The Book of Titus - Part 4

Have you ever received a letter or an email or a postcard from someone who you haven't heard from in quite a while? Usually it's pretty encouraging and pretty exciting, especially if they are overseas in another country and you've been waiting for a response to them. Paul the Apostle, who is responsible for writing much of the New Testament epistles, was in the habit of writing letters to different people and to different congregations. Not being able to be at every place at the same time, and God gifting him with wisdom and the ability to write and the ability to think logically and to communicate very well, God entrusted Paul to give instructions to the local churches and into individuals' lives, especially those who were bishops and overseers of churches in different areas, to help them stay true to what God had called them to do. One of the small letters that Paul wrote is the letter of Titus, which we find in the New Testament. Paul, we read in the book of Acts, originally was one of the great persecutors of the church. His mission in life was to destroy these Christians in this new way that they called, which he thought was something against God, and failed to recognize that instead of being against God, Jesus was the fulfillment of what all God planned to do, and these believers worshiping Jesus was the true way. Paul, on the Damascus Road, in order to go to where he was going to persecute more Christians, arrest them and kill them like he did Stephen, all of a sudden a bright light from heaven shone and Paul fell off of his horse and a voice from heaven said, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Of course, his name was Saul at that time, later he was known to be Paul, and so this voice was saying, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? He said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. From that point onwards, Paul's life would never be the same. Instead of being the great persecutor of the church, he became the great proclaimer of Jesus and the love that Jesus has for all people. Paul, being very bold in his witness, would often end up in prison, beaten, shipwrecked on islands, misunderstood, but he would never back down from telling people how much God has done in his life and what God could do in their life. Paul, being very educated, very well versed in knowledge, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, knows the Old Testament Jewish traditions and laws, and now he has been commissioned by God to go and proclaim the good news of God's love everywhere. We read in John's Gospel chapter 3, verse 16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God's heart, a heart of love, is that all people would come to know Jesus as their Savior so they too could experience the true purpose in life and the love that God provides, through Jesus Christ going to the cross, spilling his blood, his body beaten and pummeled, and going into the grave and three days later rising again in power, proving to us that Jesus is the Messiah. The peace and joy that we have today is through Jesus what God gave us through the free gift of salvation and the purpose that he brings to our life. So Paul the Apostle, now becoming the great proclaimer of God's love to all people, is writing letters to Titus and Timothy and Philemon and different people to give them instructions. And in Titus chapter 1, verse 1, it says, Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of truth that leads to godliness. In 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. And at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior. And so here Paul identifies himself as the author of the letter which very often at that time they would not sign the letter at the bottom but rather at the very beginning they would say this is Paul writing or this is Peter writing or this is some other person writing rather than like we do at the very bottom we put our signature. And so Paul not only tells us at the beginning that he is writing this and that we need to pay attention because it's him personally doing this but he says Paul and he takes the title of a servant and also an apostle. But he says Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ. It's interesting with the amount of knowledge that Paul has and the education that Paul has which in today's standards would be equal to many PhDs and the language that he has which is wonderful not like Peter who is kind of down to earth which is also wonderful but a different type of wonderful in simplicity whereas Paul is very logical and thinking and very kind of very deep in his understanding and here Paul this great man of God takes the title servant. Now unfortunately we think today servant of God means a big position and often those who are in the ministry misunderstand and misuse the position that God has given to them. If you think about it servant means literally slave, slave of God, servant of God. We have to go back to what the Bible actually means about servant. In the Old Testament during the year of Jubilee which was a time when all the slaves could go free, all the property would go back to the original owners, all debts would be cancelled, everything kind of gets reset and restarted, clean slate. It's a time that God put in place that it would help everyone and the nation and people could have a fresh start. During that time when the slaves were allowed to go free or if there was another time where maybe a slave paid off his debt and he was allowed to go free and he sold himself into slavery to pay off a debt. Whatever the case when the time of freedom came if a slave did not want to leave the master but rather he loved or she loved the master so much that he decided to serve the because of love not requirement and he wanted to commit his life to the master for the rest of his life or her life he would be called a bond servant. A servant or slave not by force but a servant or slave by choice. So the master of the house would take the servant, this man or this woman, to the door of the house or the gate of the city and take a small iron rod and pierce the ear into the door as a sign that this man or this woman wants to be my servant or slave because of love. No one is forcing them. It is because of love they want to serve. That is a different type of thinking and it lines up very well with what Jesus said. Jesus said whoever wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all. When