This sermon on Titus was given in a series at Kew Baptist Church, London.
‘Your country needs you.’ That is of course the famous advertising slogan used by the British War Minister, Lord Kitchener, in his campaign to recruit soldiers during World War One. It was included on a poster picturing Lord Kitchener pointing straight out at the reader and saying the slogan. It conveyed a clear message: war with Germany meant Britain needed men to sign up and fight. The country’s situation required the recruitment of soldiers. Our passage today has a similar sentiment. It’s slogan is not ‘Your country needs you’, but rather ‘Your church needs you’. Here we see that the Cretan churches found themselves in circumstances requiring the recruitment, not of soldiers, but of shepherds.
We have been working through the instructions Paul gives Titus in chapter 1 regarding the recruitment of shepherds for God’s flock, elders in the churches. In 1:5 we had the Nomination of Elders. Titus, as the church planter / evangelist, had been left in Crete by Paul to lead in appointing leaders in the churches on the island. The last time we were in Titus, we seen in 1:6-9 that Paul speaks of the Nature of Elders. How they are godly men who teach God’s truth. This week, in the final paragraph of Titus 1, Paul explains the Need for Elders. The need for them to be nominated. The need for them to have such a nature. Why do churches need to have elders? Why do elders need to be godly men who teach God’s truth? Well Paul tells us why in 1:10-16, 1:10 starts: ‘For there are…’. What Paul goes on to describe in the rest of the paragraph is the current circumstances on Crete that required the recruitment of these shepherds. His concerns centre on two groups in the churches that required the appointment of elders. He has already hinted at the existence of these two groups in 1:9, where Titus was told that elders ‘must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.’ We seen that the ability of elders to teach required them to do two things: build up and beat off. Feed the sheep and fight the wolves. As Thomas Manton put it, elders have to be able to ‘handle the sword and the trowel…’. And immediately we see this is not a random requirement. Paul says elders, godly men able to teach God’s truth, are essential on Crete because there are firstly, Untruthful Teachers(1:10-11) and then, Unhealthy Hearers (1:12-16) in the churches. We see elders are needed to silence the wolves and shepherd the sheep.
1. UNTRUTHFUL TEACHERS (1:10-11) – Elders are needed to silence the wolves
What does a cow sound like? What noise does a pig make? What does a sheep say? Perhaps you haven’t found yourself asking such questions recently, but I’m sure you all have asked (or have been asked) these questions in the past. I imagine they came up when you were a small child, or were teaching a small child, all about farmyard animals. Perhaps you used books to do this, asking the child to point to the picture of a cow or sheep, to identify which of the animals goes ‘oink’ or ‘cluck’. In the New Testament, there is one animal that every author tries to teach us about: they go to great lengths to ensure that we know what this animal sounds and looks like. John and Peter, Jude and Paul, even Jesus himself, all tell us to be on the lookout for wolves. As early as Matthew 7, Christians are told to expect untruthful teachers. There, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, ‘beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.’ (7:15) And this warning of wolves is recurrent. In Acts 20, Paul gathers together the Ephesian elders. Knowing that he is unlikely to ever see them or the flock God had gathered together in Ephesus again, he pleads with them: ‘Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock…I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.’ (Acts 20:28-30). Paul didn’t care whether the Ephesian elders could spot a cow or a pig. But it was absolutely essential that were looking out for, been warned about, listening for the howl of the wolves.
It seems exactly what Paul predicted in Ephesus had also come to pass on Crete. When Paul departed, the wolves descended. ‘For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.’ (1:10-11) What a contrast there is between these false shepherds and the godly elders Paul has just told Titus to appoint in the churches. The false shepherds are empty talkers and deceivers, the godly shepherds held firm to the trustworthy word. The false shepherds were teaching for shameful gain, the godly shepherds were not greedy for gain. The contrast between these two groups of shepherds is similar to the one we read of in Jeremiah 23:1-4 – one group destroys and disrupts the flock, the other cares for and comforts them. Here in Titus 1:11, Paul says that they are ‘upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach’. Their teaching was ‘upsetting’, that is ‘overturning, destroying, ruining’ (BDAG). Again this follows a similar pattern to what takes place at Ephesus. As Paul promised, it seems that there too the wolves had descended, for writing to Timothy in Ephesus, in 2 Timothy 2:14-18, Paul tells him to charge the church ‘not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers…[but to] avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.’ Both in Ephesus and Crete. Deceptive doctrine was destroying and damaging the sheep. Empty, useless talk was distracting and diverting them. Like gangrene, it was slowly spreading from its source, rotting and ruining everyone it touched. If God’s people were to be godly, something had to be done.
