Series Title: Pastoral Leadership, By Example (Titus)
Message Title: Trustful Expectation, HOPE!
Scripture: Titus 1:2
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--2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
In our previous message concerning Titus 1:1, we were able to dig into the Word and find several pearls of promise that we can incorporate not only into our pastoral tool bag, but into our daily walk with God as well. These pearls are easily found, but there is a word of caution, which I will present with an illustration.
I love to cook. In our house there are several cookbooks that are rather in-depth in their discussion concerning how to prepare most dishes. Some of these dishes are plain, or easy, or quick, or hard. But, they all have one thing in common. Until I read them over, gather the necessary ingredients, and prepare them for the first time, I’m not 100 percent sure what will be the end result. I must experience the ‘doing.’ And, once I have experienced the doing, I’m able to do it even better the second time, and I am able to explain it to others. But, they, in turn, will not fully understand the end result until they do it themselves at least once.
A further illustration, if I am seeking directions on how to get to a different part of a major city, or state, that I have never been to before, the first thing that I do is to look for someone that has been there. It would be useless for me to get information on my final destination from somewhere that has never been there before. As an example, suppose you were going to the airport. You look at the map and you consult some friends. Your map is a good one, but all of your friends, except for one, have not been to that airport in the last three years. Every one, except for one, that you speak to has very good directions and even some good advice, but that one friend tells you that last week, due to security reasons, two of the access roads to the airport, which were on the map, are closed. He also tells you that, since you are only ‘dropping’ someone off, that you should stay in a specific lane because traffic makes it impossible to get into that lane past a certain point. He is speaking from experience.
The emphasis is not just on getting the information [the pearls], but the ‘doing’ as well. Until you cook that first batch of barbecue ribs you will not be able to fully understand how to cook ribs. Or, until you have taken your friend’s advice on how to get to the airport and actually go there yourself, you will not fully understand how to get there, nor will you really be able to tell someone else how to get there.
That is what the Bible is all about. It is packed with pearls of promise in virtually every verse. However, until a person digs them out themselves and studies them he or she won’t know what they are. But, that is not all. We must also experience them, we must put them to our own personal use.
This brings us to our discussion on verse two of the book of Titus.
Again, that verse:
-2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,
Let’s recap Titus 1:1, where Paul says,
an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness-
We have already found out that the faith of God’s elect refers to the belief system of the Christian [i.e. What I believe concerning Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection.]. Further, we know that we must experience or ‘do’ the knowledge of truth in order to fully express godliness in our lives…our walking the talk. I can try to talk about the truth that I read about in the Bible, but until I express them in my life by doing and following them, they will not really have anything to do with godliness.
-2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life
Now that we know what this faith and knowledge of truth are, we are able to look at where they have their foundation. And, that is resting on the hope of eternal life.
Let’s first look at that word hope. Paul uses this word 56 times in his epistles. It gives us an indication of just how important hope is when he mentioned it in 1 Corinthians 13:13, along with two other frequent words of the Bible, faith and love:
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
In chapter one, we discussed the word servant and how important it is to think of the definition of the word in terms of the first century usage. The word hope, like the word servant, needs the same kind of attention. The reason is due to the ‘watered down’ meaning that has come to be associated with the word, and that meaning is that hope is a “feeling that what is wanted will maybe happen.” This understanding of the word promotes a perception that hope is an unclear or ambiguous hunger or yearning after something we can never have.
As an example, some parents allow their children to misplace their hope, by allowing them to put it in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, or other such ‘make-believe’ characters. Other instances would be allowing children or teenagers to believe that they may be able to accomplish something that an ‘action figure’ does on a cartoon, or in some role-playing game. Or, even calling hope something that a child may never be able to accomplish, such as play a professional sport, or become the president of major corporations. You see, we confuse the word hope with aspirations.
What is hope, then? The Biblical definition of hope is the anticipation of a favorable result under God’s protection and guidance. Hope is a trustful expectation. It is knowing, or having the confidence that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our inclusion in what God will do for us in the future.
If we are to communicate genuine hope to the members of the church, we must base it on the Bible’s number one pearl of promise and that is God and His saving acts.
The Christian’s hope is a finely blended end product from the fabulous ‘fruit of the spirit’ mentioned in Galatians 5:22 and 23.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Working in us and through us, God produces this fruit within every believer, which brings about our trustful expectation of God not only using us during our walk on this earth, but also that we will one day make that final journey to heaven. That is our hope of eternal life.
Elsewhere, the Bible specifically tells us in Hebrews how faith is used in conjunction with hope, and how it further builds that ‘trustful expectation.’
(Hebrews 11:1) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Why spend so much time on hope? Because many people read this verse and understand it to mean that, “if I’m good, I’ll get to heaven.’
And, now that we know that hope is not defined this way through some vague wish upon a star, we can communicate that this verse is a reliable verse. This verse is a promise. This verse is a guarantee that God, who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6).
which God, who does not lie,
In this part of verse two, Paul emphasizes the immutable or undeniable power and perfection of God, …does not lie. Which, as pastors we must always emphasize as well.
In the minds of Christians, this must always be at the forefront. We must always believe that God is going to do what He has said He is going to do. We must convince people in the congregations that when they come to a seemingly controversial statement in the Bible, or when they believe something seems to be a mistake, that they must step back and think this:
“God does not lie. Therefore the Word of God is true. Consequently, my thinking or interpretation must be wrong.”
So, you see, these three words concerning God’s character, …does not lie can have a tremendous influence on a person’s whole perception or interpretation of the Bible. If the Christian seems to think there are mistakes in the Bible, won’t they believe that this verse may actually be telling them, “if I’m good, I’ll get to heaven.’
Pastors are the shepherds, the overseers of Jesus’ flock on this earth. You must know what each and every member of the congregation believes.
promised before the beginning of time,
What a wonderful thing to know that God was thinking of me, of my faith, and of my family, before the creation of the world. This adds to my trustful expectation, that God is indeed watching out for me and will one day bring me home, and, not just because I’m a good Christian, either. It’s because He made the promise before I was born.
