Somebody has to do the dirty work in life, and so all leaders need
men who are trouble shooters. George Washington needed one
when Benedict Arnold betrayed the colonies and escaped to the
British forces. Washington was angry and was determined to get
him back. He choose Sargent Major John Champe for the secret
and sensitive mission of deserting to the British and kidnaping
Arnold. Only Washington and Colonel Lighthouse Harry knew of
the plot. On Oct. 19, 1780 Champe deserted his company and fled.
It was very risky in that he could have been shot by his own men.
The British accepted him and put him in the Loyalist Legion
made up of other Americans who chose to be loyal to England in the
war. Benedict Arnold was its leader. Everything seemed to be going
smooth until the Loyalist Legion was ordered into battle in Virginia.
Champe was from Virginia and he refused to fight his own people,
and so he deserted again. Now he was a hunted man by both sides.
He eventually got back to Washington's headquarters and explained
the whole mess. Washington had no choice but to send him, his wife,
and his four children to a hideout in the wilderness. When the war
ended it was still not safe for him to return, for he was considered a
traitor by both sides, and could easily have been murdered. He was
moved to Kentucky, and it was not until long after his death that
congress in 1847 voted Champe a promotion for, "One of the most
courageous acts of the American Revolution."
As Champe was a champion who got little credit, so Titus was a
Titan, that is a giant of the faith, in the revolutionary march of
Christianity in the first century. Titus was a trouble shooter in the
war to prevent traitors from dividing the forces of the church, and
weakening their ability to win the world out of darkness into light.
Like Champe, he does not get much recognition because his
courageous acts of service are somewhat suppressed in the New
Testament record. In spite of the fact that he was one of Paul's
greatest friends and travelling companions, and in spite of the fact
that he is the most successful trouble shooter in the New Testament,
he is not even once referred to in the book of Acts. Some are
convinced that Titus was Luke's brother, and family modesty kept
Luke from recording the acts of his own brother. This, of course, is
merely a theory.
Had he not played a major role in solving the problems of the
church of Corinth we would hardly know who he was at all. The
church at Corinth was in great distress. There was strong division
and harsh criticism against Paul. The situation called for a trouble
shooter with gifts of wisdom and tact. It was a delicate mission and
Paul chose his friend Titus to tackle the job. He had earlier sent
Timothy, but he was young and lacked experience, so he next chose
Titus. He sent him with his first letter to the Corinthians, and he
was able to calm the troubled waters and bring back to Paul a good
report. Paul wrote II Cor. and sent Titus back with it. In that letter
we learn most everything we know about Titus. Paul refers to him 8
times in that letter. Here is an example from II Cor. 2:12-13.
"When I came to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ a door was
opened for me in the Lord; but my mind could not rest because I did
not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went
on to Macedonia."
No where do we find the Apostle Paul so troubled and restless
that he cannot stand still and preach the Gospel. He had to hear
from Titus, and until he did he could not concentrate on his
ministry. This is the only record we have of Paul failing to go
through an open door. When he got to Macedonia he received one
of the greatest blessings he ever recorded, for Titus was there, and
he had good news that was desperately needed. We read in II Cor.
4:5-6, "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no
rest but we were afflicted at every turn-fighting without and fear
within. But God, who comforts the downcast comforted us by the
coming of Titus."
His coming was a great comfort because he had succeeded in
getting the Corinthians to repent and change their attitudes, and
become friendly with Paul again. Titus had been a successful trouble
shooter, for that was his gift to be a peacemaker. The Speaker's
Bible says of him, "He was much more a man of affairs than
Timothy was. He settled many a quarrel, allayed many a trouble,
averted many a split. He was the conciliator and peacemaker of the
early church." He was able to do what others could not because it
was his gift to be a trouble shooter. If everyone could do it there
would be no need for those who are gifted trouble shooter. Paul
wrote II Cor. in response to this good report, and it is as positive as I
Cor. is negative.
Paul was so comforted by the coming of Titus that it has become
a part of the language of comfort. James Smetham wrote to a friend
to thank him for the letter he received which came at a time when he
was depressed and in it he wrote, "Glad to get your friendly letter.
