Prescriptions for a Healthy Church: Saved by Grace
August 7th, 2011 (PM). By: Rod Earnshaw
It’s not just me is it – things are actually getting worse in our society.
When I was at school one girl left in yr 10 and rumours she was pregnant. Five years later when I came back from Uni and talked with kids in my youth group they had many friends who’d left school to have kids. One gay guy in my year at school – how many of them today? Abortion? Drunkeness etc. etc. etc.
Lady Gaga, Gay Pride, The Big Market on Friday night, abuses of the Welfare state, the Tottenham riots…
The apostle Peter described his society as ‘plunging into a great flood of dissipation’ (that is debauchery, indulgence, decadence) – and the same could be increasingly said of our world couldn’t it – all around us people are drowning in a sea, a flood, an inrushing Tsunami, an accelerating avalanche of debauchery.
What do we do in the midst of a society that seems to be lurching further and further out over the gutter?
The right wing approach – US Christian TV points the big finger of blame and goes on the attack… And we can understand can’t we – some of the things going on around us are really disgusting… but it doesn’t seem right does it?
It’s this response to the outside world that Paul focuses on in our passage this evening in Titus 3. And we need to remember the world that Titus and the Christians on Crete lived in. ‘Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons’ – their society had a global reputation for their bad behaviour. How should they live in the midst of that? How should they respond to the things that were happening all around them? Paul gives them a very clear and startling answer here in Titus chapter 3 – it can be summed up simply as showing humble submission. Huh?
What about the finger of blame?
What about Lady Gaga and Gay Pride and Teenage pregnancy and the Big Market and and and….
Paul says show humble submission – and he knows that’s going to be hard so he gives this passage tells us what, why and how to react to the world around us. Submit to Authority and do good to all in all humility. Why – well we’re no better – we used to be just like that; How? God rescued us and God’s working in us.
So those will be our three points
What Response? Humble Submission (verse 1,2&8).
Why? Because we’re no better, we used to be just the same as everyone else (Verse 3).
How? God saved us, and God’s changing us (verse 4-7).
So let’s have a look at those now:
Point 1 – What do we do – Show humble submission
Look at verse 1 and 2
1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no-one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility towards all men.
8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
At first glance this looks a lot like chapter two doesn’t it – Paul’s still going on about being good! And yes, it is a lot like chapter two. Both of them are working out what seems to be the big theme for the book as a whole – the church should teach the truth that leads to godliness.
Paul started the letter by describing himself as an apostle of the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, and that theme of knowledge of the truth and that truth leading to godliness has been continued from there on – the elders: Titus was told to appoint elders who would be able to teach the truth and refute error, and one of their main qualifications was that their lives were godly. On the other hand the dodgy teachers who were to be silenced taught falsehood, and lived ungodly, deceitful lives. The truth leads to godliness, leaders in the church must be godly.
In chapter two Titus was to teach that which is in accordance with sound doctrine – which turns out was a series of instructions to be godly. It turns out the gospel itself – the truth that Paul has been urging Titus to preach – teaches us, trains us in godliness. The truth transforms us into godliness.
But here there is a subtle change of emphasis – where before the emphasis was on our personal relationships (within households, wives and husbands, slaves and masters etc.) here the focus is outside the home, in the public sphere as we might say.
So he starts off with instructions for relating to the civil authorities. And what he says is stark in its simplicity, but massive in it’s implications. He simply says we should obey them. Notice that Paul doesn’t differentiate between good rulers and bad, just as he didn’t differentiate in chapter two between good masters and bad, or good husbands and bad. If they are rulers or authorities then we obey.
This is why Christians have always been good citizens, because we recognise that authority is God’s idea – it belongs to God and he gives authority to people as he chooses for the good of all.
In a fallen world authority can and will be abused, but if we know God, the source of all authority, then our standard posture towards authority must always be humble submission. Where earthly authorities step over the line and ask us to do what God tells us not to, or not to do what God tells us to do, then we must resist at that point. But our standard posture is submission to authority. We recognise the right of rulers to have authority, and we’re ready and willing to be obedient.
What would this look like in a democracy? Democracy is a bit different to the absolute rule of a monarch – but we’re still subject to the laws of the land, still submissive towards those who represent authority in our lives – like police officers, teachers at school, bosses or managers at work, ministers in churches even.
The difference that democracy makes is that it asks us to get involved directly in government – by voting, by helping your representative to represent you and your interests, by communicating your concerns to the government. See this attitude of submission in our context doesn’t mean rolling over and staying out of politics, it means being involved in the best possible way, helping to make our system of government work.
