every Sunday that I'm the Gospel reader and I've got to read the ESV, I have to look at each word. And I feel like I'm functionally illiterate. Because as I'm reading it, what's happening in my head is like, the NIV is coursing through my brain, and I've got to like—and I just always feel like I'm such a moron when I'm doing this.

Okay? That's what happens when you come to Titus. Like, I know what you're about to say. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord. Oh, wait a minute. What? And it's different.

When I saw that he says he calls Jesus Savior instead of Lord, I began to look at the letter. And what I saw was so shocking to me. Okay? I did a search. Paul uses the word Lord in reference to Jesus Christ. Does anybody happen to remember the number? 257 times. In every single one of his letters, his most common title for Christ is Lord.

When he calls him Lord, what he means is King. We have a tendency to think that Lord is just a polite way to say God. Okay? That's not what Paul means. What he means is King. He means reign, or ruler, kurios, because Jesus has become king. He is the king of the world.

And that's a big deal. And so Paul constantly ascribes to Christ the title of king, of lord. But he does not do it one time in the book of Titus. He calls Jesus Lord 257 times, all totaled, including at least a half a dozen times in every letter.

Philemon, we saw two weeks ago, which is like this long, he calls Jesus Lord six times in Philemon because he is the king. He's the king, he's the king, he's the king. He is king, he reigns over all things. He went to the lowest place, and so he was exalted to the highest place. And Paul endlessly sings the praises of Christ as king. But never once does he do it in Titus. It is the dog who forgot to bark, if you know the not Shakespeare, the Sherlock Holmes kind of framing of things.

It's a very conspicuous absence. Why doesn't he call Jesus Lord? So, if you can make it to verse 4, Titus 1:4, you should pause and be like, okay, what's up with the savior thing? Why, why I mean, he is savior, so that's fine. It maybe shouldn't bother you. But it might—you might think that's just weird when somebody breaks such a deep set pattern.

And then, if you go further and realize, wow, it's not just there in one four, but it's nowhere in all of the book. Is there any trace of it? Now, somebody in this room might be possibly looking at your Bible right now, and you're like, no, but it says Lord right here. Is anybody looking at a King James version of the Bible? Do you have King James if you're looking at a King James version? You will find that in the King James, he does call Jesus Lord. But they were making that up.

Okay? It's not there in the Greek. And in fact, their error only makes my point. They were just used to it. They're just a bit—they probably meant it. And so they added, like, oh Gosh, don't do that. Just take it straight. So, really, I promise you, if you read the Greek manuscripts for this, there is no kurios. There is no Lord. He's intentionally avoiding it.

And then, in contrast to that, he calls him savior. And if you go through again, if you go through Paul's letters, he calls Jesus Lord 257 times, and he only calls him savior a dozen times. Much, much less. And half of those are in this book.

Yep. Rachel? I believe that Paul wrote Titus, but is there an argument that seriousness deviates so much from his provider? Great question. So, Rachel is doing some higher criticism on the text, and she's affirming that she’s not questioning, did Paul write Titus? He did write Titus. But she's saying that people think maybe he didn't because of the vocabulary and style.

The puzzle is that what we're trying to do is if everybody has, you know, you know, it's always embarrassing when it gets pointed out to you, but we all have idiosyncratic communication terms, like a phrase that you use way more often than somebody else uses, or just different things in your language. We'll apply this grid to Paul's letters and say, did he really write? Or did Peter really write? This just doesn't seem the vocabulary that he is most likely to use.

And I don't have in my brain an instant Rolodex of where more liberal scholars tend to get chippy, but I don't remember ever reading about the authorship of Titus being questioned on this. I do think this is very unique in Paul's writings, but I don't think there's any charge that it's otherwise inconsistent with his message or way of communicating.

But I will look that up. That's a really interesting question. I don't think so, but I'll check, and I'll let you know.

Why the Focus on Savior and Avoidance of Lord

Okay. So, why the focus on Lord? I’m sorry. Why the focus on savior and the avoidance of a focus on Lord? What would explain that?

You guys wanna, you guys have any theories on why Paul would be doing that? Yeah, Eric?

It seems like it would have been something going on in Crete that he was trying to address specifically. Oh, look at you. Bless your heart.

We’ve said this many times: the letters of the New Testament are—and I keep using the same word—occasional. That is, they are responses to specific occasions. They are not mere initiation. They are actual responses like, hey, there’s something going on here, and I’m going to write into that specific situation.

There’s an occasion, there's something happening in Crete, and Paul is saying, "Hey, hey, hey—let’s get one thing straight. Jesus is the savior," and I'm going to talk about that incessantly, even to the exclusion of talking about his lordship.

So then, what was going on in Crete? Why is this letter so unique and particular?

