Intro:
1. From 1932 to 1955 Robert Woodruff was the president of Coca-Cola. After World War II he led the company to adopt his goal, which as he put it, “That during my lifetime, I want every person in the world to taste Coca-Cola.”
2. The Apostle Paul also had a goal, a much more noble, worthy and eternally profitable goal – one in which he wanted the Church to adopt as its own.
3. A God-focused Goal of Salvation and Sanctification being Practiced, Proclaimed and Reproduced.
Titus 1:1-5 (NKJV)
1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,
2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,
3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;
4 To Titus, a true son in our common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you--
Notice we get the idea of God-focused by the fact that God is mentioned 5 times in the first 4 verses; the concept of a goal comes from the preposition “kata” which is found 4 times in the Greek texts: “According to” [3 times] and “in our” (4a). It has a broad range of meaning, but here it refers to a goal or purpose.
I. First, we see Paul’s Greatness. 1:1
A. His Submission. Lit. “a slave.”
MacArthur, “Above all else, the apostle saw himself as a man totally under divine authority…Paul was in complete, but willing bondage to God. He had no life that he called his own, no will of his own, or purpose of his own, or plan of his own. All was subject to his Lord.”
That is true greatness! Mt. 20:25-28
B. His Commission. “an apostle”
That was a great gift given to only a precious few (I Cor. 12:28).
Paul was a great man because he first of all was focused on God in obedience, and then on others in the ministry. E. Stanley Jones, “Most people plot and plan themselves into mediocrity, while now and again somebody forgets himself into greatness.”
II. Furthermore, Paul’s Grand Goal proclaimed. 1:1b-3
A. First, there was Election.
Paul believed that God in eternity, based upon His Sovereign choice, selected people to salvation. This motivated Him to the goal of salvation. Jn. 15:16/Ac.13:46-48/2 Tim.1:9; 2:10.
Faith is a gift that only God can bestow upon a person. T. H. Huxley was a well-known agnostic, he once asked a man, who was heading out for church this question. “Suppose you stay home and tell me why you are a Christian?” The man shared the gospel plain and simple.
When the man had finished there were tears streaming down Huxley’s face. He said, “I would give my right hand if only I could believe that!”
Yes, we are totally accountable for our persistence in sinful unbelief, but faith is always a gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9).
B. Then there was Education. “acknowledgement of the truth.”
The truth is, it is the Word of God which begins the sanctification process, in those who are saved. Jn. 17:17/Mt. 28:19-20
Whenever someone is saved, we are to begin the sanctification process by teaching those new converts the Word of God. A young Christian packing for summer camp, said to one of his friends, “I have nearly finished packing. I have put in a guidebook, a lamp, a microscope, a volume of fine poetry, a few biographies, a package of old letters, a book of songs, a sword, a hammer, and a set of tools.”
His friend stunned asked how he could get all of that in that one bag! He then pulled out his Bible – it was all of that and much more!
C. Then there will be an Expression. “accords with godliness”
Salvation brings forth transformation (Rom.8:29/Phil.1:6; 2:12-13/Tit. 2:11-12).
George Cameron is alive because of a kidney donation, taken from Clay Jones. Clay was a football player who died when he was struck by lightening. George noted, “God must have some purpose for my still being alive. I wasted my life gambling, drinking, and refusing to take care of myself. And everyday I realized that I have within me the kidney of a blameless young man and it has affected me greatly.”
We have Christ within us and that indwelling Christ will effect us greatly!
D. Finally, there will be an Expectation. “hope of eternal…”
1. The Certainty – God promised it.
2. The Clarity – a N.T. proclamation, this truth was in the heart of God eternally and presented vaguely in the OT, but now has been proclaimed boldly. Tit. 2:13
Wiersbe, “We were born again ‘unto a living hope’ (I Pet. 1:3) because we have trusted the living Christ. We believes have eternal life now (Jn.3:16), but when Christ returns we will enjoy eternal life in an even greater way.”
Romans 8:23-25 (NKJV)
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent years in a Russian prison camp, he was placed on a starvation diet, beaten, worked to death, and became gravely ill. One afternoon he simple could not take anymore! He stopped working and threw down his shovel, knowing that as soon as a guard spotted him he would be beat to death.
Then a fellow prisoner cautiously walked toward him, he quickly made a cross in the dirt and then erased it. Alexander said, “In that brief moment I felt all the hope of the gospel flood through my soul. It gave me the courage to endure that difficult day and the months of imprisonment that followed.”
Paul not only practiced a God-centered goal but also proclaimed it by evangelism, educating people in the Word, encouraging expression of godliness, and sharing the expectation of hope.
III. Finally, Paul’s Greeting. 4-5a
This shows that his goal was reproduced in others – one being Titus.
A. Titus was Evangelized. 4a
B. Titus was Educated. 4b
He obviously knew what grace, peace, mercy, and truth about the Godhead meant. He definitely knew that grace and superseded the Law (Gal. 2:1-5).
C. Titus clearly Expressed godliness – otherwise Paul would not have left him in Crete with instructions to “set things in order.” (2 Cor. 8:23)
D. Titus no doubt lived in the Expectation of the hope of glory.
This is a beautiful example of the truth of 2 Tim. 2:2. Paul getting the goal across to Titus, who in turn is to get the people of Crete God-focused.
Dawson Trotman founder of the Navigators had a heart for reproducing Christlikeness in others. What happened was one day he picked up a hitchhiker, as the man got into the car he let out with a few cuss words. Dawson handed him a track. The man said to Dawson, “Haven’t I seen you before?” It turned out that, the previous year he had picked up this same guy, and let him to the Lord! Now it was as if he had never heard the gospel at all.
Dawson said, “After I met this boy the second time on the way to the golf course, I began to go back and find some of my converts. I want to tell you, I was sick at heart. Before I had forgotten to follow up on the people God had reached through me, but from then on I began to spend time helping them. You can lead a soul to Christ from twenty minutes to a couple of hours. But if takes twenty weeks to a couple of years to get them on the road to maturity.”
I am glad that Jerry Ziedler not only shared Christ with me but spend many hours helping me grow.
Con:
1. A God-focused Goal of Salvation and Sanctification should be Practiced, Proclaimed, and Reproduced in others.
2. Do we have God-focused Goals in our lives?
3. Someone wrote, “People are like buttons unattached, useless. Attached, they become men on a mission.”
Johnny Palmer Jr
www.strugglingthruscriptures.ning.com
