Category: Sermon

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Good morning Gathering! Can I just say this, before we jump into our text this morning: isn’t it a gift to gather like this? Just think about it for a moment. The fact that we can come together as the people of God, as family, from across the world, and we can sing together, and lift Jesus’ name together, and be shaped by God’s Word TOGETHER is such an incredible privilege.

Every time we get to gather like this as family (every time we get to be with you) my heart is full with the Joy of The Lord. And, I always feel compelled to point that out because I never want to take that for granted. God is extravagant in His provision for His people and we get to experience the fruit of that this morning.

If you have a Bible, I’d encourage you to grab that and turn to The Gospel of Mark. Our text this morning will be Mark 1:9-15. As you’re turning there in your Bibles, I’ll pray for our time together in God’s word.

Last weekend all of our churches (all 3 of which are represented in this room right now, which is amazing) we all kicked off a series in The Gospel of Mark that will take us on a long and beautiful journey.

The more I’ve read, and studied, and prayed through Mark, the more strongly I believe that this study is going to be an incredible gift to our body of churches. And I believe that for several different reasons. One of the primary reasons is because The Gospel of Mark gives us such a unique perspective on Jesus.

It’s a defining characteristic of Mark’s gospel to highlight Jesus as the fulfillment of things promised in the Old Testament. Which is really important for us because it allows us to more clearly understand that the whole of Scripture is about Jesus. Which is an important thing to know, isn’t it?

That the entire Bible is one perfect, seamless story of God’s redemptive work throughout history. And that redemptive work centers on the person of Jesus Christ.

This is why we must read the entire Bible christocentrically (with the gospel as the focal point). Now just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. Because the Old Testament is the history of God building the longing the anticipation of the coming Christ.

Think about this: When you read the Old Testament, starting with the account of the fall in the garden (sin entering the picture separating us from God). And you move through how God formed a people through Abraham, and their 400 year captivity in Egypt. And you move through the freedom that God secured for them in the Exodus, and then through the 40 years of wandering in the desert, up until they take possession of the Promised Land.

And then you read about the cycle that kept repeating through all of the judges the constant pattern of rebellion & return to the Lord. Through the kings and all of the prophets. Woven throughout the giving of the law and the sacrificial system that God established for His people.

When you look at all of it, it was all intended by God to build anticipation of the coming Christ. It was all intended to build anticipation and hope that God would do something that PERMANENTLY dealt with the problem of sin & separation from Him. It was intended to create the hope of redemption and to set the stage for permanence through Christ.

That’s why I say that everything that God gave His people in the Old Testament was meant to be temporary from the judges, to the sacrificial system, to the temple, to kings, to the Promised land it was all just pointing to and preparing God’s people for what He would do, permanently, in Jesus Christ.

That’s why, as we sit here today, under the New Covenant, we don’t need the type of judges in the Old Testament, Christ will judge the living & the dead. There’s no need to offer sacrifices for sin Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for all sin. We don’t worship in Temples we are temples of the Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done.

He is our prophet, priest and king. And, we certainly aren’t tied to a piece of real estate, our promised land is in Heaven with Him that’s where our citizenship lies.

This is one of the things that excites me most about this study in Mark. It will help us practice seeing Jesus as the point of all of Scripture. So, that’s the journey that we began last weekend. And, because this is a continuation of that discussion, I took some time to review Jinson’s message last weekend.

I have to say that my soul just came alive hearing the themes that Jinson highlighted from last weekend’s text (Read). What he talked about gets to the very heart of what it looks like to walk in the newness of life that Christ has purchased for us.

He talked about REPENTANCE & HUMBLE SUBMISSION. We have this picture that Mark paints, in the opening verses, of John the Baptist as he comes to prepare the way for Christ. He’s preaching a message of repentance, and he’s preaching that message out of humble submission.

In other words, John’s posture and his message both come from a place of understanding that he was created, and that he was preparing the way for the Creator. That he wasn’t even fit to untie Jesus’ shoes. That the aim of his life was to point to the excellencies of Jesus Christ.

In one of the other gospels John the Baptist is recording as saying, “this joy of mine is now complete. Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.” That’s it, you see? It’s the message of repentance, being proclaimed by a man who is displaying humble submission to God. And, here’s what I think is just beautiful, as I look at the flow of this 1st chapter.

The things that we see highlighted in John’s life and message are the same things that Jesus puts on display with his life and message. And, He does it in a way that beckons these things from our lives as well.

And so, that’s where I want to end our discussion this morning. I want to come back full circle to these themes of repentance and humble submission. That we all might be reminded this morning that these are things that will be displayed in the life of every believer in increasing measure.

We’ll get to all of that in a few minutes. But first, let’s read our text together.

READ MARK 1:9-15.

This is fascinating! There are 3 major events described in these 7 short verses. Instead of devoting a lot of time and detail to each one of these events, like the other gospels might do, Mark just bullet points them.

Which is interesting because this is something that Mark does strategically in his writing. He’s not concerned with giving us a historical timeline or an abundance of facts. Mark is more concerned that his readers understand who Jesus actually is. That they would understand His character & His message.

So, instead of distracting you with details & timelines, Mark lists these 3 events in a way that causes us to interpret each of them through the lens of the others.

That’s beautiful because it pushes us, urgently, into an understanding that the Kingdom is at hand, that the time is now, that all of this anticipation and longing that has been building for God to make things new is finally here!

And so he gives us these things very quickly:

• Jesus’ baptism
• Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness
• The beginning of His ministry.

He doesn’t want us to be overly concerned with the history or the details of these events. He wants us to understand what these things tell us about the character and the message of Jesus Christ.

So, in light of that, here’s how I’d like to structure our time this morning. I want to look at these events and show you what stands out to me as I’ve studied them. And, as we discuss this, I want you to listen for these same themes REPENTANCE & HUMBLE SUBMISSION.

And then, at the end, I want to bring us back to a discussion about what this looks like for our lives. How are we called to live in light of who Jesus Is and what He has done.

So, look again at verses 9 – 11: “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

So, right off the bat, we have a very clear and beautiful expression of the Doctrine of the Trinity right here. don’t we? The fact that God is 3 distinct persons, AND YET, 1 God. We see that clearly on display in this text.

You have Jesus the Son of God standing in the Jordan River with John the Baptist. And, as He comes up out of the water, The Spirit descends upon Him and The Father speaks “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

It’s about as clear a picture of The Trinity as you’re going to get in Scripture. And, actually, that brings my mind to a really important point that must be stated explicitly every chance we get. JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD.

He is the un-created one. He is the One through whom everything was created. He is God with the Father & Holy Spirit into eternity past and into eternity future. He is currently upholding the Universe by the word of His power.

And Jesus Christ is the Only Name by which man can be saved. Because, it was His sacrifice taking our place, paying the price for our sin that allows us to be reconciled to God. And, it’s only by submitting your life to Him through faith that you enter into that new life.

Jesus is God! Which brings us to an interesting question. If Jesus is God, WHY DID HE NEED TO BE BAPTIZED? I think there are several answers to that question. Let me give you a couple of the most important ones. Jesus is sinless, so there’s no need for any repentance. But, we have to remember the work that Jesus came to do AS OUR SUBSTITUTE.

I believe that this event is pointing to what Jesus would do to take our sin upon Himself as our substitute. We often say that Jesus was the better Moses, the better Abraham, the better Jonah, etc. The truth is that He’s the better everything.

Paul details in Romans 5 how Jesus is the better Adam. He came to fulfill what Adam could not. He came to remedy the problem of sin that was ushered in through Adam’s disobedience. And, Jesus accomplished that through His own obedience.

Submitting Himself to baptism is a part of that. It’s also the way (culturally) that Jesus would put His stamp of approval on the message that John the Baptist was preaching. We don’t have a lot of time to get into this but baptism finds it’s root in the ceremonial washing / cleansing that people would perform when they were becoming Jewish.

They were essentially saying that I associate my life with this teaching. That’s what Jesus is doing here. He’s associating Himself with John’s message the message that the Kingdom of God was at hand.

An incredible thing happens as a part of Jesus’ baptism. Mark says that the heavens are “torn open”. This would be incredible in & of itself, but it gets even more beautiful when you realize that Isaiah talked about this happening.

In Isaiah 64, the prophet talks about the heavens being rent open or torn apart and God descending. Here’s what it says exactly “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”

Mark 1 is a picture of the fulfillment of that prophecy. God tears the heavens open and comes down in His Spirit. But, where it gets even more beautiful is when you look to the end of Jesus’ life on earth.

This Greek phrase for “being torn open” is only used 1 other time in Mark’s Gospel and it’s near the end of the book in Mark chapter 15. It’s the picture that Mark paints of Jesus hanging on the Cross. He has been falsely accused, falsely tried, lied about, mocked, brutally beaten and whipped, and now He’s hanging on the Cross (and it’s all happening in our place).

And, as He dies, it says that “Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last and the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” (Verse 37)

Get this: you have the heavens being torn open and the Spirit of God descending to rest upon Jesus at the beginning of His public ministry. And, you have the curtain (the thing that was symbolic of the separation between God & man caused by sin) torn in 2 as Jesus takes our sin with Him into the grave. And, it’s all what God promised to do from the beginning. ONE SEAMLESS STORY of redemption through Jesus Christ. How amazing is our God?

Look again at verses 12 & 13.“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.”

There are a couple of things here. First, the language that Mark uses fascinates me. Jesus was “driven out by the Spirit.” This brings my mind back to the topic of SUBMISSION.

Jesus had submitted Himself to the Will of the Father and the leading of The Holy Spirit. He chose to be dependent upon the Holy Spirit. I love how Paul frames this dynamic in Philippians chapter 2.

He says that, “Jesus though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.” That’s the same idea that Jesus declares in Mark 10:45 “I did not come to be served but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”

If anyone should have been served, it’s Jesus. If anyone should have been exalted, it’s Jesus. If anyone deserved to be worshiped, it’s Jesus. And yet, to buy us back from Sin & Death, He emptied Himself, He became a servant, and He died in our place.

There it is, you see? HUMBLE SUBMISSION.

The second thing I would point to here is to highlight something I’ve already said. Jesus is the better Adam. Where Adam failed, where we fail, Jesus succeeds. Jesus was tempted, as we are tempted, and yet He is without Sin.