That idea is widened out in the next phrase – ‘ready to do whatever is good’ – Not just submissive, certainly not resentfully hiding in a Christian ghetto, keeping our heads down, paying our taxes and crossing at the lights, but involved in our world with our non Christian neighbours, on the look-out for opportunities to do good. To help people, to care for needs, to elevate the down trodden, to look after the weak, the needy, the vulnerable.
And in that same spirit we should watch our mouths and how we speak about others – not to be slanderers, but to be peaceable and considerate – to show true humility towards all men. Again Paul doesn’t say that other people won’t deserve to be told off or corrected, but he says that we shouldn’t indulge ourselves by having a go at them.
I’m sure this would have been as unusual in Cretan culture as it is in our world today. Think of the corruption in the news papers we’re hearing so much about at the moment. What’s at the heart of this hacking scandal? These newspapers realised that people weren’t really interested in news per see – but in grotty hidden secrets. We love scandal, we love slander, we love to know what people are getting up to and we love to revel in our judgment on them. Whole industries of gutter journalists, paparazzi photographers, and, it turns out, dodgy private investigators, have been built around our unquenchable thirst for dirty secrets. People’s phones were hacked, people’s emails hacked, people’s bins ransacked – no depth was considered too low to go to dredge up dirty secrets.
But that’s not the Christian way. We should keep our noses out of it, and we should keep our mouths clean.
So finally there’s ‘peaceable and considerate and showing true humility – this is ‘motherhood and apple pie territory isn’t it? Every body knows that we should be considerate of others and humble not proud – well yes, and that’s because Christianity has had such a profound influence on our culture, these biblical values have seeped into our unconscious. But there’s a big difference between knowing what we should do and doing it! Isn’t there?
Listen to a bunch of teenagers talking, especially a mixed group of boys and girls. Usually what you’ll hear isn’t a conversation, but a series of stories that make the person telling them sound good – we wait our turn to talk, not to move a conversation forward, but to tell our story so that we look cool, funny, smart, or whatever our angle is. Many of us never grow out of that.
But Christian conversation isn’t like that. We’re not looking for ways to humiliate others, we’re not looking for a fight or an argument, and we’re not looking for ways to big note ourselves. Instead we’re actually listening to other people, engaging with them, treating them as more important than ourselves.
Have you ever met someone famous, or someone who did something fascinating or dangerous – it’s easy to treat someone like that as if they’ve got something important to say – Paul says we should treat everyone that way! (and if you think about it every person you ever meet is created by God and made in his image – they all have something unique and wonderful about them, to treat them as anything less is to malign the God who made them!)
Now all of that might be fine – but the people we’re being nice to, well sometimes they’re right shocking! Slander is too good for them – they live disgusting lives, we can’t help but be appalled. What about the finger of blame? What about Lady Gaga and the Gay Pride and the Big Market and Welfare abuse and corrupt politicians and Newspapers and –
How do keep ourselves humble rather than getting into the blame game?
Well notice, there’s no suggestion here that things are OK. Remember Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. Three are false teachers around usurping authority and destroying whole households who are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. So then what’s the deal?
The deal is that we’re in no position to judge.
Point Two: Why be humble? Because we’re no better, we used to be just the same as everyone else (Verse 3).
Look at verse 3:
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
First – notice that this is as stinging a condemnation as you will find almost anywhere in the bible. There is no sense of sugar coating here, Paul hits us with the shocking truth. The people we live among will live appalling lives. There is real evil at work in the world and not just out there in ‘evil’ people, the great mass of humanity is like this – corrupt, foolish, deceived and enslaved. This is a sweeping blanket condemnation of all people everywhere. No wonder we see so many things that aren’t right… people aren’t right.
Second – notice that Paul includes himself, and Titus, and all the Christians on Crete in this description. This isn’t a case of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Paul’s not one of those bitter and twisted hate-filled right wing finger pointers – he doesn’t think that he’s whiter than white while everyone else is guilty. He can frankly admit that all those things have been true for him. We need to frankly admit that those things are true of us too. At least by nature, because:
Thirdly – notice that Paul isn’t like that any more, nor does he expect Titus or the Christians on Crete to be like this. Becoming a Christian should have a dramatic effect on our lives – transforming foolish to wise; disobedient rebels to submissive citizens, deceived and enslaved sin addicts into lovers of good that accords with the truth; malicious, envious, hateful and hate-filled people into humble, gracious, other-person centred, lovely and loving people.