It was like the coming of Titus. I think providence in these days
often sends Titus by mail." George Ensor, the first English
missionary to Japan said he baptized his first convert and gave him
the name Titus. He said, "For God who comforts the downcast
comforted me by the coming of Titus." It was discouraging work,
and, like Paul, he was down, but then all was changed by the coming
of this friend.
Oh, gift of God, my friend!
Who face has brought the Eternal nigh.
No sermon like thy life doth tend
To turn my gaze toward the sky.
All of us need the ministry and comfort of Titus. We need that
friend who will come into our darkness with light. We need good
news when all we hear is bad news, and that things seem to be
getting worse. What a blessing to have the downward trend
reversed, and hear that God is at work, and the good does triumph
over the evil. May God grant us all the comfort of the coming of
Titus, and may we all strive to be a Titus in bringing to others the
good news of life's joyful realities.
Being a trouble shooter is not one of the gifts listed in the New
Testament, but it is nevertheless a gift, and a needed one, for trouble
is inevitable in a fallen world, and there is no such thing as working
with people without trouble. Since the church is people oriented,
there can be escape from trouble, and so the trouble shooter is a
vital person in the army of the Lord. No where was this true than
on the island of Crete. It was the largest island in the
Mediterranean. It was 250 miles long and 50 miles wide. It was a
big place to work, but it was as bad as it was big. It was not the kind
of place a seminary student would want to take for his first church.
Most veterans would even do anything to avoid getting assigned to
such a place.
Paul had a lot of confidence in Titus to leave him there. He was
the only one who could handle the job like this. There were Jews
from Crete at Pentecost and they carried the Gospel back home, and
that is likely how the church got started on this great island. The
seed was sown and it was growing, but the weeds were thick. Paul
visited the island and was impressed with the depravity of the
people. In verse 12 he quotes one of their own poets named
Epimenides who lived in 600B.C. He said of the Cretans that they
are, "Always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons." They were
obviously something less than the creme of the crop. That was 600
years back from Paul's time and you would think there would be
some progress, but in the next verse Paul says this testimony is true.
Things have not changed at all, for they are a crude crowd held in
contempt by all people.
Imagine going to a people with such a rotten reputation. Nobody
but a tough-minded trouble shooter would have any business trying
to organize a church in such a place. Titus did it, and the churches
there to this day honor the name of Titus by naming their churches
after him. He was buried in Crete for centuries before the Venetians
carried his body away. The life an labors of Titus make it clear that
the road may be rough, and the circumstances intolerable, and the
odds overwhelmingly against you. But it is still possible to plant and
grow the church of Christ in the worse possible settings. No place is
hopeless if you have the right personal.
In 1850 as many as 30 thousand children were abandoned in New
York City. Their immigrant parents died on the trip to America, or
shortly after arriving. These children had no family or relatives,
and nowhere to go. They lived in the streets and ate out of the
garbage cans. It was a terrible problem and all people could do is
say that it was a shame. But then Charles L. Brace a 26 year old
pastor with the gift for trouble shooting got concerned. He started
what came to be known as the orphan train. He rounded up
hundreds of these stray orphans and put them on a train headed
West. He announced in every town along the way that if anyone
wanted a son or daughter they could have one. The response was
overwhelming. People were grateful for the chance to have a child
in their life. Pastor Brace kept this train rolling until 1929, and over
100 thousand children were given away. Two became governors;
one a U. S. Congressman, and one a Supreme Court Justice. Over
50 became doctors and lawyers.
A hopeless situation was turned into a treasure of blessings for
tens of thousands of families because of one gifted trouble shooter.
Thank God for the trouble shooters who have turned burdens into
blessings all through history. Not everyone can be like Titus, but the
good news is, all of us can be trouble shooters in some ways. The
book of Titus not only reveals to us the key trouble shooter of the
New Testament, but it also reveals to us the key tool of the trouble
shooter. The tool that can prevent most of the troubles that
Christians can get into, and that tool is the virtue of self-control.
