Titus 3:12-15
Date: November 26th, 2023
Speaker: Samuel Crites
Scripture: Titus 3:12-15
Exegetical Outline
Main Idea of Text: Paul closes the letter by giving Titus instruction about greater Gospel efforts outside of the Church at Crete.
3:12-14: Paul gives Titus instruction on other Gospel opportunities outside the Church.
3:12: Paul wants Titus to come to him after Paul sends brothers to relieve him.
3:13: Paul want Titus to be aware of and support other Gospel efforts.
3:14: Paul wants Titus to teach the people to help these urgent needs so they can be fruitful for the greater kingdom.
3:15: Paul closes the letter with a greeting.
Homiletical Outline
Main Idea of Sermon: Young, small churches must have hearts set on the spread of the Gospel to the nations.
Encourage the work in other places by meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the workers.
Be trained and prepared for greater works of ministry.
Introduction:
Paul’s letter to Titus is really Paul’s letter to young churches. He has been giving Titus specific instructions for how to put the Church in Crete into order. The first problem Titus had to deal with were false teachers that were upsetting the Church. These false teachers were teaching for their own shameful gain and not caring for God’s people. But the only way to deal with ungodly leadership was to institute godly leaders. So Paul told Titus to establish elders, qualified men that would shepherd God’s people, silencing the false teachers and instructing the Church in sound doctrine.
Next, Titus was to lead out in this. Through the elders, he was to teach what accords with sound doctrine. Very practically, this meant teaching the church how to live well with one another. Older men were to be godly examples for all, demonstrating the Gospel in how they live and what they said. Older women were to do the same, but take special charge of the young women, teaching them to love their husbands and families. The younger men were to follow the older men and live self-controlled lives. All of this was to teach the Church how the reality of the Gospel changes the way they are to live with one another.
But if the Gospel changes how we live inside the Church, it should also change the way we live when we are outside the Church. It should change the way that we live in the world. So Titus was to remind the Church to be submissive to governing authorities and live humble and peaceful lives with their neighbors. Not because our neighbors are peaceful people, but rather because they are enslaved. They are bound to live ungodly lives because they have not been liberated from their bondage. That should make us compassionate neighbors. We should remember the weight of those chains on our own wrists. It has not been so long since the Gospel freed us from the same slavery. There should be a supernatural movement of every Christian toward the world because we know the grace that the Gospel offers. If they only knew what we know, they could experience the peace that we have.
Finally, Titus was charged by Paul to insist on these things, namely, he was charged to insist on the Gospel. The Gospel is the only thing that justifies all the commands that Paul has given the Church in Crete. The church needs a leader that is going to constantly put the Gospel in front of the people so they are reminded of the only thing that will truly benefit them. The Gospel is profitable because it is not only necessary for salvation, but also for the good works that lead to sanctification. In fact, the leader should be so focused on the Gospel, that he avoids useless controversies and is vigilantly leading the Church to deal with those that are divisive. He leads the Church in the hard work of fighting for unity, a unity centered on the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
At this point, Paul has said a lot. He has given the young Church in Crete a lot of things to work on. As we read our sermon text tonight, you might be tempted to dismiss these last verses as merely the personal closing commands that Paul has for his protégé. It might seem like these are just extra things, that Paul is finished talking to the Church and these last verses do not have a lot of relevance for you and me. That is not true. As we read these final verses, consider how Paul’s final commands fit into all that he has already said to the Church in Crete.
Let’s read Titus 3:12-15:
Titus 3:12-15
12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. 13 Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. 14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.
15 All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all.
The Church in Crete is young and full of problems, but Paul seems to think that they are not too young to participate in the Gospel in other places. In fact, he seems to think that Titus, as a young pastor, can be of use to him in Nicopolis, and he seems to think that the Church, despite its adolescence, can participate in Gospel efforts by helping these other brothers that he is sending to them in their work. The main idea of our sermon is this: Young, small churches must have hearts set on the spread of the Gospel to the nations.
In spite of all the problems the Church in Crete has and in spite of the fact that they are young and small, Paul expects them to participate in the spread of the Gospel in places other than Crete. Paul expects them to do this in two ways. First, he expects them to encourage the work of the Gospel in other places by meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the workers. That could take many forms, but in the context of the letter, Paul wants the church to be generous with their pastor and be hospitable to workers when they have the opportunity. Titus’s trip to see Paul is a big request from the Church. They will be without their leader for at least a couple of months, but it is necessary to encourage and support Paul. He has also asked them to be ready to receive and be hospitable to a couple workers that will be passing through, Zenas and Apollos. The Church is to take care of them and meet all their needs. The nature of being a local church prevents the majority of people from going and doing the work in other places. They are to be doing the work here. But they can participate in the work in other places by being an encouragement to the workers, meeting their spiritual and physical needs, when they are able.