Stopping the spread. Restricting the flow. Containing the infection. Six months into this pandemic, we are all familiar with such tactics now. Paul here deploys them in Crete, not to contain coronavirus but to hold back these false teachers. Paul tells Titus that, ‘They must be silenced’ (1:11). That phrase to silence, figuratively meant that something had to be put over their mouth. Like a face mask is placed over our mouths today to stop the spread of the virus. However, in the case of the false teachers, a face mask or a filter isn’t enough. In order to contain their contagion, they had to be completely silenced. Titus was to put a sock in their mouth as it were. Or as Chrysostom, an early church leader in fifth century, alluded to, these men had to be ‘muzzled’. That is the sense here. Like a muzzle placed on a dog to stop them biting. Or a bridle used on a horse to stop it turning astray. These untruthful teachers were to be brought under control, their teaching restricted, their speech silenced. I think practically Paul meant that these men were to be prevented from preaching to the congregation. They were to be removed from teaching small groups. They were not to be given opportunities to infect others with their falsehoods. To distract and disrupt the flock with their deceptive doctrine. They must be silenced. Who was to silence these false shepherds? Certainly, Titus would have tried to do so: but there were many churches on the island and as we seen a few weeks ago, he will soon have to leave Crete to join Paul again. If false teachers were to be kept quiet for long, men who held fast to the trustworthy word as taught were needed to rebuke those who contracted it. Because of the very real and pressing danger from wolves, shepherds were needed to defend and protect the sheep.
Brothers and sisters, do you see the danger of false teachers as a real and pressing one here in Kew? Do you just assume that wolves will avoid this flock? That false teaching is something that only happens in new or liberal churches? A problem for other theological traditions or denominational groupings? If so, flick through the New Testament letters and see the true scale of this problem. It is not just on Crete and in Ephesus that the wolves descended. Every New Testament author warns about false teachers. John tells his readers that ‘many deceivers have gone out into the world’ (2 John 7). Peter warns his readers to ‘take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability’ (2 Peter 3:17). Jude says he writes his letter because ‘certain people have crept in unnoticed…ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ’ (Jude 4). The New Testament leaves us in no doubt that the danger of wolves is universal, ever present. No church is beyond their reach: Corith and Achaia, Galatia and Ephesus, Colossae and Philippi, Thessalonica and Crete, Pontus and Cappadocia all are warned about them – what makes us think London is safe? That Kew might not be affected by this epidemic? We must not doubt what Paul promised the Ephesians could happen here: ‘…fierce wolves will come in among you…and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things…’ (Acts 20:29-30). We must be on the lookout for wolves. False teachers are not fairy tales, myths from long ago. They still destroy churches today. Church just like ours.
Are you concerned that some Sunday someone could stand where I stand today and preach or pray in such a way that would lead many astray? That someone could come in among you and through quiet conversations over many years, slowly twist the truths of Scripture, upset the faith of some, teach things they ought not to teach for shameful gain: whether to earn some money or draw a crowd. The Bible makes clear that we all have a responsibility to be looking out for such teachers. In Galatians 1, Paul tells the whole church it is their job to know what wolves sound like, to be listening for the howl of deceptive doctrine. To be able to identify when somebody is twisting the truth. And yet, here in Titus 1 we see that no matter how strong the sheep might be, no matter how good church members might be at this job, ultimately if this danger is to be diminished, shepherds are needed for the sheep. God would not have given shepherds if his sheep were safe without them. As we discussed a few weeks ago, elders are not optional, they are the way that God provides for and protects his flocks. Remember in these verses Paul is explaining to Titus why he needed to appoint elders in every town. Because there were many false teachers, the churches needed to have true teachers. Of course, Titus should try to silence these false teachers. However, in coronavirus language, this would be nothing more than a circuit breaker. Titus would soon depart, and just as when Paul did, the wolves would descend. The cure, the vaccine, the long-term strategy for keeping God’s sheep safe, is to set up shepherds. Men who hold firm to the trustworthy word and can rebuke those who contradict it. Overseers who can protect the flock from untruthful teachers. Elders are needed to silence the wolves.
2. UNHEALTHY HEARERS (1:12-16) – Elders are needed to shepherd the sheep
Those soldiers recruited by Lord Kitchener’s poster and slogan, ‘Your country needs you.’ Soon found themselves facing the horror and terror of the battlefields. The First World War was unparalleled in its brutality and bloodshed. Across the world there were 40 million military and civilian casualties: made up of around 20 million deaths with another 20 million wounded. The scale of suffering was so great, that those men who fought often failed to find words to describe what they experienced. Those who did find some words, often did so through writing poetry. Many of these poems have been forgotten over the years, but some are still well known: a Canadian soldier wrote the famous lines: ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow; Between the crosses, row on row...’. Not only did the soldiers write poetry to help process what they went through, but we still today use poetry to remember their sacrifice. In just over a month, in almost every remembrance service in the UK the same familiar lines of poetry, also written during World War One, will be read: ‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning: We will remember them.’ We all know sometimes it is easier to express something in poetry than in prose.
