Series Title: Pastoral Leadership, By Example (Titus)
Message Title: Called
Scripture: Titus 1:1
Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness-
There are not too many people [Christians] that I know that are able to open up their correspondence the way that Paul does, AND are able to back it up in their testimony [walk the talk]. But, that’s what we want to take a look at, isn’t? We want to look at what Paul is telling the young pastor Titus and how to take care of the church in Crete.
We can and are able to incorporate these things into our own ministries. We can and are able to become just like Paul. Yes, Paul was a special Christian and there will never be another just like him. However, if you are following God’s will for your life, the possible impact that you could make would be just as significant. We all must realize exactly what James said in his epistle:
(James 5:17) Elijah was a man just like us.
So, speaking in human terms, if Elijah was a man just like us, then we can also conclude that, Paul was a man just like us. Consequently, we are then able to incorporate into our own toolbox those methods that he suggests to Titus, as they are suited for normal people and aimed to be used by normal people. The majority of the men and women of the Bible were not special people, they followed a special God, that enabled them to do special things. We, too, follow a special God that will enable us to do special things.
Let’s go line by line and observe the tutoring of Titus concerning the church in Crete.
Paul, a servant of God
Throughout Paul’s epistles he uses the word servant 17 times. In his time, one out of every three people in Italy was a servant to someone. Elsewhere in the world, one person out of every five people were servants. The visual definition of the word could be seen probably at least four or five times a day, depending on where you lived: One that is totally responsible to, and totally dependent upon another person. For us, living almost 2000 years later, we must rely only on our own minds to understand what a servant is. As a result, we are not able to envision or make the vivid correlation of the word with the action of complete subjugation.
When we think of servant, we think of a butler, or a maid that has chosen to pursue this area as an occupation. This was not the case during Paul’s time. Most hard ‘public’ labor was done by servants or slaves that had been taken during wars or conflicts, or purchased on the open market.. Even learned people were kept as servants or slaves. It was not unusual to see educators, doctors and lawyers as servants. Some families even kept priests as servants.
Now, we have to understand that many of these people became servants because they were either unable or unwilling to support themselves, or even live by themselves above the poverty level.
Pastors, we need to keep those ideas in our mind, we need to realize the extent of what Paul means when he says servant of God. What did servants do 2000 years ago? Think of something unpleasant or hard, or mundane, or time consuming, and they did it! Servants cleaned the bathrooms, dressed their masters, took care of the children and the animals. Servants worked the fields, broke rock, constructed buildings, and even fought each other to the death as gladiators.
Can we now picture what Paul means when he says a servant of God? One that is totally responsible to, and totally dependent upon another person. We are responsible to and dependent upon God! We are servants, and, we need to be servants not in the contemporary or modern sense of the word, but in the way it was thought of during the first century.
This takes a lot of training for some people, that is being a servant according to first century standards. As a pastor, we say that we have become servants of God. If that is true, then we need to surrender to Him and be totally responsible and totally dependent upon Him.
The training that I mentioned earlier begins with doing. As servants of God we of course will be called upon to bring the Word of God to the people. And, in addition to that, based upon the size and willingness of the congregation, is any other job that doesn’t get done. Total surrender and total humility go hand in hand.
Sometimes that hand is filled with a plunger. If you’ve never cleaned a bathroom, and there isn’t anyone else to do it on Monday morning, guess who gets to do it?
( Put your name here ) a servant of God.
apostle of Jesus Christ
First things first. Just what is an apostle? Well, to begin with, the word apostle is a common Greek naval term or technical word that was given to a messenger that had the authority of the sender. This definition is evidenced by the Greek form of the word apostle being represented as the word messenger in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, when Jesus said:
16 “I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”
Traditionally, the apostles were those 12 individuals that had special qualifications: participation in Jesus’ earthly ministry beginning with His baptism and a witness of the resurrection (see Acts 1:21-22). The apostles were the only ones that could tell the churches what to do. They were chosen by Jesus, and thus were His spokesmen to His church after His ascension.
However, when we read through Paul’s epistles, we see him not only embracing this traditional meaning of the word apostle, but also adding a further meaning of the word. He wrote in Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Ephesians Colossians and 2 Timothy, that he was called by God, and was an apostle (or messenger) by God’s will.
So, where do we go with all of this. As pastors, we must realize that we, too, are called by God as messengers for God. We are called but not necessarily in the sense of the previous definitions, but in the definition that we are the authority chosen for the particular church where we are or will be ministering. Human authority [ordaining, commissioning, or confirming] has nothing to do with becoming a pastor. For, like apostleship, becoming a pastor comes through Jesus Christ and God the Father, through the commandment of God our Savior.
for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness
Well, we’ve found out that we are messengers chosen or called by God. Then Paul tells us even more: where his heart is. Which means where our heart should be also.
He says, for the faith of God’s elect. Simply put, this means the Christian standard of belief. In modern terms we would use something along the lines of Our church’s belief; A belief statement; Our philosophy of worship. These are hard and fast, first line beliefs that cannot be changed. These are those beliefs that should be written upon the tablets of our hearts.
We hold onto the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. Knowing what to believe is one thing, but putting it into action is another. Our belief system, our faith, our knowledge of Jesus and what He did on the cross, should have changed our lives. Lives that are becoming more Christ-like each and every day. Lives that are becoming more godly every day.
If there is only ‘head knowledge’ of the Bible and not ‘heart knowledge’ we will not experience the last part of verse one. Look at a truncated version of verse one:
(Someone), a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth.
Without the proper ending of that verse, it seems a little selfish. It seems we are only doing it for ourselves. Without the proper ending of that verse we could very well be a disciple of some secular philosophy guru.
That leads to godliness is a result of a transformed mind and heart, and we should never leave it out of our message.