The second way that Paul tells Titus to lead the Church participate in the spread of the Gospel is to be trained and prepared for greater works of ministry. They are to be ready because they do not know when an opportunity will come or what the opportunity will be. When it presents itself, they are to spring on the opportunity with joy. However, they will only be ready for greater good works if they are faithful to do the work that God has set before them. In this case, Paul is sending them some workers that need to be cared for and supplied so that they can go on in their ministry. This is a small task, but it prepares the Church for greater works in the future. It is training in order to prepare them for more urgent needs in the future. The danger for s young church is becoming too focused on what we are doing here that we are unprepared to support what is going on out there. If we want to be fruitful, we must train ourselves to bear fruit. We must do the good works set before us so that we will be ready for greater, more urgent tasks in the future.
Even if what we can do is small. Even if it is not ideal or imperfect, young churches should start early in supporting Gospel ministry outside the walls of their Church, because God has placed the nations in our hands. No matter what the size or maturity of the Church, the Great Commission was given to all churches. In order to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and the commands that he gave us, young, small churches must have hearts set on the spread of the Gospel to the nations.
Encourage the work in other places.
Paul expects the Church in Crete to be actively growing in good works within the Church, as a part of their local community, but also in the spread of the Gospel to the nations. Even as a young church, they can do that by encouraging the work in other places by meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the workers. Meaning, as a small Church, we may not be ready to send out our own workers to plant churches in the nations, but we can make an impact for the Gospel among the nations by support those that have already been sent out.
Let’s reread verses 12 and 13:
Titus 3:12-13
12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. 13 Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing.
There are two things that are going on in these verses. First, Paul is requesting that Titus leave the Church for the winter so that he can join Paul in Nicopolis. Paul doesn’t give a reason, but we can assume that Paul misses Titus and that Titus is useful to him in ministry. The second thing is that Paul is sending the Church in Crete some men: two are going to relieve Titus and two are workers that need to be helped along their way as they go to accomplish other things for the kingdom. Both of these tasks that Paul has set before the Church are ways that the Church can encourage and support workers in other places.
First, the church is supporting Paul by sharing their pastor with him. In verse 4 of Chapter 1, Paul refers to Titus as his true child in the faith. Paul considers Titus to be his son. So it would seem natural that Paul misses Titus and would like to see him. They have been separated for who knows how long and Paul will be encouraged in general by simply being visited by Titus. How many of you have someone in your life like that. It doesn’t really matter what is going on, but just having this friend around, there mere presence would be an encouragement to you?
Not only that, but Titus is a useful brother in ministry. He is capable enough to do all that Paul has assigned him in this letter on his own. In 2 Corinthians 8:23, Paul refers to Titus as his partner and fellow worker in the Gospel. It seems that by nature, Titus is an encouraging brother. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul says that he was comforted by Titus’s arrival in the midst of great suffering and persecution because Titus brought a positive report from the Church at Corinth. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians had been effective in bringing the Church to repentance and Titus was overjoyed by their humility and obedience. Paul says that Titus’s joy was infectious and caused him to rejoice. Titus seems to be a brother that Paul could trust with hard things, but that also found joy in the victory and progress of the Gospel. Perhaps Paul needs that kind of encouragement again and that is why he is asking Titus to come to him at Nicopolis.
I understand Paul’s desire for fraternal encouragement. Before going into vocational ministry I did not understand how lonely it is being a pastor. There are just things, as a pastor, that you can really only talk about with other pastors. One of the great gifts that God has given me over the last three years is a group of friends who are all in pastoral ministry that I can talk to. It is so important for your pastors to have other friends that are pastors. This is something that they need. They need other brothers that are more experienced in pastoral ministry that can speak into situations that they have not experienced. They need other brothers to encourage them when they are tired or discouraged. Sometimes they need other brothers to laugh at the silly things that are going on in the Church to help them cope with the stress. That pastoral fraternity is a really important thing for the health of your pastors in the Church.