You will not find another part of the Bible where this virtue is
emphasized like it is here in Titus. The two key Greek words for
self-control are the dominant words in the council Paul gives to
Titus. The elders are to be men who are self-controlled. All the
people who are trouble makers in the first chapter are problems
because of their lack of self-control. In chapter 2 self-control is
repeated over and over. It is characterize the older men, the older
women, the younger women, and the younger men. In other words,
everybody in the church who is going to be part of the answer rather
than part of the problem is going to have to develop the virtue of
self-control.
It is a word with many synonyms and can be translated
temperate, sober, or discreet. The word refers to the inner strength
one has over ones self to not be at the mercy of what happens
externally, but to be in control. The emotions and desires of life do
not lead this person around by the nose as a slave. He or she is
disciplined, and they have their life under control. The
undisciplined life where a person is manipulated and controlled by
his emotions and desires is the cause for the troubles of the world
and of the church.
This virtue so pushed by Paul was recognized by great minds all
through history to be the key to a civilized society. It was a classical
virtue of the Greeks. Socrates and Aristotle stressed it, and so did
the Greek Stoics and the Jewish Essenes. Everyone with intelligence
knows that if man does not develop control of his appetites for sex
and food and every other desire he will lose his superiority over the
animal and descend to their level. Even non-Christians have
recognized that self-control is vital to society to maintain morality
and order.
In Greek mythology Phaethon was the son of Helios, the sun god.
Every morning Helios emerged from the East in a golden chariot to
ride across the skies and light up the world. The chariot itself was
drawn by 8 dazzling white winged horses whose nostrils breathed
forth flame. One day some of Phaethon's companions challenged
his claim to divine parentage, and he came to Helios to seek proof.
Helios assured his son he would grant him any wish. Phaethon
requested that he be allowed to drive the sun chariot. Horrified by
this request he begged his son to choose another way, for he knew he
could not control the powerful horses. Phaethon was stubborn and
held his father to his promise, and so with heavy heart he let his son
take the reins the next morning.
Once under way the horses quickly sensed Phaethon's light and
inexperienced hand on the reins, and they began to run amok across
the skies. Sometimes going too low and scorching the earth, and
sometimes too high leaving whole regions frozen. Finally in
desperation Zeus was forced to hurl a thunder bolt at the chariot
and Phaethon was destroyed.
The Greeks were saying by this story that control is essential to
order in the universe and in life. When things get out of control
there is security for anyone. You don't have to be a Christian to
know this, but all Christians are called to practice control of their
lives like no other people. It is not just for monks, nuns, and
specialists in self-denial. It is for all Christians at all age levels. It is
the very essence of Christian living, and it is that virtue that makes
all of us trouble shooters in our own lives.
When something is universally valued then the Christian is all
the more obligated to live for that value that all men will recognize
and honor. Aristotle the Greek said, "I count him braver who
overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the
hardest victory is victory over self." Seneca the Roman said, "To
master one's self is the greatest mastery." Long before them Prov.
16:42 said, "A patient man is better than a warrior, and he who
rules his temper, than he who takes a city." Heavenly and earthly
wisdom agree that the real heroes of history, and the people most to
be admired, are those who have lived lives which were governed by
the virtue of self-control.
A man was walking through a super market with a screaming
baby in the shopping cart. A woman near by noted that the man
kept saying, "Keep calm Albert. Keep calm Albert." Finally in
admiration for the man's patience she said to him, "Sir I must
commend you for your patience with baby Albert." To which the
man replied, "Madam, I am Albert." If you can't control the baby,
then next best thing is to control yourself, and that was what he was
working at, and that is what we are all to work at. If you can't
control life and circumstances, you can still be victorious if you can
control yourself and your reactions to the circumstances.
Paul stressed this in his letter to the Corinthians also. Christians
need to approach life like a runner, or any other athlete, with a
commitment to discipline their lives to bring them under control. In
I Cor. 9:25-27 we read, "Everyone who competes in the games goes
into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but
we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run
like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the
air." Paul brings his body under control so he is not a slave to it.
Self-control puts you in charge of your body, and it serves you
rather than you serving it.