That’s amazing news! It’s amazing because Jesus knows what it’s like to face temptation. This is the beauty of Hebrews 4:15-16 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Jesus is the better Adam. He is the One that the pleasures of the Father rest on. He is the One who overcame temptation in the wilderness. Every area where Adam failed, Jesus succeeds. Every area where we fail, Jesus succeeds. And now He is able to sympathize with us as He intercedes for us.

Finally, look again at verses 14-15. This is where we’ll bring everything back together to the implications for our lives. “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Here’s what I would point us to as we wrap this up: The humble submission of Jesus Christ. In taking on the form of His creation, in experiencing temptation and pain, in taking our place and dying the death we deserved to die, it was His humble submission that made a way for our repentance.

This is the message of the gospel! That where we were separated from God, where we were under condemnation and wrath, where we were spiritually dead, Christ has made a way for us to be made alive. And, not just for us to be made alive, but for us to be adopted into the family of God.

Think about it like this: When you & I repent and believe the gospel, we get to hear the same thing that Jesus heard as He came out of the water “You are my Son, with you I am well pleased.” “You are my daughter, with you I am well pleased.”

When we repent & believe the gospel, we receive the affirmation of the Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit. We receive the same things that Jesus received at His baptism. That is amazing!

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/intro-to-the-gospel-of-mark-preparation-and-submission.mp3″]

Good morning church! I know we all are excited as we jump into a new series which is titled “The Story of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark.” I really liked the video intro that Saju gave to our series (Watch the video). He said that many times we have many misconceptions about who Jesus is – either from our experience or what we’ve been told or what we see in the media. The Bible accurately and clearly presents Jesus as He is. So that’s going to be our goal over the next few months – knowing and understanding Him closely through the gospel of Mark!

So before we delve into our main text passage, I think it’ll be helpful for us to understand key aspects about this gospel, the author and the purpose of this book. This gospel was written somewhere between 55-60 AD. Who was the writer? John Mark. There are quite a few things we can know about John Mark from the New Testament.

• There was a house church that met at his home. In Acts 12:12 right after Peter was miraculously released from prison by an angel he goes to the home of Mary, the mother of Mark where the church was gathered and praying together
• He was the cousin of Barnabas. (Col 4:10) We already see his spiritual heritage through his family and the church that met in his home
• Paul and Barnabas took Mark along with them on their first missionary journey. (Acts 13:5) Unfortunately, we don’t know why but Scripture records that Mark left them mid-way and returned back to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13)
• Later on Mark becomes the reason for the separation between Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas later on decided to go back to the churches they planted in every city and strengthen them. Barnabas wanted to bring Mark along but Paul thought it wasn’t wise because he deserted them earlier. They got into such a sharp agreement that Paul and Barnabas parted ways. Paul took Silas along with him and went to Syria and Cilicia and Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus which was his hometown (Acts 15:36-41)
• Interestingly when we come to the end of Paul’s life…we read this a few weeks back in the final chapter of 2 Timothy. During Paul’s final stages in life when he is all alone, he tells Timothy to come to him quickly and to bring Mark along because he is “very useful to him in ministry”. What changed? How was an uncommitted believer become radically changed into a powerful witness for Jesus?
• I think we may find the answer in 1 Peter 5. In v13 where Peter is providing his signature to the letter, he mentions the name of Mark whom he refers to as his son who is there along with him. It’s quite likely that during “in between” years, Peter discipled Mark. He told him about the amazing things that happened when Jesus Christ was on earth, he probably reminded him about the beautiful gospel and shared how Jesus strengthened him even though he was unfaithful to Jesus. Peter himself would say a lot of things impulsively but wouldn’t keep up him promise when things got tough. Still Jesus gave him hope, strengthened him and turned him around so that he could not only live for Jesus but also die as a martyr for Jesus! If you are at that place today, where you look at your life and see there’s very little commitment to Christ. Go back to the gospel and trust in what Christ is able to do in and through you. If Jesus Christ can do that for Peter and for Mark, he can do that even in your life
• So Mark’s gospel is the story of Jesus through the eye witness account of Peter.

What’s the main purpose for writing the gospel of Mark? I think there are two purposes:

1. To show how Jesus through his impeccable life, prophecies, astonishing miracles, deep perception of the hidden thoughts of the heart, authoritative teaching and the amazing victory over sin, Satan and death is truly the Son of God. And if he is the Son of God, then you must repent and believe in the gospel. If you are a student in a school, the moment your principal calls you and gives you a command, you know it’s serious. You can’t play around with the command or take it lightly. The principal of the school has full authority within the premises. How much more seriously should we take Jesus’ command to repent and believe because He is the Son of God?
2. To remind us that believing in Jesus is a call to discipleship. It is a call to die to your desires, your goals and your dependence on yourself. Die to yourself and follow Jesus. Also, following Jesus would involve a life of sacrifice, trouble and persecution! But for those who live a life of sacrifice for Jesus will receive the biggest reward…which is Christ Himself. And the gospel of Mark re-affirms the truth that all the sacrifices and troubles and persecutions for the sake of Jesus and the gospel are worth it. How excited are you already? With that background on the author and the purpose of the book, I invite you all to join me as we discover the story of Jesus in Mark.

Mark 1:1-8: 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare[c] the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark directly gets to point from the get go. He says here is the beginning of the gospel – “good news” of Jesus “the Anointed King”, the Son of God. And he talks about an Old testament prophecy in v2 and 3. The Old testament prophet spoke of the timing of the coming of Christ. He said that a messenger would come and prepare the way of the Lord.

If any important person…be it the President of a country or a King would never just land up in a new place directly. They will always send a messenger or a secretary to first go to the place, make arrangements, make announcements and then arrive.

John the Baptist could’ve come and booked the best hall, laid out a great stage, published the coming of the Lord in the newspaper in terms of preparation. It’s interesting that the preparations for Jesus the Son of God is of a very different kind.

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Repentant preparation

The way he prepared the way of the Lord is by preaching a baptism of repentance. Repentance is a change of mind and a reversal of decision to receive pardon from sin. Pardon meaning being let off as though they didn’t commit the crime.

Now we know that God cannot overlook sin, the only way in which God can pardon people is through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. Jesus died on the cross for your sins and mine so that by believing in Him we can be fully forgiven and have a clean slate before God.

Let me ask you is repentance a one-time activity or a life-long event? Sometimes some people say that “we’ve already been forgiven in Christ, so why do we need to repent?” When we put our faith in Jesus, we are positionally made right before God. So there’s no wrath, no condemnation for those who are in Christ. But we still have to reckon with sin until Christ comes back and takes us with Him. We see the effects and presence of sin in our lives until Christ comes back, and so we need to continually and perpetually repent so that we may relationally be made right with Jesus.

Here’s the application point: how do you prepare yourself to meet with Christ every day? Is it by planning different spiritual events like listening to gospel songs, making an elaborate list of all the Christian activities you will do (not that any of this is bad) or is it by continual repentance? How do we prepare ourselves to meet with Jesus on a Sunday morning? Is it by putting on the best clothes, putting on the happiest face or is it by repentance? If continual repentance doesn’t define you as a believer, then something is wrong. Here’s what 1 John has to say about this:

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)

A true believer wants to repent frequently because he delights in a close relationship with Jesus.

Humble submission

7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In NT times, they didn’t have the kind of roads and foot paths that we have in the city today. Most people traveled by walking and the roads were dusty and dirty. The kind of sandals they wore also would be equally dirty due to the places they traveled on.

Therefore, even touching or untying the strap of a sandal was the job of the lowest slave in the household. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to do. It wasn’t an honorable thing to do. And yet, John the Baptist says that he isn’t fit or worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals. Wow! John was himself very eloquent and respected by the people but he understood his position before God. He understood he was mere man but Jesus is the Son of God. He understood he was a creature – created thing but Jesus is the Creator.

He understood that he baptized people with water, but Jesus would change and transform people by the Holy Spirit so that they would now obey and want to obey God. None of us would even think of having a casual attitude toward the President of the country. Even though the President might be a friend, we would still speak and respond in a manner that is worthy of the President. How much more humbled must we be toward Christ? You want to know how mature you are in the faith? Check out your humility.

Your maturity will be revealed by the level of your humility. If your biblical knowledge is causing you think more about yourself than God, then you are struggling with pride. If your biblical knowledge is causing you to look down on other people and criticize other people, then you aren’t being humble. If your biblical knowledge is not leading you to depend on Christ, then you are struggling with self-righteousness.

If your biblical knowledge isn’t bringing you closer to other believers, then you a struggling with self-reliance. And the sad part is a prideful person would never understand the need for the gospel. In pride we wouldn’t care about the sacrifice that was done for us. We need humility to accept, believe and value Jesus and His work for us!

Again my intent was not to bring condemnation but to help us realize 1) that we need repentance more than ever because the more we know Christ the more clearly we see our sin. 2) Our lives require more humility than ever in order to live to glory of Jesus.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/new-trustworthy-excellent-and-profitable-sayings.mp3″]

In this sermon we are looking at the final passage from our series “God Alive Church,” it is Titus 3:8-15

In verse 8 Paul writes “This saying is trustworthy.”

Since it is essential to understand the context of this passage, we need to know what ‘saying’ is Paul referring to.

The ‘saying’ that Paul is refereeing to is verse 4 to 7. Let read that again.

Paul is saying that whatever I said about the Goodness of God, his loving kindness, his saving power, his mercy which was poured out on us richly through his son Jesus Christ is TRUSTWORTHY, it is authentic, it is truthful. Please do not have any doubt in your mind.

We are not, and cannot be saved by any of our good works on this earth. What can save us – is only Jesus who justifies us by his grace and therefore makes us heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

It is not a fable. It is not a Myth. For Paul, his whole life and message and purpose of his letters were anchored on this truth.

Everything we’ve learned from this series, going through 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus are essential because what motivated Paul to write them down and pass it on to us is the message of the Gospel (By the Gospel I mean what Christ accomplished for us on the cross). We cannot take out the truth of the Gospel out of anything we’ve learned.

Without the Gospel, all of Paul’s instructions will sound like acts of self-righteousness and good work and lessons on being good human beings. But good works are not what saves us; our self-righteousness is filthy rags in comparison to God’s Holiness.

Think about it – The Gospel being at the center, everything Paul wrote in 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus is a Trustworthy saying, which means it is Authentic, it is Truthful.

Paul then goes on to say in Titus 3:8 “I want you to insist on these things”. Paul is telling Titus that I want you to INSIST on these things. We can’t miss this. No one should miss this. It is important.