This is exactly what Paul does in 1:12. Having told Titus about these false teachers upsetting the faith of their listeners in the churches, Paul now turns to talk about those listeners. It is possible that Paul continues to speak about the untruthful teachers here, but I think it is more likely he is referring to the unhealthy hearers in 1:12-13. One of the reasons for this is that in 1:14 Paul shows he is speaking about a group other than teachers ‘who turn away from the truth.’ Paul tells Titus that shepherds are necessary not only to confront the wolves, but also to care for the sheep. Both for teachers and hearers.
What does Paul say about these hearers? Well, perhaps wisely, he decides to turn to poetry rather than prose. In particular, he turned to a Cretan poet called Epimenides, who hundreds of years before Pauls, seem to have composed a rather cutting poem about his nation: ‘One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’’ Paul probably references this poem not only because it puts his point well, but it is a self-condemning statement. Epimenides was a Cretan – their character was so clear that even they could not pretend otherwise. Even if they did, the whole world was well aware of these national traits. If you look through ancient documents, you find statements like these about Crete: ‘Cretans are the only people in the world in whose eyes no gain is disgraceful.’ The Roman writer Cicero commented, ‘their moral principles are so [astray], they consider highway robbery to be honourable.’ That is the kind of people Cretans were. Liars and deceivers, doing whatever it took to make a profit, following their physical passions and pleasures wherever they wanted. The Bible tells us we all have a sinful, corrupt nature. Isaiah writes: ‘All we like sheep have gone astray…’ (53:6). Even King David confesses, ‘I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ (Psalm 51:5) Yet it seems this developed into a particularly shocking expression on Crete, even for other nations.
Paul follows the same pattern in 1:12-13 as he did in 1:10-11. There Paul told Titus about the reality of the situation, there were many false teachers, how to respond to it, silence them, and the reasons for this, for they were upsetting the church. He does the same here. Having outlined the reality of the situation, the natural sinful corruption of the Cretans in 1:12, he then tells Titus in 1:13-14 how to respond to this and the reasons for doing so: ‘Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths or the commands of people who turn away from the truth.’ That term ‘sound in the faith’ carries the idea of being healthy, whole, well in faith. By listening to these untruthful teachers, these sheep had become sick. They were unhealthy hearers. Perhaps they are started to stray back into the sinful characteristics they naturally had: liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. Their faith had not just been disturbed, but diseased. What was the remedy for this? How was Titus to make them well again? Well, Paul tells him ‘rebuke them sharply’. This might not have been a pleasant job. Titus needed to have hard conversations with these unhealthy hearers. Just as a surgeon needs to cut through the skin if he is to make a patient well again. Or a parent may need to sharply speak to a child in order to stop them putting themselves in danger by running out into the road. Titus had to have some sharp words with these sheep who had so easily been led astray. Yet this could not be avoided. If they were to recover from the disease, they needed this treatment. Friends, I may hate injections, but as soon as there is a vaccine for COVID, I will be joining the queue to get it along with everyone else. For I must have it if I am to be healthy. The same is true of are conversations in the church. Both shepherds and sheep may find them difficult: but if we are to be healthy in faith, there is no alternative.
However, again, I don’t think that Paul sees Titus applying this remedy of rebuke as a long-term solution. A solitary rebuke is not enough to secure their recovery. A single shot treatment is not sufficient. Titus would not always be around to publicly exhort and instruct, privately encourage and rebuke. Again, remember that this paragraph is Paul providing reasons why Titus needed to appoint elders in every town. If these sheep were to be healthy, they needed shepherds to care for them in the long term. If they are to be ‘sound in faith’ (1:13), then they need leaders who are ‘able to give instruction in sound doctrine’, exactly what Paul said elders were to do in 1:9. False teaching not only needs to be removed, it needs to be replaced by sound teaching. False teachers not only need to be silenced, sound teachers need to speak. If the flood of falsehood was to be turned back permanently, the tap of truth had to be turned on persistently. Elders were needed to publicly exhort and instruct, privately encourage and rebuke. Elders are needed to shepherd the sheep. Two roads ran out before these Cretan churches. If they received false teaching, if the empty talkers and deceivers were allowed to stay, it would ‘lead people into more and more ungodliness…’. That is the exact phrase Paul uses in 2 Timothy 2:16 to describe the effects of such teaching. But if Titus appointed elders, teachers of sound doctrine, then that truth would lead to godliness, as Paul explained in 1:1. Two destinations for these churches, for all churches, more and more ungodliness or greater and greater godliness. The difference between the two? Who is teaching and what is being taught.