you think of discipleship, Jesus called the disciples. We think of discipleship as the apostles but discipleship is a lifestyle. It is who we are. Not an idea or position or power but discipleship. Jesus called people to follow him and he said anyone who wants to be my disciple must do these three things. Deny themselves, pick up their cross, and follow me. Denying themselves their own rights, forfeiting their own plans, giving up their own dreams, taking the difficult road in order to make wise choices and to do things that they would do not normally, picking up the cross, embracing suffering and difficulty. The cross leads you to death. It does not say pick up Jesus' crosses, pick up our cross. It is a choice we make to deny ourselves and a choice we make to pick up our cross. What does that mean? The cross is not my tire on my bicycle or my motorcycle or my car got flat or I got a stomach ache or I failed my exam or the food in the fridge went bad and spoiled or the tea didn't taste well. That's not the cross. All of us on earth will face normal problems and difficulties of life. That is not the cross. Some people go and say, oh I got a fever. That's the cross I'm bearing. Or I have these children who are difficult to deal with. That's the cross I bear. That is not the cross. Those are normal problems that all of us face, whether we are believers or non-believers. The cross is choices I make in order to follow Christ and sometimes they are difficult choices. For example, who likes to fast and pray? I haven't met anyone who likes to fast and pray. I've met many people who do fast and pray and they enjoy the experience. But to purposely fast and pray just because you like it so much, we would rather eat ice cream than to fast and pray. And yet if you choose to fast and pray, it is a choice that you're making to embrace difficulty to follow Christ even more. When you tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, your colleagues, your classmates about what Jesus has done in your life and maybe because of that they make fun of you or mock you, but you don't worry about that. You tell them because you love them and you receive ridicule, you are picking up your cross. Why? Because Jesus told us to tell others about what he has done on the cross for us. When we choose to give from our resources to help others and it may cost us something, then we are picking up our cross. Whatever we do that is to embrace difficulty, not purposefully hurting ourselves, but the choices we make. Maybe it means saying goodbye to some friends. Maybe it means letting go of something. In order to follow Christ more wholeheartedly, denying yourself, picking up our cross, and the third decision is then come and follow me. Discipleship is not just that we love Jesus. Discipleship is discipline, loving Christ, and action that goes along with it. Jesus answering a question to a lawyer who said, what is the greatest commandment? Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, which all Jewish, even children would know that. And Jesus said, and the second is like it, love your neighbors as yourself. On these two, everything is hanging and everything is understood. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. To be a servant of God means, first of all, we are disciples of Christ. We are denying ourself, picking up our cross, and following him. It also means that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength, and all that we are, and we love our neighbor as ourself. When you have these two things coming together and being evident in our life and being empowered by God, then we can be a servant, a slave of God. We become a slave or servant of God because we love him. Jesus, talking to his disciples in John's Gospel chapter 14, said, if you love me, not with your words, but with your mind and heart and your practical obedience. If you love me, you will obey me. Here's a very simple question. When we read the Bible in the morning or evening, when we do our devotions, do we read it with a heart of obedience, or are we reading it simply to gain knowledge or to prepare a Bible study? See, to read it with a heart of obedience means I'm reading God's Word. I am agreeing with God that this is supernatural. I recognize that this is not simply ink on paper, words printed for me to read, but it is a reflection of my life and character that God is revealing in the Word of God so that I can see what needs to change. And in this, what I find is that I am reading for obedience. And every time I obey what God tells me through his Word, it changes my character. It pushes me forward. And when I read it again for obedience, then I am moving forward in my spiritual life and in maturity. Jesus said, if you love me, then you will obey me. And in John 15, if you obey me, you abide in me. And if you abide in me, then your life bears fruit. And it's the Father's will that your life bears much fruit, but also good and lasting fruit. Jesus in John 15 talked about our life being like a branch connected to the vine. If you have ever seen grapes or other types of fruit where there is a main vine and there is branches, maybe it's a passion fruit or some other type of little vine, you will see that there is a vine and the roots are into the ground, which is having all the nutrients. And then you have these branches that are going to the vine and all the nutrients are going through the vine into the branches. And the branch simply has to remain in the vine. The branch does not need to struggle and push the fruit out. It just has to remain there. And automatically fruit is being produced. Look at any mango tree. You don't see the mangoes straining and struggling to be produced. The branch simply remains. If you love me, you abide in me. If you abide in me, your life bears fruit. In John 15, Jesus said the Father will prune different areas of our life to make us more fruitful. We know this. If you want a tree to produce more fruit or better fruit, you prune or you cut away the unnecessary branches. That sounds funny, but if you think about it, there are certain branches that are very good, which go out or go up. And there's other branches that are inside or getting in the way. If you clip all those small branches, those waste branches, what happens is the nutrients that is going through the trunk or through the vine is not being pushed into unnecessary branches, but only will be pushed to the branches