And therefore as we are ending this series today I want to once again insist on the things that we’ve learned so far from 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus as a reminder. I want to quickly list down some of the critical things we’ve discovered so far

• We learned that the TRUE TREASURE is the Gospel of the Glory and grace of God manifested through his son
• We learned that as we progress in our Christian life, there will be a growing awareness of God’s holiness and also a growing awareness of our sinfulness. And the only thing that can bridge the gap between those two is when we daily appreciate the cross on which our Lord and savior died so that we can have a relationship with the Father
• We learned that we need to guard this Gospel truth from False doctrine. We need to refute false teachers and false teaching by continually filling our hearts and minds with the true Gospel
• We learned about God’s provision of Elders within the church body to preach, teach, serve and guard our hearts
• We learned that we ought to Pray always, in season and out of season. For the church, for our elders, for one another, for the lost, for people in authority
• We learned that Christ’s strength is displayed in our weakness
• We learned that we ought to serve faithfully in the Kingdom of God
• We learned that we need to stay away from youthful passions that distract us from serving him faithfully
• We learned the importance of strong and healthy relationships, submitting to one another, appreciating and encouraging one another
• We learned that we need to be bold and Strong in the Lord, prepared to preach, teach & share the Gospel with authority
• We learned that we ought to fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the Faith until the end of our lives.

I believe you remembered those sermons that were preached, the ones that convicted our hearts, lead us to repentance. Today I want to once again insist brothers and sisters, what you’ve heard and learned and have applied in your lives are trustworthy sayings. Do not deviate from them.

While I was writing this down, I could imagine my childhood days when my mom would keep repeating and insisting on the same things to us every day to discipline us in Godly ways. There were times when I would get irritated by those repeated words.

The problem with me was that I couldn’t see how excellent and profitable those words were at that point but my Mom knew it, and that is why she kept insisting and repeating it again and again and again.

It’s only when I look at my life today, the person I am today I realize it is mostly because of my Mother’s consistent, never give up attitude to keep repeating the same things over and over again apart from her tearful prayers for us. I believe that is what eventually even led me to give my life to Christ and serve him.

Here’s why Paul tells Titus to insist on these things. Verse 8 “so that those who believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.”

Verse 9 he says instead of getting involved in foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrel about the law, which is unprofitable and worthless, Paul is saying insist on these good teachings that are excellent and profitable.

We have to identify the times and places where we’re spending too much of our time and energy in quarreling and debating and fighting instead of focusing on the right things.

In verse 10 Paul calls those who were getting involved in foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels as people who were stirring up division and are warped in sin. He says warn them once and then twice and even after that if they refuse to change, have nothing to do with him.

I hope that none of you like to be called under that category of people.

The church of Create was an unhealthy church; it was on the verge of breaking up. They had a bad reputation; they were wasting their time, money and energy on worthless things.

Paul had to remind them of how the Church should look like. As the Church, and as a people of the Kingdom we should look like true Christians by others by our good works motivated by the Gospel.

We are the hope of the world, we are the light in the darkness, we are the salt of this earth.

Verse 14 – Paul writes “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful”

And the only thing that can help us look like good Christians, and to be fruitful as described in Psalms 1:3 which says

“He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.”

is when we “delight in the law of the Lord (the Trustworthy sayings of the scriptures), (is when we) meditate on it day and night” Psalms 1:2 – Consistently reminding ourselves of these Gospel truths, loving God for all that he is and for all that he has done, growing in intimate relationship with him, and learning to walk according to his precepts every single day of our lives.

As Elders, we will continue to insist on these things through our sermons, through our conversations, and through our lives. It may sound repetitive; it may sound hard to digest, to may sound difficult to believe.

But remember this – They are excellent, profitable and trustworthy in every sense.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/jinson-new-sermon-2.mp3″]

Good morning church! Two of the most important questions in any person’s life is: Who am I and what am I supposed to do on earth? Wouldn’t you agree that these are two very important questions every person is looking to answer. It’s is true that people have very different answers to these questions. What we will look to do in the next half hour is to see how the gospel perfectly answers and fulfils the purpose of our existence. If there are any questions, please don’t hesitate to come and discuss with me and Saju after the Gathering.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. 3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

In today’s passage, I believe Paul is telling Titus who is overseeing the church at Crete to remind them of a few things. Why do we need to be reminded? I mean if we’ve already heard it once, shouldn’t that be enough for the church? That’s because we are “professional forgetters”. We may be smart and clever but let me tell you it’s not difficult for us to forget the gospel when we are facing times of trouble, persecution, temptations, comfort and suffering. And what we truly believe in those moments are revealed by our actions. It’s important for us to first admit that we are forgetful in order to receive help. We need each other to be reminded of the gospel – that’s why we stress on community. And we also need elders and leaders to constantly “remind and help us recollect” the gospel day in and day out. If you’ve been following our messages closely over the last two years, you’ll see one common thread and one common message throughout. In fact it is the same message that we continue to preach and teach every week on our Sunday Gatherings and GC’s. And it’s not because we cannot make new creative messages. We want to stay true to what God has called us to do as elders which is to “remind people of the gospel”.

So we are going to be reminded this morning about four important questions:

1. What are we supposed to do?
2. Who were we?
3. What has God done in Christ?
4. Who are we now?

What are we supposed to do?

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. (v1-2)

We are commanded and urged to submit to our earthly rulers and authorities specifically referring to the government who is ruling over your country/nation. The Word tells us to be obedient to the people who rule over us. It doesn’t matter if the political party is for Christians or against Christians, we are still called to obey them. Now if the government tells us to bow down to an idol or forces us to do something illegal or immoral, we have every right to disobey because our allegiance and loyalty remains toward Christ. However, barring this exception of sinning against the Lord, in every other case we need to submit to them out of our honor to God. Let’s remember the context. Emperor Nero was the king of the Roman empire at the time. Christians were being burnt alive and tortured. It was the most unpopular time to be a Christian. It wasn’t cool at all because a person would most likely face a death threat as soon as he decided to follow Jesus. I find it interesting that Paul would still tell the church to submit to the rulers and authorities.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves (Rom 13:1,2)

Also, what is the type of behavior that we should have among unbelievers? We should be always prepared to do acts and deeds which will benefit others. We should not criticize abusively and in anger insult others. We should not be people who always get into arguments. In fact, we should be known for our mild temperament and being polite and gentle to all people. If your work colleagues, college mates, neighbours and other acquaintances were to rate you on your behavior, what would they say? Would they say that you’re always ready to do good work? Would they say that you speak evil of no one? Would they say that you don’t quarrel but are gentle and courteous toward everyone? Would the people who spend 40+ hours with you each week say that you are known for your gentleness and good deeds?

And this isn’t a moral science class! Christ doesn’t call you to do these things just because these are good things to do in life. He tells us to do these things in the light of the next three points:

Who we were earlier?

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. (v3)

You know many times parents tend to tell their kids about how they had a tough life earlier. How they grew up in humble circumstances…why do they do that? So that the kids will appreciate and value what they have right now. Similarly, in v3 we are being reminded of our past identity. The purpose is not to be sad and disappointed thinking about our past but to appreciate what has been done by God. It says that we were foolish (we had no understanding of what was right for our life), disobedient (we weren’t willing to listen and obey to anything that God wanted us to do), led astray (we were deceived by our sins, taken away…pulled astray), we were in bondage to serve many kinds of forbidden desires, spending our time and energy hurting other people and being hurt in the same process.

When we look at the list, do we like what we see there? I’m sure we don’t. We wouldn’t allow our family to be around anyone who claims to have these qualities and yet this is a description of our own lives. Would you put this up on your Facebook profile? Would you put this on your resume? It’s something that is shameful, right? What I want us to realize is…that our old self separated from God was a terrible place! It wasn’t something to be proud of because we were on the fast lane to destruction. That’s why the Bible accurately portrays it as “spiritual death” – we were dead! (Eph 2:1)

What has God done in Christ?

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (v4-6)

Brothers and sisters, Here is the good news…the amazing news! What we deserved was judgment, condemnation and death for our thoughts, words and actions. An illustration could be imagine you were driving a car rashly and lose control of the brakes and fall off a steep hill. What do we deserve because of our rash driving? Death. Now think about v4…but God our Savior (he delivers) showed his goodness and loving kindness to us by protecting you and me from perishing. God rescued you from the wrath that comes upon everyone who sins! God’s goodness and kindness is shown by the fact that even though we lived a reckless and disastrous life, he wants to and keeps us safe from final judgment and eternal separation from Him! And why does He do that? Is it because you or me are talented? Is it because you or me are smart and capable? Is it because we are good people? Is it because we prayed a prayer? Is it because we are knowledgeable in the Bible? Absolutely not! We just saw in the previous point how bad our condition is. If God judged us without giving us any hope for salvation, He would still be just and wise. No one can approach God and say “He is unjust by not providing another way”! Because we are utterly sinful people who deserve total condemnation. So if God does not save us due to our background, qualifications, money, talents, intelligence and good works…then on what basis does he save us? According to his mercy. God saves people out of His mercy!

How does He do it? by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The term washing means “bathing”. The Holy Spirit cleanses and purifies you. “Regeneration and renewal” means “spiritual renovation”. Have you ever seen a renovated flat? Does it look the same as an old flat? Everything from the painting to the interiors have been changed. It’s brand new. It’s as good as buying a brand new flat in a new building. If we as humans know how to renovate an old flat and make it new…do you think the powerful Spirit of God doesn’t know how to make a dead person’s life alive and brand new?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17,18)

When you believed in Jesus, it’s not just your thoughts that changed that day. A miracle took place due to which your life became spiritually renovated! Immediately your affections, your desires, your will, your thought patterns, your pleasures changed, your mission changed! Miraculously you were given affections for Christ, desires for Christ, a will to please Christ, thoughts to magnify Christ, pleasures in Christ and love for the people in Christ and a burden for those not in Christ! And this was done how: it was poured abundantly on us through Jesus Christ. God’s only Son had to be crucified for your sins and mine to make full payment for the punishment deserving of sins. You want to know how bad was our condition? Look at the amount that was paid as ransom. If something happens to your phone, when do you know that the damage is quite bad? When you have to pay a huge amount for the repairs. Jesus willingly shed his blood to meet God’s justice and bring God to us. It wasn’t gold or silver but the precious blood of the Son of God who became our Saviour.

