Titus 3

The Kindness and Love of God.

Have you ever had a Slogan that sticks in your head, just through plain repetition, you know the kind of thing, where you have heard the phrase so many times, that you can just hear the phrase said and a whole heap of images come flooding back with it. Maybe it’s a line from a movie, like tell him he’s dreaming, Or, you can’t handle the truth!

Some phrases just have an amazing ability through repetition to stick with you, kind of like the last song you hear, on the radio before you go to work, it just stays there until something else can squash it out.

Like, na na na, na na na na, na na na, na na na na na, I just can’t get you out my head..
That’s a song that can haunt you at night, but the advertisers picked up on this kylie minogue song didn’t they, because if you close your eyes for a minute and hum the song whose face do you see?

Merv Hughes! And that beer commercial!

So repetition has value for remembering things and it certainly does for Paul in the book of Titus – he just keeps presenting the same theme, in different arrangements, the theme of doing good!

And so to Titus chapter 3, the first idea we get from Paul today, well actually it’s a command.. is a command to

1. Remember these things

Titus is to remind the Christians in Crete of all that they have been taught. The command ‘to Remind’ seems almost synonymous with the commands ‘to teach’, and ‘to speak’, the truth in the earlier two chapters of Titus. And it is reinforced in V8 of Chapter 3, where Paul urges Titus to stress these things.

Paul wants the Christians to Remember these things:
NIV Titus 3:1
Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities,
to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,
2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

Paul wants the Christians to live good lives in the eyes of God, and also their brothers and sisters in the faith, but also in the eyes of all people.. This is nothing new for us as we read Titus is it? Paul seems to again be driving home the point, of the big theme of Titus, that knowledge leads to godliness and godliness is self-control.

Our self control is to be shown in our respect, for God instituted authority. And also actively expressing our freedoms to pursue the good of others. We are able to show our self-control, in the control of our tongues, in our good actions, including humility. And we can show it in how we value our relationships with others.

Self Control is to be subject to rulers, to be obedient, in short it is to do, whatever is good..

Because doing good, pleases God, and is consistent with who he made us to be, and in a very important way in Titus, it will commend the Gospel to those who observe, the gospel message being lived out.

[illus] So what does this look like in real life, well in some ways that is what you have to contemplate and pray about isn’t it?

But Paul puts forward a few areas to stimulate your thinking in this area, of how the whole of your life can commend the gospel:
- Alcohol
- Sexual Immorality
- Speech
- Relationships

There is no end to ways that Christians, can live godly self-controlled lives, that are good for all people, and in the process commend the gospel.

Now, There was one group of society that would find this incredibly difficult, who we didn’t get a chance to talk about last week - The Slaves
Paul in Titus chapter 2 verse 9 addresses the issue of slaves

9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything,
to try to please them, not to talk back to them,
10 and not to steal from them,
but to show that they can be fully trusted,
so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

What about the slaves? - Why doesn’t Paul do something for them? - It seems this is probably a more sharply defined question in 21st century - than it was when Paul wrote in the 1st Century. In this passage - Paul addresses the slaves themselves - not their owners. It seems to focus on those - who are in the weaker position, - not for them to overturn their position, - but for them to commend the gospel in the position they find themselves.

And Paul is no outsider to the experience of being a slave - as we saw a couple of weeks ago, - Paul is a slave of Christ to the point of chains - in gaol. And why is he a slave,

Titus 1:1 for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness--

He doesn’t ask anyone to do, what he is not willing to do himself. Paul is a slave who lives for his masters purposes alone - because Paul’s hope of eternal life, shaped the way he lived here.

This section seems to implicitly acknowledge - the hardness of certain situations, - but it wants to commend an attitude that is consistent with the gospel and acceptable to society, where possible . Even slaves are to live in a way, that makes the gospel admirable - and the teaching of God attractive.

So at what point - does the Gospel need to clash with culture!! Well really it clashes at every point - at one level, - and yet Gospel message most pointedly clashes with culture - in the hearts of people, - not in structures.

These situations of slavery are legally acceptable structures in the first century Roman Empire, - and Paul, in this section of Titus, is more concerned about saving the people - than saving the structures.

Even a person in slavery is able to commend the gospel to others, including their masters, - through their lifestyle, - through their self-control, - their respect, honesty and hard work.

How much more are we, who are free, able to do this in our situations of life?

