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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends, today is Wednesday January 22.
Over the past several months we’ve been following the chronology of the New Testament from the day Jesus left earth and returned to heaven. Yesterday we concluded Paul’s first letter to Timothy in about the year 64ad. Most Bible scholars believe, at about the same time, Paul wrote a similar, short letter to Titus, another of his students. Titus was actually one of Paul’s first Gentile disciples, evidently won to Christ during Paul’s very first missionary journey with Barnabas. We meet Titus first in Galatians 2:1-3 where Paul describes his return to Jerusalem from the province of Galatia, with Barnabas and Titus. They came to meet with the Apostles in Jerusalem and debate the spread of the Gospel among Gentiles. That famous gathering took place about 48ad and is described in Acts 15, and is monumental in the history of Christianity.
So while we often think of Timothy being Paul’s closest young disciple, in fact Titus had an even longer relationship with Paul. Both had traveled extensively with Paul and he had personally mentored both Timothy and Titus for carrying on his work in giving leadership and further training to the clusters of Christians who had responded to the Gospel that Paul had brought to cities and towns across the Roman empire. Paul had frequently sent each of them as his personal ambassador, to visit Christians in different cities or town, often taking with them a fresh letter from Paul.
We remember Paul had been under house arrest in Rome for about two years (Acts 28:30,31) and during that time Paul had written the letters we know as Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians in our Bible.
Evidently Paul was suddenly released from that house arrest, and for a short while traveled again, we presume re-visiting some of the groups of Christians in Macedonia and the Islands like Crete. Then perhaps he turned west, going all the way to Spain, which at that time was considered by most to be the end of the world. We have no accurate record of his travels during this time, nor exactly how long it lasted. We do know Paul was then again suddenly re-arrested and finally executed in Rome shortly after he wrote his second letter to Timothy.
Evidently Paul and Titus went together to the island of Crete, and then Paul left him there with a specific assignment, which I see in Titus 1:5. “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.” As we will see, Titus’ assignment in Crete was essentially the same as Timothy’s assignment in Ephesus, and thus these two letters from Paul to Titus & Timothy are called “Pastoral Epistles” and are very similar instructions for how they should teach and train the Christians, and raise up leaders in both places.
These letters have been translated into hundreds of languages and used for training church leaders in even the most remotest of places where the Gospel has taken root. So, over the next few days we can imagine ourselves in a remote Amazon jungle among the Yanomami Indians, or the far western Indonesian jungles among the Hatam people (remember the video clip you saw a few days ago) or in remote areas of China in the days of Hudson Taylor, or any of the great cities of the world… as the Gospel has come, people have trusted Jesus for salvation, and now leaders are needed, and we will learn from Paul’s letter to Titus.
Crete is an island south of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. Paul’s first visit there was very memorable, recorded for us in Acts 27, the shipwreck chapter! Paul was a prisoner, on his way from Jerusalem all the way to Rome. The ship was of course wind driven, and faced storms and strong winds all along the way. They stopped at the island of Crete for a short while waiting for better weather and then against Paul’s advice, headed west, and encountered a huge storm which battered their ship for 14 days, and finally shipwrecked them off the coast of Malta.
So Paul’s first visit to Crete was not long or pleasant, but evidently the Gospel had come to Crete and taken root, so now five or six years later, Paul came back with Titus to spend some time with these few Christians, to encourage and teach them. After a short while, Paul left Titus there and continued on in his travels, and then wrote back to Titus, this letter.
Please notice how Paul identifies himself in his opening greeting to Titus, may I paraphrase him? “I am Paul, I am a bond-servant of God and a faithful apostle of Jesus Christ. My life’s purpose is nurturing the faith of God’s elect and building into them the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness…” (Titus 1:1) So, my friends, how would each of us describe our relationship with God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Savior, in only a few carefully chosen words? Go ahead… try it right now. Outloud, introduce yourself with both your true Identity and your life Purpose in only two sentences.
At the core of your being… who are you really? When you someday stand before God, who do you want to be able to say you tried to be here on earth?
And what gives your life purpose these days? Again, when you stand before God and you discuss the lifetime He gave you here, what will you talk about that were the driving purposes of your lifetime? May I invite us to go back and read again what Paul wrote as his two defining sentences? “I am Paul, I am a bond-servant of God and a faithful apostle of Jesus Christ. My life’s purpose is nurturing the faith of God’s elect and building into them the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness…”
Verse two is also very powerful isn’t it? “…a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at His appointed time, He brought His word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.”
Wow, may I point out three things in this one big sentence?
First, our Christian faith rests on the hope we have of eternal life in heaven with God, which has been earned for us by Jesus Christ and His death which paid our sin debt, and was in the heart of God before the beginning of time! A reminder that God’s Redemption Plan was developed even before sin entered the world. Because… God is all knowing (Omniscient) and He knew even before He created Adam that when given free will, humanity would sin, there would be need for a Savior. If sinful humanity and God could be restored into holy love relationship, it would require Jesus!
Second, God does not lie! Isn’t it strange that Paul would put those few little words right in the middle of this sentence? I think I see why. Look at verse 12 “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” Well that’s quite a reputation that the people of Crete had, and it seems Paul felt the need to draw a clear contrast with God’s holiness and truthfulness!
Third, the wonderful truths Paul is teaching were entrusted to him by God to be proclaimed to the world. Do you see that?
Don’t you love how Paul addresses Titus? “To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.” Paul was delighted to remember that he was Titus’ spiritual father. He had explained the Gospel to Titus. Titus had believed it and trusted Jesus to be his Savior and Paul had then assumed the responsibility as a father, to teach his spiritual son all that he would need to live a God honoring life. That’s true discipleship.
Have you had someone in your life like that? Someone who seemed to take it as their assignment from God, to help you grow in your Christian faith? Are you filling that role in several people’s lives as you help them grow their relationship with Jesus as you are growing in your relationship with Jesus?
Let’s stop right here and spend some time talking with Jesus, first thanking Him for those who have nurtured us and our understanding of God’s Word and helped us develop our relationship with Jesus. Who are they for you? _________ , __________ , ___________
Then let’s also spend some time talking with Jesus about those whom He has entrusted to our discipleship. The people God has entrusted to us for helping them grow in their relationship with Jesus, starting with our own children and grandchildren, then other friends… all those whom we feel God is asking us to have spiritual influence in their lives.
In fact, may I invite us all, me too, to put the names of these people on paper and keep that paper in our Bibles, right here in Titus 1, as a reminder of this great privilege and responsibility God has given to us, of faithfully having spiritual influence in the lives of specific people God has brought into our lives?
______________ , ______________ , _____________ , _________________, ______________
What if we took this as seriously as Jesus does? Go ahead, let’s get a piece of paper right now, and start the list of those people God is inviting you to influence spiritually… it’s called discipleship.
Oh Lord Jesus how do we thank you for the privilege of a living, growing, dynamic relationship with YOU and the great privilege of helping others grow in their relationship with You?
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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