Who are we now?

so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (v7)

Brothers and sisters, it’s something we must not just today but continuously remind ourselves of this identity! We are declared righteous before God. We are fully accepted by Him. By what? His grace – his unmerited favor through Jesus Christ. For what purpose? So that we might become “heirs”. Whose an heir? A person who inherits something from someone. Usually it is the child of the owner. And we know that by repenting and trusting in the finished work of Jesus, we are adopted as His very own. So we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life! You know Christian biblical hope is not just being positive. It is a confident and joyful expectation in God fulfilling His promise to give us everlasting life. Eternal life as John 17:3 says And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Knowing Jesus, becoming like Jesus in every way to the extent of getting a glorified body like His (1 John 3:2) and finally being with Jesus forever (John 14:3)!

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/titus-saju-new-sermon.mp3″]

Good Morning!

Our passage for today is Titus 2:11-15.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior 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.

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

[PRAY]

It’s a letter written by Paul to Titus and other leaders in the church of Crete, encouraging him in his ministry work and asking him to establish proper leadership, proper handling of error, proper Christian living and in this particular passage he is pointing their hearts to the Gospel.

I believe today’s passage will help us answer some important questions.

The questions are
Q. How to live life as a people of God?
Q. How can we grow in Holiness and Godliness by fixing our eyes on the Gospel?

But before we answer these questions I’m sure everyone here will agree with the fact that we live in a world that is so contaminated with sin, corruption, and evil. There are temptations everywhere.

• Temptation to give in to our sexual passions by engaging in pornography or having physical relationships outside the boundaries of marriage
• Temptation to cheat and fraud people so we can accumulate wealth for ourselves
• Temptation to lie and live a hypocritical life so we can gain the respect of others
• Temptation to give in to our laziness and live foolishly
• Temptation to eat beyond our capacity and become a glutton.

And especially when these habits are considered normal in our culture and society, when we see our closest friend or colleague enjoying these pleasures, making good money, seems to be living life to the fullest.

I’m sure we all go through times of doubts, despair and sadly some of us have even fallen into these sins. We know it because we can feel the guilt and the condemnation. It’s not a good feeling and not a good place to be in.

After falling into such sins, some of you may have even asked yourself whether you are a true Christian, whether you have truly been saved.

Before I say anything let me confess that I myself have been in that place and I know how it feels to be in that place, it’s a dark place.

When we are a Christian, who knows Jesus, who knows His saving grace that frees us from sin and its condemnation, and yet again and again and again we fall back into the same pit that Christ picked you up from. Or worst to be like that dog who returns his vomit.

We end up beating ourselves; we stop fellow-shipping with our brothers and sister by isolating ourselves, we stop serving Christ and his Church, we stop reading our bible, we quit our prayer and devotion.

When we are with others, we pretend that everything is normal but behind the doors, we are crying and wailing, we are frustrated, we are disappointed with our actions and words and thoughts.

The worst is when we get so used to it that we’ve learned to ignore these feelings and live just like a worldly person and yet profess to be a Christian in the house. We are pointing fingers at others and try to fix the world with our smartness, when our own conscience is dead, when our own feelings are dead, when our own hearts are hardened.

Well, when you see this passage we can see what has gone wrong with us.

Number one reason is that we have failed to show gratitude (प्रति आभार) (कृतज्ञता दिखाने में विफल ) for what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross.

We’ve failed to see the GRACE of God that has appeared to us through his son Jesus Christ and therefore failed to express our heart of gratitude in our thoughts, actions and our behavior.

How many times during the DAY do we meditate on God’s love and relish his grace upon your life?
How many times during a WEEK do we meditate on God’s love and relish his grace upon your life?
How many times during a MONTH do we meditate on God’s love and relish his grace upon your life?

Tell me if I am wrong. The reason for us falling in sin started when we stopped been grateful for what Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

Because the passage here says “For grace has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”

What it says here is that the grace of God enables us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.

Our failure to show gratitude to what Christ accomplished for us on the cross has put us in place far from experiencing his saving grace over our lives on a daily basis.

Brothers & sisters, It is not enough for us to respond to the gospel once in a lifetime so we can be tagged as a follower of Jesus and then to forget that experience and go back into the world again.

To become a Christian means to make a turn-around from our worldly ways and grow deeper into a relationship with Jesus by daily appreciating and embracing his Love, Grace, and mercy over our lives.

The moment we fail to do that and allow our flesh to take over, we push ourselves away from his grace and therefore fall back into sin again.

It’s like a family who adopts a child into their home from an orphanage, giving the child a new life and a future. The more that child learns to appreciate the love of his new family, the deeper he grows in relationship with them, and the more he feels protected, loved and covered.

But the day this child stops appreciating the love of his new family and think about his old orphanage life with his rugged friends, the more further away he goes from the family, he comes out of the covering and protection of his family and finds himself been vulnerable and helpless.

Now, let me ask you a question?

Do you think the family stopped loving him? No
Do you think that the family will be open to receive him back into the family?
Do you think the family will take the child back into their covering and protection?

Of course yes.

It’s the same with our heavenly father. Remember the story of the prodigal son who after spoiling all his father’s wealth when he decides to come back home. The Father welcomes him with joy. And I’m sure after the boy returned home his appreciation for his father’s love grew even more.

The second reason why we find ourselves in sin and guilt and shame is when we lose HOPE.

Verse 13 – When we lose our blessed hope that one day our Lord and Saviour Jesus will come back to take us to a place where there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, no more sickness, no more poverty, no more shame, no more temptations.

Let’s dig deep down our hearts and search what are we hoping for in life. Are we hoping that one day we will become a top businessman, earn lots of money someday, own a house or own a land, go to Hawaii and lie down on the beach, buy the best car in the world, become an Indian idol, champion of the world etc etc.

Because if that’s what you are hoping for in life, then, you will spend all your money, all your time, all your energy and resources in achieving that. And by the way, there is no guarantee that you will get what you want in life.

But if your hope is in the coming of the Lord and Saviour who will save us from this wretched world then we will spend all our money, time, energy and resources preparing our hearts for that glorious day. And by the way – its guaranteed.

When all your money, time, energy and resources are invested towards preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, then there is no chance that we can get distracted from the pleasures of this world.

It is like a sportsman whose aim to is to win the Olympics. He knows he needs to be fit by exercising daily, stay healthy by eating nutritious food, keep his mind alert from keeping himself away from any kind of distraction.

You see, no matter what happens, he will never give in to the feelings that take away his focus from his goal.

In 2 Timothy 2:4-7 Paul gives an example of a Soldier, Athlete and a Farmer and says

No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

Brothers & sisters, we are not civilians; the bible says we are a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We are not hopeless; we are not orphans, we are not failures, we not a mistake.

Instead, we are loved, our heavenly Father cherishes us, we didn’t choose him but he choose us, we are blessed, and most importantly we have hope that one day we will go to a better place where life will be even more beautiful and fun.

Let’s ask a question to ourselves this morning.

After listening to this sermon and what the Lord has spoken to us, do we still like to stay in our miserable situation, a life pattern that is filled with sin and despair.

Or are you willing to humble yourself like the prodigal son and return back to our heavenly father whose loving arms are eager and open to hug you, kiss you, celebrate and welcome you back into his family.

All you have to do this morning is to simply go back to him with a humble heart, repent of your sins, thank him for the cross and surrender your lives once again to him.

And after you’ve done that today, you need to go back home and daily continue to remind yourself of what Christ has done for you and daily express your heart of gratitude to him without fail.

And when things get tougher at home, or at work, or in your personal lives, remind yourself of the blessed hope that this world is just a temporary home and the one who loves us is coming to take us with him far from all the pain and misery.

Put all your focus, all your time, money, energy and resources preparing for that glorious day in heaven.

I’m sure life will look different if we make this a pattern of our lives.

Lets pray.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/jinson-sermon-2.mp3″]

Good morning church!

Sometime back a Hindu asked me this question: What would you say about people who say they believe in Jesus and still do not have/show Christian values? In other words, the question can be rephrased to “Is it possible for a person to know Jesus, talk about Jesus and still live like the rest of the world?” Does the gospel produce something more than just change of ideas or philosophy? Does Christ have a greater purpose in our lives than just “a moment in your life when you prayed a prayer and asked Jesus into your heart”? And if God has a bigger purpose, then what does that mean for me? Those are the questions we will attempt to answer this morning.

We have been going through a series titled “God Alive Church – A journey through the letters of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus”. Currently we are in Titus 2 (Last week’s sermon on: Titus 1:10-16). Let’s go ahead and read the main text for the day:

But as for you, teach what accords with sound[a] doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Bondservants[b] are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

The first thing I believe this passage teaches us today is:

1. The Gospel informs Right Living

But as for you, teach what accords with sound[a] doctrine. (v1)

As we’ve been seeing, whenever we see the word “but”, it is contrasting this passage with the previous passage. The previous passage spoke about false teachers who for shameless gain were upsetting the faith of many families in the church at Crete. These false teachers kept focusing on Jewish myths and man made rules. The result was that the church became unfruitful in good works! In fact, the church was gaining a bad reputation in Crete. Paul gave 2 commands to Titus in order to tackle this problem.

The first was to appoint God called, God qualified elders to lead and protect the church. (Tit 1:5-9) The second command was for Titus to rebuke these false teachers sharply and silence them from influencing the church. (Tit 1:13) The last few verses of Titus 1, Paul says that these false teachers “profess to know God but deny him by their works”. So Paul is already starting the conversation where he says “if you say you know God, then it needs to be reflected in your lifestyle as well”.

And that’s how we arrive in Chapter 2 where Paul says give instructions, exhort the church at Crete in a way that suits and is fitting for “sound doctrine” or the gospel. The reason I use the word gospel is because the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ is God’s plan from Genesis to Revelation to reveal Himself through Jesus and also to redeem everything through Jesus! The gospel of Jesus informs, fuels and produces right living! The gospel supernaturally creates new life in people when they hear and believe. Till then as natural humans we knew nothing else but to sin, suddenly when we heard the good news we were supernaturally able to repent and place our trust in Jesus.

New affections, new purpose & a new identity. Not just that, the more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, the more we realize how much more of the gospel we require today. Why? Because as we read Scripture we see how Holy God is, we see how sinful we are…like Isaiah said in Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)

Now as believers we are justified and made right before God. There is no condemnation but we still need to recognize the difference between God and us. He is Holy and Righteous and Great and Glorious. And we like the “grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls”. As our awareness of God grows so will our awareness of our sin. The more closer you move towards God, more sin in your life will get exposed. And all of this should bring us to a place where we humbly and helplessly realize what Jesus has done for us through his life, death and resurrection.