The Problem in Crete and the Message of Titus

Let's continue into the letter. Here’s what you’ll find. If you want to really understand what's going on in Crete, reading the New Testament is a bit of reverse engineering.

What you're seeing is a solution, and then you've got to figure out what the problem was that this is a solution for.

Why is Paul using these themes? Why is this his message? If this is the plug, what’s the outlet it was designed to fit? What was happening?

Here’s a very strong clue. If you go to Titus, flip over to the back of your page, you'll find this. And let me just read to you this very strong recurrence.

Rather, he, the elder, must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. Then he describes others who are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good.

Similarly, later he's going to give instructions to older men, younger men, older women, younger women: teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.

Later, in everything, he tells them to set an example by doing what is good. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, and civility.

He'll say that Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, and to be ready to do whatever is good.

This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

And finally, in Titus 3:14:

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

That is the theme of the entire book: do it—you hear it? Do it is good. Do it is good. Do it is good.

Why do they have to do good? Because they live in Crete. Because Crete's a mess, and because as Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

What he's saying is, in a place like Crete where everybody’s snarky, lying, stealing from each other, considering their needs more than the needs of others, if you would just flip all those things upside down, the Gospel will shine. If you want to transform this island, do what is good. Do what is good. Do what is good.

The Reason for Emphasizing Savior Over Lordship

Now, here’s the problem. A person less wise than Paul, a person less soaked in the beauty of the gospel, might want to get everybody to tighten up.

If you had the choice to focus on Christ as Lord, or on Savior, which lever might be most tempting to pull? It’s Lord, right? Because He's got a big stick, and He’s the king, so just tell people to obey. Jesus is Lord, and He is Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord. So, knock it off.

Do you get that? Okay. There’s something really tempting about that.

And has anybody ever pulled that with your children? Just wait till your father gets home. Right? You know that story?

Is that line, "Just wait till your father gets home," because he is so gracious and patient and loving and kind? Is that what we mean when we say that?

There’s this impulse there. And Paul completely subdues that. It’s not, "Hey, hey, tighten up." Instead, it is, "He is the savior—the savior—the savior."

Why does Paul choose, why does he make that very unconventional choice? What's going on there?

Catherine?

Catherine is exactly right. We, people like us, maybe there's somebody somewhere, but people like us—we're not that different from the people of Crete.

People like us, we cannot do what is good unless we are so steeped in the reality of His unconditional love, His endless flowing grace, the mercy of God.

It is because, and I would suggest only because, he is the savior that we have any hope of becoming what he wants us to be.

Alright? Well, Paul says, take a look at what he does here in Titus 2. I’ve put it here—the thesis of Titus in Titus 2:11—but maybe don't look at my sheet. Go to your actual Bible because I want you to have a little more context here.

If you look at Titus 2:11, just see what's going on here. He's been telling this is what older women do and older younger women, older men, younger men, all these things—what slaves do. It’s very applicable.

Then he says in verse 11:

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.

What is the antecedent of the pronoun "it"? The grace of God. Grace. What teaches us to say no to ungodliness? Strong ferocious people with large pointy sticks? No.

His point is that the grace of God has appeared—that offers salvation to all people—and it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope.

The appearing—hang on—this is happening right now.'

This is new NIV. I can't read that. It’s ridiculous. Okay? While we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

This suggests that when you find yourself tangled up in some besetting sin, for the same thing for the last 500 times, and you surrender to it, the rest of your life will be one of sin and repentance—sin and repentance—you will always struggle with sin.

But you don't have to surrender to it. Right? You could be living around here, sin, repentance, sin, repentance. Or you can be like, sinner, repentance. I’m living in it—sinner, repentance.

That's just the shape of our life: the sine curve. And what Paul is saying is that when you're on the bottom of that curve and you're wondering, "What's going on? What's wrong with me? Why am I here?" the answer is: You've forgotten something about His grace. Because His grace is what teaches us to say no to ungodliness.

Why am I so wrapped up in this thing I'm doing? Why am I such a jerk to my sister? Why am I looking at stuff online I shouldn't? Why am I so committed to gossiping and making myself look good? What is going on? Why am I here? The answer: Because you've forgotten about His grace—that this endless cataract of mercy flowing toward you.

This is what short circuits your spiritual life. And so, it's being short-circuited at Crete. Paul says, "Hey, if we want these people to live good lives, what it's imperative that you do all day, every day, Titus: Teach the grace of Christ."

Remind them of His beauty. Convince them that He is endlessly for them, that He loves them despite their failures, that He will pick them up when they fall. Show them the cross, show them His mercy, His love.

Even this funny thing—Isaiah 28 has this curious line: God is many things. We’ve often, I’ve often said a million times in this room, He is lamb-like lion, he's lion-like lamb. The enormous stretch.