I think to emphasis this, in 1:15-16 Paul zooms in on what is being taught and those who are teaching. In the same way as mentioning the upset hearers at the end of 1:11 caused him to turn to talk of them in 1:12-13, Paul’s reference at the end of 1:13 to ‘the commands of people who turn away from the truth’ causes him to turn back to the untruthful teachers again in 1:15-16. In 1:15 Paul provides the sound doctrine that Titus was to teach to undo their empty talk. ‘To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.’ This initially seems a bit cryptic, but it soon becomes clear when you understand what the false teachers were probably teaching. In 1:10 Paul suggests that they were part of a group he calls ‘the circumcision party’ and in 1:14 he specifically mentions ‘Jewish myths’. Given the close connection we have already seen with Ephesus, which incidentally was probably the largest church Paul planted near Crete, it is likely these Cretan wolves were teaching the same falsehoods. In 1 Timothy 4:3 Paul talked about those in Ephesus ‘who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods…’. If these Cretan teachers were promoting Jewish purity and food laws, 1:15 starts to makes a lot of sense. Here Paul explains that if we are internally pure, nothing external can make us unclean: whether it be certain types of food or entering into marriage. Similarly, if we are internally defiled, everything external will only add to our uncleanness. Through unbelief, even God’s good gift of food and marriage will be turned into idolatry that defiles us. John Calvin speaks about how unbelief is such a deadly plague, everything it touches is defiled. He we see that sin stains everything. In 1:16, Paul tells us that this stain of sin can be seen in the lives of these false teachers. ‘They profess to know God, but their deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.’ What they claimed with their lips, they contradicted with their lives. This is the exact same principle that Jesus gave his followers when first warning about wolves in Matthew 7:15–16: ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.’ Often you will be able to identify a wolf by what it sounds like, you can hear the howl of false doctrine, the denial of the truth contained in God’s word. However, even if you don’t pick up on a wolf by its sound, Jesus and Paul tell us you can identify them by sight. The lives of elders are above reproach, but false shepherds live lives stained by sin. Defiled in both their doctrine and their deeds. Recognise them by their fruits.
As we close, I want to finish on the most important point. We have spent three weeks working line by line through Titus 1 considering the nomination, nature and need for elders. If you have found these verses complex or complicated, then just focus on this clear truth found in our passage today. We have already said that while our sinfulness perhaps does not take the exact cultural expressions as the Cretans’ did, always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons, the Bible leaves us in no doubt that we are all born sinners. Those words of King David could be spoken by all of us: ‘I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ (Psalm 51:5) Not only born sinners, but we have all lived sinfully. In our actions and attitudes, we have all defied God and defiled ourselves. In 1:15 Paul tells us, that we can do nothing to make ourselves pure before God. ‘To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.’ No matter what rules we try to follow, commands we try to keep, we stand defiled and unclean before a holy God, facing eternal punishment. Every good work we think we do, is defiled by unbelief, stain by sinful thoughts and desires. There is but one way that we can be clean. One hope for us to be made pure. Paul will soon speak of it in 2:14, when he speaks of ‘Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.’ That is the core of the Christianity, the gospel message. That through cross, Christ can make us clean. By entrusting ourselves to the one who stood in our stead, suffered the punishment of sin, we can be saved. He was the shepherd who was silent as a sheep before its shearers. The leader who was led like a lamb to the slaughter. The good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. Purified for himself a people for his own possession. As we seen, sometimes it is easier to express something in poetry than in prose. Let us close then by hearing how one poet and hymn writer, Isaac Watts, put this particular truth. Reflecting on that confession of King David in Psalm 51 that we read of earlier, he wrote:
Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin,
And born unholy and unclean;
Sprung from the man whose guilty fall
Corrupts the race, and taints us all.
Soon as we draw our infant breath,
The seeds of sin grow up for death;
Thy law demands a perfect heart,
But we’re defiled in every part.
Behold, I fall before Thy face;
My only refuge is Thy grace;
No outward forms can make me clean;
The leprosy lies deep within.
No bleeding bird, nor bleeding beast,
Nor hyssop branch, nor sprinkling priest,
Nor running brook, nor flood, nor sea,
Can wash the dismal stain [in me].
Jesus, my God, Thy blood alone
Hath power sufficient to atone;
Thy blood can make me white as snow;
No Jewish types could cleanse me so.
At the end of the service we sang the following hymn written by Thomas Kelly, which summarised much of what we considered together:
Jesus, the Shepherd of the sheep,
Thy little flock in safety keep;
The flock for which thou cam’st from heaven,
The flock for which thy life was given.
Oh guard Thy sheep from beasts of prey,
And guide them that they never stray;
Cherish the young, sustain the old,
Let none be feeble in thy fold.
Secure them from the scorching beam,
and lead them to the living stream;
in truth’s green pastures let them lie,
and watch them with a shepherd's eye.
O may thy sheep discern thy voice!
In thy almighty care rejoice;
from strangers may they ever flee,
and know no other guide but thee.
ALEXANDER ARRELL