So when we are faced with temptation and you fall, we realize we need the gospel to experience forgiveness and restoration in our walk with God. When we are in conflicted relationship with another family member of friend, we realize we need the gospel to forgive the other person just as Christ forgave us.

When we go through persecution, we realize we need the gospel to remind us that it’s a blessing to be counted worthy to suffer for our Master and Lord. When we are at work and the stress is piling up, we realize we need the gospel to remind us that we are working for God ultimately and we know we’ll find rest in Jesus who says “Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest”. When we are going through a severe illness, we realize we need the gospel to remind us that God is Sovereign over our situation.

When we feel insecure about our looks or your financial status or the possessions we have, we realize we need the good news of Jesus to remind us that God has accepted us fully in Jesus and we don’t require anything else apart from Jesus to live our life – He is our Security. And as we trust and obey what God has said to us in the Bible, we grow up into the hope of the gospel -> to be like Jesus reflecting everything that He is in all our thoughts, words and actions.

That’s why it’s so critical to be listening to teachers that preach and proclaim sound doctrine. Some people sometimes say “I know the preachers that I listen to aren’t exactly biblically sound, but what to do….nobody’s or no church is perfect. I’m mature enough to listen and pick what is right and not pay attention to what is wrong”. But they are missing the point. It’s not about picking and choosing what you want.

It’s much more serious than that. What you believe is what you will become. If you are chasing behind a false gospel that tells you that believing in Jesus will get you health, wealth and prosperity…that’s what your life will also be about…Making yourself prosperous. But if you want to become like Jesus, you need to listen to Jesus as He is revealed in Scripture.

That’s what we see in the following verses of Chapter 2. Instructions being given to older men, older women, younger women and younger men. People from different age groups within the church are being encouraged to live a life worthy of the gospel. It’s not for the aged ones only, it’s for everyone to exhibit self-control, respectability, soundness in faith, in love and steadfastness. Such a wonderful picture of the good news when you see the whole church growing in Christ likeness.

It’s not some sort of spiritual elite that is pursuing holiness and good works…every child of God saved by the good news in fact wants to do this. As elders our job is to remind and urge people to do it more!

This brings me to the next point…

2. Right Living adorns the Gospel

Adorn means to decorate something. Ever wondered how can you adorn the gospel? Adorning doesn’t mean adding or subtracting anything from the gospel. Neither is the gospel powerless so that we need to add some “masala” to make it relevant and effective. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. At the same time think about it, the gospel actually makes more sense to an unbeliever when they see it being clearly reflected in your life and mine. We wrongly influence the perception of the gospel when we live like the rest of the world.

and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (v5) Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (v7-10)

How many times have we heard things like “this person calls himself a believer, but his actions deny his faith”? And this is the testimony of unbelievers. That’s not how it’s meant to be and that’s not what God desires from people who have been redeemed from their sinful lives. God’s desire is for us to live holy lives dedicated to good works so that through us God can display His transformative power! In other words, our job is not to make more barriers for people to believe, but in fact to remove the barriers so that can receive the true saving message of the gospel.

Unbelievers might become hostile toward you because you are a believer, but deep down they should know that there’s no real charge they can bring against you for doing something morally wrong or unethical. “In everything we must adorn the doctrine of God our Savior”. Have you every wondered what that means for you? When you think about the workplace, do your colleagues see the goodness, righteousness and mercy of Christ through your words and actions? When you think about your family, do your family members see the patience and humility of Christ in your words and actions? With your church family, do your brothers and sisters in Christ see a glimpse of Christ in your interactions and service? What about your neighbours? Do they know you are a follower of Jesus by your words and lifestyle? I know these are quite challenging questions. I’m convicted of certain things myself.

Maybe till now we didn’t pay attention to adorning the gospel of Jesus or maybe we’ve forgotten it. There’s hope in the gospel for us today. 2000 years back, Jesus Christ became man and lived the life of goodness, righteousness, mercy, patience, humility according to the standard required by God. He perfectly reflected and showed who God Is. He lived the life we couldn’t live. Perfect obedience. And then he took on the punishment of sin as our Savior and substitute.

He died the death we deserved to die. If there was one thing we earned on our own merit…it was death and separation from God eternally. Jesus willingly gave himself up on the cross…humiliated by his own creation to save us from the holy wrath of God. He died and rose again on the third day because his sacrifice was complete and fully satisfied the wrath of God.

Those who repent and trust in Jesus will see the hope of the gospel being reflected in their lives. Jesus would begin to display Himself through their lives. One more thing…it’s not as though God needed us and without us he cannot adorn the gospel. Let’s not trivialize it that way. God chooses to use us to adorn the gospel. In His wisdom and greatness, redeeming the lives of sinful, dead people and allowing them to reflect His glory brings Him more glory! He is the glorious One who restores the broken and condemned ones. So if we find ourselves not adorning the good news, not reflecting Jesus….solution…go back to Jesus!

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Our passage for today is Titus 1:10-16.

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. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 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. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Like I said in the Introduction of Titus – This particular passage is about proper handling of error in the church life.

After giving instructions to Titus on appointing Elders in the church, Paul is now addressing some practical problems within the church.

In today’s sermon, we will understand these problems in its original context, and the solution Paul offers, and after which we will learn how it applies to us today.

The church in Create was growing in numbers, the ministry of Paul and Titus was flourishing, and the Gospel was impacting the lives of many people in that region.

But alongside the growth of true believers the church was also filled with many who were

• disobedient to the leaders,
• empty talkers – people who had everything to talk about in the world except god,
• deceivers – people who wanted to deceive the true believer from their genuine faith in Jesus,
• people who were upsetting others by teaching for shameful gain – either to gain money or materials things from them.

And Paul specifically mentions about especially those from the circumcision party. If you remember in 1 Timothy, these were the people who were distorting the gospel and asking the people also to get circumcised to become a true believer.

Then some people had a bad reputation of being liars, evil, lazy and gluttons.

People who were professing to know God, but denying him by their evil works.Now, It is no surprise that even today in our generation, churches across the world is filled with these kinds of people who have the form of godliness but are corrupt, deceivers, selfish and carry a bad reputation.

In verse 15-16 Pauls says: 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. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

You might ask, why does the church attract these kinds of people?

Number one reason I would say is that the enemy, the devil – the prince of this world is after the church of Jesus from growing & flourishing healthily. He will do anything to corrupt the hearts of believers by any means.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 – The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

The second reason I believe we attract these kinds of people with selfish gain into our churches is when the gospel is incorrectly preached and presented.

Galatians 1:6-7 – I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

The promise of the gospel is not health, wealth, and prosperity – It’s not that when you become a Christian all your problems will go away, you will become rich, or you will become famous.

The promise of the Gospel is salvation from sin and eternity with Christ. The church and its leaders should exhibit this truth in their message and through their lives.

When the gospel is presented as a means for earthly gain, then we will attract people who join the church for earthly gain. Therefore, we need to be careful how we share the gospel with our unbelieving friends. We need to watch our words and heart intent.

The goal of the church is not to get the church filled with people for the sake of numbers but to reach out to people who genuinely need savior Jesus.

The truth is – Any which ways we will have people in the church who will have wrong motives, who will be a lover of self, and deceivers. The question we need to ask is how do we guard our hearts and protect the body of Christ.

A word of Warning

Firstly I believe this passage is a warning to all of us. If, anyone of us, whether knowingly or unknowingly have been allowing Satan to use us in such a manner to destroy the body of Christ, then we should repent.

According to the scriptures, the areas we need to watch for are our attitude towards the elders, our conversations with each other, our heart motives and our behavior in general.

Paul’s instruction to Titus is to silence the evil doers and rebuke them publicly – It is the responsibility of the elders in the church to silence, rebuke and corrects those about whom it is mentioned as evil doers in verse 10-11.

It is one of the key responsibilities of an elder, and he shouldn’t be ignorant.

The elders should be unbiased and willing to let these people go even if they are the ones whose financial contributions make a huge difference to the church offertory.

The elders should be truthful to Gods word and faithfully teach them to the people.

Embrace the true Gospel

The second and I believe the most important way in which we protect our heart is by embracing the true Gospel.

The greatest deception in the churches during that time which the false teachers were teaching was Jesus is not enough, his sacrifice is not enough – They said you need to be circumcised a well to get approval from God.

They were infiltrating (diluting) the gospel by adding stuff to it. They said you need to do this and you need to do that to be saved.

When you look at our history, you will see how this deception had got into the fabric of Christian churches today. The sacraments of the catholic church, the rituals and the chanting’s of the orthodox believers, the unscriptural practices, and rules in some of the so-called Christian churches.

We focus and talk about everything else except Jesus and the Gospel.

Titus 1:13-14

Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 – The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO LOVE THE TRUTH and so be saved.

When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden of Eden, they sinned against God by disobeying his command. They became sinful because of which God cast them away from his presence.

And because we are their children we are sinful too in nature. Our hearts are corrupt; our minds are corrupt, our behaviors are corrupt. From the time we were born, we were deceivers and sinful just like Adam and Eve. No one taught us to cheat and lie – we naturally cheated, lied, disobeyed. We are thugs, robbers and filthy people in the sight of God.

No matter how many good works we do on this earth, nothing can save us from God’s anger and his wrath.

But the bible says God loved us, and he sent his only son Jesus to die for us.

And the only way we can receive forgiveness for sins is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the son of God, who came down to this earth, lived a righteous life and took our sins upon the cross and died on our behalf – mending our relationship with God the Father once again.

All we need to do is REPENT of our SINS and believe in the GOSPEL – nothing else.

It’s a lie if you hear people say – Oh, but you also need to do this and do that to become a true Christian.

No. Jesus is enough.

It is the often the distorted view of the Gospel Truth that puts us in an ugly position with God, and we need to be careful.

It is so easy to forget this truth and try to work out our salvation on our own strength. We will fail, and we will fail miserably. The reward is Jesus and Jesus alone. Nothing more nothing less.

As a church, we need to protect this gospel truth primarily for two reasons

1. So that our hearts are fully fixated on Jesus and help us live a Gospel-centered life.
2. So that our hearts are protected from the evil one.

The Church of Jesus is the hope of the world. Remember, we are the light in this dark world, our light should shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven.

But if the light in us is darkness, imagine how great is the darkness.