I say all of that because it is a sacrifice for the Church to allow their pastors to be away. To go to conference where they can develop those relationships with other pastors. To allow them the freedom to minister to other pastors and be an encouragement to other churches. To allow them time to be refreshed and take a sabbatical. Paul is asking Timothy to be away from his Church for what would likely be a couple of months of travel and fellowship ultimately to benefit Paul, to meet his spiritual need for encouragement and refreshment. That is a real sacrifice for the Church in Crete to make, but it is a real opportunity to make a greater impact in the Gospel ministry that is going on in the world. This little Church in Crete can have a global impact for the Gospel simply by sharing their pastor who can go be an encouragement on their behalf.
But not only that, Paul also tells them to be ready to hospitably receive a couple other workers that he is sending to them. Artemas and Tychicus are going to come and relieve Titus, and Zenas and Apollos are passing through Crete on their way to do other things for the kingdom. The church needs to be ready to serve all four of these brothers. They will serve Artemas and Tychicus by submitting to them and learning from them while Titus is away, and they will serve Zenas and Apollos by meeting their physical needs. The way Paul describes it with Zenas and Apollos is that they will be speeded on their way by the hospitality of the Church in Crete.
The Church in Crete is going to get a great opportunity to participate in the Gospel by loving on and being hospitable to these brothers as they travel to their next place of Gospel service. There are a couple things we can learn from this.
First, the ministry of the Gospel belongs to the Church, not these individuals. The reason that it is reasonable for Paul to have this expectation of hospitality from the Church is that the ministry of the Gospel actually belongs to the Church. These men are carrying out the core mission of the Church, not in place of the Church, but as an extension of the Church. Paul doesn’t just expect the people to obey, he expects them to joyfully serve these brothers. He expects their best effort, not for the love of Paul, but for the love of the Gospel.
Second, the Church is playing an essential role in the spread of the Gospel by caring for these men. Paul says that their hospitality will speed these men along. Meaning, the Church is a catalyst to help these men accomplish their greater task. The Church participates in the spread of the Gospel to the nations by caring for the workers that are going to do the work. He asks the Church to make sure that these men lack for nothing, meaning, it is the Churches duty to encourage them by sharing their spiritual gifts with them and by meeting their physical and financial needs.
Now, I think it is important to note that the Church in Crete does not have primary responsibility for these workers. It seems to be a fair inference that none of these four men originated from the Church in Crete. We don’t know where they came from, but the way that Paul introduces them to the Church at Crete makes it seem like he assumes the Church will not know these men.
This is an important observation because the sending Church does have a greater responsibility than other supporting churches. For example, consider the Church at Antioch. Three times Paul returns to his home Church in Antioch to make a report at the end of each of his missionary journeys. He doesn’t go back to the Church in Jerusalem or any of the Churches that he planted. He is a worker sent out from his sending Church in Antioch and he is still connected to that Church. The reason this is important is that it gives us a model for how a young Church can join in with other bigger and more mature churches to participate in whatever way they are able to support and encourage these workers as they spread the Gospel to the nations. The Church in Crete cannot send out their own workers yet, they barely have elders, but they can do this small thing. They can be hospitable to these men and meet their needs in so far as they are able to speed them along in their ministry. In this way, even a small and young church can participate in the spread of the Gospel to the unreached.
So very practically, a young Church that does not have a lot of resources, can have a large impact on the spread of the Gospel through the nations by sharing their pastor and demonstrating hospitality to the workers that are going to go do the work. The church may not be ready to do the work, but they can be an encouragement to those that are doing the work.
So what does that look like for you as a member? Max, Lanell, Erica and I just got back from Radius Day at the Radius International in Tijuana, Mexico. While we were there, we met many students that are being trained in language acquisition and other skills that will allow them to go to language groups today that have absolutely no access to the Gospel. There are over 3,000 language groups today that have no access to the Gospel in their mother tongue and no workers laboring to fix that problem. Most of these language groups are primitive. There is no written alphabet and the language is only spoken.
The students we met at Radius are going to dedicate the next 20 years of their lives to learning two languages, creating an alphabet, raising up a Church in these unreached and unengaged language, and Lord willing, translating the Bible into a language that has never had it before. It is really hard job. It will likely be 8-10 years before they are capable of sharing the Gospel in whatever language that they are targeting. They will need our encouragement. They will need our care. We are not big enough to send out our own workers to do that work, but we can be the Church that comes along side those students to encourage them and support them in whatever way we are able.
So, if you wanted, we could get you in contact with one of those students. Some are single, some are married, some are married with kids. How amazing would it be if you as a family adopted one or multiple of those students and dedicated yourself to writing to them and encouraging them in their efforts for the Gospel? Think of how encouraging it would be to those students to know that there were people in College Station, TX that knew them, understood their difficult situation, and were praying for them. That is something our church could do right now to have a real impact on the spread of the Gospel among the nations. All it takes is a little initiative on your part.