See what Christianity does for us? This is just what Rob was talking about in chapter 2 verse 11 and 12:
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
Only Grace can change our hearts – because only God’s grace can enable us to honestly face the dark corners in our own hearts – to acknowledge our sin and name it for what it is – disgraceful, disgusting, shameful, wicked. That’s my heart and that’s your heart. By nature we are filled with all sorts of awful things. There’s no getting around it.
It’s not the world out there that’s the problem, as if we could just rearrange things a bit and we’d all get along well – maybe better education, maybe re-align the workers to the means of production, maybe re-distribute the wealth so that we’re all even, maybe a revolution or two – they’ve all been tried, and not one of them produces a new man, at the end of the day people are still sinful.
Nor can things be solved by moralism – more and better rules just means more sophisticated rule breakers, or greater pride when we think we’ve managed to keep the rules.
And adding religion to moralism isn’t the answer – look at Islam, it claims to produce great morals, elevated human beings, but it produces every kind of sin, just like all the other religions, and at the extreme end Muslims blow themselves up to kill people who don’t live by their religion.
Perhaps you like the idea of Karma – that somehow justice will be done in another life-time. But that doesn’t produce different people either – just self justification, because if I’m born into a rich and powerful family, now it’s not just ‘good for me’, a happy accident of history – now I’ve earned it, it’s a just reward for my good character. And if you’re born into a lowly family – well that’s not just ‘bad for you’; you’re getting what you deserve. So the people at the top despise the people at the bottom and the ‘untouchable caste’ are literally cast aside as worthless.
Only Grace let’s us see that we’re actually guilty before God. Look into the Old Testament Law and you’ll find page after page of laws that condemn you to death. They’re not just exaggerating, you do actually deserve death. The bible reveals that we’re worse than we thought, more guilty than we imagined, worthy of death, even death on a cross – even eternal punishment from God. But God forgives our guilt, cleanses our consciences and changes us from the inside out.
So before we go on to the next section I want to ask did you see yourself in those verses? Have you looked into the dark and hidden places in your heart and faced the evil cleanly and squarely and said that’s evil, and that’s me; and do you know that you deserve death? Because until you do, you’ll never understand what Christianity is all about… And you’ll never be able to come to Jesus for help. To be a Christian is first to recognise that you’re guilty, guilty, guilty, and you’re in deep trouble before God and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Do you recognise yourself in these verses? Or are you still deceived and enslaved that you don’t even know your own heart?
And if you’re on the right wing end and you’re tempted to rant and rave about he depravity of our society, do you remember that you’re no different – well you should be different now, but in yourself, without God’s intervention in your life, whatever you want to condemn, well you’re condemning yourself. Because that’s just how you were, how you are by nature, in yourself without God’s intervention.
How can we maintain true humility to all men? Simply by remembering that we’re not actually any better – as far as we’ve avoided any particular sin or enslavement, well we’ve got God to thank for that, as we’ll see. But the sin behind the sin, the attitude of heart that rebels against God and turns to false gods, well we’ve all got that as our default setting, none of us can say we’re better; we’re all condemned before God.
That’s why we’re uncomfortable with the right wing finger pointing, the culture wars, the shrill condemnation of others. And that’s why we need to stop doing those things ourselves if we are. Whenever you find yourself ready to damn others, stop and thank God that he’s forgiven you for worse things – yes, worse things – and pray for the people who shock or offend you, or wrong you. Ask God to forgive and save them.
How can we pray that? Well, that’s what God did for us, if we’re Christian, it’s not because we were worthy, not because we did good things and caught God’s eye or won his favour, it’s simply because of God’s mercy, and that’s Paul’s third point.
Point Three: How? God saved us, and God’s changing us (verse 4-7).
Look at verse four:
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
This is one of the richest and most fantastic passages in the scriptures. I’m sure we could do a whole sermon series in this paragraph alone. Needless to say we won’t be able to plumb their depths in the time we’ve got tonight.
Instead let’s just pause here for a moment and try and soak up some of the rich goodness from this meaty passage.
The first thing we need to see is that we are none of us worthy of God’s mercy. That’s a truism that – you can’t be worthy of mercy, mercy is something you show to people who aren’t worthy. Nonetheless it is a perennial error that people make again and again and again. To this day the Roman Catholic church teaches a form of it; N T Wright and his new perspective on Paul teaches a sophisticated form of it. And most people on the street believe that it is the Christian gospel: be good and God will let you into heaven. But it’s not. So we need to be clear – and Paul is incredibly clear here.