And therefore, let this passage remind us and convict our hearts of our self-centered lives, empty words, foolish behaviors and our ignorance of the true Gospel.

May I encourage you to come before God and ask him to heal our hearts and purify our minds so we can live for his Glory.

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Good morning church! Last week brother Saju gave us a wonderful start to the book of Titus (Read). He shared how Paul and Titus shared a very close friendship in the gospel. It’s a beautiful picture of gospel centered relationships that we need to invest in with other members of the Gathering. He also highlighted key themes that we’ll be looking over the next few weeks:

1. Proper leadership
2. Proper handling of error
3. Proper Christian living
4. Importance of finding our hope in the Gospel.

Today we’ll be looking at the need and qualifications for proper leadership in the church! Let me begin by asking you all a question. When you think about the word “elder” or “pastor”, what thoughts come in your end? What do you expect from an elder? What does an elder do?

Some common expectations are:

1. He needs to be a charismatic speaker – magnetic personality who speaks with eloquence and passion.
2. He needs to be an entertainer – should really know how to tell good jokes during the sermon, should add timely illustrations and stories to keep the congregation’s eyes glued on him.
3. He should have strong leadership skills – when he talks and walks, you know he’s a leader!
4. He needs to be good at administration – He needs to be very good at planning events and activities.
5. Or do we need an elder at all? Can we function as a healthy church without biblical eldership?

That was sort of the place where the church at Crete was. Let’s look into our text:

5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife,[d] and his children are believers[e] and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer,[f] as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound[g] doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (v5-9)

Paul starts out by saying that he left Titus in Crete to set into order what was lacking. Why does he say that?

1. The church at Crete was possibly a young church. By young I mean they consisted of believers who were recently converted. The gospel spread far and wide so that in each town they had a church gathering together. So they were growing numerically but they didn’t have elders in place to guide and strengthen the churches
2. There were false teachers who were teaching wrong doctrine and confusing the church. We see that in the following verses v10-16. If we see something common in the church in Ephesus and also in this church in Crete, the common issue they were facing was “false teachers”. And not only were there false teachers in those days, but we find many false teachers even today. That’s why all the more a need to have good godly elders to confront false teachers and protect the flock of God.

So for Paul this was something so essential and crucial which is why he left Titus there to appoint elders in every town.

Let me ask you was the requirement for elders merely an organizational requirement? Where they had a lot of members and now they needed elders or is it part of God’s design and gift for the church so that these elders can set the pace and lead the church to love, serve and obey Christ?

The answer can be discovered by the definition. Who or what is an Elder? Just to clarify these terms as brother shared last week: Pastor/Elder/Overseer/Bishop mean the same thing. They are used interchangeably in the Bible. Some churches have a hierarchy. Like Pastor, Sr. Pastor, Bishop…biblically there isn’t a hierarchy. They just are different terms used for the leader of the church. The word “Elder” simply means someone whom Christ has called and appointed over you to model what it means to love, serve and obey Christ! Now it doesn’t mean that the elder has to be 60+ to be an elder. But he has to be someone spiritually mature whom you can look up to which is why we come to the qualifications:

A) Shepherding his family well

6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife,[d] and his children are believers[e] and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

The first thing we see here is the qualification to be “above reproach”. What does that mean? It means that the believer should be blameless, unaccused. So someone who has a bad reputation in public cannot be a candidate for eldership. The next thing being mentioned here is that he needs to be “the husband of one wife”. Firstly, I think from this verse it’s pretty clear that elders/pastors are a responsibility for men because God has given the primary responsibility of spiritual leadership in the home and the church to men. Secondly, being a husband to one wife means being faithful to his wife. He is known for loving and honouring his wife. It obviously means that he doesn’t entertain any thought of infidelity or extra marital affairs but it also means that he speaks honourably of his wife. I know it’s a common thing in the world to make wife jokes. You find it all over the internet. However, the way you speak about your wife reveals a lot about how you value her. Therefore, he needs to be a person who loves and cares for his wife not only while talking to others but also while talking to her. That’s one of the reasons I think this qualification is in there is because we can pretend outside of home but our spouse knows us well. Can’t pretend before her. If I’m being a hypocrite, my wife knows. All our sins and weaknesses get exposed in marriage.

Can a person who is single who meets all the other qualifications become an elder? Yes, but it’s going to be a slow process for him. It’ll take a longer period of scrutiny to be able to see his life and then appoint him as an elder.

Then it says “his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination”. Now the actual Greek phrase actually can mean “has faithful children”. I would go with this explanation because it’s not up to the father to save his child. Salvation is completely based on grace through faith. And we know faith is a gift from God. (Eph 2:8,9) So the responsibility on the father is to ensure that his children are faithful and trustworthy. The other reason why I feel this means faithful children is because of the next phrase which says “not open to charge of debauchery or insubordination”. Debauchery means excessive indulgence in the pleasures of this world. Insubordination means being unruly and disobedient. Why is the elder being held responsible for the actions of his children?

1. Because it’s his primary responsibility as the leader of the home
2. Because he’s setting an example for what a godly family looks like
3. Because caring for your family shows how you would also care for God’s church.

4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? (! Tim 3:4,5)

If we as elders find our families in a bad condition after a few years with unsubmissive children, I think it’ll be more effective if we step down from the eldership because not only is it calling us to disciple and love our children during that season but it’s also about the responsibility of being a role model for the church. Being an elder is not a position, it is a responsibility! Shepherding our families well is a pre-requisite to be qualified as an elder.

B) Symbolized by a godly life

7 For an overseer,[f] as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. (v7,8)

The starting of v7 once again reminds us that elders are God’s stewards. We are called to manage and supervise God’s house for which we will need to give an account for. Would you entrust your home or property to a thief or a careless person? Absolutely not. How much more important it is for us to have the right people with integrity to be taking care of God’s house which is his people?

• He must not be arrogant: does what pleases himself, he is self-willed. He is his own boss. He only does what he wants to do
• He must not be quick tempered means he shouldn’t be prone to anger. Not someone who is always flaring up and getting angry
• He must not be a drunkard: shouldn’t be devoted to wine
• He must not be violent: He shouldn’t be quarrelsome, always ready to fight
• He must not be greedy for gain: greedy for money.

What Paul is trying to say is that the person who aspires to be an elder shouldn’t have a lifestyle characterized by these qualities. If these qualities are what characterizes him, then he is not qualified or fit to the lead the church! I think the “greed” part alone is enough to disqualify many pastors today.

Instead he should be characterized by the following qualities:

• But hospitable: generous to guests, a lover of hospitality…very essential because the elder will need to be hospitable and approachable when visitors come. And not just that but when the elders are being approached by members of the church.
• Lover of good: promoter of what is good. He is someone who delights and promotes good works. Whatever helps, benefits and edifies people is what he will support and encourage as the leader.
• Self-controlled: in control of his desires and impulses. His life isn’t marked by excess or lack of control of his desires.
• Upright – he makes fair and impartial judgments. Not biased when judging a matter or sharing advice.
• Holy – Reverence and purity are very important to him. His lifestyle is one worth imitating.
• Disciplined – curbing and restraining himself in order to do what God has called him to do. The lifestyle for an elder contrary to some entertaining pastors in the world may seem monotonous. It seems like they do the same thing over and over again. Same pattern. And there is a reason for that. There is a reason why biblical elders don’t party all the time. You won’t find them chasing after the latest movies and keeping up with the latest trends and TV series. In fact you’ll find them have a linear kind of life. While they are ministering to people, they will have exciting experiences but if you were to just look at their week, it’ll probably seem unadventurous. The reason for that is this discipline puts them in a place where they can love God and love people the way God calls them to. There’s a reason why Daniel prayed three times a day. There’s a reason why Jesus frequently went away to the mountain to pray. With discipline…it may appear boring to the world but it sets you up in the best place to hear and do what God tells you to do. One quote that I think of comes to my mind. It goes like “There is no discipleship without discipline”. Having a disciplined life in itself is not the goal, it’s the starting ground to open up your heart to receive from God what He wants to grant you. Discipline is not boring, it’s for your joy! That your joy may be full! For an elder, discipline allows him to prioritize his relationship with God and ministry to people.

C) Skilled handler of the Word

9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound[g] doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

We spoke a great deal on character qualities but the elder also needs to be competent with the Word of God. Firstly he needs to hold fast to the “trustworthy Word”: which is the gospel. He needs to be convinced by the truths of the gospel as covered from Genesis to Revelation. He knows he can’t add or delete anything from the gospel but understands the power and the beauty of the gospel is expressed only when he presents it as it is! Last year when the whole demonetization thing happened, there were a lot of fake notes that were going around and being seized. The difference between an original 500 Rs. Note and a counterfeit 500 Rs. Note is very marginal. There might only just be one small difference. Now as ordinary citizens, how can we know it is fake? Not by studying the fake note but by studying the original. Thoroughly study the original note and you’ll know the fake when you see it. The same idea it is with the elder. He needs to know the gospel, live out the gospel, preach and teach the gospel day in and day out and even if he encounters false teachers some day, he will know how to refute and respond to them. Why because? The goal is to become like Jesus. The more Christ’s church hear and listen to pure sound doctrine, the more it becomes into Jesus. What you believe, is what you become!

Even though today we learnt how God desires godly, qualified leaders to look after His church, I don’t want us to go back home today thinking, “Oh this was a message for those who are elders and want to become elders…it isn’t for me”. You would miss the point then. When you look at this list: shepherding your family well, having your life symbolized by godliness and being a skillful handler of the Word….do you think Christ exempts you from pursuing that? Is it meant for some spiritual elite? No, in God’s kingdom there is no elite club but these qualifications are also to be viewed as what Christ desires from your life. Elders are pace-setters and role models but this is what God wants from all of us. He wants holiness, self-control, discipline, lover of good, blamelessness, uprightness. He doesn’t want you to be arrogant, violent, greedy for money, quick tempered. Or maybe it’s in your family life where you’ve not been a good steward. Would you repent and turn away from this today?

Let me say also one thing here…there is only one person on the face of the earth who has perfectly exhibited these qualities. He is our chief Shepherd – Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus, none of us perfectly display these characteristics. The truth is that in the eyes of Holy God, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. We all deserved judgment for our rebellion against God. We all pointed a clenched fist toward God. In His love, He sent His only Son Jesus to absorb the wrath that He was going to pour on us. Jesus died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice. He was buried and rose again on the third day. He is the only reason why we were accepted and saved. So that should make us run to Jesus helplessly seeking His grace and mercy to empower us to serve Him. It’s amazing how Christ uses us in our weakness to still accomplish His purposes!