And then, perhaps as your relationships with these couples grows and they get to the places where they are going, we could visit them, baby sit their children, send them to a conference or on a vacation that they would not otherwise be able to take, just be with them so they don’t feel so alone. We could adopt them and their work so that they endure and persevere. You, our members, have invested in the relationships so that when they are discouraged, they call you. It is natural for them to reach out when they feel like quitting. You can actually be there for them so that they make it through the first 8-10 years, so they actually get to the point where they can share the Gospel in their people’s heart language.
We want to financially support workers among the unreached, but it is their spiritual needs that often go unmet. What if our church members were dedicated to loving and caring for workers from the very beginning. What if our members were the reason that workers stayed on the field and didn’t come home when they got discouraged or tired.
That is the kind of missions ministry that I want to have at Mosaic. I want our ministry to the unreached to be driven by the relationships our members have with the workers on the field. I want you to know the people. I want the relationships to be held by the members and led by the staff. Too many churches don’t even know the workers that they support. If we are going to be a church that meets both the spiritual and the physical needs of workers, we need to be a church that knows our workers. And for that, size is irrelevant. Our people can get to know and love the workers that we support no matter how big or sophisticated our missions department is.
The first thing that Paul is teaching the Church is that the Church can encourage the Gospel work in other places by meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the workers. The Church, no matter it’s size, is responsible for the spread of the Gospel among the nations. There is so much more to the spread of the Gospel among the unreached language groups of the world than sending money. The Church’s love for the Gospel should overflow to love for those that are going to do that work. They are not separate from us, but an extension of the great command of our Lord and Savior to take the Gospel to those that do not have it. When they are weary and tired, even a small church can be there to pick up the workers, love them with the Gospel, and send them back out to do the hard work of planting churches among the unreached.
Be trained and prepared for greater works of ministry.
The second thing that Paul teaches the Church about sending the Gospel to the nations is that even the smallest of good works are important. The Church should devote themselves to any good work, because they train and prepare the Church to do greater works of ministry. Let’s reread verses 14 and 15:
Titus 3:14-15
14 And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.
15 All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all.
I love how Paul begins verse 14. Let “our” people learn to devote themselves to good works. Paul has an apostolic responsibility for these people and even though he is separated from them, he feels a duty and affection for them to the point that he sees them as his people too. It is not as if Paul is merely writing to Titus about Titus’s church. He is writing to Titus about Titus’s church but also Paul is writing to Titus about Paul’s church.
The workers that Paul is sending to the Church at Crete are an opportunity for them to grow up in the faith. By caring for the spiritual and physical needs of these workers, they are preparing themselves for greater works of ministry. They are being trained for good works, whenever God’s providence manifests those opportunity in their lives. By doing these little act of service, they are learning to devote themselves to a life of good works, whatever the Lord calls them to do.
This is an important concept in shepherding. As the elders of the family, the pastors of the Church need to be constantly looking to give the members opportunities to grow in good works, no matter how small. That means including the people in every opportunity to do any act of service. Which means that the leaders of the Church have to become comfortable with inefficiency. They have to understand that they sacrifice efficiency of doing it quickly in order to help less mature members grow in their ability to do good works.
It’s like when I am cooking and the kids come through the kitchen and ask if they can help. This happened this year at Thanksgiving. In the moment, you might be tempted to just get it done. People are coming over or it’s late and we have to get the kids to bed, but I know that if I do not include the kids in the process they will never learn to do what I am doing. They’ll go to college and call us from their dorm not knowing how to do their laundry or make their own dinner.
This is also true in ministry. There are lots of things in ministry that can be accomplished more efficiently if the pastor or the staff was just to do them alone, but that means that the next generation is not getting the training and repetition that will prepare them to be able to do more in the future. One of the best pastors I know at bringing brothers along is Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. If you ever get a chance to spend time with Mark, you will notice that he has an entire gaggle of interns and pastoral assistants following him around all the time. He has them reading commentaries while he is writing his sermon. He has them ride along when he travels to speak. He lets them sit in on pastoral conversations and in elders meetings. He attempts to use almost every working minute of his ministry to train and prepare the next generation of leaders in the Church.
This is what Paul is talking about at the end of Titus 3. He is sending some brothers to Crete to be cared for by the Church so that the people can learn. This is an easy task. By cutting their teeth with these godly brothers, they will be trained to devote themselves to good works, and when they are devoted to good works, they will be prepared to meet more urgent needs whenever they arise. We would all like to conquer the world for the Gospel, but the reality is that we have to grow into good works.