[NEW] The Bigger issue of slavery for Paul is picked up, however, in chapter 3, where he goes on to explain, that all men are slaves, because all men are enslaved to sin, as we are deceived by passions and pleasures – and being enslaved, we act out in disobedience.

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived
and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.
We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

There seems to be great echoes of the message of Romans five in this chapter in particular

Rom 5:8. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And in the next couple of verses of Titus, Paul will explain how in God’s timing, our rescue is to come about. But did you notice that sin seems to particularly have a social and relational consequence. Our slavery to sin, results in relationships of malice, envy and hatred, the total opposite of relationships, that seek good, and are humble from verse 2. Sin impacts not just on ourselves, but on those around us as well.



[aside] Now as we move on to look a the following verses, there are two great questions to ask when we read any passage of scripture, that can enrich our understanding of the passage and help us to personally meet with God. The two questions are: Firstly, what do I learn about God in this passage, and the second is, How does what I have learned about God impact upon me?

4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us,
not because of righteous things we had done,
but because of his mercy.
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

I reckon there are at least five things in this passage, that teach us what God is like. And I reckon there are at least another five ways, that this knowledge of God impacts upon us directly.
Our second idea from Paul today in Titus is

2. Our God who is:

1. Our God who is.. A Revealing God

Have you ever on a rainy afternoon stopped to think, of where you would go to find God, if he didn’t want to be found? It’s a brain curdingly difficult question and the answers you come up with are in fact pretty scary.
It’s an issue Job tried to grapple with as we see in Job 23

Job 23:1-9 Then Job replied: 2 "Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. 3 If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! .. "But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

As humans born into this world we can tend to be very self assured, in our capacity to do things on our own. But we don’t actually have the ability, on our own, to find God. We’ve got crossed wiring from being enslaved to sin.

The Revelation of God is an sovereign activity of God, his gracious movement towards us in revealing himself, and we see this most pointedly in his Son Jesus Christ. The Immanuel, God who is with us!

God has appeared in our world, so if you want to know what God is like, you don’t contemplate a tree, or listen to a small voice within, you don’t even follow ‘the secret’, ‘the shack’, or go to Oprah. You come to God himself, you come to God revealed, you come to God appeared, you come to Jesus Christ. And we only know the truth of Jesus Christ, through the testimony of the pages of the Bible.

We are entirely dependent, from start to finish upon God revealing himself to us, so we can in fact, know God. And because God is a revealing God, we really do know God personally.

Our God is a revealing God.

2. Our God who is.. A Saving God

Well what is this God who has revealed himself like? We see from the rescue of Israel, from the slavery of Egypt in the Exodus, to the rescue from slavery of all God’s people, from our sin, through the death of his son on a cross, - Our God is a God who saves. As we remembered at Christmas this year the name Jesus means…, Jesus means God saves?

God saves his people, not because of their righteousness – or goodness. But because of his mercy Titus 3:5 tells us. But then this is no real surprise to us, that God, is a God who saves is it, because we learned way back in Deuteronomy that God is a God who saves because of his mercy, and in particular because he keeps the merciful promises he has made.

Deuteronomy 7:7-9 7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

Our God, is a God who saves, because he keeps his promises.

3. Our God who is.. Trinity

Despite what much of the press would have you believe, lot’s of people are actually ok with talking about God, but then what makes the God we are talking about Christian? Well what makes it a Christian God, is that we are talking about Jesus as God, isn’t it? And that’s exactly the point when people can get a little uncomfortable, in talking about God.

How can Jesus be God, when he prays to another God, his father. Well that is when the difficult, and yet profoundly Christian idea comes to the fore, that God is in himself, trinity. In Titus you’ll note we see the three persons of the trinity as one God in action. Where God the father, is the one who in his kindness and love (v4), expressed his mercy, in the appearing of his son (v4) and with this son and through this son, God expresses his mercy in our rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit (V5). God saves us.


All three persons are involved in our salvation, because all of God is involved in our salvation. This God of all the universe, this revealing God who saves, has revealed himself in the pages of the Bible as a God, who is trinity. Just have a look at Jesus baptism in Matthew 3:26-27 later. One God who is three persons. The three persons of the trinity who as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God in a profound relational unity.

Our God is, a God who is trinity.

4. Our God who is.. Personal

And this knowledge of God as revealer, saviour and trinity is a personal knowledge. God convicts us within ourselves, and in our experience, of the truth about himself, through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit illuminates to us, what God has revealed about himself, in the Bible.