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When we started with 2 Timothy you must have heard from us that 2 Timothy was the last letter of Paul, and here you see another letter from him again. The fact is, though Titus appears after 2 Timothy in the Bible, it was written much earlier than that.

As per the narrative in the book of Acts, Titus would have been written in the mid-60’s A.D, which is around the same time as 1 Timothy. So, if we have to place these three letters in chronological order, then it would be 1 Timothy, Titus and then 2 Timothy.

In today’s sermon, I want to give an introduction to the Epistle of Titus.

And in my introduction, I want to talk about two things mainly.

1. Paul relationship with Titus – What can we learn from that?
2. Paul’s purpose of writing this letter – What should we expect from this book?

Starting with Paul’s relationship with Titus:

As per Galatians 2:1-4, during one of Paul’s missionary journey he meets Titus who is a young Greek man, a worshipper of other gods, hears Paul preach about Jesus. And as he heard the message of Jesus, his heart responded to the gospel, and he believed in Jesus.

Titus was a total stranger to the gospel and worshipped other gods.

It is almost like the stories of most of our brothers who’ve come from a different religious background.
Titus then traveled with Paul in his missionary journeys, helped in the work of sharing the gospel. We see how he served Paul faithfully in 2 Corinthians 7 when Paul sent him to Corinth to reduce the tension in the church and in 2 Corinthians 8 where he was sent to collect money for the poor.

We see how he served Paul faithfully in 2 Corinthians 7 when Paul sent him to Corinth to reduce the tension in the church and in 2 Corinthians 8 where he was sent to collect money for the poor.
Titus served Paul diligently.

In our passage from Titus 1:4 Paul addresses Titus as his true son in a common faith, mainly also because he was like a spiritual son to him since Paul had led him to Christ.

It was kind of interesting to read some of the things mentioned about Titus.

Like, in 2 Corinthians 2:13 Paul talks about Titus and says how his presence brought rest to Pauls’ heart.

In 2 Corinthians 7:6 – Paul’s writes about Titus saying “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus” – Titus brought comfort to Paul and other believers

In 2 Corinthians 8:23 Paul writes “As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

After Paul was released from the Roman prison where he had been for two years, he and Titus traveled to the island of Crete. They preached the gospel there and taught the people about God and the good news of Jesus (Titus 1:4-5). And soon there were enough believers to start churches in several towns.

And soon there were enough believers to start churches in several towns.

Soon after that, we see Paul leaves Create and Titus continues to teach the new Christians.

It was at this time, probably after several months, Paul writes a letter of encouragement to Titus. That’s the letter we are reading.

As I read about Pauls & Titus’s relationship, I learnt a crucial lesson.

I realized that Godly relationships are much deeper than any other relationship in the world.

And I say that because this kind of relationship is not just limited to staying together, eating together, having a good laugh, playing and having fun. But it is also where you and I hold each other’s hands and participate in building God’s kingdom – by spreading the gospel, planting churches and bringing Glory to the name of the Lord, which is the ultimate goal of every individual – To bring glory to Gods name.

Once when Jesus’ mother and brothers came to meet him while he was ministering to a crowd, they sent word and called him out. To which Jesus replied

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” – Mark 3:34-35

In these verses, we see Jesus valuing the company of those who do the will of God above every other relationship, even his immediate family members.

Paul & Titus’s relation was much beyond the natural family relationships. Paul was a spiritual father to Titus who led him to the Lord, took him alongside on missions, poured into his life what he received from the Lord, Paul set himself as an example for Titus to follow.

Titus on the other end was a true son to Paul, who served him, brought him comfort and rest just by his presence.

But above everything else they were together in laboring for the Kingdom of God, preaching the gospel and planting churches.

From the example of Paul and Titus, we see how important it is to invest in such a relationship, a spiritual relationship of a new found brother & sister & father & mother who’ve put their faith in Jesus and walk in obedience, doing the will of God.

And this kind of relationships doesn’t happen automatically, but it takes an active participation from each one of us.

Remember, In our last bible outreach we spoke about Community – This is what we meant by that.

A family together in the Lord, doing the will of the Father of bringing glory to His name.

And I realize this is where we want to head as Gathering Community Church – A Family together on a Mission.

Now, when we talk about family – we also know that managing a family is not an easy task.

Imagine looking after and managing our own families – providing for them, protecting them, loving them, caring for them, and above everything else protecting their heart and discipline them in the Lord, leading them to Christ.

Just as we need help and guidance from the Lord to look after our earthly families, we also need help & guidance to manage and look after the church family.

And that is what I believe is the purpose of this letter is.

In this letter, Paul lays down some of some of the essential components of a healthy church family.
As a church, if we have to grow healthy and united then we have to hold on to the principals that that govern the Church. We need to have a structure in place that holds us together.

If you want our church family to grow healthy and make an impact in the world then you need to read the rest of the sermon very carefully because it is not just the responsibility of the leaders but also a responsibility of every single member of the church to contribute their bit.

In Titus 1:1-3 Paul opens up the letter by introducing himself as someone who is appointed by God our savior to lead and encourage the Church (us) to recognize and pursue the knowledge of the truth which leads to Godliness.

Paul is the perfect guy to help us understand what a healthy church should be and how it needs to function to remain a healthy church.

In the whole letter, Paul’s focus is on the church, and there are three areas which he talks about which I believe are the important pillars of the church.

1. Proper leadership (1:5-9)
2. Proper handling of error (1:10-16;3:9-11)
3. Proper Christian living – especially new believers (2:1-10; 3:1-2)
4. The importance of finding our hope in the Gospel (2:11-14;3:3-7)

We will look closer into all these aspects as we preach on them in the coming weeks. But what I want to do today is to whet your appetite to keep your hearts open to learn and apply these family principles in our church life.

1. Proper leadership

Just as important it is for a family to have a leader, in the same way, the church needs good leadership as well.

I don’t know what style of church leadership you’ve been exposed to before coming to the Gathering but

I want to share some scriptural references to what we believe church leadership should look like and why they are important.

i) Plurality of Elders

I want to talk about a plurality of elders, I don’t know if you have heard that term before. It basically means having more than one elder governing the church and not just one person leading the whole church. We see that model in the scripture wherein Titus 1:5 Paul instructs Titus to appoint ‘elders’ in every town, he doesn’t say ‘elder’ but ‘elders’.

When I say the word ‘elder’, ‘pastor’, ‘bishop’, ‘overseer’ … all are same.

Many churches today have a single pastor leading the church, but seems to me that this model misses the mark of the New Testament teaching on this topic.

As you see in Titus and several other portions of the New Testament, the early church had, I believe, multiple elders. We will talk about this in detail as we go through the passage on elders but I want to say that the reason the scriptures teach multiple elderships is that

(1) Biblical accountability – It is important to have mutual accountability if elders have to protect themselves from falling into sin. In addition, sharing authority among a number of men can keep one man from wrongly lording it over the congregation

(2) Balance – No one man has all the gifts that are necessary to build up the church. Having a plurality of elders serves the church by bringing men with different gifts into the church’s leadership.

(3) Wisdom – There is more wisdom to be found in a multitude of counselors (Prov. 11:14; 24:6).

(4) Burden sharing – Caring for the whole church is a burden God does not intend one man to bear alone. Even the most faithful, gifted leader needs help from other godly men in order to pay careful attention to himself and to all the flock

What is the application for us:

At the Gathering, as of now there are two elders, Jinson and me, and soon once Jeff comes down with his family we would like to install him as the third Elder.

As a church, it is important that we recognize this biblical model and refrain from elevating one elder above the other. We are equal and we serve in equal measures, being accountable to each other with our life and message.

In India, and also in our churches today, the usual tendency is to hero worship our leaders based on their style of talking, their ministry qualifications, their personality.

That is not how the church should like.

ii) Elders are role models & not just people in authority

In Titus 1:6-8 Paul lists down the qualifications of the person who should be appointed as an Elder. It says “if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers[e] and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.”

Looking at that list, we should realize that the main the task of the Elder is more to do with being a role model to the rest of the church.

We need to remember that leaders are not above the church, the church is above the leaders.
Which means tomorrow if I fail to be a role model to you guys, If I fail to live a gospel-centered life and harbor an unrepentant heart, then I don’t deserve to be an Elder. Eldership is not positional, it is a Responsibility.

Someone from the Gathering asked me the other day “Saju, when Jane was sick and was admitted in the hospital we saw another side of you for a couple of days. We saw you weak and disturbed.” He said “don’t you think as a leader you should show your stronger side even in hard times so people don’t look down on you”

My answer was “No, I don’t think I should pretend as everything is fine when everything is not fine”.

As church, we should know that the elders are no different from others, we go through the same problems as you do, we are equally vulnerable to fall into sin as you are, we need savior Jesus just as you need him.

But, here’s the difference. As Elders we ought to set an example to you by continuing to trust in the Gospel, in the saving grace of Jesus, in continuing to serve Christ, his church even in our darkest moments.

Elders are your role models – don’t make them your idols or place them above Christ in your Life. Pray for them, encourage them and give them a helping hand to lead the church well.

A healthy church needs healthy leaders.

2.Proper handling of error

The second pillar of a healthy church which Paul elaborates in this letter is the proper handling of error.

In Titus, at several occasions, you will notice Paul is instructing Titus to rebuke, correct & discipline the people in the church time and again, which implies that Paul is not just satisfied with the fact that church happens every church Sunday. He is most concerned with whether people have the right understanding of the gospel.

I read a quote from Timothy Keller’s book called “Center church” where is talks about being a gospel centered church and this is what he writes

“A Gospel centered church is theologically driven and not program driven”

Many churches today are more interested in the program model, the number of people that attend the church and are less concerned about their theology. This is where false teachers come in and corrupt the sheep.

Every time Paul would visit the churches he planted, he would drive away people who either propagate or teach false doctrines.

A healthy church needs to keep a watch on their theology and lead the people into the right understanding of the truth.

3. Proper Christian living

The third pillar of a healthy church is proper Christian living (in Titus, Paul specifically talks about the new believers).

The Createn believers had a bad reputation among others.

Titus 1:12 Paul writes “One of the Cretans,[i] a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” And Paul tells Titus to rebuke them and correct them.

Paul emphasizes in this letter how important it is for us to live a Godly life and how important it is for our words and actions to complement our faith in Christ.

