Reflections on "Meeting Titus" Titus 1: 1-5

I am a week behind due to being gone to camp last week and my inability to manage the technology to make  posting the sermon possible!  As I mentioned several times in sermons earlier this summer, I was teaching those parables to the 4th - 8th graders at camp.  I had a great time with them.  I added a game or two to help explore each parable, and then we looked at the text of each parable.  The kids did a great job and even enjoyed (mostly) the parables.

Back to this sermon.  It started out like a Bible study with several facts about Titus.  I sort of like sharing that info, but it it not particularly exciting.  The challenge for me in this series on Titus is to move from the study of Titus to a sermon without it being just a Bible study.

the image of needing three people in our lives: someone to mentor us, someone to share our burden, and someone for us to mentor is a powerful image that is probably worthy of its own sermon series, not just mention in a sermon.

“Meeting Titus” July 29, 2012; FPC, Troy, Titus 1: 1-5

Introduction: Five weeks series on Titus to finish the summer.

If you do not know where Titus is, you can, of course, find it by looking up the page number that is found in the worship folder.

Another clue – it is the last in the series of “T” books in the New Testament: 1 & 2 Thessalonians; 1& 2 timothy; then Titus.

It is known as one of the Pastoral letters, joining with 1 & 2 Timothy in that distinction.

The New Interpreter's Bible describes Titus as one of the most important books of the NT and one of the most discredited.

As the early Christian church tried to figure out how to organize itself and become institutionalized when it realized that there might be a long time before Christ returned, they found in Titus important comments on how to organize and what to expect from church leadership.

But, Titus has also been discredited through the years because many scholars do not believe that it was actually written by Paul. The style is a bit different (A typical opening, although other Pauline examples would have used “servant (or slave) of Jesus Christ” rather than “of God”). (1:1).; the understanding of church seems much more structured than Paul, and so on. Thus, many believe it is a later work attributed to Paul by someone or a group of people who tried to imagine what Paul might say in their current context.

Move 1: Who is Titus?

a. Titus is never mentioned in Acts, but we read about him in letters of Paul.

b. Titus was a Gentile who accompanied Paul and Barnabas to their famous conference with the Jerusalem apostles (Galatians 3: 2).

1. We remember that some of the disciples did not really appreciated Paul or his ministry.

2. So Paul went to Jerusalem with Barnabas and met with James and Peter.

3. They discuss how circumcision and dietary regulations would fit into the developing group of people who followed the resurrected Christ.

4. As you may recall, they decided to split their work: James and Peter would preach Christ to the Jews; Paul and Barnabas would preach Christ to the Gentiles.

5. Titus was there with Paul when all that happened.

100. Titus was the key administrator of the collection of the saints in Jerusalem that Paul collected from the church in Corinth (2 Cor. 8: 16-17, 23; 12: 18).

1. as part of Paul's commitment to the larger church, if you will, Paul strongly urged the church in Corinth to collect money for the poor Jewish-Christians in Jerusalem.

2. Titus was put in charge of that offering.

500. Titus also acted as a diplomatic envoy, so to speak, from Paul to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 2: 13; 7: 6-7, 13-16)

e.  Titus has been left in Crete, although there is no other indication in the biblical texts that Paul had a mission to that island.

f. In other words, we do not know much about Titus; he was not a big-shot in the early church like Paul. He wasn't one of the important leaders that we read about, but he was there in the background ministering with Paul; doing some of the grunt work; making sure the follow-up stuff got done.

Move 2: We all need people in our lives to support us as we live out calling as disciples of Christ.

a. Charles Swindoll quotes Howard Hendricks – “Every Christian needs three individuals in his or her life. We need someone who is before us who mentors us. We need another beside us who shares our burden. And we need someone beyond us whom we are mentoring. Otherwise, we grow stagnant.”Charles Swindoll, the Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal (97)

b. Who mentors or has mentored you?

1. “Mac and Peggy poured their hearts and lives into our frantic, confused, and often miserable teenage existences, celebrating with our infrequent victories and commiserating with our too frequent failures. They seemed to actually care about the outcome of those things that were so monumental to us but inconsequential to most around us, sometimes even to our families. It was as if they infused significance into our lives when we felt woefully insignificant. Mac wasn't much at preaching the gospel, but he was pretty good at living it.” Welcome to Fred, Brad Wittington (103)

2. Who in your life has been that person?

c. Who has shared the burden with you?

1.  Colleagues with whom I have shared for 20+ years what we have encountered in our lives of ministry.

2. Some of it is celebration.
3. Some of it is practical help – changing how I do pre-marital counseling.
4. Some of it is challenging.
5. Some of it is nurturing.
6. Between us we have dealt with: community leader of flood repairs; asked to leave a church due to conflict; transitioned into retirement; closed a church; been the beloved associate working with the disliked Sr. pastor; dealt with children choosing significant others who had other faith traditions; dealing with serious medical condition while pastoring; going through multiple searches for a new call
   
   
   d.  Whom  do you mentor?

1. Not just for 60+ members who are wise and want to reach out to the younger generation.

2. My question for our Sr. Highs – what Jr. high kids or grade school kids do you reach out to and help along the way?

3. For our elementary age kids – what little kids running around this place do you make feel special by giving them attention and showing them what it means to care about them?

4. Adults with older kids – how are you mentoring the younger couples with young kids?

5. When you think about the people who have mentored you, it seems appropriate to ask and expect you to be doing that for others.

d. Titus seemed to function in two of these roles for Paul – he was being mentored by Paul, and he shared Paul's burden.

Conclusion: Titus may be a relative unknown to us, but he mattered to Paul.

Who matters to you? To whom do you matter?