Consider how you would feel if I called you tomorrow and asked you to preach the sermon next Sunday. How many of you would feel confident to be able to do that? How many of you should feel confident to do that? Lord willing, one day, we as a church are ready for that. When any number of brothers would be trained and experienced enough to step into the pulpit at a moment’s notice or be sent to another Church because their pastor got sick, but we are not there yet. They is a greater good work that we as a Church are not ready for. We need to be faithful to work the good works that God has given us so that we will be prepared in the future to do greater works of ministry in the future.
So, the question is: are we training ourselves for good works now? Is every member of the Church doing everything they can to grow in their own ability to do greater and greater things for the kingdom of God? Are we vigilant and ready to take on any and every opportunity for the Gospel that God might send our way? That is the kind of Church that I want to be, but sometimes we get the cart before the horse. We want to see the Sunda people of Indonesia or the Hausa people of Nigeria come to know Jesus, but we have not done the other things that Paul has taught is in this letter.
We have not dedicated ourselves to sound doctrine. In the most respectful way I can say this, some of the worst theologians in the world are on the mission field. That is not me being overly critical of missionaries. That is me talking to missionaries and hearing their own assessment of the quality of workers on the field. It is simply true that in many cases zeal has outpaced sound doctrine. If we want to see the unreached language groups of the world come to know the Gospel tomorrow, we must dedicate ourselves to sound doctrine today.
We have not dedicated ourselves to living in covenant community with each other, living according to the Gospel here before we seek to plant churches there. The churches that get planted among the unreached are not healthy churches. In fact, much of what is called a church on the mission field would not come close to meeting the biblical qualifications of a church or even the most meager standard of the common Church member in the states. Meaning, many mature Christians here would not attend the Churches there because they are not biblical. If we want to plant healthy churches among the unreached, we must first be a healthy church so the right biblical DNA is being replicated for the good of the nations.
We have not dedicated ourselves to reach our community here with the Gospel, but we spend millions of dollars to reach people on the other side of the planet, boasting about the number of dollars we spend and the number of trips we take when our neighbor down the street are lost. That does not mean that we should wait to see churches planted among unreached languages until all the people in the states are converted, it means that the same passion that would drive us to send workers there should drive us to be the workers here. There are not two Great Commissions, there is only one. Whether it is Jerusalem of the ends of the earth the task is the same. The reason we cannot go there is because we are doing the work here.
I hope you feel the urgency in the text. Whether the work is here or there, the world needs the Gospel. That is Paul’s point, but doing greater works of Gospel ministry require us to do the smaller works of Gospel ministry first; our Church must grow into the greater works. We will not be ready to be effective among the nations until we have become devoted to the good work of the Gospel here. Paul’s commands in his letter to Titus are progressive. There is an order to them.
A young church needs to get the leadership right so that the doctrine can be right so that the people can live right, inside and outside the Church, so that they will be prepared for good works whenever and however the Lord brings them the opportunity. Unhealthy, unfruitful churches cannot participate in spreading the Gospel where it is not. They must be devoted to good works that flow out of the preaching of the Gospel or they will miss the greater opportunities to make an impact in the kingdom of God.
Conclusion
As we close, consider this: the nature of being a young church is that we do not have a lot of time, resources, or even the benefit of past experiences. Everything we do is new and there is a lot of making it work with what we have. In many ways, that’s what makes it fun and exciting. We are able to experiment and try new things. We have no other choice but to rely on God and each other, because that is all we have.
However, though we are small, we are still a church, a young church, but still a church. We are no longer a church plant and I am not a church planter. I am your pastor. As a church, we have the same responsibilities as every other church when it comes to fulfilling the commands of our King. We might be tempted to tell ourselves that we are not in a place where we can worry about the spread of the Gospel among the nations, but is that true? In Acts 1:8, Jesus said:
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
It was a pretty small group of people on the Mount of Olives that day. The power to carry out this commission was not going to come from the size of their bank account or the number of people in their church, the power to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth was going to come from the Holy Spirit.
Are we any different? Do we not have the same Spirit with us that they had with them? Brothers and Sisters, though we are small, the weight of our duty is no lighter. The commands of our Savior are just as binding, and the power to carry them out is just as mighty.
Let us be a Church that has set our heart on the nations from the beginning. Let us be a Church that is not known for the size of our membership, but for the impact we have on the nations.
Let’s pray.