Edwards talks about the admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies—He's incredibly ferocious, indomitably gentle, exalted above the heavens, and incredibly lowly. One of those weird stretchings—He’s merciful, merciful, merciful, merciful, and holy, just, wrathful.

But, this is really important: We could tend to think that in that stretch, it’s a tie. He's equally wrathful as He is merciful. But did you know that’s not true?

He is all that at all times. But Isaiah 28 describes His wrath as His strange work—His foreign work. When we ask Him, “What do you like?” He says:

I am the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

His basic nature, His default mode of being, is to be gracious. And yes, He is also holy and just and wrathful, but that is His strange work. His nature is to be kind to undeserving people. You with me?

And what we must do—what Paul is saying in Titus—is that you guys, if we're going to clean up Crete, we've got to endlessly talk about His mercy and His grace—that He is the Savior, the Savior, the Savior—that His flowing mercies are abundant to undeserving people. Talk about that incessantly, and they'll be cleaned up automatically.

That's the lesson of Titus.

Conclusion

Judy? It seems to be that it's odd that the rest of the epistles—

Great.

Were their churches more mature, so they knew about the grace and then needed to hear about the lordship? Because that seems—that seems weird.

Such a great question. Okay. So, let's do this. Let's talk a little about not Titus. Because every time I say, "You, isn’t it magnificent that he never talks about Jesus as Lord, but he always talks about His Savior," you're like, "Well, what about the other books?" Like, are those like scary bad? And the answer is no.

But when Paul talks about Christ as Lord, generally, the other 257 times, he never does so with any embarrassment. It's never like, "Hey, it's bad news, Jesus is king." It's always magnificent news because he's such a good king. Because he is a gracious king, because he's a king who died for His people, who reigns in righteousness with wisdom.

He is a magnificent king, and we never need to be embarrassed that he is. But there are contexts where you know you're more likely to be misunderstood. For instance, if I were in a group—just making this up—I might talk about Jesus being a husband to the church; we are His bride, and He is our husband.

But if I was talking to someone with a really negative experience with their husband, or they grew up watching their dad treat their mom badly, and for them, that might take on a negative meaning, then I might not emphasize the "husband" language as much—they might not be able to hear it.

This makes sense? So, there are times we use different language—the Bible gives us this rich vocabulary of how He relates to us—and sometimes, in different situations, different language lands differently with different people.

It seems to me there's something going on in Crete that makes Paul want to avoid emphasizing His Lordship and focus on His Savior.

Grace and Love

Okay. For me, the concept of grace has been a lot harder.

Well, I would say yes, for sure. And I think, and of course, both are completely accurate, and it would make sense that at certain times, His love might jiggle the lock in a different way than His grace.

The relationship between grace and love, I think of it this way: Grace is what love looks like when it encounters the undeserving. So I love God more or less. Right? I mean, He's ultimately lovely, and I do love Him. But there's a lot of stuff that gets in the way.

When love encounters something that doesn't deserve it at all, it turns into grace. Does this help? Does this make sense?

Yeah. When you really internalize grace, it creates a strong compulsion in you to do good. Yes.

And to me, that’s only the Holy Spirit. Because within ourselves, we will not do good. Yes. And that’s exactly right.

When we encounter grace, it produces a compulsion to do good—that's Titus 2:11. The grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness. It’s like, as I live in His grace, I want to be like that. And when I find I'm not, I wonder, "What's wrong?" Like, I stepped out of His grace. You're no longer living in a consciousness of His endless mercy flowing toward you.

Exactly right. Robin? This is a question. Isn't there a place in the word that talks—

Robin asks, isn't there a place where we don’t use the grace of God as an excuse to keep on sinning?

I’d say probably Romans 6 is the strongest: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" by no means. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?

Yes. Grace is not supposed to be an excuse. It's not supposed to say, “Hey, good news—you can get away with it.” If you’re experiencing real grace, it should flow out like this. But a lot of stuff gets messed up.

When we turn grace into license—that means we’ve misunderstood grace. We think, “I didn’t really deserve to get caught anyway,” and it loses its power to transform.

Final Thoughts: The Gospel According to Titus

Almost done. I want to show you two more things very quickly.

Gospel according to Titus. We will often go to Ephesians 2:1–10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith," that whole passage is beautiful. It has a twin in Titus 3. Quigg is very fond of Titus 3; I’ve heard him preach on it several times.

If you look at Ephesians 2 and then read Titus 3, you’ll see how Pauline it is.

Here’s Titus 3. Paul says:

At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, hated and hated by others.

You hear the Ephesians 2 element there. It’s the same phrasing—same thing. But then he follows:

When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

So that, having been justified