If you like God confirms in our hearts by his spirit, the truth about himself, as he has shared about himself, for all time in the Bible. Our God is a relational and personal God. God has poured out his holy spirit upon us V6. like Romans 5:5 God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Our God isn’t a uninterested watchmaker, who just made the world, set it in motion, and now cares nothing for it. Neither is our God just an impassionate judge of all men, one to be feared without any available recourse.

Our God is, a God who is personal. Our God reveals himself personally, into the depths of our hearts, as a saving God, who is trinity.

5. Our God who is.. true in his actions

John Calvin came up with the great catchphrase that, God is in himself as he is towards us. What those lawyeresque terms means, to you and me is that, God is not two faced. God is not something in himself, and then another persona in his actions.

In a positive expression, God is truthful to who he really is, in all his dealings with mankind. We really do know the God of the universe in his actions, because it is exactly the same, as he is in his character. And V5 tells us God is kind, loving, merciful and generous, and his actions towards us confirm it.

And Paul will go on to challenge us, to be like the God we serve, and were created by. We are to strive for a continuity of who we are, and how we act. We also are to be kind, loving, merciful and generous. In a total contrast to the ungrateful servant of Matthew 18.

Our God is true in his actions. Our God who has revealed himself personally, (in those same actions), to be the saving triune God.

[aside] The second question we can ask of any passage of scripture as you may remember is:
How does what I have learned about God, impact upon me?
We’ll move through these ideas a little more quickly.

3. Our God who has..

1. Our God who has.. washed us with rebirth

Through the sacrifice of the blood of his son, God has paved the way, for the washing away of all our sins. This washing, deals with stain of sin on our lives, and on our conscience. Washing is for the Christian, Getting rid of the negative, the removal of all of the guilt and shame, of sin.

Christians struggle against sin, and we need at times to be convicted of our sin, but the cross of Christ takes away, our guilt and our shame; before God, before each other, and before ourselves when we look in the mirror. We are a people of grace, who have been washed clean.


2. Our God who has.. renewed us by the Holy Spirit

If you like, this is Getting the positive, after the removal of the negative of sin. We are not what we once were, because God has renewed our minds and persons, to serve him in a way, that we were unable to before. We are no longer enslaved to sin, but servants of the God most high because v5 tells us we have been renewed, in the Holy spirit.

3. Our God who has.. Poured out the Holy Spirit

Our God is personal, as we see in Titus. Just like at Pentecost and in Romans 5, he has poured his spirit onto us. Not only are we renewed in this way, but God actually dwells with us, he has made his home with us. Just like Jesus promised in John chapter 17. God dwells in us, and that is why we really do know him personally.

4. Our God who has.. justified us by his grace

Justified as I’m sure most of you are well aware is legal language – it’s about being acquitted in a court of law. It is having no charges to answer.
God acted in his son to take the charges we deserved so we may be justified by God’s grace, as we see in verse 7.

One amazing Christian man explained it like this; he said Jesus takes all the sin, the filth, the brokenness of my life that is mine and my doing, and he makes it his at the cross. The righteous dies for the unrighteous. And then Jesus takes all the good that he has done, including his relationship with God the Father and makes it mine. We are justified by the grace of God, found in Jesus Christ.

5. Our God who has.. made us heirs of the hope of eternal life

We saw in Titus chapter 1, that the hope of eternal life is what drives Paul on, and this hope shapes our lives now. Hope is the only thing that gives life meaning, and we have a sure and certain hope, as heirs with Christ, as we see in verse 7.

We live as Christians in a time of conflict, between what we experience now, and the hope of what is to come next.
And so as Christian’s we live with this sure and certain hope of resurrection, in the hardships of this life. With Christ we are co-heirs of eternal life.

[illus] All well and good I suppose, but what do we do with all this stuff? Our Response to all the ten things we have looked at, should be to wonder at the nature, and graciousness of God, and then a response of prayerful and obedient thankfulness! Because he saved us, not because of our righteousness, but because of his mercy. We were slaves, and now we are heirs.

The final idea, that Paul leaves us with the book of Titus, is no real surprise.

4. Do what is Good

Three times in this chapter alone, Paul emphasizes the need for the Cretans to what is good. In Verse 1 Titus is to ‘remind them’, in verse 8 he is to ‘stress these things’, and in v14 they are to ‘learn these things’.. as we read.

14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good,
in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

Why don’t I pray for us now, that we would be a people who grow in our knowledge of God, that it may result in self control. And that we learn to do what is good and lead productive lives to the glory of God.

Lets Pray.