In 1962 Jim Beatty became the first man to break the four minute
mile indoors. He had to go through enormous sacrifice to get such
control of his body. His, and the experience of others, is described
like this: "Back of the feat of every man who has run the grueling
sub-four-minute mile is the story of endless hours of Spartan
training and of punishing discipline. With every agonized nerve in
his body screaming for rest, the runner drives himself on. Like a
jockey whipping his steed to close the gap as he nears the tape, the
miler lashes his body to eke out its last ounce of energy and gain the
coveted prize. He is discipline incarnate: The triumph of the spirit
over the flesh."
This is what the Christian life is all about. It is about the triumph
of the spirit over the flesh, and the issue of self-control. For Titus to
be a successful trouble shooter on Crete he had to get Christians of
all ages to develop this virtue. This is the challenge for every
believer. In his letter to Timothy Paul describes the opposite of
self-control. In II Tim. 3:1-4 he writes, "But mark this: There will
be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
In Gal. 5 Paul describes the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit,
one of which is self-control. He writes, "The acts of the sinful nature
are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry
and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the
like." The point is, the essence of the sinful nature is lack of
self-control. The essence of the righteous nature is in the presence of
self-control.
The difference between the trouble maker and the trouble
shooter in this world is not that one has evil thoughts and sinful
desires and the other does not. They are equal on that score.
Christian people have every thought and every desire that enters the
minds of non-Christians. There is no folly or fantasy that Satan uses
to entice men that does not affect the believer in some way. The
difference between the two is that one has the power to control his
mind, body, and desires, while the other is under the control of them
all.
Self- control is a fruit of the spirit and so it is from God, but the
book of Titus clearly stresses that it has to be learned. Paul, over
and over again, tells Titus you must teach the people to be
self-controlled. It does not just happen because you become a
Christian. Many Christians are poor Christians because they have
not learned to be trained and disciplined just like an athlete. Paul
was so into the importance of teaching this that when he got his
chance to come before the governor Felix and defend the Christian
faith we read what he spoke on in Acts 24:25: "As Paul discoursed
on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come." Felix was
impressed with Paul, and talked with him after, but he wanted to
favor the Jews so he left Paul in prison.
Self-control was a part of Paul's fundamental teaching. The
reason is obvious, for there can be no distinctive Christian life
without it. The goals of the Christian life cannot be achieved
without self-control. Titus could not get to first base in organizing
the church on Crete unless he could develop a group of Christians
with self-control. But with self-control the church can thrive in any
environment, no matter how corrupt. They do not escape exposure
to the corruption, nor do they escape temptation, but they are not
victims, for by the power of self-control they can even use their
temptation for the life that pleases God.
In verse 15 Paul says, "To the pure all things are pure but to
those who are corrupted and do not believe nothing is pure." This is
a paradox. A story about the great inventor Thomas Edison
illustrates the point. The entrance to his property was a heavy
clumsy gate and one of his friends wondered why a man of his
standing would put up with this heavy thing, and suggested
something more modern and easy to use. Edison looked at him with
a twinkle in his eye and said, "Come with me. Let me show you
something." He took him to the gate and showed him how it was
geared into a pump and he said, "You see, every man who comes to
see me and opens or shuts this gate automatically pumps a gallon of
water into a tank on my roof." The visitor could be friend or foe,
but all of them were expending energy that Edison had under his
control for his purpose.
So it is in the life of a believer who has developed self-control. He
can use all things for good. To the person without self-control lust is
destructive of marriage, morality, family, and society. But to the
pure even lust can be pure, for by self-control it is energy channeled
into that which is God's will, and it enriches marriage and all of life.
By the power of self-control all energy, even that which may be
stimulated by lust, can be channeled into doing good.
The difference between a river and a flood is not just the amount
of water and the energy. The difference is that the flood is out of
control, but the river is channeled and can be used to produce power
for a purpose. The flood is destructive because it cannot be
controlled. Get all that same energy under control and it can be
used for good. So the Christian in a very non-Christian
environment can be successfully righteous by the power of
self-control.