that bear fruit. And what you find is season after season, more and more fruit is produced when the pruning process is done properly. My father has two fig trees, and these fig trees get very large. But every fall, I will take a chainsaw and I will cut the fig trees almost to half. It looks horrible. During the winter season, when most of the leaves fall down anyway, it looks like a bunch of sticks in the air. It looks terrible. But by spring, the new branches begin to come. The new leaves begin to sprout. You see the flowering and finally the figs show up. So do all the birds. The birds love to eat the figs. And you find that there are so many figs, more than the previous year, because of the pruning process. When you think of Paul the Apostle claiming his title as a servant of God, and you remember what Jesus said, whoever wants to be the greatest must be the servant of all or slave of all. And you go back to the Old Testament that a willing slave based on love would be a bond servant, not for money, not for position, but simply because of love. And you go and look at what Jesus said, that if we love him, we will obey him. And through that love, we abide because of our obedience and our life bears fruit. You go to Revelation chapter 2. It's a very sad, sad thing. But it gives us a lot of encouragement to keep on track. Jesus writing to the churches tells them a couple of things, and especially the pastors. He says, listen, I appreciate all that you're doing. I appreciate how you are faithful to the word. I appreciate how you are faithful for worship and you help the poor and you're careful not to allow false teachers to come in. But this one thing I have against you. You have left. You have forgotten your first love. What does that mean? Simply means all the work they were doing was the same, but the motivation of love was gone. My brother, my sister, the challenge, especially for those of us who are ordained as fathers, clergy, pastors, deacons and elders. Is that if we are not careful, we will serve the Lord, claiming the title servant of God. And yet we miss everything because there is no love for God as the motivating factor in our life. Everything we do in terms of serving God should be from the motivation of loving God. You know what that means? That means money never becomes the motivating factor of my service for God. I've seen too many young people who are serving the Lord in one area, definitely called by God for that, and someone else offers them more money over here. And what they do? They leave what God originally gave them and jump over where more money is. Money should never be the motivating factor. Even if God allows you to do that, money should never be the motivating factor. Position and power, prestige, honor is another thing that we find that ruins a servant of God. The work physically may continue, but the heart becomes empty. My brother, my sister, if we serve God with simply our activity and the heart of love is not there for God, we are not obeying God because of love. Like Jesus said, if you love me, you obey me. But we are simply going through the motions and activity and you will find that our life becomes empty. If money, power, position, honor, prestige, those become the motivating factor. We are headed in a very dangerous area of our life. Ask the question, if no one would recognize me, if I'd never got any extra money than I'm getting now for the next 20 years of my life, if my position never changed, if I do the same work for God for the next 50 years, will I continue faithfully serving God in the way that I'm doing? It's a very hard question because if we are honest with ourselves, we want to rise up, we want to do better, we want people to appreciate us, we want to be recognized for what God is doing in our life. Take the example of Jesus, the greatest servant of God. Everything he did, even the miracles he did, people went away praising and glorifying God. Whatever Jesus did in his service and blessing others, it pointed people to Almighty God. That is a true servant of God, that they don't see the servant of God, but rather they see God behind the servant as the main thing. Paul the apostle takes the title, not only apostle, but he takes the title servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ. His heart, his love, his longing is that God would be praised, and his being apostle, his mission is to tell everyone about Jesus. Why? Because Paul loves God with all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his strength, and all of his mind, and he loves others as he loves himself. This is why Paul could say, follow me as I follow Christ. It wasn't simply follow me, but follow Christ through my life. My brother, my sister, if we want to do anything significant for God, ask the question, do I love him more than money? Do I love him more than position? Do I love him more than power, honor, recognition, or anything else? Will I still be faithful to the simple task that God has given to me for the next 15, 20 years of my life? And what will keep me there? My love for God. It's a very important question to ask every single day when we wake up. Lord, do I love you with all of my heart? Please help me so that I can do this and remain faithful. And when God prunes those areas out of our life that is unfruitful, know that it is because he loves us and our life will bear even more fruit as we serve him. Let's pray and ask the Lord to help us have the right motivation of love as we serve him. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you that this life that we have can be given to you completely as we love Jesus with all of our heart and we worship. We find that the right motivating factor is there for our service to God. And Lord, we ask that we would be the kind of people that others would recognize it is not for position or power or money that we serve, but we serve you because we simply love you. I pray for each of my brothers and sisters. Bless them, watch over them, help them as they make their decisions to deny themselves, pick up the cross and follow Jesus and loving you with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and loving their neighbor as themself. Lord, we thank you for this. In Jesus name. Amen. My brother, my sister, remember this. The Bible has the answers for life and God's promises always comes true. May the Lord bless you as you experience his grace and mercy and love and peace in your life today.