It is the responsibility of Elders to rebuke you, correct you and help the church live a Godly life.
And therefore as a church, we should be willing to accept corrections, whether with regards to theology or behavioral issues. And the elder ought to do it with love and patience.

This is a mark of a healthy and growing church where the people of God willing submit themselves to the leaders which God has appointed over them.

4. Find our hope in the Gospel

The fourth and the final pillar of a healthy church, which Paul mentions in this letter is to find our hope in the Gospel.

In Titus 2:11-14 Paul writes

For the grace of God has appeared (through Christ), bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior 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.

The mark of a healthy & growing church is where people have put their hope in Christ and in his saving grave and not in some experiential make belief. We don’t come to church to enjoy good music and listen to godly talks to make us feel good and get some motivation for the rest of the week.

We come to church to cherish the Gospel – to find our hope in the Gospel – By Gospel I mean to remind ourselves that it is because of the grace & mercy of God that sinners like you and me can have confidence that a holy God will accept us in his presence. Two important words for us to remember is grace and gospel.

Paul says that “God our Father loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace” (2 Thessalonians 2:16). And he urges us not to shift from the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:23). So the grace of God and the good news of Christ crucified for sins and raised from the dead are the reasons that sinners like you and me can hope in God and have a confident expectation that the future will be good for us.

I like a statement Jeff made yesterday when we were having our lunch together. I hope I’m saying it rightly.

He said “What we truly deserve is death and anything outside that is purely Gods grace and mercy”

It is because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for a penalty of our sins that we can now have eternal life in a bountiful measure.

A healthy church family is where this truth of the gospel is experienced, as well as lived out in full measure.

And with these initial thoughts, I want to invite you to come with an open mind and open heart to learn and study from the Epistle of Titus.

Let’s pray.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/combating-loneliness.mp3″]

In life, there are many moments when we experience loneliness. The strange part is that we can be in a city like Mumbai that has 23 million people and still feel isolated!

We experience loneliness when our friends and companions abandon us. We can be alone when our family rejects us. We can be lonely when we are confronted with really tough situations like an illness, financial issues, job problems or conflicts within the family.

We can also feel lonely during our struggle with sin.

During all these moments we feel like we are all alone. We feel like no one can understand us, help us and be there with us. And because we don’t deal with this in the right way, it can often lead us to find comfort in the wrong places.

That’s why I think it’s important for us to pay attention to the Word and understand what God is trying to tell us today.

I hope this passage will not only provide the answer but also offer encouragement to us right now if we are experiencing a time or season of loneliness.

2 Timothy 4:9-22

9 Do your best to come to me soon.

10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!

17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus.

21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Sometimes when we think about Paul we only think about the number of churches he planted, the time he spent preaching and building up the church and the number of letters he wrote to encourage the church (13 out of 27 letters in the NT are written by Paul), the miracles he performed in his lifetime but we forget how his whole life was marked by persecutions and suffering.

In fact, the Lord told Ananias, the brother who laid his hands on Paul to give him back his eyesight (Acts 9) “for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name”.

Even when we come to the last part of his life, we see the same theme of suffering being played out. We read last week how Paul talks about his life being poured out as a drink offering and sacrifice for the church.

He knows that the time of his departure has come and he’s expectantly waiting to receive the crown of righteousness from his loving Savior – Jesus.

He’s a few months away from his impending execution and in this passage, he talks about a different kind of suffering – suffering emotionally.

Paul is experiencing a great deal of emotional suffering due to abandonment and loneliness during his last few days. And this is probably more intense and painful than physical suffering. He is experiencing emotional suffering due to two broad reasons:

1) Some companions deserted him – V10 talks about Demas who loved the present world and went to Thessalonica.

Who is this Demas?

Demas was a companion of Paul. 5 years back during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome, Demas was with him in jail. (Col 4:14) All those prison letters like Ephesians, Phillippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written with him.

In Philemon 24 he refers to Demas as a fellow worker. It’s sad that after watching Paul so closely and seeing his devotion to the Lord, Demas still deserted Paul and left the ministry.

And it says that he loved the world! In our sin, many of us do not see our love for the world as a competing God in our life. If you are harboring a secret love for the world, then it’s eventually going to dictate your course of life and decisions in times of inconvenience, trouble, and suffering.

That’s what happened to Demas. The second imprisonment was possibly more intense and harsh than the first. And Paul himself was awaiting execution, so Demas didn’t want to associate himself with him and jeopardize his own life.

Demas’s life should be a warning for us because he was someone who was so involved in ministry yet loved the world. Eventually, his love for the world took over him. We need to repent of competing idols in our hearts.

2) His other companions went to serve in other churches – Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. (v10)

If you read through the book of Acts, you’ll see that these missionaries always did ministry as teams. They joyfully went to new areas with the gospel and even gladly faced persecutions due to the gospel.

Sadly, Paul’s last few months were spent alone without key members of the missionary team. And it wasn’t always due to desertion like Demas but sometimes it was due to the call to continue ministering to different churches.

In spite of Paul’s imprisonment, Crescens and Titus had to go to Galatia (modern day Turkey) and Dalmatia (Croatia).

To give you an idea on how bad was the emotional suffering, let’s look at v14-16

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

16 At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!

Some commentators say that it’s possible that it’s the same Alexander from 1 Tim 1:20. If you remember he was a false teacher at Ephesus who was excommunicated and put outside the church.

He now vented his personal malice in accusing Paul before the Roman judges. Probably charging him for starting a political revolt and starting a new religion.

We don’t know for sure if it was the same Alexander but in any case, it’s clear that he caused a great deal of harm.

Paul still leaves the response to the Lord. Rom 12:19 says Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Coming back to v16 in 2 Tim 4, Paul says that during his first defense (the preliminary hearing before Caesar Nero)…remember Nero is a king who was known for his cruel behavior toward Christians.

He would burn Christians alive to be used as a torch at night, have dogs tear them to death, crucify them not because of public justice but because of personal cruelty.

So when Paul’s companions got to know that he was going to have this preliminary hearing, they deserted him. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with Paul because it would bring severe persecution.

Just imagine how lonely Paul would’ve felt at that point. He spent his whole life for people but was left alone when he was before Nero. But Paul forgives them and explains how he responded to that moment of emotional turmoil and loneliness:

1. Strengthened by Christ’s presence

17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me,

I think that word “but” is crucial here because it contrasts with the previous verses that talk about the companions that left Paul alone.

Even though everyone deserted Paul….yet the Lord remained faithful!! Jesus doesn’t disappear when His children are in trouble or danger. He stands by them! He stands with them!

How does God’s presence strengthen us?

It gives us tremendous boldness to know that the Lord and Judge of the entire universe is standing right beside us. All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Jesus (Matt 28:18).

No matter how powerful may be the person standing in front of you, the course of your life is determined by the Sovereign Lord who rules and sustains the entire universe.

In Matt 10, Jesus tells the disciples that in those days 2 sparrows were sold for a penny. Sparrows were the smallest of birds and pennies were of the lowest value in the Roman world. Yet not even a single sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of the Father.

If God’s in control of a little sparrows life, isn’t He in control of the life of His children who are more valuable than sparrows?

He is the Lord who has numbered the hairs on your head. Do you know the number of hairs on your head? Does your family know the number of hairs on your head? What about your best friend? Believers in Christ have nothing to fear with Jesus by your side.

Illustration: A fearful child always finds security in the presence of the parent.

But how do we experience God’s presence?

We experience God’s presence by trusting, obeying, embracing, loving, receiving and talking to Jesus by abiding in the Word and prayer. It’s not a passing feeling.

We learned a few weeks back how God communicates with His people: through the preaching of the Word and the study of the Word. The closer your life is in line with the Word, the more assured and aware you will be of the reality of God’s presence.

I know some of you are probably listening to this and thinking “this is so basic. I know I have to read the Bible and pray. Give me something new”.

It is basic but could we honestly ask ourselves if we’ve addressed our problem of isolation and loneliness with being reminded of the presence of God? What if you weren’t created to experience loneliness? What if God intended that all of life be spent with Him?

2. Directed by Christ’s purpose

v17. so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

There is a clear purpose to the Lord being there with us. Yes, God loves us and He cares dearly for us. However, I don’t want us to end up with a man centered theology. We are not the end goal.

Glorifying God’s name is the end goal! Paul realized what God was doing through His life. If God is Sovereign and governs everything in all the universe, then even the struggles, pain, suffering and other issues were meant to bring glory to God through your life!

The reason why God strengthens you with His presence is so that you may show unbelievers how valuable and treasured God is.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Cor 12:9)

God is active in stripping away every ounce of self-dependence from His children so that unbelievers may see Christ being reflected in and through them!

So it’s time we aligned ourselves to that understanding. Some of the greatest testimonies that have convinced unbelievers about the truth of gospel have not always been success stories and miracles.

It’s been stories of faithful people who have persevered in sufferings, pain, illnesses, financial issues, conflict yet not departed from the faith.

They hold on and have this indescribable peace which can only be explained through the presence of the Lord Himself in their lives.

I don’t think Paul used this tough circumstance to crib over the people who deserted him. He used that as an opportunity to witness as he experienced the presence of God. Would you consider desiring the presence of God not for quick fixes to your problems but so that the world may see how beautiful and wonderful Jesus is?

3. Secured by Christ’s protection

So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

What Paul meant by being rescued from the lion’s mouth was being kept safe from death after the preliminary hearing before Caesar. But we know that he was going to be executed soon.

So what did he mean by the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his kingdom….what he means that in Christ, his assurance of His eternal home is in absolutely safe and certain hands.

Even though he knew he was going to be executed soon, it doesn’t change his future.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)

What if we reminded ourselves of this truth about God’s love that protects us and brings us safely into the heavenly kingdom…don’t you think that eliminates the isolation and loneliness when you realize that it’s not just Christ’s presence right now but He has graciously granted His eternal presence to us!

I just want to close by saying being isolated and lonely was also a product of the Fall. When God created Adam and Eve, the intention was to enjoy total, free and uninterrupted fellowship with them. However, when they sinned they hid themselves from God.

They isolated themselves and went away from God’s presence. Jesus Christ came into the world to rescue us from our isolation. He did it by giving up His life for us…for our sins. Jesus Christ paid the price for our reckless and rebellious life.

He died and shed His blood and on the third Day he rose from the grave and brought us back into an unending, real, fulfilling relationship with God. We got an entry back into God’s presence!