God didn’t save us because of righteous things we did, verse 5. There’s an explicit contrast – not because of righteous things we did, but because of his mercy. On the last day when we stand before God as he sits on his throne in judgement he’s going to open up the books with the record of our lives and he’s not going to open up to your name and say ‘Oh well done, you made it, you’ve been perfect, exactly what I wanted’. It’s not going to happen – we’ve all sinned and fallen short, and we all continue to fall short. God doesn’t choose the good ones, we’re all bad ones. God chooses from the bad apples, not because we’re good, but because he’s merciful.
Second thing we need to see is that God is a saviour, verse 4. Out of his love and kindness, because of his mercy he saves – that’s what makes a Christian, someone who’s been saved. Saved from what? Saved from the consequences of our own sinful behaviour! That’s why it says the kindness and love of God our saviour appeared – because God’s love and kindness has been taught everywhere in the bible – we saw it in Exodus 34 – but it has been shown in its fullness and depth at the cross. God’s love and kindness fully and finally appeared when Jesus came to die for us – to save us from the consequences of our sin.
Again we need to be very clear here – if you need a saviour, then you can’t do it yourself. They don’t waste money putting lifesavers on beaches so they can join you in the water for a bit of fun – you need lifesavers because people get into trouble and need to pulled from the water or they’d die. You and me, we need to be saved… If you’re not a Christian, you still need to be saved. You are guilty before God and you’re in trouble for which you need a saviour. And in his kindness, love and mercy God has provided one. Won’t you look to him to be saved?
Thirdly notice that we’re not just saved to go to heaven. As if this life here doesn’t matter. No, we’re saved now, for new life now. We’re saved by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit poured out abundantly on us by Jesus Christ. All throughout this letter Paul has been urging Titus to teach stuff that will lead to godly living. The truth has consequences for our lives. The truth must change us. But again, this is not just more moralising. Now that we’ve been saved we need to pull our socks up and do good or we’ll miss out. No, but being saved involves washing – cleansing from sin so that we’re clean; and renewal and rebirth – the giving of God’s own spirit within us to empower us to do good.
So much is this the case that we ought to be able to use this as a diagnostic tool. If verse 3 describes the person you are now, then you need you might never have been saved – you need to ask God now to have mercy on you and to wash and cleanse you and to change you by giving you new birth and renewal by his holy spirit so that you can say that’s the old me – I used to be like that, but he’s changed me.
Finally notice that it’s not all about pie in the sky when we die – but it does include it. I don’t know why people would ever want to deny eternal life as part of the gospel, but for some reason people keep wanting to re-invent Christianity so that it doesn’t need miracles and God. But what’s the point of that? The Bible doesn’t have any truck with that – God saves us into changed lives now, and into a share in God’s own inheritance, verse 7 –having the hope – that is the sure and certain hope that we can not loose or be deprived of – having the hope of heaven.
This really is so good as to make anything worthwhile now – even the worst suffering pales into insignificance in the light of this glorious promise. I can’t say that with any great authority, because I’ve hardly suffered – but Paul can say it with full authority, he suffered horribly, and counted it a small thing next to the glory of heaven. And so did all of the apostles, and so did Jesus. We can too – if we could only grasp how amazing heaven will be, when we see God face to face and he wipes away every tear and there is no more crying or sorrow or pain – then we could truly live without fear.
So what’s the upshot of all this?
Well, just what Paul’s been saying to Titus throughout this letter – Christians are people who know the truth. We know we’re guilty before God – terribly guilty, in no position to judge anyone else. But we know the kindness and love and mercy of God, we’ve seen it in Jesus, we’ve experienced it personally when God washed us clean and gave us new birth, new life – putting his own spirit inside us to change us and make us like him. And we have the sure and certain hope that soon we will be with God and we’ll never be separated from him again.
Because all those things are true our lives must be dedicated to doing good – to being self controlled, loving, kind, merciful – to becoming more and more like the one who saved us. If that’s the case then we will begin to find sin distasteful – praise God for that, because before we were enslaved by it. But when we do don’t start pointing the great finger of blame and puffing ourselves up with stupid pride – how ridiculous, we didn’t save ourselves, we haven’t been forgiven for anything we’ve done, simply by God’s mercy. So remember that’s what you were, and pray that God would show mercy to others, just as he’s shown it to you.